DJ Suss D for President

Note: This transcription had music from Ren and Stimpy underneath when I originally read it on air. The underlying theme of Ren And
Stimpy is that their seemingly good ideas always lead to disaster.

This is March 8th, 2026. March 7th, March 8th of Financial Times.
So what this is, this is about a shipper. This guy will, you know, he’s just like out of the
movies. He’ll just ship anything, weapons, oil. He doesn’t care as long as you pay him.
He’ll get those weapons and that oil out of there no matter how many people die because of his
actions or… or whatever you know and so uh this is this guy’s just hilarious and and and you’ll
hear everything that you’ve heard been hearing on the news is all included in here so uh buccaneer
risking his ships and crews in straight and for moves and and you’ll notice we don’t know whether
he pays his crew members in this day and age people are so desperate for jobs that we’re wondering
me and the financial times here are wondering if he actually the extra money that he gets to ship
this stuff does he give it to his crew or does he just send them to their death, you know,
and keep the money for himself. So we’re not sure about that. But, you know,
he has the right to do whatever he wants with the ocean and his ship.
So this is Buccaneer risking his ships and crews in Strait of Hormuz. His name is George Procopio,
shipping magnate, Jamie John, Malcolm Moore, and Nasos Stylianu.
So Financial Times for March 8th. As Iranian missiles streaked over the Strait of Hormuz last
Sunday, bringing traffic across one of the world’s most vital trade routes to a near halt, one
Greek billionaire was steering his ship straight into the turmoil. Dynacom tankers owned by 79
-year-old George Prokopiu has sent at least five tankers through the narrow waterway at the mouth
of the Gulf since the outbreak of war with Iran on Saturday, making it one of a handful of legal
operators willing to brave the journey. Most owners have paused transit until things calm down,
said one shipbroker. But there are a few buccaneers willing to take the risk.
There are big rewards on offer. Freight rates for tankers leaving the Gulf have more than doubled,
hitting record highs. A single so-called VLCC, or Very Large Crewed Carrier,
tanker making the perilous voyage across the strait and on to China would earn about $500,000 in
revenue per day. excluding the cost of additional war risk insurance,
according to price reporting agency Argus. While the risks for the owners are money and tankers,
the sailors on board are putting their lives on the line. Iran has threatened to set any ships
attempting to cross the passage, quote, on fire, hitting at least nine since the conflict began
with at least three seafarers killed. All of Dynacom’s vessels turned off their transponders,
devices that automatically transmit a vessel’s location and identity, for their passage through the
strait. Ship tracking data shows Dynacom’s crewed tanker Athena, which was in the region before the
attacks, stopped transmitting early on Saturday evening southeast of the waterway before
reappearing the following afternoon in the Gulf.
Sitra port on Monday and departed two days later with a cargo of oil.
Born into a wealthy family in Athens in 1946, Prokopio is among the latest generation of Greek ship
owners who have long dominated the maritime trade. Described by a person close to him as unassuming
and a workaholic, he is rarely seen without his trademark baseball cap, drives an old Mercedes SUV,
and walks around without security, a rarity among Greece’s ship-owning elite. Procopio spends most
of the year on his mega-yacht, the 106.5-meter Dream, currently docked on the Athenian Riviera,
and his expansive property portfolio has earned him the nickname the King of Real Estate in his
home country. Last year, he bought a stake in the Four Seasons Astere Palace,
the luxury hotel group’s only Greek property, along with the adjoining Volgmeni Marina.
which primarily serves mega yachts. After buying his first ship in his mid-20s,
Procopio built a huge fleet around the world, along with a reputation for taking risks.
The Greek tycoon’s three shipping companies have more than 150 vessels on the water, with roughly
85 more under construction, said a person familiar with the matter. He’s an industry legend,
and one of those people that does what we call premium…
said one ship broker who has worked with prokopio’s companies using a euphemism for trades that are
legal but carry much higher risks prokopio’s dinacom tanker tankers has moved tens of millions of
barrels of russian crude russian crude oil over the past year and is one of the biggest lifters of
the cargo since moscow launched its assault on ukraine in early 2022 According to Financial Times
analyst analysis of Kepler data and ship ownership records,
the billionaire stirred controversy in 2022 when, months after the outbreak of the war, he said
that sanctions have never worked, although there is no suggestion he has ever breached them.
Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention put Dynacom tankers on its list of international
sponsors of war. for its role shipping Russian crude accusing it of replenishing the budget of the
aggressor country and financing the Russian invasion. However, in 2023, it withdrew Dynacom from
the list and in 2024 withdrew the list altogether following pressure from its overseas partners.
Prokopio had always acted within the law, the shipbroker said, and had complied with price caps and
other Russian crude restrictions, but he added the billionaire’s willingness to shift cargo that
others might not was where he’s made most of his margin. The International Transport Workers
Federation, which represents crew members, has mandated bonus payments for those operating around
the Strait of Hormuz since Monday that are meant to enforce a doubling of both salaries and death
and disability benefits. Crew members can also refuse to sail with repatriation at company’s cost
and compensation equal to two months basic wage.
Okay, so the government is mandating that, but are they enforcing it? We don’t know.
Procopio and Dynacom tankers did not respond to a request for comment, including on whether they
were making the additional payments to its crews. He represents a certain way of doing business.
He represents a certain way of doing business, said Ed Finley. I’m sorry, this is just black comedy
to me. I’m sorry.
He represents… way of doing business said ed finley richardson a shipping investor and founder of
contango research he’s one of a cohort of five to ten owners who really overshadow everyone else
not because of the size of their fleet but also because they’re willing to act boldly Procopio has
a reputation for honoring his contracts where others renege, but sending his ships through the
strait while live fire continues on both sides represented a historic opportunity for the Greek
billionaire, said Finlay Richardson. He noted the risk of entering the Gulf with an empty ship was
lower, and once there, quote,
to ask for the right price for the clear and present danger to your vessel and the crew and
everything else. It’s during these periods that the truly elite ship owners tend to distinguish
themselves, he added, pointing to Greek Tychoon Aristotle Onassis’ willingness to risk German U
-boat attacks in the Second World War and Norwegian magnate John Fredriksen’s move to buy up
contracts to ship oil by tanker during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Charming.
Gee, is that shipping? Do you think maybe that’s a keystone in the globalization world?
But please don’t kill any heads of multinational corporations or shipping people.
Please don’t do that just because someone read an article on the radio.
Summing up, his approach in 2014, Prokofio said, If you are not a risk taker,
you are not in shipping. If you don’t want the risks, you buy U.S. bonds, which is a lot to be
said for U.S. bonds right now.
So, yeah, that’s from Financial Times. I think that kind of sums up what’s going on right now.
There’s a May Day celebration at the Park Blocks on 8th and Oak, April 26th.
May Day celebration, April 26th. Park Blocks on 8th and Oak should be a hoot with all of your
favorite organizations and some that you might have never heard of that you should be involved in.
So that’s very important to be at the May Day celebration for networking on April 26th,
2026 at the Park Blocks on 8th and Oak. And yes,
oil shocks hopefully will move us closer to energy independence with rooftop solar rooftop solar
rooftop solar i’m hoping if i say it enough times the google algorithm will pick it up and just
make it happen for kepw news i’m dj susd