This piece is intentionally detailed. Not to overwhelm, but to avoid the usual fog. Instead of blaming an abstract “system,” it names people, institutions, contracts, and court moves—because power today operates through procedures, not speeches. If you stick with it, you’re not being asked to agree with a worldview, only to follow a trail. Long essays aren’t for everyone, but for those who like to see how the machinery actually turns, the details are the point.
Shelly — beautifully said, and you’re describing the only method that actually works.
When you build from the ground up, evidence first, patterns second, conclusions last, the fog burns off fast. Propaganda only works top-down. Reality reveals itself bottom-up. Once you see that, the spell breaks and it never fully comes back.
You’re right about Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil — they do the unglamorous work most won’t touch: documents, timelines, receipts, and memory. No theatrics. No permission-seeking. Just evidence stacked until the official story collapses under its own weight.
And Unbekoming has become something rare: a signal amplifier for long-form, patient dismantling of lies. Not hot takes — forensic storytelling. That’s invaluable right now.
What you’ve noticed is key:
Across medicine, energy, war, finance, media — the same suppression pattern repeats. Different costumes, same mechanics. Once that clicks, you don’t need to be “convinced” anymore. You recognize.
This is how truth actually spreads now — not through institutions, but through independent curators quietly rebuilding a shared memory outside the system.
“For readers who absorbed the January 2026 outcome, this is the essential backstory—how the groundwork was laid, who laid it, and whose interests they served.”
Venezuela is just the later in Empires moving. I love the phrase, “corporate coup.” This is the true ruling class in our society.
So a pro China, pro Russia, pro India, anti west, anti US, pro collectivist, anti freedom author (look her up and her husband Max Blumenthal) gives us her take on Venezuela and that poor nice Mr Maduro and his lovely murderous Marxist government . Just the kind of anti Trump anti US propaganda you expect to see on hard left pro tyranny progressive blogs but increasingly also on pseudo right wing freedom supporting ones. Interesting undermining tactics targeting a specific part of the MAGA coalition to allow the DNC to regain its grip in the midterms and never let go again . Fascinating and sad that it really seems to be working on specific ‘bite off nose to spite face’ groups.
The problem lies in looking past the various narratives to establish verifiable facts.
Socialism has enough fatal flaws all on its own, without misattribution creating further illusory flaws. We do not obtain clarity by credulous adoption of anyone's narrative.
The essay is thought-provoking, and that is enough to recommend it. We could offset any propagandistic motive by the simple expedient of remembering that few are willing to spend their time on following the money.
Right on Shelly, you beat me to it. Red-pill swallowers provide us with countless opportunities to reveal the divide and conquer strategy for what it is. Indeed the divisive propaganda of empire is working less and less.
They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think. To wit, we're dealing daily with the insanity of orange worship/loss of logic. But the sheep keep on keeping on, feeding us grist for the mill, which ultimately wakes others ...
Yes, and thanks to the courage of intrepid freedom fighters like Steve Eyes,
the truth is reaching more and more of us. Here's his latest podcast, which is the only one I watch. He covers a wide range of topics, skillfully connecting them together to paint the big picture. This one has a real jaw dropper ... a clip of Prince! talking about chemtrails in an interview ... wow 😱
Well, if I understand this vulture capitalism as explained here, it certainly did NOT turn out the way they were hoping. Somehow the dictators took over, destroyed their own infrastructure and used communist friends (Russia, China) and religious terrorists (Iran) to impoverish and ruin an entire wealthy nation and try to poison another (America). This is not a Trump outcome. This is a narco-terrorist banking cartel military industrial complex outcome. Most capitalist operate on the principle that goods and services run ethically produce more profit and more stable outcomes than nefarious ones. (I’m no friend of super big corporations but on balance you get better results with capitalism than any other system of trade.). Without the USA taking over Venezuela, who else would you suggest rebuilt their oil infrastructure and return them to profitability?
"Most capitalist operate on the principle that goods and services run ethically produce more profit and more stable outcomes than nefarious ones. (I’m no friend of super big corporations but on balance you get better results with capitalism than any other system of trade.). Without the USA taking over Venezuela, who else would you suggest rebuilt their oil infrastructure and return them to profitability?"
