Recent Articles
Arden’s Single-Tax A Cure For Urban Blight?
Detroit’s mayor thinks so: When Mayor Mike Duggan talks about his accomplishments in Detroit, the list is both impressive and sad. He had the streetlights turned back on, and reopened closed parks. In the decade since he took office, the city has demolished some 25,000 blighted homes whose rusty debris and incubation of crime drag […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Nov. 13, 2023
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott became the latest GOP hopeful to realize that trying to change the zombified minds of Trump cultists is a fool’s errand. He ended his presidential campaign, which means he embarrassed the poor woman he introduced as his girlfriend for nothing. Donald Trump’s legal team is apparently going to demand a […]
Song of the Day 11/12: The Pretenders, “Brass in Pocket”
Another entry on my Greatest Songs by Women ballot, this was the hit that ushered in the ’80s – in Great Britain, at least. It was the third single off the Pretenders’ debut album, released in fall 1979, and it hit No. 1 in UK when the new year began, making it the first No. […]
DL Open Thread: Sunday, November 12, 2023
How Army Munitions Plant Arms Mass Shooters. With No Accountability: The initials stand for the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. Built during World War II, the federal site, in Independence, Mo., has made nearly all the rifle cartridges used by the U.S. military since it pulled out of Vietnam. In recent years, the factory has […]
Song of the Day 11/11: Paul Simon, “Armistice Day”
We don’t call it that any more, of course. Armistice Day honors the end of the war that was going to end all wars. After the peace failed, so did the idea of honoring it. Instead we honor those who fought in all the wars we’ve engaged in since. Though it was released on his […]
DL Open Thread: Saturday, November 11, 2023
Rethug Lawyer, Former NCC Councilman, Disbarred. Richard Abbott. Man, you just gotta read this opinion. An excerpt: We cannot help but lament that a seemingly mundane lawsuit would escalate into a nasty feud and, in turn, prompt Abbott, an experienced litigator, to ignore fundamental ethical constraints, putting his privilege to practice law at risk. The genesis of […]
Song of the Day 11/10: Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”
Grace Slick faded relatively young, but back in the ’60s she was among the most important female artists in rock, the face of the San Francisco sound that turned made psychedelia the soundtrack to the Summer of Love. Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1966, when singer Signe Anderson quit after the birth of her […]
DL Open Thread: Friday, November 10, 2023
Government Shutdown Next Week? You’d forgotten all about that, hadn’t you? So had I. But it’s almost upon us: At odds with one another on spending, House Republicans abruptly scrapped their legislative work on Thursday and left Washington with little progress toward funding the government and no plan to avert a shutdown next week. Instead […]
Delaware Political Weekly: November 3-9, 2023
1. Carney For Wilmington. First, even with the lowered journalistic standards that have become the new normal, I can’t believe that, as I’m writing this, not a single news organization has picked up this story. What I want to talk about, though, is a comment that Bane made in the Carney thread that got me […]
Song of the Day 11/9: Janis Joplin, “Mercedes Benz”
Several Janis Joplin songs will make WXPN’s Greatest Songs by Women Countdown next month. This, the last one she ever recorded, got my vote. Joplin recorded the tune in one take on Oct. 1, 1970, three days before she died. She wrote it two months earlier in a bar in Port Chester, N.Y., by riffing […]
DL Open Thread: Thursday, November 9, 2023
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Actors’ Strike Over: The union is so far providing some details of the agreement, more of which will likely emerge in the next few days prior to the union’s ratification vote. In a message to members on Wednesday night, the union said the pact is valued at over $1 billion and includes pay increases higher […]
Song of the Day 11/8: Kristin Hersh, “Me and My Charms”
I engaged in lots of strategic voting when I filled out my list of the 10 greatest songs by women for WXPN. I didn’t agonize over which Joni Mitchell song to include, because I figure she’ll have 20 entries among the 885-song countdown. She doesn’t need my help. And while the rules allow any song […]
Great Night For Democrats–And Working Families Party
Let’s start with WFP. Despite (or perhaps in part because of) a crumbling Democratic machine in Philly: Working Families Party candidates Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke appeared to have won a pair of seats on Philadelphia City Council Tuesday, scoring an unprecedented victory for progressives and ousting Republicans from seats they’d held for more than […]
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