Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Koch Brothers Are The Largest Land Owners Of Canada's Tar Sands
thinkprogress.org/ | author | date

The Koch Brothers are known for many things -- their vast financial empire, their conservative political ideology, their active political involvement, their support of the Keystone XL pipeline -- but their Alberta, Canada land ownership has not been as widely discussed. A Washington Post feature has brought this subject back to attention as the Keystone XL debate heats up and discussion over the relationship between the Koch Brothers and their Republican allies takes on even greater significance in an important election year.

According to the Washington Post, which uses a report from the activist group the International Forum on Globalization as a foundation, a Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres in the northern Alberta oil sands, an area nearly the size of Delaware. The Post confirmed the group's findings with Alberta Energy, the provincial government's ministry of energy. ... Read more

The biggest lease holder in Canada's oil sands isn't Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It's the Koch brothers.
WashingtonPost | Steven Mufson | 03/20/14

You might expect the biggest lease owner in Canada's oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn't the case. The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.

The Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres -- an area nearly the size of Delaware -- in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada, according to an activist group that studied Alberta provincial records. ... Read more

Petrodollar Alert: Putin Prepares To Announce "Holy Grail" Gas Deal With China
ZeroHedge | author | 03/21/14

While Europe is furiously scrambling to find alternative sources of energy should Gazprom pull the plug on natgas exports to Germany and Europe (the imminent surge in Ukraine gas prices by 40% is probably the best indication of what the outcome would be), Russia is preparing the announcement of the "Holy Grail" energy deal with none other than China, a move which would send geopolitical shockwaves around the world and bind the two nations in a commodity-backed axis. One which, as some especially on these pages, have suggested would lay the groundwork for a new joint, commodity-backed reserve currency that bypasses the dollar, something which Russia implied moments ago when its finance minister Siluanov said that Russia may regain from foreign borrowing this year. Translated: bypass western purchases of Russian debt, funded by Chinese purchases of US Treasurys, and go straight to the source. ... Read more

It Starts Early: Black Preschoolers Suspended at Much Higher Rate Than Whites
AlterNet | Aaron Cantú | 03/21/14

Across institutions, economic indicators and rates of crime, racial gaps abound. Now, new data from the US Department of Education reveals that unequal treatment can begin as early as preschool.

Of the 8,000 toddlers suspended from preschool in 2011--a surreal factoid in and of itself--roughly 45 percent of them were black and 26 percent were white, even though rates of enrollment were nearly the reverse. Latino children were also suspended at a higher rate to whites relative to their enrollment. ... Read more
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