Category Archives: Geopolitics

Ten Questions related to BP Oil Spill and Wealth

Posted on June 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

This is going to be one of my briefer posts. It is also one of the least finished. It sticks with simply asking some large questions that are not easily answered. That is because I want to focus on Carl-Henric Svanberg’s BP’s generous response to us “small people” for whom they have given up one year of dividends and also setting up a special fund for victim compensation.  

The fact that BP has placed twenty billion dollars into a victim’s compensation escrow account is certainly a very good thing. We are mostly pleased by that development and I think that Ken Feinberg enjoys a fairly high level of goodwill and respect here. So let us be clear about the fact that the money helps.  This is without regard to whether or not it is enough money.

1. Louisiana, most of all and other Gulf Coast states  have developed a system of leases, licenses, seasons, turtle excluders, pollution control and cultural traditions which has maintained a highly productive seafood industry while preserving the resources that are the basis of fisheries far from here from which we receive little money. We internalize the cost of responsibility and now have been agin greatly assaulted by obvious deluded idiots in the larger world.  Will there be a fiscal response to this set of financial obligations and their effects?

2. American policy of sending everyone into unstable industries and cheapened college educations is clearly moronic. We have maintained a whole class of high paying and decent skilled careers of the type this society hates. Now this sector is again assaulted and the whole infrastructure will tend to tear it apart if nothing is done. Will there be sector support?

3. BP is clearly run by people whose social skills are just above those of a gorilla troop. Will there be an effort by skilled people to work within the complex and enduring social fabric of our coast?

4. When food production is affected in any big way more food is taken from the poor in the world economy by a long string of events. Will anyone  actually care about the misery that may be suffered as far away a s rural China or Ecuador?

5. Will the natural resources management  professions be given social support in this context or will money men and politicians make all the policy decisions?

6. Will the utter cluelessness of policy regarding Louisiana’s unique wetlands in the federal government be really examined?

7. Will the pelicans of the next five generations get health support under Obamacare? Will there be funds to study wildlife survival and reproduction over years?

8.  Will the realities of seafood processing piece work be understood by anybody? Or will all decisions be made by people who think food comes from stores in plastic sheathing?

9. Will    there be any effort to clear the backlog of coastal restoration projects which will have to compete with the aftermath of this disaster for various resources?

10. Will someone give these BP executives a chance to meet with all the small people here who love their big strong protectors from across the Atlantic so very much?

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Environment, family, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Nguyen Lineage, Oil & Gas Industry, Sweden, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Vietnamese community, Western civilization, Wetlands

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BP Oil Spill,7 Questions & 2 Proposals Going Forward

Posted on June 16, 2010 | 1 comment

Breaking News Since this Morning when this was Posted: Numerous reports confirm that BP agreed in a closed session at the White House to put $20 billion in an escrow account to pay victims claims. This is of course good news if it is borne out by the facts. It is also true that it does no answer to all things which are threatened for which claims may be slow to emerge. Nonetheless, the Obama  administration and others are to be congratulated on their efforts. Ken Feinberg who administered the 9-11 settlements and has acted as the Obama pay czar is in charge. He has a talent for achieving settlements which are low but not entirely unfair. He is one of the most mysterious characters of our life times if one really examines the matter. However, KF is a very gifted man. Nothing below this paragraph was edited in this post  because of this news.   

I am going to put forward a few questions  and even fewer proposals related to and inspired by the great BP Oil Spill. Last night I commemorated the one year anniversary of my grandmother’s death and my own 46th  birthday with about 30 of my mother’s family members. I also received greetings from scores of other people. I am grateful to all who added to the occasion. There are always those one would have hoped to hear from but doesn’t, however it was most gratifying. However, it is notable that many of us were discussing the oil spill much of the time.

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On August 2, 2010 I am adding a bit more content to this already overbrudened blog.  As chance would have it I never really spent a proportional amount of writing time on my grand mother Beverlee Hollier Gremillion’s death. It was at the time of my 45th birthday and within days of my brother’s wedding in which I was involved and in addition to all of this I was sort of between wrting outlets. That opprtunity has past and I am not going to try to recapture it now. But I am going to add a note to this anniversary note deep in my past posts. On June 15, 2010 we went to a  memorial service before going to eat at Schuck’s restaurant.  My grandmother was able to run a crew of servants and part-time employees who were helping her do ten things at once.   She had relationships across class and race and income that she attended to and was involved in a sort of empire of small things with my grandfather. Their holdings included apartment complexes, rental houses, presidency of a modest port facility, presidency of a savings and loan, a few furniture stores and real estate speculation.  She could and did paint and draw and create decorative scenes and effects. I called her Mamon with an accent grave over the “o”. She sang me a little song that rhymed my name with questions about travel and adventure when I was a child.

She was a great cook and loved to feed people. She had a tremendous capacity for embarassment.  She was embarassed by ancestors who may have slept around and engangered family legitimacy of some sort. She was embarassed by ancestors who were prudish, sticklers and concerned about legitmacy and marital fidelity. She was embarassed by aristocratic ancestors who exalted themselves over their neighbors. She was embarassed by ancestors who were plain and democratic in their views and ways. She was ambarassesed by skepticism, atheism and religous fervor. She was embarassed by each of the German, French, Acadian and Anglo branches of her ancestry at one time or another.She was embarassed by Hebrew and anti-Semitic ancestors.  She was embarassed by ancestors who were Unionists and those who were confederates. She was embarassed by relatives who were chaste and religious, those who were homosexual, those who were remarrried, those who were promiscuous and those who were  faithful homebodies. Easier to undertand was one particular side of the family which in two particular generations had more than two people who in their lives both served time and were in mental institutions. Yet, she and I disagreed profoundly about the propoer strategy for not driving an entire family to crime and madness. The only person she was never embarassed of in my presence was who ever was dependent upon her because of terrible publicly known trouble deserved or not at that particular time.  But it was not wise to have too many troubles only you and she were privy to. 

She respected her artistic and business savvy mother whom we all knew had starved her of affection all her life. Her compensation had been a father who had been electrocuted when she was a young woman. The details are uncertain to me. She drank, through wild parties, smoked a great deal and had many friends who were respectable and many who bad and dangerous to know. She could be cruel and merciless and our separate struggles with Christianity were very different.

