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BP Is a Corporate Criminal
Gosh, how quickly things turn. One day, you're a strutting peacock — the next day, you're just another gasping, oil-covered bird.
In early April, BP was strutting about in full corporate splendor, showing off the $9 billion in profits that it had soaked up in just the first three months of this year. It was also basking in a corporate re-imaging campaign, depicting itself as a clean-energy pioneer and declaring that BP now stood for "Beyond Petroleum."
Since its Gulf of Mexico well blew out on April 20, however, BP has proven to be beyond belief. The wider and deeper that this catastrophe spreads, the more we discover just how oily this giant is.
From the time it was known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and set out to grab and control the rich petroleum reserves owned by what is now Iran, BP has been a recidivist global criminal. In the past three decades, it grew huge by swallowing such competitors as Standard Oil of Ohio, Amoco and Arco. Along the way, it has been implicated in bribery, overthrowing governments, plunder and money laundering, plus having established one of the worst safety and environmental records in an industry that is notoriously reckless on both counts.
And now, its rap sheet grows almost daily. In fact, the Center for Public Integrity has revealed that the oil giant's current catastrophic mess should come as no surprise, for it has a long and sorry record of causing calamities. In the last three years, the center says, an astonishing "97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors" came at BP facilities. These included 760 violations rated as "egregious" and "willful." In contrast, the oil company with the second-worst record had only eight such citations.
While its CEO, Tony Hayward, claims that its gulf blowout was simply a tragic accident that no one could've foreseen, internal corporate documents reveal that BP itself had been struggling for nearly a year with its inability to get this well under control.
Also, it had been willfully violating its own safety policies and had flat out lied to regulators about its ability to cope with what's delicately called a major "petroleum release" in the Gulf of Mexico.
"What the hell did we do to deserve this?" Hayward asked shortly after his faulty well exploded. Excuse us, Tony, but you're not the victim here — and this disaster is not the work of fate. Rather, the deadly gusher in the gulf is a direct product of BP's reckless pursuit of profits. You waltzed around environmental protections, deliberately avoided installing relatively cheap safety equipment, and cavalierly lied about the likelihood of disaster and your ability to cope with it.
"It wasn't our accident," the CEO later declared, as oil was spreading. Wow, Tony, in one four-word sentence, you told two lies. First, BP owns the well, and it is your mess. Second, the mess was not an "accident," but the inevitable result of hubris and greed flowing straight from BP's executive suite.
"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," Hayward told the media, trying to sidestep the fact that BP's mess was fast becoming America's worst oil calamity. Indeed, Tony coolly explained that the amount of oil spewing from the well "is tiny in relation to the total water volume." This flabbergasting comment came only two weeks before it was revealed that the amount of gushing oil was 19 times more than BP had been claiming.
Eleven oil workers are dead, thousands of Gulf Coast people have had their livelihoods devastated and unfathomable damage is being done to the gulf ecology. Imagine how the authorities would be treating the offender if BP were a person. It would've been put behind bars long ago — if not on death row.
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118 Comments so far
Show AllWhat's the name of the men who took the wrong decisions on the Deep Horizon?
Isn't it nice to know that the US Supreme Court granted Corporate 'persons' the same (and greater) rights and protections under the US Constitution?
Isn't it comforting to know that Corporate money ensures them access to politicians, as well as protection from obeying the laws of the land?
Aren't you just overjoyed to know that the non-negotiable American way of life, with it's disproportionate consumption of oil and it's byproducts assured the inevitability of this disaster?
"Aren't you just overjoyed to know that the non-negotiable American way of life, with it's disproportionate consumption of oil and it's [sic] byproducts assured the inevitability of this disaster?"
How is an established market for a product responsible for the corporate predations involved in providing that product?
You buy the end product of the resource. Without your demand, no supply. QED.
No customer/consumer, no company. Death by starvation of profits.
But you forgot to add that the personhood and its rights have been granted to the corporation without the burden of the responsibility that endows bona fide personhood.
The current ecological issues are connected to big OIL, are connected to the MIC, are connected to Wall Street and lobbyists, are connected to the Supreme Court, etc. -- all of which are connected to our failed health care reform, public education, jobs, and any other domestic needs that might actually serve "we the people" of this country, who pay the salaries of all elected officials, etc.
