I am honored that Eva Waskell has entrusted me to present The Privatization of Our Democracy, a work that I regard as her Profile in Courage. For 25 years she has labored to correct what is possibly the most significant public policy failure of the computer age—the privatization of vote counting carried out under the rationale that computers are simply automatic calculators that can tabulate votes more cost effectively than old analogue machines. I have known her for 19 of those years.
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People think they know that something is wrong with the way elections are conducted in this country. They are correct. There is. But readers only now will get access to a full history of the abuse of public trust by the elected politicians of the United States of America. That’s a large claim to make, but see for yourself.
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I believe that there are multiple publications here in what Eva has to say. The scholarly monograph. An Elections for Dummies paperback. A paperback of humorous tabby cat photos where the kitties are running elections. Eva is a national treasure and I am proud to be able to use the Internet to make her story known. Fortunately, there are many, many public spirited citizens left.
The first book is important because it points out the fact that globalization has been the economic equivalent of the world putting all its eggs in one basket. The imminent collapse of all national currencies will make that abundantly clear. Countries need to strive harder for self-sufficiency, sustainability, and renewability in order to avoid these kind of global economic wildfires in the future.
The second book is important because when national currencies fail, local currencies will have to be created in order to facilitate the resurrection of local economies. Only *local* economies and currencies will be able to prime the financial pumps of *national* economies and currencies, which in turn are essential for *international trade*, which in turn is essential for most *urban economies*. This is bootstrap economics. It puts the power back in local hands and takes it out of the hands of “Wall-shington Street.” (to coin a new phrase)
Most “first world” countries cannot sustain themselves without outside resources. Japan is perhaps the most extreme example. But all countries need to find ways to become as self-sustaining as possible. Self-suffiecincy and local currencies are the only things that can provide firewalls to prevent economic wildfires from spreading around the globe and wiping out every economy at once—–the downside to globalization.
The Titanic sank because the watertight compartments didn't go all the way up to the top deck. Water was able to spill over and sink the whole ship. It's the same principle with globalization as it now exists. The first book describes the problem and the second one offers a locally-based solution to the problem (at least in regard to currencies). The second book, therefore, can be of value whether or not the crash happens. If it happens, it will provide a solution. If it doesn't, it will provide a means for local economies to free themselves from the investment bankers of “Washing-Wall Street.”
4.0 out of 5 stars At full reading, disappointing, October 30, 2011
After a full reading:
Disappointing. Some authors, George Will comes to mind, do well with their recycled Op-Ed columns. I've reduced this to four stars because it just does not add up for me. At least the price was right. The “current news” nature of the author's opinion pieces simply does not bode well for their reshuffling in book form. Here are the Parts, but disconcertingly the pieces within the parts are not in chronological order, for example, a piece written in 2002 is at the end of one part.
Part I: Obama and Progressive America. Very disappointing. Weak gasps of disbelief as the white half of Obama, bought and paid for by Goldman Sachs, wallowed in business as usual.
Part II: A New Economic Narrative. There are gems here, but on balance the author skirts around the two words that matter: CORRUPTION (rules in Washington) and INTEGRITY (not to be found in Washington).
This is a “must read” for anyone who smelled a rat in the 2000 presidential election. Written eight years before the fact, the authors accurately predict Janet Reno's inaction and Justice Scalia's brazen decision, which effectively shut down the couting process. Not just theory, the Collier brothers personally discovered and present hard evidence of decades of Florida vote fraud.
The clues point to a systematic corruption of our voting system by the heads of the major mass media corporations. It's no surprise that Bush's cousin at the Fox news decision desk triggered the stampede of “BUSH WINS” graphics. And its no surprise that searching every mass media website will yield no hits on the word “votescam”.
This book does not lean towards either major political party. It simply champions democracy, freedom of information and the need to enforce our voting laws. Buy it. Read it. Take action to revive our right to vote.
Don't let the claimed 4-6 week wait dissuade you. I got my copy after a wait of only four days on December 10th, 2000.)
Now the world is noticing. He appeared on Russia Today TV, which has eclipsed BBC as the English-language trusted source (and also excels at migrating its TV shorts to the web and to print), and here are some of his own words that illuminate how important his book is:
He says:
The ultimate goal of the US is to take the resources of Africa and Middle East under military control to block economic growth in China and Russia, thus taking the whole of Eurasia under control, author and historian William F. Engdahl reveals.
The crisis with the US economy and the dollar system, the conduct of the US foreign policy is all a part of breakdown of the entire superpower structure that was built up after the end of WWII, claims Engdahl.
“Nobody in Washington wants to admit, just as nobody in Britain a hundred years ago wanted to admit that the British Empire was in terminal decline,” claims the author, noting that “All of this is related to the attempt to keep this sole superpower not only intact, but to spread its influence over the rest of the planet.”
William F. Engdahl believes the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa is a plan first announced by George W. Bush at a G8 meeting in 2003 and it was called “The Greater Middle East Project”.
The US Government is out of control, and it is out of control because a two-party tyranny (less turnover than the Politburo, in Peggy Noonan's great line for use by Ronald Reagan) has nurtured a combination of Wall Street legalized greed and neo-con military-industrial complex that has sold out the US taxpayer — 5% earmarks “buy” a 95% corporate hand-out, one third of that money borrowed in our name.
Occupy Wall Street is incoherent right now – when they get their act together, it is my hope they will focus on an Electoral Reform Act of 2012 – in my view, there is nothing wrong with America the Beautiful — all these enormous crimes against humanity not-withstanding – that cannot be fixed quickly by restoring integrity to our electoral system, hence our govenrment, hence our society and economy.
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Strong Spanish-Language Text, 31 Oct 2011
I know the author personally, have followed his work over many years, and consider him to be one of the top authorities on intelligence writing in the Spanish language. I recently worked with him in Spain on an initiative he has been developing, to help the Spanish government and Spanish commerce make better use of open sources of intelligence while also refining their methods in relation to data integrity, product integrity, and system or behavioral integrity.
Although I am not familiar with all the publications in Spanish on intelligence, people I trust tell me that this is one of the top books in Spanish. I do not look for it to be translated soon, but would certainly recommend to any publishing house that they consider doing so, as we are all [except the Western governments] moving toward M4IS2 hybrid eight tribe governance, and this is something the author is helping to explain to all governments and business and academic and non-governmental communities that work in the Spanish languages.
M4IS2: Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information-Sharing and Sense-Making
Rather than list specific books I also recommend here, I want to point readers to my full list of most intelligence books that I have reviewed for Amazon, just search for intelligence (most and get right to it with links to the Amazon pages for each book.
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely important Spanish-language future-relevant book on intelligence, 31 Oct 2011
I know the author personally, have followed his work over many years, and consider him to be one of the top authorities on intelligence writing in the Spanish language. I recently worked with him in Spain on an initiative he has been developing, to help the Spanish government and Spanish commerce make better use of open sources of intelligence while also refining their methods in relation to data integrity, product integrity, and system or behavioral integrity.
Although I am not familiar with all the publications in Spanish on intelligence, people I trust tell me that this is one of the top books in Spanish. I do not look for it to be translated soon, but would certainly recommend to any publishing house that they consider doing so, as we are all [except the Western governments] moving toward M4IS2 hybrid eight tribe governance, and this is something the author is helping to explain to all governments and business and academic and non-governmental communities that work in the Spanish languages.
M4IS2: Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information-Sharing and Sense-Making
Rather than list specific books I also recommend here, I want to point readers to my full list of most intelligence books that I have reviewed for Amazon, just search for intelligence (most and get right to it with links to the Amazon pages for each book.
