Dylan Ratigan has completely jumped the shark.

[stranger81]

I truly empathize with those in the Gulf Coast region whose livelihoods will be affected by the deep water drilling moratorium and by restricting fishing areas. But the answer to that is not to continue allowing the kind of drilling that we now know can poison an entire body of water, or to allow fisherman to catch and sell toxic seafood.

How much of our country are we willing to obliterate in the blinkered and relentless pursuit of profit?

[spanone]

1. i truly cannot watch him. drill dylan drill

[Subdivisions]

5. So, you're ready to give up oil? n/t

[spanone]

6. yep, you?

[Subdivisions]

7. I'm more than ready. In fact, I want to be done with it today. But, I'll give it

another 10 years or so.

[sufrommich]

2. It would help if you told us what Dylan Ratigan said. nt

[stranger81]

3. He spent a segment defending his comment yesterday to Mary Landrieu

that we can't afford to impose a drilling moratorium in the gulf or to otherwise restrict commercial activity there because too many people in the region depend on the local oil and fishing industries for their livelihoods.

It seems to me that exactly the opposite is true -- we can't afford NOT to restrict those activities in this situation.

[Subdivisions]

4. So, are you ready for a post-petroleum collapse of civilization? So far you're all

a-bluster about not drilling yet you offer nothing in the way of solutions. You see, that's the problem with petroleum energy these days: no one talks seriously about doing something about it because no one has any solutions to the problem.

[stranger81]

8. I hardly think closing 33 deep water oil exploration rigs -- and that's all that the moratorium does

would cause the "post-petroleum collapse of civilization." I'd save the hyperbole for descriptions of the oil leak itself, which truly is apocalyptic.

[Subdivisions]

9. Oh, so you're problem is with Ratigan is that he's calling for lifting the

moratorium so people can go back to work, not with drilling offshore in general, right?

[stranger81]

14. Exactly. [n/t]

[Ramulux]

11. Seriously?

What are you talking about, you seem to be making the case that we are actually able to produce any significant amount of oil within the US, when that is not true at all. America is not a country that can produce enough oil for it to effect how much we buy from foreign sources in any way.

If America stopped all oil production it would barely effect us. That small amount of oil that is being drilled for isn't even ours anyways, it belongs to the global oil marketplace from which we have to buy it back at the same price we would buy oil from any other country. There is no such thing as American oil, its all just oil.

As for the jobs, I feel bad for all the people who would lose their jobs in the same way I feel bad for people who lose their jobs working on fighter planes. There are some jobs that are not good for this country and we shouldn't feel bad about them being lost. The people who work in the oil industry fully understand what a horrible industry it is and they made the decision to take that job. We dont feel bad about all the people who lose jobs when a local criminal organization is broken up because that criminal organization has a negative effect on this country in the same way oil companies do.

[TheKentuckian]

17. 2% of the reserves, 25% of the demand, and just for fun almost all known reserves are in highly

sensitive areas ecologically.

I don't see the case. Lots of risk little plausible reward. Leave it in the ground and the worst thing that can happen is you can extract it later when it's value is greater and the supply scarce with better technology at greater need.

Drill here, drill now is an illogical scam. Drill here, drill now is flat out looking reality in the eye and spitting in it.

[Swamp Rat]

10. Considering it's daytime cable infotainment, Dylan Ratigan is doing a good job

I agree with you, however, let's not compare a Snickers Bar (any teleprompter reader/cable news) to blackened redfish (Seymour Hersh/New Yorker).

[Mimosa]

12. Got a plan to support the families who will lose their incomes?

Let's see people have started killing themselves over the loss of the Gulf.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/06/gulf-oil-spill-boat-captain-despondent-over-spill-commits-suicide.html

It's ruined, possibly for good. That's a fact Jack. Fishing jobs are GONE.

The government can inspect each well with a fine tooth comb and shut down those which are risky as MMS should have done with the Deepwater horizon well.


But until there is one person here who can tell me what the government would do to make sure families don't lose the income of jobs because of the moratorium, I support the working people having jobs and income. It's all they have.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Look them over with a fine tooth comb looking for what?

We don't know why this deal happened at all yet. You are arguing to make sure all is in good working order that you can see and hope for the best and that's not sane behavior in light of the level of risk.

In all likelihood they'll be going again after the review when the overall risk will be ignored and the focus is put on the specifics of this case and life will go on until next time.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. No one has the right to bet the world to keep their job, that's bullshit for sure.

[Angry Dragon]

13. I am thinking that the corporations are willing

to destroy 100% of this country and then they will just more their families to another country and start over destroying that one.
The people that are left will pay the price because they can not afford to leave.

[TheKentuckian]

15. Agreed. I'm a Rattigan fan but that is pure kRaZy talk

Letting the lame plane crash comparison stand up was pretty much puke worthy.

I think that it is insane and I mean literally insane to continue to do anything this dangerous until you at least know what happened and why.

A plane goes down and it is a tragedy, true enough but every plane in the sky could crash with nowhere near this overall damage to our habitat and to innocent innocent generations of wildlife that never bought a ticket, knowing they are machines operated by humans.

This is just flat bogus logic.

The answer to jobs is to extract the money from BP, Halliburton, and Transocean who screwed the pooch to supplement and replace incomes and rehab the environment.

Those three might have enough money to do all that money can do relative to the situation.

In any event, there is about nothing you can put on the scales that is worth risking an incident like this but if you're crazy enough to consider it then we need to know the odds and 1 in 10,000-19,000 is maybe thrill seeking to the point of being suicidal.
I think that whatever numbers they put on the equipment is either bogus or meaningless. Both how many blowouts there have been globally and how many wells have been drilled are knowable things or at least things that can be well estimated. That starts to give a real world idea before you account for any compounding risks or acts of negligence.

There are the numbers of reality here that have to be considered even in the face of the commerce.

I'll try to boil it down like this for Dylan and anybody of a like mind.

Are you telling me that you would place new bets on a gamble with this kind of downside without even knowing your odds? Really??? I don't believe it for a second unless you believe you are too big to fail and it's not really your downside.

Does anybody think another situation like this off Virginia or in the Arctic or even another hole in the Gulf when we can't contend with the one we have?

Until we know what happened here how do we know the very next exploratory poke won't have similar results? Or one next week, next year, or five years from now we can hope and pray some recovery begins?

Now is not the time for the desperation of a down on their luck gambler going for double or nothing with a merciless bookie looking for someone to make an example of.

Humans are fucking nuts! Holy shit what is wrong with some people?!?

Most times nothing could be more practical and pragmatic than quitting when you're down big but still maybe can scrape up enough money to pay off Big Sal so he looses the inclination to cut off your balls.

[Bluebear]

16. How is this Obama's fault?

:cry:

[stranger81]

19. I have no idea. I don't think it is in the slightest.

Do you?

[Bluebear]

20. No