The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Extent of Corruption in Countries Around the World Tied to Earthquake Fatalities
ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2011) — A new assessment of global earthquake fatalities over the past three decades indicates that 83 percent of all deaths caused by the collapse of buildings during earthquakes occurred in countries considered to be unusually corrupt.
The 2010 Haiti earthquake is believed to have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, primarily due to shoddy building construction. (Credit: U.S. Air Force)
www.goodjobsfirst.org
Good Jobs First is a national policy resource center for grassroots groups and public officials, promoting corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families. We provide timely, accurate information on best practices in state and local job subsidies, and on the many ties between smart growth and good jobs. Good Jobs First works with a very broad spectrum of organizations, providing research, training, communications and consulting assistance.
Related:
+ Subsidyscope.org
+ GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES: Revealing the Hidden Budget (candybars to hybrid cars, wineries to refineries)
It's a good think Ike is dead… else he would realize his nightmare survived. Chuck
Newsday January 13, 2011 Pg. 34
The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex
Eisenhower warned against the influence of arms production, but did we listen?
By Bob Keeler
EXTRACT: Now, the deficit has caused some unexpected voices to say, ever so softly, that everything is on the table – including defense cuts. Last week, Gates talked about plans to slow the defense budget's growth by $78 billion over five years. That dainty nibble is a start, but we need big bites. A group called the Sustainable Defense Task Force has laid out ways to cut $1 trillion in 10 years. That's better.
Full story below the line…
And…
Obama Ignores Eisenhower at Country's, World's Peril (Melvin Goodman)
Military-Industrial Complex, Fifty Years On (Leslie Gelb, Council on Foreign Relations)
Continue reading “1961-2011: 50 Years of The Military-Industrial Complex”
The Institute’s mission is to provide innovative strategies, working models and timely information to support environmentally sound and equitable community development. To this end, ILSR works with citizens, activists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies and enterprises that meet local or regional needs; to maximize human, material, natural and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens.
Since 1974, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance has been working to enable communities with tools to increase economic effectiveness, reduce wastes, decrease environmental impacts and provide for local ownership of the infrastructure and resources essential for community well-being.
Related:
http://www.newrules.org
http://www.muninetworks.org
Dear friends,
Below are the final three relatively short articles I mentioned earlier this week in my “Rise and Role of Concentrated Wealth” post.
1. Twenty-two Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is
Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In
America – http://t.co/lNFYiK6
2. A Modest Proposal to Transition to a “Cater to the Rich”
Economy (satire) – http://bit.ly/f7En8D
3. The Surprising History of Federal Taxes on Wealthy
Americans – http://bit.ly/TopTaxHistory
Many people are aware of the growing gap between rich and poor, and the struggles of the American middle class. But few people realize the vast extent of this gap. The monumental wealth held by the top 20% — and even of the top 1% — of Americans beggars description. The existence of this vast resource side by side with the erosion and collapse of human and natural communities — and the increasing vulnerability of both the Earth and humanity's future — should give us pause. Real pause. Pause for reflection.
Continue reading “Philosophy: Eye of the Needle, the Rich, & Community”
China- US: CJCS Admiral Mullen said today that China's high-tech military capabilities, including the radar-evading stealth J-20 fighter, focus on America.
China has every right to develop military capabilities, Mullen said, adding that he cannot understand why many appear to target the United States despite North Korea's being an evolving threat to the region and to the United States. If Pyongyang obtains long-range nuclear missile capabilities, its provocations may become more catastrophic, Mullen stated, adding that China must pressure North Korean leadership to cease development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and expansion of nuclear weapons capability.
Comment: It is difficult to accept at face value that Admiral Mullen does not understand the Chinese obsession with the threat from the United States.
Taking the statement at face value – and not as an act of political manipulation – it implies that the J2 and J5 staffs have failed to brief him about the origins of Chinese national defense strategy since the death of Deng Xiao Ping. If the Chairman's statement is genuine and not posturing, it is astonishing.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: US C/JCS & China Arms Race”
Consider the extremes. President Obama is redesigning his administration to make it even friendlier toward big business and the megabanks, which is to say the rich, who flourish no matter what is going on with the economy in this country. (They flourish even when they’re hard at work destroying the economy.) Meanwhile, we hear not a word — not so much as a peep — about the poor, whose ranks are spreading like a wildfire in a drought.
The politicians and the media behave as if the poor don’t exist. But with jobs still absurdly scarce and the bottom falling out of the middle class, the poor are becoming an ever more significant and increasingly desperate segment of the population.
How do you imagine a family of four would live if its annual income was $11,000 or less?
Continue reading “Poor in the USA: 50 Million & Rising + RECAP”
