®Monomakhos

Really? I Don’t Need any more Reasons to Vote for Trump!

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OK, so let me get this straight:

  1.  I don’t believe in killing babies (before or after birth),
  2.  I don’t believe in castrating little boys or cutting off the breasts of teenage girls,
  3.  I don’t want any more wasteful wars,
  4.  I don’t want strangers crossing our borders and raping our women,
  5.  I don’t want to see children being sexually trafficked,
  6.  I don’t want refugees depressing the wages of working class Americans, and finally,
  7.  I don’t want governments killing innocent squirrels.

So am I to believe that Patriarch Bartholomew wants all this?

I suppose so, according to our friends at Public Orthodoxy.  https://x.com/ananiasfather/status/1853628125726585234?s=46

Look, I get it, Trump isn’t the Savior of the Nation.  No one is (other than Jesus).  But compared to the utter bolshevism that animates the other party, the decision isn’t even close.  Not for a Christian, an observant Jew, a Muslim or even an animist at this point.  Heck, I know dope-smoking libertarians, gays, lesbians, and and atheists who don’t want to see four more years of this nonsense.  Our major cities are dystopian hell-scapes, brought to you by the “party of compassion.”

And let’s be honest:  if Kackles is rigged into office, this will be the last election decided by ballots.  All future ones will be decided by bullets.

So yeah, it’s Trump or nothing.  For me, it’s a purely political decision.  What I can’t understand is why supposedly Orthodox professionals like the author of this piece can’t see it.  As for San Giacomo?  Yeah, I can see why he’s on board with all the cultural Marxism that’s been shoved down our throats, but that’s about it.

I guess the moral of the story as far as I’m concerned is, if I had a smidgen of a doubt about voting for Trump, Public Orthodoxy wiped it out, once and for all.

PS, In the interest of fairness, I’d be more than happy to have an open debate about this issue with either Messrs San Giacomo or Zavitsanos.

Comments

  1. There seems to be a misunderstanding.   I am not excusing Patriarch Bartholomew’s actions.   What I am saying is that Patriarch Bartholomew is in a bubble, and that had terrible consequences.

    The Ecumenical Patriarchate hitched itself to American power, and the decline of that power has had very real consequences.   Public Orthodoxy just published yet another Archon piece, “sounding the alarm” about the grave danger to the Ecumenical Patriarchate from the geopolitical realignment that is happening.   The shrill desperation that can be seen between the lines is terribly sad.

    The Ecumenical Patriarchate is convinced that the Moscow Patriarchate wants to destroy it and/or replace it.   I don’t believe that is the case, but Patriarch Bartholomew believes it.   When a man is in a bubble of paranoia, the view is quite myopic.   Prelest is inevitable.

    That doesn’t mean any of it is ok.   Horrible damage has been done.   But, I don’t know what the Patriarch knew or didn’t know, because he only has Phanariot courtiers to tell him anything.     I pray for everyone involved.

    At any rate, I am tired of the Old World mess.   I have a move coming up, and I will be taking my family to the OCA (my personal spiritual practice has always been Slavic oriented anyway).  I won’t throw stones at the man on my way out the door.   Faithful Orthodox who remain in the EP’s jurisdiction will have a harder go of things.

    Lord, have mercy.

    • Oh, David, I didn’t mean to unload on you, although I can see why you thought that I did.

      I am deeply disturbed about Bartholomew, maybe because I’m a convert and the Church is not just “business as usual for me.” His actions affect how I look at the Church. It’s not “one,” as I was taught. It’s factions, some of which are positively evil (IMO), working at cross purposes with the rest of the Church and there are many in it, who I believe are in a position to do something about it, and they don’t.

      I am ranting at them. And I probably won’t stop because I don’t want anyone to forget what he has done.

      Forgive me if you thought I was ranting against you! That’s not what I intended at all.

      Interestingly, there is no mention in Scripture about the Apostles talking about Judas. They honestly didn’t seem to know who was going to betray the Living God. What is also true is that his transgressions were immortalized in Scripture so that no one would mistake who and what he was and what he did.

      I think I will be content when no one mistakes who Bartholomew was and what he did to the Church is commonly acknowledged.

      The Greeks, my husband being one of them, will live with his legacy. As a convert, we looked up to the Greeks as this great race of people who are our elders in Christ. Look at that legacy now. My husband will attest to how deeply I am affected by their apathy. I’m not talking about the people or the priests who I know are equally impacted to the degree they know what’s going on, which is usually not all that much.

      I do hold their Leadership 100 and their bishops accountable. For they know and yet they don’t stop him, presumably because they’re in just as deep as he is and don’t want their own sins known. Money and attention makes Bartholomew’s world go round. You’d think that they could withhold a little of it instead of lavishing it on him. And you’d think the Faith and the Greater Church would matter more than it does. But, sadly, that’s not the case.

      • No worries.   So much has happened in the last 8 years (since the Crete fiasco).  Living in “interesting times” is not what anybody has in mind, but here we are.

        The current Public Orthodoxy article (a sequel of sorts to this one) is just as cringeworthy. 

      • Very well said, my Dear.

        Just for the record, as a Greek, I’m quite scandalized by Bartholomew’s antics. It’s just that I’m mollified by the fact that we’re not part of his patriarchate.

        I’m also confident that his legacy will (and I’m trying to be charitable here) will have largely failed. I predict that he will be viewed in the same light as Meletios Metaxakis. In other words, not well.

    • Those who are convinced the EP is on a road to union with Rome may find this ironic, but rather it is actually without the EP that there would be insurmountable pressure on Orthodox churches to join with Rome. The EP, in its diplomatic capacity and dialogue with others, is really the main benign presence that keeps various world governments, and even the Vatican, from attacking Orthodoxy.

      Without the EP, the various autocephalous Orthodox churches would become identified simply as bastions of nationalism. In fact, this is what is now happening to the Russian Orthodox church since she has separated herself from the EP. The presence of the ROC that exists outside of Russia is now being identified synonymously with Russian nationalism and put under suspicion. We can see this in Estonia, Lithuania, even in Western Europe, and of course most visibly in Ukraine. The UOC-MP churches in Ukraine are being targeted and attacked by hooligans, not because of their Orthodoxy, but rather because these churches are identified as antagonistic symbols of Russian nationalism.

      The UOC-MP in Ukraine is of course in a bind. They can’t self-claim autocephaly, and they also can’t ask/and/or get it from Moscow. This isn’t the first time that this type of situation has happened there either. It is basically the same kind of political pressure that historically forced the Orthoodox churches to join with Rome in 1596 with the Union of Brest. Today, it is only the EP that is keeping a repeat of this from happening.

