Interest-Only Democracy

Bomb now, deregulate later, freeze rates today and send the bill to your kids.

Good morning! This is coming from the road where the coffee is lukewarm, the Wi-Fi is imaginary, and the republic continues to wobble along at 70 miles an hour. This will be tight, but not shallow.

The White House is reportedly weighing targeted military strikes on Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, not full “shock and awe,” just a tasteful, limited bombardment designed to “send a message.” The president says he will never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, which is a clear objective. The strategy for achieving that objective, however, appears to be somewhere between “symbolic force” and “we’ll see what happens.”

Military leaders have reportedly warned about potential retaliation, including missile barrages against U.S. bases, and noted that we don’t have the munitions positioned for an extended campaign. So this would be less a long war and more a sharp punch followed by a prayer.

The theory seems to be that bombing Iran will convince Iran to abandon nuclear enrichment. This would be the second time we’ve tried that approach, the first having resulted in a triumphant declaration that the program was “obliterated,” followed by the quiet realization that it was, in fact, not obliterated. History suggests bombing people tends to convince them they need nuclear weapons faster. But perhaps this time physics will blink. Or centrifuges will develop stage fright.Meanwhile, back at home, affordability is being redefined in ways that would make a payday lender blush.

The administration is proposing new A.C.A. plans that could carry deductibles up to $31,000 for a family. Instead of insurance, we get a GoFundMe with paperwork.

The pitch is that premiums would be lower. Which is true in the same way that buying a car without brakes lowers your upfront costs. You only really notice the problem later.

These “catastrophic” plans were originally meant as last-resort options for young, healthy people. Now they may become the new normal, just months after enhanced subsidies were allowed to expire, sending premiums soaring and pushing over a million people off coverage. We could have renewed the subsidies while lawmakers worked on a solution. Instead, we’re experimenting with a model where your deductible is roughly the cost of a modest used Honda.

But at least we’re strong on law and order, right? Except federal prisons are bleeding staff. Corrections officers are fleeing for higher-paying ICE jobs, lured by bonuses and better pay. The Bureau of Prisons lost more than 1,800 workers last year, while overtime spending has exploded and nurses and teachers are being pulled into guard duty to plug the gaps.

One facility reportedly staged a temporary staffing surge during an inspector visit, then returned to skeletal coverage once the tour ended. It’s less “secure correctional environment” and more “community theater production of compliance.”

Senators from both parties are now warning that America’s armed forces rely heavily on generic medications manufactured overseas, including in facilities that have faced FDA safety flags. In a world where we’re told to “Buy American,” it turns out nine in ten prescriptions, including those used by service members, come from global supply chains.

If China restricted key pharmaceutical exports, how long would Pentagon stockpiles last? That’s not a rhetorical question. It’s one Congress is now asking out loud. While we’re projecting strength abroad, we are also hoping our antibiotics arrive on time.

Then there’s the Epstein saga, which has metastasized into a global accountability reckoning. Bill and Hillary Clinton are set to testify before Congress. The World Economic Forum chief has resigned after messages with Epstein surfaced. Lawrence Summers stepped back from Harvard. And Poland is reportedly examining financial threads tied to Epstein’s network, a reminder that the 2008 sweetheart deal didn’t just shield a predator from serious consequences. It allowed him to keep traveling, keep operating, and potentially victimize children beyond U.S. borders. The story has moved beyond flight logs and into institutional failure with international fallout.

Hanging over all of it is the midterm election. Trump, who has openly warned he could face impeachment if Congress flips, is again raising alarms about election fraud, while federal agencies investigate old ballots and allies talk about “nationalizing” elections. He has suggested he would recognize results only if they are “honest,” a definition that appears flexible.

Democrats are war-gaming federal interference scenarios. Republicans are pushing new voting restrictions. Courts are reminding everyone that the Constitution assigns election administration to the states, not the Oval Office. Somehow we are both exhausted by this argument and bracing for it to intensify.

Then there’s the market. The AI trade that fueled the rally is now producing what traders call “implosions.” Individual tech stocks are swinging wildly on blog posts and product announcements while the broader index pretends everything is fine. Wall Street has responded the only way it knows how: by engineering increasingly complex hedging strategies with names like “Triple Edge” and “dispersion trades.” Translation: nobody knows which AI companies survive the next five years, so they’re betting on volatility itself.

At the same time, Silicon Valley billionaires are pouring staggering sums into midterm races to shape AI regulation before it’s even written. At least $265 million is already in play, more than the House campaign arms had raised at this point in 2022.

On one side is Leading the Future, backed by Trump-aligned mega-donors and AI power players including OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Their argument is blunt: state-level AI rules would “stifle innovation” and “enable China to gain global AI superiority.” Translation: don’t get in our way.

Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is preparing to spend tens of millions at the state level to prevent what it calls a “growing patchwork of inconsistent regulations that threaten homegrown innovation.”

On the other side is Anthropic, the rare major AI firm arguing for stronger oversight, which has put at least $20 million behind Public First Action to push for guardrails. “Effective AI governance means more scrutiny of companies like ours, not less,” Anthropic said. Their allies frame it as a fight to “protect kids, workers, and families from AI risks.”

Candidates like New York state representative Alex Bores, who backed landmark AI safety legislation, have found themselves the targets of million-dollar ad campaigns funded by what he calls “Trump’s top mega-donors.” Bores has embraced the role of nemesis, arguing the fight is over “unbridled control over the American worker, over our kids, over utility bills and our climate.”

It’s not just a policy disagreement. It’s a clash of worldviews, acceleration versus guardrails, market dominance versus precaution.

And just in case you thought the AI frenzy was confined to Silicon Valley and Wall Street, let’s talk about Georgia and Alabama, where the infrastructure to power this digital gold rush is being financed in ways that would make a payday lender blush.

Georgia Power and Alabama Power, both subsidiaries of Southern Company, just secured what’s reportedly the largest Department of Energy loan in history: roughly $26.5 billion. Around $22.5 billion for Georgia. About $4 billion for Alabama.

Conveniently, Georgia Power also agreed to freeze base rates through at least 2028. Coincident with the remainder of the current administration.

The loan structure? Interest-only payments for 25 years. Then principal repayment in the final stretch. Ratepayers will spend decades covering interest while the full $26.5 billion principal looms down the road. Today’s voters get a rate freeze. Tomorrow’s families inherit the balloon payment.

All of this is tied to energy infrastructure expansion, much of it aimed at powering AI data centers that require staggering amounts of electricity. The AI boom needs power, utilities need capital, Washington supplies the loan. And the bill, as always, lands on the public.

It’s hard not to admire the choreography. Freeze rates now and approve record-breaking federal loans and defer the pain. Socialize the financing over 30 years. If that’s not modern American industrial policy, I don’t know what is.

And then, because apparently every national story now comes with a local sequel, we have Lakeside, Oregon, less than 30 miles from my home.

Coos County Commissioner Drew Farmer went on Facebook Live to discuss the possibility of a new ICE detention facility landing in the city, potentially housing around 130 workers and nearly 200 detainees. One of the proposed ideas involved using part of a Coast Guard facility near North Bend before being redirected to Lakeside as a “less impactful” option. Less impact for whom, exactly, is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

The commissioner suggested that placing the facility farther from the population hub would “cause the least amount of worry” and even floated that it could help solve Lakeside’s wastewater payment issues.

To be fair, he later walked it back, removed the video, and said there is no imminent plan. But the fact that contractors are scouting locations, that county officials are having redirect-the-site conversations, and that this surfaced via Facebook Live before a formal announcement tells you something about how these things move.

Drive safe out there today. Marz and I will be back on a regular schedule this weekend.