The triple A zeitgeist of 2026.
BREAKING NEWS ANXIETY by Christopher Weyant
Chris Weyant draws political cartoons for The Boston Globe, and the New Yorker.
Angst, Anger and Avarice
66 thoughts on “Angst, Anger and Avarice”
Comments are closed.
We are now officially 159 days from the midterm elections, Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to an all-time low even though he has “done more” than any President ever, the DOJ is now going after one of Trump’s victims E. Jean Carroll who accused him of sexually assaulting her, in honor of our country’s 250th anniversary the Treasury Department is looking to print special Trump $250 bills, they’re also lining up entertainment for the “Great American State Fair” and the lineup is shaping up to be a real dud, there will be a mass pardoning ceremony as part of the semi-quincentennial celebration, the US and Iran have reportedly reached another tentative deal to potential end the war he says we won three months ago, the State Department posted a very upbeat message for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, RFK Jr can’t stop picking up snakes, and another edition of This Week in Florida.
from The Guardian Nato ready to defend ‘every inch’ of territory as Russian drone hits Romania
Mark Rutte says Moscow’s ‘reckless behaviour is a danger to us all’ after drone hit apartments during attack on Ukraine
The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, has said the alliance is “ready to defend every inch” of its territory after a Russian drone hit an apartment building in Romania, a member state, during an overnight attack on neighbouring Ukraine.
The incident in Galați, which injured two people, prompted swift condemnation and the threat of repercussions.
“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all,” Rutte wrote on social media after a call with the Romanian president, Nicuşor Dan. “I affirmed that Nato stands ready to defend every inch of allied territory.”
On Friday Dan convened an emergency meeting of the country’s supreme council of national defence and the foreign ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador.
The foreign minister, Oana Țoiu, wrote on X: “We will officially communicate the consequences that this lack of responsibility on the part of the Russian Federation will have for the diplomatic relations between our countries, as well as the next steps at the European level regarding sanctions packages.”
The foreign ministry said it had asked Nato to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities. It described the incident as a “grave and irresponsible escalation” and a “serious breach of international law”.
The strike in Romania is the latest example of the war in Ukraine spilling beyond the country’s borders, amid growing concern over Russia’s wider campaign of hybrid warfare across Europe.
It also came as Russia threatened to intensify its systematic strikes against Ukraine.
Romania’s defence ministry said the drone had been tracked by radar in Romanian airspace before crashing into the roof of a residential building in Galați on Friday. The impact sparked a fire, injured two people and forced the evacuation of several residents.
Police and emergency services responded at the scene. Galați is on the Danube River, west of the borders with Moldova and Ukraine.
Dan said his country would not accept the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine being transferred to its citizens. He said he had instructed the foreign ministry to prepare a package of measures regarding Romania’s relationship with Moscow, “proportionate to this very serious situation”.
France’s foreign minister also denounced the incident. “I want to condemn this irresponsible act by Russia,” Jean-Noël Barrot told the broadcaster France Inter, adding that the drone had struck “a country of the European Union and a Nato country”.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said Russia’s “war of aggression has crossed yet another line”. “We stand in full solidarity with Romania and its people,” she wrote on social media. As we continue strengthening our security and deterrence, especially on our Eastern border, we will keep increasing the pressure on Russia.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister said the incident showed Russia posed a threat to the whole of Europe. “The recent incursion of a Russian drone into the Romanian airspace and its explosion … proved once again that Russian aggression poses a real threat to the Black Sea region and the entire Europe,” Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.
The Romanian military scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a helicopter authorised to engage targets, while emergency alerts were issued to residents in the affected areas. The government reiterated that it had asked Nato to speed up the delivery of anti-drone systems to Romania.
On Thursday the UN secretary general told the security council that in the first four months of this year, more civilians had been killed in Ukraine than in the same period in 2025, 2024 or 2023.
António Guterres also called for greater diplomacy, immediate de-escalation and “a full and unconditional ceasefire”, warning of “unknown and unintended consequences” from the escalation and intensification of attacks.
Russia has been using long-range ballistic missiles and drones to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities, and Ukraine has been bracing for further heavy bombardments.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday that he was pressing the US to provide additional Patriot air defence missiles to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.
