SchwartzReport: Alzheimer’s Break-Through Blocked by Grant Approval Mind-Sets Locked into Past Failures

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

This has the potential to be a tremendous breakthrough, It reminds of the the shift in research concerning ulcers.

Twenty Years of Alzheimer’s Research May Have Focused on the Wrong Protein
ELIZABETH LOPATTO – The Daily Beast

Phi Beta Iota: Whether it's the National Science Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or DARPA/IARPA, a major obstacle to exploring alternative paths is the retro mind-sets of those deciding who gets the grants.

See Also:

2012 Integrity, Reflexivity, & Open Everything – Presentation to the Washington Academy of Sciences

Anthony Judge: Internyet Nescience? Doing the Wrong Things Righter is Still Doing the Wrong Thing

Koko: Bloomberg & Soros Do Wrong Thing Righter

Reference: Russell Ackoff on Doing Right Things Righter

Ric Merrifield: When Metrics & Assumptions Are Wrong

Wikipedia / Reflexivity (social theory)

 

Eben Moglen: Snowden and the Future + Moglen’s Written Manifesto on Secrecy & Privacy (Privacy is Citizen Secrecy)

Academia, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government
Eben Moglen
Eben Moglen

October 9, October 30, November 13 and December 4; 2013.

Columbia Law School in association with Software Freedom Law Center

From approximately 17:11 in NSA Spying talk 3 of 4 by Prof. Eben Moglen, a presentation sponsored by the Software Freedom Law Center of the Columbia Law School.

“The anonymity of reading is the central, fundamental guarantor of freedom of the mind.  Without anonymity of reading there is no freedom of the mind, and there is literally slavery.”

This is at 6:35 from part 4:

“Collectively, we are trying to save the freedom of humanity and democracy, which cannot be otherwise saved.  As we have seen, pervasive relentless surveillance destroys freedom of thought. And without freedom of thought, all other freedoms are merely privilege, conceded by government.”

Part I: Westward the Course of Empire

Part II: Oh, Freedom

Part III: The Union, May it Be Preserved

Part IV: Freedom's Future

Written Manifesto: Privacy under attack: the NSA files revealed new threats to democracy

SchwartzReport: Americans Say 75 Percent of Politicians Are Corrupted, 70 Percent Use Political Power to Hurt Enemies

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

We are in what is actually an amazing political situation; one that is very dangerous for a democracy. Neither conservatives nor social progressives have any respect for the political class, and a vast majority see them as corrupt whores for special interests.

Americans Say 75 Percent of Politicians Are Corrupted, 70 Percent Use Political Power to Hurt Enemies
EMILY EKINS – reason.com

Chuck Spinney: Todd Pierce on Cheneyism — Are We the New Nazis?

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinney

Todd Pierce has produced a tour de force that is crucially important to your appreciation of the increasing possibility of Cold War II.

Related subjects not discussed include (1) the role of domestic politics in shaping the systematic expansion of NATO in violation of our promises to Gorbachev as a quid pro quo for ending the first Cold War and (2) the role of shoveling money to the Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex in the shaping the domestic politics of contemporary militarism.

These issues in no way detract from the importance of Todd's message; I only mention them because they are also central to rise of a peculiar form of 21st Century American Militarism that violates all the criteria of a sensible grand strategy.

On a personal note: as one who laughing dismissed Wolfowitz's draft Defense Planning Guidance when it was leaked to the New York Times in 1992 as the inconsequential divagations of a troglodyte moron, I stand corrected.

Chuck Spinney

The Blaster

‘We’re All Cheneyites Now’

In late 2008, when President Obama opted more for “continuity” than “change” — and ceded control over much of his foreign policy to hawkish “rivals” — he locked in many of Dick Cheney’s neocon theories that trampled constitutional principles, as retired JAG Major Todd E. Pierce explains.

By Todd E. Pierce, Consortium News, 1 April 2014

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Todd Pierce on Cheneyism — Are We the New Nazis?”

Johan Galtung: USA a Failed State?

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Johan Galtung
Johan Galtung

America – a failed state?

By Johan Galtung

Transnational.org, 3 April 2014

Depends, of course, on the criteria. A state has an inside towards its citizens, and an outside toward the state system. Depends on domestic and foreign policy, in other words. That means it can fail in two ways, by not catering to its citizens and by not coming to terms with other states. Actually the two are closely related as often pointed out: a regime (running the state) may compensate for failure at home by victories abroad. And, conversely, compensate for failures abroad by taking good care of its citizens. And, success at home used to mobilize grateful citizens for patriotic wars abroad.

America, or the USA rather, at present does not take good care of its citizens. A recent study cited in Nation of Change, More Evidence That Half of America Is in or Near Poverty, 24 March 2014, by Paul Buchheit: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that an average family of three needs $48,000 to meet basic needs, very close to the median family household income of $51,000. Since the 1950s the food costs have doubled, housing costs tripled, medical costs are six times higher, and college tuition eleven times–four key basic needs. Food, housing, health care, child care, transportation and taxes consume very close to the median income–not counting college education–hence, “half of America is in or near poverty”.

Continue reading “Johan Galtung: USA a Failed State?”

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