Pakistan:Update. Prime Minister Sharif said Thursday that talks with the Pakistani Taliban have started. He provided no details, however, on participants, venues or agendas. Sharif's comments came during a meeting in London with the British deputy prime minister and were released in a statement by the Pakistani High Commission.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, briefing Pakistani lawmakers Thursday, said details of the agenda and the location of government-Taliban talks are being finalized.
Comment: Sharif's assurances to his foreign audiences seem ahead of the facts told his domestic audiences. Talks are not yet taking place, mainly because the Pakistani Taliban have not agreed to them. That is the message of the Interior Minister.
Interesting paper that came out a couple of nights ago from one of the DC think tanks. The principal author, LTG Dave Barno, was my classmate in a school in the early '80s when we were both captains. Biggest thing I see is the assertion that the major fraction of GO positions are “enterprise management” vice “operational,” or “tail” vice “tooth.” Assuming correct numbers and analysis, that should be an ego-defeater given the culture of the military. If you can buy into that, some of the other stuff seems reasonable.
EXTRACTS:
If left unaddressed, the divergence between the leadership skills of current senior military officers and the demands of an uncertain future may result
in a U.S. military led by generals and admirals who are prepared for neither the complexity of future warfare nor the efficient management of a hugely complex – and now resource-constrained – defense enterprise.
. . . . . . .
Many future flag officers will have no extended educational opportunities during the entire second half of their careers.
. . . . . . .
Once an officer is appointed to three-star rank, he or she will never pass before another promotion board, will never receive another written performance evaluation and will
rarely engage in setting formal expectations or goals with his or her boss in a new position.
In connecting the dots, it is evident this remarkable development can only be be a direct consequence of the Powers that Be nervously noticing a significant and on-going abandonment by the populace of corporatecontrolled, that is, “mainstream” media, in favor of alternative media. Outside of an especially bad false flag attack, it will be in this particular arena – of controlling Internet media – where the bloody fangs of US fascism will first become evident to everyone, even the most sleepy, uninformed and ignorant Americans, which there are very many.
“The Federal Communications Commission will facilitate the government’s prospective sovietization of private sector media with its “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” a survey planned for a field test roll-out in 2014, according to a story posted on The Daily Caller today. The FCC will “collect a remarkably wide range of information on demographics, point of view, news topic selection, management style and other factors in news organizations both in and out of the FCC’s traditional purview,” writes Tim Cavanaugh. “The airwaves regulator would also subject news producers in all media to invasive questioning about their work and content,” a move on a collision course with the First Amendment.
A document prepared by Social Solutions International enumerates the highly intrusive nature of the proposed questioning, including grilling station owners on their political philosophies and asking reporters if proposed stories were rejected by management. “In this study, the FCC will delve into the editorial discretion of newspapers, web sites and radio and TV stations,” Hudson Institute Fellow Robert McDowell, who served as an FCC commissioner from 2009 to 2013, told The Daily Caller. “This starts sticking the government’s nose into what has traditionally been privileged and protected ground. Regardless of one’s political stripes, one should be concerned.”
“Portland Tugboat has posted a photo of another Google mystery barge on their Facebook page. On October 27, CNET reported that a similar barge was docked in the San Francisco Bay. “Is it a floating Google data center? A floating Google Glass store? Or something else altogether?” asked Daniel Terdiman, writing for the tech media website. The barge is docked at a former U.S. Navy station on Treasure Island. On October 26, Tom Bell, writing for the Portland Press Herald, reported “a four-story windowless building” docked in the Portland Harbor. “Its purpose and its owner’s identity have been kept secret.” Fred Burton, vice president of Stratfor and a former senior State Department official, described Google as “doing things the CIA cannot do,” according to documents acquired by Wikileaks.”
Civil Liberties: The news that Angela Merkel’s phone has been wiretapped by the USA exposes the biggest wiretapping lie ever – that mass surveillance is targeted at catching terrorists and pedophiles. The German Chancellor is rightfully furious, and she should be furious on behalf of her citizens, too. Mass surveillance was never about terrorists or pedophiles: it is a tool of pure and raw domination.
With the exposure of German Chancellor Merkel’s phone being wiretapped by the US surveillance agencies, the mass surveillance has received yet another spotlight. This is welcome as it intensifies the discussion on civil liberties and the freedoms of speech, assembly, opinion, and the press – and how these freedoms need to carry over into the online environment.
To some extent, it is sad that it takes a personal insult against a leading politicians for something as grave as a threat to democracy itself to come to light, but still, here we are. The mass surveillance has been rolled out en masse without much protest, due to leading politicians smoothing over any worries by using worse scarewords, a common tactic.
We have frequently and repeatably been told that mass surveillance and wiretapping is necessary to “catch terrorists”. Pedophiles are also mentioned from time to time. This is a complete and utter lie.
To inform people is hard slugging. Everything is lined up against the public being informed, or the policymakers for that matter. News is contaminated by its service to special interests and hidden agendas. Many scientists or their employers are dependent on federal money. Even psychologists and anthropologists were roped into the government’s torture and occupation programs. Economists tell lies for corporations and Wall Street. Plant and soil scientists tell lies for agribusiness and Monsanto. Truth tellers are slandered and persecuted. However, persistence can eventually win out. In the long-run, truth sometimes emerges. But not always. And not always in time.
I have been trying to inform the American people, economists, and policymakers for more than a decade about the adverse impacts of jobs offshoring on the US economy. The word has eventually gotten out. Last week I was contacted by 8th grade students competing for their school in CSPAN’s StudentCam Documentary Contest. They want to interview me on the subject of jobs offshoring for their documentary film.
America is a strange place. Here are eighth graders far ahead of the economics profession, the President, the Congress, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, and the financial press in their understanding of one of the fundamental problems of the US economy. Yet, people say the public schools are failing. Obviously, not the one whose students contacted me.
David is not the only one saying similar things, especially about Obama. I have followed David for many years, read both his recent books, and highly respect his work. He is not always “right on”, but he is always pretty close and mostly right on.
Tom
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David Wilcock Comments of Fulford: “The Cabal are Planning on Creating a Mega-Event of Some Sort..”
