My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.
Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.
1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.
10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings.
This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.
Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill
Must Watch: A message from a Venezuelan citizen telling us the truth about what was really going on in his country, who the real president should have been, and how grateful he is to President Trump and his administration.
American Doctor of 40 years explains how Barack Obama allowed insurance companies to steal unlimited amounts of money from taxpayers with the Affordable Care Act
“Where do our health insurance costs go up every year? — The reason is, it was designed that way. There's something called, in the Affordable Care Act, called the medical loss ratio. The medical loss ratio means that insurance companies must spend between 80 to 85% of all premium dollars on medical services. That means they're limited to 15% to 20% for administrative, overhead, and profit. So that means that they play a little game. The higher the top line is, the bigger that number is.
So now all we did was say, "Let's charge more each year." If you look each year, the insurance company's revenues go up every year.
The second thing they did to get around that was they started vertically integrating. What's vertical integration? That's when you start buying companies that are not insurance companies, but in similar businesses.
- So they started buying pharmacy benefit managers, which are middlemen for the drug companies
- They started buying pharmacies, they started buying physician services and physician groups
So why is that important? Well, think about this.
I'm the insurance company, I wanna make it look on paper like I'm making my medical loss ratio, because if I don't, I'm gonna have to pay a rebate.
So what I do is I have my physician over here who's owned, and I overpay him, but he's owned. So when I overpay him, all I'm doing is I'm showing I have an expense here, but it goes back in my other pocket.
Same thing for drugs. I can take a $50 drug, I can pay $200 for it. Now I've just gotten around the medical loss ratio, because somehow the government can't figure out how to trace that dollar beyond the insurance.
So that's how they get around it, and this is why our insurance premiums go up every year, and they're gonna keep going up until we change the system.”
Olympics set to ban ALL transgender athletes from female events after 'finding scientific evidence of advantages to being born male'. Read more: https://t.co/hk1MKrxXX8
“They told me my MRI would be $5,100 WITH insurance — but only $700 WITHOUT it.”
When she asked to self-pay, the hospital said, “Since you have insurance, we won’t let you.”
“How is that not a scam? Isn’t it my choice?”
Health insurance is a legalized scam.
Obama’s “Affordable” Care Act made healthcare anything but affordable. It lined the pockets of insurance companies while driving costs through the roof for everyone else. Health insurance has become one of the biggest scams in America.
A family medicine doctor just blew the lid off medical pricing—proving that paying cash for basic procedures like an MRI costs only a fraction of what insurance companies charge.
The proof is right here:
• With insurance: $1,900 → Self-pay: $374
• With insurance: $1,250 → Self-pay: $433
• With insurance: $1,800 → Self-pay: $209
The difference between using insurance and paying out of pocket? In many cases, you actually save money by skipping insurance altogether. And your doctor doesn’t have to waste time battling red tape or begging for approval—only for you to be hit with a massive bill anyway.
Take a simple MRI of the spine. Insurance companies usually force patients to go through weeks of physical therapy, try medications, and make doctors jump through endless hoops with prior authorizations, precertifications, or even “peer-to-peer” calls—just to get approval. And when you finally get the green light, they’ll charge you $1,900 for a test that would’ve cost around $200 cash.
On my first day @USDA, we told every state to send us their SNAP data so we could make sure illegal immigrants aren’t getting benefits meant for American families. 29 states stepped up. 21 blue states refused — and two SUED US FOR ASKING! 🤦🏻♀️
And guess what? In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud.
The Democrat Party has turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens. They know if the handouts stop, those illegals will go back home, and Democrats will lose 20+ seats after the next census.
There’s a new sheriff in town. @POTUS will not tolerate waste, fraud, or abuse while hardworking Americans go hungry.
POWERFUL TESTIMONY: This young woman's journey back to faith after seeing the EVIL online celebration of Charlie Kirk's assassination.
"I cannot prove to anybody that God exists, but what I can prove is that evil exists. And that right there is proof enough for me."
This is the IMPACT of Charlie Kirk.
h/t @EstieMaddie
Pray with me
September 15, 2025
Jesus,
You are the One who stooped low to lift the broken high. Just as You stood with the woman caught in sin, stand with me today. I confess my failures, my shame, and the weight of my guilt. Yet I thank You that in Your mercy, You did not condemn me, but set me free.
Lord, teach me to hear Your words: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” Let those words shape my heart and renew my mind. Give me strength to turn from sin and courage to walk in the freedom You purchased for me.
Help me also to drop the stones I hold against others. Guard me from judgmental attitudes, and instead fill me with the same compassion You showed that day in the temple courts.
May my life be a living witness that Your grace is stronger than accusation, Your mercy is deeper than my sin, and Your love has the final word.
In Your holy name I pray,
Amen
JUST IN — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on suspected assassin's motive: "This is someone who hated Charlie Kirk, and hated his message and hated what he was doing — and decided to use political violence to end his life... This is an assault on not just him, but on all of us." | @SpecialReport
Rep Tim Burchett says he’s willing to lose his job to tell us the REAL REASON government officials are opposing Elon Musk and DOGE
“They’re gonna push back because you’ve got Congressmen on both sides of the aisle. If they follow that paper trail, it's going to come back to them. You've got their wife and or girlfriend that works for some agency, quasi-agency or some business. This towns as crooked as a dogs leg”
“I’ll get primaried for saying that but that’s the truth and we all know it”
“Somebody’s gonna straight it out, it looks like it’s gonna be Elon Musk”
🚨 To Elon Musk and the DOGE team looking at Medicare:
Pharmacist says
- Cancer Medicine Imatinib costs them $7 to buy. They add $10, so you're out the door for $17
- When Medicare pays for this drug, IT COSTS THEM $2,400
- This drug was filled 250,000 times in 1 year costing Medicare $600 million
“If every one of those scripts was filled at our pharmacy instead of through Medicare, it would've cost $4 million. That means that we are $596 million cheaper than the insurance. That's crazy.”
“So why are they paying this much for that medication? Well, insurance companies pay a middleman, the pharmacy benefits manager, and that person decides how much that medication's gonna cost”
- 3 Pharmacy Benefits Managers control over 90% of all prescription pricing in America
- Pharmaceutical companies bought all 3 Pharmacy Benefits Managers
They set their own pricing, Medicare pays ASTRONOMICAL prices and taxpayers pick up the bill. This is a racket.