“The Producers” as “The Rangers”

I recently read a remake of Mel Brooks’ 1968 classic “The Producers” playing out in Glasgow. Renamed, “The Rangers” the major roles fall to mysterious past, present and future owners. In cahoots with their accountants, they hatch a plan to rip off Scottish football supporters, played by “Little Old Ladies” in the original.
The plot involves secretive accountants coming in to audit “The Rangers’” books. They soon realize that madcap schemes have left them over a hundred million pounds in debt. The amount is so implausibly massive that it dawns on the accountants that executing administration for the benefit of the creditors is futile. However, they realize that their client is no ordinary business, with tentacles firmly gripping the highest level of governance for the sport. By being able to access these cronies, they can attempt to eliminate their client’s toxic debts. The connivance of witting or unwitting co-conspirators becomes essential to execute their plans. They draft in a mysterious American to lend credibility to their scheme.
The owners, accountants and wannabes launch their bail-out scheme, ably assisted by an all-star-cast performing and pandering across Scotland’s media outlets. A skeptical Scottish Football Association baulks, but the Scottish Premier League – promising manna from the Sky – saves the day for their heroes.
The story concludes with the perpetrators smirking smugly on the steps of the SFA offices at Hampden, after they have again fleeced the “Little Old Laddies.” However, as they leave the scene Michel Platini enters from UEFA and suspends the SFA indefinitely, as the bang of Lambeg drums is heard in the distance. Scottish professional football withers and dies.

Questions for Mr McCoist and Mr Smith

Such has been the role of the Scottish press in the Glasgow Rangers fiasco that someone in Pyongyang will be as knowledgeable about their self-inflicted “bankruptcy” as a great many Rangers supporters. At least the North Korean would have the advantage of not being misinformed, or should I say disinformed, by “sports writers” – particularly in a certain Glasgow tabloid. There is a line that has long been crossed into blatant pandering. In the current situation there is a real danger in whipping up thuggery. Are the writers in the Daily Record so dependent on their succulent lamb that they will risk complicity in putting public order at risk?
I emigrated in 1988. I miss many things about Scotland – but certainly not the sectarianism that still infects a portion of Scottish society. If anyone in Scotland reads this and doubts me, then I’ll tell you where I am originally from – a place roughly equidistant between Larkhall, Lesmahagow and Carluke; the “Orange groves” of Lanarkshire.
For the press to begin redeeming itself, and in the interests of transparency, I would welcome any journalist asking Mr McCoist, Mr Smith, etc. the following questions: ”Did you have an EBT?” “For how long?” “How much money was involved?” “If the HMRC FTT finds against Rangers, will you publicly commit to repay these funds?”  If they cannot answer these questions and would rather risk incitement then that itself speaks volumes.   We shall see whether or not they really do “walking away”. I am not holding my breath.

It wisnae me! I didnae ken! A big boy did it and ran away!

I am scunnered. Not with Glasgow Rangers but with the Scottish press.

Rangers have had years of financial mismanagement and tax avoidance that has come back to haunt them. Yet the Scottish press, certainly from what I read online, seems only too keen to dump the blame on one man. That this man – Craig Whyte – was only in charge since 2011 seems to be irrelevant. But the roots of Rangers dire financial situation go back into the 1990s. But to read the nonsense spouted in the likes of the “Daily Record” and even “The Herald” you’d be left thinking, “Jings, crivens help ma Boab! A big boy did it and ran away!!!!!”. Infantile stuff. Rangers problems stem more from actions predating Mr Whyte’s involvement in the club. Maybe if the “succulent lamb” types in the likes of the “Daily Record” had actually been real journalists rather than “sports writers” then Rangers might not be staring the very real prospect of liquidation in the face. Indeed, if anyone is complicit in this mess it is the “succulent lamb” brigade – if they had reported the truth this whole mess could have been avoided. But they are playing along with the whole, “I didnae ken! It wisnae me!” charade. Not at all unlike the banking collapse, “Too big to fail”, a compliant/complicit press and the risk of moral hazard.

So why am I scunnered? Not with Rangers. For them I am just sad. Really. This is a horrible mess and I don’t do “schadenfreude”. I am scunnered with the Scottish press, and “The Herald” in particular – but only because I have such low expectations from everyone else – especially the tripe from the “Daily Record”. My comments to “Herald” articles get stuck in moderation and are never approved. I never use profanity. I never even use phrases like “succulent lamb”. All I point out is the grotesque level of financial mismanagement that go back into the 1990s and how Rangers burned through cash. How if their FTT appeal to the HMRC EBT ruling fails then liquidation is inevitable. How creditors are getting shafted. How the administrators seem keener to get Rangers to the end of the season than actually act to bring resolution. How the SFA sanctions were trivial by comparison to Rangers own self-inflicted problems. How UEFA could take a flamethrower to our game, and may well do so regardless – and who could blame them? The moral hazard of deals being cut. And lastly how pathetic the press in Scotland has been in covering Rangers. Why no questions to key individuals about their EBTs? Is this a condition of interviews being granted?

