DL Open Thread: Friday, May 29, 2026

Just an idle thought–Mike Purzycki was eulogized as a man of ‘courage, compassion and empathy’ yesterday.  Why did he choose as his successor someone who possesses none of those traits?  Along with ‘vision’, which Purzycki had, but his successor…

Judge: In Fenwick, LLC’s Are People.  Sad part is–the judge may be right on the law as the General Assembly rubber-stamped Fenwick’s charter that made it so:

A Delaware Superior Court judge ruled this week that when it comes to elections in the small coastal town of Fenwick Island, business entities like family trusts and limited liability companies are able to vote.

The 20-page ruling by Judge Craig Karsnitz, which has been picked up in the national media and drawn eyebrow-raising headlines, began with a philosophical meditation on what it means to be a “person,” but ultimately denied a challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware that allowing such non-human entities to vote diminished the voting rights of human residents.

“Visions of faceless large corporations or even [2001: A Space Odyssey’s] HAL, controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science fiction. However, the plaintiff has not demonstrated that this policy violates the principle of one person/entity/one vote,” Karsnitz wrote.

In part, Karsnitz’s ruling leans heavily on the fact that the Delaware state legislature gave the business entities voting rights in amendments to Fenwick Island’s town charter in 2008. Because the state recognizes the rights of such entities in other matters of law, the judge concluded that lawmakers could extend voting rights to them as well.

You may recall that, when Seaford tried to pull the same shit a couple of years ago, the town pointed out that the General Assembly had granted business entities similar voting rights in other Suxco municipalities.  The General Assembly correctly concluded, ‘That was then, this is now.’  Time for the General Assembly to go back and address the ‘then’.

A ‘Modern-Day Concentration Camp In New Jersey’:

Concerns are growing about Delaney Hall, a large federal immigrant detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, that is believed to be holding around 900 people picked up in communities across the Garden State.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill and several members of Congress attempted to enter the facility Memorial Day, as some detainees began a hunger strike, but the governor was denied entry and she has called for Delaney Hall to be shut down.

The Department of Homeland Security said that about six demonstrators were arrested for assaulting law enforcement officers as activists clashed with armed federal immigration officers outside of the facility Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker posted on social media on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 27, that he was permitted to enter the facility to meet with those who run the detention center, as well as those who are being held inside.

“After seeing who is being held and the conditions under which they’re detained, I believe most Americans would agree that this facility is a moral stain on our community,” Booker wrote in the post. “In fact, the majority of the people we encountered have no criminal charges or the kind of violence or criminality that Donald Trump said he was going to be focusing his attention on. This is unacceptable to me.”

Booker concluded his post “demanding” that Delaney Hall be closed.

Delaney Hall is a federal immigration detention center that is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and run by a private company called The GEO Group.

Members of Congress have the legal authority to show up at the facility and conduct oversight inspections. However, they have been stopped and delayed on multiple occasions by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agents.

Sherrill, although serving as the leader of the Garden State, does not have the legal right to enter the facility.

That being said, no New Jersey official or congressional representative has the legal authority to shut down Delaney Hall.

Please read the entire piece.  Then reflect on the fact that there are many such ICE houses throughout the country, all of them operating under the cloak of secrecy.

The Tackiest Sesquicentennial Celebration Ever!  I can’t even…:

Construction activity has become commonplace at the White House as Donald Trump pushes ahead with his controversial ballroom, but this week, a new megastructure was taking shape.

Cranes helped piece together soaring arches to create an arena that will house the raw spectacle of mixed martial arts when the president hosts his much-loved Ultimate Fighting Championship on the South Lawn on June 14.

With the White House south portico as its iconic backdrop, the display of masculine sporting prowess will be an iconic moment in the year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

The UFC match for 4000 invited dignitaries, donors and VIPs will also take place on the president’s 80th birthday, which Trump says is a coincidence (as was last year’s military parade on his 79th) – an insistence some find hard to believe.

But what is not in doubt is that the president is programming a 250th birthday celebration for the nation squarely in the image of his Make America Great Again movement, prompting criticism that he is failing to unify and lead for all at a time of deep polarisation.

It will be a hot Trump summer in DC, which will host a NASCAR race around the city streets and a fortnight-long Great American State Fair with concerts by faded ’90s icons such as Vanilla Ice and C+C Music Factory. (Can Lee Greenwood no longer even lip-sync his only hit?) While not officially a 250th event, the FIFA World Cup will lure millions of fans, including to a fan zone in DC, too. A high school athletics competition called the Patriot Games will follow in the autumn.

For more than a decade, a bipartisan, congressionally mandated body called America250 has been planning the celebrations, amid internal dysfunction and claims of wasteful spending.

But the president wanted to put his stamp on things, in line with his reprogramming acts at the (now) Trump Kennedy Centre, renovating the White House’s Lincoln Bathroom and threatening to revoke Smithsonian funding if museum content includes “improper ideology”.

Initially, the White House installed former Fox News producer Ariel Abergel as America250 executive director. But when the 25-year-old was removed over a kerfuffle relating to social media posts, Trump set up his own party planning authority, to be funded by donors and sponsors.

A brief screed–who better than a 25-year-old ‘former Fox news producer’ to coordinate the event?  I mean, when did this kid become a Fox news producer, and why was he already in Fox’s rear-view mirror at the age of 25?

Freedom250 was born to support flashy initiatives tailored to Trump’s political agenda, such as the UFC matches, the construction of a triumphal arch overlooking Washington, and a mass prayer rally on the National Mall earlier this month, reflecting MAGA’s conservative Christian core.

America250, meanwhile, has continued promoting its countrywide “block parties”, Times Square ball drop and a student essay competition. The Wall Street Journal reported both bodies have been hitting up corporate sponsors, causing confusion and raised eyebrows.

A brief screed–I think the ‘raised eyebrows’ analogy is one of the laziest tropes in journalism.  Perhaps I feel that way because Celia Cohen could never write (I could stop there) a piece that didn’t include ‘raised eyebrows’ in it.  But, I digress.  No, actually I’m done with this segment.  DC as Branson, MO.  I can hardly wait.

Melanie?  Yep, It’s Ethnic Cleansing.  Care to comment?:

Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has given orders to the Israeli army to seize control of 70% of the Gaza Strip in a move that threatens to torpedo an already fragile ceasefire and create catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the already devastated territory.

In recent days, Israeli-backed armed militias have taken a leading role in emptying the territory along the ceasefire line, telling residents to vacate their homes or shelters.

Throughout the eight months of the ceasefire, Israeli forces have continued to open fire on Palestinians within range of the “yellow line” splitting the strip, and carry out airstrikes deeper inside western Gaza, killing more than 900 Palestinians since the truce began.

Perhaps it’s me, but, is that really a truce?

The defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Wednesday that the government’s ultimate aim was for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza by what he called “voluntary migration” but what human rights activists describe as a long-term plan for ethnic cleansing by making living conditions inside Gaza intolerable.

The expansion of Israeli military control would be a direct violation of the October ceasefire, the UN security council resolution that endorsed it, and Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which laid out a temporary “yellow line” splitting Gaza into Israeli- and Hamas-run halves pending further peace negotiations.

Melanie–time to take your legislative lemmings back for one more photo op?:

“We LOVE Israeli Genocide.”

What do you want to talk about?