Free our minds. A caller to our Politics Done Right program got me thinking about why we continuously fall prey to the small number of psychopaths spending their time figuring out how to take all we have earned.
Unchain our minds
A few days ago, a KPFT 90.1 FM supporter called in, objecting to my characterization of oil company executives and their businesses. I wonder if the caller was attempting to soften my resolve and that of those who would call out oil companies and other inhumane actors. Why do I believe that? Several times he made it clear he was a donor and that my narrative frustrated him. I respectfully tried to entertain a dialogue not just for him but for our audience, who I respect dearly. Most importantly, my goal is always to remove any misunderstanding or mischaracterization of both my position and anyone opposing my position. Ironically, it is amazing how similar our opinions become when we remove those.
The caller attempted to silence me, claiming to be a donor to our radio station. He took exception to my disdain for the oil company executives and my willingness to entertain their nationalization to stabilize prices for the “legally robbed” Americans. Realistically, that is the most optimal solution to resolve their greed using a resource we all own.
To be clear, I believe in free enterprise. It gives us all the ability to innovate, create, and compete. But big corporations act like autocratic governments who control the resources and services we must have. That is a game we have no chance of winning. And our economic reality with income and wealth inequality and disparities proves it.
The caller called my comments ludicrous and simplistic for considering the nationalization of oil companies to stabilize prices. He said that I was espousing hate upon the oil company workers. I pointed out that my disdain applied only to the executives who are parasites sucking every dollar they can from the masses because they can. They take the ground rules of our economic system to its maximum inhumaneness, that being, pricing to whatever the market will bear and the maximization of shareholder value and executive compensation and bonuses.
I explained the fact that there was never a petroleum shortage. The fact that Saudi Arabia took 2 million barrels of oil off the market in November of 2022, along with much of what I explained in my article “Exposed oil scam the corporate oil cartel will hate: Politics Done Right on Muslim Network T.V.,” a few months ago.
We have tried healthcare and energy in the free markets. Whenever I talk about the nationalization of industries that are vital, I do not say that lightly. Math and reality prove the need for change. The constancy of the inability of most to build economic security is because those with pricing power use our economic system to maximize what they can get out of us. I extrapolated MSNBC’s Ali Velshi’s, a capitalist journalist’s statement that healthcare does not work in the free market. In the same light, it does not work for energy either. The for-profit motive for products and services necessary for survival must be, at best, highly regulated. Still, in the case of healthcare and energy, it must go beyond regulations.
We must stop believing the narrative coming from the corporations that continue to abuse us. Here are a few notables.
- Venezuela is floating on the largest reserves of oil in the world. Yet, for political reasons, we turn a blind eye to Saudi Arabia and not Venezuela. Nope. It is a business decision.
- Oil companies are making record profits on inflated prices on purported shortages that never materialized at the pump. It is legalized theft because they have pricing power on a resource we must have.
Did these companies take their record profits and invest in alternative energy sources or foster innovations? Nope! Many bought back stocks. As I have mentioned before, obscene profits by oil companies and big pharma do not generate innovation. The innovators are not the ultra-rich. They are you and me who love innovating. And we are, in the aggregate, paid for our innovations one time as the parasitic executives are paid by our creations repeatedly as they gouge the masses.
When will we get from under the indoctrination? When will our docility cease? When will we elect those who have our interests at hand? It starts like this. We inform everywhere and encourage those we encounter to land in a better place.
There are two articles from Common Dreams that we should all read. It puts much into context.
Calls for Windfall Tax Grow as ExxonMobil Smashes Big Oil Profit Record With $56 Billion Haul
“Enough is enough,” said one advocate. “It’s time to fight back against the politicians and Big Oil CEOs who put their billions before the health and safety of our families, our communities, and our climate.”
As ExxonMobil on Tuesday joined other U.S. oil companies in reporting record 2022 earnings amid rising gas prices, consumer and climate advocates renewed calls for a Big Oil windfall profits tax.
Texas-based ExxonMobil posted a $55.7 billion profit last year, breaking not only its own previous company record—$45 billion in 2008—but setting a historic high for the Western oil industry, according to Reuters. The company’s profit is a 144% increase from 2021 and, as Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn noted, “enough money to send every person in the U.S. $178 to help offset the costs of high fossil fuel costs and gas bills.”
Marathon Petroleum—the top U.S. refiner—said Tuesday that it raked in $16.4 billion last year while approving a $5 billion stock buyback, and Phillips 66 reported $8.9 billion in adjusted 2022 profit, a 253% increase from 2021.
Tuesday’s earnings reports came just days after Chevron announced $35.5 billion 2022 profit, also a company record, and days before Shell, BP, and Total are all expected to follow suit on the strength of profits related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the European energy crisis.
As Fed Meets, Experts Tell Powell to Stop ‘Needlessly Threatening Jobs’
“There’s a clear path forward to avoiding a devastating and completely avoidable recession: Chair Powell and the Fed should stop raising interest rates,” said one economist.
As the Federal Reserve kicked off its first policy meeting of the new year on Tuesday, economists and progressive advocates reiterated their now-familiar call for the central bank to stop raising interest rates amid growing evidence that hiring, wage growth, and inflation are slowing significantly.
“Pushing millions of people out of work is not the answer to tackling inflation,” Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement. “Additional rate hikes could jeopardize our strong labor market—and low-wage workers and Black and brown workers would suffer the biggest economic consequences.”
There is so much for us to talk about, understand, and change.
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