CHEVRON OFFICIALS BANNED FROM LEAVING BRAZIL

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

Ecuador and Brazil are two South American countries. Both are oil producers. Both have had problems with Chevron.

 

Texaco polluted the Amazon in 1992. Sixteen billion gallons of polluted waste water found its way into the river and it's tributaries. From there, it creeped in land and contaminated Ecuador's rain forest.

 

Texaco sold its Ecuador business to Chevron in 2001.

 

In these environmental matters, it is not uncommon for one oil company to be bought out by another. This does not bar recovery by the entity harmed. Chevron in its agreement with Texaco would have agreed to assume all of Texaco's liabilities.

 

Chevron negotiated the waste water pollution problem with Ecuadorians for two years. Negotiations were proving fruitless. First the Ecuadorians had been jerked around for many years by Texaco in their negotiations. Now Chevron was playing the same game. Chevron claimed that Texaco had completed the cleanup and fulfilled its responsibilities prior to Chevron purchasing Texaco.

 

Ecuadorians threatened to sue Chevron. Chevron closed down all its Ecuadorian operations, laid all employees off, sold all their properties, closed all bank accounts, and moved every thing out of Brazil. Lock, stock and barrel as the saying goes.

 

Ecuadorians obtained a default judgment against Chevron for $18 billion. A default judgment means that Chevron did not oppose the lawsuit in any fashion. Nor did Chevron appear in defense of the lawsuit.

 

Ecuadorians now have an $18 billion judgment against one off the world's riches oil companies. How do Ecuadorians collect it? Chevron left no assets in Ecuador which could be attached.

 

Chevron basically gave the finger to the Ecuadorians and said screw you.

 

Ecuadorians are now trying to attach Chevron's bank accounts in New York City banks. The International World Court is involved. The move does not appear hopeful. Chevron may have been morally incorrect, but what they did appears legal. Ecuadorians are going to have an extremely hard time collecting any money.

 

Now comes Brazil. Chevron involved one again.

 

Chevron was pumping oil via rigs in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Rio de Janiero. Transocean owned the rigs. The same Transocean that was involved in the gulf BP oil spill.

 

A major leak and resultant spill occurred.

 

Brazil was fearful Chevron was going to do to it that which it did to the Ecuadorians. Pack up and skip town. Leaving Brazil with no one to pay the damage.

 

Brazil was fearful Transocean would play the same game.

 

Brazil acted promptly and diligently. Brazil obtained a court order prohibiting 17 of Chevron and Transocean's top employees from leaving Brazil. Chevron is now stuck and will be required to defend any lawsuit and pay any judgment obtained. There will be no replay of the Ecuador scenario in Brazil.

 

One neighbor learned from another. Fool me once, it happens. Fool me twice, it is not going to happen.

 

Good for Brazil!

 

1712 SLAVE REVOLT IN NEW YORK CITY

Man's crimes against his fellow man are historical and never ending. Death and torture are intrinsic to man's nature. Always with us.

 

One example is a 1712 slave revolt which occurred in New York City.

 

Note that as of 1712, New York City was not a part of what would ultimately become the United States. There was no United States. There would be no United States for at least another fifty years. A United States free of English rule was not even a thought in anyone's mind.

 

New York City was a thriving community by 1712. Under English rule, it prospered. A huge population. Many African natives and descendants were a part of the population. Some free men, some slaves. One out of every five persons making up New York's population in 1712 was a slave. A significant number.

 

The Africans lived in close quarters. They were able to communicate easily. Eventually they conspired.

 

On the evening of April 6, 1712, a group of slaves held a midnight tavern meeting. They were tired of being used and abused by the white population. They were constantly maltreated. The meeting resulted in a decision to revolt. Some seventy slaves were involved. Their express purpose in revolting was to arouse the rest of New York's
African population to join them. To do what? To incite their African brothers and sisters to join them in massacring all white people. A major undertaking. A plan fraught with danger to both blacks and whites..

 

The revolt began. The slaves were armed with guns, hatchets and swords.Twenty three slaves started a fire to a home on Maiden Lane. Today a part of New York's financial district. Whites tried to stop the fire. Other whites, primarily slaveholders, ran out of their homes to protect their homes from additional fires.

 

A battle ensued between the slaves and whites. Nine whites were killed.

 

Seventy blacks were arrested and jailed. Twenty seven tried. Twenty one convicted and executed.

