Day: August 31, 2023

What To Do In The End?

Let’s say society has crumbled around our ears into chaos…..the question has been asked many times….what do we do next?

Should we think about re-population? Should we start trying to re-build our failed society? Should we try to preserve the knowledge of man? Should we consider off-world move?  What should be the survivors main task?

This article is about the later…..

Last week, scientists announced that for the first time on record, Antarctic ice has failed to “substantially recover” over winter, in a “once in 7.5-million-year event.” Climate change is the most likely culprit.

Petra Heil, a sea ice physicist from the Australian Antarctic Division, told the ABC it could tip the world into a new state. “That would be quite concerning to the sustainability of human conditions on Earth, I suspect.”

And in March, a senior United Nations disarmament official told the Security Council the risk of nuclear weapons being used today is higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

Both warnings speak to concerns about Earth’s security. Will our planet be able to support human life in the future? And if not, will humanity have another chance at survival in space?

Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the rise of the “billionaut.” The ultra-wealthy are engaged in a private space race costing billions of dollars, while regular citizens often condemn the wasted resources and contribution to global carbon emissions.

Space—described in the Outer Space Treaty as being the “province of all mankind”—risks instead becoming the playground of the elite few, as they try to escape the consequences of environmental destruction.

But if we have to select humans to send into space for a species survival mission, how do we choose who gets to go?

In Montreal last month, the Interstellar Research Group explored the question: how would you select a crew for the first interstellar mission?

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-world-ethical-rebuild-humanity-off-planet.html

The way greed has taken control of the people I would say those that can bribe their way to a better life will leave the rest of us peasants behind to fend for ourselves.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Two Party F*ck Up

I have been a third party voter since 1984….I was a Dem in 1976 and 1980 but then I could not vote for the nominees in good conscience……so I looked for an alternative and have continued that search every since…..why? I believe the two party system has f*cked up American democracy to the point if may not be repaired.

The popular thing to do is blame Trump for this decline….although he has not helped American pursuit of democracy the slow death is not all his fault.

Fivethirtyeight can explain it much better than me….

As the “Big Lie” of a stolen election continues to dominate the Republican Party, GOP-controlled states enact restrictive voting laws and pursue preposterous election audits, aspiring candidates embrace the fiction of a stolen 2020 election, and a majority of GOP voters still believe Trump is the “true president,” the obvious questions follow: Where is this all headed? And is there any way out?

In one telling, the Republican Party will eventually come back to its senses and move past former President Donald Trump and Trumpist grievance politics, especially if Republicans lose a few elections in a row and realize that it’s a losing strategy. But there’s another possible outcome: More contested elections, more violence and, ultimately, a collapse into competitive authoritarianism enabled by electoral advantages that tilt in one party’s favor.

Trump and his particular style of party leadership are easy and obvious targets to blame for the decline of American democracy, as well as the Republican Party’s increasing illiberalism. But if Trump was transformative, the more important question is: Why was he able to succeed in the first place?

The most compelling theory based on historical patterns of democratic decline is that hyper-polarization cracked the foundations of American democracy, creating the conditions under which a party could break democratic norms with impunity, because winning in the short term became more important than maintaining democracy for the long term. 

Why The Two-Party System Is Effing Up U.S. Democracy

2024 brings us to the “Not Trump” election where voters are asked to hold their nose an vote against Trump.

Sorry I cannot do that so I will once again search for a third party that I find less objectionable….and then I can be blamed if Biden loses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”