Category Archives: Featured

DL Open Thread: Thursday, September 19, 2024

‘Please Don’t Come To Springfield!’  Trump not inclined to listen:

Former President Donald Trump said he plans to visit Springfield, Ohio — the city of which he has spread lies about migrants eating residents’ pets — despite local officials saying the town already has an intense strain on its resources.

Trump told a rally in New York on Wednesday that he plans to visit Springfield sometime in the next two weeks, describing the city as an emblem of immigration “destroying” the country. He has repeatedly shared lies about an influx of Haitian migrants there eating neighbors’ cats and dogs, a racist smear first shared on the campaign trail by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

He wants carnage.  That’s the only explanation I can conjure up.  Hey, maybe he can put Ohio into play…

Trump Retaliated Against Climate Scientists Who Wouldn’t Peddle His Shit:

More than three years ago, a small group of government scientists came forward with disturbing allegations.

During President Donald Trump’s administration, they said, their managers at the Environmental Protection Agency began pressuring them to make new chemicals they were vetting seem safer than they really were. They were encouraged to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports — and in some cases, they said, their managers deleted the information themselves.

After the scientists pushed back, they received negative performance reviews and three of them were removed from their positions in the EPA’s division of new chemicals and reassigned to jobs elsewhere in the agency.

On Wednesday, the EPA inspector general announced that it had found that some of the treatment experienced by three of those scientists — Martin Phillips, Sarah Gallagher and William Irwin — amounted to retaliation.

Three reports issued by the inspector general confirmed that the scientists’ negative performance reviews as well as a reassignment and the denial of an award that can be used for cash or time off were retaliatory. They also detailed personal attacks by supervisors, who called them “stupid,” “piranhas” and “pot-stirrers.”

Meet The TheoBros’.  JD Vance’s peeps:

On July 15, when former President Donald Trump first appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, he brought along two new accessories. One was a large bandage covering his ear, which had been nicked by a would-be assassin’s bullet. The other was Ohio’s first-term senator and Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance, who was about to debut as the GOP vice presidential hopeful.

Two days later, after paying tribute to his wife, Usha—the child of immigrants from India—and their three biracial kids, Vance portrayed a vision of America that resonated deeply with Trump voters. “America is not just an idea,” he said solemnly. “It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.”

To many viewers at home, this seemed like the stuff of a boilerplate, patriotic stump speech. But the words “shared history” lit up a far-right evangelical corner of social media. “America is a particular place with a particular people,” Joel Webbon, a Texas pastor and podcaster, wrote on X. “This is one of the most important political questions facing America right now,” posted former Trump administration official William Wolfe. “Answer it wrong, we will go the way of Europe, where the native-born populations are being utterly displaced by third world migrants and Muslims. Answer it right, and we can renew America once more.”

Vance was embracing one of their most cherished beliefs: America should belong to Christians, and, more specifically, white ones. “The American nation is an actual historical people,” says Stephen Wolfe (no relation to William), the author of the 2022 book The Case for Christian Nationalism, “not just a hodgepodge of various ethnicities, but actually a place of settlement and rootedness.” For this group of evangelical leaders, Vance, a 40-year-old former Marine who waxes rapturous about masculinity and women’s revered role as mothers, was the perfect tribune to spread their gospel of patriarchal Christian nationalism.

In their place, a group of young pastors hope to spearhead a Christian nationalist glow-up as they eagerly await a “Christian prince” to rule America. These often bearded thirty- and fortysomethings have suits that actually fit. They are extremely online, constantly posting on myriad platforms, broadcasting their YouTube shows from mancaves, and convening an endless stream of conferences for likeminded followers. Let’s call them, as one scholar I spoke with did, the TheoBros.

For all their youthful modishness, this group is actually more conservative than their older counterparts. Many TheoBros, for example, don’t think women belong in the pulpit or the voting booth—and even want to repeal the 19th Amendment. For some, prison reform would involve replacing incarceration with public flogging. Unlike more mainstream Christian nationalists, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, who are obsessed with the US Constitution, many TheoBros believe that the Constitution is dead and that we should be governed by the Ten Commandments.

Hope this whets your appetite to read the entire thing.

We Pay Double Than Other Countries For The World’s Worst Healthcare.  Eliminate the middle man!:

The United States health system ranked dead last in an international comparison of 10 peer nations, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.

In spite of Americans paying nearly double that of other countries, the system performed poorly on health equity, access to care and outcomes.

The fund said the US would need to expand insurance coverage and make “meaningful” improvements on the amount of healthcare expenses patients pay themselves; minimize the complexity and variation in insurance plans to improve administrative efficiency; build a viable primary care and public health system; and invest in social wellbeing, rather than thrust problems of social inequity onto the health system.

More Arrogance From the University Of Delaware.  UD’s penchant for secrecy rivals that of John Carney and his Delaware Way cohorts.  It’s more than BHL’s unreported income this time:

It sounded like the expression of a jilted suitor.

The University of Delaware on Monday delivered somewhat of a social media salvo at the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association, with critical undertones that few missed.

The post on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), understandably, said UD was “disappointed” the DIAA has moved its football championships out of Delaware Stadium, a decision primarily rooted in high rental costs.

Profits are critical to the DIAA, as income from state tournaments has long provided the majority of its operating budget.

That’s the root of this breakup, as the DIAA has apparently determined other venues would be more profitable.

“It’s economically in the best interest of the DIAA to explore all options that we have and to forge partnerships with different universities and colleges,” DIAA executive director Dave Baylor said.

Alluding to someone else’s revenue was also curious and quite ironic, considering the university recently decided to keep its athletic finances secret. UD no longer submits information for USA Today’s annual report on school athletic revenues and expenses and, as most state universities do, the Knight-Newhouse college athletics financial database.

That’s because, it said, state money does not support the athletic department’s operating budget, though Blue Hen teams play in facilities built and/or improved with the aid of state money, including the Carpenter Center, Delaware Stadium and the presently under-renovation softball field.

The UD charter established it as a “privately governed, state-assisted” institution, meaning many of its financial information is not open to the public. That’s despite the fact the university annually receives state appropriations, including $143 million in the state’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget.

Which is an ongoing disgrace.  Tresolini points out what governors and legislators have kept hidden from the public for decades.  Good on him.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Weds., September 18, 2024

Georgia Woman Died Because Of The Supreme Court And Ignorant Georgia Elected Officials.  Correction: Women:

Candi Miller’s health was so fragile, doctors warned having another baby could kill her.

