When I see the results of polls like the one below, I realize there is no chance the majority will do anything to reverse the course of our nation in terminal decline. It will take a complete collapse and bloody reset before we have a chance at putting this country back on a sustainable rational course.
How the fuck can Americans actually think terrorism should be Obama and Congress’ top priority? Are Americans really that stupid? WTF do they want Obama and Congress to do? Double the DHS budget? Increase electronic surveillance on our communications? Give local police more military hardware? Ban guns? Repeal the 4th Amendment?
Do the ignorant masses know their actual chances of being killed by a terrorist? To say the chances are astronomically miniscule is an understatement. See for yourself:
- You are 35,079 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack
- You are 33,842 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack
- You are 23,528 times more likely to die from obesity than from a terrorist attack
- You are 5,882 times more likely to die from medical error than terrorism.
- You are 4,706 times more likely to drink yourself to death than die from terrorism.
- You are 1,904 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack.
- You are 2,059 times more likely to kill yourself than die at the hand of a terrorist.
- You are 452 times more likely to die from risky sexual behavior than terrorism.
- You are 353 times more likely to fall to your death doing something idiotic than die in a terrorist attack.
- You are 271 times more likely to die from a workplace accident than terrorism.
- You are more than 9 times more likely to be killed by a law enforcement officer than by a terrorist.
- You are 110 times more likely to die from contaminated food than terrorism.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-terrorism-statistics-every-american-needs-to-hear/5382818
The fact Americans think terrorism is our top priority proves that Edward Bernays was an evil genius. The combination of mass media and propaganda can convince the willfully ignorant and dumbed down populace of anything. Facts are unnecessary when fear and feelings are far more powerful. We are truly doomed.
What policies do Americans want Obama and Congress to prioritize in 2015? According to the Pew Research Center’s policy priorities survey, 76 percent of people in the United States believe tackling terrorism should be the nation’s top priority this year. It is the first time in four years terrorism has made the top of Pew’s list and its appearance for 2015 can be attributed to economic improvement as well as persistant terrorist threats.
Despite considerable improvement, the economy is still an area of concern for Americans and 75 percent of them want President Obama to give it attention. Job creation is closely linked to economic improvement so it comes as little surprise that it rounds off the top three with 67 percent of respondents expecting it to be prioritized.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Your first paragraph says it all Amin!!!!
Oh. By the way.
What happened to the ebola epidemic that was going to spread across the U.S?
If I recall, a large number of TBPers believed that load of bullshit too.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I’m sure RE has it all covered on his site.
I’m thinking most Americans want the US to do something about terrorism in other countries, as if we can.
These tribes have been fighting each other for thousands of years, not sure why we care.
Is there a trick to employ so the picture is not so damn big?
Americans think terrorism should be a top priority because images of planes flying into buildings and beheadings scare the shit out of them and bathtub drowning stats never make the evening news.
Quite a useful tool for tptb, eh?
A counter balance
C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism
It depends whether you’re talking about terrorism that could affect you or your family in the next decade or so – or terrorism (and general Muslim mayhem) that could afflict our society in 40, 50, 60 years if we allow unabated immigration from Muslim (especially Sunni) countries. I’m not at all afraid of getting blown up at the Mall of America. In fact, if I have to be at the Mall of America, I’d almost prefer getting blown up. I am concerned about the Islamization of the West (aka cultural suicide by the West). Hope @ Zero Kelvin posted the correlation between the Muslim percentage of population and ongoing violence and it seemed about right. Even Russia with its 10-15% Muslim population has to accommodate the Muslims by forbidding re-publication of the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons – or even displaying a “Je Suis Charlie” sign.. Meanwhile yesterday in Chechnya there was a big protest OF Charlie Hebdo where the leader shouted that no criticism of their prophet can be allowed.
I agree that we can’t tamp down terrorism with military attacks, especially when we continually take the wrong (Sunni) side. What we should do is immediately stop all immigration from Muslim countries, but that will only happen as part of complete re-orienting of our immigration policy away from family re-unification and toward allowing only those immigrants who would benefit US.
Iska
I couldn’t agree with you more. We should restrict immigration to only highly skilled professionals who have jobs lined up, will be paying taxes and buying homes. No free shitters. We have enough already.
