Hurricane Harvey Is What Climate Change Looks Like

With rains to continue soaking Texas for days to come, flooding to spread to neighboring states, and a tropical system off the Atlantic coast, there are two words that one does not heard being said by Republicans: climate change.  Climate scientists have long said that the severity of tropical storm systems will intensify - Harvey was a category 4 with literally unprecedented rainfall - and as a piece in Politico points out, we are seeing a worldwide phenomenon of worsening rainstorms.  Locally, the Virginian Pilot reports this:

The system was moving northeast at 12 mph early this morning and had winds of approximately 40 mph. As the storm moves faster to the northeast, the hurricane center expects it to become extra-tropical and gain strength, with winds increasing to 60 to 80 p.m. – causing nor'easter-like conditions to Hampton Roads this evening. Winds could gust to 60 mph.

Compared to Harvey, this is nothing.  But we must not forget that last October, Hurricane Matthew caused unprecedented flooding in portions of Hampton Roads. Areas of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake which had never flooded in memory saw 2-3 feet of water, in many cases inundating homes.  Pretending that climate change is not happening and refusing to rethink development patterns and infrastructure needs is not a responsible solution.  Here are highlights from Politico:

In all of U.S. history, there’s never been a storm like Hurricane Harvey. That fact is increasingly clear, even though the rains are still falling and the water levels in Houston are still rising.

But there’s an uncomfortable point that, so far, everyone is skating around: We knew this would happen, decades ago. We knew this would happen, and we didn’t care. Now is the time to say it as loudly as possible: Harvey is what climate change looks like. More specifically, Harvey is what climate change looks like in a world that has decided, over and over, that it doesn’t want to take climate change seriously.

Houston has been sprawling out into the swamp for decades, largely unplanned and unzoned. Now, all that pavement has transformed the bayous into surging torrents and shunted Harvey’s floodwaters towards homes and businesses. Individually, each of these subdivisions or strip malls might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but in aggregate, they’ve converted the metro area into a flood factory. Houston, as it was before Harvey, will never be the same again.

Harvey is the third 500-year flood to hit the Houston area in the past three years, but Harvey is in a class by itself. By the time the storm leaves the region on Wednesday, an estimated 40 to 60 inches of rain will fall on parts of Houston. So much rain has fallen already that the National Weather Service had to add additional colors to its maps to account for the extreme totals.

Harvey is now the benchmark disaster of record in the United States. As with Katrina, Harvey gives us an opportunity for an inflection point as a society. The people of Houston didn’t choose this to happen to them, but what happens next is critically important for all of us.

Climate change is making rainstorms everywhere worse, but particularly on the Gulf Coast. Since the 1950s, Houston has seen a 167 percent increase in the frequency of the most intense downpours. . . . While Harvey’s rains are unique in U.S. history, heavy rainstorms are increasing in frequency and intensity worldwide. One recent study showed that by mid-century, up to 450 million people worldwide will be exposed to a doubling of flood frequency. This isn’t just a Houston problem. This is happening all over. A warmer atmosphere enhances evaporation rates and increases the carrying capacity of rainstorms. Harvey drew its energy from a warmer-than-usual Gulf of Mexico, which will only grow warmer in the decades to come. At its peak, on Saturday night, Harvey produced rainfall rates exceeding six inches per hour in Houston, and its multi-day rainfall total is close to the theoretical maximum expected for anywhere in the United States. By continuing to pretend that we can engineer our way out of the worsening flooding problem with bigger dams, more levees and higher-powered pumping equipment, we’re fooling ourselves into a more dangerous future.

It’s possible to imagine something else: a hopeful future that diverges from climate dystopia and embraces the scenario in which our culture inevitably shifts toward building cities that work with the storms that are coming, instead of Sisyphean efforts to hold them back. That will require abandoning buildings and concepts we currently hold dear, but we’ll be rewarded with a safer, richer, more enduring world in the end. There were many people in Houston already working on making that world a reality even before Harvey came.

