2020 Presidential Election

[charley]

"Trump has made 9,014 false or misleading claims over 773 days"

"As of the end of Sunday, March 3, the 773rd day of his term in office, Trump has reportedly accumulated 9,014 suspicious claims, Washington Post reports, citing The Fact Checker’s database. According to the American newspaper, the US president averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office. In his second year, Trump reportedly hit nearly 16.5 a day and so far in 2019, he is averaging nearly 22 claims a day."

https://www.legit.ng/1226115-fact-ch...ys-report.html

All these lies are indicative of the dark cancer spreading over a certain sector of the American population.

Roger Stone's [who is one of Trump's best buds] motto is "never apologize". Trump never apologizes either. Apart from all of Trump's lies and his deliberate ad hominem attacks, one can always tell just how evil the man is (or anyone else who lies) by the way that even after never apologizing, such a bully will not only increase their passive-aggressive rant, but they will also play the victim, even making veiled threats.

[As an aside, I am still aghast at Justin Trudeau's behavior in my post regarding the SNC-Lavalin scandal. A reporter had approached him and asked him whether he would apologize - he ignored the question and left - oh my goodness, the darkness is spreading to Canada as well! smh!]

No one dares ask Trump to apologize. One can always tell just how bad a group/collective is when the majority associated with such an evil man remain silent in the face of all his abuse.

Trump's latest comment lie is horrific: "The Democrats hate Jewish people." He is trying to get the Jewish vote, lol.

The fact is that more than approx. 75% of Jews in the States voted for democrats in the midterms.

From "Morning Joe", in 2016, Jewish voters voted 71% for the Democrats, and in 2018, 79% for the Democrats.

The Far Right and the Neo-Nazis are most likely pleased with Trump, finding validation for their antisemitism. Trump knows this, and has used them and their prejudices to get their support.

Anything to win - just another example of someone who will use any and all means to reach their ends, which is just another example of how evil Trump is.

What a mess!

[Kätzchen]

Just read a good article about Pete Buttigieg on CNN, this morning. And I plan to donate to his campaign when I get home from work today.

Here's the article, in case anyone is interested:

Pete Buttigieg Calls Mike Pence a 'Cheerleader for the Porn Star Presidency'

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by charley

"Trump has made 9,014 false or misleading claims over 773 days"

"As of the end of Sunday, March 3, the 773rd day of his term in office, Trump has reportedly accumulated 9,014 suspicious claims, Washington Post reports, citing The Fact Checker’s database. According to the American newspaper, the US president averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office. In his second year, Trump reportedly hit nearly 16.5 a day and so far in 2019, he is averaging nearly 22 claims a day."

https://www.legit.ng/1226115-fact-ch...ys-report.html

All these lies are indicative of the dark cancer spreading over a certain sector of the American population.

As i mentioned ion a previous post, the US suicide rate has increased 30% since 2000:

Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.

The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.

The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.

Yesterday i was on the Galveston Daily News website and i was reading the comments under a story on projected sea level rise, and 90% of commenters (most of whom can see the Gulf of Mexico from their houses) were calling climate change a liberal hoax perpetuated by money-hungry academics.

The reason US evangelicals are so rabid about Israel is because they need for the geopolitics of the situation to go a certain way so the apocalypse and rapture can hurry up and get here.

What i am saying is that the "dark cancer" is a death wish that has taken over about half of the population.

Our species as a whole is suicidal.

We've always had a suicide switch hiding inside of us-- you can see this in the apocalypse prophecies that feature in so many religions. Those are there because we know there has to be an ending to our story, because we also know, instinctively and subconsciously, that our existence is unsustainable-- just the mathematical fact of exponential population growth within a finite environment has a bad ending coded in from the beginning.

I think the suicide switch in our evolutionary makeup was triggered in 1945 when we dropped the first nuclear bomb. Our ending began that day-- as soon as it became possible for man to destroy life on earth, it also became inevitable on a long enough timeline. We know that, deep down, and we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since.

What's happening now is that more and more people are tired of the suspense and just want to get it over with.

That is why we have Trump/Brexit/Marine le Pen, Bolsnaro, etc. If enough countries slide off the rails and into nationalism, the cooperation we need to save ourselves becomes impossible.

Deep down, a lot of people want that. We can't save ourselves without some discomfort and a big slice of the population would rather we all die instead of cutting consumption of anything at all.

Its not Rs vs Ds, or progressives vs liberals-- it's Team Apocalypse vs Team Carry On-- except all of the infighting and purity testing we have in certain corners of Team Carry On makes me think the suicide bug has bit a lot of us, too. Like, let's take a decade-long time-out right here, with one minute to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, and throw a couple of elections so we can break the back of the two-party system.

[charley]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

As i mentioned ion a previous post, the US suicide rate has increased 30% since 2000:

Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.

The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.

The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.

Yesterday i was on the Galveston Daily News website and i was reading the comments under a story on projected sea level rise, and 90% of commenters (most of whom can see the Gulf of Mexico from their houses) were calling climate change a liberal hoax perpetuated by money-hungry academics.

The reason US evangelicals are so rabid about Israel is because they need for the geopolitics of the situation to go a certain way so the apocalypse and rapture can hurry up and get here.

What i am saying is that the "dark cancer" is a death wish that has taken over about half of the population.

Our species as a whole is suicidal.

We've always had a suicide switch hiding inside of us-- you can see this in the apocalypse prophecies that feature in so many religions. Those are there because we know there has to be an ending to our story, because we also know, instinctively and subconsciously, that our existence is unsustainable-- just the mathematical fact of exponential population growth within a finite environment has a bad ending coded in from the beginning.

I think the suicide switch in our evolutionary makeup was triggered in 1945 when we dropped the first nuclear bomb. Our ending began that day-- as soon as it became possible for man to destroy life on earth, it also became inevitable on a long enough timeline. We know that, deep down, and we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since.

What's happening now is that more and more people are tired of the suspense and just want to get it over with.

That is why we have Trump/Brexit/Marine le Pen, Bolsnaro, etc. If enough countries slide off the rails and into nationalism, the cooperation we need to save ourselves becomes impossible.

Deep down, a lot of people want that. We can't save ourselves without some discomfort and a big slice of the population would rather we all die instead of cutting consumption of anything at all.

Its not Rs vs Ds, or progressives vs liberals-- it's Team Apocalypse vs Team Carry On-- except all of the infighting and purity testing we have in certain corners of Team Carry On makes me think the suicide bug has bit a lot of us, too. Like, let's take a decade-long time-out right here, with one minute to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, and throw a couple of elections so we can break the back of the two-party system.

My jaw dropped when reading everything you wrote. OMG, where does one start?

The suicide stuff, omg, women, how tragic. I have read about suicide genes in simple organisms... Personally, have never felt suicidal, but am very aware of how things have changed from the time and in the way the Americans ended WWII - I would call it a a wrong turn - yes, indeed. It is the epitome of self-destruction.

As one see it (extensional awareness) this wrong turn has its own momentum, and events are moving in a way that cannot be reversed. Nothing one (or others who see it) could do or say will reverse this trend. There is a possibility of a new movement (one would call it a new seed) only in 200-300 years.

Personally, life protects me. One doesn't have to do a thing. Because of one side-effect of meditation, one observes with dispassionate indifference that the horrific tragedies that are impending with the resulting loss of millions of lives are inevitable.

One's one extensional awareness is such that one is wary to move, goodness in Canadians having dropped dramatically and exponentially. The movement away from the land to urban areas has greatly affected this drop.

There is also the fact that people do not realize that there is only one human brain, and like birds flying in a flock, they are moving in one direction. Even the more sentient fish, dolphins and whales, are beaching themselves - not to mention how so many animals are moving towards extinction.

Personally, one skips from rock to rock, along the stream of sorrow, which has become way to much to bear. Every time one rests (makes any kind of connection with someone involved in this dark trend) - even for a second, one senses the impending doom.

Such people have made everything involved in life an entertainment, an endless repetitive pleasure. (One would add that one has nothing against pleasure per se.)

One shudders in horror at the thought of even having someone like that come into close physical contact...

Not being into power, one is powerless, and can only observe. Enough said...

[Martina]

I actually heard a journalist use the phrase "late Capitalism" on the radio the other day. My mouth fell open. The leftist critique of Capitalism is going mainstream. I think because it's hard to deny anymore. The end result of Capitalism is that it consumes itself, destroying everything for short term gain.

I don't think Capitalism is an expression of some inherent human impulse although elements of it are. Early humans wiped out large mammals when we moved into new environments, and we wiped ourselves out in some places due to deforestation. But cooperation is also in our DNA. Think of bonobos. Even chimpanzee troops over time have as many cooperative peacemaker alphas as they do warrior Kings. Evolution makes sure there's always both to choose from. That doesn't mean we won't go extinct. We surely will at some point.

I honestly don't know if we'll survive on this planet. I don't care that much. I do know that the planet will survive anything we do to it. Some life will remain, and there will be a reboot. We'd have to completely burn the atmosphere off and boil the oceans to destroy 99 point whatever percent of life, and while we're fucking with them, we're not yet capable of that. (I googled, and even if all the nuclear weapons were detonated creating a long long nuclear Winter, scientists say only 75% of life on the planet would die. It's gonna take an asteroid to kill the planet until we invent something worse than nuclear weapons.) I think we'll kill ourselves long before we destroy the planet. I am not saying we won't cause a mass extinction. We already are. But life will go on.

I'm wandering. What I think we're seeing is the late stage of Capitalism. But something different will emerge. Even if inequality gets much worse, and the super rich arm themselves, etc., I think that something different and more egalitarian will emerge. There is too much information, there are too many smart people, for the one tenth of one percent to continue in power once our very lives are at risk (water rationing, for example).

But who knows? The Nazis were very successful where they ruled. Eighty percent of Germans supported them. Because the Nazis wiped out entire towns when there was resistance, resistance really was futile. The French resistance was meaningless. All resistance movements were except Tito's in what became Yugoslavia. A really determined Fascist regime, or group of regimes, could create some kind of temporary dystopia.

I agree it's not Republicans versus Democrats because liberals have been destroying our economies and the planet at a furious pace. It's the one tenth of one percent versus the rest of us. People who continue to support mainstream Dems, along with Republicans, remain blind to this and are part of the problem. The lesser of two evils will not save us from a nasty resolution to these global economic and evironmental changes.

[kittygrrl]

I think we should split the country down the Mississippi River-eastern half-conservatives
western half-progressives..it's kinda happening already. I think they should be separate countries. The North & South tried it once but i think people may be more interested in it considering the political divide that exists now. I have heard California would like to be it's own country..I like the idea but they have one huge problem. Water.

[C0LLETTE]

Originally Posted by kittygrrl

I think we should split the country down the Mississippi River-eastern half-conservatives
western half-progressives..it's kinda happening already. I think they should be separate countries. The North & South tried it once but i think people may be more interested in it considering the political divide that exists now. I have heard California would like to be it's own country..I like the idea but they have one huge problem. Water.

If California wants to join up with Canada, we'll give them all the water they want.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Martina

What I think we're seeing is the late stage of Capitalism. But something different will emerge. Even if inequality gets much worse, and the super rich arm themselves, etc., I think that something different and more egalitarian will emerge. There is too much information, there are too many smart people, for the one tenth of one percent to continue in power once our very lives are at risk (water rationing, for example).

i really feel like the concepts we have of freedom and liberty, by now several centuries old, become less feasible as the population grows. There are just too many of us now for freedom to mean anything except the right to choices in consumption (capitalism) and the right to harm oneself/others/the planet without government interference (libertarianism.)

The planet is getting too full for everyone to just do what they want. It is too full for every nation to just do what they want. As we get more crowded, we have less freedom, and it gets harder to exercise the freedoms that remain without impacting everyone around you.

