Infrastructure: Internet Service Providers in the United Kingdom have started censoring the Internet wholesale by default. This is a horrible transgression against the free exchange of ideas, cheered on by authoritarian politicians. However, there is an important weapon built into the legal framework against this kind of censorship, and it’s high time to use it in full scale.
I am writing to share with you my new article, “Russia, Iran and China in Latin America,” just published by the American Foreign Policy Committee in their e-journal “Defense Dossier.” The work comparatively examines the activities of the three extra-regional actors in Latin America and the Caribbean, including ways in which commercial and governmental initiatives by each compliment (and occasionally conflict or compete with) each other. I emphasize that each actor presents a different type of challenge to US interests in the region, on a different time-scale.
The other day I said that I thought the markets were only understandable to insiders. I may have been too generous. Read this report and draw your own conclusions.
Canada has a Rightist government so no one should be surprised that they deny climate change and have energy interests that trump lesser agencies like fisheries. They don't like facts, so why not just get rid of them literally. This is the modern equivalent of book burning. This is a loss not just to Canada but to the whole world. These databases and reports they are describing constitute a significant part of humanity's understanding of Earth. It is straight out of the Dark Ages. An act of fanaticism as was its predecessor. Then it was Christianity. Today it is The Theology of Profit.
What this report describes should not be legal in a democracy, and would not be had the Supreme Court's conservative wing not opened the floodgates to gray and black money through Citizen's United, although the trend began earlier. No one should be allowed to dump $400 mi! llion dollars into the political process in an attempt to buy an outcome in an election.
I don't pretend to have any special insight into the markets; they are an insider's game and nothing is quite what it seems to outsiders, and most commentary is no better than throwing rabbit bones. So it is hard for me to evaluate the importance of this report. But it does strike me as a matter of concern that major insiders are dumping U.S. stocks.
Phi Beta Iota: The source is a shill for a self-help investing program that uses faux news to sell itself. Generally the worst melt-downs occur in the final six months of a second presidential term. Right now frugality and getting out of the known stock market casino that is rigged, are good moves.
The wealth inequity is not just in the U.S., although we are the worst example in the developed world. It is a profound geopolitical shift with immense implications for every aspect of life. There is a small group of transnational people who quite literally live in a different world. Historically social unrest has always followed such extreme distortions. Click through to see the important charts that accompany this survey.
Here is an excellent essay on the relevant issues in what, I think, is correctly called The Great Marijuana Experiment. What I find interesting so far is that although every prohibitionist is trolling for even the smallest possible problem in fact almost nothing has turned up.
The details concerning the rise of the American police and security state beggar the imagination. Here is the latest from the Snowden documents. I think it has become so comprehensive that people find it hard to believe they are under this level of surveillance. It is one of the most reprehensible trends in the nation's history. Click through to see the images which help explain it.
So what’s making it harder than usual to predict what might happen over the coming year? In a phrase, it’s global warming. I know, that’s not remotely the topic of this site, nor is it in any way a subject I can claim even a modicum of expertise. But as I bend to the work of a new year in our industry, I can’t help but wonder if our efforts to create a better world through technology are made rather small when compared to the environmental alarm bells going off around the globe.
Beyond the headlines of conflict and catastrophe, this year’s top stories offered us some powerful proof that the world can still change—for the better
