4 Star – Page 28 – Public Intelligence Blog

Raised to a Four Against the Extremist Reviews, November 18, 2008

Rahm Emanuel

The extremist republican reviews are dismally childish. I am an estranged moderate Republican leaning Libertarian, and the authors lose one star for mis-reading Lincoln as a model, and a second for lacking a strategic or analytic foundation for actually governing but I restore the latter for balance. The plan as proposed is a good one, but is less than one third of what we need in the policy arena, and completely avoids the four reforms that are essential: Electoral Reform, Governance Reform, Intelligence Reform, and National Security Reform.

The authors are way too facile in blaming everything on Reagan and then on the Bush-Cheney regime, but they carefully avoid pointing out that Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) screwed over the entire country with his complete deregulation of the financial industry (derivatives as fantasy cash), and that once the Clintonites discovered this, they chose to ride the wave and profit rather than acting in the public interest. They also fail to point out that Rubin was a mini-me version of Paulson, and both think only of Wall Street, not of home owners and the workers.

I am especially angry that the word “impeachment” does not appear in this book. The authors choose to ignore the 25 documented impeachable offenses by Dick Cheney, or the 935 documented lies told to the public by the Bush-Cheney regime, and they are especially disingenuous in failing to observe that Congress as a whole abdicated its Article 1 responsibilities to balance the power of the executive, or that Nancy Pelosi led the Democrats to new lows in being abject doormats–the authors could learn from Senator Robert Byrd in intellect, and Representative Cynthia McKinney in integral consciousness.

I am heartened as I move in to the plan to note that the authors see the reality that human capital needs completely different forms of nurturing than financial capital, but I am troubled by their obliviousness throughout the book to the fact that we are in the information age, and any Congress, any Executive, that does not move to create a Smart Nation is on death row…”walking dead man.”

Here is the plan with brief commentary, followed by ten books the authors do not mention that go a great deal further on what needs to be done.

Universal Citizen Service: three months basic training, civil defense preparation, and community service. Wonk won on this one. What we really need is 2 years (enlisted) four years (officer), common basic training for all (every citizen a qualified militia with a non-negotiable right to bear arms outside any organized unit), then split into three paths of choice: Armed Services, Peace Corps, America Corps. Immigrants regardless of age serve two years domestically.

Universal College Access: Democratic fluff. Neither all Americans, nor the five billion poor, have time to spend 18-22 years sitting passively for a really idiotic didactic (one way) form of instruction. What we really need is infinite flexibility and access to all information in all languages all the time, including call centers in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, all capable of helping anyone with an answer “one cell call at a time.” These two authors mean well, but they are oblivious to where information technology is now or is going to be within three years.

Universal Children's Health Care. Annoying. Like offering apple pie, but you have to bring your own plate and fork. A proper reform of health care must recognize that healthy life style is 60% of the solution (tax the bejesus out of fast food and other noxious foods and beverages); that a healthy environment is 20% of the solution (mandate safe water and clean uncontaminated air in buildings, airplanes, etcetera); full public knowledge of natural cures (e.g. banana oil to stop breast cancer) is 10% of the answer–and non-wasteful remediation is the last 10% of the answer. PriceWaterHouseCoopers has documented that 50% of the money we spend on the latter now (which is 95% of the government sanctioned health program) is WASTE). I may have missed this, but the authors also appear to avoid dealing with the reality that we can wipe out the future unfunded obligations in Medicare by reducing costs to the 1% of what is charged now based on bribery of both parties by the pharmaceutical companies.

Fiscal responsibility and an end to corporate welfare. Nice platitudes. I would be more impressed if they spoke of ending personal income taxes, introducing a plan to destroy the Federal Reserve while using the Tobin and other taxes on financial transactions. While they are at it they can end all government programs not specifically approved by the 50 United STATES of America.