If we don’t talk about the climate context of Harvey, we won’t be able to prevent future disasters and get to work on that better future. Those of us who know this need to say it loudly. As long as our leaders, in words, and the rest of us, in actions, are OK with incremental solutions to a civilization-defining, global-scale problem, we will continue to stumble toward future catastrophes. Climate change requires us to rethink old systems that we’ve assumed will last forever.

The symbolism of the worst flooding disaster in U.S. history hitting the sprawled-out capital city of America’s oil industry is likely not lost on many. Institutionalized climate denial in our political system and climate denial by inaction by the rest of us have real consequences. They look like Houston.

Once Harvey’s floodwaters recede, the process will begin to imagine a New Houston, and that city will inevitably endure future mega-rainstorms as the world warms. The rebuilding process provides an opportunity to chart a new path. The choice isn’t between left and right, or denier and believer. The choice is between success and failure.

Trump Is Already Ditching His Movement

As the last post notes, white working class voters who voted for Donald Trump were played for fools and fell hook line and sinker for Trump's appeals to racism, bigotry and general misogyny.  And it is not only "liberals" who are noting the fact that these folks may be about to reap what they have sowed.  A piece in National Review - hardly a screaming liberal outlet - looks at the manner in which Donald Trump is already beginning to kick his working class followers to the curb even as many of them are stupid enough to continue to go to his "thank you rallies" in states that went for him in the Electoral College vote.  These people deserve whatever befalls them.  That said, we will need to be watchful to see who Trump tries to scapegoat rather than admit his own betrayal of these morons.  Here are article highlights:

We are one month from inauguration day, and it looks like the Donald Trump revolution is already almost over. In its place is a globalist establishment led by a rogue tweeter. Doubt me? Let’s review the great causes that motivated his base.
 Since winning the White House, Trump has not “burned it down.” Instead, he’s “built it up.” Trump’s anti-establishment candidacy has put the establishment in charge. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell remain at the helms of the House and Senate. McConnell — the ultimate insider — may now be the most powerful Senate majority leader in decades, thanks to Harry Reid’s weakening of the filibuster. Trump’s core wanted to destroy both men. Instead, they rule their chambers and look primed to pass their own agendas through Congress.

Beyond Capitol Hill, Trump has stocked his staff and his cabinet with establishment fixtures and billionaires.

If Trump didn’t “burn it down,” he sure didn’t “drain the swamp.” . . . . Government by Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil is government by the swamp, of the swamp, and for the swamp. This isn’t a revolution, it’s a thoroughly conventional changing of the guard. The list goes on.

It’s almost as if Trump said what he needed to say to win election, without regard for the truth or the consequences. Imagine that! Indeed, he even seemed to impute his own motives to his crowd. At a rally last week he said, “You people were vicious, violent, screaming, ‘Where’s the wall? We want the wall!’ Screaming, ‘Prison! Prison! Lock her up!’ I mean you are going crazy. I mean, you were nasty and mean and vicious and you wanted to win, right?”

For Trump, it was all tactics. And he appears to think it was just tactics for his supporters as well.

Trump’s foreign policy, however, is still the wild card, and he has done nothing at all to show Americans that he has a proper understanding of the metastasizing Russian threat to America’s vital strategic interests.

Trump’s movement was always about Trump. And those who marched to the polls believing that he’d “fight” for them should now know that the only fights he picks are those it’s in his self-interest to pick.

[Y]ou can also count on him to blur the lines between his business and his administration, because money is in his self-interest. And he’ll likely keep tweeting like a Breitbart blogger, because that has served his political interests beautifully, at least so far.

It’s as if the people stormed the Bastille and set up the guillotines, only to find their leader feasting with King Louis. It turns out he was a member of the ancien régime all along.

Will Trump's working class supporters ever figure out that they were played by a con artist?  Many New Yorkers who know Trump best tried to warn the nation, but rural and working class voters who seemingly celebrate their own ignorance ignored the warning. 

