DL Open Thread: Wednesday, December 18, 2024

I’m putting this out there as a self-enforcing mechanism to get the stuff done:

Monday, December 23:  DL’s MVP’s Of 2024.

December 26-30:  ‘Bulo’s Fave Fifty Tunes Of The Year.

December 31:  2024: The Good, The Bad, The Ridiculous.

Man-n-n-n, they don’t pay me enough…

Trump Sues Des Moines Register. Only the beginning.  He’s gonna go after ProPublica.  For a story that they correctly didn’t publish.  Book it.

President-elect Donald J. Trump sued The Des Moines Register for running a poll before the election that showed him trailing Vice President Kamala Harris, escalating his threats to seek retribution against the mainstream media and his political enemies.

“It’s clear that Trump is waging war on the press,” said Samantha Barbas, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law whose book, “Actual Malice,” is about the Supreme Court’s most famous defamation case. “Trump and his lawyers are going to use any legal claim that they think has a chance of sticking. They’ll cast a wide net to carry out this vendetta.”

Ms. Barbas added that prevailing in court may be beside the point. The lawsuits “are not so much geared toward winning as much as threatening,” she said.

But last week, ABC News settled a defamation suit filed against the network by Mr. Trump for $15 million, along with another $1 million in legal fees, a huge sum and one that appears to have emboldened the incoming president.

Not Even Sheriffs Think Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans Will Work:

A growing cohort of extremist and far-right sheriffs are vocally endorsing president-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations. They promise unquestioning loyalty and say they stand ready to take part in a sweeping round-up of undocumented migrants from the first day of his new term in office—despite admitting that they have no idea of what such a plan might entail.

But a WIRED investigation—including interviews with sheriffs and experts, and a review of reports detailing the fiscal cost of carrying out the administration’s claims of deporting up to a million undocumented migrants in a year—shows that such a scenario is virtually impossible.

“It’s synthetic hyperventilation,” Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association, tells WIRED. “It’s all designed to scare people, and it won’t happen like that, period.”

A notable number:

A recent analysis by the American Immigration Council looking at the resources needed to deport 1 million unauthorized immigrants per year found that it would cost, on average, $88 billion annually—more than the entire Department of Homeland Security budget.

Only a small number of sheriffs are on board:

A program known as 287(g) “allows ICE—through the delegation of specified immigration officer duties—to enhance collaboration with state and local law enforcement partners to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of noncitizens.” It does not, however, allow sheriffs or their deputies to round up suspected unauthorized immigrants.

The program has been in place for decades, but ICE says that currently, only 125 sheriff departments out of 3,081 have signed up. Because the program is voluntary and does not offer sheriffs any additional funding—in fact, it costs them money in many cases—most counties never signed up, even during Trump’s first term.

A transition source speaking to the Wall Street Journal said they “expect to see a historic number of new 287(g) agreements,” but it’s unclear why any more sheriffs would sign up this time around than did during Trump’s first term.

Clusterbleep coming soon.  Maybe he’ll deputize all those January 6 traitors that he’s about to pardon.  Uh-oh, wish I hadn’t said that…

But, What About The Bear?  Poetic Justice Story Of The Day:

A 58-year-old man is dead after a bear fell out of a tree and struck him in what appears to be a hunting accident in Virginia, state wildlife officials said Tuesday.

The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources confirmed to USA TODAY that a treed bear fell and struck the hunter about 9:50 a.m. on Dec. 9 in Lunenburg County.

According to a preliminary investigation, a group of hunters chased a bear into a tree, and as the group retreated from the bottom of the tree, one hunter shot the bear. As the animal fell, it struck Lester Clayton Harvey Jr., who stood about 10 feet from the tree, officials reported.

Somedays you get the bear, and somedays the bear gets you.  Or both.

Suxco Gotta Suxco.  Reject application for substation to support wind farm.  Big Oil triumphs for now:

In a dramatic move, members of Sussex County Council rejected an application crucial to the completion of a new wind farm off the Atlantic coast. The proposal, which was rejected in a 4-1 vote, was at the center of a months-long debate in Sussex County.

If approved, it would have allowed Renewable Development, a subsidiary of US Wind, to connect high-voltage cables from the Indian River to a new substation adjacent to the Indian River Power Plant in Dagsboro.

Betcha that the Caesar Rodney Institute won’t be paying these legal bills:

US Wind, a Maryland energy company owned in part by an Italian infrastructure firm, said in a statement that it will appeal the decision. Now with the future of the project uncertain, Sussex County taxpayers will likely be on the hook to fund the county’s opposition to US Wind’s appeal and a potential future lawsuit.

Rev. Patrick Burke Responds To Mayor Mike.  A superb letter.  An excerpt:

As a faith leader, a community member, and a friend to all, I am both disappointed and deeply motivated to share the inappropriate and apathetic response provided by the exiting Mayor Purzycki. The contents and tenor of the response speaks directly to the consciousness of city leadership and has further committed our coalition of organizations to speak out.

All parties witnessing the incidents have described first-hand a sense of inhumanity and injustice in targeting vulnerable and unhoused neighbors. A full account of these interactions has been broadcast through both the Mayoral communications and the communications SsAM has highlighted, and no longer serves to support this continued conflict.

What remains centered is the need for an interdisciplinary, person-centered, collaborative, communal approach for equitable solutions that support the needs of those in our community and neighborhood so that basic human needs are not a luxury, but a promise. As of today, the pleas of the organizations demanding accountability from the City and the Mayor have been left without adequate conversation, with no semblance of urgency, and remain without action. This is not only a public failing, but a moral one as well. Notably during one of the coldest months of the year.

Purzycki’s relentless pursuit of gentrification ignores the human costs he has created.  Totally lacking in conscience.  To be replaced by someone totally lacking in consciousness.  And conscience.

What do you want to talk about?