Berto Jongman: 38 Men Raped in US Military Each Day

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, DoD
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

38 Men Raped in U.S. Military Each Day

Sexual assault is alarmingly common in the U.S. military, and more than half of the victims are men. According to the Pentagon, thirty-eight military men are sexually assaulted every single day. These are the stories you never hear—because the culprits almost always go free, the survivors rarely speak, and no one in the military or Congress has done enough to stop it

While most of the fire from the public and Congress directed at the military addresses women who are sexually assaulted, more than half of victims are male. According to the Pentagon, 38 military men are sexually assaulted every single day, and because of the stigma, culprits nearly always go free because the survivors don’t want to speak. As one Veterans Affairs psychologist notes, “One of the myths is that the perpetrators identify as gay, which is by and large not the case. It's not about the sex. It's about power and control.”

Read full article.

Jean Lievens: Gerry Mooney on Open Scotland — Hybrid Grassroots Activism Empowered by Social Media

03 Economy, 11 Society, Crowd-Sourcing, Governance, Politics
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Social media and grassroots activism have taken Scotland to the brink of independence

Gerry Mooney

The Conversation, 8 September 2014

EXTRACTS

If you wanted an explanation for the momentum that has carried the Yes campaign to the brink of victory in the Scottish referendum, you have to look at what’s happening on the ground. The extent to which the independence referendum has engaged and mobilised people during the campaign is palpable.

. . . . . . .

Yet as tends to be forgotten, the pro-independence movement also includes The Scottish Green Party; The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; The Scottish Socialist Party; the socialist party Solidarity; Women For Independence; the artists and creatives group National Collective and the socialist Radical Independence Campaign. Yes Scotland is a loose amalgam and umbrella of different pro-independence groups and individuals. A significant number of front-line activists campaigning under the Yes Scotland banner represent ordinary people with no party political membership. Some have never been involved in political activism before.

. . . . . . .

The demarcation between professional politicians and this grassroots mobilisation of ordinary people appears to be blurred in this contemporary Scottish political landscape. It is evident that a hybrid movement has emerged within the campaign, which according to Tommy Sheridan “dwarfs the anti-poll tax campaign” that he led in the late 1980s.

. . . . . . .

The opportunity to build a new Scotland free from nuclear weapons, austerity and welfare cuts has widespread appeal. It is this concern with social justice and welfare that has galvanised support for Yes.

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Steven Aftergood: US Intelligence Budget Data — PBI: Understated but on the Record

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Steven Aftergood
Steven Aftergood

Intelligence Budget Data

On March 4, 2014, the Administration submitted its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, including a base funding request of $45.6 billion for the National Intelligence Program (NIP), and a base funding request of $13.3 billion for the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). On June 30, the DNI submitted an updated FY2015 budget request of $49.4 billion for the NIP including funding for overseas contingency operations. An updated budget request figure for the MIP has not yet been disclosed.

Phi Beta Iota: We consider these figures to be severely deceptive and roughly 70% of the actual combined total budget for green and black intelligence capabilities that are secret, toxic, and a mix of benignly worthless (standing armies of ignorant analysts, collection that is not processed) and pathologically dangerous (drones, renditions, covert operations, subsidies to foreign intelligence services). Our best guess of the actual total US secret intelligence budget remains US$100 billion per year, inclusive of thousands of private sector “intelligence” capabilities (many of them “open source” and extremely mediocre) that are embedded within acquisition and other contracts, all out of control and of dubious value.

IC Budget Table Cropped
Click on Table to Enlarge

Click to access Office of the Director of National Intelligence Budget Justifications

Berto Jongman: Pfaff on US Doing Stupid Stuff in Ukraine Plus Chuck Spinney & Pat Buchanan on Bluster, Bluff, Corruption and More Stupidity in Estonia…

02 Diplomacy, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Doing Stupid Stuff in the Ukraine

William Pfaff

EXTRACT

President Obama said not long ago that his foreign policy principle was “not doing stupid stuff.” At about the same time his State Department and CIA were conspicuously guiding and supporting a coup d'etat in Ukraine that was the exact contradiction to the Obama policy statement. The Ukrainian Parliament's first post-coup act was to pass a resolution outlawing the use of the Russian language in the Ukraine, which is the native language of more than a fifth of the population of a country that has always been intimately involved in the history, religion and culture of the Russian nation. Nothing could have been more stupid.

[Until Obama's next move…]

Read full post.

Chuck Spinney and Pat Buchanan below the fold.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Pfaff on US Doing Stupid Stuff in Ukraine Plus Chuck Spinney & Pat Buchanan on Bluster, Bluff, Corruption and More Stupidity in Estonia…”

Yoda: Scientists Use Gold Substrate to Synthesize Germanene

03 Economy, Earth Intelligence
Got Crowd? BE the Force!
Got Crowd? BE the Force!

Scientists Use Gold Substrate to Synthesize Germanene

Germanene is made of just one layer of germanium atoms. The researchers believe that the material has good electrical and optical properties and can be used in future electronics. The team also believes that the unique properties of the material could also lead to its use in quantum computing.

Wonder material graphene is considered to be an ideal candidate for use in next-generation of electronics. However, other researchers are looking at materials beyond graphene such as “Silicine”, which is made of silicon.

Read full article.

SchwartzReport: Workers are Poor — This Is Unsustainable

03 Economy, 11 Society
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

I have had a series of emails from readers over the past couple of weeks describing the growing poverty of themselves, and people they know. Mostly they seem to be middle aged not quite senior level businesspeople who were laid off, and have been unable to find work despite years of searching. As this Harvard study points out this is an unsustainable dynamic.

Widening Gap Between US Rich and Poor Is Unsustainable, Says Study
The Guardian (U.K.)

The widening gap between America’s wealthiest and its middle and lower classes is ‘unsustainable”, but is unlikely to improve any time soon, according to a Harvard Business School study released on Monday.

The study, titled An Economy Doing Half its Job, said American companies – particularly big ones – were showing some signs of recovering their competitive edge on the world stage since the financial crisis, but that workers would likely keep struggling to demand better pay and benefits.

 

 

Owl: Religion is Not to Blame for “Terrorism”

01 Poverty, 02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime
Who?  Who?
Who? Who?

Atheists have It Wrong on Religious Causes of Terrorism and Suicide Bombing

This article dispels all illusions based on the belief that terrorism done by Muslim extremists is to be blamed on their religion, a view much favored by well-known atheist critics of religion such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.

One of the implied back stories to this insightful article is that big-time atheist writers such as Harris and Christopher Hitchens (who is not mentioned), in blaming religion on terrorism perpetuated by Muslims and others, also happen to favor policies that perpetuate mass killing by larger western governments of large number of civilians in countries where Muslims live. That observation alone is worthy of an article all by itself.

Continue reading “Owl: Religion is Not to Blame for “Terrorism””

noble gold