. . . and similar manipulative spin and mob-ocracy games masquerading as truth, news, knowledge/education, etc now clearly needs to be confronted — if we are to think straight and act soundly in good time to avoid going over the cliff as a civilisation:
Of Lemmings, marches of folly and cliffs of self-falsifying absurdity . . .
The Parable of Plato’s Cave (and the linked idea of the Overton Window):
. . . has much to teach us in a media-dominated age where manipulators keep trying to push/pull our window of acceptability through deceit, poison, accusation, polarising and more.
Especially if we ask ourselves: how does the shadow show come to be, and how is a community so manipulated that it loses contact with objective reality?
Acts 27 gives us a picture in miniature (once we realise that it was common knowledge that some seasons were dangerous for sailing in the Mediterranean basin of 2,000 years ago, but that many people can be induced to go along with those they look up to for leadership, power and expertise):
Shipwreck at Malta, c. AD 59
>>Ac 27:4 . . . putting out to sea from there [= Sidon] we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us.5 And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia.6 There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board.7 We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone.8 Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.
9 Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast[a] was already over, Paul advised them,10 saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.”11 But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.12 And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.
The Storm at Sea
13 Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore.14 But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land.15 And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.16 Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda,[b] we managed with difficulty to secure the ship’s boat.17 After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird [= frap] the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear,[c] and thus they were driven along.18 Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo.19 And on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
21 Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship,24 and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.26 But we must run aground on some island.”>>
Here, Mr Moneybags and his bought- and- paid- for technico manipulated the passengers and the Centurion into going along with a foolhardy voyage. That Jeremiah over there in chains with scars from three previous shipwrecks? Just ignore that half-mad idiot rejected by his own people. We are the experts and our consensus is, we can do it . . . it will only take an afternoon’s sail on a comfortable reach to go forty miles to a safe and commodious harbour. Of course, the predictable result of turning democracy into a manipulated de-mockracy, was shipwreck.
And, on many, many dimensions, that is exactly what we face today.
(BTW, I think we would all profit from reading and viewing this Melanie Philips article and video interview here.)
Our challenge is to de-spin the dominant agenda and its seven mountains/ commanding heights citadels, to come to a critical mass of prudence towards a sounder more sustainable alternative:
Oh yes, I doubt that it is a mere accident that the Limousine torched on Trump’s Inauguration day
. . . was rented for Wallnau, and that the bought and paid for “Anarchists” — a dead political movement if ever there was one — claimed to be “We the People.”
Where, it is worth the while to pause and unpack the old Soviet/Bolshevik term, agit prop.
Namely, it strictly/narrowly . . . per current dictionary definitions . . . speaks to twisting the theatre, arts, literature and the like into propaganda. However, on both the history and the inherent dynamics as work it readily extends to the mob-ocracy game, in which the streets and news media or institutions of intellectual leadership and education — notice the appeals to “consensus” on matters of controversy or where something is patently wrong with the dominant and too often domineering schools of thought . . . — are turned into a grand theatre projecting shadow shows confused for reality.
Often, such shadow shows are sponsored by governments, sometimes by powerful factions. And of course, such theatre too often becomes bloody, creating a horrific escalating spiral of chaos, confusion, retaliation and polarisation.
U/D, Feb 2 — it looks like live events are demonstrating my point:
Here is a girl being struck and pepper-sprayed at UC Berkeley for the thought crime of objecting to the riots:
[youtube x643kcoc8FU]
(Ask yourself, what if she has a medical condition such as grand mal epilepsy or asthma or the like that could be triggered, sometimes with severe consequences? Do these rioters think or care about what fires they could be playing with?)
Likewise, people are being chased and struck to the ground by blackshirts (pardon language that pops up):
[youtube 9BZvhYkB4xo]
Here is some media coverage, in this case backgrounders leading up to a telephone interview with the proposed speaker whose speech event was shut down by the riot:
U/D Feb 4: Interview with a woman targetted, pushed up against a railing and assaulted at UC Berkeley:
[youtube CIFYTYNl7ng]
(I further understand her husband was beaten unconscious [which more or less implies concussion injuries] with several of his ribs being broken.)
U/D Feb 6th: The friend “pepper” sprayed during an interview also speaks out about the attack, indicating that it was the identification as My/Trump supporters that triggered the first and second attacks:
[youtube thQ-npCxGMQ]
(And in case you think pepper spraying is minor, consider the implicit threat as something much more destructive up to a poison gas could easily have been used. BTW, why didn’t someone realise, assault with a potentially deadly weapon and tackle this suspect/perpetrator to the ground? ANS: People are not trained for that and by the time you observe, orient, decide and begin to react [cf. on John Boyd’s OODA Loop, here] it is over for good or ill; that is why trained security should have been right there, preferably law enforcement. It is also why a clear entry area protected by barriers with adequate separation should have been in place . . . another point of negligence by the authorities. Likewise consider how dazzling was used to initiate the second attack, which ended in mayhem: disorientation that could easily have prepared for anything from kidnapping to stabbing or shooting. If the pepper spray woman can be caught and interrogated, this would be important as she — it is likely to have been one individual — initiated the attack sequence. Given the hostile nature of the interview, perhaps it would be useful to interrogate the interviewer as possibly being complicit given what happened and what could all too easily have happened. Then, compare this sort of coverage with how the major media have treated the events at UCB last Wednesday evening, to see how street agitation and bully-boy tactics then feed into the theatre of narrative propaganda, spin tactics, gaslighting and outright brainwashing. Something truly ugly is going on.)
