Bread & Circuses
The last American election cycle has barely finished and already the pundocrats of print and screen are screaming, ranting and raving about who shall lead the pack, which imperfect unannounced candidate has the best chances of surviving the pummeling the press intends to inflict.
But none of the much touted male heirs-apparent are willing to act in any manner remotely resembling leadership.
Nor does the would-be 'mother-in-chief' offer an unimpeachable stand on any of the issues that will define us for the next several hundred years, if not the next several thousand years of human history.
Forget for a moment the mad acts of the venial criminals stinking up our White House, there truly is a more nightmarish situation that requires our instant undivided attention. Global warming is even now at this very moment creating the perfect atmospheric petri dish for the most horrific human scenarios imaginable, Frank Herbert notwithstanding.
I had the lovely opportunity to attend a two-hour lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, the other day. Six Nobel Laureates spoke on the problems and opportunities Global Warming will offer us. While the nice scientists were quick to speak of the ways in which the University, the Lab, and our corporate masters could profitably study the problem and profit from some of the solutions, they had to admit that Global Warming was far more urgent and horrific than most folks were letting on.
Every day we continue to produce excess carbon-based greenhouse gases will dramatically and negatively affect the accelerating problem of global warming.
The excess carbon sequestered in the atmosphere today, as in right this minute, will take at the very least 150 years to be reabsorbed and quite possibly more than a 1,000 years.
That assumes that absolutely no additional carbon is released into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the lecture I attended was on January 20th, but I haven't seen our masterful modern civilization make any dramatic changes in the last week.
While the average village idiot nursing on the idiot box assumes that the great and magnificent American scientist will come forth with a high-technology, planet-saving solution (just in the nick of time like Superman does in the movies) the sad truth is we, each and every one of us, is immediately and personally responsible for producing the excessive and unnecessary wastes that will end us, simply because we like our 'MTV', SUV etc. The great irony is that we, each of us, could make an enormous difference and possibly save our children's lives simply by really conserving energy right now, claimed Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel McFadden.
If not, in a future too quickly to come, hurricanes will sweep our coastal cities away and flood the devastated remnants in a fashion which promises to make New Orleans in the wake of Katrina look civilized and modern.
Vast and intense firestorms will devour entire regions, filling the air with globe-encircling smoke. Those with pulmonary problems, the old or infirm will literally suffocate in plain air. The very young, with their still developing lungs will also be victimized.
Inland, water will become so scarce as to cause crops to fail on a massive scale and hunger will immediately follow. (Already we're getting official warnings that this year's snowpack in California is at drought levels.)Follow the state's figures here and the news here.
The ability of our sacrosanct capitalist system to deliver food to the many thousands of cities and millions of citizens across the country will utterly fail.
Our governmental authorities will not be able to reliably deliver water or energy.
Using the typical military measures for which America is known around the world, the same government that won't be able to deliver water or food will be able to deliver fully armored and armed gun-men to ensure any potential domestic unrest is immediately suppressed.
But back to the beauty contest we call a Presidential election.
None of our statesmen running for the highest office in the land has the stomach to loudly and stridently demand the necessary, no, the imperative and immediate act of rationing carbon-based fuels, to demand we appropriately tax the polluters for the damage they're doing to our shared environment, to insist we create a massive public transportation system, none of them are working with Congress to stop the billion dollar subsidizes given to automobile manufacturers, airlines and oil companies and use that money to start conservation programs.
Hell, our parents and grandparents endured rationed gasoline, planted Victory Gardens, taxed war profits, and diverted entire industries to fight Hitler's Nazi killing machine. All Hitler wanted to do was kill a couple dozen million people. Global Warming will kill billions.
So tell me which of our so-called leaders is willing to declare all out WAR on global warming?
It was no different for the war on the poor and innocent citizens of Iraq.
Too soon it will be no different for the similarly impoverished and guiltless citizens of Iran.
No leader has stepped forward nor will any step forward to demand accountability for anything this country is doing.
Nor will there be press watch dogs to hold those leaders accountable.
And the great majority of us, the silent and powerless majority?
We won't insist this madness be halted.
We've more important issues at hand ... like who's going to be our national American Idol in 2008? What clueless, gutless, spineless greed monkey will befoul the people's house, the White House in 2009.
I just hope there's a year 2009 and an America in that year that I am still able to recognize.
Meanwhile back in the present, take a good look at what our current leader has done to address this crisis: WTF!?
But none of the much touted male heirs-apparent are willing to act in any manner remotely resembling leadership.
Nor does the would-be 'mother-in-chief' offer an unimpeachable stand on any of the issues that will define us for the next several hundred years, if not the next several thousand years of human history.
Forget for a moment the mad acts of the venial criminals stinking up our White House, there truly is a more nightmarish situation that requires our instant undivided attention. Global warming is even now at this very moment creating the perfect atmospheric petri dish for the most horrific human scenarios imaginable, Frank Herbert notwithstanding.
I had the lovely opportunity to attend a two-hour lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, the other day. Six Nobel Laureates spoke on the problems and opportunities Global Warming will offer us. While the nice scientists were quick to speak of the ways in which the University, the Lab, and our corporate masters could profitably study the problem and profit from some of the solutions, they had to admit that Global Warming was far more urgent and horrific than most folks were letting on.
Every day we continue to produce excess carbon-based greenhouse gases will dramatically and negatively affect the accelerating problem of global warming.
The excess carbon sequestered in the atmosphere today, as in right this minute, will take at the very least 150 years to be reabsorbed and quite possibly more than a 1,000 years.
That assumes that absolutely no additional carbon is released into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the lecture I attended was on January 20th, but I haven't seen our masterful modern civilization make any dramatic changes in the last week.
While the average village idiot nursing on the idiot box assumes that the great and magnificent American scientist will come forth with a high-technology, planet-saving solution (just in the nick of time like Superman does in the movies) the sad truth is we, each and every one of us, is immediately and personally responsible for producing the excessive and unnecessary wastes that will end us, simply because we like our 'MTV', SUV etc. The great irony is that we, each of us, could make an enormous difference and possibly save our children's lives simply by really conserving energy right now, claimed Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel McFadden.
If not, in a future too quickly to come, hurricanes will sweep our coastal cities away and flood the devastated remnants in a fashion which promises to make New Orleans in the wake of Katrina look civilized and modern.
Vast and intense firestorms will devour entire regions, filling the air with globe-encircling smoke. Those with pulmonary problems, the old or infirm will literally suffocate in plain air. The very young, with their still developing lungs will also be victimized.
Inland, water will become so scarce as to cause crops to fail on a massive scale and hunger will immediately follow. (Already we're getting official warnings that this year's snowpack in California is at drought levels.)Follow the state's figures here and the news here.
The ability of our sacrosanct capitalist system to deliver food to the many thousands of cities and millions of citizens across the country will utterly fail.
Our governmental authorities will not be able to reliably deliver water or energy.
Using the typical military measures for which America is known around the world, the same government that won't be able to deliver water or food will be able to deliver fully armored and armed gun-men to ensure any potential domestic unrest is immediately suppressed.
But back to the beauty contest we call a Presidential election.
None of our statesmen running for the highest office in the land has the stomach to loudly and stridently demand the necessary, no, the imperative and immediate act of rationing carbon-based fuels, to demand we appropriately tax the polluters for the damage they're doing to our shared environment, to insist we create a massive public transportation system, none of them are working with Congress to stop the billion dollar subsidizes given to automobile manufacturers, airlines and oil companies and use that money to start conservation programs.
Hell, our parents and grandparents endured rationed gasoline, planted Victory Gardens, taxed war profits, and diverted entire industries to fight Hitler's Nazi killing machine. All Hitler wanted to do was kill a couple dozen million people. Global Warming will kill billions.
So tell me which of our so-called leaders is willing to declare all out WAR on global warming?
It was no different for the war on the poor and innocent citizens of Iraq.
Too soon it will be no different for the similarly impoverished and guiltless citizens of Iran.
No leader has stepped forward nor will any step forward to demand accountability for anything this country is doing.
Nor will there be press watch dogs to hold those leaders accountable.
And the great majority of us, the silent and powerless majority?
We won't insist this madness be halted.
We've more important issues at hand ... like who's going to be our national American Idol in 2008? What clueless, gutless, spineless greed monkey will befoul the people's house, the White House in 2009.
I just hope there's a year 2009 and an America in that year that I am still able to recognize.
Meanwhile back in the present, take a good look at what our current leader has done to address this crisis: WTF!?
posted by Fred Dodsworth at 9:43 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Fred --
So I've got a few questions for you...
1. Would it be smart to buy land in New Mexico, where it's further from the sea
2. If global warming destroys SF, NYC and other coastal cities, will we have deserved it for being idiots?
3. will hilary clinton be president?
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