It should be clear by now that the myth of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign is gasping its last breaths. If you don’t believe me, just look at the video at the bottom of this post, wherein Rod Rosenstein gives away the game. (The money quote is at 4min 45sec.)
I’ll break it down for you: there were a grand total of thirteen Russian trolls who bought Facebook ads and/or who organized political rallies here. And nobody is even sure that what they did was illegal for that matter. How ’bout them apples? (And most of which took place after the election.) That’s pretty much old hat now. The very idea that Boris and Natasha could hypnotize voters in the Rust Belt to vote for Trump (supposedly against their own interests) was bizarre from the start.
No matter. If the proglibs want to –nay, need to–keep believing this fantasy, the better. I’m sure there’s some diagnosis in the psychiatric manual that explains this delusion as some type of coping mechanism.
I choose to view this in a broader light. Specically that Trumpist nationalism is on the rise and Putin has little if anything to do with it. In Germany, the xenoskeptic AfD has won a comfortable victory. The other day, the nationalists in Italy won a resounding victory as well. These victories are inevitable in my opinion.
What we are witnessing is not some grand conspiracy conceived from the bromance between Trump and Putin but the normal reaction to forced heterogeneity. What the globalists have imposed on us is not normal. Healthy, prosperous nations are based largely on ethnicity. Common customs, religion and language are all markers of homogeneity. There’s no shame in admitting that. America used to be a “high trust” society because it was basically bi-racial (90% white and 10% black). Those who joined America –largely European Christians with some blacks from the Caribbean–bought into the American way of doing things. This was during the so-called moratorium on immigration which was in place from 1924 to 1965.
Anyway, more will be said on nationhood at other times. For now, let us revel in the demise of the false narrative that has sustained the hopes of proglibs everywhere. Let us consider Shakespeare, who in Julius Caesar tells us that “there are tides in the affairs of men”. Presently, populism and nationalism are the tides that are on the rise, most probably because globalism and elitism have so manifestly failed the vast majority of people. Anyway, when in doubt, don’t doubt The Bard.
Here are my thoughts on this. More to follow.
George,
Please excuse me for asking but where is the video?
Sorry, just posted it. The top two comments. The first one is my thoughts on the Collusion brouhaha the second one is the Rosenstein presser.
Rostenstein, please get a better tie!
GS, I reimbedded the Rosenstein presser in the blog post. Also, I embedded my thoughts immediately above the Rosenstein video.
To all, please forgive the herky-jerkiness of this.
BTW, here are my thoughts on the Russian Collusion Narrative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97TD1kLSmb0&feature=player_embedded
And here is the Rod Rosenstein press conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoAf_I3ULwE&t=5s
George a great decision to give up tobacco . I quit the cigars six years ago , don’t miss them at all. Not exactly a great sin, but no doubt it attacks the temple in many ways. I have a feeling Dr Stankovich’s post urging you to quit might have been the spark. If so God bless Dr Stankovich for being the only one to speak up. Many years in good health my friend. Many rely upon you and love you, are thrilled you quit. A special prayer for you my friend, for strength and a blessed Lent!
Thank you Dino. I haven’t succeeded yet, btw. It’s true that Dr S set this thought in motion but it was because of another that I decided to take this step.
Time will tell. Still, thanks for your thoughtfulness.
What’s it to you if someone you don’t even know wants to smoke?
We see too much these days of trying to live other people’s lives under the guise of saving them.
J Clivas, Ever consider chilling out? Since when is it wrong to encourage someone, who is considering a healthier life style? Or are you just a troll, looking for attention?
J Clivas,
Over the years I have witnessed my share of people die. I will suggest that the experience of witnessing the various manner by which humans pass from this level of existence is, in fact, a subjective matter on the part of the observer. Nevertheless, from my vantage, observing you taking your leave as you struggle to breathe – gasping, many times able to inhale but not able to properly exhale, wide-eyed & wildly staring at your caregivers and loved ones around you to do something, anything to help you – is gruesome and horrific. Further, observing the mutilation and unavoidable gross disfigurement of a human being in an often futile attempt to save their life from the rapid advance of an oral, throat, or neck cancer is equally disturbing. In consideration of the profound tragedy of all of this comes an astonishing truth: your chances of contracting one of these deadly forms of cancer is dramatically reduced by not smoking, vaping, or “dipping” tobacco. In other words, most cases are entirely preventable. WAT? Read it again: most cases are entirely preventable.
