Communities of Practice – Page 936 – Public Intelligence Blog

To set the stage, here is a quote from a top Reagan era economist.

“Paul Craig Roberts: “As readers know, I don’t think that either candidate is a good choice or that either offers a choice. Washington is controlled by powerful interest groups, not by elections. What the two parties fight over is not alternative political visions and different legislative agendas, but which party gets to be the whore for Wall Street, the military-security complex, Israel Lobby, agribusiness, and energy, mining, and timber interests.”

Now imagine a populist revolt that eliminates absentee owners and declares local to global debt jubilees, much as the IMF is (rather radically) considering in The Chicago Plan Revisted (August 2012), while the local, state, and federal government also agree on the Automated Payment Transaction Tax or the Tobin Tax (two different ideas that can be implemented separately or together).

No Conspiracy Theory — A Small Group of Companies Have Enormous Power Over the World

October 31, 2012 |

In October of 2011, New Scientist reported that a scientific study on the global financial system was undertaken by three complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. The conclusion of the study revealed what many theorists and observers have noted for years, decades, and indeed, even centuries: “An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.” As one of the researchers stated, “Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it’s conspiracy theories or free-market… Our analysis is reality-based.” Using a database which listed 37 million companies and investors worldwide, the researchers studied all 43,060 trans-national corporations (TNCs), including the share ownerships linking them.[1~footnotes at the end of the article]

Read full AlterNet article and notes.

Continue reading “Penguin: Election Theater, 50 Companies “Own” All”

2012/11/082012/12/03

Eagle: Department of Justice Defendes Controversial Unlimited Military Detention

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers Call

DOJ Defends Controversial Military Detention Provision

As presidential election returns rolled in Tuesday night, the U.S. Justice Department filed its opening brief defending a controversial military detention provision that a trial judge in Manhattan declared unconstitutional earlier this year.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal district court by a group of journalists and activists, challenges a section of the National Defense Authorization Act that DOJ lawyers said reaffirms presidential detention authority under the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF. That authorization was passed in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Government lawyers said in the papers filed last night in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that the plaintiffs “are in no danger whatsoever of being subject to capture and detention by the U.S. military.” The provision in question allows the detention of people who “substantially supported” al-Qaeda or “associated forces.”

“The district court nonetheless issued an extraordinary and sweeping injunction at their behest,” DOJ lawyer August Flentje of the Civil Division said in the brief filed last night. Flentje said the trial judge, Katherine Forrest of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, “entered a sweeping and permanent injunction against the president.”

Continue reading “Eagle: Department of Justice Defendes Controversial Unlimited Military Detention”

2012/11/072012/11/07

Mini-Me: US-UK to Persist in Destabilizing Syria — Never Mind the Fiscal Cliff, Decade of War “Coming to An End” Etcetera

Government, Ineptitude

Huh?

2012-11-07 Britain to organise armed Syrian rebels into efficient fighting force

2012-11-07 Efforts to oust Assad from Syria shift after US presidential election concludes

2012-11-07 UN flays Syria war spillover

2012-11-06 Syria envoy warns country could turn into Somalia

2012-11-06 From a distance, Syria ‘feels' like Iraq in 2004

Phi Beta Iota: “Do not throw stones when you live in a glass house.” We are already seeing discussions on the Internet about destabilizing the UK — here is one example:

This gives the Syrian government the full right to organize a militia of ex-cons in the UK to take down the government there by assassinations, cars explosions, shelling residential neighborhoods in main UK cities with mortar & artillery in retaliation.

2012/11/072012/11/08

Gold Transformer: Has US Stolen German Gold? Will This Break German Bank? Does This Make IMF Chicago Plan Revisited a “Must Do”?

03 Economy, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government

Germany financial architecture is under stress. If Germany fractures, Euro is gone. Could the US alleged theft of 1500 metric tons of German gold be part of the problem? Could this make the IMF August 2012 working group memorandum on The Chicago Proposal Revisited a “must do”?

