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Addiction to Fossil Fuels, American Psycho, Arctic Ice Melt, Bill Maher, Capitalism, Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Consumerism, Corporate State, Disengaged American Workers, Eco-Apocalypse, Ecological Overshoot, Economic Collapse, Empire, Environmental Collapse, Extinction of Man, Financial Elite, Globalization, Inverted Totalitarianism, Mass Die Off, Peak Oil, Peak Water, Resource Wars, Social Unrest, Techno-Fundamentalism, The Elite 1%, Totalitarian Technocracy, Wall Street Fraud
I’ve heard that 70% of American workers are “disengaged” or “checked out” at their job; in other words, they hate their work. This statistic is as good as any in illustrating the moribund nature of life in 21st century industrial civilization. No wonder zombie movies are so popular these days. In America’s 9 to 5, cog-in-the-corporate-wheel life, a majority of the population feels like the living dead, thoughtlessly going through the motions of slave-wage work in order to race home and crash in front of the boob tube with a microwaved dinner. Not much energy left in the day to do anything but drift to sleep while flipping through endless channels of Hollywood sitcoms, infomercials, and consumer-friendly corporate news. For the vast majority, the best hours of one’s life are spent performing this lifeless routine day in and day out. The banal and deadening existence of industrial civilization appears to be wearing on the masses, and a vague awareness of its unraveling seems to be understood on at least a subliminal level — another 100 species drops off the face of the Earth today, ice sheets and glaciers disappear at a rapid clip, weather patterns become erratic and unstable, street protests erupt in various countries, talk of pulling the plug on the money presses roils “the market”, etc.
Amongst the human chatter, some people rationalize such unusual events as acts of God, others as an illuminati conspiracy, while many believe it’s just the natural variability of the world and nothing to worry about. Forming a consensus on anything, let alone climate change, from such a divergent array of thinking in a global population of billions with different languages, governments, and cultures would be a feat of biblical proportions indeed. The hope of any significant portion of the population unplugging from industrial civilization and its carnival-like atmosphere can safely be called a pipe dream. Empire and the allure of industrial civilization entraps nearly all who enter.
Like puppets on a marionette string, the legions of indoctrinated consumers pursue the latest material object to fill a void left by everything industrial civilization destroyed. Those who step foot on this out-of-control treadmill find themselves on a trip to oblivion in which, quite literally, everything will be forgotten, as in ‘NTE’. Although jumping off this treadmill certainly has its benefits, in the bigger picture everyone gets carried over the cliff by the catatonic actions of the majority. There’s no escaping what has been called the greatest “bioevent” in geological history, from which a distinct record of our rampage through the fossil fuel carbon deposits will follow us into the Earth’s strata.
Talk of hardening communities to the effects of a destabilized and fast deteriorating climate will make the phrase “quality of life” a cynical joke; therefore, a redefining of “the good life” is essential in a future of climate chaos. The new definition certainly won’t include vacations in Miami, unless you plan on scuba diving. And the standard American dinner of meat and potatoes will likely change to simply having a stomach temporarily free from hunger pains after dining on insects, roasted rodent, and foraged weeds. And as far as a lifetime of gainful employment, everyone will be self-employed in the field of survivalism, i.e. “every man for himself.” Climbing up the “rungs of progress” will go into reverse, becoming a regress into medievalism. Of course remnants of Techno-fundamentalism will still exist, but they’ll mainly be confined to the realm of the world’s only remaining type of government – totalitarian technocracies.
There are quite a few who believe that we can hang on to some semblance of today’s global planet-killing civilization, but with so many vectors of collapse converging upon us we’ll be lucky if humans themselves survive in any significant number greater than zero. Throughout history, Empires have grown by stealing resources and energy from others. Ours is no different except that now the criminal elite have colonized the entire world under the guise of the “free market.” The school of neoclassical economics assumes unending supplies of cheap energy and resources for continued growth while ignoring waste and pollution, externalizing those costs upon the environmental commons. Money printing hasn’t solved or circumvented this false belief. It has only created phantom wealth in stock markets and asset bubbles. Today’s professional psychopaths in suits are no different than those in the past who took millions of lives with them to the grave, but this time it’s a mass extermination on a global scale — 7 billion people and counting, along with all other living things.
