A few thoughts about the future of this planet
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Mike, you want to protect the freedoms of the internet right?
What do you make of this story, there are multiple sources, I posted a mainstream source (however Trump calls them fake news)
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I don't know what to make both of DJT and this constant stream of actions/backlash that is filling the news channels here.
At least here if a govt leader begins to act inept then the party can replace him. Can you do that in the US? Or is it 4yrs with only change happening through some misfortune?
Regardless, he remains a very polarizing figure. Still too early too judge his ability to lead. But there's plenty of ammo from which to find his behaviour very NPC.
There wasn't much of a choice for you guys though. Maybe the whole system needs a rewrite. 2 party is too narrow IMO.
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I fail to see anything remotely positive in DJT presidency: his cabinet of zillionaires, the interest
hehis family has in business (oil pipeline), bullying Mexico & Muslims, alternative facts, etc. 1 week down, 207 to go until the next election... -
@kaas said:
I fail to see anything remotely positive in DJT presidency: his cabinet of zillionaires, the interest
hehis family has in business (oil pipeline), bullying Mexico & Muslims, alternative facts, etc. 1 week down, 207 to go until the next election...so proud, our very own kleptocracy.
@Mike, True - way too many people only consume the evening news, but I think there are also quite a few other sources breaking through. At least I hope. We can all do our part to broaden the conversation.
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Not sure I can name a single news source that is neutral The beeb seem to want to carp on Trump any chance they get, which is often. No idea myself which way he will go and he certainly like to muddy the water but he might just be the breath of (fresh) air that politics needs. We really DO need to get rid of the priveledged few syndrome that permeates society. There are certain truths that need to come out and a lot of them involve the way NATO and the EU are governed/financed but these are hidden or shouted out by pro EU folk. As a matter of interest, the EU member states are supposed to spend 2% of GDP on defence and defence procurement/updating. Just WHO in the EU does this? The UK alone. The only members of NATO that pay their full wack is the UK and the US. My neighbour spent over twenty years living in France and talks about the state of France as being bankrupt. The EU nations want the UK for the ability to balance their wastefulness with UK money. Time to cut the apron strings and see how far they get without us. I myself believe the EU is on the brink of sinking. It will be interesting to see how long it takes. I just hope it does not mean war.
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@solo said:
Mike, you want to protect the freedoms of the internet right?
What do you make of this story, there are multiple sources, I posted a mainstream source (however Trump calls them fake news)
Watched that Pete. Not really worried as I think he was just blowing off. After that particular episode, Trump must have realised how effective (and cheap!)Twitter could be so I imagine he will not introduce laws that would hinder the Net.
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@kaas said:
I fail to see anything remotely positive in DJT presidency: his cabinet of zillionaires, the interest
hehis family has in business (oil pipeline), bullying Mexico & Muslims, alternative facts, etc. 1 week down, 207 to go until the next election...Would not the mid-terms in 2 years time effect DJT's power base? Trump will be watched very carefully when it comes to conflict of interest and rightly so.
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@mike amos said:
Not sure I can name a single news source that is neutral The beeb seem to want to carp on Trump any chance they get, which is often. No idea myself which way he will go and he certainly like to muddy the water but he might just be the breath of (fresh) air that politics needs. We really DO need to get rid of the priveledged few syndrome that permeates society. There are certain truths that need to come out and a lot of them involve the way NATO and the EU are governed/financed but these are hidden or shouted out by pro EU folk. As a matter of interest, the EU member states are supposed to spend 2% of GDP on defence and defence procurement/updating. Just WHO in the EU does this? The UK alone. The only members of NATO that pay their full wack is the UK and the US. My neighbour spent over twenty years living in France and talks about the state of France as being bankrupt. The EU nations want the UK for the ability to balance their wastefulness with UK money. Time to cut the apron strings and see how far they get without us. I myself believe the EU is on the brink of sinking. It will be interesting to see how long it takes. I just hope it does not mean war.
I agree with a lot of what you say, "he might just be the breath of (fresh) air that politics needs", "We really DO need to get rid of the privileged few syndrome that permeates society".
On the later, reinstating Glass-Steagall would be a good start. Here is a well-researched article on the matter by Pam Martens.
Only Glass-Steagall Can Save the U.S. from Another Epic Crash
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/01/30/glass-steagall-can-save-u-s-another-epic-crash-pam-martens/I think the 2% spend requirement on defense is a bit of a con for two reasons. The USSR is long gone and the largest weapons manufacturers in the World is the USA. This will cast some light on the matter.
The Global Weapons Trade
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-global-weapons-trade/I also think the undemocratic EU is on the downward slope. Hopefully, it will go back to what it started out as, the ECC, a sensible trading block.
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@mike lucey said:
@stinkie said:
@mike lucey said:
Trump is also a political 'outsider' and most definitely not over enamored with Wall Street, Big Banks, MNs and Mega Corps.
Er, Mike? Take a look at his administration. Tillerson? Cohn? Mnuchin? Ross?
I have looked at his administration and must admit its a mixed bag.
It's not just a 'mixed bag'. The composition of Trump's administration shows your assessment of him being 'definitely not over enamored with Wall Street' etc isn't overly accurate, IMO.
@andybot said:
so proud, our very own kleptocracy.
lol.
There you have it, that's what the Trump administration is: a kleptocracy. Doesn't seem to have just one, er, gravitational centre, either. In that regard it is indeed, as Mike put it, a mixed bag. Led by a fickle authoritarian and a religious zealot.
I'm hoping things'll pan out, obviously, but I cannot but feel there's a rather impressive multitude of ways the Trump/Pence reign could go horribly, horribly wrong. I'm not referring to another foreign war or anything like that, but rather to domestic problems: social unrest, systemic damage, corrosion of democracy, political chaos.
Er, worried
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I am just a few minutes from a hardened underground ex-airforce base, bonus the doors still work and according to a sign I read in the museum and it was designed to withstand a medium yield nuclear blast from only 1km away. I will be waiting in there...
A lot of my firends back in the UK have been asking how we are coping living under the Spectre of Russian Invasion (given helpful headlines from such esteemed headlines: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4033994/Sweden-warns-preparing-war-Officials-ordered-ensure-civil-defence-infrastructure-ready-fear-Russian-invasion-grows.html ) It's funny I was speaking to quite a few Swedish this week while working on a job and they are much more worried about the current US situation than what is perceived as the 'Russian' threat.
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"Only Glass-Steagall Can Save the U.S. from Another Epic Crash".
Interesting, I will have to read that a few times though to make sure I get it right.
We have been developing along a hyper consumerist methodology for some time now and it has been a tool of choice to escape depressions and flat markets to the point that they, those that decide, are hard pressed to think of another method. Problem is that the big banks and institutions work on a constant inflation of profit which is an impossible pipe dream rather like the belief the planet can sustain US indefinitely. These banks and institutions then cause a crash to stimulate a renewed cycle of growth when they think potential has peaked. Money and power go hand in hand and these people are so connected as to be almost cojoined twins. OUR enemies are not nation states like Russia and their vassal states but the bar tenders who constantly manipulate the markets and financial cost in complete disregard to the effects on the average working class person. I am not a communist or socialist but it really is getting past the point of accepting this carp.
NO party either in power now or in the past has been different and how anyone bothers to vote any more stumps me it really does, Trump only differs from other politicians by his methods of managing information. he will likely not be better OR worse than other presidents so there is no real point in us second guessing what he will actually do opposed to what he says.
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One cannot make this up.
Kellyanne Conway blames refugees for 'Bowling Green massacre' that never happened
Donald Trump’s senior adviser uses fictitious incident to justify US president’s travel ban
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
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George Carlin put it best:
"We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!
We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
Plastic… asshole."
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@stinkie said:
One cannot make this up.
Kellyanne Conway blames refugees for 'Bowling Green massacre' that never happened
Donald Trump’s senior adviser uses fictitious incident to justify US president’s travel ban
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
If this isn't the most hijacked thread in the history of history...
...My original post was about my despair about the imminent demise of humans on this planet. (20 to 50 years?)...So...
That's irrelevant Stinkie. And who the fuck cares what a bunch of Neanderthals in DC thinks or does.
IMHO, it's pretty much too late anyway.Example: It seems that glaciers are hiving off huge chunks into the world ocean, making previous sea level rise predictions wrong by an order of two or more. Plus a bunch of other stuff to do with ice in temperate climes.
You guys OK with a 2 metre rise? Or how about 4 metres? (Thats 13.1234 feet in the good ol usa).I'll be fine, looking forward to having the boat at the end of the drive.
Example 2: I cant be bothered typing more examples, they are everywhere. Just Google 'The planet is fucked" and settle down for a couple hours reading.
You guys seem to be stuck in the past, which btw, has already happened.
Let us accept that human beings are a failed experiment, but the planet will most likely go on, barring nuclear mishaps, but with a much reduced ecosystem.
Your grandchildren will curse you for your complacency. Your great grandchildren will die of asphyxiation.
(The science in the movie 'Interstellar' is accurate, I think).C'mon guys, at least get your heads out of the sand and admit the reality of it. If you do, there might...just might... be a chance to turn this shitstorm around.
baz xx
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@baz said:
If this isn't the most hijacked thread in the history of history...
Nah.
@baz said:
And who the fuck cares what a bunch of Neanderthals in DC thinks or does.
I do, as they have actual power.
@baz said:
C'mon guys, at least get your heads out of the sand and admit the reality of it.
Oh, I do.
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@stinkie said:
@baz said:
If this isn't the most hijacked thread in the history of history...
Nah.
@baz said:
And who the fuck cares what a bunch of Neanderthals in DC thinks or does.
I do, as they have actual power.
@baz said:
C'mon guys, at least get your heads out of the sand and admit the reality of it.
Oh, I do.
Location:Yes.
You aren't actually an alien are you? -
"You aren't actually an alien are you"? Stinkie is not but I am, we are everywhere, including the bathrooms and rest rooms all over the world. Do you know how hard it is to find a rest room (As I believe you call them) when your commute is several thousand light years? All I have in my galactic transport pod is a pull out commode and some shiny, scratchy paper. It is enough to make an alien weep. BTW, you guys are the aliens, I have not had a screech climb out of my abdomen like, for ever.
If anyone is really concerned about the planet and the effects of human infestation, reduce procreation to a point where the planet can support the population and definitely prevent the stoopid from producing another generation. Actually just go for preventing the stoopid from the recreational use of biological replication. -
@mike amos said:
"You aren't actually an alien are you"? Stinkie is not but I am, we are everywhere, including the bathrooms and rest rooms all over the world. Do you know how hard it is to find a rest room (As I believe you call them) when your commute is several thousand light years? All I have in my galactic transport pod is a pull out commode and some shiny, scratchy paper. It is enough to make an alien weep. BTW, you guys are the aliens, I have not had a screech climb out of my abdomen like, for ever.
If anyone is really concerned about the planet and the effects of human infestation, reduce procreation to a point where the planet can support the population and definitely prevent the stoopid from producing another generation. Actually just go for preventing the stoopid from the recreational use of biological replication.Chill Mike. Everything will be Ok. Keep taking the medication.
“All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
Julian of Norwich (ca. 1342–ca. 1416), i -
@box said:
There were these three farmers that wanted to win the state fair contest for having the largest pig. They decide that they should stick a cork in the pigs arse and feed him for a month before the fair. The only problem was that none of them wanted to be the one to stick the cork in. So they bought a monkey and trained him to stick corks in bottles. After a week or two of this, they stick the monkey in the pen with the pig and a cork, and after a minute, the monkey did what he was supposed to do. The farmers fed the pig for a month and sure enough, they won first prize. Once they got home, they realized they still had to take the cork out. So they trained this same monkey to take corks out of bottles. They stuck the monkey in the pen with the pig, and the farmers woke up three days later in the hospital with a reporter sitting next to them. The reporter asked the first farmer, "What is the last thing you remember?" "Shit flying everywhere," the farmer replied. The reporter asked the second farmer the same question and got the same response. When she got to the third farmer and asked him what he could remember, he was laughing hysterically. The reporter asked, "What's the matter? What is so funny about being buried in pig shit" The farmer replied, "You shoulda seen the monkey trying to stick the cork back in."
That is not only unfunny Box, it is insultingly trivial. Love your work usually tho'.
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