What’s happening, Oklahoma?

Sen. James Lankford appeared on CNN with Dana Bash on Sunday, his words statesman-like and measured, days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah.

According to The Hill, Lankford said:
“I’m a conservative Republican. I have Democratic friends that think very differently, vote very differently, but they’re still my friend on it. So, just having that ideology, just believing differently than some other American is not illegal, that’s America,” Lankford told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

Most of Oklahoma’s delegation has been measured save for one tweet from Rep. Kevin Hern and all the tweets from State Supt. Ryan Walters, from whom drama is to be expected.

And I think “measured” is important, as last week’s tragedy moves toward at least a discussion of possible solutions. At the top of those, for me, personally, is avoiding “ragebait.”

Ragebait is defined by content and remarks primarily made to stir you into a frenzy. Yes, the media can be guilty of producing or certainly amplifying ragebait. However, politicians and political influencers are masters of it, and we know that many of them look to the example from the President of the United States, who knows no middle ground and for whom calm would be weakness.

But I choose calm, and you should, too. Avoiding content only meant to fire you up protects your peace — and, no, I don’t mean practicing news avoidance. I mean being intentional about what you consume, perhaps a benefit to subscribing to this newsletter.

We can choose to avoid certain content or to listen to remarks from politicians and even people in our real lives who peddle in ragebait. Usually, when it’s friends and family, we just say they “stir up drama.”

Problem solved. Capture every thought (2 Corinthians 10:5), right? That verse is applicable whether you’re religious or not. What you let inside your brain and heart is yours to control.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has gotten high marks for his public remarks about social media. However, I don’t think his criticism is precise. It’s too broad. The real problem is sort of a subset of “social media” and the digital life that is especially problematic in developing the types of extremists who are prone and capable of committing the heinous acts Tyler Robinson is alleged to have committed.

There is certainly criticism to be made toward Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — and especially Elon Musk’s X, which is quite literally a cesspool these days, on both sides, but especially on the Right. However, the early evidence regarding suspect Tyler Robinson isn’t that it was any of these platforms that played a role in his radicalization. No, Robinson was part of a much deeper, darker internet, tucked away in chats, message boards and online meme and gamer communities.

Robinson’s diagnosis, I suspect, won’t be radicalization by “social media.” It will have been radicalization by being chronically online and digitally living among the most negative voices and influences imaginable, almost all of them young white men.

I would highly encourage you to read this essay from Nathan Taylor Pemberton. We need to understand the power the internet has to create, as he writes, false realities.

A buddy of mine used to tell me, “The digital world is not real life,” and I had always disagreed with him because the connections we make can enrich our physical lives and because things that happen online can absolutely impact the real world. It can be real life, and I have real-life online friends from over the years to prove it.

However, in a sense, he was correct all along.

Maybe the better way to have put it is that the “digital world” is not reality.

The impact it’s having on how many view reality is dangerous. For that, social media companies should be held to account. Meta used to be a terrific partner to real newsrooms across the country, but they gutted its journalism program years ago — and ended its fact-checking program just this year. The opportunity for just anybody to distort reality and make it look like news is a bigger danger than ever before.

Shame on them. Working with actual newsrooms to ensure that consumers had access to vetted journalism would be a public service for the public good.

This conversation will continue. But for those of you parents with young men at home or in college, it’s important that you know where they spend their time online.

You might be surprised that it isn’t really “social media.”

It’s a much scarier place.

You can message me anytime at [email protected].

Weather Update ☀️

We start the week warm with sunshine, and then the rain chances get higher by midweek.

🌡️ Monday's high in OKC 90°
🌡️ Monday’s high in Tulsa 91°

In Oklahoma, details about data centers are often shrouded in secrecy

By Kayla Branch, The Frontier
Click here to read the story.
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Across Oklahoma, officials are courting data centers as sources of new revenue and jobs. But local authorities also keep information private on which companies will run the centers and how much water and electricity they will use.

Republican state leaders have embraced data centers as a way to boost economic development in Oklahoma, but some lawmakers and local residents worry the projects will gobble up water and electricity. 

Without better information and education, managing data centers responsibly is more challenging, said Rep. Amanda Clinton, D-Tulsa. 

Clinton is hosting an interim study in October to get more information about utility usage at data centers. She isn’t “anti-data center,” but the industry is expanding rapidly, and transparency and public understanding are lagging, she said.

“I think if you ask your average person on the street how much water does a data center use to operate every day or every year, the vast majority of people would say, ‘what’s a data center?’” Clinton said. “I think that this industry is so far ahead of where the knowledge that Oklahomans currently have (is) that we’ve got to catch up.”

Oklahoma has an “abundance of affordable and reliable power” that is attractive to data centers and other industries with high energy needs, said Stacy Smith, vice president of business development with the Tulsa Regional Chamber, in a statement to The Frontier. As companies make initial plans to develop in Oklahoma, water and electricity usage can be seen as numbers that could reveal operational scale, competitive advantages or business strategies, so they choose not to make that information public, Smith said.

Gov. Kevin Stitt has said he wants Oklahoma to be the “high-tech data center capital of the world,” and has highlighted the high number of initial construction jobs and ongoing tech work associated with the projects. 

Click here to finish the story.

US preparing for ‘critical threat’ to US agriculture, USDA leader says during Oklahoma stop

By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
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YUKON — With no active cases of New World screwworm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working to prevent its spread from Central America, a Trump administration official said Friday. 

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outlined the Department of Agriculture’s plan to prevent the spread of screwworm to the United States, including a partnership with the government of Mexico, during a stop at Express Ranches in Oklahoma. 

New World screwworm is a fly that lays eggs in the wounds of living animals and its larvae burrow and feed on healthy flesh, causing illness or death. The insect usually infects livestock and is typically found in South and Central America, but one case was detected in a human this summer who had returned from travel to El Salvador. 

“President Trump’s America First agenda means our (agricultural) community deserves unwavering support in the face of critical threats like this one,” she said. “As the situation evolves, we will continue our efforts to keep vulnerable livestock ranchers and the rest of America safe. The U.S. has defeated the New World screwworm before, and we will do it again.”

Earlier this sumer there was a confirmed case of screwworms in Mexico about 370 miles from the U.S. border, south of Texas. The USDA halted live cattle crossing at the border and got “really serious” about preventing the spread, Rollins said. 

No cases of screwworm have been detected in livestock in the United States. 

“So again, we’ve got plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, but we are not messing around with any of them,” Rollins said. “We are getting fully prepared at every single level for whatever comes.”

Click here to finish the story.

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The Oklahoma Rundown 📰

A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• Oklahoma children die more often from gunshot wounds than in other states. Why? (The Oklahoman)

• With little notice, Oklahoma prison phone call rates more than double (Oklahoma Watch)

• Oklahoma AG rebuffs accusations that he’s violated conduct rules in Swadley criminal case (Oklahoma Voice)

• Boil order ordered after water main line break in Coweta (Tulsa World)

• 4 critically injured in high-speed crash following pursuit in Davis (KTEN)

• ‘It's very concerning’: Inola parents frustrated after incident with school nurse assistant (News On 6)

• Walmart developer sues City of Edmond over failed plans for Neighborhood Market (The Oklahoman)

• Glenpool community holds protest for speed limit change near school (2 News Oklahoma)

• OU football moves to No. 11 in AP poll (OU Daily)

• OSU sees significant wins, lingering questions from Innovation Foundation fallout (NonDoc)

• Edmond man admits fraud in federal pandemic relief loan case (Oklahoma City Free Press)

• When Ryan Walters is in his office after hours, he's probably on national cable television (The Oklahoman)

• 'Do you want to fight?': Country singers Zach Bryan and Gavin Adcock feud at Oklahoma music festival (KOCO)

• Moore High School band trailer vandalized with graffiti, police investigating (KFOR)

• Oklahoma State Fair opens with food, fun, and tradition (Oklahoma City Free Press)

• Is AI coming for your job? OU professor weighs in on widespread fear (News 9)

• Editorial: We want a governor who calls people in before he calls them out (Tulsa World)

• Ginnie Graham: Tulsans will pick up broken pieces after Gov. Stitt gets done (Tulsa World)

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