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Pre-File Profile: May, 2025
I promised to highlight the most interesting bills that were pre-filed on May 1. Looks more like I will be profiling the least uninteresting bills. There are definitely some good bills, but they are generally incremental in scope. Here goes: HB 132 (Phillips): Delaware relies on fees imposed as surcharges by the criminal legal system […]
Song of the Day 5/5: Leon Russell, “Alcatraz”
Having run out of old fixations to issue executive orders about, low-flow toilets have been conquered, Trump unveiled some new ones yesterday, and they’re even dumber than the old ones. A 100% tariff on foreign-produced movies is a non-starter, as there’s no way to apply it and movies are explicitly exempted from the law he’s […]
DL Open Thread: Monday, May 5, 2025
Trump Abandons Any Pretense Of Ethics, Rakes In Dirty Money From All Over. Trump Cryptocurrency. Trump’s Corrupt Kids: A contest of sorts has played out across Europe, the United States and the Middle East in recent days as President Trump’s two older sons have pursued a blitz of family moneymaking ventures capitalizing on their father’s […]
Song of the Day 5/4: Jill Sobule, “America Back”
Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule died early Thursday in a house fire in Minnesota. Every obit identifies her by her 1995 single, “I Kissed a Girl,” a queer milestone as the first openly gay-themed song to chart (No. 20 Modern Rock, No. 67 Hot 100). It did catapult her to brief fame, but it was her political […]
DL Open Thread: Sunday, May 4, 2025
A Cardinal Fan?: Photo: The White House The Musk Myth As Kabuki Theatre? Howzabout a little schadenfreude to start your day?: It’s ornate. It’s stylized. It’s ritualized. And like all Kabuki, it is not meant to reflect reality—it is meant to perform power. But now, the performance is faltering. The cast is walking offstage. The […]
The New Castle County Democratic Convention
Well. That was quite the morning. Let me just say that I might be an unreliable narrator here, since I was there as a participant. And, yes, I won’t bury one of the ledes: I did shout at the Speaker of the House. We’ll get to that. Today’s convention was scheduled to approve proposed rules […]
DL Open Thread Saturday, May 3, 2025
Speed bumps on Newark’s Main Street? There’s pressure to make that happen after a stolen U-Haul van fatally struck a student, eight months after another student was killed by a motorcyclist fleeing from police. Another Trump revenge tantrum executive order has been ruled unconstitutional. People who moaned that the courts are all in Trump’s corner […]
Song of the Day 5/2: Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, “The Twist”
Discussing the induction of Chubby Checker into the rock and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nathan Arizona said one song – “The Twist,” obviously – shouldn’t be enough to get someone in. Why not? It already got Hank Ballard inducted. Ballard, who headlined the vocal group the Midnighters, had other hits, but he didn’t […]
DL Open Thread: Friday, May 2, 2025
Trump Judge Declares Trump Deportation Policy Illegal: A Trump-appointed federal judge has ruled that the US president cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants. US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez said Donald Trump’s use of the wartime power was “unlawful” and had been improperly invoked. The law was written in 1798 to allow […]
Song of the Day 5/1: Ed Pickford, “The Workers’ Song”
It’s International Workers’ Day, something Americans don’t observe – socialism has never appealed to a nation full of millionaires-in-waiting. Well, too bad, capitalist scum. It’s unlikely the workers of the world will ever unite, but you can’t stop them from protesting their lot. Ed Pickford, a protest singer from northeastern England, has written a lot […]
DL Open Thread: Thursday, May 1, 2025
Satire Is Dead: Port Of Wilmington Edition. General Assembly creates a task force with no legal authority, ‘Honorables’ feign anger when Governor’s people don’t show up: The inaugural meeting on Wednesday of a port oversight task force that lawmakers had created over objections from Gov. Matt Meyer became the latest front in a months-long power […]
Song of the Day 4/30: Counting Crows, “Spaceman in Tulsa”
This song, released in February, hasn’t made El Somnambulo’s list of faves (I’m not sure it qualifies yet by his rules), but it caught my ear the other day when it played on WXPN. I could only hear faint snatches of it from an upstairs bedroom, so it wasn’t clear enough for Adam Duritz’s distinctive […]
DL Open Thread: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
I’ve (largely) avoided MSNBC and (completely) avoided polling since the election. However, as Trump hits the 100-day-in-office mark, I compromise on my principles, if only just this once: This only matters if, you know, elections still take place. Which is ‘to be determined’. Problem is, he’s done so much bad stuff that it won’t simply […]
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