. . . 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):
>>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:
(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):
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:
(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:
(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
U/D, Feb 5: we now have a picture of idled police in the UC Berkeley Student Union, while rioting, beatings and mayhem ere going on outside, added to the OP above. This raises pointed questions:
http://rebrn.com/re/i-was-at-uc-berkeley-last-night-here-is-a-pic-i-got-after-the-sp-3131001/
>>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?>>
An exchange with a CA based peace officer:
>> CA based officer checking in. This [snip] me off. I work in a predominately red county / city and when riots were threatened here, we were told to drop the hammer on them and enforce the laws. Guess what? They didn't riot. Our law enforcement doesn't tolerate this shit. You break the law, we enforce it.
Don't hate the police for not enforcing the laws when they have to deal with a higher power who forbids it. Let's look at the Chiefs / Mayors of the town and hold them accountable . . . .
Assuming this is legit, what time was the photo taken? I'm assuming civil litigation will be forthcoming against the city. Being able to show any indication of willful neglect is a game changer. Stuff like this is evidence (again, assuming true).
Yes. All of that actually happened.>>
--> Looks likely, there will be a serious investigation. Indeed:
http://magafeed.com/fbi-now-investigating-mayor-of-berkeley-for-telling-police-to-stand-down-amid-riots-that-led-to-mass-assaults/
>>The FBI is now involved in investigating the Mayor of Berkeley, who allegedly told police to stand down amid mass riots led by Anti-Fa members and students that led to mass assaults and mass violence at UC Berkeley, in response to a Milo speaking event that was cancelled.
Jesse Arreguin, the Mayor of Berkeley, [--> i/l/o at least one tweet] seemed to welcome the protests that saw many individuals face vicious attacks. Many were hospitalized and one person is in critical condition and may actually die.
Arreguin is now facing an FBI investigation.>>
--> Notice, the point about someone in critical, likely the second victim of mayhem . . . further reasonably likely, the one attacked by the rioter who was identified based on his online boasting; this may be the victim surrounding whom there were rumours of a possible death. (Let us pray he recovers.)
--> This may be the way to begin to roll up the network.
KFkairosfocus
February 5, 2017
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F/N: Someone is suggesting that if blackshirts lunge to seize a hat or the like a co-ordinated team can grab and zip tie.
If conflict is already in progress this MIGHT work.
But we must never forget the media, edited video ambush joined to media lynching and lawfare, process is the punishment. Where, slanders trumpeted through the media until fixed in the minds of enough people can destroy your life.
Instead, hold to your base.
Let the first snatch happen, or the first unprovoked pepper spraying or whatever, WITH YOUR PHONE CAMERAS ROLLING. Then, use that to reverse the media ambush by exposing the real tape of ALL that happened. (Unfortunately, spitting on someone in a crowded situation is usually hard to catch on videotape. If that happens cry out and denounce the nasty act.)
But once that has happened, call for the police or security to intervene with the disruptive. And BTW, I find it incredible that known likely to be unruly protesters have been allowed within arm's reach of people trying to access a facility or to leave it. That in the same jurisdictions where grand media circuses were used to force pro life objectors to ridiculous distances from abortion clinics.
That failing alone speaks volumes.
(What do we do when -- not if -- they start to target, say, churches?)
If there is a police stand-down, move as a bloc, for the exit or for a safe point. If the attack-mob tries to attack again, defend yourselves on camera as a group; do not let anyone get isolated and if someone is knocked to the ground force your way in and form a protective ring while attention is given; if things are serious, insist on getting medical evac people to evaluate and evacuate the victim. All of this should be taped so if people protecting a person attacked and harmed are further attacked, it is obvious beyond what deceitful editing can do to create a misrepresentation.
Make sure to be defending and make sure to not go overboard.
The point is to establish proper authority and good order. Also, clearly document if/how civil authorities failed to protect citizens and their rights. (Later, administrative and legal redress should be sought.)
Failing which, exercise the right of self defence, on tape which your group then uses with friendly media as a media base. I suggest using a magazine format discussion to introduce the video, with eyewitnesses and experts. As attacks are very fast, slow motion and callout frames will help, maybe large display cards or slides. Explain. But also, put up the raw feed for cross-confirmation. The point is to document the truth.
Across time, a critical mass of opinion to restore good order will emerge as case after case hits home.
KFkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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F/N: A plausible profile of blackshirts:
https://www.oathkeepers.org/navyjack-operation-hypo-action-report/
>>The anarchists are by far the most dangerous of these groups. They are organized like militias. They actively train and practice their operations. They have discipline and zero tolerance for weakness. They have a number of former military personnel providing expertise to enhance security, logistics and martial arts capabilities. The majority are physical fit, military age males. They are primarily white with few minority members. Their leadership tends to be either former military, a proven leader from the occupy movement or a highly educated alpha-male. They are far more capable than their recent activities would demonstrate. They have formed community defense organizations and are idolized for their willingness to take action from the other groups discussed above. They are however anarchists that despise communism as much as they despise capitalism. They see patriots and constitutionalists as their primary enemy. To them, everyone is a NAZI or a fascist unless they are an anarchist. There is no debate allowed on these issues, ever. They operate under various names, but the vast majority identify with the anti-fascist movement. With the election of President Trump, their membership has increased exponentially. There are at least 50,000 nationwide. They have been able to assimilate much of the “occupy” and “black-bloc” movements. Most of what these organizations accomplish are classified as direct actions. They will participate in a protest or a march, but they are not big fans of passive resistance.
For those of you that are not familiar with the term “direct action”, these are very precise coordinated operations conducted by small groups (4-6 members) that have very specific unit and overall goals. The planned smoke bombing of an Inauguration Ball is a good example of a direct action. Our team foiled this operation. We informed the DC Police Department, the National Press Club and the Inauguration Ball security team leaders of these plans on January 9th, 2017. Direct targeting of individuals and businesses are common direct action activities for the Anti-Fascists. Destruction of property (burning your car, damaging your house, busting the windows out where you work, etc.) are standard direct actions against targeted individuals of these groups. Ask James O’Keefe from Project Veritas or Milo Yiannopoulos from Breitbart News. They are both now having to deal with this.>>
--> 4 - 6 sounds a bit light for a squad to me.
--> Maybe, they are using "sections" and joining 2 - 3 together to form a co-ordinated action swarm, loosely comparable to hammer + anvil type maneuver and fire support teams for infantry.
KFkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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Jake Shields saves a man from the mob at UC Berkeley -- while the police stand by:
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/02/02/exclusive-mma-fighter-jake-shields-saved-man-berkeley-violent-rioters/
>>Professional MMA fighter and UFC Veteran, Jake Shields, was forced to rescue a civilian who was being severely beaten by “anti-fascist” rioters in Berkeley, California, on Wednesday, after police officers allegedly refused to intervene.
Realizing that law enforcement officers were not going to help the man who was being cornered and violently attacked, Shields took the moment into his own hands, and fought off the mob of rioters while he helped the injured and bloodied man to safety.
“The show got cancelled so I was kind of checking things out,” said Shields in an interview with Breitbart Tech. “Obviously it was a rough crowd, so I didn’t want to walk in the middle of it, and all of a sudden I see this guy running out completely covered in blood and these guys were chasing him with sticks, trying to circle him.”
“Mobs of people. Nobody helped, but people were yelling ‘get up, get up.’ Like fifteen people were trying to attack him and others were cheering them on,” he continued. “No one helped, no one had the balls to step in, so my reaction was to run in and start picking people off.”
The aftermath of me helping a guy after being jumped by thugs. The police and 100's of civilians stood and watched. pic.twitter.com/7hN2iJ4kkf
— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) February 2, 2017
[--> Video shows blackshirts including one armed with a stick, it more than substantiates the general description in the clip]
“They came in trying to fight back, and I started backing off, but I helped grab the guy and shove him into a store,” Shields explained. “I got a few punches, I was probably hit like ten times, but I don’t have a single mark on me. They were like, ‘he’s a Nazi too!’ but this other guy was like, ‘I don’t think he’s a Nazi,’ while I was still fighting people off. I was like, do you just get to choose who’s a Nazi and who’s not?”
The riot started at UC Berkeley on Wednesday after protesters against Breitbart Senior Editor MILO started to become increasingly violent outside of his show.
“Anti-fascists” started several fires, smashed windows and ATMs, looted downtown stores, attacked cars, and assaulted dozens of MILO fans, who they falsely accused of being “Nazis,” however only one suspect was arrested.
“I asked them ‘what did he say that made this guy a Nazi?’ and nobody knew,” said Shields. “They were like ‘oh, he said some racist stuff,’ and I asked, ‘what racist stuff did he say?’ and no one knew. They were just mindless… It was really insane.”
“More chaos started happening, so I went up to the police and tried bringing them back, but they were just like ‘we’re not really going over there. You should just stay away.'” he concluded. “I don’t know if they were taking orders from someone or if they were just being lazy. I don’t know what the situation was, but it was pathetic to watch. Our police, who are supposed to defend the citizens of Berkeley. It’s a sad scene that they would allow that.”>>
--> Notice, the swarm and beat down tactics; less than 10 seconds and you could be seriously hurt.
--> Notice, the police standing down in the face of mob violence and advising the rescuer to leave.
--> Something is seriously wrong, and it is a red warning flag that we see the policing failure and evident complicit silence [actually, now turnabout projection attempts] by progressive leaders with media power.
--> This is what we have come to, weep with shame for our civilisation.
KFkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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U/D: I have added an interview to the OP with a woman who was pushed up against a crowd barrier and assaulted during the riots at UC Berkeley. I gather her husband was beaten unconscious with several ribs broken. This is wounding with disregard to life and health. No wonder there is now a gaslighting attempt to project blame to imaginary right wing thugs orchestrated by the US Government or "fascist" interests -- or even Breitbart News -- carrying out a false flag operation; which has already collapsed as one of the bullies has credibly been identified, cf. above. KFkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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NYU next:
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/02/02/4-arrested-gavin-mcinnes-event-violent-protests-erupt/
>>Four people were arrested at a New York University event where libertarian commentator and VICE co-founder Gavin McInnes delivered a speech, after “anti-fascist” protesters started to become violent and throw punches.
Following a fight, which started after protesters started to assault McInnes as he entered the venue and ended in a stolen Make America Great Again hat being set on fire, protesters followed McInnes into the venue and attempted to disrupt his show with chants.
Video of punches being thrown as Gavin enters NYU.
Sound of glass breaking.
Leading to arrests. pic.twitter.com/wSysx3inCG
— The Current Year (@TheeCurrentYear) February 2, 2017
They stole a #MAGA hat and now they're burning it… @Gavin_McInnes #Antifa #NYU pic.twitter.com/mhKnzQmY3F
— ghost of saturn (@bearzsmy) February 3, 2017
Here we go again: Antifa attack our people & set a stolen MAGA hat on fire #GavinAtNYU #GavinMcInnes pic.twitter.com/yXzii4wjaR
— Lucid Hurricane™? (@Lucidx11) February 3, 2017
One attendee was also attacked by anti-fascists with water as he gave an interview on camera.
Trump supporter getting splashed in face by Antifa. pic.twitter.com/ODDNwOfWWn
— NYU Local (@NYULocal) February 3, 2017
“The NYU Anti-Fascists organized the event on Facebook titled ‘Disrupt Gavin McInnes at NYU’,” reported Pix 11, however unlike the riot that anti-fascists started during Breitbart Senior Editor MILO’s show at UC Berkeley on Wednesday, New York police intervened and managed to prevent a large-scale incident from taking place . . . .
McInnes was able to finish his speech, which was interrupted throughout, without having to evacuate the building, and the crowd of protesters eventually dispersed after a warning from the police.
Dispersal orders now at the Gavin McInnes NYU event pic.twitter.com/0ZBUSf5VJN
— Jon Campbell (@j0ncampbell) February 3, 2017
Far-left “anti-fascist” rioters assaulted numerous attendees, started fires, smashed up shops and ATMs, and attacked people’s cars during the riot on Wednesday night in protest of MILO’s UC Berkeley show, forcing the event to be cancelled.
Several celebrities and news outlets expressed support for the riot, including Hollywood director Judd Apatow, who deleted his tweet shortly after, and Fusion, who smeared MILO as a “Nazi,” before praising rioters.>>
--> Notice, the police blocked widespread rioting from happening.
--> This is at first level a policing matter and a firm hand is indicated.
--> Notice the turnabout projection to justify violence and violation of the despised other's rights of speech and assembly:
Protesters made chants of “get out of here you Nazi scum,” at McInnes, and “hurled expletives at police,” and others who attempted to either enter the venue or keep students and attendees safe.
“There’s a neo-Nazi speaking, so we’re here to protest,” said one protester who was holding a sign written in Arabic.
“We have freedom of speech in this country, however if you’re going to promote something that is hateful and hurtful to our democracy, we have a right to come out and explain why our democracy exists,” said another.
The protesters were seemingly unaware that McInnes is a libertarian, and has never been associated with neo-Nazism.
--> Believing and acting out the agit prop as useful idiots and potential cannon fodder for rebellion.
--> As in, I smear you with an accusatory (and patently inaccurate) label; that then justifies sucker-punching you, shouting you down, interfering with people who want to hear you, invading your meeting and disrupting it by shouting you down. Somewhere in there spraying the speaker with pepper spray seems to be involved. Do you not see that this is mob rule and riot not legitimate democratic, lawful protest? [And BTW, where was security to remove the disrupters?]
--> When will consciences wake up enough to be properly ashamed?
--> And yes, that is part of what needs to happen, enough people have to strongly express outrage and disgust at lawlessness for the backers to realise they will pay a price at the polls, and for the cannon fodder to realise they are duped into shameful behaviour or enabling of shameful behaviour.
KFkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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Thanks to Truth, looks like the rioting and attacks have been building up for 2 years: https://twitter.com/TweetBrettMac/status/827418352645709824
--> It cannot be a mere post election false flag scamkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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Coup, coop, coo . . . cuckoo?
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/02/ex-obama-official-suggests-military-coup-trump/
>>In a blog post for Foreign Policy magazine, Rosa Brooks, a former Obama administration official, outlined four ways to “get rid” of President Trump, including declaring him mentally unfit for command or carrying out a military coup.
Brooks is a Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation, which is funded by billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. She served from 2009-2011 as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and served as a senior adviser at Obama’s State Department.
Her posting is titled “3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020,” although the piece actually outlines four ways.
In what seems to be a deliberate tactic, Brooks repeatedly questions Trump’s mental stability, claiming that the president’s first week in office “has made it all too clear: Yes, he is as crazy as everyone feared.”
Brooks, who is not a mental health professional, offered no evidence for her armchair psychological evaluation other than citing policies that she doesn’t like.
Remember those optimistic pre-inauguration fantasies? I cherished them, too. You know: “Once he’s president, I’m sure he’ll realize it doesn’t really make sense to withdraw from all those treaties.” “Once he’s president, surely he’ll understand that he needs to stop tweeting out those random insults.” “Once he’s president, he’ll have to put aside that ridiculous campaign braggadocio about building a wall along the Mexican border.” And so on.
Nope. In his first week in office, Trump has made it eminently clear that he meant every loopy, appalling word — and then some . . . .
Elect him out of office after his four-year term. “But after such a catastrophic first week, four years seems like a long time to wait,” she wrote.
Impeachment. However, she lamented, “impeachments take time: months, if not longer — even with an enthusiastic Congress. And when you have a lunatic controlling the nuclear codes, even a few months seems like a perilously long time to wait.”
Utilizing a claim of mental instability to invoke the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, which sets the path for the commander-in-chief’s removal if the “president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
A military coup. She writes: “The fourth possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”
>>
--> Going off the deep end? Believing your own propaganda of denigration and dehumanisation of the targetted other?
--> And yes, folks, this is really happening.
KFkairosfocus
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Leaks of phone conversations with foreign heads of govt reveal operatives deeply embedded in the US govt:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/white-house-investigates-leaks-trump-calls-australia-mexico-233219023.html
>>The White House is looking into how embarrassing details of President Donald Trump's recent tense phone conversations with his counterparts in Australia and Mexico were leaked to news organizations, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Fox News Channel.
"The president takes these leaks very seriously," Spicer said in an interview with Fox News Channel, which on Friday provided a transcript of a segment set to air on Saturday.
Trump cut short a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after an acrimonious discussion about a refugee swap deal, a conversation that threatened ties between the two allies after details appeared in The Washington Post.
In an earlier call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto about paying for a wall on the southern U.S. border, Trump said he might send the U.S. military to Mexico to stop drug cartels - details from a transcript obtained by a Mexican news organization Aristegui Noticias and the Associated Press. The White House later said the comments were meant to be lighthearted.
"That’s troubling and I think the president has asked the team to look into this because those are very serious implications," Spicer said.
Spicer described the conversations as "candid" but respectful, and has noted that both the Australian and Mexican governments have disputed some of the details.
White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on the investigation into the leaks.
Trump told politicians and faith leaders at a prayer breakfast that he was having difficult conversations with world leaders as he worked to overhaul immigration rules.
"Believe me, when you hear about the tough phone calls I'm having - don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it," Trump told the leaders.>>
--> This is a moles problem, not just a leaks problem.
KFkairosfocus
February 4, 2017
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PPS: Notice the blaring silence of the usual objectors?kairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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JAD, great catch, let's keep compiling insights and facts as they come out. KF
PS: It is time some folks began to understand and face the ugly truth on what they have been enabling.kairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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Truth,
Looks on first glance like a solid piece of investigation by Zero Hedge, these jokers want trophies to boast of their prowess. If the documentation holds up, the bully-boy who committed assault, battery and likely mayhem on a victim at Berkeley was an employee of the university.
Back in 1980, on the govt radio station, there was a consistent pattern of blaming the opposition for violence. As for the Brigadistas, what Brigadistas. Nigh twenty years later, someone who grew up in a nearby town to my uni which provides much of its anciliary staff described the brigadistas. He saw units in battle dress with automatic weapons and carrying out camouflage drill, looking almost like Defence Force soldiers save for one thing: they were barefoot. He contrasted that at the early stage the big development for gun men on the opposition side was, they had got some Lugers. (The Luger is a very well designed semi auto pistol for c 1900.)
I recall the shock of the massacre of people at a dance for the opposition party, where the M16 rifle made its first appearance. While I have never heard direct confirmation, it seems plausible these were captured Vietnam War era stocks transferred to Cuba and used to arm Brigadistas.
I should note, shortly before the election there was an incident in which the governing [radicalised] party candidate for the area was assassinated up in the mountains behind the capital city. That night, early in the morning, we saw helicopters trying to go over that town near the campus with searchlights, only to be repeatedly driven off with automatic fire. Though, the fire did not have the distinctive 1/10 sec pop pop pop rhythm of the M16. (I first heard that from another direction, while studying for a Thermo-D exam, apparently a policeman walked into an ambush in a bar. He got off two 38 special revolver rounds then was cut in half by M16 fire. To date I have never heard serial numbers, which would confirm; doubtless, still state secrets.)
I am not sure if a heavier machine gun was being used to drive off the helicopters.
So, from this I infer there will be gaps in info, and there will be deliberate obfuscation and blame projection. Use common sense and trust sources that show credibility, integrity and substance. In that time and place, the most trustworthy medium was an independent radio station that now has a TV station, decades later. The dominant newspaper, though somewhat biased, was a key source also, especially a circle of very brave columnists.
My conclusion was that a good newspaper and/or radio station can save a nation in the face of subversion and low grade civil war.
Let's clip from Zero Hedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-03/berkeley-antifa-attacker-unmasked-uc-employee-cnn-and-young-turks-lookin%E2%80%99-so-dumb
>>Today, propagandists on the left attempted to change the narrative over the violent "Antifa" riots, suggesting that Trump supporters were secretly behind the group's spate of violent terrorist acts since the election . . . . Of course, the ultra-liberal, Armenian Holocaust denying, TalcumX hiring, "better than you" elitists - also known as "The Young Turks," started furiously parroting these Alisnsky tactics to cast doubt on just who keeps co-opting student protests and turning them violent . . . . In a nutshell: A violent Antifa attacker bragged about beating up a Trump supporter over Twitter. In that user's profile, @PaveDarker found a link to the attacker's Facebook account with his real name [Note: This man is a suspect - name withheld from this post pending official investigation] . . . . And this $69,824K/year Antifa rebel appears to be a "Digital Comm Spec 4" at Berkeley . . . . The authorities have been notified, and the UC Employee is thought to be in New York right now. Developing>>
--> I would get him, squeeze him hard for information with sedition charges and felony rioting, assault, battery and mayhem as a plea bargain.
--> The issue is to get the cells, pick up the organisation and the financiers.
--> Low level operatives should be looking at RICO, and the big sharks, sedition-treason if there is evidence.
--> Doubtless, given Trump's track record already, flying squads from FBI, Homeland Security, NSA etc -- likely including Israeli contractors experienced in dealing with Intifada and suicide bombing networks -- are doubtless at work to identify, check and roll up the blackshirts and their associated groups.
--> we will have to wait for details, given how leaky DC is, this one is probably being played very close to the chest.
KF
PS: This thread, I am treating as a growing reference base for understanding the agit prop- street theatre- subversion- media operations that are now so plainly at work. I remember how important it was 37 years ago to have credible, insightful columnists who let us connect the dots. Otherwise, we likely would have panicked into easily manipulable hysteria. Certainly, six years later, with a narrower campus-based crisis, hysteria and unchecked agit prop nearly got students shot dead by paramilitary police when a protest blocked the main road down which reserve troops would have to come if things went south in the Capital city during a crisis of credibility.kairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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Peter Beinart, a progressive writer for The Atlantic, wrote in a newly published article:
Judging from my Twitter feed, not many progressives defend the violence, which appears to have been carried out by masked hoodlums who arrived from off-campus. But vast numbers said Berkeley should have peacefully denied Yiannopoulos an opportunity to speak on campus. In the words of one Twitter user, “Free speech [does not equal] every college has an obligation to give you an official platform for your speech.”
The problem with this argument is that it was not Berkeley itself that invited Yiannopoulos. It was the Berkeley College Republicans, who are legally a separate entity. And as Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks explained, “long-standing campus policy permits registered student organizations to invite speakers to campus and to make free use of meeting space in the Student Union for that purpose.” So the issue is not whether Berkeley should have given Yiannopoulos a platform. It is whether Berkeley should have denied some of its students the ability to give him a platform. And “consistent with the dictates of the First Amendment as uniformly and decisively interpreted by the courts,” Dirks argued, “the university cannot censor or prohibit events, or charge differential fees…”
Universities should establish rules for how they treat speakers… And they should not alter those rules depending on the ideas those speakers espouse, even if their ideas are hateful. (And yes, I’d apply that not merely to Milo but to a neo-Nazi like Richard Spencer).
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/everyone-has-a-right-to-free-speech-even-milo/515565/?utm_source=twb
I agree with Beinart here. That is what freedom of speech has traditionally been understood to mean in the United States. Tolerance means tolerating speech, ideas and opinions of those with whom you disagree-- even if you disagree passionately. That kind of tolerance is lacking on the secular-progressive left. True they give a lot of lip service to "diversity" and "inclusion" but if it's the kind of diversity with which they agree. Indeed, it is clear that they want to suppress the free expression of those with whom they disagree. Some elite east coast universities have speech codes which censor language that someone (sometimes students, sometimes faculty, sometimes the administration) has arbitrarily decided is offensive-- sexist, racist, homophobic etc. These people are routinely described as liberal. However, liberal is something they are not.john_a_designer
February 3, 2017
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This speculative conspiracy theory has already been debunked. More CNN fake news. See link below.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-03/berkeley-antifa-attacker-unmasked-uc-employee-cnn-and-young-turks-lookin’-so-dumbTruth Will Set You Free
February 3, 2017
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Robert Reich's projection attempt:
This patently falls of its own weight, aside from revealingt that there is a bigoted assumption on his part that paramilitaries must be right wing:
http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/clinton-official-ties-breitbart-to-riots-against-own-editor/
>>A former Clinton administration official has made a stunning claim regarding who was responsible for the riots at UC Berkeley Wednesday night that forced cancellation of a talk by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Robert Reich blames Breitbart News.
