Deciphering the legislative process

I got a handy guide in my e-mail. The group A Better Delaware has put up something that everyone in Delaware who cares about making the state (ahem) better should know. This week, we provide a user guide to help everyone navigate Delaware's legislative process. The www.legis.delaware.gov website offers a user-friendly interface, detailing session schedules, agendas, and bill information. Citizens can search for bills and find their legislators. The article emphasizes using this online resource to stay informed, participate, and contribute to shaping Delaware's legislative landscape. The guide encourages proactive involvement, urging citizens to voice opinions on bills aligning with the organization's objectives. Admittedly, I know a little bit more than the average person about the Delaware legislative website because I’ve compiled the Delaware Accountability Project for the last eight years. (Here’s the last edition, initially compiled during my monoblogue days.) Announcing: the Delaware Accountability Project, 2021-22 edition MICHAEL · OCTOBER 4, 2022 If you'll notice on my sidebar, I have previously called this the monoblogue Accountability Project. But in light of upcoming changes and the shift in focus I made a few years ago, I opted to change the name. It took me awhile to do this, much longer than I anticipated. The formatting is a bit rough because I had so many votes (50) that I had split it ou… Read full story But while I know how to compile votes, I’ve never really studied the ins and outs of the legislative process. That’s where this brief little how-to guide comes in handy. Share The sausage grinding and horse-trading that occurs on site isn’t detailed, but those places where public input is required are made known. As you can see, there is a lot of information provided to you free of charge in the comfort of your own living room or office that will help you be better informed about what policies and laws the legislators, in your district and around the state, are proposing and where those proposals are in the legislative process. Granted, if you have your ear to the ground as most advocacy groups do, they will let you know about measures near and dear to their heart. But not every group has that sort of input, and having the extra eyes and ears never hurts. Michael Swartz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there. Michael Swartz © 2024 Michael Swartz Laurel, Delaware 19956

We will be persecuted Spreading (and living) the Gospel can sometimes be an inconvenience to the world.

The other Mike Swartz. I never hear from my Brother. This was originally going to be an odds and ends post for that future rendition of the series but I promoted it. My most-read Substack post (to date) had to do with a town’s objections to a religious-themed event. But what got my attention on an otherwise-standard Show Notes from Erick Erickson (perhaps the first Substacker I paid attention to, long before this Substack came into being) was its very last item, which emanated from God’s country, northwest Ohio. (And just about as far northwest as you can get.) This battle is taking place just a few stops down the old Conrail main line from the town I grew up in. The city of Bryan is normally known for making Dum-Dum lollipops and other candies but now is being sued for harassing a church by the First Liberty Institute: First Liberty Institute and the law firms Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP and Spengler Nathanson PLL today filed a federal lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order against Bryan, Ohio and city officials seeking to shut down the religious activities of Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris Avell. Avell faces nearly two dozen criminal charges for keeping his church open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (…) In March 2023, Dad’s Place began operating its ministry 24 hours a day to serve the most vulnerable in its community. For months, Dad’s place did so without incident. However, in November 2023 as winter began in Northern Ohio, Bryan city officials issued an ultimatum to the church: cease operating 24 hours a day or face legal penalties. After Dad’s Place refused to force those within its care out onto the streets, city officials began engaging in a campaign to harass, intimidate, and shut down Dad’s Place. In looking at the location of the church on Google Maps, it’s in the downtown area of Bryan, within sight of the Williams County courthouse. So it’s not in a residential area, but in a portion of town that would presumably remain somewhat inactive during non-business hours. Moreover, it is located (per the legal motion) next to a homeless shelter and is being staffed by volunteers when the pastor’s not there. Share Perhaps this is another case where government doesn’t agree with what a church is doing. After trying to cut police service to the church’s population and evicting the church through its zoning rules, the city of Bryan finally filed 18 criminal charges against Pastor Avell - all because what is described by the church as “8 to 12” patrons are in need of its services. Yet, in the best tradition of “he said, she said” the city contends in its own release that “approximately 20 people” had been sleeping on the floor one recent evening, according to the town’s fire chief. Worthy of mention: the weather that day in the region featured a high in the teens. (Notice this only became a problem to the city when the weather became chilly.) Obviously the church has a few legal strikes against it, given that its zoning doesn’t allow for first-floor residency. Yet I’m sure the City of Bryan has been quick to approve zoning carveouts when they deem that it’s in the best interest of the city, and to the extent it can the church has been cooperative with the city’s requests. Knowing what I know about the building code, at least insofar as occupancy goes, if the building is okay to be a church it’s likely okay to be a temporary shelter insofar as exiting and facilities goes, as a supplement to the homeless facility next door. They might be short a shower but that’s about it, since a couple of toilets would be more than sufficient for 20 people. (One piece of information I am lacking is how many attend a normal Sunday service at Avell’s church. More than likely there aren’t many from the Bryan community-at-large, seeing how many churches are in town.) But the shame of it is that we’re wasting money, both that of a charitable organization [First Liberty is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit] and that of the taxpayers of Bryan who are now subject to the lawsuit. It’s also taking away from the mission of Dad’s Place, which is that of catering to an often-unserved population. “We’re a church, and we do Christ’s work,” said Avell in a First Liberty video. Now I was reading the comments to the video and one viewer said something about the “pastor is shipping in homeless, many are criminals, from Toledo.” Wouldn’t that be the best population for going to church? And my question is how they would get there from Toledo, 50 miles away: walk down the railroad track? I get that many homeless are that way because they don’t want to follow rules, and their mental state - whether through some sort of addiction or untreated mental illness - is such that they’re happier living in the woods and celebrating their version of freedom than coming to the Lord and realizing they’re more free by accepting that they are, just like the rest of us, sinners who fall short of the glory of God. But there are those who are just down on their luck and need that love or just a warm place to rest besides their cars. There but for the grace of God go I, since I was in a position where I could have lost my home during the Great Recession. Fortunately I was being looked out for, even before I truly knew Him. Perhaps the best solution would be that of the City of Bryan amending its zoning to allow for the proper use in the downtown district and the church raising enough funds to address whatever code violations are there in a reasonable manner, or even being able to buy the building. It’s a complex case that may end up someday in front of the Supreme Court as a religious liberty fight. In the meantime, in the eyes of supporters of Dad’s Place and Pastor Abell, the persecution continues apace. You would think they would know better in God’s country, but those who don’t hear the Word knoweth not. Michael Swartz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there. You're currently a free subscriber to Michael Swartz. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. © 2024 Michael Swartz Laurel, Delaware 19956

