Nearly 20 years later Exxon Valdez heads to Supreme Court

After 19 years of bureaucratic finagling, one of the largest environmental disasters in modern history will finally get it's day in the highest court. I'm of course referring to Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, the Exxon Valdez oil spill case which happened all the way back in 1989, when I was in first grade. To date Exxon Mobil has pulled in hundreds of billions of dollars in profit since that time, roughly $40 billion alone in 2007, yet they have been successful avoiding payment of the $5 billion in punitive damages levied against them in 1994. Since that time the fine has been cut in half to 2.5 billion after bouncing back and forth between court systems. The disaster created irreparable damage to both industry and the environment alike. The operator of the tanker was intoxicated at the time.

I'm at a point now where I'm less troubled by the actual act than I am by the bureaucratic and fascist institutions which have allowed it to go this long unpunished. If we lived in any type of a just society, negligent companies like Exxon Mobil would atone for their mistakes, and if the economic costs were too high, they would simply be put out of business, their assets sold to cover the damages, like we do to the poor in this country who default on loans. But instead in our backwards, pro-business society, such companies use the legal system and their manipulative know-how to circumvent such justice, and we are left with for-profit institutions who do as they please without any serious legal ramifications hanging overhead, for their precious capital is protected by a like minded government. And even if Exxon ends up paying out here, the fine will not take into account the 19 years of lost interest the victims in Alaska have experienced, 19 years of interest Exxon Mobil managed to turn into hundreds of billions of dollars. America, this is fascism, and it's our economy which has led us to here.

Worthless American values and other complaints

There are few greater indications of how backwards our society has become, with misplaced values both socially and economically, than in the fortunes spent and made photographing and capitalizing off the children of celebrities. I fail to see why such photographs should or could matter to anybody, but I'm apparently in the minority here with such lucrative deals being struck.

It's being reported that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have worked out a deal in the area of a $6 million contract to give People magazine exclusive rights to publish photos of their recently born twins. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt secured $4 million from People in 2006 to photograph their child, and Christina Aguilera recently secured $1.5 million from People to run a cover photo of her son. What extremely worthless wastes of resources, both human and economic! It's beyond troubling that our society is fascinated and drawn in by such trivial and worthless forms of entertainment, if that's what it's to be called, what with the numerous global and social concerns that should be occupying our collective conscious. Think of how many people worldwide those millions of dollars could feed, but that is not the direction of American capitalism.

Not to be such a downer but I just don't get it. There are real life atrocities occurring out there, real human beings dying from the lack of basic medical treatment worldwide, millions starving to death, an ignorant public unwilling to react to a factually changing global climate, millions more dying in imperialistic wars driven by morally corrupt governments, and here in America we give a shit what the children of celebrities look like and spend our resources here. We put our attention here, our values here, and pretend that we live worthwhile existences. I may be American but I don't identify with this culture. It's just sad that such children are exploited for millions of dollars in this country, and the masses gobble it up, seemingly unaware or unconcerned with what it all means.

Sustaining a ruling class: the Federal Reserve and our economic collapse

For those unaware, which included me up until recently, the Federal Reserve is the United States central banking system, a private for profit creation which literally makes money out of thin air, sustaining and creating the wealthy who shape and control the policies and direction of this country.

In 1913 Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Federal Reserve Act, which at the time was intended to ensure that enough money was always available through a centralized banking system to prevent runs on the banks, runs meaning when more money was taken out of a particular bank than it actually possessed, due to the fact that all banks loan out money they don't have, money that doesn't even exist for that matter!

Banks make money on the governments behalf. That's right, this money is brought into existence with the creation of a loan, a few simple strokes with a pen, it's that simple and that's where we get inflation from. The government simply issues the currency while the banks effortlessly rake in the interest, never even possessing the money they loan out. As such, money is actually debt borrowed against gold reserves that do not exist. We are staring disaster in the face and doing nothing, but there will come a time when the debt far exceeds a sustainable level and the currency system you and I know as the dollar will collapse, at which point we'll be on the barter system.

