LINKS: 11 NOV 09

Some items of interest:

• Militia formation in Naxalite territory.  Cobra gangs (similar to Colombia's AUC).
• Afghan cash amnesty/training program for Talib's ramping up.  Wrong approach.  What does work (at great long term cost):  Exploit divisions and form/rent militias on local primary loyalties.  In short, an open source counter-insurgency.
• A senior IEA (the International Energy Agency) official turns whistleblower.  He 'claims it (the agency) has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.'
• Anatomy of an economic parasitic.  The Times talks with the gray men of Goldman Sachs.  Remember:  When the loyalty of the USSR's elites (the bureaucracy or nomenklatura) shifted to local interests that directly interacted with global markets (using the remains of the state as tradable commodities), the Soviet Union collapsed (it wasn't due to US defense spending, LOL). 
• Systempunkt in Brazil/Paraguay.   The Itaipu hydroelectric plant.  Flow restrictions on base load power plants = cascades of failure.
• Lind on Fort Hood shooting.  
• Xerox, silver ink, and DIY 'printed' circuit boards.
• Anyone have a copy of Taleb's newest paper: "Common Errors in the Interpretation of the Ideas of The Black Swan and Associated Papers" All I can find is a citation (restricted academic journals are a form of societal damage).  UPDATE:  Got it, thanks much.
• The UK is moving quickly to the China model of capitalism.  No legitimacy necessary.

Comments

[James Bowery]

From the Naxalite article: "The state, rather than suppressing their growth, relies on these groups to do what they can’t given fiscal constraints"

One wonders to what extent this sort of "hollowing out" of the state has already occurred in the US with organized crime during the 20th century. Indeed, it may be that the very constitutional constraints on government power are what cause the emergence of black market public sector rent-seeking. The ultimate expression of this isn't conspiratorial, but evolutionary. For one example, the emergence of ethnic prisoner gang rape in the US as a means of terrorizing the white male population into greater compliance to government authority is an entirely informal but highly effective work-around.

[Ken Stokes]

Taleb's new paper is here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1490769_code475810.pdf?abstractid=1490769&mirid=1

[MKORION]

If I were part of the government composed of senior government officials who had a direct impact of national policy, and I was observant, I would see a change in the Shape of the world. This change, unabated, would lead to a decentralization of the institutions that I believe in, the ones that give me and my allies political power---central government, control over the economy, ability to influence other governments for my purposes (more power), insulation from activities a commoner would go to prison for---all of this relies on central government.

Decentralized government, or worse, many disparate governments enabled by information and no longer reliant on me, would be cause for enough concern that something would have to be done to prevent their fruition and development.

A method to prevent this is preemptive policing. Deny, degrade and defeat these independent minded tribes, families and organizations by collecting intelligence and conducting vulnerability analysis to determine how they can be defeated before their activities develop uncontainable inertia, leading to mass civil disobedience and the end of centrality.

In order to have preemptive policing, there needs to be massive intelligence collection to observe those patterns of dangerous (to the State) behavior early enough to act. This intelligence needs to be fine grained and constantly refreshed, since the human actors move so quickly. Like a human, the State has an OODA loop and it needs fed with current data to effect it's designs.

When I read of the DOJ pushing for “intelligence based policing”, or see the development of regional fusion centers (primary nodes in the control network, a distributed OODA loop), and the greater emphasis on domestic terrorism, or the UKs ever increasing surveillance, I see an infrastructure of control that is emplaced to prevent fragmentation and decentralization.

I think that's the reason for this massive and distributed surveillance in the UK, and the U.S. They see the change that could occur and these are mechanisms of survival for the nation-state. These may be the last gestures of these failing states or the springboard to something hideous if they succeed.

[sglover]

I was beginning to wonder if **any** American was even dimly aware of the role that Party demoralization played in the USSR's end.

[Franci]

I couldnt open this link for some reason can you please email it to me I will appreciate it

The UK is moving quickly to the China model of capitalism. No legitimacy necessary.

[John Robb]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6534319/State-to-spy-on-every-phone-call-email-and-web-search.html