We have to redefine freedom as security, despite what Ben Franklin said ("Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.")

The first time i ever understood the difference between joy and happiness was when i read a negative definition of joy-- describing joy as the sense of well-being that arises from the removal of worry.

That is what freedom will mean in the 22nd century, for the 20% of humanity that remains. "Freedom" will mean "food, health, and housing security with sufficient opportunities for creating meaning."

[kittygrrl]

your post reminded me of what happened after the plague...those that remained did enjoy more opportunity and more food...the upside of calamity...hm, food for thought

[cathexis]

With all the environmental destruction, we'll be left with scarce resources. All the wild areas that have been opened for unconscientious hunting practices and exploitation of minerals and coal/oil, the turning back of fairly good environmental regulations, ice cap melting, and plastics in the ocean, etc. are signs of Capitalism decay.

One day we will have a Great Depression (1929) or Great Recession (2008) that cannot be resolved, a perfect opportunity for a Global Fascist takeover.

Individual countries need to be ready with an acceptable alternate form of government lest Fascism move in to fill the void. The most negative force will always invade and prevail like an untended lawn going to weed.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Martina

I actually heard a journalist use the phrase "late Capitalism" on the radio the other day. My mouth fell open. The leftist critique of Capitalism is going mainstream. I think because it's hard to deny anymore. The end result of Capitalism is that it consumes itself, destroying everything for short term gain.

I don't think Capitalism is an expression of some inherent human impulse although elements of it are. Early humans wiped out large mammals when we moved into new environments, and we wiped ourselves out in some places due to deforestation. But cooperation is also in our DNA. Think of bonobos. Even chimpanzee troops over time have as many cooperative peacemaker alphas as they do warrior Kings. Evolution makes sure there's always both to choose from. That doesn't mean we won't go extinct. We surely will at some point.

I honestly don't know if we'll survive on this planet. I don't care that much. I do know that the planet will survive anything we do to it. Some life will remain, and there will be a reboot. We'd have to completely burn the atmosphere off and boil the oceans to destroy 99 point whatever percent of life, and while we're fucking with them, we're not yet capable of that. (I googled, and even if all the nuclear weapons were detonated creating a long long nuclear Winter, scientists say only 75% of life on the planet would die. It's gonna take an asteroid to kill the planet until we invent something worse than nuclear weapons.) I think we'll kill ourselves long before we destroy the planet. I am not saying we won't cause a mass extinction. We already are. But life will go on.

I'm wandering. What I think we're seeing is the late stage of Capitalism. But something different will emerge. Even if inequality gets much worse, and the super rich arm themselves, etc., I think that something different and more egalitarian will emerge. There is too much information, there are too many smart people, for the one tenth of one percent to continue in power once our very lives are at risk (water rationing, for example).

But who knows? The Nazis were very successful where they ruled. Eighty percent of Germans supported them. Because the Nazis wiped out entire towns when there was resistance, resistance really was futile. The French resistance was meaningless. All resistance movements were except Tito's in what became Yugoslavia. A really determined Fascist regime, or group of regimes, could create some kind of temporary dystopia.

I agree it's not Republicans versus Democrats because liberals have been destroying our economies and the planet at a furious pace. It's the one tenth of one percent versus the rest of us. People who continue to support mainstream Dems, along with Republicans, remain blind to this and are part of the problem. The lesser of two evils will not save us from a nasty resolution to these global economic and evironmental changes.

As i have mentioned (i always say that lately because i've been on here a loooong time and everything i say is a rerun, i feel) I read A LOT of science fiction.

One of my favorite authors, Cory Doctorow has written about "post-scarcity economies" and half-jokingly about "fully automated luxury space communism." He has also written about reputation economies.

Basically the principle is that increasing automation means scarcity will eventually be able to disappear, and won't continue to rule the economy unless we artificially maintain it (likely)

This is in line with AOC's comments the other day about how odd it is that we should have to fear automation.

