Anarchy Counts

Organizing Revolt from the stimulator on Vimeo.

Massive Hog Lot Waste Lagoon Collapses, 53% of Wisconsin Drowns in Pig Shit

In what experts are calling the largest catastrophe of its kind, the failure of a hog waste containment lagoon has drowned 53% of the the population of Wisconsin in pig shit. The failure at the Koch Brothers Swine Factory and Nuclear Facility located in Waukesha county occurred without warning even though activists had suggested the site was a ticking time bomb. While Dane county and 9 others were largely unscathed the remainder of the state has been inundated in pig waste. According to the Borowitz Report Canada is bracing for an influx of refugees:

"The Canadian coast guard was on alert today, preparing for what it fears could be a massive invasion of boat people from Wisconsin. Conor McGlindon, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Coast Guard (RCMCG), said that satellite photos had revealed a “substantial flotilla” in the making, as Wisconsinites prepared to flee their state for their neighbor to the North. “Word has gotten around that we have policemen, firemen, and basic school lunches up here,” Mr. McGlindon said. “You can’t blame these boat people for seeking a better life. But we are under orders to intercept them....Mr. McGlindon offered reporters a look at satellite photos showing the boat people larding their vessels with wheels of premium cheddar cheese, possibly in the hopes of bribing Canadian officials on Superior’s northern shore. “We are telling all of our men that under no circumstances should they accept offerings of cheese,” he said. ”These boat people are desperate and they will try anything.” Reports of the looming refugee crisis coincided with the release of a new poll showing that Gov. Scott Walker is now the most hated man in Wisconsin, narrowly edging Brett Favre. Speaking at the state capitol, Gov. Walker seemed philosophical about his legacy: “I’m not worried how history will remember me, because if I have my way there won’t be any history teachers.”

Keystone Pipeline The Other End

While Americans hear much about the Keystone pipeline little is seen in the American media regarding the ongoing controversy in Canada regarding the many concerns about the tar sands. The British Columbian paper The Tyee had an interesting series, the salient points bear repeating:

"Canada has joined the ranks of exporting oil nations and now supplies more petroleum to the United States than Mexico or Saudi Arabia. The unconventional character of mined bitumen as well as the startling revenue it generates for government coffers has irrevocably changed the country. Five per cent of the nation's GDP comes from oil while bitumen makes up 25 per cent of the nation's exports.... "Since 1996 the global oil industry has invested nearly $200 billion in bitumen mines, upgraders, pipelines and steam plants. Seven of the world's largest companies (ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Sinopec, Petro China, Total and Chevron) now propose to invest another $180-billion on the resource over the next two decades to boost production from 1.6 million barrels a day to more than 3 million barrels. By 2030 industry will have dug a 40-metre hole in the boreal forest the size of Rhode Island. It has already created lakes of mining waste (170 square kilometres) great enough to flood Washington, D.C. or downtown Vancouver. Moreover, the world's longest and therefore least secure pipelines are all connected to the project. Everything about the project gives a new meaning to the word big. "In 2011 the government of Alberta released a startling infrastructure plan for the world's largest energy project. It forecasts that oil sands production will grow from 1.6 million barrels a day to 6 million by 2035. At the same time the population of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo could more than double and grow to 240,000 people. "Yet this rapid expansion poses more risks than benefits for Canada. For starters, the U.S. demand for oil is in steep decline due to the global recession and rising domestic production from North Dakota's unconventional oil fields. That leaves Communist China as a core market for expanding bitumen supplies. Yet renewable energy reforms combined with slowing growth in its industrial megacities could also lesson demand for imported oil. Moreover oil remains the world's most volatile commodity. The Deutsche Bank has predicted that oil price volatility alone could diminish demand for petroleum as a transportation fuel and cripple high cost projects such as the oil sands as early as 2015. "A damning 2011 report by a Montreal investment group, MRB, concluded that the nation has crossed a critical threshold: "A severe case of Dutch Disease has dramatically reduced the breadth of the Canadian business sector over the past decade, hollowing out manufactured goods exporters and making the nation increasingly reliant on commodity demand. Canada has often been referred to in jest as the 51st state, due to its historical reliance on the U.S. as a key export market. However, it is becoming more accurate to regard Canada as another Province of China." "Just about every oil sands developer claims that they can clean up messy bitumen production and its large carbon and water footprint with better technology. "Technology is the key to further progress," says the American Petroleum Institute in its oil sands propaganda. But this technology doesn't exist yet. Although the energy industry may be dependent on technology for making fossil fuels, it doesn't invest much in innovation. According to Forbes, big energy companies are fat and lazy creatures that devote barely 0.3 per cent of their sales to research and development (R&D). Many have even axed their R&D departments. In contrast, the pharmaceutical industry spends 19 per cent of its sales on research. The auto industry follows closely behind. But not the oil patch. In fact, Canadian energy firms devote no more than 0.2 to 0.7 per cent of sales to research.

