January 1999 Vol. 220 No. 1  Comment

R. W. Scott

Reincarnation and roots

Former President Teddy Roosevelt would undoubtedly be raising unshirted hell and John D. Rockefeller and his immediate successor John Archbold would be grinning ear-to-ear over the proposed merger of Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of New York under the moniker Exxon Mobil Corp. Earlier on, both might have had similar reactions when BP acquired Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) and now is in the process of absorbing Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco).

Teddy, of course, was the progenitor of the breakup of John D.’s Standard Oil Trust into 34 companies beginning back in 1904 and not really ending until 1921 or maybe even later, since the survivors continued to play footsies under the table with one another for years.

Now if Standard Oil of California (Chevron) takes aim at Continental Oil Co. (Conoco) and Atlantic Refining Co. (ARCO) which altogether constitute the remaining major survivors of the original Trust, the seven principal entities at breakup would be shrunk to three. And if this keeps up, we can probably look forward someday to seeing something named ExMoBPAmChvARCon, which would take us back to the early 1900s in reincarnating the Old Bunch.

Of course, such a thing would not be quite as meaningful today as it would have then. Indeed, if all original seven companies did end up in a single mega-agglomerate, their combined crude oil reserves would be equal to only a bit more than 10% of Saudi Aramco’s alone and would still only rank eighth in the world just ahead of Libyan National Oil Co. and behind Saudi plus the national oil companies of Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Venezuela, Abu Dhabi and Mexico. In terms of production, however, the reincarnated Trust would be second only to Saudi Aramco.

Given government approvals of many other large mergers in recent years, it’s likely the Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco and other pending industry get togethers will be accorded U.S. government approval. This may be good from the MBA viewpoint and for large shareholders and employees with lucrative stock options, particularly top management. It may also be good for independent oil companies who are waiting to see how many profitable properties might become available from Exxon Mobil which will consider these same properties to be uneconomic. And it will be good if combined Exxon Mobil opposition to the goofygreen Kyoto global warming accords is greater than the sum of their individual resistance. But the merger will reduce industry competition. It will add to recent job losses and put thousands more talented employees out of work and reduce future job opportunities. And it will further drive people out of the industry forever as from 1986 to 1993 or so, and eventually precipitate another people shortage that we were seeing less than a year ago. If anybody out there thinks reincarnation is worth the cost, please let us know. We sure don’t.

By the time this appears, the indictment phase in the U.S. House of Representatives over Billy Jeff Clinton’s impeachment is supposed to be over. But it may be instructive to point out the following, as related to the disruptive democrat jackasses plus a couple of jennys on the House Judiciary Committee, who contributed much bulldreck and little else to the process.

John Conyers, the ranking minority member of the committee, Howard Berman, Barney Frank, Jerrold Nadler, Robert C. Scott (no relation, thank you very much), Maxine Waters and Melvin Watt are all members of the House Progressive Caucus as well as the Judiciary Committee. Roots of this exclusive democrat caucus are of some interest.

It seems the caucus is directly linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organization, the largest socialist group in the U.S. DSA lists the House Progressive Caucus membership on its website (dsa@dsausa.org).

The DSA agenda — plainly anti-free enterprise and pro redistribution of wealth — lists all of the utopian goals socialists have espoused over the past 18 decades, plus more recent radical goofygreen, abortion, gay rights, affirmative action etc. stuff. Included are massive government spending programs (which sound very familiar) for totally free healthcare for everybody, employment for everybody, education (including bilingual and multi-cultural) for everybody, unrestricted handouts to the third world, international economic integration based on "social charter rights," and on and on. All of this, of course, would be paid for by raising the highest income tax brackets to 1977 levels and cutting defense spending by an additional 50%, which should leave us with a military of 1925 vintage. DSA also supports "democratic" (read socialist) control over private resources such as insurance, credit, financial institutions, land, raw materials and manufacturing infrastructure.

DSA is also a member of the Socialist International (SI), the BIG Mother of 131 socialist-oriented parties and organizations worldwide. An affiliate party of the SI holds a majority in every government in the European Union or is a major component of coalition governments. Finally, the agenda of the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero that birthed the global warming fallacy, where Ozone Gore was a starry-eyed, rah rah cheerleader, was also based on the SI platform.

With the above in mind, it is fascinating that California Rep. Ron Dellums, a really long-time radical far-leftist pontificator is listed as the vice-chairman of the DSA’s National Political Committee. According to a paper entitled "A Brief History of the American Left" by Maurice Isserman, issued by the DSA,..." Dellums was the first avowed socialist in the Congress since World War II." Disturbingly, Dellums is also the ranking democrat on the House National Security Committee, meaning, like Conyers, he would likely take over chairmanship of that group if republicans lose the House in 2000. Other fellow travelers in the progressive caucus of the 105th Congress, who could assume powerful committee chairs under a democrat-controlled House are George Miller on the Resources Committee; George E. Brown, Science; John LeFalce, Small Business; Howard Berman, Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics); Henry Waxman, Government Oversight and Reform; Lane Evans, Veterans’ Affairs; and Charles Rangel, Ways & Means. Interestingly, California and New York provide nearly one-third of the total caucus membership.

So what this seems to amount to, presuming as we must, that these people support the tenets of the DSA, is that 9 of 19 major committees of our House of Representatives including several critically important ones could end up being run by ultra-leftwingers and at least one admitted pure socialist if the democrats again gain a majority.

This seems to be a hell of a sorry and dangerous situation in the land of the free and the home of the brave, which it wouldn’t be if these people ever get full control.

Two smart Texas Aggie petroleum engineering sophomores had an "A" average for the semester going into a final exam scheduled for 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. They were in such good shape, they thought they would take off to Austin on Friday for a Teasipper sorority party. Unfortunately, the party got out of hand and lasted far longer than they had planned on and they didn’t get back to A&M until early Monday. Being in bad shape, they skipped the final and then went to the Prof immediately to explain themselves and request a makeup exam. They confessed to the trip to UT and said they’d planned to return in time to study on Sunday, but they had a flat tire, didn’t have a spare, couldn’t get help and hence were not back in time for the test.

The Prof considered their predicament and said OK, they could take a makeup the next day. The two studied all night, went to the Prof the next morning, were handed their test books and put in separate rooms. Upon opening their books, the first problem, worth 5 points, was to convert one bbl of oil to cubic feet — a total no-brainer and obviously a gift. Neat and cool, they thought, the test would clearly be a gut cinch.

Then they turned to page 2 for the second — and surprisingly last — question worth 95 points: Which tire was flat?

Note: The original story supposedly took place at Duke and the University of Virginia. But it came from an old Aggie friend (we hope he still is) and long-time editorial adviser to World Oil. The temptation was too much.

Copyright © 1999 World Oil
Copyright © 1999 Gulf Publishing Company