Stockholm Syndrome vs. The Ecosystem

We know that there are thousands of damage lawsuits against BP by various plaintiffs.

Those plaintiffs allege that their livelihoods and well being have been disrupted or damaged by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, and therefore they want BP to make them whole.

Those cases are "damage cases", and they all tend to follow a familiar pattern, the Exxon Valdez pattern.

However, two interesting cases are making their way through the federal courts that touch upon the soul of toxic energy vs the well being of the earth, and they follow a different pattern.

The first is Comer vs Murphy Oil (Comer), a case against big oil for causing global warming which caused Katrina to become greater than it would have without global warming, hence greater damage to the plaintiffs.

The second is Hornbeck Offshore v Salazar (Hornbeck), which concerns the moratorium on offshore deep water drilling imposed by the Obama Administration in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, which said moratorium was stopped by federal judge Feldman.

Since Comer is "on ice" until the plaintiffs in that case decide to petition the Supreme Court or not to, this post will focus on Hornbeck as it now sits in the appellate court.

I looked over the Hornbeck docket, and found, among other things, that the case has been assigned to judges "WED, JES, and JLD", which seems to be clerklatin for "Judge Davis, Judge Smith, and Judge Dennis".

Interestingly, Judge Dennis, appointed by Clinton, was one of the judges on the panel in the Comer case (above), who said the plaintiffs in that case should be allowed to move forward in their case based on global warming (the other two judges on the panel who agreed were appointed by Reagan).

Judge Davis thought an en banc hearing could be granted, even though there were not enough regular judges for an en banc rehearing, by using visiting appellate judges; Judge Smith disagreed with Judge Dennis in the motion for a rehearing en banc in the Comer case mentioned above.

The odds, then, do not strongly favor the Obama Administration in their motion to lift the stay on the moratorium pending full appeal.

Oral argument on the motion is scheduled for a hearing tommorrow, July 8, 2010 in New Orleans.

Many amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs have been filed for both sides, so I will only mention a few of the amici.

Those in support of big oil and drill baby drill: State of Louisana, Senator Mary Landrieu, Diamond Offshore, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, LA Oil & Gas Assoc., Greater Houston Partnership, Mobile Area Chamber Of Commerce, LA Assoc Of Business & Industry, Shreveport Chamber Of Commerce, Ruston Lincoln Chamber Of Commerce, Natchitoches Chamber Of Commerce, Baton Rouge Chamber Of Commerce, New Orleans Chamber Of Commerce, Lafayette Chamber Of Commerce, Ascension Chamber Of Commerce, Iberia Chamber Of Commerce, St. Tammy Chamber Of Commerce, Thibodeaux Chamber Of Commerce, River Region Chamber Of Commerce, Houma-Terrebonne Chamber Of Commerce, Bayou La Batre Chamber Of Commerce, SW LA Chamber Of Commerce, LA Assoc. Of Chambers Of Commerce Executives, So. Crop Prod. Assoc., Mississippi Assoc. Bldrs. & Contractors, Plaque Mines Assoc. Of Business & Industry, Harvey Canal Industrial Assoc., Greater New Orleans, Inc., Independent Petroleum Assoc. of America, and International Assoc. Of Drilling Contractors.

Those in support the Obama Administration's position: Florida Wildlife Federation, Center For Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Defenders Of Wildlife.

The hearing tomorrow will concern whether or not to lift the stay pending the case on appeal, so the arguments pro and con will be highly technical in nature, in terms of legal precedent, and will focus on the law concerning injunctions.

The list of those arguing for doing more drilling reads like a who's who of Stockholm Syndrome sufferers vs. those who want the human and other species to avoid ecocide.

Imagine a "hype" (needle using drug addict) laying on a bed with vomit all over them only wanting another fix, compared to another hype in pain of withdrawal because they are struggling and want to kick the habit and live.

A new story supports this assertion: 27,000 Abandoned Oil Wells In The Gulf are not inspected for leaks.

Bring The Economy Home - 3

In a recent post, Bring The Economy Home - 2, we gave some estimates of the impact it would have on the U.S. economy if we did not have the nation building economy we call the war in Afghanistan, where "your money" becomes "their money".

Everyone knows of some of the corruption in Afghanistan, but it is the actual degree of the corruption that is breath taking:

Billions of dollars are being secreted out of Kabul to help well-connected Afghans buy luxury villas in Dubai. Amid concerns that the money could be the result of corruption, American politicians have temporarily cut off aid to the Afghan government.

(Der Spiegel). The main stream media of MOMCOM is unlikely to say a whole bunch about the Afghanistan war, except to parrot the pentagon talking points propaganda.

Bring the economy home stupid.

The Empire Strikes Back - 3

This is a follow up to the post The Empire Strikes Back - 2 to show that the MOMCOM empire is relentless in its suppression of the free press.

The General McChrystal episode shook-up the military portion of MOMCOM, as well as the media portion of MOMCOM.

