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I've just recorded the first episode of our new season, talking about the state of play for
the IOMO's Net Zero framework, in the wake of the just concluded latest MEPC meeting.
“The big question I hear again and again is, what happens next and how quickly?”
In this episode, I unpack what's moving, what's stalling, and what that means for future decisions and timelines. Surred for maritime impact on your favorite podcast platform, stay tuned. Donald Trump is getting a rude awakening in Texas as his approval is plummeting folks. The latest Ugov Economist poll has Donald Trump at Net Negative 21 in Texas. Let me repeat that Net Negative 21 and Donald Trump's buddy, Mr. Data Center himself,
Governor Abbott, his disapprovals are getting higher and higher by the day, and it's a nightmare scenario for Abbott Trump and these mega-sicophants who have caused such grief as harm to Texas because not only is there a Senate race that people are paying attention to with James Tolerico surging ahead of Ken Paxton, the utterly corrupt buffoon, but also there's a governor's race folks, and it is neck and neck, Gina Hinohosa, the Democratic candidate within one point of Greg Abbott,
and Gina Hinohosa's favorability is through the roof. It's like plus 18. She is beloved in the state. She is traveling around from city to city. She's going into red cities, purple cities, blue cities, and one of the things you're seeing in Texas is a break, rank, movement of people just saying, Greg Abbott wants data centers in our backyard. He's ripping away our healthcare with Donald Trump. These Trump mega-sicophants are out to hurt us. They betrayed us. Take a look at these two polls
in the past two weeks in Texas in the governor's race. The Texas poll, Texas poll's recon poll, has the race at a one-point race, Abbott only up one, the Fox poll, regime media, has Abbott only up one, and you just take a look at what Abbott and Trump are doing in Texas. Bulldozers have begun tearing up the beloved big, ben national park there. Just a stone throws from Santa Elena Canyon as Lincoln, Jordanis explaining. So DHS, yeah, Trump's border patrol and ice Gestapo, DHS,
waving every environmental and cultural resource protection. No surveys have been done. People don't even know what the heck is really going on. But bulldozers and heavy equipment arriving in big bend and it is getting pummeled right now as Trump is doing a border wall there where I think there's only like less than 1% of crossings even taking place there and they're not even explaining what the heck is going on. Meanwhile, Donald Trump giving an interview on Friday
“saying he really wants to see Texas having data centers everywhere and you should know this about”
Greg Abbott. So Greg Abbott invited all the data center hyperscalers into Texas and said, we won't force you to pay any taxes at all on your energy costs from your data center. If you come into Texas and suck up all of our resources, you don't got to pay taxes on it. So all the data centers, those hyperscalers showed up, put in their data centers and everyone's back yard there and then Greg Abbott said, go, what people don't want this? People don't want this,
but me and Donald told me to do it. Here's what Donald Trump said on Friday. Now that Greg Abbott's
pretending maybe we should do like an audit, but you can audit yourself, Abbott. You're the one who invited them and wave their taxes on energy costs. You idiot. You're playing this clip.
“I still have Texas yet today sort of is against data centers. I think it's a mistake.”
And I'm not taking positions. I just think it's a mistake. There's other communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that. On sightly potentially. Well, I don't think they're on sightly. I mean, I'm looking
some of these data centers in most incredible buildings I've ever seen. They go for two and a half
three miles. Now Congress member Greg Cassari, Texas Congress member also points out the following
Two, right?
And Trump said he was going to make everything more affordable on day one, right? No new wars,
no more never ending wars. Everything would be affordable. The Ukraine Russia Russia's
invasion of Ukraine would be over in 24 hours. Electricity prices would be in half. Gas prices would
“be under $2. Remember all of those promises from the con artist and thief rotting in the”
oval office and trying to rot our country like the rot he has done to the White House. Well, remember Trump's tariffs against the world. Where's your tariff rebate? Well, I'll tell you big corporations are getting tariff refunds, but not you who had to pay him because this was all passed on to the consumer. It's a tax on consumer Trump's tariffs. Apple got $2.2 billion. Amazon got $600 million. Go company by company. They got huge refunds. They got huge amounts of money.
