Actually, this is pretty good

Liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore threatened to begin fracking off the Florida coast near President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

His tweet appeared to be a response to a new administration proposal to increase offshore drilling for natural gas.

"Our fracking off the coast of Mar-a-Lago begins right after Labor Day," Moore said in a tweet referencing his upcoming TNT documentary series "Live From the Apocalypse." "I’ve already got the rig — a beautiful Halliburton G-0008 fracking system with a monster Caterpillar engine!"

"Here’s our fracker! We’ll be drilling right off the coast of Mar-a-Lago," Moore continued. "God Bless You Donald Trump for making this possible! The oil we drill just off your beach will pay 4 our entire show!"

[...]

Moore's tweets also come after the Trump administration rolled back offshore drilling safety regulations that were created after the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 killed 11 people and sent at least 4.9 million barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

  The Hill

Don't actually drill, though. Just park a honking big rig right off the Mar-A-Lago beach.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What?! No Rudy?

Why?

Giuliani, speaking to Fox News, said he had actually sent a letter withdrawing himself from consideration back on Nov. 29 but that the transition team had rejected it, saying they wanted to continue to keep him in the running for the State Department.

“I decided ... that the whole thing was becoming ... very difficult for the president-elect, and my desire to be in the Cabinet was great, but it wasn’t that great and he had a lot of terrific candidates,” Giuliani said in a phone call with Fox.

[...]

He said he had been considered for other positions in the Cabinet but was not keen on a role other than State Department.

[...]

“They’re down to the last two, three, four (candidates), so it made sense to ... get out of the way,” Giuliani said in the Fox interview.

  HuffPo

No, that makes no sense at all. What's the real reason? Did he get his feelings hurt because Donald didn't immediately choose him? Was he offered something else down the road? Did he not want to look like a loser when Donald chooses someone else? Or did he actually get the axe and this was how Donald allowed him to save face? Why?

Just reported on @CNN: Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson moving up the list as possible SOS. Rudy Giuliani told he will NOT be getting the job.

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) December 9, 2016

That's a slightly different slant.

So, Rudy won't be Secretary of State. Too bad.

P.S.

Have you forgotten who Rex Tillerson is?  Here's a reminder from 2014 courtesy of Forbes:

Sometimes, the hypocrisy expressed in real life is so sublimely rich that one could never hope to construct a similar scenario out of pure imagination. Meet Rex Tillerson, the CEO of oil and gas superstar ExxonMobil Corporation—the largest natural gas producer in these United States of America—and a newly emerging giant in the world of exquisite hypocrisy. A key and critical function of Mr. Tillerson’s day job is to do all he can to protect and nurture the process of hydraulic fracturing—aka ‘fracking’—so that his company can continue to rack in billions via the production and sale of natural gas.

[...]

According to Tillerson, “This type of dysfunctional regulation is holding back the American economic recovery, growth, and global competitiveness.”

[...]

Tillerson—ExxonMobil CEO and proud proponent of fracking as a key to both America’s and his company’s great energy future—has joined a lawsuit seeking to shut down a fracking project near Mr. and Mrs. Tillerson's Texas ranch.

[...]

Making this all the more entertaining is the content of the lawsuit which, in an attempt to get rid of the [necessary] water tower, goes to great effort to lay out the problems experienced by those who are subjected to the fracking process—problems that Tillerson has always been quick to dismiss when his company picks a location that is not in his own neighborhood.

  Forbes

It's great, just not in his back yard.


P.P.S.

The Mad Twitter strikes again.

To be fair, Donald, your mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway did give them that impression.  Is this simple miscommunication, or are you guys determined to trip up the media so you can point out that the media are bad guys?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We Are Watching You

When more than 300 protesters assembled in May at the Holiday Inn in Lakewood, Colorado — the venue chosen by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for an auction of oil and gas leases on public lands — several of the demonstrators were in fact undercover agents sent by law enforcement to keep tabs on the demonstration, according to emails obtained by The Intercept.

[...]

The emails, which were obtained through an open records act request, show that the Lakewood Police Department collected details about the protest from undercover officers as the event was being planned. During the auction, both local law enforcement and federal agents went undercover among the protesters.

The emails further show that police monitored Keep it in the Ground participating groups such as 350.org, Break Free Movement, Rainforest Action Network, and WildEarth Guardians, while relying upon intelligence gathered by Anadarko, one of the largest oil and gas producers in the region.

  Intercept

If you're old enough to remember the fifties (and even the sixties), you will remember how official propaganda attempted to make us all anti-communists by referencing Joseph Stalin's secret police, and how innocent people in communist countries had to be so careful about what they said for fear of being spied upon and reported.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Modernizing the Law

North Carolina legislators are considering a bill that would make it a crime to publicly disclose toxic chemicals that energy companies use in the hydraulic fracturing process, with offenders on the hook for fines or even jail time.

Known as the Energy Modernization Act, the bill would make any unauthorized disclosure of fracking trade secrets – including the chemicals used – punishable with a Class I Felony, according to an Energywire report.

  RT

It would be hard to argue that punishing whistleblowers in this country is not modernization.

Not in MY Back Yard!

Exxon and its subsidiary XTO make loads of money from natural gas production, and [Exxon CEO Rex ] Tillerson doesn't like it when others complain about the potentially negative consequences. He's bitched over the years that fracking regulations have hindered natural gas production so much that the government has "has become an obstacle to getting anything done."

[...]

Just a few days after the Weather Channel published a damning, in-depth report documenting how natural gas drilling is wreaking havoc on Texas' air quality, a group of wealthy property owners outside Dallas are dealing with another dark side of the energy boom: a really ugly water tower.

Residents of Bartonville are concerned about the tower for a number of reasons and are fighting the project in court. One issue, they say in the lawsuit, is that the tower "will sell water to oil and gas explorers for fracking shale formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks on FM 407, creating a noise nuisance and traffic hazards."

And, as the Wall Street Journal just uncovered, one of those angry homeowners trying to stop the tower and its fracking-related business is none other than Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson.

  Dallas Observer

[Rex] Tillerson—ExxonMobile CEO and proud proponent of fracking as a key to both America’s and his company’s great energy future—has joined a lawsuit seeking to shut down a fracking project near Mr. and Mrs. Tillerson’s Texas ranch.

[...]

The Wall Street Journal, says it all quite nicely—

“BARTONVILLE, Texas—One evening last November, a tall, white-haired man turned up at a Town Council meeting to protest construction of a water tower near his home in this wealthy community outside Dallas.

The man was Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp.

He and his neighbors had filed suit to block the tower, saying it is illegal and would create “a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,” in part because it would provide water for use in hydraulic fracturing."

[...]

In my mind, Tillerson now stands tall not only as a giant of the natural gas and oil industry but has managed to scale the loftiest of heights where he shall breathe that rarest of air inhaled only by a very special breed—corporate giants who will gladly profit from your misfortune and misery so long as what they peddle to you does not impinge on their own fine quality of life.

  Forbes

You think Exxon will boot Tillerson?

But wait. There’s more.

Making this even more deliciously enjoyable is the name of the lead plaintiffs in the case.

That would be Mr. and Mrs. Dick Armey…as in former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey who is also the former Chairman of FreedomWorks. [...]

FreedomWorks is, of course, the well financed (thanks to the Koch Brothers) Tea Party organization that has been been a vocal and avid proponent of fracking.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Chevron Damage Control: An Apology and a Pizza

A Chevron well in the preparation stages for hydraulic fracturing exploded last Tuesday 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, Penn., causing a fire that lasted for four days and left one Chevron contractor unaccounted for and another one injured.

[...]

An image of a coupon from Chevron offering free pizza to residents near last week’s disaster was posted online Monday, prompting outrage, mockery and disbelief among activists and the Internet commentariat.

[...]

