Don’t Wait For Everybody – Episode 026
Notes, references (including the video referenced), & transcript: https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/some-narratives-are-just-blunt-honesty
References:
People are not even talking about the same things and this is dangerous. I don’t think most people realize that many times we think we’re talking about the same thing, but in fact, we’re not actually on the same page with the underlying premise or even basic facts. Chloe Humbert Feb 14, 2025 Whatever the cause I think the only answer is to start speaking in specifics rather than shorthand or buzzwords or sound bites. We need to name specific things happening, and spell out what we mean, not just make off-hand comments and assume everyone’s on the same page, because I can guarantee you, not everyone is on the same page.
Don’t fail to communicate. Don’t Wait For Everybody – Episode 017 Chloe Humbert Feb 10, 2025 Say exactly what it’s doing. Delivering money into the pockets of working people. That means nothing. It means nothing. That doesn’t help. It doesn’t help people want to protect this. They’re just like, well, Trump’s going to deliver money into the pockets of working people. I mean, you might as well just say, well, no, I’m going to do it. No, I’m going to do it. That doesn’t make any sense. You have to be specific. So this problem is – I just see this everywhere. Nobody is doing this like where – it’s just a pervasive problem.
“Behind the scenes” hopium peddling needs to stop. Savior syndrome, normalcy bias, and apocalyptic hopium, it’s all a bamboozle. Chloe Humbert Dec 02, 2024 This presenter at this town hall also said they want progressive policies. But then this person also said they’re going to keep using the word “progressive” because: “We are not crazy lefty people.” So wait, so you’re against progressive policies like universal healthcare and paid leave and stuff like that? Because that’s what that means! When people say “crazy lefty people” they mean PROGRESSIVES! Do these people think they’re going to somehow outwit the openly stated plans for right-wing atrocities against “lefty people” with semantics like this to save themselves and sell out the most vulnerable among us? What happened to “First they came for the socialists”? If they meant tankies or some specific issue they were denouncing they could’ve specified. But insulting 80% of the people most aligned with your own policy preferences seems bonkers.
PA Democratic Party politicians celebrate corporate giveaway. Less than 10 days after having to deny being elitists who’ve abandoned the working class, to defend the party’s historic defeats they announce millions of taxpayer money being given to a literal bank. Chloe Humbert Nov 18, 2024 If we had participatory budgeting here, this would never happen. I guarantee you nobody regardless of their political leaning would vote for giving taxpayer money to a bank. Only people with privilege and power make these decisions for mysterious reasons we can only speculate make sense for them. This is “trickle down economics” being pushed by Democrats.
Indiana Gazette – AG targets scammers exploiting elderly – RON MUSSELMAN May 9, 2018 Updated Oct 19, 2022 Agent Jim Embree from the AG’s office talked about six kinds of scams he has investigated statewide, including door-to-door scams. He also cited other scams involving drugs, phones, those committed by family members, and those involving hospital and care facilities, as well as the post office, dark web, social media and the internet.
PublicSource – As prosecutor, Josh Shapiro was for fracking reform. Can he pull it off as governor? The attorney general’s tough talk on fracking suggests potential new regulations, but the governor-elect’s support for a hydrogen hub and the realities of a divided general assembly could fuel more drilling. Quinn Glabicki November 30, 2022 Yesterday, Shapiro announced that Coterra Energy Inc., formerly known as Cabot Oil and Gas, pleaded no contest to 15 environmental charges brought by the 2020 grand jury, which found that the company polluted well water in the Susquehanna town of Dimock with metals and high levels of methane. As part of the plea, Coterra will pay $16.29 million to construct a new public water line and cover 75 years worth of water bills for homeowners that were impacted. Shapiro called it an “historic settlement.” “Companies will take notice that we won’t allow communities like this to be taken advantage of or forgotten,” he said in a press release.
Gift Bans: Everyone knows “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” PA Governor missteps to the right at lunchtime Chloe Humbert Feb 18, 2023 If free lunches were so nominal and irrelevant, why do shrewd pharmaceutical companies spend so much money on buying meals for doctors who are hardly likely to be scraping for lunch money? It’s because this tactic is not irrelevant. Free lunches are incredibly effective marketing tools in persuading people. It’s harder to turn down a gift lunch. We’ve all heard the old adage that states “There’s no such thing as a free lunch!”
