AI DATA CENTERS ARE NOT SANTA CLAUS

The Artificial Intelligence industry (AI) looks at our beautiful Great Lakes region, Michigan, as if we Michiganders have no “intelligence,” artificial or otherwise, as if we are a bunch of rubes and country bumpkins just sittin’ around, smoking’ pipes, chewing tobacco and waiting to get exploited. Anachronistically, and sarcastically, my Irish Grandmother would say, “watch those AI guys; they’ll trade you an apple for an orchard, any day of the week.” How right Grandma was back then and how right Nancy Kaffer is now in her recent exposé, Whitmer treats AI like jobs policy— it’s bigger (Sunday’s 6/7/2026 Free Press).

We Michiganders are not “exploitees” just sitting around the campfire waiting for AI conglomerates to come in and gobble us up, grab our land, drain our aquifers and electricity, poison our soil, raise our utility rates and give us substandard wages… with some Michigan politicians even willing to entice the AI conglomerates with tax abatements as a “thank you for screwing Michiganders.” Kind of like “tipping” the oil industry for their kindness in keeping gas prices between $5 and $6 a gallon.

I am a Governor Whitmer fan, but Big Gretch, we Michiganers are not going to sell our soul to Big AI and despoil our Michigan the Beautiful in the process. We are not that desperate that we’ll exchange our utopian, Great Lakes region for AI dystopia. And for that 49% of Michiganders open to massive AI Data Centers in Michigan, let’s wise up before it’s too late. We aren’t Jethro Bodine and AI isn’t Santa Claus. And, as the Michigan Republican investigation found out, Trump was not cheated out of the 2020, Michigan election.

We all grew up believing in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. But, there comes a time when men and women of Ordinary Intelligence (OI) must reject political “indoctrination,” start thinking for themselves and let go of the belief that AI conglomerates and sprawling data centers are our friends, come down to Earth just to enrich us and make our American dream come true.

What is happening ??? Rome is burning. Take off your red baseball cap. Get off you derrieres. Start informing yourselves and start fighting for what you know is right, not what the Orange Man tells you is right for him and his billionaire, AI, crony-capitalist, American Oligarchs. As that tough, Chicago kid of mixed blood, Leo XIV, would tell us, start with the Golden Rule and go from there. And, if you are not willing to live by the Golden Rule, then abandon the pretext of your Christianity altogether.

Man, life is tough. Full of sidewinders, side-trackers, cons, charlatans and their, red hat supporters.