tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post1559145850602208523..comments2023-10-30T09:23:42.803-05:00Comments on Some Assembly Required: SAR #16023Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-60724084234999960602016-01-23T17:52:22.815-06:002016-01-23T17:52:22.815-06:00re kwark. As much as I'd like to see corpora...re kwark. As much as I'd like to see corporations and their executives actually get held accountable for their crimes, I suspect this suit is an exercise in extorting a little windfall for the state treasury, under the pretense of justice, not unlike the tobacco settlement.<br /><br />The amount won't add up to much in terms of the company's revenues, no one will go to jail, and Exxon will march on lying and poisoning the earth. The fine will be tax deductible, reduced on appeal, and partially offset with some bullcrap in-kind provision.<br /><br />The attorneys will make money, and the AG will get to claim a scalp, and the state will get at least a small bump in revenues, which it can use to subsidize Exxon some more.<br />McMikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-46743729064905950242016-01-23T15:50:55.471-06:002016-01-23T15:50:55.471-06:00Re "Desperation": Desperation indeed. W...Re "Desperation": Desperation indeed. What brainiac on her strategy team thinks "not believe in capitalism" is a potent argument AGAINST Sanders? Did she hire some Republican consultant? Oh wait, she is pretty much a Nelson Rockefeller Republican so yes, she probably did.<br /><br />Re "Theory of the Crime": For 25 years Exxon Mobil successfully dithered and appealed jury decisions over their oil spill in Alaska - eventually paying 500 million-ish in punitive damages (in 2008 dollars). The deity only knows how much extracting even that much cost the public in court costs for what was clearly an open-and-shut case. So, as odious a corporate villain as Exxon Mobil is it seems unlikely that California's AG could hope to prevail (in this century) on so nebulous an assertion as lying to shareholders over the impacts of climate change. Honestly, I wish the AG would focus on something more likely to result in a positive outcome, like investigating and jailing members of Bundy-esque ten-gallon hat terrorist groups that are active in California too.kwarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-23032615148308561462016-01-23T14:21:08.209-06:002016-01-23T14:21:08.209-06:00The picture is from Tuscany, Radda in Chianti. O...The picture is from Tuscany, Radda in Chianti. Or possibly Casatellina. Or perhaps San Gimignano... Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-7797914139371033052016-01-23T11:16:01.789-06:002016-01-23T11:16:01.789-06:00But where is the picture? It jogs the memory.But where is the picture? It jogs the memory.Demetriushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-60352638076028931522016-01-23T09:27:12.368-06:002016-01-23T09:27:12.368-06:00Re desperation. Flashback to the treatment by the...Re desperation. Flashback to the treatment by the establishment Dems of Ralph Nader. I recall attacks on him as grumpy, and that he was worth, gasp, ONE MEELION DOLLARS.<br /><br />Re Flint. And thus we witness privatization advocates using every failure of privatization as an excuse to double down on privatization.<br /><br />Re cash is king. I think this is also evidence of the notion that business is no longer about business, but instead about finance. The companies no longer need to invest much in making widgets. If they were banks, that cash would be in derivative schemes. Non-bank companies are kind of stuck between the two worlds at the moment. It's also a tax dodge, and the money is stuck.<br /><br />Re life. So science has got it figured out after all. Awesome. ;-)<br /><br />Actually, watch out, because this line of reasoning may one day accidentally validate ESP, pre-cognition, psychokinesis, and all sorts of whacked-out stuff. Once you acknowledge that life refuses to sit still and be counted - and that us creatures are no more solid and permanent than a river that you can't cross twice - all kinds of weird possibilities arise.McMikenoreply@blogger.com