Houston, We Have a Problem: God Save the American States

I just finished watching the three disc set of the HBO miniseries "John Adams" - running over about 10 hours, this film describes the incredible life of our second US president, long overshadowed by the awful twist of fate of being in an historic position to make a difference, but sandwiched in between George Washington, "Father of our Nation," Thomas Jefferson, "Author of the Declaration of Independence," and Ben Franklin "Man of Many Talents." Tough crowd. [Note that unlike his colleagues, John Adams face is not on any currency!]

This clip is outstanding ... John Adams - God Save The American States ... watch this, then imagine a debate like that in today's Congress. Ain't. Gonna. Happen. Though we could sure use a group of leaders like they had back then, especially right about now.

Consider our current state of affairs ... we may not have Redcoats and Taxation without Representation, but folks, let's face it, times are really, really bad, and they're getting worse every day.... today, we have Economic Meltdown and Global Warming. The wheels are off the wagon and the wagon has gone off the tracks...but here is the real kicker ... even when/if we get the wheels get back on, the track is still going the wrong way...and we can't agree on what/where the new track goes yet. We need help.

Today's employment report, showing that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, 320,000 in October, and 403,000 in September -- for a total of over 1.2 million over the last three months -- begs the question of whether the meltdown we're experiencing should be called a Depression. We are falling off a cliff. To put these numbers into some perspective, the November losses alone are the worst in 34 years. A significant percentage of Americans are now jobless or underemployed -- far higher than the official rate of 6.7 percent. Simply in order to keep up with population growth, employment needs to increase by 125,000 jobs per month......When FDR took office in 1933, one out of four American workers was jobless. We're not there yet, but we're trending in that direction. Shall We Call it a Depression Now?

AND

The trajectory both Barack Obama and Gordon Brown have proposed - an 80% cut by 2050 - means reducing emissions by an average of 2% a year. This programme, the figures in the Tyndall paper suggest, is likely to commit the world to at least four or five degrees of warming, which means the likely collapse of human civilization across much of the planet. Is this acceptable?

The costs of a total energy replacement and conservation plan would be astronomical, the speed improbable. But the governments of the rich nations have already deployed a scheme like this for another purpose. A survey by the broadcasting network CNBC suggests that the US federal government has now spent $4.2 trillion in response to the financial crisis, more than the total spending on World War Two when adjusted for inflation. Do we want to be remembered as the generation that saved the banks and let the biosphere collapse? Happy Climate Action Day. Will The Poznan Climate Summit Tell Earth “Kiss Your Poles Goodbye”?

"Houston, We Have a Problem.