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BP is burning sea-turtles in the Gulf of Mexico... 

[PREFACE:  This is (another) *short* post with a mere 11 short excerpts with accompanying links.  I've decided I need to do more frequent and more brief posts now. Partly because the longer ones always take a long time--Each about 8 hours, just to write and put together (and that's after the days of reading and archiving the information and sources).  If what I do can make any difference at all, then it cannot wait and I cannot wait to find out.  I don't often enough have such large stretches of time to sit here, and when I do, I try to use that time for recharging from my job, and working in my studio.]

So, let me say it again:  BP is burning the sea-turtles in the Gulf of Mexico...  I read about that, and share comments about it with others online, and then I can only vaguely go about my daily life and nothing makes sense, everything is meaningless, UNLESS I find some way to engage people about it, BECAUSE that is the ONLY way it will be stopped------>Or, rather, the FIRST way...  It's been 64 days since BP's criminally negligent and deliberately profiteering mass murder has been surfacing, and one that was inevitable in the context of an economic system that feeds on the suffering and exploitation of the living.  I often forget where I am, where I'm going, and what I'm doing--A sensation I've been familiar with because it's akin to the experience of losing my parents to death, or the loss of a lover.  My dreams are still waking me in the middle of the night, often in tears.  I consider myself lucky when I can cry long and hard enough that I tire myself out enough to fall back to sleep. I know it's important to be vigilant about the work to face down this destruction and despair we are all up against, because more and more I am hearing people expressing this...  Yesterday, one friend wrote to me, "This whole thing is so sickening. I've always worried about the world that my children would be faced with as they grew older - the decision to have children was not a simple matter for me - and now I know for absodamnlutely sure that I was right to be worried. And it isn't just the irreparable damage to the earth and ecosystems that is so disturbing, it's also the people with no ability to empathize...who have the wealth and power to wreak such havoc on our planet."  

The slime-bag judge who just this week blocked the moratorium on deep water drilling also has massive holdings in energy companies.  I hear about that and I remember what a friend said to me a few weeks ago.  He's an Italian immigrant, has been here for 30-some years, and owns a restaurant, very famous locally.  I hadn't seen him in several years, because he moved his restaurant to the suburbs, where I rarely go.  So, we talked for a long time, and as usually happens with most people I talk to, he turned the conversation to politics.  He raged until his face turned red about what is happening in this country.  I said, "You must be worried about your children's future?"  "My Grandchildren", he said.  This conversation took place shortly after the Greece riots....  He said, "You see that, what happened there in Greece?  It's gonna be here, within 2 yrs, you watch."  He apologized only once for his feelings, and I told him he need not apologize at all; that I think he's right.  I've known him for 25 yrs.  He's *never* talked so openly of his fears to me, his political outrage, even though he knew all along that I have a political heart.  After we parted, I wished only that I had hugged him. 

That particular day, I had been running errands, going long distances because it was the first time I had time to go places I couldn't go to during the 6 month period for which I didn't have a car (which I got for one dollar about 7 months ago).  ...And virtually *everywhere* I went, I heard stories of the stresses--fears, rage, and grief people are experiencing from costs of living, from the Gulf scene, from job losses and family illnesses, and ALL fearing the future...  Though the day was spent doing household- and business- management work, I felt like I'd spent a good day on the streets, feeling (and intentionally feeding) the pulse of a revolution.

I read last night that William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., shot himself in the head, from his despondency over the oil crisis.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend Nancy, in whose home I work once a week.  We became friends over the past 4 yrs partly because she was so persistent in wanting to talk, that she follows me around her place while I work, telling me stories and asking me each week, "So what's new in your life?", while her beagle-dog, Maeve, rudely interrupts intermittently.  I like her stories.  She is, like most of my closest friends, one of the funniest people I know....Before this spill, we spent a lot of time talking about and laughing at climate change deniers and liars.  Lately she's been preoccupied about the Gulf, lamenting the ruined white sands beaches she remembers from her childhood (she's moved and travelled a lot in her life).   And lately her stories are about the period of her life in Texas, about which she tells me that when she was a very young child, the sounds and smells of oil gushing and gas flaring was a frequent interruption of her sleep at night.  I think about her life growing up in the advent of the age of oil, and her childhood dreams being bashed down by a nightmare future, and me now waking in the middle of the night from scary sad dreams, after some of which I awaken into the nightmare existence this culture has made on the planet it's killing....At the end of the horrific age of oil;  as I think about a grief-stricken man with a bullet in his head... 

During a conversation about the Gulf last week, she said, "I think there's going to be a war on _______________ Street."  (The name of the street she lives on deleted.) I looked at her intensely beautiful blue eyes, which are now almost completely blind, wondering what to say, knowing she's scared.  It's not the first time she's said this.  And I believe her.  At 93, an activist for prisoners' rights and so much more, she's earned her Revolutionary Oracle status, after living through the great depression and World war 2 and raising three children and being married three times and.... So, instead of changing the subject or telling her to cheer up, or telling her to try another point of view, I asked her last week, "When did you first start to worry about the future of the earth and about your children's future?"  She said, "I still do!"

The other reason why short, more frequent posts and brief works of art / audio commentary, is because it keeps me sane.... I said yesterday that I know my fear of sharing my feelings is wrong.  I know, and I know most people I know, especially my closest friends, know, we have to talk.  We have to face what is happening and we have to figure out how to stop the world from being killed.  I realize my friend Nancy didn't answer the question I asked her.  All week the question has been hanging, while I think about the man who shot himself, the turtles being burned, and how the REAL question is this:  How (---and how SOON, because it *must* be soon) will we stop this exploitative omnicidal culture?

Links and excerpts about sea turtles and how to help, about the judge, the warnings we had in advance, about the suicide story, the current gushing, what the future holds with regard to the consequences, and finally, HOW TO STOP THIS below...

Roxanne

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BP Burning Sea Turtles:

Rescue ALL Sea Turtles from Burning Oil...Multiple eye-witness accounts have established that endangered sea turtles are being burned alive in BP's cleanup efforts. Immediate change must occur so that ALL sea turtles are rescued from the Gulf Oil Spill as a top priority by Unified Command....BP boats corral oil every day into "Burn Boxes," restricted areas where surface oil is set on fire. Wildlife rescue operations had not been allowed into these areas at all, and thanks to a flood of emails from our members and allies, biological observers are being placed on more BP boats....To watch the YouTube video first-hand account of the boom and burn operation and read about BP blocking sea turtle rescue from the oil, click here to go to our website Campaign Updates. To read Los Angeles Times' story on "Death by Fire in the Gulf", click here.

JUDGE who blocked Drilling Moratorium:

Posted by Tana Ganeva at 1:09 pm...June 22, 2010...Shocker: Judge Who Blocked Drilling Moratorium Has Massive Holdings in Energy Companies...[A] Louisiana judge has ruled that the government can’t destroy capitalism by temporarily halting offshore drilling while we scramble to figure out why our gulf has been destroyed by offshore drilling Oh, and here’s a list, compiled by Think Progress, of Judge Feldman’s holdings in various oil-related enterprises...:  Like many judges presiding in the Gulf region, Feldman owns lots of energy stocks, including Transocean, Halliburton, and two of BP’s largest U. S. private shareholders — BlackRock (7.1%) and JP Morgan Chase (28.3%). Here’s a list of Feldman’s income in 2008 (amounts listed unless under $1,000):  http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/22/shocker-judge-who-blocked-drilling-moratoriam-has-massive-holdings-in-energy-companies/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet

WARNING FROM 2007------->

BP gets OK to dump mercury into Lake Michigan Posted 7/30/2007 9:01 PM...By Bobby Carmichael, USA TODAY A BP (BP) refinery in Indiana will be allowed to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan under a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management....Part of the concern is that the Great Lakes have only one outlet — the St. Lawrence River...."Lake Michigan is like a giant bathtub with a really, really slow drain and a dripping faucet, so the toxics build up over time," said Emily Green, director of the Great Lakes program for the Sierra Club.  http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2007-07-30-mercury_N.htm

Suicide is Painful:

