Category: Ethics

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SchwartzReport: Colorado Communities Declare State and Federal Governments Failures (Corrupt) Seek Self-Governance

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

Here is some excellent news. I hope this initial story becomes a trend. You can help make that happen.

Colorado Community Rights Network Files Constitutional Amendment To Secure the Right to Community Self-Government Free from State Preemption
BEN PRICE – Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

DENVER — The Colorado Community Rights Network (COCRN) has submitted to the state for review and comment the language for a Community Rights Constitutional Amendment to be placed on the 2014 ballot. The significance of the proposed state constitutional amendment was explained by COCRN member, Cliff Willmeng:

‘Communities throughout Colorado and across the country are finding that, in the face of corporate exploitation, they don’t have full authority, due to state preemption, to protect public health, safety and welfare, economic and environmental sustainability, property value, and overall quality of life. To do so without repeated challenges from corporate lawyers and our own state requires changes to our structure of law. The Community Rights Amendment would codify into law the right to local self-government, enabling local governments to define fundamental rights and prohibit activities that violate those rights.”

Read full article.

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Jean Lievens: Can the Internet Democratize Capitalism?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Money
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Can the Internet Democratize Capitalism?

Yanis Varoufakis

International Policy Digest, February 22, 2014

Technological fixes to time-honoured problems are all the rage these days.

Bitcoin is meant to fix money, social media are seen as an antidote to Rupert Murdoch and assorted tyrants, networked robots are to help countries like Japan deal with demographic declines etc. Perhaps the largest claim is that the Internet has helped (or is about to help) democratize capitalism. Ten years ago that claim struck me as both fascinating and dubious. So, I sat down and wrote an article about it (circa 2004). Its gist: The Internet is a wonderful leveller.

But democracy requires a great deal more than mere ‘levelling.’ Primarily, it requires political institutions that enable the economically weak to have a decisive say on policy against the interests of the rich and powerful. Ten years later, I am re-visiting this question, under the shadow of a global crisis that made it even harder to convert an e’Demos into genuine e’Democracy. What follows is an updated version of the original paper.

The Internet’s toughest assignment: To put Demos back into Democracy

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Can the Internet Democratize Capitalism?”

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Bruce Schneier: It’s Time to Break Up NSA — Outline of Necessary Intelligence Reforms by Robert Steele

Advanced Cyber/IO, Ethics, Government
Bruce Schneier
Bruce Schneier

It's Time to Break Up NSA

Bruce Schneier

CNN, 20 February 2014

Editor's note: Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Thrive.

(CNN) — The NSA has become too big and too powerful. What was supposed to be a single agency with a dual mission — protecting the security of U.S. communications and eavesdropping on the communications of our enemies — has become unbalanced in the post-Cold War, all-terrorism-all-the-time era.

Putting the U.S. Cyber Command, the military's cyberwar wing, in the same location and under the same commander, expanded the NSA's power. The result is an agency that prioritizes intelligence gathering over security, and that's increasingly putting us all at risk. It's time we thought about breaking up the National Security Agency.

Broadly speaking, three types of NSA surveillance programs were exposed by the documents released by Edward Snowden. And while the media tends to lump them together, understanding their differences is critical to understanding how to divide up the NSA's missions.

Continue reading “Bruce Schneier: It's Time to Break Up NSA — Outline of Necessary Intelligence Reforms by Robert Steele”

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Berto Jongman: Post-Snowden NSA-Proof Phone?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Ethics, IO Secrets, IO Tools, Liberation Technology
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

In the post-Snowden world is it time to switch to NSA-proof phone?

Millions of us share our most personal feelings and most potentially damaging data through our smartphones. But isn’t it time to lock them down after last June’s revelations that the NSA collects data from phone calls, texts and emails of people all over the world? The developers of Blackphone, a new privacy-focused smartphone, say ‘yes.’

Toby Weir-Jones, the general manager of Blackphone, says the NSA’s digital surveillance has created a new demand for privacy, Newsweek reports. However, he says, “the wider market was not equipped to look for a solution.” Apple and Android phones, says Weir-Jones, are caught up in a battle over larger screen sizes, higher resolution and faster operating systems, while Blackphone is offering privacy.

Theoretically, experts say, the new device could provide considerable security for users trying to protect themselves from corporate spying and the countries with lesser surveillance programs than the US. Blackphone, which goes on presale February 24,can do texting, video, calling, searching, browsing, file storage and sharing — all shielded from the prying eyes of governments and hackers.

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Danielle Villegas: Google Seeks to Fiber 34 US Cities

03 Economy, 07 Health, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics
Danielle Villegas
Danielle Villegas

More availability to internet conduits and competition will help drive down prices and make access more…accessible to the masses. It'll be interesting to see how Google Fiber works out! –techcommgeekmom

Google will explore bringing Fiber to 34 new cities including Portland and Atlanta

Google just announced that it's invited cities in nine metro areas across the US to explore “what it would take” to bring its Google Fiber gigabit internet service to more locations. “People are hungrier than ever for faster Internet, and as a result, cities across America are making speed a priority,” Google says. “We've long believed that the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, so it’s fantastic to see this momentum.” Google says up to 34 cities in all could potentially receive Fiber service. The nine metro areas where those cities are located include:

Read full article.

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John Robb: Global Civil War Coming — 99% Against the 1% Kleptocracy [Switzerland May Be Safe, But Absentee Ownership and Rents Are Toast]

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Officers Call
John Robb
John Robb

The Dream vs. the Kleptocracy

Here's a strong motive for open source warfare — the model of warfare that has become the hallmark of 21st century conlfict, from potest movements to fullscale insurgencies.

It's the driver of the recent conflict in Ukraine.

A conflict we're going to see much more of.  A struggle between the people that want the opportunity to earn some prosperity, and those that want to take all of it.

In other words, a growing number of people around the world now want to make the American Dream their own.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

Unfortunately, they face a kleptocracy of government, business, and finance that wants to prevent that.

Here's one story from that fight.  One that you should know.

It's the story of a young man that pursued the Dream, only to have it stolen away from him.

Basboosa vs. the Kleptocracy

Continue reading “John Robb: Global Civil War Coming — 99% Against the 1% Kleptocracy [Switzerland May Be Safe, But Absentee Ownership and Rents Are Toast]”