Without a nation with an unremitting record of wiping out entire worlds, vaporizing possibilities, murdering children and stealing everything in sight who else do you think can "rebuild" the land they plunder?
Perhaps there was slightly more justification for this nonsense decades ago. Today, there is no possibility of a debate. The End of Ideology has itself ended. Instead of bringing "stability" to the world, capitalism has brought depression and fragmentation. Instead of bringing democracy and prosperity to the world, it has wrecked local societies where they hung on by a fingernail. No extended criticism is needed because criticism itself - social, political, and economic - has become a criticism of capitalism.
It has been this way for a long time. In the 19th century, capitalism was that which ripped small holders from the land, chained children to machinery, and pushed entire populations, on threat of extinction, across the surface of the earth. In the first part of the 20th century,
Capitalism was synonymous with War and Fascism. Imperialism? Colonialism? Famine? Genocide? All the faces of Capitalism...
They told you that Capitalism changed? They lied.
If you hang your hat on reforming Capitalism, believe that your "freedoms" depend on the continuation of Capitalism, or think that Capitalism is "still preferable to everything else", all it means is that your turn hasn't come yet...
I would argue that nowhere in the world today do we have true capitalism. What we have instead is corporate monopoly capitalism merged with government (in the form of "lobbyists" and outright bribes to politicians and gov't bureaucrats).
US Founders had the right idea to severely restrict corporations in the new republic. When US was founded, one corporation could NOT own another corporation, there were no limited liability corporations (therefore no "corporate shield") and corporations had to renew their charter every 5 years. US Founders had the right idea but they didn't go far enough. They should have banned corporations altogether.
Thank you for the detailed comment; it illuminates the categorical distinction between political systems and economic structure. Industrialized mercantilism picked up where confiscatory monarchy left off.
There is no end to the evil that men do. With systemization comes alienation as the inevitable outcome of specialization. The central feature is scarcity, and what form of rationing one prefers, is eternally reliant on self-interest.
Fraud and coercion are endemic to all rationing methodologies. The "Achilles Heel" of capitalism is what distinguishes it from state-sponsored mercantilism; limitation of liability.
The temptation to attribute human virtue to systems, results in a curious form of what can only be described as anthropomorphism. It's quite understandable; forgivable, even, but inevitably results in a pitiless enforcement of the law of unintended consequences.
Name one country in Central or South America or The Caribbean who hasn't had their lands plundered, leaders assassinated, resources stolen, elections overthrown and on and on by the US.
There's a reason the US loves fascists and dictators (they install them) as they enjoy looking at their reflection in the mirror.
I’m holding out hope that our nation’s corrupt past—nation-building, regime manipulation, and resource extraction—doesn’t have to be our future.
That said, the familiar narrative—central banking systems expanding control over developing-world resources and politics; fiat money as a lever; pharmaceutical influence over medical science and training; and “Big Ag/Big Food” functioning as arms of a broader control network—doesn’t fully square, for me, with the direction events seem to be moving.
Across many fields—medicine, climate, banking, NGOs, even physics—transparency appears to be increasing, and the pushback (including coordinated disinformation) seems to be increasing right along with it. To me, that looks less like a system in confident command and more like a system straining to regain control.
For now, I’m content to watch, stay curious, and educate myself. I appreciate the viewpoints and historical context in this piece.
I wish I had bookmarked a comedic skit I saw 20 years ago. It was during the Chavez/Iraq invasion era. This comedian was hilarious. After laughing, I replayed and replayed it. And listened closely. He spelled it out completely, at a time when nobody knew.. This comedian took on the roles, in dress and accents, of all the heavy hitters on the world stage at the time, acting out each and every one. Similar to a SNL skit, but I believe he was English.
He became Chavez, Hussein, corp, CEO's, Putin, Xi, a blow by blow account of events.
That's when I learned about Chavez and Venezuela who was excoriated in the press at the time. Saddam selling oil in euros, never reported. What Russia and China did to help, never reported.
