Starship, Shrimp, and a Sky Full of Drones: One of the many reasons I support data centers and the efforts of job creators.

Keywords: SpaceX Starship Flight 14, Falcon 9 cadence, Port Canaveral economic vitality, drone delivery Walmart Amazon, data centers Butler County Trenton, Elon Musk job creators, vertical mobility air taxis, Overman Warrior Podcast, George Lang Michael Ryan.

Traveling Ohio, Independent Media, and Looking Forward to Starship Flight 14

I traveled all over Ohio this summer, and I heard everybody’s point of view. Right now I’m looking forward to Starship Flight 14.[1] I’ve been wearing the Mars shirt. A few months ago, I was at the Kennedy Space Center, touring the facilities, walking through the exhibits, looking at the Artemis hardware still on display after the scrubbed flight. The space economy is real. It is changing what I want to do with the next chapter of my life.

Independent media lets me say the things that need saying. Sometimes I’m with almost everybody. Sometimes I’m against people I usually agree with. I’ve written against certain marijuana-economy interests in Ohio even while knowing many of the people involved. The same independence lets me stand with Elon Musk and SpaceX when the purity voices and the fear voices turn against them.

The Best Day of 2026 So Far: Grills, Cruise Ships, and a Falcon Landing at Port Canaveral

My wife and I were down at the family condo after the Kennedy tour. A Falcon recovery was coming in. I made a point of it with everyone who was with us—I wanted to see the rocket. We ended up at that seafood place right by the cruise ships at Port Canaveral, the one where the doors stay open, and the air moves through.[2] February, eighty degrees, a big plate of shrimp in front of me, cruise ships loading, and then the booster coming back out of the ocean on the drone ship. Of Course I Still Love You—one of the best days I’ve had in 2026.

That is economic vitality in one frame: technical genius, tourism money, working people, snowbirds with full bank accounts, and a company that launches several times a week. SpaceX has already flown a record cadence of Falcon 9 missions in 2026.[3] I love watching it. I love the people who make it possible.

The Guy at Publix Who Hates Elon Musk

A couple of days later, we were in the fruit aisle at Publix. I had the Mars shirt on. A guy in his sixties with the stretched tattoos and the younger crew started in: Elon Musk is a bum, he’s with Trump, he’s taking our jobs, data centers, robots, the whole list. I looked at him and thought the same thing I always think. Some people create jobs, and others get jobs. Most people live in the second category. A few live in the first. Elon Musk lives in the first.[4]

The guy at Publix is not a villain. He is just afraid. He wants the world to stay still enough that his corner of it remains safe. Growth feels like a threat. That is the psychology of the job-getter when the job-makers start moving faster than the old arrangements can absorb. I have no patience for it when it turns into active opposition to the very companies that are expanding the frontier.

Data Centers, Dark Skies Full of Drones, and the Next Delivery System

I support data centers. I want more of them. Amazon is in talks for a large hyperscale campus near Trenton in Butler County—hundreds of acres, major private capital, long-term tax and infrastructure implications.[5] The same computational capacity that runs those centers will also run the autonomous systems that move packages.

Walmart has already crossed a million drone deliveries. Amazon is expanding Prime Air toward hundreds of cities and towns, including Ohio.[6] I have been talking about this market for fifteen years. Same-day, then same-hour, then the quiet electric traffic stacked over the highways—AI-managed corridors carrying 200- and 400-pound payloads between distribution centers and airports. The complaints will come exactly as they always do: the sky will be dark, the sunset will be ruined, a drone might fall on a dog. I find those objections small.

I sit in the RV office in the driveway and watch cars pull up three times in an afternoon dropping packages for my wife and the grandkids. She cannot always load every child into a vehicle and run to a store. The delivery system already changed the household. The next layer—autonomous aerial—will finish the job.

Job Makers Versus Job Getters: The Moral Line I Will Not Cross

I have spent decades working in manufacturing and logistics, and with the people who actually build conveyors and warehouses. I helped put systems into Amazon facilities when most people still thought the model was crazy. Twenty years later, a book I order at night is on the porch the next morning because infrastructure was built by people willing to take risks. That is the side of the line I stand on.[7]

Elon Musk works seven days a week. He barely sleeps. He pushes the schedule. He used to vote the other way, and then he learned. I respect anyone who gets better with time. The people burning Teslas, cursing data centers, or treating SpaceX as a threat are defending a static world that never actually existed. Growth is the only moral path that does not end in rationing and decline.

