From a fine gallery of BP logo hacks.

Benefiting from the artificially inflated margins of the illegal drug trade, Mexican cartels move billions of dollars worth of cocaine, methamphetamine, & marijuana to the high-demand markets of the United States, using sophisticated weaponry and horrific violence to defend their markets against competitors and directly challenge attempts by state militia to control their activities. In return, they purchase guns from border states like Texas, Arizona, and California to arm their narco-insurgency. The Mexican state apparatus has become a hollow shell, heavily militarized but incapable of managing it’s territories.

PEMEX, the major oil developer along the Mexican Gulf, has reported that cartels siphon about $1B in oil annually, reselling it on the open market to fund their insurgency. This tactic has escalated to include the kidnapping of PEMEX workers, possibly to further infiltrate the company. It was recently reported that cartels may be using IED’s to attack the Mexican military, suggesting that the techniques of full-scale insurgency developed in Iraq are now finding their way to Mexico.

Of particular interest are cartel incursions into the United States. The DEA is tracking cartel networks across the major cities of the southern United States. Americans have been indicted smuggling weapons south across the border. Arrests of compromised Customs and Border agents has increased 40% in the past year. Agents say that substantial cartel violence in the US is only a matter of time. The US DHS has submitted plans to deal with cartel incursions into the United States.

Recently, Pinal county sheriff, Paul Babeu, states that Mexican drug cartels control parts of Arizona. ‘We are outgunned, we are out manned and we don’t have the resources here locally to fight this,’ said Babeu, referring to heavily-armed cartel movements three counties deep in Arizona. Even Phoenix has seen ongoing cartel violence.

It’s important to understand that the Mexican narco-insurgency is possibly the most direct threat to the stability of American communities, far more so than any of our foreign wars. Immigration laws will not work, just as drug laws have failed to stem the flow of drugs across US borders. Legalization of drugs is perhaps the most obvious solution, though it’s not without it’s own costs. In all likelihood, near-term management will take the form of increased troop deployment to southern states, coupled to advanced enforcement technologies. For example, Wired recently reported that the FAA is considering how to integrate drones into US airspace. Certainly the landscape of the America’s southern states is shifting to include a more violent and militarized gang presence.

“The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through twitter.” So opens the #iranelection cyber war guide for beginners just posted today and widely distributed across the web through Twitter. The guide continues with precise information about what behaviors and syntaxes on Twitter are now being watched by the Iranian security apparatus; which hashtags are legitimate and which are state honey pots used to identify and block IP’s; how to pass new open proxies to those within the Tehranian resistance; and smart guidelines for those considering launching Denial of Service attacks on State websites. The author has compiled a brief & succinct guidebook to help global non-Iranians better help those in Iran who are trying to ensure that these events are not hidden from the eyes of the world.

The guide closes with: “Please remember that this is about the future of the Iranian people, while it might be exciting to get caught up in the flow of participating in a new meme, do not lose sight of what this is really about.” To me, this is about the future of all people.

As Clay Shirky noted, the events in Tehran mark a hugely important historic moment. Under an old theocratic and belligerent rulership, the modernist progressives from Iran’s urban center, Tehran, are using mobile communications and social networks to bypass the State and reach out to the world. Ahmadi’s swiftly-imposed net blackout has failed against the ingenuity of tech-enabled university students and the eagerness of sympathetic geeks across the world to help fight The Man (in this case, the authoritarian and repressive regime of the Ayatollah, the Guardian Council, and President Ahmadi-nejad). This marks a large state change in global power dynamics. In an age moving rapidly towards ubiquitous networked mobile computing, transparency and representation are the emerging foundations of civilization, simultaneously empowering the principles of Democracy while de-legitimizing the very notion of the State.

Perhaps even more surprising is the critical role of Twitter as the de facto global, real-time, open communication and collaboration channel. Using SMS, every mobile phone user on the planet has the ability to message Twitter and reach out to a global network. Twitter’s architecture guarantees an exponential distribution of information, and their lack of public shareholders allows them to take a more humanitarian posture. Protesters in Tehran were getting messages to hi-value nodes like Stephen Fry, John Perry Barlow, and William Gibson who then retweet the message to hundreds of thousands of their followers. By Monday #iranelection was the #1 trending term across Twitter and has stayed there since. Twitter is the primary channel for information coming in and out of Tehran regarding the contested election of it’s president – in a critical middle eastern Islamic nation, oil-rich with an aggressive posture towards the US and it’s allies, and who is poised on the brink of becoming a fully nuclear state. The out-of-left-field social networking phenomena has been so valuable to the goals of US interests in Iran that the U.S. State Department requested that Twitter postpone it’s scheduled service downtime.

The regime is now evicting reporters from Iran. The challenger, Moussavi, is likely not much different from Ahmadi-nejad. Both are pre-approved by the Ayatollah and Guardian Council. The pro-Moussavi population wants to see voting irregularities investigated and their “moderate” candidate approved as president. Tehran’s tech-savvy are redefining the fundamental relationship between people and governments. All power structures should be watching the events in Tehran and across the web. The people are getting smarter and bolder.

This is the age of empowered collectives striding across a globalized, hyper-connected world. In a virtualized information space, borders are less meaningful and countries are loose contextual buckets through which people interact. The swift assistance provided by western techies is not really about the US helping Iran, it’s about good, aspirational people trying to help other good, aspirational people. The playing field is leveling as humanity learns more and more about itself, overcoming fear and stereotypes and ignorance simply by communicating more effectively.

There will be a reaction as states work to retain power, upping their game to adapt to the new tech. And there will be darker consequences of these new tool as the All-Seeing Digital Eye rises over the land. We struggle now to free information but the next big struggle may be to secure it. All coins have two sides and all technologies will be bent to human will. Hopefully we’re all getting a little bit better at cooperating with each new day.

***This was written in a bit of a rush before I jet. Here are a couple more links:
Here’s a list of good info links.
Lyn Jeffery of IFTF writes Field Notes from the Iran Twitter Stream.
SF Gate article: SF Techie Stir Iranian Protests.
Jamais Cascio: The Dark Side of Twittering a Revolution.
And Hillary Clinton Defends Twitter Efforts for Iran.

- Iran SMS networks “mysteriously” fail right before elections http://bit.ly/nsjm3 (via @boingboing)
- “You cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control people any longer.” (Iran & Twitter) http://tinyurl.com/kwmh7g (via @mpesce)
- Tech-enabled urbanites push for change as country folk vote for stasis, even reversion. collaborative networks win over tine
- Coordination of Tehran tech-savvy w/ international openinfo/progressive nodes shows leveling of global playing field, decline of statehood.
- Tehran: Ayatollah backs Ahmadi, police take Tehran University to shut down dissident comm nets. Power fears Change. Old fears New.
- University of Tehran held literary session on Saturday reviewing works by Woody Allen. http://bit.ly/Et7fa [Comedy, genius trumps religion.]
- @HiggsBoson23 Totally. The US must have people on the ground in Tehran working to open the comm channels.
- RT @robinsloan: #iranelection Giant photos. You are going to lose your mind: http://is.gd/12G72 [Tehran approaches civil war]
- Incredible to see instantaneous networking around control systems. No oppressor can hide their actions. Tehran: the future of Democracy.
- The events in Tehran are reinforcing the global identity of humanity in a way that directly challenges all oppressive regimes.
- What fascinates me most about Tehran is the empowerment of the tech-enabled to route around the State and reach across the globe.
- To me, the new democracy: granular representation; modernists using tech to challenge traditionalists; collectives taking power from states.
- No surprise that US elements might be encouraging/engineering the scene in Tehran. Via @NickHate: WSWS on NYT & Iran: http://bit.ly/H1s12
- Note: all Iranian candidates are pre-approved by the Ayatollah & Guardian Council. Resolution in favor of Moussavi will not bring freedom.
- Value lies in watching how empowerment of progressive voices impacts the stategies of rulership employed by the Iranian theocracy.
- Is Iranian dismissal of western media the prelude to a brutal smackdown on protests? Def not a sign of sudden openness…
- RT @m1k3y @DavidForbes: The State Department asked Twitter not to shut down yesterday. http://bit.ly/QQoyj #iranelection #awesomeabout
- RT @TEDchris: Here’s Clay Shirky on the incredible role Twitter has played in #iranelection. “This is the big one” http://on.ted.com/zabout
- “Mousavi is no liberal reformer. But the principle of freedom of speech and fair elections and the desire for reform trump that.” @cshirky
- What you should know about the Iranian Cyberwar: http://bit.ly/2b2NL (via @GreatDismal) [History in the making.]

