We are often best defined not by the company we keep, but by our enemies. Having the right—left—enemies tends to be a very good thing indeed, as it’s a reliable indicator we’re doing the right things with the right people and for the right reasons.
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It’s not always easy, however, to know the motives of people, or nations, when we’re dealing with issues of technology and/or public policy. One such issue is the proliferation of data centers, necessary for the burgeoning AI revolution, but controversial for that and other reasons. Among them is the amount of water and power they require. This is particularly ironic because they tend to be built in sparsely populated states like Wyoming, which often have water usage and power issues. More densely populated states tend to have reflexive “not in my backyard” sensibilities.
Cowboy State Daily—CSD–reports:
Residents around industrial-scale data centers proposed near Casper and Evanston are raising a number of questions about whether data centers are right for Wyoming, ranging from water and electricity use to fears of a growing artificial intelligence-powered surveillance society.
The CSD report cites concerns about water use, power consumption, surveillance, and power plants and data centers despoiling the wild Wyoming landscape. That stands in mild opposition to greater development and prosperity for Wyoming. Those worries appear to be grassroots-motivated and limited to Wyoming residents, but that’s not the case elsewhere:
For many years the Soviet Union, and then Russia, financed the environmental movement in the United States. Their purpose was to suppress American production of oil and gas, and they succeeded to a considerable degree, to their own great benefit. Today, we are in the midst of another kind of race with Communist China–the race to develop superior systems of artificial intelligence. The Chinese Communist Party knows that if it wins this race, it will contribute greatly to its dreams of world domination, while if it loses, China, with its rapidly shrinking population, could be on the way to the garbage dump of history. So the stakes are enormous.
And our number one near–peer enemy, China, is funding opposition, which it launders through cooperative NGOs:
Graphic: X Post
China isn’t alone in trying to damage America:
Foreign billionaires and nonprofits have funneled tens of millions of dollars to the activist groups fueling data center opposition across the United States, records show. Chief among them is Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, who has contributed nearly $14 million to four left-wing groups that signed a letter calling for a U.S. data center moratorium.
Those groups are the Indivisible Project, Americans for Financial Reform, the Sierra Club, and Greenpeace USA, to which Wyss has contributed $7,455,000, $4,382,000, $2,107,400, and $50,000 as of March 2026, data compiled by the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and highlighted in a new from the American Energy Institute. Another foreign billionaire, British hedge fund manager and climate activist Chris Hohn, has contributed $200,000 to Extinction Rebellion, which signed the same December 2025 calling on Congress to “support a national moratorium on the approval and construction of new data centers.”
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Such individuals and organizations are putting their money where their mouths are:
Opposition efforts blocked or delayed data center projects making up $152 billion in potential investment in 2025, according to Data Center Watch, a boutique research firm that tracks such efforts.
Just as Greta Thunberg, who was once the frowning face of climate doom, found a new villain in Israel when it became obvious the climate scam was no longer profitable, other former Climate Change fanatics have switched to seeing Earth’s doom in data centers. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum explains:
“There are some states that are literally passing bans on AI data centers,” Burgum said on May 18. “And it’s not organic or local—some of this is foreign-sourced dark money coming in, and the people that used to fight on climate change have shifted. They don’t talk about climate change because they’ve realized it’s a losing argument—I can’t get people excited about one degree of climate change, but man, I can lie to them about why their electric bill went up.”
China, Swiss billionaires, and leftist NGOs don’t have America’s interests at heart. While there are legitimate concerns about the proliferation and potential dangers of AI, we’re in a race not only for global profit and dominance, but for national security against people who very much want us dead. Being able to tell concerned and potentially under-informed American citizens from foreign enemies is priceless.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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