[steam_cannon]

This sounds a bit like how we've declared all of Iran's banking as
criminal in our economic war against them. I wonder if this is related?
Perhaps anyone wanting to trade in Euros instead of Petrodollars is
an organized crime syndicate trying to control energy resources?

I'm not sure that's what's going on, but it sounds awfully similar to this:

The March 20, 2008 US Declaration of (economic) War on Iran
http://www.japanfocus.org/products/details/2707

...A unit within the US Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which issued a March 20 advisory to
the world's financial institutions under the title: “Guidance to Financial
Institutions on the Continuing Money Laundering Threat Involving Illicit
Iranian Activity.”

[joeltrout]

If you use a loose definition of organized crime then OPEC would fall into it or govts such as Venezula.

Organized crime such as the mafia might be able to control local energy resources but not on a large scale.

joeltrout

[wisconsin_cur]

Looking at the votes so far it looks like I did a poor job writing the questions.

[auscanman]

I chose other for three reasons:

First, the hand of organized crime extends a lot further than most imagine. If there's money to be made in something, you can be pretty certain that organized crime, of some sort, is involved... eg. shark finning, metal stripping, drugs,etc. So, it seems pretty clear that they'd get involved in energy resources.

Second, given the aforementioned extent of organized crime, and the fact that all who accept bribes from organized criminals are a party to their crimes, there is now a severe blurring of the lines between politicians, and organized criminals.

Finally, the distinction between organized criminals and corporations is also a blurry one. Corporations can effectively bribe politicians, and get laws that stand in their way changed through lobbying. Organized criminals just pay to have those laws ignored rather than changed, and internalize their profits to a greater extent than public corporations, who have shareholders to pay dividends to. Plenty of corporations have adopted the tactics of organized crime in developing countries in the past, and continue to do so today, including oil companies. So, in reality organized crime has controlled energy resources for a long time.

[idiom]

And here's me thinking they were manufacturing bootleg Solar Panels.

[Dreamtwister]

"Organized crime" is just the term the ruling criminals use to label their smaller competitors.

[steam_cannon]

Looking at the votes so far it looks like I did a poor job writing the questions.

Maybe, but it's a good thread!

And here's me thinking they were manufacturing bootleg Solar Panels.

I can imagine...

[Kaj]

When I saw the thread title, I thought it was gonna be about the US admisitration...

[joewp]

I chose "other" but really, what do you call an organization that literally prints money and charges interest on it, and if you don't pay has its goons (sheriff) throw you out of your house?

The only real organized crime around here is the federal government and the banks and corporations.

[americandream]

If you use a loose definition of organized crime then OPEC would fall into it or govts such as Venezula.

Organized crime such as the mafia might be able to control local energy resources but not on a large scale.

joeltrout

Venezuela and that OPEC crowd are witholding OUR oil. Imagine the cheek of the buggers. Not only are they sitting on OUR oil, but they have the gall to ask for a fair price..cheeky little native buggers!

[steam_cannon]

To summarize this thread:

The US has reclassified all entities not kowtowing to US interests as
criminals or if they "might" have guns, terrorists!


Dennis Leary - I'm an Asshole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNzZzsvOClc

Denis Leary, Asshole lyrics
http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/d/denisle ... 75206.html

<Clip>

...You know what Im gonna do
Im gonna get myself a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado convertible
Hot pink, with whale skin hubcaps
And all leather cow interior
And big brown baby seal eyes for head lights (yeah)
And Im gonna drive in that baby at 115 miles per hour
Gettin' 1 mile per gallon,
Sucking down Quarter Pounder cheeseburgers from McDonalds
In the old fashioned non-biodegradable styrofoam containers
And when Im done sucking down those greeseball burgers
Im gonna wipe my mouth with the American flag
And then Im gonna toss the styrofoam containers right out the side
And there aint a goddamn thing anybody can do about it
You know why, because weve got the bombs, thats why
2 words, nuclear fucking weapons, OK?
Russia, Germany, Romania, they can have all the democracy they want
They can have a big democracy cakewalk
Right through the middle of Tiananmen Square
and it wont make a lick of difference
Because weve got the bombs, OK...

<Clip>

...(Hey! You know, you really are an asshole!)
Why don't you just shut up and sing the song, pal?
Im an asshole (hes an asshole.what an asshole)
Im an asshole (hes the worlds biggest asshole)

A-S-S-H-O-L-E
Everybody
A-S-S-H-O-L-E

Im an asshole and Im proud of it

[joeltrout]

If you use a loose definition of organized crime then OPEC would fall into it or govts such as Venezula.

Organized crime such as the mafia might be able to control local energy resources but not on a large scale.

joeltrout

Venezuela and that OPEC crowd are witholding OUR oil. Imagine the cheek of the buggers. Not only are they sitting on OUR oil, but they have the gall to ask for a fair price..cheeky little native buggers!

Sorry I didn't clarify earlier. My thought doesn't relate to the oil being OURS because it clearly is not.

It relates to all the investment that the foreign oil companies (US, British, etc..) used in places like Venezula and OPEC and then those countries nationalized the oil fields. Even though some of the foreign oil companies got paid...I can guarantee the payment wasn't based on $117/bbl oil.

joeltrout

[Eli]

It is bullshit, the powers that be are turning a blind eye to all kinds of frauds and deceptions right now, and they are often times the authors of the same.

This is just like how they made a big deal about insiders shorting stocks and creating false rumors. Yet they cheerlead when stocks rally on lies.

Just look at the ratings agencies they are clearly and patently lying but it is a sanction act so it is blessed. If they really rated debt as they should even by their own standards the US economy would blow up today.

We live in a world of lies run by liars act accordingly.

[TheDude]

The Bush administration is an example of organized crime, could a pot ever call a kettle blacker?

If things begin to unwind I do expect O.C. to build up around energy resources though, protection being offered to service station owners for instance.

[eXpat]

"Organized crime" is just the term the ruling criminals use to label their smaller competitors.

+1
It can be it can be successfully argued that all the big ones (Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, etc ) fulfill all the requirements to be considered "Organized Crime" (article1, article2 , article3 , article4 ,article5, etc, etc ).

[joeltrout]

"Organized crime" is just the term the ruling criminals use to label their smaller competitors.

+1
It can be it can be successfully argued that all the big ones (Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, etc ) fulfill all the requirements to be considered "Organized Crime" (article1, article2 , article3 , article4 ,article5, etc, etc ).

You have to remember the "big ones" are tiny compared to national oil companies and the "big ones" really don't have all the cards in their hand like so many americans think. Many Americans think because Exxon is the largest US oil company that they control the world oil because nobody is bigger than the US. Exxon is small compared to national oil companies.

joeltrout

[eXpat]

CNN.Com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned Wednesday that organized criminal networks have penetrated portions of the international energy market and tried to control energy resources.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey speaks Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, he said similar efforts have targeted the international financial system by injecting billions of illicit funds to try to corrupt financial service providers.

True?

Diversion?

Both?

Then again attorney general Michael Mukasey seems to be an expert in criminal activities himself waterboarding questions, Survelliance plea , Padilla case , nice chap...

[eXpat]

"Organized crime" is just the term the ruling criminals use to label their smaller competitors.

+1
It can be it can be successfully argued that all the big ones (Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, etc ) fulfill all the requirements to be considered "Organized Crime" (article1, article2 , article3 , article4 ,article5, etc, etc ).

You have to remember the "big ones" are tiny compared to national oil companies and the "big ones" really don't have all the cards in their hand like so many americans think. Many Americans think because Exxon is the largest US oil company that they control the world oil because nobody is bigger than the US. Exxon is small compared to national oil companies.

joeltrout

The point I was trying to make joeltrout is that absolutely no one can claim any moral high ground here, everyone has skeletons in their closet .

[joeltrout]

The point I was trying to make joeltrout is that absolutely no one can claim any moral high ground here, everyone has skeletons in their closet .

I just wanted to clarify that because many people hate the big 5 and actually don't under the oil markets.

Thanks for clarifying your point.

joeltrout

[eXpat]

My pleasure joeltrout , if anything I consider myself a pragmatist; one of the few things that piss me off nowadays is when people that ought to know better like the attorney here, open his mouth to spill bs. Then again, that is not a message directed to people in this forum, but to woolly animals that like to graze...