Who Knew?

In a country where people are

"hopelessly deeply divided",

it seems all it took

to get everybody on the same page

was a dead CEO?

Green-ish

Even Cynical Mike hates thinking there may be a push on the part of the Dirty Fuels Cartel to dabble a little in "greener technology in the interest of the greater good" so they can then sit back and point at its shortcomings (or outright failure), and claim, "Well, gosh, we tried to do it your way, but you end up bitchin' about that too - I guess we'll have to go back to the old way..."

Just remember - nature bats last

Huge Phillips 66 biofuels project will test the industry’s green promises

RODEO, California, March 21 (Reuters) - In the oldest refining town in the American West, Phillips 66 (PSX.N) is promising a greener future as it moves to halt crude-oil processing and build a massive renewable diesel plant, leading a global trend.

That plan, announced in 2020, was initially welcomed by residents weary from a history of pollution and toxic leaks. But some have grown skeptical as the project’s details cast doubt on the environmental benefits of revamping the 127-year-old complex on 1,100 acres in Rodeo, California.

The company’s initial claim that it would slash greenhouse gasses by half doesn’t match the project’s environmental impact report, published by county regulators, which shows a 1% reduction, according to a Reuters calculation of emissions data in the report. What’s more, refining of petroleum byproducts may continue as a side project.

And renewable-diesel production will require a surge in marine and train traffic, increasing emissions and spill risk. The conversion also requires boosting natural-gas usage to produce hydrogen required to make the biofuel.

These dynamics and other variables raise questions about Phillips 66’s marketing of renewable diesel as a green fuel and make it impossible to tell whether and how much the refinery overhaul will reduce community pollution, three independent environmental experts told Reuters.

The project’s environmental impact will be a test case for similar facilities worldwide. Several dozen new U.S. renewable diesel plants are planned, according to energy consultancy Stratas Advisors. Most will be conversions of oil refineries. Production capacity could triple, to 6 billion gallons, by 2026, Stratas says. Europe and Asia are seeing similar trends.

Phillips 66 representatives say the project, dubbed Rodeo Renewed, will significantly cut certain regulated pollutants and will lead to large cuts in greenhouse gasses when the biofuel is burned in vehicles. The refinery’s general manager, Jolie Rhinehart, said renewable diesel is the cleanest-burning option for use in transporting goods by truck.

“Heavy-haul trucking is a vital aspect to our way of life in this country and in this world,” she said. “And renewable diesel is the lowest-emission way to fuel that energy that we need to keep our trucks moving.”

Rhinehart added that emissions directly from the plant, affecting local residents, would be “significantly reduced” by the project.

Some Rodeo residents worry the overhaul could become another chapter in a long story of local pollution. Sitting across the bay from San Francisco’s glittering cityscape, Rodeo is a poster child for post-industrial problems. In addition to the Phillips 66 plant, the area has hosted a second oil refinery, a lead smelter and a dynamite factory. Vacant storefronts and rusted-out cars blight the boulevard leading to a beach too toxic for swimming. The community, in unincorporated Contra Costa County, has much higher concentrations of illness, poverty and brownfield cleanup sites than most others in California.

“It could have been the jewel of the county,” resident Janet Callaghan said of Rodeo. But over the years, industrial pollution has “turned Rodeo into the armpit of Contra Costa.”

Maureen Brennan, a member of Rodeo’s air-monitoring committee, called the biofuels project an experiment with uncertain environmental benefits. After initially cheering the plan, she said: “I started to realize that we’re actually the global guinea pigs here.”

CONFLICTING POLLUTION ESTIMATES

Renewable diesel is made from feedstocks such as soybean oil, beef tallow or used cooking oil. It can be used in heavy-duty trucks with no engine modifications. The Phillips 66 plant may also produce other biofuels.

The county board of supervisors in May approved the project, which is expected to start operations in early 2024.

Phillips 66 spokesperson Bernardo Fallas said the difference in the company and county greenhouse-gas estimates stems mostly from the fact that county regulators included pollution projections for five fossil-fuel refinery processing units for which the company intends to keep operating permits. The company excluded those units, which Fallas said would not be operating when the biofuels project starts. Phillips 66, he said, has not yet decided whether and how the fossil-fuels units would operate in the future.