U/D Feb 5th: Meanwhile, we have a picture of police in riot gear inside the student union while riot-induced chaos was going on outside:
The poster of this very tellingly asks:
>>I was at UC Berkeley last night. Here is a pic I got after the speech cancellation of nearly 100 SWAT and campus police sitting inside the student union building doing NOTHING while people were getting beaten outside. WHO told them to stand down?>>
Further U/D Feb 5, pm: Notice — HT Zero Hedge, Feb 2nd — how the street theatre then gets projected by the media houses (CNN as an example, but take note of ZH’s own perspectives, too . . . ) to suit their particular agendas and narratives:
Under certain circumstances, agit prop becomes not just rioting but rebellion and guerrilla war — these days, 4th generation war [think of how the Palestinian Arab uprisings and declaratively genocidal terrorism campaigns have come to be viewed as “liberation” struggles by many across the world . . . ] — or even radical revolution.
I again point to the de-spinning framework I developed a decade ago:
Let us wake up to what is in front of us regarding not just design debates but ever so many issues and agendas across our civilisation. Plato’s grim warning from nearly 2360 years ago, is again all too apt:
>>
Ath [in The Laws, Bk X 2,350+ ya]. . . .[The avant garde philosophers and poets, c. 360 BC] say that fire and water, and earth and air [i.e the classical “material” elements of the cosmos], all exist by nature and chance, and none of them by art . . . [such that] all that is in the heaven, as well as animals and all plants, and all the seasons come from these elements, not by the action of mind, as they say, or of any God, or from art, but as I was saying, by nature and chance only [ –> that is, evolutionary materialism is ancient and would trace all things to blind chance and mechanical necessity] . . . .
[Thus, they hold] that the principles of justice have no existence at all in nature, but that mankind are always disputing about them and altering them; and that the alterations which are made by art and by law have no basis in nature, but are of authority for the moment and at the time at which they are made.-
[ –> Relativism, too, is not new; complete with its radical amorality rooted in a worldview that has no foundational IS that can ground OUGHT, leading to an effectively arbitrary foundation only for morality, ethics and law: accident of personal preference, the ebbs and flows of power politics, accidents of history and and the shifting sands of manipulated community opinion driven by “winds and waves of doctrine and the cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming . . . ” cf a video on Plato’s parable of the cave; from the perspective of pondering who set up the manipulative shadow-shows, why.]
These, my friends, are the sayings of wise men, poets and prose writers, which find a way into the minds of youth. They are told by them that the highest right is might,
[ –> Evolutionary materialism — having no IS that can properly ground OUGHT — leads to the promotion of amorality on which the only basis for “OUGHT” is seen to be might (and manipulation: might in “spin”) . . . ]
and in this way the young fall into impieties, under the idea that the Gods are not such as the law bids them imagine; and hence arise factions [ –> Evolutionary materialism-motivated amorality “naturally” leads to continual contentions and power struggles influenced by that amorality at the hands of ruthless power hungry nihilistic agendas], these philosophers inviting them to lead a true life according to nature, that is,to live in real dominion over others [ –> such amoral and/or nihilistic factions, if they gain power, “naturally” tend towards ruthless abuse and arbitrariness . . . they have not learned the habits nor accepted the principles of mutual respect, justice, fairness and keeping the civil peace of justice, so they will want to deceive, manipulate and crush — as the consistent history of radical revolutions over the past 250 years so plainly shows again and again], and not in legal subjection to them [–> nihilistic will to power not the spirit of justice and lawfulness].
>>
To be forewarned is — if we are wise — to be forearmed. END
Comments
PPPS: This comment at Geller should also be pondered, for the very troubling issues now on the table:
http://pamelageller.com/2017/04/berkeley-cops-sit-patrol-car-watch-trump-supporters-attacked.html/#comment-3262634095
>> Steve • a day ago
This needs to be ratcheted up with private security who have law enforcement backgrounds hired to protect the protesters bringing it into the realm of anti-protesters attacking cops. This should be designated by congress as a felony and a hate crime. The leaders of such groups of anti-protesters should face further penalties. When the regular cops stand down the city or town plus the police department needs to be sued by class action for dereliction of duty. Furthermore, such city or town should be subject to federal funding being withheld the same as with sanctuary cities.
The protesters are being deprived of their constitutional rights of peaceful assembly granted by the first amendment. Furthermore, their taxes pay for services such as rights to use public property and police protection. Perhaps the next step if this continues will be firemen standing down while people's homes and cars are burned. The police and their authorities are in effect aiding and abetting insurrectionist activities within their jurisdictions that threaten every level of government. It is urgent for the people to take legal action but it is also urgent for the federal government to get involved to bring such "nazi-fying" towns, cities and states into compliance with the constitution or else enact martial law. The shadow government must be defeated and the time is now. If there are any class action suits support them.>>
KFkairosfocus
April 20, 2017
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PPS: A comment in the thread at Geller's source at minimum sounds interesting.
