Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2314 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

2013/06/21

SmartPlanet: Should Bus Fares Go Away — What Is True Cost of Fares, and True Falue of Optimzing Public Transport Use?

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By Tyler Falk | June 20, 2013

As bus fare hikes in Brazil helped spark the largest protests that the country has seen in 20 years (those fare hikes have since been reversed in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), The Economist has a provocative proposition: make buses free.

They come to this conclusion looking at the proof-of-payment fare-collection systems that many transit systems have adopted as a way to make transit systems more efficient. But The Economist says that making transit free would take that efficiency a step further. Here’s the argument:

Fares bring in a lot of money, but they cost money to collect—6% of the MTA’s budget, according to a 2007 report in New York magazine. Fare boxes and turnstiles have to be maintained; buses idle while waiting for passengers to pay up, wasting fuel; and everyone loses time. Proof-of-payment systems don’t solve the problem of fare-collection costs as they require inspectors and other staff to handle enforcement, paperwork and payment processing. Making buses and subways free, on the other hand, would increase passenger numbers, opening up space on the streets for essential traffic and saving time by reducing road congestion.

Transit systems aren’t cheap so, of course, the lost fare revenue would have to be made up somehow. That can be done in a number of ways: a congestion charge for cars entering dense downtowns; funneling money from downtown parking into transit; or getting private sponsorships.

Continue reading “SmartPlanet: Should Bus Fares Go Away — What Is True Cost of Fares, and True Falue of Optimzing Public Transport Use?”

2013/06/212013/06/21

4th Media: Syria is Obama’s Iraq — Money Talks, Lies Abound, Only the Poor Die

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude

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Syria Is Becoming Obama’s Iraq: In Perfect Bush-like Fashion, President Obama Too …

In perfect Bush-like fashion, President Obama has invented a bogus pretense for military intervention in yet another Middle East country.

The president’s claim that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons — and thus crossed Obama’s imaginary “red line” — will likely fool very few Americans, who already distrust their president after the massive NSA spying scandal. Obama has officially started down a path that inevitably leads to full-scale war.

At this point the Obama administration thinks it has already invested too much military, financial, and diplomatic capital into the Syrian conflict to turn back, and each step forward brings the U.S. closer to a direct military intervention.Much like Obama’s spying program, few Americans knew that the United States was already involved, neck deep, with the mass killings occurring in Syria.

For example, Obama has been directly arming the Syrian rebels for well over a year. The New York Times broke the story that the Obama administration has — through the CIA — been illegally trafficking thousands of tons of guns to the rebels from the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

If not for these Obama-trafficked guns, thousands of deaths would have been prevented and the Syrian conflict over. But even after the gun trafficking story broke, the mainstream media largely ignored it, and continued “reporting” that the U.S. has only been supplying the Syrian rebels with “non-lethal aid,” a meaningless term in a war setting, since all military aid directly assists in the business of killing.

Continue reading “4th Media: Syria is Obama's Iraq — Money Talks, Lies Abound, Only the Poor Die”

2013/06/21

SchwartzReport: US Supreme Court Unethical & Corrupt — As with the Congress, the Time to Flush the Court is Now

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement

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This is why the appointment of Supreme Court Justices matters so much. We now have a court which routinely favors corporations over individuals. Here is their latest decision, part of the Legalization Trend. Increasingly monopolistic practices that would previously have been illegal, are now the law of the land. We are becoming a country wh! ere corporate influence makes illegal things legal so that vassal politicians, and corporations can say, “They/we broke no laws. Everything they/we are doing is perfectly legal.”

In Major Blow To Consumers, Supreme Court Protects Mega-Corporations From Liability
NICOLE FLATOW – Think Progress

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: US Supreme Court Unethical & Corrupt — As with the Congress, the Time to Flush the Court is Now”

2013/06/21

NIGHTWATCH: Middle Class Youth Turn Violent — Government Remains Corrupt and Ignorant

01 Brazil, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government

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Brazil: The demonstrations are starting to turn violent. The day after the government revoked the transportation fare increases the demonstrations swelled again and engaged in more aggressive clashes with police.

President Dilma Rousseff decided to call off a visit to Japan that was planned for next week. The forthcoming visit by Pope Francis might also have to be rescheduled if the demonstrations continue.

In Rio de Janeiro riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at groups of masked young men trying to approach the City Hall late on Thursday. At least 29 people were reported to be injured in the clashes.

Some reports suggest about 300,000 people were taking part in an anti-government rally in the city. One news service reported more than 800,000 people participated in demonstrations in the major Brazilian cities

Comment: The polling agency, Datafolha, published its findings from a poll of the demonstrators in Sao Paulo yesterday. More than half of the demonstrators are under 25. Seventy-seven percent have higher education. Eighty-four percent back no political party, suggesting they do not vote.

