August 27, 2013

$10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria Natural Gas Pipeline Construction

Christian Science Monitor

Energy Voices: Insights on the future of fuel and power
US destroyers near Syria. Oil market likely to shrug off a strike.

Syria is not a huge oil producer and the US increasingly is, sheltering the latter somewhat from turmoil in the former. Although oil prices are rising as US destroyers head for Syria, analysts say prices are unlikely to skyrocket unless the Syrian conflict spreads to Iraq.

By David J. Unger, Correspondent / August 27, 2013

"The US has deployed four US Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea, according to news reports Tuesday, in preparation of a possible attack on Syrian military sites. If American forces strike against Syria in the wake of alleged chemical weapon use by the Bashar al-Assad regime, its impact on energy would probably not be as significant as it would have been 10 or 20 years ago.

That's mostly because Syria's oil output is a fraction of what its neighbors produce. It's also because North America has had its own energy boom, better insulating it from shockwaves abroad.

Still, the threat of conflict spreading across the region has already put upward pressure on prices. And American allies in Europe still rely heavily on Middle East oil and gas, even if US imports are down dramatically since peaking in 2005 ...

US crude rose upwards of $3.00 to $109.32 early Tuesday, matching its high for the year. Prices were already on the rise due to unrest in Egypt, a low-output oil country, but one that controls vital trade routes.

"The business and energy markets don’t like risk," David Biette, an energy analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington-based think tank, in a telephone interview. "They want to know what’s going to happen." ...

It has also delayed construction of a $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria natural gas pipeline aimed at transforming Syria into a crucial energy transit hub. The pipeline would bring Iranian gas to European markets, in competition with Qatar's plans for a similar pipeline.

The shifting of the global energy landscape has helped minimize the spikes of unrest in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere in the region. New drilling techniques have flooded North America with its own supplies of oil and gas, loosening the Middle East's grip on global oil markets ..."

August 10, 2013

Inspiration

Just reading through some old stuff today. Here is one that is good -

I think this is what we need:

1) Universal Health Care

2) Promotion/Development of Local Food Systems

3) Increased Gas Prices, At Least Doubled

4) 80% Reduction In Military Budget

5) Immediate Development Of Nationwide Mass Transit System

6) Immediate Withdrawal Of US Troops From All Parts Of The Globe

7) Triple The Taxes For Anyone Making Over $75,000/ Year. Sliding Scale Tilting Upwards

8) *edited*

9) Immediate Dissolution Of All Federal Banking Systems, Creation Of Local Currencies

10) Elimination Of Rent/Mortgage

11) Fair Trials For All Members Of The Senate

12) Open Borders For People, Closed Borders For Bananas

13) Elimination Of The Automobile Industry

Naturally when I skip into my polling place and look for these issues on the ballot I'll be aroused and gleeful to pull that lever "in favor of"

Shared by Chlamor - 2007

August 7, 2013

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Threat to Democracy and Food Sovereignty

I got this paper from Food First today. It discusses the Trans-Pacific Partnership - very interesting information about our US "interests" in the South Pacific -


INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY
VOLUME 19 • NUMBER 2
SUMMER 2013

The Trans-Pacific Partnership:
A Threat to Democracy and Food Sovereignty

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), perhaps the world’s most ambitious free trade agreement,
is currently under negotiation. What began as a small regional free trade agreement has become
one of the primary tools in the United States’ geopolitical pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region.
The agreement—negotiated in secrecy—will dramatically expand the rights of corporations over
those of food producers, consumers, workers and the environment. This Backgrounder outlines the
agreement’s assault on democracy and food sovereignty and examines the TPP’s likely impacts on
food and agriculture in Japan, the latest country to join negotiations.

What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) began as a trade agreement signed in 2005 between Brunei, New
Zealand, Chile and Singapore. Since then, seven more countries came on board: Australia, Canada,
Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, the United States and, most recently, Japan. For the time being, South
Korea is not participating, despite pressure from Washington...

... The negotiating partners seek to reach an agreement in time for the October 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) summit in Indonesia—though this is highly unlikely to be achieved after Japan’s
entry. Considered the most ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the world, partners hope the
TPP will set the agenda for future World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. For the United
States, the agreement represents an expansion and deepening of its 19 existing bilateral and regional
FTAs and a strengthening of US influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Over 60 percent of US trade is
with APEC member nations, and 34 percent is with TPP partners. The US is particularly interested in
accessing markets in TPP countries for its agricultural products and financial services including banking
and insurance; streamlining and enforcing intellectual property rights; and placing limits on state-owned
enterprises. As the most powerful US ally in East Asia, Japan’s participation further strengthens US interest in the
TPP. While there is no existing US-Japan FTA, trade with Japan already accounts for 6% of total US goods
trade and 7% of total US services trade in 2011 ...

More here: http://www.foodfirst.org/sites/www.foodfirst.org/files/pdf/2013_Summer_Backgrounder_-_TTP.pdf

July 17, 2013

Comrades rally in Wisconsin -

The Walker administration’s attempt to silence the voices of peaceful singers in the capitol rotunda failed yesterday, as the Wisconsin Capitol Police’s apparent attempt to declare an unlawful assembly went unheard and unheeded by the sixty or so people participating in the daily Solidarity Sing Along.

Last week a federal judge told the Capitol Police that their threshold for requiring permits for groups holding events in the rotunda was too low. In his temporary injunction order, Judge William Conley said that it was reasonable to ask groups of more than 20 people to obtain a permit for the use of the space ...

http://www.progressive.org/walker-lackeys-threaten-free-speech


Music to my ears ...

June 14, 2013

Chemically Burned: Dow Chemical Tries to Avoid Hot Water in Worker's Death

By Dianna Wray Thursday, Jun 13 2013

His skin was on fire. Brian Johns couldn't feel exactly what was happening to him through the jolt of endorphins and adrenaline pumping through his body, but the acid was still there, sizzling through layer after layer of his skin, from the rich brown color that coated his huge muscles to the pink skin underneath it to the red sinew of muscle beneath.

The ambulance wailed through the dark of night, taking him from the Rohm and Haas plant in Deer Park to the emergency room of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, almost flying over more than 40 miles of road. Now they were rushing him down the hospital corridor, already looking over the damage, noting the second- and third-degree burns that covered more than half of Johns's large body after an explosion in an ammonia recycling unit at the plant.

They cut his work jumpsuit off him and began rinsing his body with hundreds of gallons of lukewarm water to wash away the chemicals. Dr. David Herndon, chief of staff of the Blocker Burn Unit since 1981, laid a slip of pH paper on Johns's skin. It turned red, indicating the presence of acid. Herndon told the nurses to keep rinsing.

Johns had been conscious and aware for most of the time since the explosion. He'd already called his mother, Frances Sowell. The phone jangled just before midnight, and she heard her youngest son's deep voice on the line.

"Mother, there's been an accident. Meet me at the hospital," he said. ...

Much more here: http://www.houstonpress.com/2013-06-13/news/chemical-burn-dow/

March 13, 2013

Being lectured by millionaires -

Oped in the NYT this weekend re "living with less": http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I had read the original article over the weekend so when Starry Messenger posted this critique yesterday I was thrilled: http://gawker.com/5989989/it-would-be-great-if-millionaires-would-not-lecture-us-on-living-with-less

It Would Be Great if Millionaires Would Not Lecture Us on ‘Living With Less’
Hamilton Nolan

There is something about achieving great financial success that seduces people into believing that they are life coaches. This problem seems particularly endemic to the tech millionaire set. You are not simply Some Fucking Guy Who Sold Your Internet Company For a Lot of Money; you are a lifestyle guru, with many important and penetrating insight about How to Live that must be shared with the common people.

We would humbly request that this stop.

Meet Graham Hill. Graham Hill became a multimillionaire at a very young age when he sold his internet company in 1998. Good for him. We would not be telling you about Graham Hill at all, except for the fact that he wrote a remarkable op-ed in the New York Times Sunday Review yesterday in which he instructs you, the common man, on the virtues of "Living With Less." He bases this prescription on the wisdom he has learned on his own personal journey, from millionaire with a big house and many material possessions to millionaire with a smaller house and fewer material possessions, but just as many liquid assets. And what did it take for this millionaire to learn that his 3,600-square-foot Seattle home, personal shopper, and cars and furniture and other expensive baubles just weren't worth it? ...

The interesting part for me was sharing it on my own Facebook wall to see the if anyone would read it and how they would respond. The "likes" I received were from folks who are in low-paying service jobs here, or live abroad. There is so much propaganda in this country that encourages everyone to idolize the rich (and not question the discrepancy) that I was thrilled to see any response at all.

March 5, 2013

Safe Passage, Comrade.

.920.340.thumb

EL UNIVERSAL
Tuesday March 05, 2013 06:29 PM
Hugo Chávez Frías, the President of Venezuela, died after waging a long battle against cancer, treated in Havana since the middle of 2011. The president had traveled to Cuba in the final stage on December 8, 2012, two months after his fourth re-election to undergo his fourth surgery.

In his last public appearance, he designated Nicolás Maduro, the current Vice-President, his heir apparent.

Chávez Frías disclosed his illness also from Cuba, in June 2011.