Regret the tone of my post on data centers yesterday. What I should have said: There were reasonable concerns about data centers 18ish months ago: water, taxes, jobs, electricity prices, the environment and what they would do to small towns. Well-structured data center projects have largely addressed these concerns today and we should be celebrating this. On balance, data centers are awesome for America in every way. On water: U.S. data centers use a fraction of what golf courses use. A lot of the numbers from 18 months ago were off by over 1000x. Newer data centers use closed-loop systems or recycled water. Should be required by every town approving a data center project. On taxes: looking only at sales-tax exemptions, as Ronan Farrow did, is the wrong way to evaluate this. Data centers pay significant property taxes. Loudoun County, which is the wealthiest county in America, now collects on the order of $1 billion a year from data centers. In Quincy, WA, data centers are more than half the property-tax roll. Over time, property taxes can go to zero while government spending increases in these towns. On jobs: this has been unambiguously awesome for blue collar Americans. Demand for electricians, plumbers, welders, HVAC techs, and contractors has gone vertical, and it is not a one-time construction job. These buildings get upgraded and expanded over time. That is why the building trades are fighting for them, and why some unions are now treating opposition to data centers as a reason not to endorse politicians. On power: the original fear was that households would pay for the incremental electricity demand in the form of higher prices. That is why the ratepayer-protection deals and the new large-load tariffs exist. The right structure is: the data center brings or pays for new generation and signs a contract long enough that existing customers are protected. Where that is happening, utilities are cutting or freezing residential rates and saying so on the record. Where it is not, people are right to object. Electricity prices are going down *today* in a number of large states because of data centers. 
On the environment: data centers overwhelming use natural gas today, which is the cleanest power source outside of nuclear, solar and wind. And the companies that are building the data centers are committed to carbon neutrality such that an equivalent amount of solar will likely be built. Maybe more importantly, the data centers need batteries to function effectively and these batteries can also sell energy back into the grid (which recently prevented blackouts in Texas). Over time, data centers will run on solar plus batteries. On the towns: Poverty in Quincy, WA fell from 29% to 6%. Data center taxes paid for a new high school, a hospital, a library, police and fire stations. This is happening in many left for dead former mill and farm towns that had no other bidder for the land. Data centers are actually reindustrializing parts of America and creating the kind of working-class jobs both parties have spent decades claiming to support. That should not be a partisan issue. Data centers can and should be awesome for America and they increasingly, overwhelmingly are. Supporting the outsourcing of data centers to China will likely age just as well as support for the outsourcing of high quality, blue collar manufacturing jobs to China has aged. When the facts change, I change my mind. I hope that reasonable people who had good faith reasons to oppose data centers at least consider updating their beliefs given the change in the facts over the last 18 months. This really matters for America. I will say I also think the idea of making data centers beautiful is a good one that has yet to be implemented. Data centers should be just as beautiful as Grand Central Station. We can learn a lot from the railroad buildout. Neoclassical revival ftw. Might write up open-weight AI tomorrow as this is equally essential to America.

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy. She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid. The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%. She handed out the checks herself. In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college. When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months. You've probably heard that part. Here's the part you haven't: The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top. Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave. She built her county an entire hospital. She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it. In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees. Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal. In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release. And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it. She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway. She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did. Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸

Price Increases, July 2025 to July 2026 (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) 1. Fuel oil — +39.1% 2. Other motor fuels — +30.7% 3. Airline fares — +25.5% 4. Regular gasoline — +25.3% 5. Midgrade gasoline — +23.0% 6. Premium gasoline — +21.5% 7. Computer software and accessories — +21.2% 8. Instant coffee — +15.8% 9. Jewelry — +15.2% 10. Uncooked beef roasts — +13.5% 11. Video/video-game subscriptions and rentals — +13.4% 12. Postage — +13.3% 13. Sewing machines, fabric and supplies — +12.9% 14. Tomatoes — +12.8% 15. Delivery services — +12.6% 16. Gardening and lawncare services — +12.3% 17. Apples — +11.1% 18. Watches — +10.6% 19. Dishes and flatware — +10.4% 20. Other video equipment — +10.0% 21. Home health care — +9.7% 22. Candy and chewing gum — +9.6% 23. Uncooked beef steaks — +9.6% 24. Roasted coffee — +9.4% 25. Video discs and other media — +9.2% 26. Ground beef — +9.0% 27. Turkey and other uncooked poultry — +8.4% 28. Recorded music and music subscriptions — +8.0% 29. Fresh fish and seafood — +7.8% 30. Frozen fish and seafood — +7.8% 31. Lettuce — +7.5% 32. Cigarettes — +7.3% 33. Motor vehicle maintenance/servicing — +7.3% 34. Intracity transportation — +7.0% 35. Apparel services other than dry cleaning — +6.6% 36. Vehicle parts/equipment other than tires — +6.6% 37. Nonelectric cookware/tableware — +6.4% 38. Frankfurters — +6.3% 39. Rice — +6.2% 40. Men’s underwear/nightwear/swimwear/accessories — +6.2% 41. Motor vehicle repair — +6.2% 42. Shelf-stable fish and seafood — +6.1% 43. Fresh whole milk — +6.0% 44. Newspapers and magazines — +6.0% 45. Outpatient hospital services — +5.8% 46. Other uncooked beef and veal — +5.6% 47. Sports vehicles including bicycles — +5.6% 48. Vehicle accessories other than tires — +5.5% 49. Salt, seasonings and spices — +5.4% 50. Girls’ apparel — +5.3% 51. Laundry and dry-cleaning services — +5.3% 52. Women’s suits and separates — +5.2% 53. Inpatient hospital services — +5.2% 54. Dental services — +5.1% 55. Pet services — +5.1% 56. Other fresh vegetables — +5.0% 57. Water and sewerage maintenance — +5.0% 58. Other fresh fruits — +4.8% 59. Fresh milk other than whole — +4.8% 60. Renters/household insurance — +4.8% 61. Indoor plants and flowers — +4.7% 62. Other condiments — +4.7% 63. Other tobacco products — +4.7% 64. Veterinarian services — +4.7% 65. Window coverings — +4.6% 66. Women’s footwear — +4.5% 67. Crackers and related bread products — +4.5% 68. Fresh cakes and cupcakes — +4.4% 69. Haircuts and other personal-care services — +4.4% 70. Motor oil, coolant and fluids — +4.3% 71. Utility piped gas — +4.3% 72. Electricity — +4.2% 73. Men’s pants and shorts — +4.2% 74. Nursing homes/adult day services — +4.2% 75. Breakfast cereal — +4.1% 76. Tax preparation/accounting fees — +4.1% 77. Canned fruit — +4.0% 78. Toys — +4.0% 79. White bread — +4.0% 80. Computers, peripherals and smart-home assistants — +3.9% 81. Garbage/trash collection — +3.9% 82. Citrus fruit — +3.8% 83. Musical instruments and accessories — +3.8% 84. Women’s underwear/nightwear/swimwear/accessories — +3.8% 85. Men’s shirts and sweaters — +3.6% 86. Motor vehicle body work — +3.6% 87. Distilled spirits away from home — +3.6% 88. Internet service — +3.5% 89. Parking fees and tolls — +3.5% 90. Vehicle registration/license fees — +3.5% 91. Tools, hardware and supplies — +3.5% 92. Potatoes — +3.4% 93. Elementary/high-school tuition and fees — +3.4% 94. Day care and preschool — +3.4% 95. Hair/dental/shaving personal-care products — +3.4% 96. Limited-service meals — +3.3% 97. Beer away from home — +3.2% 98. Canned vegetables — +3.2% 99. Household cleaning products — +3.2% 100. Nonfrozen juices and drinks — +3.2% 101. Rent of primary residence — +2.9% 102. Sports equipment — +2.9% 103. Men’s footwear — +2.8% 104. Soups — +2.8% 105. Beer at home — +2.8% 106. Cable/satellite/live-streaming TV — +2.8% 107. Food from vending machines/mobile vendors — +2.6% 108. Fresh sweet rolls, coffeecakes and doughnuts — +2.6%