The dominant issue for more than half was the fare increase which has been withdrawn. Corruption, a better transportation system, against all politicians and against violence and repression were distant other issues.

What the poll and anecdotal reports indicate is that the beneficiaries of Brazilian prosperity are protesting. The poll found no poor or disadvantaged people and few unemployed among the protestors. Brazil has low unemployment even for workers under age 25. The protestors have no organization or leadership. They gather by cell-phone notification. Expect the demonstrations to expand this weekend and become more violent.

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2013/06/212013/06/21

NIGHTWATCH: US Kicked Out of Kyrgyzstan, Taliban Declares Victory

Ethics, Government

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Kyrgyzstan-US: On Thursday, 20 June, the Kyrgyz parliament voted 91 to 5 in favor of ending the lease agreement with the US for use of Manas air base when it expires in 2014. The bill will take effect after being signed by the Kyrgyz president. The US has been given notice to vacate the premises by July 2014 when the lease expires.

Comment: The vote is no surprise, though the US had hoped to keep using Manas after 2014. President Atambayev campaigned in 2011 to end the lease agreement with the US and to establish closer ties with Russia. Last year, Kyrgyzstan extended for 15 years the Russian lease to use Kant air base, which is not far from Manas.

The transit center at Manas has been critical in military personnel movements to and from Afghanistan, but the lease agreement has been a longstanding source of controversy among Kyrgyzstan, Russia and the US. The significance of a firm end date is that it takes away any easy option and capability for an emergency surge or bailout, to help save the Karzai government after mid-2014. It also means the final phase of the withdrawal must transit Pakistan or use Russian bases.

Like South Asia, Central Asia is a half-continent too far for the US to sustain deep engagement in defiance of Russia or China.

Afghanistan: For the record. In web postings today, the Taliban gloated about their political victory over the US.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: US Kicked Out of Kyrgyzstan, Taliban Declares Victory”

2013/06/212013/06/21

John Robb: Canada Makes It Illegal to Wear Masks — Reflections on the Loss of Government Legitimacy (and Sanity) — Beards May Be Next…

Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

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Canada Makes the Automation of Tyranny Easier

Here's a sign of the times. Canada has made wearing a mask at a protest a crime.

Why did they do this? It makes it easier for police to ID people using CCTV and social media photos after a protest occurs.

It also makes it easier to assemble a database of facial portraits, that can be run through rapidly improving facial recognition software, so everyone involved in the protest can be IDed and the information stored in a database, for use in the future.

For me, it's another sign that the big, cumbersome nation-state is in decline.

Decline?

First of all, don't confuse decline with collapse. The decline of the nation-state doesn't mean it's going away entirely.

Like the feudal system before it, it's got a long life ahead of it (much of it at our expense).

The nation-state's rise to power and innevitable decline reads like a Greek tragedy. The nation-state became globally ubiquitous due to its ability to militarily crush all competitive forms of governance. That competition was eventually won in the last century, and nuclear weapons seal the peace. Large scale conventional conflict is now something for the history books (despite the occasional sideshows like Iraq).

However, this success means that the nation-state has lost its raison d'etre, its reason for being. There aren't any external competitors for the nation-state left to crush, despite a voracious desire to do so.

This loss of legitimacy and an creeping economic impotence (in almost all cases in developed world, they haven't delivered prosperity to most citizens in decades) has led to a gnawing fear within political and bureaucratic elites. A fear that they are losing control. A paranoia that turns every citizen into a potential enemy of a nation-state that requires enemies in order to justify its existence.

Continue reading “John Robb: Canada Makes It Illegal to Wear Masks — Reflections on the Loss of Government Legitimacy (and Sanity) — Beards May Be Next…”

2013/06/212013/06/21

Gordon Duff: Modern Cars As Murder Weapons — Just Attach A Transceiver to the On Board Computer, and Assume Control — Works on Aircraft as Well

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Military

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“We Got The Message…”

Hastings “Boston Brakes” Killing a Warning?

Imagine a new “E Class” Mercedes exploding in flames, burning to a cinder. 220 km/hr crashes on the Autobahn are often survived, certainly without a fire.

There is a reason to own a Mercedes, in normal circumstances the chances of dying in one are quite remote unless you are Lady Di or heir to the presidency of Syria or, just perhaps, wrote a scathing expose that dismembered part of one of the greatest drug empires of all time.

“Yes, you got Michael Hastings. We are warned. Lots of journalists are killed each year. Veterans Today loses its share, perhaps a bit more. ”

For those who didn’t watch the entire video, go back. Catch the last few seconds. I was flabbergasted.

Those of us who have “been there and done that,” and come back with more than the T Shirt say goodbye to one of ours.

RIP Michael from “g” and the gang at “VT”

Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Modern Cars As Murder Weapons — Just Attach A Transceiver to the On Board Computer, and Assume Control — Works on Aircraft as Well”