I actually tried to listen to Obama's speech, but it was more than I could take. I had to turn him OFF!
The levees in New Orleans have NOT yet been built up to safe standards. Now, hurricane season is officially here. For decades, the oil pipelines built through the wetlands have been destroying the environment. So, promises, promises!?
Money talks -- and the people suffer and lose.
I actually listened to President Obama's speech. He is a good speaker, which no body can deny. I was disappointed because I thought he was white washing the truth and that it will lead to Americans being disappointed. I thought he should have told the truth that we don't know how to cap the oil, but we are still trying to find someone who knows what to do. I think he should have also said that some science people don't think the volcano of oil will be stopped by Aug but more like Christmas and some are even saying it might not be able to be stopped at all because the explosion was so bad. I just thought he was being to pollyanna and making it sound like everything is going to be back the way it was. I hope he is right and the science people who are thinking that the volcano of oil will not be stopped by August or at all are wrong.
Yes, I think it is important to keep people's hope alive, but it is also important to be honest. I hope the gulf states can be cleaned up and that the government and BP has made a committment to be there for the long term. I hope they do the right thing as I know people who have lived in S. LA for generations and I want them to receive justice for any lack of income. S. LA is a very special place with wonderful people who have a culture that needs to be perserved. I worry that families who have lived there for generations will be forced to move somewhere else in order to make a living and to get away from the toxic stew that the gulf and the wetlands are becoming because to stay makes them and their families sick. I don't want to see the people who live there jacked up only to be let down and disappointed because come Sept the oil is still coming out like a volcano of destruction.
I know not everyone has a faith that they practice, but it would have been nice if President Obama asked Americans to pray to their higher power that the volcano of oil be stopped. He could have called for a National Day of prayer. Stopping the oil has to be the number 1 focus right now. We have to multitask because the clean up is important too, but until the volcano is stopped we can't do the clean up because more oil is spewing out. This is Obama's 9/11. People like to compare this to Katrina, but I think it is more a 9/11 because it has been 57 days and counting and that volcano of oil is still spewing out its oil to join with the blob of oil already there and causing a terrible death to any animal that has the misfortune to be in its path.
If what I am hearing is true that they have no way to stop the oil than we are really going to have a total destruction of the gulf of Mexico and the wetlands. I am praying as a Catholic and I hope other Americans are praying to their higher power. I don't care if one is Pagan, Christian, Jewish, or Muslim etc; we need to be calling on our higher power to give man the wisdom on how to stop this volcano of oil.
I think it is terrible that some Conservatives like my mother blame Obama for this disaster and not BP who is the one who committed a crime. It is at a point where I can’t even mention his name without her going off the deep end. I think it is sad when the Right Wing are turning this into a political issue. Yet we have people from the Left Wing who are using this horror to blame everything on Bush, when Obama has had 2 years to start cleaning MMS up. This is an national problem and should not be used by both conservatives and Progressives to score political points.
I will continue to pray and hope that our prayers as a nation are answered and the volcano of oil will be stopped soon.
Honesty is key, and that is precisely why I could not watch and listen to Obama last night on the TV. If ever there was a time to be honest, it is NOW!
Obama is at the helm, and the buck stops with him. In fact, this administration actually allowed the drilling without oversight and regulation.
"I worry that families who have lived there for generations will be forced to move somewhere else in order to make a living and to get away from the toxic stew that the gulf and the wetlands are becoming because to stay makes them and their families sick."
If one can smell the fumes then one is inhaling carcinogenic materials. We have not yet seen the tip of the iceberg. The entire South is going to become one massive cancer cluster over the next few years. Will those resulting medical expenses be part of all of those "legitimate claims" that BP assures us they intend to pay out?
BP is a corporate criminal? We can safely assume all oil corps are, can't we? BP is just the unlucky one. I'll bet my house that all the other oil players are scrambling to make sure the shiznit fallout doesn't land on their heads too. Boycott BP? Not unless you're will to boycott them all.
Did you bother to read the article? Or do you have BP shares?
He may have a point though. He's not defending BP to my knowledge but he might be suggesting that BP isn't alone. There's no guarantee that any of these oil corps are clean either. We could fallout from Shell in the Arctic sometime down the road for instance.