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro loosens his predecessor’s notoriously strict gift ban for top officials by Stephen Caruso of Spotlight PA and Kate Huangpu of Spotlight PA | Jan. 20, 2023 Top officials for Pennsylvania’s governor are now allowed to accept an occasional free lunch while on duty. In one of the first notable changes of his new administration, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Friday that he has loosened a gift ban that was put in place since the start of his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s, eight-year tenure.
Gift Ban — MarchOnHarrisburg In Pennsylvania, lobbyists can legally bribe legislators. There are no limits on how much lobbyists can “gift” public officials in Pennsylvania. Millions of dollars are unreported every year. Gifts valued at over $250 or travel, lodging, and hospitality greater than $650 must be reported by legislators… but even that isn’t enforced.
Daily Mail – Residents of small Pennsylvania town are being driven mad by huge BITCOIN MINE whose two large cooling towers vibrate and hum more loudly than a waterfall By Dominic Yeatman For Dailymail.Com Published: 14:40 EDT, 13 December 2023 ‘I have a little pond in front of my house where I used to sit and have my coffee at,’ he added. ‘I can’t even enjoy that because I can’t even hear the water over the Bitcoin. It is louder than the waterfall.’ Talen Energy won over locals with promises of hundreds of news jobs and an economic boom in the township of 6,000 when they announced plans for the operation last year. ‘Amazon, Google, all those cloud computing applications, those are the potential clients, customers that we will have in the data center buildings,’ said Dustin Wertheimer, VP and Division CFO Talen Cumulus and Susquehanna Data Center. ‘On the coin mining side, there will be computers again located in those buildings and those computers will run computations that will trigger and generate the issuance of coins.’ The controversial cryptocurrency has been in the news again after a wild ride since the start of December. A rally last week saw it rise above $44,000 to reach its highest level in almost two years – then on Sunday it lost 6.5 percent of its value in just 20 minutes and dipped below $41,000. Global bank Standard Chartered thinks bitcoin could surpass $100,000 before the end of 2024 – yet well-known JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon said last week that US lawmakers should ‘close it down’. The first 1,500 Bitcoins out of Salem Township were sold for $37.6 million after the 180 megawatt mine was plugged in this summer, but that was little consolation to residents at an angry town hall meeting on Tuesday.
Indonesia’s TOXIC TOFU Timebomb: Poisoning Millions Daily – Andrew Fraser Apr 26, 2025
I Live 400 Yards From Mark Zuckerberg’s Massive Data Center More Perfect Union Mar 27, 2025
Issues You May Know, 30 May 2025. A list of things you might want to know about – or write your reps about. Chloe Humbert May 30, 2025 Pennsylvania American Water seems a little nervous. I’m seeing PA American Water commercials on youtube making claims about how safe and reliable they are. You know it’s bad and they’re probably feeling some heat. There must be a lot of people writing letters like I have about the fees, the slow processing of payments, the dirty water without notice, and the pollution of our local river. This privatized water company polluted the stream and river and got away with it by saying they will “invest” in the cleanup. Meanwhile the price hikes are allowed to proceed, and representatives in the PA state house testify about constituents peeing in their backyard because they can’t afford their water bill.
Sediment solution reached for polluted Lackawanna County waterways By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published June 25, 2024 at 6:00 AM EDT Pennsylvania American Water will not pay a state penalty for polluting Roaring Brook and the Lackawanna River. Instead, the utility company will put money back in the community. “It’s a very good scenario from an unfortunate situation. We certainly didn’t want this to happen in the first place and there are safeguards in the agreement that will hopefully prevent something like this from ever happening again,” said Tara Jones, executive director of the Lackawanna River Conservation Association (LRCA). The organization protects and advocates for the river’s watershed. The water company will spend around $300,000 to create fish habitats along Roaring Brook and stabilize the stream bank, according to a consent order and agreement between the utility and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). PA American Water will add educational features along the waterway and create a fishing deck with handicap access and handicap accessible parking.
