Tag: Corporatism

The Lockerbie Bomber and Big Oil

DO GIANT CORPORATIONS REALLY CONTROL SOVEREIGN NATIONS . . . OR IS THAT JUST CONSPIRACY HYPE?

Ever seen pictures of Muslim kids rocking back and forth in a madrasa school? Think vacation bible school on anabolic steroids. Seriously, it’s pretty sad. Little kids, like 5 and 6 spend the whole day kneeling, rocking back and forth while they monotonously recite the Koran for hours on end. Some of these kids are regimented like this for years and years. I have no medical idea what happens to the human psyche when a brain is robotically programmed this way, but it helps me comprehend the phenomena of suicide bombing. Scientists say we’re hard wired for survival and nothing is more repugnant to human nature than self-destruction. So, if that’s true, how does a person’s natural, hard wired instinct to live get overwritten by a phony religious command from Allah to blow oneself to smithereens? Remember the 60’s phrase “brainwashing,” to me it’s no more or less complicated than that.

So what’s the point? Well, it seems one such brainwashed Muslim grew up, made a bomb and in 1988 vaporized 259 people aboard an airplane over Scotland, and murdered 11 more on the ground. But he didn’t do the suicide thing. He hid the bomb in a Samsonite suitcase. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, head of security for Libyan airlines finally was caught for masterminding the plot. After a preposterously convoluted trial lasting 9 years, he was finally convicted and shut away in a Scottish prison. 

Last week the Muslim got a get-out-of-jail-free card, 19 years early, and went home to Libya. Then came an impassioned international outcry, mainly by the families of people he blew up. Everyone wondered . . . what in the world is Scotland, a seemingly civilized country, thinking? Political officials across the world issued harsh rebukes. Finally responding to international pressure the Scots were forced to speak. Here’s what they told us: the Muslim was released early on compassionate grounds, as “he had terminal prostate cancer.”

A few more days of worldwide anger boiled-up, and then it came out . . . this wasn’t the real reason he was let go . . .it was a private offshore oil deal. Continue reading “The Lockerbie Bomber and Big Oil”

Juriscribe checks in with a great post on executive pay. Lesson of the financial crisis #1: Why good corporate governance matters to everyone.

FORGET HEALTH CARE, IF THE CRAZIES WANNA LOCK AND LOAD LET ‘EM TAKE A BEAD ON CORPORATE EXECUTIVE PAY

Ever wonder why you just paid $2.75 a gallon at the discount Kroger pump? Oil went from $145.00 a barrel in July 2008, down to $34.00 in December. And, when the recession hit, domestic consumption went way, way down. So . . . how does this supply and demand thing work anyway . . . shouldn’t the price be really cheap right now?

Well, here’s a possible answer that the feds are saying they’re gonna look into. There are these super rich corporations, investment bankers and hedge funds that manipulate the commodities markets, and make money from us by keeping the prices of things we gotta have, like gasoline, artificially high. In other words, they flip the supply and demand rule upside down, and hijack the market. A Los Angeles Times Business column Money and Company reported about 30 days ago that a report was coming out soon that will show oil traders, aka “speculators” are to blame for the oil prices’ spike ups in 2008.  Imagine the profits – let’s say you and buy all the oil contracts we can get our hands on at $50.00 p/b and by the time we sell, we’ve spiked the market to $145.00.

So who are these traders or “speculators?” If you ever saw the documentary film “Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room” you’d know. Watch this You Tube clip, or if you’re really intrigued, watch the whole film some time. (Personally, I think it ought to be part of the core curriculum in every high school). There’s a scene in the You Tube clip where some Enron energy traders are laughing about manipulating California’s electricity grids to jack prices up. If you wanna cut straight to the chase, start watching at about the 2 minute mark.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvLZBv8HsO4]

Right now there’s a lot of grousing by corporate execs over this Citigroup oil trader, and his bonus pay for the fine work he did for Citigroup in 2008-2009.  The execs claim the government is unlawfully tampering with his pay package, and illegally taking away his “earnings.”   This Continue reading “Juriscribe checks in with a great post on executive pay. Lesson of the financial crisis #1: Why good corporate governance matters to everyone.”