A few thoughts about the future of this planet
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Ah, H. Simpson.
My second favorite philosopher. Number one is Bender. Would've made a far better prez, too.
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I'd laugh if I weren't too shocked. What an idiot.
It's going to be an, er, interesting four years.
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Sorry but.....
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Just a quick clarification. The post above is aimed at the only practitioners of the dark arts that I know and have experience of, Those in the UK.
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Climate Change screwing the world up! I think so but only for most of the world's current four limbed species, us included.
Our distant ancestors crawled out of the seas on fins that gradually became arms and legs. When we are gone by whatever means, I imagine Nature will fill the gap in her own time.
As TIG says it's simply good manners to leave the Earth as we found it or better again, improved.
One means of us Joe Soaps gaining some political clout is to push for Direct Democracy. This link shows how we nearly had it as envisaged by Michael Collins, http://www.reinstate48.ie
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That is a very powerful clip. Perhaps it demonstrates a major problem with out current political systems, that the politicians really do not want a real voice for the people. It is an acceptance that politicians lie without recourse to judgement. Short of a revolution, NOTHING will change. I do not want to see another civil war in my country and anybody eles's. I just see no recourse other than the removal of those who run my country.
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In the so called 'Western World', Direct Democracy is quite workable now that we have this high level of telecommunication all around us. Ordinary citizens are more than capable of making informed and sensible judgement votes over their mobile phone on a daily basis if needed.
We no longer need career politicians telling us loads of lies in order to get their snouts in the trough and then start figuring out how they can remain in power getting brown envelopes from big business along the way and finally golden hand shakes and big pensions.
What we need are high calibre answerable and sackable Civil Servants and short term leaders that have proven track records in business / industry / the professions etc with bright ideas that 'we the people' endorse on an ongoing basis for their term of their leadership. Once their term is complete they go back to their previous lives / jobs.
Oh, hold on! We might be seeing this happening in the USA with The Donald. It will be interesting to see how he handles things. I am not a great fan of the man but he's sorta growing on me.
He is no fool when it comes to choosing a team! The latest move I see him making is to bring Elon Musk (of Tesla and SpaceX) and the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick onboard his economic advisory committee.
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So disagree Mike.
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@mike lucey said:
Ordinary citizens are more than capable of making informed and sensible judgement votes over their mobile phone on a daily basis if needed.
Ordinary citizens voted for the brexit. Ordinary citizens support Duterte. Ordinary citizens voted for a man who, as president-elect, has stated he 'doesn't need' daily security briefings because he's 'a very smart person'.
Show me an average citizen who's willing to wade through 300 pages of esoteric tax legislation.
@mike lucey said:
He is no fool when it comes to choosing a team!
Really?
Mike Pence has stated condoms don't sufficiently protect people against STD's. David Friedman, Trump's ambassador to Israel, called liberal American Jews 'worse than kapos'. Rick Perry isn't exactly an advocate for gay rights. Andy Puzder is opposed to raising minimum wages. Scott Pruitt, who is to head EPA, is a climate change denier. Ben Carson believes Egypt's pyramids were built by Jesus' stepdad to store grain.
I could go on.
I respect your right to an opinion, Mike, but surely, you're peddling utter nonsense.
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@mike lucey said:
In the so called 'Western World', Direct Democracy is quite workable now that we have this high level of telecommunication all around us. Ordinary citizens are more than capable of making informed and sensible judgement votes over their mobile phone on a daily basis if needed.
Depends on where these ordinary citizens get that information and if they're willing to research what they read and not take it as gospel. Fake news was a big problem with this election not only on Facebook but all over the internet. I think this set a new precedent for future elections where there will be information overload and be harder to distinguish fact from fiction, very effective.
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Post deleted due to confluence of the Nile meeting the Rhine at about 05:30 and it being a tuesday somewhere in the galaxy.
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@mike amos said:
(...) and it being a tuesday somewhere in the galaxy.
It is indeed wise to exercise caution on tuesdays.
It's almost tuesday again. Godspeed.
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@stinkie said:
I respect your right to an opinion, Mike, but surely, you're peddling utter nonsense.
The cases you bring up just prove to me that ordinary people don't like the direction the establishment are taking them.
The EU elites won't and don't accept referendum results of the people if the result does not suit their agenda. Brexit was voted for by the majority of UK citizens because they wanted to run their own country and make their own laws. I expect a close run election in France next year and there are a number of other EU member states that are on the fence when it comes to total fiscal union. The euro is a disaster as one shoe does not fit all.
As regards Trump and his thus far administration choices. He is an 'outsider', a very wealthy outside but nevertheless an outsider that will more than likely rock the boat. He is by no means the perfect president but if he implements a fraction of his campaign promises he will swing things around for the average middle class US citizen.
The money brokers are somewhat stunned with the Trump election and are probably wondering what they can do to control him short of a bullet as has been the case in the past on a number of occasions.
As regards his team members I have not fully studied most of them. However Pence's great-grandmother came from Doonbeg, Co Clare, my home county so he can't be all that bad!
Its not his team members ideologies that matter, its his ideologies and he is well known for taking the 'You're Fired' option.
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@mike lucey said:
He is by no means the perfect president but if he implements a fraction of his campaign promises he will swing things around for the average middle class US citizen.
Depends on what you read. From where I sit, it looks like plutocracy and kleptocracy all rolled into one...
(billionaire cabinet appointments, massive Trump organization conflict of interests, with children and spouses execrising undue influence.) bad news in my estimation. Don't even get me started on the climate change denial that will run rampant. I want to have a habitable planet to pass on to my children. -
@mike lucey said:
The cases you bring up just prove to me that ordinary people don't like the direction the establishment are taking them.
You're circumventing my point.
@mike lucey said:
The EU elites won't and don't accept referendum results of the people if the result does not suit their agenda.
Really?
@mike lucey said:
Brexit (...)
There you are.
@mike lucey said:
He is by no means the perfect president but if he implements a fraction of his campaign promises he will swing things around for the average middle class US citizen.
How, exactly? Do be precise.
@mike lucey said:
As regards his team members I have not fully studied most of them.
And yet you said Trump's no fool when it comes to choosing a team.
@mike lucey said:
Its not his team members ideologies that matter (...)
Are you saying their respective ideas/ideologies won't have any effect on the Trump administration's policies? If so, how so? And if that's not what you're saying, what are you saying?
@mike lucey said:
(...) its his ideologies (...)
What are those, precisely?
@mike lucey said:
(...) he is well known for taking the 'You're Fired' option.
Richard Dean Anderson is well known for his ability to fix just about anything with chewing gum.
Politics is more complex than -thoroughly scripted- 'reality' television. What parliaments do, is infinitely more complex than televoting for your 'Britain's Got Talent' contestant of choice.
Differences of opinion notwithstanding: merry christmas and a happy new year.
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Trump and his appointee's have a track record of knowing how to make money, having a grounding in that will potentially mean they are better placed to work for the people when it comes to running a large corporation AKA a government.
Cut out the dead wood and remove the unfeasibly large "fringe benefits" that seem to be found in the run of the mill government. He has another benefit, he is not from the same bipartite/tripartite clique that has been running his country for a shed load of years, a bit like the same variety of clique we have in the UK and most other nations on this planet. Have you noticed how career politicians end up loaded (compared to the rest of us) and some even get considered by the clique and themselves as pseudo royalty?
As for the EU it is more of a destabilising influence, mainly because they are too big for their own socks. This will when it finds the next set of shocks be seen as the blundering, even bigger failure to communicate it really is. A standing European ARMY FCOL!!!!!!!!! The EU we in the UK signed up for was a TRADING PARTNERSHIP which is where the whole thing got off the ground with varieties of the European Free Trading Association. Look at it now! Does anyone here want the EU to sleep walk us into a WAR?
Look at the various military cooperation's like the Tornado and Typhoon, late, over budget and invariably castrated to fit in with reality of trying to get the things into any kind of service. Time we got back to basics and got rid of the idiots riding on the gravy train. This goes for the so called civil servants too. We cannot possibly do things efficiently, we never have so we are not going to do so now seems be the way governments WANT things to go. -
@mike amos said:
Trump and his appointee's have a track record of knowing how to make money, having a grounding in that will potentially mean they are better placed to work for the people when it comes to running a large corporation AKA a government.
Unfortunately, it is more like a new bunch of weasels in for self-enrichment. Their policies will definitely will NOT be in the interest of "the people" (see for example proposed tax cuts for the super-wealthy, infrastructure moneys to large corporations, financial deregulation to benefit Wall Street, the list goes on.)
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Stinkie,
The Irish people voted 'No' to two EU Treaties. They were then frightened and bullied into a 'yes' vote on both referendum re-runs. This was also the case with other member states.
As regards the 'Brexit' vote. The UK was not a full member of the EU as they stuck with their Pound Sterling. It looks to me that as the EU could not bring them fully into the fold they are not too worried about them leaving.
As regards how I think Trump will go about raising the standard of living for middle America. I thought that should have been obvious with his nomination of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State. This move looks to be a way of vastly reducing the $1,000,000,000,000 annual military industrial complex budget. This should go a long way to upgrading US infrastructure, building schools, hospitals etc.
You might read this article for further insight as to what is happening,
'US Aims to Break Russia With Arms Race'
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46103.htm -
If we are to consider the new weasels as doing nothing for the people, how is that different from the current crop? How do we know when politicians are lying? They are ALWAYS lying, simples. The clean sweep from the broom will be at worst, the same as the current broom, NOT worse.
Mike, the article left me seeing two potentials. I hope the corporate military juggernaut that is the USA can be turned around and I also hope the EU can sort out the major issues that are turning it into such a waste of breath, I really do. With a bit of luck we can shuffle off this mortal coil leaving the planet just a little better than we found it but sadly most are too blind, self interested and stupid to care and as a Trekkie THAT is what bothers me the most.
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