Red Alert! Oh, and Happy New Year
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a symbolic “red alert” warning for 2018 instead of the usual appeal (to the United States of Perpetual Warmongers) for world peace.
I'll paraphrase: He said the world is going to shit, there is no hope in sight and if we don't do something, we're all going to get blown up by nuclear bombs, or burnt crisp (or frozen, which is it now?) by climate change, or the rich will take everything until there's nothing left for like, 7 billion people.
"A year after becoming the ninth UN chief, Guterres decided not to yet again appeal for “world peace” in his New Year's message. Instead, noting that over the course of 2017 “the world has gone in reverse,” he explicitly warned of the dangers which could undermine world peace and stability in 2018."
https://www.rt.com/news/414719-un-guterres-red-alert/
Wow, it's like everything is out in the open now. The whole world knows we're up shit creek without a paddle. We're on red alert. The world is FUBAR (fucked up beyond recognition).
I decided I'd better be sure what he is really saying so I checked with Merriam-Webster. Who better? Here's what they have to say about Red Alert:
"the final stage of alert in which enemy attack appears imminent; broadly : a state of alert brought on by impending danger."
Ruh roh. "final stage" "attack appears imminent" "impending danger"?
Sounds serious. But the world knows, right? That's half the battle isn't it? Because we are humans and we are smart motherfuckers and our governments are the shit, man. There's no need to fear, Underdog is here baby. The United Nations of the Earth will save us. All we need is love, da da da da da.
Then there's the Doomsday clock, now set at two and a half minutes til DOOMSDAY, or midnight for those wearing glass slippers. That's 30 minutes closer to DOOMSDAY then it was in 2016. That's the closest to midnight it's been since 1953. I bet it goes to two minutes any Trump twitter tweet now.
https://thebulletin.org/timeline
Does anybody care? Does the United Nations care? The human race and planet earth are now on RED ALERT, year 2017 of someone's lord. Is anyone going to do anything about this existential emergency?
Not if we Americans have anything to do about it. We want more war, man. There's North Korea, Iran, Russia, China and Ethiopia, again. Plus, we're going to have another election soon and the progressives are going to make progress and Bernie will get older and even wiser and Joe Biden will beat Trump anyway. Just keep his hands tied behind his back. We don't care about no stinking Red Alert, we are the indispensable nation. We're going to elect different politicians this time. What more does the damn world expect from the greatest democracy ever created?
Dammit, I thought I had more time. I'm going to have to get to that shed this spring. The one with the secret fallout shelter stocked with Spagettios and beer and plenty of board games.
[video:https://youtu.be/FNfSEI-kFEk]
You don't believe?
Comments
And on that high point, we slide into the shit. Yahooo!
It will be a wild ride, while it lasts.
It's the year of the Radical, Ed.
"Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'"
When in Doubt, Listen to Albert Einstein
You've diagnosed the potential problem quite well, Al. So, what's the solution that you have in mind? Is there one?
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Too bad Albert isn't around for that huh JIH.
I Look Forward to Reading it
As you imply strongly in this essay, if anyone dares to even think about using nuclear weapons, then, we are really screwed. I don't know how much confidence I had in reading an article a few weeks ago, but I recall that some US officials talked openly about refusing Trump's orders should he initiate a nuclear strike.
Using them twice was bad enough in August 1945.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
A worthy question which begs an answer
Humanity is on a drunkard's walk, which inevitably leads to the drunkard lying in a gutter, being the lowest state of entropy. Human "planning" is a higher level of entropy than the gutter--achievble but amongst the least likely solutions. For example, the drunkard safely navigating the streets and finding the door to his own home. The combination for all other solutions (equals unplanned) is greater than the ideal solution. For a fuller mathematical statement of the drunkard's walk see here.
A corollary of this is what Robert Burns is reported to have written: the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.
My solution--or yours--is a statistical unlikelihood. After all, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? And does that matter?
Fantastic Comment. Thanks, Ed n/t
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
I nominate...
the Human Race for a Darwin Award.
Next time, if there is a next time, I'd like the Bonobo as the human progenitor.
Very fitting J.
my brain's so melting
feels like it's copulating
coupling with defiance
starving for reliance
on truth with the 99
trust each other to transcend
the evil we're fed
2018 is the year of the rebellion
I hope you're right
Instead of a new year resolution
Mother earth is laughing
whilst beginning the initial shaking that will rid it of the pestilence that currently resides.
I wholeheartedly welcome the demise.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
It's gonna take you and me with it
A recent essay here discusses the end-product of extreme austerity: social disruption followed by revolution. I am not sanguine about a peaceful revolution. Our society, below the elite level, is just too disorganized for this.
Fire and Ice
Dating myself, I heard Mr. Frost read this poem, and others, while I was in college.
@Alligator Ed In fact the bubble is
This has always been a challenge for me to grasp simply because I can't quite find the information I need to answer the question:
What are the signs of a bubble popping? What causes a bubble to pop? Everything talks about the lead up off the bubble and then the fallout, but often ignores the XYZ factors of the immediate popping.
