®Monomakhos

Merry Christmas (from 1914)

by

One hundred and ten years ago, in the trenches of France, British and German troops heard “Silent Night” being sung.

It’s not sure which side sang first or heard it first, but a miracle happened:  The Tommies and the Jerries cautiously came out of their trenches and exchanged boisterous Christmas greetings.

For many who follow history, this may have been the last gasp of Christendom.  If anything, it is inconceivable that anything like this would happen today.  Not only between Western countries but within Western countries.

All we can hope for at this point is that we make it to January 20 and the outgoing administration doesn’t cause World War III to break out.  It would be a miracle but then again, what happened on that Christmas Eve was a miracle also.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Comments

  2. Merry Christmas to George, Gail and all the Monomakhites!

    The Lord is good.

    First, we’re having a white Christmas in my neck of the woods and it’s beautiful.

    Second, Trump was confirmed by the Electoral College without a fuss. Now, if they try anything, it would end very badly.

    Third, Trudeau is leaving. “Ding, dong the b*tch is dead . . .”

    Fourth, Elon is getting real about European politics. He’s tearing into Starmer on the foreign gangs, etc. He’s said Reform needs a tougher leader than Farage. He’s openly and vocally supporting AfD in Germany having done an opinion piece in Die Welt and giving the head of AfD an interview on X Spaces.

    They’re furious. Two words for them: Christopher Steele

    Or how about George Soros?

    And so, the metamorphosis of the West is proceeding apace.

  3. Gail,

    My comparison with Mexico was deliberate, as comparisons can be (and have been) made between him and Porfirio Diaz, the dictator of Mexico before the 20th Century Revolution.   The Catholic Church supported the Diaz Regime, which worked against them when the political winds shifted (very violently).

    The political winds ALWAYS shift.   As I said in my previous post, that is why the other local Churches have open and friendly but cautious relationships with their governments.  There is a distance there, which is deliberate.  It is why Patriarch John is still alive in Syria.   Had His Holiness supported Assad the way Patriarch Kyrill supports Putin, he would be dead today.

    THAT is the mistake that Russia is repeating (especially the Church).   Nobody expected the quick disintegration of the Soviet Union or the sudden collapse of the Assad Regime.    The winds DO shift.   What if Navalny’s political successors end up ruling Russia in the future?  Russia could ultimately lose this war due to internal factors unseen by the outside (as they were in 1991 and 2024).   Then what?  The Church will be the biggest loser, as the Catholic Church was in Latin America when the Caudillos fell.

    Monarchies do more than just “set the tone.”  They rule, with a capital R.   They can’t “enforce their example” but they sure do enforce their power.   Machiavelli had it pegged centuries ago when it comes to Monarchy:   Monarchs ideally should be loved AND feared.  But if they can’t be loved, then they should be feared.    Porfirio Diaz had a saying—–“Pan o Palo” (Bread or the Stick).    The Czars had a secret police (not exactly an example of pious Orthodoxy, but Machiavelli would approve).   

    All rule on this earth is Pan o Palo.   Bad things happen when the bread runs out or the stick is used too often (or it breaks).   I think Republics (when done right) have a much better bread-stick ratio than all the other alternatives.   I have no illusions about our “leadership.”    This is the age of “Men without Chests.”   But we have the Church, and Christ our true King.   Why look anywhere else?   I also like the freedom to question authority, even if we attend the same Church.   If I were Russian talking like this in Moscow, the police would be paying me a visit.   That fact in itself makes my argument for me, and should be sobering to anyone.

    • I think the problem is here, is you keep going back and forth between yesteryear and today and blending them together as if it’s one theater.

      Give me ONE example where the The House of Windsor rules anything. Google “Did queen Elizabeth have any authority over the central banks?” and see what you find. – Their people love the family, though. (Probably not Camilla, but you know what I mean.)

      RE: “Nobody expected the quick disintegration of the Soviet Union or the sudden collapse of the Assad Regime.” That’s kind of a crazy statement. The USSR was in power for 69 years. It was implausible from the beginning and Gorbachev accelerated its inevitable demise.

      So why is Patriarch John still alive in Syria???? What do you mean by “Had His Holiness supported Assad the way Patriarch Kyrill (sic) supports Putin, he would be dead today.” You know how we supported the Assads, right? Met. Philip and presumably all who came after him supported the Assads by giving them money. One of the priests in one group of 5 mentioned (bragged actually) in his own parish bulletin how he and the others took $9,900 (just under the limit of having to declare it at the time) in cash and distributed it to the Assads, of course, so that Christians who represented maybe 10% of the population got the good government jobs. Usually jobs are handed out according to religion. One would expect to see Christianity at the low end of the spectrum, but with our contributions they got bumped up.

      The cash also went to Hamas because any money going to the people had to go through them first. They’d take their cut off the top before handing over what was left to the people. These particular priests bragged about giving money to The Holy Sons of the Martyrs, which seemed kind of weird at the time but that’s what they said.

      You’re right, that Patriarch Kirill does not operate this way with Putin. But you’re wrong if you think he tells Putin what to do. – A lot of people, especially Putin, tell Assad what to do. Interesting, isn’t it?

      You know who tells Patriarch John what to do? Charles Ajalat.

  4. Misha,

    I didn’t say that the majority of the monarchs in history were tyrants.   I said they were mediocrities.  Middling men who waffled between piety and avarice.   At best, you could say they kept their hand steady on the wheel and didn’t make things worse (which probably describes the majority).   

    It was once said that there are no more spiritual elders because there are no more novices.   I would also say that there are no more holy kings because there are no more holy subjects.   The Lord is not frozen in time, as He knows that we are dust and knows us as we are.    We were no longer worthy of the Judges, and so we got Kings.   Even Monarchy became corrupted, and so here we are.

    I believe modern “monarchism” to be in the same boat as Communism and Libertarianism—-a phantom that its adherents chase.   A form of political prelest.   There are some who have turned Democracy into an idol, an end in itself.  That too, is prelest.   Of course, the only example of Godly democracy (note the small d) in our tradition is the Holy Synod.

    I think advocating any form of soft nationalist autocracy or junta is dangerous, not only because I find any form of dictatorship repellant, but also because the winds may not always favor Christians.   Ask Mexican Catholics about that.   What if the political situation in Russia goes south, and the Communists or a dark horse movement takes power?   Now the Church is in a position where it supported the previous regime, and will be seen as an enemy by the “new management.”  Those who supported the old order would be purged.  That is why the Patriarch of Antioch always treaded lightly with the Assad Regime, and why the Patriarch of Jerusalem tip-toes as it does with the Israeli government.  It is why the Patriarchates of the other Orthodox nations have open but cautious relationships with their governments.   Realities are what they are.

    Russia is repeating the mistakes of the past.   That is having and will continue to have dire consequences.   Lord, have mercy.

    • If this is what it looks like for “Russia repeating the past,” I wish we could all make such mistakes.

      Russians are not Mexican Catholics!

      And of all the problems Russia could have in the future, becoming communist again is probably the least likely to happen.

      Modern monarchism is not at all like communism. I mean they are 100% different in every respect. Monarchies set the tone for the community. They serve as examples of the way the people within a country should believe and live but they can’t enforce it. They are a community to rally around. To emulate. In communism, it is the party that “sets the tone” and they enforces it, too.

      The Holy Synod works more like a Republic than a democracy, I believe. A Democracy is when everyone is part of the process. We don’t all get to weigh in (vote) on matters of the Holy Synod. It’s more like a Republic where you elect people, like we do at a laity conference when we select a bishop, who will represent our archdiocese on the Holy Synod.

    • This was you, right?:

      “They forget about all the mediocrities and downright tyrants that adorn the walls of history. Those guys are actually the vast majority—-pick any royal family tree or chronicle.”

      In any case, it’s not important. God is a monarchist. Christ is a monarchist. The Church has wholeheartedly endorsed monarchism through the Church Fathers and the history of Christendom. It’s not a question. It is the natural state of the human condition under God.

      There is no protection from anything in reducing government to an aggregate of the passions of the mob or to the power of the oligarchs capable of manipulating them and manufacturing consent. The voice of the people is not the voice of God and mankind is not the measure of all things. Adopting that stance automatically puts you at odds with Divine Revelation and its morality.

      A bad emperor could not do worse than what you find in America and the UK today. Never have gender roles undergone this type of assault. Never has LGBTQ+ been normalized. What king would bring in foreign rape gangs to assault and replace his own ethnic group? I could go on, but any monarch doing such vile, wicked deeds would be deposed. Julian was merely an apostate and he was reviled. Apostasy is merely the ante to enter the Western political conversation today.

      We simply have no remote conception of how far we have fallen. It will take time. But when it starts to sink in, there will be wailing, gnashing of teeth and a hard, hard rain will fall.

  5. * British doctor has medical license revoked over warning of COVID shot dangers *
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/british-doctor-has-medical-license-revoked-over-warning-of-covid-shot-dangers/?utm_source=featured-news&utm_campaign=usa

    (LifeSiteNews) — British doctors continue to be removed from medical practice for warning patients of the dangers of the so-called mRNA COVID “vaccines.”

    In December 2024, consultant psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Armstrong was struck off the medical register following his description of pharmaceutical companies as “evil.”

    Armstrong had appeared in a video shared on BitChute in which he described the COVID regime and the attendant “vaccines” as part of a “deception on a grand scale” – saying the injections put people’s lives at risk. In the video, titled Navigating the Truth-Deception Duality, he said:

    My message is clear to everyone: don’t take any more. You’ve a doctor here, he’s got his licence on the line – given it up. Don’t take any more of the injections. These guys are evil.

    The tribunal which deprived Armstrong of his right to practice medicine concluded he was “highly likely in future to act so as to put patients at unwarranted risk of harm” – as the Daily Mail reported on January 2.
    According to the minutes of the tribunal, an anonymous email alerted the General Medical Council to Armstrong’s video – which had been initially released on July 17, 2023.

    The tribunal has found that Armstrong’s use of his medical credentials to warn the public of the dangers of the so-called vaccines is a violation of medical ethics, stating the physician had “undermined public health information and posed a serious risk to members of the public who may have placed reliance on his opinions.”

    In addition:
    The Tribunal found that Dr. Armstrong’s statements in the video about his medical colleagues was an attack on the medical profession as a whole.

    Armstrong’s case demonstrates that despite mounting evidence that the “vaccines” are far from “100% safe and effective,” the lives of medical professionals continue to be ruined for saying so.

    To say, as Armstrong does, that the public has been deceived is to state the obvious fact that the “vaccines” neither prevented infection nor transmission – as the authorities said they did. What is more, a range of adverse health conditions, including death, have been proven to have resulted from taking the experimental injections, heavily promoted by state-backed media, along with government and medical bodies worldwide.
    Armstrong’s remarkable presentation presents the contrast between truth and deception. He argues that mass media has been used to create a sort of false reality, parallel to the truth. This, he says, produces the “duality” in the title of his video. Armstrong is explaining how the “huge agenda” behind the COVID “vaccines” and mandates makes use of mass media propaganda to present an alternate “reality” – in which taking experimental injections makes perfect sense.

    He refers to evidence for his claims throughout his presentation, saying he is concerned with demonstrating the reality behind the “mass deception” taking place in service of the COVID regime.

    Armstrong is far from alone in making such a bold claim. As LifeSiteNews has reported, British academic Dr. David A. Hughes has published a comprehensive account of the COVID regime – which he says was the opening campaign in an “omniwar” to replace our way of life with a “permanent bio-digital tyranny.”

    Hughes took three years to complete the detailed research behind his book, “Covid-19” – Psychological Operations, and the War for Technocracy, which he has released to readers free of charge.
    https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-41850-1

    Hughes has left his academic career as a result of his findings. As with Armstrong, Hughes was faced with a decision to speak the truth and risk his livelihood – or keep silent and “stay safe.”

    Such cases demonstrate the cost of integrity in professional life today. Medical practitioners like Armstrong still face ruin if they take seriously their Hippocratic oath to “first, do no harm.” As with Hughes, the loss of a secure and tenured career is the price paid for the publication of the truth, regardless of personal consequence.

    These facts explain, in part, why so few professionals have spoken out against a dubious regime of fear, propaganda, and public harm. To remain faithful to the truth, and to serve the public interest rather than that of vested interests, has been shown to be extremely damaging.

    Along with heart conditions, blood clots, sudden deaths, the enormous transfer of wealth from working people to billionaires and corporations, and the lasting damage done to small businesses and communities, the COVID-19 regime produced a climate of fear.

    This is not only a factor in mass deception – as Armstrong argued – but is a form of psychological warfare, as is evidenced in Hughes’ book.

    These operations were not confined to terrorizing the public through propaganda. An organized online campaign of psychological warfare has been directed against COVID regime critics in the U.K.
    U.K-based Big Brother Watch published a report in February 2023 showing that British Military Intelligence units had been involved in online “counter-disinformation” operations, targeting critics of the COVID regime:
    Big Brother Watch’s investigation identified a number of MPs, journalists, top academics and campaigners whose social media posts had been monitored and logged in secret reports.

    The then-U.K. Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, admitted that the army’s secretive 77th Brigade (intelligence) unit had been covertly spying on British citizens – despite assurances in the past that they “do not, and have never, conducted any kind of action against British citizens” and that “all work is internationally focused.”

    Big Brother Watch interviewed a whistleblower from the 77th Brigade whose revelations prompted the admission in Parliament that military intelligence units were monitoring Britons expressing “views critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic.”

    The Army Intelligence unit is also linked to an online harassment group known as “The Mutton Crew,” whose activities have been documented in a report by an anonymous journalist known only as “John,” author of a Substack called The Sentiment Inspector.

    In a report on the Mutton Crew, “John” documents a history of “the Dark Forces Behind Social Media Manipulation” in Britain reaching back to 2011.

    As “John” reports that, “[b]y 2019, they were running thousands of fake social media accounts across platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, and Reddit.”

    John explains that “the crew’s tactics were sophisticated, using well-coordinated campaigns of harassment, misinformation, and threats.”

    “They didn’t just attack individuals – they aimed to destroy careers, reputations, and lives.”
    In a separate report on the Army’s 77th Brigade, “John” explains his need to maintain anonymity, as he documents his conversations with whistleblowers claiming that the Mutton Crew operate in tandem with British Military Intelligence.

    These claims about The Mutton Crew are buttressed by another anonymous source, the U.S.-based medical practitioner ArkMedic – who published a report on the Crew in September 2022 claiming “They are part of the disinformation arm of the British Army.”

    “Arkmedic” – who is cited in a recommendation for the Nobel Peace Prize published by France Soir – explained:

    Having been a recipient of the treatment that the “Mutton Crew” dish out to people who disagree with them (or with the government’s propaganda on COVID or the COVID vaccines), I can safely attest that the mutton swarm invariably descends on anybody that does not toe the party line.

    Given the extent and purpose of their operations, it is possible that the anonymous tipoff received by the British General Medical Council that resulted in the end of Dr. Armstrong’s medical career was sent by a member of the Mutton Crew.

    It is a cruel irony that a principled and dutiful doctor such as Armstrong has seen his career ended on a charge of “scaremongering” – for daring to expose a regime based on the manufacture of terror and suffering.

    As his case shows, the real danger to the public is not presented by men of integrity such as Armstrong – but by the powers at work in the shadows, determined to destroy the lives of those daring to take seriously their duty to defend humanity from harm.

  6. The quote: ”The parasite dies before it infects the blood cells and evolves into its deadly phase.’

    The anti-quote [from Iain Malcolm (Jurassic Park): “Life will find a way.”

    * Mosquitoes inject human test subjects with parasite in study at Bill Gates-linked center *
    https://www.theblaze.com/news/mosquito-bites-inject-human-test-subjects-with-parasite-in-study-at-bill-gates-linked-center

    Joseph MacKinnon
    December 30, 2024

    ‘ The mosquito research Gates has been funding since at least 2008 appears to have paid off, turning out flying syringes.

    Researchers at the Bill Gates Foundation-backed Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands have joined an international effort to transform mosquitoes into flying syringes. According to a study published late last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, they apparently now have an effective way of using mosquitoes to deliver some protection against malaria in unsuspecting humans — and possibly other payloads in the future as well.

