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Sunday, January 17, 2016

ALEC Koch Malheur



Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface.It is vital for all known forms of life.
 On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's crust water is found in seas and oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of ice and liquid water suspended in air), and precipitation.
Only 2.5% of this water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice (excepting ice in clouds) and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products
                      ----wikipedia
Fred Koch had a long history of heart problems. His son David described in 2010 how he received word that his father had died: “Father was on a hunting trip bird-shooting in Utah. He was in a blind with a gun loader next to him. He was having heart palpitations and wasn’t shooting that well. Finally a lone bird came over. He took the shot and hit it square. The duck falls from the air. He turns to the loader and says, ‘Boy, that was a magnificent shot,’ and then keels over dead.”
                    ----wikipedia
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge located roughly 30 miles (48 km) south of the city of Burns in Oregon's Harney Basin. Administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge area is roughly T-shaped with the southernmost base at Frenchglen, the northeast section at Malheur Lake and the northwest section at Harney Lake.

The refuge was created in 1908 by order of President Theodore Roosevelt to protect habitat for diverse waterfowl and migratory birds, and grew to encompass 187,757 acres (760 km2; 293 sq mi) of public lands. A popular site for birding, fishing, hunting and hiking, the refuge gained widespread attention in early 2016 after its headquarters complex was occupied by armed anti-government members of rump militias.
                ----wikipedia

The sedges were full of birds, the waters were full of birds: avocets, stilts, willets, killdeers, coots, phalaropes, rails, tule wrens, yellow-headed black birds, black terns, Forster’s terns, Caspian terns, pintail, mallard, cinnamon teal, canvasback, redhead and ruddy ducks. Canada geese, night herons, great blue herons, Farallon cormorants, great white pelicans, great glossy ibises, California gulls, eared grebes, Western grebes—clouds of them, acres of them, square miles—one hundred and forty-three square miles of them!
~ Dallas Lore Sharp - 1914 - Lake Malheur Bird Reservation

Malheur is a unique wetland oasis
surrounded by Great Basin desert.
Distinctive mammalian habitats
include large fresh water marshes
containing extensive stands of
emergent aquatic vegetation, riparian
areas bordering streams and canals;
irrigated meadows; semi-arid
grassland desert areas dominated
by sagebrush and greasewood; and
basaltic rimrocks.

The following birds have been seen five times or less on
the Refuge and are considered accidental:
Snowy OwlPacific LoonRed-necked GrebeTri-colored HeronMute SwanEmperor GooseGreen-winged Teal (European)American Black DuckOldsquawRed-breasted MerganserWhite-tailed KiteBroad-winged HawkBlack RailCommon MoorhenUpland SandpiperRed KnotRed PhalaropeLong-tailed JaegerGlaucous-winged GullSabine’s GullWhite-winged DoveSnowy OwlNorthern Pygmy-OwlBarred OwlBlack SwiftWhite-throated SwiftBroad-tailed HummingbirdRed-headed WoodpeckerWhite-headed WoodpeckerEastern Wood-PeeweeEastern PhoebeTropical KingbirdScissor-tailed FlycatcherHutton’sVireoGray JayWestern Scrub-JayPinyon JayPurple MartinPhainopeplaGolden-winged WarblerHermit WarblerBlack-throated WarblerBlackburnian WarblerYellow-throated WarblerPalm WarblerPrairie WarblerProthonotary WarblerWorm-eating WarblerKentucky WarblerHooded WarblerCanada WarblerSummer TanagerScarlet TantagerIndigo BuntingPainted BuntingDickcisselLark BuntingLapland LongspurCommon GrackleStreak-backed OrioleBaltimore Oriole
Accidentals
The following birds have been seen five times or less on
the Refuge and are considered accidental:
Snowy Owl
©Rick Vetter
Pacific Loon
Red-necked Grebe
Tri-colored Heron
Mute Swan
Emperor Goose
Green-winged Teal (European)
American Black Duck
Oldsquaw
Red-breasted Merganser
White-tailed Kite
Broad-winged Hawk
Black Rail
Common Moorhen
Upland Sandpiper
Red Knot
Red Phalarope
Long-tailed Jaeger
Glaucous-winged Gull
Sabine’s Gull
White-winged Dove
Snowy Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Barred Owl
Black Swift
White-throated Swift
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
White-headed Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Peewee
Eastern Phoebe
Tropical Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Hutton’s Vireo
Gray Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
Pinyon Jay
Purple Martin
Phainopepla
Golden-winged Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Black-throated Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Palm Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Tantager
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Dickcissel
Lark Bunting
Lapland Longspur
Common Grackle
Streak-backed Oriole
Baltimore Oriole

One of the largest inland marshes in the United States, Malheur and Mud Lakes vary dramatically in size (from 500 to 110,000 acres), but generally fluctuate about 2 feet during the calendar year and on average cover 40,000 acres. Malheur Lake receives water from the Blitzen and Silvies rivers, fills from the center, then flows east and finally to the west, where it connects with Mud Lake. Water supply is predominantly influenced by snowpack on Steens Mountain to the south and intermittently by the Blue Mountains to the north.

The western section of Malheur Lake, including Mud Lake, is a series of natural ponds separated by a network of low dune islands and peninsulas. The center section, the deepest area of the lake, is predominantly open water with some hardstem bulrush stands near the mouth of tributaries. The eastern section tends to be more alkaline and lacks tall emergent vegetation.

Common emergent species in Malheur and Mud Lakes include hardstem bulrush, cattail, burreed, Baltic rush, and various sedges. The lakes contain extensive areas of open, aquatic bed habitat supporting submergent plants such as sago pondweed, water milfoil, horned pondweed, coontail, small and leafy pondweed, white water buttercup, bladderwort, and widgeon grass.

when clean water becomes a prized "collectible"

clean water on earth is life.

supply and demand: who is ruining the basis for life on earth? not my kind! (we quit years and years ago.
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"But since last summer, those retirees have had to contemplate not only the loss of the Champlin name, but also the company itself.

That's when Union Pacific Resources agreed to a merger that would fold the company into Anadarko Petroleum and move its Fort Worth operation to Houston. The move is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The Champlin name has joined Humble, Skelly, Magnolia, Sinclair and other extinct giants from the energy past that live on through collectibles and the memories of the people who made them great. …"

https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-66952884.html

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NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Anadarko Petroleum said it was reviewing its appellate options in the wake of a $159.9 million penalty tied to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Anadarko held a 25-percent stake in the Macondo well that failed, triggering the cascading series of events that led to the fatal Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans charged the company a penalty of $159.9 million for its part in the consortium behind the spill.


http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Industry/2015/12/02/Anadarko-reviewing-penalty-for-Gulf-oil-spill/6391449065057/

___________

"The name Macondo had been the winning selection in a BP employee contest as part of an internal United Way campaign.

 It comes from the fictitious cursed town in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez."

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In April 2014, Anadarko settled with the Federal Government to pay over $5 billion to clean up environmental waste sites around the country. It was the largest environmental contamination settlement in American history.

The environmental contamination sites were inherited by Anadarko after it purchased Kerr-McGee in 2005. As background, Kerr-McGee had spun off the company Tronox to offload generations of environmental dumping of toxic waste across 22 states beginning in the 1920s.

According to one report, "Kerr-McGee, rather than pay for the environmental mess it created, decided to shift the liabilities between 2002 and 2006 into Tronox. Kerr-McGee, meanwhile, kept its valuable oil and gas assets."

 Anadarko then purchased the "clean" portion of Kerr-McGee free of its legacy of environmental dumping. In 2009, shareholders of Tronox sued Anadarko (successor to Kerr-McGee) for having misled investors about the large environmental and other debts Tronox would inherit from its parent corporation.

 The environmental pollution included polluting Lake Mead in Nevada with rocket fuel, leaving behind radioactive waste piles throughout the territory of the Navajo Nation and dumping carcinogenic creosote in communities throughout the East, Midwest and South at its wood-treating facilities.
********
In April 2014, the federal government reached an over $5 billion settlement with Anadarko in the largest environmental contamination case in American history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadarko_Petroleum
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Koch pollutes water but OK will be drinking it in Enid




"Once the project is completed, Koch will be able to process so-called gray water discharged from the city of Enid’s wastewater treatment plant.

That is expected to substantially reduce the facility’s use of Enid drinking water, cutting it by as much as five million gallons per day.

At present, Koch uses about half of the 12 million gallons of drinkable water consumed daily in Enid."


http://www.enidnews.com/news/koch-nitrogen-expansion-to-benefit-company-area/article_62d51636-b4c2-11e4-9a8b-bb00814fd9e4.html

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"Once completed, Koch will be able to process so-called gray water discharged from the city of Enid’s wastewater treatment plant. The change would cut the plant’s water usage by almost five million gallons per day. Currently, the plant uses six million gallons of potable water per day, almost half of what the rest of the community utilizes, Kisling said.


Mayor Bill Shewey told Enid Rotary Club on Monday the plant would cut its water use to 500,000 gallons per day by converting gray water into potable water."

http://www.enidnews.com/news/koch-fertilizer-expansion-still-on-track/article_ccf0520c-1fab-11e5-8fa0-0f44d7825ffe.html

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Meanwhile, in Flint, Michigan....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/15/this-is-how-toxic-flints-water-really-is/

Koch, ALEC, Bundy: fascism



"Grijalva wrote that, “Despite actively pressing state lawmakers on a range of issues, ALEC has failed for decades to register as a lobbying organization in states where it has promoted changes to state laws,” and that ALEC’s work constitutes illegal unregistered lobbying.

 For its part, ALEC has several pieces of model legislation for Republican states to “demand that Congress extinguish title and government jurisdiction over public lands that are held in trust by the US federal government.”

 Several Republican-controlled states have already began doing ALEC and the Koch brothers’ bidding such as in 2012 when Utah Republicans passed a land grab measure, the Transfer of Public Lands Act, that was written for the Koch brothers by ALEC."


http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/21/courageous-democrat-stands-calls-investigation-alec.html
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"The father of these famous right-wing billionaires was Fred Koch, who started his fortune with $500,000 received from Stalin for his assistance constructing 15 oil refineries in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

A couple of years later, his company, Winkler-Koch, helped the Nazis complete their third-largest oil refinery. The facility produced hundreds of thousands of gallons of high-octane fuel for the Luftwaffe, until it was destroyed by Allied bombs in 1944.

Twenty years after collaborating with the Nazis, Fred Koch lost none of his taste for extremism. In 1958 he was one of the 11 original members of the John Birch Society, an organization which accused scores of prominent Americans, including President Dwight Eisenhower, of communist sympathies."

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the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about, and fascism as defined by FDR as "corporate ownership of government" are embodied in the Koch dynasty.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-candidates-stay-quiet-on-oregon-standoff/2016/01/03/b8b9806c-b239-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html



Politics
Republican candidates stay quiet on events in Oregon
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Activists, militiamen occupy Oregon wildlife refuge
Play Video1:15

Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Headquarters was occupied Saturday, Jan. 2, by a group of activists protesting the federal prosecution of two ranchers, slated to report to prison Monday on arson charges. (Reuters)
By Katie Zezima and David Weigel January 3  
Republican presidential candidates are staying mum as an armed group has taken over part of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon — even those who supported the father of at least one of the group’s leaders, who had his own standoff with the government in 2014, and have called for limits on federal control over Western land.

Some of the issues involved in the standoff — constitutional rights, allegations of federal government overreach and individual liberties — have come to the fore in the GOP primary race. And as Western states are poised to play a larger role in the contest, so has the issue of property rights in a region where the federal government controls about half of the land.

But few candidates seemed willing to wade into any of these issues Sunday as the leaders of the group said they are standing up against government overreach and are prepared to remain there for “as long as it takes.” The group said it is protesting the case of two Oregon ranchers who were convicted of arson in 2012 and are scheduled to report to federal prison Monday. The ranchers were convicted on a broad terrorism charge. Many ranchers and land users in the West lease public land.

The effort is being led by at least one son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who had an armed standoff with the government in 2014 over land rights. Bundy was criticized for making racially charged remarks, leading many politicians to back away from him.

Those willing to comment on the Oregon situation quickly ruled it out of bounds.

Familiar faces among Oregon’s armed occupiers: The notorious Bundy family
View Photos “The war has just begun, “ Ammon Bundy said after his family won their spat with the government over grazing rights in 2014. Now, Ammon and two of his brothers are part of an armed militia that has taken over a building at a wildlife refuge to protest a pair of ranchers’ prison sentences for arson on federal land. Here’s a look at how the 2014 confrontation unfolded.
“I know a good federal compound for Bundy and his gang: a U.S. penitentiary,” tweeted John Weaver, a senior strategist for the campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

But there was relative quiet from some more conservative Republican presidential candidates who had previously called for the government to release more of the land it owns. The issue has become a larger one in the GOP primary contest as states such as Colorado, Idaho and Nevada may play a bigger role in determining a nominee in a large, fractured field.


In June, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) campaigned across Nevada calling for federal land to be transferred to states in the West.

“I understand the government owns a little bit of your land out here,” Paul said in Reno. “Maybe we can rearrange that so the federal government is out of your hair.”

He also met with Bundy after a campaign stop in Mesquite, Nev., something Paul disputes the details of. Bundy told The Washington Post that he and Paul spoke for 15 to 20 minutes, mostly about land rights. Bundy said members of his family were also present.

“I did get to visit with him for several minutes in private,” Bundy said.

Paul did not address the standoff Sunday.

"Legislators in Western states, in coordination with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, had campaigned unsuccessfully for the federal land to be sold. In his 2015 memoir “A Time for Truth,” Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) described how he and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) bonded over the issue before Cruz ran for the Senate.

“There is no reason for the federal government to own huge portions of any state,” Cruz recalled. “Mike pointed out to me that the value of all that federal land was roughly $14 trillion. At the time, the national debt also happened to be $14 trillion.

 That suggested to us an obvious and elegant solution for eliminating the debt and moving as much land as possible — other than national parks — into private hands.”
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Sedition, treason, fraud, terrorism...etc etc etc