'Not for public': the oil spill may be getting much worse

[mentalgongfu2]

Just have to vent for a second.

A friend asked on the dreaded book of face, "Is it wrong that I'm still buying gas at BP? i kinda see it as a donation to the clean-up effort? and the zoom zoom takes premium, which i know i can always get at a bp station."

So I wrote a response, but it was too long, so I put it on my profile as a note.

On boycotting British Petroleum
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Today at 10:06pm | Edit Note | Delete
There are lots of "news" stories these days about how BP gas stations are independently owned and people shouldn't boycott them because they'll hurt the small business owner.

A few thoughts:

First off, the simultaneous appearance of these stories across all sorts of media platforms is not coincidental. It is part of a big time public relations effort by British Petroleum designed to limit the damage to their reputation, and more importantly, damage to their revenue stream. In other words, It is nothing but BP PR, and in my humble opinion, it is BS. BTW, this PR campaign is using money that could be spent on cleaning up oil, but BP has already decided they've spent too much and is trying to cut costs while we are still early in this disaster.

For more information on that subject, google "Kindra Arnesen."

Secondly, while it may be true that BP stations are owned independently, and while I, too, don't want to hurt my local businesses, these gas station owners have chosen to do business with BP. Obviously, they didn't know this was coming, but they made their choice, and supporting them with gas purchases means supporting BP. Besides, if you really want to support the station, buy something other than gas ; that's where they make their profit anyway. I've always been told gas stations make little to no profit on the fuel; the $2 hot dogs and $1.50 sodas are where they derive profit.



Finally, an analogy may help put into perspective the self-serving circular logic BP is using in this expensive PR attack:

Imagine a five year old child dies after eating a hamburger tainted with e-coli bacteria from a national or international restaurant chain. Then other people start getting sick. Some of them die. It turns out this fast food chain has sent e-coli tainted meat all across the country. Someone at corporate headquarters even knew about the danger before the first death, but didn't order a recall because they were trying to cut costs, hoping everything would turn out OK. One of these chain restaurants is located in your town. It is independently owned by a franchisee. Would you continue eating at the restaurant chain that knowingly distributed deadly, tainted burgers in order to "support local business?"

I won't.

That's not the vent. This is the vent:
One of her other FB friends, whom I do not know, posted this in response to my friend's question, and I became enraged. The fact that his profile picture makes him appear to be one of the many young urban professionals prostituting themselves for the likes of Wells Fargo did not help.

He said:

My fidelity 401k international diversified fund thanks you. Its been a bad 80 some days.

I usually don't pick fights, but I felt a need to respond to this. I tried to be pithy with my point and avoid an aggressive stance, but what I really wanted to do was quote Bill Hicks from one of the performances I have on disc, with Bill screaming at the audience, "Is it all fucking money to you people!!!!!!?"

Between anger and despair over what is happening and the deeply-ingrained ignorance and selfishness of the my 'peers' in this nation, I just don't know what to do or say.

[Belligerent Savant]

.

Feel free to copy/paste from the below, if/when you do respond to the above-referenced carbon blobs via facebook:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/12/b ... _infa.html

Excerpts:

"You're everything that America should be flushed down the toilet, you f'ing turd. ...I want you to go find a soul..."

"...Go back to Gallagher you fucking yuppy piece of shit, f*ck you, f*ck you all America, f*ck you, Go Saddam, nuke everybody and f*ck off. "

" ...We're here, at the same point again, where you, the f*cking peon masses, can once again ruin anyone who tries to do anything, because you don't know how to do it on your own! That's where we're f*cking at! Once again, the useless waste of f*cking flesh that has ruined everything good in this goddamned world. That's where we're at!"

".. Hitler had the right idea, he was just an underachiever. Kill 'em all Adolf, all of 'em - Jew, Mexican, American, White - Kill 'Em All! Start Over, the experiment didn't work! Rain forty days please, f*ckin rain and wash these turds off my f*ckin life - wash these human waste of flesh and bones off this planet. I pray to you God to kill these f*ckin people..."

..he was still free to sardonically hanker for the extermination of the human race, and in his lighter psilocybin-based spiritual moments, to remind his audience that they were perfect beings created by God.

[Nordic]

I'm really tired and my eyes kept seeing that as "SleazeBP"

I just am continually astounded how all these gun-totin' "patriotic" Amerukkans, you know, the good old southern guys who dress in camoflague and drive big jacked-up trucks and talk the talk about guns, gods, gays and immigrants, who boast continuously about how we're fighting the terrorists over there to keep us safe over her and all of that fucking BULLSHIT are sitting around like beaten little puppies when it comes to BP literally destroying their very own back yards.

