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Americans Must Share The Blame For Enabling BP
Reagan began the deregulation craze. During his Administration, and for years afterwards, Republicans disparaged the Federal Government as increasingly intrusive and counter productive to free enterprise. The S&L's, California's Power and Utility Commission and more recently, Wall Street's Commercial Banks, crashed and burned as a direct result of deregulation. Americans were left with the bill.
Dick Cheney's closed door energy meetings with oil companies and electrical power providers worked out well for Big Oil and Enron, but not so well for American taxpayers who had to pick up the pieces when, as Alan Greenspan liked to say, "they got over exuberant." The Bush Administration started two wars that far too Americans enthusiastically endorsed. Many applauded each time the Federal Government threw out another regulation to allow unfettered capitalism full reign.
The Republican Parties message of less government and ever lower taxes proved a winning combination. If Democrats hoped to win elections they knew they must move further to the right. Clinton understood this as does Obama. Grover Norquist, an anti-tax crusader and far right Republican famously said, 'My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." One of the results of that drowning can be seen unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.
Horrified Americans are beginning to understand the enormity of the catastrophe that B.P. has set loose upon the world. Americans are justifiably outraged, but it is they who subscribe to Limbaugh, Beck, and the Fox News crowd. Americans put the Republicans in charge of Congress in 1996. In 2000 they stood idly by as an immoral neer do well snuck through the back door and into the White House. In ensuing years regulations, and the oversight of polluters, took a back seat to corporate profit.
Public outrage over B.P's reckless criminal conduct grows daily while environmentalists and global warming scientists are dismissed by the right as crackpots. Fox News won a decision by an appeals court in Florida that ruled Fox "had no obligation to report truthfully, and the First Amendment protects their right to lie." Last January the U.S. Supreme Court ruled "The court has recognized that First Amendment protection extends to corporations." Giving corporations personhood, to allow them unlimited spending on candidates running for elective office, will give them even more power over Congress and the President, and give them a green light to work in direct opposition to American's interests.
It remains to be seen if the helpless rage over B.P's reckless, criminal conduct, makes a difference in how Americans see their government. The results of electing representatives who promise to get government off the backs of the poor, downtrodden corporations, is making itself felt again. But unlike Wall Street's slippery bunko games, the damage from B.P's spill is probably irreparable.
Nothing will save the Gulf of Mexico or the states that lie along the approaching monstrosity that will soon ruin their tourist industries, drastically reduce property values, sicken millions and destroy the livelihoods of many more. Republican Senators are vowing to filibuster any further attempts by Democrats to raise B.P's liability cap from $75 million to $10 billion.
Another semi-submersible rig, the Atlantis, is drilling a hundred miles further offshore, and in water 2000 feet deeper than where Deepwater Horizon went down. Last year the Associated Press reported that B.P. investigated its employees because they complained that engineering documents were missing from the Atlantis. Such documents provide vital information for safely stopping and starting the rig. B.P. and the Minerals Management Service ignored the A.P's requests for comment.
Major media is not mentioning B.P's Atlantis, and Americans have no idea if Atlantis is conforming to the few government regulations that still remain. If a bookie were taking odds they'd be 100 to 1 that B.P. is completely unconcerned with conforming to safety standards. But Americans are not privy to such information, and as Deepwater Horizon is so tragically demonstrating, it is they who have the most to lose. Major media, the Congress, Obama and B.P, figure that if the well blows out Americans will learn about it then. Given B.P's track record it's astonishing that Atlantis has not been shut down until inspections can been made to determine if B.P. is conforming to safety standards. The fact that B.P's Atlantis is still drilling should tell Americans all they need to know of the lessons learned by Obama, Congress and B.P.
The eventual costs of B.P's recklessness can never by measured. The $75 million that B.P. is liable for is however, a very valuable number. It demonstrates, better than any politician or B.P. spokesperson, the extent to which Americans have swallowed the fantasy that corporate self regulation is in their interest. They are utterly helpless to protect their nation from the corporate marauders that prey on their ignorance and gullibility. They have no control of their Congress, which is bought and sold by the highest bidder, like any commodity that's up for sale. Until Americans take a hard look at themselves, and take seriously their responsibilities to send to Congress men and women they can trust to represent them, corporate hyenas will continue destroying what still remains of Democracy. "There are none so blind as those who will not see."
Jon Faulkner is a Master Mariner. He lives in Maine with his wife and children. Mariner@suddenlink.net
80 Comments so far
Show AllIn 1599 in Brazil, the Jivaro Indians captured the Spanish governor and, because they thought him crazed by gold, executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat. One can only wonder what dimensions the ongoing disaster in the Gulf will take but I cannot help but to feel that, like the unfortunate Spanish governor, some sort of cosmic justice is being inflicted upon us. We have met the enemy and it is us.
Tony Vodvarka
And like that governor, "we" will not realize the suicidal nature of our oil dependency until we see that liquid gold coming toward our faces.
The Sioux women pierced Custer's corpse's ears because they thought he couldn't hear.
"Americans put the Republicans in charge of Congress in 1996."
Fact check! It was 1994, not 1996.
The responsibility borne by the U.S. public is simple: for 30 years we sat and watched as our democracy become a corporatocracy. As we are no longer represented by our government, we can't do much about its failings and deliberate neoliberal economic dismantling and privitization of the state short of replacing the government. Given the people who now control the government, replacing the government will take nothing short of revolution, and U.S. citizens don't have the sack for that.
FastEddie: Our gov't has been a corporatocracy since at least 1913 (Federal Reserve Act), maybe 1896 (election of McKinley/Roosevelt ushers in the Age of Empire). Some would say since 1789.
then , if FastEddie needs to amend the timeline, he is still correct in one important thing:
MOST americans "sat by" as the country was TURNED into a corporatocratic fascism....
if anything MOST americans THOUGHT or CONVINCED themselves THIS IS america. or should be, so long as it DELIVERED them their supposed "american dream" of endless "CHOICES".......
a bigger refrigerator, a faster car, a roomier house, a nicer backyard with a nicer grass with more convenient water piping to make the grass grow just so pretty, to have nice barbecues at the back on a saturday afternoon while watching football outside with the neighbors, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
put it ALL together, small and large.........
FastEddie is correct.
Americans SAT BY while it "all happened" and APPROVED of it, in fact. if anything the great majority of americans - whereever they are or whatever their background, CAME TO PERSONAL CHOICES of what kind of life to 'dream about' and ACQUIRE - like one's neighor, one's friends, one's community, one's state, one's class, one's this or that -- almost everyone agreeing that this is the "american dream" or "american way of life" ...........
to have and to have some MORE in a dash for competing about who is more "worthy" however much MORE one can HAVE...
if anything this IS a consequence of what americans have long believed is their BIRTHRIGHT to "have", because they have "worked hard" for getting this "more" with all kinds of justifications despite many alarming signs in every generation that the PRICE will be beyond what ANYONE in the world can afford to pay...such as we see in the environment. let alone the devastations on global economics in order to SUPPORT the "american way".
well....the "american way" traveled around the world ...and found its way BACK on america's OWN SHORES -- in BLACK GOLD .
No argument from me. I was just correcting the author's claim that the Republican take-over he was refering to occured in '94, not '96.
FYI, from Joel Bakan's book, "The Corporation": "... limited liability was entrenched in corporate law, in England in 1856 and in the United States over the latter half of the nineteenth century (though at different times in different states)."
So, yes, we've been a corporatocracy for a long time. Still and all, the Friedmanite, neoliberal revolution ushered in by Reagan and Thatcher gave it all new life and impetus by further degrading the ability of people, via "their" government, to stop excesses. That was the thinking behind my "30 years" comment.
Eddie, et al,
You're probably right about Americans not having the sack for a revolution. We've been whipped every which way imaginable and our fight has been replaced with an endless desire for consumer goods and services. Bread and circus works.
OK, so the US public is supine and bloated. Does that mean you and I have to be supine and bloated? I mean, when we talk about the US public, shouldn't we include ourselves? And when the US public looks into the mirror, shouldn't we look into the mirror too?
How about we do this: How about we, you and I and anyone reading this, take whatever responsibility we can own, and change? It requires honest introspection and hard work, but isn't that what we really should do?
WE are the public in the US. WE are part of the problem. WE can be part of the solution.
Finally, I would admonish anyone who feels at all threatened or affronted by my words to ask why you feel that way. Usually, it will lead to something deeper that can then lead to an answer.
You have a point there. It's easy to blame leaders for everything but if our demand for oil is rising then don't we have ourselves to blame? I take blame for owning an SUV even if its for work related purposes. I can't take building materials or repair tools in small cars or on a subway but I accept responsibility and I don't blame the president for my own guilt. Where would BP be and what would our leadership look like if changes in our life styles were to lower the demand for oil? Nobody should be threatened by your words. If they are, they afraid to change themselves.
Mr. Faulkner, your whole premise is self-contradictory. In your summary you admit that "they [the public] have no control of their Congress, which is bought and sold by the highest bidder" and then you say "Until Americans take a hard look at themselves, and take seriously their responsibilities to send to Congress men and women they can trust to represent them, corporate hyenas will continue destroying what still remains of Democracy." Well, if Congress is bought and sold by the same corporate hyenas who are destroying the environment and democracy, what role is left for "Americans"? By your own definition we aren't the ones "sending" anyone to Congress and we don't control their behavior after they get there. What do you mean by "take a hard look"? We all agree on your critique of the system, but you aren't offering anything. I can take a hard look in the mirror all day and that won't change the system. I can only agree with Fast Eddie, that nothing short of a revolution will fix it.
P.S. For what it's worth, I would prefer a nonviolent revolution.
Well said. Mr. Faulkner had to be writing that with distinction blinders on. Ah, that would be a grand conclusion!!!!! Let's get there in a hurry!!!!!! I might miss out on some cash if I don't meet that deadline!!!! It's close enough!!!! Send!!!!
A sensible argument but don't you think instead of picking this guys article apart under A microscope of cynicism that there is something bigger here to learn from?
....."nothing short of revolution, and Americans don't
have the sac for that"
I think Americans just don't have the focus for it (and the media is to blame for that). We just need to focus on one thing: campaign finance reform. After that the revolution comes naturally, as it was meant to in a democracy.
Spot on my friend. Anyone who pays attention can see how the MSM is used to keep us from asking the right questions or even coming to realistic conclusions. We told how to think and what to think. Freedom of the press in America is a joke.
I think too many Americans are still too comfortable. I guess this is changing, maybe quickly, as more and more people get foreclosed or lose their jobs but still most Americans can still buy their burgers, drive their cars/SUVS/pickups, go to 3D movies and buy sweatshop shoes and jeans. As long as these things are available everything else is just someone elses problem. When that is combined with declining education, media saturation at unparralelled levels, and a non-existent moral or ethical system you get a population that doesn't see the need to change, doesn't want to change, and doesn't understand what a change would give them. Americans are still too busy trying to be "Idols" to give a shit about trying to be good citizens/ global citizens.
God Damn America, please, really soon.
Not a legit answer.
Campaign finance reform cuts into the MSM's profits, so it's not gonna happen.
They are in the business of controversy and entertainment. There only commitment to the "public good" is to sell advertising which is one of two main arteries that keeps the machine alive. The other is the Fed.
The press has no moral duty to do otherwise.
At this point it will take a bloody revolution to pry these criminals out of power.
moonpie,(great name, BTW), i understand. However, even if i did support violence as a means (where has it ever gotten anyone in the long run?) I don't think we can do it.
Why do they have so much surveillence flying around all over the place? There are so many private contract killers, tortures, etc. I don't think a violent revolution is even possible. Not one that will be against the corporatocracy, anyway.
We need to change paradigms, as was said on another post somewhere. We need to think way outside the box. Because these sociopathic, ecocidal maniacs have all the control over the one we are in. But they aren't Gods. They aren't superhuman. And. All destructiveness always collapses upon itself. It is simply like a blackhole.
I personally think this is still only the beginning. It feels like during the past administration the bottle of fizz was being shaken and shaken, and now obama has popped the cork. It is spewing all over the world. Much as i hate to say it. I am not surprised. I knew it was going to hit the fan. And the major earthquakes haven't even hit......Yet.
I feel a deep foreboding. In my heart. It needs to vomit.
Well yes, Bush and Cheney relaxed oil industry regulation, but Obama lowered the bar yet another notch and granted more offshore leases while waving EIS requirements.
At the very least the conservatives put forward an identifiable "conservative" agenda, but Obomber got elected pretending to be a populist/progressive. He actually pulled in conservation voters.
Now Obomber says he's going to get tough with BP after giving them the green light to violate responsible operating standards. What hypocrisy.
The assets of BP should be seized until they resolve the problem and Obomber and his administrators should be sued by the public for their negligence.
And then there is the legal question of 11 dead workers.
How do victims of treason share the blame for the oppressor's sneaky,greedy, wicked and ruthless corruption
=================
the answer to that is quite obvious and easy:
when one participates or by neglect or denial or willful "choice" because of what once SEEMED to be ADVANTAGEOUS to one's self (such as a "voter" would do, particularly among americans) --
EVENTUALLY -- if the consequences of such "choices" or "permission" - such as BP or private corporations through the belief in the greatness of Private property dogma (which IS a VERY american belief) -
THEN when one becomes a VICTIM of such consequences - it is only that victim's OWN doing.
in that way - the "victim" TRULY becomes responsible for being in the path of the consequences of his or her own and their collective culture's own permissiveness that LED to the consequences.
this is the part where americans , often loudly talking about "self-responsibility" ,
ARE NOW FORCED to take responsibility - NOT JUST for themselves as "victims" - but to take responsibility for the consequences and HOW THEY THEMSELVES - CULTURALLY allowed such consequences to arrive.
therefore == as the article suggests - AMERICANS only truly have themselves to blame.
it doesn't matter in the end - which INDIVIDUALS "did it" or that MANY are innocent - it is CULTURAL - americans even call it
"THE AMERICAN WAY".
you know - as a contrast in a nation's people taking responsibility for themselves in a TRUE FASHION despite everything that has happened to them -- take VIETNAM.
did you know:
remote from the coast of Vietnam is an island or string of islands...one is called "ban lao" - and it - for 150 years was NOTORIOUS as the site of the most BRUTAL prison camp ever seen in southeast asia (until the pol pot, etc.) -
this was a period that BEGAN with the FRENCH colonists building that prison camp (much like they did in Morocco, south america, etc) and THEN it was taken over BY the AMERICANS until the end of the Vietnam war.
the moment the war ended - the victorious Vietnamese , now under the rule of the communist regime's unification, immediately CLOSED the prison. just as it should never have been created.
today - it is a pristine, remote, known-mostly-to vietnamese and other neighbor asian tourists..and the whole archipelago is designated as a wildlife sanctuary.
Consider THIS in contrast to the USA and americans' continued quest for profit, profit, profit. FUn FUN FUN. CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME.
"choice, choice, choice" ...
while pointing fingers at everyone ELSE but themselves...or pointing fingers to "no one is to blame" -- ":stuff happens"
in order to avoid, whether they are the corporate entities, or the ordinary americans, taking RESPONSIBILITY for what they have done not JUST to the environment, but TO THEMSELVES when the consequences of their own "way of life" arrives in WAVES of destruction. whether it is Katrina in New Orleans, or the Bank corporate bailouts and destroyed livelihoods, or the Oil Spill...
americans DID THIS TO THEMSeLVES...in NO different way than MUCH of the world's ongoing debacles ARE TRACEABLE to the AMERICANS...whether in WAR, in exploitation, in disastrous environmental effects, in ruined economies....in resentments...in mistrust...etc. etc. etc.
what THIS is , this oil spill - is merely the American WAY - coming home to ROOST - after it has TRAVELED ALL OVER THE WORLD throwing around its FILTH in other economies when americans THOUGHT it couldn't touch THEM at home!
i feel SO BAD for those poor folks in the south - in the wetlands, in the marshes, in the river estuaries, in the coasts.
in THEIR OWN ways they were JUST BEING as good "citizens" as they could be. how ELSE could they not , under the rules of their country?. how ELSE could they not but try to earn a living too? as fisherment, as traders, etc?
BUT - as a whole - they ARE part of the "american choice" ...
and neither they nor others can nor should escape the COLLECTIVE responsibility of "choice" that has made america WHAT IT IS - a conservative country that would NOT listen to the demands of "slower" nature - due to the beckoning call of the PROFIT CULTURE, the MONEY DOLLAR Culture..the ACQUISITION culture...that forces everyone, by choice or not, to be a PARTICIPANT in that kind of "way of life".
one way or another, americans CHOSE it.
i have mentioned above that many americans are just trying to "get by" according to the rules created by THEMSELVES in the society - that is called - and which americans believe and even TAKE OATHS by - as "teh american way" .
since it is ALSO clear that THIS "american way" IS CORRUPT
it follows that the people that are PART of that same culture, in one way or another, participate , and ACTIVELY so, wether by intent or complete faith, or mere delusion or misguidedness, are PART of that culture of CORRUPTION...most exemplified by its CORPORATIST culture that pervades america and which , to one extent or another, americans UPHOLD and HAVE built collectively in small or large ways.
\
therefore - if one were to heed the words of Benjamin Franklin, in its broad meanings anyone can imagine, it comes true in this case:
"should this nation FALL...it will be not because of foreign threats or enemies, real or imagined......it shall fall because
THE PEOPLE ..........are corrupt".
THE PEOPLE.
he did not say "the corporations ONLY".
or "bad politicans ONLY".
or "conservatives ONLY". or "liberals and commies ONLY".
or "illegal immigrants ONLY"
or "Those that want to harm america ONLY".
or "those financial giants and the military-industrial complex ONLY"..
he said "THE PEOPLE". who, it is CLEAR , franklin ALREADY OBSERVED even in his time - DISPLAYED the propensity and FUTURE potential to "become" CORRUPT as a CULTURE.
How disappointing! The title says, "Americans must share the blame" but the main idea of the article is that somebody else is to blame.
The problem is not that BP has been reckless while drilling for oil under the Gulf of Mexico. The problem is that Americans have created an oil-based economy, and we've burned up or made plastic out of all the oil we could find, and now to satisfy our thirst for oil we are quite willing to pay for oil extracted from difficult places.
Suppose the BP disaster hadn't happened. We would have willingly bought the oil products, and burned some of it (creating an environmental disaster) and brought more of it home as plastic bags (creating another kind of environmental disaster).
"You must be the change you want to see in the world." To be free from the oil economy disasters of whatever kind we must stop using oil products. Without us buying the stuff, BP would never try to dig under the Gulf to get it for us.
We need both a supply side and a demand side solution. BP et al aren't going to stop buying congress and pumping oil down our throats until they (and the auto industry and many others) are regulated and ultimately phased out in favor of cleaner technologies. At the same time we (the gas guzzlers) are not going to have a significant shift of consciousness as long as we are not in extreme pain or peril (present company excluded of course). Most people will not change until somebody closes the spigot. Either way we are dealing with an entrenched status quo and likely an impossible job.
If there is an upside to this godawful environmental meltdown it is its high visibility. When our shores have become a bathtub ring of grease and dead birds we will all have a good long look at the price of oil dependency. Add in the barbed wire and the dead Mexicans and I would say our Shining City on a Hill is looking more like a gated slum.
i will give an example of how americans as a whole ARE responsible for these things themselves.
america , as a country , has the greatest power to UNDO what it should never have done in the first place in order to "build" what americans believe is the "american way" of endless "growth" , consumption, "get everything i want" ....if any can be undone before it's too late.
but an EXAMPLE of how americans have behaved that has been seen and accepted as "VERY QUINTESSENTIALLY AMERICAN" -- meaning : GOOD, MORAL, RIGHT...
is the continuing decline of TWO particular species of animals that have unforeseen , and even today after long study , at least one of them has YET UNdiscovered many OTHER benefits to humanity above what are already great benefits unbeknownst to most people across the globe.
I am talking about a particular species of brown birds from south america - who flock every year to nest and mate and produce babies in canada and near the north pole before winter arrives up north . and then they go south again for warmth.
in that trip of thousands of miles that take them weeks - they MUST TIME their arrival in the north to the most PRECISE days within a MERE week's time. if they MISS that - they DIE and keep declining in numbers. it is not yet studied what their other contributions to life is on earth.
however - 2/3 rds of the way up - they are already so depleted in their energy and fat and muscle reserves that they MUST land in the eastern coast of the USA - to feed , for a mere week, on the trillions and trillions of eggs in the sand laid by an ancient type of crab - that is itself over 450 million years old.
and THIS crab will ONLY surface from the deep ocean floor on SPECIFIC , calm, cool nights with low waves on a particular FULL MOON week. if they MISS - the birds have NO food - and can not reach canada or will die there .
both species have been declining.
the HAND OF MAN is responsible because from the south to the north and east coast of the USA - american fisherment and trollers learned since the 1980's - how EASY it is collect these crabs and mulch them into tasty feed for Eel, and other "dinner" seafodd popular in the USA and some other countries.
since it exploded as an industry for "feed" - that ancient crab has severely declined in numbers.
but did people know - that practically EVERY medical treatment for just about any ailment TODAY is dependent on the BLUE BLOOD of that crab? that is harvested by corporations - because that blood - unlike the "red blood" most organisms have - is rich in COPPER, rather than IRON - and that copper in that crab's blood - has been found to be so activated and quick in putting down PRACTICALLY ANY infection and which is why these crabs - for HUNDREDS of millions of years CAN NOT be infected by any disease or virus ever known?
now = imagine, outside of the bireds dependent on the crab to continue their journey , that the OIL SPILL will descend and in the currents under the sea reach where these CRABS reside in teh atlantic coast.........
then think of one's own grandmother in a hospital SOMEWHERE whose blood and body is partly protected or cleaned BECAUSE of the BLUE BLOOD given by a mere crab from 450 million years ago - who benefits not JUST us but some birds from thousands of miles AWAY in south america ....or thousands up north - they THEIR numbers might , for hundreds of millions of years - been the SOURCE of critical food FOR northern species?
and perhaps also human communities?
THAT is just part of the consequences of PROFIT CULTURE.
We are what we choose to do with our lives. Hey, I'm guilty for owning an SUV according to some kooks without my SUV, I can't carry around building and repair tools for my job. The economy is dependent on oil and we must all find ways to change that. Just blaming Obama for BP's mess won't cut it. We had plenty of time since 1979 to cut back on our demand for oil but we failed or BP wouldn't be drilling from the gulf. I can repair a car to have a solar panel on it for electric fuel. The demand for electric cars could be coming. We could also change our ethanol from corn to switch grass to cut down on oil demand. There should more solutions for reducing demand.
You have a WUV (work utility vehicle), not an SUV!
I was wondering when someone was going to blame working and poor people for this.
"The Republican Parties message of less government and ever lower taxes proved a winning combination. If Democrats hoped to win elections they knew they must move further to the right."
Are there REALLY any differences between the two major parties.
"Horrified Americans are beginning to understand the enormity of the catastrophe that B.P. has set loose upon the world. Americans are justifiably outraged, but it is they who subscribe to Limbaugh, Beck, and the Fox News crowd. Americans put the Republicans in charge of Congress in 1996. In 2000 they stood idly by as an immoral neer do well snuck through the back door and into the White House. In ensuing years regulations, and the oversight of polluters, took a back seat to corporate profit."
So ALL Americans listen to and believe the right-wing squawk radio crowd?
You do realize the poor turnout of the 1996 election? Why didn't people bother? They weren't aware of truly progressive candidate. They didn't believe in the 2 mediocre candidates put before them.
The 2000 election was stolen. Is it the fault of all the voters that were disenfranchised on Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004?
And do you honestly think Gore and Kerry would have been all that much different?
I guess it's the fault of working and poor Americans that Obama hasn't gone after Dubbya and his gang too.
Sioux Rose
The Great: I just sent an email to the author, and related similar observations with respect to his broadstroke indictment. I didn't know about the ruling that told Fox they could both lie and refer to themselves as THE fair and balanced news reporting network. Well, with so many pretenders and so many calamitous fictions passing for official state policy, for a news network to traffic in falsehoods (and this betrayal of the public's interest be conceived of as free speech) should not surprise me. One's personal outrage index has to be close to that point on the Richter Scale where earthquakes are felt.
My article was not directed at Limbaugh, Beck or Fox News aficionados. My intention was to point out that after 30 years of right wing deregulations Wall Street’s commercial banks, and now B.P, have brought the chickens home to roost. Far too many Americans bought into the ridiculous notion that corporate responsibility was none of government’s business. Let corporations self regulate, and the results can now be seen poisoning the Gulf of Mexico.
I hope right wing radio and t.v. audiences will catch a clue as Congress argues over whether or not B.P's liability should be raised from $75 million to $10 billion while millions of gallons of oil continue pouring into the Gulf.
I absolutely do not take blame for the things wrought in our (American) name. I have never listened to right-wing radio and tv personalities and only saw who they were when shown on Olbermann (which I no longer watch). I boycott stores and products I think are harmful. I vote as knowledgably and responsibly as possible. I inform myself as best I can about current events, environmental science, history and future outlooks. I talk to others whenever I have the opportunity.
Many of us grew up in an era where most people told the truth or some semblance thereof. It takes time to realize the extent to which we are lied to, manipulated, robbed and cheated. Meantime, what am I supposed to do, pick up a gun, start a commune in the wilderness, move to another country, what?
Sioux Rose
Right on, Dus! The homogenity implied by the use of the word "we," in its implication that all American citizens are "on board" is breathtaking for its delusional hubris. If we're all responsible, then leadership gets a free pass. No matter that the half-million dollar gadget that might have been used to offset the tendency for such a calamity was sacrificed on the altar of free enterprise, or that a lot of people made a lot of money from odious deals that free up one thing indeed: accountability! The corporations that manufacture consent through ownership of the media circus and its 24/7 disinformation campaigns are free to exploit all those resources the web of species depends upon. Like giants they go about stomping the rest of us out of existence, and call it free trade. They do not have the consent of those being expunged! Let the dolphin vote!
Right on, SR!
Sioux Rose
Thank you, Eddie. I tried to find the film "Network" at our local flea market today so I could assuage my anger along with Howard Beal. No go. But I did find a few other goodies. I love buying my favorite films for a buck a pop since I gave up T.V. as sometimes I like "another voice" in the home. One wonders what the moneychangers in the temples will experience when they realize their gold cannot buy the last drop of clean water...
"i'm as mad as hell, and i'm not gonna take this anymore!"
Thank you! I couldn't find the words to express my objection to the myth of what used to be called "liberal guilt." I have drastically reduced my consumption of everything (except beer) over the past half-dozen years. I don't think I share one iota of blame for what the corporatocracy does because they aren't doing it for me--they're doing it for their shareholders.
I agree with you. In fact, many of us liberals have already 'paid our dues' for our liberal views, and I'm incensed with the idea that I share blame for this mess. Like many, I was finally called to action when, in 2002, GW Bush simultaneously announced an invasion of Iraq AND a 'double down' on the disastrous Reagan tax cut 'supply-side economics' craziness of 20 years previous. That's when I realized that we weren't in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. How were my objections received? Unfortunately, I worked for the military-industrial-complex, so my concerns were rewarded with a general shunning, a downsized job and responsibilities. I eventually had to leave. Katrina was strike two, as my advocacy in support of alternative energy was met with general disinterest and an occasional whispered agreement that I was insane (and this from my own family).
The Obama response to the healthcare crisis is, frankly, strike three. Now I see the entire system as morally bankrupt, and campaign finance reform as the only possible way we can regain 'our' democracy. And I don't care anymore, because America's number one populist response to the finance sector meltdown is one Hitler would be proud to helm: campaign finance reform will never happen.
Today, I look at the impending death of the Gulf with something akin to resignation and disinterest. Younger 'Glenn Beckers' I know look at me as something of a crank, and I'm content to let them feel that. I don't care. Someone wrote an article the other day about how we're all falling into the trap of sarcasm. Honestly, sarcasm is all that is left to me. But I can be roused to complain when someone says I share responsibility for what happened.
