Sustainability and ESG management. Environmental justice. Reformed petrochemical lobbyist. Former staffer @housescience.
Joined June 2013
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31 May 2025
This is America
31 May 2025
FEMA's public message regarding residents' health concerns following the East Palestine train derailment was different from what they were telling the White House and other agencies. NewsNation's @RichMcHugh dives into what FEMA documents reveal.
More: newsnationnow.com/us-news/mi…
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John Serrano retweeted
France taxes Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple 3 percent on their French revenue. Brought in about $700 million last year.
Trump's response: eliminate the tax or face 100 percent tariffs on all French wine exports to the United States.
All four Silicon Valley companies being protected here publicly backed Trump's return to the White House. Musk just became the world's first trillionaire off the SpaceX IPO the same week BLS reported energy prices wiped out 18 months of American wage gains.
A 100 percent wine tariff doesn't hurt Zuckerberg. It hits the American importer, the American distributor, the American restaurant owner trying to hold their margins, and eventually the customer staring at a menu in Fort Wayne wondering why the house Bordeaux costs what it costs now.
The G7 is supposed to be a summit of industrialized democracies coordinating on trade and security. Trump arrived threatening the host country's flagship export to defend the domestic tax obligations of his biggest campaign donors.
That's the trip. That's the agenda.
Jun 15
Donald Trump is kicking off a summit of major industrialized nations in France by threatening a new trade war with the hosts over its tax on his billionaire backers in Silicon Valley. thedailybeast.com/trump-80-s…
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Jun 15
Ohio Republicans pulled a vote on the data center tax break that cost the state $2 billion in 2025, leaving it in place as the legislative session ends and lawmakers return home.
When the massive handout to data center builders received national attention, Republicans scheduled a vote on the issue.
Now that vote has been abandoned and big tech will continue to receive billions in tax breaks from the state.
GOP leaders claim the bill was pulled because it didn't go far enough, but they ended the legislative session with no action on data center tax breaks whatsoever.
tiffinohio.net/posts/ohio-re…
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I cannot think of a more clear example of all that's corrupt & wrong with Dem Party politics than Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire & then Gavin Newsom, a union & Planned Parenthood fighting to help billionaires block blue-state voters from even voting on a billionaire tax.
On a call with a major Dem donor, Gavin Newsom had a clear message: there would be no billionaire tax.
He assured the donor that the levy would be negotiated away before a June 25 deadline.
Newsom has ten days to make good on that promise. (gift link)
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Jun 15
Fred Rogers met with a child psychologist every week for 22 years to build his show. She shaped everything: every script, prop, and song. The whole point was to give a child's nervous system time to slow down. In 1984, a single regulatory decision ended all of it.
The psychologist was Dr. Margaret McFarland, who co-founded the Arsenal Family and Children's Center alongside Benjamin Spock and Erik Erikson. She and Rogers understood that the prefrontal cortex in children, the part of the brain that controls impulse, emotion, and attention, takes decades to fully develop. At the start of every episode, Rogers tied his sneakers and changed his sweater while children settled in. Those pauses were intentional, designed to help a child's nervous system shift into a calmer, more focused state.
What ended it had nothing to do with child development science. In 1984, Reagan's FCC chairman Mark Fowler abolished the advertising limits that had protected children's programming from commercial pressure. Toy companies moved within months. Between 1984 and 1985, cartoons tied to toy lines increased by 300%, from a handful of shows to more than 40 animated series. In almost every case, the toy was designed first. The cartoon was built to sell it.
Researchers later put numbers to what parents were already noticing. A 2011 study in Pediatrics from the University of Virginia tested 60 four-year-olds across three groups: one watching SpongeBob, which cuts scene every 11 seconds; one watching a slow PBS show, which cuts scene every 34 seconds; and one drawing. Nine minutes later, all three took tests on attention, impulse control, short-term memory, and problem-solving. The SpongeBob group scored significantly worse across every measure.
In the 1970s, children began watching television around age 4. Research from pediatrician Dimitri Christakis found that by 2009, the average age of first screen exposure had dropped to 4 months, as the content got faster and the audience got younger. Researchers separately found that each additional hour of daily screen time at ages 1 or 3 raised the risk of attention problems at age 7 by 9%.
Jun 14
We didn’t realize it then, but kids’ shows used to be this calm on purpose.
