RAMPANT CORPORATE FASCISM IN MISSISSIPPI WITH “THE GREAT KEMPER DEBACLE”

The blog focuses on several articles which have been published in the last two months on what I have come to call, “The Great Kemper “Clean Coal” Debacle.   It has been called other names like a “boondoggle”, a scam, a theft, etc.  But it is going to be an impending disaster for the State of Mississippi and I give that at least an 80% probability.  It will take a miracle for that to change.

But it is also a prime example of Corporate Fascism at work.  That’s when a corporation or a group of corporations also “merge” with the government and take control.  In this case, the primary culprit is the Southern Co. which is the owner of Miss. Power.  What they have tried to do is to buy the executive and legislative branches of the Mississippi Government, and its agencies, to authorize a totally unwise expenditure and charge it to the citizenry (rate payers) even before there is ample proof that this is prudent. And Miss. Power is, of course, a regulated monopoly.  Have you ever tried to buy your electricity from another supplier?   It is not unlike being controlled by a mafia ring and  the primary mafioso members are the CEO of the Southern Co. Tom Fanniing and the CEO of Miss. Power, Ed Day.

The way corporate fascism succeeds is that it also gains control of the media.  In this case, Miss. Power has shown clearly that it has control of the Sun Herald, the major newspaper in So. MS and WLOX, the major TV station. How does that work?  It’s simple;  you just fork over the dollars.  It’s exactly the way they have worked with the executive and legislative branches.

These articles are from the “alternate”, non corporate media for the most part though there are other publications outside of So. MS which have also made reports.  I have focused on two outstanding publications, Emmerich Newspapers (Northside Sun) and a blog site, Bigger Pie Forum.  These two are fearless in this matter and present objective views of what is happening even though the environmental aspects of this enormous debacle are not adequately presented.  Why won’t these articles appear locally?  Because of what I said in the paragraph above! It’s basically the same reason they won’t touch the blogs I have been writing for at least 18 months or even some “Letters to the Editors”.

Thomas Baldwin,  Biloxi, MS

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Court rules in favor of Bigger Pie public records request

Complete article: http://www.biggerpieforum.org/blog/court-rules-favor-bigger-pie-public-records-request 

 

Posted by Amy McCullough on April 19, 2013

UPDATE APRIL 22: Hearing on Bigger Pie Forum’s contempt motion is 9 a.m. tomorrow, April 23 in Hinds County Chancery Court, 316 S. President St., Jackson, Miss. in Judge Dewayne Thomas’ court room.

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Hinds County Chancery Court has ruled that the Mississippi Public Service Commission must give Bigger Pie Forum records related to the Kemper County clean coal plant.

>> Read the judge’s order here.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission has failed to comply with the order from Chancellor Dewayne Thomas.

In July 2012, Bigger Pie Forum filed a public records request with the Commission requesting records containing Mississippi Power Company’s 2009 natural gas price forecasts that were used to economically justify the company’s $3-billion clean coal plant under construction in Kemper County. The case was heard in September.

Miss. Public Service Commission fails to comply with court order

http://proactvoice.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/cororate-fascism-in-ms-cost-of-kemper-power-plant-keeps-growing/

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Cost of Kemper power plant keeps growing

FROM THE DELTA DEMOCRAT TIMES—4-21-2013

Wyatt Emmerich

Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2013 12:00 am

While Mississippi Power was building the $4 billion Kemper coal plant, Entergy bought a natural gas plant for $250 million — one twelfth the cost per kilowatt. 

Last year, South Mississippi Electric Power Association purchased an 837 megawatt 12-year-old gas plant in Batesville for $286 million. Per kilowatt, the Kemper plant is 19 times more expensive than the Batesville gas plant.

Natural gas plants are proven technology. The Kemper lignite gasification plant uses a new technology that has never been applied on a commercial scale. 

Mississippi Power and its regulatory agency, the Mississippi Public Service Commission, have made a huge bet that natural gas priceswill rise. So far, the opposite has happened. This bad decision could cost 356,000 households in our state an extra $580 a year on their power bill. If Kemper doesn’t meet its rosy operating projections, the price tag could easily be a thousand dollars per household per year. 

According to its 2011 annual report, Mississippi Power has 3.2 gigawatts, of generating capacity without Kemper. The average daily need is 1.7 gigawatts and the all-time peak is 2.9. In addition, Mississippi Power can always buy electricity from other power plants for less than it costs to produce from its own plants. So why was Kemper needed?  Mississippi Power states in its annual report that its old coal plants can be retrofitted with scrubbers for $330 million and be EPA compliant. Why not do that instead?

Continued at link posted  above and here:

http://proactvoice.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/cororate-fascism-in-ms-cost-of-kemper-power-plant-keeps-growing/

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http://www.biggerpieforum.org/op-ed/mississippi%E2%80%99s-psc-not-looking-out-mississippians

 Mississippi’s PSC is not looking out for Mississippians

By Wyatt Emmerich,

President, Northside Sun Newspaper

I attended my first Public Service Commission (PSC) hearing last week. I was not impressed.

Because power companies have monopolies, the PSC Is there to protect the consumer. But that’s not what I witnessed. Instead, PSC commissioner Leonard Bentz seemed irritated at some of the citizens who showed up to protest the new rate hikes precipitated by the new $3.7 billion Kemper lignite plant.

Bentz started the meeting by complaining about “misinformation” published by various reporters and columnists. I guess that includes me.

During a break, I approached Bentz, gave him my card and told him I would be happy to meet with him to straighten out any misinformation. I was not warmly received.

I can certainly understand the pressure Bentz feels. It would make me testy as well. But what about the 300,000 or so utility customers who will soon see a 25 percent increase in their utility bills?

Bentz takes issue with Sierra Club reports indicating rates will eventually go up 60 percent or more. He pointed out that the rate increase is 25 percent, not 60 percent. Regarding this first rate increase, he is correct. But who said this will be the last? It could well be the first of many.

The question is, why are rates going up at all? As a businessman, I buy new equipment to lower my cost of production, not raise it. I don’t recall any brownouts in Southeast Mississippi. So why was this plant built in the first place?

The tab for the new plant is $3.7 billion and rising rapidly. The total number of customers served by the plant is about 300,000 – about a fourth of the state. That comes to $12,000 per utility customer on average. The interest and principal to pay that off over 20 years could easily top $1,000 per year per customer. That’s why tensions are running high. …

The Southern Company will be looking to its Mississippi customers to pay for the cost of the plant, sooner or later.

There is something very wrong when a company making $3.75 billion in operating profit can force utility customers in the poorest state to pay for an experimental $3.7 billion power plant that isn’t even needed. …

A full-scale natural gas plant would have cost one-sixth as much and produced 50 percent more electricity.

Any private company would have pulled the plug long ago. But that’s not how it works in the world of a regulated monopoly. Instead, the Southern Company will spend millions to lobby influential government officials and make Mississippi’s families swallow a huge increase in their monthly power bills. This is the very thing the PSC was designed to prevent. Instead, the commission is enabling it. …

I have written about this misguided project for years now. Never once has anyone from Southern or the PSC disputed my facts or attempted to show me the light. I hope to meet with Southern Company officials in the near future and visit the plant. Nothing would make me happier than to discover I am completely wrong, for I feel sad that this economic albatross is going to be around the neck of my beloved state for the next 40 years. This is 72 times the size of the beef plant.

I recall taking a government course in college about how regulatory agencies end up getting cooped and manipulated by the very industries they are supposed to regulate. As far as I can tell, this is precisely what has happened here. Monopolies are simply bad for society. Don’t try to regulate them. Break them up and allow consumers choice. Given a choice of electricity providers, I seriously doubt many Mississippi utility customers would have chosen the one with the highest price – even if it is bleeding edge technology.

A longer version of this editorial appeared in the Northside Sun and other newspapers. Read the full version here.

Wyatt Emmerich can be reached at wyatt@northsidesun.com

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http://www.biggerpieforum.org/op-ed/kemper-coal-plant-will-have-everyday-high-priced-electricity  

The Kemper coal plant will have everyday high-priced electricity

By Ashby M. Foote III
Bigger Pie Forum board president

This is an excerpt from the full version of this editorial which ran in The Clarion-Ledger on March 30, 2013.

