VOTE BUYING A new American tradition?
I actually posted about this yesterday and deleted the post shortly afterwards because it just didn’t sound right.... too “complainy.” But I do want to share my thoughts about a trend we’re seeing in American politics, and yes, both sides are doing it. It’s called vote buying... yeah, I didn’t coin that term obviously. But Trump is clearly doing it with his change to no longer tax tips in the service industry at the federal level, along with other initiatives. As a resident of the formerly great state of New York, our “leader” (and I use that term in the absolute lightest sense possible), Gov. Kathy Hochul, just sent out “rebate” checks with the following statement: “Governor Hochul and the NY State Legislature are providing you with this “Inflation Refund” as part of broader, ongoing efforts to help address the rising cost of living.”
This is happening because the Republicans realize they cannot count on the general population’s ability to reason out complex social and economic dynamics, and that change takes time. The Democrats do it because it’s a direct result of now decades of (their) poor or non-existent, truthful education on how our systems are supposed to work (a result not entirely unintended, mind you). Trump 2.0 has only been in office for just under a year. Yet if you listen to the talking heads on your favorite cable new network that report on “the latest polls,” you’d think that his policies are failing at a miserable rate based on “consumer sentiment” or “voter approval” blah blah blah. The problem is this: the amount of damage done to our nation under the 3 (and yes, I said 3) Obama terms (ok, 2 Obama terms, 1 Autopen term) will NOT resolve in 1 year, maybe 2 years. The Trump administration has been feverishly trying to undo the damage, install new policies/orders to shore up our damaged institutions, and try to inform and educate an increasingly uneducated populace on how our REPUBLIC is supposed to work.... again, attempting to undo the intentional dumbing down of the American voter by years of liberal “progression.”
But the fact that Trump and the Republicans have had to resort to vote buying, in similar fashion as the Democrats, shows a level of desperation to remain in power. This desperation is because the average voter still holds knowingly or unknowingly to the old adage: Money Talks. This may be the only resort that the GOP can see to fight back against an increasingly morally devoid “progressive” and blatant hypocritical Democrat party that is too busy protesting (mostly peaceful, right?) against having a KING when the reality remains that they are demanding an increasingly controlling and tyrannical government.
Several infantrymen from the Azov battalion clearing houses near Toretsk. Witness the utter destruction, and the horrific conditions created by this war. Warning: Foul language is used (in Ukrainian with subtitles)
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A common interpretive mistake that many people make is to assert that the falling away is only false believers, and not real Christians. But false believers were never in the faith — they are likened to tares among the wheat. But to depart from the faith (sound biblical doctrine), one has to actually be in it first. And to make the assumption that those who are born again will never go astray is contrary to Scripture. For New Testament writers frequently warned believers to watch out for heresy, and to deny their sinful appetites. If apostasy was not a possibility for God's people, He would not have had the New Testament writings contain so many repetitive warnings!
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Breaking news this Saturday: three Americans are dead in Syria tonight, three more are wounded, and the attack—described by U.S. Central Command as an ambush carried out by a lone ISIS gunman—has once again dragged the Syrian war back into the American consciousness for a few brief hours, which is usually all the time the public gives it before the news cycle moves on and the families are left to carry the weight alone.
CENTCOM says two of the dead were U.S. service members and one was an American civilian contractor, and that the attacker was engaged and killed as well, with names being withheld until next of kin are notified, which is the right thing to do; but even with those official facts in hand, I want to slow the pace down a little bit and do what I always try to do here—put this in context—because in a place like Syria, the story you get in the headline is almost never the story that explains why this happened.
I’m not interested in reporting tragedy like it’s a scoreboard, and I’m not interested in repeating a paragraph of breaking news without the background that makes it intelligible; I spent eight years in the military, and I’ve spent more than twenty years following the U.S. military across the globe—Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria included, with more than a dozen trips into Afghanistan, roughly fifteen into Iraq, and seven or so into Syria—so when Americans die in a place most people couldn’t find on a map, I feel a responsibility to show you what the map actually means.
The reported location of the attack is Palmyra—Palmira on some maps—an ancient city in central Syria that sits on the edge of a brutal expanse of desert, the kind of wide open, sun-blasted country where outsiders assume nothing lives and nothing happens, when in reality it’s exactly the kind of terrain insurgents love because “nothing” is a perfect disguise, a perfect place to move, cache weapons, blend into small villages, disappear into wadis, and wait for opportunities.
Palmyra also sits inside territory controlled by Syria’s new administration under Ahmed al-Sharaa, and if that name makes you pause, it should, because this is where Syrian politics gets complicated in the way only Syria can do: al-Sharaa rose through jihadist ranks, he has a history tied to insurgent warfare against Americans in Iraq, he was captured and held for years, and he later returned to Syria and consolidated power with strong Turkish backing—so when you hear phrases like “new Syrian administration” or “transitional government,” don’t imagine a Western-style democracy that suddenly appeared out of the sand; imagine a patchwork of militias, alliances of convenience, old enemies wearing new uniforms, and a leadership class that wants international legitimacy while carrying a past that cannot be scrubbed clean with a new suit and a new flag.
Now layer on top of that the reality that ISIS is not gone from Syria, not even close.
U.S. estimates have long suggested there are still roughly 2,000 to 3,000 ISIS fighters operating in and around the central Syrian desert, and there are far more than that if you include facilitators, family networks, financiers, and the enormous number of ISIS-linked detainees and relatives held in camps and makeshift prisons; and while that fight has mostly slipped out of the American public’s view, it continues quietly, relentlessly, week after week, because the moment pressure is relieved in a place like this, the violence doesn’t fade—it regroups.
The United States currently has about 900 troops in Syria, a number that matters because it tells you how thin the margin is between “containment” and “collapse,” especially when the enemy has deep local roots and decades of practice living off the land and off the grievances of the people around them; and those American troops are there for one primary purpose: to keep a lid on ISIS so we don’t wake up one day to another wave of mass executions, terror-state governance, and regional destabilization that forces the world back into a far more expensive war.
That’s the mission, and it’s not abstract; when ISIS surged the last time, the human cost was staggering, and it wasn’t paid by politicians or pundits—it was paid by Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish fighters, civilians, and yes, Americans too—and the reason our presence in Syria still functions as a deterrent is that in a powder keg region, a small, capable American footprint has a way of discouraging ambitious actors from taking the final step that turns instability into open war.
But here is the part that doesn’t get said out loud very often: the mission in Syria is increasingly tangled up in partnerships that are, at best, uneasy and, at worst, morally and strategically risky.
I’m coming to you today from Panama, where I’ve been digging into a story that’s far bigger than most people realize. It involves a shadowy network of ships—1,423 of them at last count—that roam the world’s oceans moving sanctioned oil for regimes like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Some call it the dark fleet, others the ghost fleet, but whatever the name, it’s become a lifeline for the world’s worst dictators.
Out of those 1,423 vessels, roughly 920 are sanctioned themselves. These aren’t just ships doing business in a gray area—they are part of a global ecosystem of deception, fraud, and corruption that props up authoritarian governments and undermines the international rules that keep maritime trade safe. They spoof GPS signals, turn off their transponders, swap oil with “cleaner” tankers in the dead of night, operate under shell-company ownership, and sail uninsured—floating environmental disasters just waiting to happen.
And for years, not much was done about it. But that may be changing.
Just days ago, the United States seized a massive VLCC tanker—the Skipper—carrying 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude bound for Cuba. It’s a move that seems small on its own, but it hints at something larger: Washington may finally be realizing that targeting the dark fleet isn’t just desirable—it’s strategically powerful.
That raises a fascinating question: What would happen if the U.S. and its allies cracked down hard on these ghost ships—everywhere, all at once? Could it reshape global power? Could it even topple Maduro?
Let’s dig into that.
These ghost ships function by exploiting cracks in the global maritime system. They manipulate AIS beacons, swap oil mid-ocean, hide ownership behind layers of shell companies, fly false flags, and operate without legitimate insurance. The UN’s maritime regulator has warned that these rusted, poorly maintained hulks are ticking time bombs—and we’ve already seen “Ukrainian sanctions” in action when Ukrainian sea drones blew up several shadow-fleet tankers in the Black Sea.
Imagine what happens if one of these decrepit tankers explodes in a global choke point like the Strait of Hormuz. You’d see a shock to oil markets overnight.
And yet, that’s the system that keeps Venezuela, Iran, and Russia afloat.
The seizure of the Skipper wasn’t random. It’s part of a broader pressure campaign—one that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has openly supported. He said plainly that going after these vessels is a direct way to choke off the revenue Maduro depends on to stay in power.
Pompeo also noted something key: Maduro’s regime probably has “weeks, not months” of financial runway without this illicit revenue stream. And Cuba—already experiencing rolling blackouts—relies on Venezuela for about a quarter of its total energy supply. This single tanker seizure hurts Havana even more than Caracas.
But perhaps the most important variable is geography. Satellite data reveals dozens of sanctioned tankers parked just off Venezuela’s northern coast. In theory, if the U.S. waits for them to exit Venezuela’s 200-mile EEZ, it could legally seize many of them—especially the stateless ones.
Imagine the U.S. grabbing one tanker per day.
The ripple effects would be enormous.
