DL Open Thread: Tuesday, November 18, 2025
NCC Council Debates Dueling Data Center Proposals. Featuring ‘Kilpatrick’s Revenge’:
The New Castle County Council now faces competing proposals to regulate the emerging data center industry.
On Monday, Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick introduced legislation that would defang many of the rules proposed within a pending data center ordinance, including those around noise and energy efficiency.
The County Council could vote on the ordinance and its amendments during its regular meeting on Tuesday evening.
Kilpatrick’s proposal – the most consequential of several last-minute amendments to the data center ordinance – also states that “all resubdivision plan applications are exempted from this Ordinance regardless of the submission date to the County.”
The language appears to permit certain existing structures, such as warehouses, to convert to data centers without being subject to new regulations.
Kilpatrick did not respond on Monday to a request to comment for this story.
She has been, and will conclude her career as, an utterly despicable ‘public servant’. Let’s see how many of her Council cohorts seal their reputations tonight as well. Might as well lay it out there–if Kilpatrick’s on board, that means that Matt Meyer’s on board.
Make no mistake: Any councilperson who votes for this is self-identifying as CORRUPT. An utter disgrace.
Trump To Sell Planes To Murderer:
President Trump said on Monday that he planned to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns from national security officials in his administration that a sale could create an opportunity for China to steal the planes’ advanced technology.
“We will be doing that, we’ll be selling F-35s,” Mr. Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office, explaining that the Saudis “want to buy them, they’ve been a great ally.”
Mr. Trump’s announcement came on the eve of a White House visit from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, during his first trip to the United States in more than seven years. Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, and U.S. officials are expected to discuss a Saudi purchase of 48 of the fighter jets and a potential mutual defense agreement.
Hey, the person that the Crown Prince ordered killed was a journalist. That’s a plus in Trump’s book. Politicians from both parties are concerned, but don’t want their names mentioned on the record.
The combined paychecks of all 3.2 million cashiers are about as valuable as Musk’s average annual compensation.
On average, Musk will make $3 billion more per year than the 1.4 million elementary school teachers in the U.S. combined.
The combined incomes of 917,000 human resources specialists add up to $26.7 billion less than Musk’s average annual pay package.
You get the picture. Obscene wealth in the hands of a madman.
Trump Plans Massive Police Presence In–Our National Parks?:
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has been pushing to purge national parks of more federal workers, but he has a grand plan to make these treasured public spaces great again: hire a bunch of cops.
On Monday, Burgum announced that the National Park Service is hiring 500 law enforcement officers.
“@NatlParkService is hiring 500 elite law enforcement officers to protect America’s parks & monuments!” he wrote via X. “From remote wilderness to city streets, our officers & rangers are on the frontlines carrying out @POTUS’ directive to keep America SAFE!” (Yes, irony is dead.)
His big news comes nearly one month after the Interior Department announced plans to fire over 2,000 federal workers, including hundreds of parks employees.
That attempt is still tied up in court after Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order sought by federal employee unions.
Josh Marshall Thinks, Causing Us To Think:
One of my instrument panel watchwords for understanding politics is that all power is unitary. In the case of presidents, you don’t have one bundle of power in one area and a siloed, distinct and unaffected bundle in another. A president’s power is a uniform commodity wherever he reaches. What boosts it or drags it down in one area affects it everywhere else.
That’s the best way to understand President Trump’s position 10 months into his second term. It’s hard to know whether it was the five-week government shutdown which focused public attention on draconian cuts to health care, the election night shellacking, the first signs of MAGA diehards defecting from the president, the grotesque and absurd Epstein cat-and-mouse game or a dozen other comparable examples. What makes it both hard to pick apart the different drivers of a president’s decline and perilous for the president himself is that the different drivers feed on themselves. They become both cause and effect in a mounting spiral.
At some point in the next several months the Supreme Court will render a verdict on President Trump’s manifestly illegal tariffs which have not only roiled consumers in the United States but upended the entire global financial system. There have always been signs that this power grab may have finally been a step too far, even for this Supreme Court. To the extent one can map the facts of the tariff case onto the Court’s pet doctrines — ‘major question’, ‘non-delegation’ — the Court should be hot to reject Trump’s claims. A question of such gravity shouldn’t rest on what is at best an ambiguous text and even if the Congress had wanted to entirely cede its constitutional power over tariffs they shouldn’t have been allowed to.
Obviously, jurisprudential consistency doesn’t count for much amidst the Court’s corruption. More significant is that the tariffs themselves probably aren’t terribly welcome to a six person Republican majority. There’s also Federalist Society architect Leonard Leo’s conspicuous role in the legal challenge to the tariffs. But there’s another factor. The Court is not immune from the factor that is weighing Trump down on so many other fronts. Indeed, their corruption likely makes them even more liable to it. No one likes to back the weak horse. No one wants to back the loser. Right now Trump looks increasingly like a loser, a president whose formal powers will likely last another three years but whose actual power is ebbing.
Read the entire piece. Whaddayathink?
Summers Expresses Shame. Hey, at least he’s capable of it.
Violence has increased across the occupied West Bank as Palestinian farmers try to harvest their olive trees before the end of the season, in the face of a concerted campaign of harassment by groups of armed and aggressive Israeli settlers.
Dozens of new incidents have occurred in recent days across much of the occupied territory as settlers step up a broader effort to intimidate and harm Palestinian communities.
“It’s really bad at the moment. The settlers are operating with total impunity,” said Aviv Tatarsky, an Israeli activist who has worked in the West Bank for decades.
What do you want to talk about?
Let’s just state the obvious here–Kilpatrick’s proposal wasn’t concocted at the last minute. It was BROUGHT UP at the last minute to forestall opposition to it.
This is clearly the work of the dark forces who are tossing around huge sums of money across the country on behalf of these highly-unpopular data centers.
I have no doubt that every approachable County Council member has been approached by these forces of darkness. Not on the merits of the proposal, but on ‘what can we do for you to get you to yes?’
This is corruption, pure and simple. In this case, the Delaware Way On Steroids.
Carter delayed the vote but not without withering condemnation for the eleventh-hour amendments. Meanwhile, Caneco alleges getting the bird thrown at him by Sheldon?
Yo, Janet, what ‘lovely parting gifts’ did Tucker and his deep-pocketed clients promise you in exchange for selling out everybody who lives in New Castle County?
If you really believe that to be the case please refer your comments to the Attorney General for investigation.
You’re right. Your uncritical support for anything developers throw your way is part of your DNA.
No bribes needed.
Your legacy, such as it is, as an amoral enforcer is sealed.