You may have missed it but Mississippi Power (MP), the electric utility serving 23 counties in Southeast Mississippi, recently posted a blockbuster 57% increase in earnings for 2012. Headlines for this newsworthy item were hard to find, one had to dig to page II-359 ofSouthern Company’s (MP’s parent company) annual 10K filing with the S.E.C. to find the report. So just how good was 57% earnings growth in the lackluster economy of 2012? It was better than 95% of the companies in the S&P 500 index and better than all but one of the 33 U.S. publicly traded electric utilities. Or consider the premier growth company Wal-Mart, in 2012 they grew earnings by just 12% on sales growth of 5%. In short, +57% is the type profit growth that keeps Wall Street types drooling.

Even more amazing is that MP achieved this $54 million increase in profits in a year where they sold fewer kilowatt hours (kWh) and saw total revenues fall by 6.9%. Huh? Anyone who has ever run a lemonade stand is probably asking, “How do you increase profits by $54 million when production and sales are declining?” That is an important question. (Continued at link above)

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FROM  NORTHSIDE SUN,  MARCH 12, 2013

Kemper coal plant will cost our state thousands of jobs

By Rich Sun 

Over the course of a 40-year career in banking and investing, I have rarely seen a project that makes less sense than the lignite mine and gasification plant under construction in Kemper County by Mississippi Power Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company. From the estimates compiled by the Bigger Pie Forum and their engineering consultants, it appears that the gasifier and mine impose about $300 million of unnecessary excess annual costs on the 185,000 families and businesses in the Mississippi Power Company service area, compared to building a standard gas-fired generating plant.

The $300 million is an estimate by outsiders without access to Mississippi Power’s detailed estimates. The actual excess will vary with gas prices, and Kemper’s operating costs and efficiencies ….. Mississippi Power has been unusually opaque in its filings; many of its filings have been confidential and available only to the Public Service Commission and staff. The recent Special Purpose Entity (shell company) bond financing signed by the governor may reduce financing costs by a fraction, but is a bailout of Mississippi Power cost overruns beyond what had been approved by the PSC.

One thing is clear: At the time when Mississippi Power committed to build the mine and gasifier and ever since then, all public independent forecasts of gas prices have shown the mine and gasifier more expensive by far.

Southern has given several reasons for building Kemper; on close examination, none of them appears to justify the excess cost.

Higher taxes paid by Mississippi Power: Southern states that Kemper increases the tax base and tax receipts to the state and local governments from Mississippi Power. All those taxes are paid from ratepayers’ electricity bills.

The portion of construction and operating costs of Kemper that are necessary and prudent – the cost of the turbine electric generator (probably under $1 billion) – increase tax receipts reasonably. Mississippi residents will pay $300 million a year in higher electricity rates for Mississippi Power Company to recover the excess construction costs of the mine and gasifier ($3.8 billion versus $1 billion or less), the operating costs of the mine and gasifier and the taxes on both capital and operating costs.

If I sell you a dollar’s worth of goods for two dollars, you lose the extra dollar and sales tax on the extra dollar. How do you feel about the taxes on the overcharge? That is how you should feel about most of the increase in taxes Southern claims from Kemper.

Jobs: Southern Company has identified about three percent of its shareholders as Mississippi residents (there may be more since some registrations are in “street name”) and a portion of the cost will be spent locally. In any case, the vast majority of that $300 million is going out of state and will be a massive drain on the local economy.

The Kemper plant will employ about 250 workers when in operation, some of whom will be high-skilled workers from out of state. We estimate that job loss in the service area from the $300 million of excess electricity cost could be 5,000 to 15,000 jobs. Using an annual cost per employee of $60,000 (a high number) gives the 5,000 estimate; using the typical multiplier from the primary jobs (and perhaps lower costs per job) produces the 15,000 jobs lost.

So Mississippi gets 250 jobs at Kemper and loses 5,000 to 15,000 jobs: how is that good for Mississippi?

Natural gas price risk: Mississippi Power says building Kemper protects ratepayers from the price volatility of natural gas. Gas does vary in price. But if the cost of power from gas is always lower than from lignite, why pay for lignite?

Southern had the option to start construction of the mine and gasifier at Kemper if natural gas rose enough beyond the forecast levels to make the mine and gasifier economic. There was no need to build it immediately. Hedges could have reduced price increases during the construction period

If Kemper is such a bad idea, why aren’t businesses and local leaders speaking out against Kemper?

First, Mississippi Power has run a superficially effective public relations campaign, including heavy lobbying, commercials and multiple four-color full-page ads touting Kemper’s benefits – citing jobs, taxes and price stability, but has never documented any lower cost electricity compared to building a standard gas fired generating plant.

Second, because utilities usually pass through only legitimate costs, as reviewed and confirmed by the regulators, the business community does not look closely at utilities.

Third, the relevant facts and analysis were not available until recently.

Very few, if any, senior executives of well-run companies would approve a project like Kemper; the risk to their finances and reputation from the high operating and capital costs, and unproven technology would be far too great. They are experts in their own businesses, not so in electrical generation. 

Rich Sun, a Northsider, was an investment banker with Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, UBS and an investor with a global private equity firm backed by the World Bank, AIG, GE and Singapore. He arranged, advised or invested in 100 private transactions valued at over $11 billion, 60 percent of which were in the energy sector. Since 2001, he has been engaged in backing early-stage, high-potential companies.

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Bigger Pie Forum is a discussion platform. Views expressed in this column are the opinions of the author and are not official opinions of the Bigger Pie Forum board or employees. Articles published in February-April 2013.

http://www.biggerpieforum.org/op-ed/kemper

Blog posts in kemper

 

Court rules in favor of Bigger Pie public records request

UPDATE APRIL 22: Hearing on Bigger Pie Forum’s contempt motion is 9 a.m. tomorrow, April 23 in Hinds County Chancery Court, 316 S. President St., Jackson, Miss. in Judge Dewayne Thomas’ court room….

Posted by: Amy McCullough on April 19, 2013

MS Democratic Party chairman: Kemper plant already built

Bigger Pie Q&A with Rickey Cole

Rickey Coal is the chairman of Mississippi’s Democratic Party. He is a native of Ovett, Miss. in Southeast Jones County, which…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on April 16, 2013

MS Republican Party founder Clarke Reed: Kemper plant ‘totally foolish’

Bigger Pie Forum Q&A with Clarke Reed

Clarke Reed is one of the founding fathers of Mississippi’s modern Republican Party. Reed, 84, chaired the party for…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on March 28, 2013

MS Power granted rate increase for Kemper plant

State regulators voted to allow Mississippi Power Company to start charging customers for its clean coal power plant under construction in Kemper County, despite the fact the plant won’t be operational until 2014….

Posted by: Amy McCullough on March 6, 2013

Editorial: Will Kemper plant ever provide financial benefit for customers?

Bigger Pie Forum board member, Dr. Charles Grayson, has written a few editorials regarding the Kemper County clean coal plant for the Bigger Pie Forum …

Posted by: Amy McCullough on March 4, 2013

Sun Herald: Gov. Bryant has signed bills for Kemper power plant

Gov. Phil Bryant has signed two bills Mississippi Power says will allow them to raise rates to pay for the multibillion dollar Kemper County power plant project by about 25 percent, instead of the company…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on February 26, 2013

Kemper: Natural gas price comparisons

Public electric utilities, which are allowed monopoly status, are required by state law to provide reliable electricity to customers at the lowest cost possible. Utilities are regulated by the Mississippi Public…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on February 16, 2013

Senate sends Kemper settlement bills to governor

The Associated Press has reported that a bill that would give Mississippi Power Company another $1 billion to fund its Kemper County clean coal plant has been approved by the Senate and sent to Gov. Phil Bryant for a…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on February 14, 2013

House approves bills backing Kemper settlement

The Associated Press has reported:

Mississippi House members have blessed a settlement between the Public Service Commission and Mississippi Power Co. over the…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on February 11, 2013

MS Power’s $1-billion bond bill could be taken up this week

Senate Bill 2755, the “Mississippi Public Utility Rate Mitigation and Reduction Act,” and its companion,…

Posted by: Amy McCullough on February 4, 2013

Cororate Fascism in MS: Cost of Kemper power plant keeps growing

This  is a very important article by Wyatt Emmerich, publisher and owner of Emmerich Newspapers and the Northside Sun.  Louie Miller of the State Sierra Club had first distributed this via email but I just found this version in print with the Delta Democrat Times.  Emmerich has been consistently one of our best allies in presenting the truth.  Isn’t that a contrast we get from our local corporate press, the Sun Herald?  I wonder if the fact that they continually yield to Miss. Power has anything to do with it??  hahahahaha–Thomas Baldwin.

