BP

From Reaching too Far, Delving too Deep: The Well from Hell; BP Knows it will get Worse, much Worse

by Christian A. DeHaemer

"What strikes me as odd is the way the leadership of BP and the Obama administration is acting.

BP is running around apologizing to everyone they can find. Obama says give us $20 billion in escrow and $100 million for the people Obama put out of work on the oil rigs due to his six month ban – and BP says, "Sure thing mate, no problem."

And all of this in a 20-minute meeting?

I've been dealing with oil companies for a long time and it just doesn't add up…

Contrast it, for instance, with the Exxon situation in Alaska or the Union Carbide disaster in India.

Exxon fought tooth and nail for its shareholders; it appealed court rulings for 19 years. Union Carbide wasn't settled for 25 years.

BP is rolling over like a simpering dog. Why?

The only reason I can think of is that the company knows – better if not as well as the Obama administration does – that it will get worse.

Much worse."

[see my earlier comments]

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Connecting the dots…

[I know I shouldn’t write this article.  I have some things on my mind and an irresistible urge to blurt them out but I just know it’s all going to be misinterpreted and that will surely cause a lot of needless fun.

A few of you are going to think, “hey, that’s just a bunch of dots…”  And quite so, too.  Just dots.

But my many alert readers are going to venture further, take out their pencils, join up the dots and exclaim, “say, that’s a picture of a zebra crossing a road!!”  And, yes, it is true that there is only one meaningful way to join up the dots I am going to present and, yes, it is also true that the only possible result is a picture of a zebra crossing a road.*

So I want to be very clear about this point.  I am not saying a zebra is going to cross a road, OK?  Nor disclosing whether there even is a zebra.

So if you comment on this post and say, “what, you think a zebra is going to cross a road!?  Or a zebra is even thinking about crossing a road!!?  Are you nuts!!!??”, I will just smile sardonically, OK, because that will be exactly the kind of needless fun I am anticipating.

After all, nobody can predict the future.  How do we know who is telling the truth about anything?  You could always turn your pencil around and just erase those dots; who cares?

All I am saying is, if a zebra does cross a road sometime, somewhere, don’t act all hurt and surprised about it because you should just recall that you read this carefully-researched and presented article, “Connecting the dots…”.  That’s all.  :)

Very good.

Please do read on…]

 

Sometime last year, koan911 went on “ops” in the Indian Ocean.  I am not at liberty to reveal any other details of what he was doing there except to say that, as a result, I did learn from him the existence, nature and location of a place I will refer to only as “Diego Garcia”.      7 18 51.45S 72 25 03.96E.  ;)

Then, last month on March 14th, my attention was captured by a FLASH message crossing my desk about “bunker buster” bombs being shipped to Diego Garcia.  (Vide first the 3/14 entry below.)

07/20    ISRAEL: Nuclear attack submarines through the Suez Canal with Egypt’s OK

            In the last 15 years, the Germans have built 5 Dolphin-class submarines for Israel, donating them or selling them at a deep discount.

09/15    USA Prepares to Attack Russia in 3 or 4 Years?

            Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, said in an interview with Pravda.ru, “the US Military Academy at West Point has recently launched extensive courses to study the Russian culture and language. They started teaching the Iraqi culture and the Arab language three years before invading Iraq.”

                            

02/17    Rick Rozoff: US-NATO Military Strike against Iran?

            Rick Rozoff [expert observer of NATO] says that the US and NATO are tightening the military noose around Iran.

                                                     

02/19    Will US-NATO start world war III by attacking Iran?

            Michel Chossudovsky, who's from an independent Canadian policy research group (Global Research), believes that what Iran says hardly matters, because the U.S. is planning for war.

                                                 

02/28    Russia Lashes Out at NATO for Protecting Afghan Drug Production

            Narcotics smuggled into Russia has doubled since the anti-terrorist operation began in Afghanistan says Viktor Ivanov, Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief.

03/12    Israeli Historian: Israel Could Find Itself Forced to Wipe Out Europe

            Reported by a Palestinian site, so take this one with a grain of salt, but it indicates two points of interest: a) Israel has the weapons, and b) feels so isolated as to be dangerous if backed into a corner.  (The historian exists.)

                                   

03/14    War Preparations: Final Destination Iran?

            Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

 

03/14    The War in Afghanistan and the Central Asia Pipeline Plan

            “The whole reason the U.S. is in Afghanistan and Pakistan today is to deny those pipelines from being routed through Russia, China, or Iran.”

                                   

03/17    Why Punish Iran for What Israel Has Already Done?

            Israel has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and it has never declared its nuclear weapons program publicly.  It is estimated to have between 200 and 300 nuclear weapons.  BBC: Israel's Secret Weapon.

                                 

03/18    American Naifs Bringing Ruin to Other Lands

            The U.S. military is shipping “bunker-buster” bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.   “They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran.”

            "Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, 'The Rogue Nation',  makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to 'terrorism,' and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ 'false flag' operations that advance the agenda.

            "The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands."

                                                            

03/19    Obama blocks delivery of bunker-busters to Israel

            The United States has diverted a shipment of 387 bunker-busters designated for Israel.  This “political decision” was taken a few days after VP Joe Biden (and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton?) visited Tel Aviv and were blind-sided by a unilateral decision on 3/15 by Israel to build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem.  As Israel’s liberal newspaper, Ha’aretz, put it, “Biden had to wipe spit off his face and say it was only rain”.  (Israel and a Red-faced Obama.) 

            "With friends like these..." 

03/20    Opinion Polls and Obama's Politics of Violence

            “Mr. Obama’s options are limited and nothing is left for him to do but to open a fourth war front in Iran.”  Tail wagging the dog?

                                                                       

03/20    Preparations for a Hit against Iran: Stopping Israel’s Next War

            “A new war in the region is inevitable.”

                                          

03/29    War Games: Israel gets ready to Strike at Iran's Nuclear Sites

            Israeli air force have practiced simulated strikes at Iran's nuclear facilities using airspace of at least two unidentified Arab countries.

                                           

04/02    Former Israeli Defense Minister: Israel Will Attack Iran by November

            Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear weapons facilities by this November unless the U.S. and its allies enact "crippling sanctions that will undermine the regime in Tehran," former deputy defense minister Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh said on Wednesday in Tel Aviv.

            November?  What’s happening in November?  Oh yeah, OK, more AIPAC manipulation of the US “democratic” process…
                                  

04/11    Iran to Take US to UN Over Obama's Threat to Use Nuclear Weapons against Iran

            Iran has said it will file a formal complaint with the UN against the US, citing what it calls President Barack Obama's threat to use "nuclear attack" against it.

                       

04/11    Iran's first domestically built anti-aircraft missile system is operational

            Said to be more powerful than the US-made Hawk missile, ready to become operational.

                       

04/11    Israel ranks 6th with up to 300 nukes, comparable to the United Kingdom

            British Jane's Defense Weekly has revealed that Tel Aviv is currently in possession of between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads.

                                   

04/11    Washington Threatens Iran: US to Retain 90 Nukes on Iran Border

            The US has positioned a total of 200 B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs in Turkey, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany since the Cold War. Turkey is believed to be hosting 90 bombs at Incirlik Air Base.

                                               

04/12    Israeli Attack on Iran Might Lead to Nuclear Conflict – Medvedev

            Russians don’t like developments one little bit: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned Israel against a military attack on Iran, saying it might lead to nuclear war and global disaster.

                                   

04/15    Obama Threatens Iran with Nuclear War

            In his latest statements, President Obama has expressively warned Iran against an imminent nuclear strike. The surprising remarks by the politician who snatched the Nobel Peace Prize for his conciliatory stance in recent years, violated the UN Charter and astounded public opinion.

                                               

04/15    Obama Threatens Iran with Nuclear Weapons: Tehran's Response

            A letter from Iran’s UN ambassador Mohammad Khazaee.

04/18    Iran rightfully calls for US to be suspended from IAEA

            The leader of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rightfully called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to suspend America for constantly threatening to use nuclear weapons against his country and other states; and his bold stance could be a significant opportunity for the non-European world to stand up to western terrorism.

 

            [The first I ever knew of His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was when I read his open letter to The War Criminal Bush 43, published in the Washington Post on May 9^th, 2006.  Tears welled in my eyes and I thought, “why is it that I too cannot have a leader who can display this level of eloquence, this intelligence, this compassion?  Why do I have to suffer under this mangy, rabid dog, Bush?  I fling my shoe at Bush!”  And on that day, I resolved to memorize the spelling of Ahmadinejad’s name.  (Which admittedly is not as difficult as committing the Koran to memory, say, or spelling Schwarzenegger, something for which sadly I still have to rely upon the internet.)

 

            Incidentally, the New York Times, as I recall, mistranslated Ahmadinejad’s statement about seeing the Israeli regime wiped off the map.  This error has been exploited ever since to claim that Iran has hostile intentions toward Israel.]

* I was wrong about this.  As you will read in the comments, one of my less alert readers [name suppressed] joined the dots and thought he observed a gay, socialist camel.

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Political spectra: left vs right

[This is the first in a series from The Monday Morning Quarterback.]

I am impressed by the level of courtesy and thoughtfulness of discussion in VOX.  ("You are not in YouTube anymore, koan911.")  Inspired even: more than one Vocalist has recently attempted to understand the thinking of people at the opposite end of the political spectrum, a rare feat.

But what is this political spectrum?  In the US, and certainly according to the corporate media, it is left versus right.  Demographically, red versus blue.  Compressing the gamut of all political thought and expression into a single dimension may be useful for simplification and hence comprehension; it is certainly very convenient for the Democrat and Republican parties!

And yet the bitter unhappiness amongst voters in the US is most palpable.  Liberals believe that all will be right [sic] if only everyone would vote Democrat, and at every election, forever.  Conservatives also believe that America can be saved, but only if everyone votes Republican, every time.  It never happens and the electoral results change by a small percentage, oscillating in favor of one party of the other, but keeping the majority of incumbents… seated.  Nothing significant changes.  Really.  In terms of customer satisfaction, democracy in America is in deep trouble and has been for a very long time.  The US government is not serving the interests of society.  Nor, actually, is any Western, "democratic" government.  Dispute it??

The most apt comment [by an evidently-European commentator] I have ever encountered on the internet was about Western democratic politics and went as follows, (paraphrased):

"There you [Americans] go again, it's always about left versus right with you.  Whereas in reality it has always been about rich versus poor, the class struggle."

Interesting!  Another one-dimensional, political spectrum: "rich versus poor".

(In the nearly 20 years I lived in the US, I came to think of political debate there as a Punch-and-Judy show with the crowd of bystanders (voters) being worked over by professional pick-pockets. Corporations gained legal access to make contributions to political campaigns back in the 70s and I always marveled at companies donating to BOTH parties but had never puzzled why. It doesn't take a lot of thought, though, to deduce the reason and the mind is instantly repelled by the repugnance of the conclusion.

For fun, I googled this Punch-and-Judy metaphor and came up with: nothing new under the sun.  Other people have also referred to the two-party system in the US as "Dumb and Dumber", evoking a well-known movie.)

According to Orwell, choice of symbology affects the range of expression of ideas and may indeed be used to limit it.  Perhaps this is why the corporate media are continually leading us to constrain our thinking and debate to the matters of left versus right?

So, how does this spectrum, "rich versus poor", measure up in comparison with left versus right?

Maybe it is not so different.  After all, there is the stereotypically superficial view in the US that the Democratic party represents the disadvantaged, the down and out, the poor.  And the Republicans represent the rich, the wanna-be rich and those armchair economists who believe in economic miracle theory such as "trickle-down economics", (the British class ethos of cap in hand, eyes cast downward, "yes, guv'nor").  Superficial though it certainly is, yet this  idea of Democrats representing the poor and Republicans the wealthy might begin to explain why the middle-class is continually being screwed.    Not that I can ever imagine Ms Pelosi has ever sat around a camp-fire under a railway bridge, huddling to keep warm — although at the rate California is going, maybe she and Arnie will soon get that opportunity.  Bottom-line is that Americans are much more comfortable with left-versus-right than with rich-versus-poor because it is a tenet of American society that it, society, is classless.

Great.  Now let's propose a completely hypothetical, political spectrum purely for the purpose of contemplation.  It's long and thus needs to be written down the page.  ("Fellow Vocalists, lend me your ears!"  )  This vertical orientation suggests a nomenclature for it: up versus down.  Which further suggests a semantic mnemonic for it: the welfare of society, (up or down).

The table, Up vs down, which is the heart of this article, has been lost in translation from Vox. I’ll attempt to reconstruct it from faulty memory sometime in the near future. Apologies for this terrible oversight.

Up vs down

I have several suggestions to make about the above.

1. assuming for the purposes of this exercise that we all squeeze ourselves onto this spectrum at the closest point to which each of us can agree, then you, and everyone you know and everyone they know (2 degrees of separation), are statistically likely to find yourselves philosophically in either of the two upper-most camps in this delineation, or even upward of there; unless, of course, you are lucky enough to know Tim Geithner, Ken Lewis or someone from their club.  "Mister, can you spare ten million bucks…"

2. nevertheless, there is a natural flow or devolution downward; unless society is constantly fighting this flow, things tend downward, not upward.  Work begets success; success begets money; capital begets ownership; ownership begets power; power suppresses competition bringing it into conflict with the representatives of the people; the representatives are bought and subverted; the government, working now for elitist interests, comes into direct conflict with the interests of the people; the people are subdued and oppressed…  The coin of this spectrum is clearly wealth and concomitant power.  And the trend is the suppression of democracy.

3. the US was(/is?), as recently as the Cheney administration, arguably totalitarian.  See what Naomi Wolf had to say in 2007.  (And for similar ideas, compare Umberto Eco's "Eternal Fascism".)

The big question facing us today is, of course, whether the American people — by exercise of its quadrennial, binary vote — has succeeded in staunching the downward plunge, with the agency of the admittedly very appealing Barack Obama, (who came seemingly from nowhere as if chosen for this battle).  To think it has, you have to bet your country that politics is indeed confined to a single dimension, left versus right, as advertised by the corporate media, and that the country's direction can be reversed in the span of a single Tuesday in November once every four years.  I am waiting to see the changes I can believe in and the matter — one of fundamental faith — is getting most urgent now, I assure you.

As long as ordinary people keep on believing politics is only about left versus right, it is true that they may have less on their minds to worry about.  Life goes on.  Until, of course, things hit bottom.

From: The Monday Morning Quarterback, (with a nod to Snowy, esteemed Vocalist).

Next: Western Democracy

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