Now that we have a new thread, in order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a complete and thorough read before posting!
NOTE: When providing a source, please provide a very brief summary on what it's about and what purpose it adds to the discussion. The supporting statement should clearly explain why the subject is relevant and needs to be discussed. Please follow this rule especially for tweets.
Your supporting statement should always come BEFORE you provide the source.
Interesting divide among Democrats about how to handle the rapid expansion of environmentally spurious AI data centers.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on Wednesday at Axios' AI+DC Summit that placing a moratorium on the construction of AI data centers would be "idiocy," adding that it would grant China an edge in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: Warner's comments come the same day that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) unveiled legislation to pause all new data center construction nationwide until AI safeguards are in place.
"That would be idiocy," Warner said when asked about the idea of a moratorium to ease the transition to AI. "A data center moratorium simply means China is going to move quicker," he added.
Their bill would impose a national moratorium on new AI data center construction until "strong national safeguards" are in place, per a press release.
Royal United Services Institute has just published a detailed analysis of US and Israel missile usage during the war with Iran.
During 16 days countries in the Gulf have used 1804 Patriot missiles. To replenish that the US military complex would require over 2 years of production. It's also 3 times the amount of missiles used by Ukraine over the course of 4 years of war.
They've also used 338 THAAD missiles, which are $12m a piece and are produced at a rate of about 100/year.
I really don't know what the US plan is there but it seems that their way of waging war is extremely inefficient and might leave them (and all the countries that rely on their systems) crippled sooner rather than later in case of a prolonged conflict.
On March 27 2026 00:16 Sent. wrote: The article requires registration. Why are they trying to stop the construction of AI data centers? What's the main problem, AI or the data centers?
Without reading the articles I can already tell you that a single data center requires enough power and water to run a small town (around 3k households).
On March 27 2026 00:16 Sent. wrote: The article requires registration. Why are they trying to stop the construction of AI data centers? What's the main problem, AI or the data centers?
Both? Also that the politicians are acting in the interests of their fundraising rather than their constituents.
For example and to Uld's point:
A CNBC analysis determined that 42 states provide full or partial sales tax exemptions to data centers or have no state sales tax at all. Of those, 37 have passed legislation specifically granting sales tax exemptions for data centers, and 16 of those states have granted nearly $6 billion in exemptions over the past five years. The other 21 states that offer similar breaks are not included in the $6 billion total because they do not publicly report how much they have awarded in tax breaks. Eight other states that have sales tax don’t give exemptions to data centers.
Only Illinois, Nevada, Missouri and Washington itemize how much companies are getting by recipient. For instance, CNBC found that one Microsoft data center in Illinois received more than $38 million in data center sales tax exemptions but created just 20 permanent jobs. In Washington, the tech giant secured $333 million in sales tax exemptions for its data centers between 2015 and 2023.
If it's about the data centers then I agree it's a reasonable topic to discuss even though I'm on Mr. Warner's side. The part about "safeguards" made me worry it's some kind of neo-luddist attempt of stopping global AI-related problems with local construction bans.
On March 27 2026 00:46 Manit0u wrote: By the gods! Trump's derangements never end...
He just confirmed Iran is on its knees and begging him (DJT) to become their supreme leader but he refused.
Remember when we used to make fun of the Iraqi minister that said "Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad"
It wasn't quite an Internet meme, but I remember people used to make jokes about this or that politician being as bad at lying as Baghdad Bob. The good ole days when it wasn't someone with the nuclear football...
So here's a controversial topic, Democratic primary in Maine for the U.S. Senate, the winner will run against Collins in November.
The two leading candidates are current governor Janet Mills, moderate endorsed by Chuck Schumer, 79 years old, and Graham Platner, left-wing endorsed by Bernie Sanders, 42 years old.
In normal circumstances I would say Platner is the obvious choice, BUT, he also had a Totenkopf tattoo (he claims he didn't know what it meant when he got it and said he would laser it off in October of last year). He's also an ex-mercenary for private military company Blackwater, even after their role in the Nisour Square massacre was made public knowledge. So there's a real worry that he's simply faking being left-wing and will go full John Fetterman/Kyrsten Sinema after he's elected.
I don't live in Maine so this isn't my problem, but it's an interesting dilemma for progressives there.
On March 27 2026 01:10 LightSpectra wrote: So here's a controversial topic, Democratic primary in Maine for the U.S. Senate, the winner will run against Collins in November.
The two leading candidates are current governor Janet Mills, moderate endorsed by Chuck Schumer, 79 years old, and Graham Platner, left-wing endorsed by Bernie Sanders, 42 years old.
In normal circumstances I would say Platner is the obvious choice, BUT, he also had a Totenkopf tattoo (he claims he didn't know what it meant when he got it and said he would laser it off in October of last year). He's also an ex-mercenary for private military company Blackwater, even after their role in the Nisour Square massacre was made public knowledge. So there's a real worry that he's simply faking being left-wing and will go full John Fetterman/Kyrsten Sinema after he's elected.
I don't live in Maine so this isn't my problem, but it's an interesting dilemma for progressives there.
The good news is, if you go with the moderate to be safe at age 79, you probably only need to deal with them for 20ish more years before she ages out for American politics.
@baal Do you remember the context of Trump's twitter ban? Him sicking his followers on the Capitol to force Pence to subvert the election via the false elector scheme. I think a temporary ban would be warranted in the wake of that is justified just until they were sure he wouldn't try anything else. I disagree with the permanent ban; I think he should have been impeached and imprisoned. Do you?
Was Trump right proclaiming years in advance that the Democrats would rig the elections in 2020? Was he right to proclaim that they were rigging the election during the electoral campaign? Was he right when he proclaimed the election was rigged/ corrupted by Democrats on election night? Was he right to threaten Republican states to find more votes for him so he could win? Was he right to ignore the courts when they rejected his 'proofs' of fraud (and rejected his own aides who showed him that he was using doctored video as 'proof' of fraud) and instead pursued his illegal scheme to seize the election for himself culminating on January 6?
(And the downstream effect is Trump federal judge nominees cannot even state who won the 2020 election:
"violence occured"
I don't agree with most of the twitter bans (although I find it hard to force Twitter to keep Milo on their platform even if you grant the most charitable reading of Milo's interview that got him cancelled everywhere). However, I think all of Trump's above actions are far more dangerous (by magnitude and by imminence) to your republic than the twitter bans.
On March 27 2026 01:10 LightSpectra wrote: So here's a controversial topic, Democratic primary in Maine for the U.S. Senate, the winner will run against Collins in November.
The two leading candidates are current governor Janet Mills, moderate endorsed by Chuck Schumer, 79 years old, and Graham Platner, left-wing endorsed by Bernie Sanders, 42 years old.
In normal circumstances I would say Platner is the obvious choice, BUT, he also had a Totenkopf tattoo (he claims he didn't know what it meant when he got it and said he would laser it off in October of last year). He's also an ex-mercenary for private military company Blackwater, even after their role in the Nisour Square massacre was made public knowledge. So there's a real worry that he's simply faking being left-wing and will go full John Fetterman/Kyrsten Sinema after he's elected.
I don't live in Maine so this isn't my problem, but it's an interesting dilemma for progressives there.
I wouldn't care whether he is really left or a fascist. Blackwater merc itself is pretty disqualifying, with or without skull tattoo.
On March 26 2026 22:32 LightSpectra wrote: It was Gen X and Millennials who grew up in a world where the far-right was still the fringe of politics, and the "just let them make fools of themselves, trying to ban them will only embolden them" seemed to be sensible advice from our parents that grew up in a world where the Nazis and Fascists seemed to be permanently vanquished.
So it turns out that was complete hogwash, regrettably. Society still has time to update our collective wisdom to something more evidence-based but it's not surprising a lot of people are resistant to such a thing.
Millennial here (not by much tho) and I very much believed in my younger days that people's minds could be changed if convincing evidence could be provided. As a scientist, this felt like a self-evident truth. I sympathise with Baal's position in truth. I don't think he's being malicious, he just thinks people are better than they truly are and that's a nice sentiment.
On March 26 2026 22:32 LightSpectra wrote: It was Gen X and Millennials who grew up in a world where the far-right was still the fringe of politics, and the "just let them make fools of themselves, trying to ban them will only embolden them" seemed to be sensible advice from our parents that grew up in a world where the Nazis and Fascists seemed to be permanently vanquished.
So it turns out that was complete hogwash, regrettably. Society still has time to update our collective wisdom to something more evidence-based but it's not surprising a lot of people are resistant to such a thing.
tbh I find the new way, 'call-out culture' to be equally as ridiculous and ineffective. All it does is make the person calling stuff out feel a certain way about themselves.
The far right are emboldened by having leaders who find popularity in other ways than espousing far right politics. Trump would have been popular (see: divisive) no matter whether he was republican or democrat.
On March 27 2026 01:10 LightSpectra wrote: So here's a controversial topic, Democratic primary in Maine for the U.S. Senate, the winner will run against Collins in November.
The two leading candidates are current governor Janet Mills, moderate endorsed by Chuck Schumer, 79 years old, and Graham Platner, left-wing endorsed by Bernie Sanders, 42 years old.
In normal circumstances I would say Platner is the obvious choice, BUT, he also had a Totenkopf tattoo (he claims he didn't know what it meant when he got it and said he would laser it off in October of last year). He's also an ex-mercenary for private military company Blackwater, even after their role in the Nisour Square massacre was made public knowledge. So there's a real worry that he's simply faking being left-wing and will go full John Fetterman/Kyrsten Sinema after he's elected.
I don't live in Maine so this isn't my problem, but it's an interesting dilemma for progressives there.
I wouldn't care whether he is really left or a fascist. Blackwater merc itself is pretty disqualifying, with or without skull tattoo.
Doesn't seem like Democrats need more purity tests? Or do they?
I don't know specifically what he did for Blackwater, but seems a little classist to only support the people hiring the mercs.
My takeaway from this Platner situation (I was only peripherally aware of it before) is that USA is fucked.
The choices are the republican ghoul that likes to pretend she will be principled but always gives Trump what he wants, an ancient career politician in Mills and then Platner.
To me, the guy is interesting. However, so was Fetterman before he did a full 180 and became the flesh and blood avatar of AIPAC.
I guess, looking at the comments Platner made on reddit, he comes off as a disillusioned but still very American, by that I mean someone that, for my taste, still believes in being crude and violent way too much, but I guess in 2026 America that is the best we can hope for.
The lying, however, does worry me, because if he thinks that people following him are so stupid that they will believe obvious lies, it just doesn't bode well for his character.
I guess, if I was a Democratic primary voter in Maine, I'd still vote for him, but I'd still be pissed at my choices and I'd forever be worried of a Fetterman scenario.
EPT
