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Steve Newton, one of Delaware’s ablest analysts, issued the warning early in the year… I have since been on the lookout for what he called…. I believe…. The Great Distractor”….
This is a outrage so great, it dominates all discussion, to the extent no controversy can exist beyond it… It gets covered in the News Journal. It is the sole subject for weeks on end on the talk shows… etc…
Even bloggers take up the outrage, so inflamed are they and smelling blood, all want some credit for a kill….
Meanwhile, real bills that transfer the building blocks put in place over centuries of public schooling , get pulled and shuffled over to private enterprise….
Bluntly put, the rich get richer by picking all our pockets while we focus on the bar fight taking place on the floor directly in front of us, little realizing the entertainment is completely staged for our own fleecing…..
Yesterday the same topic dominated both the morning show, and afternoon show on WDEL…. Jonathan Starkey’s piece in the News Journal had done its part…..
There was considerable buzz; legislators were being called up on air, and duly pitching their outrage to get their name out in front of the voters….
The controversy is over the unclaimed property issue… Basically everyone is upset over how the government can claim unused gift cards… Yes, if you listened… that is what the entire controversy boiled down to. , The Republicans think they have an issue. The Government is taking private property because…. they can….
So let us pop this “distractor” and get back to reality… All this controversy is about who should own unclaimed property… Two people see a dollar bill in the road… Who should get it? Why does one have more right over it than the other? Should corporations be allowed to keep money that is not theirs? If I find a wallet with $500, should I keep it and spend it on me? Or should I turn it in to the police, and if no one comes and claims it, they then get to use the proceeds in their service to all….
Obviously, the latter is the more fair. I certainly have no right to that wallet, except by some made-up rule …. finders-keepers. Who does that money belong to? It belonged to someone, one of those who are protected by the police, and who are an individual just like me… Who is more likely to get an inquiry requesting whether anyone turned in a wallet with $500? A random stranger (me)? Or the police?….
Again, it is obvious to which one society would benefit having ownership of that dollar found in the street….. And the amounts of money are paltry… dollar bills for the most part….
Oh, but the outrage!! The Outrage! The outrage…..
“Look, Buzz, an alien…… Ha, made you look…… ”
There are some rather serious crises currently nibbling the foundation of the Markell and Democratic party.. Primarily they are two fold. The economic folly of cutting taxes on the top 1% of Delawareans, who should be funding the state with their windfall capital gains earnings, and that folly’s impact on stifling job growth…. and the crises of building charter schools for “Friends of Jack Markell” by dismantling the public schools that have carried Delaware to prominence up to this point……
They almost need this distraction… In a very bad way….
- Meanwhile they they insist on pushing forward the TDC, to the detriment of all those 30,000 Newarkians who will soon be breathing cancerous particles 24/7….
- Meanwhile they insist on pushing a Charter School agenda forward when next year’s charter schools can only muster 40% capacity.
- Meanwhile they insist on pushing Common Core, by now a completely debunked curriculum, that was so obviously created to summarily give one educational-material corporation an advantage over all others….
- Meanwhile, Delaware’s budget shortfall grows as the economy suffers under too low taxes and way too few government jobs.
- Meanwhile, Delaware is seeing global warming increase all costs statewide, while those wealthy who were to blame for it, get to keep a majority of their earnings off of it, tax free…
- Meanwhile, Delaware is giving far to much of our precious few resources to corporations who repeatedly, had always failed to deliver any return for our investment….
- Meanwhile, Delaware is destroying the 39th best teaching school in America, the educational department of the University of Delaware, to water it down to the abysmal Common Core standards…..
What this administrations sorely needs….
Is ” A Great Distractor”……. “Look, Buzz, an alien!”
Instead we should be watching out for……..
- House Bill # 334
- HB #333
- SB #210
- Looking forward to the necessary modifications to SB 51 and HB 165.
- And the fact that during these 8 years… Delaware’s children in poverty…. DOUBLED!
- Meanwhile, our cronyism allows our top income earners, to pay little or nothing in taxes……
That last one…… is the real outrage.…. one future generations will hold us accountable for decades to come………
Meanwhile
It appears the TDC has run aground as did every Revolutionary warship that tried to attack up the Delaware Bay……
Newark’s newest populist hero, Mark Morehead, has found new discrepancies. The problems are in violation of the project’s previously-awarded city zoning verification….