 

The thrust of today's column is the method of execution.

 

Twenty African men were burned at the stake. One was executed by being tied to a wheel which separated the bones in his body. Arms and legs from the torso. Internal organs from each other.

 

Each African man was conscious at the start of his execution and throughout a part of each.

 

Burning at the stake  had been a popular European method of punishment/execution. Reference Joan of Arc and the Spanish Inquisition, for example. However the white people of New York had long before 1712 done away with burning for execution purposes. They preferred the more charitable hanging.

 

Why then were the Africans burned at the stake? The whites were in such fear of a black insurrection that in the end the form of the punishment was out of proportion to the crimes committed.

 

Teach the blacks a lesson they will never forget was the cry of the whites!

 

Burning had become increasing less used into the 1600s. This made the New York City slave revolt punishment even more horrendous in the early 1700s.

 

The last Englishman living in England to have been burned at the stake was Edward Wightman in 1612. For heresy.

 

Hanging was considered more charitable. Henry VIII's wives who were killed were initially sentenced to death by burning. Their crimes were allegedly treason which was punishable by burning. Henry was a softy. He did not want his former wives to suffer. He reduced their method of execution from burning to hanging.

 

Historically women were treated with sensitivity when they were to be executed. To reduce a woman's pain factor dramatically, she was first hung till dead and then burned.

 

Those of the Muslim faith do not execute solely by stoning. They too burn at the stake. In 2006 in one Iraqi city, Sulaymaniyah, 400 women were executed by burning. The thought occurs: Where was the American influence?

 

1712 New York City is a shame on our English forebeareers. It is a shame on the white slave owners who feared their homes and lives would be lost.

 

Societies and religions world wide continue to look with favor upon burning while alive as an appropriate means for execution. Pain before death. Burned alive.
Ghoulish.

 

Man is not beyond such cruelty. History is repeating itself. Twenty first century man in various parts of the globe is still resorting to the tried and true method for painful execution. Burning at the stake. 

UNPAID TAXES

There is a dark side to unpaid taxes.

 

Most people pay their taxes. Many do not. Some because of financial hardship. Others because they do not care. And then there are those who think they are better than every one else and do not have to pay. Those that consider themselves above the law.

 

Greece and the United States provide two stunning examples in the unpaid taxes scenario.

 

Greece is broke. Broke broke. The whole world is aware. Greece is in debt around $440 billion.

 

Greece got screwed up with the euro. The European nations and the banks are trying to help Greece. To avert Greece's collapse economically. If Greece fails, then the rest of the European nations will experience severe dramatic problems. More so than they are now experiencing. The net effect of a Greek economic collapse would also dramatically impact the United State's already precarious financial position.

 

The banks, lenders and European nations have come up with a prerequisite to financial help. They have told the Greeks to collect their unpaid taxes. Improvement of tax collections has been made a condition precedent to financial assistance.

 

It is really a delaying and passing the buck situation. 

 

Unpaid taxes amount to 25 per cent of Greece's debt.

 

Greece's first step in trying to collect was to name those who owe. The maneuver was titled Name and Shame. More than 4,000 names were made public.

 

The funny thing about all this is that most of the unpaid tax debt is noncollectable. Most of the Greeks who owe do not have the money nor ability to pay. An example. One man owes 952 million euros. That is more than $952 million in our money. He is presently serving 504 years in jail for income tax evasion. How can he pay his back taxes? It's a joke!

 

My point is that to compel the collection of Greece's unpaid taxes is not going to solve the problem. You cannot collect what is not there to collect. The banks, lenders and European nations have to face up to the dilemma. No pie in the sky. They are going to have to bail Greece out. If not, it is very possible, if not probable, that a world wide recession will occur.

 

Now lets move to the United States. An interesting situation.

 

I refer specifically to the White House. The aides and staff working in the White House.

 

Taxes in every form are a campaign issue. Without question. Unpaid taxes are a part of the problem.

 

A recent study revealed the following.

 

The White House staff numbers 457. A certain number of the 457 owe $833,970 in back taxes.

 

One third of the White House staff earn more than $100,000 a year. The 21 top aides, $172,000 each.

 

Cannot afford to pay their taxes? Hard to believe.

 

My point with this unpaid taxes dissertation? None. I am merely sharing some information with you that you may not have known. Information you should know.