Category: Policy

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Michel Bauwens: Integrity & Regional/Global Change

Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Real Time, Serious Games, Strategy, Threats
Michel Bauwens

Integrity is becoming part of the global agenda.  I especially recommend Christian Arnsperger and Mark Whitaker for interesting takes on this.

Toward a Bioregional State (Online Summary)

Whitaker argues that the basis of environmental degradation is not capitalism or market relations. Environmental degradation is supremely caused by unrepresentative state elite decisions and how they manipulate markets to serve particular consolidated materials, so solutions should focus on additional formal checks and balances against these informal ‘ecological tyrannies', via more green constitutional engineering.

Toward a Bioregional State: A Series of Letters About Political Theory and Formal Institutional Design in the Era of Sustainability (Book)

Six Framework Conditions for Global Systemic Change

“The main framework conditions that I believe would be needed for a genuine transition to a sustainable pluri-economy to get off the ground:

(http://eco-transitions.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-transition-part-4-renewing_05.html)

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CIA-JSOG Bases “Beyond” War Powers Act

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Policy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Who, Me?

The CIA base in the Persian Gulf came up in several conversations over the week-end, along with the “nominal” subordination or transfer of JSOG to the CIA.

This is clearly an Executive move to sidestep the War Powers Act.

This means that the military-industrial complex is in charge of our “national security” apparatus and policy, we now have four wars, and we are certain to have seven in the near term, adding Somalia, Yemen, and Iran as well as Syria while scuttling out of Afghanistan.

Phi Beta Iota: Dr. Robert Gates spent the week-end telling obvious lies and strong mischaracterizations about every topic he addressed.  The US Executive is out of control and detrimental to the Constitutional health of the Republic.  Impeachment is called for now–and could explain the timing of Gates/ departure.

See Also:

CIA Further Out of Control–New Persian “Base”

Wesley Clark interview (March 2007): “We plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years”

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)

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DOT&E Documents and Tony Capaccio Story

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Military, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Standards, Technologies
Winslow Wheeler

There are a set of documents at the DOT&E website which offer DOT&E insights into the reason for why about 40 programs have experienced delays — and costs.  These documents relate to a Tony Capaccio story in today's Bloomberg News (below).

The document titled “Updated DOT&E Input on Program Delays” (at the DOT&E link shown above) identifies various specific reasons for the problems programs experience — different from most of the explanations from contractors and other system advocates in and out of the Pentagon.  (Eg. for the F-35:  Fly rates per month lowered to more realistic projections (from 12 max for all variants and venues to 10 max for CTOL/CV flight sciences, 9 max for STOVL flight sciences, 8 max for all mission systems); increased planning factors for re-fly and regression (up 15% for flight science, 10% for mission systems); more time required for software development and incremental builds.”)

Beyond the F-35, the various systems described in the analysis are typically more obscure programs (eg. AIM-9X 8.212 Software Upgrade) but there are also a few better known ones, such as LCS, which is described in “fly before buy,” Congress and the Navy want to rush ahead of testing to buy 4 LCS in the 2012 HASC DOD Authorization bill for $1.8 billion in production costs.

Availability of complete mission packages will be delayed until at least 2015.

Instead of withholding production of untested systems with clear and obvious development problems, Congress and the Pentagon are intent on business as usual.  The LCS is a good example: instead of “fly before buy,” Congress and the Navy want to rush ahead of testing to buy 4 LCS in the 2012 HASC DOD Authorization bill for $1.8 billion in production costs.

Some will think the DOT&E analysis and documents to be obscure and too “in the weeds” to pay much attention to.  Instead, they offer a major part of the explanation for why hardware costs and delays are so out of control, and they offer a stunning view into how little is being done about that.

BloombergNews.com, June 13, 2011

Weapons Testers Found Not to Blame for Procurement Delay

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Non-Geek Digerati Anti-Intellectualism

Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, IO Impotency, Key Players, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Research resources, Serious Games, Standards, Threats, Tools, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Larry Sanger

Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?

Is there a new anti-intellectualism?  I mean one that is advocated by Internet geeks and some of the digerati.  I think so: more and more mavens of the Internet are coming out firmly against academic knowledge in all its forms.  This might sound outrageous to say, but it is sadly true.

Read lengthy post with links…

Robert David STEELE Vivas

 

Robert David STEELE Vivas: Digerati are not geeks.  They are adept at social media, a process, rather than the substance of any discipline.  Their scorn for the mandarins of knowledge would not be possible if academia had not lost its soul, sanctioned massive intellectual corruption, and fragmented itself to the point of irrelevance.  The serious educational literature (not something the digerati read) is clear: inspiration and innovation

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emerge faster, better, and cheaper from minds that are prepared, to include a foundation of memorization and a deep familiarity with the thinking of those who have come before.  The digerati point of view half-right and is embodied in Smart Mobs, Wisdom of the Crowd, Everything is Miscellaneous, and Maria Popova's latest thought, that “information curation is the new authorship.”  The digerati approach splits the roles of originator of an idea and connector of an idea down, and assumes that “the collective” can replicate and even surpass the individual human brain, without recognizing that the whole is only as good as the sum of the part foundation plus whatever the collective adds.  My own finding re Wikipedia is that the mob destroys intellectuals.  My own efforts to enhance the Open Source Intelligence page there were destroyed by idiots that “assumed” that because I pointed to oss.net so much (to many of the 800 people whose work is there including the 144 that received Golden Candle Awards) I was “self-promoting.” The digerati are fragile and very shallow, and by Larry Sanger's very interesting account, a new form of neo-Luddite.  The academy is corrupt and fragmented–we are in an era where all forms of organization have lost their soul and whatever semblance of philosophical context they may once have possessed.  We are suffering from the Paradigms of Failure that I discussed in the pre-amble to ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (EIN, 2008).  There is only one option leading to stabilization & reconstruction:  INTEGRITY.  The digerati aren't–as a general rule–very appreciative of holistic thinking or in-depth expertise–they are a spoiled generation badly in need of some personal suffering and exposure to global reality–IMHO.

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In “borderless” cyberspace, nation states struggle — M4IS2 Anyone?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Geospatial, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Real Time, Reform, Research resources, Serious Games, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, Whole Earth Review
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Analysis: In “borderless” cyberspace, nation states struggle

By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent

Reuters LONDON | Thu Jun 9, 2011

EXTRACT:

“The nature of cyberspace is borderless and anonymous,” R. Chandrasekhara, secretary of India's telecommunications department, told a cyber security conference in London last week organised by a U.S.-based think tank, the EastWest Institute. “Governments, countries and law — all are linked to territory. There is a fundamental contradiction.”

Read full article….

Tip of the Hat to Chris Pallaris at LinkedIn.

Phi Beta Iota: The national secret intelligence communities mean well, but they are cognitively and culturally incapacitated  in relation to both the global threats and the global infomation sharing and sense-making possibilities.  It may just be that the solution has to come from a private sector service of common concern that can provide the integrity now lacking in governments and most corporation.  Scary thought.  M4IS2 is inevitable….delay is costing trillions.

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ACDU O-6: Mendacity [on AF] is Egregious–Sickening UPDATED with Comment from In-Country O-5

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policy
Chuck Spinney Recommends...

UPDATED with Comment from O-5 (at end).

This email is from an active duty colonel who travels all over Afghanistan. He actually goes on foot patrols with troops to see things for himself. Here is his latest report.  His message is bad Ju Ju, I am afraid.

Chuck Spinney
La Ciotat, France

To All,

The mendacity is getting so egregious that I am fast losing the ability to remain quiet; these yarns of “significant progress” are being covered up by the blood and limbs of hundreds – HUNDREDS – of American uniformed service members each and every month, and you know that the rest of this summer is going to see the peak of that bloodshed.

The article by Michael O'Hanlon last week (i.e. Success worth paying for in Afghanistan) and the one in today's WSJ by Kagan and Kagan (i.e., We Have the Momentum in Afghanistan) made me sick to my stomach – especially the latter.  Have you seen it yet?  It is the most breathless piece of yellow journalism I’ve seen in the entire OIF-OEF generation.

Continue reading “ACDU O-6: Mendacity [on AF] is Egregious–Sickening UPDATED with Comment from In-Country O-5”

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Robert Gates: Spendthrift Ace of Double-Speak

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Policy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Robert Gates: Pitchman for a Declining Empire

By Werther*

Robert M. Gates is one of those people the Beltway Consensus refers to as a “serious adult”: not overtly partisan, measured in his pronouncements, possessed of actual knowledge about the job he has been charged to do. The adulation he has received is certainly understandable if we grade on a curve; his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, established an Olympic record for petty vanity, nasty abrasiveness, and disastrous professional judgment. Such a collective sigh of relief greeted Rumsfeld's departure that his successor was bound to shine in comparison.

But what of Gates's record on his own merits? He is given to making such comments as, “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” A normal person would infer that he is opposed to the types of military intervention that have contributed significantly to a near-bankruptcy of the country. Yet in practice he has taken concrete measures to protract the very problem he professes to deplore.

Continue reading “Robert Gates: Spendthrift Ace of Double-Speak”