The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
David Rothkopf |
Two great talks on the rise and rule of the global ruling class, by David Rothkopf. How a select, insular group of the six thousand most powerful people on the planet make daily decisions that impact the lives of millions across borders and develop ideas that are shaping the history of our times.
See Also:
Review: Superclass–The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making
Phi Beta Iota: The book is recommended, and below are details on an event tomorrow in Washington, D.C.
Campaign for Liberty will host a debate between Bruce and Jeff Kuhner, talk radio host on AM 570 and a columnist and media commentator at The Washington Times. Daniel McCarthy, editor at The American Conservative, will moderate the debate.
Titled “Empire Without a Cause?: Debating U.S. Foreign Policy on the Right,” the event will examine whether U.S. foreign policy is en dangering our Republic with perpetual, world-wide warfare for the sake of nation-building – or whether the conflicts in which we are embroiled are necessary to protect American citizens from Islamic extremism in a post-9/11 world.
This timely discussion will take place from 12:30pm-1:30pm this Wednesday, July 21, on the 6th floor of the Americans for Tax Reform building, 722 12th Street, NW, Wash ington, DC 20005. Be sure to RSVP on Facebook event page. Space is limited!
About the Book: The United States was born as a Republic. The individual was the center of society and rule of law was King. Neutrality and non-entanglements were the North Stars of foreign policy. Preemptive wars were feared as precursors to executive tyranny. The Republic would not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Transparency was the rule and secrecy the rare exception. And the thrill of self-government was the utmost good. Since the emergence of Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War, the United States has progressively degenerated into an arrogant, swaggering Empire featuring hundreds of military bases abroad with defense commitments to foreigners. The degeneration was accelerated by the disintegration of the Soviet Union and 9/11. Bush, Cheney, and Obama are a philosophical triumvirate in national security matters. The Empire is earmarked by perpetual and global warfare unilaterally initiated by the President for the sake of domination; unchecked executive power; the crucifixion of the rule of law on a national security cross; the diminishment of Congress to a constitutional ink blot; secret government; unsustainable trillion dollar budget deficits; and, a craving by the public for risk-free lives more than freedom itself. The Republic can be regained if a President emerges who renounces executive usurpations and secrecy, terminates all U.S. military bases abroad and revokes all defense treaties or executive agreements, immediately ends the Afghan, Iraq, international terrorism wars, and makes the rule of law the nation's civic religion.
Phi Beta Iota: Apart from Intelligence Online out of Paris, we regard the Association for Intelligence Officers (AFIO) in the USA, along with the Society of Competitive Intelligence Progressionals (SCIP) as being among the best of the best. Below is the table of contents from their latest newsletter. Anyone can join as a subscriber, at this time full membership is limited to US intelligence officers, but one day we hope to see AFIO become truly deeply multinational. In the meantime, we hold AFIO is the very highest regard and strongly recommend subscribing to their newsletter.
AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #26-10 dated 13 July 2010
CONTENTS
Section I – INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Section II – CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE
Section III – COMMENTARY
Dear Colleague,
Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity is almost here…I'm excited to share the news that my book will ship from the printer on August 6th.
To get that buzz going, I'm asking everyone I know to help me get the book off to a fast start! Please consider picking up a copy of the book, perhaps even ordering a second copy as a gift for a friend. Or forward this message on to people you think would find the book of interest so that they can pre-order a copy for themselves.
I'm thrilled with how the book turned out. Esthetically, it is beautiful. And based on the feedback from many of you, people are finding the content useful and inspiring. I look forward to your feedback.
Engaging Emergence offers principles, practices, and real-word stories for bringing compassion, creativity, and wisdom to the entire arc of change-from disruption to coherence. For more about the contents, click here.
You can even check out the text.
Pre-order the book from Amazon
Thank you again for your support — of me and of the book.
Appreciatively,
Peggy Holman
Phi Beta Iota: Peggy Holman is one of the top grass-roots leadership and self-organization gurus in the USA, and easily among the top 100 in the world. She may be the most active practitioner of Open Space Technology as conceived by Harrison Owen.
Who’s Who in Collective Intelligence: Peggy Holman
Review: The Change Handbook–The Definitive Resource on Today’s Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
Review: Society’s Breakthrough!–Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Review: Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World
According to statlit.org, statistical literacy is the ability to read and interpret summary statistics in the everyday media: in graphs, tables, statements, surveys and studies. Statistical literacy is needed by data consumers.
The importance of statistical literacy in the Internet age is clear, but the concept is not exclusive to designers. I’d like to focus on it because designers must consider it in a way that most people do not have to: statistical literacy is more than learning the laws of statistics; it is about representations that the human mind can understand and remember (source: Psychological Science in the Public Interest).
With data, though, careless designers all too readily sacrifice truth for the sake of aesthetics. Lovecraft’s eldritch horrors will rise only when the stars are right, but the preconditions for bad visual representations are already in place:
Do you hear that fateful, fearsome ticking? You’ve given your audience a time bomb of misinformation, just waiting to blow up in their faces. Perhaps they will forget your inadvertent falsehood before they harm someone with it, but perhaps they will be Patient Zero in an outbreak of viral inaccuracy. Curing that disease can be excruciatingly difficult, and even impossible: one of the more depressing findings in psychology is that trying to set the record straight can muddle it further. The lesson is clear: provide the right story the first time. But the staggering variety of awful visualizations online makes it equally clear that designers haven’t learned that lesson yet. Let’s see just how bad it can get.
Public Intelligence
Public Intelligence has received a request from FEMA to remove a “For Official Use Only” document regarding the National Level Exercise 2010 (NLE 10), which was scheduled for this coming May. The exercise was to be based on National Planning Scenario 1 which simulates a nuclear detonation in a U.S. city.
Phi Beta Iota: FEMA may actually have noticed the earlier public posting of how to take down Law Vegas, reported here inJournal: Strong Signals–Las Vegas as Next 9/11. “Homeland Security” as well as “Global Security” are non-existent in large part because the US Government is its own worst enemy.
Journal: US Government Party to $4 Trillion Fraud
Journal: Pentagon as VERY Slow Learner….
Journal: DoD Mind-Set Time Lags Most Fascinating
Journal: Cyber-Idiocy Two, Cyber-Sense Zero
Review: Willful Neglect–The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security
2002 NSA in Las Vegas The New Craft of Intelligence: What Should the T Be Doing to the I in IT?
