Reclaiming Our Future Against AI Data Centers (Derrick Broze & Hakeem Anwar on Geopolitics & Empire)

Welcome back to Geopolitics and Empire. Returning to the podcast, not one but two. We've got Hakim Anwar of abovephone.com. Please do go check out some of these, the Above phones. I've got mine, uh, right here, uh, and, and use the Geopolitics and Empire affiliate, which is, uh, linked in the description, uh, below. So abovephone.com and take back our tech. He's doing great work there. And Derek Rose of theconsciousresistance.com. reclaimfuture.com, which we'll be talking about, as well as the Independent Media Alliance, among many other websites. Welcome back, Derek and Hakeem.

Thanks for having me, brother.

Boy, good to be here, bro.

All right, so real quick before, uh, getting into the Reclaim stuff, uh, just to give a shout out, you're doing the activation tour around the US, right, Derek?

Yeah, yeah. As we're recording, I'm sitting in, uh, the Twin Cities, Minnesota, about to head towards Chicago, and I've got about, I think, 10 to 12 days left on the road. I've been doing this since May. I did the Southwest and the West Coast in May, and now I did— I'm doing Texas, Midwest, East Coast, and Florida. And just trying to get people out there who were paying attention during COVID-1984 who may have sort of become complacent or, you know, settled into the new normal, so to speak, to start thinking about solutions again, because it feels like a really important time for me. So yeah, I'm spending the next couple of weeks on the road, and in case anybody hears this and is interested, you can go to activationtour.org and you can see where I'm going to be at.

I saw on your feed last night that you spoke at the Croatian Hall in Minnesota, and then you're headed back to my hometown, Chicago. And so let's talk all about the data center stuff. We've got, of course, the new website you guys have put together, reclaimfuture.com. There's the AI data center map, which is fantastic, which I've been seeing, and now the report. So what's going on here?

Hakeem, why don't you start with some of your report and your map and then we'll get into Reclaim Future?

Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, so this issue was on the back of my mind at the end of last year as I started to see more of these data centers pop up and I just wanted to estimate like how much power and water are these things using? So I was looking online and these companies were trying to charge me like $20,000 for the info. I was like, no, I think we can do better from public sources. So that was the rabbit hole. We created aidatacentermap.org. It scrapes public information off the internet to give you a list of all of the data centers being built. And there are a ton of these hyperscalers. These are the really large-scale data centers that can use up to 100,000 to even a million homes worth of electricity and more. And they're just getting bigger. The US has already built around 400 hyperscalers. They're going to build another 450 by 2030. And these are the ones that are edging towards being gigascalers. So all said and done, why this is important is once all of these things are built that are planned, they're going to be using up to 40% of the US's total current electricity supply. So that's ridiculous that Trump and the rest of them can sit there and tell us, oh, don't worry, we're paying for our own electricity. It's like, no, absolutely not. There's no feasible way that the costs aren't going to be passed on to average Americans who struggling already. So that's why we should take a deeper look at this.

Yeah, and we've seen the reports just this week, Financial Times, and up in Virginia and other parts of the US, they're telling Americans, you're going to not have electricity. You're going to suffer intermittent, at the very least, electricity. So first of all, your supply is going to be interrupted, and the prices are going to jump anywhere from 25% and beyond. So yeah, if you can tell us anything more about what's going on with this.

Absolutely. I mean, so this is a tool to give people knowledge about their local area. So if you go to aidatacentermap.org or reclaimfuture.com, you can go to the map and actually zoom into your area. Let's go into Chicago because I know Derek's heading there next. I don't know what party he's in, but if you click on an empty area on the map, it'll actually get a list of all the hyperscalers with public information, and then it'll do a rough estimation of how much water and power they're using. So I have the methodology here. If you zoom into one of these black triangles, let's go to this guy over here and click on it, and then you click on the eye icon, then here's my breakdown of the numbers and why. So yeah, translated to kilowatts, kilowatt-hours per day, And then this is all linked so you can see where I get the sources and I explain it more in the paper. So yeah, I mean, the result is that you are seeing a lot of these hyperscale data centers on top of major US aquifers. And the problem is, is that they can pretend that they're being conscious with their water use. But once they drain these aquifers, like there's no way to restore it. It takes hundreds of years to restore these things. So like you were saying, you could end up in situations where There's no water, wells are going dry. And yeah, there's nowhere to go except for the 15-minute cities.

And it's happening globally too. I read in Croatia now the US Department of Energy is going to drop something like, I don't know how many billions to have Croatia build one. And then I found articles for here in Mexico where people here aren't making as much noise. And it was funny, I said it's because Mexicans have become sort of comfortable with their techno slavery. I said that just off of my instinct and what I know here, and then I found an article, like you can't believe it, that actually confirmed what I said and that they are being rolled out as well here, uh, in Mexico quietly without any pushback. So yeah, I don't know if Derek has, uh, further thoughts.

Yeah, I mean, to me that's, that's interesting to hear, and I'm hoping that that will change, but I think you're kind of right. I mean, there's— it feels like in Mexico it takes a little bit longer for people to start caring and paying attention to something. I have seen and met some activists who are watching, I think, what's happening in the U.S. related to data centers and Flock and that types of tech, who are concerned. But it's not a mass movement at this point, like, you know, sort of what we're going to talk about today as far as what we're doing with Reclaim Our Future. There's multiple movements around the United States that are organizing and protesting data centers regularly and going to city council and town council and trying to pass laws and doing the whole thing. I haven't seen that happening yet in Mexico. I hope that'll change. But it's really in that space, whether in Mexico or elsewhere where people are ignorant or, um, just, you know, busy, distracted, whatever. Because as Hakim said, lots of people are just struggling already to try to make it. It's in that space that these types of tools, these types of dangerous technologies, they thrive. Because, you know, when we're distracted, they're gonna, you know, they're gonna get away with whatever they can.

And what you mentioned about the pushback, some of the stuff I've been hearing, at least in the US, is that There have even been mainstream reports that only something like 20 to 50% of these purported data centers will be built out because of some of the pushback or because they're not even feasible financially or resource-wise to be built. So would you say it does appear that we're really in the thick of it? Like the people's response has been having effect in the US at least, no?

I'd say so. I mean, I was just doing a report this morning about how— I don't know if you guys saw, but a couple of days ago, New York State became the first state to— the governor issued an executive order to halt all data center construction, not forever, but to put a hold on it and to do environmental impact statements and, you know, reports and studies. And who knows what will come for that? Maybe they'll just sort of delay it until people have moved on and then they'll do it anyways. But even the fact that they're— the state feels like they have to announce an executive order and pause things. And LA and other, other districts— my buddy Justin Harvey in Florida, I mean, this— I'm gonna go see him on the tour in a week or so. This guy and a lot of Florida activists, they're really kicking butt out there. I mean, there's just so many different counties and cities in Florida that are passing moratoriums, that are at least making that an issue where it's, it's on the local media, it's a discussion at their local government bodies and things of that sort. So there are areas of the country where people are having success, and I think that's a sign. And really one of the main reasons since I've started to pay attention to this, besides the fact that it will impact all of us, is because I see how it's uniting left, right, center, apolitical, you know, anarchist, whatever, politically homeless, just people across the board of all ages and all backgrounds, from the conservative rancher who's worried about how it's gonna impact his crops to the left-wing progressive climate change activists and everything in between. People seem to be concerned about this. So to me, it really presents an opportunity, as well as issues like the flock cameras and kind of surveillance in general at the moment. that seem to be cutting across party lines, partisan lines. And I think that's what's exciting to me about this is, okay, maybe we've found an issue that is so potentially dangerous that it's bringing people together at a time when we really need that.

A quick break to direct you over to expatmoney.com/geopolitics. That's our sponsor for this month. If you go to that link, you'll be able to download a free 27-page special reports on how to build a sovereign Plan B before borders close and markets panic, whether we're looking at a Third World War or the global technocracy being put into place. You know my view that there's really nowhere to hide, but I do still believe that, um, you can effectively decorate your gulag and be a little more comfortable in certain jurisdictions versus others. And so Mikkel Thore, him and his team over at Expat Money, they specialize in internationalization and they've got a lot of free resources, whether it's this report or their podcast, as well as they've got, uh, paid services to help you out on developing your sovereign Plan B, as, uh, I have. So do check it out. It's a big help to Geopolitics and Empire. Just toss your Email in over at expatmoney.com geopolitics. It was an interesting point I had on. I've had on some recent guests who again go across the spectrum, and former Washington Post journalist Miranda Spivak, who's would be I guess liberal left, and she's talking about, as you mentioned, flock and data centers. And I just had on Dr. Rima Laibo, who's you know more with us in the conspiracy category, and and we're all sort of coming together. On this. And then just maybe for to get both of your thoughts, I also had on Tim Hinchcliffe recently and he talked about digital embassies and this was interesting. So I just kind of want to get both of your thoughts as to what you think is the big picture behind the data centers. And something interesting that Tim has dug up was the digital embassies. So they're setting up this compute, so to speak, data centers in the US. And if I saw the statistics, I think half of the world's data centers thus far are in the US. So we've got like the monopoly on that. And then he talks about digital embassies. So there's going to— there are going to be countries that don't have the money or infrastructure to build a data center, and they're going to have sort of digital embassies. And he's— he was using the Tony Blair Institute, who's heavily involved with this, as we all know. And with— he's basically The Larry Ellison is backing Tony Blair. He's the mouthpiece for Oracle and Larry Ellison. But they will connect the digital public infrastructure of, let's say, some Honduras, just throwing out an example that doesn't have a data center. They're going to be plugged into the digital embassies and they're going to rent the data center capacity from another country that does have it. And my idea, basically my thought is that the big picture here is These are being set up globally, and then you'll have the digital embassies to help the countries that don't have data centers. And of course, they'll be running AI and everything. But I think the point is to have all of the data points connect. You mentioned, you know, flock, digital ID, the cashless financial system. And then that's what these data centers are going to be running, sort of this global algorithm ghetto or prison. If you guys have any further thoughts as what might be the big endgame or play here with these.

Yeah, that's, uh, that's really good. That's actually the first time I'm reading about it, reading on Tony Blair's site. So it says, at its most advanced, digital embassies are trying to preserve the operational capacity of the state, including identification, authentication. So yeah, it's— Jorge, your read is completely correct. And this is just the, the game plan that they've always had. This is why the World Bank would give countries like Nigeria $200 million to get their electronic ID program. They know a lot of these, um, developing countries can't do it. So now, great, they get to just offshore that capability to these, uh, these Western countries that have data centers. So it is one of those situations where there is no way around it. This thing is coming everywhere, and it's going to take mass non-compliance to, to, to really shut the door on this. We're going to have to create new systems, and that's what I hope that we really start doing. That's what Reclaim Future is, is really all about. How do we get people organized in a local area, and hopefully some of the resistant works— resistance work that takes place gets people thinking about how they can integrate their lives together outside of the data centers, outside of digital ID.

Yeah, you know, I just would kind of echo that. I, I'm one of the conspiracy theorists that think that this is definitely not just about, uh, consumer-grade, uh, you know, AI use, that the, the data centers are, I think, really the ultimate goal or the need for them is because of the growing surveillance state, because of the technocratic state. And, you know, we're launching the Reclaim Our Future initiative and we're not telling people what to think, you know, so we're sort of, we have a broad view of if you're concerned about data centers because of environmental reasons or water concerns or land rights, or you're just against AI, like, you know, welcome to the club, let's collaborate together. But I'll say from my personal perspective, I am most concerned with how this relates to the broader surveillance issue. We've touched on Flock a couple of times, and I know your audience is very familiar with facial recognition and all the different kinds of tools out there, the reality is that the more data they're collecting on us, the more storage space they need. And so if, you know, if we're living in a surveillance state where smartwatches and smartphones and Ring doorbell cameras and flock cameras and facial recognition and so on and so forth, smart cars and smart homes, and all this data is being gathered by both governments, law enforcement, and private companies, they need places to store that data. And then that is going to be, and that is these hyperscale AI data centers. So that to me is the big worrying picture, sort of how this interconnects to the broader technocratic state, surveillance state that many of us have been warning for years. And like I said, people don't have to— that doesn't have to be your number one reason. If you're more concerned about the damage to the environment, I think it's all relevant and all important to me. But I'm particularly concerned about that surveillance angle and helping people understand how these things are related.

You guys also mentioned noncompliance. So again, if people go to Reclaim, future.com, the day of action, which we'll talk about in a second. But what I think is important is the non-compliance, because we have seen, right, with the flock incidents recently, the flock vigilantes. And, you know, I do have to admit, it's pleasant to see that news. But I think one of the guys might be facing 18 years. if I'm not mistaken, in prison. Uh, and I know Jason Bassler has spoken on, uh, this, that I think always the way to go is non-violence, and one of the best, uh, forms is non-compliance. And there are different ways to achieve the same, uh, end. No?

Absolutely. And, and you have to look at how these things are rolled out. So I can't speak for Flock, but this all comes from decisions that are made at the local level. So city council or the county commissioner's office, this is what happens. These companies, whether it's a data center developer or Flock Safety, cozy up to them. It's not the residents of those counties that are getting to know their local officials. It's these companies that are wining, dining them, taking them out and telling them about the supposed economic impact these projects are gonna bring, or even the benefit to public safety. So it's that people in their local towns are not occupying these city council meetings, It's these companies that are taking over. And so, yes, although it is really pleasant to look at people taking down flock cameras, I mean, this is just— to me, it seems like an arms race. I think there's a reason why these flock cameras aren't already suited up with a 360-degree camera. I mean, if they wanted to catch people taking them down, they could definitely try harder. And I think we're going to see that. So it's almost like the more you try and take them down, the stronger these things get. So I really hope— I mean, for me, I feel it in my heart. The solution is people power. You just need so many people aware and talking about these things that we can kick these companies out of our town.

And yeah, go ahead.

Just, just one quick thing is that in the report at reclaimthefuture.com, there's actually a whole section about how to research locally. All right. One second, one second. Here we go. So there's a whole research, there's a process of how these data centers come into town. So if you understand the process, if you understand the legal process going from how they pick out a site to actually how they get the zoning permits and where you can stop them, that's where you can strategically apply that effort. So check that out and yeah, start doing it wherever you're at.

Yeah, I would just echo that, that I encourage everybody to visit reclaimfuture.com, not only to get involved in the effort we're trying to do. I don't know if we've mentioned it, but August 1st, We're really calling for people to come together around the country, but that also will link you to Hakeem's report and his map, which I think are great resources. And, and I share both of your sort of hard to not enjoy watch the flock cameras get destroyed. Like, you know, I'm, I'm from Houston, Texas originally, and oh, on July 4th, actually, somebody cut down a flock camera, spray painted it, and stuck an American flag in it. It went viral across the city. Then, you know, you go to those posts on the local news, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and all of the comments are positive. There's maybe one or two people saying these, you know, criminals shouldn't be allowed to destroy cameras. And, you know, granted, not all those people are from Houston. Things go viral across the internet. But I did do a little quick scan, and I would say about half of them were Houstonians or Houston area residents who were not, you know, not shedding tears for the destruction of, of flock cameras. And a couple days later, two more cameras were destroyed in the city. So it's hard not to sympathize and empathize with these efforts. I think it's just a sign of whether we're talking about the data centers flock or again, just broader surveillance that finally people seem to be concerned about it. And I say finally, because, you know, I've been doing this work for going on 17 years and I've been talking about privacy for years and I've always met resistance of people like, you know, the things I'm sure you guys have heard, oh, I have nothing to hide. Um, you know, just sort of these kind of post-9/11 propaganda. And that's frustrating because to me it always felt like this should be something everybody cares about. And it seems like we're now at that moment where people are exhausted. And yeah, I get the frustration. I get the anger and the desire to want to destroy these things. You mentioned a case of somebody facing 18 years. I don't know if it's the same one, but there's a Navy engineer actually based in Virginia. I can't remember his name right now, but he destroyed 13 flock cameras and he didn't even really try to hide it.

Yeah.

he explicitly said like, I'm doing this because it's unconstitutional. And now he's facing, you know, some charges. And actually people, supporters of his are paying his legal bills and, you know, they're like, hey, this guy's a hero. So it seems like the public, you know, court of public opinion is kind of shifting where even if people are like, yeah, I don't think we should be destroying them, they're getting more sympathy. And I wouldn't be surprised if people like this, if you choose jury trial, you end up with some jury nullification where people are like, we're not going to convict this person because we don't like these cameras. But ultimately, I think I think this is a sign that people are getting sick of it. And even outside of the destruction of the property, we do have successes. You know, LAPD, they just ended their contract with Flock. That makes LA the largest city in the United States to, you know, cancel this. That's a big step. And you got other smaller towns. So yeah, there are efforts that are successful. And it is, as Hakeem said, the people power. It's people showing up at meetings and just expressing their frustration and their anger. It's people trying to get politicians to listen. And then it's on the more extreme end, people destroying the cameras themselves. So I take this as a positive sign overall, even if I'm not necessarily going to go out there and be the one to destroy them. I'm not going to shame those who take that roach— that road.

Yeah, and I'll just add, uh, again, I recently had on Miranda Spivak. I think her book was Backroom Deals in Our Backyards. Um, again, she's coming, um, to your earlier point, and this is why I talk to everyone. I think there's something we can learn from everyone, left to right and beyond. It's not just left, right. There's people who are neither and libertarian, whatever. And she talks about accidental activists in her book. She looked at 5 cases of everyday people like us who there was a problem in their community and they didn't know what to do. But just by reading and researching hours and hours and days and days, they became sort of experts. And what you detail in the report, Hakeem, towards the end is like if people sat down and they saw the— learned the local processes in their jurisdiction, they kind of would become experts and figure out how to organize pushback. And again, just a recent personal example, you guys know the story I told before where my gated community, they brought in biometric exit and entry, and I said no, and they gave me a physical key. And just a week or 2 ago in the group discussion, You know, they there's a lot of joking amongst Mexicans. That's a good thing about Mexicans that they will laugh in the face of all you know this this madness. And someone posted, you know, we we just in this group chat we complained mostly about dog poop, our our internet connectivity, and someone said data privacy. And I'm like my action against the exit and entry biometric system from six months ago. It has now entered into the vernacular because one of the 3 points I said I'm not participating is because of data privacy. And now one of my NPC neighbors, I've normalized this idea in people's heads of data privacy, which no one thought about it before. So that's just kind of like one little seed. That's an example of how when you plant one little seed, how it can begin to bloom. And then everything that we've seen since that, I think that people have seen with the phone Mexican phone registries and everything. They've kind of seen like, oh yeah, he's not so crazy. Data privacy, we should think about that. And before asking you about that, Derek, because you wrote an article, do you guys, let's put on our tinfoil hats for a second. I've had a few recent guests, Eric Roberts, I've been on his show, he's been on mine. He tweeted something about Flock recently to the tune of those cameras are too obvious. You know, they're too obvious, they're big, they're being put up everywhere, people are taking them down. And then I chatted with Rima after the recording and we were talking about the data centers. What if these guys have plan Bs where Rima was tinfoil, tinfoil hatting that if they don't succeed with all of these data centers, will they be able to pivot? And I don't even know if it's possible the data centers in space or whether it's Flock. They might have another Flock-like option that's not as obvious where they don't need them so visible on, on posts. Maybe they have some hidden, more hidden type, uh, recording, uh, options. Do you guys have any thoughts on, on the elites, if they have a plan B if, if we do defeat Flock or data centers?