I think of her often. She was one of the great influences upon my life. I have always considered her an example of how many bad things can exist in the moemory of one person and have them still go on living.

Beverlee Hollier Gremillion was a single Louisiana life. It is hard to imagine understanding her very much at all in a quick and fleeting relationship. Everyone is different but she was different in a Louisiana way.

Remembering her reminds me of all that Ken Feinber and other have to figure out.  I will return to my text as it was at the end of this paragraph knowing I have other posts explaining how he could come to know this place netter and address the needs of those who live here.

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Proposal One:

 I would urge anyone to try to put into place some of the provisions of my rather long-standing (if evolving) proposals for Louisiana coastal policy.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

I will say that proposal means a comprehensive barrier island plan, innovation, urban and flood waters redistribution and many other things. But read the post — it is not long.

Questions One through Three:

1. How quickly will the Bobby Jindal (Dutch Engineer Plan) Barrier Island enhancement plan be completed? Included in this can safe construction wastes, key jetties, grass planting and other items be included in the initial plan no matter how funded?

2. Could Federal Disaster Funds be used to pay for even a few cut in bad old oil levees in the Atchafalaya Basin which have been recognised as needed and which could increase key water control just about now and in the future?

3. Can some of the unspent Federal Stimulus monies be used to hold an emergency environmental summit on the Gulf Coast which shows cooperation with BP even if we jail, bankrupt and disgrace them (because this is a crisis calling for the carrot and the stick as well as the rest of the arsenal of options)?

Proposal Two:

When one is really on the outs in the way that I am all proposals are against ones own interest. Whatever is done it will probably hurt one’s own position in more ways than it helps one. That is the nature of being far enough out. But here is another proposal:

The Energy Minerals Indemnity Program Going Forward:

1. I propose that whether imported or produced here going forward there be  a set of surcharges on fossil fuels. All of these would be administered By a sub agency called the Energy Mineral Indemnity Program:

a. i. I propose that there be fifty cent per barrel charge for crude oil,

  ii. I propose that there be  fifty cent per cubic mile charge on all produced natural gas and a thirty cent percent per cubic   mile   charge on all flared gas.

 iii. I propose that there be fifty cent per ton charge on all coal.

 iv.In addition every single safety violation recorded by and state or federal agency would be classified as major or minor.  A major violation would trigger a contribution of $100 to the Energy Minerals Indemnity Program  and a minor violation would trigger a contribution of  $10 to the same program.

All of these charges would be in addition to all existing taxes except that it would replace the current (I believe it is eight cents per barrel) which oil companies pay into the OPA fund.     All payments would be divided in the same way.  The first 25% would go into a fund for Disaster Response for all Energy Minerals and accessible by all energy mining and moving companies. The second 35% would go into a mineral specific Disaster Response fund: an Oil Disaster Fund, a Natural Gas Disaster Fund, and a Coal Disaster Fund. Then 15 % of all funds would support a Clearinghouse Office for Species and Ecosystem Support in the EPA which would offer grants and expertise for state, local and private organizations create nature reserves, hatcheries, rescue programs, spill barriers and other infrastructure to proactively protect nature near and in the path of energy production.    The next 10% would support an Energy Whistleblower’s and Investigation Board  under the joint management of Interior and Justice Departments. Another 10% would Go to an Alternative Energy Investment Planning Office. This office would give development grants to alternate energy enterprises which would agree to offer their business for sale in a kind of venture capital auction to the fee paying energy companies first.  Very modest tax incentives would be offered in addition to this development seed money to  participating energy companies that acquired these assets.     The next 4% would be held in an escrow account earning interest in the name of each rate paying entity. The last 1% would be paid to a reinsurance pool in which all insurance companies operating in the energy sector would be required to participate. 

Accessing the 65% of the funds which have an insurance role would be done as follows.

1. A pure ten million dollar deductible would attach to every year and every incident for each payer for which they would get no cash at all. After ten million dollars they could access their administered escrow account to pay claims in a speedy manner to third parties but not to mitigate the disaster directly.

2. No funds other than administered escrow accounts would be accessible until fifty million dollars in harm for natural gas and coal and one hundred million for oil. That would be the Threshold Deductible Amount.

3. After reaching the Threshold  each payer would  co-pay 25% of costs from the threshold to one billion dollars. They would co-pay 45% from one billion to three billion dollars. They would co-pay 75% from three billion to ten billion dollars. After ten billion dollars they would be required to pay the entirety. The reinsurance program would be structured so as to require participating insurers by law to make it certain that the fund could meet its own side of these obligations. Insurers would have an incentive to push for greater safety as well.

Questions Four through Seven:

4. Will existing insurers be brought to a summit soon?

5. Will an integrated safety archives be created soon?

6. Will  states be invite to file white papers expressing long-term safety concerns?

7. Will we learn from this terrible tragedy?

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Posted in Acadians, Birthday - June 15, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Frank W. Summers, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, Organizations making change, United States of America, Wetlands

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We’ll See if BP’s Viking Shows His Horns

Posted on June 11, 2010 | 1 comment

President Barack Hussein Obama will be meeting with : BP Plc chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg to discuss this Oil SPill crisis. Obama will be able to talk about his Nobel Prize and discuss this new disaster. I would have the readership look at my posts relating to this topic in a different context. I will see what the Swede who is at the helm of a major telecommunications entity in Scandinavia and the Nobel Peace Prize Winner can do to work things out.  For me so much of the situation is so very bad. I see so much about how our whole society and government and our world are functioning in the details of this crisis.   

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/the-nobel-prize-and-western-civilization/

One thing I have not done is to give specific directions about how to handle this disaster. That is because to a remarkable degree I have struggled long and hard around the world to end up a nobody and nobodies cannot give directions in the real world. In the hell that is much of my life I can only look on at all that goes forward. I am willing to take up arms one day and die in some absurdly unwinnable cause but until I do that I will mostly be carping from the sidelines. It sort of underlines the despairing hellish quality of my situation. 

