Mad Max Nailed It

A Year Later

What a difference a year makes!

BP is completely bankrupt after settling to clean and scrub all the oil out of the Gulf of Mexico, and for restitution for all the damage caused to the industries around the Gulf, and for the disease and health effects caused to the people in the region. The entire board was dissolved after the stockholders decided that the entire concern was insolvent - which was an afterthought since the entire board was brought up for crimes against humanity and tried at the Haig. Who knew the World Body would come together in such unity against the criminals who allowed such gross negligence in their operation.

And since the dangers of using unchecked resources were final realized, Americans got out of their cars, shunned all plastic goods and took a long walk. And they haven't stopped. Since oil prices fell to less than two dollars a barrel, the Middle East rulers went bankrupt and decided to stop fighting and worry about feeding and educating their people. After retooling to create shoes and bicycles, Ford and GM assembly lines are back into full gear, and ironically, a manufacturing base has returned to the United States. The obesity problem has been solved by all this exercise, and the life spans of the average American is going upward. In fact, unless you're reading this on a self powered internet device, it's probably going out to fall on blind eyes.

What an amazing, wonderful world that we live in, isn't it?

Boots and Bigger Threats

2,200 Marines Go To Libya, ‘What Happened to No Boots on the Ground’?

In all the reporting on the involvement of US Forces in Libya a report by WCTI Channel 12 News in New Bern, North Carolina seems to have gone by almost unnoticed.

Almost.

The News channel reports that 2,200 U.S. Marines have been shipped off the Libya. Hold on now - that deployment doesn't jive with Mr. Obama’s steadfast insistence that there will be “no boots on the ground” in Libya.

On March 20 WCTI reported that the Marines were shipping out. About 2,200 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or 26th MEU will take part. Their mission is to help end the violence directed at the Libyan people.

Oh. Good thing the Pentagon eliminated their amphibious transports that the modern Marines have no use for. Maybe they're just going so that they can keep singing their theme song? "To the Shores of Tripoli!?"

Read More, It's Canadian, eh.

Meanwhile, I wonder if we'll also be sending troops to a much more significant source of terror that's been aiming to actually harm the United States? Oh, didn't hear about that one, eh? Yeah, looks like the Unrest In Yemen Is A Major Setback For U.S. Counter-Terrorism Operations. Remember the UPS and FedEx bombs in toner cartridges? Yemen. Remember the Christmas Underwear Bomber? Yemen. Unrest and regime change in Yemen? Oh, oh, Shaggy.

Oh, and if that wasn't enough, Syria is also quivering on the brink of toppling over -- and while that sounds great, it's probably not great for the Western powers.

So we're engaging Libya. Missing Yemen and Syria. And of course the REAL fart in the car that no one's talking about is Saudi Arabia. Just how important is the Kingdom to the world of Big Macs and iPad2's? If you had to rank which country could be the greatest threat to the modern world's stability - Saudi Arabia should be on the top of your list. Arrogant leadership and oil producing power? Right there. Number 2? My answer would be Iran.

Where's Iraq on that list?

Libyan March Madness!

Does anyone else find it MILDLY ironic that the French are spear-heading the no-fly zone effort?

Live Blogs: BBC; Guardian; CNN; Al Jazeera

International military action begins as French warplanes take to the skies above Benghazi to enforce UNSC-approved no-fly zone; French Defense Official: French jets fire on Libyan military vehicles (AJE report: 4 tanks destroyed); Canadians sending fighter-bombers, instituting naval blockade.

Obama: Libyans must be protected, “our coalition is prepared to act with urgency“; Clinton: Libyan gov’t “has lost all legitimacy.”

Much-lauded Libyan Citizen journalist Mohammed “Mo” Al-Nabbous, operator of Alhurra TV livestream, reportedly killed in firefight.

Sunday Comics - The Week in Review

End of the week. Finish line.

Charlie Sheen is nuts - and that is the MOST important issue in America, nay, the world right now. Now, just so that no one forgets, everyone was caught up on what a nut job Anne Hache was the days before September 11th. So, just saying.

Meanwhile, Sheen is a master - he has successfully ended that vile steaming pile of sitcom. Let the man have a victory dance.
Libya isn't revolting, they're falling into full blown Civil War. The sooner that the Colonel "leaves" the better it will be for everyone.
Meantime, how's that revolution reverberating everywhere else? Well, all politics are local - as Uncle Tip O'Neil used to say.

I particularly liked this one...And the SCOTUS decided to read the First Amendment out loud, again, to come up with their decision. Not a popular one, to be sure, but it was the correct one.
We made it. See you here next time.

Double Dip

Rising Oil Prices Raise the Specter of a Double Dip

Sustained and significant rise in oil prices WILL derail the U.S. economic recovery by stirring inflation and putting the brakes on spending.

Oil futures touched $100 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange — the highest since before the financial crisis hit in late 2008 — before pulling back. Note, this is WHY there was a financial crisis in 2008.

Pricier oil drives up the costs of everything from gas at the pump to the raw materials used to make nylon and food packaging, because we make everything out of oil. That could mean higher inflation and prompt consumers, who lately have shown more willingness to spend, to cut back their purchases. Duh.

Oil prices have risen 7.35% since the beginning of the year, while gasoline futures have risen 10.67%.

The question now is whether turmoil in the Middle East and Northern Africa could lead to a sustained cutback in production or delivery disruptions that could drive those prices much higher and push the U.S. as well as other countries back into recession. Supply-driven oil shocks, like the ones that came with the 1973 oil embargo and the 1979 Iranian revolution, were factors in past recessions. See, some people do read history books around here. Too bad we don't learn from them.

Most economists reckon that the price of oil would have to rise to at least $120 a barrel, and stay there, to threaten the recovery. Let's see where those economists are when it's close to $200, and ask them some useless questions then.

Oh yeah...

3 Blasts on Oil Pipeline

Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency on Friday said simultaneous blasts have struck three pipelines near the city of Qom, cutting the flow of gas.

Mehr said the blasts, which occurred at 5:50 a.m. outside the town of Salafchegan, south of Teheran, were felt miles away.

Local official Majid Bojarzadeh said the blasts were not caused by technical failures, but did not elaborate if officials believed the explosions were acts of sabotage.

He said operations were under way to repair the pipelines and restore the gas flow.

Iran's oil and gas sector has been hit by an increasing number of attacks in recent months, but authorities have provided no explanations for the blasts.

Mehr did not say how much gas flows through the lines.

Oh, Those Opulent O’s.

We’ve come to the end of a decade - yes, I start counting my decades by the ones and not the zeroes, which means that 1980 was the last year of the 70’s. I know it looks stupid on paper, but it is the proper way. My reference point would be the classic Onion Headline - “The Millennium Begins in 2001, Terrorists Note.”

In the grand tradition of rehashing old news and making sub-standard lists of events, arbitrary lists of the ‘best’ movies or music, reality television ‘stars’, or worst of all - consumer products - allow me the exercise of looking back with the rose colored glasses of time. I’d like to try to present the previous ten years as it might show up in a history book.

The Opulent O's

Previous eras of the American experience have been labeled, whether accurately or not, by the generations that followed. The eras of the Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties, or the Fabulous Fifties give an over reaching illusion of wealth and comfort afforded by all the citizenry. Careful study shows that there were major exceptions ranked by class status and race in each of these three examples, and the names themselves discount recessionary times, and any turmoil that existed. However, the tradition of remembrance for a grouping of ten years with a fantastical moniker has become an unfortunate reality of historical narrative when examining the history of America. The era that we are focusing on now is no exception -- the era which begins at the turn of the 21st Century to the new year of 2011 CE. This time has become known as the Opulent O’s.

