Category Archives: big oil

Boehner lies and investments in Tar Sands companies

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(hat tip to fatster at FDL)

John Boehner, while constantly saying “The American people want, need, demand…” while ignoring what the American people want, need, and demand….has promoted the XL pipeline…while investing in the companies tied to it.

I’m just shocked, shocked, I tell you, that a politician who stands to benefit financially from legislation is…promoting that legislation. /snark

Where have all the good ones gone that did what was right for the country and not for their bank accounts…?

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Also from fatster~~

Related to this is a heartwarming story of a small group of folks protesting the Enbridge pipeline….unfortunately, they’re from Michigan…that will be the day when Hoosiers start protesting Enbridge…

I can’t believe they were charged with felonies.  Seriously?  Like a commenter said on the website, we should be concerned about the crackdown on public assemblies….you know, that First Amendment thingy?

From the comments:

Russell Frege

Enbridge is being disingenuous. No one has come to harm from these non-violent protests. On the other hand, from the Athabasca Chippewa cancer rates to the impacts of climate change, many will be harmed if the tar sands industry achieves its goal of tripling production by 2030. Just imagine Bangladesh flooded by rising sees. That’s millions of refugees in that region alone. We should be working to stop changing the climate. We should have global peak emissions by 2020 then steadily decline. Tripling tar sands production is inconsistent with that goal. These protesters are the modern equivalent of Rosa Parks, who incidentally was hated by conservatives also. As FDR said “I welcome their hatred.” It’s a sign you’re doing something right. Go M-CATS.

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I have to admit a chuckle at the enthusiastic guy commenting on how beautiful state Michigan is…which it is…but then the conservative joker does have a point about him never being in poor Detroit, the dumping ground of the Kochs and anyone else who feels like it.  But let’s say that MOST of Michigan is quite beautiful… NOT the parts that conservatives and DINO’s (Democrats in Name Only) have polluted.

It’s always interesting to me that these polluters will trash one area, and then move to a non-polluted area.  It should be a rule somewhere that if you pollute an area, you must live in that area for the rest of your life…

…not only that, but your children and grandchildren must live in that area, too.   Seems fair, eh?

The Uniparty

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One of the commenters here called the absence of real oppositional parties the “Uniparty”. …yep.

See…the Dems really believe in the Fourth Amendment and the rights of the American public to be let alone…

bwhahahahaha *snort*  bwahahahaha…

Don’t blame me.  I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000.  The first time in all the years that I had been voting that I wrote a candidate’s name on the ballet.  Of course, now Indiana has changed to the computerized system so a voter wouldn’t be able to just write in a candidate.   Supposedly, they have paper ballots at each voting station, but this voter was not told there were paper ballots available, not even when I voted early, nor were there any paper ballots visible so that one could ask for it.

They changed the law so that one had to have 2% of the general votes cast for the Secretary of State in the previous election.  Note the deadlines were repeatedly pushed back in order to diminish the ability to gather signatures during summer events where crowds gather…

I found this page absolutely fascinating.  I had no idea that we had other candidates to choose from, as the write in candidates were not on the electronic ballot.  And being without access to media (no TV antenna in the community room at the time), nor did I have more than an hour per time from the library’s internet computers…so information was limited, as are most poor.  And I would venture a guess that even with cable TV, many middle class were also ignorant of this–funny how the nooz just doesn’t seem to get around to covering important issues like this….they’d rather scare you into getting a vaccine that will likely cause as much harm to your body as any good or tell you not to take Vitamin E because some bogus *study* says it’s bad for you…pfft.

The invisible walls that came after the visible…

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A commenter on Diane Ravitch’s blog put up this video:

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More here on the Detroit fight for worker’s rights, i.e., the pensions they were promised, versus the bond holders.  Like I said before, everybody has to lose a little bit–the city workers should not bear the brunt of it.

The Bullying Society

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Diane Ravitch has this up.

As I said in my comment there, bullying from children is just a reflection of the adults and culture around them.  We have shows like “Survivor” that encourage groups to pick apart others and zero in on a target.  My Boomer generation didn’t have violent video games which desensitizes one to violence.

I think these all feed into the bullying mentality. Pick on those that are different or weaker. Keep at it until they disappear–either through suicide or crushing their soul until their light goes out…the effect is still the same.

It has even broader implications than “just” bullying–creativity comes from thinking differently.  Bullying will crush the ones that think differently, limiting the greater impact they might have had on the world.

I don’t think the solutions are campaigns telling kids to stop bullying.  It’s too complicated a problem.  And it’s not the kids fault as much as it is society’s.

Light on the Horizon

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…for Sudan.

I think this is brilliant.  It’s going to be grown in a sustainable fashion.  And through fair trade practices, the farmers will be paid a good price for their coffee.  The economic support will help them fend off the outside forces (and inside forces) that seek to divide them.

