[A-List] Self medicating rant

[Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>]

	All people who think about political matters a lot create little wish 
lists for themselves, even unconsciously. I’ve thought of one proposal 
recently, and it’s been swimming around for awhile in my head, so I’ve 
decided to let it out. Thanks for indulging this thinking. Here goes. 
The antiwar movement on the whole continent has been stuck in a rut for 
awhile. In particular, it is hard for people living north of the 49th 
parallel to stay motivated. I am not talking of the tireless organizers 
who sustain all the groups of all stripes. Effort does not equate a 
large movement. Lets go into a totally different direction for a 
minute-- What is the point of the Albertan tar sand production in 
relationship to American energy interests being sought in the Middle East?

	Well, the US invaded Iraq in a situation where their hold on oil was 
(and is) threatened, so they are fast preparing for a major shift in 
recoverability globally. Because they are busy fighting a war with 
Iraqis over control of their country, world oil markets are not pumping 
Iraqi oil at proper levels. This volatility in a dwindling resource 
makes the tar sands of Alberta profitable. The American economy needs to 
maintain increasing levels of energy permanently. While trying to kill 
enough Iraqis so that they will allow their oil to be pumped out, the US 
is subsidizing this massive portion of global reserves through the whole 
scale plans of the tar sands on the entire continent, when they threaten 
Iran and the "instability" gets worse, then the tar sands become more 
profitable when the price goes up. While threatening the very existence 
of numerous indigenous nations north, south, east and west of the tar 
sands themselves with all *necessary* attendant infrastructure mowing 
down life itself in all directions. $170 billion worth, not including a 
drop of oil, according to released plans added up. In the words of a 
friend, "gigaproject".

	So rather than try to explain this whole process bit by bit, let’s cut 
it right down to the nub. In order to kill Iraqis, enslave Palestinians 
and colonize Afghanistan and "weaken" Iran (read: keep their oil off the 
world market), to name only the latest chapters in the “new order”, the 
US is subsidizing this orgy of death over there with an orgy of death 
and a final curtain act in run away climate change to boot—right here. 
What the Hell kind of plan is this? Why don’t we assume that for all of 
the positive networking of concerned people created by marches with 
signs calling Bush stupid and Cheney evil, what we should really do is 
take their fucking oil (The US has just demanded the ramping up of five 
times the production of the tar sands, making it set to be more than 
1/4th of America’s entire supply), fighting Canadian colonialism while 
causing serious damage to the US imperial system. None of the political 
parties have the will to stop the tar sands—indeed, they trip over 
themselves to make certain their bosses know that. While stopping this 
factory of death from subsidizing their occupations of death, we just 
happen to prevent the whole scale basic paving of the whole blasted 
continent. We also take out the one major C02 emitter on Turtle Island 
that can realistically be considered a serious attempt to change 
direction (stopping this plant means stopping industrialization plans 
for nearly three coasts and the Gulf of Mexico). We also save the water 
of the Deh Cho and the Athabasca, already lost by several meters. The 
water left is poison and killing people in communities along the river, 
often through those who still eat from the land. The pipes hit the 
Arctic in two separate time zones. They expect to go nuclear to run 
their plants. That’s after they use all the gas. You get the idea, it’s 
big. Really big. And really really messed up.

While they are paving Alberta, the Northwest Territories, BC, the north 
Slope of Alaska and new swaths of the American lower 48 they are 
planning much more after this. None of it will make any more sense 
outside of the preservation of the age of oil by ushering in the age of 
chaos, and it will also help fund the oil march to nowhere (think coal = 
petroleum, think burning oil shale rocks, half coal half petroleum and 
flammable. There is still likely to be a big glut in production of oil 
for a number of years, and the Canadian and American governments have 
made it clear they will use Security Certificates and black op 
kidnappings of dissent, so picture a time of scarcity. This will become 
very apparent on the way down, a time frame during which US energy 
giants will be madly trying to consolidate the infrastructure of this 
tar sand madness for the whole continent.

Let’s stop them where it hurts, and where it matters locally. Shut down 
the tar sands to end their fucking war. We have a choice.

Thanks for reading that. I feel better, even if just a little.


--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
   --Bertholt Brecht.