Cthulhu - Mondays suck

Clam-chowder

It's a been another Monday with all that that entails, and not less so than at Cthulhu's project headquarters in the caverns of the great deep.
First, a project to steal land, and build an oil sprinkler pipeline to poison the land and the drinking water of 17million people, got canceled - because somehow they noticed how the pipeline thing works.

But perhaps worse than all of that, Cthulhu's trusted minion and part-time toady, was captured in photographs with a shrimp cocktail and a bowl of clam chowder. The timing couldn't hardly have be worse for Cthulhu, the process of confounding earthquake recovery is only just getting underway; The Trans-Pacific partnership legislation will soon be signed into law and will need a strong hand in a studded and spiked glove to crush all opposition; And those ponytails don't pull themselves.  The public first learned of this development when prime minister John Key announced that he would be resigning next week "for family reasons". Getting fired by an authoritarian cosmicidal mollusk for chowing down on his tender bits - it's the old family way.

The Mount Roskill by-election saw the loss of another minion from Parliament, inconvenient in itself, but more worryingly for Cthulhu, the public mood is clearly changing and his mindbending isn't working like it once did. It may be time to rationalize efforts and focus on Washington. Of course Cthulhu's main minion there isn't happy either, he just lost at least a half million in the North Dakota sprinkler pipe project.

Austria looked like it could work for Cthulhu, the far right put up a strong effort refusing to concede that they lost the recent election. Then they folded. "So gutless, not even an attempt at a bloody coup. They could have competed with Syria for air time, what waste". "It is at times like these, I wonder if I'll ever get to end the universe. Of course, I have never been beaten by any other planets. So why start now?"

Japanese Whalers must stop suggests FSM

Today the Flying Spaghetti Monster has announced a new suggestion that "Perhaps Japan's whaling fleet would do better by refraining from ramming vessels engaged in non-violent direct action because it just gives piracy a bad name, especially while the fleet has exceeded its permits for 'scientific whaling'." Commenting on today's International court of just ruling his noodliness said "I think it is a good move, it'll be great to see the whalers take action and stay at home. I did take quite a bit of care to make sure whales evolved, it would nice to not have them driven into extinction by an industry that is it self headed for extinction."

The FSM also noted an incident in the southern ocean. "The most disturbing thing I spotted recently was when a 8000t Nisshin Maru and a 5000t fuelling vessel put literally put a squeeze on the 500t Bob Barker, that's not what real piracy is all about, it's a black mark on the tradition of the pirate traders of colonial America who dedicated themselves to supplying colonists with affordable tea and coffee and breaking the evil empire of the East India Company."



At least the Somalis have a genuine desperation to support their case for the most part, but Japan's whaling fleet is producing a product that no one really wants, and even ends up being dumped, after storage in industrial deep freeze storage. Piracy as busy work is just plain silly, and when associated with destructive and pointless activity, barking mad. If i Didn't know better, I could swear they were working for Cthulhu the destroyer.

Many might be wondering how the industry survives with no market, Americans call it corporate socialism. Members of Japan's political system who have perhaps too much in common with Strom Thurman, Louie Gohmert, Mitch McConnell, who would supported by people who have much in common with Fox New's audience all have fond memories whale meat on their plates which was introduced to ensure an adequate level of protein in the Japanese diet after World War II when Japan was a mess, and would have mass had starvation with out it. Nowadays, there are better options with less mercury. And then there is the cultural thing, a few coastal villages did take advantage of whale strandings, and harvest whale meat that way but whale hunting was never really a thing until American advisers showed them how. Most other villages exalted whales in a religious way, so for them and those of their tradition whaling is a sacrilege.

The MV Bob Barker, is currently docked in Port Of Wellington, and today was the last day in which they were having free public tours. Well worth the 30-40 mins. The ship itself has a very interesting history, she may not look it but she is 60years old. The working life of most vessels is 30years. They don't make the quality high carbon steel she's made from any more. She is basically a floating fuel tank, this gives her the capacity to stay in antarctic waters for the full season.  And it does help that the whaling fleet is as welcome as a fart in a elevator car, the first task is finding the fleet, a task made easier when other vessels like tourist ships are willing to give away the fleets location. And this has happened on a number of occasions.

In February, a harpoon ship the Yushim Maru #3 pulled a sharp turn across the Bob Barkers bow causing a collision, while the whalers and their friends like to claim the Bob Barker rammed them, you can see by the video, that the Bob Barker does not turn with respect to the waves until it is struck. Ignore the wake, and keep in mind that since the camera is mounted on the Yushin Maru #3 and can create the false impression that the world including near by vessels are turning when the Yushin Maru #3 is turning, so the trick(clever thing - not doing climate gate again) is to see how the Bob Barker is moving in relation to the ocean. The evidence here is the Bob Barker is moving in a straight line, and the whalers are moving into straight lying.

See also
  3News: International Court of Justice - Japanese Whaling not scientific & must stop.
  Scoop: Yushin Maru No 3 hits Bob Barker
  Telegraph: Yushin Maru #3 cuts off Bob Barker[VIDEO]

Thousands say no TPPA

Today thousands of New Zealanders marched demanding an end to the secrecy surrounding the TPPA negotiations. Including and estimated 500 at parliament. People from all walks of life and across the political spectrum. While next to nothing of any substance has been officially announced to the public, negotiators themselves have said there will be little in it for New Zealand.
What is known about the TPPA comes from leaked documents available at wikileaks.
Three things stick out as big concerns for New Zealanders.
Pharmac negotiates for cheap medications, this is likely to be seriously curtailed, either preemptively by Pharmac soft balling to avoid suit under the investor-state disputes chapter, or by suits claiming lost profits by pharmaceutical corporations seeking compensation from the tax payer.
SOPA the "Stop Online Piracy Act" tabled in the US house of Representatives, was so awfully unworkable it would break the internet, and so clearly hideous that not only were there street protests, even Google and Wikipedia protested it with 24hour black outs.
The ability of government to legislate for the public good will be subordinated to good of multinational corporations in member countries. Philip-Morris in Hong Kong could sue the tax payer for lost profits if we implement plain packaging as Australia did. There is already a pending case against Australia for their plain packaging law.

The thing that bothers most critics of this "treaty" is the unusual secrecy with which it is being negotiated. Even US Senators have publicly complained they can only read the text if they specify which bits they wont to read, and sign documents swearing they wont tell anybody what they have read, and while they are reading it they can take the documents out of the room.

Given what we do know about the history of "free trade" agreements and their economic effects, and more specifically the leaked chapters of this agreement it hard to understand why any country with an advanced economy would willingly sign up to this pig in a polk.  If this thing is so good, why the secrecy? Any one would be forgiven for thinking there was some chance that if we understood what was in it, we might hate it more than the oh so suspicious secrecy which it has surrounded it.

For working people in advanced economies like New Zealand and USA, the biggest threat comes in the form of investment mobility, what this means, investment capital will be more freely movable to low wage economies, meaning that higher wage economies will manufacturing workers toss into the street to scrape for the jobs in the wonderful world of minimum wage service industries which are pushing for no minimum wage, while offering zero hour contracts and precarious employment. This is get that step too far, after 30 years of neoliberal economics, which has only offered a plentiful supply of empty promises, while delivering the wealth created by working people to the top 10% of income earners. Just how perverse this situation has become, was recently well summerized Bill Maher (See here at Raw Story).

See also
  3News
  One News

America the post apocalyptic nightmare?

Perhaps not yet, but seems there are people trying really hard to make it happen.
A big story hit the media in the last 24 hours, North Dakota, the growing scandal of radioactive filter bags from the fracking industry being dumped anywhere but in a dump. It turns out dumps are prohibited from taking radioactive waste. and there is nowhere in North Dakota to properly dispose of these filter bags, just to sure, check down the back of sofa and comfy chairs, because these bags are being disposed at random by fly-by-night operators stashing them any where they can.

The first mention of this story I saw was of the abandoned gas station where some these bags have been dumped. The meters used measure upto 1000 pCi(pico curies) went off the scale with some bags. A reading of 5pCi is the maximum safe level.

Moving right along, the is the mess of Duke Energy poisoning 70miles of river, and the regulators well maybe we should look in to it.

West Virginia, Most rural residents used to get their water from aquifers,  the coal industry has progressively poisoned the aquifers, leaving the river the only clean natural water source in the state, until the Freedom Industries spill poisoned it too.

And the Koch brothers have a Jones for Keystone XL, that will produce giga tonnes of PET coke, the dirtiest coal substitute bought only by countries that can't afford coal.

Around 30 nuclear facilities  have basically the same design as Fukushima Daiichi, and are located downstream of Hydro dams in the vicinity of geological fault lines.

What could possibly go wrong?



See Also:
Nuclear Power Stations
Duke energy Coal Ash Spill, Let's inspect.
Cool, clear water - not in WV.

Have the Koch's jumped the shark?

Reviled for funding climate denial by the majority of the scientific community, only to  lose the war for public opinion which remains their real target in an effect to garner grass roots support for fuel and tax policy the that benefits their bottom line without regard to the consequences for humanity or even their own legacy. The Koch's for their own reason's born of their peculiar Liberterian ideology want to see the Affordable Care Act fail, and so are funding attack ads scare young people away from it. The first two were just bizarre, with one of them featuring a young woman patient and Uncle Sam with a speculum. which presented the counter factual concept that the government would require detailed medical information in order to process applications. This ignored the fact that eliminating pre-existing conditions as grounds for denial eliminated the need for such enquiries.

More recently the campaign has centered around middle aged women telling stories about how "Obamacare is unaffordable", "the lie of the century", "I lost my coverage due to Obamacare". There are just a few problems worth mentioning here.
The official name is the Affordable Care Act, it was given the portmanteau by Fox News (Faux Noise).
Fact checkers have been having field days debunking these ads.
These ads aren't talking about anything more than Obamascare a strawman parody that Tim Burton could not make more horrifying.
In short these ads present these stories and that is all they are, stories. The kind of stories parents tell there kids when they want them to grow up to become off the grid preppers who reach for a bazooka at the first sign of civilization.

So, why would any think they were jumping the shark. When I saw the ad being debunked a couple of days ago, I thought, yeah same old same old. But today, Harry Reid, in session called out the Koch brothers by name and decried the lying in this ad campaign.

Money in politics is a bipartisan issue or it should be. and the Koch's efforts under mine the ability of government to exercise the will of the people which to have the provision of the Affordable Care Act in place so that they no longer have to put up with over priced unreliable delay deny coverage.

The Democratic Party is as pro corporation as the GOP but there is apparently a limit to how much silence that buys. The Tea Party faction that was gutted to find they were in a fake grass roots group resulting from the Koch Brothers money trying to game the system could start speaking up. They hate the money in politics too, the problem is their reps are bought. and the GOP moderates stain their shorts at the prosect of being primaried in there own electorate by bought lunatic Tea Party candidates funded by the Kochs.

Source: Washington Free Beacon

If you have no limit to deceptive speech in politics, eventually it will get push back, it has happened before, it will happen again. A constitutional convention, or reform led by congress is inevitable. Considering some of the cuckoo efforts to compromise the first amendment I believe congress should act on money in politics to preserve the first amendment to prevent USA becoming Sudan and having people marry goats.

See also
  Harry Reid: Kochs "un-American"
  Sudanese goat marriage

Does John Campbell's coverage of Noble Bob Douglas's "some success" mean an about face?

Still green Mr Campbell?

Tonight a story presented by John Campbell has caught the ire of some hardworking folks fighting to keep our local environment a fit place for New Zealander's to prosper, calling into question the direction John Campbell may be taking his coverage of the issues.

