May 2011 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/05/312011/05/31

Pentagon Creates New Excuse for Waging War

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Computer/online security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

Pogo reigns supreme…..

Pentagon Will Consider Cyberattacks Acts of War

By DAVID E. SANGER and ELISABETH BUMILLER

New York Times, May 31, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon, trying to create a formal strategy to deter cyberattacks on the United States, plans to issue a new strategy soon declaring that a computer attack from a foreign nation can be considered an act of war that may result in a military response.

Read rest of article…

Phi Beta Iota: These people literally have no clue and are simply striving for budget share before Pentagon right-sizing gets underway. We absolutely guarantee that what the Pentagon and the US Intelligence Community do to their own employees every day (including forbidding thumb drives now) qualifies as a crime against humanity as well as an act of war. The USG is its own worst enemy in every possible sense.

See Also:

2011 Cyber-Command or IO 21 + IO Roots

Bob Gates, Chief Maintenance Clerk, Talks Crap — and the Wall Street Journal Goes Along…

Defense and the Deficit–Busting the Defense Bubble, Ending Defense Entitlement

Reference: The Pentagon Labyrinth

Review (Guest): The Pentagon Labyrinth

Review: Grand Theft Pentagon–Tales of Corruption and Profiteering in the War on Terror

Search: cost of corruption + Corruption RECAP

2011/05/31

<1% of World Population Controls 39% of All Wealth

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Peace Intelligence

wealth concentrated — Click on Image to Enlarge

Millionaires Control 39% of the World’s Wealth

By Robert Frank

Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2011

Last year was another good year for millionaires – though their pace of growth is slowing.

According to a new report by Boston Consulting Group out today, the number of millionaire households in the world grew by 12.2% in 2010, to 12.5 million. (BCG defines millionaires as those with $1 million or more in investible assets, excluding homes, luxury goods and ownership in one’s own company).

The U.S. continues to lead the world in millionaires, with 5.2 million millionaire households, followed by Japan with 1.5 million millionaire households, China with 1.1 million and the U.K. with 570,000. Singapore leads the world in “millionaire density,” or the percentage of millionaires, with 15.5% of its population now millionaire households.

The most important trend, however, is the global wealth distribution. According to the report, the world’s millionaires represent 0.9% of the world’s population but control 39% of the world’s wealth, up from 37% in 2009. Their wealth now totals $47.4 trillion in investible wealth, up from $41.8 trillion in 2009.

Read rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: The single most consistent precondition for revolution across centuries has been the over-concentration of wealth. We're there. Now all we need is a few precipitants.

2011/05/312011/05/31

US Arms Industry Bleeding Secrets–This Is Not New

02 China, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Peace Intelligence

U.S. arms makers said to be bleeding secrets to cyber foes

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON | Tue May 31, 2011

(Reuters) – Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: This is not new. This is just recycled crap from the White House, desperate as it is to find new enemies as well as new excuses for why our bloated weapons and mobility systems do not work. Just as DoD has known for over a decade that its drone videos were in the clear and could be picked up at will by anyone on the ground, so also DoD has known since at least 1992 that the DoD grid is hopeless, and the contractors don't really have a clue about how to keep a secret. It is all theater–the decision was made in the 1990's to be IRRESPONSIBLE and they are sticking to that. We are quite sure that the Israelis, French, and Germans are far more intrusive than the Russians and Chinese and that Iran is NOT a major player in probing US military-industrial systems–they rely on the CIA to give them nuclear weaponization plans. We are equally certain that most of what the cyber-spies find they use as an example of what NOT to waste money on. China has used its time and energy wisely–they can now incapacitate any US system with electromagnetic neutralization. Sucks for the USG, but probably a good thing for the US public.

Continue reading “US Arms Industry Bleeding Secrets–This Is Not New”

2011/05/312011/05/31

Post-Legal Amerika: Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Justice

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book, just published, is The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's (Haymarket Books). Watch a Timothy MacBain TomCast video of him discussing the American way of war by clicking here.

Dumb Question of the Twenty-first Century: Is It Legal?

Campaign for Liberty, 05/31/2011

Is the Libyan war legal? Was Bin Laden's killing legal? Is it legal for the president of the United States to target an American citizen for assassination? Were those “enhanced interrogation techniques” legal? These are all questions raised in recent weeks. Each seems to call out for debate, for answers. Or does it?

Full post with many names and links….

2011/05/312011/05/31

Ten Reasons Why China Is Different

02 China

Emphasis added by Penguin.

Stephen S. Roach

2011-05-27

Ten Reasons Why China is Different–PLUS-CHINESE LEADERSHIP UNDERSTANDS THAT IF IT DOES NOT SERVE THE INTERESTS OF MASSES IT WILL GO DOWN.

NEW HAVEN – The China doubters are back in force. They seem to come in waves – every few years, or so. Yet, year in and year out, China has defied the naysayers and stayed the course, perpetuating the most spectacular development miracle of modern times. That seems likely to continue.

Today’s feverish hand-wringing reflects a confluence of worries – especially concerns about inflation, excess investment, soaring wages, and bad bank loans. Prominent academics warn that China could fall victim to the dreaded “middle-income trap,” which has derailed many a developing nation.

There is a kernel of truth to many of the concerns cited above, especially with respect to the current inflation problem. But they stem largely from misplaced generalizations. Here are ten reasons why it doesn’t pay to diagnose the Chinese economy by drawing inferences from the experiences of others:

Strategy. Since 1953, China has framed its macro objectives in the context of five-year plans, with clearly defined targets and policy initiatives designed to hit those targets. The recently enacted 12th Five-Year Plan could well be a strategic turning point – ushering in a shift from the highly successful producer model of the past 30 years to a flourishing consumer society.

Continue reading “Ten Reasons Why China Is Different”

2011/05/312011/05/31

USA: Thirteen Big Lies — Needed Counter-Narrative

07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policies, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Here are a few of the BIG lies used to support the status quo. What we need, rather urgently, is a counter-narrative

LIE 1. The earth is an open system with infinite supplies and sinks;

POSSIBLE TRUTH: Earth is a closed system, changes that used to take 10,000 years now take three, humanity is “peaking” the entire system.

LIE 2. Everything must be monetized;

POSSIBLE TRUTH: Money is an exchange unit and an information unit; in the absence of holistic analytics and “true cost” transparency, mony is actually a toxic means of concentrating wealth and depriving communities of their own resources (e.g. land).

LIE 3. The extreme unregulated free market is the only option for a modern economy;

POSSIBLE TRUTH: Information asymmetries and “rule by secrecy” have been clearly documented–the free market is neither free nor fair. A modern economy needs to be transparent, resilient, and hence rooted in the local.

Continue reading “USA: Thirteen Big Lies — Needed Counter-Narrative”

2011/05/312011/05/31