….so, I’ll do it in sound bites:
Trumps ‘staff’ picks reads like a cast of super villains. Economic adviser, Gary Cohn, current head of Goldman Sachs – likely the greatest gang of thieves in history; Rex Tillerson, secretary of state and ‘friend’ of Russia, steps away from EXXON to ‘represent’ the face of the (greedy imperialist) nation; Ex Texas Gov. Rick Perry for Head of the Dept. of Energy, the one he wanted to eliminate when he was running for president; Scott Pruitt, climate change denier, to be head of Environmental Protection Agency; Gen, Maddog Mattis for secretary of Defense (Maddog?); Steven Mnuchin – another from Goldman Sachs – as Secretary of the Treasury (chief Fox in largest coop ever); Andy Pudzer – the CEO of a fast food chain – for Dept of Labour; Pathological liar, Steve Bannon, for Chief Strategist AND he is unbelievably considering the insane Sarah Palin for Veterans Affairs.
These are the people who would be the FIRST to be eliminated from any sane cabinet.
It’s a house of fools, bigots and a hotbed of conflict of interest. But get this: all the Bubbas who voted for Trump because he was NOT part of the ESTABLISHMENT are looking at a cabinet steeped in it. Gary Cohn and Rex Tillerson are the 1% of the 1%-ers. Did Bubba and all the cousin Darryls really vote for this group to fix what ails them? Gary Cohn?!
Nearer to our very own-but now closed Riverview Mental Hospital, we have a $3B dollar bridge that gets closed in winter because they did not put de-icers on the top of it. Or even heat tape! Billions more are wasted on the internationally recognized unnecessary Site C dam. Kinder Morgan is being permitted to pumping dilbit into the Salish Sea. Trudeau is backing away from his electoral reform promises. Christy Clark keeps smiling in our face while she sells out to China and big Petronas.
And no one seems to care….? I mean, no one I can see or hear clearly, anyway. Horgan is MIA. Mulcair is hiding with him. Really…what ARE they doing? My MLA is useless and my MP is just gaining weight in the Ottawa cafeteria.
And the CBC reported this morning on some poor teen’s beating death in Surrey two years ago being remembered by his friends. Then they cut to the freezing temperatures. Then back to Anna Maria Tremonti (snapshots of refugees in Canada one year later). It is like they are AVOIDING the real news!
Has the world gone mad?
But here’e the one that is literally pushing me over the edge: David Black is willing to build a refinery for Tar Sands oil. He’ll build it in Fort MacMurray, the BC interior or anywhere they will allow it. He’ll take the financial risk. That means that dilbit does not get to the Gulf of Georgia. It gets refined to a point that it evaporates. They still ship it through sensitive waters but the product is less poisonous. That is NO solution to the carbon problem globally but it is a solution to the pollution problem locally. It also creates way, way more jobs. Kinder Morgan still makes the same amount of money. Christy makes even more money. Trudeau still gets his cut plus some. Win win for everyone but Gaia. But that ship sailed with Trudeau’s integrity.
Black cannot get arrested. He cannot get an audience. He is being ignored. I know, I have tried to support the idea. Nothing. No one answers. No one acknowledges receipt of even hearing the idea. What kind of evil is it that deafens the decision makers?
Wanna do me a favour? Write everyone with a title, an office or even just access to any level of government and say, “Why the hell would you NOT listen to David Black’s proposal to mitigate the damage to the Gulf as well as increase jobs and resource value in Canada? Why else are you there?”
PS – we are frozen up again. Last night defeated our previous efforts. Back to buckets.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Damn that’s a GREAT column. I suggested years ago, and then again last week that we promote David Black’s refinery. Somewhere near the source. I suggested they funnel the proceeds of the savings from: i) the construction of the dilbit pipeline, ii) the acquisition of the dilbit, iii) the transport back and forth of the dilbit, iv) the cost of separating the dilbit from the bitumen and the wear and tear of our environment to the project. I challenged Chrispy to put the wasted Site C funds towards the endeavor and whomever is in charge of the oligarch’s benevolent fund to add that to the cause. And if all those who lend their time,. energy and efforts to the end of Kinder Morgan were to chip in a dime per litre we’d have the problem licked.
Sorry I haven’t got the Gaia problem solved yet, but we’re working on it.
What a team David! Want me to start working on your ice problem?
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Well….thanks….but I think the moth-balls and diatomaceous earth mixed with the foam will do it. The 100 foot long heat tape will add nicely to the solution. Anyway, we are so solid right now, it is deemed a Spring project.
JA…what I would like is for you to write all the premiers, your MLAs and MPs and ask why the hell they don;t back Black’s solution. Makes no sense to me and they won’t answer. No one will answer. They won’t even say, “We don’t like it!”
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Currently Alberta has around a dozen upgraders and refineries of oil and more are in the works. BC has two oil refineries. Black is intending to build one in BC?(please clarify). It seems that Canada will be using oil for a while before the green alternatives arrive in many parts but not in all Canadian locations. So until the transition arrives why not buy Canadian oil? Anyway while sitting under an oak tree an acorn fell…!
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Black will build anywhere but prefers BC. He would have built in KitKat for Enbridge but Enbridge, the feds, BC and the public wouldn’t listen or consider. Neither would I. BUT Trudeau sold us out. Now I am looking for compromise. Now I’ll listen. Now I am on his side. Investing in oil on the BC coast is stupid but it is 100 times better than dilbit. Dilbit makes oil look like Champagne.
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Black prefers BC because its cheaper than hauling the foreign built plant to the wilds of Alberta and refined there. Too bad! If it can’t be manufactured in Alberta and sold for a profit then it isn’t viable. A mineral deposit only becomes ‘ore’ when it can be mined profitably. Same should apply to bitumen.
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Total agreement.
Ive ALWAYS thought, ” If the fricken DilBit is so toxic then REFINE the crap into light sweet crude.
But the environmentalists and the NIMBY activists will still protest it so…….Kinder Morgan here we come.
On a side note The Economist had a 10 page article last week on “peak oil” and how they feel that we will see the peak of oil consumption (not lack of reserves) in the next 10-15 years.
Better fuel economy, better electric cars, better batteries, solar ,wind, hydro electric……its all coming to the fore.
And while China and India have been buying cars like mad they are still lagging far behind the US and Canada. ( apparently Chinas’ car ownership is at the per capita rate of the US in the 1920’s…. And India’s total fuel energy consumption is still 58% coal generated …..ugh).
The “zen” of frozen water is a major pain Im sure.
Arizona bekons….
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Tell somebody. Write Trudeau. Write the bloody Queen, if you think that will help. I swear – if dilbit destroys the Salish Sea I will personally ‘take out’ some of the decision makers. Mind you, I might wait until I have a terminal diagnosis but they are so wrong. SO WRONG.
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Wow!..
The frozen pipes got your ‘goat’?
Settle back and enjoy the US government ride…..It may be pretty good. Anything is better than the last eight years of OBumer.
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Nah… I still have my goat. It is just that frozen pipes eventually thaw but corruption and stupidity seems forever. Obama dropped the ball on many issues – tho Congress made the job impossible – and Clinton would have been more of the same because the system is corrupt. Trump, however, is a move into even MORE corruption, not less. So we are just getting stupider. THAT’S what’s buggin’ me. The founding fathers knew it but it was a republic corrupt from the get-together. Hard to live up to Constitutional goals when criminals are always in charge. And Canada is ONLY better because there are far fewer and so much space in which to avoid the bastards.
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Has anyone here ever seen, touched, or smelled dilbit or heavy oil? I have. Several other crudes and also some natural gases are much more toxic and problematic, and they are shipped by pipeline and tankcar/truck all over Canada. Shut down the oil industry and there goes your lifestyle whatever it is. Crude oil and natural gas are a necessity today.
JDC – what are those pipes of yours made of, or the batteries……………..petrochemicals and plastics, all from petroleum.
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What’s your point John? Just because you exposed yourself to toxic materials, we all should? Would it not make sense to avoid the toxicity; remove the toxins at source and ship a more benign product ‘all over Canada’? Although there are alternate sources for plastic pipes and batteries, would it not make sense to reserve the petroleum for those products, instead of burning it? And then ship those value added products ‘all over the world’?
Instead of the 100,000 illusory jobs flaunted by the LNG ‘industry’, create some jobs locally instead of shipping the raw materials overseas.
There, I thought you’d see it my way.
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Well, JA said it best but, again….’what’s your point’….? People used to have coal bins, asbestos, slaves. Things change as we grow. And no one is saying, ‘shut it down’. We are saying, ‘don’t keep growing it with $3B in subsidies (in Canada) where we pay more for it than they do in the countries we sell it to. We are saying, ‘time to phase it out.’ BIG difference. Neither crude oil nor natural gases are anymore a necessity than were slaves, asbestos and coal. OIL lovers think they are pragmatists not the Luddites they really are. AND there is nothing pragmatic about dying from the effects of green house gases.
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I have to agree with you – the world has gone mad.
Let’s pick one of your “super villains” – Rex Tillerson . What would you have to see in order to change your assessment of that fellow?
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