Goes to show truth and wisdom can be found in the most unlikely places..
Paul Singer's hedge fund, Elliott Management's affiliate, Amber Energy, recently acquired Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company (PDVSA), through a court-forced auction at a significant discount.
While the Citgo situation involved acquiring an asset tied to debt rather than just sovereign bonds, it is consistent with Elliott Management's reputation for buying distressed assets or debt and using litigation to force a large payout, a strategy commonly referred to as "vulture capitalism."
Paul Singer is associated with his hedge fund's successful 15-year legal battle against Argentina. In that case, Elliott Management bought defaulted Argentine bonds for as little as 22 cents on the dollar and ultimately secured a payout of 10 to 15 times its original investment.
I don't care for Common Dreams website (it's a Dem Party outlet that keeps the Dem/Repub Kabuki alive) but this is a fairly good piece.
Meet Paul Singer, the Billionaire Trump Megadonor Set to Make a Killing on Venezuela Oil “Paul Singer’s shady purchase of Citgo has everything to do with this coup.”
"Citgo Is a Crown Jewel of Venezuela’s Oil Industry. Elliott Is Set to Reap the Benefits.
The hedge fund could soon close its proposed takeover of the refiner—and profit from any bump in oil production from the Latin American country
For activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, Nicolás Maduro’s swift exit comes at an auspicious time.
A U.S. judge in November backed a roughly $6 billion bid by Elliott for Citgo Petroleum, the refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA, in a forced sale to satisfy creditors. Citgo, based in Houston, owns a U.S. network of refineries, pipelines and terminals that some analysts have said could be worth between $11 billion and $13 billion.
The deal was controversial in Venezuela. Maduro’s government denounced the proposed sale as fraudulent. The board recognized by the U.S. government as the legitimate overseer of PdVSA’s overseas oil assets vowed to fight to keep Citgo under Venezuelan control.
Less than two months after receiving the judge’s endorsement, Elliott is looking at a more favorable—albeit chaotic—landscape. Maduro is being held in a New York jail. President Trump has sidelined the opposition, accused Venezuela of stealing American crude and said U.S. firms would be strongly involved in its oil industry."
Far from being (in the words of Epstein/Epstein Files Cover-up Participant/Hypocrite/Coward - Dan Bongino) a "communist dictator" - Nicolás Maduro Morros, is the moderate, democratic socialist President of The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - and he's been lawfully elected, multiple times.
If Venezuelan elections were suspect....then why didn't the US question the election which catapulted Juan Guaido to relative obscurity, in the National Assembly.
If Maduro is a Torturer - who was it , that sent, more than 200 completely innocent Venezuelans, to Nayib Buchele's CECOT Torture Prison?
If Maduro is a major Drug Trafficker...who was it the PARDONED the Convicted Narco-Dictator of Honduras?
thank you very much as usual, I would be interested in a book explaining Cuba as well, if you have recommendations. We always have this image of a horrible communist country, but it seems they educated their people pretty well, doesn't seem like Stalinism to me...
Note for long-form readers:
This piece is intentionally detailed. Not to overwhelm, but to avoid the usual fog. Instead of blaming an abstract “system,” it names people, institutions, contracts, and court moves—because power today operates through procedures, not speeches. If you stick with it, you’re not being asked to agree with a worldview, only to follow a trail. Long essays aren’t for everyone, but for those who like to see how the machinery actually turns, the details are the point.
Shelly — beautifully said, and you’re describing the only method that actually works.
When you build from the ground up, evidence first, patterns second, conclusions last, the fog burns off fast. Propaganda only works top-down. Reality reveals itself bottom-up. Once you see that, the spell breaks and it never fully comes back.
You’re right about Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil — they do the unglamorous work most won’t touch: documents, timelines, receipts, and memory. No theatrics. No permission-seeking. Just evidence stacked until the official story collapses under its own weight.
And Unbekoming has become something rare: a signal amplifier for long-form, patient dismantling of lies. Not hot takes — forensic storytelling. That’s invaluable right now.
What you’ve noticed is key:
Across medicine, energy, war, finance, media — the same suppression pattern repeats. Different costumes, same mechanics. Once that clicks, you don’t need to be “convinced” anymore. You recognize.
This is how truth actually spreads now — not through institutions, but through independent curators quietly rebuilding a shared memory outside the system.
You’re doing real work. Respect.
“For readers who absorbed the January 2026 outcome, this is the essential backstory—how the groundwork was laid, who laid it, and whose interests they served.”
Venezuela is just the later in Empires moving. I love the phrase, “corporate coup.” This is the true ruling class in our society.
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/understanding-the-ruling-class-of
True Franklin, true. Neocolonialism with help of dark-skinned people hurting their own. But this time there will be the mother of all twists!
So a pro China, pro Russia, pro India, anti west, anti US, pro collectivist, anti freedom author (look her up and her husband Max Blumenthal) gives us her take on Venezuela and that poor nice Mr Maduro and his lovely murderous Marxist government . Just the kind of anti Trump anti US propaganda you expect to see on hard left pro tyranny progressive blogs but increasingly also on pseudo right wing freedom supporting ones. Interesting undermining tactics targeting a specific part of the MAGA coalition to allow the DNC to regain its grip in the midterms and never let go again . Fascinating and sad that it really seems to be working on specific ‘bite off nose to spite face’ groups.
You certainly could use some fresh material.
Same tired platitudes and scripted lines.
Nevertheless, the devil is always in the details.
The problem lies in looking past the various narratives to establish verifiable facts.
Socialism has enough fatal flaws all on its own, without misattribution creating further illusory flaws. We do not obtain clarity by credulous adoption of anyone's narrative.
The essay is thought-provoking, and that is enough to recommend it. We could offset any propagandistic motive by the simple expedient of remembering that few are willing to spend their time on following the money.
Right on Shelly, you beat me to it. Red-pill swallowers provide us with countless opportunities to reveal the divide and conquer strategy for what it is. Indeed the divisive propaganda of empire is working less and less.
They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think. To wit, we're dealing daily with the insanity of orange worship/loss of logic. But the sheep keep on keeping on, feeding us grist for the mill, which ultimately wakes others ...
https://open.substack.com/pub/doc115/p/which-is-more-farcical-orange-derangement?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Also inspired by a dear reader swallowing the slop is "The God-awful Power of Propaganda ...
https://open.substack.com/pub/doc115/p/the-god-awful-power-of-propaganda?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Thanks for your work and best of luck, friend 🌹
~~ j ~~
Yes, and thanks to the courage of intrepid freedom fighters like Steve Eyes,
the truth is reaching more and more of us. Here's his latest podcast, which is the only one I watch. He covers a wide range of topics, skillfully connecting them together to paint the big picture. This one has a real jaw dropper ... a clip of Prince! talking about chemtrails in an interview ... wow 😱
https://rumble.com/v73swdc-eyesiswatchin-207-trumps-israel-prize-epstein-slop-israels-ai-takeover-and-.html
All the best,
~~ Johnny
The same actor appears to be playing Nicolas Mad Uro as played former "dictator" Sad Dam Hussein. The CIA is certainly saving money on casting, lol:).
Nice catch Gecko! 🙂
US forces arrived at Maduro's compound at 2.01 am local time and the whole operation lasted 2 hours 20 minutes lolololol.
2+1=3 x 22 = 66 🤣
it never ends! :)
Well, if I understand this vulture capitalism as explained here, it certainly did NOT turn out the way they were hoping. Somehow the dictators took over, destroyed their own infrastructure and used communist friends (Russia, China) and religious terrorists (Iran) to impoverish and ruin an entire wealthy nation and try to poison another (America). This is not a Trump outcome. This is a narco-terrorist banking cartel military industrial complex outcome. Most capitalist operate on the principle that goods and services run ethically produce more profit and more stable outcomes than nefarious ones. (I’m no friend of super big corporations but on balance you get better results with capitalism than any other system of trade.). Without the USA taking over Venezuela, who else would you suggest rebuilt their oil infrastructure and return them to profitability?