Fucking pussies, every goddamn last one of them. Why aren't they out there defending their fucking COUNTRY?

I don't know what they're doing, but they're sitting on their asses letting their country be destroyed while their beloved guns collect rust in their Mom's basements or wherever the fuck they keep them.

If I worked for BP I could pull up at their houses, drop my pants and take a big stinky shit right in their front yard and they'd come out and salute me and call me "sir".

Fucking douchebags.

[mentalgongfu2]

You know, Nordic, sometimes your language seems a little abrasive to me, but I almost always agree with your sentiment, and lately, due to changes in my own life, I'm agreeing with your language, too. The time for nice words and "going along to get along" is far past. To paraphrase some gangster movies and a recent episode of The Boondocks, at this point we can either get down (join the perpetrators, the winning team), lay down (and let them rule), or stand up and fight.

And if all the down south mofos who talk so much shit about standing up to the socialist terrorist Muslim Obama can't manage to stand up to a corporate-controlled police state in their own backyards, then it proves how misguided and full of shit they were to begin with, although that doesn't make me feel any better about the fact they are getting royally fucked along with the rest of us.

I am out of patience for idiots. I will no longer suffer fools. I will no longer bite my tongue for fear of offending polite society. Fuck 'em. It is fucking insane to demand oneself act politely to people who are trying to destroy you and your world. Being harsh and blunt is the only avenue left when rational discourse is impossible. Still, it's true you get more bees with honey than venom, and harsh and blunt responses will not penetrate the closed minds of worker bees who make the system run, so I am more polite and understanding with the general population represented on FB than I would be if such a comment were posted here, among people who should and do know better.
I could say a lot more, but it would mostly involve repeating more things the people reading this thread already know. Instead, not that anyone specifically cares, but since I mentioned my earlier exchange on FB, here's where it's at:

Original poster [Name Removed]: is it bad that i still buy gas at bp?

[some other person]: At least you're supporting the independent station owner that had nothing to do with this mess. But....you're also giving your money to BP. Boo.


[Name removed] i kinda see it as a donation to the clean-up effort? and the zoom zoom takes premium, which i know i can always get at a bp station.

Me: for my opinion, please see the note I have posted on my profile


Him: My fidelity 401k international diversified fund thanks you. Its been a bad 80 some days.


Me: Yeah, who needs clean water and aquatic life when there's money to worry about. Priorities are important.

Him: Big oil is now put on notice for their SOPs and JHAs. Lets hope we finally get a real alternative energy bil. We as Americans have only been kicking that idea since the Nixon era; the same president that got the EPA and the clean water act off the ground. Furthermore, I read your note. Way to get behind your beliefs an hour ago.

Me: What you say about Nixon and the EPA is accurate. I'm not sure what you mean with the "way to get behind your beliefs comment," but best as I can tell it is a dig against me. My note was about the idea of boycotting BP. It was a response to [Name Removed]'s comment, which is a question I've heard from many people. I consciously chose not to delve more into the environmental consequences, nor did I mention the millions of people who have lost their livelihoods as a result of this oil spill. To be completely honest, your comment really bothered me, because I perceived it as an example of the institutional and widespread issue of people caring more about their own financial success (i.e. greed), than the consequences that result from that concern that overwhelms any concept of morality or responsibility for one's actions. I don't know you, I am in no position to judge you, and I don't intend to pick a fight with someone whom I know nothing about. Nothing personal. But concern with financial consequences - $$$ - the bottom line, is what got us into this mess. I wish you all the best, but I don't give a damn about your 401k, and the fact that people put more value on their own retirement funds than the ecological and humanitarian impacts of this oil spill is the cause of the problem. My apologies, [Name Removed], for bringing disharmony onto your FB page. Hope you're doing alright. You CAN get premium gas at other stations, if you so desire.

God bless Kindra and everyone else who is standing up for themselves. To Hell with BP and anyone associated with them, and to all the willful idiots who knowingly support mass destruction because it is more convenient than changing your lifestyle. Sometimes, there is no middle ground.

[tazmic]

KENNETH ROGOFF (Harvard Professor, Trilateral Commission , CFR, Bilderberger)

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index. ... Itemid=358

"Perhaps it is a pipe dream, but it is just possible that the ongoing BP oil-spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico will finally catalyze support for an American environmental policy with teeth. Yes, the culprits should be punished, both to maintain citizens' belief that justice prevails, and to make other oil producers think twice about taking outsized risks. But if that is all that comes out of the BP calamity, it will be a tragic lost opportunity to restore some sanity to the United States' national environmental and energy policy, which has increasingly gone off track in recent years.

