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 struggle between legislators and the Delaware governor.

In attendance at the meeting were several high-profile Delaware officials, including labor leaders from the Port of Wilmington and the Delaware building trades, as well as Wilmington Mayor John Carney and New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry.

Not in attendance were members of Meyer’s cabinet – a fact that the task force chairman, Sen. Darius Brown (D-Wilmington), noted during the meeting. In public remarks that included a string of harsh criticisms of the governor, Brown argued that their absence amounted to Meyer “not showing up for hard-working Delawareans.”

When reached for comment, Mila Myles, a spokeswoman for Meyer, criticized the existence of Brown’s committee, saying that it was “needless bureaucracy” that amounts to an “attempt to make a second port board without the collaboration or participation of the Meyer Administration.

She said the board of the Diamond State Port Corporation – which is a taxpayer-owned entity chartered by the state to oversee the Port of Wilmington – is the body responsible for oversight of the Port of Wilmington.

“There is only one Port board. And that board is focused on operating and expanding our existing port to benefit all Delawareans,” she said.

Just for fun, let’s look at the composition of this ‘task force’:

(1) Two members of the Senate, one from each caucus, appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

(2) Two members of the House of Representatives, one from each caucus, appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(3) Two members of the public, one appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and one appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(4) The Secretary of the Department of State.

(5) The Secretary of the Department of Finance.

(6) The Secretary of the Department of Transportation.

(7) The Secretary of the Department of Labor.

(8) The Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

(9) The President of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.

(10) The Mayor of the City of Wilmington.

(11) The Vice Chair of the Diamond State Port Corporation.

(12) The President of International Longshoreman’s Association Local 2076.

(13) The President of International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1694.

(14) The President of International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1883.

(15) The President of International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1884.

(16) The President of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 326.

(17) Two members of the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council , appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

Now, subtract the members of the Governor’s cabinet (remember, kids, concurrent resolutions don’t have the force of law), and see what’s left.  Then, wrap your heads around the involvement of one Michael Houghton (quoted copiously in the article).  You know, the guy who set up an ‘independent’ polling operation for Bethany Hall-Long when her campaign basically had no money.  This task force appears to have been set up with the sole purpose of embarrassing the new Governor.  And/or, and I think this is a distinct possibility, the insiders who set this up have reason to believe that the project will never be built, and are looking to preemptively offload blame for its failure.  The hacks on this ‘task force’ are certainly up to that task.

Bernie Speaks Truth To Power–Or At Least To Us:

It’s Biden’s Fault: Sez Trump:

You’re smart.  Not gonna bother sharing how well the market was doing–until Trump blew up everything.

Why Politico Sucks. As called out by Josh Marshall:

I found this new piece in Politico about Medicaid politics genuinely jarring. Reporters Rachel Bade et al. concoct this alternative reality in which House Republicans are pressuring Trump to cut Medicaid while he’s deeply “wary” of doing so. As you’d this story comes from “six White House officials and top allies of the president.”

This is obviously bogus and is new positioning driven by the fact that Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts are now generating serious pushback from congressional Republicans. But then comes something even wilder. Trump is so skeptical, according the aforementioned six, because “he remains profoundly wary about pursuing anything that might be construed as “cuts” to a program he has vowed over and over again to protect.” This is entirely made up. Trump has pledged again and again that he’d never cut Social Security and Medicare. Whether you can put stock in those promises you’ll have to decide. But it is something he’s said again and again going back to the first campaign. Medicaid is an entirely new addition. Again, it’s a new concocted history made necessary because of the mounting resistance to the cuts.

I continue to find it amazing that these things get published. You don’t rely on politicians, certainly not Donald Trump, for faithful accounts of history. But reporters are supposed to correct for that.

Or, at least, were.

One Political Prisoner Freed.  Looks like the courts are poised to combat McCarthyism:

Mohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian student at Columbia University who was arrested on April 14 at his naturalization interview in Vermont, was released on bail from federal custody on Wednesday. He is the first student to be released in the Trump administration’s widening crackdown on foreign students and academics who have been involved in Palestine advocacy while legally studying in the United States.

Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, has lived in the US on a green card for ten years. He is now free on bail pending the result of his habeas petition.

Ruling from the bench, Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford found that Mahdawi, 34, did not pose a danger to the public and was not a flight risk. This was “not our proudest moment,” Crawford reportedly told the courtroom, comparing recent detentions of immigrants and student activists to McCarthyism.

BREAKING: El Som Links To Article From NYPost!!:

Even before this past weekend’s embarrassing CBS interview — in which Jordon Hudson made it clear who wears the pants in her romance with Bill Belichick — the legendary football coach’s friends were “shaking their heads,” one insider told The Post. “They are talking to him about her, but very gently because they know how deep in he is.

“She saw an opening and she took it,” the insider added of how Hudson, 24, has inserted herself into every aspect of her 73-year-old boyfriend’s life and career.

Time for a gratuitous photo?  Yes. Yes, I think so.  You know, just for context:

Splash News

But, I digress.  They claim that they met on a plane.  However, ‘facts’ in the NYPost story suggest otherwise.  See if you can connect the dots:

Lee later moved to Provincetown, Mass., where she manages the Toys of Eros sex shop.

Better to claim that they met on a plane rather than at her mum’s sex shop–in Provincetown.  Which is the story I’m going with.

What do you want to talk about?