A blow to offshore wind Thursday we learned Ørsted was backing off from their deal with Maryland.

The other MICHAEL SWARTZ I never hear from my Brother of the same name. There’s less of a chance we’ll see these behemoths off Ocean City, but the chance isn’t zero yet. One down, one to go. white electic windmill Photo by Nicholas Doherty on Unsplash Just days after the local Congressman, Andy Harris, held a hearing in Ocean City chock full of opponents of expanding offshore wind to our Atlantic coast, the Danish company Ørsted announced they were going to “reposition” its 966-megawatt project to another state or otherwise try and get a better economic deal. According to Orsted, financial incentives provided by Maryland for the company to pursue the project are no longer enough for Skipjack to continue off the coast. Orsted says those incentives, established in the Maryland Public Service Commission Orders, are no longer commercially viable due to the market, inflation, high interest rates, supply chain constraints. Orsted says it has therefore pulled out from those orders with Maryland. The Skipjack project initially called for 60 to 70 wind turbines off the coast of Delmarva. The energy company did say they still intend to continue developing and permitting for the Skipjack project, though in conjunction with what state, including Maryland, remains to be seen. Orsted Group Executive Vice President and CEO Americas at Orsted David Hardy did say the withdrawal would allow the Skipjack project to “reposition” for future finance agreements. In addition, David Hardy, Group Executive Vice President and CEO Americas at Ørsted, said “We are grateful to Governor Moore, the Maryland Public Service Commission and the State of Maryland for their steadfast partnership and support as we have worked diligently to develop Skipjack Wind under challenging economic circumstances. We fully support the state’s leadership as they pursue their ambitious offshore wind goal. We also thank the State of Delaware for its collaborative approach to supporting Skipjack Wind’s development.” Share This is what has to change. It’s obvious that 500 people came out on a crummy day to essentially hold an opposition rally to the idea of offshore wind. It hits them where they live - as Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan explained: This is the only city in the state where you can experience the sunrise over the Atlantic. What is being proposed would destroy what 26,000 property owners and millions of visitors enjoy today and for future generations. Putting turbines closer than 26 nautical miles from our coast or even 10 nautical miles would destroy that. The sunrise over the Atlantic would look like a backdrop from Star Wars. US Wind has yet to do an economic analysis of the impacts of this project on the economy. Why hasn't this been done? What is also being ignored is the revenue that Ocean City sends that is in the millions to the state and federal government each year. We only have one industry in Ocean City, and this will jeopardize that. As I explained a couple weeks ago regarding a complementary offshore wind project by US Wind: A bad deal for Delaware MICHAEL SWARTZ · JAN 3 A bad deal for Delaware While many folks were out Christmas shopping or just getting ready for the holidays, the state of Delaware was trying to slip a present into the stocking of prospective offshore wind operators. On December 19, it was announced by Governor John Carney - who, by the way, is the lamest of ducks, as his second and final term expires next year - that the state would negotiate with US Wind regarding the terms of the infrastructure necessary for having a pair of offshore wind farms off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland. It’s legacy-building time at our expense. Read full story Because US Wind is in for a penny for this project, Delaware does have the whip hand on this. Yet its misguided rush to pay more for “free” but unreliable energy ignores the needs of consumers who don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to keep their lights on. A better deal would be to cancel the entire US Wind project and look for ways to improve reliable methods of power generation so they’re less polluting, such as converting the Indian River facility to natural gas. Just because Maryland wants to play with this insanity doesn’t mean we have to be involved, too. And all we get is the lousy t-shirt. Well, maybe we could get a second from one of those Sunsations “2-for-$10” specials except we’d have to scrape up some loose change to get that extra dollar after the $9 we supposedly save on our electric bill. People should be well aware of where I stand. If they’re going to put something that gathers energy out in the ocean, maybe it should be an oil or natural gas platform. It’s amazing to think how long we have been drilling for oil out in the ocean but there have been comparatively few incidents. They’ve talked for years about the possibility of oil and natural gas off our shores, but no one has had the cajones to demand exploration. There were test wells drilled off the Atlantic nearly four decades ago that were dry holes, but we’ve improved the technology since then. People who say there’s nothing out there may well just be afraid of the possibility that there is something there. Once our society found a reliable source of energy, we used it to improve living standards for billions of people. To me, wind energy is going forward into the past, since rural America abandoned the windmill a century ago when rural electrification (powered generally by coal) showed up. The rural co-op was simply more reliable. Unfortunately, the solution most likely to be pushed on us by government will be additional subsidies to these foreign corporations. That’s why the meeting last week was so important because it shows we don’t want this boondoggle to continue. Michael Swartz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there. Invite your friends and earn rewards If you enjoy Michael Swartz, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. Invite Friends © 2024 Michael Swartz Laurel, Delaware 19956

As expected, it's Trump

But the margin is a bit less than he'd probably like. MICHAEL SWARTZ JAN 24 I’m not going to write a long post today, as I need a bit of a break already. (“Didn’t you just take one?” Well, yeah, I did, but I have a life outside Substack, too.) As I said last week, I thought Donald Trump needed to be in the 60-65% range to seal the deal. Halfway there MICHAEL SWARTZ · JAN 20 It looks like he’ll be in the high 50s as I write this, but there’s a game effort by Nikki Haley to keep it close. The situation indeed became a two-way race last week as Ron DeSantis withdrew, leaving it between Trump and Haley, who I’m certainly not sold on. Share The other facet of the race is the Joe Biden factor. The Democrats didn’t want New Hampshire to take their usual leadoff position, saving it for South Carolina instead. But the Granite State told the Democrats “up yours” and scheduled theirs first anyway, and Joe Biden isn’t on the ballot. In order to save himself embarrassment, his campaign is encouraging write-in votes and so far they’re doing okay with about 70% of the vote. Then again, this also means 30% of Democrats don’t want Biden (or don’t know how to do write-in ballots.) Given the fact the DNC is doing everything they can to clear the field for Biden (including cancelling primaries) that has to be a little worrisome - maybe not LBJ 1968 territory, but concerning nonetheless. Honestly, I think America wants a Biden-Trump rematch about as much as they want a root canal. But since neither of these men is going to back down unless fate intercedes, I guess we’ll just have to dread November. Michael Swartz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there. Michael Swartz © 2024 Michael Swartz Laurel, Delaware 19956

Monday memory: nights and weekends Once upon a time, the magic time was 9 p.m. MICHAEL SWARTZ JAN 22

