DL Open Thread: Monday, April 7, 2025
President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that he is not intentionally engineering the ongoing stock market sell-off, but said little to try and dissuade it.
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night when asked about the markets.
Quick, somebody tell RFK Jr.
When You’ve Lost The Koch Bro and Leonard Leo…:
In a twist that wouldn’t be believed in the worst TV movie, the surviving Koch Brother and Supreme Court shadow boss Leonard Leo are moving to crush Trump and his tariffs.
It’s more than surprising that these men, long considered as candidates for the worst people on earth, would be riding to the rescue. We have no idea what the world will look like when Trump gets slapped down on his all-consuming major initiative, but we now know it is coming.
The U.S. Constitution gives control over tariffs to Congress. It doesn’t hint it, imply it, or suggest it. It just says it.
Trump has launched his tariff scheme through executive order and false bravado. Like a fourth grader trying to prove to the teacher he was right, Trump is making his arguments based on old and unrelated laws that do not give the president the opportunity to create tariffs.
So Koch and Leo have filed suit against the Trump tariffs, picking as a plaintiff a stationery shop that will be ruined if it has to pay tariffs on imported goods.
Their vehicle is called the New Civil Liberties Alliance:
“Congress has sole authority to control tariffs, which it has done by passing detailed tariff statutes. The President cannot bypass those statutes by invoking ‘emergency’ authority in another statute that does not mention tariffs,” the group continued. “His attempt to use the IEEPA [an old law] this way not only violates the law as written, but it also invites application of the Supreme Court’s Major Questions Doctrine, which tells courts not to discern policies of ‘vast economic and political significance’ in a law without explicit congressional authorization.”
When You’ve Lost David Brooks… Just providing the link. Never let it be said that he isn’t long-winded.
The Ongoing Saga Of Rehoboth Beach’s Highly-Paid City Manager. I mean, sure the housing prices are high. But wouldn’t you rather live there than in Boulder City, Nevada?:
A Delaware judge last month heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by two Rehoboth Beach residents who claimed their city illegally struck a high-dollar contract last year with its newest city manager, Taylour Tedder.
The court hearing occurred one year after Rehoboth Beach residents first learned that city officials and Tedder had negotiated a pay package that included a $250,000 a-year salary and a forgivable $750,000 home loan.
During the court hearing on March 28, attorneys for the residents – Steven Linehan and Thomas Gaynor – claimed city officials violated the municipality’s foundational charter by hiring a manager who didn’t have sufficient experience for the job, including in engineering.
Rehoboth Beach’s charter says that a city manager must have an engineering degree, at least four years of experience managing another incorporated municipality, or four years of practical engineering experience.
“Right now, you have somebody that has essentially been quote, unquote, learning on the job for the last year. That person should have never been appointed,” said Ted Kittila, the plaintiffs’ attorney.
But Michelle Bounds, an attorney who represents the city and Tedder, argued that the city charter gives Rehoboth Beach commissioners broad authority to decide qualifications and compensation for the city manager.
Seems to me that the Rehoboth Beach officials must have learned their negotiating skills from the governor and legislators who grovelled at Elon Musk’s feet.
What do you want to talk about?
“Taylour Tedder” sounds like the name you’d make up for a model for Vineyard Vines.
I had to look up “Vineyard Vines.” I don’t get out much.
Well he is cute