Category: 11 Society

Posted on

Journal: Obama to Leave Democratic Party?

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

White House: Obama Conducting Reign of Terror

Posted on 06. Nov, 2010 by Raja Mujtaba in US

Suspected White House leakers are on the run

By Wayne Madsen

President Obama was urged by the few White House insiders from whom he still takes advice to leave the country on his ten-day Asian trip, his longest trip abroad since becoming president, in order to not inflict any more damage to the Democratic Party in the wake of one of the worst electoral defeats for the party of an incumbent president in recent history. According to sources close to the White House, who put themselves in great danger by even talking to members of the media, the plans to have Obama leave for a visit to India, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan are an attempt to get Obama out of the country while top Democrats can sort through the political disaster created for the party by Obama's increasingly detached-from-reality presidency.

Virtual political guerrilla warfare has broken out between Obama's inner circle on one hand and senior Democratic officials, including outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party strategist James Carville, former Demcratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, and, behind-the-scenes, Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton, on the other.

Phi Beta Iota: This is a remarkable “hit job” that will need much more corroboration.  We see two underlying stories that merit exploration.  First Story: Obama is scaring his own party.  It took a lot to piece together all the little bits that have been hyped together here.  Second Story: Obama is beginning to see that he can only win a second term as an Independent, without Biden and without Clinton II.  What we do know is that Obama's advisors to date have been a mix of pogomists, pollsters, and political groupies.  If he ever gets a grip on strategic reality and commits to restoring the Republic with Electoral Reform, he could still be the George Washington of the 21st Century.  On this article, at this time, we stand with Barack Obama and not his detractors.

Complete Madsen reprint below the line so our military colleagues do not have to visit the other site.

Continue reading “Journal: Obama to Leave Democratic Party?”

Posted on

Journal: Sacred Music from a Time of Peace Among Religions

11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process
Jon Lebkowsky Home

From Jerusalem to Cordoba

Here’s a press release for a performance I’m co-producing with Scoop Sweeney:

AUSTIN – Catherine Braslavsky and Joseph Rowe will bring their musical performance, “From Jerusalem to Cordoba,” from Paris to Austin on December 3, 7pm at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Bethell Hall, 301 E. 8th St., Austin, 78701-3280. The performance is a celebration of the musical and mystical traditions in and around the Mediterranean, from ancient Judaism and Paganism, to medieval Christianity and Islam. It features ancient and original music sung in Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Greek, Medieval Spanish, Occitan, and Arabic. Instrumental accompaniment includes Middle Eastern percussion, oud, dulcimer, Tibetan bowls, Indian tampura, and African mbira.

The performance is built on short poetic and narrative texts that include both original material and quotations from Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Ibn ‘Arabi, Yehuda Halevi, etc. The narrative thread woven through the performance evokes a rarely-perceived common ground, and an alternative view of sacred traditions which have so often been in conflict. Braslavsky and Rowe have presented this performance at venues throughout Europe.

The Italian newspaper La Republicca describes the performance as “fascinating… with great spiritual power.” Author Jacques Attali describes it as “A remarkably successful voyage in sound, depicting those rare times when Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived together in peace and dialogue.” Rev. Lauren Artress, Canon at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, calls it “uplifting and inspiring,” and notes that “Catherine and Joseph are truly gifted musicians. Allow them to enrich your life.” Jon Lebkowsky in Wired Magazine described the music as “…at once new, traditional, and transcendent. … chants and chant-like original compositions powerfully realized as invocations of the human essence — whether it be the soul, spirit, or consciousness — in its ascent.

Taking Place in Austin, more details…..

Phi Beta Iota: This makes the cut for three reasons.  First, Jon is selective about what he sends out.  Second, holistic analysis and understanding must of necessity include music and art–the Western tradition has destroyed the role of the humanities and in so doing, committed sacrilige with science.  Finally, faith is also a part of conscious evolution, and absent its full integration into any intellectual traditional, you end up with fundamentalist idiots doing grave damage within and among communities.  Religion is at its most gifted when it is a vibrant part of the cultural tradition and used to transfer the lessons of civilization from one generation to the next–starting with the Golden Rule.

See Also:

Graphic: Information Operations (IO) Cube

Review: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Review: Mapping the Moral Domain: A Contribution of Women’s Thinking to Psychological Theory and Education

Review: Consilience–the Unity of Knowledge

Review: Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution

Review: Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution

Review: Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution

Review: Philosophy and the Social Problem–The Annotated Edition

Posted on

Reference: How Voters Can UNRIG the Two-Party Shell Game

11 Society, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Mobile, Open Government, Real Time, Reform, Strategy
Nancy Bordier

How Voters Can Unrig the 2012 Elections with Transpartisan Voting Blocs and Electoral Coalitions

Voters did not get what they said they wanted from the 2010 elections. In fact, they got the opposite because the two major parties rigged the elections.

The parties have been rigging elections for decades by gerrymandering election districts and passing campaign financing and election laws that prevent third party candidates from beating major party candidates.