“They said it was going to be more painful and her body may not be able to withstand it,” her sister, Turiya Tomlin-Randall, told ProPublica.

But when the mother of three realized she had unintentionally gotten pregnant in the fall of 2022, Georgia’s new abortion ban gave her no choice. Although it made exceptions for acute, life-threatening emergencies, it didn’t account for chronic conditions, even those known to present lethal risks later in pregnancy.

And then there was Amber Nicole Thurman:

In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.

She’d taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.

But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison.

Thurman waited in pain in a hospital bed, worried about what would happen to her 6-year-old son, as doctors monitored her infection spreading, her blood pressure sinking and her organs beginning to fail.

It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate. By then, it was too late.

The otherwise healthy 28-year-old medical assistant, who had her sights set on nursing school, should not have died, an official state committee recently concluded.

I know that some of you are loathe to watch MSNBC.  But please watch Lawrence O’Donnell place the blame squarely where it should be placed.  I found it very powerful:

Rethugs Vote Against IVF.  America’s ‘Great Fertilizer’ Remained Silent.

A U.S. Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday, as Republicans voted against it days after Donald Trump surprised supporters by voicing support for such a policy.

The bill failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin.

Just a thought–The only two R’s to vote for the bill were Senators Murkowski and Collins.  I think there’s at least a chance that one of them–more likely Murkowski–could become an independent and caucus with the D’s.  Wishful thinking?  Perhaps.  But not impossible.

What If The Election Isn’t Close?  Yes, polls are just a snapshot, but there has indeed been a post-debate surge towards Harris:

My point here isn’t that we should be confident of a Harris victory or that a decisive win, which Rothenberg believes is possible, is the likely outcome. It’s a bit different than that. It’s that there are a number of data points which are consistent with those outcomes which for a variety of reasons — some good, others less so — we’re deciding not to look at. It is probably best not to look at them too closely. Because Trump winning is a very real possibility and the consequences of such a catastrophe are profound. It’s good to feel like you’re running as the underdog because it makes you hungry and smart rather than trying, defensively, to sit on a lead. As long as it doesn’t get to the point of demoralization, it’s good to assume you’re behind because you might be. But we should retain in the back of our minds that there are real reasons to think it won’t actually be that close.

John Carney Let This Man Suffer.  Better that than to take a stand on this bill that he didn’t bother to retrieve until–you know, after the primary.  Watch that video.  I mean you, John.  You caused that man to suffer.  Don’t you ever feel anything?

Canvassed the News-Journal, WDEL, and Bay To Bay (Delaware State News) this morning.  None of them apparently felt that an auditor’s report that names public officials who illegally double-dipped was newsworthy.  Pathetic.

What do you want to talk about?

FINALLY: The Auditor’s Report

Here are the quick takeaways. The audit covered the years 2019-2022.  The University Of Delaware was singularly uncooperative.  Yes, Bethany Hall-Long collected ‘coincident pay’ to which she was not entitled.  We don’t know how much due to UD’s willing non-compliance.  We do know, however, that then-State Senator Ernie Lopez reduced his pay at the time to reflect time he was in Dover.  We know that BHL did not.  Well, gee, we know that BHL spent at least as much time in Dover as Lopez.  She’ll tell you she’s a victim of something or other.  She’s not, it was just corrupt business-as-usual for her.

There are several other legislators in similar situations:

Then State Rep. Andria Bennett double-dipped with that made-just-for-her job with the City of Dover. A lot.  There’s solid substantiation of this.

State Rep. Melissa Minor Brown apparently double-dipped with both Del-Tech and UD in addition to her state rep job.  She no longer works at Del-Tech, but is still working at UD.  Hmmm, perhaps the Caucus will take this into consideration when deciding on new leadership.

I’m shocked, shocked to see that former State Rep. Larry Mitchell received ‘coincident pay’.  You know, as Del-Tech’s Director of Security.  He’s no longer employed at Del-Tech.  Still got those at least three pensions, though.

State Rep. Rae Moore received ‘coincident pay’ from the Eastside Charter School.

When you read through the report, you can’t shake the deliberately half-assed way many of these employers looked the other way while overpaying people who could, and did, do favors for them in Dover.

But, the sheer arrogance of the University of Delaware places them on a whole ‘nother level.  It’s long past time for the General Assembly to rein them in.

I’m sure I’ll have more, but this should be enough for you to chew on for now.

DL Open Thread: Sunday, September 15, 2024

Justin Trudeau Fidel’s Son?  The latest from the syphilis-addled brain of Le Grand Orange:

OTTAWA — Two former Canadian lawmakers are calling on former President Donald Trump to apologize for reviving and circulating a long-debunked rumor that is “vile, vulgar, and deeply offensive.”

Their move comes after Trump falsely claims that Canada’s prime minister is the son of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in “Save America,” the former president’s new photo book that also provides commentary.

Trump writes in his new coffee-table book that Trudeau’s mother, Margaret, was “somehow associated” with Castro and notes that “a lot of people say that Justin is his son.”

The former president adds: “He swears that he isn’t but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the ‘father’ didn’t, Justin has good hair, and has become a Communist just like Castro.”

Trump’s new coffee-table book?  There’s a song for that:

Trump Predicted Rethugs Would Be ‘Easy To Break’.  He was correct:

In the summer of 2015, back when he was still talking to traitorous reporters like me, I spent extended stretches with Donald Trump. He was in the early phase of his first campaign for president, though he had quickly made himself the inescapable figure of that race—as he would in pretty much every Republican contest since. We would hop around his various clubs, buildings, holding rooms, limos, planes, golf carts, and mob scenes, Trump disgorging his usual bluster, slander, flattery, and obvious lies. The diatribes were exhausting and disjointed.

But I was struck by one theme that Trump kept pounding on over and over: that he was used to dealing with “brutal, vicious killers”—by which he meant his fellow ruthless operators in showbiz, real estate, casinos, and other big-boy industries. In contrast, he told me, politicians are saps and weaklings.

“I will roll over them,” he boasted, referring to the flaccid field of Republican challengers he was about to debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that September. They were “puppets,” “not strong people.” He welcomed their contempt, he told me, because that would make his turning them into supplicants all the more humiliating.

