Cultural Intelligence – Page 575 – Public Intelligence Blog

2014/04/212014/04/21

Jon Ramer: Cowboy Indian Alliance (CIA) Rejects Keystone Pipeline and Unites to Protect the Sacred –Video and Protest in DC 22 April 2014

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Greetings!

I hope this finds you well. There is a story of “unprecedented unified action” unfolding as unlikely parties have come together to protect and restore our sacred Mother Earth. First Nations, Native Americans, and their allies, in the form of ranchers, farmers, landowners, lawyers, educators, activists, environmentalists, faith and spiritual leaders and others are teaming up to stop all tar sands projects; to challenge us to confront our dependency on fossil fuels, demand that we accelerate the shift to renewable energy, and stop destroying our planet.

The recent delay by President Obama on the Keystone XL pipeline is not just connected to the courts in Nebraska; the actions in the Dakotas and Nebraska come as the most unlikely of parties are joining forces. There are international treaties being signed between sovereign nations to stop the tar sands projects from all directions. There are prayer and spiritual camps being set up along the KXL pipeline route. First Nations, Native Americans and their allies have come together to form the Cowboy Indian Alliance (CIA). This new CIA is engaged and working cooperatively like never before to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

Obama's 50 Wounded Knees???? from Sacred on Vimeo.

A video message – “Obama's 50 Wounded Knees????” has been prepared for President Obama reminding him of the names he was given and the promises he has made. This video message is a call to remember and awaken to our common home and shared destiny.

The new CIA has also put out a call to action – Reject and Protect – to invite everyone to come to Washington DC starting this Tuesday, April 22 through Sunday, April 27. On Tuesday April 22, Earth Day, the new CIA will ride into Washington DC and set up camp near the White House to tell President Obama to reject the pipeline. They are building the camp on the national mall and will have tipi and water ceremonies.

The motivation to come together is not driven by the insatiable desire to continue to grow without limits, consume more of our precious resources, or produce more profits for a few. The inspiration is the fulfillment of a sacred promise to our ancestors and future generations to act as stewards of our precious planet and to summon the courage to “Warrior-Up” if needed and stand up to these risks and threats!

If you can't make it to Washington DC this week we ask that you join with us and help spread the word. It is time to Reject and Protect. Please share the Obama's 50 Wounded Knees???? video and sign up to volunteer on the Protect the Sacred website!

Our mailing address is:

Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest
14728 40th Ave NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

2014/04/212014/04/21

Chuck Spinney: Toxic Alliance – Neo-Cons and “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) War-mongers

Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War

This email continues the theme I introduced with How Obama's Rhetoric Reinforces America's Grand Strategic Pathway to Catastrophe.

Attached beneath my introduction is an brilliant essay, The Dangerous Neocon-R2P Alliance, written by Robert Parry of Consortium News. Parry describes how propaganda produced by this domestic alliance of convenience among a non-representative minority of unelected influence peddlers is fueling America's rush to a new Cold War with Russia.

Introduction

There is nothing new, per se, in the domestic politics fueling this rush to war. During the height of the Cold War war, however, it was routine for American politicians and analysts calling for higher defense budgets to claim that foreign policy was broadly bipartisan — i.e., that domestic politics stopped at the waters edge and the United States had a bi-partisan foreign policy.

Of course, the claim that domestic politics stopped at the water edge is patent nonsense. Nevertheless, maintaining the popular fiction became a central prop in the domestic politics of fear used by the pol-mil apparat to suppress opponents of increased defense spending. This was especially true during periods of economic ‘austerity,' when maintaining high defense budgets required cutbacks in spending for social programs, like infrastructure modernization (bridges, sewers, schools, etc) or those aimed at social welfare, especially those programs for poverty relief, medical coverage, or social social security.

In thinking through the implications of Parry's analysis, it is important to remember that a nation's foreign policy is always a reflection of its domestic politics. This is especially the case for democracies. President Eisenhower's warning about the dangers posed by the Military – Industrial (and I would add Congressional) Complex (or MICC) illustrates this point: Was not his warning precisely about the danger posed by the rise of misplaced domestic political power accruing to those parts of the federal government and private economic sector that benefited from high levels of defense spending? Today, a whole cottage industry of think tanks and media outlets is organized around the requirement to produce the propaganda needed to prop up that misplaced power.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Toxic Alliance – Neo-Cons and “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) War-mongers”

2014/04/212014/04/21

SchwartzReport: 37% of Voters Fear the Federal Government

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Threats

37% of Voters Fear the Federal Government
Rasmussen Reports

Rasmussen is a right leaning survey operation. I mention this because context matters and a Right leaning poll with these results is worthy of close attention. I think this is telling us that the basis of trust upon which our democracy was based is eroding as quickly as the ice sheet covering Greenland.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters now fear the federal government, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Forty-seven percent (47%) do not, but another 17% are not sure.

Perhaps in part that’s because 54% consider the federal government today a threat to individual liberty rather than a protector. Just 22% see the government as a protector of individual rights, and that’s down from 30% last November. Slightly more (24%) are now undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

As recently as December 2012, voters were evenly divided on this question: 45% said the federal government was a protector of individual rights, while 46% described it as a threat to those rights.

Two-out-of-three voters (67%) view the federal government today as a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Just 17% disagree, while 15% are undecided.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: 37% of Voters Fear the Federal Government”

2014/04/202014/04/21

Yoda: Movement Grows to Legalize Marijuana

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Wise, this is.

420 festival: How far and fast could legal marijuana spread?

The 420 festival in Denver Sunday shows how the legal marijuana cultural phenomenon is growing. But it's Colorado's success in keeping things safe and orderly that has some ‘cautiously optimistic' about the industry.

EXTRACT

A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 51 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana. That is up from 27 percent in 1979. If that number continues its upward trend, as expected, the tax money that legal marijuana promises politicians will look more inviting. For its part, Marijuana Business Daily forecasts that industry sales nationwide will hit $8 billion in 2018.

The potential expansion of legal marijuana has already largely played out with medical marijuana. Twenty-one states currently allow marijuana for medical use. Twelve more will consider it this fall, meaning more than half of states will likely have some form of legal marijuana by the end of the year.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Yoda: Movement Grows to Legalize Marijuana”

2014/04/202014/04/20

Yoda: Movement Grows to End Federal Land Ownership

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Wise, this is.

Nevada range war: Western states move to take over federal land

The fight over Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cows grazing illegally on federal land is a symbol of a much larger issue: control of land in western states, where the federal government is dominant.

EXTRACT

In Salt Lake City Friday, representatives from Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington met for a “Legislative Summit on the Transfer of Public Lands.”

“Those of us who live in the rural areas know how to take care of lands,” Montana state Sen. Jennifer Fielder said at a news conference. “We have to start managing these lands. It's the right thing to do for our people, for our environment, for our economy and for our freedoms.”

In other words, today’s revival of the “Sagebrush Rebellion” is as much about political philosophy as it is about great stretches of the largely-arid territory west of the 100^th meridian splitting the Dakotas and running down through Texas.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Yoda: Movement Grows to End Federal Land Ownership”

2014/04/202014/04/20

Mini-Me: Global Revolution – Rethinking Assumptions

Cultural Intelligence

Globalrevolution / Network movements / Technopolitics | Berlin 31.01.2014 | Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Presentation Transcript

1. globalrevolution/ network-movements/ technopolitics/ adrià rodríguez @adriaral participating with Fundación de los Comunes participating with #GRRN Global Revolution Research Network developing Project Kairós www.projectkairos.net berlin 31.01.2014

2. *A big part of the data and ideas here presented are the insights of the datanalysis15m research group based in Barcelona, and the study “Tecnopolítica y 15M, la potencia de las multitudes conectadas”, coordinated by Javier @Toret. Find more information here All these slides are under a CC BY SA license

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2014/04/202014/04/20

Jean Lievens: A Most Revolutionary World — With No Revolution — Extraordinary Photo Essay

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Around the World in 843 Protests: Living the Most Revolutionary Times in History

Bernardo Gutierrez

Occupy.com, 19 April 23014

We sail in an unstable political ocean, surfing bursts of protests and unexpected revolts emerging across the globe: 843 large protests in the last eight years.

If Karl Marx raised his head, he would be absolutely baffled: Revolts are shaking the world, bursting in the most unexpected places, but they rarely take power. The conditions for rebellion are as sharp today as in the nineteenth century, but few protests lead to the literal meaning of revolution, that “violent change in political, economic or social institutions of a nation.”

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: A Most Revolutionary World — With No Revolution — Extraordinary Photo Essay”