BP on Frontline

[Luissa]

BP is on PBS Frontline tonight, anyone watch? It is interesting so far.
My friend's dad was also interviewed, I won't say who he was, of course.

 

[Madeline]

I TIVO'd it but haven't watched yet. Amazes me how fast most people are *all done being pissed off*. There are oysters and fish full of oil coming onshore right now....and methane leaking from the well. We'll be poisoned by this for generations.

 

[Luissa]

My friend's dad is one of the workers who is speaking out against them. I am glad he isn't keeping quiet.

 

[Madeline]

My friend's dad is one of the workers who is speaking out against them. I am glad he isn't keeping quiet.

Was he a BP employee before the spill?

 

[Mr. H.]

ProPubica?

"BP should be banned from doing business with the U.S. government."

Uh... yeah.

 

[Mr. H.]

"This is a story about ambition and it's consequences".

I've seen enough. Typical pubic TV theatre.

 

[Luissa]

My friend's dad is one of the workers who is speaking out against them. I am glad he isn't keeping quiet.

Was he a BP employee before the spill?

Yeah, he doesn't work in the gulf.

 

[Madeline]

My friend's dad is one of the workers who is speaking out against them. I am glad he isn't keeping quiet.

Was he a BP employee before the spill?

Yeah, he doesn't work in the gulf.

I've seen commentary from retired Texas refinery workers -- amazing shit. BP leaned on those folks so hard to stay silent, it damned near approaches blackmail.

 

[Luissa]

Was he a BP employee before the spill?

Yeah, he doesn't work in the gulf.

I've seen commentary from retired Texas refinery workers -- amazing shit. BP leaned on those folks so hard to stay silent, it damned near approaches blackmail.

Yep!

 

[Madeline]

Yeah, he doesn't work in the gulf.

I've seen commentary from retired Texas refinery workers -- amazing shit. BP leaned on those folks so hard to stay silent, it damned near approaches blackmail.

Yep!

Reminded me of the movie starring Cher and Meryl Streep about the nuclear power plant....remember?

 

[Luissa]

I've seen commentary from retired Texas refinery workers -- amazing shit. BP leaned on those folks so hard to stay silent, it damned near approaches blackmail.

Yep!

Reminded me of the movie starring Cher and Meryl Streep about the nuclear power plant....remember?

I don't know.

 

[Madeline]

Silkwood (1983) - IMDb

Nuclear power plant worker tries to blow the whistle on some dangerous practices at work and gets "disappeared". Supposedly based on a true story.

 

[Blagger]

American righteous indignation at the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and subsequent oil spill is rather pathetic. When you look at the facts, the sweet crude that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to the Exon Valdez and Persian Gulf spills.

Experienced scientists have proved that although the spill will cause conspicuous environmental damage, in the long run, the sea will clean itself. Though as usual, America prefers media opinion over facts.

And if America wants to beat its chest over industrial negligence, lets cast our minds back to 1984 at the US owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Where, as a result of appalling safety conditions, 3,787 (humans) eventually perished. Many after suffering prolonged agony.

Though on that occasion, however, the American media and public chose to largely ignore the disaster.

I wonder why.

 

[California Girl]

American righteous indignation at the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and subsequent oil spill is rather pathetic. When you look at the facts, the sweet crude that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to the Exon Valdez and Persian Gulf spills.

Experienced scientists have proved that although the spill will cause conspicuous environmental damage, in the long run, the sea will clean itself. Though as usual, America prefers media opinion over facts.

And if America wants to beat its chest over industrial negligence, lets cast our minds back to 1984 at the US owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Where, as a result of appalling safety conditions, 3,787 (humans) eventually perished. Many after suffering prolonged agony.

Though on that occasion, however, the American media and public chose to largely ignore the disaster.

I wonder why.

The American people need a scapegoat. Because otherwise, we would ask very hard questions that our Government would prefer not to answer. For example, no one has asked why BP were drilling that far out when they had originally received permission from the individual states to drill close in shore. Who exactly pushed the drilling out? It wasn't BP, it wasn't the individual states, so who? I know the answer to that question.

BP - big evil "foreign" company = scapegoat.

 

[Sunni Man]

Silkwood (1983) - IMDb

Nuclear power plant worker tries to blow the whistle on some dangerous practices at work and gets "disappeared". Supposedly based on a true story.

It was a true story

 

[Sunni Man]

And if merica wants to beat its chest over industrial negligence, lets cast our minds back to 1984 at the US owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Where, as a result of appalling safety conditions, 3,787 (humans) eventually perished. Many after suffering prolonged agony.

Though on that occasion, however, the American media and public chose to largely ignore the disaster.

I wonder why.

Because they were poor Indians and easy to shut up with bribes.

 

[uscitizen]

I love how BP stations are changing to Gulf. An Ameircan company that BP gobbled up and buried a couple of decades ago. Trying to get out from under the BP name I suppose.

 

[uscitizen]

American righteous indignation at the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and subsequent oil spill is rather pathetic. When you look at the facts, the sweet crude that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to the Exon Valdez and Persian Gulf spills.

Experienced scientists have proved that although the spill will cause conspicuous environmental damage, in the long run, the sea will clean itself. Though as usual, America prefers media opinion over facts.

And if America wants to beat its chest over industrial negligence, lets cast our minds back to 1984 at the US owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Where, as a result of appalling safety conditions, 3,787 (humans) eventually perished. Many after suffering prolonged agony.

Though on that occasion, however, the American media and public chose to largely ignore the disaster.

I wonder why.

And we tend to forget Love Canal, rivers actually catching on fire from pollution, etc.

 

[Madeline]

American righteous indignation at the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and subsequent oil spill is rather pathetic. When you look at the facts, the sweet crude that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico pales in comparison to the Exon Valdez and Persian Gulf spills.

Experienced scientists have proved that although the spill will cause conspicuous environmental damage, in the long run, the sea will clean itself. Though as usual, America prefers media opinion over facts.

And if America wants to beat its chest over industrial negligence, lets cast our minds back to 1984 at the US owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Where, as a result of appalling safety conditions, 3,787 (humans) eventually perished. Many after suffering prolonged agony.

Though on that occasion, however, the American media and public chose to largely ignore the disaster.

I wonder why.

I agree with you about Bhopal, and have said so, not just 26 years ago when it occurred but still today. You see, Swagger, when an American corporation fucks up, I don't cast around for an excuse to shield them from liability. I think India should own Union Carbide and the executives of that company circa 1984 should have been in an Indian prison for the past couple of decades.

The Exxon Valdez was a tanker that spilled its contents and the environmental impact of that disaster is still being felt today.

Environmental Effects of Exxon Valdez Spill Still Being Felt: Scientific American

By contrast, the Deepwater Horizon well spilled an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez into the Gulf every 8 to 10 days, for the months that it went on. Doesn't take a genius to see the damage will be far more extensive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/us/11spill.html

The scientists who have so confidentially claimed "the sea will clean itself" are ignoring not only the oil, but all the dispersants BP illegally used as well as the methane that is leaking from the well now, and has been since it was capped.

Could Gulf Oil Leak Lead to Methane-Bubble Tsunami? BP Responds

The BP apology-scientists and Obama wish-masters have all been forced to back off from earlier overly-optimistic predictions about minimal damage to the Gulf, aka lies.

What reinforces the anger of some Americans, like me, is BP's handling of other disasters on US soil and its failure to adequately pay the claims of Gulf area residents that BP damaged. Every one of these environmental disasters was preventable and the necessary safety precautions are still not in place.

Tony Hayward should be in an American prison, doing life for murder and attempted murder, along with various other BP executives. That asshole's "who cares, it's just America" attitude was so repugnant I wanted to see him executed for awhile.

I suggest you have a very skewed view of BP's misconduct as a consequence of much of what has no doubt been soft-pedaling of it in the UK press. Over, here, where fish and oysters are sometimes squirting oil, we citizens are not as impressed by assurances from our government that "all's well, nothing to worry about."

 

[Madeline]

And if merica wants to beat its chest over industrial negligence, lets cast our minds back to 1984 at the US owned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Where, as a result of appalling safety conditions, 3,787 (humans) eventually perished. Many after suffering prolonged agony.

Though on that occasion, however, the American media and public chose to largely ignore the disaster.

I wonder why.

Because they were poor Indians and easy to shut up with bribes.

That is not completely fair, Sunni Man. India still does not have an adequate tort liability and criminal law structure in place to protect its own citizens.

Manas: History and Politics, Constitution of India