Category: Civil Society

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NIGHTWATCH: Weak Signal from Algeria – Anti-US Forces Up Their Game

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Government, Military
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Click on Image to Enlarge

Algeria-US: Update. A senior Algerian official said that one of the terrorists captured at the In Amenas gas plant said under interrogation that some of the dead Egyptian terrorists also participated in the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi last year. Three terrorists are in custody.

The official said the terrorists staged in southern Libya with arms purchased in Tripoli, Libya. He also said, “This is the result of the Arab Spring…. I hope the Americans are conscious of this.”

Comment: There is no way to corroborate the detainee's statement. What is worth noting is that the Algerian official's statements help explain why the Algerians might have had few qualms about assaulting the terrorists, despite the risk to foreigners. The Algerian government expects more attacks and the outcome will probably not be much different for foreigners.

The government has opposed US policy in the Arab world, especially the overthrow of the Qadhafi government. Some officials are making it very clear they hold American policy ultimately responsible for the gas plant attack in Algeria, the invasion of northern Mali by Islamist fighters and future attacks to come.

Americans working in Algeria are at increased risk from terrorists. Moreover, their safety does not appear to be a major factor in government planning for rescue operations.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Weak Signal from Algeria – Anti-US Forces Up Their Game”

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SmartPlanet: World Unemployment Rising, Western World Unemployment Has Global Impact

03 Economy, Civil Society, Commerce, Ineptitude

smartplanet logoWorld unemployment rate on the rise

By | January 22, 2013, 7:06 AM PST

Despite two consecutive years of falling global unemployment, the number of jobless is once again on the rise. And projections for future years aren’t looking much better.

According to a new report from the International Labour Organization, the global unemployment rate in 2012 rose to 5.9 percent of the workforce, increasing by 4.2 million people. Over 197 million people are now considered unemployed.

“An uncertain economic outlook, and the inadequacy of policy to counter this, has weakened aggregate demand, holding back investment and hiring,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. “This has prolonged the labour market slump in many countries, lowering job creation and increasing unemployment duration even in some countries that previously had low unemployment and dynamic labour markets.”

Much of the increase can be blamed on rising unemployment in advanced economies.

The job market is particularly bad for workers under 24, as 12.6 percent are unemployed. And while the situation is expected to improve for young people in advanced economies, it’s only projected to worsen in emerging economies in Eastern Europe, East and Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

But, overall, a rising middle class in emerging economies should help soften the unemployment blow but not enough to prevent rising unemployment in the coming years.

So what can governments do?

“[M]any of the new jobs require skills that jobseekers do not have,” Ryder added. “Governments should step up efforts to support skills and retraining activities in order to address such mismatches which particularly affect young people.”

The report also noted that 39 million people left the labor market last year.

Read the full report here.

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Tom Atlee: Feedback Dynamics in Climate and Society

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
Tom Atlee
Tom Atlee

Feedback dynamics in climate and society

In the debate over climate change, I find myself paying more attention to authorities who highlight important positive feedback loops through which a warming atmosphere triggers increased climate change. Their troubling scenarios come not from innate pessimism but from paying attention to system dynamics.

A feedback loop is a systemic dynamic through which outputs re-enter the system, magnifying (positive feedback) or balancing (negative feedback) the conditions in the system. For a positive feedback loop, consider a wealthy person who donates to a candidate and gets legislation favorable to his business, so that he can make more money to support candidates who pass favorable legislation, etc. His investments (output) generate returns (input) which he reinvests (output) ad infinitum, steadily increasing his stock of money as he repeats this feedback process.

Feedback dynamics have a powerful impact shaping what happens next in a system. To the extent we understand the feedback dynamics, we gain insight into what will happen next in a system and, perhaps most importantly, what we might do about it.

So here are four major positive feedback dynamics impacting the rate of climate change. They involve reflective ice, methane, oil reserves, and trees, and they cause the atmosphere to continue to warm faster than we would expect if we didn't take them into account.

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Feedback Dynamics in Climate and Society”

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Eagle: Heal America, Tax Wall Street 1%

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Ethics, Government
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

1% Wall Street sales tax solution to stablize US federal budget: This would work!!

In the midst of the current haggling over the US federal budget, the main fact is being ignored: the fiscal shortfall of the US government over decades is largely due to Wall Street’s rigging of the tax code so that the main money center banks pay little or nothing in the way of taxes.

