In the last year I’ve attended many local data center meetings. Almost no one wants the world we are building. No one wants the technological alienation and dehumanization being lauded by Sam Altman here. But many feel compelled to build it, lest they miss out. It’s very bleak.

Jared Yates Sexton@jysexton.bsky.social · 4d ago

One of the most important issues of our time is that the future of humanity is presently being authored by people who have nothing but total contempt for humanity and seek the erasure of everything that gives being a human meaning. It’s not just annoying. It doesn’t just suck. It’s existential.

Periodic reminder that, if you want to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes, it would cheaper, faster, and more effective to just close the Brandon Road lock. But no, we’re militarizing a stretch of the Des Plaines River with a $1.1 billion project that will take 10+ years to complete.

Great Lakes carp barrier project halted without explanation again

New stoppage comes four months after Trump officials shifted management of the $1.15 billion project to Michigan and claimed it would move forward aggressively.

mlive.com

I don’t think I’ve ever had a good snickerdoodle from a shop and yet they’re a Top-3 homemade cookie for me.

Patchouli reminds most people of hippies, but it makes me think of Stinkor.

$55 billion in government payments to farmers JUST THIS YEAR. And none of that money comes with any stipulation that the food production system change so that it doesn’t need $55 billion next year. In fact it guarantees more of the same. This is prelude to collapse.

Scott Lincicome@scottlincicome.bsky.social · 2w ago

If Congress approves Trump's latest request, US farmers will receive $55.4B in subsidies this year. 'If spread evenly across 153.8 million U.S. taxpayers, that total would equal roughly $360 per taxpayer." 😳 www.agweb.com/news/busines...

When "corn sweat on cocaine" congealed, I knew it would make the TV news before it escaped my mouth. www.kcrg.com/2026/07/23/j...

Johnson County proposes stricter data center ordinance

County aims to regulate water use, zoning and cooling systems for future facilities

kcrg.com

I’m just glad I’m still around to see another Surge in a war in the Middle East.

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 2w ago

The U.S. is surging forces, medics and weaponry to the Middle East to give President Trump more muscular military options as he considers expanding the conflict against Iran, according to people familiar with the matter. wsj.visitlink.me/RgCDBF

The writing is on the wall for the Corn Belt. Unfortunately, Corn Belt politicians can’t read.

The fall of America’s farm superpower

The US is on the verge of losing its status as the world’s leading agricultural exporter

giftarticle.ft.com

I could be a billionaire but fresh from the garden pesto would still be riches beyond compare

You're not supposed to preview your false flag ops

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w ago

Trump says communists are trying to blow up Mount Rushmore

Illinois is the Prairie State. Less than 0.01% of that prairie still exists. To actually have a bit more prairie in...the Prairie State... a guy in Bucktown has been guerrilla gardening. And now we have to hope that @illinoisdot.bsky.social will bestow its blessing. @blockclubchi.bsky.social

Block Club Chicago@blockclubchi.bsky.social · 2w ago

A sliver of land along the Kennedy Expressway has been reborn as a native prairie. blockclubchi.co/4wiYZ9k

Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we kept the price of a Costco hotdog at $1.50

Hugging Face a little on the, uh, nose

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · 2w ago

A confluence of news stories. Hugging Face recently announced their systems were breached by an automated AI attack. It turns out the attack was by an unreleased OpenAI model that escaped its sandbox looking for solutions to a benchmark. It wanted to cheat on the test so bad it hacked Hugging Face

America doesn't depend on other nations to sustain us? Let's check... - 90% of potash fertilizer is imported - 70% of world's pesticides come from China - More than half of hired farmworkers are foreign-born - We import 60% of our fruit and 35% of our vegetables...

We grow way more corn than we need. And the amswer to that, despite what the corn growers would have you believe, is not to have the government mandate new, artificial demand. The answer is to grow something else. Or hell, maybe take the land out of production entirely! @theswinerepublic.bsky.social

How much corn is enough

Less, actually

open.substack.com

Less an amnesty than an 'ag writes its own rules' bill - Ag (but only ag) employers get immunity for past illegal hiring. - Ag redefined to include slaughterhouses, so now uncapped, year-round visas - Workers: In limbo, no path to stay, wages as low as 17th percentile

47 Republicans Are Pushing Amnesty For Illegal Alien Ag Workers

Many Republicans are pushing an amnesty bill to expand a visa program for illegal alien agricultural workers and give many legal status.

thefederalist.com

This year, the corn is sweating for a different reason. @ninaelkadi.com and @tomphilpott.bsky.social profile the one and only Chris Jones @theswinerepublic.bsky.social.

Nina B. Elkadi@ninaelkadi.com · 2w ago

Good morning from Turin, Iowa, RAGBRAI Day 1. Out today in Politico Magazine, @tomphilpott.bsky.social and I collabed to report a profile of Chris Jones, a Democrat running for secretary of agriculture in Iowa.

Smells bad out there

Aerial image Google Earth 2026.