    Scientists have long toyed with the idea of transforming mosquitoes into “flying vaccinator[s].”

    Shigeto Yoshida, the lead researcher on a 2010 study that modified mosquitoes’ saliva such that they would deliver leishmania vaccines to mice when sucking their blood, noted that vaccination by insect was “just like a conventional vaccination but with no pain and no cost.”

    “What’s more, continuous exposure to bites will maintain high levels of protective immunity, through natural boosting, for a lifetime. So the insect shifts from being a pest to being beneficial,” added Yoshida.

    Despite the Japanese geneticist’s optimism, his study acknowledged that “medical safety issues and concerns about informed consent mitigate the use of the ‘flying vaccinator’ as a method to deliver vaccines.”

    Robert Sinden, professor emeritus of parasite cell biology at Imperial College London, told Science at the time that in addition to vaccinating people without their informed consent, no regulatory agency would sign off on the initiative.

    The issue of informed consent, apparently an ongoing issue for elements of the scientific community, was evidently not enough to hinder the continued development of flying vaccinators. Hiroyuki Matsuoka of Jichi Medical University in Japan, for instance, announced that with the help of a 2008 Gates Foundation grant, he was preparing work on an engineered mosquito that could produce and secrete a malaria vaccine protein into a host’s skin.

    In 2022, Sean Murphy and his team at the University of Washington demonstrated the workability of that idea, testing mosquito-borne malaria vaccines on humans, establishing what they called a “proof of concept” for the technology.

    ‘The parasite dies before it infects the blood cells and evolves into its deadly phase.’

    Concerned about the short-lived and marginally effective nature of the malaria vaccines currently approved by the World Health Organization, Dutch researchers at the LUMC similarly turned to genetically modified parasites and mosquito carriers as a potential alternative.

    In an earlier trial, the researchers tested the effectiveness of GA1, a malaria parasite genetically modified to stop developing after roughly 24 hours of infection in humans, but found that it only provided low protective efficacy against malaria. Hoping for a better outcome, the researchers crafted another parasite, GA2, to stop developing around six days following invasion in preclinical humanized mouse models.

    The Bill Gates-backed Gavi, also known as the Vaccine Alliance, noted that “because the parasite dies before it infects the blood cells and evolves into its deadly phase, it instead acts as a way of priming the immune system, as a vaccination usually would.”

    Afforded a test group of 43 adults between the ages of 19 and 35 who previously had no record of malaria infection, the researchers subjected subjects to 50 bites from GA2-infected mosquitoes, 50 bites from GA1-infected mosquitoes, or 50 bites from uninfected mosquitoes (placebo), in three vaccination sessions at 28-day intervals. Three weeks following their third devouring by mosquitoes, the human test subjects underwent malaria infection with five bites from infected mosquitoes.

    According to the study, eight of the nine participants in the GA2 group received effective protection against the malaria infection. Only one of eight participants in the GA1 group received protection, and none of the participants in the placebo group received protection.

    The Dutch researchers now seek to replicate their results in a larger human trial.

    “These findings represent a significant step forward in malaria vaccine development,” Julius Hafalla, an immunologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Nature. “The ongoing global malaria burden makes the development of more effective vaccines a critical priority.”

    Leiden University Medical Center received a $1,578,317 grant from the Gates Foundation in September 2023 for the purpose of understanding “population and geographic factors affecting response to malaria vaccines in endemic countries.” In November, the center received a Gates Foundation grant “to improve health outcomes and prevent premature death in populations around the world suffering from high rates of Malaria infection by developing next generation malaria vaccine candidates.”

    Bill Gates has demonstrated, both directly and through his foundation, a desire to shape public health, the news landscape, education policy, AI, insect populations, American farmland, the energy sector, foreign policy, and the earth itself.

    Gates, who took issue in a January 2021 MSNBC interview with content encouraging “people not to trust the advice on masks or taking the vaccine,” has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into malaria vaccine research. He noted on his blog in August, “Malaria is caused by a remarkably adaptable parasite that’s constantly changing and developing resistance to our drugs and interventions. Fighting it is like playing a global game of high-stakes whack-a-mole: Just when we think we’ve got it under control, it pops up somewhere else or in a new form.”

    Gates noted further that it is important to use existing interventions while “laying the groundwork for a malaria-free future.” According to Gates, that future might depend on the use of mRNA vaccines or the genetic modification of mosquito population.

    According to the utopian billionaire, “One of our biggest challenges isn’t scientific; it’s financial and political.” ‘

  7. While it is still the season for it, here is a masterpiece,
    one of the greatest films ever made:

    * Pasolini’s “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” (1964) *
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6kf3qx

    [Video – 02:17:02]

    Italian Language with English Subtitles

    ‘ The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Italian: Il vangelo secondo Matteo, lit. ’The Gospel according to Matthew’) is a 1964 epic biblical drama film in the Italian neorealist style, written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is a cinematic rendition of the story of Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew, from the Nativity through the Resurrection.

    In the neorealist tradition, the film utilizes a cast of non-professional actors, and is filmed entirely on-location throughout Southern Italy. The dialogue is taken directly from the Gospel of Matthew, as Pasolini felt that “images could never reach the poetic heights of the text.”[3] He reportedly chose Matthew’s Gospel over the others because he had decided that “John was too mystical, Mark too vulgar, and Luke too sentimental.”[4] ‘

    When Pasolini was trying to raise the funds for the flim
    and prospective backers asked: “Where is your script?”
    he would simply point to the Gospel and say:
    “There. There is my script.
    That is what I shall film.”
    And that is what he filmed,

    C’est magnifique!

    • I remember loving this film very much, Brendan, back when I saw it. Glad you posted this soothers can see. Compare that with the new “Mary” or “Conclave” or other such drivel of today.

      • It is one of God’s ineffable mysteries
        that an atheist communist homesexual
        directed a work of such Christian Truth.

        * John 3:8 [KJV] *

        “The wind bloweth where it listeth,
        and thou hearest the sound thereof,
        but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
        so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

  8. * The Christmas Truce | What really happened in the trenches in 1914? *
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaBJhmkDKmc

    [Video – 12:01]

    ‘ The Christmas Truce of the First World War has become a legendary story. The romantic image of enemies shaking hands in the middle of no man’s land, or playing football between the trenches, reoccurs again and again in popular culture. But how much of it is true? What do we really know about this moment of peace in a brutal war? The photographs, letters and interviews in IWM’s collection tell the real story of the Christmas Truce. In this video, Head of Documents and Sound Anthony Richards explains how the truce came about, its impact on the course of the First World War and why it never happened again after 1914.’

    • To No One in Particular: This is a post which, of course, George and I can no longer accomplish the normal way because no one can fix what’s wrong with this site.

      ***
      I may have told you this story about how my son would run away and hide in clothes racks, behind bookcases, or any number of other places when we were out. He was like 3 or 4 and thought it was very funny. One day, there was a security officer who noticed my plight and asked me if I wanted his help to break my son of this horrible habit. He told me what he was going to do and solicited the assistance of the store manager. They could both see my son giggling as he ran away from me and hid in yet another clothes rack. The plain-clothed security guard went up to him, and roughly yanked him out of the rack to get his attention. He then threw him over his shoulders and began to walk out the door with him. I had warned my son about the danger of me not knowing where he was because a stranger could walk out with him. So, this incident had the desired effect. My son wailed, “Mommy!!!!” as the man started to walk away with him. The man got all the way to the door before he put him down and had a strong, “man to man” talk with him about how he (the guard) could have been a “bad man” and how easy it would have been to walked out of the store with him. At this point, he handed me back my little one who NEVER ran away from me again. Ever.

      I’m telling you this story because I think something like this is happening all over the world in that, like my son, we don’t know what’s really happening at any given moment or why. There is something “off” with all these weird things. Like the video with the woman set on fire. I used to take a subway to work every day in L.A. and have taken subways in N.Y. The doors do NOT stay open that long. Nor is the luggage area a place where you would get on and off as you would be walking against everyone else looking for a seat. Subways are usually full of people, too. There is a guy just sitting there on a bench. When people see fire like that they generally back away. This guy didn’t even react until the end.

      I also worked in downtown Long Beach, a favorite place of Hollywood’s. I would see the parking structure I used fill with people running around with black shirts that said “Crisis Actor” on the back. They would then do these car explosions in a small dirt lot right by the parking structure. These explosions looked and sounded very real. But they were not.

      One day there was what looked like an old fashioned border crossing right in the middle of the street behind Ocean Blvd! It looked so real I actually wondered if it was something new and I’d have to go through it.

      Another time at the train station in LA, I had trouble finding my train because all the signs had been swapped out with signs in French. They were filming a movie. (Why they would do it when we were all trying to make our trains was baffling, but that’s what happened.)

      Anyway, I think what we call the “white hats” are staging some of the things we’re hearing about in the news. Why? Because they don’t want us to slack off after Trump won the election and think we are home free. They want our heads on a swivel, as they say.

      I also think this is a white hat operation because of something I’m pretty sure I told you about in Jan. 2022. A very short video appeared out of nowhere with a guy kind of laughing behind his hand like he was going to tell a joke. He showed what appeared to be pipe bombs and then a sign or something popped up saying these bombs were “not real.” They were Hollywood props. The video was over in like a minute but I think some people were supposed to see this so we wouldn’t think all hell is breaking loose with the Truckers in Canada. I saw the same type of clip when FEMA and the FCC planned that cell phone test. People were using their microwaves like Faraday cages. This same guy popped up and showed how the date or something (I forget now) added up to the number 17. He flashed a sign that said something to the effect, “You should have known you were never in danger, 17.” 17 is their way of communicating.

      Finally, this same guy appeared a third time (not on Q which frankly I didn’t follow all that closely) indicating that we would be told nuclear bombs were going off in major cities around the world. He specifically mentioned Paris and I believe N.Y. In any case, he said they would look real, but again, it would be Hollywood. He mentioned something about the air, too. How it would be red, as I recall.

      The first post by Q was in October 2017 on the website 4chan. Q is the 17th number of the alphabet. It’s also a type of Top Secret security clearance in the U.S. Department of Defense. Q is the military, obviously, and it was created to get the attention of the 20-something crowd, specifically gammers. It was their way of engaging them and teaching them critical thinking skills through games and riddles. It worked! It was a huge phenomenon, whether or not you ascribed to it or not. The QAnons (the people who followed Q) really enjoyed it. Never before had people been given access to the kind of information on Q but it took the followers down a lot of rabbit holes until they understood how it all fit together. They finally figured it out.

      The military and Trump often give shout outs to Q followers. Trump does it all the time. I remember once he said, “I have been to Washington DC 17 times. . .” He hasn’t been to DC 17 times. It’s a shout out to Q. And it make the MSM go nuts. They cannot stand it when he makes air Qs or when the WWG1WGA music plays in the background.

      IMO, the Q campaign was nothing short of brilliant. On Q were pictures of people with children who were later called out for pedophia. Comedians, no less. People you would never suspect would be a part of something like this. There were sequences of future events that later proved very helpful in connecting the dots. What didn’t make sense at the time, later made perfect sense. There was stuff in there nobody from the Trump campaign would have been allowed to say out loud without the MSM jumping down their throats. But as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

      The long and short of it is, we are in a war and the white hats don’t want us to get soft and think the hard part is over. I’ll put it this way: I would NOT be surprised to learn that all these terrible things we’re hearing about are false “false flags,” including the drones. They may not be real. My guess is they want us to be a little afraid right now and stay closer to home to avert the necessity of a formal lockdown. We are under martial law. The National Guard is everywhere. That you don’t believe it doesn’t make it any less true.

      The black hats, if you will, would not let Isis parade around killing people. It would be a skinhead or a white supremacist. What happened in Louisiana could be real but we don’t know that. I once worked in a hospital in CA and on my first day I was turned into a crisis actor of sorts in a drill of a plane crash. It was in Laguna Beach which was a smaller town back then and if that had happened for real, all the victims would have been taken to the hospital where I worked. This was a FEMA test or something. When the “victims” (actors) started coming in, they were covered in blood and had what looked like broken bones. And this was back in the 1970s. It looked so real. I went from a “billing” to “triage” that morning. I remember asking someone what triage even meant. “Everyone is going to be wheeled into your area. If the person is dead, push them over there. If they’re alive, decide which ones need immediate help. It’s pretty straightforward.” I kept saying, “But I’m a biller. I’m not qualified.” They said, “Today, you’re qualified.” What a way to spend your first day on a job.

      So a large number of reported casualties is not unusual in a faked situation.

      Again, we don’t know what’s real or not real, but the point is the same. Stay aware. Be cautious. Get what you need and get home. But I wouldn’t worry. A lot of the stuff we hear about may not be exactly true. Like in OK, they’re saying we’re going to have another cold front that will go all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico where it could drop to 20 below like in 2021. – There was never a time in 2021 where it dropped to 20- in OK.

      The Tesla explosion is another example of something that wasn’t what it seemed.

      I’m more worried about The House right now. This year, Vice President Kamala Harris will oversee the 2024 election vote counting set for Jan. 6, 2025 and then it goes to The House to certify the election. But if there is no Speaker, The House can’t conduct any official business. Trump’s inauguration is set to take place on January 20, but the election results need to be certified by Congress before that can happen. Congress has never before tried to certify a presidential election without a House speaker in place. Delays mean anything could happen in the interim. And we haven’t even gotten to the (fake) insurrection part which we know is coming. They’re going to claim it happened, which will give us the chance to show what it really was all about.

      By way of intel, we heard the other day from a reader that’s been in touch with this billionaire (you would know him if I told you how he made his money) who has a soft landing waiting for these J6ers which I’m happy to hear.

      As an aside, the U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 outline the presidential order of succession. The line of succession of cabinet officers is in the order of their agencies’ creation.

      Vice President
      Speaker of the House
      President Pro Tempore of the Senate
      Secretary of State
      Secretary of the Treasury
      Secretary of Defense
      Attorney General
      Secretary of the Interior
      Secretary of Agriculture
      Secretary of Commerce
      Secretary of Labor
      Secretary of Health and Human Services
      Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
      Secretary of Transportation
      Secretary of Energy
      Secretary of Education
      Secretary of Veterans Affairs
      Secretary of Homeland Security

      • “Q is the military, obviously, and it was created to get the attention
        of the 20-something crowd, specifically gammers.”

        Well, MI6 is Military Intelligence, Section 6
        and Q is the boffin who cobbles together
        wizard gizmos for James Bond;
        but ’20-something gammers’ ?

        I always thought of ‘gammers’ as elderly ladies,
        as being the female equivalent of ‘gaffers”
        as Professor Tolkien would agree…

        OED [Oxford English Dictionary] Citation:

        1937 Some of the younger people in the town..laughed at the greybeards and gammers who said that they had seen him [sc. the dragon] flying in the sky in their young days.

        J. R. R. Tolkien, Hobbit x. 201

        John Ronald Reuel Tolkien • The hobbit; or, There and back again • 1st edition, 1937 (1 vol.)

        • Interestingly, there were a LOT of older women engaged in Q. Some of my friends, even. But the target was the 20-something crowd that like playing video games. And I get why. – I remember George and I at that Jericho/Stop the Steal march saying to each other, “Where are all the young people? We’re not going to get very far if they don’t get involved.” By the next month, it was a different story.

      • Having had a couple of days to digest this, I suspect that there is a message being sent by Langley, FBI, et al.; i.e., the DS. And the message is that we do not intend to “go gentle into that good night.” We will fight tooth and nail to the bitter end, domestically and abroad, in order to maintain our internal grip on power within the US and also our external hegemony.

        These crazy terrorist attacks smell as fishy as it gets. The cybertruck thing must have been staged, and not by the alleged perpetrator. The New Orleans thing looks like someone was groomed by the feds masquerading as ISIS. The “journalist” tour of his “bomb factory” was just the cherry on the sundae. Now, it may be that I simply default to the Bureau and the Agency whenever something goes “boom”. However, for some time now, that has been the best educated guess.

        You also see them active in South Korea where the president that tried to invoke martial law was evidently going to be arrested by regular authorities and the military prevented them. Syria as well, though I think that little project went wrong for them.

