The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Here are the concise references focused on revolution. For corruption, collective intelligence, open space and other methods of non-violent consensus building and emergence, see the lists at the end of this post.
Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today
Search: four preconditions for revolution
Search: revolution theory preconditions
Here is the bottom line:
Continue reading “Search: violent comprehensive revolutions are of”
Iceland Rejects Deposit Repayments to British, Dutch
Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2011
For the second time, Icelanders voted down a deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands billions of euros lost in the island nation's 2008 financial collapse—at once a bold popular rejection of the notion that taxpayers must bear the burden for bankers' woes and a risky outcome that will complicate Iceland's efforts to rejoin global markets.
Continue reading “Iceland Gets It Right: Say NO to Bank Bail-Outs”
The last time the price of oil topped $100 a barrel for an extended period, we ended up in a global financial meltdown. Is this time any different?
Not much.
All of the excessively financial leverage and fraudelent derivative wealth we had during the last melt down is still in place. Total debt to GDP levels in the US are about the same (370% of GDP or so). No reforms were made on Wall Street. Nobody at fault for the fraud that led to the last melt down went to jail, so behaviors haven't changed.
We're worse off than before. Read rest of article…
This is classic Tainter (the excellent anthropoligist/historian). He posited that complex societies only collapse when the costs of basic inputs increase at the same time the returns on investments in complex institutions/etc. turn negative. So, with oil going up again, we are seeing basic input costs rise. It's also clear that our twin overheads Government and Global Finance are well past the point they delivered positive returns for additional complexity. Worse, they are colluding, via cronyism, to prevent any meaningful changes.
Review: The Collapse of Complex Societies
Below are two opinion pieces.
The first is “A revolution against neoliberalism” by Abu Atris, it appeared in Al Jazeera on 24 Feb. The second is “Of the 1%, by the 1%, and for the 1%” by Joseph Stiglitz. One is about the Arab Revolt in Egypt and the other is about income inequality in the United States … they raise stunningly similar — and very disturbing — themes when compared to each other. I urge readers to read each carefully and think about the likenesses and differences between them.
EXHIBIT A
A revolution against neoliberalism?
If rebellion results in a retrenchment of neoliberalism, millions will feel cheated.
‘Abu Atris,’ Aljazeera, 24 February 2011
EXHIBIT B
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
By Joseph E. Stiglitz, Vanity Fair, May 2011
The author of this long but very useful historical analysis on the history of Libya is also the author of Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq, one of the very best books I have ever read on the subject of guerrilla warfare.
Whence Libya? Why Libya? Whither Libya?
William R. Polk, March 31, 2011
Since the Libyan regime was established by a coup d’état in 1969, Americans and Europeans — with a three-year intermission from 1986 to 1988 — found it acceptable enough to recognize it, sell it arms and buy its petroleum. In that one interval, on April 15, 1986, the American government under President Ronald Reagan attempted to kill Colonel Muammar Qaddafi by bombing his residence and did wound his wife and kill about 75 Libyans including his adopted daughter. Two years later, Qaddafi retaliated by bombing an American airliner. That attack killed 270 people including 190 Americans among whom were at least four intelligence officers. These were just the major events; there were many others. Of course, Americans and Libyans took very different views of them. But both sides eventually smoothed over their angers, and relations again became profitable and “correct” on both sides, as they remained until early this year.
So, what is the basis of those attitudes and the causes of those actions? Who are the Libyans anyway? And what is the position of Qaddafi among them? What motivates the Libyans? What governs their action? And what is likely to be the outcome of the revolt, the regime’s resistance to it and the Western intervention?
With the prejudice of a historian, I find that seeking answers to these questions requires at least a glance at the past. That is the aim of this essay.
There's no business like war business
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times, 29 March 2011
To follow Pepe's articles on the Great Arab Revolt, please clickhere.
Lies, hypocrisy and hidden agendas. This is what United States President Barack Obama did not dwell on when explaining his Libya doctrine to America and the world. The mind boggles with so many black holes engulfing this splendid little war that is not a war (a “time-limited, scope-limited military action”, as per the White House) – compounded with the inability of progressive thinking to condemn, at the same time, the ruthlessness of the Muammar Gaddafi regime and the Anglo-French-American “humanitarian” bombing.
Phi Beta Iota: A good review. See especially the conclusion on water beneath Libya as a factor. See also the author's various articles on “The Great Arab Revolt.”
Heads up on the article about George Soros remaking the world's economic system. Here is an overview from Intelligence Online…as well as the document found under Guinea…..
A look behind presidential doors
GUINEA: Rio Tinto’s friends talk Conde around
GUINEA: How Soros is backing new leader
IVORY COAST: Sponsors give generously
NIGERIA: Soros to the Rescue?
CONGO-K: Soros Targets Katanga Operators
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Conflict of Interest for Soros?
AFRICA/UNITED STATES: Soros Ups Investment
SOUTH AFRICA: Soros initiative in South Africa
More information on each below the line….