Not my Brother, MICHAEL SWARTZ. I never hear from him or the rest of my fucking non-family. I hate this "family" with the fire of a thousand Suns. Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Monday memory: nights and weekends Once upon a time, the magic time was 9 p.m. MICHAEL SWARTZ JAN 22 turned-off black flip-phone Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash I’m in the generation that came of age before the advent of the cellular phone. Our idea of having a mobile phone growing up was the cordless variety we used to put in our family room as an extension to our main phone in the dining room. That was living large in the 1980s along with having the VCR to tape our shows and an Atari-style game hooked up to the living room TV. Living in a rural area, we also had to be mindful of which calls were toll calls and which calls were local. For example, for my mom to call my high school would be a toll call since the exchanges, adjacent as they were, weren’t considered local to each other. In fact, people in my area could literally have a neighbor across the road but our 826 exchange couldn’t call their 644 exchange or 822 exchange without racking up long-distance charges. But, on the other hand, even the opposite end of Toledo was a local call to us - good thing, as we were on the outskirts of that calling area. (When we had an actual phone book, one page was devoted to graphically showing which exchanges were local to us and which were toll.) And Mom calling me at college for an hour might have been a princely $2 or $3 on our phone bill. Hey, this was back in the era I was toiling in the dining hall dish room for $3.35 an hour to help with my expenses, usually those racked up ordering a Gobbler turkey sub from a local dive called Greek’s. Share Michael Swartz Once cellular technology began to take hold in the 1990s, though, long distance charges became a thing of the past. Instead, the phone companies figured out a way to profit off calling by allotting a certain number of minutes per month. You would get, say, 400 minutes a month for free but once minute 401 began during peak times they would sock you. As a concession to customers, though, there came a time when nights and weekends became free minutes. Obviously cellular companies were banking on the fact the biggest demand was during the business day (as the go-getter types who needed instant communication were the first to adopt cell phones) so there was less demand at off-peak hours. Thus, there was a period in our lives when the big family news was oftentimes revealed at about 9:05 p.m. or on a Saturday or Sunday when the call was free. I think we got our first cell phones in the late 1990s so there was a time we had to be mindful of that. With all the bad news and political stuff around, I needed a light-hearted memory break and was reminded of this period by something I read. But what triggered me to write this was the “advance” in technology that jumped us from having a set number of free texts per month to my cell number somehow being on the text message list for every damn politician out there. And I swear, if you tell them “stop” all that does is prove that the number is valid so some grifter can sell it some more. I’m writing this on Saturday, as I just got a text from Donald Trump, Jr. Yesterday I was bombarded by AIPAC, who also got me on Thursday. They were joined by Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who isn’t even running in my state (he’s in PA) and Nikki Haley, who buzzes me a lot. Donald Trump “himself” got me Wednesday and Ohio’s Josh Hawley on Tuesday, along with AIPAC once again. And of course you can’t block the originating number because they are all different, probably from a burner phone. In just this month, I count 11 different origination numbers. It almost makes me pine for the days when we had to make sure no one was on the party line before we dialed out (we had that the first couple years we lived out in rural America.) Usually when the phone rang back then it was someone we wanted to talk to, but now it’s just plain annoying. I don’t even get nights and weekends free of unwanted texts anymore. Michael Swartz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there. Michael Swartz © 2024 Michael Swartz Laurel, Delaware 19956

So what is it with all this rain? It's not normal, but what seems to be normal is to blame it on climate change. MICHAEL SWARTZ JAN 21

