"Pizzagate" Explodes

Dark Web ‘Hidden Service’ Case Spawned Hundreds of Child Porn Investigations

‘Playpen’ Creator Sentenced to 30 Years
_https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/playpen-creator-sentenced-to-30-years

Fri. May 5, 2017 - The creator and lead administrator of what was believed to be the world’s largest child pornography website—with more than 150,000 users around the world—was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison.

Steven W. Chase, 58, of Naples, Florida, created a website called Playpen in August 2014 on the Tor network, an open network on the Internet where users can communicate anonymously through “hidden service” websites—where criminal activity is not uncommon. Chase ran the Playpen website, where members uploaded and viewed tens of thousands of postings of young victims, indexed by age, sex, and the type of sexual activity involved.

The case—and the thousands of follow-up investigations it has launched—is unprecedented in its scope and reach, FBI officials said. It represents the Bureau’s most successful effort to date against users of Tor’s hidden service sites. And it has opened new avenues for international cooperation in efforts to prosecute child abusers around the world.

“We were only able to pull it off with a lot of support from our international partners and field offices,” said Special Agent Dan Alfin, who investigated the case as part of the Bureau’s Violent Crimes Against Children section.

The case opened shortly after Steven Chase launched Playpen in the summer of 2014. The FBI, which has numerous investigations involving the dark web, quickly became aware of the site, but “given the nature of how Tor hidden services work, there was not much we could do about it,” Alfin recalled.

That is, until December 2014, when Chase slipped up and revealed Playpen’s unique IP address—a location in the U.S. The gaffe was noticed by a foreign law enforcement agency, which notified the FBI.

“From that point we took normal investigative steps—seized a copy of the website, served search warrants for e-mail accounts, followed the money—and everything led back to Steven Chase,” said Alfin. Chase was sentenced Monday in North Carolina in connection with engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and multiple child pornography charges. His sentencing follows those of two co-defendants who were also administrators on the website—Michael Fluckiger, 46, of Indiana, and David Browning, 47, of Kentucky—who were each given 20-year prison terms earlier this year.

Arresting Playpen’s administrators, however, was only the beginning. In January 2015, the FBI, in partnership with the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, launched Operation Pacifier—an effort to go after Playpen’s thousands of members. Using a court-approved network investigative technique, agents uncovered IP addresses and other information that helped locate and identify users. Investigators sent more than 1,000 leads to FBI field offices around the country and thousands more to overseas partners, Alfin said.

Arrests and other enforcement actions have occurred in countries far and near. Europol, the European Union's agency for law enforcement cooperation​, reported arrests, along with Israel, Turkey, Peru, Malaysia, Chile, and the Ukraine. International agencies critical to the investigation included CNCPO Polizia Postale e Comunicazioni of Italian State Police​, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, and New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs.

Even some countries where law enforcement cooperation has been historically limited were, in this case, especially helpful in pursuing the FBI’s leads on former users and contributors to Chase’s Playpen site.

“Members of his enterprise who were raping children, who were producing child pornography all around the world—those cases continue to be indicted and prosecuted,” Alfin said.

In addition to taking down the website, the ongoing investigation, as of May 4, 2017, has produced the following results:

◾At least 350 U.S.-based individuals arrested
◾25 producers of child pornography prosecuted
◾51 hands-on abusers prosecuted
◾55 American children successfully identified or rescued
◾548 international arrests, with 296 sexually abused children identified or rescued.

The Playpen site has been down for more than two years. But similar sites continue to operate and proliferate on the dark web.

“It’s ongoing and we continue to address the threat to the best of our abilities,” said Alfin. “It’s the same with any criminal violation: As they get smarter, we adapt, we find them. It’s a cat-and-mouse game, except it’s not a game. Kids are being abused, and it’s our job to stop that.”
 
angelburst29 said:
Dark Web ‘Hidden Service’ Case Spawned Hundreds of Child Porn Investigations

‘Playpen’ Creator Sentenced to 30 Years
_https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/playpen-creator-sentenced-to-30-years

Fri. May 5, 2017 - The creator and lead administrator of what was believed to be the world’s largest child pornography website—with more than 150,000 users around the world—was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison.