Dr. DioxiNation@djzaber.bsky.social · 2w ago

Homewood, IL knowingly allows local business to dump #toxicwaste - mercury, PAHs, heavy metals, etc - into nature preserve for 20+ years. Poisons the food web. Low income people eat fish from the lakes. Drains to an EJ zone. Disgusting failure by electeds here. #Corruption #Chicagoland 🧪

Frustration with corn-soy-CAFO ag—and its vast pollution problem—is boiling over in Iowa before Illinois. In Iowa there's no hiding from it; it's everywhere. But Chicago insulates Illinois’ political & economic center; our leaders can keep pretending “we’re feeding the world.”

‘Cancer Doesn't Care What Party You Belong To’: Poisoned Water Is Turning This Rural State Bluer

Democrats see an opening in rural states for the first time in decades. In Iowa, it’s about water.

politico.com

Robert Hirschfeld@rfhirschfeld.bsky.social · 3w ago

It's a real problem that Chicago is so divorced from what is happening across the rest of the landscape. Too many people don't understand it, don't feel like they have a stake in it, and as a result, fail to address ag's problems through public policy.

Chicago AQI: 597 PM 10! Official US AQI scale tops out at 500—a public health emergency. This year, we had a drought, record tornadoes & rains, and now this. Add a hotter, drier world fueling large, intense & longer fire seasons. A glimpse of the climate future we’re failing to prevent.

Farming: The Perineum of Land Use ;-)

Robert Hirschfeld@rfhirschfeld.bsky.social · 3w ago

US environmental law doesn’t really treat farms as either nature OR industry. It gets special treatment, exempted from rules at both ends. Ag runoff largely is untouched by the Clean Water Act. Farm pollution exists in a legal void that no comparable factory would every enjoy.

Correct! And ag conservation made this possible. From my book:

Robert Hirschfeld@rfhirschfeld.bsky.social · 3w ago

US environmental law doesn’t really treat farms as either nature OR industry. It gets special treatment, exempted from rules at both ends. Ag runoff largely is untouched by the Clean Water Act. Farm pollution exists in a legal void that no comparable factory would every enjoy.

In this 🧵, Robert shows that he’s a much better pundit than MY and that he has more guts than me, as I cannot stomach Matty’s sloppy shallow uninformative writing even when it is about agriculture. I very much share Robert’s views about nature versus farming, ag exceptionalism, sprawl etc.. btw

Robert Hirschfeld@rfhirschfeld.bsky.social · 3w ago

"Farms aren't nature" is a hot take if you don't live in the Corn Belt. Farms aren’t nature? correct. Ethanol mandate is terrible policy? Correct. But I’d like to address Yglesias' claim that America doesn’t categorize farms as nature and how that’s a strength, plus a few other points 🧵 (looong)

Here's @ewgofficial.bsky.social and @anneschech.bsky.social doing critical work on Iowa's CAFO explosion. This shows the state doesn't track them and is incapable of protecting the environment & the public. NB: in 2017, as a result of an agreement w/EPA, the state found 5,000+ more operations.

Drowning in manure: How livestock farms threaten Iowa’s drinking water and public health

Iowa – the nation’s top hog producer – had more than 15,000 factory farms in 2025 producing over 107 million tons of manure, a first-of-its-kind EWG analysis finds.

ewg.org

"Farms aren't nature" is a hot take if you don't live in the Corn Belt. Farms aren’t nature? correct. Ethanol mandate is terrible policy? Correct. But I’d like to address Yglesias' claim that America doesn’t categorize farms as nature and how that’s a strength, plus a few other points 🧵 (looong)

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 3w ago

One of my hottest takes — it makes sense for public policy to preserve nature as a priority but farms aren’t nature! www.slowboring.com/p/farms-aren...

Give me your poor, your gullible, your frustrated MAHAs yearning to breathe free of toxic mercury emissions apnews.com/article/epa-...

EPA promised a Make America Healthy Again agenda. It has yet to materialize, frustrating activists

After Make America Healthy Again activists drew up a petition to get him fired, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin pledged to release a formal agenda of MAHA priorities his agenc...

apnews.com

Using less fertilizer? Smacks of communism. Instead we should send farmers “bridge payment” checks so they can afford to pay Nutrien higher prices. theconversation.com/fertilizers-...

Fertilizers carry a hidden cost for soil’s crucial microbes – using less as prices rise might pay off for farms in unexpected ways

Too much fertilizer disrupts the hidden world of soil-dwelling microbes that were sustaining healthy crops long before synthetic fertilizer was invented.

theconversation.com

If you're worried about solar panels contaminating farmland soils, wait until you hear about farmland. civileats.com/2026/07/08/e...

EPA’s Pesticide Approvals Prompt Fears of PFAS on Farms

The agency’s actions come amid anger over a Supreme Court decision in a glyphosate case and an executive order over regenerative agriculture.

civileats.com

Electoral politics selects for psychos, sociopaths, narcissists, and the blatantly corrupt. Is that a problem?