Governor Quinn just angered the Koch Brothers because of their Petcoke dumping

Governor Pat Quinn has stepped up and issued an emergency orders for the management of petroleum coke (petcoke), a toxic, choking, foul, hazardous byproduct of oil refining which Petroleum Pigs like the Koch Brothers have been dumping upon the residents of Detroit and Chicago in massive open air piles.

Progress Illinois reports,

"We want to make sure that every neighborhood in the state of Illinois is protected from the hazard of petroleum coke," Governor Quinn said at a press conference Monday afternoon. 

Quinn delivered the announcement from the outskirts of KCBX Terminals’ 90-acre property, at 3259 E. 100th St., on the Southeast Side of Chicago. The company, controlled by the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, temporarily stores petcoke along the Calumet River for a nearby BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana. 

The rules will be submitted to the Illinois Secretary of State before the end of the week, Quinn said. The rules are expected to take effect before the end of the month, after a review by the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB), which has the option to host a 14-day public comment period on the issue. 

Back in October, BP Whiting was producing 6000 tons of Petcoke a day. Detroit’s Marathon refinery wasn’t producing petcoke before its expansion, but produced 1,720 tons per day throughout 2013, while the Phillips 66 refinery in Wood River, Illinois, increased its petcoke output from 1,300 to 5,700 tons per day.

In December, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan successfully won a lawsuit against Hammond, Indiana-based Beemsterboer Slag Corp., which operates a facility along the Calumet River. Beemsterboer Slag was accepting out-of-state petcoke residue and illegally storing it in and around the Calumet River.

Plutocratic Candidate Bruce Rauner has probably already called the Koch Brothers to tell them that when he is elected he'll undo Quinn's Emergency Orders and defund the Illinois EPA and allow the Petroleum Pigs the power to dump hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic Petcoke wherever they wish in Illinois. After all it's not being dumped inside the palatial estates of Bruce Rauner or the Koch Brothers.

Rauner's best buddy Mayor 1% (Rahm Emmanuel) quietly stopped Chicago Alderman attempts at outright banning the accumulation of petcoke inside Chicago.

You know who isn't mentioned in the Progress Illinois Report? Republicans. No comments about this from State Senator Jim Oberweis or Congressman Peter Roskam or US Senator Mark Kirk. And why is that? Because Republicans don't care where Corporations dump their pollution and toxic waste because it isn't being dumped in their backyards.

For far too long Republicans have been allowed to get away with the blanket assertion that 'Regulations are bad' and when a West, Texas Fertilizer Plant explodes because of Rick Perry's hatred for the EPA or Freedom Industries poisons the entire drinking supply of 300,000 people in West Virginia well who could have predicted that?!?

Illinois Taxpayer Welfare for the Billionaire Ricketts Family to rebuild Wrigley Field?

“Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer.“ - Hank Steinbrenner. Unless, that is you are a Billionaire baseball Team Owner, then the taxpayers, middle class, and working class people need to give you money to finance the building of your stadium, as when Steinbrenner received $1,200,000,000 Billion dollars in Taxpayer money to finance the building of the new Yankee Stadium.

It's funny how when a "private" business wants huge wads of taxpayer "relief" to finance some project, the discussion becomes a Grandiose debate on Utilitarian Principles and the greatest good for the greatest number. The ancillary benefits to businesses, the community, the neighborhood. The indirect sales and tax gains and so forth. But...

When discussing the closing 7 Chicagoland mental health facilities [OccupyChicago Reports: Mental Health Movement / Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) - Mental Health Clinic Facing Closure Occupied by Patients and Advocates. Members Bbarricaded inside Woodlawn Clinic until Rahm Emanuel backs off clinic closures.] or the salaries of Chicago Public School teachers, the discussion is how much to slash, slash, slash, slash! That cutting and reducing government spending is the only option and those directly affected and the subsequent thousands indirectly affected are given short shrift, if they are considered at all.

It's almost as if the 1% has set up a Government to cater to their whims and wants and has designed the Body politic to funnel and transfer wealth upwards to them in a Reverse-Robin Scheme.

Capital belongs to the Capitalists, Poverty belongs to the Poor.

The Ricketts Family had a net worth of $2,700,000,000 in 2007. That placed them in the Forbes 400 Richest Americans. But, who should pay for the rebuilding of Wrigley Field; why the poor hardworking blue-collar Chicago Cub fan, who can maybe scrape together enough money to take himself and his family to the game a couple times a year.

After stating last week the Wrigley Field Renovations and Facelift discussion were "in the final stages" Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel clarified,

"Always remember that I'm here to represent taxpayers, but I'm not here to subsidize private investors with public dollars."

Okay Rahm. Then prove it.

Prove you aren't doing the work of the obscenely wealthy and providing them with Chicagoans tax dollars when the Ricketts easily purchased the second most profitable Baseball Franchise behind the Yankees. Prove to us Rahm that you aren't a tool of the Oppressors. A willing accomplice of the 1%. A lackey of Hedge Fund Vulture Kenneth C. Griffin CEO of Citadel LLC. A man who has created nothing but has made Billions off of Legerdemain and paper shuffling. And all the other Rich Elitist Bastards who view the Government of Chicago and Illinois as nothing more than their hired hands transferring Hundreds of Millions of dollars up from the Poor to the Rich.

But, at least I can finally say thank you to Governor Quinn and 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney. From Greg Hinz comes this column,

"I'm not excited about that at all," Governor Quinn said on the "Don Wade & Roma Show" on WLS-AM/890. "Our state has severe fiscal challenges, so the very idea of the state of Illinois spending millions and millions of dollars on Wrigley Field, I don't think that's in the cards at all." Quinn continued, The Ricketts family "bought the team, and they should make the lion's share of the investment to fix up the park."

And Tunney put the brakes on Rahm Emmanuel's "final stages", when he said, "I think the deal is not in the final stages," he said. "This is a deal that involves a lot of complexities." Tunney also added, "With the city still facing future budget deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the economic benefits to the city as a whole will have to be clear."

Private business, the Free Market, "Job Creators", and a Government not involved in "picking winners and losers" is a the biggest myth peddled by the evil Republican Party and their Right-Wing lackeys. What the Republicans want and what they get their Conservative Media Goons to report ad nauseam is a Government controlled by the 1% and aligned to cater to the Plutocracy's interest.

And that is what's strangling and destroying America. State, Local and Federal Governments being co-opted and taken over by the Wealthy.

Sears Executives abandoning the Company laden with stolen Illinois Taxpayer dollars

Sears executives are fleeing from the company one after another.

Sears Holdings Corp's Chief Marketing Officer Monica Woo left the struggling chain earlier this year after just five months, dealing yet another blow to the retailer as it tries to turnaround its business.

John Goodman, a seasoned retail executive who was executive vice president of the apparel and home unit, left earlier this year. Dev Mukherjee, president of the home appliances business at Sears, left the Hoffman Estates-based chain in March. Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan (Reuters)

In December, Governor Quinn gave Sears Holding Corp a special tax dispensation after the company threatened to move out of their Hoffman Estates, Illinois Corporate Headquarters and close numerous Illinois stores.

Sears used their leverage over Quinn to secure tax credits worth $15 million a year for 10 years, which it can use against withheld employee income taxes. The deal also extended a special taxing district, reducing the company's local property tax bill for another 15 years.

The reason a Corporation gets special tax district in a state is so they can funnel their profits to the Corporate HQ and report the income in that special district thus paying a lower rate from other states on the profits.

There was an obvious quid pro quo in place that Sears would spare Illinois stores, but last month Sears Holding announced it was closing five stores in Illinois.

The Illinois stores — two Sears locations and three Kmarts — join a list of up to 120 underperforming stores that Sears said in December would be shut. No Illinois stores were on the first list, but Sears didn't rule out later additions.

I don't know if Monica Woo, John Goodman, or Dev Mukherjee received a Golden Parachute special executive compensation severance packages for their bang-up work running Sears into the ground but, I do know the average Sears/K-Mart worker got a Corporate Golden Shower when they were terminated.

But, I wouldn't be shocked to find out those 3 received millions for helping with the special tax dodge and the Corporate "restructuring". Because this is how modern American Capitalism and Corporate business works. A company gets the state to absorb it's deficits and losses, cuts jobs and closes stores, off-shores manufacturing jobs and hires illegals with false social security numbers all to increase the bottom line and compensation for those at the very top.

CME Group just swindled Illinois Taxpayers

"Why don't you accept your fate? You will return to your chair and you will sit there. You will entertain me and you will entertain my guests. And if you do not, I will simply kill somebody else. Him, perhaps. It doesn't matter." - Kivas Fajo, Star Trek: TNG, The Most Toys. Fajo explains the modern American Capitalist system and the threats the 1% use to control the Nation.

CME Group just robbed the people of Illinois for hundreds of millions and now they are going to transfer the extorted money to cover their losses from other areas of their corporate monstrosity. When faced with their own gross negligence, budgetary shenanigans, accounting fraud and malfeasance CME Group made the simple move of transferring one column of numbers to another column.

MF Global Holdings Ltd. filed for bankruptcy on October 31 after it was forced to reveal that it had made a failed $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt.

MF Global used at least $700 million of customer funds to “meet liquidity issues” in the days prior to its bankruptcy, according to CME Group Inc., which had auditing authority over the failed futures broker.

CME Group chief operating officer Bryan Durkin told a packed meeting of the National Grain and Feed Association this month, echoing earlier testimony by CME executives to Congress, that MF Global was the culprit, not CME's clearing house.

In a real Capitalist system, CME Group would go bankrupt for their shoddy accounting and managerial techniques but in the American Neo-Feudalist System, CME Group just threatens Governor Quinn and uses the power of the Government to take Millions from the Taxpayer to cover their losses due to criminal malfeasance or outright stupidity.

CME won a tax break from the state, which had hiked the corporate tax rate in January in an effort to plug a budget shortfall.

The legislation, signed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Friday December 16, will reduce CME's tax bill compared to what it was before the tax hike, shaving off about $77 million annually when it takes full effect in 2014.

I'm sure innocent investors lost fortunes by being involved with MF Global and CME Group but when an Illinois resident is taken by a Nigeria Lottery Email Scam they can't go to Governor Quinn and demand, 'Unless you cover my losses I'll leave the State' and be given taxpayer money.

This is how these 'Job Creators' cover their losses. CME Group and other financial behemoths don't create anything and have been engaged in a byzantine system of legerdemain and gambling wholly disconnected from labor and adding nothing to the economy.

And then when the bills come due these High Rollers simply march into the State Capital Building and demand the money from the Government. They don't come "hat-in-hand" but come armed with the smug superiority of being the Economic Elites, of being the financial gurus, the Wizards of Wall Street and demand their losses be covered or they will simply destroy more.