Honestly there are days when trying to keep track of all the garbage spewing from the right-wing side both here in Canada and in the US gets exhausting so I have to pick and choose what to focus on. Today the highlight (or lowlight may be more accurate) is the huge uproar over leaked messages from a young Republican online chat that was filled with some really vile commentary about Jews, blacks, rape, etc.

If you thought that once Trump is dead and gone, and Stephen Miller is arrested and the Heritage Foundation is dismantled, that the Republican party would go back to merely being servants of the rich and powerful rather than being a proto-Nazi party trying to emulate Russia, then the content of these chat room messages show that the Republican youth, influenced by the likes of the Charlie Kirks and other right-wing podcasters, are going to be just as bad as Trump.














Here are two postings from The Other 98% that go into the details:

Leaked Telegram chats revealed how leaders of Young Republican chapters across several states joked about gas chambers, slavery, and rape while praising Adolf Hitler. Peter Giunta posted, “I love Hitler,” joked about sending rivals “to the gas chamber,” and mocked the NBA playoffs by saying, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” He and others also openly called Black people “the watermelon people,” a phrase used repeatedly in their conversations. The discussion threads showed an environment steeped in hate, with mockery of Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ people that went unnoticed by their peers until the leak forced national attention.?

The racist messages came to light after a former member of the group leaked the full Telegram chat logs to Politico, which first broke the story on October 14, 2025. Politico verified the authenticity of thousands of messages and published the contents in a damning exposé, with outlets like New York Magazine, The Washington Informer, and Yahoo News quickly following up on the report. Several members identified in the leaks held or recently held government positions, some with ties to the Trump administration. The Kansas chapter has since gone inactive and some members now face resignations, but the culture that encouraged such talk clearly runs much deeper.?

These young Republicans are very much products of the MAGA generation that Charlie Kirk helped shape. Kirk’s Turning Point brand encouraged a style of politics that celebrated provocation over principle—and now his followers trade Nazi jokes and racist banter online as the natural outcome of years spent normalizing bigotry in the name of “free speech.” This is the legacy he leaves behind: a generation that confuses cruelty with courage.

Here’s the full uncensored list of the Young Republicans leaders whose racist, rapey, pro-Hitler group text messages leaked in yesterday’s horrifying bombshell.

Let’s make sure their future potential employers to avoid hiring them like the plague!

These are the deplorables who “joked” with each other in private chats over the course of seven months during the Trump administration, thinking that they were impervious to accountability. Their lives all changed radically yesterday when Politico exposed their disgusting texts for all the world to see.
Of the nine people on the list, four are part of the New York chapter of the Young Republicans, two are from the Kansas chapter, two from the Vermont organization, and one from Arizona.

The New York participants are all senior members of the state’s Young Republican organization and are closely associated with Representatives Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler. They Include:

Peter Giunta — The chair of the New York Young Republicans, Giunta was guilty of making a “joke” about gas chambers in relation to his campaign to become the head of the Young Republican National Federation.

“Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber. And everyone that endorsed but then votes for us is going to the gas chamber,” Giunta texted in the chat, adding that he only wanted “true believers” in his organization. He’s also someone who has proclaimed his allegiance to teenage New York Republicans who “support slavery and all that shit.” This is a man who felt comfortable joking about suicide, saying that he wanted to encourage another Young Republican member to “unalive himself on the convention floor.”

Giunta made a non-apology after his texts were discovered, claiming to accept “complete responsibility,” but going on to speculate that the messages released “may have been deceptively doctored.”

Bobby Walker — Giunta’s vice chair of the New York Young Republicans, Walker had the temerity to call rape “epic” in one of his texts. He also claimed that the texts may have been manipulated before offering a belated apology for his words.

Joe Maligno — The general counsel of the New York organization, Maligno thought that a jocular comment on gas chambers was an appropriate thing to write. "Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic," he contributed to one thread.