Not my Brother, the other Mike Swartz. I hear from this Mike more than I hear from my own Brother. It’s not unusual to get gullywashers like this in the middle of summer, but three times in a month in the winter? Three times in the last month or so, we on the Delmarva Peninsula have been socked with significant rainstorms. Some reports I’ve seen say a foot of rain has fallen in some local places since the first of December. Michael Swartz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. While the optimists among us say, “at least it wasn’t snow, or you’d still be digging out,” the pessimist climate change zealot calls it more proof that we’re ruining the planet and the only way to stop it is to immediately quit burning fossil fuels and developing rural areas. “Move everyone into ‘15-minute’ cities,” they say. Obviously these examples of an anecdotal nature and they depend on my sometimes-fuzzy memory, but this is the fifth winter we have lived in our modest Delaware home. As I recall, winters number one and number four were almost snow-free, while winter number two was one-and-done. It was winter number three where I had to call the neighbor to plow out our driveway. Since I moved down here almost twenty years ago, we’ve had maybe a half-dozen major snowstorms, ones which bolster the average around here of 10” or so a winter. (The one we had to get the driveway plowed was pretty close to that by itself, but we had a couple other good 2-4” snows that winter, too.) I also recall one fall where a large field on my way to and from work was completely flooded, and the water didn’t recede for months, something on the scale from October to April. But I think that was the one-and-done year, so most of what kept that field wet was rain. The other phenomenon I’ve noticed over the years is that winters around here generally tend to “flip” around January 15. For example, we’ve had a warm and (obviously) wet winter until the little bit of snow and cold we’ve received this week. Oftentimes that cold will extend out into March because in winters where we start out warm (like this one), early spring is chilly. But when fall is chilly and the freezing extends through the holidays (the winter of 2022-23 was an example), we sometimes get a break around the middle of January and spring arrives early. (Back home in Ohio, the weather always made for holiday cheer until after New Year’s, at which time it just became cold gray suck until about April. I was sold about moving here the moment I saw the average high temperature here in January is 45 degrees compared to 30 back home. It ain’t Florida, but it’s not that bad.) You likely remember how I got in an argument with a meteorologist back in Odds and ends 115. Lately I’ve been getting into it with the “group expert” in a local political Facebook group, and I’m waiting on him to answer this question. (Since he’s liked to stalk my profile maybe he’ll answer here, and I edited a bit for a smoother narrative.) So I'm going to ask this question once again: what is "normal" climate? In terms of temperature, the "normal" extremes in Salisbury are 87 degree highs in July and 27 degree lows in January. A three-degree warming difference every day would mean we would use a little more a/c in the summer but a little less heating in the winter. It would make the growing season for crops a little longer and perhaps allow for somewhat different farming strategies (for example, Delaware was once a major peach producing state centuries ago but the climate for it was better down south.) If global warming is created by man, which is an argument I don't necessarily subscribe to given the major effects of natural forces on our weather, the advantages of development in the sense of increasing our standard of living outweigh the possibility our global temperature is rising a degree or two due to our actions. What the most extreme climate change advocates are calling for is a reduction in our standard of living to counteract a phenomenon that we cannot say for sure we have that significant an influence over. Both man and nature have a significant ability to adapt if we let them. So let’s talk about adaptation. If an area often floods, there are myriad ways to deal with this. The pioneers where I was raised found a simple solution: dig a lot of drainage ditches to turn the Great Black Swamp into some of our most productive farmland. We could probably do some of that in our area, but the environmentalists would have a collective cow, so it likely won’t happen. I thought I read recently that if the sea level rose two feet in the next century like some predict it will - given the track record of those predicting it, I take that with a grain of salt - we would lose 8% of our state. But what percentage of that is productive land and how much of it can’t be built on anyway? Also, by my public school math, 24 inches in 100 years is about 1/4” per year - I think we’re smart enough to adjust to that glacial rate of change. Being in the business I’m in as my full-time job, I have a little bit of knowledge about critical areas and why there are restrictions on building there. (This was something I had to learn about quickly when I came here because Ohio was decades behind in these types of laws. It’s the difference between being on the East Coast and the North Coast.) It’s highly discouraged to live in an area affected by rising sea levels as setbacks can make a parcel of land platted prior to these regulations unbuildable. (Granted, this rarely happens.) Developing heretofore undeveloped parcels takes hours and hours of paperwork and design to comply with codes in an attempt to make sure the development doesn’t make flooding problems worse. It’s another type of adaptation that’s usually governed by state or local codes. Yet the codes can’t account for anomalies like receiving a foot of rain during a winter month. Then again, is that a true historical occurrence or just a return to something that was commonplace decades ago before we developed a lot of the area and had good records? In any case, we adapted: roads were temporarily closed, shelters were opened for those living in low-lying coastal areas who felt the need to evacuate, and schools cancelled their evening activities during the worst day of the storm, which I likened to an out-of-season tropical storm. Actually, the worst of the damage seemed to me all the trees that fell because of the relentless wind and saturated ground. (In which case, we are fortunate this didn’t occur in the summer as the leaves on the trees would have created more force on the weakened root system to give way.) Those who were luckless enough to have a tree fall and do damage on their property were hopefully insured against the loss. The truth about climate change is that it’s become a handy scapegoat for whatever has gone wrong. The experts talked about a new ice age in the 1970s until we hit a different trend in the 1980s, when we began hearing about global warming. But once that forecast didn’t pan out, that’s when we started hearing the term “climate change,” a phrase that allowed them to cover all the bases. “You can’t deny the climate changes, can you?” they thunder. Truth is, I can’t. But, like my question above, there’s really no way to know which reason is correct, so arguments can be twisted like a pretzel to get the desired result. Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there. You're currently a free subscriber to Michael Swartz. © 2024 Michael Swartz Laurel, Delaware 19956

Odds and ends number 115 Since I'm using the concept from monoblogue, I'm keeping the numbering system, too. Here are thinner slices of bloggy goodness. MICHAEL SWARTZ JAN 6

Another sunrise photo to start odds and ends. I pulled off the side of the road at a corner (the locals might recognize it) not far from my house to catch this one a few years back.

One thing I love love LOVE about Substack is that I can finally see how individual posts do in the grand scheme of things: a concept WordPress didn’t ever get around to before I left. It’s allowed a lot of people to share their top posts of last year.

So, without further ado, here are my Top 10 posts for 2023:

• In at Number 10 is an election post called “A tale of intrigue?” about the local city of Salisbury elections, posted shortly after their filing deadline on August 26.

• At Number 8 because of a tie was a post I did June 4 entitled “Taking stock of our pride.” If you recall what June is pushed on us to be, you’ll know what the post was about.

• Also checking in at Number 8 was the later of the two posts, a ditty I did July 22 on the so-called prevailing wage called “Prevailing waste.”

• Lucky Number 7 is a post that’s tied to a piece higher up on my countdown and published May 3 called, “The more friendly gatherings.”

• My Number 6 post, “The Rise and Fall, revisited” introduced the current serialization of my 2019 book The Rise and Fall of the TEA Party back on September 16.

• Making into the top five at Number 5 is the latest entry from December 2, “Rearranging deck chairs.” It’s about how the state is giving busy work to a firm rebuilding a beach that was well enough left alone.

• My Number 4 post was the most successful of those occasional Sunday religious-themed posts I do. “Thoughts on prayers” was a look at 2 Chronicles 7:14 and praying for America in general, posted on July 23.

• Breaking into the top three at Number 3 is a post I heavily promoted using actual money called “Is it sunset in America?” Great question and something of a subscription driver (four subs) but not what I hoped seeing that it’s only third. It was the earliest in my top 10, published February 25.

• My Number 2 post was a total shock to me. I do Monday Memory as a somewhat autobiographical occasional feature but the ode of “Monday Memory: my brother” really took off after I published it on his birthday, September 4.

• And the Number One post is really no surprise: “An unfriendly gathering” ended up getting me nine subscriptions by itself as we all learned how certain elected officials of the city of Salisbury had a cow because Franklin Graham was coming. All because of a tip I got from a loyal reader and subscriber, Carol Frazier, published back on April 30.

As an added bonus: I don’t often promote my other baseball-related site, The Knothole, but by one reader its top post was called “An ode to the summer road trip.” It came out March 23 and set up a series of prospective road trip posts I did in April. Watch for those again in 2024!

Here’s some good news

The more that the Left whines about fundraising being down, the better I like it. Here’s a variation on the theme I had last time.

But I do try to be open and honest in these emails, and the truth is that Indivisible is facing a real fundraising shortfall this year. This isn’t unique to Indivisible -- you may have seen news across the progressive ecosystem that fundraising is down this year. Organizations are restructuring, cutting programs, and doing layoffs.

I don’t wish people to be out of work, but the world needs ditch diggers, too, and the fact that organizations like yours have run our nation in a direction straight down the tubes means you get to feel some pain as well. I shouldn’t say this, because the Levin/Greenberg family looks like a charming young clan - they send pictures with their e-mail appeals every so often - but I have to because they’re just oh-so-completely misguided in their aims.

Michael Swartz

Let’s face it: if there are people who need private funding out of your pocket, it’s those who run places like food banks, homeless shelters, pro-life pregnancy centers, and faith-based organizations of all sorts. And its not just charities: it’s also the wait staff who brings you a good meal, the struggling musician or band who just needs a place to do gigs and hone his/their craft, or the missionary couple trying to secure a support base before they spread the Gospel to far-flung places like the Book of Matthew says they should because they work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. (Those examples are just passions of mine; surely you can think of others.)

Demanding money to influence government policy is just too Bidenesque these days. Starve the beast.

Leaving from Delaware

The last time I did this odds and ends thing, I talked about people who came to Delaware by sharing a piece by the Caesar Rodney Institute, so it’s fitting that this time we discuss those who are leaving.

Some Delawareans could be retiring or moving to warmer climes; could they also be relocating for other reasons, like better economic opportunities? According to the most recent available data from the US Census Bureau, 31.5% of the outbound migration from Delaware is moving to these three Southeast states: Florida (19.3%), Texas (6.2%), and North Carolina (6.0%).

It turns out that these three states (FL, TX, NC) have had significantly stronger economies over the last 25 years than Delaware. As a result, their residents have gained on and/or surpassed Delaware’s average wages, keeping more of their money due to lower taxes, and have far better public schools. 

I’ll cut to the chase: in most of the areas CRI tests we lag behind our friends to the south.

• Delaware’s per capita GDP lost ground quickly to Texas following the Great Recession, and Florida and North Carolina left us in the dust beginning around 2015.

• Delaware used to lead the pack in per capita income, but in the last decade has lost its lead over Texas and Florida, leading only the Tar Heel State.

• Delaware ranks near the bottom in both corporate and individual income tax, which is something its lack of a sales tax doesn’t completely overcome. The other three states are top 10 ranked in at least one of those categories, Florida is a leader in both.

• Finally, as CRI notes: “Delaware’s failing public school system, as graded by the federal government, means that families could choose to move to FL, TX, and NC due to the better schools there.”

Delaware is becoming a northern extension of Florida with all of the retirees moving here, but those who want to stake out their own claim are moving to where the opportunities are. Rather than concede that we should be happy to be a geezers’ paradise, I want growth and young people here to take over when we’re gone. The trick is getting our state to be more attractive to them, and to me that means good-paying jobs (not government-supported boondoggles) that add value, not push paper.

Arguing with a meteorologist

Alex Seymore is something of a legend around these parts. As a teenager he began a social media page called Delmar Weather and we quickly learned he knew his stuff at a young age. Fast forward a few years and he’s secured a job at a local television station, WRDE-TV (known locally as Coast TV.)

Unfortunately, while he is well-educated, he’s also indoctrinated and perhaps lacks a bit of life experience. So we had a nice little back-and-forth online when he remarked that some local flooding we’ve had lately was caused by climate change. (Specifically, he said “likely played a role.”)

So I made my own assertion, based on his claim we had temperature data going back 800,000 years:

So if you have temperature data going back that far, you surely know we have had both glacial periods and warm periods. By that same token, we've likely had really wet eras and dry eras, too.

Your implication seems to be that of anthropogenic climate change, which is a farce that seems to be an excuse for a lot of actions government wants to take, like forcing electric cars on us.

Indeed, we had a ten-year storm the weekend after a two-year storm. But prior to that a lot of the streams looked low and there were a lot of muddy spots where water should have been. Nature has a way of evening itself out given enough time so now the ponds and streams are back to normal once the land drains as it is supposed to.

When Alex protested that global warming wasn’t a “farce,” and protested that, “It’s a scientific fact that we are seeing a rapid rise in temperatures due to increases in CO2 from human causes,” I added:

But we have been industrializing for 300 years or so, belching out smoke and emissions. Cars are 90% cleaner than they were a generation or so ago, even before EVs, which on balance are more destructive to the environment.

But let's say you are correct in your theory, which I can't subscribe to based on factors like volcanic eruptions and other natural occurrences. China laughs at emission standards and puts up two new coal plants a week, with India not far behind. But we're supposed to make the sacrifices?

Humans (and nature) can adapt quite well regardless. Just make us aware of when these extreme weather conditions may strike and we will act accordingly.

Seymore also believes that China is “one of the leaders in moving towards clean energy” despite the two coal plants a week. Maybe it’s all the slave labor putting together those solar panels?

Anyway, I also had a lady who said these “climate change deniers are in full force ignorance…and they laugh at your post and my comment. We see who they are.” So here I was:

I'll tell you who I am, but here's your misunderstanding. People like us don't deny climate change exists, as it has for thousands of years. We are well aware of phenomena such as the Little Ice Age or Medieval Warm Period that lasted decades. Heck, I'm old enough to remember how cold and snowy winters were in the 1970's back home in the Midwest.

Where we depart is, instead of letting us decide how best to adapt to these conditions on a local or regional level, national and international governments believe only they have the solution and it generally involves more control for them.

And their predictions have always, always been wrong - often spectacularly so.

I still think Alex is pretty good on the weather (although some of his younger online cohorts who are also weather geeks also put the local, more senior meteorologist - who has his head full of global warming propaganda as well - to shame.) But we need to remember that we have a hard time predicting a hurricane season that’s a few months long, let alone the weather when our grandkids have crumbcrunchers of their own.

By the way, the feds predicted 12 to 17 named storms this year, with 5 to 9 becoming hurricanes and 1 to 4 major storms. (Way to be specific there.) Midway through they covered their tracks and upped their prediction to 14 to 21 named storms, 6-11 hurricanes, and 2 to 5 major hurricanes. (Actual numbers were 20, 7, and 3. A lot of those were “fish storms” that never made significant landfall, but they could say it was an “active” above-normal year.)

Speed trap central

It’s been a few years since I have been to Eastville, Virginia, as once in awhile one of my old jobs would take me through there on the way to Cape Charles at the southern tip of the Delmarva Penninsula. Eastville’s claim to fame is that it has the oldest court records in North America as the seat of Northampton County on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I also know a conservative activist and old friend who lives in the area, so my attention on what was otherwise just a social media time suck perked up when I saw this story about the town being a glorified speed trap.

The town has just enough of U.S. 13 to be a nuisance for drivers in a hurry to head south to the Chesapeake Bridge-Tunnel or north to resorts like Chincoteague or Ocean City, Maryland, not to mention the big cities of the East Coast. From WTKR-TV in Norfolk via the Shore Daily News:

The News 3 Investigative Team looked at data gathered from July 1, 2022, until Nov. 22, 2023.

With a population of about half a million, the Virginia Beach Police had 33,829 traffic violation stops during this time. In 29,134 of those cases, at least one citation was written, and 15,582 warnings were given out, according to the website.

Meanwhile, in the town of Eastville with a population of about 350 people, the Eastville Police Department had 20,104 traffic stops, 19,928 citations given out, and 161 warnings issued.  Approximately one mile of Rt. 13 is within the town limits of Eastville.

There’s a town near me in Delaware (also on U.S. 13 but about 100 miles or so north of Eastville) called Greenwood, with that same sort of reputation. Neither town is really very large, but Eastville is puny at just 300 or so souls compared to almost 1,000 for Greenwood. But they have a commonality, as the corporate limits of both towns extend well east of the town center to take in the highway and extra (some would say ill-gotten) revenue - in the case of Eastville, about $1.3 million. That will definitely support its half-dozen cops.

So if your path takes you through a small town, take it slow. Make the towns work to succeed instead of policing for profit.

Don’t try this in a small town, either. Really, just don’t.

I’ve discussed the community of Oxford, Maryland recently thanks to their ill-fated excursion into combatting global warming.

But this portion is about the yeoman’s research done by Jan Greenhawk in chronicling the recent demise of her 600-person strong hometown, which happens to also be that of my wife’s family. As Greenhawk writes in her recent look at the tumultuous 2023 Oxford endured:

In the beginning, the town was built around shipping and the seafood industry. Its population was working class watermen, people working in seafood processing and shipping etc. The population remained mainly working class until the mid-60's when the town's quiet, non-commercial beauty (and a new Bay Bridge) brought people to Oxford from the other side of the Bay.

My late mother-in-law (and her husband, who passed before I met my wife) were among those working-class people. They raised their family, served in the town’s fire company and auxiliary, and made Oxford attractive to all the newcomers.

The problem is that Oxford has retained a Peyton Place vibe when it comes to local government, and Jan is a loud objector, hence the moniker Radio Free Oxford. Hopefully 2024 will begin to bring about some positive changes, at least on a local level - as Jan revealed Wednesday, one of those positions heretofore thought to be fraught with nepotism has opened up.

Leave the movie behind

I haven’t watched the Netflix flick Leave The World Behind for two reasons, the less important of which being that it was produced by Michelle and Barack Obama. The more important reason is that I don’t have 140 minutes to waste on what would probably be a mind-numbing time suck anyway like most current network and on-demand programming. TL:DW, anyone?

In fact, I didn’t even think about LTWB until I read this piece by Evita Duffy-Alfonzo at The Federalist. (The article was linked by ammo.com in their regular sale mailing I receive.) While the message of the movie and related book seems to be that of a world spiraling out of control, it’s important to realize we are still talking about fiction here. For example, people freaked out for awhile about shark attacks in the wake of Jaws but eventually made their way back to the beach.

What I wanted to focus on was her conclusion:

In these uniquely uncertain times, it’s fair to assume that we’ll all face hardships outside of our control. That’s the point of “Leave the World Behind” — to make us feel afraid and helpless. But we actually do have control over a few key things. We don’t have to be like the Sanfords. We can cultivate a loving, cohesive family by spending time with one another, being patient with one another, and recognizing the value each member brings to the family. We also don’t need to surrender to the fear porn, especially if we have faith in Christ and know that this world is not our final destination.

So don’t relinquish your liberties, and try and be prepared as best as possible. We may not have that same scenario, but in case of another 9/11 or 10/7, it’s worth having a backup plan and some spare supplies just in case. And never forget that God is in control.

Michael Swartz

Until my next edition of odds and ends - which hopefully won’t come after a long holiday - remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.

Michael Swartz.

© 2024 Michael Swartz
Laurel, Delaware 19956
Unsubscribe