      • Joseph, you bring an interesting perspective here. I, too, can see your point about by inserting itself as a global voice for Orthodoxy, the EP can (I stress can) hobble ecumenism. You’re right in this regard: it might be easier for globalists to “pick off” individual Orthodox Churches (i.e. Albania, Bulgaria, Antioch, etc.) and bring each one into the ecumenical fold.

        I’m afraid though that if this is the EP’s game-plan (and I’ don’t believe that it is), he’s being too clever by half. Mainly because he doesn’t have the “throw weight” to stand up to the globalists. That being said, the globalists don’t have God on their side and even though they’ve gained a lot of ground, their nefarious plans have been foiled at various stages of history. (The rightward shift towards populism that we see presently is one of them.)

        Finally, there is no reason for Christian leaders to not be courageous. Indeed, Christians of all stations in life are called to be stalwart for the faith.

        My opinion.

      • RE: “There would be insurmountable pressure on Orthodox churches to join with Rome.”

        And those who are truly Orthodox would refuse. Pressure we can withstand. Capitulation, however, is unthinkable as all the Local Churches, including Russia, have made clear.

        If Bartholomew goes, he will go alone. I suspect he will lose a few Churches in the process who want to stay Orthodox. I also suspect they will be given that option.

        Bartholomew is going to a church that has reinvented itself upon leaving the Church in 1054. That’s a long time and a lot of changes. Fundamental ones. Like believing the Theotokis was conceived immaculately. Or believing in purgatory. Believing in dispensations. Believing people are infallible and don’t make mistakes that God and the Church can fix and forgive, as we are human and humans are frail (which is why we need the Church). The divorced can’t remarry or take communion in the RC nor can their children who don’t belong to an initial marriages. My cousins had to live with that their entire lives. They just didn’t exist. Consequently they left the church.

        Are Catholics going to rectify all that? Not that I can see.

        Or believing priests can’t marry. The entire world has seen the problems that have ensued from that approach.

        Their whole communing process is different, too, and of course, there is the biggie, i.e. the filioque.

        The Catholics are very rule oriented, too. Their documentation, alone, is staggering.

        In contrast, our Church is simple. You fall, you get back up. You go to Church. You confess your sins. If something needs to be decided, you go to the bishop. No pope. If something needs to be discussed at a higher level, e.g. whether or not Bartholomew should have gone into Ukraine, we would have a council. The only problem the Church has is Bartholomew, because the Ecumenical Patriarch acts as a secretary and must call the councils; a real problem when the EP doesn’t want to do it. Bartholomew is one such EP, as he thinks he is like the pope. He won’t call councils that might overturn his decisions which he has clearly admitted.

        So what’s the Church to do? I’ll tell you what they’re going to do. They’re going to allow him to go to Rome and consider the Ecumenical Patriarch closed. . . hopefully, forever. Bartholomew has proven that role was too big for him, and there could be another “Bartholomew” waiting in the wings. Bartholomew needs to take the mess he created with him and we need to be free of a patriarchate that thinks its voice is the only voice that matters.

        We have a process that has worked long time before Bartholomew. I imagine the next council, after Bartholomew leaves in 2025, will have no trouble making Russia the “mother church,” as she is the undisputed center of the Orthodox world for 2/3s, or more, of the Church (Jerusalem and Antioch are too small and in unstable regions). Pope Francis will happily consecrate Russia, officially, as the neglect of the proper fulfillment of the prophecy, which plagues the Catholic Church, weighs heavily on his mind. Bartholomew’s group will become a diocese of the Catholic Church, along with the Lutherans and Episcopalians.

        RE: “… the various autocephalous Orthodox churches would become identified simply as bastions of nationalism.”

        Well, that’s not the case now. Those who are NOT under the EP do just fine and this is Churches all over the world. I would think that the fact the EP DOESN’T have a home is a greater liability because if he is kicked out of Turkey, a Muslim nation where he is not a citizen nor wanted, his little empire is over.

        Russia didn’t separate from the EP. He caused the separation when he went into their region and divided their Church, unleashing nationalists and Nazis on it. They beat up priests and a metropolitan, and confiscated their parishes and monasteries. Had he left them alone, they would have remained in communion as they had been for decades.

        RE: ” The UOC-MP churches in Ukraine are being targeted and attacked by hooligans, not because of their Orthodoxy, but rather because these churches are identified as antagonistic symbols of Russian nationalism.”

        OK, this is rich. The UOC are the now the problem because they’re Orthodox? How come the rest of the Orthodox world doesn’t see it this way? Virtually every bishop in the Orthodox Church came out in support of the UOC (I can’t think of even one who didn’t). There has been NO such support for the nationalists who are schematic, Joseph. They left the Church. Some had girlfriends, others children and they erected faux buildings and became nationalists which you said should be avoided in a previous sentence.

        The EP has become the king of schismatic churches. The rest of the world doesn’t consider them legitimate. The Estonians have been involved in multiple schisms. Lithuania is another example.

        Bartholomew is the “main presence” in the world in his own mind. Yes, people like Hillary, Biden, the CIA, ect. fed his ego, because they were using him to get at Russia. There was a plan to divide Russia into 5 pieces. If they could get their weapons into Ukraine, they would be close enough to do it. That’s where Bartholomew came in. Again, they used him.

        Poroshenko paid him off thinking he would become a hero of the nationalists and he would get reelected. This was all to HURT Russia. Bartholomew failed. He did not deliver. The people who are war mongers are on their way out, one way or another. For all we know, Bartholomew maybe one of them. No one of consequence visits him anymore.

        The UOC can/did choose to be independent from Russia (with the ROC’s blessing). Being “independent” is not a “Church thing.” It is a “state” thing and it was to protect the people affiliated with the UOC. I seriously doubt that now that the war is over they’re going to remain “independent.” Once their lives are no longer in danger, I suspect their status will change and everything they own and everything the OUC took from them will again become the property of the Russian Church.

        Metropolitan Onufry served the Church brilliantly under fire. He is a Ukrainian. He is not a Russian. If the UOC becomes a Ukrainian patriarchate under his authority it will be because the ROC allows it. It’s probably going to take a bit of time to ensure they are again safe and able to rebuild. I sincerely believe Russia is going to help them with that effort.

        • Not looking good for Bartholomew.

          Tulsi Gabbard is the new Director of National Intelligence. She’s not happy with what happened in Ukraine and I suspect she knows all the important people who visited Bartholomew and why.

          This is the problem with people high up in the Church who get involved with the higher-ups of countries (Zelensky, Pompeo, Biden, Hillary), who are looking to take over other countries (Russia). They become culpable.

          In Bartholomew’s case, he clearly was looking for a solution to protect his “throne.” (It cracks me up every time I use the word, “throne.” Where’s the humility?) This is documented in WikiLeaks. He gave the CIA several reports over the years, some of which we published here.

