Showing posts with label Herschel Vinyard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herschel Vinyard. Show all posts

Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Interesting Timeline of Deepwater Horizon and Herschel Vinyard (another view)

Florida DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard

By Tom Drummond

From old headlines, it seems that Herschel Vinyard's career course was altered by the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, moving him from the President of the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), into the seat of Secretary of the Florida DEP. Why would such a thing happen?

The Deepwater Horizon Disaster happened on April 20th, 2010. By May 1, 2010, it was reported that Matthew Paxton, President of the SCA, bemoaned: "Oil-and-gas operations have been one of the shipbuilding industry's most-important markets." This was in a WWLTV article expressing the prospect that new deepwater drilling might not be palatable to the public.

But on April 30, 2010, a whole day before that, Chris Bollinger replaced Herschel Vinyard as Chair of the SCA due to election results from April 26-28, according to Marine Log. According to a posted document, elections are regularly held around that time.

Vinyard had been chair several times. It was reported he was elected in 2004, and in 2005

Herschel Vinyard was also VP of Atlantic Marine Holding Company. On May 18th, a deal was already reported whereby Atlantic Marine was purchased by BAE Systems PLC (the British company). And, just a year later, BAE Systems announced it would finish construction on an oil tanker, the American Phoenix, abandoned by Atlantic Marine.

American Phoenix

Apparently, the Deepwater Horizon spill by British Petroleum enabled a business deal by BAE Systems, it would appear. Some at Nightly Citizen see something dark and conspiratorial in this, but it may have just made good business sense to the players involved. Herschel Vinyard may have coincidentally gotten voted out or pulled away by his increased business duties due to the new conditions evoked by the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, despite its admittedly deplorable negligent causes.

However, it is clear that Herschel Vinyard's past is tightly interwoven with the construction of oil tankers and the development of LNG run ships. On September 10, 2014, it was reported that The Shipbuilders Council of America's Matt Paxton declared them the "strongest its been in years" by the aforementioned Matt Paxton speaking as President of the SCA before the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. He also mentioned the first LNG-powered containership, which could very well be at Blount Island. Jacksonville has been reported as a liquified natural gas hub in the works.


The actual acquisition of Atlantic Marine occurred on July 13, 2010, according to BAE's own website.

Herschel Vinyard has since led the DEP to bring suit against Dan A. Hughes after they failed to meet his demands, and they have since stated their intention to forsake Florida.






Friday, October 10, 2014

Governor or Symptom? Rick Scott and British Neocolonialism

“The sadistic narcissist perceives himself as Godlike, ruthless and devoid of scruples, capricious and unfathomable, emotion-less and non-sexual, omniscient, omnipotent and omni-present, a plague, a devastation, an inescapable verdict.”
Sam Vaknin



A Special Report from The Anti-Fracking Movement of Lee County 


Veni, Vidi, Vici, said Marlboro, exhaling a cloud of doubt

Never Forget


On April 20, 2010, a day that still besets Florida and other gulf states with emotional, financial, aesthetic, and health costs. As the Gulf of Mexico continues to slowly recover from the massive oil spill whose harm was multiplied by the use of the highly toxic, boat-eating Corexit (a substance banned in Europe), Schlumberger left the scene, setting the stage for the explosion which took 11 lives. Luckily, Rick Scott prevented $55 Billion in healthcare from complementing this. 

Schlumberger was asked to leave so the rig could explode, some paranoiacs would think.

Governor Rick Scott, who has just been visited by the treasurer of the Koch brothers, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, has a history that reaches back into the Deepwaterwater Horizon oil spill and reaches forward, if trends are examined in light of the facts, into a future of further Big Oil profiteering at our expense.

It's on record that Governor Rick Scott invested in Schlumberger, and then moved the investment into his wife's trust in order to legalize this act of blatant corruption, as his actions paved the way for the fracking of Southwest Florida. This action clearly would promote his investment, which he had knowingly made as of December 2010, just 8 months after the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. Clearly, he knowingly made it move into the legal terrain of his wife's trust as well.

Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico caught a cold, producing sea snot which is still washing up along with flesh eating bacteria on our beaches. However, since some lawyer said that isn't the case, please disregard reality in favor of the simulation as it continually is fed into you through the usual outlets.

Open Corruption Cleptocracy


Even President Richard Nixon famously stated in his "Checker Speech" that a politician must avoid even the APPEARANCE of corruption. But Rick Scott only cares about what he can legally get away with, and the corporate media has grossly, recklessly, and negligently polished this turd until the radiation emitted from it has burned the brains out of the public. Most people think of President Nixon as a pretty corrupt guy who was a conservative, but he looks like a communist compared to Governor Rick Scott when it come to concern for the public's welfare (which is, according the the Preamble of the Constitution, part of every politician's sworn duty).

There is a good chance that we as Americans, who are now familiar with the term the 1 Percent, may have to consider the possibility that greed is a form of addiction or mental illness which causes otherwise seemingly reasonable and successful individuals to engage in reckless behavior most 13 year olds have outgrown. Unfortunately, when someone like a CEO or a Governor has the greed illness, their reckless behavior carries a cost inflicted on society that arguably far exceeds any other form of addiction. And yet we have no War on Greed. In fact, greed and capitalism seem to be equated with one another, quite erroneously and hyperbolically, and all questioning of corporate and political excess based on blind greed is framed as some sort of absurd artifact of socialist ideology, when this is hardly the case.

Where is the balance? Where is the fairness? Where is the justice? Where is the opportunity for upward mobility that was once understood to be part of the pursuit of happiness?

Does anyone really think this is a free country anymore? Free for whom?

Of course, I don't miss racism. And the new caste system is much better.
"Violence," she writes, "can always destroy power. Out of the barrel of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out of it [violence] is power."


The Malaise of Corporatism



I've been interested in the Mayan system, which was a control calendar. You see, their calendar postulated really how everyone should feel at a given time, with lucky days, unlucky days, et cetera. And I feel that Luce's system is comparable to that. It is a control system. It has nothing to do with reporting. Time, Life, Fortune is some sort of a police organization.  -- WS Burroughs



The problem is bigger than Rick Scott, who is only an unsightly symptom of the codified justice system which allows the wealthy to buy their way out of any situation their greed-driven antics might produce and, believe me, they've got the money. More money than most of us can imagine. Matt Taibbi saw the origin of this in the Holder Memo which equated putting a CEO or other person of high economic standing into prison as a form of collateral damage to the public interest.  In other words, if a CEO is locked up, since they are such superior beings upon whom all our welfare depends, that is itself an injustice even if they're guilty of a crime that is also an injustice. Therefore, certain individuals who aren't Too Big to Fail (miserably) are Too Big to Jail (literally).

This melding of corporate and political power has, along with Citizens United and related decisions and laws, allowed a state of Open Corruption Cleptocracy to become the norm. This Open Corruption Cleptocracy has been accepted of a piece by the media, which rarely if ever is more than mildly critical of it. In fact, lawsuits may result if you call out an injustice performed in the maintenance of plutocracy or term act of corruption an act of corruption when it has been legalized. In fact, newspapers have taken to the habit of quoting corporations and public institutions as if they are people. At the same time, newspapers and the mainstream media perform in depth investigations of the victims of corporate greed, while making huge allowances for the corporations and burgeoning police state that is helping to enforce it. As in "yesterday Halliburton declared that the word fracking must be stricken from the English language, as you people call it, and replacing with the word enhanco-aqua." Or "Duke Energy insists that the whistleblower was a known nose picker who liked to wear women's underwear and dance around in bars." Or "Animal Control says that the woman who wanted to live off the grid had cruelly denied the rights of her puppy to be injured by a trained veterinarian, preferring to use pagan rituals to heal its skin condition involving chicken's feet and a burning sage brush." "The police department says the burly, thieving, black gangster who was shot at a distance and left to rot in the sun on a street for 4 hours was guilty of assault, forcing the police to shoot our meddlesome reporters with gas canisters in order to maintain law and order amongst members of civil society and Officer Go Fuck Yourself."

Ah, the jouissance of jilted journalism. The message has gone out.


On April 20, 2010, BP made some very bad decisions in between moments of indecent exposure which were captured on CCTV and distributed to reasonable reporters for enjoyment at their leisure. For instance, Greg Palast noted Leslie Abrahams brandishing a really big assault rifle about surrounded by possible members of Boko Haram.

Source


When BP faced consequences from its grossly negligent behavior based on its inordinate desire to save money, Eric Holder himself made several statements which clarify this state of affairs after BP paid over $4 Billion dollars to keep its henchmen out of the clink and quiet. Holder noted that "What we saw this morning was oil for miles and miles. Oil that we know has already affected plant and animal life along the coast, and has impacted the lives and livelihoods of all too many in this region.".
Holder also noted: "Eleven innocent lives lost." But, when BP was only required to pay a big fine, and no one was incarcerated, Holder made the satisfied remark:  “I hope this sends a clear message to those who would engage in this wanton misconduct that there will be a penalty paid."

Soon after this, it was clear that Conocophillips and BP were working in concert to continue to exploit the resources, with President Obama's blessing, that they had so wantonly, illegally, recklessly, and insanely pursues.  In fact, Greg Palast noted that BP was set up right back where the disaster originally happened.