This story is introduced as a quick update, and at about 3 minutes 4 seconds, it is likely a story that was squeezed in last minute, these things happen in news cycles. Early in this story on tonight's programme John Campbell's item points to the impressive piece of technology that is the exploration ship (Ig)Nobel Bob Douglas , so impressive it costs $1m/day to run. Impressive, yes, it is. Virtuous, hardly, but that was not mentioned in the clip.

The piece mainly focuses on opinions in Raglan while the introduction does mention that Raglan gets the bulk of the risks, and few of the benefits. Lines like "And not always sitting the newly lawful distance away." allude to the dodgy Mining and Resources Act clause introduced last year. "In short Raglan gets the environmental risk, although it would have to be a catastrophic spill to reach here, without the direct economic benefit Taranaki would enjoy."

One person interviewed, talked about how as consumers people like himself are part of the "problem". He seemed ambivalent about the value of Anadarko's exploration in New Zealand. Odd logic really, even an addict committed to recovery can understand and say rehab is good and understand that their supplier should be kept at some distance. And their are viable alternatives, it is just a matter of developing the scale. Ethanol+vegetable oil -> esters (aka bio diesel), runs nicely in a diesel motor with a little tuning. To be fair, it is easy to find people who haven't quite thought things through, or are not fully acquainted with the available options. Jo Averge with a mic shoved in his face rarely the thoughtful creature they are in more pensive moments.

Another person, was enthusiastically in favour  of exploration. Which is still a position held by more than one third of the public, though that number is falling. Clearly the position of the unrepentant addict, like the boozer that says "It's only few. I'm just being social. I'm not hurting anyone."

And the last person, essentially noted that the oil company staff wont have anything to do with Raglan and that "it would do Raglan no good at all." This makes a very good point that Raglan and much of the country will see little benefit from exploration. Our royalties are among the cheapest in the OECD, the government's role in this deal is like a dip-sh*t dad that opens to two men who "We're burglars, we've come to do your house." To this, the dad says "Sure fellas, will it take long? The wife will be home in thirty minutes."

One person noted how the jobs were highly specialized and that he did not know anyone in the industry.  Which does bring forth the issue, that while the industry will create jobs, they will not be filled from our local work force, but from imported expertise.

The (ig)Noble Bob douglas is reported to have had "some success". Which suggests oil or gas were found. While a full report is expected on Wednesday, the signal can for now represent at least three possibilities.

Worst case: They found oil or gas at commercially viable pressure,  which means the carbon addicts will be back to get their fix, putting our local environment at risk and putting the global climate deeper into chaos, destabilization and extreme weather.

Best case: They found oil or or gas at very low pressure making extraction non viable. In which case, Anadarko so nice to see you leave.

In the middle - but still very bad, the pressure is low, but high enough that pumping water into to the reserve will mean that they still make a profit from extraction even though  it will cost them. Extraction may even involve fracking.

This analysis was not offered during the coverage of the story. Perhaps as a breaking story there wasn't enough time to prepare an analysis or time in the show to present it.

I note that John Campbell is a journalist, an item like this is news. And so he reported it. While he seemed a little too excited in reporting the story, the question remains is that because he's reporting a big news item on a big issue(a journo's wet dream) or because he now thinks the find is a good thing, is faking it under instruction, or is just rushing to get through it in 3 minutes. He also pointed to some risks of the exploration. To some extent it could be considered he said/she said fake balance coverage, if you miss his somewhat non specific pointing to the risks that Raglan faces. Risks that John Campbell's audience should by now be quite familiar with.

If there is an about turn in Campbell Live's coverage of the issue, I don't see it. It would be an important shift, that I would hope not to see. But if someone can show me evidence of such a shift I'd like to see it. Such things are not unheard of and now that they've found what they are looking for, it is possible that they just dropped a big advertising contract on MediaWork's sales desk. But I need more evidence in order to accept that a U-turn has taken place.

Can we  see Simon Bridges loosing his cool on the show again - now that is what I call full disclosure.

