The Theory Of Everything - 24 Was The Charm

I've read dozens of books since Trump was elected, all in an effort to understand what exactly is happening. I'm not comfortable with chaos and chaos is all I've had to work with.

I read books having to do with Russia, the Kochs, personal reports, political theory, bureaucracy, crime, investigation, the Constitution and whatever else seemed relevant.

I started this blog on January 1, 2017. I've written hundreds of essays. I've surrendered myself to the Spirit and accepted the responsibilities as prophet of the Church of the Holy Moly.

I simply wanted to make sense of everything. Making sense of everything was my quest. I was looking for the Holy Grail of understanding.

If Diogenes was doomed in his quest for a single honest man, how much harder was my task? How long would it take me? I was already in my 70s. What were the odds?

As it turns out, my odds were good. I found the unifying theory. It was all there neatly packaged and eloquently articulated in the 24th book I read. Yes, 24 was the charm.

24 was "Blowout" by Rachel Maddow. Who knew? Who woulda' thunk it?

The Theory of Everything has everything to do with oil and gas. Yeah, oil and gas and the industry that controls the production of oil and gas. To be more specific, it has everything to do with the people who have controlled and currently control that industry and the corporations they represent.

From its very beginning, the oil and gas industry has sought to control the oil and gas resources of this planet.

The oil and gas industry is not a geopolitical entity. It is a profit driven industry. It competes with democratic geopolitical entities such as the United States.

These private and public corporations don't like regulation and they don't like being taxed.

They want to do whatever they want without interference and without regard for the destruction they cause to our lives, our environment and our planet.

Our futures are being sacrificed for their profits.

To protect their control and their profits, they spend whatever they have to in order to buy politicians and governments.

Democracies are their number one problem. Buying a dictator is easy peasy compared to buying all the people who are elected and dependent upon voters for their re-election.

Dang those constitutional democracies and their voting citizens. Kleptocracy and dictatorship are where it's at.

So what if supporting a dictator or corrupting a politician creates misery, death, species extinction and planetary destruction.

I mean who's gonna' stand in their way? Who is there to oppose them?

Here are some simple facts to keep in mind for the purpose of this discussion:

1. The oil and gas industry is the richest industry on Earth.

2. The oil and gas industry is driven by profits.

3. Russia has some of the largest oil and gas resources in the world.

4. Russia is a kleptocracy run by a ruthless dictator.

5. Putin's criminal actions have brought Russia to the brink of economic ruin.

6. American oil and gas companies want to exploit Russia's oil and gas resources.

7. American oil and gas companies were on the verge of concluding an extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar, deal with Russia when Russia invaded Ukraine. Rex Tillerson negotiated that deal.

8. Russia's invasion of Ukraine resulted in the United States placing economic sanctions on Russia that precluded American oil and gas companies from making deals with Russia.

9. American financial institutions are also interested in making deals with Russian kleptocrats.

10. The sanctions make it very difficult for Putin and his mob to launder all the money they have stolen from the Russian people.

11. Getting rid of sanctions is the key to opening up a vastly profitable Russian fossil fuel market to American oil and gas companies, and American financial institutions.

12. There was bi-partisan support for the sanctions on Russia before the 2016 elections.

13. Russia needed to get rid of the sanctions and it started pouring millions into the pockets of American politicians and the groups that supported them.

14. American oil and gas companies, and American financial institutions have also been pouring millions into the pockets of American politicians all along.

15. Ukraine is vital to the distribution of Russia's oil and gas.

16. Russia supplies many of our European allies with oil and gas.

17. Russian oil and gas flows to Europe through Ukraine.

18. Putin and the Russian kleptocrats siphon off much of the money that Russia pays to Ukrainian oil and gas middlemen.

19. Ukrainian oil and gas middlemen are part of the Russian mob.

20. Russia's desire for expansion is kept in check by the EU and NATO.

21. Turkey is a member of NATO.

22. Syria is bordered on the North by Turkey and on the East by Iraq.

23. The Middle East is rich in oil and gas natural resources.

24. Saudi Arabia is rich in oil and gas natural resources.

25. Saudi Arabia and Iran are competing for control in the Middle East.

26. Iran is allied with Syria and Yemen.

27. Saudi Arabia sits between Syria, Iraq and Iran in the North and Yemen in the South.

28. Northern Iraq is primarily Kurdish and North Eastern Syria has lots of Kurds.

29. Turkey regards the Kurds as a threat.

30. The Industrial Revolution, transformed the geopolitics on our planet.

31. Industrialized nations dominated non-industrialized nations in their attempts to secure vital natural resources.

32. The Industrial Revolution requires fossil fuels in order to continue.

33. Today's fossil fuels of choice are oil and gas. Initially it was coal.

Simply put, following the flow of oil and gas is essential to understanding geopolitics on the planet Earth. It's been this way since oil and gas replaced coal as the fuel of choice for the Industrialized nations.

Who's got the fossil fuels, who wants them, how they are transported and who opposes their use and distribution is fundamental to understanding everything.

It also helps to understand what is driving the boys who are currently controlling our oil and gas industry.

It also helps to understand how our geopolitical leaders see the world and how they strategize.

Oil and gas are converted to money. Money is the universal currency. The money boys and girls running our financial services industry want anything that interferes with their ability to profit from manipulating and laundering money stopped.

Oil and gas are the most valuable commodities on Earth, so the people controlling our oil and gas industries want anything that impedes or interferes with their producing and distributing oil and gas stopped.

They want an end to all regulation. They want to drill in deep water. They want to frack and drill everywhere. They don't care if they cause earthquakes, pollute the air and water, and jeopardize our health.

The oil and gas folks also want to eliminate any threat to their control of energy. They don't want renewable energy or electric and hydrogen powered cars.

One of the first things Ronald Reagan did after being elected President was have the Solar Panels installed by Jimmy Carter removed from the White House.

There are vast amounts of oil and gas that can be converted to money in Russia and sanctions are preventing that from happening.

Vladimir Putin wants the sanctions lifted. All his plans are stymied as long as they are in place.

The key to lifting the sanctions on Russia can be found in Ukraine. If Ukraine welcomes Russia's occupation, that would mitigate or eliminate the reason for sanctioning Russia. 

If we can pressure the Ukrainian President into surrendering to Russian intrusion by withholding the funds we promised for Ukrainian security and defense, the sanctions might be lifted.

If we send a non-government emissary to coerce the Ukraine President, all the better.

He is not as easily restricted from working with Russian mobsters. If one of those mobsters is being held awaiting extradition to the United States for crimes he committed here, all the better, because that mobster is willing to pay big money to stop from being deported.

Rudy can also get help and guidance from Trump's former campaign manager who was had worked with Ukrainian mobsters to get Russian puppets elected and put in control of Ukraine. Paul has an incentive to do anything he can to further Trump's wishes since he is currently in prison and hoping for a pardon.

Paul knew who to steer Rudy to and instructed Rudy on how to approach the Russian mob. Firtash funded some of his own associates and they actually hired Rudy, who was Trump's personal attorney at the time. It helped that these boys were already known to Trump and others in his administration.

This all exploded when Firtash's thugs were arrested at the airport getting ready to board a plane to Vienna. They were eating lunch with Rudy in the airport immediately prior to their planned for departure.

Rudy was working with these guy to get our former ambassador to Ukraine removed. Ambassador Yovanovich was competent, honest and loyal to the U.S. 

She would not go along with any plan to either extort the Ukrainian President into acceding to Putin's wishes or launch a bogus investigation to smear Joe Biden, who Trump was worried about as his main political adversary in 2020.

Trump had also ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry, European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland and special envoy Kurt Volker to work with Rudy to get Yovanowich removed. Those boys actually referred to themselves as the Three Amigos.

Trump also got Mike Pence, William Barr, Mike Pompeo and Mick Mulvaney involved in coercing Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Biden. Barr even went to Italy to pressure the Italian President to investigate Biden.

Oh my! It's easy to get lost in this maze of crime and treachery. Let's jump over to Turkey.Turkey is not as confusing. Mike Flynn, who was Trump's National Security Adviser, was arrested and convicted of crimes related to secret work he was doing for Erdogan.

Robert Mueller successfully prosecuted both Manafort and Flynn. Their crimes were uncovered during his investigation of Russian interference during our 2016 elections.

This is all documented in "The Mueller Report".

Flynn was working to get a Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, sent back to Turkey because Erdogan believed Gulen was responsible for orchestrating a coup to remove Erdogan from power.

Caving in to Turkey by withdrawing our troops from Syria and abandoning our allies, the Kurds, gave Russia effective control of Syria and allowed Erdogan to kill or drive Kurds from Syria's border.

There is no country in the Middle East that can stand up to us militarily. We are the world's foremost nuclear power. Our concern in the Middle East was motivated by the oil and gas resources in the area.

Now the world's second largest nuclear power has replaced us in the Middle East without firing a shot. Putin wants to control the world's oil and gas supplies. He want's to break the back of the EU and destroy NATO in the process.

Toward that end, he has found the perfect opportunist - a failed businessman who has resorted to crime and treason to stave off bankruptcy - a two bit punk - an imbecile motivated by greed - a narcissistic psychopath who cares for no one.

In the interest of brevity, I am glossing over all this. There is simply too much information to process and present in a single blog post.

What can be said in a single sentence is that underneath all this insanity, crime and intrigue is the desire to extract, process and transport oil and gas unimpeded by legitimate geopolitical and environmental concerns.

Thank you Rachel Maddow for providing us with a thoughtful, intelligent book that is simple to understand.

The men who control our oil and gas industry are fracturing our planet in an effort to extract the oil and gas they so desire.

Maximizing profits doesn't justify the destruction these men cause. Enabling brutal dictators in pursuit of those profits in inexcusable.

Maybe oil and gas were buried deep inside the Earth for a reason.

Rachel's eloquence is beyond my ability to summarize adequately. I have chosen 3 sentences to quote.

"Russia's Resource Curse has become a malignant tumor spreading through the rest of the world." Chapter 27, "ALL THEY HAVE IS THIS", Page 336

"The real genius of the oil and gas industry is the magic trick it does - again and again - in which it uses the hugely remunerative prospect of oil and gas profits to hypnotize otherwise sentient landowners and lawmakers and even whole countries into plighting their troth to the drillers."
Chapter 28, "CONSTITUENCY TRUMPS EVERYTHING", Page 347

"That's how we get the twin engines of petroleum powered governance, which suck the life out of democracies everywhere: corruption, in which the industry effectively owns politicians; and capture, in which the industry effectively owns the whole government."
Chapter 28, "CONSTITUENCY TRUMPS EVERYTHING", Page 347

Holy Moly!