• Alec Baldwin: "Put the oil companies out of business!"
    127 replies, posted
[quote=NewsRealBlog]In his latest Huffington Post blog, Baldwin suggests that the administration forget health care and focus on energy. [quote=Alec Baldwin] “The goal of this country’s energy policy, long-term, should be to trigger a series of events that would lead to one clear measurement of our progress. That is the collapse of a major oil company. If a major oil company went out of business, we would be on the right track.”[/quote] Still clinging to the tired “war over oil” line Baldwin continues: [quote=Alec Baldwin] “Energy policy is the lynch pin of nearly all of our other economic problems. And our dependence on oil is the tragic path that we are still on, two wars in the Middle East in twenty years later, in order to deliver oil. Oil that costs so much more than what you read at the pump. You factor in both of those wars, the deaths of our brave soldiers, and the looming bill that our society will have to pay for our lack of maturity, foresight and courage on this front, the costs are incalculable.”[/quote] While it’s tempting to stop and snicker at the thought of a Baldwin lecturing about foresight and lack of maturity, I’ll resist and move on to the bottom line of the post. Baldwin declares: [quote=Alec Baldwin] “Putting a major oil company out of business. That’s a war worth fighting.”[/quote] Baldwin writes that his father told him when he was a little boy, that the oil companies won’t come up with a new alternative form of energy until the last drop of oil is gone. So, the new plan is to stop focusing on taking over health care, and use the government’s fist to smash at least one major oil company. That will put us on the right track, solve our war issues, environmental problems and save the economy. Then, I suppose, if we are to believe his father’s storyline, this will all come about because the oil companies will then, and only then, pull out a brand new energy supply (they obviously have been hiding all along) and the world will be green. And we will all live happily ever after. It looks like Baldwin can’t tell the difference between real life and one of his movies.[/quote] Because destroying a source of energy to millions of people is THE BEST IDEA EVER. Jerk. [url=http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/13/alec-baldwin%E2%80%99s-economic-advice-forget-healthcare-and-destroy-a-major-oil-company/]SOURCE[/url]
Yeah because it's totally like he just wants to destroy oil companies for the sake of it and not even bother introducing new power sources or anything like that right
[QUOTE=dudder;19630050]Yeah because it's totally like he just wants to destroy oil companies for the sake of it and not even bother introducing new power sources or anything like that right[/QUOTE] But he isn't even talking about introducing new sources of energy before killing oil companies. It's like burning some of your full-grown crops while waiting for some of the growing ones to grow.
Harf harf what a great idea
Good. But it will hard to stop making products out of oil, like plastic.
Meh. Fusion, if at all feasible, in 30 years.
It's cool because Alec Baldwin has millions of dollars and can afford to ride out the economic turmoil that would arise with such a stupid suggestion. Whereas normal people would experience a drastic drop in quality of life. And to think this idiot wants to get into politics.
'scuse me no thanks I'd like to keep my Exxon stock thanks oil companies are fine, it's the oil producers that are fucking everything up most oil companies are actually energy conglomerates that are seriously pushing alternative forms of energy so for someone to say let's put them out of business is absolutely retarded
"I'm an actor! My opinions are more valid than yours!" I wish celebrities who clearly know nothing would shut up. Between this guy, Jim Carey telling everyone that MMR is dangerous despite not understanding the very basic problem of sampling bias and the need for epidemiology, and Bono and Bob Geldof's "Poor people in Africa guilt" circle jerk, I rage.
[QUOTE=Splurgy;19630719]"I'm an actor! I have a voice that everyday people are more likely to listen to"[/QUOTE] Fixed :eng101:
For once I actually agree with something that arrogant douche says. Congress has spent so much time dicking around with healthcare that they'll never get any serious energy legislation passed by the midterm elections, where I expect the Democrats will lose their supermajority in the Senate and bring Congress to a grinding halt for two more years. And by "energy legislation", I do not mean that cap and trade bullshit, that's a bureaucrat's solution to an engineer's problem. As the aforementioned douchebag said, expanding renewable energy to the point of being able to knock Exxon-Mobile out of business would be a great success for the country. We shouldn't have to live under the thumbs of oil companies, destroying thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in wars of occupation to keep the oil flowing, which is exactly what Exxon-Mobile spends millions of dollars lobbying Congress to continue doing. And make no mistake about it, without clean energy advancement, more wars for oil is all we have to look forward to. [url]http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aPuYDoceYMe0[/url]
I recommend people use up as much fuel as possible, it will scare the shit out of Congress and FORCE them to do something.
What we should be doing is increasing our oil drilling locations, while splitting the current corporations into pieces to allow for less monopolistic control. Alternately we should take whatever money they got from the bush administration contracts and spend it on something more useful, but that would be in an ideal world. You know, where money grubbing bankers actually got what they deserved. Also, passing national laws that forbade the construction of fossil fuel power plants would probably help as well. Nuclear power is a much better solution than burning gas or coal. It's cleaner, and causes less cancer. Don't buy into that "Nuclear Energy is EVIL" bullshit.
[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;19631403]I recommend people use up as much fuel as possible, it will scare the shit out of Congress and FORCE them to do something.[/QUOTE] Because fuck the economic turmoil, lower standard of living and mass poverty that would imply. [editline]04:45PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Xystus234;19631506]Also, passing national laws that forbade the construction of fossil fuel power plants would probably help as well..[/QUOTE] Yes what better to do in a recession than disallow the creation of new working-class jobs. [editline]04:45PM[/editline] FYI you are all incredibly idealistic and stupid.
[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;19631403]I recommend people use up as much fuel as possible, it will scare the shit out of Congress and FORCE them to do something.[/QUOTE] corporate trash needs your cash they wont play unless you pay
[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;19631403]I recommend people use up as much fuel as possible, it will scare the shit out of Congress and FORCE them to do something.[/QUOTE] Yeah, they'll introduce a fuel tax to stop people using it too much. Result: rich people carry on as normal, poor people can no longer drive/use public transport/heat their houses/cook
[QUOTE=Lankist;19631518] Yes what better to do in a recession than disallow the creation of new working-class jobs. [editline]04:45PM[/editline] FYI you are all incredibly idealistic and stupid.[/QUOTE] That's in the wrong direction though. Those plants aren't going to create too many jobs, and they really aren't going to help in the long run. Factories are. Remember when we used to have factories that could produce shit that had value and give you a house and food on the table? Pushing buttons eventually loses its worth.
[QUOTE=Xystus234;19631591]That's in the wrong direction though. Those plants aren't going to create too many jobs, and they really aren't going to help in the long run. Factories are. Remember when we used to have factories that could produce shit that had value and give you a house and food on the table? Pushing buttons eventually loses its worth.[/QUOTE] Yes they do create jobs. Thousands of jobs in construction for every new plant. Hundreds of jobs internally once the plant is finished. Thousands of jobs in logistics, transportation, fuel acquisition and energy management externally. [editline]04:50PM[/editline] Hey guys we should stop building hospitals don't worry they don't create THAT many jobs and who needs hospitals anyway Way to not know a goddamn thing about basic macro economics.
[QUOTE=Xystus234;19631506]What we should be doing is increasing our oil drilling locations, while splitting the current corporations into pieces to allow for less monopolistic control. [B]Alternately we should take whatever money they got from the bush administration contracts and spend it on something more useful, but that would be in an ideal world.[/B] You know, where money grubbing bankers actually got what they deserved. Also, passing national laws that forbade the construction of fossil fuel power plants would probably help as well. Nuclear power is a much better solution than burning gas or coal. It's cleaner, and causes less cancer. Don't buy into that "Nuclear Energy is EVIL" bullshit.[/QUOTE] If they've fulfilled their end of a contract and earned the money, you can't do that. While we SHOULD be drilling more, and we SHOULD build more nuclear facilities, you cannot take away previously-earned profits like that.
[QUOTE=Splode a Pinga;19631643]If they've fulfilled their end of a contract and earned the money, you can't do that.[/QUOTE] Nonono it's okay to fuck with the private sector because x-whatever doesn't like that particular part of it, and he won't be affected by the pending layoffs.
[QUOTE=Xystus234;19631591]That's in the wrong direction though. Those plants aren't going to create too many jobs, and they really aren't going to help in the long run. Factories are. Remember when we used to have factories that could produce shit that had value and give you a house and food on the table? Pushing buttons eventually loses its worth.[/QUOTE] 1. Start a factory 2. Hey, it's cheaper to get this made in China and we're in a free market so I guess we can just go to China 3. Everyone outsources to China 4. No more factory
[QUOTE=Splurgy;19631680]1. Start a factory 2. Hey, it's cheaper to get this made in China and we're in a free market so I guess we can just go to China 3. Everyone outsources to China 4. No more factory[/QUOTE] This is why we need to dump the capital gains tax.
