DL Open Thread: Thursday, May 29, 2025
Trump Pardons Everyone Bad. Nary a bleat from a Democrat:
The pardon recipients confirmed by the official all had felony convictions, like Trump, and could see an array of benefits, including restoration of voting rights and release from imprisonment. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how Trump selected the recipients, and the official would not provide a full accounting of Trump’s clemency actions Wednesday.
From the NYTimes article on the pardon spree:
The president has focused on rewarding allies and supporters who make arguments that echo his own claims that he was prosecuted by a Justice Department that was weaponized for political ends by the administration of his predecessor, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Mr. Trump has largely forsaken a more formal Justice Department process intended to identify and vet deserving clemency applicants who have served their time and expressed remorse.
His approach has created an incentive for pardon seekers, or their allies, to demonstrate their fealty to him and to accuse the Biden Justice Department of singling them out because of that support. And it has created a cottage industry of clemency lobbyists and lawyers offering to help shape such appeals.
B-b-but Hunter Biden.
Did You Know There’s A US Court Of International Trade? I didn’t. Now I do:
A US trade court has ruled Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs regime illegal, in a dramatic twist that could block the US president’s controversial global trade policy.
The ruling by a three-judge panel at the New York-based court of international trade came after several lawsuits argued Trump had exceeded his authority, leaving US trade policy dependent on the president’s whims and unleashing economic chaos around the world.
Tariffs typically need to be approved by Congress but Trump has so far bypassed that requirement by claiming that the country’s trade deficits amount to a national emergency. This had left the US president able to apply sweeping tariffs to most countries last month, in a shock move that sent markets reeling.
The court’s ruling stated that Trump’s tariff orders “exceed any authority granted to the president … to regulate importation by means of tariffs”.
Likely a good day for my 401-K.
It’s time for reporters to, um, report on the court orders that the President is defying. Just an idle thought.
Ban International Students, Suffer Economic Consequences:
What Delaware gains from its international students–4023 students, $112 million, 1017 jobs. I guess Trump and Rubio need to create another group of people to fear:
Chinese students studying in the U.S. are scrambling to figure out their futures after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that some students would have their visas revoked.
The U.S. will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in “critical fields”, and “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party,” according to the announcement.
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the U.S.
This is a “new version of Chinese Exclusion Act,” said Linqin, a Chinese student at Johns Hopkins University, who asked to be identified only by his first name out of fear of retaliation. He was referring to a 19th-century law that prohibited Chinese from immigrating to the U.S. and banned Chinese people already in the U.S. from getting citizenship. He said Wednesday was the first time he thought about leaving the U.S. after spending one third of his life here.
‘Meet Your New Friendly Robot Co-Worker’. At the Amazon Boxwood warehouse, they lift and move stuff, don’t need coffee breaks:
In the coming months, thousands of Amazon workers in Wilmington will be joined by new “coworkers” who can regularly lift packages up to 50 pounds and don’t need breaks — because they are robots.
There are already about 6,000 robots working alongside humans inside the massive Delaware fulfillment center that runs 24/7. During an average week, the center receives and sends out about 5 million products.
Amazon is investing in more automation at the site, such as new robots that can help workers move containers of packages just before shipping — upgrades the company expects to have in place in time for the holiday shopping season.
The aim, Jones said, is to ease the physical strain on workers — reducing how much walking and heavy lifting employees do moving packages through one of the largest fulfillment centers in the nation.
Amazon officials say that automation does not replace human jobs, but shifts the role away from physical labor to quality management and robotics maintenance.
More On That NCC Council President Issue:
New Castle County Council President Monique Williams-Johns on Tuesday called a proposal to remake her position into an appointed one – rather than one elected by voters – a “power grab.”
Council members in support said the proposal would align New Castle County with Delaware’s other two counties. They also denied that the measure had anything to do with Williams-Johns, personally.
At the center of the debate was a county council resolution asking the Delaware legislature to eliminate the council president position as an elected office in 2032. In lieu of the countywide seat, New Castle County would create a new voting council district following the 2030 census.
The 13-member county council would then choose their council president internally.
The Delaware legislature would have to vote to approve a formal change to Williams-Johns’ elected position. And there already exists a draft bill to do that, though it has not yet been formally introduced.
The drafter, Rep. Eric Morrison (D-Glasgow), also said in an interview with Spotlight Delaware that the bill had nothing to do with Williams-Johns.
“This is not targeted in any way,” Morrison said.
Instead, he said it was odd that there’s a separate election for a county council president position, when Delaware’s other two counties do not do that. Morrison also pointed to how leaders in the legislature are appointed internally, as well as school boards in the state.
Morrison said when he approached council members with the idea, many responded positively. He said he wouldn’t have moved forward with the idea if they did not support it.
Whoa. Check Out This Podcast. Based on the first must-listen segment, she could change the name to ‘The Mic Drop’. I’ve linked to the ‘very rudimentary website’, but you can find ‘This Is The Delaware Way’ on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is my kind of snark.
What do you want to talk about?
Monique, being a moron, doesn’t realize that it’s not a power grab, it’s a power flush. They’re not taking the power for themselves, they’re dissolving it.
The change won’t be much of an improvement. If you think having elected officials choose their own leader brings about better outcomes, look at who that process produces in the state House of Representatives. I’d rather people line up against an incompetent boob like KHN than knuckle under to a malign force like Schwartzkopf, Longhurst or Minor-Brown. The rest of council opposed KHN in a way they wouldn’t have had the position been filled by someone they voted into the post.
Yep. It’s hard to imagine even a totally-uninformed electorate voting for someone even worse than Pete, Our Pal Val, or Mimi, to be Speaker.
Probably would have ended up with Speaker McGuiness.
Fraudsters and criminals have to look out for each other in order to continue to thrive in their pursuit to live outside the law.
“Nary a bleat from a Democrat” (about Trump pardons)
Not much Democrats could do other than sternly worded letters, which would trigger a media bothsider blitz rehashing all of Biden’s pardons.
Democrats could start writing up an amendment limiting the presidential pardon power, and then run on a pledge to do that. But they are probably too chickenshit.
Uh, there’s not much Rethugs could have done about Hunter Biden.
But they made it a campaign issue while smearing everything Biden had done.
Democrats? Nope.
Right, Chuck Schumer should just call his friends who own media empires and ask them to make Trump pardons a constant high-volume news story.
“Power grab” does Monique actually think she is going to survive 7 years in office?
Moreover, creating 13 equal districts is a power grab how? Because Monique thinks she may lose her extra 6k a year? Because we all know she needed a job aka why she ran for office.
Judge Says Trump Can’t Deport International Students–For Now:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/29/us/harvard-trump#heres-what-to-know-about-the-fight-with-trump
“A federal judge in Boston said on Thursday that she would temporarily block President Trump’s effort to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students, part of the administration’s all-out battle to undermine the university’s finances and global influence.
The judge’s decision was a victory for Harvard, at least for now, in its ongoing confrontation with the White House, which has already seen the university stripped of billions of dollars in federal funding.
The result came as 9,000 Harvard students were gathered in Harvard Yard to receive their diplomas, in a spirited graduation ceremony filled with symbols of protest against Mr. Trump and messages of support for international peers. There were sporadic cheers as students, faculty and families learned of the judge’s ruling.
Harvard’s lawyers argue that the Trump administration is attacking it politically, in violation of the First Amendment, and have said that international students were panicked and seeking to transfer. “I want to maintain the status quo,” Judge Allison D. Burroughs said in the hearing on Thursday. “People are terrified.”
Christiana wins bid on Crozer – $50M. Pennies from one of the state’s biggest “nonprofit entities” that pays no property taxes and says that publishing its budget to a Review Board will be the end of the world. Unreal.