I think they always have a plan B. Um, you know, and since we're wearing our tinfoil hats, I have thought about that. It's, you know, it's funny because in our broader conspiracy reality investigative journalism, you know, truth movement, whatever you want to say, space, there's constantly this, this kind of line of thinking where something positive will be happening and somebody says, yeah, but what if this is for this other ulterior motive? And I get it because we should always be on guard. And sometimes it's also like, can we just celebrate a win for a moment? But I get the, you know, the paranoia, the righteous and justified paranoia of like, is there— because, for example, we know how they can suppress information with the algorithm. If they don't want something to go viral, they could suppress it. I would assume that if the powers that wish they were didn't want people talking about flock cameras and destruction, that the media wouldn't be reporting on it, that these stories would be taken down. You know, we've seen, of course, YouTube videos, all this stuff. Like, they could delete channels if they really wanted to try to silence things. Now, that might just create more, you know, the whole Barbra Streisand effect and create more, more people talking about it. Um, and maybe also just the reality is that this has become such a big issue that they can't ignore it anymore. But I do find myself, and I've seen other people asking that, saying like, why is Flock going so mainstream right now? Why are the data centers going mainstream? Maybe this is just an effort to track dissidents. You know, we hear them talking about anti-tech violent extremists. They say that people like us are being funded by China, which is funny considering other conversations, you know, but they're saying all these sorts of things. And I get why people would say like, is this being allowed to some degree? And then it's going to end up turning into something worse, like you're saying, where another surveillance tool pops on the scene and it's even worse than we could have ever imagined, and that's presented as a solution. Um, yeah, I don't claim to know, but I definitely think it's, it's legitimate to ask those questions and have those concerns.

I'm kind of, uh, of the opinion of both, that we should, uh, enjoy the wins but also, you know, keep an eye out on, um, some of that paranoia. And I don't know if you had any thought on that, Hakim.

As, you know, as the quote goes, there's levels to this, and this is, this is the surface level. And yes, let's, let's rejoice in the wins, but we can't ignore things like the American Broadband Deployment Act, which specifically talks about wireless infrastructure being protected and able to surpass any sort of local or environmental review. And if you read that bill, what they specify is that these wireless infrastructure, which could include camera but also 5Gs or microphones, are going to be installed on things like traffic lights and stoplights. And they're trying to make that process really, really streamlined and also prevent local jurisdictions from being able to push back. So we know this is the direction they're going. The other thing too is, is to look at, uh, to look at FIFA and now the normalization of, of anti-drone programs, right? Like, we are seeing the surveillance state come out as steam. So this is, this is just like gear up, you know. This is one of many, many things we're gonna have to push back, uh, pack against. And I, I guess it's a good feeling to finally have so many open minds to this. This is the time where we need to speak up. We need to bring this locally. This isn't just sit around talking about it on the internet. Like, please, can we, can we finish with that and actually go talk about it in our local cities, right? So right now we're looking at the map There are, there are no events on the map, but we're getting emails from people who are saying, hey, are there events in Sydney, Australia, or are there events in California? Well, hey, you know, this is, this is your time to shine. Add your event on the map here. We need people to step up and organize locally.

We nominate you. You've been nominated to organize this. Yeah, and just to add to that one more point on, on your, you know, the tinfoil hat question. Because this is something that I've asked myself for one particular reason, and that is because automatic license plate readers are not a new technology. This has been around for— I mean, I found some articles I wrote for Anti-Media in 2014, for Ben Swan's old-school Truth in Media website in 2015. So people like myself in the independent media and others have been warning about automatic license plate readers for over a decade and how this is a tool that could be used in a lot of negative ways. And I don't know if it just, you know, it wasn't the time. Like I said, people didn't care and now it is the time. So I'm not trying to be like, oh, why you guys weren't paying attention before? But again, it does make me ask if the technology's been over for around for over a decade and nobody was paying attention before, why in the last 6 months to a year is it now trending and is it everywhere? And it could just be as simple as the company that was the majority doing it before is called Vigilant Solutions. And I guess that doesn't roll off the tongue as easy as Flock. So maybe just the fact that Flock has become a major company in this now that it's more memorable and it's easier for people. But we also do have to remember, there's— to your point, um, there's other companies. There's Axon doing drone surveillance. I mean, there's so many other tools, right? We're, we're just kind of tackling one little piece of the surveillance state. Of course, the hope is that maybe this spirals into a larger awareness of, okay guys, you concerned about Flock? Well, let's look at all the other tools out here that are available to police departments and to governments, and let's start questioning those as well. Because, you know, it's not enough to just Let's get rid of the Flock cameras and assume, okay, our privacy has been saved. As everybody here knows, and I'm assuming most who will hear this are aware, we're dealing with a very integrated system that has been being built for decades at a time. And so Flock and automatic license plate readers are just one piece of that puzzle. Data centers, as I said earlier, are part of the sort of storage of the surveillance, the data gathered through surveillance. But we really have to tackle this as an entire system if we're really going to You know, have an impact on it.

You mentioned the the World Cup Croatia Portugal, and I again I did a little rant on this, and I think this is again the first time we're seeing this in in sport and World Cup. And I it's it's another example, I think, of a technocracy oligocracy, this sort of Borg taking over every element of our lives from entertainment and sport and culture. And World Cup was that was the example where it was like trust the science.

science.

Trust the experts, right? Trust the microchip sensor in the football. Trust the VAR system. And it's just destroying, taking, sucking the soul out of this game. And it's just, it feels like COVID all over again. And I have to correct myself. I said Eric Roberts, Jessica Roberts' brother. I meant Eric Rice, my guest, Eric Rice. Real quick on the Mexico registry, you did an article for T-Lab, Derek, and if Hakim's got any thoughts as well. So they've tried to implement the phone registry in Mexico 3 times over the past, I don't know what, 15 years. When I first came in 2010, I remember they had attempted it the second time and it's been pushed back until the fall and they've created tiers this time because they cannot suspend, technically they can't, they don't have the ability to suspend everyone at once. The mobile phone provider. So they've created tiers based on the ending of your phone number. I've heard some Mexicans say still that it won't be technically possible because, for example, the Mexican government has thousands of SIM cards for cameras that they use all throughout the infrastructure in Mexico. How are you going to register so many of these SIM cards? That's the silver lining. But I'm kind of of the opinion, given my worldview, that By hook or by crook, it's eventually going to get done. We're seeing the FCC now talk about doing this in the U.S., right? All Americans will have to register their cell phones with a government ID, legal name, and physical address. You know, I'm gonna—I hope I'm wrong. I could be wrong. I'm thinking they will push it through this fall, but they will suspend anyone who's not registered. this time. Um, but I could be wrong. And, uh, the— I think that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep pushing back because look what the pushback has brought us. We've got now this extension and from here until there, we don't know what's going to happen. So just any thoughts on, uh, what here on Mexico?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, uh, I hope you're wrong. Um, and I believe you probably will be wrong. That is my— I'm happy to be proven wrong. Well, I wouldn't be happy to prove him wrong, but I'm sure that, you know, that it could happen. But But as you know, I mean, you've been in Mexico longer than myself. I've only been living in Mexico 6 years, and I've got family in different parts of Mexico, and I've done quite a bit of interviewing folks and following Mexican media, as I know you do too, to try to keep up with this over the last year when this package of bills was first passed in summer 2025. And it was clear to me pretty much from the beginning, but also as the months got closer and closer, it's like some outlets said 10% of the country registered, 20%, 30%. The Mexican government claimed it was half the country. I don't buy that for a second. But nevertheless, yeah, it delayed. And so we'll see now. And I've seen some people say that the staggered approach that they're trying, as you as you mentioned, that's based on the last digit of your phone number. That maybe this is their approach to try to isolate. So you know how how many people might have their number ending in a zero? Maybe a few million or you know ten million or something. It's still quite a bit of people to just cut off. So I have trouble you know seeing them really trying to make this happen. And every Mexican that I've spoke to. That is on a month-to-month plan that's using a SIM card sort of prepaid thing either expresses outright distrust and just says, you know, they can't protect my data because as you know, man, you've been seeing these different data breaches that have happened over the last year just since they announced this whole program. There's been health records leaked and all kinds of other things. And so the Mexicans who are paying attention are looking at things like that and saying they want me to give them more of my information and they can't protect it. And, you know, as far as the calls for this is going to stop fraud and this is going to stop kidnappings, there's a lot of people who seem to be aware that, and from what I've heard, that the fraud calls are coming from the prisons. And this is because the prisons are, you know, in some cases this is where criminals go, and they can kind of like the mafia back in the US and, and back in the day where they're, you know, they're in prison but they're living pretty lavish lives and they're able to kind of still have access to things. And so the point is that these laws and this attempting to get people to register their information with their phone, people are aware this isn't going to fix the That this just seems to be another way for the government to get in their lives. So I'm skeptical that it's going to work. In addition to, as you know, that Sheinbaum has said, she said a few months ago that allegedly by the end of this year, they're going to have gas stations and toll booths stop accepting cash. I mean, that's 6 months from now. I don't see how they could completely transform the country with so many millions and millions of people using cash on a daily basis. Lots of the people just not fully plugged into the system for one reason or another, how they're going to transform it in this way. Maybe they will succeed by isolating individual numbers and smaller groups of people rather than taking on the whole country itself. But I hope not. And for me personally, I've kind of taken this as another opportunity. It's like, okay, they delayed it a little bit. Now let's keep talking to people because where we're at in Morelia, we have been going like we go to local markets every month and either set up and vend our avocados and stuff like that, or we just go and network with other people. And starting last summer, we were getting tables at these markets, and we had flyers about the biometric curb and flyers about the telephone registry and just trying to educate people. So to me, I sort of see this new window as an opportunity to try even harder because there's a few organizations in Mexico who are trying to raise awareness about this. But like you were saying earlier with the data centers, I was actually surprised that it didn't seem like there was a lot of conversation. And I think that's one important thing for people to understand. It's not like there was a mass protest movement in Mexico that stop this. It was just people dragging their feet and just saying, I'm not going to do it. There wasn't, you know, people in the streets saying, down with phone registration. It was just like, no, I'm not going to do that, I don't trust them. Or people like, I'm just gonna wait and see what happens. And, uh, you know, enough people were waiting and seeing, and the government's like, okay, we can't go through with this. We don't— you know, we're gonna, we're gonna have a riot if we turn off phones in the middle of the World Cup. So they backed off. So, so we'll see how it goes, but I'm, I'm optimistic at the Yeah, mass non-compliance.

