Existential Threats to the good ol' US of A !!!

[DaBurglar]

REMINDER......this is the ANYTHING/EVERYTHING   section:It has been asserted and bandied about lately, in many instances, that  ISIS / ISIL  represents an "EXISTENTIAL THREAT" to the USA as a nation......Does everyone believe this?   Does everyone comprehend or fathom just what this statement and belief actually MEANS  and represents???To answer these two questions right off:    I personally DO NOT believe that  ISIS / ISIL  represents an   EXISTENTIAL threat to the USA as a nation,  and I certainly do NOT believe that most (even a small number) of people in the USA believe that ISIS/ISIL truly  IS  a existential threat to the USA.........in fact I doubt most people in the USA understand the word/term    E X I S T E N T I A L  or how it applies or what it means in this context or usage ...... Is ISIS/ISIL in fact, a general threat to the USA, and just as importantly, the WORLD in general?    Obviously it is!   It clearly is a malevolent and nefarious organization that is currently being run and administered by typical Sociopaths  with their own personal agenda and visions of grandiose, personal notoriety and power.    ISIS/ISIL operates in a typical fashion that most CULT-LIKE organizations do......its use of a combination bribery (Money, sex & authority), along with psychological tactics like brainwashing and the dynamics of extremist peer pressure, are CLASSIC Cult chartacteristics!   This is All set against a backdrop and moral justification based upon THE HOLY KORAN and a EXTREMIST SUNNI interpretation of the KORAN, which is used to recruit, maintain and direct the young impressionable men in its ranks......While ISIS/ISIL is indeed a threat to perpetrate a wide variety of terrorist attacks and cause widespread  panic and mayhem, it is NOT in the same category as, for instance, RUSSIA, or even mainland CHINA,  in terms of it being a true  E X I S T E N T I A L threat requiring the commensurate and necessary attention!     This is the thing that I find deeply concerning and almost unbelievable....that a very significant, specific segment from the ranks of Republicans are apoplectic over what they think is Obama's lack of concern or urgency over ISIS/ISIL, while these same republicans simultaneously  fail to recognize or even discuss OTHER TRUE BLUE,  bonafide E X I S T E N T I A L threats, or at the very least, refuse to discuss anything until or unless OBAMA  specifically states, SPELLS and/or SCREAMS from the White house lawn that ISIS in in fact  E X I S T E N T I A L threat!!!!C'mon ..... this whole thing is way beyond absurd......its a comedy of tragic proportions......The Republicans have NO clue on what to actually "do" about  ISIS/ISIL, no plan on how to deal with ISIS/ISIL,  and NO plan to acquire a CLUE, or CLUE on how to make a plan, on ISIS/ISIL. .....  NONE.     And while OBAMA is himself lacking in concrete, bonafide clues or plans on how to definitively manage or solve the problem of ISIS, he does have several principles and measures to guide any action taken or prevent the possibility of any action taken  actually making the problem WORSE~!     The most important  (and often MOCKED)  Obama principle is "do not do stupid stuff"...... if George W. Bush had simply adhered to this principle instead of listening to his arrogant and inept advisers, ISIS/ISIL  would not exist and we would still "only' be focused upon Al Qaeda (who by the way are NOT "gone away"....more on that in a little while)!         Another principle of OBAMA is to strenuously avoid collateral damage, which tends to create NEW, far more rabid and vitriolic enemies than the enemies who you originally targeted prior to the collateral damage taking place!!"    One way to minimize Collateral damage is to rely AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE on American Technological superiority, its "SMART" weapons, along with surgical strikes and actions by special forces, as opposed to grandiose actions by large conventional forces that generate headlines and make everyone "THINK" things are being done and that we are "CLOBBERING the ENEMY", but in reality are no more effective or superior to the more "measured" and "Smart" actions Obama prefers......  Here are things, nations, issues, etc  which actually are much more close to the actual definition of  E X I S T E N T I A L   T H R E A T S  than ISIS/ISIL:First up.....I already mentioned RUSSIA (and CHINA), since both nations retain SUPERPOWER status, both have (at least on a regional, local scale in any likely spot for warfare) conventional armed forces that can match the USA and which prevent the USA from simply throwing its weight around to get its way, and most ominously, both have sufficient NUCLEAR FORCES to annihilate the USA (and the world obviously) should it come to that.......when you add in the additional ECONOMIC and CYBER Warfare aspects that Both nations have on the USA, it is clear that both are indeed potential EXISTENTIAL Threats to the USA..Secondly.....A tier of nations that, individually do not constitute existential threats to the USA, but when grouped together, or when added to specific, potential scenario(oes) involving political and economic dynamics that when unleashed, could result in the end of the USA and the world:India      Pakistan    Iran    ISRAEL  Taiwan    Ukraine ...... and of course,  NORTH KOREA  (cue the annoying, shrill voice of KIM JONG ..... "HELLLLOOO!!"    from the animated movie TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE)These nations obviously could not one-on-one take out the USA militarily....but acting in concert with other nations or within the dynamics of world politics, alliances and sheer HUMAN incompetence and error, they could initiate things which bring about the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.......in fact, in terms of  E X I S T E N T I A L   T H R E A T S  a war between India and Pakistan (or even North & South Korea) could be enough to cause horrific, irreversible and cataclysmic damage to planet earth, and to human existence as a whole.      How?  Modern Scientists agree that even a "LIMITED" nuclear exchange, or "small nuclear war", that involves the near simultaneous (i.e. within a few hours to a couple of days) detonation(s) of  "ONLY"  as few as 10 modern warheads is sufficient to cause planetary devastation.   Depending on who's intelligence estimation (i.e. "guess")  you put more faith in, the total number of (deliverable) Nuclear warheads of each country, India & Pakistan, is between 100 and 200, in other words, way way WAY beyond the 10 or so estimated to be sufficient to cause planetary devastation.   And of course, we all know how UNLIKELY it is that ANY war between Pakistan and India that actually escalates to the point of being  NUCLEAR, would remain  "LIMITED" such that "ONLY"  10 or so of the hundreds of warheads available would only be utilized!!!   Therefore, the planet would be DOOMED if a war between India and Pakistan ends up being NUCLEAR!!!!    Hence, an Existential Threat to the USA, and to the world, and one which DWARFS and makes look silly by comparison any threat from ISIS/ISIL (a threat from ISIS which if you swallow everything that FOX News, and its cohorts in the right wing Propaganda ministry spew forth each day, is the ONLY existential crisis to the USA out there right now!)Thirdly......Go ahead and repeat this above analysis about India/Pakistan, and apply it to numerous other areas and scenarios in the world where NUCLEAR WEAPONS are part of the Equation:     The Korean Peninsula (North/South)........Iran/Israel........China (Mainland "commercial communism") / Taiwan (western capitalism) ........ Ukraine/Russia!         I may be forgetting or overlooking a scenario or two, but the whole idea here is that there are NUMEROUS potential, EXISTING AS WE SPEAK, Existential Threats to the USA and the World that are far more urgent, and valid, than what currently exists with the threat posed by ISIS/ISIL.Before continuing, I would ask all of you to remember this figure:   3.503.According the US Department of Homeland Security 3503 is the number of AMERICANS Killed by Terrorism WORLDWIDE from 1995 (essentially starting with OKLAHOMA CITY) through 2014.......obviously additional Americans were killed via Terrorism in 2015 and so far this year, but that exact as yet to be confirmed number still would keep the TOTAL figure under 4000.I would ALSO ask those of you who are discerning and intelligent, and who can see through  BS and actually detect and understand the threat(s) posed by the following, to do so.......again, this is not meant to be exhaustive, nor meant to be a preferential list that tries to state that one form of death or one type of existential threat is superior to another!Existential Threats (or Existential "issues" that threaten the existence of People in THE USA and the World))1)  Climate Change/Global Warming2)  Healthcare,  LIFESTYLE (including guns and  "drugs") & Diet Issues:   Considering the sheer number of people who croak every year from Lifestyle issues( guns & "drugs" included), Diet and healthcare related issues, diseases & healthcare Dysfunction....... this is a FAR FAR greater existential  threat to more people in the USA, than a CULT (ISIS)  languishing in the wastelands of Iraq/Syria/Jordan/Turkey!!!!    The average American (you and me) are FAR FAR FAR more likely to die in our own house as a result of things we ourselves are doing to ourselves!   Remembering the above referenced number, 3,503  terror related deaths, 1995-2014 