Well sure. I'm no apologist for the rest of the oil companies. They are all scum.
But, the point of the article is that BP appears to be responsible for the vast majority of safety violations, even before the explosion and leak. Ie, the others are scum, but BP is scummiest of the scum.
It's an accident all right - just like driving in Nascar with no brakes!
Kay Johnson : Your first paragraph says it all. Why can't Americans connect these dots? I know we can also talk about the mainstream media, gov't/corp propaganda, the need for campaign reform, but just how much can be attributed to hypocritical Christianity and our elite universities?
The U.S. needs a national introspection, and our churches and universities should be playing a bigger part. I say this because they are important, they are the last bastions of community in the U.S.
The contagion of corporate capitalism has infected everyone. The big question, who must we now look to other than ourselves?
I agree - we can also connect the M$M, lack of campaign reform, etc.
I wish I had some answers. In 2000, since I lived in NYC, I threw myself into activism, doing everything I could possibly do as a single individual without a lot of money. I can't compete with the corporations. And, "we the people" should NOT have to compete with the corporations.
I continue to protest, write letters, make phone calls, sign petitions, etc., but NOTHING seems to make any difference. I watch the oil blowout in the Gulf with a sick heart, and I talk to people all the time, many of whom have similar feelings and they, too, feel completely blocked out of our process of government.
Simon Johnson states, in his book 13 Bankers, that we live in an Oligarchy. Certainly, we don't live in a Democracy. If we did, our voices would mean something. After all, when our elected officials were voting to bail out the banks, calls coming into their offices were 100-1 against the bailout. With health care, poll after poll demonstrated that 60-72% of the population wanted and needed a Medicare-For-All plan, aka universal health care, or at the very least, a robust public option, that month-by-month was watered down into what was finally passed. NO money for domestic needs, but trillions of dollars for war and killing AND trillions more for the banksters.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how to advocate for change, I'm listening.
"The U.S. needs a national introspection" -- Steven V. Riley
I agree!
Great comment! The corporations have taken over the world and will use us and the earth until nothing is left ... I feel like a progressive libertarian, but I'm stockpiling food! There will be an insurrection, but who knows how long the masses will take to see there will be nothing left. Soon our ability to communicate on the internet will be stopped ... wait and see.
Gloom and Doom in Colorado.
The best way to strangle your fear is to build faith in yourself. Faith that you can and that you will do the right thing. Hopefully I'll see you at the barricades.
You'll know if people care based on the traffic congestion in NYC. If traffic congestion has gotten worse since the oil spill, then nobody cares.
You make a very good point. In fact, another NYC resident and I brought up this issue just the other day on a different thread.
In NYC, traffic congestion has, indeed, gotten worse through the past couple of years, or so. I do a lot of walking, or I use public transportation when it rains hard, and some evenings I can't even cross 118th and 1st Avenue, cars are bumper-to-bumper. When the light changes, the cars remain in the intersection and people can't even walk across the streets. I have never understood why so many New Yorkers drive their cars in NYC, but they do.
"I have never understood why so many New Yorkers drive their cars in NYC, but they do."
I'm surprised that despite NYC having better metro service than Washington that this still holds. I haven't been to NYC since 1988. I thought walking traffic was at its highs. Are most of those driving from New York itself and are most of those cars with a NY license plate living in NYC itself or outside the area where it's cheaper? I know that lots of people living in NJ travel to NY to work because of lack of sufficient job opportunities. We have the same mess in our region. I got very sick yesterday after I was traveled through 2 hours of traffic just to travel 15 miles home and it has never been this bad before. I have seen plenty of bad days on the road in Washington but the last 2.5 months have been traffic disasters on the road. The metro was even worse with more delays due to mechanical breakdowns and forcing delays for being "too early". Maybe this country is getting desperate for enjoying a summer vacation after missing one in a year or two. Traffic usually gets heavier in most summers though 2008 and 2009 were not as bad. I think I might end up getting to NYC from Fairfax, VA faster by bike than going I-95 N at this rate.
Someone has said that we live in a Pigocracy which I think is a pretty good description. Not even a pretense of Noblesse oblige. Corporations own and operate the government. Public "participation" is pretty much window dressing and theater. The Republican and Democratic Parties are also pretty much wholly owned subsidiaries of multi-national corporations.
