molly taft
@mollytaft.com
disaster dyke on the apocalypse beat @wired.com . very tall with a very short dog. they/them. molly_taft@wired.com, signal: @mollytaft.99. mollytaft.com
Saw some attack ad yesterday accusing some condidate of having big data center money behind them. Notably, I wasn't sure if it was sn attack from the left or from the right. Felt like a cultural tipping point.
molly taft@mollytaft.com · 21h agofor months, ive been trying to map out the ways the right and the left were uniting against data centers and AI both here's my story on my efforts, featuring steve bannon's anti-tech prophet, my girlfriend's high school english class, and the unabomber:
Reading this and can't help but think about how communities of all kinds come together in the immediate wake of disasters, politics aside. And how I've been racially slurred the hardest by a good ol' southern boy who nicely helped me pull my car out of a ditch after a storm. The future is unwritten.
molly taft@mollytaft.com · 21h agofor months, ive been trying to map out the ways the right and the left were uniting against data centers and AI both here's my story on my efforts, featuring steve bannon's anti-tech prophet, my girlfriend's high school english class, and the unabomber:
If you read one piece today make it @mollytaft.com's excellent new piece out on the politics of data centers
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
Data center resistance certainly has some of its roots in classic NIMBYism: Lots of Americans simply don’t trust stuff being built, in their backyards, by powerful companies for mysterious purposes. But the pace of the outrage that’s built up around the country is shocking.
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
for months, ive been trying to map out the ways the right and the left were uniting against data centers and AI both here's my story on my efforts, featuring steve bannon's anti-tech prophet, my girlfriend's high school english class, and the unabomber:
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
@mollytaft.com on the diverse mix of ideologies that make up the data center opposition. It's a pretty wide range of views, intersecting around a deep distrust of Big Tech. The headline says data centers "broke" US politics, I'd say they've created an opening for a long overdue shakeup.
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
This is the definitive yarn you want to read about data center resistance and the unlikely political bedfellows the movement has drawn. excellent feature by @mollytaft.com www.wired.com/story/how-da...
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
All year, I've been watching data centers take hold as THE political issue of this cycle. But no one has dug into it quite like @mollytaft.com www.wired.com/story/how-da...
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
My dispatch from Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed challenges JD Vance to a debate on Joe Rogan about his mixed race children. That and more from our interview on the trail: nymag.com/intelligence...
Abdul El-Sayed Is Already Eyeing Race Against ‘Weak’ Mike Rogers
Ahead of Tuesday’s primary, the Michigan progressive talks about how he’d take on the GOP in November and why he wants to debate J.D. Vance.
nymag.com
This is such an excellent read
Katie Drummond@katie-drummond.bsky.social · yesterdayData centers have become one of the U.S.'s most potent political flashpoints, uniting coalitions on the left and right like few issues do. We sent @mollytaft.com on a journey into the data center resistance. The Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders made appearances along the way:
Data centers have become one of the U.S.'s most potent political flashpoints, uniting coalitions on the left and right like few issues do. We sent @mollytaft.com on a journey into the data center resistance. The Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders made appearances along the way:
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
w all eyes on michigan today, revisiting my convo w @wewill2026.bsky.social from earlier this summer about how data centers are playing a critical role in his campaign:
The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics
Climate activist Will Lawrence cofounded the Sunrise Movement. Now, he has shifted his focus in his attempt to compete for a swing-district seat by calling for a data center moratorium.
wired.com
confirmed: renewable energy developer clearway is pivoting away from developing a gas fired data center on federal lands in nevada, days after i exposed their internal plans my latest scoop on @heatmap.news and the impact journalism we provide
Scoop: Clearway Cancels Plan to Swap Solar Farm for Data Center and Gas Plant
The energy developer is backing off after a Heatmap report.
heatmap.news
got a big feature dropping tomorrow. on ai and data centers and how the right and the left are coming together on this. it's also a little bit about the unabomber
NEW: Madison Square Garden's sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. Its owners recently made a major exception -- for Taylor Swift. Scoop from @noahshachtman.bsky.social. Free for everyone to read, because James Dolan doesn't want you to:
For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark
MSG’s sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. Its owners made an exception for the pop star’s rehearsal dinner.
wired.com
The EPA has proposed a rule change that would let states decide how much input the public has on air pollution permits. It would be a huge boon for data centers increasingly reliant on fossil fuels. www.wired.com/story/trump-...