In response to the embarrassment Secretary of Defense Gates issued orders to batten down the hatches so as to avoid such embarrassment in the future.

They also changed the name of one of their divisions from Psychological Operations to Military Information Support Operations, an act that is propaganda based itself, because they are trying to cover up the "psy ops" they do everywhere, including in the U.S. itself:

Who is SSI?

The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College publishes national security and strategic research and analysis which serves to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.

(The Intellectual Warmonger). MOMCOM wants academics to speak the language of Pentagonia, capitol of Bullshitistan, just like the main stream media has been trained to do.

The main stream media went to battle with Rolling Stone for publishing the McChrystal article that caused the furor in the first place, but I think they did so because it shows the main stream media is nothing more than a member of the MOMCOM establishment who's job is to keep the people deceived about many things.

This pattern shines through in the Deepwater Horizon toxic oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico as well.

The Guards of MOMCOM fame ban free access to various cleanup areas and to refineries, to name a few.

As in the McChrystal affair, what they really want cleaned up is free press journalism that exposes them for what they are: propagandists.

This blog expected that behavior from the beginning, because when you have a "leopard" stalking at night you have stripes and you have stars.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

The Unanimous Declaration - 2

Last year, on the 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence was posted. A few days later (time for the hangovers to subside) in a post the question was asked "Independence From What?", indicating that it was not a person or place our ancestors sought independence from, but as we will see, it was from certain ideas. Of the list of items set forth as the reasons for declaring independence from The Ideology of the British Empire, was the reason:

He [the king] has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

(Independence From What?). The king made the military subject to himself alone, and imposed the military upon "the little people". Recently President Obama removed a general from a command because that general was promoting disrespect toward civilian power. Nevertheless, according to a general who later became president, that may be an illusion because, while we left a place, the idea we thought we left has returned like a weed returning to a garden:

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual --is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

(President Dwight Eisenhower, emphasis added). The Unitary Executive Theory was preached during the Bush II Regime years in a manner that made it indistinguishable from the notion of a king-high priest who did his own thing, the rest of the government be damned. During the Bush II daze the president was wrongly called "The Commander In Chief" of the people, a perversion of his command of only the military:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States

(Article II, Section 2, emphasis added). The office of the president is not commander in chief of the people. Originally "commander in chief" only applied temporarily when the nation was in a war declared by congress, because we did not have "standing armies" back then like we do today. We have come a long way baby, but it has not all been in the direction of the freedom once envisioned.

Danger Lurks In The Deep Water - 3

In this series we have been discussing the hydrate-caused mine field conditions on the seabed and the loop current in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

In the first post we noted that Atwater Valley, located in the Eastern Gulf in the middle of the geologic feature called the Mississippi Canyon, had a strong "loop current" in 2002-2004 when exploration was done.

When the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred the government informed us that the loop current was a hundred or so miles further south, and therefore conveniently away from the Deepwater Horizon oil gushing into the gulf.

That is suspicious because the Deepwater Horizon site is near "latitude 28° N and longitude 88° W", which means Atwater Valley and Deepwater Horizon are in the same Mississippi Canyon, and at about the same latitude north, with Deepwater Horizon being about 50 miles east of the Atwater Valley drill site where the loop current was "strong".

An article in Wikipedia indicates that there have been various theories about an eddy or two that spin off the loop current, extending it randomly and/or cyclically over the years.

That article focuses on surface matters, however, the study we cited to discussed strong currents near the seabed.

If the loop current is still where it was in 2002-2004 it is most likely that the oil and hydrates have been taken into the current, which means that dispersant chemicals, oil, and methane have been carried by the loop current down around the southern tip of Florida and into the Atlantic, probably from close to day one.

If so, these toxins being identified by scientists, will already be present to some degree in the Gulf Stream that flows North-east toward Europe, that is, much earlier than indicated by the federal government so far.

Notice how strong the currents are as far north as the Deepwater Horizon latitude:

Weather was generally excellent, with only one minor squall during the 35-day JIP cruise. The main problem was currents in the Atwater Valley location, which ran consistently 2-3 knots at the surface with subsurface effects felt down to about 1000 feet. The ship had no working current meter, and the strong loop current created problems for the Uncle John in holding position, causing thruster loads frequently above critical redundancy levels. Subsurface currents caused the drill pipe to drift at an angle beneath the vessel and created difficulties in tripping the pipe. A total of nine hours of downtime were attributed to problems created by currents.

(Cruise Report, p. 11 (p. 4 PDF), emphasis added). To those in Florida who want to test my theory: don't look for tar-balls, don't wait for tar-balls, that is a canard.

Instead, take samples like the University of Georgia folk do, be scientific, because the toxins are moving by you Florida, and are in the Gulf Stream now, under the surface.

The reason good samples have to be taken is that 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the GOM are not tested for leaks, so to identify a particular well the "DNA" of that particular oil well needs to be considered.

