Journal: US Ruling Class versus Country Class–Deep Insights, Need Integrity and Fact-Based Deliberation

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call, Open Government, Policy, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
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America's Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution

By Angelo M. Codevilla from the July 2010 – August 2010 issue of American Spectator

EXTRACT 1:  They [the bi-opoly two parties] think, look, and act as a class.

EXTRACT 2: The two classes have less in common culturally, dislike each other more, and embody ways of life more different from one another than did the 19th century's Northerners and Southerners — nearly all of whom, as Lincoln reminded them, “prayed to the same God.” By contrast, while most Americans pray to the God “who created and doth sustain us,” our ruling class prays to itself as “saviors of the planet” and improvers of humanity. Our classes' clash is over “whose country” America is, over what way of life will prevail, over who is to defer to whom about what. The gravity of such divisions points us, as it did Lincoln, to Mark's Gospel: “if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

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Journal: Supreme Court May Smack Executive Down

09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call

Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Smackdown of Obama by Supreme Court may be inevitable

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According to sources who watch the inner workings of the federal government, a smackdown of Barack Obama by the U.S. Supreme Court may be inevitable.

Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues. Critics have complained that much if not all of Obama's major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government.

Phi Beta Iota: Our Contributing Editor received the entire story via email but without a date from a Colonel serving in Afghanistan.  This story is evidently circulating among military personnel and for that reason we take note.  However, we note that it was originally posted9 July 2010, and have linked to that original post rather than post the entire email.  We would observe that ever since Dick Cheney was Chief of Staff in the White House, Executive disrespect for the Constitution and Congress has been growing, and that Newt Gingrich was the one who led Congress to its practice of abdicating its Article 1 role in the Constitution, instead playing foot-soldier to a party president.  We reiterate, there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by Electoral Reform.

Journal: U.S. Army Partially Criminal & Drugged Up

03 Economy, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Officers Call
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

I can't confirm all of what's in here because I don't currently work with those issues, but this reads like the Vietnam era…

McClatchy Newspapers (mcclatchydc.com)

September 17, 2010

As Iraq Winds Down, U.S. Army Confronts A Broken Force

By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — When Lt. Col. Dave Wilson took command of a battalion of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, the unit had just returned to Texas from 14 months traveling some of Iraq's most dangerous roads as part of a logistics mission.

What he found, he said, was a unit far more damaged than the single death it had suffered in its two deployments to Iraq.

Nearly 70 soldiers in his 1,163-member battalion had tested positive for drugs: methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. Others were abusing prescription drugs. Troops were passing around a tape of a female lieutenant having sex with five soldiers from the unit. Seven soldiers in the brigade died from drug overdoses and traffic accidents when they returned to Fort Bliss, near El Paso, after their first deployment.

“The inmates were running the prison,” Wilson said.

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Journal: USA Theater of Politics Adds a Side Show

Corruption
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White America is getting very angry.  The below screed by Pat Buchanan has a great deal of substance to it, and is being picked up across New  England and across the West and South.

Buchanan’s letter to Obama

by Vermont Woodchuck

There is a kernel of truth in this, about the size of Gibraltar.

Let us see if Obama has the stones to have a discussion of this nature.

BUCHANAN TO OBAMA

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

READ FULL LETTER

Phi Beta Iota: Patrick Buchanan is a great leader who represents a significant number of souls in America.  His letter, however, is theatrical for ignoring the reality that both political parties represent the war economy and the Wall Street economy, the last two rigged crap games in America.  There is no leader now in America–not a single one–willing to do what the Coffee Party is calling for: fact-based holistic policy in the public interest.  There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed through Electoral Reform and the dismissal of the two-party tyranny.

See Also (Selected Reviews of Buchanan's and Other Books)

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Journal: US Corruption at the Border and at the Top

Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

Marcus Aurelius Recommends

SecHLS must be happy,,,,,

U.S. worker's case reveals how drug cartels get help from this side of border

Martha Garnica

The cartels have grown so sophisticated, law enforcement officials say, that they are employing Cold War-era spy tactics to recruit and corrupt U.S. officials.

“In order to stay in business, the drug trafficking organizations have to look at different methods for moving product,” said Thomas Frost, an assistant inspector general in the Department of Homeland Security. “The surest method is by corrupting a border official. The amount of money available to corrupt employees is staggering.”

Phi Beta Iota: This is an especially well-done, detailed article by The Washington Post, and not one of the run-of-the-mill apologias from the camp followers.  What is not fully discussed is the MASSIVE corruption as well as the in-extremis one-time recruitments (e.g. fishermen shown photo of their captive family, one run only) on all four borders–north and west as well as south-gulf-florida and east.  Furthermore, the reality is that corruption starts at the top, and global corruption starts in New York City and Washington, D.C.   Corruption riddles every aspect of US Government planning, programming, budgeting, and operations across the twelve core policies, from agriculture to water.

Continue reading “Journal: US Corruption at the Border and at the Top”

Journal: CIA Links to NYC Mosque Controversy

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Military, Officers Call

Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links to the Ground Zero Mosque

By Mark Ames

September 10, 2010 | 2:36 p.m

EXTRACT 1: Leslie Deak's resume also notes his role as “business consultant” for Patriot Defense Group, LLC, a private defense contractor with offices in Winter Park, Florida, and in Tucson. The only names listed on the firm's website are those of its three “strategic advisers.” These include retired four-star General Bryan “Doug” Brown, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command until 2007, where he headed “all special operations forces, both active duty and reserve, leading the Global War On Terrorism,” and James Pavitt, former deputy director for operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he “managed the CIA's globally deployed personnel and nearly half of its multi-billion dollar budget” and “served as head of America's Clandestine Service, the CIA's operational response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.”

