Diagnosing Josh Shapiro\u2019s surprise visit to the former Mid-Valley Hospital in Peckville on Wednesday, even the most inexperienced clinician could spot the symptoms of chronic \u201cData Center Virus\u201d in the governor\u2019s words and body language.<\/p>\n
This creeping pathogen strikes politicians who have been in close contact with wealthy donors and greedy developers who infect ambitious officials with massive transfusions of campaign cash and snake oil cure-alls for economic and electoral lethargy.<\/p>\n
Symptoms include generalized anxiety, increased impulsivity and a stubborn reluctance to accept objective reality. Data Center Virus, or \u201cNOVID \u201826,\u201d has progressively proven fatal to political careers across the nation. Voters of every political persuasion are banding together to reject invasive AI data center development and evict officials who ignore the roaring voice of the people they swore oaths to serve.<\/p>\n
Locally, that voice is loudest in Archbald, which is facing annihilation in service to Wall Street speculators, predatory developers and Silicon Valley billionaires who plot to wreck the world and rule over the ruins.<\/p>\n
Shapiro finally came to the realization that no politician can afford to ignore the overwhelming opposition, which explains his unannounced stop at the Peckville office of state Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-112. The governor had a closed-door discussion<\/a> with Mullins, Archbald Councilwoman Madonna Munley, Mike Pilch of Stop Archbald Data Centers and Archbald Neighborhood Association<\/a> co-founders Kayleigh Cornell and Sarah Gabriel.<\/p>\n Afterward, Shapiro held a brief press conference with local journalists. Some of us learned of his visit via an anonymous post on the Stop Archbald Data Centers<\/a> Facebook page. Normally, a visit by the governor would trigger days of advance notice to the press. Instead, the news broke in an anonymous antisocial media post.<\/p>\n PRO TIP FROM A VETERAN CLINICIAN: When an incumbent official running for reelection shies away from attention, his campaign spin doctors have noticed a rising fever among voters and prescribed limited exposure to the general public.<\/p>\n Prior to arriving at Mullins\u2019 office, the governor made a pit-stop at Staback Park<\/a>, which is facing ruination by developers proposing 30 data centers and a natural gas power plant across from each other on Eynon Jermyn Road.<\/p>\n \u201cI was standing in left field by that baseball field there \u2026 just thinking about what my life has been like as a dad over many, many years, standing on the sidelines of my kids\u2019 baseball games and imagining what it would be like if our kids were trying to play their baseball game in the shadow of a massive data center complex that, quite literally, was just in left field as proposed here,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cIt is clear to me that there are real concerns in the communities all across Pennsylvania, especially here in Archbald, and I want you to know that I have real concerns as well.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a well-scripted opening, but what rang in my cynically trained ears was what the governor didn\u2019t say \u2014 that no data center or power plant should ever be built next to a Little League field. Never. Ever. Full stop.<\/p>\n Shapiro lamented the pall a towering data center would cast over children and families gathered around a public diamond, but didn\u2019t declare his unequivocal opposition to this particular desecration.<\/p>\n Maybe the governor was cautious over concern that commenting on a specific project could spark legal action by the developer. OK, but Shapiro chose to visit a specific site threatened by a specific project. He got political use of the park as a symbol without insisting it be spared.<\/p>\n The same is true of the governor\u2019s \u201creal concerns\u201d for Archbald. Sentiment doesn\u2019t pay the rent. Voters naturally viewed Shapiro\u2019s unannounced visit as a photo-op using the park and the borough as props. As news of the visit spread, public outrage mushroomed.<\/p>\n Antisocial media erupted with rage against Shapiro for \u201csneaking into town\u201d and at Mullins for hosting him. In statewide cases of Data Center Virus this election cycle, Shapiro is \u201cPatient Zero.\u201d Standing beside him was bound to be unhealthy for Mullins, who is facing a grassroots write-in challenge from Stop Archbald Data Centers co-founder Tamara Misewicz-Healey.<\/p>\n Mullins told Sunday Times Staff Writer Frank Wilkes Lesnefsky he didn\u2019t know the governor was coming until 20 minutes before he arrived. When the chief executive of your state and the top dog of your party turns up unexpectedly, you are obliged to back him up. To my cynically trained eye, Mullins looked<\/a> like a captive in a hostage video.