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Rising Venezuelan Oil Exports Help Insulate The US From Energy Crisis

If the primary purpose behind the Trump Administration's snatch-and-grab operation against the illegitimate president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, was not readily apparent in January, it should be crystal clear today.  Under Maduro, around 75% of the country's energy exports were going to China.  This year, the US will be receiving around 50% of the oil supply while China's share is reduced to 10%.   

The stunning shift in the direction of oil shipments is helping to insulate the US from shortages caused by the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  Likely, this was part of the plan from the very beginning.  However, the real benefits of the new relationship with Venezuela will not be readily apparent until the end of this year. 

Prices at the gas pump for Americans are high since the start of the war with an average of $4.30 per gallon, but decidedly tame compared to most of Europe.  The UK is currently at $8 per gallon and Germany at $9.30 per gallon.  A portion of these crushing prices is owed to Europe's abusive energy taxation model and carbon agenda, but another big factor is Europe's lack of strategic energy independence (except for Norway). 

The US has positioned to avoid a similar fate.  Oil export analysts and industry insiders suggest that without the regime change in Venezuela as well as a handful of other policy actions, gas prices in America would be much higher than they are now.  This does not protect the US from the interdependency of global markets (or market speculation), but in real terms, there is no threat of supply shortages. 

In 2024-2025, only 500,000 barrels of oil per day were shipped to the US from the Strait of Hormuz (around 7% of total exports).  This deficit is now being met by Venezuelan production and there's more on the way.   

Currently the only American oil company operating in Venezuela, Chevron is bringing in tankers filled with 400,000 barrels of oil to its Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi, which can process a maximum of 330,000 barrels a day of heavy crude oil.  Though Venezuela holds around 17% of global oil supply, the dilapidated infrastructure and communist corruption reduced their output to around 1% of global production.  This is about to change.

With investment, Chevron plans to increase its Venezuelan production by about 50% over the next couple of years.  Fortune notes that the best-case scenario for Venezuelan oil production is about 1.2 million barrels daily by the end of 2026, according to Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Oil service companies are preparing equipment and rigs for transport to Venezuela as the new government prepares a review of gas and oil contracts; a move which would have been thought impossible only a year ago.

Europe is, not surprisingly, trying to get in on the action.  Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez strongly condemned the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, labeling it a violation of international law.  However, Spain's Repsol is now seeking to increase production at Venezuela's ​Cardon IV gas field, taking advantage of the regime change.  Italy's Eni is also looking for new opportunities to invest and develop Venezuelan fields. 

The changes in Venezuela and the positive outlook for increased oil production do little to solve the immediate global supply crisis and price inflation in the making due to the Hormuz closure.  But, the new supply does help in preventing sharper spikes at the gas pump in the US. 

The capture of Maduro seems to have greater long term implications for energy markets rather than short term advantages.  Ultimately, it serves to further insulate the US from outside supply shocks over the next few years while eliminating a vital resource for China and the CCP.  

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Engineering Bottleneck Drives Major Deals Across Nuclear Services

In the latest development with private equity firms making moves in the nuclear industry, Arlington Capital Partners has acquired nuclear engineering specialist ENERCON from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. 

The deal includes merging ENERCON with Arlington portfolio company Pond & Company. The combined entity will operate under the ENERCON name, creating a powerful nuclear engineering firm with more than 2,700 professionals.

ENERCON currently supports ~90% of the nation's nuclear plants. It also holds capabilities in small modular reactors and large-scale reactor projects. Pond contributes with strengths in federal energy, natural gas infrastructure, and mission-critical engineering services. Together, they form an end-to-end provider for regulated power and energy infrastructure.

Arlington Managing Partner Michael Lustbader highlighted the strategic timing. “We have begun a once-in-a-generation structural shift in power demand driven by AI, the onshoring of manufacturing, and changing national security priorities,” he said.

This transaction is the latest in a string of acquisitions signaling intense interest in nuclear-related engineering and services capacity…

In December, advanced reactor developer Natura Resources purchased Shepherd Power from NOV Inc. The move bolstered Natura’s project deployment, regulatory, and licensing expertise as it advances molten salt SMR commercialization for data centers and industrial users.

Earlier this year, Swedish nuclear services firm Studsvik acquired Kärnfull Next for approximately €6.5 million. The deal expands Studsvik from supporting existing fleets into full project development for new SMR initiatives in Sweden and beyond.

Energy Capital Partners also recently announced plans to acquire EnergySolutions (for the second time), a provider of integrated nuclear services spanning maintenance, modifications, decommissioning, waste management, and lifecycle support.