        The thing to understand is that even if Trump is eventually successful at draining the swamp, especially the intelligence services, it will take months if not years. People have to be fired and replaced and the whole thing has to be reorganized. They seem to be sending the message that until they are all purged, they will continue waging “asymmetric warfare” against the new Administration, even before it takes office.

        The other thing that they are trying to establish is that there is a need for what the DS does – a dire, stark need, given these “terrorist” attacks. This should be useful when committees and the AG are coming after the Intelligence Services. “You’re putting lives in danger by persecuting us!”

        It reminds you of Wag the Dog. Connie (DeNiro’s character) educates the CIA about the fact that if there is no enemy, there is no one for the intelligence services to defend the American public against. That is their raison d’etre.

        God forbid there should be peace.

        No, no, nothing good down that road. But how do you make sure that there’s no peace if the rest of the world is tired of bloodshed and intrigue? Well, you surreptitiously found and fund ISIS and give them missions and pretend you’re battling them.

        Sick state of affairs, but sadly history is filled with precedents of this type of “Byzantine” intrigue.

  10. Festive Message from Larry Fink | Happy New Servitude…

    * Whitney Webb BlackRock Exposed | The Elite’s Are Planning Complete Lockdown *
    https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/whitney-webb-blackrock-exposed/

    [Video – 21:35]

    ‘ Writes Wayne Goodfellow:
    https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/whitney-webb-blackrock-exposed/

    ‘ This is the type of future planned by the International Criminal Banking and Corporate Cabal that includes BlackRock and the WEF where you will own nothing but be “happy” living as a slave. Digital ID and digital money along with the theft of all property including the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat is well advanced. Read: The Great Taking by David Webb to understand how they have altered the UCC code to steal our investments in equities, bonds and real estate. And they now own and control just about all governments of the western world and beyond. Humanity is in an existential war for our very survival as a free people but few understand that there is even a war due to the power of mass propaganda which is pervasive. Almost every vital institution of governance and society has been infiltrated and subverted including the church, media and universities. Most people sense there is something very wrong but are unable to connect the dots as to who is driving the world towards a tyrannical New World Order. WDG ‘

    • I met Larry Fink once. It was 1983 or 1984. I was going out to lunch with the head of a company I worked for called SMS that later became Siemens. Nice office on top of a prominent building in Orange County, CA. Larry was talking to someone in an adjacent office and the door was open. I remember he was gesturing a lot. My boss said, “I want you to meet someone” and waved him over. He briefly came out to say hello. Looked a lot like he does now. Sort of carrot red hair. Glasses. Lanky. The reason I remember him at all was because his last name was Fink. My mother had remarried a man named Zink, which is similar. He had the energy of an up-and-comer, as my grandmother used to say.

      And now he is ruining my life so to speak. Mine, yours, everyones. I often think of men like that as sitting on a pinnacle and as they go higher and higher up, the pinnacle becomes more and more pointy until they fall off. That’s what’s going to happen to him.

    • Whitney Webb’s report is spot on needs to be shared, shared, shared. The ICB and CC of BlackRock is indeed the head of the snake, hiding in plain sight. Right here in Idaho, as our conservative legislators begin the 2025 legislative session on Jan. 6, they will be making war on BlackRock cronies embedded in the establishment, Idaho Assoc. of Commerce & Industry. Idahoans ARE waking up. Conservative legislators have them on the run.

  12. I must admit, my views toward Israel and the Jews in general have morphed considerably due to the conflict in the Middle East. What they have done to Gaza might as well be the Abomination of Desolation.

    It is self-righteous arrogance. Hubris, egged on by the lies the government has told them about what actually happened on Oct. 7, 2023.

    What I suspect has happened is that Iran, Turkey, Russia, China and perhaps others have made the decision that Israel must fall. I think they have done this in light of Israeli demographics which favor the growth and increasing dominance of religious Zionist parties like Bibi’s coalition and that the problem is only going to get worse over time. Greater Israel is a recipe for perpetual conflict and unrest in the region.

    And this runs headlong into the plans of the aforementioned countries. Iran has long sought Israel’s demise and probably has the capacity to accomplish it, provided they don’t provoke a nuclear attack by Israel. Turkey wants to revive the Ottoman Empire and saw Assad as the weak man of the region to be replaced toward that end. Erdogan’s ambitions extend to Jerusalem. Russia and China are partners in economic development and China has planned the One Belt/One Road initiative to take a land route through the region (as well as a sea route around it).

    The continued existence of the Jewish State does not fit their development model. Additionally, Russia is allying with Iran and so sees a common interest in reducing the US’s influence in the region – and Israel is like a giant American military base.

    Hostility toward Islam is no reason to support or tolerate such a murderous regime as the Zionist Entity. This is especially so in light of its integral place in the MIC of the US controlled by the DS. In my schema of the “war of the worldviews”, the Zionist Jews have allied themselves with Western Liberalism – which is the enemy of Christendom.

    Sometimes, in some conflicts, there are only black hats involved – no good actors. Apart from the Palestinian Christians, this is probably so in the current conflict in Palestine. Nonetheless, mass murder on this scale is indefensible. And it is an indication of the murderous character of the nation.

    • “…the Zionist Jews have allied themselves
      with Western Liberalism –
      which is the enemy of Christendom”.

      They have taken over Western Liberalism
      “which is the enemy of Christendom”.

  14. Khazar comeback (1)

    * OCU cleric urges Ukrainians to convert to Judaism to defeat Russia *
    https://spzh.eu/en/news/83760-ocu-cleric-urges-ukrainians-to-convert-to-judaism-to-defeat-russia

    * Commenting on the Ukrainian leadership’s sympathy toward Judaism,
    OCU cleric Vasyl Kosiachenko urged Ukrainian citizens
    to adopt this religion, saying, “and then we’ll see.” *

    ‘ “Priest” Vasyl Kosiachenko called on Ukrainians to embrace Judaism, arguing that the country’s top leaders show an affinity for the religion and that it could unify the nation and help defeat Russia. He made these remarks in the comment section of a Facebook post by Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, about the National Guard chief lighting the menorah.

    “To defeat Putin’s Russia, we need a unifying religion. If the President of Ukraine, the commanders of the Armed Forces and the National Guard lean toward Judaism, then perhaps all Ukrainian citizens should adopt Judaism? We’ll defeat the enemy, and then we’ll see. After all, it’s clear that Ukraine will remain occupied if it retains the worldview that its citizens currently have,” wrote the “priest”. ‘

    Will Ukraine’s Nazis become Jews too?

    Khazar comeback (2)

    * Budanov in synagogue: Hanukkah will illuminate victories of Ukraine and Israel *
    https://spzh.eu/en/news/83763-budanov-in-synagogue-hanukkah-will-illuminate-victories-of-ukraine-and-israel

    * The head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) sees
    a connection between the wars Ukraine and Israel are fighting. *

    ‘ At a festive banquet held at Kyiv’s central synagogue, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, lit the second Hanukkah candle on the menorah alongside Vitali Klitschko, the Chief Rabbi, and the Israeli ambassador.

    Before the ceremony, Budanov addressed the banquet participants with a formal speech. Among other remarks, he stated, “The flame of this candle will illuminate our future victory – both ours and that of the State of Israel.”

    “We all need it,” Budanov concluded. ‘

    Looks like Bart’s Ukraine gambit
    is dissolving into apostasy…

    • It’s all about the shrinking real estate. Next thing we know, some oligarch is going to suggest we change the religion in Israel to schismatic Orthodoxy.

      • It is perhaps not a good idea for a nation
        to all turn Jewish at the same time,
        as precedent would suggest:

        * Genesis 34:24-29 [KJV} *

        24 And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.

        25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.

        26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out.

        27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.

        28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field,

        29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.

    • You know, the “Judaism” this “priest” is referring to is not the Judaism of the NT but Rabbinicism, which is based on the Talmud. This is a collection of books which has some pretty “interesting” things to say about non-Jews and positively horrible things to say about our Lord and Lady.

      In reality, we shouldn’t be surprised. In their desperation, the true colors of the anti-Russian tenor among the Ukrainians is starting to seep out. We shouldn’t be surprised, Ukrainian men are fighting for Blackrock.

      Just sayin’.

  15. “Do not trust in rulers and in the sons of men, In whom there is no salvation. His breath shall go out of him, and he shall return to his earth; On that day all his thoughts shall perish.”  Psalm 146:3-4

    I think too many people are putting too much faith in Trump, thinking that he’s going to actually “do something.”   All popular movements get co-opted in the end.   MAGA is no different.   Trump won because Big Tech and the Oligarchs allowed it.  They stepped aside, and remain in the shadows.   Heck, some of them even donned MAGA hats!    “The system” has not significantly changed from 2020 or 2016 (or 2012, or 1980).  Something else is going on here.   What really changed?

    One thing that astonishes me, is how many people (rightly) question and oppose immoral decisions from our own government, but are so quick to believe “alternative media” which have money trails to America’s geopolitical rivals.   To me,  CNN Al-Jazeera, and RT are equally suspect.   Why would I believe anything Russia says?   Because they are Orthodox?  Romania is Orthodox, too.   Because they enact laws against moral degredation?  Saudi Arabia has such laws, too.   Thinking in terms of “our team” is very dangerous.   

    I am suspicious of “alternative media,” because it too has its agendas, and I would argue that it isn’t really alternative at all.   It’s either controlled opposition, a front for one of the Oligarchical parties.  or a Psyop from a geopolitical rival (from either side).   In the middle you have mom and pop blogs (like this one) who get caught up in it all.   Think about it:  If this blog (or any of those substacks) were actually a threat to “them,”   “They” would have shut you down already (if the narrative of lawlessness is actually true).

    Too many who speak of Monarchy have St. Nicholas II or St. Constantine the Great in mind.   They forget about the flaws and bad (even immoral) decisions those great kings made.  They forget about all the mediocrities and downright tyrants that adorn the walls of history.  Those guys are actually the vast majority—-pick any royal family tree or chronicle.  There is a reason why the list of canonized monarchs is very very short, and almost as short are those considered “good” by any objective measure.

    I think having “a water cooler” or a “tavern” of sorts to talk about current events is a good thing, overall.   But, I see a lot of troubling and dangerous things happening in cyberspace.   Satan tempts from “the Right” and “the Left.”  Politics as blood sport is very old.   I think “team spirit” is something that should be rejected, and the Gospel embraced more staunchly. 

    • It is really not true to say that Satan tempts “from the Right”. He may subvert the Right in its integrity, but the Right is right (i.e., “correct”) when it comes to the will of God for the government of man. The Left, by definition, is varying degrees of deviation from the Truth and the Good. The problem in America is that the terms have become corrupted and twisted in their usage.

      You find two basic types of the Right: a) monarchies/empires, and b) dominant party states with a strong executive. This is not to say that Rightist regimes do not make mistakes, but they are the least inclined to do so and certainly not as a result of fundamental flaws in their nature.

      The classic example of Right vs. Left is the French Assembly with monarchists on the Right and increasing more radical liberals as one moved to the Left. But in the modern world, due to the temporary triumph of Western Liberalism, monarchy has become passe in many quarters and in those where it is not it is a castrated version such as the UK’s “constitutional monarchy”. Thus, a dynamic equivalent has arisen in the form of a state dominated by a single party in which the chief executive holds a formidable concentration of powers. There can be minor parties, other branches, etc. But the system operates on consensus rather than conflict and the executive is its director. Not terribly different from how a monarchy actually works in practice.

      “The fact that a power can be abused is no reason for it not to exist.” This is a fundamental maxim of jurisprudence and it points to the fact that any power at all can and eventually will be abused. Imperfection does not disqualify. A fallen world is by definition imperfect. And it is not true that the majority of monarchs have been tyrants. Only by judging them by contemporary morality could one come to that conclusion. And contemporary morality is profoundly misguided by the standards of Holy Tradition found in the Fathers.

      Libertarianism as it stands in the US is almost the diametric opposite of Christian government. It is stingy with the public fisc and licentious with the public morality. That is the opposite of monarchy which usually has a generous largesse from the crown to support the general welfare and, when it is a Christian monarchy, is dedicated to the prevalence of Christian morality at law. THAT is the true Right and there is no place in principle there from which Satan can tempt. He may corrupt it or lure leaders from it, but the system is sound and supported by Scripture and the Church Fathers, whereas “democracy” is either absent or rejected.

      Falling away from the Christian Patriarchy has been and will be the West’s downfall. And patriarchy is intrinsic to the Christian mindset and culture. This is very obvious from the Trinitarian formulation, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” and has been the basis of Christian society since its inception. As Sir Robert Filmer wrote in the 17th century:

      “Do we not find that in every family the government of one alone is most natural? God always governed His own people by monarchy only. The Patriarchs, dukes, judges and Kings were all monarchs. There is not in all the Scripture mention and approbation of any other form of government. At the time when the Scripture says: ‘There was no King in Israel, but that every man did that which was right in his own eyes’, even then, the Israelites were under the kingly government of the Fathers of particular families.” – Filmer, Patriarcha

      “It is necessary also to inquire whether human laws have superiority over Princes, because those that maintain the acquisition royal jurisdiction from the people do subject the exercise of it to human positive laws. But in this also they err. For as Kingly power is by the law of God, so it has no inferior law to limit it.” – ibid

      That is actually the unvarnished truth. But it will only be restored in degrees and in waves because it is too radical for liberal man to assimilate quickly. We are simply too far fallen in a kind of Second Fall.

  16. Merry Christmas from 70 AD:

    * Holy Irony! *
    https://www.unz.com/article/holy-irony/

    ‘ … As Marilyn Sams notes, citing Nadia Abu El Haj’s book Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (2001), “the temple mount myth is used by archaeologists as part of their nation-making narrative, crucial to the Jewish identity, a memorial to their long, enormously influential past.”[8]

    Yet, to quote again from Ernest Martin, it is pretty certain that,

    the present religious authorities exalt to the highest esteem and respect an enclosure as the site of the Temple that was in Jesus’ day the chief architectural symbol of Rome’s claim to imperial world power. … Even the worshippers at the “Wailing Wall” are directing their present devotions and venerations to a Roman edifice that their ancestors in Herod’s time held in utter contempt.[9]

    What a great irony, for a people so used to fool the world, and so confident in the power of their own symbols! If, unbeknownst to them, their prayers are really going up to the gods of Rome, will they bring down the return of the Tenth Legion on their head? ‘

  17. Wow!
    Many appreciated and densely packed food-for-thought comments to digest here for my simple brain to digest.
    Given all the nefarious globalist’s machinations exposed in these insightful comments, it leaves me (and grieves me) to conclude that the globalist’s owned and operated industrial military, pharma and food complexes will collectively prevent — by whatever means necessary — Trump & Company from ever setting foot in The White House.
    From their perverted perspective they have to, or it’s party over.
    Worse, Dr. Evil (Fauci) and his ilk know they will be charged for their crimes against humanity. If there’s one defining trait that all tyrants have in common is that they refuse to be held accountable by their subjects.
    Look for these self appointed masters of the universe to pull one or more of the following to keep their cushy jobs, and us pesky commoners in our place:
    Congress to refuse to certify the election on Jan 6th.
    Plandemic 2.0 or poly-plandemic 2.0.
    Trump’s plane mysteriously goes down.
    An economic crash.
    Bio weapons launched in selected cities.
    Some psy-ops incident with the mysterious drones.
    Terrorist attacks.
    A declaration of emergency to suspend transference of power.
    Full on WWIII.
    Let’s pray none of these happen.

  18. No Christmas Truce here, even though
    #Russia and Norway are not at war…

    * Owner of sunk Russian ship says Norwegian vessel refused to rescue crew *
    https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/12/27/owner-of-sunk-russian-ship-says-norwegian-vessel-refused-to-rescue-crew

    ‘ The Norwegian vessel Oslo Carrier 3 refused to take aboard Russian sailors from the sinking cargo ship Ursa Major, according to the ship’s owner, Oboronlogistika, a company under Russia’s Defense Ministry.

    “The lifeboat [carrying Russian sailors] headed toward the Norwegian-flagged vessel Oslo Carrier 3, which was nearby. As the lifeboat approached, the Norwegian ship — whose crew included some Russian speakers — refused to accept the Ursa Major crew, citing some kind of prohibition,” Oboronlogistika’s press service told RIA Novosti.

