John Carney’s First Veto Reinforces Whose Side He’s On. It’s, uh, not on the side of renters with unresponsive landlords:
Last week, Wilmington Mayor John Carney announced he would veto a bill to establish a city-run escrow account for renters to deposit payments they had withheld from landlords.
Now, Councilmembers Christian Willauer, Shané Darby, and Coby Owens — all co-sponsors of the proposal — say that they want to override the veto.
The sponsor of the ordinance, Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy, did not respond to a request for comment. But, she has previously said the program would give tenants a secure space to withhold rent, while also offering landlords verifiable proof that money is being safely held.
McCoy introduced a similar measure in 2023, which passed city council but was vetoed by then-Mayor Mike Purzycki.
In his veto, Carney said in a letter to city council members on Friday that the city doesn’t have the money to implement a tenant escrow program to collect withheld rents.
He also said the measure may conflict with state law and expose Wilmington to “unintended legal consequences.”
Ah yes, that. G-d forbid that rogue landlords sue the city since, according to Carney, it is bereft of funds. Fact: Carney is bereft of a conscience. BTW, guess who was the only councilperson to vote against the ordinance, I’ll wait:
Councilman James Spadola was lone member who voted against the ordinance earlier this month.
In a public statement issued on Monday, Spadola echoed Carney’s concerns, stating that such a program should not be facilitated by the city, but instead by a statewide housing nonprofit.
No wonder Cassandra Marshall loves him. People without consciences stick together.
Rethugs Normalize Hate. In Fact, Reward It:
You don’t need a trove of apparently leaked texts to reveal what is true: Paul Ingrassia is proud of what he believes.
Mr. Ingrassia, an attorney and right-wing provocateur who was awaiting Senate confirmation to the Office of Special Counsel before his nomination was withdrawn on Tuesday, claimed to friends that he had a “Nazi streak,” according to texts published by Politico this week.
Well before those messages surfaced publicly, Mr. Ingrassia was a vocal supporter of extremists like Nick Fuentes, a former dinner companion of Mr. Trump’s who has questioned the death toll of the Holocaust.
Mr. Ingrassia has represented the self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, an influencer facing rape and human trafficking charges overseas. His Substack account — where Mr. Ingrassia proclaims that he is “President Trump’s favorite writer” — reads like a white nationalist manifesto; in one post, he likened immigrants to “Barbarian hordes of criminal invaders” and warned that changing racial demographics could “break the cultural and social fabric” of the United States.
In other words, it really does take a lot for Republicans to back away from confirming a nominee the president wants for a top role in his administration. On Tuesday, though, at least a few Senate Republicans appeared to be alarmed about Mr. Ingrassia, who currently works as White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security.
Still, the fact that the nomination got this far illustrates how much antisemitic and hateful rhetoric has been normalized, explained away or rewarded by Republicans in power. Sometimes, the backlash against it comes from everywhere but the White House.
A common tactic inside the Trump administration is to defend the outrageous or hateful things people say by claiming the remarks have roots in irony — that nothing is that serious. Maybe everyone who is offended should just have a better sense of humor, some officials suggest.
Last week, when a leaked group chat of young Republican operatives contained messages expressing a love for Hitler and suggesting that political opponents face gas chambers, Vice President JD Vance was among the group’s defenders. He likened the Nazi-loving texts to anything in a “college group chat” and said that a Democratic candidate in Virginia who glorified political violence against Republicans was worse.
“Part of the challenge is that in the last decade, there’s not only been a normalization of this extremism by political leaders but a desensitization to it,” said Amy Spitalnick, the chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a coalition of advocacy groups. “So none of this should be surprising to anyone, even if it’s still shocking.”
Company Destroying White House Getting Eviscerated. Figuratively, of course:
ACECO, a company based in Silver Spring, MD, is facing an “online firestorm” for playing a lead role in demolishing key portions of the White House, per the Baltimore Banner, as part of Donald Trump’s continued fascist takeover of our country.
The newspaper notes that that company’s website now says it’s “under construction” and that “it wasn’t immediately clear when ACECO made that change.” I can tell you from my own experience that ACECO’s website was up and running on Monday night and a fellow Bluesky user told me it was still up as of 9:30 am CT on Tuesday morning. So ACECO went into hiding online just today, likely due to the swell of criticism it is justifiably receiving for destroying an historic government structure that belongs to the American people — not Donald Trump.
The architect for this ballroom abomination is James McCrery of McCrery Architects in Washington, DC (Info@mccreryarchitects.com). He is also a professor at Catholic University: Mccrery@cua.edu.
A recent piece in Punch List Architecture Newsletter shares more about McCrery and his background (he specializes in religious architecture — big surprise) and about what the architecture community thinks about his ballroom design (in short, they don’t like it; McCrery’s former mentor Peter Eisenman calls the design “bonkers”).
It goes w/o saying that ACECO is a non-union company.
ICE Arms Itself Against America:
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sharply increased its spending on weapons in 2025, according to an analysis of federal government contracting data by Popular Information. Records from the Federal Procurement Data System reveal that ICE has increased spending on “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing” by more than 700 percent compared to 2024 levels.
New spending in the small arms category from January 20, 2025, the day Trump was inaugurated, through October 18, totaled $71,515,762. Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and “guided missile warheads and explosive components.”
On September 29, 2025, ICE made a $9,098,590 purchase from Geissele Automatics, which sells semi-automatic and automatic rifles. The total spending by ICE in the small arms category between January 20 and October 18 last year was $9,715,843.
What do you want to talk about?