A Duty To Warn

Liberty Bell

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ASM Defends Science-Based Health Policy in Letter to Executive Branch

"July 14, 2020

In response to a coordinated effort to discredit public health officials, ASM, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued the following letter to Vice President Pence demonstrating support for public health officials who are prioritizing science-based public health strategies to address the COVID-19 pandemic​.


Dear Vice President Pence:

During a national public health emergency, it is vital that we lead with science and with the best data available. Our continued response to and successful recovery from the COVID-19 crisis depends on adherence to sound scientific and public health guidance from the experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who have made the health and safety of the public the top priority.

As organizations representing thousands of researchers, public health professionals, health care providers and others serving in scientific and health care professional fields, we object to any attempt to cast doubt on science and sow mistrust for public health expertise, and to spread misinformation during this challenging time for all Americans. Such efforts not only put the health of our population in greater peril, but also undermine the work underway to move our country beyond the pandemic and return to normalcy.

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus and COVID-19 is a new condition with which we have no prior experience. As is the case with any new pathogen or disease, we are learning in real time. Public health and medicine are inherently dynamic fields that adapt as the science evolves. We have embarked on an unprecedented global effort to develop medical countermeasures and refine public health guidance, and as this work uncovers new knowledge, recommendations can and will change. By heeding the recommendations of those who are on the front lines of progress to combat this virus, we have the best chance at a successful outcome.


Sincerely,

American Society for Microbiology
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Infectious Diseases Society of America
AcademyHealth
African American Health Alliance
American Academy of HIV Medicine
American Association for Anatomy
American Association for Dental Research
American Association for Respiratory Care
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
American Association of Immunologists
American Association of Physics Teachers
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Physiological Society
American Public Health Association
American Society for Cell Biology
American Society for Clinical Pathology
American Society for Investigative Pathology
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
American Society for Virology
American Society of Hematology
American Society of Pediatric Nephrology
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
American Sociological Association
American Thoracic Society
Association for Psychological Science
Association of American Cancer Institutes
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
AVAC
Baruch S. Blumberg Institute
Big Cities Health Coalition
Biophysical Society
Black AIDS Institute
Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation
Coalition for the Life Sciences
Consortium of Universities for Global Health
Council of Scientific Society Presidents
Cure HHT
Endocrine Society
Genetics Society of America
Hepatitis B Foundation
HIV Medicine Association
Institute for Systems Biology
Institute of Food Technologists
International Society for Stem Cell Research
Jeffrey Modell Foundation
LUNGevity Foundation
NASTAD
National Association of County and City Health Officials
Natural Science Collections Alliance
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Prevention Institute
Safe States Alliance
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
Society of General Internal Medicine
Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP)
Society of Toxicology
STChealth LLC
The Histochemical Society
Treatment Action Group
Trust for America's Health
Vaccinate Your Family
Washington State Department of Health
AIDS Foundation Chicago
American Statistical Association
North Carolina AIDS Action Network
IRMA - International Rectal Microbicide Advocates
HealthHIV
Positive Women's Network-USA
National Coalition for LGBT Health
The Well Project
Cascade AIDS Project
Latinos Salud
Entomological Society of America
AIDS Alabama
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
American Crystallographic Association
North American Vascular Biology Organization
American College of Nuclear Medicine (ACNM)
AIDS United
AIDS Action Baltimore
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care
WVU Health Sciences Center
American Society for Gravitational and Space Research
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
American Urological Association
The AIDS Institute
IAVI
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
American Medical Technologists
Federation of American Scientists
Pan American Society for Clinical Virology
Association of American Medical Colleges
North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
National Association of School Nurses
AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth & Families
International Mammalian Genome Society
International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)"

Back By Popular Demand

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"Anybody have any questions .... ?"

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Economic War Of The Pacific - 6

Downtown tomorrow

I. Background

This series began some years ago (2009) to point out what is becoming, more and more as time goes on,  news that is moving from the back pages toward the front pages of newspapers (Economic War Of The Pacific, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Today is what some call a "sacred" time when "we" intensify a focus on what "we" consider to be the supreme dynamics that produce what "we" call heroes and perhaps sheroes as "we" peruse history and herstory.

Yes, as "we" peruse events that took place during the many times "we" who are now of "Phase 27" (explained later) "lost it" ... along with the meaning of what that "it" was that "we" lost.

While D-day ("the largest seaborne invasion in history") gives an opportunity to swap 75 year old war stories, another gathering mentioned further back in newspaper pages looks toward the future:

"The deepening of the economic alliance between Russia and China will be high on the agenda as President Xi Jinping meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday amid their mutual estranged relations with the United States."
(Politico).

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"Destroying arms control treaties is 'unacceptable,' Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin.

During the visit, which was aimed at cementing economic ties between the two countries amid China's heated trade war with the United States, Putin thanked Xi for helping their countries achieve a trade turnover of more than $100 billion a year. He added that Russian-Chinese relations have reached an 'unprecedented level'." (CNN)

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"Chinese President Xi Jinping has described Russia's Vladimir Putin as his 'best friend' during a three-day visit to Moscow focusing on trade and relations between the two countries.

The visit comes as China-US relations have soured over a bitter trade war.

Russia had decided on a pivot to the east years ago after ties worsened with the West over the Ukraine conflict.

The two sides have signed a package of trade deals and Mr Xi also unveiled two pandas for the Moscow Zoo.

The Chinese president arrived on Wednesday and later gave a press conference where he said he had a 'deep personal friendship' with his Russian counterpart.

'In the past six years, we have met nearly 30 times. Russia is the country that I have visited the most times, and President Putin is my best friend and colleague,' Mr Xi said.

Mr Putin echoed the praise saying he was 'pleased to say that Russian-Chinese relations have reached an unprecedented level. It is a global partnership and strategic cooperation.'" (BBC)

The lyrics of an "anti-war song" come to mind, a song which illustrates that things have not changed much since it was written:

"There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind"

(For What It Is Worth). Can you imagine trying to calculate the "worth" of peace (How Much Is Peace Actually Worth?) while dwelling in a civilization that is quickly reaching Phase 27 ... in the history and herstory of civilizations (The Rus People)?

By "Phase 27" I am alluding to:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority."

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). Adding a one to the previous 26, we calculate that we are at Phase 27, but where is that at (You Are Here)?

Unfortunately, along with the greatest generation which has already done all it can do now, "we" (Phase 27) are the only members of the group of 27 civilizations that have the ultimate power to stop it all.

By "stop it all" I mean stop life on Earth as we know it with a nuclear war and/or global warming induced climate change, either of which can eradicate "life's habitat" on this planet.

II. Foreground

The future is closer to us than the past is, i.e., the future is the foreground.

But, for some reason or lack thereof, "our cognition" lies to us and says that the foreground is further away than the background is.

III. Closing Conversation

Once upon a time in the Matrix:

"What is your background sir," asks the interviewer.

"I would rather contemplate my foreground sir," replies the interviewee.

(Who is the “One” in The Matrix?).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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The State of The Onion Script - 3

How did he know?

Preznit Blush had a feeling he would be missed some day.

Preznit Brump seems to be on a mission to make Preznit Blush seem to have been prescient.

The theme of the state of the onion script (SOTOS) tonight is "where in the world is wall dough?" with the more likely reply being "where did you get this sticky idea to demand play dough or zap zap until Amurka is a grape again?"

Meanwhile, many are saying it would be better to miss SOTOS altogether (Dept. of Justice Conspiracy Theories, 2, 3, 4).

The previous post in this series is not here it is here.

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A Brump preview of the SOTOS ...

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Awe Topsy - 4

From there to here and here to there

Making history happens to us all.

It is inevitable, so we do it every day.

Much of dealing with history is like painting an old barn, because cover-up is an acceptable unacceptable way of cultures.

But the most painful history class is the autopsy, which in terms of "political history," is better conceived of as an "Awe Topsy."

An incredible amount of shape shifting (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) takes place downwind of the New World Odor generated by a political event such as an election autopsy (Awe Topsy, 2, 3).

The worst part of it is that some body has to do it:

In a “Dear Colleague” letter obtained by The Hill, Stefanik and other allies wrote Monday that the “disappointing results” of the November election “require an honest, transparent assessment of the structural operations and decision-making process that led to our party losing an historic number of seats.”

(GOP lawmakers call for autopsy on 'historic losses'). Only in the realm of political "science" does the body do an autopsy of itself, hence the need for a new word order calling for an "Awe Topsy."

All the cremlin before, during, and after the subject election has worked up some of our all lies allies (this time it is Saudi "money bags" Rabia).

That is a culture which has created a prince who envisioned a new form of the art, called "a live Awe Topsy" (US senators plan to condemn Saudi crown prince for world's first live autopsy of journalist Jamal Khashoggi).

Like I said, the history is in the making.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 4

Is the joke on us?

I. Hiding in Plain Sight

One of the "sights unseen" concerning a developing despotic minority is that they can become stronger than the majority at some point.

This is the case in the United States at this time.

The way the Senate rebelled against the Constitution (refused to consider a presidential nominee, Merrick Garland, then ramrodded another nominee of their liking instead, and then called those who resisted them "a mob") is a wake up call.

Kavanaught was not the people's choice, no, the coup was a deliberate violation which signaled that the despotic minority is now stronger than the majority ("with the advent of the Tea Party, the United States is experiencing the opposite tyranny, one of the minority" - The Fiscal Times).

If they are not stopped, they could become a despotic majority, which is the only thing worse than a despotic minority (Origins).

II. Deja Vu All Over Again

The founders ostensibly struggled to make a system that could be immune from both a despotic minority and a despotic majority.

What has thwarted what they struggled for is continual warfare.

In their minds continual warfare is a cultural disease which is caused by a cultural germ:

Our founders were well aware of the question and the answer hundreds of years ago.

They spoke the answer with unmistakable words and with certain clarity:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.

(James Madison, emphasis added). The visionary who made that statement was the 4th President of the United States, Bill of Rights author, Congressman, Cabinet Member, and who was also called the "Father of the U.S. Constitution".

The above quote is from his "Political Observations," April 20, 1795, in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume IV, page 491-492.

Notice, in the quote above, how Madison equated or associated the toxins of power with disease epidemic concepts, saying that the war toxin "develops the germ of every other" anti-freedom toxin.

(The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?). When we think that we are free, and when we erroneously think that freedom comes from war, we are culturally sick with that germ.

III. Get Your "Vaccimation"

The Memetic Lexicon describes an entity called a "vaccime", which is an antidote to a wrong idea or ideal.

Unless we are inoculated with historical reality we will inexorably go down the path of the previous civilizations that have felt immune and exceptional:

History told us this was going to happen:

But always TCS is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). Our culture is composed, now, of the toxins of power that habitually destroy nations and civilizations (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).

(When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 8). Whether or not elections can cure the disease depends on how much "the germ" has metastasized (The Elections of Pontius Pilots, 2, 3, 4, 5).

IV. Conclusion

An election is on the horizon, and moving quickly towards us.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 8

"The press is the enemy of the people." - Stalin Trump

This series began a little over six years ago.

It began with an observation that our culture was becoming psychopathic (When You Are Governed By Psychopaths, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

Which of course was rejected by the "it can't happen here" crowd (LieGate).

This reality I was writing about is now here for all to see (President Trump's spokeswoman declines to say if press is 'enemy of the people' during combative briefing).

The second reaction to the subject of this series was to enter the individualism trance.

The toxins of that trance cause us to advance the notion that this is a one-person problem, rather than a 62,984,825 person problem.

When the people are consistently misinformed about real problems with rhetorical pabulum and deceit ("listen people, everything is going fine") then the direction a nation adopts is quite predictable (Agnotology: The Surge, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20; Etiology of Social Dementia, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18).

History told us this was going to happen:

But always TCS is primarily the population segment diagnosed as a despotic minority which the once most-often-quoted historian, Toynbee, fingered as one of the members of the trinity of extinction that he found in all civilizations that were about to become very successful at becoming extinct:

That something is the dementia that produces and ends up in suicide:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). There is no cure for the final symptom of that group dementia, there is only prevention by way of avoiding it altogether in the first place.

The components of that group dementia were pointed out in an encyclopedia piece concerning that historian quoted above:

"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority. Unlike Spengler in his The Decline of the West, Toynbee did not regard the death of a civilization as inevitable, for it may or may not continue to respond to successive challenges. Unlike Karl Marx, he saw history as shaped by spiritual, not economic forces" ...

(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). The show stopper, in terms of remedy, in this type of group dementia is that it is a contagious dementia.

(Etiology of Social Dementia - 18). That particular "minority" is not a racial or ethnic minority, rather, it is primarily composed of a destructive suicidal trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

(Arrested Development: The Creep State). Our culture is composed, now, of the toxins of power that habitually destroy nations and civilizations (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).

Remember the prophesy of one of our founding fathers:

Our founders were well aware of the question and the answer hundreds of years ago.

They spoke the answer with unmistakable words and with certain clarity:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.

(James Madison, emphasis added). The visionary who made that statement was the 4th President of the United States, Bill of Rights author, Congressman, Cabinet Member, and who was also called the "Father of the U.S. Constitution".

The above quote is from his "Political Observations," April 20, 1795, in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume IV, page 491-492.

(The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?).

Remember "No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established."

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan - 3

My Dog: Jack of Hearts

A Dog Has Died
by Pablo Neruda

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.

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The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Global Climate & Homeland Insecurity - 2

I. Begin Here

The subtitle of today's post is: "When The Truth Is Found In The Wayback Machine."

The first post in this series, on July 14, 2009, discussed the national security implications of The Damaged Global Climate System's impact on the global environment (Global Climate & Homeland Insecurity).

In that first post I discussed an investigation by CNA concerning the U.S. Military's perception of global climate change.

As noted in that post, the substantial and robust report was "disappeared" sometime after I penned the post, but when I noticed the link no longer worked, I sought and found a copy of that CNA page recorded in The Wayback Machine.

Anyway, in that report the generals and admirals were unequivocal in their 2009 conclusions:

The nature and pace of climate changes being observed today and the consequences projected by the consensus scientific opinion are grave and pose equally grave implications for our national security. Moving beyond the arguments of cause and effect, it is important that the U.S. military begin planning to address these potentially devastating effects.

(CNA Report, emphasis added, PDF). It is clear that those who participated in the study and report are aware of military national security matters:

GENERAL GORDON R. SULLIVAN, USA (Ret.)
Former Chief of Staff, U.S. Army
Chairman, Military Advisory Board

ADMIRAL FRANK "SKIP" BOWMAN, USN (Ret.)
Former Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program;
Former Deputy Administrator-Naval Reactors, National Nuclear Security Administration

LIEUTENANT GENERAL LAWRENCE P. FARRELL JR., USAF (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, Headquarters U.S. Air Force

VICE ADMIRAL PAUL G. GAFFNEY II, USN (Ret.)
Former President, National Defense University; Former Chief of Naval Research and Commander,
Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command

GENERAL PAUL J. KERN, USA (Ret.)
Former Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command

ADMIRAL T. JOSEPH LOPEZ, USN (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and of Allied Forces, Southern Europe

ADMIRAL DONALD L. “DON” PILLING, USN (Ret.)
Former Vice Chief of Naval Operations

ADMIRAL JOSEPH W. PRUEHER, USN (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and Former U.S. Ambassador to China

VICE ADMIRAL RICHARD H. TRULY, USN (Ret.)
Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command

GENERAL CHARLES F. “CHUCK” WALD, USAF (Ret.)
Former Deputy Commander, Headquarters U.S. European Command (USEUCOM)

GENERAL ANTHONY C. “TONY” ZINNI, USMC (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
(ibid, caps in original). I have posted about other military officers tasked with grasping the climate change threat to national security (Has The Navy Fallen For The Greatest Hoax?, with a video of R.Adm. Tilley's presentation @ Pentagon).

II. Perhaps It Was The Irony?

I wondered why CNA would be directed to lose the report.

It was excellent, well researched, unconventional, and counter to the Oil-Qaeda and MOMCOM propaganda of the day (Will This Float Your Boat - 12).

But the number one polluter, in terms of fossil fuel burning, is said to be the U.S. military (A History of Oil Addiction - 2, cf. The Military Assault on Global Climate).

So, I though "perhaps they do not want us to think that they are a threat to national security" ... hence the missing report?

We are all in this together, and today's military is as much a victim of bad decisions made by their predecessors in command as we are (The Universal Smedley - 2, Viva Egypt - 2).

III. Military Solutions?

There is nothing the military can do beyond what other agencies can do (Why The Military Can't Defend Against The Invasion; The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports - 4; Greenland & Antarctica Invade The United States, 2, 3, 4; Why Sea Level Rise May Be The Greatest Threat To Civilization, 2, 3, 4, 5).

But they can stop fighting for possession and or control the oil that is causing the problem (The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil).

They can switch to non-polluting sources of energy (U.S. Military Orders Less Dependence on Fossil Fuels).

IV. Military Conflict With Climate Change Deniers?

Some military officers have also anticipated problems with some of the current presidential candidates (Pentagon Officers: We Quit if Trump Wins).

One wonders how they have interacted with similar congressional deniers during the past few years (Inhofe's One Man Troofiness Crusade).

Even the courts and prosecutors are seeing reason for concern about the hiding of the facts (Have Courts Fallen For The Greatest Hoax?, Oil-Qaeda & MOMCOM Conspire To Commit Depraved-Heart Murder - 5).

Increasingly, the physical predicament is exacerbated by the predicament of the conflict of world views in government (The Authoritarianism of Climate Change).

Not to mention the cover-up instead of coverage in the press (In the Fog of The Presstitutes - 4).

V. Worse Than Previously Thought

One has to wonder if the deniers, who used to make fun of environmentalists because they wanted to save the snail darter (Snail Darter Politics) will awaken.

Up to this point in time, their dangerously myopic viewpoints have had certain untenable impacts on reality (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

Impacts that bring it all home (The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports, 2, 3; The Extinction of Charleston, The Extinction of Philadelphia, The Extinction of Washington, D.C., The Extinction of Boston, The Extinction of Miami, The Extinction of Manzanillo, The Extinction of Houston, The Extinction of Providence, The Extinction of Chesapeake Bay Islands; Endangered Naval Bases).

It is not about snail darters assholes (On The Origin of Assholes), because now even East Antarctica is catching up (Melt Expanding into East Antarctica).

VI. Conclusion

It is time for the panicked frenzy of immature leaders in government to disappear instead of continuing to disappear the facts they are afraid to admit (The 1.14% vs. The 100%).

Time to admit that the waters around us have grown:

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

(The Times They Are A-Changin’, by Bob Dylan). Yep, worse than previously thought.

The previous post in this series is here.

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"Everything is Broken" by Bob Dylan, (lyrics here).

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The Paradox of Barbarian Civilization: Dangerous Religion

Barbarian is as Barbarian does

I did not coin the phrase "Barbarian Civilization", no, I got it from the very competent Catholic Encyclopedia, as will be shown with a quote later in this post.

"Barbarian Civilization" seems like a contradiction of terms, so that encyclopedia probably used it intentionally to describe the western division of themselves during the feudal ages.

The graphic to the left comes from a Wikipedia page "Barbarian", depicting The Huns at the Battle of Chalon.

I modified the middle section, so as to show what the religious barbarians then thought of themselves: holy lily white Crusaders (see this & this).

I modified the top and bottom so as to show the women and children being slaughtered (bottom), and the flocks of vultures and eagles (top) following the "civilized barbarians" to feast on "the carrion of the wicked."

Recently, I did the post Global Warming / Climate Change Will Generate Dangerous Religion.

The underlying premise, in that post, was based upon how the individual amygdala as well as the cultural amygdala react to stress.

Today, let's look at an historical example of how the individual amygdala and the cultural amygdala reacted to stress, in terms of generating a dangerous religion:

Religious service even became part of feudalism:

The Church, too, had her place in the feudal system. She too was granted territorial fiefs, became a vassal, possessed immunities. It was the result of her calm, wide sympathy, turning to the new nations, away from the Roman Empire, to which many Christians thought she was irrevocably bound. By the baptism of Clovis she showed the baptism of Constantine had not tied her to the political system. So she created a new world out of chaos, created the paradox of barbarian civilization. In gratitude kings and emperors endowed her with property; and ecclesiastical property has not infrequently brought evils in its train. The result was disputed elections; younger sons of nobles were intruded into bishoprics, at times even into the papacy. Secular princes claimed lay investiture of spiritual offices. The cause of this was feudalism, for a system that had its basis on land tenure was bound at last to enslave a Church that possessed great landed possessions.

(Catholic Encyclopedia, emphasis added). In that sense war and military service today, in some ways, are as they were in both Holy Roman Empire feudalism and earlier European feudalism (The Virgin MOMCOM - 6, Doing The Right Thing - Mithraism - 2).

(American Feudalism - 2). For the record, note that dangerous religions can change and sometimes do get back to sanity.

Our current dangerous religion is Deigenic Climate Change, which is firmly embedded in the Congress of the United States.

The high priest of that dangerous religion, now, is Senator Inhofe (Inhofe, Beavis, & Butthead Need Waders).

About 100 or so of the current congress members have the religious faith that God is causing weather catastrophe upon the Earth.

God the Chef, ostensibly does this to generate "the carrion of the wicked" for the flocks of vultures and eagles to feast upon.

Meanwhile, their God (Oil-Qaeda) has sold enough holy "Oilah Akbar" oil to destroy another critical cycle in the Earth's ecosystem:

At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings. That is the conclusion of a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science by 18 researchers trying to gauge the breaking points in the natural world.

The paper contends that we have already crossed four “planetary boundaries.” They are the extinction rate; deforestation; the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and the flow of nitrogen and phosphorous (used on land as fertilizer) into the ocean.

“What the science has shown is that human activities — economic growth, technology, consumption — are destabilizing the global environment,” said Will Steffen, who holds appointments at the Australian National University and the Stockholm Resilience Center and is the lead author of the paper.

(Beyond the Boundaries, cf. The Damage Cannot Be Undone?, Shadow of Time Governs The Earth - 2 ). The scientists say clearly that our days are numbered.

The high priests of Oil-Qaeda say it is because we are wicked and God is on their side.

Their dogma is that we climate change believers are going to be destroyed by catastrophe, because we are not worthy.

But they get raptured.

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With the lord Oil-Qaeda on our side ...

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All The Darkness-Rising Words Saved Up For A Poem-Hole

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The Call
C. Dale Young

in memoriam Cecil Young

I am addicted to words, constantly ferret them away
in anticipation. You cannot accuse me of not being prepared.
I am ready for anything. I can create an image faster than

just about anyone. And so, the crows blurring the tree line;
the sky’s light dimming and shifting; the Pacific cold and
impatient as ever: this is just the way I feel. Nothing more.

I could gussy up those crows, transform them
into something more formal, more Latinate, could use
the exact genus Corvus, but I won’t. Not today.

Like any addict, I, too, have limits. And I have written
too many elegies already. The Living have become
jealous of the amount I have written for the Dead.

So, leave the crows perched along the tree line
watching over us. Leave them be. The setting sun?
Leave it be. For God’s sake, what could be easier

in a poem about death than a setting sun? Leave it be.
Words cannot always help you, the old poet had taught
me, cannot always be there for you no matter how you

store them away with sharpened forethought.
Not the courier in his leather sandals, his legs dark and dirty
from the long race across the desert. Not the carrier

pigeon arriving with the news of another dead Caesar
and the request you present yourself. Nothing like that.
The telephone rings. Early one morning, the telephone rings

and the voice is your mother’s voice. No fanfare. Your
father’s brother is dead. He died that morning. And your
tongue
went silent. Like any other minor poet, you could not find

the best words, the appropriate words. Leave it be now.
You let your mother talk and talk to fill the silence. Leave it be.
All of your practiced precision, all of the words saved up

for a poem, can do nothing to remedy that now.

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Dylan's New Style?

Things have "changed" = Sellout to jingoism?

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Why bother?

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Why Not! 

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Hey Dylan, time to dig Sylvio baby!

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If I Die Before They Wake

The following lyrics, sung by by The Fugs in the video at the bottom of this post, were written by Tuli Kupferberg in 1966 on Bleeker Street in New York City, U.S.A.

My interpretation is that these are the lyrics in a song sung by the dying Earth --- sung while visiting the grave of Venus, a long lost friend.

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Morning, Morning

Morning morning
Feel so lonesome in the morning
Morning morning
Morning brings me grief

Sunshine and the sunshine
Sunshine laughs upon my face
and the glory of the growing
Puts me in my rotting place

Evening evening
Feel so lonesome in the evening
Evening evening
Evening brings me grief

Moon shine moon shine
Moon shine drugs the hills with grace
and the secret of the shining
Seeks to break my simple face

Nighttime nighttime
Kills the blood upon my cheek
Nighttime nighttime
Does not bring me to relief

Starshine and the starshine
Feel so loving in the starshine
Starshine starshine
Darling kiss me as I weep

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Last Day of September

Try To Remember

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh
so mellow.

Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember and if you remember
then follow
follow.

Try to remember when life was so tender
When no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
When dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
When love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember and if you remember
then follow
follow.

Deep in December it's nice to remember
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December it's nice to remember
Without a hurt the heart will hollow.
Deep in December
it's nice to remember
The fire of September that made you mellow.
Deep in December our hearts should remember  and follow
follow.

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Evolution From Left to Right - 4

The "Prospering Prisons" Business Model

In this series we have been discussing how an evolution from left to right is, and has been, taking place in several nations.

In the first post Dredd Blog covered Jared Lee Lochner, in the second post Dredd Blog covered the cowardly Norwegian child killer.

In the third post we focused on more recent mass murder events, so today, I begin to expand this concept so as to take a look into the evolution from left to right within "institutions of governing", whether those institutions are made up of people on the federal payroll directly (see Homeland Security Happy Daze - 2), or whether instead they actively control government from the sidelines in the privacy of corporate structures (see MOMCOM: The Private Parts - 2).

That those "private structures" are fused with right-wing military adventurism is clear if we take a look at arms sales.

Top Arms Peddlers

The graph to the right, from the New York Times, shows that arms sales are at a high, and that we make up over 3/4ths of worldwide weapon sales (U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market) while we talk about a lot of "peace".

The main institutions of governing to be focused on, in terms of the foundational structure of American life, are the military, the oil industry, and the media (see MOMCOM: Mean Welfare Queen), but when that structure is activated into "imperial activity", another term is used to describe that scenario (see The Virgin MOMCOM).

At various points during these posts it can help to link to posts from other series that have some relevance, so that readers can get more deeply into the subject matter by looking at other source materials.

Of course the originating factor responsible for the evolution from left to right is right-wing propaganda designed to destroy left-wing ideas and replace them with right-wing ideas.

The critical machinery for the success of promulgating that right-wing dogma is the vast main stream media, the celebrity portion of MOMCOM (see Blind Willie McTell News), aptly described by Adam Smith:

One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith. He pointed out that a major goal of business is to deceive and oppress the public.

And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public — and they're very conscious about it, the public relations industry. Interestingly, this developed in the freest countries — in Britain and the US — roughly around time of WWI, when it was recognized that enough freedom had been won that people could no longer be controlled by force. So modes of deception and manipulation had to be developed in order to keep them under control"...

(The Deceit Business, quoting Noam Chomsky). At times that vast private industry, the main stream media, is not quite enough to "keep them under control", so other means and methods are resorted to:

Hoover supervised dozens of FBI agents who broke into the homes of Berkeley protest leaders and tapped their phones. The FBI compiled dossiers with intimate details of the lives of hundreds of students, planted informers and provocateurs within the ranks of campus antiwar groups, and tried to disrupt constitutionally protected political activities.

Not content with spying on the students, Hoover authorized illegal surveillance of professors and college administrators who were deemed too sympathetic to the campus radicals. The FBI's intelligence-gathering operation even extended into the heart of California's political and business establishment: the members of the university's Board of Regents. And Hoover secretly worked to get the regents to fire the university's president, Clark Kerr, for failing to crack down on the student protesters.

(Wall Street Journal, book review: Subversives, by Seth Rosenfeld). Even Ronald Reagan (once a liberal democrat) evolved rightward to become a McCarthyite snitch or spy against his fellow actors.

Reagan did this while he was head of the Screen Writers Guild when he had access to all the guild's records on actors, as well as their trust.

He even had the FBI spy on his daughter Maureen, free speech activists, and had professors of universities fired for their political views.

About 10,000 FBI records about Reagan, released in a FOIA lawsuit, prove this (See video below, beginning at 56:47 for that specific Reagan data).

But what does that have to do with evolution from left to right?

Well, as that evolution proceeds the methods used have grown from operating on the private side of life into operating from the government side.

One important meaning of this is the fact that we now pay the government to spy on ourselves.

Whereas, before that right-wing public spy system evolved, when the nation was more to the left, and before this government spy monster had raised its head from the depths of cultural depravity, corporations paid for their own spying.

Now the corporations still run a vast public relations business, however, it is the government that "has your back" (wink, wink):

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.

* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.

(The Keystone Complex To The Rescue - 3, emphasis added). Yes, as evolution from left to right took place, what Adam Smith and Noam Chomsky called the "huge industries deceiving the public", paid for by corporate money, became huge government spy agencies paid for by the public treasury.

One of their functions is to dispense information in order to fashion and form what people think is happening (see Warriors Press For Propaganda).

How natural is that selection, how fit is it to survive, and how far to the right will it evolve?

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When your president is a McCarthyite informant against his fellow celebrities:

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The next post in this series is here, the previous post is here.