Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

Posted on

Chuck Spinney: Risks of EU’s Blowing Up Ukraine on the Cheap

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinneyinney

Included in this interesting essay about the situation in Ukraine is a useful reminder of how the West succumbed to the short-term temptations of triumphalism when Gorbachev ended the Cold War in the early 1990s.

The Risks of the EU's Geopolitics on the Cheap in Ukraine

by Vadim Nikitin, Agence-Global

Released: 09 Dec 2013

A clear sense of déjà vu shrouds the Ukrainian protests. The demonstrators’ relentless calls for Western-style democracy evoke the idealism of the political rallies during the last years of the USSR, when thousands took to the streets of Moscow demanding freedom and opportunity. Then as now, citizens hungry to escape low living standards, a stagnant economy and a corrupt and cynical regime looked to Europe for hope.

Yet that experience ended in bitter disappointment when the West took advantage of Russia’s liberalisation without delivering on the newly free Russian citizens’ hope for a better life. The resulting backlash helped pave the way for Russia’s current authoritarianism. By playing on the exaggerated expectations of Kiev’s current protesters in order to achieve its economic and geopolitical objectives while giving Ukraine only vague assurances in return, the EU risks making a similar mistake with potentially even graver consequences.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Risks of EU's Blowing Up Ukraine on the Cheap”

Posted on

Berto Jongman: Bits, Bytes, & Stuff 1.1

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

BOOK: The Hidden Face of Terrorism: The Dark Side of Social Engineering

CYBER: Bitcoin Alternative in Russia

CYBER: Chinese Operations KE3CHANG

CYBER: Suits and Spooks Threat Summary (Video)

CYBER: What Social Networks See In You (Your API)

OPEN: Arab Spring Year Four (Al Jazeera reviews revolution, counter-revolution and counter counter-revolution)

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Bits, Bytes, & Stuff 1.1”

Posted on

Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on What’s Real? What’s Fake?

Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

What's Real? What's Fake?

Is the unemployment rate real or fake? It is obviously fake, but we want to believe the fake is real for a variety of reasons.

We like to think we know the difference between what's real and what's fake. When we're fooled by a fake Rolex watch purchased for $20 on some humid Asian street corner, we shrug it off: it's no big deal because the fake isn't harming anyone.

And when it's difficult to discern the fake from the legitimate, as in fine art paintings and financial policy, we rely on experts to differentiate between the two.

But what if the “experts” are as clueless as the rest of us? What if they've been corrupted by easy money to authenticate the fake as legitimate? Consider ObamaCare, an extraordinarily complex policy that “experts” assure us is a phenomenal advancement that is “working well.”

But what if ObamaCare is a fake? What if it is really not insurance at all, but a giant skimming machine designed to enrich and solidify the power of the state-cartel that operates the sickcare system?

Continue reading “Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on What's Real? What's Fake?”

Posted on

Jean Lievens: BIll Moyers on The Great American Class War – Plutocracy versus Democracy + Bill Moyers @ PBI & Democracy @ PBI

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Bill Moyers | The Great American Class War: Plutocracy vs. Democracy

By Bill Moyers, TomDispatch | Speech Excerpt

Thursday, 12 December 2013 09:14

I met Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1987 when I was creating a series for public television called In Search of the Constitution, celebrating the bicentennial of our founding document.  By then, he had served on the court longer than any of his colleagues and had written close to 500 majority opinions, many of them addressing fundamental questions of equality, voting rights, school segregation, and — in New York Times v. Sullivan in particular — the defense of a free press.

Those decisions brought a storm of protest from across the country.  He claimed that he never took personally the resentment and anger directed at him.  He did, however, subsequently reveal that his own mother told him she had always liked his opinions when he was on the New Jersey court, but wondered now that he was on the Supreme Court, “Why can’t you do it the same way?” His answer: “We have to discharge our responsibility to enforce the rights in favor of minorities, whatever the majority reaction may be.”

Although a liberal, he worried about the looming size of government. When he mentioned that modern science might be creating “a Frankenstein,” I asked, “How so?”  He looked around his chambers and replied, “The very conversation we’re now having can be overheard. Science has done things that, as I understand it, makes it possible through these drapes and those windows to get something in here that takes down what we’re talking about.”

That was long before the era of cyberspace and the maximum surveillance state that grows topsy-turvy with every administration.  How I wish he were here now — and still on the Court!

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: BIll Moyers on The Great American Class War – Plutocracy versus Democracy + Bill Moyers @ PBI & Democracy @ PBI”

Posted on

Tikkun Rabbi Michael Lerner: War on Poverty Round Two — Theater, But Worth Noting… + Poverty RECAP

01 Poverty, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner

Great news!

Congessman Keith Ellison, who represents Minneapolis/St Paul in the U.S. House of Representatives, introduced a resolution in effect endorsing the NSP version of a Global Marshall Plan into the House of Representatives as H Res 439. It was referred to the Republican controlled Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. Please read the resolution below and send thanks to his legislative aide Vic Edgerton (contact information at end of post).

Continue reading “Tikkun Rabbi Michael Lerner: War on Poverty Round Two — Theater, But Worth Noting… + Poverty RECAP”

Posted on

SchwartzReport: Truths That Matter

Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

I see these antibacterial dispensers, whether soaps or gels, everywhere I go. They are as big a mistake as plastic bottles. What is worst about these antibacterial soaps that is just mentioned is that because they are not lethal to 100 per cent of bacteria, they lead to bacterial mutation. It is a variation of the ! same problem as the overuse of antibiotics.

Antibacterial Soaps Aren't More Effective And May Be Dangerous, Says US FDA
AMY CORDEROY, Health Editor – The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

You have probably already heard about this but I consider it to be so important I am running it anyway. We have a choice now as to how we choose to proceed with the American surveillance state that has grown up since 9/11. Write your Representative and Senators and let them know how you feel about being under constant surveillance.

Federal Judge Rules Against NSA Spying
KEVIN JOHNSON and RICHARD WOLF, – USA TODAY

I don't have the time tonight to search out the specific number but, this must be the fifth or sixth report describing how Rightist politicians trying to find evidence of voter fraud, spending hundreds of thousand of taxpayer dollars, each come up with the exact opposite of what they sought. There is no voter fraud. The fraud is the claim there is. Of course it is not really about voter fraud being, instead, a nefarious scheme to limit voting to affluent whites through selective voter suppression. It is a second phase after the gerrymandering. It is really quite vile. and it should always be remembered that this process has been made easier by the Rightists on the Supreme Court, who voted to gut the Voting Rights Act, by eliminating Section 5.

Iowa Republican’s 2-year Investigation Finds no Statistically Significant Evidence of Voter Fraud
SCOTT KAUFMAN – The Raw Story

Here is the truth, which I thought was already widely known, that multivitamins are a waste of money. Multivitamins are a Big Pharma scam. But this is only about multivitamins. This report doesn't really address sophisticated supplement usage. Taking supplements can make a lot of difference, but it takes work, searching out information, help from medical professionals to! work out what to take given your profile, when to take it, and at what dosage.

Multivitamin Researchers say “case Is Closed” After Studies Find No Health Benefits
RYAN JASLOW – CBS News

noble gold