DL Open Thread: Saturday, January 18, 2025

Sad. MAGAts And Donors Must Watch Inauguration–On A Jumbotron:

Now, instead of hundreds of thousands of Trump voters gathering at the U.S. Capitol to watch their president begin his second term, they’ll instead be ushered to the Capital One Arena about a mile away where they can watch from … a jumbotron.

We might as well stay at home and watch it on TV. I’m kind of disappointed, to be honest with you,” Ken Robinson, who traveled from Oklahoma with his family, said. “We came here to watch it in person. We don’t really care to watch it on a jumbotron.”

Traveling to watch the swearing in isn’t cheap. Hotel rates around Washington, D.C., are around $500 per night the weekend leading up to Trump’s inauguration.

However, the Trump administration is handing out its condolences to supporters by allowing them to hold onto their now “commemorative” tickets.

But it isn’t just average MAGA supporters getting the short end of the stick. Some of Trump’s wealthy donors have reportedly been cut from the in-person ceremony, given the limited number of seats in the rotunda. Instead, as The New York Times reporter Teddy Schleifer wrote, some of Trump’s donors will be escorted to a suite at the Capitol One Arena.

Betcha they’ll have to buy their own drinks.

Why Democrats Suck–An Ongoing Saga:

Donald Trump is set to notch his first big legislative win quickly after being sworn in as the nation’s 47th president — and he has Democrats to thank for it.

The Senate voted 61-35 on Friday to advance a major immigration bill aiming to crack down on immigrants lacking permanent legal status who commit crimes. A final vote on passage is expected after Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Republican senators were joined by 10 Democrats in breaking a filibuster of the Laken Riley Act — more evidence of their party moving rightward on immigration in the wake of stinging losses in the 2024 elections.

The legislation would require the federal detention of undocumented immigrants charged with crimes like theft and burglary — even if an accusation is ultimately proved false and no conviction is obtained. Critics say it would erode rights to due process for undocumented immigrants, including those brought to the U.S. as children, and increase their chances of deportation.

The bill would go even further, however, by allowing state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can show that their states are being harmed by a failure to implement national immigration policies. Opponents say that provision would unleash chaos in the nation’s immigration system by giving states unprecedented power in shaping federal policy.

It was entirely predictable that Biden’s strategy was all but bound to fail miserably. Both as vice president and president, Biden made it obvious that he was there to be played by Netanyahu. The bear hug—along with the near total refusal to hold Netanyahu accountable that went with it—allowed the Israeli prime minister to walk over Biden, time and again.

There is already, and will continue to be, debate over who secured a ceasefire deal: Trump or Biden. But early reporting strongly indicates it was the incoming president who made the difference. In Haaretz, Israel’s most prominent progressive newspaper, Amos Harel wrote bluntly, “negotiations would not have reached their final lap without Trump.” He added, “For years, people have been saying that Netanyahu is the sum of all his fears; it turns out that Trump scares him even more, perhaps justifiably so.” 

Biden’s Hubris Killed Democratic Chances.  A pretty solid analysis, methinks:

When Biden departs Washington on Monday at the culmination of a career spanning more than half a century as senator, vice-president and president, the old maxim that all political lives end in failure will hover over him. He will be 82, the oldest president in US history and the first great-grandfather to hold the office. Democrats will long agonise over why his age and fitness for office did not become a political emergency until it was too late.

Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington DC, added: “The administration for reasons that I can understand but still regret lost touch with the actual feelings of the people. While the administration was talking about Bidenomics in glowing terms, people were up in arms about the high prices for basics.

“It’s bad politically when you’re seen to be worse than wrong, namely out of touch. In the area of prices and also immigration the administration conveyed the impression of believing its own talking points and being out of touch with experiences that millions of Americans were having. The party paid a big price for that.”

Even so, Biden would defy the odds again in the 2022 midterm elections. But it was that very success that would lead him to overreach. Previous Democratic presidents had suffered what Barack Obama called a “shellacking” in midterms. Despite predictions of a “red wave”, Democrats overperformed, retaining the Senate and only narrowly losing the House of Representatives.

Paul Begala, a former White House counsellor to Bill Clinton, said: “The odd thing is the midterms for Biden were far better than they were for Clinton or Obama. When you lose like they did you recalibrate, you right the ship, voters are telling you something. The voters were not as clear in 2022 in telling Biden to recalibrate.

“Plus Clinton could move to the centre; Obama could move the centre; Biden couldn’t move to being 45 again. He was simply too old in the mind of the overwhelming majority of Americans – the majority of Democrats – and that was existential. It wasn’t practical, it wasn’t political and his failure to confront that and his team’s failure to confront that is going to hurt his legacy.”

The administration continued to play down concerns about Biden’s age and gave short shrift to any journalist who dared raise it. No source interviewed by the Guardian perceived a deliberate conspiracy but more likely a case of collective wishful thinking in a fast-paced work environment that leaves little room for perspective.

All White House staff prefer a sense of control and tend to be protective of the principal, so it was hardly surprising they limited Biden’s exposure: he gave far fewer press conferences than his predecessors. When he did misspeak, the defence was that he was merely being true to his gaffe-prone self.

Then we all saw.  It was too late. Hey, at least according to the News-Journal, in a series of articles that are even more pathetic than usual, we can soon see Joe at locations all over Delaware.  A suggested News-Journal two-fer:  “Say hi to Joe at next weekend’s opening of a brand-new Sprouts Market.  Shake his hand by the adult incontinence products.”  (Bring hand sanitizer.)

“Welcome To Clayton–Where Our Police Chiefs Drink And Drive.”  Second verse, same as the first.

Meyer Plans To Scale Back Giveaways To Business.  Yes!:

In a room filled with hundreds of Delaware’s top CEOs and corporate leaders Monday, Governor-elect Matt Meyer laid bare his plans to give fewer taxpayer-backed grants to for-profit companies and instead focus on creating economic growth through small businesses and workforce development.

“In my administration, you’re going to see the use of this cash assistance de-emphasized. Let’s focus our resources on things that matter the most to the companies and employees of today and tomorrow,” Meyer said as he spoke at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner in Wilmington.

For the 1,100 business leaders in attendance who are accustomed to governors’ comments typically being a pep talk of sorts, the frank comments from the incoming governor were a bit of a shock to the status quo. Each of the last four governors have given out significant state grants in attempts to win projects from major employers.

Taxpayer-funded grants have been used in Delaware and other states to incentivize companies to build new facilities and hire more workers for decades. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, where states try to gain an advantage over neighbors for major projects, the use of direct cash infusions have become more commonplace.

In Delaware, these grants usually come from the issuance of state bonds, which are then repaid by state taxpayers.

In Fiscal Year 2025, the total funds used to support business development, which included the Strategic Fund, the Laboratory Space Fund and the Site Readiness Fund, amounted to $24.5 million. Another $10 million was used to support infrastructure upgrades related to large projects while $10 million supported sports tourism projects.

In comparison, the Division of Small Business was budgeted to $1.7 million to support small business development in the state, primarily through the state’s EDGE grant program. In the last five years, less than $8 million was invested in small businesses via the EDGE grants.

Which is how dim-bulb Carney liked it:

“I think the critics of that need to get a dose of the real world about how these corporate decisions are made,” he added.

Carney needs to get a dose of the clap.

Read this entire article.  It give me a lot of hope for the incoming administration.

Whoa.  Almost 1800 words.  Granted, most of them not mine.

What do you want to talk about?