WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It is Thursday, 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:07.000 January 22, 2026. And if you've been glued to 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.039 your news feeds this week, you probably feel 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:10.859 like you're watching two different movies at 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:14.339 once. Yeah, one's a Cold War thriller set in 00:00:14.339 --> 00:00:16.379 the Arctic. And the other is a high stakes courtroom 00:00:16.379 --> 00:00:19.420 drama right here in D .C. And I don't think either 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:21.760 of them has a particularly happy ending just 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.320 yet. It's been a week where the map is being 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:28.120 redrawn figuratively, you know, with the Constitution, 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:30.519 but also literally. We have some new congressional 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:32.759 districts to talk about. We have a massive amount 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:34.820 to cover. We're going to unpack this whole Greenland 00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:37.920 incident, which was, let's just call it unconventional 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:40.399 diplomacy. That's one word for it. Then we've 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.299 got a constitutional showdown between the White 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:43.820 House and the Federal Reserve that's getting 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:47.439 ugly very fast. And we need to look at the 2026 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.500 midterms. The machinery is really starting to 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:52.380 turn on. We've got fish gerrymandering in Maryland. 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.939 You have to explain that one. Oh, we will. And 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:57.799 a rebellion in the Rust Belt over AI data centers, 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:00.740 plus some really fascinating toss -up races that 00:01:00.740 --> 00:01:02.939 are going to decide who controls Congress. The 00:01:02.939 --> 00:01:05.060 through line here, it feels like it's friction. 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:07.560 You know, this tension between what the executive 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:09.700 branch wants to do, which seems to be everything, 00:01:09.939 --> 00:01:12.760 and the institutional walls that are supposed 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:14.989 to stop it. That's the mission for this deep 00:01:14.989 --> 00:01:17.450 dive to understand those walls. Are they holding? 00:01:17.769 --> 00:01:21.609 Are they crumbling? And how does a fight over 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:24.250 water usage in Wisconsin connect to the balance 00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:27.170 of power in Washington? OK, let's start at the 00:01:27.170 --> 00:01:29.469 top. The story that just ate the news cycle alive, 00:01:29.790 --> 00:01:32.390 Greenland, or as the Internet has now dubbed 00:01:32.390 --> 00:01:35.829 it, Taco Wednesday. Taco, of course, being the 00:01:35.829 --> 00:01:38.609 descriptor from Governor Gavin Newsom. It's shorthand 00:01:38.609 --> 00:01:41.310 for threatening, aggressive, chaotic and over 00:01:41.310 --> 00:01:44.709 the top and Looking at the transcript of President 00:01:44.709 --> 00:01:47.310 Trump's speech at Davos, it is really hard to 00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:48.950 argue with that label. I watched the speech. 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:50.810 It was an hour and a half long. But the part 00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:52.950 that just stopped the world was his comments 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:55.010 on Greenland. He didn't just ask to buy it this 00:01:55.010 --> 00:01:57.590 time. No. This was different. He said, we want 00:01:57.590 --> 00:01:59.750 a piece of ice for world protection. You can 00:01:59.750 --> 00:02:02.689 say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or 00:02:02.689 --> 00:02:05.189 you can say no, and we will remember. It's the 00:02:05.189 --> 00:02:07.730 or we will remember part. That's what changes 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:10.610 it from a, you know, a real estate question to 00:02:10.610 --> 00:02:13.110 a geopolitical threat. It's mob boss language. 00:02:13.810 --> 00:02:16.189 Nice island you've got there. Be ashamed if something 00:02:16.189 --> 00:02:18.750 happened to it. And alongside the threat, the 00:02:18.750 --> 00:02:21.030 sources were buzzing about the specific proposal 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:24.569 he floated, this board of peace. He offered to 00:02:24.569 --> 00:02:26.990 sell seats on this board for a billion dollars 00:02:26.990 --> 00:02:29.939 each. which is just, I mean, it's breathtaking 00:02:29.939 --> 00:02:32.319 if you really stop and think about the implications 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:34.099 of that. And you mentioned he'd run it himself 00:02:34.099 --> 00:02:36.520 after his presidency. And that detail is actually 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:39.780 crucial for two reasons. One, it kind of signals 00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:42.280 he probably isn't planning a third term, which 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:45.780 might calm some domestic fears. But two, it's 00:02:45.780 --> 00:02:48.199 the commoditization of global diplomacy. Right. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:50.500 He's suggesting a seat at the table of world 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:53.840 power is a luxury good. It's like buying a skybox 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.520 for the Super Bowl, but... You know, for war 00:02:56.520 --> 00:02:58.919 and peace. It's effectively privatizing the United 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:02.080 Nations. But the international community didn't 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:04.599 exactly line up to buy tickets. Far from it. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:06.819 This triggered what the Canadian prime minister, 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:09.800 Mark Carney, called a rupture. Carney did not 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:13.340 hold back. His speech on Tuesday was stark. He 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:15.460 basically said Canada is standing shoulder to 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:17.919 shoulder with Denmark and Greenland. He called 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:20.139 it a break in the fundamental order of things. 00:03:20.259 --> 00:03:23.879 And Trump's reaction was, well. Classic retaliation. 00:03:24.219 --> 00:03:26.939 He accused Canada of taking freebies and Carney 00:03:26.939 --> 00:03:29.800 of being ungrateful. But while the politicians 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:32.259 were yelling, the real verdict came from the 00:03:32.259 --> 00:03:34.800 stock market. Tuesday was a bloodbath. The Dow 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:37.800 Jones fell 870 points. And we have to explain 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:40.319 why, because it wasn't just investors don't like 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:43.060 yelling. Investors hate the idea of sovereign 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:45.400 land seizures. Of course. If the U .S. threatens 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:48.280 to take territory from a NATO ally, the entire 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.919 concept of property rights, of international 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.900 law, gets And if laws don't matter, contracts 00:03:53.900 --> 00:03:55.840 don't matter. If contracts don't matter, stock 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:58.900 values are just imaginary. That's why it tanged. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.120 But then, in typical fashion, it bounced right 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:04.439 back the next day, up 588 points. Because the 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:06.659 market realized the bark was much worse than 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:08.419 the bite. OK, before we get to the walk back, 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:11.060 we need to do a quick reality check on the speech 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:13.939 itself. The sources flagged a whole list of claims 00:04:13.939 --> 00:04:17.600 that were just flat out wrong. Mm -hmm. He said 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:21.300 NATO paid nothing before him. He claimed he eliminated 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:24.259 taxes on Social Security, which, last I checked, 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.720 hasn't passed Congress. He also said China has 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:30.439 no wind farms, which is... it's laughable. They're 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:33.519 the world leader in wind energy capacity. And 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:35.779 he claimed to have settled eight wars and lowered 00:04:35.779 --> 00:04:38.319 grocery prices. Yeah, both of which are pretty 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:40.740 easily disproven by looking at a map or, you 00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:43.339 know, a receipt from Kroger. But let's look at 00:04:43.339 --> 00:04:45.720 how this all ended. We had the threat, the market 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:48.740 crash, the Canadian pushback, and then what? 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:52.579 And then the retreats. Trump went on social media 00:04:52.579 --> 00:04:55.019 posted a picture with NATO Secretary General 00:04:55.019 --> 00:04:57.959 Mark Root and claimed they had a productive meeting 00:04:57.959 --> 00:05:00.360 and a framework. The framework being the magic 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:02.300 word that means I'm not actually doing the tariffs. 00:05:03.080 --> 00:05:04.740 Exactly. The tariffs that were scheduled for 00:05:04.740 --> 00:05:06.920 February 1st, they were dropped. The invasion 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:09.579 talk just vanished. So why the U -turn? Was it 00:05:09.579 --> 00:05:12.180 the Dow dropping 870 points? That was a huge 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:14.339 part of it. I mean, Trump views the stock market 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:17.360 as his personal scorecard. But sources also point 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:19.079 to the Pentagon. You have to imagine the general 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:21.339 sat him down and showed him the logistics. The 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:24.439 U .S. Army is not built for a ground war in the 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:26.819 Arctic Circle against European allies. We don't 00:05:26.819 --> 00:05:29.139 have the icebreakers. We don't have the winterization 00:05:29.139 --> 00:05:33.019 on that kind of scale. It was a logistical impossibility. 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:36.819 So reality won this round. But the damage is 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:39.480 done, I assume. That 15 percent tariff deal with 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.439 the EU is probably dead. Dead in the water. And 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:45.560 the long term cost is trust. You can only threaten 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:48.500 to seize a piece of ice so many times before 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:50.740 your allies stop treating you like a partner 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:53.339 and start treating you like a hazard to be managed. 00:05:53.629 --> 00:05:55.750 Which brings us back to the U .S., where the 00:05:55.750 --> 00:05:58.870 president is trying to manage or maybe dismantle 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:01.370 the Federal Reserve. This feels less like a hazard 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:03.730 and more like a demolition. This is the domestic 00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:05.870 version of the Greenland story, right? It's an 00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:08.029 attempt to exert total executive control over 00:06:08.029 --> 00:06:10.389 a system that's designed to be independent. The 00:06:10.389 --> 00:06:12.649 headline here is Lisa Cook. She's a governor 00:06:12.649 --> 00:06:14.670 on the Federal Reserve Board. Trump is trying 00:06:14.670 --> 00:06:17.509 to fire her. She's sued to stay. And now it's 00:06:17.509 --> 00:06:19.670 at the Supreme Court. And the legal argument 00:06:19.670 --> 00:06:21.939 is fascinating. The Federal Reserve Act says 00:06:21.939 --> 00:06:24.680 governors can be removed for cause. Trump's team 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:27.220 is arguing that cause can just mean we disagree 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:31.279 on policy. Wow. If that argument holds, then 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:33.360 the Fed isn't independent anymore. Not at all. 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:34.939 It's just an arm of the White House. Yeah. I 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:36.899 mean, if a president can fire the people setting 00:06:36.899 --> 00:06:38.500 interest rates just because they won't lower 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:40.879 them before an election, you get hyperinflation. 00:06:41.019 --> 00:06:43.500 You get the Turkish economy. But the Supreme 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:46.459 Court, even this conservative court... They seem 00:06:46.459 --> 00:06:49.259 pretty skeptical. They do. Justices Barrett, 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:52.500 Roberts, and Kavanaugh are all hesitant. Kavanaugh 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:54.240 specifically pointed out the slippery slope. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:57.279 He said, look, if policy difference is a valid 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:00.360 reason, a president could just dig up dirt or 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:02.920 invent a reason to fire anyone. Which is pretty 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:05.100 ironic because Lisa Cook claims that's exactly 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:07.220 what's happening to her right now. Yeah. The 00:07:07.220 --> 00:07:09.560 consensus is the court is just going to punt. 00:07:09.819 --> 00:07:12.360 They'll likely deny the emergency stay Trump 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:14.800 wants, which keeps cooking her seat while the 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.680 whole case drags on in lower courts. By the time 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.259 it's decided, her term might be up anyway. But 00:07:20.259 --> 00:07:22.899 the bigger fish here is Jerome Powell, the chair 00:07:22.899 --> 00:07:25.879 of the Fed. And this story took a really wild 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:29.220 turn this week. It did. Trump reportedly sitch 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:32.319 the DOJ on Powell with some kind of fraud charge. 00:07:32.569 --> 00:07:35.329 And most legal experts see this as completely 00:07:35.329 --> 00:07:37.449 trumped up a pretext to force him to resign. 00:07:37.689 --> 00:07:40.110 But then two Republican senators basically walked 00:07:40.110 --> 00:07:42.529 into the room and locked the door. Lisa Murkowski 00:07:42.529 --> 00:07:45.689 and Tom Tillis. Sources say they reinstalled 00:07:45.689 --> 00:07:47.949 their spawns. They announced they will block 00:07:47.949 --> 00:07:51.269 all Federal Reserve confirmations until the DOJ 00:07:51.269 --> 00:07:54.029 drops this investigation into Powell. That is 00:07:54.029 --> 00:07:56.670 a massive power play. It completely freezes the 00:07:56.670 --> 00:07:58.550 president's ability to replace anyone on the 00:07:58.550 --> 00:08:01.490 board. And the timing is critical. Powell's term 00:08:01.490 --> 00:08:04.180 as chair. not as a board member, but as the chair. 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:07.139 It ends May 15th. Trump desperately wants his 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:09.379 own person in there. But if Murkowski and Tillis 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:12.000 hold the line, he can't get a new chair confirmed. 00:08:12.279 --> 00:08:14.399 And Powell's term as a board member lasts until 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:16.899 2028, so he could just sit there. He could. It's 00:08:16.899 --> 00:08:18.879 a complete stalemate. And it's creating these 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:20.980 really strange alliances. You've got Senator 00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:23.100 Elizabeth Warren, who has spent years criticizing 00:08:23.100 --> 00:08:25.680 Powell for being too soft on banks, now out there 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:27.639 defending him. Because the enemy of my enemy 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:30.540 is the independence of the monetary system. It 00:08:30.540 --> 00:08:32.440 shows that for the Senate, this is about left 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:34.779 versus right. It's about the legislative branch 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:37.559 saying you cannot weaponize the Justice Department 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:40.600 to control the money supply. Period. While we're 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:42.600 on personnel, we should pour one out for Lindsey 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:44.840 Halligan. She was the U .S. attorney for the 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:47.899 Eastern District of Virginia. Was is the key 00:08:47.899 --> 00:08:51.039 word there. She resigned this week after Judge 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:54.200 David Novak just absolutely incinerated her in 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:57.240 a ruling. He called out her vitriol and her lack 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:00.100 of experience and then effectively banned her 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:02.460 from signing documents in his court. When a federal 00:09:02.460 --> 00:09:05.259 judge says your signature is no good here, I 00:09:05.259 --> 00:09:07.039 guess you don't really have a job anymore. It's 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:09.600 another example of the institutions, in this 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:12.679 case, the judiciary, drawing a line on competence. 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.659 OK, let's zoom out. All of this chaos is setting 00:09:15.659 --> 00:09:18.740 the stage for the 2026 midterms and the map is 00:09:18.740 --> 00:09:20.580 changing. Let's talk about Maryland, because 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:22.639 I saw a map that looked less like a district 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:24.919 and more like a Rorschach test. Oh, yes, the 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:27.500 Chesapeake Bay special. Governor Westmore's commission 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:31.039 released this new map. The goal is very blunt. 00:09:31.230 --> 00:09:33.809 One seat Republican, Andy Harris, is the chair 00:09:33.809 --> 00:09:36.210 of the Freedom Caucus. And the way they did it 00:09:36.210 --> 00:09:38.950 is by connecting Democratic areas on opposite 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:41.049 sides of the bay. Exactly. They literally put 00:09:41.049 --> 00:09:43.389 the Chesapeake Bay inside the district. As the 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:45.289 sources put it, they're assuming the fish are 00:09:45.289 --> 00:09:47.929 Democrats. It's classic gerrymandering. You dilute 00:09:47.929 --> 00:09:50.730 that rural Republican vote by bridging a body 00:09:50.730 --> 00:09:53.769 of water to grab some suburban Democratic voters. 00:09:54.149 --> 00:09:56.850 It passed the Commission 3 -2. The state Senate 00:09:56.850 --> 00:09:59.409 president hates it, but Democrats are desperate 00:09:59.409 --> 00:10:02.059 to flip that seat to regain... the House. Speaking 00:10:02.059 --> 00:10:04.500 of flipping the House, the Cook Political Report 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:07.240 dropped their new list of toss -up seats. There 00:10:07.240 --> 00:10:10.039 are 18 of them, and this is the whole ballgame. 00:10:10.279 --> 00:10:12.919 These 18 districts, they tell the story of American 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.360 politics right now. On the Democratic side, you 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:17.840 have people like Marcy Capture in Ohio's 9th. 00:10:17.899 --> 00:10:20.120 Her district got redrawn to be whiter, redder. 00:10:20.340 --> 00:10:22.179 She's the longest serving woman in House history, 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:24.679 and she is fighting for her political life in 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:26.840 a district that's just moving away from her. 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:28.840 And on the Republican side? It's the suburbs. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:31.460 You look at Arizona's first in Scottsdale or 00:10:31.460 --> 00:10:34.100 New York's 17th in the Hudson Valley. These are 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:37.000 wealthy, educated areas. The so -called country 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.320 club Republicans. Precisely. These are people 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.799 who, you know, they like tax cuts, but they are 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:46.379 exhausted by the chaos. They don't like the Greenland 00:10:46.379 --> 00:10:49.580 mob boss. rhetoric. If Democrats take the House, 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:52.000 it's because these voters decided they've had 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:53.860 enough of the noise. And there are some really 00:10:53.860 --> 00:10:57.279 specific local anomalies, too. You've got Democrats 00:10:57.279 --> 00:10:59.559 trying to hold Washington's third and Republicans 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:02.159 holding on to Wisconsin's third, where Derek 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:04.700 Van Orden is somehow winning despite the state 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:07.000 trending blue in other areas. It's just going 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:09.480 to be a trench war, seat by seat. And some of 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:11.960 the candidates are fascinating. We've got Mikel 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.539 Tafoya in Minnesota running for Senate. Yeah, 00:11:14.539 --> 00:11:17.860 the former NBC sports reporter. Look at her branding. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:21.279 She calls herself a pro -choice, libertarian 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:24.139 leaning conservative. That is definitely not 00:11:24.139 --> 00:11:26.899 the Magier starter pack. No, it's the anti -Trump 00:11:26.899 --> 00:11:29.340 Republican brand. She's betting that Minnesota 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:31.759 voters want conservatism without all the culture 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:33.820 war baggage. It's a huge test case. And then 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:36.200 there's Nancy La Cour in South Carolina. A retired 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:38.440 vice admiral. She was fired by Defense Secretary 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:40.340 Pete Hagseth during that purge of the military 00:11:40.340 --> 00:11:42.419 leadership. Now she's running as a Democrat against 00:11:42.419 --> 00:11:45.000 Nancy Mace. I mean, that narrative writes itself. 00:11:45.419 --> 00:11:47.940 I serve my country. They fired me for politics. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:50.539 Send me to Congress. It appeals directly to that 00:11:50.539 --> 00:11:53.159 military tradition in South Carolina. It's a 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:55.440 powerful story. I want to shift to a story that 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:57.379 isn't really about red versus blue, but it's 00:11:57.379 --> 00:12:00.539 about resources. We talk about AI all the time 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:04.039 as this digital cloud, but it turns out the cloud 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:06.799 needs an awful lot of water. This is the sleeper 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.299 issue of this election cycle. We're seeing this 00:12:09.299 --> 00:12:13.110 massive physical build out. of AI infrastructure 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:17.330 data centers for OpenAI, Oracle, Microsoft, and 00:12:17.330 --> 00:12:19.610 they are landing in communities that are starting 00:12:19.610 --> 00:12:21.610 to fight back. Right. In Wisconsin, there's a 00:12:21.610 --> 00:12:24.269 group called Great Lakes Neighbors United, and 00:12:24.269 --> 00:12:26.830 they are trying to stop a $15 billion data center. 00:12:27.009 --> 00:12:28.929 They're even trying to recall the mayor over 00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:31.269 it. And it's not just not in my backyard complaining. 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:34.629 These centers guzzle electricity and water. If 00:12:34.629 --> 00:12:36.990 you build one of these, local utility rates can 00:12:36.990 --> 00:12:39.450 skyrocket because the whole grid needs upgrading. 00:12:39.659 --> 00:12:42.580 Plus, they use millions of gallons of water for 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:45.539 cooling. Which drains the local aquifers. Exactly. 00:12:45.659 --> 00:12:48.340 So now you have this really weird populist coalition. 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:50.679 You've got rural conservatives who don't want 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:53.159 their water drying up. And you have Bernie Sanders 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:55.639 in the Senate proposing a national moratorium. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.220 Sanders wants a pause until the tech companies 00:12:58.220 --> 00:13:00.220 pay for the infrastructure themselves. Right. 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:03.340 His argument is basically, why should your grandmother's 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:05.960 electric bill go up so OpenAI can train chat 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:09.700 GPT -6? It's a potent argument. It's a good reminder 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:12.399 that while we obsess over tweets, a lot of elections 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:15.220 can be decided by utility bills. It's the physical 00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:17.759 reality crashing right into the digital dream. 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:19.799 Before we wrap up, let's look a little further 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:21.899 down the road. The sources brought up a really 00:13:21.899 --> 00:13:23.980 interesting debate happening inside the Democratic 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:27.000 Party about 2028. Yeah, this is the what if game. 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:30.259 If the historical pattern holds, the White House 00:13:30.259 --> 00:13:32.779 flipping every four or eight years. Democrats 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.539 have a decent shot in 2028, but the party is 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:37.840 completely split on what to do if they win. There 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:39.820 are three schools of thought, right? Three totally 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:42.320 distinct philosophies. The first is turn back 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.460 the clock. This is the restorationist view. You 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:48.440 repeal the emergency powers Trump used. You strengthen 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:50.730 the Posse Comitatus Act. And for those who don't 00:13:50.730 --> 00:13:53.570 know, that's the law from the 1800s that forbids 00:13:53.570 --> 00:13:55.990 using the military as a domestic police force. 00:13:56.230 --> 00:13:58.129 Right. So this group wants to basically lock 00:13:58.129 --> 00:14:00.129 down the presidency so no one can ever do what 00:14:00.129 --> 00:14:03.029 Trump did again, reset all the norms to 2015. 00:14:03.350 --> 00:14:05.350 OK. Then there's the second group, the use the 00:14:05.350 --> 00:14:07.409 new powers group. The aggressive progressives. 00:14:07.490 --> 00:14:11.240 Yeah. Their argument is the seal is broken. The 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:13.679 presidency is now an imperial office, so let's 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:16.080 use it. Fight fire with fire. Use tariffs to 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.940 protect unions. Use the power to fire civil servants 00:14:18.940 --> 00:14:22.120 to clear out conservatives. Use the DOJ to go 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:24.500 after corporate monopolies. The sources mention 00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:27.080 some really extreme examples here, like using 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:29.460 IC, which they called the president's personal 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:32.899 goon squad, to enforce gun control, or threatening 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:35.379 to nationalize Starlink if Musk doesn't play 00:14:35.379 --> 00:14:38.269 ball. It's a tempting path for the base. He did 00:14:38.269 --> 00:14:40.870 it, so why can't we? And the third option? The 00:14:40.870 --> 00:14:43.350 egg price approach. Just ignore the constitutional 00:14:43.350 --> 00:14:45.789 revenge. Ignore the structural changes. Just 00:14:45.789 --> 00:14:47.929 focus on lowering the cost of eggs and housing. 00:14:48.509 --> 00:14:51.299 Win on the economy and move on. That's the pragmatic 00:14:51.299 --> 00:14:53.500 route, but it kind of leaves all those loaded 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:55.879 weapons just lying on the desk in the Oval Office. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.139 That's the danger. So bringing it all back to 00:14:58.139 --> 00:15:00.960 today, we have a president pushing the limits 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:03.340 on foreign soil and in domestic courts. We have 00:15:03.340 --> 00:15:05.899 a Senate and a judiciary pushing back and we 00:15:05.899 --> 00:15:08.240 have voters getting ready to have their say in 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:11.059 2026. The whole system is under immense stress. 00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:13.799 But the fact that the Dow recovered, the fact 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:16.120 that the court is skeptical, the fact that Murkowski 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:19.139 and Tillis blocked the nominees. It shows the 00:15:19.139 --> 00:15:21.460 friction is working. You know, the brakes are 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:24.139 screeching, but they haven't failed. Not yet. 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:26.039 I want to leave you with a provocative thought 00:15:26.039 --> 00:15:28.580 that came out of that 2028 discussion. It's about 00:15:28.580 --> 00:15:31.539 that use the new powers scenario. It is the most 00:15:31.539 --> 00:15:33.539 chilling question in all the sources we read. 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:35.980 If a future president uses these authoritarian 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:40.059 tools, goon squads, firing judges, seizing assets, 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:44.019 but uses them for causes you like, do you cheer? 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:47.429 And if you do cheer? Do you realize that you've 00:15:47.429 --> 00:15:50.330 just accepted living in a country where your 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:53.309 rights depend entirely on the mood of the person 00:15:53.309 --> 00:15:55.649 in the big chair? At that point, does the party 00:15:55.649 --> 00:15:57.690 label even matter, or have we just changed the 00:15:57.690 --> 00:16:00.570 color of the boot? That is the question to ask 00:16:00.570 --> 00:16:03.769 yourself as we watch these norms shift. On that 00:16:03.769 --> 00:16:05.809 cheerful note, thank you for joining us on the 00:16:05.809 --> 00:16:08.309 Deep Dariff. We'll be watching the map, the markets, 00:16:08.429 --> 00:16:10.929 and the courts. Stay curious. See you next time.