Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 2089 – Public Intelligence Blog

Dear friends,

Over the last 15 months I posted many reflections on the Occupy movement. That movement is clearly not over, morphing into new shapes even as its most potent meme – “We are the 99%” – continues to reverberate.

Yet there was something about the original Occupy encampments – those intense micro-communities, living vibrant and threatened in our midst – that still haunts many of us. They were so mixed and extreme, strangely embodying the best and worst of who we are. Diverse people found them inspiring and disgusting, potent and pointless, overflowing with grit, authenticity, passion, pain and whimsy.

I want to share an article that captures a lot of that – the full spectrum of those intense contradictions – and courageously attempts to fathom the meaning of it all – for us, for the Occupiers, for our whole society.

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/12/a-eulogy-for-occupy/
“A Eulogy for #Occupy” by Quinn Norton, a Wired magazine reporter who embedded with Occupy Wall Street activists around the U.S. for a year and reported back on what she witnessed. In this article she reflects on what she saw, felt, heard and thinks about it all.

I found “A Eulogy for #Occupy” profoundly insightful and sensitive, exhibiting a rare integration of journalistic integrity, unflinching critique, and deeply personal vulnerability and compassion.

Phi Beta Iota: This is a gifted report from the heart of America as a combat zone. Extracts below the line for a quick read.

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Quinn Norton at WIRED – Eulogy for #Occupy”

2013/01/032013/01/03

Yoda: Best Video of and Best Article on Chuck Hagel

Ethics, Government, Military

Honest, he is….

‘Before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment.'

A multimedia exploration of Chuck Hagel's historic moment, and what it means for a declining presidency. Read the story. See the videos. Watch history happen.

EXTRACT:

He's out of patience with the young cheerleaders of this war, the chickenhawks at places like The Weekly Standard who once called him part of an “axis of appeasement.” He is out of patience with think-tank cowboys and talk-show Napoleons. “I'm always taken aback by that certain cavalier manner, not connecting at all with that human loss,” he says. “I do think of those guys, kicking doors down, walking target practice for snipers.

Read full article (4 screenes)

On January 24, 2007, Sen. Chuck Hagel spoke about the war in Iraq. Watch the 8 minutes and 21 seconds that rocked Congress. Via YouTube.com.

Phi Beta Iota:

2013/01/032013/01/03

DefDog: Hagel Would Be First EM to Run DoD

Ethics, Government, Military

Doesn't get any better! AND a Senator.

Hagel Would Be First Former Enlisted Soldier To Run Pentagon

by Tom Bowman

NPR, December 24, 2012

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is said to be on President Obama's short list to be the next defense secretary. But even the possibility of his nomination has stirred up opposition — particularly from members of his own political party.

If Hagel can survive a political ambush in Washington, he would be the first Pentagon chief who saw combat as an enlisted soldier.

The blunt-spoken Hagel favors deeper cuts in military spending and is wary of entangling America in long overseas missions.

In January 2007, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were fighting President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. Hagel was the only Republican to join them, and he blasted those who refused to take a stand.

“Why are you elected?” Hagel asked. “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. This is a tough business. But is it any tougher, us having to take a tough vote, express ourselves, and have the courage to step up, than what we're asking our young men and women to do? I don't think so.”

Lessons From Vietnam

Hagel knew better than most what America was asking of its young men and women. Forty years earlier he'd fought in Vietnam with his brother Tom.

They served in the same unit. On patrol one morning in 1968, Chuck was hit by shrapnel in the chest, and Tom rushed to help him. A month later, Chuck saved Tom, pulling him from a burning vehicle. Between them the two brothers earned five Purple Hearts.

Read full article and listen to interview.

2013/01/032013/01/03

Berto Jongman: NDU on Strategic Hybrid Threats

Threats

Thinking About Strategic Hybrid Threats –

In Theory and in Practice

By Frank J. Cilluffo and Joseph R. Clark

Abstract

As the United States resets in the wake of previous security challenges and assesses future dangers, the risks posed by strategic hybrid threats deserve increased contemplation and deliberation. This article presents a new theoretical framework for addressing such, defining them as the product of principal-agent relationships in which intentions and capabilities are forged into novel hazards. Using Iran, the availability of likely proxies (notably Hizballah), and U.S. vulnerabilities to computer network attacks, the authors construct illustrative examples of how hybrid threats could threaten both the national security and national interests of the United States. They also offer a model (based on the concept of a war council) with which response efforts on the part of public and private sector actors at the local, state, and Federal levels of governance could be organized and managed.

Read overview and download PDF.

Phi Beta Iota: The strategic conceptualization is excellent. The national intelligence is not there to support it.

2013 Robert Steele Draft Preface and Introduction to Intelligence with Integrity: Decision Support in the Public Interest 1.1

2013/01/032013/01/03

Yoda: Demystifying Change – Thesis, Anti-Thesis, Synthesis

Advanced Cyber/IO, P2P / Panarchy, Resilience

May the force be with you….

Demystifying the Pattern(s) of Change: A Common Archetype

April 17, 2012

EXTRACT

Complex Adaptive Systems Adaptation at the Edge of Chaos

Without going too deep into the theories, complexity science and the theory of complex adaptive systems teach us that complex adaptive systems (CAS) and living systems (LS) adapt to changes occurring in their environment in a state away from dynamic equilibrium, at the edge of chaos—a paradoxical transition phase of simultaneous stability and instability. At the edge of chaos, when the conditions are right, the components of CAS and LS are able to spontaneously self-organize, without any blueprint. The result is the emergence of new structures of higher-level order and new patterns of organization better adapted to the environment. This creative process, taking a system from dynamic equilibrium to the edge of chaos, and, then, to a higher state of order, coherence and wholeness is depicted on Figure 2. It is important to note that emergence is never a guarantee. When the system does not have the required learning capacity to creatively self-organize and transform, it may go through an immergence—a process of disintegration and complete breakdown.

Read full article, additional graphics.

Continue reading “Yoda: Demystifying Change – Thesis, Anti-Thesis, Synthesis”

2013/01/032013/01/03

John Maguire: YouTube (20:35) Disentangling the Quantum Enigma

Advanced Cyber/IO, YouTube

An Overview of new findings in Quantum Biology that may help extend Quantum Theory in general; and that may help expand our understanding of human interconnectedness and the “paranormal” as well. I am not a guru, all interpretations are open for mindful, respectful discussion. I do appreciate you sitting through the rather long 20 minutes if you can afford to; hopefully you don't consider your time wasted. Thank You and Take Care!

Transcript and Links to Other Contributions by John Maguire Below the Line

Continue reading “John Maguire: YouTube (20:35) Disentangling the Quantum Enigma”

2013/01/032013/01/03

Yoda: China Thinking — Rifkin Rising — Not Enough

02 China, 05 Energy

Free, energy is. Corrupt, governments are.

The London Times: China Embraces Rifkin’s Third Industrial Revolution

The London Times reported that members of the twenty-four person Politburo and senior party officials are reading and actively discussing Jeremy Rifkin’s New York Times bestselling book, The Third Industrial Revolution, on the eve of the National Party Congress on November 8th that will usher in the new leadership of China– see attached article from the November 3rd edition of The London Times

According to The Times of London, the Chinese leadership is taking up Rifkin’s vision of linking internet technology with renewable energies, to prepare China for a dramatic shift into a sustainable post-carbon Third Industrial Revolution economy in the 21st century. The Third Industrial Revolution has been the number one bestselling economics book in China for more than four months.

Continue reading “Yoda: China Thinking — Rifkin Rising — Not Enough”