<snip >

◾At least 350 U.S.-based individuals arrested
◾25 producers of child pornography prosecuted
◾51 hands-on abusers prosecuted
◾55 American children successfully identified or rescued
◾548 international arrests, with 296 sexually abused children identified or rescued.

The Playpen site has been down for more than two years. But similar sites continue to operate and proliferate on the dark web.

“It’s ongoing and we continue to address the threat to the best of our abilities,” said Alfin. “It’s the same with any criminal violation: As they get smarter, we adapt, we find them. It’s a cat-and-mouse game, except it’s not a game. Kids are being abused, and it’s our job to stop that.”

I hope this trend of arrests continues. 30 years seems too lite to me but maybe if he's old enough it is like a life sentence.

It's certainly a hopeful trend.
 
PerfectCircle said:
Good news that he got arrested, but what about Podestas and others? Will they ever be arrested?

I think you know the answer to those questions. "Wait and see" or look and find anything you can and share it with us. I try to be thankful for even the small progress on the arrests. It is noticeable that the big fish seem to keep swimming away. Of course the older and bigger fish get wiser and more difficult to catch. That's how is it has been when I have gone flyfishing anyway. :/
 
goyacobol said:
PerfectCircle said:
Good news that he got arrested, but what about Podestas and others? Will they ever be arrested?

I think you know the answer to those questions. "Wait and see" or look and find anything you can and share it with us. I try to be thankful for even the small progress on the arrests. It is noticeable that the big fish seem to keep swimming away. Of course the older and bigger fish get wiser and more difficult to catch. That's how is it has been when I have gone flyfishing anyway. :/

I don't want to get our hopes up too much but the firing of Comey today may help get the ball rolling to catch some of the bigger fish related to Pizzagate. I was on Twitter and I noticed some tweets mentioning George Webb who we have been watching here. One tweet commented that " He called out Comey & McCabe months ago. Comey's been Hillary's lap dog for 30 years."

Sure enough George Webb has Comey in one of the lists under his video here as "Comey Has Had Marc Rich's Documents For 30 Years".

His latest commentary on the impact of Comey being fired is:

Day 198.8. Hillary's Hackers, Awan Brothers Saga Deepens, Part 8

https://youtu.be/5T7sArW97tc

So McCabe, Weiner, Hilary, Podesta and others could be in a bit more hot water now that Comey is gone.
 
I don't think they put this requirement in the job application?

I-Team: Feds Investigate 'Rape Table,' Bombshell Hazing Allegations of Customs Officers at Newark Airport (Video)
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/Hazing-Customs-Officers-Newark-Airport-Border-Patrol-Sex-Investigation-Rape-Table-Feds-Allegations-Security-Camera-421748953.html#ixzz4gm5ruAcV

Published Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating allegations that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency officers at Newark Airport have been subjected to sexually abusive hazing by veteran officers, including the duct-taping of victims to a "rape table."

I’m afraid for my life, my safety," CBP officer Diana Cifuentes told the NBC 4 New York I-Team in an exclusive interview about the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of fellow officers. "This is terrorizing. How is it that officers believe they’re free to do whatever they want to do?"

CBP confirmed the investigation by the DOH Inspector General after Cifuentes and two other current officers, all members of the agency’s Passenger Enforcement Roving Team, detailed the shocking allegations to NBC 4 New York.

"Hazing wouldn’t do this justice. This is complete assault. They take you in a room and your fellow officers are all watching as officers grab you," said CBP officer Vito Degironimo.

The officers say the abuse has been happening for years in a secure room in Terminal C where security cameras are monitored. A conference table in the room, they say, is central to the hazing rituals.

"They call this table itself the 'rape table,'" Degironimo said. He said that while clothing was never removed, the ritual involved the grinding of genital areas on victims.


"Once the lights go out, they grab you up like a gang, and they forcibly throw you on the table and one officer ended up mounting me and pretty much riding me like a horse," he said, describing it as sexual attack. "I’m grabbed by other officers against my will. I don’t know how much more criminal you can get."

CBP officer Dan Arencibia told NBC 4 New York says he narrowly escaped becoming a sex crime victim, but that he was haunted by a song from the MTV series "Jackass" that played in the room during the hazing ritual.

"It’s called the 'Party Boy song.' It’s something they played in the past and it becomes their theme for the event," Arencibia said, adding that he documented the alleged abuse. "They’re monsters in a sense. They know that we can’t do anything about this."

Cifuentes told NBC 4 New York she escaped the "rape table" only to suffer other terrors from her fellow armed officers.

"There was a back and forth between another officer and myself," she said. "He said, 'You deserve to be put on the rape table.' And that’s when he started chasing me. … [Eventually] I was held down by another officer and one additional officer taped me with green customs tape to the chair."

The harassment, Cifuentes claims, escalated with one officer pulling his gun on her in the office.

"I was very afraid for my life," she said. "I took a deep breath and kept on typing like nothing was happening. I know that if I reacted either he was going to pull the trigger or I was going to draw the weapon myself and shoot him."

All three officers said they were originally too intimidated to make official complaints.

"People are too scared to go anywhere because these guys are well connected," Degironimo said. "Our immediate supervisors are best friends with these officers. The repercussions were that they removed the [rape] table. There was no punishment for the officers involved."

Degironimo said he did end up filing an internal complaint after months of abuse. Eventually, all three officers went to an attorney, seeking help to file a lawsuit.

"This was armed hazing. It’s an accident waiting to happen," said their attorney, Patrick Metz. "These are armed federal officers assaulting other armed federal officers. It’s gang assault."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told NBC 4 New York an investigation into the hazing allegations is ongoing.

"We do not tolerate corruption or abuse within our ranks, and we cooperate fully with all criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel, whether it occurs on or off duty," CBP said.

The officers fear that won’t be enough.

"For this to stop we have to go to the public," said Cifuentes. "We have to let people know that this is going on. We have to let other branches of the government know that this is going on."

Local congressional leaders expressed shock Wednesday at the I-Team report.

New Jersey Congressman Donald Payne, Jr., who sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security, wanted answers.

“This is thoroughly and absolutely unacceptable behavior and we have to get to the bottom of it,” Payne said.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who is also on the committee, said she was sickened by the description of the “rape table.”

“Anybody who has created or supported or allowed this corrosive behavior to take place needs to face the consequences,” Watson Coleman said, adding that she may call for congressional hearings.

“Is this a culture within the organization? Is it happening in other places?” she said.

The three officers would probably be front and center in any congressional hearings. They have already spoken with federal investigators and have been moved out of Newark for their safety.
 
It's getting crazier by the minute. I Tweeted the The Department of Homeland Security article angelburst29. Thanks for the find. I guess we can just expand this thread to now include more sexual abuse than we started to think about originally. The corruption is coming out of the woodwork so to speak. :O
 
The US government has announced the arrests of almost 1,400 gang members between March 26 and May 6 in the largest ever operation undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security`s (DHS) investigation unit.

Over 1,370 gang members arrested in massive US police operation
http://postnewsd2.blogspot.in/2017/05/over-1370-gang-members-arrested-in.html

Friday, 12 May 2017 - A total of 1,378 people were arrested around the country for assorted crimes, including drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, people trafficking, murder and people trafficking for sexual exploitation, DHS officials said at a Washington press conference on Thursday.

"Gangs threaten the safety of our communities, not just in major metropolitan areas but in our suburbs and rural areas, too," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan.

"Gang-related violence and criminal activity present an ongoing challenge for law enforcement everywhere. Our efforts to dismantle gangs are much more effective in areas where partnership with local law enforcement is strongest," he added.

Of the 1,378 arrests, 933 were US citizens, while 445 were foreigners from 21 countries in South America, Central America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.

Those arrested are citizens of Mexico (249), El Salvador(72), Honduras (63), Guatemala (19), the Dominican Republic (10), Cuba (four), three each from Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia and Nicaragua, while the others come from nations as diverse as Brazil, Mauritania, Laos and Jamaica, along with other countries.

The DHS said that of those arrested, 1,095 had declared their allegiance to certain gangs, including 137 members of the Bloods, 118 affiliated with the Surenos, 104 who said they belonged to Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 104 who said they were part of the Crips.

Among those arrested were three people who benefited in the past from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme inaugurated in 2012 by former President Barack Obama for undocumented migrants who were brought to the US as children and known as "Dreamers".

