(Image from Greenpeace)
(The Guardian)
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A favorite accusation routinely leveled at the business community and companies around the world is “greenwashing,” where politically correct language and pleasant sounding platitudes on their “eco-friendly” initiatives are utilized by corporations to either hide or draw attention away from the environmental destruction they are responsible for. ”Greenwashing” is not something we need to worry about at ExxonMobil. The world’s largest publicly traded oil company hardly has a sterling reputation for environmental awareness given the kind of business they are in. But company CEO Rex Tillerson has made ExxonMobil a most convenient target for activists with his recent high-profile remarks complaining about an “illiterate” public believing in “lazy” science that backs global warming. Speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Tillerson downplayed the impacts of climate change, claiming scientists “manufacture fear” and insisting that it is only an “engineering problem” and that humans would “adapt,” and championed the role that oil companies like ExxonMobil have played in increasing fossil fuel output even as critics have pushed for more renewable alternatives amidst rising global temperatures and carbon emissions.
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(Reuters)
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It’s been a very bad week for two of Wall Street’s largest and most “respected” executives. First it was revealed that Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase may have lost closer to $9 billion in its investment debacle uncovered earlier this year, far higher than the $3 billion initially estimated. Now Barclays, one of the largest financial players on both sides of the pond, has been rocked with its own epic scandal. Regulators in the United Kingdom and the United States have caught the company in a rate-fixing scam centered on its London operations that critics describe as “casino banking.” The 322-year-old bank s facing fines of nearly half-a-billion dollars from both American and British authorities. But the heart of the controversy may lie with Bob Diamond, the “aggressive” CEO of Barclays who is one of the highest paid financial executives in the UK and this side of the Atlantic. Diamond has made a name for himself sine the 2008 financial meltdown by publicly defending Wall Street and banking interests, lecturing the public that the “period of remorse and apology” needed from banks following that disaster “needs to be over.” Diamond also has defended such extravagances as bonuses and his own company’s controversial trading schemes as necessary because banks are “good citizens.” Now the Barclays chief is fighting for his future at the company. The powerful CEO was forced to — yes — apologize for the rate-rigging scandal that occurred under his watch and has committed the gracious gesture of returning his multi-million pound bonus for 2012.
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(Christian Science Monitor)
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Women seeking family planning services such as an abortion in Mississippi will soon have to leave the state to do so after Gov. Phil Bryant signed legislation that makes it virtually certain that the state’s only abortion provider will have to shut its doors. The looming shutdown would make Mississippi the first state in the nation without a single clinic providing abortion services. State lawmakers specifically targeted their state’s sole remaining abortion clinic with legislation that forced onerous and one-of-a-kind regulation on the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, operators of the clinic. The governor and state lawmakers admit that the Jackson clinic’s demise was intentional, taking credit for passing the law that will soon make Mississippi “abortion-free.” Women’s health advocates and national organizations are not done fighting the new rules, however. Lawsuits and challenges to the regulations have been filed in an attempt to at least delay the Jackson clinic’s imminent shutdown.
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(Miami Herald)
Opa-Locka, a city within the urban amalgamation that is greater Miami, is one of the region’s poorest and most troubled communities. Filled with fading “Arabian Nights” architecture meant to hide its problems of crime and general decay, the city is also well known for its rampant struggles with corruption. All levels of Opa-Locka’s government have endured highly public ethical lapses, but its police department is perhaps the most notorious for bad behavior and constant scandal. City leaders have pledged to clean up both the crime that has terrified residents for decades and the taint of corrupt government officials and law enforcement, but reforming Opa-Locka’s PD has proved especially troublesome. One particular officer is a disturbing symbol of how tough it will be to turn around the city’s battered reputation. German Bosque has become famous in south Florida for his aggressive pursuit of legal loopholes that has allowed him to keep his job as an officer in Opa-Locka despite a string of high-profile complaints, incidents and suspensions that have occurred over a nearly twenty-year period. Bosque has been accused of everything from cocaine possession, police brutality and even held responsible for a high-speed chase that killed four people. But a combination of his savvy and the incompetence of past Opa-Lovcka police and city officials means Bosque is still on the job and on the streets, although he is currently suspended for yet another infraction.
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And they actually let him say this drivel….no wonder our Country and the World are so screwed up with guys like this at the helm of powerful businesses.