Collaboration Zones – Page 927 – Public Intelligence Blog

Tom Atlee's Co-Intelligence Journal

What this message is about: Concerns about civilizational collapse and human extinction in the foreseeable future are rising and moving from the fringes into the mainstream. Many who share these concerns are understandably prone to despair and cynicism. What are the various life-serving ways to confront and respond to these daunting realities?
Acknowledging real end-times possibilities

Co-evolution of Life and Death

Dear friends:

An increasing number of people are coming to the conclusion that there's a non-trivial chance that civilization will collapse – or, more terminally, that the human species will die off – within the next few hundred years, thanks to climate chaos and/or many variously related threats.[1]

These extreme but no longer “crazy” views are drifting towards the mainstream. Quite in addition to the many apocalyptic movies, novels, and music – the R.E.M. anthem “it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine” being exemplary – former Vice President Al Gore recently suggested that civilization might not survive the next 100 years – and two separate New York Times op eds by Roy Scranton and Samuel Scheffler (below) recently explored the philosophical and psychological implications of human extinction.

These cultural phenomena are the tip of an iceberg of disturbed collective consciousness increasingly haunting the minds, hearts, and spirits of ordinary citizens who really don't want to think about it or talk about it.

For years writers seriously concerned about climate change and peak oil have been pioneering ways to address these emerging realities head-on, with varying degrees of pessimism, practicality, positive vision, and spiritual inspiration. Some of the many voices I know of in this choir include:

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Considering End-Times Possibilities”

2013/11/232013/11/23

NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan Closing Kyber Pass to NATO?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 10 Transnational Crime, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

Pakistan-US: The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan has vowed to close the Khyber Pass to NATO in reaction a US drone attack in the province this week. Chief Minister Imran Khan said his provincial administration will blockade the pass to all NATO traffic

Comment: Khan had initially threatened such a blockade after the 1 November US drone strike that killed Hakimullah Mehsud, just 24 hours before Hakimullah was set to open peace talks with the Pakistani government, but delayed his plans when no US strikes followed.

2013/11/222013/11/22

David Swanson: Switzerland Limits CEO Pay [But Shelters Predatory Banking]

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Switzerland Shows U.S. How to Handle CEOs

In Switzerland a petition from 100,000 people, or about 1.25% of the population, creates a public referendum. By this means, last March, Swiss voters created strict limits on executive pay.

On November 24, the Swiss will vote on whether to take a further step — limiting executive pay to no more than 12 times the lowest salary in the company. Such a maximum wage policy allows the CEO pay increases, but only if workers get at least a twelfth as much.

A movement in the U.S. is asking: If Switzerland can do it, why can't we?

The Swiss are also set to vote, on a date yet to be set, to create a guaranteed basic income of $2,800 (2,500 Swiss francs) per month for every adult. That's about $16 per hour for a full-time worker, but it's guaranteed even for those who can't find work.

You know what country can afford such a measure even more easily, given its vast supplies of wealth? The United States of America.

Here in the United States, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity since the 1960s it would now be $21.72 an hour, or $3,722 a month. The Congressional proposal of $10.10 an hour, which President Obama now says he supports, equals $1,751 a month for a fulltime job. The actual U.S. minimum wage of $7.25, which does not apply to all workers, makes $1,242 a month. But only if you can find work.

That's less than half what the Swiss are voting on, and Swiss workers also have their healthcare paid for, public transportation widely available, quality education and higher education free or affordable, 14 weeks paid parental leave, and a nearly endless list of other advantages provided by the government.

Continue reading “David Swanson: Switzerland Limits CEO Pay [But Shelters Predatory Banking]”

2013/11/22

SchwartzReport: Truths That Matter

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

I read stories like this and wonder what is our culture thinking? Children, as everyone says, yet few in public office seem to believe, are our future. On the basis of stories like this, our future is increasingly bleak. Where do you have to be in your own mind when feeding children, and seeing they get a good start, is not important?

Early Childhood Poverty Damages Brain Development, Study Finds
ALLIE BIDWELL – US News & World Report

Yet another story illustrating why the Theocratic Right is the most dangerous toxic social movement in America today. It's hard to believe that people think this way.

GOP Finds Cure for Bad Public Schools in Pennsylvania: God!
AARON KASE – Salon

Here is a study from the University of Maryland that holds considerable implications for each of our lives.

Imminent Peak Oil Could Burst Global Economic Bubble: Study
NAFEEZ AHMED, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development – The Raw Story/The Guardian

2013/11/22

Paul Craig Roberts: JFK’s Assassination 50 Years On…

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

The Kennedy Assassination (November 22, 1963) 50 Years Later

November 22, 2013, is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The true story of JFK’s murder has never been officially admitted, although the conclusion that JFK was murdered by a plot involving the Secret Service, the CIA, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been well established by years of research, such as that provided by James W. Douglass in his book, JFK And The Unspeakable, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008. Ignore Douglass’ interest in the Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Merton’s prediction and focus on the heavily documented research that Douglass provides.

Or just turn to the contemporary films, taken by tourists watching JFK’s motorcade that are available on YouTube, which show clearly the Secret Service pulled from President Kennedy’s limo just prior to his assassination, and the Zapruder film that shows the killing shot to have come from President Kennedy’s right front, blowing off the back of his head, not from the rear as postulated in the Warren Commission Report, which would have pushed his head forward, not rearward.

I am not going to write about the assassination to the extent that the massive information permits. Those who want to know already know. Those who cannot face the music will never be able to confront the facts regardless of what I or anyone else writes or reveals.

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: JFK's Assassination 50 Years On…”

2013/11/212013/11/22

Veterans Today: JFK’s Assassination — Seek Truth

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

Kevin Barrett: Confession, jury verdict prove CIA killed JFK

At least fifty people have been murdered to cover up the CIA’s assassination of JFK, as explained in the book Hit List by Richard Belzer and David Wayne. A few of them, including Dorothy Kilgallen and Mary Meyer, were journalists or writers who were poised to blow the case wide open. But in the US stealth police state, unlike overt police states, psychological rather than physical means are usually employed to silence serious opposition.

Several people involved in the CIA’s assassination of JFK have confessed, including Chauncey Holt, David Sanchez Morales, and even Lyndon Johnson. But the star witness among the confessed JFK assassins is CIA officer E. Howard Hunt, who, on February 6th, 1985, was legally found by a jury to have participated in the CIA’s assassination of JFK.

Bob Johnson: The Mistake the Killers of JFK Made

Includes copy of John McCone letter on Oswald being trained by and working for the CIA. Focus on how technology — the Zapruder film — undermined the best-laid plans.

President Kennedy made a profound and very true statement when he said,

“With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

Allen L. Roland: JFK Assassination – The Death of Hope

Here, in a nut shell, is what really happened on November 22,1963

The Secret Service stood down.

Dallas and Texas law enforcement stood down.

Military intelligence, which is normally enrolled to provide presidential security, stood down.

The FBI stood down.

These elements opened the door to the assassination, but did not have the resources to deliver the shooters and the complicated cover story and witness elimination program that followed.

Corrupt elements of the CIA and their long term friends and colleagues in organized crime did. And they did it because their very survival was at stake.

After decades of non-investigation by the epically corrupt J. Edgar Hoover, organized crime was on the receiving end of a massive attack by Robert Kennedy ~ the president’s brother and Attorney General.

At the same time, his brother was going after organized crime, JFK was going after the criminal elements that had taken over the CIA.

Continue reading “Veterans Today: JFK's Assassination — Seek Truth”

2013/11/212013/11/21

Berto Jongman: European Transgovernmental Intelligence Network, the Role of IntCen, and the Fundamentals of Open Source Intelligence

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

A European Transgovernmental Intelligence Network and the Role of IntCen

Mai'a K. Davis Crossa

ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway

Published online: 27 Sep 2013.

ABSTRACT This article makes the case that the most important developments in the European intelligence arena actually have little to do with member states’ willingness to cooperate. Rather, the context for the intelligence profession has changed fundamentally in the past few years in light of globalization and the information revolution, and this has made the creation of a single EU intelligence space far more likely, even despite member states’ resistance. The author argues that the emerging European intelligence space is increasingly consolidating around a transgovernmental network of intelligence professionals that draw upon open-source knowledge acquisition, with IntCen at its centre. One implication of this is that the field of EU intelligence may be a rare example in which integration can be achieved before cooperation, rather than the latter serving as a stepping-stone to the former.

PDF (16 Pages): EU Transgovernmental Intelligence Network