“They might speak badly about me now, but they won’t later,” Trump said. They like to say they are “public servants,” he added, his voice dripping with derision at the word servant. But they would eventually submit to him and fear him. They would “evolve,” as they say in politics. “It will be very easy; I can make them evolve,” Trump told me. “They will evolve.”

Like most people who’d been around politics for a while, I was dubious. And wrong. They evolved.

Good article, worth reading.

Halfway-decent Open thread.  You’ve already read it.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Saturday, September 14, 2024

Send Those Haitians Back To–Venezuela.  You don’t even need to read the article to know who said it:

“We will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio, large deportations. We’re going to get these people out. We’re bringing them back to Venezuela,” he said. It’s unclear if he meant to say Venezuela.

True.  Could be he just had an election-denying strongman on his mind.  Riding a horse.

Devin Nunes, North Macedonia And Truth Social.  Absolute corruption corrupts absolutely:

Earlier this summer, Devin Nunes, the CEO of Trump Media and a former California congressman, touched down just outside Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.

He and a small group of other North American executives were there to talk business. But they weren’t there to meet with representatives from another company. A high-ranking official from the Macedonian government greeted them on the tarmac outside their private jet. Then a police escort ferried them from the airport. They were there to meet with the Balkan nation’s newly elected prime minister.

At the time, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, the leader of the country’s conservative nationalist party, offered little in the way of specifics about the meeting’s purpose: “For now, I would not reveal this type of details,” he told local reporters in the Balkans who covered the meeting at the time.

In a recent earnings call, Chris Pavlovski, who accompanied Nunes on the trip and who is the CEO of Rumble, a video streaming company and close partner of Trump Media, revealed that he had discussed a cloud technology services deal with the Macedonian government.

I dunno.  North Macedonia sure seems like a step down from, you know, Russia.

Concussions And Football: A feature, not a bug:

In Thursday night’s NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, Miami’s $212m quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered his fourth documented concussion, and third since joining the NFL, after colliding with defensive back Damar Hamlin, who himself nearly died in a game less than two years ago. The reactions from inside the football world were immediate and telling.

But as well-intentioned as those pleas are, they should not be the predominant takeaway from this event.

The fact we all need to confront in the aftermath of yet another spectacle of egregious harm is that this sport is profoundly and irredeemably unsafe. It has already killed or transformed the lives of far too many participants. There is no plausible deniability about the consequences. This is not the time to deploy personal responsibility narratives around what the right ‘choice’ is for Tua Tagovailoa, who seven weeks ago signed a team-record contract extension. He is currently simply the most visible representation of the harm this sport inflicts on everyone who participates.

Every 2.6 years of participation in tackle football doubles the chances of contracting CTE and kids start playing this sport at five years old. Concussions are the most extreme manifestation of the problem, but they are not the only one. For members of the offensive and defensive lines especially, constant head contact is an inextricable part of the game as it is currently conceived, and it is that contact that leads to brain deterioration.  (Finally, an explanation for John Carney’s incuriosity that makes sense.  But, I digress…)

The fact that people are worried about the health and wellbeing of Tua Tagovailoa is only a good thing. We need to be humane towards the athletes whose sacrificial labor sustains our emotional investments in sports fandom, and expressing fear on his behalf – much as people did after watching Damar Hamilin lie on the field after his heart stopped – is precisely the appropriate response.

But we cannot fool ourselves into thinking Tagovailoa or Hamlin are and tragic rare exceptions. They are simply the visible consequences of the toll that tackle football takes on all who participate.

Another NFL Sunday beckons.  Every week, several players end up in ‘concussion protocol’.  They have to clear said protocol to go out there and risk being concussed again. Still, their brains will never be the same.

Reports Held Hostage.  Neither Anthony Albence nor Lydia York released reports that could be potentially damaging to Bethany Hall Long this week.  They have them and they are sitting on them.  Might I remind both officials that BHL is still a duly-elected official, sitting on something like a $250 mill Opioid Slush Fund?  She can do a lot of damage in her remaining days in office, you can help prevent that, yet you persist in running interference for her.  You know she’s crooked, you have the goods to prove it, she no longer poses a threat to either of you.  How about doing the right thing?  For once.

Which reminds me—Our Pal Val is still the Speaker Of The House until Election Day.  Can some people in that Caucus put a lock box on the House finances until she’s out of there?  I’m serious.  Oh, and can those same somebodies stop her from firing anybody else before November?  Mimi, ya wanna be Speaker?  Then stop being Our PAL Val’s lackey, and step up.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Friday, September 13, 2024

Laura Loomer And Marjorie Taylor Greene In A Steel Cage?  When you’re too racist for MTG…:

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized far-right activist Laura Loomer on Thursday, saying that her “rhetoric and hateful tone” is concerning and a problem and “doesn’t represent MAGA as a whole.”

The comments from Greene, a Georgia Republican who has her own high-profile history of incendiary and inflammatory remarks, come after the congresswoman called on Loomer to take down an X post, in which Loomer said if Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who is half Indian, wins, “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.”

Greene called the post “extremely racist,” and wrote in response on X, “This does not represent President Trump.”

Loomer has been on a handful of trips with Trump, appears often at events where he is speaking and there have been times her bombastic social media posts have appeared to preview Trump’s next line of attack.

Loomer told CNN of the post: “It’s interesting how the media wants to, once again, falsely accuse me of being a racist. This is a woman who is on video cooking Indian food with Indian celebrities talking about how she likes cooking with curry.”

My theory?  Loomer agreed to do something that MTG wouldn’t:  Change his diapers.

Congressional Rethugs: Not Serious People:

Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are very proud of their plan to link a must-pass piece of government funding legislation to a bill that lays the groundwork for Trump to blame undocumented immigrants for his potential defeat in November. The only problem, we’re now learning, is that no one of any influence is on board with this plan besides the two of them.

Johnson hatched the plan at the beginning of the month, caving to pressure from members of the House Freedom Caucus (the Trumpy tail wagging House-Republican-conference dog) to attach the SAVE Act to any funding bills the House passes to keep the government open. The Act would outlaw non-citizen voting in federal elections, which is already illegal and statistically rarely happens, and require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote; experts say it is both unnecessary and would suppress the vote. For this reason, the bill could not pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, and so would risk a government shutdown.

