DL Open Thread: Wednesday, October 7, 2026

OK, raise your hands.  Were you at Joe Connor’s 75th Birthday Bash at Kelly’s Logan House last night?  It was inspiring.  First, of course, for Joe’s dual missions of helping the homeless and fighting for progressive causes.  He’s really made a huge difference in people’s lives and, yes, in the General Assembly.

The event also inspired me because of all the progressive energy in the room.  Some of our favorite electeds (Madinah was the Emcee), some of our favorite newly-electeds or about-to-be newly electeds, so many of the grassroots boots-on-the-ground, and the best Democratic RD chair in Delaware (Asia Smith, my RD chair).  What a night!  Just had to share.

Mike Smith Doubles Down On His Ethical Bankruptcy:

Delaware’s State Chamber of Commerce will have a new leader come December, tapping Republican State Rep. Mike Smith (R-Pike Creek) as its next president.

The Delaware Chamber promotes economic and political initiatives related to education, employment, business development, and voter engagement.

It lobbies lawmakers on various issues and Smith last session sat on several related committees, including the Bond Bill, Economic Development, and Banking, Insurance & Commerce committees.

“You have to separate those things, and that’s what other members do,” he said. “And I would expect to bring the same thing to the table.”

He pointed out other lawmakers have overlapping interests and influence outside the Leg Hall, like unions, nonprofit leadership, businesses, teacher groups, and university employment. (Well, yes, and some have ethical conflicts.  But you don’t exactly want people with no interests whatsoever serving in Dover, although Lumpy Carson came pretty close. You also don’t want them leading the largest business lobbying organization in Delaware.)

And he’s not the only person on the ballot this year who leads a Chamber of Commerce. Ayanna Khan-Flowers, running in House District 9, is the founder and leader of Delaware’s Black Chamber of Commerce.

“I’ll be running an organization and being kind of that centered voice on those things, ” he said. “But I’ve always been kind of an independent voice in Dover. If you look at my voting record, even when it comes to business, I think the State Chamber even gave me a B plus on my voting card, which is  I thought  funny.”

Don’t you just love that ‘kind of’ modifier?  He’ll just go over the timecards, make the occasional suggestion, and give the lobbyists total discretion.  Kids, the Chamber hired him precisely because of his legislative ties.  They hired him because they believe he is the best person to promote their agenda (pure ee-vil, by the way) in Dover. Does he think we’re idiots?  He’s right about Ayana Khan-Flowers, though.  Need I point out that Khan-Flowers was heavily promoted by disgraced former State Rep. Kevin Hensley? Regardless of who wins, his successor will have Hensley’s seal of approval.

Memo to Voters In RD 22: Defeat this ethical bottom-feeder.  Even if you’re a strong supporter of Chamber policies, you have good reason to do so: You need a full-time Darth Vader to own the libs, not a part-timer who merely approves the timecards.

This isn’t even a close call–if Smith and Khan-Flowers won’t step down from leading their respective Chambers, they have no place in the House Chamber.

Trump Lawyers To Represent ‘Migrant Kids’.  Facing off against, you guessed it, Trump lawyers:

The Trump administration has quietly announced that its own lawyers will represent unaccompanied migrant children in immigration court, facing off against other administration lawyers who are trying to deport the kids.

Immigration advocates are concerned (concerned? concerned??)that the arrangement, announced last week in the Federal Register, could (could? could??) pose a conflict of interest. In the past, unaccompanied minors were represented by a network of independent nonprofits, but the administration ended the contract this year after the network refused to hand over privileged information about its young clients.

“There are rules in place…to protect children, but those rules rely on experienced legal representatives trained to work with children,” Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, also part of the nonprofit network that lost its contract, said in a press conference last month. “Instead, the administration has chosen to fracture this network of experienced child-centered advocates that existed, with no plan in place to replace it.”

Now they do, with lawyers selected by the criminals running the Justice Department.

WTF Is Going On In France?  Perhaps Monsieur Al (not A I) can enlighten us:

The protests started at a single school in the suburbs of Paris last month, and quickly spread to hundreds of schools across the country. At their blockades, students spoke about overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated buildings and absent teachers who were often not replaced.

They also have a beef with the state-run website called Parcoursup, which is the portal to university programs. Students call it opaque and impersonal, in part because it has left tens of thousands of applicants waiting for months before learning if they have a spot.

Speaking to journalists at the beginning of the march in Paris on Tuesday, the student leader Ryad Rani said the protests would continue “as long as a solution isn’t found.”

I mean, that’s it?

Trump Wouldn’t Lie About Building A Steel Plant in Iowa, Would He?  Certainly not in an election year:

Most recently, the Trump administration announced plans to construct the largest steel plant in the US, a $15bn plant in Lee county, Iowa to be built by India-based Mesabi Metallics.

But the project and claims surrounding it have incited skepticism over whether the plant will be built and delivered as promised, given Trump’s record and the financial history of Mesabi Metallics’ parent company, Essar Global.

The plant had originally been scheduled to be built in Minnesota, a state that usually votes for Democrats. The shift to Iowa – where Republicans are struggling in the midterms – has also attracted attention.

This Essar Global sounds like Trump’s kind of company:

Essar Global first proposed building a steel plant with a $1.65bn investment in the Mesabi iron range in north-east Minnesota when they purchased Minnesota Steel in 2007.

By 2016, Essar Steel Minnesota had filed for bankruptcy, following construction delays and financing issues at its Nashwauk, Minnesota project, where its iron ore mine, which is supposed to fuel the Iowa steel plant, is located.

In efforts to get rid of its debt, Essar Global sold off assets, including the completion of a sale of Essar Oil for $12.9bn to a Russia-controlled energy company.

Mesabi Metallics briefly changed ownership to Virginia billionaire Thomas Clarke, before he lost control of the company in 2018, with Essar Global regaining control , but then losing its mining leases in 2021 when the state of Minnesota revoked them after a missed deadline.

“This plant that has been 20 years in the making,” said Mark Dayton, former governor of Minnesota who dealt with Mesabi Metallics in the state through their bankruptcy proceedings.

“I had, a decade ago, a very bad experience with Essar Steel because they started this plant, raised lots of expectations and hopes up north, and then went into default and went into bankruptcy and the like,” he said.

Ay-yup. Steelworkers are calling bullshit:

Doug May, who worked for 43 years as a steelworker at a mill in Granite City, Illinois, characterized the announcement as “political pandering” given the timing and how tariffs are hurting Iowa farmers.

“He pulled the same thing in 2018, just before an election, when he announced that $10bn Foxconn project,” May said.

That project, in swing state Wisconsin, failed to produce the jobs Trump and Foxconn had promised.

May argued Trump is using the steel industry as a campaign strategy, while ignoring the work the United Steel Workers have done to push to save the steel industry, including filing over 150 trade cases over the past decades to combat unfair trade practices that harm US workers. Over 40 domestic steel producers in the US filed for bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

“We, the steel workers in Granite City, served as the best foot soldiers lobbying Congress, holding rallies and campaigns, to raise awareness to the cheating of foreign steelmakers and the need for stronger trade enforcement during that era,” added May. “Arguably, we played a very important role in saving domestic steel.”

“Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”

What do you want to talk about?