Sick and Tired of the News Media Yet?

 

Listening to news, be it on television or radio, or reading the news, be it in major newspapers or on main Internet news, and you have entered an echo chamber equipped with time slipping capabilities. Should a police officer shoot a black suspect and the media is on that hard and heavy for the two weeks; the investigations takes six weeks, if there is a trial. When the officer is completely cleared by their department, a court case, the FBI and the Justice Department investigation, there is hardly a mouse squeak as it gets one or two reports often on the half hour and is forgotten. Let a white fraternity be accused of rape of a woman and the news media works to get them expelled, their fraternity banned nation wide, and the young men lives ruined as for them and any young man sharing a name with one of the “suspects” as their names will never ever be unlinked from a horrendous rape of a young woman purer than the driven snow. When no evidence can be found of sexual intercourse and despite five-thousand pictures on Facebook from the party not showing the young woman even attending, no matter, coincidence easily ignored, those men must pay for their crimes. When the police get involved and real investigators look into the facts and question all involved and other attendees and the young woman has her story examined and it starts changing to account for discrepancies and finally completely falls apart, the story slowly dies with almost no mention of the fact that the fraternity and the young men were falsely accused, just they were fortunate that more evidence was not discovered. These are remembrances from media lynching over the past five years or so from memory and we probably mixed and matched to make the point.

 

The media will not stop its safari to completely exculpate the left, women and minorities of all wrongdoing while performing a full condemnation of the right, men and whites (especially religious individuals or traditional institutions) of all perceived wrongdoings. Theirs is a slanted profession which has taken sides. This starts with their academia takeover of the social sciences, also called the soft sciences probably for their malleability to fit a prescribed line of thought. With this they control those who will become reporters by controlling journalism schools, who will become teachers through educations departments, who will run the social science agencies in the government thus forming the Deep State, and finally reaching the point of controlling who will receive law degrees by controlling the law schools. Of course, this will be denounced as nonsense and articles from the Washington Post quoting some research from the University of Chicago relating the complete lack of unfair practices in the social sciences at that University. Perhaps there will be a link to Google showing the number of articles which disclaim such theories and another showing all twelve results supporting them. Google has become the new authority on all facts; even Snopes likely will back that just for self-preservation. Proof might come from a Forbes Article about Snopes.com or the mention that Google is now employing Snopes and PolitiFact to verify their reporting, how long before these “fact-checkers become simply two more companies depending upon Google for their ultimate survival. It is claimed we could also receive the same fact-checking by meeting a stringent set of guidelines and likely pay a hefty fee, but we prefer to allow our readers to judge our worth and should they tell us of any errors, we will check and if wrong, admit, edit, and give them thanks in the comments and often the point of the correction if viable. We have had this happen twice if memory serves and when we have disagreed with alternate commentary, we post such comments and allow our readers to ferret out what they find to be the more accurate. Further, though we speak about news, we are more commentary than strictly news reporting. We do on occasion write articles which are instructions on subjects where we often give links where possible and on others many readers have included links often supportive of our descriptions and adding even more information for those desiring to dive in deeper. We are not the number one go-to place for search information, though we would not mind that, but really do not have the employees required for such a large and serious venture. We stick to articles and allow others to write lines of code, tried that once and found it too time consuming, protocol restrictive and too darn persnickety about exactness of order and spelling and without any easy to implement spellcheck.

 

