Wealth extraction in America runs on two engines. The first is corporate: wealth generated not by building something of value but by capturing, controlling, or stripping value that others produced. The second is political: governmental authority — legislative, regulatory, fiscal, enforcement — used to move wealth from the many to the few. Separately, each has limits. Together, they form a self-reinforcing system that has been reshaping the American economy for half a century.
extraction politics
Total Capture: Israel Owns the American State
The Israeli government is not the Jewish people. This piece is about one, not the other.
The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act is another iteration of the Israeli capture of American politics. The relationship has grown deeper, broader, and more institutionalized over time, to the point that the United States is now committing genocide in service of Israeli objectives.
Following the Money: The Billion-Dollar Tax Cut
The sales pitch focused on workers and families. The largest (and permanent) tax benefits are for the already-rich.
Relief for Whom? Arizona’s “Tax Cut” Bill
Relief for Whom?
The Republican-controlled Arizona legislature opened the 2026 session with a tax bill they call the Arizona One Big Beautiful Bill — a deliberate echo of Trump’s federal legislation. They passed it on party-line votes, twice, and Governor Hobbs vetoed it both times. They call it over a billion dollars in tax relief. It is. For the wealthy and large businesses.
Claims vs. Reality
Hondurasgate: The Political Plot American Media Isn’t Covering
A set of audio recordings is circulating across Latin America right now. They have been forensically authenticated. They document sitting heads of state coordinating a funded disinformation operation targeting elected governments in the region. The operation is being built on American soil.
You probably haven’t heard about it.
Marana: Corporate Interests and Political Support
Extractive Capitalism and the Assault on Constitutional Democracy
The Project and the Public’s Concerns
Arizona’s constitution gives residents a direct tool for pushing back against decisions their government makes on their behalf: the referendum. In January 2026, Marana residents used it.
The Marana Town Council voted unanimously to rezone 600 acres of farmland adjacent to the Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery and a groundwater recharge zone for a data center campus known as Project Blue. The developer is Beale Infrastructure, controlled by Blue Owl Capital, a $295 billion investment firm. The projected scale: 550 to 750 megawatts of continuous power — enough to supply roughly 57,000 homes.
Residents had specific, documented concerns. The energy demand required new generating capacity, the costs of which would be passed to ratepayers. Water usage drew particular concern in a desert community whose aquifers do not replenish on any timeline relevant to human planning. Hundreds of backup generators raised noise and air quality concerns in a largely agricultural landscape. Residents questioned whether the promised $5 billion investment and $145 million in tax revenue over ten years would materialize, or whether the primary beneficiary would be a $295 billion investment firm. Some critics argued the project supports an AI industry that facilitates surveillance and data extraction for private profit.
These are the concerns that drove nearly 6,000 Marana residents to sign referendum petitions in a matter of days. The constitutional tool was available. They used it. The rest of this piece documents what was done to stop them.
Nobody Voted for This War. Nobody Gets the Old World Back.
The American presidency, in the wrong hands, with every institutional check removed, is powerful enough to destroy countries and break the interdependent global systems the modern world runs on.
The Leadership
I never fully understood how powerful the President of the United States actually is until now. When that position is held by a man with no capacity for consequence, no institutional check left to slow him down, and a circle of people who know exactly how to use him — he can destroy a country.
Chaco Canyon public comments are open until 4/7
Chaco Canyon needs your help. The Bureau of Land Management is considering revoking the Chaco Withdrawal, which would reopen the surrounding landscape to oil and gas development. Public comments are open now. I’ve written a comment you can copy and paste — just follow the link to submit it. Five minutes of your time protects one of the most significant cultural landscapes in North America.
They’ve Been Picking My Pocket for Six Years
I live in Arizona, and for six years we have been targeted by a coordinated national campaign to scare voters with propaganda about election fraud. It has never produced a shred of evidence, because there was never any evidence to find. The Department of Justice is now demanding the voter files of five million Arizonans. … Read more
Cashing In on Our Veterans
In March 2026, the VA and the Department of Justice signed an agreement to put homeless veterans under permanent legal guardianship. They called it protection.
It isn’t.