- No Recommendations yet - go add some!
- The 2013 Democratic Senate majority will pass filibuster reform changing the rules on cloture to make the abuse of the filibuster very politically costly to the abusing party.
The 2014 elections will result in Democrats taking back the House and increasing their majority in the Senate...this assumes that the Tea Party types will continue to dominate the Republican party in the media and via the hard core billionaire ideologues.
The last two years of the Obama presidency will place him in the same league as FDR in terms of a transformational presidency.
All those predictions are predicated on a coming together of the progressive movement in an intelligently pragmatic strategic manner. What hat means in plain English is that progressives actually BECOME the establishment of the Democratic party.
When he American people are offered a REAL choice between two clearly opposing ideas...large majorities will choose common human decency over policies motivated by greed.
These predictions are all well within the range of the possible...IF we are willing and able to pay the price required for their manifestation. Good stuff never "just happens". It's the other stuff that does that, eh?
- Just heard the expert's segment...I was on hold to speak to him and my phone battery died!
It's no news that there is no real absolute supply shortage. This is a distribution bottleneck due to lack of power to run pumps etc.
But the experts line was uncredible. This still smells like a pretext to raise the prices...which is what I predict will happen. It's ALREADY HAPPENING at the pumps.
Yet there is NO real shortage.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/oil-futures-gasoline-volatile-amid-evolving-view-of-sandys-impact-20121031-01456#.UJV4crR_h94
Let's hope the volatility settles down...meanwhile people who are really out of gas are stranded...and a few gas stations are making a killing.
Bottom lines: We need backup generators in gas stations and we need back up generators at all storage and distribution facilities.....AND we need political leaders who will quell this kind of panic rather than fuel it for political gain as it makes them look heroic/in charge when what they're really doing is exploiting and exacerbating fears.
What Enron did to California must never happen again!
- Part 2 of 2
What's needed is an immediate use of emergency powers of eminent domain to TOTALY oversee what this industry is doing and to SERIOUSLY expedite the repair process.
MILLIONS of people have had their power restored in the last five days! Underwater tunnels have been pumped out! Dangling cranes have been secured and plans made to build another crane on that roof. Trans all over the region have been put online after clearing and testing tracks.
Yet this industry is incapable of repairing some fuel lines from a port? Exactly HOW was/is the port "damaged"? Let's get the feds involved in getting it fixed up FAST!!! And the same applies to the pumping facilities at the storage locations!!!
And if it turns out that anyone in the industry has sabotaged the equipment to create a crisis then those individuals need to spend long stretches in prison on TERRORISM charges!!!
I now this sounds cynical but I don't trust this industry. They do NOT have the interests of human beings at heart. It's all about maximizing profit for them. That's their "job".
Also commodity trading in gasoline needs to be suspended and the price fixed at current levels. NO ONE should be making windfall profits off this disaster!!! NO ONE!!! Better to have rationing for as long as it takes to get o normal.
In NJ there is a law against individual gas stations gouging....but there's no law against wealthy powerful traders manipulating the markets and making massive killings off of potential price spikes.
Obviously this is a complex matter as there is often a conflict between what is morally right and logically sensible/practical and maximizing profits. Greed creates perverse motivations for things to be screwed.
Naomi Klein wrote on what she called "The Shock Doctrine/Disaster Capitalism......the current situation fits that mold. I would love to be totally wrong. Let's see how long it takes to clear up the distribution bottlenecks and for the prices to get back to where they were before.
Last week I could buy gas in Hackensack NJ for 3.29 cash for regular.....let's see if we ever get to that level any time soon.
- Part 2
What's needed is an immediate use of emergency powers of eminent domain to TOTALY oversee what this industry is doing and to SERIOUSLY expedite the repair process.
MILLIONS of people have had their power restored in the last five days! Underwater tunnels have been pumped out! Dangling cranes have been secured and plans made to build another crane on that roof. Trans all over the region have been put online after clearing and testing tracks.
Yet this industry is incapable of repairing some fuel lines from a port? Exactly HOW was/is the port "damaged"? Let's get the feds involved in getting it fixed up FAST!!! And the same applies to the pumping facilities at the storage locations!!!
And if it turns out that anyone in the industry has sabotaged the equipment to create a crisis then those individuals need to spend long stretches in prison on TERRORISM charges!!!
I now this sounds cynical but I don't trust this industry. They do NOT have the interests of human beings at heart. It's all about maximizing profit for them. That's their "job".
Also commodity trading in gasoline needs to be suspended and the price fixed at current levels. NO ONE should be making windfall profits off this disaster!!! NO ONE!!! Better to have rationing for as long as it takes to get o normal.
In NJ there is a law against individual gas stations gouging....but there's no law against wealthy powerful traders manipulating the markets and making massive killings off of potential price spikes.
Obviously this is a complex matter as there is often a conflict between what is morally right and logically sensible/practical and maximizing profits. Greed creates perverse motivations for things to be screwed.
Naomi Klein wrote on what she called "The Shock Doctrine/Disaster Capitalism......the current situation fits that mold. I would love to be totally wrong. Let's see how long it takes to clear up the distribution bottlenecks and for the prices to get back to where they were before.
Last week I could buy gas in Hackensack NJ for 3.29 cash for regular.....let's see if we ever get to that level any time soon.
- There are many stories about the genesis of the current crisis of gasoline supplies.
The stations with no power can't pump out the gas sitting in their tanks.
The delivery trucks can't make it through the debris blocking the roads (this is no longer true).
The ports are damaged, as well as the pipelines bringing fuel to storage depots.
The depots have been damaged by the storm.
The refinery had damage from the storm.
All of this is taken at the word of the petrochemical industry.
Why aren't there emergency generators being sent to all the gas stations with no power so the fuel sitting there can be used?
Why hasn't fema sent INDEPENDENT experts to document and oversee the EXACT DETAILS regarding the alleged damage...and the DETAILS re what EXACTLY is being done to EXPEDITIOUSLY make repairs.
WHy are we trusting an industry with all manner of perverse incentives to drive up prices by exploiting short term bottlenecks in the supply chain in such a way that all their existing supplies and future commodity contracts become more valuable if they can just create more fear and more desperation to the point where people will gladly pay four or even five bucks a gallon just to be able to get to work or to the doctor or to shop.
If that sounds overly cynical I refer you to the sorry history of Enron. That's EXACTLY what they did to the state of California!!! They created a massive period of windfall profits by taking advantage of supply bottlenecks and exacerbating fear.
Part 2 follows
- OK so now we don't have to worry about global warming or climate change....thanks to the "expert" you just had on we know that's all of this is just a coincidence. Whew!
Meanwhile, here's a blogpost from KQED which may serve as a starting point for any of y'all who may not be inclined to put blind faith in the pronouncement of one "expert" telling is not to worry about climate change as a factor in.......duhhhh, *our changing climate*!
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/05/03/is-climate-change-real-for-the-thousandth-time-yes/
>>>""Polls say 97 percent of working climate scientists now see global warming as a serious risk" according to a recent article in the New York Times. But 42 percent of respondents in a March Gallup poll said the "seriousness of global warming" was "generally exaggerated." And while 61 percent said the effects of global warming were "already happening" in 2007, that number has now dropped to 52 percent.
Recently, I asked Craig Miller, Senior Editor of KQED's Climate Watch, to go back to basics and review, once again, the evidence, that shows the earth is warming, and what the likely effects of that will be...
BROOKS: So what are the organizations that say climate change is real?
MILLER: Virtually ever major, credible scientific organization in the world. It’s not just the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Organizations like the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. And that's echoed in most countries around the world. All of the most credible, most prestigious scientific organizations accept the fundamental findings of the IPCC.
The last comprehensive report from the IPCC, based on research, came out in 2007. And at that time, they said in this report, which is known as AR-4, that there is "very high confidence" that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.
Scientists are very careful, unusually careful, about how they put things. But then they say "very likely," or "very high confidence," they’re talking 90%.
BROOKS: So it’s not 100%?
MILLER: In the realm of science; there’s virtually never 100% certainty about anything. You know, as someone once pointed out, gravity is a theory."<<<
- Brian, you should take a few minutes and read the piece in The Nation on this topic http://www.thenation.com/article/170413/stopped-and-frisked-being-fking-mutt-video
... and watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7rWtDMPaRD8#!
I suggest you invite the authors Erin Schneider and Ross Tuttle on the air to discuss this whole situation along with any potential candidates for the mayoral election.
This needs to become THE issue in the next election. It's clear that the cops are radicalizing young people pf color. Some portion of them will act out in ways that will only escalate the situation to the point where everyone's worst nightmares become actualized. That doesn't have to happen.
Treating people like animals dehumanizes both the victims and the perpetrators and leads to the eventual dissolution of civil society. We can do better.
- As of today., Obama's lead is gone....unless he and Biden kick butt in the remaining debates Romney will win and America will lose.
This was NOT "just 90 minutes" it was he first time over 60 million people could see the candidates together.......a passive inactive cowardly "moderator" isn't moderating anything.
JIm Leher is in utter denial. He screwed up.....he should have challenged Obama to respond and should have held the line with Romney and not allowed him to dominate. In other words...he should have moderated. Instead he played the role of a potted plant.
What's done is done....but it's truly a shame that the course of human history will be altered by the fact that Romney was allowed to lie without being called on it....and now millions of people are believeing the lies and buying the con job.
- By the way, Brian, having the Manhattan Institute professor give his spin on unions as if he was some kind of objective analyst was dishonest.
If you are going to have dyed in the wool partisans spinning the facts you should state right up front that your guest is a hard core right winger/conservative who is connected to a right wing "think tank" funded by the wealthy.
- Wen, the "divine" mantra you seem dedicated to is the "market".
There is so much more to life and reality than just money.
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