Setting aside ignorance and apathy, the Military-Industrial-Petrochemical Complex (MIPC) is our greatest impediment to the continuation of our great nation, and the emotional and physical health of our people. Due to fact that the “MIPC” has its tentacles of financial and political influence so deeply entrenched in our government at many levels, and most specifically the federal level, it has been very difficult to enact an energy and peace policy that is beneficial to the whole of America. In the following article I will specifically cite how the “MIPC” has so insidiously undermined public policy that would take us off of fossil based fuels, oil imports, and greatly reduce defense spending. I will also outline ways that we as individual Americans we can divorce ourselves from this cancerous “MIPC” enemy of our nation.
In 1981 the world reached peak oil production and reserves, with a steady decline since. The US consumes 25% of the world’s usage, but only has 2% of the world’s reserves. We consume 3 times as much oil as the Chinese, but only have a fraction of their population. Our military, the largest single user, consumes 6% to 8% of our national usage at 335,000 barrels per day. 80% of the world’s oil reserves lie within OPEC nations. Compared to Europe and other developed nations we have one of the most regressive energy and environmental policies
The major oil companies are large contributors to presidential and congressional political campaigns. In the last few years the oil companies contributed approximately $420 million per year to political PAC’s and politicians. Exxon contributed $60 million, Chevron $40 million, and BP $30 million. Is it any wonder that government policies greatly favor the oil companies, as opposed to what is best for our national energy policy, the environment, and our citizenry? The game is obviously rigged to favor the needs of the oil companies and not our nation as a whole.
Weeks before “9/11”, Dick Cheney held 40 secret meetings with the major oil producers to discuss and carve out who would be taking over what oil production in Iraq. Senate hearings were held to uncover this fraud, but Republican senators refused to allow oil exec’s to be questioned under oath. Another coincidence, the US Military has most of its military bases in Iraq proximate to the oil production and processing. Does anyone still have a question about the invasion of Iraq being primarily about oil and US Petro Dollars, or do they still subscribe to the myth that we invaded Iraq for WMD’s, ties to bin Laden, or that we wanted to deliver “Freedom and Liberation” to the Iraqi people?
As I have noted in previous articles our real defense costs, both direct and indirect, amount to $1.2 to $1.4 Trillion per year, or approximately 8 to 10% of our GDP. The primary purpose of our military is to support imperialistic operations that secure natural resources and assets for bankers and major corporations. In addition, there is a great deal of money to be made by military and engineering contractors, and bankers who finance the debt created by our excessive military spending. The US spends more for defense than all the combined military budgets of the developed nations. China spends approximately one twentieth of our defense budget on military expenditures.
Defense is not a “Sacred Cow”, do not be intimidated by “False Flag” events such as “9/11”, The Gulf of Tonkin, or Pearl Harbor, Do not act emotionally, but ask serious questions such as who is benefitting financially from any war. We go to war so “Fat Cat” special interests can benefit at the expense of the masses do to corporate greed.
Another issue that we are facing is an escalating trade imbalance which requires the “Fed” to print more and more money, and for us to become a large debtor nation to countries such as China. We have two choices to deal with this excessive debt, we can default and declare bankruptcy, or we can proceed as we have done on many fronts and send our military in to heist and plunder natural resources from other countries through our “Crony Capitalism” corporatocracy. Afghanistan is a perfect example of nation we can occupy and plunder for Lithium, Opium, and land to install a major trans-country gas pipeline. Other nations do not hate us for our freedoms, they actually like most Americans, but they loathe the barbaric imperialistic policies of our corrupt government and run away military. Imports from China are not the only culprit contributing to our trade deficits, oil imports contribute to 38% of our total trade imbalances.
European countries such as France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway have put in place long term sustainable energy plans that benefit the entire society, not just special interest groups. These countries reward, through tax incentives, sustainable energy usage. When Jimmy Carter came into office he installed solar panels on the White House roof, and put together a plan to reduce our energy usage by 25%. Carter was no big friend to the oil companies. When Reagan came into office he arrogantly removed Carter’s positive symbol of solar panels. In addition, Reagan encouraged less fuel efficiency, purchases of larger gas consuming vehicles, and gave tax breaks to anyone buying a vehicle weighing more than 6,000 pounds. People were economically encouraged to buy Hummers and other large SUV type vehicles.
John D. Rockefeller was one of the proponents of Prohibition because it would also outlaw Ethanol, which was a cleaner and renewable alternative to gasoline. Ford had engineered cars that were Ethanol friendly during the early mid-1900, but there was no fuel available due to Prohibition. Ethanol requires as much energy to produce as it can give off, not an efficient energy choice.
On the other hand Bio-Diesel is renewable, it only takes about one third as much energy to produce it as it provides, is renewable, non-polluting, and fuel efficient. Bio-Diesel can be made from waste water, garbage, bio-mass, certain weeds, and special “Macroflora” trees, and other renewable sources.
Scientists have been developing fast growing algae strains that will and are starting to become a major raw ingredient for Bio-Diesel. Algae fields can be installed next to many sewage treatment plants, and will feed on the waste water and carbon dioxide. Oil from algae may be also used in the manufacture of biodegradable plastics and less toxic fertilizers and pesticides.
The following are ten proactive things that we can do as a responsible citizen to reduce our dependency on non-renewable fossil fuels:
1. Take public transportation, ride a bike, walk, buy a hybrid, electric car, diesel car, and use sustainable fuels.
2. Lobby your governments to switch their vehicles over to sustainable and renewable fuels.
3. Buy wind generators or use wind energy providers.
4. Install solar or switch over to solar energy providers.
5. Invest in and encourage the use of sustainable solar, wind, and algae/biodiesel fuel providers.
6. Grow your own fruits and vegetables, or purchase locally grown produce.
7. Try to be carbon neutral. Stop using petroleum products. Eat lower on the food chain; meat is a very inefficient use of energy.
8. Turn off lights, HVAC, and appliances that are not in use.
9. Dig beneath the headlines, fact check, question mass media, corporate, and government propaganda.
10. Vote for “Non-Fossil Fuel” politicians who do not support oil and coal producers. Don’t be scared off by people saying it will cut employment.
Together we can reduce our dependency on the Military-Industrial-Petrochemical Complex.
You may visit Harvey’s Blog and leave comments at: http://harveysrantsraves.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment: