DL Open Thread: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Fascism On The March. Putin To Join The Musk/Trump Regime? Sure looks like it:
Senior officials from Russia and the U.S. met in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to begin talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. As CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports, some felt the Trump administration had granted Vladimir Putin some degree of victory just by agreeing to hold the high-level meeting with his regime as the war he ignited with his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, grinds on.
That sentiment may be felt most acutely by the leaders of Ukraine, who were not invited to participate in the initial discussion about the fate of their nation.
Delegations led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met behind closed doors at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. The meeting marked another significant step in President Trump’s move to reverse three years of U.S. policy focused on isolating Russia over its war on Ukraine, and it is meant to pave the way for a likely meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin.
‘OK, you get the land, we’ll take the mineral rights, and see what you can do about building that Trump Moscow Hotel. I’ll put in those flyaway windows you requested for those unfortunate bureaucrats-jumping-to-their-deaths moments’.
Massive Unprecedented Firings Continue. As do the fuck-ups:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired “several” agency employees who are working on the federal government’s response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak.
The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings.
The error is the latest in the Trump administration’s attempts to rapidly shrink the size of the government by conducting mass firings of federal workers — an effort that is being carried out by tech billionaire Elon Musk and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, which is heavily staffed by people who have no experience in government.
On Friday, the administration tried to notify some nuclear safety employees who were fired last week that they are now due to be reinstated — but struggled to find them because they didn’t have their new contact information.
The latest episode comes as the virus has decimated poultry flocks and has sent egg prices soaring. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 68 cases among humans in the U.S. so far.
Trump Blames Ukraine For Russian Invasion Of Ukraine:
Trump also seemed to blame Kyiv for Moscow’s invasion – even as he said he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks – claiming Ukraine could have “made a deal” to avert war.
“I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat [at the talks],” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian reaction. The US president said a “half baked” negotiator could have secured a settlement years ago “without the loss of much land”.
“Today I heard, ‘oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” he said.
BTW, all that anti-woke stuff? Yep, Putin. JD Vance has become Putin’s mouthpiece:
In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that liberalism, the dominant Western ideology for eight decades, was dead, as people turned against uncontrolled migration, multiculturalism and wokeness.
The Russian leader’s bold declarations were perceived at the time as fringe, regressive remarks from an authoritarian leader mired in Soviet nostalgia who was seeking to subvert the pillars of American society.
Then six years later, at last week’s Munich Security Conference, Europe’s elites listened in shock as America’s second-ranking leader, Vice President JD Vance, made many of the same points — a sign of how Putin’s views and the “anti-woke agenda” he champions have gone mainstream in conservative parts of the U.S. establishment.
Since embracing this agenda, Putin has attempted to reset the post-Cold War order by tapping into the West’s societal divisions and driving a wedge in the transatlantic alliance.
He has promoted Russia as a role model for other countries, portraying it as a unique civilization based on traditional values that appeals to socially conservative leaders already wary of Western liberalism.
Today’s Fascism report brought to you with a heaping dish of kompromat. Perhaps even a pee-tape or two…
Making Delaware Safe For The Plutocrats. We discussed this in yesterday’s Open Thread. The takeaway?: The General Assembly, faced with the spectre of fleeing plutocrats, can’t change the corporation laws fast enough to mollify the Musks of this world. But, by G-d, they’re gonna try:
According to a press release from the Senate Democrats, the bills seek to address “specific concerns that lawmakers have received (from whom, one might ask rhetorically) since late January’s flurry of reincorporation announcements regarding the importance of certainty as companies undertake efforts to have unconflicted directors make key corporate decisions.”
The announcement also comes after the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in favor of a reincorporation dispute involving Trip Advisor’s parent company, making it easier for companies to leave the state, a move that was praised by Nevada’s secretary of state.
The reason for Trip Advisor leaving Delaware? Greater protections against liability for directors and officers under Nevada’s corporate code, which shields the most powerful people in a corporation from accountability, even if they breach their fiduciary duty. Texas’s substantive law is less draconian but companies perceive that the state’s political climate will ensure favorable rulings, and in a national environment where billionaires and corporate executives are emboldened to push or exceed the boundaries of the law, they are predictably in search of jurisdictions that will allow them to do so.
Now in Delaware — where incorporation fees amount to one-third of the state’s $6 billion budget — political leaders want to change the corporate code to align more closely with Nevada and Texas, according to the synopsis of Senate Bill 21: “The amendments provide that controlling stockholders and control groups, in their capacity as such, cannot be liable for monetary damages for breach of the duty of care.”
