For my 25,000th post, a rant with music: You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!

[n2doc]

Last edited Tue Mar 5, 2013, 03:04 PM - Edit history (1)

This is a long one, so sit a spell. We are slowly blowing up the America and world we once knew. And the most enraging, infuriating thing to me is that we (as a species, and certainly our leaders) KNOW exactly what we are doing. But we keep on down the path to economic, societal, and environmental ruin for short-term gains by a few people, who then buy off the rest. It really feels to me like the end of the Roman Empire must have felt like to its citizens, except speeded up 1000x.

I was born in the early 60’s, too young to understand what was going on and raised far away from the big cities where it seemed to be happening. By the time I became politically aware, it was “Reagan time”. I remember my mom was a republican before Reagan, she believed in that crap about living within one’s means as a government policy, and the early propaganda war against “Washington Liberals” had been effective. I couldn’t vote yet, but everyone on TV seemed to be saying Reagan would be a great thing for the US. I could vote in 2004, and by that time I did know what Reagan was all about, especially with James Watt and his jihad against the environment. Living in Northern California, I was living in the middle of the great redwood clearcutting wars of Maxxam. The destruction was there in front of us wherever we looked. Satire seemed the only weapon we felt comfortable using. My friends and I would make fun of the administration, with buttons that had Nancy’s face on them and the caption “Sassy and Sex crazed”. But we really didn’t understand just what sort of evil had been released on the land, nor did I have the guts to put myself on the line like so few did. America seemed too vast, the forward progress of ½ a century too much to overcome for the Republicans to truly change things. I was wrong. Many of us were wrong. Corruption was for other countries like Mexico, not for us. We were better-we got rid of our ‘corrupt’ leaders, like Nixon. Ha! We couldn’t comprehend how much money would end up being held by so few people, and how those people would use that money to further enrich themselves and make the rest of us poorer, so that power would be further concentrated in their hands. Students of History could probably have told us how wrong we were, but I wasn’t a historian. The internet didn’t exist for most, and certainly sites like DU were the realm of Science Fiction. I am grateful every day for the information that DU’ers post. It is a far better news source (even with the FUD, trolls, rumors, etc.) than anything on TV.

Donald Fagen
I. G. Y (What A Beautiful World)

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream's in sight
You've got to admit it
At this point in time that it's clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there's time
The fix is in
You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we've got to win
Here at home we'll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There'll be spandex jackets one for everyone
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(More leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Anybody else grow up thinking that our future was going to be bright? That the big issues would be figured out by smart people who had Mankind’s best interests at heart? How naïve I was. I’m not an economist. But there are truths that are so “in-your-face” that ignoring them, ignoring the policies that lead to a better America, is criminal. I will speak on one thing, the slow destruction of the merit based research system in this country. You can thank government-funded science for being able to read this rant. What many people don’t understand is that research makes money for the country. It is rightly called an investment. Let me give you one example. The Human Genome project was funded by the US Government, at a cost of 3.8 billion dollars total. It produced almost $800 billion in economic impact so far. That is a return on investment of 1:141. I think most of us would be really happy to get that kind of return. Think of where we would be without NASA and the space program. More can be found here

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/technology/report/2012/12/10/47481/the-high-return-on-investment-for-publicly-funded-research/

Every day you benefit from things that were invented, improved upon, or changed into other needed things by federally funded scientists, by people working on ideas simply because it is what they wanted to do most in life. The difference between these funds and ,say, something from a foundation is that foundations generally target, very specifically, what they fund and want to see a reward sooner. It isn’t just federal level stuff either. The lab where I work returns something like 3 dollars for every dollar the state puts in, in grants and other contract work that would not have been awarded to this area without us. We could, without question, improve our countries economic standing, improve the job prospects of our children, and improve our environmental conditions, by significantly increasing federal funding of the sciences. Those who say “We can’t spend more” are missing the point- it is not an empty expense, it is an investment. And like all investments, there will be some failures. As if nobody in business or the military ever fails. But the course of history has shown that overall, investment in science (and I am including medical science as well) is a major net source of future revenue. And if we gave those investments the time to reach fruition, we will be rewarded. The world isn’t like ‘Star Trek”, where every crisis has a solution in 45 minutes. And it isn’t like the days of Edison, and Henry Ford, where problems can be solved in an attic lab or garage. Some surely can, but most require sophisticated equipment to even test ideas. We have huge problems facing us, but we could solve them (I firmly believe this) if we put the effort into it. Right now most programs at the National Science Foundation receive 5 or even 10 proposals for research for every 1 funded. I’ve sat on review panels, and there are always 3x as many worthy proposals as money available. They final proposal decisions are almost arbitrary, looking for minor flaws or things that were overlooked but easily correctible. Vast amounts of time are spent writing, reviewing and selecting proposals, time that could be spent on research, teaching or (heaven forbid) living a more normal life instead of 80 hour workweeks. We lost many of the best and brightest because they see their advisors working like crazy just to stay in place, and see their buddies struggle to find jobs in their fields. I seriously cannot advise promising students to go into my field, if they can go into a better paying one, because of the gauntlet they will have to pass through to succeed. The fact is, scientists can’t lobby congress like Exxon can. Or Monsanto. We can’t buy off a senator by hiring their wife for a cushy job representing us. So we continue to muddle along, missing opportunity after opportunity because our corrupt congress ignores history. Maybe Chinese or European scientists will be able to tackle these opportunities, but their scientific cultures are quite different than ours (much more top-down driven and authoritarian). The level of freedom we have had as scientists, in this country, over the past 40 years (the golden age) is what makes US science special. Or at least it was special. Simply put- if you want a good economy in the future, you need to invest in it. It is absolutely no coincidence that most of the richest, and most economically vibrant, cities and regions in our country are associated with major research universities with strong science programs.

