Earth Day musings and the new normal.

It is one of those days. Move the chair to get closer to the keyboard to type, knock something over. It is Earth Day. The early warmth we had made all the trees on my block leaf out very quickly, and much earlier than normal. Today, though, is cool and gray.

Spring on the Brattleboro Common - about a half a block from my apartment. I took this photo yesterday!

The lilac on the Common (not far from the crab apples in the picture above) as well as one growing in a 2 foot space between two older buildings on the edge of our business district, are both starting to open their blooms a month early. This is the new normal - there isn't any normal. Well, there is, but I find it depressing and try not to let much of it slip into my consciousness. Which is pretty hard to do when it is the major part of one's everyday existence. (And I'm thinking of the "new normal" in politics and economics as well as in the environmental sense.)

How to explain this feeling? Well, let's take Earth Day. Although there were a couple of similar ideas already out there, Earth Day as we know it was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 as a reaction to the disastrous 1969 oil spill in southern California and the lack of a decent response by the US Government. He based his idea on the anti Vietnam War movement's "teach ins", hoping that education would help raise enough public outcry that something would be done to stem what he saw as an approaching environmental crisis. How have things changed since then? In 2010, this day was celebrated by the sinking to the ocean floor of the drilling platform of the Deepwater Horizon BP Macondo blowout (after an explosion two days previous); an incident otherwise known as the Gulf Oil Spill. Haven't head much about that lately have you? Have you seen or heard of any legislation or regulations passed to protect against shoddy cheap bottom dollar is king construction work to try to help prevent this kind of thing from happening again? Have you heard about the continuing "persistent oil seep" in the Gulf whose chemical analysis identifies it as consistent with the make up of oil from the Macondo 252 well? The phrase in quotes is from an investigative piece published in March 2012. You haven't heard of it because the reporting was done by Al Jazeera. Three days ago, the New York Times reported that BP has, so far, paid out about $ 8 billion to individuals and businesses affected by the spill. (That's out of the $20 billion fund they were forced to set up, which the Times failed to mention.) BP claims to have spent an additional $14 billion in cleanup costs. BP's books show a $37.2 billion charge for their expenses. In case you're curious, the lawyers have so far collected about $600 million. One other thing, aside from the continued deaths of Gulf waters dolphins and whales at twice the normal rate, tar balls still continue to wash up on Gulf shores. According to the National Geographic Society and Ecowatch, the tar balls contain the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which can cause fatal blood poisoning and is the causative agent of cholera.

One of these days I'll get around to writing about what I see as the "new normal". In the meantime, I'd explain the phrase by mentioning Monsanto, the giant multinational conglomerate which manufactures rGBH (the bovine growth hormone which leaches into the cows milk and has been identified as an "accelerator" of prostrate, lung and colon cancers), and the toxic weed killer Round Up and much of the genetically modified Round Up resistant seeds (corn, soybeans, etc.) sold in the US. They dealt with the fact that their products are getting the major blame for the destruction of pollinating insects (think bees, among others) by buying the company that does much of the research into bee colony collapse. They made the purchase last September, but the news of it only came to light two days ago. I wonder whatever happened to their anti-trust investigation the US Government started in 2009? I wonder if that was affected by the 2009 appointment of their chief lobbyist ($8.8+ million in 2008) (and a former Deputy Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration) to the position of senior adviser to the FDA by President Obama? You know, the FDA. As in Monsanto's should be famous comment, "Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA's job." Oh, by the way,  they are also a former employer of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (who wrote the Court's majority 2001 opinion that genetically modified seeds were patentable). I won't go into their history of manufacturing DDT, Agent Orange or their worldwide toxic dumping and use of child labor. Happy Earth Day, Monsanto.

Earth Day is also the birthday of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. His studies of a range of subjects led directly to Nobel prizes for others. He was nominated three times, but was never given the award. In the early 1940's, he was called upon by the United States government to work on a specific task. He completed his mission, and is now known as the father of the Atomic Bomb. Horrified by the death and destruction his work unleashed, he agitated for organizations to oversee atomic development and for the then new United Nations to oversee and control atomic weapons. For that work, various interests in the US pushed him out of the way of the business of atomic money, and used the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950's to publicly embarrass and destroy him as they revoked his security clearances. It just wasn't any fun starting a profitably expensive arms race with a Communist liberal loving peacenick running around gumming up the works. Oh, by the way, the atomic arms race isn't over you know. But then again, no arms races are ever over, are they?