As far as capitalism goes, i was pretty influenced by Max Weber, who said that the roots of capitalism lie in Judeo-Christian monotheism, and that it's spread was enabled by the Protestant Reformation and Calvinism (i know for a fact i ranted about this in the 2016 thread, as a lot of how Trump won has its roots in Calvinist ideas of wealth.) Definitely not an inherent human impulse.

Unfortunately, the lesser of two evils is the best we can hope for. Humanity has a "long tail." There will always be a broad spectrum of thought and only the middling ground is likely to achieve the critical mass that changes thought into action. We need extreme action, but the mainstream has the numbers.

If we dismiss everyone to the right of Bernie, we die.

We can't reject "the lesser of two evils." We have to colonize it.

This is why figures like Bernie and AOC are so important-- they are mainstreaming what was once an extreme, and making the lesser of two evils marginally less evil.

This is also why the condescension and aggression that leftists have sometimes expressed is so damaging. Every time we sneer at the centrists we shoot ourselves in the foot.

The right wing calls all non-right-wingers baby killers, says we are delusional and that our views are evidence of a mental disorder, and we feel like that makes it ok to police everybody's wokeness and gatekeep "woke" status against anyone of insufficient ideological purity.

AOC was widely quoted by the right-wing press for her comments at SXSW where she said:

“Stop trying to win people over, stop trying to enter a conversation thinking that you’re going to, like, ‘aha’ them into changing their minds. And so, I think, that, you know, we’ve kind of lost the art of conversation. So when I enter a conversation with someone I actually try to learn more about where they’re coming from, like I try — I actually use it as an experience to — like, let’s say, I’m talking to someone who’s saying something really racist and they don’t even realize that they’re saying something really racist, I — I asked some questions because I’m interested, I’m fascinated by that. How does that work, you know?”

“we have to learn to, like, really disarm ourselves in these conversations first of all, because we approach them with so much hostility and, like, they get mad and we get mad and all of these things and — and we have — so, part of it is, like, emotional work. And — and the second part of it is intention, like, what are you trying to get out of this conversation?”

"What are you trying to get out of this conversation?"

Indeed.

We need to remember that we are fighting to survive and the right wing is not. We can't afford the self-indulgence that they can.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

If we dismiss everyone to the right of Bernie, we die.

We can't reject "the lesser of two evils." We have to colonize it.

This is why figures like Bernie and AOC are so important-- they are mainstreaming what was once an extreme, and making the lesser of two evils marginally less evil.

This is also why the condescension and aggression that leftists have sometimes expressed is so damaging. Every time we sneer at the centrists we shoot ourselves in the foot.

The right wing calls all non-right-wingers baby killers, says we are delusional and that our views are evidence of a mental disorder, and we feel like that makes it ok to police everybody's wokeness and gatekeep "woke" status against anyone of insufficient ideological purity.

AOC was widely quoted by the right-wing press for her comments at SXSW where she said:

“Stop trying to win people over, stop trying to enter a conversation thinking that you’re going to, like, ‘aha’ them into changing their minds. And so, I think, that, you know, we’ve kind of lost the art of conversation. So when I enter a conversation with someone I actually try to learn more about where they’re coming from, like I try — I actually use it as an experience to — like, let’s say, I’m talking to someone who’s saying something really racist and they don’t even realize that they’re saying something really racist, I — I asked some questions because I’m interested, I’m fascinated by that. How does that work, you know?”

“we have to learn to, like, really disarm ourselves in these conversations first of all, because we approach them with so much hostility and, like, they get mad and we get mad and all of these things and — and we have — so, part of it is, like, emotional work. And — and the second part of it is intention, like, what are you trying to get out of this conversation?”

"What are you trying to get out of this conversation?"

Indeed.

We need to remember that we are fighting to survive and the right wing is not. We can't afford the self-indulgence that they can.

For clarity, i am not calling out individuals here, but questioning decisions like the one to bar pro-life feminists from the Women's March.

Pro-life feminists are the lesser of two evils compared to Operation Rescue, and they do not have a pro-life legislative or judicial agenda. They are not a threat to us, but we decided we did not need their support.

[Martina]

I can't delude myself that mainstream Dems, liberals, are not as implicated in the systems that keep us hurling toward the precipice as Conservatives are.

I absolutely despise the neo-liberal politics of Clinton and Obama. The college admissions scandal is causing people everywhere to laugh at the meritocracy bullshit they've been hearing for so long.

Not only did liberals undermine unions, they allowed corporations to destroy industry. Jobs were not just exported when factories relocated, Dems, along with Republicans, applauded while the Bain Capitols of this world tore apart viable businesses and sold them for parts for short term profit.

Cannibalizing industry left them awash in cash which they invested in the financial instruments that collapsed our economy in 08.

Worker retraining programs were completely half assed and ineffective while Democrats endlessly endlessly blamed working people for not adjusting to the new global economy. Dems have been the kings of the meritocracy bullshit.

Then the unregulated and unethical financial industry took off because of the bound to fail mortgage backed securities. Corporations and the very rich had an even more difficult time finding places to put their wealth. So they tempted countries like Greece and Spain to take huge investments which could never be repaid. Everyone knew this, but it was the fucking establishment, like the neo-liberal World Bank, enabling it all.

After the crash, they forced austerity onto a number of countries. Literally tens of thousands of Greek children are now brain damaged from poor nutrition because of the worst years of austerity.

Every bullshit thing that was supposed to help working people in the US survive the depredations of the unregulated economy that Reagan and Clinton let loose on us was a lie. Almost no one was helped by Obama's programs to help people during the mortgage crisis. They didn't even spend the money initially allocated. Almost no one has been helped by the student debt forgiveness programs. And as I said, the retraining programs of the previous generation didn't make the tiniest dent.

And now they have come after public pensions and social security. The effort to destroy public employee unions and pilfer our pensions has been backed by Clintonite meritocracy liberals like Bill Gates.

On the issues that have led us to this place, where populism is appealing to people around the world, liberals are as guilty as conservatives. And voters know it. They know they've been lied to. The only thing that can combat fascist populism is the truth that comes from left-leaning populists like Bernie.

[C0LLETTE]

I believe that the liberal centre should and must hold. Without it we collapse into a chaotic gaping vacuum and the apocalyptic end that the extremes on both the Left and the Right seem so gleefully and confidently to predict becomes our fate.

The Centre IS Populst. That is where most of us are... in the middle, not wanting to be thrown into the flames of other people's extreme political and religious philosophies...the" Far This " and the " Far That ". The centre is a relative place, not fixed and it does move ( albeit slowly )to reasonable, agreeable positions.

I believe that the "liberal centre" is the well-spring of human and humane sanity.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

As i mentioned ion a previous post, the US suicide rate has increased 30% since 2000:

Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.

The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.

The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.

Yesterday i was on the Galveston Daily News website and i was reading the comments under a story on projected sea level rise, and 90% of commenters (most of whom can see the Gulf of Mexico from their houses) were calling climate change a liberal hoax perpetuated by money-hungry academics.

The reason US evangelicals are so rabid about Israel is because they need for the geopolitics of the situation to go a certain way so the apocalypse and rapture can hurry up and get here.

What i am saying is that the "dark cancer" is a death wish that has taken over about half of the population.

Our species as a whole is suicidal.

We've always had a suicide switch hiding inside of us-- you can see this in the apocalypse prophecies that feature in so many religions. Those are there because we know there has to be an ending to our story, because we also know, instinctively and subconsciously, that our existence is unsustainable-- just the mathematical fact of exponential population growth within a finite environment has a bad ending coded in from the beginning.

I think the suicide switch in our evolutionary makeup was triggered in 1945 when we dropped the first nuclear bomb. Our ending began that day-- as soon as it became possible for man to destroy life on earth, it also became inevitable on a long enough timeline. We know that, deep down, and we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since.

What's happening now is that more and more people are tired of the suspense and just want to get it over with.

That is why we have Trump/Brexit/Marine le Pen, Bolsnaro, etc. If enough countries slide off the rails and into nationalism, the cooperation we need to save ourselves becomes impossible.

Deep down, a lot of people want that. We can't save ourselves without some discomfort and a big slice of the population would rather we all die instead of cutting consumption of anything at all.

Its not Rs vs Ds, or progressives vs liberals-- it's Team Apocalypse vs Team Carry On-- except all of the infighting and purity testing we have in certain corners of Team Carry On makes me think the suicide bug has bit a lot of us, too. Like, let's take a decade-long time-out right here, with one minute to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, and throw a couple of elections so we can break the back of the two-party system.

I would like to enter Australia's election result today into the suicidal species evidence list

[C0LLETTE]

For those who believe that "liberalism" is the sad slow death of us all,
I'd like to recommend reading Adam Gopnik’s " A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism".

Or, you can follow this link:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ld-embrace-it/

If you get over the word "Canada" and read this opinion piece, maybe there is a healthy conversation for us to have here.

Adam Gopnik is Canadian/American and a staff writer for the New Yorker.

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by C0LLETTE

For those who believe that "liberalism" is the sad slow death of us all,
I'd like to recommend reading Adam Gopnik’s " A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism".

Or, you can follow this link:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ld-embrace-it/

If you get over the word "Canada" and read this opinion piece, maybe there is a healthy conversation for us to have here.

Adam Gopnik is Canadian/American and a staff writer for the New Yorker.

That's a very good news agency website out of Canada, C0LLETTE. I'll check up on that book recommendation for Adam Gopnik, for my summer reading adventure. Thank you!

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Lately, I've been thinking, due to really shady maneuvers by the GOP (in any Republican controlled US state or even in US Congress) to upend the lives of women and case law concerning Women's Rights and upending Brown vs Board of Education, and shoving the US-Supreme Court to the far right, that maybe it might be a good idea to match the level of the insanity we see by DC Admin and, in general, the GOP (wasn't that refreshing to see a US HOR GOP representative part with party politics and call out that horrible monster in DC???), is to f*cking smash the glass-ceiling and elect not only a woman to be US President, but US Vice-President too.

Here's what came to mind, the other day:

US President: Elizabeth Warren.
US Vice President: Kamala Harris
US Attorney General: Adam Schiff
Governor Jay Inslee -- Chief of EPA.

(and the list goes on....)

While we're at it, a woman should be nominated to head the VA, The Pentagon and find a decorated staff of US Veteran Women to take positions in Foreign Affairs.

It's about time that the US throws it's weight behind a TOP heavy cabinet of women in VIP positions in Washington, DC.

I'm thinking positive by dreaming really BIG dreams and manifesting them into reality. It can happen, right? I definitely think so. The climate is perfect for the proverbial ceiling to be smashed.

[Martina]

I would be happy if Kamala, Warren, or Gillibrand were elected. They are qualified, tough folks. They are true liberals, one hopes not of the HIRE MORE WOMEN GUARDS type.

But I am old enough to vividly recall Margaret Thatcher, whose legacy in Great Britain is child hunger that almost matches the U.S. rate. I don't care what gender or race the person is. Or age. I just care if they can see the truth and have the strength to do something about it.

If we have to wait for racism to go away before we can fix the planet, were doomed.

[Andrea]

Originally Posted by Martina

I would be happy if Kamala, Warren, or Gillibrand were elected. They are qualified, tough folks. They are true liberals, one hopes not of the HIRE MORE WOMEN GUARDS type.

But I am old enough to vividly recall Margaret Thatcher, whose legacy in Great Britain is child hunger that almost matches the U.S. rate. I don't care what gender or race the person is. Or age. I just care if they can see the truth and have the strength to do something about it.

If we have to wait for racism to go away before we can fix the planet, were doomed.

I may be overthinking this but I am wondering why you feel it acceptable to call candidate Kamala Harris by her first name but address candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand by their last names.