The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Russia has thrown down a gauntlet that is not limited to Crimea or even Ukraine.
Manifesto
“The present day global set of sovereign states is not capable of keeping peace, and it is not capable of saving the biosphere’s non-replaceable natural resources. What has been needed for the last 5,000 years, has become technologically feasible in the last 100, but not yet politically, is a global body politic composed of cells on the scale of the Neolithic-Age village community — a scale on which participants could be personally acquainted with each other, while each of them would also be a citizen of the world state.”
In this century for the first time in American history, going back to Jamestown, and over the planet at large, Whites will no longer dominate the world. This is producing, in a fraction or the aging white population, an intense level of anxiety. In this Gallup survey it is easy to see the aging white minority.!
U.S. Seniors Have Realigned With the Republican Party
JEFFREY M. JONES – The Gallup Organization
Russia: President Putin met the CEO of Siemens at his residence outside Moscow today. Siemens promised to continue working with the Russian firm Gazprom and to continue doing business in Russia.
Comment: The Wall Street Journal published an insightful article describing how German firms have been working behind the scenes all month to maintain Russian economic ties. The Journal reported there has been no rush by German companies to leave Russia as the result of sanctions. German businessmen reportedly have informed the Berlin government that President Putin “will not cave in to sanctions.”
Russia-Ukraine: According to unidentified sources in Crimea, a convoy of 10 Russian heavy equipment transporters moved formerly Ukrainian T-64 tanks to northern Crimea. Other press sources reported separate convoys moving about Crimea and a steady increase in the signs and symbols of Russian sovereignty, including the use of rubles in commerce.
Comment: The Russians and Crimeans appear to be adjusting Crimea's defenses, apparently as a precaution against a Ukrainian attack of some kind.
Media artist Josephine Dorado (and friend of ISOC-NY) has developed an online game and mobile app to promote activism.
reACTor is a location-based mobile gaming app that connects news with social action”(working title, based on fractor.org) is an initiative to create a mobile game that allows users to “play the news” — players would be shown the news 1000 feet around them (or other specified distance), and then are presented with social actions and volunteer opportunities associated with that news.
The Dead Are Wealthier Than the Living – Capital in the 21st Century
Patrimonial capitalism—and the landed or urban gentry living off of inherited wealth—was dealt a mortal blow by the Great Depression and World Wars. But it’s making a comeback, and the only way to stop it might be a worldwide tax on capital.
EXTRACT:
Why is capital re-establishing dominance over income? Because, Piketty writes, r > g.
In plain English: The return on capital (r) almost always exceeds economic growth (g). Piketty calls r > g an “inequality” rather than a formula because it isn’t “an absolute logical necessity.” Rather, it’s “the result of a confluence of forces, each largely independent of the others.” These include demographics (a rapidly growing population boosts g); the extent to which a country’s economy has matured (China has much higher g than the U.S. and Western Europe because it’s still catching up); and various “technological, psychological, social, and cultural factors” (all of which can cause r to fall). Typically, r is four to five times g, but the ratio gets larger as capital accumulates across generations. The dead—though worse off in most obvious respects than the rest of us—are wealthier than the living. “The past,” Piketty writes, “tends to devour the future.”
Article below appeared in last week's Army Times. Paper to which article refers attached; I've been carrying a hardcopy in my rucksack for weeks. Author works for the Undersecretary of the Army. Many of us feel that the Army absolutely cannot deal with truth or candor. Messengers often get killed. PC often rules the day.
PDF (56 pages): SSI Closing the Candor Chasm
PDF (4 Pages): Army Times – Can the Army Handle the Truth
Candor: Can the Army Handle the Truth?
By Rick Maze, Editor in Chief
A provocative paper recently published by the U.S. Army War College raises the question of whether the Army can handle the truth. Called “Closing the Candor Chasm: The Missing Element of Army Professionalism” and written by Col. Paul Paolozzi, the paper says speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is a way of building professional relationships and a stronger Army. Candor can be intimidating and unwanted in some circumstances, but it should be a key part of professional communication, Paolozzi says.
Paolozzi cites performance evaluations, training, education and counseling as areas in which complete honesty is missing. Candor, he says in the report, “is messy, hard, creates discomfort, and its presence is most often inversely proportional to rank and organizational size.”
Full Text of Army Times (main story and sidebars) below.
WO#D