Doomsday Alarm Clock

just really feels like everything has gone downhill. We spoke about this yesterday with doctor Jonathan Metzel with this just consistency around panic and anxiety. So just another way to know that you're not crazy with the way that you're feeling well. Axios reports this which I just had to, you know, kind of laugh at but not really, which

is that the doomsday clock. The doomsday clock, which was created by the bulletin of Atomic Scientist, is a symbolic clock of you know, according to Axios, how close we are to midnight, and midnight is essentially a human cause

catastrophic events. So the doomsday clock was created in nineteen forty seven and was initially used, according to this article, to represent the danger posed by nuclear weapons, and you know that we had nuclear weapons were created, and these scientists got together and started to think about all of the risks to mankind. And at the time in nineteen four seven, the only really truly to mankind was nuclear war,

as countries were building their nuclear arsenals. Well. Now, over the course of many, many decades, the doomsday clock has since evolved, and not in a good way, right in the way that it takes into account other risks to humanity, which is climate change, bioweapons, and disinformation. And for the first time, so this is wild, but for the first time in our history, we are the closest to midnight, meaning basically the collapse of our humanity or a catastrophic event,

than we have ever been in our lifetime. And so twenty twenty three the announcement came down that we are ninety seconds to midnight, which ten seconds was taken off from twenty twenty which is when we were the closest to midnight because of a global health pandemic. Now we are ninety seconds to midnight. And this is what they say. The clock is a figurative tracker of the world's proximity

to total human cause destruction. The clock's hands are moved closer to midnight to suggest humanity is nearer to self made catastrophe and farther when that risk appears to fade.

What has prompted some of these factors to contribute to us literally ticking closer to our destruction is, according to the Bolton of Atomic Scientists, this Russia's thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict by accident, intention, or miscalculation is a terrible risk. The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone's

control remains high. They also go on to talk about the expansion of China's nuclear capabilities, the rise in North Korea, the increase in North Korea's missile testing, which we have seen and every time it happens it is breaking news. The climate crisis also continues to pose an existential threat, they write, with global carbon dioxide emissions rebounding from their

pre pandemic low and climate change linked extreme weather events abounding. So, folks, basically what they are saying is that, how do I put this in delicate ways, We're fucked that every time there is some type of catastrophic event and I would argue that they should probably this is a global sense, but they should probably add in, you know, America's mass shootings that are now happening multiple times in one week,

that that is what is also presenting a problem. So you take into consideration mass shootings, climate change, bio catastrophe,

in terms of another pandemic, nuclear war. I mean, when Jonathan and I are talking yesterday about this heightened anxiety and why everyone is numbing themselves with xanax or other types of anti anxiety medications and antidepressants, it's because of this, Like we're not all crazy, right, Like every time my phone dings right buzzes and there's the New York Times and then the AP that comes right behind it, and then Routers that comes behind that, I'm like, what the

fuck is happening? And there's the moment where I don't really want to click on what's happening, but I also don't want to walk outside and see a big fucking plume of smoke and cloud that says, oh, New York has been hit by missiles, right, Because while that sounds crazy,

it's fucking not right. Like that's the thing is that I think that what has happened since the rise of Donald Trump, the improbable presidency of a reality TV fraudster and grifter becoming the president of the United States, accelerating

the demise of our democracy. Watching one of the two major political parties morph itself into a cult of personality that doesn't care about government, that doesn't care about grifters, that doesn't care about liars, that doesn't care about insurrectionists, and instead embraces them all in their big white supremacist tent,

and seeing that these people are not losing. Sure, folks lost their Secretary of State races and lost local like important election positions for races, but we have a whole new crop of insurrectionists that are in the House of Representatives, who if we had a Department of Justice with an Attorney General that actually gave a damn, then these people wouldn't have been able to run of her office because guess what, they would have all been fucking indicted before

they had the opportunity to get on the campaign trail

in the first goddamn place. We have the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green being sat on important important committees like Homeland Security where you get classified information, and we have the likes of Eric Swalwell and Representative Adam Schiff being denied placements on important committees like Intelligence because Kevin McCarthy's a vindictive piece of shit and doesn't want people that actually wanted to hold the former twice impeach president accountable

for inciting an insurrection and you know, trying to bribe a foreign head of state that now he's taking it out on them. So, folks, when you take all these things that is just happening in these United States to consideration, on top of all that has been transpiring globally, our

collective anxiety is not crazy. And now I want to read you pieces of the bulletin of Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock press release, because while sure it's not an actual clock, like at midnight, you know, it's New Year's Eve and instead of fireworks, it's just bombs going off everywhere, But what it says and what it is stating is that we are seeing real, viable, credible threats to our existence.

And what is crazy is I feel like a hundred years from now, if in fact the planet is even still around, that one hundred years from now, people will be sifting through you know, news and articles and information and saying why didn't anyone do anything like this was clearly preventable, this apocalyptic living that we are doing on a broken planet? That why didn't anyone do anything? Like? How could you take no action when you see that the waters are warming and that extreme crimate events are

becoming increasingly the norm? Why wouldn't you create legislation that would stop people from being able to access guns legally and then take out an entire office or classroom? Why wouldn't everyone collectively care about humanity? And the funny thing is, folks, is that like when you put it that way, it's just it's insane. But it's the same way that I remember being a young person learning about the Holocaust and saying,

how could no one do anything? How could you allow six million souls to be exterminated from this planet and no one say him like, after the first fucking million, after the first one hundred thousand? How is there not collective fucking outrage? How do you sit idly by as six million people are killed? Folks? It's the same thing now, except it's not happening over a course of a few years at the hands of one person. It is happening at the hands of so many people collectively just not

giving a fuck. Millions of people died from COVID nineteen, and we have representatives in our government who are telling people not to get vaccinated. Did who have allowed people in their own state, like Ron de Santis, to kill a whole bunch of people in Florida and not be

brought up on any type of fucking charges. Like sometimes I tell you that I feel absolutely fucking crazy because I'm like, am I the only one that's seeing this the handful of people that seem to be on the up and up and seem to be saying, like, are our voices just not loud enough? Because how is it that the people who think the least about our humanity are the ones that are in charge right now? It

makes no fucking sense. George Santos is a member of fucking Congress because somehow we have no laws as it pertains to being a compulsive liar to your constituents and then bamboozling them into voting for a fraud and there's no recourse to take. They just got to sit with dude for two years. Like that's when you look at the laws and you say something is not fucking right here.

Similarly with the fucking Second Amendment, the four fathers of this country did not have the imagination to consider what a fucking hundred magazine of bullets could do to the body of a seven year old, right, But we don't have to imagine it because it's happening, and yet there is no will to do anything about it. It's just like, oh,

this is how we live now. We live completely in fear, fear of being shot, fear of the world just imploding from climate change, because greedy corporations can possibly decide to make money in a way that does not harm our environment or frankly harm us, because money is the most important thing. God forbid. You have regulations, you have people that are sitting idly by why people in the Ukraine

are being raped and murdered. Right, we won't know what Putin has really done until all is said and done. But let's not escalate the situation by going in and fucking stomping him out. Let's just sit around and wait for him to pull the trigger on a nuclear bomb

and then we'll take action. When I look at this press release and I'm going to read you what the President and CEO doctor Rachel Bronson of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sets because it isn't hysteria, right, Like, what's happening in front of our eyes is real, and I think that there is just this collective shock and paralysis around how to wrap your arms and mind around crises that are so big. But there are not acts of God. These are acts of man that have gotten

us here. She says this quote. We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the doomsday clock time reflects that reality. Ninety seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight, and it's a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies, and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue. We urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the clock. The

doomsday clock statement goes on to explain this quote. Russia's war on Ukraine has raised profound questions about how states interact, eroding norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks, and, worst of all, Russia's thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that the escalation of the conflict by accident, intention, or miscalculation is a terrible risk. The possibility that the conflict

could spin out of anyone's control remains high. Russia has also brought its war to the Chernobyl and zappapor Zia nuclear reactor sites, violating international protocols and risking widespread release of radioactive materials. Efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure these plants so far have been rebuffed. The doomsday clock is sounding an alarm for all of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice, but our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to

secure a peaceful and livable planet. From cutting carbon emissions to strengthening arms control treaties and investing in pandemic preparedness. We know what needs to be done, they write. The science is clear, but the political will is lacking. This must change in twenty twenty three if we are to avert catastrophe. We are facing multiple existential crises. Leaders need a crisis mindset, folks. That statement cannot be more clear. The anxiety that we are feeling is one that is

steeped in real existential threats to humanity. Over a million people were wiped out in this country by a pandemic. What this statement lies out, lays out, excuse me, is that these once in a century storms, once in a century pandemics are no longer once in a century. And what is so chilling and crazy is that we have all of the information and tools to stop what is happening, but for a handful of crazy, fucking egomaniac white supremacist leaders,

we can't get anything fucking done. So when I say, oh, here are options which are becoming really limited. Either we have a revolution in this country, one that is steeped in justice, climate justice, gun reformed justice, you know, the rights to live on a livable planet, one that is free from mass shootings, one that actually is prepared for the worst and not just by building up our fucking pentagon stockpiles, but one that is invested in the future

while also taking care of the present. Instead, we have protests erupting at fucking drag story times, curriculums being erased or denied from being taught, books being fucking burned, people refusing to take vaccines so that they can spread illness, and have the freedom to do so, and mass shootings happening more than we can even count. We didn't even learn the names of the people in the first shooting

before the second one happened. There is a reason why people are numbing themselves, whether it be with xanax, with alcohol, with whatever, because the reality is so fucking stark, and I want folks to really truly understand that you are not alone. You are not alone in having moments a lot of them, where you feel utterly hopeless because I am fighting against this like black pit and hole that is growing in my stomach and in my heart, that we're not going to be able to stop this impending

doom and instead we're watching its acceleration. Now. I have said many times that fighting for justice and equity is a marathon. It is a marathon that is also a relay that you do what you can. You pass the baton and you may never see the finish line, but you know that you are moving things down the path. But when we take into account the things that are actually out of our personal control and look around at what is happening, it does become overwhelming. This is why folks,

I encourage therapy. I encourage healthy use of medication. I encourage meditation, connecting with nature, you know, connecting with art, with music, spending time with people who lift your spirits and your soul, and tapping in just enough to not lose your mind. I do this show as a form truly of cathartic release, and also just so that people recognize that you're not crazy. You're not crazy for caring, You're not crazy for being worried, because we have a

lot to worry about. You know, we are living in unprecedented times. As I know, so many people have said we need leaders to meet this moment, and currently there is not only an absence of collective leadership and force, but there is just no will and it is up to us to force their hand. Otherwise we are going to be collateral damage in the games that they are playing. That is it for me today, Dear friends on Will gay f as always, Power to the people and to

all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fun