Thanks to everyone who participated and responded to the 4 question survey for the Future of Facebook Project. Below are your results! We’ll be integrating these responses with the ones given by the experts for our final video and written report.
Phi Beta Iota: Weak signals, most fascinating are two. First, open source the code and open Application Program Interfaces (API) are the most hoped for immediate change; and second, social (peer to peer or P2P) commerce is the next hoped for big big thing.
Before Tuesday this week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had been sprinkling Washington D.C. with words like “doomsday mechanism,” “catastrophic,” and “shooting ourselves in the head” to describe any cuts in the Pentagon's budget beyond the $450 billion over 10 years (overall a 4 percent reduction) he and President Obama have already committed to. Panetta had set a new standard for overheated rhetoric to defend the Pentagon's budget.
Phi Beta Iota: Panetta, like Gates and others before him, is a political toad incable of telling the truth or pursuing the public interest. He is telling two major lies in all of his speeches: 1) that cutting the defense budget will weaken national security; and 2) that what we pay $1 trillion a year (in borrowed money) for is “the finest fighting force in the world.” Not so less the infantry, which is 4% of the force, takes 80% of the casualties, and receives 1% of the budget. In an honest government, Panetta would be impeached–and all his senior generals and senior executive sychopants retired.
The first of a four-part investigation into a world of greed and recklessness that led to financial collapse.
In the first episode of Meltdown, we hear about four men who brought down the global economy: a billionaire mortgage-seller who fooled millions; a high-rolling banker with a fatal weakness; a ferocious Wall Street predator; and the power behind the thron
Meltdown examines how an epidemic of fear caused banks to stop lending, triggered protests and led to industrial action.
In the second episode of Meltdown, we look at how the financial tsunami swept the world. We hear about a renegade executive who nearly destroyed the global financial system and the US treasury secretary who bailed out his friends.
As the toll of the financial crisis continues to mount, many are looking for its true causes – and finding a crime.
The third episode of Meltdown looks at how the victims of the 2008 financial crash fight back. A protesting singer in Iceland brings down the government; in France a union leader oversees the kidnapping of his bosses; and thousands of families are made homeless in California.
Some responded with denial, others by re-thinking capitalism, but who is preparing for the next crisis?
In the final episode of Meltdown, we hear about the sheikh who says the crash never happened; a Wall Street king charged with fraud; a congresswoman who wants to jail the bankers; and the world leaders who want a re-think of capitalism.
Phi Beta Iota: This is a world-class series that misses just two things:
A. Goldman Sachs has owned the US Treasury–providing the Secretary of the Treasurer (and today also the National Security Advisor to the President–for three critical administrations, each of which willfully eradicated safeguards.
B. Senator Phil Graham (R-TX) and the other Senators who had and still have zero integrity, passing 200 pages of lobbyist written deregulation inserted into the bill five minutes before the vote.
Penguin adds:
C. The perfidy of Clinton in his Glass-Steagall sellout and his CONTINUED malignant hyping of its ethic through obfuscation and the pimping of what “reputable” analysts who want access to his solon. For him America was built on deal making and networking.
Here are some more good articles and websites about the Occupy Together movement, the global extension of Occupy Wall Street.
In this posting there are a number of pieces about strategy and tactics – appeals to and descriptions of nonviolence (including some tips useful in everyday life as well as demonstrations); what contributed to their success in holding onto their NYC site; the logic of their non-partisan messages that are not tied to specific demands; etc. You'll also find a powerful video highlighting the hypocrisy of US officials condemning crackdowns on Arab Spring protests while condoning crackdowns on domestic Occupy protests.
I've also excerpted an inspiring, sober open letter from long-time Christian activist Jim Wallis. His whole article is worth reading. It was sent to me by my friend and colleague Rosa Zubizarreta who writes:
“I highly recommend that people GO. visit. see for yourself. engage in wonderful conversations. volunteer. contribute…. yes, there are clearly challenges and difficulties (it's certainly not perfect, as Rainbow Gatherings and Peace Camps and Soup Kitchens and all of those various manifestations of “free zones” are not perfect…) AND, it is so very much alive, filled with many wonderful moments and lots of learning and creativity and connection… On Friday morning in Occupy Boston, there were several classrooms visiting… their teachers bringing them in for a field trip… it was awesome!”
Others have written to me about conversations happening among finance professionals about the changes that are needed in their sector – conversations stimulated and energized by the Occupy Wall Street protests. Increasingly, this aspect of nonviolent protest – encouraging urgently needed conversations about change – is becoming the trademark of this movement. And this is an invitation to those of us who know how to make conversations meaningful and productive…
Blessings on this 13.7 billion year old highly interactive Journey.
One is primarily a psychology of exclusion, the other inclusion. But both start with deep similarities: anger, fear, frustration, resentment, and an enduring faith in democratic ideals (why else participate?).
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The differences between the Tea Party position and that of Occupy Wall Street emerge in how that upset is expressed, in how solutions are sought. If we think of the Tea Party starting with a rebel’s yell of “get your f-in hands off my f-in stuff” then OWS begins with a naive complaint about being hungry while others unfairly have too much, “how much stuff do you really need, really, to have a good life?”
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From the start the Tea Party was about safety through exclusion, protecting oneself from outside influences—including a President seen as an un-American “other,” perhaps for racial reasons, perhaps other reasons as well. What the Tea Party rejected was anything perceived by them as coming from outside the center of America. It’s not us, it’s never us; it’s them.
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The start of OWS is radically different. Everyone is included, everyone gets to have a say. Rather than policy they have process. The “we” of OWS is worldwide, a globalized, networked “we” full of good and bad existing simultaneously and everywhere. The messier the better; better to let in those you don’t want then miss out on including those you do.
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For Tea Party members, the world will always remain full of persecutory others (Obama’s the devil!!) while OWS holds out the promise of community, no, of communities of difference.
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Of course, moving from the psychology of protest to specific policy recommendations is the responsibility not of the protestors whose message needs to be heard but of political leaders. And I want to note that there’s something profoundly anti-capitalist about the critics of OWS. It’s a movement about which capitalists, real capitalists who work hard and smart, have nothing to fear. Oligarchs, on the other hand, should be afraid, very afraid.
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More than anything else, OWS is helping facilitate a shift in psychological values from more—and then more more—to enough, from the destructive envy of raging at someone who has more to the genuine satisfaction of appreciating what one has.
A recent happiness study from Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are. Summing the research, the New York Times wrote, “Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or shopping, they tended to be happier if they focused on the activity instead of thinking about something else.” In short, being mentally “present” and focused on the task at hand really does matter – quite a lot, in fact.
If only finding focus were so simple. With a tidal wave of information coming at us daily, focus is rapidly becoming the scarcest commodity of the 21st century. With this in mind, I’ve rounded up a handful of the best apps for fighting back against the constant distractions of our digital lives.
1. Self-Control – Block out distracting websites for a set amount of time.
2. TrackTime – Audit how you’re spending your time on your computer.
3. Concentrate – Maximize focus while shifting between different tasks.
5. FocusBooster – Focus on single tasks for 25 minutes apiece.
6. Think – Limit your attention to a single application at a time.
7. FocusWriter – Create a distraction-free environment for writing.
8. Anti-Social – Block the social websites that are killing your focus.
9. StayFocusd – Curb the time you spend browsing time-wasting sites.
10. Time Out – Take regular breaks to keep your focus sharp.
Phi Beta Iota: Read the original to see paragraphs for each of the above with excellent context. Both above and in the original, links lead to an application for those who need imposed discipline.
Interesting review Robert. I haven't read the book yet but I'm hopeful there are some new details of worth in it. I appreciate your regular mention of 9/11 issues in your book reviews. Don't know if you've read it yet but Kevin Fenton's DISCONNECTING THE DOTS is worth a look as it brings out new details in the (dubious) activities of the CIA and their Alex Station team prior to 9/11 – Peter Dale Scott recently praised this one highly in interviews. Additionally, if you Google ‘Who is Rich Blee?', the first link that comes up (SecrecyKills) offers a lengthy podcast from the same team that made 9/11 PRESS FOR TRUTH that fruitfully accompanies that DISCONNECTING book mentioned above with new interviews with Richard Clarke and statements from a very defensive George Tenet. They have a full transcript of the podcast on the site which is valuable reading, and author Kevin Fenton is again featured on that site and thanked in the podcast.
There's a lengthy 500 page book on 9/11 by a possibly pseudonymous author called E.P.Heidner, titled ‘The September Eleventh Commission Report' (a poor title for a valuable work) that a number of researchers have been discussing recently – David Ray Griffin mentioned to me in an email a month ago that he makes note of the book in his latest 9/11 TEN YEARS LATER volume. Heidner has done a massive amount of new research into who the likely background figures are (many linked to Iran Contra) and brings a lot of new information to the table. The book is currently unpublished but is available online for free as a PDF, at Scribd and elsewhere. If you Google the phrase ‘A remarkable new book on 9/11', the first link that comes up is a post by me at the Deep Politics forum where I and some others discuss the book in detail and post a number of links where any reader can get the book for free.
Researcher and journalist Jonathan Elinoff uploaded a fine documentary on 9/11 online a couple of years back called CORE OF CORRUPTION-FROM THE SHADOWS, which goes into a lot of depth about events prior to 9/11. (The currently available version has a minor sound issue where for the first 10 minutes or so, the background music is a little louder than it should be, but the film is still worth sticking with and is easily locatable online). I mention this as two(!) new follow up films to that documentary, the next of the series entitled CORE OF CORRUPTION-ECHOES OF TREASON, are reportedly being finished right now and will be released online for full viewing in March 2012. Elinoff reportedly has close to five years of research and relevant interviews and various revelations prepared for release with the new film, including new information from whistleblowers, fresh details about the participants in the rogue 9/11 stock trades, and a lot of juicy new info. The proof will be in the pudding but I expect it to be a formidable piece of work.
As a final note, if you haven't yet watched the recent feature length documentary 9/11 EXPLOSIVE EVIDENCE-EXPERTS SPEAK OUT, and its accompanying shorter featurette ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS-SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF WTC7 (hosted by Ed Asner) please go to Youtube and view them immediately. Both are superior works from Richard Gage's group of professionals and contain a lot of formidable evidence and testimony.