"Most capitalist operate on the principle that goods and services run ethically produce more profit and more stable outcomes than nefarious ones. (I’m no friend of super big corporations but on balance you get better results with capitalism than any other system of trade.). Without the USA taking over Venezuela, who else would you suggest rebuilt their oil infrastructure and return them to profitability?"
Without a nation with an unremitting record of wiping out entire worlds, vaporizing possibilities, murdering children and stealing everything in sight who else do you think can "rebuild" the land they plunder?
Perhaps there was slightly more justification for this nonsense decades ago. Today, there is no possibility of a debate. The End of Ideology has itself ended. Instead of bringing "stability" to the world, capitalism has brought depression and fragmentation. Instead of bringing democracy and prosperity to the world, it has wrecked local societies where they hung on by a fingernail. No extended criticism is needed because criticism itself - social, political, and economic - has become a criticism of capitalism.
It has been this way for a long time. In the 19th century, capitalism was that which ripped small holders from the land, chained children to machinery, and pushed entire populations, on threat of extinction, across the surface of the earth. In the first part of the 20th century,
Capitalism was synonymous with War and Fascism. Imperialism? Colonialism? Famine? Genocide? All the faces of Capitalism...
They told you that Capitalism changed? They lied.
If you hang your hat on reforming Capitalism, believe that your "freedoms" depend on the continuation of Capitalism, or think that Capitalism is "still preferable to everything else", all it means is that your turn hasn't come yet...
and what is your answer to failed capitalism?
I would argue that nowhere in the world today do we have true capitalism. What we have instead is corporate monopoly capitalism merged with government (in the form of "lobbyists" and outright bribes to politicians and gov't bureaucrats).
US Founders had the right idea to severely restrict corporations in the new republic. When US was founded, one corporation could NOT own another corporation, there were no limited liability corporations (therefore no "corporate shield") and corporations had to renew their charter every 5 years. US Founders had the right idea but they didn't go far enough. They should have banned corporations altogether.
Thank you for the detailed comment; it illuminates the categorical distinction between political systems and economic structure. Industrialized mercantilism picked up where confiscatory monarchy left off.
There is no end to the evil that men do. With systemization comes alienation as the inevitable outcome of specialization. The central feature is scarcity, and what form of rationing one prefers, is eternally reliant on self-interest.
Fraud and coercion are endemic to all rationing methodologies. The "Achilles Heel" of capitalism is what distinguishes it from state-sponsored mercantilism; limitation of liability.
The temptation to attribute human virtue to systems, results in a curious form of what can only be described as anthropomorphism. It's quite understandable; forgivable, even, but inevitably results in a pitiless enforcement of the law of unintended consequences.
You labeled Russia, China and Iran exactly according to MSM narratives but failed to acknowledge Fascist America.
I don’t believe that our Constitutional America is fascist .
You would be wrong.
Name what you believe is a non-fascist country.
There are plenty.
Name one country in Central or South America or The Caribbean who hasn't had their lands plundered, leaders assassinated, resources stolen, elections overthrown and on and on by the US.
There's a reason the US loves fascists and dictators (they install them) as they enjoy looking at their reflection in the mirror.
Allen, name one country you consider non-fascist.
Name ONE, just one non-fascist country in your opinion.
https://youtu.be/OQ7UrtDjNao?si=pMnxpwRuKtg3IFzM
This will go over like a lead balloon in this comment section, but posting it anyway. Even John Bolton, and others, are not calling it regime change.
Lead balloon is right. The snake is such a hero.
I’m holding out hope that our nation’s corrupt past—nation-building, regime manipulation, and resource extraction—doesn’t have to be our future.
That said, the familiar narrative—central banking systems expanding control over developing-world resources and politics; fiat money as a lever; pharmaceutical influence over medical science and training; and “Big Ag/Big Food” functioning as arms of a broader control network—doesn’t fully square, for me, with the direction events seem to be moving.
Across many fields—medicine, climate, banking, NGOs, even physics—transparency appears to be increasing, and the pushback (including coordinated disinformation) seems to be increasing right along with it. To me, that looks less like a system in confident command and more like a system straining to regain control.
For now, I’m content to watch, stay curious, and educate myself. I appreciate the viewpoints and historical context in this piece.
I wish I had bookmarked a comedic skit I saw 20 years ago. It was during the Chavez/Iraq invasion era. This comedian was hilarious. After laughing, I replayed and replayed it. And listened closely. He spelled it out completely, at a time when nobody knew.. This comedian took on the roles, in dress and accents, of all the heavy hitters on the world stage at the time, acting out each and every one. Similar to a SNL skit, but I believe he was English.
He became Chavez, Hussein, corp, CEO's, Putin, Xi, a blow by blow account of events.
That's when I learned about Chavez and Venezuela who was excoriated in the press at the time. Saddam selling oil in euros, never reported. What Russia and China did to help, never reported.
Goes to show truth and wisdom can be found in the most unlikely places..
Paul Singer's hedge fund, Elliott Management's affiliate, Amber Energy, recently acquired Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company (PDVSA), through a court-forced auction at a significant discount.
While the Citgo situation involved acquiring an asset tied to debt rather than just sovereign bonds, it is consistent with Elliott Management's reputation for buying distressed assets or debt and using litigation to force a large payout, a strategy commonly referred to as "vulture capitalism."
Paul Singer is associated with his hedge fund's successful 15-year legal battle against Argentina. In that case, Elliott Management bought defaulted Argentine bonds for as little as 22 cents on the dollar and ultimately secured a payout of 10 to 15 times its original investment.
I don't care for Common Dreams website (it's a Dem Party outlet that keeps the Dem/Repub Kabuki alive) but this is a fairly good piece.
Meet Paul Singer, the Billionaire Trump Megadonor Set to Make a Killing on Venezuela Oil “Paul Singer’s shady purchase of Citgo has everything to do with this coup.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/paul-singer-venezuela
"Citgo Is a Crown Jewel of Venezuela’s Oil Industry. Elliott Is Set to Reap the Benefits.
The hedge fund could soon close its proposed takeover of the refiner—and profit from any bump in oil production from the Latin American country
For activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, Nicolás Maduro’s swift exit comes at an auspicious time.
A U.S. judge in November backed a roughly $6 billion bid by Elliott for Citgo Petroleum, the refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA, in a forced sale to satisfy creditors. Citgo, based in Houston, owns a U.S. network of refineries, pipelines and terminals that some analysts have said could be worth between $11 billion and $13 billion.
The deal was controversial in Venezuela. Maduro’s government denounced the proposed sale as fraudulent. The board recognized by the U.S. government as the legitimate overseer of PdVSA’s overseas oil assets vowed to fight to keep Citgo under Venezuelan control.
Less than two months after receiving the judge’s endorsement, Elliott is looking at a more favorable—albeit chaotic—landscape. Maduro is being held in a New York jail. President Trump has sidelined the opposition, accused Venezuela of stealing American crude and said U.S. firms would be strongly involved in its oil industry."
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/venezuela-citgo-oil-elliott-management-f433bb8c
Thank you. Great work.
Anya brings the receipts.
Far from being (in the words of Epstein/Epstein Files Cover-up Participant/Hypocrite/Coward - Dan Bongino) a "communist dictator" - Nicolás Maduro Morros, is the moderate, democratic socialist President of The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - and he's been lawfully elected, multiple times.
If Venezuelan elections were suspect....then why didn't the US question the election which catapulted Juan Guaido to relative obscurity, in the National Assembly.
If Maduro is a Torturer - who was it , that sent, more than 200 completely innocent Venezuelans, to Nayib Buchele's CECOT Torture Prison?
If Maduro is a major Drug Trafficker...who was it the PARDONED the Convicted Narco-Dictator of Honduras?
thank you very much as usual, I would be interested in a book explaining Cuba as well, if you have recommendations. We always have this image of a horrible communist country, but it seems they educated their people pretty well, doesn't seem like Stalinism to me...