A complaint:
>> HoldTheLine1 Tom Menino • 4 days ago
The Democrats are using tactics they learned "back in the good old days." The Democrat formed the KKK, then handcuffed honest LEOs and recruited dishonest ones. The Democrats now have new thugs trained - this time in black hoods - and are using selective policing to "help them along." Democrats never change - they just claim to.>>
Response of interest:
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/video-berkeley-cops-sit-patrol-car-trump-supporters-attacked/#comment-3258595737
>> ironbee HoldTheLine1 • 4 days ago
“I’ve been watching all day people get beat up pretty bad and I haven’t seen you guys around much,”When the officer responds“Okay, and?” The next question should be. "What is your name and badge number". "Then ask if he has taken the oath office and to repeat it for you. He probably wont know it so hand him a copy and have him read it out loud since his has nothing better to do..."Next ask him if he knows what a A writ of quo warranto is. He'll say no. Then tell him he sure the hell will know about it soon. Then take him to court on the writ and have him explain how he thinks he should keep his job...
Quo Warranto
A legal proceeding during which an individual's right to hold an office or governmental privilege is challenged.
You could also use the Color of Law. In regards to his refusal to protect citizens...
Color of law
n. the appearance of an act being performed based upon legal right or enforcement of statute, when in reality no such right exists. I'd try both...>>
Perhaps, the first level of challenge to these evident stand-downs should be the Police Commissioner/Chief and the Mayor?
The vids I saw suggest turf marking by the blackshirts, defended by the assault by masked, club-wielding marchers visible on many videos.
That sounds a lot like subversion, rioting and assault with deadly weapons with intent to terrorise and intimidate to me.
Things are spinning out of control and local officials have some serious 'splaining to do.kairosfocus
April 20, 2017
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F/N: Let me cross-post from another thread on what was going on in this latest clash in Berkeley:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
JAD, 10:
you can’t begin to make a moral argument unless it is based on moral TRUTH and that it is true that morality is really grounded in interpersonal moral obligation. It appears the Pomona students reject moral truth but still believe in some kind of interpersonal moral obligation. That is either hypocritical or absurd. Their beliefs and opinions are clearly based on passion not reason. When such idiotic thinking begins to spread through a democratic society it’s putting that society at risk. It will first lead to anarchy and then end up with tyranny or totalitarianism.
Prezactly.
And, that is the message of Plato in The Laws Bk X based on the collapse of Athens, and again in his parable of the Ship of State.
Both of which are in-thread above and both of which have been studiously ignored by the advocates of the party of amorality and radical relativism and/or subjectivism leading to might and manipulation make right nihilism.
We are dealing with the principle of the reprobate mind here and its refusal to see the cliff just ahead, even as we are being induced to march towards it in a march of folly.
KF
PS: Geller catches a key clip on the ongoing flash-point in Berkeley, here:
“‘As the violence escalated police in Berkeley stood down and retreated from the crowds,’ reporter Tim Pool tweeted. ‘I have never seen so few police at an event like this.’
“One observer claimed police “ran away,” despite several Trump rally attendees being attacked.
“Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer saw two officers at a patrol car, not engaged in protecting citizens from violence.
“‘Hey, how come you guys are hanging back?” he asked an officer standing in an open door of the car and another sat in the back seat.
“‘That would be a question for the chief of police,’ an officer sitting in the driver’s seat responded.
“‘You want a public statement, right?’ the standing officer asked the reporter.
“‘I would refer you to our public information officer.’
“‘Do they told you to hang back?’ Bauer said.
“‘As I said, I refer you to our public information officer,’ the cop responded.
“‘I’ve been watching all day people get beat up pretty bad and I haven’t seen you guys around much,’ Bauer said.
“‘Okay, and?’ the officer responded.
“Numerous videos show Trump supporters being beaten in the streets as police failed to keep the two sides apart.
“At one point, several black-clad agitators isolated a lone Trump supporter and pummeled him with fists and feet.
“Someone jumped in and clubbed him with a skateboard.”
Of course, this time around, the Trump supporters had their own toughs, who counter attacked, leading to the scenes in the various vids online. (Last time, the pro-Trump etc supporters were swarmed and beaten with no defence, with the Police on obvious stand down -- the toughs on the other side this time are the only real difference, and it sounds like these toughs were more experienced than the blackshirts, especially the woman tossing green glass bottles taken out by a punch "pulled" on realising it was a woman -- yes, 95 lb women have no business in brawls with 180 - 250 lb men with much more robust skeletal structures and the muscle mass to back it, never mind Hollywood fantasies that are creeping into even military doctrine.) I am continuing to follow up in my longstanding thread on this topic. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see the inconvenient truth playing out on the streets.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Do we begin to understand the fire we are playing with?
