Think More: Thursday, April 30, 2026
RAND on the AI grid bottleneck, the House probe of Chinese AI, Treviño on America's hemispheric war, Lee Smith on the third assassination attempt, and Richards on SPLC.
Only 82 GW of New Grid Capacity by 2030 to Meet AI Demand
After completion rates, retirements, and reliability adjustments, RAND projects roughly 82 GW of net additional capacity (33 GW front-of-meter, 49 GW behind-the-meter) by 2030 against announced front-of-meter additions of 1,086 GW. The bottleneck is energy, permitting, and the willingness to build.
House Probes Airbnb and Anysphere Over Chinese AI Models
Chairmen Moolenaar and Garbarino • Select Committee on the CCP
The April 29 inquiry targets national-security and cybersecurity risks from U.S. company adoption of DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax models, with Airbnb’s reliance on Qwen and Anysphere’s Cursor Composer 2 (built on Moonshot) as the opening cases. The framing: data exposure, supply-chain dependence, and CCP-aligned architecture embedded in American software.
More FBI Raids in Minnesota
April 28 FBI and Homeland Security Investigations raids hit roughly two dozen sites tied to childcare and autism programs, continuing the Feeding Our Future cycle that umbrella prosecutors place at $18 billion across 14 waivered Medicaid programs. FBI Director Kash Patel publicly corrected Governor Tim Walz’s attempt to claim credit for the operation.
America’s War in the Americas
Joshua Treviño • The American Mind
Treviño argues that the second-term hemispheric posture, from the Caracas raid in January to the Ecuador strikes against FARC successor cartels, amounts to a coherent doctrine rather than episodic gunboat diplomacy. For the first time in American history, U.S. forces are entering programmatic combat on the South American continent.
They Did Build That
Philip Delves Broughton • The Free Press
A defense of the capitalist titans who altered America’s physical landscape, from Ford’s River Rouge to Bezos’s logistics empire, against the social-murder theology that treats building itself as suspect. The Builders are the men whose work you can still see.
The Cost of Growing Up: Why Gen Z Feels Priced Out of the American Dream
Jake Matthews and Nicole Huyer • Washington Examiner
A diagnosis of why the rungs of the ladder, from a starter home to a stable career, have been pulled out of reach for Americans now entering adulthood. The practical effects of two decades of policy on a generation that did everything it was told.
Who’s Responsible?
After the third attempt on Trump’s life, Smith argues the administration let itself get derailed by influencers and officials peddling Jewish conspiracy theories instead of disrupting the donor networks and rhetoric driving left-wing political violence. The diversion endangers all Americans, including the president’s own supporters.
Blind Spot: Media Amplified White Supremacy Narrative as SPLC Funded Charlottesville Organizer
Steven Richards • Just the News
Federal prosecutors allege the Southern Poverty Law Center directed a paid source to help organize the 2017 Unite the Right rally and coordinate transportation, then leveraged the same event into a fundraising windfall and a decade of media authority on white supremacy. The indictment alleges $3 million funneled to extremist-group members between 2014 and 2023.