Reich was secretary of labor under Clinton and now teaches at Berkeley.
The conversation was noticed by Alex Griswold at Mediaite as well as Scott Johnson at Powerline.
CNN’s Don Lemon responded incredulously when Reich made the suggestion.
“You think this was a strategy by Yiannopoulos or right wingers?” Lemon asked. “That they put this on in an effort to show there’s no free speech on a college campus like UC Berkeley?”
Reich confirmed his suspicion.
“I wouldn’t bet against it, Don. Again, I saw these people. They all looked very – almost paramilitary. They were not from the campus. I’ve heard, I don’t want to say factually, that there was some relationship there between these people and the right wing and the right-wing movement that is affiliated with Breitbart News.”
Reich explained: “I was there for part of last night, and I know what I saw and those people were not Berkeley students. Those people were outside agitators. I have never seen them before.”
Sign the precedent-setting petition supporting Trump’s call for an independent prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton!
He said there are “rumors that they actually were right-wingers.”
“They were a part of a kind of group that was organized and ready to create the kind of tumult and danger you saw that forced the police to cancel the event,” he said. “So Donald Trump, when he says Berkeley doesn’t respect free speech rights, that’s a complete distortion of the truth.”>>
--> Turnabout accusation, in short, similar to how the nazis dressed concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms, murdered them and pretended that Poland had attacked German radio stations at the start of WW II.
--> The WND report clips Johnson of powerline:
Johnson wrote at Powerline that Reich “leads a sheltered life.”
“He apparently missed the wave of left-wing violence to which we have been treated in the age of Obama. He apparently missed the violence sponsored by the left during the inauguration of President Trump. Reich might want to take in the new Frontpage pamphlet by John Perazzo on Left Wing Hate Groups.” [Cf: http://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/sites/default/files/leftwinghategroups.pdf ]
--> However, when polarisation and hysteria stalk the land, people will believe such fabrications and attempts to explain away.
KFkairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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Berkeley Chancellor on blackshirt anarchists:
http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2017/02/03/uc-berkeley-chancellor-riots-caused-armed-individuals-ninja-like-uniforms-using-paramilitary-tactics/
>>Following the riots that cancelled the final event of MILO’s “Dangerous Faggot Tour,” The Chancellor of UC Berkeley has released a statement claiming that rather than being caused by students, they were started by “armed individuals in ‘ninja-like’ uniforms using “paramilitary tactics.”
The event was cancelled after left-wing rioters, who the university claim were not students, smashed ATMs and bank windows, looted a Starbucks, beat Trump supporters, pepper sprayed innocent individuals, set fires in the street, and sprayed the words “Kill Trump” on storefronts . . . .
In an email to students, UC Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks said that the university “condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions of individuals who invaded the campus, infiltrated a crowd of peaceful students, and used violent tactics to close down the event. We deeply regret that the violence unleashed by this group undermined the First Amendment rights of the speaker as well as those who came to lawfully assemble and protest his presence.”
However Dirks adds that despite going to “extraordinary lengths to facilitate planning and preparation for this event,” the efforts were undone by “100 armed individuals clad in Ninja-like uniforms who utilized paramilitary tactics to engage in violent destructive behavior designed to shut the event down.”
So-called anti fascists group have been known to infiltrate MILO events throughout the tour, with a marxist group as the “Freedom Road Socialist Organisation,” infiltrating protesters at the cancelled event at UC Davis and causing violence.
President Donald Trump condemned the riots, threatening to take away the university’s federal funding if the university “does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view.”>>
--> Looks like further confirmation of the picture that has been building up.
--> But, let's go back to morning, Nov 8: the progressives expected to WIN the election, so why were street thugs in training?
--> The ugly answer practically speaks for itself: they were most likely intended to be deployed in the aftermath of the expected victory to sweep away opposition to the radical agenda waiting in the wings. (surely, you don't train and organise street toughs to send them out to help little old ladies across the street.)
--> Intended, by whom? For that, we need to follow the money and organisation trails.
--> Some hard, pointed questions need to be asked and pressed home until there are cogent, clear answers.
--> Brace for terrible shocks.
KFkairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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WJM @79, KF @80,
What we are seeing is the reaction of a corrupt, self-serving, treasonous establishment responding to what they perceive to be a genuine threat to their strangle-hold on society and to their agenda -- which is the destruction of the traditional Western ethic, which had the blessing of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
They are willing to engage in a vicious fight to the death. We need to get used to that fact.
Another thing to remember is the spiritual dimension of this struggle. These people live in spiritual darkness. They are immune to the light of even merely human reason as well as supernatural light.
We need to be begging the Holy Spirit to show us our place in His perfect plan, and to give us the willingness and grace to carry that out.
I don't know yet whether that looks the martyrdom of the Early Church, or, like after two-thirds of Christendom had been destroyed by Islamic jihad, and the remaining third was under assault, it looks like the military response of Urban II, who called the first crusade.
What say ye?harry
February 3, 2017
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WJM, I hear your view; I think earning yourself a felony record and facing consequences of such a record at the low end [for rioting], and at the high end, facing RICO time and as appropriate criminalised asset forfeiture or the like should be enough for most things. A wise chess player holds back the queen move until it is really needed; don't forget Hitler faced trial and conviction for attempted coup but there was unwillingness to give the right scale of sentence, i.e. the case should be such that sedition and treason level penalties should be patently warranted. Could I suggest that it is perhaps time to re-look at how your libel and slander law have been gutted for those who are made out to be "public" figures? KFkairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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KF,
The left is using the majority's tolerance against them. The left is going to attack and attempt to undermine Trump relentlessly as long as he is in office, and there is no chance the violence and intimidation will decrease as long as there is no stiff penalty for lawless and seditious behavior. Fear of appearances and negative comparisons is a lot of what allowed them to gain this much ground in the first place - politicians afraid of being negatively characterized by the media.
They're already calling the other side nazis, hitler, fascist, etc. They're already rioting and using and advocating violence. This is the time for serious consequences and a hard pushback.William J Murray
February 3, 2017
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WJM, I hear you. I would still hold back from using a sledgehammer until it is clearly called for. Incitement to violence and the like lesser offences/ penalties should be good enough. KFkairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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KF,
Calling for the removal of a Democratically-elected President by force is sedition. Both Rosie O'Donnell and Sarah Silverman have publicly called for it by using military force.
18 U.S. Code § 2385 - Advocating overthrow of Government
Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms “organizes” and “organize”, with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 808; July 24, 1956, ch. 678, §?2, 70 Stat. 623; Pub. L. 87–486, June 19, 1962, 76 Stat. 103; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, §?330016(1)(N), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
William J Murray
February 3, 2017
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KF @ 75: "This is clearly beginning to unravel before our eyes and we need to go all the way back to the Peloponnesian war to understand the fire we are playing with so lightly."
True indeed. Well said.Truth Will Set You Free
February 3, 2017
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WJM,
I think we are indeed seeing agit prop and orchestrated street theatre chaos to feed the manipulative media narrative. There are likely to be high level operatives in/around the US govt and other major govts, as well as the media, the academy etc. That said, I tend to be leery of using sedition and treason law save for those who are DEMONSTRATED leaders of an attempted coup, where the trial must not be a 1930's Stalin show trial kangaroo court sending people to the Lubyanka basement or the Gulag in job lots.
Here in the Caribbean, "Viva Christo el Rey!" BANG dozens of times every night is chilling and too often unacknowledged history, from Cuba.
Further to this, judicious and patently justified legislative investigations and something like RICO when conspiracies in violation of law are DEMONSTRATED by fair means, should be enough for most cases. For lower level useful idiots, agitators and junior operatives, administrative penalties for insubordination, disorder, rioting on campus etc are likely good enough and nowhere so dangerous.
Rioting on the streets is a police matter.
A protest is peaceful, orderly and respectful, a riot is lawless, violent and destructive. In Commonwealth jurisdictions, the police "read the riot act," instructing the participants in a lawless assembly to disperse forthwith. Beyond that, anti-riot action is taken.
Hopefully, simple, non lethal measures are enough. Stubborn rioters can likely be dispersed with teargas, the harsher variety and/or pepper spray, water cannon and foams. Then arrests, trials and gaol time.
But, when riot mounts up to armed rebellion [barricading key roads, armed assaults on radio/tv stations, attacks against police stations, shooting, molotov cocktails etc . . . ], a warning volley then the real deal followed up by a phalanx charge, with prisoners being tried for whatever is reasonable.
This stuff is incredibly dangerous and destabilising; but that is the can of worms opened up when people arrogantly disregard the results of elections under law and begin to try to delegitimise and subvert the free and peaceful transfer of power in a constitutional democracy or republic of democratic character.
You will recall, for years now I have argued here at UD and in my own blog about these things, stressing that democracy is inherently unstable and must be stabilised by a sound framework of laws lived out by a lawful people who live by sound principles of moral government. This is clearly beginning to unravel before our eyes and we need to go all the way back to the Peloponnesian war to understand the fire we are playing with so lightly.
KFkairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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On Cultural Marxism -- let me clip:
http://kairosfocus.blogspot.com/2015/06/acts-27-test-14-andrew-breitbarts.html
>> Andrew Breitbart's perspective on the rise of cultural marxist/ critical theory agendas & Saul Alinsky's community organisers movement in the USA
Why would I here feature a controversial media figure and his often derided and dismissed views?
Because I think they provide key food for thought on something a lot of folks out there obviously don't want us to be thinking about in a coherent connect-the-dots way . . . .
In effect, we see neo-Marxist analysis transformed from the classic class war to an ideology for identity/minority group activism driven by a sense of oppression to be overthrown (cf. archive of Wikipedia's suppressed page on Cultural Marxism); which -- per fair comment -- can all too easily be manipulated into subversion of institutions, law, policy and community life, in the end demanding approval of evil in the name of true freedom and liberation. Activisim that can easily become pretty ruthless factionalism that may easily run the risk of pushing democracy into mob rule. And, when ruthless activists gain institutional power, a big problem is that they have not learned the habits of sound, balanced, mutually respectful governance, but instead those of ruthlessness.
The sort of ruthlessness implicit in Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:
"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism." p.10. [And let us note, Marxism has always been quite varied in form, so, the sort of cultural/institutional subversion strategy advocated by Alinsky is not sufficient to remove him from the general frame of thought, whatever differences he may have had with say the Moscow orthodoxy.] . . . .
"The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody." p.24 . . . .
"The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new." p.116 . . . .
[The Rules, excerpted]:
5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage." . . . .
13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. [NB: Notice the evil counsel to find a way to attack the man, not the issue. The easiest way to do that, is to use the trifecta stratagem: distract, distort, demonise.] In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and 'frozen.'...
"...any target can always say, 'Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?' When your 'freeze the target,' you disregard these [rational but distracting] arguments.... Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all the 'others' come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target...'
"One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other."
This pattern should be all too familiar, if one has been paying attention to current political, social, activism and media trends. Such does not have to come directly from Alinsky, either as the pattern has now become diffused in the culture at large.
In case you are dubious that Cultural [Neo-]Marxism exists or is significantly influential, here is the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
The Frankfurt School, also known as the Institute of Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung), is a social and political philosophical movement of thought located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is the original source of what is known as Critical Theory. The Institute was founded, thanks to a donation by Felix Weil in 1923, with the aim of developing Marxist studies in Germany. The Institute eventually generated a specific school of thought after 1933 when the Nazis forced it to close and move to the United States, where it found hospitality at Columbia University, New York.
The academic influence of the “critical” method is far reaching in terms of educational institutions in which such tradition is taught and in terms of the problems it addresses. Some of its core issues involve the critique of modernities and of capitalist society, the definition of social emancipation and the perceived pathologies of society. Critical theory provides a specific interpretation of Marxist philosophy and reinterprets some of its central economic and political notions such as commodification, reification, fetishization and critique of mass culture.
Some of the most prominent figures of the first generation of Critical Theorists are Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), Friedrich Pollock (1894-1970), Leo Lowenthal (1900-1993), Eric Fromm (1900-1980). Since the 1970s, the second generation has been led by Jürgen Habermas who has greatly contributed to fostering the dialogue between the so called “continental” and “analytical” tradition. This phase has also been substantiated by the works of Klaus Günther, Hauke Brunkhorst, Ralf Dahrendorf, Gerhard Brandt, Alfred Schmidt, Claus Offe, Oskar Negt, Albrecht Wellmer and Ludwig von Friedeburg, Lutz Wingert, Josef Früchtl, Lutz-Bachman. More generally, it is possible to speak of a “third generation” of critical theorists, symbolically represented in Germany by the influential work of Axel Honneth. The philosophical impact of the school has been worldwide. Early in the first decade of the twenty-first century, a fourth generation of critical theory scholars emerged and coalesced around Rainer Forst.
That should be as clear a statement of powerful and widespread impact as we need for practical purposes. It is those who pooh pooh that impact, who need to justify their dismissal . . . .
The Stanford Enc of Phil hints at much in its article on Critical Theory:
Critical Theory has a narrow and a broad meaning in philosophy and in the history of the social sciences. “Critical Theory” in the narrow sense designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School. According to these theorists, a “critical” theory may be distinguished from a “traditional” theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human “emancipation from slavery”, acts as a “liberating … influence”, and works “to create a world which satisfies the needs and powers” of human beings (Horkheimer 1972, 246). Because such theories aim to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings, many “critical theories” in the broader sense have been developed. They have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimensions of the domination of human beings in modern societies. In both the broad and the narrow senses, however, a critical theory provides the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms.
The reality of this issue and its relevance through both activist politics and the impact of "X-studies" can be taken as established; where "X" can take many values depending on the particular minority group organised as an identity and brought under the umbrella of overthrowing real or imagined oppression. (Capital case in point today, homosexualism and its attempt to subvert marriage.) Beyond, the media microphones, amplifiers and transmitters will readily spread such far and wide.>>
--> This is the academic muscle behind the agit prop and subversion of education and institutions.
--> We need to ask, again, what a community organiser of the Alinskyite Chicago school REALLY is, and what practical distance is there between that and a commi-trained agit prop operator.
--> Then, we need to think really big: who benefits from stirring up street chaos and media-amplified polarisation, confusion and panic that creates a perceived unprecedented crisis? (And why is it that the solutions favoured by the progressivists and fellow travellers are always the same: statist-globalist? Is it any coincidence that Brexit is a clear defeat and trigger for panic?)
--> Why is it that this sounds a lot like the following, historically grounded summary:
FASCISM: At heart, it is the notion that in a day of “unprecedented” crisis that targets a large — locally dominant or pivotally influential — perceived victim group or class or religious or racial/national body, a super-man figure emerges to rescue the victims; one who is beyond ordinary human powers and limits (including those of morality and just law). A political messiah who stands as champion for the identity group to save it, defending it from the various scapegoated out-groups who are held to be to blame for the victimisation of the in-group. That super-man political messiah then seizes power and is widely recognised as a man of “destiny.” In an atmosphere of hysteria, slander and propagandistic deception that is usually multiplied by chaos and violence or at least riotous assemblies in the streets baying for blood, the power blocs, political, legal, military, corporate, religious, etc then align with him, giving him effectively unlimited power in the face of a crisis. We have now reached the threshold of tyranny. And because of the perceived unprecedented crisis, that super-man “people’s champion” figure is cheered on and supported in taking extraordinary measures; measures that sacrifice liberty and justice for the sake of the promised utopian order. And so reigns of terror and aggressive wars naturally emerge.
--> Maybe the fires in the cave are wafting intoxicating smoke that makes the shadow shows seem even more real.
--> It is time to stop swallowing the picture being painted for us by the "consensus," to stop accepting who are set up as stereotypical straw bogeymen nazis, and ask some hard questions about how agit prop works and how it aligns with what is going on.
--> Most of all, it is time to insist on getting and personally warranting true facts and checking out the logic that leads to conclusions.
--> As a first step, the OP gives pointers on de-spinning.
--> Last but not least, we must get rid of the "conspiracy theory" empty dismissive talking point. For, a conspiracy is a hidden, subversive strategy, so the question is not whether there are conspiracies about, but which ones. (BTW, as the White rose movement martyrs remind us, we also deal with demonic conspiracies that are transmitted into our domain through demoniacs of the ilk of a Hitler.) The next, is, how do we identify and properly warrant that identification of factional strategies and dirty tactics, so we speak confidently on well founded truth and fact, not rumour, slander and agit prop talking point. And since conspiracies thrive on deceit, slander, ignorance and the like, it is time to back off and take time to de-spin.
KFkairosfocus
February 3, 2017
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There is a great power struggle going on right now between two very real factions within both the government and the populace, which is why Trump had to fire senior officials at the state department, the acting A.G. and put freezes on communication and activities coming out of the executive branch. Obama left deep operatives in the government that are actively working against the implementation of his agenda.
The fascist street armies of the left are now fully at war against, and trying to topple, a democratically-elected administration. The media, media stars and politicians are working in concert in an attempt to normalize and/or re-brand what can only be described as a deep, organized attempt at a coup. Several figureheads are calling for the removal of Trump by any means necessary.
This is indeed a critical juncture in the history of the USA. Anyone calling for the removal of Trump by force should be arrested and charged with sedition. Those who use violence in protests should be charged with terrorism. Those who attempt to shut down free speech events by force or threat should be at least charged with felony rioting.William J Murray
February 3, 2017
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F/N: We have a name for some at least of the blackshirts, "antifas," short for anti-fascists.
Even the name is a big lie and a turnabout projection.
This is in effect Stalin's propaganda claim that anyone right of him is a "fascist," which has been ill-advisedly taken up and used to project a general identification of fascism and/or nazism with the right wing. (This has been addressed above.)
As the proper name for nazi gives us a clue, fascism is left wing and socialist-statist with an injection of nietzschean superman above law political messianism. Namely, national socialist german workers/labour party.
The black shirts of today are the junior varsity to the brownshirt SA of the 1920's and 30's.
And of course Hitler's mentor and SA leader, Ernst Roehm, was a militazristic homosexual. Which is exactly the faction of homosexualism that had riddled the German Officer Corps and the militaristic industrialists such as the second Krupp. For example, Krupp II committed suicide over a scandal in which his importing boys from Italy was exposed. (It was the pacifist femmes that the Nazis attacked and put in concentration camps.)
When Hitler cooked up the SA plot to give an excuse to kill off the SA leadership and those who he did not like on the night of the long knives, the homosexuality -- which he knew about all along -- was a handy excuse.
In short the history is a lot murkier and dirtier than we have been led to believe.
As at now, we can be pretty sure the antifas are in effect SA lite -- or, in Castro-ite cuban terms, "brigadistas." (The historic SA was also the crypto reserves for the Post WW I German army, reflecting their roots in the Freikorps.)
And we must put 2 + 2 together, they are characterising anyone to their right as nazis and are pushing the talking point that this is in itself provocation that justifies personal violence -- sucker punches etc, and riots with arson and mayhem.
That is extremely dangerous agit prop there.
KFkairosfocus
Hundreds of liberals rioted at the University of California Berkeley Wednesday night -- burning stores, throwing Molotov cocktails and clashing with police.
The rampaging mob forced the university to shut down an event featuring gay conservative firebrand and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos [--> who is a notorious, publicly admitted homosexual preferring relationships with black men].
“I’m outraged that Milo has been given a platform at UC Berkeley, and there should be no place for him here,” visiting assistant art professor Samara Haplerin told the Daily Californian. “He should be scared that people aren’t going to stand for this.”
Ironically, Milo had planned to deliver remarks defending free speech.
“One thing we do know for sure: the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down,” he wrote on Facebook.
The British conservative journalist called the violence a “horrible spectacle and very humiliating for American higher education.”
The crowd hurled fireworks at police officers and smashed windows at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union. They also damaged buildings in downtown Berkeley – including a Starbucks and a number of banks.
The bloodthirsty mob targeted several supporters of President Trump. One young lady wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat was attacked during a television interview. An unknown man sprayed some sort of liquid in her face.
The Daily Californian reports another Trump supporter was grabbed by a crowd of agitators and thrown to the ground. He escaped, but they grabbed his red hat and set it on fire. And police had to rescue another man who was bloodied and beaten.
The university released a statement blaming the violence on outsiders who they allege came to the campus to cause mayhem.
They also affirmed Milo’s right to speak on the liberal campus.
“Chancellor Nicholas Dirks made it clear that while Yiannopoulos’ views, tactics and rhetoric are profoundly contrary to those of the campus, UC Berkeley is bound by the Constitution, the law and the university’s values and Principles of Community, which include the enabling of free expression across the full spectrum of opinion and perspective.”
Those are very nice words – but they are meaningless – unless they are enforced. According to the university, not a single person was arrested. Not a single arrest, folks.
That failure to have an arrest is telling. The police were obviously told to stand down. The effect of this was to enable the blackshirts.
One of the commenters observed:
It's so strange...the media couldn't shut up about Tea Party rallies having "a tone of violence" and that there was such a "tense mood" or whatever other language they could use that implied violence was about to break out. It never did, but to listen to the MSM you'd never know it. I have friends who called Tea Party rallies "riots" and genuinely believed black people and gay people were being beaten.
But Occupy Wall Street, Ferguson, BLM, "Women's" March and anti-Trump protests...that's all purely peaceful. Just watch the serene glow of the burning police cars and listen to the delightful twinkle of the shattered windows, the doleful tones of people being beaten and pepper-sprayed..
--> Revealing of the shadow show agit prop game and what agenda is being served.
--> The bad thing is, sooner rather than later, a mobbed victim will either be murdered [a knuckleduster will be over-effective, or a beating victim will have a condition that triggers bodily shut-down] or some intended victim will bite back. In the former case, predictably it will be toned down. In the latter it will be headlined as proof of how wicked the other side is, especially if someone goes for a gun or a knife. Or even if someone mobbed in a car guns the engine.
--> There already was a case where a man blocked from going to work was apparently hit and struck back. An altercation with a female protester and her boyfriend ensued during which the man was more than willing to go for a street fight, especially after he evidently was spat upon.
--> Others, will have an old fashioned sense of honour and may well retaliate with extreme force to breaches of honour. (Advice: back off from slander and false accusation, there are men out there who will treat such as the verbal equivalent of a knuckleduster-loaded sucker punch. And they have a point, if you destroy someone's credibility, career, life savings or the like, or do the same to someone they feel obligated to stand up for, you have asked for it. Of course, many agit prop dupes or operatives imagine they are so clever that they can turn about retaliation. They have not seen or imagined the sort of clan defense berserker rage fuelled by adrenaline surges I am talking about in action. Beyond a certain level, only death can stop it; and you would not believe the level of damage a man in that sort of altered state of consciousness killing fury will do even after he is fatally wounded. Celtic, Scots-Irish heritage, as one instance, is strongly associated with this. Vikings were also noted for Capital-B Berserkers. There are whispered rumours of what single Japanese officers armed with ancient high-quality katana swords did when they broke into US lines during WW II. )kairosfocus
February 2, 2017
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U/D: looks like events at UC Berkeley are illustrating my point about agit prop as street theatre that is then used to feed media narratives live. Accordingly, I have put up some clips. I trust it is quite evident how dangerous such incitement is. KFkairosfocus
February 2, 2017
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sorry, busy, cultural marxism on the morrow.kairosfocus
February 2, 2017
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More agit prop, but a new sheriff is in town:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/02/donald-trump-threatens-cancel-federal-funds-berkeley-riots-shut-milo-event/
>>President Donald Trump reacted to the massive rioting at UC-Berkeley in response to a scheduled campus speech by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Trump wrote on Twitter early Thursday morning.
News of the rioting made cable news last night as students smashed ATMs and bank windows, looted a Starbucks, beat Trump supporters, pepper sprayed innocent individuals, and set fires in the street. Others spray painted the words “Kill Trump” on storefronts.
The speech was canceled by UC-Berkeley police as security failed. Yiannopoulos was evacuated from the area.
“The left is profoundly antithetical to free speech these days, does not want to hear alternative points of view, and will do anything to shut it down,” Yiannopoulos told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview on Wednesday night. “My point is being proven over and over and over again.”>>
--> this issue is deadly serious; note the calls for presidential assassination.
KFkairosfocus
