DL Open Thread: Thursday, September 25, 2025
The REAL Reason John Carney Wants To Address Homelessness. Spoiler Alert: It has nothing to do with any concern Carney might have about homeless people as people:
That’s right. If you know the location, you understand Carney’s sudden urgency on the issue. He wants to move ‘undesirables’ out of the turf being claimed by Buccini-Pollin. Can’t stomach wealthy patrons having their idyllic lifestyle disturbed. I’d personally like to congratulate John for finding a Black person to help cut the ribbon. So happy to see Mayor Mike play the Proud Papa role. His vision is John’s vision. In lieu, of course, of John having a vision.
Trump Floats Mass Firings If There’s A Shutdown. Don’t cave, Dems:
President Donald Trump’s administration instructed federal agencies Wednesday night to prepare for mass layoffs if the government shuts down Oct. 1, after federal funding runs out.
More Reason For Hope–And Action:
You might have heard of the so-called 3.5% rule. Developed by Erica Chenoweth and colleagues at Harvard, it postulates that “no government has withstood a challenge of 3.5% of their population mobilized against it during a peak event.” However, this is a rule of thumb, not an inviolate law of politics. Chenoweth acknowledges that Brunei and Bahrain, where more than 3.5% turned out but the governments were not overthrown, are exceptions to the rule.
Moreover, and critical for our current purposes, “most mass nonviolent movements that have succeeded have done so even without achieving 3.5% popular participation.” Certainly, turning out 3.5%—or 11.9 million Americans—would be a tremendous achievement in the effort to overcome MAGA authoritarian rule, but over 60% of movements that turned out 1% to 3.5% succeeded.
By all accounts, about 5 million people turned out on the first No Kings Day. That certainly tips the odds in favor of democracy. Pro-democracy organizations should therefore consider which additional factors might contribute to success even if demonstrations never reach the stratospheric 11.9 million mark.
In the 2021 book, “Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know,” Chenoweth identifies four factors that successful movements share: mass participation that draws from “all walks of life”; shifts in “the loyalties of the regime’s supporters”; tactics other than demonstrations; and discipline/resilience in “the face of repression.”
As for the diversity of the opposition, marches and rallies have drawn from old and young, white and nonwhite, and rural and small towns (as well as big cities). Making inroads into red America is certainly significant. Moreover, democracy forces potentially can expand to an even wider array of Americans since the harm Donald Trump is inflicting is hitting so many different segments of society. Farmers hit by tariffs, parents of disabled children deprived of Medicaid, and workers laid off from green energy jobs all can find common cause.
Now, more can be done to draw in Hispanics (who disapprove of Trump by 20 points) and young people (a group in which his popularity has plummeted). Whatever their reasons for voting for Trump in 2024 or staying home, the specter of violent deportations, rising prices, and loss of health care have left many feeling betrayed.
Ponder. Then act.
Robert Reich Also Thinks The Tide Is Turning:
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich thinks “the tide is now turning” against President Donald Trump.
The former Bill Clinton Cabinet secretary argued that — amid the Jimmy Kimmel suspension and reinstatement controversy and the president’s recently increased attacks on the press — Trump has “in one wild week revealed his utter contempt for the freedom of Americans to criticize him, to write or speak negatively about him, even to joke about him.”
The “great sleeping giant of America” is “starting to roar again now” at “the sociopathic occupant of the Oval Office,” posited Reich.
“Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but I’ve seen a lot. I know the signs,” he continued. “The sleeping giant always remains asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, some action so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so noisy, that he has no choice but to awaken.”
Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions point the way:
Hospital Cost Review Board To Be Negotiated Out Of Existence? That’s my conclusion, based on this article:
A settlement may be on the horizon for a contentious lawsuit over the future of a Delaware regulatory board responsible for managing hospital spending, according to a recent comment from Gov. Matt Meyer.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 17, Meyer said that “negotiations are ongoing” between the state and ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest and most influential health system, which sued last year over the creation of the board.
Delaware’s hospital cost review board serves as an oversight mechanism for the state to review hospital budgets and spending. In 2024, former Gov. John Carney signed House Bill 350 into law, creating the board.
Following HB 350’s passage, ChristianaCare filed a lawsuit against the state that challenged the constitutionality of the law. In its court filings, the hospital system called the cost review board “draconian,” pointing particularly to its ability to veto hospital budgets it deems excessive.
According to ChristianaCare’s complaint filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, the law gave the state’s executive branch the authority to “direct the internal operations and affairs of privately-owned hospitals.”
Throughout his tenure, Meyer has expressed he does not believe the board addresses the increased health care spending in the state. Soon after his inauguration, the governor appointed two longtime ChristianaCare executives to the board after Carney appointed five of the seven voting members on his way out of office — only one of whom was connected to a hospital.
Looks like Meyer took a cue from Trump–wanna destroy something–appoint foxes to guard the henhouse.
What do you want to talk about?
WHYY is hosting the “Ask the Governor” call-in show tonight from 8-9 PM
https://whyy.org/articles/ask-governor-meyer-delaware/
A lot of questions will probably be directed to the re-assessment. They are garbage and a distraction. Some more pertinent questions for Matt:
1) Governor Meyer, do you think it was appropriate for members of Delaware’s legislature to attend a propaganda event in a war zone, in support of a country committing genocide?
2) Governor Meyer, what steps are you taking to protect Wilmington’s homeless population from Mayor Carney and entrenched developer interests?
3) Governor Meyer, when will you direct Kathy Jennings to provide all files related to the Kristina Kelly case?
4) Governor Meyer, how can Delaware taxpayers know if their money is being well spent, when the Delaware Prosperity Partnership is exempting itself from FOIA?
You only get the hour, so make it count.
“A lot of questions will probably be directed to the re-assessment. They are garbage and a distraction.”
I agree with this, but several of the questions also qualify as distractions that he can simply answer by pointing out he has no authority. No politician but an idiot would answer them.
1) He doesn’t control member of the General Assembly, and what’s in it for him to piss on them?
2) He doesn’t control Carney or the city.
3) He doesn’t control the Attorney General, nor should he. If the AG were more liberal than the governor, would you want the governor controlling her? And if the AG were Republican, she could sue the governor for trying to abrogate her authority.
The fourth question is the only one on point.
#1 is moreso to raise a broader awareness. #2 can generate an actionable response (see my note about leveraging the DHSS property on 13/295 to provide a safe place for the current christina park encampment). #3 is really just to “rattle his barn” because otherwise he might have to defend her trumpian behavior of using state power to silence progressives.
Fair enough, but
1) He’d be an absolute fool to say anything, and I frankly don’t have a lot of sympathy for challenging governors about it. Falls into the “wrong venue” category for me, just like the reassessment issue. And I say that as an opponent of Israel’s existence.
2) In that case, ask him if he’d consider that, rather that phrasing it so he has to attack Carney
3) It might be better to combine 3 and 4 as a challenge to his claim of transparency.
I like No. 4 because you can hoist Republicans on that petard, too. They’re all for handing out money to businesses, so you can hit both Meyer and the GOP on that one.
I especially would like an answer to #4.
While campaigning, Matt said he didn’t like the lack of transparency on that. What, if anything, will he do?
Uh, this sounds–not good:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/09/25/hegseth-generals-quantico-meeting/
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.
The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. The directive was issued earlier this week, as a government shutdown looms, and months after Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon announced plans to undertake a sweeping consolidation of top military commands.”
“None of the people who spoke with The Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.
“People are very concerned. They have no idea what it means,” one person said.”
Remember, kids, Hegseth is utterly unqualified for the position he holds. I mean, not even remotely qualified.
how much is this costing?