Contrasting U.S. and U.K. Reactions to the Gulf Spill
One thing we’ve learned about the Gulf oil spill is how opinions tend to differ depending on which side of the Atlantic you reside on. Compare these screenshots of the respective homepages of the New York Times and London’s Sunday Times.
NYT’s homepage highlights BP CEO Tony Heyward’s yachting trip (taken 6/20/2010 3:50pm EST, crude MS paint additions in red are mine):
London’s Sunday Times fires back with “Obama’s Golf Days Fuel BP Row” (requires login) on their homepage (SS taken on 6/20/2010 around 4:00pm. Once again, the crude MS paint additions are mine.)
Both are bone-headed moves. Everyone should be focused on this disaster, especially considering what we’ve learned over the past few weeks. 100,000 barrels per day and possible well casing failures dictate that.
Watching this situation play out will be both fascinating and nauseating. One of the biggest questions going forward may prove to be: Is BP too dangerous to exist? I’m starting to think so. Their safety record is horrific.
BP continued to cut corners even after recent disasters, as the NYT points out here. In contrast, after the Valdez incident, Exxon transformed their culture into one where OCD-level safety concern is encouraged. I’m starting to think BP shouldn’t even be entrusted with the relief wells and a head-role in the cleanup efforts.
Disclosure: I am short BP and own long-dated, out of the money puts).
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“Europe’s Financial Class War Against Labor, Industry and Government” with Dr. Michael Hudson. Economic crisis in Europe created by predatory lending; European Central Bank stranglehold on the Eurozone; the Euro; foreign banks decimate Greece’s social structure; Marx’s industrial capital versus fictitious capital; Latvia as a model for the rest of Europe; Hudson’s financial and fiscal plan for Latvia; the Cold War and its ruinous effect on progressive economic thought. Guns & Butter.
http://www.philstockworld.com/2010/06/20/michael-hudson-europe%E2%80%99s-financial-class-war-against-labor-industry-and-government/
They Keep Stealing – Why Keep Paying?
The dire straits of the middle class of America has made it near impossible for our politicians to keep up the pretense that our current government truly works for the “people.” Between the multiple overt and secretive bailouts, the massive bonuses and the circular use of our tax money to lobby for these continued handouts, you can no longer hide from the evidence.
http://tinyurl.com/22ke8t9
Wall Street Reform: Politicians Lie, Media Applauds, America Suffers
What does it mean for us?
It means that the same people who brought you these horrible changes — rising wealth discrepancy, massive unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure – have now further institutionalized the policies that will keep the causes of these problems firmly in place.
Meanwhile, all involved in the facade try to pretend that this should be considered a success because, gosh, real financial reform is just too hard and those crafty banksters will just outsmart us anyhow. Many in the media are either too complicit, too confused or too lazy to contradict this spin, but the rest of us shouldn’t buy that BS. Real and lasting financial reform is actually quite easy to implement — and the last time we had a crisis of this magnitude, we kept the banksters in check for 70 years.
http://tinyurl.com/27kxtsm
Notwithstanding anything said or done by the Congress this year, operating through trained surrogates such as Geithner, Summers and others, Robert Rubin is still pulling the economic and financial strings in Washington. The fact that there is a Democrat in the White House almost does not seem to matter. President Obama arguably has a subordinate position to Rubin because of considerations of money. If you differ, then ask yourself if Barack Obama could seek the presidency in 2012 without the support of Bob Rubin and the folks at Goldman Sachs. Case closed.
http://tinyurl.com/372g8au
A Gigantic Ponzi Scheme, Lies and Fraud”: Howard Davidowitz on Wall Street
http://tinyurl.com/2ed2yrh
The financial crisis is being used to cover a subversion of justice, what history may some day regard as essentially a financial coup d’etat, wherein a small group of men, many of whom have their roots and connections with a handful of universities, institutions, and investment banks, essentially seized control of the banking system, and by extension the economy, co-opting the media and the political process, and have been bending it increasingly to their will ever since.
What will most likely trip them up is not so much the acts of fraud and insider dealing themselves, but the overreaching, the cover ups, the subornation of perjury to the Congress, and as always, obstruction of justice. But before we reach that point, I would not discount a more overt attempt to seize or direct the power of government through some staged event, some false flag.. But first and foremost they will use the softer means of deception, persuasion, intimidation, and of course the ridicule of anyone who questions their actions by their well paid demi-monde of analysts and commentators.
The oligarchs have almost ruined the US and the UK. They will now seek to subtly starve the middle and lower classes to pay for their piles of wealth which are largely pieces of paper, useless wagers, and will resist every effort to repeal the absolutely irresponsible tax cuts enacted during the administration of their chosen candidate G. W. Bush, and the setup to divert reform through their stalking horse, Barrack Obama.
They will speak out of both sides of their mouths. Unemployment insurance, Social Security benefits, healthcare, relief for the poor, and pensions are bad, and their unfortunate recipients lazy, stupid and an expendable drag on society. But the maintaining of ill gotten gains of the oligarchs, the enormous fortunes obtained through financial fraud, and paying little or no effective taxes on them through various loopholes, is a somehow a sacred requirement for economic recovery. And so we see how reform is floundering, and the smirks of the congressional chimps and pigmen are maintained even as the nations suffer the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
http://tinyurl.com/23tpxmb
Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead
Are you sure that you want to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico? In a previous article we documented a number of the health
dangers from this oil spill that many scientists are warning us of,
and now it has been reported on CNN that the vast majority of those
who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are
now dead. Yes, you read that correctly. Almost all of them are dead.
In fact, the expert that CNN had on said that the life expectancy for
those who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill is only about
51 years. Considering the fact that the oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico is now many times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, are you
sure you want to volunteer to be on a cleanup crew down there? After
all, the American Dream is not to make big bucks for a few months
helping BP clean up their mess and then drop dead 20 or 30 years
early.
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php/16162-Almost-Every-Cleanup-Worker-From-The-1989-Exxon-Valdez-Disaster-Is-Now-Dead