America - A Big Kid With Dangerous Toys

[Bricktop]

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/05/30/us-anthrax-sent-to-australia.html?cid=BP_CAROUSEL_NEWS_1_ANTHRAX_MISTAKE_2015_3005">http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stor ... _2015_3005">http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/05/30/us-anthrax-sent-to-australia.html?cid=BP_CAROUSEL_NEWS_1_ANTHRAX_MISTAKE_2015_3005



They are utterly incapable of managing, storing and distributing lethal material.



Didn't they invade Iraq because they possessed this crap?

[RW]

That's REALLY disconcerting.  I can't even wrap my head around how this level of mistake making can even happen in the first place.

[Renee]

That's REALLY disconcerting.  I can't even wrap my head around how this level of mistake making can even happen in the first place.

My head goes completely around it. It's a government operation, they fuck shit up all the time, unintentionally AND intentionally. Ever read "The Stand" by Stephen King? There is more than just a hint of probability in that story. If man ever gets wiped out by a plague, my money is on it not being natural.



Tell your idiot boyfriend to take some antibiotics. God help us all if he comes down with something even resembling anthrax. The moans, groans and pathetic screams for sympathy will be unbearable; pussy that he is.

[RW]

How is that acceptable?!  If that happened here, we'd be demanding heads on spikes.  And what's with this "intentional" shit?!  AAaahhhh!



I would tell him but he wouldn't listen to me anyway.

[Renee]

How is that acceptable?!  If that happened here, we'd be demanding heads on spikes.  And what's with this "intentional" shit?!  AAaahhhh!



I would tell him but he wouldn't listen to me.

"Intentional shit", what, you don't know that the US government has used and continues to use localized pockets of people for biological experiments? It's been going on since the 1960s.



How is it acceptable? I don't know. No one is accountable in our government anymore unless the news media wants them to be. Even then there is usually someone or something with an agenda doing the driving.

[RW]

Oh I'm sure they use people for experiments.



Your news media is fucked.  I don't know how anyone can feel good about anything when someone on some channel/show labeled "news" is crapping all over it.

[Romero]

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/05/30/us-anthrax-sent-to-australia.html?cid=BP_CAROUSEL_NEWS_1_ANTHRAX_MISTAKE_2015_3005">http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stor ... _2015_3005">http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/05/30/us-anthrax-sent-to-australia.html?cid=BP_CAROUSEL_NEWS_1_ANTHRAX_MISTAKE_2015_3005



They are utterly incapable of managing, storing and distributing lethal material.



Didn't they invade Iraq because they possessed this crap?

You're lucky Australia is too big to pick on too much!

The Pentagon Wants To Bomb The @#$% Out Of Tiny Defenseless Island



Pagan island is a biologically diverse, 10-mile-long island anchored by two volcanoes in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an independent government associated with the United States.



The island, nearly three-quarters of the way to the Philippines from Hawaii, is home to wildlife that includes an endangered fruit bat, endemic birds, huge spiders, lizards, and a rare tree snail. The island has been mostly uninhabited since 1981, when its population was evacuated because of volcanic eruptions.



Pentagon officials have proposed leasing Pagan Island from Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to use for live-fire amphibious practice, including "guns-blazing war games on Pagan at least 16 weeks a year," the Los Angeles Times reports.



Hundreds of Marines would play out Pacific warfare attacks on Pagan's black sand beaches and in its fields, potentially participating with forces from other Pacific Rim nations such as Japan, South Korea and Australia, firing guns and mortars and dropping bombs from B-52s with support from drones, helicopters and fighter jets.



Residents of Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, strongly oppose the U.S. military's plans.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/29/pagan-island-marines-military_n_7342168.html">//http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/29/pagan-island-marines-military_n_7342168.html

Talk about overkill:

Over 180,000 Marine Mammals May Die in Navy's Arctic War Games



The upcoming war games in the Gulf of Alaska will not be the first such exercises in the region — they have been conducted, on and off, for the last 30 years — but they will be the largest by far. In fact, a 360% rise in munitions use is expected, according to Emily Stolarcyk, the program manager for the Eyak Preservation Council.



"The propellants from the Navy's missiles and some of their other weapons will release benzene, toluene, xylene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and naphthalene into the waters of twenty percent of the training area, according to their own Environmental Impact Statement," she explains as we look down on Cordova's harbor with salmon fishing season rapidly approaching.



Here's just one example of the kinds of damage that will occur: the cyanide discharge from a Navy torpedo is in the range of 140-150 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency's "allowable" limit on cyanide: one part per billion.



The Navy's EIS estimates that, in the five-year period in which these war games are to be conducted, there will be more than 182,000 "takes" — direct deaths of a marine mammal, or the disruption of essential behaviors like breeding, nursing, or surfacing. On the deaths of fish, it offers no estimates at all. Nevertheless, the Navy will be permitted to use at least 352,000 pounds of expended materials in these games annually. The potential negative effects could be far-reaching, given species migration and the global current system in northern waters.



http://www.alternet.org/environment/over-180000-marine-mammals-may-die-navys-arctic-war-games">//http://www.alternet.org/environment/over-180000-marine-mammals-may-die-navys-arctic-war-games

[J0E]

Is Leopardsocks/Spectre 'anti american' or an 'American hater' because he post something off-color like this thread?



I've noticed that that staunch USA lobby here and on memebee don't want anyone to criticize the USA or its citizens at all.



Any smidgeon of dissent, and the view it as unrestrained hate of the USA.



Cripes, these people oughta get a grip

[Romero]

I think we need to acknowledge that criticizing American foreign policy, Obama, Bush, whatever has little to do with the American people. We all know that Americans are some of the greatest people in the world.

[Phil O Bat]

Most Americans don't even like this idea, but the American government, which is not really a democracy, just ignores them.

[Romero]

And along comes an example of a great American. Hello, Phil!

[Renee]

Most Americans don't even like this idea, but the American government, which is not really a democracy, just ignores them.

The US governement was never set up to be a democracy, it was originally conceived and designed to be a Republic. After the Civil War it has moved closer and closer to being a direct democracy which is where all the problems stem from. If it had remained a Republic as the founding fathers had intended, there would accountability on the part of the government.

[RW]

I thought that is why y'all have guns - to keep your government honest.



I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the U.S.  It's big and confused and meddle in things it shouldn't.  That said, some of my favourite people are American.

[Renee]

I thought that is why y'all have guns - to keep your government honest.



I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the U.S.  It's big and confused and meddle in things it shouldn't.  That said, some of my favourite people are American.

That IS what the 2nd Amendment is for. Unfortunately armed isurection is easier said than done. It's going to take for the people of the US to reach a breaking point before a change to the Government is perpetrated by force. The other unfortunate issue is most people in the US today wouldn't know government tyranny if it bit them in the ass. We actually live under it right now but no one really recognizes it. We have strayed so far from our independent roots that we are nothing but sheep to be sheared.

[cc]

Agreed with the directly above.

If it had remained a Republic as the founding fathers had intended, there would accountability on the part of the government

I am very aware that it now functions mainly as a monarchy but would you please elaborate on the set up it had for a republic and how it was to function ... and why there would be accountability?