Now, my first inclination was to address this matter of “speaking the truth in love,” (Eph. 4:15) under the guise of being a Christian. In that this place has become 1) a grandiose haven of “liberty,” independence, and “civil rights” driven by blue-steel weaponry; 2) your apparent advocacy for interpreting a Christian’s love & concern as “encroachment,” akin to asking you to lower the volume of a drunken karaoke rendition of something patriotic by Toby Keith; and 3) of course, properly cowering at the provocation of your pseudonym, I choose to retreat. Oh, and 4) (which I sadly and openly admit) to avoid the personal, selfish consequence of my own pretentiousness and horribly sinful pride of seeing you in the “palliative care” unit, struggling to breath, as noted above, and thinking, “Sleep now in the fire, dumbass. I tried to love you, but you nailed me with some liberal “token” and you now choke on the ashes of your liberty. I’m going to step out for a breath of fresh air because I can. (FAST TRANSLATION: You made your own bed.) May God deliver me from the thoughts of the Pharisee and save me!
Very much agree about the cigars. I was a one-a-day cigar man for many years. In my mid-50s, my doc said I should quit. I knew I should, so I did. It was easy enough. I will still get a very good cigar from sons and sons in law on Christmas, as sort of a longstanding custom, so I will smoke 4-5 cigars per year; an amount that does not concern me. I smoke a pipe around the campfire on backpacking trips, so there’s another handful of times per year. But I maintain those limitations.
As Doc S says, head and neck cancers can be terrible. I know of several bad cases where cigar smoking was the likely culprit.
There is a real pleasure and a certain “romance” to smoking a good cigar. But it’s easy enough to give up, really.
Also glad George quit. I’d like to keep him around for a while.
AMEN Gail.
While I have not watched many die like Michael S., one is really sufficient. My mother started smoking when she was seven. She was never able to quit. She suffered several circulatory disorders and cancers over her life.
The poor circulation led to the amputation of one of her legs which never really healed and not long after than to the collapse of the blood supply to her intestines. After the amputation of her leg (keep in mind also she was a dancer who lived to dance), she was in excruciating pain and was screaming in pain while the nurses, despite doctor’s orders, refused to give her pain medication. I have never come as close to attacking and killing someone as the nurse who rudely and condescendingly refused to even look at or clarify the actual doctor’s orders (which was PRN) because he knew better. He is lucky there was a counter and desk between us or I may well have.
The subsequent collapse of the blood supply to her intestines meant she was in excruciating pain again. When the doctor went in to surgically see what was wrong, they discovered that her intestines were already gangrenous and simply closed her back up. She never re-awakened. She died at age 76 several years before my son was born.
There is in this situation a control of sorts. Her identical twin sister who started smoking with my mother at age seven, stopped smoking late in life but it was a complete stoppage. My aunt lived 15 years longer and died in relative peace of natural causes. She and my son had many wonderful interactions and he still keeps one of the gifts she gave him when he was a young boy. But, he never met my mother nor she him. It is a deficit that saddens me to this day.
So, J. Clivas, why do you not want others to stop smoking?
I remember an old Steve Martin comedy routine: “Mind if I smoke?” I am sure it is on the internet somewhere.
Why Michael Bauman? Just as many of us are quick to criticize our church leaders, especially my GOAA, many on a person to person level, see things either half empty or full according to their personality, or spiritual state at the moment. I am guilty of this on both levels, Mr. Clivas only on one, but at least during Lent I am trying to be the Bee. My bad temper, and anger is a hurdle I will always have to combat. A Blessed Lent to you Michael.
Here is a simple quote from Saint Paisios, when many came to him, stating they were scandalized by the many things they see wrong in the Church.
Now, that’s a very fine quote.