 

 

FROM THE DELTA DEMOCRAT TIMES—4-21-2013

Cost of Kemper power plant keeps growing

 

Greg Campbell

Wyatt Emmerich

Greg Campbell

Wyatt Emmerich

Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2013 12:00 am

0 comments

While Mississippi Power was building the $4 billion Kemper coal plant, Entergy bought a natural gas plant for $250 million — one twelfth the cost per kilowatt.

 

Last year, South Mississippi Electric Power Association purchased an 837 megawatt 12-year-old gas plant in Batesville for $286 million. Per kilowatt, the Kemper plant is 19 times more expensive than the Batesville gas plant.

Natural gas plants are proven technology. The Kemper lignite gasification plant uses a new technology that has never been applied on a commercial scale.

 

Mississippi Power and its regulatory agency, the Mississippi Public Service Commission, have made a huge bet that natural gas priceswill rise. So far, the opposite has happened. This bad decision could cost 356,000 households in our state an extra $580 a year on their power bill. If Kemper doesn’t meet its rosy operating projections, the price tag could easily be a thousand dollars per household per year.

 

According to its 2011 annual report, Mississippi Power has 3.2 gigawatts, of generating capacity without Kemper. The average daily need is 1.7 gigawatts and the all-time peak is 2.9. In addition, Mississippi Power can always buy electricity from other power plants for less than it costs to produce from its own plants. So why was Kemper needed?  Mississippi Power states in its annual report that its old coal plants can be retrofitted with scrubbers for $330 million and be EPA compliant. Why not do that instead?

 

MP officials are predicting Kemper will only cost $20 million a year to operate because sales of CO2, ammonia and other by-products will offset operating costs.Two problems here: The rosy forecasts of by-product sales could fail to materialize. And the operating and maintenance costs could well be far in excess of forecasts.For instance, MP projects $27 million a year in maintenance for a plant that cost $4 billion. That’s about half of one percent of the cost of the plant. Not likely for the 40-year life of the plant.

 

From 1990 through 2004, natural gas prices averaged around three dollars. From 2005 to 2008 gas prices suddenly spiked to eight dollars. At that price, the Kemper lignite plant could possibly be competitive with gas. In 2009, natural gas prices dropped back down to historical levels and have stayed there. With fracking, cheap natural gas is projected for years to come.

 

Dozens of coal projects were shelved when the price of natural gas dropped in 2009. The four billion dollar question is why the Kemper plant proceeded with construction — despite the fact that its authorization was under appeal.

As it turns out, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 2011 against Kemper, throwing Kemper, the PSC and Mississippi Power into disarray. The high court said Kemper’s construction was not supported by “substantial evidence” and remanded its approval back to the PSC.

 

This was a problem. The plant was already under construction. Over a billion had been spent.  What was the rush? Kemper could have been altered to burn natural gas and the coal gasification could have been added later if gas prices did indeed double.Or Southern, Mississippi Power’s parent, could have paid for the chemical plant and kept the by-product sales, leaving Mississippians to pay for the only thing they want — affordable electricity. Southern had $2.35 billion in profit last year.

 

Southern will not release its forecasts of natural gas prices. It’s a trade secret, they say.  Experts are predicting low gas prices for years to come. Even if gas prices double in 10 years, losses in the meantime will make it hard for Kemper to ever break even.

 

Entergy customers pay about a third less for electricity than Mississippi Power customers. And that was before the recent 22.69 percent rate hike approved last month by the PSC to fund Kemper.(Press releases touted the increase as only 12 percent, but my calculations were confirmed by company officials.)

 

Here’s the reality: The bigger the project, the more money Southern makes because they get a guaranteed return on their investment of about 10 percent.

There are huge cost overruns. Three hundred Mississippi contractors are involved, including Mississippi’s Yates Construction as the recently-fired general contractor. Kemper has grown from $1.8 billion to $3.9 billion and rising. The independent auditor for the project concluded in November that Southern “is not utilizing some basic project management and project control tools and techniques that are available and customarily used in the industry for a project of this magnitude.”

 

There is something wrong when millions of Southern Company stockholders can benefit by foisting an experimental technology on the poorest state in the country.

 

That’s why we have a Public Service Commission — to protect the public against the power company’s monopoly. Democrat Brandon Presley voted against Kemper because he didn’t think the technology would work. Such a disaster could cost Mississippi $300 million a year. It would be the beef plant times 80.

 

The other two commissioners, Lynn Posey and Leonard Bentz, Republicans, have supported Kemper lock step. Bentz was appointed by Haley Barbour, whose lobbying firm has received $2.6 million in payments from Southern Company. Getting the picture?

 

At Southern’s annual stockholders meeting, an investment firm raised the issue of political transparency. Southern does not disclose the recipients of its lobbying and political payments. It is in the tens of millions, perhaps more. New U.S. Supreme Court rulings allow companies to contribute an unlimited amount to whomever they please — even a company that depends on public officials for its profitability. For Southern, it has been money well spent.

There has yet to be a final prudency hearing on Kemper. That means it’s not too late for the Mississippi PSC or even the Mississippi Supreme Court to exit this bad deal. Unfortunately, that would require a change of heart of two PSC commissioners.

 

The defense of Kemper by Bentz and Posey rests on one concept — diversification of energy. They fear the volatility of natural gas.

 

There are three problems with this analysis: First, Mississippi Power is already diversified. Forty percent of its power comes from coal already, without Kemper. Second, volatility means natural gas prices can go down, as well as up. Placing a $4 billion dollar bet either way is extremely risky. Third, Bentz and Posey have bet on the wrong side. Gas prices have dropped like a rock and are forecast to remain low for many years to come.

 

Posey and Bentz said Kemper will last 40 years and who knows what will happen over that length of time. Indeed, who knows? That’s why Kemper was profoundly imprudent. It’s time for the PSC to admit it and take remedial action. If not, the Mississippi Supreme Court should do it for them.

 

Wyatt Emmerich is the owner of Emmerich Newspapers.

Reed says GOP officials ‘duped’ by MPC

This is a very significant publication and should show everyone that the issue with Miss. Power,the Southern Co. and the infamous MS Public Service Commission led by Leonard Bentz is not a political partisan issue.  It is about blatant corporate fascism in the State of MS and it will destroy us soon if we don’t vehemently oppose it.–Tom

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dl/article?AID=/201304120100/OPINION/304120012

• Reed says GOP officials ‘duped’ by MPC

Apr. 11, 2013 2:55 PM   |  

0 Comments

Written by

Bill Minor

• FILED UNDER

• Opinion
• Haley Barbour

You’d hardly expect to hear a diehard Reagan-era Mississippi Republican sharply criticizing a big utility company for building a costly, unneeded — and experimental — generating plant with endorsement from state GOP leadership.

Well, it has happened. Clarke Reed, of Greenville, pioneer of the state’s modern GOP, has spoken out against the controversial $4 billion lignite-fueled plant being built by Mississippi Power Company in Kemper County. MPC is the subsidiary of the Georgia-based Southern Company.

Reed, 84, both in an interview with Bigger Pie Forum the conservative economic advocacy group, as well as this writer, has broadly implied that not only former Gov. Haley Barbour but the state’s current elected Republican leadership were “duped” by the utility monopoly into throwing their support behind the Kemper plant.

