The Keef Report...The Commercialization Conflation.

Somewhat bizarre pretzel logic-assisted conflation of hypocrisy and a desire to prevent the commercialization of public schools from the good Mr. Baldrey it would appear.

But even if you are OK with the commercialization thing in general, there is the specific fact that, when things do not go its way on the ground in municipalities it wants to control, Chevron does throw its weight, and its money, around to partisan effect.

To wit, Chevron has gone bonkers in Richmond California, a refinery town where the city council has decided it wants the company to actually play by the state's health and safety rules in the wake of a 2012 refinery fire that generated a toxic plume that sent 15,000 residents to hospital.

Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times has the story:

...A few weeks ago, we described how the giant oil company Chevron was barraging little Richmond, Calif. (pop. 107,000), the site of one of its major refineries, with corporate PR disguised as community "news." Its instrument was an objective-looking website, known as the Richmond Standard, purporting to be a news portal for residents of Richmond.

Now we have more to say about how Chevron (2013 revenue: $220 billion) is trying to influence the upcoming municipal elections in Richmond, which pit a pro-Chevron bloc of city council members against an anti-Chevron bloc.

So far this year, Chevron has poured an astounding $2.9 millioninto three campaign committees in Richmond. Of that, at least $1.4 million has gone to a committee supporting the pro-Chevron candidates and $500,000 to a committee opposing the candidate critical of Chevron, including the current mayor, Gayle McLaughlin. The figures suggest that Chevron is preparing to spend at least $33 for the vote of every resident of the city 18 or older...


And how does this the world know all this?

Well, mostly it's the work of a lowly blogger (you know the folks Mr. Baldrey likes to call idiots without credibility) named Harriet Rowan, a graduate student at nearby UC Berkeley.

Interesting all that, no?


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Previous Keef Reports can be found....here.


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