We believe it is the lack of independent thinking in the news media, both sides, and that is one reason Beyond the Cusp has had a constantly growing readership and this has been in part because the news sources, especially on the Middle East about which we comment often, have become untrustworthy and their reporting is predicated on a specific imposed lack of free thought. The media, both ends, have often taken the side given them, hand-fed one might say, by government agencies and Internet mega-companies. Freedom of reporting has slowly died in the United States and been absent from Europe for quite a number of decades if not longer. The remainder of the world has almost never had a free media as the government and their news are one and the same which tends to mean that you are granted propaganda instead of facts. We tell you when we are giving you conjecture usually with the prefacing phrase like “We believe” or “We think” or “In our opinion” and then tell you our opinion. We, in our opinion, are kind of funny that way. When was the last time you felt an article you were reading in a newspaper should have been prefaced with such a phrase at least once if not often? Probably not all that long ago, and you were probably not reading an opinion blog or the editorial section but still on page A-1. The Charleston story was very much an example of such reporting where one could figure out which side the reporter supported by their description of the two sides. What was not seen was an honest description of the two side’s main adversaries which should have read as International Socialists as Communists vs National Socialists as Nazis (depicted from two sides in Charlotte images below). The references to World War II were inaccurate though they had chosen the correct war, the wrong front. The British, American, Canadian, Free French, Australian and other British Commonwealth soldiers were not represented at Charlotte except by some, if not many, of the police who were relegated to taking orders from their leading political entities be they the Charlotte Democrat Mayor Michael Signer or Virginia Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe, as they did little to keep the two sides separated. The western front was not the correct front; it was closer to the eastern front with the Soviet Union against the Nazis and the two red flags representing the two sides. Two ideologies born in Germany at about the same time but one went east after being chased from Germany by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and there is nothing that a national socialist hates more than an international socialist, better known as Communists. These two ideologies worked well together when it came to dividing up Poland but their differences meant a showdown was inevitable ever since they clashed in the streets of Germany as each attempted to take control of the leftist voters, the socialist supporters against the capitalist Weimer Republic, a democracy. Socialists are also often statists who believe that the State rules absolutely, just one believes in the nation state while the other desires and internationalist state encompassing the entire globe. Well, they both desired that in the end, one wanted a world Soviet Empire the other wanted to rename the globe Germany and have its Thousand-Year Reich. In Charlotte, these old adversaries met again on the field of battle to decide which version of imperialist fascist socialist enterprise stands supreme. Both of these philosophies have no place as a majority opinion in American politics and the fact that the media is lavishing praise on either is a disgrace.

 

International Socialists as Communists vs National Socialists as Nazis

 

Just in case there is any doubt, we abhor both sides of the media as supporting either side in the disgrace which took place in Charlotte is an insult to Thomas Jefferson and the principles he outlined in the Declaration of Independence and to James Madison and the outlines he included in the Constitution and to all involved in the drafting of the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, both the Republican and Democrat parties have drifted far from the principles of limited government and individual liberty and freedoms espoused by the Founding Fathers. The media has mostly also gone to the partisan hacking at one another forgetting the rights they are supposed to be defending and guarding with jealous pride. The media was not envisioned as a party supporting political contrivance used to expound along party line ideals and platforms. This is what has become of what was presumed to be the guardians of the people and the watchdogs over the politicians who were presumed to turn slimy as time progressed. The media was not supposed to climb into the political mud-pits with them. With the media forgetting and betraying their sacred trust, it is little wonder that the people have lost hope that they have any allies in their fight to take back their once great nations and to save their hopes for their children who they are watching, as they are indoctrinated rather than educated. What a short trip it is once the guardians become the deceivers. I think I would trust a talking tree, a raccoon, a green whore, a red tattooed vengeance torn hulk led by a petty criminal to be the guardians of my galaxy over the media of the so-called free world.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Freedom is a Wonderful Thing to Have and a Horrible Waste When Lost

 

Let us start our discussion today with some information directly from another article titled The Pelosi Principle by Terry Jeffrey written for Townhall. The article was about the Republican replacement for Obamacare which while not being everything many of us would want, was still a better deal for much of America. This quote though tells a lot about what has gone terribly wrong with American society and paints a dim view that this can ever change as both sides of the aisle agree that the old way must die and government prevail. The article states, “Both Republicans and Democrats have rejected the principle of subsidiarity that once governed American health care: Individuals who could not pay for their own care were covered by private, particularly religious, charities and local governments.” Despite everything else, at the base of the opposition to Obamacare was the opposition to the Nanny State and its insistence on being all things to all people. Forced government insurance was just the latest outrage where government demanded they be given the responsibility for our care and as usual their ideas left much to be desired.

 

This problem has been a long time coming and is not about to wane any time in the future without a near revolution by the American public. Not a real, grab the gun off the mantle, revolution but one where the American people take the power back from the government by selecting a whole new type of political representation, regular, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (or watch at end of article) representation. This would have to be an all-encompassing movement which will only arise when things reach an intolerable level and when failure means the end of the democratic process because the government has even assumed making the choices as to who will lead and who is subjugated. One can only hope that such a time is not quite yet upon us, though with some of what has occurred there have been claims and fears from both sides that the other is attempting to take control of the governing processes and end any true freedom of choice. History has proven that one side’s claims are merely an excuse for them to enact just such fascist governance and the other side’s claims are actually valid fears. But this article is to tell the story of how we reached this point.

