* This is a pro-Bernie diary.
I believe that our need for change has become quite desperate, existentially so, truly a matter of life and death. Very few of us seem to understand that in the way it deserves to be understood. I attribute this to the success of the American obfuscation machine, otherwise known as the mass media. The six media conglomerates that control virtually all the information in our society have deliberately dumbed-down, misinformed and confused the masses. Exxon knew of the catastrophe we call global warming almost 40 years ago but kept it their little secret, and not only that but spent millions to make us all believe their Big Lie that it wasn't really the threat they knew it to be, which is consistent with the behavior of other corporate giants. These monstrosities do not have our best interests at heart. They care only about profits – profits at any cost – at any cost at all – even the survival of the human race.
h/t Climate Hawks and RLMiller
Exxon and other fossil fuel companies may have committed a crime of enormous proportions, and more and more elected officials and others are demanding an investigation.
The charge is that Exxon scientists and management knew since the late 1970s that the company's product was helping cause our planet to warm "catastrophically," but management responded by covering this up and disseminating disinformation - joining with other companies to commit an enormous fraud on the public for profit.
Exxon's Funding of Climate Denial Turned Americans Against Their Own Government for Profit
Senator Bernie Sanders is calling for an investigation.
The following is from Bernie's letter of October 20, 2015 to Attorney General Lynch (pdf):
We are writing regarding a potential instance of corporate fraud - behavior that may qualify as a violation of federal law....
Exxon has since contributed $31 million since 1998 to think tanks and organizations casting doubt on mainstream climate science. These reports, if true, raise serious allegations of a misinformation campaign that may have caused public harm similar to the tobacco industry’s actions – conduct that led to federal racketeering convictions. Based on available public information, it appears that Exxon knew its product was causing harm to the public, and spent millions of dollars to obfuscate the facts in the public discourse. The information that has come to light about Exxon’s past activities raises potentially serious concerns that should be investigated....
We request that the Department [of Justice] form a task force by December 19, 2015.
If you move into a house next to a garbage dump, you eventually come not to smell it, you become inured to the stench. It is a considerable challenge for people within our denial-oriented and deliberately confused culture to see the horrendous damage our way of life has caused and how absolutely unsustainable it is.
If we don't make huge changes quickly, civilization, if not humanity itself, is at risk. How many scientists telling us exactly this is it going to take?
So how bad is it? How great are corporate America's crimes against humanity? Where does all of this leave us?
Greenland is melting away
These Cities May Soon Be Uninhabitable Thanks to Climate Change
Here are the facts that we need to face.
These critical facts are as true today as they were in February, 2012, when the following video was recorded:
Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of global climate change and why he is deeply worried about the future.
“There is a time when panic is the appropriate response.”
Eugene Kleiner
Panic? No. But sitting up and taking these matters seriously – finally – at fucking last? You bet your ass!
Many Americans are relatively unconcerned with things beyond their immediate personal experience. Life in the context of casino capitalism/debt slavery/financial survival is tough enough on its own. Many just don't see the point in taking inordinate interest in matters beyond their influence or kin. Many don't even bother to vote. 'Man-on-the-street' interviews suggest that many if not most people don't know very much at all about what's going on in the world or the nation. The powers that be like it that way. With so many peoples' views so deeply warped by propaganda and unreality, and with generations subjected to the deliberate dumbing down of America, it's not so surprising that the average person doesn't see how shamelessly we are being played or how outrageously future generations are being cheated.
All because of our short-sighted and selfish rich.
"It is all working quite well for the rich and powerful. In the US, for example, tens of millions are unemployed, unknown millions have dropped out of the workforce in despair, and incomes as well as conditions of life have largely stagnated or declined. But the big banks, which were responsible for the latest crisis, are bigger and richer than ever, corporate profits are breaking records, wealth beyond the dreams of avarice is accumulating among those who count, labor is severely weakened by union busting and “growing worker insecurity,” to borrow the term Alan Greenspan used in explaining the grand success of the economy he managed, when he was still “St. Alan,” perhaps the greatest economist since Adam Smith, before the collapse of the structure he had administered, along with its intellectual foundations. So what is there to complain about?"
Noam Chomsky
Bernie gets it though, and people are starting to get
that. Watch this:
People praise capitalism for the wealth it has created, ignoring that in doing so it has gobbled up rainforests, polluted and degraded the biosphere, imposed poverty on billions of people, extinction on untold species and fomented tragic wars, causing unimaginable human suffering...or that it is dooming future generations to struggle for survival on an increasingly uninhabitable planet.
It's all been driven by mindless, unchecked and unreasoning greed. It's all been about the greedy few not caring about anything but themselves. Wealth beyond a certain level causes people to lose their minds, nothing could be clearer. How else can it be explained that otherwise intelligent people are willing and eager to sacrifice future generations just to increase their already hideous wealth by a smidge? It's madness.
The 1% are people so blinded and corrupted by greed that they prefer short-term profits to the long-term survival of the human race. This unfortunate fact about those at the top remains unchanged. Our ultra-rich are still crazed by greed and they still don't give a shit about you or me.
If it weren't for the pathological selfishness of the 1%, our lives could all be much better.
"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed."
Machines won't bring about the economic robot apocalypse -- but greedy humans will, according to physicist Stephen Hawking.
“Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”
Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots
It's time for our government and our culture to serve the common people. The only way that is going to happen is for us to seize this rare opportunity to rise up and elect a people's champion to the presidency. A Sanders presidency is not the end, it is the means, the first step on a long journey of reform. Electing Bernie president is merely step one. Step two is sweeping progressives into office who are themselves committed to Bernie's and the people's agenda. This is something that is absolutely within our grasp. All we have to do is get enough smart people to the polls to cast their vote for a hopeful future. Then we can all roll up our sleeves and get to work.
“I pledge to you that every day I will fight for the public interest not the corporate interests,” Sanders told the Jefferson-Jackson dinner crowd, as his young supporters answered with thunderous applause. “I will not abandon any segment of American society—whether you’re gay or black or Latino, poor or working class—just because it is politically expedient at a given time.”
The proposition Sanders offered was clear enough: While others might make promises, he can be counted on to stand firm for economic and social justice, for peace and the planet.
Bernie Sanders Is Actually Quite Serious About This ‘Political Revolution’ Thing
We are in a fight for our lives and for the lives of generations to come. Only Bernie has the vision, clarity and judgment to lead us. Only Bernie is exhorting us to stand up and fight back against the class war that's being waged on us by the 1%.
Only Bernie is on our side.
This is a fight we can win, but only if we stand together, finally, and fight back.