`Wednesday June 23rd 2010

Today i will begin my post with some commentary about the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico.As i am sure readers are well aware this has been going on for 63 days and that it seems it will continue for some time to come.One thing i have noticed in the coverage of the spill is a lack of reporting on the ship traffic coming up the Mississippi River with imports.This is a huge over site on the part of the reporting on this disaster,because if these imports are forced to stop there is going to be a large disparate impact on the economy.There is a very large amount of imports that travel up the river that will not be coming anymore.This will be very bad for all the businesses that rely on these imports,not to mention the effects of oily ships fouling the waters of the river.I personally don't believe they will allow ships fouled with oil into the river but with the way things are going who can say.The Government has allowed so many things to happen i would have not believed,so i must assume this is possible.
The press has not covered this issue at all,so i don't know if the ship traffic has continued up to this point.Because of the horrible effects the oil is having on the environment of the coast and also in the gulf itself it seems to me this is one subject that is being completely ignored.Because approximately 70% of the seafood consumed in the US comes from the Gulf,business related to seafood will be dismal at best.I am afraid with BP being allowed to drag out the claims process for lost profits and wages,many thousands of Gulf Coast seafood related industry mainstays will be lost.This will include wholesalers,retailers and restaurants as well as fisherman who rely on the gulf for an income.The trickle down effect of this loss will mean the families of folks detrimentally effected will not have money to shop for groceries,clothing,and anything else for that matter.This will put many more folks into State and Federal sponsored emergency help like welfare and food stamps,overwhelming an already overburdened system.Food pantries already having trouble keeping up with the current needs related to the Great Recession will be completely and totally shut down.Religious institutions that also help care for the less fortunate will also be forced to turn away people because of the large amount of families in need.
As i write this the effects of the oil spill are just beginning to be felt along the coast,but it will spread faster than a California wildfire.The way our Federal officials are downplaying this is worse than criminal.They have always sided with big industry in order to fund the next campaign,and this will be no different.I hope that enough attention can be brought to bear that they will not allow this horrible catastrophe to move into the fresh waters of the Mississippi River,but i will not hold my breath.To stop the ship traffic coming up the river will be catastrophic in and of itself due to the volume of imports that are brought through the gulf waters into the Fragile Environment of the Mississippi,multiplying the horrible impact on all of different levels of wildlife.Taking the results of the oil spill into this place is going to put many more species in danger.Fresh water fish and fowl,animals that rely on them will cause a cascade of death through the food chain all through the whole length of the river.
Putting this economic and environmental disaster into the proper perspective entails knowing more about the MMS and other governmental over site of deep water drilling rigs and where when and how they are allowed to operate.There are many of these rigs deep in the waters of the Gulf,and now Senators and congressional representatives are screaming to allow them to continue to operate.How this economic and environmental catastrophe doesn't give people pause to reflect is beyond me.The horrible damage to the environment will continue for years and years but the folks on the coast are more concerned with allowing these irresponsible companies to continue to operate without any pause to take a look at the whole system.The way these leases are given out,the over site of the companies involved,the SAFETY of the rigs and the workers on them,ect.I don't believe for a second there are no concerns to the folks who are going to suffer the repercussions of the damage this is going to cause the coast.The wildlife is going to be damaged beyond any ones wildest imagination,and they want to just go on as usual with the rigs operating like nothing has happened.The MMS is a broken corrupt agency just like most levels of the Government itself.The agency has been staffed with Oil industry insiders since long before G.W.Bush was president.This is very common in our country for whatever the industry is,you can bet the regulation and over site body of the Government is going to be staffed with industry insiders.This is on top of the Lobbyists for whatever industry being staffed by former congressional staffers and actual retired members of the government.This particular agency,the MMS,is supposed to be being cleaned up by The Secretary of the Interior,Mr.Salazar,but i would bet my last dollar that it will be just as broken and corrupt after he reorganizes it.