Annie Kaykaty — Kaykaty was another New York State Young Republicans national committee member who found gas chambers were a laughing matter. "I’m ready to watch people burn now," she wrote.

The chat participants from Kansas were no less offensive:

Alex Dwyer — The chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, Dwyer thought that it was funny to reply to a question about his hotel room number with “1488,” a number beloved by White supremacists because “14” symbolizes the 14 words in a neo-Nazi slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."  With “H” being the 8th letter of the alphabet, proto-fascists consider it as shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

William Hendrix —  Dwyer’s vice chair in the Kansas organization, Hendrix has no problem dropping the N-word and homophobic slurs throughout his texts. A former communications director for Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Hendrix also likes to engage in blatant racist stereotyping, as when he wrote: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and Kool-Aid with that?”  

Samuel and Brianna Douglass — Samuel is a Vermont State Senator. His wife Brianna is a committee member for the Vermont Young Republicans. They both have no problem expressing their antisemitism freely. When Samuel informed the group that a procedural mistake over the number of delegates from Maryland allowed to attend the organization's national convention was possibly made by someone who was Jewish, his wife Brianna replied: “I was about to say that you’re giving nationals to [sic] much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest.”

Luke Mosiman — How much worse can it get than having Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, call for the rape of the chair of the Young Republican National Federation, Hayden Padgett? In all caps, Mosiman texted “RAPE HAYDEN.” He also suggested trying to link white supremacist groups to an opponent before realizing that this plan could actually backfire and give more support to the other candidate.

While other Republicans have been quick to condemn these political operatives as rogue members of their party and have tried to disassociate themselves from them, the fact of the matter is that these were not just ordinary members of the public, but senior officials in the Republican Party’s youth organization.  They are about as representative of the values and behavior of the modern MAGA-fied version of the Republican Party as you can get.

Demonstrating his usual hypocristy, JD Vance rushed to defend the "kids":



NOTE that JD Vance unintentionally admits that he, Trump, and other senior Republican officials make WORSE comments about Jews, blacks, gays, etc. in the Oval Office every single day. Brilliant.





You can bet that it's not just one youth chapter of the Republican party that secretly spews this utter trash. Far-right ideology rots a country from within by poisoning those who seek to lead it politically and it's exactly why right-wingism is the wrong thing for Canada to embrace.

Yesterday's "No Kings" rally seems to have gone off astonishingly well. I've scanned social media and news for reports of any mass arrests or violent outbreaks and it seems that participants heeded the call to keep things serious but light-hearted. New York City police confirmed that they arrested no one at all, which is incredible considering the size of the turnout.

Turnout in America is estimated to be 7 million people, a larger turnout than the first No Kings rally a few months ago.

Since this is being covered by our local news, I won't inundate this thread with too many pictures, just a few to highlight the mood and scope of the rally:









This one from Montreal shows some nice creativity:











The most important lesson to learn about right-wing politicians is this one here:




The White House and Trump, didn't have much to say about the massive rally mocking him and his administration other than to post an AI video that demonstrates he is a mature leader and capable of handling rejection and scorn:







SEE the video here:
https://x.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1979751641067954674
 

Back to broadcasting for a moment, I have no idea what to make of this.

Legendary broadcast journalist once called 'the most trusted man in America' Walter Cronkite appears in newly released Epstein flight logs

RadioActive wrote:

Back to broadcasting for a moment, I have no idea what to make of this.

Legendary broadcast journalist once called 'the most trusted man in America' Walter Cronkite appears in newly released Epstein flight logs

What I want to know is, whose names are in positions 2 and 3?

RadioActive wrote:

Back to broadcasting for a moment, I have no idea what to make of this.

Legendary broadcast journalist once called 'the most trusted man in America' Walter Cronkite appears in newly released Epstein flight logs

Good old Uncle Walter was quite the rogue in his day. He loved the company of attractive women and frequently stated that he wished he was younger during the Swinging 60s as he would have enjoyed being part of free love era . It was only a few months after his wife’s passing that he began “keeping company” with a younger woman, according to his biographer.

