Policies – Page 783 – Public Intelligence Blog

Click on the logo for the index of campaigns, the latest of which is against Kraft Foods for dumping toxic ingredients into food sold in the USA, ingredients not allowed in Europe and not included in Kraft products sold in Europe.

Most Americans do not realize that the USA is now a dumping ground for both toxic chemicals in food and other products, and unsafe products, because the Congress and Executive of the USA have been bribed to look the other way. The Federal Government, for example, now sets CEILINGS on environmental controls rather than floors, and this is one reason so may states are beginning to exercise their rights of nullification (one step down from secession from the United STATES of America.

Europe is more responsible, and hence a safer environment, for humanity. For the USA to become a dumping ground for toxins and products not allowed in Europe is an indictment of Congress and secessive Executives, and the two-party tyranny that has consistently betrayed the public trust and helped transfer the public dollar from the payer to the special interests looting the public treasury with Democratic and Republican party line voting that has been bought, not won on the merits of public intelligence. ENOUGH!

2009/08/24

Worth a Look: Academic Earth, Free Lectures

04 Education, Gift Intelligence, Worth A Look

The latest campus revolutionaries are the so-called edupunks — and their mission is to break up the ivory tower so everyone can pile into the classroom. MIT was the first university to heed the edupunk call: it started posting syllabi, course notes and videotaped lectures on ocw.mit.edu back in 2001. Harvard, Berkeley, Yale, Princeton and Stanford soon followed suit, with their own schemes for posting videos of their most popular courses. Now Academic Earth aggregates all this material so you can audit classes from the comfort of your computer.

Above from TIME Magazine's Top 50 Web Sites of 2009. Click below to see all 50 sites.

2009/08/242009/08/24

Journal: Beyond Partisanship on Health Care

07 Health, Ethics

The White House and Congress are betraying the public trust on the current health care “debate” which is both uninformed and duplicitous–the White House KNOWS it has not done its homework; it KNOWS it does not have a Whole of Government strategy for governance within our means; and it KNOWS the planned bill is unaffordable, unexecutable, and good ONLY for the profits. Until we take the profit and the waste out of health care, and address health care in four parts (see the illustration below that leads to the chapter on The Substance of Governance by Robert Steele), AND as part of a twelve-policy harmonization of means, ways, and ends, what passes for a government in the USA will continue to be criminally insane or insanely criminal. It is what it is. Time to change that.

2009/08/242009/08/24

Journal: Col Danny R. McKnight, USA (Ret) on Leadership

05 Civil War, 10 Security, Ethics, Leadership, Military

With a tip of the hat to Marcus Aurelius, who flagged this, we have loaded an original document summarizing the lessons learned on leadership from the “Black Hawk Down” engagement (19 hours of intense combat) and list the highlights below. Click below for the full document (5 pages).

STRATEGIC LESSONS:

White House gutted the mission before it started by limiting the force to 450 instead of the normal 600, meaning they went in with 25% less ORGANIC strength and skills than they trained with.

White House gutten the mission before it started by forbidding AC-130 Gun Ships, the absolute core air fire support element of all Ranger missions.

Continue reading “Journal: Col Danny R. McKnight, USA (Ret) on Leadership”

2009/08/232011/10/22

Journal: Why the Gang of Six is deciding healthcare for 300 million of us

07 Health

Six senators representing 3 percent of the population are running things because the White House wants it that way

By Robert Reich

Aug. 23, 2009 | On Thursday, the so-called Gang of Six – three Republicans and three Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee – met by conference call and, according to Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee's chair, reaffirmed their commitment “toward a bipartisan healthcare reform bill” (read: less coverage and no public insurance option). The Washington Post reports that the senators shared tales from their home states, where some have been besieged by protesters angry about a potential government takeover of the nation's healthcare system.

. . . . . . .

It's not even as if the gang represents America. The three Dems in the gang are from Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota – states that together account for just over 1 percent of Americans. The three Republicans are from Maine, Wyoming and Iowa, which together account for 1.6 percent of the American population.

So, I repeat: Why has it come down to these six? Who anointed them? Apparently, the White House.

Continue reading “Journal: Why the Gang of Six is deciding healthcare for 300 million of us”

2009/08/232009/08/23

Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags 8-14 the “foreclosure wave” – now, a tsunami of sorts

03 Economy, Commerce, Government

The Foreclosure Wave” — Now a Tsunami of Sorts

Over the past two days, the popular foreclosure reporting firms released their monthly numbers and the takeaway was that the foreclosure crisis is getting worse. Indeed, the foreclosure crisis is worsening, but July’s actual foreclosure numbers do not pose much additional risk to the housing market because most of the worsening was seen in the pre-foreclosure pipeline (notice-of-default & notice-of-trustee sale). Based upon July’s results, the players that will feel most of the additional reported foreclosure pressure are the banks, mbs holders, insurers, and servicers.

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It is important to always remember that when one person gets a ‘good deal’ on a house, orders of magnitude more are thrown into a negative-equity (or deeper negative equity) position exponentially increasing their likelihood of loan default. Loan default leads to foreclosure and another ‘good deal’ on a house and so on and so on.

Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags 8-14 the “foreclosure wave” – now, a tsunami of sorts”

2009/08/232009/08/23

Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags Words from the front line: the bloody truth of Helmand – by a combat soldier

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Military

The past eight weeks have been the army's worst time in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion eight years ago. Here, in his brutally frank diaries of life on the front line, a serving soldier records the bitter toll of death, and his anger and frustration at the lack of military and political support Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 23 August 2009.

EXTRACTS as Highlighted by Chuck Spinney:

We need better weapons. Every one of the SA80s stopped firing after one round (weapons were cleaned and oiled just as we were trained) but these weapons are a load of shit.

The chiefs should be pressing for a better weapons system. And why don't the army have more sniffer dogs? Would be finding IEDs [improvised explosive devices] a lot easier with a furry friend running about and a lot more lives would be saved. Since I've been here, haven't seen one dog. Told might have to go back to Camp Bastion because of injury.

Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags Words from the front line: the bloody truth of Helmand – by a combat soldier”

Category: Policies

Journal: MomsRising & Kraft Dumping of Toxic Chemicals in USA Foods