In a wide-ranging media deconstruction, the latest episode of the No Agenda Show, hosted by Adam Curry with guest co-host Rob Dew, dissects how the coming midterm elections are shaping major news narratives, from AI data center opposition to beef imports and U.S. posture at the Strait of Hormuz. The episode, titled 'Caconian' and published August 23, 2026, also pays tribute to 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. They cite a Gallup poll showing 7 in 10 Americans oppose local data center construction. The hosts push back on the framing that data centers are inherently harmful, instead presenting the buildout as a generational economic opportunity comparable to the railroads or the 1990s fiber boom. '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 Texas Governor Greg Abbott's reversal after taking $20 million in campaign donations from data center executives, now imposing a construction moratorium. Other topics include Flock camera vandalism, Fourth Amendment questions on public roads, and the alleged coming crackdown on infrastructure tampering. The hosts discuss Confucius Institutes, Pentagon audits of 30 universities, and Chinese national voter fraud charges in Massachusetts.
Digging into economic policy, Curry and Dew examine Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's bond buyback 'twist,' 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.
On international affairs, the episode covers 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 No Agenda Show is a long-running, listener-supported podcast hosted by Adam Curry and the late John C. Dvorak, known for its skeptical, independent look at media, politics, and culture. Episode 1897 is available now wherever podcasts are heard, and through modern podcast apps at podcastapps.com.
