The Great Extraction Event
Imagine a game show where contestants have three minutes to run through a store and take anything they want for free. The faster they grab, the more they keep. There are no rules, no consequences, and no concern for what is left behind. It is easy to imagine since the current emcee is a convicted felon and former reality show host.
Now imagine the store is the United States Treasury , Social Security and Medicare, our housing, farmland, rivers, mountains, lakes, and oceans. The contestants are billionaires. And they have years to take what they want.
Trump/GOP Economics: More for them. Less for you.
For more than fifty years, a group of billionaires, driven by insatiable greed and aided by the Citizens United decision, have captured government, rewritten tax laws and societal protections, and redirected public wealth upward. They have stolen from our past, present, and future, not because they had to, but because they could.
This is not governance. It is organized theft.
The Design of the Extraction Machine
I’ve previously written about the Lewis Powell memorandum written in 1971 (See “Confidential Memorandum” below).
Powell’s memo was a response to a perceived threat to concentrated power from an emerging functioning democracy. Labor, civil rights, environmental, and antiwar movements were gaining power. For those who hoard extreme wealth, democracy and concentrated wealth cannot coexist at scale.
A society can sustain democracy, or it can sustain extreme wealth inequality. It cannot sustain both.
The memo called for shifting academia to favor conservative ideas, influence media, shape legislation and policy, and build infrastructure for long-term political power. The Powell Memo is the framework and foundation of subsequent efforts such as “Project 2025”.
Confidential MemorandumGeorge A. Polisner·August 23, 2022Read full story
https://bomdia.substack.com/p/confidential-memorandum-94fbf68970c8
Implementing the Wealth Concentrating Machine
Reagan → Bush → Trump
What began as strategy became policy. What was once discussed in private and exclusive clubs for the wealthy was written into law. Over time, the system did not simply favor wealth. It was engineered to shift wealth.
Tax policy was the first lever. Beginning with Reagan in the early 1980s, the GOP reduced top marginal tax rates, lowered capital gains taxes, and created pathways for tax shelters and avoidance. The outcome was not accidental. Tax responsibility shifted downward to workers. The acceleration of wealth concentration to the already wealthy was engineered.
Deregulation was next. Financial market protections were eroded. Environmental and labor protections were weakened or removed. Corporate actors were given broader freedom to pursue profit without regard to the full cost of the damage they created. The societal costs of pollution, financial risk, and job insecurity were transferred to us.
Deregulation of banks led to a trillion dollar taxpayer bailout, a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to investment banks. And taxpayers were subsequently “thanked” by mortgage foreclosures.
Labor was the third lever. Union power declined through GOP-led policy choices, legal constraints, and sustained political pressure. Worker bargaining power weakened. Wages stagnated ** even as productivity increased**. The wealth created by worker productivity was accumulated by investors and management. The wealth inequality gap was not accidental. It was the planned result of removing an important protection of economic fairness and worker protection while favoring concentrated economic power.
Reagan worked to weaken and destroy labor unions like PATCO.
Across administrations, the pattern held. Under Ronald Reagan, the Lewis Powell architecture was implemented. Under George W. Bush, it was expanded through additional tax cuts and financial deregulation. Under Donald Trump, it has been amplified, with further reductions in corporate taxes, destruction of federal regulatory oversight, and blatant quid pro quo corruption.
Throughout multiple generations the GOP justified their anti-democracy wealth concentrating economic policies with pure marketing. They continue to use terms such as growth, freedom, efficiency, competitiveness, and free markets.
GOP/Wealth Concentrating Hero: Milton Friedman
The result of those economic policies should be strikingly clear. The results are visible everywhere. Massive debt. Housing insecurity. Job uncertainty. Underfunded schools. Unaffordable healthcare. A judiciary shaped by money. Elected officials beholden to the interests of wealth instead of voters.
A captured and corrupt Roberts Court.
Wealth flows to the top while we are left with the invoices and bills for the costs, risks, and the aftermath of wealth transfers and extraction.
Climate Reality -
The Second “Gold” Rush
Long before the science behind greenhouse gases, global warming, and climate change entered the public arena, it was understood inside the companies most responsible for it.
Exxon knew about climate risk since the early 1980's.
In the late 1970s, scientists working for ExxonMobil warned executives that continued fossil fuel use would increase atmospheric carbon dioxide and lead to measurable global warming. By the early 1980s, internal reports modeled temperature rise, projected long term impacts, and acknowledged the scale of risk to people and planet. The science was not uncertain. It was specific, technical, and accurate.
