How many of you really think it is possible??

[feather and mountain man]

For the last 70 years, we have been told that it's more important to be safe than it is to be free and independent, and many people believe that.
They would rather live their lives in relative ease and comfort, than to know that tomorrow's existance depends totally upon them.

This dumbing down of the population is not happenchance, it's intentional. Governments and corporatists hate nothing more than free thinking people, who have no need for their intervention.

So, I really have no need to worry about whether the sun is going to send a flare out 300 million miles, and cause the temperature of the earth to rise 1/10 of 1 degree. There's nothing I can do about it.

Thank God, we live in a country, which has the ability to stem the tide of overbearing government.

Amen!​

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Build a bigger army to kick out butts with... Most likely.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
Gore has been preaching this stuff, for the last 15 years. He was the lynchpin, behind the whole global warming, carbon credit scam, just hoping that the govt. would force his money grabbing scheme through, with legislation, which would force each and every one of us to give him some.

He was claiming that the poles were going to melt and NYC would be under water. Guess what. There are only two major land masses under ice..Greenland and Antartica.

The whole North Pole could melt tomorrow and the water wouldn't rise one inch. BTW, there's your source of fresh water, if you want to get it.

As for your report from the Chiefs of Staff, I'm not going to read it....I spend most of my spare time, perusing the news sources....We have an immediate threat, within our own country, right now, which is trying to subvert the very foundation upon which the country was established. Sadly, a large portion of the population doesn't see a problem with it, and is actually cheering it on.

For the last 70 years, we have been told that it's more important to be safe than it is to be free and independent, and many people believe that.
They would rather live their lives in relative ease and comfort, than to know that tomorrow's existance depends totally upon them.

This dumbing down of the population is not happenchance, it's intentional. Governments and corporatists hate nothing more than free thinking people, who have no need for their intervention.

So, I really have no need to worry about whether the sun is going to send a flare out 300 million miles, and cause the temperature of the earth to rise 1/10 of 1 degree. There's nothing I can do about it.

Thank God, we live in a country, which has the ability to stem the tide of overbearing government.

Yep. Dumbing down, you said it not me. Watch the news. Where do you think the dumbing down comes from. The poles are melting. I know it's not happening overnight like your brainwashing sources claim Al Gore said. It is happening though. I doubt we'll see NYC under water for quite some time. I wasn't aware that Al Gore was having all the money from carbon credits that don't exist sent to him. Lucky guy there.

No we don't live in a country with the ability to stem the tide of overbearing government. The corporations have done such a good job of dumbing down the masses, that our system is inoperative. The people stay glued to the tube listening to preachers talk about government. Preachers who's God is big money and have not a care ion the world about you. Someone actually said that global warming isn't happening. As low on the intellect scale as George Bush was he even admitted that global warming was happening. Ask the polar bears swimming around looking for ice floes to rest on. The Northern passage used to be closed to ship traffic year round. Now it's a regular shipping lane. They don't even need ice breakers. They are actually fighting up there over who gets to use the waters. In Antartica the Australians had a runway built on ice for landing heavy transport aircraft. The ice has started melting and is now too slushy to use for a landing strip.

You are right about one thing. There's nothing we can do. There is no pill to make people smarter. We have TV to make people dumber though and at least one billionaire is using it to full advantage.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
You may occasionally hear someone say something like "They go to Washington and are all the same." I don't know this for a fact but I'd guess when freshman senators or representatives get to Washington, they are given nonpartisan reports like this one other topics as well, such as the importance of world trade to the American worker. Once they see what is actually going on in the world they realize why some things are done the way they are or the importance of certain things. There are plenty of things in Washington to be partisan about. I hesitate to give an example because I think people will get real excited on both sides of any naturally partisan issue I use as an example. Different basic philosophies about the balance of freedoms and constraints that enable us to live as civilized people or basic philosophical differences on causes and effect.

I think most of the people we elect and send to Washington are basically intelligent people that really care about the American people. It is not that they don't have character flaws. Would anyone even consider running for one of those offices if they did not have a huge ego? You have to enjoy being the center of attention. There may be control and power issues that a psychiatrist would find interesting. There are basic differences in world view, but I think most won't deliberately do something that clearly harms the country or the people in it. And when they get to Washington, they meet people, those dreaded insiders, that have lived with these issues and understand the ramifications of the different actions. It's much like I want a professional, not an amateur, performing surgery on me; I want a professional involved in diplomacy. The potential consequences are too great to leave it totally in the hands of an amateur, not matter how well intentioned they are.

Why don't they educate us on some if these things? In my opinion, we, the public, won't let them. Part of it is that everything is so interconnected that a decent explanation would be boring to a whole lot of people. Many of us are just not interested. We only see our little cocoons and don't even want to think about anything else. Some people already know it all and don't need any further education. I think sound bites has a lot to do with it too. In any decent explanation, you are going to say something that is unpopular. There are plenty of professionals in politics (Their job is to get party members elected or reelected. Nothing else matters) that will jump on a statement, take it out of context, and flash it all over the media regardless of the harm it will do. A politician has to be very careful in what they say or they are so involved with controversy they have trouble doing their job, let alone getting reelected. Let a politician say "We need to take an honest look at both Social Security benefits and taxes to come up with a solution." They have immediately lost the AARP vote next election or they will get so hammered by it that they give up on taking an honest look at the problem.

You may have noticed how civilized the handing over of the gavel was in the House. Partisan politics demonizes the opposition, yet they professionally handed over the gavel. When a politician loses a reelection bid, no matter how bitter the campaign, they almost always offer to assist the incoming politician in making that transition and the incoming politician usually accepts that offer. There is a big difference in campaigning and governing. Most are intelligent enough to understand the difference.

What is the most interesting thing you got out of the JOE, or should I say, the thing that most surprised you? For me, I think it was the concept that India will become one of the next superpowers and some of the implications of that. India is seen as a natural ally of the US with the potential of becoming a stabilizing force in their area of influence, Africa and a lot of Asia. Yet India is bounded on one side by Pakistan, with all the historic political ill will over Kashmir and an unstable, undemocratic government. On the other side is China, huge, powerful, and still much undecided on which direction they will go. The scenario that scares me is that a nuclear Pakistan and China link up to threaten India. For me, this is a good example of where our foreign policy should be to engage China and try to influence them into cooperating with us and India in stabilizing the economic world as opposed to confronting China and driving them into an alliance with Pakistan. If you notice, the demonizing of China is well underway.

It is a complicated world without simple answers. And no answers are final. There is always a pop quiz the next day.

 

[Dunkopf]

Very well said. That report is an eye opener and makes you realize how petty the political bickering really is. It also makes you think about how important our relations are with other nations. I never thought of India being a major player. I knew they had a lot of outsourced jobs and that people get really annoyed talking to people there on the phone. It's amazing the perception you get of other countries based on what little we see on the tube.

I hate it that the media isn't much interested in putting out information anymore. They just want controversial sound bites to sell ad space.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
They give us what we want and will accept.

 

[mom'sfolly]

The unmarried men in China will cause internal problems there in the nest 10 to 20 years. Young men with no attachments to society, and who were raised as overindulged only children are not good for society. There are between 50 -60 million fewer girls than boys in China. In some areas there are 130 boys born for every 100 girls. In those areas 25-30% of the men will not have anyone to marry. This is already causing problems with human trafficing in China.

As for the water issue...I think I mentioned this about 20 pages ago. California, and Arizona in particular have growing populations. Most of there water comes from other states; and in California much of it goes to agriculture. In the next decades the US is going to be fighting serious water wars within its borders; trying do decide who gets the water. Do cotton farmers in the desert need water more than homeowners with pools? Do the mountain states get to control their water or does it get diverted for growing southern populations? Do we keep out water treaties with Mexico, or do we let the rivers run dry? All of this with water laws that were written in the 1800s, and updated only peicemeal at best. As for the Colorado River here in Texas, more acre feet of water is allocated than actually run in the river.

 

[Dunkopf]

mom'sfolly :

The unmarried men in China will cause internal problems there in the nest 10 to 20 years. Young men with no attachments to society, and who were raised as overindulged only children are not good for society. There are between 50 -60 million fewer girls than boys in China. In some areas there are 130 boys born for every 100 girls. In those areas 25-30% of the men will not have anyone to marry. This is already causing problems with human trafficing in China.

As for the water issue...I think I mentioned this about 20 pages ago. California, and Arizona in particular have growing populations. Most of there water comes from other states; and in California much of it goes to agriculture. In the next decades the US is going to be fighting serious water wars within its borders; trying do decide who gets the water. Do cotton farmers in the desert need water more than homeowners with pools? Do the mountain states get to control their water or does it get diverted for growing southern populations? Do we keep out water treaties with Mexico, or do we let the rivers run dry? All of this with water laws that were written in the 1800s, and updated only peicemeal at best. As for the Colorado River here in Texas, more acre feet of water is allocated than actually run in the river.

On that JOE site I've been ranting about, they have a map of the world showing areas where water is a problem. Tx and Az are shown as having serious water issues. I live on the high plains of Colorado and we share an aquifer with people in the metro area of Denver. Just last week we got a letter from an oil and natural gas exploration company wanting to buy our mineral rights. They want to frac in our area. We may have water you can light on fire sometime in the future. There is a big meeting about it next week. I'll be there. Foreclosures have already run prices down about 30%. Don't need anyone ruining our water supply too.

I heard the Colorado River runs dry by the time it gets to California.​

 

[Dunkopf]

I'm beginning to become more of a believer in collapse. Not in the next few years though. I'm thinking 20 years. what's the best 2nd language to learn. Spanish or Mandarin.

 

[nonseq]

India has unbalanced sex ratios, too. As does much of East Asia.