Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Chevron’s Lobbyist Now Runs the Congressional Science Committee

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 20, 2015

Chevron’s Lobbyist Now Runs the Congressional Science Committee

Click here to access article by Lee Fang from Republic Report.

For Chevron, the second largest oil company in the country with $26.2 billion in annual profits, it helps to have friends in high places. With little fanfare, one of Chevron’s top lobbyists, Stephen Sayle, has become a senior staff member of the House Committee on Science, the standing congressional committee charged with “maintaining our scientific and technical leadership in the world.”

Throughout much of 2013, Sayle was the chief executive officer of Dow Lohnes Government Strategies, a lobbying firm retained by Chevron to influence Congress. For fees that total $320,000 a year, Sayle and his team lobbied on a range of energy-related issues, including implementation of EPA rules under the Clean Air Act, regulation of ozone standards, as well as “Congressional and agency oversight related to offshore oil, natural gas development and oil spills.”

This website specializes in "Investigating how money corrupts democracy". This article is another illustration of how major corporations have taken over the government to serve their interests. This development together with militarized police forces, 24/7 surveillance of citizens, the loss of basic civil rights due to the Patriot Acts, and imperialist foreign policies are all characteristics of fascism. However, the crushing of civil liberties has not been used much yet because ruling class media and the entertainment industry has served so well to keep people ignorant and misinformed.

Thus knowledgeable people such as Pete Dolack argue that fascism cannot be used to describe political condition in the US. I think that such people must keep in mind that fascist countries have always used a strong dose of propaganda together with authoritarian measures to control their populations. The fact that authoritarian measures have not affected most (mostly middle class white) people in the US, is hardly a reason to believe that fascism does not exist here. Fascism occurs whenever capitalist ruling classes become desperate in their maintenance of their class power, and I think there is plenty of evidence to argue that it exists now in the US.