The programme halted the deportations of young undocumented foreigners and granted them temporary work permits on the condition that they not commit any crimes.

According to the DHS, the three individuals were excluded from DACA protection for criminal activities.

Since DACA was implemented in 2012, DHS has denied coverage to 1,500 people because of their affiliation with criminal groups.
 
Thanks again angelburst29. I see it was an assortment of crimes for the arrests but "people trafficking" and "people trafficking for sexual exploitation"is in there:

A total of 1,378 people were arrested around the country for assorted crimes, including drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, people trafficking, murder and people trafficking for sexual exploitation, DHS officials said at a Washington press conference on Thursday.

There are several arrests posts throughout this tread. I suppose many of us hope for the higher levels to be arrested and convicted but that has not been the case so far. I think for that to happen there has to be a huge change in humanity's awareness and desire for the truth.

Maybe one bright note is that John Podesta is showing a schizophrenic reaction to the firing of James Comey.

Podesta Attacked Comey in the Morning, Was “Outraged” Over Firing by Afternoon
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta was, like many on the political left, angry with former FBI Director James Comey Tuesday morning. But his tone changed significantly only hours later when President Donald Trump fired Comey.

Just last week, Hillary Clinton partially blamed Comey for her loss in the 2016 election, so it’s not surprising her campaign chairman would also harbor bad blood. Tuesday morning, while sharing a story on the then-FBI director’s testimony the day before, Podesta commented, “The American public is getting mildly nauseous listening to Jim Comey.”

I have to say I don't exactly feel bad to see Podesta upset and all the other Democrats who previously screamed for him to be fired. I guess psychopaths don't even know when they have it good.
 
I'm thinking a lot about the way the psychopaths, pedophiles and rest of the 'family' thinking. Their logic is totally different from ours. My logical always ends when I think what will happend with someone when he dies. If there's no progress what's point of living? Something that I can understand (just from point of need to understand everything) that they like to abuse children because they feel power. But what is the point except rush of the hormones?
And the reasons which they use to explain why they do it is usually totally opposite what is common sense. It's just make me nuts when I read this:

There are, however, arguments to the effect that these findings fail to show that adult-child sex is harmful. Robert Ehman, a philosopher who has defended adult-child sex, has advanced three such arguments. Let us consider these.

Ehman’s first argument against the harmfulness of adult-child sex is that the available research was conducted using a non-representative sample of children who have had sexual contact with adults. “Although there is a good deal of clinical data on the effects of adult-child sex on the children,” Ehman argues, “there is little in the way of controlled scientific research.” The children who are studied are those that have come to clinical and legal attention, which is problematic, because “[t]he people who come to clinical and legal attention are not necessarily a typical cross section of the relevant population. … [T]hey are apt to be more negatively affected than those who do not come to clinical attention.” Indeed, he argues, it is often “the negative effects [that] bring them to clinical attention in the first place.” Instances of adult-child sex that are voluntary and considered good by both parties, and thus result in neither criminal charges nor psychiatric treatment, “remain invisible to clinical observation” (Ehman 1984: 433).

Ehman’s second argument is that adult-child sex is harmful only, or predominantly, because of society’s way of viewing and handling sexual contact between adults and children. The harm, he suggests, is the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Ehman’s view, adult-child sex is made traumatizing by a culture that labels it with strongly evaluative terms such as “abuse,” “assault,” and “molestation,” which tells the child it has been scarred for life. The harms are culturally contingent, and to support this view, Ehman points to places where adult-child sex were viewed and handled very differently, such as Ancient Greece (Ehman 1984: 435-436).

Ehman’s final argument is that children are sexual beings: Children of both sexes are capable of and interested in various types of sexual experiences, and most children have at some point engaged in sexual activities with other children. Because of this, Ehman takes it that the burden of proof rests on those who claim that a child’s sexual gratification may not, in any circumstances, come from sexual contact with an adult. If the burden of proof cannot be met, the argument goes, we should be open to the view that sexual contact between an adult and a child will sometimes be mutually desirable.

