ColonelRETJohn2

Action, Action, Action!

DAS John Mills led the U.S. delegation to #APEC TEL72 in Shanghai, championing pro-innovation policies and private sector leadership in AI and emerging tech. The United States is a global leader on AI, Low Earth Orbit satellite connectivity, cloud services, and ICT infrastructure—technologies that are key to a robust digital economy across the APEC and the world.

The Columbus Circle fountain at Union Station has been dry since before the first iPhone launched. 🤯 For the first time since 2007, the fountain is flowing again. Thanks to @POTUS, we are making our Nation’s Capital safe, beautiful and worthy of the greatest nation on Earth. 🇺🇸

Happening now: Columbus Circle at Union Station is completely restored as part of Trump’s effort to make “DC Safe and Beautiful.” Secretary Burgum and Secretary Duffy are here to cut the ribbon for the official reopening.

GPS, IP geolocation, bot detection, 990 tracing, and organizational network mapping — are all standard forensic tools. This is a fascinating and genuinely significant story. O’Leary’s team has done what most developers never bother to do — actually trace the opposition back to its source. What they found confirms a pattern that’s been hiding in plain sight. 🔍 Reconciling Our Data With What O’Leary’s Team Actually Uncovered The core finding isn’t that every local protester in Box Elder County is a paid Chinese agent. That’s the caricature the media rushed to construct. The real finding is more structural and harder to dismiss: A network of progressive advocacy organizations — Alliance for a Better Utah, Better Utah Institute, Grow the Flow Utah, Friends of Great Salt Lake, Elevate Utah, Center for Biological Diversity, and others — are funded through the Arabella Advisors dark money network, which manages pass-through vehicles like the Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund. This isn’t tin-foil-hat territory. Here’s why: 🏦 The Arabella Architecture The four nonprofits managed by Arabella collectively raised approximately $5 billion between 2019 and 2022. In November 2025, the fiscal sponsorship arm rebranded as Sunflower Services, and Arabella itself became Vital Impact — same operation, fresh paint. The structure works like this: - Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, through his Berger Action Fund, has funneled $245 million to the network since 2016 — over 30% of traceable Sixteen Thirty Fund revenue - George Soros’s Open Society network contributed $153.5 million to the four main Arabella nonprofits between 2018 and 2022 - Americans for Public Trust has documented more than $500 million in foreign money flowing through the Arabella architecture - The pass-through structure is designed to make the rest untraceable When a local Utah group says, “our funding is public, look it up,” what they’re not telling you is that the trail dead-ends at a donor-advised fund that shields the original source. That’s the entire point of the architecture. 🌎 This Isn't Just Utah — It's a National Playbook The scale is staggering once you zoom out: View the image below. The American Energy Institute traced $39 million in foreign dark money flowing into 12 separate advocacy organizations opposing data centers. Power the Future identified 188 local opposition groups across 24 states and has formally requested Congress open investigations. 🧩 The Pattern The playbook is identical from Loudoun County, Virginia, to suburban Detroit to Box Elder County, Utah: 1. Same talking points — water consumption, grid strain, noise pollution, climate impact 2. Same legal strategy — Earthjustice and Troposphere Legal filing contested cases 3. Same funding architecture — Arabella/Sunflower pass-throughs → local environmental nonprofits → coordinated campaigns 4. Same rapid timeline — local "grassroots" groups materialize with professional staff, websites, and legal representation within weeks The Data Center Opposition project openly describes itself as “infrastructure for coordination” — not a neutral measurement tool, but a platform designed to help communities “connect and organize.” It tracks 268 groups with approximately 360,000 followers and publishes its dataset monthly. 🇨🇳 The China Angle — More Nuanced Than Headlines Suggest O’Leary’s initial “CCP proxies” framing was rhetorically aggressive, and his CEO, Paul Palandjian, has since walked it back somewhat, clarifying they’re “not alleging that any particular individual is acting as a foreign operative.” The demand is simpler: full donor transparency. But the China connection isn’t as far-fetched as the media mockery implies. Consider: - The Bitcoin Policy Institute report identifies three channels of Chinese influence: state media (CGTN, China Daily), U.S.-based nonprofits linked to Shanghai-based businessman Neville Roy Singham, and foreign philanthropic funding tied to billionaire-backed foundations - Christopher Hohn’s Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) funneled $553 million into U.S. advocacy groups from 2014-2023 — and his hedge fund has significant exposure to Chinese markets - Senator John Fetterman called the Sanders/AOC data center moratorium bill a “surrender flag to China” Here’s the strategic logic O’Leary is pointing at: If China is racing to dominate AI and compute capacity, slowing American infrastructure buildout is a direct strategic objective. You don’t need sleeper agents taking orders from Beijing. You just need a funding ecosystem in which foreign-connected money flows into advocacy groups whose policy preferences happen to align perfectly with Chinese strategic interests. The response from the targeted groups has been revealing. Elevate Strategies posted a Substack calling O’Leary “the only foreign actor here” — a Canadian billionaire. Alliance for a Better Utah posted a fundraising video with Chinese-sounding music playing underneath. They’re treating it as a joke. Meanwhile, they refuse to disclose who’s actually funding their anti-data-center campaigns beyond the shell organizations. 💧 The “Grassroots” Framing vs. Reality The media narrative presents this as plucky locals vs. a billionaire developer. Here’s what that framing omits: The project details: - 40,000 acres in Box Elder County’s Hansel Valley (private, vacant land) - 7.5-9 gigawatts at full buildout with on-site natural gas generation - Direct access to the Ruby Pipeline - Closed-loop cooling that reuses water — not drawing from the Great Salt Lake basin - ~4,000 construction jobs over 10-15 years - Primarily military/intelligence compute needs — not just commercial AI The approval process: - The Box Elder County Commission approved it May 4, 2026, with "guardrail provisions" including noise limits and agricultural use agreements - The project was transferred to MIDA (Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority), an entity exempt from open access laws for public-private partnerships - Hundreds attended the meeting — and the commission had to retreat to another room and livestream their vote The opposition funding: - A website created this month (unnamed authors) traces “a layered network connecting Utah progressive advocacy to Arabella Advisors-managed dark money vehicles” - The Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, and Sierra Club Foundation collectively received over $13 million from pro-environmental donors - Food & Water Watch, the named civil-society backer of the Sanders/AOC moratorium bill, is funded through the Park Foundation, Columbus Foundation, and donor-advised funds — the same model they’ve used for a decade 🎯 The Bigger Picture This isn’t really about one data center in Utah. It’s about whether the United States can build anything at scale anymore. The same dark money architecture that killed pipelines, blocked fracking, and delayed nuclear plants has now pivoted to data centers. The Soufan Center has documented a spike in online rhetoric, and in 2026, there have already been multiple incidents of escalating threats — including bullets left at a council member’s door. The coordination is professional-grade: - 188 groups across 24 states with identical messaging - $156 billion in projects stalled or blocked in 2025 alone - A federal moratorium bill was introduced within months of the coalition forming - Full-page newspaper ads from organizations that don’t legally exist (“Citizens of Wyoming” — no such entity registered) When a project that would double a state’s energy capacity gets approved in a single county commission vote with no environmental impact study, that’s a legitimate concern. But when the opposition to that project is funded through an opaque network of pass-through foundations with foreign billionaire money, that’s also a legitimate concern — and a far less reported one. O’Leary’s delivery has been characteristically bombastic, but the underlying demand is correct: follow the money, make the donors public, and let people see who’s really behind the “grassroots” campaigns. If the funding is clean, transparency only strengthens their case. If it’s not, we all deserve to know.