What about you? Nope. Trump screwed you over. That's for sure. Let's take a look at Gina Hinoza's travel. She went to Hood County right here. And she talked to people who were part of this break ranks movement, which is big in Texas right now. Former magas, former Trump voters, former Republican voters say nah, y'all put data centers in our backyards. Y'all have lied to us and betrayed us. You're a bunch of frauds. You're a bunch of Trump or frauds. We know what you did now in
Atlantic City in New York. We know how you bankrupt it all of your companies. Take a look at Gina Hinoza traveling to Hood County and speaking with some of these voters. Let's play this clip. Did you vote for Abbott? Don't vote for Abbott? I did. I'm not. I asked Gission. Use the first person to verbalize our problem at this level. See, that's probably a word.
“The short break shirts. Oh, okay. Oh, I can't tell you break, break, break. What does that mean?”
All of the Republicans in the state of Texas that are being hit by data centers and gas power plans and AI, we will break rank. This is not about being read. This is not about being blue. This is not about you being purple. Pink, polka dots. This is about human rights. When you see somebody like me, I'm like, will break rank? I said, everybody in this area is going to break rank, right? In my deal is where the hell have you been the last three years? You won't even come
talk to us within your insane, sick county. You won't even come listen to the problem. You know, so why the hell should I vote for you? I'm so happy that you came and I will tell you that this is for your listening to you. What about over here? This 75-year-old businessman from Texas
“saying he deeply regrets his decision to vote for Trump after ICE arrested his 45-year-old”
Venezuelan wife here, play this clip. How do I feel? I feel totally betrayed. I mean,
you never think or I never thought I like me, whatever be involved in anything like this.
Eight officers, ICE agents, swarmed Jasmine, detained her, didn't tell us why and Russell they're off into a car. No life's donation was given. I was just in total disbelief. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. You know, I have several businesses. I'm law abiding and I pay a lot of tax. What would you say to somebody watching at home, who may think, well, John, he's criticizing the president or the administration on this issue of immigration because of political reasons.
Oh, I'm definitely not. I voted for Trump. They are picking up law and abiding citizens. They're just drawing families, jobs, underscored John that you voted for the president and the most recent election I assume. Yeah, I wouldn't do that again, not after this fiasco. This is like the Gestapo.
I would never have thought the United States would act this way. Go after the criminals. We're all
for that. But leave the mom and pops and the kids alone. Love Jasmine. Go to it. Now, why don't we bring in Gina Hinojosa? Who is running an incredible campaign right now? This is the conversation I had with Gina moments ago. Let's bring it in. This is a great one. And now I want to bring on Gina Hosa, who's running for governor of Texas, the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas. This race is neck and neck. There have been two polls in the past two
weeks, one from Fox one from Texas A&M. That has this as a one point race between you and governor Abbott. Everybody knows governor Abbott, maga Republican extremist. He's endorsed the disastrous
Bill that has hurt so many people in Texas.
health care and education and a better life. You know, any just seems to just be so disconnected
from the daily needs of what people are experiencing in Texas as he wants to figure out what can I do to help you with golden ballrooms Donald and Marolago upgrades and help you with your 21,000 stock trades and you want tax immunity. Can we help you hear in Texas Donald but you and your families tax immunity? Gina, people, you know, see videos like this and they're like, Ben, don't get our hopes up in Texas by saying it's a close. We don't want you to inject, hope you give us
the real. So Gina, what do you tell people though about this governor's race? Yes, well just the facts. The facts are that Democrats are winning all across Texas this year where we haven't won it in a
long, long, long time and sometimes ever. And this is because people want change. It's not that
people are like 18 Democrats. People are like whatever this is, we don't want it and it creates this
“great opportunity. And that's what you're seeing in the polling. It is what we are seeing on the ground.”
Even Republicans, even Magga, Republicans are tired of bright Abbott and people are struggling a lot in Texas. So to give you more facts in 2018 Betta Rannigan's Ted Cruz, that's the closest we can to flipping Texas, right? That was last time we had a midterm election with Trump in the White House. This year for my primary, I got twice as many votes as Betta got in 2018, even though it had eight opponents because there's just more energy, we have Democrats running in every race,
working in all across the state. Young people are back and Latinos have swung back in a big way.