Whether or not Rangers survive, in whatever form, the Scottish game will badly suffer. I support Kilmarnock and the likelihood that I will set foot into Rugby Park again will be sorely diminished if it is blatantly obvious that our game is rigged. And I’d want UEFA to step in. If Rangers cannot continue as anything other than a “newco” or fold completely a lot less money will come into the game. Kilmarnock and other teams could well end-up folding, too. But if that’s what has to happen to restore integrity then it has to happen. Scottish football will never be the same again.

Glasgow Rangers & Moral Hazard

The malfeasance and associated fiasco surrounding Glasgow Rangers reminds me of “too big to fail” and the banking crisis. Greed, incompetent decision-making and questionable business practices resulted in the likes of RBS and Citigroup collapsing. Complicity from the regulators thrown in for good measure. Denial on the part of the perpetrators. Collapse. We are there with Rangers. This is a tragedy for Scottish football, and the perpetrators seem unable to admit their responsibility. Contrary to what one might think from the main Glasgow tabloid, this is not about the actions of simply one man over the last year. Rather, the problems have been systemic, going back at least to the ’90s and largely hidden by a compliant press. Actions by the Bank of England or Federal Reserve to bail-out their chums in the City or Wall Street created moral hazard on an unprecedented scale. RBS, Citigroup, AIG, etc. never faced the ultimate ramifications of their actions. If Rangers don’t face theirs by, say, HMRC cutting them a deal, then a layer of moral hazard is created that is simply unacceptable. The SFA also have to be seen to act, UEFA would have them if they didn’t – and rightly so. (I’d say exactly the same if it were my team, Killie.) And, honestly, why the hysterical reaction to the fines/sanctions from the SFA? They really are trivial in comparison to Rangers other self-inflicted problems. Or is it more blaming others for your own problems? It really is time for those that wrecked Rangers to face their responsibility, and those “sports writers” in the media that aided and abetted the shenanigans to quit. It’s not as if they were real journalists anyways, their partaking of “succulent lamb” and failure to report actual facts long betrayed them. When it falls to a blog – Rangerstaxcase – to explain to supporters of Scottish football what is really going on it really is a damning indictment of the state of the Scottish press.
And Rangers? Its really hard to see any other outcome rather than liquidation. The administrators seem to be more interested in getting them through the end of the season and an infusion of SPL prize money. Then what? Airdrie United II?

Geopolitical Poker, Blowback & Iran

Radical political Islam has flourished in large part due to “blowback” from US/Western foreign policy. This isn’t just an observation by Ron Paul, he is also restating what the CIA have told us for years. Blowback was also discussed by the 9/11 Commission.  Our corporate media give the Neocons a free pass when they refuse to even discuss blowback.  The current extremely serious situation with Iran is probably the best example of blowback and can be traced back to the US/UK overthrowing Mosaddegh in 1953 (over oil). Continuing to engage in the same interventionism despite the obvious evidence of failure only further bankrupts the United States, both financially and morally. If we do bomb suspected Iranian nuclear facilities, I predict the Iranian regime itself will be the big winner (as it was when we went into Iraq). Any attack would be a propaganda gift. Repression would accelerate under the guise of protecting the state from a “5th Column”, thereby weakening internal dissent. Iraq would further destabilize. Plus don’t forget the fragility of Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia. Geopolitics on this scale is a massive poker game, we are in serious danger of being taken to the cleaners yet again.  But don’t expect to hear blowback discussed anytime soon by any of the so-called experts, or should I say propagandists, that grace our corporate media.

Bolton, Bolton on the Wall, What is the Biggest Obamablunder of them All?

When pondering Obamablunders, and many are colossal, there is a tendency to focus on the unrelenting overseas adventurism, failures to adequately investigate allegations of malfeasance on Wall Street – hardly a shock when considering President Obama has been so chummy with the likes of Tim Geithner and Jon Corzine – or his continued erosion of the Bill of Rights, such as his renewal of the provisions of the Orwellian PATRIOT Act.  But there is one little discussed Obamablunder that I don’t think I have ever heard addressed, and has the potential to have dreadful implications.  That is the failure to investigate and, where required to by law (with the exception of Irv Lewis Libby, and that was under President Bush!), prosecute those that were complicit in the Iraq debacle.

By the Obama administration failing to investigate President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s cronies, we now know that they have a route back.   This week Newt Gingrich said that he wants John Bolton as his Secretary of State.  Yes, John Bolton.  Our former UN ambassador that was up to his neck in the neocon warmongering that has in no small way contributed to our national bankruptcy, erosion of civil liberties and dreadful international reputation.  Honestly, if Newt Gingrich becomes the GOP nominee against Obama is he trying to lose?  Pandering to “the base” doesn’t work with independents, swing voters or “Ron Paul Republicans”.  He needs these voters to win the White House, and he won’t get them if he chums up to the very individuals that have taken America to the brink in pursuit of their adventurist agenda.

A supreme irony in all of this is that Mr Bolton and his ilk should be grateful to President Obama and the Democrats.  By failing to investigate the events leading up to the Iraq debacle, the perpetrators avoided having to repeatedly testify on Capitol Hill.  This also meant they could keep traipsing between their “Think Tanks” and certain of the “Fair and Balanced” crowd, spewing their propaganda.  But President Obama in large part simply continued the Bush doctrine, which is why I am not at all surprised that they got off scot-free.

Extending a Hand of Friendship to Iran

I just watched Ron Paul on FoxNews Sunday being interviewed by Chris Wallace. In reply to a question about Iran and its nuclear program, he said we shouldn’t rush into war and that we should offer friendship instead.
There is one easily attainable, tangible measure that could be done that could facilitate this – even without opening formal links with the Iranian government. Make it easier for Iranian scientists and engineers to come to the United States, particularly to go to graduate school as well as work as post-doctoral researchers or visiting faculty. Maybe children of key Iranian nuclear scientists, even these individuals themselves, could be tempted to come. In analogy, Germany losing many of its best scientists in the 1930s deprived the Nazis of their ability to develop nuclear weapons. So why not offer Iranian scientists, and their families, a route out?

Civil Liberties through the Prism of Northern Ireland

My mother’s grandparents left Ireland in the late 19th Century and moved to the West of Scotland. That familial link, my many Irish friends, geographic proximity and historic links meant that Ireland, specifically Northern Ireland and The Troubles, have never been far from my thoughts. Be it Bloody Sunday, disenfranchisement, internment, Diplock courts, Castlereagh, Colin Wallace, hunger strikes, extrajudicial killing, the Stalker Inquiry, Bobby Sands, state collusion with paramilitaries, H-blocks, dirty protests, phone tapping, kneecappings, the Birmingham Six, or the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). I had a friend from Northern Ireland that had been brutalized by the RUC after his brother had been sent to an internment camp. (This was but one example of RUC bungling; multiple people were interned that had no association with the IRA. This action was one of the best recruiting tools the IRA ever had.) My friend had actually been a hospital laboratory technician and voiced concerns that post-mortem reports of victims of The Troubles had been altered. He subsequently quit his job, emigrated and changed his name.
So, living in the United States now, when I read about the PATRIOT Act I think on the PTA. When I listen to people stereotyping Muslims I recall how Irish Catholics were similarly treated. I equate whistleblowers Scott Ritter and Craig Murray with the likes of Colin Wallace and Fred Holroyd. Military commissions with Diplock courts. Drone strikes with the extrajudicial killing sanctioned by organs of the British state. The CIA cosying-up to thugs and MI5/Special Branch collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
When I left school and was in college then university the Scottish economy was absolutely terrible. I actually gave serious thought to taking the King’s, or should I say Queen’s, Shilling. Enlistment seems attractive in bad economic times. The thought of being posted to Germany and risk being crushed by Red Army tanks or vaporized by tactical nuclear weapons seemed a risk worth taking; especially since I had grown up during a time when nuclear annihilation was a real threat. But the thought of being posted to Northern Ireland to be potentially used in ways that I considered to be flat-out wrong was too much. I could not be so mercenary for a paycheque. I have long since ceased to be amazed by how willing others are to take the King’s Shilling.
It’s with this background that I view state encroachment on civil liberties – through the prism of Northern Ireland.