Fortunes are made through this, and people empowered, the very same people who have the funds to shape the laws that govern this society. By having a centralized banking system the banks have enabled themselves to loan out many more times the amount of money they actually possess. Since bank runs are rare and unlikely to occur simultaneously, banks are ensured of having the resources to cover many more times their actual reserves. As such the debt in this country has grown to an inconceivable $9 trillion, and it's actually 300 billion greater than that total but I didn't feel like counting out all the zero's. Given the current banking system, it is impossible to ever recover from the debt, as the system is currently operating to create debt not reduce it. All signs point towards a collapse as the debt cannot continue to grow forever, and at a certain point we'll wake up one day to find out that we have no currency, as all of our currency will have been borrowed against money that never existed. Our money is not based on gold, or should I say we have issued $9 trillion more in currency than we can account for in gold, which is the basis of all currency.

So there you have it, capitalism at it's darkest, deceptive hour, enabling the well connected to profit off debt, and this the system that "answers needs" and leads to "freedom" and "innovation". What's innovative is how efficient capitalists have become at turning a profit without any actual societal contribution, making money off money without actually doing anything to make the fortunes they have. While you and I work multiple jobs and 40-60 hour weeks to pay off the debt we as American's have accumulated, there are wealthy bankers literally doing nothing to earn their fortunes, earning our interest, enjoying a free ride on behalf of the government and a corrupt system which is akin to stealing, and it's all working towards our own downfall, the complete collapse of the United States dollar. Just don't say you never knew. It's time to think outside the mainstream. Speak out, these are the public discussions we need to initiate to educate the uneducated if change is ever to occur. To hell with political correctness.

http://brillig.com/debt_clock/

A conservative (capitalist) attack on PBS

I look at PBS as a great educational tool, a non-profit media outlet in a day of for-profit media. The network is uncorrupted by the for-profit capitalist structure, a structure that places advertising revenue above all, including programming and ethics. PBS was perhaps the largest media outlet that remained objective to the Bush administration in the run up to the Iraq war, challenging the president's claims and rhetoric on weapons of mass destruction, while the for-profit media outlets beat the drums of war. PBS is a wonderfully liberating tool, which is why it should be no surprise that the neo-conservative Bush administration is out to eliminate federal funding for the network by 2011, and has proposed slashing it's budget by half in the yet to be approved 2009 budget.

Bush has called for roughly $400 million in funding to be cut off from PBS starting in 2009. That would be a critical blow to a system whose focus is actually on media and proper journalism, not on the almighty dollar. For-profit media does not educate, it entertains, and journalism was always meant to be an educational tool first before entertainment. Is it any surprise that a neo-conservative would work to eliminate an educational tool in favor of profit?

We are dreadfully misinformed in this nation and that begins with for-profit media. Americans no longer think for themselves, the TV thinks for them, and tools like PBS are needed now more than ever, which is why it is greatly alarming to hear of such a harmful threat to such a valuable tool. This isn't the first time Bush has tried to faze PBS out of his budget, as in years past congress has stepped in to restore the funds which will hopefully happen again, but it's a pattern from the conservative right that needs to be confronted and openly discussed, that the basic tenants of democracy are being fazed out in favor of profit. These are the neo-conservatives, who recognize that an educated public is dangerous to their cause, that a liberating tool like PBS is no good for conservativism. Simply stated, this is why certain industries have no business being for-profit.

e-mails, corruption, accountability, revolution

For too long ignorance has been an acceptable "excuse" within Washington, where an environment has been fostered where wrongdoers are not held accountable for their actions, or little guys take the fall for the big ones. We as citizens of the United States hold on to the deluded hope that our system of checks and balances actually holds violators in check, but when was the last time a wealthy criminal served any hard time? As long as Americans remain pacified by their televisions and their false sense of security, the politicians of this country will continue driving this once proud nation into the ground, and it's going to be a hell of an awakening when this country gets it.

Today I happen to be talking about the "faulty" archival system in place in the White House, in which legally required documentation of the President's actions and conversations "may have been lost". Tomorrow it will more than likely be some completely new form of corruption we'll be talking about with the same distanced cynicism.