          Oh, the irony. Because Bartholomew did this terrible thing, the thing he feared the most may actually happen.

          That and Halki, were a constant thorn in his side. And this is why he wanted to help the west to overthrow Ukraine. Not to “promote Orthodoxy.” He wanted to annihilate Russia to keep them from his “throne” and get Halki back. And this is why he’s in trouble.

          This is also why the GOA is in trouble. Do they think Jerry didn’t talk when he walked away with a slap on the wrist? Does anybody think someone like Tulsi isn’t going to connect the dots? https://www.thenationalherald.com/jerry-dimitriou-responds-to-goa-news-release/

          The fact that the EP is not on record, anywhere, supporting the UOC, speaks volumes to the other part of your statement regarding what he has done for Orthodoxy. What did he do for the UOC? Can you name anything? (We know what he did for Russia, or should I say “to Russia.”)

          And this is where the EP’s “. . . diplomatic capacity and dialogue with others,” has gotten him, Joseph. (Read below.)

          God will not be mocked.

          ***

          “. . .Gabbard has been an outspoken critic of U.S. support for Ukraine, which she says is not the bastion of democracy that the Western media champions it as.

          In particular, she has criticized President Zelensky on several occasions for his persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

          On November 9, 2023, she wrote on Instagram: “Zelensky now has absolute control of Ukrainian media, outlawed opposition political parties and Ukraine’s Orthodox Church, declared martial law, and uses absolute power under martial law to cancel presidential elections.”

          Speaking with Tucker Carlson in December 2022, she stated: “[President Zelensky] has shut down the biggest Ukraine [sic] Church in the country.”

          Ukraine’s Parliament passed the bill on banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on August 20 and President Zelensky signed it into law four days later. According to the document, court cases against individual churches and monasteries within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church can begin after 9 months from the point when it came into effect.

          President Trump has also announced that he will not be inviting former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who actively agitated in favor of the schismatic group in Ukraine and against the canonical Church, back to his administration.”

          https://orthochristian.com/164669.html

          • Gail, all ruling bishops have “thrones”. The word cathedra literally means throne. Even the heads of monasteries are enthroned when they become abbot or abbess.

            What did Patriarch Bartholomew do for the UOC? Well, after he revoked the 1686 subordination of the Kiev Metropolitanate to Moscow, he then invited every single UOC bishop with a personal letter inviting them to join together in creating an autocephalous Ukrainian church. If all the UOC bishops had come, then they would have been in the driver’s seat, greatly outnumbering all other bishops of the KP and UAOC.

            I’ve heard so many times in America, mostly people in the OCA, complaints about Patriarch Bartholomew not recognizing American autocephaly. Yet when he grants autocephaly to Ukraine, people want to complain about that too. I think some people just like to complain.

            • Never said they didn’t. They just don’t whine to the CIA about losing them.

              You are evading my question. You know we are talking about what Bartholomew didn’t do during the war in Ukraine. He said nothing in defense of the UOC. Before the war, he was fine with Russia. He was fine with the UOC. – And you know what else? It doesn’t matter to whom he “grants autocephaly” because he’s made himself irrelevant. He does much better at winning over the schismatics.

              Of course when you join them (or they join you), you become one of them.

              There is only one patriarchate in the U.S. and it’s not his. Metropolitan Tikhon has no intention of joining the EP, and has said so numerous times. I’ve heard him say it. George has heard him say it. The bishops we’ve talked with have heard him say it and all are not the least bit concerned.

              The Church here, doesn’t need his “throne” there, to exist. We’re doing more than fine, actually. Our bishops don’t have to involve themselves to any great degree with Elpi, and especially not his vicariates, or his vicars, which Metropolitan Joseph made clear on behalf of the Assembly they weren’t going to do. Maybe a little too clear based on Elpi’s rather prissy reaction. (What a can of worms that would be if we were to opened it up. There are, of course, reasons no one wants to talk about Belya.)

              If someone is accused of being an accessory to a crime and they have motive, it’s a pretty big deal. I’m yelling from the rooftops. It’s not like I’m complaining to George for forgetting to take out the trash.

              There is a difference.

              In closing, (and we are going to close this thread for now), you’re not an idiot, Joseph. You’re quite capable of seeing the same truth I do.

              Your incessant desire to paint over the undoing of Bartholomew is concerning.

              • I completely agree.

                There is another scenario at play here. And that is the growing liberalism that is overtaking the GOA. Granted, the GOA is the largest and richest eparchy here in the US but the shenanigans perpetrated by Elpi, along with the acquiescence of the East Coast Greek-American elite, is making a united “American Orthodox” church difficult to envision.

                It’s making it increasingly difficult for ROCOR and other “hyper-traditionalist” eparchies to recognize the GOA (broadly speaking) as “Orthodox”. It’s also making it difficult for the Athonite monasteries to do so. The end-result is that more and more normie GOA laymen are going to said monasteries.

              • Two things:

                Whatever his motivations, JL is smart enough (based on his posts) to understand that Bartholomew has been behaving in an extremely un-Orthodox manner regarding the Ukraine thing. This means that whatever his motivation for defending Darth Varth, it is a team thing rather than something based on Truth or the Good.

                And so, you can’t awaken someone who only pretends to sleep. I wouldn’t waste my time on him.

                Secondly, regarding Tulsi, I’m becoming as enthused about Gabbard/Ratcliffe overseeing Intelligence as I am about Gaetz at DOJ. Ratcliffe has been quite loyal to Trump and if he has any overly aggressive tendencies, Gabbard will smooth over those rough edges since he reports to her, the DNI.

                I’m curious as to how all of this will pan out given Rubio as Sec of State. My guess is that he is just grateful to be rehabilitated from the neo-con category and will do as told. If this is the case, Gabbard could prove a true thorn in the side to the CP.

            • Joseph, I’d believe that the EP was acting in good faith if he did the same for America as he did for the Ukraine. In other words, gather all the bishops together (OCA included) and said “get together ASAP” but he didn’t do that. Instead, he created the Episcopal Assembly, a Rube Goldberg contraption which in retrospect, looks to be a mechanism for keeping the GOA on top and making whatever “autocephaly” that arises permanently under the EP. Just like his faux church in the Ukraine is under him. (Hence my use of the word “ukrocephalous” to describe the “autocephaly” in that poor country.

              Make no mistake, he was not acting in good faith in either the US or the Ukraine.

              As Gail wrote in response to another post, “God is not mocked”. This is obvious because none of the other local Churches have gone along with Bartholomew’s plans. (Except for Greece, Cyprus and Alexandria, smidgen of worldwide Orthodoxy.”