    The crew of the Russian cargo ship was eventually rescued by Spanish sailors from the Salvamar Drago.

    The Ursa Major sank on December 23 in the Mediterranean Sea in international waters between Spain and Algeria. Spanish media reported that there was an explosion in the engine room, after which the ship sent out a distress signal. The rescue operation was led by a Russian military vessel.

    Oboronlogistika claimed that the Ursa Major was the target of a “deliberate terrorist attack.” Mediazona noted that the ship had been used for years to transport supplies for Russia’s military operations in Syria. ‘

    At least they didn’t shoot them in the water…

  19. Things to look forward to in the coming year…

    * Robert F Kennedy Jnr: *
    https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1849925311586238737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1849925311586238737%7Ctwgr%5Ebc2730cb0ce864ddc0579540317f9dde47100796%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fbenbartee%2F2024%2F10%2F28%2Frfk-jr-threatens-war-on-fda-in-epic-tweet-n4933741

    “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

    Will the UK follow suit?
    Perhaps, but kicking and screaming…

  20. Christ is Born!

    War is fratricide.   Which makes it all the more terrible.

    I am not quite understanding how exactly Russia interfered with Romania’s elections.  Did they hack the voting machines?  Were FSB agents voting using fake IDs?   They talk about Tiktok “propaganda,” but the US/EU also has propaganda outfits through various NGOs, our own levers of influence on Big Tech, and our Embassies abroad (“PR campaigns”).   

    Their propaganda was better than ours?   Is that what happened?   Factor in the huge military base that NATO is building in Romania, and it becomes clear what is going on here.   What are they going to do if “the wrong side” wins the election again?

    “We have to destroy democracy to save it.” 

  21. * American foreign policy *
    By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

    https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/american-foreign-policy/

    Writes JJP:

    ‘ If we don’t send money and arms to Ukraine, Russia will take over the world. If we don’t send money to Israel, Muslim terrorists will take over Israel and the world. If we don’t get Russia out of the Middle East, they will become an existential threat to Israel and take over the world. If we don’t send covert money to Al Qaida, ISIS, and the Sunnis, Iran — and the Shiites will take over the Arab world and, then, the world.

    If we don’t stop Turkey, Erdogan will try to restore the Ottoman Empire and take over the world. If we don’t overthrow Iraq, the Sunnis will send terrorists to the U.S. (but not Europe) and blow us up. No, wait. We did overthrow Iraq. If we don’t keep our base in Iraq, Iraq will become part of Iran and will take over the Middle East and the world.

    If we don’t send money to Niger, the Russians will establish a foothold in Africa and take over the Continent, then, the world. If we don’t send money to most African countries, China will take over the Continent and, then, the world. If we don’t send money to poor African countries with population control strings attached, Africans will take over the world. If we don’t bomb the Houthis, Saudi oil won’t make it out of the Straits of Hormuz, and the Shiite Houthis will take over Saudi Arabia and the Sunnis — and then will take over the world.

    If we don’t send money and arms to Taiwan, China will invade. If we allow China to control the Asian sea lanes, China will take over the Far East and then the world. If we don’t send money to South Korea, North Korea will join Russia and take over the world. If we don’t tax BRICS, BRICS will replace the dollar as the world’s currency and take over the world.

    After a nuclear exchange, the cockroaches will take over the world.

    Time for a sing-a-long:

    Where have all the dollars gone, long time passing?
    Where have all the dollars gone, long time ago?
    Where have all the dollars gone?
    Foreign nations have picked them, every one.
    Oh, when will they ever learn?
    Oh, when will they ever learn? ‘

    * Marlene Dietrich UNICEF GALA 1962 ” sag mir wo die Blumen sind ” *
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AybZIw8BRIM

    [Video – 07:23]

    • It’s all the product of a fascist oligarchy. And you know what the only thing strong enough to subdue a fascist oligarchy is, and it’s not more representative democracy. That’s how we got here in the first place – manufactured consent. Oligarchs are excellent sheep herders.

  22. Also, for those who do not understand how absolutely nefarious and ruthless US foreign policy is toward Russia and Iran, below are links to two think tank publications that outlined the game plan for the present festivities so that the powers that be in the West would have clear guidance:

    https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_iran_strategy.pdf

    https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html

    They are kind enough to be transparent about their quest for world domination. It’s a loop, you see. Think tanks full of neocons and neolibs connive for the military and political leadership. Congress and the president allocate the funds and armaments for the projects. Much of the funding goes to MIC manufacturers in congressional districts and weapons sent must also be replaced by the same manufacturers. Assistance to proxy governments gets recycled back to the political leadership as kickbacks. Foreign armies do all the fighting so we don’t have domestic political unrest on account of coffins filled with Americans coming back on transport planes. We get to test out our weaponry and tactics in real conflict at no real cost and considerable benefit to the Empire.

    It’s all a big hustle and Christians are fools for being taken in by it.

    • Yes, Misha, this is indeed the globalist’s doom loop hustle and we are circling their drain.

  24. And here is another take on the Christmas Truce:

    * Oh what a lovely war! Christmas Truce *
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHObCL2luMw

    [Video – 06:49]

    When the last two lines were spoken by the Scottish soldiers
    as the film was played on its release in a Paris cinema
    the French raised the rafters with their cheering.

  25. Lest we forget (1)

    * Christmas: 1924 *
    by Thomas Hardy

    ” Peace upon earth!” was said. We sing it,
    And pay a million priests to bring it.
    After two thousand years of mass
    We’ve got as far as poison-gas.

    Lest we forget (2)

    * Russian MoD Reveals U.S. African Biolab Complex,
    Sponsored by the Gates and Clinton Foundations *
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/russian-mod-reveals-us-african-biolab?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1119676&post_id=153588057&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1fkpmf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

    * “American specialists capable of enhancing the pathogenic
    functions of microorganisms are actively operating in Africa.” *

    Dec 24, 2024

    by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

    ‘ Major General Aleksei Rtishchev, Deputy Chief of the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, recently delivered a briefing highlighting U.S. biological activity in Africa. In the following excerpt, he states, “The US administration views the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous infectious agents and a testing ground for experimental medical drugs.”:

    The following translated key statements and slides from the briefing were obtained from Sputnik on X:

    The US military’s biological presence on the African continent is expanding rapidly, according to Major General Aleksey Rtishev, Deputy Chief of the Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces of the Russian Armed Forces.

    American specialists capable of enhancing the pathogenic functions of microorganisms are actively operating in Africa.

    The Russian Defense Ministry has unveiled which officials from the United States and various African nations are involved in the implementation of military biological programs on the African continent:

    The US administration views the region as an abundant reservoir of dangerous infectious agents and a testing ground for experimental medications.

    Washington is employing a biological risk management system in Africa, which has previously been tested in Georgia and Ukraine.

    The following are sponsors of these biological activities, including but not limited to the Gates Foundation and Clinton Foundation:

    The US is actively engaged in:

    Nigeria: A joint medical research center and a military medical laboratory for the armed forces were established in 2024.

    Kenya: The US Army Military Medical Center has deployed a network of field stations to monitor the spread of infectious diseases throughout Equatorial Africa.

    Senegal: A new $35 million laboratory facility is nearing completion. This project involves the same Pentagon contractors that have worked in the former Soviet Union, including Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

    Ghana and Djibouti: The US has established branches of the National Naval Medical Center and is actively addressing natural disease outbreaks and isolating pathogens.

    The United States is conducting a project in 18 African countries to study the characteristics of infection occurrence and the resistance of pathogens to medical treatments.

    Washington is deliberately exploiting the economic challenges faced by African nations in healthcare to organize research schemes, the general cautions.

    Rtishev noted that the US fears Russia and China may expose American military and biological ploys. The United States often does not disclose the ultimate goals of its experiments to partners, who are frequently unaware of the associated risks.

    In 2014, the United States illegally received Ebola virus samples exported from Sierra Leone.

    Pathogens that fall into the Pentagon’s area of interest later emerge as a pandemic, with American pharmaceutical companies reaping the benefits. … ‘

    • I would hesitate to accept such a one-sided “report” by a Russian general at face value. What evidence has he accumulated that should be made public? What evidence is there that the studies financed by Gates and Clinton are intended to produce bio-weapons and not cures?

      Having said that, humanity has always had to fight microbes and viruses. It’s part of living.
      The Ebola virus, for instance, appeared in 1976 in Africa. The Russian report places blame on American scientists for the virus’ spread, with pharmaceutical companies as the culprits, concerned with “reaping the benefits”. No doubt that pharmaceutical companies are focused on the bottom line. However, the Russian general does not tell us what Ebola’s progress would have been without American intervention. After all, profits are not that great in a continent where the daily salary per person averages $1.00. And yet, Africa’s exploding population and increasing childhood survival is due to the Gate’s foundation’s charitable supply of life saving medication.

      Its easy to tear down and plant doubt about charitable organizations, financed by private money, such as Gates and Clinton’s. What’s hard is for those that plant doubts to prove their side of the story and intervene with another solution, that would save as many lives as are being saved currently. .

      .

  26. “”All we can hope for at this point is that we make it to January 20 and the outgoing administration doesn’t cause World War III to break out””

    George. I have to disagree with your danger mongering. I see no correlation between the current administration and any indication that any of the actions they have taken have brought us to the edge of a WWIII, or any war as a matter of fact. If anything, we can pray that Putin’s actions do not cause a WWIII.

    Please, point out how you came up with an unsupported by evidence conclusion of the Biden administration’s war making policy…….. Indeed, to emphasize the direness of the war danger that we are facing, you are telling us that only a miracle will save us. And then, in order not to ruin our hope for a peaceful holiday period, or to offer us false hope, as a doctor would offer to a dying patient, you console us that “miracles do happen, as in 1914”.

    As for as the miracle of 1914, it does not offer much hope. It only lasted for a day and then the killing continued for another four years.

    • Bob, I can easily provide proof. Consider all the ATACMS missiles that NATO is launching into Russia. That’s the overt stuff. Then there’s the covert stuff, like the EU preventing the Romanians from having their election.

      Your point about another 3 years of war is well-taken.

      However…

      By 1916, the Great Powers were in a stalemate and were ready to sign an armistice. Certain American magnates were terrified by this prospect as they had loaned tons of money to the Allies and would not receive said loans if the war ended.

      • George.
        NATO or the US are not launching any missiles into Russia. Ukraine is. Yes, they are American made missiles, but so is most of Ukraine’s weaponry. Don’t forget that Putin is the aggressor. He attacked a UN recognized nation. More than a million casualties, on both sides, including wounded and dead have been the result of Putin’s aggression. He had been bombing inside Ukraine, including civilian targets, while the Ukrainians couldn’t retaliate, because America wouldn’t allow her weapons to be used in Russia’s territory.

        And that changed a few months ago. Putin, having been mired in Ukraine for the past three years, proved to be a paper tiger. He might eventually win the war, which depends on Trump’s intervention, but Russia’s weakness is evident. Putin mortgaged his country’s future in a war that has no benefit for Russia, other than adding more land to a nation that already has more land than it can use.

        As for the Romanian situation, blaming the EU makes no sense. Romania is part of the EU, first of all. The EU accepts only democratic states. Some, such as Hungary and Poland for a while, diverted from that path. Poland is back on the right track.

        Moreover, the EU did not cancel Romania’s elections. Their supreme court did. And it is clear as day that Russian propaganda and election interference played a big part in the rise of the extreme right.

        As for WWI, yes, weapon manufacturers had a big say. As a matter of fact, there was a Greek from Turkey, named Vasileios Zacharias (not an American, as you refer to in your article), that was the most prolific “merchant of death”. He became a multi-milionnaire from arm sales.

        As for America, there was an inquiry by the Senate for the role weapon manufacturers played in bringing America into the conflict. No proof of overt involvement was discovered.

        Rather, it was the warring parties themselves. After the slaughter suffered in two and a half years of war, with nothing to show for it, no politician wanted to admit that the waste of life was or nothing. So, they had to keep fighting and telling people that this was the “war that would end all wars”. Which was a dream that did not come true

        • Bob, your first two sentences are naive. Manifestly so.

          Putin is a paper tiger? Tell that to Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Charles Brown, after the Russians launched the Orezhnik missile, NATO scrambled like headless chickens.

          “As for the Romanian situation”? You can’t be serious. How would our friends on the Left have liked it our Supreme Court derailed the 2024 election? Or the 2020? Our Supreme Court is scrupulous –indeed too much so–when it comes to interfering in democratic elections. Oh yes, they did it because of “Russian interference”.

          Clearly, the Supreme Courts of EU nations are Mickey Mouse contraptions installed by the local elites to countermand the will of the people. Might as well go back to monarchy.

          As for Senate (or governmental) “oversight”, I still have fond remembrances of the Warren Commission Report.

          I don’t think that’s a good thing.

          • George
            I appreciate the exchange of ideas. It is only a good thing, for both of us and for the readers of this blog.

            I agree that Romania’s supreme court interference is a strange concept to us, here in the US. You are correct in assuming the worse. However, not every nation’s institutions and laws are the same or should be expected to work as they do in America. Plenty of American laws are a strange concept to the EU. Such as the death penalty, and the proliferation of guns. America would not have been accepted as a member of the EU, because of our laws.

            Furthermore, Romania does not have a tradition of democracy or the rule of law. The EU has regretted allowing Romania and Bulgaria to have joined the Union.

            Characterizing Putin as a paper tiger is due to his inability to subdue Ukraine after almost three years of war. Putin’s plan was for a quick thrust into Ukraine, and a quick ceasefire. That optimistic plan obviously has not played out and has exposed a weakness in the military prowess of Russia, I am not sure what you mean when you say that the NATO chief scrambled like a headless chicken. Were the missiles aimed at the NATO headquarters and they panicked? I doubt that this is a valid narrative.

        • bob,

          It is a war. You are on one side. We are on the other. You believe the bs propaganda your side shovels courtesy of the Ukronazis. It’s all amazing. People woke up to the reality of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Covid and the Vaccines, Russia Gate Hoax, etc. But then they turn around a believe utter nonsense from the same lying dogs that misled them before.

          NATO expansion to the East caused the Ukraine war. The US executed a coup d’etat in 2014 and began arming the Ukraine for a war with Russia. They shelled the Donbass, which is full of Russians, for eight years and had amassed a 200K man army to wipe out the inhabitants there which their political leaders habitually referred to as subhuman scum.

          Russia had no real choice and delayed too long, in point of fact. Hindsight being 20/20, they should have invaded and toppled the coup regime in 2014.

          As to long range missile strikes into Russia, you’re dead wrong. US/NATO personnel are pressing the buttons on these launches. Not only can the Ukrainians not handle the targeting on these long range strikes, but there are security codes involved that must be handled by NATO or US personnel.

          This is America launching long range missiles into Russia. We’re damn lucky the Russians have not taken out any of our bases – yet.

          But none of it really matters. People are welcome to their delusions. Russia will continue until Ukraine offers an unconditional surrender, the government flees or the Russian army conquers the whole country. Ukraine will not become part of NATO and will remain neutral. The only question that remains is what will be left of Ukraine.

          And when it’s over, NATO will be exposed to everyone, including the Western public, as a paper tiger that can’t protect Europe against anything, and it will wither and die. I assume Trump will help with its demise.

          What this all means in the long run is that Europe will pivot East toward Russia. But Russia will punish them for their arrogance and make them eat lots of crow. But in the end, what other choice does Germany, for example, have. It’s entire economy was based on importing cheap Russian energy. Now it’s practically in a depression and its government has collapsed.

          The liberal guard in the EU are being slowly overthrown. And likely, over time, the liberal guard in the US will be deposed as well. And the nightmare of liberalism will be consigned to the history books.

          • I see it more as a dance.

            The drama, the numbers, the actions/reactions. . . we’re all planned. NATO was dismantled at the behest of cooler heads because they are war mongers. A menace to the planet.

            No one is going to “punish” anyone, as they have punished themselves with their own stupid decisions. They were warned. Germany has seen how shutting down their reactors and going all in the with globalists has shot their ability to come back. Trump warned them: “Relying on a single nation can leave a nation vulnerable. . .”

            The liberal guard is just playing their hands at this point.

            • Gail. Can you please explain how you arrive at the conclusion that NATO is “dismantled”? Two new members joined in 2024. Finland and Sweden. And they had to jump through hoops imposed by Hungary and Turkey to be admitted. I would characterize that as thriving. After all, who would want to join a dismantled organization?

              As for NATO being war mongers, after 80 years of existence, the only military intervention took place over 30 years ago in Serbia. Is that war mongering?

              • I would start with colonel Macgregor and Scott Ritter. I say it because they’ve said it, often. Plus, I know how this sort of thing goes. We send people our crap so we can get new equipment for ourselves. In Ukraine’s case, they aren’t traditional military nor have they received much training. In the beginning, they didn’t even know how to use drones to find out where the enemy was. One mercenary observed they’d load up the truck, drive out in the general direction of the enemy, get all shot up, and return with the empty truck to pick up another load.

                They don’t call it a “meatgrinder” for nothing.

                Just because countries join NATO doesn’t mean NATO isn’t depleted. The U.S. is in the process of dramatically pulling back during the next 4 years and we’re their biggest supporter. Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, and 24 are in the formal application process. One of them is Turkey who will leave NATO to be in BRICS, as you can’t be going to war with the people you want to trade with. Our supplies here are so depleted we have to move ammunition around just to cover ourselves. You can Google all this.

                “War mongering” is a characterization. It may or may not apply to a specific. It’s a general tendency to start wars and participate in wars which is why we have bases all over the world. Did you know that the charter for NATO was to stop communism from infiltrating the world? That’s not what they’re doing now.

                The war in Ukraine is definitely war mongering because of the intent. The intent was to divide and annihilate Russia. It had nothing to do with democracy and certainly not the betterment of Ukraine. People make big money on wars. Money is laundered and winds up lining the pockets of the politicians who approve the expenditures. – Remember Samuel Bankman-Fried?

          • RE: “It’s all amazing. People woke up to the reality of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Covid and the Vaccines, Russia Gate Hoax, etc. But then they turn around a believe utter nonsense from the same lying dogs that misled them before.”

            To prove your point, watch this clip at the :59 mark. Look at how these idiots are laughing at Trump for saying what should have been obvious to everyone sitting there. https://www.c-span.org/clip/white-house-event/user-clip-germans-laugh-after-trump-warns-of-reliance-on-foreign-oil/5029974

            When people find themselves hanging on to a POV, long after the smart people have left the room, it’s probably time to consider that you might be wrong. I was so encouraged by the elections because it demonstrated that Americans can still change their minds, swiftly and decisively, when the circumstances call for it and we can move forward together. That’s what makes this country a leader in the world. We dug a deep hole for ourselves but watch how quickly we dig ourselves out. You would never see someone like Trump giggling like a little girl in a context like this. These people are an embarrassment to Germany.

          • Misha
            We can go back and forth on who is affected by propaganda. My point of view is that you are the one.

            What actually happened was the Maiden square uprising was not orchestrated by America, because no popular uprising can succeed without popular support.

            Furthermore, don’t forget that the election of 2004 was actually stolen by Russia and there was an attempt to poison Viktor Yushchenko.

            I’m not saying that Ukraine was innocent. Every country has its dark side. However, that should not be license for a neighboring country to intervene militarily.

            Many nations have used the same excuse, namely, that their kin, residing in that country are misstreated and they invade to “protect” them. Turkey used that in Cyprus in 1974. Turkey is claiming that the Muslim population of Western Thrace is currently mistreated, ostensibly to one day invade Greece, to “save” her co religionists. Hitler used the same excuse when he invaded Poland. And when he invaded Checkoslovakia.

            Ukraine is a UN recognized nation. NO ONE has the right to invade because of which alliance they want to be a part of, or which block of countries they want to associate with. No one has the right to invade because of “mistreatment” of its Russian speaking minority. If they are actually mistreated, let them file a case in the European court. .

            What nation, in their right mind would choose to be in the Russian sphere, instead of the Western camp? Ukraine should have the right to join NATO and the EU if her people want it. And why wouldn’t they? All other former Soviet territories have joined NATO and the EU.

            Where you and all others affect by Russian propaganda are wrong is that you assert that NATO is at Russia’s doorstep. NATO didnt force those countries to join. They requested it.

            You’re saying that NATO “will wither and die”. Unless a crystal ball reveals that outcome to you, then I have no idea how you arrived at such conclusion. Just the past year, two nations, (Finland and Sweden) joined the alliance. The western Balkans are all anxiously awaiting their admittance. Is everything rosy in NATO? Nothing at a union of Democratic countries is without rancor. But when danger looks, they rise to the occasion. History has plenty examples.

            One more observation. You name being Misha, tells me that you are Russian. As a Greek myself, I feel a kinship with Russians. But Putin is not representing Russians. I am sure they don’t want their sons to die in this never ending war. I’m sure they’re satisfied with Russia’s territory and don’t think that even one life is worth it adding more to it.

            Furthermore, from your English, I surmise that you are a resident of America. If you actually believe that America is so wrong, and will eventually be defeated, why are you here? With your taxes you are contributing to America’s war effort. But even if you’re not Russian, Putin has opened his borders for anyone dissatisfied with the decadent West. Why not move there and fight your enemies? .

            • Claim: “What actually happened was the Maid[a]n
              square uprising was not orchestrated by America,”

              Response: * Nuland-Pyatt leaked phone conversation *
              https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/WV9J6sxCs5k

              [Video – 05:17]

              ‘ Victoria Nuland, Asst. Sec. of State for Europe, phone call to US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, in a phone call leaked to the news media on 4 February 2014. F**k the EU

              What’s really important here is the level of planning for the coup that overthrew the elected President Viktor Yanukovych, which brought to power (as heard on the recording) a group of select individuals described as “moderate democrats.” In fact, most of them, including Oleh Tyahnybok (whom Nuland insists the new head of state consult four times weekly), are a far-right nationalist faction with overt and long-standing ties to the neo-Nazi movement. Meet the characters in the story that led to what’s called “the worst crisis since the old cold war” and which Russia experts at American universities describe as a new cold war more dangerous than the first. ‘

              quod erat demonstrandum

            • Putin’s popularity is around 87% – https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/

              430K volunteers signed contracts with the Russian military in 2024, up from 300K in 2023.

              Victoria Nuland bragged that the US had poured $5B into the Ukraine to foment a revolution, that’s how the Maidan demonstrators could stay out there so long. She also was recorded naming the new government before the old one was overthrown on a call with US ambassador Jeffrey Pyatt.

              The government was overthrown because Yanukovich wanted to have trade agreements with both the EU and Russia and America insisted on controlling Ukraine. Putting NATO there would have been like admitting Mexico to the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. Remember the Cuban missile crisis? Didn’t Cuba have a perfect right to host Russian military hardware (nuclear missiles) being a sovereign country?

              We have pressured and color revolutionized some of these countries into the Western camp. Georgia in particular. Ukraine as well. Slovakia broke ranks and they attempted to assassinate Fico. The EU hates and seeks to sanction Orban. They just overturned the Romanian election because the euro-friendly candidate lost.

              America is the evil empire. It became so shortly after the demise of the Soviet Union and demonstrated as much through NATO’s conduct in Serbia. Pushing NATO eastward was opposed by a large swath of the American foreign policy community. But the neo-cons and neo-libs were unrelenting. Now they reap what they have sown.

              Putin is smarter and more politically agile than Trump. As Ukraine collapses and/or surrenders, it will become clear to everyone that NATO can’t defend anyone against Russia. Moreover, it is already clear that Europe, Germany in particular, needs Russian energy for a healthy economy.

              Russia has gone slow and easy in Ukraine. There was a jolt with about 40K around Kiev (as well as the initial force of less than 200K in the Donbass) to send a wakeup call, which the Ukrainians heard loud and clear as is demonstrated by the progress made in the Istanbul accords of April of 2022. Yet the West scuttled that.

              But there has not been an “unprovoked, full-scale invasion” of Ukraine, as the CIA talking point to the Mockingbird press incessantly repeated. Ukrainians are Eastern Slavs deluded by a fascist regime installed and propped up by Washington. Eventually they will turn on the evil demons who led them astray and caused them to feed so many of their young men into a meat grinder.

              It’s inevitable. In the age of Telegram and TikTok, there are no secrets – not for long.

        • bob,

          I find it helpful to recognize that the “brink of world war 3” narrative is essentially a Russian psy-op. This is pretty apparent when you look at who is pushing it and what they are saying. Analyzing Russia’s actual signaling requires looking at other arenas altogether.

          The Orezhnik affair is quite pathetic really. On a technical level, it isn’t anything the Soviet Union couldn’t have cranked out in quantity in the late 80s. In 2024, thanks to inclusion of sanctioned Western components, the CEP on the RVs is certainly tighter, but seemingly not tight enough to make it effective for the limited amount of traditional ordinance it can deliver to the target proximity. If you aren’t using it for nukes, it’s ridiculously expensive and not accurate enough to trade off being uninterceptable.

          I also must point out that on the internet, you will encounter some folks who would have an easier time blaspheming the Holy Spirit than admitting Russia screwed something up, suffered a setback, or the true impossibility, was in the wrong. You aren’t going to convince them, or wean them off their alternative reality media. It is ironic of course, in that if there is an early 21st century Empire of Lies, Russia most aptly fits the bill at the moment, but what can you do.

          • Then there are the people who are always wrong. Like 100%. But instead of owning it, they change their name. What do you think about folks like that? Because there are a number of them on the blog and you know what’s funny . . .?

            Actually, nothing, so I’m thinking about deleting everything they say until they are ready to come clean.

            What do you think about that idea? Because you’re right. No one is going to convince them. They use other’s people’s real estate to bitch and moan without being able to come up with a single salient argument they can back up. Wouldn’t you agree?

            Like the dude who just wouldn’t believe there were upteen biolabs in Ukraine even after we produced the receipts that went to the pentagon for their supplies. This guy still couldn’t wrap his brain around it.

            He had convinced himself that he knew better than everyone else even when Victoria Nuland finally admitted they were real.

            He still wouldn’t admit it. He just sunk below the ocean until we moved on and resurfaced when the coast was clear. He comes back now as a new identity presumably to suck all the air out of the room again. One could argue that people who can’t argue in good faith don’t belong on the blog. They are parasites that are here to exist to derail other people. And oh are they pompous!

            New rule! We’re not posting them anymore. They can go take up space somewhere else.

            • Gail
              I’m not sure if you’re referring to me, in your comment. I can assure you that I have never posted on your blog previously. And I can certainly give you my whole name, even though no one on here does. My name is Lambros Karpodinis.

              As far as posting my replies, it is your blog and you have every right to post whatever you want. However, what you must consider is that differing points of view, are not “sucking up the air”. It is actually what makes for a good blog. Furthermore, you invite people to comment. If you prefer to read comments that are virtual copies of your blog, then let me know. I can assure you that I wouldn’t characterize myself as a parasite. Not when the host invites my parasitical ideas.

              • I was not talking about you. I was talking to the individual I responded to.

                Yes, you absolutely should use your real name. Because when you don’t, people don’t take you as seriously.

                Some people, however, are in a difficult position and they generally let us know this offline. There are very few people here who don’t use their real name or at least the same name when they post. I would say that applies to maybe 95% of the people here. When we know who you are, we give you considerably more slack.

                It’s the people who come here using different names to avoid taking the punches they know they deserve that we don’t like. If you make a bad call, own it! Don’t come on as someone else and try to sneak by. (No, I’m not talking about you.)

                BTW, you have posted here before which isn’t too much of a shock since Monomakhos has been around since 2009. More recently, you have been posting often. Frankly, I’m surprised to see you here after what you tried to post on Nick’s site about me. (In the interest of disclosure, I know your real name.) I was just sharing information with you which you apparently didn’t want to hear. Interestingly, I was just think about you. I was told there is going to be a public admission from the individual we were talking about on the 9th. That should be interesting if it happens.

                No one said “differing POVs” “suck up the air.” You know that’s not what I said and that’s not what I meant. So, avoid that.

                Nor did anyone suggest you were a “parasite.” That you thought I was talking about you should give you pause because maybe you know you should probably dial it back a bit.

                But we love the discussion! Just refrain from going after the person and you’re fine. I have said this so often, I probably mumble it in my sleep: “Nobody cares what an anonymous person thinks about anyone else.” So, it really doesn’t benefit anyone to try to hide here unless there is a very good reason.

                I want the people here to respect each other enough to be able to have frank discussions without it having to get personal. I’ve got to say, the vast majority of people get it.

                And don’t talk about Nick! We know Nick and we love Nick. I can’t think of any blog owners we don’t like, but we especially like Nick because we’re friends, but also because he, George, and I can write about the same thing and come out with completely different stories, even though the 3 of us rarely disagree. What Nick provides is invaluable.

                So this is a long way of saying if you have a good Greek name, be proud enough to use it and stand by every word you say. Don’t bad mouth Nick and you don’t always have to be right. (We’re not always right!) Be honorable. That’s better than being right.

            • GCU has no idea what he is talking about. The only thing that could fly that fast in the 1980’s were ICBM’s. And if the Soviets had had the capability to create an hypersonic missile back in the 1980’s, what would that say about the fact that the US lacks it today?

              The Russians, and before them the Soviets, were experimenting with wind tunnels almost from the founding of the USSR. And they got extremely good at it. What makes the Oreshnik and other such weapons unique is that they are controllable and maneuverable throughout their terminal trajectory. I.e., they can bob and weave on the way in. They maintain their hypersonic speeds within the atmosphere and they do not travel on a ballistic arc like ICBM’s.

              While it is true that the Oreshnik is more expensive than, say, the Zirkon (about 3X), it is not cost prohibitive in that it is designed to be used sparingly. There are not many targets you need to shower with 36 projectiles to eliminate. This first one pulverized an entire missile production site (Yuzhmash) of over one square km. But, really, it is designed to carry nukes though it can carry conventional explosives. This one did its damage without an explosive warhead, just by kinetic force.

              They have another one, a hypersonic glide vehicle, Avangard, designed for nukes, carried on Sarmat rockets or others, which travels at over Mach 27 upon reentry.

              This is a real “missile gap”. As of today, the West does not have the technology to make such hypersonic weapons that are maneuverable in the atmosphere. Maneuverability allows them to evade any of the systems used to defend against ICBM’s which are not maneuverable.

              The problem that everyone who understands anything about it sees is that there is no appropriate retaliatory counterstrike for this weapon. What do you shoot back with? Nukes? Himars? There’s no good answer. Oreshnik occupies the no man’s land between conventional missiles and nukes. And for the foreseeable future, it can’t be shot down.

              That is a ponderous power for the Russians to have, to be able to just point and click and reduce to dust a facility down to four floors below ground with a conventional weapon impervious to interception – anywhere in Europe. Really, with the Avangard, anywhere in the world.

              Of course, there is a risk of provoking a nuclear war by using such a weapon against targets in America, or Britain or France. But the Russians probably wouldn’t do that. They would simply start eliminating Western bases located in non-nuclear countries.

              • Since I can’t even post on my own blog (I don’t think George can now, either), I’m just going to put the following below to no one in particular.

                ***
                As the U.S. hegemony continues to wane, mounting frustrations in Ankara have made Turkey rethink its position. Its traditional allies are beginning to pale next to BRICS which looks like a brand, new, shiny penny in comparison.

                In September, Turkey officially applied to become a member of BRICS which means NATO is essentially finished in Europe leaving the Europeans with a dependency problem regarding who is going to protect them.

                Germany is down for the count, after stupidly laughing at Trump for suggesting it might be a mistake to depend on a foreign power for its energy. Germany can no longer take care of themselves, let alone defend anybody at this point. Those smirking idiots, (:59) who were too stupid to listen to Trump’s common-sense approach, wouldn’t be able to help a cat out of a tree.

                I’ve always said, “What’s true in the beginning remains true” and you can’t fix stupid. https://tinyurl.com/2sun5xku

                At this point, Europe will become dependent upon anyone who will volunteer to help them, but it won’t be the U.S. or NATO. NATO is kaput, IMO. We are tired of throwing good money after bad and now that Trump is president, we don’t have to.

