DL Open Thread: Thursday, April 23, 2026

Carney To Kill Roberto Clemente League?  All because of $30,000?  That’s–Carneyesque:

“We don’t even know if our league can survive, just paying the fees to pay for the policing.”

That’s the warning from Roberto Clemente Baseball League Vice President Iz Balleto to Wilmington leadership, saying that the estimated $30,000 in police costs due to rules put in place following a 2025 Eden Park shooting could financially ruin the league.

Wilmington now requires sports leagues to hire off-duty police officers for events held in the city, and Mayor John Carney’s Deputy Chief of Staff Mergler said there isn’t much of a way to help when the city is trying to cut its own spending.

“It is a financial burden, we do get that. However, given our financial position this year, and if you offer it to one organization, you have to offer it to everybody, and then the costs go up significantly, and at that point we’re just paying for police overtime. We do still think it’s a very important policy, because one incident at one sporting event is enough.”  (Right, better to shut down community sports events in Wilmington. Do these people even listen to what they’re saying?)

Balleto said that enforcement should be part of routine patrols when the league starts play on Saturday.

“If it is a city park, it is in the city, it should be a city responsibility as well.”

You’d think that John ‘I Have Three Pensions’ Carney could think of something.  But, then, people and/or thinking have never been his top priorities.  It’s been 25 years since Tom Carper inflicted this dullard on us.  Delaware is worse off because of it.

Delaware Legislators Didn’t Report Trips Paid For By Foreign Governments.  Some claim that the Public Integrity Commission said they could do it:

Free trips abroad funded by foreign governments have been routine for some Delaware lawmakers.

Disclosing them has not.

Since about 2010, a revolving handful of state legislators have taken an annual trip to Taiwan. In September, a group of five state lawmakers also traveled to Israel.

Neither the lawmakers nor Delaware taxpayers paid for the weeklong fact-finding missions, however. Instead, the two foreign countries footed the bill.

But when it came time to disclose any “gifts” they received on their required annual financial reports to the Delaware Public Integrity Commission, known as the PIC, members of the state House and Senate handled their free trips to Taiwan and Israel differently.

None have disclosed the Taiwan trips, which were paid for by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, according to reports since 2020 that WHYY News reviewed, and interviews with several attendees.

But four of the five elected officials who trekked to Israel last year reported a gift worth $6,500 from the Consulate General of Israel in New York. Dover-area Republican Rep. Bryan Shupe did not disclose the free trip, but last week, hours after defending his decision in an interview with WHYY News, Shupe revised his 2025 report and disclosed the $6,500 gift.

So what in the name of transparency is going on here?

It turns out that lawmakers say they think, but can’t prove, that the PIC advised them years ago that the free trips to Taiwan did not constitute a reportable gift. Though lawmakers cannot document that guidance or pinpoint when it might have been provided, they have passed that advice on to subsequent trip-takers.

Let’s stop right there.  Even if such nebulosity (I know, but it should be a word) could be proven, why would this even be a close call?  You got a gift in the form of a free trip. Why wouldn’t you report it?  Only one reason: Because you didn’t want people to know.  To which there’s only one question:  Why not?

Homeless Bill Sparks Controversy From The Usual Suspects.  I’ll quote just one (you can read the rest) because it says all I needed to know:

“This actually will accelerate the attack on small businesses,” Rob Buccini, co-founder of the politically influential Buccini/Pollin Group, said during the meeting’s public comment period.

Poor Buccini/Pollin–constantly under attack from everybody except all the governments who throw gobs of money at them.  Remember, kids, it was the bleating from Buccini/Pollin that mobilized John Carney to exile the homeless to a tent city in south Wilmington.  

The Last Refuge Of Scoundrels:

President Donald Trump and many of his leading Christian supporters and top Republicans are taking part this week in a marathon reading of the Bible in an America 250-themed event billed as encouraging a “return to the spiritual foundation that has shaped our country.”

The America Reads the Bible event — with each participant reading a passage aloud — is being livestreamed from the Museum of the Bible in Washington and other locations. It featured a video of Trump from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening reading an Old Testament passage that called for national repentance in ancient Israel — words that have been used prominently for decades by those promoting the belief that America has been and should be a Christian nation.

Critics say the event has a highly partisan list of participants and is part of a larger project to connect America’s upcoming 250th birthday with a Christian nationalist vision that portrays the nation’s founding as essentially Christian, something many historians dispute. White Christians, particularly evangelicals, have been crucial to Trump’s electoral base.

That’s not criticism, that’s the truth.

Working Families Party ON THE MARCH!!:

Is the two-party system doomed? Some progressive commentators think so.

Labor activist Les Leopold argues in his recent book, The Billionaires Have Two Parties, We Need a Party of Our Own, that “Working people have been abandoning the Democratic Party as the party has been abandoning them.” He calls for “a new party of the working class” to field working-class candidates. Lee Drutman of New America makes similar arguments about a fatally damaged Democratic brand in his 2020 book, Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop, and in recent writings, calls for a multiparty system.

But it’s not accidental that the last durable new party, the Republican Party, was founded 172 years ago, in 1854. The American constitutional system, with its lack of proportional representation for minor parties, makes it almost impossible for new parties to gain a lasting foothold.

For me, the rise and growth of the Working Families Party produces the best of both worlds: a two-and-a-half-party system that pushes the Democrats toward pocketbook populism and helps to make that a majoritarian politics.

In its origins, WFP assumed that it was confined to so-called fusion voting states, where it could both endorse a Democrat (or not) and also have its own ballot line. This led to increasing WFP influence in New York. In some respects, the success of Zohran Mamdani is testament to the success of that model.

But there are now only two fusion voting states, New York and Connecticut. Faced with this reality, the WFP has found ways to have real influence in non-fusion states. The key is not just endorsements but volunteers. The WFP brand of practical progressivism can attract activists who serve as the ground troops in campaigns. The WFP has now created party organizations in 18 states and plans more.

Note the difference between the WFP model and the efforts by groups on the Democratic Party’s corporate right to win primaries. On the right, the attempt to capture power is dominated by special-interest money, especially from PACs representing crypto, AI, and unwavering support for Israel, no matter how odious the Netanyahu government’s policies. The effort involves few actual volunteers. This model also depends on disguising who is actually behind the candidate by deliberately muddling messages.

By contrast, the WFP effort is built on straightforward principles, clear messages, and lots of real people working in campaigns. The success of WFP is a win not just for a progressive Democratic Party but for a revival of authentic democracy.

WFP of Delaware has already profoundly impacted the composition of the General Assembly.  Some of the winners:  Laura Sturgeon, Marie Pinkney, Larry Lambert, Rae Moore, DeShanna Neal, Kamela Smith, Sophie Phillips, Frank Burns, Cyndie Romer, Madinah Wilson-Anton, and Eric Morrison.  While we don’t know which names will be added to this list this year, you can bet that there will be some new progressive leaders joining this group in Dover.  The official announcement of Delaware WFP endorsees is coming up in little more than a week.  Plenty of candidates and campaigns for you to join.

What do you want to talk about?