Weekly Member Update - June 15, 2026
A worker removes the lettering spelling out Donald Trump’s name off of the wall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during the early morning hours of Saturday, June 13, 2026. Photo Credit: Cliff Owen/AP
It seems fitting, doesn’t it, that the De-Trumpification of the Kennedy Center turned into a literal cover-up on Friday night and Saturday morning, with an elaborate scaffolding erected to hold a curtain to shield the removal of Trump’s name from public view and spare Trumpy’s widdle feelings. Here’s hoping he lives long enough to see us tear his name and likeness off of every thing he’s branded, and to watch us demolish every thing he’s built in homage to himself. The always excellent Marisa Kabas has written about how our collective hunger for accountability and our “insatiable thirst for [Trump’s] humiliation” turned a true monocultural moment on Friday night as we all delighted in his displeasure. And on his birthday weekend to boot. Perhaps Trump will try and take solace in the US/Iran Peace Deal he announced late Sunday, but we see that for what it is, a humiliating defeat for him and his partner-in-crime, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Data Center Delirium
New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom opined on Friday that Democrats would be wise to get on the right side of the data center issue. Noting a May Gallup poll that showed that 71% of Americans would oppose a data center in their community, as well as recent polling by Heatmap News showing that a majority of Americans favor a national data center ban, Cottam observed that the “public seems to agree that data centers are giant, ugly, noisy, smelly altars to industrial-scale hostile architecture” and that this growing bipartisan anti-data center consensus “has the potential to distill the diffuse political dissatisfaction and ambient anti-establishment sentiment of the moment into a political movement that wins elections.” Yet, the data center moratorium passed by the New York State Legislature at the close of session gathers dust on Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk — contact Kathy here and tell her to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act — and centrist Dems like Presidential hopeful “Big Gretch” Whitmer cavorts with AI oligarchs and gets caught on a hot mic telling an Oracle executive at the groundbreaking ceremony for Michigan’s Oracle/OpenAI Stargate data center that "We're used to people saying 'fuck no,' and doing it anyway.” We know goddamn well that Republicans will do nothing to even regulate, much less stop, data center expansion; yet our “friends” in the Democratic establishment continue to value Big Tech dollars over the desires of their constituents. As Zeteo has pointed out in its recent piece entitled “7 Things to Know About the Data Center Projects Taking Over the U.S.” while Democrats keep being seduced by the “job-creator” trope, the reality for data-center communities is instead “higher electric bills, drained water, lost farmland, and a grating mechanical hum.” And, to top it off, New York State pension money may be underwriting the data center proliferation.
In terms of the Capital Region, we’re gratified that — so far — there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for the Kenwood Data Center Project from local electeds, even as the project developers have rolled out a glossy sales pitch and have begun hyping the project in the Times Union and the Albany Business Review. If you’re keeping score at home, local Senator Patricia Fahy was a co-sponsor of the Responsible Data Center Development Act and has expressed “serious concerns” about the Kenwood project. Assembly Member Gabriella Romero voted yes on the data center moratorium bill, but she hasn’t commented publicly on the Kenwood project specifically, as far as we can tell. Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs is reportedly “still gathering information about the proposed project” and we’re hopeful that some of that information is coming from this page and from the Times Union Editorial Board, which has expressed skepticism about whether the proposed Kenwood “data center and related development is really the highest and best use” of the property. Still, given what we’re hearing on the ground about the People’s opposition to this project, it is more than a little concerning that a corresponding cacophony of opposition isn’t coming from our Democratic elected representatives like County Executive Dan McCoy, his enablers in the Albany County Legislature or the host of other officials in the myriad local communities that could be negatively impacted by this project. I suppose that the ultimate takeaway, once again, is that we cannot necessarily count on our elected leaders to lead, even on an issue of palpable local concern. So, while our electeds hold their fingers in the air to see how the wind will be blowing, we’ll be building connections to help insure that the communities most likely to be affected by the Kenwood project have their voices amplified. To that end, this Wednesday evening, we’ll be attending the Cognac Connections & Conversations presentation, Not in My Backyard: Understanding How Environmental and Community Burdens Shape Neighborhood Health, Opportunity, and Quality of Life and encourage others from across the 518 to join us. Defeating the Kenwood Data Center project will require the collective efforts of all of us, from Albany’s South End to the suburbs of Bethlehem and beyond.
