A friend said to me recently "you should call it Davids Daily Dose of Doom".....sometimes it's true, as you will find out if you read #1.....I prefer to say DDD of Reality you need to be prepared for.....
1/ I have to say in all of the years [3] I have been doing this blog this is the most disturbing article I have ever read on climate change, and it's power comes from the matter of fact tone of the story. He lays out the science and other facts of how our climate is changing, but then nails the real issue which is the nature of our society - capitalism and corporations that cannot stop depleting the world's resources.
Think about this premise - the only way to halt the present path to the extinction of the human race is to have the entire global population and all of the huge predator corporations accept significant sacrifices in living standards/corporate profits NOW. This will give a bit of hope that we can slow CO2 levels from rising to the point of triggering catastrophe.
But it's not going to happen. The forces of capitalism can't stop, governments can't stop, and 99% of people won't accept sacrifice today for future generations. We're too selfish.
This article is dangerous folks - reading it has the potential of changing the way you think about the future, your family and our planet. Maybe not, but maybe so.....
The earlier comments below the story are also most interesting......
Sleepwalking to Extinction
Capitalism and the destruction of life and earth.
Richard Smith, 14 November 2013
STEVE MEISEL / AFP
Super Typhoon Haiyan has sent a chill through the global nervous system. Thousands dead. Weather scientists in shock. Lives destroyed. The greatest typhoon to touch land in recorded history brings with it more than total destruction. It ups the level of urgency for a new economic paradigm … one that puts the planet first. Radical economist Richard Smith shows us a way out of the “climate madness” about to descend everywhere.
. . .
When, on May 10th, scientists at Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawaii announced that global CO2 emissions had crossed a threshold at 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in millions of years, a sense of dread spread around the world and not only among climate scientists. CO2 emissions have been relentlessly climbing since Charles David Keeling first set up his tracking station near the summit of Mauna Loa Observatory in 1958 to monitor average daily global CO2 levels. At that time, CO2 concentrations registered 315 ppm. CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations have been rising ever since and have recently passed a dangerous tipping point: 400ppm.
For all the climate summits, promises of “voluntary restraint,” carbon trading and carbon taxes, the growth of CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations have not just been unceasing, they have been accelerating in what scientists have dubbed the “Keeling Curve.” In the early 1960s, CO2 ppm concentrations in the atmosphere grew by 0.7ppm per year. In recent decades, especially as China has industrialized, the growth rate has tripled to 2.1 ppm per year. In just the first 17 weeks of 2013, CO2 levels jumped by 2.74 ppm compared to last year.
When, on May 10th, scientists at Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawaii announced that global CO2 emissions had crossed a threshold at 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in millions of years, a sense of dread spread around the world and not only among climate scientists. CO2 emissions have been relentlessly climbing since Charles David Keeling first set up his tracking station near the summit of Mauna Loa Observatory in 1958 to monitor average daily global CO2 levels. At that time, CO2 concentrations registered 315 ppm. CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations have been rising ever since and have recently passed a dangerous tipping point: 400ppm.
For all the climate summits, promises of “voluntary restraint,” carbon trading and carbon taxes, the growth of CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations have not just been unceasing, they have been accelerating in what scientists have dubbed the “Keeling Curve.” In the early 1960s, CO2 ppm concentrations in the atmosphere grew by 0.7ppm per year. In recent decades, especially as China has industrialized, the growth rate has tripled to 2.1 ppm per year. In just the first 17 weeks of 2013, CO2 levels jumped by 2.74 ppm compared to last year.
Carbon concentrations have not been this high since the Pliocene period, between 3m and 5m years ago, when global average temperatures were 3˚C or 4˚C hotter than today, the Arctic was ice-free, sea levels were about 40m higher and jungles covered northern Canada; Florida, meanwhile, was under water along with other coastal locations we now call New York, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and many others. Crossing this threshold has fuelled fears that we are fast approaching converging “tipping points” — melting of the subarctic tundra or the thawing and releasing of the vast quantities of methane in the Arctic sea bottom — that will accelerate global warming beyond any human capacity to stop it.
2/ A beautiful three minute musing on the Earth, and getting human life in this vast cosmos in proportion to the rest of the universe. A fascinating collage of current events and recent history too.......
Part of the Sagan series of short films.....
3/ Ironically Al Gore has just been interviewed on climate change, and where we might be in 100 years, and if you have read #1 you will know one scenario is extinction of the human race as we know it, but Gore is more optimistic that we can change and technology will help with controlling CO2 emissions.....