Fallas confirmed, however, that Phillip 66 is considering a plan to process slurry oil, a heavy residual crude oil byproduct, using the refinery’s coker. Fallas said the slurry-oil processing would produce materials needed for electric-vehicle batteries.

The county said in a statement that slurry-oil processing “would not be consistent” with the refinery revamp it approved in May, and would require additional regulatory review.

The county’s environmental impact report estimated greenhouse gasses by assuming emissions from the coker and the four other units would remain unchanged, an approach the study called conservative. It also included emissions from the expected increase in natural-gas use and from projected increases in transportation to the plant.

The claim has also made its way into filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including an annual proxy statement and a handful of 8-K disclosures.

The company’s disclosures to the SEC, however, dropped the 50% claim after the draft environmental impact report was published in October 2021. The company said it updated its messaging to “ensure consistency” with the report.

While Phillips 66 and the county made strikingly different projections of the biofuels plant’s greenhouse-gas pollution, they agreed that the project would have a climate benefit extending beyond the facility’s local emissions. They said biofuels produce less greenhouse gasses than traditional gasoline or diesel when burned in vehicles. That reduces emissions over the total “lifecycle” of the fuel, which includes all aspects of exploration, production and consumption. Considering only local pollution from the plant, the county said, underestimates the potential greenhouse-gas emissions reductions by “orders of magnitude.”

Some researchers, however, contest that claim. They argue that carbon emissions from clearing and tilling land to farm biofuels feedstocks, such as corn or soybeans, offset any reductions in tailpipe emissions.

TRUCKS, TRAINS REPLACE A PIPELINE

Phillips 66 projects the conversion will reduce emissions of certain federally regulated air pollutants, such as benzene, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. Sulfur oxide emissions are expected to drop 80% from 2019 levels and larger particulate matter pollution by 20%, Fallas said, citing the environmental impact report.

Three independent environmental experts said it’s likely some of those emissions - along with those of greenhouse gasses - will fall simply because of a reduction in overall capacity after the transformation. As an oil refinery, the plant processed nearly 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude – far more than the projected capacity of 80,000 bpd of biofuels feedstocks.

The plant’s emissions after conversion are difficult to predict, the environmental experts said, because of the lack of research on pollution from large-scale renewable-diesel processing and because the company has not publicly outlined what feedstocks it will use. The Phillips 66 operation could result in reductions of some pollutants, when compared to oil refining, but increases in others, said Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University and director of the school's Atmosphere/Energy Program.

“I expect to see no improvement whatsoever,” Jacobson said.

“You'll just get a different set of chemicals coming out of the (biofuels) refineries compared with the traditional refineries of diesel and gasoline.”

In addition, the surge in transportation related to biofuels processing could worsen local pollution, said Ron Sahu, an independent air emissions consultant.

Phillips 66 plans to shut a 200-mile oil pipeline to the plant, leading to a doubling of tanker vessels and a tripling of rail-car arrivals, according to the environmental impact report. Truck traffic will fall overall but sharply rise to part of the refining complex closest to the most densely populated part of Rodeo, bringing residents there in contact with more particulate-matter and other transportation pollution.

The project will also cause a projected 29% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the plant that will be using more natural gas to produce hydrogen for biofuel processing, according to the report.

Janet Pygeorge, 87, lives in view of the refinery’s smokestacks. She remembers a 1994 chemical leak at the refinery, then under different ownership, that sickened tens of thousands of people. A Phillips 66 predecessor company bought the refinery in 2001. Since then, the plant has had seven “major accidents,” including fires and toxic releases, through 2018, according to the latest available county data.

That history makes the prospect of continuing fossil-fuel operations unsettling to residents who lived through it, Pygeorge said. "It just doesn't sound safe to me.”

The Elon Shuffle

We tend to keep on falling for the same shit time after time after time.

If you're a billionaire, you must be the smartest guy in the room, and whatever capability you possess must apply to every other endeavor.

So he asked me, "You're smart - why ain't you rich?"

And I asked him, "You're rich - why ain't you smart?"

I think maybe someone is in Elon Musk's ear telling him he should be using his economic and social power to remake the world in the image of his businesses, and he's perfectly able to do whatever he wants simply by virtue of his bank balance.