New Strategy to Win the War on Error (chuckling–that was a typo, should be War on Terror, but it is so apropos I leave it in). The authors are lacking in a deep understanding of the pathologies that characterize every aspect of national and homeland security, and evidently oblivious to the fact that we spend $60-75 billion a year on intelligence that gets us only the 4% we can steal (I quote General Tony Zinni). They are totally on target in describing the Department of Homeland Security as its own worst enemy, and I hope it gets abolished. See the books below for better answers.

The Hybrid Economy. I like this chapter a lot. Here they are in their comfort zone, and despite the brevity and lack of detail that characterizes the book as a whole, here I sense a deeper appreciation and a commensurately greater credibility. However, the authors both have a lot to learn about strategic analytics and creating a balanced budget, and I wish them well. I have no doubt they will exercise power with good intentions, but I have to question just how well informed they will be–by all indications from early days of the Obama Transition, outside of a couple of token Republicans, no one outside the two-party crime system is being listened to nor considered for meaningful integration.

Here are books they do not cite that I recommend:
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
Philosophy and the Social Problem: The Annotated Edition
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)

2009/07/032009/12/04

Review DVD: Morning Light

4 Star, Reviews (DVD Only), Sailing

Worthy of time and money, could have been better, June 25, 2009

The Amazon review above stinks. Ignore it.

I would never, ever, have known of Morning Light if I had not been the only other person in an advanced meterology class in Seattle under master weatherman Lee Chesneau. The skipper Jeremy, the navigator Piet, and the back-up navigator Chris, and I, spent a full week together. I ended up feeding them and the instructor a lot of sushi.

These three were a cut above the norm, but one of the things I learned from being with them was just how normal the crew was, and the fact that they were giving up a working position in order to carry a camaraman–in other words, they came in second to a world-class professional crew even though handicapped by one cargo camaraman. I was surprised not to see this mentioned in the film.

As for the film, it had me on the edge of my seat and as mundane as some may find aspects of the film–not exactly a James Bond movie, and certainly not a drama with hotties such as Wind–for anyone who loves sailing, this is absolutely a great film to view alone or as an excuse for a gathering of like-minded folk.

My biggest disappointment in the film is the lack of detail on training–absent my comment and my direct experience, no one would know they got advanced meterology training, or that their initial southern pick went against everything they were taught (the wind rotates counter-clockwise). Nor did I learn anything of other training.

From talking to them I learned far more about the training and the details of equipping the boat, e.g. they were each allowed one small sack of personal items, and as the boat was put together there were furious arguments about the exact weight of the navigation light at the top of the mast, and the weight of the wire from the light to the power source. That is the kind of stuff I was hoping would be in this film.

So a bit disappointing, but a superb contribution and one that I would recommend as a gift to any aspiring sailor from high school onwards.

Other DVDs in my sailing library (see my Amazon List):
Volvo Round the World Race: The SEB Stopover Reports.
Racing To Win with Gary Jobson

2009/06/092009/12/04

Review: Seeds of Terror–How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda

4 Star, Insurgency & Revolution

Stops where we need to start: USG and US Bank Complicity, June 9, 2009

Gretchen Peters

The ultimate cold call was made by the head of the SEC who went to Colombia to meet the FARC leadership and urge them to invest their drug money with Wall Street.

The Los Angeles crack cocaine plague was fueled by Blandon, a Nicaraguan contra drug dealer protected by CIA and DEA while Ricky Ross paid for being the street-level entrepreneur.

OF COURSE the top leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan are major drug dealers–their political US Government counterparts are in on the deal and the bureaucrats go along.

This is a GREAT book and the kind of investigative journalism melded with academic research that we no longer do as a Nation, so kudos for that. However meritorious, it joins other similar books from the past and does not address the core brackets: the money provided by the US Government to Pakistan in the 1980's, and the money laundering and cash liquidity that Wall Street enjoyed in the 1990's in large part because of its close alliance with global drug dealers, arms merchants, and traders in women and children as well as 40+ dictators happy to loot their commonwealths while pretending to support our “war on terror” with rendition and torture.

Until the US Government itself has integrity, and imposes integrity on Wall Street, this book is a superb account that will go absolutely nowhere in terms of impacting on the problem. WE are the problem in so far as we persist in lying to the American people about all that we do, and do not do, in their name.

Note: the annotated bibliography in the latter book, free online, covers 500+ non-fiction books, each with a link to my summary review. The URL is http://www.oss.net/BOOKS

2009/05/302009/12/04

Review: Talking Politics with God and the Devil in Washington, D.C.

4 Star, Religion & Politics of Religion

Reasonable Outrage, Glib Delivery, Core Righteousness, May 30, 2009

John Stanton

Reasonable Outrage, Glib Delivery, Core Righteousness, May 30, 2009

I may have picked this up in an airport. I was inclined toward three or four stars but brought it back to five after a quick reread from over a year ago. It is a brief book, very [Herbert] Marcusian in its tone, I credit the author with courage and insight. See other recommended books and my summary reviews for context that elevates this author's contribution.

Quote from page 37:

“The fact that 21st Century Americans are little more than laborers, captives, and like all prisoners throughout recorded history, are fearful, afraid to challenge the system in any serious way, axiously waiting on the next meal and a decent night's sleep before the alarm signals another wretched day in the hive. The routine is safe and predictable but results in a form of imprisonment for the vast majority of Americans.”

Quote from page 44:

“When votes do not matter, when draconian laws and regulations weigh on people, when employment is uncertaqin, and there is no longer any outlet for expression, frustration and anger set in. That leads to violence.”

Although I have a note to myself quibbling with his sometimes qustionable “facts,” on balance, the book hits the mark–as the famous Dagwood and Blondie cartoon goes, “who cares about the facts as long as you get the story right…”

The author joins others with his own condemnation of the “collusive duopology” (the Republican-Democratic crime family owned by Wall Street that shuts out all others) and labels this a near-totalitarian ruling system with a two-tiered system of education and health, one for the haves, one for the have-nots. I agree. We have failed the public in part because the public has failed to live up to its sovereign responsibilities and allowed the govenrment at all levels to become fraudulent, wasteful, and abusive.

In that vein, the author recommends OpenSecrets.org and points out that the Pentagon has struck out:

1. Logistics

2. Information Technology

3. Business/Contracting ($2.3 trillion unaccounted for).

He offers radical solutions (as Howard Zinn teaches us, a liberal still thinks government is part of the solution, a radical knows government is the problem) including a call for the development of a new party; a boycott of all corporations violating their pension obligations, and the nationalization of the US defense industry (to which I would add health as well as local education and the prison-slave industry).

The tone is sarcastic throughout and will alienate many (as I do), but truth is its own reward, and there I stand with the author. He's on point.

On balance the best I can do to praise this author is point to other serious books that support his views. I am now a radical. Government as it exists today must be abolished or radically restructured. Obama is a captive, issuing policies so similar to Bush's that even the dullest Democratic voter must now see that “the mafia” is in charge and the public interest has no play in Washington, D.C.

Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People

2008/10/202009/12/04

Review: The Rise of the Fourth Reich–The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America

4 Star, Impeachment & Treason, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization)

Making Connection to Obama, October 20, 2008

Jim Marrs

I gave Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids a rave review and recommend it be read with Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.

The sole purpose of this review is to link readers to three books on the treason and betrayal of the public trust by BOTH parties (two branches of the same crime family), and to connect the thesis with three books on Obama.

Congressional Treason:
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders

Obama: The Dark Side
Obama – The Postmodern Coup
Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography
The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate
Obama Unmasked: Did Slick Hollywood Handlers Create the Perfect Candidate?

In my view, all of the money flowing to Obama is NOT so much from individuals as from the major corporations and banks that are “changing the sheets” in the White House. This is all “theater” for the masses, and the “soft tyranny that Democracy in America (Penguin Classics) warns about is very likely if we are dumb enough to elect Obama, Pelosi, and Reid together. Obama is bought and paid for.

