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How Charities Cheat Everyone: The Bono Example

Corruption, Gift Intelligence, Non-Governmental
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Bono's ONE foundation under fire for giving little over 1% of funds to charity By Daily Mail Reporter Daily Mail UK, 23rd September 2010 Bono's anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its finances after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy. The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6million in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent). The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1million went towards paying salaries.

Read rest of story….

Tip of the Hat to Justice Seeker at Facebook.

Phi Beta Iota: This fraudulent attribute afflicts almost all “charities” and most especially the Clinton and Bush “foundations” as well as the Red Cross.  Katrina and Haiti are classic examples of the fraud that is common.

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BitCoin: The Bubble versus The Trust

03 Economy, 11 Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process
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John Robb

THE BITCOIN BUBBLE

If you haven't already heard about bitcoin, the first popular cypto-currency, you soon will.  The idea for the currency is simple.  It's a software system that makes it possible to manufacture and trade (P2P), in a public and decentralized way, a limited digital resource.  That's it.

So why the interest in bitcoin?

Simple.  It appears to be gaining critical mass as a transactional currency that operates outside of the traditional monetary conduits (banks, SWIFT, etc.).  That fact alone has attracted lots of people to the system, despite the fact that it's not built to allow completely anonymous transactions (it can't be, given that it requires network broadcasts of every transaction to maintain the integrity of the system and prevent counterfeiting).

As a transactional currency that operates outside of traditional systems, it's actually a pretty good medium of exchange (particularly if those transactions are small and quick).  The problems arise when people confuse bitcoin's role as a transactional medium and its role as a store of value (as in: holding it as an asset).

Continue reading “BitCoin: The Bubble versus The Trust”

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Event: 1500 ET 7 June Ben & Jerry on Restoring USA

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John Steiner

Greetings

We hope that you can join us for a

Webinar:  Beyond Citizens United: Returning our Democracy and Constitution to the People with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's )

Tuesday, June 7th ­ 3pm ET, 2pm CT, 1pm MT, 12pm PT

Join us for presentations and dialogue with: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's) who will offer a business perspective on Citizens United and challenge the notion that corporations are people with constitutional rights, including limitless financial license to influence our elections.  Hear from national advocates for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, John Bonifaz and Jeff Clements of Free Speech for People, who will present the historical and legal background and rationale for
challenging the fabricated doctrine of corporate rights under the Constitution.  American Sustainable Business Council¹s Executive Director David Levine will give an update on the Campaign. Please share this invitation with business leaders who may be interested.

Cosponsored by A Business for Democracy (http://www.businessfordemocracy.com
<http://www.businessfordemocracy.com>  ) and Free Speech For People
(http://www.freespeechforpeople.org <http://www.freespeechforpeople.org>   )

To sign up for this webinar, please register at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/736389542
<https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/736389542>

For more information about the American Sustainable Business Council
http://www.asbcouncil.org <http://www.asbcouncil.org>

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The Rule of Little Groups of Paratroops (LGOP)

Blog Wisdom
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John Marke

Some D-Day reflections from 2009 that still merit reflection today.

“The Rule of LGOPs” Little Groups of Paratroops

On this the 67th anniversary of the World War II D-Day invasion it is only fitting to remind ourselves that rarely do things go as planned in battle. The 18th century military strategist Carl Von Clausewitz called it the “fog of war.” It must have been pretty foggy on the night of June 5th and morning of June 6th 1944 off the coast of Normandy. In the pre-dawn hours Airborne troopers were dropped all over the field of battle, few hitting the “drop zone” as planned…

 

Rule of LGOPs
“After the demise of the best Airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield.  This effect is known as the Rule of LGOPs.  This is, in its purest form, small groups of 19-year old American Paratroopers. They are well-trained, armed-to-the-teeth and lack serious adult supervision. They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as “March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who is not dressed like you…” …or something like that. Happily they go about the day’s work…

The Rule of LGOPs is instructive:
– They shared a common vision
– The vision was simple, easy to understand, and unambiguous
– They were trained to improvise and take the initiative
– They need to be told what to do; not how to do it

Read full post….

Phi Beta Iota: John focuses on issues of complexity and resilience, and both his blog and his book reviews at Amazon will begin to appear here as they are posted.

See Also:

His Blog

His Amazon Reviews

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Open Source Anonymous Banking….Here Now!

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Technologies, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Reform, Tools
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Michael Ostrolenk Recommends...

What Happens When Anonymous Gets a Bank?

Dominic Basulto on May 18, 2011

bigthink

The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they've created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system. Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that's right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that's untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous.

And that's where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he's ever seen. TIME suggested that Bitcoin might be able to bring national governments and global financial institutions to their knees. You see, Bitcoin is as much a political statement as it is a virtual currency. If you think there's a shadow banking system now, wait a few more months. The political part is that, unlike other virtual currencies like Facebook Credits (used to buy virtual sock puppets for your friends), Bitcoins are globally transferrable across borders, making them the perfect instrument to finance any cause or any activity — even if it's banned by a sovereign government.

You don't need a banking or trading account to buy and trade Bitcoins – all you need is a laptop. They're like bearer bonds combined with the uber-privacy of a Swiss bank account, mixed together with a hacker secret sauce that stores them as 1's and 0's on your computer. They're “regulated” (to use the term lightly) by distributed computers around the world. Most significantly, Bitcoins can not be frozen or blocked or taxed or seized.

Read full article….

See Also:

Open Money
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UN Declares Internet Access a Human Right…

Advanced Cyber/IO
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DefDog Recommends....

The U.N. Declares Internet Access a Human Right

By Adam Clark Estes 11:29 AM ET

The United Nations counts internet access as a basic human right in a report that bears implications both to on-going events in the Arab Spring and to the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers.

Acting as special rapporteur, a human rights watchdog role appointed by the UN Secretary General, Frank La Rue takes a hard line on the importance of the internet as “an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress.”

Presented to the General Assembly on Friday, La Rue's report comes as the capstone of a year's worth of meetings held between La Rue and local human rights organizations around the world, from Cairo to Bangkok. The report's introduction points to the impact of online collaboration in the Arab Spring and says that “facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States.”

The UN report overwhelmingly supports the internet as a communication platform, a boon to all democratic societies, but it also warns how the internet's unique architecture threatens power brokers in those societies:

Read rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: The three billion poor are not going to pay what the one billion rich have been paying, nor are they going to put up with proprietary technology.  OpenBTS will lead the way toward an Autonomous Internet (Open, Free, Distributed].  Open Everything will have its day.