I get the feeling someone else - someone who actually knows what the fuck they're doing - got in his other ear and told him to stop fuckin' with things he doesn't understand.

Elon Musk blocked Ukraine from using Starlink in Crimea over concern that Putin could use nuclear weapons, political analyst says

Elon Musk personally rejected a Ukrainian request to extend his satellite internet service to Crimea, fearing that an effort to retake the peninsula from Russian forces could lead to a nuclear war, the influential political analyst Ian Bremmer said in a newsletter published on Monday.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Musk — and the US government — provided Kyiv with thousands of Starlink systems, enabling Ukrainian forces to communicate in what had previously been dead zones. The low energy requirements of the service's satellite receivers have enabled connection to reconnaissance drones, providing valuable real-time intelligence on Russian movements and the ability to target them, Yahoo News reported in August.

But recently there have been problems. Last week, a senior Ukrainian government official told the Financial Times reported that the service was suffering "catastrophic" outages on the front lines, prompting speculation that it had been shut off in areas controlled by Russia — perhaps to prevent the Kremlin from exploiting the network.

On Twitter, Musk said he could not comment on battlefield conditions, saying, "That's classified." But Bremmer, the founder and president of the political-risk research firm Eurasia Group, said on Monday that in a conversation with Musk in late September, Musk appeared to confirm that the satellite service was being intentionally disabled.

Neither SpaceX nor Ukraine's ministry of defense immediately responded to requests for comment.

Bremmer said Musk told him he'd been asked by Ukraine's defense ministry to activate Starlink in Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014. Bremmer said Musk "refused given the potential for escalation."

According to Bremmer, Musk claimed to have recently spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, asserting that he was "prepared to negotiate." (Musk this month proposed a Ukraine peace plan seen as aligning with Russian interests.) Bremmer said Musk told him that in that conversation, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine tried to retake the Crimean peninsula, which serves as the base for Russia's naval forces on the Black Sea.

On Twitter, however, Musk flatly denied having any recent conversation with the Russian leader, writing on Tuesday that he had "spoken to Putin only once and that was about 18 months ago." The subject, he said, "was space." Bremmer was likewise adamant, tweeting that Musk "told me he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine."

Russian forces have been losing ground in Ukraine's south and have lost huge swaths in Ukraine's east as they've pressed into regions Russia declared it had annexed, sparking concern among arms-control experts about whether Putin and his top advisers may contemplate an attack with a nuke from their vast arsenal in an attempt to stanch their losses.

But then -

‘The hell with it’: Elon Musk tweets SpaceX will ‘keep funding Ukraine govt for free’ amid Starlink controversy

Elon Musk said in a tweet Saturday that his company SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink satellite internet terminals for the Ukrainian government as it battles invading Russian forces.

“The hell with it,” the billionaire tweeted, “even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”

It was not immediately clear whether Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla was being sarcastic. In response to a tweet about the move, Musk said, “we should still do good deeds.” Responding to another tweet saying that Musk had already paid taxes that are funding Ukraine’s defense, he said, “Fate loves irony.”

The tweets follow a statement from Musk on Friday in which he said that SpaceX cannot continue fund Starlink terminals in Ukraine “indefinitely,” after a report suggested his space company had asked the Pentagon to cover the costs.

Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a letter from SpaceX to the Pentagon, the company said that the use of Starlink in Ukraine could cost close to $400 million over the next 12 months, according to a report by CNN. SpaceX has signed several contracts with the U.S. government.

SpaceX’s donated Starlink internet terminals have been crucial in keeping Ukraine’s military online during the war against Russia, even as communication infrastructure gets destroyed. Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February.

Musk drew criticism from Ukrainian officials earlier this month when he posted a Twitter poll gauging support for what he claimed was a likely outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war.

He appeared to confirm that SpaceX was planning to leave Ukraine in some capacity Friday, replying to a Twitter post that referenced the Ukrainian ambassador telling Musk to “fuck off.”

“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk said.

The SpaceX founder is also in the middle of a $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, which he had tried to get out of. A judge ruled that he has until Oct. 28 to close the acquisition if he hopes to avoid a trial.

