Communities of Practice – Page 927 – Public Intelligence Blog

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius

Hope article below turns out to be true. If President Clinton gets a pass on Affair Lewinsky, conducted in Oval Office, then GEN Petraeus certainly deserves a restart after Affair Broadwell. While no basis for a major decoration, I see that mistake as principally a matter between GEN Petraeus and his family and not necessarily something justifying LTG Clapper's call for his resignation as Director of the CIA. Once publicly acknowledged, not sure matter generated vulnerability to hostile exploitation, which is principal national security concern with sexual misbehavior.)

Petraeus, The Comeback General

He may benefit from the Bill Clinton rule: Adultery is no longer a political disqualifier.

By Doyle McManus

Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2012

Gen. David H. Petraeus, long the most famous overachiever in the U.S. Army, is already on his way to a new career distinction: breaking the land speed record for rehabilitation from a scandal.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Petraeus, The Comeback General [with Assist from “The Clinton Rule””

2012/11/252012/11/25

Berto Jongman: WCIT-12 and the Future of the Internet

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Ethics, IO Impotency

The Hypocrisy Threatening the Future of the Internet

by Jean-Christophe Nothias – Editor

GLOBAL, November 22, 2012

The upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) in Dubai looms as a moment of truth for the Internet’s governing rules and economic model. In all, representatives of 193 countries will come together to review the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) agreed in Melbourne 25 years ago.

The United States (US) government, a leading voice in the sector, is strongly opposed to any changes to the treaty (itself an update of an earlier agreement), arguing the Internet has nothing to do with ‘traditional’ telecommunications, and – more ominously – that freedom is at stake. In contrast to this ‘no changes proposed’ plan, other member states are likely to bring different perspectives and ideas to feed into discussions at the 11-day December event, which will be moderated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a specialized United Nations (UN) agency. The fight is growing increasingly vocal, while raising questions of concern to all about the overwhelming power of the US in relation to the Internet and the need for structural re-balancing.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: Vint Cerf sold out, Google is not useful at making sense, and the time has come for the Autonomous Internet and Liberation Technology to be a central foundation for a prosperous world at peace — a world that works for all.

Graphic: UN Open-Source Decision-Support Information Network (UNODIN) Pyramid

2012/11/242012/11/24

Chuck Spinney: Palestinians Win Gaza Scuffle – Time On Their Side

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, IO Deeds of War, Military

As we proved in Vietnam, and are about to prove again in Afghanistan, you can win most battles in a tactical sense but still lose a war at the far more decisive strategic and grand-strategic levels of conflict. (Grand strategy is explained here.) Israel's grand strategy is to establish a Greater Israeli Apartheid State (by annexing Area C of the West Bank and Gazifying Areas A and B) by (1) keeping the US firmly in its camp so (2) it can ignore the growing disgust in the rest of the world. That grand strategy has worked in the short term, most recently by hyping the Iranian threat and now the Gaza mini war to distract attention from the growing encroachment of illegal Israeli settlers in Area C.* But that strategy is turning the world against it (see Israel is all but alone in the Middle East). While recent pronouncements by President Obama and Secretary Clinton suggest Israel's influence in US domestic politics remains as strong as ever, the political sands in the US may be slowly insensibly shifting toward ambivalence, if not outrage, in the United States as well — and, as a practical, the US has enormous problems elsewhere (in Afghanistan) as well as home that may well evolved to take precedence over the US blank check to Israel. So, is Israel on the slippery grand-strategic slope of winning its battles while losing war?

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Palestinians Win Gaza Scuffle – Time On Their Side”

2012/11/242012/11/24

Edgar Feige: Automated Payment Transaction Tax Update

03 Economy, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Government

I can at best “guesstimate” that for the US the transaction tax base is roughly 50 times GDP = $775 Trillion. If the US would adopt an APT tax of 10 basis points, .1% (not 1%) (hopefully in negotiations with UK and EU and best with G20) that would reduce the taxable base by perhaps 30% by eliminating short term trades that would no longer be profitable. That would reduce the tax base to $420 trillion and raise very roughly..an estimated $400 billion in added revenue. With luck, one could eliminate most tax expenditures yielding roughly $ 1 trillion which will be reduced to at most $500 Billion by rate reductions for corporate and personal incomes to get acceptance of the APT tax. So my best guess….is that we could raise roughly 1 trillion per year in added revenue.

Received via Email 20 November 2012

Continue reading “Edgar Feige: Automated Payment Transaction Tax Update”

2012/11/24

Yoda: Addictive Macro-Learning – The Future

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Liberation Technology

yoda with light saber — Got Crowd? BE the Force!

Totally Addictive Education: The Future of Learning

Steven Kotler

Forbes, 8/27/2012

EXTRACT:

Today’s educational system is all about standardization. We treat every kid the same. But not every kid learns the same. Some need the microscopic first, others the macroscopic. Some people are tangential learners, some prefer their facts in a linear fashion. Some are quick, others slow. Thankfully, this is changing.

. . . . . . .

Microscopic learning doesn’t really harness this system. It builds the patterns up slowly, one block at a time, but rarely does it require the kind of intuitive BIG PATTERN RECOGNITION that macroscopic learning demands. By keeping things microscopic, we’re keeping things boring. Sure, kids learn this way, but not all kids and, anyway, it’s not much fun.

Read full article (two screens).

2012/11/232012/11/23

Reference: Melanie Ramjoue on UN Intelligence

Advanced Cyber/IO, Ethics, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

UN peacekeeping soldier in front of a tank Improving United Nations Intelligence

Lessons from the Field

UN member states have historically been hesitant to provide the UN with an intelligence-collection mandate at either strategic (headquarters) or operational (field) levels. However, the increased size, length and complexity of peacekeeping operations, compounded by severe security threats to UN personnel, make a stronger UN intelligence capability in the field increasingly necessary.

Download: English (PDF · 6 pages · 716 KB)

Author:Melanie Ramjoué . Series: GCSP Policy Papers . Issue:19

Publisher: Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Geneva, Switzerland

By the same author:

Improving UN Intelligence through Civil–Military Collaboration: Lessons from the Joint Mission Analysis Centres

2012/11/232012/11/24

Penguin: Trans-Pacific Partnership – Evil Incarnate?

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Commerce, Corruption, Government

In three parts, this is the first part.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This is What Corporate Governance Looks Like

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

The following is the first installment of a three-part exclusive for Occupy.com on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Originally published at Occupy.com

In 2008, the United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the U.S. entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks as “a pathway to broader Asia-Pacific regional economic integration.” Originating in 2005 as a “Strategic Economic Partnership” between a few select Pacific countries, the TPP has, as of October 2012, expanded to include 11 nations in total: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, with the possibility of several more joining in the future.

What makes the TPP unique is not simply the fact that it may be the largest “free trade agreement” ever negotiated, nor even the fact that only two of its roughly 26 articles actually deal with “trade,” but that it is also the most secretive trade negotiations in history, with no public oversight, input, or consultations.

Continue reading “Penguin: Trans-Pacific Partnership – Evil Incarnate?”