“The Chevron Guarantee: Our well won’t explode...or your pizza is free,” read one of many sarcastic tweets directed at Chevron on Tuesday.

The coupon was handed out along with a letter apologizing for the blowout to about 100 residents near the gas well, local media reported.

[...]

“How [...] stupid do they think people are?” said Gloria Forouzan, a leader with Pittsburgh-based anti-fracking group Marcellus Protest. “What (fracking companies) are doing in terms of PR is insidious. They advertise, and they advertise heavily, and for that, (people) are basically willing to lie down and let the companies walk all over them.”

  alJazeera

Well….

John Kuis, who lives about half a mile from the drilling site, can still hear sounds “as loud as a jet engine in my driveway,” as Chevron tries to cap gas leaking from the well. He said Chevron didn’t inform him of the incident until five days after it happened, when they handed out the pizza coupon.

He’s not sure he’ll use the coupon, but said he still considers the company a good neighbor.

“I guess they were just trying to be nice,” he said.

But wait. Chevron has more to offer.

The pizza isn’t the only relationship-mending effort Chevron is undertaking after the fire. The company will also donate grants ranging between $1,000 and $7,500 to fire departments that operate in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale region, where much of the state’s fracking takes place.

I started to comment, but I think I’ll just let that sit there and sink in.

There Goes the Southwest

McGuire said she can see nine oil wells from her back porch, and there are dozens of RVs parked outside town, full of oil workers.

But soon after the first frack trucks pulled up two years ago, the well on McGuire's property ran dry.

No-one in Barnhart paid much attention at the time, and McGuire hooked up to the town's central water supply. "Everyone just said: 'too bad'. Well now it's all going dry," McGuire said.

[...]

"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said

[...]

Ranchers dumped most of their herds. Cotton farmers lost up to half their crops.

[...]

Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted.

Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry's outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.

[...]

In Texas alone, about 30 communities could run out of water by the end of the year, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing, barred from freely sprinkling their lawns or refilling their swimming pools. In Barnhart's case, the well appears to have run dry because the water was being extracted for shale gas fracking.

  The Guardian

Not that they may have eventually lost it to the cotton croppers. They were sucking up an inordinate amount of water on their own, I feel safe in saying after having seen the cotton industry in California up close during my Ag education days. And big cattle ranches no doubt suck up a good portion as well. But hey, water shortages are merely going to be a thing of the future and the rights to it will all be transferred to large corporations, so your grandchildren are going to have just one more reason to curse you for what you’ve left them. If they have the spittle to work up a curse.

What the Frack?

The 7- and 10-year-old children of a Pennsylvania couple that reached a settlement following a lawsuit involving health issues brought on by fracking have been barred from discussing details of the case for the rest of their lives.

[...]

The Pennsylvania family reached a $750,000 settlement with the gas companies, and have used the award to relocate. In exchange, however, Chris and Stephanie Hallowich agreed that no member of their family could comment on the case “in any fashion whatsoever.”

Details of the case only emerged recently when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette managed to get court transcripts released.

  

Yes, but I’m thinking that if the kids want to talk about it when they reach the age of 18 or so, they can, because after all, they are not of the age of consent now and surely can’t be held liable for agreements that their parents make. Or at least I think they would have a fair chance of winning a case based on that. Perhaps they will want to consult an attorney, however, if the time comes, rather than take my word for it. :-)

The family's attorney, Peter Villari, questioned whether the order would be enforceable.

"I, frankly, your Honor, as an attorney, to be honest with you, I don't know if that's possible that you can give up the First Amendment rights of a child," stated Villari.

Well, there you go.

According to a 2010 congressional investigation, Halliburton along with other fracking companies had used 32 million gallons of diesel products, including toxic chemicals such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. Low levels of exposure to such chemicals can trigger headaches and dizziness, while higher exposure can cause cancer.

[...]

According to Bruce Baizel, Energy Program Director at Earthworks, which focuses on mineral and energy development, the motives behind restrictive gag orders post-settlements is to conceal any evidence of adverse environmental impact from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

“The refrain in the industry is, this is a safe process. There’s no record of contamination. That whole claim would be undermined if these things were public,” Baizel told ClimateProgress.