As the Financial Times explained, SB 21 would “make it more difficult for shareholders to show that a corporate director is ‘conflicted’ in a deal, a legal status which makes it easier to prove the transaction was unfair to ordinary shareholders. . . . The legislation also provides an easier legal path for deemed conflicted transactions, which arise when a controlling shareholder seeks a deal where they may personally benefit, to repel shareholder litigation.”
Call it what it is: Placing the heavy hand of the corporate bar on the scales of justice to protect the wealthiest and most brazen and, most importantly, Delaware’s corporate cash cow.
BTW, did Elon Musk help draft this bill? This is not idle speculation:
Two weeks ago, Gov. Matt Meyer told the business world that Delaware’s substantial corporate law needed some changes to allow the state to remain the pre-eminent legal domicile for millions of U.S. companies.
On Monday, he and lawmakers jointly introduced those changes in Senate Bill 21, a surprise piece of legislation that may shift the balance of power between big stockholders within companies and mom-and-pop investors.
On Tuesday, CNBC published a bombshell report claiming that attorneys for the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, helped to draft the bill.
The story also stated that a key provision within the bill – which would restructure how powerful individuals can make deals within their own companies – could “pave the way” for Musk to regain a massive $55.8 billion pay package from his company, Tesla.
Whoa.
What do you want to talk about?
I find it a bit daft that our elected officials don’t see what’s right in front of their faces: renewable energy workforce development. Between ideal geographic location, a strong manufacturing sector, unions, a port, and Delaware’s corporate-friendly atmosphere, we could build a whole renewable energy manufacturing economy right here in the state. It’s being done in other places, there’s no reason we can’t do it here. There are even substantial federal tax credits to help get facilities rolling. Instead of bending the knee, we could do something cool that could attract more businesses and revenue.
Good public policies? Too complicated! We’re addicted to dirty money.
The richest bit is RLF just confirmed, yeah we wrote this for the legislature. So brazen. I almost respect it.
Donald John Chamberlain — throwing Ukraine “under the bus and sowing the seeds for WWIII!
Our clueless, sycophantic leader not only is hellbent on destroying our country, but eager to bring his same brand of chaos to the world and to the health of the planet. As we say in Delaware, oi vey!!!
NASA staff gets last-minute reprieve from terminations
CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/18/firm-representing-musk-tesla-drafts-bill-for-delaware-corporate-law.html
If Delaware law is changed to tilt toward allowing the big corps to screw over the little corps, I’d be more worried that the 2 million or so little corps would leave.
As I understand it Delaware corporate revenue is a volume business, depending on 2 million businesses registered in Delaware, and is not dependent on big players.
U.S. aid to Ukraine hasn’t led to much progress after three long, frustrating and expensive years. Stasis has kept Putin from walking in and grabbing what he wants, but stasis could drain resources for a very long time without improving the situation. Ending the war by kissing Putin’s ass is a cure worse than the ailment though. Trump has been wanting get his lips in that vicinity for a long time.
“U.S. aid to Ukraine hasn’t led to much progress after three long, frustrating and expensive years. ”
This is a MAGA talking point (hopefully inadvertent on your part).
puck – I know and I hate it, but I’m afraid I kind of agree with it. As they say, even a blind MAGAt finds an acorn now and then. But I also don’t think MAGAts are the only ones who feel that way. I do think they’re the only ones who want to be pals with Putin. Whatever their response to it is, it’ll be something shitty.
Turn off Joe Rogan.
Before Trump US policy was rightly aimed at containment of Russia. US and European support for Ukraine has resulted in the massive degradation of our adversary Russia’s ability to attack Europe or anywhere else, and that was achieved without direct NATO conflict or a single US or European boot on the ground. And that was done mostly with surplus US weapons, not our best stuff. The Ukraine war exposed Russia’s weakness.
puck – after thinkng about it more, i guess if things go on as they have been at least Putin might not get farther than he already has. but it would be nice to see actual progress in fully stopping his evil plan. Bomb Russia back to the stone age? There would be qualms.
Who’s Joe Rogan?
You make an interesting point about degrading Russia’s ability to attack Europe. I probably should resist my frustration about the course of the war.
And, Russia pulled out of Syria, mainly because they were spending all their resources on Ukraine.
Just a final note on this. I do think it’s interesting that in certain ways liberals are now the hawks and conservatives the doves. I offer no opinion about this. Circumstances and definitions change. We now live in a topsy-turvy world. But I’m sure it’s all more nuanced than I make it sound. I also remind myself that at mid-20th century it was the conservatives who wanted to avoid foreign wars and liberal democrats were the internationalists. Soon after, it became more or less the opposite. I don’t know why I get into these things. Writing about entertainment is more fun anyway.