…(E)very faction of his House majority is not happy with the bill:

  • Defense hawks in the conference are reportedly concerned about maintaining current spending levels for the Pentagon for six months.
  • While hardline members of the Freedom Caucus are supportive of the coupling — which, as TPM has reported, is merely an exercise in producing election denialism fodder for Trump if he loses in the fall — they really hate short term spending bills in general and are not on board with the can-kicking. That was one of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) greatest sins, in their eyes, and part of why so many members of the Freedom Caucus got on board with the motion to vacate.
  • Moderate (aka vulnerable) Republicans are not thrilled about risking their reelection prospects for the sake of helping Trump get his Big Lie 2.0 locked and loaded before the election. Per reporting from The Hill (Fox News also highlighted a similar dynamic): “Still others saw the bill as a meaningless exercise, as it would have been dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Some moderates were also weary of the strategy, as worries rose about having a shutdown threat so close to Election Day.”

Rethugs HATE It When Confronted With Facts.  Watch the odious Stephen Miller blow up when challenged on his lies:

Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller had an on-camera meltdown after being asked by a journalist to back up questionable claims he was making about Venezuela’s crime rate, video of the episode posted to social media shows.

The four-minute video shows an emotional Miller yelling at NTN24 reporter José María del Pino on Tuesday after del Pino questioned Miller over his claims that Venezuela has become safer than the United States because its convicts are now all in the U.S.

Miller also repeated a since-debunked story that a Venezuelan gang has taken over Colorado apartment complexes.

“The crime rate in Venezuela is down, I believe, a little bit over 60% over the last several years,” Miller tells the reporters. Trump has made a similar claim.

Del Pino then interrupts him to ask if he is trusting official crime figures from Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, whose office is not known for releasing accurate information.

This back-and-forth exchange goes on for more than a minute — with Del Pino repeatedly asking him to clarify his source for the numbers — before Miller erupts.

“I am trusting the fact that Kamala Harris is letting illegal immigrants into this country who are raping and murdering children,” Miller yells back.

He eventually walks off.

Smartmatic And Newsmax Headed For Trial.  Randall Chase once again reports an important story that others overlook:

A lawsuit pitting an electronic voting machine manufacturer that was targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that aired accusations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election appears headed to trial, following a Delaware judge’s ruling Thursday.

Florida-based Smartmatic is suing Newsmax, claiming the cable network’s hosts and guests made false and defamatory statements after the election implying that Smartmatic participated in rigging the results, and that its software was used to switch votes.

Newsmax, also based in Florida, argues that it was simply reporting on serious and newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell.

There’s lots of detail, including what may, and may not, be litigated in court.  Call me old-fashioned, but I love old-fashioned reporting like this.

A Rare Appearance In The Press By Yours Truly.  Definitely don’t want to make this a habit.  But, under the circumstances…:

Steve Tanzer, political news blogger for DelawareLiberal.net, volunteered on Smith’s campaign. Tanzer said he was motivated by Smith’s candidacy and the opportunity to oust Longhurst, who he said fired him years ago from his job in the General Assembly.

“I was highly motivated to not just see her out, but to see someone like Kamela Smith, who has incredible empathy — that’s what struck me about her from the very beginning,” he said. “She was the kind of person who, if she hit somebody at the door and they really had a problem or an issue, she wasn’t going anywhere until she could see what she could do to try to help solve it.”

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Thursday, September 12, 2024

The Primary’s Over, But BHL’s Corruption/Ineptitude Continues Unabated.  Turns out she handles her office’s FOIA duties as well as she and Dana handle the family finances:

The office of Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long may have violated Delaware’s open records laws by not responding to Freedom of Information Act requests for several years encompassing nearly her entire time in office, from early 2017 to as late as October 2023, according to email correspondence and internal government records acquired by Delaware Call.

After the lieutenant governor’s office failed to comply with a FOIA request filed by Delaware Call on Aug. 16, Hall-Long’s director of communications admitted in an email today that there are no records of the office receiving or responding to FOIA requests prior 2023.

It gets better, just read Jordan Howell’s excellent reporting in Delaware Call.

Oh, and she handled her office’s FOIA duties as well as she handled her time cards at the University of Delaware.  Right, Lydia?  Lydia??

This raises a question, and I’m serious:  Is it possible to place the office of a demonstrably corrupt and incompetent elected official into something like receivership?  Failing that, what guardrails are in place to ensure that BHL doesn’t hand out that opioid slush money as party favors (I mean, any more than she already has)?  Does SHE write the checks, or does someone else? 

A brief rant: Can we stop all this focusing on voters who say they’re undecided, fer Chrissakes?  They become in essence reality stars, as if the inner workings of the brain of someone who  STILL can’t make up their mind will reveal profundities.  All we learn is that these people are attention hounds.

Aaah, feel better.

The one video you must watch today:

This is as good a time as any to share Kamela Smith’s post-election message.  Because it, like Aiden Clark’s dad, appeals to our Better Angels:

I am beyond humbled and grateful to announce that we have won the Democratic primary for State Representative in District 15! Twenty years ago, I made the decision to move my family to Delaware in search of a safer environment and better opportunities for our kids. Today, I am so proud to call this state our home.

I stand here today filled with gratitude for the trust and support you have shown me. This victory belongs to the people who believed in change, and together, we proved that our voice is strong. 

My vision for the future is rooted in the need for change. We’ve seen the cost of inaction, and now it’s time to push for policies that improve the lives of working families across our district. We will pursue rent stabilization, stronger protections for tenants and homeowners, healthcare for all, and fair wages. A critical part of my platform is ensuring that mental healthcare is no longer an afterthought. I am committed to increasing access to affordable mental health services. 

This journey has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Every story shared, every person I met, and every challenge we faced strengthened my resolve to serve our community. I’m honored to have been part of this movement with you, and I’m excited about what lies ahead as we move toward the general election.

Thank you for believing in me and our shared vision. Let’s keep the momentum going as we work together to bring real change to Delaware.

With gratitude and determination,

Kamela Smith

Not only is Val Longhurst gone, but she has been replaced by a person who seeks to lift up, not divide.  She is a good person.

Frank Luntz Is An Asshole.  However, he’s pretty good at his job.  His take?:

Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz said the presidential election is basically over after Vice President Kamala Harris drubbed Donald Trump at Tuesday night’s debate.

“I’m trying to decide if I want to go on record and the answer is yes,” he told Piers Morgan on Wednesday. “I think that he loses because of this debate performance.”

He said Trump’s treatment of Harris and his refusal to even look at the vice president will hurt him especially with women.

“Donald Trump reminds women of their first husband’s divorce lawyer,” he said. “That is just absolutely disastrous.”

Luntz predicted that the effects of the debate will start to appear in polls within four or five days.

NYPD Worse Than Tiny Tony DeLuca’s Labor Law Enforcement Agency.  They just toss out complaints w/o looking at them:

The New York Police Department has tossed out hundreds of civilian complaints about police misconduct this year without looking at the evidence.

The cases were fully investigated and substantiated by the city’s police oversight agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and sent to the NYPD for disciplinary action. They included officers wrongfully searching vehicles and homes, as well as using excessive force against New Yorkers.

The practice of killing cases without review began three years ago as a way to cope with escalating caseloads that were approaching a deadline for discipline. But ProPublica found it has become more frequent under Police Commissioner Edward Caban.

The commissioner may not be in his position for long. He is under pressure to resign after his phone was seized in a federal corruption investigation. He has also faced criticism for failing to hold officers accountable for misconduct.

Since he took office last July, the NYPD has ended without review more than 500 incidents, about half the cases the oversight board referred to it, according to an analysis of board data. That rate has climbed to nearly 60% this year. Under Caban’s predecessor, Keechant Sewell, the department faced roughly the same number of cases, but about 40% were tossed without review. (Neither Caban nor Sewell responded to requests for comment.)

The tactic is part of a broader pattern under Caban, who has repeatedly used the powers of his office to intervene in misconduct cases brought by the oversight agency. This summer, ProPublica and The New York Times detailed how the commissioner has used an authority known as “retention” to short-circuit some of the most serious cases, which otherwise would face public disciplinary trials.

Oh, the Tony DeLuca reference?  Once in that position, Tony DeLuca basically shredded every discrimination complaint that made it to its desk.  BTW, my fave excerpt?:

OK, let me see if I’ve got this straight: Union electrician Tony DeLuca, who Tom Sharp recruited to run for the State Senate, and for whom Mark Brainard ran his election campaigns, is appointed by Secretary of Labor and former Senate Majority Leader/President Pro Tem Tom Sharp, who was appointed by Minner Chief-of-Staff Mark Brainard, to a newly-created position in the Department of Labor which just happens not to receive any Federal funds.

The very idea that, of all Delawareans, union electrician Tony DeLuca was most qualified to head the anti-discrimination unit of the Department of Labor was Tom Sharp’s and Mark Brainard’s idea of a sick joke. Kinda like Henry Ford naming the company town that housed black auto workers ‘Inkster, Michigan’, which at least brought us the Marvelettes (h/t to Dave Marsh). After all, no one stands up against discrimination more than trade unionists, especially electricians. The Plumbers’, Electricians’, Carpenters’, et al,  locals are notorious for severely limiting minority opportunities in their shops. Unless you consider the Irish, Italians, et al, minorities. These have traditionally been closed shops which have been forced, by laws, of all things, to grudgingly admit more qualified minorities. Something that falls under the purview of ‘anti-discrimination’.

But, I digress.  Y’know, though, the primaries are over, the results were (largely) immensely satisfying, and I can literally smell the coffee.   Mmmm, coffee.

Well, I’m caffeinating. And still basking in the afterglow of Val’s demise.  So I’ll stop here.  Which is where you come in:

What do you want to talk about?

Things I Want To See: Post-Primary Edition

In no particular order.  Feel free to add your own:

Someone needs to immediately stop BHL from disbursing any more money from her opioid slush fund.  Especially to herself.

I want to see Matt Meyer make government transparency and openness a key issue in his campaign and, one hopes, his administration.  The voters have eliminated most of the impediments to ending the secrecy that John Carney and the General Assembly have embraced.

I want to see the new House leadership, following the November election, to give legislative employees the right to organize.  There needs to be an end to the Pete/Val style of governing through fear.

I want to see Val Gould seriously considered to be Sarah McBride’s replacement in Dover.

I want to see John Carney appoint Eugene Young as his Chief of Staff.  Hey, he endorsed him for Congress.  Eugene would fill the ‘Incuriosity Gap’ that has defined Carney’s entire government–pardon the expression–service.

I want to see all the public and private entities that Our PAL intimidated into ‘donating’ to the Police Athletic League not return her phone calls, and no longer pony up.  They don’t have to, she’s not the Speaker any more. She can’t threaten to kill legislation unless groups pay ‘tribute’ to the PAL any more.    In fact, if any of said entities informed the PAL board that any future donations would be contingent on Val being removed as Executive Director, I, um, wouldn’t object.

I want to see the new House leadership consider rehiring some of the really good people that Pete and Val fired.

I want to see the new House leadership inform Michael Alexander Smith that he is not welcome back.  I also want to see the powers-that-be make sure that his phony not-for-profit doesn’t get a dime in state funding.

I want incumbent legislators to make sure that Our PAL Val has no access to legislative campaign accounts.  But I also want to make sure that those legislative campaign committees max out to the campaigns of Dr. Monica Beard,  Terrell Williams, and Tracey Miller.  The money’s there.  Val wouldn’t have used it b/c all she cared about was remaining as Speaker.  But you can.

I want to see either Matt Meyer or House or Senate leadership hire Branden Fletcher Dominguez to attack the problem of homelessness.

That’s a start.  What do you want to see?

 

Yes, Val. It Was Personal.

Been waiting for this day since 2008.  The week between Christmas and New Years.  The day you stormed into my office, tore down my posters from the wall, told me I was fired and had twenty minutes to vacate the premises, and thrust a letter in front of me saying I had resigned and told me to sign it only to have Rich Puffer (one of the REAL good guys) tell me not to sign it b/c I wouldn’t be eligible for unemployment benefits if I did.  I will never forget the glee you took in proving what a powerful person you were.  I remember our brief conversation:

Me:  I thought I was doing a good job.

You:  This will be a learning experience for you.

I had to drive to New Jersey to pick up my kids and their friends at a Young Friends Quaker Meeting Retreat.  Couldn’t let the fact that I no longer had a job effect me.  Kept it to myself and got through it.  Got home and pretty much broke down.  What followed were the worst six months or so of my life.  Oh, did I mention that you neglected to do your job and didn’t tell me that I was entitled to my legislative pension and here’s who I should see?  I have now.

Blogging for Delaware Liberal and, more importantly, meeting a group of people there who were supportive really helped me.  Not to mention, I had, and have, the best wife in the world, and she stuck by me.  It wasn’t all bad–got to do a radio show with Al Mascitti, got the best imaginable post-career gig at Trader Joe’s.  My TJ’s peeps were and are the best.  Do you know who they remind me of, Val?  The people who were my friends and fellow staff down in Dover.  The likes of whom you subsequently fired many times over.  Because you could.  Great people.  You didn’t care.

Val, you might be interested to know that, all of your various and sundry misdeeds over the years?  I went back and turned them into something like a 25-page oppo research document for the campaign that ultimately did you in.  It was the kind of campaign you could never run–because it consisted of a core of grassroots volunteers, all with their own reasons, dedicated to electing Kamela Smith.  You know, Val–Kamala/Kamela. Betcha you’ve heard that more times than you care to recount.

The biggest difference between you and Kam?  Kam is an empath, she is genuinely concerned about people, and has spent her career helping them to get the mental health services they deserve.  As opposed to your repackaging yourself as the Champion Of Mental Health Reform.  A bad joke, especially to all of those people who succeeded me on your Firing Line. Turns out I was just the canary in the coalmine, many more would follow.

On Day One, Kam will begin to do more for those who need those services than your grandstanding ever did.  She cares about people who need help, and knows how to help them. You never cared about anyone’s mental health because the only person you ever cared about was you.

I’m sure you feel sad about yesterday’s loss. Allow me to try to place it in context:

This will be a learning experience for you.

Been saving up this song just in case this day ever came:

Sunrise, sunsetSince the beginning, it hasn’t changed yetPeople fly high, begin to lose sightBut you can’t see very clearly, when you’re in flight
Well it’s high time (backing vocals)That you foundThe same people you misuse on your way upYou might meet up on your way down.
It was quite the pleasure meeting up with you yesterday, Val.

A Pre-Post-Mortem

To me, this is the lede that must not be buried:

The Delaware Democratic Party, DSEA, and several other groups of whom you might expect better,  endorsed Bethany Hall-Long for Governor even though they knew about her violation of campaign finance laws and other various and sundry unethical activities.

They knew, at least in part, because virtually BHL’s entire campaign team quit after she refused to exit the race following the reveal of her and her husband’s commingling of campaign funds with their personal finances.  This happened well before the endorsements were made, but well after BHL’s refusal to release the Audit That Wasn’t An Audit.

This is why ‘the rats’ like Val Longhurst, Stephanie Hansen and so many others immediately scrambled to protect BHL:  Because they, like Bethany, have personally benefited from the casual corruption that represents the Delaware Way:  Jobs they don’t deserve, piles of someone else’s money at their disposal, power for power’s sake.  That is what support of BHL is all about–protecting their ill-gotten turf.  They, and BHL, have been enabled by the likes of Anthony Albence of the Department of Elections and State Auditor Lydia York, who have slow-walked information that would deep-six what remains of her campaign.

All these people know that BHL is corrupt, and yet they instinctively circle the wagons around her. 

The Delaware Democratic Party, as we know it as a legal entity, is beyond redemption with its current leadership. (BTW, didja know that Betsy Maron only contributed to one legislative campaign this year?: A $600 max check to Our PAL Val Longhurst.  A long way from the blue collar working-class roots of Betsy’s dad.) Editor’s Note:  This post has been edited to remove a reference to ‘someone’s kid’ who a commenter suggested might be akin to casting aspersions on a non-public person.  No such aspersions were intended.

We know that DSEA, under its current leadership, ignored its rank-and-file in endorsing BHL.  We know that they have ignored requests from members to revisit the endorsement.

Pretty much Bethany’s entire campaign has been ‘endorsed by Democrats, endorsed by teachers’.  I have a feeling that, come tomorrow, Democrats and teachers will put the lie to those claims.

After which, there must be an absolute housecleaning of those entrenched sell-outs who have protected their own turfs at the expense of the public and the Party.  Real Democrats must reclaim the Party from the cynical insiderism that pervades it, and teachers must reclaim DSEA from, well, the same sort of cynical insiders.

Oh, and lest you wonder, it all starts by voting for anybody other than BHL tomorrow.

DL Open Thread: Sunday, September 8, 2024

Absolute Must-Read Of The Day:  The Prince Documentary You Might Never See.  You’ll learn more about Prince from this article than you ever knew.  Warts and all.

Kamala Harris And Penzey’s Spices–Perfect Together.  BTW, she’s a serious cook:

Ms. Harris bought five different spices at the store, according to her campaign: Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Base, Fox Point Seasoning, Trinidad Lemon-Garlic Marinade, Turkish Seasoning, and Tuscan Sunset Salt Free Italian Seasoning.

For those of you unfamiliar with the mission of Penzey’s:

What if your business, just by being its best self, could make a whole lot of the problems the world faces a chunk easier to solve? Given that possibly wouldn’t you owe it to everyone to try your best to do that?

Customer B.B. writes: “Penzeys makes everything better.” We noticed that ourselves pretty early on, and at first didn’t quite know what to make of it. But for some time now, without coming right out and saying it, we’ve been running our business as best we can to encourage the kindness and compassion that’s needed to take on the world’s problems and the resolve needed to overcome the obstacles in the way to solving them.

Now, for a host of reasons, I think the time has come to admit what we are actually up to and come right out and say it. So here goes. We are trying to make the world a better place. And with your help there are days where we actually seem to be doing that. Our goal now is to have more of those days.

Part of all this works because as a Spice business what we do is so intertwined with history as to be almost inseparable. In a world of constant change and disconnect, the spices we use and how we use them really do open a door to those that came before us and the hard-won wisdom that they learned.

But maybe the greatest value of Penzeys isn’t in what we connect you to, but instead in what you connect us to. Through you we connect to humankind’s million-year tradition of caring enough to cook and all the good things those million years of cooking have set in motion.

Before cooking, strength was the power to drive others away. With cooking, strength became the power to welcome others in. Through cooking we learned the world becomes a better place when we care about others. That was true one million years ago. That will be true one million years from now. It is this strength to stand up for what is right and speak out against what isn’t that Penzeys seeks to grow.

Plus we have really good Spices and Seasonings.

Yes they do.

Another Media Fail:

But it is not just history that Maga wants to silence and it isn’t just Maga that has acquiesced. Because we have not normalized the important conversation about our racial history and its present consequences, the dangerous nexus between anti-democratic forces in our nation and its racist foundations is among the least talked about dimensions of our slide into fascism.

The anti-woke assault on race-conscious history and knowledge and against the hard-fought policies to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is extremely dangerous, not only to people of color, but to stakeholders of racial justice and democracy. Despite the intentional misdirection, the war against woke is not just a war against critical race theory, but it is a war against Black history and the entire infrastructure built out of the civil rights movement. It is a war against our multiracial democracy that too many are unable to name. And because assaults that cannot be seen or named cannot be fought, the consequences are disastrous.

The mainstream media contribute to our collective incapacity to wrestle with the forces that continue to bedevil our democracy. In coverage of the January 6 insurrection, the racist and white nationalist underbelly that informs the mantra “we want our country back” is merely a footnote in the story of how we almost lost our democracy. This erasure denies the centrality of the racist narrative that defines who this nation belongs to, who gets to govern and who gets to belong.

Exclusive notions of who belongs and who doesn’t are fundamental features of fascist regimes. Yet in the drama unfolding in the United States, the racial narratives that continue to target racial others to receive the wrath of disgruntled masses escape the grasp of those who now decry the collapse of our democracy. The media’s widespread reluctance to confront the racist underbelly of the “big lie” obscures the impossibility of saving our democracy without addressing racial denialism.

What You Don’t Know About Your Insurers’ Ghost Network Could Kill You.  We have an elected insurance commissioner, don’t know why.  Maybe he could do something about it?  I mean, if he’s not too busy collecting campaign contributions from those he’s supposed to regulate?:

It’s hard to know if your health insurance plan is as good as advertised. You pay a monthly premium to access a network of health providers. But call the numbers in your provider directory, and you’re bound to find ones who can’t — or won’t — see you.

These errors are at the heart of a ghost network. Some providers have moved, retired or even died; others left insurance networks because of low pay and intense scrutiny. Even though these providers no longer accept your insurance, their names may remain in the directory. When that happens, policyholders are left to believe that the plan has more options than actually exist.

“Any inaccuracy constitutes a ghost network,” said Abigail Burman, a consumer protection attorney who studies provider directory errors. “This is basic information. It needs to be right.”

Insurers’ failures to correct these errors have led to dire consequences for people seeking mental health care, as demonstrated by a recent ProPublica investigation of one man’s months of struggle to access treatment. Because of the widespread nature of ghost networks, some policyholders are more likely to pay out-of-network costs and face a greater chance of treatment delays — if they get treatment at all.

But insurers haven’t had to make it a priority. Simon Haeder, a Texas A&M University professor who studies ghost networks, said that insurers have “very little incentive” to closely monitor directories. Unless tougher regulations are passed, he said, policyholders will continue to struggle with directories full of “inconsistent, outdated or incomplete data.”

Not likely something a laissez faire insurance commissioner funded by the insurance lobbyists and Big Pharma would spearhead.  I’m telling you, that position should be appointed.  It serves no public purpose to have politicians in that role.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Saturday, September 7, 2024

Real Headline Of The Day:

Scientists use food dye found in Doritos to make see-through mice

My unassailable theory:  Scientists eat way too many Doritos.

Tenet Is No More.  You know, the Tennessee-based RWNJ disseminator of Russian propaganda.   Isn’t treason defined as ‘giving aid and comfort to the enemy’.  Try these assholes for treason:

A contributor for Tenet Media announced on Twitter Thursday night that the company has abruptly shuttered, one day after the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment that accused it of being covertly funded by employees of a Russian state-controlled media outlet. Tayler Hansen, a self-described “field reporter” for the outlet, wrote that Tenet “has ended after the DOJ indictment.”

Tenet Media’s founders, Canadian conservative YouTuber Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, have not publicly commented on the allegations against Tenet. Nor has Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern, a Tenet contributor who appeared in many of their videos. Other prominent contributors to the site, including far-right commentator Tim Pool, described themselves as “victims” in the Tenet scandal, who were unaware that employees of RT, the Russian state media entity, were secretly funding the company. Pool announced on Thursday that he has been contacted by federal investigators, writing, “The FBI believes I have information relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation and have requested a voluntary interview. I will be offering my assistance in this matter.”

No cause for rejoicing.  Like Hydra, many more sources of misinformation will rise to take its place.

Another Double Standard Of Justice For Trump:

The judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial ruled on Friday that he won’t sentence the former president until November 26. Juan Merchan, who Trump has relentlessly accused of bias against him, wrote in his decision that the delay was “to avoid any appearance—however unwarranted—that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”

Merchan went on to add that he hopes the decision ends any concern about the impartiality of the court—Trump has repeatedly insisted that the entire prosecution, judge, and jury were rigged by the Biden administration, despite the case being heard in a New York court, not under federal jurisdiction.

“The Court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution,” Merchan wrote.

Uh, no.  The judge folded.  End of story.

‘Sanewashing’.  Media’s doing it again:

Four years ago, in an article for Media Matters for America, I warned that journalists were sanitizing Donald Trump’s incoherent ramblings to make them more palatable for the average voter. The general practice went like this: The press would take something Trump said or did—for instance, using a visit to the Centers for Disease Control to ask about Fox News’s ratings, insult then–Washington Governor Jay Inslee, rant about his attempt to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden, and downplay the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S.—and write them up as The New York Times did: “Trump Says ‘People Have to Remain Calm’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak.” This had the effect of making it seem like Trump’s words and actions seemed cogent and sensible for the vast majority of Americans who didn’t happen to watch his rant live.

Flash-forward to today, and it’s clear this problem has only worsened. As Trump’s statements grow increasingly unhinged in his old age, major news outlets continue to reframe his words, presenting a dangerously misleading picture to the public.

For instance, last week, Trump posted the following to his Truth Social account:

I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business, on Tuesday, September 10th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden. The Debate will be “stand up,” and Candidates cannot bring notes, or “cheat sheets.” We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a “fair and equitable” Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance (No Donna Brazile!). Harris would not agree to the FoxNews Debate on September 4th, but that date will be held open in case she changes her mind or, Flip Flops, as she has done on every single one of her long held and cherished policy beliefs. A possible third Debate, which would go to NBC FAKE NEWS, has not been agreed to by the Radical Left. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

CNN described that rambling, insult-laden, conspiracy-riddled wall of text—itself a pretty good example of what he spends his time off the campaign trail doing—by writing, “Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he has ‘reached an agreement’ to participate in a September 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, noting that ‘the rules will be the same as the last CNN debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone.’”

This “sanewashing” of Trump’s statements isn’t just poor journalism; it’s a form of misinformation that poses a threat to democracy. By continually reframing Trump’s incoherent and often dangerous rhetoric as conventional political discourse, major news outlets are failing in their duty to inform the public and are instead providing cover for increasingly erratic behavior from a former—and potentially future—president.

Delaware Judge Sides With Shareholders As Trump Tries To Renege On Truth Social Deal.

A federal judge in Delaware has ruled in favor of a firm seeking assurance that it will be able to sell its minority stake in the parent company of former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform.

The judge on Friday granted summary judgment to Florida-based United Atlantic Ventures LLC in a lawsuit filed against Minnesota-based Odyssey Transfer and Trust Co., a business that handles securities transfers among registered shareholders.

UAV is owned by Andrew Litinsky and Wesley Moss, former contestants on Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice” who also helped facilitate a merger that took Trump Media public in March.

Since then, UAV and Trump Media have been battling in courts in both Delaware and Florida over UAV’s stake in the company.

Randall Chase once again uncovers a story that everybody else misses.

WL Gore Sued–Again:

The company Gore, best known for Gore-Tex fabric, continues to face legal troubles for allegedly polluting the environment with the toxic class of chemicals called PFAS, which made its way into drinking water.

Attorneys representing residents in Elkton, Maryland, sent a notice of their intent to sue on Wednesday, alleging the company, headquartered in Newark, Delaware, violated federal environmental laws.

The notice of intent to sue accuses Gore of disposing contaminated wastewater into the sewer system, while aware of the potential threat it posed to drinking water supplies. Attorneys also say chemicals escaped the plant into the air, which made its way into streams and groundwater.

Now, kids, without Gore, we wouldn’t have Chris Coons.  In other words, be on the lookout for seemingly-innocuous  amendments being slipped into seemingly-unrelated bills.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Friday, September 6, 2024

I hereby take a timeout from moderating the blog to trying to write the daily Open Thread post.  Moderating ain’t easy, especially when one is not a moderate.  Can’t recall a year where there’s been more ‘working of the refs’.  But, I digress.

Nobody Has Ever Seen The Likes Of This Trump Article Ever Before.  Redundancy deliberate.  This has been in my head forever, but didn’t think to write about it.  Well, someone has:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. But don’t worry—nobody has, ever. Or at least, that’s what Donald Trump would say if asked about, well, anything. It’s the ex-president’s favorite locution.

“Groceries, food has gone up at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. We’ve never seen anything like it—50, 60, 70 percent,” Trump said recently. (This is not true, though if it were, it would be unlike anything seen in American history.)

Once you start looking for the phrase in Trump’s speeches and remarks, it’s everywhere. “You know what [Election Day]’s going to be called?” he told a religious group this spring. “Christian visibility day, when Christians turn out in numbers that nobody has ever seen before.” He uses a similar idiom—the exact wording does vary at times—to describe the economy as it was during his presidency (“We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had never done anything like it”), and as he says it will be: “We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to close our borders. We’re going to do things like nobody has ever seen before. And we’re going to make our nation’s economy be the best ever in the world.”

Unlike some of Trump’s signature tics—“bigly,” “many people are saying,” “like a dog”—this one may not immediately come off as distinctive. But when I ran nobody has ever seen before through the ProQuest database, I found that about two-thirds of the roughly 1,500 occurrences were Trump’s. Among the ones that weren’t, most were literal, sometimes even accurate, instances: archival photos of the Monkees, new paleontological finds, Steph Curry statistical anomalies.

The use and abuse of the phrase illuminates Trump’s salesman instincts. The case is not only that Trump speaks in hyperbole, though he does. He also strives for novelty, telling people that whatever thing he’s hawking is entirely new to the human experience. This comes naturally, because he sees the world in absolutes and demonstrates very little interest in learning, so he may not actually know much about relevant comparisons.

You know, like crypto:

Donald Trump’s sons want to turn their father’s growing bromance with the cryptocurrency industry into the new family business. So far, the project’s troubled rollout has succeeded in creating only one thing: a potential political liability for the former president.

Trump’s eldest sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — have been teasing their plans to unveil a crypto startup called World Liberty Financial for weeks. But the launch has been marred in recent days by a series of apparent scams that have redirected fans to fake pages and compromised the social media accounts of other Trump relatives.

“This is a huge mistake,” said Nic Carter, a Trump supporter who is a founding partner at the crypto-focused venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures. “It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly it looks like they’re burning a lot of the good will that’s been built with the industry so far.”

That has never happened with any Trump venture ever before.  (Sometimes this stuff is just too easy.)

Wilmington:  No More ‘Holding Cars For Ransom’.  Maybe not a perfect settlement, but serious progress:

An ordinance before the Wilmington City Council could jump-start changes to ticketing and towing practices in Delaware’s largest city following a federal lawsuit over parking enforcement and booting practices.

The ordinance, sponsored by Councilperson Maria Cabrera, would empower the city’s finance director to waive all penalties, fines and fees associated with a vehicle if a tow company takes title of a car with the intention of scrapping or selling it.  It’s expected to be the first in a series of policy changes spawned by the lawsuit.

The 18-page settlement shared with Delaware Online/The News Journal this week avoids a trial that was set to begin in July in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

A joint statement from the city and Institute for Justice attorneys, the latter representing Wilmington residents Shaheed and Dickerson, included in the court documents said the parties were pleased an agreement could be reached.  The agreement also lays out that Wilmington will pay Shaheed $20,000 and Dickerson another $20,000 to settle the lawsuit against the city as well as paying the Institute for Justice attorneys $110,000.

Institute for Justice attorney Will Aronin said the new system makes sure “nobody loses their cars for parking tickets” by making sure “people never get in such a hole that they can’t get out.”

One important obstacle remains:

The Wilmington Fines and Fees Justice Team took issue with the ordinance not eliminating impoundment and immobilization of vehicles entirely, pointing to other states like Minnesota that have done away with using towing and impoundment as tools for parking enforcement.

“Other jurisdictions have already ended booting, towing, and impoundment of cars as a method of parking ticket enforcement, and it’s time Wilmington does the same,” said Lynne Kielhorn, a member of the Fines and Fees Justice Team, in the news release.

Aronin said eliminating impoundment practices couldn’t be ordered by the judge in the federal case, nor could the lawsuit force that change.

It can, and should, be added to the proposed ordinance.

What do you want to talk about?