Category Archives: Economic issues

Major issues: America has Energy to Waste?

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

© 2014 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

In Wonderland Logic is Essential

Where is Forever?

Let us call this meeting to order....blink and  see if we have this right,  Alice.... ' In thoughtfully contemplating the ludicrous state of affairs reported in the media of late —there is a 'gas shortage' in the 'news'....Do tell...

"Perhaps some  double-double reinforced  rabbit-hole magic tea, Alice?  Some ear-plugs for The White Rabbit,  and some blood pressure medication for the Mad Hatter himself might be a reasonable suggestion? Why? You didn't notice?  There's not only our Mr. Dormouse and the honorable Cheshire cat here in the rabbit-hole,as  you see...er...you...er..perhaps imagine..... there's a guest elephant too.

"Tongue-tied, are you Mr. Elephant? ...(silence)

"...er....he's a fine fellow Alice,  alas, he will not tell the truth anyway    not say anything lest he proves government-approved corporate anarchy  in North America is out of control alive and well ..."

The Cheshire cat smirks, reminding Alice of  one Stephen Harper.

"Off with his head" the Queen shrieks, pointing at the cat.

 "...er...ok....Reading the minutes of the last meeting, Alice, "

The U.S. State Department has approved,  and further reports it sees nothing wrong with  President Obama approving the Keystone XL pipeline  that would potentially carry crude oil from the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada to the Gulf coast refineries.  The 'smart and empowered'  people involved in warm and fuzzy discussions involved in producing this report,  Oil in Wonderland, are apparently unable to read scientific studies.They appear to be conveniently convinced  approval of that pipeline would not increase the environmental impact of the Tar Sands projects.

"Do tell, Alice  no comment necessary,  Stephen knows that already, and intends to follow his agenda selling tar sands to oil to China no matter, environmental disaster or not anyway  let us move on..."

" Yes,  those same dirty oil projects which are already, one of the biggest environmental disasters on the globe. "Oh, but that's  a Canadian problem, so  no problem, Alice.  It's Stephen's Legacy.  Isn't that convenient?  It's Canada's problem, hahahaha! "

Oil Sands mine near Fort McMurray photo Mark Ralston

                                   ....er, yes....But Mr.Mad Hatter, sir....did you know that...

[caption id="attachment_2580" align="alignleft" width="275"]Athabasca Oil Sands Project Athabasca Oil Sands Project[/caption]

The tailings ponds at the Tar Sands--you know, those oily, toxic lakes of poison leftovers  being created by the upgrading process  —are releasing polycyclic aromatics, benzene compounds and other volatile gases  into the atmosphere but that doesn't seem to  count, either, unless you happen to get cancer from these known carcinogenics?

No matter, Mr. Dormouse, they'll be diluted by the apparently-approved increase in carbon dioxide and other assorted greenhouse gases in the  " allowed carbon budget" already surpassed   "Enough to suffocate an elephant, isn't it?  Mr. Elephant snorts in derision.

"Let us bite our tongues as we suffocate, and ducks land, death guaranteed  in oil-covered toxic ponds simply because there will be no longer be pristine lakes on which to land on their hundred-centuries old waterfowl migration routes.  "So what"  Mr. Elephant snorts again.  Poison mutant fish will also be available for the poor people to eat. Oops.   Should we tell Stephen?   "Shut up, Mr. Dormouse!  He knows that already.  Out of order!   We digress, Alice, this meeting shall  be restored to order!" 

What does this have to do with America having energy to waste?  Read on  and weep, Alice,  as you pay your  natural gas bills that have been gouged jacked-up as the same industry claims 'shortages'.  Pulling gas from "storage",  cold weather and all that. You've heard the  industry lies and  B.S  it before.  You get the idea, Alice.

Now, Apparently America has Energy to Waste

The Dormouse wonders out loud (on a point of order)  if some magic joy-juice has  been double-double-dipped into the  morning coffee at the State department,  since the latest  government report suggests pollution from the Tar Sands has been, not surprisingly,   discovered to be 2 to 3 times HIGHER than previously reported.  Do the math, Alice, the State department apparently ( unconfirmed by  Mad Hatter & Co).  borrowed a magic lying 'calculator' from, you may guess,  the Petroleum Association in North Dakota."Out of order, Dormouse!"

"Off with his head!" Shrieked the Queen yet again,. "Stifle yourself, Queenie" the king shouted. "Shut up,   "Order, order!"

Now, Alice,  don't be upset, but you must know by now the  oil barons in North Dakota are raping exploiting the  world class Bakkan  oil  deposit at a projected rate of a million barrels per day--and are, a this date, flaring millions of dollars worth of natural gas DAILY.   Burning "excess waste" natural gas off into the environment, unnecessarily producing guess what, Alice?  millions of tons of carbon dioxide.  The approximate value of the gas "flared"figure is, —oh, ho hum, piggy-bank cash for the petroleum industry. Ridiculous!

