US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1859

To hear BP tell it, the environmental disaster that struck the Gulf of Mexico five years ago is nearly over – the beaches have been cleared of oil, and the water in the Gulf is as clear as it ever was. But how do you spot a continued disaster if its main indicator is the absence of something?

On this strip of land in south-eastern Louisiana, the restaurants are still empty, FOR SALE signs are increasing in store windows, people are still moving away, and this marina on Pointe a la Hache – once packed most afternoons with oystermen bringing in their catch on their small boats, high school kids earning a few bucks unloading the sacks, and 18-wheelers backed up by the dozen to carry them away – is completely devoid of life, save one man, 69-year-old Clarence Duplessis, who cleans his boat to pass the time.

“At this time of day, at this marina, it used to be packed,” Duplessis said. “And now there’s nothing.”

It’s been nearly five years since BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers and spilling nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and residents, fisherman, activists and scientists say the cleanup and restoration is far from over. While some phenomena in the Gulf – people getting sick, fishing nets coming back empty – are hard to definitively pin on BP – experts say the signs of ecological and economic loss that followed the spill are deeply concerning for the future of the Gulf. Meanwhile, BP has pushed back hard on the notion that the effects of its disaster are much to worry about, spending millions on PR and commercials to convince Gulf residents everything will be OK.

“The data collected thus far shows that the environmental catastrophe that so many feared, perhaps understandably at the time, did not come to pass, and that the Gulf is recovering faster than expected,” Geoff Morrell, a BP senior vice-president for communications, said in an email.

The company says that depleted oyster beds could be due to a variety of factors other than the spill – including the divergence of fresh water from the Mississippi into coastal marshes.

But the company’s reassurances have done little to quell people’s fear in Plaquemines Parish.

Anxiety seems to be the most prevalent emotion in this part of the state. Every cough and every cancer screening, every paltry catch and shrimp missing an eye raises the question – is it BP?

On Pointe a la Hache, about 45 minutes south of New Orleans and mostly accessible by car ferry, oystermen say their catches plummeted after the spill, and have only been getting worse.

“We don’t have anything left on the East Bank,” said Roy Harvey, a 57-year-old lifelong oysterman, who now travels away from Pointe a la Hache’s federal waters to the West Bank of the Mississippi. He now has to pay private landowners 50% of his catch to fish in their more fruitful areas. “It used to be boats from Texas and Mississippi came all the way here. It’s not going back to normal no time soon.”

On April 20 2015 02:09 wei2coolman wrote:

just vote for bernie sanders, dude's the only person on the left actually trying to get shit done.

On April 20 2015 03:16 Introvert wrote:
People who are supporters of Sanders shouldn't be talking about X republican who is "too extreme" to win. Come on guys. Gotta recognize your own set of 'crazies.'

On April 20 2015 03:26 farvacola wrote:
Well Intro is right to point towards Sanders as someone too extreme to win, but this has more to do with how loaded "socialist" and "independent" connotations are in US electoral politics. The "crazies" on the right side of the aisle all happen to still be members of the Republican Party, which speaks volumes insofar as the party's control over its own platform is concerned.

On April 20 2015 03:32 Liquid`Drone wrote:
imo Sanders is the by far most reasonable politician you guys have, at least of those that are known outside the US, but he's absolutely a fringe politician, and I can't picture him having the remotest of chance at either the nomination or the presidency. Vermont is sadly not the most important state to be popular in if you want to reach out to all of the US.

On April 20 2015 03:44 Introvert wrote:
That's why avoid all these catch phrases. Extremist is a good example. These words are mostly used, not descriptivly, but in a derogatory manner.

At least in the US you really shouldn't be supporting further left candidates and still whine about who the right picks. So much of this is relative, changing if you find yourself somewhere else on the political spectrum.

The place where 'extreme' is a meaningful word is when referencing the 'middle.' But you have to recognize that there are two sides sandwiching the middle, not one.

On April 20 2015 02:06 Liquid`Drone wrote:
well you can always remove all taxes and replace it with a sales tax.. I dunno how happy people would be about having 30% more money if everything immediately becomes 30% more expensive though. And if not everything becomes 30% more expensive, like if luxury items have a higher sales tax, then suddenly you'd have companies trying to classify their luxury items as not luxury items. And if you don't have that distinction, then you just made taxes much less progressive, which certainly doesn't seem like an ideal (to me. )

Frankly I'm more leaning the other way, remove sales taxes completely, at least for groceries and other necessities, because they are the taxes least suited for redistribution. And the purpose of taxation is essentially redistribution. Everyone has to buy food, and working minimum wage leaves you paying the same tax for bread as a billionaire does. Note, I don't think that bread should be less expensive if you have less, but sales tax goes against the idea of progressive taxation. From my perspective, the problem with the American tax system is that for the top levels, it's not progressive at all, billionaires pay a smaller % of their income than lower middle class, and that makes no sense to me. My impression (from Norway) is that sales tax if anything function as a way of concealing the real taxation level from the public, because even though we don't have very high income taxes (for a large majority of people income taxes are between 27% and 35%, I've been paying less than 20% for the past 5 years), real taxation levels have been estimated to be more in the 60-70% ballpark, with everything added together.

On April 20 2015 04:07 wei2coolman wrote:
difference is the rich gets a much lower tax rate on capital gains tax, whatever your stance is on that, but that's largely why billionairs actually have pretty low tax rate in comparison to regular salaried middle class.

On April 20 2015 02:13 Millitron wrote:

A sales tax doesn't have to be a flat tax though. You can charge much higher taxes on things rich people buy, so as to prevent it from being regressive. Poor people aren't buying private jets, mansions, or Kobe beef. So you heavily tax the high end stuff, and it is effectively the same as variable income tax. Instead of "make more money, pay higher taxes" it's "buy more expensive stuff, pay higher taxes".

There are no loopholes if the taxes are done like they are in Europe. Sales taxes are figured in to the total price of the item. Unlike in the US, where an 8% sales tax on an item with a sticker price of $100 means you actually pay $108, in Europe the sticker price includes the sales tax and in this case would be $108.

The only loophole I can see is importing stuff. Unless you pay tariffs, any purchase outside the country wouldn't be taxed I guess. Other than that though, I can't see any loopholes because there's no paperwork to cheat on.

On April 20 2015 04:28 farvacola wrote:
That ticket sucks so thank goodness it could never happen.