For those unaware, the White House is required to document official dialogue for historical and legal reasons by law, meaning all official forms of communication need to be archived, and now it has come to light that administration officials recorded over backup tapes during the run up to the wars in the middle east, and that numerous e-mails may have been lost in the process, coinciding with several other key time periods of political doubt within this administration. A similar breach of conduct during the Clinton administration landed those officials in legal trouble, but apparently not enough legal trouble for the Bush administration to be thwarted from repeating history. This is a huge issue, but where does one begin to file it away among the many corruptions emanating from Washington over the past several years? We're talking about documentation which would reveal what was being said in Washington during the run up to the wars, wars which have since proven to be illegitimately driven. The fact that this evidence is missing is too convenient to be anything other than a conspiracy, that is if you're a reasoning cynic like myself. What to do?

So I say to the American people, Washington has failed us, corruption is the norm, and we as the ununified powerless peasants that we are continue to call for heads to spin, while little is done. We continue to show our displeasure in polls, but no reform is ever realized. Asking for change is not enough. Change will only come when the people unite, all displeased people of this country, who believe in a democracy and want to see justice actually served in this land. This is not a talking point, it's a real call to action. If such corruption is not enough to bring about a revolution, than I don't know if one can be had in a democratically civilized manner, which is a better alternative than the revolutions written in blood. And there will be a revolution, hopefully internally, because such breaches of ethics and illegal actions will eventually piss off the wrong person(s), or right person(s) depending how you look at it, as for too lopng the masses have been taken by the few. We have been had by fascists and the only way to gain any legitimacy among the global community is to hold these criminals accountable. If the current structure of power cannot rectify the problem, then it needs to be seen that this structure is the problem. Talking is not enough, we must begin to agitate. The time is now to become politically incorrect.

The revolution will not be televised!

Climate change: the worst case scenario our government covers up

It scares the hell out of me because I am certain society as we know it will not exist even 20 years from now. The writing is on the wall, yet the masses remain blind to it. I'm talking about climate change and not whether it is caused by man or nature, but the fact that it is happening and that we as powerless peasants to the elite continue supporting the machine, waiting for the last hour before mobilizing. It's just not bad enough now for the people to smell death. It is very understandable to me why this has occurred. CO2 emission increased 3 times that of the 1990's in a four year span from 2000-20004, coinciding very much with the economic boom of numerous developing countries, not to mention our own growing output. Seeing as this was a far greater rate of CO2 consumption than every scientific model used, it just shows that science is modeled after a very conservative approach, and conservatism is something we can ill afford in reaction.

http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=75951

Being as frank as possible, here is what this means, brought to you by a report our United States government commissioned through the Pentagon, then covered up, surprise, by our government in 2004.

"Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.

"A secret report, suppressed by US defense chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

"The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' "

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153513,00.html

Understand where we are going. The ice caps are melting, the glaciers receding and all of that water is going into the oceans, which is beyond dispute. In the not too distant future unfathomable amounts of coastline will be swallowed whole by the sea, meaning millions of people worldwide will be displaced, forcing massive migrations inland where the infrastructure doesn't exist. That's New Orleans the world over. And if you thought the response to that was bad, imagine this response occurring as the human population continues to rise unsustainably upwards, as our economy absolutely collapses beyond anything even comparable to the 1930's, as how do you replace such financial cogs as New York City, Boston, coastal California etc... Everything will stop, our economy is interconnected globally and our needs are going to change from consumerism to survivalism, meanings millions will go jobless as the industry's of gluttony will collapse overnight. There will be widespread famine, yes here in America, where we will experience the new definition of a dust bowl. Higher global temperatures mean greater occurrences of droughts, and it will only be a matter of time before our ground water sources are exhausted. Water will become our new currency and survival our sole purpose. Everything we currently enjoy and value in our society will be inexistent, and we are beyond ill prepared for this scenario. My fiancé and I recently shared the discussion that having a child is akin to a death sentence, as it is very likely we will be experiencing anarchy in the course of our lifetime. We've in effect had that right taken from us.