An update from Alt National Park Service on Facebook:

The MAGA crowd seems very triggered that yesterday’s protest was historic, their comments are everywhere. In total, 22 MAGA individuals were arrested for attempting to attack peaceful protesters. Arrests were made in OH, KY, CA, SC, NC, MI, OR, FL, VA, TX, and PA. There were incidents involving guns being drawn, vehicles driven into crowds, and other acts of aggression, but police acted quickly and removed the offenders. Meanwhile, police departments across the country are reporting that No Kings protesters had zero arrests. Incredible job, everyone! It’s becoming impossible for Trump to sell his propaganda.

Here are some numbers from the turnout, courtesy of SEIU:

Hands off march: April 5th had 3 million
No Kings on Jun 14th had 5 million
No Kings in Oct had 7 million.

Meanwhile, this MAGA idiot thought she was somehow "owning the libs" by showing up at the protest, expecting to get booed and assaulted and then congratulating herself when no one did. This is what happens when you build your view of the world based on what you hear on Truth Social and FOX News.



Someone online noted that if one of the peaceful left-wing protestors had shown up at a MAGA protest THAT person would've most certainly been harassed and verbally threatened, which is an accurate description of where each side falls on the violence and hate spectrum.

Shoutout to Pedro Pascal from the Mandalorian and Fantastic Four for participating:



Meanwhile, Trump literally demolishing democracy:



 

From the Associated Press:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-canada-trade-tariffs-a0cfd202ef6f22052827b784be708fd6

Trump says he’s ending trade talks with Canada over TV ads

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.

The post on Trump’s social media site came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations could further inflame trade tensions that already have been building between the two neighboring countries for months.

Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”

“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The prime minister was set to leave Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same Friday evening.

Well it's time to go into Grandpa Simpson mode and do a rant - a shock to all of those reading this thread, I know!

First of all, the TV ad being referred to is an initiative of "Captain Canada" Doug Ford, premier of Ontario and part of a $75 million ad campaign paid for by our province. It has nothing to do with Mark Carney and the federal government. This tactic of using Reagan to point out to... who? Republicans? Donald Trump? that tariffs are a bad idea that will backfire on the US seemed ill-conceived right from the get-go. Democrats have already been saying this since April, and China already used the same Reagan clip to mock Trump's tariffs. I've even seen a segment on FOX News citing tariffs being harmful to Americans and not foreign countries like Canada, so who is the target audience? WHO is not aware of this by now?

It's just yet another unbelievable waste of taxpayer money at a time when it could instead be used to keep emergency rooms open (many in the rural parts of Ontario have shut down for good, due to Ford's underfunding of public healthcare) or maybe he can fix the mess he's made of the autism portfolio (Tina Yazdani at CityNews just did another story on that today, autism was Ford's very first failure during his first term and the issue has only gotten even worse now according to Yazdani's story) or pay back the City of Toronto for dismantling those speed cameras he suddenly had an about-face over (possibly due to the fact that his daughter got 80+ speeding tickets, according to the rumor mill).

CTV has cited the fact that the first time Ford tried something like this months ago, it got zero results so sure, let's do it again and pour more money down the drain for advertisements that either are ineffectual or actually antagonize the person you're trying to sway. Let's not forget that this is Canadian money being handed over to American media corporations at a time when we should keep that money here at home to prop up our own economy.

It's already been difficult watching our Prime Minister give up on the digital services tax and on Canada's counter-tariffs, then repeatedly pretend to admire the orange cheeto during press conferences at the White House, all to stroke Trump's ego in the faint hope of reaching some kind of mutually-beneficial trade deal... just to watch all those months of goodwill evaporate thanks to one of dummy-Doug's brilliant ideas.

