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So, in addition to giving Tony "I want my life back" Hayward his life back, the BP Board of Directors this week reported a $17,000,000,000 loss for the quarter and announced that they would set aside $32,000,000,000 to pay claims in their Gulf of Mexico fiasco.
Also this week: oil-spill claims czar Kenneth "9/11" Feinberg said he’d be real excited to start paying claims, of which he’s received a few I guess. But he doesn’t want the checks to bounce. Which they will, since there’s no BP money in the escrow account for claims. No money at all to pay claims.
Not much you can do to further insult a Gulf Coast resident or business owner at this point, BP — except possibly hold up their "legitimate claims" by not funding the fucking escrow account. Nothing like a rubber check stamped NSF to make folks feel like their "legitimate claims" actually, you know, aren’t.
I guess we know what Tony Hayward meant by "this is America" in reference to illegitimate claims:
Asked for examples of illegitimate claims, he said: “I could give you lots of examples. This is America — come on. We’re going to have lots of illegitimate claims.”
So far, all of them.
What does "set aside" mean, BP Board of Directors? It had better mean that Kenneth Feinberg can write checks by week’s end. You never know what angry people might do.
Your new man Bob Dudley will be starting from way behind when Tony finally clears out on October 1st, carrying with him his years’ salary "in lieu of notice."
I mean, how much more notice does that douchebag need beyond two months? When is the last time anyone got two months’ notice to leave a job? Old GHWBush only got ten weeks, and he was the leader of the free world. Just because it was in Tony’s contract? Was destroying the Gulf of Mexico in his contract, too?
Fund the account, BP, or suffer the consequences. People are still hurting and it’s still your fault. Or again. The least you could do is turn your "set aside" into cash.
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I could see where one well-placed telephone call from the President of the United States of America might unsnarl this right quick.
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You are a machine, thank you Suzanne!
(TWO DAYS until movers arrive; FOUR DAYS until we do!)
Welcome to the PNW, Portland Metro version, Teddy!
I assume since you mentioned David Woo in another thread you are locating west of the West Hills in the Tualitin Valley or such (Woo goes all the way to the coast). I live in SE Portland myself (Blumenauer).
Here’s a blog in which you might be interested:
http://bojack.org/
Jack Bodanski teaches at Lewis&Clark College, well respected, especially in Law.
I’m there at times but with a different handle.
Good luck and again, welcome!
Why, thank you!
I’m in SW, Goose Hollow the neighborhood is called, right on the edge about three blocks from Powells.
Do you have FDL/PDX meetups yet? We’ve had some very successful ones here in the Bay Area thanks to Suzanne’s and Nahant’s gracious hosting. I’d like to know about your next one, or organize one I suppose….
Hello, Mr. President, this is The Gulf of Mexico calling…
Rec’d, Teddy.
Hi, Gulf of Mexico. This is the United States Coast Guard and NOAA, speaking on behalf of Preznint Barack Obama:
You can go shit in your hat.
(Where’s the Corexit? More Corexit!)
Yes, Mr. President. Perhaps the thing to do is get involved, and not be scared by Glen Beck or Rand Paul.
Bmaz points out in an email that the first five billion dollars doesn’t need to be deposited until the end of 2010. That was the deal Obama made. So folks can just wait, I guess.
Commenter pansypoo at Dependable Renegade also points out about Tony:
FDL standards against the advocacy of violence prohibit my bringing pansy’s entire comment over here, but there’s a great idea there if you’d like to click through….
(the ModSquad says thank you)
No, thank you!
I’m really excited about my move, Teddy. A lot less house means a lot more money!
We are getting a much bigger and nicer apartment for about 2/3rds of what we pay here for a dump in a bad neighborhood with bars on the windows. Just found out the management company finished painting, putting in new floors and carpets in our new place — !!
It’s not our dream home, but the differential we save over a coupla years may make it possible to actually buy something, an impossibility here without winning the lottery.
Good for you and Patrick. I’m just thinking about the enormous house payment I’ll be saving each month, and planning travel! I’ll be living a lot more modestly, but hey! I take my pretties with me.
Wherever you are, dear, it’s pretty.
Good luck on your move and your travels.
Bmaz points out in an email that the first five billion dollars doesn’t need to be deposited until the end of 2010. That was the deal Obama made. So folks can just wait, I guess.
I find that hard to believe. That’s not much of an escrow account if the first 25% of it isn’t due for 6 months.
