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Published on Thursday, May 20, 2010 by Ted Rall
Nationalize BP and Other Criminal Corporations
The Supreme Court says that corporations have the same rights as individuals. When they misbehave, shouldn't they face consequences as serious as those imposed upon an individual?
It goes without saying that a person who commits a crime ought to face punishment proportional to the offense. Large and midsize corporations, which employ thousands of employees, have far vaster reach and power than even the wealthiest ordinary citizens. So their crimes can be breathtaking in scope. The 1984 industrial catastrophe at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed 15,000 people. An additional 200,000 have since suffered serious injuries. Compared to the boards of directors of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, which bought the company in 2001, Ted Bundy was small potatoes.
Unlike small-time serial killers, however, corporations get away with murder. For at least a year, management of the Toyota auto company knew that brakes in millions of its cars might fail. A 2009 ABC News investigation found that at least 16 people had died. "Safety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour," reported the network. Yet Toyota did nothing. Instead they blamed their customers, saying they were resting their floormats on the gas pedals.
On May 18th, Toyota finally faced the wrath of the federal government. Its "punishment": a paltry $16.5 million fine, not one cent of which went to the victims or their families. The fine, which amounted to a ridiculous 5.5 percent of its 2009 profit, went into the U.S. Treasury's general fund--in other words, to kill Afghans and Iraqis.
Available to Congress and the President is a far more appropriate punishment: nationalization without compensation. Toyota's American operations ought to be seized and operated by the federal government. The top officials of the parent company in Japan, whose willful negligence murdered at least 16 American citizens, ought to be extradited and face trial in U.S. federal court.
Extreme? Expropriating private property is commonplace--when the target is Joe and Jane Sixpack. Just ask hundreds of homeowners of New London, Connecticut. When the city destroyed an entire neighborhood to build a luxury office development, the U.S. Supreme Court backed them up, radically expanding the concept of eminent domain. Unlike a lot of evil corporations, those homeowners didn't do anything wrong.
The U.S. government has not only the right but the duty to take over criminal corporations.
A 5.5 percent fine is a slap on the wrist. Nationalizing a company, on the other hand, protects the public interest. Hitting corporations in the balance sheet is a genuine deterrent to the managers of other companies contemplating lawless behavior. It brings in significant cash assets that can be used to compensate the victims of the company's criminal activities.
Nationalization can also serve the interest of public safety. The mine explosion that left at least 25 coal miners dead in West Virginia earlier this year left members of the public feeling helpless and frustrated at the slow and inept rescue attempt by Massey Energy, the site's owner and operator. Setting aside the obvious argument that natural resources ought to be exploited for the benefit of the American people rather than private businesspeople, the rescue operation would have benefited from the involvement of top experts at such government agencies as the Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2009 the Upper Big Branch mine received 450 safety violations. Massey Energy paid the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration less than $1 million total. That's less than one percent of its annual profits. That's roughly $2,000 per violation.
If you get caught speeding in Virginia, you'll pay more than what Massey Energy pays for deliberately risking the lives of its employees.
British Petroleum is spending $6 million a day on its response to the explosion at its Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. But that's a drop in the bucket next to the cost that will be borne by the people of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The disaster is spilling the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez wreck into the Gulf every four days--and it's been three weeks. Thousands of fishermen will be ruined. The tourism industry, already in trouble due to the economic collapse, will be devastated. The full extent of the ecological damage--dead animals and aquatic plants, huge dead zones devoid of oxygen--won't be understood for years.
BP failed to ensure that a "blowout preventer" at the Deepwater Horizon would work in the event of an emergency. But their real crime was drilling for oil 5,000 feet down in the first place.
Here again, it's easy to see how nationalization might help. Rather than wait for the clueless execs at BP to come up with a solution, a BP seized by the federal government (its American operations, anyway) would come under the jurisdiction of an organization that could assign experts from NOAA and the U.S. Navy, among other agencies, to stop the leak. After the leak is plugged, the publicly-owned former BP's profits would help defray the costs of the cleanup and extend benefits to fisherman and other victims.
Imagine the possibilities. What if Too Big to Fail had been turned into Too Big to Resist?
As a nationalized asset Citibank, which received $306 billion in bailouts, would be worth $152 trillion to taxpayers. Goldman Sachs got $15 billion; they're worth $70 trillion. Sell them off and no one would ever pay college tuition again. Or to see a doctor. Or we could give everyone a 50 percent tax cut. We're a rich country--the problem is that out-of-control corporations are hogging the wealth.
