DL Open Thread: Friday, May 23, 2025

A Plane, And Now This:

President Trump gathered Thursday evening at his Virginia golf club with the highest-paying customers of his personal cryptocurrency, promising that he would promote the crypto industry from the White House as protesters outside condemned the event as a historic corruption of the presidency.

The gala dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Washington, where Mr. Trump flew from the White House on a military helicopter, turned into an extraordinary spectacle as hundreds of guests arrived, many having flown to the United States from overseas.

It was a spectacle that could only have happened in the era of Donald J. Trump. Several of the dinner guests, in interviews with The New York Times, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations.

Meanwhile, LBR and Coons dither over whether to support crypto-enabling legislation when they should have been out there with the protesters instead.  Guess Democrats are either too blind or, perhaps, too old, to muster up enough energy to make unfettered corruption a campaign issue.  Don’t want to offend their donors?  Which reminds me, will someone please shut Swamp Lizard James Carville’s fat yap?

Trump Vs. Harvard.  Yes, it’s illegal.  Yes, the courts will recognize it as illegal.  But, as intended, it creates unnecessary chaos and pain:

The university has faced rapid-fire aggressions since its president, Alan M. Garber, told the Trump administration in April that Harvard would not give in to demands to change its hiring and admissions practices and its curriculum. After the government froze more than $2 billion in grants, Harvard filed suit in federal court in Boston. Since then, the administration has gutted the university’s research funding, upending budgets and forcing some hard-hit programs to reimagine their scope and mission.

The end of international enrollment would transform a university where 6,800 students, more than a quarter of the total, come from other countries, a number that has grown steadily in recent decades. Graduate programs would be hit especially hard.

Because international students do not qualify for federal financial aid, and typically pay more for their education, they contribute disproportionately to the university’s revenue, in addition to bringing diverse perspectives that enrich campus life and classroom discussions.

“This will destroy the university as we know it,” said Kirsten Weld, a professor who specializes in Latin American history and the president of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “Harvard is situated in the United States physically, but its students and faculty hail from all over the world. That is fundamental to the work and mission of the institution. You cannot take that away and have an institution left at the end of it.”

Court Shuts Down Trump’s Plan To Shutter Education Department.  A department led, need I remind you, by noted educator Linda McMahon.  Ya know, the Trump Administration is a rasslin’ federation, except without any ‘babyfaces’:

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.

The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.

In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”

Layoffs of that scale, he added, “will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true.”

Undaunted, Supreme Court Expands Trump’s Powers.

Of course I have sympathy for the two employees at the Israeli embassy who were killed this week.  Their pictures have been posted on every media outlet.  As opposed to a single picture of any of the civilians slaughtered in Gaza over just the past two weeks.  They, too, had dreams or, at least did before Israel started an endless siege against them.  Just providing a bit of balance here.  For more, scroll through these photographs from Reuters.  You know, just for context.  Then get back to me.

UD To Pay (Part Of) Its Fair Share.  The long-standing arrogance of this institution is coming back to bite ’em:

The General Assembly clears a bill that would allow Newark to levy a $50 per-student, per-semester tax on the University of Delaware (UD).

The Newark City Council voted unanimously to collect the tax early last year, but the city needs legislative approval from the state to amend its charter.

That charter change cleared the State Senate Thursday, now only awaiting signature from Gov. Matt Meyer to become official.

If signed, it will be up to the city council to officially enact the tax, which is expected to bring in over $2 million for Newark as the city faces a $6 million budget shortfall.

The university has been tax exempt since 1915, which the City Manager Tom Coleman has testified leaves UD exempt from the two primary means of raising taxes — property taxes and real estate transfer taxes.

Additionally, 42% of the city’s properties are tax exempt and 37% of that is because of university-owned property.

Coleman says if UD properties were to be taxed, the city would bring in around $5.8 million — almost completely covering the budget shortfall. Newark currently brings in around $9.75 million in property taxes annually.

Speaker Minor-Brown To ‘Slow-Walk’ Income Tax Reform.  Make no mistake, this is a delaying tactic designed to thwart reform:

House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown said Wednesday that while she supports higher income tax brackets, she did not want to rush the changes through the waning days of the legislative session, potentially signaling that a key reform backed by Gov. Matt Meyer would not be accomplished this year.

Speaking at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce’s End-Of-Session Conference at Delaware State University, Minor-Brown said that there are inequities in Delaware’s current personal income tax structure, noting a person making $60,000 a year should probably not be at the same tax rate as a person making $500,000 a year, as is the case currently.

But the House Speaker also stressed that none of the General Assembly members are personal income tax experts and that she wanted those voices in the conversation.

“I don’t know what that looks like right now. Maybe that’s convening a group. Maybe that’s a task force … We have to do it right, and I don’t know if we’re ready to do it right right now,” she said. “It can’t be a rush job. It has to be a comprehensive approach.”

The top House of Representatives leader’s comment seemed to be in opposition those of her Senate counterpart, Senate President Pro Tem David Sokola (D-Newark). In opening remarks to the chamber, he made the case that reform of personal income tax, also known as PIT, is the route to a more equitable distribution of taxes.

“It’s something that will be a difficult decision – and I can’t guarantee there’s the votes to do it – but it might be the right thing to do, and if it is the right thing to do, delaying it is not the right thing to do,” he said.

Minor-Brown is a political hack of the worst sort.  This proposal has been around, like, for ten years at least.  Despite the Senate’s fraught relationship with the Governor, Sen. Sokola recognizes the necessity.  But not the Speaker.  In fact, looking at her comments, it looks like she has hardly even thought about the issue.  Time for the caucus to take matters into its own hands.

What do you want to talk about?