Reed was outraged that the Kemper project would become the “signature” legislation of the first Republican-controlled state executive branch since Reconstruction. “It proves Republicans are for millionaires and don’t give a damn about the state,” Reed told BPF, adding “I think it is a political issue that could be used against us for years.”

The Kemper plant marks the first attempt to use lignite, a soft peat-like form of coal with low combustible quality that underlies a broad area of east-central Mississippi, in the generation of electricity. Using a large volume of water, it is to be converted into synthetic natural gas to fire generators.

Reed asks the same question that many outspoken Kemper critics have asked: “Why spend $4 billion to build a lignite-fueled power plant when you could build a natural gas plant for $800 million? It’s totally foolish. We’re going to have more natural gas down here than we’ll ever need.” The Greenville businessman added the argument of lignite proponents that natural gas is more expensive to use has been demolished by new technology to extract the gas from shale formations which he called a “game changer … there’s no way natural gas (price) is going to spike up.”

The longtime state Republican leader would not specifically embrace the term “conflict of interest” that Barbour is a staunch advocate for building the Kemper plant while the Southern Company is a client of Barbour’s Washington, D.C., lobbying firm. Reed, who was influential in launching Barbour’s rise in national GOP politics as a legislative aide in the Reagan White House, said he didn’t believe the former governor saw the Southern Company connection as a conflict. But he did not exclude Barbour in saying “how could our elected officials have been duped into this thing.”

Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, a Democrat, waged a lonely three-year battle on the commission trying to block Mississippi Power’s Kemper plant scheme. Presley has charged MPC’s making ratepayers bear the cost during the plant’s construction amounts “corporate socialism.”

Ironically, now a founding father of the modern Mississippi GOP has arrived at practically the same conclusion about the Kemper plant. Reed, who is still recovering from a near-fatal automobile collision several months ago, contended that Southern Company “bought” Mississippi’s government, by investing $5 million on lobbyists and getting a $4 billion return. “Where could they get a better return than that?”

The gray-maned Republican warhorse charged that “people are going to wake up at some point and see what happened.” Reed added that GOP political opponents will begin to say “When those Republicans came in — those conservatives that we thought were going to do everything right — look what we got out of it.” He concluded: “We ought to be thrown out.”

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Contact Bill Minor through Ed Inman at edinman@earthlink.net.

 

Model for Uniting the Progressive Movement

United Progressive Movement Diagram (preliminary posting)

copyright 2013, Thomas O. Baldwin, Ph.D.

“CLEAN COAL” IS A SCI-FI WET DREAM OF DESPERATE ELECTRICAL UTILITIES

By Thomas Baldwin, Biloxi, MS

March 18, 2013

This is a brief paper which summarizes some of what has been reported on the technology associated with IGCC (coal gasification) power plants around the world.  As everyone may not recognize, the Kemper Coal Plant in Mississippi utilizes the latest technology to build a power plant to generate over 500 Megawatts of electricity. As power plants go, this is not a huge plant by generation standards.but it does represent a huge expense imposed on the citizenry of Mississippi to pay for this impending debacle. Although I will focus on the probability here of success, I will also comment on the financial aspects later.  I will leave the environmental aspects of this experiment for others who know much more than I do about this particular project.  I want to keep it as simple as I can!

Although the illustrious “genius” and the chairman of the three members of our MS Public Service Commission, Leonard Bentz, has maintained this technology has been “thoroughly tested”, I contend that he is does not even understand this project and merely a stooge for Miss. Power and its parent, the Southern Co.of GA.  I don’t believe he understands anything about the technology or anything about the risks and potential hardships involved for the citizenry/ratepayers of Mississippi.  He actually publicly scolded us in the most recent PSC hearing he chaired in Jackson to grant Miss. Power rate increases to pay for this boondoggle and ultimate debacle. He accused all of us for putting out false information.  Thus, he immediately showed his lack of understanding and disrespect in an afternoon session of the cost implications.  As Forrest Gump told us:  ”Stupid is as stupid does.”  Mr. Bentz should watch the movie “Forrest Gump” again.

So let us explore briefly the record of “clean coal” technology to generate electrical power.  I will include my sources here for you to read but frankly it ain’t rocket science to understand the scam and atrocity being imposed on us in the State of MS.  So I will attempt to summarize as best I can.

THE HISTORY AND RECORD OF IGCC (COAL GASIFICATION) PLANTS

There are numerous sources here which you can easily explore yourself just by searching (Google).  I will present a few of those here and present excerpts from those articles.  This is about the plant that the Southern Co. (yes the parent of Miss.  Power!) is attempting to build in China!  I will add to that the experience of Duke Power in Indiana.  Oh how wonderful this “web” of progress, huh?

Some Recent History

This source now is nearly a year old but is still significant.  Read this message!!

“GreenGen and the handful of other IGCC coal plants in various stages of construction worldwide—including another plant in China and two in the United States—are the sole survivors among dozens of IGCC projects proposed and shelved over the past decade. Most fell by the wayside only in the past few years. A push for carbon legislation in the United States collapsed, as did the 2009 climate treaty negotiations held in Copenhagen. Without such measures, utilities have no incentive to invest in carbon capture. Over the same period, coal progressively lost its status as the cheapest fuel for power generation, as hydraulic fracturing operations flooded the natural gas market and slashed gas prices. 


The resulting IGCC casualties include even FutureGen, the flagship project in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Coal program and the inspiration for GreenGen. The Bush administration killed FutureGen in 2008 amid rising costs. The project may return under President Obama but as a test of a simpler but even less-proven low-carbon coal scheme known as oxyfuel combustion.”


Source:  The above is from a source entitled:  China’s first coal gasification power plant opened in Tianjin.  http://www.whatsontianjin.com/news-3524-china-s-first-coal-gasification-power-plant-opened-in-tianjin.html

I don’t want to overload with you with data or information here.  Just some facts, mam and gents. This little 3 billion dollar plant that Miss. Power and the Southern Co. of GA are building in Kemper County represent an enormous risk and potential disaster and the citizenry of MS are being asked to assume all of the risks by their corrupted state government. 

Let’s look at another specific example in the U.S.   The Edwardsport, Indiana, IGCC plant by Duke Energy was begun in 2007.  I can’t determine whether it is running yet but I believe the cost overruns were almost exactly what is being projected for Kemper, about one billion dollars. It’s not clear whether it is even operational or not.  Here’s a report on that from  the latest one I could find and here are some excerpts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwardsport_Power_Stationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwardsport_Power_Station 

IGCC units

“In 2007, Duke Energy Indiana began construction of a 618 megawatt (MW) integrated gasification combined cycle power plant. This plant was to be the first of its kind of its size. The gasification process at the new plant involves converting coal into a combustible syngas that will be used in a combustion turbine. The exhaust gases are routed through a large heat recovery steam generator that will be used in conjunction with a steam turbine to further increase the plant’s efficiency.The new plant is slated to be a base-load station. The construction of the plant has reserved the necessary space required for carbon capture and storage if Duke Energy decides to add this component to the plant at a later date.^[2] However, when the plant was originally planned, it was thought the site was ready for carbon injection. After conducting further research, it was determined that the site is actually not geologically suitable for underground storage of carbon. Instead, Duke Energy Indiana would need to seek approval to construct a pipeline to transport carbon to a more suitable site.

Edwardsport’s pollution per unit of energy produced will be greatly reduced, as particulate matter and mercury will be removed from the syngas. The coal-derived synthetic gas is much cleaner than conventional coal combustion to begin with, and it is easier to clean to greater extent. Coal gasification allows carbon capture to occur before the fuel is combusted — a much easier and economically feasible operation than carbon capture of exhaust gases.

It is expected that Edwardsport IGCC will be online during 2012. 

Cost overruns and controversy

The construction of the Edwardsport IGCC has been clouded in controversy and legal troubles for both Duke Energy Indiana and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. Thus far, the legal issues have resulted in the firing of the second highest ranked executive for Duke Energy, the dismissal of the Chairman of the IURC, David Lott Hardy, and Hardy’s subsequent indictment for three felony counts of official misconduct in cases concerning Duke Energy.^[3]”

So what are we to believe?  Well certainly not the arrogant attitude of Leonard Bentz, our PSC representative from So. MS.  I can’t put into words that might appear in the press anywhere which would describe my attitude toward this man. And this is only a brief blog which represents much more to come! 