Why should there be any reason for hope, especially given that US environmental policy has been predicated on the unrealistic belief that relatively small subsidies to new energy technologies can substitute for tax-induced price incentives for producers and consumers?

The fact is, the BP oil spill is on the cusp of becoming a political game-changer of historic proportions. If summer hurricanes push huge quantities of oil onto Florida's beaches and up the Eastern seaboard, the resulting political explosion will make the reaction to the financial crisis seem muted. Anger is especially rife among young people. Already stressed by extraordinarily high rates of unemployment, twenty-somethings are now awakening to the fact that their country's growth model - the one they are dreaming to be a part of - is, in fact, completely unsustainable, whatever their political leaders tell them. For now, it may only be black humor (e.g., the New Orleans waiter who asks diners whether they want their shrimp leaded or unleaded). But an explosion is coming.

Might a reawakening of voter anger be the ticket to rekindling interest in a carbon tax? A carbon tax, long advocated by a broad spectrum of economists, is a generalized version of a gas tax that hits all forms of carbon emissions, including from coal and natural gas. In principle, one can create a "cap-and-trade" system of quantitative restrictions that accomplishes much the same thing - and this seems to be more palatable to politicians, who will jump through hoops to avoid using the word "tax."

But a carbon tax is far more transparent and potentially less prone to the pitfalls seen in international carbon-quota trading. A carbon tax can help preserve the atmosphere while also discouraging some of the most exotic and risky energy-exploration activities by making them unprofitable.

Of course, there must be better (far better) and stricter regulation of offshore and out-of-bounds energy extraction, and severe penalties for mistakes. But putting a price on carbon emissions, more than any other approach, provides an integrated framework for discouraging old carbon-era energy technologies and incentivizing new ones by making it easier to compete.

Advocating a carbon tax in response to the oil spill does not have to be just a way of exploiting tragedy in the Gulf to help finance outsized government spending. In principle, one could cut other taxes to offset the effects of a carbon tax, neutralizing the revenue effects. Or, to be precise, a carbon tax could substitute for the huge array of taxes that is eventually coming anyway in the wake of massive government budget deficits.

Why might a carbon tax be viable now, when it never has been before? The point is that, when people can visualize a problem, they are far less able to discount or ignore it. Gradual global warming is hard enough to notice, much less get worked up about. But, as high-definition images of oil spewing from the bottom of the ocean are matched up with those of blackened coastline and devastated wildlife, a very different story could emerge.

Some say that young people in the rich countries are just too well off to mobilize politically, at least en masse. But they might be radicalized by the prospect of inheriting a badly damaged ecosystem. Indeed, there is volatility just beneath the surface. Modern-day record unemployment and extreme inequality may seem far less tolerable as young people realize that some of the most cherished "free" things in life - palatable weather, clean air, and nice beaches, for example - cannot be taken for granted.

Of course, I may be far too optimistic in thinking that the tragedy in the Gulf will spur a more sensible energy policy that attempts to moderate consumption rather than constantly seeking new ways to fuel it. A great deal of the US political reaction has centered on demonizing BP and its leaders, rather than thinking of better ways to balance regulation and innovation.

Politicians understandably want to deflect attention from their own misguided policies. But it would be far better if they made an effort to fix them. A prolonged moratorium on offshore and other out-of-bounds energy exploration makes sense, but the real tragedy of the BP oil spill will be if the changes stop there. How many wake-up calls do we need?"

Now try Prison Planets interpretation:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/harvard-pro ... n-tax.html

[Belligerent Savant]

I'm really tired and my eyes kept seeing that as "SleazeBP"

I just am continually astounded how all these gun-totin' "patriotic" Amerukkans, you know, the good old southern guys who dress in camoflague and drive big jacked-up trucks and talk the talk about guns, gods, gays and immigrants, who boast continuously about how we're fighting the terrorists over there to keep us safe over her and all of that fucking BULLSHIT are sitting around like beaten little puppies when it comes to BP literally destroying their very own back yards.

Fucking pussies, every goddamn last one of them. Why aren't they out there defending their fucking COUNTRY?

I don't know what they're doing, but they're sitting on their asses letting their country be destroyed while their beloved guns collect rust in their Mom's basements or wherever the fuck they keep them.

If I worked for BP I could pull up at their houses, drop my pants and take a big stinky shit right in their front yard and they'd come out and salute me and call me "sir".

Fucking douchebags.

I've had similar sentiments, as I'm sure others here have as well.

... they're all conditioned cogs at this point, utterly saturated with relentless AM-radio Limbaugh blaring/MSM News programming, and devoid of common sense/objectivity, not to mention raised to be FEARFUL of any 'foreign' elements identified by said control agents -- it's never an internal/domestic threat, it's always external/foreign/non-white [to clarify, by "internal/domestic", I am referring to elements within our own government, not to be confused with the increased magnitude of 'domestic terrorist' branding being utilized by the Handlers to further divide and raise suspicion of our fellow neighbors].

Brave New World + 1984 + Idiocracy = 2010 Amerikka

Under a different zeitgeist, many of us may sigh and mutter, forgive them, for they know not what they do*; unfortunately, we simply can't afford to dismiss these automatons any longer; the beasts running the asylum are now in high gear and will continue to succeed so long as the majority remains passive/indifferent/uninformed.

Tazmic touches on some of the changes in perspective required to elevate the level of awareness among many, but there will always be a relatively strong portion of the population that will refuse to open their eyes. They will, in fact, keep their eyes closed firmly shut, so programmed are they to fear change, to fear a reality alternate to that spoon-fed to them for so long..


*attributed to Lord/Magician Jesus H. Christ

[Nordic]

The poor souls must be so confused. Imagine WHITE PEOPLE screwing them over and destroying thier country.

[Jeff]

And yeah. If this is what the EPA admits, imagine the truth.

EPA: Moderate health concerns with Gulf air

By CAIN BURDEAU (AP) – 15 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS — The Environmental Protection Agency says the air in some places along the Louisiana coast poses a health risk to vulnerable people.

The EPA says recent air sampling shows a moderate health risk in Venice and Grand Isle, two Louisiana towns about 50 miles from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site.

The agency says anyone unusually sensitive to low-quality air should avoid "prolonged or heavy exertion."

EPA's warning comes as concerns grow that the Gulf oil spill may be fouling not just the water and shores but also the air.

The agency says the levels of chemicals found in air samples have not been linked directly to the BP spill. But odor-causing pollutants associated with oil have been detected.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD9GR6GFG4

[crikkett]

BP is dumping oiled sands into a Mississippi landfill

[Hugo Farnsworth]

Sheesh, BP is outta control.

OTOH, the world has an oil company like Petrobras. And while the oil business is hardly what one could call "green", Petrobras does what they can. When they ran a pipeline through the Amazon, they paid a lot of attention and money to the problem. The mapped and transplanted to nurseries all the flora, and then returned it to it's spot once the pipeline was buried. They had vets standing by in case an animal got hurt. They had schools, meetings, and organizations for the native population in the basin to accommodate their needs and to explain what they wanted and what they would do. An amazing contrast with BP.

BP's name is mud in the USA where they hold sway politically. As for the rest of the world, I would think it's safe to say they are persona non grata, at the very least.

[Iamwhomiam]

Ironically, Petroleum Contaminated Soils (PCS) are approved by EPA to be utilized in "Sanitary" Landfills as an "Alternative Daily Cover" (ADC) in place of more costly clean topsoil to cover garbage dumped there every day.

Most environmentalists object to this practice.

Municipalities or businesses operating landfills love to use PCS as an ADC because they can charge a much higher tipping fee to those providing it than they charge for 'regular' municipal or residential waste and it saves them the cost of having to purchase tons of clean soil for use as an ADC.

A better use for such contaminated soil, and still one objected to by many enviros, would be to burn it in cement kilns.

Both of these disposal methods are considered by the EPA to be "beneficial" uses.

But as we all know, the question to be asked is, Cui bono?

[Iamwhomiam]

Hugo, your rigor is waning... Petrobras is in bed with Chevron, who now owns Texaco, and I'm sure you are aware of Texaco's seriously negative impact upon the Amazon.

They are all members of the same dirty club and share the same bed, pigs that they are.

http://www.chevron.com/search/?k=Petrobras&text=petrobras&Header=FromHeader&ct=All%20Types

[NeonLX]

Sheesh, BP is outta control...

...BP's name is mud in the USA where they hold sway politically. As for the rest of the world, I would think it's safe to say they are persona non grata, at the very least.

Ha-Ha, I just looked out the window and I see the main drag through town is completely stuffed with rush hour traffic; just like it is every other day. Four filled lanes of petrol-swilling vehicles stretching as far as the eye can see, and each vehicle carrying only one person.

What, me worry? Petrol at the pump is only $2.569/gallon!! Fill 'er up!

[Simulist]

My God. We may actually have gotten to the place where people who are destroying the very planet we live on are "the good guys" — just as long as they smile a lot while they're at it.

But it is a bit of a relief to know that "Petrobras" is actually the fourth largest energy company in the world, and not something female oil wrestlers wear. (Then again, on second thought, I think I'd prefer the latter.)

[Canadian_watcher]

Brave New World + 1984 + Idiocracy = 2010 Amerikka

I am so using that. (oh, I mean may I use that?) but I'll have to change it to "2010 canada"