I'm Buddy Kilpatrick. Econ, energy, policy, polling, political history. PhD, GMU Schar School. Curmudgeon. "I'd rather have him inside the tent pissing out..."
Arlington, VA, Asheville, NC
Joined January 2009
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Econpolicy retweeted
🚨NEW: Donald Trump on Letitia James being special prosecutor for the Cornell rape case:
"I feel badly for whoever she's looking at, because they won't get a fair shake"
Basically, he feels badly for the Cornell suspects.
He’s siding with rapists.
Econpolicy retweeted
IRAN? I RAN! (To the Catering Truck) youtu.be/wqXY898jPok?si=8f7r… via @YouTube
Econpolicy retweeted
When an honest to goodness PILLOW MAGNATE like our Mike Lindell can't even win a GOP primary to get a governor job, you just know the Communists found a way to rig the election AGAIN smh🙏🇺🇸
No learning in the second kick of the mule.
Every single promise on this list is a complete lie. No new wars? Lie. Lower gas prices? Lie. Draining the swamp? Total lie. It is mind-blowing that anyone still buys this scam when reality proves every word is propaganda designed to treat working people like suckers.
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Econpolicy retweeted
Every single promise on this list is a complete lie. No new wars? Lie. Lower gas prices? Lie. Draining the swamp? Total lie. It is mind-blowing that anyone still buys this scam when reality proves every word is propaganda designed to treat working people like suckers.
Econpolicy retweeted
😳 a drowsy Trump mumbles his way through bonkers Oval Office event 😳
Trump just slurred his way through a back-and-forth with reporters in which he claimed he understands Venezuela because "Miss Venezuela always did very well in the Miss Universe pageant," said he trusts Putin and Xi just one week after accusing Xi of conspiring to rig the 2020 election against him, admitted he "hasn't thought about" the parasite giving Americans explosive diarrhea, suggested his Energy Secretary signed a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia without his knowledge, and accused LeBron James of being racist because he doesn't support him.
Suffice it to say that grandpa is banged up. Here's the blooper reel:
Econpolicy retweeted
🚨BREAKING: Men posed as ICE agents and detained and assaulted a woman… and Tom Homan is telling everyone that they just have to comply with this.
A woman was driving on Highway 211, in Oregon, when a vehicle with flashing red and blue lights pulled behind her.
Believing she was being stopped by law enforcement, she pulled over.
Two men approached her vehicle, one was carrying a rifle, and they claimed to be ICE agents and told her she was being detained.
They pulled her out of her car, searched her, and put her in the back of their vehicle.
Then, a third man… who remained inside the vehicle… assaulted her.
He told her he was the “guard.”
The men were wearing tactical vests labeled “POLICE,” carrying fake badges, and wore face coverings.
They held her for nearly 20 minutes before telling her she was free to go… and then she drove herself to the hospital.
And while she was there, she reported that she started receiving text messages from someone claiming to be a law firm offering legal representation for her detention.
Federal authorities later confirmed this was NOT an official ICE operation… These were people pretending to be federal agents.
And this is exactly why Tom Homan telling people to “comply” with anyone claiming to be ICE is so incredibly dangerous.
Because what is a person supposed to do when someone in a tactical vest, carrying a gun, pulls them over with flashing lights and says they are federal agents?
Just trust them?
This is not about telling people to resist legitimate law enforcement.
This is about the government normalizing a system where anyone can look like an armed federal agent, claim to have authority over you, and expect you to obey without being able to verify who they are.
That doesn’t make people safer.
It makes everyone more vulnerable to being kidnapped, assaulted, or killed by criminals who know they can pretend to be ICE.
Econpolicy retweeted
A Pennsylvania farmer has rejected a $15 million offer from data center developers, choosing instead to permanently protect his family's land.
Mervin Raudabaugh has lived and worked his farmland in Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, for more than 51 years. He milked cows there for decades, and the property holds deep personal meaning—his mother passed away in his arms inside the family barn.
To developers eyeing the land for a high-tech data center, it represented prime real estate near major infrastructure corridors. To Raudabaugh, every acre is an irreplaceable piece of family history.
Last month, he made a decision that surprised the local market: rather than accept the $15 million+ offer, he sold the development rights to his 261-acre property for about $2 million through a conservation easement held by the Lancaster Farmland Trust (with funding and support from Silver Spring Township's preservation program).
This legal agreement permanently restricts the land to agricultural use only—no data centers, no industrial development. The easement binds future owners as well, ensuring the farmland remains green forever.
The developers' pressure was intense; township officials reported aggressive approaches that led Raudabaugh's attorney to consider seeking a court injunction against harassment.
Silver Spring Township has long prioritized preservation. Since a 2013 voter-approved referendum dedicating a portion of earned income tax to farmland, open space, and forest protection (costing the average household roughly $120 per year), the community has preserved 21 properties totaling hundreds of acres.
Raudabaugh can still sell the land someday, but only as farmland—likely fetching far less than the data center deal would have paid. In total, his compensation will be a fraction of the $15 million on the table.
In an era when farmland is increasingly swallowed by digital infrastructure to power AI and cloud computing, his choice stands out as a deliberate stand for heritage, legacy, and community over maximum profit.
For Raudabaugh, the quiet certainty that his family barn and fields will endure outweighs any fortune a tech giant could provide—a powerful reminder that some values transcend dollars.
["Man turns down $15M to prevent farmland from becoming data center." WFLA, 2026]
