DL Open Thread: Thursday, November 20, 2025
Kyle Lutnick, the 29-year-old scion of his family’s real estate business, traveled in July to Amarillo, Texas, to walk a dusty tract of land with the head of an artificial intelligence start-up called Fermi America.
He was touring the site of a future data center with Toby Neugebauer, a billionaire who is building one of the behemoth facilities that will power the next generation of A.I. Mr. Lutnick’s company was helping raise capital for the center, banking millions in fees in the process.
“Polite young man,” Mr. Neugebauer said in an interview.
A month later, Kyle’s father, Howard Lutnick, was photographed with Mr. Neugebauer at an event near the White House that celebrated Fermi’s partnership with a South Korean company on the same data center project.
This sequence of events — a son making money on a project his father is boosting as a federal official — has come up repeatedly since President Trump tapped Howard Lutnick to head the Commerce Department, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
In that role, Mr. Lutnick has twisted the arms of American allies, dangling policy favors in exchange for investments in U.S. industrial projects. At times, these tactics have created opportunities for his family’s clients to gain access to much-needed foreign capital, The Times found.
Mr. Lutnick, for example, demanded that the South Korean government invest billions of dollars in U.S. industry to reduce tariffs. Mr. Neugebauer is vying for a share of those investment dollars to build the data center that Mr. Lutnick’s family is also helping to finance.
The job of commerce secretary has always been to promote American industry through deal-making at home and abroad, and the position has traditionally been populated with titans of industry who were expected to bring a business sensibility to meetings filled with career government workers.
But never in modern U.S. history has the office intersected so broadly and deeply with the financial interests of the commerce secretary’s own family, according to interviews with ethics lawyers and historians.
If any Democrat seeking the White House doesn’t emphasize that a newly-empowered DOJ will prosecute the litany of corrupt Trump appointees, I won’t vote for them.
No Wonder Musk Relocated To Texas:
Months after fighting to keep secret the emails exchanged between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s companies, state officials released nearly 1,400 pages to The Texas Newsroom.
The records, however, reveal little about the two men’s relationship or Musk’s influence over state government. In fact, all but about 200 of the pages are entirely blacked out.
Of those that were readable, many were either already public or provided minimal information. They included old incorporation records for Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, a couple of agendas for the governor’s committee on aerospace and aviation, emails regarding a state grant awarded to SpaceX and an application from a then-Musk employee to sit on a state commission.
One is an invitation to happy hour. Another is a reminder of the next SpaceX launch.
Open government experts say the limited disclosure is emblematic of a larger transparency problem in Texas. They pointed to a 2015 state Supreme Court decision that allowed companies to oppose the release of records by arguing that they contain “competitively sensitive” information. The ruling, experts said, made it harder to obtain records documenting interactions between governments and private companies.
The problem has been exacerbated, Leatherbury added, by the fact that the Office of the Attorney General, which referees public records disputes, does not have the power to investigate whether the records that companies want to withhold actually contain trade secrets.
“Corporations are willing to assert that information is confidential, commercial information, and more governmental bodies are willing not to second-guess the company’s assertion,” Leatherbury said. (Leatherbury has performed pro bono legal work for The Texas Newsroom.)
Oh, well, at least Delaware legislators tried. They paved the way for Musk’s trillion dollar payday. Guess it just wasn’t enough. At least they weakened Delaware’s corporate laws so that the next would-be trillionaire might want to incorporate here.
Seems Like A Lot Of Grandstanding To Me:
Delaware lawmakers grilled New Castle County officials in the third hearing legislators have held on its controversial property reassessment process.
Homeowners throughout the state face steep tax increases, in some cases up to thousands of dollars, after property values were reassessed for the first time in decades. Public outcry in New Castle County over the tax spikes prompted state lawmakers to pass limited legislative fixes and hold hearings.
This hearing was the first since the courts dismissed a lawsuit against the county, state and local school districts regarding a state statute allowing school districts to issue split residential and commercial tax rates for the 2025-2026 tax year.
New Castle County Attorney Aaron Goldstein and County Chief Financial Officer David Del Grande appeared before the joint legislative task force, saying they were now freer to answer lawmakers’ questions since the litigation had been resolved in their favor. County Executive Marcus Henry appeared before the committee in early October.
But Goldstein declined to answer whether New Castle County was actively considering trying to recover money paid to the third-party contractor Tyler Technologies, which did the property valuations for all three counties. New Castle County has said it paid Tyler $20 million for its appraisal work.
The county officials drew the ire of state Rep. Kim Williams after she was told the answers to her questions, including the payment plan due dates were on the slideshow presentation. Goldstein later apologized for incorrectly saying the dates were listed there. (If Kim Williams feigns outrage, it is grandstanding.)
