British Petroleum

[Len Colby]

Another sign of the times. The "Empire" is grabbing control of commodities and raw materials. Their system is doomed.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1783519&GT1=33002

OMG!! A Brit bought 7% of this years cocoa production (much less then what Europe consumes)and for now at least has taken a loss. The Evil Empire is going to come crashing down any days now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1296222/Trader-sees-cocoa-hoard-melt-away.html

[Terry Mauro]

Another sign of the times. The "Empire" is grabbing control of commodities and raw materials. Their system is doomed.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1783519&GT1=33002

OMG!! A Brit bought 7% of this years cocoa production (much less then what Europe consumes)and for now at least has taken a loss. The Evil Empire is going to come crashing down any days now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1296222/Trader-sees-cocoa-hoard-melt-away.html

7% production of coca beans is "much less than what Europe consumes"? Thanks for that news alert

Are you suggesting that these losses by Anthony Ward negate my thesis? If not thats fine, but it seems this is your position.

Keep in mind, Anthony Ward is not some outsider making a bet with his own money. He is part of the same British cartel companies controling the production and distribution of cocoa and derivative products. They set the price for commodities through a network of financial institutions that manipulate the "futures market.

These British/Swiss food cartel companies control the necessities of life and set the terms for their availability. Yes, food can be used as a weapon. Recall the famines in India set off by the British.

Anthony Ward is no dummy, and he has access to exactly the same market intelligence(and other intelligence) as Cargill, Nestles, ADM, Unilever et.al.

Taking a huge position (and yes 7% is very large)in cocoa like Ward has just done will make available to the hedge funds and traders at companies like Cargill, Nestle, et.al. with an opportunity to "short" Ward's bet and crash the future markets for cocoa.

The British Empire cartel companies will buy up cocoa supplies for a dime on the dollar. And all of it possible because Anthony Ward made the big bet and took a position that will alow these financial slime molds to "short" the market crashing the price of cocoa beans to all time record lows.

A good question, is where did Anthony Ward get $1 billion to make his bet? I bet the answer would surprise even you.

This scenario reminds me of 1992 when George Soros was credited with breaking the Bank of England and the British pound sterling. Only suckers believe that story.

Edited July 22, 2010 by Terry Mauro

[Steven Gaal]

Another sign of the times. The "Empire" is grabbing control of commodities and raw materials. Their system is doomed.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1783519&GT1=33002

OMG!! A Brit bought 7% of this years cocoa production (much less then what Europe consumes)and for now at least has taken a loss. The Evil Empire is going to come crashing down any days now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1296222/Trader-sees-cocoa-hoard-melt-away.html

7% production of coca beans is "much less than what Europe consumes"? Thanks for that news alert

Are you suggesting that these losses by Anthony Ward negate my thesis? If not thats fine, but it seems this is your position.

Keep in mind, Anthony Ward is not some outsider making a bet with his own money. He is part of the same British cartel companies controling the production and distribution of cocoa and derivative products. They set the price for commodities through a network of financial institutions that manipulate the "futures market.

These British/Swiss food cartel companies control the necessities of life and set the terms for their availability. Yes, food can be used as a weapon. Recall the famines in India set off by the British.

Anthony Ward is no dummy, and he has access to exactly the same market intelligence(and other intelligence) as Cargill, Nestles, ADM, Unilever et.al.

Taking a huge position (and yes 7% is very large)in cocoa like Ward has just done will make available to the hedge funds and traders at companies like Cargill, Nestle, et.al. with an opportunity to "short" Ward's bet and crash the future markets for cocoa.

The British Empire cartel companies will buy up cocoa supplies for a dime on the dollar. And all of it possible because Anthony Ward made the big bet and took a position that will alow these financial slime molds to "short" the market crashing the price of cocoa beans to all time record lows.

A good question, is where did Anthony Ward get $1 billion to make his bet? I bet the answer would surprise even you.

This scenario reminds me of 1992 when George Soros was credited with breaking the Bank of England and the British pound sterling. Only suckers believe that story.

*******************************************************************************

Dear Terry Mauro,

Quigely is alive and well,quoted in a recent article. This has the fuller quote that mentions the BIS, the APEX of the bank "conspiracy" . THANKS Steve Gaal

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article21340.html

The following gave me concern when I first read it many years ago and something for you to think about:

"...the powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations."

Professor Carroll Quigley

Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (1966)

President Bill Clinton’s Georgetown Professor

[John Dolva]

United States: BP disaster three months on — worse than ever

Sunday, July 25, 2010 By Ash Pemberton

Photo: Greenpeace UK/Flickr

“What the hell did we do to deserve this?”, BP CEO Tony Hayward asked fellow executives in the company’s London office, days after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the April 29 New York Times said.

Eleven workers died in the explosion that has generated the US’s worst ever environmental disaster.

BP finally managed to place a cap over the well on July 15, although its status remains tenuous. Associated Press reported seepage detected from the cap on July 21.

A dispute has arisen between the US government and BP over the cap, AP said on July 20.

On July 17, the head of the government clean up effort, Admiral Thad Allen, said a pipe would be attached to the cap to allow the oil to be pumped to the surface. This would require the cap to be detached for a few days and aimed to avoid potentially catastrophic damage to the sea-floor that could occur through the build-up of pressure.

However, the next day BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said that the well should be kept closed until a relief well is finished. Suttles was reflecting BP’s primary concern for its media image — rather than the potential further long-term catastrophic damage to the environment if the ground surrounding the well was to rupture.

Keeping the well capped helps keep BP out of the headlines. Letting the oil flow again means more bad PR. The government caved in to BP’s demand.

Hayward’s question to his fellow millionaires sums up BP’s attitude throughout the Gulf disaster —arrogant disregard for anyone except itself, combined with petulant sulking about the avalanche of outrage directed towards it.

Hayward’s infamous remark that he wanted the well to stop because he “would like [his] life back” showed BP’s total lack of consideration for the thousands of people in the Gulf who will never get their old lives back due to this avoidable disaster.

The July 20 British Guardian confirmed what had already become common knowledge: BP put profit before people and the planet by ignoring internal safety reports of a leak on the Deepwater Horizon rig, and had not used industry best practice for avoiding oil spills.

When the leak is finally stopped, BP will likely seek a major brand overhaul in an attempt to distance itself from this saga. The first change will be the departure of Hayward, who is tipped to resign in the next two months.

Hayward’s lies and gaffes throughout the clean-up process have made him a public pariah and a liability to the company’s image. A new face will have to be installed to put a clean spin on BP’s dirty operations.

Hayward will probably be “compensated” with a golden handshake. But compensation for the thousands of victims of the spill who have lost their livelihoods is looking shaky.

BP has promised an independently-run US$20 billion fund to distribute compensation payments, ABC said on June 17. However, given the scale of this disaster, and the as yet unknown affects it will have on the Gulf ecosystem, it is likely the fund will not be enough to pay for what could be generations of environmental damage.

BP’s oil spill disaster fund head Kenneth Feinberg said there was “not enough money in the world”" to pay all claims, the July 1 Sydney Morning Herald reported. Feinberg suggested home owners with plunging property values could lose out.

Feinberg hinted that people indirectly affected by the spill would not receive payment.

The appointment of Feinberg as the head of the compensation fund has been questioned. Feinberg, a millionaire lawyer, has made a career out of helping large corporations limit compensation payments.

His career was kick-started by the class action brought by Vietnam war veterans against the companies that made Agent Orange. Feinberg reduced the size of the settlement by half, Counterpunch.org said on July 2.

Counterpunch quoted Attorney Rob Hager as saying: “What is Obama's motivation in appointing this guy when he has followed a career of helping corporations escape the consequences of inflicting massive injuries and helping government to cover-up its misdeeds?”

Indeed, BP has already begun short-changing its victims. Reuters said on July 17 that the money earned by fishing-boat workers for assisting in the clean-up will be subtracted from their compensation claim against the company.

Workers stormed out of a town hall meeting with Feinberg on July 16 — declaring it pointless to continue working in the clean-up effort.

BP may also face a huge number of compensation claims from clean-up workers who have been made sick by exposure to the oil.

DemocracyNow.org said on July 7 that a growing number of workers have reported suffering flu-like symptoms. These include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, and problems with memory and concentration.

• 

From GLW issue 846

[Michael Hogan]

From cnn.com

October 28, 2010

BP, Halliburton knew of flaws in cement in Gulf oil spill well

(CNN) -- Oil giant BP and Halliburton knew of potential flaws in the cement slurry used to seal the oil well below

the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded in April, according to a letter Thursday from the lead investigator

for a federal probe of the Gulf oil disaster.

Full story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/28/gulf.oil.spill/

[Steven Gaal]

General News

4/19/2015 at 12:37:25 Chelsea Manning and the Deepwater Horizon Killings

By Greg Palast (about the author)

=======================================

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Chelsea-Manning-and-the-De-by-Greg-Palast-Chelsea-Formerly-Bradley-Manning_Chelsea-Manning_Chelsea-Manning_Environment-150419-645.html

[Steven Gaal]

Reality Check: Five Years After Deepwater Horizon

=

http://www.planetexperts.com/reality-check-five-years-after-deepwater-horizon/

=

•by: Mission Blue
• May 12, 2015

A controlled burn of oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill sends towers of fire hundreds of feet into the air over the Gulf of Mexico June 9. (Image Credit: Petty Officer First Class John Masson, Coast Guard / Flickr)
A controlled burn of oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill sends towers of fire hundreds of feet into the air over the Gulf of Mexico June 9. (Image Credit: Petty Officer First Class John Masson, Coast Guard / Flickr)

This article was written by Courtney Mattison & Rachel Devorah

It’s a heartbreaking yet familiar scene. Oil disasters of catastrophic proportions, seeping and sludging all over marine and coastal habitats; hundreds of dead seabirds and dolphins; sick residents and failing coastal economies. The same irrevocable accidents continue to occur. It’s easy to see history repeating itself, posing the inevitable question: will we ever learn from our mistakes?

As the five-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster approaches on April 20, the effects of this devastating accident are still raw throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The 2010 catastrophe spewed approximately 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in America’s worst environmental crisis to date and the second largest oil disaster in world history next to the 1991 Gulf War spill, during which Iraqi forces intentionally released 252-336 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf. British Petroleum (BP) has paid over $28 billion in damage claims and cleanup costs and pleaded guilty to criminal charges, including manslaughter for the 11 men killed when the oil rig exploded. United States District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier found BP to be grossly negligent – a charge that may result in additional fines amounting to $18 billion in new civil penalties (far surpassing the $3.5 billion BP initially reserved) pending a federal investigation by a court in New Orleans. The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) was restructured to separate the agency that oversees safety from the one that oversees revenue collection. Most of the major challenges from this tragedy may appear to be nearly resolved, but that is far from the case.

The ecosystems and communities affected by the Deepwater Horizon disaster are far from healed. They are sick and they are struggling. Gulf Coast communities still haven’t received the billions of dollars they were promised. Some of the most distressing effects of Deepwater Horizon are still being discovered, with a new study recently published in the journal PLOS One suggesting that Corexit 9500 – the chemical most widely used to disperse oil in the Gulf of Mexico – likely caused respiratory damage in exposed humans and marine life by degrading cell tissues found in their lungs and gills.

A ship floats amongst a sea of spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oilspill disaster. Date: June 16, 2010. (Image Credit: Kris Krüg)
A ship floats amongst a sea of spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oilspill disaster. Date: June 16, 2010. (Image Credit: Kris Krüg)

Last month, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) published an annual report titled Five Years and Counting: Gulf wildlife in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which provides a comprehensive analysis of publicly available research on the effects of the disaster on the Gulf ecosystem. The federal government is still building its case against BP for the ongoing trial so not all research findings have been released, but the available evidence underscores how much damage persists in the Gulf today as well as the fact that it may take decades for researchers to properly assess the full scale of the disaster.

The following excerpt from the NWF report summarizes its findings:
•In 2014, dolphins on the Louisiana coast were found dead at four times historic rates, and there is increasing evidence that these ongoing dolphin deaths are connected to the 2010 oil disaster.
•Between 27,000 and 65,000 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are estimated to have died in 2010, and the annual numbers of Kemp’s ridley nests have declined in the years since the spill.
•Twelve percent of the brown pelicans and 32 percent of the laughing gulls in the northern Gulf are estimated to have died as a result of the BP oil spill.
•Oil and dispersant compounds have been found in the eggs of white pelicans nesting in three states— Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.
•Exposure to oil has been shown to cause abnormal development in many species of fish, including mahi-mahi, Gulf killifish and bluefin and yellowfin tuna.
•Spotted seatrout, also known as speckled trout, spawned less frequently in 2011 in both Louisiana and Mississippi than in previous years.
•Both 2010 and 2011 had the lowest numbers of juvenile red snapper seen in the eastern Gulf fishery since 1994.
•Coral colonies in five separate locations in the Gulf – three in the deep sea and two in shallower waters – are showing significant oil damage.
•Sperm whales are spending less time foraging in the area around the wellhead.
•Oil has been found in sediments deep in the Gulf of Mexico, in a 1,200-square-mile area surrounding the wellhead.

Last year, Dr. Barbara Block and her team from Stanford University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that crude oil interferes with fish heart cells, giving fish like tuna in the Gulf heart attacks. National Geographic reports that the oil also killed mangrove trees, causing islands such as Cat Island to wash away at a greater rate and removing nesting habitat for pelicans. BP has claimed in its ownstudy that marine life in the Gulf is recovering and remaining damage is negligible.

Watchdog researchers like Dr. Bonny Schumaker of On Wings of Care – a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of wildlife, wild habitat, and natural ecosystems – and Dr. Mandy Joye, an oil spill expert and founder of the Joye Research Group at University of Georgia, are working tirelessly to expose the extent of the Deepwater disaster. On Wings of Care has flown with members of the U.S. Coast Guard, researchers, political leaders and the media over the Gulf to monitor and document oil slicks and marine life. “The scientists that I would take out, they were absolutely changed once I took them out there in the plane and they saw with their own eyes,” Schumaker said in an interview with Oceana. “We were flying over miles and miles and miles of nonstop oil… that’s when they realized that this is really bad.”

Pelicans drenched in oil. (Image Credit: Creative Commons
Pelicans drenched in oil. (Image Credit: Creative Commons

While the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is the largest in American history, it certainly isn’t the only source of oil causing damage to our ocean and coastlines today. Oil leaks and spills from offshore drilling and transport equipment all the time, and oil disasters occur far more frequently than reported. The Department of Interior (DOI) reports that the number of offshore oil-related accidents and injuries has increased per oil producing well since 2010 in American waters. The U.S. government has made changes to its offshore oil drilling policies and safety protocols, including new regulations announced this month for the design, operation and maintenance of oil well blowout preventers. The DOI now requires access to “containment dome technology” – a dome that can cover an exploded well to prevent gushing oil from spreading – for any company performing deep sea drilling in the Gulf, and nearly doubled the number of safety inspectors in the area. The Environmental Protection Agency is also reviewing its policies governing the use of dispersants and other chemical and biological products on oil spills in U.S. waters, and is accepting public comments through April 22. However, the Obama Administration recently approved an expansion of oil exploration along the Atlantic coast and the DOI is now reviewing a proposal to allow Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast.

If the United States is to move into an era of foreign oil independence and protect its natural environment from the atrocious and avoidable effects of deepwater drilling accidents (not to mention climate change and ocean acidification), we must prioritize renewable energy solutions and wean ourselves from oil. It’s that simple. As Dr. Sylvia Earle says, “Just as we have the power to harm the ocean, we have the power to put in place policies and modify our own behavior in ways that would be an insurance policy for the future of the sea, for the creatures there, and for us, protecting special critical areas in the ocean.”

Read the full National Wildlife Foundation report: Five Years & Counting.
- See more at: http://www.planetexperts.com/reality-check-five-years-after-deepwater-horizon/#sthash.URRZ1kJl.dpuf

[Steven Gaal]

New Study Confirms BP Linked To Dolphin Deaths in Gulf of Mexico

http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-study-confirms-bp-linked-to-dolphin-deaths-in-gulf-of-mexico/5453338

A new study published in the peer-reviewed online journal PLOS ONE hypothesizes that dolphins are dying in mass directly because of BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Though BP denies the validity of the scientific data, it indicates that impairment caused by the toxic oil is causing widespread death in the bottlenose dolphin population.

The study was conducted from June 2010 to December 2012 on 46 dead dolphins that stranded near Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama. 22 were from Barataria Bay, the hardest hit area in the spill. All were labeled UME dolphins (unusual mortality event). They were studied in reference to deceased dolphins from a separate region that was not exposed to oil.

Lead researcher, veterinary pathologist Kathleen Colegrove, said,

“We found that dolphins that stranded and died after the oil spill were more likely to have distinct adrenal gland and lung abnormalities compared to other dolphins that were not exposed to oil. These abnormalities, importantly, are very consistent with abnormalities that have been seen in other animals following petroleum oil exposure.”

Though the study examined various systems and organs, the most significant differences between subject and control dolphins were in the lungs, adrenal glands, and lymphoid system.

Whereas 7% of reference dolphins presented a thin cortical lining of the adrenal gland (adrenal cortical atrophy), 33% of UME dolphins did. 50% of Barataria Bay dolphins displayed this disorder. The researchers noted that to their knowledge, adrenal cortical atrophy had not previously been found in free-range cetaceans.

The study explained that death was likely caused directly by:

“1) affected adrenal gland cortices, causing chronic adrenal insufficiency, 2) increased susceptibility to life-threatening adrenal crises, especially when challenged with pregnancy, cold temperatures, and infections, and 3) increased susceptibility to primary bacterial pneumonia, possibly due to inhalation injury, aspiration of oil, or perturbations in immune function.”

As Stephanie Venn-Watson, veterinary epidemiologist at the National Marine Mammal Foundation and lead author of the study clarified,

“Animals with adrenal insufficiency are less able to cope with additional stressors in their everyday lives…and when those stressors occur, they are more likely to die.”

Further, Colegrove remarked that

“These dolphins had some of the most severe lung lesions I have seen in the over 13 years that I have been examining dead dolphin tissues from throughout the United States.”

The lesions are caused by severe pneumonia, which according to the study, was often caught because of adrenal cortical atrophy.

Additionally, the analysis found that “UME dolphins had a higher prevalence of lymphoid depletion in either or both the spleen or lymph node than reference dolphins.”

The researchers acknowledged that there could have been other causes of death among the UME dolphins, including “combined oil exposure, an unusually cold winter during 2011, and fresh water infusions.”

Nevertheless, the study concluded that “… contaminants from the DWH oil spill contributed to the high numbers of dolphin deaths within this oil spill’s footprint during the northern GoM UME following the DWH oil spill.”

Though BP was ordered to pay a $13.5 billion fine (less than expected) as punishment, the sum amounts to the cost of doing business with a government that creates hegemonic systems of oppression by colluding with corporations. The fine parallels the futility of recent DOJ fines on big banks that perpetrated the financial collapse. In spite of billions of dollars in slaps on the wrist, the corporations forced to pay maintain full power.

Naturally, BP refused to accept responsibility for the spill’s effects on dolphins—in spite of the fact that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest in history. The 200 million gallon spill endangered countless animalsand still pollutes the region. Even so, BP said last week that

“The data we have seen thus far, including the new study from NOAA, do not show that oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident caused an increase in dolphin mortality.”

The study was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and “other federal and state trustees,” but it was also funded by BP itself. In response to BP’s statement, Colegrove stressed a rigorous peer-review process.

Whether or not BP admits it, dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico continue to suffer the harmful effects of the company’s disaster. As other marine animals also struggle to survive, it is time to hold the perpetrators accountable not only financially, but by lessening the power the corporation wields over the system..

[Steven Gaal]

Gulf oil spill: Still poisoning dolphins to crickets
Dead bottlenose dolphins had damage to lungs and other tissues, types previously linked to oil exposures

By Beth Mole 6:45am, June 9, 2015

======================================

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/gulf-oil-spill-still-poisoning-dolphins-crickets

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Steven Gaal]

BP Oil Spill: $18.7 Billion Fine a Mere 2% of It’s Enormous $929 Billion Revenue

Remember the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that killed 11 people and dumped some 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf a few years ago?

Well now the company has been ordered to pay the largest environmental fine in the nation’s history at $18.7 billion dollars, the final settlement to be divvied up among the Gulf states who suffered most in the oil spill’s wake.

Sure, $18.7 billion sounds like a lot of money even these days, but check out this chart (via The Independent):

The company only made 928.67 billion in revenue in the years since the spill. How ever will they be able to pay that hefty fine? (It’s not even 10% of the company’s gross profit; it barely makes a dent.)

This money won’t make it to the pockets of the people actually affected. It never does.

$18.7 billion… So that’s how much it costs for the deaths of 11 people, the rape of a whole ecosystem, and continuous negative health impacts on millions of humans and animals throughout the area for years to come?

Hundreds of tar balls still dot the beaches of Louisiana even today, something that will continue for who knows how long. But don’t worry:

BP senior vice president Geoff Morrell says the signs are good for a healthy Gulf.

“There is nothing to suggest other than that the Gulf is a resilient body of water that has bounced back strongly,” he says. “The Gulf has not been damaged anywhere near the degree some people feared it would have in the midst of the spill.”

The company, who obviously has a great vested interest, says it’s all good.

On a sidenote, did you know that BP Oil CEO Tony Hayward sold off 1/3 of his total BP stock (that’s 223,288 shares) on March 17th — just a month before the explosion? Did he know something the rest of us didn’t?

If you haven’t watched the Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theories episode on this oil spill yet, you might view the whole thing a little bit differently after you do:

- See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/bp-oil-spill-18-7-billion-fine-a-mere-2-of-its-enormous-929-billion-revenue_072015#sthash.pfEvRBGn.dpuf

Edited July 2, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

BP Deal: Path to a ‘Cleaner Gulf’–or Guaranteed Future Disasters?

=

http://www.globalresearch.ca/bp-deal-path-to-a-cleaner-gulf-or-guaranteed-future-disasters/5461575

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(please SEE POST above this one)