The Great Oil Companies rip-off

[mtmynd]

This article (in part) came out in the Boston Globe today )(9/02/05) -

"In a thinly disguised attempt to act as if it cared about the people wading in the water, Chevron has pledged $5 million to relief efforts. ExxonMobil and Shell have pledged $2 million apiece. British Petroleum and Citgo have pledged $1 million each.

This is nothing next to their wealth. Of the world's seven most profitable corporations, four are ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Chevron. ExxonMobil is the world's most profitable company, making $25.3 billion last year. It and the other three corporations had combined profits last year of $72.8 billion. ExxonMobil is also the world's most valuable company, with a market value, according to Forbes magazine, of $405 billion. The combined market value of ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron is nearly $1 trillion.

And that was last year. A month ago, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips announced record second-quarter profits of $7.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.1 billion, respectively. Royal Dutch Shell's quarterly profits of $5.2 billion were up by 34 percent over the same period last year. Other well-known companies like Sunoco also had record second-quarter earnings.

If ExxonMobil were to maintain its current pace of profits, it would cross the $30 billion barrier for 2005. The company's chief financial officer, Henry Hubble, bragged in classic corporatese, ''Our disciplined project management and operating practices deliver the benefits of strong industry conditions to our shareholders."

Those disciplined operating practices are hardly confined to the oil fields. Everyone knows that Bush does not really mean what he says about price-gouging at the pump, since he just gave energy companies the bulk of $14.5 billion in tax breaks in the new energy bill. Surprise, surprise. In Bush's two elections, oil and gas companies gave Republicans 79 percent of their $61.5 million in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."


And SooZen heard today that P Diddy donated one million dollars to the relief effort... matching Walmart!!! Good-fucking-grief

[Zlatko Waterman]

Dear mtmynd and SooZen:

In his 1964 science-fiction novel, DUNE, Frank Herbert imagines a universe in which "The spice must flow . . .". What is the spice? It is a magic organic chemical that makes all space travel ( and mind travel) possible. It is the most indispensable material in the universe of his novel. Herbert then imagines two family clans and imperialistic forces battling over this material, which is found only on "Dune", a single planet, and secretly tended by a mystical race who guard their culture as a secret cabale, the Fremen ("Free-Men", get it?).


Here is a review of the novel making several good points post "9-11". Since Herbert derived his Fremen from Arabic sources ( the Sci-Fi channel re-make of the "Dune" film actually uses some Arabic actors-- David Lynch's ill-fated film version used only Anglos made to look slightly dark-skinned who speak with nonspecific Arabic or "middle-eastern" accents-- pretty silly), another interesting contemporary dimension is suggested.

I bring this subject up partly in collusion with the "Socialism" thread now running and the discussion of Castro there. Also, the main character/protagonist, Paul , in "Dune", is said by some to resemble Osama Bin Laden.

Interesting that, 40 years ago, Frank Herbert was so prescient, though it didn't take genius to see that oil was and would be for the near future, THE indispensable commodity.

Link to DUNE reviews:

http://explorers.whyte.com/sf/dune.htm





--Z

[stilltrucking]

pardon me for butting in.

Water may be the commodity most precious in the near future.
If I remember the 1970's correctly we should have been out of oil by now. Back in the early part of this year on late last year there was a news story about a vast new oil discovery in Mexico, almost doubling their reserves. I have never seen it mentioned again.Who is giving out the info on how much oil is still left. Oil company geologists? Running out of oil? Do you believe that? Profits for big oil companies are up thirty to fifty percent.
Fear, war, pestilence, famine, good growing weather for the House of Morgan. Dos Passos (paraphrase from memory)

[mtmynd]

Thanx, Z, for that most interesting article. Even in the last lines the referenced link on Asimov's The Foundation and Al Qaeda was an eye-opener for me. Amazing.

A side-blurb: the ideal of socialism and then true communism is definitely just that - an ideal. However, as your other informative link on Hugo Chavez' words, there is a definite reason to at least nourish the seed of possiblity in order to give the idea some seriousness. Chavez' duality of 'barbarism or socialism' certainly is legitimate and worthy of open discussions. Can mankind's inherit greed ever be put at bay for the good of not only humanity, but life itself? Perhaps.



[BTW: I recently saw that you were Cancer. I had thought you were Virgo. Happy (belated) Birthday to you and congratulations on making it to 'our age'!! It's rather difficult to digest that amount of time crammed into this old mind of mine. ]

[mnaz]

Tell me about it.

From $2.70 to $3.30 a gallon in just three days? In Oregon?

Time to park the truck.

[hester_prynne]

Don't forget that the price of bananas, sugar, coffee, etc will all be going up too.......

I can't think anymore, I'm just so blown away by reality.
I know what my own fate would have been but for the grace of Goddess, and I just can't stop crying....my tears of course, a mixture of anger, disbelief, and ...fear. I fear for the coming winter, I have nightmares they'll find Stella and I frozen to death and starved right here at home.......

And that Fucker is saying that HE is going to facilitate the investigation into why FEMA failed. Is he kidding? Is he an idiot? I mean come on how dumb do they think we are? It insults me that he is saying that. He is absolutely evil.
A Dumbfuck.
I am dumbstruck by the dumbfuck ruling america.
I want to leave this ravaged country, but I have no means to get very far myself.......

H

[jimboloco]

Oh dinn't go Hester.

We are together in the belly of the beast, still, I bet Arcadia could get you started in Rosario, Argentina.

PS I have been exactly this pissed since 1971 my dear.