What bothers me most is that we're not attending to the real threats.

[Jackpine Radical]

While we're screwing around with tax cuts for whomever, environmental disaster is rushing upon us and our decrepit infrastructure will leave us totally unprepared to survive in the new century. The Chinese will be sending tours through America in armored buses so they can goggle at us savages as we rummage about our ruins in search of rats and cockroaches for dinner.

[JackRiddler]

1. Stop! All questions boil down to: Are you with Obama or against him?

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Oh, damn. I forgot.

I will now go don my hairshirt and flagellate myself.

[slackmaster]

2. We still haven't fully adopted and embraced the Metric System

:argh:

[RandomThoughts]

3. Only if we buy their stuff and let them run their economy with cheap labor and authoritarian system.

What if we put an import tax on countries that sell goods to us manufactured by methods that do not have collective bargaining and environmental and worker protections.

And for that matter, only if we let them have any claims to companies here or even the debt.

Honestly we have a better position then they do on the debt, what if we don't pay it?


Side note, I am still due beer and travel money, so I know a little about that.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. This is maybe the best Random Thought of all time:

"What if we put an import tax on countries that sell goods to us manufactured by methods that do not have collective bargaining and environmental and worker protections."

Hell, yeah. Take wages off the bargaining table. Tariffs to bring their effective wage rates up to international developed-world standards.

At that rate, we'd be paying the tariffs to Europe and Japan. (Heh.)

[Kolesar]

5. There was a period when the press realized their grandkids will be screwed

and the press reported relevant stories about the real problems that you cited.

Those days are gone.

[The2ndWheel]

6. That human infrastructure is part of what causes the environmental problem

To improve one, means the other will suffer.

[Autumn]

7. That's one hell of a scary

picture you weave. K/R

[Newest Reality]

9. Well said!

What concerns me, (though denial is far more comfortable) is the perfect storm of factors pointing towards a climax. We have major issues concerning climate; all resources, (energy especially), the condition of the biosphere, etc. And no, research-wise, Chicken Little was not consulted on this. These issues are trending and they appear to be being dealt with with opacity and by way of manipulation.

I am not a pessimist in the sense that we could reckon with and alter this course, (especially due to its potential gravity and impact on billions and even our species itself). The barriers in place have put profit and power in front of any other concerns and we are now, by participating in our dependency, serving that motivation rather than our own, best interests for the long-run.

All things considered, the way this is being handled by the PTB seems to make perfect sense, (if you call opacity and nefarious sensible). It all tends to come together after a while and suggests something more deliberate in the overall scheme. Managing the masses has become an art-form. New arts might be in order for us all.

[haele]

12. The cynic in me thinks that a good number of TPTB think

that a few hundred million to a billion less people over the next decade or so would make for a better balance between a population and diminishing resources than trying to bring diminishing resources in balance with the current population trend.
It's a form of political triage; currently several Libertarian type "thinkers" and "leaders" with means, power, and a soap-box really do believe that if any group is not sufficiently capable or self-reliant to survive without constant attention and support in an increasingly chaotic world, then that group should be let to die off.
Since they have benefited from opportunities and infrastructure to make their money and "self sufficiency" back in the days where there were fairly ample resources to go around, they don't see why others can't do the same now; if someone has bad luck, gets scammed, or falls through the cracks for any reason, it's always a sign of moral and mortal weakness in that person - and anyone associated with that person.
Less desperate, poor people means more resources for them and their kids. If a group of people who's home island drowns are strangers, what's the personal loss to the wealthy who go where they want? Simple as that to them.

Haele

[pscot]

China is a lot closer to environmental disaster

than we are. We'll all be caught up in it, but China's water resources are dwindling.Drought and dust storms are a constant threat and the air in the large cities is unbreathable. The South China sea is becoming a vast dead zone populated mainly by jellyfish. Nobody wants to face up to this stuff, but it's going to force us to pay attention. The jig is up.

[yurbud]

10. we're on track to become a super-sized Somalia.

[Overseas]

11. We're not supposed to look clearly at the failure of Supply-Side economics. aka Cash for Hoarders.

Millions crossed party lines to vote Democratic in 2008 after the Supply Side dribble down mythology led to the Bush Crash.

Instead of all Democratic legislators using that failure to finally admit that Cash for Hoarders hasn't worked, our party bowed down to those who still wanted to believe those lies.

But millions of us voted for more significant change. For a return to Democratic demand-side economics. We didn't want our bridges to collapse like that one in Minneapolis. We wanted to get to work repairing the infrastructure that has been allowed to decay to finance the Bush Wars and because of Republican sanctimonious dogma against creating more government jobs (except in the national paranoia industry).

We are belittled as sanctimonious for wanting to keep homelessness at bay with more demand-side support. While the GOP's insistence against evidence to the contrary that "tax cuts create jobs" was allowed to stand.

I thought my new president would be far more pragmatic. After a 400% increase in incomes at the top, I thought he and our Democratic legislators would band together to pragmatically push the demand-side programs, using the Bush Crash as the imperative.

Many of us are disillusioned by the compromise also because of the proposals of the Deficit Commission. That it would even consider slashing demand-side social safety net payments that would be immediately spent, rather than boldly increasing taxes on those whose income has soared, has been particularly painful.

And as long as I've rambled this far-- I thought we could really get a whole new pragmatic approach going after having those Truth & Reconciliation hearings we longed for. Seeing how far the torturers had pushed our country off course could have led to a wake-up call on cruel economic lies too. That was my hope.

[mkultra]

13. Histrionic

[Swamp Rat]

14. Where's Osama Bin Laden?

:)