Bitfarms wants Pennsylvania’s power, so it’s buying two waste coal plants – Anya Litvak – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Mar 3, 2025 6:22 PM To its investors, Bitfarms said its locations in Pennsylvania are strategic. “Pennsylvania is a conservative business friendly jurisdiction with a notably pro-Bitcoin & pro-energy Democratic Governor (Joshua Shapiro),” an investor presentation highlighted. The Scrubgrass and Panther Creek power plants are also near major metropolitan areas and “major fiber lines.” The company envisions building data centers on the campuses of the power plants, which it could isolate from the grid to ferry all their power to the computers onsite.
Big Tech’s AI Blackmail State and local data center extortion is going national. Pat Garofalo Dec 18, 2024 In response to the rapid growth of data centers in recent years — those large facilities that hold the plumbing necessary for businesses to store and manage their data — residents of many communities have stepped up to voice their concerns about the inevitable downsides of data center construction, which include noise, high energy and water use, and environmental degradation. These protests have occurred across the country, from Virginia to Arizona to Massachusetts. In rare instances, those local residents have been joined by state legislators or other local leaders. More often, though, elected officials roll out the red carpet for Big Tech data centers, lavishing them with public subsidies and other regulatory favors.
Business Insider – Investors love layoffs – Employees are getting crushed by layoffs. But they’re fueling big gains for Wall Street. Emily Stewart Feb 22, 2024, 10:27 AM UTC Companies just can’t stop talking about their plans to cut jobs. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that the rate of mentions of layoffs in quarterly earnings calls was at its highest since the start of the pandemic. And while all the layoff chatter is deeply unnerving for workers, executives keep talking about plans to slash payrolls for a pretty clear reason: Investors are eating it up.
Better Offline The Invisible War December 31, 2024
Medicaid info town hall by Pennsylvania state Rep Kosierowski. I listened to the whole thing in case you can’t or don’t want to. (Voila, you can thank me later!) Chloe Humbert Mar 10, 2025 Linda Thomas-Hemak was perhaps not believing that it could happen at the level of cuts they’re proposing, or perhaps she seemed concerned with people being overwrought, so some of this may have been elite panic where people in positions of leadership start worrying more about quelling consternation over allowing people to react appropriately to a crisis. Because I don’t see any evidence that anyone in DC cares that it can’t happen, they’re doing lots of things that really can’t happen.
Health Organizations Drop Ad Agencies Working with Fossil Fuel Industry 02/06/2025 • Sophia Samantaroy For decades, oil and gas companies have employed PR and lobbying tactics strikingly similar to those of the tobacco industry: seeding doubt about established science, creating front groups, and pushing misleading narratives to stall regulation despite overwhelming evidence that fossil fuel pollution harms human and planetary health. Yet many of the same PR and advertising agencies employed by health groups to promote healthy habits, vaccinations, and cancer prevention have continued partnering with fossil fuel companies, spreading misleading messages that downplay or deny these health harms and delay action needed to curb emissions. “The same PR firms spreading fossil fuel disinformation are also working with health organizations—a clear conflict of interest for health,” said Shweta Narayan, Campaign Lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA).
The Wrong Impact Research Chloe Humbert · Jun 25, 2023 If this is representative of the kind of advice and guidance from Democratic Party consultants, I think it’s evidence the current consultant base has been infiltrated by a lot of fossil fuel industry advocates and libertarians aligned with corporate forces against public health. And that would explain a lot about the abandonment of public health I guess.
Issues You May Know, 14 March 2025. A list of things you might want to know about – or write your reps about. Chloe Humbert Mar 14, 2025 Accelerationist James Carville at a retreat this week advising House Dems and Dem governors.
Don’t blame the messenger. Don’t Wait For Everybody – Episode 015 Chloe Humbert Dec 27, 2024
TRANSCRIPT
So I’m coming across this problem where people are using, oh, that’s just a far left narrative to dismiss like real things that are happening. And sure, can real things be used in narrative? Sure, sure. And it could be used in propaganda too. And it could be used to make something that’s unusual seem more common. That’s a possibility.
0:25
But I’m worried because I’ve seen actual authors, journalists, or people who are actual real people and people I’ve talked to personally, one-on-one, actual person, using this idea that, oh, that’s just a far-left narrative. And it’s like, I’m telling you something that’s actually happening. And It’s not just a story. I’m relating to you the actual thing.
0:52
And what drives me up the wall is that these people will often say they want to hear from people like me. I live in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They want to know about what is motivating people in Pennsylvania to vote or not vote or vote for whoever. We want to understand those people.