The Trump Administration Wants to Change Public Engagement Rules for Polluters
The EPA has proposed a rule change that would let states decide how much input the public has on air pollution permits. It would be a huge boon for data centers increasingly reliant on fossil fuels.
wired.com
NEW: the trump administration is quietly pushing to change rules that could give the public much less advance notice when a polluting facility comes to their neighborhoods the move comes as communities across the country mobilize against data centers and the gas turbines and diesel engines some use
The Trump Administration Wants to Change Public Engagement Rules for Polluters
The EPA has proposed a rule change that would let states decide how much input the public has on air pollution permits. It would be a huge boon for data centers increasingly reliant on fossil fuels.
wired.com
Michigan has been at the epicenter of the wildfire smoke and explosive diarrhea outbreaks. The progressive Democrat talks to WIRED about how he would tackle the forces behind them if he’s elected. www.wired.com/story/abdul-...
Abdul El-Sayed Is an Epidemiologist Running for Senate. His State Is a Public Health Disaster
Michigan has been at the epicenter of the wildfire smoke and explosive diarrhea outbreaks. The progressive Democrat talks to WIRED about how he would tackle the forces behind them if he’s elected.
wired.com
talked to @abdulelsayed.bsky.social about poop lettuce, wildfire smoke, and what he'd do in congress to address our "DOGE'd" federal public health apparatus: www.wired.com/story/abdul-...
Abdul El-Sayed Is an Epidemiologist Running for Senate. His State Is a Public Health Disaster
Michigan has been at the epicenter of the wildfire smoke and explosive diarrhea outbreaks. The progressive Democrat talks to WIRED about how he would tackle the forces behind them if he’s elected.
wired.com
Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.
“We’ve done a pretty good job as a nation of making vehicles more efficient, having more renewables, switching to cleaner fuels. There could be more progress on that, but really, it’s mostly all about wildfire smoke.” @mollytaft.com:
How to Protect Your Health as Skies Fill With Smoke From Canada’s Wildfires
Roughly 100 fires are raging out of control in Ontario, sending smoke streaming 1,000 miles to the south and east.
wired.com
From me, and the WIRED leadership team. Proud of WIRED today and every day, and we’re not slowing down on our reporting about MSG or anything else.
WIRED@wired.com · 3w agoA statement from WIRED leadership.
Take it from west coasters. Do not exercise in this shit and mask up or limit time outside as much as possible
molly taft@mollytaft.com · 3w agoi talked to several pollution + health experts about the wildfire smoke blanketing much of the northeast right now, and everyone agreed that even able-bodied adults may want to take some precautions today!!
i talked to several pollution + health experts about the wildfire smoke blanketing much of the northeast right now, and everyone agreed that even able-bodied adults may want to take some precautions today!!
Smoke From Canada’s Wildfires Turns Skies Sickly Orange Across the Eastern US
Roughly 100 fires are raging out of control in Ontario, sending smoke streaming 1,000 miles to the south and east.
wired.com
I have been following Explosive Diarrhea News closely and this is the best single piece I've read so far
Katie Drummond@katie-drummond.bsky.social · 3w agoWe’re all going to get diarrhea I guess.
dropping your phone in a lake at the beginning of a four day weekend is not a good idea to keep up with the news journalistically, but is a really phenomenal way to totally log the fuck off as a human being
today, ny becomes the first state with a statewide data center moratorium even though the hochul data center pause is less aggressive than ny's data center moratorium bill passed in may, it's still "a gigantic step forward," one advocate told me
New York Governor Signs First Statewide Data Center Moratorium
“We have no choice but to address the challenges created by these massive facilities,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said. The executive order will pause construction for one year.
wired.com
As worries about a growing super El Niño mount, new findings suggest a radical solution to mitigating its impacts. www.wired.com/story/dimmin...
Dimming the Sun Would Help Lower the Risks of El Niño. No, Really
As worries about a growing super El Niño mount, new findings suggest a radical solution to mitigating its impacts.
wired.com