People across the political spectrum in Israel were disgusted recently to see others at a Jewish wedding celebrating the fire bombing of a Palestinian family and holding up a picture of 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe who was burned away in the attack. One youth was shown stabbing the picture of the baby as others danced and rejoiced. Israeli police arrested four of the men in the videotape today, though (as despicable as these extremists are) the arrests raise questions over the criminalization of speech.
The wedding of a couple from the far religious right showed people dancing with weapons and rejoicing in the deaths. The father and the baby Ali both burned to death in the attack. It took a month for the mother, Reham, to die in the hospital. She was a 27 year old teacher and had third degree burns over 90 percent of her body. Only their four-year-old son Ahmed survived with second-degree burns on more than 60 percent of his body.
The four men arrested include the groom Yakir Ashbal. What is interesting is that the lawyer representing them was one of those at what is now being called the “hate wedding” filled with extremists. Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir has insisted that a weapon shown in the videotape was a toy and that “even if it was tasteless, no crime has been committed during the dance from this perspective.” Giver would seem to have an obvious conflict in representation as a potential witness. His participation in such a hateful event also raises questions about his own moral judgment, but I fail to see how he could defend a case in which he is a witness.
Putting those ethical concerns aside, his point is still a valid one. The men were charged with “incitement to violence” and “illegal possession of weapons.” The latter charge is a factual question and not particularly troubling from a legal perceptive. The incitement charge is a concern. We have long discussed the increasing criminalization of speech. We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have even seen comedians targets with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here).
Here you have hateful individuals celebrating and rejoicing in the death of a family, including a baby. However, what constitutes incitement and what constitutes opinion rests on a highly subjective determination. Presumably any rejoicing over the attack would encourage or incite others. This creates a slippery slope in which prosecutors can pick and chose who to arrest for unpopular speech. I find these people, including a lawyer at such a hateful event, to be disgusting and grotesque people. Yet, civil libertarians are often required to defend the least sympathetic individuals in our society. We do not need free speech to protect popular speech or individuals. The test of our convictions is our willingness to extend the same protections to those whom we despise.
While Israel does not have the same free speech protections as the United States, it is the country with the most such protections in this region. If there are gun charges to be brought, I say bring them. However, the incitement charges raise deep concerns over how speech is regulated or prosecuted by the government.
What do you think?
@Prairie Rose
1, January 2, 2016 at 3:12 pm
“Well said. I do enjoy your posts. I rather wish this was a coffee shop where I could ask to join your table for some interesting conversation, whether or not it was on-topic.”
I agree that face-to-face discussion in a coffee-shop milieu would be even more enjoyable in certain respects, but I’m glad that JT’s comments section offers a venue for expressing oneself in writing on a wide range of topics, which has the advantage of tending to conduce to more precision in one’s thinking than does oral communication.
I’m glad you’ve found my posts enjoyable, PR. I make it a point to read yours, too, and look forward to future ones.
Ken Rogers,
“All of us have the potential to be truth-bearers, but it’s those who can serve in that capacity most objectively and impersonally who gain the widest recognition as serving the truth and inspiring others to do the same, rather than inviting dismissal as “extremists,” “attention seekers,” or whatever other defense mechanism provides an excuse for avoiding unpleasant truths.”
Well said. I do enjoy your posts. I rather wish this was a coffee shop where I could ask to join your table for some interesting conversation, whether or not it was on-topic.
In this http://www.integrativestudies.com/FAIIS/Course_101B.htm course on pages 23, 27, 37, etc. the Enneagram is used to map our DNA.
Hey, I’m not nearly smart enough to understand these applications of The Enneagram but my instincts (I’m an instinctual type and make no apologies. It’s a feature and strength of my personality) tell me that SOMEONE does! Also just because I don’t entirely understand something doesn’t mean it’s b.s.
Maybe I’m just barking at the moon here, but I do hate to see people outright reject something so amazing and useful.
And yes thank you; I will try to not be my own worst enemy when it comes to spreading information. Sometimes though, like Socrates (?) being a gadfly is not such a bad thing. It doesn’t seem likely I will ever meet your standard of logic and reasoning as I don’t put logic at as high a value as you do? It’s always going to be included in only 50% of the brain.
Ken Rogers : Ken Rogers; I appreciate your concerns about the Enneagram but before you toss it please do a little more research. I can honestly say what I’ve learned from the study of it as it applies to personality has benefitted me personally more than any other single thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve been a seeker of truth my whole life.