And there's the rub. I can sit here and spout off to my 1-or-200 daily visitors*, and nobody has to worry that a million Ukrainians and Russians are going to get blown to bits because of some stupid notion that managed to creep across the axonal gap inside my little brain pan, making me think I know more than the people who've made solid careers out of getting us all through this kinda shit more or less intact.

That's not to say the smart guys always get it right - fake lord knows we've listened to assholes like Kissinger and Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the world has suffered because of it. But the good guys still outnumber the assholes - good guys like Carter and Blinken and Kerry and Albright and Hillary - and the world spins madly on as we muddle through and stumble forward.

*Note: A very big Thank You to everybody who drops by to pick up a few of my brain droppings. (hat tip - George Carlin)

Social Media

The era of Expecting Corporations To Behave Like Responsible Citizens is long dead.

It's possible I was naive enough - or immersed enough in it - to think there was a time when big business was something other than sharks and hyenas dressed up to look like good church-goin' community-minded folks, but if there was, it's been over-n-done-with for at least 40 years.

Ari Melber - The Beat

Get Out Of Russia

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Yale School Of Management, keeps a list of companies that have folded their tents in Russia, and of those that remain.

Over 300 Companies Have Withdrawn from Russia—But Some Remain

Since Putin's devastating invasion of Ukraine began, 350 companies have announced their withdrawal from Russia—but some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred.

The complete, current list of companies that have curtailed operations in Russia as well as those that remain, as of March 13, can be seen below.

Download the list by clicking here.

The list is updated continuously by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute to reflect new announcements from companies in as close to real time as possible.

- more -

I think I get why some of these guys are worried about the decision to stay or to go - there are some people calling the shots who are legit concerned - but their public statements ring hollow to me.

If you're bothered by the humanity of it all, then your "fiduciary responsibilities" wouldn't be much of a factor, and you wouldn't put that excuse up front.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Dozens of corporations are still in Russia. It’s getting harder for them to leave.
Several multinationals have stayed despite public blowback, and experts say they are running out of time to protect their assets and reputations.

Hundreds of multinational corporations have cut ties with Russia as its military assault on Ukraine intensifies, bolstering the effects of western economic sanctions and redirecting their operations to serve desperate Ukrainian refugees.

But for the dozens of companies that remain in Russia, it’s getting increasingly difficult to leave, experts say.

Consumers watching the horrific humanitarian toll of the invasion have registered their disapproval of the businesses that remain in Russia, vowing boycotts on social media. But companies that leave now, experts say, could be seen as pandering, or worse: prioritizing profits and shareholders above human suffering.

The corporate quandary is testing the mettle of some of the world’s most powerful brands, and the long-held business credo that countries that trade together don’t wage wars with one another.

“I would say to any corporate executive, you have to do what you think is right,” said James O’Rourke, a professor of management at University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “In the end, you have no control over what [President Vladimir] Putin or the central government will do. But if you want to keep doing business in the rest of the free world, you have to pay attention to what they [the rest of the free world] think of you.

“This may be one of the moments in history in which proactive disinvestment is the best option. You’re invested there now. You hope that this remains a stable, predictable nation, but what I would tell anyone still doing business in Russia right now is that it’s really hard. If you can’t move money in and out of Russia in a convertible currency, what’s the point of being there?”

The question is underscored by the now-viral spreadsheet compiled by Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, which had CEOs racing to avoid being added to the roster of “Companies That Remain in Russia With Significant Exposure.” As of Friday, roughly 35 such companies have made no public statement signaling any intent leave the country. And even those who have committed to leaving have partial ties to Russia that will be hard to sever.

“The risk calculus in recent days has been to your reputation scores,” O’Rourke said. “It appears now for many of those large businesses that the calculus is now to your assets, and you just have to realize that you’re no longer in control.”

Food producers such as PepsiCo and Mondelez, the brand behind Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and other snacks, maintain they don’t want to withhold food and beverage staples from Russian citizens. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank say they want to wind down operations, but they are bound by complicated client relationships. Others like Burger King and Marriott are tied down by complicated legal agreements as they struggle to reconcile two conflicting legal regimes.

Manufacturing companies face frightening prospects if they pull out of Russia, experts say. The Kremlin has threatened to nationalize assets of corporations that leave the country over its assault on Ukraine.

Consumer goods manufacturers face an even steeper challenge: Just because they shut down factories, retailers may continue selling their wares. It leaves those corporations open to continuing reputational damage while missing out on profits and risking their high-priced assets.

Korean automaker Hyundai announced Friday it had suspended operations at its factory in St. Petersburg. But sales may continue at independent dealerships in Russia, Sonnenfeld said.

LG Electronics said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned for the health and safety of all the people who are suffering during this period of conflict, but did not say whether the company would change its business practices in Russia.

It presents a situation similar to that of fast-food restaurants, Sonnenfeld said, which are often operated by franchisees.

“The dealerships are like the franchises of the hotels and things. The arrangements give them almost no control,” he said. “The branding and the marketing is all the automakers and the fast-food companies can do.”

That lack of control, though, provides even greater incentive for companies to cut ties with Russia, experts say. Putin’s threats toward businesses make a strong case that executives can’t trust the Kremlin to backstop the Russian economy or to protect private property rights. Companies ought to consider writing off their Russian assets as lost causes, O’Rourke said, and get out of the region.

“If Vladimir Putin thinks he can do a better job at the deep fryer, let him have it. If he can flip some burgers, great,” Sonnenfeld said. “What exactly are they seizing that is of such great value? A small part of this is physical assets.”

Several major banks have announced plans to draw down their Russian business, citing both investment priorities and moral duty. But experts say their fiduciary responsibility to clients may prevent them from fully cutting ties, and none have provided a firm date by which they will leave.

A Deutsche Bank spokesperson told The Washington Post on Friday that it was “in the process of winding down” its remaining business in Russia while helping international clients reduce their investments in the country. “There won’t be any new business in Russia,” the spokesperson said.

A day earlier, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told CNBC that leaving Russia was not an immediate option because, “We’re there to support our clients.” Nor would it be the right thing to do, he added, in terms of “helping them manage their situation.”

Although Goldman Sachs says it will “wind down” its business in Russia, its statement announcing the pullout left open the possibility that some clients might choose to “manage” their preexisting obligations there as opposed to closing them out.

“We are focused on supporting our clients across the globe in managing or closing out preexisting obligations in the [Russian] market and ensuring the well-being of our people,” a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman said in an email Thursday.

JPMorgan is “actively unwinding” its Russian business and is not pursuing any new business there, a spokesperson said. But it remains engaged in helping clients “address and close out preexisting obligations,” and manage Russia-related risk and “acting as a custodian” to clients with business there.

Putin on Thursday endorsed a plan to nationalize foreign-owned businesses that leave because of the invasion. But in some cases he may not need to. Some corporations are bound to Russia by complicated franchising arrangements through which Russian owners operate the stores.

Biden, European allies move to strip Russia of trade status

Subway and Burger King have both said they don’t actually own any of their Russian stores, which are owned and operated by local franchisees. In both cases, the stores are managed by an independent “master franchisee.”

Restaurant Brands International, the U.S.-based corporate entity behind Burger King, has taken steps to cut off corporate support for its franchisees but has made no move to close them. It has committed $3 million to support Ukrainian refugees and gave out $2 million in Whopper meal vouchers for refugees leaving Ukraine. Subway also promised to redirect any profits from Russia to humanitarian aide.

“These are not war profiteers nor are they exploitative in any way,” O’Rourke said.

“If McDonald’s pulls out of Russia and closes its 850 stores, those stores are not going to remain empty forever or even for very long. If the government nationalizes those stores and hands them to friends of the government to run, the folks in Chicago are not going to be able to make them take down the golden arches.”

PepsiCo and Mondelez have pledged to stop making and distributing certain luxury items in Russia, including soft drinks, cookies and candy.

In a letter to PepsiCo employees, CEO Ramon Laguarta wrote that the war meant “we must stay true to the humanitarian aspect of our business,” suggesting that halting the company’s operations on items such as baby food, formula and dairy products would create unnecessary hardship for ordinary Russians.

Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put said his company would help “maintain continuity of the food supply during the challenging times ahead.” The company also makes Halls cough drops and an array of baked goods.

The pronouncements were largely met with approval on social media, and some experts said the positions were a stable middle ground: they could protect the brands from consumer blowback, prevent ordinary Russians from suffering the consequences of the war and protect Russian workers from lost wages and public criticism.