[caption id="attachment_2583" align="alignleft" width="584"]"Waste gas" flaring at Keene North Dakota photo by Jeff Brady NPR "Waste gas" flaring at Keene North Dakota                  photo by Jeff Brady /NPR[/caption]

Ridiculous?  "Not so," the Mad Hatter roars,  "according to state petroleum kings,  the "waste" gas is burned off because the greedy "industry" needs to get at the "more valuable" oil  for bigger, instant profits.  No ' gas collection superstructure' or gas liquification plants  have been built,  because it is not profitable  —the capture of natural gas not being a legislated  priority. The gas is discarded as waste,  burned off  into the environment as has been done-unregulated-- since the first oil well was drilled in North America.  The record is less than stellar. Got that, Alice?

The elephant remains silent.

Now that the outrageous  issue at hand has been exposed, the industry promises to "do better".  Isn't that convenient, warm and fuzzy  nice, Alice? 

''If we are forced to"  says the elephant, arrogantly. 

  Keep that in mind as you keep hearing "America is short of energy" and  "gas shortage"  and you are gouged forced to pay outrageous, inflated bills for natural gas simply because —according to the industry bed-time story, there's an industry-wide manipulated and choreographed shortage.  Got that, Alice? 

Remember, Alice,  this SAME elephant greedy industry  delights in gas fracking at a horrific cost to the environment and  promises safety while  contaminating water supplies everywhere.  This is ALL  essential so America can produce more gas, so they can have some more manipulated 'shortages' and flare some more gas. Got it, Alice?

 Apparently, America has energy to waste.  Got that, Alice?  ....er...no? Wait...er...Rabbit?   Who's running this rabbit-hole anyway?

  Oh, never mind, Rabbit,  just blink, It's just magic anyway.

"Meeting adjourned."

Is that Incoming I hear?

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm

Posted in Business, Economic issues, Ethics, Major Issues, Reflections | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

2013 Government Shutdown : Time to Get Serious

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee
© 2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee   [caption id="attachment_236" align="aligncenter" width="584"]"Time is Broken" "Time is Broken"        photo © by rakukkee[/caption]  

Squabbling Children  or Government?

It's time to get serious.  It will ultimately cost the economy billions.   Viewed from elsewhere and far away, the 2013 government shutdown of the United States of America might only appear to be an expensive and unnecessary exercise in exercising democracy, but is also  incomprehensible. It looks like  government  has recklessly abandoned it's responsibility and no longer represents the people. Wanting coffee, we marvel that  obligations of governance can  be used as a lever in partisan political games; the  implications of  the  US not paying it's bills and defaulting on it's debt is unimaginable. When examined,  the current spat  resembles a childish, bitter disagreement in a doddering old-boy's coffee club. Red-faced, stodgy &dodgy  politicians and power-mongers finger-wagging, hot under the collar. Foul invectives are hurled about the best way to exchange one flat tire on their mutually driven, gold-plated limo for another equally flat, useless tire.  How unfortunate. How sad. How useless.   As an aside, it kind of reminds us of the scandalous, tired and useless Canadian Senate which Canadians want abolished. No matter.  Arbitrarily "shutting down" government services is  wrong, illogical, and  unacceptable to taxpayers. Wasted time. Wasted money.  Failure by stupidity and stubbornness. Congress will not approve funding. How clever.  Perhaps everyone should resign in shame at their  failure to communicate with reason?

 Government is Broken

There is little doubt the current manipulated 'crisis' was  precipitated  by the  enactment of "Obamacare",  a legislated system considered to be unconstitutional by rightist opponents.  By any standard, partisan government is broken. Obamacare does appear to be poorly-designed, preliminary and desperate attempt to do something, anything to improve the  insurance-based healthcare system even at the risk of using unconstitutional law. The enactment of Obamacare  forces  Americans to pour profit into  rich insurance companies  buying  "health insurance products", — a strange and  predictably hated attempt to force individuals and families to buy  coverage "of their choice". "Of their choice" Raucous laughter and rage erupts.   "Insurance products" that are outrageously priced, complete with 'penalties' levied by the government  for 'opting out', i.e. not participating in a legislated, overpriced,  mandatory program.    This questionable and hot firecracker was also clearly designed  to mollify whining corporate interests  that already harvest billions of dollars  from the multi-trillion dollar business of health. Make no mistake about it; from the beginning,  the profiteering insurance industry  was not about to bow out politely in any health reform plan put forward by the administration, so the PTB  felt obligated to sell out compromise in the back room.  No matter that  millions of Americans suffer poverty, often unable to afford decent food and housing, let alone buy legislated, extremely overpriced health care insurance "products". Let's give our heads a shake for comic relief, grab another coffee, and then nod solemnly. Let's  pretend understanding of the stubborn mindset, rhetoric, and foot-dragging of all parties concerned.  Cooperation and creating a workable universal system is somehow frightening;  it is, after all, challenging the mindset of political ideology. The  contradictions. Government may be shattered in the process,obligations unfulfilled,  but no matter. We're right because we're Right, after all, we're Republicans.  No, we're right because we're Democrats.  How sublime. How out of control.  The paid plethora of politicians in geriatric gridlock no longer serves the people.