                And it won’t be Turkey saving the day. They’ve both aligned themselves with BRICS and they have become solid trading partners along the way.

                Russia, however, will protect Europe and its extended family in spite of its stupidity which I have said from the beginning. Putin has no intention of turning Europeans into Russians. He does, however, want to protect his interests, some of which he managed to secure through Assad before he ferreted him out of Syria into Russia. Assad is on an official time out. That kid just can’t get it together, can he? Usually, when someone is that incompetent in running their own affairs, they’re not really running anything. Other people are.

                Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast remain safely under Russia’s control. The Russian Federation has been in contact with all the groups of the Syrian opposition. If Ahmed al-Sharaa fails to bring his “not so easy five easy pieces” (remember that movie?), it will not surprise me to see a new, improved (and probably grateful) Assad return to the region, curtesy of Putin.

                I wonder how NATO feels about Russia moving into its sphere of influence. I mean what’s to stop Putin from carving up our Western allies into “five easy pieces,” as NATO tried to do to Russia from Ukraine?

                In one press release, it was suggested that Syria had also guaranteed the security of Khmeimim Air Base which has quite a history in its own right with drones flying all over the place. https://caliber.az/en/post/syria-confirms-commitment-to-russian-military-base-agreements-media

                What’s with all the drones???

                A lot of people don’t know that Turkey is considered to be one of the leading countries in drone technology. And, well, Turkey has an axe to grind with the U.S.

                I predict Netanyahu will be taken out if he hasn’t been already. When the dust settles, Israel will become Judea with Jerusalem as its capital. Some of the Palestinians may have an opportunity to finally get what they want if they can learn to live peacefully with their neighbors. You can’t go around throwing bottles at those who are mightier than you and come out on top. It comes down to sheer numbers. It doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong. (Only God can settle disputes like this and it’s often in the next world.)

                You live where you find yourself planted unless you have the ability to move. The Palestinians didn’t have that ability, and they fought so hard and for so long, half the people left in Gaza were purportedly children. How much simpler it would have been for them and for their own future generations if they had just been willing to take one of the umpteen peace treaties they were offered?

                I suspect Russia will be looking out for them. Russia is first and foremost Orthodox. This reality cannot be overstated. With the wobbling of the financial world, and Germany blowing itself out of the water (literally) with their stupidity, smart men like Putin are always looking for ways to capitalize on any given situation, assuming this wasn’t all “war-gamed out” from the beginning.

                “The Palestinian Orthodox community continues to struggle against the double Israeli and Greek clerical colonization of their lands and churches. The repression they endure is one they share with their Muslim Palestinian compatriots waging a struggle against an Israeli takeover of their lands and holy places.” In response, “Russia has demanded to become the defender of all the Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire, especially Palestinians.” https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/palestinian-orthodox-christians-struggle-two-colonialisms

                Putin takes what he says very seriously. With regard to what’s going on now, I believe Putin and Trump are aligned and neither of them are aligned with Netanyahu.

                Netanyahu has become a menace in the Middle East. He wanted the Gaza strip for the Jewish oligarchs who have suddenly found themselves without a home in Ukraine. He is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and that’s not including his own citizens who may later die from the future effects of his mandatory vaccination program.

                His people hate him. Look at the trouble he’s caused them, assuming it’s even him and not a doppelganger. When Trump says, “Stay out of it” with regard to Iran, he means they’re working the plan. None of us are entirely sure what that plan is. It’s like a knot in a gold chain that has to be worked out between someone’s gifted fingers. In other words, it’s not a group effort. We elected the man we think has the best chance of solving the problem which has become a gordian knot in his absence. I suspect only a handful of people know the whole plan, but it’s proving to be one for the history books, I can tell you that. There are a lot of moving parts, and they involve the entire planet.

                I said a long time ago Oct 7th was a rescue mission of the Israeli people who have one thing in common: they pretty much all hate Netanyahu’s regime as well as the people who support him, i.e. our own government, as well as in NATO.

                Because of Ukraine, NATO has nothing much to throw at the Middle East, which tells you why Russia dragged its feet in the war with Ukraine. I also said this: Russia’s objective in that operation was to rid Ukraine of the U.S.’s biolabs and to help deplete NATO, obviously to protect their own people and probably so they could accomplish what’s going on now in the Middle East. If that weren’t the case, NATO would have us all involved in a 3rd (some say 5th) world war by now.

                Trump said during his capitulation tour in 2017, “Israel will be last.”

                He absolutely does have an affinity for the Jews, and they overwhelmingly support Trump, but it’s not the same people Blinken, et al. are enamored with. There are a lot of different types of people who live there.

                And Israel definitely has a right to defend itself, so Trump wasn’t wrong about that.

                However, a case could be made that Israel was not defending itself against the attack on Oct. 7th. Israel was instead a party to it. Not the Israeli people. Their government. Trump knew this when he said he supported their right to “defend” themselves, knowing it probably wasn’t the case in this situation.

                Yes, they need to be able to defend themselves, and yes, because they our allies, we need to help them. But NO that’s not what they were doing in Oct. So no, we were not obligated to help them in the way Netanyahu expected us to.

                Time will tell if I am right about this.

                For those who question Trump’s loyalty to Israel, there is a survey called the Nishma Presidential Preference Survey that addresses this question. It is a survey of close to 1,300 Orthodox Jews that was conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 18, 2024 that demonstrates who exactly he supports. The survey involves 678 respondents who self-identified as Haredi and 595 respondents who self-identified as Modern/Centrist Orthodox. Nishma found that Modern Orthodox Jews support Harris (55%) over Trump (45%), while Haredi Jews overwhelmingly support Trump (93%). This gives Trump roughly 77% support in the survey which says a lot about which people Trump supports and it’s not Netanyahu or any part of his western regime.

                As an aside, Haredim are anti-Zionist, as they believe that the state of Israel can only be established after the arrival of the messiah. Some ultra-Orthodox sects have even become notable supporters of the Palestinian cause.

                A lot of people think all Israelis are practicing Jews and that’s simply not the case. Nor are they distantly related to the Israelites in the Bible. Many are Zionists. I have nothing against Zionists. In fact, one of my oldest friends is a bona fide Ashkenazi Jew and she has the DNA to prove it!

                Zionists are people who believe Israel should belong to the Jews; Jews in the way that Zionists are Jews. I don’t begrudge them for that. But outside my own family, I don’t feel entitled to anything by virtue of my DNA. Zionists rally around a place. We rally around our Constitution. Our American ideals are free for the taking by those who embrace the same beliefs.

                That’s not to say the Israelis are inhospitable toward others. Not necessarily. Like in Syria where Christians get along with the Muslims (of course, there are exceptions to this, as is the case with any rule), Jews get along with Arabs. In fact, Arabs form Israel’s largest ethnic minority. They are mostly former Palestinian citizens, too. When all is said and done, displaced Palestinians may choose to go back to what was once the home of their ancestors, congregating in what may be called “Judea” in the future, to start over. Purportedly 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes after the 6-day war and were never allowed back. If they are able to return, they will finally get what they want, if they can live peaceably with the people who are already there.

                The most pressing problem in the Orthodox world today is how badly we need a counsel to discuss what happened in Ukraine, which according to the canons must be called by an emperor or the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey, and which Bartholomew has promised he will never do.

                He won’t call a counsel because he knows the vast majority of the Church is horrified by what he did in Ukraine, why he did it, and what happened as a result. Because he sees himself as the final arbitrator in the Church, he says there is no reason to call a counsel to question his decisions when a counsel cannot overrule them.

                There are a couple of ways around this.

                The more palatable path (IMO) is for Bartholomew to be kicked out of Turkey so the Church will never again be threatened with an Ecumenical Patriarchate that can cause a schism and spark a war like we’ve seen in Ukraine.

                If the Ecumenical Patriarchate, for whatever reason, does not reside in Turkey, it has no special powers that may have been granted to the Ecumenical Patriarchs of yesteryear.

                Putin is close with Turkey. Maybe he could suggest it. Or maybe the Greek Church could be persuaded to rein him in.

                It is my belief Putin is going to show some special attention to Greece and Cyprus, which may influence the matter.

                The following is from the Clingendael Report September 2015, entitled, “The BRICS as an EU Security Challenge The Case for Conservatism,” by Peter van Ham.

                “The banking crises in Cyprus and Greece show that the BRICS’ growing economic and financial power can put Western institutions under considerable pressure. While negotiating a bailout package with the European Union, the Cypriot government announced that loans from Moscow or Beijing were also being considered. Cypriot President Demetris Christofias claimed that the Russians were ‘good friends [who] take care of Cyprus’. He recalled Russia’s €2.5 billion loan to Cyprus (in 2011), ostensibly given ‘without anything in exchange’. The Cypriot government also raised the possibility of turning to China. In an effort to strengthen relations with Beijing, Cypriot Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Neoklis Sylikiotis and Chairman of the Cyprus Popular Michalis Sarris paid a joint visit to Beijing to discuss the possibility of a Chinese loan.
                In 2015, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras opted for the same approach. During the negotiations with Brussels, his Syriza government stated that ‘if there is no deal, and if we see that Germany remains rigid and wants to blow Europe apart, then we will have to go to Plan B’.

                Seeking to strengthen relationships with Russia, Tsipras paid three visits to Moscow, where he discussed a major pipeline project in Greece (possibly in exchange for a loan from Russia). The Greek prime minister stated that Greece could serve as ‘a link and bridge between Russia and Europe’, and distanced himself from European sanctions against Russia by calling them ‘a road to nowhere’. In exchange, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia would ‘positively examine’ a Greek request for loans. To strengthen relations with Beijing, Greek Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, together with Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, paid a five-day visit to Beijing in March 2015 to look for financial support from China. In return for reviving the privatization of the Greek port of Piraeus, China invested some €100 million in Greek treasury bills. . .” https://www.clingendael.org/pub/2015/the_brics_as_an_eu_security_challenge/2_the_eus_neighbourhood_and_the_brics_security_implications/

                However, what van Ham failed to mention (probably because he doesn’t know or understand the importance of it) is how committed Putin is to promoting Orthodoxy in Greece and Cyprus. I could see him suggesting to BRICS they offer said loans.

                But there is yet another development.

                A potential Tsar popped up among the Greeks, albeit circuitously.

                Prince Pavlos became the head of the Greek royal family following the death of his father last January. (He is a male-line descendant of Christian IX of Denmark, as well.)

                He recently moved his family to Greece. As I understand it, he changed his surname to “De Grèce” to show his loyalty to Greece. (“De Grèce” means “of Greece” in French.)

                The family submitted their application for citizenship on December 19, 2024, along with a pledge of allegiance to the Greek republic. Days later, they received their Greek citizenship.

                Usually, when things move this fast it is because important people have a plan in mind. In this case, perhaps, it is a plan to move him into a position where he can be helpful to the Church.

                Maybe even in the capacity of an emperor. An emperor who can call a counsel.

                Of course, his detractors argue that after the fall of the junta in 1974, the Greeks rejected monarchy in a referendum, making his father the last king of Greece.

                However, all this could be changed with another referendum, right?

                Or maybe a referendum isn’t required. Because he heads the royal family, which was acknowledged by many, many world leaders at his father’s funeral, and he’s a citizen of Greece, the Church could choose him to be a Tsar. Church doctrine holds that the Tsar is divinely appointed by God which is inherited through royal lineage and not through any religious ordination within the Church itself.

                The Greeks should have a tsar!

                Prince Pavlos, as he is known, seems like a very good man. He was raised by a highly respected man. Perhaps having a King of the Hellenes again would persuade the Greeks to let go of the idea of supporting the Ecumenical Patriarchate. They could relocate Bartholomew somewhere where he’s surrounded by Orthodox Christians instead of in a Muslim country who frankly doesn’t want him there. If he leaves Turkey, we wouldn’t have to live under an Eastern Pope which intends to become in a few months when he rejoins us with the Catholic Church. (Francis has even mentioned becoming the Western Pope in the press.)

                Let’s hope Putin is arranging loans and pulling some strings, while whispering in President Erdogan’s ear not to let the Pope come in the Spring, something I don’t think even Pope Francis wants to do, although he says otherwise. Becoming even a little Orthodox would slow down his own plans.

                Nobody thinks our joining with the Catholic Church makes any sense, except Bartholomew, because he wants it for his legacy.
                Please God, let us have a saintly tsar instead.

                Byzantine Emperors were referred to as “Tsars of the Greeks” in medieval Bulgarian sources. The Byzantine Empire was also known as the “Tsardom of the Greeks”.

                The title “tsar” comes from the Latin title for Roman emperors, “caesar”. The Greek equivalent of the Latin word “imperator” was “autokrator”.
                Another term for the same position was “basileus”, but its usage depended on the context.

                If Prince Pavlos became a tsar, he would be an emperor. If he were an emperor, he could call a counsel.
                ***

                On a final note, Steve Bannon is running around in a sweatshirt that says “Free Constantinople” stirring up some controversy in Turkey. (I wish it had gone further and said, “Free Constantinople of Bartholomew” but no such luck. Maybe I should send him a new one.)

                In case you were wondering, “Free Constantinople” refers to a secret agreement between France and Great Britain to give Constantinople to the Russian Empire if they won World War I. The agreement, known as the Constantinople Agreement or the Straits Agreement, was made between March 4 and April 10, 1915.

                It’s not too much of a stretch to think some version of this arrangement may have already become a reality now that Turkey has officially broached the subject of joining BRICS.

                A move away from NATO is a move toward Russia no matter how you look at it.

                Had the Russian “operation” not turned into a knockdown, drag out fight with Ukraine, we may have never known what we were seeing was a nation whose sole intent was to open the doors to the West to annihilate Russia.

                “Oh! That’s different. Never mind” says Emily Litella, as she puts her blue and yellow flag in her junk drawer. (Some of you will remember Emily.)

                It had nothing to do with their “democracy” which they don’t have if a “democracy” means having elections that can’t be arbitrarily skipped.

                Ukraine and the rest of us really do need to be freed, but not from Russia or Turkey. From the West who has managed to morph into a posse of fallen angels as of late.

                ***

                I’ve probably repeated myself here. What a messy way to do this.

                • Very Good, Gail.
                  To make a long story a short one,
                  consider the then significant raison d’être:

                  “….. the Bishop of Constantinople ought to receive privileges
                  of authority because various Patriarchs and Prelates used to come to the Emperor to beg for his help in their exigencies, and it was necessary for them first to meet the Bishop of Constantinople, in whom they found a man to co-operate with them and to lend them assistance, and through him they were enabled to approach the Emperor, just as, in confirmation of the ancient custom, Justinian prescribed this…..”

                  The Rudder (Pedalion), 1957, page 273
                  Canon 28, 4th Ecumenical Council.

                  • Access to the emperor was indeed a privilege (perhaps the sole privilege) of the Ecumenical Patriarch, other than resolving disputes, which is a crapshoot really. When Bartholomew arbitrated the disagreement between Antioch and Jerusalem over territory, he awarded everything to himself. Neither side was happy, of course. It resolved nothing between the two of them and just made Bartholomew richer.

                    I imagine if there were a Tsar in Greece it would elevate the importance of Greece in a way the present Ecumenical Patriarchate cannot, given the EP is in a country surrounded by Muslims. Bartholomew certainly cannot arrange the schedule of Erdogan or advise him on matters of the Church because Erdogan isn’t in the Church!

                    There was actually a lawsuit against Bartholomew, too. I’m not sure if it’s been resolved. I’m curious what the Rudder would say about an Ecumenical Patriarch who not only doesn’t have a relationship with his emperor, but whose emperor is not the leader of the civilized world.

                    Erdogan is the leader of a country. Not an empire and he’s not Orthodox. He has no investment in, or responsibility for, the Orthodox Church. When Hagia Sophia was up for grabs, it was Putin who had to try to intervene on our behalf. Were Bartholomew able to operate in the capacity of EP, this would not have been the case.

                    The landscape has changed. The Church, in Her wisdom, should be able to change with it when it makes sense.