Paul F Getty said:
Your best yet.
This is the real reason there is no hope of changing course.
This is why a year or so ago I said to myself tha, sure, we have some alternative paths that seem viable, but going those ways are impossible because of the competing interests of consumption and profits.
Read the WSJ a few days. Or Forbes. These are fully still denying global warming. The people who run our world read, or own, these journals. They want profits and market share above all else. They will lie to themselves and others to get more. Millions of us can feel differently, but these people of business and finance are at the helm, making the decisions about what direction the boat goes. All we can do is row, and bitch, and row some more.
Really, Mike, what you have written here is truly the crux of why there is no hope of turning the boat around. And so, so many writers about our dire situation do not get it.
Great job.
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Chris George said:
I disagree that we can only row, bitch, and row some more. We can stop rowing.
Suddenly there is time for all of the things that industrial civilization has stolen from us. And we are no longer propping up the system or feeding more wealth to the top. Stop rowing. Find a way to be on the planet that isn’t based on insanity. Find right livelihood that works for all living beings, not just the few.
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Paul F Getty said:
Good ideas. And I’d like to do them. And I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing…..green things, some activism. But I know where the boat is going regardless.
Do you see a whole lot of people living in a way that is not killing the planet? Do you see them not driving a car, or eating food that used massive amounts of fossil fuels and fresh water to produce? I don’t. I see the vast majority of humans consuming all they are able to. And the global corporations want to keep it that way. And they will make sure politicians keep it that way.
Read this new article from The Guardian. It is not often you see something in the msm like this, but this venue is a bit more independent of corporate control than others. The final conclusion of this author, a scientist: “We are fucked”.
The only way to turn the boat around would be a monstrously huge revolution of the people against the world’s corporate imperial system, but that could only happen if the people of the world all decide they will give up all the stuff they love and live what is considered a primitive life without modern conveniences, without travel, without a job, etc. People just do not want to do that. Period.
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Paul F Getty said:
Sorry. Here is the website for that article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/30/population-growth-wipe-out-life-earth
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Paul F Getty said:
Just a note: this article reminds me of just how little we know about the world we are so drastically and arrogantly changing. (And we want to geoengineer the planet?):
Global Warming Affects Soil Microbe Survival: Changing Climate Impacts Farming
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/7832/20130628/global-warming-affects-soil-microbe-survival-changing-climate-impacts-farming.htm
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xraymike79 said:
Ha. This from Market Watch 4 days ago…
Read the rest:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/zombie-capitalism-a-prequel-to-new-world-war-z-2013-06-26
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Paul F Getty said:
I’m embarrassed to say I went to Brad’s movie, but, actually, the scenes of piling up zombies destroying everything were pretty cool.
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xraymike79 said:
Liked ‘Z’ as well, but thought “Oblivion” was better. The sentient computer in the sky (aka Sally) was pretty awesome… a perfect metaphor for industrial civilization’s deification of technology.
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the Heretick said:
i know that you do not subscribe to any “isms” such as socialism, communism, capitalism, so i will not debate that point; however, i would say that capitalism is a death cult, it worships dead labor, it devalues the living, it treats the entire natural world as a commodity, and this includes human beings.
this system hurts people from top to bottom, it allows some people to lord it over others, treating them like dirt, and if you don’t like it you can bloody well starve.
i am dealing with it at work, where the management feels that they can treat the employees with condescension, constant ridicule, contempt, and verbal and psychological abuse.
it’s no wonder that our society is such a wreck, our economic system devalues everything it touches.
i followed your link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technopoly
and the guy has a point, all i would add is that these technologies are self-serving, and are used by the self-serving. many of the so-called skills valued in our society are only valuable in that they serve the present system; i am thinking of lawyers, judges, insurance actuaries, executives, and on and on.
yes, these skills are only valued insofar as they serve the rulers of our planet, the rest of us be damned.
