Month: June 2011

Posted on

Event: 1500 ET 7 June Ben & Jerry on Restoring USA

Uncategorized
John Steiner

Greetings

We hope that you can join us for a

Webinar:  Beyond Citizens United: Returning our Democracy and Constitution to the People with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's )

Tuesday, June 7th ­ 3pm ET, 2pm CT, 1pm MT, 12pm PT

Join us for presentations and dialogue with: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's) who will offer a business perspective on Citizens United and challenge the notion that corporations are people with constitutional rights, including limitless financial license to influence our elections.  Hear from national advocates for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, John Bonifaz and Jeff Clements of Free Speech for People, who will present the historical and legal background and rationale for
challenging the fabricated doctrine of corporate rights under the Constitution.  American Sustainable Business Council¹s Executive Director David Levine will give an update on the Campaign. Please share this invitation with business leaders who may be interested.

Cosponsored by A Business for Democracy (http://www.businessfordemocracy.com
<http://www.businessfordemocracy.com>  ) and Free Speech For People
(http://www.freespeechforpeople.org <http://www.freespeechforpeople.org>   )

To sign up for this webinar, please register at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/736389542
<https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/736389542>

For more information about the American Sustainable Business Council
http://www.asbcouncil.org <http://www.asbcouncil.org>

Posted on

The Rule of Little Groups of Paratroops (LGOP)

Blog Wisdom
John Marke

Some D-Day reflections from 2009 that still merit reflection today.

“The Rule of LGOPs” Little Groups of Paratroops

On this the 67th anniversary of the World War II D-Day invasion it is only fitting to remind ourselves that rarely do things go as planned in battle. The 18th century military strategist Carl Von Clausewitz called it the “fog of war.” It must have been pretty foggy on the night of June 5th and morning of June 6th 1944 off the coast of Normandy. In the pre-dawn hours Airborne troopers were dropped all over the field of battle, few hitting the “drop zone” as planned…

 

Rule of LGOPs
“After the demise of the best Airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield.  This effect is known as the Rule of LGOPs.  This is, in its purest form, small groups of 19-year old American Paratroopers. They are well-trained, armed-to-the-teeth and lack serious adult supervision. They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as “March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who is not dressed like you…” …or something like that. Happily they go about the day’s work…

The Rule of LGOPs is instructive:
– They shared a common vision
– The vision was simple, easy to understand, and unambiguous
– They were trained to improvise and take the initiative
– They need to be told what to do; not how to do it

Read full post….

Phi Beta Iota: John focuses on issues of complexity and resilience, and both his blog and his book reviews at Amazon will begin to appear here as they are posted.

See Also:

His Blog

His Amazon Reviews

Posted on

Open Source Anonymous Banking….Here Now!

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Technologies, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Reform, Tools
Michael Ostrolenk Recommends...

What Happens When Anonymous Gets a Bank?

Dominic Basulto on May 18, 2011

bigthink

The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they've created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system. Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that's right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that's untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous.

And that's where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he's ever seen. TIME suggested that Bitcoin might be able to bring national governments and global financial institutions to their knees. You see, Bitcoin is as much a political statement as it is a virtual currency. If you think there's a shadow banking system now, wait a few more months. The political part is that, unlike other virtual currencies like Facebook Credits (used to buy virtual sock puppets for your friends), Bitcoins are globally transferrable across borders, making them the perfect instrument to finance any cause or any activity — even if it's banned by a sovereign government.

You don't need a banking or trading account to buy and trade Bitcoins – all you need is a laptop. They're like bearer bonds combined with the uber-privacy of a Swiss bank account, mixed together with a hacker secret sauce that stores them as 1's and 0's on your computer. They're “regulated” (to use the term lightly) by distributed computers around the world. Most significantly, Bitcoins can not be frozen or blocked or taxed or seized.

Read full article….

See Also:

Open Money
Posted on

UN Declares Internet Access a Human Right…

Advanced Cyber/IO
DefDog Recommends....

The U.N. Declares Internet Access a Human Right

By Adam Clark Estes 11:29 AM ET

The United Nations counts internet access as a basic human right in a report that bears implications both to on-going events in the Arab Spring and to the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers.

Acting as special rapporteur, a human rights watchdog role appointed by the UN Secretary General, Frank La Rue takes a hard line on the importance of the internet as “an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress.”

Presented to the General Assembly on Friday, La Rue's report comes as the capstone of a year's worth of meetings held between La Rue and local human rights organizations around the world, from Cairo to Bangkok. The report's introduction points to the impact of online collaboration in the Arab Spring and says that “facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States.”

The UN report overwhelmingly supports the internet as a communication platform, a boon to all democratic societies, but it also warns how the internet's unique architecture threatens power brokers in those societies:

Read rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: The three billion poor are not going to pay what the one billion rich have been paying, nor are they going to put up with proprietary technology.  OpenBTS will lead the way toward an Autonomous Internet (Open, Free, Distributed].  Open Everything will have its day.

Posted on

From Serbia with Love: The Revolution Business

08 Wild Cards, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Peace Intelligence

Phi Beta Iota: This 27:37 film focuses on a Serbian organization that claims to have provided peaceful non-violent training to 36 countries, with five successes including Ukraine, Georgia, Tunesia, Egypt, and the Maldives.  The film strives to suggest that the US Government is funding this organization–more likely is that it is privately funded by a mix of George Soros, the Ayn Rand network, and related movements.  Not to be confused with the Private Military Contractors and related quasi-criminal networks (e.g. Brown & Root) with close ties to clandestine elements of the U.S. Government.  This is not “Shock Capitalism.”  Russia and Venezuela are said to fear the concepts and organizational teaching represented by this group and its network of young learners.  The film concludes that Globalization BENEFITS from revolutions by the young, over-throwing opponents of the New World Order such as Iran, Libya, and Venezuela.  On balance, we are impressed.  We do not believe that the awakening of the young will prolong predatory capitalism, virtual colonialism, and unilateral militarism.  We welcome any initiative that empowers the young.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpXbA6yZY-8

See Also:

Amazon Page
Posted on

DoD Inflation Fraud Costs Taxpayers Billions More

Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Military
Winslow Wheeler

UPDATED to Add The Hill 06/06/11.

A new Straus Military Reform Project paper that I have just finished explains how the Pentagon has tailored measures of inflation for itself that generate added billions of dollars — each year — and additional (hidden) “real growth” for its budget.  As just one example of the consequences, during the span of President Obama's $400 billion “savings” in the security budget over 12 years, I calculate that $167 billion of that amount is for inflation that the most widely accepted measure of inflation says will not exist.

It's an arcane subject, and some will remember a scandal and studies about this in the 1980s, but despite the complexities of the Pentagon's budget labyrinth, hundreds of billions are at issue.  I urge you to read the summary below, as well as the paper itself.

The paper's summary is below; the full text is online.

Summary

The Pentagon uses a specially tailored measure of inflation that masks past budget growth and induces Congress to appropriate excess funding for inflation that the most commonly accepted inflation index says will not occur.

Continue reading “DoD Inflation Fraud Costs Taxpayers Billions More”