Category Archives: big oil

The Sky is Pink

by

…because the oil and gas industry says so…

Clearly, with all the evidence out there, the oil and gas industry has been allowed to get away with so much because Congress is so beholden to them.

Very little is said about solar or wind power when members of Congress are spouting the latest “the American people want…” schtick….and nobody ever proposes that the American public needs to reexamine their own energy usage.

Funny how during WWII, they didn’t have a problem asking folks “Is this trip necessary?” to save gas and keep tires from wearing out.

But now…?

*crickets*

It’s good to know some Americans are taking it upon themselves to reduce their gas usage by riding bikes.  I know that is not always possible especially for disabled folk…but perhaps that problem could be solved if bikes were designed with disabled in mind? Surely some nerdy engineer could figure out how to design a bike that would be safe and easy for not-so-disabled folk?

Anyway, we are part of the problem, too.  But we still need to tax the hell out of the oil and gas industry, for one–they’re less likely to cause trouble in D.C. with $$$ lobbyists if they don’t have wads of cash lying around…

Cloaking Inequity

by

Julian Velasquez Heilig has a post up on the laughable (or not) edumucation mis-counting of school scores…um, yeah, if the Keystone cops could be Keystone Analysts….this is what they would look like–bumbling over themselves.

It’s a miracle…

well, wait a minute…it isn’t…

…yes, yes, it is….

No, no, it isn’t….

Oh, just stop paying attention to facts and think what we tell you to think…!

…oh, and yes, we in Indiana are certainly trying to keep up with Texas….

More letters to Bill and Melinda Gates **edited

by

This has got to be one of the most profound letters I’ve read to date.  It is truly a great assessment of the misinformation campaign being run by the Gates Foundation and the others profiting off of our children.    No educators were included in creating Common Core!!   Red flags right there.   Be sure to follow the link that begins “entire body of social science…”  –it leads to a Washington Post article by Valerie Strauss.  In it there is a link to a  protest letter signed by educators and other professionals against Common Core—lots of good information there.

Megalomaniacal Gates seems to think that every child should be manipulated towards a career in the technology field….everyone should be just like himself…?  Probably thinks he’s the new Messiah, too.  God help us.

 

**edited to clarify

New York State Test Outrage

by

From Diane Ravitch:  Peter DeWitt Is Outraged by New York State Tests.

This is such a compelling letter–how can anyone claim that teachers are not dedicated?

I’m angry that I continue to have teachers step outside of the box…very brave teachers, and get pummeled because their children did not do well on state tests…that they were never supposed to do well on in the first place.

~~~~~~

Exactly.  The game has been exposed–kids were never supposed to pass these tests.  It was designed to fail them and their schools.

…just so some hedge fund manager, bankers, etc. could make a fast buck.

 

Forty Years of ALEC

by

They’re protesting ALEC in Chicago as I type…the tweets are keeping tabs on what is going on.  Badass Teachers Association is there.  Others have reported rough treatment by Chicago Police.

https://twitter.com/aaroncynic/status/365556308516151297/photo/1

Chicago Teachers Union

 

Hedge Funds sucking public schools dry

by

Well, now, there is much more to the story than just the unethical toad Daniel Loeb’s millions towards charter schools.    The creeps on Wall Street see a gold mine in Charters….they can’t lose.  And it’s not just unethical investors in the U.S., but foreign investors looking to make a fast buck off of American children. and get a green card to the U.S.

Why does it not surprise me that Bill Clinton allowed this to happen by signing into law effing tax breaks for these monstrosities??  Good God, how does this creep get away with soo much?  Is there no one who will stand up to him and HIllary?  WTH?!

What’s that giant sucking sound…?

It’s millionaire bankers, hedge fund managers, the Walton family, and foreign investors draining our public schools dry.

 

 

 

Loeb putting millions into charter schools

by

Sometimes I wish my hunches weren’t right, then I wouldn’t  have to see the workings of unethical toads like Daniel Loeb. (hat tip to Diane Ravitch).

Yep.  He’s a union buster.  And is putting millions towards destroying them and the public school system.

It’s clear to me with the new information that Loeb is a conservative who probably sees the movie industry as supporting liberals, and wants to destroy it.  He puts money into schools that seek to destroy the creative by micromanaging them,  so it’s not a big leap that he wants to destroy the creative in movies.   Just my guess.

Hedge funds create jobs?

by

Um – hmmm…

These are just my first thoughts after a quick read~~

The title of the piece is written in a condescending way.  ” Just STFU and do your movies.”   Insulting.

The author brings up the two flops that Loeb complained about–and as George had stated, Loeb picks two flops and ignores the profitable movies. You can’t possibly think that you’re going to have hit after hit? Seriously? If one never takes a chance and puts stuff out there that may or may not do well at the box office, according to the public’s whim, then we’ll have what happened to the music industry. With the exception of Adele and the former Amy Winehouse, I can’t think of any new music that is being played on the radio that is worth a crap.

From the article:

But to be clear, and with job-creating growth in mind, if hedge funds didn’t exist we’d have to invent them

Um.. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think hedge funds invested in the movie industry when it was created. Folks used this thing called “cash” to form the studios and then they had this great idea to make some films and then ask people to pay to see them. Hedge fund investors don’t invest until there is a business going already. And Hedge funds have been known to fail themselves.

I found a history of hedge funds in investopedia.

More from the article:

It’s not broadly understood this way, but hedge fund billionaire John Paulson not only saved jobs, but the billions he earned surely created new ones.

Seriously? Where are those jobs, because there are an awful lot of people out of work for all the jobs created by Hedge Funds. /snark

For taking these risks, hedge funds are not only masterful job creators, they’re also paradoxically masterful job savers for their intrepid style telling others where and where not to go with their capital.

I think I’m going to be sick.

Let me get this straight–they create jobs by telling investors not to invest in a company that might create 100 jobs because….Company A looks better than Company B because Company A is willing to go without a union shop and pay people minimum wage….am I correct…?

Or…how about this–if you follow the “short selling” link, you see this:

Selling short is the opposite of going long. That is, short sellers make money if the stock goes down in price.

~~~~~

Read that again–short sellers make money if the stock goes down.  Now I’m wondering if Loeb is short selling….or if someone he knows is short selling Sony stock?  An associate?  A relative?  Since Loeb actually owns the stock, it doesn’t appear that he is short selling, since the broker technically owns the stock in a short sale.  Gah.  The whole thing sounds like a scam.

I used to invest in stock back in the day.  I took an investment class in college, and I did quite well investing in emerging telecommunications technology.    But this was at the beginning of the metamorphosis I was going through, and I began to question the whole scheme because of stuff like the above.  I knew that I could not invest in companies that did not use Fair Trade practices or those that ran sweat shops,  or companies like Monsanto, etc.  The decision came to stop investing after losing $4,000 in Lucent Technologies, which had “facts” and “figures” that made it appear to be a good investment.  Turns out that it was not. 

Telling Sony to spin off the entertainment portion of its business is not creating jobs. Sorry, try another line of defense of the doubletalk.

Offshore fracking

by

<sigh>  it took a Freedom of Information request by the AP to get this.

I rather doubt that it’s only been twelve times.  And the troubling thing is that the EPA only considers human life valuable:

In a statement to the AP, the EPA defended its oversight of offshore fracking, saying its system ensures the practice does not pollute the environment in a way that would endanger human health.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

…because killing whales and fish isn’t important.  Neither is contaminating the ocean water…oh, wait…the oil companies are putting freshy clean water back into the ocean when they’re done putting nasty chemicals that they won’t name into the ocean floor.  I mean, there is no waaay that the oil companies would lie or minimize their impact.  /snark

 

The history of pipeline spills

by

Really hard to deny the massive incidents when you see this.

You can’t even see Indiana from all the “incidents”.  Nor Illinois nor Ohio.  And Texas!  A state that size that is practically obliterated by the dots should be up in arms about this.    Some folks are wisening up, though–unfortunately, it’s after they become sick and unable to put up much of a fight.

I found this timeline on wikipedia.  It’s pretty hard to deny how dirty this business is and how careless they are.  Why should they care?  They have Congress bought off….

Not only that, here are nuclear and radiation accidents…

…makes you feel all warm and cozy, doesn’t it?  No?