We've seen how well peaceful protests works
I watched a video of the Iranian protests and it's just like the ones that we have here. People are armed with rocks and bottles while the cops are armed to the teeth. The cops are going to win every time. Some people think that the protesters should have personal weapons, but if that happens I'm pretty sure that the PTB won't have a problem with a few deaths to get their point across.
I don't think that it's only a Chinese company making these anti protest equipment. I bet one of our defense companies is working on building them for use here. Throw in a few drones that spray chemical weapons on us and there is no way in hell that we'd get to get our point across. They have been planning for us to rise up since they started squeezing us how many decades ago?
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
@Alligator Ed You fucking lucky dog.
if you see the destruction of status quo coming at us
"We've got provisions and lots of beer,
the key word is survival on the new frontier."
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8zrKnkd6ss width:400 height:240]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Dammit, I thought I had more
Hope you have better food choices than Spaghettios in your shelter. As for board games, maybe stay away from Monopoly. You could get Life, to remember a life before the underground bunker you are in.
UN isn't going to do anything because they are the USA's PR firm.
And Americans? Dear God no. When all the nukes are dropped, if there are a few remaining American survivors they will sit wondering how did this happen. Where were the warning signs? How come no one told us? How come our "leaders" and politicians didn't stop this?
Americans will start caring about trying to save the world only after it has been completely and utterly destroyed. I don't know if it is a formal theory, but well I call it my Stoplight Theory: Taking preventative measures after the action you are trying to prevent has already happened.
No stop sign exists on Road A. Some folks suggest putting up a stop sign but they are ignored. An accident occurs on Road A. Now folks begin to consider a stop sign on Road A.
Reverse psychology doesn't appear to work either.
mass resistance
That's the key, we do have friends all over the world.
the PTB are going to try to dictate the terms of engagement
At least we will see the empire collapse
...the question is how many other life forms go extinct with us?
We fit these 7 signs of collapsing empires...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Gc1bv-Mj4
However our demise might be more like the collision that caused the dinosaur extinction...driven by fossil fuels instead of an asteroid. We are already in the midst of the 6th great extinction.
Happy new year to us all.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The human conditions of greed and lust for power
I continue to believe there's a solution and I continue to believe most people are good. But the evil people are in charge, that's what we have to change.
we have the numbers and morality on our side
Right you are. The red neck military enforcers
FUBAR
During my Army days in the 1970s, FUBAR meant Fucked Up Beyond All Repair.
@edg Al Ed gave you the post
maybe
this man will let you share his shelter. He seems sorta friendly. The shelter is in Utah. But what does it matter where it is—it is underground.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kl65Fr2hHg]
You can add me
to those that don't give a fuck. Doomsday clock? Whatever...
Seems we've been 2 Minutes to Doomsday my entire life. Literally.
And, seriously, I'm more worried about surviving the Nucular (Dubya spelling) Knockout Punch. But I'm still optimistic everyone keeps their trigger fingers off the red launch buttons. There's already too much to deal with this year without worrying about Nucular annihilation.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
My son has a friend going to college on Oahu
She told him that there was to be a nuclear attack warning test on the 2nd instead of the usual tsunami warning. We are once again in more danger from ourselves than from nature’s fury.
I had hoped my generation had mostly reduced the risk of nuclear war so my kids wouldn’t have to deal with it, but I guess not.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
@Hawkfish
I suppose they're also using the gear from the original Cold War that they loved so much at the time that they can't ever let it - and the kick-backs and investment returns from the profits - go? And the same advice to crawl under a desk and
kiss your ass goodbye'you'll be safe here'?We'll have to remember that Obama said the plan was to shut down internet in the event of any major disaster, without mentioning that this cuts out independent reports to leave only The Official Story on the corporate media for the next False Flag they'll use to obliterate planetary life. If not stopped, of course. Unfortunately, I doubt that most people realize that, at this point.
But what a cruel thing to do, shutting down communications among the public in a major emergency, just when most needed, even if not in order to further confuse, hazard and disinform the victims...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11736545
There, now, isn't that reassuring? Especially knowing that there is that steadying influence actually running government in the direction desired by them, no matter who sits in the hot seat? And knowing that good old Stuxnet was made in the USA?
And is that the real reason that there's been so much desperation among warmongers hating Americans for having internet freedom to access and share information outside of their ever-more-frantic-and-idiotic propaganda campaigns to have cute puppy and BLM ads and Twitter accounts declared an Act of War by Russia? As an excuse to shut down the internet in the process of privatizing an essential public utility so that controlling corporations can take over 'security' on the internet for the elimination of any news they don't want the public hearing or discussing?
Not that this is news to anyone here but to add:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/stuxnet-was-work-...
https://www.rt.com/news/mossad-iran-nuclear-programme-851/
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/has-iran-really-pursued-...
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/leaks-netanyahu-misled-iran-nuclea...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.