His ideas would only work if we had the adequate infrastructure to support the oil sector disappearing, i.e. >80% reliant on nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal and hydro. But right now oil is pretty much the backbone of the energy sector. It just isn't as simple as, nor feasible to suddenly take oil out of the equation and suddenly everything will be great again. Oil might be causing pollution and human misery in developing countries, but it's a necessary evil until we can find something better. It needs to be phased out slowly.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;19631862]His ideas would only work if we had the adequate infrastructure to support the oil sector disappearing, i.e. >80% reliant on nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal and hydro. But right now oil is pretty much the backbone of the energy sector. It just isn't as simple as, nor feasible to suddenly take oil out of the equation and suddenly everything will be great again. Oil might be causing pollution and human misery in developing countries, but it's a necessary evil until we can find something better. It needs to be phased out slowly.[/QUOTE] Screw Greenpeace Build nuclear plants
IMO, even though this will never happen, we should just nationalize all the oil companies. Remove the profit, remove the lobbying, and remove the massive manipulation conducted by the oil industry to keep things the way they are. Then, under big bad evil socialist government control, we phase out fossil fuels without having to fight the oil industry tooth and nail for every inch. Make no mistake, they are the single biggest obstacle to renewable energy progress in this country. But, like I said, the oil industry and their Republican mouthpieces would fight a civil war before they let that happen. Just look at the recent attempt to COMPETE with the health industry, let alone take it over.
[QUOTE=Lankist;19631617]Yes they do create jobs. Thousands of jobs in construction for every new plant. Hundreds of jobs internally once the plant is finished. Thousands of jobs in logistics, transportation, fuel acquisition and energy management externally. [editline]04:50PM[/editline] Hey guys we should stop building hospitals don't worry they don't create THAT many jobs and who needs hospitals anyway Way to not know a goddamn thing about basic macro economics.[/QUOTE] Sure, but we lose all those jobs when we run out of clean air/gas/coal/money for lung cancer treatment/etc Plus there are other options. There are multiple solutions to a problem. If "clean coal" was actually "clean" then that might be a possibility. Contracting out to factories that produce products that would provide valuable exports overseas, or to technology firms that concieve of new indusdries would help as well. There isn't one way to fix an economy or create jobs. If you build it, they will come. I'm sure if there was a massive deficit of construction workers or perhaps laborers, or even technicians, then it would attract attention and people would go seek it in that direction. In any case, the most realistic solution to achieving prosperity, is get the economy strong enough that poor people are able to survive, and the only new obstacle in doing that is preventing environmental destruction and conserving the resources we have. Otherwise we just do the same thing we always do.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;19631936]IMO, even though this will never happen, we should just nationalize all the oil companies. Remove the profit, remove the lobbying, and remove the massive manipulation conducted by the oil industry to keep things the way they are. Then, under big bad evil socialist government control, we phase out fossil fuels without having to fight the oil industry tooth and nail for every inch. Make no mistake, they are the single biggest obstacle to renewable energy progress in this country. But, like I said, the oil industry and their Republican mouthpieces would fight a civil war before they let that happen. Just look at the recent attempt to COMPETE with the health industry, let along take it over.[/QUOTE] Because the government can do everything efficiently, right?
[QUOTE=Xystus234;19631945]Sure, but we lose all those jobs when we run out of clean air/gas/coal/money for lung cancer treatment/etc Plus there are other options. There are multiple solutions to a problem. If "clean coal" was actually "clean" then that might be a possibility. Contracting out to factories that produce products that would provide valuable exports overseas, or to technology firms that concieve of new indusdries would help as well. There isn't one way to fix an economy or create jobs. If you build it, they will come. In any case, the most realistic solution to achieving prosperity, is get the economy strong enough that poor people are able to survive, and the only new obstacle in doing that is preventing environmental destruction and conserving the resources we have. Otherwise we just do the same thing we always do.[/QUOTE] No, we don't lose those jobs if we actually spend the decades we have left before they are defunct establishing a new infrastructure and new energy dependence. We DO lose those jobs of we act stupid and rash like you suggest.
I always thought Lankist was a troll, but it appears he is dominating everyone in this thread with his clear cut intelligence and possession of common sense.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;19631936]IMO, even though this will never happen, we should just nationalize all the oil companies. Remove the profit, remove the lobbying, and remove the massive manipulation conducted by the oil industry to keep things the way they are. Then, under big bad evil socialist government control, we phase out fossil fuels without having to fight the oil industry tooth and nail for every inch. Make no mistake, they are the single biggest obstacle to renewable energy progress in this country. But, like I said, the oil industry and their Republican mouthpieces would fight a civil war before they let that happen. Just look at the recent attempt to COMPETE with the health industry, let along take it over.[/QUOTE] Yes because the government isn't greedy and doesn't care about making money.
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