On Ebola – It’s not a question of whether we believed it was going to spread like wildfire across the US. It was a matter of brainstorming what the ramifications would have been if the assurances from the US government had turned out to be naively nonchalant (or purposely misleading). If we’re going to view with skepticism those pronouncements from the government on the economy or Ukraine or “Syrian” gas attacks or ISIS or what-have-you, it doesn’t seem logical to take at face value their assurances about the transmissibility of Ebola. My brother’s been in Liberia umpteen times – including several times within the last few months. He assured me in the fall that Ebola wasn’t that contagious if proper procedures are taken, but he also assured me 12 years ago, after his being in Kabul for a while, that the Taliban was finished in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Jim….we need a million likes button….you can only use it once a month….your or Iska’s comments on immigration deserve a million likes.
Most of the things we TBP’ers think ought to be done, won’t be done. Nice to dream, eh?
Bring on the collapse so we can remake this country.
My youngest son just recently returned from a 3 week trip to Zambia. We talked a long time about it. I won’t bore you with the details, except how it relates to fear mongering.
Although the people are probably “poor” when compared to western standards, they are not poverty stricken. The “supermarkets” are nothing at all like we have here …. they are basically fruit and vegetable stands … with chicken and fish (surprisingly, since it’s a landlocked nation) being the primary animal protein. They love to eat and every meal, no matter how small, is a feast … with lots of laughing and joviality. And that extends well beyond immediate family members. He said that everywhere they went, people were extremely friendly and helpful. He said it was the “happiest three weeks I’ve ever experienced” … and that young lad has accomplished much in his few years.
I guess what I’m saying is that a little fear-mongering is the price we pay for living in the Greatest Nation On Earth, which is also the richest and most powerfu-lest, and let’s not forget .. also the free-est ever conceived by man. Living a simple life and being happy all the time is way fucking over-rated.
One last thing, he said Victoria Falls literally took his breath away.
Stuck
You should write an article about what your son saw in Zambia. I’d be interested.
America is being destroyed by a thousand little cuts. Mass immigration of needy people is one of those cuts. Should anyone object, the immediate response is an accusation of _____phobia (fill in blank with group of your concern), and we back down in fear of the racist label we have been trained since the first day of kindergarten to avoid. Make no mistake: this problem is only going to get worse. Who could we possibly find to solve it? It will take blood in the streets.
They make us crazy by terrorism fearmongering (so they can diminish what few freedoms we have left) at the same time they demand we allow in more members of the culture that produces the terrorism (oops – extremism). Then they chastise anyone who might object to the imposition of that culture over ours (The Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers at Duke and UCLA???? Really???? How about the Catholics insist the Ave Maria be played over the loudspeakers every day so they can remember to say their Hail Marys?). The hypocrisy that reigns over us is truly Luciferian.
Currently I am more in danger from a freakin’ bee sting than a terrorist. You can be sure the plan is to reverse that statistic.
On another note I happened to stumble onto “The March” on PBS last night, chronicling the march on Washington in June, 1963 where MLK gave the I Have A Dream speech. It was amazing to see hundreds of thousands of generally thin, healthy-looking, well-dressed people of all races respectfully and peaceably making their wishes known. At least half of the men wore ties and most of the women wore skirts. I spotted wedding rings on many black hands. They may as well have been aliens from space compared to what we see today.
What a moment that was, and how we squandered it. In the 2 1/2 generations since then, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the many progressive policies since implemented have produced an
unmitigated disaster in the Black community. Wherever he is, MLK must be weeping.
“The way to screw up somebody’s life is to give them what they want.” – Patrick Swayze
“You should write an article about what your son saw in Zambia.” ——- Admin
Hmmmm …. SAH wouldn’t approve. Her approval is sooooo important to all of us.
It would be difficult to do. Much of the conversation was family related. Interesting to me … I asked him how many American franchise businesses he saw … he saw just one … a Subway shop. He didn’t stop in.
Tell you what I’ll do … I’ll ask him to put his thoughts about the trip on paper. He’s a good writer … but he’s also a hard working father of three. If he finds the time to do it, I’ll post it.
It seems like using fear to control people is really popular. I am just sick of it. The psychopaths in Washington running the country into the ground is more of a concern for me. We will be destroyed from within.
Dam Muslims cause problems wherever they are. Funny how most people who want to move to the U.S. in our modern times want us to change for them.They don’t seem interested in really being Americans like people did in the past. If i were a racist it would be easy to talk about how all the white skinned people seemed to be able to move here and learn English and get along with everyone and assimilate.
Gallup confirms the fear, but is quick to point out a key distinction… it’s all in how you ask the question and interpret the results, you know.
Americans’ Satisfaction With Security From Terrorism Drops
http://www.gallup.com/poll/181199/americans-satisfaction-security-terrorism-drops.aspx
Although a majority of Americans remain satisfied with the nation’s security from terrorism, this measure has dropped 10 percentage points since last year, from 69% to 59%, and is now back where it was in 2008.
Despite the downturn in satisfaction with how the nation is handling terrorism, Americans’ likelihood of mentioning terrorism as the nation’s most important problem is little changed over the past four or five years. Only, 2% of Americans say terrorism is the most important U.S. problem, dwarfed by mentions of other issues such as dysfunctional government, the economy, immigration, jobs and the national debt. Mentions of terrorism on this measure have been in the low single digits for most of the past eight years.
“Je Suis CIA”
The hostile takeover of the public mind.
Since 9/11, the imperial playbook has consisted of a favorite and time-tested tactic: the false flag operation.
Carry out or facilitate a spectacular atrocity. Blame it on the enemy of choice. Issue a lie-infested official narrative, and have the corporate media repeat the lie. Rile up ignorant militant crowds, stoke the hatred, and war-mongering imperial policy planners and their criminal functionaries get what they want: war with the public stamp of approval.
Here we are again.
Doesn’t “The War on Terror” say it all? It’s a manufactured propaganda machine to all for “acceptable” interference in other people’s countries to keep the war machine fed. Why is it that the US has been in a state of emergency since 1933? Ummm – same reason. Some of the alternative websites refer to this as “false flag operations” – well maybe so, maybe not, but it sure does look decidedly suspicious.
THe MSM is the Ministry of Propaganda whether recognized officially as such or not.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
Charles Burris
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up. CBS chairman William Paley, Fred Friendly, and Edward R. Murrow were part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Operation Mockingbird to provide deflection and cover for the CIA’s ‘family jewels’ of the day. CBS News president Sig Mickelson (1954-61) was liaison to the CIA. Because of his frequent communications, Mickelson even had a direct private phone line installed to the Agency. CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite was a former military intelligence officer also connected within this elite nexus.
CIA director Allen Dulles (fired by JFK after the Bay of Pigs disaster and later the key member of the Warren Commission cover-up), CBS chairman William Paley, and CBS board director Senator Prescott Bush were intimate associates in various sociopolitical networks of the northeastern seaboard establishment found in Washington and New York during the days of the early Cold War. Whether they would meet in their elite private clubs, at the Harold Pratt House of the Council on Foreign Relations, or in Wall Street corporate and bank board rooms, these old birds of a feather flocked, connived, schemed, and conspired together.
In the past at LRC I have written about the covert war in the 1950s between the Central Intelligence Agency and Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, particularly how the CIA mobilized its Operation Mockingbird media assets such as Murrow to engage in a counter-attack upon old “Tail Gunner Joe” when he was building up momentum in going after the Agency’s “family jewels” of the time after his highly-publicized campaigns against communist spies in the state department and the army. Two interesting books of Establishment Studies (or power elite analysis) have outlined how CIA director Allen Dulles directed his counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton to find a means of destroying McCarthy. Angleton chose a veteran of the OSS, James McCargar, to undertake this covert espionage/disinformation action against McCarthy. These facts are discussed in Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA; and Gregg Herken, The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington.
Somehow George Clooney (CFR) missed all this in his sanitized (and vetted) Hollywood agitprop epic, Good Night and Good Luck, which was nominated for six Academy Awards.
Oh. By the way.
What happened to the ebola epidemic that was going to spread across the U.S?
If I recall, a large number of TBPers believed that load of bullshit too.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? – Admin
Yeah, right here.
I freely admit that I was wrong. Moreover, when the discussion got ugly, I said some shitty things and generally acted like a gold plated bag of douche…
I’m glad I was wrong. Doesn’t excuse how I acted though… still, the threat remains so long as we import those assholes from Ebola Central… if at first the Government doesn’t succeed in fucking shit up, keep on trying…
For what it’s worth Jim… my bad.
You can go back to your lives now.
Billy
I didn’t even recall who thought ebola would get out of control. I just saw the government and the MSM ratcheting up the fear, so I took the other side. Whenever a government drone or MSM talking head tells me to worry, I’m pretty sure they are wrong.
but remember. even during a time of the deepest, darkest despair , you’ve got a friend ,albeit a worthless cocknuzzling friend who will give you up in a minute of a panic attack, but nevertheless , one who will write a song informing the world about your having to sell your bung hole in a FEMA camp just to get a pack of crackers to feed your family of eight …liberals do love you, just not as much as themselves .
\
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396608/brigadier-general-james-taylor-kevin-d-williamson
James Taylor may in fact be the quintessential man of his generation. He is the son of two highly accomplished parents, his father a physician and dean of the University of North Carolina medical school who served in the Arctic with Operation Deep Freeze, his mother a soprano who studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. A child of affluence bringing up the rear of the Age of Aquarius, he was in a mental institution by the time he was of high-school age, and then tried to launch a musical career but launched a career as a full-time junkie instead. His fortunes turned around when he inherited money and used his new status to move to London and exploit his social connections to link up with Paul McCartney and become rich and famous with a catchy song about what a complete screw-up he had been his entire life. At some point, this man who is so colorlessly country-club that he makes the Fox News weekday lineup look like the original cast of Hair declared himself a “churning urn of burning funk.” For the next few decades he proceeded to burden the world with a burgeoning catalog of insipid mediocrity until, finally, he descended to the lowest point a musician ever reaches, three steps down from busking in subway stations: He became a hired hand for politicians, playing with MoveOn.org’s “Vote for Change” tour through swing states on behalf of — small world! — John Kerry, our national personification of vanity, a kept man, dilettante, and Democratic time-server whose career was both launched and sustained by self-serving accounts of his service in the Vietnam War, a conflict that Taylor avoided by being declared mentally unfit to serve.
In our hour of need, the French gave us Lafayette. In theirs, we sent them the guy who drained all the sugar out of “How Sweet It Is” and substituted saccharin.http://www.nationalreview.com/…/brigadier-general-james-tay…
I didn’t even recall who thought ebola would get out of control. I just saw the government and the MSM ratcheting up the fear, so I took the other side. Whenever a government drone or MSM talking head tells me to worry, I’m pretty sure they are wrong.
Well, that’s just the thing… I don’t remember who it was either, but the goons were all “Hey, no bigs. We got this”…
Which caused me to take the oppose side… 99.98% of the time, the Government will fuck shit up…
To paraphrase Robin Williams: “Remember! If it’s being done correctly here or abroad, it’s probably NOT being done by the US Government…”
I just saw that clusterfuck and immediately thought “Jeezus on a bike! We’re fucking DOOMED if these assholes are in charge!”
Latest World Health Organization Ebola statistics from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.
(Note the many “not available” confirmation stats.)
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.ebola-sitrep.ebola-summary-latest?lang=en
And the real things we should rightfully be fearful of are not reported by mainstream news. Such as…
Fukushima:
http://www.rense.com/general96/plume.html
Yeah… talk about REAL things to worry about, that are likely to substantially and fundamentally change our quality of life:
Illinois’ budget deficit twice as bad as you think
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150119/BLOGS02/150119831/illinois-budget-deficit-twice-as-bad-as-you-think
Illinois’ fiscal woes are significantly deeper and more serious than generally realized, with the state facing a $9 billion operating deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
That’s the horrific bottom line of a report released late today by researchers at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, a study that may raise the eyebrows even of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been warning of huge financial problems ahead.
The conclusion: The actual deficit is about twice what is commonly reported, with the hole in the current fiscal 2015 budget not $2 billion to $3 billion but $6 billion, and rising to a projected $9 billion in fiscal 2016 and hitting $14 billion by fiscal 2026, assuming no changes in law or spending practices.
.
.
More at the link.
but …. but … but … they keep telling me that the reason the number of deaths due to terrorism is so low is because they are doing such a great job preventing it.
I (sarcastically) say spend a gazillion dollars more and try and get the number down to zero.
@Flash
Keep on rollin dude….I’m hoping they are reading what you are throwing out there. It’s all a CIA mindfuck. Rock on with yo bad self.
The US Military’s Stunning Conspiracy Theory Emerges From The Archives: “ISIS Leader Does Not Exist”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/20/2015 09:16 -0500
Having noted that voter angst has been riled, propagandized, and fear-mongered to the point at which the most pressing priority for Congress is to ‘fix’ terrorism, it is perhaps not entirely surprising that we discover – deep down in the archives – that giving the public someone to ‘hate’ as opposed to something may have been an entire fiction. As The New York Times exposed in 2007, Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, the titular head of the Islamic State, according to Brigadier General Kevin Bergner – the chief American military spokesman at the time – never existed (and was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima).
Via The New York Times (2007),
For more than a year, the leader of one the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi named Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi.
As the titular head of the Islamic State in Iraq, an organization publicly backed by Al Qaeda, Baghdadi issued a steady stream of incendiary pronouncements. Despite claims by Iraqi officials that he had been killed in May, Baghdadi appeared to have persevered unscathed.
On Wednesday, a senior American military spokesman provided a new explanation for Baghdadi’s ability to escape attack: He never existed.
Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, said the elusive Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.
The ruse, Bergner said, was devised by Abu Ayub al-Masri, the Egyptian-born leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, who was trying to mask the dominant role that foreigners play in that insurgent organization.
The ploy was to invent Baghdadi, a figure whose very name establishes his Iraqi pedigree, install him as the head of a front organization called the Islamic State of Iraq and then arrange for Masri to swear allegiance to him. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, sought to reinforce the deception by referring to Baghdadi in his video and Internet statements.
The evidence for the American assertions, Bergner announced at a news briefing, was provided by an Iraqi insurgent: Khalid Abdul Fatah Daud Mahmud al-Mashadani, who was said to have been captured by American forces in Mosul on July 4.
According to Bergner, Mashadani is the most senior Iraqi operative in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. He got his start in the Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group before joining Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia more than two years ago, and became the group’s “media emir” for all of Iraq. Bergner said that Mashadani was also an intermediary between Masri in Iraq and bin Laden and Zawahiri, whom the Americans assert support and guide their Iraqi affiliate.
“Mashadani confirms that al-Masri and the foreign leaders with whom he surrounds himself, not Iraqis, made the operational decisions” for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Bergner said.
…
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and a Middle East expert, said that experts had long wondered whether Baghdadi actually existed. “There has been a question mark about this,” he said.
Nonetheless, Riedel suggested that the disclosures made Wednesday might not be the final word on Baghdadi and the leaders of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Even Mashadani’s assertions, Riedel said, might be a cover story to protect a leader who does in fact exist.
“First, they say we have killed him,” Riedel said, referring to the statements by some Iraqi government officials. “Then we heard him after his death and now they are saying he never existed. That suggests that our intelligence on Al Qaeda in Iraq is not what we want it to be.”
American military spokesmen insist they have gotten to the truth on Baghdadi. Mashadani, they say, provided his account because he resented the role of foreign leaders in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. They say he has not repudiated the organization.
Read more here…
Ironman 3 anyone?
* * *
So he was a ghost back then…. is he a ghost again, a propaganda test-tube baby designed purely to put a face on ISIS and the biggest bogeyman of the current global anti-terrorist mania, so necessary to boost global QE in lieu of a world war (for now)?
It’s certainly easier for an average joe to ‘hate’ a demonic leader than an amorphous ‘thing’ called ‘Radical Islam’ – just ask President Obama.
Why do you believe poll numbers but question the media only? Ever think that the polls are rigged as well? This ‘terrorism priority poll’ looks like it came straight from a banker’s asshole, not from the American public. I say if it’s on the mainstream media, it is a deliberate lie and is full of shit. Period.
Pew and Gallup are the two big pollsters. Pew is supposedly a non-profit, non-partisan organization.
Supposedly.
Classic Non Sequitur http://assets.amuniversal.com/8dc130907df30130236c001dd8b71c47
All you have to do to any propaganda is slap some numbers on it, call it a survey, and put it out there and ANYONE, and I mean even the awakened will either believe it outright or debate it, as if it were the truth. Surveys are one of the greatest propaganda tools ever invented. All you have to do is make a small part of them believeable like “but 75% realize the economy is in trouble” (we wish), but I am telling you, you cannot truly believe in them any more than any other deception. Surveys are like professional wrestling, just scripted shows. Never trust them. They are newspeak. But nobody is keeping any secrets, right?
Jim, you’re right, though there are more “big” pollsters than just Pew and Gallup.
The difference between the Pew survey and the Gallup poll is in the question that was asked.
Pew’s question was on what subject(s) people wanted Obama and Congress to focus their attention on / fix. Terrorism and the Economy were the top answers (there is no statistical difference, given the margin of error on the study, so I’d call them equally important).
Gallup’s question asked respondents what the “most important problem” in the US was. Only 2% answered terrorism. The top answers were dysfunctional government, the economy, immigration, jobs and the national debt.
The question matters, but the real headlines are created by the analysis of the results. “Only 2% of Americans worry about terrorism” isn’t a sexy enough headline to run in the MSM.
As you say, know your real enemy.
Great info and straight to the point. I am not sure if this is actually the best
place to ask but do you folks have any thoughts on where to hire some professional writers?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Why do you believe poll numbers but question the media only? Ever think that the polls are rigged as well? This ‘terrorism priority poll’ looks like it came straight from a banker’s asshole, not from the American public. I say if it’s on the mainstream media, it is a deliberate lie and is full of shit. Period.