Many many years ago, when his younger brother Rob Ford was alive and the two were just entering the political arena, I remember the talk was that they wanted to build a Ford political dynasty, starting small with city council, working up to mayor, then premier and eventually maybe running to be the Prime Minister (the thought of Canada having its own moron-in-chief with Doug at the helm will continue to keep me up at night).  

Ford has often told others to "stay in their lane" even as he constantly interferes at both the federal and city level (speed cameras and bike lanes being only the latest in his inability to follow what he preaches). If there was ever a time for him to just butt out and let the person who is actually charged with negotiating with America, Carney, do their job, before he dimwittedly causes even more harm, it is now. Ford is like Jar Jar Binks, eagerly following behind the Jedi and wanting to prove himself, but tripping over his own two feet and rolling down a long shaft leading to the reactor and blowing up the entire space station killing both bad guys and good guys alike.

I assume Ford is desperate to show that he's fulfilling the mandate that frightened Ontario workers elected him on and just as importantly, to make himself a prominent figure in the trade wars so he can claim some kind of credit later when he tries to run for the leader of the federal Conservatives and then for prime minister (god, no....) but Ford is not exactly intelligent nor wise, nor insightful (we're talking about a former drug dealer who flunked out of first year college, not even able to finish his first semester, alright? He's not in Carney's league even remotely).

From Carney's point of view, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

NOTE to paterson1: once I wrap up my From Russia with LEXX series, I will get around to discussing why I think Ford and Trump are very much alike, I've not forgotten about that. The thought of having to detail all of Ford and his government's failures and hypocrisies and outright lies is like willingly jumping into a pool of quicksand: once you go in, you just sink deeper and deeper into despair and hopelessness at how much better off Ontario would've been if we elected someone, almost anyone, else.
 

The only good thing about life, since the Orange Lizard slithered down the escalator in 2015, is this time we get to watch an authoritarian try to take over a country...in real time.

It's one thing to read about the destruction of Germany, circa 1900 - 1945. It's quite another to peek over the fence to watch your neighbours willingly destroy themselves, all while trying to take us down with them.

Absolute madness that money well-spent on education could easily have avoided. As angry and frustrated as I am, my American friends are beside themselves in anger, frustration and disgust at this grifter takeover of their beloved America.

CNN: Americans love Canada more than Donald Trump. Watch the video here:
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1982808501647815039






I've transcribed some of the video:
"Canada is far more popular than Donald Trump here in the United States.   We're talking about Canada coming out nearly 60 points ahead on the net popularity rating vs Donald Trump here in the United States. When you pick on Canada, you are picking on a country that the American people ADORE. They adore Canada, Canada has always been a friend to the United States at least during our lifetime and when you're going after Canada you are going against someone who is far more popular than Donald Trump. Pretty much every single time, Americans will choose Canada over Donald Trump."

And the change over how Canadians now view the US before Trump took office again, vs now in 2025:


Deluded Trump responds:



 

I thought I would put this in here bc it is about Iran. I have visited Iran and I can tell you that what you see in the western media does not paint an accurate picture,

Today I came upon this You Tube post from a lady who does travel videos. I have seen a lot of her videos including some she has done about the various people  of Northern Pakistan, I can tell you in all of the videos I have seen from her she does not have an agenda. She is just an adventurous civilian documenting her travels.   The first video is about her impression of Iran and the second about the Kalash people of northern Pakistan and their ancient village, 

Both I believe are important in a political context bc generally people in the west are unaware of the worlds she is describing and the picture in many minds is slanted by negative reporting in the western media.









 

Some of the loudest booing I've heard so far as Trump makes an appearance at the Washington Commanders NFL game:


Watch the video here:
https://x.com/Ronxyz00/status/1987660678472327284

It was also aired by FOX News live, although I will bet you that if you try to watch FOX at 11pm and if they even dare to re-air it, they'll edit it to turn the volume down on the booing and insert fake, louder cheers into the video (as they did with Trump's disastrous military parade months earlier).

