william.scherk

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  1. william.scherk
    Thanks for the wide-ranging and educational post, Michael. I downloaded Obsidian and hooked myself up with Askify. I like the clean, simple basic function of Obsidian -- I would use it as instant 'hypercards,' where notes contains links to other notes in a limited project (Vault). Ben Meer -- on Twitter @SystemSunday -- published a thread list of "must-have" free websites. Some are of no interest to OLers, but this one promises some intriguing outputs: https://quillbot.com/ Screenshot of a sample text paraphrased, using the free version.
  2. william.scherk
    And the DOJ responds ...
  3. william.scherk
    I subscribe to Sam Harris's free podcast Making Sense, but rarely get beyond the show notes and through a whole episode. The last time I paid a lot of attention there were transcriptions of much of the discussion/correspondence and a lot of by-catch in text media -- the issue was mostly race and IQ and Charles Murray but the nub was he was "misunderstood and misinterpreted" by Ezra Klein. Hours of long disquisition were boring to me in a very particular way (the exposition itself is boring, but the key-word is "arrogance")¹, so today it's fun to see Sam Harris in the penalty box again. An unusually loquacious man who pretends to be careful with his words to the point of perfection ... reduced to a grotesque meme out of his mouth. Poetic. All that bumf and wind-up aside, I am just listening to the encounter on Triggernometry, and clipping out some video. Next I will plod unhappily through Sam's long and possibly not boring podcast analysis of his moments of ... insane rhetoric? debased commentary? wildly inappropriate metaphor? Hilarious pratfall? ___________ 1. "Only I can fix it." Sure, Sam.
  4. william.scherk
    Taking this section out to use as introduction to the video below, which centres on the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Edward Bernays. A fair bit of editorializing in the "show notes" but the 2002 programme is what it is. The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile. There are three more parts to the series; the first episode is from the playlist. For more mentions and discussion of Bernays here, OL Search link.
  5. william.scherk
    I've mentioned the author Frederick Crews a few times on OL** ... and now I am ploughing steadily through his book "Freud, the Making of an Illusion." It's the kind of book people reserve the word 'magisterial' for, so far. The subject is Freud's story-telling, in essence, and the divergence from the actualities. Crew is the first to exploit the new availability of previously censored or suppressed materials. He has previously rubbished mythic Freud in some earlier work referred to by the lesser term "tour-de-force." What will appeal to the Objectivist or Objectivish is the hard line, the hard line for reality trumping bullshit. Crews was the first to achieve a kind of encyclopedic knowledge of the Freudian-derived Recovered Memory movement and its associated Satanic Ritual Abuse allegations, trials and injustices. He was able to 'wrap it up' like a good prosecutor, with an at-my-fingertips-knowledge of what went down where and when and how and why. A good taste of what would be to come were you to purchase or borrow the book comes from its Preface, which I quote from (you can also Look Inside at Amazon): Among historical figures, Sigmund Freud ranks with Shakespeare and Jesus of Nazareth for the amount of attention bestowed upon him by scholars and commentators. Unlike them, he left behind thousands of documents that show what he was doing and thinking from adolescence until his death at age 83. Although many of those records were placed under lengthy restriction by followers who felt both financial and emotional incentives to idealize him, that blackout has at least partially expired by now. More revelations will emerge, but they are unlikely to alter the outlines of Freud's conduct and beliefs as they appear in the most responsible recent studies. [...] Of course, hardcore partisans can be counted upon to dismiss this book as an extended exercise in Freud-bashing -- a notion that gets invoked whenever the psychoanalytic legend of lonely and heroic discovery is challenged. To call someone a Freud basher is at once to Shield Freud's theory from skeptical examination and to shift the focus, as Freud himself so often did, from objective issues to the supposedly twisted mind of the critic. Like other aspects of Freudolatry, the charge of Freud bashing deserves to be retired at last. The best way to accomplish that end, however, is just to display the actual record of Freud's doings and to weigh that record by an appeal to consensual standards of judgment. _________________________________ ** totalismCult Warning Signs william.scherk posted a blog entry in Friends and Foes ...One of the many astute chroniclers of this time wasFrederick Crews, whose "The Memory Wars" still stands out above the rest. I note in passing his most recent book, a stunning tour de force in my opinion. See Freud: The Making of an Illusion. I have mentioned his work a couple of times here... January 12 30 comments Solving a Puzzle-- Understanding Some People's Reactions william.scherk replied to Philip Coates's topic in Objectivist Living Room ...ThenFrederick Crews saved me. He let me see that crashing through the Dominant Discourse of Freudian Bullshit was a dangerous job. Those who had peddled that shit all the years were deadly opposed to being pushed off their thrones, their departmental thrones, their kingdoms of influence and tenure... January 30, 2012 358 replies Emotions as products of Ideas william.scherk commented on nealelehman's blog entry in neale's Blog ...readFrederick Crews on Freud/psychoanalysis, anything you can get by Allen Esterson, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, Frank Cioffi, and the very interesting current-philosophical-outrages site Butterflies and Wheels , a British site that is part of my regular reading. My favourite living philosopher is Susa... June 30, 2007 6 comments http://wsscherk.hostingmyself.com/VIDEOCASTS/A13KF/lookInsideFreudAmazon.png
  6. william.scherk
    Take that, Deep State! Judge Cannon does President Trump a favour. Cue gnashing of you know what.
  7. william.scherk
    From yesterday, an interesting interview with Trump, on Lou Dobbs' Great America radio show: PRES. TRUMP SAYS THE FBI’S RAID ON MAR-A-LAGO WAS A POLITICAL ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY RIGHT BEFORE THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND IT IS A DISGRACE August 26, 2022 • 25 min They want to take certain powers away from a President and give them to a Deputy Archivist. There was no urgency. We could have negotiated. Our country is a mess. This would never have happened in the Trump administration. We wouldn’t have inflation, our economy would be roaring and we’d have $2 gasoline, we’d be a dominant energy force. Instead we’re a country in decline and it’s very sad to watch and very sad to see so many bad things to happen to our country in less than two years. People are furious. They love the country more than they ever have because they see what we’ve lost. People have to get out and vote. There’s never been a more important time.
  8. william.scherk
    Here's the heavily-redacted Affidavit: I've "cancelled"™ this moment's Memeorandum Newsgasm aggregation down to "trusted sources" ... ™ -- Peter Navarro's multivalent expertise expands to comprise the Thesaurus ...
  9. william.scherk

    A story with a few twists and turns, from an Estonian perspective, in Quillette.

    photo-1518975513267-071132b42e06?crop=en

    Q-icon.png Lydia and the Vlads

    QUILLETTE.COM
    An Estonian’s changing relationship with Russia.

     

    'On another occasion, Lydia demanded to know why was I so into Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Didn’t I know there was something fundamentally unsavoury, something just wrong, about Russian culture however “great” it supposedly was? Her hatred was bracingly honest, but it was still hatred, and as someone with Russian friends I found it hard to take. She called me naïve—a “blue eyed Westerner”—and I responded that her blanket prejudice was just as unsophisticated.' 

    [...]

    I recall Estonian PM Kaja Kallas’s words: “Everything is black and white in war,” and I quote a Ukrainian friend to Lydia: “Right now we need the binary. We need our anger and our hatred to survive.” Doesn’t Estonia—a country we’re frequently told is on Putin’s to-invade list—need it too? In case of an actual conflict, she agrees. “If you don’t draw a clear line, how do you fight? How do you avoid spies? Or keep secrets? It’s the hatred, the common enemy that best unifies a group of people.” This didn’t mean your previous understanding of the complexities would disappear. “You’d just have to deliberately put them aside. … The nuances are for peace time. When you have the luxury to observe a culture holistically rather than dig a trench to survive.”

    “Are you with or against us?” Lydia concludes. “That’s the only real question in a war.”

    1. Michael Stuart Kelly

      Michael Stuart Kelly

      William,

      There is a passage in the article that is indicative of a mindset. It's like when someone asks you, which do you choose, A or B? And the person scratches his head. It's neither to him. Or, maybe both.

      The person asking the question has no mental conception that this is available in reality except in the very young, the mentally impaired and the ignorant (but, of course, the ignorant will come around once they know the score).

      Here is the passage:

      Quote

      A Vlad, she elaborates, “is not kept in the dark. A Vlad is confident that the darkness is the truth. And a Vlad aggressively goes on to assert his ‘truth’: ‘Ukrainians are our brothers, they love us! They ARE us! We’re one big family. There must be someone deceiving them, either Americans or Nazis! So: Remove the Nazis! De-nazify Ukraine! And they’ll be good brothers again…’”

      That felt familiar when I read it, so I did a little experiment.

      I rewrote it.

      A MAGA person is not kept in the dark. A MAGA person is confident that the darkness is the truth. And a MAGA person aggressively goes on to assert his ‘truth’: "Americans are our brothers, they love us! They ARE us! We’re one big family. There must be someone deceiving them, either Marxists or socialists! So: Remove the Marxists! De-Marxify America! And they’ll be good brothers again…"

      :)

      There are people in the world who do not think like this. They do not look down on another group from such an attitude of epistemological arrogance. Look at them. They think XXXX because they can't help themselves, poor things...

