Chevron struck another blow in its campaign to undermine a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment it faces in Ecuador. Under tremendous pressure from the oil company, Patton Boggs, the powerful Washington law firm that once vowed to assure the enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment, instead withdrew today from the case.
In an extraordinary concession, Patton Boggs said it regretted its prior involvement in a lawsuit against Chevron (CVX), a legal action deemed by a federal judge in New York to have evolved into an extortion scheme aimed at the San Ramon (Calif.) oil company. Patton Boggs also agreed to provide Chevron with supportive documents and testimony and to pay the company $15 million as a tangible symbol of its abasement.
Ain’t that just swell?
Joel
Wait, what?
Just Some Fuckhead
Who is the new front pager?
Mart
I do not think you are allowed to beat the “man” anymore at any level of America’s courts. If you occasionally do, it will soon be overturned.
NotMax
Eliciting sympathy for a “powerful Washington law firm?”
That dog won’t hunt.
Morzer
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Still the same old mean, salty, cantankerous, foul, angry ogre he’s always been.
NotMax
@Morzer
The Iron Twinkie – tough on the outside, soft in the center.
Howard Beale IV
If you think shafting the Ecuadorian citizens is the only outcome that’s just…..
Bob In Portland
Luckily, I’m sure the future fracking in Ukraine won’t harm the water quality. That’s Chevron too, right?
PsiFighter37
That’s kind of pathetic, but from reading the article, it sounds like the law firm itself is struggling to not go under, so they decided to sell out for the quick cash.
Not surprising, but disheartening nonetheless.
Brian R.
Urge to kill …. RISING.
ShadeTail
No, not *just* in America. It would be easier to take if that were the case. Then, at least, it would be isolated here.
Pogonip
Did Elmo ever find anyone to take the 3kittens?
Also, I believe that in 50 years our descendants will live under something akin to feudalism, only with corporations filling the role of lords. What do you all foresee in 50 years?
Morzer
@Pogonip:
You think it’s going to take 50 years? I’d say we are effectively there already.
Violet
@Pogonip: Hunger Games or something like it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip:
A dictatorship of the proletariat, obviously.
NotMax
@Pogonip
Senility.
burnspbesq
There is nobody in this litigation that isn’t dirty. Chevron did contaminate a good chunk of Ecuador during the time that it operated there. However, the judgment that Patton Boggs was trying to enforce in the US has been found to have been the product of an elaborate fraud on the Ecuadoran courts, perpetrated by an avaricious American lawyer.
Patton Boggs failed to do its homework before signing on as co-counsel with Danziger, and it picked a fight with a company that only knows how to fight one way (all-out).
Sucks that Chevron is apparently going to walk without paying for the damage they caused, but when you shoot at the king, don’t miss. If anyone is at fault here (and this is admittedly 20/20 hindsight), it’s the Ecuadoran government, for not requiring Chevron to escrow money to pay for clean-up. Maybe their guest Julian Assange can help them hack into Chevron’s treasury system and steal enough money to pay for it.
Cassidy
@Pogonip: Violence. Lots of avoidable violence.
Elmo
@Pogonip:
Not yet, thanks for asking. If you know anyone…
Scott Alloway
Used to call them Patton, Boggs and Blowjob in the 90s. They represented an industry I wrote about in that era for a trade pub. Interviewed one of their mucky-mucks at the time. Held my nose. No longer write for the trade pub.
ranchandsyrup
@Pogonip: In 50 years it will be a combo platter of awful Kevin Costner films. A mash-up of Waterworld and the Postman. So much drinking of urine.
shelley
It’s ‘abasement?’
Jesus, why don’t they just drag them out and have them flogged?
Roger Moore
@ranchandsyrup:
Bear Grylls can hardly wait.
burnspbesq
@shelley:
You can buy a lot of Republican state legislators with $15 million.
Poopyman
I won’t know what to think of this judgement until I hear Freddie de B’s opinion.
Baud
@Pogonip:
Moar blogospheric navel gazing.
Higgs Boson's Mate
In fifty years I’m not sure where I’ll be but I won’t smell too good.
dp
The irony, if I’m not mistaken, is that the suit was originally filed in the US, and Chevron demanded that it be heard in Ecuador. They won, and then somebody unexpectedly outbid them for the Ecuadorean legal system. Of course, they can’t be outbid for the US legal system, so there.
BBA
@Pogonip: Housing bubbles and foreign wars distract us from a hollowed-out economy. President George P.D.Q. Bush will stay the course, because the next six months will be critical. Democrats win 73% of the House vote but only get 5 seats thanks to voter suppression and gerrymandering. There are nine vacancies on the Supreme Court as the Senate is still filibustering Obama’s nomination to Scalia’s seat.
What can I say, I’m an incurable optimist.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I have to side with burns on this one. If you want to blame someone for Chevron getting away scot free, blame the Ecuadorian government in the mid-1990s that signed an agreement that released Chevron from all claims in exchange for $40 million. It also appears that a lot of the damage occurred after the government had purchased all of Chevron’s interest in the operations.
I have no doubt that they engaged in all sorts of shenanigans while they were operating the oil fields but as a legal matter the case against Chevron is ridiculously tainted. Patton Boggs made a huge mistake in associating itself with the sort of sleazy operator that gives plaintiffs’ attorneys a bad name and $15 million was the price to escape their bad judgment.
No one comes out of this looking good but I have a hard time seeing THIS PARTICULAR element of the outcome as being terribly unjust.
schrodinger's cat
@Elmo: Do you have pictures? I could put it up on my blog with a caption.
Pogonip
@Elmo: Sorry, I’m a long way from Delmarva. I can root for you from here and that’s about it.
Bob In Portland
@efgoldman: The coup government wants to build more nuclear reactors, too.
Pogonip
@Morzer: Well, not really, because at the moment it’s still possible, if difficult, to escape their grip.
Elmo
@schrodinger’s cat:
My wife’s Facebook page does. Not sure how to get them from there to here.
Elmo
@Pogonip:
Rooting is good. Thanks!
Pogonip
@schrodinger’s cat: Ah-ha! Progress! Pictures of adorable kittens! Elmo’s halfway home already!
Pogonip
@Elmo: Rooting is good, pictures are better. And they are cute. You’ll get a taker.
Pogonip
@Morzer: And that’s when he’s in a good mood.
eemom
eedad used to work at PB.
Also too, thread needz moar Freddie.
Scott
@Pogonip: Go watch Continuum if you want to imagine a world where corporations run everything. Good show!
Baud
@eemom:
I know! I’ve missed all the FDB threads. All the good snark has already been taken.
RareSanity
@burnspbesq:
I refuse to let your…probably accurate analysis of this case, dissuade me from the joke I had planned to write after reading the original post.
Now, where was I? Oh yeah…
This sounds similar to that time where that guy got in the face with a shotgun, then had to apologize to the asshole that did it.
Mnemosyne
@Elmo:
If you or the missus could email pics to Anne Laurie (email in the sidebar), I’m sure she’ll front-page them.
And be prepared for one of them to break out of the pack (pride?) and win you over. That’s how we ended up with three cats despite our firm conviction that we should only have two at a time — Charlotte decided she wanted to stay.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: He recently posted a synopsis of his political views. Not going to link; if you want to continue the carnage, you can easily find it.
Poopyman
@Baud: Me too! Everybody is probably snarked out. Gonna be a dull evening.
(Who am I kidding? All of my evenings are dull.)
RareSanity
@Poopyman:
I’ll be online playing some Grand Theft Auto V in about 40-45 minutes, you want in?
Never a dull day on the mean (virtual) streets of Los Santos!
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Nah. I’m lazy. Don’t like to leave the boat for my snark.
Pogonip
@Poopyman: Mine, too. Isn’t it great? I have lived in interesting times. Dullness is underrated. (Ask the citizens of Westeros!)
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Pogonip:
What do you all foresee in 50 years?
Collapse. As in maybe 50 million people alive on the North American continent, at a Victorian level of technology if they’re lucky.
Baud
@Poopyman:
Mine too!
Gus
@Pogonip: On my good days, I think Mad Max style hellscape. On my bad days, I think The Road, only with no humans left.
Elmo
@Mnemosyne:
Good idea. Thanks!
And i think we are already doomed to keep the first two. In addition to the six dogs, twelve chickens, and innumerable fish in several tanks. My wife is bugfuck nuts. In a good way.