Americans in the meantime are told these tar sands in Canada will free the country from "foreign oil dependency" which should give even Canadian conservatives pause.

From TPM: Rick Perry in Iowa: “Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source.”

They already own the place in their own minds.

Wisconsin Crisis: Why it matters to Alberta

This is a great piece about the Wisconsin Uprising from a Canadian perspective. While by and large Canada has a rather robust labor movement compared to the U.S. they are rightly concerned that events in Wisconsin will be used as a laboratory for union busting world wide. It would be a huge leap forward if people not only in North America could break through their self imposed nationalist bubbles to cooperate for the betterment of all. One unintended side effect of globalization is the realization that boundaries between workers in the so-called developed world and non developed world are artificial constructs.

General Strikes Winnipeg and Oakland

I had to post the above videos to give some historical perspective on General Strikes. Winnipeg in 1919 was the largest such action in Canada while the 1946 action in Oakland was the last general strike in the U.S. until now. We need to rediscover our legacy of resistance.

Occupy Wall Street - Chris Hedges shuts down CBC Kevin O'Leary - YouTube.flv

Chris Hedges puts an obnoxious ignorant CBC commentator in his place. A reflection on the state of media in Canada and should give pause to Americans who think Canadians are naturally liberal and intelligent. CBC, I gather, now stands for Conservative Broadcasting Corporation.

Last Canadian Mission In Afghanistan

From the Globe and Mail:

"More than five years after taking charge of security in one of the most violent regions in Afghanistan, Canadian troops wrapped up their final combat operation with a two-week sweep through a rural swath of Kandahar that was undisputed Taliban territory just a year ago.

The offensive, conducted with a bulked-up Afghan National Army brigade in the lead, marks Canada’s last days in the long and deadly war. All combat troops are set to withdraw this summer, 5½ years after the mission in Kandahar began."

And from the Waterloo Record:

"Ten years ago, Canada and other countries involved in the invasion of Afghanistan talked of bringing stability and peace to that famously distressed country. Instead, we succeeded only in exporting Afghanistan’s instability across the border into nuclear-armed Pakistan, which now faces its own fundamentalist insurgencies.

Ten years ago, we talked — as the Russians did during their abortive occupation — of helping Afghan women and girls.

Like the Russians, we probably did help some. But like the Russians (or Soviets, as they were known in those days) we have been unable to transform a culture that is fundamentally misogynist into one more to our liking."

Even a hopeless dork like Harper gets it. When will we?

The Koch Brothers and The Tar Sands

Here we have the diabolical combination of America's premier oligarchic kleptocrats, the Koch brothers, and Canada's world class eco disaster, the tar sands of Alberta. If you really want to understand how demented the whole tar sands thing is read "Stupid To The Last Drop". Here's more:

"Stupid to the Last Drop by William Marsden is without question the definitive guide to Canada’s oil sands and what Marsden describes as ‘environmental armageddon’. In fact, the full title to his beautifully researched, and absolutely riveting book is: Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn’t Seem To Care). Marsden, an award-winning journalist with the Montreal Gazette, has provided a detailed account of the oil industry in Alberta and how that industry is now threatening to destroy the entire province.

The oil sands in Alberta, Canada, occupy about 148,000 square kilometres – roughly the size of Florida. Marsden describes it as "…the oil capital of the world –the new Saudi Arabia". Stupid to the Last Drop painstakingly documents the levelling of the Boreal forest to access the oil sands, the creation of tens of thousands of gas wells, the water waste, poisoned rivers, impact on communities, politician corruption and companies that will stop at nothing to squeeze every last resource out of Alberta."

This is the on land equivalent of the Gulf Oil Spill that never stops.

The Canadian Elections

Americans may be surprised to learn that there is a national election in Canada tomorrow pitting Stephen Harper the current conservative Prime Minister against a variety of contenders including Michael Ignatieff of the Liberals and Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party.Harper was widely thought to have the advantage but surprisingly the NDP has been coming up in the polls which could make things very interesting. I was intrigued by this passage from the party platform which would seem to suggest exporting all to insatiable Americans might not be a priority.

"Recognizing that oil and gas will continue to play a prominent role in our energy mix in the medium term, we will discourage bulk exports of our unprocessed resources and encourage value-added, responsible upgrading, refining and petrochemical manufacturing here in Canada to maximize the economic benefits and jobs for Canadians."

Wow Canada with an energy policy.

Go NDP!