“Trump’s real base of support — the billionaires, Big Oil, Big Tech and AI, Big Crypto, defense contractors, and Wall Street — know that the midterm elections may limit what they and Trump can get away with starting a year from now.
So, 2026 could be the last year they can cash in. This means they’re likely to loot America even more this year than in 2025.
Big Oil just cashed in big. By taking over Venezuela, Trump effectively gave America’s biggest oil companies the world’s largest proven oil reserves — estimated at around 303 billion barrels, roughly one-fifth of total global oil reserves.” - excerpt from a status Robert Reich put up on fb. Could be on Substack too
great point Mr. Hands, the wealthy oligarchs especially the oil companies are licking their chops at the prospect of Venezuelan oil being under their control. And we know how much influence they have on DT's policies and actions. The rich get richer, and everyone else pays the price
From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”:
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
great point gladwyn, and I think those three terrible triplets are all significant issues faced by our society today. And the corporations do their best to convince us that materialism is the solution to our problems, when in fact, it exacerbates them
Yes a sad, irrelevant, old man fighting VERY hard to be relevant. Repeating history, unoriginally, to stay in a position of power so nobody else can get anything productive done. Ready and willing to take everybody down with them. In fact destroying the entire planet and concept of democracy and world peace as they attempt to look powerful.
Yea same page. Same old story. Just wish someone in the checks and balances would actually do something about it. But it appears everyone is more comfortable riding his coattails until it directly impacts them.
I’m painfully aware and I don’t know what to do anymore. I just don’t know. I’m sick with disappointment and shame. I see little hope for the younger generations because he’s just about gambled everything that was left to make any sort of future for America. And the wealthy will be fine. It’s the rest of us that would be left to deal with whatever is left here.
As usual— it’s embarrassing more than anything. Shameful for the impact it has on those in the crosshairs. Really just a pathetic display. Is this the Great America? Is Great America in the room with us? What about checks and balances? Are the checks and balances in the room with us?
Oil, more oil, and even more oil$$$!! ... In the case of Iran, there has been a predictable American-UK proclivity for sanctioning the nation, its officials and even their allies since the Iranian Revolution, resulting in, among other negative impacts, reduced oil production revenue by the country long-demonized by much of the West.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution's expulsion of major Western nations was in large part due to British and American companies exploiting Iran's plentiful fossil fuel. The expulsion may have been a big-profit-losing lesson learned by the ‘energy’-corporation heads, one that they, via intense lobbyist influence over the relevant governments in Washington and London, would resist reoccurring anywhere globally.
It would be understandable if those corporate fossil-fuel interests would like Iran’s government to fall thus re-enabling their access to Iran’s resources. Thus, if Iran were to militarily surrender to Western forces thus big corporate interests, soon-enough afterwards it will also be compelled to surrender access to much of its vast fossil fuel reserves to American and British ‘energy’ companies. Those corporations, and likely Israel’s government/interests as well, know there's still much to be effectively appropriated.
The U.S./British invasion and prolonged occupation of Iraq (2003-11) very likely were viciously violent acts largely motivated by such Western insatiable corporate greed. According to AI Overview (for what it's worth), “some [U.S.] companies did secure lucrative contracts for oil services and exploration in Iraq following the war.” Also, “British oil companies, particularly BP, significantly benefited from the Iraq War by gaining access to and exploiting Iraq's vast oil reserves.”
I read/heard nothing in the mainstream news-media about these post-war foreign fossil-fuel-corporation incursions into Iraq; and I doubt that the morally-/ethically-challenged news outlets would objectively/fully report on similar big-business incursions into a post-war-defeat Iran.
.
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
“It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game — somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made; it’s simply transferred — from one perception to another. Like magic.”
(the morbidly greedy and corrupt bank-financier character Gordon Gekko in 'Wall Street', 1987)
I hope we are all on the exact same page now. You are clear about what's happening, right?
“Trump’s real base of support — the billionaires, Big Oil, Big Tech and AI, Big Crypto, defense contractors, and Wall Street — know that the midterm elections may limit what they and Trump can get away with starting a year from now.
So, 2026 could be the last year they can cash in. This means they’re likely to loot America even more this year than in 2025.
Big Oil just cashed in big. By taking over Venezuela, Trump effectively gave America’s biggest oil companies the world’s largest proven oil reserves — estimated at around 303 billion barrels, roughly one-fifth of total global oil reserves.” - excerpt from a status Robert Reich put up on fb. Could be on Substack too
Spot on Derek
great point Mr. Hands, the wealthy oligarchs especially the oil companies are licking their chops at the prospect of Venezuelan oil being under their control. And we know how much influence they have on DT's policies and actions. The rich get richer, and everyone else pays the price
Everybody driving and flying may get the imperial hubris but participates none the less in the process of Empire despite BDS.
It's true.
From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”:
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
great point gladwyn, and I think those three terrible triplets are all significant issues faced by our society today. And the corporations do their best to convince us that materialism is the solution to our problems, when in fact, it exacerbates them
agreed agreed agreed
I am glad you see it Marsha
When a criminal gets away with one crime, he commits another. Does anyone expect this felon to stop? Next Greenland, then Mexico, then Canada.
Absolutely correct Lewis. Gaza is what taught them this.
Or perhaps, they created Gaza to teach us this.
It has always seemed a good idea to have someone say the quiet parts out loud. Maybe the quiet parts are far worse than we ever imagined.
Yes a sad, irrelevant, old man fighting VERY hard to be relevant. Repeating history, unoriginally, to stay in a position of power so nobody else can get anything productive done. Ready and willing to take everybody down with them. In fact destroying the entire planet and concept of democracy and world peace as they attempt to look powerful.
Yea same page. Same old story. Just wish someone in the checks and balances would actually do something about it. But it appears everyone is more comfortable riding his coattails until it directly impacts them.
I’m painfully aware and I don’t know what to do anymore. I just don’t know. I’m sick with disappointment and shame. I see little hope for the younger generations because he’s just about gambled everything that was left to make any sort of future for America. And the wealthy will be fine. It’s the rest of us that would be left to deal with whatever is left here.
As usual— it’s embarrassing more than anything. Shameful for the impact it has on those in the crosshairs. Really just a pathetic display. Is this the Great America? Is Great America in the room with us? What about checks and balances? Are the checks and balances in the room with us?
Oil, more oil, and even more oil$$$!! ... In the case of Iran, there has been a predictable American-UK proclivity for sanctioning the nation, its officials and even their allies since the Iranian Revolution, resulting in, among other negative impacts, reduced oil production revenue by the country long-demonized by much of the West.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution's expulsion of major Western nations was in large part due to British and American companies exploiting Iran's plentiful fossil fuel. The expulsion may have been a big-profit-losing lesson learned by the ‘energy’-corporation heads, one that they, via intense lobbyist influence over the relevant governments in Washington and London, would resist reoccurring anywhere globally.
It would be understandable if those corporate fossil-fuel interests would like Iran’s government to fall thus re-enabling their access to Iran’s resources. Thus, if Iran were to militarily surrender to Western forces thus big corporate interests, soon-enough afterwards it will also be compelled to surrender access to much of its vast fossil fuel reserves to American and British ‘energy’ companies. Those corporations, and likely Israel’s government/interests as well, know there's still much to be effectively appropriated.
The U.S./British invasion and prolonged occupation of Iraq (2003-11) very likely were viciously violent acts largely motivated by such Western insatiable corporate greed. According to AI Overview (for what it's worth), “some [U.S.] companies did secure lucrative contracts for oil services and exploration in Iraq following the war.” Also, “British oil companies, particularly BP, significantly benefited from the Iraq War by gaining access to and exploiting Iraq's vast oil reserves.”
I read/heard nothing in the mainstream news-media about these post-war foreign fossil-fuel-corporation incursions into Iraq; and I doubt that the morally-/ethically-challenged news outlets would objectively/fully report on similar big-business incursions into a post-war-defeat Iran.
.
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
“It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game — somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made; it’s simply transferred — from one perception to another. Like magic.”
(the morbidly greedy and corrupt bank-financier character Gordon Gekko in 'Wall Street', 1987)
I really appreciate your content!
It's my honor
When do we get to see the details of his plan to run Venezuela? Or is the plan that the oil companies will do it? Seems a bit vague, or is it me?
They have no real plan other than stealing the oil.