Berto Jongman & Jan Rappoport: Question Authority? You Must Be Crazy.

In the Dutch media there wqs a discussion today about an opinion poll about support for conspiracy theories organized by a Dutch university research group. The researchers used the same arguments as in the NYT piece. If you ask sensible questions and don’t believe the official narrative you must be crazy and have low self …

Penguin: General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, USMC, on Why “Too Busy to Read” Is a Moron’s Cop-Out on Leadership Responsibility

A model for all of us. General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis Email About Being ‘Too Busy To Read’ Is A Must-Read Geoffrey Ingersoll In the run up to Marine Gen. James Mattis‘ deployment to Iraq in 2004, a colleague wrote to him asking about the “importance of reading and military history for officers,” many of whom …

Open Power: Democracy Lost & Found Essay, Book Review Blurbs and Links [Updated 3 MAR 2015]

NEW: Kindle Book Open Power ($2.99) OLD: Core Documents for Both Initiatives (Free) OLD: the foundation book The Open Source Everything Manifesto ROBERT STEELE: There are two schools of thought on effecting political (and hence economic and social) reform. One school is the school of love — this school emphasizes trust building and doing no …

Chuck Spinney: Neo-Imperialism and the Arrogance of Ignorance with Extended Comments and Additional Readings

My latest screed on US pol-mil policy, a shorter version of this appeared on 27 Feb in the Time Battleland Blog here. Chuck Spinney Africa and AFRICOM:Neo-Imperialism and the Arrogance of Ignorance by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY Counterpunch, WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 1-3, 2013 Most Americans do not realize the extent to which the U.S. is becoming involved …

Mongoose: Bradley Manning – a Case Study in Government Misconduct, Government Ineptitude, and More Government Misconduct — Daniel Ellsberg Walked, Bradley Manning Probably Should As Well

UPDATED 1 Mar 2013 to add Comment from Paul Harper at Google+. The US Government is incredibly stupid about counterintelligence. They learned nothing from the Falcon and the Snowman, and it is clear that the defense team for Bradley Manning will be able to bracket the charges with a) government misconduct as revealed in the …

Review: National Insecurity – The Cost of American Militarism

Mel Goodman 5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar Offering — Both Panoramic and Specific, February 23, 2013 First let me warn other reviewers, the new Amazon review protocol is not friendly. You have to enter a short review first, and then once that goes live, you can write a more sophisticated review with product links. …

Winslow Wheelers: Morally Bankrupt Flag Officers Need to Go + Pentagon Corruption RECAP

The Joint Chiefs of Staff testified to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees this week arguing that unless their budgets are augmented with still more money they will hollow out the armed forces. Most in the press and Congress didn’t read their assertions that way, but two near simultaneous reports that provide some meaningful …