Even a cur will complain when kicked one too many times.
Exactly, what were we supposed to do? I am even prepared to pay more for the (very little) gas I use -- I mean I am quite prepared when the BP and the rest stop paying their CEOs more that the GDP of some smaller countries.
Thank you. I don't take the blame either. We aren't given many chices. The car companies killed most buses and trains. We weren't given a choice until recently to buy eco cars. But on my salary I can't afford one. This diary is BS. Our Congress is to blame as is Reagun, bushes, clinton and Obama. Carter tried.
Our congress are just shills anyway. They are all bought off. Look at how BP has controlled this disaster. Waiting a month to try to kill it? A month? This diarist is full of shit.
I Honor you and others like you.
BLAME is different from taking responsibility.
it is like - bad parents can be blamed for what happens to their children....
a good neighbor , if capable and willing, can take responsibility for the children that have become lost due to their parents.
if the rest of america can be BLAMED -- some americans , like yourselves - have taken RESPONSIBILITY - even if it is not fair to YOU for what OTHER americans have done irresponsibly.
whatever your just rewards - apart from the clarity and peace of your own conscience , if anything means anything in our personal existence boiling down to our conscience that we have done what we COULD - the world, today and tomorrow, knowingly or not, WILL and SHOULD be grateful to you and others like you -- forever -- for you are not "just" an ameri can with conscience -- you are a citizen of the world.
:-).
you are to be honored because you kept and followed the truth as your conscience and knowledge and abilities allow, as much as irresponsible americans are to be CONDEMNED.
this is the same for people everywhere.
a story went today in the news:
an old hispanic lady in california was hospitalized yesterday -- from lack of proper nutrition because she was not only old, but had no more enough money to buy proper food for herself....
the REASON?
she "shared" what little she had in her old age - with ABANDONED and STRAY CATS in the neighborhood. ...because strangers, or her own neighbors or people in the neighborhood got used to the realization that this old lady is so kind to cats and would take them in ....so THEY would throw their unwanted cats and pets over her fence to her yard, knowing she would take care of the animals.
she had something like over 70 of them - at age 78 herself.
in her loneliness and old age and weakness and relative poverty - SHE took care of what other people, probably most of them quite capable but simply did not "want" their cats anymore , would not take responsibility for (such as easily bringing them to animal shelters...whatever).
And who did you vote for in the past 4 Pres. elections, e. g.?
OK, so here's a good place to continue. Howie Hawkins for governor of NY.
http://www.howiehawkins.com/2010/
If you don't live in NY, that's OK, he could use the help from anybody who cares about bringing about a sea change in politics.
Responsibility may start at home, but it continues at the polls .....
Beware! BP destroyed the democratic government of Iran, and put the Shah in its place! They are dangerous!
CosmicCrushed-The elites are already damning America. Progressives cannot afford to do the same thing. You save America you save the world.
Americans are like children and not capable of sharing this blame. We have been "worked" by hucksters for years and have lost our God given sense of ethic. Americans believe that killing brown civilians in Fallujah was merely collateral damage. Murdering abortion doctors saves unborn babies lives and is not wrong. Defaulting on the pensions of retired Americans is for the greater good. Selling defective mortgage products and later foreclosing on widows and orphans is about personal responsibility.
We are living the New World Order. It's real. It's here and now and it knows no national boundaries. It knows only capital. Capital so great that it is hard to comprehend. Capital that will rule for a thousand years. Capital that will keep order in the world at the price of our humanity. America is not a Democracy. We are living Plato's Republic - the most divine comedy ever written, in my humble opinion.
We have been sold out by our leaders for a commission. How cheaply they were bought is the real outrage here. Compare campaign contributions to the contributor's return on investment. Maybe our leaders are smarter than we think. I wonder how much wealth has been hidden in secret accounts around the world? We can track worldwide contribution to Muslin charities, but have no idea how much money is in Swiss accounts and in whose names.
Deregulation seems to be the common theme in our troubles of late. Deregulation has given rise to a very destructive breed of capitalist predator. They have the world to gain with no risk of loss. They are too big to fail, have liability caps, pay no income tax, wrote the regulations themselves, have the ability to reorganize and the sheriff is their brother-in-law. It's win win and no time like the present.
Our regulators are too close to industry and enforcement has become an unfunded mandate - no corporation left behind. I've heard the BP fiasco compared to the Apollo 13 mission. Thank God we still have NASA (that DLC Obama wants to privatize). When the chips are down, who you going to call? Sandia, Livermore, NASA, JPL, Goddard, Oakridge, Aerospace, US Navy, etc. or BP or Transocean or Halliburton?
If this flow is stopped, it will be due to solutions proposed by government scientists. The same scientists that every administration since Reagan has tried to RIF. Someday there won't be a government to save the day. As in Orwell's 1984, just a government to keep the people at bay.
Sioux Rose
SJRYAN: Powerful post. I see it all, too. In this forum, quite a few of us do. Unfortunately, "the sight" operates like a double-edged blade these days. It's not an easy "gift" to possess when we're made to feel like Cassandras who cannot influence ultimate outcomes. This wound to the Great Mother may present the necessary wake-up call; for there is a power in numbers, and if enough gather as part of a massive awakening, it would be a good and therapeutic thing. Perhaps not too late... for life and its interlocking systems. I'd like to raise my cup to hope, but then Obama turned that into a 4-letter word.
Sioux Rose:
"for there is a power in numbers"
I like these words Lady, and what you are saying here is and can be much more than A therapeudic thing...This is the one and only true power that we have to overcome the evil, dark side of humanity that is now in charge..We don't deserve anything that we are not willing to fight for and will surely be controlled by those that know this...
Now just hold on there a minute mister. BP did it, not me. or my fellow citizens either.
I think our country is being occupied by a corporate/military elite class who have seized control of the government and the media that once might have told us something but no longer can.
then you'll tell us to "vote", as if we were a democracy. what a cruel joke.
and now you come around trying to blame US for what our corporate fascist bosses have done to us.
stick it in your ear mr. capitalist stooge.
B.P. blames Halliburton. Halliburton blames B.P. Then both of them blame Transocean, a Swiss based company that blames B.P. for not installing crucial equipment, and Halliburton for its cement plugs. Obama blames anyone in sight. He’s got to. Not two months after he lifted the moratorium on drilling he said, “We’ll protect areas that are vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security. And we’ll be guided not by political ideology, but by scientific evidence.”
But now political ideology and science, as practiced by B.P. and the army of volunteers who are trying to shut the horror off, is being blamed too. If people only had more fingers they could point at even more guilty party’s. But there is one thing that is perfectly clear. Americans are not guilty of anything. They had absolutely nothing to do with B.P’s recklessness. They gave at the office. They never voted for a Republican in their lives, and when George Junior hijacked an election with his pals on the Supreme Court, the losers were told to “get over it,” and they did, although a few kept grumbling for awhile.
Halliburton, B.P, Obama and the U.S. Congress are blameless. The Swiss owned Deepwater Horizon didn‘t do anything wrong. Everyone is blameless! Just ask and they’ll tell you so! So while Rome burns and Nero fiddles, everyone can rest comfortably that no one at all is at fault. Except for those who are, and that seems a matter of opinion - other’s opinions. Of all the comments here I thought Teddy’s Einstein analogy the most descriptive of humanity in the 21st Century.
RE: Americans put the Republicans in charge of Congress in 1996. In 2000 they stood idly by as an immoral neer do well snuck through the back door and into the White House. In ensuing years regulations, and the oversight of polluters, took a back seat to corporate profit.
Now really Mariner, do you think the Democrats would have done anything different? Especially since Obama has continued all the most egregious policies of the Bush administration (including support for offshore drilling)?
The most progressive president we've had concerning the use of fossil fuels was Jimmy Carter.
Do you know who is the architect of the following policy?
...which stated that the United States would use military force if necessary to defend its "national interests" [my quotes] in the Persian Gulf region...
That was Jimmy Carter in his State of the Union Address on January 23, 1980. It's known as the "Carter Doctrine" and all subsequent presidents have continued the policy. That is a doctrine that been the basis for at least 3 invasions and occupations for the sake of "our" oil under their land. My point here is this, are the American people really to blame if they have a "choice" between 2 parties that represent the same corporate interests? We are asking for a glass of good, clean, pure fresh water and the only choices we are given is between Coke and Pepsi. Are we to blame for making a bad choice when both choices are bad? What we are seeing with BP is a predictable consequence of capitalist exploitation of resources and maximizing of profits, which includes collusion with government. Standard operating procedure. The Gulf of Mexico is just an externality to them.
Now if you were to blame Americans for their gullibility for accepting the duopoly and an economic system that regularly produces war and environmental (and economic) disasters we might have something to talk about. But you're not doing that. You are not asking for realism, you are asking renewed faith in the fantasy that we live in a democracy.
Tom Larson made an excellent response above, and I will add to it by restating what I said earlier, perhaps more clearly: If, as you say-- and I agree with you -- Congress is bought and sold by the highest bidder-- average Americans cannot at the same time be held accountable for not sending men and women they can trust to Washington to represent them. You clearly understand that the electoral system is broken and our choices severely circumscribed by big money players. How do you propose we take "responsibility" for sending these trustworthy representatives to Washington when they are being bought and sold and manipulated by corporate contributions, lobbyists, and media?