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Sure Oil is expensive, but thank god we aren't moving to using Solar Power. Just imagine if we had an accident at one of those power plants. Worse would be an unregulated Wind Farm though, I can't even imagine the worst case senario of one of those going haywire... really I can't.
N
Mstaggerlee
Thanks! I missed it.
Harry,
Oops! I forgot to add the cost of our military to "protect" the oil interest. Yes, $400 per gallon is probably closer to the actual cost of a gallon of gas.
@DRichards -
This was a blog Thom posted about a week ago re: the REAL price of oil -
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2010/05/what-true-cost-oil
The NYT is reporting this morning that the chemical being used being used by BP "had its approval RESCINDED in Great Britain a decade ago because it was found to be harmful to sea life."
In the 70's, I read a science-fiction novel by Gregory Benford entitled "Timescape", about scientists in the future desperately trying to warn scientists in the past of ecological collapse in the oceans threatening to kill all life on Earth.
I suddenly feel like the novel is coming true. :(
@DRichards: don't forget the immense military spending that goes into protecting our access to oil. Plus, the US military is the largest single user of oil in the world. Such a deal!
@Maxrot
Or by both. I saw an interview on MSNBC in a prison warden's office. On a shelf behind the warden was a Blackwater logo.
@Drichards: gas probably cost about as much as in Afghanistan: $400 per gallon.
The true cost of oil
I wonder what the cost of a barrel of oil is; when subsidies, tax breaks, liability limits & government run clean-up funds are taken into consideration?
@Gene, and only assraped by your bunk mate and not corporations.
N
"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Haley Barbour is gov. of Mississippi, not Alabama.
So the only way for the American people to expect BP to really be held accountable is for this disaster to stay on the front page long enough that the company will be incapable of bribing politicians to get what they want. However, if it stays on the front page that long... well obviously the whole area, and other areas will be destroyed. Damned one way or the other.
N
So what do YOU think we should be using to break up this spill? Straw? Hair? Don't'cha know that nobody is gonna get rich on the use of that stuff?
Have you not yet figured out that the only solutions that will ever be deemed "workable" in today's world are the ones that will involve the expenditure of some HUGE amount of money to a company that's among the "partners" of BP, Transocean and Haliburton? Anything that's cheap, simple and seems to make sense to the "common" man will be deemed "stupid", "soft-headed" and will ultimately be dismissed.
Sometimes I wonder why we even bother.
Republicans complain about the costs of preventing pollution and caping carbon. They place dollar figures on what it will cost our economy to protect these resources as they oppose efforts to protect our planet. Democrats need to emphasize the monetary value of the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, the Amazon Rainforest, and the Earth? These resources are priceless!
Dispersants Might Be INCREASING Damage From Gulf Oil Spill
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/
Everyone knows that the dispersants being dumped into the Gulf oil are toxic. As I wroteFriday:
Highly toxic dispersants have been used to try to break up the oil. See this and this. Not only are dispersants being released underwater, but the air force is also dropping dispersants on the slick from above.
The official information for the dispersant reveals problems:
OSHA requires companies to make Material Safety Data Sheets, or MSDSs, available for any hazardous substances used in a workplace, and the ones for these dispersants both contain versions of a disturbing statement.
***
Both data sheets include the warning "human health hazards: acute." The MSDS for Corexit 9527A [the dispersant apparently being used in the Gulf] states that "excessive exposure may cause central nervous system effects, nausea, vomiting, anesthetic or narcotic effects," and "repeated or excessive exposure to butoxyethanol [an active ingredient] may cause injury to red blood cells (hemolysis), kidney or the liver." It adds: "Prolonged and/or repeated exposure through inhalation or extensive skin contact with EGBE [butoxyethanol] may result in damage to the blood and kidneys."
Indeed, the specific dispersant being used is more toxic and less effective than other alternative dispersants, perhaps because of BP's connections to the manufacturer.
In addition, new questions have arisen as to whether the dispersants might actually beingincreasing damage from the oil itself.
As the Christian Science Monitor notes today:
More relevant could be the dispersant that BP is applying to the oil at the source. BP officials have hailed the process as a success, noting diminishing oil at the surface. But the dispersant breaks the oil into smaller drops, which might instead be spreading throughout the water column, instead of rising to the surface.
It is not clear what this would mean environmentally, though past research indicates that oil can be trapped in the seabed for decades after oil on the surface is cleaned away.
Shouldn't the use of dispersants be stopped until scientists figure out whether they will make things better or worse?
Environmental issues must be taken seriously. Finally the Climate Change Bill that's been in the works for months was launched. There is still some argument for the technicalities of the Climate Bill, but for the most part all parties are starting to come together. There is still some concern with the fact the bill allows off shore drilling, with the recent oil spill event, many aren't so sure that would be such a good idea. If this bill passes it has the potential to open up numerous new green energy jobs to help our economy out of this rut it has been in for some time.
In 1928, plane crash occured. Today same thing almost happens during the plane crash. The death of a new ones. A tragic incident took place when an Airbus A330 carrying 104 individuals crashed. The Libyan plane crash resulted within the fatalities of all the people and crew associates on the plane but 1; miraculously an 8 to 10-year-old boy has survived the wreckage.
I hear you and agree with most of it, but come back to the training question. I am glad you are here contributing to this discussion, but the points I make may sound offensive, they are not meant to be, just making a defense of my point of view.
Your company is here because they viewed it financially a good thing for them, not because they wanted to do something nice for the USA.
So my question would be how long would it have taken your company to train a US citizen to do your job or learn your companies product line, or whatever the special knowledge is that you hold. I worked for Siemens before (German company), alot of Germans came over on H1 visas, some stayed and became citizens.. all were good people. But the truth is that there were few in this engineering or manufacturing environment (only really one I can think of) who could not have been hired from the US workforce. I was an engineer and mid level manager.
My guess is if you are a manager maybe with some technical background are you really arrogant enough to think that someone couldn't come in and learn your job within a reasonable amount of time? I have a BSCS and and MBA and 30 years of experience, I have been "indespensible" in several companies, but I know that is a myth. I know they could have hired a kid from India with 10 years experience and he could have learned my job enough within 6 months to take over and do just fine.
My point is that unless you are talking about Tuvan Throat singers, Brazilain Capoeira Mestres, or something that is really a speciality, Companies with a profit motive could hire and train from a highly educated US workforce within a reasonable amount of time. Corporations HAVE to do this in other countries (Japan for example), where the restrictions are much, much harder to bring in a foreign work force, or Isreal where it is impossible.
How about your own country? How many US corporations could move there and bring in mid-level managers because there was no one there who was smart enough to be educated in a reasonable amount of time? That sounds rediculous to me, and I think in 99% of the time it is. I am not against H1B visas, I just think that all companies should have to undergo a really painful process if that is what they want to do, one that the costs exceed any possible financial benefit that could benefit the company over hiring domestically.
BTW: Outsourcing is a bigger problem, I agree. It is just that H1B vias are often used to hold engineers hostage here as well as drive the pay down. This is NOT a slam against those who take them, they are often a victim in a sense too. This is a slam against the companies who use and abuse them. Now that your here, consider adopting a drawbridge mentality :-)
Best!
yetanotherguy
Hightech corporations...............................................................
are tricky too
I'm a software engineer, been in high tech since 1977. Technology at times can be very lucrative, but it absolutely requires you have to stay on top of whatever new technology is in demand. Often you won't be able to learn that "latest new thing" though your employer, and the responsibility is on you to either quit to get a job that will let you learn or learn it on your own. The getting a job with the new employer doing new technology is often much tougher than it sounds - even if the new technology was invented a year ago they always want 5 years experience with it (I'm not kidding)... Of course they want you to have done it as part of an your occupation for previous employers, so the learn it on your own doesn't count, usually your only recourse is to lie if you want the job.
I have a friend who was a great engineer with a Masters in CS/Math now living in a car in Texas as he was unable to find employment for over a year and people wouldn't touch him because if he was out of work so long that "there must be something wrong with him", he is physically crippled so he can't work in a 711 or stock shelves or do almost any manual labor, but he was very intelligent, creative, and a very hard worker. Now his home is a hammock between two trees in nowhere Texas. I know another engineer that went from a six figure salary as a senior engineer to about $25K a year as a test technician because his employer didn't let him train on new technology, then they dumped him when they phased out the product line he helped design. But hey, keep those H-1B Visas coming! Our high tech companies can't afford to retrain people, it’s better to just discard them! If you want to hear the ironic part, my friend living in a car in Texas came here on an H-1 Visa from another country and became a citizen. Welcome to the land of milk and honey.
I was just out of work for over 1.5 years, because fo the crash (thank you Goldman! and banksters), I was almost completely wiped out financially during crash and the time out of work. I went from having about 150K in the bank (and market) to now having about $12K. This is almost the same place I was in 1980 except I own no home now and have two kids in college. I have worked for most of the largest best know high tech companies at a principle engineering level. To get re-employed I finally spent the last year of my unemployment studying the new latest greatest thing (embedded Linux) at home, and then rewriting my resume to show I had done it in the last 3-4 jobs I've held as well as "invented" contracts jobs in the last 1.5 years to show I was working. Then I lied my ass off and finally got a job. I could answer the technical questions, and my resume reflected that I had done the work. Integrity is a very expensive thing when you weight it against feeding and clothing your family, but at least I am not making bombs. I am now after 6 months one of their better engineers at my new company I am earning 1/2 of my previous pay 2 years ago, but I would never have been hired if they had known what really was my history. I am sure all of the CEOs have taken a pay cut tooSealed. I think most engineers are too naive to understand this, or have the integrity to not lie to get a job.. But this is what it comes down too as a fundamental choice. I made mine.
During my unemployment, I was offered several opportunities working on weapons systems for military contractors. I chose that I would live in my car before I did that. Military contractor jobs are the only ones that you don't have to compete with H1B via holders as they can't get a clearance.
All the big companies have been moving the jobs overseas, and the jobs that are here we have to compete with lower paid H1B visa holders. The big corporations broke the unions by letting illegal aliens to do the drive wages down in the blue collars trades, and it worked like a charm. Now for the last 10 years they have been allowing wages to be held down or reduced for white collar workers by outsourcing jobs without a penalty and using H1B visas domestically. This isn't just engineering jobs, it is almost all professional jobs that take 4-8 years of college to get, you name it, and it’s probably on the list. Wonder why CEO salaries are at much greater ratios than in the 1960s? Aside from naked greed, you would have to get a greater ratio if you were driving down the labor just to stay even with what you were making.
Cisco systems moved most of its R&D jobs to India; now that Indian labor is going up they are not doing much new there but are opening in South Korea. Corporations are in search for the lowest dollar, the thing is that they can usually compete without doing this, in high tech the margins are huge, it’s not like your making hammers. IBM which has been a long holdout in keeping a lot of manufacturing domestically is now moving much of it to china. If you go to either of those companies, it looks like the UN. Two of my wives have even been foreign nationals Laughing. That's not a bad thing, to be honest almost without exception most of my best friends are from somewhere else, but it is time to STOP the government from allowing the H1B visa to be used as a tool to drive down salaries as well to fine employers a huge amount for hiring illegal aliens. These are the corporations at work to increase profits at your expense. Take care of our own first, and then allow emigration second.
There has been a class war going on for thirty years and no one bothered to tell us (okay Thom has, but it is a voice in the wilderness) no major media ever talks about this.
So to be a middle aged baby boomer at the peak of your earning career in engineering is something that takes a lot more than technical knowhow, it takes a lot of political savvy both internal and external to your company. With this musical chairs game to be in the right place to find the decreasing amount of ever smaller chairs is tough to do. But rest assured that all of our CEOs are looking out for us, just not in a way we would like.
Best of Luck all.
Yetanotherguy
I recall just such a hurry up and prepare for the "big-wigs" or "brass" ,or putting the sweat pumps on line was a term used when hosting the dog and pony show. (actually when I pause and think on it that's what the whole gig was about - trying to impress V.I.P.'s). Our ship, a destroyer escort had fouled itself with some oil and the deck crew was told to paint over the oil without properly preparing the surface as according to NavPer instructions. The paint will never adhere. The job would have to be done over next week. I brought this piece of information to the Boatswain mate. He promptly wrote me up for insubordination or some such and I was a forget-able number of hours of punishment to work off durning my off hours by performing menial labor for another department. My punishment was to re do the paint over. Looking back I see how that is really what they do best... Paint over their mistakes and the enlisted punished for it.
When Le Moyne asked " Why can't they just plug it or bury it somehow? " I laughed at the irony - Just who are the pros-from-dover?, the hot shots, the can do people that secured the no-bid contracts in Iraq because they were the only people that could do the job? So afraid were they that Sadam would set fire to the oil fields that they hired Haliburton. Haliburton.
@MaxNels -
You're depressed - I'm suspicious.
They're taking the network at my office down this evening to install "upgrades".
Probably something to block streaming applications. This means you're probably losing me, too.
If I'm not here Monday, y'all will know why.
Peace.
Day 2 without Quark... haven't seen Zero G. today either, blog didn't even roll over to a second page during the show.
Depressing.
N
It seems to me that the is a vast difference between the "local" democratic party and the "national" democratic party.
TransOcean says the critical information is missing... that doesn't sound suspicious at all.
N