KFkairosfocus
April 20, 2017
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F/N: Footage of the confrontation, starting with the black shirts showing up in masks with sticks and obviously toting the weapons they proceeded to use -- right from the moment of marching up, the police should have read the riot act and intervened, other footage shows them retreated to vans. Note, the police had banned even sticks for flagpoles, so the free speech rally attendees were empty-handed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7on-BcK-54&ytbChannel=rekt%20sjw%20videos We need to then contrast media coverage, to see how we are being manipulated through the dominant narrative games. KFkairosfocus
April 16, 2017
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F/N: Battle of Berkeley 2 -- Antifa blackshirts try to pounce on a free speech rally (including lobbing large rocks into crowds) -- ends in a rout for the blackshirts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbmjFD4KBjc&ytbChannel=Stefan%20Molyneux
--> Very troubling.
KF
PS: Cernovich in Austin, Texas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqPVgl3ohbs&ytbChannel=Stefan%20Molyneuxkairosfocus
April 16, 2017
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The power of a big lie amongst the polarised, in the hands of the new US DNC chair:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/31/perez-trump-didnt-win-the-election-republicans-dont-give-a-st-about-people-video/
>>Perez claimed those people gathered and proclaimed, “Donald Trump, you don’t stand for our values… Donald Trump you didn’t win the election.”
Later in his speech, President Obama’s secretary of labor added that he doesn’t “care” if people take issue with his speech . . . >>
--> A lie.
--> That is, speaking in willful disregard to truth, in the hope that what is said or suggested is taken as true.
--> The US Electoral system, per constitution, is designed to award the Presidency to the candidate who is most broadly acceptable across the coalition of states (as opposed to the one who may win the percentage popular vote). Often these are the same, sometimes, they are not. (In effect the US has 50 elections in parallel not one unified election that may be dominated by one or two major urban clusters.)
--> If the objection is to that design, then take up the Constitutional amendment process. that such was not done while the relevant party held the dominant position shows that this is not a principled commitment. Instead, what we are seeing is a means of propagandistically attacking the duly elected president, to create the perception of illegitimacy among the polarised and naive.
--> Again, that is an undermining of the peaceful transfer of power on legitimate election, and is an extremely dangerous sign of the march of folly we are on as a civilisation.
--> If you doubt me, ask, where is the widespread objection to this dangerous manipulation of lawful election?
--> A sobering sign.
KFkairosfocus
March 31, 2017
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Further updates on the SMICE problem:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-4367540/Police-arrest-102-internet-child-porn-crackdown-Spain.html
>>Spanish police say they have arrested 102 people for possession and distribution of child pornography material on the internet.
A Civil Guard statement Friday said they had traced some 450,000 computer images and videos showing sexual abuse of babies and children aged up to 14.
The statement said 90 houses had been raided and more than 400 hard discs and other computer material seized.
Police said 10 of the child victims had been identified so far.
Details on the nationality of the detainees or when the arrests took place were not immediately available.>>
--> This one is a year ago
http://truthuncensored.net/university-academics-say-pedophilia-is-natural-for-males-aroused-by-children/
>>University Academics Say Pedophilia Is ‘Natural, And Normal For Males To Be AROUSED By Children’
By Lauren Richardson
9:00 PM January 27, 2016
An academic conference held at the University of Cambridge said that pedophilia interest is “natural and normal for males”, and that “at least a sizable minority of normal males would like to have sex with children, and normal males are aroused by children.”
These sentiments were discussed at a conference that took place last year to discuss the classification of sexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the standard international psychiatric manual used by the legal system.
The conference, which was titled “Classifying Sex: Debating DSM-5?, had featured a number of speakers who spoke in favor of sex with children, which, in essence, is supporting pedophilia.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA), which produces it, had been locked in battle over whether hebephilia should be included as a disorder. Hebephilia is the sexual preference for children in early puberty, typically 11 to 14 year old’s.
The proposal was being discussed because children are going through puberty at a younger age and the current definition of pedophilia is attraction to pre-pubescent children.
One of the attendees, and enthusiastic participant, was Tom O’Carroll, a multiple child sex offender and long time campaigner for the legalization of sex with children and former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange. “Wonderful!” he wrote on his blog afterwards. “It was a rare few days when I could feel relatively popular!” . . .
[DTeleg in-art clip:] "But perhaps the most controversial presentation of all was by Philip Tromovitch, a professor at Doshisha University in Japan, who stated in a presentation on the “prevalence of paedophilia” that the “majority of men are probably paedophiles and hebephiles” and that “paedophilic interest is normal and natural in human males”.">>
--> We need to understand what has been going on.
KFkairosfocus
March 31, 2017
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AJ, BTW, John the Baptist was out there in the bush, crying in the wilderness. It seems you will not learn the lesson of Wilberforce, as to why the road of reformation is the one to take. That itself speaks volumes. KFkairosfocus
March 31, 2017
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Let me pick back up from 416:
>>PS: Back to main focus, when Google search, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube become massively dominant in their areas, and are known to be working with Govts that censor and persecute, is that really just a matter of private co’s carrying out their own private policies? What about when there is an obvious orchestrated targetting of those the progressivists, cultural marxists and blackshirts as well as their backers don’t like? How does this look when bakers have been fined out of business etc for simply trying to exert right of conscience to refuse business they saw as entangling them in, in effect endorse or promote seriously destructive perversions? What is going on?
PPS: And, what about the SMICE game and honey traps etc leading to controlled opposition?>>
--> Where are we heading?
--> Shouldn't state-monopolist (or de facto Cartel) alliances that undermine rights and freedoms give us sobering pause on the history of the 1930's and 40's, esp. if there is a tendency to look to political messiahs?kairosfocus
March 30, 2017
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Cullen on YouTube demonetisation and restrictions tactics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxU4Ib4K3cI&ytbChannel=Computing%20Forever
--> Is he even nearly right? Is this balancing, need to know stuff? How could we tell? What about the PewDiPie [?] case?
--> Is YouTube trying to become Web-based Cable TV, with all that that implies about the media shadow-show game?
--> Is Google's dominance giving rise to monopolistic behaviour that is also in a media-state partnership (esp. given concerns over cases in Pakistan and Germany etc?) If so, what does this point to for things like the Android platform? (Already I suggest you set up a few alternative search engines. As a hint, Bing is not enough, try others, e.g. DuckDuckGo, Dogpile or even good old AltaVista etc. A Firefox Alternative -- try PaleMoon for starters -- with these looks better and better to me. Load Wayback Machine too. And don't forget who backs Chrome.)
--> For one, I have already sworn off Apple products because of domineering behaviour.
KFkairosfocus
March 30, 2017
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Wash Examiner on what is being cut out of State Dept reports:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hillarys-officials-cut-criticisms-out-of-state-dept.-reports/article/2565827
>>Hillary's officials cut criticisms out of State Dept. reports
By Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) • 6/9/15 8:33 AM
State Department Inspector General officials edited out passages of a high-profile report in 2013 that could have embarrassed Hillary Clinton just days before she quit President Obama's Cabinet.
The officials excised details of a cover up of misconduct by Clinton's security team.
The edits raise concerns that investigators were subjected to "undue influence" from agency officials.
The Washington Examiner obtained earlier drafts of the report which differ markedly from the final version. References to specific cases in which high-level State officials intervened and descriptions of the extent and frequency of those interventions appear in several early drafts but were later eliminated . . . .
an earlier version dated November 16, 2012, reveals much greater detail about internal investigations that were blocked by top State Department officials.
"Inspectors learned in conversations with Department employees…that in some cases superiors in [diplomatic security] and in senior levels of the State Department have prejudiced the commencement, course and outcome of [special investigations division] investigations," the early draft said.
"Sources referred to [diplomatic security] sometimes circling the wagons to protect favored [diplomatic security] rising stars from criminal charges or from embarrassing revelations that could harm a promising career," the draft continued.
"One case, which triggered outraged comment from several [special investigations division] sources, relates to allegations that a Regional Security Officer engaged in serious criminal conduct including sexual abuse of local embassy staff during a series of embassy postings. Sources also reported that a senior [diplomatic security] official successfully protected some agents on the Secretary's Detail from investigations into misbehavior while on official trips," the November 16 draft said.
It is unclear why this critical text was stripped from the report before the inspector general published it in February 2013 . . . .
Another passage that was removed from the public report suggests officials in Clinton's office may have protected an ambassador from a child abuse investigation.
"Sources reported that a senior '7th Floor' Department official ordered [diplomatic security] to stop the investigation of an ambassador accused of pedophilia, and another such senior official had [diplomatic security] stop an investigation of an ambassador-designate," the draft reads.
The seventh floor is the location of the secretary of state's office, as well as the offices of the deputy secretary and the undersecretaries, according to the State Department's website. If any of these details were removed because of exculpatory information, this is never stated.
The same section of the final report, titled "Need for Independence," makes no reference to the pedophilia allegations or the sexual abuse charges that were covered up by State Department staff . . . >>
--> More ugly smoke from that subterranean, hellish fire.
--> And no, this is not any one party, government or country, something truly ugly is going on across the world.
KFkairosfocus
March 30, 2017
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F/N: Let me add, main body plan origin issue is of course the 500+ MYA issue addressed in say Darwin's Dilemma. Just pointing. KF
PS: Back to main focus, when Google search, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube become massively dominant in their areas, and are known to be working with Govts that censor and persecute, is that really just a matter of private co's carrying out their own private policies? What about when there is an obvious orchestrated targetting of those the progressivists, cultural marxists and blackshirts as well as their backers don't like? How does this look when bakers have been fined out of business etc for simply trying to exert right of conscience to refuse business they saw as entangling them in, in effect endorse or promote seriously destructive perversions? What is going on?
PPS: And, what about the SMICE game and honey traps etc leading to controlled opposition?
PPPS: Haeckel's drawings willfully and misleadingly distorted truth he knew or should have known. Those who used such for nearly a century continued the educational deceit. And those who use the related broader notions to dehumanise the unborn child are carrying it to the next level, enabling the slaughter of innocent human individuals in the womb.kairosfocus
March 29, 2017
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AJ, neutral drift theories and the like are typically fitted into the above outline picture, especially when what is on the table is body plan origin, not minor variation. And no there is no need to get into all the elaborations, the key point is still that blind, non-foresighted forces of chance character are required to provide the changes, and that differential success counts. That obtains for even punk eek type approaches (which have been more or less backed away from in recent years). And no, you will not play the thread pull and derail game. I have only given this much of a response to help underscore your non-responsiveness to the primary focus of the topical focus, and that you have never had a sound answer to Wilberforce as pivotal historical exemplar on reformation in the face of a culture caught up in massive institutionalised wrong and blood guilt, or the value of the individual from conception to natural death. What you are eager to run down because you think you can set up and knock over a loaded strawman caricature, while you refuse to address matters central to a civilisation in deep trouble, speaks. KFkairosfocus
March 29, 2017
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KF:
AJ, FYI I just summarised the mainstream view of the heart of macro-evo, chance non foresighted variation culled by differential reproductive success leading to descent with modification. And we are still off on a parthian shot tangent. KF
Then you would be well advised to read up on the more recent research in evolutionary biology. Something in the last 50 or 60 years would help.Armand Jacks
March 29, 2017
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AJ, FYI I just summarised the mainstream view of the heart of macro-evo, chance non foresighted variation culled by differential reproductive success leading to descent with modification. And we are still off on a parthian shot tangent. KFkairosfocus
March 29, 2017
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KF:
our problem is...
I lay awake at nights wondering what you think my problem is. Rather condescending, don't you think?
There is no sound body of credible empirical observation that sustains the view that blind chance driven incremental variations culled by differential reproductive success has actually given rise to significant novel body plan features that are functional much less advantageous.
Then it's a good thing that evolution involves more than that.Armand Jacks
March 29, 2017
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AJ,
Your problem is that that is being appealed to as a key component of the major source of body plan level biodiversity.There is no sound body of credible empirical observation that sustains the view that blind chance driven incremental variations culled by differential reproductive success has actually given rise to significant novel body plan features that are functional much less advantageous.
Johnson's retort to Lewontin et al is right:
For scientific materialists the materialism comes first; the science comes thereafter. [Emphasis original] We might more accurately term them "materialists employing science." And if materialism is true, then some materialistic theory of evolution has to be true simply as a matter of logical deduction, regardless of the evidence.
[--> notice, the power of an undisclosed, question-begging, controlling assumption . . . often put up as if it were a mere reasonable methodological constraint; emphasis added. Let us note how Rational Wiki, so-called, presents it:
"Methodological naturalism is the label for the required assumption of philosophical naturalism when working with the scientific method. Methodological naturalists limit their scientific research to the study of natural causes, because any attempts to define causal relationships with the supernatural are never fruitful, and result in the creation of scientific "dead ends" and God of the gaps-type hypotheses."
Of course, this ideological imposition on science that subverts it from freely seeking the empirically, observationally anchored truth about our world pivots on the deception of side-stepping the obvious fact since Plato in The Laws Bk X, that there is a second, readily empirically testable and observable alternative to "natural vs [the suspect] supernatural." Namely, blind chance and/or mechanical necessity [= the natural] vs the ART-ificial, the latter acting by evident intelligently directed configuration. [Cf Plantinga's reply here and here.]
And as for the god of the gaps canard, the issue is, inference to best explanation across competing live option candidates. If chance and necessity is a candidate, so is intelligence acting by art through design. And it is not an appeal to ever- diminishing- ignorance to point out that design, rooted in intelligent action, routinely configures systems exhibiting functionally specific, often fine tuned complex organisation and associated information. Nor, that it is the only observed cause of such, nor that the search challenge of our observed cosmos makes it maximally implausible that blind chance and/or mechanical necessity can account for such.]
That theory will necessarily be at least roughly like neo-Darwinism, in that it will have to involve some combination of random changes and law-like processes capable of producing complicated organisms that (in Dawkins’ words) "give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose."
. . . . The debate about creation and evolution is not deadlocked . . . Biblical literalism is not the issue. The issue is whether materialism and rationality are the same thing. Darwinism is based on an a priori commitment to materialism, not on a philosophically neutral assessment of the evidence. Separate the philosophy from the science, and the proud tower collapses. [Emphasis added.] [The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism, First Things, 77 (Nov. 1997), pp. 22 – 25.]
KFkairosfocus
March 29, 2017
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KF:
AJ, as a footnote to your remarks at 381 (I have a moment given a pause in the annual local budget season madness), are you aware that artificial selection by breeding generally has pretty hard limits as to the results achievable, and that the results often come at a price of loss of general viability of the organism, as can be seen from dog breeding and goldfish breeding?