The South End Fights to Stop the Bus Depot
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not shy about criticizing government officials who we think aren’t rising to the moment, even when we might otherwise generally agree with them on policy issues. But we’re also sometimes lucky enough to see an office holder truly stand up for the community they represent even when it might hurt them politically and, when that happens, we’re happy to give them their flowers.
First, a little background. Back in February, Dan McCoy announced (as an aside, has anyone else noticed that the County Exec is happy to nose around in the City of Albany’s business whenever it suits him — the College of St. Rose comes immediately to mind — but suddenly loses jurisdiction when a controversial project, like a data center, comes knocking on the City’s doors?); anyway, McCoy announced that Albany County would be turning the former McDonald’s at the intersection of Madison and South Pearl into a “transformative” bus depot. Trouble is, McCoy and his friends hadn’t bothered to talk with the People of the South End first. No matter, McCoy and his allies selected a developer, secured state funding for the project and then rolled out a series of “community workshops” to show the residents of the South End what they would be getting, like it or not. It was, in the words of longtime Albany community activist Paul “Batman” Collins-Hackett, as if the People of the South End were “being asked what toppings we want on our pizza, but we didn’t order a pizza.”
Enter Dannielle Hille. Hille was appointed to represent the 6th District — which includes the South End — in the Albany County Legislature back in February, only a few weeks before the new bus station was announced. Hille’s appointment came about because of the vacancy occasioned by Sam Fein’s election as City Auditor and, at the time of her appointment, it seemed as though she had the support of the local Democratic Committee and the Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, local institution Carolyn McLaughlin. But Hille had to run this year to hold on to her seat, and she got a primary challenge from Racquel Saddler, an Instagram influencer and lobbyist who serves as the membership director for the Albany County Young Democrats. Lo and behold, when Hille filed her designating petitions for the Democratic nomination to hold her seat, Fein, of all people, successfully challenged the petitions and knocked Hille off the ballot, leaving Saddler alone as the de facto Democratic nominee for the office come November
Despite her path to the Democratic nomination to hold her seat being foreclosed, Hille continued to advance her constituents’ interests, particularly where the new bus station was concerned. As the Times Union has reported, the County Legislature was set to allocate a tranche of funding for the bus station this past week, but a succession of Hille’s constituents spoke out against the proposal during the Legislature’s public comment period (starting at the 41:30 mark in this recording). Ultimately, Legislature Chair Joanne Cunningham tabled the motion to approve the funding, but seemingly denied Hille the opportunity to speak on the issue (1:43:00 mark of the above recording). At the “community workshop” taking place the following evening, Hille continued to rally her constituents in opposition to the project and, from our perspective, the bus depot is now in serious trouble of not moving forward. We agree with Times Union columnist Chris Churchill; if this bus depot is dead in the water, Dannielle Hille deserves a lot of the credit. And, even if the bus station moves forward, we applaud Hille for standing up for her constituents at her own political peril. Principled bravery is what this perilous moment demands of our elected representatives, and we’re delighted to hear that Hille is now pursuing a write-in campaign to try and hold onto her seat and give the People of the 6th Legislative District some options come November.
An Update on Ranked Choice Voting and Unified Elections in the City of Albany
This past week, our friends in Guilderland Indivisible hosted Riley Hart from Unite NY to discuss ranked choice voting and other voting reforms, and we were on hand to weigh in on the ballot proposal being marshaled by RCV Albany to get ranked-choice voting and a single unified election before the voters in the City of Albany this coming fall. We are joined by a broad and diverse coalition in support of this ballot proposal; the aforementioned Carolyn McLaughlin, the Albany County Green Party, Capital District DSA, We Are Revolutionary, former Albany Common Council Member Richard Conti and a host of Albany Neighborhood Associations, among others, have all come out in favor. As RCV Albany nears its goal of 3,000 petition signatures, we’ll be hitting the streets this Wednesday evening to help push them over the top. And don’t worry if you’re never canvassed before, RCV Albany and Indivisible Albany will train you up!