Gurdjieff considered the Enneagram to be he most powerful symbol in the Universe and Nichola Tesla refers to it indirectly when he says ” “IF YOU ONLY KNEW THE MAGNIFICENCE OF THE 3, 6 AND 9, THEN YOU WOULD HAVE THE KEY TO THE UNIVERSE.” You’ll find the quote here:
http://www.integrativestudies.com/index.html
Here http://www.integrativestudies.com/index2.html you’ll find a series of courses:
The Trilogy of Evolution’s Disruptive Enabler (i.e., Identlfying the Gurdjieff Enneagram in Evolution)
THE MATHEMATICALLY DISRUPTIVE ENABLER (i.e., Mathematically Deriving the Gurdjieff Enneagram)
DISRUPTIVE ENABLER OF MATTER/ENERGY (i.e., Identifying the Gurdjieff Enneagram in Matter/Energy)
EVOLUTION’S DISRUPTIVE ENABLER OF LIFE (i.e.,Identifying the Gurdjieff Enneagram in the Genetic Coded and Noncoded DNA)
EVOLUTION’S COMPROMISED DISRUPTIVE ENABLER OF THE HUMAN PERSONALITY (i.e., Identifying the Personality Enneagram)
THE REVELATION OF THE ASSOCIATED REMEDIATION PLAN (i.e.,Identifying the Gurdjieff Enneagram in the Book of Revelation)
Too many links so I have to break this comment up…
@Hildegard
In my last post, rather than, “Please don’t give people excuses to ignore you.”, I meant to say, “Please don’t give people reasons to ignore you.”
There is no such thing as meaningless data, Olly.
Knowing that the ultra-orthodox religious extremism in Israel has a very strong foreign flavor goes a long way towards telling us both the cause and solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We already know that main problem between Israelis and Palestinians is the restless settlement building, which is fueled by the high numbers of immigrants from Western counties, who tend to arrive with a higher religious or ethnic fervor, which expresses itself into great aggressiveness towards the locals, whom they see as squatters on land that should “”rightfully”” be theirs.
They are the same immigrants who deem the native Israelis soft and ideological corrupt, unwilling to do the religiously or ethnically warranted colonization of all the land.
Ironically, they also deem themselves the real Jews, in contrast to the non-white natives:
ROSH HA’AYIN, Israel (AP) — Israel’s visceral election campaign has exposed a rift that many here thought had long subsided — the deep-seated schism between Jews of European and Middle Eastern descent.
Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, Jews heavily backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, while Ashkenazi, or European, Jews mostly identified with the opposition Zionist Union.
That dynamic has been going on for a while but passions have run particularly high this time, with jarring results. Since Netanyahu’s win, the sides have been exchanging insults that have not been heard in public in a generation — with the Mizrahi voters accused of being primitive and Ashkenazi voters viewed as elitist.
The dispute goes back to Israel’s earliest days of independence. Arriving from Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa after Israel’s establishment in 1948, many Mizrahi immigrants were sent to shantytown transit camps and largely sidelined by the European leaders of the founding Labor Party.
They found their political savior in Likud’s Menachem Begin — even though he was himself of Polish Jewish descent. With consummate skill the longtime opposition leader cultivated an outsiders’ alliance that appealed to their sense of deprivation — and with massive Mizrahi backing he swept to power in 1977 to break nearly 30 years of Labor rule.
The exact population breakdown is hard to calculate because intermarriage is now quite common. But Mizrahi or part-Mizrahi Jews make up roughly half of Israel’s Jewish population.
They have long complained of discrimination by the European-descended elite that traditionally dominated government, military and business institutions.
We can therefore deduce that to check such immigration, or to target the ideological violence it carries would necessarily be part and parcel of the peace process…but we all know they serve a purpose…and that purpose will surely cost Israel its soul.
———————————
Regarding martial law, here, I think it is high time we take responsibility for our actions. This is not a dictatorship, it is a democracy where our leaders are elected. Our leaders are us, they come from us and are chosen by us. To, therefore, speak of the government as an entity separate from us is a cop out. When it forces its hand and tries to direct us a certain way, it is spurred by a range of reasons along the extremes of :
1- it believes it to be necessary for the maintaining of societal order, to benefit the population
2- it believes it to be necessary for the maintaining of societal order, to insure its own survival
As we said before, rarely does 2 happen out of the gate, too often it comes trailing 1 and surely taking it over. Now, we must ask, what brings about 1?
1 always happens within a multicultural society, where different groups cohabit and have different “”needs””. It happens when those needs, the demand for those natural rights, are made more strongly by some, and those demands usually mean that others are allowed less natural rights. The state steps in, naturally, in order to offer protection for those lesser groups, and in that process elects itself the sole protector of ALL natural rights, trying to insure a parity between the various groups.
That, just as naturally, necessitates the state to elect itself determinant of what constitutes natural rights…which leads to it getting to tell us how much of it anyone should have.
It is the competition between groups that brings about the state as a supervising entity, as a greater cause to replace the narrower for the wider one. the more parity there exists between groups, the less necessary it is for the state to have a say in creating that artificial parity through which the hijacking happens.
Considering our country’s looooong history of sacrificing the natural rights of others in the pursuit of our own, what else did we expect?
As a man of faith, you know am sure that there is a structure to things. There is a karmic bent to life where to do is to be done.
I tend to state it as “”what happens on the macro happens on the micro””, what we do internationally, we do domestically. The US is the greatest purveyor of violence and oppression against populations worldwide, why do we think that we wouldn’t turn against our own population?
