$4 Gas, Revolution, and Our Corporate Masters

Gasoline prices hit new high

U.S. average retail gasoline prices have reached a new high of almost $3.20 per gallon and will likely jump another 20 to 30 cents in the next month, worsening the pain of consumers struggling to make ends meet in an economic downturn.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips reported earnings of almost $10 million {a fucking} hour in the fourth quarter. The economy appears headed toward the first contraction in a presidential election year since 1980. Democrats will probably raise taxes on the oil companies by at least $1.8 billion a year by 2009, senators in both parties say.

“I don’t think you want to be politically or any other way aligned with oil companies that are racking up these kinds of profits at a time when consumers in your state are paying $3 or $3.50 a gallon for gasoline,” says Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who doesn’t face re-election.

emphasis {ahem} mine.

When oh when, Sweet Goddess, will…

Math is not my strong point, but I couldn’t find a clear and simple statement on google of just what Exxon et als profits were last quarter…so let’s see…

$10 million {a fucking} hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year….that comes out too….

Some incredibly obscene number that translates into the only thing that MIGHT cause…and I really do hate to use the dehumanizing term, believe me…The Sheep To Look Up?

To cause boycotts or a general strike….or (in my dreams) some kind of real revolt amongst the folks who used to be citizens but are now, heh, dehumanized into mere units of consumption?

More grist for the what will it take file, to mix metaphors. Let them eat diesel.

Record foreclosures from corporate greed, inflation ballooning on milk, food and every other essential that ordinary folk need to just survive. Health care out of control, no jobs being created, while outsourcing continues, and…trillions of our taxpayer moneys spent killing and torturing in wars to benefit our corporate masters. Where does it end? It doesn’t, unless it is ended.

How does it end? Either when enough people are out in the streets or when The People find a way to reign the greed of the Corporations…and their governmental puppets and co-conspirators in the shearing of the American flock, in. To take them to heel, to take our country back. To stop the madness that is killing the planet. To stop the less than 1% of the worlds population who have grown and are increasingly growing ever more fat off of the labors and suffering of the rest of the planet.

There seems to be a never ending supply of weak-ass politicians for them to buy or blackmail or intimidate. Their avarice is obviously unwavering and they have the morals of a sea sponge. Until they kill all of the sea sponges with their uncaring exploitation…..

Exxon Valdez – Pouring trouble on oiled waters

Are plaintiffs out of rope to hang Exxon for the Valdez disaster?

It has been almost 19 years since the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound and spilled 11 million gallons of oil along 1,200 miles of Alaskan coastline. But the battle over what Exxon should be forced to pay to put the case to rest rages on.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether Exxon Mobil should pay any punitive damages. Although a federal appeals court has already cut in half the $5 billion in damages awarded to plaintiffs by a jury in 1994, Exxon argues that even $2.5 billion (which, with interest, now approaches almost $5 billion) is excessive under laws governing shipping and previous high court decisions limiting punitive damages.

snip

The nearly 33,000 plaintiffs in the case, including Alaskan fishermen who say they lost their livelihoods that fateful day in 1989, are quick to remind Exxon and the courts that the Valdez was also the worst oil spill in US history. And that more than justifies the $2.5 billion award, which “represents barely more than three weeks of Exxon’s current net profits”,

……in the pursuit of something as ultimately meaningless as, as the planet dies…..cash. Of all of this for mere cash, and the illusion of power that it brings.

True power comes from building, not destroying. So in the face of all this, let us continue to build the networks and connections that will allow us to end their reign of terror, before it is too fucking late.