AtdDTA (4) 101 Non-NP Political Spam

robinlandseadel at comcast.net robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Thu Mar 8 11:06:49 CST 2007


The whole point of my post: 

AtDTDA (4) 101: Communications from far, far away

was to show the very beginnings of the enterprise we now know 
as Exxon/Mobile.This is not about reflexive Bush Bashing, but to 
show where critical elements in Against the Day (hell, the
whole Pynchon canon, if anyone cares to look, for Chrisakes) 
came from. I was showing some of  the history of the Bush family's 
involvement with Standard Oil of New Jersey, and what that 
kerosene oil company turned into and how much impact that 
corporation has on American History. Remember that Foley
told Scarsdale Vibe to get 500 shaares of the stock:

              At this meeting 1,100 shares of the stock of the company, 
              which was divided into 2,000 $100 shares, were 
              subscribed for, and twenty per cent. Of their value was 
              paid in. Just who took stock at this meeting the writer has 
              not been able to discover. 

http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/UPTO69.HTM

My sense of the location of that "Far, Far away" in Foley's head
is the future, that the Minie ball in his left temple (like some
superhero's battle-forged stigmata) gives Foley some sort
of PSI power, that Scarsdale uses that gift for increase to his
fortune: "Foley Walker's advice that day provided critical 
acceleration in the growth of the legendary Vibe fortune."
As Standard Oil of New Jersey has so much to do with the 
development of Corporate empire, and Pynchon's ovure has 
so very much to do with so much to do with the development of 
Corporate empire, let look at what happened to the kerosene
company:

               John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust is one of the most 
               famous industrial organizations ever. The Trust controlled 
               a lion's share of the production, transport, refining, and 
               marketing of petroleum products in the United States and 
               many other countries. Originally, this was an attempt to make 
               money on the home lighting market which was converting 
               from whale oil to kerosene. The emergence of the automobile 
               and its thirst for the formerly near worthless refining 
               by-product called gasoline brought dizzying wealth to this 
               industrial group. 

http://www.us-highways.com/sohist.htm

Now, the history of the railroads at the time of Against the Day
was tied in a very meaningful way with the rise of Standard Oil
and the Rockefellers:

               To give Standard Oil an edge over its competitors, Rockefeller 
               secretly arranged for discounted shipping rates from railroads. 
               The railroads carried crude oil to Standard's refineries in 
               Cleveland and kerosene to the big city markets. Many argued 
               that as "common carriers" railroads should not discriminate in 
               their shipping charges. But small businesses and farmers were 
               often forced to pay higher rates than big shippers like 
               Standard Oil.

               The oil industry in the late 1800s often experienced sudden 
               booms and busts, which led to wildly fluctuating prices and 
               price wars among the refiners. More than anything else, 
               Rockefeller wanted to control the unpredictable oil market 
               to make his profits more dependable.

               In 1871, Rockefeller helped form a secret alliance of railroads 
               and refiners. They planned to control freight rates and oil 
               prices by cooperating with one another. The deal collapsed 
               when the railroads backed out. But before this happened, 
               Rockefeller used the threat of this deal to intimidate more 
               than 20 Cleveland refiners to sell out to Standard Oil at 
               bargain prices. When the so-called "Cleveland Massacre" 
               ended in March 1872, Standard controlled 25 percent of 
               the U.S. oil industry.

http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria16_2.html

There's plenty more railroad history tied up with Standard Oil,
just ask Jay Gould:


              He controlled over 10,000 miles of railway track in the 
              U.S., including the Erie, Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, 
              Colorado Central, St. Louis Southwestern, Texas & 
              Pacific, Denver Pacific and Central Pacific, and this list 
              is far from complete. Grodinsky states that Gould’s life 
              was a progression. ‘He began as a speculator, a 
              stockmarket manipulator. At the end, he was building 
              railroads, not with a printing-press but with steel, and 
              seeing himself, as perhaps essentially he was, not as 
              a pirate, not as a conniving president selling his own 
              stock short, not as a man who was running a railroad 
              into the ground in defiance of the bondholders, but as 
              a builder of railroads’.