Problem that I see with this is that in each of this arguments I can see a little, just a little good point. First of all, I can understand this with non-representive sample of children but also you can't connect disorder with eating of too much apples, it's just common sense that some form of abusing trigers disorders. Second argument also is true but only in part that people/parents don't know how to react properly to the children story about abusing. Third arguments makes me really that I wanna scream. Thing that Lizards did to people, that they are so into sex it's reasonable, I want my chicken too be obedient and give me a lot of eggs (so STS, right?) But be so obsess with a sex that you think that children are sexual beings and that sexual contact between adult and child could be mutually desirable is just the lowest level that could be.

One of the most common argument in defending pedophilia is this, from page _http://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/etikk_i_praksis/article/view/1718/1836:
The overall approach I will defend is that pedophilia is bad only because, and only to the extent that, it causes harm to children, and that pedophilia expressions and practices that do not cause harm to children are morally all right. I explore a number of practical implications of this view in the conclusion.

I understand that people are capable to make lot of arguments in they defence even when they know that they doing something wrong but this against every law, from common human laws and values to the universe law of living.

The same page like above:
According to WHO’s definition (quoted above) a pedophile is someone who has a sexual preference for children. Note that a pedophile need not ever have acted on his preference in order to qualify as a pedophile, according to this definition. Is it immoral to have a sexual preference for children?

Before answering this, it is worth noting that a moral assessment of pedophilia is different from both an evaluative and a psychiatric assessment. Pedophilia might well be evaluatively bad in the sense that it would be better if a given person were not a pedophile. Being a pedophile is unfortunate for the pedophile himself, who will most likely not have a good sexual and romantic life, and for a number of children, who might be seriously harmed by his actions. Pedophilia might also be psychiatrically bad in the sense that it might be a mental disease. But is being a pedophile, in the sense of having a sexual preference for children, immoral?

Makes me sad knowing that there's many intelligent people with good writing skills and obviously some kind of knowledge can write this kind of stupidity. How can someone even start, what's his starting position of thinking when he could made up something like this?

The Harm Argument
The harm argument is a simple argument with two premises: An empirical premise, that adult-child sex seriously harms children, and a normative premise, that it is immoral to seriously harm children (at least as long as the only justification is that it gives an adult sexual pleasure).

Btw. this article is from Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics:

Programme for Applied Ethics
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Trondheim, Norway

Psychological harm is more complex and more controversial than bodily harm, and it is also the kind of harm to which we must appeal if we seek to explain why most adult-child sex is harmful.

Though there are many tragic counterexamples, the most characteristic pedophile activities are cuddling, caressing, and genital fondling, and when full intercourse takes place, it occurs most commonly when the child is well into adolescence.

This stuff many pedophilies use in their defence. Science in service of profit I can understand, but science in service of pedophilia is still totally incomprehensibly.

The rest you can read on this page _http://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/etikk_i_praksis/article/view/1718/1836. It's already too much to swallow in above arguments.
 
In this article from Sott.net Two child sex offenders explain how they picked their targets and what you can do to deter them

you can check out the video when two sex predators explain how they seduce children:

https://youtu.be/d9WUyHgi3lE

The predators told us that the first step is isolating the victim.

"Creating opportunities to be alone with her, apart and separate from the group," the former child supervisor said. "On the bus, sitting together all the time."

Then, he said, he worked to earn the victim's trust.

"You become the child's confidante," he said. "You become the one they look to as the one that is going to provide their answers and give them their guidance. You supersede the really necessary and powerful other relationships in their lives. In fact, you discount them. You find ways in the things that you say and do to discount those relationships."

Earning the child's trust makes it easier to push the boundaries that ensure adequate, safe and healthy barriers exist between teachers and their students, he said.

Often, predators use texting and Facebook to help groom victims, eroding those normal barriers.

"So you allow sexual subject matter to be talked about," the former teacher told News 8. "Perhaps you're open to sexual questions ... And of course then you start to push the boundary a little farther. 'Is that something you're interested in? What do you like in those situations,' - inappropriate subject matter," he said.

"It is grooming, because you're gaining their trust on a sexual nature, and that opens the door to commit a sexual offense," he said.

We asked the former child supervisor how he kept the parents from knowing or suspecting he was having sex with his young victim. His response was quick and pointed.

"Lied. Continually," he said. "We would sneak around and find ways to meet at the mall or meet at the movie theater... When we became sexual ... that's when everything went into protection mode, 'We've got to hide this, keep this secret.'"

