John Steiner
Check out the video the mining industry never expected you to see:
http://www.getup.org.au/
You simply have to see this video to believe it.
This week mining billionaire Gina Rinehart became the largest shareholder in Fairfax, having already bought a stake in Channel Ten. But this new video reveals this move is bigger than one woman’s ambition – it’s part of a coordinated and very deliberate strategy, with climate skeptic ‘Lord’ Monkton seen here advising a room full of mining executives on how the industry must gain control of Australia’s media.
Can you help share this video so all Australians understand what’s really going on in the mining industry?
http://www.getup.org.au/
We’ve seen what happened in the USA when coordinated, super-wealthy corporate interests set about deliberately reshaping the media landscape to suit their agendas. It’s bad news for democracy and it’s bad news for the issues we care about. And while this most recent purchase was a brazen move, it’s hardly the first time a mining industry executive has used their vast wealth to push an agenda.
Last year, Rinehart helped set up a new lobby group calling for a special ‘Northern Economic Zone’ demanding lower tax, government concessions and cheap migrant labor from Asia. She helped bankroll the campaign against Government efforts to ask the mining industry to pay their fair share of tax through the Mining Super Profits tax and she’s been actively sponsoring prominent climate skeptics like Monckton, Ian Plimer and Andrew Bolt, who got his own TV show weeks after she invested in Channel Ten.
Phi Beta Iota: The Internet, the schools, and how the general public is informed are the battleground for 21st century peace and prosperity. All are rotten to the core right now, but all signs point to a global public rebellion that is insistent on getting back to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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Note: this book will NOT be available free online. Pre-orders are offered by Amazon at a $5 discount.
THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth, & Trust
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The New Rules: Slouching Toward Great-Power War
Thomas P.M. Barnett
World Politics Review, 06 Feb 2012
EXTRACTS:
However, a case can be made that in recent years, the greatest threat to this enduring component of global stability arises from within the United States itself — namely, a national security establishment intent on pressing the boundaries of this heretofore rather sacrosanct responsibility.
. . . . . . .
But when you consider the developments of the past three years under President Barack Obama, several of which admittedly represent continuity from the Bush-Cheney period, it is clear that the current administration is guilty of resuscitating and even accelerating this disturbing trend along several lines.
. . . . . . .
If any other great power killed its enemies around the world at will, it would be called a “state-sponsor of terrorism” of the most destabilizing sort.
. . . . . .
In a world relatively freer of conflict than at any other point in human history, and while otherwise reducing military spending, the Pentagon is busy gearing up its AirSea Battle Concept, with China as its obvious target. Meanwhile, our new national cyber-security strategy equates Chinese military-industrial snooping with an act of war and advocates the right to strike back kinetically at equivalent Chinese facilities — in effect, pre-approving China for immediate state-of-war conditions. The parallel with America claiming the right to summarily execute anyone, anywhere in the world, after unilaterally deciding it is at war with them is striking.
. . . . . . .
What puzzles me most is why no one else is asking these questions, because it’s happening right under all of our noses.
Phi Beta Iota: Mr. Barnett has been a fully-entrenched apologist for the very people he condemns now. While we welcome him to the real world, and empathize with his discovery that all his “mentors” are completely lacking in ethics, the fact is that quite a few of us have been asking these questions since 1994, the most diplomatic being full-time employees of the U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) such as Dr. Col Max Manwaring, and Dr. Steve Metz, with such iconoclasts and loyal dissenters as Robert Steele publishing frequently in the 1990′s, less so after 2000 when it became clear Washington was no longer interested in truthful intelligence. Lies kill. We’ve been saying that for some time now, and welcome those who are, while late, badly needed reinforcements as we seek to restore America the Beautiful, beginning with the restoration of the integrity of the government. No question about it…INTEGRITY is now back in style by public demand.
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THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth, & Trust
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LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS
Armed Forces Journal,
I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.
What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.
. . . . . . . .
Tell The Truth
When it comes to deciding what matters are worth plunging our nation into war and which are not, our senior leaders owe it to the nation and to the uniformed members to be candid — graphically, if necessary — in telling them what’s at stake and how expensive potential success is likely to be. U.S. citizens and their elected representatives can decide if the risk to blood and treasure is worth it.
Likewise when having to decide whether to continue a war, alter its aims or to close off a campaign that cannot be won at an acceptable price, our senior leaders have an obligation to tell Congress and American people the unvarnished truth and let the people decide what course of action to choose. That is the very essence of civilian control of the military. The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the truth would be a good start. AFJ
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Circulating today in the New York Times and Armed Forces Journal is a remarkable exposure of what is occurring today in Afghanistan–a situation not accurately reported to the American public, and of course Congress. Col. Danny Davis (USA) is the officer making this exposure possible. It will not surprise some, but it will also come as news to many, perhaps because they have consciously or unconsciously chosen to accept a more comforting view of the un-remedial situation in Afghanistan after 10 years of American conflict there. To Col. Davis we all owe a debt of thanks and support.
The exposure also involves subjects every bit as important as the insights about the war in Afghanistan. As you read Col. Davis’ article in Armed Forces Journal, take note of what he says about the technology the Army has been pursuing for more than a decade. Note also that, as Col. Davis’ insights make clear, it is the moral factors that decide wars, not the technological ones: a lesson that was all too vivid after the Vietnam War where America had a gigantic technological edge and lost because of the moral and ethical issues in both Vietnam and the United States. It is remarkable how Afghanistan is unfolding the same way, especially regarding the hollow, corrupt husk of a government in Afghanistan and the misleading picture of the war created out of whole cloth in the US from the assertions of those whose political and bureaucratic careers are committed to it.
With Col. Davis’ permission, I am distributing his letter to others (below): it provides an excellent introduction to what he is doing, why, and the content. His letter also links to today’s New York Times article and the Armed Forces Journal article, which I especially urge you to read.
My Dearest Friends,I haven’t talked to many of you in awhile, but so the rest of this makes sense, i was deployed to Afghanistan for a year between November 2010 and October 2011. i saw many things during that deployment – the fourth combat deployment of my career – that i found disturbing. eventually i felt morally obligated to do something about what i saw to such an extent that i was incapable of notacting. here’s what i’ve done and things that are being done as a result:Scott Shane from the New York Times will publish a story on the actions i’ve taken, and the Armed Forces Journal will simultaneously publish an article i’ve written explaining why i submitted a Department of Defense Inspector General complaint against select senior leaders of the Armed Forces for so being so deceptive to the US Congress and American people that the truth is no longer recognizable – and the biggest bill-payer for this deception has been the lives and bodies of America’s service men and women. additionally i have briefed three members of the House (Jones, Garamendi, and McGovern), four Senators (Merkley, Bennet, Tom Udall, and Manchen) as well as 18 other Senate staffers representing numerous other offices. this briefing included a classified and unclassified portion (and the DoD IG complaint also included a classified and unclassified component), and was also submitted in the form of a request for Congress to investigate my allegations.
Supposedly, the three House members are planning on going to the House floor on Tuesday with up to 10 other Members to speak on the matter and demand an investigation and hearings (or whatever they do on the floor!); the Senators suggested they are considering similar action.
Part of my AFJ article includes a link to a web site i set up for the purpose of hanging the unclassified report for everyone to see (the AFJ article is only 2,400 words, while the unclass report is 86 pages; the classified report is 58 pages). however, there is a battle within the Army Public Affairs on releasing the document, which i submitted for review on 20 January – the same day i disclosed to the Army’s senior leaders and my chain of command what was coming. officers from the Army Media Relations department tried to pry it loose on Friday because they believe it is the right thing to do, but someone – they didn’t tell me who – overruled them and said it would take longer still…
in case you’d like to read the Armed Forces Journal article i wrote to see what exactly i witnessed, the article has just been posted on their web site.
The New York Times will publish the story on my actions in their Monday paper edition, but an online version has also just been published at:
once i became aware of the truth on the ground, i could no longer rationalize inaction on my part. essentially, i would have had to keep my mouth shut and thus not risk running afoul of the Army’s senior leaders – but turned a blind eye to the thousands of combat troops who continue risking their lives each and every day they go outside the wire while i lived comfortably in the safety and security of America. once i looked at it in those terms, i was compelled to act…
anyway, thought you’d like a little heads up!
–danny
Phi Beta Iota: Military / National Security Reform cannot be achieved without first restoring the integrity of the government (Electoral Reform, Intelligence Reform, Governance Reform). It’s been lonely out here, not drinking the kool-aid. “Integrity” remains the most searched term on this website. We stood our ground and God Bless America, the calvary is coming over the hill. Colonel Danny Davis, USA is the first to truly break ranks and honor his oath to defend and support the Constitution of the United States of America instead of a corrupt, abysmally ignorant chain of command that will stop at nothing to keep their nests feathered (and their post-retirement sweetheart deals secure), never mind the cost in national blood, treasure, and tears. ARUGAH!
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In this interview, Ellis Martin speaks with Jim Sinclair about the “positive employment outlook” reported by the government and the media and the exuberance associated with it. Where do these numbers come from? Mr. Sinclair also has compelling advice for the listener regarding how to protect oneself from the ultimate endgame related to Quantitative Easing and the decline of the dollar. What is China’s direct influence or input in QE 3? Is it in their best interests to prop up the dollar and the US economy? How relevent is the Yuan? Listen to another unedited interview.
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Since Wendell Potter walked away from his executive position at a top health insurance company in May of 2008, he has worked tirelessly as an outspoken critic of corporate PR and the distortion and fear manufactured by America’s health insurance industry. It is a PR juggernaut that is bankrolled by millions of dollars, rivaling lobbying budgets and underwriting many “non-partisan” grassroots organizations. How would Potter know? He wrote many of the industry’s talking points himself.
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Our new research intern Lovisa Lönegren joined the staff in January and is already busy answering questions from around the world regarding proposals for the 2012 Right Livelihood Awards.
Anybody can propose a person or an organization (to whom they are not closely related), so if you know someone who is worthy the Award, please let her know.
We are exited to receive many interesting proposals before the deadline on March 1, 2012.
Please follow our guidelines and feel free to ask Lovisa if something seems unclear.
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Theophillis Goodyear
DefDog
A Battle the President Can’t Win
His decision on Catholic charities makes Romney’s big gaffe look trivial.
What a faux pas, how inept, how removed from the essential realities of America. Yes, I’m referring to President Obama. But let’s do Mitt Romney first.
. . . . . .
EXTRACT:
But the big political news of the week isn’t Mr. Romney’s gaffe, or even his victory in Florida. The big story took place in Washington. That’s where a bomb went off that not many in the political class heard, or understood.
But President Obama just may have lost the election.
The president signed off on a Health and Human Services ruling that says that under ObamaCare, Catholic institutions—including charities, hospitals and schools—will be required by law, for the first time ever, to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization procedures. If they do not, they will face ruinous fines in the millions of dollars. Or they can always go out of business.
In other words, the Catholic Church was told this week that its institutions can’t be Catholic anymore.
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Marcus Aurelius
House Armed Services Committee (HASC)
Impact Assessment
See Also:
Powering Down: A decline in U.S. military might could upend the world order
Phi Beta Iota: NOBODY is doing fact-based evaluations. Senator Sam Nunn’s words remain unheeded–there is no credible holistic threat assessment; there is no credible holistic strategy; there is no credible holistic force structure; and there are no credible holistic acquisition plans for actually getting to what should be a 450-ship Navy, a long-haul Air Force, A-10′s long overdue for transfer to Army Aviation, and a Marine Corps that stops trying to be expeditionary everything and focuses instead on helping the US Navy create a 450-ship Navy as we have been advocating for over a decade.
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