Category: True Cost

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Reference: On WikiLeaks and Government Secrecy + RECAP on Secrecy as Fraud, Waste, & Abuse

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Secrets, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policies, Policy, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, True Cost

People are more likely to lie, exaggerate and distort when they know they won’t be held accountable for what they said, and people like to say what their interlocutors want to hear, says Jordan Stancil.

Jordan Stancil

Jordan Stancil is a lecturer in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs of the University of Ottawa.

Phi Beta Iota: This is the single best overview of how secrecy supports corruption.  It is consistent with testimony to the Moynihan Commission on Secrecy and with Morton Halperin's findings in Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy in which one of the “rules of the game” was “Lie to the President if you can get away with it.”  Today, the “rule of the game” is “Lie to the public if you can get away with it for at least one election cycle.”  Newt Gingrich started the decline with his power and ambition, Dick Cheney peaked at 935 documented lies that Colin Powell allowed to stand unchallenged, and now Obama, with Bloomberg in the wings, are the anti-climax of secrecy as fraud Of, By, and For Wall Street.  America has become a cheating culture, an unthinking culture, far removed from the essence of a Republic.

Middle East Online

First Published: 2010-12-05

On WikiLeaks and Government Secrecy

The more I think about the WikiLeaks episode, the less I know what to say about it. Unfortunately, too much commentary, right and left, has tried to inject certitude where ambivalence should be.

It is not clear whether the WikiLeaks disclosures will damage our national interest. During the few years I spent as a Foreign Service officer, in Jerusalem and Berlin, I produced and read a fair number of classified cables, and I understand the rather obvious point that diplomats might get more — and more sensitive — information when their contacts believe that what they say will remain secret. We have heard endless appeals to “common sense” about the need for secrecy on these grounds.

But common sense also tells us that people are more likely to lie, exaggerate and distort when they know they won’t be held accountable for what they said, and that people like to say what their interlocutors want to hear. The annals of diplomatic communication, indeed of all communication, are filled with evidence of this banal insight, which many people seem to have forgotten in their rush to defend government secrecy.

This is a permanent reference.  Read the rest below the line, followed by links.

Continue reading “Reference: On WikiLeaks and Government Secrecy + RECAP on Secrecy as Fraud, Waste, & Abuse”

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Reference: Crash Course on Reality

07 Other Atrocities, Blog Wisdom, Briefings (Core), Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), IO Mapping, IO Sense-Making, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Movies, Officers Call, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Strategy, True Cost
Chris Martenson Home

Chris Martenson not only paid attention to all of the early warning signals, but acted upon them, leaving a Fortune 50 job, selling his Connecticut home, getting out of the stock market, and buying gold and silver.  Now he has produced the single best, down-to-earth, detailed free video (38 minutes), inexpensive video (208 minutes), forthcoming book, and a 50 hour week-end course for concerned citizens.  This is essential education for all–it also demonstrates the fraud, waste, and abuse inherent in the continued support by the two-party tyranny of Wall Street.  Wall Street STILL OWES twice the capital it actually has–the bail-out was a flim-flam to perpetuate the short-term bonuses and positions of the criminals who have looted America and the rest of the world.

Short Free Video

Amazon Page
  • Crash Course by Chris Martenson – 38 minute condensed version
  • DVD Release Date: March 5, 2009
  • Run Time: 203 minutes
Amazon Page
  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 22, 2011)

Phi Beta Iota: In a perfect demonstration of the Hacker Principle that for every piece of information you share, you get back 100 pieces of which 10 are priceless (10:1 noise to signal and 10:1 return on investment), the below was brought to our attention by Dr. James C. Spohrer, Director, IBM University Programs World-Wide (IBM UP), IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA 95120 USA.  We like IBM, we like it even more after seeing that this kind of thinking is well-understood by IBM.  Bottom line: a number of others have sounded the alarm, Chris Martenson does it better than everyone else, in the most concise non-partisan manner possible.  He is the Paul Revere of the Republic, the Commonwealth.