There are four tables listing data….
A. There are several basic arithmetic errors in the first table.. Apparently the engineer fabricating them was trained by Common Core, and can’t do basic math. (Common Core is 85% inferior to the mathematical teaching methods of the 70’s,80’s, and 90’s).
B. TDC lacks the ability to complete the power plant project effectively, Can anyone trust their life to someone who can’t add 20 + 20?
D. Of the four interlocking tables submitted by TDC, the data does not match. It fluctuates in all four to achieve whatever result the TDC wishes to convey….
E Despite initial claims of excess energy to be sold out to the grid, the actual plans show that in phase one there is a deficit of 7.0 MW less than is necessary… meaing the Data center will be stealing power from Newark proper, and esculating everyones electrical rates through the roof… In phase 2 there is even more of a deficit, 17.4 MW less than required, which takes half of Newark proper’s hourly need of 34 Mw just to keep the lights on!
F. No one but stupid builds a power plant in the middle of town. But if they did happen to do so, they would require at least 30% extra power to be given to the town in payment. The figures show this will not happen, and this was the prime contingent for moving forward with the project in the first place… It is like you go to ShopRite and buy coffee and after getting rung up, you say: “unh, unh, no way. I want it for free. I’m not paying you”… hoping they will be too busy to make a fuss and just say “get outta here.” We have a word for that in the English language. It is: criminal.
G. The university which allegedly has in its employee, some professors, did not have anyone double check the numbers before signing on… Hmmm. Or maybe they did, and THAT is why they are being so coy and secretive about it? Hmmm.
The Council voted to uphold the people’s right to know, and stopped the forward movement of the Data Center… These are you heroes. Rob Gifford, Mark Morehead, Polly Sierer, Luke Chapman and Marge Hadden …..
Here is pure unadulterated evil… Vince D’Anna…
It would be a rather wise idea to form a class action suit against Vince D’Anna in regards to potential damages he brings to all Newark’s citizens, and thereby force him to make a simple choice between either jail time or great personnel financial loss, or … turning to state’s evidence and informing us of all the corruption and criminal action of which he knows. We have multiple lawyers, and I’m sure for the sake of their children, they would be willing to spend 5 hours of personal time perusing Nancy’s blog for data leading to a simple filing… It’s for our kids, for heaven’s sakes….
Courtesy of Fine Art America; by Ed Welker
Robert Bianco’s poem enlisted and spoken at the inauguration was probably the high point, eclipsing the inauguration speech, and both the singing of Beyonce, and Carrie Underwood.
it was a poem of understatement. A simple description of the sun rising and shining over this nation on one day of its life. Bonding us all in the unity of experience we all undergo. No matter the differences of our upbringing, the differences of your heritage, the differences of our finances, we all wake up to one sun….
East or West, North, or South, one sun shines down on this country….
We are all Americans, based on the geography of where we live. Divisions do not becomes us. We all bask in the same sun.
New York and San Antonio, Miami and Seattle. All live and bask under the same sun. Different to be sure. But all Americans. All sharing the heat and warmth from the one sun, as the world turns underneath…..
It was the most emotional moment of the celebration. As camera’s panned the crowd one could see the emotion being experienced was not just inside ones self but in commoners and the elite as well…. Like it or not, we are all American. We have so much in common we probably take it too much for granted….
One, today.
One sun rose on us today,
Kindled over our shores,
Peeking over the Smokies,
Greeting the faces of the Great Lakes,
Spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains,
And Charging across the Rockies,
One Light.
Waking up rooftops,
Under each one a story,
Told by our silent gestures
Moving across windows,
My face,
Your face.
Millions of faces in morning’s mirrors.
Each one yawning to life,
Crescendoing into our day,
The pencil yellow school buses,
The rhythm of traffic lights,
Fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges,
Arrayed like rainbows, begging our praise.
Silver trucks, heavy with oil or paper, bricks or milk,
Teeming over highways
Along side us,
On our way,
To clean tables,
Read ledgers,
Or save lives,
To teach geometry,
Or ring up groceries,
As my mother did
For twenty years,
So I could write this poem for all us,
Today.
