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Barrie Friedland

Meet Chevron

If corporations are people my friend, then Chevron is the Devil. Beelzebub.  Satan.  Lucifer.


Stand aside ExxonMobile- you are merely trying to destroy the planet, while recognizing the climate change crisis and then lying about it.


Pharmaceutical Companies- okay you have a death count but you are quite specific in your damage.  Of course, the overdoses and horror reverberates throughout the world, but hey you just peddle pills for a profit.


Boeing- yes, you have traded pride and incredible craftsmanship for profit and possible death. Still, people can take the bus.


Stopping the roster of shame now- hedge fund folks/ we see you- let's return to Chevron.


Once upon a time when this country had a truly Supreme Court- Chevron's Bad Acts gave us the Chevron Rule. The energy giant sued the Natural Resources Defense Council and lost. If you are not old enough to remember when justices couldn't be bought or actually cared about the law, find a history book. Chevron wanted to take power away from the agencies making regulations and give the final say so to the courts, supplanting Congress in the process.  It's supposed to be: the legislative body passes the law and the relevant agency seeks to enact the intent of the law.  Directives, like cleaner water or less pollution, take many policies and procedures to achieve.  It is incumbent on the experts in the agencies to prescribe rules and regulations. Chevron, needless to say, was not suing to be held more accountable or to abide by a stricter set of standards. 


Back in the 1980’s the SCOTUS saw reason, and Chevron lost. Thus, the Chevron Rule, established 40 years ago, allowed the people's representative to do their jobs, using their expertise and judgement to execute what has been enacted. Gone. Forty years of precedent. The courts, these are the same folks who have taken away reproductive rights, allowed guns to be transformed into massive killing machines, and narrowed the concept of public corruption so small, it is hard to imagine how anyone could be prosecuted.  As well as the judicial express lanes that fling these cases through the system to land at the Supreme Court. 


Chevron, Chevron- why does that name still sound familiar? Oh right, in 2018 an international court awarded to thousands of residents in Ecuador's Amazon region > 9 billion dollars from Chevron.   For what? Just using the land as a toxic waste dumping ground and causing irreparable harm to the region and its people. So Chevron quickly pai.... Wait- they created a huge legal morass, never paid a penny and tried to destroy one of the attorneys for Ecuador. Originally the judgement was for twice the amount, $18 billion and then halved.  Didn't matter.  Chevron wasn't going to provide any money.


Read about the Steve Dozinger saga. It is beyond frightening what an evil and corrupt corporation can do to a citizen here (or anywhere.)   It was collusion between Chevron and our judicial system that put this lawyer in prison. 


Sign his petition to fully pardon him.  Remember his crime was winning justice for the people of the Lago Agrio region. Chevron can still put him back in prison and all his rights need to be restored. And donate to his cause if you can.  


With ever broadening corporate power, our crisis of representation deepens. Now, more than ever we need to join together in growing solidarity. Being a hero like Steve Dozinger, fighting Chevron is important, but in a corporate dominated world, not everyone can be so vocal. Thankfully, you cannot be arrested for Not Shopping on Tuesday. So, support local, small, union and unrepresented businesses.  Then #DSOT.  Tell others and join the growing army of people who demand better from our government and the groups crafting policy and law. Together we can make an economic cudgel to beat back even the likes of Chevron.


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