11 Society – Page 135 – Public Intelligence Blog

Data Broker Offered Sensitive Lists for Sale

Now this is downright creepy. The Wall Street Journal’s tech site Digits notifies us that “Data Broker Removes Rape-Victims List After Journal Inquiry.” As the headline states, the list has now been removed, but yikes! Medbase200 offered this tragic roster for sale, along with ones listing victims of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS patients, and “peer pressure sufferers”, until an inquiry from the Wall Street Journal prompted them to remove them all. This looks like a very large hole in our HIPPA protections.

Writer Elizabeth Dwoskin reports:

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: Been Raped? There's a List for Sale with Your Name On It…”

2014/01/092014/01/09

4th Media: Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions

03 Economy, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions

The political establishment and the media have relentlessly promoted the myth that the crisis in Detroit and in cities across the US is a product of overgenerous spending on social services and benefits, with public employee pension liabilities cited as the main culprit.

In reality, the driving force behind the Detroit bankruptcy has been a predatory interest rate swap foisted on the city by Wall Street bankers, which was signed by former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2005.

Continue reading “4th Media: Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions”

2014/01/012014/01/01

Marcus Aurelius: George Friedman on the Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

The Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power

Geopolitical Weekly

Stratfor

Editor's Note: The following Geopolitical Weekly originally ran in January 2013.

By George Friedman

When I wrote about the crisis of unemployment in Europe, I received a great deal of feedback. Europeans agreed that this is the core problem while Americans argued that the United States has the same problem, asserting that U.S. unemployment is twice as high as the government's official unemployment rate. My counterargument is that unemployment in the United States is not a problem in the same sense that it is in Europe because it does not pose a geopolitical threat. The United States does not face political disintegration from unemployment, whatever the number is. Europe might.

At the same time, I would agree that the United States faces a potentially significant but longer-term geopolitical problem deriving from economic trends. The threat to the United States is the persistent decline in the middle class' standard of living, a problem that is reshaping the social order that has been in place since World War II and that, if it continues, poses a threat to American power.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: George Friedman on the Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power”

2013/12/30

Jon Rappoport: Healthy School Food Ends Health & Behavioral Issues

01 Agriculture, 04 Education, 07 Health, 10 Security, 11 Society

A Miracle in Wisonsin

I published this article in October of 2002. At the time, it was the most widely read piece I'd written and posted on my site. Its basics still hold up.

What I didn't mention at the time was the corrosive role school-food distributors and their allies on boards of education play in the health of children.

These are the people who operate a corrupt system and mandate the feeding of toxic and nutritionally empty junk to students across the country.

One school took another path:

Continue reading “Jon Rappoport: Healthy School Food Ends Health & Behavioral Issues”

2013/12/272013/12/27

Marcus Aurelius: Foreign Policy Think Again Piece on Drugs and Drug Routes

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society

I don't work in the intelligence community but, IMHO, the most important issue here is logistics. Also IMHO, the fight among the drug cartels is a fight for control of the smuggling routes. Further IMHO, the long-established nexus between DTOs and terrorists suggests that it would be naive to believe that terrorists or VEOs [Violent Extremist Organizations, a more politically correct term] are not already exploiting the drug smuggling routes to move human, physical, and fiscal assets into the United States.

Think Again: Mexican Drug Cartels

They aren't just about Mexico or drugs anymore.

01 “Drugs Aren't a Foreign Policy Problem.”
02 “The Cartels Are Focused on Drugs.”
03 “But the Violence Is Unique to the Drug Trade.”
04 “At Least the Violence Is Contained to Mexico.”
05 “The Problem Is the War on Drugs. Legalization Would Help.”
06 “Decapitating the Cartels Will Render Them Powerless.”
07 “We Need to Hit Them Where It Hurts: the Wallet.”

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: A very strong piece. THINK AGAIN is a feature of the revitalized Foreign Policy offering, in which a number of conventional wisdom premises are brought together and critically challenged.

2013/12/242013/12/24

Eagle: NYC Discovers Half Its Workers Near Poverty

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 11 Society

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

De Blasio Hires Goldman Sachs Exec To Make City More Affordable

For all his campaign bluster against the two cities New York has become, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio isn't exactly shying away from some of the people who helped make it that way. This morning, the mayor-elect announced that Alicia Glen will serve as Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, a newly created position that will aim to make housing more affordable, as well create living-wage jobs for New Yorkers.

Continue reading “Eagle: NYC Discovers Half Its Workers Near Poverty”

2013/12/22

Mini-Me: USG Yard Sale in Afghanistan — Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Down the Drain

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military

Huh?

The US Is Hosting A Giant Military Yard Sale In Afghanistan

It is a January sale with a difference. The American military is auctioning off millions of pounds of tankers, accommodation blocks, tents, generators and other “white goods” in Afghanistan ahead of next year’s deadline for the end of combat operations.

In a tender document published on Friday, buyers are invited to offer a percentage of the equipment’s original value by January 10 when sealed bids will be opened.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: USG Yard Sale in Afghanistan — Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Down the Drain”

Category: 11 Society

Stephen E. Arnold: Been Raped? There’s a List for Sale with Your Name On It…