Drawing A Fine Line On Delaware’s Republican Party.

On Monday night, my social media blew up… “I’ve seen hate and bigots but I’ve never seen someone so sickening as I saw tonight (at the University of Delaware)…”.

Who was speaking?  After a couple of clicks I found it was MILO, a Breitbart gay who supports Donald Trump. His opening line was “there are three genders:  male, female, and retarded…”

On Tuesday I heard afterward how Newark had taken down his fliers off telephone poles. Perusing the Breitbart site  I saw several stories there about the UD event.

You can watch it here;

Invited by The College Republicans and the Delaware Federation of College Republicans, he was allowed by the University to speak despite many other groups objections.

“I will close with this advice. Never feel bad for mocking a transgender person. It is our job to point out their absurdity, to not make the problem worse by pretending they are normal. Much like fat-shaming, if our mockery drives them to get the help they need, we may save their life.” was the closing argument.

Delaware’s best know transgender advocate responded:

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This is Trump’s Republican Party and mocking people has become its modis operandi. At worst, the UD College Republicans hate people like me so much that they support their speaker’s words and, at best, our dignity and worth mean so little to them that they didn’t think twice before throwing it under the bus for a decent crowd, a couple laughs, and some un-nuanced, childish approach to “celebrating” free speech….

This event caused controversy in the local branch of the Republican party.

Delaware GOP spokesman John Fluharty, who is gay, said the College Republicans’ choice to bring “shock jock” Yiannopoulos showed poor judgement.

“They need to think in terms of is what we’re about to do going to grow the party or is it going to hurt the party? And I think they’d be hard-pressed to be able to come up with one new voter for the party based upon what happened on-campus this week,” said Fluharty. “It is really is a shame.”

On Amy Cherry’s piece on WDEL, he continues.  “Andrew Lipman, head of the Delaware Federation of College Republicans, when I spoke to him, was neither open to our request, or sorry for the harm he caused our party….”

And at this point I am finally going to get to my point in this article.  Those following me know I have given Republicans a taunting hard time (similar to MILO here), for saying they are diversifying their party outside the normal Republican definition, and failing to abandon the head of their party who represents the exact opposite of the words they say..

It is hypocritical to say you are open to Hispanics when your presidential candidate is saying all 15 million will be deported.. That is almost comical and so I commented as such.

But hearing this exchange on WDEL caused me to see something different.   The tactic taken by the leadership of the adult Delaware Republican Party probably should be applauded, not disparaged.   These type of things take time to ferment and develop. Most likely the seeds of this policy towards inclusion and openness were started back when all assumed Jeb Bush would be their candidate. They were surprised as most of us, that Donald Trump grabbed the title first and held on to the lead.

But what they did was brave and probably the perfect response to racism.. We know that children tend to take the attitudes of their parents while growing up. At some mature point, they either choose to stay with them, or switch… But whatever the parents believe and they absorb while growing up, is basically what they believe.  It is not determined by melanin, or the degree of slant on one’s eyes.   Race is an artificial categorization, one we imposed to put people in our boxes, so it is easier for us to categorize them.

A black growing up in an environment dominated by investment banking, will tend to be for policies that make sense to investment bankers, not a life he has never seen, but which is populated by most of those sharing the color of his skin.

A Hispanic growing up in a fundamentalist religious sect will obviously share the ideals of that sect more than he will share the values of others in a completely different environment growing up.

And this is what must happen if we are to move to a race-equal society, where race no longer matters because everyone is seen as an individual.  not a member of one race or another. Most likely in all of us within our own race, we don’t make distinctions like:… “Oh, she will have Republican values because she lives in Limestone Hills”.  That is ridiculous. Instead we meet them, talk to them, and only then, we pigeon hole or classify them as this type or that type, based on their individuality….

So shouldn’t we do that with all people, all races?

Which is why this openness in the Delaware Republican party should be encouraged and flamed into something exciting and  liberating.  The sad thing, is that since it is so new, only two among them have chosen the less-traveled path of throwing off the bigotry of their leader, and making political hay out of the opportunity to promote their brave new path.  All the rest took the path instead, of obfuscating this new idea by insisting on the same old prejudice by which they have always been historically tainted…

So I did want to illustrate the fine line and explain though I will continue to bash the Republicans’ moral lassitude for political expediency, it was a good plan and one I hope they continue… just learn that character is more important than following the party… When your party is wrong, sticking with it against your convictions, makes you look wrong whether you are or not…

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Great coach…

How did he get picked again?

