BP Gulf catastrophe typifies corporate behavior in America
The Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe, now in its 35th day, has struck land, coating tourist beaches, marshes and shorelines with a greasy black filth that metaphorically represents the corporate greed that now dominates the U.S. economy. We are all awash in the dark slime of corporations gone bad, and now we’re paying the price for allowing these companies to dominate our media, our government and our entire economy.
You might think government regulators could have prevented all this, but that’s hardly the case. This disaster isn’t merely about a government regulation failure; it’s about what happens when you let corporations rule Washington.
Reporters threatened with arrest by U.S. Coast Guard under orders from BP
British Petroleum has been steamrolling both the federal government and the press over this oil catastrophe in the Gulf. For starters, the U.S. Coast Guard is now threatening to arrest journalists who try to cover the story by invoking “BP rules” that forbid journalists from conducting investigative journalism. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010…)
As reported by CBS News: “When CBS News tried to reach the beach, covered in oil, a boat of BP contractors with two Coast Guard officers on board told us to turn around under threat of arrest.”
In other words, the U.S. Coast Guard is now protecting the financial interests of corporations by trying to censor a story the public needs to see.
At the same time, BP thumbed its nose at the EPA and flatly refused to use less-toxic chemical dispersants in its cleanup efforts. So yesterday, the White House ordered BP to cut its use of chemical dispersants by half. The chemical in question is called Corexit, and so far BP has dumped 650,000 gallons of the toxic chemical in the Gulf of Mexico.
And yet, as the Guardian reports, “Scientists told congressional hearings last week that Corexit was more toxic and less effective than other dispersants on the market. Conservationists fear the chemical could further jeopardize already depleted stocks of fish such as Atlantic bluefin tuna or poison endangered species of turtle.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme…)
Powerful corporations write their own rules
BP, of course, can simply ignore the order to ease off its use of chemical dispersants, just like it ignored rules and regulations about drilling for oil in the ocean in the first place. And that’s the problem here: When corporations are allowed to run the show, they will inevitably take shortcuts that compromise the health of their customers or the environment.
The same thing is true with Big Pharma, which basically runs the FDA, FTC and CDC. What BP is doing to the Gulf of Mexico, Big Pharma is doing to the health of the world population. And yet because it is so incredibly profitable to poison people with dangerous prescription medications, the pharmaceutical industry has the financial influence to dominate the actions of government regulators.
Similarly, the meat and dairy industries basically run the USDA. That’s why healthy raw milk is being outlawed while pasteurized, processed dead milk is heavily pushed by the USDA (and the FDA).
Time and time again, powerful corporations corrupt the system and turn it to their own advantage: Military contractors dictate foreign policy. Monsanto dictates agriculture policy. Wall Street dictates banking regulations. And British Petroleum writes its own rules when it comes to offshore drilling.
It’s not even a question of government regulators having too little power, either… regulators have plenty of power. It’s just that they are using it against the People rather than to protect the people. They are purposely avoiding holding corporations responsible for their actions that are destroying our health, our economy and our environment.
A crime against our planet
For example, if you or I dumped 650,000 gallons of a toxic chemical in the ocean, we’d be arrested and brought up on criminal charges that would probably include “terrorism” charges under the Patriot Act. But when BP executives do exactly the same thing, nothing happens to them. No arrests. No criminal charges. No consequences.
Heck, you know as well as I do that BP will get off with a slap on the wrist when this is all over. Every major corporation that commits fraud (Big Pharma), steals from the People (Goldman Sachs) or causes an environmental catastrophe (BP) gets off virtually scot-free.
Well why is that? Why can corporations commit the most heinous crimes imaginable and yet never be held accountable? Big Pharma has engaged in so much price fixing fraud, clinical trial fraud and fraudulent marketing that it would make your head spin. Yet the U.S. government continues to do business with Big Pharma, buying up their dangerous drugs at monopoly prices, even though these companies are essentially corporate felons.
Business as usual in the corporate world
The sad truth is that this disaster in the Gulf of Mexico isn’t an aberration. It’s just business as usual in the corporatocracy known as the United States of America, Inc. The corporations run this country, and they do whatever they want, regardless of how many people are killed, how many laws are broken or how many miles of coastline are utterly destroyed by chemical contamination. They operate with utter disregard for anything resembling ethics or honesty.
Corporate greed knows no limits. If corporate executives could profit another billion dollars by destroying the entire Gulf of Mexico, do you have any doubt they would pursue that course of action? Your life has no value to them. Marine life has no value to them. The health of the world’s oceans have no value to them. They only value one thing: The bottom line profit they can produce at any cost.
British Petroleum = Big Pharma = Big Food = Big Agriculture = the Military Industrial Complex.
It’s all the same, folks. Do not be surprised that these criminal corporate operators are destroying our planet. They’ve been doing it for generations, and they absolutely will not stop unless We the People make them stop through force (by having these people arrested and imprisoned, for example).
If you really want to clean up the planet, we should stop tossing chemical dispersants into the Gulf and just start tossing greed-minded corporate executives into the ocean and see how far they can swim when they’re coated with oil.
That would be planetary justice, my friends, and it would send a powerful message that corporate executives who cause harm to the world around them may end up swimming in the very same cesspools of greed they themselves created.
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