Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 2131 – Public Intelligence Blog

A Global Economic Reset? Don't Wait to Find Out. Build Something Better

By John Robb

Building a resilient life, home and community is its own reward. It's simply the best way to live a good life. However, there's also another reason to do it. It's where the global system is headed, and the penalties for not starting early are steep. To really understand this, here's a well-written and detailed report on how and why a collapse of our global financial and economic systems are likely to occur.

It's a new report called, “Trade Off” by David Korowicz. Here's a quick summary:

The global financial and economic system is now a network. Everything is connected.
This system has become VERY big and VERY complex. It's simply beyond what government bureaucracies and markets were designed to manage/control.
Inevitably, as with all unstable systems that can't be manged/controlled, it will collapse. It will shrink to a size that can be managed through markets and bureaucracy.

As reports on this topic goes, it's very well written and provides quite a bit of conceptual detail. However, as with ALL reports on this topic, it doesn't offer a solution. Why? There simply isn't one available for the system as it is today. No fix. No patch. No tweak that will auto-magically fix our system's problems. So, what happens when the global system resets? Nobody really knows, but….

Continue reading “John Robb: Global Economic Reset — And Surviving It”

2012/11/152012/11/15

Mini-Me: Jane Harman at CIA? Over Many Dead Bodies + CIA RECAP

Corruption, Government

Huh?

Jane Harman and Israeli Spying

Possible New CIA Director Already Politically Compromised

by ALISON WEIR

CounterPunch, November 14, 2012

It is astounding to find that one of the handful of prospects being floated to become CIA director following the fall of General David Petraeus is a person reportedly implicated in a 2005 Israeli spy scandal.

CNN, Politico, and others have all listed former Congresswoman Jane Harman as a potential new CIA head. Oddly, however, none have mentioned reports in 2006 and again in 2009 that an NSA wiretap in 2005 had picked up Harman promising a suspected Israeli agent that she would aid people indicted for espionage on behalf of Israel.

According to reports, Harman allegedly told the Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two top officials for the powerful Israel lobby organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Jane Harman at CIA? Over Many Dead Bodies + CIA RECAP”

2012/11/152012/12/04

2012 Robert Steele: Addressing the Seven Sins of Foreign Policy — Why Defense, Not State, Is the Linch Pin for Global Engagement

03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, DoD, Ethics, Future-Oriented, Government, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Reform, Strategy, Threats

Short Persistent URL: http://tinyurl.com/Kerry-Flournoy

I wrote this with John Kerry and Michele Flourney in mind, but regardless of who is eventually made Secretary of Defense, the core concept remains: the center of gravity for massive change in the US Government and in the nature of how the US Government ineracts with the rest of the world, lies within the Department of Defense, not the Department of State.

John Kerry, Global Engagement, and National Integrity

It troubles me that John Kerry is resisting going to Defense when he can do a thousand times more good there instead of sitting at State being, as Madeline Albright so famously put it, a “gerbil on a wheel.” Defense is the center of gravity for the second Obama Administration, and the one place where John Kerry can truly make a difference. Appoint Michele Flournoy as Deputy and his obvious replacement down the road, and you have an almost instant substantive make-over of Defense. Regardless of who ends up being confirmed, what follows is a gameplan for moving DoD away from decades of doing the wrong things righter, and toward a future of doing the right things affordably, scalably, and admirably.

Continue reading “2012 Robert Steele: Addressing the Seven Sins of Foreign Policy — Why Defense, Not State, Is the Linch Pin for Global Engagement”

2012/11/15

SchwartzReport: Marijuana Legalization Reaches New High in National Poll

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Law Enforcement, Politics

Marijuana Legalization for Personal Use Reaches New High in Poll

JUSTIN SINK – The Hill

We should remember that it was the states that ended Alcohol Prohibition. It began just as this is beginning, and went up quite quickly to the Federal level. I am not sure that this will happen the same way. Look for this: When it becomes politically dangerous to be anti-Marijuana. It will happen quicker with Representatives, because of their smaller concentrated populations, district by di! strict. I think this will drive the Senate to change as well.

But the opposition may be so bitter, that it is one of the first of the new development trends shifting power to the states. This is going to depend on what the Obama administration does.

A record 48 percent of Americans support legalizing small amounts of marijuana for personal use, just one week after three states voted to legalize the drug under some conditions – including Colorado and Washington's historic votes to allow the personal use and sale of pot.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Marijuana Legalization Reaches New High in National Poll”

2012/11/152012/11/15

NIGHTWATCH: Communist China Focuses on Corruption

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government

China: Update. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China concluded on 14 November after the Congress elected a new Central Committee and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Comment: NightWatch will report at greater length as details warrant. The two most impressive themes that emerged from the early speeches were that corruption is a threat to the survival of the party and possibly the communist state itself and that the new leadership will have no latitude to compromise the communist political leadership. Political reform means measures to ease social tension and increase participation within the communist system. Put another way, free market economics with greater individual entrepreneurship will not lead to Western-style democracy or a multiparty system.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Communist China Focuses on Corruption”

2012/11/14

Tom Atlee: How to address corruption in the U.S. government and elections NOW

Corruption, Ethics, Government

How to address corruption in the U.S. government and elections NOW

There's a flash of hope here: A remarkable U.S. transpartisan group called Represent.Us is promoting a brilliantly designed Anti-Corruption Act. Check it out!

The proposed law pulls together a number of anti-corruption and money-out-of-politics approaches into one piece of national legislation. It exposes and regulates bribery and restricts the “revolving door” of public officials getting high paying corporate jobs soon after leaving their government jobs. It tightens regulations on lobbying and exposes secret donations to public view. It strengthens the Federal Election Commission and even provides a tax rebate for small political donations.

The introduction on its website http://anticorruptionact.org explains: “The Act was crafted by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter in consultation with dozens of strategists, democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum. Mr. Potter was one of the chief architects of the McCain-Feingold law. The Act would transform how elections are financed, how lobbyists influence politics, and how political money is disclosed. It is a bold, sweeping proposal that would reshape the rules of American politics, and restore ordinary Americans as the most important stakeholders instead of major donors. The Anti-Corruption Act’s provisions enjoy support from progressives and conservatives alike. Constitutional attorneys confirm that the provisions are constitutional.”

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: How to address corruption in the U.S. government and elections NOW”

2012/11/142012/11/14

DefDog: Bimbo-Gate Covering Up CIA’s Continuing Use of Proxy Terrorists, Regime Change, and Triad of Drugs, Arms, and Money-Laundering

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Officers Call

Open Season indeed. A seismic shift appears to be occurring, and CIA is the new “best target.” Below is s summary that represents the “worst-case” view of post Viet-Nam CIA.

The Petraeus Affair vs. the CIA’s Long Criminal History

By Julie Lévesque

Global Research, November 15, 2012

The Petraeus Affair has demonstrated yet again how a sex scandal story can be fed into the U.S. media to serve both as a “political assassination” and as the tree hiding the forest. Even though what lies behind the salacious smoke screen is still the object of speculation, most of those speculations are more credible than a simple extramarital affair.

One of the possible explanations of Petraeus’ departure is his stance on Israel which he saw as a liability to US interests in the Middle East:

The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR [Area of Operations]. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large-scale armed confrontations. The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas. (Ali Abunimah, When Former CIA Chief David Petraeus Enraged the Israel Lobby, Electronic Intifada, November 12, 2012.)

As Stephen Lendman observes, sex scandals don’t necessarily lead to resignations unless state secrets are at stake:

Continue reading “DefDog: Bimbo-Gate Covering Up CIA's Continuing Use of Proxy Terrorists, Regime Change, and Triad of Drugs, Arms, and Money-Laundering”