Corruption – Page 619 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/01/232013/01/23

Winslow Wheeler: The China Pivot and Air-Sea Battle — Institutionalized Idiocy and the Moral-Intellectual Death of Andy Marshall

The Asia Pivot–with “Air-Sea Battle” deeply embedded into it–has become the accepted wisdom in Washington for America's post-Afghanistan national security strategy. Is it affordable? Is it competent? Is it even a strategy?

It also presents a useful test for SecDef-designate Hagel's ability to separate the wheat from the chaff regarding defense issues. While Hagel has already shredded–to a large extent–his own reputation as someone willing to stand up to Pavlovian conventional wisdom, he will have another chance in his confirmation hearings next week to show he is not just another political hack.

National Security

Powering the Pacific “Pivot” With Leon and Chuck

By Winslow WheelerJan. 23, 2013

It's old, and likely thoroughly forgotten now, but last summer the Washington Post ran an excellent article on the U.S. military‘s “pivot” toward Asia, its origins, and its budget implications. It presented some meaningful background on where the pivot came from, and how it so quickly became dogma in Washington as the decade-long ground wars receded in the national rear-view mirror.

Beyond that, Greg Jaffe's article last August offers a good explanation for Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta‘s hysteria about defense budget cuts, and a useful criterion to assess Panetta's nominated replacement, former Senator Chuck Hagel.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: The China Pivot and Air-Sea Battle — Institutionalized Idiocy and the Moral-Intellectual Death of Andy Marshall”

2013/01/23

SchwartzReport: Seven Sins of GMO Lobby — Toxicity & Infertility — True Cost of Commercialization and Corruption of Basic Science

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War

Here is a very sound paper on the activities of the pro-GMO lobby, and their assault on the integrity of science.

The pro-GM lobby's seven sins against science

Peter Melchett

Soil Association, 17 December 2012

The role that genetically modified (GM) food should play in our food chain is a highly contested political issues. One interesting facet of the debate in the past year has been the pro-GM lobby's interest in staking the ‘scientific high-ground'; simultaneously positioning itself as the voice of reason and progress, while painting its opponents as unsophisticated ‘anti-science' luddites, whose arguments are full of dogma and emotion, but lack scientific rigour. In this essay Peter Melchett explores how such crude characterisations are themselves based on logic that is itself profoundly damaging to the concept and representation of ‘science' in our national culture.

Powerful forces in Western society have been promoting genetic engineering (now usually genetic modification – GM) in agricultural crops since the mid-1990s. They have included many governments, in particular those of the USA and UK, powerful individual politicians like George Bush and Tony Blair, scientific bodies like the UK's Royal Society, research councils, successive UK Government chief scientists, many individual scientists, and companies selling GM products. They have ignored the views of citizens, and most sales of GM food have relied on secrecy – denying consumers information on what they are buying (20 US States are currently embroiled in fierce battles over GM labelling, strenuously opposed by Monsanto). Worse, they have consistently promoted GM in ways which are not only unscientific, but which have been positively damaging to the integrity of science.

. . . . . . . . . .

Indeed, the basic science concerning the complexities of gene organisation and function suggests that natural breeding, often augmented with the non-GM biotechnology tool of MAS, is a far more powerful and productive way forward for crop improvement. Natural breeding and MAS not only preserve gene order and function, but allow the multiple gene systems that confer desirable properties such as higher yield,1 2 3 4 5 pest-6 7 8 9 10 and blight-resistance,11 12 13 and tolerance to drought,4 14 15 16 17 salinity,4 18 and flood,4 19 20 21 to be rapidly and relatively inexpensively22 bred into crops – something which is still only a distant dream for GM crop technologists.

. . . . . . . . . .

Seven Sins (List Only Below, or Read Full Article)

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Seven Sins of GMO Lobby — Toxicity & Infertility — True Cost of Commercialization and Corruption of Basic Science”

2013/01/222013/01/22

Penguin: Why is West Point Studying Domestic Movements? Led By an Israeli?

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

(1) Why is West Point in the business of studying the domestic activities of Americans?

(2) Why is such an effort spearheaded by an Israeli?

(3) Is it any wonder America's good old boys do not trust their own government?

Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right

Arie Perliger

West Point Combatting Terrorism Centrer, January 15, 2013

In the last few years, and especially since 2007, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots originating from individuals and groups who self-identify with the far-right of American politics. These incidents cause many to wonder whether these are isolated attacks, an increasing trend, part of increasing societal violence, or attributable to some other condition. To date, however, there has been limited systematic documentation and analysis of incidents of American domestic violence.

This study provides a conceptual foundation for understanding different far-right groups and then presents the empirical analysis of violent incidents to identify those perpetrating attacks and their associated trends. Through a comprehensive look at the data, this study addresses three core questions:

Continue reading “Penguin: Why is West Point Studying Domestic Movements? Led By an Israeli?”