Businessmen charter corporations for the express purpose of avoiding individual legal liability. Isn't it high time we started holding criminal businessmen accountable?
It goes without saying that a person who commits a crime ought to face punishment proportional to the offense. Large and midsize corporations, which employ thousands of employees, have far vaster reach and power than even the wealthiest ordinary citizens. So their crimes can be breathtaking in scope. The 1984 industrial catastrophe at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed 15,000 people. An additional 200,000 have since suffered serious injuries. Compared to the boards of directors of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, which bought the company in 2001, Ted Bundy was small potatoes.
Unlike small-time serial killers, however, corporations get away with murder. For at least a year, management of the Toyota auto company knew that brakes in millions of its cars might fail. A 2009 ABC News investigation found that at least 16 people had died. "Safety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour," reported the network. Yet Toyota did nothing. Instead they blamed their customers, saying they were resting their floormats on the gas pedals.
On May 18th, Toyota finally faced the wrath of the federal government. Its "punishment": a paltry $16.5 million fine, not one cent of which went to the victims or their families. The fine, which amounted to a ridiculous 5.5 percent of its 2009 profit, went into the U.S. Treasury's general fund--in other words, to kill Afghans and Iraqis.
Available to Congress and the President is a far more appropriate punishment: nationalization without compensation. Toyota's American operations ought to be seized and operated by the federal government. The top officials of the parent company in Japan, whose willful negligence murdered at least 16 American citizens, ought to be extradited and face trial in U.S. federal court.
Extreme? Expropriating private property is commonplace--when the target is Joe and Jane Sixpack. Just ask hundreds of homeowners of New London, Connecticut. When the city destroyed an entire neighborhood to build a luxury office development, the U.S. Supreme Court backed them up, radically expanding the concept of eminent domain. Unlike a lot of evil corporations, those homeowners didn't do anything wrong.
The U.S. government has not only the right but the duty to take over criminal corporations.
A 5.5 percent fine is a slap on the wrist. Nationalizing a company, on the other hand, protects the public interest. Hitting corporations in the balance sheet is a genuine deterrent to the managers of other companies contemplating lawless behavior. It brings in significant cash assets that can be used to compensate the victims of the company's criminal activities.
Nationalization can also serve the interest of public safety. The mine explosion that left at least 25 coal miners dead in West Virginia earlier this year left members of the public feeling helpless and frustrated at the slow and inept rescue attempt by Massey Energy, the site's owner and operator. Setting aside the obvious argument that natural resources ought to be exploited for the benefit of the American people rather than private businesspeople, the rescue operation would have benefited from the involvement of top experts at such government agencies as the Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2009 the Upper Big Branch mine received 450 safety violations. Massey Energy paid the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration less than $1 million total. That's less than one percent of its annual profits. That's roughly $2,000 per violation.
If you get caught speeding in Virginia, you'll pay more than what Massey Energy pays for deliberately risking the lives of its employees.
British Petroleum is spending $6 million a day on its response to the explosion at its Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. But that's a drop in the bucket next to the cost that will be borne by the people of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The disaster is spilling the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez wreck into the Gulf every four days--and it's been three weeks. Thousands of fishermen will be ruined. The tourism industry, already in trouble due to the economic collapse, will be devastated. The full extent of the ecological damage--dead animals and aquatic plants, huge dead zones devoid of oxygen--won't be understood for years.
BP failed to ensure that a "blowout preventer" at the Deepwater Horizon would work in the event of an emergency. But their real crime was drilling for oil 5,000 feet down in the first place.
Here again, it's easy to see how nationalization might help. Rather than wait for the clueless execs at BP to come up with a solution, a BP seized by the federal government (its American operations, anyway) would come under the jurisdiction of an organization that could assign experts from NOAA and the U.S. Navy, among other agencies, to stop the leak. After the leak is plugged, the publicly-owned former BP's profits would help defray the costs of the cleanup and extend benefits to fisherman and other victims.
Imagine the possibilities. What if Too Big to Fail had been turned into Too Big to Resist?
As a nationalized asset Citibank, which received $306 billion in bailouts, would be worth $152 trillion to taxpayers. Goldman Sachs got $15 billion; they're worth $70 trillion. Sell them off and no one would ever pay college tuition again. Or to see a doctor. Or we could give everyone a 50 percent tax cut. We're a rich country--the problem is that out-of-control corporations are hogging the wealth.
Businessmen charter corporations for the express purpose of avoiding individual legal liability. Isn't it high time we started holding criminal businessmen accountable?
© 2010 Ted Rall
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58 Comments so far
Show AllThank you, Ted Rall. These is the best post I've seen in a long time. Everyday people have property seized by the government for very minor crimes such as drug posession and soliciting prostitution (which shouldn't be crimes anyway).
Justice demands that corporations forfeit their assests as well.
Government takeover of corporations is not unprecedented.
In 1976 the US Government consolidated several bankrupt railroads into Conrail, restored it to health and sold it 20 years later.
Had the US Gov. done the same thing with the failed banks in 2008-2009 the US would now be emerging from a 3 year recession rather than spiraling down into the third world.
"The Supreme Court says that corporations have the same rights as individuals."
That idea is defunct as the basis of any rational discussion. Always has been. Always will be. If you see someone trying to claim that, you have a moral obligation to disrupt him/her.
Corporations degrade our quality of life. Let's take just one example - telephone. Are the lines clear in these days of the privateer?
I usually have to redial on long-distance conversations to try to find a clear line. Most recently, I've had to make up to three attempts per call, and even regional calls are becoming corrupted. It didn't used to be this way. Just one example of the failure of corporations. Look at the transportation sector - we spend five times what we should for transportation, in terms of full costs. Healthcare, we're slated to spend five time what others spend within ten years. Education - it's a racket, with privateering pushing the cost up to three times what others spend for the same quality. You can do the comparisons and report back here.
Yes. Please.
Now why should Congress Critters, the Prez & Vice-Prez, and at least five Supremes support nationalizing their benevolent patrons?
C'mon, Ted! Get Real!
Until millions of us storm the Capitol and White House and every state capitol and city hall with pitchforks and torches, burning corporate CEO's in effigy as we march, all the corrupt white-collar criminals on the corporate dole will ignore us.
Please let me know when we can start getting those welfare checks Sarah Palin and the rest of her half-baked Alaskan crowd get from selling Mother Earth up there on the North Slope.
I don't know why we can't nationalize our energy resources like so many countries did in the 20th Century, because they are Our resources--like air and water are.
The notion that we continue to allow private companies to own resources so vital to the public is only evidence of how it ain't the Big Short that sells us down the river, it's the Big Con. That we have to argue to nationalize because of the disaster BP has been only goes to show how much we have been brainwashed by the Holy Mother Petrol Church, LLC., Arbusto Oil, and Mihijos, Pendejos, and Chingados, Attorneys at Law.
I wish this site had emoticons. I'd send pahartnett (kinda unwieldy name, eh?) one of those 'bowing in adoration' thingies.
So, Ted wants a company--that didn't willfully intend to hurt people--give up their company and profits to those who do? Really? You actually think by seizing a company (by the real criminals and incompetent human beings that serve as our federal government) is the best thing to do? So they can fuck that up as well? Not to mention using any profits to continue their murder abroad.
Sorry, didn't quite get this one, Ted. Giving more power to the worst criminals on the planet doesn't make sense.
As for Toyota's issues, if I had to bet on what happened, I've have to go with the assumption it was sabotage. Don't think for a minute it's beyond the greedy bastards in the US, either corporate, union or Washington's Spooks-for-Profit(s).
moonpie, there's no way I'm going to let you get away with that thinking.
Moonpie "our federal government" is YOU! You are the "real criminal and incompetent human being." You use "profits to continue [the] murder abroad." The U.S. government acts in your name, for your benefit.
Ted has a very good point! Think about it.
As for sabotage, I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility for American black ops. Toyota was on its way to being the globe's biggest, most successful car company in history - threatening the revival of the American car industry and the jobs it creates, it's an "American interest." The Japanese (with their compliance) continue to be dominated by the U.S. since WWII.
Nationalizing criminal corporations will do nothing to change our problem if it originally stemmed from a corporatized government.
Please let's get real and deal with the cause of the problem -- a deregulated industry and a corporatized congress -- and not the effects:
The recurring nightmares of environmental and social catastrophe.
I want to see the heads of BP thrown in jail FIRST for the eleven deaths (involuntary manslaughter). Then for the oil eruption SECOND. Both counts should guarantee at least 200 years in prison for each executive.
How much money are they prepared to bribe the Black Bush in White House with, in exchange for each year in prison?
Black Bush? What a stupid fucking thing to say… You lose your impact when you talk like an asshole...
What offends you about the word "black"? Or it the word "bush"? Obysmal *IS* the Black Bush, he has continued and/or made worse each one of Bush's policies. Not to mention that he has taken every step to protect Bush and Cheney from being prosecuted for war crimes. Why? Because he's committing the exact same crimes.
I'll change it to "Half-Black Bush" if it makes you happy. Or Obusha, or Obomber, or my personal favorite, Pres. Obaminable.
You miss the point 'cause you are an ass... Some insight you show... Now be gone... You have no power here... I'll not talk to a fool...
attacking the messenger because we can't handle the message, aren't we?
Any of you drive a car?
Any of you heat your home with oil?
Any of you logged on to the internet using electricity from an oil or coal fired power plant?
Who has solar?
Who has wind power
Who has hydro electric?
Until WE Change As A Nation, A People, A COUNTRY it is ever ONE of our fault this happened.
Claim responsibility and change your self. What have WE done, all of US done to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel
Catholic or Jewish guilt trip? Don't be an idiot. Which congressman do you work for? Politicians we elect have been blocking the passage of clean energy laws for the past 50 years. THEY are the people who should claim responsibility for stopping clean energy technology widely available, wind, solar, the electric car, etc.
Don't blame the victim.
I don't work for any one.
Though I am more than willing (And Very ** Insert obscenity here** UNHAPPY) to concede that the goverment kills green energy technology. Not unhappy with you Ardath unhappy with the goverment.
But you have to admit that there are ways that people can do more to go green.
I have a thought that Solar panel prices are so high because goverment jacks up the price so that people are forced to buy electricity from the "Oil" companies instead of getting paid by the oil companies for the extra power their home would generate
The whole system is to blame. Not just the consumers who haven't changed their habits enough; not just the corporations who take advantage of every loophole to make as much money as possible; not just the government who hasn't adequately regulated industry and haven't funded and promoted alternatives; not just the voters who haven't elected people who would do the regulating and funding. All of these things are interlocked. Of all these factors I would say the most important is the corruption of government and their lack of backbone to stand up to corporations that continually buy them off.
Yes, the whole system is to blame. I have often wondered, though, why going green is mainly put on the consumers' back. If we all know that plastic bags are bad for the environment, why are corporations even allowed to use them? Just ban the use of plastic bags. Don't allow corporations, such as beverage companies, to use plastic six pack rings if it is well known that it is bad for wildlife. Yet they want the consumer to choose to carry around cloth bags or buy wisely. But it would be far easier and more effective if corporations were forced to sell responsibly.
Of course, it's easier and doesn't rock the boat to encourage consumers to "fix" things by their choices. (Put up solar panels! Boycott!) It would be much more effective to fix things by cutting off the source of things that are toxic, unsafe, bad for the environment, bad for jobs and wages, etc, etc, rather than after these things have been set loose in the Walmarts and Safeways of the world. We need a strong government to regulate industry, more than ever, despite what clueless libertarian types say. Trying to get consumers to fix all the damage done by corporations by making "smart choices" is a little like trying to clean the oil off the reed-grass after it's been spilled.
Indeed !! we gotta smash the whole capitalist state and replace it with a workers-state
http://www.takeoverworld.info/parenti_talks.html <--Go to this link to download speeches on MP3s by Dr. Michael Parenti about the real truth of US founding Fathers, US History and US Imperialism and that in 1776 USA was founded by oligarchs and bankers as an oligarchic-empire and not as a beacon of liberty, freedom and social egalitarian democracy as people are taught in schools
Bull's eye.
Although Ted makes an excellent point, in general.
Actually the people in New London were paid for their property; forced to sell it but paid for it. That's not expropriation (theft). It isn't right, but it's not theft. As for Bhopal, there is a moral difference between negligent operation of a hazardous facility and the pre-meditated rape/murder of more or less defenseless women who you stalked first (Ted Bundy vs. Union Carbide). At Bhopal, 4 separate, redundant safety systems failed at the same time. That is extremely improbable, even with negligent operational practices. Also, again, Union Carbide did pay a large settlement, if not an adequate settlement.
Think about this also. What if we had nationalized BP last year and the blow-out happened this year? Who is on the hook then? You and me and what the hell did we do to deserve that? Who was on the hook for Chernobyl? State ownership isn't necessarily a way to see safety, prevention or justice.
On the greater point, I agree. Union Carbide should have been taken apart, nut by bolt, office by office and sold to pay the people of Bhopal. If an honest investigation had revealed negligence, the negligent personnel from the line operators to the senior execs should have paid the price - termination of job, civil and criminal sanctions if criminal negligence was found. Equally, the government of India should have seen heads rolling. They helped prevent the investigation from getting at the real issues.
But you don't need moral equivalence with a serial rapist/murderer to arrive at that judgment.
jareilly:
"Also, again, Union Carbide did pay a large settlement, if not an adequate settlement"
When you divide that "large" settlement between the thousnds of victims and the amount the dead and living dead recieved it was A paltry sum of money, "adequate" does not even relate to the equation...This will be the same old song with the Gulf as it was with Cordova, Alaska in Prince William Sound...There will be just too much destruction, death and Injury . BP is already showing their intentions by keeping the actual Oil dump figures and preventing any outsider intervention into disclosure secret...There is no way that BP can make these people or the Gulf "whole again" and the Courts will let them off the hook anyway..
you're right about what happened in New London: the people were forced to sell their homes.The city of New London was convinced by Pfizer that the best use for the land where these homes were located, would be a new Pfizer office/home complex.New London, anticipating Pfizer tax revenues ( vastly more than the peasants were already paying), pushed hard for buying out the owners.The result: the owners were removed against their will, their homes were leveled, and Pfizer never built anything-a lose-lose situation for New London.Pfizer never actually agreed in writing to build.New London's city managers are reknowned locally for their stupidity.Now there's a big muddy area where a neighborhood used to be, and no one seems to know what to do with it.
Ted Rall wrote:
"As a nationalized asset Citibank, which received $306 billion in bailouts, would be worth $152 trillion to taxpayers. Goldman Sachs got $15 billion; they're worth $70 trillion. Sell them off and no one would ever pay college tuition again. Or to see a doctor. Or we could give everyone a 50 percent tax cut. We're a rich country--the problem is that out-of-control corporations are hogging the wealth."
____________________________________________________________
Sell them to whom?? Then we are back to square one!!
Why sell them?! And if it has to be sold, first it has to be cut to pieces and sold to completely different buyers.
Any CEO and his team who deliberately commit fraud, ignore safety regulations and cut corners, to get more profits, that lead to disaster, should get stiff prison term coupled with hefty fines.
commoner3
Good point! And strip the CEO of all his assets as well, right down to his bank accounts, cars and homes. Everything, just as was done to Madoff. Then a CEO might think twice before breaking the law or side stepping regulations.
BP Executives - Death Penalty
BP Management - Indefinite Detention at Guantanamo
BP Employees - Ankle Monitoring Bracelets for life
BP Customers - Oh wait, that's us...
The US cannot nationalize BP.
However, it could seize the US holdings. No, there's nothing extreme in this. There's nothing moderate about BP's actions here, and there is no possible way BP can pay for the damage it has wreaked - not even close. Gulf state residents and islanders should own the company several times over.
But the US will not protect its citizens in this because BP can liquidate part of its holdings to bribe 0bama and the flying monkeys of both parties more easily than can residents of these relatively little populated states.
*LONDON not Great Britain has Controlling interest in BP through the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of London...
*LONDON, not to be confused with Britain, and Israel have more influence over our Government than we the people...
Don't be confused with that Royal Family with all their pomp and ceremony..They run LONDON and ISRAEL and are alledgedly of Jewish Ancestry...
There is so much hidden information about the Rotheschild Dynast but I truly believe they are the main power brokers on this planet...When they created the FEDERAL RESERVE bank our victory of the Revolutionary war was crippled and compromised...These are my thoughts and opinions that I believe to be true...There is just too much Deliberate Control of world events comming from one source of power....
"management of the Toyota auto company knew that brakes in millions of its cars might fail. A 2009 ABC News investigation found that at least 16 people had died."
That's nuthin. Between 2 and 3 million USans have died in auto accidents since the corporate monsters decimated our public transport infrastructure in the early 20th century. Ten million more injured. Hundreds of millions of USans have lived out their lives denied the choice of public transport providing us safety, sustainability, and peace of mind.
You have to take into consideration the beaviour of americans, the psychology of americans. Americans hate socializing, hate any activity of social contact, and it would be almost impossible to get americans away from their worship of individual egocentric evil pick up trucks, SUVs and cars
.
The real cost will be beyond anyone's ability to pay, beyond what money can fix. The fate of the planet is much more important than dollars and cents.
? "Unlike small-time serial killers, however, corporations get away with murder." Not a big fan of this comparison. But corporations do hog, and have been hogging for decades, all the wealth. That is the way the system and the creation of money making is designed. The only reason why, say, socialism has never worked is because it was never allowed to work. Socialism, and all the other isms from the 19th century, were a blacklash against capitalism. The capitalists were already quite firmly entrenched, as they still are, and have weathered the storm. They used all the means at their disposal to stop the socialist rebellion: the police, the feds and the military, the law, the media, and all the other cards stacked in their favor. And it is still going on today. This oil leak in the Gulf is going to be the worst ecological disaster in the history of humankind. Whole fisheries and who knows what else are going to be wiped out, and the sad thing is that it is going to be business as usual.
WE NEED A COMPLETE STATETIZATION OF ALL BUSINESSES IN USA, FROM HOT DOG CARTS, to the biggest corporations like Wal Marts, Exxon and airplane corporations like Boing.
F*ck Adam Smith, F*ck Ayn Rand and F*ck Luwig Von Mises and f*ck the US constitution which is fascist and libertarian !!
.
I would leave out the hot dog carts.
Has BP ever heard the words "oil well" and "gusher" in the same sentence? Has anyone ever heard the phrase "You can't have it all?"
Imagine if Mt. St. Helens had erupted continuously at maximum output for 30 days. Picture the amount of ash circling the globe. This might give some idea of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, before jumping into too many holier than thou tirades against BP, consider some things we do every day.
Did you shower and shampoo, use the toilet, do the laundry, or wash the dishes today? What went down the drain? Where did that soapy water go? Did you flush toilet cleanser or out-of-date drugs? Does this stuff end up on Mars? No, it ends up in groundwater, Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay or the Mississippi River.
Did you take a cruise recently? Where does the effluent and garbage go--into the ocean. Did you drive your car or truck, or fly in a jet halfway around the world? Where do the exhaust fumes end up? How many commercial flights are there per day? As of 2008, it was estimated are there are 93,000 commercial flights daily worldwide with about one-third originating in the U.S. This does not include private, military or other flights (eg government or drug runners)
.
Where does your food come from? The current measure is that food travels at least 1500 miles before it reaches your plate. That's a lot of trucking, and shipping, and jetting.
Do you like the clothes and hi-tech toys computer that are made in Asia? First the necessary ore and other raw materials are shipped in from other continents such as Africa. After manufacture, the products are shipped around the world. Container ships, car carriers and grain freighters fill our coastal ports--such as Seattle and LA on the West Coast.
What about war? The expenditure and toxins of bombs, artillery, plus transportation of men, food, weapons, various supplies and fuel.
Around the clock, we circle the globe like a swarm of hungry angry bees. Instead of producing a useful product like honey, this high volume of traffic thrives on burning oil and generates CO2 and methane.
All these "normal" daily activities involve little explosions or eruptions that are fossil-fuel-based and end up in the atmosphere and oceans (through rain or direct contact or dumping). Those who doubt global warming or the idea that human activity might have an effect on climate as well as life as we know it, it is time to consider the impact of our dependency on all this shipping.
The underwater gusher from Deepwater Horizon (doesn't the name sound like a resort?) is a natural and inevitable result of the worldwide dependence on oil. The same amount of common sense tells us that another accident at a nuclear plant is inevitable--mistakes and accidents happen. Let us pray that the next nuclear incident is not our own government or a rogue government using a nuclear weapon.
As BP publically minimizes the Deepwater gusher, imagine the numbers of oil-soaked birds or fish trying to breathe oil. Imagine oil seeping into wetlands. Even if we think of fossil fuels as part of nature, they are not a natural part of the ocean or shorelines where life depends on a certain chemical and ecological balance for life--as do we.
Did anything like this happen for the first several billion years in the life of this planet? What has changed? The industrial-chemical-pesticide toxic stew we serve up every day. Can anyone seriously doubt that this affects the planet. In only 150 years we have really messed everything up. One has to wonder what the next 150 will look like?
BP may or may not pay for this blowout but it is certain that the rest of us will pay for our lifestyle--if not in our lifetimes, if not our children's, it will certainly be our grandchildren.
Good points-Good post!!!! Things we should all embrace and begin living by.....
How many times do I have to remind you guys who really owns the country and its government. Hint--it's not you. You just pay the taxes so that the corporate world is not unduly burdened with the costs of ownership. Ask Barrack what we should do about this crisis and you will get an answer not unlike that of George Bush. It's an old boy network and you don't get to be CEO of the US government without representing its true constituency.
Nationalization? Place this in the hands of corrupt federal officials, who facilitate BP and the rest of the industry at every turn and who look the other way whenever directed? I say take them both into receivership, BP and the federal government. Maybe two-thirds of the legislatures of the states (enough to call a constitutional convention) agree on a team of 25 receivers to replace Congress and the president for four or five years to cleanse the federal government of the filth that caused this catastrophe. Roll out the guillotines!
Don't forget about that totally bought and paid for Supreme Court 5...They are too big of A problem to be saddled with for the rest of their natural lives...
Something just short of A violent Revolution needs to happen here...A violent Revolution would be too much carnage...I would really hope there is A way to get this Government back into the hands of the people...We are going in the wrong direction so fast that you can't imagine what Executive,Legislative and Judicial horrors are in store for us...We need solidarity, they are afraid of the masses....
Nationalization is a slippery slope in cases of criminal
liability. Start doing that and no one is going to want
to capitalize US corporations. What investor in his right mind
would buy shares of stock if the actions of an executive could
wipe him out instantly. The best thing to do is hold the executives
personally liable for their actions. If an Exec makes a decision
to violate safety rules and people die then he is just as guilty
of manslaughter as a drunk driver. When the CEO of
(insert any major corporation here)is looking at 15 yrs in a
federal prison this behaviour will stop.
How do you nationalize a sovereign British corporation? Even if we simply seized their operations in US waters, it would create an economic and diplomatic shit-storm of unimagineable proportions, and oceans of unintended consequences.In any case, we don't have a revolutionary government, nor are we about to any time soon.Nationalizing BP is a really stupid idea,even if it sounds cute.
From ADN {Anchorage Daily News}:
***go there and check out the comments...
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By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press
Published: May 20th, 2010 05:53 PM
Last Modified: May 20th, 2010 05:53 PM
JUNEAU - A stockholder lawsuit claims "gross mismanagement" by top BP officials has severely damaged the company's reputation and hurt its value.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Superior Court in Anchorage, alleges the officials did not take the necessary steps to ensure BP compliance with safety rules and environmental safeguards, citing last month's oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, a 2005 refinery blast in Texas and concerns U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak raised earlier this year about BP operations on Alaska's North Slope.
"Defendants' disdain for safety and environmental laws, and the resulting loss of lives and property, has plunged BP into a public relations crisis," the lawsuit claims. This has resulted in BP being "tagged as an unsafe company and gross polluter, all of which are extremely negative developments which are hurting BP's business."
A spokesman for BP in Alaska, Steve Rinehart, declined comment on pending litigation.
Defendants in the suit include BP chief executive Tony Hayward; members of BP's board of directors; Lamar McKay, president of BP America Inc.; and John Minge, head of BP Exploration Alaska. The named plaintiff is Jeffrey Pickett, identified as a BP shareholder since at least late 2000 acting "for the benefit" of BP. A message left for a Jeffrey Pickett in Anchorage wasn't immediately returned.
California-based attorney Patrick Coughlin said funds that hold BP stock are interested in joining the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, as well as appointment of an "independent corporate monitor" to develop and implement safety and environmental compliance protocols.
Separately, a case was filed last week in Anchorage seeking enforcement of a 2008 settlement agreement. According to court records, the agreement, also in a shareholder case involving Pickett, stemmed from allegations that failure by company officials to adequately oversee BP operations exposed the company to billions of dollars in fines and other potential liabilities.
Last week's motion alleges officials have not fully complied with the terms of the agreement "by failing to implement effective reforms to BP's corporate governance and internal control procedures."
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/05/20/1287470/lawsuit-against-bp-filed-in-alaska.html#ixzz0oZ9E538H
God damn this country of lawn-mowing, fat baseball moms, and grunge sheeple. I will move to Venezuela or any other country in Latin America. The socialist revolution is alive in Latin America and The Carribean.
F*ck the USA of dumbness and binge-eating
.
I think the amazing thing about a God, if there is one, is that he or she or it loves even the lawn-mowing, fat baseball (and soccer!) moms, and the grungy sheeple.
I also think he or she or it must breathe a sigh of relief over our latinoamericano brothers and sisters who have a much better grip on the gospel of Jesus and the love and compassion present in all of the great religions.
I will say it's a problem of human greed that's older than Methuselah, and the slave and the tyrant can make any man into a heartless wretch. I always like to think of Esteban, the slave who wrecked on the Gulf coast with Cabeza de Vaca. He later passed himself off as a curandero who was killed in one of the pueblos in New Mexico because he had become a rapist himself. Or kids who grow up poor, but dream of being rich and powerful. Some do, and there's hell to pay.
As Paolo Freire said, the basic problem in human history is the oppressed, rising up to overthrow the oppressor, becomes the oppressor in his place, and a new cycle of history begins.
At times like this my history Professor from Yugoslavia use to bang on his lectern and say " Stupid Americans! The only place Communism is popular is on Stupid American Collage Campaigner with Stupid American Collage Students". He had defected in 75.
And then there is a guy I work with, he attempted to defect from Romania (not the most draconian of communist countries ) twice and was caught . The third time he had himself locked in a SEALAND Container with 40 Gallons of water and some canned food. He serves in the US Army now, not to fight "communism" but because its a good wage.
Che Rivera was not a hero, he was a back woods brigand that had the luck to have two photos taken of him, one with his wee beret on, and one when the goverment shot him and he looked like crucified Jesus
MARXIST_ChAVISTA -
you might already be aware of the little-to-not-reported-in-the-USA-media-because-it-might-
inform-USA'ans-that-the-"we-are-the-greatest"-nation-on-
earth-actually=might-have-less-respectability-
in-South-America-than-even-complaining-americans-
ever-imagined...fact that South America already has a rather effective and increasingly more decisive organization of countries to counter-act the
USA Controlled Organization of American States (OAS).
it's the UNOSAR.
Union of South American Republics.
not only has it been "quietly" defiant ( in terms of NOT being reported in the USA openly ) of the USA imperialism towards south american - but beyond merely being "defiant", actually even already very confident of itself (themselves)
to send real and EFFECTIVE WARNINGS to the USA that IT'S imperial forays into south america has ALREADY ENDED, no matter how much the USA tries to weave back the tattered shreds of its obsessive supposed right to omnipotence in "the USA-an backyard".
it includes even "US allies" like Colombia and Chile (even with Chile's recently elected "conservative rightwing" president taking over from Bachelet).
they basically ISOLATED the USA - as well as colombia when these two "acknowledged" the new Honduras government..by - until today REFUSING to legitimize that coup government.
they are also the ones, led by the current "chairman" , former Argentinian president, Leon Kirchner (who thumbed his nose at the USA and IMF a decade ago and succeeded in taking argentina OUT of their recessionary high inflation and economic collapse from the IMF'USA prescribed "magic POISONS") -- the ones who STERNLY and SWIFTLY lectured Colombia in its hosting US forces - as well as also FORCED the Right Wing Conservative American-poodle opposition that tried to destabilize ECUADOR to remove EVO MORALES...and showed that the other countries were SOLIDLY defending Morales.
they actually FORCED that USA-conniving "opposition" against morales to "come to the table" for dialogues , effectively ensuring that they play by the RULES of morales as the legitimate president of ecuador. in effect...the USA , as usual, having supported these "oppositions" to morales to topple him - were effectively pinned down by the other south american governments and its wings and talons CUT and forced to "behave".
that's BIG , as far as USA designs and dreams of repeating its control of South america as it was for generations.
the USA was basically told, indirectly, that ITS lackeys and tools in south america are NOT GOING TO BE PERMITTED to challenge the new "order" -- of independence from the USA as a region.
whatever the present and intended POWER of the USA and its intentions to continue to enlarge and increase its INTIMIDATION of the world to obey the US Empire - it is clearly doing so out of FEARFUL paranoia from losing that omnipotence ....even as it operates in a "time" that is already long PAST:
its unchallenged and unresisted Imperial omnipotence.
for a country that is merely 300 or so years - the USA is already behaving like a very , very old man - still obsessed with his glory days - even if THOSE days are long PAST.
it is like a Hollywood former "star" that is so wrinkled and ugly but imagines herself to be as attractive as a 20-year old ......and demands attention and glorification ....but only succeeds in sounding like she already is:
a spoiled, over-the-hill, self-centered, rotting old HAG with her shrill screaming that no one really wants to hear.....
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
"Nationalize BP and Other Criminal Corporations"
Why, heavens to Betsy, that there's socialism!