So this is our year in our best chance in 25 plus years to win. And it is not hyperbole, it is facts. Well, and this is why the Abbott and the kind of magas of the world in that vein although I should say lots of magas are leaving maga and they don't consider themselves maga anymore. But this is why they and Fox and others want to throw on labels and figure out how do we divide people and put people into camps because if you just look at what Trump and Abbott have done to the
state of Texas and you take a step back and you say objectively, this is what it's looked like when they've run all levers of government. Are you happy about this? They were in charge for a very long
“time. Objectively, unprobably a 70 to 30, 80 to 20 basis, I think it should be more than that.”
But people will say no, we don't like this. So then what do they want to do? Let's blame this group or that group or this person or fear monger you well could have been much worse if we had this and it's like no take responsibility. You know when I think this moment in Texas people are saying we gave you your shot Abbott, we gave you your shot all the people that you brought and you screwed us and you hurt us and this is going to be different this time. I think there's some of
that going on also. Yeah, absolutely. Just like he said, everybody knows who Greg Abbott is. He's been in office 12 years. Actually he's been in statewide office 30 years since I graduated from college and people want change. They know it's harder to make it in Texas today than it used to be and this is Greg Abbott's record. We have the most uninsured of any state. We have the most uninsured children. We have the most people being disconnected from their electricity because they cannot
afford to pay their bills in Texas that is a powerhouse in energy, right? We have the most bankruptcies of any state and it is mostly or small businesses that are struggling. We have over 150 whole-school districts operating at four days a week because they cannot afford to operate at five days a week. That is Greg Abbott's record. He owns it. People know it and people want change. It is unacceptable. We know our worth in Texas. We know we deserve better. In fact, we know we deserve
the best and this is not bad. Donald Trump gave an interview on Friday with something called punchball where he repeated the line that he goes around the country and says. In Trump says, data centers are liquid gold and data centers should be in everybody's backyard and he's very close
“with Abbott and part of the planning is they want data centers and everybody's backyard. That's what”
Abbott was pushing every commute. This is what they sold to people. You want to get rich. You want lower taxes. You want a better life. Data centers, data centers, data centers and what you saw on a bipartisan basis is people saying, no, that's not actually what we want in our backyard. We don't want that and you've been calling out this proliferation and really just
Demolition of communities with Abbott and putting these data centers everywhere.
videos that you put out where you walk with people in the communities. I don't even know what
their political views are. I just know they don't like those things right there in their backyard. And it's just interesting because now all of a sudden you've kind of got Abbott seeing this says like, oh my gosh, maybe people don't like this. And now he wants to change the position. It just looks so funny because the damage is, I mean, dude, you opened it. You did this. Like, this is on your hands already. So now you want to say after the fact because you're worried
“about losing the race, that's what the I mean, people see is like, dude, you're just the”
you're a phony, you're a phony, you're a fraud. Yeah. Yes. In fact, Abbott invited the vampires into the house. And now he's claiming he doesn't know how they got here. So people know it. They know he's to blame. He was having press conferences with CEOs of data centers saying, we're going to have more data centers in Texas than anyone. That was just at the end of last year. And so for him to reverse course, everybody sees it. And everybody is calling him out on it. We have just this
avalanche of data centers in Texas because Breck Abbott signed the most rich tax strike of any state for these data centers. They pay no electricity. I'm sorry. They pay no tax on their electricity. And so they're coming here. They're guzzling all the electricity. They're guzzling all the water. No consequences. No protections in these rural areas where they're unincorporated.
“They don't have city councils that can pass ordinances. No, they're unincorporated. So the people are”
absolutely unprotected from the power of these data centers. Breck Abbott put them there. And now people are calling him out. They're in their mad and you see it in the polling. Yeah. I mean, no taxes on electricity is crazy. I mean, it reminds me of it's like, okay, we know Abbott and Trump are locked at the hip right now. And it's like, what are you pushing in the White House tax and unity for yourself, too? So you and your family don't have to pay taxes. And then, you know,
you have their Republicans like, yep, we just wanted them to narrow the scope. So we made sure that it was just about Trump and his family and his corporations and his trusts. And like, what, what are we even doing here? And there's like, there's another way. It doesn't have to actually be putting these people in these billionaires or protectors of the billionaires out there who are literally out there to to screw us and to cover up Epstein files. And like, it's like,
that's not what government is people. Like, you could have people like you who are like, yeah, maybe we help people with health care. We help people with education. We help people get good paying jobs. We, you know, our transparent. It's just, it's this wild thing because, you know, you get into this election season. And it becomes very gamified. And you, you see it, you know, the way they meet this person, that person, that, that, that, that, that, that, it's like, step back.