Shall we now discuss the new figures on poverty in the United States? Let's not. But if you live in this country, have you noticed a large upswing in crimes such as holdups of convenience stores and banks? We're having quite a few here in Brattleboro these days. Cause and effect and all that.

And as for our hopes for the future being based on education engendered by days like Earth Day, here are a few responses from an article on Facebook this morning about a bank robbery in town yesterday:

Person 1 ...can't see it taken very long to find him one dum ass bank robber

Person 2 - Well lets rember they never caut the guy that robbed to banks on a bike ane one day. So will see how long it takes this time

After a report of an arrest in the case:

Person 3 - Wow they did there job this time.

Person 4 - People really should judge the police when your not the ones putting your life on the line everyday in these situations every day


So much for education. And hope. It is one of those days.

When the temperature goes way up...

                  
It's getting hot. It's the kind of hot that causes men to duel. (As a matter of fact, today is the anniversary of the  Burr/Hamilton show. ) This heat is causing people to go crazy. Impatient. Self-centered. Ready for something. Once such person, a truck driver, was  so impatient with a traffic light delay (the train must have been arriving) that he thought of driving up onto the sidewalk where he could get around the tie-up, and drive merrily away while raising a middle finger in defiant genuflection at the receding cars. The problem was that he did more than think about it. He tried to do it. And in the trying, savoring that joyous moment of self-expression, the truck ripped the marque of the Latchis Theater apart. That was at one o'clock and the temperature is still rising.

This picture was purloined from The Brattleboro Reformer, and is credited to Bob Audette

I'll have to write down a history of the Latchis soon. It was quite a showplace once upon. The anchor of the corner of Main and Flat Streets is the Hotel, housed in one of Vermont's two or three Art Deco buildings. Money was splurged by the family in celebration of an immigrant father who did well. Even the bathrooms are trimmed in terrazzo marble. The theater's opening was delayed by the 1938 hurricane, and houses a vaudeville stage - and the upstairs movie theatre which used to be a ballroom.

Anyway, it's hot. There's a mean and nasty heat wave out there and it's probably headed straight here. We're gonna pay for that week of nice weather.  And our patience is near its end. The 40 hour work week, the 8 hour workday, is gone save for some office workers and Federal Employees. The economy is falling apart. Ten years of Foreign Wars - three or is it four now? - and wealth redistribution upwards have created new monsters of the Upper Class, who drained off damn near well everything else they could get their hands on. The 99 weeks of unemployment help (I reject it being called a benefit or entitlement) is ending. Medicare and Social Security are now up for budget slaying discussion.

Out of every $10.00 in most Americans pockets last year, $2.00 was from Government programs. 2 out of ten. What happens when that money stops? The tilt of wealth to the rich is slowing - no one has money anymore to buy thieir goods or services. Where unions still exist, they are finding their rights to negotiate for themselves have been squandered like oil into a river. Or gulf coast. And all those people still have their jobs. The dreams and ideals of my country, as well as a collective belief in a better world, have been trampled from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay to the Mexican border, China, into Russia, and back down to Afghanastan (and on to Lybia! Wait, No, I meant Somalia, or uh...). And who paid the price? A couple of low level military miscreants. Who among the bosses lost their jobs? And the banks and insurers who together purposefully played mortgage monopoly? Who lost their jobs? Who pays the price? We were told to forget all those lives destroyed. Forgive. It'll be dealt with. Meanwhile, we're all set for a new feudalism. Er, Federalism. Something.

It's too damned hot.

Oh, it just gets better and better.

So, even the Republican leadership felt that Rep. Joe Barton went a little overboard yesterday and forced him (by threatening to take away a powerful position he holds) to apologize. Which he did - sort of. He apologized for using the term "shakedown".

Why is this man so intent on defending the indefensible? Well, aside from the $27,500 BP has paid him over the years, he's gotten enough from other oil companies to total out at about $1.5 million.

And - and - he owns a gas well - which has already earned over $100,000 from his investment. At a hearing in January (2010) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Barton said he was "a small, small partner in a natural gas well in Johnson County in the Barnett Shale that is probably my 4-year-old son's college education." Uh, huh. In an interview, he also said, "I'm trying to provide a little bit of financial security for my family and do it honestly, ethically and openly". Okay . He purchased his interest from longtime friend and Texas businessman Walter G. Mize.

Mize had been a longtime cattleman, when he suddenly bought out Lothian Oil (based in Texas) which at that time had assumed all debt for United Heritage Corporation. Mize immediately became the CEO and Chairman of the board for UHC - which owns land in Texas and New Mexico which had an  aprox. 275 million barrels of oil underneath it --- and lots and lots of Natural Gas.

For his part, Rep. Barton acknowledges paying somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000 for his interest in the wells. All this just happened to occur in 2007 (Mize died in 2008) when  the price of natural gas skyrocketed from about $7 to nearly $11 per thousand cubic foot.  Gee, that's the same time frame that BP (out of its Texas offices) manipulated the price of natural gas, for which they paid a $303 million + fine.

Ah, sweet mysteries of life.

WTF ?

For almost two weeks now, I've been trying to start writing the follow up to my investigations into StandardOil/BP/Gulf/Exxon/Chevron&etc. history and politics, and how they affect the Gulf  Oil Spill. I did, after all, promise to write my conclusions as to just what the hell might be really going on - but every time I try, something else crops up that I wanted to check into. And sometimes there have been moments so ludicrous that if this weren't such a serious situation, I'd laugh my ass off. Actually, because this is such a serious situation I have laughed my ass off. And just when you think nothing can ever top the latest moment of sheer stupidity. someone does it!

Start, for instance, with BP's Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward's quote, "There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back." or "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

Or this from BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg:
"And we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care. But that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people." (Best blog comment  - I'll bet the Lollipop Guild was pleased to hear that.)

But the best (so far) happened today at the Congressional hearings with BP execs.
Rep. Joe Barton ( R - Texas) who used to be the chair of  the Energy and Commerce Committee, apologized to BP and Tony Hayward saying, "I am ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday, that a private corporation would be subject to what I would characterize as a shake down,"
and this topper, "I apologize…I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong it is subject to political pressure that amounts to a shake down."

I'm not making this up, you know. Here's the whole sorry thing - the  good stuff starts about 1 min and 40 seconds in...



Now, if you are wondering why he made such idiotic statements, you  might note that over the years, BP has donated $27,350 to his campaigns. Which is  kind of paltry considering they donated $44,899 to John McCain, or George W Bush's $47,388. Their top contribution? $77,051 to Barak Obama. Which may help explain why the Prez took so damn long to do anything.

Very Deep Water - Part 2, or The Curse of a Curious Mind

It's been a week since I started this Deep Water thread. I really did mean to have Part Two up before now. The problem is that every time I go to check a fact, I find myself running off on a related but entirely different direction. And every time I dig, the rabbit hole gets deeper. (Well, of course it gets deeper if I'm digging...) And I have to say that this isn't exactly the blog I'd been wanting to write. I mean heck, the Morris Dancers were in town and I didn't take any pictures, or scowl at them, give them the old Celtic middle finger, nothing. I was digging.

This all started because I read Greg Palast. And he's not even all that scary. If you want scary, check out Michael Rupert's "From the Wilderness" blog. He's currently posting links to "World Currency Unit Intended to Rival Dollar". This one has caught my attention as I was told by someone in the financial investment arena that a World Currency was coming as the first step to a One World Government... It's so easy to get distracted looking this stuff up. Sometimes, I wish I had taken the blue pill.


SO, if you remember, we'd just journeyed thru a small bit of Standard Oil's history and it's relationship to British Petroleum. BP, by the way, is the third largest energy company, and the fourth largest company in the world. It is easily the largest Corporation in the UK.

William Knox D'Arcy had become extraordinarily wealthy thru a gold mining syndicate. In 1901, he backed a search for minerals and oil in Persia (which became Iran) after the Shah of Iran gave him a 60 year concession to hunt for oil - with rights to all but a small portion of the country for an initial sum and an annual 16% of the profits. In 1903, the search started - financed by D'Arcy. As his funds dwindled, he sold a significant portion of his rights to the Burma Oil Co, Ltd. In 1908, on the verge of pulling the plug on the project, oil was finally discovered. And so, the Anglo Persian Oil Company (APOC) was formed. In 1913, APOC started negotiations with a new customer, Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. With WWI starting, Churchill convinced the British Government to secure oil for its ships by injecting a major amount of money into APOC. The British Government thus became the hidden power behind the oil company. In 1923, APOC gave £5,000 to Churchill to lobby the British government to allow APOC to monopolize Persia's oil resources (Standard Oil had started sniffing around from its base in Burma). And thus, in 1935, APOC became the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). For its part, Burma Oil took on markets in Burma (now Myanmar), Pakistan, and parts of India, with Shell Oil taking the rest.

In the meantime, APOC had joined with Royal Dutch/Shell and started the Turkish Petroleum Company. TPC had deals going to explore for oil in Iraq but WWI intervened. In a conference after the war, the US muscled in via its Near East Development Co.(the major player being Standard Oil). The rest is, as they say, another story.

Things perked along until 1951, when the pro-western Iranian Prime Minister was assassinated. The Iran Parliament elected a new PM, and nationalized the oil industry. The AIOC was replaced by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Needless to say, the British, Churchill, and the US were not pleased.

In 1953, US President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to organize a coup against the Iranian government - with support from the British Government and financed by the AIOC. The Shah was returned to power, and kept it via his brutal SAVAK police force, trained by the US's CIA and Israel's Mossad. The NIOC renegotiated and agreed to split profits 50-50 with the Iranian Government - but not to let the Iranians have a look at the books. The NIOC gave up its monopolization of Iranian oil, and agreed to a 40% share in a new International Consortium. Another 40% was to be split between the five major American oil companies, with the remaining 20% going to (ta-dum) Royal Dutch Shell (formed to compete with Standard Oil, Royal Dutch Petroleum got 60%, with 40 % going to the British Shell Transport and Trading Company). In 1954, the AIOC became the British Petroleum Company. In 1978, BP either bought or merged with Standard Oil of Ohio.

Shell, by the by, became heavily involved with the natural gas market, and eventually had a nuclear project going with the USA's Gulf Oil. In the 1980's, Gulf merged with Standard Oil of California, which gave birth to Chevron. Shell's USA subsidiary was one of the first companies to leave the Global Climate Coalition. Shell also became heavily involved in Nigeria, and eventually agreed to a $5.5 million legal settlement as long as they took no responsibility for Nigerian beheadings, torture & etc. (With a tip o'the hat to old John D's Nazi connections, no doubt.)

Meanwhile Gulf has become a "new economy" business employing few people but holding intellectual property, brands, and expertise. Gulf Oil LTD is now a subsidiary of Cumberland Farms and its 2,100 US service stations. Gulf had/has a long term investment relationship with the Mellon family and the Mellon Bank. In the 1950's and ear;y 60's, Gulf had production operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, and Kuwait, where it had a "special relationship" with the Kuwaiti government (which also does bad things to human beings). In 1984, Gulf became a part of he Kuwaiti Oil Company along with British Petroleum. In the 1960's Gulf was a primary sponsor for NBC News.

By the way, remember BP with its take from Iran? Well, after the Shah was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war destroyed the oil refineries, and Iran became a supplier of raw oil. There were negotiations with the Ayatollah Kohmenini. BP got 90%, with 10% going to the Ayatollah and his cronies.

In 1998, BP merged with AMOCO (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana). In 2000, BP acquired ARCO (Atlantic Richfield), and Burma Oil. BP has recently become involved with a Russian company (getting 50% with the rest divided amongst three Russian billionaires)

In 2002, the then Chief Executive of BP Lord Browne, renounced the process of corporate campaign contributions. He set to retire in Feb. 2008, with Tony Hayward taking on the job. Browne, however, abruptly retired in May 2007 when an injunction against the Associated Newspapers (The Daily Mail, etc.) was lifted, allowing them to print details about his private life (keeping a young man whom he introduced quite proudly in social circles).

Coming up : how all this fits together (I think).

a Very Deep Water contribution from Ricola

In a response to my most recent post (Very Deep Water) a friend on the West Coast wanted to post this video. I  liked it so much, I figured it ought to be here where more people will see it. Thanks Ricola! It also saves me a bit of time, as I'm not finished writing about this, BP, Standard Oil, & etc. yet...

Very Deep Water

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Laura sent me a link to an article by Greg Palast which noted British Petroleum's responsibility in the Exxon Valdez disaster, and its very similar actions in the Gulf of Mexico. This little bit of information, along with BP's dismal safety record, never seems to hit the mainstream media - which has only just discovered that BP has numerous fines for deceptive practices over the last 5 years. So, with a day off, I got curious and started a little digging via the Internet.

Remember the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline? Well it's barely been mentioned in the news that the pipeline has a storage tank that has been overflowing and spilling crude oil for three days now - causing an almost complete shutdown  ( 8% of normal) of the pipeline. The company which owns the pipeline claims that all of the oil spilled has been caught in a containment area. And there are no hazardous fumes involved. The pipeline carries crude oil from Alaska's North Slope to an intake station in Prudhoe Bay. From there, the pipeline carries the oil to the shipping point at Valdez. Does that name sound familiar  - as in Exxon Valdez?

