I Guess We’re All Conspiracy Theorists Now

It’s amazing, isn’t it? Just six weeks ago, when candidate Donald Trump was talking about how “rigged” the system was he was widely mocked. Then at the third and final debate, he said because this was rigged, he wouldn’t necessarily concede on election night.

The conniption fits thrown by the Democrats, the Mainstream Media, and all the Talking Heads were astounding. Hillary Clinton herself said that such dangerous demagogy was ruinous to a democratic republic. And she was right.

As to the merits of Trump’s claim we were told by nobody less than the President himself that there was “no way” that our electoral system could be compromised. To believe otherwise meant that one was peddling in “conspiracy theories.” Trump and his partisans no doubt believe that the Illuminati are behind everything that’s gone wrong with America.

What a difference an election makes. We haven’t seen the Left turn on a dime this fast since Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler signed their Non-Aggression Pact back in 1939. Pretty soon we’ll be hearing the commetators on MSNBC and CNN talk openly about the Rothschilds or reading passages from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Joe McCarthy awaits his inevitable rehibilitation I imagine.

Now it’s assumed, nay –asserted–that the Russians “hacked” into our election; that they put out “fake news” and as such turned the election to Trump’s favor. Next we are to believe that Boris and Natasha from the old Bullwinkle and Friends cartoon show were seen slipping behind the curtains in polling booths throughout the Rust Belt. Maybe Vladimir Putin’s startling blue eyes have been mass-hypnotizing the American people for the last four years.

There is no proof of this mind you, just supposition or at best, and ridiculous supposition a that.

Let me give you a personal example. Once, way back in 1988, I picked up a newspaper while I was waiting at the Dallas/Ft Worth airport. It was opened to the classified ads and one in particular caught my eye. It asked that if anybody had seen Elvis at the Dairy Queen in Waxahatchie on or about October of that year they should contact the writer at a certain PO Box. So there! Elvis was still alive in 1988. Because I read it in a newspaper which I can’t produce for you. Just take my word for it.

Only somebody actually did post this nonsensical claim way back when. Having said that, there is no way in hell I’m going to go around telling people that Elvis faked his death. Nor am I going to try to convince you that I really read that ad. At the end of the day, it means nothing. And you’d be a fool for even listening to me spout something this absurd.

But not the Democrats. First we are told that there was the “possibility” that Hillary’s e-mails were hacked. Then through a very careful elision, we were told that they “were” hacked. Now we are told that “fake news” was put out by YouTubers and all this was masterminded by the Kremlin. Not only are there gaps in causation, the correlation is as solid as a summer fog.

Consider: why would Putin want Trump to be President? Under a hostile Obama administration, he’s gotten pretty much everything he’s wanted. All the caterwauling of NATO is for show at this point. With the surrender of the rebels in Aleppo, he’s pretty much carried the day in Syria. And we know that he’s given John Podesta several millions of dollars. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t, and all that.

It is breezily stated on all the major news channels that “all seventeen” intelligence agencies know that Russia “influenced” the election. Even here though, they can’t get their story straight as at other times, we are told that only “eleven” intelligence agencies have found this to be so.

Except that they haven’t. The FBI has looked at the same evidence that the CIA has in its possession and found the connection between the Russians and their influence on the election to be tenuous at best. And the whole idea of Fake News has been debunked. Want more proof? Just yesterday, the Congress asked the CIA to come forward with whatever evidence they had and they refused. Can you believe it? This sounds like he making of a rogue state-within-a-state if you ask me.

As for the dreaded Wikileaks, its more probable that the DNC’s e-mails weren’t hacked at all but leaked instead. Julian Assange, the proprietor of Wikileaks has categorically stated that the Russians had absolutely nothing to do with Hillary’s e-mails.

Even more interesting, he issued a $20,000 reward for anybody who can shed light on the death of Seth Rich, a DNC staffer who was shot four times in the back while walking to his apartment in the Georgetown area in the wee hours of the morning. This was a “robbery” we were told, in one of the most posh areas of DC. Rich was shot four times in the back but his wallet, watch, smart-phone and jewelry were all still on him when his body was found. Sounds like your average, garden-variety robbery to me.

Now of course, most of the sane Democratic operatives who are peddling this nonsense don’t really believe it. What they’re trying to do is derail the Trump Administration even before it starts. They are concerned about the ascendancy of a pro-Russian Trump Administration peopled with advisors sch as Lt Gen Michael Flynn (who Trump has named as his National Security Advisor) and Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson. Both of these men have good ties with the Russian Federation. This causes great concern to both Neocons as well as Neolibs, so great is their fear and loathing of Russia.

That being said, there really are some true-believers in the Hillary camp who can’t come to grips with the reality of November 8, 2016; how a garrulous, p*ssy-grabbing oaf beat the most qualified person ever in the race for the highest office in the land. They’ll never be able to wrap their heads around the obvious reason that Hillary lost because she was anything but qualified, that she ran an inept campaign and that her persona screamed “elitist!”.

It has to be a conspiracy. If you’re a Nevertrumper, grab your tinfoil hats and place them firmly upon your head. Grab a copy of The Protocols or old copies of Der Sturmer because that’s the only way things are going to make sense from here on in.

Comments

  1. George Michalopulos wrote
    There is no proof of this mind you, just supposition or at best, and ridiculous supposition a that.

    This is not true. There is a great deal of evidence even outside what has been publicly disclosed by the IC and FBI. A fair bit of private sector analysis of APT28/APT29 activity, among other things has been published. In addition, a number of Congress members from both parties with intelligence briefs have made statements on the matter based on the evidence they have reviewed.

    George Michalopulos wrote
    Except that they haven’t. The FBI has looked at the same evidence that the CIA has in its possession and found the connection between the Russians and their influence on the election to be tenuous at best.

    This is not true either. The FBI and CIA do not disagree on assessments of Russian involvement in various hacking operations. They disagree on probable assessments of the intent of said operations. First you want to pretend there is no evidence of Russian hacking, then you want to pretend it did exist but didn’t have anything to do with the election. Make up your mind.

    Just yesterday, the Congress asked the CIA to come forward with whatever evidence they had and they refused.

    This is a partial truth buried in noxious spin, what happened Nunes tried to call a meeting immediately after being appointed to the transition team to get information while the review is still ongoing. Guess how the optics on that look.

    Typical George Michalopulos: if the facts don’t support his assertions, just change the facts until they do.

    • George Michalopulos says

      As usual, you only see what you want to see. I’m amused at how quickly you elide foreign “influence peddling” with actual “hacking.” We know that Saudi Arabia (our great ally) has influenced the election in Hillary’s favor to the tune of several million dollars. Yet you believe that Russia actually “hacked” the DNC servers to the detriment of Hillary.