AND: It looks like the Democrats may have caved in and have made a (weak) compromise to re-open the US government.
UPDATE:

Senate Clears Path for Bipartisan Deal Ending 40-Day U.S. Government Shutdown

The U.S. Senate passed a 60-40 procedural vote late Sunday, with eight Democrats joining Republicans to advance a funding measure that reopens federal agencies through January 30, 2026, and extends SNAP benefits to September, concluding the longest government shutdown in history.

The deal, triggered by a September 30 funding dispute over ACA subsidies and immigration, excludes extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies, leading to premium doublings for over 20 million Americans in 2026. President Trump endorsed the agreement while pushing for filibuster reform and voter ID laws, as Democrats like Senators Schumer and Sanders criticized it for threatening healthcare access amid internal party divisions.

AND: Trump pardons more of his conspirators from the Jan 6th coup attempt:
https://x.com/harryjsisson/status/1987766254963241335

In the middle of the night, Trump pardoned a number of his allies who tried to overturn the 2020 election. The list includes Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, and more. This doesn’t protect them from state charges. More corrupt BS!!!

Last edited by TomTV (November 10, 2025 2:54 am)

Is America great again yet?

I don't know how much more sane people can take.

Sure enough, Trump has officially now dumped MTG, a former ally, for turning against him, badmouthing her as expected for being a complainer:

Trump ditches longtime ally Marjorie Taylor Greene
https://www.axios.com/2025/11/15/trump-marjorie-taylor-greene-endorsement-epstein

On to other news:

For a couple of months now, Trump has hinted that he would bail out the farmers who voted for him and who have paid dearly, sometimes with their lives, for doing so as they watched their farming businesses go bankrupt due to tariffs and China's counter-tariffs. Still nothing concrete has emerged and as I said previously, I have my doubts that he will genuinely do much to save them. The Trump administration only seems to care about a handful of things (beyond just turning America into a North Korea-style country that is predominantly white Christian nationalist right-wingers).

One is getting access to rare earth minerals from any other source other than China (like absorbing Canada as its 51st state to get it for free), and the second is AI and building a huge AI infrastructure across America - which I am guessing is so that Peter Thiel can install AI-powered monitoring systems on every corner of the country and begin his social credit system that will dictate the lives of every well-behaved American -- those who don't obey get sent to a prison in El Salvador or that water-logged one in Florida.

AI infrastructure means only one thing: AI data centers, gigantic warehouses for row after row of computer chips specializing in doing very fast math calculations but which come with a huge drawback: this kind of hardware requires insane amounts of fresh water to keep the chips cool (so that they don't literally melt or just break down and stop working). For any place within America which have hosted these centers the residents soon learn that it comes at a huge price: skyrocketing energy and water bills every month as well as a huge amount of environmental damage. Nobody in their right mind wants these things in their neck of the woods. That became obvious to me when back in September I happened to see a Facebook post from Alt National Park Service:

We wanted to draw attention to an issue affecting Menomonie, Wisconsin. A proposed $1.6 billion data center on 320 acres of farmland (located between 650th and 690th Avenue) has drawn strong opposition. The City Council quickly annexed and rezoned the land to “Restricted Industrial,” even though the developer, Balloonist LLC, has not revealed who will operate the facility or provided detailed site plans. This secrecy and the speed of approval have eroded community trust, leaving many residents feeling shut out of the decision-making process.

Residents have mobilized through a Facebook group called “Stop the Menomonie Data Center,” now with over 2,000 members, and in community meetings where concerns about transparency dominate. Many question why prime farmland is being sacrificed and whether city officials truly weighed the long-term impacts on people living nearby.

The environmental and public health concerns are substantial. The data center is projected to use around 75,000 gallons of water per day, making it one of the area’s largest consumers, rivaling major industrial users like Cardinal FG and UW-Stout. Residents also warn about noise and light pollution, strain on local utilities, heavier traffic, and disruptions to rural farmland.