See also
    Campbell Live reports Anadarko's  "some success" drilling off Taranaki.

ADDENDUM 4-FEB-2014
It appears that while a possible imbargo may have been in place last last as Campbell Live reported "some success" in a story titled "Has Anadarko found oil of the coast of Taranki?" Any gleeful body language might be attributable to knowing that Anadarko came up empty-handed. Apparently "some success" means "We drilled and it didn't blow up in our faces." And that is oil industry success I can live with.

But they are still exploring, and heading to a site off the Otago coast. I''m hoping for similar results. After that there is the Pegasus Basin site off the Kaikoura coast where MV Duke is engaged in seismic testing, deafening whales dolphin etc. But surely who would question a large multinational trying to make a buck  while #$%@ing the wildlife that drives existing local industry. Anyone with a thought in their head I would say, but I'm crazy like that.

Money can't buy Academic integrity

Money can't buy academic integrity, but Charles G. Koch can buy veto rights to hiring academic staff at Florida State University.

It could hardly be more fascist a corporation having so much control in a state institution. Except perhaps if CGK were to become president of FSU, but he won't do that it is too much of a time commitment, so instead he has minions do hiring and firing at FSU economics department.

This is an obvious and blatant attempt to buy credibility for views favourable to Koch Industries and Corporations in general thus giving fascist friendly propaganda the appearance of Independent support.

See Also:
    Raw Story

Simon Bridges spazzes out on Campbell Live

Minister for Energy and Resources, and Associate Minister for Climate change issues, (seems like a conflict of interest to me) appeared on Campbell Live and proceeded to have a tantrum worthy of  guano psychotic Michelle Bachman. the only thing he didn't say was  "'Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand, '"

See the interview here

Simon Bridges seemed out of his depth, like many in the Tea Party, spouting talking points that barely if at all address any questions or issues raised. He also seem to be trying to win the conversation by simply talking louder and oer John Campbell. John did call Bridges out, clearly a little exasperated, in the most professional way for this nonsense, but Bridges continued. Continuing to demonstrate a disregard for facts not seen in New Zealand politics outside of case resulting in fraud trials. Bridges tactics were a brilliant demonstration of handwaving, that should be study by boy scouts aiming for the semaphore badges. Brilliant also how John pressed to admit that drilling would be in waters twice as deep any other drilled in NZ waters to date. They effort Bridges put into avoiding making this strongly evident.

Strangely it seemed, it was like he was working from a Tea Party media handbook. But then with all these US based Oil companies, If we export crude to the US, Koch Industries will more than likely refine some of that oil. With the Koch Brothers funding Tea Party's start up and spending $200m to defeat the Affordable Care Act and shutting down the US government to make it happen, it does not seem so strange. It seems quite reasonable in fact. All it needs is proof.

It has been noted that once the TPPA is signed there will be no backing out at least not without getting sued by multinational companies with reserves big enough to buy the entire country.

Simon Bridges also made illegal to protest within 500 metres (546 yards) of an oil industry vessel. The law contravenes international law and the principle of the right to non violent protest, of the sort the Arctic 30 have been charged with piracy by the Russian authorities. Note 1,300,000 people have written to Russian ambassadors in a effort to #freethearctic30.

See also
    Full article John Campbell holds Bridges to the fire
    Koch planned shutdown
    itsourfuture.org.nz

The US fight-back begins

Had enough of this yet?

Slave wages hurt us all, as most spectacularly illustrated in Detroit, where the auto industry was saved in the 2009 bailout by reducing new-employee wages to 14-16/hour reducing the city's tax take and increasing demands on welfare programs thus driving it into bankruptcy.

The auto-industry is not the worst for low-wages, the fast food and big box retailers like McDonalds and Walmart pay so little (about $9/hour) that employees need state and federal support just to survive.

To make matters worse House Republicans passed the agriculture bill with industry concessions and dropped the SNAP provisions because what they wanted was so tight fisted they couldn't get through negotiations before expiration on existing legislation started to cost the producer industries money.

Surely someone must see, how this pattern of greedy behaviour is hurting America and the American Dream? Well, yes. And they are starting to push back and demand a rise in the federal minimum wage to $10/hour. This and a cost of living adjustment is supported by 80% of Americans.

If you are an American, contact your congressman and let them know that you support this too. They will move to make this happen quickly if they have to spend time taking your calls on this issue, rather than using their time to call donors for campaign donations.

Shake rattle and roll, then spill?

At 9:06 this morning my chair started wobbling, the phone cable on the wall started swinging, and my flat(apartment) started creaking. No, this was not a burrito escaping captivity. Some 30kms East of Seddon a minor fault line let loose a M5.7 earthquake from 8km below the seafloor.

The quake was felt from Taranaki, to Christchurch.  The location of the quake puts it in the region where Anadarko has permits for exploratory drilling. After today, this seems even more stupid than it already appeared given that it will take months just to get the contingency resources in place on top of the weeks of drilling for a relief.

Spot the quake location and its proximity
to Anadarko's hunting ground.

To make matters worse they are insured for NZ$30m of cleanup costs. The grounding of the Rena clear show that this would wholly inadequate.

To many, especially in Wellington, this project is the poster child for stupid, Just for the risk presented to the fishing and tourist industries alone.

North East of the quake location lie the Kaikouras, a region known for whale watching, it may seem strange, but tourists don't come here to see gassed whales covered in crude oil and Corexit.

It is not well known among the public that spilled oil treated with Corexit is much more toxic than floating crude. But the problem for aquatic mammals is that the oil off-gasses volatile components. These components are corrosive to organic tissues, particularly, found in lungs. Of the many photos taken in the gulf of Mexico, at least one captures a whale with a huge blood clot near its blow hole. Photos taken in the same location days later show a dead whale. This is not the sort of thing we want to be showing tourists.

We would also like to be eating locally caught fish, partly because we have one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world. Recreational fishing also generates business, and this too would be damaged in the event of a major spill.

But also what we have here is Big Oil pissing on our leg and telling us it is raining.  Fuel prices here are among the highest as a portion of household income, even though they are "middle of the road" in $/litre. In part because any little thing becomes an excuse to raise prices, but they never seem to drop all the back.  To be fair there real pressure though they like to deny it, because this is the post peak oil era. The Oil industry will cease to exist in the next decade or it will go down with the rest of civilization having created the volatile climate that will wreck them both. That pressure may yet see, Big Oil sacrificed to save civilisation, so in the mean time they are making hay while the sun shines. Customers sort of understand oil is harder come by and accept the pump price offer because they feel there is nothing they can do about it.

But there is, a suitable mixture of filtered use cooking oil and alcohol is cheaper. Paying the road user changes gets to be a little inconvenient, keeping track of the odometer, filling in a form, cutting a cheque, or other payment method. But since used cooking oil is derived from plant sources it adds little CO₂ to the atmosphere. UK residents have been on to this for a while. Often getting pulled over as police on traffic duty noticed the take-away odours coming from the exhaust. And checking up on payments for road user taxes.

GE can do good - sometimes.

Today on my facebook feed was a story for ThinkProgress about GE's new extra efficient wind turbines. These new turbines have new features putting them a big leap ahead of their competition. They can provide output that better matches demand, in part because they have batteries which allow responsive output that can participate in frequency regulation. This ability means that energy delivered by these turbines is twice as valuable in the electricity market as that produced by gas or coal fired plants or even other wind turbines.
When GE get busy in their core business they certainly can do wonderful stuff, for which they should be applauded. Notice the small black spot above the generator housing, that's an engineer - these things are massive!

But another arm of the GE empire still leaves a sour taste. GE Money's business practises leave something to be desired, causing some to accuse GE Money of predatory leading and dishonest advertising practises.

See Also
  Think Progress - Totally cool new wind turbine
  Better Business Bureau - GE Money Bank