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Moira Birss

@moira.bsky.social
14K followers 1.9K following 1.3K posts

Climate, economic justice & human rights. Deputy Director building public power @publicgrids.org. Senior Fellow studying insurance & climate @cplusc.bsky.social. Board co-Chair @lawgaction.bsky.social. Amo a 🇨🇴. Living on Ohlone land. she/ella/ela.

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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 9h
And, we can look to other policy areas to see how this administration and its ilk may twist ideas of "disparate treatment" -- originally meant to repair harm caused by racist practices -- to instead punish efforts to repair such harms. www.reuters.com/business/fin...
reuters.com
Wells Fargo faces potential probe over Black homeownership commitments, WSJ reports
Wells Fargo is facing a potential investigation from the Trump administration's housing authority over programs and commitments ​the bank made to increase homeownership among Black Americans, ‌the Wal...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 11h
ah, so perhaps THAT's why supposed climate champ Sen Whitehouse is championing a bill that many (including @riogranderift.bsky.social) have flagged will provide HUGE benefits to the oil & gas industry.
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seedthevote.bsky.social @seedthevote.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Seed the Vote is mobilizing 3,000 volunteers to go canvassing in CRITICAL swing districts in: MI, TX, PA, AZ, and CA. If you want to take down Ken Paxton and Mike Rogers... If you want to elect working class champions like Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico... Visit stvote.org/signup to join us!
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I had no idea it was there, and honestly it was my favorite part of my tour this summer!
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Dr. Lorgia García Peña @laprofelgp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In case, like me, you look for hope. Firefighters in Madrid refuse to help with evictions marching alongside tenants for housing rights.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“We hope that other cities will take it as a lesson: We don’t have to bow down [to] the fascist deportation machine. We certainly don’t have to let its perpetrators benefit from our local economies and infrastructure." - Alderman Andre Vasquez
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
make it make sense.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Time for this classic again.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Congrats! Wish it wasn’t so resonate to so many people…
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
That’s awesome!
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
sorry, you did mention some climate related stuff. I'm thinking also about disaster risk reduction, since I've done a lot of work on climate-driven disasters and home insurance.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
this is all very encouraging! have you seen anything he's done or said on healthcare or climate change (even if it's not using that term)?
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
*good candidate
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is very good from Beshear. How is he on other issues? Serious question, I’m trying to understand who might actually be a hood 2028 candidate.
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Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Remember, they prosecuted Aaron Swartz and drove him to suicide for hacking one system with the goal of making academic articles freely available to the public. Sam Altman hacked 1000s of sites with the goal of being a trillionaire.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Not only did Lula push for and sign the bill that outlaws online gambling in Brazil, but he’s now using his platform to tell stories of the people who’ve been harmed by it. bsky.app/profile/lula...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Time for another Brazilian exodus to Bluesky! Bem-vindos brasileiros e brasileiras!
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Details: www.reuters.com/world/americ...
reuters.com
Brazil's Lula bans online betting, unveils debt relief plan as reelection race tightens
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday announced a ban on online betting operations in Latin ‌America's largest economy and unveiled a new debt relief program aimed at households, the ...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Meanwhile, Brazil just banned online betting. 
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Despite what William fucking Norquist would have us believe
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Evan Berry @ecothought.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
77% odds of 3C warming is very not good
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
And the top it off, we have spiking home insurance premiums! In some parts of the country, the rates are even rivaling peoples monthly mortgage payments 
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is a haunting, urgent piece. Please read it.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“The inchoate but widespread movement against data centers has created an opening to change how our grid is managed; rather than patch up the current system, state officials must insist on new, democratically accountable, institutions for the governance of the grid.”
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tax ‘em www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-t...
wsj.com
More Money Than They Ever Imagined—and No Clue How to Spend It
Share sales at OpenAI and Anthropic minted hundreds of millionaires. They’re splurging on computer hardware and espresso machines.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
“For both the young and no-longer-young, the animus for the tax war comes from the same place: A sense of economic precarity.” How about we just tax the rich!?! www.businessinsider.com/generational...
businessinsider.com
A generational tax battle has arrived. Millennials struggle to build wealth — while boomers seek tax breaks.
Property tax breaks and Social Security are fueling a generational war over how much millennials and boomers should pay — and who should get relief.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 24/09/2026
*extremely tired voice*AI agents don't "go rogue". They are not sentient; they don't have agency. They work within guardrails set by humans. If the humans are so shit at building secure sandboxes for the agents to work within, that's on the humans. Stop using this framing.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
They certainly seem to be trying pretty hard to make that happen
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Call me crazy, but I think public service should be about service to the public…
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Septima P. Snark @drsubini.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
Eugenics=white supremacy + ableism That may feel obvious, but we need to understand that within those who talk about better humans is someone who believes in the inherent superiority of whiteness in learning, thinking & behavior. They've now captured the government & tech to institute their beliefs
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Manuel Salgado @manuelsalgado.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s hard to know what dead horse I’m supposed to beat this time since there is no transparency currently on what the permitting reform deal actually is but I figure I might as well reup our NEPA Does Not Delay work because community engagement remains absolutely necessary.
storymaps.arcgis.com
NEPA Does Not Delay
Deregulation is Not the Solution for Clean Energy
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Exhibit #346: bsky.app/profile/otsu...
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We can’t allow this man to get within striking distance of a viable presidential candidacy.
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Megan Wachspress @meganwachspress.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
For @lpeblog.bsky.social I wrote about why "bring your own power" is a false solution to the problem of datacenter energy demand and why municipalization (public ownership and control) of regional transmission organizations is necessary to protect ratepayers and accelerate decarbonization.
lpeproject.org
The Neoliberal Grid is in Crisis
To protect customers from rising electricity prices, public officials are urging data center developers to supply their own power. But this approach risks privatizing the power grid…
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Excited to try this! I live in East Oakland, so will probably have lots of suggestions. 
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
As others have pointed out, these goons likely know this and are happy to kneecap healthcare programs...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A Seed the Vote canvasser talked to a registered R in MI this weekend who had voted for T*mp twice. At the end of the convo, the voter said he's voting for @wewill2026.bsky.social & @abdulelsayed.bsky.social because "Things need to change!" Be part of building that change: stvote.org/signup
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A Seed the Vote canvasser talked to a registered R in MI this weekend who had voted for T*mp twice. At the end of the convo, the voter said he's voting for @wewill2026.bsky.social & @abdulelsayed.bsky.social because "Things need to change!" Be part of building that change: stvote.org/signup
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hi, insurance nerd here. You actually really want healthy people in your insurance pool. Diverse risk levels is what makes a good, strong insurance program. And pretty much everyone will need to make a claim (or many) at some point.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Christ, these people are monsters. Just monsters. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
💯
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Important to note that this calculus is based on the behavior of investor owned utilities, which are legally allowed to add a significant profit margin to all of the spending they do on grid expansion, and the plans of which the public has little insight into or control over 
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
You can read some of the why and how of how we rethink the disaster insurance system in the US here: climateandcommunity.org/research/pro...
climateandcommunity.org
Protection or Profit? Transformative Solutions to the Home Insurance Crisis
CCI’s proposal to transform home insurance involves states creating entities, termed Housing Resilience Agencies (HRAs), to run the state’s housing risk-reduction work and home disaster insurance prov...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The insurance crisis is getting worse, not better in California, despite current policies to appease insurance companies. It’s almost as if we need to rethink how the the whole disaster insurance system works… 🤔 (Spoiler: yes we do, I’ve written a ton about this.)  www.latimes.com/business/sto...
latimes.com
California's property insurance deserts are spreading to low-risk fire areas
Major carriers from large swaths of the state are now refusing to insure even low-risk properties with minimal danger of burning. The pullback poses a dilemma for homeowners already struggling with Ca...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
And: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
rollingstone.com
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI
Rumman Chowdhury, Timnit Gebru, Safiya Noble, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Joy Buolamwini open up about their artificial intelligence fears
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Also: bsky.app/profile/jyse...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Whether it’s AI or forestry, letting corporations write their own rules is never good for the public interest. bsky.app/profile/mike...
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This was incredibly helpful. And unnerving (to say the least).
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Great reporting. Clearly demonstrates why we can’t keep leaving the impacts of climate changes on our homes up to the market real estate and insurance markets. We need clear zoning & land use guardrails so unwitting home buyers aren’t stuck, & the rich aren’t expecting bailouts from their gambles.
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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Not a book, but some really long reports! lol. I've been studying climate change and home insurance. See here: peri.umass.edu/publication/... and this @thedigradio.bsky.social episode I just did: thedigradio.com/podcast/insu...
thedigradio.com
Insuring Catastrophe w/ David Wallace-Wells, Madison Condon, Moira Birss
Featuring David Wallace-Wells, Madison Condon, and Moira Birss on how insurance companies profit off climate catastrophe—and, in doing so, ensure that people and the planet suffer the consequences. Gu...
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