              • While Bartholomew cheered the schismatic Ukrainians on in their deplorable treatment of the UOC, Alexandria and a few of the bishops in Cyprus complained, but then they grew quiet, making Tulsi’s job a whole lot easier. She just needs to look under a few specific rocks.

              • George, I believe the main reason the EP vetoed the push for American autocephaly that came out of the 1994 Ligonier assembly was that the other patriarchates simply didn’t want it.

                Do you really think the Patriarchs of Antioch and Serbia wanted American autocephaly in 1994? No, I don’t believe so. They both had jurisdiction in America and didn’t want to give it up. Rather than blaming those patriarchates for this, the EP just simply said no to American autocephaly. So now of course everyone blames the EP for this.

                • Joseph, you’re quite correct about the other patriarchates. But doesn’t his expose the myth of the papalism of the EP? Sarcasm aside, why didn’t he call for a council right then and there to deal with this problem?

      • Joseph, what was does not equate to what is;
        and what is does not equate to what will be.

        The EP has historically been very important,
        from time to time, and may become so again.
        At the moment, however, it is hard to see how.
        George and Gail have expertly explained why.

        • Brendan, you might not be able to see the importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. However, if the EP were somehow to disappear, then I am sure that everyone here would recognize it’s importance.

          The EP’s bold actions in Ukraine may have shocked many, perhaps being lulled over the years to think that the EP was merely a do-nothing or a docile rubber stamp of sorts. However, I fully believe that the EP did the right thing, and that this will become fully evident to all in the near future.

          • And you would be wrong, Joseph. I have been involved with this blog since 2009 when we were all talking about the Jonah wars and the one thing that struck me about it, remains true today: We are mostly of one mind. If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t still be here, especially after what we went through at the hands of someone who, at the very minimum, had access to a CIA device that changed Wikipedia to falsify information. I wonder who would sic the CIA on our blog? Hmmm. . . could it be Bartholomew? Let’s say it wouldn’t surprise me.

            The EP’s “bold actions” were crimes. You can’t conspire with others and start wars for your own gain. There are consequences for these actions. Over a million people died, Joseph. If Bartholomew had not separated the Church, they might have continued to hang together as they have done for an eternity, They’ve faced challenges before but by separating them from the Russian Church, Bartholomew might as well have taken a hacksaw to them. Russia used to be able to protected them but Bartholomew interjected himself and now where are they?

            I, for one, have never seen Bartholomew as a “do nothing.” He is an albatross around our necks because of every single thing he has ever done of any consequence has turned out badly. He is on the wrong side of everything and everyone because in his mind, there is only one side, his.

            Something that turns out so wrong, could never have been right. We don’t have to wait for the near future to know that. We know he probably thinks he can pressure his people to do even more harm than has already been done, but we’re seeing the outside world beginning to mobilize against it! Even Tulsi Gabbard is aware of the facts. And right out of the gate, she is talking about it! As far as I know, she isn’t Orthodox but she’s clearly been paying attention. If he tries to do anything more, he’ll just be digging a deeper hole for himself. This was no little thing and they’re probably watching him like a hawk.

            RE: “I fully believe that the EP did the right thing.”

            Note that every bishop worth his salt would say you’re wrong. You can’t argue with results.

          • “The EP’s bold actions in Ukraine may have shocked many, perhaps being lulled over the years to think that the EP was merely a do-nothing or a docile rubber stamp of sorts.”

            There are two camps in this world:
            the ‘something-must-be-done’ brigade
            and the ‘let’s-wait-and-see’ brigade.

            While traditional Orthodoxy tends to the latter,
            Bartholomew has now nailed his colours
            firmly to the mast of the former.
            He may yet regret it.

          • “Brendan, you might not be able to see the importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. ”
            I am sorry,
            Joseph, you might not be able to see the faults of Bartholomew…….

  2. I think we’re already seeing the Ecumenical Patriarchate changing course.   At the end of the day, what the L100/Archons care about the most is the survival of the Patriarchate.   The Tomos is a terrible failure, and there is no more denying it.  That is why you see reports in the Greek media “leaked” about Epiphany and Zoria, and the contention between them and the Patriarchal Exarchate head Bishop Michael (who is a good man).   The narrative that is taking shape is that Epiphany and his inner circle are the cause of this disaster.   That Orthodox Times reported any of this political infighting at all tells me that it is much worse than they are letting on.

    The Exarchate’s existence in Ukraine is not an accident, and I believe that this was always the Patriarchate’s Emergency Plan B, a plan that is now being set in motion.     

    After Trump’s Inauguration, I expect things to happen quickly.   Zelensky, Poroshenko and everyone associated with them (that includes the OCU) will be thrown under the bus to allow the US to save face when it all goes to hell.   The Patriarchate will have their off-ramp as well, and can say that the Tomos was obtained under false pretenses (which is true), declaring it null and void.   The Exarchate will be the one to pick up the pieces as the only remaining (in the EP’s eyes) canonical jurisdiction in Ukraine.

    The UOC will have a decision to make.   The letter condemning the ROC for interfering in the UOC’s internal affairs (in Donetsk) reveals that the UOC Synod is sharply divided (not all signed it, including Metropolitan Onuphry).

       Should the OCU cease to exist, I expect the anti-Moscow UOC Bishops, clergy and faithful to join the Patriarchal Exarchate.   No doubt backchannel communication between the Exarchate and those Bishops is already underway (which is a likely reason Epiphany condemned Bishop Michael in his letter to the EP Synod).   Bishop Michael is a good man (I know people who know him), and I have no doubt that he has personal contacts in the UOC.

    The remainder of the UOC will either remain under Moscow (as their territory is directly annexed) or go into schism.   The Exarchate will be THE canonical Orthodox jurisdiction in whatever is left of Ukraine.   Moscow will undoubtedly take the rest.

    • “The Patriarchate …can say that the Tomos was
      obtained under false pretenses (which is true)”.

      Yes, but who exactly was doing the pretending?

      • I know a lot of folks on this blog don’t like the Ecumenical Patriarch for varying reasons, but I truly believe that HAH Bartholomew was deceived.   HAH was already inclined to believe what they were telling him.   It would only take a nudge or rightly whispered words in the ear to seal the deal.    It reminds me of Patriarch Sophronios of Alexandria, who expelled St. Nectarios.  When you have courtiers and people whispering in your ear, controlling what information you receive, information that appeals to your preconceived notions or biases, of course you will be quick to believe them (or come to believe if the voices are consistent enough). 

        That doesn’t excuse any wrongs the Patriarch has committed, but the temptations of a Patriarch are astronomical.  A terrible responsibility and consequences for getting it wrong. 

