Category: Topics (All Other)

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Winslow Wheeler: Defense Cuts, Defense Flim-Flam

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Technologies
Winslow Wheeler

There are numerous misleading and misinformed assertions being made about the defense spending parts of the debt deal.

The White House's “fact sheet” asserts a $350 billion savings in the “base defense budget.” The $350 billion in defense savings that the White House declares apparently uses a different “baseline” (basis of comparison) and pretends that a two year cap the bill establishes on “security” spending will extend to ten years.  Most misleading of all, it assumes that all savings in the “security” category (which includes DOD, DOE/nuclear weapons, all State Department related spending, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security) will occur only in DOD spending.  In fact, the “security” category was designed to broaden the base for “defense” cuts and to lessen the impact on DOD.  The undocumented $350 billion in “security” savings will actually translate into lesser reductions in DOD spending, but the amount is unknown.  The actual amount will be decided by Congress in the future.
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2014 Peace from Above: Envisioning the Future of UN Air Power

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Articles & Chapters, Augmented Reality, Autonomous Internet, Briefings & Lectures, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, Geospatial, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Maps, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Mobile, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Policy, Real Time, Reform, Serious Games, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools
Click on Image to Enlarge

Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/UNODIN

Steele in Dorn Peace from Above As Published

Finally published in 2014 (Article) originally presented in 2011 (Briefing).

The chapter more fully integrates the DNI spiral between modern mature intelligence (M4IS2) and modern mature Air Power.

Abstract 3.1

Briefing 3.3 (29 Slides With Notes As Presented 40 KB pptx)

Event: 15-17 June Ontario UN Aerospace Power

See Also:

2012 Robert Steele: Practical Reflections on UN Intelligence + UN RECAP

UN Intelligence @ Phi Beta Iota

Worth a Look: Wings for Peace – First Book on Air Power in UN Operations

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Chuck Spinney: Jeff Madrick on The Age of Greed and Failure of Government to Check Private Sector Greed

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Chuck Spinney
Here is a review of my friend Jeff Madrick's important new book, Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present

Book review: ‘Age of Greed’ by Jeff Madrick

By David Greenberg, Washington Post Outlook, 29 July 2011

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. He is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for the 2010-11 academic year.

EXTRACTS

“Age of Greed” chronicles how Americans ended up with the highly unregulated financial system that produced the meltdown of 2008 and the fallout that lingers three years later. What’s most novel about the book, which relies heavily on other secondary accounts, is that unlike other recent treatments of the financial crisis, it traces the origins of the problem not to the Bush or Clinton or even Reagan years, but all the way to the late 1960s.

. . . . . .

The real scandal revealed by Madrick’s important book is not the well-known tales of dastards such as telecom analyst Jack Grubman or Internet stock promoter Frank Quattrone, but the more elusive — and more consequential — story of how the government came to abdicate this supreme responsibility.

Read full review….

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Tom Atlee: Making Wise Decisions on Public Issues

About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Officers Call, Open Government, Policies, Policy, Reform, Standards, Strategy, Threats
Tom Atlee

Dear friends,

I have worked for several months to develop the ideas in this article and to articulate them in an accessible way.  They are fundamental understandings underlying the co-intelligence vision of a wiser democracy.

If the ideas intrigue you, you can find a longer version with more detailed guidelines and references online.  I wrote the abstract below to make it easier for you to see the whole pattern at once.  I hope you find both versions interesting and useful.

Coheartedly,
Tom

============

GUIDELINES FOR MAKING WISER DECISIONS ON PUBLIC ISSUES

by Tom Atlee

As a civilization we have tremendous collective power, but we don't always use it wisely.  We can make good decisions, but we face messy, entangled, rapidly growing problems with complex, debatable causes.  Efforts to solve one problem often generate new ones.  We need more than problem-solving smarts here.  We need wisdom.

A good definition for wisdom here is

the capacity to take into account
what needs to be taken into account
to produce long term, inclusive benefits.

To the extent we fail to take something important into account, it will come back to haunt us.  But often we only realize we overlooked something long after our decision has been implemented.  Certain practices – because they lead us to include more of what's important – can help us meet this challenge.  Here are eight complementary ways to do this.  The more of them we do, and the better we do them, the wiser our collective decisions will be.
Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Making Wise Decisions on Public Issues”

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DefDog: Who Lent to America? America, Not China

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, IO Impotency
DefDog Recommends....

Who owns America? Hint: It's not China

A close-up look at who holds America's debt.

, July 20, 2011 17:45

Truth is elusive.  But it's a good thing we have math.

Our friends at Business Insider know this, and put those two principles to work today in this excellent and highly informative little slideshow, made even more timely by the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. aimed at staving off a U.S. debt default.

. . . . . . .

America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.

Phi Beta Iota:  Details below.  The lies and misrepresentation from all sides in Washington are reprehensible.   The distance between the truth and those in power has never been greater.  It turns out the US owes the largest chuck (30.3%) to the US Treasury and the Social Security fund; next up is 6.6% to US households, and then a plethora of banks and funds that could easily be stiffed for a year.

US holders of US debt:

Continue reading “DefDog: Who Lent to America? America, Not China”

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Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Methods & Process, Military, Policies
Tom Atlee

Dear friends,

The 160-person British Columbian Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform took every other weekend for a year to research and reach consensus on the best method for their province's election process.

The fourteen citizens in a Danish Consensus Conference take several weekends over several months to learn about their assigned technical issue and come up with shared recommendations for Parliament and the public.

A 24-person Citizen Initiative Review of the kind now institutionalized in Oregon takes a week to figure out how to best advise voters on a given ballot initiative.

Similar Citizens Juries on all kinds of subjects also take about a week.

The dozen citizens selected for MACLEAN'S magazine's 1991 “People's Verdict” deliberations took just three days to come up with a lengthy vision for Canada's future direction.

A Wisdom Council often takes just two days to come up with a consensus statement sharing their concerns and dreams for their community.

Hundreds or thousands of people in a 21st Century Town Meeting take one day to make decisions on the issue that they have been assigned.

And now ABC News gave five citizens of diverse political beliefs one hour to solve the deficit crisis that Washington can't seem to resolve in months.  This small group's success is the special feature of this e-mailing, so check out ABC's very short video (2:43) about it

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour”

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Marcus Aurelius: Joe Scarborough Tries to Scare on Debt

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency
Marcus Aurelius

Below is an excellent example of scare-mongering and ideologically-rooted media froth.

The morning after

Joe Scarborough

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Aug. 3, 2011

It was a financial storm that even an economics professor could see coming. The debt crisis that had gripped Washington for a month came to a sudden, horrifying climax that left America’s economy looking like a nuclear wasteland. Credit markets suffered life-threatening seizures as the stock market dropped a staggering 25 percent. U.S. Treasuries plummeted as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating — instantly adding trillions of dollars in interest costs to the national debt. Only gold was on the rise, and its price exploded past $2,000 an ounce.

Read rest of article….

 Phi Beta Iota:  The only people who benefit from raising the debt ceiling are the banks that destroyed the economy in the first place, and the industrial complexes from medical to military that have grown the profligate entitlement and earmark society.  Nationalizing the banks and closing down the Federal Reserve are both viable alternative strategies.  The fact of the matter is that the truth is not on the table.  To WHOM does the US Government owe money in violation of the Constitutional mandate that it be the steward of the full faith and credit of the Republic?  Triage among sovereign powers, banks, and individual investors should reveal a wealth of alternatives.  This is, as one TV commentator called it, a “food fight.”  Intelligence and integrity are lacking within Washington–neither the Republicans nor the Democrats, the Congress nor the Executive, are demonstrating the needed character during this time of tribulation.

noble gold