Review: The Dark Secrets of SHTF Survival — The Brutal Truth About Violence, Death, and Mayhem You Must Know to Survive

6 Star Top 10%, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Atrocities & Genocide, Complexity & Catastrophe, Survival & Sustainment

6 Star Eye Opener, Deeply Authentic

This is a deeply authentic as well as troubling book, particularly in light of the ease with which Deep State / George Soros elements turned Seattle, Portland, and New York City into what the President has quite properly called “anarchist jurisdictions.”

From the description: Selco is a household name in prepping and survival circles. He survived the Balkan War in a city with no power, no running water, and no supplies. For a year, he and his family fought every single day for bare subsistence. This book is a collection of his darkest moments.

Continue reading “Review: The Dark Secrets of SHTF Survival — The Brutal Truth About Violence, Death, and Mayhem You Must Know to Survive”

Review: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation – The Bible, Justice, and the Palestine-Israel Conflict by Naim Stifan Ateek

06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 5 Star, Consciousness & Social IQ, Country/Regional, Crime (Government), Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Justice (Failure, Reform), Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Religion & Politics of Religion, Survival & Sustainment, Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized)
Amazon Page

Naim Stifan Ateek

5 Star — The Bible As Jesus Intended — for All, Not Some

From the Foreword by Walter Brueggemann:

QUOTE (xv): Thus, almost all of the information (misinformation that we receive in the West is filtered through Zionist ideologicial interest that holds in thrall much of the Christian community in the United States and consequently that holds in thrall US policy as well. In that articulation the current plight of Palestinians is kept invisible and the legitmate claims of Palestinians, ground in historical and social reality, are left without articulation.

QUOTE (xvii): Ateek's reading of the Christian gospel is a move from “some” to “all,” a rejection of privileged tribalism, and a prospect for a just peace in which all parties may participate.

QUOTE (xix): This book is a venture in truth-telling advocacy.

Continue reading “Review: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation – The Bible, Justice, and the Palestine-Israel Conflict by Naim Stifan Ateek”

Worth a Look: Local is Our Future – Steps to an Economics of Happiness

5 Star, Complexity & Resilience, Culture, Research, Democracy, Economics, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Philosophy, Survival & Sustainment, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

From a renowned pioneer of the anti-globalization movement, a primer on working towards a localized world

From disappearing livelihoods to financial instability, from climate chaos to an epidemic of depression, we face crises on a number of seemingly unrelated fronts.  This well-referenced book traces the common roots of these problems in a globalized economy that is incompatible with life on a finite planet. But Local is Our Future does more than just describe the problem: it describes the policy shifts and grassroots steps – many of them already underway around the world – that can move us towards the local and, thereby, towards a better world.

Review (Guest): Margin of Victory by COL Steve Patarcity as Published by Center for Military of Military History

5 Star, Force Structure (Military), Intelligence (Commercial), Intelligence (Public), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, Strategy, Survival & Sustainment
Amazon Page

Margin of Victory

“Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern Warfare” by Douglas Macgregor.  Naval Institute Press. 2016, Hardcover, 268 pages, $34.95.

“Margin of Victory” is about change, intelligently and soberly recognizing the need for that change regardless of preconceived notions and the consequences of failing to do so.  Each of the conflicts analyzed by Macgregor, all seemingly unrelated at first glance, center on his repeated premise that victory will depend on lessons learned that will drive accepting change and implementing the hard decisions that must accompany transformation – notably in technology, people, strategy and organization.  While history provides perspective that must be considered, holding on to outmoded concepts or failing to properly leverage what’s been learned will ultimately lead to decisive defeat.

Continue reading “Review (Guest): Margin of Victory by COL Steve Patarcity as Published by Center for Military of Military History”

Review: ANTIFRAGILE – Things That Gain From Disorder

7 Star Top 1%, Best Practices in Management, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Change & Innovation, Complexity & Resilience, Economics, Environment (Solutions), Intelligence (Public), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Survival & Sustainment, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution
Amazon Page

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

7 Star Transformative — As Important as Governing the Commons — LOCALIZE

For those who do not know this, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action earned Elinor Ostrom a Nobel Peace Prize in Economics. This book, by the author of Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable   is of that caliber. A later book,, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life is easier to read — if you have time for only one go with the latter.

The core message of this book is that you cannot predict or control high impact low probability events, but you can downsize, localize, you can decentralize, and in so doing make much of the ecology “antifragile.”

Continue reading “Review: ANTIFRAGILE – Things That Gain From Disorder”

Amazon Kindle Series: Re-Inventing National Security

Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Atlases & State of the World, Change & Innovation, Complexity & Resilience, Force Structure (Military), Future, Information Society, Insurgency & Revolution, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Leadership, Military & Pentagon Power, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Public Administration, Stabilization & Reconstruction, Strategy, Survival & Sustainment, Technology (Bio-Mimicry, Clean), Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), True Cost & Toxicity, Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized), War & Face of Battle
Amazon Series Page

Review: Designing Regenerative Cultures

6 Star Top 10%, Atlases & State of the World, Best Practices in Management, Change & Innovation, Complexity & Resilience, Consciousness & Social IQ, Cosmos & Destiny, Culture, Research, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Economics, Education (Universities), Environment (Solutions), Future, Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Spiritual), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Priorities, Public Administration, Science & Politics of Science, Stabilization & Reconstruction, Strategy, Survival & Sustainment, Technology (Bio-Mimicry, Clean), True Cost & Toxicity, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page
Amazon Page

Daniel Christian Wahl

6 Star Handbook for Saving Civilization & Earth

This book makes the jump from 5 stars (generally I don't bother to review a book if it is not a four or five star read) to 6 stars — my top ten percent — because of the combination of Questions Asked, glorious color graphics, and the total holistic nature of the book — this is easily a PhD thesis in holistic analytics, true cost economics, and open source everything engineering. Indeed, this book could be used as a first-year reference across any humanities and science domain, they would be the better for it.

Continue reading “Review: Designing Regenerative Cultures”