http://www.booneshares.com/JayGould.htm

It's fairly easy to establish the importance of Standard Oil
in "Against the Day",  just as easy to see just how many of the 
ideas and plot developments in the novel are tied to the 
development of Corporations in general and Standard Oil
(Later Exxon/Mobil) in particular. and the Standard Oil/Bush
family fortunes not only are connected, but render materially 
manifest the horrors of WW II as elucidated in "Gravity's Rainbow", 
with the connection of IG Farben to the fortunes of both the 
Rockefeller and Bush fortunes.

Fast forward to:

               Unger begins in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when 
               George H.W. Bush was an oil man in Texas whose 
               early success included drilling the first offshore well 
               for Kuwait.

               Bush left the oil business in 1966 to get into politics 
               and eventually became director of the CIA under 
               President Ford, just as Saudi businessmen close to 
               the royal family -- including the head of Saudi Arabia's 
               most corrupt bank -- began investing in Texas banks 
               and real estate.

               But this is just the beginning of the relationship. During 
               the 1980s, as petrodollars flowed into Saudi Arabia, the 
               Middle Eastern country became a convenient 
               money-launderer for weapons' purchases as the Reagan 
               administration covertly supported right-wing guerrilla 
               operations.

               The United States sent money to the Contras in Nicaragua 
               through Saudi Arabia. During the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. 
               supported Saddam Hussein, whom the CIA had first hired 
               as a 22-year-old assassin in 1959, with weapons passed 
               through Saudi Arabia.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04088/292170.stm


Where is the support coming from to kill American troops in the Middle East?

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/48134/

Where is the concerted efforts to deny the impact of Global Warming
Coming from?

               Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the Justice Department's top environmental 
               attorney and a former political appointee at the Interior 
               Department, recently resigned after disclosing her long-term 
               relationship with J. Steven Griles—the Interior Department's former 
               deputy secretary whose ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff 
               are the subject of a criminal investigation. Wooldridge played a 
               lead role in responding to earlier ethics investigations of 
              Griles, at times even helping deflect allegations against him.

               Griles was a top lobbyist for the mining, oil and gas industries 
               before joining the Interior Department. While at Interior he was 
               the subject of a high-profile ethics investigation into his 
               continued contacts with his clients, despite having signed a 
               recusal agreement when he took office. Environmental groups 
               repeatedly pointed out that Griles was also receiving 
               $284,000 per year from his former lobbying firm during each of 
               the four years he was on the government payroll.


http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/


               Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush
               White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance 
               John Vidal, environment editor
               Wednesday June 8, 2005, The Guardian

               Exxon, officially the US's most valuable company valued at 
               $379bn (£206bn) earlier this year, is seen in the papers to 
               share the White House's unwavering scepticism of 
               international efforts to address climate change.

               The documents, which reflect unanimity between the 
               company and the US administration on the need for more 
               global warming science and the unacceptable costs of 
               Kyoto, state that Exxon believes that joining Kyoto "would 
               be unjustifiably drastic and premature".

               This line has been taken consistently by President Bush, 
               and was expected to be continued in yesterday's talks 
               with Tony Blair who has said that climate change is "the 
               most pressing issue facing mankind".

               "President Bush tells Mr Blair he's concerned about climate 
               change, but these documents reveal the alarming truth, that 
               policy in this White House is being written by the world's most 
               powerful oil company. This administration's climate policy is 
               a menace to humanity," said Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace's 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1501646,00.html

Which brings us back to "DOH!!!!"
What happed to Libby is tied to the fortunes of the Bush family, is tied
to Mobil/Exxon, is tied to Watergate, is tied up with Saudi Arabia,
is tied up with CIA skullduggery in the Middle East and Latin America , 
and it all comes down to a kerosene oil company's doings in the late
1800's. "Everything connects". And showing those connections
is one of the major threads in Against the Day.

If you can't talk politics on the P-list, there's no point in 
talking at all.



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