FAHRENHEIT 11/9 - A Film Every (sentient) Citizen Needs To See

Let me say I was glad to read John Anderson's bogus, distorted WSJ review of Michael Moore's new film  'Fahrenheit 11/9' before going to see it with wifey earlier today.  Reading Anderson's claptrap before  actually seeing the movie on the big screen showed me in retrospect the WSJ clown didn't know WTF he was talking about. Indeed, I was led to conclude the author didn't actually see it but instead resorted to canned fishwrap the WSJ likely had on hand for previous Moore films - with a few tweaks and updates added.

But both Janice and I agreed, that contrary to Anderson's balderdash, i.e. that Moore "hasn't made an honest film since 'Bowling for Columbine (2002)'", this latest effort rings  with veracity in every scene, every segment.   To first set the stage here, the title derives from the fact Trump was appointed president at 2:29 a.m. on November 9, 2016.  Hence, "11/9"  The opening scenes show (in juxtaposition) the Hillary party in Philly - expectantly awaiting the confirmation of history (first female president) counterpoised with the initially dour atmosphere at the Trump camp - accompanied to the opening music from the 1976  film  'The Omen'.

As November 8th transits into the wee hours of November 9th, the real horror story begins  This is as first Ohio, then Florida fall to Trump, followed by Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan -  and we see the scenes from Hillary's would be victory party now looking like a wake. Oh, and all her supporters' stricken faces appearing as if Satan himself had incarnated in their midst, as we behold in the reactions:  sobbing, convulsions, screaming...it's all there. For Janice, this was the most difficult part to watch.

The story then burrows into the particulars of the assorted horrors to which we've now been exposed, especially leading up to Trump's coronation.   From the unholy depiction of infamous Michigan criminal governor Rick Snyder (a Trump wannabe billionaire) - who brought on a "slow rolling ethnic cleansing" of Flint, MI -  e.g. by cutting off its water supply to Lake Huron and replacing it with the toxic Flint River (leading to thousands of cases of lead poisoning), to Obama himself actually showing up in Flint to sip its toxic water in a PR gag . That actually provided cover for Snyder, and left a hall full of African -American Flint citizens appalled.  That faux pas also tamped down any 2016 election response from Flint's minority voters - likely helping to toss the industrial Midwest state to Dotard.

Then there were the scenes of Flint subjected to a live fire exercise, with the Dept. of Defense using abandoned ramshackle bldgs. (in minority neighborhoods)  to unleash  bombs and mortars to practice "urban warfare".   A sad and sorry decision sanctioned by good ol' President Obama.  The scenes at the Dem Convention were also enraging as well as illuminating as we beheld each state, VT, RI, WVa, etc, respond to the delegate roll calls by shouting out false delegate totals, i.e. for Hillary, when Bernie actually took the states. Wonder why so many Bernie supporters never bothered to show up to vote, there you have it after that charade.

Moore also features segment after segment showing NY Times headlines pumping and humping for centrist or capitalist positions, including inveighing against "socialists".  None of the Times clips Moore interjects were fake or touched up.   Yes, The Times has been more out in the open with its criticisms of Trump now, but not always. (And they even botched it up again with a half -baked story misrepresenting a Rod Rosenstein sarcastic jab -  to Andy McCabe of the FBI -   re: putting on a wire, i.e. to get Trump using the 25th amendment.  All the Times butthead reporters did is provide ammo for Mueller's enemies and give Dotard a bogus excuse to fire Rosenstein.  Press like that we don't need, if they can't discriminate the sarcastic from the real!  N.B. The Times reporters who broke this malarkey also admitted tonight the sources they relied on weren't even in the meeting where Rosenstein reportedly made that remark.)

That is the other underpinning theme of Moore's film, the degree to which the corporate media - especially the electronic voices of CNN, NBC,  ABC, CBS had all been in bed with Trump from day one.  All the outlets saw a classic   way to keep viewers' eyeballs glued to their broadcasts while they're ratings soared and they raked in money. As former CBS head Les Moonves was heard saying: "This may not be good for the country but it's great for CBS!"  Yeppers,  profits over country.

The effect, as Moore shows, was to give Trump a gazillion hours of free advertising and air time, that helped his campaign immensely. How could it not?  At one point in the film, perhaps one of the more disgusting in the media segment, we see the gathered network lapdogs and cameras all surrounding an empty stage set for a Trump appearance, salivating with bated breath while Dotard keeps them waiting for more than a half hour.  The people's voices and protective "fourth estate"? More like trained dogs, so when Trump barks 'Jump!' they asked 'How high?'

Of course, as with other Michael Moore films, some levity was interjected at specific points, usually when the viewer is almost too distressed with Trump World's antics. One such example is after Moore tries to make a citizen's arrest of Michigan's governor Rick Snyder - but ultimately has to be satisfied with spraying his property using Flint river water,


Now, let's look at some of John Anderson's complaints.

- "One of the chief plaints of 11/  9  - in which he trashes Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, The New York Times.  the entire Democratic establishment - is about the media's slavish attention to Mr. Trump in a movie devoted to Mr. Trump"

But see, the movie was not "devoted to Trump" but rather foursquare devoted to exposing all the ways our system broke down to pave the way for his bogus selection (by the Electoral college, see     .e. g.

• Had The Electoral College Done Its Job The "Anonym...

So, from Obama's Flint MI hijinks, fake drinking its river water, and ordering a live fire exercise on Flint abandoned buildings, to HRC keeping a low profile in key Midwest states (WI, MI), to the D-establishment rigging the game against Bernie using the superdelegate system (and even more recently Dem centrist Steny Hoyer telling a young Colorado candidate from the 6th congressional district to get with the program) we see none of Anderson's "plaints" have a leg to stand on.

The last complaint about the media's slavish attention to Trump when Moore's film is about him is particularly enraging, given it conflates two separate elements: The media's genuinely giving Trump millions of hours of free air time during the 2016 election, vs. Moore making a single 125 minute film - of which maybe 20 mins. at most treats Trump's antics - but in a negative way, to inspire citizen response. That is why I refer to the film as an anthem to action, for progressives to get off of their butts and VOTE November 6th.  Moore's basic message  is simple: Don't "hope" for Mueller, or the press or (name your hero) to save us amidst the Trump nightmare. Get off your butts and do your part going to the polls this  November!)

- "There's more than a little bait and switch going on in Fahrenheit 11/9 and it raises the question of exactly what Mr. Moore is, other than a propagandist. He's not a journalist except of the aggregator variety."

But aggregators are critically important because they deliver point of view and a needed perspective. In this case of how our country is being adversely affected in multifold ways  The aggregator then in many ways is like the scientific researcher, say in solar physics preparing a paper on solar flare formation-  who first provides an array of  historical background snippets and examples.  These then pave the way to showing the value of the current work,  say offering a flare model based on current sheets, while also delivering an overall perspective of the flare phenomenon.

In the same way, Moore's collection of scenes - from the Snyder "emergency plan"  takeover of the Michigan cities of Pontiac. Detroit, Flint  and Benton Harbor, to the Flint water debacle itself, to the media's slavish treatment and use of Trump for ratings, to the striking teachers of West Virginia, and the Parkland school tragedy and kids response- all weave toward a coherent whole, a point of view that helps us understand what's going on in this country. 

If one looks at similar other efforts by aggregators, e.g. Josh Fox's 'Gasland II',   e.g.

Brane Space: Gasland II - Fracking is Worse Than You Think

One sees that the same method applies. To save time, and not have a 1,000 hour documentary, one selects the most meaningful examples and stitches them together in a coherent whole to forge a viewpoint.   The name for such a person who does this sort of thing then, whether Josh Fox or Michael Moore, is a documentarian.

- "Almost the entire movie is lifted from other sources, and then edited in a way that makes his enemies look as foolish as possible."