This raises serious questions that might as first sound absurd.

Is getting in trouble and paying a fine the ticket to doing business? And, if so, does that raise the specter of possibly getting in trouble on purpose in order to be vetted into the system?

Similar to how a child might piss off a parent in order to make them guilty afterward and closer in the act of forgiveness, maybe even involving gift giving?

Because, why did BP tell Schlumberger to go away on April 20, 2010? This was what a worker at the rig reported, watch the video from 11:30 and see for yourself.





Yes, BP got your terrorism right here. Don't follow the money, swallow the money.

Now That We've Destroyed the Gulf of Mexico, Let's Frack the Everglades

Formerly an Orange Grove


Parr Family
Foreign companies controlled by the British and the Saudis with a history of bribery have infiltrated via the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and the bribery settlement.

Yes, you're being fracked for Allah.



A TIMELINE

July 23, 2002-- DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard, a VP of Atlantic Marine at the time, declared before the HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE SPECIAL OVERSIGHT PANEL ON MERCHANT MARINE--

"Atlantic has also entered into a joint venture agreement with Samsung Heavy Industries and Conoco which will give us access to Samsung's large shuttle tanker design and building technology so that we can build shuttle tankers for Conoco and others to operate in the Gulf of Mexico."




As of December 2010: Rick Scott has knowingly invested in Schlumberger, holder of the most frack patents in the world…
January 3, 2011:  Herschel Vinyard, deeply connected with Conocophillips according to federal documents, and with the British and Saudi controlled BAE Systems (which is now interwoven with the Department of Homeland Security), is made Secretary of the DEP.

SOURCE


April 17, 2011: Environmentalists worried about 134 workers laid off from the South Florida Water Management District…
April 22, 2011: Rick Scott wants EPA out, so Florida can take care of its own water.
September 5, 2011 Janet Zink: Rick Scott wants to repeal 1000 rules. ‘”Every rule costs money. Just the fact that you have to research to find out if you’re in compliance,” Scott told the Times/Herald. “It’s so complicated, people have to hire consultants to figure out how to comply.”‘
“Many of the other rules Scott wants to eliminate are in the departments of Environmental Protection.”
THE NEXT DAY TAMPA BAY TIMES SAYS:
September 6 2011: Rick Scott announces “cautious” openness to oil drilling. He mentions Oil Well Road, which is in his county where he owns a 9.2 million dollar home.
August 22, 2012: Conflict of interest complaints about Herschel Vinyard (Secretary of the DEP) and Jeff Littlejohn (Deputy Secretary of the DEP) are released by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility).
October 11, 2012: Jeff Littlejohn issues a memo calling for cuts to staff. His focus is on cutting costs, and outsourcing when possible, not on regulatory excellence within the DEP.
November 13, 2012: PEER reports a “rolling purge” in which DEP employees are fired and basically treated like criminals in the process.
January 9, 2013 – January 14, 2013 – Collier family contributes $200,000 to Rick Scott’s campaign coffers.
May 16, 2013: Herschel Vinyard cleared of EPA violations, but only due to statue of limitations.
May 31, 2013: Rick Scott appoint Christian Spilker of Collier Resources to the Board of Trustees at FGCU.
July 10, 2013: Christian Spilker claims there will be no fracking.
June 13, 2013: After Littlejohn’s many firings in key positions regulating environmental protection, Chris Byrd, one of his former employees, notes: “Littlejohn doesn’t like enforcement. He doesn’t want the department to do any high-profile enforcement cases.”
November 25, 2013: Rick Scott appoints Blake Gable to the Board of Trustees at FGCU.
December 31, 2013: DEP knows that Dan A. Hughes fracked at Collier-Hogan 20-3H.
January 14. 2014: FGCU employee, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, pushes his fracking bills at the Florida House of Representatives.
March 11, 2014: DEP doesn’t tell public about the fracking by Dan A. Hughes despite hours of discussion at the Golden Gate Estates Community Center.
March 8 -30, 2014: As it turns out, Rep. Ray Rodrigues’ campaign manager, Terry Miller, works for Strategic Advocacy. Strategic Advocacy is part of an organization that writes legislation to create loopholes for frackers. They change their webpage after I report this. The organization in question has ties with the Koch brothers.
March 31, 2014: DEP doesn’t tell public AGAIN about fracking at the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee. It votes to stop drilling…
April 15, 2014: DEP decides against the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee, saying it’s “BEYOND OUR PURVIEW“. And then, 3 DAYS LATER
April 18, 2014: DEP finally tells the public Dan A. Hughes fracked Florida. Dan A. Hughes finally signed consent order.
April 4, 2014: I am asked for $725.00 for a public records request relating to these matters. The charge is for the material to be redacted by lawyers, so I’d be paying to not see what I ask for.
April 22, 2014: Stonecrab Alliance and John Lundin get Collier County commissions to consider a petition against DEP  and Dan A. Hughes.
May 30, 2014: Jeff Littlejohn turns in his resignation letter. He intends to resign June 6, 2014. He writes to Herschel Vinyard about his “more consistent” regulatory process, and about rules.
rules
June 3-6, 2014: Jeff Littlejohn spends his last days trying to derail the Collier County Commissioners petition against the DEP.
June 10, 2014: New Deputy Secretary Clifford Wilson III interrupts a Collier County Commission meeting with a threatening email, the Commissioners express outrage and proceed with the petition.
June 13, 2014: Herschel Vinyard steps in to arrange closed meeting with Tom Henning.
June 15, 2014: Rick Scott shown to have a financial stake in fracking Florida.
June 17, 2014: Ethics complaint filed on Rick Scott after it is revealed he invested in Schlumberger, international fracking material supplier.
June 18, 2014: Herschel Vinyard sends letter to Collier Resources and Dan A. Hughes asking them to answer public’s questions, but making no indication of other conditions on the industry, or of specific promises of the manner of water testing that will be conducted.
Now: Where is the wastewater?

 Oh here it is--

Violations at Wastewater Handler Facility

October 6, 2014: Just how "in on it" is the DEP anyway?

 October 8 ,2014: Duke Energy bills churches extra.


King Abdullah Approves of This Message



Tankers at Blount Island

Saudi Aramco is hiring in Jacksonville.



Meet your owner. Now beg for your supper.

Sir Roger Carr


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Secret Memorandum Shows Herschel Vinyard at 2004 Blount Island Meeting

By Tom Drummond

A Department of the Navy Infrastructure Analysis Team document that reads "Do Not Release Under FOIA"  show that's Florida DEP's Secretary Herschel Vinyard was in a discussion involving Blount Island on February 28, 2004 that involved its transition from leasing to ownership by the USMC.

 In the document, the importance of the Maritime Pre-Positioning Force was emphasized, presumably supply ships, floating bases, and vessels that allow the landing of marines. The Martime Pre-Positioning Force also include oil tankers.

The world's first LNG-powered ships were being constructed earlier this year for TOTE, Inc., parent company of Sea Star Line, a tenant at Blount Island. Jaxport, which intends to service Sea Star Line at Blount Island, has been reported since last October as excited (in the corporate person sense) about Jacksonville becoming a liquified natural gas export hub, and about the changing over of ships to the use of natural gas as a fuel.

The IMF has said the U.S. shale gas explosion has resulted in declining prices worldwide


Herschel Vinyard was VP of Atlantic Marine at the time. Atlantic Marine Southeast Shipyards was taken over by an investment firm run by U.S. Navy Secretary John F. Lehman in 2006. It was then sold to BAE Systems, in May of 2010. Vinyard was selected by Rick Scott to be Secretary of the DEP in January of 2011.

In May of 2004, Atlantic Marine was mentioned as being involved in ship construction at Blount Island, along with Goodrich EEP, part of a team led by Raytheon.

Blount Island is continuing to develop as a military and commercial operation, with a recent 71.9 million boost to a Honeywell contract, along with former contracts going to
McCarthy Improvement Company of Davenport, Sauer, Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla, and Barlovento, LLC, of Dothan, Ala. that totaled at $27.7 million back in June 3 of 2011.


On July 30th of this year, a ban of crude sales going back to 1975 was lifted when 400,000 of ultra-light crude was shipped to South Korea. An exception was created due to the nature of the product, and wrangling between oil companies and the U.S. Commerce department.

A Google Earth image from today shows what appears to be two tankers at Blount Island.






And close up.


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

We've Only Just Begun to Frack

Water has no rights,
the sea claims
endless fossilites.
Why do the ants
always come to the picnic
when the cloth has been laid
out? We've already begun
to feast and now the tide
is out. And when the tide
comes in the sirens sing
bringing foreigners to wreck.
The multi-nationalist beggars,
hounding the bread makers,
one nation under surveillance
whereby to promote the takers.
Vinyard is a globalist villain
poison the water let's really
make a killin'.
Apache helicopters, heart attack
guns, and drones galore:
socialism for the poor.
Retreat from the country
to the stores, copyrighting
the new consumer after
the old one goes extinct,
the merchant class
sells, lets be succinct.
This is the Hell of Spectacle,
window dressing
for the ebola mannequins,
pull the string
and a doll forgives your sins.
There's many a slip and fall
in the aisles of denial,
clean up your thoughts
and provide service with a smile.
What's that you slipped
into my drink?
It's a secret,
I'm rich.