Pogonip
@Phoenician in a time of Romans: At the rate antibiotic resistance is growing, the big depopulation may happen much sooner than 50 years down the road!
ulee
@Poopyman: It won’t be totally dull. Cole is overdue to be injured.
Pogonip
@Baud: We are the few, the proud, the boring!
The…zzzzzzz….
Pogonip
@ulee: What did he do, tackle Steve’s dingleberries again?
Poopyman
@ulee: Is Wednesday mopping day?
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Was this the popularized synopsis in 40 volumes, or the 60 volume magnum opus with the additional 10 volumes of detailed commentary from Megan McArdle?
ulee
I’m 48. I’ll reach for the mail, twist and bend a little, then feel something wrong. Great. I’m injured again. While getting the mail. Goddamnit.
Poopyman
You know, for a snarling mass of vitriolic, objectively vicious jackals, we’re a pretty sedate group.
BTW, was there a particular Freddie-ism that caused Cole to adopt the new middle name?
Morzer
@Poopyman:
Freddie had denounced his critics as McCarthyite in a recent roar of murine rage directed at the commenters on LGM.
Cassidy
And only in Russia
elm
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh my.
Morzer
@Poopyman:
I thought Wednesday was The Mysterious Play For The Mustard day.
Baud
@Poopyman:
I blame Obama.
Cassidy
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43365_Putin_Signs_Law_to_Restrict_and_Monitor_Bloggers_Thanks_Edward_Snowden_for_Inspiring_It
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer: No, it is quite short. Full of good hopes and decent goals. Lovely abstract utopian thinking that few on the left would find less than laudable. I am reminded of this.
Pogonip
@Poopyman: One can only hope.
A Ghost To Most
@NotMax:
That’s a big Twinkie.
/Winston Zeddemore
Pogonip
@Morzer: I skimmed through it. I think he was trying to say the blog was a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Snarling jackals, we have competition! Let’s step up our game! HODOR!!!!
Also, ELMO HAS KITTENS!
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
In a spirit of objective despicability (or do I mean despicabiliciousness?) I dragged myself over to the dwelling of M. le Cardinal de Boer and was pleasantly surprised to find the document both readable and, in its views, rather more laudable than I might have expected. It is, as you observe, rather unlikely to find any means of being put into effect, but if Freddie had written like this more often he would have made rather more friends than he has. He would do himself a great deal of good if he stopped trying to get into poutrage food fights with the world and began showing this saner, less aggressively self-pitying aspect of his worldview.
Morzer
@Pogonip:
A Muppet has had kittens? Unnatural! I blame Obama and gay marriage!
ulee
It has been discovered that a number of commenters here are rabid. Do not approach or engage them. We are working to contain the situation.
Pogonip
@Morzer: No, the mama cat HAD the kittens, but Elmo now HAS the kittens but would like not to HAVE the kittens.
raven
Jesus, I hope all this bullshit about this clown is over when I get back from the beach Sunday.
Poopyman
@Pogonip: HODOR! KITTENS!
@Morzer: MURINE! My eyes itch.
Sorry. I was over at imdb reading Brick Tamland quotes. I think I’m infected.
Pogonip
@ulee: Why would you want to do that? We’re more fun uncontained.
Baud
@raven:
Keep dreaming!
ETA: And have fun at the beach!
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer: There isn’t much of a market for people making generally decent points about universal guaranteed income and the like. And, as you said, while I disagree with him on the question of whether Obama is worthy of support despite disagreements with some aspects of his policies, Freddie lays out the reasoning behind his decision fairly well. I think that that guy is the one Cole was trying to bring on board here, not the humorless, thin skinned prig who also posts under the FdB moniker.
Morzer
@Pogonip:
Elmo stole the kittens?! Arrest that sexual deviant Muppet immediately! Get John McCain on a talkshow to give his view on how we are all momma cats now! Benghazi!!!
Pogonip
@Poopyman: Hodor had kittens?
I hope George R. R. Martin doesn’t kill them.
For the night is dark, and full of kittens…
ulee
@Pogonip: Please report to the nearest containment center. You will not be harmed.
raven
@Baud: Thanks, I’m fired up!
Pogonip
@ulee: Darn right. Villago and I are gonna burn that fothermucker down.