The former child supervisor offers these tips to help protect your children - from people like he says he used to be, prior to undergoing therapy.

"If a parent sees their child spending an inordinate amount of time with a significant adult that is outside the family, that is something to really spend some time looking at," he said.

"If your child starts talking about another significant adult in ways that you are going, 'I didn't realize you guys were that close,'" then there could be a problem, he said.

"Any attempt to gather favor, connection, is a part of that grooming process," he said. "That desire to have kids like you, have kids connect with you, where you can joke with them, where, though you are an authority figure, you are not seen as an authority figure."

So, what's the top deterrent? Both men told us it's simply an adult who cares enough to take the time to monitor their child's electronic communication.

"It shouldn't be a bad thing for a parent to take a look at a phone and see what's going on," the former child supervisor said. "In fact, if they're not doing that, they set themselves up for a lot of heartache.

"This whole situation thrives in secrecy," he added. "It will never survive in the midst of the light. So as much light as you can pour onto something, the better off a parent is going to be."

How often are teachers having sex with students?

In Texas:

Currently, the Texas Education Agency has 222 open cases of teachers-student inappropriate relationships. That's 28 percent more so far this fiscal year compared to the same time period last year. "It's across the board," Doug Phillips, TEA's director of educator investigations, previously old News 8 Investigates. "From the smallest districts to the largest districts, from the Valley to North Texas, it's everywhere."

In the U.S.:

The Department of Education estimates that 4.5 million students, or about 10 percent, experience sexual misconduct at the hands of a school employee some time between kindergarten and 12th grade.

According to the most recent data from a nationwide survey of 8th- to 11th-grade students asking about incidents of unwanted sexual attention at school, nearly 7 percent, or about 3.5 million students, report having physical sexual contact from an adult, most commonly a teacher or coach, in their school (Shakeshaft, 2004). These students describe unwanted touching on breasts, buttocks, and genitals; forced kissing and hugging; oral/genital contact; and vaginal and anal intercourse. Reports of educator misconduct that doesn't include touching a student, but rather sharing pornography, sexual talk, sexual exhibitionism, or masturbation raised the proportion to about 10%, or nearly 4.5 million students (Shakeshaft, 2004).

This numbers always shock me.

In Croatia, where I live, people still refuse to think/talk about this, especially in public. They think that this is happening somewhere else, even we have lot of known cases of pedophilia especially catholic priest.
 
Dakota said:
<snip>

How often are teachers having sex with students?

In Texas:

Currently, the Texas Education Agency has 222 open cases of teachers-student inappropriate relationships. That's 28 percent more so far this fiscal year compared to the same time period last year. "It's across the board," Doug Phillips, TEA's director of educator investigations, previously old News 8 Investigates. "From the smallest districts to the largest districts, from the Valley to North Texas, it's everywhere."

In the U.S.:

The Department of Education estimates that 4.5 million students, or about 10 percent, experience sexual misconduct at the hands of a school employee some time between kindergarten and 12th grade.

According to the most recent data from a nationwide survey of 8th- to 11th-grade students asking about incidents of unwanted sexual attention at school, nearly 7 percent, or about 3.5 million students, report having physical sexual contact from an adult, most commonly a teacher or coach, in their school (Shakeshaft, 2004). These students describe unwanted touching on breasts, buttocks, and genitals; forced kissing and hugging; oral/genital contact; and vaginal and anal intercourse. Reports of educator misconduct that doesn't include touching a student, but rather sharing pornography, sexual talk, sexual exhibitionism, or masturbation raised the proportion to about 10%, or nearly 4.5 million students (Shakeshaft, 2004).

This numbers always shock me.

In Croatia, where I live, people still refuse to think/talk about this, especially in public. They think that this is happening somewhere else, even we have lot of known cases of pedophilia especially catholic priest.
Dakota,

Thanks for the SOTT article and the video. I did a lot of Tweeting on Twitter using #PedoGate in the tweets from those related articles. I think this topic hits on so many levels that it provides a tremendous opportunity to learn why this happens and how we can "protect" ourselves and especially the children who can't protect themselves most of the time.

