The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Last Monday, after the Pentagon released its 2013 budget materials, just about every news article I read inaccurately reported the totals. These articles did not just miss some significant bits not in DOD’s press release; they ignored another $380 billion in spending for US national security spending if you take the time to parse through …
Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: “Defense” Budget – the Full Enchilada”
Event: 30-31 March 2012 NYC Participatory Budgeting 21st Century Network Governance – Beyond Participatory Budgeting Participatory budgeting is a very important step in the right direction, but in the larger context of both obstacles presented by corrupt governance and what is possible enabled by the Internet, it can be taken–quickly–to a higher level. Participatory budgeting …
Continue reading “PROPOSAL: 21st Century Governance – Beyond Participatory Budgeting”
More lies…big ones. Defense contractors launch campaign to end military spending cuts Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2011 Seeking to whip up public support for what’s expected to be a hard-fought budget battle in Congress, a group of defense contractors launched a lobbying campaign urging an end to cuts in military spending. The campaign, named …
Can the US Have an Expansionary Fiscal Contraction? All … the attached essay was written by Simon Johnson, Ronald Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management; Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; and co-founder of Baseline Scenario. Johnson used to be Chief Economist of IMF and is, IMO, one of the sanest voices …
Simple math, the cost of one dead Taliban, $50 Million……. Cost of war in Afghanistan will be major factor in troop-reduction talks Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, May 30 EXTRACT: The U.S. military is on track to spend $113 billion on its operations in Afghanistan this fiscal year, and it is seeking $107 billion for the next. …
Continue reading “Budget Reduction: $50M for Each Dead Taliban. Duh.”
Dear friends, The three articles below describe major approaches to addressing the deficit — for health care, taxes and the military — that would have a greater impact on America’s budget woes than ANYTHING being currently negotiated by Congress and the Obama Administration. Even better, these three things would, if implemented, actually improve the quality …
Continue reading “Serious (Honest) Thinking About US Budget”
Dear friends, Recently I’ve seen a swirl of information (mostly on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation listserv) about participatory budgeting. Below, you’ll find a sampling of this info, in relatively raw form. I do not know enough to sort it all out, but it looks really fascinating. Most of this material is about …
Continue reading “Participatory Budgeting Practices, Games, Resources”