Yesterday a Judge ruled against the current Administrations 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling,saying they acted arbitrarily and overstepped their authority.The Obama Administration has vowed to file an appeal to this ruling and will continue to push for more safety and over site of this dangerous and stupid practice that itself is admittedly unsafe due to the lack of any ability to stop catastrophic blowouts and no ability to contain such disasters from occurring.I for one hope that they finally realise that the only way to get Americans to wean off of fossil fuel is to FORCE us to take measures to do so.As long as we the people continue to demand fossil fuel for everything we do from driving to heating our homes this mess is going to just be the beginning.I am surprised it took this long to have such a major disaster when i look at the public records regarding the safety standards of this company BP.This company was on the verge of a discretionary disbarment from all Government fuel contracts when it reached a tentative compliance agreement with the EPA,which has since been taken off the table by the current administration.Being the largest producer of oil in the Gulf as well as in Canada and also being the owner of half of the Alaska pipeline from Prudhoe,any major disruption in this companies day to day operations could cost an already weak American economy to fall off the cliff.Around 30,000 of BPs 80,000 employees are Americans,and the company is also the largest supplier of liquid fuel to the American Military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
To quote the famous line from the economist John Maynard Keynes,the one behind Keynesian economics politicians always talk about"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men,for the nastiest of reasons,will somehow work for the benefit of us all",to me lays the truth right on the table.The current system of Politics in our country which is supposed to be the envy of the world,a Constitutional Democracy,is a failed and broken model that no longer represents we the people.It is more oriented toward business and corporate America,and the almighty dollar is at the center,not the citizenry.As long as things continue to go the way they are,the Country will continue to spiral downward out of control until something happens at the grassroots level to change it.We are not going to survive as we are,in my opinion,unless we reign in the out of control Politicians who have for too long allowed Corporate money to control our system.This is the reason we have this oil fouling our coastline in the Gulf,and it is also the reason we are no longer United as a people.We are arguing constantly about which side is right about issues no one can seem to agree on as the Politicians continue to allow us to be pilfered out of our children's future.I think it is very much like the old story of a man fiddling while Rome burned.
I will end here for now,until next time thank you for reading. Spacewalker

Monday May 24th 2010

Today i am going to discuss the story that is headlines for all of the nation,the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.This tragedy continues unabated and the damage to the ocean and coastal wetlands is just beginning to come into focus.It will take decades and much research to realise just how damaging this spill is,but the immediate focus is on mitigating the damage as much as possible.I must say that i am concerned about how little attention is being given to the real reason behind this horrible disaster.We as a nation are using way too much oil and not using the national attention on this disaster to start the discussion about weaning of fossil fuels and onto renewables.The press like to focus on whatever brings viewers to their shows or newspapers,more attention equals more advertisement income.This is a bad situation because it means that again,money is more important than the facts or the truth.So as the Gulf Coast suffers day after day,the press continues to look for ways to increase profits.The media today is like most large corporations,they have executives not editors making the critical decisions.This is not only a conflict, in my mind it negates the very reason the press exists.A free press is the foundation of a free society,and when the reporters on the street cannot report the truth because it conflicts with the bottom line of the corporations the work for than it spells the end of true freedom..If a story is going to hurt or harm the parent companies or subsidiaries reputation or bottom line,or create a liability situation the story will just not be told.I am totally convinced that this nation is on a slippery slope to no longer being a free and democratic "Constitutional Democracy".The broken and corrupt situation related to our current press and the way it involves story telling can be described in many ways,but i personally believe that it is broken beyond repair.As i continue to write about this oil spill in the gulf i will describe things that you will not see addressed in the national or even local press. Last night,as i watched the news,well,i feel i must first say that i do not have cable or sattalite television in my home.The antenna on my roof brings only the free digital signals of the major networks and pbs into my home.With that caviate the news on the major networks in a Nation that is fighting two wars and facing the worlds worst ecological disaster can go from a short 8 minute story related to these to a story about the Kardashian familys fame and