Berto Jongman: Russian-based Story on Blackbird Technologies (USG Contractor) Allegedly Murdering Their Employee Kathleen Peterson & Her Family + PBI COMMENT

UPDATED 2 October 2012 to post 7 talking points. This is being read in Europe. US Family Massacred After Begging Russia For Help A shocking new Federal Security Service (FSB) report circulating in the Kremlin today alleges that an entire American family that sought Russian protection from the Obama regime was massacred by US intelligence …

Parag Khanna and Frank Jacobs: The New World – More Small Nations, New Economic Zones, High-Speed Rail, Singapore to Vladivostok to London — While the Americas Decline

The New World Frank Jacobs and Parag Khanna The New York Times Sunday Review, September 22, 2012 IT has been just over 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the last great additions to the world’s list of independent nations. As Russia’s satellite republics staggered onto the global stage, one could be …

Chuck Spinney: USG Arrogant Ignorance on Syria

Perhaps the most enduring feature of US foreign policy is a self-righteous sense of divine mission blinds the Orientations of its self-referencing practitioners to the real world consequences of their Decisions, and Actions. Their missionary zeal makes their outlooks impervious to the corrective effects negative feedback from the real world. Put simply, with a few …

NIGHTWATCH: Silence of the Diplomatic Gerbils, Failure of US Intelligence & USMC

Libya:Multiple sources have reported more details on the events that led to the death of Ambassador Stephens. The details suggest this was another case of well-intentioned but misguided hubris by Americans, as to their own safety, and well-aimed and well- targeted attacks by the Muslim attackers. This appears, in fact, to have been a deliberate …

SmartPlanet: Reinventing Education via edX and MOOC [Massive Open Online Courses]

     Q&A: Anant Agarwal, edX’s president and first professor In May, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced their joint plan to “explore the frontiers of digital education” by offering free online courses to learners around the world. As a result, their new online learning platform edX entered the burgeoning world of MOOCs …

Chuck Spinney: Secession of the Rich–Abandoning the State and Its People

Attached is a withering critique of UnAmerican Plutocracy in the American Conservative, written by my close friend and colleague, Mike Lofgren. Readers wanting to learn more about Mike’s argument should read his new book, The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.  This book ought to be must …