@Hildegard
1, January 1, 2016 at 9:05 pm
If we’re to accurately apprehend reality and discuss it coherently, we all have to appeal to empirical evidence and to conceptualizing that evidence logically, regardless of our “personality type.”
There isn’t enneagram-personality-type-8 evidence and logic, or psychoanalytical-character-type evidence and logic, there are just evidence and logic.
If you present no (or weak) evidence to support some assertion (other than something about your own person), and/or contradict yourself, I don’t care how famous you are, how much money you have in the bank, or anything about your “personality type,” I’m going to give very little credence to what you’ve said.
If you want people to find you more credible, rather than seeing you as someone primarily interested in calling attention to herself, I suggest that you devote at least as much time to the study of logic and evaluating evidence as you have to the study of enneagrams. It will help you be much more selective in what you say and how you say it.
“ ‘Don’t go there, that’s Hildegard terrritory.’ ‘All press is good press?’ ”
It is if you’re more into self-promotion than into truth-seeking and truth-sharing, yes.
Otherwise, no.
I offer these suggestions in a spirit of cooperation with someone I perceive as being aware of and interested in sharing information about the machinations of the American Surveillance State and its growing number of agents which collectively are increasingly inimical to our civil liberties.
Please don’t give people excuses to ignore you.
That is meaningless data Po. It should surprise no one that the unalienable right to life, liberty and property has been successfully scrubbed from the American culture. I predict we will see a whole lot more of it in 2016 and before this year is up, we will be under marshal law.
The Anglo Connection: Why Do So Many Jewish Terrorists Come From the English-speaking World?
From the suspects in the Duma arson case to the revelers in the ‘wedding of hate,’ the ranks of Jewish extremist groups are filled with immigrants from the U.S. and other English speaking countries.
At the Petach Tikva Magistrate Court, where some of the key suspects in the latest wave of Jewish terror activity were having their remands extended this week, concerned family members huddled in the hallways while hearings were held behind closed doors.
A passerby paying close attention could not help but take note of the preponderance of English being spoken. And when not English, then American-accented Hebrew.
Is it pure coincidence that a disproportionate number of those taken into custody in the latest crackdown on Jewish extremism in Israel, as well as those cheering them on, are children of immigrants from English-speaking countries or immigrants who hold dual citizenship?
Take the fact that at least one of the key suspects in the arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma that killed three members of the Dawabsheh family in July has an American parent and holds dual citizenship.
This 17-year-old, whose name has been barred from publication, grew up in the West Bank settlement of Tsofim. Another minor suspected of direct involvement in that attack is also reported to hold U.S. citizenship.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.694792
Hildegard,
Once people are awakened, what do you want them to do next? What is the change you want to see?
Oily; “Once people are awakened, what do you want them to do next? What is the change you want to see?”
Usually I’m so happy to know that someone is awake to the truth that I don’t even care what else they do…except wake up somebody else! Once people are awake to the lies, manipulation, propaganda, they’re much much more difficult to control. Once the people wake up they want justice. They want law and order! They want law breakers punished and the innocent set free. They want to their power back, their independence.
It would be hypocritical to ask of others what I haven’t done myself, but the fact that people are simply waking up is having a major impact. Watch the video to see how. Lies exposed lose their destructive power over us. How many times have you uncovered a lie in your own life? And whether that was painful or not, it was much better to know it.
INTERNATIONAL TRUTH BOMBS ARE BEING DROPPED
@Hildegard
1, January 1, 2016 at 6:13 pm
“Ken Rogers: That was an awesome reply and greatly appreciated. I’m not understanding what the argument is at this point except that we may simply misunderstand each other. It looks like we’re on the same ‘team’ as far as 9/11 and government propaganda, and you link to an Infowars article as well. We seem to have a basic personality conflict.”
What you seem unable to get your head around, Hildegard, is that if you’re going to advocate views that give a lot of people cognitive dissonance for various reasons, it behooves you to provide very strong evidence to support those views. If you don’t provide such evidence, you’re simply going to marginalize yourself, as was demonstrated by the commenter who cautioned po, “Don’t go there, that’s Hildegard terrritory.”
It behooves you do so, that is, if you want to be taken seriously. If you’re content with being some kind of political drama queen who just wants to be able to complain that she isn’t instantly appreciated by everyone she tries to grace with her private truth, then marshaling evidence and employing logic aren’t necessary.
You recognize how Alex Jones unnecessarily marginalizes himself (“Alex provides volumes of great verifiable information but fails to get the broadest possible recognition and support because he occasionally [if not often] loses his SH*T!”). Can you pause and summon the wherewithal to recognize this tendency in yourself?
All of us have the potential to be truth-bearers, but it’s those who can serve in that capacity most objectively and impersonally who gain the widest recognition as serving the truth and inspiring others to do the same, rather than inviting dismissal as “extremists,” “attention seekers,” or whatever other defense mechanism provides an excuse for avoiding unpleasant truths.
With regard to Sandy Hook, that’s too far off this thread’s topic, but I’ll be glad to address it on another, more appropriate thread.
