Jim Hightower

Forty (!) years ago this week, our friends at Farm Aid organized the first United Farmer and Rancher Congress, bringing together nearly 2,000 delegates from across the country to solve the farm crisis, since the federal government wasn't interested in supporting the workaday people that feed this country.

Here's an excerpt from my message to the anniversary celebration; comment LOWDOWN for a link to the whole story.

They studied the harm. Then they sealed the study.

Corporate data centers are cutting secret deals with local officials nationwide, hiding water usage, power costs, and safety studies behind NDAs. One Louisiana community got told an "independent study" proved no harm, then got told they couldn't see it.

Would you sign away your water rights in the dark?

Comment LOWDOWN and I'll DM you a link to the whole story.

Abbott begged AI billionaires to build in Texas. Now even his own base wants them gone.

He handed out taxpayer subsidies, banned local officials from stopping construction, and made Texas the world's top AI data center destination. Rural Texans are furious. When he ordered data centers to report water usage, 70% just ignored him.

Anyone else notice who actually holds power here?

Comment LOWDOWN and I'll DM you the full story.

Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC

Trump's FCC is trying to stop you from seeing this.

Trump just told every town fighting AI data centers on their land and water that they "want to end up being backwards and poor."

His actual advice? Communities should "let data reign." Reign. Like kings. And the kings are the billionaires who own the machines.

People of every political stripe are standing up to these robber barons. The President picked the billionaires.

Is your town fighting a data center right now? Tell me below.

Comment LOWDOWN and I'll DM you the whole story.

Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have decided they're better than you.

My parents taught me nobody's better than you and you're no better than anybody else. That's "we're all in this together." That's America. But to this crowd, government's job is to guard their wealth from the Common Good. We've faced this arrogance before, and we've beaten it every time.

Who's ready to beat it back again?

Comment LOWDOWN and I'll DM you the whole story.

Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch are playing cowboy on 300,000-acre ranches they don't know how to run.

They fly in on private jets, hire real hands to do the ranching, and strut around like John Wayne. The biggest private landowners now hold 42 million acres, up from 27 million just 15 years ago. Your tax dollars subsidize their spreads while regular families get locked out of the West's most beautiful country.

Who should really own the American West?

Comment LOWDOWN and I'll DM you the whole story.

A Silicon Valley billionaire is quietly writing the laws that make it a crime to be homeless.

Joe Lonsdale co-founded the surveillance giant Palantir, then built a think tank that mails copy-paste bills to statehouses. Sleep outside, face a $5,000 fine or jail. Sixteen states and the Trump White House have signed on. This same billionaire has publicly called for bringing back public hangings.

So who is government actually protecting here?

Comment LOWDOWN and I'll DM you the whole story. Follow the National Homelessness Law Center to stay on top of this issue.