OUR DAILY THRED: Gold Bugs Are A Feature
Venezuelans get the golden shower
THE SET-UP: On July 14, FOX News’ Jesse Watters took a tour of the Treasury Department with Sec’y Scott Bessent. While Watters performed rhetorical fellatio in absentia on Bessent’s boss, the assistant producer splashed this revealing statement onto the lower third:
RT’s India desk captured and reposted the segment on the platform formerly known as Twitter, no doubt because it’s a bald-faced admission that the US is plundering Venezuela.
Although Bessent claims the gold and the oil the US is taking out of the beleaguered nation is going back to help the people of Venezuela, his boss told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One (not the mothballed Qatari jet reporters have dubbed “Bribe Force One”) to a Michigan campaign rally that his regime had collected at least $13 billion from sales of the absconded oil. And it might “even more than that,” added the President in an apparent confirmation of the Financial Times’ tabulation in a story published on July 22.
Trump took it even further during the rally. He touted the competitive advantage his blatant act of imperial extraction gives the US over China:
“We have a thousand years, we have more gasoline, we have more oil … now, when you add Venezuela to it, we really have more oil.”
“We” have more oil?
As far as “we” know, their oil is being sold to benefit them. The problem is “we” have no idea where the money goes after the oil is sold, let alone how much oil has been taking and sold. The first half-billion was deposited into a special account in Qatar (the same people who gave Trump Bribe Force One,) but Energy Sec’y Chris Wright said that ended in February. The Financial Times noted that the Venezuelan government, such as it is, has a website up to “track the revenue from US-run oil sales, but it has only one entry — a transfer of $300mn in March.”
That’s chump change compared to the $13 billion total FT came up with and Trump confirmed on Air Force One. And it could be higher. We don’t know because the Trump Regime has (of course) felt no need to tell us. And that’s because Republicans in Congress don’t seem interested in finding out. That would change if the Democrats take the House and/or the Senate.
Until then, we have to rely on reporting. To wit, FT also asked economists for their analysis of the economic impact of the oil revenue supposedly making it back to the earthquake-ravaged nation:
Many economists had expected Venezuela to enjoy a strong economic recovery this year, given that until January the country was forced to sell oil at a significant discount in international markets to get around US sanctions. The government has introduced a new resources law to encourage investment in oil and gas, and production has ticked up this year.
However, Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, said the official first-quarter growth rate of 2.5 per cent was the lowest in nearly five years.
“Venezuela likely did not grow more rapidly despite increased oil revenues in the first quarter because the US didn’t transfer to the Venezuelan government the totality of its increased oil revenues,” he said.
José Guerra, a Venezuelan economist and former opposition lawmaker, said oil revenues should be much higher than in recent years. “Where is the money? There is no transparency and the US government does not inform us.”
The same is true of the gold the US has been commandeering without any real oversight. We know that $100 million of gold was shipped to US refiners in March. And, thanks to FOX News’ lower third, we can assume it must still be coming at the same time the cash-starved nation is trying to regain control over $4 billion gold tied-up by British restrictions put in place after Venezuela’s disputed 2018 election.
In the meantime, the Venezuela government has been fighting criminal gangs for control of gold mining in the Orinoco Mining Arc with the intent of ejecting them and replacing them with corporate mining interests.
Hmmm … I wonder what country those mining interests hail from?
Perhaps it’s the country that doesn’t flinch when its President drops all pretense, says he’s going to take the oil … and he takes it, sells it and brags about it. I guess once you’ve crossed that bridge, nothing is too far … not gold, not fertilizer … nada.
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https://www.wola.org/analysis/killing-spree-extrajudicial-executions-in-the-u-s-boat-strikes-campaign/
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/07/27/operation-southern-spear-has-not-slowed-cocaine-entering-us/
US Southern Command Ends Earthquake Mission in Venezuela as Death Toll Tops 5,000 and Humanitarian Needs Persist
https://www.latintimes.com/us-southern-command-ends-earthquake-mission-venezuela-death-toll-tops-5000-humanitarian-needs-598324
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https://www.truthdig.com/articles/vultures-circling-the-rubble-us-troops-and-businesses-descend-on-venezuela/
The mysterious "disappearance" of $10 billion worth of Venezuelan oil under US custody.
https://neofeed.com.br/economia/o-misterioso-sumico-de-us-10-bilhoes-do-petroleo-da-venezuela-sob-guarda-dos-eua/en/
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https://www.theenergymix.com/blood-gold-malaria-tarnish-venezuelas-newly-liberalized-mines/