S15 EP147: Hour 2 - The Data Center Backlash Grows

The AI data center revolt is now a live midterm threat, and Erick Erickson argues the real problem is not the data centers, it is that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and the rest of the AI CEOs are their own worst salesmen, the charming movie villains you were warned about, while Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are the only ones who figured out how to sell a community on jobs, tax relief, and skills training. He reads the Axios scoop on the NRSC's private memo warning that Senator Jon Husted is losing Ohio to Sherrod Brown over data centers, walks through Vivek Ramaswamy's property tax plan and Jason Kelce's Garage Beer ad, then turns to Ukraine, where drone crews are burning Wildberries distribution centers outside Moscow to make the Russian public finally feel the war while JD Vance begs Kyiv to pull its punches. He closes on the fuel crisis behind it all: a record diesel crack spread, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on why American fracking is the only thing keeping this from being a catastrophe.

TOPICS

• Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and why Erick Erickson says the AI CEOs are the evil villains from the movies, with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta as the lone exception that knows how to work with a community
• The Axios and NRSC memo: data centers polling as popular as nuclear waste, Jon Husted versus Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Josh Shapiro and other Democrats racing to crack down
• Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to make data centers pay the community's property taxes, Jason Kelce's Garage Beer water ad, and the Google data center near Erick that is lowering local property taxes
• Ukraine's 413th unmanned systems regiment, 600 drones, and the Wildberries warehouse fires meant to make Moscow feel the war, plus JD Vance asking Ukraine to hold its fire and the Middle East allies who took Kyiv's help
• Record diesel crack spreads over $100, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, Chris Wright on the Permian Basin, and the fracking fights that look exactly like today's data center fights
• Notus on Cory Mills' downfall: Mike Haridopolos quietly recruiting Ryan Elijah while House Republican leadership backed Mills in public