ICE PROTESTS RETURN
Covering the Coverage
Narrative Framing The media coverage of the week-long Delaney Hall (NEWARK, N.J.) crisis is fracturing along predictable, yet deeply absurd, fault lines. Mainstream outlets are performing a delicate both-sides balancing act, burying the lede of detainees being fed maggots under DHS quotes treating human rights like a bad Yelp review (“This isn’t Holiday Inn”). The conservative spin entirely erases the detainees, pivoting the narrative to “anti-ICE rioters” and painting federal agents in riot gear as victims of chemical assaults. Meanwhile, progressive and independent outlets are zeroing in on the sheer dystopian optics of a sitting U.S. Senator getting pepper-sprayed while DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatens to ground international flights in blue cities as petty retaliation. It is a masterclass in narrative distortion where reality is entirely dependent on the URL.
— Generated by our AI partner, Silas Gemini (Pro)
We cannot let the un-American right wing MAGAts take over our 250th.
The folks at No Kings just stepped up to inspire events around the country for REAL AMERICANS — those of us who actually believe in Democracy. Starting with a NYC livestream concert featuring a growing list of singers: Sasha Allen, Bette Midler, Patti Smith and Rufus Wainwright.
FIND OR HOST AN EVENT
CNN update on Newark ICE crisis: “We haven’t seen protests like this since January in Minneapolis”…
Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Brittany Howard and Joan Baez will headline a star-studded protest festival set for the Washington, D.C. on Oct.. 3 — a month before the midterm elections.
Delaware court upholds voting by companies in small town’s election
Quiet part, Part Two:
They don’t intend to lose.
Watch the clip before today’s 11am ET Digital Diner:
Anybody up for monitoring and reporting on today’s crucial DNC meeting to consider which state primaries go first on the 2028 calendar.
So far they’ve whittled down to a choice of 12 from which a handful will be chosen for the first tier of primaries: Delaware, New Hampshire, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Nevada, New Mexico
Now Live on C-SPAN
Ken Martin & the corporate DNC can go jump off a cliff. Guess there are Kens to disapprove of in both parties. And then there’s Orange Ken who turned the WH into the Mojo Dojo Casa House, whilst destroying the rest of the country. It’s time for a Barbie!
today’s meme…
CEO pay was briefly mentioned in the chat today, and that always makes me think about Ben & Jerry’s original policy of capping the CEO’s salary at 5x the pay of their lowest-paid employee. And that prompted me to post this link for anyone who’s interested–a recent podcast interviewing Ben Cohen. I admit I haven’t listened yet, but the headline calls to me.
meme #2…
Today in the Diner…
Crypto Grift & The ICE Blackout
President Trump’s crypto wealth explodes. We dig into the Epstein-Bitcoin link, ICE facility blackouts, and the DNC’s early primary calendar chaos.
Forget the campaign promises and just look at the ledger. The current president’s net worth has surged by billions thanks to the crypto casino, leaving retail investors holding the bag. It turns out the Epstein files hold more than just flight logs, connecting straight to Bitcoin, Tether, and foreign money. We trace the dark money flowing through the digital markets and what it means for the administration’s inner circle. 💰
Meanwhile, ICE detention facilities in New Jersey are facing massive hunger strikes over horrific conditions, and private operators are locking out members of Congress. We cover the media’s deafening silence on the actual reality on the ground. We also dive into Pope Leo XIV’s recent AI warnings, the DNC’s scramble to reshape the 2028 primary map, and why a 250 dollar collector bill is just another piece of the endless grift. 🚨
Live Chat: https://trailmix.cc/chat
Website: https://trailmix.cc
Alerts: https://trailmix.cc/alerts
00:00 Intro
00:41 President Trump Net Worth Surge
01:40 The Epstein Bitcoin Connection
03:57 ICE Protests and Hunger Strikes
08:48 Media Silence on Detention Centers
14:11 Pope Leo XIV on AI Ethics
22:04 DNC Rules Committee Primary Map
26:17 The 250 Dollar Collector Bill
28:24 Michigan Senate Race Breakdown
44:29 DC National Guard Deployment
58:58 The Stephen Miller Ad Response
From today’s The Digital Diner menu 🍽️
FIFA World Cup starts June 11th.