      That worldview is only present in those who think of themselves as innately superior to others as a class.

      For those who prioritize individuals, their worldview is that we are all equal in terms of our ability to choose how we use our brain. But to the "one class is superior to another" view, they have no notion that this even exists. When they hear it, they think it is rhetoric to gain power, not a metaphysical statement.

      And it is true that MAGA people do not like Marx. But the "one class is superior to another" people think the MAGA people are against a Marxist class (probably because they are stupid and even evil). The "one class is superior to another" people do not conceive that they are against Marxist ideas as they relate to individuals and to reason.

      I base this on constantly reading and listening to them, just like the quote above.

      That is what allows them to mischaracterize whole swaths of people and feel superior to those people about it, and feel superior to all other classes the world over for their ability to see this. Man, it's not easy being so awesome. :) 

      If I thought as such a collectivist (in the superior class, of course) and worried about hierarchy as my main inner concern with life, I would be wondering what we can do about this. That we have to fix this problem and find a way to make people see the light.

      But as one who believes each individual has the same power of choice over his brain, I hold that those who believe in such false collective dichotomies will come around to a reality-based way of thinking--individual by individual--if they so choose.

      And if they prefer their false dichotomy to reality, it's because they choose this--and they choose it as individuals.

      Why would anyone choose that? To me, it's obvious. They like feeling superior. They are addicted to the neurochemical high this worldview provides.

      :) 

      Michael

    2. william.scherk

      william.scherk

      These are interesting discussion topics, Michael. I made a short clip from the ARFC video where you zero in on some of the same themes.

       

    3. Michael Stuart Kelly

      Michael Stuart Kelly

      William,

      The main point I want to make with this innately superior business is that this is a narrative. It is not reflected in reality. Every single person has free will.

      Granted, we need narratives mainly because that's how humans think, but when something needs to be checked to make sure identification is correct, observable reality must trump narrative for eliminating contradictions and making correct identifications.

      "Who what when where and how" we can observe in reality. And we do narrative with them. So when narrative and reality conflict on those things, we have to go with observable reality.

      "Why" we mostly infer through narrative.

       

      So is one class of humans superior to another just because that class is innately more awesome?

      So long as this question is relegated to non-observable innate things, but ones that can be compared (through story), it's narrative only. It's not reality, although a person may believe it is.

      In fact, if you control that narrative, the one the "superior" person agrees with and believes in, you control that superior man and woman. You control them 100% of the time.

      Hell, we are all controlled up to a point through narratives. Social media alone proves that.

      But free will is not really part of the controlled "superior" person I am talking about. Free will is part of the members of humanity who question things and check them against reality. Notice that all of us can question things and check them against reality if we want. We are all equal in that respect. There is no class of humans that is so superior, it is the only class that can question things.

      What's more, there's this. Tell a hayseed that a cow is a bird and no matter how intelligent you are and how stupid he is, no matter what tribes you belong to, you will not get him to agree (unless it is to get rid of you :) ). Why? Because he can observe reality, and what he observes from reality is contrary to your narrative.

      I'm talking in general terms. I'm not talking about specific psychological experiments held under abnormal controlled conditions. And I'm not talking about changing a person's perception of reality on a basic level through drugs.

