Under the Clintons, Obama, Biden, and Trump, the same revolving door between the White House and corporate boardrooms has produced identical outcomes: endless war, rising inequality, and bailouts for the rich while working families struggle. Their feuds are theatre; their policies differ only in style, all of these grifters are in service to the oligarchs who fund their campaigns. U.S. politics has thus failed the people entirely, offering no real choice between two wings of the same ruling party. A “None of the Above” movement, rejecting left-right stereotypes, is therefore essential — not as a third party, but as a constitutional reset. Only by abandoning the current political model can we restore government by the people, for the people, as the Constitution intended.

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 17 2026 10:09 utc | 4

For year-to-date the largest US export to China (and in aggregate) has been gold bullion. That tells you everything you need to know of competitiveness and the state of the export economy. Now there are a lot of rumors flying around of an upcoming massive gold-revaluation, perhaps occurring by year end.

KING KONG himself (Eric Yeung) joins The SilverTrade Insider from Hong Kong to break down Trump’s HISTORIC TRADE VISIT TO CHINA.
Is a truely MASSIVE trade deal involving rare earths and SILVER about to go down!?!
Eric maintains that Trump may be about to SQUEEZE CHINA ON SILVER- sending silver prices SOARING!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqrC_-NEFcI

Posted by: unimperator | May 17 2026 10:12 utc | 6

@4 Lev, Don’t forget Bush.

Posted by: par4 | May 17 2026 10:30 utc | 8

Doubt the high gas, oil and fertilizer price will do much to help US main street economy, only Wall Street economy.

Posted by: unimperator | May 17 2026 10:35 utc | 10

Uh huh. Prices are sufficient for increased profit on sharply reduced supply, but oil importers like China and the EU are supposedly doing great. The propaganda is getting dumber, and the sheep are being fleeced nicely.

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | May 17 2026 10:52 utc | 12

Contrary to neoliberal economics price does not create supply.
 
 
Posted by: too scents | May 17 2026 10:58 utc | 13
 
And you’re quite wrong. Lots of American oil is only viable past the $80-100 mark, whereas the Gulf states generally profit even at $60. Conversely, oil below $60 a barrel in January 2026 is bad for almost all producers and great for net importers.
 
Yet buying expensive oil would be better for many countries than not having it at all: transport and plastic production shuts down as oil supply decreases. Which underlines the farce of some countries claiming they have stockpile big enough to cover months of production while oil imports plummet. Hah.

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | May 17 2026 11:12 utc | 14

Who said “price creates supply”? Need a reference with name and date else you are just making stuff up. For that matter who is “Neoliberal” and what does it mean?

Posted by: Tel | May 17 2026 11:34 utc | 16

else you are just making stuff up. 
 
Posted by: Tel | May 17 2026 11:34 utc | 16
 
—
 
Are you also confusing necessary for sufficient conditions, as well as present and future expectations?
 

Posted by: too scents | May 17 2026 11:39 utc | 18

If you make a claim then prepare to back the claim when you are called out … not hard to understand.

Posted by: Tel | May 17 2026 11:50 utc | 20

not hard to understand.
 
Posted by: Tel | May 17 2026 11:50 utc | 20
 
—
 
Price is a necessary condition for supply, but it alone is not sufficient.  It is not hard to understand that future expectations often fall short.
 

Posted by: too scents | May 17 2026 11:54 utc | 22

   Hopefully the war will end soon and prices will go down.  I DO SUPPORT WHAT TRUMP is doing, fighting for American sovereignty with this war.  Unlike with BIDEN KILLING THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE AND SIGNING THE GREEN NEW DEAL (scam) that skyrocketed inflation as well but with no possible good outcome for the United States.

Posted by: Fortuna | May 17 2026 12:18 utc | 24

I’m with George (9) . I smell shenanigans . Ramping up Venezuelan oil production would be difficult and expensive . The may have had increasing prices for their existing oil production , but you can bet the farm that US are creaming off the top . So much fake news that its overloading my BS filter .  Trying to play BS bingo with Trumps posts is a very short game…..

Posted by: The fossil | May 17 2026 12:22 utc | 26

I note that Iraq and Venezuela both have their sales of oil taken from them, sent to the US who then decides what it will allow the respective Governments to have back. Kuwait is still paying war “reparations” although they no longer sell oil.
 
Who exactly is is profitable for in the US? Corporations, Trump, the Treasury?

Posted by: Stonebird | May 17 2026 12:29 utc | 28

The US showed, that you can’t rely on Arab countries. Besides oil and gas,  the biggest Helium producer and the biggest producer for epoxy (which is needed for circuit boards) got heavily damaged. As a result, computer hardware will become even more expensive.
 