         The Ukrainian nationalists pestered the Phanar for YEARS (with the US government in the shadows), and combined with the broken relations with the MP, created the perfect storm for the disaster we are now seeing unfolding.

        I personally believe Patriarch Bartholomew will fare better on the day of judgement than some of the men surrounding him.   That is all I will say on that.   (Disclosure:  He’s my Patriarch)

        I think the writing was on the wall for a long time.  Archbishop Anastasios of Albania called it from the start.   The Greek (and Western) media could no longer pretend that this dumpster fire was a BBQ party.   The truth comes out, in the end.   Yeah, Orthodox Times is still publishing fluff pieces about the OCU, but it has taken on a wierd Pravda propagandistic tone.   Just like the Harris Campaign, nobody actually believes it.

        • The problem with the whispering theory is that the bishops of the other patriarchates were also whispering to him to back off of Ukraine. He ignored them. All of them.

          And it wasn’t just the tomos that was a bad decision, it was all the bad-mouthing he directed toward ROC ignoring the fact that they constitute a good deal more of the Church than he does and had the support of the Local bishops and a couple of the ancient patriarchates, as well. The things that came out of his mouth were positively shocking, insinuating that Patriarch Kirill, himself, was responsible for the war. He went on and on and on, until he finally demanded Patriarch Kirill step down from his God given post.

          And in the middle of this fiasco, he’s plots with the Catholic Church on how to merge with the Orthodox Church.

          If there are men who surrounded him that are more guilty than he, he is responsible for the company he keeps. And don’t forget the cash he collected from Poroshenko that was widely reported. The Ukrainian nationalists who pestered him were bonafide Nazis, which was known as far back as 2014.

          He “stepped in it” too many times not to be held accountable. He literally caused a schism, even though no one is saying it out loud. And now he has given a “mandate for the delegation in Kyiv to visit all relevant parties and address not only ecclesiastical matters but also the relationship between the state and the Church, current developments in Ukrainian society, and the needs of its citizens.” This is after the UOC is threatened with being driven out of the country. He has no shame. Epiphany is going to ignore him. Nothing is going to change. It’s one big mess.

          As if that weren’t enough, after his Nazis friends took over the UOC’s parishes and monasteries, beating up their priests, he, saying nothing in their defense thinks Metropolitan Onufry is going to join the schismatic OCU under him. These people aren’t even properly ordained! Every bishop worth his salt came out in support of Metropolitan Onufry and more than a few of us in the peanut gallery (blogs), as well. What would we all think if this were the conclusion? To reward Bartholomew by giving him the UOC?

          Bartholomew is going to be part of the Catholic Church soon. Communing with them (which I suspect he already does, as he claims his relationship with the pope “is more than brotherly.”) Then what are the Greeks going to do? Leave the Church with him?

          No matter who writes the history books, Bartholomew is going to come out looking like a disaster which is why the Greeks need to respond and get him out of Turkey into a monastery somewhere.

          He has done one thing to his credit: He’s proven to the rest of the Church how dangerous it is to have an Ecumenical Patriarchate.

        • The constitutional theory you seem to be advancing here
          is that which formerly obtained under English Law in that:
          the King [Patriarch] can do no wrong but his advisers can.

          The problem with that theory is that the King used to
          [and the Patriarch still does] choose his advisers.

          Euripides [Phoenix – Fragment 809]:

          “Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.”

          Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, 1683
          [Moral Instructions of a Father To His Son
          Upon His Departure for a Long Voyage]:

          ‘ Consult Prudence, and she will teach you to choose your Friends,
          which is a thing of the highest consequence; because we acquire
          generally the Habits and Passions of those whom we frequent:
          This was so well known to our Fore-fathers, that they did not
          scruple to pass their Judgment upon any Man when they were
          once acquainted with the Temper of his Companions;
          according to this old Saying of theirs, Tell me what
          Company you keep and I will tell you what you are. ‘

        • David, I don’t disagree with you about Bartholomew’s counsellors however, I must interject that men in desperate situations often give more credence to “evil counsellors” who tell them what they want to hear.

          Kind of like Grima Wormtongue and King Theoden of Rohan.

  3. The Constantinople Patriarchate (CP) should begin to realize that it has hitched its cart to the wrong horse. When that happens is anyone’s guess because, though the writing on the wall becomes clearer each day, there is a longstanding resentment in the Fanar against the Russians. Within (Greek) Orthodoxy, they consider themselves the master race. The CP has said as much.

    And pride cometh before a fall.

    The challenge they face is that the CP is located in a Muslim state and Greece isn’t powerful even in the EU. Their one ace in the hole is the US and the CP’s relationship with the State Department and CIA. They, of course, could pivot and begin to seek the cover of the MP’s wings instead of that of the heterodox. But a) they are liberals and that is unthinkable for them since liberalism is their true worldview rather than Orthodoxy, and b) they’d have to break with the CIA/USA and they see that as their lifeline.

    Yet Turkey is in the process of changing teams. They want in BRICS. They’ve never been welcome in the EU and they’re getting tired of NATO’s orders and the fact that from time to time the US supports attempts at regime change there. That could be bad for the CP since Turkey is their host country.

    Yet the picture is even gloomier than that. Once Russia defeats NATO in the Ukraine, NATO will likely evaporate. That will open up Europe to Russian influence regardless of what the current cast of characters in the European capitals wants. For example, the German government just collapsed and will likely have elections in January. Just as America is moving red, Europe is moving right. It is incremental and slow. The liberal establishment is fighting it tooth and nail. But they are doomed. The economic logic of Russian energy simply trumps whatever they might do. So, leaders open to Russian energy will inevitably find their way to the top. Economics has few laws, but that’s one of them.

    The dumbest thing those people ever did was make an enemy of Russia.

    In the 1990’s and early 2000’s Russia had liberal aspirations despite the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church was being reborn. They wanted to fit in and this whole worldview/civilizational conflict dynamic was not really in play – except in the West, which could not let it go. They kept pushing and excluding and sanctioning until they got the enemy they wanted but were unable to defeat and disassemble it.

    They bit off way more than they could chew.

    So, the CP will wake up one day and find itself in a BRICS country and surrounded by Russian allies of one variety or another as the US retreats to America First. And Foggy Bottom and Langley will be a long, long way from Istanbul.

    The OCU will be history. Romania, Bulgaria, what’s left of the Ukraine and the rest of Eastern and Central Europe will be under the shadow of the Bear rather than the Eagle.

    And they (the CP) will think their whole world has come collapsing down around them.

    Because it will have.

      • I agree with Petros.

        FWIW, the West also bit off more than it could chew with the globohomo agenda. Yankee Brahmins and miseducated liberals could not understand how utterly repulsive American culture is to the rest of the world.