The Rarest of the Rare: Contested Local Primaries
Until we have ranked-choice voting and unified elections, the best thing we have to give voters a real choice is a contested party primary. So, as early voting continues this week, we’re highlighting the increasingly rare contested local primaries in the mighty 518 (and lamenting the fact that Sam Fein decided to deprive the voters of a Dannielle Hille/Racquel Saddler primary in the 6th County Legislative District). If you are in Albany County like us, we’ve already explained that the vast majority of us will only have the Democratic primaries for State Comptroller and County Judge to weigh in on. That said, for a small sliver of Albany County residents in Berne/Knox/Westerlo, you get to vote in a competitive Democratic primary in the 102nd Assembly District to try and take the place of Assemblyman Chris Tague, who is running for State Senate in the 51st Senate District to our west. There are three competitors for the Democratic nomination in the 102nd; Catskill Village Trustee and economic development specialist Thomas Boomhower, Delhi Village Trustee and physical therapist Janet Tweed and Greene County artist, educator and environmental organizer Mary Finneran. The winner of this primary will likely move on to face former Assemblyman, Member of Congress and Trump Cabinet official Marc Molinaro, with Finneran also already set to hold the Working Families Party line in the general.
The most prominent competitive local primary is in the 44th State Senate District covering Saratoga and parts of Schenectady County. This District is currently represented by Republican Jim Tedisco, the 30+ year Assembly member now looking for his sixth term in the State Senate. Despite Tedisco’s seemingly inevitable permanence on the local political scene, the 44th State Senate District is seen as a legitimate potential Democratic flip in what is shaping up as a “blue-wave” election this fall. Accordingly, the Democratic primary in the 44th is getting a lot of attention, with progressive Stillwater Village Trustee Patrick Nelson facing off against public interest and immigration attorney and law professor Sarah Rogerson. Rogerson, for what it is worth, has already wrapped up the Working Families nomination for the fall general.
A Flock Alpha drone flies over an anti-Flock protest outside the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office; Image courtesy of Troy Indivisible
The Week in Flock
Once again, the news on Flock surveillance starts in Troy, where the Rensselaer County Sheriff hosted Flock this past week so that Flock could pitch its sinister AI-powered Flock Alpha drones, which have a 50-mile range, travel 60 miles an hour and can zoom in on you from 2,000 feet away. In the wake of Flock’s sales pitch, Sinclair News station CBS6 ran a pro-Flock infomercial starring Rensselaer County District Attorney — and wife, daughter and campaign-donation recipient of police officers — Mary Pat Donnelly, who had attended the surveillance drone demonstration. We’ve heard a few details from the presentation, however, and some of the biggest takeaways are that Flock’s drones can be signaled to follow a given vehicle automatically, essentially tracking someone’s pattern of movement without a warrant, and that Flock erroneously claimed that it’s software had never been hacked. Flock also pitched how easy their drones are to use; why, authorized users can even operate these drones with their personal cell phones! No potential possibility of abuse there….
To that point, 404 Media has reporting about how the popo keep getting arrested for using Flock surveillance systems to stalk people. But, by all means, let’s give cops the ability to use their personal cell phones to control fearsome drones that are linked to a nationwide data collection network.
Another example; this Milwaukee officer pled guilty to using Flock cameras to track a former romantic partner and that person’s current flame nearly 200 times.
And, on the “Flock-has-never-been-hacked” gaslighting, 404 Media also has recent reporting on how you can access the reasons cops have conducted searches, and sometimes the specific searched license plates, by using common search engines like DuckDuckGo and Bing. Additional reporting by Benn Jordan here.
The tech bros keep brainstorming ways to make the surveillance state even worse. The newest twist? The defense contractor Leonardo Integrated Technologies has an ALPR that will track all your devices, from head phones to smart watches and cell phones and link them to location data taken from your car. Hooray for vertical integration in the surveillance state!
Meanwhile, there’s been an increase in Flock camera vandalism. Who’d a thunk it?
The DeFlock movement has a National Week of Action Against Automated License Plate Readers scheduled for August 16-22. Here are the beginnings of a toolkit.
When Style Weekly, of all journalistic entities, is saying it’s time to turn off the Flock surveillance cameras, you know that the political and sociological zeitgeist is on our side.