And there it is - it's meant to sound all warm-n-fuzzy, but it amounts to little more than the same old corporate calculations - Profit & Loss, and Cost/Benefit Analysis.

They're just trying to make it look like they're doing what's right - hiding behind some noble-sounding press release language - while they're actually prioritizing the comfort of 140 million "ordinary" Russians over the very lives of 43 million Ukrainians, all in service to the two-headed golden calf of profitability and shareholder value.

“For the moment, that looks noble,” O’Rourke said. “If they want to appear fully noble, they can donate the excess profit from those lines of business to humanitarian causes in Ukraine.”

But those stances also risk blunting the efficacy of western sanctions, whose aim is to isolate Moscow and make the Russian public feel the effects of the invasion. The purpose, Sonnenfeld said, is to create sufficient financial chaos in Russia that the public holds the nation’s leaders accountable.

About That AT&T Thing

Sorry not sorry, AT&T, but for this, you deserve nothing but a big fat

FUCK YOU.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Trump’s favorite channel, One America News, was never ‘news’ at all

The whitewashing and denialism of the Jan. 6 insurrection started at One America News on that very same day.

As President Donald Trump tried to overturn the legitimate results of the presidential election — inciting a deadly riot along the way — the cable channel’s brass were sending an all-too-clear message to their team about how to cover this horrifying event.

“Please DO NOT say ‘Trump Supporters Storm Capitol. . . .’ Simply call them demonstrators or protestors. . . . DO NOT CALL IT A RIOT!!!” came the impassioned email directive from a news director to the staff.

The next day, OAN’s top boss, founder Robert Herring Sr., ordered producers to get in line behind the president, as he floated the conspiracy theory that it wasn’t Trump supporters breaking those windows and storming those barricades — that it was the leftist movement antifa instead. exposé

“We want to report all the things Antifa did yesterday. I don’t think it was Trump people but let’s investigate,” the 80-year-old chief executive wrote in an email. There was simply nothing to support this far-fetched theory: The FBI has found no evidence of antifa involvement, and almost all of the hundreds of suspects charged have been well-documented Trump supporters; some are members of white-supremacy or other far-right extremist groups.

When Reuters, the global news agency, published its two-part investigation last week of OAN, the most startling finding was that AT&T indirectly provided 90 percent of the channel’s revenue, after letting it be known that it was eager to host a new conservative cable network.

Yes, the world’s largest communications company played a major role in creating and sustaining the far-right channel that spins wacky ideas, promotes fraudulent covid-19 cures and, in its fervor, makes the pro-Trump market leader, Fox News, look almost reasonable. (AT&T has challenged aspects of Reuters’ reporting and said that the company, through its offshoot, DirecTV, provides “viewpoints across the political spectrum.”)

But just as noteworthy as AT&T’s involvement was the way Reuters’s John Shiffman pulled back the curtain on how the San Diego-based network operates, relying in part on court documents.

What they showed is that OAN is dedicated not to the “news,” which is part of its name, but to propaganda, directed from the top.

“If there was any story involving Trump, we had to only focus on either the positive information or basically create positive information,” Marissa Gonzales, an former OAN producer who resigned last year, told Reuters. “It was never, never the full truth.”

That’s what was going on in the background. It adds valuable — if appalling — perspective to what we already knew about OAN.

We knew that Trump appreciates the blind loyalty, promoting the channel more than 100 times on his Twitter feed, often as he complained about Fox News’s failure to back him fully and at all times. We knew that Herring was far from shy about his partiality, tweeting in early January: “If anyone thinks we will throw the best President America has had, in my 79 years, under the bus, you are wrong.”

And we knew that OAN let two of its on-air personalities raise more than $600,000 to help fund a private “audit” of the presidential vote in Arizona. One of them even worked part-time for the Trump recount effort’s legal team.

It’s no wonder the voting machine company Dominion is suing OAN for defamation, for spreading and endorsing false reports that it helped steal the 2020 election from Trump. Dominion’s suit describes the problem succinctly: “OAN helped create and cultivate an alternative reality where up is down (and) pigs have wings.”

But OAN maintains that this all falls under protected free speech or opinion, including a series of pseudo-documentaries about unproven election fraud that MyPillow chief executive and Trump loyalist Mike Lindell paid to put on the air. A federal judge over the summer suggested the courts may not accept that defense, as he allowed a number of Dominion’s related defamation suits, including one against Lindell, to go forward.

Trump’s relentless misinformation campaign, aided by his loyal media allies, has clearly gotten through to millions of Americans. Although there is no basis in fact, no evidence to support it, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found in April that about half of Republicans believe the siege was either a nonviolent protest or caused by left-wing forces “trying to make Trump look bad.” A majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that widespread voter fraud robbed him of a second presidential term.

OAN’s television reach may not be vast: Most Americans won’t encounter it when they turn on their TV. But its website’s offerings very well may show up in their social media feeds. Typical of these was a three-paragraph article Friday, featuring Trump’s official statement slamming the “Unselect Committee of Partisan Democrats,” under this headline: “Report: President Trump Fights Democrat-Led ‘Probes’ Into Jan. 6 Protest.”

In terms of spreading misinformation and helping Trump deny the devastating realities of the Jan6 insurrection, OAN is punching way above its weight.

It's time - past time - for some good old-fashioned Teddy Roosevelt-style Trust-Bustin'

The AT&T Empire

• HBO
• HBO2
• HBO Comedy
• HBO Family
• HBO Latino
• HBO Signature
• HBO Zone
• HBO Go
• HBO Now
• HBO on Demand
• HBO Home Entertainment
• RED by HBO
• HBO Films
• HBO Miniseries
• HBO Sports
• HBO Entertainment
• HBO Kids
• HBO Original Productions
• HBO Documentary Films
• HBO International
• HBO Asia
• HBO Europe
• HBO Hungary
• HBO India
• HBO Poland
• HBO Romania
• HBO Latin America Group
• HBO Latin America
• HBO Brazil
• Cinemax
• MoreMax
• 5StarMax
• ActionMax
• Cinemáx
• MovieMax
• OuterMax
• ThrillerMax
• Cinemax on Demand
• Cinemax Latin America
• Warner Channel
• E! Latin America
• Turner Broadcasting System
• Turner Broadcasting International
• Millennium Media Group
• Turner Broadcasting System Latin America
• Chilevisión
• Turner Entertainment Networks
• truTV
• TBS
• TNT
• Studio T
• Turner Studios
• TCM
• TCM Productions
• FilmStruck
• Turner Sports
• Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network
• Bleacher Report
• Universal Wrestling Corporation (UWC)
• TBS, Inc. Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media (AYAKM) division
• Cartoon Network
• Cartoon Network Productions
• Cartoon Network Studios
• Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe
• Adult Swim
• Boomerang
• Williams Street
• Williams Street West
• Williams Street Records
• Hulu (10%) (in partnership with Comcast and The Walt Disney Company)
• NonStop Television
• Mezzo
• Cartoon Network Nordic
• TNT7
• CNN News Group
• CNN
• HLN
• Great Big Story
• International
• TCM & Cartoon Network / Asia Pacific
• Cartoonito
• TNT Latin America
• Pogo
• I.Sat
• HTV
• Tooncast
• Turner Japan K.K. (formerly Japan Entertainment Network K.K. and Japan Image Communications Co.,Ltd.)
• Cartoon Network
• Boomerang
• TABI Channel
• Tabitele
• MONDO TV
• Mondo Mahjong TV
• Joint Ventures
• Turner Entertainment Media Networks Limited
• CNN Chile
• CETV
• CNN-IBN
• CNNj
• CNN TÜRK
• CNN.co.jp (Japanese)
• Zee Turner Ltd (India)
• Boing
• Turner International India Private Limited
• WB Channel
• Cartoon Network (India)
• Websites/Broadband Services
• CallToons
• Super Deluxe
• Beme Inc.
• Technology
• iStreamPlanet
• LTS Garðbær Studios
• Wit Puppets
• Le Gué Enterprises BV

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

• DC Entertainment
• Warner Bros. Consumer Products
• Warner Bros. Digital Networks
• Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures
• Warner Bros. Pictures International
• Warner Bros. Museum
• Warner Bros. Pictures Group
• Warner Bros. Pictures
• Music
• Domestic Distribution
• Warner Animation Group
• Warner Bros. Family Entertainment
• DC Films
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• Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group
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• Traveller's Tales
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• WB Games Montréal
• WB Games San Francisco
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Content libraries & investments