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Data-Hacking the Cotton T-Shirt: True Cost (water, energy, travel, emissions, toxins, import costs, child labor, fertilizer)

Commercial Intelligence, Research resources, True Cost
True Cost T-Shirt Kickstarter Project Page

Help advocate and influence in regards to the following:

  • There is unseen information in all materials
  • To know and grow a greater awareness about the world(s) we live in.

$12 backers of this project receive one American made tee shirt + a one page research handout not available online.

In January 2010 I (Jason Liszkiewicz) had a test batch of 52 of these t-shirts printed and sold (see here). It was a non-profit project which I would like to again see in print. My first batch received incredibly positive responses in-person & through the Internet from California to as far as India.

Below is an overview of the scope of the project:

From Farm to Fashion, what goes into the production of one cotton t-shirt?

This is the result of a one year side project to create a public awareness product.

The aim is to stimulate conversation about the water, energy, human labor, toxins, migration, and inventive practices that go into the products we own. How do we perceive or how aware are we about the people and processes that produce the products we have come to depend on in this global commercial society?

First hand research along with information from 30 sources comprise the contents of this shirt.

This T-Shirt is a “gateway concept”. By wearing this, it will insert into society not only the topic of t-shirts, but the overall question of what is the “true cost” of the products we are surrounded by, eating, and wearing? How can these answers become more publicly available? Can more knowledgeable shoppers that base purchase-decisions on more than dollar-amounts eventually augment the way product-designers think, design, and produce?

Imagine true cost information for all products and services available via text messaging/SMS (text a code for each product & service). And eventually, public kiosks in malls, public spaces, etc. A mobile encyclopedia service revealing the “open supply chains.” See http://wiki.re-configure.org for more information.

Front shirt: water, energy, travel, emissions, toxins, import costs, child labor, misc (fertilizer)

If you would like to circulate the link, the short version =  http://kck.st/dcnGpn

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Journal: Obama’s Choice

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policy, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, True Cost, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

New options from the nomenklatura listed below is a silly oxymoron.

Chuck

Pentagon Openings Give Obama New Options

By THOM SHANKER

7 November

WASHINGTON — With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon’s leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.

It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama’s first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.

That is all the more reason that Mr. Obama’s choices are certain to face scrutiny in a narrowly divided Senate, whose Republican leadership has declared itself intent on defeating him.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said he plans to retire next year, while the terms of four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are scheduled to end: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief; and Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations.

Read rest of this seriously deficient article….

Phi Beta Iota: The current and prospective leaders being discussed and considered are all inter-changeable.  They share the same paradigmatic views, the same commitment to the military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC), and therefore, to suggest that changing out the guard is in any way an option, is to demonstrate profound naivete or a gift for deception.  President Obama is truly at a historic fork in the road: he can go on with business as usual, bailing out Wall Street and carrying on with a global military cmapaign that is both ineffective and unaffordable–or he can reach deep down and come up with one startling insight and two serious options.

Startling insight:  integrity matters.  Doing the right thing is more important than continuing to do the wrong thing righter.

Option A:  Make Electoral Reform (1 Page, 9 Points) the issue.  That will burn down the two-party tyranny and restore the Republic WHILE EARNING HIM A SECOND TERM.

Option B:  Hold an Open Space Technology event on the future of the USA in all its forms, in the Washington Convention Center, a no-notice open public event, with Harrison Owen as the facilitator.

Sadly, we are quite certain neither the startling insight nor either of the two options will be considered.  The Titanic is sinking and the President is being asked to re-arrange the name cards…..thus does the Republic flail in the tar pit of history.

We predict, with a depth of despair, that Obama will choose to go along and eventually be as wealthy as Bill Bradley and Al Gore.  He is one phone call away from greatness, and won't do it.  He lives, we die.