Health Care Costs Reality Check

In reality,  the  per capita costs of  the  US  business/profit-based approach to health care vastly exceed that of universal health care models  in countries such as Canada, Great Britain, and Scandinavian countries. Business, greed, and profit are only part of the root problem.  The fact that profit should not even be a part of the equation of access to health care—which is a basic human right—is politely given a withering stare and ignored to keep 'the ideology of profit'  pure. Curiously, alternative systems worldwide have functioned well for many years but no. Ideology is at issue.

Ideology Rules over Common Sense

From afar we may hypothesize that Americans, as traditional capitalists, practice iron-laced ideology, for pure capitalism is  treasured  in  the heart of the richest nation on earth.  Perhaps that model has served the most technologically advanced country in the world adequately, but insatiable greed has injected poison, dry rot and dysfunction into the vision. Regardless, Americans  continue to pursue the American Dream; profit is good. Ideology rules over common sense.

Buying  health  insurance coverage at $600.00/month with a $14,000.00 deductible  somehow MUST be 'better' than paying $300.00 or  $600.00 a year to a universal plan because THAT would be considered 'socialist'. 

Unfortunately for many Americans, the potential spectre of a universal health care system is too much to digest or even think about.  We must wonder if it is collective blind paranoia,  an abnormal fear of encroaching fascism or communism, the fear of being 'branded' as socialist  —or  the festering,  blatant lessening of personal freedoms experienced since 9/11 ? The reality check is that at times, slavishly following straight-jacket-cast iron ideology not only seems  inexplicable, but frankly, more than ridiculous. Is this the home of the brave or not? Is there never leeway for improvement in ideological models? You decide. That's not all.  There's a matter of hypocrisy.  Let's face it, the current suggestion  that  a government health care system somehow gives the government control of everyone's body raises concern.  Would doctors suddenly not have any say in treatment of their patients?  Logically, of course not. In blatant juxtaposition,  control  of everyone's health, mind and body by rich CEO's and their  profit-driven corporate proxy-government  is apparently  ideologically correct.  Other than being more expensive, is that status  really any different than "encouraging"  elected government to get to work and fulfill it's mandate to serve the people properly?  From within, ideological,  partisan  justification and excuses are always impeccable; "We,  the people,  don't want government to operate any health care system."  Can we argue with that? Well, yes. In truth,  the status quo is:   "We, the sheeple happily surrender to our proxy corporate government which consists of unelected, profiteering, pilfering corporate interests,—which shall forthwith and forever own and control our bodies and our bank accounts." Go figure.  Doesn't that impeccable logic make you  feel all warm and fuzzy and ideologically correct?  We encourage everyone, brainwashed or not,  to begin thinking for themselves

No matter:  it's the American way.

Bottom line,  the arrogance of  Republicans will likely receive the greatest share of the  blame for the costly backlash. The mandate of government continues to be unfulfilled. The cost of this shutdown may ultimately be calculated in the millions of dollars per hour, ultimately a hit of billions to an economy already struggling.  Mom & Pop corner stores, supermarkets and businesses  won't have to ponder why auto, appliance and and grocery-shoppers alike window-shop,  tighten their belts and walk away,  forced to pour more billions in profit  into "health insurance" products to enable  corporate "health business"  profiteering happiness.  It's the American way.

The True Mandate of Government

Let's cut to the chase. The true mandate of government, regardless of ideology — is to do cooperatively for the country  what people cannot undertake to do individually.  Being honest with ourselves, it may be recognized as  the only genuine mandate, —the only reason government is tolerated--or for that fact, needed at all.  Cooperation and logic are now absent.   Shut down, the government  is dysfunctional.  Is it not just a tad embarrassing?  A new model is needed. As we scratch our heads and head for coffee, we're guessing all politicians might benefit by remembering what the real mandate of government is and gear up;  it's time to get serious. Much bigger problems lie ahead. From this point of view, far away, with coffee in hand—it's great to be Canadian.   Is that Incoming I hear?   +
Posted in Economic issues, Humanity, Major Issues | Tagged , , | 6 Comments