America Is An Oil Company With An Army

photo by Anthony Curi

America Is An Oil Company With An Army

by Cindy A. Matthews
color protest photos by Adrian J. Matthews

It's Election Day--but we're not going to talk about the election this week. By the time you read this, you probably have voted already, so what's left to say? If by chance you're waiting in line to vote or haven't left home to do so yet, and you're looking for some guidance, please go to the sidebar and hit the "Home" link and scroll down and read numerous pieces written by progressive thinkers over the past year. We've shared our thoughts with you, but now you're on your own.

 Good luck and remember to always vote your conscience. Don't let the bullies tell you you're "wasting your vote." Think, perhaps it's the bullies who have wasted theirs by voting for a fellow bully?

This week we're concentrating on what sort of America we'll have in spite of  the person who sits in the Oval Office.  We're looking at who is truly calling the shots in our government. Surprise! It's not the president, it's not the Congress, and it's not the Supreme Court, either.  As a very insightful meme says: "America is an oil company with an army."

Our corporate masters of the one-percent are our true leaders, and they've decreed that drilling or fracking for oil and gas is the most important thing in the world. It's even more important than the lives of the people they wish to sell their products to, which makes no sense really since once we've gone extinct... Theirs is truly a warped philosophy. Big Oil must make trillions in profits at the expense of the planet and its climate, at the expense of the people's health and safety, and at the expense of the peace of the nations. Once you've come to accept this as your Gospel, nothing else matters. 

Not all accept this "religion of oil," however. A group of fifty Ohioans braved the rush hour traffic and the car exhaust and took a stand against Big Oil's twisted logic recently. They stood on a busy highway in front of an Ohio State Highway Patrol office near Toledo Express Airport, carrying signs indicating their displeasure with Ohio Governor John Kasich (a former Republican presidential candidate) and his decision to send 37 Ohio state troopers to North Dakota to terrorize the peaceful water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. 

The protestors didn't know how their message would be received by the general public, but they boldly stood up for the civil rights of their fellow Americans anyway. In the end, they were rewarded with quite a few honks of agreement and thumbs up. Plenty of  reporters showed up and taped interviews and snapped photos. Even the local troopers were polite and accommodating of the protest. Not everyone has drunk the Kool-Aid of Big Oil it seems after all.

Our Revolution is in its early days still, but now isn't the time to hesitate. Now is the time to start making those signs and marching in those parades and chanting slogans to passers-by. Now is the time to win the hearts and souls of our fellow citizens, to shout at them to stay awake and remain vigilant. Now is not the time to simply turn over and go back to sleep and allow the oligarchs to continue their stranglehold on hurting peoples everywhere and our planet's very existence.

Forget the election and the villains it gave rise to. They're worth forgetting. But never forget what our purpose in life truly is--it's to take care of each other. Get out there and take action to make the world a better place for all. 

To quote Jill Stein: "It's in our hands." To paraphrase Bernie Sanders: "Let's make it a future to believe in."


There are many ways to help the water protectors at Standing Rock. The video below gives you some ideas, and the next story provides contact information for you to let those responsible for this travesty know how you feel.

  

Mni Wiconi--Water is Sacred: 

A Peace Gathering for Standing Rock

A crowd of about 80 turned out on a sunny autumn afternoon in the college town of Bowling Green, Ohio, to send prayers and well-wishes to the people of Standing Rock.  Native Americans, college professors, environmentalists, students, and an environmental lawyer and a city council member shared their thoughts about what is happening on the reservation. They gave insights, history, science and legal information we can act upon to close down the Dakota Access pipeline and others like it, such as Ohio's Nexus pipeline (planned to cross under the Maumee River), once and for all.

The irony of the DAPL is that its original route was to go north of the Standing Rock  Sioux Reservation, but the residents of the capital city of Bismarck didn't want it routed their way. It was seen as "unsafe," and so an alternate route near the reservation was chosen instead. History repeats itself as rich whites in Bismarck avoid the threat to their water supply, and they put their poorer Native American neighbors' water supply at risk. To date this year, North Dakota alone has experienced 273 uncontained oil spills and 908 contained spills, demonstrating the water protectors' very real fear of contamination of the Missouri River by a possible pipeline accident.

