This is how greed works.

All the Rage

Good morning Attaturk. Interesting.

Marshall Islands is also where we used to test nukes, disappeared a few of the atolls, contaminated the region, gave the people their independence during Reagan. Believe we still test missile technologies there.

Did you know that in dollar terms, the US accounts for over 50% of all global military expenditures. That’s $738 billion for fiscal 2011 (not including Afghan war supplementals) which takes us back up to 5% of GDP and 20% of our federal budget. The next nations in the top five: China $99b, UK $69b, France $67b, Russia $61b. We’re also highest among those nations for percentage of GDP. We are Globo Cop.

On that sobering note, have a good Tuesday.

In tonight’s speech, I’d really appreciate hearing what government geologists have to say about the doomsday scenario — that the well and casing below the sea floor were so damaged by the explosion that it can’t be capped.

All oil men lie. We need an honest assessment of the problem by someone besides an oil man.

So this is what’s meant by “globalization” – a business spreads its operations, therefore its responsibilities, to countries all over the globe so that in the end the answerability for screw-ups can also be spread out. Very nice. This should be a “Law and Order” episode.

I trust the federal government has forensic accountants on the payroll.

Good morning pups. It’s Brooks, Cohen and Herbert this morning. In “The Larger Struggle” Bobo gurgles that a rivalry is growing between democratic capitalist and state capitalist systems. Mr. Cohen, in “When Kissinger Calls, It’s World Cup Time,” says the game is written in the blood of a few nations, and then there are the also-rans. Mr. Herbert, in “Unfazed by Reality,” says Federal help is urgently needed to save jobs threatened by state and local budget cuts.

Here they are.

The coffee and tea are ready, and there are cold drinks in the fridge. Yesterday at 4:45 it was 102°, so of course last night was when our AC decided to go out. It’s supposed to be even hotter today. I think I may shoot myself. Have a great day.

Great, just great.

Now if southern California stars rocking and rolling, maybe the oil has something to do with supporting the continental plate superstructure instead of trying to see how many FUVs you can fuel in one state. I’m sure bp knows and understands how oil interacts with all the complex subsurface systems and would not step over the line to make another buck.

Try to drive a car that you don’t register in your own state.

Sorry about the AC, Marion. Sending you some rain, anyway, since we had to get up here with noisy storms, and close windows.

Herbert is so very right. The deficit hawks are just calling for more depression, for their own ideological reasons.

Oh, Marion, I too am sorry about your AC. I was feeling bad that my oven went out the other day, but your dead appliance is a worse scenario. With the heat, we can live without the oven. I can always barbeque any meat we want, but you’re in a real pickle.

This should not let MMS off the hook for their lax oversight. Ultimately, if we are going to allow drilling in waters where an accident can damage our coastline, we should do all that we can to see to it that the rigs are safe and that the companies drilling have adequate emergency preparedness plans in place. No one will ever care more about our shores than the American people. It is folly to entrust our precious ecosystems and economic livelihoods to a multinational corporation or any other country.

What do you make of this argument:

“The Minerals Management Service, which is charged with regulating offshore oil drilling, was a deeply troubled agency when Barack Obama inherited it from George W. Bush. Top MMS officials had been caught drinking, doing drugs and even having sex with oil-industry contacts. More prosaically, they accepted gifts from industry representatives and did favors for them.

The cleanup had already begun in the last months of the Bush administration(?), but President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar still had their work cut out for them.

Under Obama, the Minerals Management Service, driven by a strongly ideological commitment to green energy sources such as wind and solar power, chose to stress “renewables” while de-emphasizing the tough and dirty work of managing the nation’s existing offshore oil wells.

It started early in the new administration. Salazar’s first departmentwide order, issued March 11, 2009, was to declare “facilitating the production, development, and delivery of renewable energy top priorities for the Department.”

Salazar chose Elizabeth Birnbaum to head the MMS in large part because of her record of environmental and green-energy advocacy. “We have changed the direction of MMS,” Salazar told the Senate last month, “by balancing its ocean energy portfolio to include offshore wind and renewable energy production.” Given the considerable size of the existing offshore oil industry, “balancing” the MMS portfolio meant putting a heavy emphasis on new offshore wind projects.

Efforts to Repel Gulf Oil Spill Are Described as Chaotic
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/science/earth/15cleanup.html?hp

Good morning all.

Looking forward to a sternly worded speech. /s

Marion, OY on your a/c. Hope it gets fixed fast.

You notice Trent Lott is back on the scene? Wonder who’s paying him. Anyway he was on Chris Matthews show last night defending oil companies. He admits that enforcement of safety rules is neccessary but when Matthews pointed out that Norway demands that a relief well is built at the same time that a working well is built, Lott thought that was unreasonable.

Morning eCAHN. How you bee?

I also saw Kevin Costner on CNN with Anderson Cooper talking about his device that separates oil from water. Sounded too good to be true. Cooper tried to pin him down about when it could become operational but I didn’t hear an answer. Anyone know?

Doing well, as are my bees.

I saw the other day that you quit your job at the wingnut gym. Hope you are enjoying your free time. Read some good books.

Kevin Costner, an actor who can’t act, talking about oil technology. Now what do you think about his creds, before you even investigate what he said?

