Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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Marcus Aurelius: Toxic Army Leadership Casts Long Shadow – Not Just Generals but Field Grade Also

Corruption, Ethics, Military
Marcus Aurelius

While many of you criticize WaPo, believe this is a real and growing problem within Army.  I have read both Ward and O'Reilly DoDIG reports — shocking.  IMHO, if 5 percent of what's in those reports is 10 percent true, those two generals should be going to Disciplinary Barracks at Leavenworth.  Yet both cases have been at route step for months.  O'Reilly is a West Pointer, Ward is not.  At least in Sinclair case, a court martial process is gearing up.  Even worse, we have field grade officers throughout Army mimicking this kind of behavior, particularly the O'Reilly variant.  Toxic leadership gets a great deal of lip service but almost zero action in Army. Center for Army Leadership and Association of the United States Army have both written on topic, but nothing seems to happen.  For those of you familiar with Anton Myrer's classic historical novel on military leadership, “Once an Eagle,” Courtney Massengales seem to be proliferating in Army.  At least that's what I'm perceiving.

Washington Post, October 28, 2012, Pg. 3

Accusations Against Generals Cast A Long Shadow Over Army

Leadership screening is scrutinized; Complaints about senior officers are growing

By Ernesto Londono

The accusations leveled against three Army generals over the past six months are as varied as they are striking, the highest-profile of a growing number of allegations of wrongdoing by senior military officials.

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Rickard Falkvinge: Wendy Cockcroft on The Next Big Battles – Secret Trade Agreements Bad for People

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, IO Impotency
Rickard Falkvinge

The Next Big Battles

Posted: 27 Oct 2012 11:26 AM PDT

Activism – Wendy Cockcroft:  Since ACTA was decisively beaten on 4th July 2012, the first time a free trade agreement had been scuppered by the people of EU member nations, the big business lobbyists have taken heed and resolved to change in order to be more successful. Hence the secrecy. CETA and the EU-India trade agreement are the next big battles. We need your help.

The term “Free Trade Agreement” is a misnomer. The idea is to remove barriers, taxes, and tariffs, but since people can end up being shackled to a multinational corporation’s agenda, the only freedom is in the ability of the corporations to operate in ways that often end up utterly destroying local economies or harnessing law enforcement agencies to protect their interests. The worst part is that we the taxpayers have to foot the bill for our losses of national sovereignty and civil rights. We saw ACTA off in July, but there are two more major agreements to deal with and we need to be ready to contact our M.E.P.s when the time comes.

Continue reading “Rickard Falkvinge: Wendy Cockcroft on The Next Big Battles – Secret Trade Agreements Bad for People”

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Who’s Who in Public Intelligence: Rickard Falkvinge

Alpha E-H, Public Intelligence
Rickard Falkvinge

Rickard ”Rick” Falkvinge (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈfalkˌvɪŋɛ]), born Dick Augustsson on 21 January 1972 in Gothenburg, is a Swedish IT entrepreneur known as the founder and first party leader of the Swedish Pirate Party.[1] He is currently a political evangelist with the party, spreading the ideas across the world.[2] He resides in |Sollentuna north of Stockholm.

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Marcus Aurelius: Secretary Harold Brown on Cutting Service Secretaries

Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, Military
Marcus Aurelius

Dr. Brown paints Service Secretaries, in the terms my father would have used, as “spare gear.”)

A Better Place To Cut

To protect military programs, get rid of redundant service secretaries

By Harold Brown

Washington Post, October 19, 2012, Pg. 21

The four military services in the Defense Department differ in their roles, missions and skills — which are good reasons to retain their separate identities. But as the duties of the uniformed service chiefs have converged with those of the civilian secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the latter have become redundant appendages. Eliminating those positions would save money and streamline management, a good example for the rest of government. In today’s climate of fiscal austerity, cutting overhead is better than cutting defense programs.

Read full article.

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Eagle: What SitComs Say About American Voters

Cultural Intelligence
300 Million Talons…

What sitcoms say about American voters

By Tim Stanley University of Oxford

BBC News, 26 October 2012

If all you saw of America was what you see on the news, you'd think it was an incredibly angry and divided country. The presidential election offers a stark choice between two different philosophies of government, and the polls suggest that the country is torn down the middle over which one is correct.

But there's also plenty to be learned from America's comedy output. Written to attract as many people as possible, US sitcoms don't just succeed by being funny but also by being real. As a result, they do a good job of capturing the true complexity of people's opinions.

On cultural issues, for example, they show that much has changed in the last 10 years. But some traditions and values remain that are as American as apple pie.

. . . . . . . . .

After the “credit crunch”, the equivalent of an entire generation's wealth was lost. The sitcoms have touched upon the new anxieties. ABC's The Middle features a middle-aged couple raising three kids in middle-America, on a middle-income.

In one episode, the husband loses his job and the family have to downgrade their lifestyle. They go shopping in a budget supermarket that advertises, “Slightly Off Veal” and “Ronald Reagan Inaugural Jellybeans”.

When one of the kids asks if this means the family is now officially poor, the mum says, “No … we're just trying something new called living within our means.” Horrified, the teenaged boy replies, “You mean we've been living outside our means?! Oh, God…”

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