Also in Media: “2017 THE YEAR WE RECLAIM OUR WESTERN VALUES” – by Diane Weber Bederman

04 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by commart in American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philosophy, Religion

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democracy, democratic ethics, democratic ideals, democratic values, Judeo-Christian values, western culture

Let’s talk about the ethic that Donald Trump,Barack Obama and John Adams extol. The Judeo/Christian ethic was in its time revolutionary and in the vast majority of countries today it remains that way. Freedom, democracy, is more than an election of a government. Think of the failure of the Arab Spring. This ethic, which comes from the Hebrew Bible, teaches us that all life is sacred; all people are born with equal intrinsic value; there is no countenance for the caste system or the idea of dhimmitude. It calls for the freedom and the obligation to make individual choices (free–will) rather than merely sit back and submit to whatever fate is handed us by our society or its gods.

Source: 2017 THE YEAR WE RECLAIM OUR WESTERN VALUES – 1/2/2016.

Back to the Ethic : Reclaiming Western Values; www.dianebederman.com; themiddlegound.ca

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FTAC – Short Note on News Evaluation in the New Age of “Active Measures”

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology, Political Psychology

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attitude-belief, critical thinking, evil, independent research, information warfare, totalitarianism

Whatever the motivation, the demonizing of Obama formed a part of the ugly polarizing of American politics and, perhaps, clouded the ability of most Americans to develop a more data-rich and reasoned analysis of states of affairs. “Framing” serves the passions, but it’s framing and practically by definition skewed from the surface and into the mix that sustains what we call “attitudes” — a collection of beliefs, their primacy and valence (good thing / bad thing, how much so?) that feed up to our conclusions. As we accumulate information, both beliefs and attitudes may be adjusted to suit what we also believe to be — and may prod and test ourselves — valid and reliable new data.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/category/regions/eurasia/russia/

Putin’s Administration today represents a complete KGB revanche but with the banner of “State Capitalism” in place of “Communism” and in place of socialist equality a new ultra-nationalist and neo-imperial ambition for dominating and looting others under the cover of “protection”.

Perhaps up to this now tense time in history — see “Cold War? Cold Struggle” — the western public, by and large, has been spared the necessity of revisiting history lessons, learning about state-sponsored evil (start that with state-controlled press), and summoning the energy to apply research and critical thinking skills to a thorough evaluation of information for its integrity in the delivery of both factual data and in reasoning.

BackChannels has worked for some time now collecting, analyzing, compressing, and telegraphing observations in the region of foreign affairs. It knows it may not surprise the specialists, those hands who have embraced an appropriate enthusiasm in their teen years, picked up one or more languages, majored in a relevant field, and sallied forth for decades as policy makers and scholars. However, that community forms a lofty and healthy choir. What about those becoming involved in such events as the Syrian Conflict and Tragedy or the “Euromaidan” and the effort to produce a modern democracy in Ukraine? For that, BackChannels pieces provide numerous portals into related fields and topics.

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FTAC – Opinion on the UN Vote Hostile to Israel (Resolution 2334 / 2016)

29 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia, United States of America

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absolutism, democracy, Moscow, opinion, political philosophy, Resolution 2334, UN

The fingers were erect and wagging at Obama as anti-Semite and turncoat, which I found a bit radical.

Of course, other analyst-pundits have been weighing in on the UN’s latest gang-up on the world’s One Jewish State and the Administration’s dithering abstention, and that cacophony doubtless includes similar charges (or language) from Right side of the aisle.

Be that as it may, the chorus was heard with the original poster’s complaint that no dissent had been heard.

Well, at least let there be an argument.

I’ll dissent.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/24/ftac-moscows-presence-in-the-middle-east-conflict/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/23/moscows-rules-a-module/

If there is, has been, or will be a contest between “medieval political absolutism” and the “modern democratic and checked distribution of power”, the same involves meeting the challenges posed by the “Phantoms of the Soviet” (the Union died 25 years, Dec. 25, 1991).

I think the west too quick to march on in post-Cold War glory — and the rush to do business with the reforming new Russia — and it got taken in by Moscow while Moscow, as represented by “Vertical-of-Power” Putin has gently but firmly twisted the state’s narrative from “Glasnost” all the way back to proto-fascist ultra-nationalism and neo-imperialism — backed by the demonstration of barbarism (in Syria), aggression (in Ukraine), and the possession of nuclear arms and updated weapons systems.

Is anyone feeling lucky?

While it’s true the Obama Administration has avoided direct confrontation with Moscow (how unseemly that would look! And I say that as cynically as any here), it has weakened Moscow’s ability to project and sustain military aggression in the near abroad. It will then be left to President Trump to address Putin and either abet, contain, or push back against what the Moscow Revival presents to western interests.

The UN resolution was execrable in every dimension!

https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm

However, the true target in east-west relations and in the middle east conflict remains a recalcitrant Moscow. A dangerous Moscow. A dictator’s Moscow (and check out the alignments on the voting).

Between Trump (Manafort, Millian, Kilimnik) and Putin, let’s hope the superficial media-relayed “bromance” is over — or it will be our lives more organized along more feudal principles in conflict with modern (democratic) ones.

Loosely related but from another conversation —

I wanted to suggest to you that a working “secular democracy” actually enables the full expression of religious passion as a private and private community matter. The system supports boundaries and a common agreement on the prudence and sensibility of good law, i.e., law that sustains a free and vibrant social order.

Jihad, provocation, and terrorism mean to upset civil order — and they can do it!

When will the west again push back against criminal, fascist, and proto-fascist aggression, I don’t know but know that as it loses its principles and values, if it does, it will have to respond to absolutism.

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FTAC – American Moderates – Caught in the Middle of the Great Divide

15 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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American politics, division, Neo-Islamists, New American Politics, New Nationalism, Old Comrades, Red-Green Aliance

This past election season suggests that my fellow Americans have drifted — by way of whatever stimulus — into the “New Nationalism” represented by Trump and the toxic Far Left “Red-Green” impulses that have gotten deep into the Democratic Party.

When information is unreliable or the public can no longer make sense of it, political power may be shifted to a more informed elite of uncertain character. The uncertainty seemed about equal during the election season, but we all know that Paul Manafort proved an embarrassment and liability to the Trump campaign, and the relationship with Russia remains a presence as Moscow blithely participates in the barbarism on display in Syria.

I think Americans and others should be familiar with web searches along the lines of —

Trump, Manafort
Trump, Sergei Millian
Manafort, Kalimnik

I think Islamic Terrorism has been used to stimulate both patriotic nationalism in Moscow’s targets and to promote a loopy combination of interests representing “old comrades” and neo-Islamist Muslims.

What has happened to those closer to the “center of the aisle?

I think we’re here but positioned only to respond the amplification of politics as described — “Brown” vs “Red-Green” — across the two-party divide.

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Also in Media: Press | Newsroom | “Cardin Statement on Rex Tillerson’s Nomination as Secretary of State” | Ben Cardin – United States Senator for Maryland | December 13, 2016

14 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Politics, Russia, United States of America

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Ben Cardin, cabinet nomination, nomination, President Elect Trump, Rex Tillerson, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

“I am deeply troubled by Mr. Tillerson’s vocal opposition to U.S. sanctions on Russia following its illegal invasion, occupation and annexation of Crimea, Ukraine, and his close personal relationship with Vladimir Putin. Exxon Mobil also has a troubling history with climate science and the environment. Mr. Tillerson has demonstrated he knows the corporate world and can put his shareholders’ interests first, but can he be a respected Secretary of State that puts the national security interests of the American people first? It remains to be seen.“

I also want to know more about Mr. Tillerson’s worldview, because I found many of President-elect Trump’s foreign policy statements as a candidate, and now as the next President of the United States, to be disturbing at best and frightening at worst. And I know many of our allies did and do as well.“

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I look forward to meeting with Mr. Tillerson as I lead my Democratic colleagues through a thorough, thoughtful confirmation process where we will scrutinize his record, experience and qualifications for the job.

For the complete press release — Press | Newsroom | Ben Cardin – United States Senator for Maryland – 12/14/2016.

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FTAC – Briefly On American Secular Governance

11 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, A Little Wisdom, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion

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America, American, extremism, middle east conflict, political manipulation, religion, secular governance, separation of church and state, terrorism, United States

The Constitution emphasizes equality for all beneath the law and forbids the establishment of a relationship between the state and any church, mosque, synagogue, or other symbol of faith. ALL are free here to practice their faith — in private and at private expense — in a civil and lawful manner.

The United States is a Christian-majority state, but it is not a Christian state by law or even exclusively so within the spirit of its laws. It’s true inheritance may be characterized as “Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian”. To the extent that Islam has borrowed from Judaism and recognized Christianity and in the better aspects of the Qur’an, say those emphasizing freedom of religion (“There is no compulsion”) and integrity (Muhammad’s emphasis speaking the truth), we’re good as a secular humanist society.

If one were to take the coldest view of the political science attending “Allahu Akbar Terrorism”, it would be to note that each attack has naturally promoted traditional patriotic nationalist and religious responses. “Damned Arabs, damned Muzzies” shouts a part of the public and off it goes to Brexit in one state and resurgent white bread Christianity in another.

The truth about that comfortable extremism — often our own! — may be anchored elsewhere.

Last week, BackChannels noted the data-in-press for Bashar al-Assad’s incubation of ISIS in Syria.

In light of or coinciding with Moscow’s KGB resurrection, BackChannels has promoted note of Soviet Era Russia’s long dalliance with terrorism and the engagement of the same in the agitation and propaganda dimension known as “Active Measures”.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Al-Monitor, “The Meshaal-Lavrov meeting shows Russia’s interest in the Palestinian cause and comes as a continuation of the periodic meetings held by Hamas with regional and international parties. However, there were no discussions in the meeting regarding the possibility of Russia playing the role of a mediator to reactivate the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, although Lavrov and Meshaal have stressed its importance in general.”

Amer, Adnan Abu. “Is Russia Hamas’ bridge to global diplomacy?” Cynthia Milan, Translator. Al-Monitor, August 24, 2015.

And from whence derived the “Middle East Conflict”?

Have a look at BackChannel’s October 2016 note on “Palestinian KGB”.

This blog also may be searched for “Russia, anti-Semitism” for further enrichment — but as much may return this note to the wisdom of secular governance and its producing for all of its constituents equality under the law and zero, zilch, nada, never ever compulsion to either choose an “official religion” nor feel intimidated in the classroom or anywhere else as regards having by way of choice or legacy a different minority path.

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FTAC – Trump’s Choice and Moscow

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, North America, United States of America

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

21st Century Neo-Feudalism, American, Donald J. Trump, foreign affairs, op-ed, opinion, politics, President Elect, United States of America, USA

1. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-making-inquiry-ex-trump-campaign-manager-s-foreign-ties-n675881 – 11/1/2016.

2. http://uawire.org/news/media-manafort-s-deputy-was-linked-to-russian-intelligence – 9/8/2016.

3. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/08/meet-the-man-who-is-spinning-for-donald-trump-in-russia.html – 8/22/2016.

Alex Jones? “Active Measures” – confusion, disinformation, information warfare, manipulation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures

Track the themes – 1, 2, and 3 – and have your say as I’ve had mine.

Intervening and other variables:

— President Elect Trump may be getting the education through briefings that he seems not to have had when standing before the public as Candidate Trump.

–President Elect Trump has not “stepped off” as President in either action or words.

IF in his foreign affairs he gives NATO full support and continues blocking neo-imperial Moscow at Crimea and continues the struggle with Syria, good, but if he caves to his authoritarian narcissism in the manner of Erdogan and Orban, we may never recover our meaning or stature — and Moscow will happily continue spreading its absolutism and the chaos and destruction it pushes ahead of itself.

Not only America but the free world — EU, NATO, the “democratic open societies of the west” and other democratic societies worldwide — have worries with President Elect Trump.

Those who have suffered beyond imagination in Syria in relation to Bashar al-Assad’s shaping of that war into “Assad vs The Terrorists” exist today inside a purgatory special to totalitarian Hell, a place between Assad’s sadism matched by Moscow’s own and its military presence, and, sigh, “The Terrorists”, whom Assad helped developed (go ahead and click and look over the points and references made the earlier BackChannels post).

Ukraine, which “leaned west” in its revolt against Viktor Yanukovych and his manner of little black book keeping, works with a different problem, i.e., Moscow’s occupation of Crimea, but it has the same worry: what does America mean today? What does and what will “Washington” represent in the spectrum of politics between “political absolutism” — autocracy, fascism, kleptocracy, totalitarianism — and a responsible and responsive democratic governance possessed of integrity?

Reference

BackChannels. “How Assad Helped Develop ISIL”. November 12, 2016.

BackChannels. “Syria — “Assad vs The Terrorists”: How ISIS Defends Assad.” October 2, 2015.

Dilanian, Robert Windrem, William M. Arkin, and Tom Winter. “FBI making Inquiry Into Ex-Trump Campaign Manager’s Foreign Ties.” NBC News, November 1, 2016.

Mak, Tim and Katie Zavadski. “Meet the Man Who is Spinning for Donald Trump in Russia.” The Daily Beast, September 8, 2016.

UA Wire. “Media: Manafort’s deputy was linked to Russian intelligence.” August 22, 2016.

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Arson as Terror – Haifa: Known – Gatlinburg, Tennessee – Under Investigation

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, North America, Russia, United States of America

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21st Century Neo-Feudalism, America, arson, arson terrorism, fires, Gatlinburg, Haifa, Israel, Moscow, Moscow Apartment Bombings, Stockholm, Tennessee, terrorism, TN, United States, United States of America, USA

Update – December 1, 2016

God may have given man imagination for fun — and we may have given ourselves empiricism to outwit imagination and defend ourselves from our own God-given errors.

Accused of setting the Gatlinburg fires, or at least two of them: Keith Eugene Mann, 49, of Franklin, North Carolina.

http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Death-toll-climbs-to-7-for-wildfires-in-Tennessee-403858096.html – 11/30/2016

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/franklin-nc-man-arrested-federal-arson-charge – 11/30/2016.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article118033648.html – 11/30/2016.

Sorry, Russia; sorry, Mr. Putin — on this one, BackChannels may have been wrong . . . but this is how it may go with “hybrid warfare” and the keeping of kleptocratic fellow travelers like that Ayatollah Khamenei. With the appearance of a mysterious and large fire in an iconic American setting, one might well be found a little bit . . . touchy.

However, the Charlotte Observer piece wraps up with this note:

Officials have said some of the wildfires in the western part of the state are believed to be the work of arsonists. Gov. Pat McCrory has posted rewards up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of arsonists.

This note will have to be about national security and possibility in light of the “Phantoms of the Cold War” (e.g., Putin’s revival of the KGB, Russia’s behavior in Syria, and the invasion and, for the time being, annexation of Crimea) and the fact that “active measures”, “hybrid warfare”, the long Soviet relationship with terrorism and Moscow’s present inability to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organizations are real things.

Investigators (and armchair adventurers): leave no stone unturned.

Background — It Makes for Good Fiction, But It May Have Applied

Moscow Apartment Bombings

Satter, David. “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror that Brought Putin to Power.” National Review, August 17, 2016.

Two Major Fires

Haifa, Israel

Amid warnings from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel will consider arson an act of terrorism, Israeli police have arrested at least 13 people suspected of starting a series of wildfires that have burned around the country for four days . . . .

There is video evidence that the Haifa fire was an act of arson, a spokesman for the Haifa Fire Department told Israel’s Channel 2 Friday.

A blaze Thursday in Zichron Ya’acov, about 20 miles south of Haifa, also was caused by arsonists, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said Thursday.

http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/arrests-after-arson-terrorism-in-israel/#4qgbbg4LwUuFTwIy.99

Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA

gat-prkhqtwcrpav

Google Maps, November 30, 2016.

Officials initially reported additional fire activity near the Park Headquarters area, as well as a spot fire between Elkmont and Newfound Gap Road off of the Sugarland Mountain Trail approximately 1 mile south of the Husky Gap Trail intersection.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/us/wildfires-lead-to-evacuation-of-gatlinburg/ar-AAkSBHh – 11/29/2016.

The fire that sparked the dozen other blazes was “human-caused,” National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn said, without elaborating.

The blaze is under investigation.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/29/us/gatlinburg-fires/ – 11/30/2016.

Manipulation — “gaslighting” – has long been associated with “malignant narcissism“.

In the original sense of the word, the narcissist would rearrange his intended victim’s surroundings without the victim’s knowledge, an effort made to drive the same into madness.

For the purposes of political psychology, BackChannels applies the term to the creation of an entire “theater of the real”, i.e., and as with the “Moscow Apartment Bombings” (cited for background at the top of this post), the intent is to produce an event and spectacle designed to promote a political outcome favorable to the actor.

A near example would be that of the fireman-arsonist who sets the fire, so that he may later show up and share in the heroic glory of putting it out.

The disconnections between Moscow, the encouragement of the terrorism produced by others (or Moscow would have refused to meet with PFLP – Nov. 2014) and would have long ago designated Hamas a terrorist organizations — it has so far refused to take that step), may make the discovery of empirical linkage all but impossible — but revisit the “Moscow Apartment Bombings” and then have a look at the almost under-the-radar firebombings of Haifa and, potentially, the fires burning in the mountains in the vicinity of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, one of America’s true heartland locations, Dollywood and all.

Stockholm, Sweden

The Scandinavian country has been plagued with arsonist thugs setting vehicles alight, with hundreds of cars burning out since 2015.

In 2016 alone, more than 70 cars have been destroyed as police struggle to combat the increasing violence and criminal activity in the famously liberal country.

The latest video shows three cars in Hallunda in southern Stockholm engulfed by flames as firefighters battle to put out the blaze.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/738151/Sweden-Stockholm-car-fire-epidemic-rage-no-go-zone – 11/30/2016.

Is the hand of Moscow behind “Islamic Terrorism” in the United States?

Is there a “meta”connection between fires set in Haifa, Gatlinburg, and Stockholm?

BackChannels invites readers to explore its references and sources and weigh for themselves the depth of the presence of the “Phantoms of the Cold War”, if any, in the recent spate of arson with the public as target.