DL Open Thread: Friday, April 25, 2025
The National Democratic Party Sucks Multitudes. I thought the new Chair was the same old, same old. Now I know the new Chair is the same old, same old:
Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, has announced a proposal requiring party officials to remain neutral in primary elections, challenging activist David Hogg to choose between his vice-chair post and his pledge to unseat “asleep-at-the-wheel” incumbents.
“If you want to challenge incumbents, you’re more than free to do that, but just not as an officer of the DNC, because our job is to be neutral arbiters,” Martin said on a call with reporters on Thursday. “We can’t be both the referee and also the player at the same time. You have to make a decision.”
He’s right, you know. I, for one, was impressed with the unfailing neutrality of the DNC when Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton. And when they rewrote the rules for Joe Biden’s reelection. Anyone seen Betsy Maron chastised for enabling the endorsement of BHL? Plus, you note why he’s proposing to ‘rewrite the rules’? Because it’s not putting a thumb on the scale that he hates, it’s whose (who’s?) thumb is on the scale. I stand with this guy:
“Anybody who believes our country is in an existential moment, and who sees the sole opposition party at a record low approval with the public, should want to both change the face of our party in primaries and fix the party from the inside,” Adam Green, the co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement after the DNC call, calling Hogg one of the few national party leaders who are “meeting this important moment with boldness”.
BTW, the corporate press coverage of this is exactly as you’d expect. We’ll be hearing more from David Hogg. The less we hear from Ken Martin, the better.
Who Needs DOGE When You Have Pete Hegseth? His entire team, like Elvis, has left the building:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff departed his post Thursday, he said, the latest twist in an extended period of turmoil at the Pentagon that has included infighting among Hegseth’s advisers, the firing of at least three political appointees and deepening scrutiny of the secretary’s stewardship of the government’s largest agency.
Kasper’s final departure had been forecast for days, and it was reported earlier by Politico. His exit follows weeks of friction between him and Hegseth’s other senior advisers, and questions about how the Pentagon is being managed under the former Fox News personality and the leadership he assembled upon taking office just three months ago.
The spate of departures and firings — which also have targeted nearly a dozen senior military officials, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Navy’s top admiral — is a mark of disruption and instability the likes of which the Pentagon has seldom experienced.
Defense officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid about the situation, have described Hegseth, 44, as paranoid and increasingly isolated. He is surrounded by only a small team of people whom he trusts and has become keenly focused on daily news coverage dissecting his missteps and decision-making.
Last week, Hegseth fired three senior advisers: Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick. All three were accused of leaking, a point they forcefully rejected in a joint statement on Saturday.
A fourth former staff member, John Ullyot, wrote in an opinion piece Sunday that “it’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon” with a “near collapse inside the Pentagon’s top ranks.” He departed the Pentagon earlier this month after Hegseth’s team removed him from his role as a spokesman amid questions about Ullyot’s handling of the job.
On Monday, I wondered whether Hegseth would survive the week. There’s always the Friday News Dump.
Can A Pakistani Resident Serve On The Christina School Board? The legal battle has been joined:
School board member Naveed Baqir has not been seen in the school district or his nominating district in close to 14 months. He has been living in Pakistan since January 2024 and attending meetings remotely. Doug Manley has argued that means he is no longer a Delaware resident and should no longer be allowed to be on the board.
Despite Baqir acknowledging he doesn’t currently live in the country, Christina School President Donald Patton has backed Baqir’s position that because he has family and property in the district, he is still a resident.
“Unless a court finds that Dr. Baqir no longer holds residency in Delaware and the [Christina School District], I will continue to support him and his legal right to fully participate in all board decisions,” Patton said in an emailed statement.
Manley is asking the Delaware Court of Chancery for an immediate ruling declaring Baqir is no longer a resident of Delaware and therefore ineligible to serve as a school board member. Manley wants the court to bar Baqir from further participating in board activities and require the school district to fill what would be the vacant seat.
Setting aside legalisms, my passing acquaintance with the English language impels me to view ‘lives’ and ‘resides’ as synonyms in this case. He doesn’t ‘live’ in the district, therefore he doesn’t ‘reside’ in the district. Amirite?
Meyer To ‘Pump The Brakes’ On Giveaways To Large Corporations. That’s the key takeaway from this article on the State’s gift to Merck:
State officials and Merck have yet to publicly announce a move to Delaware. The massive $30 million grant is one of the largest investments by the state into a private company in recent memory.
It could be among the last of its kind in the near future.
Not long before the February approval for $30 million to Merck, Gov. Matt Meyer announced to a room full of Delaware executives that he would pump the brakes on large state investments to major companies.
Instead, he said his office would focus on sending state support to small businesses.
“In my administration, you’re going to see the use of this cash assistance de-emphasized. Let’s focus our resources on things that matter the most to the companies and employees of today and tomorrow,” Meyer said during a speech in front of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce in January.
Earlier this month, Meyer told Spotlight Delaware that all major economic development grants approved under his administration were negotiated under his predecessor, Gov. John Carney. Meyer’s team did weigh whether to nix the deals, but ultimately decided to allow them to proceed, he said.
My question is: How can/will Meyer stop the FOIA-exempt Delaware Prosperity Partnership from throwing money at corporations that don’t need it? That’s not a rhetorical question. I suspect the Governor has an answer. I’d like to hear it.
What do you want to talk about?
On the residency question: Lots of people own property in more than one jurisdiction. I personally know Delawareans of means who “live in” Florida for six months plus one day every year (wink, wink) so they can dodge Delaware’s income tax. But they still own property here, so they’re residents according to Donald Patton’s definition.
How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?
The General Assembly passed legislation effectively prohibiting a repeat of the Dave McBride situation–live in Lewes, represent a NCC Senate district.
None of those occasional Delaware ‘residents’, at least none of which I’m aware, live in Florida part-time and serve in an elective capacity.
Pakistan seems a couple of continents too far.
This residency question is the reason Park City Kathy and others like her want to let corporations vote.
It’s also the weakest link in our supposedly democratic system – those with no address can’t vote.
“How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?”
Thanks for remembering Firesign Theatre!
For those of us of a certain age, how could we forget?
The drugs we may, or may not, have taken hard-wired their stuff to some particularly-vulnerable spot in our brains.
Not sure I can still do the entire ‘Nick Danger-Third Eye’ by memory anymore, but I used-ta.
Inspirational Verse: “There was something fishy about the butler, I think he was a Pisces, probably working for scale.”
FBI Arrests Wisconsin Judge, allegedly for ‘interfering with immigration enforcement’. Are we at ‘full-Kafka’ yet?:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/25/wisconsin-judge-arrest-fbi-ice-immigration-enforcement/
It will never see a courtroom. Any judge will throw out the case.