We just detailed this concern for lack of specialized labor in the nuclear industry with the breakdown of a report from Barclays. There is serious demand for specialized engineering talent and capacity as the nuclear renaissance gathers momentum. With utilities and tech giants alike racing to secure reliable, dispatchable zero-carbon power, the bottleneck in qualified engineering resources is becoming evident. 

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Chinese Nationals Among 51 Indicted Over Marijuana Grow Operations In Oklahoma

Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Department of Homeland Security investigation has resulted in the indictment of 51 defendants—including 29 Chinese nationals—on 67 counts of conspiracy to manufacture black-market marijuana in Oklahoma for distribution in Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, and North Carolina, among other locales.

Oklahoma drug enforcement agent Mike Garcia looks over rows of marijuana plants at an illegal grow facility in Ponca City, Okla, on Dec. 22, 2025. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The defendants are from California, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas. Of the 51 indicted, 23 are fugitives, and 11 of the Chinese defendants have obtained permanent legal residence in the United States.

The April 21 indictment alleges that between March 2025 and April 2026, a network of growers, brokers, transporters, and distributors sent marijuana into the black market in Oklahoma and across the United States.

Mike Garcia, agent in charge of the 8th District Attorney’s Drug Task Force and Major Crime Unit, told The Epoch Times that illicit operators often buy old houses or undeveloped property and add buildings to grow marijuana.

Garcia said it was difficult to stay on top of the operations.

You have to keep countering the illegal [operations] to balance it out. It’s a hard thing to do,” Garcia said.

According to a Department of Justice news release on April 27, marijuana was allegedly transported from grow operations to stash houses, and then to customers for further distribution.

Defendants reportedly split the proceeds and also concealed those proceeds by transporting large amounts of cash and using businesses to disguise the nature of the funds.

The conspiracy was carried out, in large part, with cell phones, and, as alleged in the indictment, law enforcement intercepted calls of two of the main conspirators, Li Shun Chen, 53, and Ying Wang, 45, both of Oklahoma City, according to the press release.

A federal grand jury handed down the indictment on April 21. The indictment also calls for the forfeiture of properties and assets used to generate or mask proceeds of the black-market transactions, including properties throughout Oklahoma.

A vernal pool polluted with chemicals used for growing illegal marijuana border an agricultural form in Ponca City, Okla., on Dec. 22, 2025. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

“Since 2021, when our agency created Marijuana Enforcement Teams (MET), we’ve proudly worked alongside our federal and state partners to target criminal organizations operating in Oklahoma,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control Director Donnie Anderson said in the release. “These partnerships have resulted in a dramatic drop in illegal marijuana farms within our state.”

Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana on June 26, 2018, in hopes that a 7 percent excise tax and state and local property taxes would finance education and infrastructure while creating new jobs.

Mark Woodward, public information officer for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said organized criminals used this as an opportunity to get involved. He told The Epoch Times that up to 85 percent of the illegal grow facilities in Oklahoma have ties to Chinese organized crime.

They used straw owners because so many of them came here during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “The first thing they wanted to do was try to look legitimate.”

The investigation was led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control along with multiple federal, state, and local agencies.

The case is being prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Allan Stein contributed to this report.

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Improper US Government Payments Rose To $186 Billion In 2025: Watchdog

Authored by Sylvia Xu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Federal government agencies reported a total estimate of about $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2025, an increase of $24 billion from 2024.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office building in Washington on May 22, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

About $153 billion—roughly 82 percent—of this total arose from overpayments.

The Government Accountability Office estimated that cumulative improper payments have reached about $3 trillion since fiscal year 2003. The actual amount may be much higher, the federal watchdog acknowledged in an April 27 report.

These improper payments represent false distributions—such as payments made to the wrong people, paid without proper documentation, or issued in the incorrect amount—from 64 programs reported by 15 federal agencies, and have been a government-wide issue for more than 20 years.

For fiscal year 2025, eight federal programs reported improper payment estimates of $5 billion or more.

Medicaid ($37 billion), Traditional Medicare ($28.8 billion), and Medicare Advantage ($23.7 billion) accounted for more than 50 percent of these erroneous payments.

Medicaid improper payments expanded by $6.3 billion in 2025, compared to the previous year. The Department of Health and Human Services stated that this was due to increased errors in eligibility redeterminations and provider screening as COVID-19 enrollment flexibilities phased out.

The Earned Income Tax Credit ($21 billion), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ($10 billion), and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program ($10 billion) added up to more than 20 percent of the total improper payments.

Improper payments arising from the Earned Income Tax Credit—a refundable federal tax credit for low-to-moderate-income working individuals and families—increased by $5.2 billion. The Department of the Treasury has not provided reasons for the improper payments.

Improper Payment Rates

Of the programs reporting improper payment estimates, 19 reported improper payment rates of at least 10 percent, including six programs whose rates exceeded 25 percent.

The Small Business Administration reported improper payments in the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program for the first time in fiscal year 2025.

The grant program aimed to help the live arts and entertainment industry survive the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, Congress provided $16.25 billion to the Small Business Administration, which awarded grants to 13,011 different businesses and organizations.

Nearly 70 percent of these distributions were erroneous payments, according to the federal watchdog.

As of October 2024, the small-business agency identified $544 million in potential improper payments that need to be recovered. However, the agency sent only one demand letter in January 2024 and paused the issuance of additional demand letters, according to a 2025 audit report.

As of March 2025, no cases had been referred to the Treasury Department for debt collection.

The improper payment rate in the Emergency Conservation Program for disasters—providing funding and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers to repair and restore farmland affected by natural disasters—reached 55.5 percent in 2025, up from 45.2 percent in 2024 and 40.4 percent in 2023.

The causes of improper payments can range from unintentional administrative errors to fraud, according to a 2024 federal watchdog report. An error could occur when an agency failed to obtain a required signature in a contract prior to payment. Fraud occurred when a recipient used a fake or stolen identity to apply for and receive benefits.

Agencies also suspected significant improper payments in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which spent around $16.5 billion in fiscal year 2025. As of April 2026, Congress had not yet enacted legislation to require states to report the data needed to estimate and report on improper payments for this program.

Lawrence Wilson contributed to the report.

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The Assassination Wasn't "Staged", Leftists Are Just Evil

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

Why is it that every time a leftist tries to kill conservatives, it’s immediately called a “false flag”? And why is every single person who dares to question the false flag narrative attacked by a vicious (and suspiciously organized) online mob? The reason should be obvious but some people just don’t seem to see it: It’s a leftist psyop.

In what is now the THIRD failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Cole Tomas Allen, a donator to the Kamala Harris campaign, a No Kings protester, a BlueSky leftist and transgender defender, burst into the lobby of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner with firearms in an attempt to kill Donald Trump or anyone else in the administration that happened to be a convenient target.

His manifesto reads like most leftist manifestos, and his social media is worse. Infested with mainstream media talking points, infecting his brain with delusions of heroism if only he can “take out the fascists”.

There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever which side this guy is on. He is a full bore woke zealot brainwashed by typical Democrat rhetoric. And yes, he’s a part time teacher of high school children (let that sink in before you send your kids off to public school).

The online response from the political left within minutes of the attack was predictable, as if they had all received a script to recite whenever assassination attempts on Trump occur. The same people who call for Trump’s murder daily are now saying the event was “staged”. Furthermore, they claim that a long time woke leftist somehow volunteered to help Trump stage an assassination by risking prison time or death.

I’ve heard of bipartisan cooperation, but this is ridiculous. Lefties are really bending over backwards to help a Republican president with his image. Sadly, there were people in the alternative media that also immediately bought into this lie and repeated it. But why?

Leftists are repeating the false flag theory. The establishment media entertains the false flag theory. Why are some conservatives helping them spread these fallacies?

I think it’s important to take this opportunity to examine how 4th Generation Warfare works; first by understanding the reality that portions of the conservative movement are being targeted with it by the left wing, often effectively. The leftists have figured you out.

4th Gen Warfare is asymmetric and aims to break a movement’s political will. It works by striking at the psychological unity of an enemy group and dividing them; this requires that you identify certain cognitive biases within a portion of that group and exploit those biases to create infighting. The group in question is the “truth” or “conspiracy” element of the wider conservative or MAGA movement.

Has any popular conspiracy theorist today considered the possibility that they are being played? Have they considered the possibility that one of the biggest conspiracies of our era is the agenda to misdirect the public away from punishing the leftist cult for their numerous trespasses?

As a conspiracy “realist” for many years, I think the most important thing to remember is this: Not everything is a conspiracy. If you think everything is a conspiracy, I’m sorry to break it to you, but you are wrong and you are doing far more harm to the truth movement than you are doing good.

One of the most critical changes in the western world that is rarely talked about is that conspiracy movements now have substantial political power and social influence. For generations we were called “fringe”; the crazed and irrational dregs, the deplorables. Today, we have vast reach (online and offline) that stretches across America and into Europe.

Today, everything we say has the potential to affect government policies, elections and even wars (if we remain unified). When a movement grows this strong, its enemies can only seek to destroy it by sabotaging it from within.

By extension, there are numerous think-tanks, NGOs and covert operations designed specifically to find our weaknesses and manipulate our discourse (the SPLC is currently being indicted for such operations). More than anything, the enemy cares about what we think.

And what is our greatest weakness? What do these groups consistently exploit to keep us passive and ineffective? The core weakness of conspiracy theorists is paranoia.

Our willingness to “question everything” can sometimes be used against us to misdirect us into rabbit holes that simply don’t exist. Globalists and the political left have quickly learned that the best way to keep conservatives docile is to make us suspect our own side so much that we never turn our anger against the woke cabal.

Two decades ago when I got my start working in the alternative media, the concept of the “false left/right paradigm” was everywhere. It was the key argument of the truth/liberty movement. The idea that progressives and conservatives are actually much more alike than they know. That we all Americans basically want the same things, and the only obstacle dividing us is the fake “uniparty” at the top.

I’m sorry to break it to the people who have attached their entire political philosophy to this idea, but the false left/right paradigm is dead. It no longer exists.

It died at least a decade ago when Democrats and progressives embraced the woke cult, and in the process they became willing allies of the globalists. Where does almost all the globalist NGO money go? Into Democrat campaigns and woke activist groups What group receives the majority of globalist corporate support? Leftists. Who tries to implement nearly every policy that comes out of globalist conferences like Davos? The political left.

Hell, 90% of Jeffrey Epstein’s campaign donations went to Democrats. It was Epstein that was personally in contact with Democrats, texting them and helping them eith their witch hunt proceedings against Donald Trump. The political left is the machine of the globalists. Everything they promote, from transgenderism to open borders to climate controls is part of the globalist religion. They all a part of the same entity.

And now, they’re trying to kill us wherever they get a chance. They are openly proud of this fact and they represent around 25% of the population. Cole Allen isn’t a radical by today’s standards, he is the common denominator within the Democratic Party.

Meaning, leftist and conservatives are true enemies, from the bottom of the pyramid to the top. We do not want the same things. Not even close. There can be no reconciliation, and this only ends one way.

They know this and they are waging a psychological war against us. Think about it: Every new conspiracy narrative is designed to distract us from the culpability of the political left. When an attack or assassination takes place, the blame is always aimed at someone else.

The mountains of evidence proving that the attackers are militant leftists is ignored in favor of anecdotes, hearsay and outright lies. Here is how the formula works, as far as I can tell. It’s complicated, but hear me out…

1) If an assassination against a conservative fails, then it was “staged” by that conservative.

2) If an assassination against a conservative succeeds, leftists celebrate, and then claim “Israel did it”.

Okay, maybe it’s not so complicated. We witnessed this with the Charlie Kirk assassination. According to the arrest record and court documentation, Tyler Robinson, a far left activist with a trans furry boyfriend, confessed to his parents that he shot Kirk, which is why his parents convinced him to turn himself in.

His boyfriend gave photographic evidence of a hand-written confession to the feds. The note was composed by Robinson in the event that he died during the assassination. This is also on record with the court.

Everything points to Robinson because he is the person who most likely pulled the trigger (which is what he admitted to his parents). There is no grand scheme to frame him. Unless Robinson’s parents AND his boyfriend are in on the plan, there is no debate. The conspiracy theories fall apart.

When it comes to Trump, I have been highly critical in the past, specifically during his first term when he formed a horrific swamp creature cabinet. That said, it’s impossible to deny that his second term has been a 180 degree turnaround. Nearly every campaign promise he made has been carried out or at least attempted despite Democrat (and Neocon) interference.

If you are angry about the war in Iran, that’s fine, but Trump has been talking about removing the Islamic regime in Iran since the 1980s. Any Trump voter who is surprised by this did not do their homework. Entertaining baseless false flag assassination theories is not going to help end the war faster.

For the political left, jumping to conclusions and promoting disinformation is designed to control the narrative and sow division before all the facts can be examined. To plant theories in people’s heads and inoculate them to reasonable discourse.

For truth movement people buying into the disinformation, just know that you are being programmed. It doesn’t matter if you like Trump or hate Trump; like his policies or hate his policies. The facts don’t care about your emotion-based theories. If you’re going to attack him, at least make sure your reasons are legit.

The purpose of the “staged” narrative, as I mentioned, is to sow confusion, doubt and division within patriot circles. Globalists and leftists don’t want conservatives to fight back. They don’t want us organized or unified. They want us apathetic and aimlessly fighting with each other. The gas-lighting must end.

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