Basav

Wrong about only this? Matt Y is wrong about pretty much everything.

Well, genius, maybe we should switch to energy sources that aren't subject to the whims of tinpot dictators (like your boss)?

The “build everything anywhere” bullshit at the heart of BAAJA never answers the Qs of build what, where, or why. It just lets capital & markets do as they will, subordinating the public interest to tech, energy, & finance oligarchs. And billionaires, like John Arnold.

We published this story late Friday afternoon amid an avalanche of news so I’m reposting it now because Kohen Wiley’s life mattered more than a box of diapers.

None of us should forget this. Meta should be subjected to corporate death penalty and permanently broken up into small pieces.

The Government™ has made an ad about all these protests happening around the world, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.

NEW: Making it easier to build data centers and fossil fuel infrastructure benefits no one except Big Tech and Big Oil. A bipartisan group of Senators wants to do it anyway. IPS scholar @basavsen.bsky.social in @commondreams.org:

The US Senate bill to deregulate environmental permitting is a giveaway to Big Tech and Big Oil to poison our air and water and threaten our planetary future in their quest for profits, I argue in Common Dreams. www.commondreams.org/opinion/perm...

This article is an important corrective to the claim that Federal environmental laws are holding back clean-energy development. Their empirical finding: "environmental reviews and permitting rarely delay or block utility-scale renewable energy projects." Link in next tweet.

Incredible vibe, but my anxiety is killing me. Tomorrow’s election will not only be monumental for Brazil, but it will also have huge consequences for global warming, human rights, and the future of liberal democracy. Sending solidarious thoughts to the good people of Brazil.💪🇧🇷

Also begs the question, if we humans have so much ingenuity (and I believe we do), exactly what need is being met by a machine that does our thinking for us? The AI industry's own ads prove that they're selling a "solution" to something that isn't a problem.

Early this year, I visited Ingram, a TX town of ~1,900, to check out a tip. The area was starting to recover from its worst flood in a century. But as Latino workers drove to jobsites to help rebuild, the tipster said, a cop in a black Dodge Charger kept stopping them ... 🧵

Very important historical context for the fight over the permitting deregulation bill. It's a legacy of the toxic divide and conquer game that led to passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

This is what real leadership looks like. Thank you @reprashida.govpeeps.us @repsummerlee.bsky.social @adelitaforcongress.bsky.social

BAAJA advocates themselves argue that permitting reform enables the construction of data centers. Here is Thomas Hochman, at the Foundation for American Innovation, for example. www.thefai.org/posts/letter...

But somehow there's always $$$ for highway expansion.

It is just and correct to declare BAAJA supporters to be guilty by association.

Here's the thing: if we're actually going to phase out fossil fuels and halt global heating, we will NEED executive agencies to display a pattern of "disparate treatment" against fossil fuels. BAAJA literally outlaws this.

Anyone who thinks it's fine to sacrifice frontline communities and ecosystems, and gut bedrock environmental laws, to build a few more clean energy projects, has truly lost the plot.

Watch this discussion between @markjacob.bsky.social and NYT editor Patrick Healy where Jacob calls out the paper for this type of obfuscation and soft-peddling language, and Healy expressly defends it:

But techno-Abundance bros want to make it easier to build them, because "making it easier to build data centers will also make it easier to build clean energy, blah blah blah."

The vast majority of folks are well aware of the fact that data centers do not really care about power generation costs but, rather, “speed to power.” And well aware, too, that The Breakthrough Institute peddles in disinformation, deflection, & deception, as with this post.

The Senate permitting deal is a fight over power, not policy, designed to lock in a capital-friendly political economy and thereby hobble future policy optionality that: ➡️ Directly challenges tech/fossil fuel wealth & power; & ➡️ Is grounded in ecology & community.

🧵🧵🧵 The NY Times posted a 15-minute video today in which I got to tell NYT what’s wrong with its coverage. They said they saw my critical posts on Bluesky and invited me to do a video with them to air my grievances. Weird, right? I didn’t hold back. I blasted their sanewashing of MAGA extremism.

Translated into normal human language, it means data center politics are good, and seemingly getting better.

This is the outcome of a ridiculously narrow political vision that treats only strictly economic issues as valid, and assumes with scant evidence that most people care only about their immediate financial situation. People don't want to get cancer or asthma either.

The US is a lawless oligarchic banana republic state.

Happening now: Bard High School community members and education advocates are calling for federal Task Force agents and soldiers to stay away from DC student and schools.

I have a long piece out now in @currentaffairs.bsky.social, where I argue that — even if they call for clean-energy development — insofar they also seek the expansion of fossil fuels, liberals are allied with the petro-authoritarian right. 1/4 www.currentaffairs.org/news/liberal...

Modi has lost it. "The govt has responded by massively increasing the security presence in the capital. Around thirty thousand police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed, internet services have been disrupted, trains to Delhi have been cancelled, metro stations and roads have been closed."

But clueless liberals are still jumping on the "permitting reform" bandwagon, utterly failing to recognize that it's at its core an anti-democratic idea that seeks to gut public participation in the process of deciding what gets built, where, and in whose interest.

This is like the Inquisition declaring by decree that the sun revolves around the earth.

US immigration enforcement is a legally sanctioned, taxpayer funded racial profiling and ethnic cleansing force.

Modeling claiming to show that energy permitting deregulation will reduce greenhouse gas emissions through faster build out of renewables + transmission lines regardless of the simultaneous fossil fuel expansion is suspect. Here's why.

My thoughts on the permitting reform bill being discussed everywhere. TL;DR: "this deal provides clear evidence that the US system is not designed to represent the people’s interests and not prepared to protect us from the dangers of our warming world." danarfisher.com/2026/10/03/w...

Message to right-wing South Asians, especially those of the Hindu fascist faction: however hard you try to blend in with the US white fascist movement, you'll never be accepted as one of them. It's better to let go of your own supremacist ideas and embrace egalitarianism.

"Permitting reform" is just a greenwashing term for gutting environmental laws for the benefit of Big Oil and Big Tech, at the expense of frontline communities and ecosystems. If you don't like data centers, you'll hate this bill!

Disgraceful (and also utterly stupid) behavior by a man who wants to run for President.

If walking costs you $1, we all pay $0.01. If biking costs you $1, we all pay $0.08. If bussing costs you $1, we all pay $1.50. If driving costs you $1, we all pay $9.20. Via study that still underestimates climate cost. This isn’t about choice. It’s about who pays for your choice. #citymakingmath

Also environmental justice. For permitting deregulation advocates to say that frontline communities should be asked to sacrifice yet again for the sake of emissions reduction is just plain racist.

This is the US. A country where people with enough money can get away with just about anything.

The assault on US universities didn't start in 2025. Our new paper traces the decades of corporate capture that made it possible, and why climate research is a primary target. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Send Stephen Miller to The Hague.

The New York Times steals credit for other news outlets' groundbreaking reporting. Shame.

I didn’t attend climate week but: 1—US is falling way behind on electrification 2—even if US electrified, electricity generation isn’t decarbonizing fast enough 3—public incentives & land use policy are still vastly weighted toward inefficient cars & trucks 4—transit ridership remains in crisis