DL Open Thread: Friday, June 6, 2025

We start, of course, with a Book Report.  With a shout-out to Jill, who hated Gillian Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl’.  Jill recommended ‘Long Bright River’ by Liz Moore.  So, I checked it out of the library, and read it.  Jill was spot-on.  The protagonist is a policewoman who patrols the drug-riddled streets of Kensington.  There’s a killer who is murdering easy targets on the streets.  Every time a victim turns up, she fears it might be her sister, who has been struggling. I’ll leave it at that.  Moore writes with empathy towards her main characters.  I think the relationship between the two sisters is what will stay with me the most.  That, and the unmistakable Philly flavor of the book.   A superb novel.  BTW, Jill, Peacock is adapting it.  I think you’ll like this profile of the author.  So, thanks, Jill, you were right.  Still wrong about ‘Gone Girl’, though…

I also recommend Rachel Krantz’  ‘This Is The Delaware Way’ podcast.  I’ve linked to the most recent episode.  Believe me, you’ll want to stick around for the closing segment.

Who Gets The Rights To The Greatest Reality Show Of All-Ti-i-i-i-ime?  We needed this in our lives, now we have it.  The needles!  The needles and the damage that could be done! (A stretch, I admit it.)  We’re talking the possible Mutually-Assured Destruction of the two biggest batshit crazy psychopaths of our era.  Although the sober-minded Josh Marshall thinks Trump holds most of the cards:

And yet for all of this, while I don’t think Musk can beat Donald Trump, he could still make a lot of trouble for him if he’s smart about it (a very open question) and willing to sustain a ton of damage to himself — perhaps even existential damage — in the process.

We want to remember that Musk was at the heart of a vast criminal enterprise — with more criminal conduct than we likely even can imagine — in the form of DOGE. Mobilizing that against Trump is obviously a pretty tall order since Musk is implicated and did all of it. But that’s a lot of dirty laundry, a lot of legal vulnerability. And it goes way beyond DOGE. Musk isn’t in any position to criticize Trump for many of the things Democrats despise him for.

But there’s a lot of criminal conduct he can hit him on. And this may be Trump’s greatest vulnerability: there’s a lot of stuff Trump is doing, hidden and in plain sight, that is not at all popular. Musk has the ability to spotlight it. He could probably make Trump’s crypto-bribery system, now in the open and yet mostly ignored, into something everyone in the country knows about. In fact, these two guys could both do so much damage to each other that I would not rule out the possibility that sometime this weekend we hear they made up and the whole thing is over. I’m not predicting that. I’m simply saying that the possibility of mutual destruction, or massive damage, is so great I don’t think we can rule it out.

The simple fact is that having a crazy man in your house is never good if it’s your house. So the more fighting, the worse it is for Trump’s political power in the U.S., even if Musk suffers even more damage. In other words, enjoy the show. It’s all good for the purposes of the future of the American republic.

Musk Turning Into TACOCat?:

The Tesla chief executive signalled he would back down on a pledge to decommission the Dragon spacecraft – made by his SpaceX business – in an exchange on his X social media platform. He also responded positively to a call from fellow multibillionaire Bill Ackman to “make peace” with the US president.

Musk had responded to a Trump threat to cancel his US government contracts on Thursday with a post on X stating he would retire his Dragon spacecraft, which is used by Nasa. However, responding to an X user’s post urging both sides to “cool off”, Musk wrote: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

Musk also appeared to proffer an olive branch in a reply to a post from the hedge fund owner Ackman, who called on Trump and Musk to “make peace for the benefit of our great country”. Musk replied: “You’re not wrong.”

Perhaps Tesla losing $150 billion in one day might be impelling Musk to back off.

Trump, sensing he has the upper tiny hand, is still getting his kicks in:

In a phone interview Friday morning, hours after his blistering exchange with Elon Musk, President Donald Trump sounded remarkably unconcerned about their feud, as if it weren’t even the most interesting thing that happened Thursday.

Speaking on a phone call Friday morning shortly before 7 a.m., ABC News asked him about reports he had a call scheduled with Musk for later in the day..

“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” he asked, saying he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him right now.

Everybody Pledges ‘Better Communication’ At Delaware City Meeting.  Seriously?:

More transparency and better explanations to the public were the consensus at a town hall meeting to discuss safety, alert systems and state oversight following an equipment failure that caused the Delaware City Refinery to emit sulfur dioxide above permitted levels.

While sulfur dioxide levels have remained well below the human health standard since the May 26 mechanical failure, Mike Capone, the refinery manager, acknowledged there should have been better communication about what occurred and what has been going on since.

OK, let’s stop right there.  Does the reporter have independent verification that the sulfur dioxide levels have remained sufficiently low, or is he just accepting the word of the refinery manager and DNREC?  Nicole Poore certainly accepts their word:

“And the best people that it could come from is our secretary and the refinery so there’s no confusion about what is happening,” Poore said. “We live in this area as well. I want to make sure that my family is just as safe as everyone else is and so if there is a concern, then we want to make sure that we’re addressing it.”  Because–her family.  I’m telling you, she should be electoral toast.

Jee-zus.

Here’s the typical bureaucratic bullshit DNREC response:

“Will DNREC require a corrective action plan? How will the community be engaged to provide feedback on that?” asked Roby Anstett, a Delaware Concerned Residents for Environmental Justice representative and community engagement liaison with Claymont Coalition for Environmental Justice.

Anstett was told that DNREC will be investigating the incident and will evaluate the information they gather to see what steps need to be taken after that.

DOUBLE Jee-zus.  At this point, I don’t believe anything that DNREC, like the sulfur dioxide, is spewing.  (A stretch, I admit it.)

What do you want to talk about?