The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 1, 2012
A look from the skies at the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York City.
When the culture is held closed by a coven of monopolists, the truth is methodically marginalized and the various phenomena of life become incomprehensible. The confusion slowly grows until it become unbearable. Just like today. For example, to determine the degree of democracy of a Country, we use several dozen of indicators, whose very large number and variety prevent us from grasping the essential concept of democracy and therefore the way it can be properly implemented.
Yet all things, even the most complex, once well broken up and assimilated, can be conducted to a basic grade of simplicity that let us much easier to cope with life. Thus, in front of the many complex methods used to know the level of democracy of a Country, there exists a single indicator able to determine, with numerical precision, the percentage of democracy actually enjoyed and to conduct to determine its quality with the most resolvent definition.
THIS INDICATOR IS EXACTLY GIVEN BY THE FACT THAT A PUBLIC ROLE, GOVERNMENTAL OR FUNCTIONAL, IS REGULARLY, OR NOT, RETURNED TO THE PEOPLE.
Continue reading “Eagle: From Italy, A Proposal to End the Concept of a Permanent Civil Service”
Sandy notes 1: Systems and the language of causation
Dear friends,
It's so tempting to say “Global warming caused superstorm Sandy.” And it is so easy to counter with “Storms like Sandy happen. You can't say that global warming caused a particular storm!”
Much human folly nowadays comes from believing that identifying a direct cause for some social or environmental problem tells us what we need to know to “fix” it.
Unfortunately, when we're dealing with problems in a complex system – like a society or our global climate – its causes (and “fixes”) are not simple, linear and direct. They are numerous, nonlinear, indirect, many-faceted, contextual. And they almost always include us and many aspects of our lives, individually and collectively.
So how do we talk about “causation” when we're dealing with complex systems?
In the article below, George Lakoff introduces the term “systemic causation” as an alternative to “direct causation”. Megastorm Sandy gives us good occasion to explore this new term. So what does systemic causation look like in the case of Sandy?
Human economic and energy systems work in concert with the sun to add an estimated 400,000 Hiroshima bombs of heat into the global climate system every day ( http://bit.ly/400kHiroshima ), thanks largely to our carbon emissions and the feedback dynamics they trigger. That heat, working with weather and water systems makes superstorms like Sandy much more likely. Not only superstorms, but tornadoes, floods, droughts, mega wildfires, record setting temperatures, giant hail, and other extreme weather phenomena, as well strange climate-related disorders in crops, forests, oceans, insects, wildlife, glaciers, populations, economies…
By Paul Wolfowitz no less. Worth a full read, with two comments from readers also included.
It is hard to understand why Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, in discussing the US response to the attacks on two US facilities in Benghazi, Libya, offered this novel principle as a guide for US action – or inaction – during that crisis: “A basic principle is you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.”
Of course, no such “basic principle” governs the conduct of US military personnel in Afghanistan and elsewhere, who regularly go “into harm’s way” without “knowing what’s going on,” particularly when they know that American lives are in danger.
Panetta’s comment made it inevitable that people would question – as I did myself – President Obama’s claim that “The minute I found out what was happening . . . I gave the directive to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to do. I guarantee you everybody in the CIA and military knew the number-one priority was making sure our people are safe.” If that was true, did Panetta’s comment mean that the military was disregarding a clear instruction from the president?
Continue reading “DefDog: Benghazi Round-Up Plus Meta-RECAP”
Berlusconi Convicted: What We Learn from Political Media Contamination
Against all odds, former Italian prime minister Berlusconi was recently sentenced to one year in prison. This followed a long process where an Italian referendum had to be held to revoke his legal immunity, in order to indict him in the first place. We can learn a lot about the dangers of politically controlled media from how Berlusconi tried to defeat this referendum.
Phi Beta Iota: The headline does not reflect the real story: DESPITE “mainstream” media contamination, over 50% of the public participated in a vote on whether the Prime Minister's immunity should be revoked, and over 50% of those participating voted in favor of revoking his participation. What this really means is that alternative media has a greater reach than mainstream media and that the public may be illiterate, but it is not stupid and it does have values it can enforce when given the opportunity to do so.
The New Facebook Buttons: Promote, Despise, Abandon
Charles Hugh Smith Of Two Minds, November 1, 2012
How many people would click “despise FB” and “abandon FB” if those were offered alongside the new “promote for a fee” button?
Just in case you haven't noticed, your Facebook activity may not be reaching the FB audience you enjoyed a few months ago.
If you want to reach your previous audience, you need to click that little “promote” button and pay the fee.
My friend Richard Metzger of Dangerous Minds alerted me to a remarkable coincidence: shortly after Facebook's May launch of the “promote” option for business accounts, business users noticed an 85% reduction in their FB reach. Facebook: I Wany My Friends Back.
Like many other “stealth” revenue campaigns in social media, the “promote” revenue stream was first introduced as a marketing tool for enterprises and groups: Facebook's tempting ‘Promote' button for business (CNET).
It was presented as a way to expand one's reach on FB, to friends of friends, etc. What was not highlighted was the “stealth” reduction in reach to “encourage” use of the “promote” option: Broken on Purpose: Why Getting It Wrong Pays More Than Getting It Right:
