Of the sordid tale of Enron, this must be said: Almost no one went to jail for the biggest swindle ever in the US–until Wall Street collapsed in 2008.  There was virtually no accountability for the crime against millions of victims.  Over 20,000 employees lost their pensions.  Americans lost billions of dollars.  A governor was wrongfully forced out of office with a collaborator with the privateers (Arnold) taking his place.  Most of all the state of California was set on its perilous course to the tune of about 38 billion dollars and it has gone spiraling downward ever since.  This was a crime against the biggest state economy in the nation and one of the biggest in the world.  And it could happen again.  

Yesterday CNBC reran the powerful 2005 Documentary, The Smartest Guys in the Room. For those of you have never seen it, there is a glimpse of what the energy industry and the so-called free market movement have wrought.  

It is worth taking a step back into the narrative of that disaster. It predicted Wall Street’s demise, yet we did not heed the warnings. What we learned, or should have, is that there was no free market for energy at all. It was rigged in every way possible. The participants gleefully ruined others and some of it is on videotape.  It’s difficult to imagine how these yahoos became as twisted as the video shows.

Here is another short clip.

It is important to revisit and remember, because the revisionists will try to erase what really happened from the national consciousness. They will do so as quickly as you can say “free markets, which are a fiction.  And there never will be because greed, contempt for Americans, and raw sociopathy will intervene to rig markets.  

The next time the privateers try to reduce the paltry regulations left, rise up and say “No.” Then, more important, demand sensible re-regulation and oversight.  There is no meaningful oversight in the post Bushworld. (There was little enough before them.) There was money to be made before the Enronization of energy markets occurred. There could be again.  

One thing is certain: There isn’t is the room or capacity in our economy to absorb more shenanigans, leading to collapse, from the so-called brightest guys in the room.  Additionally, in the wake of the energy and environmental crisis we are now experiencing in the Gulf, we must learn the hard lesson that markets have not and will not fix the systemic abuses, fraud, corruption and downright evil practices of runaway industries in the grip of sociopathy.  And its time to stop the pretense that they do.  

It sounds too crazy to be true, but Snopes confirms it here. An e-mail from the Washtenaw County, Michigan, Sheriff confirms that in April there was a rash of “bottle bombs” in his area, consisting of a liquid form of Drano with a piece of tinfoil floating in it. About 30 seconds after he moved it, it detonated, spewing acid and shattered bottle pieces.  

“Once the detonation occurs, the chemical substance that was in the bottle is actually boiling liquid,” which can cause second or third degree burns and possibly blindness. The sheriff referred to it as a “Works bomb,” and cautioned people that, if they see a bottle on their lawn or in their mailbox partially filled with liquid, especially if the liquiid appears blackish and the bottle is even slightly swollen, do not move it, call 911. Similar bottle bombs have turned up in Massachusetts, according to Snopes. Children and pets are especially vulnerable to such a bomb cooking in the grass, just waiting to be jiggled.

I already knew in “olden times” that a soda pop bottle left in the sun just might detonate, or a Coke bottle frozen in the freezer might let go…. Now we know that fertilizer can blow up a huge government office building (The Murrah Building in Oklahoma), we also have to look out for soda pop bottles filled with deliberate malice. Here is a demostration:

The following press release is from the Coalition for Arlington Good Government, a group that’s fighting an effort to change Arlington’s form of government from a County Manager to a County Board. The signatories include all of Arlington’s current General Assembly members, as well as several past members. This follows a unanimous vote by the Arlington County Democratic Committee to oppose changing Arlington’s form of government. Personally, as I’ve said previously, I am convinced that this is very bad public policy and would be a major mistake if Arlington were to move in this direction.  I’m glad to see our elected officials speaking out against it.

June 1, 2010

TO ARLINGTON COUNTY VOTERS:

Signatures are being gathered to place on the ballot a referendum that would require Arlington County to adopt a new form of government structure. Based on our experience in the General Assembly, we oppose this effort. It could significantly impair our ability to advance Arlington’s interests in Richmond.

Arlington is unique among Virginia counties and cities. We are the only jurisdiction to have adopted the “County Manager Plan” of government, and a separate section in the Code of Virginia sets out Arlington’s powers and responsibilities.

Over the years, we and our predecessors in the General Assembly have succeeded in securing special powers for Arlington that reflect both the needs of an urban, diverse population, and our values as an inclusive, forward-looking community. For instance:

*Arlington’s requirements for child day care operations are far more stringent than statewide standards in terms of staffing ratios, personnel qualifications, etc.

* Arlington’s Human Rights Ordinance uniquely gives us the power to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

* Arlington’s Affordable Dwelling Unit Ordinance enables us to expand the stock of critically needed affordable housing in the County.

These and other authorities would be placed in jeopardy if Arlington were forced to abandon its current governing structure. The referendum would require us to adopt a form of government that is used by four rural, sparsely populated counties in far southwestern Virginia — jurisdictions with which Arlington has virtually nothing in common. Any change to this new form of government would need the concurrence of those counties.

In the coming years, Arlington faces great challenges — and even greater opportunities — in Richmond. The Arlington delegation will be better able to meet those challenges and capitalize on those opportunities if we aren’t required to expend our resources trying to regain existing powers and authorities. For these reasons, we oppose the “Change of Government” referendum.

Mary Margaret Whipple

Senator, 31st District

Patsy Ticer

Senator, 30th District

Bob Brink

Delegate, 48th District

Adam Ebbin

Delegate, 49th District

David Englin

Delegate, 45th District

Patrick Hope

Delegate, 47th District

Ed Holland

Senator, 31st District

1972-1996

Judy Connally

Delegate, 48th District

1992-1998

Karen Darner

Delegate, 49th District

1991-2004

Al Eisenberg

Delegate, 47th District

2004-2010

This is good, now let’s hear a clear, compelling, powerful moral narrative about the policies that led to this disaster, how this situation stemmed directly from our addiction to fossil fuels (and our failure to kick that addiction), how the power of corporations vis-a-vis government oversight and regulation is completely out of whack (in favor of the “robber barons”), and how we need to move forward to a completely different energy economy.

I’d also love to hear that, in addition to the moratorium on “new” offshore oil drilling, that current oil rigs will not be allowed to operate unless and until they can prove that they truly have “fail safe” methods to deal with any contingencies and to prevent a future catastrophe like this one. I’d give the oil companies 60 days to present their plans to the federal government. If acceptable, they can continue drilling. If not, they should be shut down until they prove they have satisfied the stringent requirements to drill in our waters. Period.

Unfortunately, to date, I haven’t heard either the compelling moral narrative or the tough, new conditions for offshore oil drilling.  The question is, why not?

As I reluctantly predicted last week, BP’s “top kill” effort to stop the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico didn’t work. The inescapable conclusion is that offshore oil drilling technology is far more advanced than offshore oil spill stopping technology.

But wait! BP has a new plan to keep us from seeing this spill as an inevitable overdose of our ongoing addiction to oil! Put down that clean energy & climate bill and check this out:

[BP Managing Director] Bob Dudley said there was a greater chance of success with this operation  than with the “top kill” procedure that was tried last week.

“This is a better chance, definitely better. We’re not working with  those high pressures and pumping that we weren’t sure we were able to  even connect up. The guys that are running the robots, this is something  that they know how to do. The cutting is probably the critical piece.  We may have to try a couple of blades to do it. But from an engineering  sense, this is much more straightforward. 

If this plan was really so much better than the “top kill” scheme, wouldn’t BP have done this a lot sooner? Of course. Because this plan has one major drawback — it inherently has to make the gusher a lot worse before it has any chance at all of making it better:

But a potential problem exists if the dome doesn’t work: A clean cut on  the riser pipe would mean even more oil coming out than before.

“Well, there will be a little bit more oil, somewhere between zero  and 20 percent more,” said Dudley.

“Well, 20 percent is not insignificant, if thousands and thousands  of barrels of oil are pouring out of there,” said [CBS News Anchor Harry] Smith. 

Maybe it’s time for our national debate to shift away from the gusher itself, which has very little chance of being stopped until a relief well is drilled months from now. Maybe it’s time to talk about ways to ease our need for drilling in the first place — more efficient cars, plug-in electric vehicles, and smart growth. Because maybe, just maybe, all these plans from BP are no more than parlor tricks to make it look like BP isn’t powerless to stop this spill.

Cross-posted from The Green Miles

Thanks to Tom Whipple for the Tuesday “Clips.”

1. STATE CUTS BLAMED FOR TUITION INCREASES

2. VIRGINIA LEADERS GRAPPLE WITH MUSHROOMING MEDICAID COSTS

4. CHALLENGES AHEAD IN LOAN BATTLE

5. WEBB, WARNER JET OFF DURING CONGRESSIONAL RECESS

6. FIMIAN, HERRITY SPRINT TO END OF PRIMARY RACE

7. OFFICIALS EXPLORING CHANGES IN PROTECTIVE ORDERS

8. VIRGINIA STUDENTS FACING MORE TUITION INCREASES

9. DISRUPTIONS EXPECTED ON VRE TUESDAY

14. A DAY LABOR CENTER IN CENTREVILLE IS IN THE CROSSHAIRS

19. SCHAPIRO: IS ARMSTRONG SPINNING ON NEW STAGE?

20. PROPOSAL FOR DAY-LABORER SITE BRINGS A NATIONAL DEBATE TO CENTREVILLE

26. RESHAPING WOODBRIDGE: AS PLAN FOR NEW WOODBRIDGE IS IN PLACE, RAZED TRIANGLE SITS UNTOUCHED

I offer the following tidbits, each story with a common thread: Where is the empathy?

• Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged tops books borrowed at the Virginia Tech Newman Library for a recent year.

• Hopes for extension of unemployment benefits died last week.

• Concern for needy declines as the poor and working poor are “nickeled and dimed.”

• President Obama wanted his US Supreme Court nominee to possess empathy, though to date we do not know if or how Elena Kagan has demonstrated such, or whether she would be another corporatist on the high Court. Republicans criticized and mocked the empathy criterion.

And then, there is this: A recent University of Michigan study on empathy among young people found a sharp reduction in it.  College students today score much (40%) lower in empathy than college students did just 10 or 20 years ago. The biggest drop came after 2000, which is not surprising given the arrogant, resource-grabbing culture promoted by Bushism.  Every man (and woman) for himself and God help us all. It’s the GOP/Club for Growth/(Milton Friedmanomics/”Tea Partiers”/Freedom Works/Americans for Prosperity,” mantra.  

Ruthless opportunism marks everything George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich and the newer reinvention of the far right seek.  There is nothing more sacred than their very own tax shelters, preferences or cuts, except, perhaps, their tendency to hijack patriotism and contort it into something it is not.  They use up resources way out of proportion to what they contribute and without regard for what they destroy in the process.  Think BP.  Think Halliburton.  Think Wall Street.  Think those who believe any American should be a second class citizen.

To quote cognitive scientist, George Lakoff, the radical-wrong’s ideology is:

“empathy-free, self-interest maximizing, with disdain or even hatred for those seen as lesser beings.”

Lakoff notes that this wrong-wing (my term) ideology is self-reinforcing: a system that essentially promotes that values-free system itself.  It mocks altruists, “do-gooders,” and “bleeding hearts,” as if those were actually bad things. If the trend with college students continues, eventually a majority could take such a jaded view of others.  For sixty years the fringe has orchestrated a movement to change the way we view our responsibility to one another.  From Nixon to today’s GOP, they’ve nixed the common good.  Now the fringe has grown from less than 10% to roughly 25%.  And the 25% is holding our nation hostage to their Party of No “leadership.”  Now we see the result of values-free, self-adulating, self-aggrandizing  destructiveness.  The radical wrong is destroying everything in its sight. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution.  Democrats cannot have it both ways.  

