Category Archives: FTAC – From The Awesome Conversation

If — in my own head — I hit a universal note just about right in Facebook or other conversation, I may simply wrench it from context and publish it here in this category as a mix of observation and, I hope, a writer’s wisdom.

FTAC: Strident Right and Defensive Argument

28 Tuesday Aug 2018

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

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A portion of the newly strident right hustles to dismiss heretofore reliable sources of information: we have all heard of “Fake News!”  Where that blanket dismissal fails, the sophists then fall back on impugning the credibility of public intelligence sources.  Recent topic of interest: “Fancy Bear” — the fancy title for a Russian hacking team involved in the manipulating of an American election.  In the target zone: the consulting and security firm “Crowdstrike”, which, indeed may have fumbled with some claims about Russia’s MO in Ukraine — but not about the U.S. incident.  In the same business, Fireeye has also reported out on Fancy Bear.  For good measure, BackChannels took a glance at former British spy Christopher Steele’s reputation and found it holding up quite well.

When the most self-righteous on the Right dismiss high-integrity reportage out of hand with shouts of “Fake News!” and the launching of barbs against state officials and private sector consultants in the intelligence business (with Fancy Bear, cybersecurity), have another look at the targets of that ire.

They are all “Fake News!” creators:

https://www.fireeye.com/
https://www.crowdstrike.com/
https://orbisbi.com/

Arguing is so easy: discredit sources; dismiss facts (now that there are “alternative facts” as well); get it down to ad hominem mud pies — and one might feel . . . triumphant. Easy-peasy.

https://www.wired.com/story/fancy-bear-hotel-hack/

One might wonder who leaked that NSA tool — they might now be former NSA . . . .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/samarmarwan/2017/07/11/crowdstrike-helped-trace-the-dnc-hack-to-russia-now-business-is-booming/#31dcd8834434

Crowdstrike’s investigation of “Fancy Bear” in the U.S. domestic attack has not been impugned.

Even though “everyone knows” Christopher Steele just makes up stuff, well — https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/21/author-of-trump-russia-dossier-wins-libel-case-in-us-court-christopher-steele

Note: the consultancy for Christopher Steele worked on what has become known as the “Steele Dossier” was Fusion GPS.

Also, for the record: the editor of BackChannels is an independent American voter and enjoys, alas — or “oh joy!” — no financial support from either Democratic or Republican interests.

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FTAC: Israel: Minority Position: Arab Resentment

26 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Israel, Middle East, Political Psychology

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Inspiration: claim that Israel is not a liberal democracy.

You’re wheedling for power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_members_of_the_Knesset

And you have to use a rhetorical approach to do it.

Here’s a piece from Foreign Affairs titled to reflect the dissenting Arab attitude: “Israel’s Second-Class Citizens”. The reading, however, tells a different story. If within Israel, one is an enemy of the state by way of action or speech, one may expect the state to defend its interests internally. On your basis, one might argue that France is not a democracy either as it defends its heavily Catholic culture as well as its laws in the humanist tradition.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/israel/2016-06-08/israel-s-second-class-citizens

The author of the summer 2016 piece, As’ad Ghanem, actually titled it with his own Palestinian agenda and here by inference is what he has said about himself in self-revelation:

The various strains of Arab political thought were brought together in December 2006, when a group of Arab activists and intellectuals published a declaration, The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, that sought to define Arabs’ relationship with the state and their hopes for the country’s future. The document, which I co-authored, called on the Israeli government to recognize its responsibility for the expulsion of Palestinians around the time of Israeli independence and to consider paying reparations to the descendants of the displaced; to grant Arab citizens greater autonomy in managing their cultural, religious, and educational affairs; to enshrine Arabs’ rights to full equality; and, perhaps most striking, to legally define Israel as a homeland for both Arabs and Jews—a direct challenge to the historically Jewish character of the state.

As much appears similar to the Black Panthers / New Black Panthers demanding from the United States reparations for slavery that ended officially in 1865 and which results by 1965 had produced a slew of racial equality programs that remain in force today in the form of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, Federal set asides for minority-owned businesses, etc. And yet that demand lays emphasis on racial resentment with the intent for getting something out it.

How is the Palestinian cause within Israel both different and less marginal?

Does the displacement and disempowerment of Israel’s Jewish majority in character remain of primary interest to the whole of Israel’s Arab constituency or just some part of it?

Related Online

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/new-black-panther-party

The New Black Panther Party (NBPP) is a black separatist group that believes black Americans should have their own nation. In the NBPP’s “10 Point Platform,” which is taken from the original Black Panther Party, the NBPP demands that black people be given a country or state of their own within which they can make their own laws. They demand that all black prisoners in the United States be released to “the lawful authorities of the Black Nation.” They claim to be entitled to reparations for slavery from the United States, all European countries and “the Jews.”

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FTAC: On the American Constitution and American Ideals

18 Saturday Aug 2018

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

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Reactionaries Inspire Revolutionaries

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez caught a bit of criticism today for her control of a “town hall” type meeting — although partisan — on behalf of a portion of those discarded or discounted within the American system.

Regarding the young politician’s social concerns and the knee-jerk branding that is the ever malleable bogey ne “socialism” as framed by a self-righteous Right, a statement about comprehensive governance serving the American People seemed appropriate.

A whole systems approach to the governance of a nation need not be a totalitarian approach but rather sensible in producing and sustaining cohesion and national security, which is in part defined by a nation’s political coherence.

On the present course, the wealthy have become wealthier, the poor more overwhelmed by ordinary lifestyle costs (an issue that reliably drives inflationary battles for higher minimum wage), and the numbers of abandoned, addicted, droned out, incarcerated, and politically impotent Americans continue to rise. While it’s good to push the top of the game, as it were, one might consider it prudent to get a good image of what’s going on in the basement too — and respond to it by other than shrugging it away.

I’ll repeat — or not if I haven’t said this already — I’ve framed the present general challenges to democracies as “medieval v modern”. We have to choose by adjusting ourselves to where we think the _whole country_ needs to be in the next one or two generations. Divided between Left and Right, rich and poor, dotted by islands of prosperity surrounded by seas of misery: that’s not where I would want this ship to go.

While it would seem every age needs its Dickens, and this one seems no exception, our United States of America was born with extraordinary ideals and insight.  The nation was given a great future at the outset.   Also appearing earlier this in my part of the awesome conversation:

The authors of our Constitution created a document beyond their own time.

Americans have produced miracles in the multidimensional accomplishments designed to ensure “domestic tranquility”. However, much has been done as well to undo that progress and return us all to the capricious rule of the strong while returning the nation to the conditions of feudal estates.

[Steps off soap box].

I’ve had a look at the place; can’t fix it with a Facebook post; maybe it’s time to take another step back . . . .

I keep this scene handy:

Much of the American public has been trained to “argue” using slogans (e.g., “Two legs bad; four legs good”) — and then there’s an Administrative part that actually gets into the issues and argues through them to give us the public-private compacts — agreements that serve our capitalists and our public both. That’s being eroded and there’s not a thing I can do about it but . . . publish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution#1787_drafting

Homeless Cody, American Citizen 2017

Posted to YouTube April 29, 2017.

Videographer Mark Horvath’s “Invisible People” project has made the “invisible” quite plainly seen and now into the millions of views.  From BackChannel’s perspective, there has been a cold and impersonal aspect to life in America despite the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman humanism built into her foundations.  Fill in the gaps in the “precipitating event” part of Cody’s story: how did we become — when did we become — so callous and so cruel a national culture?

No need to blame President Trump on this score.  The problem didn’t develop with his tenure.  Nonetheless, one may question the developing atmosphere and mentality that “kicks to the curb” or just leaves there 0.17 percent of the nation’s headcount, rejects culpability, and looks away.

Americans – San Francisco Public Transportation Shooting Gallery 2018

Posted to YouTube April 25, 2018.

They may not all be Americans (I don’t know), but America’s opioid crisis also begs the Whisky Tango Foxtrot question:  how did this happen?  It’s hard linking business and political elements to so troubling an aspect of personal and social behavior, but there too one may wonder how so many, many souls became so unfathomably lost in America.

We know all about machines and systems but seem either unable to defend the vulnerable or address their motivations before the great slide down the groove to a make-shift make-do “Skid Hallway”.

As I’ve referenced Orwell in this post, any interested in a refresher may find it here:

For another sort of “refresher” or an introduction to civic responsibility and sense, I recommend acquaintance with the following:

United States of America: Basic Training

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FTAC: Ocasio-Cortez: Re. The “Closed” Meeting

18 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Journalism, Political Psychology, United States of America

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Reference: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/17/ocasio-cortez-bans-press-from-covering-campaign-event.html

Stimulus: a Facebook-based accusation to the effect that Ocasio-Cortez will come to resemble Castro and other socialist dictators.

Baloney.

The event in question appears to have been designed for partisan listening and not for open public discourse:

——
She said the journalist ban “was designed to protect + invite vulnerable populations to PUBLIC discourse: immigrants, victims of domestic abuse, and so on.”

“We indicated previously that the event would be closed to press,” she said. “Future ones are open.”
——

I think all political organizations have the prerogative to determine their meeting doors open or closed to facilitate policy planning and research. To amplify the decision to avoid the media circus and actually listen to the underserved or, in some ways, people with problems that are nonetheless a part of our communities seems to me execrable — but if that’s the way Fox wants to operate, well that says a lot about Fox News.

BackChannels agrees with the explanation.

Dictators, not “isms”, have killed millions, and therefore having a look at the psychology of dictatorship — and the nature of disingenuous news personalities, lol, may be more helpful than the demonizing of a young American politician.

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FTAC: A Comment on South Africa’s Feudal v Modern Dilemma

14 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Politics, South Africa, Zimbabwe

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A large part of the world remains feudal and no more so than in communist and fascist circles. The truth is modern South Africa has managed to embarrass from office a kleptocrat in the communist style, Jacob Zuma, and have in place very much a successful capitalist and modern personality, Cyril Ramaphosa.

https://citizen.co.za/news/news-eish/1994358/eff-makes-fun-of-cyrils-sad-face-as-he-announces-expropriation-plan/

In some quarters, the political habits and ideas of the past persist in a changed world. We have some here in the U.S. even for whom the white right south is meant to rise again. Apparently, some portion of the black population within the ANC has settled into a bad case of Mugabeitis, an illness too well known in neighboring Zimbabwe and only recently, perhaps, brought under control by a junta plenty tired of the old despot.

My concern: that white and blacks choose not to mirror the worst glimpses of one another and consider forming to fight political regress together.

Despite my idealism and hopes, I know the situation is bad for white property owners and certainly crazy for the criminals marauding them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Ramaphosa

Also in Media

The other argument proposed for why black people can’t be racist, namely that they have no power, is wearing very thin 24 years into our democracy. For one, there are many black people with a lot of power in every sense of the word and a good number of whites with virtually no power of any description.

But as happens often, we’re still borrowing this argument from American political culture where black people are still in the minority.
I have never witnessed a black person cursing white people because he/she believes being black is superior, even where the words used would sometimes suggest that.

“Reverse racism” is thus not racism in the real sense of the word, but it could be described as intolerance, hatred or vengefulness based on race.

Du Preez, Max. “The myth of ‘reverse racism’.” News24, April 3, 2018.

LONDON — If Vicki Momberg had only unleashed a high-volume tirade at the South African police officers, video of it would have been of mere passing interest. But her repeated use of a racial slur — unfamiliar to most Americans, but explosive in South Africa — made her notorious, and led to demands to make her an example.

Perez-Pena, Richard. “Woman Becomes First South African Imprisoned for Racist Speech.” The New York Times, March 28, 2018.

For years, we’ve watched and seen white South Africa’s false solidarity with black people and absence from involvement on issues affecting blacks. White South Africans expect black people to join movements when the issue in question affects white communities yet remain silent, retreating to leafy or non-impoverished suburbs, when blacks face prejudice, lack of economic access or service delivery. In January 2018, residents from the Thembelihle informal settlement, south of Johannesburg, took to the streets in a service delivery protest demanding housing.

The 1994 ideology of “sameness” that was introduced post-apartheid to bring peace to a much-wounded nation has begun to show cracks, a clear indication that this was, for the most part, a one-sided concord dependent on whose privilege matters most.

Kambule, Samantha. “White South Africans Conveniently Ignore Racism.” The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. n.d.

Posted to YouTube March 1, 2018.

Posted to YouTube July 28, 2018.

Posted to YouTube, November 28, 2017.

Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capture ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capture#South_Africa

Related: “If not now, when?” Hillel The Elder (Wikipedia)

He is popularly known as the author of two sayings: (1) “If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?”[4] and (2) the expression of the ethic of reciprocity, or “Golden Rule“: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”[5]

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/12/09/zoom-zoom-zuma-hail-the-presence-of-another-african-aristocommicrat/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/09/11/ftac-mandela-zuma-perhaps-the-end-of-aristocommiecrats/

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FTAC: MEC: Where’s the Hold-Up?

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Gaza, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Political Spychology, Politics

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The Palestinians may end the occupation any day by ceding Israel to Israel and establishing peace between themselves in the Preoccupied Territories. Decency in governance would follow and the recognition of an authentic Palestinian state would follow on that.

What and who are holding up the Palestinians?

There’s no cliffhanger left in the above question.

YNET-KGB-ME-Series-graphic-for-reference-to-it

You can get there from here

On BackChannels —

Set: Palestinian KGB

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FTAC: President Trump: Despite Himself, Understands Duty to Country

25 Wednesday Jul 2018

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

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There’s a slight possibility 🙂 that Trump understands his job, its duties, and his obligations as an American president.

Whatever his character, whatever he may say, and however he may feel, especially as regards feudal authoritarianism, he seem to err consistently with the greater American program in democracy. We have not left NATO; Ukraine has not been abandoned (and it has been receiving offensive weapons with America’s blessing); and Israel remains as it has for past American presidents, i.e., the persistent bridgehead of the west, an island of democratic processes and liberal values set against the absolutism of surrounding of dictatorships and generally repressive political cultures.

We may grant President Trump credit for doing his duty as the nation’s top elected official despite his many character issues and personal problems.

Related on BackChannels: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/02/02/united-states-of-america-basic-training/ !!!

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FTAC: Old Worn Out Arguments About Nothing That Needs to Exist Purely

06 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, International Development, Philosophy, Politics

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As long as the terms are black v white / capitalism v communism-socialism, the conversation seems bound to be boxed in or circular as well as suffocated by events and personalities locked in the past and best left there as well. A better springboard would be to query the character and nature of potential political power as groomed today and whether “power” needs be responsible power.

I’ve tried this framing: “Feudal Political Absolutism v Democratic Checked and Distributed Power”.

It’s too much of a mouthful but fully observable in Syria, east v west “contests”, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the rifts of the Islamic Small Wars. All involve feudal personalities applying martial power to plowing forward into the more dismal regions of their own political pasts.

I’m a little lazy now and this summer believe I should be reading (on deck: Goldman’s Lord of the Flies, Brodie’s Thomas Jefferson), settling down, regathering myself for what beyond my 60+ years looks like a still daunting and frightening future for myself and tens of millions of Americans as well as the middle classes and the surviving and struggling of the nations worldwide.  Time seems to have produced too many drowning in arms and drugs, directly related insecurity against depredation, general economic dissolution and isolation, and general political miasma and upheaval.

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