Better Than A TDC?

Would be for the University of Delaware to use that space to build the premiere forefront of nuclear fusion research….  Not fission, which has radioactive residue, but fusion which turns hydrogen into helium  generating heat to rotate massive turbines.

Or research into more efficient turbines.

Or more efficient solar panels…

All three would be keeping with the promise of the University of Delaware’s green promise, and make it a leading intellectual nucleus for future technology to adhere….

Going forwards with a TDC that is gas fired is like buying a steam locomotive in 1952……

Taking A Hard Look At Jobs Provided By Data Centers.

Delaware already has data centers.  Each has 5 people per shift and operates across 3 shifts so roughly 24 per each are employed… So  those 24  jobs added to the Newark economy, need to be balanced against the amount of money a loud data center will drive away.  Does it lower home value?  One would think, and would that total lowering of home values due to a “twenty four hour conversation”, cost the city more than would 24 jobs?  Most likely, yes.

Secondly, Newark Delaware has recently had a boom of building activity.  Main Street West, as well as Delaware Avenue, and don’t forget the University construction on Loering Street.   How much increase did all of New Castle County’s businesses get uplifted from all that activity? Building the power plant will employ less.

So when the lobbyists begin promising jobs, remember, in a data center, there are not that many jobs.  Computers run themselves.

Furthermore, data centers have issues with getting good help on board.

At a roundtable of Data Center managers, several problems were evident. Good people don’t stay; they jump shift quite often.

One reason they don’t stay is because of job pressure– the pressure to keep data centers on line and up and running all the time. One thing goes wrong, they lose their jobs.  Therefore they are on the constant lookout for centers that have the means to avoid those interruption, and therefore provide a higher level of security.

What is known as densities, has increased over the past 5 years immensely.. That is the number of transactions per minute.  They are way up due to technological advancements.  Which means one small one half-second glitch, would wipe out data for one half of the United States of America .

The roundtable also dipped into carbon emissions.  Data Centers use a lot of electricity.  More than a town.  A data center must have a constant front against accusations it is damaging the environment worse than anything other than a coal plant…

The perfect employee for a data center does not need a college degree nor does he need certification in computers. Actually someone who hacks games and can bypass securities and download copyrighted material, is the perfect candidate recommended to work inside a data center.  Sort of turns the world on it’s end, doesn’t it?

So Newark. here is the bottom line.  What do you want to do?

Do you want a 240 Megawatt gas turbine power plant next to your domicile, or don’t you?  You will have a few people with bacon grease hair, all selling you how great having jobs will be.   Just remember they are selling!  Just like that guy who promises you the car you buy, can fly to Japan and back.  Both are selling.

Looking across the nation, whenever a company comes in, they always say they will hire 200+.  If they have their own power plant, it actually is between 30 and 50.  In Delaware, the  bank’s data centers themselves, usually run a crew of 24 on the average.

So 24 kids making $50,000 nets $1.2 million.   If nearby houses lose $10,000 in asking price due to the data center’s twenty-four hour conversation, it would take 120 houses to suck that gain right out of the air.  Then every single other house selling under its estimate as well,  pulls Newark further into a hole worse off than it is today…..

120 Homes are basically two streets worth.

There are over 100 streets within a radius of one mile from the power plant…

This will create a net loss for Newark, unless the taxes paid by the data center more than make up for the lost revenue the depression of house values will cause over the next 75 years…

But that is just calculations, and calculations don’t mean anything.  The bottom line, Newark, is what do you want to do?  Do you need more jobs?  More traffic?  More power outages?  More noises?  More carbon dioxide? More aggravation?

Don’t be intimidated by the bacon grease lobbyists.  They usually only interact with members of the General Assembly who get intimidated rather easily.  Stand up to them if you wish.  They are just people hired to paint only one side of an issue in glowing colors.  Doesn’t mean we have to believe them, especially when we have the Internet that can tell us the truth with two clicks… 🙂

Bottom line, it is what you want to do.  Choose to fight it, and if there are enough of you, …. it is not going in….. No one wants to take the blame for depreciating Newark’s house values by $10,000 a pop, if you make it an issue…