2013/01/22

SchwartzReport: Genetic Modification of Crops Insanely Criminal — and Chemicalization of Agricultural Production Contributing to Climate Change

01 Agriculture, 07 Health, Commerce, Corruption, Idiocy

Regulators Discover a Hidden Viral Gene in Commercial GMO Crops
JONATHAN LATHAM and ALLISON WILSON – Independent Science News

The more I read about the GMO controversy the more it appears to be a story of commercializing a new technology before it was really understood, leaving us vulnerable to unintended consequences. Here is an example of what I mean.

The Agricultural Fulcrum: Better Food, Better Climate
Atlantic

As long as we see ourselves as something apart from the great cycles of nature, which is a fundamental assumption of our energy and agriculture sectors, we will destroy the earth and ourselves. There is an alternative.

2013/01/21

David Isenberg: Recommended Book, Mel Goodman on National Insecurity, The Cost of American Militarism

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

Recommended! Coming out 12 February 2013.

“Mel Goodman has spent the last few decades telling us what's gone wrong with American intelligence and the American military, and now, in National Insecurity, he tells us what we must do to change the way the system works, and how to fix it. Goodman is not only telling us how to save wasted billions–he is also telling us how to save ourselves.” — Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

Upon leaving the White House in 1961, President Eisenhower famously warned Americans about the dangers of a “military industrial complex,” and was clearly worried about the destabilizing effects of a national economy based on outsized investments in military spending. As more and more Americans fall into poverty and the global economy spirals downward, the United States is spending more on the military than ever before. What are the consequences and what can be done?

Melvin A. Goodman, a twenty-four-year veteran of the CIA, brings peerless authority to his argument that US military spending is indeed making Americans poorer and less secure while undermining our political standing in the world. Drawing from his firsthand experience with war planners and intelligence strategists, Goodman offers an insider's critique of the US military economy from President's Eisenhower's farewell warning to Barack Obama's expansion of the military's power. He outlines a much needed vision for how to alter our military policy, practices, and spending in order to better position the United States globally and enhance prosperity and security at home.

Melvin A. Goodman is the Director of the National Security Project at the Center for International Policy. A former professor of international security at the National War College and an intelligence adviser to strategic disarmament talks in the 1970s, he is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed The Failure of Intelligence.

See Also:

Goodman, Mel (2008), Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA (Rowman & Littlefield)

Steele, Robert (2000), ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World (AFCEA 2000, OSS, 2001)

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Most)

2013/01/212013/01/21

Chuck Spinney: Obama is NOT a Liberal — Peggy Noonan’s Big Idea — Break Up the Banks

Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government

The Legacy of Timothy Geithner

By SIMON JOHNSON

New York Times, 17 January 2013

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and co-author of White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.

“Too big to fail is too big to continue. The megabanks have too much power in Washington and too much weight within the financial system.” Who said this and when?

The answer is Peggy Noonan, the prominent conservative commentator, writing recently in The Wall Street Journal.

. . . . . . . .

As Ms. Noonan puts it bluntly: “People think the G.O.P. is for the bankers. The G.O.P. should upend this assumption.”

This is a significant opportunity for anyone with clear thinking on the right – someone looking for a Teddy Roosevelt trustbusting or Nixon-goes-to-China moment. Again, Ms. Noonan gets it right: “In this case good policy is good politics. If you are a conservative you’re supposed to be for just treatment of the individual over the demands of concentrated elites.”

Recall that some grass roots conservatives are already there: House Republicans initially voted down TARP, the former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s plan to end too big to fail received widespread applause from many Republicans and a number of influential commentators, including George Will and Ms. Noonan, have advocated ending too big to fail.

This would play well in the Republican presidential primaries – and even better in the general election. Watch PBS “Frontline” on Jan. 22 for an articulate presentation of why serious potential financial crimes were not prosecuted during the first Obama administration, and think about how to turn these facts into political messages.

A smart candidate could even mobilize plenty of financial-sector support in favor of breaking up or otherwise restricting the too-big-to-fail financial entities. The megabanks have very few genuine friends.

The lasting legacy of Timothy Geithner is to create the perfect electoral issue for Republicans. Will they seize it?

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Obama is NOT a Liberal — Peggy Noonan's Big Idea — Break Up the Banks”

2013/01/212013/01/21

Eagle: Heal America, Tax Wall Street 1%

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Ethics, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

1% Wall Street sales tax solution to stablize US federal budget: This would work!!

In the midst of the current haggling over the US federal budget, the main fact is being ignored: the fiscal shortfall of the US government over decades is largely due to Wall Street’s rigging of the tax code so that the main money center banks pay little or nothing in the way of taxes.

Like the haughty nobility in France before the Revolution of 1789, the Wall Street banks are practically exempt from taxation, and the burden of paying for the government is shifted to the middle class. Anybody who is serious about reducing the power of Wall Street bankers in US politics must now mobilize to educate public opinion about the situation and its main remedy – the 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.

Read full post.

United Front Against Austerity

Nationalize the Federal Reserve

1% Wall Stree Staff
0% Interest for Infrastructure and Production
Public Control of Money and Credit
Stop Predatory Financial Speculation

Webster Tarpley: Political Report to the United Front Against Austerity

See Also:

We the People Reform Coalition