I don't think the US is much better at facing this reality of pedophilia than Croatia. From your previous post where the pedophiles try to justify their logic I am reminded of what Lobaczewski talks about a lot Paramoralism.

Lobaczewski said:
We close the door to a causative comprehension of phenomena and open it to vengeful emotions and psychological error whenever we impose a moralistic interpretation upon faults and errors in human behavior, which are in fact largely derived from the various influences of pathological factors, whether mentioned above or not, which are often obscured from minds untrained in this area. We thereby also permit these factors to continue their ponerogenic activities, both within ourselves and others. Nothing poisons the human soul and deprives us of our capacity to understand reality more objectively than this very obedience to that common human tendency to take a moralistic view of human behavior.

Practically speaking, to say the least, each instance of behavior that seriously hurts some other person contains within its psychological genesis the influence of some pathological factors, among other things, of course. Therefore, any interpretation of the causes of evil which would limit itself to moral categories is an inappropriate perception of reality. This can lead, generally speaking, to erroneous behavior, limiting our capacity for counteraction of the causative factors of evil and opening the door for lust for revenge. This frequently starts a new fire in the ponerogenic processes. We shall therefore consider a unilaterally moral interpretation of the origins of evil to be wrong and immoral at all times. The idea of overcoming this common human inclination and its results can be considered a moral motive intertwined throughout poenology.

f we analyze the reasons why some people frequently overuse such emotionally-loaded interpretations, often indignantly rejecting a more correct interpretation, we shall of course also discover pathological factors acting within them. Intensification of this tendency in such cases is caused by repressing from the field of consciousness any self-critical concepts concerning their own behavior and its internal reasons. The influence of such people causes this tendency to intensify in others.

Paramoralisms: The conviction that moral values exist and that some actions violate moral rules is so common and ancient a phenomenon that it seems to have some substratum at man’s instinctive endowment level (although it is certainly not totally adequate for moral truth), and that it does not only represent centuries of experience, culture, religion, and socialization. Thus, any insinuation framed in moral slogans is always suggestive, even if the “moral” criteria used are just an “ad hoc” invention. Any act can thus be proved to be immoral or moral by means of such paramoralisms utilized as active suggestion, and people whose minds will succumb to such reasoning can always be found.

In searching for an example of an evil act whose negative value would not elicit doubt in any social situation, ethics scholars frequently mention child abuse. However, psychologists often meet with paramoral affirmations of such behavior in their practice, such as in the above-mentioned family with the prefrontal field damage in the eldest sister. Her younger brothers emphatically insisted that their sister’s sadistic treatment of her son was due to her exceptionally high moral qualifications, and they believed this by auto-suggestion. Paramoralism somehow cunningly evades the control of our common sense, sometimes leading to acceptance or approval of behavior that is openly pathological.

Some of the cases we are looking at are possibly not full blown cases of psychopathy which makes it difficult for us non-psycologists to understand the bigger picture which I think includes a well supported system of intrigue and cover-up. If you read Political Ponerology I think it will make more sense why these behaviors have happened long ago and are still with us today. It is a terrifying situation that I think can only be changed by more knowledge and awareness shared with whomever is ready to face the reality.

This is for many an emotionally charged subject but if I understand Lobaczewski we have to dig deep to really see the mechanics of much of this phenomena without letting our emotions distort our perceptions. Easier said than done, I know. :/
 
goyacobol said:
Dakota,
Thanks for the SOTT article and the video. I did a lot of Tweeting on Twitter using #PedoGate in the tweets from those related articles. I think this topic hits on so many levels that it provides a tremendous opportunity to learn why this happens and how we can "protect" ourselves and especially the children who can't protect themselves most of the time.

Thank you goyacobol, you always find great answers on my questions. I'm very gratefull for you insights on my issues. I'm aware that my questions are pretty simple and maybe someone could ask why I'm asking so simple questions and that I should read recommended books before I start discussion, but this topic puzzled me so much that I just have to speak about it. Especially because I share your opinion that this topic is "opportunity to learn why this happens and how we can 'protect' ourselves and especially the children who can't protect themselves most of the time."

My friend told me that I'm trying to understand how mind of psychopaths works and that is impossible because they are broken machine. I know one thing, that my life has change completely because of my knowledge that I have learn through this four years. My priorities become total opposite of what was before. Most of my time I spend on voluntary work, sharing valuable information and my focus it's not just on me and my needs. The more I know the more I feel peace, stability and awareness.

goyacobol said:
I don't think the US is much better at facing this reality of pedophilia than Croatia. From your previous post where the pedophiles try to justify their logic I am reminded of what Lobaczewski talks about a lot Paramoralism.

I still didn't finish Political Ponerology and this quote shows that many answers that I seek could be find there. Paramoralism is great explanation. Also, just this one word is answer on many of my questions.

goyacobol said:
Some of the cases we are looking at are possibly not full blown cases of psychopathy which makes it difficult for us non-psycologists to understand the bigger picture which I think includes a well supported system of intrigue and cover-up. If you read Political Ponerology I think it will make more sense why these behaviors have happened long ago and are still with us today. It is a terrifying situation that I think can only be changed by more knowledge and awareness shared with whomever is ready to face the reality.

This is for many an emotionally charged subject but if I understand Lobaczewski we have to dig deep to really see the mechanics of much of this phenomena without letting our emotions distort our perceptions. Easier said than done, I know. :/

Actually, that's the best advice that you could give me. I'm not fast in learning but when I read something useful I'm very good into implementing in my life. Thanks once again :)
 
Dakota said:
Thank you goyacobol, you always find great answers on my questions. I'm very gratefull for you insights on my issues. I'm aware that my questions are pretty simple and maybe someone could ask why I'm asking so simple questions and that I should read recommended books before I start discussion, but this topic puzzled me so much that I just have to speak about it. Especially because I share your opinion that this topic is "opportunity to learn why this happens and how we can 'protect' ourselves and especially the children who can't protect themselves most of the time."

My friend told me that I'm trying to understand how mind of psychopaths works and that is impossible because they are broken machine. I know one thing, that my life has change completely because of my knowledge that I have learn through this four years. My priorities become total opposite of what was before. Most of my time I spend on voluntary work, sharing valuable information and my focus it's not just on me and my needs. The more I know the more I feel peace, stability and awareness.

You're welcome. I think questions of any kind help all of us. If we aren't asking questions we'll never find any answers. My answers are hopefully useful but others might have different way to answer. And with all the reading material here I doubt I'll ever catch up. Many times it helps me when others quote from that book I meant to read. It gives me an idea of the content and makes me want to check it out.

Lobaczewski says something similar about some psychopaths having brain defects either before or after birth and which parts of the brain are affected which can be detected by their behavior. I don't think it is how fast we learn as much as how well we learn and put the knowledge to use.
 
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the Vatican has a 2,000-case backlog in processing clerical sex abuse cases and says criticism of the slow pace was justified. But he says more staff are being added and insists the Vatican is "on the right path."

Pope Francis acknowledges 2,000-case backlog in sex abuse cases
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/14/pope-francis-acknowledges-2000-case-backlog-in-sex-abuse-cases.html

Published May 14, 2017 - Francis was making his first comments about the criticism leveled at the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases by Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from Francis' sex abuse advisory commission in March. Collins quit because of what she said was the "unacceptable" level of resistance within the Vatican to implementing the group's proposals to better care for victims and protect children from priests who rape and molest them.

Speaking to reporters while flying home Saturday from a trip to Portugal, Francis called Collins "a great woman" and said she was "a bit right" to complain about the slow pace in processing cases.

"Marie Collins was right on that point. But we are on the right path, as there were 2,000 cases backlogged," he said.

Francis didn't respond to the other issues raised by Collins, including the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — which handles abuse cases — to create a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests. Instead, he focused on explaining why cases can take so long to process.

To improve efficiency, he said he had added more staff to the congregation and that talks were underway about providing more regional help to bishops to ensure their cases are properly documented before they arrive at the Vatican for review.

He denied he had ever agreed to a request for clemency from a pedophile priest, saying once a sentence is confirmed on appeal by the congregation "it is finished."

Francis has come under fire from some survivors and their advocates for his handling of the abuse crisis.

He won praise for having created the advisory commission and for promising "zero tolerance" for abuse. But his advisory board has lost credibility following Collins' departure and its failure to implement key recommendations that even Francis had approved.
 
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