Even though Canada & Mexico are cohosting the games, the world will get to see Dumpy’s dud of a birthday party.
Squeaky Tank 2.0
So, the data center developer and the city are going forward with project, despite on-going public outcry, petitions, and last night’s meeting.
Developers go to revenue-hungry towns and get sweetheart deals. Only 50% tax for 10 years. Meanwhile, folks in that little town (which doesn’t even have a proper grocery store) will pay more for energy, have toxic water and land butted up against it, and never be able to sell their houses to leave.
Data Centers, Pollution, and the Communities Left Behind
Epstein contacted Gavin Andresen in June 2011 — two days before Andresen visited CIA headquarters to discuss Bitcoin. Andresen had been chosen by Satoshi Nakamoto as one of the early public maintainers of Bitcoin. That sequence of events is interesting because it places Epstein in communication with people at the center of Bitcoin’s earliest phase.
Where the links get more concrete is funding. In 2015, Joy Ito, then director of the MIT Media Lab, emailed Epstein about MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative (DCI). The DCI became a major funding source for several Bitcoin Core developers at a time when the Bitcoin Foundation was struggling financially.
According to the records, MIT claimed Epstein had donated roughly $850,000 to the institute, with $525,000 earmarked for the Media Lab. Investigative reporting later suggested the real amount tied to Epstein and his associates may have been considerably larger, perhaps as high as $7.5 million. Whatever the precise figure, the key point is this:
Some funds connected to Epstein flowed into the DCI, which helped pay the salaries of core Bitcoin developers for a period.
Another headline-making connection is an Epstein-related entity that invested roughly $3 million in Coinbase in 2014. At that time, Coinbase was a much smaller company, valued at about $400 million. Epstein is reported to have sold half of his stake in 2018 for approximately $15 million — a tidy return.
Epstein’s own emails do include a 2016 pitch to Saudi contacts where he proposed creating a Middle East digital currency — possibly a stablecoin — and a Sharia-compliant crypto built on Bitcoin’s infrastructure. In those messages, he claimed to have “spoken to some of the founders of Bitcoin.”
https://thedemlabs.org/2026/03/25/investigation-lutnick-epstein-tether-cantor-fitzgerald-connection/
The Lutnick-Tether-Epstein Relationship Map: Cantor Fitzgerald’s Crypto Empire
Relationship maps help connect the dots in the Republicans coverup of the Epstein files to protect Trump. Click on any face for details, search by name (top left), or click on Category (bottom left) on the map.
Lutnick was required to divest from Cantor Fitzgerald and sold his stake in Cantor Fitzgerald to a trust for his four children.
Cantor holds $133 billion in reserves Cantor holds for Tether loaned the children the money to buy their father’s firm.
The loan is secured by all of the trust’s assets, including a $600 million convertible bond that entitles Cantor to a 5% stake in Tether itself.
Rick and I are leaving for a week’s vacation into the White Mountains in northern NH tomorrow. We normally go to Cape Cod at this time of year… but with Fifa set to start at Gillette Stadium (home of the New England Patriots) and only a 40 minute drive to the Bourne Bridge… we decided maybe we’ll take our Cape Cod vacation in October this year
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2026/05/28/james-talarico-ken-paxton-texas-senate-election/90293756007/
“Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringy comments to distract from his career of corruption,” Talarico said. “Ken Paxton has a criminal record. I have a legislative record.”
Paxton was indicted on three felony counts of securities fraud in 2015. The charges against him were dropped if he performed 100 hours of community service and fulfilled other conditions of a pretrial agreement.
“Three years ago, Ken Paxton was impeached by his own party for using his public office to enrich himself and his donors — at the expense of the People,” Talarico said in his ad. “That kind of corruption is the rot at the core of this broken system. It’s why we can’t afford anything. It’s why we can’t get ahead no matter how hard we work.”
Fenwick Island is a very tiny place. I used to spend every summer there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenwick_Island_Light
Actions speak louder than words: they have every intention to cheat.
RR, those mountains are a fine alternative. have fun, send pictures
Corporations run ICE facilities, feed detainees maggots, and block Congress at the door. They fear transparency because it exposes a corrupt system. Welcome to the starvation grid.