There are other reports of millions of dollars leaving the country while the public struggles to survive.  (Probably took their cue from Mitt Romney)

And what do power players always fall back on when they want to start trouble?  Bring up religion.  After the discover of oil in the region, suddenly religion became an issue, although the many different religions of the region didn’t make anyone uncomfortable before the oil discovery.

Here’s a map on the prominent religions of different areas in Sudan.

Detroit, Broke City

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(I didn’t get much sleep last night, and my ADD is always worse when I’m tired, so forgive any faux pas.)

I’m flipping through the channels this morning and land on CNBC with Dan Gilbert, the grand pooh bah wizard of rejuvenating Detroit.  I only caught the last part of his schpiel, but what I was hearing made me sick.  He spoke of bringing in “interns”.  Interns? Yep, he’s bringing in young minds that can be manipulated into believing what they’re doing is innovative and exciting and the right thing to do….

…I find it more than mildly curious that 50-somethings are by appearances being ignored.

And it’s disturbing how the article below reads that the sharks are circling to see how much they can get away with–everyone is watching to see who wins the “tug of war” between the unions and the moneyed interests.

From the NYTimes article:

….Detroit officials have proposed paying off small fractions of what the city owes, they have indicated they intend to treat investors holding general obligation bonds as having no higher priority for payment than, for instance, city workers — a notion that conflicts with the conventions of the market…

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An obligation is an obligation.  I don’t know why the city would be any less obligated to the workers who labored and were made a promise than to bond holders who were also made promises but did nothing to earn that but sit on their butts?  In my view, EVERYBODY should be made to give a little.  Everybody loses a little bit for the good of the whole.

Now I know folks will be saying that “investors won’t invest if they aren’t getting top dollar…”  I don’t believe that if they are still making money for doing nothing that they are going to pass on that opportunity.  Investing is a risk….why shouldn’t the investors share in the losses as well as the gains?

(Ironically, or not, I’m playing David Crosby’s “Hero”  )

My other blogs on Detroit here and here . Note the link to Dan Gilbert profiteering off of the carcass of Detroit.

Background on the “Emergency Manager”

 

A post script

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A post script to this blog…what I meant when I referred to Katrina is that I told them I thought the George W. Bush administrations’ slow response to the emergency was racist.  It was September, 2005, so it was only a month after the storm hit, but it was apparent to me.  What really shocked me was how only the one black woman agreed with me, again, subtly, but she saw it, too.    This why I probably began to think that Daniels was dismantling or weakening the Civil Rights Commission and blurted that out.

When I think about that interview and how I missed such a fabulous opportunity–a  life changer- because it would have been a career I would have enjoyed with its daily change, using the creative along with the analytical, and fighting for the underdog—and all the misery that mercury has caused me, I want to cry in despair.   This poison has taken so much more than can be neasured…

I give myself 24 hours to feel sorry for myself, and then move on…

Rep. Brown: Shame On You

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Like I posted previously, I’m pretty upset and words fail me, but Rep. Brown speaks for me. 

I think we need to stop spending money on these….useless eaters. (Hillary Clinton and Rush Limbaugh have both reportedly stated such)  ….so I’m trying to find information confirming that Hillary or Bill made the statement, and it’s interesting all the stuff that I came across….one of which is a statement that Cecil Rhodes of the Rhodes scholarship fame, was a racist who called Africans “useless eaters”.  (Interesting that Bill Clinton is a Rhodes Scholar.)

This, for instance.  Well, now.

And then there’s this (2010).  Isn’t it interesting that wherever Clintons go, there is disaster….and they’re always “my bad”   “oops”   “sorry bout that, folks”….and they’re still praised out the wazoo….for doing what, exactly…?  Somebody please tell me.

More on food from Raj Patel here.

Here’s a link Patel mentions in his blog on the hunger summit.

Wow:

So it’s hardly surprising that almost 200 African farmers’ and campaigners’ groups have rejected the G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, calling it a “new wave of colonialism” in a statement sent to G8 leaders earlier this week. Their analysis is clear: “Private ownership of knowledge and material resources (for example, seed and genetic materials) means the flow of royalties out of Africa into the hands of multinational corporations.”

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The real causes of hunger are inequality of wealth and power, not a lack of big business.

 

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Word.

We don’t want your GMO’s.  We don’t want your money.  We want decent, livable wages to pay our own way.

 

 

House repubs omit food stamps from bill

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Report here.

Republican leaders said food stamps, traditionally part of the farm bill, would be handled later and that, for now, they needed a way to start negotiations with the Senate over a compromise bill.

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If you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Indiana I want to sell you….

No doubt these members of Congress will go to church Sunday and puff their chests out at what good Christians they are…

I’m not going to comment any further because I’m too upset and I’ll say something I’ll regret later.