The tremendous amount of misinformation about “energy”
being infused into the media outlets: I
often wonder how much the transmitters
really believe, how much is just fed to them, how much they do just to
deliberately deceive and deflect, and how much they do solely because it’s
their job.
For instance, the current drivel, pushed by
Levin and his ilk, about “the nation’s energy being controlled by the
government,” and “nothing has been done by this administration, even when they
controlled all the government.”
And to heap bizarre absurdity and outrageous
falsehood upon bizarre absurdity and outrageous falsehood, the duplicitous then
accuse others of being duplicitous.
Let’s just look at one small piece of ONE of the
many assertions: “Control of the
government.” Leaving aside what
government really “controls” in a capitalistic economy dominated by wealthy and
powerful corporations, “control’ of the (national) government means what
exactly? This current administration, of
which I am no great fan, has found opposition in the judicial branch,
especially at the top, so one of the main three branches has never been in its
corner. When its party “controlled” the
Congress, the other of three branches, it didn’t really, because the vagaries
of Senate rules allow a minority of 41 senators to block anything significant
they want. It is MUCH easier to obstruct
and to subvert than it is to actually accomplish something.
The purveyors of disinformation are banking on
people not knowing how their government “works.”
And so the republic suffers in its
ignorance. And we get mindless clamoring
for oil pipelines that will create few jobs, bring little oil to use here, do
little to change prices, and, most importantly in our disconnected-from-results
illusory culture, have no consideration of the perpetuation of how we poison ourselves
and our biosphere. And avoids
TRANSFORMATION to a better world, to solve the problems of the present and
future. No, we would rather reach for
the “easy” solutions offered by the visionless, the corrupt, the greedy. Pay no attention to the climate effects of
more oil. Particularly pay no attention to the incredibly polluting extraction
methods of this “new” tar sand/shale oil supply. Pay no attention to how heavily corrosive it
is. Pay no attention to how, when it
spills--and it WILL spill, in both pipelines and tankers--it can’t really be
cleaned up in any effective manner.
There is a 40 mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan which is
still off limits to use because of a “small” spill of this “new” oil TWO YEARS
AGO.
And don’t find out what pair of brothers have
their hands in many aspects of the proposed pipeline.
And don’t figure out that the price of gas is
in large part a reflection of hedge funds, speculators, futures contracts, and
international demand. Or that there are taxpayer
subsidies for refining, not just drilling.
Or that refined oil is our biggest manufactured export.
And don’t realize that climate change,
unchecked, will cost, from weather devastation alone, greater than WW1, WW2, the
Great Depression, and the Cold War, COMBINED.
Americans have become exceedingly proficient
in straining at gnats and swallowing elephants. And, of course, accepting most of the illusions that come their way.