Yet it's happening because of global capitalism on two parts: One in actually causing it by fostering a world of materialism and consumerism and the CO2 emissions needed to support this, (need I mention American's dispose of over 4,000 cell phones every day, consider the resources spent here in creation and disposal) and two by these very same elitists who dictate this production intentionally suppressing this information from the public and intentionally not responding to it, i.e. the Bush administration and this report they suppressed, not to mention the lack of attention and initiative from the media.

This machine needs to be brought to a halt, and the only way to do this is to form solidarity among the masses and restructure the direction of the economy, to stand as one and choose a more ascetic lifestyle. We as a people are under the control of the system, but we outnumber those in charge and have real power should we choose to confront the status quo. It's not a matter of if, but when we imagine this scenario and at that time it will be too late to do anything meaningful. The hour is late now, and perhaps the best thing to do is to prepare for our demise. The worst thing to do is to continue living as if nothing is wrong.

Below is a comment I found, left on a blog which shares similar concerns as my own. The poster is a 63 year old disabled man named Joe, who I didn't even know existed until this morning, who in my opinion illustrates the proper call to action. It is written to the blogs creator.

Dear Glen,

A couple of things: first, each time I visit one of your Ecological
Internet web sites, I see (understandably) "Noting you regularly use
this site, I want to ask you in particular to please donate..." Y'know,
I'd love to, your energetic work is awesome. I live on a $700 a month
disability allowance, so don't have much to spare for donations, in fact
my single indulgence is a high-speed internet connection, otherwise I
live a subsistence existence (and have an ecological footprint close to 1).

If 'information is power' then anyone reading your work should feel
empowered. However, the opposite can happen; in my case, having an
extensive background in sociology of a kind I think allows me to see the
hidden mechanisms behind major human social trends, I more often than
not come away from my reading of your stuff with a painful sense of
futility. It is not because you relentlessly uncover the full picture of
the horror facing humanity under current practices, that is an essential
piece of understanding.

So, I have also read over your blog, which I truly appreciate for your
unflinching honesty and passion. All the while, somewhere in the back of
my mind is something like 'okay, this is how bad it really is, and how
phony and ineffectual most government and elite/entertainer initiatives
are.' In the blog you lament "Horrendous imbalances in income
distribution lead to much of the world living in miserable conditions
while the relatively few consume and pollute excessively -- this is
unacceptable. As conditions worsen and if these fundamental steps listed
here are not taken, having a child may become a privilege, not a right."
and "What is clear is there is no future for the Hollywood, super-sized
American lifestyle. These fundamental changes must be made now or being
as we know it is over." and lastly "The ecological imperative to cut
emissions is so immense, and the costs of failure so dire, that if
political and economic resistance and gridlock continues, there may be
no alternative but global political revolution -- overthrowing the whole
rotten polluting economic and political system in order to save the
climate, humanity, global ecological system and all creatures with whom
we share Gaia."

I couldn't agree with you more; the trouble is, how do we get there from
here? You seem to vacillate between the possibility of reform and the
need to overthrow the extant system. Your own relentless documentation
seems to lead to the conclusion that reform efforts are for the most
part too compromised to be of any real effect, yet except for that one
passage on overthrowing the system, your arguments seem to hinge on the
possibilities of reform, which by your own implicit admission, are
unlikely to be enough.

There have to be some preconditions for reform to happen: an informed
polity and genuine democratic governance, neither of which your country
or mine presently have. I think that most even mildly aware people are
beginning to understand that the old verities of that 'worst of all
systems but better than the alternatives' [I think a quote from
Churchill on democracy] have gone past a point of no-return (witness the
timid Democratic majority in Congress in the US, the juggernaut of a
minority government in Canada, the petty ineffectualness of the European
Community [all capitalist]). In globalism, the interests of the state
and corporatocracy are essentially fused. The enforcement of this fusion
is military, in the larger sense that includes 'security' agencies and
unaccountable treaties and bodies that govern world trade in the service
of the boundless appetites of the ruling class. Oh, oh, when you see a
phrase like 'ruling class' you may think me 'just another Marxist' --
not entirely, I am greatly informed by Marx and equally dismayed at what
has followed from his work; it is a class situation though, for sure,
and any revolt such as you suggest will be a class war, there's no
getting around it.