The natural resources driving modern global economies were finite. The damage from using them was cumulative. And the window to extract wealth, as supplies are exhausted or the damage too overwhelming, was closing.
When you know the window is closing, the incentive is to take as much as possible before the limits arrive.
Extraction accelerated. Oil, gas, and coal production expanded globally even as internal knowledge of climate risk deepened. Rather than slowing, the wealth extraction system moved faster. The logic was simple. If regulation, scarcity, or environmental collapse would eventually restrict supply, then the rational move within that system was to extract, monetize, and secure position ahead of those limits.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/09/trump-oil-ceo-donation
The consequences are not limited to the environment. They extend into politics, finance, and public policy. Industry lobbying and political donations were and are used to resist environmental protections and climate action. Public narratives were amplified to undermine scientific evidence. Every day, week, or month in which protections and action are delayed can be measured in billions of dollars in profit.
Naomi Oreskes, Scientist and co-author: "Merchants of Doubt"
Corporations have long understood the risks they create. The issue is not awareness. It is accountability. When government is captured by wealth, corporate behavior that externalizes costs to taxpayers and the planet is allowed to continue without penalty. The evidence is readily discernible when reviewing the Trump/Zeldin EPA. Under Trump-appointed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, the agency moved to weaken and challenge the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.
M&A Alert: Trump/Zeldin Complete Sale of EPA to Fossil Fuel IndustryGeorge A. Polisner·Feb 19Read full story
Private wealth actors extract value. Our public systems absorb the damage. Our children and grandchildren pay the bill.
Buy the Government -
Steal Everything
The heist begins the moment the government is purchased. And at present the Presidency, Congress, and the Roberts Court have all been corrupted.
This is where extraction becomes blatant. Not in theory, but in line items, allocations, and cuts. The machinery of government is no longer used to carefully balance competing interests of economic growth and societal protections. It is used to transfer and concentrate wealth (and therefore, power and control).
Budget priorities complete the transfer. The proposed FY2027 Trump budget makes the structure explicit. A $1.5 trillion defense budget offset by deep reductions in domestic investment. Housing, education, public health, infrastructure, environmental protection, and scientific research are not trimmed. They are eviscerated.
Programs that sustain daily life are targeted directly. Billions are removed from affordable housing and community development. Funding is cut from public schools, job training, and college access. Reductions in clean water infrastructure, air quality monitoring, climate action, and environmental protections. Billions stripped from already broken public health systems, medical research, and emergency preparedness. Support for small businesses, rural communities, and basic services are all reduced or eliminated.
Trump’s FY2027 proposal isn’t a budget. It’s a confession.
When housing support is cut, costs shift to families and local communities. When environmental safeguards are removed, the damage appears in public healthcare costs, lost worker productivity, disaster recovery, and long term infrastructure loss. When scientific research is reduced, future resilience is sacrificed to exacerbate extreme wealth inequality.
Public protections are reduced through privatization and deregulation.
Wealth does not simply accumulate at the top. It is a return on political “investment” and outsized, post-Citizens United “donations”.
For a real-world case study, consider Elon Musk. He reportedly spent $300 million in the 2024 campaign that returned Donald Trump to power. At the start of 2025, his companies faced at least $2.37 billion in potential federal penalties across dozens of investigations. What followed was not neutral policy. Enforcement pressure softened. Federal agencies moved toward deeper reliance on his companies’ infrastructure, including integration of Starlink into FAA systems and expanded dependence on existing contracts worth tens of billions.
Eliminating federal penalties alone represents a 690% return on investment.
The 2027 Trump/GOP Budget vs. Your Budget
Budgets are statements of values. They reveal what matters, who matters, and who does not.
On one side, the expansion of military spending. A $1.5 trillion defense request, with hundreds of billions in increases layered on top of existing commitments and additional war funding. The budget priority is clear. War, projection of force, and the military industrial complex that support them are not constrained. They are unleashed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/02/eric-trump-drones-gulf-states-iran
To offset the massive allocation of taxpayer funds toward military expansion, food inspection and safety is reduced. Funding is cut from farmers, agricultural research, and food assistance for the poor. Programs that stabilize food access, both domestically and abroad, are eliminated or scaled back. The systems that ensure affordability and supply are weakened.
If you have kids or rely on education, investment declines. Billions are removed from public schools, job training, and college access. Programs that prepare teachers, support STEM education, and expand opportunity are eliminated. The future workforce is asked to do more with less. This is strategic. Trump’s GOP wants a readily manipulated society consisting of blindly obedient hyper-consumers. They understand a well-educated, informed, and engaged society would not support authoritarianism and tyranny.
For housing, the budget cuts are direct. Affordable housing construction, community development grants, and programs aimed at reducing homelessness are reduced or eliminated. Support for vulnerable populations, including seniors, low income families, and Native communities, is weakened at the moment it is most needed.
For workers, labor protections shrink. Worker safety programs, equal pay enforcement, and support for small businesses are reduced. Loans, development programs, and rural investment are cut. The mechanisms that support upward mobility are quietly dismantled.
Environmental protections for breathable air and safe drinking water are eviscerated and the consequences are long term and cumulative. Funding for air pollution monitoring, clean water infrastructure, environmental cleanup, and clean energy programs is reduced or eliminated.
If you get sick or rely on public health systems, the reductions are immediate. Billions are cut from public health services, medical research, and emergency preparedness. Programs that protect communities from disease, environmental hazards, and systemic risk are weakened. Since the Secretary of Health rejects science and vaccinations, the budget cuts are consistent with his worldview.
Consumer protections against predatory banks, lenders, and mystery fees are eliminated.
All of these cuts to pay for an allocation of massive taxpayer resources where power and profit concentrate in what has historically been a system with limited auditability, transparency, and accountability.
Resources are being moved away from domestic programs that sustain everyday life and toward the systems that benefit a narrow set of interests. The result is not just fewer services or reduced support. It is a complete shift in who the government is designed to serve.
Rupert Murdoch and Fox “News” laughing all the way to the Cayman Islands
Media systems owned by concentrated wealth reinforce the narrative and redirect public anger toward immigrants, the BIPOC community, and the impoverished.
Trump: Corruption As Governance
Corruption is often treated as scandal. A headline. A distraction. An exception that happens when an individual crosses an ethics line.
In the current system corruption is not an exception. It is the DNA.
A pattern of blatant corruption
Look at how money, power, and policy now move together.
Private wealth is no longer separate from public decision making. It is entangled with it. Individuals with direct influence over government policy maintain financial interests that can benefit from those very decisions. The incentives are not hidden.
Under Donald Trump, the boundary between public office and private gain has been destroyed. Business interests, branding, political fundraising, and emerging financial vehicles such as crypto have operated alongside policy decisions and political positioning. Access is sold to whoever has an outsized donation or crypto purchase.
Jared Kushner has raised and managed billions through his firm while maintaining relationships with foreign governments that have direct stakes in U.S. foreign policy. Sovereign wealth funds tied to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have committed capital at scale. At the same time, those governments rely on U.S. military protection, arms deals, and diplomatic positioning. The overlap is not subtle. It is structural.
Pete Hegseth and others trade “defense” industry stocks with remarkable timing.
Figures like Pete Hegseth, operating in proximity to defense policy and military investment narratives, highlight another dimension. When individuals connected to decision making around war, procurement, and national security also hold or are linked to financial interests in those sectors, the incentive structure becomes clear.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Javier Milei, and $20 billion of taxpayer funds
Financial leadership is not immune. Scott Bessent and others moving between hedge funds, advisory roles, and government influence operate within a system where access to information, timing, and policy direction can create asymmetries. Allegations and concerns around insider advantage, whether in equities, commodities, or emerging financial instruments, reflect a broader issue. When those closest to decision making also participate in markets affected by those decisions, the playing field is not level.
This is not about isolated incidents. ** It is a pattern of systemic corruption**.
Insider trading concerns, self dealing, crypto speculation tied to political identity, and foreign investment flows all point in the same direction. The system rewards those who can translate power and access to power into advantage. It does not require explicit coordination. The structure itself creates the outcome.
This is why traditional language fails. Ethics violations. Conflicts of interest. These terms suggest deviation from a norm that still exists. They imply that the system is fundamentally sound, with occasional breaches. What is continuing to unfold under Trump is not corruption at the edges. This is Trump’s operating model.
The system no longer prevents these outcomes, it produces them.
The Trump Economy
The United States will soon be buried under $40 trillion of debt. That number is often presented as abstract, but its meaning is concrete. It reflects decades of policy choices that slashed taxes for corporations and the wealthy, expanded spending where it benefits concentrated interests, and deferred costs into the future. While the GOP claims to be the party of being fiscally conservative, when you pay attention a pattern emerges from an economic playbook.
The GOP Economic Playbook:
- GOP leadership is elected, campaigning on balancing the budget and economic growth and opportunity “for all”.
- Slash taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
- Reduced tax revenue creates a budget deficit.
- Education is blamed. Pensions are blamed. Vital social programs are blamed. Libraries are blamed. Immigrants are blamed. Government spending is blamed. Public servants are blamed. It must be “Fraud and abuse”.
- Social programs are cut or decimated.
- The budget deficit is added to the debt.
- Democratic leadership is elected.
- Government is constrained by debt and often a failing economy.
- New leadership tries to restore funding for public programs.
- GOP opposes because “Tax and Spend” Democrats just want a big bloated government and don’t care about balancing the budget.
- Nothing gets done. Voters become impatient. Then voters elect GOP leadership again.
- GOP slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
- Repeat as necessary.
Fuel prices are driven by Trump's actions related to war and geopolitical instability.
Meanwhile, remember inflation? Because inflation continues to pressure households. Food, housing, energy, healthcare, and borrowing costs have all risen in ways that far outpace average wage growth and have for multiple generations. These increases are not isolated. They are connected to the same system that prioritizes profit over people. When supply chains are strained by conflict, when fuel prices are driven by wars of choice with no defined objective, no exit strategy, and widely criticized by military leadership, and when a steady stream of corporate mergers reduces competition, consumer prices rise. The burden is distributed broadly. The profits flow straight to the top.
Wealth concentration accelerates alongside both trends. A larger share of national income flows to a smaller group of individuals and institutions. Asset ownership becomes more concentrated. Returns compound at the top while costs compound for everyone else. The gap widens not because the system is failing, but because it is functioning as designed.
All of us? We finance this system twice.
First through taxes. Even as tax policy shifts burdens to workers and reduces tax responsibility at the top, tax revenue is still required to fund government operations, service debt, and support the infrastructure that allows the nation to function. Individuals and small businesses carry a disproportionate and growing share relative to their capacity.
Then again through higher prices. When corporate power increases, when competition declines, and when costs are externalized to society, those costs return through the market. Higher rents, higher food prices, higher energy bills, higher healthcare expenses. The same households that fund the system through taxation are asked to fund it again at the point of purchase.
Welcome to Reagan/Bush/Trump/GOP America.
A Fork in the American Road
For more than fifty years, a system driven by insatiable greed has redirected wealth, weakened guardrails, and transferred costs from the few to the many. It has done so through taxes, tax loopholes, privatization, and deregulation under the banner of Free Markets! Economic Growth! Big Government is bad. Privatization solves everything!
Once again, this is not governance. It is organized theft. And while we’re divided by nationality, race, gender, MAGA hats or wokeness, generationally, by religion, by who we love, climate, gun violence prevention, and more -the heist continues. We are divided and we are conquered. And so-called “news” and social media, owned by billionaires in the middle of the heist gleefully tell us who to blame and hate -and laugh all the way to the Cayman Islands (or, until recently, Epstein’s Island).
Despite the blatant corruption, chaos, war, inflation, tariffs: We cannot forget the Epstein/Trump/Maxwell investigative files.
The midterm elections are not just about government and policy control. They are about whether this corrupted and broken system is affirmed or challenged. Whether the mechanisms of extraction remain in place or are dismantled. Whether public power is used to serve the public again, or continues to be used as a conduit for private gain.
If the current trajectory is rejected, the response cannot be symbolic. It must be structural.
That begins with accountability. Not rhetorical accountability, but criminal and financial accountability. Actions that have crossed the line into self dealing, abuse of office, and financial manipulation must be investigated and, where warranted, prosecuted.
Justice is for all. Or it does not exist.
Wealth that has been extracted through tax loopholes, preferential treatment, regulatory weakening, and corruption cannot remain permanently stolen. Mechanisms exist within law and policy to seize assets, close loopholes that enabled the extractions, and reclaim resources for the public who earned them.
Furthermore, seized assets can serve a purpose beyond correction. They can be used to reduce national debt. To rebuild infrastructure. To reimagine the public health systems, fund education, housing, environmental protections, and climate action.
This is not punishment for billionaires. It is the repair of the system they have assailed for nearly 50 years.
Investigate. Prosecute. Recover.
The 2026 midterms are not routine. They are a decision about whether this blatant corruption continues or ends. Whether we accept a country where government, law, and policy is for sale, or reclaim a government that serves the will of the public.
After the Trump/Vance Administration is voted out of office, any serious attempt at governing must prioritize recovering assets extracted through corruption and manipulation. Close the loopholes that made it possible. Return those resources to the public to reduce debt, rebuild infrastructure, and restore the foundations of a functioning society.
Because without consequences, nothing changes. Without recovery, the theft stands. If the theft stands, so does the system that enabled it.
This is our moment.
Not to manage decline. To end it.
Discussion in the ATmosphere