AI & Data Centers

Bernie Sanders calls for pause in AI development: ‘What are they gonna do when people have no jobs?’

Big Tech Unchecked: A toolkit for community action - Tuesday, January 13 at 6 p.m. online. REGISTER HERE. 

Join Healthy Climate Wisconsin, the Midwest Environmental Advocates, the Sierra Club-Wisconsin Chapter, and Wisconsin's Green Fire as we walk through the new toolkit: Hyperscale Data Centers in Wisconsin: Big Tech Unchecked, A toolkit for Community Action

Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom
By Jon Gorey, October 17, 2025 from The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. 

"Absent an avalanche of new, clean power, most data centers are adding copious amounts of greenhouse gases to our collective emissions, at a time when science demands we cut them sharply to limit the worst impacts of climate change. Louisiana regulators in August approved plans to build three new gas power plants to offset the expected electricity demand from Meta’s Hyperion AI data center."

From Wisconsin Chapter Sierra Club: In Wisconsin, dozens of data centers have been proposed, and some have been approved with little comprehensive environmental review that looks at the cumulative impacts of these data centers and the infrastructure being built to support them.

Currently, there are no guardrails for data centers, including clean energy requirements, protections for customers of the utilities that will be powering these massive energy users, or limits on water use. 

Unchecked, data centers could wreak havoc on our water and climate, consuming staggering amounts of energy, and Wisconsinites could be on the hook to pay for them.

New legislation that has been proposed would address these concerns with data centers. Learn more here.

Astrophysicist and science journalist Adam Becker has his eye on the dreams of Silicon Valley’s billionaire elite—and he’s unimpressed. He says Silicon Valley’s “heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions”—with escaping death, building AI tyrants, and creating limitless growth—pervert public discourse and distract us from real social problems.

He argues that tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us, and that the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs.

In More Everything Forever, Becker investigates what he calls wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass. Nevertheless, these obsessions fuel fears that overwhelm reason—for example, that a rogue AI will exterminate humanity—at the expense of essential work on solving crucial problems like climate change. What’s more, these futuristic visions cloak a hunger for power under dreams of space colonies and digital immortality. The giants of Silicon Valley claim that their ideas are based on science, but Becker says the reality is darker: they come from a jumbled mix of shallow futurism and racist pseudoscience.

What will the world look like as AI continues to accelerate? In this PARC Forum conversation, technologist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Eric Schmidt joined SRI CEO David Parekh to discuss our long-term future with AI.

Contact Congress

They may be on vacation (again) but they are still supposed to be on the job. Contact Van O - we still demand an in-person town hall in La Crosse, open to the public, without pre-selected questions. DON'T let him use your group, organization, or agency to pretend everything is normal. If he won't meet with everyday constituents, don't let him meet with you.

House Democratic leaders introduced a discharge petition designed to force consideration of legislation to extend expiring ACA tax credits for another three years - and on December 17, 2025 they got the required 218 signatures!

But in typical coward fashion, and just as he did to avoid a vote on the Epstein files, Speaker Johnson is getting his GOP members out of town as quickly as possible.

Learn more here and send a letter to your member of Congress to demand that Speaker Johnson hold a vote IMMEDIATELY on the extension of the ACA tax credits.

And, from Indivisible,

The Epstein cover-up continues. Let's keep up the pressure on Republicans until ALL the files are released.

Tell your Republican Member(s) of Congress that they must ensure that all the files are released, in keeping with the law they voted for. Those who joined Epstein in preying on young girls and women must be held accountable. Epstein's survivors have shown remarkable courage in continuing to pursue justice; surely Members of Congress can find their own backbones, too.

Act here.

Visibility event

La Crosse Indivisible is hosting a half hour visibility event tonight at 6 p.m. at 314 Front St. S. There is street parking and a parking ramp on 2nd St,, a block away. The theme is Peace.

Movie nights

Ten percent off on Vimeo with code storm2025

Opening with a whistleblowing account of his epic battle with the European Union, economist turned politician Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, weaves a gripping narrative about the fate of our civilisation in this groundbreaking six-part series, In the Eye of the Storm, joining the dots between the spectre of fascism, the crisis of capitalism, and the historic climate challenge.

"Profound... A wonderful documentary. So powerful!" NAOMI KLEIN

BULLY. COWARD. VICTIM. THE STORY OF ROY COHN (2020) directed by Ivy Meeropol (“Indian Point,” HBO’s “Heir to an Execution”) offers an unflinching look at the infamous attorney who prosecuted Meeropol’s grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and later argued persuasively for their execution in what became known as the atomic spy case.

The film examines Cohn’s life as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the late 1950s – when the young Cohn first experimented in the process of wielding of political power – through the 1980s, when he became a darling of the Reagan White House, a rabid anti-homosexuality activist and political mentor to Donald J. Trump before meeting his death from AIDS in 1986.

$treaming on HBO Max, Fandango at Home. 

For a year, I have been working on Cycling Cities. It is about the most beautiful bicycle cities in Europe and what we in Germany can learn from these cities. For this, in May 2025, I set off from Freiburg with a camera and a bicycle and cycled across Europe for two months, visiting the cities of Paris, Ghent, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Hamburg, and Copenhagen along the way. I wanted to find out what makes these cities so livable, what makes a bicycle-friendly city, and what conditions are needed to advance the mobility transition and sustainable urban development. I wanted to inform, enthuse, and inspire with this film and encourage people to stand up for livable cities. If the film can make even a small contribution to that, I am overjoyed!

I put a lot of love and energy into Cycling Cities, and in the end a little bit of money too, so if you liked the film, I would be happy about any amount, no matter how small, via Paypal or bank transfer to help refinance the film a bit. Many warm thanks🙏

https://t.co/dCavBzX4vT

And I also want to expressly thank you for this incredible support of my work in recent years. Without it, this film would not have been possible. For that, thank you from the bottom of my heart🙏❤️

I am very much looking forward to you watching the film, giving me feedback, and sharing it, so that the film also reaches people who perhaps are not yet convinced😊

Have fun with the film😊🍿

https://youtu.be/R5jQc1jXLAU?si=ODRvIz0ziJ_wwQws

With warm regards😊

Ingwar Perowanowitsch

Online Defender Training

From laura:

December Community Defender Training:

Answering Your Most Frequently Asked Questions: Cars, Bystanders, Notarios, and More

Tuesday, December 16 at 3:30 p.m.

On December 16, we will close out the year by offering an hour-long training that will cover the most common questions we get following our Know Your Rights presentations. We will go over Fourth Amendment rights in vehicles, bystanders, how to avoid legal scams, and expedited removal. We will also offer the opportunity for attendees to ask their questions in the Q&A and will answer as many as time permits. This is your opportunity to ask your burning questions and review some of the more complex topics our Know Your Rights presentations cover!

This training is for non-attorney advocates, including organizers and others supporting community members facing immigration enforcement. This training will be presented in English with Spanish simultaneous interpretation and is not eligible for CLE credit. 

Questions? Please contact events@nipnlg.org.

REGISTER HERE.

Giving is good

Donate a meal for those at the La Crosse Warming Center. Sign up here.

Donate spare grocery bags to be transformed into mats. Contact Gabe at 608-509-4828 for details.

Donate gifts or money through La Crosse County's For Goodness Sake program. Contact the county at 608-784-HELP as soon as possible.

Donate household goods for someone else to use at the theExchange.

Donate food or money to Hunger Task Force or WAFER Food Pantry.

Donate necessities for those without housing through What I Need Now.

Check out more ways to give at La Crosse Local.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks: Her life and legacy on civil rights activism

Thursday, December 11, from 11 a.m. to Noon Central 

Online only

Since her refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks became a central leader in the struggle for freedom and equality in the United States and a catalyst to the Civil Rights Movement. Seventy years later, the legacy of Rosa Parks still inspires movements for social change and collective action. 

On December 11, join the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings in honoring and reflecting on the 70-year legacy of Rosa Parks. Experts in civil rights history, Black women’s collective action, and economic development will share their reflections on the impact of Rosa Parks from 1955 to the present day. Panelists will discuss the next wave of civil rights policies, legislative action, and civic engagement.  

Viewers can submit questions via email at events@brookings.edu.

Since her refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks became a central leader in the struggle for freedom and equality in the United States and a catalyst to the Civil Rights Movement. Seventy years later, the legacy of Rosa Parks still inspires movements for social change and collective action. 

On December 11, join the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings in honoring and reflecting on the 70-year legacy of Rosa Parks. Experts in civil rights history, Black women’s collective action, and economic development will share their reflections on the impact of Rosa Parks from 1955 to the present day. Panelists will discuss the next wave of civil rights policies, legislative action, and civic engagement.  

Viewers can submit questions via email at events@brookings.edu.

REGISTER: https://connect.brookings.edu/register-to-watch-rosa-parks-civil-rights

 

Rally for ACA

Rally to Preserve the ACA!  Monday, December 15 from Noon-1:00pm in front of Derrick Van Orden's office, 210 7th St. S. We will rally to demand Derrick Van Orden vote to preserve the ACA subsidies! Sponsored by La Crosse County Dems.

And in the meantime, CALL CALL CALL.

House Democratic leaders have introduced a discharge petition designed to force consideration of legislation to extend expiring ACA tax credits for another three years.

The Democrats are hoping to entice a handful of moderate Republicans to endorse the petition, which will require 218 signatures to force a floor vote on the legislation over the objections of Republican leaders.

The battle over the enhanced ACA tax credits has consumed Capitol Hill throughout the history-making federal shutdown, as Democrats had demanded action on the tax credits as a condition of reopening the government.

Republicans, who have sought to repeal the ACA for years, rejected that demand, letting millions of Americans face skyrocketing health care premiums.

"We believe that the American people — given the Republican refusal to act and find a bipartisan path forward — should be given the same level of certainty that Republicans have continued to give the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected,” said Hakeem Jeffries, referencing the massive tax breaks for billionaires granted in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill.

As part of the deal to end the Trump shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has guaranteed the Democrats a vote on the ACA tax credits in December. But Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has declined to make a similar commitment.

The House discharge petition is designed to go around Johnson and force the bill to the floor — if it can get a majority of House lawmakers to sign on.

While the ACA has been a partisan issue for years, some Republicans are already clamoring for an extension of the tax credits, urging GOP leaders to address the issue before the premium hikes go into effect on Jan. 1 — ahead of the midterm elections.  

Click “Start Writing” today to send a letter to your member of Congress to sign this discharge petition.

Note: Did you already send a letter? If so, then please dial the Capitol switchboard now at (202) 224-3121 to follow up with a call.