As the US are producing Helium themselves they will become the biggest providers and the chemical industry will also move away from the Arabs back to Western countries, because it got proven, how easily things get destroyed just because one believes in the wrong successor of the Prophet.
 
The Arabs will become shithole gas stations nobody wants to deal with besides buying oil and LPG and the US will get the chemical industry back.
 
So much for Trump is an idiot 🤣

Posted by: Ali | May 17 2026 12:38 utc | 30

Meanwhile, Israel gets the second position in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The more you kill, the more you are rewarded.
No hope.

Posted by: scc | May 17 2026 12:43 utc | 32

Posted by: Fortuna | May 17 2026 12:18 utc | 24
I think your red baseball cap has slipped down over your eyes to the point that you’re struggling to see what is going on. As I said continuing this red v blue nonsense will not improve the situation of the American people or the people of the world.
Youve just stated that you support this US Israeli war on Iran which on day one included the bombing of a girls school. Setting aside these war crimes, explain to us one way in which this illegal act of aggression (the war you support) is helping ordinary people in the USA.
Absolutely do not bore us with tales of how bad Biden was. We know that already.
i didn’t forget the Bushes. I just didn’t think they were worth mentioning. 

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 17 2026 12:51 utc | 34

The US could ” issue ” a trillion , gazillion , billion , billion , million, million and one cent.
 
Anytime it wants to as the US government is the ” issuer ” of the $. It’s written in very simple English on both sides of a $ bill. Where it came from and who ” issued ” it.
 
So it NEVER needs to earn money as it creates it.
 
Households , businesses the ” users ” of the $ . That’s a whole different ballgame. You have to earn $’s by offering your services to earn $. To pay your tax or you go to jail.
 
Thus taxing in $’s drives the currency.  Why they tax in the first place. Pay your taxes or go to jail. That’s all the enforcement they ever need to give ” value “to otherwise a bit of paper.
 
They could tax you in paperclips. It would have the same effect. Suddenly everybody would need paperclips to pay their tax or go to jail.
 
The lie is your taxes fund the government of course. When nothing could be further from the truth. If the government gives YOU the very thing you need to pay the tax. Then they are funding you and not the other way around.
 
 

Posted by: Andrew | May 17 2026 13:00 utc | 36

Yes yes Israel’s still observing the Gaza ceasefire.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20260516/idf-confirms-assassination-of-hamas-military-chief-in-gaza-1124135015.html

Posted by: Surferket | May 17 2026 13:10 utc | 38

primarily weakens rival industrial powers—Europe first and foremost, but also Asian rivals. The U.S. may appear temporarily militarily vulnerable; geostrategically, however, this very crisis could strengthen its position – Lars Lange 
Posted by: Apollyon | May 17 2026 13:11 utc | 39
 
No Asian “rivals” were weakened. The weakened ones are nobodies. China does not care at all, all its ships travel fine and anything they want is right at the border in Russia. It is their choice to import shit from Australia, not a necessity. Europe is not a rival and never was. EU is an American invention anyway, you’ve seen how nicely pfuzer did thanks to friend Ursula and her husband.
Try to cope harder, “Lars”

Posted by: rk | May 17 2026 13:20 utc | 40

American oligarchy is a nosferatu: it needs constantly blood, does strikes a pray and sucks it dry, then turns into another. There is no concept of beneficial for all parts collaborative partnerships. An American needs to dominate and take the biggest share no matter what. What happens when you impoverish everybody around is that you no longer will have a sufficient consumer base to buy your products. American energy and manufactures items, like for instance weaponry, are very expensive because 1) the financial economy wants always more and more profits so prices must got up in order to feed the ascending speculative spiral 2) high level of life and cost of life means sales must be at higher price point than elsewhere in order to sustain lifestyle.
what is done to EU in order to cut it from Eurasia and force it into buying expensive American energy and weapons, induces a general lowering of buying power among EUpans, hence progressively, lesser ability to buy American. That’s how a nosferatu runs out of blood.
 

