Sunday, January 19, 2014

Neil Young and the Message That Must Be Heard



Well I guess Big Oil and its rented pimps in the Harper regime must be getting desperate eh?

Neil Young is just too popular. They just can't stop him. Or silence his message.

And now his show is rolling into the heart of Albertonia. 

And it's SOLD OUT !!!!!!

So today the oil pimps deployed their ultimate weapon, the Oily Prophet himself, Rex Murphy. 



To try to smear Neil with his unique combination of big words, bullshit, Con talking points, mock indignation, and Homer Simpson.

Homer's truth rang out again when I heard Neil Young — expatriate, now California-based rock immortal — staggeringly claim that the Fort McMurray oil site reminded him of atomic-bomb-blasted Hiroshima. 

Now, we can forgive minor sins in any propaganda war — and there is a propaganda war circling the oil sands. But to offer an equivalence, and repeat it, with the horror, mass obliteration and deaths of Hiroshima, goes so far outside all boundaries of good taste, truth, judgment and proportion as to be unfathomably irresponsible.

Accusing him of having compared the oil sands to the tragedy of Hiroshima. When in fact all Young said was that they LOOKED like that devastated city.

Murphy wouldn't tell us what big words HE would use to describe this nightmare landscape. 



And somehow forgot to mention that Hiroshima is today a thriving city, while that gaping wound in the earth will remained contaminated for centuries. Poisoning the people who live near it.

Or that the impending climate change catastrophe which the out of control expansion of the oil sands is aiding and abetting, will kill millions and MILLIONS more people than died at Hiroshima. By causing starvation and wars all over the planet.

But then why should we surprised eh?

When Murphy is, and has always been, an absurd climate change denier, and a willing tool of the oil industry. 



A words-weary audience jumped to its feet with an enthusiastic ovation for broadcaster Rex Murphy after he urged pipeline builders Friday to stop being ashamed of the multibillion-dollar projects they are trying to build.

The real scandal is why a hapless Con tea bagger and oil pimp like him is paid so much by so many, to appear on television, radio, online and in print. Including the CBC which is financed with OUR tax dollars.

And the inconvenient truth, as Stephen Maher points out, is that Neil Young may be just a rock star, but his is a message that needs to be heard.

In 2011, oilsands production caused 55 million tonnes of carbon to be put into the atmosphere while cars produced 40 million tonnes. Throw in trucks, and passenger transport emissions far exceeded oilsands production, but by 2017, the oilsands will surpass vehicles in emissions. This is the key point: The scale of the developments is increasing more quickly than we realize.

His cause is noble.



The money Young is raising at his concerts is to go to a legal fund for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation — which suffers from unusually high rates of rare cancers. The band is challenging Shell’s Jackpine project, which cabinet approved although the review panel found that it will have “significant adverse environmental project effects,” including the loss of more than 10,000 hectares of wetland, permanently destroying caribou and migratory bird habitat.

And his crusade is necessary.

Young’s crusade is necessary because the federal government, which is supposed to be balancing interests in the oilpatch, is not doing so. It acts like an industry association, aggressively promoting the oilsands at home and abroad, attacking critics, doing what it can to block emission treaties, pushing hard for maximum growth.


Because we all need to speak out before Harper and his foul Con regime lead us to DISASTER.

All we ever hear in this country is Big Oil's greasy and misleading propaganda. Or the yapping sounds of their willing stooges. Now it's time they heard OUR message.

And tonight this is mine eh?

Send the Harper Cons back to the oily hell they came from.

Somebody PLEASE fire Rex Murphy.

And go Neil GO !!!!



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3 comments:

David said...

Lots of reader comments, pro and con, at:

Neil Young, the oil sands and the damage done

http://www2.macleans.ca/2014/01/15/the-rock-star-and-the-damage-done/

U of A prof responds to Neil Young's oilsands critique

http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/01/17/andrew-leach-neil-young-fact-check/

David said...

Watch today's CTV interviews with Joe Oliver and Elizabeth May:


http://www.ctvnews.ca/qp/http://www.ctvnews.ca/qp/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/neil-young-does-not-have-his-facts-right-about-oilsands-joe-oliver-1.1646123

CTV QP: Joe Oliver slams Neil Young over oilsands

CTV QP: May grateful for Neil Young's efforts

Simon said...

hi David...thanks for those links. Although I have to admit I couldn't bear to watch Oily Joe Oliver. I'm afraid I've reached my limit with him. When I see that wretched oil pimp and climate change denier I feel like throwing something at my TV. But the good news is that Young clearly has them spooked, and as I mentioned in the post his is a message that must be heard...