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Mark III
08-27-2015, 02:55 PM
" it might be time to re-check the cultural doomsday clock and see how many minutes it is to midnight."


"Something's come dreadfully loose in the country"
by Tom Sullivan

The usually jocular Charlie Pierce appeared shaken last night on Chris Hayes' show (http://on.msnbc.com/1PULN05) when he spoke about the on-air shootings yesterday in Virginia. He came packing the truth. "Something's come dreadfully loose in the country right now," Pierce said, glancing at the floor. "A lot of stuff that was in the kind of foul tributaries of American life has made it into the mainstream."


Pierce wrote earlier about the shooting at Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a37435/the-virginia-tv-shooting/):


A news crew, doing a completely ordinary happy-face morning feature at a mall get blown away on camera. If this had happened in Somalia, we'd have a lot of earnest talk about the dangers of a failed society. If it had happened in Syria, Lindsey Graham might liquefy entirely and disappear in a rush down a storm drain. But it happened here, in the exceptional home of American exceptionalism, so, once again, we will be told that Alison Parker and Adam Ward are merely more of the price we pay for the exceptional exceptionalism of a free society.


The killings of a reporter and cameraman as they covered a "happy-face" news story brought gun violence perilously close for both Hayes and Pierce. Pierce was blunt about it:


"It is worrisome to be out on the campaign trail now. It is not terrifying. It's nothing like following a rifle platoon into the Hindu Kush or something, but there's something unsettling and something that's come loose in the body politic. And, frankly, I'm worried about it."



We are a country now where more money equals more speech for the elite, and more guns equals more freedom for the rest, and murderers post their snuff films on social media. (Next time it will be streamed live.*) What's to worry about?

Somewhere in the flood of post-September 11 articles about how the attacks happened, what we would do next, and why terrorists hate us, one writer asked, Would America keep its head? Uh, no (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-sullivan/the-bile-boils-over_b_283816.html). Except the country's post-September 11 temporary insanity seems, like untreated depression, to have settled in and taken a "set." The governor on the engine has broken. No, that's not right. It has been sabotaged. Now it is racing out of control. Or at least, that's how it feels.

Futurist Sara Robinson periodically reassesses the country's drift towards the abyss (http://www.alternet.org/story/155222/fascist_america%3A_have_we_finally_turned_the_corn er).

With daily mass shootings (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/26/were-now-averaging-more-than-one-mass-shooting-per-day-in-2015/), with Donald Trump threatening to round up and deport millions, and with his "passionate" followers beating the homeless, calling for "white power," and demanding that Latino citizens "Get out of my country (http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/08/26/3695602/trump-supporter-jorge-ramos/)," it might be time to re-check the cultural doomsday clock and see how many minutes it is to midnight.

Cigar
08-27-2015, 03:38 PM
I remember after January 22nd 2009 ... the World as we know it was going to END ... and there will be $6.00 per Gallon Gas :laugh:

Predictions Predictions Predictions

Mark III
08-27-2015, 04:27 PM
I remember after January 22nd 2009 ... the World as we know it was going to END ... and there will be $6.00 per Gallon Gas :laugh:

Predictions Predictions Predictions


Article has nothing to do with predictions. Maybe it's a little (or a lot) too thoughtful for this joint.

Peter1469
08-27-2015, 06:28 PM
The shooter was crazy. This society ignores crazy until after something like this happens. The guy was fired for being nuts. He was given good references because the office was scared of being sued if they told the truth.

Stop jerking around with guns and deal with the real issues: mental health.

waltky
01-26-2018, 12:19 AM
Granny says, "Dat's right - we all `bout to die!...
:shocked:
Doomsday Clock Moves Closer To Midnight, We're 2 Minutes From World Annihilation
January 25, 2018 - A panel of scientists and policy experts moved their Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight on Thursday, citing President Trump's rhetoric on nuclear weapons, environmental deterioration due to climate change and a lack of trust in political institutions.


"We are very concerned with the unpredictability of the United States and how it's thinking of its nuclear weapons," Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the clock, told NPR. Bronson elaborated, explaining that nuclear issues took center stage this year for members of the Bulletin group, which was founded by researchers who helped build the first nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project. At the top of their worries are advancements in North Korea's nuclear weapons program as well as "huge [nuclear] investments being made by China, Russia, Pakistan and India in particular."

On the climate change front, the Bulletin warns that "avoiding catastrophic temperature increases in the long run requires urgent attention now." The scientists urge nations of the world to significantly decrease their greenhouse gas emissions to keep climate risks manageable. The clock, established at the start of the Cold War in 1945, has become a universally recognized metaphor, indicating the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change and new technologies. But it's never too late to turn back time, Bronson said. "There are things that we can do to ensure that it does move back, and we have to get started now." The way to do that, she argues, is to have citizens engage with their respective governments.


https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/01/25/ap_4507160119-9745b896f1ba342d8cdc61ac1c8853a607667881-s800-c85.jpg
This is the mushroom cloud of the first atomic explosion at Trinity Test Site, N.M., on July 16, 1945.

In a report published Monday, scientists wrote: "Leaders react when citizens insist they do so, and citizens around the world can use the power of the internet to improve the long-term prospects of their children and grandchildren. They can insist on facts, and discount nonsense. They can demand action to reduce the existential threat of nuclear war and unchecked climate change. They can seize the opportunity to make a safer and saner world."

The last time the clock showed humanity this close to total and utter annihilation was 1953, shortly after the U.S. decided to pursue the hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any atomic bomb, according to the Bulletin's timeline. "In October 1952, the United States tests its first thermonuclear device, obliterating a Pacific Ocean islet in the process; nine months later, the Soviets test an H-bomb of their own. ... 'Only a few more swings of the pendulum, and, from Moscow to Chicago, atomic explosions will strike midnight for Western civilization.' "

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/25/580670125/doomsday-clock-moves-closer-to-midnight-were-2-minutes-from-world-annihilation

MisterVeritis
01-26-2018, 12:21 AM
Leftist kooks will be leftist kooks.

Kacper
01-26-2018, 05:10 AM
Doomsday clock is nothing but fear mongering. I find it ironic that the people who push the doomsday clock are also people who want to appease NK as if giving them cookies and warm milk will put to sleep their nuclear ambitions. NK pledged not to build nukes precisely when they began their secret program to build nukes. Another failure of the Clinton Administration coming home to roost. "But But we got them to sign an agreement!!!!"

Refugee
01-26-2018, 07:04 AM
Oh s**t. Does that mean no more Town Halls on tPF? :)

donttread
01-26-2018, 09:34 AM
" it might be time to re-check the cultural doomsday clock and see how many minutes it is to midnight."


"Something's come dreadfully loose in the country"
by Tom Sullivan

The usually jocular Charlie Pierce appeared shaken last night on Chris Hayes' show (http://on.msnbc.com/1PULN05) when he spoke about the on-air shootings yesterday in Virginia. He came packing the truth. "Something's come dreadfully loose in the country right now," Pierce said, glancing at the floor. "A lot of stuff that was in the kind of foul tributaries of American life has made it into the mainstream."


Pierce wrote earlier about the shooting at Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a37435/the-virginia-tv-shooting/):


A news crew, doing a completely ordinary happy-face morning feature at a mall get blown away on camera. If this had happened in Somalia, we'd have a lot of earnest talk about the dangers of a failed society. If it had happened in Syria, Lindsey Graham might liquefy entirely and disappear in a rush down a storm drain. But it happened here, in the exceptional home of American exceptionalism, so, once again, we will be told that Alison Parker and Adam Ward are merely more of the price we pay for the exceptional exceptionalism of a free society.


The killings of a reporter and cameraman as they covered a "happy-face" news story brought gun violence perilously close for both Hayes and Pierce. Pierce was blunt about it:


"It is worrisome to be out on the campaign trail now. It is not terrifying. It's nothing like following a rifle platoon into the Hindu Kush or something, but there's something unsettling and something that's come loose in the body politic. And, frankly, I'm worried about it."



We are a country now where more money equals more speech for the elite, and more guns equals more freedom for the rest, and murderers post their snuff films on social media. (Next time it will be streamed live.*) What's to worry about?

Somewhere in the flood of post-September 11 articles about how the attacks happened, what we would do next, and why terrorists hate us, one writer asked, Would America keep its head? Uh, no (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-sullivan/the-bile-boils-over_b_283816.html). Except the country's post-September 11 temporary insanity seems, like untreated depression, to have settled in and taken a "set." The governor on the engine has broken. No, that's not right. It has been sabotaged. Now it is racing out of control. Or at least, that's how it feels.

Futurist Sara Robinson periodically reassesses the country's drift towards the abyss (http://www.alternet.org/story/155222/fascist_america%3A_have_we_finally_turned_the_corn er).

With daily mass shootings (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/26/were-now-averaging-more-than-one-mass-shooting-per-day-in-2015/), with Donald Trump threatening to round up and deport millions, and with his "passionate" followers beating the homeless, calling for "white power," and demanding that Latino citizens "Get out of my country (http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/08/26/3695602/trump-supporter-jorge-ramos/)," it might be time to re-check the cultural doomsday clock and see how many minutes it is to midnight.

Except we are no longer execeptional as we don't practice the constitution that made us so. So he can't blame societies deterioration on 'freedom ' and we are by no means the most free country on earth and I doubt those soieities which have beaten us out experience what we are to this degree . The entitlement at BOTH economic extremes and the tilted table seem far more likely causes

Mini Me
01-27-2018, 12:05 PM
The shooter was crazy. This society ignores crazy until after something like this happens. The guy was fired for being nuts. He was given good references because the office was scared of being sued if they told the truth.

Stop jerking around with guns and deal with the real issues: mental health.

Years ago, I had a dream(nightmare). It was that everyone had gone INSANE in America!

It looks like it is coming true!

I worry, because I have had prophetic dreams before that came true!

MisterVeritis
01-27-2018, 12:06 PM
Years ago, I had a dream(nightmare). It was that everyone had gone INSANE in America!
It looks like it is coming true!
I worry, because I have had prophetic dreams before that came true!

It is far more likely it is just you.