Category: 11 Society

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Reference: Open Society on Afghan Views

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, IO Sense-Making, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, White Papers
Chuck Spinney Recommends

The below report by the Open Society Foundations (a Soros project) is extremely important and should get the widest distribution.  It documents the cumulative blowback caused by our narcissistic ideas about how to win the hearts and minds of the Afghans.  It does this by systematically examining the views of a wide variety of Afghans in an effort to construct an Afghan narrative of how the intervention is affecting their lives. That this narrative is often at variance with our views (which makes it easy to dismiss by western military leaders), the report shows why this is really quite beside the point.  Of particular interest (at least to me) is the Afghan narrative of the psychological effects of collateral damage cause by our all-seeing, all-knowing precision strike systems. It is a classic on how the ongoing self-referencing BS about the performance of these weapons is blowing back on itself to magnify the atmosphere of mistrust and alienation that is playing directly into the success of the insurgent's guerrilla strategy.

Of course, this report might be easily dismissed by those patriotic Amurikans, drunk on High Tea, as the subversive product of the lefty Hungarian-emigre George Soros, who is, after all, just another ‘other.'

Downloadable PDF

Phi Beta Iota: A properly managed intelligence campaign would have anticipated and then closely monitored this kind of situational awareness.  It is called “Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield.”  Neither CIA nor DIA know how to do this.

See Also:

Reference: Fixing Intel–A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan

Review: Operation Dark Heart–Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan — and the Path to Victory

Review: Surrender to Kindness (One Man’s Epic Journey for Love and Peace)

2010 INTELLIGENCE FOR EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability

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Event: 30 Oct Restoring Sanity Rally with Jon Stewart, Keep Fear Alive Rally with Stephen Colbert

11 Society, Civil Society, Reform, Worth A Look

UPDATE:  7 Oct 10 Rally Point Identified for 30 Oct Sanity Rally

Sanity Rally (Inside the Red Dotted Lines)
Jon Stewart Full Story Online

Jon Stewart Plans ‘Restoring Sanity' Rally to Counter Glenn Beck Event–October 30

“We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat, who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard, and who believe that the only time it's appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on some is when that person is actually Hitler,” Stewart says on his Daily Show website.

The date, Oct. 30, “has no significance whatsoever,” Stewart says gleefully. “Ours is a rally for the people who've been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs) — not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence . . . we couldn't. That's sort of the point.”

. . . . . . .

And lest anyone think it's just about answering Tea Party conservatives and the Beck-a-palooza last Aug. 28, Comedy Central's other wild and crazy news satirist, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report, says he'll hold a competing rally the same day, called “The March to Keep Fear Alive” to combat “creeping reasonableness.” Stewart's people “want to replace our fear with reason,” Colbert wrote. “But never forget ‘reason,' is just one letter away form ‘treason.'”

Short Review

Phi Beta Iota: These two individuals are making a huge contribution.   The is no underestimating the common sense of the American people BUT they have to be engaged, their voices heard, and integrity maintained in the three branches of government.

See Also:

DuckDuckGo Results for Coffee Party
DuckDuckGo Results for Restoring Sanity
Review: A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Review: Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World
Review: Getting a Grip–Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad
Review: Spoiling for a Fight–Third-Party Politics in America
Review: State of the Unions–How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence
Review: Glenn Beck’s Common Sense–The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine

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Journal: 10% Foreclosures, 1-2% Mortgage Default

06 Family, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Foreclosures in Las Vegas

The Huffington Post is doing a very fine job of raising key issues, but in isolation and out of context.  Here is one story they have brought forward.  As Cleveland found out when they had to raze to the ground 11,000 abandoned units, foreclosures come with very heavy social and financial costs.  It is not to late to stop all foreclosures and evictions as we recommended in October 2008, to no effect.  America is going through a multi-dimensional crisis without any leadership whatsoever.  One way to understand the crisis is to study the Revolution Matrix and the Negative Book List.  The Positive Book List requires some semblance of leadership and legitimacy, at this time not to be found in America, outside of the Virtual Cabinet at The Huffington Post, which does not really exist–it could, but it does not.

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Journal: The Fix (for the Banks) Is (Delayed)

03 Economy, 11 Society, Corruption

Original Post Online

UPDATE 7 Oct 10 3 pm
 Obama Will Not Sign Bill Seen As Cover For Bank Foreclosures

Little-Noticed Bill Could Make It Harder To Challenge Foreclosures

Challenging foreclosures could become more difficult for homeowners if the president signs a bill that passed through the Senate last week. The little-noticed bill comes at a time when the validity of foreclosure proceedings across the nation have been called into question.

The House passed the bill in April, and its brisk journey through the Senate has drawn scant attention, Reuters reports. If signed into law, it would require courts to accept certain documents that have been notarized out of state, streamlining foreclosure proceedings and stripping homeowners of one legal method of challenging a foreclosure. The legislation would come just as a foreclosure validity crisis is mounting: GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have admitted to not properly reviewing some of their foreclosure documents.

The foreclosure controversies that have emerged in recent weeks throw doubts on the larger foreclosure system. A non-bank entity, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, has been initiating foreclosures, the Washington Post reports, exercising an authority that judges have ruled it does not have. In response to the mounting scandal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called on Tuesday for an investigation into foreclosure fraud. “This is a very big deal,” she told HuffPost.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner told Reuters the timing of the bill's passage was “suspicious,” implying that mortgage companies might have engaged in behind-the-scenes lobbying.

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Journal: MoveOn, Neighborhoods, & Democracy

11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Open Government

Foglio's Field Notes

Leif Utne's random rants, musings and meditations

Why MoveOn Should Introduce Me to My Neighbors

with 4 comments

Recently, my dad proposed in his back-page column in the May/June Utne Reader, titled “An Open Letter to MoveOn,” that the nation’s premier progressive organization should go beyond issue-driven campaigns and “lead a community organizing movement across America.” (Yes, in case you’re wondering, my dad founded Utne Reader, and I worked there as a writer and editor for eight years.)

I couldn’t agree more. I especially like his suggestion that MoveOn stage a series of large revival-style cultural events designed to introduce members to each other:

MoveOn could kick off the movement by hosting stadium-sized events, harking back to 19th-century chautauquas and tent shows. Attendees would sit together according to particular affinities: parents of young children, schoolteachers, health care workers, clergy, small-business owners, elders. Like-minded participants could share their ideas about particular issues, like clean, green energy and single-payer health care. Or, if seating were assigned based on zip code and postal route, people would meet their neighbors in a positively charged environment.

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Phi Beta Iota: We are hugely impressed by the combined convergence and emergence we see all around us.  The Internet is moving into phase 3, where it optimizes human collaboration including face to face encounters.  We will begin to follow Leif Utne.

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Journal: Third Parties “Crashing” Debates with IT

11 Society, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process
Home Page

John Mertens to Use Multimedia Technology to Debate Candidates Despite Exclusion from the Official Debate, October 4th.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Despite earning a ballot line in the 2010 U.S. Senate Race in Connecticut, Dr. John Mertens is not invited to participate in the first post-primary U.S. Senate debate, in New Haven, Conn., Monday, October 04, 2010 from 6:30 – 9:00 p.m., but Mertens has found a way around this roadblock.

Using multimedia technologies to show the televised debate and candidates Blumenthal and McMahon’s answers (live), Mertens and his team will pause to allow candidate Mertens to answer each question before resuming the televised broadcast, giving equal voice to all three candidates. Olwen Logan, publisher of three online local news publications, writer and PR consultant, will be moderating the event.

“John Mertens’ broadcast is a brilliantly creative way of using technology to push back against the duopoly which continues to exclude him and other alternative voices from being heard,” said Christina Tobin, founder and chair of The Free and Equal Elections Foundation. “Voters everywhere deserve to hear from all candidates for public office so they can make educated decisions at the polls.”

“We’re inviting the audience to be citizen journalists during the debate through twitter, and to stay after to connect and discuss issues,” Mertens said.

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