My Thoughts on the Summit

By all real indications, the summit in Helsinki was a rousing success. For both parties.

I realize of course that the punditocracy thinks that Putin dominated the proceedings and that Trump was hornswoggled. Nothing could be further from the truth. As far as tangible things are concerned, Trump gave up nothing and Putin gained nothing. The sanctions are still in place. The annexation of Crimea was not recognized.

On the other hand, Crimea is still annexed and Ukraine and Georgia are still not going to join NATO anytime soon. And for the first time in a long time, a Russian president looked to be the equal of an American president but not in an antagonistic way. (Putin clearly dominated Obama, whom he viewed as an effete lightweight.)

So why is Trump being accused of treason? For this reason and this reason only: he did not confront Putin because of alleged Russian “meddling” in the 2016 election in a grovelling, CNN-approved fashion.

Now think of it, why should Trump do this? Why should he accept the media narrative when after all, even the Mueller team can’t find any proof that said collusion flipped one vote? What’s the up-side for Trump the Businessman?

There ain’t one.

Now that explains why newsmen like Anderson Cooper and Neil Cavuto had a case of the vapors. But why are certain Deep Staters (like John McCain and Chuck Schumer) screaming like a bunch of stuck pigs? Is it because they’re inveterate war-mongers who are afraid of detente? That’s one reason of course but there’s another, more subtle reason: near the end of the joint press conference, Trump threw out an interesting phrase, something to do with “the DNC servers” and how the FBI still doesn’t have possession of them.

I have a feeling that Trump has gotten his hands on the Holy Grail of the Deep State. (And really, if I were a Deep Stater I’d be worrying right about now: Peter Strzok magnificently embarrassed himself and your cause in full, panoramic, Technicolor fashion last Thursday.)

And no, Trump won’t pay a political price for making nice with Putin. Obama sure as hell didn’t back in 2012 when he clearly grovelled before then President Dmitri Medvedeev and told him to tell Vladimir that he’d “have more flexibility after the election”. If I remember correctly, Obama won that election, quite handily. As to why he won’t pay a price, it can be summed up rather nicely: Americans are tired of war and needless confrontation. Especially when Trump had to lean on the Europeans to ante up the money necessary to pay for their own defense. (To say nothing about the side-deals that the Europeans have with Russia, some of which we know about.)

And then there’s the matter of “Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 e-mails”. That was the coda to this summit. What was the prelude? When in his opening remarks Trump said that US/Russian relations “were the worst they’ve ever been” up until “four hours ago”.

I have a feeling that the President was telegraphing two important messages to two different audiences: first his supporters and normal Americans who desire a return to normalcy and then second, to his enemies, that he’s got the goods on them.

Anyway, that’s my take on things. David Goldman (aka “Spengler”) has an interesting take on thing from Putin’s perspective (see below). I had to give it a twice-over because Goldman is not a Russophile. Indeed, as a former neoconservative, he was present at the near-destruction of Russia during the decrepit Yeltsin years. I find his take on the Western historical narrative interesting and (except for the War Between the States) find myself more or less agreeing with him.

If you have the time, please give it a listen. In the meantime, I’ll prepare one more column and vlog before my own trip to Russia this Sunday. I’m going to take some needed downtime so I don’t intend to do any blogging (but perhaps some vlogging). We’ll see. I pray that each and every one of you are enjoying your summer.

Do svidaniya!

Monomakhos

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/once-again-president-trump-is-magnificently-right-this-time-about-russia/

Comments

  1. Matthew Segel says

    Thank you for your comments.

  2. John Sakelaris says

    George, you said that “Americans are tired of war and needless confrontation.” I hope you are right about that.

    I fear that it may just come down to how the US media explains it, as so many Americans are going to rely upon one-sentence summaries from news broadcasts, as opposed to doing any serious reading about Crimea’s importance to Russia or about Russian history overall.

    Right now, the dogs of war are dominating the news broadcasts here. It is a dangerous time to be supporting reason and compromise. We will have to see if the voters will go along with this hate-Russia line. I am afraid that a lot of them will.

    • George Michalopulos says

      True enough. I think all the news networks are owned be defense companies.

      • John Sakelaris says

        And I will take back one part of that comment: Even though Americans may be tired of war, it might be necessary, if Turkey attacks Greece or Cyprus, to have some US military actions performed against Turkey.

        Of course, that brings up another angle concerning the issue of US-Russia relations. Below is a copy of a comment I made yesterday on a news story about the summit in the National Herald online newspaper, a New York paper that covers the Greek diaspora.

        “To make this story more relevant to Americans of Greek ancestry, consider the following:

        One of our major concerns in the diaspora is the aggressive stance of Turkey. What encourages this? Well, so often in our history, as well as today, we can see a rivalry between Russia and various “western’ powers. Two centuries ago those western powers were Britain and France, now the US is the western leader. In any event, this rivalry has produced a strange kind of bidding war to see which side can have the allegiance of Turkey. This bidding means that Turkey gets military and economic goods from both sides and that Turkey’s outrages against Greeks, Armenians, and others will be excused or ignored as part of the process.

        It is for this reason, as well as for the sake of the safety of the world, that we in the diaspora need to hope for a friendly relationship between the US and Russia. Only then can those two powers work together to keep Turkey and other rogue nations under better restraint.”

        • George Michalopulos says

          John, is it possible that the Deep State wants a fissure between Russia and the US so that there will be smaller, proxy wars here and there?

          • John Sakelaris says

            To the extent that I believe there is a “deep state,” I will add that this “deep state” probably does not have any coherent long-range plans. They just know that Trump is not one of them and they want him gone.

            Concerning the specific issue of bashing Russia, there are numerous forces behind this strange matter. Some might be called deep state folks, others are just portions of US and international society who, although very different from one another, are nevertheless, coming together in a strange way to create this “perfect storm.”

            Here is a far-from-complete list, some of it overlapping, some of it certainly not overlapping:

            1. Defense contractors are likely in this somewhere.
            2. US and British academicians, some of whom have always been anti-Russian and others who, although they might have accepted or even enthusiastically supported Russia’s seventy-year dalliance with atheistic communism, are quite horrified to see Russia starting to turn back to its Orthodox Christian roots; indeed, Russia appears to offer the only major modern example of a nation re-Christianizing itself.
            3. Emigres from Russia, Ukraine, the Baltics, and Poland and their descendants over several generations who are now living in the US and Britain include many who have a chip on their shoulder against today’s Russia, and they play a role in our intelligentsia and press that is out of proportion to their total numbers.
            4. The “End Times” Protestant extremists in the US, many of whom believe that Russia represents the Gog of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39, and is thus foreordained to be on the bad side in the last days, a condemnation that is intensified by the failure of these Protestant extremists to make significant converts to their fold after missionary efforts in Russia in recent years, and also by an exaggerated perception that Ukraine is starting to go Protestant.
            5. The Islamic lobby, both inside the US and around the world, has chosen to cast its support to Ukraine, ostensibly out of support to the Crimean Tatar Muslims, although it is worth also considering that an intensified struggle between the US and Russia could drain the two superpower nations terribly and that result would serve the overall interests of Islamic expansionism in the world.
            6. The LGBT lobby seems to want to make a prime example of Russia because of Russia’s refusal to go along with the LGBT agenda–no matter that there are numerous other nations, many of them Islamic, where LGBT practitioners are in real danger.
            7. Active and retired US and British military who are frustrated and humiliated by their experiences in the last few decades of Middle East warfare and who long for a confrontation they think they can understand.
            8. Just about all Democrats are looking for an issue to use against Trump.
            9. Some anti-Trump Republicans are also willing to use this as an issue against Trump.

            Did I miss anyone?

