The Underground Blueprint to Destroy the Tech Bro Plan to Enslave the Planet With AI Data Centers

OR: How a Broke Hobojournalist With No Car Weaponized a Zero-Budget Strategy to Kill the Coming AI Dystopia Before It Starts

The government says these data centers are "public use" which is why there are armed guards keeping the public out. (This makes perfect sense if you don't think about it, which is the government's preferred method of citizen engagement.)

I don’t own a car.

This might become relevant later, but first you need to know that I’m writing this from a motel room in upstate New York where the air conditioning has been broken for two weeks. The owner keeps saying he’ll “take care of it.” This is what people say when they have no intention of taking care of it. I bought a fan. It cost $37 and makes a noise like a small aircraft preparing for takeoff.

I got surgery in 6 days to remove the broken, infected wisdom teeth that have been causing extraordinary pain for the last 15 years of my life and it’s not easy to research and write when your dentist refuses to prescribe you anything for the pain beyond over the counter aspirin because 10 million homeless people are hooked on Chinese fentanyl and somehow that has something to do with MY situation. Whatever.

But even through excruciating pain I STILL figured out how to stop Elon Musk and Peter Thiel from turning America into the dystopian technocratic police state that Elon’s grandfather tried to build in the 1930s.

I know how this sounds. Broke journalist in motel with no AC claims he can stop billionaires from doing billionaire things. Next he’ll show you the spreadsheet proving JFK Jr. is still alive and running QAnon from a Waffle House in Tampa. But stick with me because this is real and there’s a legal argument so simple a fifth grader could deploy it that destroys their entire plan.

While sitting in this room that’s hot as a sauna, I figured something out: they’re stealing people’s houses. The government is seizing private homes by force and handing the land to tech corporations who want to build AI data centers. And they’re doing it in Georgia (330 families getting displaced for a $17 billion project called Project Nightingale, which is absolutely a name chosen by someone who read too much dystopian fiction). And Nevada (49,000 residents around Lake Tahoe losing 75% of their electricity so data centers can have it instead, also energy prices jumped 77% since 2022, which I’m sure is completely unrelated). And Utah (Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank just got approved for a 40,000-acre data center that’s the size of Washington D.C. and will consume 9 gigawatts when the entire state only uses 4 gigawatts currently).

None of this is for roads or schools or hospitals. These are PRIVATE CORPORATE FACILITIES with ARMED GUARDS at the gates.

You will be arrested if you approach the fence.

And I’m sitting here in my motel room (it’s somehow even hotter now, the fan gave up) thinking: if these are “public use” projects, shouldn’t the public be able to use them? That’s the whole argument. If it’s public use under the Fifth Amendment, open the gates. Let the public walk in. Let them use the computing resources they’re supposedly benefiting from. But they can’t. Because there are armed guards. Because it’s a private corporate facility. Because you will be arrested. So it’s not public use. It’s private use. Which means the takings violate the Constitution. And nobody in government wants to answer this question because the answer destroys their entire scheme.

The Test That Stops the Whole Scam

The Fifth Amendment says government can only take your property for “public use.” Not “public benefit.” Not “economic development.” PUBLIC USE.

Can you walk into these data centers? Can Georgia residents access Project Nightingale’s computing resources? Can Nevada residents use the facilities their electricity is being stolen for? Can Utah residents enter that 40,000-acre compound?

No. Armed guards at every gate. Access restricted to corporate employees. Private data processed for private clients. You will be arrested if you approach the fence. So where’s the “public use”? Public roads? Anyone drives on them. Public schools? Kids attend. Public libraries? Anyone walks in. Public parks? Anyone uses them. Private data centers? Armed guards and KEEP OUT signs.

The government says job creation and tax revenue count as “public benefit” which satisfies “public use.” By that logic, every Walmart is public use. Every factory. Every Taco Bell. If creating jobs justifies seizing property, government can take your house to build anything.

That’s not what the Founders wrote. That’s not what 217 years of law meant. Until 2005 when five wealthy Supreme Court justices decided words don’t mean things anymore.

How Pfizer Literally Married the Government and Stole Some Houses (No Really)

This whole mess started in 2005 with a case called Kelo v. City of New London. The city wanted to take Susette Kelo’s house to give the land to Pfizer pharmaceutical. They said it would create jobs and tax revenue.

Pfizer's vice president sat on the government board that seized homes to give land to Pfizer. Then Pfizer abandoned the project and the land sat empty. (The Supreme Court called this constitutional. I call it exactly what happens when you let corporations write the laws.)

Claire Gaudiani ran the New London Development Corporation, the government body seizing homes. She was MARRIED to David Burnett, a Pfizer executive. George Milne, Pfizer’s vice president, SAT ON THE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION’S BOARD.

So Pfizer executives controlled the government body stealing homes to give land to Pfizer.

This is like if McDonald’s married the zoning commissioner and seized your house for a drive-thru. Except it’s real. Just with more syllables and a pharmaceutical company.

Five Supreme Court justices said this was fine. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote a dissent (which in Supreme Court terms is like leaving a Yelp review that says “one star, would give zero if possible”) warning that under this ruling, the government could now replace “any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton” based purely on which one generates more tax revenue. She was right. Also, as someone currently living in something that makes a Motel 6 look like the Ritz-Carlton, I find this hypothetical personally threatening. Pfizer never built the project. The company pulled out. The land sat empty. Susette Kelo’s entire neighborhood got bulldozed FOR NOTHING. All those families displaced. All that legal precedent established. All that obvious corruption exposed in open court. For a piece of empty land that now has (I checked) a memorial to eminent domain victims. But the precedent remained. Five unelected judges rewrote the Fifth Amendment without going through the whole tedious constitutional amendment process where you need Congress and state legislatures and such. They just decided “public use” now means “public benefit” which means “economic development” which means “whatever the government says it means.” Words don’t mean things anymore. The Constitution is now whatever five people say it is. Sleep tight.

The Five Rich People Who Decided Property Rights Don’t Matter (A Financial Analysis From Someone Who Owns One Fan)

The five justices who voted yes on Kelo: John Paul Stevens (net worth $1.2-3.1 million), Anthony Kennedy ($20,000+ in speaking fees), David Souter (over $1 million), Ruth Bader Ginsburg ($6-24 million), Stephen Breyer ($4-15 million).

Wealthy establishment figures who moved in the same circles as Pfizer executives. Yale Law School classmates. Same cocktail parties. Same country clubs. They believed corporations use property more efficiently than regular people.

Did Pfizer bribe them? Can’t prove it. But that’s how elite capture works. You don’t need briefcases of cash when everyone already thinks alike. When book deals depend on not angering powerful people. When your whole social world rewards siding with power. All five are gone now. Retired or dead. Current Supreme Court is more protective of property rights. Clarence Thomas is still there. He DISSENTED in Kelo. Already said it’s unconstitutional. Which means now is the time to challenge this. Oh, and the New York Times supported Kelo editorially. Their headquarters was being built on land taken by eminent domain. The paper endorsed theft because they benefited from theft.

Speaking of Grandfather Issues (Elon Musk’s Grandfather Tried to Build a Technocratic Dictatorship)

Elon Musk’s grandfather was a guy named Joshua Haldeman. In the 1930s in Canada, Joshua was a prominent member of something called Technocracy Inc. This was a movement that believed (and I’m quoting their actual platform here): engineers and technicians should run society instead of politicians. Democracy is inefficient. Technical experts should allocate resources based on scientific management principles, not citizens through voting.

Elon Musk's grandfather was a prominent member of Technocracy Inc., a movement that believed engineers should run society instead of voters. Three generations later, his grandson is building exactly that infrastructure. (What are the odds? Don't answer that, it's rhetorical and also depressing.)

Efficiency über alles. Literally. Some of them were pretty open about admiring certain European efficiency movements of that era, if you know what I mean, and if you don’t know what I mean, it’s the ones with the Hugo Boss uniforms and the “efficiency camps.”

Now flash forward to 2026. Elon Musk is building infrastructure where AI systems control resource allocation (technical experts, just algorithmic ones). Data centers get priority access to power and water over actual human residents (scientific resource management). Corporations can seize property through government force (bypassing democratic processes). And it’s all justified by efficiency.

Peter Thiel openly quotes Curtis Yarvin, who advocates for what he calls “neo-monarchism” but what normal people call “corporate dictatorship.” Marc Andreessen publishes manifestos about AI systems replacing markets for resource allocation. They’re not hiding what they’re building. They’re telling you. A world where technical efficiency matters more than human rights. Where AI decides who gets power and water. Where citizens can’t vote their way out because technical experts know better.

