It's time for the stupid meme of the week. This one was taken off a favoured source of mine, a favourite mine to source for stupid memes, the personal site of our old friend and guitar master run amok, Ted Nugent. I follow his outrageously pro-Trump postings and occasionally comment on how dumb they are. I've had a little push-back from Trumpian/Nugian fans, but I don't dignify them, particularly on the hostile territory that is his personal site. But I thought this one was too stupid to let slide. I invite Nugists/Trumpists to challenge my logic on my home field. I doubt they will.
I can't presume to know if this post by the Motor City Madman was precipitated by Joe Biden's recent decision (on his first day of decision making) to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to Steele City, Nebraska. But let's work on that assumption. Here's a map. The dotted line is the pipeline in question.
The KXL has had a rocky history. I've blogged about parts of that history here before. One major part of it we don't see on the map above is the fact that AFTER the "oil" gets to the coast, gets refined in the US refineries (we'll talk more about that later), it will be shipped to China. Obama rejected it in 2012 and vetoed the pipeline in 2015. Trump ran in 2016 on a pledge to approve the KXL, tried throughout his administration to speed up and/or stop the research on its environmental effects and thwart efforts by indigenous groups and environmentalists to stop it, then finally UN-vetoed it in 2020 just before leaving office.
So, first off, Teddy, if it's the KXL you are approving, whether it's just to support your burly buddy, or it's because you think it gets you cheaper gas from Canada, I've got news for you: that ain't the "oil" you're using in your truck unless you're filling up at a gas pump in China. Kick in the balls, eh? All these Trumpies thinking he doesn't support China...
Canada has been trying for years to build oil pipelines to get the oil from Canadian land, which is land Canadians pay taxes on; we all have contributed work to; our blood, sweat and tears nourish; and the resources thereof should be removed and distributed only with the approval of the Canadian citizens. Though they all claim it is, this is NOT a sentiment shared by our politicians, Conservative OR Liberal. This is best illustrated by Conservative Stephen I-Love-China-More-Than-Canada Harper's FIPA agreement that he signed knowingly in opposition to Canadians back in 2014. The most significant quote from his 9 years as PM: "We know this is really, really unpopular, but we're doing it anyway."
That agreement has the current Liberal PM, Justin Trudeau on his toes trying to look like an environmentalist, while still desperately trying to get oil to China to hold up our end of the FIPA. The alternative, in Trudeau's defense, would be China suing for billions of our tax dollars. So THAT wouldn't be good either. What WOULD be good, and I continuously say it on this blog, is if Canada just stopped dealing with the Chinese (not to say kissing their human rights violating asses), but it seems our government will never learn. Witness this recent example.
Energy East was a proposed pipeline going from the Alberta oilsands WAAAAY across Canada in an eastern direction. It would have been the longest in the world I think. "East" in that name was a euphemism for China. It failed. Northern Gateway was a nice sounding name for a more direct path to the ocean going west. It also failed. The latest is the Trans Mountain improvement project that uses and existing pipeline (going west) to get the bitumen to the water so it can be shipped to China. It's currently in the process of failing. Why does Canada seem so desperate to do this oil pipeline thing? Because of the above-mentioned deal described in this article I have posted on this blog before. And China IS becoming very comfortable using the lawsuit to claim what it would lawfully consider to be lost income due to the pipelines' failures.
So, Teddy, in a way, being pro pipeline, whether you know it or not, means you are okay with the Chinese suing Americans and Canadians for our tax dollars.
Like most supporters of pipelines, I'm sure Ted Nugent would use the jobs and economy rebuttal to any argument I could offer him about the dangers of fossil fuels. Pipelines leak. Pipeline workers know it. The cartoon below is from a Trans Mountain Pipeline employee newsletter.
You may have wondered at my quotation marks around the word "oil" earlier in this post. The Alberta oil sands, sometimes called "tar" sands, yield a gucky substance known as bitumen. It's more like grease at room temp and it's fucking near impossible to clean up when it spills. MUCH harder than crude oil or refined oil. The media, most of which is owned by the same folks who own the governments, just say "oil" to inaccurately refer to spillage. And they say things like, "Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil." Well they want you to think that that means it's safe. It doesn't. It only means it's safer than this:
That's the Lac-Megantic rail disaster. Ever hoid of it? Of course you haven't! It's not something our oil-dependent owners want us to know about.
Instead you get this:
That's the Kalamazoo River bitumen spill. A pipeline leaked about 843,000 gallons of Alberta oilsands dilbit (diluted bitumen) into the Kalamazoo River. Didn't hear of that one either? Well, info is a bit hard to come by in this area. But since the oil sands are in Alberta, this might be interesting to anyone who thinks oil spills are an uncommon occurrence. It's a bit dated, but the average between '75 and '13 was two a day. I'd suggest that it only increased since then, but I don't have the data. You'll have to suffice with this. Just look at that map and you'll relate to that cartoon above.
What's more, the fossil fuel industry no longer creates more jobs or boosts the economy more than green energy. It's a tired and inaccurate argument that politicians knowingly mislead people with in order to earn their kickbacks from fossil fuel businesses. It's shameful that North American politicians can't kick their addiction to fossil fuel MONEY, but it seems that even in the face of political adversity, renewable resource development is becoming a privately profitable and job-creating powerhouse while remaining almost totally independent of government.
It will surprise absolutely no-one, I'm sure, that the cost for cleaning up the messes the fossil fuel industry makes is always subsidized and very often covered completely by taxpayer money. So when Trudeau comes out with a new carbon tax (that he calls something - ANYTHING but a carbon TAX) and immediately Canadians complain that it will raise the price of gas, well they're right, but not as right as they think they are. It's not the government directly raising the price of gas. It's the oil companies' knee-jerk reaction to raise the price of gas to more than offset the new carbon taxes. And to be honest, it's the Canadian citizens who are so browbeaten by taxes that they have become an accepted torture. We don't have to accept them. We don't have to buy the products big businesses keep raising the prices of. We don't have to accept governments who subsidize the fossil fuel industry either. It doesn't help to just gripe and still do what we're told by our owners. There are things we can do. Stop driving. I haven't bought a drop of gas in almost two decades. Drive less. Drive a smaller car. Drive a hybrid. It won't really make much of a difference, and it's really NOT our responsibility since private citizens make up a tiny fraction of the pollution in our countries. The majority is from, you guessed it, big business. And those big polluters are SUBSIDIZED by our governments, i.e. ENCOURAGED to pollute! But we don't have to take that shit. Here's a petition you can sign.
So, Teddy, get yourself an electric truck, or at least a hybrid. You are proudly admitting to destroying your own land, water and air with your ignorant meme.
Furthermore, Motor City Madman, you should know this if you truly deserve that nickname, a V8 engine at 2000 RPM's creates about 133 explosions per second in your truck. Maybe 40 per second while idling. These are explosions within the cylinders using spark and compressed, highly refined oil in the form of gasoline or diesel fuel. Your truck may occasionally leak oil, it happens.
Here's an unexpected kind of explosion at a Mexican pipeline caused by the soaring price of gas, which has lead to gas theft becoming a booming resource in Mexico, pardon the pun. At least 137 people were killed in this explosion. And here's a leak from the Keystone Pipeline, which I'm assuming you're supporting with your meme, that is slightly larger than an oil leak from your truck would be. 383,000 gallons of oil. That'll do some damage!10X the amount of damage than first reported. TC, the company that now owns the KXL, is the not so cleverly concealed new identity of Trans Canada Pipelines. They changed that name to remove the "Canada" after the government of Canada bought the company. Remember, the government of Canada can't BUY anything. They don't have any money. That's Canadian tax money. I don't know about any other Canadians, but I didn't give my permission to buy that pipeline. That's nothing short of misappropriation of Canadian tax money. It could easily be construed as about a dozen other crimes such as theft, fraud, maybe even treason. And to further astound you, Mr. Madman, I'm sure that deal had to be approved by the Chinese government in lieu of an outright cash payment as a result of a lawsuit against the government of Canada for not delivering that oil Harper promised them in that FIPA agreement. The US has a similar agreement and has been sued. But, once again, you can't sue a government because governments don't have any money. China has sued every taxpayer in Canada and the US. China has sued me, and China has sued you, Nugey. Give that a long hard think.
So, Teddy, your stupid post actually supports the Chinese in the lawsuit of China vs. Ted Nugent.
Look, I have friends and family who work directly or indirectly for the oil industry. I can't blame them for falsely or even genuinely supporting it and/or pipelines. I gotta be honest, I've seen and even considered lucrative offers from Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations. Right now with Korea finally phasing out the good jobs here, those offers are looking more and more attractive. So I get it. But I'm pretty sure Ted Nugent hasn't had much if any involvement professionally with big oil.
So, Teddy, you don't have THAT excuse that might get you a pass regarding your idiotic meme.
I gotta think, and this applies to a LOT of Americans, and probably Canadians, Ted Nugent's love of pipelines just might be rooted in his support of a farcical political party and the financial gain (and conflict of interest) represented by their endorsement of the fossil fuel industry and pipelines. That and pure ignorance.
Oh and as promised, let's talk about refineries. The KXL will be piping diluted (and heated) bitumen to the US where it will be refined, then shipped to China. Those other pipelines mentioned would have sent the dilbit across parts of the naturally gorgeous country of Canada and all the way to China before being refined in Chinese refineries. So the purpose of all these pipelines from Alberta is to transport the oil in by far the most dangerous way across some beautiful land where it WILL be spilled and introduced into the land and waters in oil's most dangerous form. All because China and the US are two big bully countries who want to make more money than Canada off the Canadian oil by doing the refining outside of Canada, making it dangerous to the land and waters of the US and Canada, not to mention the oceans over which it travels to China in tankers.
So, Teddy, THAT'S what you are supporting when you say you support pipelines. You'd be smarter if you believed in fairies and unicorns.
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