So one has to ask, Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter

This is NOT GOOD. I never thought Bush-Cheney could be outdone, but thinking about Obama-Pelosi-Reid makes Bush-Cheney look like second rate thugs overshadowed by the high theater of a Wall Street “daze” that shows us “democracy” on one hand while completing a national socialism fraud on the other, as the fat cats slip out the back door to Dubai.

McCain's campaign staff borders on being sheer idiots–I don't think he had taken the bribe that Gore took in 2000, but his campaign staff well might be bought and staging the fall.

2008/10/012009/12/04

Review: Bad Money–Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism

4 Star, Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Corruption, Politics

Too Tough for Most, Here is Short Version and Links, October 1, 2008

Kevin Phillips

I admire this author, very much, and consider him to be one of the more thoughtful public intelligence minutemen–sadly, the media has failed us, as have the think tanks, and we who wish to know the truth of any matter are left very much on our own.

Here is the short version of this book (ending with NO on the bail-out) courtesy of and with permission of Sterling Seagraves, co-author of GOLD WARRIORS:

Many Continental European banks ARE stronger than USA banks, because they have more experience with disaster in past centuries. As do some current EU governments like France, Spain and Germany. But they are exposed for 2 reasons: 1, they found it easy to borrow money from USA banks, so they became somewhat addicted to easy money, and are now having to adjust to that source of money drying up. 2, most big banks not long ago set up divisions in Paris (for example, SocGen, CredAgri, Paribas) that were to play the investment game of derivatives and short-selling. In the case of SocGen, this was exposed recently but blamed on only one man, a trick to protect many others. With CredAgri, all their regional commercial banks are very solid, but their newer Paris investment division is in deep shit because of emulating New York and London corrupt practices.

The basic problem is that citizens must have a secure place to put their savings. Conservative banks initially use this money to make conservative investments, but as time passes the young and ambitious “upstarts” (arrivists) begin to make crazier investments to advance their careers and enlarge their private wealth — but still speculating only with the savings of citizens who trusted their bank. Eventually, these upstarts went crazy. But they were encouraged to do so by their bosses, and then by the Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr administrations. During the first year of the Bush Jr administration, it had such a terrible reputation and the US economy was in such terrible condition, that it was decided to increase “housing starts” (home construction) by giving mortgages to everyone (even if they could not pay-back) because the statistics would look good on paper. This soon became a “feeding-frenzy” by the Piranha, creating a global feeding-frenzy by almost all big banks, including UBS and CreditSuisse.

The reason none of the “authorities” sounded the alarm is because they, and the politicians, and journalists, and professors, are all tied together like black slaves on a slave ship. If one goes overboard, they ALL go overboard. So they protect themselves by protecting “the system”. The proposed 700-billion US$ bail-out was simply the final robbery by the Bush admin, shared with all the big bank owners. In fact, the ECB has given that much to banks in the last two weeks to “increase liquidity” (put money in the pockets of the malefactors), so the Bush/Paulson bail-out was just a way of feeding their personal friends.

The people who are cheated are the citizens who trusted the banks with their savings. It is better to have the criminal banks crash, because only that will provoke a serious reform. I hope we are getting closer to the time when citizens will rise up and get violent. It is very healthy for governments and politicians (and bankers) to get their asses kicked, to be put in the tumbril and sent to the guillotine. This must be done every several generations to keep them afraid, because nothing on earth will keep them honest except fear. The Bush regime postponed the guillotine by mis-directing the fear of citizens toward Muslims, and avoided a quick military coup at home by sending most soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan where they are no danger to Washington. I may have put this very simply, but there are times when things need to be put simply.

END SHARED INFORMATION

Here are books that are easier to read and make the same case, but please note that all of this can be traced back to Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) and his deregulation of the financial industry with a 200+ page amendment that none of the other Senators read. Clinton “went along” because “easy money” was a popularity enhancer.