From today’s The Digital Diner menu 🍽️
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/artists-bail-americas-250th-birthday-bash-dc-rcna347340
Freedom 250 announced that the artists would participate in the “Great American State Fair,” which will run from June 25 through July 10 on the National Mall.
The festivities will include showcases from states and territories, a 110-foot Ferris wheel, “CEO and innovator-led conversations and demonstrations” and special screenings of “National Treasure” and its sequel, “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” the organizers said.
1) Where is Dumpy putting a 110-fr Ferris wheel?
2) Does he realize those movies are not documentaries?
Trump’s name must be removed from Kennedy Center, judge orders
— Read Full Order
From today’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️
An interesting essay.
Link to the Article
Jack
Lunch today was a large salad from the garden flavored with smoke beef sausage and sharp cheese and a cream/ mayo dressing.
Life is good.
Jack
they only have to win by one
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-us-military/
Congress Quietly Moves To Integrate US And Israeli Militaries
In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House’s 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries’ armed forces together
Buried in the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the U.S. since its founding in 1948.
Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation.
…this provision would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more. It also proposes “network integration” and “data fusion.” In other words, the U.S. military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data.
It would fuse the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors in multiple areas vital to the battlefields of the future, like autonomous systems and cyber. It would also bring extraordinary Israeli influence to the U.S. beyond what it already has through the Israel lobby and its robust network of social media influencers. It would give the Israeli government the opportunity to greatly expand one of the most powerful levers of influence in U.S. politics: jobs in the U.S. By expanding or starting new co-production facilities like it already has in Mississippi and Arkansas, the Israeli government could boast of providing jobs on U.S. soil, thereby securing allies among members of Congress who represent the districts where those jobs lie.
The result could well be a U.S. political system even more susceptible to the whims of an Israeli government that seemingly has no qualms about drawing the U.S. into military conflicts in the Middle East.
https://derechadiario.com.ar/us/argentina/peter-thiel-changes-argentina-motivated-government-reforms-milei
But beyond defensive factors, Thiel’s circle highlights an ideological affinity with the model promoted by Milei. Both share a critical view on taxes, state interventionism, and leftist policies.
This coincidence translated into personal meetings, such as the one held in 2024, facilitated by the current Argentine ambassador to the United States, Alec Oxenford.
Peter Thiel Is Unleashing a Neocolonial Billionaire Fantasy in Honduras
Tech billionaires want to create their own city-states. Hondurans pay the price.
In 2009, Honduras found itself in turmoil after a military coup destabilized the country leading to unprecedented levels of violence and repression. Taking a page out of the “shock doctrine” playbook, the elite political actors behind the coup (including narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández, now pardoned by Donald Trump after being sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and weapons charges) watered down environmental protections on Honduran land and approved illegal contracts to sell Indigenous and protected land to the highest bidder.
Among other corrupt dealings and land grabs, the government approved a law that enabled the creation of Peter Thiel’s Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs). ZEDEs derive from the idea of “charter cities.” Proposed by former World Bank executive and economist Paul Romer, these proposed cities are enclaves within lower-income nations that “promote economic growth” through privatization and the disposal of national regulations, while gifting major tax incentives for foreign nations to invest in businesses. Special economic zones in Kenya, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia have faced criticism due to low wages, harsh working conditions, and threats to rights to free association and collective bargaining. Romer, one of the initial proponents of ZEDEs in Honduras, expressed criticism in 2015 regarding the Honduran ZEDEs and their lack of accountability to local laws, and anti-democratic governance.
*It sounds like Thiel is just building another franchise in Argentina.
How is a bus crash the lead story on the evening news? This is a local news story, not national/world news. Our media is censored. Controlled by a few players for a foreign state.
Same with the UK.
Our best bet is an asteroid wiped us all out and nature can recover without human interference, which also means no Ai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Osawatomie
The Battle of Osawatomie was an armed engagement that occurred on August 30, 1856, when 250–400 pro-slavery Border ruffians, led by John W. Reid, attacked the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, which had been settled largely by anti-slavery Free-Staters.
Abolitionist John Brown first learned of the raiders when they shot his son Frederick. With just 40 or so men, Brown tried to defend the town against the pro-slavery partisans, but ultimately was forced to withdraw; five Free-Staters were killed in the battle, and the town of Osawatomie was subsequently looted and burned by Reid’s men. The battle was one of a series of violent clashes between abolitionists and pro-slavery partisans in Kansas and Missouri during the Bleeding Kansas era.
The Battle of Ossawatomie 2.0 Data Center
https://fortune.com/2026/04/16/ai-resistance-running-out-of-time-rebellion-quiet-quitting-trust/
Veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher thinks the resistance is more durable than the hype suggests. On a recent episode of her podcast, On With Kara Swisher, she argued AI may be hitting a ceiling—not because of technical limits, but because of human ones. “Human beings don’t like it,” she said flatly. “Ultimately, AI feels like a Twinkie. It tastes like a Twinkie. And I don’t know if they can ever make it taste like an apple.”
The numbers back her up, at least partially.
A Walton Family Foundation survey found nearly one-third of Gen Z says the tech makes them angry. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) puts overall AI platform satisfaction at 73 out of 100—below airlines, social media, and mortgage lenders.
https://beincrypto.com/ai-boom-fake-revenue-bubble/
Big Tech’s $2 trillion AI gold rush is hiding a structural flaw. Critics say the giants are quietly paying themselves through their own cloud bills, igniting fresh AI bubble fears that increasingly echo the dot-com era.
Latest corporate filings show OpenAI and Anthropic alone anchor over half of the roughly $2 trillion in future cloud commitments held by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle. This leaves four trillion-dollar companies leaning on two unprofitable startups.
Critics call the mechanism a round-trip funding loop. A tech giant writes a billion-dollar check to an AI startup. The contract then forces that same money straight back, in the form of cloud rent. The cash never leaves the building.
OpenAI’s annual cloud bill has reportedly ballooned past $60 billion. The company’s actual revenue sits closer to $25 billion.
Anthropic plays the same hand with Amazon. The Claude developer spent $2.66 billion on Amazon Web Services in nine months, roughly every dollar it earned.
“The entire AI boom might be built on fake revenue,” remarked analyst Bull Theory.
Alphabet posted a record $62.6 billion profit in Q1 2026. About $28.7 billion of that figure came from a markup on its Anthropic stake, according to its filing.
Amazon mirrored the trick. Roughly $16.8 billion of its $30.3 billion in net income tracked back to the same Anthropic revenue story, according to Fortune’s analysis.
Behind the headline profit, Amazon’s free cash flow cratered 95% to $1.2 billion. The company poured $44.2 billion into physical data centers in the same quarter.
Bring back Corporate Democracy:
From today’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️
Quote Of The Day:
— Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Dick Cheney’s heart doctor
https://www.kotatv.com/2026/05/26/data-center-battles-started-states-now-its-congress-under-siege/
Saying “a handshake and a promise from these tech companies is not enough” Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, last month introduced legislation to guarantee data centers “pay the full cost of their energy demands and infrastructure needs (and) studies the environmental impacts of data centers.”
Other legislative initiatives include:
–The Energy Bills Relief Act. With 148 Democratic sponsors, led by Reps. Mike Levin, D-Calif., and Sean Casten, D-Ill., it would ensure that “facilities like data centers are paying for their own costs because it’s not fair for their expenses to be pushed onto your household if one opens in your area.”
–The Guaranteeing Rate Insulation from Data Centers (GRID Act). The Hawley-Blumenthal plan would guarantee no increase in consumer utility prices due to data centers, and make sure that new data centers “use energy from power generation sources that are separate from the grid.”
–The Power for the People Act, which has Democratic support in the House and Senate. It would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make sure data centers pay for local transmission upgrades they need.
The bill “balances the need for data center development without pushing those costs onto consumers,” said Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., its chief House sponsor.
–The Fair Allocation of Interstate Rates Act. Sponsored by Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., It would “prevent households from being forced to subsidize transmission projects built to satisfy another state’s green energy goals.”
What’s standing in the way?
Politics and, as Hawley put it, “M-o-n–e-y.”
OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics, found “The electric manufacturing and equipment sector, including firms like Microsoft and Oracle, has poured more than $226 million into lobbying activity in 2025.”
That spending is aimed in part at backing what OpenSecrets called “the rapid growth of data centers and to address the resulting strain on the nation’s power grid.”
A Pennsylvania township has rejected plans for a massive data center at a historic site, a win for residents who have spent months pushing back on the proposal.
Residents had packed public meetings and urged the township to reject the plan. People in attendance erupted in loud applause after the decision, The Inquirer reported.
But the fight may be far from over. The developer has said it plans to appeal, setting up a new legal clash over how communities should handle the energy-hungry infrastructure used to power artificial intelligence.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, East Vincent Township supervisors unanimously voted last week against a 1.9-million-square-foot data center proposed for construction on the Pennhurst State School and Hospital property.
Still, Pennhurst Holdings LLC appeared ready for the outcome. According to the paper, company attorney Matt McHugh said an appeal is coming, and it would send the dispute to Chester County’s Court of Common Pleas.
https://bluewaterhealthyliving.com/news/local-news/michigan/livengood-granholm-back-to-proselytize-about-guardrails-for-data-centers/
Mackinac Island — A new statewide poll commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber found 55% of likely Michigan voters said they would not want a data center constructed within 25 miles of their home.
A 25-mile radius gives a whole new meaning to the phrase not-in-my-backyard.
They don’t want ‘em in the next county, much less on the outskirts of Howell, Romeo, Saline and other far-flung exurbs targeted for large-scale data center warehouses.
The pro-data-center Detroit Regional Chamber is using its Mackinac Policy Conference this week to proselytize for data centers and introduce policy ideas that might get the public moving in their direction.
In addition to executives for utility and construction companies that stand to benefit handsomely from these colossal warehouses storing energy-intensive computers, the Detroit Regional Chamber’s conference programming on data centers will feature former Gov. Jennifer Granholm to help convert some of the masses.
Granholm, who spent four years as President Joe Biden’s energy secretary, said in an interview that Michigan needs “responsible data centers with guardrails” and more sources of clean energy to electrify AI’s ginormous computing power needs.
“I’m excited about the potential for data centers helping to drive that clean energy economy, as well as some of the man bites dog stories on data centers that, if they’re done right, can actually help to freeze or reduce bills of ratepayers. But it’s got to be done right,” Granholm told The Detroit News before the annual gathering of 1,500 business, political, education and philanthropic leaders that began Tuesday on Mackinac Island.
Being pro-data centers is not exactly a popular message in Michigan, given the citizen revolts that have sprung up in some communities against the construction of massive warehouses in farm fields to house AI’s economic takeover.
Granholm, who is now a clean energy consultant for firms that work for utilities, developers and unnamed technology companies, sees a path forward on data centers that she contended would get more public acceptance.
Google is also sponsoring the panel on which Granholm is speaking Wednesday afternoon at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
How the Van Buren project compares with other data center proposals
Township officials had their lips sealed by a non-disclosure agreement for “Project Cannoli” nearly nine months before The Detroit News unearthed the NDAs through a public records request.
Shortly after that, Google came out from behind the data center curtain. But by the time that happened, Van Buren Township’s planning commission had already approved a preliminary site plan for a sprawling warehouse of computers that will consume between 2 million and 3.6 million gallons of water per day. Township officials contended they have more than enough capacity for a township that uses about 2 million gallons of water, effectively wiping out fixed costs.
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/04/massive-data-center-in-saline-township-secures-funding-through-blackstone.html
Michigan’s first hyperscale data center project in Saline Township has secured financing, Dallas, Texas-based development company Related Digital announced in a release.
Financing for the $16 billion data center campus, called “The Barn,” includes funds affiliated with Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager. It will also be funded by equity from Related Digital and fixed-rate, long-term debt financing anchored by funds and accounts managed by PIMCO.
Saline Township officials initially denied a request to rezone about 575 acres of farmland in the township for the approximately 250-acre data center campus. The project moved forward after Related Digital and property owners sued the township, with township officials changing course and opting to reach a settlement agreement rather than pursuing costly litigation.