1:09
And then as soon as I start talking… No, no, we don’t want to hear that. Nope, nope, doesn’t fit our nice little story that we want for our narrative. And so they, you know, quote unquote, push back on it as a far left narrative. By far left, of course, that can mean anything you want to mean.
1:25
Be careful. When somebody says something’s far left, say, what do you mean by far left? Define far left, because they can mean anything from tankies to Joe Biden, right? So… They can mean Maoists, they can mean Marxists, or they can mean people who want universal health care and public schools, which is not far left at all.
1:50
Those are basic kind of things that are not just not right wing. Like that’s… Yeah, most of the modern world has those things, right? But that’s what people think. So sometimes when somebody says, oh, that’s far left, I’ll see somebody else defending far left universal health care, right?
2:13
But they’re not talking about universal health care and it’s a trap because then they could say, look, this person is defending this nonsense thing that the right wing believes of the far left, right? Yeah. which sometimes it’s real, sometimes it’s not even like a real thing.
2:30
So this is a rhetorical strategy that can muddy the waters and make people not know what they’re talking about and just assume things. So somebody is looking at you and they think you’re one thing and you don’t think those things at all. That’s a real problem. So you got to be specific. But here’s the thing.
2:49
Real things are happening and Democrats do stupid shit. That’s… Do you think I’m happy about having to say this? I’m not happy about having to say this. I wish they wouldn’t do stupid shit, but they do. Okay, so… I wish Democrats weren’t a party to this bullshit. So less than 10 days after the 2024 election,
3:13
when everybody was like, oh my goodness, Democrats, a bunch of Democratic Party politicians celebrated a corporate giveaway. They literally went to this event where… With no sense of self-awareness at all, they went to an event to give millions of dollars of taxpayer money to a literal bank. A literal bank.
3:41
Now, I’m not against restoration of a historical landmark building, per se. I’m appalled that the taxpayer money was just given to a bank. Literally, they were just given… millions of dollars. This is why we’re told there’s no money for other things. You know, how are you going to pay for that? And, you know,
4:00
if the bank wants to be part of our community, why didn’t it just pay for the restoration itself? And if we wanted to restore this building as a historical landmark, I mean, it’s the electric building, why not have a nonprofit own it or the government itself and restore it and, you know,
4:20
have the bank pay rent or something? Why are we paying millions of dollars to a literal bank? A literal bank. And all of the Democratic Party politicians were on this celebration. You know, the county commissioners, my state rep, my state senator, the Scranton mayor, and the governor, Josh Shapiro. So there we are.
4:45
This is not a far left narrative. This is what they’re doing. And this is trickle down economics because they, of course, they said, oh, it’ll create jobs. Yeah. For somebody’s brother-in-law to do the thing. And that’s like it. Like, no, it’s not like what? It’ll create some jobs.
5:00
And we’re told, oh, little workers, you’ll get your little thing. You can toil. so it’s trickle-down economics, and this is embraced by Democratic politicians who should be, of course, not embracing a stupid right-wing discredited economic theory. Like, no, don’t come at me.
5:20
Oh, and by the way, if you go to the Scranton Reddit and complain about this, you… Actually, if you complain about anything, if you mention labor or unions or even if you just criticize businesses in the area, you instantly get downvoted into the basement so that they, you know, downgrade your comments and hide them and whatever.
5:42
And it’s likely by a bunch of bots. And a lot of people think it’s Democratic politicians who are paying people to downvote, paying people to downvote. But I think it’s like, you know, probably industry interests. It’s probably, you know, like maybe… some chamber of commerce or something that’s paying political operatives to, who’s paying online PR, you know,
6:05
operations to do that sort of thing. It’s so obvious. It’s so obvious. You cannot, it’s, that Reddit is terrible. Like, you can’t mention anything that’s pro-labor or pro-worker or anti-business or anything even slightly critical about businesses without getting downvoted. So there’s that. And so this is not the first time either that Josh Shapiro is now I’m,
6:31
you know, here’s the thing is that, of course, you want to say, oh, you never say any of the good stuff. Well, you know, as AG, Josh Shapiro was actually a pretty progressive as attorney generals go. It’s certainly better than our current one, who is a Republican. But He was pretty progressive.