All of us,
As vital as the one light we move through,
The same light on blackboards with lessons for the
Day.
Equations to solve,
History to question,
Or atoms imagined.
The “I have a Dream”
We all keep dreaming,
The impossible vocabulary of sorrow,
That won’t explain the empty desks,
Of twenty children marked absent,
Today,
And forever.
Many prayers,
But one light,
Breathing color into stained glass windows,
Life into the faces of bronze statues,
Warmth onto the steps of our museums,
And park benches
As mothers watch children,
Slide
Into the
Day.
One ground,
Our ground.
Rooting us to every stalk of corn,
Every head of wheat,
Sown by sweat and hands,
Hands gleaning coal,
Or planting windmills,
In deserts and hilltops that keep us warm,
Hands digging trenches,
Routing pipes, and cables.
Hands,
As worn as my father’s,
Cutting sugarcane,
So my brother and I could have books,
And shoes.
The dust of farms and deserts,
Cities and plains,
Mingled by one wind,
Our breath.
Breathe.
Hear it through the days gorgeous din
Of honking cabs,
Buses launching down avenues,
The symphony of footsteps, guitars,
And screeching subways.
The unexpected songbird
On your clothesline.
Hear squeaky playground swings,
Trains whistling,
Or whispers across cafe tables.
Hear the doors we open,
Each day for each other.
Saying hello,
Shalom,
Bonjour-no,
Howdy,
Na me state,
Or, buenos dias
In the language my mother taught me,
In every language
Spoken into one wind,
Carrying our lives without prejudice,
As these words break from my lips.
One sky.
Since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed their majesty,
And the Mississippi and Colorado
Worked their way to the sea.
Thank the work of our hands,
Weaving steel into bridges,
Finishing one more report for the boss,
On time,
Stitching another wound, or uniform.
The first brush stroke on a portrait,
Or the last floor on the Freedom Tower,
Jutting into the sky,
That yields to our resilience.
One sky,
Toward which we sometimes lift our eyes,
Tired from work,
Some days guessing at the weather
Of our lives,
Some days giving thanks for a love,
That loves you back.
Sometimes praising a mother who knew how to give,
Or forgiving a father, who couldn’t give what you wanted.
We head
Home,
Through the gloss of rain,
Or weight of snow.
Or the plum-blush of dusk,
But always,
Always
Home.
Always under one sky,
Our sky.
And always one moon,
Like a silent drum,
Tapping on every rooftop,
Of every window of one country,
All of us
Facing the stars,
Hope:
A new constellation,
Waiting for us to map it,
Waiting for us to name it,
Together.
There is a rumor being circulated among high circles, that a certain local developer wanted a zoning variance in Newark, that was shot down by that city’s Council….. Apparently it would create havoc for citizens living around it and they protested its development.
He sold the property to the University of Delaware, which turned around immediately and leased it back to him, and because the University is immune to Newark’s zoning under a grandfather clause, he is now able to build his project over the objections of all involved…. with no oversight, mind you.
When the University was questioned as to why they acquiesced to backhandedly helping a private developer bypass legal restrictions, their public answer reportedly was: “because we can.”
Does anyone know of more information? Or is this just a rumor circulated in “high places…”
I think you already know the answer. 🙂
Paul Clark is Mr. Pam Scott. He is running for a second term.
Great, how did he do his first term?
He sped up the review process for new development, so that there IS no review process, as citizens at the UDC meeting in Crossroads Presbyterian Church, found out last Thursday night…
Even the Appoquinimink Superintendent exclaimed “They’re doing what” as he saw the land use map for the first time along with everyone else.
The actions of Mr. Pam Scott (Paul Clark) will raise county taxes.
The actions of Mr. Pam Scott (Paul Clark) will cause traffic congestion.
The actions of Mr. Pam Scott (Paul Clark) will depress property values.
So in a nutshell, I would be forced to say that Mr. Pam Scott (Paul Clark) was rather effective in his stint as New Castle County Council President… If you live in New Castle County, you probably cannot afford another equally effective four years of Mr. Pam Scott……
Elections are about choices…. We all know that… And Mr. Pam Scott has his reasons for doing what he did….. all of them are quite valid…. all $88,285 of them……
That is the amount of money funneled by those who must live or die by Mr. Pam Scott’s (Paul Clark) decisions before his council…. Which means that to get Mr. Pam Scott’s (Paul Clark’s) attention, you must first present him with $88,285 dollars……
I don’t have $88,285 dollars…. but we do have another alternative… Vote Mr. Pam Scott (Paul Clark) out of harm’s way…. There is someone better who is running. He is running on representing “people” for a change… )Yeah, people… remember what they are?) It has been a long time since someone on County Council has considered their point of view….
Delaware Way has it posted over there.
___________________________________________
$75175 from development community. 60%
$11150 from Building Trades 8%
$ 9600 Stoltz Development 8%
$ 4400 Julian Family 4%
$13,800 Developer’s attorneys 11%
___________________________________________
$114125 Aggregate total 91%
___________________________________________
Of course this would mean nothing if new development got the scrutiny it realistically deserved.. Of course this would mean nothing if citizens and school boards were not surprised by the number of people moving in to approved developments. Of course this would mean nothing if the rules for development hadn’t secretly been changed. Of course this would be nothing if developers were not right now racing to process bogus applications before the rules change back again…..
But to be fair, we received Mr Pam Scott’s (Paul Clark’s) side in the mail yesterday…the result of his above $114,125 dollars. In his defense Mr. Pam Scott (Paul Clark) decided to make his rebuttal with few words, and respond with pictures instead…
The reason Mr Pam Scott, (Paul Clark) deserves four more years is that he talks to police men, even if they are women. Paramedics drove through neighborhoods on his watch, and he stood beside a police car…
“Making a difference for New Castle County”
I’ll say,…. one we’ll never be able to crawl out from……
Bill Bell’s Campaign Finance Expenditures
Courtesy of rsmitty who first posted this over at Delaware Politics. Net……
(if only you knew how many jokes I typed up and deleted for reasons of good taste) lol
photo from file.
(Overheard on his cellphone to his developer boss; paraphrased, coming from a skinny twenty something, logo’d in a golf shirt, khaki pants, standing in the vestibule corner as everyone filed out; “it’s spinning out of control. E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y is angry. I don’t think we can fix it. It’s going the wrong way. I think we lost the election.”)
Now I’ve seen many meetings. Usually it’s always the same comfortable group, the same participants, with one or two of the same troublemaker activists. We all know each other, politely nod to our enemies, and once our duty is performed, socializing progresses afterwards. The short story version appears in the News Journal two days later….
Usually.
That was not what happened last night, August September 4th ( 🙂 h/t rsmitty) inside the Crossroads Presbyterian Church, which had blissfully wonderful cushioned green seats; that is if you were early enough to grab one…
Standing-room-only would be too cliche to describe the turnout. This issue at hand was so hot it swelled participation far above the 200 the organizers had expected…. (237 cars were counted; 500 participants?) They had even forgotten to plan for a microphone, assuming normal voices would suffice.
They didn’t, and fortunately a microphone was found.
Dignitaries (ie our politicos) sat across in front of the crowd… Dick Cathcart sat center, Bill Bell sat next to him. Bill Powers sat and stood on Cathcart’s left. Penrose Hollins drove down to represent Council. Bill Dunn, Bethany Hall Long, Earl Jacques, Rebecca Walker, Tom Scherer, Mike Protack, Bruce Ennis, members of the land use committee, and the Superintendent of the Appoquinimink School District showed up. Ms Fitzpatrick (sp) came in place of Representative Lofink, who was unfortunately at his son’s wedding rehearsal, to which one irate resident blurted out….”that’s no excuse!” Her spouse, quickly put his hand on her leg, and warned her to calm down..”it’s his son’s wedding….”
Yes tensions were that high…..
But the real star of the entire evening was the map…. Yes, a silly map. It stood tall over the entire meeting, dominating everyone’s attention… It out staged the County Council Head, Penrose Collins, who stormed off when it became obvious that the audience was not interested in his point of view….
Most felt that was fair play…. for no one had taken the time to consider their point of view when these ordinances were passed, affecting the entire lower region of the New Castle County… That it turns out, appears to be true…. no one.