An antidote may be found in "Be the Change: How to get what you want in your community by Thomas Linzey. The Community Environmental Defense Fund organizes Democracy School in communities. I think it is pretty much the only avenue of change left open. It is local and involves a change of life style i.e. going to town meetings and getting out from behind the computer. It is exciting and it is growing. Check it out.
I am also interested in the Constitutional Convention route to force an amendment stripping Corporations of their artificial personhood and put them firmly back under the control of state legislatures and eliminating them from the political discussion. They have one reason for existing which is the profit of their shareholders. This does not equal public good in any way. Any public good is coincidental to corporate activity which is making a profit for their shareholders. The journey from entirely restricted corporate entities which were forbidden from political activity, forbidden from owning other corporations, forbidden from owning more land than they needed for their corporate operation to the monsters they are today is an interesting and important part of untaught American history.
The rich and landed represented primarily by a Supreme Court which over many years made decisions which favored profit over public good and property rights over human rights, were successful in giving corporations the actual reins of power and protecting their interests at the expense of the common good.
best wishes
Someone I know advocates "Whale Wars" on land. It is certainly worth considering. The three B's. Bricks, bottles, barricades.
Sure, BP is at fault. But when Interior Secretary Salizar came in to clean up MMS (Minerals Management Service) he did jack shit. So indeed, point your fingers at BP, but it is the failure for our government agencies to be accountable to the American public and to make sure these companies, all companies are in compliance.
It is Salizar's failure to do his job that is the crime. This is Obimbos Katrina. Heck of a job Kenny!
BP was just doing what corporations are supposed to do...maximizing profits for the shareholders...the real culprit was the US Government for not doing what it is supposed to do..protect its citizens from corporations.
Mujeriego, I agree.
Corporations ignore the law to the extent regulators allow them to. BP was the biggest, most competitive, and most profitable Big Oil corporation precisely because it was the most criminal, with the full knowledge and cooperation of government officials, including the President.
Tony Hayward is not a public official and is only abstractly responsible to the public at large. His job is to make money for the shareholders, and if Bush and Obama sent clear signals that there would be no consequences for breaking the law, his duty to the shareholders was obvious.
Common Dreams published an article from Rolling Stone magazine last Saturday titled: “The Spill, the Scandal and the President.” In my opinion it’s the most coherent analysis of the Deepwater Horizon disaster yet. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/12-1
Obama had a duty to the U.S. public to enforce our laws, and he refused. I’m choosing my terms carefully here. Jim Hightower might say Obama “failed.” Based on my knowledge to date, Obama deliberately refused to enforce the law.
This has been his approach on almost every important issue. Refusing to enforce the law against oligarchs is politically profitable, although a violation of the President's duty to his own shareholders, the U.S. public. So far, it has been highly rewarding behavior for Obama, unless the public holds him accountable, and that’s exactly what the public isn’t doing.
-"Excuse us, Tony, but you're not the victim here — and this disaster is not the work of fate. Rather, the deadly gusher in the gulf is a direct product of BP's reckless pursuit of profits. You waltzed around environmental protections, deliberately avoided installing relatively cheap safety equipment, and cavalierly lied about the likelihood of disaster and your ability to cope with it."
I can't help but think Hightower is going after the red herring here. "BP's reckless pursuit of profits"? I hate to tell you, but pretty much everywhere, companies persue profit, and if the government doesn't do its job, that is not the fault of companies. "You waltzed around environmental protections"? What environmental protections? the protections Obama never restored after the Bush precidency? or the protections Obama removed recently? "cavalierly lied"? If Obama's environmental watchdogs weren't oil industry executives, seconded from BP, then cavalier lies would have been caught.
Americans can let themselves be amused, like Hightower, by joining in with Obama as he "shows his anger" on tv, towards one of the Democrats' largest funders, or they can learn from their mistakes, and vote for a party that isn't controlled by companies such as BP.
Did you miss the part where BP was responsible for the vast majority of safety violations?
If government doesn't do it's job, it is the fault of government AND the companies.
If you pull off your pants and take a piss by the lamp post, and don't get arrested, because the police were not around, or too lazy, or whatever, that puddle of urine by the lamp post is your fault.
If you drive drunk and kill someone, you don't get to say that well, it's not your fault, it is the fault of the government for not arresting you when you drove drunk in the past and did not kill someone, or well, it is the fault of the government for not arresting you when you were driving drunk, but before you killed someone.
rfloh, in my opinion your analogies fail because Obama isn't being lazy, he's taking bribes to look the other way.
Hey, let the Supreme Court have it's Day. Treat BP just like you would a person. If they have the Rights of an American Citizen, then they can have a trial and the Head Honcho's can go to jail, like any other citizen. We know what they emailed, so we also know Who did the emailing.
Lack of Accountability is creating the Greed. BP got rid of and ignored those who tried to act responsibly. Those left are those who chose to trample on Humanity in the name of Greed. The should be convicted of Crimes Against Humanity.
I once posted that big business was a necessary evil that we should not embrace but keep at arms length and keep a wary eye on. Obviously, the American people, Obama and the Democrats haven't learned the lesson yet. Just keep smiling, while you keep getting your teeth kicked in! Brilliant!
BP is definitely a big business criminal-- no two ways about it!
"Book 'em, Dano!"
AD
With the very good help of the MSMs , they have taken
the effects of activism away, our votes don't count, and
our economy continues to only stay afloat because of the few
jobs that the MIC creates.
Because of this, a quick military defeat in Afghanistan
would actually be a victory for citizens of America.
We're screwed.
"Eleven oil workers are dead, thousands of Gulf Coast people have had their livelihoods devastated and unfathomable damage is being done to the gulf ecology."
And how does the public respond? We respond to the damage by building more damage along the way. Just come over to Washington and the neighboring counties and prepare to be outraged at the traffic jams getting worse one fucking day after another. Even at 1 AM, the traffic is bad out on the streets and highways ! And the metro trains? All fucked up and "we will be holding for a few minutes because we're too early" announcements shit ! BP and other oil companies make billions from this shit. If any of you can tell me that traffic congestion in your city has decreased or that your train service has improved ever since the oil spill in the Gulf has worsened, I'd like to hear it because nobody's giving a shit in Washington !
Same all over. Nonstop roar of traffic through the night. Highways are packed, vacation season has started. What do they care, it's summer and they are heading north.
Halliburton finished their work and left the crime scene just 20 hours before it blew up. In a standard criminal investigation, you'd haul them into the back room first. Especially given their record - they did the same work on a rig last Aug that blew up the same way, they've been found guilty of bribing Nigeria, electrocuting our soldiers, stealing millions - they're as bad as BP and are pretty much getting a free pass on Gulf Oil-geddon...
Plus, they've 'earned' over $20 billion in taxpayer dollars since Bush/Cheney Day One...
Just wait until the Gulf Current takes the oil and dumps it all over Washington
I bet if the well blowout had occurred between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard it would have been capped within the first week. Lots of rich folk have resort homes there. Or, maybe if the blowout had occurred a mile offshore of the Hamptons. We simply cannot foul the seas near the wealthy. Wouldn't be prudent.
They wouldn,t allow you to drill there.
Good point - they tried to put some wind turbines offshore there and the locals did not want to affect the sea view.
Gosh, how quickly things turn. One day, you're a strutting peacock — the next day, you're just another gasping, oil-covered bird.
This is a description of Obama.
Mordechai, again so spot on!
why is that sincerious?
now you feel important Mordechai?
Another criminal feather in BP's corporate hat is they now profit from lucrative contracts with Iraq's Green Zone government thanks to a tax supported $4 Trillion invasion and occupation and many thousands of dead Iraqis and Americans.
And related thoughts on BP and the blowout and globalized Big Oil:
Having once worked in the oil patch, I had an immediate reaction to the Gulf blowout that it was a monster rather than a simple leak. Some estimate this undersea reserve of oil and gas is about 20,000 sq. miles in size although not entirely connected.
It may very well be a deep oil channel with endless amounts of abiotic oil and gas being pushed upward. One might say they have punched a hole into oil hell in a super high pressure location.
The deep earth oil recharge idea has been around for a long time, but the "peak oil" myth created by Big Oil in the 1970's is still a popular theory making it difficult for the abiotic concept to be accepted. But why are there hydrocarbons on Mars and Saturn if they are not primordial rather than biogenic ?
See: Gulf Oil Spill "Could Go on Years and Years" ...
By F. William Engdahl
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19660
Is is any wonder that the largest and some of the most profitable corporations on earth are oil companies (basically a global monopoly) that have been marketing an abundant commodity for outrageous prices. Essentially, a lot of people have been conned into investing in oil which drives prices up to absurd levels. And consumers of the product have no cost choice other than conservation.
The London and NY and offshore traders also play a part. Not long ago oil went from $145 a barrel to $70 for no verifiable reasons other than trading games.
NOW THIS IS A HUGE CONCEPT THAT NO ONE TALKS ABOUT:
So why go to war on the other side of the world for oil when deep and vast reserves exist in this hemisphere ? I am convinced this policy is about global hegemony for Big Oil.
American energy use is declining so Big Oil seeks growth through global markets.
Much of the oil from Iraq and Central Asia (also gas) will be sold in Asia as shipping to US markets is expensive. In the case of Central Asian resources, Big Oil and the Pentagon must control Afghanistan and guard proposed pipelines. But this requires $Trillions in military costs which of course the oil corporations do not pay. Just Google "Pipelineistan" for an overview.
This is certainly corporate imperialism and may qualify as corporate fascism.
And Iran is now the new evil on earth as they are in a perfect location to supply Asian markets with their own vast oil and gas reserves as well as being the shortest pipeline route to market Central Asian reserves ? So Big Oil would love to destroy their competition. There is a pipeline route already planned to go from Iran to Pakistan and India via southern Afghanistan, but I would expect our military to block that route.
Another basic answer for war and oil is that that war is a great way to rob the Federal treasury and force taxpayers to subsidize MIC and Big Oil profits. We pay inflated pump prices and then pay for their wars. Halliburton, for example, makes money both ways with profits oil production and profits from oil wars.
The oil and war connection may be the greatest scam on earth, including members of Congress holding investments in Big Oil and the MIC or at least being bribed via campaign donations from oil and war interests. Etc.
Halliburton, BP, and why in the world didn't we send in our submarines to fix the problem? For Pete's sake, the depths of the Grand Canyon are deeper than the current problem in the Gulf!
British Petroleum should never have drilled without safeguards. If Halliburton is involved, I am more convinced than ever before that something is rotten in Denmark. That company seems to be responsible for too many atrocities in this world! I hope, because of their association with BP, that Dick Cheney loses all of the value in his stock options with that company.
It wouldn't take much of the imagination to consider these bp 'heads'(as in dick) as intentionally causing and prolonging any efforts to stop this disaster, but it is evident that these guys are the poster boys of evil and criminality as their being 'bankrupt of moral integrity' is all to obvious.
What else could explain a bunch of corporate white boys sitting around with little or any concern about what their 'unfettered corporate dealings' have created. Just like the mud wars of china whereby the british, to gain trade status with china, produced opium in india to smuggle into china to hook a rather large part of the population on opium, these charlatans from bp, not alone, have done their part to hook most every country in the world on the idea of oil energy as the answers to the problems of a modern world to the extent of using inefficient devices(vehicles) to get people used to zipping here and there instead of using efficient devices that would be better.
These are creeps that use anything that isn't legal to further their criminal endeavor to gain a seemingly 'too big to fail' and 'we control the markets' mentality to hold this country and the world hostage to their pandering for greedy selfish gain.
Well said, Samosamo!
Just an aside: My daughter is currently cleaning pelicans in Louisiana. One center can accept 25 birds per day. The process for cleaning the birds at the center involves putting canola oil on the contaminated birds and letting it stay for more than two hours. Afterward, they use three containers of "Dawn" dish-washing liquid to remove the oil. The center can accept 25 birds per day. They received 50. One-half are lost forever, I suppose.
We don't live in an oligarchy, we live in a pigocracy. In a true oligarchy there is an assumption that the ruling class rules with an understanding that while they rule they will maintain at least a minimal amount of economic justice for the people they dominate. In a pigocracy (a term which I will take credit for coining) all that is out the window. This new type of capitalist pig fucks up everything they come in contact with, as with the situation in the Gulf of Mexico.
I am coming to the conclusion that only violent revolution can restore things to some sort of reasonable balance.