The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Shades of RADM John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness, two press items follow on new Federal surveillance initiatives:
DARPA to start checking your email for threats
Tweeting the word ‘drill' could mean your Twitter account is read by U.S. government spies
Koko Sign: Koko sad.
INFORM's Secret Life series is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Every week, more people watch our short, lively films and learn how important making the RIGHT choices in their daily lives is to protecting our planet.
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Take plastic bags: here in New York City, we are offered them several times a day. We accept them without a thought, carry them home, throw them in the trash and forget about them. Then what happens?
Well, many of the 100,000,000 plastic bags used annually in the United States end up in places they shouldn't be — as this picture, taken in Brooklyn, illustrates.
Our next SLife video, The Secret Life of Plastic Bags, will give the scope of the problem and show viewers what they can do to be part of the solution.
In this giving time of year, we invite you to help us stop the damage inflicted by plastic bags by making a gift in support of the Secret Life series. Indeed, the heroes of these videos are its producers — our donors. All of our donors receive credit. A gift of $1,000 or greater is featured at the end of the video, and all other gifts are listed on our website.
We know that 267 species of marine life are threatened by the massive amount of plastic in our oceans. Together, let's leverage the power of media to help them. If they could thank you, they surely would.
Thanks from the INFORM team for your support, and best wishes for 2012!
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Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing
Greg Miller
Washington Post, 27 December 2011
In the space of three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six countries on two continents.
Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Obama, CIA, Murder by Drone…”
Europe: Updates. In an interview with a French daily on 25 December, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde stressed that Europe's financial crisis is turning into “a crisis of confidence in public debt and the solidity of the financial system.
Greece: According to an IMF source involved in discussions with Greece, the situation in Athens is “deteriorating” and “a further 10-15 billion euros ($13.1-19.6 billion) still needs to be found.” Banks may be asked to agree to write off 65 % instead of 50% of Greece's debt.
France: The French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) said on 26 December that there were 29,000 new job seekers “without any occupation” in November, up 1.1% over October. The year-on-year increase reached 5.2%. In total, 2,844,800 people did not have any occupation, the highest such figure since November 1999.
An economist at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions speculated that France's unemployment rate — which currently stands at 9.3% — will reach 10.7% by the end of 2012, and predicted that Paris will not succeed in bringing the deficit down to 3% of GDP by 2013.
Spain: At a news conference on 26 December, Spanish Economy Minister Luis De Guindos said that the Spanish economy had suffered a “relapse” and would record negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2011. De Guindos warned that “the next two months are not going to be easy, neither from a growth nor a jobs point of view.”
Comment: According to the Financial Times and multiple economists the fate of the euro depends on what happens in Italy. This week Italy intends to auction bonds worth Euros 20 billion. The market reaction to the auction will be an important indicator of whether the central bankers have found a way to stabilize the financial crisis, or have just made it worse.
All analysts of European economics predict a recession in 2012. They differ only about how severe it will be. In an integrated global economy, the ripple effects from Europe will drag the US and the Chinese economies, among all others.
Phi Beta Iota: Christine Lagarde, perhaps because she is a woman with a smaller ego and larger intuition than most men, appears to be the first Epoch A leader to “get” that we are all calling into question the very existence of the Western financial system that is rooted in fraud, waste, and abuse. When she begins to point to Iceland as an example, and to demand that Western countries arrest and try Goldman Sachs, Morgan, Citi-Bank, Bank of America, and other officials for high crimes against the public, the healing can begin. Until then, the West is avoiding the fundamentals.
See Also:
Mini-Me: Iceland Breaks the Back of Western Banking
Chuck Spinney: Financial Coups Destroying Europe
Butler Shaffer
Lou Rockwell.com, 28 December 2011
Whenever I watch the Republican presidential debates, my mind is drawn to that important children’s book, The Emperor’s New Clothes. The six sock-puppets who have thus far managed to survive the musical-chairs comedy ballet wow Mr. and Mrs. Boobus with their visions of a violent, intrusive, policed, and war-loving America that equals, if not exceeds, what Barack Obama has been able to generate. It was but four years ago that John McCain choreographed his campaign around the lyrics “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.” That so few people were repulsed by such psychopathic utterances is but one of many symptoms of a society in moral, spiritual, and intellectual collapse. The domestic police-state so passively accepted by most Americans – and insisted upon by the voices of the political establishment – reminds me of the comment made by the Prince of Wales in the 1934 film, The Scarlet Pimpernel: “if a country goes mad, it has the right to commit every horror within its own walls.”
The Moral Liberal, 28 December 2011
I become exasperated reading or listening to chuckleheaded people who are unable – or unwilling – to distinguish the peaceful and voluntary nature of a free market, from the violent and coercive character of the corporate-state system that long ago took over our economic lives. Murray Rothbard’s words come to mind, wherein he observed that it was no great wrong to not understand economics, but that one ignorant of the subject ought not be offering advice on such matters. I would no more go to a lawyer, or an orthodontist, or Lew Rockwell, to have brain surgery performed on me, than would I take seriously the prescriptions offered by economic ignoramuses on how to “grow” an economy (an idea as absurd as that of misguided, controlling parents who believe it is their role to “grow” their children).
Finally, interesting stuff is happening in the content domain.
See for instance, Digital Reasoning.
I'm often stunned by the lack of questions that adults are prepared to ask.
When you see kids go on a field trip, the questions pour out of them. Never ending, interesting, deep… even risky.
And then the resistance kicks in and we apparently lose the ability.
Is the weather the only thing you can think to ask about? A great question is one you can ask yourself, one that disturbs your status quo and scares you a little bit.
The A part is easy. We're good at answers. Q, not so much.