            • George Michalopulos says

              Wow! That about covers it!

            • Antiochene Son says

              I would add the Israel lobby, which in some aspects has a complete stranglehold over our elected officials. (Try getting elected to any federal office without signing your total support over to Israel. Get ready for the swastika peddlers.)

              • George Michalopulos says

                They’re going to sweat Jenny from the Bronx this November. I mean Alexndria Ocasio-Cortes. looks like she took on that Sacred Cow. The Dems are in a dilemma: keep that seat Democrat or throw her under the bus?

                Thus we see the inevitable result of identity politics.

              • John Sakelaris says

                To Antiochene Son: The Israel lobby certainly exists, but I do not see them taking a clear stand on this matter yet. I imagine that some, with ancestral memories of Russian anti-Jewish pogroms from over a hundred years ago and/or with concerns about some recent but moderate moves in Russia away from secularism, might want to join in the criticism of Russia.

                However, I hope that many other Jews will take a longer view of things.

                My direct message to any Jewish person visiting this blog: It should be clear that Jews, whether religious or secular, whether in Israel or in the US, have one really dangerous enemy and that is radical Islam. The US and Russia are two very important powers with the potential to resist that force. Their strengths should not be squandered in a new Cold War against one another.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Agreed. John, I have become a fan of Stephen Cohen, PhD recently. Though a leftist of long standing (I believe he’s the husband of Katrina van den Heuval of The Nation magazine) and most probably a secularist, non-observant Jew, he hit the nail right on the head the other day when he was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on FOX:

                  https://youtu.be/84gOsDHjCgA

                  The money quote from Cohen as to why the Establishment hates Russia: “…because it is now a Christian nation”. Ouch.

  3. Pere LaChaise says

    Your comments are further proof that there are separate nearly-noncontingent realities present among us. That you could interpret this man’s treasonous capitulation to his apparent KGB handler (T to P) as some sort of victory demonstrates that morality is not universal and that political prejudice trumps reason and healthy emotions.
    I’m really not surprised that you vindicate the man in the whitehouse, because you have as they say, drunk the koolaid. Apparently there is no turning back for such. You continue to dig the hole deeper.

    • George Michalopulos says

      At least I haven’t drunk the corporate media’s koolaid. You know, the same one that lied us into war in Iraq

      • Alitheia1875 says

        Regarding Trump: people who live in parallel universes can’t drink koolaid.

    • Vladimiro says

      Pere, you’ve been brainwashed by the mainstream media.

  4. Well done, George!

  5. Sit at any American bar, in the last 30 years, and have a beer. Start a conversation, about what is wrong with America and politics in general with the stranger sitting next to you. The conversation generally would be the same for last 30 years. You know….

    We throw away too much off our money away globally. We spend more than we bring in. We make enemies for no reason, other than to keep the Military-industrial complex feed. Oh, and the main stream media is full of shit, and in cahoots with the leftist political system, trying to undermine our country, in hopes to shape their view of progressive utopia, upon us. Political correctness police almost did us in, but then something strange, AND WONDERFUL happened. The internet, followed by Twitter, TRUMP and his tweets.

    Trump does not speak the PC police’s language, nor play by their rules. He speaks, has the common sense , and acts like the man at the bar. He is held back a bit by the deep state, MSM, global leverage, and never Trump republicans, but Trump keeps striking back for us and the last 30 years we have had to endure.

    The non guilty pleasure of watching CNN and MSNBC squeal, squirm, and their collective heads exploding, is a near pay per view value! How many times they tweak, and twist like a Chief Inspector LaRouse, in the Pink Panther movies, when Trump says something that for years was never allowed, nor done, and does things THEY SAY is un-Presidential, racist, etc. and will destroy his campaign, and now his presidency. All of it countless, and priceless. Trump says all the things we are thinking and so obvious, but never spoken nor tried, by our political leaders. The old guard was too lazy, greedy, and scared to rock the boat.

    Nato is obsolete, and underfunded by those who need it the most.

    Unbalanced tariffs should not be tolerated.

    Borders matter, and the law applies to all.

    Everyone spies on one another, even allies.

    The Deep State cannot be trusted, and does not always act to the betterment of America.

    Georgia was invaded under Bush, yeah that guy, who lovingly peaked into Putin’s soul.

    Ukraine was invaded under Obama, that tough guy, who draws lines in the sand.

    Under Trump, Russians and Americans are in Syria and work around each other with respect to each others military actions. Heck Trump even bombed Assad’s forces when the line in the sand, drawn by Obama, was crossed.

    Most of Putin’s actions we condemn, are reactions to what we did to him, and the countries that border Putin’s Russia.

    The most important thing Americans want is peace. Better for America, that Russia is our friend rather than enemy, but the MSM and never Trumpers would risk war with Russia, if it would bring Trump down. They are un patriot, and traitors, not Trump.

    What did MSM and never Trumpers expect Trump to do at the news conference? Call Putin a lying bitch, and body slam on the floor, like he did via photo cropped CNN? Trump is smart, picks and chooses his battles. He knows CNN does not have big bombs, just big mouths.

    • George Michalopulos says

      One way to nullify the War Party somewhat is to bring back the draft and make sure that their sons were classified A1. Or make them live near missile sites.

      Bastards. I have nothing but contempt for them

      • Steve Zaris says

        Too bad about Drumpf’s painful bone spurs; I’m sure he wanted to serve, like Mueller, a rich Princeton grad who could have easily got out of it but struggled and persevered so he COULD serve.

        • George Michalopulos says

          Deep State Bob went before the Congress and swore up and down that Iraq had WMD. A great patriot. Thanks.

          • George F says

            I think there’s a deep state under my bed, or in the closet with all the other fictional beasts. :p

          • George F says

            I think there’s a deep state hiding under my bed, or maybe it’s in the closet with all the other fictional beasts

          • Yup! And as horrible a blunder as the Vietnam War, because Mueller/Bush. Everything down hill in the Middle East since then, except for Saudi Arabia, smelling like a rose. Seems the left has no problem with Saudi kings, heck Obama even kissed the hand of a Saudi oil rat. No outrage by MSM, in fact I never knew about the kiss until yesterday.

            We learn from our mistakes. Weapons of mass distraction, as I call it now, was sold to us, and it was deemed unpatriotic to call BS on Bush and Mueller, if conservative. Well now the MSM want us to reverse course, with Trump, and forget that they were the cheerleaders of the Bush/Iraqi protests going on back then, and now not question ANYTHING the deep state/intel puts out. Luckily we have at least one news channel that points out the historical hypocrisy, for those with short memories or too young to remember.

            Meddling/spying has been done by all for decades, and now all of sudden it is issue number one? Trump knows he’s the target, the embarrassment and treason is upon the deep state. You see it is not that are intel is incompetent, it is that they are corrupt. Trump is fighting a war from within. Sometimes your adversaries, Russia/China can assist with a different perspective and intel, in such strange times and situations we live in, when the deep state tries to trap Trump.

            End game is impeachment, in the old days it was bullet to the head. Thankfully those days are too difficult to cover up, and thus not used. So far…but I fear shades of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, when we will no longer be able to distinguish pigs from the humans, and all we’ve known, turned upside down, and inside out.

        • Constantinos says

          Steve,
          You are absolutely correct; Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney and Donald Trump were all cowardly draft dodgers. There is only one way to honorably way to resist the draft and that is to register as a conscientious objector to all wars. That takes courage, nobility, and great moral courage.

        • Antiochene Son says

          How ironic that leftist Trump supporters now support the Iraq AND Vietnam Wars! They are now big fans of GW Bush and Dick Cheney.

          The Deep State is terrified of something. Maybe Russia gave us a bunch of intelligence on the activities of certain people.