I stayed in Las Vegas for a few nights this week to see Jane’s Addiction at The Pearl. A large part of me loathes much of what Vegas is (and by “Vegas” I’m mainly referring to The Strip and its satellites – no offense to the folks who live in the city) yet I can’t help but be mesmerized and amazed at the sheer scale of fantasy on sale there in the wasteland of the Nevada high desert. It is by all accounts an impossible mirage, timeless and ephemeral, drawing in the seekers, fleecing them, and sending them back home like it never existed. Inevitably, it seems it will fall back into the desert as Lake Meade dries up and the drought deepens, leaving behind skeletons of a once mighty empire. Caesar’s Palace may retain it’s name but Nero is the ruler of today’s Vegas.

Anyway, here are my tweets from the trip, in chronological order:

- Heading off to Sin City for glittering nights & saltine days before it all dries up & blows away. #NIN/JA2009 New Aeon Rat Pack 8:55 AM May 17th
- Have successfully played my role as cattle/combatant/customer in SanJoseAirport security theater. Now matriculated to cargo. 10:22 AM May 17th
- Tarmac running to the jetwash mirage of Las Vegas. 12:06 PM May 17th
- Vegas directs its formidable will at constantly maintaining the illusion of plenty. Super Size everything while the desert bides its time… 4:41 PM May 17th
- Vegas, in a nutshell: http://twitpic.com/5ew00 10:21 PM May 17th
- everything about this city is designed to separate me from my money. call me the mark. 12:29 AM May 18th
- Vegas commodifies dreams and the easy score, selling back crumbs at criminal markups, preying on mammon & ruin. 12:02 PM May 18th
- A sign of my age: hoping to trade my #NIN/JA floor tickets for seats. 1:13 PM May 18th
- Little fluffy clouds march relentlessly across the ancient Nevada desert as spacemen floating high above tweet us thermospheric thoughts. 1:45 PM May 18th
- As growth stalls, Vegas withdraws into the strip to focus on sustaining the mirage. The illusion thrives at the expense of the sprawl. 2:35 PM May 18th
- Recent NPR story spoke of tracts of abandoned LV tenaments haunted by erratic chirpings: the sound of fire detectors with dying batteries. 2:40 PM May 18th
- About 2M people inhabit Las Vegas. Nellis AFB brought federal stimulus; the mob & Howard Hughes built The Strip. 5:19 PM May 18th
- Deserts are like seas, vast & deep. In this The Strip is a glowing lure above the gaping maw of a dark desert angler. 5:25 PM May 18th
- You think you’re about to score a nice meal but really you are the prey about to feed something much larger. 5:26 PM May 18th
- got tix sorted. now heading to The Pearl for NIN/JA with @jingleyfish & friends. w00t! 7:28 PM May 18th
- Goddamn i love Jane’s Addiction 12:31 AM May 19th
- crawling the vegas strip with the good dr 1:17 AM May 19th
- new dreams waking with the sun on the fiery vegas strip, raging towards another night 5:49 AM May 19th
- ack. marinating in ambient cigarette smoke on the casino floor. 4:31 PM May 19th
- your trowelled-on cake facade masks the withering age of dessicated bones, too long standing on sore heels to hawk & bark a distant fantasy 4:37 PM May 19th
- Ruminating w/ @jingleyfish about the resource usage profile of the Vegas strip. How much does this desert fantasy consume? Is it a threat? 5:52 PM May 19th
- To paraphrase the bubbling hatery, is Vegas a “cankar needing to be excised”? Carbon tax would likely crush phallic wavings of Wynn et al. 5:56 PM May 19th
- sleepless pineal cascade, flush with endogenous indole, wondering if im really still stuck in this airport 7:27 PM May 19th
- on the ground rolling back to santa cruz. crowd-induced stabby mysanthropy subsiding. actual sleep nigh iminent. 10:24 PM May 19th

I started contracting at Adobe in the beginning of Jan 99, then converted to full-time in June 01. I’ve been working for the company for 10 years but I learned long ago not to personalize such realignments. I’ve been through several, barely spared. It’s business, nothing personal. The move will probably strengthen them through the slump but I do feel there may have been less severe options with fewer side-effects. The company is well-positioned to innovate and capitalize in this downturn and could easily operate at a loss for 16 months if necessary. To be certain, profits are down but certainly not negative. In the aftermath, Adobe should capitalize on its lightened books and quickly reinforce its core properties and revenue streams with enough resources to get the job done, instead of further retracting to spare the nerves of The Street. It will be interesting to see how Adobe balances its highly innovative and ambitious platform play against its very conservative financial posture.

More importantly, however, I feel strongly at odds with the fundamental notion that a business must continually grow and deliver heavy dividends to the shareholders in order to be of value. The very paradigm of relentless growth is clearly unsustainable. It appears to be a dying system built on top of ancient biological imperatives. Get as much as you can, spread out to cover the broadest swath of territory, always struggling against the other big dogs in the pack. Meanwhile, the Long Tail slowly, steadily, patiently cuts into your markets from every edge. If nothing else emerges from this global economic meltdown, hopefully the principles of sustainability, transparency, fairness, and accountability will find their way back into the market. Friedman, Keynes, and even Adam Smith can all rest in peace.

But I am not a CEO or CFO and I must accept a certain degree of faith in those trained and entrusted to steer the ship. Indeed, there is a tremendous amount of responsibility that rolls up to executive teams. They must manage a huge multinational business as if it were a living being and a host to thousands of lives. Employees and investors must get paid for their support and markets must be carefully tended and nurtured and defended. Disgruntled board directors could be just a bad day away from outright hostility towards the CEO if things are not being run with maximum diligence to the benefit of the Trust.

And to be fair, Adobe is an exceedingly open & honest organization that has operated with great integrity since its inception. I do want them to succeed and it’s my passion (and admitted ignorance) that makes me worry this may have been a damaging move. The company has been injured by its own hand. There will be a lot of work to rehabilitate the degree of commitment and passion needed to execute on its strategic directives. Letting go of respected contributors who know your business inside & out is always detrimental to the troops and the brain trust, and often helpful to your competition. As I’ve noted elsewhere, there are a lot of really exceptional people hitting the streets, looking for a new work family to fight for and wondering which company will snatch them up and capitalize on their talent.

Would I return to Adobe? Absolutely. They have a huge future and a great vision. Like all organizations heading up their growth curve, they should take time to carefully re-evaluate some of the fundamental assumptions and operating procedures that may have served well in earlier iterations but are now working against their optimization and execution.

The greatest advice I have to Adobe is this: be paranoid, fix your installers and look at performance & stability as the #1 feature. Do whatever is necessary to incentivise point products to work cooperatively and collaboratively across the Suites. Instead of reducing the workforce you should be reinforcing it. Realign without reducing headcount. Marshall the forces and move when your enemy is weak. Don’t assume the brand is untouchable and understand that managing the narrative of your business is just as important as managing sales. Turn that cash & credit into product innovation. Bring the future to the world again just like you did with Post Script and Photoshop and Flash.

I will be fine and have been working up my own transition for months anyway. For me the hardest part is the damage to close relationships. The hugs and tears among boxes piled up in the hallways. Shots of tequila with managers & directors heavy with the decisions they were forced to make. There was such a swelling of good will between colleagues who had worked together so many years, decades even, as the boxes pilled up in the hallways. The warmth and friendship of the workplace will be hurt, as will the functional networks optimized for efficiency over years of collaboration.

My layoff is simply a single point in a much larger dysfunctional global economic paradigm. Everyone is in panic, uncertain of what the next day will bring, but knowing that, surely, it cannot be the same as it was yesterday.

4G Warfare heats up as Somali pirates seize 9th vessel in 10 days. Insurgents understand high-value targets. See also this Reauters article on Somali criminal networks. Economics replaces ideology.

Experts believe Iran has enough nuclear material for one atomic bomb. Will this draw us into war to defend Israel? Expect a lot of saber rattling from Washington in the 11th hour. Yet another big test of the incoming Obama presidency.

Former Nixon aid and architect of the GOP propaganda arm, Fox News, Roger Ailes signs on for 5 more years. Will he continue his mission to help build conservative business rule in America? Will he lead an attack on Obama?

Scientists now believe there may be vast frozen water reserves on Mars. Get ready for the prison colonies (weak Total Recall reference.)

With the Dow skidding down towards 6000, Al Gore warns of global civilization collapse. Is he right or just being alarmist? Is the global network strong enough to right itself amidst this sudden shakeout? Systemic change happens a lot more quickly than human cognition is able to keep up with. Expect continued struggle to rebuild the Old Ways amidst sudden innovation and concerted work towards The New.

Meanwhile, Wall Street financiers continue to loot the U.S. Treasury before Obama gets in office. Say goodbye to that money cause it’s going offshore into tax havens.

[Note: I haven't been blogging much and this is just a lazy way of passing on some content. I'm just back from the IFTF Blended Reality Exchange and will have some more inspiring words in the next week or so.]

via Boing Boing

Indeed, some names are now recognized for the predictive value of their somber analysis in the face of so much Pollyanna positivism. The aforementioned Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital was a voice of sanity, publicly battling pundits and analysts back in 2006 (watch the video linked above). Recent economic Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has been saying what nobody wanted to hear, and doing it in a highly politicized way, for years now. And of course Nassim Nicholas Taleb has been talking about the hollow economic boom and it’s pending meltdown for years, making his clients 50% returns even now during the crash. And to his credit, though I don’t think he should be running the country Ron Paul has been taking the Federal Reserve and private banking community to task over their criminal mismanagement of the US dollar.

The US financial system shifted in the 1970’s and the radical growth since has been built on massive credit expansion while simultaneously reducing manufacturing and production. We and much of Europe are debtor nations. We borrow and borrow but don’t have enough revenue income to support our debts. Now as the system shakes out many of the financial organizations that got us into this mess are looting the US Treasury grabbing all they can before it goes bust. Simply amazing that we let them do it and Paulson isn’t even providing a paper trail of where the money’s going. Sadly, much of it is leaving the country moving into offshore tax havens like the Caymans and Luxemborg.

I’m just about to start reading Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”. I’ve followed her work and already know the outline of her theory here: that the Powers That Be have grown into the habit of engineering catastrophic events that simultaneously pad their vaults with cash while creating enough social instability and fear that the next round of legislation that favors the wealthy elite can be pushed through as absolutely critical to stave off the apocalypse right around the corner. I generally don’t see the world or The Great Conspiracy as being entirely monolithic, though most conspiracies have some truth to them, as we’ve seen history reveal. Nevertheless, I’m seeing more and more data that supports the notion that certain elite interests would prefer that Democracy fade away and we return to the glory days of monarchies and autocracies.

The recent US election has brought some hope to my eyes but I remain highly suspicious. If the fundamental way in which we manage global business and finance is not radically altered, greed will continue to win out and the Obama presidency will simply set up the next artificial bubble to be pillaged by the mad industrialists. If Goldman Sachs and their ilk make headways into the new administration, you can expect they will continue to forge financial policies that pad the coffers of their clients at the expense of the public. As we’ve seen time and time again, the wealthy elite always prefer to privatize profits and make losses a matter of the public. They get rich and we bail them out.