fortune shows how this system is corrupted and broken.Nowhere in the national news should there be anything related to this rediculous and meaningless rich family and their exploits.It shows the stark contrast that these news corporations have related to news cycles.They need to gain attention for the programming that brings the money in,I am describing this because i believe it shows how bad off we are as citizens.We cannot think for one moment that reporters can honestly tell us the reality and repercussions of this oil spill or the wars.Giant global corporations will not allow these news organizations tell us anything related to the truth.Even the Newshour on PBS is sponsored by these giant global corporations so they cannot and will not report anything that could harm their sponsors.The Gulf oil spill is going to ruin gulf coast states not only for the immediate future,but for decades and maybe even a century or more.In my opinion this catastrophy will be the last nail in the coffin of tens if not hundreds of thousands of businesses and families.The income of these coastal communities rely on late spring,summer and early fall for most of their income.The fishing vessals,homes and businesses that must have vacation related incomes is almost hard to describe.With just one season to be lost results in devastating and disasterous situations related to making normal everyday decisions.How to make the boat payments or how to access credit for payroll or stocking shelves becomes impossible.The economic repercussions will take a long time to realize,but the immediate problems go by the wayside to focus on stopping the flow of oil and rescuing the fish,birds,animals and sea mammals affected by this spill.The tourism related businesses that make up the majority of these coastal communities were just beginning to recover from Hurricane Katrina and the devastation related to that,and now they must deal with another season of cancelled vacations and Government and Corporate delay in lending help.
How to continue to access the economic consequences will be very slow,and this is only one tiny peice of a very giant and complicated puzzle.Yesterday while i watched the White House press conferance related to this oil spill i was sicked by a statement from the Military spokesman for this spill.After touring coastal communities yesterday,some senators,congressional representatives and the Secratary of the Interior made some statements to the effect of pushing BP aside and assuming control of the cleanup.US Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said that those statements were more out of frustration than based in fact.The truth,said the Commandant,is that there is absolutely no mechanism available to take control from this Global Oil giant.We are not capable of doing anything except oversite because the equiptment and expertise all belongs to the companies responsable for this Catastrophy.I find it not only strange and coincidental but highly suspicious that this spill took place on April 20th.I truely belive that it was not an accident,in my opinion it was very possibly a terrorist attack that is being covered up at the highest levels.It is just too coincidental that this happened on a date that is related to other attacks on American sovreignty.This is just my opinion and i have nothing to present that could prove this to be accurate but i do believe it is the case.
As the trick bag to stop the flow from the wellhead and broken riser of the deep water horizen gets more and more depleted,we are told that using mud to plug the well from below may be the answer.If that doesn't work they are going to try a"junk shot"using golf balls shredded tires and other things to plug the well from below.Now we get to wait and see,but if these things don't work the only other way may be drill another hole and plug this well from underneath which could take until August to accomplish.If this is the only way to get this accomplished the ecological and economic damage is going to grow to a worldwide situation.Already it is being catagorised as unprecidented in scope,but the reality is much more than that.Estimates so far as to the amount of oil flowing out of this well are all over the place,from the press releases of the company to the Government estimates to independant scientific estimates.All of these are just that,estimates,and the truth behind the statistics will only be known when this finally comes to an end.I am not confident any of the estimates are acurate,and the true damage to the entire ecosystem will remain unanswered for a long time.There was an unrelated study related to the worlds fish stocks released recently,and it showed very dire results that will be compounded by the results of this oil spill.This report,from the Pew Environmental Group,shows that the worlds fish stocks are severely depleted from over-fishing and could "crash" by mid-century.This report stated that the health of marine life on the high seas is troubling and without immediate global action we are going to see very dire consequences manifest across the globe.Adding this Oil spill to an already stressed system may just hasten the demise of many of the Oceans that we and many other nations rely on.
The more and more i read about this disaster,the more i feel the truth is being either ignored or purposely covered up.I will continue to write about this as the days and weeks go by,and i truely hope i am wrong about what i have said related to the results of this spill.Until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker