11 June 2010

What a world

Well, I finally have made it back to the old corner. I apologize for the laps in my postings here. I have been very busy of late and didn't have the time or energy to post until now.
I have moved and that took most of the energy I could find. Moving is not something for older, disabled people to do without paying a fairly high price for. Add in to this a nasty sinus infection and an unscheduled trip to the dentist and there just wasn't the time or energy for this blog for some time.
Much has happened in this wacky world since my last entry here.
Where to start? Well, since I live in the now polluted state of Louisiana, the BP oil spill comes to the fore front.
As far as I have read, it seems that the oil giant(?) BP had little or no plans at all to deal with a blow out on the deep well they were drilling in the Gulf. Now I may be just an old, disabled machinist who never worked in the oil industry, but it would be my own personal view that when you are drilling at depths never before drilled that you would have taken the time to plan for some sort of disaster.  When you do something for the very first time, how can you not plan for some sort of failure?  How often do any of us do something new and have it go 100% according to plan? Unless one is very careful, not very often does a new project go according to the plans.
BP was drilling in water depths never before drilled in. They were also drilling at depths, from the ocean floor to the oil pocket, deeper than before. OK, there are two, count them, two (at least) new depths and they had no plans for any sort of problems? Who is running BP? The Keystone Cops could not have had worse plans for any possible troubles with that well.
This disaster, and it IS a disaster, will haunt the US and in particular, the Gulf coast for decades and maybe even longer. The cost of the clean up will, of course, fall to the American tax payers.  It will cost us all directly at the gas/diesel pumps, that was a given as soon as the news that the drilling rig exploded. If you think the tax payer will not get the final bill, just ask the folks in Alaska who finally paid to clean up the Exxon Valdez spill. Ask yourself how the price of gas/diesel went up after that spill.
Remember folks, this is America, where the tax payers always pay for the messes and crimes of big business. Just as we are paying for the bail out of the "too big to fail" banksters, we will be paying for the Gulf oil disaster.
In fact, our children, grandchildren, and I bet, their grandchildren, will still be paying for it. The economic impact of this disaster is unknown and will be so for years. The "well" is still spewing crude into the Gulf even now as I write this. Every "attempt", and I use that term very loosely,  has failed so far. The "ideas" being floated on how to stop this gusher sound to me like the people who are supposedly in charge of this are grasping at straws. Nobody seems to have any real idea of what to do. Just go back and review the previous "ideas" that have failed. Everything so far except the damn kitchen sink, and that came close to being tried with the "junk shot" idea. Well, this is what the "planning" by BP has given us all. An ecosystem that is fouled for years if not decades. The entire Gulf coast, with the exception (so far) of Texas is now polluted and it will affect tourism. How many people want to go to the beach when it is covered in crude oil? No doubt one can smell the mess long before you get close to the shore. I have not been near the coast since this mess and do not wish to do so.
People who work hard to make a living from fishing and shrimping are now unable to make a living. The "offer" by BP to hire them to assist in the clean up is more of a joke than a truly decent offer. I have been told that they are offered a flat payment that just barely covers the cost of fuel for the boats and these "volunteers" have to provide their own safety equipment, such as respirators and chemical protective suits.
Of course there will also be some winners in this disaster. The main "winners" will be lawyers. So far there are already more than 200 law suits over this disaster, with many more to come. As Robert Bryce said in an excellent article at the Counterpunch web site on June 10, the Deepwater Horizon disaster could be called the "Trial Lawyer's Full Employment Act". As is often the case in America, it will be lawyers who will profit hugely from this mess.
Expanding our view beyond the Gulf, we have seen the Zionist entity attack and kill unarmed civilians in the Mediterranean.  This attack has been described by some as an act of piracy. It is not. It is even worse, as it is a crime against peace. It could be an act of war as the ships were under the operation of Turkey.  One wonders what the reaction would have been had Turkey, a member of NATO, had invoked Article 5 of the NATO charter, which states that an attack on any member state is an attack on all of them. Would the USA, Britain, France, and the rest now be threatening the Zionist entity?
This is a serious question folks. We need to remember that NATO is in Afghanistan because of Article 5.  The good old US of A said that Afghanistan was behind the 9/11 attacks in the US. We invoked Article 5 to get NATO into Afghanistan to help fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  Could not Turkey also invoke Article 5 against the Zionist entity? Of course they could in theory, but who would support such a claim? Definitely NOT the US of A. No sir, old Uncle Sam would never stand for its "best pal ever" being held responsible for their crimes. Nor would the "main stream media" of America allow such a thing to be said out loud. To the "ruling class" of America it seems to be, as usual, Israel uber-alles.  No American "leader" will dare to be critical of that gang, not if they wish to get elected/re-elected.
On that thought, I highly recommend that you all read the following article regarding "our" current vice-president, good old Joe "Israel first" Biden. You can find that at;www.counterpunch.org/blankfort06112010.html. After reading this excellent article one gets a much better understanding of how our(?) country continues to allow the racist gang who run the Zionist entity to get away with murder. Yes, murder, actual murder. That is what happened during the highjacking of the Gaza peace ships. At least nine people were murdered by the commandos who dropped onto the ships.
Even though one of those murdered by the Zionist commandos was an American citizen, our(?) president will not condemn the the brutal attack and the murders of innocent civilians.
The occupation  and continued blockade of Gaza and the West Bank are crimes against humanity.  While public outrage has increased recently, the US government continues to support the Zionist entity. The people who were part of the Gaza flotilla are portrayed as terrorists by the Zionist media even most of the MSM in the US. Our(?) "leaders" will not hold the real criminals responsible for their crimes. Go-bomb-them refuses to issue anything more than the very weakest of comments to date. What? An America citizen is killed in international waters by what amounts to a criminal enterprise and "our" president is silent?  Well, that should not be that huge a surprise, remember that LBJ allowed the even more brutal attack on the US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, to go totally unpunished. Therefore it would seem that Go-bomb-them is just following in the tradition of our former president when it comes to what the Zionist entity may do to its biggest benefactor.
No, there will be no calls in "our" Congress to suspend or cut off any financial and/or military aid to the Zionist entity. That would be unthinkable. Why it could even be seen as a "sin" by the nut balls of the "religious" right and most of the "Tea Party" crowd.
This all just proves the words of the founders of America. We should have fair trade and friendship with all nations and entangling alliances with none. America is so tightly tied to the Zionist entity that "our" supposed "leaders" seem unable to see that there is a huge difference between the needs of America and those of Israel.
How long will the people of this country allow their children and grandchildren to fight and die for the lies we have been sold? Will it take even more wars, the next most likely with Iran to wake up the people? How many more of our children have to die before the people wake up and finally say ENOUGH?