THE FINANCIAL DISASTER

This part has become clear and the MS Sierra Club has done an extraordinary job of bringing this to the forefront.  It is so complicated with a web of political deceit that it is hard to simplify in a paper like this.  But it is analogous on a smaller scale to what the big banks have been doing to us for hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S.  Basically these big corporations like the Southern Co. are trying to use their political power to drive the rest of us into total poverty and dependency by gaining control over our political institutions including our Executive and Legislative branches of government. This is the essence of corporate fascism.  And folks, they’re winning their war and especially in MS!

Exhibit:  The Mississippi Power Kemper Plant. 

Kemper was originally proposed as the grand state of the art “clean coal” power plant near Meridian, MS even outside the Miss. Power territory.  When no other state wanted to build it, our former Governor Haley Barbour realized it was a great idea to serve his long term client, the Southern Co., and bring it to Mississippi.  There was about 300 million dollars from the Department of Energy to build a clean coal facility somewhere and Barbour said we’ll do it for you in MS.   The Southern Co, Mr. Barbour and others thought it was a great idea.  But the Southern Co., a large private company  could not get private investments to supplement their plans to do this.  Amazingly there was a bill in the Mississippi legislature in 2008 to allow public utilities like Miss. Power to charge their ratepayers to build a facility (whether it would come online or not) for the construction charges of a commercial private and experimental power plant.  Governor Barbour quickly signed a bill in the state legislature to fund it and guess what happened?  Lo and behold, a Kemper Coal Plant with hundreds of acres of a strip mine in Kemper County was designed.

It was touted as the numerous “jobs” it would produce.  Yes, there were construction jobs for a couple or more years and they were supposed to be for those in MS.  But that has not been the case.  The permanent jobs created were to be about 260 or so and no one knew whether they would be transfers or even new jobs.  But at the costs proposed for this plant, they would represent about 15 million dollars invested for each job with the “left overs” going to Miss. Power.  Not bad, huh?  Then there is the  cost for each ratepayer (186,000) expected to pay for this monster.  That’s about 15-20 thousand dollars a piece.

But of course, Mr Bentz, our PSC Commissioner was obviously not good in math either.  He has continuously touted what a great service he did by just authorizing Miss. Power to allow it’s first step in increasing rates for electricity by 12% followed by an additional rate increase of 3% within a year.  And this does not even include the rate increases which is anticipated by the additional one billion dollar bond issue to pay for cost overruns which could include an additional 5% cost increase in rates.  In other words, within a year, the total cost increase of our electricity in So. MS could be at least 20% or nearly what Miss. Power requested in the first place!

The financial aspects of this picture are a big “duhhhh”.  Never has any alternative like the uses of solar, wind, renewable energy sources, or conservation been considered. This would create many more jobs and represent the future.  But that’s because the Southern Co. under the “leadership” of CEO Tom Fanning,  and Miss. Power under the “leadership” of CEO Ed Day can’t figure out how to make money over “controlling” the energy from the sun. 

Oh my.  Is this what our corporate world which is controlling our government has come to??

**Photos are all from previous publications: Top photo is by Ralph Solonitz.  Others are originals and authorized for use by Thomas Baldwin.

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About the author:  In approximate terms, Dr. Thomas Baldwin has had a 20 year career as a Physicist (Ph.D.) and a 30 year career as a Management Consultant (MBA).  He is currently retired in Biloxi, MS and looking for work other than just writing blogs like this which is a labor of love!  Have computer; will travel!

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT MIGHT ST. PATRICT SUGGEST ABOUT SNAKES IN WASHINGTON?

Photo from Wikipedia:  Saint Patrick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 by Thomas Baldwin, Biloxi, MS  March 15, 2013

The celebration of the Irish and St. Patrick’s Day is widespread in the U.S. today and many cities recognized it with parades and ample green beer, whiskey and Irish food, including corn beef and cabbage. But with the selection of a new Pope from South America (Argentina) it seems like an interesting time to explore St. Patrick, too. I’ve always been curious about the legend of him driving the snakes out of Ireland since we are always dealing with snakes in politics.  Washington and some state capitals are absolutely infested with them.

First let me state that I am not Catholic nor am I a traditional Christian although I was raised in that tradition as a Methodist.  At the relatively young age of 20 I was exposed to a Methodist minister in a college town in Columbia, MO about this time in 1960 who railed against John Kennedy who was running for president.  He consistently told his congregation of the grave dangers of electing a Catholic president. Although I didn’t quite walk out in protest of his service, I left the Methodist Church in total disgust.  I have never gone back to an organized religion.

But I have always celebrated St. Patrick’s Day and even associated it with decisions I have made in my personal and professional life.  Perhaps it’s because I have a younger brother who was born on that day and named Patrick. And when I was a much younger physics professor I really enjoyed going to the local pub and spending March 17 drinking green beer and shots of Irish whiskey with my good friend and colleague Bruno, an MIT graduate and Italian from NYC.  

But this relatively short blog is about snakes in Washington who are actually psychopaths or worse and very devious and corrupt. I keep wondering how we’re going to deal with them.  They exist in both political parties even though they try to behave like good snakes and bad snakes. So I thought I’d find out how St. Patrick actually drove the snakes out of Ireland.  I thought maybe he had used some special techniques.  What a disappointment to learn more about the legend and recognize it is a bit more complicated than we might think! 

St. Patrick banishes all snakes from Ireland (from Wikipedia)

“The absence of snakes in Ireland gave rise to the legend that they had all been banished by St. Patrick. ^[65] chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill.^[66] This hagiographic theme draws on the mythography of the staff of the prophet Moses. In Exodus 7:8–7:13 , Moses and Aaron use their staffs in their struggle with Pharaoh’s sorcerers, the staffs of each side morphing into snakes. Aaron’s snake-staff prevails by consuming the other snakes.^[67]

However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes, as on insular “New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica… So far, no serpent has successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new terrestrial home” such as from Scotland at one point only eight miles from Ireland, where a few native species have lived, “the venomous adder, the grass snake, and the smooth snake”, as National Geographic notes,^[68] and although sea snake species separately exist.^[66][69] ”At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so there was nothing for St. Patrick to banish”, says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.^[66] The List of reptiles of Ireland has only one land reptile species native to Ireland; the viviparous or common lizard. The only biological candidate species for appearing like a native snake in Ireland is the slow worm, actually a legless lizard.”   So maybe our problem in Washington is only dealing with venomous legless lizards? That could work.

Apparently the mythology is that St. Patrick may be associated with his ability to convert pagans and others to Christianity. Some may have had snake tatoos on their arms.  Here’s more of what this source says about snakes for example: 

“Snakes are cold-blooded creatures, and they can’t knit cozy sweaters to survive in Ireland’s chill. The country was covered by glaciers for ages, and it only thawed about 15,000 years ago. By then, no land bridges existed between England and Ireland, so any snakes pining for a Guinness were trapped in the land of fish and chips”.

“St. Patrick is also credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland. There were probably no snakes in Ireland for him to drive out, and it is very likely that the story was meant to be symbolic. Since he converted the heathen, the snakes are thought to stand for the pagan beliefs or evil. Where he was buried is a mystery. Among other places, a chapel to St. Patrick at Glastonbury claims he was interred there. A shrine in County Down, Ireland, claims to possess a jawbone of the saint which is requested for childbirth, epileptic fits, and to avert the evil eye.

Here’s a nice summary in addition to Wikipedia of St. Patrick and the source of the photo just above:  http://privateislandparty.com/pages/st-patricks-day-lies-you-believed

And here is another:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090316-st-patricks-day-facts.html

How do we drive the Snakes out of Washington?

That seems to me to be the big question.  But the problem seems to exist in both political parties of our two party political system which is under total control of the corporate sector. They feed off of each other like parasites playing roles which have little or nothing to do with “public service.”   And yet with each electoral cycle the masses keep buying into this process as a “lessor of two evils.” The decision making process is fundamentally flawed.  The people are much more intelligent and caring than those who presume to represent us in these seats of power, especially Washington D. C. But they are brain washed and become addicted to not having other choices by the corporate media which propagates the myth that there may be change with another election.

Gary Larson, the famed cartoonist had great insights into the brains of animals, including Reptiles.  He framed the issue best in a famous Far Side cartoon. A Stegosaurus behind a podium addresses an audience of his fellow dinosaurs at a convention and the caption was: “The picture’s pretty bleak, gentlemen. ..the world’s climates are changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut.” 

I have used that cartoon in the past in many of my lectures on the brain and management and have continuously tried to find it to reproduce in a blog.  It is brilliant and especially applicable for the times.  But I think it portrays exactly what we are experiencing in Washington today with a gathering of either political party.  They just haven’t learned the words to utter yet.

Driving the snakes out of Washington requires action and organization.  Perhaps it will require us getting pitch forks first to remove the cow manure in the houses of Congress or even the White House.  But it a task that is necessary or we are all going to allow the complete collapse of our  political system. Any thoughts of democracy will just be a fantasy.  The system is not just dysfunctional;  it is nearly defunct (dead).  Your image should be of Humpty Dumpty and we know from our childhood what happened to him!

 

 

Michael Payne: The Washington Kabuki Theater of the Bizarre Presents: “The Height of Political Deceit and Manipulation”

OpEdNewsOriginal Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Washington-Kabuki-Thea-by-michael-payne-130227-231.html (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Associate Member, or higher).