Moreover, attempts to measure the number of settlements with non-disclosure agreements have failed.

“They don’t have to be registered, they don’t have to be filed. It’s kind of a black hole,” says Baizel.

[...]

“These gag orders are the reason [drillers] can give testimony to Congress and say there are no documented cases of contamination. And then elected officials can repeat that,” said Sharon Wilson, an organizer with Earthworks who also spoke with ClimateProgress.

[...]

Prior to the settlement the Hallowichs said that nearby gas drilling had caused “burning eyes, sore throats, headaches and earaches, and contaminated their water supply.”

Once the settlement was reached and the gag order enacted, however, a spokesman for Range Resources stated that the family had “never produced evidence of any health impacts,” and that the Hallowichs primary motive for moving was instead due to “an unusual amount of activity around them.”

And out of the company’s boundless love for these people, it decided to grant them their wish to get away from it all.

Why Do They Really Need All That Data?

New Zealand court records suggest that data harvested by the NSA’s Prism system has been fed into the Five Eyes intelligence alliance whose members also include the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

  Raw Story

Five Eyes. Yes, it really is a monster.

Since the 2008 economic crash, security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental groups, on behalf of corporate interests. This activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis – or all three.

Just last month, unilateral changes to US military laws formally granted the Pentagon extraordinary powers to intervene in a domestic “emergency” or “civil disturbance”:

“Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.”

[...]

Department of Homeland Security documents released in April prove a “systematic effort” by the agency “to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations” linked to Occupy Wall Street, according to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).

Similarly, FBI documents confirmed “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector” designed to produce intelligence on behalf of “the corporate security community.” A PCJF spokesperson remarked that the documents show “federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

In particular, domestic surveillance has systematically targeted peaceful environment activists including anti-fracking activists across the US, such as the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Rising Tide North America, the People’s Oil & Gas Collaborative, and Greenpeace.

[...]

The Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations in coming years. The revelations on the NSA’s global surveillance programmes are just the latest indication that as business as usual creates instability at home and abroad, and as disillusionment with the status quo escalates, Western publics are being increasingly viewed as potential enemies that must be policed by the state.

Business As Usual

Ernest Moniz, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and familiar presence in Washington, has emerged as the front-runner to replace Steven Chu as Obama’s energy chief.

That’s not sitting well with green advocates, who say Moniz’s support for natural gas is at odds with the risks of “fracking,” the controversial drilling process, and the need for tough steps to address climate change.

“Moniz is a status quo pick at a time when we can’t afford the status quo,” said Tyson Slocum, who heads the energy program at Public Citizen.

  The Hill

So we just go further in debt.

Face it, people, the status quo is here to stay. Obama is the best example yet of talking one story and doing another. The Manchurian Candidate has been re-elected.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

But Fox News Doesn't Do Reports from Indian Reservations

On one section of the reservation, people must boil drinking water because chemicals, possibly the result of the oil and natural gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, have contaminated the water supply. And fearing that the chemicals might explode in a home, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered residents to run fans and otherwise ensure ventilation while bathing or washing clothes.

It's from places like Wind River that our political arguments look shallow and stupid. For example, there's currently a lot of silliness being thrown around purporting to show how safe fracking is for the rest of us. In Wind River, the EPA makes poor people run fans in their homes so the laundry doesn't explode.

  Charlie Pierce

Totally Fracked

On New Year’s Eve, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck northeastern Ohio, the second quake to strike the region in a week. Saturday’s earthquake, which occurred in an area not typically known for this type of natural disaster, is being traced back to fluid injection wells at a Youngstown fracking site. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, “the quake was the 11th over the last eight months in Mahoning County, all within two miles of the injection wells.” They also point out that injection wells have been linked to earthquakes in other states as well, including Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas. Two of the Ohio injection wells in question are now being shut down.

  Think Progress