I still don't understand how people get swayed by social media accounts on issues. Baffling to me that some rando tweet could influence me.

YouBet said:

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I still don't understand how people get swayed by social media accounts on issues. Baffling to me that some rando tweet could influence me.

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Ignorance and blind faith believing whatever they read.

HumpitPuryear said:

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I live in a rural area and grew up in a small west Texas town. I've witnessed quite a few infrastructure dust ups over the years. It's interesting what "6th generation farmers and ranchers" find offensive to the landscape. I didn't see much pushback when oil companies were cutting roads, pipelines, and flattening hills for rig platforms or punching holes to get at millions of gallons of water for fracking. When the windmill guys came with their surface use contracts land owners lined up for that easy money. Data centers are much less intrusive.than windmills which are an absolute abomination and don't use near the volume of water as fracking. Yet we have this dire concern from staunch stewards of the land about data centers. Curious. I wonder why?

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One thing I can think of offhand -

When an oil well or a windmill goes up on rural land, we don't see additional development follow them. They stay as pads with a pump jack or stay as a windmill. People still farm and ranch on that land.

Data centers aren't remotely the same. They are massive structures that have a lot of infrastructure that goes with them. Funny thing about when major infrastructure goes in - development follows. Because that infrastructure is there. No different than when a new road or highway gets laid out and built. It may be a rural road or highway for a few years, but it is inevitable that new development is not far behind it.

Saying data centers are less intrusive than windmills is stretching it pretty far IMO.

Hank the Grifter said:

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Willie Nelson has entered the fray. I know it will surprise many of you to learn that he's anti data center.

To whom it may concern and to everyone else as well, pic.twitter.com/GQxuxUj3ie

— Willie Nelson (@WillieNelson) July 28, 2026

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Somehow I'm sure he LOVES wind power, even though it's an abomination to the landscape...

For this thread, I discovered this map of currently operating and planned data centers.

Pretty useful.

https://cleanview.co/data-centers/texas

Logos Stick said:

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Hey Brazos, I'd like to hear your response to hph's post about tax reduction. Thanks!

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Oh sorry. I didn't respond because it's completely irrelevant. If you like lopsided exchanges of massive windfalls in exchange for a pittance reduction in your taxes, then you should be happy and let that be. That county has between two hundred and two hundred fifty (200-250) data centers. So think about how many a county needs to get a ****ty tax break.

Using a county whose total data centers account for barely 5% of the total in the entire united states is like saying 100 people didn't die from the COVID shot so it's good to go.

Folks living in tiny quarter acre lots in my county get 20% increases every single year even though we have a 10% cap, so the ones that are aware of that can go spend 30 minutes in the tax office getting their taxes REDUCED TO THE MAXIMUM INCREASE ALLOWABLE every year. We have new data centers built, many being constructed, and many in the pipeline. Data centers get large tax abatements, and counties use the remaining windfall for upgrades, not tax reduction.

As I said, I wouldn't trade a crappy tax break for the data centers. The example of Loudoun County has about 5% of the total data centers in the entire united states. It is the exception, not the rule. You do you.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Hey Brazos, I'd like to hear your response to hph's post about tax reduction. Thanks!

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Oh sorry. I didn't respond because it's completely irrelevant. If you like lopsided exchanges of massive windfalls in exchange for a pittance reduction in your taxes, then you should be happy and let that be. That county has between two hundred and two hundred fifty (200-250) data centers. So think about how many a county needs to get a ****ty tax break.

Folks living in tiny quarter acre lots in my county get 20% increases every single year even though we have a 10% cap, so the ones that are aware of that can go spend 30 minutes in the tax office getting their taxes REDUCED TO THE MAXIMUM INCREASE ALLOWABLE every year. We have new data centers built, many being constructed, and many in the pipeline. Data centers get large tax abatements, and counties use the remaining windfall for upgrades, not tax reduction.

As I said, I wouldn't trade a crappy tax break for the data centers. The example of Loudoun County has about 5% of the total data centers in the entire united states. It is the exception, not the rule. You do you.

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Hmm, lets read what was posted shall we...


Brazos said this:

Quote:

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No one's taxes have been lowered

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When confronted, Brazos moves the goalpost and says this, admitting he was wrong, but really not admitting it:

Quote:

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in exchange for a pittance reduction in your taxes,

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You consider 30% reduction a pittance? Do you know what "pittance" means?

Quote:

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Virginia's Loudoun County expects $1.3 billion in data center tax revenue next year, helping the county cut residents' property taxes by roughly 30% over the past decade.

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The following statement is baseless. Please show your work:

Quote:

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The example of Loudoun County has about 5% of the total data centers in the entire united states. It is the exception, not the rule. You do you.

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Texas caps revenue increases to 3.5%. Anything above that requires a vote. If your community is raising actual tax bills by 20% year over year over year then it's your dumb neighbors doing it. Maybe you need some smart data center workers to freshen up the place and bring some sanity.

pic.twitter.com/wODGqcrtV5

— Amrith Ramkumar (@AmrithRamkumar) August 28, 2026

Uh oh.

YouBet said:

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I still don't understand how people get swayed by social media accounts on issues. Baffling to me that some rando tweet could influence me.

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It's baffling to me people even read comments on X.

We need data centers. I can throw a rock and hit half a dozen here in north austin.

People are going to have to get over it

Texas' CenterPoint Energy has announced that, because data centers are lowering its fixed costs, they're going to start cutting electric bills by up to ~$150-200 per customer per year. pic.twitter.com/A7UgYDIW6M

— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) August 27, 2026

Pray for Texas.

A 45-year-old man walked into a Queens ER coughing up blood. Clean X-ray, inconclusive ECG — he left with an inhaler.

An AI system reading every ECG in the hospital flagged severe heart damage. He was called back within a week.

Diagnosis: heart failure. He received a heart… pic.twitter.com/2VU3btdzA3

— Cicero Institute (@InstituteCicero) August 28, 2026

Death is good. We need more death. AI stops what we desire. Praise Moloch. Praise Baal.

Fitch said:

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Nuts!!!

A local independent fabricator posted he is now paying almost double for steel. He said it is near covid prices.

Supply is going all to construction of data centers.

yippee2 said:

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A local independent fabricator posted he is now paying almost double for steel. He said it is near covid prices.

Supply is going all to construction of data centers.

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I know diddly about steel supply chains, but I bet steel tariffs have a lot to do with the price increases. We've got a huge new source of demand (data centers) and the tariffs means we can't adorably flex up supply to match.

Fitch said:

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People complain about DC water usage because it's evaporative (although that's changing).

So are residential pools, which is 5x the water usage right now.

Also, 2.2 trillion gallons per year is consumed through evaporation and tree transpiration for almond and pistachio growth.

U.S. golf courses lose about 350-400 billion gallons annually to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, i.e. direct evap and water absorbed by the grass and released thru its leaves when its mowed.


The anti-DC crowd doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as water usage.

javajaws said:

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YouBet said:

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I still don't understand how people get swayed by social media accounts on issues. Baffling to me that some rando tweet could influence me.

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Ignorance and blind faith believing whatever they read.

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Especially when what they read and see is purposely designed to simply reinforce people's views.

Social media for politics has become nothing more than rage-bait echo chambers. At least that's what it's been for a little over a decade now.

Zobel said:

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BREAKING: 𝕏 reveals it uncovered a Chinese bot farm of roughly 200,000 accounts, including hundreds used to influence U.S. debate over AI data centers & energy policy.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 28, 2026

Concerns about water & power are real—and need to be addressed—but understand that every time you see a tweet that data centers are destroying the world…

…that the Chinese communists are spending millions trying to convince you to believe that. https://t.co/hamOfbm15Z

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 28, 2026

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And that's just China.

One can only imagine how many in Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Turkey, and Israel have.

Note: All of the above are the ones Google states are the countries with the most bot farms.

YouBet said:

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I still don't understand how people get swayed by social media accounts on issues. Baffling to me that some rando tweet could influence me.

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Most people don't read past the headline (or 140 characters), don't think, don't fact check, don't seek out alternative opinions, value feelings over thoughts, and view positions that make them uncomfortable at violence.

For the last 3-4 months, Actual reporters have been publishing data showing that water usage isn't that significant and you still have people repeating is as truth. Sad how little people value intellectual development but it's where we are.

Blue Collar trades standing with big tech on ai. Politics makes for strange bed fellows indeed.

JUST IN: Trade unions threaten to withhold political support from candidates opposing data centers, warning thousands of blue-collar jobs could be lost.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 28, 2026

Deputy Travis Junior said:

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Blue Collar trades standing with big tech on ai. Politics makes for strange bed fellows indeed.

JUST IN: Trade unions threaten to withhold political support from candidates opposing data centers, warning thousands of blue-collar jobs could be lost.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 28, 2026

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Makes sense if the unions have workers who build the things that go into the centers, including the centers.

Logos Stick said:

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Fitch said:

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People complain about DC water usage because it's evaporative (although that's changing).

So are residential pools, which is 5x the water usage right now.

Also, 2.2 trillion gallons per year is consumed through evaporation and tree transpiration for almond and pistachio growth.

U.S. golf courses lose about 350-400 billion gallons annually to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, i.e. direct evap and water absorbed by the grass and released thru its leaves when its mowed.


The anti-DC crowd doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as water usage.

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This is spot on. I hate these as much as the next guy, but when people say to ban them because of water usage, they sound like idiots and they aren't helping anything. There is plenty to complain about out but water usage is not one of them. In fact, it's not even really on the list with current builds. Power usage might be, but even that is changing.

I still contend that the best thing to do is force regulation to live with them and force them to being good neighbors. They aren't going away. They aren't being banned. They are here to stay as a natural step in technology progress.

BREAKING: President Trump releases a statement condemning the growing backlash against data centers in the US.

"If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame," Trump says. pic.twitter.com/8fPPYELSF6

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 31, 2026

For those wondering how this works and why residential rates will be cut:

* Demand charges ($/kW or $/MW). Instead of charging primarily by kWh consumed, the utility charges based on the data center's peak demand. A 500-MW data center therefore pays substantially for having 500 MW of grid capacity available even when it isn't consuming all of it.

* Minimum demand or billing-demand requirements. A data center might contract for 500 MW and be required to pay for, say, 8090% of that amount every month regardless of actual consumption. This prevents other customers from getting stuck paying for infrastructure built for a data center that subsequently uses less power than projected.

* Upfront infrastructure contributions. The data center can be required to pay some or all of the cost of dedicated substations, transmission upgrades, interconnection facilities, or generation needed to serve it.

* Long-term take-or-pay contracts. A utility may require a 10-, 15-, or 20-year commitment. If the utility builds billions of dollars of infrastructure because of the data center, the data center remains responsible for an agreed level of payments even if its demand later declines.

* Large-load customer classes. Regulators can create a separate rate class for data centers rather than putting them in the same industrial class as existing manufacturers. The regulator can then assign a greater share of generation, transmission and distribution fixed costs to that class.

* Exit fees or stranded-cost protections. If a data center closes, relocates, installs its own generation, or substantially reduces grid usage before the infrastructure supporting it has been paid off, it can remain responsible for some of those costs.

I just learned that MoveOn still exists:

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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I just learned that MoveOn still exists:

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Moveon have been useful idiots for almost 30 years now.

All their protest signs should be written in crayon.

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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I just learned that MoveOn still exists:

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Holy carp, I forgot they existed too.

Looks like they might be on the same side as the rural folk i see all upset about data centers moving in without them wanting them to.

Strange bedfellows if that ends up being the case.

Sid Farkas said:

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Jugstore Cowboy said:

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I just learned that MoveOn still exists:

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Moveon have been useful idiots funded by hostile opposition governments for almost 30 years now.

All their protest signs should be written in crayon.

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FIFY

They have always been an astroturfed movement ginned up via funding by our adversaries. That they have been able to easily convince so many leftists to cooperate with them shows how easily the leftists are fooled.

Logos Stick said:

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BREAKING: President Trump releases a statement condemning the growing backlash against data centers in the US.

"If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame," Trump says. pic.twitter.com/8fPPYELSF6

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 31, 2026

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Smart move by Trump to call out his suburban and rural voters as backwards and poor.

i dont think you read that correctly

I would say not, but he read it the way a lot of people will read it which is what matters.