                    However, instead of clinging to the Church, Bartholomew has looked for relevancy within the globalists contingent. He has replaced spiritual discernment with recommendations based on what his globalist masters tell him to say. Think how powerful Bartholomew’s voice would have been if he had come out against the vaccines in the Church. Sadly, I think he knew what the globalists intended to do with them and encouraged us to get vaccinated anyway. There is no evidence he has walked back from his decisions. This bird flu thing could be a replay of past events. My prediction is they’re going to put us into another lockdown to keep Trump from being certified.

                    Regardless of Bartholomew’s own thinking about his role, he is NOT the “spiritual father” of the 300M Orthodox Christians, as he claims. Nor does he speak for the Church on the globalist stage. Why do we continue to let him say these things? They’re untruths.

                    He also doesn’t have the right to join other churches to the Orthodox Church or go into other bishop’s territories, unless invited by the legitimate bishop over that region. A legitimate bishop is one who is ordained and accepted by the good order of the Church as the head of a given territory, of which Bartholomew was well aware. He just chose to ignore it. He purportedly said, “They’ll (the Church) will get over it.”

                    If there is a dispute Bartholomew wants to arbitrate, he would have to get the buy in of both parties, who are, again, both ordained Orthodox bishops in good standing within the Church and not a group of “poor” (his word) schismatic nationalists asking for his help. All such exceptions, if required, would need to be approved by a Counsel, I would think.

                    How off base am I here?

                    Because 42 countries are clamouring to be part of BRICS, this could be a real opportunity for the Church to realign Herself to the changing world in the correct sense according to the canons. The Church should be petitioning BRICS to have a seat at the table with representatives from the Church with respect to how the Church will fit in to their proposed configuration and how to best support their efforts where they make sense. They then need to come back to the Church and present their findings to a Counsel. Presumably, Patriarch Kirill, and others, have been giving this some thought, but unless the EP is dealt with for overstepping his bounds (with truly disastrous consequences), he will block all efforts to have a Counsel because he is afraid of what they’ll say regarding Ukraine.

                    In the meantime, Bartholomew will continue to go off in his own direction with Pope Francis, both of whom would be opposed to BRICS on its face, since they are a captured enterprise of the globalists. Their “emperor” is the. . . well, never mind whos he is. He’s not good.

                    I think the point of BRICs is to move away from wars and capitalize on what each bloc has or does best that can be shared with the world. Someone said earlier when we were having this discussion, that NATO and BRICS are not incompatible. Think about it. If you’re Turkey and your objective is trading with Russia, Russia is not going to want to trade with you if you could be roped into a war against them. Turkey’s plan to leave NATO, in and of itself, shows NATO is “depleted.” Picking up Finland and Sweden does not change this. Turkey is very valuable to Europe and the Middle East right now.

                    BRICS is about leveraging a country’s strength; not overtaking a country in a war which is the reason for the blocs. It’s harder to take over a “bloc” of countries. You can’t divide and conquer.

                    And God has given each country gifts. Right now, might be time for Greece to come into its own with the gifts they’ve been given.

                    Greece is close to the water and are expert seafarers. They could take the lead by devising plans to get product from point A to point B. If we all did things the same way, it might be more efficient.

                    UPS is a good example of this principle. Others have capitalize on their strengths. They’re widely known for instructing their drivers to prioritize right turns as much as possible when making deliveries, essentially minimizing left turns to improve efficiency and fuel economy. The carrier saves millions of gallons of fuel each year, and avoids emissions equivalent to over 20,000 passenger cars. – It’s their business. It’s what they do. https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/world/ups-trucks-no-left-turns/index.html#:~:text=UPS%20trucks%20almost%20never%20take,efficient%20route%20for%20each%20truck.

                    At the end of the day, we’re one planet. With the resources we have, each citizen of the world should be able to live far above what we consider standard. Right now, our resources are being squandered by, lets face it, unGodly people. Some people are living in abject poverty while they’re sitting on vast resources the planet needs. Our MO is to just go in and take it. We can’t live that way. We need to operate on a different premise. If the globalist were really interested in bettering our lives, they wouldn’t think they could take everything away from us and we’d “be happy.” I’m not happy unless I have some control over my life. I want to contribute. I don’t want everything given to me. It sounds like living in my mom and dad’s basement!

                    • Indeed!
                      The significant function of that BISHOP was due to the adjacent residence of the Emperor.
                      The “Emperor” of the Orthodox is not THERE any more.

                    • No, you’re absolutely right.

                      We’ve got a bishop who feels he’s free to play the “emperor” role but his emperor persona tells him everything he does is fine. No need to meet with an emperor. Bartholomew will be the emperor for you. He will provide all the solutions. He appears to believe that by virtue of living in Turkey, a Muslim country, he is free to do whatever he wants regardless of the opinions of the rest of the Church. The biggest reason Orthodoxy works, is because it forces the bishops to be accountable for and to one another.

                      “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. . .” Not, “it’s seems good to Bartholomew and the Holy Spirit because there was a time an emperor’s sandals touched the same dirt. Turkey is not more holy than any other place from an Orthodox POV. In fact, it could be said it is less so because it’s not an Orthodox country.

                      And Bartholomew has left the Church. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about what he does. He says positively horrible things about his brother bishops, especially Patriarch Kirill. His decisions have made serving with him problematic if not impossible. He has to order people around to do his bidding. He has caused a schism with the largest part of the Church because he failed to follow the rules of the canons. The consequences have been disastrous. Had he not separated the Church in Ukraine, our brothers and sisters in Christ would not be thrown out of the country they’ve been for centuries.

                      Had the Church had remained intact, there may have been no war.

                      Separating the Church under the Russian Patriarchate was a political move by secularists to weaken Ukraine and Bartholomew lit the match. He alone is culpable, but he fears no reprisals from within the Church, for he continues down this horrific path with the intent of joining with the Catholic Church, also the idea of the secularists, who believe by uniting the two, they can leverage the Church.

                      There are a lot of disenfranchised people out there. I can just see the History channel, and others like it, selling people on the “first” Church, closest to the Apostles. Although, it would be a faux church like what you might see in DisneyLand; a replica of something that no longer exists.

                      Soon they’ll be teaching how caring for the environment is more important than the Gospel. Certainly, that has been Bartholomew’s theme. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him preach the Gospel nor can he to any great extent, lest it be considered public preaching and proselytizing.

                      So a bishop, in a hostile environment, a place where there is no emperor and many restraints, is free to direct the Church away from synodality toward primacy, which Bartholomew already thinks is a “done deal,” we just don’t know it yet: This is after causing a schism and sparking a war by dividing the Church in another bishop’s territory.

                      Why? That’s what I want to know. It’s not fair to dump this question on anybody here, but why are the bishops allowing it. The vast majority don’t like it. Even the bishops who haven’t completely cut ties with Bartholomew don’t like it. I know this because of the letters they wrote before he did it discouraging him.

                      I do understand why the bishops are not doing something about it now. As a Church, I would think the last thing they’d want is for us to watch the authorities haul Bartholomew in for questioning about his role. Technically, Bartholomew was complicit because the tomos was at the behest of Poroshenko and he actually delivered it into Poroshenko’s hands to appease the nationalists. They were promised a “Ukrainian” Church; An independent Church free of anything to do with Russia. They didn’t even want to be part of the canonical Church because Russia was in it!

                      But that’s what Bartholomew promised. He obviously lied, which is why Epiphany had no interest in being ordained. So, they’re not Orthodox, in spite of all the trappings. They’re still schismatic.

                      Bartholomew removed the legitimate Orthodox Church from Ukraine, and failed to sanction the schismatic church for the violence, theft, and expulsion perpetrated by the schismatics under him. By failing to discipline them, he failed the Ukrainians and the Church as a whole. The people who attend the schismatic church may not realize this, but they’re not getting the sacraments. Priests don’t have to be perfect for God to be able to work through them in this regard, but their bishops do have to be ordained, I believe.

                      The bishops in the OCU are not ordained.

                      By choice.

                      They are choosing to remain outside the Orthodox Church and Bartholomew is choosing to allow it.

                      This mess is now impacting the U.S. Someone I know is in a schismatic Church and I’m not sure she has any idea what a mess Bartholomew made out of it. The Assembly of Canonical Bishops should write another letter explaining the difference between a schismatic church and the Orthodox Church.

                      Even AI is confused saying that the UOC is connected to Bartholomew through the GOA.

                      The UOC is not connected to Bartholomew. They’re “independent” which is a new word for the Church which means, “We have to say we’re independent to save our lives.” Canonically, the UOC is connected to the Russian Orthodox Church who has yet to grant autocephaly to the saintly Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and all Ukraine.

                      Doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It only means it hasn’t happened yet.

                      If the Nazis would kill the Separatists for speaking Russian, which they have, they certainly would kill an individual for belonging to the UOC, which is why it is so important to get the terms right here in the U.S.

                    • You are right Gail.

                      By the way B always talks about
                      “the Mother Church” and he neglects Jerusalem……
                      But you know what we sing in the Saturday Vespers, Eighth Tone:

                      Rejoice, O holy Zion, MOTHER of the churcheS,
                      the abode of God;
                      for thou didst first receive forgiveness of sins
                      by his Resurrection. ”

                      This has nothing to do with any earthly Emperor….

                      This was written by Saint John the Damascene (+750)!

                      Divine Prayers and Services
                      Antiochian Church
                      New Jersey, 1979
                      p.191

              • Happy to! This is definitely an area where given the chance I will start talking extemporaneously until people’s eyes glaze over, so I’ll try to be brief. Well, briefish.

                Before background and detail, for people that just want the summary. BLUF: Russia’s existing ‘hypersonic’ weapons systems lack meaningful maneuverability characteristics at hypersonic speeds. The US, China, and Russia are all pursuing development of hypersonic weapons that do, but none are operational systems yet (China is arguably closest). The systems in the pipeline aren’t maneuverable versions of classic nuke re-entry vehicles (RVs). And classic nuke RVs as-is are still practically uninterceptable at scale/reliably, these new systems are for different mission scenarios than ending the world in canned subshine, we can already do that.

                First, we need to establish some nomenclature and categorization. An IRBM or ICBM are both going to be generally understood as multistage missiles falling into a general grouping of size, range and payload capacity. Think of it like the difference between a heavyweight and middleweight boxer. Details like whether they have two stages or three, liquid fuel engines or solid rocket motors, etc. aren’t really relevant. But generally speaking they are all going to accelerate a payload to a significant fraction of orbital velocity and release that payload above the earth’s atmosphere to reenter it at extreme speed. This will be relevant later on.

                When using the terms supersonic and hypersonic, supersonic has the very basic definition of (as the name suggests) starting at exceeding the speed of sound. Hypersonic is generally defined as above five times the speed of sound. These terms are most often applied for things actually moving through the atmosphere, because moving very fast through the atmosphere is, uh, really hard the faster you go as it gets in the way. This also be relevant later, because moving at hypersonic speed through the atmosphere is not the same as having significant maneuverability *while* traveling at said velocity. But make no mistake, it’s very difficult to accomplish a kinetic intercept of something even flying in a straight or ballistic trajectory at hypersonic speeds!

                Leaving aside the whole difficulty of nuclear warhead design capable of integrating into an IRBM/ICBM, the missile itself had a couple distinct technical challenges the US and USSR had to overcome to turn it into a functional weapon system. Three big ones are:

                1. Making a missile reliable and performant enough to carry the required payload along the needed flight profile
                2. Developing internal navigation/course correction systems that could position the warhead(s) post boost-phase to get ‘close’ to their targets after re-entering the atmosphere
                3. Creating a re-entry vehicle to contain the warhead that could withstand the intense heat of re-entry, protect the warhead and maintain its ballistic path to the target without losing control and breaking up

                I could expound on all these at length and their history if people are interested, but long story short, the Cold War superpowers threw vast resources at these problems, started fielding ICBMs at scale in the 1960s and continued iterating on them throughout the Cold War.

                So now we come to the question, what is the “Orezhnik” or at least, what is the Orezhnik like? If you follow missile and arms control circles, as I do, you’d be aware that there is a fair bit of debate whether Orezhnik is just the previous RS-26 IRBM program dug out of storage or something new derived on that earlier work. But that isn’t really important. What is important is that in terms of its range it appears to straddle the line between considered an IRBM versus an ICBM by the now defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

                I bring this up only to underline that the US and USSR moved away from fielding IRBMs not from technical, but practical/political reasons. Similar for things like FOBS.

                With that context, this brings me to two statements by Misha, which I will quote because they are both incorrect:

                “The only thing that could fly that fast in the 1980’s were ICBM’s. And if the Soviets had had the capability to create an hypersonic missile back in the 1980’s, what would that say about the fact that the US lacks it today?”

                “What makes the Oreshnik and other such weapons unique is that they are controllable and maneuverable throughout their terminal trajectory. I.e., they can bob and weave on the way in. They maintain their hypersonic speeds within the atmosphere and they do not travel on a ballistic arc like ICBM’s.”

                The first is a category error, the Orezhnik *is* just a another IRBM/ICBM. The second is a misunderstanding, the MIRV RVs on the Oreshnik do *not* have significant maneuvering capability in the re-entry phase. Kinzhal, which is just an air-launched version of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile, or the Zircon missile don’t have meaningful hypersonic maneuverability either. For there to be a “missile gap” in capability, Russia would actually have to have that capability in the first place.

                This is already long so I’ll summarize points I can cover in much more detail if needed:
                1. A whole host of things from control authority, thermals, get crazy more hard in the hypersonic flight regime
                2. Wind tunnels have some, but limited utility in hypersonic testing, you’re still going to have a challenging flight testing program
                3. The CFD work to get you a useful model to start with as a basis for building something to flight test requires, even in 2024, a lot of expertise and a boatload of compute power, and can still easily have inaccuracies that only get uncovered when you light the candle
                4. You are going to have to do a lot of flight testing. This is expensive. You are also going to fail a lot and have to gain understanding of the failures in a *very* challenging environment for collect certain aspects of data that you might really like to have
                5. A plain old ballistic hypersonic RV is nearly impossible to intercept already, kinetic intercept is going to miss too much/be too easily saturated when the incoming RVs have nuclear warheads.

                So here is where I need to make something very clear: The US and China are both working on maneuverable hypersonic weapons systems (and Russia claims to be), what people really want a holy grail of air-breathing missiles with enough maneuverability in a hypersonic flight regime to evade air defenses. The goal is to hit time sensitive, high value targets with conventional explosives at short notice and without being intercepted. But just making boost-glide work is hard enough, much less scram-jet! Speaking generally, China may actually be ahead. but they are still in R&D, it’s difficult. Frankly, China’s aerospace capabilities are now generally more advanced than Russia’s across the board. Russia can claim a lot of things about projects like the Avangard or the Kh-95, but it’s easy to make boasts, hard to actually deliver.

                I’d note that nobody is really pursuing maneuverable ICBM RVs because, well, see point 5 above. You ain’t stopping the existing arsenal from getting through anytime in the next few decades. All you’re doing is adding complexity and failure modes to something that is already running on razor thin margins. Since it is more of a big IRBM than a ICBM, the ballistic RVs on Orezhnik are *theoretically* in the intercept capabilities of the Block 2A SM-3 or GMD, but I would not want to put money hitting all of them. Bagging at least one is a shmaybe.

                Rather than try and maneuver the RVs, what modern Russian or Chinese ICBMs already do is deploy decoy RVs and/or have the warhead bus perform additional midcourse evasive maneuvering prior to final deploy to counter and saturate the *very* limited capabilities of GMD, even though they don’t really need to bother.

                • The Oreshnik is sort of IRBM, not the range of an ICBM, though there is some overlap. I followed all the stuff from various sources about prior versions from which it might have been derived, but in certain ways it is unique and so that line is not too fruitful.

                  But another difference between them is that Oreshnik does not travel on a ballistic arc anywhere near as high as an ICBM and thus maneuverability in the atmosphere is key.

                  It’s surprising that you missed that. I stated it clearly before.

                  You say it’s not. I don’t believe you.

                  The other thing is accuracy. ICBM’s are certainly accurate enough to hit a city, but to hit with much more focused accuracy is a trick in and of itself. It may have internal guidance that self corrects on its terminal path. It certainly has separate propulsion for the projectiles.

