Is 2026 shaping up to be the data center election? Signs that this could be the case are out there, and they are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. While there are plenty of other big issues the voters will be considering this November, data centers seem to have leapt to the forefront with increasing importance. Both major political parties are finally starting to react to the new reality, which has the potential to be a new dividing line in American politics. The most interesting thing about it is that, so far, it is an issue which cuts across the usual partisan divide -- because almost everybody now hates data centers. It doesn't matter your political affiliation, the issue has generated so much pushback that the politicians are (belatedly, for most of them) trying to catch up with public opinion.

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Whenever pundits try to form an all-inclusive storyline for what is currently happening in the world of politics, they usually are forced to ignore situations that cut against the grain. It's inconvenient while trying to explain "the voters are feeling X right now" when you stumble upon an individual contest where the voters are doing exactly the opposite thing. As Al Gore might say, sometimes you have to deal with inconvenient truths.

I certainly don't exclude myself from that statement -- at times, I've been just as guilty as other pundits of buying into a sweeping storyline that attempts to take the pulse of the American voter while brushing off data that directly contradicts such a storyline. Which is why it is worth pointing out that today's Democratic primary race in Massachusetts seems to be one of those "doesn't quite fit the conventional wisdom" types of races.

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Here we go again. Our toddler-in-chief threw another tantrum this week, because he was mad at Canada. Donald Trump was astonished that Canada didn't immediately knuckle under and agree to all his kooky demands, so he went ahead and opened up a whole new trade war with our neighbor to the north. These demands (to show you how inane the negotiations must have been) included trying to force Canada to reject their bilingual nature and get rid of all that French stuff. Canada refused. So Trump announced a new 50 percent tariff on Canadian goods. Canada then announced their own tariffs on American goods. Trump then threw his tantrum, announcing that he had just renamed Lake Ontario, which will now officially and henceforth be known by the U.S. government as "Lake America" (or possibly "Lake Of America," Trump didn't seem too sure). Which (of course) spurred the internet to respond. The site MapQuest helpfully pointed people to a tool they could use to rename the lake to anything they wished, which (of course) led to all sorts of amusing new names for it (Lake Epstein Files? Lake Hormuz? Lake Cheats At Golf? Lake Gulf Of Mexico?). The funniest one (to us, at any rate) came from "Mister Cool" on the site formerly known as Twitter, who posted an image showing: "Lakey McLakeface."

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There was some amusement in the headlines today, after the announcement that there will not just be one but actually two Dan Sullivans on the general election ballot in the Senate race in Alaska. But many of these articles missed a very key point, which is that the Alaska election system pretty much guarantees that this will not mean one of them will somehow spoil the chances of the other one. In the end, it is likely not going to matter at all to the result of the race.

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Every so often in American politics, a potent issue arises that many voters feel very strongly about, but which neither major political party is willing to tackle (or even address). Call them "political orphan issues," since they have essentially been abandoned by both parties, for whatever reason.

Gay marriage was such an issue, a while back, since while Democrats were a lot more sympathetic to gay people in committed relationships than Republicans, very few Democrats were actually willing to stand up and champion full marriage equality for all until after the Supreme Court stepped in and decided the issue. Then it became politically safer to support gay marriage, but this was nothing more than volunteering for a fight that had already been won -- too little, too late, in other words. There are other political orphan issues from the past few decades that spring to mind, but the one that is currently growing like wildfire in the American electorate is opposing the so-far-unchecked explosion of data center construction.

This is currently a truly nonpartisan issue -- that's a very important thing to say, right up front. People opposed to data centers being built in their towns can be full-on MAGA Trump supporters or Democratic Socialists -- ideological labels don't matter on this issue, because the complaints people have about data centers are a lot more personal and immediate than national politics. It could be seen as a variation of the "NIMBY" reaction ("not in my back yard"), but as I said, the labels don't really matter much. What does matter is the white-hot rage people feel, from both the left and the right.

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Donald Trump has ramped up his war of choice once again, bombing Iran on a nightly basis while Iran launches missiles at U.S. military installations and other targets in the region. Sadly, four more American soldiers lost their lives as a result of all this crossfire. And the war seems to be escalating, as the Houthis in Yemen have now entered the fray by blocking the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea to any Saudi ships. All of this has caused oil prices to spike above $100 per barrel once again, and gas prices here in America to spike to over four bucks a gallon once again.

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What was expected to be a free-for-all contest among Maine Democrats instead turned into a coronation this weekend. After Graham Platner ended his campaign to take on Senator Susan Collins in November, Maine's Democratic Party only had a couple of weeks to name a replacement to appear on the ballot instead of Platner. They could have used any method they wanted to select a new nominee, and the method they settled on led to an anticipation of a messy convention fight. Instead, what happened was one candidate essentially swept the field of challengers and will now (barring any unforeseen problems) be officially named the new Democratic Senate candidate at the party convention next weekend.

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The midterm congressional elections will happen in early November, which is now less than four months away. Trump has already been making drastic moves (such as firing all the members of a federal elections security board) seemingly designed to sow chaos (or worse) when the ballots are cast. Which is why tonight's speech is so worrisome. And which is why I felt the need to run the following column again. Trump's Big Lie is poisonous to American democracy, which is why I am not exactly looking forward to tonight's speech.

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Up until now, some Democratic worries about the upcoming midterm elections have been dismissed by the "It could never happen here" crowd as unfounded nightmares. They pooh-pooh such worries as being laughably outlandish and accuse people who express these worries for overreacting about things that couldn't possibly happen right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. But this week should make such scenarios a whole lot less laughable and a whole lot more worrisome.

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Last week, we warned everyone that July was going to be a sketchy month for us, in terms of our ability to write these Friday columns. So we begin today with a program update. Today's offering is not a complete Friday Talking Points column. It is bare-bones, at best. We're not even really going to attempt reviewing the past week, and we're also not going to write out talking points at the end (although we did complete the two awards sections). Just to warn everyone up front.

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