This isn’t conspiracy theory. Technocracy Inc. was real. Joshua Haldeman was really a member. The movement really advocated for exactly this system. And his grandson is now one of the richest men in the world building exactly that infrastructure. The playbook was written in the 1930s. It’s being executed now. And they’re using eminent domain to do it.

The Numbers That Explain Why Your Grandchildren Will Be Fighting Wars Over Water (But With Robots)

Over the next four years, they’re planning to build more than 12,000 data centers in the United States. Currently there are 5,500. They’re going to MORE THAN DOUBLE them in four years. Total investment: $5.2 trillion.

Five point two TRILLION dollars. With a T. The entire GDP of Japan is $4.2 trillion. We’re spending more than the economic output of the third-largest economy on Earth to build facilities where AI can process data about which ads to show you.

Water is going to matter quite a bit (humans need it to not die). A medium-size data center uses about 100 million gallons of water per year. That sounds like a lot but wait, it gets worse. A large hyperscale facility (the kind they’re building now because why build a regular one when you can build one that consumes resources at apocalyptic rates) uses between 1 and 5 million gallons of water per day. Every single day.

They're building 12,000 new data centers that will consume over 5 million gallons of water per day each. In deserts. And places already experiencing water wars. Your grandkids will definitely understand why you let this happen. (Just kidding, they'll be too busy fighting over the last bottle of Dasani to ask questions.)

The average American uses about 100 gallons of water daily. A single large data center can use the water equivalent of 50,000 people. Every day. Just sitting there processing data about whether you might want to buy more paper towels.

Right now, all the data centers in America combined consume 449 million gallons of water daily. When they more than double the number of facilities (and remember, the new ones are mostly the giant apocalyptic kind), that water consumption is going to explode.

Eighty to 90 percent of these data centers pull water directly from natural sources. Lakes. Streams. Underground aquifers. You know, the water supply that humans also need.

Some of that water gets recycled. Some doesn’t. And the water that does get recycled often gets discharged back into the environment as water VAPOR, not as liquid water returning to the source. Which means it evaporates into the atmosphere and enters the water cycle somewhere else entirely (probably raining on some place that doesn’t need more rain, because that’s how the universe works) instead of replenishing the lake or aquifer or stream it came from.

The natural water cycle can’t replenish these sources fast enough. So lakes shrink. Aquifers drop (and once an aquifer collapses, it’s basically done forever because geology is unforgiving like that). Streams dry up. And then the data centers move to the next source. Like locusts, but with server racks and venture capital funding.

Currently there are 5,500 data centers creating this problem. In four years there will be more than 12,000.

I’m trying to do the math on what that does to water availability but honestly the fan just made a new noise that sounds concerning and I keep getting distracted by the wisdom teeth pain so let’s just say: bad. It’s going to be bad.

The Part Where They’re Building Water-Sucking Facilities in the DESERT (Because Corruption)

They’re building these massive water-consuming facilities in places that are already experiencing water shortages. It’s like opening a seafood restaurant in the Sahara. Technically possible but WHY.

Georgia is hot and humid (I know about hot and humid, I’m living it right now in this room where the temperature is “please God make it stop”). The state has been fighting water wars with Alabama and Florida for DECADES. There isn’t extra water just lying around. But Project Nightingale is going to consume massive amounts of it anyway for 830 acres of data processing. Because 330 families who lived there needed to make room for the servers. Obviously.

Nevada. NEVADA. They’re building data centers around Lake Tahoe. In the DESERT. Lake Tahoe is experiencing permanent drought conditions (it’s a desert, this is not surprising). Energy prices have jumped 77% since 2022 (also not surprising when you’re stealing 75% of the available electricity). But sure, let’s build water-intensive data centers there. What could go wrong.

Utah. Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank just got approved for a 40,000-acre data center. That’s 62 square miles. Roughly the size of Washington D.C. The ENTIRE CITY.

This facility will consume 9 gigawatts of power. The entire state of Utah currently uses 4 gigawatts annually. Kevin’s data center will use MORE THAN DOUBLE what every home, business, hospital, and school in Utah uses combined.

It will emit 35 million metric tons of carbon every year. The state of Utah currently emits 55 million metric tons total. So this one project increases the state’s emissions by 64%. But it’s fine because jobs or something.