Poopyman
@Pogonip:
In Elmo’s house, for sure. At Chez Poopy, the night is dark and full of whiny middle-aged cats. Not the same thing.
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think he will make a market by posting essays like his “confession of faith” much more rapidly than he will by behaving like a jilted teenager towards any and all people whom he thinks might have stolen his Precious from him. I think the most recent essay was much better stylistically, less pretentious, clearer, more likable – and it was credible as a first draft of the sort of thing you could see published in a magazine.
Pogonip
@Morzer: Why would Elmo steal kittens, when the night is already full of them?
Morzer
@Pogonip:
In Doorn, we do not hurt baby girl keettens. Though they do miaow with a strangely Frenchified accent.
Morzer
@Pogonip:
Who knows why Muppets do anything? Besides, Hodor!!! Benghazi!!!
Pogonip
@Morzer: They probably saw “The Aristocats.”
RareSanity
@raven:
Can’t wait to see to see the pictures…and don’t worry, there will be another squirrel to draw everyone’s attention by Sunday.
I’m sure Sullivan is probably getting jealous of all the attention he’s not getting, so he’ll make sure to poke Cole pretty soon.
Morzer
@RareSanity:
John Cole will eat Sully’s liver with some French mustard and a fine craft beer.
Quaker in a Basement
@efgoldman: Well, I’ll only be 110! [\Obrother]
Baud
@raven:
And ready to go!
Pogonip
@Morzer: Only with the fine beer. Nobody ever found the mustard.
ulee
@Morzer: Cole has already been comprimised. A pastrami sandwich and a beer was all it took to turn him. Please report to the nearest containment center.
Morzer
@ulee:
Are you sure you know how that pastrami was made? Did you note the unusually dark coloration?
Morzer
@Pogonip:
I am betting Cole will pull the mustard out of his ass. He’s got the means and the motive.
raven
@RareSanity: I won $500 on the NCAA’s in a calcutta where I had American and they were the biggest loser in the first round. That brought me 5% of the pot so I earmarked it for fishing. I booked a trip out of St Simons that would never had considered without the windfall.
ulee
@Morzer: Please report to the nearest containment center. If you do not comply, you will be visited by Eddie Munster (aka Paul Ryan). This is your last warning.
eemom
@Morzer:
Though generally not a boat-getter-outter-of myself, I did as well. And I must confess that, while the convoluted and generally insufferable smuggery of his prose failed to the budge the needle on my contemptometer…..the little photo and CV sort of did.
He’s what — 31? Just a baby.
What can I say? I’z a MOTHER, and a weepy perimenopausal one at that.
RareSanity
@Morzer:
Don’t forget the mixed field greens! No iceberg lettuce in his salads…no siree bob…if it doesn’t have radicchio he wants no part of it.
@raven:
Sweet!
Have a ball…the next drama, whatever it may be, will be waiting for you when you get back.
Morzer
@ulee:
Silence, thou cudlip-fondler! I ONLY report to FEMA-Acorn camps, so there!
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Hope it works out better for the boat trip than your RI visit.
Morzer
@eemom:
Most of his prose is simply flatulently bad, but his most recent piece about what he believes in was much better. Why that was, I don’t know.
Elmo
You guys are hilarious. HODOR!
burnspbesq
@RareSanity:
I would never want to be responsible for the death of a good joke.
ulee
Please report any correspondences or contact with John Cole, aka Lily, aka Rosie, aka Steve, aka Shawn. This individual is considered extremely dangerous and has an unconfirmed number of rabid followers. Do not approach or engage. Repeat, do not approach or engage.
Morzer
@ulee:
So, out of curiosity, who died and made you the Public Health Officer for the intertoobz?
ulee
@Morzer: Just doing my job. I’m not a hero, just a public servant.
eemom
@Morzer:
Well, again putting on my mommy-hat, could be because the recent shitstorm motivated him to try harder.
Morzer
@ulee:
Well, that’s kind of the question right there, isn’t it? How did you get to be our particular “public servant”?
Morzer
@eemom:
That would fit with my theory that the beatings should continue until content improves.
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: It hasn’t before. Again, I think his wish list is nice and there isn’t much that I would argue against (I am far more of an internationalist than he seems to be) as aspirational goals, but, damn, is it naive as a real world marching list.
ulee
@Morzer: Morzer? 13 East Wallisponaski Road, Caribou Maine? Please report to your nearest re-education center.
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s always worth specifying means of reaching your goals along with those goals themselves. If you can’t coherently specify the means, it’s generally worth rethinking your goals.
Morzer
@ulee:
I’ll forward your notification to the person in question, just as soon as you produce your badge and identify yourself.
ulee
fucking a…please report..Is this thing on?
ulee
@Morzer: I don’t need no stinkin badge. I need your name, social security number, and your bank routing number. Then you’ll be free to go.
the Conster
@eemom:
This link from 2010 about Freddie from an earlier thread – if about me – would have made me so ashamed I would have thrown away the internet and gone into hiding somewhere. But then I have self-awareness and am able to feel ashamed, and would self-correct way before that blog post had to be written. Freddie is not just young, he’s just a completely self-absorbed unself-aware whiny bore who is apparently determined to stay that way, so is unteachable. So, now he’s a laughingstock and will die with a stupid hat on. Sucks to be Freddie.
Morzer
@ulee:
I am sorry, but Commissar Fucking A is busy. Leave your name, number and bank details and you will be contacted if you have sufficient ameros in your account to pay for the cost of the call.
ulee
Just sign those SaveAmerica checks over to Ulee. That’s with a capital U, then lee. As in General Lee.
Morzer
@ulee:
I’m sorry, Ulee. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
ulee
@Morzer: Then Steve gets it. Come here you fucking cat, come on you……………….mrrrrrwowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, sssshh, sssshwrrrrr, myrrrrrrrrrrrrrowwww…….alright, alright..calm down. I need to go.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster: That thing was so stunningly well done.
ulee
I’m pretty fucking scratched to hell. I’m all fucking fucked up here. What the….mmmmrrreewwwwowwww, arrrrrrewwww, meeewrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrragh….
Morzer
@ulee:
I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer: “No means no.”
ulee
I think I’m in some sort of closet. It’s hard to tell, Very dark. So thirsty…..so thirsty….
Morzer
@ulee:
This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
ulee
@Omnes Omnibus: Ommy, go make another sandwich.
Omnes Omnibus
@ulee: Sorry, Dave, I cannot do that.
ulee
@Morzer: oh, well. Just trying to have fun.
Morzer
@ulee:
Without your space helmet, Ulee? You’re going to find that rather difficult.
ulee
@Omnes Omnibus: Is that like What’s the Frequency, Dave? Don’t know who Dave is. Talk to your therapist about it.
Omnes Omnibus
@ulee: Also too, I am more of a pâté and toast guy.
ulee
@Morzer: You cannot really be this nice, Morzer.
Morzer
@ulee:
Thank you for a very enjoyable game.
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
First, they came for the pâté and toast guys, and I did not speak out, because I was not a pâté and toast guy….
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer:
ulee
Steve for president. I endorse…whimperrr…Steve….for president.
ulee
The way I saw it, everyone takes a beating sometime.
–Henry Hill
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sir Thomas More: I should in fairness add that my taste in pâté and toast is reputedly deplorable.
King Henry VIII: Your taste in pâté and toast is excellent. It exactly coincides with my own!
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer:
King Henry VIII: [shouting angrily] I have no pâté and toast! Catherine’s not pâté and toast! No priest can make her so! They that say she is pâté and toast are not only liars, but traitors! Yes, traitors that I will not brook now! Treachery… treachery… treachery I will not brook! It maddens me! It is a deadly canker in the body politic, and I will have it out!
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Narrator: Thomas More’s head was stuck on pâté and toast for a month, then his daughter, Margaret, removed it and kept it till her pâté and toast. Cromwell was beheaded for pâté and toast five years after More. The archbishop was burned at the pâté and toast. The Duke of Norfolk should have been executed for pâté and toast, but the king died of pâté and toast the night before. Richard Rich became chancellor of England and died in his pâté and toast.
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer: Are we now going for Stoppardesque absurdity?
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, we seem to have clapped a stopper over ulee’s capers, so we can probably rest content on our laurels for the nonce.
Omnes Omnibus
@Morzer: Deal.