I also know that Sweden is in many ways a great country and for those who wish to see what it has to say for itself one can look at their own writers. Here is a list of Swedish newspapers:

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/sweden.htm

Here is a link to an article in a major Stockholm paper which has a fabricated picture of Obama poking his finger at Svanberg. This was the most noticeable coverage of the spill. Although the picture is labeled as a montage it does uphold the proud piratical Viking heritage somehow.  Svanberg comes in as a true son of Trondheim bringing death, ruin and destruction. However aside from the ways in which we are the innocents being hurt I would remind the horned hammer worshippers that this is Louisiana of the cannibal Attakapas and this is Louisiana of the first Sicilian Mafia in the New World. This is the Louisiana that gave birth to much the leadership of the Black Panthers who followed in the tradition of the Louisiana Native Guard  of Afircan-American Creoles who proudly fought for the Confederacy and their right to enslave Black people and then sold out the Confederates and made a seperate peace in war for the Union and the freedmen. This is the Barataria Bay  he is polluting  from which Jean Lafitte came to help slaughter British regulars leading a force largely made up of Louisiana Islenos, Acadians, Germans, Spaniards and Blacks as well as immigrants. This is the Louisiana of the Knights of the White Camellia and the White Leagues and the large scale lynchings of white Europeans as well as African-Americans. This is the Louisiana of the Acadians and their ridelles, Comites de Vigilance and rumored  groups like the Loups Garous. This is the adoptive home of Zachary Taylor– our only US President whose nickname was a nomme de guerre, “Old Rough and Ready”. This is where Pierre Gustave T. Beauregard was born and reared and lived, he was the man who would first follow his Confederate moral convictions by firing shots in anger on the flag he had long loved. He had of course grown up among not only old Creole families but also among families of both Bourbon and Napoleonic aristocrats who fled France when their governments were deemed criminal. This is the Louisiana that was the principal home of Judah P. Benjamin who was the openly Jewish Secretary of State for the Confederacy in a largely antsemitic World. This is the the Louisiana of the Machinist who kept the Confederate raider running which circumnavigated the world and fired the true Confederate forces last shot in anger. This is the Louisiana that produced the tactical boats some claimed made the Second World War winnable and the boating culture that created that weapon is whom they have most offended.  Among the newest comers. many of the seafood community are Vietnamese and very few people as a group are harder working and better Catholics (with a little Buddhism here and there) and they have just elected a fine law-abiding man as a Congressman. However, this is a country where royalism is the uniquely ilegal political position. The community from Vietnam has among them the Nguyens many of him have dozens of kings in their direct central ancestral line who ruled by honor, sword, courage and divine right in a country with few natural resources surrounded by powerful competitors. They have learned to take a lot of grief — I am not sure they ever learned to love it.  Louisiana values do not include keeping the rules when the rules are twisted and corrupt and creat only injustice and ruin. Consistently Louisiana has stood against the world-wide tide of idiotic horror and tyranny which BP so perfectly exemplifies in this instance. If not a drop of oil hit our shores and not amn had died they have apparently done us all so much harm. Standards were always too low. But reams of evidence indicate they have tried to lower them. Louisiana is a place where stands are sometimes made that the world remembers.

Frankly, as Svanberg condescends to leave Sweden to come to the New World he will be briefed. But I am not sure the Swedes  will ever understand us.  They will not believe a very racially and culturally diverse group can be all that tough (if it was the einners would not be so tolerant to keep the others around. They will not believe that the  New World can have a colony in which the people are so rooted. We are in many ways their total opposites there in the Fjords. So if Svanberg chooses to find a high path I hope he will find those here who will walk with him on it. If he chooses to wake ancestral hell-fires on these shores he may find there is enough hell fire here to match even the gruesome legacy of Trondheim.  

It will not be easy for us. But if he chooses to lead us into hell he may find there are some of us who have been there before. I hope that none of this is relevant in any way.

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Posted in BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Frank W. Summers, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Nguyen Lineage, Oil & Gas Industry, Organizations making change, Sweden, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Vietnamese community, Western civilization

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BP Oil Spill, The World Cup & The Better Chances

Posted on June 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

I am not going to take a complete break from the Posts about the BP oil spill to discuss the World Cup. But I do want to discuss the World Cup nonetheless. I have been a sportswriter. As a sportswriter and as a feature writer for newspapers I have often written about soccer. As a world traveler I have often called it football or Futbol. As the games begin with South Africa and Mexico battling it out in the new Soccer City near Soweto, South Africa  I am watching and thinking of the US versus England which airs in the early afternoon Saturday my time.  England is a tough team and brings a great deal of respect to the event and commands it from us.

BP did not bring that same level of respect to its task here and does not command such respect. I have read and heard from many sources that their disaster response plan for this well dealt with walruses and sea lions (which do not live here) while ignoring most of the hundreds of species they threatened. What a horrible grotesque group of people for us to have to deal with who love and depend on these unique wetlands. Such vile minds inflict themselves on us all in a way unimaginable among the World Cup contenders. Maybe BP should hire some of the England staff and players to give them a basic orientation lecture about preparation.

 To be so hostile in fact to South Louisiana  and other areas in preparing this venture is beyond the parameters of mere greed and laziness. I am hopeful that somehow the story will end better than it has begun. In a few years I may finally leave this region for good but it will always be home. I will simply not be living at home any more. That is something I have done for years at a time before, leave here and live abroad. However, I used to hope a life would come together for me here but I have reached a point where it just seems impossible. The oil spill is the last great horror in a lifetime of reasons to give up on being here. Yet still it will always be home.   I do not think it would be right to discuss best case scenarios of recovery from the oil spill yet. However, it may be permissible to discuss some better case scenarios. Despite all the ongoing destruction and suffering it may be possible to behave in a moral way and discuss the possible better-rather-than-worst  results of the oil spill. For me there is a certain sense that in the small niche this blog occupies in the big world of cyber space there is little room to speculate on the good that may come out of this tragedy. But nonetheless, whatever good may come of this is part of  the event and its consequences. Since I am blogging so much about this I might as well blog about those good consequences as well. Just as every qualified country  from the more than thirty participants can at the time I write this at least fantasize about winning it all so I can fantasize about some good results.

1. Maybe the whole Oil Pollution Act regime will be improved.

2. Maybe a really sound coastal policy will have a better chance moving forward.

3. Maybe after the purifying trials of the present the reservoir of oil will fund a dynamic economy in the region  and nation.