Oh, and they want to cover another 40,000 acres of the Great Salt Lake in solar panels to power it. That’s 16% of the lake’s northern arm. The lake that’s already down more than 20% and shrinking. So they’re going to cover a dying lake in solar panels to power a data center the size of Washington D.C. in the high desert where water is scarce and getting scarcer.

This is the plan. This is what adults in suits agreed to. This passed through multiple approval processes. Nobody said “hey, maybe this is stupid.”

You know what would make ACTUAL sense? The Great Lakes region.

They're building water-intensive data centers in deserts while the Great Lakes region sits there holding 84% of North America's fresh water going "Hello? Anyone?" (It's like opening a seafood restaurant in the Sahara, except the Sahara has better zoning laws.)

The Great Lakes hold 84% of North America’s surface fresh water. That’s not a typo. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT. Lake Superior never gets above 55 degrees Fahrenheit even in summer, which means your cooling costs drop dramatically (something I would appreciate right now as the fan continues its impression of a dying helicopter). Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota have abundant hydroelectric power. Cheap renewable energy. Cold climates. Plenty of available land.

But you don’t see 40,000-acre data centers going up around Lake Superior. You don’t see massive facilities getting built in Wisconsin. You don’t see Michigan giving away 830-acre plots.

Why not?

Because Great Lakes states have environmental regulations. They have unions. They have politicians who aren’t completely for sale. They won’t use eminent domain to steal property for private corporations. They won’t let companies just redirect public utilities away from residents.

So corporations go shopping for compliant governments. They find politicians in Georgia, Nevada, and Utah who will use eminent domain, redirect power grids away from residents, waive environmental protections, hand out massive tax incentives, all in exchange for campaign contributions and vague promises of future jobs that may or may not materialize (remember Pfizer and New London).

The location decisions have nothing to do with resource optimization or what makes technical sense. They’re based entirely on political corruption and which state governments are most willing to screw over their own citizens for corporate money.

And arbitrary government actions that are based on corruption rather than legitimate public purpose violate due process under both the federal Constitution and every state constitution.

The Twelve-Step Program for Stealing Your House (Not the Alcoholics Anonymous Kind)

The Kelo corruption wasn’t some one-off aberration. It’s the TEMPLATE. Every single one of these data center projects follows the same pattern. It’s like they all went to the same seminar: “Corporate Theft 101: Using Government as Your Personal Real Estate Agent.”

Step one: Corporation identifies land it wants. (”That subdivision would make a great server farm!”)

Step two: Corporation identifies local politicians who appear purchasable. (This step is easier than you’d think. Most politicians advertise their availability through campaign finance disclosures.)

Step three: Campaign contributions flow. (Legally! It’s all very legal! Just structured donations that definitely don’t constitute bribery because we’ve defined bribery in a way that excludes all the ways rich people buy politicians.)

Step four: Local politicians create or gain control of a “development authority” or similar governmental body. (Every state has slightly different names but they all do the same thing: provide legal cover for theft.)

Step five: Corporate executives or their proxies sit on that authority. (Just like how Pfizer’s VP George Milne sat on New London’s development board. Totally normal. No conflict of interest here. Just government officials who happen to work for the corporation benefiting from the government decisions they’re making.)

Step six: The authority declares the project serves “economic development” and therefore provides “public benefit.” (Jobs! Tax revenue! Economic growth! Never mind that a Costco also provides all those things.)

Step seven: Eminent domain gets deployed. (This is the part where armed government agents show up to inform you that your family home of 30 years now belongs to people who own more money than your town’s entire assessed property value.)

Step eight: Properties get seized. (The government takes your house. You get “fair market value” which is determined by the government. You cannot negotiate. You cannot refuse. You leave or they arrest you.)

Step nine: Land transfers to the corporation. (Usually for $1 or some other nominal fee because why pay market rates when you’ve captured the government.)

Step ten: Corporation gets massive tax exemptions for 10 to 20 years. (Because obviously a multi-billion-dollar data center needs tax breaks. How else will the investors afford their fourth vacation homes?)

Step eleven: The public pays for all the infrastructure upgrades. (New roads to the facility? Public expense. Upgraded power lines? Public expense. Water infrastructure? Public expense. The corporation pays for none of this.)

Step twelve: Corporation keeps all the profits. (Shocking twist: the economic benefits that supposedly justified the taking don’t actually benefit the public whose property and tax dollars funded everything.)

This isn’t conspiracy theory. This is their actual business model. It’s written into their development agreements. You can FOIA these documents. They spell it all out.

