Commerce – Page 256 – Public Intelligence Blog

By Tyler Falk | October 28, 2012, 7:28 AM PDT

With 60 million people expected to be impacted by Hurricane Sandy, days of advanced notice have allowed the New York governor to issue a state of emergency, evacuations to take place along the Atlantic coast, and (at least in my Washington, D.C. neighborhood) residents to clear the grocery store shelves ahead of the storm’s dangerous surge. But soon weather forecasters might not be able to provide us with details and predictions of dangerous storms.That’s because there’s another looming problem in the United States that could be even bigger than Hurricane Sandy: dying satellites. The New York Times reports:

The United States is facing a year or more without crucial satellites that provide invaluable data for predicting storm tracks, a result of years of mismanagement, lack of financing and delays in launching replacements, according to several recent official reviews.

The looming gap in satellite coverage, which some experts view as almost certain within the next few years, could result in shaky forecasts about storms like Hurricane Sandy, which is expected to hit the East Coast early next week.

Continue reading “SmartPlanet: Gap in Weather Satellites [While Secret World Spends Madly]”

2012/10/282012/10/28

Marcus Aurelius: Advances in Corporate Espionage Neglect of Counterintelligence and Commercial Intelligence

Commerce, IO Deeds of War

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

Spies And Co.

By Eamon Javers

New York Times, October 25, 2012

Washington — SUDDENLY, Washington is extremely concerned about Chinese espionage.

Last month, the White House blocked a Chinese company from operating a wind farm near a sensitive Navy base in Oregon. Next, the House Intelligence Committee said two Chinese telecommunications firms were manufacturing equipment that could be used to spy on the United States, and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told business leaders that the country faced the risk of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” — an attack that could come from terrorist groups or a country like China. Finally, during Monday’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney warned that the Chinese were “stealing our intellectual property, our patents, our designs, our technology, hacking into our computers.”

There’s no question that American companies today are under surveillance: I’ve learned that the F.B.I. has obtained a video taken inside a hotel in China that shows Chinese agents rifling through an American businessman’s room, according to two sources familiar with the tape, which the F.B.I. has been playing as a warning for corporate security experts. But while the
Chinese spying push is aggressive, American companies have been tapped, bugged and spied on for more than a hundred years. As often as not, the perpetrators have been other Americans — motivated not by patriotism for a foreign flag, but by simple profit.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Advances in Corporate Espionage Neglect of Counterintelligence and Commercial Intelligence”

2012/10/282012/10/28

Rickard Falkvinge: Wendy Cockcroft on The Next Big Battles – Secret Trade Agreements Bad for People

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, IO Impotency

The Next Big Battles

Posted: 27 Oct 2012 11:26 AM PDT

Activism – Wendy Cockcroft: Since ACTA was decisively beaten on 4th July 2012, the first time a free trade agreement had been scuppered by the people of EU member nations, the big business lobbyists have taken heed and resolved to change in order to be more successful. Hence the secrecy. CETA and the EU-India trade agreement are the next big battles. We need your help.

The term “Free Trade Agreement” is a misnomer. The idea is to remove barriers, taxes, and tariffs, but since people can end up being shackled to a multinational corporation’s agenda, the only freedom is in the ability of the corporations to operate in ways that often end up utterly destroying local economies or harnessing law enforcement agencies to protect their interests. The worst part is that we the taxpayers have to foot the bill for our losses of national sovereignty and civil rights. We saw ACTA off in July, but there are two more major agreements to deal with and we need to be ready to contact our M.E.P.s when the time comes.

Continue reading “Rickard Falkvinge: Wendy Cockcroft on The Next Big Battles – Secret Trade Agreements Bad for People”

2012/10/272012/11/12

Gordon Duff: An Alternative View of the Benghazi False Flag Murder of US Ambassador

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

Imaginary Planes, Imaginary CIA Armies, All Invented as Election Ploy
–
By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor (with Top US Intel Specialists)

Veterans Today, 26 October 2012

A trained team of up to 120 [foreign] special forces personnel with radio jammers and heavy weapons killed the US ambassador. There were only two America CIA employees in Libya. The news stories are all fabrications.

The killing of Ambassador Stephens in Benghazi has become a ghoulish election ploy played by Fox News, Huffington Post and others. All are printing and broadcasting conjecture, total falsehood and the usual biased and unreliable garbage they are famous for.

. . . . . . . . .

The ambush at Benghazi required careful coordination. There was no Al Qaeda involvement and there has never been any history of Al Qaeda on the ground in Libya. Moreover, intelligence insiders use the term “Al Qaeda” when looking for money from “congressional critters” too stupid to know that the CIA has always run “Al Qaeda” as a way of avoiding explaining why dozens of small organizations and even friendly intelligence groups will, for obscure reasons, attack American targets.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: An Alternative View of the Benghazi False Flag Murder of US Ambassador”

2012/10/24

Sterling Seagrave: General Electric, Not the Japanese, is Prime Culprit for the Fukushima Meltdown

08 Proliferation, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude

“The nuclear plant at Fukushima was built by GE (General Electric), which means it was not the Japanese who miscalculated the risks of building in a flood plain in an area subject to earthquakes and consequent tsunami. GE has been involved in a great many similar projects in Japan for many decades, since long before WW2. A full investigation of GE's role is imperative, because blaming it all on the Japanese is a cop-out — especially when you realize that the consequences of the Fukushima disaster are much greater (and scarier) than has been revealed so far. Sterling Seagrave”

Source

2012/10/202013/04/25

Mini-Me: REPLAY Future of the USA in 3 Parts

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Hacking, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call, Policies, Threats

Huh?

The future of the USA – 2012-2016: An insolvent and ungovernable United States (first part)

Thus, according to LEAP/E2020, the 2012 election year, which opens against the backdrop of economic and social depression, complete paralysis of the federal system (3), strong rejection of the traditional two-party system and a growing questioning of the relevance of the Constitution, inaugurates a crucial period in the history of the United States. Over the next four years, the country will be subjected to political, economic, financial and social upheaval such as it has not known since the end of the Civil War which, by an accident of history, started exactly 150 years ago in 1861. During this period, the US will be simultaneously insolvent and ungovernable, turning that which was the “flagship” of the world in recent decades into a “drunken boat”.

To make the complexity of the current process understandable, our team has chosen to organize its anticipations around three key areas:

1. US institutional deadlock and the break-up of the traditional two-party system
2. The unstoppable spiral of recession/depression/inflation
3. The breakdown of the US socio-political fabric

Read rest of analysis.

Below the line: the other two parts of the series.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: REPLAY Future of the USA in 3 Parts”

2012/10/202012/10/20

Michel Bauwens: Worker-Owned Cooperatives

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Ethics

220px-Michel_Bauwens_crop — Michel Bauwens

Worker-Owned Cooperatives Offer A Vision Of A Different Kind Of Capitalism

A new documentary, Shift Change, explores a kind of company where the workers are also the owners, which results in a quite different economic model than we’re used to.

In an era when income disparities and anger with financial institutions in the U.S. are generating powerful social movements, it’s not surprising that people are starting to look towards alternative business models. Shift Change, a new movie from filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, looks at the world of worker cooperatives, where reasonable salaries, job security, and general work satisfaction prevail.

Nowhere are the benefits of this model more obvious than in the Mondragon Corporation, a giant federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain (there’s nothing about dragons involved, it was founded in a town called Mondragon) that works in finance, retail operations, production of consumer goods and industrial components, and more. Co.Exist spoke with Young about her experiences making the film, and visiting the notoriously closed-off Mondragon Corporation.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: Worker-owned cooperatives do not out-source jobs and do focus on community equities.