To first explain the name of the era, the people of the time did not refer to the year in which they lived as the aughts, or oughts as proper English would dictate, or even the example of the generation that lived through the turn of the previous century, the 1900’s. The pronunciation of the year in which they lived predominantly was spoken as, “two thousand and...” followed by the number designate. Hence, why a few historians have refereed to the era as the ‘And’s’. The consensus by reputable sources and careful research has been to designate this time as the ‘Oh’s.’ The evidence in the historical record suggests that the people of the time would sometimes drop the ‘two thousand’ in speech and would simply state, “Oh six,” when giving a descriptor of a year; as an example.

The word Opulent has become to describe the era. The Latin derived definition in English are defined as 1. Having or indicating wealth, and also 2. Abundant or plentiful. Ignoring race or regional exceptions -- the word perfectly defines the era.

The primary fuel of the time was cheap and easily obtained petroleum drilled from the ground. The peak of use of gasoline and plastic derived from oil occurred in this era. The abundance of cheap oil and fuel allowed for cheap food sources. The importance of oil in the life cycle of plant to waste product must be studied to understand the mindset of the time. The availability and sheer amounts of cheap fuel created a cradle-to-grave manufacturing cycle from consumer goods to 4 ton single passenger vehicle with low fuel to kilometer use ratios -- which defines the zeitgeist. The most important aspect, in hindsight, to the lifestyle of the times was the amount of fuel used to create inexpensive food. The petroleum was used in the creation of fertilizer, and copious amounts were used in the entire process of seed to market, and market to aftermarket production.

Simplified, the oil or oil products would be used by the farmer from every aspect of his production -- from the multiple passes on a tractor (soil toiling, planting, chemical pesticide application, cultivation and a final till of the soil), to transport to industrial food processing off site (sometimes thousands of miles) from the farmland. Next, from the secondary processor which would create a chemical byproduct of the original agricultural product (Maize and soybeans being the most popular of the bases found in most supermarkets [see also ADM Corporation] would then transport and package the new product and ship by truck to market. Retail supermarkets [Safeway, Albertsons], “fast food” restaurants [McDonald’s, Chili’s] or superstore retail outlets [Costco, Wal-Mart] would then cater to the final end user, who more often than not, used a single passenger vehicle to transport the product home. Once the product was consumed, the end user simply disposed of the plastic packaging to preserve the food product, and the outer container -- typically another plastic or cardboard package which only served to encourage purchase. Once discarded the packaging materials were then transported by another gas powered truck or transport to take the used goods to be covered in a landfill. The concept of cradle to cradle manufacturing may have germinated in this era, but due to the nature and scale of the single-use economic cycle, it was counter productive or even suicidal for any industry to adopt a plan to reuse or recycle their resources or waste products.

Since fuel and food were inexpensive, the lifestyle of the typical American of the Opulent O’s were filled with store bought conveniences and electronic trinkets designed for obsolescence which encouraged constant replacement. Leveraged credit based upon elevated housing prices allowed consumers buying power. It was not uncommon for an American to have bought a home past their means, and taken credit based on that home’s perceived market value, called a home equity loan. These funds were then used to purchase more consumer goods -- and often with a credit card [MasterCard, Visa]. The economy was primarily based on the spending habits of the consumer. Even after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush urged Americans to go to the malls, and purchase houses and cars to get the economy engine moving again. The government created an environment of low interest rates and extremely easy credit in order to facilitate the consumer’s appetite.

Two major military engagements were initiated in response to the sensational terrorist attacks in America, under the banner of a “War on Terrorism.” The engagements in Afghanistan were aided by the Allied Western NATO nations, and the second invasion of Iraq resulted in the replacement of the government there, and a permanent American presence. History has shown, both of these costly involvements were to secure the oil fields, and an attempt to stabilize the region [see also Iran v America 1970-2020] -- thus insuring the flow of inexpensive oil to American business interests. Specifically those partners in Europe and China. Like the citizenry, these foreign entanglements were funded largely by credit. The U.S. had gone from a creditor nation to a debtor nation in 1988, but accelerated during the Bush and Obama Administrations.

