Then name another sort of energy, besides chemical energy which doesn't exist in any other form than as photons. I asked you what you thought IR might be before it becomes a photon?
Yep, except it doesn't lead to perpetual motion.
Of course it would. That is the whole point. That is precisely what prevents perpetual motion engines....energy doesn't flow freely from cool objects to warm objects. If you think otherwise, then you have moved even further into the territory of abject ignorance than I though you already were.
The second law covers EM radiation between objects.
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy. And whenever electromagnetic radiation exists, what form do you think it takes? Again, name a form of EM that does not exist in the form of photons? If you exempt photons from the second law of thermodynamics, then you have to exempt any form of energy which exists in the form of photons. Practically any text you care to look will describe electromagnetic radiation as a stream of massless particles called photons traveling in a wave like pattern at the speed of light. Each photon represents a certain amount of energy. The different sorts of EM radiation are determined by the amount of energy each photon represents. Radio wave photons represent less energy than microwave photons. If you are talking about EM radiation, you are talking about photons.
I still invite you to tell me what sort of EM radiation might exist moving between objects that is not a stream of photons.
Of course not, but if we are going to exempt photons, which literally what every form of EM radiation is made of, then what other choice do we have.
A system can be constructed using work or external energy. Once that construction is finished and no more work is applied then the system becomes spontaneous. If the pre-cooling bothers you, just don't cool it and simply aim the flashlight at hot asphalt. That would illustrate photons from a colder object hitting a warmer object.
Sorry guy, the fact that work went into making the system means that the system is not a spontaneous process and therefore nothing that comes out of it will be a spontaneous process. Once more, since you clearly didn't pay attention the first time...a spontaneous process is defined by physics as a process occurring, produced, or performed through natural processes without external influences. As I pointed out to you already, the engineers who are developing LED lighting assure us that LED's are not an example of energy moving from a cool object to a warm object. It isn't intuitive, but alas, it is true. Have you ever looked at an LED? Ever noticed that it is sitting on a heat sink that is enormous relative to its size?...and you are talking about a cooled LED.
Refer to the first rule..anyone who thinks they have found a way around the second law, a loophole in the second law, or a form of energy that is exempt from the second law is WRONG.
Why not simply admit that you made an error under the influence of a crazy person and move on rather than trying to defend the absolute insanity of claiming that electromagnetic radiation in the form of photons (and what other form would it take) is exempt from the second law of thermodynamics?