I really hope he's right......
Eight minutes of Al Gore looking more human than we ordinarily see him......
4/ Matt Taibbi with a lament on how the political media have already started the 2016 Presidential race, and what a colossal waste of time it all is....
By MATT TAIBBI
Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Thanks in part to a Beltway gossip network that loves chattering about the Clintons and just can't wait until 2016, and thanks in part to a punditocracy that is perennially covering the same story, regardless of year (i.e. the next presidential election), the groundwork is already being laid for the moronic typecasting that always goes on at the outset of the Big Race.
The ball got rolling this week with a massive feature in the New Republic. Written by Noam Scheiber, it's about the potential threat to presumptive 2016 favorite Hillary Clinton ("Congressional Republicans have spent months investigating [Hillary] like she already resides in the White House," writes Scheiber) posed by a would-be "populist" candidacy of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Scheiber's basic point is that voters are really pissed about the economy and the behavior of big banks, and that Hillary, who along with her husband have been serial gobblers of Wall Street money and finance-industry water-carriers since before House of Pain released "Jump Around," may in 2016 have something to fear from Warren, a candidate who has built a career pointing out what total assholes the Clintons' chief financial backers are.
Warren, Scheiber writes, is so far out of the political mainstream on the finance issue that she was once willing to submarine a Banking Committee hearing by violating longstanding Beltway decorum – an unwritten rule in which members of Congress may "rant and rave at length, but generally abstain from humiliating appointees, especially from their own party."
The reference here was to the YouTube-famous moment when Warren "humiliated" the heads of regulatory agencies like the OCC and the Fed by simply asking them about the last time they took on any of the world's biggest financial institutions (hint: none of them could remember).
Scheiber went on to list a series of recent political developments suggesting a candidate with ties to Wall Street may face unexpected difficulty. He noted former Chase executive Bill Daley's resignation from the Illinois governor's race, the stillborn attempt to put the reptilian bank-whore Larry Summers in charge of the Fed, and Bill de Blasio's victory here in New York's mayoral race.
All of these stories, Scheiber writes, highlight the way in which "Hillary Clinton's weaknesses so perfectly align with the passions of the moment."
5/ This weeks Bill Maher segment - the Supreme Court makes rulings that affect all of us, but they are rarely held to account by the media, so it's about time they were called out for their naivety [which is the charitable explanation] about their disasterous decision on Citizens United and racial equality.
An excellent Maher, going boldly where the corporate media won't dare go.......
Bill Maher ended his show Friday night with a blistering New Rule going after the Supreme Court and the Republican party for their “naive” thoughts on racism and campaign finance and how America’s way past the point of not being corrupted on those two issues.
Maher first took on the ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act, mocked the idea that “racism had been cured” and that “other than shopping at Barney’s… there was no evidence anymore that black people needed special protections.”
And as for John Roberts‘ astonishment that people think the South is more racist than the North, Maher cited slavery, the KKK, and the fact that “Paula Deen lives there.”
Maher also addressed the Citizens United ruling and the assumption that more money in politics doesn’t lead to corruption, “which is true except for always.” He found it troubling how “naive” conservatives appear to be about America.
In the last DDD we had an excellent [and very funny] 5 minute clip from Bill Maher on Christian hypocrisy, but HuffPo had deleted it.....so here it is from Mediate.....
6/ This is, believe it or not, a commercial for a new phone, but Japanese engineers set up the worlds largest xylophone in a beautiful woodland setting to play Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire"....three minutes.......and note the photography - amazing......
7/ A group of 40 of us from Mount Dora went last to see "Book of Mormon" in Orlando last week, and I think everyone agreed it was one the funniest plays anyone had ever seen - irreverent, timely and full of wonderful zingers about Mormonism and religion in general......the music is exceptionally good, singers were great and the dancing was spectacular. If you ever have a chance to see this play, go.....
Here is the only live performance I can find on the web from the play- "I Believe", sung at the 2011 Tony awards by the Broadway star Andrew Rannells.....great music, and funny lyrics......I want my own planet!
8/ The Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, made wall to wall news last week for his crack smoking escapades, so of course SNL had a good skit about him......the end of this is particularly funny.....
If "Saturday Night Live" is lucky, troubled Toronto mayor Rob Ford will stay in the news for a long, long time. Even after admitting to smoking crack, Ford (played here by Bobby Moynihan) has continued to find himself at the center of public controversy by detailing his drug history and even using a vulgar sexual term in a press conference.
Check out "SNL's" cold open of this week's episode, which mocked Ford's various scandals, and even managed to take a dig at "60 Minutes" for its botched Benghazi coverage.
9/ Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth is a vet who lost both legs and the use of an arm in combat, and in this Congressional hearing she evicerates a scumbag who injured his foot in prep school, claimed wounded vet status so he could get $500 million of VA contracts.
Watch how she sets him up, and then nails his corporate ass........a beautiful thing........seven minutes.....
An IRS contractor named Braulio Castillo hurt his foot playing football in military prep school. He never served in the actual military. Then one day, decades later, he used it to get preferred treatment in government contracts. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both her legs and still could lose her arm from combat injuries, felt that this might just be a touch inappropriate. It gets amazing around 4:30.
10/ Ladies - do you do take compliments and turn them around into self loathing?
If you do, watch this two minute skit from "Inside Amy Shumer", absorb the lesson and never, ever do it again....
A painfully funny and a little rude two minutes.....note - Mary hated this.....
11/ Interested in politics? Read this, a fascinating look at the history of the extreme right and their [failed] attempts to take over the levers of power so they can dismantle the gumment. But as the author points out it's different now - Citizens United has unleashed the billionaires, and redistricting has given the right wing iron control of many state legislatures and Congressional seats, which make the current crisies more dangerous.....
Excellent article......
The Grand Old Tea Party
Why today's wacko birds are just like yesterday's wingnuts.
(Steve Brodner)
A Democratic president begins a new term in the White House. Two years later, America votes a cadre of aggressive conservatives into Congress, loaded for bear. At first the Republican establishment, thrilled to have the Democrats on the run, puts its wariness about the fire-breathers aside. Within a few years, though, the new guys throw out all the old rules of consensus and compromise, and the establishment shows signs of buyer’s remorse. One of the new conservatives, a bulky, take-no-prisoners senator who sees socialist quislings everywhere, takes control of the agenda and threatens to drive the GOP into the ground.
About the Author
Rick Perlstein
Rick Perlstein is the author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, winner of...
Also by the Author
Getting Down to Big Business: A Conservative American Romance (Part 3)(Business, Conservatives and the American Right)
We talk about conservatism’s “business” and "traditionalist" wings. But when it gets right down to it, they’re as interconnected as the two sides of a mobius strip.
Getting Down to Big Business: A Conservative American Romance (Part 2)(Corporate Lobbying, Conservatives and the American Right, Corporations)
Big business used to buy into the center-left consensus. Then, suddenly, it didn’t.
But this is not 2008 or 2013. It’s the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the senator is not Ted Cruz but Joseph McCarthy.
A new sort of conservative has taken over the Republican Party from the ground up—and they don’t give a goddamn about anything the US Chamber of Commerce says. They want a total divorce between capitalism and the government, and whoever disagrees can go straight to hell. Business people, above all else pragmatists, are alarmed at the prospect of losing control of “the party of business” and hatch schemes to take it back. The Democratic president, for his part, declares a White House open-door policy for business leaders and makes maintaining a climate favorable to business a keynote of his administration. Suddenly, the direction of the Republican Party itself seems to be at stake.
But this is not 2013. It is 1964. The business-friendly president is Lyndon Johnson, and the Republican insurgents are followers of Barry Goldwater.
Moderate Republicans are on the run. The most powerful establishment Republican in Washington is by most measures a conservative. He argues in his speeches that the nation’s economic problems “bear a label: Made in Washington, DC.” He proclaims “a crossroads in our history”: whether America will continue on the path of “bigger government” and “higher taxes” or take a new direction to “halt the momentous growth of government.” But that’s not enough for the leader of the grassroots conservatives, who proclaims the establishment leader a sellout. But even more rabid conservatives distrust the conservative leader and call him a sellout as well. They hatch an insurgency against the insurgency.
But the establishment leader is not John Boehner. It is Gerald Ford. The conservative leader is not a Tea Partier but Ronald Reagan. And the insurgents—led by Jesse Helms, fresh from an effort to start a conservative third party—insist that Reagan’s campaign strategy isn’t conservative enough. So they effect a boarding party and attempt to turn the Republican platform into a full-on extrusion of right-wing ideological rage—“a reminder,” a columnist then opined, “that Helms belongs to that rabid band of committed conservatives who stop just short of conceding that they are willing to kill the party if they can’t control it.” Sound familiar?
12/ I don't know if you watch it, but I have to confess we're addicted to "Scandal", a show about politics, power, the Presidency and the wonderful lead character Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington. The show is now in Season 3, and it's getting close to the point of implausability as all of these series do, but Seasons 1 and 2 are excellent and they are on Netflix.....
Anyway there was a viral moment last week when a Congresswoman [played by the excellent Lisa Kudrow] running for President had a TV interview, which didn't go well for the journalist.....
An "if only this was real" two minutes......ladies you will love this......
13/ An Audi commercial with a twist - a race to a golf club, and driving an Audi is new Spock - Zachary Quinto, and driving a Mercedes is old Spock, Leonard Nimoy......an amusing two minutes......with a kicker at the end.....
14/ Ooooohhhh.......not sure if this is a significant story or just a statistical anomaly, but millennials are leaving South Florida for other climes.....
Have a look at the reasons.....one is "Could it be that millennials figure there's no use in moving here because Miami might be half underwater in their lifetime anyway?"
Maybe the young are catching on and voting with their feet?
Miami Is in the Midst of a Major Millennial Population Drain Problem
By Kyle Munzenrieder Thu., Nov. 14 2013 at 1:43 PM
Categories: Recessionomics
 |
The Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach metro area continues to shed its millennial population at an alarming rate. Between 2007 and 2009, there was a net population loss of 6,530 residents between 25 and 34 years old, the fourth-greatest loss of any major metro area in America (topped only by the considerably larger NYC, L.A., and Chicago areas). Between 2010 and 2012, the area lost another 2,639 millennials according to the Wall Street Journal, the eighth-biggest net loss.
This occurred even as the area's total population continued to grow.
And the millennial population we do have isn't particularly engaged. A 2012 National Conference of Citizenship and University of Florida study shows millennials in the Miami area are some of the least civically engaged in the nation.
The area's median age as of 2010 was a relatively gray 39.4 years old.
Hmm, but why could this all be?
15/ "Holland's Got Talent" is the Dutch version of these shows, and doesn't the format all look the same? The incredulous idiot backstage, the Cowell clone, bimbo judge and one other........
However..... occasionally the talent they discover has the power to amaze you, like this clip of a 9 year old singing opera......an astonishing voice..... just under three minutes......
Todays video - the Virgin Mary scene from "Full Metal Jacket", one of the most guy-intense movies ever made......two minutes of fear.....
Todays joke for seniors.....
Your Yearly Dementia Test
It's that time of year to take our annual senior citizen test.
Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As
we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert. If you don't use
it, you lose it! Below is a very private way to gauge your loss or
non-loss of intelligence.
Take the test presented here to determine if you're losing it or not.
The spaces below are so you don't see the answers until you've made
your answer.
OK, relax, clear your mind and begin.
1. What do you put in a toaster?
Answer: 'bread.' If you said 'toast,' give up now and do something
else.
Try not to hurt yourself. If you said, bread, go to Question 2.
It's that time of year to take our annual senior citizen test.
Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As
we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert. If you don't use
it, you lose it! Below is a very private way to gauge your loss or
non-loss of intelligence.
Take the test presented here to determine if you're losing it or not.
The spaces below are so you don't see the answers until you've made
your answer.
OK, relax, clear your mind and begin.
1. What do you put in a toaster?
Answer: 'bread.' If you said 'toast,' give up now and do something
else.
Try not to hurt yourself. If you said, bread, go to Question 2.
2. Say 'silk' five times. Now spell 'silk.' What do cows drink?
Answer: Cows drink water. If you said 'milk,' don't attempt the next
question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat. Content
yourself with reading a more appropriate literature such as Auto
World. However, if you said 'water', proceed to question 3.
Answer: Cows drink water. If you said 'milk,' don't attempt the next
question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat. Content
yourself with reading a more appropriate literature such as Auto
World. However, if you said 'water', proceed to question 3.
3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made
from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black
house is made from black brick s, what is a green house made from?
Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass. If you said 'green bricks,'
why are you still reading these???
If you said 'glass,' go on to Question 4.
4. It's twenty years ago, and a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over
Germany (If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically
divided into West Germany and East Germany ) Anyway, during the
flight, two engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining
engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure.
Unfortunately the engine fails before he can do so and the plane
fatally crashes smack in the middle of 'no man's land' between East
Germany and West Germany. Where would you bury the survivors? East
Germany, West Germany, or no man's land'?
Answer: You don't bury survivors.
If you said ANYTHING else, you're a dunce and you must stop. If you
said, 'You don't bury survivors', proceed to the next question.
from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black
house is made from black brick s, what is a green house made from?
Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass. If you said 'green bricks,'
why are you still reading these???
If you said 'glass,' go on to Question 4.
4. It's twenty years ago, and a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over
Germany (If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically
divided into West Germany and East Germany ) Anyway, during the
flight, two engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining
engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure.
Unfortunately the engine fails before he can do so and the plane
fatally crashes smack in the middle of 'no man's land' between East
Germany and West Germany. Where would you bury the survivors? East
Germany, West Germany, or no man's land'?
Answer: You don't bury survivors.
If you said ANYTHING else, you're a dunce and you must stop. If you
said, 'You don't bury survivors', proceed to the next question.
5. Without using a calculator - You are driving a bus from London to
Milford Haven in Wales .. In London , 17 people get on the bus. In
Reading , six people get off the bus and nine people get on. In Swindon ,
two people get off and four get on. In Cardiff , 11 people get off and 16
people get on. In Swansea , three people get off and five people get on In
Carmathen, six people get off and three get on. You then arrive at Milford
Haven.
What was the name of the bus driver?
Answer: Oh, for crying out loud!
Don't you remember your own name? It was YOU!!
Now pass this along to all your friends and pray they do better than
you.
PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions!!
Milford Haven in Wales .. In London , 17 people get on the bus. In
Reading , six people get off the bus and nine people get on. In Swindon ,
two people get off and four get on. In Cardiff , 11 people get off and 16
people get on. In Swansea , three people get off and five people get on In
Carmathen, six people get off and three get on. You then arrive at Milford
Haven.
What was the name of the bus driver?
Answer: Oh, for crying out loud!
Don't you remember your own name? It was YOU!!
Now pass this along to all your friends and pray they do better than
you.
PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions!!
Todays airline joke
A man and a woman were sitting beside each other in the first class section of an airplane. The woman sneezed, took out a tissue, gently
wiped her nose, then visibly shuddered for ten to fifteen seconds.
The man went back to his reading. A few minutes later, the woman
sneezed again, took a tissue, wiped her nose, then shuddered violently
once more.
Assuming that the woman might have a cold, the man was still curious
about the shuddering. A few more minutes passed when the woman sneezed
yet again. As before she took a tissue, wiped her nose, her body
shaking even more than before.
Unable to restrain his curiosity, the man turned to the woman and
said,I couldn't help but notice that you've sneezed three times, wiped
your nose, and then shuddered violently. Are you OK?"
"I'm sorry if I disturbed you; I have a very rare medical condition.
Whenever I sneeze, I have an orgasm."
The man, more than a bit embarrassed, was still curious. I have never
heard of that condition before," he said. "Are you taking anything for
it?
The woman nodded. "Pepper."
wiped her nose, then visibly shuddered for ten to fifteen seconds.
The man went back to his reading. A few minutes later, the woman
sneezed again, took a tissue, wiped her nose, then shuddered violently
once more.
Assuming that the woman might have a cold, the man was still curious
about the shuddering. A few more minutes passed when the woman sneezed
yet again. As before she took a tissue, wiped her nose, her body
shaking even more than before.
Unable to restrain his curiosity, the man turned to the woman and
said,I couldn't help but notice that you've sneezed three times, wiped
your nose, and then shuddered violently. Are you OK?"
"I'm sorry if I disturbed you; I have a very rare medical condition.
Whenever I sneeze, I have an orgasm."
The man, more than a bit embarrassed, was still curious. I have never
heard of that condition before," he said. "Are you taking anything for
it?
The woman nodded. "Pepper."
Todays geezer joke
An Older Man...
An older man approached an attractive younger woman at a shopping mall.
"Excuse me; I can't seem to find my wife. Can you talk to me for a
couple of minutes?"
The woman, feeling a bit of compassion for the old fellow, said, "Of
course, sir. Do you know where your wife might be?"
"I have no idea, but every time I talk to a woman with tits like yours,
she seems to appear out of nowhere."
An older man approached an attractive younger woman at a shopping mall.
"Excuse me; I can't seem to find my wife. Can you talk to me for a
couple of minutes?"
The woman, feeling a bit of compassion for the old fellow, said, "Of
course, sir. Do you know where your wife might be?"
"I have no idea, but every time I talk to a woman with tits like yours,
she seems to appear out of nowhere."
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