        • M. Stankovich says

          Bravo, Mr. Zaris. This is only one from the list of “qualifying” diagnoses made available to affluent white geese families with either the tradition of cowardice, the money to afford the sort of physician who would “confirm” a condition of cowardice, or both. Some would suggest that it is also speaks to a man’s character.

          Mr. Michalopulos, if my mother were still living – may her memory be eternal & may she rest with the saints – I suspect that upon reading your statement, “bring back the draft and make sure that their sons were classified A1,” she would be quite distraught. She would then sit you down and quietly present to you the outright terror a mother feels when her first-born son faces the draft lottery that would potentially place him on a battlefield that, in the end, claimed the lives of nearly 59,000 young American men and women, in retrospect, for no purpose whatsoever. In my case, a first-born son my parents attempted to conceived for seven long years. She would tell you that time leading up to the dayof the lottery was agony – exacerbated by the fact that it had been already announced that this would be the final lottery of the Viet Nam war. She would tell you that she sat with my grandmother – who was in hospice care and would die two months later – and watched live as birthdates were randomly drawn and placed on a board. And when they reached point after which no more would be drafter, and my birthday was not among them, she would tell they cried and hugged, thanking our God for answering their prayers, as I believe only a mother can. I tend to be a bit more circumspect in that, while I may have been spared, I cannot imagine the thoughts of a parent whose child died having been drafted in the final lottery.

          You seem to be on a roll here of sarcastic put downs & insults, and good for you. But I am not political, and all of this trashing and paranoia seems unhelpful to me. In any case, there simply is no justification for recklessness.

          • Michael Stankovich,

            The fear of losing a child. That is the exact point. Put the war monger’s sons and daughters on the front line, and naturally the pigs of war, war drums, will fade.

          • Antiochene Son says

            Refusing to take part in Vietnam was not cowardice, it was using the God-given instinct of self-preservation. Vietnam was no threat to US territory, and thus it should not have happened.

            “[America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.” – John Q. Adams

            • M. Stankovich says

              Gentlemen,

              Rationalization becomes you both.

              On my birthday, I was called out of 12-grade physics to stand before some guy in a uniform, raise my right hand, and be registered for the draft. Several months later, Professor SS Verhovskoy, professor of Dogmatic Theology & Ethics at St. Vladimir’s Seminary told me that if I was selected in the lottery, I was obligated to serve. And that was that.

              Obviously, you both felt “empowered” to address me and “school” me as to the matters of courage and the correctness, in fact the very utility of employing the suffering and pain of a mother to affect change. Unfortunately, it is also quite clear that you pulled your answers out of your respective butts. This would seem to prove that, on some occasions, wisdom, like courage, is demonstrated with silence.

              • George Michalopulos says

                Dr S, you’re completely missing my point I’m afraid. Which is this: if Bill Kristol’s son, or Joe Scarborough’s son, or Fareed Zakaria’s, or David Brooks’, or Andrea Mitchell’s son, etc, were all classified as A1 there would be much less howling for war –period.

                • M. Stankovich says

                  No, I believe my understand is absolutely crystal.

                  The point, as I see it, is that you display the ability, in one thread, to self-righteously and unhesitatingly demand of the hierarchy of world Orthodoxy what you have determined to be the best course of action for the “future of the church.” Simultaneously, in this thread, you display the equal ability to promote the notion that an openly immoral leader – who, in fact, flaunts his immorality like a badge – can lead a country to righteousness and secure the blessings of our God; it is perfectly reasonable in this new age of the projection of male ego-compromise manifested by a lack of civility, disrespect, to practice and even enjoy the “tactics” of humiliation, degradation, and the shaming of even the most vulnerable; and apparently everything, including the sanctity of the relationship between a parent and their child is “fair game” as long as, for example, the stability of the “economy” is maintained. And now, it even seems you praise the very act that brought the wrath of the Lord down against His favorite, His beloved, that great King David, such that that he would never enter the Temple that was to be the culmination of his existence. For this reason, David tore his garments and spoke words that are all too familiar to all of us: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great lovingkindness, and according to the multitude of Your compassion, blot out my iniquity…”

                  Yeah, yeah, well and good. Mr. M. We’ve heard it all before. But where? Fr. Alexander Schmemann, The Problems with Orthodoxy in America. wow. Shall we blame the Bishops? Yeah, why not. But take a look around. This thread is sine qua non of what Fr. Alexander described: the ability of Orthodox Christians to compartmentalize their “religion” along side everything else. How is it that even the most picayune, obscure comment of a political “foe” leaps from everyone’s mouth – Obama, Clinton, blah, blah, blah – yet if I ask for the words of the Holy Fathers, for a verse from the Resurrection Octoechos we hear every 8-weeks for forever, perhaps a direction from St. Paul regarding… peep. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21) Come on. I get it completely.

                  • George Michalopulos says

                    How does Pres Trump “openly flaunt his immorality”? Are you absolutely certain that he has not repented of his numerous adulteries?

                  • Michael Stankovich, when your time comes to receive your reward, and in the company of Saints, ask Martyr Tsar Nicholas if he wishes he was a bit more immoral so that he might have able to save his nation and the world from the deadliest purge this planet has ever witnessed. I won’t buy it was God’s will so please don’t go down that road.

                  • Antiochene Son says

                    Funny, I try (but fail) to read from the Octoechos daily. I haven’t really found anything in it that says some graffiti scratched on the Statue of Liberty overrules our immigration law, for example.

                    (I do absolutely love the doxasticon of the 7th eothinon though. “Behold the Dawn and the rise of day…” One of my favorites. Can’t beat Byzantine chant in tone 7.)

                    To my recollection the Fathers never advocated senseless generational world wars that kill millions more than they help.

                    St Paul demanded a certain deference to the civil authorities, but not unquestioning loyalty to the Intel community or their propensity to destroy lives.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      AS, you’re obviously not reading between the lines of Scripture or the Fathers. They were all rabid left-wing nut-jobs who believed we should drop napalm on foreign peoples who don’t share our values.

              • Constantinos says

                Dr. Stankovich,
                Why do you have to take a disagreement as a personal affront? I’m sure you are a really good man, but your arrogance can be your downfall. Your mind is too good, your thoughts are too provocative(and I mean that in a good way) to get so angry and snarky.
                The point George was making( and it’s an excellent one because I was the first one anywhere to ever suggest it) is that if the warmongers sons and daughters will have to fight in foreign wars because of the draft, that will greatly diminish their lust for war. Let these warmongers put their money where their mouth is.
                Now, please don’t take my post personally, and say that I am trying to school you.

              • Michael Stankovich, Silence is cool, but so is listening. If the simple point is missed thrice, well sorry Charlie.

              • Antiochene Son says

                Dr. S, I also had to enroll in Selective Service when I was 18, and I was eminently draftable while Iraq was going on. That is probably when I developed the idea that the only righteous war is one fought in defense of one’s own soil from a threat of actual invasion.

                I’m not faulting those who found some other justifiable reason to serve. I’m simply refusing to fault those who did not. In the end, I think we find that little good came from the Vietnam war.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  I myself enrolled in the Selective Service when I was 18 –and I didn’t have to. It was 1978 and Carter reinstated it, however I was grandfathered out. The SS contacted me and asked me to not lie about my age. I wrote them twice, second time with a copy of my driver’s license. They couldn’t wrap their heads as to why a young man who didn’t have to register for the draft chose to do so.

        • Anthony Ferrara says

          Most of the leftists who today denigrate Trump for not going to Vietnam and praise Mueller for going to Vietnam are the same ones who were completely against the war, sided with Hanoi and attacked our troop as baby killers. Amazing how TDS can make former peaceniks into bloodthirsty war lovers.

          • George Michalopulos says

            1984. I shudder to think how right George Orwell was. These lefties are turning on a dime.

            I remember when Reagan got up and walked out of the Reykjavik Summit with Gorbachev. The howls from the left were deafening. Then when Obama grovelled before Medvedev –nary a peep. What did they want Trump to do? Go to war? For what? Thanks to the Russians, ISIS is all but dead. They’ve recognized Israel. And the Euroweenies are making side deals with him all the live-long day.

      • I as well George, and they are worst than bastards!

        At least Trump is President, hopefully for eight years followed by Pence. My only fear is as the left is more and more exposed, and deranged, the more dangerous they and the world become. Nothing sticks to Trump and it has made them lose their collective minds.

        Bravo to Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, one of the few senators really sticking up for Trump. He is one of the few senators who simply speaks as he sees things, no PC or political mumbo jumbo, right or wrong he is honest, and straight forward.

        Love it when he told the media,”We’ve made this all about the sour grapes of Hillary Clinton losing the election, and it’s all about partisan politics now. This is truly the Trump derangement syndrome that motivates all of this.” And according to Trump’s tweet, Rand Paul said,”The President has gone through a year and half of partisan investigations-What’s he supposed (to) think?”

    • Alitheia1875 says

      Donald Trump represents no one but himself. He does nothing else but only what benefits him. He is a master manipulator who believes in nothing except what he figures out you want to hear. Psychologically speaking he is an extraordinary and dangerous narcissist and quite possibly a sociopath. Read the DSM V and look at the 9 qualifiers for diagnosing narcissistic personality disorder, of which five are needed to make the diagnosis. Read them carefully and you will see that eight of the nine describe his personality, an extraordinary percentage for any diagnosis in the DSM.

      • Antiochene Son says

        “Read the (((DSM V))).”

        lel

        • Alitheia1875 says

          Please give an explanation of your response.

          • Antiochene Son says

            Much of the new material is ideologically based on enforcing what some people consider to be social norms (or, what some people would like the social norms to be), not actual mental health. The criticisms are widespread; I don’t need to recount them in detail here.

            • Alitheia1875 says

              A reasonable argument except for two minor details. 1. Some of us who have been in the mental health field for several decades know that there are only a few items in the DSM that are “new” or described in “new” terms and narcissistic personality disorder is not one of them. 2. Some of us who have labored in the mental health field for several decades know it when we see it and hear it because, well, we’ve seen it and heard it enough times to know, to understand, to realize, that there is something going on other than what some might want us to believe is or is not the social norm.. Believe me, when you have dealt with very many of the diagnoses in the DSM you know that these aren’t someone’s idea of a social norm, but truly representative of suffering and, yes, dangerous behavior.

            • M. Stankovich says

              Just what I needed to end the day, another self-made genius prepared to lecture regarding everything except the evidence-based medicine of modern psychiatry, founded on state-of-the-art molecular neurobiology; behavioural genetics; and the contemporaneous, emergent revelations of epigentics, revealing our relationships with the environment that may rapidly affect us and our children in one place and not another, or in one group and not another, yet not affect the underlying genome. Wake up man, and stop peddling cheap stereotypes and misinformation. If you are suggesting what is currently contained in the DSM V is not “actual mental health,” that criticism is “widespread” – distinct from scientific disputes – or that “constructs” have been foisted upon mental health practitioners, I say put your money where your mouth is and I will answer you. You do need to recount them, and you do need to provide proper citations. Welcome to our house friend.

      • And yet, Alithea, the reason we don’t engage in such diagnosis is the fact that politics (and business, and law, for that matter) are forums for great theater. Politicians, et al. act it up for the cameras to excite their base and make their enemies livid so as to affect their judgment.

        Hence the Goldwater Rule about not psychoanalyzing the public personalities from their public actions.

        • George Michalopulos says

          Touche! More to the point, the Left never understands that political acts always are a two-edged sword.

        • M. Stankovich says

          Just to clarify, the “Goldwater Rule” applies exclusively to members of the American Psychiatric Association, a paid, membership-only organization that lacks any regulatory, licensing, or disciplinary authority whatsoever. Much more important is the fact that they ascribe to a platform of values and opinions that cannot exist concomitantly with the Orthodox Faith, and I personally cannot imagine how an Orthodox Christian could morally justify being a member of this organization.

          What your “clarification” fails to do, Scott, is address why there are already statutory provisions in place to intervene when the behaviour of a public figure is not acting, but instead indicative of advancing psychopathology or neuropathology that impairs their functioning. There have been individuals, for example, who have come forward to say that, by the end of his presidency, Ronald Regan was in a more advanced stage of dementia that we, as simple observers, were ever lead to believe. What we observed was apparently highly managed. Disregarding any concern about his ability to govern, I find the idea that staff – including healthcare providers – “covering” for him for political reasons, rather than encouraging him to retire and enjoy the remainder of his life enjoying his family and retirement in peace & privacy, rather than to publicly struggle – as in retrospect was obvious – to be absolutely despicable. We know so much now about, for example, the hallucinations and hallucenatory-confusion so often associated with the dementia process, and that there is adequate to excellent responses to newer medications, and so on. The idea of the “Goldwater Rule” was to forbid the “weaponizing” of psychiatric diagnosis, and Mr. Michalopulos. more to the point, the “Right” seemed perfectly content to humiliate Democratic Sen. Edwin Muskie of Maine, VP-runningmate of Walter Mondale in 1972, right out of the race over the discovery that he had been treated for depression. Touché indeed.

          My last comment has to do with the process of diagnosis itself. If anyone ever listened to Car Talk on NPR, two brothers had a call-in show where you could call in with your car problem, and they would ask a bunch of questions about the problem until they established a reasonable assessment, or two, or three – “It’s got to be one of these things…” – and even tell the caller an approximate repair cost. Occasionally, someone would call back and say, “You got it wrong.” The response was one of two things: “You didn’t give me enough/the correct information,” or “I couldn’t have know that until I actually took the cover over your transmission and saw…” In the former case, someone who is an expert observes or is presented a list of behaviours and balances them against a know list of common “symptoms,” and reaches an analytical decision that is both reasonable and prudent, based on expertise & experience. This is not, however, diagnosis. I believe that is precisely what Alithea was doing in her original statement. She even asked you to look at the diagnostic criteria and judgenot diagnose – for yourself. Like the mechanic who does a hands-on, remove the cover of the transmission, a clinician who completes a thorough assessment (and I would refer anyone interested to Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry, Chapter 5, “Examination & Diagnosis of the Psychiatry Patient,” if you would wish to see exactly what such an examination entails.

          There must be a balance that prevents abuse, but allows for the compassionate intervention of assistance, in spite of the political “intuition” surrounding an individual who suffers.

          • And there is a process for removing a sitting President, but it does not involve the APA. Lest we forget they wanted to undermine Goldwater and a few have come out diagnosing Trump as a dangerous narcissist. Yet what was Teddy Roosevelt? It’s all partisan bs.

      • Michael Bauman says

        Alitheia1875, there is a great deal of controversy about you diagnosis. I do not know, nor do I really care what the truth is as diagnosis of any health condition are only valuable to the person in a clinical setting. But, here is an article written by one of the authors of the manual you use so blithely that strongly disagrees with you and he is not a Trump fan as he notes. https://www.statnews.com/2017/09/06/donald-trump-mental-illness-diagnosis/

  6. Glad to see you are so happy… the picture says it all — may this bromance bloom into the kind of world you so desperately desire…

    • George Michalopulos says

      You mean peace breaking out all over? Or the one the liberals want: bloodshed and nukes flying over each other?

