August 3, 2016

Thom Hartman interviews Mark Manning, the force behind the BP documentary, The Rising.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/sick-dying-victims-bp-speak-out
Mark Manning, The Rising/The Road to Fallujah/Conception Media joins Thom. The BP oil spill was the worst industrial disaster in American history. But could the cleanup have been just as bad? A new documentary says yes - and we'll speak with the director.

Many people here know that my firm represents several thousand victims of the BP oil spill. This documentary focuses on the health effects of the Corexit/oil on Gulf Coast residents. I would add to this clip that BP used the Corexit because it actually doesn't disperse the oil, it condenses it into hard tarballs and tar mats that sink the oil to the bottom, out of sight. BP sunk the oil to avoid fines based on per barrel of oil. By doing this they can still play hide the oil and lie about how much was released. It also helps on a PR standpoint because they say it all evaporated.

The other big story not being told is what is happening in the civil litigation for the economic harm caused by the spill. I cannot speak about most of it if that tells you anything. I can and will say that this litigation has been corrupted by a huge $700,000,000 conflict of interest that should have never been allowed. Suffice it to say that a really good investigative reporter could bring in the story of the decade that no one else is reporting on!

I will add my thanks to Thom and Mark Manning for putting some light on a story not being told by any other media. BP spent a great deal of advertising money to buy off the local Gulf Coast media so they would not report stories about what was really happening down here. They also bought off the national media the same way, gotta love that "Free Market!" Ed Schultz did a story a week a couple of months before he was cut loose by MSNBC, but that is mostly it on reporting. Most people around the country believe there was a $20 billion dollar fund for the victims and they were paid years ago. That would be another yet another lie, there was never $20 billion in an account to pay the victims.

Just like in criminal trials where a wealthy and powerful defendant can get off even when guilty, they can now do it in civil cases too!

March 16, 2016

67 dogs and cats dead at our local Humane Society, need some DU help!

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/beaumont-texas-animal-shelter-fire-kills-67-dogs

I posted about our client's $100,000.00 donation which was negotiated as part of her settlement with DuPont for the death of her mother, a huge animal lover/rescuer at the end of February.

Here is their website as well.
http://www.humanesocietyofsoutheasttexas.org/

As you can see at the link above, a fire happened last night caused by a faulty dryer. Almost all of the shelter's animals were killed. Their immediate need for space, kennels, etc., is dire and their Board is meeting tonight to come up with a plan. They tell me money is what they need most as locals are dropping off food and supplies and they are running out of storage. With all of the flooding recently in this area they expect a lot more animals coming soon. I-10 is closed nearby due to the flooding as we received 15-20 inches of rain less than a week ago with more on the way the next couple of days

The new facility already has land donated, but not all of the money raised. Ground has not yet been broken on the new facility. What is coming in now is for immediate needs. They are truly at a loss right now and in shock. I just left there and the picture of all of the crying volunteers who knew these animals by name will be hard to get out of my head.

Any help you can give would be much appreciated!

February 28, 2016

Good news unrelated to the election! Animal lovers celebrate!

On Friday our firm was able to hand one of those giant checks to our local Humane society for $100,000!!!

March 23 2005, when BP blew up their plant killing 15 people and injuring 6,000, we represented a young lady who lost her mother and father in the blast. Neither she nor my boss wanted to settle, she believed that BP murdered her parents. BP was very desperate to settle rather than have it come out that they budgeted for their worker's lives and intentionally made decisions based on profit at the cost of what they thought might be only "1 or 2 workers." The case did settle and the documents could not be confidential. In addition to a very large sum of money for her, we made BP donate $30,000,000 to charities of her choice and a matching amount up to 6 million. We raised 6 million they had to match.

DuPont killed 4 people about a year and a half ago due to the same type of cost and safety cutting BP was guilty of. Our client, another daughter who lost her mother felt the same way about DuPont. Her mother spent most of her income rescuing strays and paying vet bills. As part of the settlement, DuPont agreed to a minute of silence every year for 10 years at all of their facilities to remind everyone of the mistakes of the past and remembrance of the victims. They also agreed to donate the hundred grand to the Humane societies of her choice. Our local Humane Society has some donated land and another million dollar donation from a local attorney and are building a new facility. While the building will be named after the attorney, the adjacent 100 acre public dog park will be named after our client's mother! The Humane Society even gave my disabled brother a dog (he recently lost his dog to old age) for my lobbying our client to donate here instead of where she lives (her mom was local and worked with the HS here)!

Now back to our regularly scheduled Primary debates!

February 23, 2016

Regardless of the outcome of this election, we must continue the fight post election!

We have discovered that our Representative Democracy has been stolen by big Donors who now control government through the politicians that they bought. The monied interests have played the long game on us because they never stop whittling away at our rights. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce started spending big money in state and local elections to win from the bottom up. Those elections were cheap to buy and eventually resulted in control of many of the state's by Republicans.

We on the other hand have been going to sleep and wake up only for Presidential elections, and even then seem half asleep as to what was going on behind the scenes. This has to stop! We have to remain committed to continuing the fight, forcing coverage of events by the networks and staying very active on social media. We need to keep pointing out the politicians who sell us out in exchange for more money. We need to support media outlets who do fairly cover the situation and let them know they can count on us to keep them afloat since they will not get the big ad dollars that corrupt the system and cause the media to go right

We need a long game too if we ever want to end the corporate control!

February 10, 2016

If Hillary wins the Primary on the strength of her bought of Super Delegates alone, what will you do

February 10, 2016

Morning Joe just had a really bad segment, even for them!

My elderly mom watches this every morning and I usually catch 10 minutes or so. Today they had a segment where they talked about Bernie and said socialist about 50 times, never once led by the word, "Democratic." They talked about how how the taxes will go crazy and the other usual stuff. No real mention of income inequality or anything that Bernie stands for. Some guy from Romney's campaign was on there, but he didn't get to say much. What little he did say was the usual RW BS.

February 9, 2016

Publicly Funded Elections, Bernie's solution to the root problem of campaign bribes.

In the MSNBC debate the other night, Bernie was asked if he would tackle first if elected. Immigration was suggested as a possibility by the moderator to trap him into either committing to that issue first, or pissing off the Latino vote by suggesting another issue first. Bernie avoided this trap by explaining that immigration and a whole host of other important issues would not go anywhere unless we first deal with the corruption in Washington caused by campaign contributions (bribes).

For his plan to work he has said all along that the people will have to pressure Washington into doing what we need and eliminating campaign contributions and Super PAC's. What he is fighting for is a return of Representative Democracy. Currently, we have politicians who only represent Donors, not "We the People." Hillary is the perfect example of what Bernie is talking about. This is what makes this the most important Presidential election for many decades. It will determine if we can throw off the yoke of the shadow government that controls our politics and regain control over our Democracy, or be subjected to more corporate control over our lives and our future. The stakes couldn't be higher!

Despite Hillary's denial that the huge personal fortune she and Bill amassed by speaking to these power brokers, and all of the campaign and Super Pac contributions would have an effect on her policy positions, it does have an effect, on both her, and all of the Republican and Democratic politicians who are lining up to endorse her and receive money from her massive list of wealthy donors.

We have been ranking candidates by how much in bribes they can amass each quarter, that's how ingrained this crap is! This has to end and Bernie is our best chance at doing it! I no longer choose to live under corporate rule!

Feel the Bern!!!!!!!