      Curiously, you are stunningly silent when it comes to the revelations that the DNC actually did engineer the election for the Dem nomination away from Bernie Sanders! Why the crickets in this regard Nate? I’d really like to know.

      Yet when Julian Assange –the principle actor involved for that matter–says that Russia had nothing to do with Wikileak’s acquisition of Podesta’s e-mails we hear nary a peep coming from the likes of you.

      Why? My guess is that you all can’t come to grips with the fact that Hillary Clinton actually lost the election fair and square.

      For an easy primer, please see the following video.

      http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jimmy+dore+show+youtube&qpvt=jimmy+dore+show+youtube&view=detail&mid=47E381D1120696A4CE6447E381D1120696A4CE64&FORM=VRDGAR

      (Forgive Jimmy Dore’s potty mouth: he’s still spot on regarding Hillary’s execrable personality.)

      • Russia engaged in a large-scale hacking campaign that included, but ranged far beyond the DNC email hacks. That Russia was engaging in this behavior was known before the election. It came up in the debates. Trump was briefed on it as a nominee. That Russia was doing it to specifically boost Trump, and not just undermine American sovereignty and democracy was basically sat on prior to the election in large part because Obama viewed releasing that information would be viewed as a partisan act.

        Now that the election is over, this is coming out, and the sheer scale of the operation is being revealed as people go on record.

        http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0

        There is a tremendous amount of available attribution. George Michalopulos is just going to put his hands over his ears and sing ‘la la la! can’t hear you! There was no Russian hacking!’ In the fact of all fact, evidence and government assertions to the contrary.

        George Michalopulos wrote
        Yet when Julian Assange –the principle actor involved for that matter–says that Russia had nothing to do with Wikileak’s acquisition of Podesta’s e-mails we hear nary a peep coming from the likes of you.

        The peep out of me is: Assange is not being truthful with you. Full stop. But then it’s not like he wants to acknowledge being a pawn in a Russian operation. But when you toss in the Bundestag leaks and attribution on top of everything else, such claims go beyond ridiculous to pitiable.

        • George Michalopulos says

          OK, now I realize that you are the one that’s unhinged. Full Stop. (BTW, do you get that locution from your fairy godmother?)

          How can you possibly know that Assange is “not being truthful”? Can you see into the hearts of men now as well? Even those hiding out in a foreign embassy four thousand miles away?

          Still, I should be merciful: It’s a sad day when your all your precious idols are being smashed right before your very eyes.

          • No psychic powers or spiritual discernment is needed to question the truthfulness of Mr. Assange, merely paying attention to the attribution and reporting and disclosures as they come. Not to mention some current and recent history in regards to Wikileaks.

            The argument by some “who cares if it was the Russians if it exposed truth!” is utter nonsense. Taking a look back, when it came to “truth” or “revelations” from the DNC hacks or the Clinton campaign hacks, George Michalopulos certainly played his role as a useful idiot shoveling out the dishonest spin, distortion or outright fabrication (Pizzzzzzzzzagate!).

            And that’s not getting into the actual internal data and playbook leakage that spilled out into House races. While it is not something that is possible to quantify the effect in terms of electoral outcome, it was a concentrated, purposeful effort by a foreign power. It deserves a harsh response.

            I understand some of you feel otherwise and would rather high-five Putin. I’m sorry you put your partisanship before country.

            “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced
            Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist” – Hannah Arendt

        • Nate,

          The problem with the whole thing and the reason it is not getting much traction among the sane is that regardless of whether it was Russia or someone else, the emails were authentic, the DNC is not denying that. Thus they reflect truthfully the activities of DNC operatives behind the scenes in their efforts to coopt the MSM to elect Hillary. I.e., the information was true. No one hacked into the DNC to spin a theory about Pizzagate. The Dems did that one to themselves. Anyone can look at communications and spin circumstantial theories.

          What the Dems and MSM are livid about is that someone uncovered their cooperation to elect Hillary. The story should be that the MSM is corrupt to high heaven, not that the Russians uncovered that now irrefutable fact.

          This is why they’re pissed:

          http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37639370

          • George Michalopulos says

            I know, isn’t it amazing? They’re squealing because the truth of the matter is the truth. For me though, it’s especially delicious to be taken to task because I won’t accept uncritically what the CIA with or without the FBI is leaking (anonymously I might add) to the press.

            Think of it: in the Soviet Union there were two organs of the press —Izvestia (“The News”) and Pravda (“The Truth”). Yet even in this most repressive of police states, nobody believed them. There was an old joke: “There is no Truth in The News and there is no News in The Truth.”

            And yet our esteemed critics on the Left swallow the propaganda of the Obama/DNC whole with nary a peep. Even when they have been exposed as a propaganda outfit.

            That’s a special kind of stupid if you ask me.

            • Michael Bauman says

              Not stupid just ideological agreement and collusion. Just another example of the weakness of ideology and why we need to work hard to stay away from it.

              My big problem with Tillotson for State is that he is reportedly a big fan of Ayn Rand. If he is an ideological disciple or her sleaziness then he will have no compunction setting a war course without human considerations.

              As with most of Trump appointees he seems to be the polar opposite of the bureaucracy he will likely be heading.

              Either that or Trump has in mind that some of his initial nominees will be shot down and he has the guy he really wants as a backup.

          • Trivia, rotten red herrings and worse. The Russian-hacked and distributed e-mails strike me as relatively minor components in the Russian disinfo scampaign’s insidious destructiveness to civil society here and in the other, more advanced and open liberal democracies of the West. The known neo-Soviet espionage and disinformation activities in the West amount to lots more than that. Never mind all the as yet undetected mischief.

            FYI, it doesn’t really matter in the least whether you honestly perceive these objective facts or not, since you’re now close to being perfectly irrelevant, a mere cipher not an actor among the sane. You’re ejected from the game for multiple fouls. And as far as I’m concerned, this latest one is so over the top and unconscionable that it should result in your ejection for the rest of the season at least.

        • Nate,

          Your post causes one to wonder if those who accept the intelligence services’ assessments uncritically are still searching for WMD’s in Iraq.

          I would very much like to believe my government. Truly I would. And there was a time when I did. The trouble is that they have misinterpreted factual information, framed it according to their own political ends, or simply outright lied one too many times.

          When they provide incontrovertible evidence I will believe them. Until then, I have every reason to remain highly skeptical. And until the press holds the Progressive Left as accountable for their multiplied deceptions as they do the Right I have no reason to believe any of their reports either – not without proof.