Whatever hope the US and like countries ever had for democratic
governance with capitalism has been dashed in the military metaphysic.
Here's a no-mincing of words quote from a classic sociologist, a Pole
who wasn't particularly Marxian:
from Stanislav Andreski’s _Military Organization and Society_:
"The technico-military circumstances make world hegemony fully possible.
The improvements in transport and communication and the increasing
preponderance of organized armed forces over the unarmed population . .
. render the task of keeping down the population of the world fairly
easy. . . Let us suppose that a state like the U.S.A., where liberalism
and democracy are deeply rooted in the tradition, establishes world
hegemony. Would it be likely to continue to adhere to these traditions?
It does not seem so." And so it has in fact become, with certain dire
consequences for Gaia and humanity.

So, where am I going here? I don't think all is lost, but future chances
for humanity are slim indeed. I think the place to concentrate is on
those who will suffer most grievously as a result of the accelerating
trends to doom, that is, the people born after about 1975. They are the
ones who are almost guaranteed not to have any prospect of living a
normal life span, and what life experience they have will become
increasingly grim and miserable, *but only if they drift along with the
status quo*. Somehow, it is the 'young' that need to get the message
that the game is up, they have *no* chance of living a 'normal' life
such as their parents and their only possibility is how to respond to
the situation while they have the energy, anger and personal resources
to fight it. It seems to me there are 3 possible outcomes: (1) do
nothing and die early following a short lifetime of misery, with final
days a testament to a life betrayed and wasted (2) do whatever it takes
to turn things around, though that means forfeiting short term 'normal'
life stages such as seeing through a career, having a family, etc., and
even then the results might be the same, except that one would die
knowing they put up the good fight, or (3) if in opposing the master
trends enough become inspired and work together, these people may
actually do something unprecedented and heroic in advancing the
evolution of the human species and the planet that gives them life, and
some may actually survive the ordeal and come out of the other end of it
and live both meaningful, full lives encompassing a normal span.
Admittedly the 3rd option is the most difficult and probably least
likely, but either (2) or (3) allow for a life lived with dignity and
meaning.

I think people like you need to be more clear on what is unworkable, and
by this I mean the capitalist system and the way it brings out the worst
in the repertoire of human nature. Basically, the attributes of human
nature can be classified as "atavistic" -- those that once served a
small and vulnerable species to gain a foothold on an evolving planet,
such as territoriality, predation, in-group/out-group enmity, hoarding,
impulse gratification of drives, etc.; there is a whole set of more
recently acquired attributes that I call "nascent" in that they have not
been around as long, and crucially, they depend on human knowledge and
morality for their fostering, since they are a result of the symbolic
thought processes that are not passed on through natural selection in
genes but by knowledge, such that humans have become the volitional
agents of their own selection. Yes, I know that is Lamarckian, but it is
true, just look at all the actions that humans have taken in 10,000
years to go from scattered hunter-gatherer tribes to the dominant
species so elaborated that the activities have accumulated to the point
of destruction of everything; that isn't the gradualism of all other
life forms. Humans have been unconscious agents of their continued
evolution, time they became conscious agents instead. This requires
junking capitalism or any form of the hoarding of riches, large forms of
private property, and all superstitious belief systems like religions
(save a reverent attitude towards nature). This can't be done half-way,
any more than one can be 'a little pregnant'. You, Glen, have been
implying as much. I hope you can frame your work to appeal more to the
young, tell it like it is, and what they must do not just to survive,
but survive with self-respect and as part of the long unfolding of the
species.

I'm too old too do much more than sign petitions, etc., Glen, I'm 63 and
in chronic pain. But you are 41, you have the energy and the
sensibilities, and an evolving vision -- I think what you are doing is
great, and I'd like you to consider being more explicitly oriented to
challenging the young while they still have a chance to fight back. As
soon as they realize how badly they've been 'had', that in the current
game they are slated for premature and miserable death, they will figure
out a way to fight back.

Joe

http://www.climateark.org/blog/2007/06/worse_than_worst_case_climate.asp