The Flop Thickens

The regime of Bush II will go down in the history books as the 5th worst (4 presidents ranked worst) in U.S. history, and the very worst modern president (nobody worse, including Nixon), so far:

This year’s poll of 238 scholars found that President Franklin Roosevelt was once again ranked on top, joined by Presidents Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt to complete the top five. However, President George W. Bush did not fare well since the last poll was conducted in 2002. He dropped 16 places to 39th, making him the worst president since Warren Harding died in office in 1923, and one of the bottom five of all time, according to the experts:

Today, just one year after leaving office, the former president has found himself in the bottom five at 39th rated especially poorly in handling the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence. Rounding out the bottom five are four presidents that have held that dubious distinction each time the survey has been conducted: Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce.

Bush was rated second from the bottom on “intelligence,” “foreign policy accomplishments,” and “handling of U.S. economy.” This despite promises from Bush supporters that “history will be very kind” to the former president, as his Attorney General John Ashcroft put it.

(Think Progress, Survey in PDF). This survey that has been conducted since 1982 indicates that the feverish rewrite of history being conducted by bushie propagandists is not working.

The validity of the poll is bolstered by the very low scores for foreign policy Bush II received, one of which was "bringing democracy to Iraq":

Since Iraq’s parliamentary elections in March, killers in this violent northern city have stalked members of the Iraqiya Party, which won the most seats, part of a nationwide outbreak of violence directed at officials and other civic leaders.

Some 150 politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs, police officers, Sunni clerics and members of Awakening Councils have been assassinated throughout Iraq since the election — bloodshed apparently aimed at heightening turmoil in the power vacuum created by more than three months without a national government.

During the past 72 hours alone, at least eight Iraqi police officers, an Iraqi Army general, a government intelligence official, a member of an Awakening Council, a tribal sheik, and a high ranking staff member of Baghdad’s local government have all been assassinated in either Baghdad or Mosul.

(NY Times). The bushies want the media to say "we won the Iraq war", probably because of the oil leases to BP by Iraqis, so one wonders what the joint would look like if we "lost the Iraq war".

They will try the same propaganda on the Afghanistan war no doubt.

The U.S. lost a lot of respect and reputation in the world due to the Bush II policies, one of which was to send the 4th Fleet to the Americas south of us, another was wild war spending that damaged our economy and its reputation.

That does not seem to be "working out" (intimidating them) so far, seeing as how Venezuela just took over a bunch of U.S. oil wells via nationalization, and the U.N. is talking up getting rid of the dollar as the world reserve currency.

The big mystery question is: Why Is President Obama following the Dubya compass?

The Epoch of The Straw That Broke - 2

Little-straw-mistakes add up to "one Titanic"

The first in this series, The Epoch of The Straw That Broke, set the stage for discussing a certain reality we tend to forget.

It is a bit like when the Titanic went down in the sense that the Titanic disaster was a series of events, none of which were alone sufficient to bring down "the ship that even God could not sink".

But after the tipping point had been reached, "the point of no return", then even the smallest event, anywhere in that series of events, was qualified to be the straw that broke the camel's back, if done again.

Like the Titanic scenario, we are in the epoch or age of the straw that breaks the camel's back too, in terms of the next event that does damage to the environment.

The gist of it is that there is an environmental tipping point which scientists talk about, a twilight zone on the edge of what the earth can take, but no more, without breaking down into a killing machine.

That killing machine, which world civilization is unwittingly making, will take out world civilization leaving only some of humanity to try to live on through and form a subsequent civilization.

Even the flowers, grass, trees, and other greenery are aware that something is terribly wrong, and they are moving toward safer ground.

Events are converging toward the border line while world governments seem incapable of keeping "the last straw" off the camel's back.

Morning Joe Loses It

The main stream media (MSM) has morphed into a drama queen over the years, fuelled by being in bed with MOMCOM as well as feeling commercial pressures that have brought some of them down to the level of the suffering "little people", as BP calls them.

Yesterday Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe on MSNBC (owned & controlled by GE) indicated that John "Agent Orange" Boehner had a reputation of not working hard.

Agent Orange's PAC expenditures of $90,000 on golf, his bar-hopping, voting against helping people on unemployment who have lost homes, jobs, and health care, and his saying the economic crisis was an ant that democrats killed with a nuclear bomb were said to be the well known characteristics of Agent Orange.

Never-the-less, Agent Orange came down on Joe Joe like he did on Barton for apologizing to BP, or like Limbaugh coming down on anyone challenging his right to his madness.

This mad-dog reflex caught Joe Joe by surprise, so today he went into a 1960's style republican apologist's rant against the "anti-war left" for not opposing the Afghanistan war hard enough.

Evidently Joe Joe thought that rant against the "anti-war left" (the majority of Americans) would be an offering to the Agent Orange volcano god who was spewing out hell fire and damnation against Joe Joe.

The lair of social dementia has been stretched a bit by all this drama, so now MOMCOM needs a bigger dress.