Thanks for the link to the X22 Report. I’ll check it out.
Ken Rogers; ““Don’t go there, that’s Hildegard terrritory.” All press is good press? I appreciate the warning and will heed it at least occasionally. I’m a bit of a loose cannon as you’ve noticed and have been highly rebellious since day one as far as my mother relates it. There’s no denying that I WILL post links and articles that certain elements will find untrustworthy regardless of how accurate they are. People will object to the presentation, personality, etc. But then sometimes a gem will surface that’s (almost?) undeniable.
“Can you pause and summon the wherewithal to recognize this tendency in yourself? Ahem, Ken. TOTALLY. I was openly owning up to it as you recall. OPENLY. This is where the beauty and the wisdom of The Enneagram is absolutely priceless. What I learned from it without a doubt is just how average 99% of us are. Average in our (what we imagine) ‘unique’ way. If you really understood my type; you wouldn’t waste one iota of your time trying to convince me to be otherwise.
“All of us have the potential to be truth-bearers, but it’s those who can serve in that capacity most objectively and impersonally who gain the widest recognition as serving the truth and inspiring others to do the same, rather than inviting dismissal as “extremists,” “attention seekers,” or whatever other defense mechanism provides an excuse for avoiding unpleasant truths.” I DO hear you and will let that sink in..
I’m thinking you might be a FIVE? Take the test if you’re interested. I absolutely love when people identify their type and we can then relate without so much judgement. You seem very intelligent and have control over your emotions; like my daughter. We meet at a major point…..
Type Eight: The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational
https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-8/
Famous Examples
G.I. Gurdjieff, Richard Wagner, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Oskar Schindler, Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Saddam Hussein, Senator John McCain, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer….
There are many more examples but you get the picture. Donald Trump is an eight.
Ken; I’m thinking you might like this channel. Let me know…
US Government Uses Propaganda To Convince The World They Brought Peace To Syria – Episode 855b
@Hildegard
1, January 1, 2016 at 2:18 pm
“Being an ordinary person, I don’t understand what Cass Sunstein has to do with anything worth mentioning and only serves to confuse/cloud/obfuscate the issue we’re talking about here and that is whether people are aware of bigger agendas-how they’re being duped, exploited, used and abused for an agenda they would never in a million years support.”
Cass Sunstein is a very influential adviser to Barack Obama (and is married to another one, Samantha Power) and is often touted by other influential Washington insiders as a candidate for apppointment to the US Supreme Court.
That a high-level Obama appointee (and possible Supreme Court Justice) has advocated surreptitiously (and illegally) planting government propaganda into internet discussions of 9/11 and other topics is what makes him “worth mentioning” as an agent of the duping and exploitation of Americans, which duping you so rightly deplore.
“Sunstein co-authored a 2008 paper with Adrian Vermeule, titled ‘Conspiracy Theories,’ in which they wrote, ‘The existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the government’s antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be.’
“They go on to propose that, ‘the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups’,[19] where they suggest, among other tactics, ‘Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action.'[19]
“Sunstein and Vermeule also analyze the practice of secret government payments to outside commentators, who are then held out as independent experts; they suggest that ‘government can supply these independent experts with information and perhaps prod them into action from behind the scenes,’ further warning that ‘too close a connection will be self-defeating if it is exposed.'[19]
“Sunstein and Vermeule argue that the practice of enlisting non-government officials, “might ensure that credible independent experts offer the rebuttal, rather than government officials themselves. There is a tradeoff between credibility and control, however. The price of credibility is that government cannot be seen to control the independent experts.” (Emphasis added)
“This position has been criticized by some commentators, [20] [21] who argue that it would violate prohibitions on government propaganda aimed at domestic citizens.[22]
“Shortly after taking office on January 20, 2009 President Obama appointed Harvard law professor (and personal friend) Cass Sunstein to the post of administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. In June 2009 Sunstein published an essay in The Journal of Political Philosophy entitled ‘Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,’ in which he provided an ‘analysis’ of conspiracy theories, viewing them, as his title indicated, as ’caused’ by psychological conditions and requiring ‘cures’, i.e., elimination. The article led to an outcry by civil libertarians of all political stripes, who especially singled out for protest Sunstein’s call for covert ‘cognitive infiltration’ by government agents of organizations the government deems ‘conspiracist.’
“Because Sunstein explicitly states that ‘9/11 conspiracy theories’ are his main focus, virtually all interpreters have agreed that Sunstein’s call for what is essentially another Cointelpro Operation is directed specifically against the 9/11 truth movement. (Cointelpro, or ‘Counter Intelligence Program’, was the FBI’s name for its high-priority operations to infiltrate, provoke, undermine and disable civil rights, socialist, antiwar, black power and Native American movements during the late 1950s and the 1960s.) The fantastic picture Sunstein paints of the 9/11 truth movement as ‘harmful,’ ‘dangerous,’ and likely to resort to ‘terrorism’ suggests that he is serving a function similar to Philip Zelikow’s during the Bush/Cheney years; in his own way, Sunstein too is a ‘myth-maker.’
