Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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SchwartzReport: US Star Chamber “Disposition List,” NSA Revelation Feed Anti-Americanism, US Courts Against US Citizens

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military

schwartz reportThis is the new warfare. It is the obvious next step in asymmetrical conflict. Lower risk for Americans, and probably cheaper. But, I wonder, is it making more enemies than it is eliminating? If I lived in a little village in the Afghan mountains and, in the middle of night, a drone strike blew up one of the houses, killing a neighbor family, I might have some serous attitude about it.

Obama's Secret Kill List – the Disposition Matrix
IAN COBAIN – The Guardian (U.K.)

There is a growing anti-American attitude taking root in Europe, one already well-established in the Islamic world, and parts of Asia. The long term consequences of this are not going to be happy. But our foreign policy barely deals with it.

Snowden Revelations Stir Up Anti-US Sentiment
GEOFF DYER – Financial Times (U.K.)

More and more judicial decisions, particularly those of Republican appointed judges, overwhelmingly favor corporations over people. These decisions get almost no coverage in the media, but they have real and far-reaching consequences. Here's an example of what I mean.

In Chilling Ruling, Chevron Is Granted Access to Amazon Activists’ Private Emails
JUAN COLE – Informed Comment

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Jean Lievens: Joe Brewer on the Global Transition – 2012 and Beyond

#OSE Open Source Everything, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Toward the Global Transition — 2012 and Beyond

EXTRACT:

A Time For Bridge-Builders*

It is increasingly clear that the institutions of yesterday are inadequate for the challenges of tomorrow.  Multinational corporations bent toward the myopia of quarterly returns are ill-fit for extended periods of volatility and turbulence.  Centralized governments, with an opacity built in to ensure secrecy, cannot keep pace with the speed-of-light communications of 21st Century internet-based and mobile technologies.  They must be opened up and redesigned with agility and integrity as guiding principles.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

What is needed now is nothing less than the wholesale redesign of civilization.  Our banking institutions must be reconnected to the thriving of human communities.  Our schools and universities must cultivate a creative resilience that enables massive-scale innovation.  Our businesses must produce positive social impacts alongside healthy revenues.  And our governments must successfully provide the supports through which well-being is sustained and spread across the entirety of nations, cities, and villages.

This schematic captures the essence of what is needed:

Read full post with additional graphic.

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Stephen E. Arnold: Big Data Start-Ups

Advanced Cyber/IO, Data
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

Big Data Startup Parade Begins with These 14 Companies

July 14, 2013

Business Insider posted an article titled 14 Big Data Startups You’re Going to be Hearing A Lot More About on June 4, 2013. The article explores the big data companies teetering on the edge of wild success and fame. The companies named include WibiData, Hadapt, Sqrrl, Precog, Datameer, HStreaming, Alpine Data Labs and Kontagent. The article claims,

“Google, Facebook, Amazon and other web giants have harnessed big data to solve some of their biggest tech challenges. Now many of these engineers are setting out on their own with startups. Some are focused on analytics. Some are working on in-memory databases, which do all their work on data stored in memory instead of hard drives. Others are casting their lot with NoSQL, a new kind of database that spreads processing and storage across multiple servers and storage systems.”

For example, Data Gravity, founded in 2012 with headquarters in Nashua, NH and star Paula Long, makes big data more affordable by embedding the tech into storage systems. The implications posed by these startups for IBM SPSS, SAS, Palantir and Digital Reasoning are as yet unclear. VC’s certainly seem optimistic, with almost all of the startups mentioned raking in millions of dollars from various backers.

Chelsea Kerwin, July 14, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

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Mini-Me: Posting a Hyper-Link is a Criminal Act SO Heineous As to Be Worthy of 105 Years in Prison?

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement
Who? Mini-Me?
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

Barrett Brown, political prisoner of the information revolution

If the US government succeeds in criminalising Brown's posting of a hyperlink, the freedom of all internet users is in jeopardy

Kevin M. Gallaher

Guardian, 13 July 2013

When I first noticed Barrett Brown in early 2011, I never thought that two years later I'd be directing Free Barrett Brown. Intrigued by his irreverence, I became familiar with his work, admiring him for his skill as a writer. I spoke to him briefly on IRC (internet relay chat) and occasionally dropped into the same channels he frequented; later I met him in person at a conference in New York City. But it's the US government's behavior in this and other cases – see also, Manning, Hammond, Swartz, Assange, etc – that have made running his legal defense fund a labor of love for me.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

The distributed research project Brown founded, Project PM, is important and necessary. Since 9/11, the intelligence and cyber-security contracting industries have exploded in size. I believe, as Barrett does, that the public/private partnership on surveillance constitutes a threat to civil transparency and the health of democratic institutions. Large and very profitable companies like Booz Allen Hamilton obtain most of their revenues from the federal government; yet, the majority of their work is performed in secrecy.

Barrett had the insight to realize early on that the troves of emails that were hacked by Anonymous out of HBGary Federal and Stratfor and subsequently made public had the potential to provide a rare window into the activities of the cyber-intelligence industry. I believe it was this journalistic work of digging into areas that powerful people would rather keep in the dark that made him a target.

Contrary to claims, Brown is not a hacker (he is unabashedly lacking in technical skills). Nor was he a spokesperson for Anonymous (the very idea is ridiculous). He is an iconoclastic writer with a penchant for satire and hyperbole. He became an activist by observing the media's failure to cover the issues or stories that he deemed important. Some of his proudest work was the assistance rendered by Anonymous to citizens in North Africa during the first months of the Arab Spring.

Complete article below the line.

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Paul Craig Roberts: Is the US Government in Enemy Hands?

Corruption, Government
Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts

Coup d’etat

Paul Craig Roberts

The American people have suffered a coup d’etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy. Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere “scrap of paper.”

An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself. Power does not like to be bound and tied down and constantly works to free itself from constraints.

Complete post and about the author below the line.

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