More than 250 tribes have traveled to the camps at Standing Rock to show their solidarity with the Sioux nation. UN monitors and the ACLU have also traveled there to watch and note any excessive use of law enforcement against the activists, including the use of pepper spray, water cannons, rubber bullets and attack dogs.

Navajo nation flag

Everyone is encouraged to keep sharing Standing Rock information and news on all social media platforms, since the mainstream media is ignoring what is happening to the water protectors. Contacting our government officials, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the pipeline builders, Energy Transfer Partners, is also encouraged.

Protests, parades and fundraising concerts to help out Standing Rock's legal and other expenses were discussed after the program.  Donations of camping equipment, food, hygiene products and clothing are being accepted for the camps and will be transported there by volunteers leaving soon. Winter is coming, and the supplies will be needed. More information on how to help out the water protectors directly can be found at www.standwithstandingrock.net
 

Let your voice be heard! Please contact the politicians and business leaders listed below and let them know how you feel about the treatment of the water protectors at the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Governor John Kasich (Ohio): 614-466-3555 and request the 37 Ohio State Troopers sent to Standing Rock be brought home immediately.

The White House: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414. Tell President Obama to rescind the Army Corps of Engineers' Permit for the DAPL.

 

Jack Dalrymple, governor of North Dakota: (701) 328-2200, www.governor.nd.gov/contact-us    

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, 701-667-3330, kyle.kirchmeier@mortonnd.org    

 

Army Corps of Engineers (demand that they reverse the permit allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline): (202) 761-5903

 Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army Corp of Engineers: joellen.darcy@us.army.mil, (703)697-8986
 

Energy Transfer Partners (Builders of the DAPL):
 

Lee Hanse, executive vice president: (210) 403-6455, Lee.Hanse@energytransfer.com  
 

Glenn Emery, vice president: (210) 403-6762, Glenn.Emery@energytransfer.com  
 

Michael Cliff Waters, lead analyst: (713) 989-2404 

Seven things to do for Standing Rock:
www.thenation.com/article/seven-things-you-can-do-to-help-fight-the-dakota-access-pipeline/
   
Sign up to go to Standing Rock--they need you there!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSef4Xjn-tckbx7dgpIub9PiuXIGwPxEUdfZ9ih2kwwr0BeslQ/viewform?c=0&w=1.

  

The Greater Good

artwork by Morgan Spicer

The Greater Good

by Cindy A. Matthews

Reject the Lesser Evil. Fight for the Greater Good!

This slogan is printed on a Jill2016 sign I received at the DNC protests in July at FDR Park. I hung it in my front window a week or so after we returned home, shell-shocked and foot-weary, from Philadelphia. I moved my Bernie poster over to the opposite side of the front window, but I display both signs because I see no inherent conflict. Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein are both progressives who put the needs of ordinary Americans first and foremost. They put ordinary Americans' needs above the greed of the corporations and the whims of the one-percenters, who live only to stash their billions in their overseas bank accounts to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. 

Bernie even said in a recent op-ed: "This is a historic and pivotal moment in American history. Now is the time for our next president to rally the American people against Wall Street and corporate greed and stand up vigorously for the declining middle class."

Both Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein are fighting for a true democracy where every American has a voice, no matter how rich or poor, black or white or brown or red or yellow, male or female, young or old, gay or straight you are. It's a grassroots democracy movement that says all human beings have rights to health care and safe water to drink and clean air to breathe--not only those who can afford paid-off politicians pretending to run a democratic government. 

The most recent videos displaying the violence visited upon the water protectors at the Dakota Access Pipeline are sickening. Our so-called "government of the people, by the people and for the people" has morphed into a private country club  with a big militarized police system and bloated Defense Department set on defending the property, oil and other natural resources taken from Native Americans by the one-percent elite. The elitists act like a mob of big bullies stealing lunch money from the smaller children in a schoolyard. The thing is, their schoolyard is the entire world, and we are the target of their bullying. They've locked the "teachers" (honest leaders) in the building and thrown away the keys of law, so they can continually exploit us without fear of punishment.

It's hard to take the negativity of this election cycle. It's hard to stand the screaming and temper-tantrum-throwing tactics of Clinton and Trump, the bought off representatives of the establishment. You want to yell, "Hey! We ordinary folk are suffering! Don't you see what is happening at Standing Rock? Don't you see how a decent federal minimum wage would help millions rise above the poverty line? We don't want endless war and cancer-causing pollution and climate change. We need health care and affordable college. Why don't you give us a break and actually listen to us and represent us for a change?"

It's time to stop fooling ourselves that voting for a "lesser evil" will bring about good in the world. It can not. It will not. It only brings more evil. Greed, racism, hatred and fascism... All evils. There can be no "lesser" of what is immoral and wrong. There is no degree of evil. There is just evil.

As Jill Stein said:  "It’s important to look at where we are going. It’s not just a moment in time, but where has the strategy of voting for the lesser evil taken us? All these times you have been told to vote for the lesser evil because you didn’t want the wars, or the meltdown of the climate, or the offshoring of our jobs, or the attack on immigrants or the massive bailout for Wall Street--that is actually what we have gotten. By the droves.”

The recent video coming from Standing Rock proves this to be true. Neither establishment candidate has voiced opposition to the evil that state-sponsored mercenaries are doing to the residents of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.  To vote for either of the two establishment candidates is to say that truth, compassion and human rights do not matter--only money and the greed of the one-percent matters. Why would any sane and compassionate human being encourage such evil activity, "lesser" or otherwise?

We are fortunate that the duopoly of the establishment hasn't completely destroyed all our choices of candidates yet. Voters can still choose to vote third party candidates as of this election, but for how much longer? This choice could be taken away from us in a flash by selfish corporate politicians who fear change and the power of the people.

So, let's not waste our votes on evil. Let's choose the positive, honest and peace-loving policies of the Green Party. Only Doctor Jill Stein can heal our sick government and turn the United States of America around from the brink of self-destruction.

Casting stones at the establishment candidates is futile. (They can do that themselves without our prompting and seem to enjoy it.) We must remain optimistic and vote for a progressive agenda that puts ordinary people before the greedy appetites of the one-percenters. We must vote for Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka and encourage all people of good will to do the same.

It is our duty to  fight for the greater good and to stop encouraging evil to flourish in our world. By voting for Jill Stein we are telling the "lesser evils" of the establishment to go home. For good. 

The greater good must prevail or else there will be no world for our children and children's children. Left unchecked, climate change and environmental degradation will destroy the Earth and every living thing which dwells upon it. We must work hard to create a cleaner, safer, healthier environment, and only with the Greens' leadership on these life-or-death issues can we ever hope to do so.

 To quote Jill Stein, "The power to create that world is not in our hopes; it's not in our dreams; it's in our hands."  Use your hands to vote for a future to believe in, not the end of our world. Vote Green.

You can't get more optimistic than this: the Greens would be overjoyed with just five percent of the vote. Yes, just five percent! Watch the video to see how thrilled they'd be. As Jill says, "The power to create that world is not in our hopes; it's not in our dreams; it's in our hands." We the people have that power!

"Save the World--Vote for Jill Stein."

YahNé Ndgo, surrogate for Jill Stein, gave a rousing rally speech for Toledo area Greens on Saturday, October 29, reminding her audience you can't vote against someone, you can only vote for someone. To cast a vote for Jill Stein is a "vote for peace, love and light."

This past year, YahNé has appeared twice on CNN as a Bernie or Bust supporter--the second time she was placed opposite of a Clinton supporter. Not to be silenced, she reminded CNN viewers of Hillary Clinton's record in the State Department and her support of the ongoing  coup in Honduras and the lowering of the minimum wage in Haiti to 31 cents an hour so American manufacturers could exploit Haitian workers. YahNé also spoke about how Clinton gained control of Haiti's gold mine to give to her own brother to run. These facts weren't talked about in the mainstream media, which in recent days has been exposed in the Podesta Wikileaks emails as actively working for the Clinton campaign all along.

YahNé has been fighting for the rights of the poor and marginalized for some time. She claims more money has been spent looking for welfare fraud (that is rarely, if ever, discovered) than to actually feed people. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton's "welfare reform" of the 90s (which Hillary supported) has thrown 500,000+ children off of public assistance and left many hungry. These "welfare reform" programs were couched in racist language and used primarily to get both Clintons into office by appealing to conservative, rich, white donors wanting to maintain the status quo. 

"How many 'mistakes' can Clinton make and not be held responsible?" YahNé wondered. (Good question!)

It wasn't until after the "theft of our dreams" (or Bernie's dismissal at the DNC convention in Philadelphia) that YahNé came to realize that taking over the Democratic party from within wasn't the way to go. There was already an American political party tackling these issues head on--the Green Party. She discovered many of her activist friends were already involved in the Green movement. She became more and more excited as she researched Dr. Jill Stein and the Green Party's principles.

"We're all connected... Time to activate it in our policies."  The Four Pillars of the Green Party spoke to YahNé--Social Justice, Non-violence, Environmental Wisdom, Grassroots Democracy. She felt assured the Stein/Baraka ticket wouldn't forget these principles once in office but continue to "connect with the issues inside the communities" and work with leaders within those communities to bring about positive change.

YahNé was invited to be a key note speaker at the Green Party National Convention in Houston, and she's since become a surrogate speaker for Jill Stein. YahNé and her fellow Greens have traveled to Oak Flats, Standing Rock, L.A.'s Black Lives Matter protests, and the Baton Rouge flooding to show their commitment to activism and creating a better world for ordinary Americans. She encouraged all to to show up to local events in "our green shirts" and network with other activists and connect with communities and their leaders to make a difference.

US Senate candidate Joe DeMare, former Green candidate for Ohio governor Anita Rios, and YahNé Ndgo.

YahNé states unequivocally, "Believe we can win!" She noted how the mainstream media poll numbers are skewed, and many groups aren't polled at all, such as millennials and people of color. Other polls show Jill Stein as much  more popular than Clinton. To those who support establishment candidates and accuse Greens of "wasting their votes" by voting for Dr. Stein: "Hillary Clinton is the spoiler--not Jill."

YahNé says we must "Go Green or Die" (her hashtag)."Apocalyptic conditions" await us if we don't face our climate change crisis head on. We have only a few years to turn things around before we lose half our species according to recent studies.  Summing up, YahNé stated: "We can save the world--vote for Jill Stein... You have nothing to lose but your chains."

Listen to this song and feel inspired to save the world:

You can watch more videos of Jill Stein and Green Party Town Halls/Forums on our Jill Stein/Green Party links page by clicking here (or the link on the sidebar). Please share these links and videos with friends and relatives who may not have access to alternative media sources. It is amazing how once voters hear what Jill and the Greens have to say they really like her and want to vote for her. Remember, it's in our hands--so use yours to spread the word. Thanks!

Seven Strategies for fixing the Rigged System

by Dirk Droll

Friends, our democracy has been bought by nefarious billionaires and their mighty corporations. They rig elections, bribe our so-called representatives, and run the propaganda machine of the mass media. Many of us feel overwhelmed.

Worse, there is a possibility which would raise our systemic corruption to even scarier levels: murdering thugs from organized crime as well as rogue operatives from our own Central Intelligence Agency could be acting as violent enforcers intimidating our few true candidates and working as election-rigging experts.

Thus, our overlords seem to hold all the reins, and it is natural for us to feel powerless. And, yet, overwhelming tyrannies have been overcome before. The trick is to use strategies which bypass or overwhelm the instruments of power. 

I have collected a total of seven strategies. Together they will work best. Here they are:

1. Prudent Presidency: Someone like Jill Stein making the executive work for us.
2. Political Ground Swell: Taking over lots of political offices.
3. Canceling Corruption: Outlawing corruption via ballot initiatives.
4. Fixing False Choice Voting: Instant runoff or score voting.
5. Fighting Election Fraud: Ending voting machines. Prosecuting voter suppression.
6. Third Party Pressure: A monkey wrench in the twin party tyranny’s calculations.
7. New Organizing Methods: Social media, party-transcendent town halls, etc.

Links which help with these strategies:

Brand New Congress, Our Revolution, Represent.Us, Wolf PAC, Watch the Vote, list of “berniecrat” candidates, Democracy Now, TYT, American People’s Coalition, Jill Stein.

This post is but a TLDR blurb for a much longer article which you can read here if you can make the time (which you probably should). (http://www.politicalstorm.com/seven-strategies-system/)

Remember: If we don’t fight, we’ll never win.

Bio: Dirk Droll has had a roller coaster life, loves writing books and articles, and blogs for a better world on sites like Beanstock’s World and Political Storm. gravatar: http://gravatar.com/ddbeanstock

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Rise above it all--vote Green!