Exxon Mobil Finaslly Adds Employment Protections for Gays

Before it was acquired by Exxon, Mobil Oil had a full compliment of pro-LGBT polices.  All of those went away after Exxon took control and for years Exxon resisted reinstituting the policies.  Now, perhaps pushed by Barack Obama's non-discrimination executive order applying to all federal contractors, Exxon-Mobil has at last restored LGBT employment protections.  Think Progress has details.  Here are highlights:

For over a decade, ExxonMobil shareholders and company officials have repeatedly voted against extending corporate policy to protect LGBT people from discrimination, earning it the Human Rights Campaign’s lowest ranking for LGBT inclusion among the country’s largest businesses. That reputation just came to an end, as the company has officially added “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to its officially protected classes.

The company’s newly updated Standards of Business Conduct confirm that the inclusive language is now present. Both sexual orientation and gender identity are explicitly included as protected statuses for both its Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and Harassment in the Workplace Policy.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson confirmed to ThinkProgress that the policies had been updated, adding, “ExxonMobil’s policies prohibit all forms of discrimination in any company workplace, anywhere in the world. ExxonMobil supports a work environment that values diversity and inclusion, and has numerous inclusive programs and policies that help make ExxonMobil a great place to work.”

The policies indicate that they have been “modified for application in the United States.” This suggests that ExxonMobil made the change specifically because of President Obama’s executive order last summer requiring that all contractors of the federal government must have policies protecting their LGBT employees. ExxonMobil was undoubtedly the largest such contractor without a policy.

A suit accusing ExxonMobil of discriminating against gay candidates for job openings in Illinois is ongoing.

LGBT workplace protections are but one factor that the Human Rights Campaign considers on its corporate scorecard, which means ExxonMobil’s rating will not immediately be salvaged by the change.

Illinois Lawsuit Against Exxon-Mobil for Anti-Gay Bias to Move Forward

Year after year the Board of Directors of Exxon-Mobil refuses to enact workplace non-discrimination policies protecting LGBT employees (ironically, Mobil had such protections until it was acquired by Exxon).  Now, because of its failure to protect LGBT employees from discriminatory workplace practices, Exxon-Moil has found itself facing a lawsuit under the State of Illinois' non-discrimination laws.  While claiming that the lawsuit is "baseless" - yeah, just like I'm Queen Victoria - has refused to admit liability.  Now, the Illinois Human Rights Commission has ruled that the lawsuit can move forward. Here are highlights from The Washington Blade:

A complaint alleging anti-gay bias in hiring practices at oil-and-gas giant ExxonMobil can move forward now that the Illinois Human Rights Commission overturned a lower body’s decision to dismiss the case.

In a decision dated July 14 and obtained Tuesday by the Washington Blade, the Illinois Human Rights Commission — a 13-member body that determines whether unlawful discrimination has occurred under Illinois state civil rights law — remanded the case back to the Illinois Department of Human Rights, which had thrown out the case in January on the basis of lack of jurisdiction.

“The Respondent’s dismissal of Freedom to Work’s charge is VACATED and Freedom to Work’s charge is REINSTATED and REMANDED to the Respondent for FURTHER INVESTIGATION and other proceedings to consistent with this Order and the Act,” states the order, which was signed by Illinois Human Rights Commission Executive Director N. Keith Chambers.

The relief sought by Freedom to Work includes a change in ExxonMobil’s equal employment opportunity policy to enumerate protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity as well as attorney’s fees.

Although the Illinois Department of Human Rights dismissed the case on the basis of no employer-employee relationship between Freedom to Work and ExxonMobil, the order indicates that both Freedom to Work and the department later petitioned the Illinois Human Rights Commission to remand the case so a thorough investigation could proceed.

Peter Romer-Friedman, counsel at Freedom to Work and attorney at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, say now that the case has been remanded, ExxonMobil will have to explain why it elected to hire the less-qualified straight candidate.

“We are relieved but not surprised by the state agency’s decision that Freedom to Work and other civil rights groups have the right to challenge unlawful discrimination, including Exxon’s sexual orientation discrimination,” Romer-Friedman said. “This decision means that Exxon will have to answer tough questions about why it treated a well-qualified LGBT applicant far worse than a straight applicant who had lesser qualifications. The decision also paves the way for other non-profit groups to enforce civil rights laws.”

Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, predicted ExxonMobil will be “dragged kicking and screaming” this year into adopting workplace protections for its LGBT employees — either because of his organization’s complaint or Obama’s executive order.

“This oil giant has a lot to lose here, and it should be clear that the clock is ticking and it’s now time to update Exxon’s policies to give LGBT Americans a fair shot on the job,” Almeida said.

In the interest of full disclosure, I inherited a chunk of Exxon-Mobil stock from my late parents who had owned Mobil stock for 40 years before the Exxon takeover and reversal of Mobil's enlightened polices.  Since they had a minimal basis, they never sold the stock to avoid getting hit with a large tax bill.  With my stepped up basis, I was able to unload the stock  without tax impact rather than be involved with an anti-gay company.

The Secret of the Seven Sisters - The Cartel That Contols the World's Oil

For newer readers, in my initial years out of law school I worked first for a private law firm that did a huge amount of oil and gas work and later I was in-house counsel for the then largest independent oil company in America out side of the so-called "Seven Sisters" - Exxon, Shell, BP, Mobil, Texaco, Gulf and Chevron - the biggest oil companies in the world.  Hence, I have known the oil industry from the inside - both the good and the bad.  And, despite the rise of OPEC and set backs in some nations where thy saw their assets nationalized, in part often because of poor stewardship, the Seven Sisters (now diminished in numbers due to mergers) still have largely still ended up on top and still wield immense power.   When you hear advertisements lauding the job creation by the oil industry or attack ads against politicians who want to tighten up on the oil industry - often run by the American Petroleum Institute - you are hearing the Seven Sisters at work.  Interestingly  enough,  Al Jazeera is running a four part series on the history of the Seven Sisters and how they continue to control the world's oil supply.  Here are some highlights (go to the article to view a video clip):

On August 28, 1928, in the Scottish highlands, began the secret story of oil.   Three men had an appointment at Achnacarry Castle - a Dutchman, an American and an Englishman.

The Dutchman was Henry Deterding, a man nicknamed the Napoleon of Oil, having exploited a find in Sumatra. He joined forces with a rich ship owner and painted Shell salesman and together the two men founded Royal Dutch Shell.

The American was Walter C. Teagle and he represents the Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller at the age of 31 - the future Exxon. Oil wells, transport, refining and distribution of oil - everything is controlled by Standard oil.

The Englishman, Sir John Cadman, was the director of the Anglo-Persian oil Company, soon to become BP. On the initiative of a young Winston Churchill, the British government had taken a stake in BP and the Royal Navy switched its fuel from coal to oil. With fuel-hungry ships, planes and tanks, oil became "the blood of every battle".

The new automobile industry was developing fast, and the Ford T was selling by the million. The world was thirsty for oil, and companies were waging a merciless contest but the competition was making the market unstable.

That August night, the three men decided to stop fighting and to start sharing out the world's oil. Their vision was that production zones, transport costs, sales prices - everything would be agreed and shared. And so began a great cartel, whose purpose was to dominate the world, by controlling its oil.

Four others soon joined them, and they came to be known as the Seven Sisters - Exxon, Shell, BP, Mobil, Texaco, Gulf and Chevron - the biggest oil companies in the world.

In the first episode, we travel across the Middle East, through both time and space.