The company which built and manages the pipeline is the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. The crude oil it carries is produced at the North Slope thru the auspices of BP, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil, who, as partners, just happen to own  95 % of the Alyeska Pipeline Service.

Back in 1989, the Exxon Valdez was carrying 54.1 million US gallons of BP's oil when it ran aground on a reef, spilling at least 11 million gallons into Prince William Sound. (Some groups maintain that that estimate was "under reported".) That spill spread to cover 1,300 miles of coastline and 11 thousand square miles of ocean. The first attempt at a cleanup was through the use of a dispersant, surfactant and a solvent. There was also an attempt to burn off the oil. The mechanical cleanup involved booms and skimmers, but they were not available until over 24 hours after the accident. Then they tried high pressure hot  water, which killed the plankton and microorganisms which were part of the coastal marine food chain. Does this sound somewhat familiar? If it reminds you of the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico, then I guess it's time to note that (as per Greg Palast) the company behind the Exxon Valdez cleanup was (drum roll, please) British Petroleum - and I'll add that it was via Aleyska, whose 2nd biggest stockholder after BP is Exxon Mobil.

Oh, by the way, as of 2007, it was estimated that more than 26,000 gallons of oil still remain in the sands of the Prince William Sound shoreline... In litigation over the spill, Exxon was ordered to pay 5 billion dollars in punitive damages (one year's profits at the time). Exxon appealed, and to protect themselves just in case, they arranged a 4.8 billion credit line through JP Morgan & Co. In order that they not have to keep so much money in reserve, Morgan created the modern credit default swap. After many appeals, the US Supreme Court reduced Exxon's punitive damages to 575.5 million.

How deep does this rabbit hole go? Well, once upon a time there was an old man who had a lot of good press for handing out shiny new dimes to kids. His name was John D. Rockefeller. He was responsible for creating and running an oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company named Standard Oil.
He bought and/or crushed his competition through dirty tricks, secret deals, and underselling his competition.
Standard Oil basically became the world's first multinational corporation. In one deal, a division of the New York Central Railroad gave Standard Oil a 71% discount on shipping provided Standard ship 60 carloads of oil daily. Smaller companies complained, but  were still priced out of the market (not unlike Walmart's deals today). In 1911, the US sued Standard Oil under monopoly regulations and broke it into 34 companies. Standard Oil of New Jersey became Esso (S.O. get it?) which became Exxon which became Exxon Mobil. (Mobil was originally Standard Oil of New York.) Standard Oil of California Became ChevronTexaco. Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) was acquired by - British Petroleum. Standard Oil Atlantic went to BP as well, although there were some leftovers which became Sunoco. In 1941, Standard Oil hooked up with I.G. Farben (a German Chemical Conglomerate). I.G. Farben then built a plant to manufacture synthetic petroleum. The plant was located at Auschwitz. At its peak, the plant used 83,000 slave laborers from the camp. Oh, by the way, IG Farben also held the patent for Zyklon B, which was the gas used in the extermination camps.

I mention all these connections to point out the high cost of oil, and to give an idea of the kinds of folk we're dealing with in BP's Gulf/Deepwater disaster. Not long ago, BP was fined a paltry $373 million to avoid prosecution for breaking U.S. environmental and safety laws, and committing outright fraud. In the last 3 years, BP has had 760 "egregious, willful" safety violations. In 2005, there was an explosion at a BP refinery in Texas which killed 15 people and injured another 180 more. The Justice Dept. found that the explosion occurred due to "improperly released vapor and liquid.". BP paid a whopping 50 million for that one. Last October, BP paid another 67 million for failing to correct the problems at the Texas plant. In 2007, a BP oil spill poured 200,000 gallons of crude into the Alaskan wilderness. Investigators found that BP was aware of corrosion in the pipeline where the failure occurred, but had done nothing about it. That was another 12 million in fines. The US Dept of Justice fined BP 353 million for conspiracy to manipulate the propane gas market. Seven million people in the US heat with propane. Additional cost to the consumer $53 million.

In 2009, BP reported profits of $14 billion.

I keep seeing this image in my mind:

Fire on the Water. That used to be enough to bring out the soothsayers. Isn't it one of the signs of the Apocalypse? If you look it up in the I Ching : Fire on the Water - the image of opposition... there is a need to look beneath the exterior to learn the lesson.

...and I've barely scratched the surface...