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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

BIG OIL, ONCE AND FOR ALL

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WHO THEY ARE, WHERE THEY'RE COMING FROM, AND WHERE THEY'RE GOING

WHY WE DON'T WANT TO RIDE THIS SHORT-BUS ANY MORE

The Rockefellers And The Mellons, The Ayatollahs And The Sheiks, The Stockholders And The Executives Of The Oil Business Have Enough Of Our Money, And Too Much Of Our Country

Enough already. I'm kind of tired of going around and around on this subject. Especially when people clearly are not reading and understanding what I have actually said, and said again, many many times. What we're talking about is the price of gas at the pump in America, and who benefits from it. Answer: Big Oil.

By Big Oil, I mean not just the old Seven Sisters, or the new Five Anglo-Dutch-American-Arabian Sisters, but the major owners, producers, distributors and marketers of all the oil in the world, in every country. They are all one club, they have all nearly always been in bed with each other, and as far as our experience at the pump, they all contribute to and benefit from higher prices of oil, up to the point where demand falls drastically, the economy slows dramatically, or the dollar falls to the point where even the oilco's are paying too much for everything.

But, as to oil itself, if one individual company or country is down, others are up. The pendulum will eventually swing back, else that one individual company will disappear or be absorbed by the others like a pack of sharks. The net result is the same: Higher prices at the gas pumps in America.

Are you denying that gas prices are higher?

Are you denying that oil profits are higher?

Are you saying it's all just a coincidence?

Are you not aware that Arabian-American-Anglo-Dutch oil compamies are responsible to one degree or another for the exploration, exploitation, transportation, distribution and sale of nearly all the oil & gasoline that is sold in this country, no matter where it is produced?

Are you not aware that all sellers of oil benefit from getting a higher price for it, whether they produced it themselves from their own wells, or acquired it through some agreement or joint venture from somebody else's wells before the price hikes?

Despite variations in price based on the quality of the oil, they all get the same price for their oil, except when one of them tries to squeeze more. If it works, they all jump on board. If one or more of them decides to freeze or lower prices, the rest may still go on pumping at a higher price, unless and until the market price drops. But they all tend to go for the highest possible price, always.

All of the oil companies, foreign & domestic, private and public, corporate or wholly government owned and operated, managed by some form of corporation local or otherwise, all of them sell oil, and most of them buy oil at least occasionally for reserves & resale. They all benefit from higher prices when they are selling, and lose when they are buying. It's a constant churning of the market, to try to meet demand, maintain reserves, get the highest price for the oil they sell, and get the lowest price for the oil they buy. It's one big market, and they're all in it. We're not. We're the end users, the chumps, the victims, the "consumers."

Most of the oil operations in the world are joint operations, or arrangements of some kind between more than one entity; corporate and/or governmental. There are very few oil ventures being run from well-head to gas-tank by one outfit today, and there never were many. Even those were comprised of hundreds, thousands, even millions of investors large & small. As the market gets bigger and more crowded, it gets more complicated. There are more and more cartels, syndicates, joint operations, and agreements of various kinds now than ever before.

Tracing it all is difficult: deliberately so. But if you follow the money, it gets a little clearer. The bottom line is that the oil industry worldwide is, in its' effects on the American consumer, an increasingly monolithic entity. Whoever they are, wherever they are, whatever they are doing, it all comes out in higher prices for gas now, and for the foreseeable future. And there is nothing we can do about it, because there is little or no oil that is not subject to the influence of that monolith. And there are no mass-market alternatives today, or in the near future.

Quibble all you want about the structure and varied character of the monolith: As far as gas-guzzlers in the U.S. are concerned, it's all the same. They own the oil, so they own us. What makes them different from most other businesses in the world is the fact that we cannot do without them, and there is no immediate viable alternative. Also, these companies have influenced domestic and foreign policy in America to benefit themselves, at the cost of the rest of us, to a degree only approached by the defense industry. Gridlock and the car culture, suburban alienation and environmental pollution, wars and inexplicable policies throughout the world are the result of Big Oil meddling in our affairs, and buying off our government.

This is not business as usual. This is not just another American industry. In fact, it is not American at all. The oil industry has grown to become larger, richer and more powerful than most countries in the world. They have their own agenda, they all work together on it, and all of us suffer the consequences. Whether we are still being f*cked by the Rockefellers, like the good old days, or by some quiet partnership between their corporate descendants and some "camel-jockeys" in the Middle East, or by the vast left, right and center conspiracy known as the world-wide oil industry, the d*ck is still in our asses. Go ahead and quibble while they f*ck you. It's easier than fighting back, eh?

Changing this requires recognizing it. Throwing up our hands and saying "Oh, well, there's nothing we can do about it. It's just market forces at work. It isn't poor little Chevron's fault, they're just trying to satisfy our unquenchable demand. It's our own fault, really." Bullsh*t. Bullsh*t! There has never been a national referendum on the automobilization of America. Every attempt at alternatives has been stifled in political and business back-rooms: Mass transit, renewable energy, urban renewal: Simply "Not do-able. " Not under the present regime. But we were never offered an alternative to this regime. So we can't be blamed for it. Right now, though, there is plenty we can do about it.

There is no free and fair market for oil. There never was. Production has been carefully controlled, and prices deliberately manipulated for nearly a century, to a greater and greater degree. The consumer has absolutely no power, except to admit he or she can't afford to drive a car any more, and start walking. But try keeping a job, taking care of a family, and paying for a home while you hoof it along the shoulder of the road for miles and miles and miles in the no-sidewalks, no-mass-transit, no-nearby-jobs-stores-schools suburbs and exurbs where the "unseen hand" of oilco-influenced public policy has forced most Americans to live, to their increasing regret. The fact is, we never had much of a choice. All the big decisions were made and implemented without consulting us; thanks to global Big Oil and their partners in government and industry.

Until we recognize this reality, we can never change it. The car culture did not fall from the skies. It did not evolve naturally. It was engineered technically, financially and politically by Big Oil and their allies in Washington, in Detroit, on Wall Street, and wherever the road-building industry is headquartered. (Palermo?) We need to make this election a referendum on Big Oil and the car culture. We need to back-track fifty or a hundred years and say, "Dear, I think we made a wrong turn back there. Let's not just keep going on this road until we're hopelessly lost. Let's turn around now. Before we run out of gas." If wives can make their husbands do this, citizens can make their government do it, too. If we don't, we're on a long, long road to nowhere. And global Big Oil is behind the wheel. I don't give a damn who they are, what they call themselves, or where they live: To me, they're just the Enemy. And if you don't get that, and fight that, so are you.
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