December 2010 – Page 22 – Public Intelligence Blog

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Journal: US Gap Between Rich & Poor Widens by Factor of 10

Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Corporations, Corruption, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Strategy, Threats

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Gap Between Rich and Poor Follows Geographic Lines, U.S. Census Data Shows

By Timothy R. Homan – Dec 15, 2010

Bloomberg

The gap between the haves and have- nots in the U.S. is being drawn along geographic lines, Census Bureau data showed yesterday.

The number of counties where median household income decreased is almost 10 times the number that saw an increase, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Census figures comparing an average of the years 2005-2009 with 2000. The government figures also showed a concentration of wealth and education in coastal states.

“The dispersion of income is larger than it’s ever been,” said Douglas Besharov, a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. “There used to be a much wider spread of incomes within geographic areas than there is now. There’s much more of a clumping together.”

Phi Beta Iota: In the 1970's an era when “whole systems” thinking tried to flourish only to be crushed by the emergent merger of the two-party tyranny and Wall Street, there was a vital comparative international studies reference, “Banks & Textor,” or more properly, Arthus S. Banks and Robert B. Textor, A Cross-Polity Survey (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1963). We strongly suspect that today the USA would be qualified a failed state, certainly so if the 1% of the population hoarding the bulk of the wealth were isolated as an extraneous factor contributing little of value to the larger economy while siphoning off one fifth of the asset value through legalized financial crime. There is clearly a need for a return of the Banks & Textor model, but with the added sophistication of distinguishing between negative factors of domestic production (excessive concentration of wealth, legalized mortgage clearinghouse fraud, Wall Street derivatives fraud, and Federal Reserve fraud, prison factories and prisons, hospitals, and marginalized enterprises among others).

2010/12/16

NIGHTWATCH Extract on Afghanistan-Pakistan

08 Wild Cards

The NATO command's statement implies that the fighting is waged mostly by anti-government groups that are based in Pakistan. That is simply not true, is grossly misleading to the American public and whoever came up with that nonsense should be dismissed. The anti-government forces in Afghanistan are not foreign ers, but are supported from Pakstan. Thus even without support from Pakistan there would still be a fight against outsiders in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is the origin of and channel for all supplies that support the anti-government forces. Afghanistan has no arms or explosives industries. Everything that explodes comes from the US or Pakistan. Thus, if IED events reached a new high in November 2010 — as they did — that means the US and Coalition forces utterly failed to stop the supply of fertilizer, explosives and detonators from Pakistan or stolen from or sold by US and Coalition forces.

The most powerful country in the history of the world cannot seem to seal a border, In Mexico or Pakistan. This is curious because it indicates that this 2010 generation of hi-tech US soldiers and generals have been enormously less able to disrupt the supply line from Pakistan than an earlier generation of American war fighters did to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

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Search: peace vs cost of war

Searches

The automated response fails to please. Here is what this search should produce the first time around:

Graphic: Medard Gabel’s Cost of Peace versus War

Clicking on Graphic once at the above link will expand it to full size for close viewing.

Who’s Who in Earth Intelligence: Medard Gabel

Review: A Cross-Polity Survey (1963)

5 Star, Atlases & State of the World, Country/Regional, Culture, Research, Economics, Games, Models, & Simulations, History, Insurgency & Revolution, Politics, Priorities, Public Administration, True Cost & Toxicity, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized), Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity

Arthur S. Banks (Author), Robert B. Textor (Author)

Set a Standard, Modern Version Urgently Needed

December 16, 2010

When I was a graduate student in the 1970's, “Banks & Textor” was the bible, and I could not have done my first graduate thesis on revolution without its inspiration. This reference taught me how to “operationalize” from a pre-condition of revolution (e.g. concentration of wealth) to specific measurable factors within a society (e.g. a mix of per capita income and spread).

As I just wrote in a commentary on the gap between rich and poor in the US,

In the 1970's an era when “whole systems” thinking tried to flourish only to be crushed by the emergent merger of the two-party tyranny and Wall Street, there was a vital comparative international studies reference, “Banks & Textor,” or more properly, Arthus S. Banks and Robert B. Textor, A Cross-Polity Survey (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1963). We strongly suspect that today the USA would be qualified a failed state, certainly so if the 1% of the population hoarding the bulk of the wealth were isolated as an extraneous factor contributing little of value to the larger economy while siphoning off one fifth of the asset value through legalized financial crime. There is clearly a need for a return of the Banks & Textor model, but with the added sophistication of distinguishing between negative factors of domestic production (excessive concentration of wealth, legalized mortgage clearinghouse, Wall Street derivative, and Federal Reserve fraud, prison factories and prisons, hospitals, and marginalized enterprises among others).

I would love to see a great university somewhere take on the magnificent challenge of recreating this great work, but modernized to include the Internet factor, measures of openness across all fronts (see my Gnomedex ketone, “Open Everything”) and so on.

This book is still priceless, it was the gold standard in its time, we need it now more than ever, but completely redone and modernized.

AA Mind the Gap — Vote and/or Comment on Review

See Also:

A Cross-Polity Survey (Free Download)

Search: revolution theory preconditions

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Worth a Look: Steel on Wheels–The Dylan Ratigan Show (MSNBC)

About the Idea, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process, Policies

For the past few years, in response to the topics I speak about on my television show and write about on The Huffington Post, people have asked me how they could contribute to help fight for what I call “Truth to Power.” Previously there has been no mechanism to allow people to participate in this, but it is clear that we need to form an Alliance – a formation of like-minded individuals fighting for the same ideals.

With that, let me invite you to join The Alliance to help us all fight for the truth. It is clear that our country is divided in two – not left and right, but those who wish to change the status quo for better, and those who wish to keep it to protect their interests.

The problem is that the Democratic and Republican parties have lost their focus. Instead of fighting to empower the people, they are now only fighting to keep their own power. Only through the full engagement of the people can we change this.

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Steel on Wheels–The Dylan Ratigan Show (MSNBC)”

2010/12/15

Event: 24-26 January 2011, Paris, The Future of Urban Water: Solutions for Livable & Resilient Cities (UNESCO)

12 Water

The aim of this conference is to share knowledge on recent advances in urban water management, and to catalyse change towards more livable and resilient cities – The “City of the Future”. Increasing global change pressures, escalating costs and other risks inherent to conventional urban water management are causing cities to face ever increasing difficulties in efficiently managing scarcer and less reliable water resources. In order to meet these challenges there is a need for a paradigm shift in water management. Over the past 5 years major international initiatives such as the SWITCH project, UNESCOIHP’s Urban Water Programme and IWA’s Cities of the Future Programme, have brought together a global consortium from the fields of academic, urban planning, water utility and consulting interests. This conference will provide a platform for academics, public and private sector practitioners from both developed and developing countries to generate and exchange knowledge and understanding of the concepts, strategies, policies and technologies that contribute to sustainable urban water management. In addition the conference will support society, urban water actors, and policy makers with independent and scientifically based expert advice.

Conference flyer (PDF)

Switch homepage

2010/12/15

Journal: China Expands in Europe, US Shrinks….

02 China, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Policies, Strategy, Threats

Capitalizing on the Euro Crisis

China Expands Its Influence in Europe

By Wieland Wagner

Der Spiegel, 14 December 2010

China is seizing on Europe's debt problems to expand its influence on the
continent with large-scale investments and purchases of government bonds
issued by highly-indebted states. The strategy could push Europe into the
same financial dependency on China that is posing a dilemma for the US.

Phi Beta Iota: Half of strategy is being smart at home–little things like assuring liberty and nurturing innovation, planning for resilience, being self-sustaining where it matters. The contrast between the US shrinking balloon and the expanding Chinese dominance of the world through measured export of males, measures investments, and presidential-level delegations that the US cannot fathom, all bode well for China and ill for the US. The Republic is no longer–whether it can be brought back in a Second American Revolution is the question that we older folk must address–but now we can do so confident that the younger generation–the 12-18 generation specifically, has woken up to both the crisis facing them and the ineptitude of their respective governments. Their informed anger is heartening.

For Inspiration: