The FocusLBK Show S3E138: Elyse Arnold On Making Art to Fight Against the Dark

Current Events from One Year Ago Still Rhyme with the News Today

It seems that last Juneteenth, things were just as they are today. I do a “hotwash” of the 2025 Juneteenth Celebration. I talk about the responsibilities of freedom. I talk about the general order that freed the enslaved Africans in Texas on the original Juneteenth, and discuss how that and a book called “Barracoon” by Zora Neale Hurston sheds light on what freedom means. Focus LBK is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.focuslbk.show [https://www.focuslbk.show?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

S3E142 - A Throwback- Thoughts and Headlines from a Year Ago Still Rhyme with Current Events

Around a year ago, we did a podcast called “Aging Gracefully and Real Talk About Race, Violence and the Future”. When I was “contemplating the work [https://open.substack.com/pub/focuslbk/p/the-focus-lbk-show-s2e65-dreams-dust?r=rwnct&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web]” today, I realized that what we were covering a year ago is as relevant now as it was back then. Race and violence still scream from the headlines, but perhaps we need to say the Serenity Prayer. It’s not good to get fired up about stuff in the media because emotion is what gives others power over us. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So all they have to do is show us what they want us to see so they can make us behave however they want. Call it '“manufacturing consent” or casting spells; it’s a technique they use to control us. Of course, I don’t have to say that misleading people to get them to do what you want is evil. It might be best to tune them out, and build real relationships with the people around us. Focus LBK is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.focuslbk.show [https://www.focuslbk.show?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

S3E141: Usable Intel About Data Centers

This podcast was sparked by what I think was an excellent article on the true nature and uses of data centers that I found here on Substack. I don’t know who the author actually is, but their understanding of this issue matches my own. This article defines data centers, and talks about the apparent intent behind this rapid, seemingly inexorable rollout we are seeing. [https://open.substack.com/pub/goldenorder/p/ai-data-centers-the-real-reason-theyre?r=rwnct&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web] The people who back data centers are trying to make it look like our opposition is inspired by “Chinese propaganda”, and even worse, they seem to be putting the framework in place to treat our opposition as terrorism. The “terrorism” label means they can suspend our rights pretty much at will. There is something we can do, as the article points out: [https://open.substack.com/pub/goldenorder/p/ai-data-centers-the-real-reason-theyre?r=rwnct&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web] Read what your retirement money is actually buying, and pull what you can out of target-date funds that auto-allocate into AI infrastructure indexes. Show up to zoning meetings before the build is announced, not after. The fight is won or lost at the permit stage. File public records requests on water-use agreements and tax-abatement deals while they’re still being negotiated. Once signed, they’re nearly impossible to reverse. Sources and Methods: Data Centers and Immigrants https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/30/ice-immigration-privacy-data-advertising-00939078 [https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/30/ice-immigration-privacy-data-advertising-00939078] Data Centers and US Troops: https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/05/28/us-troops-are-reportedly-being-targeted-using-location-data-pentagon-says/ [https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/05/28/us-troops-are-reportedly-being-targeted-using-location-data-pentagon-says/] Focus LBK is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.focuslbk.show [https://www.focuslbk.show?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

FocusLBK Show S3E140: Is The Data Center Issue Coming to a Head?

Once again, we have a contentious two-sided issue: should Lubbock have a hyper-scale data center built nearby, or should it not? On one side, there seems to be aligned a powerful group of billionaires and tech bros. On the other side, regular people of every political persuasion, class, race, and religion stand together. Very few regular citizens seem to be in favor of these resource-hungry behemoths at all. Why then do we not get to vote on it? Why do so many powerful people seem intent on making it happen despite the will of the people? I explore these and other facets of what is shaping up to be a major issue that will be with us for a while. Sources and Methods: https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/texas-electricity-demand-could-quadruple-due-soaring-data-center-demand-ercot [https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/texas-electricity-demand-could-quadruple-due-soaring-data-center-demand-ercot] https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/americas-growing-pushback-against-data-centers [https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/americas-growing-pushback-against-data-centers] https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/how-much-power-do-data-centers-use [https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/how-much-power-do-data-centers-use] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.focuslbk.show [https://www.focuslbk.show?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The FocusLBK Show S3E139: Is All This Craziness A Run Up to a Huge War

Is all this craziness a run up to a huge war? I’ve long felt that the whole reason Trump was allowed to come back from felonies, impeachment, attacks by the intel “community” and however many “assassination attempts” there have been, is becuase he was being marked for a purpose. And I don’t mean “called according to God’s purpose”. The people calling the tune for him appear to reside here on Earth. Seems to me that purpose maybe to prep the United States for a huge war, and perhaps even lead us during that war. After all, Trump has nothing to lose now, since half the country has been calling him literally Hitler for almost 10 years. If it is remotely true that we are being prepped for a serious war, perhaps we regular folks should follow suite and get our tribes and food supplies in order? Sources and Methods: https://www.zerohedge.com/military/answering-call-ford-motor-eyes-wwii-style-wartime-production-push-trumps-war-economy [https://www.zerohedge.com/military/answering-call-ford-motor-eyes-wwii-style-wartime-production-push-trumps-war-economy] Focus LBK is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.focuslbk.show [https://www.focuslbk.show?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]