DL Open Thread: Friday, April 3, 2026

Carney’s New Tents Not ‘Soak-Proof’:  Suh-prize, suh-prize.  Hey, man, the City can’t afford decent tents.  You know, ‘budget-smoothing’:

The city of Wilmington is assessing its next steps after a heavy rain soaked through newly city-issued tents to unhoused people living in Christina Park.

Mayor John Carney’s office and the site manager, the nonprofit organization Friendship House, placed about 20 wooden platforms in a grid along one side of the park on Wednesday and then erected the lightweight tents on top.

But a downpour just hours later drenched the fabric and soaked the platforms, leaving several unhoused residents of the Eastside park cold and wet as they emerged from the city-bought tents. The tents were visibly wet Thursday morning.

Already a tent village, the city is allowing people to sleep in Christina Park as part of a long-term plan to address rising homelessness. But a mandate requiring the unhoused to move out of their own tents into the city ones, along with other strict rules, is angering residents and activists and led to confrontations Wednesday.

Carney’s office says it was told they were waterproof, which means impervious to water. But the tents are listed online as being water-resistant, which amounts to a basic protection against rain events.  (‘Carney’s office’?  What presumably human said this?)

Did Bud Freel open up an Army Surplus Store, or something?

To be fair, Carney on his own would not have come up with ‘drowning’ as the solution to Wilmington’s homeless challenges.  His vision is too blinkered, although his lack of empathy would no doubt have been stimulated .  I blame Buccini/Pollin.  Just because.  Bet they’re having a good laugh over this at some City Chamber Of Commerce luncheon.

Stoopid City Council Trix:

Wilmington City Council has put an unusual quirk in their election process into the hands of state lawmakers.

Council voted 9-1 (1 absent, 2 present) to ask the Delaware General Assembly to change the city’s charter to require at least one member of a non-majority party to have an at-large party, and if they are the only seated member of that party, they cannot switch to the majority party while in office.

That scenario came into play last October, when City Councilman James Spadola announced he had switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, making the 13-member body entirely Democratic.

Spadola won his seat despite receiving just 9.4% of the at-large votes, by being the top non-Democrat.

Under Wilmington’s charter, parties can only nominate three candidates for the general election, and then voters can only select three candidates, even though four seats are ultimately determined in the race.

With all due respect (not much), this is a Wilmington issue.  Due to an unexpected set of circumstances.  There is nothing to stop, say, an independent candidate who supports, say, the Working Families Party, from running.  Once bit, twice shy.  Wilmington City Council has decided they can’t/won’t address this issue.  Neither should the General Assembly.

Dover–Almost As Dysfunctional As Wilmington:

Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen’s absence from city meetings over the past month, amid controversy over a homeless shelter in the city and the ousting of the city manager, has raised eyebrows in the capital city.

Both residents and city council members expressed concerns that Christiansen’s prolonged absence violated the city charter — justifying his removal from office. But Christiansen rebuffed the claims of his wrongdoing, and a Spotlight Delaware review of city code revealed stipulations in the policy that could support the Mayor’s claims.

This is a personal pet peeve.  I hate the term ‘raised eyebrows’. Not just because Celia Cohen included it in virtually every story she wrote.  But because I can’t get this image of ‘eyebrows’ being raised by the hundreds every time I see the phrase.  Thank you, doctor.  Same time next week?  But, I digress:

Christiansen last attended a city council meeting on Jan. 12. He was not present for the three subsequent meetings on Feb. 25, March 9 and March 23.

This three-meeting absence is what critics say is cause for Christiansen’s removal. According to the city charter, the mayor forfeits his office if he “fails to attend three consecutive regular meetings of the council without being excused by the council.”

But Christiansen said his absences were, in fact, excused. He contracted the flu in late February, he said, which turned into other illnesses and forced him to spend more than a week in the hospital.

Christiansen said he disclosed this information to City Council President Fred Neil, excusing his three absences. He declined to provide more details, but Neil confirmed he had been in communication with the mayor about reasons for missing recent meetings.

So. We’ve sorta establihhed that Chritiansen, Neil, and likely no other council members, knew about this.  Which reminds me–does Andria Bennett still have her sinecure there?

Isn’t Everything That Pete Hegseth Is Doing Illegal?  Trump won’t fire him because, you know, machismo.  But he’s completely lost the rank-and file:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff, on Thursday, a move that reflects growing hostility between Mr. Hegseth and the Army’s leadership, military officials said.

General George, who was appointed to his position in 2023, led the Army out of one of its worst recruiting crises in history in 2024 and more recently has pushed the service to accelerate its acquisition of cheap drones and other kinds of weapons that have come to dominate the war in Ukraine.

The tension with Mr. Hegseth was not rooted in substantive differences over the direction of the Army, military officials said. Rather it is the product of Mr. Hegseth’s long-running grievances with the Army, battles over personnel and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the officials said.

Trump and Hegseth ahare the same sense of victimhood, making retribution their go-to moves.  As in, say, Black and female generals.

Mr. Hegseth has also clashed in recent months with General George and Mr. Driscoll over the defense secretary’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consisted of 29 other officers, most of whom are white men. Mr. Hegseth’s highly unusual decision to remove the officers prompted some senior military officials to question whether they were being singled out because of their race or gender, officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing Mr. Driscoll and General George for months to remove the officers from the promotion list. But Mr. Driscoll and General George refused, citing the officers’ long records of exemplary service.

Hegseth is every bit as mentally-ill as Trump.  To state the obvious.

Trump’s New Acting AG?  One of his (many) former defense counsels:

In recent years, Todd Blanche has been the lawyer President Trump has turned to, over and over, in his times of need.

It was Mr. Blanche who defended Mr. Trump in three of the four criminal cases he was facing, losing one to the Manhattan district attorney’s office but effectively winning two against the special counsel Jack Smith.

It was Mr. Blanche who took the No. 2 position at the Justice Department, stepping in as deputy attorney general to run the agency day to day, when Mr. Trump was re-elected.

Mr. Blanche, 51, brings a mixed record to the job. He has spent the past year or so enabling the wholesale politicization of the Justice Department and losing the trust of many federal judges while still serving as a last-ditch bulwark against the president’s most extreme attempts to seek vengeance against his enemies.

He has overseen the destruction of the department’s traditional norms of independence from the White House, often treating Mr. Trump not as a chief executive who could benefit from his legal advice but rather as a loudmouthed client whose orders must be followed.

At the same time, he has on occasion shown himself to be loyal to his roots as a former federal prosecutor trained in the Southern District of New York and has held off some of the president’s most impulsive efforts to open criminal cases unsupported by the evidence.

While it remains unclear how long Mr. Blanche will remain in his new job, whoever ends up replacing him — if, indeed, he is replaced — will step into a department that he has shaped in his own image. More than most Justice Departments, where the center of power typically resides in the attorney general’s office, this Justice Department has been largely guided by Mr. Blanche’s office.

What do you want to talk about?