Despite the trillions of dollars expended, the price of oil rose as industrial engines of India and China grew their GDP by 20% per year. Oil Prices rose in late 2006 because of simple supply and demand, plus speculation in the commodity markets. Soon, inflation of consumer products, fuel prices, and food began to outpace the threshold of business and consumer expendable incomes. Quickly, the slowdown of consumer spending toppled the preposterous derivative financial products of the time, wiped out the housing speculation and subsequent consumer credit bubble, and exposed widespread institutional Ponzi schemes, not dissimilar to the domino effect experienced at the end of the Roaring 1920’s.

Amazingly, the Six Corporate media companies either were misinformed or incapable of reporting the trends that were creating the problems that led to disaster, and instead reported only soft news (entertainment and sporting events which fed to their other advertising sponsored media concerns), or blatantly perpetuated partisan arguments to fill a 24 hour news cycle with surprisingly low or useless content to their audiences. The news of the day, even as late as 2010, was that of recovery and consumer confidence -- despite under reported or manipulated unemployment figures and a withering manufacturing base. Despite the ineffectual news climate, the government and other influential sources were inserting the word “unsustainable” into the collective vocabulary. At the end of the decade, even to the most optimistic, it seemed that the party was coming to a close. The start of a ‘new normal’ was discussed and contemplated.

Notable Starts: Enhanced government security, social media on networked devices, portable networked computing in communication devices, alternative energy, commercial exploration of space, TEA Party [Taxed Enough Already Party]

Influential Americans: George W. Bush (43rd President), Barack H. Obama (44th President), Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Warren Buffet, Alan Greenspan, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerburg, Steve Jobs, Sarah Palin.

Human Achievements: Completion of the Human Genome Project, Large Hadron Collider (Switzerland), 2nd Hubble Space Telescope repair by Human Astronauts, extra solar system planetoids discovered, water found on Mars and the Moon.

Notable Disasters: Terrorist Attacks on September 11th, 2001, Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans and Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, Global Warming/Climate Change.

A Dark Anniversary

U.S. Now In Afghanistan Longer than the Soviets

The last Red Army troops left in 1989, driven out after nine years and 50 days by U.S.-backed fighters known as mujahedin. Despite contrasts, the U.S. and Soviet wars have common narrative elements.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Moscow — As wartime days go, Friday was a fairly quiet one in Afghanistan. Helicopters skittered across the sky; convoys rumbled along desert roads; soldiers in mountain outposts scanned the jagged peaks around them.

But one thing set the day apart: With its passing, the U.S. military's campaign in Afghanistan matched the Soviet Union's long and demoralizing sojourn in the nation.

Read more ....

In a completely unrelated note...

Afghanistan discovered an oilfield containing an estimated 1.8 billion barrels of crude in the north of the country, a Mines Ministry official said.

If proven, the resource would be more than 10 times the size of the country’s oil reserves, assessed at more than 150 million barrels by the U.S. Geological Survey. By comparison, Saudi Arabia had proven reserves of 264.6 billion barrels at the end of 2009, according to BP Plc data

“A huge oil resource, which looks like a triangle, with an estimated 1.8 billion barrels of oil, has been discovered by Afghan geologists in cooperation with international geologists between Balkh and Sheberghan provinces,” Jawad Omar, a spokesman for the ministry, said.

The field is a new discovery and was not among those found by Russian exploration companies, Omar said. Further research will be carried out in the next six months and the field will be tendered once all investigations are completed.

The U.S., which has spent $27 billion since 2002 training Afghan forces, is promoting development of Afghan resources in an attempt to stabilize President Hamid Karzai’s government, U.S. Deputy Under-Secretary of State Paul Brinkley said earlier this year. Back in August U.S. President Barack Obama and Karzai discussed the need to jointly keep the pressure on the Taliban and to build Afghan capacity.

The country itself lacks local knowledge to get the oil itself, according to Sayed Masood, an economics professor at the University of Kabul .

“Lack of capacity, lack of capital, lack of skilled people means that Afghanistan cannot extract the reserves itself."

If only there was a country that had the military and the capacity to extract that oil and buy it to fuel their infrastructure?

Trouble Ain't Over

$10.2 trillion: The amount of money advanced-nation governments will need to borrow in 2011

As the debts of advanced countries rise to levels not seen since the aftermath of World War II, it’s hard to know how much is too much. But it’s easy to see that the risk of serious financial trouble is growing.

Next year, fifteen major developed-country governments, including the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Spain and Greece, will have to raise some $10.2 trillion to repay maturing bonds and finance their budget deficits, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund. That’s up 7% from this year, and equals 27% of their combined annual economic output.

Read more ....

CAP'N SAYS: Okay, here's your warning. Expect rough economic times and tight money that will impact everything -- Borrowing money at reasonable rates, to big government entitlement programs and defense budgets.

And if oil prices creep up - expect expensive food, expensive gasoline, heating oil and inflation or even hyper inflation. That's not good. Anger will continue to rise.

Thanks to War News Updates for the re-post

Documentary Review: The Spill

Expecting a play-by-play review of the Deep Water Horizon last night's FRONTLINE: The Spill | PBS [Watch streaming online] was instead a deep dive into the events and corporate culture that created the environment in which the Gulf Oil spill was just one of many disasters ready to pop.

Apparently, the investors and the Board of Directors were pence wise and pound foolish by cutting, across the board 25% of their operating cost. While this was great for pentioners depending on BP's stock dividends - the men on the ground and the antiquated equipment suffered. They suffered with safety failures that lead to death. Their systematic attitude that comes across is, "Why spend hard dollars on silly things like updating safety gear? It's not like there's been an accident!?"

The documentary uses Deep Water as the cherry pit on the moldy banana split that BP had created. I had the expectation of a play-by-play of a failed blow-out preventer, and instead the journalists got into the DNA of BP and the failure of a culture. I was pleasantly surprised, and then horrified by the misconduct of BP management and employees, let alone their complete disregard for overall safety of human life and consequences be damned... the plan was to just get the checkbook out after it happens... and then lowball it.

A dollar saved is a dollar on the balance sheet.

One of the episode’s strengths is footage found in BP’s own film library. In one sequence, newly-minted BP boss Hayward, speaking to business-school students, pretty much confesses to all of the company’s extant flaws and errors.

“He comes in and pledges that he’s going to correct all this,” Smith said. “He analyzed it correctly and had good intentions, and was by all accounts trying to do the right thing, but you essentially have a guy who’s trying to turn around the Titanic when it’s too late.”

Expecting to see Hayward come off as the media comic book villain - I was disappointed. They actually were able to show his, if not human, at least pragmatic sense of course correction. It's a study in his Public Relation's department that should show the failure of the image of the man -- that's a whole other doc, if you were to ask me.

I should also note that the documentary doesn't shy away from pointing out that the failure of the United States government to connect the dots also contributed to the Gulf spill.

Do give this a watch, it's worthy of your hour of attention.

You're Going To Die In A Fire!

An ominous theme has emerged from the wreckage of a deadly pipeline explosion in California... There are thousands of pipes just waiting to EXPLODE under YOUR house... RIGHT NOW!!! AHH! We're all going to DIE! We're going to DIE IN A FIRE!?!! OH NOOSS!!!

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

And now, we can blame the corporations that are supposed to be maintaining these things - and they obviously haven't and have been giving all those fat profits to their share holders - the capitalist pigdogs -- now we've all got pipe BOMBS under OUR NEIGHBORHOODS! Just waiting to go off - who knows when!? WE NEED MORE GOVERNMENT TO REGULATE and INSPECT these un-funded pipe bombs... or we're going to DIE!!! AAahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

At least the minor oil spills in Illinois and Michigan aren't getting any coverage.

Massive Arms Deal

60 Billion dollars in arms. It's going to be sold as a 'jobs' bill. Just you wait for it.

It'll give Iranian Mockmood Ahm-a-dina-job more right to keep his nuclear package.

It further destabilizes the Middle East.

But, man, all those great American jobs in the Boeing Company? You just can't put a price tag on that kind of political security, can you?

