Y Y to K is OK

How was Y2K downgraded from a "bump on the road" to a "pimple on an elephant's ass." Read on and discover how American ingenuity developed the ultimate "silver bullshit": the AUHD (Ass Up Head Down) system by tight collaboration of Government, corporations and media. The removal of Y2K from the National radar screen is saving the last Christmas of the 20th century from the big bad Y2K bug. Santa's sleigh is Y2K compliant after all. Yupeeeeee!!!!

On August 4th, 1999 a Washington Post article reported:

"People have become very complacent about Y2K, They think the problem has been solved, so they don't want to hear talk about storing food and other preparations....

August polls show that a clear majority of Americans -- 84 percent, according to an Associated Press survey -- expect minor problems or none at all come January.

What happened? Simple; press, corporations and government got together and trusting American "gullible common sense" started to cover the issue with "informative" reports, such as: "Planes will not drop from the sky. - Nuclear reactors will not melt down. Financial institutions will not freeze. and other Blah blah Ginger....People were droolingly happy to hear that wonderful lullabye baby reporting..

Authoritative opinions backed corpogov claims with a flood of "factoids" such as:

"It's going to be a dud," blasted David Starr, chief information officer at Readers Digest, "The fuse is going to go down to 2000, and nothing will happen." 16 million digest readers visualized a pathetic fizzle

The London DAILY TELEGRAPH April 1/98 pulled an April fool's day shot quoting Anthony Finkelstein saying that fears of a global meltdown are greatly exaggerated. "We are being assailed by dire warnings . Banks will fail, people will die in hospitals, household electronic goods will become unusable, cars will not start, planes will drop out of the sky. These are irresponsible scaremongering...etc."

[It's amazing how survival goods peddlers have managed to infiltrate governments, international banks, the senate, the press, the military, even the CIA, but we are all too smart to believe any of their alarmism.]

Here are a few examples:

Washington Post - Monday, August 3, 1998: ...the sheer scale of the government's task is stunning. Government programmers are analyzing and altering millions of lines of computer code in programs that affect virtually every telecommunications component and every electronic file exchanged with a city, a state, a non-profit organization, a business or a foreign nation.

Nothing to fear, programmers conned Washington Post and the government into scaremongering. But we Americans are too cool to fool.

Now listen to this scary government stuff: The computer-dependent systems at risk range from Tomahawk missiles to student loan processing, from Coast Guard ship inspections to farm crop payments. Many of the government's most complex computers are clustered at the Defense Department, the IRS and the Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicare. .On May 15 the OMB designated the departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Transportation, as well as the Agency for International Development, as troubled agencies, saying they were "not making adequate progress" on Y2K issues. These laggards, according to the OMB, are running behind schedule in fixing major computer systems, may not be finished repairing some critical systems ....on and on trying to cause panic. .The General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency, repeatedly faulted the government for "slow progress" and chronically underestimating the Y2K challenge. Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.), who chairs a House subcommittee on government technology, recently gave the government a grade of "F" for its Y2K effort. .See what I mean? Even the General Accounting Office must be trying to peddle Y2K junk. And what about that slick politician Horn. Wonder what special interests he' s beholden to. Recycling toilets maybe or non-hybrid seeds. No matter!, we Americans are too cool to be fooled. We'll not bother to buy an ounce of rice. We'll fly to Tokio for SUCHI on December 31 /99 with Koskinen. Where is he flying by the way? I got a lot of respect for banks. Only banks and Wall Street tell it like it is. They tell us what is good for us. Keep our money in the bank where it's safe. Stay in the stock market.and get richer because.. the long bull will never end. Why there is ebough bull in America to keep the bull market going forever. Remember even fair minded Greenspan - the protector of the poor -told everybody not to keep money under the mattress, because our mattress is not insured and many thieves are lurking around our house at nightwaiting for Y2K. .Now get this...and see if it does not make you mad.

Washington Post Friday, August 7, 1998

Despite making significant progress on its Year 2000 computer problems, the Federal Aviation Administration probably does not have enough time in the next 17 months to fix and test many of its most critical air safety systems, a congressional investigator told a House panel yesterday.

"In the time remaining, it is doubtful this can be done," said Joel C. Willemssen, one of the General Accounting Office's leading Year 2000 computer experts.

Now isn't that sick? Collusion of FAA, GAO, Congress scaremongering just to sell us survival gear. Thank God our wise press is reassuring us that planes that cannot fly will not fall from the sky.

Here is more scary stuff from Reuters

U.S. Plans Y2K Bunker, Clinton Aide To Tell Senate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government is setting up an unprecedented command center to cope with any year 2000 emergencies, President Clinton's top trouble-shooter for the issue prepared to tell Congress Thursday.......(snip)

At the heart of the new phase is the Y2K Information Coordination Center (ICC), the Washington-based hub of a multimillion-dollar crisis management bunker to be operational by Oct. 31 ....

Koskinen said the command center was meant to keep tabs on critical private-sector activities as well as local, state and federal computer systems; on overseas developments; and on any ''cyber incidents,'' such as attacks.

The bunker is being built in a former Secret Service facility not far from the White House. Among other tasks, it will receive information from the International Y2K Cooperation Center set up by the United Nations and the World Bank.

The command center planning now under way is for the technology-challenging New Year period .... U.S. officials consider the Y2K Center a test of a national ``cyber defense'' drive .......

[Now all this if it were true would clearly indicate a National and international catastophe. Now how could a thing like this happen to us? They are trying to sell us canned tuna and rice to keep their stocks up. I bet Clinton owns Star Kist Tuna stock. But we Americans are too cool to fool. We are not going to prepare. We listen to those fine reporters telling us that "Planes will not fall from the sky and that it will be a three day storm" We are tired of Chicken Little.!!! ] Let us try Turkey Big!!!!!!!!!

-- BOZO (BOZO@Bannum&Bailey.Circus), August 27, 1999

Answers

BOZO,

americans are too cool fo be fooled.

the banks love us and want our money safe. Our Govmint loves us and wants us to stay cool so no more Bull for us other than the eternel bull market.

let the poor starve and the rich get richer. Let the swat teams swat normal citizens ...evil is all around and good men and women are hiding waiting their time.

We want a free america Y2K will give us a narrow window of opportunity if we prepare now. The pollies will be wringing their hands...we can lead the polly sheeple to a new corrall where they will not be sheared naked every year by the IRS...we can take power back into the people's hands.

We must organize now...now!!!!

-- lala (lala@lala.land), August 27, 1999.

Strong postwork. "Give me three weeks of intense media coverage, and I can deliver any policy decision you want." Also, don't underestimate the fatigue factor (no event in American public discourse has 'legs' for more than a coupla months), nor the fact that most people WANT Y2K to be a fizzle, and are drawn towards those who downplay the significance. We like our zesty salsa, they want cold porridge. C'est la vie.

-- Spidey (in@jam.commie), August 27, 1999.

lala, "we" cannot organize to effect anything positive regarding what Y2K will bring. You, however, can even at this late date prepare to escape the worst of it. If you act now.

Y2K CANNOT BE FIXED!

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), August 27, 1999.

Spidey,

Your point about "news fatique" struck a chord.

My feeling is that idealism is basically dead, in this country. The collaboration between gov't, the corporations and the media, isn't about bringing in the next "Reich", but about protecting the assets of the rich.

Which brings me to the thought I just had, about the media, that your post inspired. THE MEDIA, is a business. They sell information. The hotter a story is, the more people are watching the news channels, instead of "Married With Children" reruns. More viewers...more sponsors...mo' money. Maybe their silence about Y2K is an attempt to maximize the "leg time" of the Y2K story. If they had started pushing the story, earlier in the year, it probably wouldn't have even hit that 2 month maximum. By waiting till September or October, to start making Y2K THE big story, they might be able to push the maximum leg time to 3 or even 4 months. If a BITR happens (or any scenario that entails hardship, but still allows the media to continue to exist), they might be able to push this sucker, for half a year! A new record for milking the profits of a single story!

The media is notoriously treacherous, when it comes to posturing a story, for maximum benefit. They serve no one, other than themselves - not the people, not the corporations, not the gov't - when ratings points are involved.

Hmmmmm... it will be interesting to watch how the media handles this story, in the coming months.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), August 27, 1999.