7 Nov 2012 Does Anyone Really Know How Much Gold Is Held By The World's Central Banks?

7 Nov 2012 Where's The Gold?

5 Nov 2012 German gold reserves stored in NY Fed Reserve in safe hands – Dombret

31 Oct 2012 Golden Haarp & Allocated Gold Exposure

31 Oct 2012 More And More Germans Want Their Gold Back

31 Oct 2012 Why do the Germans want their gold back?

22 Oct 2012 FLASH: German gold report reveals secret sales that likely were part of swaps

Continue reading “Gold Transformer: Has US Stolen German Gold? Will This Break German Bank? Does This Make IMF Chicago Plan Revisited a “Must Do”?”

2012/11/072012/12/03

Eagle: Colorado and Washington Legalize Marijuana

03 Economy, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence

States Right tio Legalize Marijuana

ETHAN NADELMANN, Drug Policy Alliance

USA TODAY, 7 November 2012

The decision of the voters in Washington and Colorado to legalize and regulate marijuana much like alcohol, and the passage of medical marijuana in Massachusetts balanced by rejection in Oregon and Arkansas, I believe, is the beginning of the end of Prohibition. This issue is also going to become a significant part of the growing trend of schism amongst the bio-regions, I believe.

Social progressives should step forward and say, “You know, you guys on the right are correct.” We too embrace states rights.

Washington State and Colorado made history tonight by becoming the first states in the United States – to approve the legal regulation of marijuana.

Continue reading “Eagle: Colorado and Washington Legalize Marijuana”

2012/11/062019/02/02

Graphic: Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax

03 Economy, 11 Society, Ethics, Government, Office of Management and Budget

SHARE THIS WITH TINY URL “APTNow”: http://tinyurl.com/APTNow

Dummy Version: Generates $4 trillion a year without borrowing and allowing the elimination of ALL other taxes beginning with personal income taxes. Allows for the recapitalization of our labor pool, our domestic infrastructure, and our Department of Defense (450-ship Navy, long-haul Air Force, air-liftable Army, Marines back on the boats).

Formal Description and References Below the Line

Continue reading “Graphic: Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax”

2012/11/052012/11/05

DefDog: The 350-Ship Navy (if Mitt Romney Wins)

Ethics, Military

Came across these references — John F. Lehman, the 600-ship SecNav under Reagan, is one of Romney's advisors.

2012-11-02 Both Obama and Romney Proposals Don't Meet Navy Requirements (USNI Proceedings)

2012-10-22 When It Comes To The U.S. Navy, Numbers Matter (John Lehman at MittRomney.com)

A strong Navy is not a drain on our economy, it is its foundation.

2012-10-22 How Big Should The U.S. Navy Be? (NPR)

2012-10-07 Mitt Romney’s Big Plans for the U.S. Navy (DefenseNews)

Among the new details he revealed: Plans to create an 11th carrier air wing, one for each aircraft carrier. F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter production would continue beyond 2014. The amphibious fleet would be built up to the Marine Corps’ requirement of 39 ships. An entirely new, battle-group-deployable frigate would be procured, along with a ballistic missile defense ship. The campaign has pledged to build more submarines and destroyers, and production of the littoral combat ship (LCS) would continue.

. . . . . . . .

First, we’d continue the littoral combat ship, and we’d begin a battle group-deployable frigate program that would replace the FFG 7s [frigates]. And we would increase the numbers per year of the destroyers, and we would go for a missile defense ship that is optimized using an existing hull form, for the new Air Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), which really won’t fit in the existing Arleigh Burke class.

We would also include getting up to the accepted requirement for Marine amphibious lift, so there’d be an increase in amphibious ships. The exact mix as between the different types, whether we go all for the LSD [landing ship dock replacement] versus the LHA+ [new assault ship] or some other mix, that hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet. But there will be an increase in amphibs.

Continue reading “DefDog: The 350-Ship Navy (if Mitt Romney Wins)”