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Posted on 11/04/2026 7:18:26 PM PST by impimp
This is the least I have followed politics in a two decades…and maybe that is a sign of the apathy that Republicans had yesterday. I didn’t anticipate Governor Abbott losing but it happened.
Republicans need to win or lose on policy and Democrats win or lose on leader charisma. That tells me that Republican policy was bad. I never criticized Abbott before but his anti-data center talk made me change my tune. I voted for him but his negative view on data centers was dumb. Texas was doing an amazing job with data center expansion. Power prices were low because it is so easy to build generation in Texas and also these data centers had co-located generation and backup generation - THEY MADE THE GRID MORE RESILIENT! The problems with the data centers are in Virginia where they built them with no co-located generation.
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I’m pretty sure ALL the new datacenters have their own onsite power generation - wherever they are.
It’ll be interesting to see if Hinojosa suddenly falls in love with ... data centers in TX.
NUMEROUS data centers are currently under construction or about to be.
Meta being one of the biggest, in El Paso.
That’s not why he lost.
I think comparisons with Florida might help.
Texas republicans refused property tax relief while Florida moved forward. That has been a huge issue for Texas residents. It gives some idea of the comparative difference.
Ditto that.
I would love to see the Data Center issue seriously analyzed as an electoral strategy. Seems to me it is like the Marijuana legalization effort in FL years ago and in other places - it was done to motivate marginal voter groups to go to the polls, after they were activated by bogus messaging that appealed to their misinformed view of the issue. Sad to see that it works, but it must have plausible effectiveness - it was beaten like a drum here in Nevada. My theory will be proven correct if we do not hear of it again for the next 2 years.
“...Democrats win or lose on leader charisma...”
They won on lies about promises they can’t possibly fullfill. And that is already happening. Look at New York
Suggestion, before they try to get rid of it, you might want to go out and buy a home protection weapon. Crime is going to go crazy and the courts will bounce them back out faster than they can get a phone call. You will have to learn to protct yourself when they defund the cops, creating layoffs, defund ICE, illegals running loose and harming people, and tax you into oblivion causing prices to explode. Bank on it.
Analyses from groups like the Cato Institute and the White House argue that an agenda of sweeping federal programs—including Medicare for All, student debt cancellation, the Green New Deal, and free college—carries a projected price tag ranging from tens of trillions to over $200 trillion across multi-year horizons. Critics argue this would require massive tax hikes on middle-income households or trigger steep inflation and federal deficits.
Critics and opponents point to rent-control laws and progressive housing regulations in cities like New York and states like California as driving away investment, reducing property values or rental housing supply, and leaving individual small property owners or taxpayers with financial losses and economic inefficiencies.
Think-tanks and economic commentators note that nations with expansive social-welfare systems—often characterized as democratic socialist or heavy social-democracies like France—rely heavily on steep income, payroll, and consumption taxes on average citizens rather than just taxing the wealthy to fund large public budgets. Critics argue this constrains household purchasing power and slows long-term economic dynamism.
Historical retrospectives of state-socialist and communist regimes (such as Poland under communist rule through the 1980s) show that replacing market mechanisms with centralized bureaucratic planning led to severe resource misallocation, chronic shortages of basic consumer goods (meat, sugar, soap), long waiting lists for housing, and a lower average life expectancy and standard of living compared to market-based Western European peers. And look at Canada right now.
So I’m not throwing stuff at ya. This has a historical proof. Just get ready. It’s coming.
wy69
i detect sarcasm…but if a data center needs 100MWs of power they typically build 2 100MW generators as one is the back up. Manytie to the grid and can provide backup power to the grid…many just want to be left alone and off the grid. Both of these types of data centers are good things and I am upset that Republicans opposed them as it made them seem dumb.
I think Abbott lost because he already has been governor almost 12 years. That’s a long time. I can’t see any other reason why they voted him out.
You are probably right…I just wanted to highlight one area of Republican dumbness…there may be others. Note that it almost doesnt matter that Democrats are more dumb than Republicans…a dumb republican just leads to apathy and a democrat win.
You are probably right…I just wanted to highlight one area of Republican dumbness…there may be others. Note that it almost doesnt matter that Democrats are more dumb than Republicans…a dumb republican just leads to apathy and a democrat win.
That also means Cornyn would have lost as well.
There is a reason why we have term limits.
No one can serve that long as governor without losing touch of regular people.
Abbot should have retired. Paxton would have run for governor and every office in Texas would have remained in GOP hands.
I agree.
The whole data center debate is another ozone hole.
These topics pop up and “demand government guardrails.”
“Guardrail” was the slogan of the day.
Like some socialist chump, what you would expect from a Talarico, Abbott jumped on that fad and was pushing the big government and more regulation narrative.
Big industrial facilities like this, usually come with their own water and power supply, it has to be planned and incorporated in the design because of the load level. You can’t plug an aluminum smelter into an outlet: https://centosoftware.com/case-studies/energy-optimization-for-aluminum-smelting-and-refining/
This sort of “chasing the issue of the day,” is embarrassing.
And you know what’s worst of all? What they get the people all scared and excited about (water and power usage), is something that large data centers will actually improve. They will add massive power generation to the grid, and in dire straights, such as weather extremes like we had years ago, they can help. Total opposite!!!
I don’t believe it was just apathy. A lot of Republicans specifically voted for Democrats out of anger and spite. (The fact that Brandon Gill is the only House Republican who won re-election would seem to confirm this.) Unfortunately, a lot of people just don’t pay attention. They are uninformed and don’t understand just how dangerous this situation is - these aren’t just “Democrats”, but rabid socialists actively getting ready to cement long-term power. I didn’t realize just how many Republican voters are this stupid, and they may have just handed the country fully over and caused the revolution to succeed.
That’s actually a good idea.
It also creates very well rounded leaders that are things from different perspectives.
Rumsfeld: ambassador to NATO, Congressman (serving on military foreign affairs committee), O6 USN Captain (active and then reserves), defense industry also, then finally secretary of defense.
Some do not like Rumsfeld, but I would argue that is largely a dislike for the administration he served under, may if be Dick Cheney, Bush, or others...
As to Rumsfeld, he was extremely effective as secretary of defense. He understood how to run this department like few before and after him and I would largely attribute this to his various experiences.
The danger is that this creates a structure, an expectation, and people wait in line for their next promotion. The popular Trump or Obama type leader the just jumps on stage and into the spot light, is left out in such a scheme.
It creates an “establishment.”
And celebrate with The Kennebunkport Clan of Connecticut.
ALL statewide candidates lost. It wasn’t just Hey, Abbott.
Abbott lost because of Abbott. He recruited large businesses from California and New York to relocate to Texas. He should of known that the RAT employees relocating to Texas would continue to vote RAT.
It was stolen, Jim.
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