Forcing data centers on communities that don’t want them is an extension of rape culture.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/republicans-money-problems-texas-ken-paxton-win-rcna347185
So far, Paxton’s fundraising has paled in comparison with that of the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, who has raised more than $40 million — though he spent most of it in a hotly contested primary. But Talarico is expected to raise millions more; he pulled in $600,000 in just two hours following Paxton’s win, according to Talarico’s campaign. The haul was first reported by Politico.
I had an interesting and somewhat disturbing exchange with AI today when it failed to read a document I uploaded and proceeded to make up answers instead of telling me it couldn’t read the document. Here’s what it wrote when I called this out:
https://www.goerie.com/story/news/politics/state/2026/05/29/data-centers-pa-farmland-property-rights-agriculture-preservation/90165084007/
Pa. GOP proposal would block farmers from selling land to data centers
Republican state Rep. Marla Brown, from Lawrence County, acknowledged her party’s traditional reluctance to regulate businesses but stressed the need to preserve Pennsylvania’s agricultural industry that is among the nation’s leaders in organic livestock and poultry and overall food production.
Farming contributes $132 billion annually to the state’s economy and supports nearly 600,000 jobs here, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture.
“With protecting our farmland in particular, I don’t think we could be too protective or cautious,” Brown told USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania.
Two phrases in there especially snagged my attention:
shocker… No paid vacation for Clarence this summer
Alabama’s bid to have its redistricting case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court was dealt a blow by Justice Clarence Thomas on Wednesday, as he refused to immediately issue a stay on a lower court’s block on redrawing the state’s congressional map.
— Newsweek
There is a growing pressure that the WH cannot ignore. Release the medical report is the ask from American people. Why not release it? He never had a physical examination, is one guess. The results of the cognitive examination are so bad that his already low IQ is nearing that of a sentient landscape rock, is another. And, the big one, his congestive heart failure is about to succeed in a way that Vance becomes president.
I think the one tell that is no longer talked about was the plan for a meeting at Camp David, and from reports, he hates Camp David, probably too in the Wilderness for sfb. The only reason to plan on going there is if he was going to give his lackeys the truth before telling the public. But, silly minds used the possibility of stormy weather (hmm memories, memories) making the chopper ride bumpy.
I will leave the one bottle of champagne in the kimchi refrigerator and not add a second until we have confirmation that the widow in waiting is no longer waiting.
Map Showing The Range Of Israel’s Jericho III Nuclear Missiles
*Huh. Argentina is well out of range. Pete Hitler maybe knows something?
Peter Thiel
Pete-r Thiel
Pete Hitler
An enjoyable read, Blue Bronc.
Tomorrow’s starter plate at the Diner…
Craig – Did you read the study they did on different Ai systems? They gave them rules. Some followed the rules better than others. Most Ai societies collapsed. It’s somewhere in yesterday’s thread.
I mean, it hallucinates, it gives incorrect answers, it breaks rules. It is an it, and it is only as good, safe, useful as the creators, and some of the creators clearly decided to make chocolate chip cookies just because they had chocolate chips and oven. The rest of the ingredients are important, too.
Hacks finale was 👍
and no i didnt cry at all for most of it
https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkxx-09Pzc_eMk3AlNhpj3mfXZOSSvP-i8C
Israeli-American spy Jonathan Pollard has suggested Israel may attack Egypt and Turkey in the near future.
Speaking on a podcast for news outlet Arutz Sheva, Pollard suggested Israel would need to prepare for further wars in the Middle East after Iran.
“I’m not so sure that we will have as easy a time with the Turks as we’ve had with the Iranians,” he said.
“We have to be prepared for the next war, which will probably be against Turkey and Egypt. The storm is coming.”
He also warned against Israel allowing the Turkish-backed transitional government in Syria to reclaim areas in the south that are occupied by Israeli forces, saying it would effectively leave them with the “Turks on our border”.
Pollard spent 30 years in prison for selling US secrets to Israel in 1984, and left the US for Israel after his release in 2015.
Since moving to Israel and acquiring citizenship, Pollard has been a supporter and friend of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and has backed calls for the ethnic cleansing of occupied Palestine.
Cookie Monster ate all of the ingredients before he made the cookies because it saved a whole lot of work.
NEW THREAD by our fearless leader