“In his new book COGNITIVE INFILTRATION, David Ray Griffin has provided the first truly adequate response to Sunstein’s deeply-flawed and legally-questionable arguments. Griffin penetrates the obfuscation and phony scholarship employed by Sunstein to create the illusion of a rational critique of the 9/11 truth movement’s alternative account of the events of September 11, 2001.
“Griffin presents a series of ten theses put forward by Sunstein, and shows that each is fundamentally flawed. Further, he demonstrates that Sunstein is unable to avoid numerous self-contradictions, either explicit or implied, that together amount to an internal, hidden counter-argument to his own position, which Griffin, in a novel and entertaining approach, brings out as an ironic ‘esoteric’ meaning of Sunstein’s essay.
“Griffin demonstrates that Sunstein is completely unable to refute the major positions of the 9/11 truth movement, and doesn’t actually even try to do so. Instead, Sunstein has produced a pseudo-scholarly, fake ‘analysis’ as a basis for a call for the government to infiltrate and neutralize the movement through activities which create ‘cognitive dissonance,’ clearly not the least bit different from the FBI’s Cointelpro operations.
“But in so doing Sunstein has provided Griffin the means to demonstrate yet again that defenders of the official account of 9/11 actually cannot proceed by using reason and fact. They are forced to resort to disinformation, suppression of evidence, lies, illogic, threats and intimidation, always with the same result: failure. The more people study the events of 9/11 the more certain they become that the government and its media outlets are lying.
“Sunstein’s essay appears to reveal that the government response to its ongoing failure will be to resort to illegal activities directed against people who are speaking out about the highest crimes carried out in the corridors of power. The remarkably inept manner in which he makes his case suggests, however, that providing a rationale for such a future policy may not have been his real intention. Rather, it seems plausible that his purpose is to suggest that such actions have not even been considered before, let alone implemented, when in fact such operations have been ongoing since 9/11.
“Griffin’s COGNITIVE INFILTRATION is a lucid and compelling exposure of the contempt [and fear] held by the official defenders the 9/11 myth for dissenters who have seen through their Big Lie. These officials expect that no one will be able to penetrate the murk of Sunstein’s latest defense of the pretext for the US wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, now covertly expanding into many other countries.
“But with David Ray Griffin’s book, everyone who is concerned with bringing their carnage and criminality to a stop, as well as to reverse the rapid erosion of civil liberties in this country, will have no difficulty remaining clear-headed in the face of the ‘cognitive infiltration’ carried out by the holders of high office and their agents.”
http://www.infowars.com/cognitive-infiltration-an-obama-appointees-plan-to-undermine-the-911-conspiracy-theory/
Hildegard: “P.S. Being ordinary, not formally highly educated/self-educated, non-intellectual, feminine, emotional, instinctual doesn’t make me automatically ignorant.”
No, but it certainly doesn’t make you automatically knowledgeable, either.
Ken Rogers: That was an awesome reply and greatly appreciated. I’m not understanding what the argument is at this point except that we may simply misunderstand each other. It looks like we’re on the same ‘team’ as far as 9/11 and government propaganda, and you link to an Infowars article as well. We seem to have a basic personality conflict.
Let me put it this way, like Alex Jones, some of us feel not a little like Paul Revere. We’ve been privy to this crap for SO long and have tried in every way we can come up with to reason with people and ‘wake them up’ with logic and whatnot, only to be met with just the reaction that would make Cass S. so proud; derision, insults, rejection…etc. Like Paul Revere we see the threat growing day by day and like Paul Revere we don’t have time to stop at everyone’s home and present them with all the evidence till they finally ‘wake up’. If only bullying people into submission would work! What a great world this would be. LOL
Alex provides volumes of great verifiable information but fails to get the broadest possible recognition and support because he occasionally (if not often) loses his SH*T! Can you really blame him? (Side note: Alex J. is most likely an enneagram personality type 8 with a 7 wing; a very aggressive type. I’m an 8 with a 9 wing; also aggressive but less so. https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/)
What is your opinion of the Sandy Hook event?
@Hildegard
1, January 1, 2016 at 1:19 pm
“I’m reading up on Cass Sunstein. Are you a fan of his? The man sounds scary to me and if you’re a fan that would explain a lot about why you and I aren’t ‘hitting it off’ so to speak.”
I had already answered your question in the post to which you’re responding:
“It’s also possible that you’re unintentionally serving Sunstein’s objective of undermining the credibility of ‘unofficial’ alternative explanations of events and phenomena, more in keeping with the available evidence, that Sunstein and his authoritarian ilk would rather that no one consider.” (Emphasis added)
I guess you were too busy emoting to have caught that.
Ken Rogers: “consciously one of Cass Sunstein’s obfuscating “cognitive infiltrators” … EGAD I’m not nearly that clever. I’m a plain speaking Midwestern woman with average intelligence. I’m reading up on Cass Sunstein. Are you a fan of his? The man sounds scary to me and if you’re a fan that would explain a lot about why you and I aren’t “hitting it off” so to speak.
I know you liked one link I provided. Hang in there; there might be another one someday.
As far as emoting; I’m a feminine woman so that’s going to continue regardless of anyone’s opinion.
Admittedly shouting at people to wake up is of very limited usefulness. Jesus and Buddha were frequently imploring people to awaken and look at how effective that was. Still I can’t help it sometimes and if that makes me less credible so be it. Hopefully it’s at least entertaining.
“evaluate the quality of your messaging..” Quality is in the eye of the beholder to a large degree. There are other sites I can comment on and with very few words, they GET it immediately. But that’s just more preaching to the choir.
Happy 2016 to all my friends and enemies alike! Without opponents we could never win.
NATIONAL HOAX AWARDS – Best Crisis Actor
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=504_1444238343&comments=1
@Hildegard
1, December 31, 2015 at 12:09 pm
“Once again I’m literally the only one here who has the full realization that this whole story COULD be entirely made up for political purposes. People here SEEM fairly intelligent and well informed. What is it going to take to wake you people up?”
You really should think more and emote less, Hildegard.
Yes, I “fully realize” that this whole story COULD, theoretically, be (counter-productively) made up for political purposes, just as it’s theoretically possible that you’re consciously one of Cass Sunstein’s obfuscating “cognitive infiltrators” who tries to undermine objective, evidence-based inquiry online by dramatically playing the part of a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist making unsupported claims that are reflexively “anti-establishment.”
It’s also possible that you’re unintentionally serving Sunstein’s objective of undermining the credibility of “unofficial” alternative explanations of events and phenomena, more in keeping with the available evidence, that Sunstein and his authoritarian ilk would rather that no one consider.
If you don’t think you’re being taken seriously enough (remember in this connection, by the way, how I publicly thanked you for calling attention to the Canadian gun violence study), step back and evaluate the quality of your messaging, as Olly suggests, above.
Thanks, again, for providing links to studies and/or analyses that are supported by credible evidence, rather than histrionically shouting at people to “wake up.”
Hildegard,
Why in the world do you equate non-reactions to your posts as you being the only person with a clue? If people here are as “fairly intelligent and well informed” as you believe they are then perhaps take a look at yourself and your message. For instance, you have absolutely nothing to say about the natural rights comments Po and I have posted here. Should I whine that no one else responds and assume no one else cares? Get over yourself.
Once again I’m literally the only one here who has the full realization that this whole story COULD be entirely made up for political purposes. People here SEEM fairly intelligent and well informed. What is it going to take to wake you people up? An alarm clock tied to your head? I’ve posted links to the actual text of the NDAA. The reaction here? NONE. I’ve posted video upon video demonstrating proof of media lies/fabrications, governmental/centralized control.
The reaction here? NONE. I can easily post dozens of articles, government documents, videos, and get the same reaction; either NONE or the knee jerk ‘tin foil hat’ comments that have basically been IMPLANTED by the very media I’m trying to warn you not to LISTEN to – imploring everyone here to be aware that what they’re feeding you is HIGHLY suspect and yet the reaction here is the same. NIL
Po,
One question I’ve never been able to get an answer on regarding natural rights is, why would anyone EVER try to argue against the existence of unalienable rights? It would be equivalent to the slave arguing against the right to be free.
Robert Bork cited Tocqueville to express just how the people have turned from a body that embraced the rights of the individual and limited government to one that has given up both:
“Tocqueville sounded the warning about government that “covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided. . . . Such a power . . . stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
In light of this, Olly…
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What’s in Store for Our Freedoms in 2016? More of Everything We Don’t Want
By John W. Whitehead
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”—George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1
December 30, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – In Harold Ramis’ classic 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, TV weatherman Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) is forced to live the same day over and over again until he not only gains some insight into his life but changes his priorities. Similarly, as I illustrate in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we in the emerging American police state find ourselves reliving the same set of circumstances over and over again—egregious surveillance, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, etc.—although with far fewer moments of comic hilarity.
What remains to be seen is whether 2016 will bring more of the same or whether “we the people” will wake up from our somnambulant states. Indeed, when it comes to civil liberties and freedom, 2015 was far from a banner year.
The following is just a sampling of what we can look forward to repeating if we don’t find some way to push back against the menace of an overreaching, aggressive, invasive, militarized surveillance state.
More surveillance. The surveillance state is alive and well and kicking privacy to shreds in America. Whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, will still be listening in and tracking your behavior. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere. We are now in a state of transition with the police state shifting into high-gear under the auspices of the surveillance state. In such an environment, we are all suspects to be spied on, searched, scanned, frisked, monitored, tracked and treated as if we’re potentially guilty of some wrongdoing or other. Even our homes provide little protection against government intrusions. Police agencies, already empowered to crash through your door if they suspect you’re up to no good, now have radars that allow them to “see” through the walls of your home.
More militarized police. Americans will continue to be rendered powerless in the face of militarized police. In early America, government agents were not permitted to enter one’s home without permission or in a deceitful manner. And citizens could resist arrest when a police officer tried to restrain them without proper justification or a warrant. Daring to dispute a warrant with a police official today who is armed with high-tech military weapons would be nothing short of suicidal. Moreover, as police forces across the country continue to be transformed into extensions of the military, Americans are finding their once-peaceful communities transformed into military outposts, complete with tanks, weaponry, and other equipment designed for the battlefield. Having already transformed local police into extensions of the military, now the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the FBI are preparing to turn the nation’s police officers into techno-warriors, complete with iris scanners, body scanners, thermal imaging Doppler radar devices, facial recognition programs, license plate readers, cell phone Stingray devices and so much more.
More police shootings of unarmed citizens. Owing in large part to the militarization of local law enforcement agencies, not a week goes by without more reports of hair-raising incidents by police imbued with a take-no-prisoners attitude and a battlefield approach to the communities in which they serve.
More so-called “terrorist” attacks. Despite the government’s endless propaganda about the threat of terrorism and even in the wake of the shootings in San Bernardino and Paris, statistics show that you are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack. You are 11,000 times more likely to die from an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane. You are 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident than a terrorist attack. You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack. And you are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.
More costly wars. The military industrial complex that has advocated that the U.S. remain at war, year after year, is the very entity that will continue to profit the most from America’s expanding military empire. The U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer, with more than 3.2 million employees. Thus far, the U.S. taxpayer has been made to shell out more than $1.6 trillion to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. When you add in our military efforts in Pakistan, as well as the lifetime price of health care for disabled veterans and interest on the national debt, that cost rises to $4.4 trillion.
More attempts by the government to identify, target and punish so-called domestic “extremists.” In much the same way that the USA Patriot Act was used as a front to advance the surveillance state, the government’s anti-extremism program will, in many cases, be utilized to render otherwise lawful, nonviolent activities as potentially extremist. To this end, police will identify, monitor and deter individuals who exhibit, express or engage in anything that could be construed as extremist before they can become actual threats. This is pre-crime on an ideological scale and it’s been a long time coming. Moreover, under the guise of fighting violent extremism “in all of its forms and manifestations” in cities and communities across the world, the Obama administration has agreed to partner with the United Nations to take part in its Strong Cities Network program and hire a domestic extremism czar.
More SWAT team raids. More than 80% of American communities have their own SWAT teams, with more than 80,000 of these paramilitary raids are carried out every year. That translates to more than 200 SWAT team raids every day in which police crash through doors, damage private property, kill citizens, terrorize adults and children alike, kill family pets, assault or shoot anyone that is perceived as threatening—and all in the pursuit of someone merely suspected of a crime, usually some small amount of drugs.
More erosions of private property. Private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family. Likewise, if government officials can fine and arrest you for growing vegetables in your front yard, praying with friends in your living room, installing solar panels on your roof, and raising chickens in your backyard, you’re no longer the owner of your property.
More debt. Currently, the national debt is somewhere in the vicinity of a whopping $18.1 trillion and rising that our government owes to foreign countries, private corporations and its retirement programs. Not only is the U.S. the largest debtor nation in the world, but according to Forbes, “the amount of interest on the national debt is estimated to be accumulating at a rate of over one million dollars per minute.”
More government contractors. Despite all the talk about big and small government, what we have been saddled with is a government that is outsourcing much of its work to high-paid contractors at great expense to the taxpayer and with no competition, little transparency and dubious savings. According to the Washington Post, “By some estimates, there are twice as many people doing government work under contract than there are government workers.” These open-ended contracts, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, “now account for anywhere between one quarter and one half of all federal service contracting.”
More overcriminalization. The government’s tendency towards militarization and overcriminalization, in which routine, everyday behaviors become targets of regulation and prohibition, have resulted in Americans getting arrested for making and selling unpasteurized goat cheese, cultivating certain types of orchids, feeding a whale, holding Bible studies in their homes, and picking their kids up from school.
More strip searches and the denigration of bodily integrity. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to protect the citizenry from being subjected to “unreasonable searches and seizures” by government agents. While the literal purpose of the amendment is to protect our property and our bodies from unwarranted government intrusion, the moral intention behind it is to protect our human dignity. Unfortunately, court rulings undermining the Fourth Amendment and justifying invasive strip searches have left us powerless against police empowered to forcefully draw our blood, forcibly take our DNA, strip search us, and probe us intimately. Accounts are on the rise of individuals—men and women alike—being subjected to what is essentially government-sanctioned rape by police in the course of “routine” traffic stops.
More injustice. Americans can no longer rely on the courts to mete out justice. The courts were established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet the courts increasingly march in lockstep with the police state, while concerned themselves primarily with advancing the government’s agenda, no matter how unjust or illegal. As a result, Americans have no protection against police abuse. It is no longer unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later. What is increasingly common, however, is the news that the officers involved in these incidents get off with little more than a slap on the hands.
More political spectacles. Americans continue to naively buy into the idea that politics matter, as if there really were a difference between the Republicans and Democrats (there’s not). As if Barack Obama proved to be any different from George W. Bush (he has not). As if Hillary Clinton’s values are any different from Donald Trump’s (with both of them, money talks). As if when we elect a president, we’re getting someone who truly represents “we the people” rather than the corporate state (in fact, in the oligarchy that is the American police state, an elite group of wealthy donors is calling the shots). Politics in America is a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a sport, and for many devout Americans, a religion. In other words, it’s a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and fighting over two parties whose priorities are exactly the same.
More drones. As corporations and government agencies alike prepare for their part in the coming drone invasion—it is expected that at least 30,000 drones will occupy U.S. airspace by 2020, ushering in a $30 billion per year industry—it won’t be long before American citizens who will be the target of these devices discover first-hand that drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—come in all shapes and sizes, from nano-sized drones as small as a grain of sand that can do everything from conducting surveillance to detonating explosive charges, to middle-sized copter drones that can deliver pizzas to massive “hunter/killer” Predator warships that unleash firepower from on high.
More dumbed down, locked down public schools. Our schools have become training grounds for compliant citizens. Despite the fact that we spend more than most of the world on education ($115,000 per student), we rank 36th in the world when it comes to math, reading and science, far below most of our Asian counterparts. Even so, we continue to insist on standardized programs such as Common Core, which teach students to be test-takers rather than thinkers. Making matters worse is the heavy police presence in schools, which have become little more than quasi-prisons in which classrooms are locked down and kids as young as age 4 are being handcuffed for “acting up,” subjected to body searches, and suspended for childish behavior.
More ignorance about our rights. Americans know little to nothing about their rights or how the government is supposed to operate. This includes educators and politicians. For example, 27 percent of elected officials cannot name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, while 54 percent do not know the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.
More prisons. Our prisons, housing the largest number of inmates in the world and still growing, have become money-making enterprises for private corporations that manage the prisons in exchange for the states agreeing to maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years. And how do you keep the prisons full? By passing laws aimed at increasing the prison population, including the imposition of life sentences on people who commit minor or nonviolent crimes such as siphoning gasoline. Little surprise, then, that the United States has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.
More corruption. If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off. This is true, whether you’re talking about taxpayers being forced to fund high-priced weaponry that will be used against us, endless wars that do little for our safety or our freedoms, or bloated government agencies such as the National Security Agency with its secret budgets, covert agendas and clandestine activities. Rubbing salt in the wound, even monetary awards in lawsuits against government officials who are found guilty of wrongdoing are paid by the taxpayer.
More censorship. First Amendment activities are being pummeled, punched, kicked, choked, chained and generally gagged all across the country. The reasons for such censorship vary widely from political correctness, safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remains the same: the complete eradication of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as the “principal pillar of a free government.” Free speech zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws and a host of other legalistic maladies dreamed up by politicians and prosecutors have conspired to corrode our core freedoms. As a result, we are no longer a nation of constitutional purists for whom the Bill of Rights serves as the ultimate authority. We have litigated and legislated our way into a new governmental framework where the dictates of petty bureaucrats carry greater weight than the inalienable rights of the citizenry.
More fascism. As a Princeton University survey indicates, our elected officials, especially those in the nation’s capital, represent the interests of the rich and powerful rather than the average citizen. We are no longer a representative republic. With Big Business and Big Government having fused into a corporate state, the president and his state counterparts—the governors, have become little more than CEOs of the Corporate State, which day by day is assuming more government control over our lives. Never before have average Americans had so little say in the workings of their government and even less access to their so-called representatives.
More fear. We’re being fed a constant diet of fear, which has resulted in Americans adopting an “us” against “them” mindset that keeps us divided into factions, unable to reach consensus about anything and too distracted to notice the police state closing in on us.
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, put it best: “Take alarm,” he warned, “at the first experiment with liberties.” Anyone with even a casual knowledge about current events knows that the first experiment on our freedoms happened long ago. Worse, we have not heeded the warnings of Madison and those like him who understood that if you give the government an inch, they will take a mile. Unfortunately, the government has not only taken a mile, they have taken mile after mile after mile after mile with seemingly no end in sight for their power grabs.
If you’re in the business of making New Year’s resolutions, why not resolve that 2016 will be the year we break the cycle of tyranny and get back on the road to freedom? No matter what the politicians say about the dire state of our nation, you can rest assured that none of the problems that continue to plague our lives and undermine our freedoms will be resolved by our so-called elected representatives in any credible, helpful way in the new year.
“We the people”—the citizenry, not the politicians—are the only ones who have ever been able to enact effective change, and there is a lot that needs to change.
All of the signs point to something nasty up ahead.
John W. Whitehead is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead’s concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization whose international headquarters are located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Whitehead serves as the Institute’s president and spokesperson, in addition to writing a weekly commentary that is posted on The Rutherford Institute’s website http://www.rutherford.org