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Please observe and remember on this Memorial Day

DAS John Mills led the U.S. delegation for a successful @ITU Council meeting for the America First Agenda of accountability and effectiveness of the ITU.  As a founding member of ITU and the ITU’s largest financial contributor, the United States has consistently championed good governance at the ITU.  Happy to see a new spirit of Back to Basics being proactively embraced.

I am deeply grateful for the trust President Trump placed in me and for the opportunity to lead @ODNIgov for the last year and a half. Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.

From our country’s beginning, for as long as America has embodied freedom and exceptionalism, the soul of our nation has been rooted in the Christian faith. Today we gather, as our forefathers did on this day centuries ago, to rededicate our nation to God.

The 🇺🇸 concludes #ITUCouncil reaffirming our commitment to a transparent, efficient, and results-focused ITU.  By supporting @ITUSecGen’s re-election, Jennifer Warren for RRB, and U.S. re-election to the @ITU Council, we are helping ensure open, secure, reliable, and interoperable digital connectivity and innovation continue to drive global prosperity.

Still one of my favorite ⁦@starwars⁩ references…

May the Fourth Be With You

Some folks made a big deal out of President Trump joking that diet soda is “healthy.” So yesterday on Air Force One, the President switched things up for us with a spicy virgin Bloody Mary—turns out the real recipe for good health might just be a sense of humor.

Check it out! President Trump sharing the love! 🔥

I’m enjoying the shit out of the Trump presidency. I’m having a blast. There’s no way in hell I’m gonna let these pathetic Doomer Grifters suck the fun out of me for the next 2 1/2 years. Their negative feedback loop is for low IQ suckers, easily manipulated losers, and gullible washout failures. Enjoy your misery. I’m having the time of my life under the greatest President in US history. If you’re with me … LFG !!!!

Mr. President, your @USNavy and @USMC are ready. Any ocean. Any time.

Our baddass search and rescue guys in the Air Force! They’re getting the new HH-60W rescue platform. The last bird that came in has the tail number 4547 so they call it the Trump bird! Classic, boys! Check out the patches! 🇺🇸💪❤️ @realDonaldTrump

Under @POTUS’s leadership, the United States successfully eroded support for the global carbon tax, forcing the @IMOHQ to consider more pragmatic proposals that don’t burden Americans. The carbon tax proposal would have subjected all member states to an unsanctioned global tax regime and regressive penalties.  The global carbon tax is dead.  state.gov/releases/offic…

Congress gave you $2 Trillion to fix our nation’s infrastructure 5+ years ago But the roads still suck. $2T is forty Iran wars if your math is righr.

Here’s Mayor Pete announcing the Biden administration’s decision to fight the Jet Blue and Spirit merger so they could protect consumers and ensure low fares. Now the airline doesn’t exist and passengers are stranded across the country.