(of which hardly ANY of these are attributable to ISIS itself, most of these
were ALQaeda);    in 2014 alone, according to the Center of Disease
Control (CDC),  614,438  AMERICANS died from HEART
DISEASE!!!!!!!!!!    When you start expanding that  number out to
include deaths directly attributed to Diabetes, Obesity, Smoking,drug
abuse .... in other words, " AMERICAN lifestyle" deaths, the number
lurches well into the MILLIONS!!!!!2a)  DRUGS In fact you have heard me say it before, EL Chapo Guzman and his party of favorites with all their party favors down Mexico way are a FAR GREATER   E X I S T E N T I A L  threat to the USA than ISIS......I am 100% serious.    Our Soldiers & Military  are in the wrong Desert(s)........I would be totally in favor of re-deploying our super-cool military with all its latest computerized death to the Mojave & Baja deserts to destroy the drug cartels instead of the Arabian Desert and the Levant!     Since 1970 when Republican (read:  We NEED SMALLER GOVERNMENT, LESS
GOVERNMENT, LESS INVOLVEMENT in EVERYDAY LIVES GOVERNMENT)  President
Richard "Dick" Nixon deflected attention from his Vietnam "doings" by
suddenly declaring a "War on Drugs" and creating a massive new
Government department with a massive new level of Government bureaucracy
(with a STONED Honorary DEA Agent Elvis Presley by his side in a now
infamous and iconic picture, lol).......Fighting the so-called  WAR ON DRUGS  is now an indelible and INDISPENSABLE aspect of our culture, society and economy!!!!     All the Agencies who have bloated budgets fighting this "Scourge", year after year:  DEA, FBI, ATF, Homeland Security, US Customs, Coast Guard, U.S. Navy,  U.S. Border Patrol, The Marshals (state & Federal), every State police Department, Every City & Town PD, and it goes on and on and on, all supposedly doing the same damn things, only talking and sharing with each other when they have NO CHOICE (lest it adversely impact their BUDGETS for next year!)......Money spent on Courts, lawyers, judges, Prisons, Administration, etc.    Worst of all,  how many people have DIED in this FIASCO/WAR?!?!?!       This seems kinda "existential" to me//   and of course, it is not only criminal sociopathic masterminds like El CHapo....our very own dysfunctional Healthcare system has created and fueld the current Heroin & Opiate Crisis!    Its absurd.....how can the USA be responsible for consuming OVER 80% of ALL pharmaceutical opiate Pain medications in the ENTIRE WORLD when we are only 3-4% of the total WORLD POPULATION?!??!!?     How come this is not on FOX news every hour of every day as a REAL threat to American Lives, but the morons in the Arabian desert known as ISIS who think they are doing God's will by wearing black Pajamas in the HOT DUSTY SUN and waving "DIE USA!" on home made flags are?!?!So, VERY conservatively, at least a million (in reality far FAR more)  AMERICANS croaked in 2014 as a DIRECT result of our American way of "Life" / "Style" .......   juxtapose THAT with the estimated, so far, WORLDWIDE number (120-150? .... let's even say 200) of Americans killed in 2015 - July, 2016 by "ISIS"  .......I think we need to deal with ISIS and prevent anymore deaths being added to that estimated total of 200 so far since early 2015......but we need to do this with a realistic and measured approach, mindful of the bigger pictures, bigger threats, and WITHOUT the pointless, bombastic, hatefilled, unhelpful animosity that the racist elements within the Republican party insist on venting towards Obama.ISIS/ISIL is certainly NOT the  E X I S T E N T I A L Threat to the USA the hatemongers in the Right Leaning circles of the American political establishment insist that it is, and their pathetic vilifying of President Obama because he simply refuses to use or utter sayings or terminology that is either inaccurate, incorrect, or pointlessly inflammatory.    The man in RESPONSIBLE and KNOWS the weight that the words of his office CARRY.....the total opposite of the man who wants to replace him (allegedly....)

[olds442jetaway]

IMO, if you cannot convince the lamebrain, low intellect, selfish, and as Rush says, " low information " people of this country to stay from drugs, smoking, and other awful vices like child porn, demand will always create the supply. I hate to even say it, but I see enough of them every day wrapped up in their own little worlds of Hollywood stars and their own selfish interests to say that currently they make up a majority of the should I even say citizens in this country.
    
     Edited to add....I want my national lottery now to build and staff prisons in the middle of nowhere. No getting out and no more rap sheets as long as a roll of toilet paper. I don't care if half of the US population ends up there. Maybe the next generation will only have half of that number incarcerated. Come to think of it, it would make a good movie. If only it would come true......

[billryan]

Get off my lawn

[Tedlark]

I took the time to read through the first post in this thread and I want to know exactly, just what new information is revealed in it?

DaBurglar should have mentioned just WHY the governor of FLORIDA has not had a response from the OBAMA administration asking for help with the ZIKA virus? These requests have been made regularly since JUNE and the Florida GOVERNOR would like an ANSWER.

The current POTUS is only as smart as the advisors surrounding him. There are more than a few people in CHICAGO wondering WHY Mr. Obama has distanced himself from: the violence in Chicago and also their current mayor.

[Galeygoo]

There are more than a few people in CHICAGO wondering WHY Mr. Obama has distanced himself from: the violence in Chicago and also their current mayor.

Here are my choices of answers to those questions:   He's not ORIGINALLY from Chicago and his "8 years" are up   AND   He knows EXACTLY what Rham is made of.....  

[DaBurglar]

I took the time to read through the first post in this thread and I want to know exactly, just what new information is revealed in it?

DaBurglar should have mentioned just WHY the governor of FLORIDA has not had a response from the OBAMA administration asking for help with the ZIKA virus? These requests have been made regularly since JUNE and the Florida GOVERNOR would like an ANSWER.

The current POTUS is only as smart as the advisors surrounding him. There are more than a few people in CHICAGO wondering WHY Mr. Obama has distanced himself from: the violence in Chicago and also their current mayor.

Those are good questions Ted.....seriously......now this is the kind of response to my posts  that  I can definitely live with and even enjoy......you are seriously engaging on the topic/issue!FIrst off, I freely admit you know more about the Zika crisis in Florida than i do....I was totally unaware that there was a feud between the president and the florida governor over the Zika Virus.....I will have to look into this and get back to you.....unless you can enlighten me somewhat on the situation itself???I myself would love to hear Obama's assessment of Rahm and the job he has done as Mayor......as respects to the violence on CHIC A GO , I was not aware that Obama had "pulled away" and was essentially ignoring Chicago and its problems with gun violence.......it is no secret what is driving it and causing it:   Increased  DRUG profits from the wide open Mexican Cartel Pipeline running right up thru the heartland of America,  supplying SUPER PURE Heroin, Cocaine and Methamphetamine to the Myriad number of Chicago gangs, with no real centralized controlling "Gang of Gangs" in the city itself, means it is wide open, wild west time......and like I said, the money and demand is there, fueled by middle class and upper class Suburban WHITE KIDS and Adults, who want these super pure drugs, so they make the drive into the city and spend their cash "escaping" their awful, prosperous, privileged lives.I'm sorry but its the truth most racially 'bent" white people do not want to hear or acknowledge.....the actual use and abuse of illegal (AND LEGAL) drugs is as much, and in some cases, MORE  of a problem with white people than minorities.......it's a FACT, not some conjecture.....take the current Heroin/Opiate crisis:  this has BY far affected disproportionately more white, non minority, people than any other ethnicity......you can look it up, it was in part driven by the prejudices of American Doctors who for a long time UNDERTREATED the pain of minorities to such a extent that in the last 10-15 years, the vast majority of opiate addicts have been WHITE (and of course, they in turn use Heroin when they can no longer acquire prescribed opiates...)   Maybe this is a reason OBAMA has been silent on this issue (he really has been silent and absent in the Heroin/Opiate crisis, and not just with respect to Chicago......could it be the racially charged issues with drug abuse in this country precludes the black chief executive even getting involved??)   I am not a fan of the president, but I also do not HATE the man like so many people today do.....I'm seriously asking, because I do not have any answers here.....I just want to make sure the TRUTH about the exact nature of the problems gets stated and acknowledged, and not just covered up.....

[Tedlark]

DaBurglar nor; the Mexican Cartel Pipeline or open air drug sales in Chicago are fueling the surge in gun violence in the City of Chicago. There is no sane reason that can be given to defend random shooting of children and senior citizens just sitting on their porches. Please don't retort with gun purchases because any idiot with $100.00 in their pocket can get hold of a gun in Chicago, it isn't difficult at all.

Forget CPD and the few recent notorious video tape reveals of some high profile events, black on black crime happens EVERY SINGLE DAY in the city and black leaders such as Jesse Jackson just ignore it because there is no notoriety going along with it. It's sad when normal people in Chicago are afraid to leave their houses and the way they need to check the neighborhood out before going to the market for milk. Part of the problem is that the court system is too soft on gun offenders and people who get arrested know this.

[Carcounter]

Olds, you're mention of low information voters reminded me of a curious contradiction in some polling data that I looked at recently. Up front I will say that I voted for Romney and thought he would have made a fine president. Like a lot of people, I don't like our current choices, but here is the apparent contradiction. Let's assume for the moment that a low info voter is someone with a high school diploma or less. I know this not entirely accurate, but probably pretty true. Obama won these voters by approx. 20% in 2012. Trump has about a 20% lead with them now. What gives? Anyone have a theory?

[DaBurglar]

DaBurglar nor; the Mexican Cartel Pipeline or open air drug sales in Chicago are fueling the surge in gun violence in the City of Chicago. There is no sane reason that can be given to defend random shooting of children and senior citizens just sitting on their porches. Please don't retort with gun purchases because any idiot with $100.00 in their pocket can get hold of a gun in Chicago, it isn't difficult at all.

Forget CPD and the few recent notorious video tape reveals of some high profile events, black on black crime happens EVERY SINGLE DAY in the city and black leaders such as Jesse Jackson just ignore it because there is no notoriety going along with it. It's sad when normal people in Chicago are afraid to leave their houses and the way they need to check the neighborhood out before going to the market for milk. Part of the problem is that the court system is too soft on gun offenders and people who get arrested know this. I guess I agree with some of this......But I'm pretty sure it's gangs fighting over drug profits and turf, and since most of these morons neither care, nor actually know how to properly SHOOT the guns they brandish, they end up killing more random innocent bystanders than each other in their respective rival gangs......this is not something unique to chicago, gang violence over drugs exists in every major American City, and the innocent usually suffer accordingly.....Prohibition an the war on Drugs has been a abysmal, colossal failure, but as i stated in earlier posts in other threads, our culture is now too dependent on this dynamic of criminal justice infrastructure and employment, and politicians are too invested in looking TOUGH on Crime, etc, for there ever to be any attempt to try something radically different......And if anyone really can easily buy a gun on the streets of Chicago for 100 bucks, how did such a thing come to be the reality?   seriously, how did such an absurdly destructive and idiotic situation like that come into being?    Is some one actually going to argue that such easily available guns is in Keeping with the 2nd Amendment, and is a good thing?   What can be done about it?    I'm seriously asking.....

[notes1]

Let's assume for the moment that a low info voter is someone with a high school diploma or less. I know this not entirely accurate, but probably pretty true.

CC, interesting question, I was unaware of those numbers, assumed the election is already decided.

but, I think your assumption about low information criteria is flawed. I/m/o, those who qualify as low information voters is likely 90% or more of the population. young/old, m/f, black/white, college grad or not, very few actually pay any attention to what is going on, outside of a sound bite or a twitter post.