Good books, working in the yard and doing some swimming. I keep myself company. Like you.

Hmmmm. Swimming. Might be warm enough for that today. Thanks for the reminder.

I don’t think I want to watch the prez speech tonight. I work hard at keeping my spirits up and I don’t need him to rain on my parade.

Hey, the Marshall islands are only in two completely different hemispheres, but I understand they are to oil rig inspection what the Swiss Vatican is to Nazi war booty chocolate.

A slight correction

BTW, what are you reading?

The pool in my community isn’t olympic size, but it’s plenty big for swimming laps. And, there’s two nice jacuzzis too. Great for relaxing.

Hey, the Marshall islands are only in two completely different hemispheres, but I understand they are to oil rig inspection what the Swiss Vatican is to Nazi war booty chocolate.

The current fiction is The Printer’s Devil by Paul Bajoria. A first book by a writer and producer of BBC4 radio.

The county pool, 1-3/4 miles down the road, is olympic size. There are also 2 neighbors’s pools, one diagonally across the road, that I can use at will. And both are weekenders, so I can have either completely to myself.

He was in that blockbuster “Waterworld” so he must be qualified.

I finished my nonfiction book yesterday. Am halfway thru the last of the Alexandrian quartet, so should finish that in the next couple of days.

Always enjoy anticipating the choices for picking up a new book.

*slapping forehead* Of course, forgot all about that!

Heavens, Demi, what are you doing up so early? And did you ever read that Jodi Picoult book? My soon-to-be daughter in law with a son on the spectrum really liked it.

Actually, he was impressive. He didn’t invent the technology but he claims it can siphon 200 gallons per minute and can remove 99% of the oil. I say, give it a shot.

Wonderful!

I’ve just begun an interesting book, “The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain” by Barbara Strauch. I heard her on Diane Rehm a few weeks ago. It talks about how our brains get older AND better in many ways.

Writing that name down, again.
Oh, sometimes I wake up too early and just get up. Not working means I can take a nap later. I luvs me my nappys.

That sounds interesting. I have a couple of Pinker books in the pile, and several years ago read a book about how the brain works. Thanks for the tip.

demi, I’m not a big fiction reader, as you know, but I’ll review my pile, because it’s summer, and a good time for fiction.

Naps can be delicious. However, I have a tendency to have weird dreams during naps. Do you?

When corporations skirt the law, many consider them clever. Not so with us individual citizens. I cry BS!

Also, in retirement, I find freedom to keep my own hours a great pleasure.

I just finished a particularly horrifying Stephen King novel. It still wasn’t scarier than the reality of the news these days.

Sad commentary on real life.

It’s so nice to piddle around the house when it’s quiet and dark, isn’t it? When there’s fewer humans awake in the ‘hood, there’s a nice vibe.

That’ll be a nickel, please. *g*

Gives me a great lift. Guess the silence and stillness helps.

Sliding a dime down the bar to you. Worth at least double what you ask. *g*

Ruth, Molly and eCahn, you’re all such peaches. A real pleasure to chat with.

Hands over another nickel.

You gals keep this up and I won’t have to look for another job. Ha!

The Dome? I’m just starting it.

Nope. Black House, written with Peter Straub.
When times are tough, I enjoy a good horrifier.

Normally I don’t read King. Not a fan of horror books but a friend loaned it to me with high praise. Good so far.

I’m off. See all later.

I think he’s a good writer. Black House had a very different narrator. “We” watch the events. Brings the reader into the story.

Take care. I think I’ll go back to bed and see if I can catch a few more winks. Laters.

Byron Dorgan is enumerating all the efforts that have gone into the gusher, none of which have worked. Without drawing the obvious conclusion, which is that there isn’t anything that will work.

The relief well is slated to come on line the beginning of August. Looks like our only hope.

Well, at least we’ll get an ‘historic’ speech tonight to tide us over.

Nice way for the US to deregulate. It would be interesting to track down the name of the person who thought of this creative idea to register rigs as ships.

That would be an interesting piece of digging to unearth that fact.

The Marshall Islands don’t have anything to do with this as nobody is accusing this of being a bad sailing accident. This is about drilling operations, not sailing operations. MMS is responsible for everything related to do with oil operations, not the Marshall Islands or Liberia!

We can only *hope,* and the hopey-changey one had to beg and plead for BP to drill a 2d relief well… and I haven’t heard about number 2 well in some time. So has BP decided not to drill it?

I think we’re pretty screwed by this disaster that our corporate overlords in their various roles have wrought upon us. I have no expectations from the Big O’s sternly worded speechifying tonight and will eschew wasting my time having my blood pressure rise. I’m sure you folks here will keep me posted tomorrow.

Atta boy turk…..

As Jefferson feared….. corporate aristocrats successful in mitigation of law in the lust for endless profit. Take a gallon milk and dump three quarts into a storm drain. Would you Consider your remaining “quart” of milk a good value for your money spent? No! Yet Americans purchasing gasoline do this every day with every gallon of gas purchased. So people sit in cars waiting in traffic every day wasting .75 cents of every dollar spent on gas for decades and we “wonder” where America’s Liberty has gone? Nice job of mitigating “corporate risk,” on the backs of Americans and America, again! We need a “Tru-man” moment!!! Deja Screwed is dead on!