The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class – And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents (Paperback))
Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)

2008/09/292009/12/04

Review: Hot, Flat, and Crowded–Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America

4 Star, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Geography & Mapping, Politics, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

5 for intent, 3 for immaculate conception, 4 on balance, September 29, 2008

Thomas L. Friedman

I was not going to buy this book, having become generally disenchanted with the journalists style of ignoring the past 10-20 years of pioneering work by others, and instead interviewing one's way toward an immaculate conception of the same stuff.

HOWEVER, I was won over by his appearance on television, his passion for going green, and his articulate summarization of complex ideas. If you read a great deal, the book is a fast read with way too much detail. If you do NOT read a lot, this is a 5 star book with a wealth of detail you will not find in any one place elsewhere, buy it, read it SLOWLY, and be all the better for it.

A few notes for my failing memory and those who follow my reviews:

1) Better than average index, indeed, quite good and a real pleasure.

2) President Reagan undid most of the energy conservation progress made in the 1970's, costing us the equivalent of everything we are so desperate to get now.

3) Denmark is an example of getting it right, and of energy policy producing jobs and savings and quality of life beyond most people's wildest imagination.

4) George Bush Junior blew it (but the author is careful not to mention Dick Cheney's obsession with secret meetings with Enron and Exxon to plot the invasion and occupation of Iraq). The new president chose deliberately–and the author is compelling in quoting the White House press person on this point–to continue cheap gas and profligate energy waste as an American birthright of sorts.

5) Cradle to Cradle and Divesity are hot now. Duh. I quelch my annoyance as not seeing any credit to Herman Daly or Paul Hawkin or Club or Rome or Limits to Growth and so on, because later in the book he discusses how localities can become Noahs and Arks, and I like this section very much.

6) Energy Poverty is HUGE and I am thoroughly impressed by this section, which includes a discussion of how energy intersects with every other threat and policy (see my own new book on Amazon,Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography) for more details and good graphics).

7) Energy Internet, Where IT Meets ET is quite special and alone worth the price of the book for those of us that do read a great deal.

8) Innovation *is* happening, and I am extremely impressed by his account of how the US Army has been discovering the value of going green, for instance, using renewable energy to power remote outposts so as to dramatically reduce the need to truck fuel over roads, reducing both targets and costs for the entire force.

9) US Government has no energy policy, and the private sector desperately needs one if the private sector is to make the 30-50 year bets on nuclear, wind, solar, bacteria, biomass, and so on.

10) China has 106 billionaires, and the balance of the book on China, both its challenges and its potential to go green and not make our mistakes, is also very valuable and provides coverage I have not seen elsewhere.

I found a number of gifted turns of phrase in the book, and they helped to balance the verbal vomit of facts and figures stuffed into the book.

Here are two quotes that I consider worth highlighting:

“American energy policy today, says Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network, a strategic consulting firm, can be summed up as ‘Maximize demand, minimize supply, and mmake up the difference by buying as much as we can from the people who hate us the most.'” [Schwartz forgot to mention that we borrow the money with which we buy….] p. 80.

“All the human energy and talent is here [in the USA], ready to launch. Yes, it can go a long way on its own…[b]ut it will never go to the scale we need as long as our national energy policy remains so ad hoc, uncoordinated, inconsistent, and unsustained–so that the market never fully exploits our natural advantages.” p. 375

The author appears to ignore or not include the extreme greed and the predatory capitalism that characterizes the energy companies, for example, Exxon eternalizing $12 in costs to the public for every $4 in gas we buy [i.e. they did NOT make a $40 billion windfall profit this past year, they instead stole this money from the public now and in the future.]

Here are some books that I read before this one, and that I recommend very highly for those who wish to delve into the pioneering ideas of others. The author is himself a distiller and obsever, not a pioneer, but unlike his other books, on this one, I give him extra credit for being relevant, on target, and passionate in the most positive way.

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition
The Future of Life
The Biodiversity Crisis: Losing What Counts (American Museum of Natural History Books)
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
Leadership and the New Science: Learning About Organization from an Orderly Universe
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

Category: 4 Star

Review: The Plan–Big Ideas for America