Blue Six
Beautiful Tomorrow

I look up at the sky
And see the distant lights there
And pray we all will make it through this life
There's trouble in our hearts
So much crying in the dark
And nobody's religion sets it right
Tell me when you think you've had enough
Tell me and we'll all just swear right now
To make it stop
You'll have a
Beautiful tomorrow
A beautiful tomorrow yea
A beautiful tomorrow
If you just can stop the things
You'll do today

It's like some old cliché
That boy still cries wolf, everyday
And none will come to help him when it's time
It's me who's closed my eyes
It's just too hard to sympathize
And feel the hurt so many feel on waking everyday
You'll have a
Beautiful tomorrow
A beautiful tomorrow yea
A beautiful tomorrow
If you just pretend
The world has gone away
Tell me when you think you've had enough
Tell me and we'll all just swear right now
To make it stop

The second point I want to rant on (good on you if you have made it so far) is the destruction of society in the US. I’m not going to belabor points made more eloquently by others, but there has been and continues to be a deliberate debasing of our very nature, by those on radio, TV and in politics. The goal is very much to make people hate each other, to hate anyone ‘less fortunate’ than themselves, to destroy altruism and encourage selfishness.

This article really rang true for me, a northerner (actually westerner) living in the deep south:
http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=1748

I cannot listen to AM talk radio or watch TV news anymore. It simply isn’t good for my blood pressure and instantly stresses me out. Within 1 or 2 minutes, I always hear a lie (not a ‘mis-statement’) designed to make the listener feel hatred towards another group, usually Obama or “liberals’. It just saturates the media. Even sports radio gets its licks in, always favoring the owners of teams. Have you noticed that the only players who get any real props are the richest ones? Not the up-and-comers, who are derided for asking for better contracts (“How dare they break their contract!”). Always us vs. them, with them always being someone in a position of less power and privilege.

One article recently also drove this home. It was an article on the anti-immigrant fights going on in the heartland. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall, but here’s a link anyway:
http://harpers.org/archive/2013/02/this-land-is-not-your-land/

The article describes how a town dominated by meat-processing plants went from having decent-paying jobs held by union workers to jobs held by immigrants (illegal and otherwise). And the fight to drive the immigrants away. What is striking is that never, in the entire article, does anyone stop and thing “Hey, the real villains here are the owners of the plants, who have deliberately lowered wages to the point that only illegal immigrants will take them”. None of the fight is to try and stop this, or turn it back. Nobody proposes jailing the execs of Hormel for hiring illegals, or to punish them for lowering pay to absurd levels. No, the good people living in those towns can only think of one thing- punish the illegals and recent immigrants, because they have less power. And this is the legacy of Reganomics and of the shit-storm of hate that we are all subjected to daily.

Jimi Hendrix
Up From The Skies

I just want to talk to you
I won't uh, do you no harm
I just want to know about your diff'rent lives
On this is here people farm
I heard some of you got your families
Living in cages tall and cold
And some just stay there and dust away
Past the age of old.
Is this true ?
Please let me talk to you.

I just wanna know about
The rooms behind your minds
Uh do I see a vacuum there
Or am I going blind ?
Or is it just uh, remains of vibrations
And echoes long ago ?
Uh things like "Love the world" and uh
Uh "Let your fancy flow"
Is this true ?
Please let me talk to you
Let me talk to you.

I have lived here before
The days of ice
And of course this is why
I'm so concerned
And I come back to find
The stars misplaced
And the smell of a world
That is burned
A smell of a world
That is burned.

Yeah well, maybe, hmm...
Maybe it's just a... change of climate
Hmm, hmm...
Well I can dig it
I can dig it baby
I just want to see.

So where do I purchase my ticket ?
I'd just like to have a ringside seat
I want to know about the new Mother Earth
I want to hear and see everything
I want to hear and see everything
I want to hear and see everything



Still here? Jimi was a god-dammed prophet. I have one more point to rant on. I am not an economist, or a pundit, politician, etc. I am, however, a scientist. And I have a ringside seat to witness the start of a new Geologic epoch- the Anthropocene . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene. People better than I have endured death threats, threats of incarceration, and funding cuts because they have dared to speak up about this crisis. I have absolutely no patience with deniers. This is a fact:


That CO2 acts to absorb infrared light and re-emit it is a fundamental, physical and chemical fact. If you believe in God then it is one of God’s rules for this world. You can measure CO2’s properties a 1000 times and they remain the same. A recent article put the final nail in the coffin on the influence of CO2 on past warming:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/earth/at-ice-age-end-a-smaller-gap-in-warming-and-carbon-dioxide.html

It’s not just CO2:
http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/atmospheric-concentration-of-n2o-ppb-1/csi013_fig06_n2o_concentration.eps



N2O is 300x as effective as CO2 in warming the Earth, CH4 25 times as effective. The 50 megaton bomb under our chairs is the vast amount of methane locked up, for now, in permafrost and under the sea in ices called clathrates. But we know the stability of these is very dependent on temperature, and as T goes up, their stability goes down.

Methane bubbles frozen in a lake


Sonar image of methane plumes rising from the Arctic Ocean floor (Image: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)

We know some extinction events were triggered, in the distant past, by release of vast amounts of methane, driving up temperatures too rapidly for organisms to evolve to survive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_event
http://phys.org/news/2011-07-paleoecologists-mass-extinction-due-huge.html

And the theme for this new epoch is “Faster than expected”. People naturally want to think that they have more time to begin changing. It is like putting off your homework because you want to play games, until you look up and it is 2 am and you have classes that morning at 8. Well folks, it is too late to prevent massive changes in our climate. We will be experiencing 2 degree global warming, and I am very confident that we will be experiencing 5+ degree change, fueled by methane releases. This is based on how we have responded to all of the warnings so far. That is Permian-extinction event level change. Will it happen in my life? No, but the ramp-up is happening now. Most people have no idea of the scale of the problem, and no idea of the scale of the effort needed to fix it. It isn’t just the USA. It is the whole 7+ billion person world, on a train ride to ‘prosperity’ fueled by fracking and extracting every last bit of fossil fuel we can put our considerable ingenuity to getting. Humans are oh-so-clever in finding new ways to destroy our world. And we are oh-so-smug in thinking that we can find some Star Trek solution at the last minute. The few who have stood up to sound the warnings have been dutifully excoriated. I think of Al Gore, who tried his best to get people going in the right direction, only to be nitpicked to oblivion, called a hypocrite and derided for making money. Anything but actually trying to listen to what he was trying to warn us about. The perfect messenger doesn’t exist, especially in this world were people are very well paid to destroy such messengers.

The really sad thing is, we could have, and still could, mitigate this in a way that would benefit 90+percent of people. Distributed solar, wind, ultra high efficiency lighting, housing and vehicles, serious efforts at improving our infrastructure, and science into better ways of making energy, are all very much right here now. The world tends to follow what we do, still, and if we make the effort and encourage others to do so, we could enter a new world. The only real impediments are the rich 1%’ers like the Koch bros who would stand to lose money on their investments and companies. But that is enough, in this country of grifters masquerading as politicians and media pundits.

In the end, we are still going to see that 2 degree C warming, at least. So I give you the same advice I give my loved ones, especially the young- Move North (or south if in the southern Hemisphere). Move to places which will receive good rain in the upcoming world, as water is going to be a huge issue. Don’t stay stuck in a place like Houston or Phoenix that is doomed by climate change. Look at the climate predictions, flawed as they are, and keep up on the refinements that are published. The 1%ers, I absolutely guarantee you, are doing the same. Things may be ok for a while more, but when they change, they tend to do so in big ways, and it won’t be pretty. Our descendants will look back in 200 years on the world that was, and, like Heston in the movie Planet of the Apes, scream "You Maniacs!, You Blew it all up! Ah, Damn you"

If you made it all the way through this, thanks. I thank all of DU for the insight and support it has given me over the years. N2Doc.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Bookmarking for later, but rec'ing...

because, even at a quick glance, I can tell the post is a thing of beauty!

[Bigmack]

2. YES!

You're "right" as in "correct!" Ms Bigmack

[Royal Sloan 09]

3. K&R, Congrats on 25k posts

[life long demo]

4. WOW! And congratulations on your 25,000 posts.

[GiveMeFreedom]

5. Well written rant, n2doc

I read the article Plantation America: Brutal Southern Aristocratic Tradition is Winning Cultural Wars and as gullible as I am, I tend to agree with many of it's points. I think that the Civil War is still being fought today, in very subtle ways. Also, I think that many of the "fights" between liberals and conservatives is manufactured by the 1% to draw attention from them and what they are really doing to this world.
Thanks n2doc, next time use some profanity so I can understand it better, sailorisms and constructionese are my native languages.

On edit: Congratulations

[LongTomH]

6. A righteous rant, my friend, and one I want to share (Not just 'like'!)

I'm older than you; I remember the heady, optimistic days of the 50s and early 60s when we thought the future would be The Jetsons. I've seen the declines in science, the decline of the middle class and the coarsening of our culture.

I still hold on to some hope; that's why I'm politically active these days; but, it's harder and harder to hold on to any hope.

[n2doc]

7. Share, and keep fighting

I think the only thing that may save our generation from the condemnation of history is the fact that some stood up, against the night, and howled. And maybe someone with the power to do something right will listen.