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February 27, 2013The Washington Kabuki Theater of the Bizarre Presents: “The Height of Political Deceit and Manipulation”By michael payneA version of what is called a Kabuki Theater of the bizarre is taking place in Washington D.C. This presentation features President Barack in the lead role, backed by a cast of political actors that are unfit to appear on this nation’s center stage. All of these ethically-challenged individuals, charged with the responsibility of governing our county, are performing in a manner best described as bizarre, despicable.:::::::: Kabuki theater of the bizarre by ramirami    A version of what is called a Kabuki Theater of the bizarre is taking place in Washington D.C. This presentation features President Barack in the lead role, backed by a cast of political actors that are unfit to appear on this nation’s center stage. All of these ethically-challenged individuals, charged with the responsibility of governing our county, are performing in a manner that could best be described as both bizarre and despicable. The American people are watching this charade going on in the nation’s capitol and are shaking their heads in utter amazement at what they see. This is like some kind of nightmarish presentation that continues on with no seeming end. If this theater production were being presented on Broadway, the actors would be jeered, pelted with eggs and tomatoes, and booed off the stage. While this country remains under economic siege and is bleeding profusely from many self-inflicted wounds, those who were given the responsibility to find the ways to stop this hemorrhaging have now proven that they are not up to the task. This country and its society are staggering under the weight of endless wars, joblessness, corporate greed and corruption, and mounting violence. The people cry out for help but none is forthcoming. While a typical Kabuki presentation is generally well choreographed with impeccable acting, what is going on in Washington with this Congress and the Obama administration is anything but that; it has turned into an ugly standoff between two sets of bad actors, opposing political entities that are locked into their own ideologies with no common ground or any ability to begin to compromise in any way. This dark specter of sequestration, as has been pointed out by numerous respected economists and academics such as Paul Krugman and Robert Reich, is something that could easily be prevented; it is no more than a fabricated emergency, one that involves governmental incompetence of the highest degree. The real danger lies in the fact that this sequester has the potential to severely damage this economy at the very time that it is struggling to recover. Those in the know say that austerity is not the way to go and that the time-tested method of infusion of government funds to stimulate the economy is what is badly needed at this crucial time. But the most troubling part of this entire bizarre process is the fact that so many of these pathetic politicians are perfecting willing to take this nation to the brink of disaster and to allow this country to absorb yet more blows to its economic foundations. That’s not just being disloyal to this country; it’s committing political treason. The position of the Republicans could not be more clear; they are totally committed to the advancement of the interests of Corporate America and the wealthiest Americans who they serve; in doing so they have not the slightest feeling of shame or guilt as they answer only to their masters who use the power of their money and influence to control this government. Their actions represent the height of irresponsibility; their actions and behavior are reprehensible and they are beyond recovery or rehabilitation. But what of the performance of Mr. Obama who likes to view himself as a president who stands up for their interests and welfare of the people of America no matter how difficult that might be. Once again, he seems to be headed in the direction of last minute appeasement and capitulation to the GOP and its axis of political hacks, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor who seem to hold some kind of spell over him. Here we have a president who, in his foreign polity, remains very aggressive and on the offensive by launching deadly drones into the air space and across the borders of nations with which we are not at war. But on the domestic front, this same president is continually on the defensive as he is seemingly incapable of launching a counterattack to the Republican’s crazed obsession with a program of misguided austerity that will further cripple this already weak and declining economy. What’s going on with this impending sequester can be likened to a poker game, one in which the stakes are very high. The Republicans are past masters at the art of bluffing even when they know they don’t have the winning hand. Conversely Mr. Obama is not a very good poker player and he has been known to throw in a winning hand because of his fear that his opponents may have an ace up their sleeve. He seems to have a predisposition for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. And if he bends and breaks at the last moment and comes up with more concessions involving this sequester the losers in this game will be the people of this nation. He has had the Republican sociopaths up against the ropes but he apparently can’t deliver the knockout blow. This is the man who handily won the election and had the majority of the American people solidly behind him. But you would never know it by his failure to take charge of this terrible dilemma that now faces this nation. One thing that continues to be a troubling point with the American people is the fact that this president keeps putting the issue of Social Security cuts back on the table. His latest move has been to offer up a “Chained CPI” that would, in effect, cancel out $130 billion of future benefits that seniors will need to keep up with inflation. The large majority of Americans are fully aware that Social Security, which is self-funded and self-sustaining, has nothing to do with the national deficit and should have no part in this discussion. But this conflicted president continues to ignore their concerns and keeps offering it up as a concession to Republican demands. This is an absolute craven betrayal of the American people who should, by now, realize that this is a man that can no longer be trusted. The general belief among many Americans is that President Obama’s performance in this presentation has been and continues to be extremely disappointing; that he is just not up to the task, not up to the challenge and that he is in over his head as the appears to be falling into another Republican trap. Clever and astute in the art of politics do not fit this president; naïve and susceptible to manipulation certainly do. At least that’s what, on the surface, seems to be the case. However, there may be much more involved here than we think; that there is something much more troubling going on. It’s true that most of Americans continue to consider this a battle between Republicans and Democrats, but there is a growing number of observers in this country who see this seeming charade not so much as a massive confrontation between these two adversaries but, rather, as some sort of shrewd behind-the-scenes collusive deal; some kind of ploy that hides what’s really happening. Could something like that actually be in process, is that what these two parties are doing in concert? Whatever is going on, if the past is any indication of what the future holds, we can be sure that it will bring more pain and misery on the people of this country. This Kabuki Theater of the bizarre and absurd presents a stark picture of political deceit and manipulation of the highest order. And as this dark theatrical presentation enters its final act over the next days, weeks and months it most certainly will be recorded in history as a most pitiful, pathetic performance by those who have been entrusted with governing this nation. Michael Payne Submitters Bio: Michael Payne is an independent progressive activist. His writings deal with social, economic, political and foreign policy issues. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and a U.S. Army veteran. His primary objective is to inform readers of the fact that this nation’s agenda of perpetual war is leading it down a path to financial ruin; and that the proliferation of unjustified wars and a military empire must be ended. Secondly that we must find the ways to expel Corporate America from our government and political system before it destroys our democracy. 16 comments (Logged in as Dr. Tom Baldwin)   michael payne 62 fans, 231 articles, 626 comments Permalink kabuki Theater of the Bizarre This Kabuki Theater of the bizarre and absurd presents a stark picture of political deceit and manipulation of the highest order. And as this dark theatrical presentation enters its final act over the next days, weeks and months it most certainly will be recorded in history as a most pitiful, pathetic performance by those who have been entrusted with governing this nation. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 12:00:24 PM     2+   Dr. Tom Baldwin (Posted on Facebook) 1 fan, 7 articles, 4 quicklinks, 45 comments Permalink Excellent article by Michael Payne! As is becoming somewhat common, but Michael Payne has written another excellent article.  Perhaps our thoughts are beginning to converge from a distance.  It is becoming increasingly clear to me that Obama is either grossly incompetent as a leader (one possibility) or he is being totally controlled by corporate fascist forces which control both political parties.  We have “Wizards of Oz” behind the screen and we just haven’t realized it yet!!  We have to identify and disclose those!!Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 1:07:32 PM     2+   Patricia Gray 7 fans, 154 comments Permalink Reply to Dr. Tom Baldwin: Whos side is Obama on? Obama is a member of those corporate fascists in control of our government. He is a dictator since he signed the NDAA .  This law gives him the power to have any one of us killed. No trial.  No defense. Just death, on his say so.  Sig Heil! Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 1:58:19 PM     4+   Patricia Gray 7 fans, 154 comments Permalink We share the blame. Our government is corrupt and we allowed this to happen by limiting our choice to one or the other of the evil duo. We fell for the phony ‘contest’ when the two acted like they had different points of view.  They don’t.  We been had.  Face that fact and see what is going on in Italy.  Out of nowhere a new party has come that says they want the government to act in the interests of all the people.  We need that here, and pretty damn quick.   We will not enjoy austerity, but the top 1% will.  Our future is dark if we don’t wise up quickly and throw out the corrupt in Congress—and that is EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!  Kick them out and start over. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 1:50:58 PM     4+   Don Caldarazzo 7 fans, 4 quicklinks, 470 comments, 5 diaries Permalink Nice article, except for the part where we have to pretend the Republicrats are two separate entities driven by separate ideologies.  That hokey Kabuki became transparent a hell of a long time ago, at least to this audience member.  All you have to do is start with the premise that both parties serve the same master, a master who wants total war, total surveillance and therefore totalcontrol, and an idiot mass of sickly, misled, pathetic, incapable, malleable Amerorabble who will believe anything, and who will always fight themselves rather than their oppressors, compelled to do so by a very simple set of programmed triggers – all without having the slightest ability to reflect upon such a strange, Fascist-Regime-Preoccupations. If you start with that premise, lo and behold, it is always proven true.  To the degree that we pretend this isn’t true is the exact degree to which we have been brainwashed by propaganda. Still a good article though. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 2:02:37 PM     3+   michael payne 62 fans, 231 articles, 626 comments Permalink Reply to Don Caldarazzo: ideologies Trying to make sense out of the Washington cesspool is an exercise in futility. The entire political process is thoroughly contaminated. There is a difference in ideologies in that Republicans are totally committed to Corporate America and the wealthy of America while I  see Democrats, at least some of them, who are still on the side of the people and their interests. There are no Republicans crossing over to support the mass of Americans’ interests while there are far too many Democrats like the Blue Dogs and some others who have unofficially joined the GOP agenda.In certain areas though such as supporting the agenda of endless war, the use of drones and the Bush and Obama legislation to restrict the Constitutional rights and freedoms of the American people, i.e., the Patriot Act, the FISA Laws, the NDAA and others, they are exactly the same and a disgrace to this country.This government and this political process is going to take America down until we the people find the ways to accomplish two things. First we have to find a way to initiate a massive grass roots movement to create a strong, viable Progressive Party that will represent the true interests of the people of America. So far, that is no more than wishful thinking as the best and brightest minds in America are showing no interest or inclination to any such thing.Secondly, with or without a new Progressive Party we the people must find the ways to totally remove Corporate America and the masters of Corporatism from this government and this political process. If we can’t find the ways to do that and the current situation is allowed to continue, there is no hope for America and what is going on today will never change. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 2:46:20 PM     1+   Dr. Tom Baldwin (Posted on Facebook) 1 fan, 7 articles, 4 quicklinks, 45 comments Permalink Reply to michael payne: Comments are great, too! I agree almost entirely with the comments made here but especially with Michael’s. We are headed down the drain at incredible speed and both political parties are taking us there.  Our political system is not “broken” or “dysfunctional”.  It is brain dead–defunct. And until we recognize that, “reform” is a joke.  It’s like a human body where all the organs have stopped working. Who you gonna call?  Ghost Busters?Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 3:44:41 PM     1+   Timothy Gatto (Posted on Facebook) 34 fans, 471 articles, 186 quicklinks, 861 comments, 47 diaries Permalink Reply to michael payne: Is There Really any Hope? The Democrats and Republicans are working for corporate America and against the people. This has been the case for a long, long time. Without an amendment to the Constitution that takes corporate money out of elections, there is really no hope at all of starting a viable third party that represents the working poor of America. This is not conjecture, its a fact (at least in my mind). I’ve been writing about this since 2004. So have many others. We all seem to realize what time it really is but we can’t seem to do anything about it. I thought the Occupy Movement would morph into something but the powers that run this country shut it down as quickly as they could. I think I know now how the thinking people in Germany felt when they saw he rise of fascism there. That’s all this is you know. Take all of the rhetoric out of the discourse and the ugly face of dictatorial fascism is there for all to see. You can’t expect to change America with only a few dozen lawmakers out of 500+ who have any scruples. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 4:42:08 PM     1+   michael payne 62 fans, 231 articles, 626 comments Permalink Reply to Timothy Gatto: is there really any answer? Right now, based on the combination of this contaminated political system, the corrupted Congress and the current lethargy and submissiveness of the majority of the American people, there is no answer. And the probability of a Constitutional Amendment to remove Corporate America from the political process and government is zero to none. I recently read an article, and I can’t recall the writer, that made a brilliant comparison of the America of today with Germany as the Nazis rose to power. This comparison was astounding as what is happening in America right now and the reaction of the majority of the people in this country is almost identical to what happened back in the late 1930′s and early 1940′s. It was an absolutely frightening analysis of America at this point in its history. The article ended with the well-known series of statements beginning with “First they came for the communists and I did not speak out”, “then they came for socialists and I did not speak out;” And, of   course, it ends with “and then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.” Right now there are no answers. Decades ago many good people in Germany were aware of what was happening; they did nothing about it, they remained in a passive state and they paid a terrible price for it. Now the same thing is happening in America. As we know history has a way of repeating itself. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 6:13:40 PM     2+   James Tennier (Posted on Facebook) 2 fans, 120 comments Permalink what is really going on you ask? A CANCER IS CONSUMING IT’S HOSTSubmitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 6:52:55 PM     0+   michael payne 62 fans, 231 articles, 626 comments Permalink Reply to James Tennier: a deadly disease I think your statement could be interpreted in many different ways but let me present just one for now. I think a very deadly disease has infected this nation; we might call it a cancer. It is the disease of Corporatism that has now infected the body of America and has taken control of this government, our political process and our society. I won’t take the time to elaborate on this contention in this comment but, as I have said many times in other articles, I firmly believe that the major underlying cause of almost all of America’s most critical problems, if analyzed in depth, can be attributed to the money, power and influence of Corporate America. This form of cancer entered the body of America beginning in the 1980′s and has, since then, metastasized and rapidly spread throughout the country. And, at least for now, there is no known cure. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 10:04:50 PM     0+   Stephen Unger 5 fans, 13 articles, 78 comments, 1 diaries Permalink The Great Con Game There seems to be a consensus among the commenters that the 1% are in full control of both major parties. The problem is not that Obama is weak or incompetent. Rather he is playing his role as the good cop in the con game that passes for our democracy. I disagree with Michael about the Democrats. Especially since the departure of Kucinich, there are no Democrats willing to stand up and fight against the well oiled machine. Even independent Bernie Sanders, who seems to be on the right side of most issues, for some reason felt compelled to support the re-election of the Nobel Peace Prize winner. I fully agree with Michael that, “we have to find a way to initiate a massive grass roots movement to create a strong, viable Progressive Party that will represent the true interests of the people of America.” I made a case for this prior to the past election at click here Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 7:33:59 PM     0+   intotheabyss 6 fans, 732 comments Permalink We are under banker occupation and have been for longer than we would prefer to think about. This fascist coup has been slowly carried out through events like wars, assassinations and false flag attacks. With the public acceptance of outlandish cover ups and false narratives we move closer to the objectives of the ruling elites.One need only look at Greece to see what horrors await us. Not surprising the establishment media no longer reports on the latest uprisings there. We might figure out that’s where we’re headed as well.How bad things will have to get before the idea of a general strike seems better than keeping ones head down to avoid drawing attention from the Reich is anyone’s guess. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 8:32:17 PM     2+   Deborah Dills 8 fans, 1 articles, 627 comments Permalink 535 People Are Ruining America Club Five-Hundred Thirty Five  from:Rense.com The Constitution and the way it was to have represented the people, was designed to work for a maximum of two million, in a much smaller nation. Now, at 325 million, in 50 states, at roughly 175 times as many people, it’s easy to see why this cannot work. Yet the system and both political parties have refused all efforts to alter this arrangement, which has effectively crushed any ‘representation’ that ordinary people might have had. So what do we get? Comparatively speaking – nothing is what we get. We’ve all paid for infrastructure, for health and environmental upkeep, and for defense. What we do not have is health care, a protected environment, a defense that works, a public education system that functions, or much of anything else. Most of these failures can be laid directly at the doors of the hallowed halls of congress. Those doors are open only to the armies of lobbyists and to the insiders of greed and opportunism, just as surely as they are forever closed to ordinary citizens. So we have the most expensive federal government the world has ever seen and we are dying in the streets, for lack of food, for lack of shelter, and now for the lack of our decent jobs that have been outsourced to foreign countries: this includes many federal government jobs as well – jobs like social services are now answered by non-citizens in India. To be in Congress today, is to possess a license to steal, and virtual immunity from ever being charged with a crime, primarily because all their fellow congressional colleges are in on the same schemes as well. Since congressional people are not there to represent any ordinary people, and since they are the ones who would be the first to investigate any of their own scams – they can do whatever makes the most money for them, and to hell with the long-term affects on the nation or the world. If members of the 535 club worked in the private sector they would have been instantly terminated. But they’re congressional club members – so let’s let them, give themselves a raise, which of course they did! Aren’t you glad that such a brave and responsible group of parasites are acting in your name, and in your defense? Political ambition becomes a crime, when those who represent us sell us out for personal gain. The government has forgotten that we are the reason for their existence in the first place. And they have overlooked the fact that they are supposed to work for us and not themselves. Because of their cowardice in the face of potential treason, it is we who will suffer for what they did, and we who will ultimately pay for all their failures, as well as for all that we will never receive. The UN and NATO now use the US military as their own military doing their bidding.  Congress just handed over their war powers to the UN and NATO by not standing to protect their Constitutional power!  Hey if Congress doesn’t want to be bothered with their constitutional power then why not just eliminate Congress altogether? Photo from lorinovsreport   *** It’s time for the American people to stop this assault on us, the People, and rid ourselves of this corruption once and for all-unless they like the deceit, corruption, lies, and theft these 535 people in Congress have thrust upon us all. Submitted on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 at 11:40:53 PM Herbert Calhoun 17 fans, 37 articles, 213 comments Permalink Why Only the Republicans? You seem to think that only the Republicans are committed to the advancement of the corporate nation-killing behemoth’s interests? One can only come to such a shortsighted conclusion through selective and mindless ideological blindness. The Kabuki Theater that your speak so eloquently of, of mindless partisan spats, is just a diversion that takes place while the corporate class continues to pick our back pockets. That theater is exactly as they have designed it to happen. They play both sides against us, the middle. Both parties, and 99% of our elected politicians, are in bed with the capitalism vultures, vultures that are homicidal, cannibalistic, as well as suicidal. Being their political whores is an existential necessity for American politicians who want to get elected to national office. That is how our system works, and is how it is best defined today: Political whores on the take, playing at the game of democracy; and playing at it badly. And don’t forget that Mr. Obama is from Chicago, which is second only to New York as the home base of corporate class crime and vultures: It is the very cesspool of American politics. (Look at what happened to “poor little old prep school graduate Jessie Jackson Junior?” Poor guy, doesn’t your heart just cry out for him?) I keep asking myself: How is it that Mr. Obama alone escaped being covered with “Chicago cesspool slime?” Maybe it is that he is such a chameleon that we simply cannot see it underneath his “hope and change” and “lead from behind” façade? Or maybe we just have to wait for the other shoe to fall, i.e. for “the rest of the Obama story?” Once he is used up, spit out — then and only then will we hear “the rest of the Obama story.” Submitted on Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 at 7:55:58 AM     3+   michael payne 62 fans, 231 articles, 626 comments Permalink Reply to Herbert Calhoun: Why? Here’s exactly why First of all, Mr. Calhoun, I take your statement that ” One can only come to such a shortsighted conclusion through selective and mindlessideological blindness” as a personal insult and one that clearly seems to be motivated by emotions rather than objective conclusions. I normally wouldn’t bother to respond to such an irresponsible statement but I will in this case to attempt to add badly needed objectivity to the discussion. Much of what you say about all politicians is true and, if you had read many of my articles you would have noticed that I have referred to Democrats as spineless and cowardly, that they continue to cave in on critically important issues, I’ve demanded that Harry Reid should resign immediately and I have been extremely critical of Mr. Obama for many reasons. But when I am making these assessments I try to avoid making generalities and lumping everyone into the same category, that they are all the same, they are identical, there is no difference between them and they are both evil. That’s what happens when emotions get in the way of objective thinking. Yes, far too many Democrats have allowed themselves to be controlled by corporate interests but not all by any means. Republicans don’t even try to deny that their main objectives are to advance the interests of Corporatism; that’s what they are committed to do and they make no excuses for it. They would tear down every social program, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits, college loans and either eliminate or privatize every single one of them. If they were allowed to do just that the beneficiaries of those actions would clearly be Corporate America. Democrats, at least the majority of them, are diametrically opposed to the Republicans on every one of those issues. And, if you think not, then please come up with concrete facts and evidence to make your case. In fact, I challenge you to make the case that the Republicans are not totally determined to privatize every facet of government that they can and turn the administration of those operations to the masters of Corporatism. And then please show specifically how the Democrats are doing the exact same thing. I don’t really find defending the Democrats to be one of my most pleasant tasks because I am so disappointed and disillusioned by so many of their actions or lack of actions. But I get tired of those who make generalizations about politics or anything else that can’t differentiate between two positions or, in this case, two ideologies. And, while not really pertinent to this specific issue, if you want to go further into the differences between these two entities, we could always go into the many ways by which the Republicans are working against women’s rights, how they are using every means to suppress voting rights and how they care more about protecting the rights of the gun manufacturers and lobbyists than they care about the continued slaughter of innocent children. Submitted on Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 at 11:39:37 AM     0+   kappie (Posted on Facebook) 2 fans, 169 comments Permalink to much credit You give Obama too much credit saying he is just weak willed and being manuevered into the republican position.I think at heart Obama is a Republican who stands for the rich just not as much as his republican cohorts.Obama has described himself well when he said he was a moderate,for anybody with political understanding this means on social programs he backs the people on economic programs he backs the corporations and when thiese ttwo ideologies collide he sides with the latter ,the corporation.this is what a moderate democrat stands for. Submitted on Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 at 9:21:21 AM     1+   Dr. Tom Baldwin (Posted on Facebook) 1 fan, 7 articles, 4 quicklinks, 45 comments Permalink Are there any serious differences here? I have to admit here and maybe I need to read the comments again more carefully. But I don’t see many serious differences here between what Michael wrote and his “critics”.   I think nearly everyone agrees that the corporatist fascists (corporatists) are in nearly total control of our political system, both political parties.   Losing focus on that is a primary problem.  The “left-right” or “Democratic–Republican” Parties is an artificial divide and only enriches all those who continue to participate. It is a construct that the corporatists have learned to use against the people.  For God’s sake wake up!!  We have an abundance of people in powerful elected positions who are only there to serve their corporatist masters and Obama is at the top of the list now.Submitted on Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 at 1:00:38 PM     0+

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