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A Noble Cause, Or Two ...
Tonight we're tired because it's been a right blooming, bugger of a day.
We did most of the whole damned day in dry dock [hospital] taking tests. Tsk! Talk about trying times. Don't ask. The main thing is, we both made it back.
So that's the reason this edition's so short and sweet. See?
Financial affairs, our forte ain't -- but we wonder if we've not struck pay-dirt. We think we may have stumbled on a couple of keys to some of the secrets of the Bushco cabal's so-called 'noble cause'.
Anyhow, see what you think.
We'll donate the dots -- all you have to do is join them.
Here's the first.
Sure sounds like some especially sweet dealing's been done somewhere. Eh?Exxon in biggest ever US profits
Exxon Mobil is the world's largest listed oil companyUS oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9bn (£5.55bn), the largest in US corporate history, on the back of record oil and gas prices.
Profit was up 75% and revenue rose 32% to more than $100bn.Okay, that's your first two dots done.
Now for your next one.
Shell buoyed by oil price surgeThat was your third, so what follows is your fourth.
Shell is performing well despite the hurricanesProfits at oil giant Shell have surged as the recent rise in oil prices more than offset the cost of US hurricanes.
Current cost of supply (CCS) earnings rose to $7.37bn (£4.01bn) in the three months to 30 September.
And there are plenty more darned damning dots where they came from. Though as always, they're quite well camouflaged and dutifully disguised as far-too-high-falluting, high-finance-speak for most folk.
This Old Brit and Richard have always been inclined to call this category of crap a kind of conglomerate, corporate gobbledygook, con-artist type of talking.
You know -- the blind 'em with science and hit 'em all hard with packs of phony facts & figures, approach.
Anyhow, here are the latest low downs on the fat-cat, low life leeches living the high life at the expense of the rest of us.
So go on and give it a whirl. Do your own thing with dots. Suck it and see as they say. See if you too can see through them.
But whatever you do -- don't dare to mention the war.
EXXON http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4383296.stm
SHELL http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4380814.stm
posted by Richard at Thursday, October 27, 2005
21 Comments:
Yeah, and I read this afternoon (I don't recall where exactly, but it was one of the MSM sites - possibly CNN) that the WH is expected to try and block the windfall tax effort by proposing its own scheme of stockpiling to lower prices. That's like refusing to give some spare change to a homeless guy in the street, but offering to buy extra food for yourself so that if you don't eat it all he can have some of your leftovers.
Scumbags. We are at the mercy of scumbags.
Whether this was the main reason for invading Iraq, the oil cos likely will be the only beneficiaries when all is said and done.
Tax their damned windfall profits and subsidize heating costs for elderly and poor this winter! Offer significant tax breaks for insulating and retro-fitting houses and businesses to utilize solar power!
Dream on.
Jesus Christ - are we surprised - the rich get richer !!!!!!
Where it all that simplistic my liberal friends. My other half (SheWhoMustBeObeyed) is currently on assignment at the Exxon futures sales department in Danville, CA. Allow me to talk to her about this before I stick my foot in my mouth here, OK?
IN THE MEAN TIME... one cannot fault a company for charging more for product that did not cost as much as it would had it been purchased after the disaster... after all one must replace the product in those tanks with product that is going to cost substantially more. That is not price gouging as much as it is simple good business practice of looking ahead and preparing to say in business when that higher priced product arrives to be sold at their pumps.
For another perspective on the issue you might want to read the Cato Institute's take on things:
Oil Profiting Is Not a Crime
"More than a billion dollars a day, $45 million an hour, almost $340 for every living American -- that's what Exxon Mobil Corp. reported in third-quarter revenue Thursday," according to The Los Angeles Times. In "The Best Energy Policy Is No Energy Policy," Jerry Taylor, Cato's director of natural resource studies, writes: "Political saber rattling about the alleged profiteering of 'big oil' actually makes the crisis worse. If companies can't cash them in at a profit during price run-ups because they fear criminal investigations or the imposition of 'windfall profit' taxes, companies won't bother maintaining inventories in the first place."
Now I'm no fan of Jerry Taylor's theory and I really believe that his complete hads-off approach is a bit extreme... but I do think that there are some kernels in there that can lead to a compromise that will both stimulate business (which I'm not sure is really needed) and prevent wild, out of control profiteering (which I believe is a myth).
Hey Elaine! Give me a call will ya? We need to discuss that project we were talking about!
Pretzeldent lieing traitor scumbag seen here practising dodging anvils indictments exploding bananas and sharp pointy rocks.
http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/afp/20051026/capt.sge.unj80.251005231414.photo00.photo.default-380x270.jpg?x=300&y=213&sig=Y.YvgDUy8vtyyymtsAqkTw--
Grainia I'm reading carefuly everything but it seems to me to that I owe you and Richard an apology so you have it more later.
My dad is NOT in Irak.
grainia "amadan" an ata gaelige agat? Nil nios mo na dha bhliain agam san ngaeilge ach bo mhaith liom dhein me fein nios dheachra i.
Sorry no fadas my little brother got sick on my keyboard so I am have "stolen" dads one and it is Arabic/English and i can't find any of the special characters on it.
Dubhaltach
Hey Dubhaltach - it's okay glad you're not pissed anymore and that your Dad is not in Iraq. Okay my gaelic is a little rusty - and, unlike your Dad, I don't have a fainne. I love the language and hope it is being taught better than it was in my day. My other language is French so continuez. So your brother 'blew chunks' on your keyboard - I can identify with that!
BTW - Richard are you and the family OK?
I am teaching it to myself I bought a Cd and book course. It is a how do I say it? A minority interest in Denmark like maybe a minrity of two :-))))
uh oh to run Friday PIZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
has arrrived
yes also hope your family ok richard
Is Buntas Cainte still available - that was going along swimmingly until Niall Tobin got a hold of it - looks like Friday is Pizza night all over the world!
Julie,
Of course oil profits are not a 'crime', but it is just indicative of the underlying disdain humans seem to have for each other. What do you think would happen if an oil company said: "well, we're doing okay and we can pay our bills and pay our employees and still have a boatload of money left over... Guess what, here's a few hundred million to heat the homes of the needy this winter and maybe we can even save some of those freezing children in Pakistan."? Would the whole of civilization collapse? No.
I mean sure, it's naive and idealistic to even ask such a question, but so what? Shouldn't we be striving for something more as a species? We are, after all, in charge of this planet. Shouldn't we at least try to rise to that responsibility? Maybe try to make our existence here meaningful in some way. I'm no religious kook, so I'm not going to wag God's finger at you and cry shame on you, but come on. We don't need to read any religious scripture (or even believe in one) to see that this is pretty shameful. A series of disasters wreaks havoc and huge numbers of people suffer, but a handful of people make a shitload of money as a consequence and then you chime in with: "oh there's nothing illegal about it". Do you tap dance in front of wheelchair bound folks? There's nothing illegal about that.
Actually Friday is brie night here Grani! Then again, this IS California and it IS our anniversary!
It ain't gonna happen Mittens and it's foolish to even think it should in my book. SO let's say you are doing OK, you can pay all of your bills & stick a little away for the future, can we expect you to giveaway everything else away to the poor? Of course not and no one would expect you to. You are asking business to do something that the government refuses to do, so what makes you think THEY should even consider it? The big oil companies are there not to provide free heat to the aged, they are there to provide the greatest return to the shareholder. If you have a problem with that buy some shares and take it up at the next shareholders meeting. Sorry... I don't mean to sound harsh or argumentative, really! It's just that this is the way it is!
That's only because everyone steadfastly continues to just accept that "that's the way it is". The public gets what they demand, not what they deserve.
Phew, it's been a hive of activity here while I've been somewhat 'indisposed'.
'Normal service' should be resumed later today. There seems to be lot to catch up, though.
Meantime, Dubhaltach, no problem. Misunderstandings happen sometimes, so don't worry.
Hope test results came out ok - or that they will -Old Brit.
Making profits is fine but profiteering by exploitation should carry hefty penalties - taxwise AND otherwise - period.
Juliedee and st!ff m!ttens:
You're both right of course. Is it really too much to ask of Home Sapiens (the Wise Man? The Wide Boy more like) to behave in a way that furthers the cause of the species as a whole, not in a way that makes a small elite so rich they couldn't spend all their money if their lives depended on it? Is that naive? Sure...
I'm not religious at all but wasn't man created in God's image according to the Bible? What a psychopath He must be then...
Even animals really only kill for food.
"Even animals really only kill for food."
Except jackals and baboons or at least that is what i learned last week in biology class
On the heels of the huge profits the oil companies are enjoying I am chagrined to read in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning (Sat.) that are estimed Republicans are looking into cutting food stamps and free school meals - BECAUSE IT FRICKING COSTS TOO MUCH MONEY. Sorry gang - that is too much for me to handle. We can't afford to feed hungry children any more? Yet we have tons of money to throw Hallibuton's way and let's not talk about the war. I don't care what an individual's viewpoint is vis-a-vis welfare but the US is too rich a country to have any child going to school hungry!
Now do you see why I quit the Repugnican Party Grani? Well... that and the fact that they took umbrage at who I went to bed with (as though that was any of their business!). I TRIED to tell them that I rarely woke up next to those people but do you think that they cared? NoooOOOOoooOOoo! SHEEZE! Picky picky picky!
I saw that story myself sweety... UN-BLOODY-BELIEVABLE! They have PLENTY of money to make the tax cuts permanent and for the war, and for their huge leech company contracts and for their pork-barrel projects but money for medicare and food programs? Eh, let the poor feed themselves!
Didn't a bloody revolution start when some big wig made a joke about "let them eat cake"?
I like the way you left the dots about to be connected...and the trail is a bit obvious...and disgusting.....
Anyways saw that you are having tests...the nurse side of hopes that you are okay and getting lots of TLC....
Well, I've just about caught up with everything. Thanks for your interest and input, everyone.
Oh, and for all your concern;it's appreciated. Really.
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