        I’d like to think that the Dems are starting to get the picture. So far from what I can see on the talking heads on TV is: “If only we had called Trump Hitler one more time! That would have put us over the top!”

        It turns out that we were not wrong in fighting the culture wars. We even had an animal avatar: Pepe the frog in 2016 and Peanut the squirrel in 2024.

    • Great Job, Misha, and then there is this:

      “The Russian Orthodox Church cannot refuse to nurture the Orthodox in Turkey. . . (or not have a) “Russian Exarchate in Africa. . . (Because) in 2019, Theodore II, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, recognized the schismatic Orthodox Church of (Bartholomew’s) in Ukraine.”

      https://orthodoxtimes.com/extreme-challenge-by-moscow-it-wants-to-establish-an-exarchate-in-turkey/

      The differences between the EP and ROC are staggering and the ROC will overcome the will of Bartholomew who wants what he wants to the exclusion of what is best for the Church and the advise of his brother bishops. Everything he undertook in his later years was a mistake, from Francis, to Ukraine, to Elpi, to Belya. It is hard not to see what’s coming, for what it is: An admonishment from God.

      Bartholomew is out of step with the push to “right the wrongs” of past and present. As President Trump is fond of saying, “Nothing can stop what’s coming.” Justice will prevail for the global elite to which Bartholomew attached himself like a old barnacle. Bartholomew’s only option is to do what he would never consider doing: Repent and change direction.

      • ‘ President Trump is fond of saying, “Nothing can stop what’s coming.” ‘

        …in which he follows a famous exemplar:

        * King Canute *

        (William Makepeace Thackeray
        1811 –1863)

        ‘ KING CANUTE was weary hearted; he had reigned for years a score,
        Battling, struggling, pushing, fighting, killing much and robbing more;
        And he thought upon his actions, walking by the wild sea-shore.

        ‘Twixt the Chancellor and Bishop walked the King with steps sedate,
        Chamberlains and grooms came after, silversticks and goldsticks great,
        Chaplains, aides-de-camp, and pages,—all the officers of state.

        Sliding after like his shadow, pausing when he chose to pause,
        If a frown his face contracted, straight the courtiers dropped their
        jaws;
        If to laugh the king was minded, out they burst in loud hee-haws.

        But that day a something vexed him, that was clear to old and young:
        Thrice his Grace had yawned at table, when his favorite gleemen sung,
        Once the Queen would have consoled him, but he bade her hold her tongue.

        “Something ails my gracious master,” cried the Keeper of the Seal.
        “Sure, my lord, it is the lampreys served to dinner, or the veal?”
        “Psha!” exclaimed the angry monarch, “Keeper, ’tis not that I feel.

        “‘Tis the HEART, and not the dinner, fool, that doth my rest impair:
        Can a king be great as I am, prithee, and yet know no care?
        Oh, I’m sick, and tired, and weary.”—Some one cried, “The King’s arm-
        chair!”

        Then towards the lackeys turning, quick my Lord the Keeper nodded,
        Straight the King’s great chair was brought him, by two footmen able-
        bodied;
        Languidly he sank into it: it was comfortably wadded.

        “Leading on my fierce companions,” cried he, “over storm and brine,
        I have fought and I have conquered! Where was glory like to mine?”
        Loudly all the courtiers echoed: “Where is glory like to thine?”

        “What avail me all my kingdoms? Weary am I now and old;
        Those fair sons I have begotten, long to see me dead and cold;
        Would I were, and quiet buried, underneath the silent mould!

        “Oh, remorse, the writhing serpent! at my bosom tears and bites;
        Horrid, horrid things I look on, though I put out all the lights;
        Ghosts of ghastly recollections troop about my bed at nights.

        “Cities burning, convents blazing, red with sacrilegious fires;
        Mothers weeping, virgins screaming vainly for their slaughtered
        sires.—”
        “Such a tender conscience,” cries the Bishop, “every one admires.”

        “But for such unpleasant bygones, cease, my gracious lord, to search,
        They’re forgotten and forgiven by our Holy Mother Church;
        Never, never does she leave her benefactors in the lurch.

        “Look! the land is crowned with minsters, which your Grace’s bounty
        raised;
        Abbeys filled with holy men, where you and Heaven are daily praised:
        YOU, my lord, to think of dying? on my conscience I’m amazed!”

        “Nay, I feel,” replied King Canute, “that my end is drawing near.”
        “Don’t say so,” exclaimed the courtiers (striving each to squeeze a
        tear).
        “Sure your Grace is strong and lusty, and may live this fifty year.”

        “Live these fifty years!” the Bishop roared, with actions made to suit.
        “Are you mad, my good Lord Keeper, thus to speak of King Canute!
        Men have lived a thousand years, and sure his Majesty will do’t.

        “Adam, Enoch, Lamech, Cainan, Mahaleel, Methusela,
        Lived nine hundred years apiece, and mayn’t the King as well as they?”
        “Fervently,” exclaimed the Keeper, “fervently I trust he may.”

        “HE to die?” resumed the Bishop. He a mortal like to US?
        Death was not for him intended, though communis omnibus:
        Keeper, you are irreligious, for to talk and cavil thus.

        “With his wondrous skill in healing ne’er a doctor can compete,
        Loathsome lepers, if he touch them, start up clean upon their feet;
        Surely he could raise the dead up, did his Highness think it meet.

        “Did not once the Jewish captain stay the sun upon the hill,
        And, the while he slew the foemen, bid the silver moon stand still?
        So, no doubt, could gracious Canute, if it were his sacred will.”

        “Might I stay the sun above us, good sir Bishop?” Canute cried;
        “Could I bid the silver moon to pause upon her heavenly ride?
        If the moon obeys my orders, sure I can command the tide.

        “Will the advancing waves obey me, Bishop, if I make the sign?”
        Said the Bishop, bowing lowly, “Land and sea, my lord, are thine.”
        Canute turned towards the ocean—”Back!” he said, “thou foaming brine.

        “From the sacred shore I stand on, I command thee to retreat;
        Venture not, thou stormy rebel, to approach thy master’s seat:
        Ocean, be thou still! I bid thee come not nearer to my feet!”

        But the sullen ocean answered with a louder, deeper roar,
        And the rapid waves drew nearer, falling sounding on the shore;
        Back the Keeper and the Bishop, back the king and courtiers bore.

        And he sternly bade them never more to kneel to human clay,
        But alone to praise and worship That which earth and seas obey:
        And his golden crown of empire never wore he from that day.
        King Canute is dead and gone: Parasites exist alway. ‘

  4. Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta has resigned, please pray for our Metropolis that we receive a worthy leader

    For obvious reasons I’m a little pessimistic

  5. It occurred to me: Biden, Harris, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Schultz, and several governments across Europe have met the fate of the “Zelensky Curse”

    You have to wonder when will Bartholomew fall to the Zelesnky Curse….