And, and my, my joke on, uh, that recent story, you know, Juan Grillo, among many others, covered this Mexican activist. I guess he was prominent, he was on the feeds, Instagram, and he was covering corruption. I think it was in Guerrero, uh, of the corrupt local governments and narcos, um, uh, doing shady corrupt deals when it comes to real estate, environmental activism. And it just came out that 4 cops Kidnapped. So the Mexican government, the Mexican police, the Mexican government kidnapped and killed the journalist. And so my I was joking in typical Mexican, you know, tragic comedy humor. Register your cuerpo biométrico and and your phones so that the government can locate you, kidnap you, and kill you when required, when when when necessary. I mean, like that's proof positive speaking against. having to register. And I spoke to someone the other day. I went out and did buy one of these electronic tags for the highways, and they were telling me that when they tried to use it, they went back to cash because none of this works. Like, um, you know, he, he had it charged, he goes to the toll, the thing doesn't open. And now you know how it is, there's cars behind you, you got to pull out and go to the next lane and pay in cash. And then when he gets home, it charged him, But it didn't open, and then he had paid again in cash. And it's like it's just not working. Just a few more things to ask you.

Hi, this is Gabriel Custodiet, the primary instructor of the Escape the Technocracy Live Workshop. The website is ETT.live. You'll see exactly where it is from there. This is the event that I'm putting on with Hervoye of Geopolitics and Empire. Look, some of you have signed up, but not all of you. So I don't think that some of you understand what's going on. What's going on is we're trying to save you. We're trying to make you a contributing member of the resistance. You listen to Hervoye weekly talk about the technocracy, that technologically inclined tyranny, that present darkness that is enveloping you like a depressive fog. Hervoye's guests heroically expose all of this: the surveillance, the algorithm ghetto, the you'll own nothing and you'll be happy You know better than most what's coming, but I promise you, you don't know what to do about it. That's what the Escape the Technocracy live workshop is. In 3 hours of this live event, or the recording if you can't make it or want to rewatch it because of how dense it is, we explain the situation. We show you the tools, the private messengers, the open-source privacy tools, the VPNs. We explain how to vet these tools. We explain what exactly privacy means on the digital level. We talk about phone privacy. We discuss physical privacy that we have practiced and taught to clients literally running for their lives. This isn't just about privacy. It's about taking back ownership of your digital life. With open-source software, you can save yourself hundreds per year on big tech software licenses. You can use software that has transparent code that you can see You can start to use the internet as a freedom-oriented cypherpunk. This is information that could quite literally save your life. So if you've been listening to Geopolitics and Empire for even a few months and you're ready to give back to the show and you're ready to get something in return, go to ett.live, select the workshop, sign up. In doing so, you're contributing to Geopolitics and Empire, Ensuring that you continue to receive the information about what's going on, while at the same time knowing you have the tools to make that information matter in your own life. Again, that website is ETT dot live.

Would you know? I think we have one solution, and the one solution is we can move to Russia, guys. We can move to to the BRICS countries, right? To escape the algorithm ghetto. The the latest post from Riley, our friend Riley Wagaman, on his Telegram was this story. Give me one second about how in one part of Russia they're now deploying QR codes for gas stations issued exclusively via the Max Messenger Everything app, which is a carbon copy of the Chinese WeChat Everything app. And then you know amazing Polly commented on my post. She says Putin loves freedom, gas rationing edition. Mellowcat, who's been— no, not Mellowcat. Someone else says that they're all in on it. Putinstein, Trumpenstein, Mersenstein. Just any thoughts? And I know, Derek, you tweeted a month ago to the day. You said, if you're listening to independent media outlets and journals telling you that the BRICS or some variant of it are the savior to the Western-led old world order, you are being deceived. Don't fall for this latest psyop. And so just any thoughts on the whole BRICS is going to save us.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting you bring this up because I've been having conversations with Whitney, Whitney Webb and Ryan Christian. And of course, we helped found the Independent Media Alliance, which both of you guys are a part of, as well as others of our colleagues. And this is something that, as you guys know, in our private conversations, we've been discussing more and more how we're seeing this pushed by certain sectors of the so-called independent media who are either China-maxing or are, you know, Russia is a savior, or Iran is, you know, just whatever, whatever, insert favorite, uh, non-Western country is going to save the day. And, um, there's so many examples of where that's not true. The one you just mentioned in Russia is a prime example of that, and we could list off a whole litany of other policies in other areas where they're following the same same footsteps as the Western world order, and some cases even worse, right? Or maybe even, even faster. So yeah, I mean, that sentiment I shared is something I do feel strongly with, and I think it's going to become an increasingly important part of the Independent Media Alliance, that really for us what we're trying to say is that this is a transnational criminal oligarchy, and it's not just an American oligarchy or a Russian oligarchy or anything like that, that these As, as you've reported on many, many times in your work, um, at Geopolitics and Empire, like, there's, there's so much evidence that this is, uh, a superclass. This is transnational oligarchy that is above and beyond governments. And that includes the Chinese government, that includes the Russian government, that includes the American government, of course. And so for those who kind of fall into those rabbit holes that start promising them that these other countries are going to be the answer to, uh, American imperialism I just encourage you to be skeptical, to actually look at these types of policies that you're pointing out here, to really see what these countries are about, because they show their true colors by their actions, not in their anti-Western rhetoric.

Just look at what they do. Just look at the CCTV cameras in the Moscow, uh, Moscow train stations that are connected to people's digital identity and can snatch you up off the street using those cameras if you get signed up for the draft. Or by trying to shoehorn this complete digital identity and digital services app, Max, and shutting down alternatives like Telegram, which I'm not a huge fan of Telegram, but it is a pretty dirty move to shut down Telegram and WhatsApp to force your app on people that Russians do not want to use and have been memeing to find to just joke about how bad the app is. So yeah, just echoing everything that Derek said. transnational oligarchic criminal class is a really good way to describe it. It's coming everywhere. So I guess be the opposite to that wherever you are. You're the— what do you say in the intro of The Conscious Resistance? You are the resistance.

You are the resistance. I mean, that's the answer, right? I mean, that's why we're organizing this action here, this Reclaim Our Future, because we do feel like as we've been sort of emphasizing throughout this talk, that there's a moment that we're presented with right now. This is also why I'm on tour right now, because it's summer 2026. These people talk a lot about 2030. We're looking at, you know, 4 years here. That doesn't mean that we have a January 1st, 2030, and everything is, you know, every— the whole world's over. But we can see that they have gradual programs, incremental programs that are rolling out— digital ID programs, CBDCs, stablecoins, surveillance, etc. And so we have a moment here. We have a moment here to not fall for these psyops like the you know, the, the BRICS are going to save us, or multipolar order and this sort of stuff, and instead to focus on how we can actually push back. And so we're, we're really trying to do that. And really, I would say that Reclaim Our Future at reclaimfuture.com is part of a broader effort of everything we've been talking about today— the resistance against flock cameras, the resistance against data centers, the resistance against the technocratic state in general. We're just trying to step into that space and say maybe it's time we put aside the partisan you know, BS and come together. And also, I will say the reason we're choosing this timing of August 1st, um, because there's already lots of protests and actions happening, but I'm— we're like hoping we can bring together different groups who are already doing this, some who are exclusively focused on progressives or exclusively focused on conservatives, and say let's come together for one single day. And also very much with the awareness that in a couple of months the US is going to have the midterm elections, and elections tend to be a great divisive time. So we wanted to sort of of get this in before the whole election, you know, party fighting starts. And yeah, we hope people will be a part of it 'cause this is, I think, a worthy effort and it'll probably be the first of many to come. You know, we don't expect that on August 1st people are gonna come together, protests, marches, rallies, educational events, and then all the data centers are gonna stop. But we hope that it'll be one more step in that direction and then we'll see what comes after that.

It's the first of many efforts. And through our work and you, Jovore, we have so many educational resources that people can step up and be the experts in their local areas. I mean, you know, everyone is looking for leadership right now. And so this is your time to shine. Go on reclaimfuture.com and add your event to the map. It doesn't have to be a super formal thing. It could be as simple as inviting a few people over to a public space, a park. and just reviewing the report I wrote or reviewing some of Derek's works about flop cameras in the data centers. It could be really, really simple. And that's where it starts. And remember, don't put yourself at risk. Don't go to jail. We need you out of jail to work with us.

Yeah. And just one last thing on that real quick. I just wanna mention what kind of what you touched on earlier, Hakeem, that this is a new movement. We literally just launched in the last week. So we're starting to get emails and interest and some of our friends in the independent media are helping us promote it and we hope others will participate. But go on there and there's no need to email us and ask us if your, if your local city has a protest. If you don't see it on there, that means we nominate you. You're the one who has to start it. Don't hesitate. We need more people to step up. And if you take that initiative of just planting that flag and saying, okay, I'm going to host an event in Phoenix, Arizona, or wherever else, people are probably going to show up because there's probably other people just like you waiting for someone to step up. So be the one to start that change in your community and let's see what happens.

And it's not just, um, August 1st. That's sort of like the, the kickoff, right? So the idea is people can—

Exactly.

August 1st, later, you know, anytime after that, um, in their town or city organize event, and then they put it on that map, and then everyone else, um, learning about this can go to that map and see, oh, I've got one in my city, I'm gonna go check, go attend it, or there's not one in my city, I'm gonna go and organize Absolutely.

Yeah. And, and August 1st is, is the day. So if you are going to hold an event, hold it on August 1st, and I'm sure we'll have more waves of events after that.

And yeah, uh, and over time, hopefully you can, uh, expand, uh, the map to, I, I guess, anyone in the world. It's, it's, uh, just the US, the map, or it's, uh, global?

We're starting with the US, but really, I mean, we don't want to discourage people. Like, if, uh, you know, feel free to email us if you're outside of the US. and this is something you're passionate about and your country is, you know, headed in the same direction as the US. Obviously, we're kind of focused on the US being that the US is building so many data centers and outpacing other countries 10 to 1. But there are definitely other countries around the world doing this. And so, yeah, feel free to reach out to us if you have a concern. I'm sure we can figure that out and help you promote your action as well.

People can just simply copy your idea and recreate some version of that in their country, right, in their language. All right, well, um, we've all got a lot of, uh, work to do. Uh, if you guys got any final thought, or just— I— the websites, uh, again, uh, remind us where to go to.

Yeah, I'll just say thanks again, brother, for having us on. And, uh, if you want to find me on tour, activationtour.org. Visit reclaimfuture.com and you can find out more about what we're doing. And if you want to follow my work at theconsciousresistance.com, we're the last AmericanVagabond.com, and I'll see you guys out there. To the resistance!

Bless up.