Greenspace Environmental news from California and beyond...Gulf oil spill: Boat captain, despondent over spill, commits suicide June 23, 2010  11:51 am...Vinson said Kruse was in good health, did not suffer from any mental illness and was not taking psychotropic medications.  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/06/gulf-oil-spill-boat-captain-despondent-over-spill-commits-suicide.html

White Sand Beaches Blackened:

One Minute VIDEO:  "These used to be called the World's Whitest Beaches and look at them now! And God only knows what that is in the water, that's making it bubble like it's got acid in it. God help us all!" I don't know how well you can see this but if you listen closely you can hear the crackling sound of the gas bubbles popping and fizzing. Not smart of me I know but who else is going to get this footage?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO193f8xAls

OIL Gushing More:

Gulf oil spill flow increases after accident forces BP to remove cap...'Top hat' damaged by robot vehicle shortly after US interior secretary had praised device...* Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent...guardian. co. uk, Wednesday 23 June 2010 20.39 BST...  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/23/bp-gulf-oil-spill-cap-gusher

What the Future Holds:

(NOTE:  Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times the potency of CO2)---------> Methane in Gulf "astonishingly high": U. S. scientist Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:58pm EDT Related News...CHICAGO (Reuters) - As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U. S. scientists said on Tuesday.....Methane occurs naturally in sea water, but high concentrations can encourage the growth of microbes that gobble up oxygen needed by marine life...."What is it going to look like two months down the road, six months down the road, two years down the road?" he asked...  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L6IA20100622

Raining Oil In Louisiana? (VIDEO)...Huffington Post   Updated: 06-23-10 03:17 PM  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/23/raining-oil-in-louisiana_n_622815.html

BP Is Pursuing Alaska Drilling Some Call Risky Damon Winter/The New York Times...By IAN URBINA Published: June 23, 2010... [A]bout three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters....All other new projects in the Arctic have been halted by the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling, including more traditional projects like Shell Oil’s plans to drill three wells in the Chukchi Sea and two in the Beaufort....But BP’s project, called Liberty, has been exempted as regulators have granted it status as an “onshore” project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/24rig.html?th&emc=th

 

HOW TO STOP THEM:

Peruvian workers launch blockade, reject relocation program in La Oroya...Published Date: 19-06-2010...Source: EFE, Business News America, AFP...Source Date: 15-06-2010...Location: Peru People keep asking what to do / how to stop BP, Chevron, Exxon, etc...: THIS is the ONLY way the destruction of the planet by extractive industries will be stopped: "... Thousands of Peruvian workers blocked a key highway, risking clashes with police at a US-owned smelter at the center of a bitter year-long environmenta... l dispute... The protest marked the start of an indefinite strike to compel the government to push back a July 15 deadline imposed on the US firm Doe Run to comply with new environmental regulations... A general strike against troubled U. S.-owned miner Doe Run Peru has paralyzed the central city of La Oroya, Peruvian police told Efe on Monday.... Employees at Doe Run's giant smelter in La Oroya were out in force before dawn to shut down the main road linking the region with Lima, 185 kilometers (115 miles) to the west.... Schools and businesses remained closed in solidarity with the strike..."  http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10182

Indigenous Guatemalans Tell United Nations: No to Mining, Yes to Life...Tracy L. Barnett Tracy L. Barnett...Writer Posted: June 18, 2010 11:26 AM... "... What he was witnessing was part of a mass uprising of indigenous communities that are becoming increasingly organized and increasingly vocal in a desperate bid to protect their territories from growing pressure from the ext... ractive industries."..."... Because reality is on our side..." "..."There are some who believe the Mayans are gone, and all that remains are these ruins," a man dressed in white with a cowboy hat was speaking from the stage. "We are here to tell them: we are alive, and we are hear to bring these monuments back to life."..."--->And they've been resisting the destruction of their landbase and lives for hundreds of years, if not thousands... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tracy-l-barnett/indigenous-guatemalans-te_b_616995.html

 

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derrick jensen & radio roxanne-premise one:
http://www.spiritmorphstudio.com/radioroxanne10-7-2008.html

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