“Oh thank you for schooling me,” she said. “I looked and I just didn’t see it, so that’s why I asked.”
The terse exchange over the bills continued as lawmakers sought to clarify what information was being sent out. At first, the county officials said taxpayers would not see the split tax rates in the bill itself, but later corrected themselves. The county also clarified property owners would receive a supplemental bill, not a new one.
Yeah, the process is screwed up. But the simple fact is that many Delaware homeowners have underpaid their property taxes for something like 40 years. Because there were no reassessments for something like 40 years. Either pay more, or move. These contrived show hearings will not change that.
Kent County Democrats Are Weenies:
Kent County Commissioner Jody Sweeney was removed from his committee assignments Tuesday night for social media comments that have caused a backlash.
Sweeney, a Democrat who represents the Camden area in District 5, drew considerable outcry following comments critical of Charlie Kirk after his Sept. 10 assassination.
He already had a public Facebook account that frequently shared messages critical of President Trump and was unapologetic in its criticisms. Earlier this month, Sweeney announced that he would no longer be publicly posting.
“I remain a staunch opponent to Trump and what he is doing to our Country. I will still be attending Independence Central Delaware rallies. I will still support residents of Kent County to continue to move our County forward,” he wrote on Nov. 9. “It’s been real. It’s been fun. But it ain’t been real fun.”
Levy Court President Joanne Masten, who introduced the motion to remove Sweeney from his appointments, read directly from an earlier Facebook post Sweeney made in August – which has since been removed – asking if readers “were butt hurt or your cheeks clenched?” that county residents would have to pay for his pension after he retires.
Masten and other commissioners did not cite any other specific examples of Sweeney’s behavior that they deemed inappropriate, but said his posts “crossed a line.”
What fucking line was that? Rhetorical question. The real reason why these pathetic D’s took this action was this:
Four residents spoke in favor of the Levy Court’s decision during public comment at the end of the meeting.
“I recognize how hard it is to remove your colleague from committees,” said Magnolia resident Kim Petters, a former Republican candidate for State Senate. “But I’m glad you recognize the damage of his actions and his words.” (What fucking damage?)
Petters, and a number of her social media followers, have been vocal about their disapproval of Sweeney and his political posts at previous Levy Court meetings and on social media.
In his statement at the beginning of the meeting, Sweeney accused his fellow commissioners of giving in to pressure by Petters’ group to take action against him.
“Taking action now is buckling under pressure from a single person who organized a group to attack me,” he said.
This is unadulterated bullshit. Primary these wusses.
Two brief mini-screeds before I go.
Started to listen to the Senate debate on decoupling Federal and state corporate taxes yesterday–until Eric Buckson got up, and started his annoying laconic will-not-be-rushed bullshit. Something about how could Matt Meyer schedule a signing ceremony for the bill when the bill hasn’t been passed yet. Uh, because everybody knew it was gonna pass? I admit it–I can’t stand having to listen to him. So I didn’t.
Personal to News-Journal: How many consecutive days must I unsubscribe from your entreaties to come back to your shitty rag before you stop sending out your Daily Drivel?
Thank you, doctor, I feel better now.
What do you want to talk about?
“If any Democrat seeking the White House doesn’t emphasize that a newly-empowered DOJ will prosecute the litany of corrupt Trump appointees, I won’t vote for them.” – you know no democrat will run with that as a platform. they will say we need to return to a time of civility and bipartisian politics for the good of the country. and i agree with you, if every member of the trump family and all the maga acolytes arent investigated by a COMPETENT AG we will never ever recover.
as for the ncco reassessment, initially my bill went up 55%. after the split rate the total increase will be about 22% after i get my refund. thats a major discrepancy and screw up on their part
The General Assembly’s failure/refusal to require reassessments over these last 40 years led to the court-mandated solution while short-changing education funding for those 40 years.
They should look inward before they place blame on others. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and they should shoulder their fair share of it.
That discrepancy isn’t due to any screwup. It’s due to the fact that the law was changed to toss more of the burden onto non-residential properties.
There was no mandate for that before the bills were sent out. It wasn’t even considered, nor should it have been.
You underpaid for years. Shut up and take the W.
Ugh! Petters is still up to her fascist partisan bullshit. Driving out moderate, non-partisan Milford school board, opening the way for the likes of Pirate Matt Bucker and his band of merry screwups to take those vacant seats and turn the Milford School District into a MAGA testing ground.
All the more reason why the Democrats’ response is so lame.
If you can’t stand up to a MAGAt like Kim Petters, you can’t stand up to anybody.
I think the Democrat that motioned to take assignments away is in league with the MAGA faction. A blind man can see it. Maston is MAGA?