Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Second rate reporter says what?

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

I really should read my own blog.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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Only In America

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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?

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  3. 3.

    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.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Eliciting sympathy for a “powerful Washington law firm?”

    That dog won’t hunt.

  7. 7.

    Howard Beale IV

    If you think shafting the Ecuadorian citizens is the only outcome that’s just…..

  8. 8.

    Bob In Portland

    Luckily, I’m sure the future fracking in Ukraine won’t harm the water quality. That’s Chevron too, right?

  9. 9.

    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.

  11. 11.

    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.

  12. 12.

    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?

  17. 17.

    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.

  20. 20.

    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.

  22. 22.

    shelley

    It’s ‘abasement?’

    Jesus, why don’t they just drag them out and have them flogged?

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    @shelley:

    Jesus, why don’t they just drag them out and have them flogged?

    You can buy a lot of Republican state legislators with $15 million.

  25. 25.

    Poopyman

    I won’t know what to think of this judgement until I hear Freddie de B’s opinion.

  27. 27.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    In fifty years I’m not sure where I’ll be but I won’t smell too good.

  28. 28.

    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.

  29. 29.

    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.

  30. 30.

    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.

  32. 32.

    Pogonip

    @Elmo: Sorry, I’m a long way from Delmarva. I can root for you from here and that’s about it.

  34. 34.

    Pogonip

    @Morzer: Well, not really, because at the moment it’s still possible, if difficult, to escape their grip.

  43. 43.

    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.

  44. 44.

    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.

  45. 45.

    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.

  46. 46.

    Poopyman

    @Baud: Me too! Everybody is probably snarked out. Gonna be a dull evening.

    (Who am I kidding? All of my evenings are dull.)

  47. 47.

    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!

  49. 49.

    Pogonip

    @Poopyman: Mine, too. Isn’t it great? I have lived in interesting times. Dullness is underrated. (Ask the citizens of Westeros!)

  50. 50.

    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.

  52. 52.

    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.

  53. 53.

    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.

  59. 59.

    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?

  60. 60.

    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.

  61. 61.

    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?

  62. 62.

    Morzer

    @Poopyman:

    Freddie had denounced his critics as McCarthyite in a recent roar of murine rage directed at the commenters on LGM.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Poopyman:

    You know, for a snarling mass of vitriolic, objectively vicious jackals, we’re a pretty sedate group.

    I blame Obama.

  68. 68.

    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.

  71. 71.

    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!

  72. 72.

    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.

  74. 74.

    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.

  75. 75.

    Pogonip

    @Morzer: No, the mama cat HAD the kittens, but Elmo now HAS the kittens but would like not to HAVE the kittens.

  76. 76.

    raven

    Jesus, I hope all this bullshit about this clown is over when I get back from the beach Sunday.

  80. 80.

    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.

  81. 81.

    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!!!

  82. 82.

    Pogonip

    @Poopyman: Hodor had kittens?

    I hope George R. R. Martin doesn’t kill them.

    For the night is dark, and full of kittens…

  86. 86.

    Poopyman

    @Pogonip:

    For the night is dark, and full of kittens…

    In Elmo’s house, for sure. At Chez Poopy, the night is dark and full of whiny middle-aged cats. Not the same thing.

  87. 87.

    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.

  89. 89.

    Morzer

    @Pogonip:

    In Doorn, we do not hurt baby girl keettens. Though they do miaow with a strangely Frenchified accent.

  92. 92.

    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.

  97. 97.

    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.

  98. 98.

    Morzer

    @ulee:

    Are you sure you know how that pastrami was made? Did you note the unusually dark coloration?

  100. 100.

    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.

  101. 101.

    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.

  102. 102.

    eemom

    @Morzer:

    I dragged myself over to the dwelling of M. le Cardinal de Boer

    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.

  103. 103.

    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.

  106. 106.

    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.

  108. 108.

    burnspbesq

    @RareSanity:

    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.

    I would never want to be responsible for the death of a good joke.

  109. 109.

    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.

  112. 112.

    eemom

    @Morzer:

    Well, again putting on my mommy-hat, could be because the recent shitstorm motivated him to try harder.

  113. 113.

    Morzer

    @ulee:

    Well, that’s kind of the question right there, isn’t it? How did you get to be our particular “public servant”?

  115. 115.

    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.

  116. 116.

    ulee

    @Morzer: Morzer? 13 East Wallisponaski Road, Caribou Maine? Please report to your nearest re-education center.

  117. 117.

    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.

  118. 118.

    Morzer

    @ulee:

    I’ll forward your notification to the person in question, just as soon as you produce your badge and identify yourself.

  120. 120.

    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.

  121. 121.

    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.

  122. 122.

    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.

  123. 123.

    ulee

    Just sign those SaveAmerica checks over to Ulee. That’s with a capital U, then lee. As in General Lee.

  125. 125.

    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.

  127. 127.

    ulee

    I’m pretty fucking scratched to hell. I’m all fucking fucked up here. What the….mmmmrrreewwwwowwww, arrrrrrewwww, meeewrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrragh….

  130. 130.

    ulee

    I think I’m in some sort of closet. It’s hard to tell, Very dark. So thirsty…..so thirsty….

  141. 141.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Morzer:

    William Roper: So, now you give pâté and toast the benefit of law!

    Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after pâté and toast?

    William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

    Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and pâté and toast turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give pâté and toast benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!

  144. 144.

    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!

  145. 145.

    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!

  146. 146.

    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.

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