If that was all BP offered, the government could have simply use its existing FEMA disaster relief aid system to compensate lossholders and then billed it back to BP. Then again, we did see how strong the White House was in their negotiations with healthcare lobbyists… so yeah, I guess it is plausible.
I guess if it’s not true, the obvious retort is, “Show Me The Money!”
I mean, how can they possibly drag their feet unless they are allowed to? The President needs to explain this delay. People are hurting, did I mention that?
BP officials and President Barack Obama agreed last month that the oil company would put $5 billion a year over the next four years into an account to pay for spill-related costs, such as claims, environmental restoration and cleanup costs.
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/feinberg_bp_hasnt_put_money_in.html
Wow, I guess they are just putting 25% up in per year. That’s some pretty weak tea, FEMA should be handling claims processing and check writing. So if $20 billion in claims come in this year, the last $5 billion in claims will have to wait 4 years for payment (and “spill-related” is pretty damn broad, so the Coast Guard can get expenses reimbursed out of this too?). Does this mean a BP bankruptcy filing would freeze the process? I thought that was the point of the escrow account, to take $20 billion out before a possible bankruptcy filing but apparently not.
Heh. I wouldn’t give any money to Feinberg either. He’s a shithead.
You do know people are suffering, right?
THIS COUNTRY INFESTED WITH CORPTONAZIS
look at this outrage
Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit
By David Evans – Jul 28, 2010 7:00 AM PDT Wed Jul 28 14:00:00 UTC 2010
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Business ExchangeTwitterDeliciousDiggFacebookLinkedInNewsvinePropellerYahoo! BuzzPrint Cindy Lohman holds a photo of her late son, Ryan, on the grounds of Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland, on July 9, 2010. Photographer: Bill Cramer/Bloomberg Markets via Bloomberg
Attachment: Sample Alliance Account Kit The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, Maryland, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-inch-by- 12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial Inc., which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else, which looked like a checkbook. The letter told Lohman that the full amount of her payout would be placed in a convenient interest-bearing account, allowing her time to decide how to use the benefit.
“You can hold the money in the account for safekeeping for as long as you like,” the letter said. In tiny print, in a disclaimer that Lohman says she didn’t notice, Prudential disclosed that what it called its Alliance Account was not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue.
Lohman, 52, left the money untouched for six months after her son’s August 2008 death.
“It’s like you’re paying me off because my child was killed,” she says. “It was a consolation prize that I didn’t want.”
As time went on, she says, she tried to use one of the “checks” to buy a bed, and the salesman rejected it. That happened again this year, she says, when she went to a Target store to purchase a camera on Armed Forces Day, May 15.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/fallen-soldiers-families-denied-cash-payout-as-life-insurers-boost-profit.html
Moral of the story: never have anything to do with the U.S. armed forces. Every parent (or foster parent) should engrain that into each child in their care from birth until they are old enough to leave home.
Can’t conduct a war if no one shows up.
Check thisout…yes, that’s the SAME AIG that got the bailout.
AIG, CNA, ACE Denials Add to Overburdened VA System « Overseas …May 5, 2010 … Thousands of Injured Contractors are being treated by the VA because AIG, CNA , ACE, refuse to accept their responsibility to provide …
civiliancontractors.wordpress.com/…/aig-cna-ace-denials-add-to-overburdened-va-system/ – Cached
What o get his hands dirty, oh please. He might make the call but they will work out something like another tax break, we wouldn’t want the to big to fail, fail would we?
When BP says “set aside,” what they mean is: “You people who have been damaged financially, medically, and otherwise due to this catastrophe, just “set aside.” We’ll get to you if and when we feel like it…”
Rough translation.
Excellent.
To keep the local politeness police at bay, let me say that the only way these motherfuckers are ever going to start “doing the right thing” is when they see a few figurative heads on figurative pikes.
It worked for the French!
Hey, Teddy. Is Set Aside the new Check’s In The Mail? There are a couple other phrases I never believe either.
Well, except that Ken Feinberg says the checks AREN’T in the mail, since he won’t write them if they’ll bounce. And there’s no money in the account yet, so no checks.
I guess it’s the precursor to “the check’s in the mail.” The monetary equivalent of “just the tip” perhaps?
Ack! You know the other phrase I was thinking about. You bad boy. *g*
TBogg has a fresh cross-post available: Quivering with antici…..pation
clear as drilling mud, aint it ?
link
America, tragically, has an entire pool of wronged people to call upon for advice on how NOT to set up this relief fund to process claims. Why aren’t Valdez people being given a voice in this process? They know how badly this can go off track if not done correctly from the start.
I guess I answered my own question.
