Uploaded October 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
President Obama reflected on the unprecedented progress of humanity during his final address to the United Nations General Assembly as President of the United States.
Watch the full speech: youtube.com/watch?v=YJzLC-AAWHw
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President Obama reflected on the unprecedented progress of humanity during his final address to the United Nations General Assembly as President of the United States.
Watch the full speech: youtube.com/watch?v=YJzLC-AAWHw
Subscribe to TDC: youtube.com/TheDailyConversation
Like our page on Facebook
facebook.com/thedailyconversation
Join us on Google+
plus.google.com/100134925804523235350/posts
Follow us on Twitter
twitter.com/thedailyconvo


![MEGA-Quake & Tsunami Disaster Threatens Pacific Northwest
A megathrust earthquake and tsunami would devastate the Northwest United States, a geologic region of the Pacific Oceans Ring of Fire called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where major tectonic plates collide.
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Written, narrated and produced by Bryce Plank
Video editing and effects by Robin West
Research by Juliet Saunders
Video based on this article:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
Music:
All This - Scoring Action by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300001
Decisions by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100756
Seattle timelapse courtesy of YouTuber Edward Aites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AqyHZ7JS1s
When you think of the big earthquake that will devastate the Western U.S., you probably assume it will hit California. But the massive one we’re supposedly long overdue for will actually hit the Pacific Northwest, devastating Seattle and much of 700 coastal miles from Vancouver to NorCal’s Mendocino Cape.
This area lies on the Cascadia subduction zone. The Cascades are the volcanic mountain range that run parallel to the fault, some 100 miles inland, and are formed by the Juan De Fuca tectonic plate colliding with, and sliding underneath, the North American plate. This geological battle will eventually result in the weaker North American plate buckling violently as it gives way to the mounting pressure, dropping several meters in a few seconds.
This will cause a 9.2 magnitude megathrust earthquake that will last around 4 minutes and will be 30 times more powerful than anything California’s San Andreas fault can produce.
What happens after that is truly terrifying.
Since the event will happen in the ocean, it will send a tsunami, a wall of water more than 15 meters high, rushing back toward coastal areas like Puget Sound and the heavily populated Seattle area. As it washes ashore it will destroy everything in its path.
The catastrophic tsunami triggered by the 2011 Tōhoku 9.0 earthquake in Japan was responsible for the vast majority of the 18,000+ deaths suffered in that disaster. And Japan even had an early warning system that sensed the initial tremor and automatically activated to save countless lives by shutting down power plants and railways, and performing various other vital services before the full quake and tsunami struck.
The Pacific Northwest has no such early warning system.
In fact, three years ago the citizens of Seaside, Oregon rejected a plan that would’ve raised their taxes in order to move three schools out of the tsunami inundation zone. [Show clip of devastated school administrator describing why that’s such a mistake.]
The voters came to their senses this November and funded a version of the plan, but the story is representative of the lack of awareness those living in the Cascadia Subduction Zone have about the uncertain ground they actually live on.
Part of the reason why the region seems to be in a complete state of denial is because the Juan De Fuca plate hasn’t caused an earthquake in 317 years. It’s a sleeping giant that’s 75 years overdue for an awakening.
To get a sense for how destructive a 9.2 quake would be, we need look no further than the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake of the same magnitude that sent tsunami’s rippling throughout the pacific, one of which killed 12 people in Crescent City, California, some 1,600 miles away from the quake’s epicenter.
The biggest problem is that seismology was in its infancy when much of the Pacific Northwest was built, so Portland - for example - didn’t have a seismic building code until 1974. More than a million structures in the region would collapse or be irreparably damaged by a megathrust quake, three thousand of them schools. Other critical infrastructure that will either collapse or be greatly compromised will be half of all highway bridges, fifteen of the seventeen bridges spanning Portlands two rivers, two thirds of all railways and airports, one-third of all fire stations, half of all police stations, and two-thirds of all hospitals.
There will also be land liquefaction, a phenomenon whereby partially saturated soil loses strength and stiffness. Not only does 15 percent of Seattle lie on land vulnerable to liquefaction, but so does Oregon’s Critical Infrastructure hub where miles of gas lines converge.
megaquake MEGA-Quake & Tsunami Disaster Threatens Pacific Northwest](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YPL8-7ZaN6I/mqdefault.jpg)

![Criminal Investigation, Part 2: Why Russia Helped Trump Win
A criminal forensic look at Russian President Vladimir Putins motives for helping Donald Trump become President of the United States.
Watch Part 1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCf6qkRJuy4
Video by Bryce Plank and Robin West
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Music:
Dark and Cinematic Ambient, TDC Remix by Motion Array
Long Note Two by Kevin MacLeod
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=electro+sketch&Search=Search
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In our previous video, we examined how Russia interfered in the US election.
Now, let’s explore why. The four factors that motivated Russian President Vladimir Putin most seem to be: 1) he wanted to weaken the American-led liberal democratic order, 2) he wanted to improve his standing at home by making Russia seem more formidable abroad, 3) he feared Hillary Clinton, and 4) he knew a Donald Trump presidency would serve his short-term interests.
But before we get into all that, let’s take a moment to understand what drives Russia’s leadership.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Vladimir Putin was a KGB spy in East Germany. After coming back to Russia, he used his newfound skills in the art of manipulation to rise through the ranks of government, making tons of connections along the way. Before long he became the second president in the short history of the nation, taking over for the incompetent Boris Yeltsin.
To consolidate power, Putin orchestrated the takeover of major oil and gas companies, and Russia’s biggest banks, and placed them in the hands of his loyal allies. Over the years, this type of corruption has made Putin’s inner circle incredibly wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Russia is now the most unequal country in the world with a staggering 74% of its wealth owned by the top 1%, while the median wealth is less than $1,000 US Dollars.
Russia’s mainstream media doesn’t cover this because Putin controls it too, and has even begun censoring the Internet, making it virtually impossible to expose his rampant corruption.
Now, nearing the end of his fourth term as President, with a stint as Prime Minister sandwiched in the middle, Putin’s seventeen years in charge have allowed him to become a master at using the levers of power to his advantage.
Still, no leader can completely silence the critics and rivals who refuse to go away—but in Putin’s Russia, they get thrown in jail, poisoned, or shot.
[News anchor] “We begin with breaking news from Russia. Prominent Russian politician Boris Nemtsov has been shot dead in central Moscow. Nemtsov rose to the post of First Deputy Prime Minister in the last years of President Boris Yeltsin’s administration. He was once considered a potential successor to Yeltsin, but he would become a leader of the opposition and a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin.”
All this makes Vladimir Putin essentially the world’s biggest gangster, and he may even be its richest man. The reporting that accompanied the disclosures in the Panama Papers traced how Putin hides his cuts of deal after deal in hard to find offshore tax havens.
How’s he gotten away with this for so long? Controlling the media and terrifying his political opposition helps, but the most effective tactic is his relentless appeal to his countrymen’s unique sense of nationalist pride. Russians have suffered through some tough years in the aftermath of their empire’s collapse, and many have grown desperate for a hero to place a little hope in. Through his relentless propaganda campaigns, Putin’s convinced enough of them that he’s their man. Criminal Investigation, Part 2: Why Russia Helped Trump Win](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoUAIiHBeA0/mqdefault.jpg)