6:49
He went after scams, like went after the people scamming elderly and stuff like that. And some settlement for the people who had their water wrecked in the fracking debacle. And yes, I think it could have been better, but they’re going to put on a water system for those people paid for by the fracking. operations that did it.
7:13
And of course, that was covered up that they eventually found out that the DEP, you know, discredited people to try to say that it wasn’t happening. And of course, it was happening. Of course, it was happening. So this was the DEP is the Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania. And they did it.
7:29
like you know they covered that up and now it’s known that that did happen people did have their water wrecked and now um they are gonna have to fix it for they’re gonna have to give these people water because if you go up there and i have go in
7:42
that area mostly there’s a a nice nature preserve there that has uh it’s it’s you know i go there for bird watching occasionally and uh You can see that people in that Dimmock Township area, some of them have like these tanks in their yard and it’s water tanks because they can’t use their wells anymore.
8:02
So they have to import. They have to have like a water tank come and bring them potable water to use in their households because they no longer have running water without a tanker. So anyway, yes. Is it good that he got that? Yeah. Okay. So yeah, that was good. But of course,
8:20
as soon as Josh Shapiro got into office, the first thing he did was overturn the gift ban so that public officials can get bribes, essentially. This was the thing that Democratic Governor Tom Wolf had put in. And we… Bribery of public officials is essentially legal in Pennsylvania.
8:40
And there is an organization called March on Harrisburg who has been for uh gift ban, gift bans across the board, like, you know, anti-corruption laws in Pennsylvania for quite awhile. Listen, Is that a narrative? Is that a far-left narrative? Nobody forced him to do that, right? I would be more than happy if he hadn’t have done that.
9:23
Come on! Like, what? Nobody forced him to do that. So then, also, now, there’s a crypto printing data power plant that I’ve been… bitching about for ages now, and Panther Creek in Carbon County, and they have been burning coal waste, and they want to do,
9:44
I think they either have been or wanted to burn construction debris to print crypto. It’s a data center power plant, and that’s one of those things that they don’t tell you, is that data centers either have to be set up at a power plant, like the people in Berwick who are having their…
10:05
That lived near the Berwick nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, and they were having their walls vibrate and noise pollution from the data center that was positioned next to the power plant. So they don’t tell you that if it’s not situated next to a power plant… Typically, they have to make it into a power plant.
10:25
So people think that they’re getting a data center in their community and it’s just going to be a building with computers. They have no idea that the fans are going to make a huge amount of noise. They have no idea that they’re going to burn gas or, in some cases, other stuff. And who knows what?
10:44
I don’t know. I worry because in Indonesia, I watched a video where they were burning plastic to… you know, who knows what’s going to happen. And they get around the EPA rules and stuff by saying that it’s temporary. That’s what they did in Memphis. So they started gas turbines and they’ve basically circumvented any regulations
11:05
around it by saying it was temporary. So now it comes with like pollution, air pollution, noise pollution. The fans alone at a data center are noisy. The construction, they have lights all the time. It’s light pollution and, And then also they need a lot, a lot, lot of water. So then the people’s water bills shoot up.
11:28
And if they’re using energy from the grid, power bills shoot up. Utilities just go through the roof. And we’re already experiencing utility. They’re trying to hike up. They raised the water rates here. And then they’re talking about raising the methane gas rates, too. And so, huh. And not only has the water company put up prices,
11:57
we had dirty water, and they didn’t even alert us to it, that there was, I guess, a water main break or something. And they didn’t even send us a notification. We had to find out, like, ruining one of my filter pitchers. And… Never got back to us on that. They’ve been not processing our payments timely.
12:19
So then they can say, oh, you’re late. So and then charge you a late fee and found out that apparently they had not enough people that were doing it. And they admitted that, but they were still charging late fees to people, even though it was their fault that they didn’t they were understaffed.
12:37
And this is the same water company. This is privatized water. And they polluted the river. They polluted a stream and a river. And here’s the thing is that the Democrats didn’t make sure that they paid for it. Like nobody got in any real trouble.
12:53
And they settled the whole thing by just saying, oh, we’re going to make an investment. We’re going to hire somebody to clean it up. How does that work? Like, no, you shouldn’t be like, no, this was you caused the problem. They should have, you know, paid fines.
13:08
And honestly, I think that they should have their right to run the water utility taken away. And that just isn’t it isn’t right. It isn’t right. But they oh, they’re going to invest in the community. They’re going to invest in the community. Maybe they’ll create jobs. Oh, gosh. Oh, so annoying.
13:27
This crypto printing data center power plant in Carbon County that’s burning coal waste and wants to burn construction debris and has already been accused of burning tires, burning tires to print crypto. It’s owned by the CEO, I guess he has a partnership with BitFarms now,
13:49
but the CEO of that is now some kind of director in the Trump administration’s Department of Energy. Huh. Yeah. And Governor Shapiro’s administration, Department of Environmental Protection, just greenlit them to just start burning tires. To burn tires. Yeah. So they’re allowed to burn tires now. I mean, I didn’t ask.
14:14
I have been writing my reps saying, don’t approve them to burn tires. And by the way, they don’t provide any power to the grid. So there’s no benefit to the community. It only benefits the crypto scammers, whatever they’re doing, right? There’s no legitimate thing with it. None. So, yeah. Why did they greenlight that? Why?
14:37
Why did they greenlight that? Why is that okay? And it’s… No, why did they do this? And if there’s, here’s the thing is that they’re pushing these data centers. If there’s an AI boom, why do these companies need taxpayer handouts? Why do they need corporate welfare? Why do they need tax incentives? Or why do they need this?
14:57
No, they don’t need it. If they’ve got a good business model and they need these data centers, they’re going to build them one way or another. They don’t need you to hand over money to them. Oh, yes, but they do because basically AI is this openAI and this AI stuff, this chatbot stuff is a big scam.
15:16
It’s a big scam. There’s no there there. It’s not viable technology. It’s not going anywhere fast. Their method of going is a big nothing. It’s a big bubble. Now, I’m not saying that the bubble is going to pop anytime soon because, you know, as Keynes had said, you know,
15:37
the markets could stay irrational longer than you could stay solvent, right? So not saying that the bubble is going to burst because they’re going to try to keep run… You know what they’re going to try to do? They’re going to they want taxpayers to bail them out and keep it going. That’s what’s going on here. OK.
15:54
And so here’s the other thing that doesn’t make sense about this is if is they say, oh, it’s going to create trickle down economics. It’s going to trickle down into the community because it’ll create jobs. Never mind all of the really bad things that are going to happen to your community
16:08
because you have a data center power plant in it. Right. OK, but they’re going to say, oh, it’s going to create jobs. First of all, of course, we know data centers don’t need a lot of jobs. We just know that there’s just not a lot of jobs are going to be created with that. We know that.
16:21
So but the other thing is, is that here’s the thing, this AI, these chatbots are being marketed to these companies to use it. The whole marketing of it is that it’s going to create the AI jobs apocalypse. You know, Microsoft is going to buy into the AI chatbots and they laid off a bunch of workers.
16:41
Duolingo got the chatbot stuff and now they were just, we’ll lay off the real workers. The whole hype marketing of chatbots is to replace humans. in their jobs. That’s the whole selling point, is that it’s going to massively get rid of workers. Now, let’s set aside that I don’t think that that’s based in any kind of reality.
17:05
Like, I think these companies just shed jobs because they want to pump up their stock values and whatever, and they’ll use any reason to say that they can shed workers. And then the The services and the products get lousier and lousier. And we’ve seen that over the years.
17:22
I’ve seen that especially since the financial crisis 15 years ago. The quality of products, the quality of services, the quality of customer service, the quality of everything, it’s just become maddening. Everybody notices. The deterioration is obvious to everybody. Okay, so we know that it’s, you know, that this isn’t real, but they’re using it as real.
17:45
And if that’s their claim, is that this AI is going to replace human workers and get rid of jobs, you can’t have it both ways and say, making the data centers for these things are going to create a few jobs. Like, which is it? To me, that doesn’t sound like net job creation.
18:03
And anyway, trickle-down economics is a discredited economic theory. Why are Democrats at all jumping on board with this? But, you know, crypto, there’s just no there there at all. That’s even more bonkers… And it’s just used for scams and illicit behavior and crimes and scamming and all of this stuff. And it takes up all this energy.
18:28
And yet we had Democrats voting for it, even though it was about like Trump’s crypto nonsense. Right. Democrats are because they’re being paid to because they’re being paid by the crypto tycoons. Right. So why This is not a far-left narrative. Nobody’s twisting Democrats’ arms. Well, I guess they’re handing them money to vote for this shit, right?
18:57
Yeah, it’s not it’s not a far left narrative. They’re doing it. They could just stop doing that. And we could have Democrats who don’t do that crap. That is a possibility, too. We can have politicians who don’t do this. OK, so, yeah, it’s just wrecking the environment for this AI and the crypto wrecking the environment.
19:19
It’s not just about climate change. It’s not just about like exponential fossil fuel usage. You know, the demand for fossil fuel going through the roof, fossil fuel and burning tires, burning tires and maybe next plastic bottles. Who knows? So it’s not just about that, though, because when you burn stuff and it’s about the pollution,
19:43
it’s about people living next to the data centers and having their walls vibrate. Okay. They live like a mile or a couple miles from the data center and their walls are vibrating. That’s not a good, that’s a living, that’s a quality of life issue. It’s not just about climate change. It’s a quality of life environmental issue.
20:02
Just like losing your well water because it’s contaminated. That’s, you know, a material thing and it’s going to put down your property values. So even people who care about that primarily is that’s, you know, a real thing. So then we have Rob Bresnahan, who is a Republican. He’s all on board. Of course,
20:21
he lied about not cutting Medicaid and Medicare, but then he went ahead and voted for it. And he’s talking about he wants to see dozens of data centers in our area. So here we go. This is a Republican and here’s the thing is that he wants these data centers. And what’s ironic is,
20:38
is that he won his election by campaigning on bringing down utility bills, even though he wants these data centers here, these data center power plants, which will drive up our utility bills. Because that’s what happens everywhere they put up these data centers is that utility bills go up, right? But here’s the thing is that he’s clever.
20:58
He just keeps saying it. And his staff is very responsive, which I cannot say the same for governor. I had somebody on the phone saying no, no, no, no. They wouldn’t even take my… name, they wouldn’t even ask me what I was calling about. And they didn’t want to talk to me.
21:14
So this is what the kind of response I get from them from Rob Resnahan’s office, Republican, and this is the case a lot of times is that they have constituent outreach that is actually good. And I mean, I’m just going to say that there were a couple of questions from regarding federal agencies that I had been begging
21:33
the offices of Matt Cartwright and Bob Casey and John Fetterman. And I was trying to get these answers from, you know, federal agencies for a while and waiting on them to get me this information. And Rob Bresnahan’s, I mean, it took a little couple back and forths,
21:49
but Rob Bresnahan’s staff did actually get me the information I was looking for. Sigh. That’s not a far left narrative. That’s just, you know, do I think am I on board with his cutting Medicaid? No, no, that’s horrible. And I don’t want his data center bullshit here either.
22:08
So you see that people should want to know about this so that what they can make better. But no, you know, they say they want to hear from people in Pennsylvania. But once I start talking like this, no, no, no, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear it. You know,
22:22
and they don’t want to, cover your ears, put your fingers in your ears and start humming because that’s a far left narrative. And it’s like, no, I’m trying to tell you what to do better. You know, I’m not saying that Democrats are the same as Republicans. Like, you know, I just don’t like, you know, they said,
22:38
of course, if we had a Democrat president, we’d be, you know, in a nuclear war. And now it’s, you know, the Trump administration is the one that’s talking about dropping nuclear bombs now. I’m not saying there’s like, no, that’s not a thing. Right. So just stop. Just stop accusing people of saying that when they’re not saying that.
22:56
Some people, yeah, maybe if they say that, then say that. But I’m not saying that they’re the same. I’m saying that there’s a problem with politicians. And one of the big things is, is that they’re they are more responsive to lobbyists. people, donors who hand them money, and they’re more responsive to political consultants, which at this point,
23:20
I feel that political consultancies are basically double agents. I feel like they often work for industry at the same time as they work for the politicians. So who do you think is paying them more, Democratic politicians or the fossil fuel industry or whoever else there? And that’s the same thing with orgs.