And, strangely enough, we see the same thing in nature as the result of natural selection. Small isolated populations, limited genetic variation, etc. Not all instances of reproductive isolation result in positive adaptations.Armand Jacks
March 29, 2017
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AJ, as a footnote to your remarks at 381 (I have a moment given a pause in the annual local budget season madness), are you aware that artificial selection by breeding generally has pretty hard limits as to the results achievable, and that the results often come at a price of loss of general viability of the organism, as can be seen from dog breeding and goldfish breeding? Thus, this is both an act of ART-ificial, intelligently directed configuration, and does not point to descent with unlimited modification leading to novel body plans. I suggest that you would be well advised to read the UD Weak Argument correctives, under the resources tab on this and every UD page. KFkairosfocus
March 29, 2017
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SB, and that is how dangerous cultural marxist/Alinsky-ite agit-prop street theatre and media shadow show games tied to corruption of institutions, law, government and professions are. That is how we get to 800+ million of our posterity slaughtered in the womb in 40+ years, now mounting at a million more per week. And that is how we become so benumbed in conscience and depraved in mind that we have impaired ability to think straight about anything, this being further amplified by the impacts of self-falsifying, inherently amoral evolutionary materialistic scientism and fellow traveller ideologies.. Of course, that is exactly what some movers and shakers behind the scenes want, refusing to see that our civilisation is heading for shipwreck. KFkairosfocus
March 29, 2017
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Armand Jacks
Since all of your questions were answered in my previous comments, it only looks like you are too lazy to read for comprehension.
You are not telling the truth. Provide evidence that you answered my questions, one by one.
So, you won’t jail women who have an abortion because you think that they all suffer from diminished capacity. When you are already in a hole, it is advisable to stop digging.
As I explained, I would not jail women who have an abortion primarily because they often have imperfect knowledge of their crime. As is your custom, you ignored the point and labored over diminished capacity, which is also a factor, but not as important. However. I would put the doctor in jail.
If someone had the kindness to instruct these women about fetal development, many would probably not kill the fetus. You on the other hand, have been instructed, but you refuse to accept the truth. That is why you are afraid to answer my questions. Young women in trouble, who are often ignorant and under pressure, have an excuse. You are without excuse.
Believe me when I tell you that it is not I who is digging a hole.StephenB
March 28, 2017
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SB:
Do you realize how it appears when I answer all your questions in detail and you run away from all my questions without even a hint of a response.
Since all of your questions were answered in my previous comments, it only looks like you are too lazy to read for comprehension.
So, you won't jail women who have an abortion because you think that they all suffer from diminished capacity. When you are already in a hole, it is advisable to stop digging.Armand Jacks
March 28, 2017
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Armand Jacks
So, you ascribe to the theory that women are not intellectually or emotionally capable of knowing right from wrong. Good to know.
You are very confused. so much so, that you have forgotten your own question. You asked if I would put her in jail for twenty five years for murder. You didn't ask me if she committed a wrong act, or if she knew it was wrong.
Oh. And you think that women are so weak that they can’t make decisions for themselves. You might want to stop digging.
Now you are even more confused. I am referring to the legal theory of diminished capacity. Let me help you with the relevant remedial education.
"In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were "diminished" or impaired."
Just so that you will know, the decision making capacity of everyone, men and women, is compromised under pressure. Didn't you know that? I recommend that you do some reading on the subject.
Meanwhile, you continue to dodge my questions. I am going to assume that you cannot defend your position since you are obviously afraid to try.
Do you realize how it appears when I answer all your questions in detail and you run away from all my questions without even a hint of a response.StephenB
March 28, 2017
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SB:
...many women do not know that a fetus is a human being because the abortionist lies to them and tells them that it is just a clump of tissue, which diminishes responsibility because of ignorance...
So, you ascribe to the theory that women are not intellectually or emotionally capable of knowing right from wrong. Good to know.
...because they are often under undue pressure from others to kill their child, which diminishes responsibility because full consent is lacking.
Oh. And you think that women are so weak that they can't make decisions for themselves. You might want to stop digging.
Also, it is no small matter that it was not her that did the killing.
No, it was just her that made the decision, planned it, and contracted someone to do it for her. We charge people with first degree murder for doing that.Armand Jacks
March 28, 2017
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Armand Jacks
Then you must be in favour of charging women who have abortions with first degree murder and, if convicted, spending at least 25 years in jail. If not, why not?
I notice that you completely ignored my refutations and the difference between being fully human and being a fully developed human. If you don't understand the difference, you cannot analyze the subject properly. I also notice that you failed to provide an argument to support your notion that you have a moral right to live when a fetus doesn't. I also noticed that you did not respond to the point that the right to life has nothing to do with the developmental process. That is a lot to leave on the table. I also noticed that you have changed the subject from morality to law, presumably in an attempt to evade the refutations.
To answer your question, I would not charge a woman who has had an abortion with first degree murder for two reasons: [a] many women do not know that a fetus is a human being because the abortionist lies to them and tells them that it is just a clump of tissue, which diminishes responsibility because of ignorance and [b] because they are often under undue pressure from others to kill their child, which diminishes responsibility because full consent is lacking. Also, it is no small matter that it was not her that did the killing.StephenB
March 28, 2017
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SB:
Morally, a fetus has the same right to live as you do.
Then you must be in favour of charging women who have abortions with first degree murder and, if convicted, spending at least 25 years in jail. If not, why not?Armand Jacks
March 28, 2017
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Armand Jacks
I didn’t say that the fetus wasn’t human. I just said that it was “completely” human. Or, more accurately, a completely developed human.
[a] You said a fetus wasn't fully human. That is not correct. It isn't possible to be human and not be fully human. A fetus is either human or it is not. If it is human, then it is fully human. It is not part giraffe or part something else.
[b] It is a totally different thing to say that a fetus is not a fully "developed" human, which of course is correct, just as a ten year old boy is not a fully developed human. That is the point. You would not say that a ten year old boy is not fully buman just because he is still a developing human, would you? Of course not. So you can't say that a fetus is not fully human just because it is still developing. One must be fully human to develop at all.
Morally, a fetus has the same right to live as you do. The fact that you are a fully developed (physically) and a fetus is not has nothing to do with the right to live, which is based on what person IS, not at which stage of development a person finds himself.
As you well know, my argument has never been about the humanness of the fetus, merely the status of it’s right to life.
You have presented no argument in defense of the proposition that you have any more right to live than a fetus. Do you have one? If so, this would be a good time to present it.StephenB
March 28, 2017
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KF:
Finally, SB is dead right to point out that the unborn child develops, from conception, AS his or her own distinctly identifiable human being, it does not somehow evolve through Haeckel’s stages from an amoeba to a fish then a monkey or the like then finally a human being at some stage — oh, there is enough of a nervous system there or whatever [notice, how conveniently the fact of its own beating heart at 5 1/2 weeks or so, the point where some awareness that a pregnancy may be in progress is usually recognised, has been conveniently swept away by studious silence]...
I didn't say that the fetus wasn't human. I just said that it was "completely" human. Or, more accurately, a completely developed human. As you well know, my argument has never been about the humanness of the fetus, merely the status of it's right to life.
I don't understand the point you are trying to make about the awareness of the pregnancy. As such, how could I have swept it away.I was talking about the self-awareness of the fetus, not the woman's awareness of the pregnancy. A woman wouldn't have an abortion if she wasn't aware of the pregnancy. And with modern home pregnancy tests, women are usually aware of the pregnancy long before the 5 1/2 week mark. But again, I don't understand the point you are trying to make.
FYI, Haeckel’s drawings were a fraud,...
Haeckel's drawings were certainly exaggerated and inaccurate, They were biased by his understanding of embryonic development but they were not a fraud. Piltdown Man was a fraud. The Shroud of Turin is a fraud. But, again, you are making statements that have absolutely no relevance to the discussion of abortion or objective morality.
Wider haeckelism on oh there is not enough of a nervous system there or other such irrelevancy tot he distinct human nature and identity of the unborn child in the womb becomes little more than a rationalisation for dehumanisation.
Are you arguing that the nervous system of the first trimester fetus is developed enough for self-awareness, consciousness and the perception of pain? If you have evidence otherwise, I will certainly modify my opinion. This is not a rationalization for dehumanization. It is a rational division based on our current knowledge of embryonic development.
Which is one characteristic symptom of targetting victims of a holocaust.
True. But irrelevant to the discussion.
The other, being denigration, projection of blameworthy stereotypes, demonisation and scapegoating.
Yes. And you would be well advised to stop doing it.You don't hear me talking about 'fellow travellers', 'others of your ilk','AJ, Pindi et al (including the fever swamp penumbra)', etc. I have been respectful and present logical arguments devoid of emotional rhetoric. The closest I came to a personal approbation was calling you an insignificant little man, but it was said in context and as a comparison to Wilberforce. By that standard we are both insignificant little men, as is everyone who comments here and on most blogs. It is not an insult, it is simply a statement of fact.
The one thing that has been made very obvious is the refusal by some here to actually address the approach of early and comprehensive sex education and unrestricted access to contraceptives, an approach that has been shown to significantly reduce the demand for abortion.Armand Jacks
March 28, 2017
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F/N: I did a search and find the indicated Dr Phil show full episode more or less in at least two locations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7bBFtR3e5M&ytbChannel=Deniz%20Arslan
and:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJNrzYHE-2s&ytbChannel=The%20Silentist
I am downloading and archiving, as I suspect this will not last long online.
Looks like it includes the testimony of a child sex abuse, human commoditisation and trafficking victim. Dr Phil -- for whatever it is worth -- says they spent four months validating and cross checking and she seems to be a real case. Recall, the Boys Town etc Franklin Bank case already brought up above and what happened to victims and their family including gaoling of a witness whose testimony seems to have been valid. KF
PS: We should compare Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative, as a testimony on the slave trade.kairosfocus
March 27, 2017
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AJ, Pindi et al (including the fever swamp penumbra): WJM has responded to a direct request from me, and has provided a useful update on the swamp draining operations. Perhaps it has not registered with you that the SMICE intel-operative/ equivalent driven compromise game enmeshes people across the political spectrum. So it is no surprise to see people across the various parties caught up in honey traps and worse; that tactic is called controlled opposition, as say Mr Hastert demonstrated for the USA. (It is obvious that part of why Trump has been so ferociously attacked is that he is obviously not controlled opposition and can use tactics that the string-pullers cannot control . . . the pull the tape attempt at a late surprise obviously failed, never mind the recent obscene marches. [Recall, I do not like or support him, I am just reporting what seems a plain fact.]) KFkairosfocus
Oh yes, I doubt that it is a mere accident that the Limousine torched on Trump’s Inauguration day
U/D Feb 10 (HT BA77), Sharyl Attkisson in a TEDx talk on Astroturfing and media manipulation gives a useful, from the horse’s mouth view on the media spin game:>>