“What do we even, like, what are we doing here? Like, what's the point of government?”
It ain't about given tax breaks to data centers to like kill the people in your state. It's crazy. It's crazy. That's right. It's why nobody trusts government. I don't trust government right now. Um, government is working for the billionaires. Just like you said, we're paying into a system that is working against us right now. So I've proposed $1,500 to every Texas household. It comes out of what we call rainy day fund that is like overflowing its
billions. It used to be a 10 billion. We'll take it back to 10 billion and use the rest to give
back to the people, Texas because we have to prove that government can do something good for people. This is not a normal position, but these are not normal times. I just went through how Texans are struggling. And I will tell you weekly, I am running into Texans who are donating plasma as a second job. They are working Texans, teachers, crane operators, and they stand in line at the plasma center before they open two to three times a week to earn enough money to pay
air bills. That's unacceptable. It is tragic. It is regabits Texas. And when you're traveling the state, would tell me about what you're hearing from independence, Republicans, Trump voters, anything that is kind of noteworthy there? Yeah. So we were just in the panhandle. We were in loveic amarillo. And we went to find out what was happening with data centers. And there is this organic
movement. People showed up in shirts that said break breaks. And they have always voted Republican,
but break ranks means don't vote for the Republicans who did this to us. So it is a time that is crazy politics. And it's just like all of us suddenly realized we're in the same boat.
It is this populist sentiment that people understand, they deserve more.
billionaires. These data centers, Elon Musk, who are taking what we worked for, what we, what is our inheritance, our land, our water, our money, because Greg Abbott lets them. He's given Elon Musk the keys to the castle. He gives him anything he wants. People see it, they're disgusted,
but they're disgusted by the corruption they see in Texas. Greg Abbott's given a billion dollars
and no big contracts to his donors. I mean, this just goes on and on. And it's what happens after 30 years of one party control. There's just no accountability. And people are done, people see it and they're done. Right. And now Trump and Abbott say affordability is a made-up word. They say we don't even know what that word even means. And so it's just all the fabrication
“then they say we're living in the golden age right now already. I think Trump said on Friday that”
from a scale of zero to 100, he would give himself a 150. That would be his grade on how the economy is doing right now. And so they're not even saying one, the future we're almost there. He have some advisors who are like, just wait, next quarter's our quarter, just wait, next quarter's our quarter, just wait. And they kind of drag people along. But the message from Trump and Abbott is this is it. This is the golden age and everybody is rich. And it's like, nah, you just didn't just enrich yourself,
which is why, though, I think their pivot is, all right, let's make the biggest issues stopping people from voting because, you know, that that's our only shot. And I know you gave an important speech on this and you made voting rights of pillar of your campaign. Talk to us about that. What we know is after the Voting Rights Act was guided about four months ago. Now there are no rules. And so Republicans in Austin have said they're coming back to redraw maps. When that happens,
they will eliminate five Democrats from Congress. Two years later, Texas will gain another five congressional seats from the census because we're growing faster than all the other states. We will take seats away from mostly blue states. And that's another five seats where the same Austin Republicans control. They will draw those maps for themselves. That's 10 Democratic seats off the table in our U.S. Congress. There is not a path to Democratic control of Congress when that happens. The
math no longer works. Texas becomes too big. And that is what is at stake in this governor's race.
“We need a governor who will veto rig maps. I will be that governor. And that's why we need every”
American to care about this race. Because no matter what party you belong to, when election is decided before the first ballot is cast, then we all lose. We no longer are America when that happens.
GM, we have seven million subscribers here on the Midas Touch Network and a broader network
across the channels outside of our YouTube. What's your final message to people, whether they're in Texas or outside of Texas? What's your message in this moment of work and people learn more about the campaign if you want to learn more about it? Thanks Ben. I invite every American to join this effort. Join this fight. You can go to jinafortaxis.com and do what you can but please do everything you can because we are in a moment in history and this might be our last best chance.
“That's why I'm running for governor. That's why all the process state Texans are working so hard”
to win for themselves, for their families, for our country. And I invite you to be a part of it. Gina and a host. Thanks for joining us and we're going to follow the race come back on in a few weeks. We'd love to have you back on. Thanks Ben. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to seven
million subscribers. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the
story of how we got here and how we find our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.