• Adify (Acquired by Cox)
• Admeld (Acquired by Google)
• Arroyo (Acquired by Cisco)
• BigBand Networks (Acquired by ARRIS)
• BroadLogic (Acquired by Broadcom)
• Entropic Communications (IPO in December 2007)
• GoldPocket (Acquired by Tandberg TV)
• Glu Mobile (IPO in March 2007)
• Kosmix (Acquired by Walmart)
• Maker Studios (Acquired by The Walt Disney Company)
• MediaVast (Acquired by Getty Images)
• Meebo (Acquired by Google)
• N2 Broadband (Acquired by Tandberg TV)
• NuvoTV (Acquired by Fuse Networks, LLC)
• PlanetOut (IPO in October 2004)
• PlaySpan (Acquired by Visa)
• ScanScout (Acquired by Tremor Media)
• SkyStream Networks (Acquired by Tandberg TV)
• Tumri (Acquired by Collective)
• Vindigo (Acquired by For-Side)
• Other units
• Global Media Group
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• tvtag previously as GetGlue
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• Trion Worlds
• VisibleWorld

CO2 Cycle

From NASA - in 3D - as of Dec 2016.

I can't confirm that this is the kind of thing negatively effected under 45*'s Executive Order that purportedly reduced or eliminated the part of NASA's mission that included research on weather and Climate Change, but with Pruitt at EPA, Sessions at AG and Tillerson at State, am I s'posed to be surprised if that's the case?

Theres a good rendition of this with some decent narration at Vox

It pays to track those pesky Executive Orders

Comments For Cash

No matter what it is.  No matter who it's for or who wants it to happen - somebody's always gonna step up and be willing to pimp out their own children, believing they'll make enough to shield themselves from the shittiness that drowns "everybody else". 

And remember, kids - if you want to know what's up with any problem here in USAmerica Inc, just take a hard look at who stands to benefit from allowing the problem to persist, and then look at who stands to profit from any proposed solution.

One last thing:

On the 31st floor, 

a gold-plated door 

won't keep out the lord's burnin' rain.

Sin City (cover) --Emmylou Harris and Beck

Today's Corporate Monster

...eating companies and shitting people.



Do the petition thing at FreePress.net

...and then Call your Congress Critter

Something Else

...that'll prob'ly never happen.  But hey - we can dream.



Take a good look at Alexis Goldstein

Perception Drives Outcome

Above all - never admit you were wrong.

It Keeps Me Awake

If it's a clean process, Obama wins in a possibly epic landslide (on the electoral side anyway), but the pretext is being put in place now that makes it "feasible" for Willard to "pull the upset".

Wonkette:

As Doktor Zoom explainered with an assist from Harper’s, the GOPpies are ready and able to steal every precinct that doesn’t count paper ballots by hand. As Your Editrix explained a week or whatever ago, one of only six voting machine vendors is owned by former Bain employees. (The others, per Dok’s Harper’s article, are pretty much all owned by the Koch Brothers and run by actual felons, except for the ones that are owned by Tagg Romney.) And as some former NSA analyst explained (but we didn’t post on it, because “depressed”), the way they steal your votes is by siphoning them from the largest precincts.

I hate this shit.

Connections

Bank of Credit and Commerce Int'l (drug money laundering scandal)
The First Gulf War
Big Tobacco
Fracking

What's the common thread?  Hill & Knowlton

The Sky Is Pink

It seems pretty important that we get this one right.


THE SKY IS PINK from JFOX on Vimeo.


And BT-fuckin'-W, it's time to consider something I've been proposing for a very long time on how to make sure these corporate buggers are telling us the truth about the effects of their operations on any given local water supply (eg).  Once a month, the whole executive committee plus one of their family members have to show up and drink a full glass of water straight from the tap of a homeowner selected by his/her neighbors.  Let's see how long it takes to clean this shit up.

Makes Me Wonder

The main question is exactly what Olbermann asks: In a media environment that desperately needs content to fill a 24/7 airspace, where's the coverage for this? I can see how CurrentTV would use the lack of coverage by others to pump up their own cred, but that doesn't explain how practically every other outlet is avoiding the story of a days-long protest aimed at the heart of American economic power.

Dead Peasants