Posted by: Timur | May 17 2026 13:46 utc | 42

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z76vV5LqYMkThis 1981 Film Warned Us… But We Never Listened!Lu Mazing1981 film My Dinner with Andre
.
We are bored. We’re all bored now. But has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money?
.This clip genuinely sent shivers down my spine. What really got me is the fact that this movie was made over four decades ago and yet everything he’ssaying sounds so painfully relevant today and that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks. And it’s not just a question of individual survival, Wall-E, but that somebody who’s bored is asleep and somebody who’s asleep will not say no.
.See, I keep meeting these people. I mean, uh, just a few days ago, I met this man whom I greatly admire.He’s a Swedish physicist, Gustaf Bjornstrand, and he told me that he no longer watches television. He doesn’t read newspapers, and he doesn’t read magazines.You don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed. He’s completely cut them out of his life because he really doesfeel that we’re living in some kind of Orwellian nightmare now and that everything that you hear now contributes to turning you into a robot.
.The crazy part is this sounds less like a movie scene and more like real life now.See, I think it’s quite possible that the 1960s represented the last burst of the human being before he was extinguished and that this is the beginning of the rest of the future now.
.That from now on there’ll simply be all these robots walking around feeling nothing, thinking nothing. And there’ll be nobody left almost to remind them that there once was a species called a human being with feelings and thoughts and that history and memory are right now being erased. and soon nobody will really remember that life existed on the planet.
.What honestly makes this scene so unsettling to watch is the fact that this film came out in 1981. And yet almost everything he’s describing feelslike it perfectly reflects the world we’re living in over four decades later in 2026.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | May 17 2026 16:35 utc | 44

its a big club
 
 
and you get bashed with it.

Posted by: UWDude | May 17 2026 17:06 utc | 46

47 corrected:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2026/05/14/trump-self-dealing-corruption

Posted by: John Gilberts | May 17 2026 17:13 utc | 48

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 17 2026 10:09 utc | 4
 
Under the Clintons, Obama, Biden, and Trump, the same revolving door between the White House and corporate boardrooms has produced identical outcomes: endless war, rising inequality, and bailouts for the rich while working families struggle. Their feuds are theatre…
 
 
Lev, as others have reminded, this misleading political theatre which play red against blue goes way back.
 
 
 
Paul Volcker, born in 1927, began his political career in 1963 in the Johnson administration. He revolved between positions in the private banking sector and government for the remainder of his public career. He served both Red and Blue administrations, illustrating that these class power relationships form a big club and we ain’t in it no matter the color of one’s hat.
 
Volcker recalled his most memorable act as when he advised the Nixon administration to abandon the gold standard window in 1971.  Some may remember it as Volcker’s penultimate infamous act, setting in place prerequisites for the 1973 funding scheme of the petrodollar which financially empowered the imperial state to embark on its deadly, cruel, barbaric forever wars without directly taxing its people who would have rebelled.
 
Jimmy Carter – the peanut farmer,  brought Volcker into his administration. (Volcker’s policies several years later bankrupted many small and mid-sized US farmers. RedBlue. The 1982 farm depression)
 
Whilst serving under Carter, Volcker made his infamous speech at Warwick University on November 9, 1978 where he said,
 

“A controlled demolition of the global economy is a legitimate object for the 1980s.”

 
Volcker’s Fred Hirsch Memorial Lecture commemorated the economist Fred Hirsch who, under the sponsership of the NY Council on Foreign Relations, was a major author of its 1977 study, “Alternatives to Monetary Disorder,” a many volume study in which Hirsch advocated controlled demolition of the global economy.
 
Hirsch pioneered contemporary neoliberalism as implemented under the administrations of Carter and Reagan, a policy of odious global reach.
 
In 1979 Carter appointed Volcker to head the Federal Reserve.
 
By December 1980 Volcker had skyrocketed the federal interest rate to 21.5%, precipitating economic misery at home and in other countries holding dollar-denominated debt.  Economic war of the classes. No blue or red line.  No domestic or foreign lines.  The banker cartel won.
 
Economic sanctions imposed by the dollar game masters over the past ~30 years have caused ~ 28 million  deaths, as many as hot wars. Look up study.
 
How many deaths were caused by the “Volcker Shock” in which extreme austerity was imposed on “third world countires?” I have not seen a study on that but it may exist.
 
~~
 
It was and is now known that the dollar empire’s aggressive war on Iran would result, is resulting, in severe supply chain shocks which are rippling throughout the global economy causing immiseration  for many. It looks intentional.
 
~~
I started writing when there were only a few comment. Now there are many which I haven’t read so I hope i am not being redundant. Have to run. Literally. 

Posted by: suzan | May 17 2026 17:19 utc | 50

As Daniel Davis asked yesterday, if we’re self-sufficient as Trump brags, then why are fuel prices so high and where’s an excess profits ax on the oil majors? And then there’s the very obvious insider trading that’s not being investigated. Someone upthread claimed the $45 Billion in extra fuel tariff was merely an additional $100/person but that’s very incorrect since only about 290 million people drive on a regular basis, which computes to $155/person many of whom have no room for higher fuel prices in their budget. And then the higher fuel price increases the cost of most everything else one needs. And we’re only dealing with the US economy; many in the world are much worse off.  

