Monday, August 29, 2011

Bold, Drastic Action Necessary

2005 map of Worldwide Governance Indicators, w...Image via WikipediaThe Stimulus Bill Was Messed Up
Three Million Jobs
Global New Deal Needed
A Second Stimulus Bill Needed

The governments in America and Europe have to together come up with a two trillion dollar fund. A big chunk of that money has to go to connect every human being to high speed internet access. It will pay for itself. Down the line the infrastructure thus built would gradually be sold off to the private sector. Money thus received would pay for the expenses now. I foresee profits.

This has to be completed in one to two years.

The second step would be to lay down a new architecture for global finance. This is hard for Americans to do because that might involve bringing to an end the dollar's special place in the world.

There has to be a massive push for democracy. A universal spread of democracy could be brought about in a few swift years. Once that happens rule of law between nations can then be imagined. Once rule of law between nations has been established, America could bring down its defense spending from 600 billion dollars annually to a more manageable 100 billion dollars. America can not think of a better cost cutting plan.

The US Military Budget Needs To Come Down To 100 Billion From 600

And there is a need for massive jobs programs.

Three Million Jobs
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Friday, August 26, 2011

This Is About Global Warming

Mean surface temperature change for the period...Image via Wikipedia
Popular Mechanics: What Happens When a Super Storm Strikes New York?: Canton, Mo., a town of 2500 on the upper Mississippi River, has been at the center of an increasingly high-stakes environmental wager for years now. In the summer of 1993, a high-pressure system stalled over the southeastern U.S., forcing the jet stream, laden with moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, to the north, where it collided with cold air from Canada. As a result, rainstorms drenched the upper Midwest. Many towns received two to six times the normal amount of rainfall for June and July. ...... The Mississippi River crested at 13.8 feet above official flood levels in Canton, overtopping several local levees. That year, more than 1000 levees ruptured or overflowed along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Seventy towns, including Canton, flooded. The water stayed high for six months. ...... According to government statistics, the flood that Canton experienced in 1993 was a freak, one-in-500-year event—not something that would happen again soon. That estimate came from analyzing the 140-year historical record—calculating the frequency of floods of various magnitudes and extrapolating the curve out to events at a scale never seen before. If only it were that simple. Canton suffered another 500-year flood in 2008, a 70-year flood in 2001, and 10-year floods in 1996, 1998 and again in early 2011. Plenty of towns across the region have suffered similar events. ....... "We're witnessing higher and higher floods over time," says Robert Criss, a hydrogeologist at Washington University in St. Louis. "We are seeing higher and far more frequent floods than government estimators say we should."
A few years back there were unexplained fires across Greece. And law enforcement grabbed known arsonists and threw them into prison. Those were not acts of arson. That was global warming. People who study and predict weather look for patterns in historical records. That is misleading. Global warming is a recent phenomenon. New weather patterns are emerging. More frequent severe weather conditions are being experienced.

Global warming is happening, and it is happening now, and there are to be catastrophic consequences. How do you shout that from the rooftops? How do you drain a hole in the Tea Party brain and pour that wisdom down it? Mother Nature is doing it for us. Severe weather conditions are but a start.

Hurricane Irene Eats Up My Santogold Saturday
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