"We waged the Iran-Iraq war and I say we waged it, because one country had to be used to destroy the other. As they already benefit from the oil bonanza, and they’re building up financal reserves, from time to time they have to be bled." - Xavier Houzel, an Oil trader

Throughout the region's modern history, since the discovery of oil, the Seven Sisters have sought to control the balance of power.

They have supported monarchies in Iran and Saudi Arabia, opposed the creation of OPEC, profiting from the Iran-Iraq war, leading to the ultimate destruction of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

The Seven Sisters were always present, and almost always came out on top.  Since that notorious meeting at Achnacarry Castle on August 28, 1928, they have never ceased to plot, to plan and to scheme.

Am I being cynical?  I do not think so.  One need only remember that Dick Cheney's Halliburton before all else was (going back many decades) and is a major oil services corporation totally intertwined with the Seven Sisters.  The America public was played for a bunch of suckers and fools by Messrs Bush and Cheney.

USA's Largest Corporations Made $170 Billion Yet Paid No Taxes

Let's face it - the USA's tax code is beyond screwed up. As Forbes is reporting, twelve of the nation's largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid NO taxes. That's right, zero! The GOP, of course, would have you believe that businesses are over taxed. While this may be true in some cases for the little guys, the big corporation with in some cases obscene profits are paying little or nothing even as more and more homeowners find themselves wiped out financially. It drives me to distraction to watch as idiots in the Tea Party movement remain blind to the fact that they are being sold down the river by Republicans. Add to the list of fools, the Christianists who are more concerned about stigmatizing gays than looking out for the future of the nation. Here are highlights from the Forbes story:
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Yesterday, I wrote about how the GOP is falsely pushing the argument that America’s corporations are overtaxed. I included some great data courtesy of conservative commentator Bruce Bartlett whose New York Times piece did an extraordinary job of putting the lie to the Republican assertions.
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Today, and not a moment too soon, the non-profit Citizens For Tax Justice (CTJ) has put out their findings revealing that twelve of the nations largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%.

Yes, you read that correctly. Not only have these twelve companies paid zero in taxes for the years 2008-2010, they actually received tax subsidies that added $62.4 billion to their bottom lines.
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The companies were chosen by the CTJ . . . include – in alphabetical order – American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell International, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo and Yahoo.
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According to the study, not a single one of these companies paid an amount even close to the 35% statutory tax rate. In fact, the tax rate paid by Exxon Mobile, when spread over the full three years, was only 14.2% – a full 60% below the 35% rate that corporations are supposed to be paying. And if we take a look at what Exxon paid over just the past two years, it totals a mere 0.4% on their pre-tax profits of $9.9 billion. And get this – Exxon Mobile paid the most in taxes of any of the twelve companies on the list.
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We, as voters, also have a duty to react when the GOP majority in the House of Representatives tries to tell us we need to reduce this phantom corporate rate from 35% to 25% so that these corporations can pay even less in taxes while they pocket even greater amounts of taxpayer money via corporate subsidies.
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Worse still, Boehner, Ryan and friends have the unmitigated gall to make their pitch while asking the rest of us to give up the social programs that are so essential to most Americans. Seriously, people, do we need an anvil to fall on our heads before we get it?
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This chart from Think Progress tells it all:
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Will Subsidies for the Oil Industry Be the GOP's Next Achilles Heel?

I'm not one to demonize the oil industry in a knee jerk reaction. I was in-house counsel for an oil companies some years back so I do understand the high stakes nature of the industry. Add to that and and I currently own stock in Exxon I recently inherited from my late mother who never sold it (my parents originally owned Mobil stock, which had gay friendly policies which Exxon ended - something I voted to restore on my proxy) because they wanted to allow their heirs to decide what to do with the stock. Nonetheless, obscene greed at some point becomes simply unconscionable. Moreover, not paying one's fair share in taxes is in my view, un-American. Apparently, other voters feel the same way and at town hall meetings the GOP members of Congress are finding themselves under attack for their support of subsidies to the oil industry. That is when they aren't under attack for the GOP plan to kill Medicare for all practical purposes. Think Progress looks at one GOP Congresswoman who has broken ranks and will oppose continued oil industry subsidies. Here are highlights:
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As ThinkProgress has been documenting, conservative lawmakers have been facing the ire of Main Street America at town halls all over the country. These Americans are demanding fair sacrifice rather than budget cuts that unfairly saddle the poor and middle class with the burden of deficit reduction.
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Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) came face to face with this growing movement at a town hall in Vancouver, Washington last night. Dozens of protesters encamped outside the meeting, waving signs like “Save Medicare: Tax the Rich.” When she tried to defend her vote on the GOP budget that would effectively privatize Medicare, “a chorus of boos and catcalls and shouts of ‘liar’ erupted in the auditorium.”
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Yet at one point — perhaps understanding that her constituents were already upset with her enough — she did endorse a position that put her on the opposite side of most of her House GOP colleagues. She told the audience that she favored ending subsidies to oil companies like Exxon and BP:
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Herrera Beutler did not directly address why she has supported making the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. But she said she does favor taking a hard look at military spending and supports ending subsidies for big corporations like Exxon and BP.
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Of course, Beutler voted, along with the rest of the House GOP caucus, to protect billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil more than once in the past few months.
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Her flip-flop may be evidence that American anger at Big Oil is forcing hesitant conservatives to switch sides. A number of GOP congressmen have told constituents in recent days that they now oppose the subsidies. These include Reps. Joe Walsh (IL), Tom McClintock (CA), and Dan Webster (FL)

New York City Pension Funds Press For Gay Worker Rights

Once again the the New York City Employees' Retirement System, New York City Police Pension Fund, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund, New York City Teachers' Retirement System and New York City Board of Education Retirement System will use their massive clout to press corporations to implement gay-positive policies and benefits. The funds in the past have unsuccessfully pressed EXXON-Mobil to end its anti-gay discriminatory polices but have seen the number of shareholder against equality declining each year. Here are some highlights from 365gay.com (http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/01/012908com.htm):

(New York City) New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. announced Tuesday that he will use the massive clout of the NYC Pension Funds to press two-dozen of America's largest companies to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Currently, the five Pension Funds have more than $110 billion in holdings.

The Funds hold nearly 30 million shares worth nearly $2.2 billion in the companies announced Tuesday. Thompson's announcement continues several years of pressure on companies in which the funds own shares. This year's targets are double the number of companies singled out last year Thompson said.

"Each year, more companies are making this commitment because they believe in guaranteeing equal treatment in the workplace. However, many of this country's largest corporations still refuse to protect all workers." The resolutions that Thompson has filed call for companies that have not already done so to revise their policies to forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The companies are: HCC Insurance Holdings of Houston, TX; Timken Company of Canton, OH; ExxonMobil Corp. of Irving, TX; AK Steel Corp. of Middletown, OH; Fidelity National Financial, Inc. of Jacksonville, FL; Brink's Company of Richmond, VA; Liberty Global, Inc. of Englewood, CO; Lyondell Chemical Company of Houston, TX; Eastman Chemical Co. of Kingsport, TN; Tesoro Corp. of San Antonio, TX; Apache Corp. of Houston, TX; Murphy Oil Corp. of El Dorado, AR; Kelly Services, Inc. of Troy, MI; EchoStar Communications Corp. of Englewood, CO; Huntsman Corp. of Salt Lake City, UT; Marshall & Ilsley Corp. of Milwaukee, WI; Frontier Oil Corp. of Houston, TX; Borg Warner. Inc. of Auburn Hills, MI; Anadarko Petroleum Corp. of The Woodlands, TX; Synovus Financial Corp. of Columbus, GA; Erie Indemnity Company (Erie Insurance) of Erie, PA; SPX Corporation of Charlotte, NC; American Financial Group, Inc. of Cincinnati, OH; and, Leggett & Pratt, Inc. of Carthage, MO.