          I am no conspiracy theorist. I WANT to be able to believe what my government and the press report. But it is their fault that those of us who are skeptical are as we are, and only they can reverse the breech of trust they have created.

          • …and we will know if His Grace Bishop Tikon has truly left our company if he fails to catch my now second misspelling of “breach.” I know he got a kick out of the idea of “breeches of trust.” As he would say, “What an idea!”

            • Funny, indeed! Brian you also misspelled his name! The ghost of Christmas past may now return for sure!

  2. Chris Keller says

    Trump won the vote, and the voting outcome was not “rigged”. He had been implying the voting system itself was being “rigged”, which is absurd. Voter fraud is minor, and mistakes in counting votes are limited to what human error cannot be removed entirely.

    However, the USIC has stated they have evidence enough to warrant belief that Russian state actors were behind the “hack” (really, phishing scheme, mostly) of the DNC and possibly a couple other groups like RNC. Either the non-partisan USIC organizations and their membership, being composed of the best info sec people out there, is correct about this, or somehow this group which is vital to American national security has somehow become woefully incompetent. It seems more likely bloggers are mistaken than that USIC is.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/world/europe/russia-dnc-hack-emails.html

    https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/?_ga=1.157373434.1197647518.1466197788

    https://www.threatconnect.com/blog/guccifer-2-all-roads-lead-russia/

    https://www.secureworks.com/research/threat-group-4127-targets-hillary-clinton-presidential-campaign

    • They say they have evidence? Let’s have it then. All trust is gone. When the hacks open their mouths how often does truth actually emerge. Are they telling us more about themselves and how they think and behave than the people they accuse? We’re not listening anymore though we continue to pray–yes, even for them–though it seem to be a case of “lest they see either eyes and hear with their ears and turn …”

      Lxc+

      • Michael Bauman says

        Saw some figures that Trump lost the popular vote in CA by over 4 million votes. Nationally he lost by 2 million. If that is true then he actually won the popular vote by 2 million.

    • The Dems have never denied that they are corrupt as hell, they’re just mad that someone (maybe Russia, maybe not) pulled the curtain aside.

      • Don’t think the other side is insulated that well.

        Just wait until DJ Trump makes some foreign nation mad and they go after every guy in the GOPs email accounts.

        Then, you’ll be crying foul on cyberwarfare, too.

  3. I think what I am about to write is accurate/compatible from the standpoint of Orthodox theology but I am open to comment on that.

    At bottom, if you could get to the bottom and measure the basic “stuff” of everything, this is what you would find. Underneath all matter are forms of energy: magnetism, gravity, radiation/photons of various types, “strings”, etc. The deeper you look, that is what you find. This energy exists both in infinitesimally small amounts, but everywhere. It is ubiquitous in one form or another, kinetic or potential. Peruse this article on matter, note particularly the fact that matter tends to reduce to massless types of “stuff” and that most of the mass of matter is now attributed to the inner tension between forms of energy at the subatomic level. Also note the remarks about “dark matter” and “dark energy”, forms of matter and energy which we know must exist in otherwise unoccupied space, but which we can only detect based upon the behavior of masses of matter (planets, stars, etc.) we are able to measure.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter

    See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy on the nature of energy, which cannot be destroyed:

    * * *

    “For example, consider electron–positron annihilation, in which the rest mass of individual particles is destroyed, but the inertia equivalent of the system of the two particles (its invariant mass) remains (since all energy is associated with mass), and this inertia and invariant mass is carried off by photons which individually are massless, but as a system retain their mass. This is a reversible process – the inverse process is called pair creation – in which the rest mass of particles is created from energy of two (or more) annihilating photons. In this system the matter (electrons and positrons) is destroyed and changed to non-matter energy (the photons). However, the total system mass and energy do not change during this interaction.
    In general relativity, the stress–energy tensor serves as the source term for the gravitational field, in rough analogy to the way mass serves as the source term in the non-relativistic Newtonian approximation.[13]
    It is not uncommon to hear that energy is “equivalent” to mass. It would be more accurate to state that every energy has an inertia and gravity equivalent, and because mass is a form of energy, then mass too has inertia and gravity associated with it.”

    * * *
    This is to say, all physical reality is really composed of tensions between energy fields, so to speak.

    Underneath that, is a Thought/Power Entity. This Entity is intelligent, thinks, “feels” in the sense of having sentiments and is the Source of all Power. In fact, He is All Power. Were this not the case, nothing would exist. There would be no patterns of or in material reality, no structure, no teleology. There would be no sentient beings nor would there be a being created in the likeness and image of this Entity – man. There would be no complex reality or any reality of any sort.

    Either God is everything, or He is nothing.

    This Entity is beyond Being and non-Being. He has always existed and He will always exist. He exists everywhere in an infinite distance in any direction and to an infinite degree of smallness at any given point. Absolute Infinity is beyond our capacity to circumscribe, but that is what He is, Absolutely Infinite.

    And He loves us and became Flesh for our sakes.

    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” – John 1:1-5

    “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:9-14

    This is God.

    God is a Spirit and He must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth. He is served through energy and matter. Now we can, of course, distinguish between “physical energy” and “divine energy”. I’m not sure myself as to exactly where the line is drawn. But it seems clear that “physical energy” must, at bottom, be composed of “divine energy”, assuming that there is a distinction. Read Dionysus.

    That is to say, the raw material of all that is, everywhere, is Energy.

    “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters [Divine Energy]. and God said, Let there be light, and there was light.“ – Genesis 1:2-3

    Now there are those who would suggest that the Waters are Chaos. But Chaos is a Greek concept and has a sort of negative connotation. There was no evil of any kind anywhere at this point, only good. Evil has no ontological reality, it is a product of disobedience, bad choices, a glitch in an otherwise good and holy existence. There was certainly no H²O.

    In a sense, we were all born of Water and Spirit, in the beginning.

    This is not Pantheism. To say God is beneath or underlying all things is not exactly to say that God is all things. His Essence, the Thought/Power Entity is immaterial, a Force, like gravity or magnetism. It can only be sensed or measured through its activities on matter. Energy itself is also that way.

    This is more or less compatible with Panenthiesm, but Orthodoxy has never had an objection to that characterization in as much as Scripture uses Panentheistic language:

    “And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” – 1 Corinthians 15:28

    “Christ is all, and in all.” Colossians 3:11

    That is essentially what Theists assert in so many words. The Orthodox, obviously have an edge on explaining it due to the Palamite distinction of Essence and Energy. Physics confirms that which holds all matter together and, in a sense, composes it, is energy. E=mc², the amount of energy released is equal to the mass of the matter multiplied by the speed of light, squared. Matter holds tremendous amounts of energy.

    God is hiding in plain sight.

    And He seems to be winding up human history before our eyes.

    Francis Fukayama wrote about the End of History after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was a bit premature but he had a point. He observed that apparently the last form of human political organization to be left standing at the end of the day was the Western liberal democracy. No other contenders seemed plausible. Western liberal democracy (WLD) seemed poised to guide the world into an era of freedom and prosperity.

    Unfortunately for Western progressive liberals, this is not proving to be the case. Another form of government seems to be stronger than WLD. We might call this form of government “sovereign democracy”. It combines a strong executive with traditional values, a welfare state, nationalist economic policy and cultural hegemony within the state. It thereby fosters national unity, the public economic welfare through redistribution of a certain amount of wealth, and guards the nations economic stability and growth through trade policies that place the nation’s workers on competitive par with foreign production. It is a sort of participatory monarchy.

    This form of government is taking hold because it is more successful at satisfying the natural needs and just aspirations of a moral people. It is taking hold because the deck of nature is stacked in its favor. It is prevailing because it is a source of unity, strength, prosperity and safeguard to the public morality.

    It is prevailing because it recognizes the role of God in human affairs.

    There is one other major ideological contender on Earth at this time. It is Sunni Islam. It is not a coincidence that Sunni eschatology is the mirror image opposite of Christian eschatology when it comes to the roles of Christ and antichrist. I suggest that what we have been witnessing recently is the beginning of the final act of the play.

    Note: George, if you wish, you can make this an article. And if Fr. Hans wants permission to republish it, he has it.

    Best regards,
    Misha

    • Michael Bauman says

      A new Orthodox lady I have met on blogs was directed to the faith by what she saw in one of her chemistry experiments. She says she saw the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ in the data. She had been unconcerned about God all of her life until that moment. Then she went looking for a theology that fit what she saw in the data.

      She found the Church

  4. Left turn on a dime! How about the love-hate, relationship with FBI director Comey? Truly comical watching Demoncrats, speaking so highly of Comey, then blame him for Hillary’s failure. For the first time the veil was ever so slightly opened, as little as we saw, it was enough.

    Even Trump’s P##sy Gate revelation would not turn the election to the ugly mess of the Clintons

  5. Estonian Slovak says

    Yes, is beeg conspiracy engineered by evil Meester Reagan! He not leeve now, but start plot against Cleentons while steel leevink.

  6. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/16/obama-retaliation-russia-hacking-us-election

    What else besides declaring martial law and “invalidating” the election could possibly have any significant effect as relatiation? Once Trump is inaugurated, Obama’s power to retaliate will no longer exist. If he is serious, he is plotting a coup d’etat. If not, he is merely placating Democrats long enough for him to get out of town.

    The other possibility is that he could, very rapidly, escalate us into a war with Russia, then declare martial law invalidating the election. He could launch on Russia, of course, but that would be suicidal. Nonetheless, I do not think they are thinking clearly at all anymore in the White House and Democratic/Prog quarters because the unthinkable has happened to them.

    If Trump takes office on January 20th, he will have the support of the American Right, Russia and the emerging European Right. He will have the powers of commander in chief. He can mobilize the national guard, if necessary. He will have control of the FBI and CIA.

    All the immediate sources of power will be in Trump’s hands on January 20th. He can parlay that into a cultural revolution. Obama and the Dems/Progs know this. They have to. It’s obvious.

    If they do not act before Trump is inaugurated, it’s over. And Obama is saying he will retaliate at a time and place of his choosing.

    Everyone on the Left is acting as if they are rooting for, planning, exhorting, contemplating and about to execute a coup d’etat.

    It does not scare me, since I have faith in God. But the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration may become very, very exciting indeed.

    Notice also, what is the focal point of our concerns internationally at this point? It is Syria, Allepo. We Orthodox are up in arms about the recent actions of the Phanar, but international politics has been focused on Syria and the American Election.

    How are all these things connected? What is the nexus?

    Turkey.

    Istanbul, Turkey, ancient Constantinople, is where Patriarch Bartholomew resides. His feud with traditional Orthodox echoes the geopolitics of the day, the clash between the Progs and Russia.

    The Turkish army is in Syria and Erdogan has said publicly that his intention was to unseat Bashar Assad from Damascus:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/president-erdogan-turkey-syria-assad-intervention-comments-kurds-isis-a7446956.html

    Now, Turkey is asking for a ceasefire until talks resume on December 27th. By that time, of course, we will know how the Electoral College votes, yet Congress will not verify the results until January 6th.

    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612161048651857-syria-aleppo-turkey/

    Erdogan is engaging in disinformation. He has stated the truth – he is determined to unseat Assad – but he is giving the impression that he is primarily battling ISIS, et al, as is reflected in the Independent story above. What he is actually doing is anyone’s guess.

    Erdogan is the leader of Turkey, a member of NATO and a putative US ally. He is a natural trip wire for a NATO-Russian war.

  7. Allow me to propose another conspiracy theory. The one we have on the table, that the rascally Russians hacked the DNC servers, copied real emails and released them to Wikileaks, thereby overthrowing American democracy, does not seem to be gaining the traction it needs to persuade.

    How ’bout this: At some point, the Prog/Libs made a deal with the devil; i.e., with Sunni Islamic radicals, that they would cede the Middle East to them, help them against growing Shiite power, and allow them to reverse colonize Europe. In exchange, the Prog/Libs would get “peace in our time” and favorable treatment in the event that power should change hands anywhere in Europe due to Islamic migration. This has never been disclosed to the public in America or Europe.

    The focal point of this deal may have been Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey, who wishes to resurrect the Ottoman Empire, practices Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and by all accounts has deluded himself into believing that he is Allah and constructed a totalitarian police state around himself. He seems to have been supporting ISIS in Syria and could be the clandestine leader of the whole radical Islamic movement.

    I have no facts other than what is public knowledge to back this up, but the facts we do know support this theory. It would explain Erdogan’s actions and the actions of the US and Europe in supporting Islamic radicals against Assad in Syria. For some reason, ProgLibs fear Russia and Iran more than they do Sunni Islam. Somebody has gotten in their ear to convince them that Russia and Iran are more dangerous. It could be Erdogan.

    Trump’s victory in the US election throws a wrench into this deal. That is why they are apoplectic.

    http://russia-insider.com/en/kremlin-lashes-out-white-house-put-or-shut-hack-evidence/ri18231

    It appears Russia is calling Obama’s bluff. It will be interesting to see what he produces and what he does to “retaliate”.

