First off, let’s start off with some good and most welcome news: Central Nebraska has finally received a few showers. We have measured more than an inch in the past week and that about doubles the precipitation we have received since September.
Still, drought continues to plague a major chunk of the of the nation and typically, when rain comes shortly after planting, the farmers think “OK, we are off to great start,” but this year it is just one of the many worries farmers face.
The land grab by our own federal government has continued to accelerate, in my opinion. I recently spoke in Thedford, Nebraska, with Preserve the Sandhills, a group of citizens that formed an organization 10 years ago to thwart off the R Line. The R Line is a massive electric transmission line with plans to go right through the heart of the fragile Sandhills. The pattern showing up across the nation is to build a massive transmission line, follow it with wind and solar developments and then, all too often, the next step is to put in an artificial intelligence data center. It seems that people are finally coming to the realization that these operations only deplete the local resources and lead to everything else I am about to describe.
As a refresher, in December the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Brooke Rollins announced a $700 million commitment to regenerative agriculture. I found out in February that $300 million of that was going through Nutrien/CIBO Technologies, based in Canada. I had to ask what was wrong with this plan. Not only is Nutrien the largest fertilizer manufacturer in the world, CIBO Technologies is a farmer data collection enterprise.
In the past week, two things came out of the White House that should cause everyone to pause. The first note came as a follow up to an executive order by Donald Trump in January 2026 stating that our energy supply requires emergency action. Trump is the one championing the depletion of energy by wanting an AI data center in every county, in my opinion.
On April 20, we got this:
Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as Amended, on Grid Infrastructure, Equipment, and Supply Chain Capacity
As I read this entire determination, Trump is saying we must accelerate the taking of land for transmission lines and other “infrastructure” necessary to build these operations.
Four days later, on April 24, out came Department of Justice statement with a mention of an earlier executive order by Trump.
The Justice Department Takes Actions to Strengthen the Federal Death Penalty
Today, the Department of Justice acted to restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences—clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals. Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.
Oh, wait there is more. On April 24, Rollins and the USDA awarded Palantir a no-bid contract of $300 million to assist with the One Farmer One File program that is being positioned to collect farmers data and “help them.”
For those that don’t know about Palantir, I will get to that shortly but who collects more data on the farmer than the USDA? Why do they need an out-of-country, or any other firm, to have access to this data? Do they need to buy another computer in that agency?
Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, PayPal and Facebook, has received attention through the past 10 years since he was the first from the Silicon Valley to endorse Trump back in 2015 and gave him a $1.25 million for this campaign. CEO and co-founder Alex Karp, who is very open with his Jewish faith, has been identified to use Palantir to promote his cause which appears to be:
Karp has strong pro-Israel views and has urged the Jewish community to leave their “comfort zone” to combat antisemitism and support Israel.
Indeed, we are in the middle of a spiritual war and from where I stand, we seem to be funding and doing the dirty work of the country who plans to control us. Meanwhile, this little rain that we’ve prayed for, should be exactly what my planted oats need.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of agriculture. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com or email Trent at [email protected].
PHOTO: High-voltage power lines. (Photo: Adobe Stock │ #249982315 – yelantsevv)