23:37
That’s the same thing with nonprofit organizations that hire political consultancies and, you know, political operations to do the thing, OK, they’re also working for fossil fuel or all these other industries. Who do you think is paying more? Who do you think? And it’s like, don’t you think? And here’s I mean, this is just speculation.
23:57
I have no proof of this, but. Obviously, I think all of us have suspected this, is that these political consultants have their own agendas, and they’re giving Democratic politicians advice based on their own agendas. Wouldn’t it be so easy to just… Buy off a political consultancy. Like,
24:19
I could just see this is just the perfect way to get politicians to do what you want, is that you make a political consultancy, you give them lots of money to push certain narratives and push certain agendas and certain, you know, positions, and then you tell them, go and pretend that you’re working
24:38
for Democrats to give them polling and give them to understand their constituents. And then you tell them all this bullshit that helps industry. And then these politicians are duped. Doesn’t that sound like what’s going on? Doesn’t it sound like that’s plausible? Because that’s What it seems like. And here’s the thing,
24:55
the only thing that the only thing that can go up against that is if constituents are up in the faces of their elected representatives at all times. And by that, I mean, writing them, I write my representatives regularly. So we need more and we need people who are constantly pestering the representatives
25:16
so that we can crowd out the lobbyists and the political consultants telling them nonsense. Because at some point, if we are doing that, if it’s our, if it’s our far left narrative. ha Because if it’s our far left narrative, you know, about having public schools, you know, if we crowd out and we’re there,
25:41
politicians at some point are going to look and say when this political consultancy comes and says, well… They don’t really like public schools and they like fossil fuel. Your constituents love fossil fuel and they love data centers and they love noise pollution coming to their community. There’s enough people that are writing their actual verified constituents.
26:03
The politician is going to go to the consultants that are feeding them this bullshit and they’re going to say, listen, I’m hearing from my constituents and that’s not what they’re saying. So at some point, yes, constituents can. can pressure. And I’m writing my representatives. They’re going to hear from me.
26:21
But we need to crowd out the industry interests that keep talking in their ears all the time. Because it’s just the truth is that I see this. The politicians spend so much time with quote unquote business leaders. They spend so much time with the moguls and the PR people and the consultants and the
26:42
They spend so much more time with those people and less time with their actual constituents. That’s just a thing. And I’m not saying always. I’m not saying always. But sometimes it’s even like even when they are trying to help, they’re doing that.
26:56
Because my state rep had a Medicaid town hall in March about all the bad things are going to happen if they cut Medicaid like Rob Bresnahan wants to do that, even though he said he didn’t want to do that, but then voted for the bill.
27:12
So there was a town hall and my state rep is actually a nurse. Before she was a state rep, she was a registered nurse. And she had a Medicaid town hall and it had all of the quote unquote business leaders in health care. You know, people who run some health systems, some clinics,
27:36
some of the long-term care and facilities. And they were talking about how if they cut Medicare and Medicaid, it will accelerate the closure of nursing homes, which are already in dire shape at this point. And this was good. You know, that was an appropriate use of these business, quote unquote,
27:59
business leaders is to have them actually come out and say, like, this is not a good situation. Right. So it’s not like I’m not giving credit where credit is due or that I am being unreasonable here. And but it’s true that these people listen to those business people more than they listen to us.
28:17
So we have to change that. And that’s not a far left narrative. Like, I wish that was, you know, push our far left agenda, i.e. public schools and universal health care. Because that’s what I mean when I say left. I don’t know. The politicians are the ones that are screwing up.
28:39
I’m not the one because I point it out. I’m not, don’t shoot the messenger, right? These people are not representing their constituents. And I point it out, no matter who it is, like, that’s not my fault. I’m not the one that caused it. Like, and I shouldn’t have to shut up about it. This is the real world.
28:57
And, you know, of course, it’s a very, very effective to smear the messenger in order to ruin the message. That is a very viable and very tactic that works. I mean, but you could disparage me and smear me all you want to a certain extent. It’s not going to work because there is a reality.
29:16
And you can’t fight with people’s lived experience in their own neighborhood, you know, at their own house. You can’t just sweep it under the rug. You can’t just say that what’s happening to people personally isn’t happening. Reality is reality. And people like me in Pennsylvania are living a reality.
29:36
And it’s maybe people need to realize that reality has a left bias, right? So, yeah, sorry.