      I’m going with “A”. I know, I’m a silly fellow.

      • Not silly at all. Just committed to your position, which seems to be, “If I can’t have a king, I’ll settle for an autocrat to my liking….”

        • George Michalopulos says

          Or we can take your position, which I guess is “if the election doesn’t go our way, we’ll overthrow the legally elected president.”

          • Not at all – I’m just not fearful of a so-called “Deep State” and I look forward to the next election when we have the chance to throw Trump out!

            • Will Harrington says

              You should be. A deep state is necessary, but when it becomes non-responsive to, or even opposes, elected officials, then the republic is undermined and the country becomes the domain of non-elected rulers. We are pretty close to having reached that point.

    • Vladimiro says

      Anon, you neo-con warmongering scum will have plenty of time to start WW3 with Russia, China and any other countries you have a problem with – be patient.

      • George Michalopulos says

        It’s curious, the entire American diplomatic corps (Ambassador Jon Huntsman, SecState Pompeo, etc.) was there at the press conference and they seemed happy.

        Pompeo for his part rightly sees China as more of a threat to American interests than Russia.

  7. Anthony Ferrara says

    The open borders DNC, RINOs and media are the real traitors. Anyone who wants to let the whole world, including its worst elements, into our country really want to destroy what America is about.

    • Greatly Saddened says

      I concur 100%. Thank you!

    • Constantinos says

      Anthony Ferrara,
      You are 100% correct. Unfettered immigration to the US is war on America. I was reading on Al Jazeera about the migrant crisis in Europe, especially in Greece. The Greek people are losing their country. As Europe is closing its borders to the foreign migrants, they are traveling to Latin America to enter the US. I don’t recall anyone inviting illegal aliens to come to our country. I sure don’t want them here. They was a time in America when people didn’t have to lock their doors at night. Not anymore! No more immigration to the US- legal or illegal. I suggest that these open border traitors and immigration lawyers each take two illegal alien families into their home. In fact, that should be a prerequisite; all open borders advocates must register to absorb illegal aliens into their homes. It would be safe to say that we wouldn’t be hearing any more words from these anti- American traitors.
      Also, to ameliorate the refugee crisis, Russia could absorb millions upon millions of illegal aliens. If Russia would step up to the plate, the refugee crisis would be solved. After all, Russia has been sticking its nose in Syria for years now. Actually, the crisis wouldn’t be solved because no one wants to go to Russia; they’d rather leech off the US.

    • Correct. I am more amazed every day by the hypocrisy of the Democrats/MSM/Rinos.
      The party of peace and love and tolerance wants to go to war with Russia? Ha! They will sell their own souls to satisfy their blood lust against President Trump.

      • George Michalopulos says

        You know, I wouldn’t mind so much if it were only those zip codes where are the warmongers lived that got vaporized. You know, the Hampton, Martha’s vineyard, Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, Hollywood. Places like that

  8. The critics had their scripts ready before the first press conference. Tempest in a teapot.

  9. To the naysayers regarding the recent summit, please do your own research. Seriously, stop reading only the most cursory of websites and do your own research. With all the bloviating over the Russians meddling on our election, did you ever ask ourself if the U.S. didn’t do the same in the last Russian election? To think that the U.S. hasn’t meddled in Russian affairs is naive and stupid. As for Crimea, have any of you ever been there? I have and the predominant language on the streets is not Ukrainian, it’s Russian. Just saying, the truth about invasion or annexation or whatever term you like is much more complicated. The same is true for Syria. Yes, Asad is a bad guy. So what? Who exactly would you like to replace him? How has it worked out in Afghanistan? Not so well. What happened to Hamd Karzai? I thought he was going to be the American saviour, right? Well that didn’t work out so well either.

    I am truly amazed at how many people believe the first news headline they read in the morning. I hate to burst your bubble, but despite the fact that Trump is not the most eloquent speaker in history, he may go down in history as the best president the U.S. has ever had.

    Dear detractors, move past the rhetoric and look exclusively at the facts. The last four presidents were horrible and there is a hell of a lot to clean up. The U.S. economy is finally back on track and we finally have a president who is willing to challenge the status quo. Give it a chance, you might be pleasantly surprised.

  10. Antiochene Son says

    Trump has proved to be our greatest president since at least the 19th century. I was a little let down by his hostage video-style retraction yesterday.

    But he doesn’t want to end up like Kennedy, whose head was blown off just days after he credibly vowed to destroy the CIA.

    The US intelligence apparatus needs to be destroyed and I hope Trump can make some progress. Our government is no longer controlled by its elected leadership. Even Trump said he is powerless over the DOJ, which he is the head of. It’s all wrong.

  11. Not sure who all you mean by “Deep State” — but as an Orthodox Christian working in the national security sector, I need to say that, after decades as a civil servant — we are simply middle-class Americans doing our jobs and sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice to protect and defend our fellow citizens and our nation’s allies. We can’t stand it when our work is politicized. Like any group of Americans, our political opinions and choices differ — some of us voted for Trump as the lesser evil, others voted for Clinton as the lesser evil, some wrote in Kasich, some abstained. Please don’t tar as all with some sort of Deep State brush or act like our work is not of value.

    • George Michalopulos says

      I don’t tar you. The Deep State are levels above you.

    • Antiochene Son says

      some of us voted for Trump as the lesser evil

      Did any vote for Trump because he was exactly the right man for the job?

    • Antiochene Son says

      I can’t speak ill of any particular low level individual, but our government wouldn’t be out of control of low level people refused the orders they receive. The Deep State only has power because its employees enact its agenda.

    • Michael Bauman says

      MrsDK, all intelligence work is political in nature. It is politicized from the beginning and has a politicized end. That is its nature. It is not some double blind tightly controlled research study.

      • Antiochene Son says

        Indeed. And not even just in the analysis; also, the information that the intelligence agencies pass to the decision-makers is political. They can present indicators as sure things. They can present all of one side and none of the other. Decisions are made every moment, and we can’t fool ourselves into thinking deep-seated political and ideological beliefs don’t fundamentally inform those things.

        That’s kind of how a couple of Russian nations buying some Facebook ads that were seen by maybe a few thousand people turns into “hacking the election.”

  12. Loscanis cotonikos says

    Notice how Rod Rosenstein said Trump asked him to release the 12 GRU indictments before the Summit? Note GRU is military? Remember how they use to tell Greeks the Tsar was really on their side but his military wasn’t? Remember how Dubya looked futile looking into Putin’s soul after Georges Hormiz Sada said Russia secreted Saddam’s WMD in Syria? Notice how the USA military became independent of Trump after Charlottesville? Well, here’s a grand theory. The Russian military had too many Iraqi and Syrian interests and told Putin what to do, overriding the deep look into his soul. John Bolton said on Sunday he noticed how Putin was emphatic to his translator that the hackers were not Russian STATE. No, they are deep state, the military industrial complex Ike warned about and Putin want Mueller to go after them and liberate Putin from captivity.

  13. Antiochene Son says

    I wish Trump were able to disband NATO. Tucker Carlson had one of his best shows yesterday and said similar. If he did that, though, he probably would be ended by the Deep State.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Ike told JFK that it shouldn’t have lasted longer than 10 years.

      • Antiochene Son says

        Ike knew these people like the back of his hand. It really is a shame that his prophetic words were not heeded. A man formed by war, who hated war and those who peddled it.

  14. Greatly Saddened says

    GM … I wish you a safe, enjoyable and spiritually uplifting trip to Russia. God bless!

