Third Rail Commentary

THE ESSENCE OF KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, REALLY?
They say that "Knowledge is Power", and on the surface that might well be true. I tend to think in a broader more real world context, so let's create two new sayings.

" Real Power is Power"
" Knowledge is Power, Only if You understand it".

THE REAL ESSENCE
These two sayings are the real essences of power.
Within the social media context, merely seeing, sharing, and standing on a post, or video that sounds good or resonates with the vibrations of one's echo chambers, is not enough.

Not knowing if that information is true, is while understandable, is nonetheless a dereliction of duty to society.

KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE SOURCE
Let us go a step further, if you don't understand the history, origin, context of the information; especially within the arc of social media you are at a disadvantage.

If you don't know or understand who the creator of the media you consume is, you place yourself in a diminutive position to be manipulated to a cause.

INTEGRITY OF DISTRIBUTION
I often say " To present a lie and not know it is understandable, but to know something is wrong and still present it as truth is wrong."

The more one knowingly presents a lie as truth the more diabolic the act of the presentation is, and perhaps the person as well.

We all understand that our world is moving at an ever increasing speed, within every area of our lives.

The systems of life demand more, faster, and now. We can not fault any person for not keeping up, but we can question if we even try, even a little bit. A quick google search and post up without understanding the Googled data is kind of crazy.

TOO BUSY FOR REASON
Slow soothing meditation and discernmen is now a luxury, relegated to the back seat of the bus driven by rehotric and propaganda.

Simply put we are way to busy for our own good, and mental well being.

If we are going to promote information that we are going to stand on or flex with, we should have the base integrity to know that it is true, or have a vetted trust in the sources from which our information comes from.

THE INTELLIGENCE CYCLE
One of the first breakdowns we were taught in intell school was the spectrum of knowledge.
Which simply put is:

* Raw Data: polls, interviews, government and NGO's surveys and studies; statistics.

* Information: The processing and organization of raw data into consumable formats; base analysis, and categorization of facts.

* Intelligence: The deep analysis of information to allow for precise actionable decisions; critical thought editorials.

The cycle of intelligence is way more involved and complex but you get the idea, i hope.

Of course bad data, leads to bad information, which leads to bad intelligence, which leads to bad decisions, which leads to bad out comes or views, which leads to plain old bad for us all.

THE TRUTH OF INFORMATION CONSUMPTION
It is not often that people source raw data; it is not often that people source or are exposed to intelligence.

That leaves us with the wild west of information, an environment where the devil thrives.

Social media is a whole other knowledge vortex, a spiraling whirlpool of truth, confusion, propaganda and outright deception all mixed in together. Fast food at a luxury restaurant.

LEGACY MEDIA
In the context of the news media, most information at the international and national level comes from information distributors like reuters, or united press international, etc.

These agencies collect first hand experiences, from local collection sources, draft a story line, then distribute the story to the wire where often it is processed to us unvetted, just cut and delivered to the public.

MY CONCLUSION
If we are going to stand on information, declare information, promote information, share information; then we have a fiduciary obligation to at the very least know the information or vet our sources. After that no one can really blame us, for being wrong.

As Always Citizens
Live Free
Stay Free
🙂 😉 🥰

ICE EMPLOYEE DEMOGRAPHICS
I love information and data. I love looking at it and allowing it to speak to me beyond the numbers, to softly whisper truths.

I saw this simple post, and had to acknowledged it's shere depth and brilliance. Its Powerful supterfuge.

First before I get into it, I am not about or moving shade in anyway. I am like a good umpire calling "Balls and Strikes", as i see them. That does not make me right, let us all be clear on that point.

Still this simple post from my perspective is magnificent in its simple delivery, that catches the viewers eye and calls for reactive agreement without compelling deeper thought.

This enables the vacuum of the "Echo Chamber". I salute the author, brilliant work. A true master of the algorithm.

THE CONTENT AND CONTEXT
This post in my opinion, from my perspective sets off over tones of generating and promoting division.

It pleads accuses racism, while at the sametime baiting and generating the same destructive energy.

It resembles "Rat Poison" to the reader, in that it leads with truth, but hides the destructive mechanisms. Much like "Rat Poison" is mostly good food, and only a small portion of the element that causes death.

But the wonder of "Rat Poison" is that if consumed it has a 100% kill record. Think about that.

THE NUMBERS
Overall gender breakdown
* Male: about 69% of ICE employees.
* Female: about 31% of ICE employees.

Overall race/ethnicity breakdown
From one aggregated analysis of ICE staff data:
* White: ~59%
* Hispanic or Latino: ~
19%
*Black or African American: ~15%Asian: ~4%
Unknown/other: ~3%

EMERGENT MINORITY LEO
Hispanic or Latino employees are the largest minority group at ICE, and Spanish is reported as the most common foreign language among staff.
Research on immigration enforcement generally finds that women—especially women of color—are underrepresented in sworn law enforcement roles compared with support and administrative positions. There is a social and cultural reason for this, that i find fascinating, but i am goingbto cover that here.

THE BIG PICTURE
White employees are a majority overall (about 59%), and men are a majority overall (about 69%), so White men make up the largest single segment of ICE.

Immigration enforcement agencies (ICE, Border Patrol, CBP) are described in research as among the most racially diverse federal law‑enforcement employers, with a particularly significant presence of Hispanic and Black officers compared with some other federal agencies.

My question in regards to the initial post focuses on ultimate purpose. Was it just being informative? Perhaps purposefully being inflammatory in and already inflammatory environment, which says something. Right?

Perhaps just a innocent passing incite, with no deeper intent at all.

To be honest and fair I simply don't know which of the above it is, nor will I speculate or make broader assumptions on intent, above what I was willing to express above.

That is my constitutionally protected "two cents" on the post.

No insult was intended, but the desire for accuracy and authenticity was very deliberate on my part.

As always if I am at all wrong, if my numbers are off, point me in the right direction I will look at the new data, and will come back here and make a full and humble retraction.

Until that time

CITIZENS LIVE FREE
AND STAY FREE