4. Maybe state revenue sharing will work out sooner and more rather than later and less.

5. Maybe Gulf of Mexico oil will help the Arab world to sober up in its addiction to bad policy and fanaticism in religion among other things. If there is a large US oil find then all sides will have to adjust geopolitical positions. This could be the start of a large enough find.

I am not counting on any of these things happening. I am tired, discouraged and depressed. But in the spirit of the World Cup’s start I am focusing on the path to glory. Although few reasons for confidence may present themselves.

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Posted in Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Mexico, Oil & Gas Industry, South Africa, Sports, The World Cup, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Western civilization

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BP Oil Spill & Politics

Posted on June 7, 2010 | 1 comment

 This is going to be one of my shortest posts on the spill. I think that we can see that (while BP claims it will not be an issue in this case) the insurance aspect of of US Oil Pollution Act law and regulation is grossly inadequate. The federal government are involved but they have not declared the Gulf Coast a disater area which would free up the machinery of governance and money and then allow for the billing of BP while addressing parts of the crisis in a more timely manner. As of this oil kill of wildlife was found in texas and so now every Gulf Coast state has been affected. 

I actually find the assurances that this will never happen again upsetting. Such a claim will excuse the industry from improving mitigation, containment and deployment technology. It will excuse government from creating better insurance and response and licensing regimes. It almost makes certain that their will be another catastrophe instead of only a potential catastrophe. Unless Hayward and others mean the result won’t happen again and will cooperate in making needed changes in governance and industry. However, such an attitude has never existed. This “never again  attitude” is like a kind of meth which people are allowed distribute every where and only receive love and respect in return. It is time for grown-ups to somehow assert themselves. 

I encourage you to contact the Louisiana Congressional Delegation. Contact information is available at the following link:

http://www.ebr.lib.la.us/reference/pathfinder/louisiana_congressional_delegation.htm

You can also contact your own legislators if you are from elsewhere. That may help a great deal. You cna also contact the White House at the link below.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/04/ground-louisiana

I am just going to mention these things and encourage my readers to work awareness of this spill into their political consciousness.  We must deal with this as a political event as well.  I personally have so much horror in my memory and have had enough nightmares in my life that it is hard for me to muster much emotion for any given crisis. However, if you can honestly express outrage this may be a good time and place to do so. Let people know that the oil spill is a priority for you if it is.  

I also want to mention that there were no oil sightings for coastal Louisiana published this weekend by GOHSEP. Therefore I have published their map of locations,sightings and models for these days at the bottom of this page.  

Protests are going on in many places

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Pelicans Injured & Killed by BP Oil

 

June 5-7 model and projected trajectory

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Posted in Acadians, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands, White House

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The BP Oil Spill & Tyranny: Links and Notes

Posted on June 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

I. “If This Be Treason Make the Most of It!”

I will not interpret or attribute the quote above nor even say what it has to do with the horrors and struggle  in the Gulf of Mexico. For me the gusher crisis is the very strong indication that we should have real and radical change. I do not think we are likely to undertake the right changes. However, prior to the spill I had been outlining some ideas for radical change. I believe that the word Tyranny which was once the greek word for a bad monarchhas been changed by usage. The Greeks had a word for a bad aristocracy which we translate as oligarchy now and a word for a bad democracy which was ochlocracy. They could discuss intelligently what a mixed government that combined the rule of the many, few and one would be like when it was rotten. Even though most of there best political sages believed the best government would combine rule of the one, the few and the many.  Other thinkers like Montesquieu also saw that mix as ideal and it is the template of our governance. But I do believe our government has become corrupt as an institution in a way which makes it an institutional tyranny. It is from this base of ideas that I have written many blogs posts about radical political change. These posts propose change. However, while I am not hiding these posts there are too many of these blog posts to link them all to this site. These posts are in this blog and follow the link I am posting just below and the one linked here is a good place to start reading them:

FWST1. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/the-mental-ferment-for-men-and-women-who-might-foment-an-american-revolution-part-one/

I have among these many posts one which describes changes that might be useful to have in effect as this crisis has developed. So it will be out of sequence but will show where the proposed regime had intended to bring the country:

FWST 2. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/the-direct-imperial-government-in-the-new-american-regime-part-two/

While the post describes the inner workings of a proposed regime which is complex and has many parts I think you could read the two posts I have linked from that long series and have some ideas about what a possible regime change might aim to achieve. If it did exist right now then the Imperial Waste Authority (which is purely imaginary right now) might play a vital role.

II.Business  Media Coverage  of the Oil Spill

This catastrophic spill is getting attention even from those who one might argue are the most committed to the status quo. See the Wall Street Journal’s coverage in the link below:

WSJ 1. http://professional.wsj.com/professional-search/search.html?ar=1&dt=4&mf=0&pg=1&ps=25&sb=1&pid=0_0_ES_1000&cnt=&st=3&nfddg=0_0_EA_DeepDive_32|WIZARD_EDITOR_ID|deepdivel1&mod=wsjpro_hphook

WSJ 2. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704764404575285772746839504.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

See also Bloomberg’s Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-04/hayward-pledges-to-steer-bp-through-crisis-has-board-backing.html

So while none of these people or institutions are advocating radical change as I am they can all see that this is a very serious situation.  We are also in a country which was already in some trouble and had some difficulties which were well-defined before this gusher blew through its controls. Besides those who are making lots of money in business under the current mode of the country’s operations there are also those who are highly motivated to be recognized as being accurate. I have a few links showing the views of such people and institutions seeking to discuss the BP Transocean rig Macondo wellsite Gulf of Mexico Spill:

III. Academic Insight into the Spill

My own undergraduate alma mater:

 UL 1. http://www.louisiana.edu/Advancement/PRNS/news/2010/477.shtml

UL 2. http://www.louisiana.edu/Advancement/PRNS/news/2010/EnvironmentalEffects.pdf

This University of Louisiana has a lot of resources to bring to this discussion that are likely to emerge as the crisis unfolds. They are likely to bring more of those resources to bear as one needs to analyse things in detail. They have expertise in petroleum and wetlands related subjects for example. However, they also have expertise in understanding how the whole complex of cultural and market forces which make up the state’s tourism scene. See this link for that  coverage:

UL. 3 http://www.louisiana.edu/AboutUs/Excellence/CCET.shtml

My own graduate alma mater, Louisiana State University:

LSU 1. http://appl003.lsu.edu/unv002.nsf/9faf000d8eb58d4986256abe00720a51/c8166483d13083bd862577370071fde5?OpenDocument

However, I want to make it very clear that I am referring to none of these people and groups in the Academic because I believe that they advocate cultural change.  All of the people listed above are simply evidence that there are major issues involved in this major event.

The longer the crisis goes on the more there will be discussion of what it all means. The news is still spreading. The ferment of political discontent may grow over time. BP has no certainty about when it can get control of this situation. We are in the throes of a full-blown calamity. The world can see the struggle as well, which I indicated in my last post. I have a sampling of world press coverage of these events which indicates that this spill commands some world attention.

IV. World Press Coverage

See this example of coverage in the China People’s Daily:

WPC 1. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/7012683.html

The online version of El Diario from Mexico:

WPC 2. http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=3e3a7ea2c10f01e84a137cfa322f779e

The coverage in the international online periodical Japan Times:

WPC 3. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20100605a2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes+(The+Japan+Times%3A+All+Stories

V. American Change Agents

There is a crisis. That much we know and the question becomes is our system creating or worsening the crisis in many ways. I think that it is. I want to explore our political situation within this context.  Now I am leaving behind a review only of the discussion of the BP Gulf of Mexico Spill. I want to discuss those who are looking for change. They do not all seek the same kinds of change and some do not believe they favor any kind of radical change. Yet, the truth is that all of them are seeking change and proposing policy or lifestyles that if they were more successful would remake America. I am listing only groups that I believe are both legitimately American and legitimately responsible groups. 

I think that we can argue that this is a time that demands radical change. I do argue that it is time for radical change. While the regime change that I have proposed earlier in this blog’s posts are my ideas and I do not claim that other American change agents support them I do think it is significant that there are many “American Change Agents” who are not informed by selfishness or hate primarily but pursue differing responsible ideals. So I want to discuss what the options are and why we should consider those options. Of course I would like to see them informing and enriching the vision I have proposed. Together we might reach more successful solutions.

A Sampling of  Other American Change Agents

Catholic Far left with Deep Right Harmonies

ACA 1. http://www.catholicworker.org/communities/index.cfm

Deep Indigenous Right with Left Roots Harmonies

ACA 2. http://www.ncai.org/

American Critical Left 

ACA 3. http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/next-deepwater-horizon

Mostly Protestant Activist Left 

ACA 4. http://go.sojo.net/campaign/climate2010

Strident Independent Outside Objectivism

ACA 5. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0604/Louisianans-to-Obama-on-BP-oil-spill-Show-us-we-matter

The Counterrevolutionary Right in Catholic Populist Form

ACA 6. http://www.tfp.org/

Committed Christian Fringe Left

ACA 7. http://mcc.org/

Center Right Patriotic Catholic Voice

ACA 8. http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/index.html

This is only a reminder of a group people say is dead — I do not agree.

ACA 9. http://www.royalty.nu/America/Hawaii.html

American Leftist Innovation

ACA 10. http://users.erols.com/ccnv/

Deep British American Centrist Force

ACA 11. http://www.scottishrite.org/

Trying to find and preserve a Confederate Voice

ACA 12. http://www.scv.org/

V. GOHSEP’s Oil Sightings

I would like to end this post as I have the last two posts by simply reproducing what is reported on GOHSEP’s site in terms of daily oil sightings.  They show that we still have not yet reached the worst case scenario but things are not good.

Oil Sightings Report June 4, 2010

Plaquemines:
Sighting: Heavy streamers 5 miles east of Grand Terre Islands
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Sheen near South Monka Island, 7 miles NW of Barataria Bay
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Thick oil in the Lake Washington area, 8 miles NE of Grand Terre Islands
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Sheen with tar balls approximately 1 mile NW of Grand Bank Bayou with stranded wildlife
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Oil south of Bennie’s Pond, 7 miles NE of Pilot town
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: North of Bay Long, the boom around the island is completely saturated and allowing the oil to approach the marsh
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Oil on the rocks off the state park shore
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Oily sheen located at the mouth of Bay Baptiste
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Heavy sheen at Four Bayou Pass, 7 miles NE of Grand Terre Islands
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: 50 yards of saturated hard boom on the bank at Quatre Bayou Pass
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Oil on an island in the eastern portion of Bay Jimmy extending 3 to 4 miles N of the island
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Sheen with tar balls 200 feet wide in Bay Long at Point Chenier Ronquille
Date: 4 Jun 10

Sighting: Heavy oil sheen at Pass Abel, 8 miles E of Jetty South Pass Light
Date: 4 Jun 10

Jefferson Parish:
Sighting: Metallic sheen with tar balls extending from Middle Bank in Barataria Bay to Coupe Abel
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil with sheen at Port Eads, 3 miles W of Grand Terre Islands
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Sheen in water, mile E of Mendicant Island
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil just off rocks, SW side of the Grand Terre Islands
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Heavy oil with streamers, 3 to 4 miles inside Coupe Abel Pass
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil slick with stranded wildlife in the middle of Barataria Bay
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil 2 miles E of Grand Isle with stranded wildlife
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil 1 mile SE of Basa Basa Island
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil 1 mile SE of Grand Terre Island with stranded pelicans
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Sighting: Large tar mat mile SE of Barataria Pass
Date: 4 Jun 10.

Lafourche Parish:
Sighting: Gray sheen ribbons between Snail Bay and St. Joseph Bay 2 miles South East of Little Lake
Date: 4 Jun 10

Terrebonne Parish:
Sighting: 2 miles of containment boom on the shore of Raccoon Island
Date: 4 Jun 10

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BP Spill: Environmental Awareness links & questions

Posted on June 4, 2010 | 1 comment

Will there be a system producing the oil and gas before the relief wells are completed, supposedly in August?  Will the relief wells be fully successful early on?  There are so many distressing images coming to us over the spill cam.  For me there is so much of my memories and hopes long ago lost are brought to mind. my own life was already pinched in before this disaster. To understand the freshwater sytem behind the saltwater marshes that are behind the almost lost barrier islands. One can see that there are oil and government scars that are still across Louisiana. This spill is an attack on a struggling set of ecosystems and while they are vital and fertile they are not extremely resilient. So we hope BP gets it capped, will they?  

The Cut and Cap had not succeeded to the fullness of its potential when I posted this blog.  British Petroleum is working its robots all over the wreckage they have tried to clear and clean up. They have a trimmed Blow Out Preventer gushing more oil than ever before and a cap that was lowered down without a riser pipe to collect the oil. In addition the seal certainly seemed to be spewing lots of oil.  I of course am not sure what exactly is going on and I do believe that restoring the barrier islands is important. I have however seen that in the context of a larger system. my idea is described in the next link. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/ 

I hope that I wake up tomorrow to the news that the gusher is capped. However, I probably will not. Even if I did there is already a great deal of oil to deal with.  For me the world was already in a very big mess before this spill and the spill threatens a very strained set of cultures and ecosystems. So I want to look at the spill just as an environmental issue and incident in this post and yet also connect it to the  events and an analysis that have been developing. 

 The situation in the Gulf of Mexico is dire and not likely to get better very soon. I want to use this blog post to discuss this as an ecological and environmental disaster. I will also provide links that discuss this incident from that point of view.  Then I am providing some links and samples from other sources to just give a context and vision of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Audubon Society has a unique claim to be involved and informed in this struggle.  That is because John James Audubon, the namesake of the society did much of his natural history research and bird painting in Louisiana.

1.http://www.audubonaction.org/site/PageServer?pagename=aa_HowtoHelp

2.http://www.auduboninstitute.org/gulf-oil-spill-resources

Besides the Audubon organizations there are many other major environmental organizations weighing in on the situation. I have located a few major links here as well. No two of these groups have exactly the same perspective.

3.http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/06/03/the-ixtoc-blowout-31-years-ago-today

4.http://oceansociety.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-spill-in-gulf-proves-need-for-oil.html

6.http://www.gulfmex.org/director.htm#oil

7.http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/wildlife_conservation/threats/offshore_drilling.php

II. Assessment of the Situation

Besides these organization above that are advocating for various kinds of environmental policy and response there are others in the world trying to report on the situation. I list a few of those in links by home country. These reports are all very different and may offer useful insights into what we can expect different groups and interests to be discussing.

USA

Time has photos of affected wildlife.

1.http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1992275,00.html

New Orleans has a major newspaper covering the situation.

2.http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/bp_places_cap_on_gulf_of_mexic.html

Scientific American Magazine looks at how the Spill could affect the microbes and their role in the Gulf, especially that area called the dead zone. 

3.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-will-the-oil-spill-impact-dead-zone

The Society of Petroleum Engineers marks  the event and refers visitors to three other sources. See their text.

“Gulf of Mexico spill

The Society of Petroleum Engineers wishes to express its concern for all those impacted by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and support for our colleagues who are working to resolve this situation. Updates on the situation are provided at the following locations: BP, Deepwater Horizon Response and API Gulf spill.”

4. http://www.spe.org/index.php

China

China’s National English Language TV discusses alternate energy policy in light of this spill.

5.http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20100603/101270.shtml

United Kingdom

BP reports to the Prime Ministry in London, England.

6.http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7143846.ece

III. GOHSEP Sightings in Louisiana

I have decided to end this post with the GOHSEP report on oil sightings so we can base the rest of the reading and discussion on basic facts about the oil’s landfall.

“Oil Sightings Report June 3, 2010

Plaquemines:
Sighting: Large dark red/brown ribbon of oil southwest of Tiger Pass (north-east to south-west direction).
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Thick brown streamers with rainbow sheen in a one mile area running north to south, 11 miles west of lower Plaquemines Parish.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Two separate lines of oil 1.7 miles due south of the Mississippi River Delta.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Sighted oil in the reeds on the east side of Redfish Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil reported of a mile east of Loumis Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Shoreline impact of oil 0.17 miles south of Grand Bayou Pass.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Small patches of silver sheen 50 – 200 feet in diameter; 18 miles south-east of Mud Lumps Historical Landmark.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Line of emulsification 3.8 miles north-east of Timber Bayou.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Sighting: Heavy black oil one mile long by 350 yards wide in north-west Wreck Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Jefferson Parish:
Sighting: Sheen and spots of heavy oil 200 yards off Shell Island. Beach impact is eminent.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Lafourche Parish:
Sighting: Boom washed up on island of a mile north-west of Hacket Lake.
Date: 3 Jun 10.

Terrebonne Parish:
Sighting: Oil impacted on a small, unnamed island north of Whiskey Island; did not appear fresh and possibly remnants of a previous impact.
Date: 3 Jun 10

Sighting: Patches of light sheen at the intersection of King Lake and Mud Hole Bay.
Date: 3 Jun 10

Sighting: Ribbons of sheen on Bayou Little Caillou near Lake Boudreaux.
Date: 3 Jun 10

Sighting: Light continuous sheen approximately ten yards wide, six miles south-west of Coupe Colin Island.
Date: 3 Jun 10″

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The BP Transocean Gusher’s Risk: Some Links and Notes

Posted on June 3, 2010 | 1 comment

This post is  mostly about the oil spill from the point of view of risk. There is a great deal of risk in this crisis and it is a part of the story which is  something we need to really understand and work out in terms of making sense of these events. It is really important to  understand the parameter of risk for this crisis and for all the related crises that may or may not emerge over time.

Life is pretty damned difficult for lots of people and lots of eco-systems when things are working out within the context of the agreements and arrangements within which life and the economy ordinarily operate. When there is a large and sudden unplanned change it often causes a great deal of harm.  This gusher is a large and unexpected change. But in addition it is just a very bad thing. It is if nothing else a huge waste of valuable oil and gas. Forty days into this crisis it is still gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. So I want to go through this set of issues related to risk.

Understanding a Salt Water Ecology is Difficult 

One of the things many of us did not like in this crisis is that we feel that the impact and risk were so downplayed and minimized in the early days when this was developing.  It seemed to many of us (how rightly time will tell) that those in charge were not considering the reality of a major gusher in that place.  I first began to deal with this crisis on-line with the following tweet: “BP Oil spill seen from space: old worry- https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/” That tweet was posted on April 27, 2010.  Since then the story and the situation have continued to develop.

I want to start with a link that will give people an idea of how much science, skill and knowledge is required to make an assessment of toxic impacts on the environment.  When I write the word toxic I am including the sticky, choking and smothering qualities of oil besides it direct bio-chemical toxicity. Use this link to get an idea of the field. 

1. http://www.cmast.ncsu.edu/index.php/cals-agriculture-a-life-sciences/physiologicalbehavioral-biotelmetry.html

II. Tourism and Export Dollars as Well as the Natural Treasures

In the case of many Louisiana coastal industries a small relative amount of damage can have a disproportionately huge impact.  appearance of the landscape, taste and health of fish and many other things of similar nature can be very subtle and difficult to measure. Beyond that the nature of the things being marketed is that they react in complex and varied ways to the damage done by oil. Some things will heal and some will deteriorate in an accelerated manner. Determining the likely results requires some accounting for currents, rainfall, winds, acidity in the water and many other factors. 

A. Lodging

People will not choose a less desirable site without some adjustment in real cost most of the time. A minor amount of damage can have a large impact on lodging for fishing and recreation. See this link to understand the lodging industry in Louisiana. 

2.http://www.louisiana-lodging.com/regions/cajun.html

B. Seafood

With seafood there is a great deal to the complexity of how an oil spill can affect things. I hope that we can all look back and see this as a minor incident but it  will take a long time to know for sure. The next few links can educate you a bit about how this real industry really operates. 

3.http://www.louisianaseafood.com/

4.http://www.fishlcba.com/

5.http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/pdfs/license/Certified%20Commercial%20Fishermans%20Form.pdf

6.http://204.196.151.247/oyster/

7.http://204.196.151.247/oyster/

8.http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/pdfs/license/Personalized%20Oyster%20Tag%20Order%20Form.pdf

III. The Lingering Risks of Oil Spills

One of the first things that we have to understand is that this is not likely to be completely cleared up any time soon. The Exxon Valdez experience makes us expect bad effects that will linger and persist. 

9.http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/02/1660593/expert-from-exxon-valdez-accident.html

IV. This Particular Spill and Dealing with It

Much of what I have covered so far is about oil damage as a general thing. Some is about Louisiana’s risk towards all oil spills. Now we want to look at this particular spill and how it is being dealt with and should be dealt with in the exact situation we are all in right now. The next site is the grandfather of all sites on this incident if you want to understand the crisis read through the sites content if you can. 

10.http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931

First Note:  So far the Damage has not Been all that Huge as Far as we Know

The truth is that by almost any measure this has been a relatively modest landfall so far. Even someone like me who is highly committed to the idea that this is a stressed and fragile environment will admit that this has so far not been as catastrophic as it could be. The following text is lifted from GOHSEP’s site. I have my doubts about some of it but I think it is a fairly excellent survey and much better than no source or the average source of measurement. 

“Oil Sightings Report June 2, 2010

Plaquemines:
Sighting: Oil found on mangrove trees in the canals of East Grand Terre near the Grand Bank Bayou area.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Tar balls found scattered in a rip line made up of mostly trash in the south west inlet of Wilkinson Bay.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Boom is washing up on an unnamed island at Grand Island Port in Barataria Bay. There is no oil in the grass but not in the water.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Tar balls found scattered in a rip line at the southern end of Lake Grand Ecaille.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil sheen approximately 40 yards wide by two miles long just outside Baptiste Collet.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Blackish oil slick with some red/brown and foamy areas 4.5 miles east of the Southwest Pass Lighthouse.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Jefferson Parish:
Sighting: Ribbon of sheen with surface foam in Bay Dosgris off of Little Lake.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Grey sheen running approximately mile south down the Barataria Waterway.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Rip line with grey sheen extending approximately 300 yards south of the mouth of Bayou St. Denis in the Barataria Bay Waterway.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil found on the mangrove trees in the canals of East Grand Terre at the north east side of Little Bayou Chevreau.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Thick oil found in grass on an island one mile south of Manilla Village.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Small area of grey sheen in north east corner of Hackberry Bay.
Date: 2 Jun 10.”

So while we do not yet know what this spill will amount to in the end we do know what  may be at risk and that risk is hard  to assess. So we have to do something.

Note: Responses and Plans

In this segment I provide some links and a little analysis as to how the response is going and how it may go. There is too much to cover well in a short blog post. The barrier islands are an idea being given attention.

11. http://usace.armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/2010/06/corps-works-with-interagency-response-team-on-oil-spill/

12.http://www.lacpra.org/

I have seen the development of restored barrier islands in the context of an entire system of renewal as a good idea. My idea for policy is outlined in the post behind the following link.

13. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

So if you read through all of this I hope that you have a better sense of what is at risk. There will probably be more posts on this subject later.

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Spill Response: So Little, So Late and So Horrible

Posted on June 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

In today’s post I am going to discuss the horrific losses that we find in a world going to hell in a handbasket and how the spill exemplifies this process. Today the BP robots are finishing cutting off the final rubbish around the riser from the Blow Out Preventer, they are then starting to cut off the riser and will try to mount a cap to channel the flow. We will all be pleased if they mount a rising conduit.

Here are some points I want to consider today:

1.  A unique and separate point from all others is that when something of this magnitude happens I am not willing to eliminate the possibility of an act of war, piracy or terrorism by any party until the total investigation has occurred.

Then there are the more systemic points:

2. Had the deductible on the Oil Pollution Act been $100 million instead of $75 million and had the premium been 15 cents a barrel all this time instead of 8 cents  and then a graduated series of co-payments of say 25% to $2 billion, 50% $2-4 billion, 70% from $4 billion to the exhaustion of the fund — had such a sane policy been in force there would be less chance of a disaster and it would have been better managed. BP might find little reason to count most of us their enemies (assuming this is not piracy). This policy might have encouraged the development of clean energy alternatives, safer drilling practices and even a sound coastal policy. I again cite my own proposal. I encourage you to read it if you have not — it predates the crisis: https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

3. Senator Mary Landrieu (not alone) has long demanded the manifestly fair and necessary revenue sharing by the state had that money been granted we would have had money to invest in coastal restoration.

4.This country is in many ways a tyranny which has betrayed all of its basic constitutional principles and few people have suffered more from that shift than the people of South Louisiana. The structure that have been imposed on the region in so many meanings of the word structure have been really destructive. I know what tyrranical means and so many instances of  tyrannical waste exist that I cannot list them all.

5. I may come out of this as a known enemy of the oil and gas industry. If so then it seems grossly unfair to me and to others like me to be put in that position. Although I have earned money from the wetlands and seafood industries directly I have written about and discussed for pay and for free the oil and gas industry. I also got a few hundred dollars of more or less direct oil exploration money once. It rankles, if  because of many very bad factors I did not choose, I am cast as a foe of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil and gas have always been part of my life and community.

6. This situation is so bad in so many ways that it would take ages to write about how bad it is. The truth is in a vast catalogue of small and large horrors.

7.There is need for radical change. But radical change is usually bad.

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The British Petroleum Oil Spill and Memorial Day

Posted on May 31, 2010 | 5 comments
Memorial Day actually springs from the traditions which came out of the Civil War, War Between the States, War of Northern Aggression, War to Save the Union, War for Southern Independence, Last Stand of Western Civilization or War to Put Down Rebellion– that great cataclysm of bloodshed and destruction which to many Southerners is what one is always presumed to be speaking about when one simply says “The War”. However on this Memorial Day my memory turns to the War Americans call the War of 1812 which gave us our National Anthem and the first complete military victory of the US over the Brits in a major engagement where no foreigners helped. That came in the battle of New Orleans.  Despite Lamar Mackay, Bob Dudley and thousands of US employees and stockholders the odd truth of all this is that the British and their Swiss allies are invading our most precious resources under the leadership of Tony Hayward and under the concealed banner of British Petroleum.  

Scraping oil off beaches

 

Below we have a map of how the British invaded Baltimore and how Americans sunk their own ships in a line to block access to the harbor. The British were large held at bay by that single maneuver and the heavy artillery from a fortress which was operating under an enormous star-spangled banner which a lawyer saw from a truce ship and about which he wrote the song which became our anthem.  
This Map Shows  how British Besiege and Attack Baltimore in war of 1812
The American gunboats were supported by a line of sunken American ships in lines not shown on that map that were sacrificed by the waterfolk and traders to limit movement of the mighty British fleet as well as by the fort McHenry which fired off huge guns and small ones beneath an enormous starry flag. The battle was watched by a lawyer in a truce fleet and  he wrote our National Anthem from its inspiration.

British invasion and repulsion in the Battle of New Orleans

 

The round of hostilities between Britain and America which reached such poetic height in Baltimore reached it end in the Battle of New Orleans which was fought very near where the current battle for the survival of the marshes is ongoing. We are facing the invasion of British Petroleum Crude near where Jackson and his army and Lafitte and his navy (injured by a new American attack) drove off some fine units of UK invaders. There in New Orleans they handed the British the first decisive defeat at the hands of an all American force in a major encounter. The Revolution owed much (if not most) of its winning to the Kingdom and Empire of the French but here French and English-speaking Americans drove out the British Empire in blood-soaked victory alone.    

This 2010 battle of Memorial Day  is an epic struggle and the stakes are very great. It is hard for us to win on this side because if there is little damage it will be used as an excuse for future sabotage or carelessness to be more easily permitted. If there is great damage then we live in age when the natural world is already under great strain and we have rich “well-educated” idiots (who had the capacity not to be idiots when they were young) in government and in big business who never think things through as regards the natural world. I hear so many stupid and irrelevant remarks. The damage done in a short period of time can wipe out millions of years of vital continuity and removing the toxins through there being biodegraded later won’t help. The oyster beds of South Louisiana ought to be compared and classed with vineyards of Napa and Sonoma and instead are classed with the sands of the Arabian deserts. It is hard for me to write this through all the pain and depression I am feeling.
I am very careful to use legal materials in this blog but if I have infringed any rights in this post I will worry about it after I see how much of my homeland has survived. This is a struggle  of enormous proportions. The eleven killed in the explosion and the  dozen or so cleaners who have been hospitalized have suffered in a war in which admirals, generals and Guardsmen are also battling. This is really a struggle for what cannot be replaced.   

http://www.usa-flag-site.org/song-lyrics/star-spangled-banner.html 

Local efforts to block oil incursions

I am going to include a few phrase of my own between pictures of the struggle and verses of the National Anthem. Just above you see people drawing a line against the new invasion. Do we doubt they risk their health in this noble struggle? 

 The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814

 

 
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

  

 

 

Fishing fleet cleaning or stranded in many places

Like Baltimore and Lafitte’s flotilla it has fallen to small ship and boat owners to bear the brunt of much of this great battle and they do so alongside the Coast Guard and others in their government’s formal service. But is their civilian service much less patriotic? 

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

A flotilla of shrimp boats adapted for skimming

This flotilla of shrimp boats sails like the Americans of 1812 and 1814 to save their homes families and country. Already some languish in hospitals. Are they not our heroes too?  

 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

Louisiana National Guard fights a new enemy.

The National Guardsmen know that their world will not recognize this as combat. They will earn no new respect on world battlefields. Yet they risk their health in a beautiful but dangerous coastal wilderness under hot suns in proximity to possible and unmeasured risks of poisoning. The battle for their homeland and can not hurt the liquid at which they throw their human and mortal flesh. Are they not good warriors in this case as well?  

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

 I wish everyone a good Memorial Day weekend. I have several friends nobly risking their lives in the two foreign wars we are fighting  and I wish them well.  SD, AD, JS,and JS if you read this know you are not forgotten. But this day my heart is full of pain and also the debt of respect for those who fight with little hope for honor or glory against an invasion so near to so much that I love. 

Note: Throughout the BP Macondo oil leak crisis I was responding day by day to an enormous set of devastating problems for many that I care about deeply or am connected to. While I have made no money on all that work and tried to use my own, open source or public domain materials in every case the stresses were enormous. This particular post has received many views and I have few if any net assets. If it happens that this or any materials used during the crisis are proprietary and used without permission I first apologize and secondly will do in a slow and careful manner whatever I can to make things right. Nonetheless, I am gratified that so many have visited this post over such a long time…

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Posted in Acadians, BP - British Petroleum, Christianity, Easter Holiday, Environment, family, France, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Healthcare, Labor, Louisiana, Memorial Day, Oil & Gas Industry, Royalty and Empire, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Western civilization, White House

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