Importantly, Lakoff says that you wont’ find empathy in bipartisanship with a party that values nothing but its own advancement. There is no compromise with scorched-earth policies and tactics, nor with hatred of minorities or anyone who, for whatever reason, does not seem to fit in.  The national and most statewide GOP entities and the pols they elect are finally beyond reach or compromise. Indeed the GOP leadership is Lost with a big L, as surely as the hapless characters on the newly retired television series.  They are the living dead, so devoid of any heart or soul it is laughable they preach to the rest of us about soul.  

You cannot compromise with those who would seek to target and abuse others because of their sexual orientation or identity.  You can’t compromise with those seeking to destroy the middle class and further destroy the nation’s poor.  You cannot compromise with those who would seek to install their religion on everyone else despite our Constitutional right to believe what we wish.  You cannot compromise with those who would use the profession of one particular faith as a “get out of jail free card” justification for any misbehavior, lawbreaking or hypocrisy whatsoever.  They don’t even practice that which they wish us to obey.  You cannot compromise with those who would argue that finality is more important than halting the execution of the wrong person.  (And you cannot compromise with those who believe the state should execute anyone at all.)  You cannot compromise on keeping the state out of citizens’ bedrooms.  You cannot compromise on the increasing treatment of corporate person-hood.  You cannot compromise with those who outright lie to get elected.  You cannot compromise with or on those who misrepresent or lie about every single thing you do. And you cannot compromise with those who will always say no.

I know that our president believes in the “value” of bipartisanship. But, President Obama (and others in the Democratic Party) fail to note that compromising with the values-free radical party calling itself the Republican party is a path toward not just folly, but catastrophe. Deny their bad intentions if you wish. But if you do, you will soon stand for nothing at all, or worse, you will stand with them.  

President Obama once had, as George Lakoff called it, “the moral narrative.”  His own values were clearly articulated in his writings in speeches:

• That our Constitution must be restored to pre-911 historic and robust protections.

• That we must restore our financial systems to credibility for the security of us all.

• That we must protect our resources against wanton destruction.

• That our privacy deserves protection.

• That we must conduct oversight as our citizens deserve and protect them against corporate abuse as he must.

• That we must be a fair nation, a just nation, not just when it’s safe under the “law of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh,” but always.

• That we must protect people against abuse by corporations, and even by government itself.

*That he would protect Social Security and Medicare.

• That he would honor and respect the nation’s teachers and its school children.

• That, most of all, we must seek peace, not war, especially, not more wars as we already are enmeshed in two.  We cannot sustain that either in an economic sense, or more importantly, a moral sense.

In less than 18 months, this administration and too many of its Democratic contingent in Congress, especially Blue Dogs, show little sign of understanding the needs of the people of this nation.  As they focus on electability, they fail to lead on the issues of our time.  I cannot believe we are in this place once more. What have we learned?

Leadership often means means showing the way.  Here it means showing those who don’t get it what it means to really be a citizen of these United States.  That means honoring our legal underpinnings, but also trying to change them for the better, as needed.  That means making this as, ironically, one little-caring and aloof president once said “a kinder, gentler nation,” but for real this time.  Number 41 didn’t really get what those words meant when he said them, or perhaps they were subterfuge.  

This sacred weekend could be put to no better use than to ponder the following admonition from George Lakoff: “Empathy, now!” … empathy now for those fighting wars in our name; for those who tragically see fighting in war as the only way to get a college education; for those who’ve lost loved ones in battle; for those who do not fight; for the peacemakers; for minorities and those in a protected “class” (and those who should be); for those nonconformists who march to their own drummer; for those who whose economic health and physical health are collapsing before their eyes; for people over institutions; for those who’ve been swindled by Wall street or any other cutthroat entity which commits fraud against our people; and for those individuals who may disagree with us, but reject scorched-earth, destructive policies and tactics. No, there can be no nobler calling than to remember and act with empathy now (and always) in our common humanity!  There can be no nobler calling than to stand up for us, the people (real people) of these United States.  I hope the President and our representatives are listening.  

Does this video make you want to vote for Cooch or what? 🙂

P.S. In all seriousness, though, everything I hear is that Cooch will be running for governor in 2013 and that he will easily defeat Bill Bolling for the Republican nomination. A scary, scary thought.