Reading between the lines, the government is preparing for doomsday.

[mick063]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by pacalo (a host of the General Discussion forum).

They know something is up.

A giant meteor headed towards earth?
Climate change approaching much faster than we are led to believe?
Post peak production of critical resources required for survival?
Water Shortages?

With Al Qaeda nearly decimated and half a world away, why the huge expansion in domestic militarism? Why the need for blanket surveillance? Why is the Patriot act seemingly set in stone as opposed to a temporary act? Why are the wealthiest people hoarding cash abroad as if ready to make a quick getaway?

I'll tell you why.

They know chaos is coming. They know millions of thirsty, hot, hungry people within our borders will become increasingly unruly. They know we have crossed a threshold and there is no turning back.

The doomsday preppers have caught a whiff. The folks that believe in "every man for himself" have caught a whiff. These are the folks that have already given up on "saving" our nation. Now they are just trying to save themselves. What is truly frightening is that it appears that the actions of the Federal government indicate that they have given up as well.

As our general well being erodes, as our collective confidence diminishes with time, I expect an increasing demand for survival food, survival equipment, and survival weapons. It will be the next great, marketed product line. As with the physical property of saturation, there is a point of super saturation where none more can be contained. At that point of fear super saturation, all hell will break loose. The time when we all know that our world has become hell. We caught a glimpse of a complete social breakdown with hapless government in the aftermath of Katrina. Parlay that vision from coast to coast.

This is what the government is preparing for. The "terrorists" are actually future desperate, chaotic Americans fighting for mere survival.

How else can you explain the unprecedented actions of our federal government?

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Maybe, but I think it's all about the money. MIC run amok.

[PowerToThePeople]

2. I agree with this

If there is a collapse of that magnitude, the US dollar or any fiat currency will have no value. No reason for the wealthy to horde it all in preparation for the collapse. I guess if they could use it to buy their way to some place else in the last days of semi-stability. Where would they go?

[mick063]

4. I'll bet the destination is already built and paid for.

With an extra seat for every elected representative that "buys in" to the plan.

[SammyWinstonJack]

79. Where would they go? Space, the great escape for the 1%.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. Alex ...

Alex Jones is that you?

[Mojorabbit]

37. I read a DOD report a while back detailing expected mass migration of people, food shortages,

and civil unrest due to climate change and they were preparing for that. I keep an open mind about it all while I go about living my life.

[xmas74]

70. You read my mind.

At first I thought the OP might be an old friend of mine, until I realized that he probably doesn't have internet service while hiding out in a cave somewhere in South America. He's hiding there, waiting for the end of the world.

A lesson to us all: if someone offers you meth, don't do it. Not even once.

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Meth: Not even once.

[RudynJack]

18. The sun where you are is rising in the west?

and nobody else has noticed this phenomenon?

And you DO realize that the sun doesn't rise or set in the spot over the year, right?

[Agschmid]

22. Yipes...

the moon and sun not being in the usual positions...

Call NASA bro!

[Warren DeMontague]

46. Nevershouldabombedit... nevershouldabombedit.. i told them i told them I TOLD THEM but didtheylisten

didtheylisten? Nooo they. did. not.

Never.

Should.

Have.

Bombed.

The.

Moon.

[Sissyk]

76. lol! lol!

That is down-right funny!

[NV Whino]

35. The earth wobbles a bit on its axis

That accounts for the difference in the sun and moon position. I have a flower bed that got almost no sun when I moved into this house 30 years ago. These days, it gets almost full sun. I've had to change the type of plants from shade plants to partial or full sun plants.

[HardTimes99]

56. Judging from your screen name, the Earth may not be the only object

that is wobbling.

[RedCappedBandit]

45. lol wut

[Egalitarian Thug]

49. You've neglected to add the required smiley or to swallow the pills. n/t

[snooper2]

60. ROFLMFAO

Thanks!

You win for getting me my first real out loud laugh this morning




That was some funny shit

[pintobean]

65. Do you live on a houseboat

by chance?

