Sumbitch Sumbitch Sumbitch
Freedom Industries, those good folks who gave West Virginia licorice flavored tap water is declaring bankruptcy.
I wonder if the owners had to pay extra baggage fees for all the cash leaving the country?
Sumbitches
January 19, 2014 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized
Freedom Industries, those good folks who gave West Virginia licorice flavored tap water is declaring bankruptcy.
I wonder if the owners had to pay extra baggage fees for all the cash leaving the country?
Sumbitches
Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
The (c)Koch(k) bros are wealthy cowards. Of course, The corporate welfare machine (eg taxpayer funded cleanup) will pick up the tab.
Very aptly named. Freedom from consequences, indeed.
1What needs to happen is highly unlikely. Joe Manchin is powned and nearly as big a gohmert as loopy Louie. However, the one last hope is Senators Warren, Sanders and AG Holder. Unload the full fury of the IRS on the brothers. The US government can freeze up the assets of sovereign nations. If the will was there, the Koch brothers could be brought to justice.
Or, for a real international laugh, redress could be sought through the UN. Given the number of countries our military and industries have leveled, don’t anticipate a lot of sympathy there.
2As predictable as Captain Renault’s shock.
3How does one unload the full fury of the IRS on the Kbros? Seriously? I have a neighbor who works there.
4Today’s WaPo has a long story about the mess. It’s long, but informative. Make sure you have a stiff drink handy while reading:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/new-owner-of-freedom-industries-must-face-fallout-of-west-virginia-chemical-spill/2014/01/17/77b1a572-7df2-11e3-93c1-0e888170b723_story.html
5In case anyone missed it, Freedom Industries owes IRS more than $2.4 million.
6Marge Wood, the main problem is finding a US Attorney with a huge set of b@lls in one of the districts in which the Kbros maintain a bunker. Or, someone at the IRS who is not afraid to pull either their personal or corporate tax returns for serious audit.
Am not a conspiracy type, but and it’s a huge BUT when concerning the Kbros. But would advise anyone considering the undertaking to be well-advised someone had Robert Kennedy assassinated. So, would not be surprised if the Kbros have more than just an office full of attorneys to protect their assets.
Which is why I first suggested Sen Warren with Sen Sanders and AG Holder. People with enough visibility to withstand the blow back.
7Senator Manchin, former governor of WVA, is now assuring his constituents that he will not let the EPA regulations take away their “freedom”. Oh but they can take away their water, air and land and then declare bankruptcy so they don’t have to pay for the cleanup. What a moron this guy is.
8Like I saw on another political site: If Al Qaeda had poisoned the water supply of 300,000 Americans, by now we would have invaded the wrong country and started a trillion-dollar war over it—yet again. But Freedom Industries? Nobody’s going to lay a glove on them. And some people still wonder why such a cloud of dark cynicism has settled into our society’s workings…..
9I have cousins who live in Charleston, the daughter of my first cousin, her husband and their two little girls, one 5, one almost 3. Brittany is starting a group to fight back against the Coal, Oil, Gas and Chemical machine. She’s a fighter. She, along with her sisters and her mother, plus a bunch of neighbors are deeply enraged by the whole mess. My cousin Marilyn and her husband, Brian are part of a law suit against DuPont. They live near Parkersburg and DuPont poisoned the water table around their home with the chemical C-8. All three of their daughters were affected by the pollution which causes among other problems, hormone imbalance issues, liver damage, reproductive and developmental defects and cancer. My family is not going to allow this to go away. We are furious at all the parties involved in once again using West Virginia as their damned dumping grounds and the people of West Virginia as a damned lab experiment. It’s sickening. Literally. Fighting against Big Bidness in West Virginia is a tough row to hoe but we’re use to it. Our Grandpa Lough was coal miner union organizer and Grandma Lough was a suffragette and we apples fell directly under the tree.
10It’s worse, the president of “Freedom to Pollute” not only declared but he also set up a shadow company to fund the dead one, sheltering those assets from the lawsuits. Murky, evil legal bull shit.
11@PKM and others:
12Whether IRS. EPA or USMC I’m in full support of bringing the not inconsiderable weight of the Fed down on the Koch bros.
Please accept our thank yous and good wishes for all the work you, your family and friends have done and continue to do, Grace Newton.
Hope to see all of you given a chance to speak out with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. West Virginia deserves the backing of everyone. You certainly deserve to have Rachel Maddow speak out on your behalf, too.
13You read my mind, Micr. Was thinking every IRS agent and AG assigned to the Kbros should be accompanied by a special forces team of their choice, when the warrants are delivered.
Double dog dare any of the networks to send an embedded reporter along for my viewing pleasure.
14Looks like our collective memory has forgotten the havoc the strip mines wrought on the midwest with their leaving their mess for the government to clean up. Sadly, nothing new here.
15PKM, gotta have a reporter. As one seasoned old activist told me, no point in doing something if it doesn’t get reported. Also remember Kbros are global these days so remember their involvement with the TPP, a logical extension of their philosophy of no gummint interference. Who all should we contact? (I have my ideas, what’s yours?) Kbros are at every turn. Guess you know they are buying up rights to choose curriculum and profs in private universities in exchange for huge donations. Pay attention to your alma maters. Also for entertainment google them plus whatever, security, retail, water, pick a topic.
16p.s. Grace, praying for you and your family and friends that you have wisdom, facts, safety, and courage as you move ahead.
17No doubt this episode is a classic fuster cluck, but we have to look beyond the obvious guilty parties and our perpetual preoccupation with finding scapegoats. West Virginia has a beleaguered economy. Its principal energy product has become environmentally undesirable. The cost of cleaning up coal and the processes that produce it are making it increasingly uncompetitive with alternative energy sources. In recent years the state’s steel industry collapsed. The greatest burden is falling on families – the unemployed and underemployed. Whatever happens from this, they’re the ones who ultimately will suffer the most.
18Manchin made his millions in the coal industry and has since worked closely with that industry to undermine the EPA regulations which would protect those very families whose water has just been poisoned. I’m ashamed to say he’s a Democrat.
19It has been my experience that before any business can declare bankruptcy, they have to go through a type of decathalon involving lawyers, judges and whatever before the bankruptcy notice is pasted on the front door. There is also another way to declare “bankruptcy” and it is commonly used: set the damn place on fire. If anyone tried this on those tanks at Freedom, the fumes would probably kill everyone in four directions. Kinda like the song which one of these is not like the other but with words changed to which one of these is worse than the other?
20Well, they got the money side covered.
How about the criminal? Damage to a drinking water supply should be criminal whether it is accidental or terroism. If those fools in HLS don’t understand that each and every large repository of toxic material near drinking water supplies are the raw materials for terrorism, then we have a very serious problem.
21Here’s some info from the West Virginia Gazette:
A full account of filings that Freedom and its subsidiaries have made with the West Virginia secretary of state helps reveal a little bit more of the company’s opaque corporate history. Since 1992, Freedom and its associates have made 12 filings, to found companies, dissolve companies, merge companies and change officers.
The company, as currently constituted, has existed for less than three weeks. On Dec. 31 2013, four companies merged under the umbrella of Freedom Industries: Freedom Industries Inc., Etowah River Terminal LLC, Poca Blending LLC and Crete Technologies LLC.
…
Freedom owed federal taxes for the years 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The total amount owed to the IRS is $2,433,449.15, according to the three liens.
Freedom Industries files for bankruptcy
There’s an old game played by some, where one forms a company, runs up lots of debts, sells the assets of the debt-ridden company to a different company (also owned by the folks who owned company #1), and then plays the same game (company #3 eventually buys the assets but not the debts of company #2).
Unfortunately for the folks playing such games, there’s a doctrine called “piercing the corporate veil” – where courts can go past the corporate structure and hold the true owners responsible. It usually happens when the folks playing this game get someone angry who also has the resources to go after them.
Here, the drinking water of the state capital was affected… annoying lots of the state’s rich and powerful people. Worse, it makes an easy-to-understand case for regulating chemicals – thus annoying the coal industry. I expect the folks running Freedom Industries will be asked to take one for the coal industry so the big boys can issue press releases saying “see, our existing regulations are enough!”
22San Fraser, buck up old girl or guy. Not out to deny the reality you know so well. Clean air, water, food; those are rights.
We the ‘good people” support blogs like this and any who get that water, food, homes and health care come before profits.
Mainstream media needs to go back to school. We are not art risk from foreign or domestic enemies, IF we grab a clue and stop creating terrorists.
23If y’all haven’t already seen this it is well worth the read: http://culturalslagheap.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/elemental/#comments
The comments are worth your time too.
24Thanks for the good wishes, I passed them on and they are deeply appreciated. A large part of the problem with getting some West Virginians to fight is many citizens of the state suffer from Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to industry. Coal, Gas and Chemical companies are the ones with “good” jobs. Workers are terrified that those jobs will leave if the companies are forced to follow the rules. Those workers are willing to put themselves at risk, they know those jobs will probably end up killing them, but I don’t think they’ll be willing to let those same corporations make their families sick. Hopefully, a chemical poisoning their drinking water will get their attention. Thanks again for the good wishes.
25I wonder if this will work. If it does, this is the youngest of my cousins who live in Charleston. This is Roxie and all I have to do is look at that face and I’m enraged all over again.
26https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202961488939898&set=pb.1283988020.-2207520000.1390215357.&type=3&theater
National Geographic has a wonderful article detailing a century of environmental issues:
27http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140116-chemical-valley-west-virginia-chemical-spill-coal/
The article points out, “coal-cleansing chemical that spilled from Freedom Industries’ storage tank into the Elk River last Thursday is only the latest insult in what for some has been a lifetime of industrial accidents that have poisoned groundwater, spewed toxic gas emissions, and caused fires, explosions, and other disasters that neither state nor federal regulators have been able to protect against.”
The owner of the chemical plant in West Texas also filed for bankruptcy.
28WV, it’s time to create an economy that’s not primarily based on extractive industries. You’re in my thoughts. I know your state as a hiker (Appalachian Trail and adjacent side trails), and haven’t been back since the dawn of mountaintop removal, because my heart would break.
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