      Michael

  10. william.scherk
    The man of the hour ... Affidavit heaviIy redacted!!! Nothing mentioned “NucIear," a total pubIic relations subterfuge by the FBI & DOJ, or our close working relationship regarding document turnover - WE GAVE THEM TOO MUCH. Judge Bruce Reinhart shouId NEVER have alIowed the Break-In of my home. He recused himself two months ago from one of my cases based on his animosity and hatred of your favorite President, Me. What changed? Why hasn't he recused himself on this case? 0bama must be very proud of him right now!
  11. william.scherk
    SELECTION CODE: The Movie RUMBLE.COM Support Mike Lindell and RSBN by going to https://www.mypillow.com and use the promo code RSBN for up to 66% off your order! Was 2020 stolen? It’s deeper than that. You’ve heard it said “Those who vot Earlier: Peters and her co-defendant at a bond hearing today: KKTV 11 News - Knisley court appearance | Facebook WWW.FACEBOOK.COM Belinda Knisley, deputy clerk for Tina Peters, makes court appearance. More info here:... Belinda Knisley, Tina Peters' deputy, has entered a plea: Details of the timeline, quotes from Peters; from the website of KKTV, via AP:
  12. william.scherk
    Here's the heavily-redacted Affidavit:
  13. william.scherk
    The Ukraine Data Explorer can provide a sense of proportions of pre-war Ukrainian citizens living life in abundance, particularly displaced people. Ukraine Data Explorer DATA.HUMDATA.ORG The OCHA HDX Ukraine data explorer brings together data from multiple partners on the humanitarian impact following the Russian Federation military offensive on 24 February 2022. Mariupol, said Harnwell, rock concerts in Mariupol. I'll have to track that down and update this comment. Here is a high-grade propaganda outfit, if you want to check out the force of argument on the adversary's side. Not to demonize or anything, but. In Photos: Ukraine After 6 Months of War - The Moscow Times WWW.THEMOSCOWTIMES.COM Gallery | As the war reaches six months, the lives of countless Ukrainians have been changed by the Russian attack. Something that might have been obscured by the smog of war, since Turkey brokered the agreement with Russia that de-militarized or deconflicted the passage of ships from Ukraine's remaining port facilities. Erdogan has pointedly restated Turkish policy; he is not taking Russia's side as a matter of principle, due to the Tatars issue and being the leader of the Turkic world as he styles himself. Here's Constantin from Rostov-on-Don with a round-up of Russian allies and backstabbers, including perfidious Turkey. Beneath the smog:
  14. william.scherk
    From the Devil's own, the enemy of the people, a fact! After whatever monstrosity hits the docket by noon Friday, all media large and small, from the truth-seeking Gateway Pundit to the War Room to the upper middle Deep Predator class of manipulators, chewing will occur. Meat, bones, scenery, the whole shebang, I predict. Judge Orders Redacted Affidavit Used in Trump Search Warrant to Be Unsealed - The New York Times WWW.NYTIMES.COM The document will be unsealed by noon Friday. In its most complete form, it would disclose important details about the government’s justification for searching Mar-a-Lago this month. Steve Bannon said it Gestapo Prison best.
  15. william.scherk
    L'état noir, ce n'est pas moi! Everybody knows what everybody knows, he added. But anyhow, yeah. Fetish phrases are not enough. Strong claims must be made. Nobody wants to know what Trump-appointed Federal Judge Eileen Cannon had to say to the Trump motion. Nobody wants to read what Trump's motion said. Nobody and their cousins All of Them are going to pay attention to what Trump's lawyers present to Judge Cannon by tomorrow, not. This is the 'special master' pleading, for those who are Not Everybody. Because nobody is likely to read further into the land of "minutia," I will tuck the judge's uninteresting docket order here, and life can march on ...
  16. william.scherk
    Yes. One thumb tap and slide at a time. Our internet & media provider came by to fix a hole in our 'mesh' and left three booster units. I can work from the farthest reaches of the yard, but ... Here's bonus from Twitter, on Real America's Voice, Solomon briefly laying out what he found to be the salient points from the revealing NARA letter, quoted above in my edit. There's a hell of a timeline to keep in mind. My occasional word-fetish mania is helped along by the 21st Century Roget's Thesaurus I consult. The entries in the front sections are marked with extra references to a kind of conceptual index -- In the back is a short section of 837 Concepts, where an essential aspect or quality or part of the world is spelled out and relative cognates are grouped together. For example, fetish is assigned to Concepts #446 -- OBJECTS/Buildings-Furnishings-Possessions/ personal item, and #687 -- STATES/Of-Being/of being an influence.
  17. william.scherk

    YouTube throws recommendations at you, if you let them. Me re-watching videos of the recent historic flooding in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia may have triggered this one. The period visuals are quite something.

    The channel is The Appalachian Storyteller.

  18. william.scherk
    Mine! [format quoting did not take when I posted this via OL's mobile phone interface. This next part is edited after the subsequent comment by MSK was posted; emphasis added ] Just the News published the full text of a letter to Trump world from the honchess atop the National Archives. Full text of National Archives letter to Trump on classified documents JUSTTHENEWS.COM Just the News has obtained the full text of the letter that the National Archives sent to former... [ added material ] Full text of National Archives letter to Trump on classified documents What the TDS Media orgs are using as their emotional trigger for the cultized anti-Trumpist are the Deep State shibboleths herein -- "Special Access Program" at the top of the pile of OMGs. As you are no doubt aware, NARA had ongoing communications with the former President’s representatives throughout 2021 about what appeared to be missing Presidential records, which resulted in the transfer of 15 boxes of records to NARA in January 2022. In its initial review of materials within those boxes, NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials. NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them. On April 11, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office—affirming a request from the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum—formally transmitted a request that NARA provide the FBI access to the 15 boxes for its review within seven days, with the possibility that the FBI might request copies of specific documents following its review of the boxes. Although the Presidential Records Act (PRA) generally restricts access to Presidential records in NARA’s custody for several years after the conclusion of a President’s tenure in office, the statute further provides that, “subject to any rights, defenses, or privileges which the United States or any agency or person may invoke,” such records “shall be made available . . . to an incumbent President if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of current business of the incumbent President’s office and that is not otherwise available.” 44 U.S.C. § 2205(2)(B). Those conditions are satisfied here. As the Department of Justice’s National Security Division explained to you on April 29, 2022: There are important national security interests in the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community getting access to these materials. According to NARA, among the materials in the boxes are over 100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages. Some include the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials. Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps. Accordingly, we are seeking immediate access to these materials so as to facilitate the necessary assessments that need to be conducted within the Executive Branch. More headline 'news' ... "leaked memos" ... "They Knew Everything" - President Trump Calls Out Biden White House for Lying About Their Involvement in FBI Raid on His Home at Mar-a-Lago WWW.THEGATEWAYPUNDIT.COM John Solomon reported Monday on leaked memos that revealed the Biden White House helped instigate the criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of documents. They eliminated Trump’s executive...
  19. william.scherk
    There are hours and hours of recorded video of the room in question from security cameras at State Farm arena -- preserved by the state of Georgia. Call this set of raw footage 'State Farm Security Footage.' Then there are videos in which a section or part of the SFSF material is presented -- raw, orwith comment and analysis overlaid. Eg, Jacki Pick appeared on the day of Rudy Giuliani's briefing before a Georgia state senate special committee (one of two briefings before the state senate on December 3 2020). Her video presentation was just under 20 minutes of the whole six hours. Then there are many types of reports, TV show segments and further interviews that were broadcast or posted to social media-- using the Giuliani/Pick presentation to summarize what was claimed -- or/and to add further questions and answers. Then there are later campaign videos -- which in some cases played a broadcast editorial on a screen during a public event. For example, there is footage from Newsmax played on-screen at the Valdosta Georgia Trump rally December 6 2020 January 2021. When someone tells me something like "I saw it with my own eyes" ... I have to guess what it is they are remembering, what is is they saw; while the Pick/Giuliani presentation in December was what 'kicked off' the theory of "professional vote scammer and hustler" Ruby Freeman, a month of video and commentary was circulating by the time Trump played the Stinchfield clip. For the full flavour of Trump's January 3 slurs on Freeman, see the unredacted or un-bleeped phone call from the White House to Georgia secretary of state Raffensperger: NB -- OAN settled a defamation lawsuit with Freeman and Moss, "obviously busted" or not.
  20. william.scherk
    Who are you talking about? What is "they"?
  21. william.scherk
    From the Donald Trump YouTube channel, Jacki Pick speaking.
  22. william.scherk
    From page 14, a summary of what Movant wants: Legal nerd Twitter's anti-Trump wing is chewing on this filing. Note that this is an entirely different court from where Reinhart is waiting for the DOJ's suggested redactions filing later this week. "It's not theirs, it's mine."
  23. william.scherk
    Donald Trump versus the United States Government.
  24. william.scherk
    I agree. Life is like that. Sauce, goose, gander. Repeating a canard does not give the canard wings of truth. I suggest we dig deeper, and judge "both sides" ... Blah blah blah. The lady is on video doing fraud and talking about it, and people want to use lawfare and show trials to say she didn't. I've been collecting short "State Farm Arena" surveillance videos that purport to demonstrate Freeman's alleged fraud -- as well as fuller videos covering all the hours of surveillance. Anybody want me to post them here, in case they may match what has been described? I saw the original Freeman footage ages ago at election time. Not the doctored shit going around right now. And not with all the propaganda surrounding it. I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. I did! I did! Let's track it down, yes?
  25. william.scherk
    Audio response ... I forgot that I did not offer a text version to Michael's "Do You Ever Have Any Empathy ... ?" query. The English-language Russian YouTube account links did not survive the Blakify process, but here I add them: Different Russia (Valerya Kovtunova, Moscow region, non-political) 1420 / Niki Proshin (interviews, man on the street, carefully observing the new Russian laws) Bakylov Live / Real Russia (pre-2022) (Sergey shows off the beauty of St Petersburg and Moscow, with a bit of jingoism. Inside Russia (Constantin in Rostov-on-Don) -- a guy with a lot of experience inside and outside Russia, carefully observing the restrictions on free speech. Dan Sheeraz (Moscow and dacha family life) Constantin's latest live broadcast, from today: