Graphic: Cutting US Deficit $11.7 Trillion
Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Political, Reform, Strategy-Holistic CoherenceGraphic: US Defense Spending 2000-2011 ($B)
Budgets & Funding, Capabilities-Force Structure, Political, True Cost
Defense and the Deficit–Busting the Defense Bubble, Ending Defense Entitlement
03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Peace Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Last Saturday's issue of Barron's ran a cover story on the deficit and their own take on how to address it. In contrast to the recent recommendations from President Obama and the House Republicans, defense was actually “on the table,” not “at” it. In the absence of any adult thinking on the deficit since the Deficit Commission in December, Barron's addresses a void that remains vast and empty in Congress and the Executive branch. The article puts on the table a defense recommendation — which I urged to them — that goes significantly deeper than even the Deficit Commission's — in truth fuzzy — recommendation on “security” spending.
Almost immediately, Forbes published at its website a related piece on defense spending and The Pentagon Labyrinth that contains some interesting private sector views on how the public might be beginning to perceive the current size of the defense budget and condition of our armed forces: note the references to “defense entitlement,” “defense bubble,” and “parade ground military.” It would seem that the paradigm is changing, at least outside Washington DC. (If you think that the recent killing of bin Laden proves the “parade ground” moniker wrong, I urge you to read the introduction essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth: “Why Is This Handbook Necessay?“.
Bursting The Defense Bubble: End The Entitlement Mentality
Steve Denning, Forbes, 30 April 2011
Grow Up, Guys!
By GENE EPSTEIN
Barron's Cover SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011
While the President and GOP sling mud at each other, the debt crisis is growing. Barron's offers some tough-but necessary-ways to alleviate it.
Phi Beta Iota: It is possible to eliminate the deficit by making Medicare prices honest and stopping the borrowing of money for corporate pork that feeds political pork. It is possible to eliminate personal income taxes by adopting the Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax, which actually produces a great deal more revenue which is desperately needed to bail out the equally irresponsible state governments and pension funds (both government and corporate). America is hosed. It is not possible to “reset” until Washington can combine intelligence and integrity, and that may require a public revolt on both taxes and the fraudulent corrupt Electoral System that keeps the two-party tyranny in a position to continue looting the Commonwealth.
Seven Promises to America–Who Will Do This?
Serious (Honest) Thinking About US Budget
$500 Billion in Cuts is Minimal Mandatory….
US Goverment 2011 Revenue, Costs, & Debt–Two Party Tyranny Lies Straight Up, Media Goes Along
Secrecy News: Cost of Secrecy >$10B + RECAP
Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Secrets, MilitaryANNUAL SECRECY COSTS NOW EXCEED $10 BILLION
The rise in national security secrecy in the first full year of the Obama Administration was matched by a sharp increase in the financial costs of the classification system, according to a new report to the President (pdf).
The estimated costs of the national security classification system grew by 15% last year to reach $10.17 billion, according to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO). It was the first time that annual secrecy costs in government were reported to exceed $10 billion.
An additional $1.25 billion was incurred within industry to protect classified information, for a grand total of $11.42 in classification-related costs, also a new record high.
Continue reading “Secrecy News: Cost of Secrecy >$10B + RECAP”
Worth a Look: Design Earth
Earth Intelligence, IO Sense-Making, Worth A Look
We bring Planet, People and Products into harmony through the projects in which we involve ourselves and others. Design Earth, the portal, is allied with other sites that, collectively, are central to a whole systems approach to creating sustainablilty. These include Wiser Earth, Digital Earth, a certification portal, Commonwealth of Learning, oneVillage Foundation, and a portal to open higher education sites such as MIT's Open University. Others include Live Earth and Many One.
See Also:
“Fighting” the Mississippi River
01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 12 Water, Earth Intelligence, Government, Military
A Levee Breached, and New Worries Downstream
By A. G. SULZBERGER and JOHN SCHWARTZ
New York Times, May 3, 2011
Roy Presson, with his daughters Catherine, left, and Amanda, looking out at their flooded 2,400-acre farm on Tuesday in Wyatt, Mo
SIKESTON, MO. — With a rapid series of explosions late Monday that could be felt for miles through the Missouri soil, the Army Corps of Engineers successfully blew out some 11,000 feet of Mississippi River levee, taking dangerous pressure off the river above.
. . . . . .
For the people responsible for trying to manage the unmanageable river, each success is replaced by new worries.
“We’re just at the beginning of the beginning,” said Maj. Gen. Michael J. Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers and president of the Mississippi River Commission.
Phi Beta Iota: Severe weather is an act of man, not God. Between paving over the wetlands and the many contributing factors to environmental degradation, the Earth's natural systems have been distorted to yield increasingly “unmanageable” conditions.
See Also:
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Climate Change
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Environmental Degradation (Other than Emissions)
Sense of Justice Built Into the Brain, Study Shows
04 Education, 09 Justice, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Sense-Making
ScienceDaily (May 3, 2011) — A new study from the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm School of Economics shows that the brain has built-in mechanisms that trigger an automatic reaction to someone who refuses to share.
. . . . . . .
“This is an incredibly interesting result that shows that it isn't just processes in the prefrontal cortex and insula that determine this kind of decision about financial equitability, as was previously thought,” says Professor Martin Ingvar. “Our findings, however, can also have ethical implications since the use of certain drugs can clearly affect our everyday decision-making processes.”
This work was funded by the Swedish Research Council, The Barbro and Bernard Osher Foundation, The Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems.
Tip of the Hat to Lynn Wheeler at Facebook.
