DL Open Thread: Wednesday, September 24, 2025

RIP: Pete Ross.  Were there a Hall Of Fame for great Delaware public servants, Pete would be a first-ballot inductee.  Not just for his mastery of the budget process, but because of the way he patiently explained things to a fiscally-clueless (me) staffer over the years.  He didn’t just answer questions, he made you (me) smarter by sharing knowledge in a way that was easy to understand.   He wasn’t just universally respected, he was well-loved by those of us who knew him through his work in the Controller General’s office and later as Budget Director.  The entire building was thrilled when he was appointed Budget Director.  My deepest sympathies to his family.

At Least One Democrat Has Figured It Out.  No More ‘Wimpy Politics’:

During more than two decades in Congress, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has earned a reputation as a mainstream policy wonk and loyal lieutenant to Democratic leaders. So it came as something of a shock this month when Van Hollen derided top Democrats for failing to endorse New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist.

“Many Democratic members of the Senate and the House representing New York have stayed on the sidelines” in the race, even as Mamdani has captured the public’s imagination by focusing on “ensuring that people can afford to live in the place where they work,” Van Hollen told a cheering crowd of party activists in Des Moines. “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of.”

One of the targets of Van Hollen’s ire, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), quickly dismissed the attack. (“Chris Van Who?” quipped a Jeffries spokesman.) But Van Hollen’s emergence as a progressive warrior underscores the depth of frustration with Democrats’ muddled response to President Donald Trump.

“This is just one more indication of how far removed the Democratic leadership is from where the American people are, and it explains why the Democratic Party is polling at the lowest level in perhaps many, many decades,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). “The Democratic base wants their leadership to stand up to oligarchy. … And you have a leadership which in many ways is refusing to do that.”

In recent months…Van Hollen has modeled a more confrontational approach to what he describes as the Trump administration’s assault on Americans’ constitutional rights and the rule of law. In August, he tried to enter Gaza on a fact-finding mission, going further than most Democrats to call attention to America’s support of Israel even as the war in Gaza devolved into a humanitarian crisis. And in April, he traveled to a notorious El Salvador prison to visit Kilmar Abrego García, an undocumented immigrant living in Maryland who was illegally deported under Trump’s mass deportation program.

“This job is not worth it if you constantly have to be putting your finger to the wind,” Van Hollen said.

Ya hear what he said, Chris?  Do you agree?  Perhaps Van Hollen is putting out Presidential feelers.  Well, he’s passed the first non-negotiable threshold for me.

Does Anyone Really Believe Anything That Trump Says About Russia And Ukraine?  He’s mentally-unstable, and is in the ‘say whatever comes into his head’ phase of his decline:

President Trump on Tuesday shifted his position on whether Ukraine should hold out for all the territory seized by Russia, saying on social media that he thinks Ukraine is in a position to win it all back.

It’s a reversal from his long-held position that Kyiv would need to give up some of its territory to Moscow to end the war – such as Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

But now, “after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation,” Trump said he believes Ukraine – backed by the European Union and NATO – can win back all its territory.

“Why not?” he said in a post after he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, even suggesting that Ukraine could “maybe even go further than that!”

While it’s nice to see that he’s allegedly ‘getting to know and fully understand’ the situation, it matters not.  It’s merely the mental meanderings of someone so clearly unfit to hold office.

Relax, kids, today’s a new day.  On the menu?:  Word Salad.  Again.

Portland Rocks! :

Portland authorities are in a standoff with Donald Trump’s administration over an Ice detention facility in the Oregon city, after an investigation found the administration is using the facility for overnight detentions, in violation of its city-issued permits.

The standoff comes amid threats from Donald Trump to dispatch troops to the city, and residents protesting nightly outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) field office in question.

The city office that oversees land use and zoning notified the owner of the building that Ice leases on 18 September that the federal agency had violated a conditional use permit approved in 2011. The permit limits the number of detainees Ice can hold at the facility each day to fewer than 15, and the duration for which they can be held, to less than 12 hours. The permit also bars the agency from “housing” anyone overnight.

But Ice data the city obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, included in the official notice, shows 25 instances since January in which Ice held a person for more than 12 hours. On 26 January alone, agents held 16 people – listed as citizens of Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and other countries – for over 27 hours before transferring them, according to public records obtained by Street Roots and the Guardian.

The city’s notice also said the building was illegally altered when exterior windows were boarded up without proper approval. An Ice spokesperson did not respond to a question asking when the wood was installed, but photos and video taken at protests and posted on social media show the boarded up windows first appeared around 16 June.

The fight against ICE is one and the same as the fight against fascism.  I stand with Portland.

Delaware’s Legislators Lie About Reasons For Israeli Trip.  Just read their mealy mush-mouthed explanations.  Some samples:

House Rep. Bryan Shupe said the first was to learn more about the culture, history and state of Israel and, second, to absorb what’s happening in the region “from the Israeli perspective.”

“There’s a lot more to the story,” said another guest, House Minority Whip Rep. Jeff Spiegelman. The Clayton Republican said there’s more to Israel’s point of view “than the current war.”

Fellow Rep. Melanie Ross Levin said she felt it was important to “go beyond the headlines” and “learn more firsthand.” The North Wilmington Democrat said she “raised concerns” regarding the ongoing humanitarian crisis, including access to nutrition and medical care.  (No doubt said ‘concerns’ were addressed.) “I just think part of being a good legislator is showing up, listening and learning,” Ross Levin said. “And we can’t do that if we stay in our bubble.”

Bullshit. Is this mic on?  This trip was organized by an Israeli Minister of Propaganda to get 50 oversized state flags from across the US planted on Israeli soil for the expressed purpose of demonstrating solidarity with Israel’s ongoing genocide. Period.  We straight now?  How does fucking going to Israel on Israel’s dime to participate in a photo-op contribute to being a good state legislator?  Rhetorical question.

What do you want to talk about?