The map stood tall over the entire proceeding, reminding everyone, every minute of the immense changes coming soon. And the changes were immense….
Here is the scale they are speaking off.
Three new schools will need to be built, one each year, to accommodate the new influx of students. The school district was surprised tonight; the plans were made without consulting them. They have no money to grow.
Traffic will grow by 1800 cars. What’s the visual of 1800 cars? At fifteen feet per vehicle, 27,000 feet total divided by 5280 ft/mile, equals a line of cars, parked bumper to bumper, a little over 5 miles long… Imagine a line of cars parked on the shoulder of RT 1 from St. George’s bridge to the heart of Odessa. There is your visual image. Deldot was surprised tonight. The plans were made without consulting them. And they too, have no money to grow.
Most of the areas do not have sewer capacity yet; however in a rush, building will progress, anticipating promised waivers to use septic systems, until the county sewer system can catch up….. (Do you follow county finances?) They have no money to grow…..
The wells to supply additional amounts of water; they are not yet drilled. They are on hold, for they have no money to grow….
The anger seemed to grow exponentially within that room… (Thank heavens they held this disclosure within a church).
Hats off to a great job done by the organizers, including one Chuck Mulholland. No one could have prepared them for what took place. Their natural demeanor saved the day, rising to the challenge of the moment. Particularly impressive was Chuck’s impromptu changing of the agenda, as it became quite apparent that citizens were there to make their voices heard, not listen to failed excuses…. That change-up, diffused some tension, perhaps saving a riot… I’ll bet he never expected to put 3 miles on that evening, all the while carrying the microphone.
The question of the day? How could this have happened…
The answer:
Mr. Pam Scott Paul Clark, President of County Council.
All these elements were rushed though, without vetting, to get developers in construction phase before the public could become aware of what was aimed at them. No vetting was done, so no leaks would occur. The last thing developers and Paul Clark needed, was a large meeting of outraged citizens.
Obviously the details of the arrangements were made in his home, and presented fait accompli to the Council for its rubber stamp. That is after all, what New County Council’s tend to do…
Therefore Paul Clark needs to go.
Councilman Bill Bell, who resembles the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man, performed the role of a stool quite adequately. “No one told me” was his response….” I didn’t know…” he stammered. The question which immediately popped into every head but one, was ” why not?” That’s your job…
Obviously his principal function was to be the Rose Margaret Henry of the County Council. Being put in that position by the developers and unions, means he obviously feels he doesn’t need to call back his constituents, doesn’t need to show up at their meetings, doesn’t need to answer their letters or emails… Like Margaret Rose Henry, all he needs to do is show up… and vote the way he is told..
When faced with 450 some people he began to get nervous. His primary is days away… His opponent Tom Scherer, who is having his own personal fight with the developers of his development, over their unfulfilled promises.. certainly does appear to be the better choice, Towards the end, almost reduced to pleading for his seat, Mr. Bell promised too late, to “not support” the resolution that due to his complicity, has already been passed….
If there was another star, other than the map, the organizers, and the citizens themselves, it was Representative Dick Cathcart… Angered at the incompetence bordering on deceit coming from Mr Pam Scott Paul Clark and his Council, he promised legislation to forever put County Council growth under State oversight…. it’s about time.
Bruce Ennis, surprised everyone in the room by coming down hard for a moratorium on all new development. Two, three, four years whatever it takes to get local citizens to become comfortable with the new developments. He cited Kent County as a place where citizens took control and booted all developers our of governmental oversight positions…. That county is once again under control of its citizens; spawning a series of lawsuits from developers against it. Ennis implied that as long as New Castle’s citizenry supported the continuation of a moratorium against such lawsuits, he would as well. Most nuisance lawsuits would be thrown out, costing nothing since they were filed with no legal grounds to support them, but still the stigma of having lawsuits might make some citizens feel uneasy…. The consensus in that room was: if you take on the developers…. we got your back….
Go get them Bruce.
They came to listen. They got their earful.
Distilled to its basic elixir, here is the essence.
New Castle County development is controlled by developers and the Building Trades Union who are linked together in their interest for growth. Money for developers, jobs for employees. They own the following: Chris Coons, Paul Clark, Bill Bell, Bill Powers, George Smiley, and Bob Weiner….
Breaking that connection is the first step in returning Democracy back to those New Castle County citizens who live outside the city. Democratic Voters have the opportunity to sever that connection during Tuesday’s primary, September 8th. Voting Bill Dunn over Paul Clark, Tom Gordon over Chris Coons, Tom Scherer over Bill Bill, and Carl Colantuono over John Cartier, will do your part in returning Democracy to County Government. (Yeah, I know one is controversial, but if elected, we will own him, not the developers).
I’ve run out of time and space. Not mentioned here was the citizens fear of falling property values; not mentioned here was one realtor who spoke 6 (?) times, warning citizens of how workforce housing would affect their property values, not mentioned here was the question of where these workforce housing residents, transferred from Wilmington’s projects on the East Side, would find ever find work to pay for their housing, pimps, and bags of crack; not mentioned here was the cost of someone to cut down tennis shoes hanging from electric wires; not mentioned here was how noble Bill Dunn looked when working the crowd, compared to Paul Clark 4 years ago; not mentioned here was how poorly workforce housing residents obey driving laws; not mention here was how insufficient the current sewer systems are today, even without additional units; not mentioned here was how County Council increased the density levels, so developers could sell more houses per lot, more profit per lot; not mentioned here were the number of minority citizens who vehemently said they left the city to get away from the trash the County was again forcing upon them; not mentioned here was how hard everyone has worked, and suffered, to build their piece of the American dream, which now the County Council, at the bequest of Developers and Building Trade Unions, was about to destroy, WITHOUT EVEN CONSULTING THEM!
I wish I had more time…
Nancy, Geek? Can you add more?
Points for tonights meeting:
Please leave early and drive up the Rt 40 Corridor. Look at the strip malls, and row houses. Look at the siding buckling off of 5 year old buildings. Look at the number of shade trees, and look at the number of stoplights you have to go through.
What you won’t see, will be the overstuffed sewer lines, the underfed water lines, the lack of wilderness area that existed before development moved in. What you won’t notice will be the 45% increase in the time of your commute, mostly spent close to your home… What you won’t notice will be the number of police calls, the increase in crime, and the fear that senior citizens live underneath, that didn’t used to be there 10 years ago..
Attempts were made to stop it.. But with the selling out of the 40-7 Alliance to the developers, and with the passing of Martha Dennison in her attempt to lead County Council, the developers combined with union support, rolled over any attempt to set up roadblocks.
You can see it taking place now in the 12th District Council Seat covering lower New Castle County. Bill Bell has done nothing nor said anything that was not sent down from those running the show. He still follows the playbook saying nothing, even when it counteracts the citizens living in that district themselves….
This is good for those writing the playbook, but is bad for those of you living in its path…
Numbers are your best defense. They worked in the Bear area up until the year 2002. Organize door to door and show up at meetings… Check with your neighbors on both sides of you and then go from there if you wish to preserve the good things that make living where you are…. great.
if you are searching for a model, to be used in future development, the best development in the Bear Area would be Wrangle Hill Estates, near the corner of Rt 72 and Porter Road. Drive through this development and see how it makes good use of its environment. Only a minimum of trees were eliminated, and a majority of the acreage was left undisturbed.
That should be the ideal we accept. That should be the direction we go. That should be the policy of this county, ….not that which we are given…….
Hats off to rsmitty for getting the time down correctly.
Verified by Representative Dick Cathcart, the News Journal, and the Middletown Transcript the all important meeting on the changes in UDC code affecting the lower canal area, will take place tonight at 7:00 pm at the Crossroads Presbyterian Church at 627 Vance Neck Road, just north of Odessa.
It had previously been reported on Delaware Way and this Blog, that the date was tomorrow.
It is not. It is tonight…..August September 4th….
Again, if possible, every citizen of New Castle County, needs to be there at this meeting. it is THAT important… Barring that, everyone who CAN make it, needs to hear what the changes made to the Unified Development Code, will do to your property value and quality of life…..
Although the Code applies only to New Castle County, it would be helpful for our brothers and sisters of Sussex and Kent Counties, to make the short trip up north, in order to see what’s at stake, so they can have the foresight to make preemptive plans accordingly….
kavips 
