http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq65E7rmO_k "This water is poisonous." sorry to burst any happy bubbles.
Speaking of bursting bubbles, have you seen the video of the ocean actually bubbling like an acid at a (formerly white sands, now blackened) beach in So. Florida? Weird and scary. I think I saw that at LiveLeak.com ... nauseating, and you won't see this stuff in the mainstream media.
CNN talked about the toxic corexit. The biologist said the sharks are the only creature swimming in it. No bait fish. No birds diving. And a strange "organic" film in the water. <--- Yeah, decomposing fish.
More conspiracy theories. It is true, however, that the government has not done anywhere near all it can to help clean up this mess. People were outraged at how slow the Bush administration responded to Hurricane Katrina, yet no one seems to say anything about the unwillingness of this administration to do what is needed.
What exactly can the Obama administration do that would counter this criticism? Truth be told I'll always defend Obama because it seems to me he's invested a whole pile of crap left over from other administrations left before him. It's not like the U.S. government has their own deep water drilling response team. That's the reason we need regulations; to control B.S. like this. Technically speaking—and this is complete "devil's advocate" d-baggey on my part—but could one say the whole issue of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" being repealed distracted Obama from focusing on other things? The reality is BP is 100% to blame. 100% the cause. And should be held 100% responsible. They really do seem to be dragging their feet—or at least not acting swiftly—to really get this problem solved. Well, they did act pretty swiftly to rescue rig workers and force them to sign their rights away if they spoke about what they saw. BF is a bunch of assholes. No exec in that company deserves a career, job or pity when the dust settles.
BP is most worried about cutting their losses. Getting the oil leak stopped, protecting the environment and peoples health and livelihoods are lesser concerns. Fucking assholes.
While I agree that BP is to blame, that doesn't we should wait for them to clean up the whole mess once the leak is stopped. First, more US skimmers could be used instead of keeping them deployed elsewhere "just in case." Second, the Jones Act could be waived allowing foreign skimmers to help. Taiwan has one that in one day could remove as much oil from the water as all the others have done these past few months. There are also skimmers from Europe that could help if the Jones Act were temporarily waived. Of course, this would also require the EPA to ease their restrictions on the 15ppm of oil in discharged water, but they are not budging. There are also stories of people wanting to set up berms to protect the coastal waters, but in some cases the approvals were either delayed or denied altogether.
This is an excellent example of government red tape and interests getting in the way of a task that should have been taken care of. Why is this not getting done? Simple the corporations own the government (whether its democratic or republican) and they are policing themselves. Everything you see in the media is for show.
I agree that BP are responsible and really, genuinely find all of this disgusting to my core. However, I don't believe that BP are solely responsible and I think to blame them, make demands of them and lump the lot of it on them is to ignore the real reasons this happened. The rig was operated by sub contractors, who were based in Cali. The bit that failed was supplied and manufactured by Halliburton. The laws that allowed BP and these other companies to act the way they have were signed in during the previous administration. The laws created loop hole after loop hole and pretty much dissolves corporate responsibilities. There's also a Western based culture of complete disregard for the earth and the idea that somehow we can conquer and master this planet that we inhabit. Then of course there is the whole profit driven culture that has gained momentum which again operates with complete disregard for the long term consequences of their actions. This will happen again, and is already happening in the Niger Delta, thanks to Shell. The only way to change this, stop it, prevent it from happening again is to address these issues. Dragging some man up in front of a congressional hearing ala the Salem Witch Trials will not solve anything, it won't explain why it happened, it is all for show and to ignore the real issues at hand. That said, in a 3 year period, BP spent several billion dollars on exploration and advancing their ability to rape the earth. during that same period, they spent a paltry 20 million on what if scenarios, prevention and clean up research. That's pretty damning, but I imagine that those sorts of discrepancies would apply to Shell, Exxon/Esso etc. So to be fair, BP were only doing what they were allowed to do within the laws and culture that they operate in. Don't pick a scapegoat, deal with the fucking problems.
"Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help..." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7043272.html Basically confirming what's being said above.
In the end, BP will survive this just like the cigarette companies did. The current administration may not.
I tried to figure out who actually owns BP. Turns out it is American 401k holders. The largest BP holdings are American financial institutions who manage YOUR 401k. So when we say BP is responsible and THEY WILL PAY!!! means you are suing yourself... Like I said best I could tell. I wonder how much the Royal Family owns? The Queen could pawn her jewels. (not really replying to anything in particular just my two cents) Conspiracy! Alex said Goldman Sachs dumped a significant amount of BP stock the week or month before... Like the shorts on American and United stock before 911.... who knows. pointless to consider.
I'm doubtful that that is even worth 2 cents. What a bizarre consideration. BPs biggest shareholder is based in NY, BlackRock, which is headed by 2 Americans and owns the 3rd largest investor Barclays Global Investors between the 2, one NY based company, owned and operated by Americans owns nearly 10% of BP. BlackRock: The world's biggest asset management company is based in New York and owns 5.9pc of the shares. Legal & General: The UK insurer and asset manager owns 4pc of the shares. Barclays Global Investors: The asset manager, which is owned by BlackRock, owns 3.8pc of the shares. Norges Bank Investment Management: The asset manager manages the money generated from Norway's oil revenues and owns 1.8pc of the shares. Kuwait Investment Authority: The body manages the funds for Kuwait government. It owns 1.75pc of the shares. M&G Investment Management: The UK asset manager, owned by the Prudential, owns 1.67pc of the shares. Standard Life: The Scottish insurance company owns 1.5pc of the shares. Capital Research & Management Co: The Los Angeles-based fund owns 1.3pc of the shares. Insight Investment Management: The fund manager owned by Lloyds Banking Group owns 1.13pc of the shares. China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange: The body that manages China's $2.4 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves owns 1.1pc. Not for nothing, but there's my 10p.
I knew I would get a rise out of somebody across the pond with that.... So that adds up to 30-40% Leaving 60% in the hands of small investors?
It's not a raise, mate. It was just a reasonable and informative reply to a retarded and potentially offensive comment. It would depend on how many shares they have released. I'll leave you to figure that out, though I'm sure you'd rather make sweeping generalisations and empty allegations than then an informed reply to what is an incredibly serious situation. You wanna fan the flames of narrow minded finger pointing stupidity, go right ahead, I won't stop you, I'll just rebut you. I'm not really that up on how shares are released, but I know that they are release in drips and drags, so there is a fair chance that they may not have release 100%of the shares and considering how many small investors there are, then yeah, possibly 60% are in the hands of small investors. You don't want 10 groups to own more than 50% because then you risk them teaming up and exerting power or a takeover. That's merely speculation. for the moment, this all has a much more immediate impact on you and your economy/environment than it has on me, so you carry on as you are like it makes no difference beyond couple fish and the odd feathered creature.
While some of the corporate discussion makes sense, I think the larger issue is we are all living in an increasingly disconnected world. I mean, I'm 42 and when I was a kid elementary school teachers would routinely discuss where things come from: Like "Where do eggs come from?" and such. Now, folks are so disconnected from the world they don't know where food comes from, energy comes from or even where products they use come from. Back in the 1970s when there was an energy crisis, this whole country had to deal with it. Heck, even toy companies adjusted the physical size of toys to account for the higher cost of oil. During World War II folks grew Victory gardens and gathered items for recycling. So what happens when the price of oil goes up in the 2000s? America (as a nation) does jack shit. There's a lot of lip service towards renewable fuels and such, but not much real action. And folks are still driving SUVs, bicycling is treated like a pariah and tons of other stuff. Ever go to a store and explicitly say "No bag..." because you don't want a plastic bag? It's pretty amazing how many places look at you like you are nuts. And it becomes a whole production to NOT take a bag. And I'm not even talking in cases where you bring your own bag but like I'm buying one container of lemonade that has a handle on it and the checkout clerk is insisting I need a bag. Unbelievable. That last part is a tad of tangent, but seriously this country is so disconnected from the reality of tons of things it's past belief. So, yeah we can blame the corporations but honestly it's larger than that. Folks in general find new ways to disconnect from reality and don't care about the real world because... Why bother? Sickening.
this is all so true its sad. iv said no when asked if i want a bag, and still been given one, only to take my purchase out and leave the bag, and im looked at like an asshole : ) go figure. this site has a pretty sad collection of pictures http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/ ... these.html and thank you for posting this video.
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/spillmeter/ this would look good attached to every pump
The guy from Texas is full of narrow minded and single issue views... go figure. Edit: I don't think I was defending them so much as opening up the discussion beyond the simple finger pointing. I do feel that BP is getting the full brunt of blame when there are more issues here that are being conveniently overlooked. If you feel that making slightly racist slights is a productive way of addressing these issues, then carry on. It would appear as though you are either being ironic or you really do take your news/views from Info Wars, I doubt it's the former because you don't strike me as someone with enough of a knowledge base to carry that level of irony. So I must assume it's the latter, and that, my friend, speaks volumes.
MZ, you seem to be talking out of both sides of your mouth: I'm more with the latter sentiment, that we're all to blame. Our corporations, our governments, and us, the consumers, created the climate in which a disaster like this was going to happen. Those of us in their late 30s and 40s should remember the endless lines at the gas stations during the energy crisis. What did our generation do about it? Zero. We bought cars and maintained our addiction to plastic shit (including toys). And Alex Jones is a douche.
