The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System
by Prof. Peter Dale Scott
Centre for Research on Globalization, 29 April 2011
EXTRACT:
As Ellen Brown has pointed out, first Iraq and then Libya decided to challenge the petrodollar system and stop selling all their oil for dollars, shortly before each country was attacked.
Continue reading “Looting Libya: Insider View of Reasons for War….”
‘Cuba's classification as a repressive government lacks credibility'
Roy King: Opening up Cuba is about opening up information
New US rules promise legal Cuba travel for many
Cuba Tourism works like a Well-Oiled Machine
Cuban University System: a Model for Latin America
New entrepreneurs on the rise in socialist Cuba
Revolutionary Cuba Now Lays Sand Traps for the Bourgeoisie
Cuba to Host Int’l Colloquium on Hemingway’s Life and Work
Cuba will host the 13th International Colloquium on the life and work of U.S. writer, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) from June 16 to 19, with the attendance of nearly 20 experts on his life from several countries.
Of the Nationalities Cuba is Made up, the African Root Emerges Strong
Cuba Has World’s Highest Number of Centenarians per capita
Cuban Province Launches Multimedia on Sustainable Agriculture
There are just two sustainable agriculture models in the world: Cuba and the Amish in the USA.
The Smart-Talk Trap in the Era of Social Media (and What to Do About It)
26 May 2011
I just came across an excellent piece in the Harvard Business Review thanks to my colleague Larry Pixa. Published in 1999 by Stanford professors Pfeffer and Sutton, “The Smart-Talk Trap” (PDF) is even more pertinent in today’s new media world where user-generated content is ubiquitous. The key to success is action but the authors warn that we are increasingly “rewarded for talking—and the longer, louder, and more confusingly, the better.” This dynamic, which substitutes talk for action, is responsible for what Pfeffer and Sutton call the knowing-doing gap. The purpose of this blog post is to assess this gap in the context of social media and to offer potential solutions.
Read full post including specifics on how to avoid the trap….
Phi Beta Iota: We would merely observe that this problem is characteristic of virtually every US Government element, and every major corporation including the so-called innovators like Facebook which could actually fold sometime soon as alternatives come out of the BRICS. What Brother Patrick does not address is the reality that in both government and in corporations, the rotation and retirement of people often destroys all accountability for their failure while in any specific office. The stovepiping of everything makes it even more difficult to address “true cost” information, or to measure effectiveness in context. We do not lack for money in this world, we lack for applied intelligence and the integrity to connect truth to product.
Stephen E. Arnold and ArnoldIT have consistently been a decade or more ahead of the curve. IntelTrax is one of his new offerings and is highly recommended. Information about advanced intelligence systems is the focus.
A few current items: Data Analytics by Academics .. Big Data vs. Big Legislation .. Low Cost Analytic Help Becoming Big Business .. Analytic Surveillance Proves Unsettling .. Microsoft and Others Ramp UP BI Activity ..
Just got fired from Wells Fargo. RE: the following email
So…here's what I wrote. It's missing a handy chart where it depicts the average Wells employee's hourly salary vs. the CEO's salary, but you get the gist.
Full disclosure, I had been working here for a few months and this was to be my last week. I wouldn't recommend anyone else do this, but I gotta admit, it felt damn good and maybe someone will step up and do something about it.
Good Morning All,
Last week a friend of mine was fired for sending an inappropriate email to pretty much the whole building. Despite the fact that it was harmless, accidental, and largely ignored message, she will now join the ranks of the unemployed. If she is your average unemployed Oregonian she will remain unemployed for at least 18 months and when/if she gets rehired somewhere it will be for less money than she was making here.
Now my friend was definitely in the wrong, and I’m not writing this email to argue her situation. However, in an attempt to hold our company to a similar standard consider the following:
We work for one of the largest financial institutions in the world, we are essential to its operations, yet economic security is completely at the mercy of its senior executives. They are squeezing our salaries, reducing our benefits, and lobbying our politicians to make it harder for us to improve our financial positions despite our contributions to Wells Fargo’s successes. It means more profits for them, but less choice, less freedom and more importantly, less money for us.
In 2010, our CEO, John G. Stumpf received $18,973,722 in total compensation. By comparison, the median worker made $33,190 in 2010. John G. Stumpf made 571 times the median worker's pay.
Tip of the Hat to George Donnelly at Facebook.
See Also:
Wells Fargo Standard Poverty Salaries
Phi Beta Iota: We note with interest that this executive is only 220th on the Forbes executive pay rankings. We hold the corporations blameless in one sense: they get to do this because the US Government has lost its integrity and has not been in the business of the public for decades, Grover Cleveland may have been the last truly honest holistic President. What that says about the American public is for reflection. At the same time, we point to William Greider's book Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country in which he discusses the documentations on how the financial industry (Mr. Stumpf's industry) inflated by 17 times base value while the “real” asset-based economy inflated by five times. This means that Mr. Stumpf and his colleagues cheated the US and global customers by 12 times….and for this, the government bails them out and nobody goes to jail. See also Matt Taibbi's Griftopia–Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America.
All personality….no substance?
Personalities over structure in the intelligence community?
Walter Pincus, 23 May 2011
Washington Post
Phi Beta Iota: There is a contest of personalities going on, in which Army officers and camp followers without integrity (Alexander, Burgess, Long) are winning out over Navy officers with integrity (McConnell, Blair, Mullen). The militarization of intelligence is Clapper's pathetically counter-productive technocratic dive over the cliff. What Obama has done is demonstrate that he is incapable of selecting subordinates who can deliver substance. He prefers unethical sychophants. His Administration lacks intelligence.
