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Sam1
Sam1's Journal
Sam1's Journal
January 27, 2016
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/01/andrew-bacevich-six-national-security-questions-hillary-donald-ted-marco-etc-dont-want-to-answer-and-wont-even-be-asked.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
Six National Security Questions That will Never Be Asked.
By Andrew J. Bacevich
To judge by the early returns, the presidential race of 2016 is shaping up as the most disheartening in recent memory. Other than as a form of low entertainment, the speeches, debates, campaign events, and slick TV ads already inundating the public sphere offer little of value. Rather than exhibiting the vitality of American democracy, they testify to its hollowness.
Present-day Iranian politics may actually possess considerably more substance than our own. There, the parties involved, whether favoring change or opposing it, understand that the issues at stake have momentous implications. Here, what passes for national politics is a form of exhibitionism about as genuine as pro wrestling.
Present-day Iranian politics may actually possess considerably more substance than our own. There, the parties involved, whether favoring change or opposing it, understand that the issues at stake have momentous implications. Here, what passes for national politics is a form of exhibitionism about as genuine as pro wrestling.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/01/andrew-bacevich-six-national-security-questions-hillary-donald-ted-marco-etc-dont-want-to-answer-and-wont-even-be-asked.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
January 25, 2016
Oligarchs & Criminals: Reward and Punishment After the Unmoved Mover
Our conception of human nature rules most of our social decisions, including those centered around economics and justice.
One of the primary concerns of Theology and Metaphysics was to find an “unmoved mover,” or, a “first cause.”
Our ancestors were not stupid. They noticed that effects seemed to have causes. Even when the cause was not evident, they assumed there was a cause because of how the rest of the universe worked.
In one sense, this is a search for “the creator,” or “the first,” or “God” (though it need not be God in any monotheistic sense). What created the universe runs very quickly into infinite regress. If X created the universe, what created X?
You needed, then, to find a cause which itself had no cause. You needed to find an unmoved mover: Something that could move other things, but was not itself caused by anything.
To many moderns, this seems like a pointless pursuit, but the most brilliant people in many cultures pursued it for thousands of years, precisely because the oddest thing about existence isn’t any one part of existence, it is that there exists existence at all.
One of the primary concerns of Theology and Metaphysics was to find an “unmoved mover,” or, a “first cause.”
Our ancestors were not stupid. They noticed that effects seemed to have causes. Even when the cause was not evident, they assumed there was a cause because of how the rest of the universe worked.
In one sense, this is a search for “the creator,” or “the first,” or “God” (though it need not be God in any monotheistic sense). What created the universe runs very quickly into infinite regress. If X created the universe, what created X?
You needed, then, to find a cause which itself had no cause. You needed to find an unmoved mover: Something that could move other things, but was not itself caused by anything.
To many moderns, this seems like a pointless pursuit, but the most brilliant people in many cultures pursued it for thousands of years, precisely because the oddest thing about existence isn’t any one part of existence, it is that there exists existence at all.
January 19, 2016
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2016/01/not-going-to-take-it-anymore-doctors-in.html
Not Going to Take it Anymore - Doctors in the Pacific Northwest Unionize, Begin Collective Bargainin
Found this over at the blog Health Care Renewal:
We have posted about the plight of the corporate physician. In the US, home of the most commercialized health care system among developed countries, physicians increasingly practice as employees of large organizations, usually hospitals and hospital systems, sometimes for-profit. The leaders of such systems meanwhile are now often generic managers, people trained as managers without specific training or experience in medicine or health care, and "managerialists" who apply generic management theory and dogma to medicine and health care just as it might be applied to building widgets or selling soap.
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2016/01/not-going-to-take-it-anymore-doctors-in.html
September 25, 2015
http://www.cringely.com/2015/09/25/chinese-talking-cybersecurity-means-security-is-already-lost/
Chinese talking cybersecurity means security is already lost
Does this mean that privacy no longer exists?
Remember how this story unfolded? There had been a hack and some records were compromised. Then there had been a hack and hundreds of thousands of records were compromised. Rinse-repeat almost ad infinitum until now we know that 56 million fingerprint records were lost.
I think it is safe to assume at this point that all records held by the Office of Personnel Management have been accessed and copied by the bad guys. It went undetected for months, they had high-bandwidth access, so whatever secrets there were in those records, background checks, security clearances, etean that privacyc., are now probably for sale.
Or are they? It turns out there are far worse things that could be done with the records ... .
I think it is safe to assume at this point that all records held by the Office of Personnel Management have been accessed and copied by the bad guys. It went undetected for months, they had high-bandwidth access, so whatever secrets there were in those records, background checks, security clearances, etean that privacyc., are now probably for sale.
Or are they? It turns out there are far worse things that could be done with the records ... .
http://www.cringely.com/2015/09/25/chinese-talking-cybersecurity-means-security-is-already-lost/
September 21, 2015
http://theconversation.com/europes-refugee-crisis-the-last-time-round-it-was-much-much-worse-47621
Europe’s refugee crisis: the last time round it was much, much worse
As train after train of refugees arrives in Germany, swamping the railway stations and stretching the capacities of welfare organizations, a senior Berlin-based administrator protests against the strain the newcomers are placing on the country’s resources.
Germany, he warns, cannot go on indefinitely being treated “as a waste-paper basket with a limitless capacity for the unwanted waste of the world.”
More importantly, the scale of the influx is in danger of giving rise to a toxic brew of resentment on the part of the indigenous population that might well lead to neo-Nazism and ultra-nationalism once again becoming significant forces.
“Do we not now,” he asks, “tend to compress that mixture to the point of detonation?”
Crassly worded though his protest may be, the speaker’s concerns are widely shared by those responsible for Germany’s, and Europe’s, governance. Yet he is not himself a German, nor is he referring to the refugees coming from Syria or Libya in the summer and autumn of 2015.
His name is Colonel Ralph Thicknesse, a migration specialist in the British army of occupation after the Second World War, and he is expressing his alarm in the summer of 1946 over the worst refugee crisis in Europe’s history – one deliberately created by the victorious Allies themselves.
Germany, he warns, cannot go on indefinitely being treated “as a waste-paper basket with a limitless capacity for the unwanted waste of the world.”
More importantly, the scale of the influx is in danger of giving rise to a toxic brew of resentment on the part of the indigenous population that might well lead to neo-Nazism and ultra-nationalism once again becoming significant forces.
“Do we not now,” he asks, “tend to compress that mixture to the point of detonation?”
Crassly worded though his protest may be, the speaker’s concerns are widely shared by those responsible for Germany’s, and Europe’s, governance. Yet he is not himself a German, nor is he referring to the refugees coming from Syria or Libya in the summer and autumn of 2015.
His name is Colonel Ralph Thicknesse, a migration specialist in the British army of occupation after the Second World War, and he is expressing his alarm in the summer of 1946 over the worst refugee crisis in Europe’s history – one deliberately created by the victorious Allies themselves.
http://theconversation.com/europes-refugee-crisis-the-last-time-round-it-was-much-much-worse-47621
September 18, 2015
http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2015/09/18/questions-for-clinton/
Questions for Clinton
I’ll begin today a new series, called “Questions for Clinton,” in which I’ll compile a set of questions Congressional Committees, media and the FBI should ask the former Secretary of State when they have a few free moments before the election.
The questions will be factual, and non-partisan under normal people’s definitions** of these terms.
**Normal people excludes anyone who has decided without further thought that there is nothing to see here, that asking questions itself is a partisan attack, and that “everybody does it” is a valid explanation for whatever happens. If you are not willing to examine or re-examine these issues, there is nothing for you to see here. Enjoy being ignorant, you’ve earned it, so click here.
The questions will be factual, and non-partisan under normal people’s definitions** of these terms.
**Normal people excludes anyone who has decided without further thought that there is nothing to see here, that asking questions itself is a partisan attack, and that “everybody does it” is a valid explanation for whatever happens. If you are not willing to examine or re-examine these issues, there is nothing for you to see here. Enjoy being ignorant, you’ve earned it, so click here.
http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2015/09/18/questions-for-clinton/
September 6, 2015
http://contraryperspective.com/2015/09/05/the-real-deflategate-why-media-coverage-of-real-news-leaves-democracy-deflated/
The Real Deflategate: Why Media Coverage of Real News Leaves Democracy Deflated
[Editor’s Note: It’s not footballs that are deflated, notes Michael Brenner. It’s our news, which is deliberately deflated and distorted so as to not disturb the ruling elites. Brenner offers some compelling examples and issues calls for meaningful reforms. His article makes for invigorating reading over this Labor Day Weekend.]
An informed public is the bedrock of American democracy. That belief has been a central pillar in the national creed since it was eloquently stated by Thomas Jefferson. A free press is the prime and prized instrument for ensuring it. Today, at the height of the communications revolution, keeping the public informed should be easy as pie. That is not the case, though, as we know from surveys and our own anecdotal experience. Citizens are probably less aware of what is going on around them on matters of politics and policy than at any time since universal literacy became a reality.
Why this incongruity? It stems in part from the habits and inclinations of a populace that is self-absorbed to the point of functional autism. It also due to the abject failure of the mainstream media (MSM) to uncover and present the news in ways that extend and deepen people’s understanding of what is happening. Driven by short-term profit, skewed by the interests of those who own them, the media habitually pander to the least common denominator of readers’ and viewers’ taste. The news business has devolved into just another branch of the entertainment business.
An informed public is the bedrock of American democracy. That belief has been a central pillar in the national creed since it was eloquently stated by Thomas Jefferson. A free press is the prime and prized instrument for ensuring it. Today, at the height of the communications revolution, keeping the public informed should be easy as pie. That is not the case, though, as we know from surveys and our own anecdotal experience. Citizens are probably less aware of what is going on around them on matters of politics and policy than at any time since universal literacy became a reality.
Why this incongruity? It stems in part from the habits and inclinations of a populace that is self-absorbed to the point of functional autism. It also due to the abject failure of the mainstream media (MSM) to uncover and present the news in ways that extend and deepen people’s understanding of what is happening. Driven by short-term profit, skewed by the interests of those who own them, the media habitually pander to the least common denominator of readers’ and viewers’ taste. The news business has devolved into just another branch of the entertainment business.
http://contraryperspective.com/2015/09/05/the-real-deflategate-why-media-coverage-of-real-news-leaves-democracy-deflated/
August 23, 2015
German wage repression getting to the roots of the eurozone crisis
This is a very good article on the causes of the Euro crisis and the part that Germany has played."Ben Bernanke not only supports recent German wage increases, he also thinks further wage increases for German workers are “warranted and a win-win proposition for Germany and its trade partners”?
Now that’s a jaw-dropper. Has the former head of the Federal Reserve Board—the guardian of “price stability,” which makes policy designed to keep U.S. wages in check—switched sides in the class war, now that he is retired?
Hardly. Rather, it’s that catering to the demands of German high finance and other elites has been so disastrous that even the former chair of the Fed cannot deny the undeniable: unless Germany changes course and boosts workers’ wages, the euro crisis will only worsen.
Let’s look more closely at just how German wage repression and currency manipulation pushed the eurozone into crisis, ignited a conflict between northern and southern eurozone countries (with Germany as the enforcer of austerity), and left Greece teetering on the edge of collapse.
From “Sick Man” to Export Bully
Now that’s a jaw-dropper. Has the former head of the Federal Reserve Board—the guardian of “price stability,” which makes policy designed to keep U.S. wages in check—switched sides in the class war, now that he is retired?
Hardly. Rather, it’s that catering to the demands of German high finance and other elites has been so disastrous that even the former chair of the Fed cannot deny the undeniable: unless Germany changes course and boosts workers’ wages, the euro crisis will only worsen.
Let’s look more closely at just how German wage repression and currency manipulation pushed the eurozone into crisis, ignited a conflict between northern and southern eurozone countries (with Germany as the enforcer of austerity), and left Greece teetering on the edge of collapse.
From “Sick Man” to Export Bully
July 30, 2015
http://contraryperspective.com/2015/07/27/obama-lost-down-the-rabbit-hole-to-the-middle-east-wonderland
Obama: Lost Down the Rabbit Hole to the Middle East Wonderland
Alice may have survived her trip down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, but it is an unseemly place for the president of a powerful but feckless nation to venture. Nor is it likely that Obama will emerge unscathed – or further enlightened.
How so? President Obama seems to have cut a deal with President Erdogan of Turkey to allow U.S. military aircraft to use Turkish airbases to launch attacks against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Initial mainstream media reports announced this as a great move on the part of the administration. Turkey, in concert with the Gulf Sunni monarchies has, in the past, resisted entering the fight against ISIS and has allowed thousands of foreign men and women to enter ISIS-held territory as recruits. Their military intelligence agency has also been suspected of aiding ISIS alongside the Persian Gulf monarchies.
How so? President Obama seems to have cut a deal with President Erdogan of Turkey to allow U.S. military aircraft to use Turkish airbases to launch attacks against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Initial mainstream media reports announced this as a great move on the part of the administration. Turkey, in concert with the Gulf Sunni monarchies has, in the past, resisted entering the fight against ISIS and has allowed thousands of foreign men and women to enter ISIS-held territory as recruits. Their military intelligence agency has also been suspected of aiding ISIS alongside the Persian Gulf monarchies.
http://contraryperspective.com/2015/07/27/obama-lost-down-the-rabbit-hole-to-the-middle-east-wonderland
July 30, 2015
Real problems with outsourcing IT who does the contractor work for?
While the U.S. Government has been remarkably opaque about the recently discovered security breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), we know that personal information on at least 21.5 million present, former, and prospective federal employees was lost. The Feds claim Chinese hackers are at the bottom of it, which is disputed by the Chinese government. This, to me, raises a number of questions, especially about the possible role of IT outsourcing firms and implications for organizations beyond OPM. Does IT outsourcing make your data more vulnerable? Yes, I believe it does.
It’s easy to blame the Office of Personnel Management for its own troubles. Oversight was lax. The agency failed a security audit and didn’t seem to do much in response. When shit hit the fan and it became clear that the identity of almost every living person associated in any way with Federal employment had been compromised, the agency lamely offered 18 months of identity theft screening but then didn’t have the money to pay for it. Pathetic. Both the Obama Administration and Congress are to blame, the former for mismanagement and the latter for “starving the beast” by limiting the OPM budget, pushing the agency toward cost-saving decisions that at least to some extent led to the current crisis.
http://www.cringely.com/2015/07/30/who-is-your-it-outsourcing-firm-working-for/
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Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2005, 08:23 AM
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