FedUpUSA

Archive for June 9th, 2010

By Karl Denninger

Here from the local paper:

Okaloosa County and the U.S. Coast Guard have developed a boom plan for the Destin Pass that county Public Safety Director Dino Villani thinks could be the best oil deflection strategy on the Gulf Coast.

But it will be later in the week at best before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues the permit required for the booms to be deployed.

Of course he does.  Note: this is a “new” boom plan.  Why?

The new plan was devised this weekend after the Coast Guard ordered the removal of booms set in its navigable waters.

ITS navigable waters?

Uh, no.  Those are STATE waters.

Yes, they’re navigable.  They’re still STATE waters.

The new boom plan also calls for the Coast Guard to attach boom at the Destin Bridge that will be extended east and west to the shoreline. Additional county booming will be stretched over two channels that extend into Choctawhatchee Bay.

“If you look at the whole thing, the way it’s laid out, I think it’s as good as it’s gonna get,” Villani said. “I think this is the best pass protection I’ve seen.”

Which will do exactly nothing in a 3-5kt flood current, which is what we get here every single day – unless it covers the ENTIRE opening with no gaps (in which case you can’t navigate through it) and there’s enough catch facility (and coverage) to pump it out of there. 

There won’t be.

“I don’t understand, if we have a unified command, why we’re not unified,” said County Administrator Jim Curry. “I’m very upset and very frustrated that there is not a coordinated effort here and local officials are left at the bottom of the trail.”

One word: KATRINA.

Need I say more?

The Federal Government exists to jerk you off and play games.  That’s what they do.  Then it’s not their fault because “nature” took its course.

Have you wondered about the Horizon?  How about all the documents on the web that have been found?  That BP knew the Blowout Preventer was not working properly?  That MMS approved changes in well design in hours, with nothing other than a simple request?  That MMS might have even known about the BOP being inoperative?  That there was no “tools up” order issued against that site despite the fact that without a WORKING blowout preventer you can’t stop a blown well except with a multi-month relief well drilling plan, during which the hole is open-flow?

You know the most-feared words in the English language?

I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.

Then there are some people with a bit of sanity:

Many residents, such as Fort Walton Beach businessman Edwin Watts, say they don’t believe booms will survive the beating they’ll take from currents in the pass. Watts said he fears oil will slip, under, through and around the booms and enter Choctawhatchee Bay.

“Oil is going to be in the bay,” Watts said. “And if it gets into the bay, it’s over with.”

Yep.

In his e-mail to fellow county officials, Villani said of blocking the pass: “We have reviewed this with (boom contractor) Coastal Engineering and the Coast Guard.

“Again they reiterate that while it would be an incredible if not impossible feat to fill it in, it would be exponentially harder to reopen it at some later point.”

Baloney.  You have a shitload of sand on both sides of the pass and on the bottom outside.  You need to be able to breach water level during one slack tide period with your sand pumps.  Once the sand is above water level, that’s that.  Water isn’t coming in or out.

Clearing it later is even easier.  Once you get it open the water will help.

Curry said federal and state authorities have advised the county that sand alone could not be used to block the entrance of the pass and that pilings and some sort of permanent material would be needed to do the job.

Why not?  Let me guess – the dunes that are naturally there on both sides now are insufficient?  How come they seem to work everywhere else?

“It would take a herculean effort to build and put in place and take all kinds of permits to be approved,” he said. “And then what? You’d close it to any kind of navigation.”

That’s the real problem right there.

As Dr. McCoy observed in the bar in Star Trek III, The Search For Spock, “There aren’t going to be any damned permits!  How can you get a permit to do a damned illegal thing?“

Leaders ask forgiveness later if necessary, as is occurring in one place in Alabama right now, where the local volunteer fire chief is prepared to sink barges and go to jail if necessary to prevent the waters in their estuary from being destroyed. 

In another, Perdido Key, where I outlined in my previous Ticker as one of the points that could be closed, it is now too late and thick oil flows are entering the estuary there.  Like the estuaries and bays here, the bottoms there are mud and the oil will destroy the hatchery permanently.

We’re running out of time and we need leaders.

Now.

The Market-Ticker

By Karl Denninger

So said Bernanke this morning – more than once.

Oh really Ben?

Bernanke also said:

“Achieving long-term fiscal sustainability will be difficult,” Bernanke said today. “But unless we as a nation make a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.”

And…

Responding to a question, Bernanke said the recovery appears to have made an “important transition” from relying on government support and inventory rebuilding to private demand.

Uh, where?

Note that the fiscal deficit spending never decreased after 2001 – and that it was simply “stepped up” to more than double the 2003-2007 level when this last crisis hit.

Bernanke says that the primary deficit needs to be reduced to ~2%.  Ok, again, how?  We never got there from 2002 onward, so what sort of “credible” plan do you think will be presented to do it now?

To get the deficit down to that figure we would have to increase tax collections (not rates) or cut spending in a combined $1.1 trillion.

It’ll never happen until the “someones” who are loaning us money shred Treasury’s credit card, and when that happens the result will be an instantaneous cut-off of the entitlement tit to which a full 30% of the government has become habituated.

Good luck.

The Market-Ticker