My friend Greg is writing about comparisons between Valdez and the Current BP Disaster. He’s recently been in Alaska still doing his detective thing.
Here’s a more recent one.
Wow, so glad he’s involved in this.
Wish I could help him out right now, but thanks for posting the link.
It’s very important work, I’d hate to see him shut down for lack of fundage.
Teddy…
as both you and Demi and so many of us know and deplore…if someone is doing the righteous and honorable thing…they are often mocked, demonized, labeled as ‘different and dangerous’, or simply delegitimized and defunded! Either overtly or covertly! OR
They are brazenly like BP and the other members of the MOTU who do things as your post so validly points out, and then they rub the dung in our faces!
Greg’s a survivor. BTW, on a personal note, I’ll be seeing him at our 40 year reunion in October and will do a diary before that so I can get a list of questions that FDL inquiring minds want to know can get responses. ‘Course that will prolly mean a breakfast meeting heh, heh. Don’t want to spoil our cocktails/dinner/dancing on “biz.”
Is there any other means of helping Mr. Palast besides $$$…some of us are cash strapped but would still like to support those who fight the good fight!
What a wonderful idea, please let me know when that happens!
We are simply witnessing the implosion of “the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion” (“Within You, Without You” – The Beatles). They can literally save their sanity by using the same corrective measures Jeffrey Wigand used.
Don’t know if this has been mentioned here…in a hurry.
BP To Seek $10 Billion Tax Credit
McClatchy reports, “Oil giant BP PLC will reduce its contribution to US coffers by roughly $10 billion due to a tax credit the company is claiming it incurred from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.”
WaPo reports that “the credit could mean…that taxpayers will indirectly foot the bill for the $20 billion fund that BP launched to compensate people and businesses harmed by the disaster.”
SSDD.
Folks down there are taking their pets to the SPCA because they can’t feed them-they can barely feed themselves. The shelters can only keep them a few weeks before they will have to euthanize them. It is outrageous that people have to do that when they are already suffering and that BP cares nothing about them and takes no responsibility for the continuing death and destruction they cause. Give them some damn money! It’s the least BP could do and the least our government could require them to do. If the gov won’t make them, then the gov needs to provide the funds. If they won’t, this really is Obama’s Katrina.
Does anyone know if Feinberg has any previous or current ties to Goldman Sachs?
WHOA! Check out these primo pieces re: Feinberg and Goldman Sachs.BTW,the American International Group mentioned in the first link is aka AIG.
Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg: Yes, I Am Completely Irrelevant Feb 8, 2010 … Obama’s pay czar Kenneth Feinberg confirmed what everyone has long … The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a global investment banking and …
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-pay-czar-kenneth-feinberg-yes-i-am-completely-irrelevant-2010-2 – Cached – Similar
Ken Feinberg’s Lame Report on Wall Street Pay Shows We’re Back to …Jul 26, 2010 … New Documents Show Goldman Sachs Would’ve Lost Billions in AIG Collapse · Ken Feinberg’s Lame Report on Wall Street Pay Shows We’re Back to …
industry.bnet.com/…/ken-feinbergs-report-on-wall-street-bonuses-shows-were-back-to-square-one/ – Cached
Goldman reveals where bailout cash went – 4 days ago
Goldman Sachs also revealed to the Senate Finance Committee that it would have received $2.3 billion if AIG had gone under. …
USA Today – 272 related articles »
Goldman reveals where bailout cash went – USATODAY.comJul 24, 2010 … Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to …http://www.usatoday.com/…/2010-07-24-goldman-bailout-cash_N.htm – Cached
What a SNAFU. BP gets to write of the loss (?) and we get to pay for the cleanup with the $10,000,000,000 tax credit we will give those assholes. What a fucked up country. Get a rope.
And the capitalists will SELL you the rope to do it with.
Here’s an interesting (believable?) story in NYT about the “spill”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/us/28spill.html
I would be curious as to just WHAT banking institution that set aside money is going to be set aside in.Is it accruing interest,until disbursement?
Like:
We put safety first
Catastrophic failures can’t happen, but if they do –
We have a plan for that
We’ll pay what we have to to make gulf residents whole
Yes, exactly. Tony Hayward knows from illegitimate claims — after all, this is America, right? The entire fucking country is essentially based on what another Brit who ruled England at the time might have called ‘illegitimate claims.’
He’s the worst kind of douchebag: entitled, insulated, wealthy beyond measure, and without scruple or care. A sociopath, which is probably a keen descriptor of the entire CEO class of earthlings.