These rigged elections give voters no choice but to vote for one of the two major parties. So voters do the only thing they can do, which is to routinely kick out the major party incumbents in the futile hope that the new major party candidates they elect will not flout their will to the same degree. But regardless of which party candidates they vote for, they get roughly the same policies. These typically sacrifice voters' interests to the special interests that fund lawmakers' electoral campaigns.

Unless voters are empowered to put an end to rigged elections before the 2012 elections, using mechanisms like the one proposed below, the middle class and working Americans will be ruined financially by the lawmakers and special interests that are enabling the business and financial sector to take more than their fair share of national income.

Continue reading “Reference: How Voters Can UNRIG the Two-Party Shell Game”

Posted on

Journal: Newspaper Extinction Timeline

04 Education, 11 Society, Augmented Reality, Collective Intelligence, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Tools
DefDog Recommends...

« Keynote on the Future of Global Media in New York | Main | The role of BRIC in the future of global media »

Launch of Newspaper Extinction Timeline for every country in the world.
Ross Dawson, October 31, 2010 10:47 PM US PT

Back in August I predicted that newspapers in their current form will be irrelevant in Australia in 2022. That received significant international attention including from The Australian, The Guardian, Editor & Publisher (which called me the ‘Wizard of Aussie') and many others.

Part of the point I wanted to make was that this date is different for every country. As such I have created a Newspaper Extinction Timeline that maps out the wide diversity in how quickly we can expect newspapers to remain significant around the world. First out is USA in 2017, followed by UK and Iceland in 2019 and Canada and Norway in 2020. In many countries newspapers will survive the year 2040.

The Australian has again covered this in a story title Deadline for newspapers as digital publications rise. There may be some more coverage in coming days.

Two Graphics and More

Phi Beta Iota: Certainly worth reflecting on, this misses two big realities.  First, newspapers could still convert themselves into honest citizen intelligence networks and focus on sense-making.  Second, five billion poor people are not yet digital and while the dumb cell phone has a bright future, the smart phones and pads do not, in part because of raw earth shortfalls, in part because of embedded toxicity of materials, and in part because even with call centers, there is a very big space that “smart analog” newspapers could fill.  The latter is particularly true if one factors in the fact that five billion poor people need alternatives to rote education including primers that can be passed around and do not need power sources.

Posted on

Reference: Cultures of Resistance–A Look at Global Militarization

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Movies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Fri, Oct 22, 2010 4:32pm EST

In 2009, the United States government spent some $650 billion on its military. This is more than the next 46 highest-spending countries combined. Much of this treasure ended up in the hands of profit-driven weapons manufacturers. In the following short film, Cultures of Resistance takes a brief look at the current state of what President Eisenhower famously called the “military industrial complex.” With the U.S. waging two wars overseas at the same time that millions of people are out of work at home, those pushing to reel in government spending and balance the budget would be wise to look carefully at bloated and unchecked military spending.

Watch 4 Minute Video

See Also:

Graphic: Medard Gabel’s Cost of Peace versus War

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Corruption

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Dereliction of Duty (Defense)

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Empire as Cancer Including Betrayal & Deceit

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Institutionalized Ineptitude

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Lack Of)

Posted on

Journal: Obama’s Choice

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policy, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, True Cost, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

New options from the nomenklatura listed below is a silly oxymoron.

Chuck

Pentagon Openings Give Obama New Options

By THOM SHANKER

7 November

WASHINGTON — With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon’s leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.

It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama’s first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.

That is all the more reason that Mr. Obama’s choices are certain to face scrutiny in a narrowly divided Senate, whose Republican leadership has declared itself intent on defeating him.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said he plans to retire next year, while the terms of four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are scheduled to end: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief; and Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations.

Read rest of this seriously deficient article….

Phi Beta Iota: The current and prospective leaders being discussed and considered are all inter-changeable.  They share the same paradigmatic views, the same commitment to the military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC), and therefore, to suggest that changing out the guard is in any way an option, is to demonstrate profound naivete or a gift for deception.  President Obama is truly at a historic fork in the road: he can go on with business as usual, bailing out Wall Street and carrying on with a global military cmapaign that is both ineffective and unaffordable–or he can reach deep down and come up with one startling insight and two serious options.

Startling insight:  integrity matters.  Doing the right thing is more important than continuing to do the wrong thing righter.

Option A:  Make Electoral Reform (1 Page, 9 Points) the issue.  That will burn down the two-party tyranny and restore the Republic WHILE EARNING HIM A SECOND TERM.

Option B:  Hold an Open Space Technology event on the future of the USA in all its forms, in the Washington Convention Center, a no-notice open public event, with Harrison Owen as the facilitator.

Sadly, we are quite certain neither the startling insight nor either of the two options will be considered.  The Titanic is sinking and the President is being asked to re-arrange the name cards…..thus does the Republic flail in the tar pit of history.

We predict, with a depth of despair, that Obama will choose to go along and eventually be as wealthy as Bill Bradley and Al Gore.  He is one phone call away from greatness, and won't do it.  He lives, we die.

See Also:

Reference: Michael Vlahos on Imperial Court

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

noble gold