April 22, 2021
As you probably know if you are in the habit
of tuning in to Paying Attention, everyone here is a big fan of Old Mother
Earth and every day is Earth Day around here. For better or worse, mostly
worse, the United States has long been a major player in what happens to our
favorite life-sustaining planet. This nation has been propping up the fossil
fuel industry for 100 years, while simultaneously showing nothing but disdain
for the only planet we have.
In 1980 Ronald Reagan named James Watt (not
the steam engine guy, whose invention was one of the early insults to the
environment, if not social structure) as Secretary of the Interior. Watt was hostile
to environmentalism, and endorsed development of federal lands by foresting and
ranching, and for other commercial interests. Watt worked tirelessly to carry
out his Earth-killing mission. He was once described as “intensely controversial and blatantly
anti-environmental political appointees” in American history.
In 2021 Joe Biden appointed Watt’s polar
opposite Deb Haaland, as the first Native American to manage America’s interior
in out nation’s history. Haaland is the first Interior secretary to have no agenda
other than no compromise in the defense of Mother Earth!
On the eve of Biden’s virtual climate summit
with other world leaders, 101 Nobel laureates in peace, literature, medicine,
physics, chemistry and economic sciences led by the Dalai Lama, have signed onto
a letter weighing
in on the scourge of fossil fuels. “The burning of fossil fuels is responsible
for almost 80% of carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution…Allowing
the continued expansion of this industry is unconscionable.”
Capitalism Kills
If for no other reason than this, capitalism,
conservative socio-economic theory and its companion theory on the function of
federal government are utter frauds. Corporations (even the ones that do not
get obscene and completely antithetical to anything fair or moral, welfare in
the form of tax exemptions, subsidies, etc.) are privy to relatively unfettered
ability to make unlimited profit. Bully for them. But somehow, they are for the
most part completely absolved of cleaning up after themselves. That of course,
is left up to tax payers by way of our friendly neighborhood Congress people.
The government is left (voluntarily)holding the bag…and not just the one full
of cash. They – us – must clean up all the pollution, in no small part because
corporate henchmen known as lobbyists literally write the laws.
Ratpublicans yell and scream about the
dreaded socialism. All socialists want to do is use taxpayer money to assure
that people – you know, taxpayers – have the bare minimum required to live with
dignity; and yes, maybe even a little more if possible. Sounds sinister, I
know.
Ratpublicans believe that using taxpayer
money to benefit taxpayers is simply lunacy, taking badly needed pennies out of
the pockets of the people Ratpublicans cherish above all others –
corporationpeople. Needless to say, Ratpublicans will never admit to their
shameless, decades-long, relentless duplicity, as they somehow manage to
convince their mentally malfunctioning minions that they are the ones
protecting them and their “freedoms.” Yes, protecting them from being healthy,
safe, middle class, or living in a democracy.
No, Ratpublicans would rather use that money,
the money we gave them to ostensibly use wisely, and instead fritter it away
not on protecting our environment from unnecessary depredations by corporate
polluters, but instead on cleaning up after the world’s worst environmental assaulters
after the fact. This achieves two things, 1) it allows unfettered destruction
of the environment, and 2) it allows the tax-sheltered/offshore bank accounts
of the world’s wealthiest to balloon at our expense. Makes sense, no? NO.
Go Fund Yourself
And just for the record, unlike the trillions
of dollars of tax cuts for corporations and the very rich, which we are
constantly being told, despite decades of objective proof to the contrary,
would pay for themselves, however many trillions of dollars are put into
infrastructure, renewable energy and keeping people out of poverty, will
undoubtedly pay for themselves.
Meanwhile Mitch Fucking McConnell is
threatening to wreak death and destruction if Democrats dare raise corporate
taxes to repair and upgrade infrastructure – the infrastructure that
corporations happen to use relentlessly. As a wise man once said regarding the
corporate mindset that they owe the nation that coddles them nothing: they
didn’t build that. We built that with the meager tax dollars we were able to
wrest away from corporate welfare and military spending.
At the same time, Fucking McConnell is
chastising his corporate benefactors for daring to enter politics on the side
of everyday Americans…for a change, as CEOs are forced to speak out against
Ratpublican voter suppression laws across the country. McConnell whines when
corporations are finally shamed into taking a break from writing our laws to
serve their greed and disdain for us and our planet. For one, probably brief,
moment corporations that are perpetually stealing from us, were forced by the
times to stand up for democracy and the people whose hard-earned money feeds
their insatiable bellies.
Even Jeff Bezos, the personification of
greed, has come out in favor of raising taxes on corporations. Cold comfort
given the breadth of his financial excesses and his anti-labor practices, but
we are forced to take what we can get. For now.
For now, celebrate Earth Day. Every day. In every way. Call your member of Congress. Hound your Senator. To paraphrase and old saying: The Earth will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no Earth.
World Party - Thank You World
I. Mangrey, fuming.
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