 

This all started with something everybody would know from history if such was still taught in the public and private school systems. Not all schools are delinquent of such but far too many are which has made ask the average person in the street history and civics questions something which makes for great laughs while others of us just shake our heads and fear for the future. We know that a people who do not know from whence they arrived at this day will have no idea where they will be going as the tomorrows pass. The beginning of our story is the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, especially the Bill of Rights. One should read the Declaration of Independence as it is a litany of things in a governance which should be feared and the people should ever be watchful against their reoccurrence. There is a political theory which describes the cycle of governance from bondage to freedom and back to bondage called the Tytler Cycle of Power in Governance (see below). There have been many debates in universities back in our day and hopefully these debates continue as they raise awareness and strengthen societal awareness in the upcoming generation. The debate in my day over where in the circle we stood was over which it might be; Selfishness, Complacency, Apathy or Dependence. Nobody ever claimed Abundance and a few would claim we were on the verge of Bondage and the others were completely beyond consideration. One can only wonder where the debate would go today.

 

Tytler Cycle of Power in Governance

 

We got to wherever in the cycle we actually stand from a time when faith was high and courage was felt by a strong and steady leadership and their following and from that they struck forth and gained liberty. The American Revolution was led in many communities by their religious leaders who were men of sword and musket as well as the Bible. These men made up the Black Robe Regiments and were why the British often burned churches and would hang clergy on sight if they were at all suspect of preaching about freedom from bondage and King. The Revolutionary War was fought by people of faith and courage who gained freedom and a new nation. There were few large cities and nothing even approaching a modern city with London being amongst the largest in that day and Boston, New York and Philadelphia being amongst the largest cities but still the denizens were largely self-reliant. This was the way of life in early America and this was how it remained until sometime into the mid-1800’s. The problems began in the largest of cities which would be found on the eastern seaboard, west coast and along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Within the largest cities people began to depend on certain public services. There was the water systems replacing the need to draw one’s own water, sewage replacing digging your own outbuilding, trash pick-up, and public transportation which was often bartered out to a private service whose owner often became quite wealthy as did the private purveyor of any other service which the cities licensed.

 

The services provided through public/private contract or by the government directly such as police forces, judicial systems, street maintenance, street lighting, gas lines, fire departments and as time went more and more provided by the cities. Then there were the specialty services which cared for services which many of the people either found distasteful or were simply incapable of doing for themselves. Some of these services had always required a professional but many had also been performed by the average person before the advent of large cities with a professional core of providers whose prices were controlled by demand and number of people providing such services. Examples include the obvious such as shoeing horses, blacksmithing, locksmith and others and then ones we have forgotten in our modern world such as chimneysweeps, milkman, ice deliveries and other such services. Some still exist in smaller towns or rural areas or as specialty service in cities. What these specialty and general services started was the first stages of dependence which as long as it is kept to essential services is fine, but it did not remain this way. There used to be a safety net which provided for those people who were down on their luck or simply had fallen from the normal routines of the society and were dependent on the good graces of others for their sustenance and other needs. These people were served by religious groups, the churches, synagogues and other religious congregations and charitable organizations. This was the way of things for over a century until the onset of the initial takeover by the government which began with unemployment insurance which was not any form of insurance as much as it was a tax and spend means for government to reduce the power of people and increase the power of the government. This was followed by Social Security and soon thereafter adoption services were slowly subsumed by the government.

 

This continued with the government granting college scholarships first through grants for veterans through the G I Bill and then loans and Pell Grants. The largest expansion of the government came under Lyndon Baines Johnson and his Great Society which enlarged or created such programs as Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, National Endowments for Arts and Humanities, Public Broadcasting, Cultural Centers, Homeless Shelters and a plethora of other programs all based on a simple principle, the government was going to save people from being preached to just to receive help as the religious institutions were forcing people to suffer. They were saving the world from religion. In time the governments also provided the cities with transportation funds to assist public transportation in an attempt to replace the personal vehicle, environmental assistance and codes, consumer protection because people were incapable of not buying substandard goods, public housing so those on welfare could live without shame in any neighborhood where section eight housing was declared which was anywhere except the most exclusive neighborhoods, labor regulations and it continued into every realm of life even eventually to include the water permitted to be flushed by a toilet.

 

The government did not stop there and they are currently working on the next and near final stage of their plans to completely control all of society, the replacement of the children from parenting by amateurs. That is the theory behind the plan proposed by Hillary Clinton with her claim that “it takes a village to raise a child.” She made an entire book from the idea, It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us in which she gave examples of such as African villages and spent most of the book encouraging new programs and government controls over ever more of people’s lives. Some of the programs and ideas coming out from her writings include Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, Community Policing, the Brady Bill, Amber Alerts, immunizations, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, financial regulation, expanded Child Tax Credits, Minimum Wage increases, and the one making so much of the news of late, Universal health care. Government appears targeting even more of our lives and taking from us every choice as to how we live our lives, what we teach our children, what we are allowed to drive, where we are allowed to drive and how we can raise our children. Some schools have told their students that their parents do not have the power to deny them use of a telephone, forbid them access to a computer, refuse them their rights to watch what they want on television or other means of punishment including spanking, grounding or forcing them to eat foods they dislike and told students as early as first grade that they can report any violations of these rights by their parents to the school and then the school will report their parents to the government and the problem will be taken care of and they will have their rights respected. That is true, the child has inalienable rights which a parent may not infringe and amongst these rights is anything they desire. Of course once the parent has been duly punished for ignoring these rules, the child will just love the foster home and the parenting they will receive there.

 

One can only wonder where this will end and many will tell you it will not end, or at least not end well. There is actually no limit any longer as to how far into your life government can impose. Already the wild stories that the government can turn on the camera attached to your computers, the camera attached to your phone (always keep them camera facing the table), turn on the microphone to your computers or phones, and have microphones and cameras spread all over your town or city and can also monitor any cameras which are electronically monitored despite what you have been told by the security company, every keystroke made on your computer and a log of every web location you have visited, and darn near anything else with soon coming to any electronic device bought new will also be able to report the amounts of electricity used as well as your electric, water, gas or other meters reporting your use and any notable changes such as a guest visiting (additional use especially during times you are not usually home) but all this only if you reside in the United States or are under suspicions by the NSA, CIA, FBI or any other intelligence agency including allies of the United States as the intelligence services of the Western World are capable of collecting every electronic piece of information on virtually every person within the United States, its protectorates, any ten nations the United States chooses with the exceptions of India and China (really way too many people) all with some abilities to spare. The problem is calling up the data on any one person unless specified in advance is a bit tiresome but then there are numerous government employees whose tiresome job it is to extract exactly just such data on demand, lucky them, or on their own whim if they can cover their tracks. The claims by President Trump that his phones were being listened to are true but then so were probably mine and yours and your best friend, worst enemy, and the past five-thousand people you have passed on the street because everybody has had their information gathered because it is far more simple to gather all the information than to choose whose you actually need. With the NSA’s new data center in Nevada outside Reno (pictured below) that is a simple deed and they can store all of it to be retrieved as required at any time. It simply requires the personnel to do so and that they also have.

 

National Security Agency NSA Utah Data Center

That is where freedom now stands in the United States and much of the world today and that is the real problem we all face. But do not worry; most of us are of little concern so as long as we behave as expected we are safe. We hope that reading Beyond the Cusp is not a triggering exercise for which your data would be pulled up, but why worry as too many things likely will do the trick anyways.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

 

 

 

America and Judaism Share One Great Concept

 

Most nations and religions trace themselves to some great person who was responsible for their greatness and in some form or another deify that individual. For nations the examples are legion. Rome traced to the two children raised by a she wolf, Romulus and Remus, China was unified by a leader who was born of a dragon which brought him to China where he unified the separate kingdoms forging a great power, England has King Arthur and the Camelot myth and so on it goes. Christianity gave us Jesus, Islam gave us Mohammed, Buddhism gave us Buddha, Taoism came from Tao and so forth with each religion traced to a person who is raised above other men and in some way deified or immortalized. What follows will likely not sit us well with many readers but is presented for thought and not as any claim that the two seminal foundings were directly related beyond their emphasis on the sanctity of the human spirit and its enabling by the Creator, by Hashem.

 

But with the United States there was no one individual though George Washington is regarded as the father of the nation nobody would claim that he founded or singularly established the country. His greatest feat was giving up power when he could have continued as President until his death thus establishing the temporary power of the office instead of making it into a form of elected monarchy. The American idea was the world of the Founding Fathers, a group where though many people may choose one they prefer, none is more vital to the forging of the United States than the others. Sure we credit Thomas Jefferson with writing the Declaration of Independence but this only came about because John Adams deferred and chose him because he was a talented writer and an amiable person where, as John Adams is credited with stating in persuading Thomas Jefferson claiming when Jefferson claimed Adams was the stronger writer and better at expressing himself claimed that was why he could not be its author because he was far too disliked and anything he wrote would be torn apart by many of the others. James Madison is credited with crafting the initial wording of the constitution but again it became the work of all the signatories in some means or another. The United States is not traceable to a single person but instead to singular ideals expressed in that Declaration of Independence and a form of governance delineated in that Constitution and those are the two pillars upon which America rests.

 

Judaism is similar in that there were great people but no individual can be credited with establishing the religion. Granted when Hashem altered Avram’s name making it Avraham and Sari became Sarah, this would be the seminal point where the Covenant would be made and circumcision the sign of the contract which was to be undertaken by every male; yet the religion itself is transferred through one’s mother and not the father. To be a Jew one is required to have come from a Jewish mother. But Avraham received the Covenant with Hashem; he did not codify Judaism and did not write the Torah. Torah was transcribed by Moses which was why he is referred to as the lawgiver. But Moses transcribed Torah and led the Israelites from Egypt which is told in Torah in Exodus and retold in Deuteronomy. Moses went to great lengths to refute any deification including assuring that he would have no burial location which would be known so as to refute any worship giving all due credit to Hashem. Joshua was the leader of the Israelites when they conquered the Promised Land. Hashem kind of left out that after leaving Egypt the Israelites were going to have to conquer the Promised Lands but that was the way of forming a nation and claiming your place among nations in those early days of humankind. There also were numerous Judges and Prophets who ruled the Israelites but none were greater than the others in reflection and thus none were ever made to be more than wise and knowledgeable men. King Saul was the first Israelite king and was deficient in many ways but did preserve the nation passing it to King David more by default than any other means as the battle which claimed Saul’s son and heir to the throne also threw Saul into such grief that he took his own life, not the most glorious of endings. From King David the throne passed to King Solomon. King Solomon was regarded as one of the wisest of men but also had great failings chief amongst them were the inadequacy of his children who brought great harm upon the Israelites or Hebrews.

 

Torah the Founding Document of Judaism
with Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights
Founding Documents of the United States of America

 

What is less known by many is that the Jews were the remnants of the Israelites. The kingdom ruled by Kings Saul, David, Solomon and so forth broke into two kingdoms with the northern Kingdom called Israel and the southern Kingdom named for its larger tribe, Judah, named Judea. Israel consisted of ten tribes and their priests and was conquered by the Assyrians and never actually heard from until modern times. These became known as the ten lost tribe of the Jews but were really the ten lost tribes of Israel. Jews are the remainder of the tribes of Benjamin and Judea and the Priestly classes, tribes, of the Levites and Kohanim. These two tribes basically merged into the entity of Judea and the people were the Judeans, obviously. With time people grew lazy and did not care to actually say Judeans so it eventually shortened to simply Jews. Judea traced back to Judah and Benjamin to Benjamin, two of the sons of Jacob. One need remember that when Judaism relates to Avraham it is almost always referenced as Avraham, Isaak and Jacob as these were the Patriarchs buried in Hevron in the cave bought by Avraham in which to bury Sarah. Still the story of the Jews hinges greatly on Jacob’s twelve sons but one was responsible for the survival of the entire family, Joseph. This was one of the more unusual stories amongst many unusual stories. Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers but because of this act he was in the right place at the right time to become a favored one of Pharaoh and was placed as Chancellor over Egypt second only in power to Pharaoh himself. He managed resources of food saving Egypt from a great famine and saved his family as well. This led to the eventual enslaving of his family which was then brought forth by Hashem through the vessels which were Moses with Aaron. As is said, the rest is history except in this case it is more accurate to say the rest is the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament and then history as that story has had a rebirth which was foretold in the Bible with the formation in a single day of the nation of modern Israel in its ancient homelands, though that is still being contested the eventual forming of Israel will include its ancient lands even if that takes a thousand years.

 

Judaism and the United States owe their formations to many individuals with none more vital than the rest and neither would exist if not for all of these great people all of whom were guided by principles and forces beyond their comprehension. Did these people know they were a part of something far greater than themselves, of course they did. But each group had the guidance of great people when required the most and both claim that Hashem is an integral part of their formation as a nation. Neither deifies any individual and instead when they use the term Creator their reference is to the Creator of all things as told in Genesis and both Judaism and the United States of America claim to owe their creation to that very same Creator and both claim the view that mankind was imbued and “endowed by that Creator with unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These principles are found throughout the laws and preaching in Judaism and were carried forth in Christianity and found their place in the Declaration of Independence where they were once again ensconced in the human mind and established repeatedly but most forcefully in Torah and thus made available for Thomas Jefferson to include in his declaration.

 

Beyond the Cusp