[Enrique]

94. lol

someone's anchor came loose.

[zappaman]

73. Thank you!

You win for funniest post on DU for the day, week, month and possibly year!
I didn't think anyone could out-funny the OP, but you did!

[global1]

7. Thanks People - Now I'm NOt Going To Be Able To Sleep Tonight......nt

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. Against this peril we can never surrender

[mick063]

108. Surrender is accepting

Allowing circumstances to remain the same is surrender.

Defending data mining, police militarization, and the Patriot Act is hyper surrender.

Have you ever delved in mathematics that use time as a function?

Can you not see our evolution of policy as a function of time?

How is the graph trending? Where will it eventually lead?

What is the limit of a function as x approaches infinity?

My calculation is that 1.6 billion bullets, recently purchased by the Dept. of Homeland Security, would very conservatively put about 500,000 bullets into every active Al Qaeda member.

[RobertEarl]

9. Best prep

Learn to recognize radioactivity and is effects. Learn what to eat and what not to eat. How to purify drinking water. What is the best shelter? When you should stay out of the rain.

Kids these days need to be prepared for radioactive pollution.

Cheerios!

[Gravitycollapse]

13. The amount of radioactive pollution is negligible compared to particulate pollution from FFs.

[RobertEarl]

16. O'Really?

You have some science that backs you up?

Here's the common sense: Atmospheric nuclear weapons testing that has now been banned worldwide, 400 plus nuclear power plants that continuously emit radioactive particles to the environment via water and air, and at least 5 major disasters at nuclear power plants that are still releasing radioactive emissions. Really. It adds up.

So if you have any science that claims that all that radiation has no health effects, post it up.

Only science stuff I have says that any dose of man made nuclear radioisotopes is damaging to your health. Ask your doctor if plutonium is good for you. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3461684

[Gravitycollapse]

17. Nuclear power plants emit a negligible amount of radioactive particulates into the atmosphere.

[RobertEarl]

19. How much? Times 400

Really, how much do they emit even when functioning properly? You have any clue? Any science at all?

Then we have the 5 that we know of that have blown up. There are others.

And do you know how long most of that lasts in the environment?

[Gravitycollapse]

20. I'm not here to be your personal human Google algorithm.

[RobertEarl]

26. You just aren't very nice, are you?

What's the matter? The internet is right at your finger tips. The science must be well known to you, because you keep repeating the same thing over and over.

See, on DU, you need to be able to back up what you write. It's not nice to just repeat the same unsubstantiated pro-nuclear drivel.

[Gravitycollapse]

29. Here, chew on these for a while...

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/nuclear/radiation_protection/doc/publication/164.pdf

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1321/ML13218A300.pdf

Although all NPPs released some radioactive materials in 2009, all effluents were within the
NRC safety limits, NRC design objectives, and the licensees’ system operating limits for
radioactive effluents. Additionally, the doses from radioactive effluents were much less than the
doses from other sources of natural radiation that are commonly considered safe. This
indicates radioactive effluents from NPPs in 2009 had no significant impact on the health and
safety of the public or the environment.

[RobertEarl]

41. Check this out

Thanks for the link that proves that NPPs do emit radioactive materials. Most people had no clue. Now here's a nice little tale:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51585989-82/nuclear-radiation-scientists-bullets.html.csp

There is no 'safe' exposure to radiation

Bioaccumulation is one reason why it is dishonest to equate the danger to humans living 5,000 miles away from Japan with the minute concentrations measured in our air. If we tried, we would now likely be able to measure radioactive iodine, cesium, and strontium bioaccumulating in human embryos in this country. Pregnant women, are you OK with that?

Hermann Mueller, another Nobel Prize winner, is one of many scientists who would not have been OK with that. In a 1964 study, "Radiation and Heredity", Mueller spelled out the genetic damage of ionizing radiation on humans. He predicted the gradual reduction of the survival of the human species as exposure to radioactivity steadily increased. Indeed, sperm counts, sperm viability and fertility rates worldwide have been dropping for decades.

These scientists and their warnings have never been disproven, but they are currently widely ignored. Their message is very clear: Virtually every human on Earth carries the nuclear legacy, a genetic footprint contaminated by the Cold War, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, the 400-plus nuclear power plants that have not melted down and now Fukushima.

Albert Einstein said, "The splitting of the atom changed everything, save man's mode of thinking; thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe."

[Gravitycollapse]

43. Lulz. There is absolutely safe exposure to radiation. As you look at your computer screen...

Your head and body are being exposed to levels of radiation that are absolutely acceptable and in no way compromise your health or safety.

As I said, nuclear power plants emit negligible levels of radioactive particulates . Negligible does not mean none. It means negligible.

[RobertEarl]

77. Mine are words to the wise

Everyone else will eat their Japanese sushi, play in the rain, and continue to live in the shadows of the nuke plants emitting radiation 24/7, believing it's all good.

[snooper2]

63. You think that is scary, you have TRILLIONS of neutrinos passing through your body every second

Some of them are coming through the earth, through your feet out your head!

Even going underground won't save you!

[zappaman]

74. You have no right to state facts and scare the poster like that!

[okieinpain]

84. X-Men! n/t.

[Egalitarian Thug]

50. If you don't drop dead on the spot, everything's fine. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

82. Air pollution causes over 2 million deaths per year: study

Air pollution: 2 million deaths per year estimated in new study, fewer than previous estimates.

Air pollution contributes to more than 2 million premature deaths globally each year, according to new research published Friday in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
...
Scientists used mathematical models to estimate the effects of fine particulate matter, such as soot, and ozone, the main component of smog.

West and his colleagues concluded that about 470,000 people die each year from ground level ozone, produced by human industrial activities.

Authors concluded that an additional 2.1 million deaths were caused by fine particulate matter resulting from human activity. Many of these common particles have long been linked to cancer and a number of respiratory diseases.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Blog/2013/07/12/Air-pollution-causes-over-2-million-deaths-per-year-study/7391373640691/

Yeah, particulates are a big problem. Far bigger than the nuclear industry - weapons, power or other uses of radioactivity.

[Union Scribe]

30. You're correct, of course.

But there's literally no use explaining these things to people who think radioactivity is magic, and black magic at that. If they found out about the hundreds of thousands of radioactive disintegrations going on in their body right now, they'd, well, melt down.

[Gravitycollapse]

31. ...

[Union Scribe]

32. Lol, it's been too long

since I've seen that movie.

[RobertEarl]

33. O'Really?

Ask your doctor if plutonium is good for you. How about asking them if Tritium is good for you.

Of course the nuclear power people tell you it's all good. It's their business.

Then ask yourself this: Banks will openly loan you money for a car that you can kill yourself with, but they won't loan like that for a nuclear power plant. Oh, they used to, but there is something about nuclear that they discovered is NOT going to be a good deal.

Is the sun as dangerous as Plutonium? Only a damn fool would even begin to equate the two.

[Posteritatis]

96. No, only a damn fool would assume that all radioactivity equals plutonium.

The "O'Really?" bit is cute too. If you're going to call people out as right-wing shills then just do it. This site has too much childish passive-aggressiveness as it stands.

[RobertEarl]

110. Heh

You must be looking in the mirror?

Only a damn fool would try to belittle the toxic power of plutonium.

The O'Really bit is indeed a blast at those who think they are not spinning. But I get the denial of the truth, the truth is an awful thing to contemplate, so folks can be forgiven. Can be.

[RC]

66. And their radio-active granite counter tops and the bricks in their houses and schools.

And the thermal nuclear radiation they are exposed to each and every day. Why that radiation even is so powerful, it streams in though their windows and fades their furniture and pictures. Oh, the horror. How does anything survive?

[herturn2016]

10. Silly nonsense.

chaos is coming -- doomsday preppers have caught a whiff -- we all know that our world has become hell --

You may THINK you sound all smart and whatnot by spouting a bunch of "dark" nonsense, but you're not. You know who the real "sheeple" are? "Zeitgeist"-friendly dunderheads like yourself.

Are there no dungeons? ...

[PowerToThePeople]

15. What is wrong with the Zeitgeist movement?

It seems like a perfectly good idea to me.

http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/

[Union Scribe]

27. You mean besides its roots in

a series of films lumping every conspiracy theory ever into a ball of maniacal stupidity so embarrassing that Xenu himself smacks his forehead every time it's brought up?

[PowerToThePeople]

38. There are movies?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/travis-walter-donovan/the-zeitgeist-movement-en_b_501517.html

Yup, I guess there are. I have not seen any of them. The ideas they express look good to me though. I can not speak about it any more than what is on the web. It is something I would like to look into, if it is legit.

[Agschmid]

23. Yup.

Welcome to DU.

[Newest Reality]

40. Interesting to see

how much information you provide to refute any of the points you contest.

Welcome to DU, BTW.

[okieinpain]

85. what's really funny, it will be the preppers that cause the end of the world. lol. n/t.

[kestrel91316]

11. IMHO they know that climate change will be a threat to every nation's

stability. That alone is enough to spur them to action.

That Pentagon report almost 10 years ago made clear that our government was going to take it seriously. It's a huge national security threat.

[truebluegreen]

12. Several years ago, maybe even 5,

I remember seeing a report about the Pentagon assessing the biggest danger to the US in the future was instability due to climate change....

[silverweb]

28. Yup.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]They've been saying it for a few years now.

[theHandpuppet]

57. Well then I guess all those folks...

... who've chosen to live in desert areas artificially sustained by sucking water from elsewhere better start thinking about moving. And yes, L.A., Phoenix, Las Vegas, et al I'm talking about y'all.

[okieinpain]

87. lol, my kid is in pasadena, ca. she loves it wants her sister to stay. lol.

I tell them I'll keep your old room for you.

[pintobean]

68. That was posted over and over again on DU

by PPR'd user defendandprotect. She liked to tie it into the chemtrails conspiracy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=183892&sub=trans

[truebluegreen]

71. So are you saying the Pentagon doesn't actually think that,

or that they are wrong to think that?

I didn't see it on DU--I wasn't here then.

[pintobean]

72. You brought it up

How about giving us a source? I just remember it being constantly repeated by that user.

[truebluegreen]

119. Most likely Natural Resources Defense Council or Greenpeace.

So do you have an answer to my question or are we all just joshing here?

[pintobean]

121. We're looking for a link

not some vague recollection. I'm not going to comment on something you may remember from 5 years ago. D&P never gave links either.

[jberryhill]

80. Okay then

Where did you see it?

[truebluegreen]

120. NDRC or Greenpeace.

Thank you for reminding me.

[okieinpain]

88. hey i remember this I haven't seen it in a while. lol. n/t.

[jwirr]

69. I read that also and I suspect it is somewhere here in the archives.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Ufff Da

[jberryhill]

24. I knew a Bircher back in the 70's...

The identical rant has gotten upgrades.

[stevenleser]

54. Exactly right. Much of the CT, Alex Jones crap we see these days is recycled Bircher stuff from the

1950s. It's taken this long + the internet, to find enough crazies to drink the cool-aide to have numbers large enough to support a media personality

[Lint Head]

21. I think I'm going out into the yard and start running aroung naked and screaming at the top of my

lungs!

[theHandpuppet]

55. Pics?

This message would be so much better with photos.

[Agschmid]

25. .

Paranoia, paranoia
Everybody's coming to get me
Just say you never met me

Hell they knew in 1997.

[longship]

34. Oy! nt

[Egnever]

36. Fortunately theres help

http://jimbakkershow.com/

He has everything you need for just a small love donation.....

[bluedigger]

39. Do you run out of Kleenex, paper towels, and toilet paper at the same time?

You know it's true.

[jberryhill]

81. What is that from?

And where can I get more?

[Proud Public Servant]

111. "True Stories"

Mid-1980s film directed by David Byrne; okay film, some great tunes on the soundtrack, including one of their biggest hits ("Wild Wild Life&quot and "Love For Sale," which has a really fun The-Band-Is-Just-Another-Commodity video:

.

[defacto7]

42. The human mind has always tried to see

symmetry in chaos. Yes, there are a lot of things happening all at the same time and I have a list that's not even covered in these comments. But it's an illusion. There is no more likelihood that we will be hit by an asteroid now then there was 5000 years ago nor will there be in another 5000 years. The possibility is there and it's not a small one, but nothing has changed. Same with about any astronomical anomaly. OK, we've had a couple of major asteroid flybys and one big hit recently, the earths poles are shifting slightly, plus... we have the biggest comet event in 2000 years about to happen, we are crossing the galactic plane and the sun's magnetic field is about to flip all of which are due right around the end of December... add to that the Mayan calendar thingy... What does it mean? Statistically NOTHING. Nada. Zilch. It's all just stuff that makes us see things that aren't there.

Climate change? Now there is something that we have to think about. We know that story and we know what to do about it, but we are not doing it because we are all more attracted to the unknowns that we can't do anything about or that are statistically unchanged. But the thing we can change is just too... dull.

Yep, an asteroid 20 miles wide could swing around the totally without warning and obliterate us all in the next 5 minutes without warning. But the one thing we can do something about.... the one thing that could bring the planet together.... boring, slow, no entertainment factor, no buzz, no religious revelations or sightings of a deity in the clouds to imagine.

We had better get out heads on strait as a civilization and start thinking about what is real and stop with the adrenalin rush nonsense.

[HardTimes99]

58. I really, REALLY, wish you would make this an OP and build upon its themes. I just

re-watched The Poseidon Adventure yesterday. Hadn't seen it in 30+ years and it seemed archetypal viewing it now, as Gene Hackman takes the position you advance while those who prefer to 'wait for rescue' get swamped, both literally and figuratively.

Hackman's rant at God near the end of the film has to rank up there with one of the best monologues in film history. He gives it to God the same way Job might have, had Job been stranded on an upside-down ocean liner.

Your post reminded me of a piece of doggerel the Socialists of yore used to chant: "There'll be pie in the sky, when we die by and by."

Awesome post. Hope to read more of your work soon.

[defacto7]

115. Thanks much for the support!

You're very kind. I'll think it through.

[mick063]

83. In other words, Clapper would tell us if a meteor was headed our way.

Honestly, I should have left the reference to a meteor completely out and I would have advanced deeper thinking as opposed to drawing a response that clings to it as if it were the main theme.

The world is crumbling around us and we are stuck on the least likely event, supporting an entire counter around it.

[okieinpain]

91. man this is a great post. if there was a list it would have to make the top 100 easy. n/t.

[defacto7]

116. Appreciated!

It's a pretty exhaustive subject but one I have a strong opinion about for sure. Thanks.

[RedCappedBandit]

44. End game capitalism. nt

[HardTimes99]

59. AKA: Imperialism (according to V.I. Lenin) - nt

[Kablooie]

47. Sorry but this sounds like shiny, wrinkled hat territory to me.

I don't think the government is as together as you suggest.
I doubt if they are capable of knowing something like this and then organizing such a complete, secret plan to deal with it.

I think it's Just a case of using a technology just because you have it.
They are capable of grabbing all this info so they do.

[SCUBANOW]

48. Maybe something is coming!

"The doomsday preppers have caught a whiff. The folks that believe in "every man for himself" have caught a whiff. These are the folks that have already given up on "saving" our nation. Now they are just trying to save themselves. What is truly frightening is that it appears that the actions of the Federal government indicate that they have given up as well."

You may be on to something!

[limpyhobbler]

51. It's not as planned out as you described it, but the pieces are all converging that way. So yes.

There are other things driving it, like companies profiting from surveillance and crowd control equipment, and the government agencies trying to increase their budgets in solidarity with their co-workers, and stuff like that. Normal human motivating factors.

It's not like a conspiracy, it's just a general convergence of trends that are going to change the way we live.

Basically you're right. But don't frame it as a conspiracy. Just frame it as some shit that's happening.

[truedelphi]

52. It is planned. n/t

[limpyhobbler]

53. It might be planned but if you can't prove it, then it's too easy for people to dismiss it as

tinfoil hat rantings.

[truedelphi]

99. Let them dismiss it - I really don't care. n/t

[truedelphi]

103. For a while, I really did care.

But in my years and years of activism, I learned most people are stoopid.

When friends and I would canvass a neighborhood, to give out brochures that showed the harmful effects on their children of using the over-the -counter pesticides to blanket yards and gardens, people would hand them back and say, "I have to have a nice looking yard - my children will just have to suck it up."

We learned it was more effective to tell people the stuff was killing their cats and dogs than to talk about the harm it was doing to their kids! If that is not very very sad, I don't know what is.

Then when the MTBE issue came about (MTBE being the toxin added to Calif's gasoline) -- I studied the way the Mainstream Media handled the issue. What I found out inspired me to put it all down in detail and post it here and on various website. The article is still up over at DailyKos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/06/22/540267/-The-TRUTH-Versus-the-Mainstream-Media

Remember the quote William Casey made, to a band of new CIA recruits right after he was appointed to that agency? It went along the lines of "Within a decade or two, everything the American people believe will be false." That mission has been accomplished in spades.

[Dash87]

61. The Nazi Zombie apocalypse is imminent

[d_r]

105. ZOMBIES!

?w=314&h=407

[RandiFan1290]

62. We Will Become Silhouettes

[MineralMan]

64. Because the government is so good at predicting things and

planning for them...Sure, that's it...

[mick063]

89. You actually believe there is government.

There are corporations defined as people. They are now our government. They have purchased pseudo government and the future is not what they predict, but what they create. What they own. They employ mathematical genius that statistically calculates profit and death. The statisticians have revealed to the owners that future turmoil requires future force.

They knowingly destroy our world and their government puppets create safe haven for them. Those that would steal your pension would just as soon allow you to die, removing the need for taxes that their purchased government might nurture you afterward.

The precedent has been set. Looters will be shot on sight. Even starving looters. It will require the recent purchase order of the Dept. of Homeland Security.

1.6 billion bullets.

Ponder what 1.6 billion bullets are required for.

Certainly not Al Qaeda.

[MineralMan]

93. Ooga Booga!

You're the one who used "Government" in the title of your original post. If that's not what you meant, you should edit that post.

You're not really tracking, logically, you know.

But, be careful where you go...there's a FEMA camp nearby, you know.

[msanthrope]

67. It's the zombie apocalypse.....

http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm

Be afraid.

[zappaman]

75. Recently I have noticed that the moon looks odd

Have you noticed that it seems weird...like sometimes it's all there...and sometimes only some of it is?
Look at this picture


There it is, right?

Now, check out this frightening picture


WTF?
Where did half of it go?

But hold on, it gets worse


HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!!

Something is up for sure and I thank you for bringing it to our attention!

[theHandpuppet]

78. Love it!

[Eleanors38]

101. I like the cloud on the left (top) leading the revolution.

[LordGlenconner]

86. Is this satire?

[mick063]

92. Read this first

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101671101

In response to a question about climate-related opportunities, Raytheon wrote last year that “expanded business opportunities are likely to arise as consumer behaviour and needs change in response to climate change.”

You tell me. Is it satire?

[LordGlenconner]

95. Yes.

And if it's not intended to be, then that makes it even more fun.

[mick063]

102. Why yes Lord

You may indulge yourself with fun.

Ridicule is easy. Anyone can do it. It is the least credible form of argument.

Provide some specifics please. Define the satire that you see. I will attend to your response.

[LordGlenconner]

104. No need for specifics

The material speaks quite well for itself.

Though I have to admit it is quite fascinating.

[Rex]

90. Dammit...picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...

[dionysus]

97. i envision the OP;

?w=300&h=277

[Posteritatis]

98. Seems like others have taken up the slack though, so it evens out. (nt)

[kentauros]

100. The very first thing they should do

is to stop water fluoridation!





"No more than ten to twenty million killed! Tops!"

[Vinnie From Indy]

106. Cow mutilations are way up this year as well!

Giant meteor headed to Earth?
With the millions of amateur sky watchers, I doubt something like that would go unreported and I have read nothing about masses of people quitting NASA or JPL to be with their families. If a meteor is gonna take us out now, it will be a surprise to everyone including the government.

Climate change?
This is no secret either. There are thousands of scientists ringing alarm bells as I type this. The same goes for peak production of fossil fuels.

I too believe that challenge we face is the corporate ownership of our government and the over sized influence of the 1%'ers.

[napoleon_in_rags]

107. Oh, this is a good thread.

YES, people should prep. The government has set up ready.gov to help people with short term prepping:
http://www.ready.gov/
YES, things are unstable. Its not a far out view, its the scientific view. Things are not sustainable. Our energy sources are not sustainable, climate change is leading to instability, and our economic situation, which requires perpetual growth to work, is in a world without perpetual growth.

Is all the surveillance part of it? I don't know, its always tempting to look for other reasons, but its certainly not proportionate with the amount of terrorist damage. I think its complex. For instance, a vast decrease in the price of information tech, of which all surveillance equipment is an example, has gone down, down, down. So part of the vast reason its there is for the first time in history it CAN be there, without breaking the bank.

But I fully agree with the idea we should all be involved in disaster preparedness, as the government asks, and also long term sustainability efforts. disaster preparedness (like stored food) for right after something bad happens, and long term sustainability (like community gardens, buying local to re-allocate resources to town) for long term issues, like economic problems.

PEace

[nadinbrzezinski]

109. Yes, climate is a real threat to the continuation of the species

No, no reading between the lines necessary... it is pretty much admitted to.

As to surveillance. Yes, whenever you have a predicted instability, you want to be able to control it.

[GliderGuider]

112. The Arctic ice should have the whole world crapping in its pants

Here's the chain of events I think is under way. Most of these effects can already be seen in their infancy. What is going to catch everyone off guard is how fast they're going to grow up:

Early climate change ==> loss of Arctic sea ice ==> destabilized permafrost ==> large, abrupt methane release (5 to 20 years) ==> positive feedback with the warming climate ==> increased Arctic amplification ==> reduced thermal gradient between the equator and the pole ==> Rossby waves slow down and destabilize, disrupting the polar jet stream ==> extreme weather changes across the Northern Hemisphere ==> reduced agricultural output throughout the hemisphere.

When you look at where that chain ends - with agriculture - you know what the next link is. What happens when much of a hemisphere (say a billion people across 40 major industrialized countries) runs short of food and turn into climate refugees, with nowhere to go?

Yeah, I completely get where the security emphasis is coming from. DoD has known about this for a while:
http://www.google.com/search?q=DoD+report+climate+change+security&oq=DoD+report+climate+change+security

The connection between arctic ice, methane and Rossby waves is the gun pointed at our heads.

[Octafish]

113. Laugh all you want: Frank 'Carlyle Group' Carlucci is gonna make a buck off it.

The guy's in the luxury lifeboat castle business...

The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles

The stinking rich are planning billion-dollar luxury liners that keep the land-based Americans they've plundered at a safe distance.

AlterNet / By Mark Ames
June 1, 2010

What happens when Americans plunder America and leave it broken, destitute and seething mad? Where do these fabulously wealthy Americans go with their loot, if America isn't a safe, secure, or even desirable place to spend their riches? What if they lose faith in their gated communities, because those plush gated communities are surrounded by millions of pissed-off Americans stripped of their entitlements, and who now want in?

The first such floating castle has been christened the " Utopia"--the South Korean firm Samsung has been contracted to build the $1.1 billion ship, due to be launched in 2013. Already orders are coming in to buy one of the Utopia's 200 or so mansions for sale- -which range in price from about $4 million for the smallest condos to over $26 million for 6,600 square-foot "estates." The largest mansion is a whopping 40,000 square feet, and sells for $160 million.

SNIP...

Both Thiel and Milton Friedman's grandson see democracy as the enemy--last year, Thiel wrote "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" at about the same time that Milton Friedman's grandson proclaimed, "Democracy is not the answer." Both published their anti-democracy proclamations in the same billionaire-Koch-family-funded outlet, Cato Unbound, one of the oldest billionaire-fed libertarian welfare dispensaries. Friedman's answer for Thiel's democracy problem is to build offshore libertarian pod-fortresses where the libertarian way rules. It's probably better for everyone if Milton Friedman's grandson and Peter Thiel leave us forever for their libertarian ocean lair--Thiel believes that America went down the tubes ever since it gave women the right to vote, and he was outed as the sponsor of accused felon James O'Keefe's smear videos that brought ACORN to ruin.

SNIP...

While neither Bush nor the Bin Ladens are principals in the Frontier Group, its founding director, Frank Carlucci, is a name they know well, and you should too. Carlucci ran the Carlyle Group as its chairman from 1989 through 2005, right around the time that the wars started going undeniably bad, and floating castles started to look like a viable plan. But Carlucci's past is much weirder and scarier than most of us care to know: whether it's his strangely timed appearances in some of the ugliest assassinations and coups in modern history, or serving as Carter's number two man in the CIA, and Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, if Frank Carlucci (nicknamed "Creepy Carlucci" and "Spooky Frank&quot is the founding director of a firm that's building floating castles, it's a bad sign for those of us left behind.

I'll get into Carlucci's partners in the Frontier Group in a moment, but first, let's reacquaint ourselves with Frank Carlucci. From an early age, Carlucci learned the importance of getting to know the right people in the right places. He studied at Princeton in the mid-1950s, where as luck should have it, Carlucci roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. Both Carlucci and Rumsfeld shared a passion for Greco-Roman wrestling at Princeton, and both went on to serve in the Navy after Princeton. Their paths would split and merge several times over the next few decades, even as they remained close personal friends throughout their lives. In the late 1950s, Carlucci briefly served as an executive at a lingerie manufacturer, Jantzen (the Victoria's Secret of its day), but quickly left to join the State Department.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/147058/the_really_creepy_people_behind_the_libertarian-inspired_billionaire_sea_castles

[bananas]

117. Wow! I missed a lot of that information.

Someone was hyping those things in the energy/ environment forum a few years ago.

[bananas]

118. Belle Island in Detroit, too.

"Belle Island Proposal IS Elysium And That Is The Fate Of The 99% With GOP In Power"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023434623

[snappyturtle]

114. I think the government is preparing for 'unrest'. The cllimate changes

are not to be denied.. Just this week I've read of areas where there are
extreme shortages of water. New Mexico and Texas was experiencing
it now. But, I think the climate problems are going to only be a part of
the problem.

I believe the world economy sucks. The U.S. did little to
rein in the banks. The rich are moving money and businesses off shore.
There are movements of the less than wealthy moving outside th U.S.
too. The down tick in jobless claims is good but CNBC reports that wages
and salaries are down...just a little...tenths of a percent, but we're all
ready so far behind in that department that I don't find much comfort
in more people are taking jobs that are paying less....plus the hit of
the increase in the payroll tax hurts. What about the value of the dollar?
The reports again today about the Fed and the whereabouts of the gold
is unsettling...well, to me anyway.

Put the climate and economic problems up against the backdrop of increased
surveillance, huge centers being built to house the info and a new satellite,
free speech 'zones' (what kind of crap is that?), the TSA covering more
venues, and the trend of militarizing the police, I think we have the
perfect storm. Then we've got those little gov't helpers: the Patriot Act, the
NDAA, etc. Yes, I think civil unrest could happen.

[pacalo]

122. Locking...

Discuss politics, issues, and current events. No posts about Israel/Palestine, religion, guns, showbiz, or sports unless there is really big news. No conspiracy theories. No whining about DU.