Collaboration Zones – Page 1210 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/08/16

Chuck Spinney: The S&P Downgrade Market Plunge Myth

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement, Media, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off....

The S&P Downgrade Market Plunge Myth

Monday 15 August 2011

by: Dean Baker, Truthout | News Analysis

The Wall Street crew that wants to cut your Social Security and Medicare benefits are sensing that victory is in sight. They have managed to knock jobs completely off the agenda and have made deficit reduction the near exclusive focus of economic policy in Washington. They are now setting the stage to have the Congressional “super committee” produce a deal that will mean large cuts in both programs.

The backdrop for these cuts is that the country is in crisis and that we have no choice. A central part of this story is that the stock market crashed last week in response to the Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgrade of US government debt. The Wall Street crew and their allies in the media and Congress will tell the country that if we don't have the cuts in Social Security and Medicare demanded by S&P then we run the risk of further downgrades. This raises the prospect of further market panics and the complete wreckage of the economy.

This story has as much credibility as John Edwards' tales of marital bliss during his presidential campaign.

Read rest of article.

Phi Beta Iota: A couple of things are clear, the first being that Barack Obama is not in charge of anything, the second being that New York–Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, the Koch Brothers–is. From the Tea Party funded and manipulated by the Koch brothers, to the idiotic lack of intellent analysis from the newspapers and broadcast stage, what we have here is theater. The truth is nowhere to be found between New York and Washington.

2011/08/16

Cheery Waves: Four of Five CIA Bay of Pigs History Books Released by National Security Archive

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Archive Cuba Project posts Four Volumes; calls for declassification of still secret Volume 5

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 355

Posted – August 15, 2011

By Peter Kornbluh

For more information contact:
Peter Kornbluh – 202/374-7281 or by email

EXTRACT

In perhaps the most important revelation of the entire official history, the CIA task force in charge of the paramilitary assault did not believe it could succeed without becoming an open invasion supported by the U.S. military. On page 149 of Volume III, Pfeiffer quotes still-secret minutes of the Task Force meeting held on November 15, 1960, to prepare a briefing for the new President-elect, John F. Kennedy: “Our original concept is now seen to be unachievable in the face of the controls Castro has instituted,” the document states. “Our second concept (1,500-3000 man force to secure a beach with airstrip) is also now seen to be unachievable, except as a joint Agency/DOD action.”

This candid assessment was not shared with the President-elect then, nor later after the inauguration. As Pfeiffer points out, “what was being denied in confidence in mid-November 1960 became the fact of the Zapata Plan and the Bay of Pigs Operation in March 1961”—run only by the CIA, and with a force of 1,200 men.

2011/08/16

Tom Atlee: Citizen Deliberations – Chart and Options

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Threats

Dear Friends

I am quite excited about the progress that has been made in various citizen political participation proposals. All of these clearly have tremendous potential and the articulations of their rationales are becoming quite compelling.

With such innovative deliberative democracy proposals, I want them to be thought through well beforehand, engaging a variety of authorities and perspectives in a search of answers that can embrace that diversity with greater wisdom than otherwise. I am especially interested in finding out people's concerns and what solutions appear when we seriously seek to understand and address those concerns (this being a basic principle of creative consensus processes and of collective wisdom in general). I consider this vital if we seek to inject sane, powerful initiatives into the kind of toxic political environment that exists today. There is just too much at stake to fail simply because we didn't explore our design issues sufficiently ahead of time.

With that intention in mind, I have the following twelve thoughts and inquiries to offer. I would love to be part of a serious inquiry into questions like these, both in person and online.

Coheartedly,
Tom

Observations

Comparison Chart

2011/08/16

Jon Stewart Slams Commentators on Ignoring Ron Paul

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Media

Jon Stewart skewers the media, and especially the right-wing media, for obviously and deliberately refusing to name Ron Paul or mention his various victories.

Monday August 15, 2011

Indecision 2012 – Corn Polled Edition – Ron Paul & the Top Tier

Even when the media does remember Ron Paul, it's only to reassure themselves that there's no need to remember Ron Paul.

Phi Beta Iota: The corruption of the media, including CNN and Bloomberg, is despicable. They dishonor the public from whom they derive their public commissions to do business.

2011/08/16

John Robb: Urban Farming, Urban Zoning in Flux

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Policies

Portland Oregon is working on revising zoning regulations regarding urban market farms. Early debate indicates that the protection of traditional approaches to real-estate value (ornamental residences, noise/traffic abatement, etc.) is the priority. Given the scale of the economic crisis that is already upon us, this approach is completely broken. They should be focused on building a simple platform for accelerating a local food economy.

Phi Beta Iota: Portland in particular, and the Pacific Northwest generally, keep popping up as bastions of ethical sanity. The combination of intelligence and integrity visible there is quite heartening.

2011/08/152011/08/15

DefDog: Defense Entitlement Comes to An End….

10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Threats

Butts in seats would be a good place to start in most cases…..

A golden decade for defense companies is ending

Associated Press, 15 August 2011

NEW YORK – The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, Osama bin Laden is dead, and the federal government is deeply in debt. This spells the end of what was a golden decade for the defense industry.

In the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks, the annual defense budget has more than doubled to $700 billion and annual defense industry profits have nearly quadrupled, approaching $25 billion last year.

Now defense spending is poised to retreat, and so are industry profits.

Read full article…

Phi Beta Iota: Long comment and links below the line.

Continue reading “DefDog: Defense Entitlement Comes to An End….”

2011/08/14

DefDog: The Pentagon’s new China war plan

02 China, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Waste (materials, food, etc)

The Cold War Part 2, revisiting a failed strategy…..

Good closing paragraph in the story……

The Pentagon's new China war plan

Despite budget woes, the military is preparing for a conflict with our biggest rival — and we should be worried

This summer, despite America’s continuing financial crisis, the Pentagon is effectively considering trading two military quagmires for the possibility of a third. Reducing its commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan as it refocuses on Asia, Washington is not so much withdrawing forces from the Persian Gulf as it is redeploying them for a prospective war with its largest creditor, China.

. . . . .

AirSea Battle, developed in the early 1990s and most recently codified in a 2009 Navy-Air Force classified memo, is a vehicle for conforming U.S. military power to address asymmetrical threats in the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf — code for China and Iran. (This alone raises a crucial point: If the U.S. has had nothing but trouble with asymmetrical warfare for the last 45 years, why should a war with China, or Iran for that matter, be any different?) It complements the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance, a government white paper that precluded the rise of any “peer competitor” that might challenge U.S. dominance worldwide.

. . . . . . .

For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. government has encountered the practical limits of the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance.

. . . . . .

Here is a noble appeal for Washington to match its commitments with the resources needed to sustain them, the absence of which has fueled the debt crisis that nearly reduced the United States to a mendicant state. Such are the crippling costs of a defense policy that makes global hegemony a mindless imperative.

Read full article….