Jonathan Joseph Chiarella

That freshwater for the AI data-center is not going to waste itself! We all need to do our part to exacerbate carbon emissions as well.

Vancouver still better than I expected with its large suburban-style housing outside of the small urban core. Congrats.

Even the oil-dependent economic places were better than I had thought.

Goes to show the built environment and the city configuration itself is so compelling.

More e-bikes period = many more lives saved

Where I live (the USA) about 90% rely on cars for basic living. Roadway violence kills over 100 a day. Many more get life-altering injuries.

More lives lost by any delays to massive switch to driving less often and at slower speeds for shorter distances.

One time I heard a man swear loudly and berate a child in public. Therefore, we need to regulate speaking and implement licensing for voice boxes. To save lives, I will rededicate the million dollars I was going to donate to cancer research.

Now replace *cussing* w/ *riding an e-bike recklessly*.

@labeler.urbanism.plus

Carbrain?

Not the first PhD-holder to become innumerate & irrational in re bikes.

Cars: kill & maim tens of thousands daily, rip up roadways (4th Power Law), pollute w/ gasoline exhaust or just tire dust & oil, occupy most land, chilling effect.

But bikes = the problem?

Is *McMansion* in the wrong column? If we want to talk to a broad audience, we should avoid name calling, right? The Strong Towns policy of avoiding even *sprawl* took things too far in sensitivity, sure, but I would rather lose that word than encourage *McMansion*.

Local and State Police Can Investigate Federal Agents, But Rarely Do It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable w...

In California, police didn't investigate after two men were shot by federal immigration agents in separate incidents.

Police in Phoenix said they are leaving it to the FBI and ICE to probe the shooting of a man who allegedly fled immigration agents.

Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government’s attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise.

With tax season in full swing, here's our reminder that TurboTax owner Intuit spent two decades fighting to prevent Americans from filing their taxes online for free.

(Published 2019)

Ottawa gives Canada Post a $1.01-billion loan The federal government says it is making more than $1 billion available to Canada Post in the form of a repayable loan to help the Crown corporation.

The government is giving a loan to a Crown corporation that should just be a public service that we pay for because it provides an essential task that Canadians depend on.

We don’t provide loans to the health care system or schools; we just pay for them.

black vehicle and a sport cyclist wearing black Both are wearing black but only one gets blamed for it. Drivers might not see you but we do.

In addition to straight advocacy work I also develop brand creative - this specific example is where advocacy and brand meet - this was for a cycling magazine (hence the sport cyclist)

c/o @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social who I've been proudly partnered up with for awhile.

Predictably, no parents want their children to be the first victim to set an example and so prohibit the children from going about their lives. The chilling effect of this is the ultimate “What is water?”

I applaud the choice for the free space in the middle. At first, I wondered if you did not indulge that recent gimme, but the contents are in so many laws that it is de facto a free space. It is literally the case that many govt. bodies cannot do anything until *after* bad things happen.

Ditching bike helmets laws better for health With epidemics of diabetes and obesity threatening to bankrupt state health budgets, governments need to broaden their strategies to encourage physical activity. Allowing cyclists to ride without a he...

This is counter-intuitive:

"It is clear that the benefits of cycling outweigh the risks, with helmet legislation actually costing society more from lost health gains than saved from injury prevention." theconversation.com/ditching-bik...

I can't speak to whether it is actually bortac and whether it is actually mortar launchers but I mentioned in my piece yesterday that I had witnessed tear gas being launched in the air in an arc over people's heads. This video I found on IG shows what I described

Again, in fairness, the filibuster-proof super-majority was lost in the middle of ACA negotiations. Still, the negotiations could have been handled better.

Ehh, hindsight is 20/20 too.

That connects to a problem raised elsewhere: We cannot readily tell the difference between the insincere types and the incompetent. Person A cannot play hardball. Person B can play hardball well but is choosing to let Policy XYZ die on the vine. Before inauguration, it is hard to separate them.

I think that some are terrible hagglers and sone are wolves in sheep's clothing. People of Type I are incompetent at deal making, whereas others in Type II do not *want* a certain policy but want to look good and pretend to be Type I. Hard to tell which people are which sometimes.

This here is part of why the ACA did not go nearly far enough.

1. socialized
2. universal plus private options
3. public option
4. no more disqualifying on "pre-conditions"
5. no change

Some Dems mentioned 3, so the only place left to bargain down to was 4.

These Rural Americans Are Trying to Hold Back the Tide of AI Fearing rising utility costs, job losses and privacy violations, residents have blocked or delayed data-center projects around the country.

"These Rural Americans Are Trying to Hold Back the Tide of AI-

Fearing rising utility costs, job losses & privacy violations, residents have blocked or delayed data-center projects.

Some towns have imposed temporary moratoriums on data centers, but the projects could still go forward in the future

Spent 4.5 hours on a bike today between getting to the dentist and picking the kid up from after school sports. Driving, would have been 1.5 hours. But what really gets me is that if I could just bike the direct, flat routes the cars take, that biking time would have been cut in half.

The University of Florida has asked a federal appeals court to reverse a judge's order that it readmit an expelled law student who administrators say demonstrated a “pattern of disruptive behavior,” in a case testing campus free speech rights reut.rs/4qhzu4n

I am just glad that taxes are all getting paid.

The people with big followings could pay all their taxes, but I think they may decide "not worth it" if it is a country they think that they will never go to.

^ No way to prove this, of course.

Congestion Pricing’s Unexpected Winners: Suburban Drivers NYC’s controversial toll program hasn’t just sped up trips inside Manhattan, a new paper finds. It’s easing traffic in outer boroughs and neighboring counties.

“NYC congestion program hasnt just sped up trips in Manhattan. It’s easing traffic in outer boroughs & neighboring counties.

Majority of drivers’ time savings has accrued to those traveling outside the toll zone entirely — for instance, those commuting from Brooklyn to Queens or within Northern NJ”

All your trash *is* GenAI—not tests of new chemicals for pharm. drugs. You have machine learning plus “suggestions” that I have disabled at about:config.

At least it ain’t Google Chrome/Chromium, & you’re still open source, so I can turn it off.

Stick to Firefox & Common Voice—and revisit T-bird.

Oh, wait, those geniuses just phrased things expertly. “Trump cannot and will not ‘cancel’ the elections, but they may not be free and fair.” Duh. That is what people are worried about. After the Gabbard stuff and now this, we are on track for . . . shenanigans of some sort.

Still baffles me how many scholars (even those who rang the alarms in 2018) reassure us that Trump cannot interfere with federal elections and skew the Blue Wave. If feds cannot influence state-run elections, then why, pray tell, did VRA ’65 exist? Feds can def. influence elections.

She Pushed to Overturn Trump’s Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She’ll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security. Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. State election officials and voting experts are concerned.

Last fall, Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, was appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security to help oversee election security.

(Published Aug. 2025)

Columbia administration looking especially craven and incompetent about now.

True, Malaysia won’t hound someone for missing $0.29/month from one supporter, but it was still technically illegal.

To my knowledge, Patreon is the *only* platform that does all this. Ko-fi, BuyMeACoffee, etc. don’t.

Correct me if another platform does, but I think it’s just Patreon that does.

At least w/ Patreon, they pay sales taxes. Everything w/ Stripe that touted lower rates (esp. off Substack) & the ability to move subscribers didn’t handle taxes. *You* have to collect (later auto), *file*, & *remit* all VAT to *every* jurisdiction w/ a customer. Most content creators didn’t bother.