Like the haughty nobility in France before the Revolution of 1789, the Wall Street banks are practically exempt from taxation, and the burden of paying for the government is shifted to the middle class. Anybody who is serious about reducing the power of Wall Street bankers in US politics must now mobilize to educate public opinion about the situation and its main remedy – the 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.

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Click on Image to Enlarge

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United Front Against Austerity

  •  Nationalize the Federal Reserve
  • 1% Wall Stree Staff
  • 0% Interest for Infrastructure and Production
  • Public Control of Money and Credit
  • Stop Predatory Financial Speculation

Webster Tarpley: Political Report to the United Front Against Austerity

See Also:

We the People Reform Coalition

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Owl: Autonomous Internet with Pirate Box

Autonomous Internet, Civil Society, Software
Who? Who?
Who? Who?

Set Up Your Own Mini-Internet for Free with Pirate Box

The PirateBox is software that can be used to turn your WiFi enabled computer into a local router. It can also be used to make actual “PirateBoxes,” which are stand-alone devices that likewise create a local network. The advantage of a local network, not connected to the Internet, is that you can file share and communicate your way around the draconian restrictions and regulations being increasingly put into place on the Internet.

Tutorial:  The PirateBox and Internet Freedom

Other projects similar to PirateBox: Aram Bartholl’s fantastic Dead Drops. Also visit Jason Griffey’s PirateBox fork LibraryBox.

Pirate Box software download via torrent

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Mini-Me: State Nullification — Canary in the Coal Mine

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Who? Mini-Me?
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

Fear of Feds Leads to Nullification Fever in SC

EXTRACT

Nullification is a loaded word in South Carolina. While various states considered it in this country's first few decades, the state was the first to push the federal government to the brink. In the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson threatened to send the entire U.S. Army to South Carolina if the state nullified a tariff that many residents felt protected Northern industry at the expense of Southern farmers.

Jackson said if one drop of blood was shed, he would hang the first supporter of nullification he found in the first tree he passed. The issue split Jackson and Calhoun, who was his vice president in his first term, but things simmered down after a compromise tariff was reached.

Read full article.

Rand Paul Nullification Proposal Emerges in Gun Debate

Getting much of what he wanted with the fiscal cliff, the president has proposed twenty-three executive orders, a practice he criticized while a U.S. Senator, to address gun policy in the event Congress does not pass adequate legislation.

On the other side, Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul declared on TV that the president does not have the authority to write laws – an authority not granted to the executive branch. As a solution to the overreach, Paul advocates for nullification of any gun law deemed unconstitutional with forthcoming legislation:

Read full article.

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SchwartzReport: McDonald’s McRib — Toxic to the Non-Bone

07 Health, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government

schwartz reportBrings new meaning to counter-intelligence.

McDonald’s McRib Sandwich a Franken Creation of GMOs, Toxic Ingredients, Banned Ingredients

Anthony Gucciardi

Natural Society, 8 January 2013

It’s ‘McRib season’, and thousands across the nation are scrambling to use online websites like the ‘McRib locator‘ to stuff the McDonald’s McRib sandwich down their throats. A sandwich that is not only full of genetically modified ingredients, a medley of toxic fillers and preservatives, but also some ingredients that are actually banned in other nations around the world. But honestly, are you surprised?

The McRib is the result of intensive marketing by McDonald’s. Utilizing the basics of supply and demand through creating scarcity over the McRib by only unleashing the culinary abomination for a fraction of the year that is only known once it is released, McDonald’s fans have been known to ‘hoard’ McRib sandwiches and eat them in extreme excess. It’s even a topic of the popular documentary Super Size Me, where filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (who gorges himself with McDonald’s for 30 days only to find serious health consequences) encounters ‘McRib hunters’ who actually travel the country eating McRib sandwiches.

Related: 3 Fast Food Secret Ingredients

McDonald’s even made McRib fans sign a petition to ‘save the McRib’ online, bringing out a conglomerate of fans to bring back their favorite franken sandwich.

What’s Inside a McDonald’s McRib Sandwich?

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: Be afraid, be very afraid.  The McRib is a perfect metaphor for the information environment within which most Americans subsist — barely.  Toxic to the non-bone, no truth here.

See Also: