The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Weekend Edition
July 22 / 24, 2011
The GOP's Uncivil War
By SAM SMITH, Counterpunch
Weekend Edition
July 22 / 24, 2011
The Enemy is Washington
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, Counterpunch
Just reading Cotton and Race in the Making of America, written by an old friend several years ago. I think most would find it fascinating and worthy of review.. http://genedattel.com/
“Gene Dattel has written a very important and necessary book, by locating the expansion of cotton production as a driving force not only in the antebellum South, but in the economy at large. He exposes slave-produced cotton's central role in causing the Civil War and as the global economic engine that prolonged slavery. Cotton was coveted by New York merchants and the textile barons of England and New England. He shows that after the Civil War cotton and race remained linked until technology finally displaced black labor. He devastatingly critiques the complicit role of the racist North in containing African Americans in the cotton fields. The legacy of this vital crop was economic growth and the social tragedy of slavery and segregation. No examination of American heritage is complete without an understanding of the force that cotton wrought upon its economic and social landscape. America's racial dilemma cannot be sequestered to one part of the country.” –Roger Wilkins, Clarence J. Robinson Professor Emeritus, George Mason University
JOURNAL: Legal Decay in a Soviet Style Collapse
Here's a question I got recently: What happens to the legal system when the US suffers a Soviet style collapse? Answer: It will rapidly decay.
Here's a simple formula for this (it works for both legal systems and government bureaucracies):
Low legitimacy + slashed operating budgets = rampant corruption
Regardless of any decay in the legal system, business will still be conducted. Small disputes will be resolved through the existing system, with graft tipping the scales or speeding the outcome. Large disputes involving substantial wealth transfer will be something else entirely. These disputes will be resolved through the ability of one party or the other to apply the threat of (or actual) violence to the negotiation process.
These pressures won't only be the result of counterparties that have access or control the large mafias/gangs/militias (or corporate militaries) that will spring up during economic collapse (far larger than we've seen the US to date). Threats will also be mounted by government/defense/security officials that use their government sanctioned command of violence (police, SWAT, military units, etc.) as a means to personal enrichement.
This has pretty intersting implications for those GG readers that have large amounts of wealth in the current system. You might not be able to retain it or move it or transact with it in a collapse scenario w/o putting your life (and those around you) at mortal risk.
NOTE: We've already seen a taste of what's to come with the financial crisis of 2008. In sum: it was the biggest financial crisis to date, full of fraud and deception across the board, and almost nobody was punished for it. In fact, most were rewarded for their malfeasence with generous government bailouts and huge bonuses.
Intelligence Online No. 645 July 14, 2011
Phi Beta Iota: Intelligence Online is the one subscription we cannot live without. See their other offerings as well. Reading between the lines, it would appear the Chinese no longer feel “behind” the English-language world, and are doing what the English-language world should have been doing since 1988: focusing on reality as it is depicted in all other languages.
Dear friends,
I don't usually present another organization's fundraiser in the middle of our Co-Intelligence Institute fundraiser, but this is an exception I feel strongly about.
Generating real wisdom together – not just knowledge and resources (as valuable as these are) – requires talking together. Furthermore, vast domains of our humanity flourish and deepen through conversation. And in both cases, the QUALITY of conversation makes all the difference in the world.
Collectively humanity now knows a lot about how to make powerful, enjoyable, meaningful conversations. A large and rapidly growing field of study and practice stewards these deeply human technologies and explores how to develop them further and use them better for broader benefit. These people bring to life a fundamental co-intelligence precept – accessing the wisdom of the whole on behalf of the whole.
Some of the most dedicated and creative people among those professionals are members of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. It is a home base, a learning community, an unparalleled resource – and it could be more. In my opinion, tNCDD nurtures one of the most important networks for the future of the planet. I consider its thrival essential. Furthermore, I have the highest respect for its co-founder and director, Sandy Heierbacher, a grounded, heartful, effective change agent. Her contribution to us all awes me.
NCDD's resource center alone is a priceless gift to each and every one of us. See, in particular, their Beginner's Guide and their “Best of the Best” page .
It goes without saying that I value any support you can give the Co-Intelligence Institute, But I want to urge you here to lend your support to NCDD, whether or not you donate to CII. As I tighten my own belt, I have given NCDD $100. Please read the note below that Sandy sent to me and other NCDD members and consider what you can do.
Thank you for taking a moment to consider this.
Coheartedly,
Tom
Below the Line: Message from NCDD Board
Continue reading “Tom Atlee: National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation”
Whizz kids deserting the spy world as threat of attacks increases
GCHQ is losing “whizz kid” specialists to Google, Microsoft, and Amazon because they can triple their pay, the head of the agency has warned.
Duncan Gardham
The Telegraph, 20 July 2011
The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia
The Nation, 1-8 August 2011
EXTRACT
As part of its expanding counterterrorism program in Somalia, the CIA also uses a secret prison buried in the basement of Somalia’s National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters, where prisoners suspected of being Shabab members or of having links to the group are held. Some of the prisoners have been snatched off the streets of Kenya and rendered by plane to Mogadishu. While the underground prison is officially run by the Somali NSA, US intelligence personnel pay the salaries of intelligence agents and also directly interrogate prisoners. The existence of both facilities and the CIA role was uncovered by The Nation during an extensive on-the-ground investigation in Mogadishu.
Phi Beta Iota: Contributing Editor DefDog also recommended these two stories.
Hacking murdered children's phones, paying off police, destroying evidence of crimes, threatening politicians — UK leaders say Rupert Murdoch's empire has “entered the criminal underworld”. For decades, Murdoch has ruled with impunity — making and breaking governments with his vast media holdings and scaring opponents into silence, but we're fighting back, and winning!
Murdoch's reign of fear is breaking down, and many are on the edge of speaking out against his tactics. The dam is about to break in the US, Australia and elsewhere, but we need to give it an urgent push by investigating Murdoch further, organising high profile opposition, and making sure that our politicians pass laws that will clean up our media for good. Let's make it happen together:
Our community kept campaigning on this issue when almost everyone else in the UK gave up hope. Because we're people-powered, we don't have the same fear of Murdoch that almost everyone else does. It's part of the promise that people power has for change in the world. Today, hope is breaking out in the UK — let's take it global.