    • George Michalopulos says

      It’s funny that Obama decided to get all bellicose vis-a-vis Russia yesterday, on precisely the same date that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ, held another press conference regarding the whole Birther controversy.

  8. We have all been under the devil’s spell for some time now. Where else could the idea originate that when we die, it’s over; that there is no God and we simply cease to exist? God has not told us this. But deep down we have become accustomed to taking it for granted that God does not exist and does not act in the affairs of men. Deep down on some level we have accepted the idea that it is possible that there is no God and religion is just a projection. We have hedged our bets, so to speak.

    God seems to be relieving us of this luxury. He is separating the wheat from the chafe even as we speak. Those of us who trust God have nothing to fear. Those who don’t . . . have everything to fear now. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Those were the words that inaugurated the earthly mission of our Savior. They are very relevant today.

    This world is about to get dramatically more exciting.

    A year ago yesterday, God reached out to me and showed me, through insight, that consciousness and individuality were not the same thing. Consciousness is permeable. This was the beginning of my theotic journey, some of which has spilled over here into George’s blog. For five hours, God revealed Himself to me. And He has done so here and there since then. I had to face all of my fears, including that of eternal hell and thermonuclear war and overcome them. He was with me. I won’t go into the details of the spiritual battles, but I survived confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Yahweh made flesh Who dwelt among us, and He will return in due time, I don’t know when.

    As fanciful as it sounds, Christianity is literally true. It is not just one among many faiths or a projection of our notions of the Good. It is not just our sacred mythology. It is true, here, now, in real time. It is difficult for me to believe, in a way, even now. Some part of me still thinks it could all just be a dream, that the Christian God does not, in fact, exist and that what is happening before my eyes is not part of His plan, but just random events in history as we have been led to believe in school and even in some of our churches. It is like waking up in a Left Behind novel, yet not with the Protestant additions to eschatology – i.e., the rapture, etc. I assume that Christ will return and that we will meet Him in the air, like the boy in the story of why we say “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal”. That may be what Scripture is alluding to rather than a rapture.

    I suppose, I simply encourage you to trust in the Lord, to have faith in Him and His Providence and that He will direct us to paradise.

    I have written all that I have here to reassure the faithful. At some point, you will have to ask yourself, “Either I am bat-sh*t crazy, or The End Game is on.”

    I suggest you have faith because the ride will be much easier.

  9. Christopher Keller says
    • George Michalopulos says

      Then again, we could just ask Julian Assange: he said that the DNC e-mails came directly to him from an American source.

      • GEORGE, MISHA, GAIL, AND ALL CONSPIRACY THEORIST: DOW JONES is 19,843! We have never seen 20,000 ever. No fear in the circles, where it truly matters, in this material world!

        “They” meaning “They” who truly know what is or is not going to happen on or before January 20th seem quite comfortable. If even a whisper was heard that something could be done to stop Trump’s swearing in. The stock market would be heading the opposite direction. So have fun with your theories but all you have to do is watch the Dow. Enjoy the nativity spirit, have no fear Christ is born! The world was saved with his birth, and resurrection !

        If the market start crashing January 10thish then load your weapons!

    • But hiding behind the term “interfered” is the simple truth that the emails were authentic and that no one knows to what extent, if any, they influenced voters.

      On the basis of that thin reed, and not on the basis of actual hacking of election voting machines, the Progs are advocating an invalidation of the election.

      Again, they are beneath contempt.

      It would be good for Trump to get out in front of this and say:

      “Look, I don’t know who hacked the DNC. It could have been the Russian government or private Russians or the Chinese or some American hackers. I simply don’t know and I’m not convinced that the FBI and CIA know either because this all smells horribly ideological and partisan. But what I do know is that the DNC is not denying that the emails are authentic. That is, even if someone attempted to “interfere” with the American election, they did so using truthful information, authentic emails. I also know that the MSM is currently agitating against the public’s right to know and encouraging an invalidation of my election. I do not know to what extent this truthful information influenced people to vote for me; i.e., if it persuaded some that might have voted for my opponent. However, the bell can’t be unrung and there was no interference with the free will choices of the American people on which lever they pulled at the polls. And for me, that settles it. Encourage a coup if you want.”

    • The Dems are mad that they got caught. Nobody has claimed that the emails are not authentic.

      If it takes interference from our adversaries for the truth to be revealed, bring it on! I’d like to see how the GOP talked about Trump for the first year of his candidacy too, for that matter. Do you have that too, Mr. Putin?

      (Maybe Priebus got scared, and that’s why he was so nice to Trump starting in the latter days of the primaries?)

      • George Michalopulos says

        Ages, my feeling is that Trump has loads of oppo-info on a great swath of the Deep State actors.

        That’s why they’re all making pilgrimage to Trump Tower and bowing and scraping before him. Isn’t it funny how Mitt Romney went twice to Trump Tower and was left twisting in the wind for 2 weeks? I knew then that Trump was toying with him. At least when Frederick IV humiliated himself before Gregory VII at Canossa, he got something out of it.

        There’s more: Al Gore and Leonardo DiCrapio both made the trek to TT. Then just days later, Trump appoints Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. (Pruitt ranks high in the demonology of Environmentalism in case you didn’t know.)

    • That Russia “interfered” with the election or even favored one candidate over the other wouldn’t surprise me in the least. They do it all the time – just like our own ‘sacred democracy-loving’ government does all day, every day. It interferes in the affairs of other countries, hacks their systems, gathers intelligence, spreads false information, and seeks to thwart any move, political or otherwise, that it perceives to be against our interests, usually with disastrous and often deadly results.

      Every single U. S. political leader on any part of the political spectrum who is in the know about our national intelligence and covert operations knows this to be true, as does most of the American electorate which is largely yawning over these supposedly outrageous revelations.

      The questions remain:

      Where is the evidence that led them to their conclusions, and why are they so reluctant to reveal it when it is supposedly vital to the maintenance of our democratic republic?

      Why when they had to have had this supposed evidence for well over a year has it only now become an issue? Were we not only recently (just before the election) reassured that such a thing was impossible?

      Anyone with half a brain knows it is because the election didn’t proceed according to plan and that the supposed outrage is highly selective – an outrage and concern for ‘sacred democracy’ about which there would be only silence and reassurance had the outcome materialized in accordance with the plan.

      Quite apart from how the various factions of the electorate feel about the president-elect it seems fairly clear that a vast majority of them were pleased for a change to be able to know the truth (for nothing thus far revealed has been shown to be false) about the candidates. I suspect this is especially true even of those Millennials who would never vote for a candidate like Trump. Doubtless they didn’t care where the information came from; they only cared about its veracity.

      And so I wonder: since there is no evidence whatsoever – or even so much as an allegation – that our electronic voting systems were hacked and the results altered by Russia, are we about to “retaliate” (an empty rhetorical ploy intended only for public consumption) against Russia for supposedly (Again, where is the proof?) revealing what no one denies to be the truth?

  10. Quite a refreshing number of blogs on this page. Science confirms, flesh is flesh and Spirit is Spirit. They also compel an honest heart to recognize that there has to be a Source. The purpose of life is for life to give life, to life. It is absolute with no human reason capable of truly comprehending It in it’s fullness. It is the Command of God. For this cause, the Victorious Lord Jesus Christ opened a Way to return to the absolute perfection in relationship with God, that Adam and Eve knew in the Garden of Eden. Attaining to this cannot be a competition between man and his fellow man. We fight the demonic as St. Paul confirmed.Love God and serve Him alone enables man to become true friends with each other, having love for one another. Her the grace of God is bestowed abundantly, with Life, Light, and Love. even unto Eternal Life, also a gift, which cannot be earned. None who have violated even one jot or tittle of the Royal Law, deserve this Gift. We must put our faith in Perfect Divine Justice, and in infinite Mercy of the Only Holy One. Mankind’s self will is helpless in this matter. The Judgment is the Lords. It is impossible to love ones enemies employing only self will. The Agape Love is given by the Holy Spirit,as well as a Peace that passes understanding. I write from spiritual experience, I do know what I am writing about.

  11. My little feline brain has been churning this one in an effort to make sense of it in terms of Christian cosmology and eschatology.

    Normally, we Orthodox tend to be post-millenialists or amillenialists of a sort, if we have to take a label. I.e., to say, we tend to look at the 1000 years of Christ’s rule mentioned in scripture as the time between His Ascension and His Second Coming, when the devil will be chained. This is going on about 2000 years now and we should not fail to notice that there are two other periods of approximately a thousand years contained within this time frame.

    The first would be the period from the adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire until the fall of Constantinople. That period began after the Edict of Milan and ended in 1453.

    The second would be the period from the time that the Photian Schism was settled and the Iconodoules prevailed until the rise of Darwinism and the anti-religious period of the Enlightenment. The chaining of the devil in question would be the chaining of the devil with the articles of the Creed within Christendom in the East, the Orthodox Church. It ended with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Since then, the devil has been in charge practically everywhere (by Orthodox standards). This has been the period in which atheism has become the respectable default assumption of many educated people in charge of much of the world. That is quite an unchaining. For if people do not believe in God, they are very unlikely to believe in the devil.

    Thus we have seen the horrors of communism in Russia and China, abortion in the Western world, the destruction of the family and the patriarchy, the rise of crime, drug addiction and every form of vile social plague imaginable. The rule of the devil, the prince of this world.

    Yet now the Church, the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, is undergoing a revival and rebirth, just as many have prophesied would occur near the end of the age.

    “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28

    “And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

    What I look for to happen is that the Holy Spirit will get stronger within the believing Church and this will provoke reactions outside the Church. Some will be attracted to what is going on within the new Christendom. This would include Trump and many American conservatives. That is natural because what is going on is of God.

    Those who do not believe in God, or who believe in gods other than the God of Christianity (i.e., Sunni Muslims), will be very troubled by what is going on in the new Christendom and how it is spreading. It would be a great victory for the Holy Spirit, would it not, if He began to be honored in the corridors of American power as well in the corridors of the Kremlin? I mean, that would make it that much harder for the devil to prevail through Sunni Islam and other non-Christian forces.

    You can see this reality reflected in the Trump attitude toward Israel. Trump is a gift to the Israeli right. If many Jews are to convert in the last days and the Great Battle is to involve nations gathered against Jerusalem, as Christian eschatology seems to indicate, then matters are poised for resolution in the not too distant future.

    This is from the full synaxarion:

    “It is said that the Second Coming will occur after seven millennia have passed. Before Christ comes, the Antichrist will come. He will be born, as Saint Hippolytos of Rome says, from a harlot, who will appear to be a virgin, but will be of the Hebrew race, of the tribe of Dan, the son of Jacob; and he will supposedly live as Christ did, and will perform as many miracles as Christ, and will raise the dead. But all of these things—his birth, his flesh, and everything else—will be an illusion, as the Apostle says; and he will then be revealed as the son of perdition, with all power, with signs and deceitful wonders. However, as Saint John of Damascus says, the Devil himself will not be transformed into flesh, but a man who is the offspring of fornication will receive all the energy of Satan, and will suddenly rise up. He will appear good and gentle to all, and then there will be a mighty famine. He will supposedly satisfy the people, will study the Holy Scriptures, will practice fasting, and, compelled by men, will be proclaimed king; he will show especial love to the Hebrew race, restoring them to Jerusalem and rebuilding their temple. Before seven years have passed, as Daniel says, Enoch and Elias will come, preaching to the people that they should not accept him. He will arrest and torment them, and will then behead them. Those who choose to remain pious will flee far away into the mountains; when he finds them, through the agency of demons, he will make trial of them. Those seven years will be cut short for the sake of the elect, and there will be a mighty famine, and all the elements will be transformed, so that everyone will all but disappear.” – http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-second-coming-end-times-antichrist.html

    This is why I do not believe that the antichrist will be a Jew or a Russian. It makes much more sense for him to be a Muslim. Bear in mind, there is a distinction between being a believing Jew and someone who is descended from the Hebrew tribe of Dan. The first is a matter of both ancestry (usually, unless he is a convert) and religious affiliation. The second is strictly a matter of ancestry. Many, many Middle Easterners are Muslim descendants of Jews or Christians converted either by persuasion or force. The kicker would be if Erdogan, or some other Muslim, agreed with Israel to recognize their capital as Jerusalem and signed a peace treaty with them.

    http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2014/08/turks-elect-jewish-president.html

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erg%C3%BCn_Poyraz

    Who are the bitter enemies of Israel? The Muslims. Who follow a False Prophet (Muhammad)? The Muslims. Whose power is based on something which emerges from the earth and has two horns? Islam’s power is based on oil which emerges from the Earth and Islam has two horns: Sunni and Shiite; the Saudis and the Iranians.

    It all fits utterly perfectly from the perspective of Christian eschatology. So perfectly, in fact, that it persuades me that this little drama is being played out now in real time right before our eyes. In the past, I have alerted you all to Erdogan’s follies. He is engaged in Sufism, Islamic mysticism, and appears to have convinced himself that he has achieved al-Fanaa (“extinction”) where ones human will has been extinguished and all that is left is the will of Allah. This loosely corresponds to our understanding of theosis in a way, but they lack our distinction of essence and energies and their eschatology is the opposite of ours:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdo%C4%9Fanism

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3713/recep-tayyip-erdogan

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvenu

    This is very strange. I now assume that all of these people are not aware of their roles in the play that seems to be unfolding.

    Grab your popcorn.

    Today Theresa May said she would not cease arming Saudi Arabia:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/saudi-arabia-arms-sales-us-uk-theresa-may-angus-robertson-snp-a7474206.html?cmpid=facebook-post

    Angela Merkel seems to be hedging her bets:

    http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-12-17/the-latest-trump-awaits-last-thank-you-rally-in-alabama

    • M. Stankovich says

      “But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take you heed, watch and pray: for you know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch you therefore: for you know not when the master of the house comes, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say to you I say to all, Watch.” (Matt. 13:32-37)

      What is unknown even to the Son of God, has been revealed to you, Scott, over the internet. Literally, a handful of people have written me asking me not to address you directly, literally fearing “He is the type that would hop on a plane and come and harm you.” Do you appreciate how you are perceived, Scott? I’m not telling you this to insult you or mock you – and if I had a means of speaking with you privately, I would do that – but I fear something bad is going to happen here. Sincerely, honestly, and genuinely, I fear something bad is going to happen here. If you want my email address, I would appreciate Mr. Michalopulos giving it to you directly.

      • Stankjoshka,

        I have no idea the time or the hour when Christ will return and your paranoid little heart has nothing to fear from me. Relax. I just call them as I see them. I could be wrong about all of it, obviously. I mean, I hold the Orthodox faith, but any speculation about deals or the antichrist is just that – speculation. People have working models to make sense of events.

        Double up on your meds and relax.

        • M. Stankovich says

          Mr. Michalopulos,

          I find absolutely nothing amusing about these commentary scattered across the blog of a licensed pharmacist suggesting someone “double up their medication” or double up their medication and mix it with alcohol “so it will really kick in.” Honestly, I think better of Mr. Millman, who has mocked other posters about “being off their meds,” motivated simply by being angry – a stupid thing to do, but nevertheless sourced in anger. Scott has no excuse except childishness and passive-aggressive defensiveness for poor ego strength.

          Having suffered through the suicide of a patient who “boosted” his meds with alcohol, and a colleague who lived through a patient who did the same – a mother with two young daughters under seven – and who became part of a team who helped the father explain to his daughters what had happened, I would ask you to consider that you have no control over who reads these foolish, dangerous remarks, or how they might affect them. Neither does anyone need a “recipe” for getting high or killing someone. I am presuming that you hold some form of ethical standard as a healthcare professional, and I am asking to end this form of commentary.

          • George Michalopulos says

            Duly chastened…

          • Peter Millman says

            Hi Dr. Stankovich,
            I really want to cease posting on the internet, but I feel I must respond to your post since you referred to me. First of all, I have always had a great deal of respect for you because of your extreme intellect and erudition. You have forgotten more than most people will ever learn.
            Now, the problem I have with many posters including you is that they post things they would never say to a person in real life. For example, you rightly took me to task for the sinful things I posted to Bishop Fitzgerald. Before you excoriated me, I had already apologized to Vladyka, and asked his forgiveness for which he had kindly forgiven me. As much as I respect you, the thing that irritated me was that you called me an imbecile. I’ve called people worse, but I would also say it to them in person. I am extremely physically and mentally intimating in real life due to my excellent training in the martial arts along with my constant bodybuilding. I’m very dangerous, scary man, believe me. This internet banter is completely alien to me. In all honesty, no one says boo to me in real life.
            Anyway, I want to apologize to you for the unkind things I wrote to you in reaction to your post after I dwelled on it. I shouldn’t have written it- plain and simple. I respect you as a man and as a scholar. Please accept my heartfelt, sincere apology for reacting in the childish unChristian manner in which I did. I would like to wish you a Blessed Nativity of our Lord and a happy, healthy, prosperous year in 2017.

            • M. Stankovich says

              Peter Millman,

              First, my name is Michael. What a genuine, warm, and heartfelt message you have sent!

              I had to laugh out loud at the memory of meeting Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the Crips street gang, approximately 9-weeks before he was executed at San Quentin State Prison (it’s a long story, but I saw “behavioural high-risk” mental health patients who were housed on the ground floor tier of Death Row, if you can imagine). Tookie Williams was the most physically developed inmate I had ever met – particularly for his age (Google him), and had “prison tailors” alter his state-issue clothes to accommodate and extenuate his physique. Prison officials had asked him to “practice” with the med tech who was assigned to start the two intravenous lines, albeit to kill him, in order to reduce everyone’s anxiety at the actual execution. He refused. I said to him, “You’re an imbecile.” He said, “Why should I help them kill me?” The “behind the scenes” report said after forty minutes and 16-needle sticks, he got really angry and yelled at the Warden, “Can we get somebody in here who knows what they’re doing?” Tookie was a few months short of 24-years years on Death Row, and I wonder what relationship the man I met had to the guy who walked in so many years ago, and why life without parole wasn’t sufficient. But you did make me return to the OED to check the definition of “imbecile,” and I was correct that it means one who squanders the intellect God has bestowed upon us, but that is not the primary meaning: “feeble of body, physically weak or impotent.” Oops. My apologies, Peter Millman and the late Tookie Williams.

              Let me conclude by saying that I do, in fact, say on the internet exactly what I say in “real life.” I am, however, careful, precise, prudent, and judicious about what, where, and to whom I say what I say. I supervize a lot of students, and my primary mission is to teach them to evaluate – in real time – the volatility of the situation in which they find themselves; to predict and detect subtle changes in the environment and diffuse them as quickly as possible; and how to escape or defend themselves if necessary. There are more significant signs of volatility than size & fitness, and even in prison, where there are gunners overhead, and custody staff to protect you, assaults and stabbings occur in seconds; no one can save you. Somehow, you learn to rely on your sincerity and integrity to convey the authenticity of your message. When that doesn’t work, you run or fight! From what you say, Peter, maybe you could learn on the internet – the “banter,” as you put it – something valuable to transfer to the “real world.” Who knows?

              I thank you for your best wishes, and return them with the hope that we are among them that receive the Light Who comes into this world, and are among “them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (Jn. 1:12)

    • Scott, a few days ago I got a strong signal in my heart and mind that I owed you an apology, and a clarification, for some harsh and judgmental words addressed to you in anger. I should have paid that debt to you then. Michael’s post has inspired me to pay it now. I hope you’ll forgive me for waiting this long.

      Just like you, I’m in no position to judge anyone’s heart. That’s not in the job description for becoming a human being. One goal behind addressing you (and to a lesser degree a few others here) so fiercely was preemptive: to fight the spread of a hellishly destructive fire using a contained, constructive and, I hoped, purifying one. I wanted you to intuit and feel what it’s like to suffer yourself what your cyberpersona here is in the habit of unjustly inflicting on others — so you would stop doing it. Or, at the very least, stop pretending to do it in the name of God. I probably went too far, tactically. I certainly went too far in a brotherly sense. I say that sincerely, even though it’s far from clear to me that you’re more interested in brotherhood than brute pseudo-dominance. Not another judgment, really, just a confession of thoughts influenced partly by some of my observations — and a question.

      A fault line runs through every human heart between clairvoyance, godly intuition — or paranoia, delusion and projection, between true glory or vainglory. Between genuine humility before God or satanic pride.

      Please forgive me, a sinner.

  12. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/12/russia-communist-party-turns-orthodox-church-161212075756966.html

    The Communist Party of Russia is folding up its tent and wants to join the Orthodox Church.

    * * *

    “It is a holy duty of Communists and the Orthodox Church to unite,” Zuyganov wrote in 2012 in his party’s first lengthy document on religion, because both institutions shared “common goals and enemies”. The goals included censorship of “debauchery and violence” in mass media, eradication of Western liberalism and “its conception of human rights”, e-government and sexual education in schools.

    * * *

    Some here asked for miracles. Behold: Hell hath frozen over.

    • Michael Bauman says

      Except Misha it is a “union” based on perceived “ideology” not love of God. Perhaps foxhole companionship.

      Now, love can grow out of such unions but only if the expectations are low.

      God works in all things. If it is of God, it will bear good fruit. That is the test of a miracle IMO. Communism is a Christian heresy so maybe the heretics are coming home. If that is the case it is wonderful.

      • Michael,

        I don’t take it the least bit seriously. They are daft. But it is quite entertaining to see the same evil vermin who persecuted the Church suck up to it in light of current events. Glad I lived to see it all.

  13. Carl Kraeff says

    George–The treaty of non-aggression (and division of Poland) was signed by Ribbentrop and Molotov on August 23, 1939., not a year earlier.

    At least one poster has pointed out that (a) there is no allegation of hacking into the electronic voting systems; (b) that the hacking into emails did not cause any Democratic malfeasance–they were “preexisting conditions”; and (c) the fundamental problem for the Democrats, progressives, and the like was Hillary Clinton herself–she was simply a rotten candidate. One thing is coming through in the current tempest, is the Left’s tendency to have fascistic tendencies. I urge everyone to read Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.

    If conservatives are going to prevail in the long term, please let’s not deepen our divisions. There are good folks who would not vote for Clinton, but could not bear to vote for Trump for good reasons. Please quit trashing them. Jonah Goldberg was one of them and recently wrote a splendid article that the Paleos ad Trump-lovers ought to read: http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/443133/never-trump-finished-russia-election-hacking-criticism, where he has many astute observations. Here is an appetizer: “What’s particularly galling, though, is to listen to the Always Trump pundits spin themselves into a Gordian knot trying to defend Trump’s bromantic putinphilia.”

    • George Michalopulos says

      Good response Carl, however your reliance on Jonah Goldberg leaves me somewhat in the cold.

      As a stalwart of the Neoconservatives, he is at heart a Trotskyite. Like Trotsky, he views it as the mission of conservatism to go on endless crusades to remake the world in America’s image. As for the collateral damage done, it matters not. In reality, he’s no different than the liberals in that it’s all about process anyway. This is hardly conservative. That is why in large swaths of the world we are viewed as the “Empire of Chaos.”

      In his eyes, everything that is conservative in the Christian, traditionalist sense is mere ballast that can be thrown overboard if push comes to shove. The only thing that cannot be sacrificed is the readiness of America to spill its blood and treasure in pursuit of endless wars.

    • George Michalopulos says

      BTW, thanks for catching that error. I’ll change it.

    • Have I misread?

      Facism is the marriage of corporations and the state.

      Whether its Cheney and Halliburton as Ike warned us, or Obama and the health insurance companies, both political parties have fascist tendencies.

      Consider corporate tax cuts, for example. Who better to offer those than the right? Or Obama and solar energy? Or Trump or Obama’s picks for Treasury Sec-the Goldman boys?

      Sorry, but to suggest facism is left or right is simply inconsistent as a matter of truth, regardless of book titles you offer. If you considered nationalism a right wing tendency, we all know what nationalism drove in Deutschland.

      “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” Mussolini

      • “Fascism is the marriage of corporations and the state.”

        No, you left out part of the definition. Franco, for example, is not considered by serious political scientists to be a fascist. The distinction between fascism and rightism is the totalitarian element.

        Totalitarians elevate the state to the role of a god, being at core atheists or demonic. Fatherland, Fuehrer and Race was the Nazi Trinity. Mussolini, in the end, demanded that all refer to il Duce with the deific “We”.

        Franco was simply trying to be a good Catholic and battle the Communists. He reigned as regent rather than king and made Catholic moral teaching the law of the land. He is an example of a Rightist. Fascism is something else entirely. Fascism is monarchy without a moral compass.

        This is why some Democrats, Thomas Friedman for example, so admire China. But for its Confucian/Buddhist/Taoist heritage, it would be a fascist state and, to a great extent, is a fascist state. China has long abandoned doctrinaire Marxism and made peace with capitalism. It has all the elements of fascism as did the ideology of the DNC/Progressive Borg. The only difference is that the Chinese were more insistent and rapid in their transformation of society and, unlike the ProgLibs, are not as enamoured with perversion and feminism.

        • Lost me at No.

          Of course, this subject has been the source of much debate.

          Totalinarianism doesn’t need to be ruthless. How about the insurance mandate? Fewer die, but the insurers won via the marriage.

          And none of us have ever listened to Ike.

          Lobbyists are part of the facism formula.

          If Trump had any real anti-establishment cajones; he’d send the lobbyists packing.

          Ain’t gonna happen because facism is alive and well in the USA.

          • We’ll see:

            http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/09/intellectuals-for-trump

            I wouldn’t call it fascism. That doesn’t fit. Trump is no totalitarian and totalitarianism makes fascism what it is. It is the sine qua non. Trump is under no illusion that either he or the state is a god.

            Obviously there is room for spiritual growth. But it is not in the direction his critics would advise. He is doing the right things. And he lets them hear it loud and clear. His style is quite robust, but he is not impious.

            I assume God has anointed him to this task. I can think of no other explanation for current events.