                  Russia has these things. America doesn’t. I’m sure America says they are working on these and better weapons. They’d better say that because it’s a matter of national defense. I’d lie too in this situation if I couldn’t pull it off at present.

                  One thing you’re at least in the ball park about is decoys. Oreshnik really is designed to carry nuclear warheads and thus many of its 36 projectiles might be used as decoys in a nuclear strike.

                  But you’re just wrong about maneuverability. That’s why they built it and what makes it really distinct.

                  https://aerospacedefenserd.com/payload-of-the-oreshnik-missile/

                  What you are going to find is that pro-Western analysts are going to downplay it and alternative or pro-Russian analysts are going to be more inclined to take Russian statements about it at face value. Unless you track it maneuvering, you simply don’t know what it can do.

                  But they didn’t even try to shoot it down.

                  Seeing is believing. Yuzhmash is gone.

                    • I remember it from the first time around;
                      the poster that is, not the film.
                      I’m not that old…

                    • The Monomakhos crowd: https://www.facebook.com/reel/974646204513032

                      You laugh but a couple of years ago our friends took us to a Greek restaurant in Kansas City. George had had a few bourbons at their home before we left to be sure. Before I knew what he was doing he was talking to the owners of the club and the music began. George went to the center of the dance floor, by himself, put his head down like Greek men do, and danced the entire time the music played. No one else dared to step on the dance floor. People were riveted. My girlfriend whom I had known since I was 8 whispered in my ear (with more than an little admiration I might add, as she had just met him), “Does he always do that?!” No! But he did that night. He had the whole place clapping up a storm. He looked really good! I was too shocked to take pictures but I wish I had. When he sat back down at the table, several women accosted him saying, “I want to dance like that! Can you teach me?” From that point forward, everytime I call my girlfriend the first thing she says to me is, “You always get all the boys.” Well, I got this one anyway and the guy can dance! – George is full of surprises.

                  • The trajectory (ballistic arc) of a missile for a given target is going to be determined by the distance to that target and the thrust/burn time/mass/ISP of the missile. Generally speaking, the latter parameters are in a relatively narrow bucket to vary on the launch vehicle in the boost phase. So you have to adjust the trajectory accordingly to work with the capabilities of the vehicle.

                    In practice what this means is that an IRBM/ICBM targeting something short of its maximum range (especially meaningfully so) is going to have fly at a lofted trajectory, not a depressed one. So yes, an IRBM is going to have a lower ballistic arc than a longer range ICBM to the same target. But in both cases they are getting out of the atmosphere, I’m not entirely sure what you think the flight profile of an IRBM is at this point. I’ve seen some expert speculation that the Oreshnik test vehicle deleted a stage compared to the RS-26, which would make more sense why it was launched from Kapustin Yar without having to start doing North Korea style lofts. Although doing so probably brought it more into the intercept window of the SM-3. On the gripping hand, the reentry angle of the RVs coming into Dnipro still indicate a relatively lofted trajectory.

                    At any rate, it’s still going above the atmosphere, it’s still getting picked up by radar, and the launch is still being detected by early warning satellites because you can’t hide the IR plume of the vehicle. And here’s the important thing, I’ve seen no credible evidence that the test flight did anything with the RVs other than the laser beam MIRV re-entry we’ve all seen before. The images you posted of a theoretical HGV flight path are *not* what Oreshnik did.

                    When you link me to claimed but undemonstrated capabilities, think of it this way, if you say you played hockey in high school and show me a picture of you as a child looking to be the appropriate age on the ice in a uniform, then I’m going to be comfortable making an assumption that you could probably go grab a pair of skates, put them on and skate around a rink without you having to prove it to me.

                    If you go on to say you can do a quadruple axel and make a slapslot goal upon landing, while blindfolded, uh, I’m going to actually need to see that to believe it!

                    A couple other things in brief. You have rankings of inertial guidance and navigation capabilities reversed in regards to the US and Russia. The least surprising thing about Russia using their most sophisticated systems to target Ukraine and having wreckage start showing up everywhere was confirming that they are chock full of Western electronics and components.

                    Doing things like releasing submunitions just means you’re doing less damage over a wider area, but also compensates for a lack of accuracy. But adding the mechanisms for submunitions takes space and mass, and you’re talking about these RVs also having to incorporate cutting edge avionics using parts you can’t manufacture yourself, and the hardware for however you’re thinking of trying to ‘bob and weave’ this thing at hypersonic speeds. In a RV that has very significant size and mass constraints. That still has to withstand the heat and aerodynamic forces of re-entry. You can handwave away all the engineering challenges and take it on faith, I can’t.

                    Finally, since we are talking about lack of evidence, I want to return to one of your earlier statements:

                    “This first one pulverized an entire missile production site (Yuzhmash) of over one square km.”

                    This is not a claim remotely supported by satellite imagery. A square kilometer of total destruction would be unmistakable even on ancient 2m or even 5m resolution systems. Out of curiosity, when you heard that, what was your process for evaluating the veracity of the claim? Personally I’d start doing some napkin math on the impact physics, probability of the dispersion based on projected CEP, and also looked for visual confirmation. But that’s me.

                    • Also:

                      https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1hi13py/ru_pov_commercial_satellite_imagery_showing_the/?force_seo=1

                      So far there does not seem to be any popularly available undoctored satellite footage, though this guy made a valiant try at purchasing from private companies.

                      Most of what is publicly available only shows an amalgamation of damage inflicted to the plant over the course of the war, when compared with previous images; i.e., nothing actually from after the strike.

                      In other words, it’s part of the propaganda war waged by the DS and its clients.

                      Anecdotal accounts from the area have the whole place being razed. Nothing really firmer to go on at this point besides the above link and related attempts at analysis by those skeptical of the publicly released imagery.

                      No sense in going back and forth about this stuff. The truth about all this stuff will be revealed in time, just like the Heroes of Snake Island and the Ghost of Kiev. You must understand that the West is losing and therefore, for a variety of reasons, is lying aggressively on every front to save face and funding and retain as much public opinion as possible.

                      And it won’t work.

                    • PS: Evidently the images in question were later removed by someone (poster?, DS?) after a number of commenters had analyzed them.

                      This is the level of corruption we’re dealing with.

                    • Sorry for the serial posting, but I’d forgotten about this piece done by “Amerikanets” from before.

                      https://www.amerikanets.com/p/mea-maxima-culpa

                      What should be clear regarding any satellite imagery coming our regarding Oreshnik is that it has been doctored at the behest of the CIA. Even private satellite imagery has been compromised, let alone anything released by any government.

                      It’s THAT big a deal.

                • Also, here are a couple of graphics:

                  https://images.app.goo.gl/5pcnfCcVc9rNhQrr5

                  https://images.app.goo.gl/DZNhyK6dpjTLfiLM8

                  You will notice in the second graphic there is a remark that the HGV need not rise above the atmosphere as is depicted. The lower it stays, the closer it can get to the target undetected.

                  But to do this requires extended hypersonic cruise ability within the atmosphere (with maneuverability as related feature). That is what the West seems to have a problem with.

            • Gail,

              You are, as always, perfectly free to publish or not publish whatever comments you like under whatever criteria you like, as it is your blog! I do take issue with your framing and representation of several things in your reply to me, however, and I feel obliged to respond to set the record straight as it were.

              First, I have never gone anywhere, just posted less frequently because George Michalopulos doesn’t write as often these days on the topics that intersect with my interests in discussion.

              Second, I have absolutely not tried to obfuscate my identity from you, the site owner. I know you can see my email address, which is the same one I’ve used to post on this site since 2011, or 2012 or whenever it was. Longtime readers of the blog (even those who haven’t seen me use this moniker in the past) should frankly feel embarrassed if they can’t identify me immediately because my viewpoints and writing style are pretty unique! Anybody who got this far, has read Monomakhos comments for more than a few years and hasn’t thought “that sounds like Nate Trost”, go hang your head in shame.

              Third, I completely disagree with you on how the last “biolab” discussion went. It was only earlier this year, but most of it doesn’t appear to have survived in snapshots of the old site, except as recent comment excerpts, although I still have the copies of what I wrote. From my standpoint, I explained why the framing of Nuland’s statements was fundamentally disingenuous, gave a background on the post Cold War biosafety US government programs that were being misrepresented, and shared the legal reasons why any kind of covert bioweapons program would be wildly improbable and require a substantial burden of proof. In response, you didn’t offer any kind of rebuttal or even meaningful criticism that warranted further response, so I let it drop. But make no mistake, I am perfectly happy to tell you that you were incorrect then, and if you really want to relitigate it, incorrect now.

              I didn’t sink below the ocean, I made my points and let the matter rest. But I stand behind the things I write, unlike some of the people writing behind pseudonyms here, I never write anything I’d be afraid to be associated with my name, because there really isn’t actually any anonymity on the Internet. I wish you had instituted a “only real names” policy when you relaunched the blog! I would have preferred that and kept on posting using my name instead of my own easily identified pseudonym.

              I do admit to being a bit confused because at one point you went out of your way to express that you were glad I was here, and hoped I’d stay a long long time. I read that as sincere, not sarcastic, but perhaps you didn’t actually mean it?

              • Gcu
                I am also reluctant to follow the Russian narrative on anything I hear. Not because America is always right. We know she is not. Not because America always says the truth, because we know she is not.

                We have to examine everything we hear, from both sides, as a riddle that we must decipher. Russia, along with its former self, the Soviet Union, excelled in propaganda and lies. And they did not have an independent press to hold them accountable. America might have lied as much, but the independent press kept us grounded. Vietnam protests would have never happened in the Soviet Union, as they happened in America, because of the daily newscasts. Watergate would have never been exposed if it wasn’t for the press.

                As for the biolabs, when Americans trust Telegraph more than they trust fact check sites, or the American government, or even their own eyes, and have a pre existing suspicion against American motives, it sets the ground for believing that America’s intentions are sinister. Which is not always the case.

                The biolabs do exist. But not to develop weapons. The American government never admitted that they were developing biological weapons. Americans were offering their expertise in handling biological material that could potentially escape the lab confines, especially in a war situation such as in Ukraine.

                The question that we need to ask ourselves is, why would America utilize Ukrainian biolabs for biological weapons, when it can be done in secret right here in the good old USA.

                Happy New Year to all

                • To answer your question, for the same reason they, DARPA, didn’t use our own labs to develop COVID and the vaccines. Their reasoning, according to them (look it up), is that they didn’t want to take the risk that a pathogen would be accidentally released like several other incidences that occurred with anthrax. If a leak happened, they would rather it be somewhere else and not on our good old American soil.

                  RE: “The American government never admitted that they were developing biological weapons.”

                  So, your contention is that because the U.S. didn’t admit it the following were absolutely not biological weapon programs because if they were, the American government would have told the world immediately during a time when the entire world was clamouring to know, because in a war zone, stuff can inadvertently be released.

                  But the truth is they actually did admit to the following when pressed: “The Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) supports many collaborative research projects through which Ukrainian and American scientists work together.  A few recent examples are:

                  1. Avian EDPs Potentially Carried by Migratory Birds over Ukraine
                  2. Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and hantaviruses in Ukraine
                  3. Leptospirosis
                  4. African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV)
                  5. Genome Sequencing and Phylogenetic Analysis

                  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10615639/I-said-no-thing-Tulsi-Gabbard-denies-claiming-making-bioweapons-Ukraine-says-Mitt-Romney-RESIGN-doesnt-evidence-claims-treasonous.html

                  You also believe our government was doing nothing in spite of the backdrop of the following:

                  – NIH Deputy Director and former Acting NIH Director, Dr. Lawrence Tabak, acknowledging that NIH funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.

                  – Dr. Lawrence Tabak repeatedly refuted EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak’s public and private testimonies. It is now clear that Dr. Daszak misled both the Select Subcommittee and the NIH on numerous occasions.

                  – Serious shortcomings and failures in the NIH’s grant awarding and grant oversight procedures enabled EcoHealth to facilitate gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. These NIH deficiencies were exploited by Dr. Daszak and his team in an effort to avoid oversight and maintain funding.

                  – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) decision to immediately suspend funding and commence debarment proceedings against EcoHealth is backed by substantial evidence and necessary to protect America’s national security.

                  – The Select Subcommittee also recommends that HHS immediately begin debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak personally.

                  – The NIH often lacks the necessary subject matter and scientific expertise to ensure U.S. taxpayer funds are spent and overseen safely.

                  – Dr. Tabak testified to these gaps in NIH’s system today, and former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins recounted similar problems during his transcribed interview found here.

                  – The Select Subcommittee’s investigation into EcoHealth’s impropriety is far from over. Chairman Wenstrup appreciates Dr. Tabak’s honesty today and intends to use his testimony to hold EcoHealth accountable for its facilitation of gain-of-function research and its blatant contempt for the American taxpayer.learning that. . .

                  https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-nih-repeatedly-refutes-ecohealth-alliance-president-dr-peter-daszaks-testimony-tabak-testimony-reveals-federal-grant-procedures-in-need-of-serious-reform/

                  This information did not come from Telegraph.

                  It came from people digging and digging and digging and ultimately forcing the parties involved to admit what they didn’t bring to the attention of the American public on it’s own. And this just the surface stuff because I don’t have all day Googling for people who frankly should do their own research before they make assumptions about what our country would and wouldn’t do.

                  This has nothing to do with Vietnam which is a whole other story. But what do I know? I just majored in foreign policy and spent 40 years doing projects for the medical health industry.

                  Based on the premise that you presented, i.e. the U.S. never admitted they were dealing with biolabs to develop weapons, how would YOU know they weren’t, in light of the evidence they peddling from, “we have no biolabs in Ukraine, period,” to “yeah, OK, we have 46 but they were not for bioweapons.” (Paraphrasing)

                  I pray you weren’t one of those people who took those vaccines they told you didn’t come from gain of function research at the Wuhan Lab. . . right away. Because it’s common knowledge now. The good old U.S.A., as you call it, disseminated it first and continues to disseminate it TO BABIES 3 months old (YOU look it up to prove me wrong).

                  No one expects you to acknowledge this here, but I bet you took those vaccines that our government watchdogs, the CDC and the FDA (which aren’t government; they’re NGOs) were FORCED to disclose, after the fact, were NOT safe and do NOT prevent transmission.

                  The court just ruled in favor of the plaintiff that the FDA was “hiding from the court one million pages of clinical trial documents from the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.” “Hiding” is a pretty serious word. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/fda-must-disclose-more-covid-19-vaccine-records-us-judge-rules-2024-12-06/

                  Ask yourself why Trump won both the electoral and popular vote by a landslide, especially given a number of them called themselves “Never Tumpers.” Millions of Americans are waking up to the fact that our government has a serious problem with the truth. They don’t all know a lot about Trump, but they know we are in trouble.

                  Take a look at the casualty list. Would all these people be gone if they had done nothing wrong? They tried to kill us! https://pressgallery.house.gov/member-data/casualty-list

                  You are free to be the single holdout, but don’t do it here. We have talked this issue to death and the only reason I am spending all this time on this now is I’m hoping I can save your life.

                  We’re hoping you’ll stay on the blog, but we request you use your own name. If that’s not possible, contact us and tell us why.

                • To trust NATO/EU about the biolabs requires a stretch of the imagination I can no longer make. We would all be wise to “trust but verify”.

                  Having said that, it is clear that Mdme Nuland was caught flat-footed in March of 2022 when Sen Marco Rubio asked her flat out about the biolabs.

                  If nothing else, the fact that she and her husband (as well as her in-laws) are the nucleus of Neocon, Inc makes me believe nothing but the worst about her and her intentions.

                  After all, we were led by the nose by this same cabal when it came to Saddam’s WMD.

                  That said, I too, wish you and all of our readers a Happy New Year.

      • George
        Is there a reason that my reply wasn’t published? Please, dont tell me you’re following in Nick’s footsteps. I was under the impression that you have the conviction of your positions to be able to defend them with facts, as I do. A conversation that only one side is heard is not conducive to expending knowledge. Rather, it closes our mind. We Greeks can only claim a connections with our wise ancestors if we engage in discussions and reason. Otherwise, we just pay lip service to the ideals that we want to convince others are part of our heritage.