Chris Chandler speaks @ New Orleans Rally against BP

[Doreen Peri]

Over the weekend, poet, activist & storyteller, Chris Chandler, spoke at a New Orleans to a rally against BP.

Video about the rally here:
http://www.abc26.com/news/local/wgno-ne ... 2707.story

Here is the text from his recent newsletter called T.H.E. .M.U.S.E. .A.N.D. .W.H.I.R.L.E.D. .R.E.T.O.R.T.

June, 2010
New Orleans, LA
Vol issue
By Chris Chandler
5-30-10

Hell Yea! The Gulf oil spill is now the worst ecological disaster in U.S. history, "We're #1! We're #1!"

One hundred and fifty years ago, corporations were granted the same rights as people under the constitution. Absurdly based on the 14th Amendment which was intended to free the slaves, and then used to make sure those former slaves stay indebted servants to a new over-seer: the over-class.

It is called corporate personhood.

For years, the way I saw it was if corporations are people then the Revolutionary War was more of a corporate take over. The Declaration of Independence should read:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one company to dissolve the financial bands which have connected them with another.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all corporations are created equal, that they are endowed by their CEOs with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of profit.

If "corporations" and "people" are synonomous than it is not much of leap to say The Constitution might as well read:

We the corporations of the United States, in order to form a more perfect merger, establish profit, insure domestic product, provide for the common defense, promote the corporate welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our shareholders…

Ever since "personhood" was established, corporations have been winning court cases granting them due process, equal protection, freedom of speech, etc. chiefly the ability to donate to political causes in the same way that people do.

I have been against this concept for years.

But alas, after this incident in the Gulf of Mexico (soon to be known as The Dead Sea) I see the error in my ways. I say give them full citizenship and treat them as such.

If they want the rights of citizens they should also have the accountibilty of citizens. I mean, I know if my negligence caused the death of eleven people I would be in jail. Not to mention the destruction of Mother Earth they should go to jail for mom -slaughter.

So, I say first, put the entire corperation on trial – everyone on the payroll. How do you like you corperate personhood now? Put 'em on trial for for manslaughter. Mom-slaughter. Put them in jail for poisoning the food chain – 'cos in prison you often do shit where you eat.

I envision not just the CEO going to prison but every congressional appologizer. I wanna see every CEO GO TO PRISON! every CFO, every CIO, CISO CPA and CP3O-- GO TO PRISON. Every VP SVP and VIP for that matter. They are corperate persons afterall.

I wanna see every desk jockey, paper pusher, trader of stock, stock holder, share holder, folder holder, folder stuffer, every secretary to the secretary and secretary to be hired… GO TO PRISON, I wanna see every delivery boy, and office carpet vacumer go to prison just for being corporate persons.

Make an example of them – just like you make an example of the guy sitting in prison for smoking dope in his own apartment in the ghetto.

I wanna see the leathernecks go to prison, the pipe fitters and every oil rig inspector and inspector of the inspectors GO TO PRISON.

And if there is not enough room in the prison, let out the guy who is in there for smoking dope in his own apartment.

I wanna see the writers and the actors in those BS BP ad campaigns "Beyond patrolium, a greener oil company" GO TO PRISON!

I wanna see every gas station attendant and BP convenience store cigarette dealer and car wash brush ceaner GO TO PRISON.

I envision whole gas pumps dressed in orange jump-suits quivering with their little Bristish accents as a large scary man, quoting the 14th ammendment says, "insert prison joke here."

I wanna see every user of every British Patrolium GO TO PRISON. I wanna see every user of petrolium go to prison.

I SHOULD TO GO TO PRISON,

As we all watch the BP bank accounts and the bank accounts of Halliburton and Transatlantic for that matter drained while they are paying the billions,.. quadrillions in reperations.

Instead what we have is a bunch of oil slick lawyers proposing caps on compensation to congress via campaign donations.

Talk about cap and trade.

I thought you guys were against that. But le' me tell ya pal your liability cap blew out when that blow out preventor valve blew and I say it is time to BILL BABY BILL!

I say you should drain your coffers by employing every idle shrimp boat captain and his crew in every idle boat in every port from Gulfport Mississpi to clean up your mess.

Use the community we have.

Even if you spend all of the 14 billion you made in profits last year. All of the 16 you made the year before that – you should spend every dime hiring every out of work oyster fisherman in Pensacola and unemployed seafood resteraunt waiter in New Orleans.

I wanna see your share holders standing on off ramps holding buckets with signs that read "will work to pay locals for their loss."

And as for Haliburton and Transatlantic? Its no wonder Haliburton droped the name "Black Water.".

Transatlantic? You knew your oil rig was too big to fail. That's why you were claiming it was from the Marshall Islands – which is an oil company with a flag.

It should have come as no suprise that Marshall Island inspectors might be a little lax on an oil rig heading to the Americas since America did its nuclear testing there and completely blew one of the Islands off the face of the earth.

But since you did choose to fly the flag of the Marshall Islands, I say it makes you an Illegal Immigrant and I find myself suddenly agreeing with the State of Arizona and you should be deported. All of you.

It makes you a foreigner – and a crime like this – perptrated by a foreginer can only be viewed as foreign eco-terrorisim and the place you should be deported to is Guantinimo Bay where you can sit in your little orange jump suits and be waterboarded – with water, from the Gulf YOU DESTROYED.

Visit Chris Chandler's Website
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Some of you may remember Chris Chandler from one of our Cabaradio shows and also from the Radio8 Show. (Scroll down. He has audio pieces in Show #4 & Show #3)

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[stilltrucking]

Ah Jesus thank you so much for posting that doreen

thank you
I can't tell you how much that helps me get out of my impotent rage.

[Doreen Peri]

He sure knows how to put it in the right words.

I've been getting so upset watching the live camera on TV news.... I cry. I literally cry. I may have to turn off the news entirely for a while. I feel so selfish doing that but it's just so upsetting.... I am outraged, too. "impotent rage" is a good term for it.

Lately, I've been getting suspicious.... tell me if you think I'm crazy or not. Maybe they're having a difficult time plugging it because they don't really WANT to plug it ENTIRELY.... they're trying to figure out how to plug it without losing the access to the well. They want the oil.

Am I nuts?

[stilltrucking]

No they were trying to plug it I think, that is what went wrong in the first place. The well blew out as They were trying to plug it because theycut so many corners and totaly misjudged the pressures involved.

The original well was not the one they were planing to pump oil from It was just an exploritory well. The well is called a "step out well" jimboloco worked in the oil fields he could explain it better I think a step out well is the first hole they drill to explore for oil. Once they hit oil they plug the well and "step out" from it and drill other wells that will do the actual pumping.

Sorry Doreen I got post this as it is because I am doing it in real time and can't edit any more.

lot of repetitions and incoherencies I think

[stilltrucking]

I guess what I am trying to say is that the well was test well. They were planning to plug it and dirll into the oil resevoir from another spot. Not sure why they do that. But they were trying to plug the well permenanently when it blew out.

They will drill other wells to tap into it and that might stop the leak, maybe. I think it could leak for a long time. I think they are holding all the cards. I need to check out your link and see if there is any hope.

What I heard about was another bad oil well leak somewhere and they called in super tankers from around the world to surround the leak and pump up the oil. I don't know why they are not doing that.

[stilltrucking]

I am thinking about our corporate culture Doreen, how we are ruled by “The Lonely Crowd” of incompetent corporate executives. Not sure if this belongs here or not.
How do those men who made the mistakes live with their consciences? Some part of their brain must have been telling them this is wrong, this is dangerous; this is not safe. They had people telling them for months about how they were going about it in a foolish and reckless manner. How did they go against better judgment What was the basis for their hubris.

I am thinking about a book called the Lonely Crowd actually written about British culture in the fifties but so true for us.

. Companies are full of emotionally well-adjusted incompetents. They control virtually all aspects of society

A society dominated by other-directed individuals lacks credible leadership, is not concerned with self-knowledge, and arguably trivialises human potential. Today, the triumph of the other-directed is almost complete. Companies are full of emotionally well-adjusted incompetents. They control virtually all aspects of society. However, as Riesman points out, the costs of this dominance may be high. When conformity has been placed above individuality, society loses its ability to think clearly. Isn't that the most characteristic aspect of modern Britain - its hostility to serious ideas? ….
The Lonely Crowd

And Vonnegut wrote about the curse of the 20th century

They pitch the tyrannous conscience down an oubliette, weld shut the manhole cover of that dark dungeon

Footnotes

Anyone working in Corporate America sees the same thing every day, watching a continual parade of incompetent middle and senior management coming in, making a mess then leaving with a nice severance package and moving on to other horizons / disasters. The upper crust of Corporate America is exactly where most of the samaritrophia is cultivated and encouraged. Where do many top politicians in both parties and certainly the vast majority of policy makers in the Bush Administration come from? Corporate America -- the great "meritocracy" of the 21st century.

http://watchingtheherd.blogspot.com/200 ... ophia.html

The Plauge of the 20th Century
Samaritrophia: A hysterical indifference to the troubles of those less fortunate than oneself

Samaritrophia is the suppression of an overactive conscience by the rest of the mind. "You must all take instructions from me!" the conscience shrieks, in effect, to all the other mental processes. The other processes try it for a while, note that the conscience is unappeased, that it continues to shriek, and they note, too, that the outside world has not been even microscopically improved by the unselfish acts the conscience has demanded.

They rebel at last. They pitch the tyrannous conscience down an oubliette, weld shut the manhole cover of that dark dungeon. They can hear the conscience no more. In the sweet silence, the mental processes look about for a new leader, and the leader most prompt to appear whenever the conscience is stilled, Enlightened Self-interest, does appear. Enlightened Self-interest gives them a flag, which they adore on sight. It is essentially the black and white Jolly Roger, with these words written beneath the skull and crossbones, 'The hell with you, Jack, I've got mine!"

- Kurt Vonnegut, God bless you, Mr. Rosewater

[stilltrucking]

Here is the article I mentioned above about the plan to use super tankers to vacuum up the oil. It is a very disturbing read for me. It seems BP is still playing games, trying to do it on the cheap..

Former Shell Oil Chief, Engineer: Supertankers Could Save the Gulf, So Why Won't BP Listen?

In an interview with FastCompany.com, Hofmeister explained that a little-known Saudi oil spill from an offshore platform in the early 1990s dumped more crude into the sea than any spill in U.S. history (think hundreds of millions of gallons). But the government and local press kept it quiet. And that's why one of the big fixes in the Saudi oil spill--the oil-skimming supertanker--hasn't been publicized.

"[They] figured out how to deploy supertankers that had the ability to both intake and discharge liquids in vast quantities with huge pumps," Hofmeister explained. "The supertankers could simply suck in seawater and oil simultaneously--they can hold millions of barrels--and when full, they could discharge oil at a port into tanks where they could separate oil from water. The idea is novel in that you can get massive of oil amounts quickly." Once the supertankers make it to to the port, water can be treated and discharged, and oil can either be used or destroyed.

Pozzi saw the technique used in the Middle East, where it recovered 85% of the oil from the Saudi spill. And he thinks it could work in the Gulf of Mexico. "The only downside is that you tie up oil tankers. That's why we think that BP won't listen to us. They don't want to spend that extra money."
http://www.fastcompany.com/1646820/coul ... pertankers

[Arcadia]

I enjoyed his saying style in the Carabadio recordings, I´ll listen to this one, gracias for the links doreen!

[hester_prynne]

I loved reading this, it says what most of us are feeling in so many ways. It speaks of the unfairness, the trampling, the power of money and the powerlessness of the rest of us. I could even see the evil grin of the money addicts in the background while I was reading, their ugly teeth, their soulless, consciousless content.
Doreen, could you post this on Facebook? No one there is even talking about BP!!! It's so surreal. If FB is an example of the average American then we are toast and might as well hand all the oil companies the butter.
Thanks for posting this Doreen.
H

[stilltrucking]

Doreen wrote

Lately, I've been getting suspicious.... tell me if you think I'm crazy or not. Maybe they're having a difficult time plugging it because they don't really WANT to plug it ENTIRELY.... they're trying to figure out how to plug it without losing the access to the well. They want the oil.

Me too Doreen. I am getting a crazy suspician that they don't really want spend the money to fix it. I mean I think they are trying to do it on the cheap. How crazy is that? Why aren't they sucking up the oil with super tankers. Why has it taken almost two months to go ahead and spend 350 million dollars to dredge sand barriers.

see my reply to Clay's big boys toys poet eye

[stilltrucking]

Lately I been feeling like I just discovered amerika.
You know the feeling?
Like I just discovered what has been common knowledge
The Corporate take over is complete. The president of the United States is powerless to force them to do the right thing.

[Doreen Peri]

BTW, Chris is a dynamic writer and speaker and though I agree with most of what he said, I disagree with the statements that suggest putting the guys who work at their gas stations in prison. I know he was probably exaggerating to make a point.... but still.... those guys are hard-working people and you can't fault them for needing a job and working a job.

[stilltrucking]

I like his work too Doreen it is
Wonderful
I posted this to video's
http://www.studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=18708

Know I don't agree with everything he said either. But he is talking about it. And I am grateful for that. All the media the government, all seem like they are on BP's bandwagon. No I don't fault the workers, hell they were the guys complaining about the safety issues on the platform. Complained for months, went to work with dread because a man has to do what a man to do ...you know.

But I remember when Harry Truman nationalized the railroads during an emergency. Why is Obama walking around like John Kerry during the 2004 elections?

[Non Sum]

Doreen: I disagree with the statements that suggest putting the guys who work at their gas stations in prison.

NS: You may be missing his tongue-in-cheek point, it being that calls for criminal prosecution of culpable parties is far too narrow in scope since we are ALL participants in the oil industry (jobs, profits, tax revenue, and especially its affordable products). The writer even rightly included himself, saying: "I SHOULD TO GO TO PRISON."

Watch and see the blamers scream when they have to pay $6 to $8 per gallon, along with all the costs that will add to every article they buy, along with the drag that will put on the economy. All resulting from 'safe & shallow only' domestic drilling.

[stilltrucking]

I am against the death penalty, but sometimes I think maybe we should follow China's example how many CEO's have they executed this year so far? If corporations are persons why the hell can't face the death penalty for their crimes.