    • What is the Zelensky curse? I’ve never heard of it.

      Israel may go down for the count. It’s like they have a death wish or something. They, of course, expect our help. Unless we start making some noise about our own participation on their behalf, we could get into some trouble. Iran has nuclear capability as does Russia. This is a war WE DO NOT WANT TO FIGHT. We can’t move forward with BRICS (Trump DID hold a place for us “at the table”) if we keep supporting all Israel’s decisions. They are literally fighting all their neighbors. Now, I’m hearing, Egypt is preparing for war. – I haven’t seen the agreement between the U.S. and Israel, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say we’ll support Israel in a suicide mission.

  6. I can’t help but take close to heart when anyone Greek writes up a diatribe against Russia, although when I researched this guy he seemed like the careerist Americanized Greek who found a great place to get a tax write off and find clients (the L100 team).

    To make myself feel better I watched Dimitri Lascaris’s latest interview with the Russian ambassador in Canada, a very good watch.

    This article is so ridiculous, it simply states that the Ecumenical Patriarchate would be better off with a more anti-Russian administration. There really is nothing else it says when you think about it. This zero sum way of looking at Orthodoxy is just sickening, but I guess just as the globalists insist on full spectrum dominance so do some of the EP’s zealots. The irony is they’re palling up with the devil in order to achieve this goal.

    And to show how ignorant this author is, it is under Mike Pompeo’s hand that Patriarch Bartholomew pulled off the so called autocephaly in 2018. He then sent Brownback to push Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens to rubber stamp the decision, and had his goons visit the Cypriots as well. Given this track record Zavitsanos should in fact be calling for a Trump victory WITH Pompeo (and despite my hopes, Trump has not excluded a Pompeo nomination to date).

    Trump is not some ‘automatic Russian’ candidate, he is simply more of a pragmatist in this area than his competition. And let’s not even get started with that whole conjecture filled accusation of Trump being on the hook of Russian oligarchs, which was lifted straight out of a shabby French TV hit piece.

    Either way, glad that Trump won. We at least have a chance for greater stability and have halved the probability of a nuclear war.

      • Not just Pompeo, but Nikki Haley will also not be coming back. (Now she’ll have to find some other way to get her husband out of the house.)

    • GeorgeS, a perceptive analysis.

      Re Pompeo, I too, am hearing intimations that he’s trying to weasel himself into the second Trump Administration. Being a pragmatist myself, I would be relieved if he were Postmaster General or Secretary of the Interior. Anything but SecState or in Intel.

      I know this is going to sound counter-intuitive but he might be the right pick for SecDef. DOD is so horribly mismanaged that it’s going to take years to turn it around. What anyone there has to contend with is nothing less than excizing trannies, prosecuting homosexuality in the ranks, removing women from combat positions, etc.

      Also, don’t want Tom Cotton at State. Let him waste his time at DOD.

      • Pompeo as Postmaster General?
        Overseeing future postal ballots?

        If Tom Cotton was at DOD now, I expect he would
        very likely have authorised Ukrainian missile strikes
        deep into Russia – leading directly to World War III.

        Be careful what you wish for…

        • I’m fixing to write something about DOD. Whoever gets it, will be eating a dog’s breakfast. There’s way to much institutional rot in it.

          Firings on a Mao-level scale would have to transpire. Then the excision of women from the service academies. Women would have to be taken out of combat positions as well. Trannies would have to be banned.

          And yes, homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

          That’s just a start. It’s going to take the better part of a generation to reinfuse the masculine, martial spirit. If not, we’ll never be able to take on a near-peer adversary.

          Let the howling begin.

          • Something also needs to be done with universities and schools:

            * Universities come under fire for canceling classes,
            providing safe spaces to students upset by Trump’s victory *
            https://www.foxnews.com/media/universities-come-under-fire-canceling-classes-providing-safe-spaces-students-upset-trumps-victory

            ‘ Reports that several universities across the nation canceled classes and provided safe spaces for students to recover from the presidential election prompted a wave of criticism that these schools aren’t preparing students for the “real world.”

            Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., drew mockery on social media after news broke the college invited students to a “self-care suite” on Wednesday to recover from the stress of the 2024 presidential election.

            Students at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy were reportedly offered treats like “milk and cookies” and “hot cocoa” as well as “Lego” toys and “Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises” to get their minds off the election results. …

            At the University of Oregon, “Quacktavious the Therapy Duck,” baby therapy goats and therapy dogs were brought to campus “to promote well-being and lessen anxiety” for students, according to the school’s event calendar and first reported by Campus Reform. …

            It’s not just colleges who have come under fire for their post-election practices.

            Students at the pre-K to 12th grade private institution Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York who felt too emotionally distressed the day after the election were excused from classes, The New York Times reported. Excused absences were permitted on Wednesday for students who felt unable to “fully engage in classes.” … ‘

  7. Alas politics is and always has been ideological in nature. It can even make Christian belief and the witness of the Church ideological. Ignoring the Cross for worldly hope and power.

    That is why I refused to vote in this election–yet my repentance and transformation has just begun as I still allow entry, harbor and feed illegal aliens into my body, my mind and my heart.

    Lord have mercy on us all.

    • “…politics is and always has been ideological in nature.”

      I suspect Talleyrand might not entirely agree,
      nor Henry Kissinger, for that matter…

  8. Personally, I was very relieved that a U.S. election was decisive and over so quickly. Domestically-speaking, that’s a very good thing.

    Overseas, on the other hand, I suspect that Trump’s election is causing a lot of uncertainty and turmoil. For example, what will it mean for NATO security?

    This past year Trump said he would encourage Russia to attack NATO members who do not contribute at least 2 percent of GDP on their military:

    https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-election-nato-crisis-europe-1981315

    Countries like Turkiye that fall short of the 2 percent guideline now appear vulnerable. The protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkiye is also most likely linked to NATO. If NATO falls apart, then perhaps the EP would lose it’s protection.

    • Actually, Joseph, I think this election is going to empower other nations. This was never just about the U.S.

      Putin disabled NATO by exhausting their resources in Ukraine. WE paid for that.

      Trump did NOT encourage Russia to attack NATO. That’s ridiculous. Why would Russia care about NATO? Go back and read your link. Trump said that the countries who don’t pay their share of the costs, should leave NATO. Why should the U.S. pay for everything?

      Turkey doesn’t need or want anything to do with NATO. That’s why they want to join BRICS. NATO and BRICS are mutually exclusive. It’s one or the other. It can’t be both.

      The EP can always come to OK. We’ll put him up until he finds a place, right George? We’re hospitable people.

      You’re reading the wrong material and walking away with the wrong conclusions. I can’t figure out if you just don’t get it or you’re wasting time.

      • NATO is a military pact. BRICS is an economic alliance. Although there are currently no BRICS members in NATO, they’re not actually mutually exclusive. At least in theory, Turkiye could be in both. Most likely, though, the economic alliance of BRICS portends a possible military alliance in the future, and if that were to happen, then yes, they could become mutually exclusive.

        Erdogan’s game has always been to have as much leverage with other countries as possible. I highly doubt that Erdogan wants to leave NATO as it gives Turkiye an incredible amount of leverage and access. For example, this past summer at a NATO meeting in Washington D.C., Erdogan stated that Turkiye would not approve NATO attempts to cooperate with Israel. Erdogan certainly wouldn’t have had the leverage and access to say anything at all if Turkiye was not a NATO member.

        Erdogan also still wants EU membership for Turkiye. The EU may very well let Turkiye join the EU now in order to solidify Turkiye’s military protection in Eastern Europe. While the EU is not a military alliance, it is moving somewhat in that direction. Since Trump’s election casts doubt on the reliability of the NATO pact for Europe, other options for EU security may soon be explored. A new world order is the likely outcome.

        One idea that has been floated around for quite a while is the “two-speed Europe” idea that combines Eastern European countries into a second speed Europe. If Turkiye is brought into the mix, it really becomes a sort of neo-Ottoman empire, which is exactly what Erdogan wants.

        • Well, they kind of are.

          BRICS vetts the countries that want to join. BRICS is about promoting the economic growth and development of countries. NATO isn’t a country. NATO started out as a treaty to discourage communism around the world, but later morphed into a military operation that strong arms countries into capitulating to Western interests.

          One of the countries NATO tried to strong arm was Russia, a founding member of BRICS. NATO wanted to carve Russia into 5 pieces! Russia is not going to let them in!

          BRICS and NATO are at cross purposes. NATO doesn’t care about trade and development and BRICS has no interest in creating bases all over the world.

          At some point, BRICS could form their own military. They’ve talked about it. The goal is cooperation and they don’t want wars breaking out all over the place. It wouldn’t surprise me if the members have agreed not to attack one another. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be conflicts and they would be easier to resolve at a higher level to discourage one hothead from attacking another hothead.

          Turkey has not been accepted into the EU for more than 35 years. They’re fed up with NATO and looking toward participating in a multipolar world which is BRICS.

            • Lest we forget, Eisenhower thought that if NATO was still in existence ten years after its founding, it would constitute a failure.

              We were so wrong to not listen to Pat Buchanan who said “Come home, America” after the Berlin Wall collapsed.

              • Eisenhower was correct. But the failure
                was not so much in relation to the USSR
                as it was to the corruption of US/UK/NATO

  9. I don’t believe in killing babies (before or after birth),
    I don’t believe in castrating little boys or cutting off the breasts of teenage girls,
    I don’t want any more wasteful wars,
    I don’t want strangers crossing our borders and raping our women,
    I don’t want to see children being sexually trafficked,
    I don’t want refugees depressing the wages of working class Americans, and finally,
    I don’t want governments killing innocent squirrels.

    1 as a man you have right to express an opinion on pregnancy/. As for “killing after birth” is a bold faced lie. If you know of such a killing, and you haven’t reported it, you are an accessory to murder.
    2. are you having fevered dreams about castrating and cutting breasts? You are in possession of a sick mind.
    3.Tell that to the Russians. And the Palestinians and Jews. Don’t tell us.
    4. Millions of strangers cross our borders. Do you need to get to know everyone, before they enter? Good luck.
    5. children being sexually trafficked is against the law. If you know of any, report it to the Attorney general. Otherwise, you’re an accessory.
    6 Greeks were refugees and were told the same thing. We weren’t wanted.
    7. I agree with you on that one. I am also against squirrel killing

    • Saying “killing after birth” doesn’t happen is just bold faced ignorance.

      In Virginia, they allow abortion up to 26 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy. Viability is generally presumed to occur at around 24 weeks.

      What do you think happens when a baby survives an abortion? Do you think they just hand the baby over to the woman and say, “Congratulations! It’s a girl”?

      No.

      “Hey, Virginia, you’re letting babies die (which is a more accurate description) at 26 weeks & 6 days when 75% to 85% of them can survive with treatment. How come you’re not giving them the treatment they need when you know they’ll die without it?”

      OK, I just reported it.

    • This is not easy listening. A strong stomach is required:

      * Listen to these abortionists admit the sheer brutality of what they do *
      https://www.lifesitenews.com/episodes/listen-to-these-abortionists-admit-the-sheer-brutality-of-what-they-do/?utm_source=most_recent&utm_campaign=catholic

      [Podcast – 27:03]

      “Sensibility is blunted through exposure”
      “Is Humanity a habit?”
      “Is indifference the result of an attrition of meaning?
      If so, one must watch the self like an enemy.”

    • Bob, your first assertion is patently ridiculous. If we used your logic, no woman should serve in Congress and have the option of voting for war.

      As for your second assertion, what exactly do you call removing a boy’s testicles or performing a mastectomy on teenage girls?

      Now let’s go to #3: What did we gain from Vietnam? Gulf War I, Gulf War !!, or Afghanistan? If you can answer any of those, I’d be grateful. As for the Russians, they are defending their homeland. No, that’s not an exaggeration. Western analysists have been saying for years that NATO’s purpose is to use the Ukraine to break Russia into at least five different polities.

      I don’t understand #4. Call them whatever you want, they are still invaders –and criminals.

      #5: I agree, it’s against the law. Now if only our Attorneys General, FBI, ICE, DHS, etc could tell us where the thousands of children who’ve escaped custody are, we could get somewhere.

      #6. Yes, we Greeks (and Armenians and Irish and Chinese, etc.) were refugees. And yes, we weren’t wanted. But guess what? We didn’t demand that the host nation accommodate our customs, languages and folkways. And furthermore, we didn’t get free bennies from the govt. We sucked it up and made a go of it the best we could. It’s called sink or swim.

      All those of us who are nationalist/populists want is a little perspective. The Democrat Party has lost all perspective. (I know, I used to be one.)

  10. Anyone reading Public Orthodoxy wasn’t gonna be voting for Trump anyways lol

    But if there was ever a reason for an Orthodox person TO vote for Trump, it’s right there in the PO headline.

  12. Pot, kettle, and yet more blatant gaslighting.

    If the EP is looking for the cause of its loss of worldwide authority it need only look in the mirror.

    Do they really think Harris can save them from themselves…or even care about them other than as tool in their neocon geopolitical bag?

    It’s heartbreakingly sad.