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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 5:29 pm Post subject: Gulf Oil Spill � Mission Accomplished? |
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http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/10/guest-post-gulf-oil-spill-mission-accomplished-or-ongoing-crisis.html
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Gulf Oil Spill � Mission Accomplished or Ongoing Crisis?
The corporate media has almost entirely stopped covering the Gulf oil spill. Many have tried to say that the effects of the spill are not nearly as bad as feared, and that everything is pretty much cleaned up and back to normal. But today, it is widely being reported that there are currently massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in Gulf of Mexico .
And websites like Florida Oil Spill Law (FOSL) have tirelessly been reporting on the Gulf oil spill this whole time. To give an example of the ongoing crisis in the Gulf, here�s a roundup of some of the top stories from FOSL from the past 3 days:
* Toxicologist now dealing with at least three autopsies in Gulf � �People who�s esophaguses are dissolving�
* Healthy teenager, 16, hospitalized after swimming in Gulf on AUGUST 30 � �Compromised lung� & �enlarged heart�
* Boat captain mentioned on NPR: �Internal bleeding � Very, very sick�
* Toxicologist: 4 to 5 MILLION people on Gulf Coast exposed to dangerous levels of oil � Going to have incredible health effect
* �We�re starving� � �There are no fish in the waters� and any fish we would see, we would not eat�
* Reporter STEPS onto beach, is then forced by private security to be �decontaminated� � �Yes� it�s about dispersants
* Boat captain �bleeding from her vagina� � �I�m bleeding from my anus, too� This thing is killing me�
* Oct. 19: �A seemingly unrelenting tide of oil� surprises pilot with �countless� flights over Gulf in last 6 months
* Report: Homeland Security agents want organizer to �shut up� � Told by BP to �back off�
* Captain: Mullet observed eating �dispersant as it gathered along the tide line�
* Massive SHELF of tar exposed on beach in Pensacola
* Not just the coast to be affected: �It is going to keep going further and further in�
* �Still so much oil and dispersant in the environment� says Gulf Restoration Network executive director
* �ALL� oyster beds are �dead or dying� says top oysterman � �Very pessimistic�
* Local Official: �The oil is not evaporating � it�s not dissipating, it�s sitting there�
* Florida woman: Oil found in batch of oysters while eating
* Scientists: Acceptable levels of toxic PAH in the Gulf raised simply for the BP disaster
* BP admits oil buried �30 inches under ground� |
All the bullet points are links to articles.
Obama and the government are all PR and nothing else. They sunk the oil with chemicals and the media simply moved on. The oil is still there and the chemicals used to sink it are there (and in the Gulf food supply). This is shocking, no? It is as if it never happened and there aren't tens of millions of barrels of oil in the water. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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When I tried to have a conversation about this with my father some time back, he said it wasn't a big deal, the oil would be gone quickly, and that I was a "product of the media" for thinking it was an actual issue. A lot of people really just want to take an out of sight, out of mind approach to this, and actually think it's not even as bad as the media describes it as (which is no where near as bad as it actually is).
If reports on the oil spill were getting serious viewing time, the corporate media would keep at it, because they're for-profit corporations, not well-wishers hoping to improve our society. On the other hand, if people don't care, the media won't care, and unsurprisingly, a society of self-interested, wealth and celebrity obsessed individuals simply doesn't care about the Gulf of Mexico. Hell, these are people who are comfortable with citizens in their own towns dying due to lack of proper health care. How can you bring them to care about something thousands of miles away? Unless it involves Muslims, I guess. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:06 pm Post subject: |
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I do not agree about the nature of the media. It is not profit seeking but rather a tool for the powerful. These firms don't make much profit. They don't try to.
This distinction matters. The citizenry only know what they're told by the plutocracy.
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| Hell, these are people who are comfortable with citizens in their own towns dying due to lack of proper health care. |
Did you know that there are military style medical tents set up in cities like Atlanta, LA and Miami to provide post catastrophe style health care to the poor? Ok, maybe you know, but 99.99% of Americans don't. Because they haven't been told. Americans really don't know that much about these things. Because they aren't told. When was the last time you read a meaningful piece of journalism about Arkansas and the real life of real people there.
It is a clusterf##k. I think the ignorance is a product. It is a feature, not a bug. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
This distinction matters. The citizenry only know what they're told by the plutocracy. |
The citizenry can go to any website you can, and access any information you have. The citizenry doesn't, because they don't care. I see willful ignorance at work.
| mises wrote: |
| It is a clusterf##k. I think the ignorance is a product. It is a feature, not a bug. |
If so, let me ask you this. What combination of facts, displayed with what frequency by the media, would change a man like my father -- who actually believes the oil spill is not as bad as the media portrays it as -- into a man who has an active concern for such things? I can't think of anything; tell him what he doesn't want to hear, and like as not he'll just tune out or watch sports instead. Even the highest rated news programs on the air have pitiful ratings when you consider how large the American TV-viewing population is, and the best-rated shows tend to be the ones least worried about presenting objective facts.
How would you solve this? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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I don't know how the culture can be changed. You might be right. The PBS nightly news doesn't a large viewership at all.
My position isn't that the culture isn't delusional. It is. My position is that the reason it is delusional is that it was deliberately made so. Blame can not be assigned perfectly. I place most blame at the top. |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 2:45 am Post subject: |
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Since it dominated the headlines for months, I doubt that few are ignorant of it. the people of the gulf coast are certainly not ignorant of it. It is just people were so shocked and and many cases in sorrow.
the Obama administration did not put dispersant on the oil. B.P sprayed millions of gallons of dispersants before anyone really knew what was happening.
The cause of this was that B.P. commited several crimes before the accident and after, then tried to hide the damage. This article is a blame the government article , likely by Republican partisans who want to stick this on the president.
What should people do , run around screaming? It happened it is horrible now many dont want to hear about it because they are fatigued by it. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:55 am Post subject: |
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| Since it dominated the headlines for months, I doubt that few are ignorant of it. the people of the gulf coast are certainly not ignorant of it. |
It is widely known that the oil leaked. It is not widely known about the oil-sinking chemicals. It is not widely known that those chemicals are killing people now.
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| the Obama administration did not put dispersant on the oil. B.P sprayed millions of gallons of dispersants before anyone really knew what was happening. |
BP was officially ordered to stop using the chemicals. The Obama admin ran cover for them while the chemicals were being used. They used the police and military contractors to stop the reporting of the use of these chemicals. The government has not moved against BP for full compensation for damages. The government has not tested the seafood for the oil-sinking chemicals. The government has not warned people about these chemicals. The government has hid the problem. The government is bought agent of the corporation.
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| The cause of this was that B.P. commited several crimes before the accident and after, then tried to hide the damage. This article is a blame the government article , likely by Republican partisans who want to stick this on the president. |
The Obama administration protected BP. They continue to protect BP.
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| What should people do , run around screaming? It happened it is horrible now many dont want to hear about it because they are fatigued by it. |
They should not eat Gulf seafood, for one. They should not delude themselves into thinking that there is a meaningful difference between D and R. |
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Space Bar
Joined: 20 Oct 2010
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| Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:57 am Post subject: |
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Click link to read more
America`s Gulf: An Ongoing Catastrophic Disaster
Posted: 2010/11/20
On August 14, Obama did what he does best, deceiving and betraying the public. Again it was on the Gulf disaster, saying:
"Today, the well is capped, oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf, and it has not been flowing for a month....I also want to point out that as a result of the cleanup effort, beaches all along the Gulf Coast are clean and safe and open for business....But I won't be satisfied until the environment has been restored, no matter how long it takes."
False on all counts. The Macondo well was capped, but video and other evidence show continued leakage, an organization called Concerned Citizens of Florida (CCF), saying:
"....government cannot be relied upon to impart all the information that we need to make informed and necessary decisions. We know that they will not (and have not) respond(ed) quickly (and adequately) enough to this unfolding disaster or perform to the standard that is required to meet it head on." Nor will the major media, "act(ing) as a mouthpiece for both government and industry."
On November 14, CCF headlined an article, "Oil and Gas Leaks Continue Unabated at Macondo: Photos document oily fluid all over the seafloor," saying:
BP's announcing Macondo shut last July, was "just empty rhetoric and part of (its) elaborate Mass Deception Act. First of all....the oil leak....was never (fully) killed and could never be killed." In fact, experts say the Gulf seabed is fractured. Even BP confirmed damage inside Macondo, well below the seafloor. Why else would much of the Gulf sea floor be covered with two-inch thick oil layers. More as well showing up in giant plumes, and reports confirming "fresh oil coming ashore." |
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