This complaint is really, truly imbecilic, because what he describes - at least in terms of using other sources- is exactly what the aggregator Documentary maker does!   It's what Josh Fox did too in 'Gasland' and 'Gasland II'.   So one wonders what planet Anderson inhabits.  As for the editing, there isn't a damned thing wrong with it, having myself seen many of the same scenes, e.g. of the lead catastrophe and brown water in Flint, on the nightly news.  Did Moore have the prescience to put the scenes together in a cogent way? Yes, of course! So what?  That is what he's there to do in order to underscore the account and provide a coherent theme for the movie, i.e. that we are in fire alarm mode with Trump's residency.  Besides, as Anderson then finally admits: "It's not as if Moore has no leg to stand on. ..his was the most prominent liberal voice warning of Mr. Trump's appeal to Midwest voters."

Jeez, on behalf of Mike, thanks for small favors, you blockhead!

And as if to support my contention he's a blockhead:

"And if Moore is going to castigate Mrs. Clinton for her various electoral missteps - shouldn't he mention that despite losing the Electoral College she won the popular vote."

He DID mention it, you fucking dolt! In fact,  he devoted a whole 6 minute segment to it.   This featured the "baby coffins" full of the states' electoral votes being carted in for final verification and counting with Moore's voice over noting "and that should be the end of this"  and "the one who gets the most votes  (Hillary) should be the one elected president"  - as is done in every other democratic nation, He also points out that the EC is a carryover from the "slave master" days.  He leaves little doubt that because of this asinine anachronism the Dems have seen presidential hopes crushed at east twice (including in the Bush v. Gore farce in FLA in 2000).

The most sensational  (and powerful)  tour de force is near the end showing Hitler in one of his many rants but mouthing Trump's own words, directed to his idiot base.  There is also a segment of the last days of the Weimar Republic before Hitler brought it down,  alternating with images of what's happening today, i.e. in separating the children of immigrants.  We also see Hitler using many of the same mass mind appeal techniques Trump is employing now   Pay special attention to the interview with Ben Ferencz - a Chief Prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trials- and the fears raised now, especially in the Trump separation of children from immigrant parents which holds eerie similarities to how the Nazis did the same in their concentration camps.

Anderson - providing more evidence he never actually saw the film (or at least the whole film) also kvetches about the "casual reduction of Trumpites to Nazis."   But  Moore does no such thing. What he does is use a graphic showing the progression (regression?)  of putative democracy to despotism and how Trump hits every marker on it just as Hitler did, beginning with the lack of respect for minorities and outgroups like Muslims.  (The presentation features interspersed clips of assorted white Americans attacking black people in different venues, such as on golf courses and on buses) Also extending to vilification of the press and reporters as well as attacking the judiciary.  The very sort of things Hitler did leading to the Reich laws.   So the analogizing of Trump to Hitler is not off the mark at all.

Incredibly, Anderson also bitches about Moore's choice of a film poster,  e.g. "the poster for the film is a highly unflattering shot of the president's rear end, midswing at  golf course."  So WTF?  You want Moore to be dishonest and touch it up or photo shop it, fake news style? If you have a beef with the poster tell Fatty Arbuckle Jr. to lose a few pounds. (Oh, and maybe spend less time golfing at his properties!)

The most idiotic comment of Anderson's I saved for last, writing of Michael Moore:

"Some might even say he's the left's version of Donald Trump."

No, see uh... Michael Moore has a functioning brain!

The very fact a paid hack like John Anderson couldn't handle this film is reason enough to see it.  But in terms of content and insights (some of which not even Janice was aware of) any citizen who misses it will regret it, especially in the run up to the midterms.

Josh Fox Eats Niall Ferguson’s Lunch on Bill Maher's Real Time

Scene from the Josh Fox documentary ‘Gasland’ in which a homeowner lights his tap water on fire. Fox had the last laugh on terminal bore Niall Ferguson, appearing on Bill Maher last night.

Gasland and Gasland II film maker Josh Fox didn’t hold back Friday night when confronted by the Harvard conservative prof and Über Troll, Niall Ferguson. The fur flew, diatribes were unleashed and Ferguson howled “Cheap Shot!” after Fox suggested he might be one of the beneficiaries of fracking which is why he so avidly defends it. Ferguson resorted to just about every tawdry ruse and cheap tactic in the pseudo-armory of the entitled, aristocrat class, including denigrating Fox’s credentials, asking at one point: “What qualifies you to do this apart from being a film maker?” Fox responded: “I’m an American CITIZEN!” To which the audience cheered. Bravo! And to be sure, the citizen has paramountcy when federal, state and local governments try to undermine our voices.


Ferguson, twisting his face up to emulate a spoiled brat, then deplored the absence of any “science” in Fox's film efforts. But Fox held his own, especially on the issue of the water contamination- challenging Ferguson on whether he’s actually examined the data.


Most pleasing to the audience was Fox calling out Ferguson for his constant interruptions: “You haven’t let me complete a single sentence yet without interruption!” But this is common for the entitled likes of a twerp Harvard history professor. One can only feel sorry for his students who must resort to extreme distractions when they’re caught up in one of his classes.


Ferguson harped on an “MIT study” but that study MIT: The Facts On Fracking Methane Emissions,   was more concerned with the level of methane emissions relative to ordinary gas drilling – it didn’t address the water contamination issues at all. What we DO know is that Theo Colborn and researchers at the Endocrine Disruption Exchange here in Colorado pored through industry and government documents to assemble a list of generic chemicals used in hydraulic fracking, with the findings published in the journal, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment(2011).


The results are scary to say the least. Of  353 fracking chemicals for which they could find health information, nearly half affected the brain and nervous system. Meanwhile, a quarter were likely carcinogens and forty percent had the potential to adversely impact the endocrine system which regulates sexual development, pregnancy and critical aspects of child development.


Oil and gas industry PR meisters and hacks insist the levels of their chemicals are so low that there’s no need for concern, but scientists like Colborn aren’t assured. They know the existing data show that fetal and early childhood exposures to even very low levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals can have lasting effects over a lifetime. These effects include infertility and early puberty in girls.


Another worrisome aspect that twits like Ferguson overlook, is the debris – including radioactive- hurled up to form pools of produced water. These pools contain not only the chemicals originally injected into the ground, but heavy metals as well as radioactive material – which can drift into nearby homes, school yards. This finding has been published in ‘New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy’ by Alisa Rich who has studied such ponds, pools in Texas.


At the end of the Maher Real Time show it was a double TKO for Josh Fox, taking out both the troll Niall Ferguson as well as Neoliberal hack Jonathan Alter who at one point came to Ferguson's aid. (Neoliberals of the same political class stick together like rats.....errrrr.....birds of a feather.)


Of course, make no mistake the oil and gas industry will squeal like stuck pigs, just as much as the intelligence community is for having its own excesses exposed. We citizens will always have to expect those who would keep us deaf, dumb and blind to react this way. They want us to remain sheep, and when others help us to break out of the sheep mold, the arrogant corporate-war-spy state goes ape shit, along with all their whore lackeys. This is what the real citizen comes to expect, and we ignore it in our pursuit of truth and transparency pertaining to issues affecting our lives. We also continue to try to wake up our slumbering, semi-comatose fellow citizens who, for some reason, seem to think none of this matters, at least in their self-contained, egocentric social media universe.

Doctors Prevented from Warning Patients of Fracking Chemicals?

Scene from the documentary ‘Gasland’ in which a homeowner lights his tap water on fire.

Barely one day after the news of a 10,000+ gallon toxic spill near Parachute, Colo., threatening the spring mountain runoff into the Colorado River and the state's water supply, the news that Colorado doctors have been muzzled came as a shocker. According to a Denver Post article yesterday (‘Colorado Docs Chafe at Secrecy Oath Required’, p. 4A) doctors in our state must now sign a “confidentiality pledge” in order to obtain information on chemicals used for fracking by the oil and gas industry. This is information they may need to take care of their patients and protect the public health, i.e. from rampaging carcinogenics which we may already may be drinking (after 555 toxic spills the past two years, most within 1500’ of ground water supplies)

As the Post article notes:   “A state requirement that doctors sign Form 35, developed last year by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, aims to protect industry trade secrets while also letting doctors fulfill duties.

But the Colorado Medical Society contends the form does not protect doctors from punishment for sharing information about chemicals with other medical professionals and public health authorities. No doctor has signed the form.”

And why should they when it’s obviously a blatant muzzle? A device to protect the toxic polluters in the fracking industry so they're allowed to run amuck in our state, poisoning our already dwindling water supplies as they use them up (with 5 million gals. wasted per fracked well). The fact that two state departments, ostensibly with the mandate to protect the public welfare, are working in collusion with the gas –oil industry is an abomination enough. Hickenlooper, the governor, and all his clones ought to be ashamed of themselves!


But now to add insult to injury and try to muzzle doctors is beyond even the level of atrocity. As one doctor (Michael Pramenko of Grand Junction) quoted in the piece put it:

“I would have very mixed feelings about signing a form that tells me I could not be proactive about sharing this information with the Health Department.”

He went on to add

“To me, if there’s a chemical in the environment and there are potentially other people being exposed it does not make sense from a health standpoint to not be sharing that information.”

Then there is the very likely scenario, as noted by a Medical Society attorney (ibid.), that one or more patients could be presenting symptoms attributable to an unknown toxic chemical. Perhaps a rash that won’t abate, vomiting, dizziness …who knows? Who can forget the horrific California pollution story on which the film ‘Erin Brockovitch’ was based. Brockovitch, in that story, finally turned up the chemical (hexavalent chromium) that was causing hundreds of cancers in a small town. Of course industry wants to keep such things secret! That’s their warp and woof!


In a way this latest 'Form' 35 maneuver is evocative of the ploy used by the toxic sludge fertilizer industry when they attempted to halt publication of the book  'Toxic Sludge is Good For You' - the handbook for recognizing all PR meisters and hacks. Especially, the mutants that want to try to convince the average American that putting shit mixed with benzene, dioxins etc. all over crops is good for them. Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, the authors, noted the efforts of the sludge industry to try to get them to back off, insisting that all the materials in the sludge were "organic" waste, not toxic. But when the authors investigated they found out differently!  Not only was the sludge laced with hundreds of unpronounceable toxic industrial chemicals, but sewage as well. And they exposed the fact the producers were attempting to use it as a cheap way to get rid of waste-effluent. Hey, why not? If you can make $$$ from it! Never mind the ten thousand kids that get gastro-enteritis!

Look, folks, we have a mounting battle with these vermin as cancer rates ramp up across the nation. We need to force our political hacks, wherever they reside, to back off from promoting the poisoning of us all, as well as adding to our costly health care burden. Don't do it for me, do it for yourselves, your kids, their kids...

If nothing is done, and we just sit back and allow these industrial energy maggots to crap all over us, what do you suppose the world will be like in 10 years? In 20? Do you want your kids suffering from enormous liver tumors, or pancreatic cancer? THINK about that! And then find out if fracking is going on in your state and if it is pull out the stops to halt it. And while you're at it,. make sure to keep pressure on Obama not to sign that Keystone XL pipeline deal either. It's the ONE thing he can do without the need for a congressional vote.

But it does take balls.

That Disgusting Oil-Reeking Fluid Coming From Your Tap? It's WATER!

Scene from the documentary ‘Gasland’ in which a homeowner lights his tap water on fire. Below: Fracking scene on the Colorado Front Range.

In the superb anti-fracking documentary "Gasland" one scene shows a homeowner actually lighting the water as it pours from his tap. This to show how much methane is in that water. Meanwhile, in another scene, a homeowner nearly vomits after trying to get a glass of water from his tap and finding it reeks like kerosene and has a brownish hue. He tosses it away and goes out to get bottled water.

According to Josh Fox the Director:

“This isn't some dystopian nightmare, but the harsh reality in communities from Texas to Colorado to Pennsylvania. People are feeling completely upended,"

This is thanks to gas companies which have been leasing thousands of acres of pristine watershed land while laying waste to communities and water supplies, unleashing thousands of cancers in the wake.  This in a nation which lacks any true universal health coverage (the Obamacare plan doesn't qualify since people still have to pay through a private insurer in an 'exchange' or on the open market.)

