Government – Page 797 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/08/112011/08/11

Dolphin: Seasteading Away from Governments?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Policies, Threats

We dolphins are not too thrilled about this idea. Humans have not evolved very far from their Neanderthal roots, and the idea of human hoards invading and polluting the seas is scary to those of us for whom sustainability and resilience comes naturally. Requires further study.

Silicon Valley billionaire reveals plan to launch floating ‘start up country' off San Francisco

Daily Mail, 11 August 2011

PayPal-founder Peter Thiel was so inspired by Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand's novel about free-market capitalism – that he's trying to make its title a reality.

The Silicon Valley billionaire has funnelled $1.25 million to the Seasteading Institute, an organization that aspires to launch a floating colony into international waters, freeing them and like-minded thinkers to live by Libertarian ideals.

seasteading 2 — Click on Image to Enlarge

Mr Thiel recently told Details magazine that: ‘The United States Constitution had things you could do at the beginning that you couldn't do later. So the question is, can you go back to the beginning of things? How do you start over?'

The floating sovereign nations that Thiel imagines would be built on oil-rig-like platforms anchored in areas free of regulation, laws, and moral conventions.

The Seasteading Institute says it will ‘give people the freedom to choose the government they want instead of being stuck with the government they get.'

Phi Beta Iota: The idea of seasteading in some form of idealic libertarian island of paradise is fairly distant from reality. Accepting that the libertarians will be armed and alert, this concept fails to account for a) the outlaw sea; and b) the dead sea. There is no solution for any group of humanity that is sustainable absent its embracing all humanity.

2011/08/10

Steven Aftergood: When Secrecy Gets Out of Hand

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement, Media, Military

“WHEN SECRECY GETS OUT OF HAND“

The government's relentless pursuit of people suspected of mishandling or leaking classified information underscores the need to combat the misuse of classification authority, wrote J. William Leonard, the former director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times today.

“The Obama administration, which has criminally prosecuted more leakers of purportedly classified information than all previous administrations combined, needs to stop and assess the way the government classifies information in the first place.”

“Classifying information that should not be kept secret can be just as harmful to the national interest as unauthorized disclosures of appropriately classified information,” he wrote. See “When Secrecy Gets Out of Hand” by J. William Leonard, Los Angeles Times, August 10.

Mr. Leonard recently filed a complaint with the new ISOO director, John Fitzpatrick, based on his assessment that a document that served as a basis for criminal prosecution in the case of Thomas Drake should never have been classified at all.

2011/08/09

Reference: National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Final Report December 2010)

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Office of Management and Budget

Free PDF Online

Phi Beta Iota: This report, while responsible (unlike the current food fight a year later), does not go far enough. It allows the borrowing of one trillion a year to continue, while observing that interest on the debt could reach one trillion a year by 2020. The principle recommendations, all sound but insufficient, are listed in the Overview section.

2011/08/09

Chuck Spinney: Time Favors the Taliban

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military

August 9, 2011

The Whack-a-Mole Endgame Begins in Afghanistan

Americans Have the Clock, But the Taliban Have the Time

By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch

Cap Ferrat, France

Obama’s surge and de-surge has, therefore, created a reinforcing dynamic that is playing into the hands of the insurgents by seducing the United States into increasing its reliance on a pointless, reactive, “whack-a-mole” strategy. Like a judo specialist, the insurgents will use the expenditure of American energies to exhaust American forces and paralyze American political willpower by inducing our military to over and under react to an unfolding welter widely dispersed insurgent attacks

Read full analysis…

Phi Beta Iota: At home, the teen riots have started in Philadelphia. More riots are certain to follow, and more “random” shootings of anyone representing the US Government are likely west of the Mississippi. This is almost the perfect storm–all that is missing is a water failure in New York City followed by a firestorm, and massive epidemic across California.

2011/08/08

John Marke: Complexity, Risk Consultants, & Baloney

03 Economy, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corporations, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda

Complexity, Sharks & Risk Consultants – How “Internal Auditor” Magazine Got It Wrong

They got it wrong…. Internal Auditor recently published an article by Neil Baker “Managing the Complexity of Risk” claiming that “The ISO 31000 framework aims to provide a foundation for effective risk management within the organization.” Well….not so fast.

“Complexity” has become something of a buzz word in today’s business culture, becoming more vague and imprecise than many of us attempting to understand complexity would like. Naming something is not the same as actually knowing anything about what you just named (see my essay “The Red Wagon Principal: Knowing Is Better Than Naming”). The misappropriation of the concept is always done with the best of intentions. However, Neil was savvy enough to introduce Mandelbrot and fractal geometry into the mix doesn’t get a free pass.

Baloney

George Soros: Eleven Economic Insights + RECAP

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

11 Timely Insights From George Soros On The Economy

Courtney Comstock<

Business Insider, 7 August 2011

In the past six months, hedge fund manager George Soros has been an outspoken critic of the economicrecovery.And as the U.S. digests the S&P downgrade, it's helpful to remember that as Barclays analysts Ajay Rajadhyaksha and Anshul Pradhan put it, The S&P's action is not a surprise. So to gain a market expert's view, we've gone through many of Soros' recent interviews and selected his main points.

Soros describes the key arguments the market is dealing with right now and makes predictions on what will happen next.

His quotes are dated in chronological order.

Phi Beta Iota: The original article has photos and more context for each quote. Eleven quotes only are below the line.

Continue reading “George Soros: Eleven Economic Insights + RECAP”

2011/08/072011/08/07

Richard Wright: F-22 Raptor Goes Under the Bus

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Technologies

It is amazing that the L.A. Times would publish this story. Maybe even the ‘lame stream media' is starting to wake up to the foolishness of the MICC.

High costs, malfunctions plague F-22 Raptor fighter jets

W. J. Hennigan

Los Angeles Times, 6 August 2011

The fleet of 158 F-22 planes — costing $412 million each — has never entered combat and has been grounded since May 3 because of a government safety investigation. The probe follows more than a dozen incidents in which oxygen was cut off to pilots, a problem suspected of contributing to at least one fatal accident.