The latest episode of the No Agenda Show, titled 'Caconian' and released August 23, 2026, brings together host Adam Curry and returning guest co-host Rob Dew for a wide-ranging media deconstruction. Broadcasting from the Texas Hill Country, the pair focus on how the upcoming midterm elections are shaping narratives around AI data centers, beef imports, and U.S. strategy at the Strait of Hormuz. The episode also honors the late John C. Dvorak through the newly launched Order of the Ant.
Curry and Dew argue that opposition to AI data centers has been engineered into an anti-Republican wedge issue, citing a Gallup poll showing 7 in 10 Americans oppose local data center construction. They point to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's reversal after accepting $20 million in campaign donations from data center executives, leading to a construction moratorium. The hosts push back on the framing that data centers are inherently harmful, with Curry describing the buildout as a generational economic opportunity comparable to the railroads or the fiber boom of the 1990s. 'This is an opportunity for the American people to take money from BlackRock, from Vanguard, from Google, from Meta. Take their money,' Curry says. Dew adds a firsthand account of friends in Alexandria, Virginia being offered $4 million for homes surrounded by existing data centers, illustrating how private equity money is flowing directly to homeowners in affected corridors.
The episode also covers Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's activist bond strategy, a maneuver Curry traces back to Janet Yellen and dubbed 'activist Treasury issuance' by economists Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Miran in 2024. Curry explains how swapping long-term 30-year bonds for short-term T-bills is designed to lower yields and prop up the stablecoin market, with Tether and Circle now controlling more than 80 percent of a $300 billion stablecoin sector projected by Citi to reach $3.5 trillion by 2030. Other topics include Flock camera vandalism and Fourth Amendment questions on public roads, Confucius Institutes and Pentagon audits of 30 universities, and Chinese national voter fraud charges in Massachusetts.
Coverage extends to CENTCOM's stealth Omani shipping corridor moving 10 million barrels of oil daily, Trump's declaration of the Strait of Hormuz as 'American territory,' and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defending the 300,000-ton Argentine ground beef import deal. A boots-on-the-ground note from a soldier deployed under NAVCENT offers context on USS Lincoln conditions.
The hosts emphasize that the data center debate is not just about local zoning but about who benefits from the next wave of infrastructure investment. With midterms approaching, they warn that rejecting data centers could mean missing out on jobs and economic growth, while also questioning the motives behind the backlash. The episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard, and through modern podcast apps at podcastapps.com.