BP School Yard Logic

In a cunning move, BP announced that unless the ban on drilling is lifted, they'll have no lunch money to give to the Big Bully Government.

BP, you'll remember spilled about 500 million gallons into the Big Bully's pool at a birthday party, and BP pledged that they'd pay to clean it up. Meantime, Big Bully said that BP couldn't come over anymore and play 'dig for oil' at their house anymore... something like that.

Comes down to this, BP won't pay unless they get to play.

Seems like there's still some swagger in BP's step? It's hard to side with either of these two characters - since they're both doo-doo heads wrecking everyone else's fun.

So instead - I'll note the reader response to this story lifted from NYTimes -- which, when I read it, reminded me that no one has ever made it through Atlas Shrugged or knows what's going on in Venezuela. This comment to Nationalize BP is as short sited, shrill and ignorant as anything ANYTHING I've seen on the Right-Kook-Fringe† side of the carpet for a long, long time. I say, ship this reader to Hugo, for a year. See if he still agrees with his little casual comment about nationalizing a company.

Re-Run in the Gulf

Ah Jeeezzzeee... not this shiat again!

Summer reruns!

Another doggamned oil spill.

Luckily, no one was hurt.

The Week In Review - Sunday Comics

We made it through another week. I'm not quite sure how. Anyhow, here's where we wrap up crap we covered, and stuff we didn't get to with some cartoons.

First off, China's GDP just beat out Japan. Welcome to #2, China, how did you do it? Was it your complete disregard to the environment, human rights, or...
Mr. Obama stepped in the WTC/Mosque-it's-a-local-issue-but-it's-not-and-it's a prayer-center-troll-bait-not-a-mosque debate. At least he was clear, and stuck with his original statement.
Or, another way to look at it, Mr. Obama became John Kerry for the issue.

Wrangle continues to plague the Democrats... but compared to some other Democrats, he's a rank Amateur. And he's had 40 years of practice!

Oh, it's not all Charlie's fault.
Meantime, the oil spill is over - except for the invisible layer that's being detected. How does that work, again?
But that's nothing compared to Fredie and Franny...
Why cap it now?

WikiLeaks Founder was found to be vulnerable to an attack, Farvre DID come back to the Vikings - this week, Blago went down for lying, and so did Roger Clemens. Pakistan continues to tread water as 2 million people and 1/5 of the country is underwater, and still - no one seems to care.

See you next week

What's in a Name?

Some BP gas station owners are thinking of going back to the Amoco name.

If they don't like the name British Petroleum, why not go back to BP's original name...

Gulf Oil?

Oooo (More)

The Week In Review - Sunday Comics

Like most Sundays I try to toss a couple cartoons up to either cap off the week, or mention a few things that I missed - intentionally or not. So let's start off with the Mosque at Ground Zero, or near it. I showed everyone the video that some folks got banned because it was so over the top. I don't think things should be banned. CBS and NBC were fools not to take their money. Free Speech is one of those grand things that allows idiots to let everyone know exactly how foolish they are. Sarah Palin, David Duke, Mel Gibson - it's great to hear them tell us what they really think. And to solve the problem at Ground Zero, how about they just rebuild what was already there, and have no religious icons or gathering places anywhere near it?This week the Unemployment Benefits for millions of Democrat voters has been extended, even though no one's really sure how the Federal Government is paying for it. But the Democrats convinced everyone that it was the obstructionist Republicans who were stalling their checks. Good political win for the Democrats there!
There's been a lot of talk about the Black Panther voter intimidation case getting thrown out. I think John McCain and Sarah Palin did a better job, and I guess the judge agrees with me.
The Pork-u-lus bill doesn't seem to be working out.
Financial Reform was passed, but, lets be honest - it's just setting up the dominoes for next time.
And meanwhile Mr. Obama's poll numbers and his Super Powers are shrinking.
And meanwhile at Comicon - this happened.
Have a great week.

The Week In Review - Sunday Comics

See you next week folks