DL Open Thread: Sunday, December 1, 2024
Hmmm, which ugly Christmas sweater to wear for my shift at the Arden Holiday Shop this morning? Can’t go with the Trump and Putin kissing under the mistletoe, as much as I’d like to…saving the most profoundly garish and disturbing one for the Claymont Parade next week…guess I’ll go with the Five Finger Death Punch Christmas Sweater. Because nothing quite says ‘Christmas season’ to me more than ‘Five Finger Death Punch’. ‘Wash it all away’, indeed.
Trump Loyalist To Head FBI? Perhaps–if the current director resigns. Or Trump fires him:
President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he planned to replace FBI Director Christopher A. Wray with Kash Patel, a move that would install a staunch loyalist atop an agency Trump has repeatedly criticized.
This pick — which cannot happen unless Trump fires Wray or the FBI director steps down before the end of his 10-year term — comes as the president-elect has rolled out appointments and proposed nominations that appear aimed at putting his political allies in key positions where officials and agencies had contradicted or angered him in the past.
Patel, who worked in Trump’s first administration, has publicly mused about targeting journalists and government officials, and he published a list of “deep state” names in a book last year titled “Government Gangsters.” Promotional materials for the book included a quote from Trump, who called it a “roadmap highlighting every corrupt actor” and a “blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”
Ahead of Trump’s announcement, Patel last weekend criticized federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, for not cooperating with Republican congressional investigations.
Israel Assassinates Food Care Workers In Gaza. Claims one of them was with Hamas. We know better:
An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people, including employees of World Central Kitchen. The charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel’s military said it targeted a WCK worker who was part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.
WCK said it was “heartbroken” and it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, adding it was “working with incomplete information.” It said it was pausing operations in Gaza. It had suspended work earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers.
In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers — three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. The Israeli military called it a mistake. That strike prompted an international outcry. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.
Another Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people, including children. Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies.
Netanyahu wants Gazans to starve. Full stop. Just don’t call it ‘genocide’. It offends the sensibilities of two of our commenters, who view their sensibilities as more important than the fate of Gazans.
‘Genocide Arms Dealers’ Indeed. Michael Moore is right:
What better way to celebrate losing the November 5th election than by continuing to ignore the will of the American people who oppose Israel’s war on Gaza. Nothing says to the public “we hear you” better than the Democratic Party announcing that “we’re going to kill even more children in Palestine now with your/our American tax dollars.”
But something amazing happened exactly 10 days ago: 19 Democratic and Independent Senators stood up for the first time and voted to STOP the sending of three shipments of American weapons to Israel. It was a never-before rebuke to warn Netanyahu that millions of Americans have had enough of his slaughter of innocent civilians. Of course, to Netanyahu, Palestinians are not “innocent” because, well, they don’t exist.
Coons and Carper, of course, voted for continued genocide. Will LBR be any better? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
An innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air.
Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks.
The powder is known as a covalent organic framework, with strong chemical bonds that pull gases out of the air. The material is both durable and porous, and can be used hundreds of times, making it superior to other materials used for carbon capture.
Not the solution, but perhaps part of a solution.
We’re # 1!: Something you won’t find on any Chamber of Commerce brochures:
Delaware leads the United States in terms of how many impaired waterways lie within its jurisdiction, the recent study cited. According to the 2022 Environmental Integrity Report, which the study refers to, 97% of Delaware’s rivers and streams and 100% of its estuaries are classified as impaired. An impaired waterway is one that contains a high level of contaminants and does not meet current water quality standards.
The study and Biddle theorized that infrastructure issues related to septic and wastewater treatment may contribute to this issue.
“The southern part of our state doesn’t have the infrastructure that the northern part of the state does,” Biddle said. “It becomes a much larger infrastructure problem in terms of how people want to move forward in the future … and it’s a reminder that the existing infrastructure still needs some attention.”
‘…still needs some attention’. Ya think?
What do you want to talk about?
