The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
To Rebuild the American Dream, Put Pressure On Democrats
EXTRACT
It would be great if progressive change could be achieved solely by pressuring Republicans, but that’s not how it works. It’s not just Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Congressmember Michelle Bachmann, and the Tea Party that hold back change – it’s the many Democrats who betray campaign promises to reward wealthy donors/corporate interests and/ or to “broaden” their base.
Book review: ‘Age of Greed’ by Jeff Madrick
By David Greenberg, Washington Post Outlook, 29 July 2011
David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. He is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for the 2010-11 academic year.
EXTRACTS
“Age of Greed” chronicles how Americans ended up with the highly unregulated financial system that produced the meltdown of 2008 and the fallout that lingers three years later. What’s most novel about the book, which relies heavily on other secondary accounts, is that unlike other recent treatments of the financial crisis, it traces the origins of the problem not to the Bush or Clinton or even Reagan years, but all the way to the late 1960s.
. . . . . .
The real scandal revealed by Madrick’s important book is not the well-known tales of dastards such as telecom analyst Jack Grubman or Internet stock promoter Frank Quattrone, but the more elusive — and more consequential — story of how the government came to abdicate this supreme responsibility.
Dear friends,
I have worked for several months to develop the ideas in this article and to articulate them in an accessible way. They are fundamental understandings underlying the co-intelligence vision of a wiser democracy.
If the ideas intrigue you, you can find a longer version with more detailed guidelines and references online. I wrote the abstract below to make it easier for you to see the whole pattern at once. I hope you find both versions interesting and useful.
Coheartedly,
Tom
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GUIDELINES FOR MAKING WISER DECISIONS ON PUBLIC ISSUES
by Tom Atlee
As a civilization we have tremendous collective power, but we don't always use it wisely. We can make good decisions, but we face messy, entangled, rapidly growing problems with complex, debatable causes. Efforts to solve one problem often generate new ones. We need more than problem-solving smarts here. We need wisdom.
A good definition for wisdom here is
the capacity to take into account
what needs to be taken into account
to produce long term, inclusive benefits.
To the extent we fail to take something important into account, it will come back to haunt us. But often we only realize we overlooked something long after our decision has been implemented. Certain practices – because they lead us to include more of what's important – can help us meet this challenge. Here are eight complementary ways to do this. The more of them we do, and the better we do them, the wiser our collective decisions will be.
Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Making Wise Decisions on Public Issues”
07/29/2011 04:20 PM
Europe's Right-Wing Populists Find Allies in Israel
By Charles Hawley, spiegel online
Islamophobic parties in Europe have established a tight network, stretching from Italy to Finland. But recently, they have extended their feelers to Israeli conservatives, enjoying a warm reception from members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Some in Israel believe that the populists are Europe's future.
Phi Beta Iota: Politicians and “leaders” have been grossly negligent about population policies including assimilation of legal immigrants, stopping illegal immigrants, educating the population, enforcing cultural expectations (e.g. not allowing women to be abused, part of assimilation). Both Europe and the USA have been mis-managed by lowest common denominator “leaders.”
What does this tell us about the intelligence and cultural literacy of the FBI training “leaders?”
FBI Recommended ‘Complete Idiot's Guide,' Anti-Muslim Books To New Agents
The FBI was telling new bureau recruits as recently as Jan. 2009 that Islam “transforms [a] country's culture into 7th Century Arabian ways” and recommending a book written by one of Norwegian terrorism suspect Anders Behring Breivik's favorite authors as well as the Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding Islam.
. . . . . . .
It's been well established that anti-Muslim self-proclaimed counterterrorism experts — often times funded by federal grants — have been giving advice to state and local law enforcement officers for years. But the fact that the nation's top law enforcement agency was pointing new federal agents to bigoted material as recently as 2009 came as a surprise to those who have seen this stuff before.
Dear friends,
The 160-person British Columbian Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform took every other weekend for a year to research and reach consensus on the best method for their province's election process.
The fourteen citizens in a Danish Consensus Conference take several weekends over several months to learn about their assigned technical issue and come up with shared recommendations for Parliament and the public.
A 24-person Citizen Initiative Review of the kind now institutionalized in Oregon takes a week to figure out how to best advise voters on a given ballot initiative.
Similar Citizens Juries on all kinds of subjects also take about a week.
The dozen citizens selected for MACLEAN'S magazine's 1991 “People's Verdict” deliberations took just three days to come up with a lengthy vision for Canada's future direction.
A Wisdom Council often takes just two days to come up with a consensus statement sharing their concerns and dreams for their community.
Hundreds or thousands of people in a 21st Century Town Meeting take one day to make decisions on the issue that they have been assigned.
And now ABC News gave five citizens of diverse political beliefs one hour to solve the deficit crisis that Washington can't seem to resolve in months. This small group's success is the special feature of this e-mailing, so check out ABC's very short video (2:43) about it
Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour”