See Also:

Reference: Michael Vlahos on Imperial Court

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

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Blog Wisdom: Seth Godin on Needed Efficiency NOW

Ethics, Officers Call, True Cost

Seth Godin Home

Efficiency is free

Philip Crosby wrote a seminal book (Quality is Free) in which he argued that it's cheaper to build things right the first time than it is to fix them later. Obvious now, but heresy in Detroit 1980. Quality quickly became not just a better way to manufacture, it became a marketing benefit as well. Not only was quality cheaper to make, it was cheaper to sell.

I'm struck that we need a new book, call it Efficiency is Free.

It's cheaper to build carpets that don't create poison gas than it is to do the easy thing and let people suffer later. It's cheaper to build an 8 passenger car that gets 30 miles per gallon than it is to suffer the consequences of the 12 mile per gallon Suburban. It's cheaper to design smaller, lighter and recyclable shipping containers once than it is to buy and hassle with billions of foam peanuts in the long run.

So why doesn't everyone do this? For the same reason the quality revolution took a full generation to take hold–it costs more right now. It takes planning right now. It requires change right now.

Right now will always be difficult. But efficiency is still free.

Phi Beta Iota: A deeper understanding is achieved by embracing the “true cost” meme including ecological economics and bio-mimicry as well as the precautionary principle.  All of this comes down to the design of human life so that it is “efficient” (i.e. non-toxic of itself and the rest of the Earth).  That starts with a strategic analytic model leavened with integrity in its application.  Ethics is how civilization is made efficient.

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Journal: Time to ShitCan the FCC and Go Open Spectrum

03 Economy, 04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Open Government, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Technologies, True Cost

DefDog Recommends...

November 30th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could
potentially engage in one of the largest federal power grabs we have ever
seen.

At the FCC’s November meeting – note the coincidental date of choice,
AFTER the impending election – three unelected bureaucrats (of five) could
simply vote themselves rulers of 1/6th of our entire economy – the
information and technology sector.

Meaning the Internet that you currently enjoy – that has been a marvel of
economic and information innovation and success – will be subject to vast
new governmental regulations.  You didn’t elect these people – but they
are on the verge of electing themselves Internet overlords.

November 30th Could Be the Day the Government Seizes Control of the Internet

by Seton Motley

November 30th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could potentially engage in one of the largest federal power grabs we have ever seen.

locked-computer

After two years of this Presidential Administration and this Congress, that is saying an awful lot about an awful lot.

And what’s worse, the FCC would be doing it without Congress weighing in.  At the FCC’s November meeting – note the coincidental date of choice, AFTER the impending election – three unelected bureaucrats (of five) could simply vote themselves rulers of 1/6th of our entire economy – the information and technology sector.

See Also:

Huffington Post Blogs on FCC & Internet

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Journal: Alaska Selling Her Birthright…Water

12 Water, True Cost

Newsweek Story Online

The New Oil

Should private companies control our most precious natural resource?

Sitka, Alaska, is home to one of the world’s most spectacular lakes. Nestled into a U-shaped valley of dense forests and majestic peaks, and fed by snowpack and glaciers, the reservoir, named Blue Lake for its deep blue hues, holds trillions of gallons of water so pure it requires no treatment. The city’s tiny population—fewer than 10,000 people spread across 5,000 square miles—makes this an embarrassment of riches. Every year, as countries around the world struggle to meet the water needs of their citizens, 6.2 billion gallons of Sitka’s reserves go unused. That could soon change. In a few months, if all goes according to plan, 80 million gallons of Blue Lake water will be siphoned into the kind of tankers normally reserved for oil—and shipped to a bulk bottling facility near Mumbai. From there it will be dispersed among several drought-plagued cities throughout the Middle East.

Phi Beta Iota: The commercialization of Earth has already resulted in enormous costs most of which are barely understood today, at the same time that changes to the Earth that used to take 10,000 years, now take three.  The “true cost” of shipping bulk water is already known to be much higher than the engaged parties recognize–these are costs to the environment, the balance of nature, and ultimately to the sustainability of the very water supply being looted.