Billionaires figured out they don’t need to buy land at market rates anymore. They don’t need to negotiate with property owners. They don’t need to make compelling offers. They just need to capture local government. Buy the politicians (legally, through campaign contributions and speaking fees and consulting contracts and board positions after they leave office). Control the development authority. Get eminent domain deployed. And the courts say it’s all legal because five justices said so in 2005.

But it doesn’t have to stay legal. Because there are arguments that can beat this.

How a Broke Guy in a Hot Room Just Handed Lawyers the Kill Shot

After Kelo, the public lost their minds. People across America were furious that the Supreme Court had legalized theft. So 44 states (FORTY-FOUR) passed laws restricting eminent domain for private development. The backlash was massive and bipartisan because people really don’t like it when the government can steal their house to give it to Pfizer.

Georgia passed restrictions. Nevada passed restrictions. Utah passed restrictions. Each state’s law is slightly different (because state legislatures can’t just copy-paste, that would be too efficient), but they all share the same core principle: eminent domain cannot be used simply to transfer property from one private owner to another just because the government claims there will be economic benefits.

Five legal arguments can stop these takings, and the first one is so simple a fifth grader gets it: if it's "public use," why are there armed guards? The government has been avoiding this question for 19 years. (Probably because the answer is "it's not public use and we've been lying.")

So here are the five legal arguments that can stop this. Lawyers: use all of them. Don’t pick your favorite. Use ALL FIVE. Belt and suspenders and a rope and some duct tape because we’re not taking chances.

Argument One: The Kill Shot

Make the government prove the public can actually use these data centers.

If it’s “public use” under the Fifth Amendment, then open the gates. Let the public walk in. Let them use the computing resources. Let them access the facilities their tax dollars subsidized and their property rights sacrificed for.

They can’t do that.

There are armed guards. Access is restricted to corporate employees only. You will be arrested if you approach the fence. So where exactly is the “public use”?

This argument is so simple a jury gets it instantly. A fifth grader understands it. And the government CANNOT answer it.

They’ll try. They’ll talk about jobs and tax revenue and economic development. But jobs aren’t public use. Tax revenue isn’t public use. If those things counted as public use, then every McDonald’s is public infrastructure and government can seize any property for any business that employs people.

Compare these data centers to ACTUAL public infrastructure:

Public roads? The public drives on them.
Public schools? The public learns in them.
Public libraries? The public walks in and uses them.
Public parks? The public literally uses them.
Data centers? Corporations profit from them. The public is explicitly excluded by armed guards.

This argument forces the government to either admit the data centers aren’t actually public use (which means the takings are unconstitutional) or prove the public can use them (which they can’t because ARMED GUARDS).

It’s a trap with no escape. Use it.

Argument Two: State Law Violations

These takings violate the laws that 44 states passed specifically to prevent this exact thing from happening.

Every one of those state legislatures was responding to Kelo. They were furious. Their constituents were furious. They passed laws to prevent their own governments from using eminent domain to steal property for private corporations.

And state courts have consistently held that economic benefits must be SECONDARY to actual public use. Private profit cannot be the primary purpose.

A data center that is:

• Owned by a private corporation

• Processing private data

• Serving private clients

• Generating private profits

• Excluding the public entirely with armed guards

...is definitionally NOT public use. Jobs and tax revenue are incidental. The corporation is the primary and sole beneficiary.

Research your specific state’s post-Kelo legislation and use it. The statutes are sitting right there. The state legislatures literally handed you the legal framework. Use it.

Argument Three: The McDonald’s Test

If job creation alone justifies eminent domain, then government can seize any property for any business.

McDonald’s creates jobs. Does that mean government can seize your house to build a McDonald’s?

Amazon warehouses create jobs. Can government seize your neighborhood to build one?

Casinos create jobs. Can Atlantic City seize the entire boardwalk for private gambling corporations? (Actually terrible example, they already did that, but you get the point.)

This is exactly what Justice O’Connor warned about in her Kelo dissent. If economic development alone satisfies “public use,” then the Public Use Clause means nothing. Any private project can be reframed as public benefit. The limit that the Founders wrote into the Constitution disappears.

Compare data centers to actual public infrastructure and the difference is obvious. Highways serve the public who use them. Schools serve the public who attend them. Data centers serve corporations who profit from them. One of these things is not like the others.

Argument Four: The Supreme Court Changed

All five Kelo majority justices are gone. Retired or dead. None of them are on the Court anymore.

The current Court is significantly more protective of property rights and more skeptical of broad government power. They’re more likely to rule that “public use” means ACTUAL public use, not theoretical economic benefits that might possibly maybe help the public indirectly through jobs.

Justice Clarence Thomas is still on the Court. He DISSENTED in Kelo. He already said this type of taking violates the Constitution. He’s on record. If this comes back to the Supreme Court, you start with one vote already locked in.

A challenge to these data center takings could narrow or overturn Kelo entirely. The Court’s composition has shifted. The political climate has shifted. Property rights are more protected now than in 2005.

Argument Five: Arbitrary and Capricious

These takings are arbitrary and capricious, which violates due process under both federal and state constitutions.

The location decisions aren’t based on resource optimization or public need or technical efficiency. They’re based on political corruption and which state governments are most willing to sell out their citizens.

Georgia, Nevada, and Utah are TERRIBLE locations for data centers. Hot climates. Water scarcity. Stressed power grids. These are literally the worst places you could build water-intensive, power-hungry facilities.

Meanwhile the optimal locations (Great Lakes region with unlimited cold water, cheap renewable power, ideal climate) aren’t seeing these massive projects because those states won’t use eminent domain for corporations.

That makes the takings arbitrary. The government can’t articulate a legitimate public purpose when the locations are chosen based on corruption rather than need. And arbitrary government action violates due process.

Use all five arguments. Don’t pick one. Don’t focus on your favorite. Use ALL OF THEM because this is belt-and-suspenders-and-duct-tape legal strategy and we’re fighting billionaires who have unlimited money for appeals.

A broke journalist with no car and broken teeth just figured out the constitutional argument that can stop all of this. Lawyers in Georgia, Nevada, and Utah: the blueprint is right here. File it. (Yes, I'm aware this sounds insane. So does "Pfizer executives can steal your house because jobs." Yet here we are.)

What Lawyers Need to Do Right Now (Seriously, Right Now, Not “Eventually” or “When I Get Around To It”)

Georgia lawyers: There are families in Coweta County suing over Project Nightingale right now. THREE HUNDRED THIRTY FAMILIES getting displaced for corporate data centers. Contact them. Make these arguments under Georgia’s Landowner’s Bill of Rights Act and the 2015 constitutional amendment that was passed specifically to prevent this. The public use kill shot is your primary weapon but deploy all five arguments because this is war.

Nevada lawyers: Forty-nine thousand residents around Lake Tahoe are getting 75% of their electricity redirected to data centers while their energy prices jumped 77%. That’s a functional taking. Nevada’s 2008 constitutional amendment explicitly prohibits takings for private use and requires genuine public purpose beyond just economic development. Challenge it. Now. Not next month. Now.

Utah lawyers: Kevin O’Leary’s 40,000-acre approval appears to have violated due process. Multiple sources report the decision was already made before the public hearing where residents showed up to protest. That’s challengeable. So is approving a project that will raise the state’s carbon emissions by 64% and cover 16% of the Great Salt Lake in solar panels, all for private corporate profit. Someone in Utah needs to file this case yesterday.

Lawyers in all 44 states with post-Kelo restrictions: If you see similar data center projects using eminent domain or displacing residents through utility redirection or resource reallocation, these same arguments apply. Research your specific state’s post-Kelo legislation. The statutes exist. They were passed to prevent EXACTLY THIS. Force the government to follow its own laws.

The first argument (the kill shot) is the weapon. If it’s public use, open the gates and let the public use it. They can’t. Because armed guards. So it’s not public use. So the taking violates the Fifth Amendment. Make them answer that question in open court in front of a jury. I gave up a corner office to write this from a room where the temperature is “please stop” and I’m dealing with broken infected wisdom teeth while my dentist won’t prescribe real pain meds because someone needs to hand lawyers these arguments. And I just handed you the legal framework to stop them from stealing property through government force.

What Everyone Else Needs to Do

Send this article to property rights organizations. Institute for Justice handles eminent domain cases nationally. Pacific Legal Foundation does too. They need to know about these arguments and these cases.

Property rights groups need these legal arguments. Lawyers in Georgia, Nevada, and Utah need to know this exists. State legislators who passed anti-Kelo laws need to know they're being violated. You know someone who knows someone. Send it. (The corporations stealing houses have unlimited PR budgets. We have you clicking a share button. That's the fight.)