Altogether, residents argue that the project threatens farmland, water, air, and quality of life in Menomonie while being pushed forward without clear answers. For many, it’s not just the scale of the facility that’s troubling, but how city officials’ lack of transparency has deepened community mistrust!

There usually aren't a lot of replies to a post like this which seemed to only affect a region of farmland in Wisconsin. Then I started scrolling through the comment section and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling... the responses came from Americans all across the entire country, with so many replies that even the long list I'm about to post here only captures a modest amount of the anger and worry that people have about seeing their state infested by these warehouses:

It happened to us here in KY. So far, we’ve managed to squash it, but they are still trying to sneak it through. Stay tough!
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They are fighting a Google one in Franklin Township (Indianapolis), IN also. They seem poised to deny it
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Any association with AcreTrader??? A Peter Thiel backed company that at one time, JD Vance was associated with as well.
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Beaver Dam, WI where I live has a data center being built right now. HUGE!! Many farmers increased their wealth exponentially!! I don’t recall any open meetings on this or any chatter before ground was broke. Guess we wait and see.
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if you live close to it, the amount of heat, noise pollution and loss of access to water will be a huge problem for you. Not to mention the cost of your own utilities and taxes going up
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the facilities use millions of gallons of water daily. That is a huge part of the problem. The water they use usually becomes contaminated. We fight hard to keep a Great Lakes protected. They are just very terrible for the environment.
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I've seen that the citizens nearby end up paying for all their water and electricity usage on utility bills as well. One video I watched people were saying it smells awful.Terrible for the environment and for the surrounding communities.
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It could be, but also, it could be a Data Center, something for crypto mining etc. This is becoming a major issue here in the Midwest, with investment firms, places like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta etc sweeping in to buy hundreds of acres of land to build these centers to run their AI or mine for crypto. It’s ruinous.
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No, these are all going to be AI computing centers. There are A LOT planned.
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Peter Thiel and the tech bros are branching out like cancer from Silicon Valley.
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no, data centers are used for housing computer systems, and they’re terrible for the environment.
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Data centers are cropping up all over the country fueled by the demand for AI services. It has nothing to do with ICE. They produce an immense amount of heat, and consume huge amounts of water and electricity to operate. Stop using ChatGPT to ask questions, quit using AI assisted search. Everyone using AI integrated tech is fueling the rise in utility prices and will lead to water shortages if growth isn't checked.
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No, it's an actual data processing center. Will most likely be AI related. The computers require huge amounts of energy and water.
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No, that amount of water is for an AI data center
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it’s a tech company that bought the land so, probably not a detention center.
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no, these are huge complexes which operate 24/7 and it's usually tied into AI. They want to be in my Wisconsin because of our rural space and water supplies. They're cropping up right and left. If you're not familiar with them, do some research. They're awful, and hide behind "we're creating jobs", but that's mainly for construction.
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WOW - until this thread, I had no clue that there were sooo many data centers in the works, spread out all over our country!
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Google St Charles Mo data center and see also that an “unnamed party” tried to put in a large data center. The proposal failed due to lack of transparency and the regional impact.
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People in my home city of St. Charles, MO successfully managed to get one of these sketchy data centers blocked. It can be done
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Happening everywhere. The rich benefit. The rest of us donate our resources. Clean Air. Water. Quality of life.
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A very similar situation is happening in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Looks likely to happen, although since folks discovered the plan and are speaking up, the city council has called an emergency meeting for next week.
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So basically the plot of Eddington
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This is also happening in North Mankato, Minnesota. The water issue is huge there because it will affect an aquifer key to most of the state.
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Southeast Indianapolis is currently trying to fight one as well.
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On a smaller scale, this same thing is happening in Harwood, ND with Applied Digital.
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Also Google facility in West Memphis Arkansas and X AI facility “Colossus” in Memphis Tennessee
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Data centers use a lot of water for cooling, but it doesn't all go up in steam, they just can't reuse it immediately because it is already hot. I wonder if there isn't a way to do a quick collection and send it back into public water work systems with minimum clean up (not have to go through the full sanitation process that grey water needs to go through) Someone out there probably knows more than I do about it, just random ideas.
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who knows. There is no longer an EPA to provide oversight so that water could end up anywhere and with any amount of contamination and nobody will know.
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There was a similar plan across the street from us in Guilford County NC - luckily the public outrage was early & organized.
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Same thing is going on in Harwood, North Dakota… just a few miles north of Fargo.
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Similar situation near Amarillo, Texas with a proposed data center.
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It's a closed loop system. It won't be using 75,000 gallons daily.
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They're trying to build one in Monticello (or Otsego) MN as well. They're in the community meetings phase of it all and I really hope my community can band together to stop the project. There's the Project Bigfoot data center being built in Rosemont MN as well.
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some data centers use the evaporation of water to cool the data center hall. Not all use evaporative technology but some do. Closed water cooling systems use little to no water but that technology tends to be more expensive up front for the equipment.
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from what I understand it is used to cool down the equipment. They are building data centers under the ocean to use water more "freely" where they don't have to pay utilities for it.
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There talk of a data center in Bucks County, PA... Thinking it's either an Amazon place or a Meta place. Being built in either Levittown or Langhorne.
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They are doing one in the Farmington, MN area...keeping all info. secret from the public.
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I live in Northern Virginia in the heart of the biggest hub of data centers in the world. Their environmental impact is ALWAYS greatly underestimated.
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Cody Gentz - Menomonie City Council

Menomonie City Council member here. I voted against the annexation and rezoning. I appreciate that this important story is getting covered, but there is more nuance than is being reported. I am quite confident that every member of the council is taking this extremely seriously, and nobody is interested in getting steamrolled by a megacorporation. A big part of the problem is the system in which we operate - a system skewed to the benefit of capital and corporations.

It is common practice for developers and companies to be very secretive about projects, utilizing shell LLCs and NDAs to hide from the media, their competitors, and so forth. This can end up causing cities who refuse NDAs to miss out on economic development, jobs, tax revenue, etc. I do not support the practice. The city council has the same information the general public does. We are still a long way off from any data center taking root, and we'll all be paying very close attention to our constituents' feedback.
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This why you need to show up for local elections! People forget the implications by thinking municipal elections do not matter - it is your city government that determines taxes, school funding, zoning, police & fire, etc.
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I’ve read that the data center in Port Washington will use in excess of 1M gallons of Lake Michigan water per day.
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The same thing is happening in Blakely Borough, PA and throughout Lackawanna County, PA. local community members are fighting back!
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Currently happening in Adamstown, MD as well.
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One proposed in Delaware City, Delaware.
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This is exactly the same in Port Washington, WI. There has been plenty of opposition but the elected officials have just railroaded it through. This is projected to be the largest in the state and would use over 1 million gallons of water per day.
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Good luck to people down wind of the exhaust smokestacks now that pollution restrictions have been gutted by MAHA / EPA. And hope farmers have good water rights. Seems like the area is going to be tapped out soon. But the city council members will be flush with nice new cars and vacation homes soon.
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Happening here in Harwood, ND as well.
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Same as in Caledonia, WI!
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This is also happening in Janesville Wisconsin. It was uncovered the city manager sent an email setting expectations for our council members to "support the city's position" after residents started asking questions and pushing back.
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This just was thwarted in St. Charles, MO.
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same in Canaan valley, WV.
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Something similar is happening in Janesville, WI too at the old GM plant. That land is still contaminated from GM.
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Yorkville, IL
3 proposed in a town of less than 30,000
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All over Ohio too
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Check out College Station, TX. Same thing. Just came out as a possibility, no communication, people are showing up to meetings big time. They are not happy.
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Happening in Sulphur Springs, Tx too
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Add to everything, that is on the Great Lakes. It's one of the largest freshwater sources in the world. It would decimate the lakes.
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Same thing happened in St. Charles, Missouri. We were able to stop it and became the first city in the United States to ban the application process for data centers. Sadly, it’s only a one year ban.

I also drove by one being built just outside of Southbend, IN this weekend (Notre Dame). It was…alarming.
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I lived in Menomonie and went to UW Stout and grew up in that area. It’s an absolutely gorgeous area, I can’t minimize that. And SO many companies have tried to come into the area and steal the water and land from us.

Thank you for sharing this and amplifying their efforts, it’s so sad potentially seeing an area you love being destroyed. John Menard of Menards hardware stores has already done his best to destroy the environment in the area. When I was younger he dumped toxic waste into our water table and has done SO much environmental damage but keeps just getting fined. So the city council and surrounding law enforcement already doesn’t have a history of caring about environment over money. So let’s fight this with the might of the people and hope we can scare this company off.
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UGH We are dealing with something similar right here in our little corner of the world.

We live in a *residential agricultural* zoned area and a developer bought 150 acres and wants it rezoned "light industrial" ... we have goats and dogs and came out here for the quiet farm life..
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In Oregon we are seeing this in Hillsboro to North Plains, I believe. Whats left of prime farmland (some historic land/buildings) are being dozed for data and large industrial like Amazon, which has already built one center. I don’t have stats but I know many have tried fighting it and are concerned about the impact. When
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If St. Charles, MO residents could block the one that was destined to be built on farmland and threatened their water source, Menomonee can too!! It was a big secret too and passed through board approval process quickly.
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This has gotta be some kind of AI generated super-snoop op. That kind of water use is only reasonable for cooling super hot computing systems like those used in AI and crypto mining. Better also check yer electric bill. AI uses exorbitant amounts of electricity. AI, like its cousin crypto mining is likely to replace things like gold mining as the most polluting human activity on the planet.
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They voted Republican :-P
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Say goodbye to your water supply
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Here in Cherokee County, NC also- county commissioners are so quick to approve without doing adequate research/due diligence. Started with bitcoin and evolved to AI.
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The promise that the politician, almost always a right-wing politician by the way (because you know he's probably been paid off by Meta or Amazon or OpenAI to push for it), makes to the community is that having the AI data center will bring jobs to the local community, but a few people disputed the long-term benefits:

Data centers only employ a good amount of people during construction. Once built, very few people are required to operate.

Fun fact: the number of sustainable long-term jobs at data centers is extremely limited. Maybe 25-50. Mostly automated with centralized maintenance functions and the skill levels are far beyond local candidates. The contribution to a local economy is virtually zero and the impacts to utilities are huge. Governments are clueless about how to tax these things as the revenue flowing passively through them is significant but with zero local billing they can’t be taxed appropriately.

Canada isn't immune to this AI push either, so keep in mind the negative consequences if you see your local political leader advocating for it all of a sudden.  But it all goes to my point that I suspect Trump doesn't really want these farmers to thrive, he'd rather their farms go under and those huge acres of farmland then be sold off and used as AI data centers since anywhere as you've seen above, the residents oppose their construction with extreme prejudice. There's a lot of money to be made in erecting these centers, far more than growing soybeans and carrots, the Republicans just need the farmers out of the way.



 

Hoekstra was the same jerk during his tenure as US Ambassador to Netherlands, 2018 - 2021.

Netherlands was his birth country. His family emigrated to the US when he was 12. I guess he slept through the school classes on the liberation of Netherlands by Canadian troops.

On January 20, 2024, Hoekstra was elected chair of the Michigan Republican Party. He is listed as a "contributor" to Project 2025...yeah that infamous piece of work.