And what has the gas industry's response been to the film? PROPAGANDA! BWAAAHAAAHA!

Bull pockey! The scenes don't lie, and in truth it is the fossil fuel industry and gassers that create the propaganda. "Oh, there  ain't nothin' to fret over! We won't destroy your water supply or health!"    In a pig's eye! In fact, the analogy is very close to the era (still extant) where toxic sludge is used as 'fertilizer' despite containing hundreds of toxins, effluent and carcinogenic chemicals. See, for example, the book  'Toxic Sludge is Good For You' - the handbook for all PR meisters and hacks.  

Meanwhile, here in Colorado, a number of recent toxic frack spills are setting the stage for our own flaming faucets and oil-slick glasses of H2O. According to a Denver Post Report (Feb. 15, p. 1A) :   "PDC Energy workers at the site of an 84,000 gallon spill of greenish, oil-laden fracking fluid on Thursday said they had pretty well cleaned up the mess." 

Maybe so, but bear in mind that NO inspectors were at the site, so we don't really know what they did with the effluent, or if they pumped it back into underground aquifers. (PDC operates 2,500 wells in the Waterburg formation along the Front Range).  Meanwhile, we are informed (ibid.): "Colorado Oil and Gas Commission regulators are continuing to monitor the cleanup".

 Wow, THAT is encouraging!  State spokesman Todd Hartmann added:   "Rest assured we will be physically engaged- present- AT the site!"  

Jeebus peace! I can now sleep peacefully at night! Wonder of wonders! Maybe I won't have to deal with flaming faucets after all!   The Post article also noted that PDC has reported a dozen spills over the past year including 6 in the past two months. Evidently, in the worst one a "mechanical failure" was to blame. The result?   "Water fouled with  oil and chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing sprayed from the well (4 miles north of Windsor) for more than 30 hours."  

The same report notes that a Jan. 22 spill released oil "contaminating groundwater with benzene, toluene and xylene chemicals"  

And the gas fuckers, excuse me.....FRACKERS.. still want to shout down "Gasland" as propaganda?  

The Post report goes on (p. 7A) to add that:   "expanding operations around Colorado have reported more than 2,000 spills over the past 5 years with roughly 17% contaminating ground water."  

Now, this is in a state which has a severe drought and for which there are and have been water restrictions in many parts. A state that can barely support its water-intensive agriculture, yet can afford to waste or contaminate millions of gallons from our watershed, aquifers with fracked water.  

Meanwhile, here in COS, our Colorado Springs Utilities, at the behest of the City Council, and despite our being in a severe drought, plans to lease or auction off tens of millions of gallons of water for oil, gas fracking. ('Drilling in a Drought', Colorado Springs Independent, Feb-13-19, p. 14).   President Scott Hente insists: "It's a perception issue! We will have brown grass and yards and pumping gas like crazy!"  

Well, maybe not the lawns, but how about the tap water reeking of oil and laden with benzene, xylene and toluene? Look, Hente, I really, really do not want a return of the prostate cancer for which I just got treated!  

The COS Utilities insists it's no biggie (ibid.) since each fracked well only consumes 3-5 million gallons of water per frack.   Huh! Seems a lot to waste in a frickin' drought!   The Utilities projects this water usage for 12-24 wells and "one time only" but omits mentioning that some technical estimates have put the water use per frack at 9 million gallons, and a single well can be fracked up to ten times.

In other words, the standard is to "use the water to extinction".  

Just fucking great you knotheads! And maybe, just maybe this will be our extinction! How does that old saying go: "You won't miss the water until the well runs dry". Well, we're nearly there here in Colorado!   Maybe when Gov. Hickenlooper pulled that stunt a year or so ago, drinking fracked water to show it's tasty and good, he really ought to have waited for the spill near Windsor. Then he could have scooped up some of that greenish crap and had at it! At least it'd have been more believeable!  

Holman Jenkins, Jr. - The Pro-Fracking Moron Who Dumps on Matt Damon

If one wishes to see wherein the capitalist termites hang out – who’d rather most citizens of the U.S. gets cancer but are unable to afford medical treatment- look no further than the bastion of reactionary finance: The Wall Street Journal. Thus, we behold Holman Jenkins, Jr. diatribe yesterday, blasting Matt Damon, U.S. movie goers, as well as Jeffrey Skoll (one of the luminaries behind the film ‘LINCOLN’) in his pro-fracking column “Good Will Fracking”.


According to Holman Jenkins Jr.:
“A shadowy Canadian billionaire coupled with Mideast oil interests sponsor a Hollywood propaganda movie aimed at luring Americans into throwing away their (energy) deliverance: shale oil”.


Of course, little Holman Jr. is wrong here, as there’s no nefarious conspiracy to hoodwink anyone but to do an end run around the American corporate Wurlitzer to get the word out about the bad energy deal posed by fracking and shale drilling. I already went into the pitfalls of fracking two blogs earlier, and shale oil drilling falls in the same dumpster. The reason: Both require more high efficiency oil to extract much lower efficiency energy. In the case of fracking the costs are in terms of pumping water under high pressure to extract gas and oil, thereby contaminating massive volumes of water as well as running up millions of dollars in extraneous pumping costs. The tradeoff in terms of cost-benefits is roughly 2 barrels of high EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) oil for one barrel of low EROEI oil or natural gas (when all the ancillary costs are factored in – including future health costs from drinking fracked water).


Shale oil, meanwhile, consumes roughly 1.3 barrels of high EROEI oil for 1 barrel of low EROEI oil, one reason the state of Alaska halted it (apart from its massive environmental destruction) some 8 years ago.


Not content with his slanders here, Holman Jr. goes on:

“They co-opt a name brand Hollywood movie star to be the useful idiot of their nefarious plot: except the poor schmuck actor is Matt Damon…and he’s making a real movie, albeit with its typically stupid Hollywood plot that doubles down on the conventional evil oil company stereotype.”


Except it’s not a stereotype! Check out any earlier blogs, including on the wazoos behind the Keystone Pipeline, and how its evil backers haven’t come clean on the weakness, vulnerability of the pipes and the potential for massive leaks and environmental damage. People in Colorado Springs, now facing the fracking monster of their own, are not sanguine that 20 million gallons a weeks of their precious water stands to be consumed and contaminated to get fracked gas. The costs of this so-called energy independence will be stupendous as the Springs and other communities face massive increases in prostate, breast, liver, kidney and pancreatic cancers. Costs that will likely break the bank!


And Matt Damon a ‘useful idiot’? Puh-leeze! I’m sure Matt would be elated to hear such rot, given a useful idiot on the WSJ staff (like Holman Jenkins Jr.) made it! Also, let us understand Matt willingly cooperated with the venture, after familiarizing himself with the dangers of fracking and shale oil development. (And, btw, everyone seriously interested, ought to see the documentary ‘Gasland’, to see just how bad the situation is.)


Little Holman is correct about one point, that the social fracturing over fracking actually began in neighborhoods, e.g. in Ohio and Pennsylvania, when a certain clique of neighbors accepted having their lands bought out for fracking while other neighbors – who refused – had to watch helplessly as drilling overcame their homes with all the nasty consequences.. (Including foul tasting water).


But that doesn’t remove the fact that the energy-oil companies were behind spreading the cash to buy out as many neighbors as possible, to the detriment of all others- who then had to watch as home values plummeted. Were the neighbors who remained pissed? You best believe it!

Holman then is right on his last remark too:


“What makes fracking fascinating is precisely the quotidian fact that, in every way, we are inclined to celebrate economic progress except when it disturbs our own familiar scenery and routines.”


Yeah right, Holman! Especially when such “disturbance” - from drinking fracked water-  includes cancers of the pancreas, kidneys, prostate, liver, and breasts. Now – you can run that same line past all the future cancer victims over the coming decades. Just be sure you have another ditzy answer when they demand you help pay for the cancer treatments fracking caused!


For the rest of us, we will gladly thank Matt Damon for being part of an important film! As for Holman, I already crunched a rotten tomato into the paper displaying his column, regretting only I that couldn't have tossed it at his head!