Chaos erupted at the end of a Tennessee city council hearing when officials postponed a vote on Elon Musk's data centers, sparking a fistfight and protesters taking over the meeting hall.
Page A2From§Eachthe milkman edition — 7 October 2026
AI chip rally puts the S&P 500 at a record 7,800; a Los Angeles power bill, $3,300.
As it ran on the front
You will be told that a council meeting ending in a fistfight is the system failing. It is the system working. In Los Angeles a man read a utility bill of $3,300 and asked, "Did LADWP just decide that I pay my mortgage twice this month?" A bill of that size is a tariff: the schedule by which what the system spends is apportioned across the meters on the wire, and the schedule does not ask whose load it was. This week the S&P 500 closed up 0.58 percent, topping 7,800 for the first time in its history, on a rally in AI chipmakers. Topped — not recovered.
And what does the meter get in exchange for 7,800? A hearing. In Tennessee officials postponed the vote on Elon Musk's data centers, and protesters took the hall while the punches went round. Postponement, mind you, is not refusal. On 2 September, Independence, Missouri turned out a councilman 68 to 32 ... six months after the March vote for the tax breaks. Palm Beach County, home to Mar-a-Lago, voted its one-year moratorium 6-0.…
…(cont) Recalls remove councilmen. Leases hold.
New hens come to the yard. The hole in the fence, no one mends.
“A record close for the chipmakers and a $3,300 power bill in the same week is not bad luck, that is the wiring. The room in Tennessee threw punches because the room figured out the vote was never the lever — postpone it, hold it, whatever, the meter keeps spinning. Palm Beach got a year. Your bill does not get a year.”
“Nobody's bill went up because of a data center — did I say that? That doesn't sound like me. Look, these facilities are tax base, they're the record market your 401(k) is sitting in, and one gentleman in the Valley with a high bill is an anecdote, not a rate structure. And the postponement is the process working; we postponed out of respect for the public, which is why the public was in the hall.”
Earlier in this story
- War official blames foreign psyop for data center backlash; Los Angeles ratepayer's share of the psyop, $3,300. By Sterling · the early evening edition, 6 October 2026
The receipts
S&P tops 7,800 for first time in history as investors optimistic despite signs of instability in US economy The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at a record high after a rally around AI chipmakers and a dip in US treasury yields. At market’s close, the S&P 500 was up 0.58%, topping 7,800 for the first time in its history. The tech-heavy Nasdaq…
· Voters in Missouri City Overwhelmingly Vote to Recall Councilman Who Approved Data Center from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Anger over planned AI data center drives Missouri city’s voters to recall council member from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· 'Maybe Trump’s Neighbors Know Something He Doesn’t': Palm Beach County, Home to Mar-a-Lago, Passes Data Center Moratorium from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· Woman Arrested, Dragged Away After Quietly Speaking About Flock at City Council Meeting from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.