  15. http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/396856-the-dishonesty-of-the-deep-state

    https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/18/trump-will-win-this-round-with-the-deep-state/

    George,

    The sheer arrogance of these people is breathtaking. What is apparent from the Hill piece is that there is a Shadow Gov’t in the United States. That is the only explanation for why numerous Democrats and intelligence personnel are not currently on trial or imprisoned. It is a Progressive Borg that includes the DNC, the MSM, much of academia and the intelligence services. They actually run the country. Not Trump and not the Republican Party that is currently on the verge of holding all three branches of the government.

    They do this by controlling the narrative that the US public hears and instilling fear in those who might otherwise be public supporters of the President’s agenda.

    I’m not quite so sanguine about the situation as Lord Conrad Black (author of the above AG piece). I hope Trump has the prowess (or, as Machiavelli referred to it, virtu) to defeat this Borg. But bear in mind, absent true decimation, they will be waiting to undo everything Trump has accomplished either Jan. 20th 2021 or Jan. 20th 2025. Pence is a more conventional conservative (people who have never been a match for the Borg). The fact is that Trump is aging, will face a term limit, and there is simply no one like him. Trumpism is the embodiment of his personality and no one else’s (at least not in American politics).

    Nonetheless, God rules and He raised up Trump for a reason. So all bets are off pending the Divine Will. Trump’s abrasive style made him a fortune so I would not be too quick to psychoanalyze him as disordered in some fashion. And his very first foray into politics resulted in him being elected President of the United States.

    Either he is the luckiest s.o.b. on five continents, or he is blessed by God.

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1019899507910283264

    One is reminded of the scene from Wag the Dog where De Niro explains to the CIA why there had better be a war and enemies lest they have no reason to justify their existence and budget.

    Islam as an enemy is too politically incorrect. Little brown people. Russians being white and Christian makes much more sense.

    • Misha,
      I believe it fair to say that the other little brown people, illegal aliens from our southern border have killed more Americans since 9/11, than peaceful Islamist. Say a negative word of either group, and the leftist scream racism and hateful narrow minded white man. How many Americans have been killed by white Christian Russians? Yet we are told to hunt them!

      We are fighting the wrong enemy. The true enemy is within our gates, not outside, those who control the narrative; the courts, the progressive policy makers, the education systems, Hollywood, drug makers, and the media. The internet has actually saved us from the lies, and propaganda, but Google will slowly work on that front as well. Our grand children will have to become killers to survive.

      • George Michalopulos says

        PREACH ON! BROTHER!

        • Let’s also not forget the gay lobby has not forgiven nor forgot that Putin cut off Russian children for adoption to America.

          • Let’s also not forget leftist/socialist groups like La Raza want open borders so the that states such as Texas, Florida, and Arizona will become permanent blue states like California. Foreign born immigrant are overwhelmingly democratic voters. Urban cities are flooded with immigrants, legals voting democratic in the near future and illegals pushing out traditional conservative voters into the suburbs, changing voting blocks in cities forever, and in the long run, thru amnesty, will become voting citizens.

            Do you buy the bleeding hearts for children separated at the border, and fake patriotism over Russia meddling in our elections? No, more like distractions, and protection of future voting blocks. Socialism will be forced down our throats by the southern border invasion. Our great culture will be no more.

            By 2023, that’s only 4.5 years away, The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the legal and illegal immigrant population will make up nearly 15% of the entire US population. That would amount to about 50 million people!

            Now while a small percentage of southern border invaders are criminals; killing, robbing, raping our citizens(and their own) importing drugs, and filling our prisons. That is bad, but not the entire picture.

            The majority of hard working illegals is great for illegals aliens, and for years most thought great for America, but really not as harmless nor beneficial. Forget that they are taking away jobs, spirits, and self esteem from our own poor, who would work those jobs if they were a good living wage, supporting a family as apposed to welfare.

            For every hard working illegal alien, most will have a family at home to receive free schooling, daycare, breakfast and lunch programs, the BIG ONE most Americans can’t afford MEDICAL, social services, and in the most liberal cities free housing. Recently in San Francisco non citizens will get municipal voting rights!

            Given all that, would it not be better paying our citizens at least $30 per hour and close our borders completely, except to stringent legal immigration. Begin strict and very high penalties to company hiring illegals, even closing them down. The money saved in not paying in all the social services, we give away to illegals would more than make up for the high wages to our own citizens. Especially if we lower taxes, and work on our budget deficit. Democrats don’t see it that way, because they want Americans dependent upon Government, thus votes for them.

            Imagine how many black and brown American families would have homes of their own, and men to call dad. A God to worship, instead of Big Government, Hollywood, and the thug lifestyle. Imagine how many of those black and brown Americans would vote Republican!

            • M. Stankovich says

              Madonna Mia! Now, I had thought Mr. Sakelaris had exhausted every conceivable trite stereotype I have heard endlessly repeated since Obama was elected – including my all-time favorite, The March of the Godless Academicians (as I recall, sung to the melody of Cyprus Hill’s “Insane in the membrane, Insane in the Brain. But no. Hermano Diño, not sensing that the point of saturation has been reached, and that his lobster bib is soiled & soaked with the excess of his defense of the Orthodox Faith racist rage of the moment, pushes onward, eyes closed.

              I live less than 15-miles from the International Border at San Ysidro, CA/Tijuana, MX. I don’t where you live, but get yourself on a plane, on a bus, or drive here and I’ll be happy to teach you some reality. “Little brown people” are “taking away jobs, spirits, and self esteem from our own poor, who would work those jobs if they were a good living wage, supporting a family as apposed to welfare.” Bullshit. You are flat out empty-headed if you believe that. I will drive you around to places all over this city and all over San Diego county where every day of the week, “little brown people” are lined up beginning at 0400 when contractors come by to hire day laborers. Any one one of “your people” could have a job – and get hired permanently because they could be hired legally – if they were up and were available at 0400, motivated, and dependable. But they aren’t. Because of the nature of the past two correctional programs where I was the clinical director, we returned patients to work; this put me in contact with contractors willing to hire pretty much anyone who was legal, motivated, and dependable, no questions asked (except sex offenders). “Your people” didn’t want to work. But come 1100-1200, “your people” start to emerge, not to work, but to crowd every median strip seeking “donations”, the closer to shopping centers the better: all with signs (apparently the more signs the better); the more signs proclaiming one catastrophe or another (the worse the better); one condition or another (ditto); claiming military service (wearing the more requisite “stolen valor” apparel the better); and offering service(s) (“Will work for…”) for money (apparently believing the “offer” itself is sufficient) because, if asked, they would either get pissed off at the offer of work, or not show up. I’ve had plenty of folks sincerely ask me for help off the median, until I questioned the $12 pack of cigarettes in their pocket. Now, I carry a stack of cards for the county’s “211” services information line with a quarter for the phone taped to it. Guess how many toss it back to me?

              But let me tell you what you will never see on the medians: a “little brown” citizen by birth, naturalization, or admitted as as a refugee, or a proud “little brown” veteran of our armed services; a Fillipino of similar circumstance; or any refugee from the Middle East, Africa, or the far East. Neither are they on “welfare.” They are legally working – albeit minimum wage – but they are too proud to demean themselves.

              As to your statistics regarding crimes committed by illegal “little brown people, I have addressed this numerous times on this site with the actual data, and you are ridiculously and foolishly incorrect. Someone challenged me with the typical hard-nosed, unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, outright google scholars festival of contrived “research” and/or counting violations of immigration law in the mix to artificially “boost” the numbers. The last time was in the spring, during Great Lent, search for it yourself.

              Let me be clear to you before you try slinging your labels at me, in which you seemingly take great delight: I am not a Democrat; I am not a liberal; I am not on the “left”; and I wrote in the name of Gov. John Kasich for president in 2016, simply because I believe him to be a simple Christian man, faithful & committed to his wife, and who accomplished everything he promised as a governor. Period. I don’t appreciate you slinging references at me, referring me to the New Martyrs of Russia – as if to say you are a champion of the Orthodox Faith – and then turn around & make ugly racist, political commentary attacking minorities and homosexuals; mock the most fundamental and organic of human relationships as “the bleeding hearts for children separated at the border”; punctuated with hateful language such as “they are worse than bastards”; and offer “deterrence” as putting the “war monger’s sons and daughters on the front line.” How you find any of this compatible with the Way of the Cross, the Narrow Path, or our duty to maintain an open door of repentance to the lost sheep of the house of Israel – unless you imagine the reward is “prosperity” in this world – is beyond my comprehension. And in this case, your dismissal, “Sorry, Charlie,” is somehow a welcomed relief.

              • George Michalopulos says

                Mike, I’ll let Mr Sakelaris speak for himself but I know him to be a fine family man and principled thinker. He’s also a liberal Democrat.

                Your own tropes regarding the jobs that Americans won’t do is tired as well. I’ve visited job sites and spoken to foremen who go out of their way to not hire native whites or blacks and/or only hire those who speak Spanish. In such a milieu, the unemployed/underemployed American native, able-bodied man will just say “screw it!” and give up.

                Several years ago, I took a troubled young man from my parish under my wing because he had just lost his aunt (one of the foundresses of our mission). Long story short, I would get us both up at four in the morning and drove him to Standby Personnel, where there were dozens of other American men waiting there to get employment for the day.

                • M. Stankovich says

                  (It’s Michael). My comment was addressed to Dino.

                  This much we can agree on: my “trope” is, indeed” tired. As to its voracity, “γεύσασθε καὶ ἴδετε” taste & see (Ps. 33:9). Upon your safe return, when may I expect your visitation to America’s Finest City?

                  • While Michael Stankovich has good points to make, many personal, living so close to the border, and his long history working with the prison population. I do not undermine his position nor opinions, the subject is not black, and white, but it is broken. With some truths, my hope is that our nation will come up with some solutions. Not heads in the sand. I continue with more facts.

                    Now while illegal aliens for the most part are hardworking, they do begin their first step upon entering our soil by breaking the law. Now I imagine, for the most part, they do respect all other laws(that they can afford to) after they enter illegally. Let’s look at some more facts and figures.

                    This is from the United States Sentencing Commission:

                    NON-CITIZEN PERCENTAGE OF FEDERAL CRIMES CONVICTIONS IN U.S.A.

                    22% OF MURDER
                    18% OF FRAUD
                    33% OF MONEY LAUNDERING
                    29% OF DRUG TRAFFICKING
                    72% OF DRUG POSSESSION

                    Keep in mind non-citizens at time of stats were only 7% of the entire U.S. population.

                    The math would also conclude these are not best and brightest, Pew Research stats:

                    EDUCATION ATTAINMENT AMONG U.S. IMMIGRANTS IN 2015

                    LESS THAN HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION:

                    29% ALL FOREIGN BORN
                    15% SOUTH AND EAST ASIA
                    13% MID EAST
                    11% EUROPE AND CANADA
                    12% SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
                    16% SOUTH AMERICA
                    25% CARIBBEAN
                    49% CENTRAL AMERICA
                    57% MEXICO

                    Pew also states that border crossing apprehension has decreased, from one million in 2006 to 408,700 in 2016. Notice the drop during the Obama administration? This is apprehended only, not accounting those who made it through. Now imagine how many would enter if borders were open and how many would remain if I.C.E. was gone, as many of our left leaning politicians want for us.

              • Constantinos says

                Dr. Stankovich,
                It’s a curious thing I’ve noticed for some time in regards to Dino. I’ve noticed that most of his posts are written when majority of people are working. I said to myself,”Well, maybe he works at night,” but no, he’s posts in the evening as well. I am starting to wonder if he even has a job. On the other hand, Ive notice the overwhelming amount of your posts are written in the off hours, sometimes in the late evening, consistent with someone who works for a living. Most of my posts are in the early morning because i arise at around 2: AM every morning. You know Ben Franklin’s saying, ” Plough deep while sluggards sleep.” I don’t agree with everything you write, but I most certainly do enjoy reading your posts, and many times I learn a valuable lesson from them.

              • Michael Stankovich,
                Being short on time, but, out of respect for you I will come back with some facts in due time. In the mean time, my reference to you some day being in the company of Saints, was a sincere compliment, in my view. Ironically nowadays, in today’s language, being referred to as a racist, and homophobe is a compliment as well. I thank you, for slinging such compliments my way!

                Now I imagine you do not view me as a champion of the Orthodox Faith. You are correct, greatly challenged indeed, but I am a champion for my family. So I understand the love, and pain of raising children, and can imagine the pain of being separated from my children , and imagine their horror of being separated from me, but, would not put myself in a position to be separated from them. My selfish love for my children, their future children, and their future, also wants our nation to prosper, and not turn into the nations south of our border, whose citizens are escaping, and flooding our nation.

                The Way of the Cross is a difficult one, but quick, short sighted, guilt filled judgments and decisions, on our borders, have had long term consequences on our nation. In this case stepping over a dollar, to pick up a nickel has nothing to do with prosperity, nor lost sheep. Our greed to save a nickel with cheap illegal alien labor, has not only lost us many dollars not supporting our own citizens, it has separated three generation of AMERICAN husbands from wives, and children from parents thru decades of dependance of our welfare state. We should recognize the state we have put them in, some as you say not even wanting work, and weep for them.

                To say I don’t care for the children separated at the border is unfair. Change the laws so that they are not separated, but don’t allow loopholes, that in the long run are giving entry to anyone toting a child, or instant citizenship, by giving birth within our border.

                Don’t allow our politicians to give the impression to our southern neighbors that minors are free tickets to enter our country, and hundreds of thousands of little children will not be abused as pawns by evil people. Close the border, and immediate return without separation, will stop the flow, the separation, and abuse of foreign children, as best as humanly possible.

                • Billy Jack Sunday says

                  DINO?

                  You homophobe!!

                  I’m shocked . . . just shocked and beside myself

                  • Billy, After a few more posts, M. Stankovich will diagnose me with xenophobia as well. Anyway some facts as promised.

                    Let’s begin with Texas, and everyday I will add more. Now remember every crime by an illegal alien is a crime that should have never happened, in the first place, if our borders were properly sealed. Stats of illegal versus citizen criminals really make no difference to the victims, as such our politicians fail to protect their/our citizen victims by not following the laws in place, and promoting open borders, and sanctuary.

                    Texas Department of Public Safety publishes data online regarding criminal alien arrests and convictions. These data do not account for all aliens in the Texas criminal justice system, as they are limited to alien arrestees who have had prior interaction with DHS resulting in collection of their fingerprints.

                    Keep in mind these are crimes reported, many are never known, arrested, or even reported in the underworld most aliens live in.

                    As reported by the Texas Department of Public Safety, 251,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and April 30,2018, according to DHS status indicators. These criminal aliens were charged with:

                    More than 663,000 criminal offenses;
                    1,351 homicides;
                    7,156 sexual assaults;
                    9,938 weapon charges;
                    79,049 assaults;
                    18,685 burglaries;
                    79,900 drug charges;
                    815 kidnappings;
                    44,882 thefts;
                    4,292 robberies;

                    In the future I will show what illegal aliens cost us in currency; in regards to social services, criminal, educational, the big one medical, cultural, political,etc. BUT! The cost to victims, especially those murdered, maimed or killed via DUIs, raped, or assaulted can never be added up, accounted for, nor repaid or returned. Those victims and their families are forever scared. WHY?

                    To save a nickel, and receive votes!

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Your argument, to date, is google-driven baloney delivered with Fox News urgency:

                      NON-CITIZEN PERCENTAGE OF FEDERAL CRIMES CONVICTIONS IN U.S.A.

                      22% OF MURDER
                      18% OF FRAUD
                      33% OF MONEY LAUNDERING
                      29% OF DRUG TRAFFICKING
                      72% OF DRUG POSSESSION

                      Good heavens! And all SCREAMING in caps, no less. I had better get me to one of them gun shows. But perhaps, Dino, you missed entirely the importance of the designation, “federal crimes?”

                      The fact of the matter is that convictions for MURDER under the federal statutes accounted for approximately 0.4% of all murders in the US in 2016, the last year the FBI provided finalized data. In 2016, there 17, 250 murders in the US, meaning there were approximately 69 convictions pursuant to the federal statutes within the federal system; meaning there were approximately 15 illegal alien convictions pursuant to the federal statutes within the federal system. WAT? Do the rest of the math yourself. That was a dumb, misleading trick to make it appear that “little brown people” are certain to force our “grandchildren to become killers to survive.” But instead of opening eyes, it provokes racist fear, paranoia, and hatred.

                      If you somehow imagine this foolishness is “instructive” to me, and by “overwhelming” me with lists and numbers you will look good here, and the anonymous will prop you, I concede. Good for you! Let’s end it now. You know better than me. I personally declare you a man of great insight and admire you for advocating for victims. As Pelonious asked Hamlet, What are you reading, my Lord?” Hamlet responded, “Words, words, words.” And later, “The rest is silence…”

                    • Of course Michael, uneducated, miserably poor, 3rd world, illegal migrants are much less likely to commit crimes, and contribute much more than lower middle class working Americans. Illegal aliens are a great benefit to our our nation, will not be followed by chain migration of young, and elderly for us to support, elderly who have not contributed a penny into our nation.

                      Crime rates are soo low in Ghettos where no one cares if your legal or not. Wait WAT? Poverty produces crime, NO, right? Aliens ARE working for poverty level wages , right? Ghetto crimes are not often reported, right Michael? Do illegals call cops, Michael? Wonder what the alien’s children do for protection in the ghettos Michael, maybe hook with up with gangs? Maybe sell drugs, guns, sex, for the gangs, and maybe contribute to the crime stats, except now their citizens, because they are born on our soil, right my brother? SHHHH! OPPS! Cat’s out of the bag, BRO!

                      I bet our citizens in, and outside the ghettos would appreciate a little of that money given to aliens, freed up, and spread instead to our own. Good thing money grows on trees in America, and the little brown people are not looking to take your job Michael, or lower your standard of living. Last count $130 billion to illegal aliens.

                      Sorry since Trump has unleashed/opened the left’s pandora box, and Orthodoxy’s leaders true face exposed, the guilt trips by the media, our government, our crowned clergy, and even you Michael no longer work on me. I don’t know you, or how you live your life, you are probably a wonderful person, but I now see how others live, and talk out of both side of their mouths. I guess, I’m content being a selfish asshole, if my opinion makes me such. I want a small fraction of the California dream I experienced, growing up, for my children.

                      Not much to ask, and not ashamed, no? Most appreciated Monomakhos Brother, at least I am not a phony, nor an idiot not excepting the fact, that the lifeboat will sink after one triples it’s capacity, to float.

                      So before leaving the conversation, please put your cards on the table, Michael, and two questions.

                      Opens borders?

                      And,

                      If so, is there ever a saturation point?

                      Reality is a…… regardless if you like my numbers or stats.

                      BTW! CNN SUCKS!

                    • Constantinos says

                      Dr. Stankovich,
                      As I previously stated, I always look at the time someone has posted. I’ve noticed you always post after hours. This indicates to me that you are a hard working man who doesn’t have time to post except in your off hours. This speaks to your integrity.
                      The argument that Dino made was completely stupid. Ir was racist, silly and completely xenophobic. you are correct; as Orthodox Christians we are not to hate or stir up strife. Since he doesn’t appear to have a job, I would think he would do better research.
                      I’ll tell you another man who works extremely hard is the proprietor of this forum, George. He works full time as a pharmacist and, yet, he manages to run this forum as a labor of love. This speaks to his great integrity as well. So kudos to you and George for being very hard working professional men who love their families, and you both have integrity with a capital I. You and George- two of the best people there are.

                    • M. Stankovich says

                      Dino,

                      I was just waking down the hall to the nurse’s station and heard what turned out to be Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Belvin’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlNMmZKwpA&quot;)I Like It, and I had to sit down. wow. Old school, new school! I like it like that.

                      You had said you would be bringing “facts” & the “truth.” Instead, you talk trash and would expect me to raise your level of unfounded, uncorroborated, emotional rants to the same confidence level as epidemiological data. I have been running the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer API as an original beta-tester from its inception, which allows access to the Uniform Crime Reporting data of 18,000+ US city, county, state, federal, tribal, university, and college law enforcement agencies crime data submitted to the FBI. Is it the best going? Prolly not, but it’s the best we’ve got. You, apparently, have the bar rooms, Fox News, and google is your friend.

                      And now, you would go “righteous” and get in my face with your “questions?” You intend to present me reality, Dino? Take a seat, my friend. This concludes 12-rounds and you fared poorly. I encourage you to correct me as to substance when I am wrong. Otherwise, I don’t wish to see my name in your abuse of “facts,” or see your trash in my yard.

                    • Michael Stankovich,

                      Two posts ago you said,”…I concede. Good for you! Let’s end it now. You know better than be.”

                      I thought, we done? So I posted no more stats. All I asked, in my last post, were two simple questions, with one sentence answers. Are you for open borders, and is there ever a saturation point?

                      Thanks for the video visual of the future of America. That welfare class will ONLY be united in their vote, the divided and ever growing ghetto might even spread to your well manicured yard.

                      Thanks for once again, talking down to me again, your the coolest, badass big fish, in the small pond, foorr suuure! Seems you are the only man in America you does not use Google. Texas had some good stats, IDed only by fingerprints. Got those stats from the DOJ website.

                      AND AGAIN! Most illegals do not report crimes. How do you do a stat for that. How about crimes by legal Latino children of alien parents? Not a peep, it’s above you. Latinos make up a about a fifth of our prison population, and yet only 16-17% of population.

                      Open the borders, and if the Latino leaders from Mexico all the way down to Chile are smart, they will release their prisoners, as Cuba did. As a leader, I would, if another nation was stupid enough to allow anyone over their border.

                      Ironic you call me righteous! Anyway hope were still internet friends. Speaking of friends, the new Roman Catholic guy that goes by my baptismal and legal name, is just dying for you, to converse with him. How about you throw him a Scooby snack, and say,” hello!” I’m sure sure it would make his day.

                    • Costa,

                      Something to consider:

                      Not everyone works 8-5 days. Some work nights, shift-work, etc., and some (like me) do work that allows for almost complete freedom to work when I choose. Still others (not me unfortunately) are retired.

                      Just a thought. You know what happens when one assumes.

    • George Michalopulos says

      I pray (hope, actually) that Black is correct.

  16. Alitheia1875 says

    As an Orthodox priest friend (a very conservative fellow) from Russia once told me…..there’s no such thing as KGB. Once KGB always KGB.

    • Constantinos says

      Brian,
      When a man posts incessantly day and night, he doesn’t have a job. If a man is retired, he doesn’t work. You may have freedom to set your own hours, but you certainly don’t post all hours of the day and night. I ask you how can a man have a job if he is incessantly posting all hours of the day and night. If you work at night, you sleep in the day. If you look at all the hours this man posts, there’s no way he has a job. ” If a man doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat.”