<\/p>\n Ironically, Mullins was among the first local legislators to go on record against data center development. This is not a defense of Mullins. It\u2019s an acknowledgement of objective reality.<\/p>\n Mullins routinely attends hearings alongside Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan and has introduced imperfect but actual legislation against invasive data center development. At a January hearing<\/a> on the obscenely invasive Wildcat Ridge Data Center \u201cCampus\u201d proposal, Mullins publicly testified against a specific project.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be abundantly clear,\u201d he said. \u201cThis Wildcat (Ridge) Data Center proposal is inappropriate and unacceptable, from its sheer size to its proposed water and power usage, to the deforestation it would involve, to the unknown runoff of stormwater. This is why I oppose it and why people feel overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n Few seem to remember or care about Mullins\u2019 early opposition now. As a write-in candidate, it\u2019s unlikely that Misewicz-Healey will beat Mullins in November, but Shapiro didn\u2019t do the local incumbent any favors by hijacking his office Wednesday.<\/p>\n Shapiro used the visit to highlight his new GRID standards<\/a>, which he said will protect the public interest by ensuring \u201cresponsible infrastructure development.\u201d I don\u2019t have the space to explore the standards in detail today, but suffice it to say they are mostly too little, too late and have dubious value for Archbald and other communities already under siege.<\/p>\n Essentially, Shapiro\u2019s new standards tap the brakes on a runaway train for which he was ecstatic to lay the rails. \u201cSlow-tracking\u201d the \u201cfast-track\u201d permitting process ain\u2019t gonna cut it with informed, angry voters. The majority opposition to data center development is absolute.<\/p>\n AI data center development is the most unpopular civic irritant since smallpox. Any chance of changing the public\u2019s mind or mood expired months ago. That\u2019s the objective reality Shapiro and others are so stubbornly reluctant to accept.<\/p>\n State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Republican candidate for governor, decided to at least appear to take the medicine. On Thursday, she called for a \u201cpause\u201d (moratorium?) while local and state governments update zoning and craft responsible regulations.<\/p>\n As the sitting governor, Shapiro has the power to push for such a pause right now. Doing so would virtually assure his reelection by voters of all political persuasions, but would not play well with the Wall Street speculators, predatory developers and Silicon Valley billionaires plotting to pave over Pennsylvania. Any step toward a moratorium is a leap away from mountains of campaign cash.<\/p>\n Shapiro has never excelled at masking his ultimate ambition. He is running two races \u2014 one for reelection as governor of Pennsylvania and another for president of the United States in 2028. Data Center Virus is unlikely to kill his reelection bid, but it could prove lethal to his national aspirations.<\/p>\n If the November election were held today, Ryan Leckey<\/a> could beat Shapiro in the Midvalley. The governor stranded himself in left field under the shadow of his early, ill-advised advocacy<\/a> for the AI data center invasion.<\/p>\n Shapiro\u2019s stunt visit to the Midvalley backfired bigly, but that he felt compelled to pull it is a clear victory for the resistance. It proved that the voice of the people is being heard in Harrisburg. It\u2019s only going to get louder and less forgiving between now and November.<\/p>\n The public fever against invasive AI data center development can\u2019t be broken by spin doctors or soothed by belated prescriptions for \u201ctransparency,\u201d \u201cresponsible infrastructure development\u201d or by paying lip service to \u201dreal community concerns.\u201d The only known cure for Data Center Virus is a daily megadose of objective reality paired with a heaping helping of humble pie and a rededication to protecting the health, safety and prosperity of the people you swore an oath to serve.<\/p>\n Governor, heal thyself.<\/p>\n CHRIS KELLY, The Times-Tribune columnist, is not qualified to give medical advice. Ask your doctor if his column is right for you. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diagnosing Josh Shapiro\u2019s surprise visit to the former Mid-Valley Hospital in Peckville on Wednesday, even the most inexperienced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,1590,2116,201,182,3052,139,1559,1560,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-207313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-chris-kelly","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-midvalley","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}