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patrick said:
The change has already started for the better, take a look around
the next generation (20-30) are making less money, and are learning
to be happy with less as a result. You can’t change direction too quickly
as the current system drives everything -food supply -heating etc.
It is always easier to identify a problem than come up with a solution.
If you follow the current paradigm of shrinking the economy through, you
will see on the good side: extended families living together / less energy consumptin
/ and so on. Other unexpected benefits will also come hopefully.
As for the Zombie Movie, good example of what our streets will look like if you
make changes that shrink the economy too fast , the Zombies that have not and the
healthy ones who still have and want to protect.
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ulvfugl said:
Ha! Got an email from xray, he’s locked out of his own blog and can’t approve new comments, whatever, because of a WordPress technical glitch…. so your patience is appreciated 🙂
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ulvfugl said:
Okay, another message from xray. Seems WordPress have a backlog of people with this problem so it could take up to a week to resolve. That’s what I’m being told through the official channel, so that’s what I’m telling you here.
Unofficially, who knows. Mike’s probably being held hostage and being forced to send me these emails at gun point, from a bathroom in Hong Kong. Stay strong, Mike, don’t tell ’em where we hid it.
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xraymike79 said:
LOL. I think I’ve been hit by the cyber censors.
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ulvfugl said:
That last message re ‘cyber censors’ was not genuine. Mike didn’t send it. It appears that the site has been hacked by hostile forces.
Normal service will be resumed asap. Meanwhile for your viewing pleasure.
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Jacob Horner said:
I wish this went without saying, but I’d like to note that Adam Curtis is perhaps the most important filmmaker I’ve ever come across…after a half century of coming across as many filmmakers as possible. All his documentaries are easily available – and downloadable for repeated viewing – at archive.org. His blog is here…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/MASSIVE-ATTACK-V-ADAM-CURTIS
Thanks ulyfugl…been watching for your comments here & elsewhere for the past couple of months. I follow breadcrumbs in pursuit of those ‘things in the saddle that ride mankind’. A few weeks back you linked to Fredy Perlman’s essay…Breadcrumb of the Year – for sure. Thanks, man…it’s beome my summer project. Unfortunately Blake’s plates are not identified in the book, but I’m tracking them down.
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Jacob Horner said:
Whoops…sorry. For any one interested, here’s Perlman’s essay…
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/fredy-perlman-against-his-story-against-leviathan
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ulvfugl said:
Thanks for the compliments, Jacob, yes, I’m a fan of A C, except for the one on systems theory and ecology, where there is a query which has never been resolved to my satisfaction.
Please note, xray and this site are subjected to interference by the forces mentioned in my comment at 2:09 below, or some other of malign intent. I have heard no more. I hope he is ok and getting things sorted.
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Kevin Moore said:
Over the past 5 years on NBL, and more recently here on CoIC, we have discussed practically everything that needs to be discussed. So now we just repeat, as we witness the ‘sinking of the Titanic’, with many passengers still holding on to their notions of it being unsinkable.
The reality is that the quality of life for most people in ‘advanced industrial societies has been falling since the 1960s. Minor improvements in consumer-product technology and electronic wizardry have provided illusions of advancement which have been more than negated by increases in population and general deterioration of both local and global environments.
The phenomenon of baseline shift results in each generation accepting what they see around them as ‘normal’, even though most or what they see is actually a gross aberration. Orwell recognised that ‘he who controls the past controls the future’; if the past is portrayed as brutal, primitive, unhealthy and grim to the youth of today they are more likely to accept a brutal, unhealthy grim future.
Superficiality now rules as more of the natural world gets covered in concrete and asphalt, or monoculture agriculture.
And any society that encourages the manufacture, sale and use of SUVs, leaf blowers and patio heaters is most surely doomed.
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Tom said:
Hey Kevin:
yes, and what’s even weirder is that the solutions are relatively simple. For example, on NSA spying – throw away all your electronic devises and start living your life again. They encouraged the whole “civilization package” from birth thru indoctrina – uh, “schooling” to meaningless jobs that don’t make us happy, don’t provide for our real needs and keep us running in place so the people at the top of the Ponzi pyramid of industrial civ get richer while everyone else suffers (including the planet). By now we’re so hooked that it would be statistically rare for anyone to do anything so simple as casting aside that which binds them! Oh we’re so clever, we human elite!
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workdove said:
George W Bush and his deputies have been CONVICTED OF WAR CRIMES. (This is big news).:
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robertscribbler said:
Thanks, in part, can also go to ALEC who work painstakingly to eliminate the minimum wage, remove child labor laws, eliminate and reduce overtime pay and, most recently, kill off your sick leave.
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ulvfugl said:
As controversy continues to swirl around whistleblower Edward Snowden and his whereabouts, the Washington Post has published several more slides from the NSA presentation that the former CIA staffer leaked to both the Post and the Guardian — slides that provide further details about the surveillance program known as PRISM and how it functions.
Among other things, the slides highlight the large discrepancies between the way the program is described and the strenuous denials from tech giants such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook about their participation in such a program.
For example, according to annotations from the Post — based on what the newspaper says is its own reporting, as well as other slides that haven’t been published yet — PRISM involves “government equipment on private company property” that is used to retrieve information from “participating companies such as Microsoft or Yahoo” that is then passed on “without further review” to the NSA.
The equipment that is installed on company premises — referred to as an “interception unit” — is reportedly managed by the FBI, which then passes the information to one or more “customers” such as the NSA, CIA or FBI.
In what could prove to be an explosive revelation about the extent of the PRISM program, the Post reports that “depending on the provider” of the information, the system allows the NSA to “receive live notifications when a target logs on or sends an e-mail,” and also allows the spy agency to “monitor a voice, text or voice chat as it happens.” Real-time access to conversations and communication was hinted at in earlier reports, but the new slides provide the first confirmation that it is possible and even routine.
http://gigaom.com/2013/06/29/new-prism-slides-say-the-program-allows-nsa-to-eavesdrop-on-live-conversations/
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Kevin Moore said:
Not directly related to this topic but following on from the previous one:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/19-firefighters-die-battling-continuing-arizona-wildfire-8680888.html
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Paul F Getty said:
And here is a group talking about how silly “liberals” are linking these deaths to global warming:
http://twitchy.com/2013/07/01/liberals-blame-ariz-firefighters-deaths-on-global-warming/
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Paul F Getty said:
But here is an excellent bit from a blog, about the temperatures and drought out West.
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Paul F Getty said:
Sorry, here is the site: http://blogs.redding.com/dcraig/archives/2013/06/call-it-global.html
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Paul F Getty said:
Or this, one of the most read newspapers in the world. These arguments by this monster will make sense to so many people, even more so if our economy worsens:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-obamas-global-warming-folly/2013/07/04/a51c4ed0-e3fc-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html
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Kevin Moore said:
On topic: Zero Hedge
Guest Post: America – Government By Terror, Torture and Tyranny
Tyler Durden’s pictureSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 06/30/2013 21:54 -0400
First AmendmentGuest PostIranUnemployment
Authored by Stephen Lendman, originally posted at Jim Quinn’s Burning Platform blog,
America governs lawlessly. Out-of-control rogues run things. Conditions go from bad to worse. Tyranny threatens everyone. So does possible global war.
Fear-mongering, saber rattling, hot wars, proxy ones, drone ones, geopolitical ones, financial ones, anti-populist ones, mass incarceration, censorship, lawless sanctions, subversion, sabotage, targeted assassinations, mass murder, cyber-war, and horrific draconian harshness reflect out-of control governance gone mad.
Lying is official policy. So is state terror. Independent governments aren’t tolerated. They’re targeted. Regime change is prioritized. World peace is threatened. Humanity’s menaced. Survival’s uncertain.
Daily revelations explain more. War is called peace. State-sponsored assassins are called freedom fighters. Real ones are called terrorists.
Capital has divine rights. Monied interests run things. Plundering the earth for profit is prioritized. Popular needs go begging. Social America’s dying. Poverty, unemployment, hunger, homelessness and human misery go unaddressed. Corporate rights alone matter.
Democracy’s a four-letter word. Out-of-control power is unaccountable. Rule of law principles are mocked. Tyranny’s the law of the land. Advancing America’s imperium matters most.
Workers are exploited. They’re unprotected. Human and civil rights are sacrificed. Wealth, power and privilege are served. Militarized control supports them. Nonbelievers aren’t tolerated.
Torture is official policy. Gitmo is America’s public face. Innocent detainees suffer. So do many others. Thousands of political prisoners fill America’s gulag. It’s the world’s largest. It operates globally. Mercy isn’t in Washington’s vocabulary.
Diktat power rules. Police state terror threatens everyone. Freedom’s fast disappearing. Dissent’s not tolerated. Heroic whistleblowers are criminalized.
Even retired four star generals aren’t safe. More on that below.
Journalists are spied on. So is everyone worldwide. Big Brother watches everyone. It’s no longer fiction.
Censorship prevents truth and full disclosure. Managed news misinformation substitutes. Students are debt entrapped for life. Millions have no futures. An entire generation’s lost.
Madness substitutes for sanity. Unconscionable wrongdoing persists. America’s unsafe to live in. Oblivion awaits. Most people are too out of touch to notice. Others are dismissive.
Failure to act responsibly matters. It lets Washington get away with murder and much more.
Rogues running America take full advantage. Who knows what’s next.
The Pentagon’s former second in command’s being investigated. General James (Hoss) Cartwright allegedly leaked information higher ups want suppressed.
Cyberwar is official US policy. In spring 2010, Iranian intelligence discovered Stuxnet malware contamination. Its Bushehr nuclear facility was affected. US/Israeli cyber-war bore full responsibility.
Cartwright perhaps explained. He ran cyber-operation Olympic Games. Obama ordered stepped up attacks. Targeting Iran is prioritized.
Perhaps there’s hope if retired four star generals become whistleblowers. Maybe other insiders will be emboldened to act. Legions more than ever are needed. Hopefully many will come forward responsibly.
Edward Snowden provided a vital service. He’s a hero in his own time. He’s globally recognized. He deserves praise, not prosecution. History won’t forget him. He revealed what everyone needs to know.
Unprecedented global spying is official US policy. It’s lawless. Spies “R” us defines it. Police states operate this way. America’s by far the worst. It’s unmatched in human history. No one’s safe anywhere any time.
Shoot the messenger. Snowden’s hunted. He’s a wanted man. Washington wants him arrested. It wants him prosecuted. It wants him imprisoned. It wants him silenced. Perhaps it wants him dead.
It wants information he knows suppressed. London’s Guardian revealed it. It plans telling more. On June 28, it headlined “US army blocks access to Guardian website to preserve ‘network hygiene.’ ”
It wants truth suppressed. It wants its message alone circulated. “The US army has admitted to blocking access to parts of the Guardian website for thousands of defense personnel across the country.”
“A spokesman said the military was filtering out reports and content relating to government surveillance programs to preserve ‘network hygiene’ and prevent any classified material appearing on unclassified parts of its computer systems.”
Pentagon officials lied. Censorship is official US policy. NETCOM On-Line Communication Services operates from San Jose, CA. It’s an Internet service provider.
Spokesman Gordon Van Vleet said it filtered “some access to press coverage and online content about NSA leaks.”
“The Department of Defense routinely takes preventive ‘network hygiene’ measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information onto DoD unclassified networks.”
An Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM) spokesman said policy affects hundreds of defense facilities. Doing so suggests far worse future policy.
Washington may block anti-government content. It may do so routinely. Alternative media sites may be targeted. Vital truths more than ever may be suppressed.
Revealing them responsibly risks being criminalized. So may discussing what’s already known. Pointing fingers the right way is dangerous. Doing so risks being charged with aiding and abetting America’s enemies.
Van Vleet added:
“We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security, however there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information.”
“Until declassified by appropriate officials, classified information – including material released through an unauthorized disclosure – must be treated accordingly by DoD personnel. If a public website displays classified information,” blocking it will follow.
“Classified” includes vital information people have a right to know. Suppressing it reflects police state harshness. Rogue states operate this way. It bears repeating. America’s by far the worst.
According to an unnamed Pentagon spokesman:
“The Guardian website is NOT being blocked by DoD. The Department of Defense routinely takes preventative measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information onto DoD unclassified networks.”
On June 25, Guardian editors headlined “Edward Snowden: in defense of whistleblowers,” saying:
He’s no traitor. America’s First Amendment matters. It “prevents prior restraint and affords a considerable measure of protection to free speech.”
Obama violates its letter and spirit. He’s done so by “show(ing) a dismaying aggression in not only criminalizing leaking and whistle blowing, but also recently placing reporters under surveillance – tracking them and pulling their phone and email logs in order to monitor their sources for stories that were patently of public importance.”
Thanks to Snowden, we know more about what NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake called “a vast, systemic institutionalized, industrial-scale Leviathan surveillance state that has clearly gone far beyond the original mandate to deal with terrorism.”
Snowden is today’s Daniel Ellsberg. Releasing the Pentagon Papers got him targeted. He also faced Espionage Act charges.
He might have gotten life in prison. He was lucky. Gross government misconduct saved him. His 1973 trial collapsed. At the time, judge William Byrne, Jr. ruled:
“The totality of the circumstances of this case which I have only briefly sketched offend a sense of justice.”
“The bizarre events have incurably infected the prosecution of this case.”
Federal judges today don’t speak this way. Ellsberg later said:
“The public is lied to every day by the President, by his spokespeople, by his officers.”
“If you can’t handle the thought that the President lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn’t stay in the government at that level”
“The fact is Presidents rarely say the whole truth – essentially, never say the whole truth – of what they expect and what they’re doing and what they believe and why they’re doing it and rarely refrain from lying, actually, about these matters.”
Ellsberg’s a modern day hero. So is Snowden. Washington fears ugly truths revealed. Doing so arouses public anger.
Perhaps it emboldens others to tell more. Coming forward threatens America’s imperial ambitions. Preventing them responsibly matters most
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Paul F Getty said:
Here is another blog with a basic understanding of our situation that conforms to what we see here: http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/near-term-human-extinction.html?spref=fb
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Kevin Moore said:
Excellent video of worldwide climate catastrophe on that site.
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Malthus said:
This entire planet is one big insane asylum. There are crazies everywhere. When the human consciously knows it is going to die it drives them to do just plain stupid things with the hope that it will solve the death problem. A problem that cannot be fixed. Prolonged perhaps, fixed never. It is obvious that everyone is insane just because they take everything so seriously as if it will matter in the end. One big cosmic joke. I knew a beautiful girl that was a Pan Am Hostess and one day decided to chuck it all and go to Kathmandu and hang out. Her well to do family went and kidnapped her and brought her to Denver and put her in a private institution (mental) and she told me she would stand beside one of the other prisoner inmates and look out the window and she knew that every one out side were the insane ones.
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Kevin Moore said:
The jugglers keep dropping their balls. Another round of blood on the carpet coming up soon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/03/eurozone-crisis-portugal-resignations-greece-troika
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