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Jun 15
Tax avoidance is not innovation. It's a policy choice.
If corporations are people, they should pay taxes as such.
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Jun 12
Abbott's sudden flip-flop on data centers tells you everything you need to know about how worried the TX GOP is about this issue. Notice he isn't calling for a special session to actually fix it, just empty promises to get through November.
Jun 12
VIDEO: Texas Gov. Abbott calls for regulations on data centers, contrasting previous stance @FOX4
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AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday called for sweeping regulations on data centers to be passed by the legislature in the 2027 session.
It's a change in stance for Abbott, who previously worked to make Texas the epicenter of the data center buildout.
In a letter to the Public Utilities Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Abbot laid out his ideas to hold data centers accountable and ensure the costs of their growth are not passed on to taxpayers.
Abbott called for new centers to add power generation to the state's power grid while paying for their own infrastructure costs and connection to the grid. The letter also calls for the mandated use of closed-loop water systems and annual reporting on electricity and water use by data centers.
The governor is also calling on lawmakers to repeal sales tax exemptions and "other outdated or unnecessary incentives" for data centers. Data centers would also be required to consider the communities by reducing their impact through measures such as reducing noise.
"As Texas continues to welcome innovation and investment, we must ensure that growth strengthens our people and their quality of life without placing undue burdens on Texans and local communities," Abbott wrote in the letter.
In the letter, Abbott directed PUC and ERCOT to submit a joint memorandum by July 17 outlining actions they've taken to prevent risks and added costs to taxpayers because of data center development.
At least one lawmaker applauded the move as state Rep. Helen Kerwin praised Abbott for "protecting Texas ratepayers."
"As these projects are proposed across Texas, we must PROTECT our water resources, rural communities, and state parks while bringing greater transparency and accountability to the process," Kerwin said on X.
Kerwin has come out against the explosive expansion of data centers in the past, calling for full impact studies before development.
"Economic development matters. Innovation matters. Jobs matter. But our water and our power are not negotiable," she said in February.
Cal Jillson, a political scientist, tells FOX 4's David Sentendrey that Abbott's recent comments are at odds with his past stance on data centers.
"The Governor has worked very hard to make Texas the epicenter of the data center buildout," Jillson said.
ERCOT delivered a warning in April that Texas power demand could quadruple by 2032, mostly driven by data centers, population increases and oil production.
Jillson also believes Abbott, who is seeking re-election this November, sees the potential for political backlash for other Republican campaigns.
"He is sitting on $130 million, he’s gonna win easily but he knows that there are some races down ticket. Maybe even the U.S. Senate race, certainly the Texas Railroad Commissioner race, which have weaker Republicans that he needs to worry about," Jillson continued.
"He’s got to try to be sure that Republicans hold the Texas House and Senate by large margins. So that’s what he’s trying to do, just position the Republican Party more than himself so they’re not taking blame for the data center buildout."
The move comes as communities and local leaders push back against the rapid expansion of data centers in the state.
Last month, Hill County officials placed a moratorium on new data centers in their county. The move was met with a lawsuit from developers.
Officials rescinded the moratorium last week in response to the pressure from the lawsuit and issued a checklist for new large-scale development in the county.
The Angelina County Commissioners Court advised residents to contact state lawmakers during Tuesday night's meeting after hearing public comments about a proposed data center located outside the Lufkin city limits.
"We have no authority to do a moratorium or to stop any type of development in the county," Angelina County Judge Keith Wright said. "The Texas legislators have consciously limited what we can do, and they've done it on purpose."
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Jun 12
But taxing wealth so normal people can afford to see a doctor and not go bankrupt over inhalers is radical left. OK
Jun 12
SpaceX's 11% share price boost has made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, controlling two of the world's largest companies. ft.trib.al/wHPQ9gw
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Musk is worth more than South Africa’s GDP. @BernieSanders and I proposed a 5% tax on people like him.
In one year, it could fund:
- free public college & trade school
-$10/day childcare
- Special-needs education nationwide
Wealth inequality is the moral failure of our time.
Jun 12
Those who celebrate @elonmusk's $1 trillion fortune need to be reminded of a simple and vital truth:
That there is a fundamental tension between extreme wealth and the very possibility of democracy.
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Jun 12
The environmental toll of the artificial intelligence boom continues to mount as tech companies use ever more power to run their data centers and use enormous amounts of water for cooling. A new investigation by U.N. scientists warns that AI's water use in 2030 will match the needs of 1.3 billion people, while its power use will be triple that of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined — countries with a total population of 650 million.
"Most people understand AI as a digital technology, as a virtual thing, as something that is in the clouds," says Iranian environmental scientist Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. "What we tried to do in this report was to remind people that there's some physics to all of this."
democracynow.org/2026/6/12/a…
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Jun 12
Those who celebrate @elonmusk's $1 trillion fortune need to be reminded of a simple and vital truth:
That there is a fundamental tension between extreme wealth and the very possibility of democracy.
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Jun 12
🚨NEWS: The Trump administration quietly waived key longstanding investor protection rules ahead of the IPO for @ElonMusk's SpaceX, according to government documents reviewed by @LeverNews.
The exemption "has never been provided before," according to one financial watchdog.
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Jun 11
Hawaii just passed the first state law in the country banning corporations from making political donations in state elections.
Now a Koch-backed legal group is suing to overturn it.
Big Money won't get out of our politics without a fight — one that we the people must win.
(via @LeverNews)
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Jun 11
Scrap the cap, make the billionaire class pay their fair share.
Social Security is on track to become insolvent by the end of 2032, putting benefits at risk of a 22% cut. cbsn.ws/4umfAHh
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Talarico: Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life. They don't sell their soul to the highest bidder. Real men serve others, weak men serve themselves. So I welcome this debate. I don't think Paxton or Cruz are in a position to tell anyone what a real man is.
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Jun 11
A few months ago AI’s productivity boom was going to bring massive deflation. Now it turns out they are buying so many chips needed for other stuff they are driving inflation.
When this all crashes Wall Street and corporate America need to be understood as morons and liars.
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Jun 12
this is oligarchy — pass it on
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Jun 11
“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.
“You are not numbers or case files.
“You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV
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Jun 9
Scientists at Trump’s EPA say they are being told to make chemical risks “disappear on paper.” Not to study or manage them, but to make them vanish.
When a safety test on a household chemical shows danger, supervisors reportedly ask to keep shrinking the scenario until the poison looks safe.
They have reassigned senior scientists to paperwork and handed life-and-death risk assessments to staff with less experience. They have installed former chemical industry lobbyists to run the very offices that are supposed to regulate the chemical industry.
A gift to industry, paid for with your family’s health.
They are even throwing out research on how certain chemicals hit certain communities harder, calling decades of established science “DEI.”
You can make risk disappear on paper.
The cancer does not disappear.
The birth defects do not disappear.
The infertility does not disappear.
The kids drinking the water and getting sick do not disappear.
The EPA exists to protect people, not to protect the profit margins of the people poisoning them.
Every American deserves to know what is happening. #TrumpMakesUsSick
cnn.com/2026/06/08/politics/…
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Jun 8
Watch this absolute loser shit his pants when someone calls out his lies. He's already got the mental capacity of a toddler and his brain is rapidly dissolving. He has no intention of leaving. The ballroom is his safe space and he'll burrow his fat ass under it until he dies.
Jun 7
WOW -- Trump crashes out and cuts his interview with Welker short as she presses him on his lack of evidence for claiming elections are rigged
"You're either crooked or you're stupid. Let's call it quits. Because I've had enough. Thank you darling," he tells her."
"I traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview," she pleads.
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Jun 6
This is really stupid, and it’s not getting enough attention.
The Trump administration is pulling a working $368 million ocean monitoring system out of the water, equipment taxpayers already bought, built, and sank into the deep ocean.
And they are doing it right when the oceans are behaving in ways that alarm the scientists who study them.
Record-breaking temperatures.
A system of Atlantic currents that may be lurching toward collapse.
The response?
Yank out the instruments and walk away.
That is not budgeting. That is smashing the gauges while the engine is on fire and calling it efficiency.
For what? The Trump administration dressed it up as a “nimbler approach” and “smart lifecycle management,” which is fancy nonsense for “we shut it off and hoped nobody would ask why.” There is no return-on-investment analysis. They cannot show taxpayers save a dime, because the gear is already paid for and the science it produces protects real money and real lives.
The kicker: the same people killing the monitors want to mine the deep sea for minerals. So they are destroying the only tools that could measure what that mining does. That is not an accident.
That is the point. You cannot see the damage if you break the instruments first.
cnn.com/2026/06/03/climate/o…
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