Scotland, Enhanced Oil Recovery & Carbon Capture and Storage

I am not even remotely surprised at the Longannet carbon capture and storage (CCS) project being killed. Westminster’s cost share for developing the proposed technology was £1 billion. I would wager that implementing the sort of CCS technology envisaged for the Longannet project, post-combustion CO2 capture, even if it could be successfully developed, would exceed ten times this amount. Additionally, another massive power plant would have to be constructed to offset the parasitic load to operate Longannet’s CCS, NOx, SO2 and particulate pollution control systems. There are alternatives that utilize coal such as IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) power plants, essentially pre-combustion CO2 capture systems, that present better choices (although they have technical challenges, too).
Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, was critical of the decision and was quoted as saying, “Oil revenues are running at record levels, our offshore industry has a key role to play in generating jobs, skills and wealth for decades to come, we are leading the revolution in clean, green energy and we can and should be at the forefront of pioneering carbon capture technology.” True, I couldn’t agree more. Richard Dixon of WWF Scotland was reported as stating, “Lots of valuable research and planning has been done around the Longannet proposal, which could put Scotland in pole position to have a CCS scheme at the existing gas-fired power station at Peterhead or the recently-consented gas-fired power station at Cockenzie.” Agreement here, too, but with a twist.
Focus on carbon capture at Peterhead using IGCC; that power plant is already on a high pressure pipeline, too. Exploit this pre-existing pipeline infrastructure, with appropriate modifications and extensions, to transmit the generated CO2 to depleted oil reservoirs offshore – essentially a reversal of the previous flow. Inject the CO2 into these depleted fields for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Partner with BP or a smaller company like Apache. OK, they are not a “major” but they do CO2-EOR already, in Saskatchewan, and have a presence in the North Sea. Statoil have been storing CO2 under the North Sea for years at Sleipner. This can be done.
Rather than the expensively captured CO2 being injected solely for geologic sequestration, Peterhead’s CO2 would then be a bulk commodity used to extend the life of existing oil fields in the North Sea. Recoverable reserves would be massively expanded wherever CO2-EOR technology could be successfully applied, as has been demonstrated at SACROC (Texas) and the Weyburn-Midale (Saskatchewan) oil fields. Future production from already depleted fields could conceivably be more than doubled, as happened at SACROC after CO2 injection began. Although the CO2 would be recaptured for reuse, some will become trapped in the subsea pore space. Eventually, exhausted reservoirs can be devoted exclusively to CO2 geologic storage. So not only would Scotland derive the benefit from massively extended oil production through EOR, CCS will occur, too.
I well remember the ’70s and hearing the propaganda organs of the British state spewing nonsense about the oil being depleted before the end of the century. I was suspicious then, but I have the knowledge and experience now to know that their nonsense was in fact bare-faced lies. Given the advances in the science and engineering that underpins oil production, I have no doubt that at least the same volume of North Sea oil that has been produced up to 2011 can be extracted over the coming half century.
Some interesting links:

http://www.bpnsi.com/index.asp?id=7369643D312669643D313133

http://www.apachecorp.com/explore/Browse_Archives/View_Article.aspx?Article.ItemID=340

http://www.co2.no/files/files/co2/12.pdf

http://www.cenovus.com/operations/docs/Weyburn-Facility-Profile.pdf

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101013193533.htm

Herman Cain’s Achilles’ Heel

So Herman Cain has now stated, “To protest Wall Street and the bankers is basically saying you’re anti-capitalism.” Not so fast…….. It may be that many Occupy Wall Street people are, but to focus on that is a diversion. Rather, the reason that OWS is gaining traction is because of the blatant cronyism between the Federal Reserve, “too big to fail” Wall Street firms and their Democrat and Republican puppets in both the executive and legislative branches of government. Be it Obama/Geithner/Pelosi or Bush/Paulson/Boehner. Indeed, much of the Tea Party can trace its roots back to the same disgust with Wall Street as we see today with OWS.
The Federal Reserve, Mr. Cain’s former employer, bailed-out their chums in Wall Street, and overseas, to the tune of $16 TRILLION of freshly inflated Bernanke bucks. In only a little over 2 years, too. The bail-out happened under both Bush and Obama, proving that cronyism is indeed bipartisan. By avoiding true capitalist principles, the perpetrators of the financial meltdown not only got off scot-free but were also spared bankruptcy – the free market fate they deserved.
We know the magnitude of the bail-out because of the stellar work of Ron Paul and Alan Grayson in the House and Jim DeMint and Bernie Sanders in the Senate that forced a GAO audit of the Federal Reserve’s role in the bail-out. I know that all four opposed TARP, too. I do know that Mr. Cain supported TARP and he has stated that there is no need to audit the Fed. This begs the question of who is more anti-capitalist, OWS or Herman Cain? One thing is for sure, Herman Cain’s Federal Reserve connection is his Achilles’ heel.