DL Open Thread: Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Last Night’s Biggest Loser: The Delaware State Senate Democratic Caucus. Since the 2020 election, the caucus has been the most effective instrument for progressive change I’ve ever seen in Delaware. There has been tremendous synergy amongst its members. That has now changed. The diminution of progressive vision within that Caucus with the twin wins of Dan Cruce and Ray Seigfried to replace Sarah McBride and Kyle Evans Gay is close to incalculable. Lest you wonder what it could look like, remember that the Senate leadership before that election consisted of Dave McBride and Nicole Poore.
I was struck by how, in the waning days before the vote, we were hearing that the term ‘working families’ was being used as a pejorative, By Ray’s allies, in particular. Although the Working Families Party didn’t endorse in this race, there was a clear subtext that the insiders needed to take back the reins of political influence from the grassroots campaigners who helped to elect Larry Lambert, among many other insurgent legislators. If working families don’t belong in the Democratic Party, gee, I wonder where they’ll go. Oh, wait, we already found out.
I close on a lighter note. I showed up at the Brandywine Hundred Fire Hall only to be greeted by a rally in progress on behalf of, wait for it, George Frankel. Had a shitload of ‘I Love George’ signs, and his supporters chanting on his behalf. He got five votes. It even took Mike Protack and Christine O’Donnell longer than Frankel to turn themselves into political punchlines. Which is what he officially became last night.
Man, This CEO Killing Suspect. From a life of privilege to this–I imagine that Dateline already has a five-episode package in the works:
Luigi Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, part of a well-known family whose interests span the Baltimore area.
His grandfather, Nicholas “Nick” Mangione Sr., who died in 2008, was a businessman and real estate developer. He and his wife, Mary, acquired Turf Valley Country Club in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 1978. About 20 years later, they founded Hayfields Country Club in Cockeysville, Maryland. Mary served on the board of the Baltimore Opera and as president of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, a women’s organization, her 2023 obituary said. Mangione’s parents own a home at the Hayfields Country Club, records indicate.
The Mangione family owns the Baltimore-based radio station WCBM-AM and an assisted-living facility, Lorien Health Services in Ellicott City.
The Post neglected to mention that:
They also own WCBM, the local all talk radio station that spews right wing propaganda 24/7. I won’t link to it. The last time I looked at their website was about 15 years ago and briefly saw the attack on Hillary Clinton and John Kerry as dangerous Communists. They broadcasted Limbaugh plus his local fellow propagandists.
Afraid of offending Trump, or just something that didn’t strike them as pertinent? Nevertheless, pretty much everybody seems shocked by the suspect’s apparent change in character:
“He was a good spirit,” a former teacher, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid being publicly associated with Mangione, told The Washington Post. “He was very bright, vivacious and full of life. … I’m gut-punched because it just doesn’t fit the boy that I knew those years ago.”
Mangione was a leader in a student robotics club and helped design a robot that advanced to the Maryland state finals.
In the 2016 high school yearbook, reviewed by The Post, Mangione wrote that he went from hating being sent to the school in the sixth grade to it becoming the “the best thing that’s ever happened” to him. Mangione spoke of his cohort’s “fearlessness to explore new things and the obvious ability to excel” in his valedictory speech.
He later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity from 2017 to 2020, said Ron Ransom, the fraternity’s executive director. A LinkedIn account with his name and photo said he graduated from the university with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science in 2020. He founded a video game development club during his time at the school, the account said.
In other words, definitely more Ted Kaczynski than Timothy McVeigh.
Oh, Just Stop With This Bullshit Dance Already. They were always gonna confirm this profoundly unqualified and likely dangerous nominee, but not before engaging in this all-too-familiar pas de deux beforehand:
Days after signaling she continued to have serious concerns about confirming Hegseth, Ernst on Monday sounded a different note. She described their conversation Monday afternoon as “encouraging,” said she would “support” Hegseth through the process, touted some of the commitments he made to her about what he would do in the role, and suggested she would only take allegations against him seriously if they come from named accusers.
The change in tune followed an aggressive push for Hegseth by top Trump allies and supporters, as well as a defiant performance by the Defense secretary nominee that has Trump’s team bullish on him getting confirmed. But it’s not just Hegseth. Trump allies believe his choice to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, and his nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, are in a stronger position as well.
It was, and will ever, be thus.
Murdoch Loses Case To Keep Less Nutty Son Out Of His News Operation:
A probate commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change his family’s trust to give one of his sons control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant, according to a sealed document obtained by The New York Times.
In a decision filed on Saturday, a probate commissioner in Nevada concluded that Murdoch, 93, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, had acted in “bad faith” in their endeavor to amend the irrevocable trust, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The damage has already been done.
Go, Dan, Go! Christina School Superintendent Dan Shelton…:
…filed a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit against the Christina School District’s board and individual board members on Monday.
Shelton was placed on indefinite administrative leave on a 4-3 vote in July after a long and contentious meeting. Board President Don Patton, Vice President Alethea Smith-Tucker, YF Lou and Naveed Baqir voted in favor of placing him on leave while Doug Manley, Monica Moriak and Amy Trauth voted against. The district hired an interim superintendent in August.
The civil lawsuit argues Shelton was fired and accuses the board and individual members Patton, Smith-Tucker, Lou and Baqir of violating his due process rights, damaging his reputation and breaching his contract. He’s asking for more than $2.7 million in compensation and for the individually named board members to pay punitive damages.
Shelton said in his legal filing the district didn’t have cause to fire him and he wasn’t given an explanation for why he was being let go. His lawsuit argues the four members of the board who voted to remove him were driven by personal animus, which is evidenced by legal advice to the board given by its former longtime attorney James McMackin.
In a July 17 email from McMackin to board members obtained by WHYY News, the board’s attorney warned that attempting to fire Shelton “does nothing but support the witch hunt narrative.”
“Given the public record of animus, any members supporting termination only can overcome partiality issues — and personal liability — if the superintendent did something egregious — objectively — such that any reasonable person would terminate, despite partiality,” the email said. “No jury would conclude this is egregious when you are sued.”
Such a bizarre story. Nobody has done a better job of covering it than our occasional correspondent Kevin Ohlandt. Read all about it right here.
What do you want to talk about? As if I didn’t know…
Frankel getting 5 votes while getting alot of family and friends to host a “rally” was just odd, and a little embarrassing.
Siegfried will almost for sure get a primary. Cruce is wait and see how he does it seems.
While we are at it, when is the Senate ridding themselves of Nicole Poore???
When someone challenges her. She’s at least as vulnerable as Our PAL Val was.
Trust me. Cruce needs a primary.
Adrianna Bohm has twice sought to run for office. Each time, though, it has been in a Special Election where the same group of Wilmington insiders have prevented her nomination.
I hope she runs in a primary in 2026 for that Senate seat.
Working Families Party just posted this on FB:
The results of last night’s Democratic Party selection process for the State Senate seats in Districts 1 and 5 confirm what we have been saying for years: the backroom dealing of the old Delaware Way is out of touch with what Delawareans have supported in prior elections.
When Delaware residents get the opportunity, they have shown time and time again that they vote for a diverse set of candidates with bold visions for the state, as we saw with the victories of candidates like Kamela Smith, Christian Willauer, and Coby Owens just this year. But when the Democratic Party insiders made their decision, they instead decided to replace two progressive women with two establishment, pro-corporate men: Dan Cruce and Ray Seigfried, both of whom have failed to win open and fair elections in the past.
Throughout the entire process it was clear that the deck was stacked against progress as representatives of organized money and corporations lobbied months ahead of the election for Cruce and Seigfried. This is exactly why more and more people are becoming disillusioned with the old Delaware Way style of politics. It is also why we are dedicated to strong, grassroots campaigns as the only way we will make that change in Delaware. As far as we are concerned, the real election for this seat will be in September 2026.
Anybody else taste sour grapes? You guys’ sure sound like Trump circa 2020/2021
And you sound like a dipshit. Take it somewhere else.
As a resident of Christina, I am begging the state to take over CSD for the good of the children.
So Christina School District is paying the salaries of both an interim Superintendent and one on indefinite administrative leave, and now they’ve announced they’ll be hiring a search firm to find a permanent replacement.
Your school tax dollars at work.
I just want to link this for those who think we shouldn’t condemn our fellow Americans as a form of life that falls, intellectually, somewhere between yeast and slime mold:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/12/thats-just-nitpicking
I’d like to know a bit more about the alleged personal animus between the board and Shelton, given the clientele whom Neuberger tends to attract.
For example, if you asked Shelton, what would he say it is about, and if you asked his antagonists, what would they say it is about.
The nature of the underlying dislike might be illuminating.
Clients he attracts. I am not a fan of this attorney, but he and his firm represented people I know who were abused by priests in the 60’s -70’s and he brought those folks justice at least in the financial sense. If I were looking for a bulldog, I would consider him in a heartbeat. Hiring solid counsel is just smart,