Why I Keep Coming Back to George Lang and Michael Ryan

Local politics matters because the permission structure for all of this sits with people who either understand job creators or do not. I talk with George Lang about economic questions. Michael Ryan understands the same distinction. You need officeholders who will slow-walk the parasites off the body of the economy instead of ripping the host apart or surrendering to the fear lobby.[8] That is the practical work. The romantic work is watching a Falcon come home and knowing the same spirit can fill the sky with useful machines.

The Condo Deck at Night and the Magic I Will Not Give Up

Later that same trip, we were back on the condo deck after Publix. Nine-thirty at night, ocean breeze, and another routine Starlink Falcon climbing out of the Cape and arcing over the water. The booster came back. The next day it would be under tow into Port Canaveral again. That is the magic. Technical competence, economic surplus, people with money in their pockets ordering shrimp and watching rockets, and a future that keeps expanding instead of contracting.

I want the dark sky full of quiet electric drones. I want thousands of Starships on a cadence that makes today’s Falcon schedule look leisurely. I want data centers humming in the river valley and vertical ports moving people and cargo. I want the job makers protected, and the job getters invited into the larger game, rather than being told the game is the enemy.

The guy at Publix can keep his fear. I will keep the plate of shrimp, the open doors at Grills in Port Canaveral, the rocket on the horizon, and the packages arriving while the grandchildren are still in the house. That is the side of history I intend to stand on.

Footnotes

[1] Starship Flight 14 was originally targeted for late August 2026 and later slipped toward mid-September. Statements from SpaceNews and NASA indicated that the flight remains a key step toward a higher cadence and orbital capability.

[2] Port Canaveral and the Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center economic zone combine cruise tourism, SpaceX recovery operations, and hospitality into a visible example of layered economic vitality.

[3] SpaceX Falcon 9 launch cadence reached record levels in 2026, with multiple doubleheader launches and more than 95 Falcon 9 missions already flown by mid-August. See SpaceX launch manifests and contemporaneous reporting.

[4] The distinction between job makers (entrepreneurs and capital builders) and job getters (those who primarily seek employment within existing structures) is a recurring theme in the author’s economic commentary.

[5] Amazon Web Services has been in active negotiations for a large hyperscale data-center campus on roughly 600 acres near Trenton in Butler County, Ohio, one of several major data-center projects reshaping the regional economy in 2026. See Cincinnati Enquirer and Journal-News reporting, August 2026.

[6] Walmart reported crossing one million drone deliveries by May 2026, with rapid expansion through its partnership with Wing. Amazon Prime Air announced plans in 2026 to reach nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by year-end, with expansion into Ohio markets.

[7] The author’s long-standing support for SpaceX, data-center development, and job-creator policy is documented in prior essays and episodes of The Overman Warrior Podcast at hoffmanbooks.com.

[8] The author cites George Lang and Michael Ryan as local elected officials who understand the distinction between protecting job creators and merely managing the distribution of existing jobs.

Bibliography and Further Research

SpaceX and Launch Cadence

SpaceX launch manifests and public flight data, 2025–2026.

SpaceNews coverage of Starship Flight 14 schedule adjustments, August 2026.

Contemporary reporting on Falcon 9 doubleheader records and annual cadence (Space.com, Benzinga, and related outlets).

Drone Delivery and Logistics

Walmart / Wing drone delivery milestone reporting (1 million deliveries, expansion plans through 2027).

Amazon Prime Air expansion announcements, 2026, including Ohio markets.

Industry analyses of BVLOS regulation and commercial drone payload/range trends (DroneXL, Reuters, and related coverage).

Data Centers and Regional Economy

Cincinnati Enquirer / Journal-News reporting on Amazon hyperscale data-center negotiations near Trenton, Butler County, August 2026.

Ohio data-center economic impact analyses (capital investment, employment, GDP contribution), 2024–2025 interim reports.

Related coverage of construction employment and local fiscal agreements in Butler County and surrounding counties.

Author’s Related Work

Hoffman, Rich. Essays and podcast episodes at hoffmanbooks.com and The Overman Warrior Podcast on SpaceX, economic vitality, data centers, and job-creator policy.

Hoffman, Rich. The Politics of Heaven (forthcoming) and prior books on leadership and institutional combat.

Rich Hoffman

More about me

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About the Author: Rich Hoffman

Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss.

Air Taxis in West Chester, Ohio: The future is now, and its very exciting

It’s going to happen at this point anyway. My bringing it up now is more of a formality of connecting the dots and explaining to anybody who will listen how the future economy under President Trump will look. I have conversations about making Ohio the number one state for business-friendly conditions all the time. I attend many seminars on economic development and Chamber of Commerce incentives for depressed areas looking to rebound. And when I say the only thing holding back this technology is the FAA, politics has changed. Deregulation under Trump will get stuffy bureaucrats out of the way, and a second wave of aviation and aerospace development will be unleashed. The other day, I talked a lot about Hyperloop and how and why a terminal should be built in Monroe, Ohio. But today, I’m talking about an old idea that is about to be unleashed and create an all-new transportation mode: skycars, or more technically speaking, VTOL air taxis. I can say from personal experience that Joby Aviation, up the road from West Chester and Liberty Township, is at the front of the market. They have air taxis ready to go, built, tested, flushed out, and prepared for delivery to market in 2025/2026; essentially, all that is standing in the way is the FAA approval process. Joby Aviation is making a piloted version, but they will quickly become fully automatic and will work by calling one on your phone and having them pick you up and perform just like an Uber. The future is here, now. All that needed to happen was that politics would have to get behind it. We don’t already have these air taxis in use because the Biden administration was a slow and Marxist micromanager that stalled all these efforts. If Trump had stayed in the White House in 2020, these Joby air taxis would have been out for a few years by now. So once we get a Trump administration back in the White House and install a pro-business mindset back into America, Joby and a few other companies are going to move quickly, and technical innovation on this front will happen at a blistering pace.

Knowing all that, I would propose that we get all the minds together in West Chester and Liberty Township and become the first areas in the world to develop official Sky Ports. Abu Dhabi and China are already deep in development. And Europe is already all over it. But they don’t have Joby Aviation right down the road and a stable environment to perform the early day development of the technology, which could make Ohio the first to fly again. Here’s how and why it would work. For instance, there is a nice little piece of property across from Ikea in West Chester that is just big enough for a sky port, a mini runway kind of helipad where these air taxis would land and take off like a helicopter, but much quieter and with much more stable flight. This always happens to me; people come and see me from out of town. They stay at the many hotels and have to get back and forth between CVG and West Chester, and their biggest problem is the traffic down I-75, which gets back to the airport to catch their flight when doing business in West Chester. This air taxi system would take all that worry away and improve life for many people.

For instance, when business guests were ready to leave their hotel, they would walk or catch a little transport from their hotel to Sky Port by Ikea. Theoretically, a sky taxi would be waiting for them. In this case, a piloted version of the Joby VTOL vehicle would be waiting for them just like an Uber, dialed up by their phone with the ticket, and everything would be paid. The guests would arrive and get into the craft like a car. The sky taxi would fly them down to the airport at CVG and land at the front of the terminal, likely on top of the parking garage there, and fly over all the traffic, making the trip in about 15 minutes, which usually takes over 50 minutes. Another problem I have is bringing people from West Chester who are in town without a car to sporting events. I typically pick them up and drive to the Great American Ballpark to attend a game for the evening. Getting downtown with all the rush hour traffic is a pain in the neck. It would be much better to get into an air taxi and fly straight to the stadium, land in a nice, safe place along the river, and get to the game in about 10 minutes instead of an hour during those peak hours of 5 to 6 PM. When the game was over, the passengers would just let the air taxi service know you were about to leave, and they would come and pick you up just like an Uber driver now. Only it would be a VTOL instead of a car. The same air taxi service could be set up to get to Kings Island from all over Cincinnati. It could also be set up to serve politicians from their districts directly to the Ohio Statehouse. There are a vast number of immediate applications that would benefit immediately from the low price of freshly poured concrete.

After the FAA permit process, the next barrier would be to win over the public. So, the sooner people see these vehicles working and overcome their fear of flying, the more the concept will expand rapidly. At first, it would be similar to a helicopter ride experience that you see in very safe tourist areas. Only this air taxi concept is even safer and much quieter. It would be at a small volume, maybe a few flights every hour throughout the peak hours of a business day. But enough people are interested now to make that happen with the Joby Aviation vehicles right out of the box. However, the flight frequency would quickly increase to a flight every couple of minutes, and even several flights from several pads at the Skyport would come and go all the time. It will also greatly enhance the business climate wherever sports reside. So, I think Ohio has a unique opportunity to be the first. West Chester, precisely because of its hotels and business traffic, could be the first in the world to demonstrate this technology and benefit economically from the visionary approach. I’m just connecting the dots here for the many people I know in this business who need to know about each other. And to explain that this isn’t some far off Jetson’s fantasy concept. I’ve been involved in these Skycars for over three decades now, so when I say that they are here, I can say it with confidence. Air taxis are here; they will happen and will be the hottest ticket in town for the next half of a decade. People will find them very convenient, safe, and pleasant. And they will become nearly as common as a personal car in a very short time. The VTOL market needed a president like Trump in the White House. The rest was waiting for the permit approval, which is about to happen as you read this. If not sooner.