Allright now. Y2K Senate report and Y2K news on the situation is ON EVERY LEADING broadcast news show. IT'S EVERYWHERE. Don't know if I should be glad, but I'm a bit more apprehensive than I was when I got up this morning.

So now that the media is bombarding the crap out of an asleep populace with this problem.....

What do you think the American Public's reaction will be? Will one eye open, an eyebrow raise, then the herd shrug and go back to sleep?

Will Joe Sixpack buy extra beans, beer and rice this weekend "Just to be safe"?

Will runs on food and banks follow shortly?

Will Walmart run out of toilet paper and Ammodium AD?

Are the tracks towards martial law being layed now that the average American slob will now hear "Houston, we have a problem", thus planting the Y2K seed in the subconcious after the snooze button is pushed by the public for forty more winks?

Will the media now backpeddle and focus on blaming Christian nutcases who are stockpiling for the cause of Y2K?

Has the Culture just run out of sensational news to talk about, so let's invent a problem? (That was a bone for you DWGI's)

Inquiring minds want to know.

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), March 02, 1999

Answers

Invar,

Yep Y2K is going mainstream, after the media got done running slick willy 24/7 and he dodge another one they have nothing left but Y2K.

I don't anticipate the Pollyanna's/DWGI's/DGI's to do a damn thing til Oct or Nov.

If people haven't Gotten it yet, I doubt very much they will flinch for the next 6 to 8 months. Remember most of us took quite a few month to sink in. sad truth is there is not a whole lot people can do know with 10 months remaining, unless they saddle up with a GI who's willing to help them out.

Matt

-- Matt (Butenam1@aol.com), March 02, 1999.

With the bottom dropping out of just about every world commodity market, it's laughable to see anyone condemned for stockpiling. Please, stockpile now. Particularly wheat, cotten, soybeans and corn and pork and beef since we grow them and can't seem to find anyone else in the world who is interested in these commodities.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 02, 1999.

Stockpile all you want, who cares? It's your money. My problem is with the Y2K suppliers who are cheating the heck out of people. ($200 + for a case of sterno and a folding sterno stove.)

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), March 02, 1999.

Invar: Good question - ya beat met to it! I have been wondering the same thing regarding what the reaction will be to this "front page" type news.

In order for people to go back to sleep they first have to wake up - even briefly, so one thing to watch for is any spike in awareness/prep by J.Q. Public, though how we would know this in any verifiable way eludes me (short of some kind of panic). Barring some kind of trigger event, I still think that we will continue to see "slow and steady" Y2K awareness, although news like this has the potential to pick up the pace a bit. Don't forget, many of us here are almost constantly thinking about Y2K, unlike the general public which just sees a little light from the flickering media candle once and a while and then Forgets It.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), March 02, 1999.

Lots of folks take great pride in not running with the herd. If "everybody" is doing something, then they MUST not be seen to do it. So maybe they'll hoard in secret, while openly dismissing y2k as a load of nonsense & religious hysteria. I suspect that may be true of the people around me, at least some of them.

Others, I dunno. I started telling folks about y2k back in April. These days everyone seems surprised to be reading about it in the daily news. Why the surprise? Duhh... it's getting closer, not further away....duhh... Gee, didn't Bill Gates fix that? He didn't? So, uhh... What's gonna happen...?

The mind of man is a strange contraption.

-- would like (to@know.also), March 02, 1999.

A friend of mine who works for Microsoft told me that they have made a silver bullet than will fix all computers and even those embedded chips. Its just a plug in I think and it works for absolutely everything. It's going to be put on the shelfs in April and costs about $99.00. So y2k is fixed. So your all wrong. Ha ha.

-- friend (friend@friend.mindspring.com), March 02, 1999.

I like watching CNN's Leon Harris scrunch up his face when reading to us about Y2K. (I have CNN on non-stop lately; even my household spiders GI). You can see him thinking "what UP with all this Y2K on my teleprompter??"

Local anchors, same expression: "why is my head talking about this?"

I suppose we should anticipate a run on generators.. and guns. That seems to be the knee-jerk from people who don't actually GI (not the full-scale, deluxe, sickening awareness) but sorta PI (perceive it). Two-dimensionally..... rather than in Technicolor.

Y2K is almost sorta getting amusing...

-- Lisa (lisa@gimme.outa_here), March 02, 1999.

Frankly, I don't expect any great stampede to "get it." Just slow awareness growth. Some will take up the personal action baton, others will "wait".

Next fall get's my vote, unless, something "big" happens.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 02, 1999.

Visited Sam's last night. Large display of fire-proof safes of various sizes, prominately displayed. For all that hoarded cash & gold, & all those valuable financial records?

-- just (being@paranoid.here), March 02, 1999.

Okay, Y2K Senate Press Conference synopsis:

It's later than you think. We have 304 days to go.

Low to medium probability of terrorist or nuclear problems.

This country will not be crippled.

There will be a bump in the road for the U.S.

It won't last long.

Defense and Intelligence will be O.K. We'll remain the strongest force in the world.

Food will be O.K.

Telecommunications O.K.

Power O.K.

Low Civil unrest.

Health care will have problems. Poor and inner cities will have health care problems. (President Clinton's dead Health Care Program looks to get a ressurection into policy by EO)

Minor economic impact - - - here.

It's the other countries that will have a disaster. They may meltdown.

It will not be TEOTWAWKI or Armageddon - - - HERE. It will be for the third world. Civil unrest, economic, infrastructure and social breakdowns. But not here. Here is good.

So what about this "global economy" we've heard so much about? Was it all hype? Hmmmmm.

They also stated (paraphrasing): Don't trust the internet forums. They're nuts. Internet groups may be responsible for starting a panic. But don't say "There is no problem" either. There is a problem. But we got it handled. There may be some disruptions - - minor. Nothing to worry about.

Worry about other nations like China, Russia, Thailand, India etc.

But we'll be fine here, on our continental island.

Just a little bumpy.

Don't you feel better now? We can all go to back to sleep.

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), March 02, 1999.

I dunno...

A GI friend of mine emailed me today that her DWGI husband came home last night, got on the net and ordered $600 worth of survival supplies just in case. I think the herd is turning into the wind, sniffing the air...mooooo!

Booster C.

-- Booster C. (booster@cable.com), March 02, 1999.

Would you all be so kind as to post your observations/comments on the Senate Y2k press conference (at least for today 3/2/1999) to the thread entitled "Play by Play Y2k Day in the Senate?"

Trying for a complete archive of the day's events.

Thanks!

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 02, 1999.

"Play by Play: Y2K Day in the U.S. Senate"

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000Yir

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 02, 1999.

A while ago someone had a post relating on how the flu epidemic of 1918 was treated by the government (state and federal). Last night PBS had a report on the flu epidemic of 1918 that said similar things, namely:

"PEOPLE WERE DYING IN THE STREETS BY HUNDREDS (LITERALLY) AND THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK HAD A PRESS CONFERENCE TO DECLARE "..DON'T WORRY. THIS IS NO PROBLEM, EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE..."

It didn't change until there wern't enough caskets to bury all the dead. So why on earth do we think something like Y2k will be any different.

It will be denied until the end.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), March 02, 1999.

I just saw Senators Dodd and Bennett giving a news conference. No folks, planes won't fall from the sky. Dodd said that some poor soul in Oregon took $30,000 in cash out of the bank and got robbed. I've heard this rumor about that happening to a guy in Florida.

What a bullshit story. Dodd must thing we are all morons.

-- Observer (observer@IseeYou.com), March 02, 1999.

Of course Dodd thinks we're all morons.

He's a liberal Socialist Democrat.

THEY know what's best for all of us - don't ya know?

Too bad most folks look to Washington for daily direction and sustenance.

To all our peril.

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), March 02, 1999.

In case you didn't see it on other threads, I called the drugstore to get my prscription refilled, maybe 15-20 minutes after the press conference. Line was busy, busy. When I got through, I asked the pharmacist if her phone had suddenly started ringing. "Why, yes," was the reply, "it's just started ringing off the hook." "Refills?" I asked. You got it!

Lisa, Sweetie is picking up my stuff on the way home from work. Can you wait for your aspirin till then?!

Now I have to go phone the vet, get Nelson's steroids set aside. Yeah, I know, I'm contributing to the rush but I can't miss my meds or let Nelson miss his just for the principle of the thing.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 02, 1999.

Yo Friend, think it'll "plug into" my mainframe?

PS - I Got a bridge for sale!

<:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 02, 1999.

Invar, I saw a Kroger spokesperson on CNN Headline News several times today. He said providing there's no hoarding or excessive stockpiling, we won't have a food supply problem.

One, you notice they never define "hoarding" or "excessive stockpiling." I guess it's more than three days.

Two, since he says this in the context of hoarding and stockpiling, do we take this to mean he's referring to conditions BEFORE Y2K? So I guess there might be a food supply problem AFTER Y2K?

Three, I take it that if people do "hoard" or "excessively stockpile," then it will be their fault if there's a food supply problem.

Four, according to the wife of a Kroger manager I know, Y2K is just hype.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 02, 1999.

The BIG story is still Monica, her interview and her book.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), March 02, 1999.

I'm nor surprised, but PO'd at CNN again for the non-reporting. I wrote to them at Feedback. Perhaps others should consider communicating, too, if you're not, already.

"To Lou Dobbs, Carl Rochelle, and the producers of Moneyline, etc: I must ask, when is the irresponsible, lazy reporting on Y2K going to end? Today's coverage about the Food Supply and Y2K was yet another example of reporting NOT journalism. We expect more from CNN. When a supermarket executive testifies that everything is going to be fine, you report it. Fine. But without questioning him? For God sake, even the American Red Cross suggests stockpiling for a week, just in case. In your reports, one is left with the impression that the so-called "survivalists" (people who are making more preparations than the average cfitizen may be) are the culprits.

The supermarket exec. as much as suggested that this "stockpiling" was a potential problem. That comment was not questioned. Furthermore, no alternative point of view was explored. Just his view, accepted at face value, like all of the other, sloppy reporting covering reports by the Oil industry, and the self-reporting of the federal government. Gee whiz, if the FAA says there are no problems, then I guess we're OK... and so on. Come on, you guys, there has to be someone there who's linterested in presenting the WHOLE picture and a range of intelligent thought on this subject, isn't there? Journalism 101. Thanks, in advance, for the form letter you are about to shoot off to me. Please, do your job... the public counts on you. Sara Nealy

I also sent an email to msnbc in response to their ridiculour over- coverage of Monica and her new book. They called the show, "Princess Monica":

Princess Diana used her spotlight to bring attention to issues of importance to humanity. Monica has the opportunity to do something more than either "tell the truth about what happened" or "make money" on her fame. She can use her spotlight to bring attention to the best-kept secret in the nation: The U.S. Senate report on the state of the country to face the year 2000 "Millenium Bug" is due to be released tomorrow. In a draft copy of the report obtained by U.S. News, committee chairmen Robert Bennett and Christopher Dodd predict that the breakdown of computer networks unable to process 21st-century dates will be "one of the most serious and potentially devastating events this nation has ever encountered." Aren't we all going to be pleased that we spent 1998 and 1999 dealing with Monica instead of preparing for the challenges ahead???" Sara Nealy

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), March 02, 1999.

The Monica thing is interesting in that I feel the 9 month advanced "warning" is about the right amount of time to bore the herd with y2k. Most of us grew sick and tired of the Monica story, but they continue to beat a dead horse. Clinton is what he is, a smart, scumbag who isn't getting any from the Mrs., so he went looking for some elsewhere (people don't change, even when they become President). Clinton has done things much worse than getting a few BJs from an intern. The public gets bored easy, even stock market "dips" don't wake them up anymore. Go back to sleep, sleep, sleep....

Life's good, they sent us a new credit card today, let's go to Hawaii! Y2K a problem? "We live in America, we don't have to worry about this bullshit", local builder. Y2K will be bad everywhere but here. Your money is safe, the lights will be on, prepare for a bad snow storm......

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), March 02, 1999.