Thom Hartmann: How do you get arrested for trespassing on your own property?

[thomhartmann]

So here's what's happening in East Texas. A foreign corporation - actually a multinational corporation based in Canada - is confiscating private land belonging to a 78-year-old great-grandmother - in order to build a a toxic pipeline to ship oil off to other foreign nations. It's just another day in third-world America. Eleanore Fairchild and actress Daryl Hannah stood in front of tractors that are clearing a pathway for the pipeline right through Fairchild's 300-acre ranch. Those tractors belong to the Canadian company - TransCanada - which recently won approval to build a massive toxic tar-sands-oil pipeline right through the United States - and right through Mrs. Fairchilds property - down to Texas - where oil billionaires can refine it - and ship it off to the rest of the world, making big profits for themselves and TransCanada.

You see - Texas has very lax eminent domain laws - meaning TransCanada had very little trouble confiscating a large swath of Mrs. Fairchild's ranch - and not a single local politician or lawyer has come to her aid...mainly because you don't say no to big oil in Texas. And when Mrs. Fairchild - joined by activist Darryl Hannah - confronted those tractors, she was promptly arrested....for trespassing...trespassing on her own property. She's powerless - watching her ranch full of lush forests, wetlands, and natural springs get uprooted with heavy machinery - and bisected by a massive pipeline that could one day spill toxic crude all over what's left. And she's not the only one - several other nearby landowners are taking TransCanada to court - pushing back on the eminent domain claims. Who knows if they can win, now that even our courts have been corrupted by big oil money.

But the big picture here is this: the confiscation of Mrs. Fairchild's property is all part of the transnational corporate oligarchs' plan. It's all part of their plan to turn the United States into a Third World mining and dumping pit for transnational corporations. Mitt Romney - the guy who bragged about "harvesting businesses" at Bain - gave lipservice to this plan in the recent debate and said North American energy independence - and not American or US energy independence? It's because Mitt Romney thinks we should continue buying our oil from his corporate buddies who own oil fields in Canada and Mexico - adding on to our already enormous trade deficit. And, given the way he ridiculed President Obama's green energy investments - clearly Romney's not interested in getting American energy independent through green energy.He's only interested in helping transnational oil corporations - like TransCanada in Canada - make huge profits.

And that's exactly what they're doing at the expense of Mrs. Fairchild - and the rest of us. TransCanada's XL pipeline won't create millions of jobs like Mitt Romney and the rest of the oil shills say - it would create a few thousands temporary jobs in the United States - and that's it. And really - aside from the billions in profits oil barons will get in Texas - that's all the United States is getting out of the deal. Well...we're also getting...the pollution from refining the toxic tar sands oil here instead of in Canada - the risk of spills along the pipeline built here instead of in Canada - and the deforestation and contamination of aquifers here instead of in Canada.

And who gets the thousands of cancers from the toxic chemicals belched out of the smokestacks of the refineries in south Texas? Why, that would be the mostly poor and mostly minority people who live in the few hundred miles from Texas to and through Louisiana where the prevailing winds carry the poisons. But Canada is getting all the profits! And who's getting all the oil? Mexico - South America - India - China. Little to none of that refined oil will be sold here. In fact - gas prices in the Midwest are expected to increase by 20-cents a gallon when the pipeline is finished. This, folks, is a scam.

But tragically...these sort of scams are the norm now - as our national sovereignty and our individual health are ruined by the transnational corporate capitalism that's devouring the last remaining bits of the American middle class - and turning the United States into the most rapidly UNdeveloping nation that's ever existed. When American citizens are having their property taken from them to boost the profits of foreign corporations - then it's clear that our democratic institutions have failed. It's clear that the corporatocracy is now making way too many of the decisions.

Tell everyone you know about the theft of Eleanor Fairchild's ranch-land - because if this is allowed to continue - then it could be your home, your property, and your livelihood that's stolen next.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. Hypocrisy of Republicans

They love to talk about private property when it comes to the government but they're all about corporations being able to take your land at anytime. They like to paint all the anti pipeline folks as crunchy granola hippies, but there are plenty of hard nosed otherwise conservative ranchers who don't want this thing on their land too.

[GitRDun]

2. What Mrs. Fairchild has to look forward to...

It is infuriating that main stream media cannot connect the dots on what these mega corporations are doing to all of us. Here's an article on TransCanada's pipeline safety performance:

http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/10/01/Cracks-In-Pipeline-System/

[savannah43]

4. Main stream media is OWNED by these corporations.

They aren't allowed to speak about the connections.

[SamKnause]

3. Trespassing, not really.

There are no words to to describe my disgust and disappointment in the corrupt government of the United States of America.

They are destroying this great country from the inside out.

None, I repeat NONE of this destruction would be possible without our corrupt government and justice system giving absolute power to corporations.

[NoMoreWarNow]

5. sickening to be sure-- we freaking need to put a much higher price on despoiling the environment

then we currently do now. The pipeline deal is incredibly maddening and such a sellout. I wish I could blame Republican pigs but it is not just them.