DefDog: Russian Target #1? Dimona, Israel — Along with an Alternative History Worth Reading

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Military, Peace Intelligence
DefDog
DefDog

Funny how stuff gets around.  More than one source is talking about Dimona, Israel as the ideal “proportionate response” from Russia with love…  Not sure why the French are allowing false stories about chemical weapons use by Assad — and we all continue to worry about Israel and the neo-cons simulating Iranian attacks on US targets, the last thing they would be doing right now when all the cards are in their favor.

We are All Russians Now (author unknown)

Veterans Today, 27 Monday 2013

Will Putin Save The World From Israel?

Vladimir Putin

Shortly after Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, the murdered family of Tzar Nicholas was beatified. Until quite recently, the centers of Jewish power had hoped to preserve some idealized memories of the murderous Soviet system in the minds of the Russians, but it turned out to be a vain hope.

Because Bolshevism was formulated and executed by Jews, their power centers had retained fond hopes of being able some day to reconnect and reinstall some sort of Jewish lobby leverage in the Kremlin. These fond hopes were dashed by Vladimir Putin.

By the end of 2008, the Russians were expected to decide between two ideological systems: between Communism as represented by Stalin and his fanatical band of murderous Cheka Jews or the conservative and traditional values of old-fashioned Tzarism. Until quite recently, Stalin had remained slightly ahead of Tzar Nicholas II. “Then, however, the Tzar mysteriously pulled ahead.” (Die Welt, 17 July 2008, page 1)

After that, no further choice was necessary.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge
NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT
No one provokes me with impunity

The Jewish Lobby was of course hoping that a Tzarist cult would never rise again. Given that the Tzar had been the great adversary of the Bolshevik Jews, the Jewish Lobby did all it could to blacken the reputation of the Tsars. Now however, the Russians again see in Tzar Nicholas II a kind of savior who, like Jesus Christ, had made an enemy of the Jews and had suffered martyrdom.

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Berto Jongman: McKinsey 12 Technologies Driving the Future — With Comment from Robert Steele

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

These 12 technologies will drive our economic future

Neil Irwin

Washington Post, 24 May 2013

As the chart shows, the McKinsey folks believe that the most economically significant technologies over the next decade-plus will be those already well underway in their development — the mobile Internet, largely in place in the adv

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

Indeed, maybe the single biggest takeaway from the study is this: The things that will have the greatest impact on the economy in the medium term aren’t the ones that seem to most excite the imagination and public interest. Instead, the potentially powerful innovations are mostly those that have been evolving for many years in new ways.

. . . . . . . .

The real economic benefits of innovation, at least over the near term, come not from the flashy, mind-blowing ideas, but from clever combinations of technologies that are just maturing with those that have been around for ages.

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David Swanson: Connecticutt Takes First Step Toward Peace Economy

Civil Society, Commerce, Ethics, Government, Peace Intelligence
David Swanson
David Swanson

Connecticut Advances Conversion from War to Peace Economy

The Connecticut legislature has sent to the governor to sign a bill that would create a commission to develop a plan for, among other things:

“the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries with an emphasis on encouraging environmentally-sustainable and civilian product manufacturing. On or before December 1, 2014, the commission shall submit such report to the Governor and, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to commerce.”

The commission “shall Advise the General Assembly and the Department of Economic and Community Development on issues relating to the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries” among other things.

Read the full text.

According to Peace Action, sponsor State Senator Toni N. Harp from New Haven has said,

“The proposed Futures Commission will set up a framework that allows us to convert many of our military related jobs and infrastructure into non-military industries.”

This is a remarkable breakthrough that didn't just come out of nowhere:

“In November 2012, a ballot referendum passed in New Haven that called for moving the money from war to jobs rebuilding our infrastructure and human needs. This referendum won support nearly 6 to 1! This winter in Connecticut, the US Peace Council, No Nukes No War, the City of New Haven Peace Commission with the support of the state AFL-CIO and International Association of Machinists worked to get  SB619 introduced in the state legislature calling for a Futures Commission whose goals is to investigate how to convert the weapons manufacturing industries to producing civilian, green products and retain and develop manufacturing in the state. The Commission that this bill creates will include representatives of labor, peace and environmental organizations.”

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Chuck Spinney: Hezbollah’s Moment — Historical Force?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Ethics, Government, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinney

The popular perception of Hezbollah as simply an Islamic terrorist organization has been colored by American-Israeli propaganda (particularly wrt to relations with Iran and Syria), sloppy reporting, and a growing sense of Islamophobia in American culture.

Rami Khouri is a prolific Lebanese intellectual who writes widely on the Middle East.  His austere, direct form of writing lays out arguments clearly and concisely.  Like all writers of Middle Eastern affairs, his predictions are often wrong, but unlike most, his fault lines, when they occur, are easily traced.  In short, Khouri is always a good read and well worth following, because even if his arguments turn out to be erroneous, they are a fount of useful information.

Attached below is his fascinating take on Hezbollah.  I reformatted it to highlight his points but have not changed a word or the order of his words.  Some readers find my highlighting distracting, others like it; if you are one of the former, the link below will take you to the original.

Chuck Spinney

Hezbollah’s Moment of Reckoning in Qusayr

22 May 2013

BEIRUT — The most fascinating aspect of the war in Syria this month — and perhaps also the most significant in terms of long-term regional geo-politics — is the direct involvement of Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite party and resistance group that is closely allied to Iran and Syria. The significance of Hezbollah’s participation in the battle for the Syrian town of Qusayr comprises several distinct elements:

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Tom Atlee: Doing Democracy Differently

Civil Society, Culture, Ethics, Government
Tom Atlee
Tom Atlee

Doing democracy differently

In Is Democracy in Trouble? E.J. Dionne describes major studies suggesting that “Across most of the democratic world, there is an impatience bordering on exhaustion with electoral systems and political classes” because governments don’t follow the will of “the people”.

It would be one thing if governments made wiser decisions than what “the people” want. But they so seldom do. Usually they make decisions that favor special interests regardless of the common good.

It saddens me that this is framed as people losing faith in democracy. I don’t think governments that act this way are good examples of democracy. I’m also not sure that such a system can be fixed within a corrupted democratic process.

There are other ways to do democracy. Most people don’t realize that ancient Athenians – our alleged democratic forebears – were radically in favor of random selection and opposed to voting for representatives. They figured that aristocrats would dominate any electoral system. (Sound familiar?) Aristotle summarized their view, saying “It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot [random selection]; and as oligarchic when they are filled by election.”

Although John Adams and James Madison (the first and fourth US Presidents) may not have been aware of the use of random selection in democracy, they did make statements that sound like it. Adams said that a legislature “should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and act like them.” And Madison added that “The government ought to possess… the mind or sense of the people at large. The legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole society.”

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Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Degrowth, Anti-Consumerism and Peak Consumption

03 Economy, Civil Society, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

Degrowth, Anti-Consumerism and Peak Consumption

Degrowth embraces the ongoing devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed.The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth.

Degrowth is based on a number of principles:

1. Consumerism is psychological/spiritual junk food (French: malbouffe) that actively reduces well-being (bien-etre) rather than increases it.

2. Better rather than more: well-being is increased by everything that cannot be commoditized by a market economy or financialized by a cartel-state financial machine– friendship, family, community, self-cultivation–rather than by acquiring more. The goal of economic and social growth should be better, not more. On a national scale, the cancerous-growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) should be replaced with gross domestic happiness/ gross nation happiness (GNH).

3. A recognition that resources are not infinite, despite claims to the contrary. Even if fossil fuels were infinite and low-cost (cheerleaders never mention costs of extraction and refining or the external costs), fisheries, soil and fresh water are not. For one example of many: China Is Plundering the Planet's Seas (The Atlantic). Indeed, all the evidence suggests that access to cheap energy only speeds up the depletion and despoliation of every other resource.

4. The unsustainability of consumerist consumption dependent on resource depletion and financialization (i.e. the endless expansion of credit and phantom collateral).

Read full article with video.

SchwartzReport: Religious Treason within US Military

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Officers Call

schwartz reportThis is what I mean by the Theocratic Right's aggressive program to convert armed services personnel.  Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired United States Army colonel, and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary where he teaches courses on US national security. He also instructs a senior seminar in the Honors Department at the George Washington University entitled “National Security Decision Making.”

Christianity of the Inquisition in the US Army
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, USA (Ret.) – The Real News

VIDEO and also TRANSCRIPT

EXTRACT:

WILKERSON: Right. Well, one group in particular–and you can just Google them and you can see what they're about, called the Dominionist. This is a group that believes that its mission is to take over the Armed Forces of the United States and then use them in a crusade against all those who don't believe in Christ in the world. Mikey's clientele now is over 32,000, some 90 percent of whom are Protestant or Catholic. So you've got mostly Christians who were looking to Mikey's organization to protect them against the chain of command in their own military unit.

WILKERSON: They're everything from I've been ordered to go to a prayer breakfast to I'm being proselytized by my commanding officer or by my platoon leader or by my NCOs to be a Christian; or worse, if you will, on the other side of that coin, people being derided and even kept from promotion and from advancement, education, and training, and so forth because they're not the kind of Christian they should be, this sort of Dominionist Christian.

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