. . . . . . .

EXTRACT 2:  So, to recap: From 2006 to 2008, R. Leslie Deak worked as a “business consultant” to this super-secretive security contractor with ties to the CIA and counterterrorism forces, and in those same three years he also donated nearly $100,000 in seed money to the foundation now advocating the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.

. . . . . . .

EXTRACT 3:  Goldline is to Glenn Beck what General Electric was to Ronald Reagan: The company sponsors Beck's TV and radio shows as well as his touring act, and Beck is its public face. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, along with the Santa Monica City Attorney's office, are currently investigating Goldline for defrauding customers by railroading gullible customers into buying their most debased products.

Speaking of Glenn Beck, it has been reported that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the second-largest shareholder in News Corp., the parent company Fox News, which airs Beck's program, is also a major funder of Imam Rauf's projects, as Jon Stewart viewers heard all about last week.

. . . . . . .

EXTRACT 4: But add to this array of unexpected connections the work of Imam Rauf on behalf of the U.S. government—which includes serving as an FBI “consultant” and being recruited as a spokesperson by longtime George W. Bush confidante Karen Hughes, who headed up the administration's propaganda efforts in the Muslim world—and a compelling picture begins to emerge. Bush's favorite Imam, with backing from a funder with connections to the CIA, the Pentagon and the currency trading company that now sponsors rightwing firebrand Glenn Beck, proposes to build a mosque around the corner from the site of the most devastating terrorist attack ever visited on America. In the name of “[cultivating] understanding among all religions and cultures,” he puts forth a project that offends a majority of Americans and deals a significant setback to the broader acceptance of Muslim-Americans. It's a little like Billy “White Shoes” Johnson claiming the only reason he moonwalks after scoring a touchdown is to lower tensions on the football field and raise the other team's spirits.

Prison Planet Alternate View of Entire Piece

Tip of the Hat to Niels Groeneveld at LinkedIn.

Phi Beta Iota: It would appear that as the public is becoming more informed and more outraged, the military-intelligence complex on behalf of its global banking sponsors is becoming more brazen.  As it has with the Martin Luther King and JFK assassinations, the Tonkin Gulf and Iraq lies, and most recently with the 9-11 cover-up, the truth cannot be held back.  It has a way of reconnecting that is profoundly moving.

Journal: Who, Exactly, is Behind Burning Koran?

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Secrets, Media
TIME? or CIA?

Viewpoint

Christianophobia: The Lesson of Terry Jones

by Tim Padgett,  Friday, September 10, 2011

Christian Dupe

Pastor Terry Jones, right, of the Dove World Outreach Center speaks to the media in Gainesville, Fla., as Imam Muhammad Musri of the Islamic Society of Central Florida looks on. Phil Sandlin / AP

Even ogres can serve a purpose. The “Reverend” Terry Jones has at least shown us the ugly consequences of the Islamophobia that was this summer's political fad — by turning the tables. How does it feel to be caricatured as a nation of Koran-burning radicals? Americans were appalled to find that a solitary religious bigot and his tiny congregation of 50 pseudo Christians had hijacked our global image. We squirmed as a warped little corner of America's Judeo-Christian culture colored the entire country in the eyes of the world — the way Americans let a warped little corner of Islamic culture color all Muslims, even Muslim Americans.

Tip of the Hat to Rob Sentse at LinkedIn.

Phi Beta Iota: There are no coincidences within totalitarian corporate-controlled governments.  The combination of the Christian dupe calling for the burning of the Qu'an and the manufactured theater of the Muslim mosque with CIA funding at Ground Zero are all too reminiscent of the FBI-sponsored car bombing of the World Trade Center in the 1990's, and totally consistent with what Buckminster Fuller called “White House Theater” and Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent.”  In light of this shallow and manipulative TIME story, the five “filters” that Chomsky and his co-author identified bear reiteration:

From Wikipedia “Propaganda Model:”

First presented in their 1988 book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, the “Propaganda model” views the private media as businesses interested in the sale of a product — readers and audiences — to other businesses (advertisers) rather than that of quality news to the public. Describing the media's “societal purpose”, Chomsky writes, “… the study of institutions and how they function must be scrupulously ignored, apart from fringe elements or a relatively obscure scholarly literature”.[1] The theory postulates five general classes of “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in news media. These five classes are:

  1. Ownership of the medium
  2. Medium's funding sources
  3. Sourcing
  4. Flak
  5. Anti-communist ideology

Today anti-communism (which was nurtured in part by the CIA's importation of 100+ senior Nazis each year after the end of WWII) has been replaced by the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and its occasional theatrics such as the “Underpants Bomber.”  The tragedy is that 80% of the US public has been so dumbed down and anesthitized as to take this garbage seriously, while the 20% that “get it” are marginalized, which is of course the point of it all.

See Also:

Review: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Review: Grand Illusion–The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny

2008 ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Disinformation, Other Information Pathologies, & Repression

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Empire as Cancer Including Betrayal & Deceit

Worth a Look: Impeachable Offenses, Modern & Historic

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Institutionalized Ineptitude