DL Open Thread: Monday, April 27, 2026
A backlash emerged against Wilmington Mayor John Carney last week after his administration directed artists performing at a city-sanctioned open mic to not talk about homelessness or LGBTQ issues.
Hours before the Thursday event, which the city sponsored at The Queen music hall, the mayor’s special assistant sent an email to performers announcing restrictions on what they could discuss.
“Please be advised that we ask each act to stay away from subject matter around homelessness and the LGBTQ community. Other than that, please feel free to express yourselves!” special assistant Ashley Christopher said in the email
Over the 24 hours following the email, several individuals and organizations — including the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, Delaware Democratic Socialists of America, and Food Not Bombs — made statements claiming the directive amounted to censorship and could violate the First Amendment.
“When the city undertakes sponsoring an event — especially a forum marketed as an ‘Open Mic’ — it must take great pains to ensure that any guidelines produced adhere to its commitments to the First Amendment,” ACLU executive director, Mike Brickner, said in an open letter to Carney.
In response to the backlash, the city posted a statement to social media on Friday, saying the intention of the email was to ask participants to “avoid jokes made at the expense of communities that were recently the subject of negative attention.”
When asked why the city did not specify that in the original email, and why homelessness and the LGBTQ+ community were singled out specifically, Carney’s spokeswoman Caroline Klinger said again that those groups had been “subject to negative attention in recent weeks.”
Come on. You all have critical thinking skills.. Do any of you think that a comedian was gonna get up at a city-sponsored event and rattle off a bunch of jokes dissing the homeless or the LGBTQ community? Jokes at Carney’s expense would’ve gotten a different response if the comedian was as good as, say, me. Shané Darby, as is often the case, had the correct response:
Even current and former politicians weighed in. Former Christina school board member Shannon Troncoso, who represented Wilmington, noted that the city email included the phrase, “Please be advised,” which she said reads like a directive and could “raise real First Amendment concerns,” among other questions.
City Councilwoman Shané Darby replied to Troncoso’s post, stating that governments shouldn’t host these types of events. She also claiming that Carney “is so disconnected and out of touch with (the) community.”
Send that woman to Dover.
Who Faces The Guillotine After The Latest Shooting Attempt On Trump?
Publicly, members of the administration praised the Secret Service for agents’ quick response on Saturday after a suspected gunman charged the ballroom in the basement of the Washington Hilton, where hundreds of journalists and administration VIPs including the president and vice president were seated for the annual event. No persons inside the ballroom were injured, and the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, was tackled before getting inside.
In private, however, Real Clear Politics reports that seasoned security officials are raising alarms over the Secret Service and the agency’s ability to protect the president. Numerous sources familiar with presidential security protocols bashed Saturday night’s security apparatus at the Hilton in comments to the publication, echoing some criticism leveled by attendees and politicians on social media after the event.
The report also claimed that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles plans to blame the president’s sons, who reportedly pushed for Curran’s appointment, if the president decides to fire him. Wiles, as Trump’s top aide, oversees the Secret Service and also faced some criticism for allowing Curran to remain in his job this long.
Uh, you know how these things tend to work out:
Multiple sources reportedly told Real Clear Politics that Wiles has told other administration officials that “it’s on the boys” – supposedly referring to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump – if Curran screws up.
“It’s failure after failure after failure, and she gets no blame,” one source complained to the publication. (Trump, of course, remains blameless.)
The new report of a rift between Wiles and the presidents’ sons could be blown open if Saturday evening’s incident results in turnover at the Secret Service. Attendees at the White House Correspondents Dinner were required to show tickets and pass through a metal detector, but CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported that the suspect appeared to make it through a metal detector with his weapon.
Leave it to the gunman himself to describe the incompetence:
“The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before. Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again. Like, if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed shit,” Allen wrote in his alleged manifesto.
Iran War For Dummies: The Strait Of Hormuz was open. Now it’s closed. The End.
Trump Will Be Killed Unless He Gets His Ballroom? Does that mean that he will never leave the ballroom once it’s built?:
The Department of Justice on Sunday demanded that the National Trust for Historic Preservation voluntarily drop its legal action to block the construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, claiming the lawsuit “puts the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk.”
In a letter to the National Trust, Brett Shumate, the DOJ Civil Division’s assistant attorney general, called Saturday’s attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner an “assassination attempt on President Trump,” adding the incident proves “that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff.”
“The White House ballroom will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton,” the site of the WHCD, Shumate said.
“Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk. I hope yesterday’s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly of a lawsuit that literally serves no purpose except to stop President Trump no matter the cost,” he added. “Enough is enough.”
I can’t even…
Can This Alliance Put An End To Israel’s Genocides?
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing the prospect of running against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year after two of his most formidable political rivals combined forces in an attempt to oust him, inviting a third party leader to join them.
In a move that some analysts compared to the centre-right coalition that removed Viktor Orbán from power in Hungary, the former prime ministers – rightwing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid – issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid (There is a Future).
The answer? Not likely:
Bennett said that he would not seek a coalition with Arab parties again and ruled out ceding any land to enemies, an apparent reference to the Palestinians’ goal of establishing an independent state in territories occupied by Israel.
Asked and answered, I guess.
What do you want to talk about?
“Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk.”
Where do I donate to keep that lawsuit going?