Dissatisfied?

Thu, Jun 26, 2014, 10:36 pm

Pentagon Funds 'Terror Studies' to Dissect and Neutralize Dissenters

"…the military has commissioned U.S. universities to help it figure out how to deal with dissatisfied and, therefore, dangerous populations all around the world, including the United States."

"The goal of “terrorism studies” is “to find possible vectors of resistance, which are to be identified and eradicated, like a disease.”"  I guess that's a public health approach?

"The Pentagon wants to know why folks who don’t themselves engage in violence to overthrow the prevailing order become, what the military calls, “supporters of political violence.”"

They have to study that?  What's the object, to see how little they can get away with?  Seems obvious. Dissatisfaction is part of the happiness continuum.  There's been a lot of study of that lately and countries with better entitlements unsurprisingly rate better.  Basically, happiness grows as advantages are given and disappointment grows as advantages are taken.  Of course, it always depends on which end of the stick, but there remains a threshhold of marginal utility - why the melting pot could become a boiling pot.

It will be interesting to eventually collate the military/academic product of this initiative and see if they bow to their funding-master's global enemy paradigm or, as long as we're taking a public health approach, recommend systematically redressing social, political and economic inequities.

That's probably the best homeland security?

Tip Johnson

Something Fishy: Jobs and Herring

Thu, Jun 26, 2014, 12:10 pm

In a politically inflammatory alert, the Northwest Jobs Alliance asserts that "…Cherry Point industrial job base,…was the result of decades of careful thought and planning…" and that "We must have both… ...economic prosperity and environmental quality."  Notice which comes first?

So-called careful planning at Cherry Point wiped out more than half the herring production of all of Puget Sound.  That injected some serious imbalance on the environmental side of their equation.

NWJobs says that threatening or interfering with industrial job growth at Cherry Point will hurt "…our community's economy…" and that "…our schools and local cities would suffer from a decimated tax base and diminished services…", claiming, "Industry now carries much of the tax load."  Someone should check that fact. 

NWJobs says, "We reject the thinking that we can't have both economic prosperity and environmental quality."

Well, that policy has produced a lot more jobs but a lot fewer herring at Cherry Point.  How about if NWJobs proves they "…seek Balanced Community Solutions."  Restore the herring at Cherry Point before issuing permits for more pollution. The best environmental policy is always the best long-term economic policy.

Tip Johnson

The Slippery Slope

Wed, Jun 25, 2014, 12:23 am

Guess which country does the most good for the planet?

“To cut a long story short, I discovered the thing people most admired is the perception that a country is good. That turned out to be much more important than the perception they’re rich or beautiful or powerful or modern or anything like that. So then I wanted to know which countries are perceived to contribute the most to humanity — and which countries actually are good.”  Simon Anholt, winner of the tenth annual Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership in Economics and Management

The results

Tip Johnson

Bellingham set to join the NSA?

Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 9:38 pm

Over at Whatcom Hawk, Wendy Harris highlights the following development:

The city is gearing up to buy NSA-like software - and ballistic plates to augment their flak jackets.  Maybe they are expecting trouble?

Wendy says, "Domestic terrorist concerns are being increasingly redefined to justify spying on local nonviolent activists."

From the literature:

The software sought "...provides access to massive amounts of commercial data not previously available to (police).

"It is the first incident intelligence tool to provide (911 switchboards) and first responders access to billions of commercial data records such as vehicle ownership, permits, property records, relatives, purchases, Internet and social media activities."

"Beware provides responders considerably more information about people, places and properties than what may be available to the 911 switchboards or found in local, state and/or federal criminal databases."

Read the agenda docs here and here.

The ballistic armor will stop high caliber rifle rounds.  That's something.

Tip Johnson

Wink and a Nod

Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 12:11 pm

Trader sues over skimpy $8.25 million bonus

Deeb Salem wrote about "a short squeeze involving derivatives linked to subprime home loans in 2007."

His comments became featured in a  Senate investigation of Goldman Sachs reaping massive profits by betting against the mortgage market as the housing sector tanked in 2006 and 2007.

"You just don't talk about such things in your job evaluations at Goldman."  Salem says his pay was docked as punishment for his comments. Yep, forgot to shut up, wink and nod.

Meanwhile, there is new data out on income inequality in the US.

Source of graphic

Robert Reich: Even business leaders realize income inequality is crippling the economy

Money talks.  Government listens.

Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 1:04 am

Public input missing from White House meetings on rail safety rules

If elections matter so much, why don't we allow campaign contributions only from registered voters?

We have long known that using atmosphere to combust carbon was stupid.  Now we know it is murderous, or genocidal.  Ask atoll nations.

Will we continue carbon subsidies at the expense of solar and wind?  Will we tax, credit and trade carbon credits and create another market casino?  Only carbon subsidies make carbon consumption viable. Let's move on.

Post-Crash Economics

Thu, Jun 19, 2014, 9:07 pm

Post-Crash Economics

Robert Skidelsky is a Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University, a fellow of the British Academy in history and economics and a member of the British House of Lords.

He and others are redefining how we will think about economics - I hope.

According to an article by him in Project Syndicate, "Less noticed, because less obviously political, are today’s intellectual rumblings, of which French economist Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a withering indictment of growing inequality, is the latest manifestation."

"The deeper message is that mainstream economics is in fact an ideology – the ideology of the free market."

The links should keep thinking folk going for months.

Tip Johnson

Corporations Ain’t Gonna Do It

Thu, Jun 19, 2014, 7:59 pm

Here's what corporations and environmental regulators are up to: Wrecking the effin' food chain of the Salish Sea.  Excuse me, we live here and herring feed the salmon, so let's restore the herring populations before permitting more pollution at Cherry Point (and elsewhere).

Look what others are doing:  Several Nations Announce Massive Marine Reserves in the Pacific.

Here's what we are doing.  It's really up to us, not the permit writers or their destructor masters. Will we allow complete destruction?  It's not in our best interests!

Like us on facebook.  And then get busy.

You can get started here.

Tip Johnson