Send it to civil liberties groups, both national (ACLU, though they’re sometimes useless on property rights but might surprise us) and state-level organizations that actually care about this stuff.

Send it to local journalists covering these projects in Georgia, Nevada, Utah, and anywhere else this is happening. Real journalists, not the stenographers who rewrite press releases. The ones who actually investigate things.

Send it to state legislators who voted for post-Kelo restrictions. Tell them their laws are being violated and they need to do something about it. Politicians respond to pressure. Apply pressure.

Send it to anyone you know in the affected areas. The 330 families in Georgia need lawyers who understand these arguments. The 49,000 Nevada residents losing their electricity need legal representation. The Utah protesters who got ignored at the public hearing need to know there’s a legal path to fight this.

Property rights groups need this legal framework. Environmental activists fighting these projects need to understand the takings might be unconstitutional. Local governments need to know they can’t just hand land to corporations anymore.

Make it politically costly for local officials to sell out their constituents. Show up to local government meetings where these decisions get made. They’re poorly attended precisely because officials count on citizens not paying attention. Surprise them. Show up. Bring friends. Force them to explain in public why they’re using eminent domain for private corporations. Force them to explain why data centers get priority over residents for power and water. Make them answer. Record it. Post it. Make it go viral.

What happened in New London wasn’t isolated corruption. It was a beta test. The proof of concept. Now they’re scaling it nationwide. Three hundred thirty families in Georgia. Forty-nine thousand residents in Nevada. An entire state in Utah. And 12,000 more data centers planned over the next four years. Each one following the same corruption pattern. Each one seizing resources and property. Each one claiming it’s for economic development and public benefit. Each one with armed guards keeping the actual public out.

If that’s “public use,” then words mean nothing and the Constitution is dead.

But it’s not public use. And a broke journalist in a motel room with no car and broken infected wisdom teeth who gave up a corner office to write about eminent domain law just handed you the legal arguments to prove it.

Your move, billionaires.

Help keep the Wise Wolf howling.

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Support Independent Journalism (From a Guy Who Made Spectacularly Bad Career Choices)

I could be in a corner office right now. Probably with air conditioning that WORKS. Instead I’m in a motel room where the temperature is “please God make it stop” and the landlord’s promises to fix the AC have the same credibility as “the check is in the mail.” I bought a fan with my own money. It cost $37 and sounds like a helicopter crash-landing. My broken infected wisdom teeth are apparently in a race with the heat to see which one kills me first.

Some days I question this decision. Usually when the wisdom teeth pain spikes and I remember my dentist won’t prescribe anything beyond aspirin. Or when it’s hot enough in here to bake bread and the fan has given up entirely. Or when I remember that corner office had central air and probably came with a dental plan that covered actual pain management.

But someone has to document what’s being done to the 330 families in Georgia, the 49,000 residents in Nevada, the people in Utah, and the thousands more coming. Someone has to hand lawyers the arguments to fight back. Someone has to explain that this isn’t capitalism or free markets or economic development but technocratic oligarchy using state violence to steal from citizens so billionaire tech bros can build the dystopia their grandfathers dreamed about.

If this reporting matters to you, a paid subscription keeps the lights on (and maybe, just maybe, gets the AC fixed before the wisdom teeth surgery in 6 days). It also helps Lily finish her journalism degree without taking out student loans. She’s less than a year from her bachelor’s and is making the same spectacularly terrible financial decision I made, except she’s doing it before accumulating any wealth to lose, which is either very brave or very stupid or possibly both.

The corporations stealing houses have lawyers on retainer. The billionaires building Technocracy Inc. have PR teams and lobbyists and politicians in their pockets. The 330 families in Georgia have a lawsuit and a broke journalist in a hot room with broken infected wisdom teeth who figured out the kill shot legal argument while listening to a $37 fan slowly die.

Not exactly a fair fight. But neither was New London, and Susette Kelo still sued. So here we are.

I just handed you the legal arguments to stop a billionaire death cult from enslaving your grandkids in the technocracy their grandfathers designed. And you won't share a damn article. You'll forward cat videos but not the thing that stops Elon Musk from finishing what Technocracy Inc. started? Your grandkids are going to ask what you did when there was still time. "I didn't click share" is going to be a hell of an answer.