Posted by: karlof1 | May 17 2026 18:03 utc | 52

I couldn’t help noticing how Smug Xk Jinping looked whilst escorting Trump around the sights of China. It was Almost Obvious that he was planning to send Trump Home with a parcel of Empty Daydreams.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 17 2026 18:47 utc | 54

Over a six month period from Dec 2025 US energy giant Chevron formed contracts with Israel, Syria, Crete and Greece for control of a half trillion dollar gas resource called the Levantine Basin. This with full backing of the US and Israeli governments. At the first Gaza Board of Peace Summit, oil and gas rigs suddenly appeared on the corporate advertisements of “New Gaza.” So Trump will take his share there. The Palestinians will get nothing.
 
https://consortiumnews.com/2026/05/11/an-armed-robbery-of-the-worlds-energy-supply/
 

Posted by: Fred | May 17 2026 20:46 utc | 56

Trump, his cronies and big Oil.
 
Oil companies are making billions from Iran war while Americans suffer at the pump
 
Shell’s profit beats expectations at $6.9 billion, raises dividend by 5% | Reuters

Posted by: Suresh | May 17 2026 21:32 utc | 58

It looks intentional.
 Posted by: suzan | May 17 2026 17:19 utc | 50
 
It is.
 
While we are all distracted with Iran and Hormuz and Trump touring Xi’s garden, zioIsrael is consuming southern Lebanon.
 
The Greater Israel Project continues.
 
——-
 
It was maybe 2014 when I first read about the East Med gas field and Israel’s plan to supply energy to EU.
 
Scoffers scoffed that developing the East Med was a {pun} pipe dream, and astronomically expensive and it could never compete against cheap Russian gas.
 
I did note that one of the appointees to Trump’ 2016 team was an East Med gas specialist, Papadopolous, who got into the RussiaRussiaRussia headlines when he had drinkies with Australia’s Man in Mi6, Alexander Downer.
 
Given Papadopolos, as an East Med lobbyist was obviously an Israeli asset, I wondered why he was targeted by Downer, or maybe he was just collateral damage.
 
 
Anyway. 2014 is a looooong time ago,and here we are.
Russian gas has almost exited the EU market, NS2 is in the rearview mirror, and plans for the East Med gasfield are progressing nicely.
 
Gaza will be filled with exclusive seaside condos, and southern Lebanon/Israel border region is needed for the pipeline connection.
 
 
It is indeed, all planned.  And even when we are told plainly what the plans are, decades ahead, we laugh and scoff, “yeah, sure Jan +  (eyeroll)”

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 17 2026 22:45 utc | 60

Collectively, what are we going to do about it?  (There is no individual, non class solution). That’s the only question remaining. 
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | May 17 2026 17:16 utc | 49
 
The Not Fucking Around Coalition (NFAC) are on the case. Look after your own first. 

Posted by: unsightfulviews | May 17 2026 23:49 utc | 62

 
The Not Fucking Around Coalition (NFAC) are on the case. Look after your own first. 
 
Posted by: unsightfulviews | May 17 2026 23:49 utc | 62th
 
they were on the rise in Georgia before one of the leaders literally shot himself in the foot during a march.

Posted by: UWDude | May 18 2026 3:21 utc | 64

@Melaleuca | May 17 2026 22:18 utc | 59
“Storing Data in DNA (Synthetic Biology)
 Scientists have successfully encoded existing digital files (such as text, images, or computer operating systems) into synthetic, non-living strands of DNA outside the body. DNA is highly stable and incredibly dense, making it a potential future medium for data archiving.The Reality: This is done in vitro (in test tubes or silicon chips in laboratories), not in vivo (inside a living human). You cannot upload a digital ID into the DNA of a living person”
I asked what additional circumstances are required to actually insert text in vivo in human DNA.
It seemed very complicated. I mention one fragment: “To make it permanent, you would have to edit stem cells deep inside the bone marrow.”

Posted by: petergrfstrm | May 18 2026 8:38 utc | 66

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 17 2026 10:09 utc | 4
the construction was written by slave holding, child raping oligarchs who were dissatisfied with the UK wanting them to hold off on the genocide and conquest of the natives. If you want a government ‘of by and for the people’ the US constitution ain’t it. Only oligarchs are people under the US constitution.

Posted by: Badjoke | May 18 2026 17:50 utc | 68