DL Open Thread: Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Until now.

Josh Marshall Speaks The Truth.  Will feckless Dems pay attention?:

The president views states and municipalities controlled by political opponents as something akin to conquered territories which must be bent to his will by force. This includes budgetary coercion and as close as he can get to military occupation. This is un-American, outside the constitutional order and, not least in importance, unpopular.

He has done this by exploiting various loopholes, taking advantage of a compliant and corrupt Supreme Court and resorting to expedients in which his power is most un-reviewable despite his actions clearly violating the plain intention of the laws in question. None of these technicalities change the fact that these are all violations of the liberties Americans are entitled to.

Under the American constitutional order, states and localities are entitled to local control of civil policing, administration of elections and various other features of state and local government. President Trump is trying to upend that part of the federal order not because he thinks he can run this or that local government service or administration any better, but to deprive those states and localities of their liberty and right to self-government. Because he wants that power for himself.

I’m making these general points because the opposition to these actions is deeply embedded in American civic culture — citizens’ basic understanding of what they’re entitled to and what they think is right. So shaping political actions explicitly around opposition to it is not only right and merited but the basis of opposition with the best shot at success.

There’s more, but let’s cut to the chase:

In this sense Trump and his degenerate advisors are doing us a favor by making face masks a part of the standard ICE and CBP uniform. It marks them out as something different. They’re not soldiers precisely. But they are occupiers. They function in the same way. Masks are for secret police and criminal gangs. They have no place in any kind of legitimate policing authority.

These are all the makings of a powerful opposition politics and Democrats must not run away from it. It’s not only critical to the future of American democracy and civic freedom. It could not be more mainstream, something that appeals to a broad range of the American electorate, across race and ethnicities, regions and ideologies.

Amen.

State AG’s–The Last Bastion For Rule Of Law?  Lawsuits matter:

After a multi-state lawsuit over Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to freeze more than $6.8bn in education funding to US schools, the Trump administration has agreed to restore the funds for a range of educational services, including after-school and summer learning, teacher training, and support for English-learners.

The administration did not give a clear explanation as to why it had withheld the congressionally allocated funds, though a spokesperson for the White House office of management and budget had indicated that review found instances of federal education money being “grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda”.

Following a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of California and 22 other states, as well as the governors of two states, the administration released some funding. On Monday, California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced that the states secured an agreement to have the funding fully restored.

Delaware AG Kathleen Jennings has been in the forefront of challenging illegal actions by the Trump Administration.  It has not gone unnoticed, at least to me.

Abrupt Owner Closes Gallucio’s Abruptly.

Gallucio’s Italian Restaurant, a part of Wilmington’s Forty Acres neighborhood for nearly 55 years, suddenly closed its doors for good Aug. 24, according to Sergio Pellegrino, who has been a partner in the business for a dozen years.

A Gallucio’s bartender said she was left “shaking” after Pellegrino and co-owner Herb Casalena, a Wilmington dentist, came in the early evening to abruptly close the iconic eatery.

Debi Mathewson was the lone bartender working when she said the owners arrived with three others and ordered her to tell customers to leave, open the cash register, and show them where alcohol was stored ― all without any explanation.

“I know nothing about it … I don’t decide nothing. My partner decide everything,” he said.

Messages to Casalena went unanswered Aug. 25 and Pellegrino said he had no way to contact his partner other than his dental office, where calls went to voicemail.

Pellegrino denied he was aggressive with an employee: “I was not aggressive for nothing. When I talk, I talk straight.”

Lest readers might have been confused about the tone the reporters were going for, here’s more:

Mathewson said she was working when Pellegrino, Casalena, two other men, and a woman entered.

“[Pellegrino] was very abrupt. I have never met a man like that,” said Mathewson, who has worked at the restaurant for nearly three years and said she had never met him before. “I was like, ‘Oh [crap]. This is going to be a problem.”

She said the group sat down and ordered beers and a meal that included shrimp cocktail, a cheesesteak, and a cheeseburger, along with more food to go, including ravioli dinners with salads and more shrimp cocktail.

After they ate, Mathewson said Casalena pulled her aside and told her to wait 15 minutes and then tell customers that the bar was closing early.

“Get them out and lock the doors,” she said she was told.

After the bar was emptied and the doors were locked, Mathewson said she was told to give them all the money in the register.

“I felt like I was being robbed. I was in shock,” she said.

“It was awful,” Mathewson said of the experience, adding that she was not tipped on the $150 bill by the group, which they told her to “comp.” “I was shaking.”

Pellegrino said Casalena had ordered the food and added that perhaps his partner didn’t tip because “he didn’t feel too good.”

In the interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal, Pellegrino offered to tip Mathewson himself when told one wasn’t left: “It’s no big deal. I will stop by to give the tip.”

I know the Godfather theme is already circulating in your head, so I’ll refrain.

Police Take Over PAL.  Looks like the only thing keeping the organization afloat was Our PAL Val’s successful extortion tactics:

Police officers are taking over leadership roles at the Police Athletic League of Delaware, a taxpayer-funded nonprofit facing upheaval after its executive director – former House Speaker Valerie Longhurst – resigned earlier this month.

Last week, New Castle County’s police chief, Col. Jamie Leonard, became chair of the organization, while an officer within his department – Lt. Angela Dolan – became its interim-executive director, replacing Longhurst.

The leadership changes came days after Spotlight Delaware reported that Longhurst’s resignation followed state officials’ decision to freeze more than $500,000 in grants that lawmakers had awarded to the PAL of Delaware – as it is commonly known.

Board members at the troubled organization also said that Longhurst’s resignation came as the organization’s cash reserves had unexpectedly dwindled.

In recent years, government grants had sustained the PAL of Delaware, with contributions from state and county taxpayers appearing to peak in 2024 at about $5 million. By contrast, the organization regularly took in about a half-million dollars in total contributions and grants annually prior to the COVID pandemic.

Man, that sudden windfall, and yet:

In an interview with Spotlight Delaware on Friday, Leonard confirmed that the PAL of Delaware has “cash-flow problems,” though he said an accountant would have to perform a detailed financial analysis to determine whether anyone had acted inappropriately.

Pressed on why the nonprofit would be in dire straits given recent money from taxpayers, Leonard said he is still “trying to wrap his head around that.” He noted that much of the grants in past years were dedicated for construction and other capital projects. 

“But, notwithstanding, here are the brass tacks … the operating expenditures outpaced the revenue,” he said.

Hmmm, don’t think we’ve heard the last of story…might I suggest an audit of that Babe Ruth Canteen that Val used to run?  And, oh yes, a State audit of the Underwater City At Fort DuPont?

What do you want to talk about?