Stock Market Plunges on AI Paranoia. The Rubio Rumor: He Says He’s Staying Put. Columnist: Not Too Late for Iran Legacy, Mr. Prez. Alito & Thomas Learn They Can Never Retire. Nazi March in Philly. More
The wipeout after the wipeout.
Stocks plummeted yesterday on fears that the Democratic takeover of both Houses of Congress bodes ill for AI stocks and data centers. The Dow lost 1,833.06 points, while the Nasdaq fell 1,421.52 points.
“Wall Street Gets $2.5 Trillion AI Reality Check with Historic Rout of Tech Stocks,” a Wall Street Journal headline trumpets:
Two days after the midterm elections swept a bloc of artificial-intelligence skeptics into power, the new reality slammed into Wall Street.
Thursday’s stock-market wipeout left few corners of the tech sector unscathed. Asian chip makers, Texas power producers, New Jersey cloud-computing providers, Silicon Valley software makers, contractors and data-center developers all tumbled, often in unison, in a selloff that appeared to feed on itself as the day wore on.
“AI Companies Scramble to Navigate a World Hostile to Data Centers.” But is the hostility based on misinformation? A Washington Post story headlined “Americans hate data centers. But they might not actually be raising prices,” suggests that this is the case:
Much of the growing opposition to data centers has come from rising electricity prices, which are squeezing Americans in a time of already high prices and cost of living.
But, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, data centers are probably having only a small effect on residential electricity prices. The researchers calculated that these operations were responsible for just 4 percent of the utility rate increases over the last five years.
“Even to me it was somewhat surprising,” said Serguei Netessine, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the study’s authors.
In the run-up to the elections, Democrats pointed to data centers — and Republican support for their development — as key drivers of electricity price increases. …
The Free Press also has a piece on data center hate. But writer Evan Gardner encouragingly says that the tech industry is coming up with ingenious solutions. Massachusetts’ Senator Elizabeth Warren is expected to head the powerful Senate Banking Committee in the next Congress, a potential “nightmare for Wall Street.” AI stocks are poised for a modest rebound today. New York Post financial reporter Charles Gasparino uses a White Castle hamburger analogy to explain what happened.
Hot New Rumor: That Secretary of State Marco Rubio will resign his post in the Trump administration to prepare for a 2028 run for the White House. Rubio says he’s staying put:
“I love the work I’m doing,” Rubio added. “And plus, I always laugh when they say he’s going to leave his job. I go, ‘Which one?’”
But one prominent Trump administration official has resigned, however. Harmeet Dillon, head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, tendered her resignation yesterday. Dillon summarized her achievements:
“We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls’ sports, and so much more. I want to thank President Trump for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to what’s next!” she said.
President Trump won’t want the results of the recent midterms to be his legacy. Matthew Continetti proposes there is still another option in a splendid column headlined “Trump’s Legacy-Defining Decision on Iran.” Continetti writes:
President Trump has a little over two years left in office. What kind of world will he leave to his successor? Will it be a world where the Islamic Republic of Iran can reconstitute its nuclear program and threaten the U.S. and its allies with missiles and terrorism? Or a world where the Iranian regime no longer possesses nuclear material and is about to collapse? The answer will define Mr. Trump’s legacy….
The risks of renewed fighting are well-known. … Yet the damage to the Iranian regime would be irrevocable. It’s already reeling. A renewed U.S.-Israeli campaign would send it to the mat. Iran’s leaders are dead, its air defenses gone, navy sunk, economy broken and grip on the Strait of Hormuz loosened. Take the “nuclear dust” and the Islamic Republic has no more cards to play. Turn off the lights and arm the opposition and the regime could fall.
The combination of economic warfare, renewed strikes and covert support to the Iranian people will settle the Iran question in America’s favor before the next president takes office. The midterms are over. Mr. Trump’s legacy is on the line. Bring the hammer down.
Republicans are still trying to figure out what hit them. In “Trump’s Republican Carnage,” Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel observes that “collateral damage of the midterm elections sprawls across almost the whole country”:
But the Trump failure doesn’t end with quantity. It is directly responsible for a new low in quality. Democrats didn’t win this election; Republicans lost it. Yet the GOP happened to lose it in the year democratic socialists moved on the Democratic party. That makes Tuesday’s biggest winner Sen. Bernie Sanders. …
The Republican mistake was in letting Mr. Trump grow so tall, dictate so much. See the election contrast of Florida, where the GOP maintained some separation and a reputation for good governance and narrowly kept its gubernatorial and Senate seats, vs. Texas, which lashed itself to the Trump MAGA model and Ken Paxton and lost everything. It’s principles and policy that win elections, not names.
The Wall Street Journal’s David Asman commented on Fox: “The incredible irony of this election is that Democrats won largely on the issue of higher gas prices … when those same Democrats have done everything they can to raise gas prices when they’ve been in power.” Meanwhile, Larry O’Connor worries that the Dems will “torch the Electoral College,” and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have learned that they will be permitted neither to resign nor die. There were some ballot surprises for both parties. To name a few:
As Washington absorbs the lessons of the Democratic midterm romp on Tuesday, it can learn a few things from looking down ballot. States that Democrats flipped for the Senate stayed as conservative as ever on ballot measures, while also sending the GOP a message on abortion. Meantime, voters in progressive states cast ballots to keep transgender athletes out of girls’ sports.
Iowa surfed the blue tsunami, sending Democrat Josh Turek to the Senate, while making Rob Sand the first Democratic Governor since 2011. At the same time, voters approved a constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds legislative majority for raising income taxes on residents or businesses. Apparently 56% of Iowans think Des Moines taxes them enough.
Ohio was a similar story at the top of the ballot. Democrat Sherrod Brown is going back to the Senate, while Amy Acton will be the first Democratic Governor since 2011. Yet 65% voted to shore up the state’s voter ID requirement by putting it in the constitution. Ms. Acton, citing “overwhelming support” for that measure, supported it, breaking with her party.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was treated rather shabbily in the last Republican primary race. I wonder if he looks better today. Pence has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined “Begin the Conservative Revival.” Speaker Mike Johnson, who says he won’t run for Minority Leader in the new Congress, is also looking good, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial.
Looking bad—nay, heinous—is Russell Brand, who has been convicted of rape and sexual assault. “Good riddance to the insane cult of Russell Brand” is the response of Brendan O’Neill’s Spiked Online piece.
Most appalling story: “Philly’s Nazi-laden boycott proves it was never actually about Palestine — just the Jews“:
Philly bicycle activism group On Your Left is launching a bike-by protest in support of the Boycott CookNSolo drive to shut down six restaurants in the tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, all owned by Jews.
“These Zionist establishments must go! Not in our city!” On Your Left demands.
These eateries, it says, must “die,” along with the “political ideology of Zionism.”
Zionists? Of the four restaurant owners called out by name for death or expulsion, one is Israeli-American; the other three are American Jews, but that’s all boycotters need to know.
More damning still: The protest date, Nov. 8, coincides closely with the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht — the “Night of Broken Glass,” when Nazi thugs burned more than 1,400 synagogues and destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses.
The organizers said they were aware of the date (you bet they were) but shrugged it off because Kristallnacht falls on the next day.