I find it surprising that even on a Orthodox Christian site, my simple post that attempts to encourage healthy living, such as supporting one who attempts to quit smoking, there will always be at least one of the embittered who attack, and discourage simple, genuine, and well intentioned gestures. George I actually appreciate that you held back my first response to Clivas, especially during Lent, lest I, or others fall into ….
The actual tobacco plant, the leaf, has some beneficial properties. Not the bastardized forms of tobacco such as Marlboros and Camels. Anti-viral:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC444439/
Antibacterial:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237836727_Evaluation_of_the_antibacterial_effects_of_Tobacco_leaf_extract_Nicotina_tobaccum_L
In nature, the tobacco plant has some role. American Indians have been known to smoke tobacco going back many centuries way before any European settlements and I don’t think they ever got any cancers or lung cancer, they are legendary for being in great shape. Of course all major brands Phillip Morris Reynolds etc. they dump numerous toxic additives into their brands plus the tobacco itself is harvested with all kinds of pesticides and chemicals like fluoride and then you inhale a pack or more of these per day sure, that’s not good. Marlboros are spiked with ammonia so that you get the quick nicotine hit into the blood stream of course thats going to make it addictive. Commercial processing also utilizes sugar for I guess the curing process, formaldehyde, “anti-freeze” lots of chemical additives in commercial brands for flavor taste etc. Myself I am known as what is a “chipper” told to me by my Doctor “you’re a chipper” someone who averages one or two smokes a day, American Spirit Organic, he said quit. But I have been smoking this way for well over twenty years like to have that smoke toward the end of the day helps me get drowsy, lots of times my only one. Can help curb appetite a little as well. There is an addictive aspect to nicotine though even as a “chipper” I will admit, but very seldom do I ever have any significant cold or flu and never do any vaccines for sure, I know most everybody will tell me after all of this and that “just quit!”
Also another point about the Immune System. The way it works is that it does bombard invading organisms with free radicals. Tobacco smoke probably can supply some of that ammo. Dr. Barry Sears guy who wrote the original “Zone” book was making that point so you don’t take massive amounts of vitamin C like that famous professor Stanford guy doesn’t work too many anti-oxidants.
American Indians never got cancer. I didn’t know that! Amazing what you learn here!
Timor, quite possible because alcoholism, starvation, aggressive lead poisoning tend to kill before cancer. But in the Native culture tobacco was used ritually for the most part not in volume.
There is a point to the additives and growing practices of commercial tobacco being dangerous.
Nevertheless I doubt there are any epidemlogical studies on cancer in Native people’s. They do not warrant the time or money for the people do such things.
However, if we want a American Orthodoxy, studying the spiritual practices of the Plains tribes would not hurt.
BTW Saunca, I have not seen a reply to my question on what you mean by American Orthodoxy. I ask because it usually takes the form of getting rid of the ethnic orientation and the old country bishops and forging our own way. That would be a disaster.
Alas, the reason Native Americans “didn’t get cancer” is because 1 – they didn’t live long enough to develop cancers (pre-Columbian life expectancy was VERY low – as low as 30-35 years, but with a high infant mortality rate); and 2- they didn’t have medical terminology to describe the various types of diseases that they were subject to. Add this to virtually no record keeping and it is easy to see how one can come up with inaccurate or even mythical conclusions.
To suggest that Native Americans “never got cancer” is open to way to much conjecture.
No, it’s true
Native Americans are impervious to cancer, but are completely destroyed by the effects of littering
Great sarcasm Billy Jack
Guys, my tongue was firmly planted in my cheek. Notice all the exclamation marks?
I wasn’t born yesteryear, after all….
Cy, I like you. I feel as if we hallucinated thru San Francisco’s LONG GONE, Playland with Laughing Sal, and my Dad(memory eternal) when I was so young, but could only remember Sal, you made me feel as I was there again. It was such a innocent time to relive, I felt as if a child again. Thank you for that
I don’t know if two cigs a day will kill you, truth is if not for my wife, I would most likely still smoke cigars. This I do know, every day on earth is another day we may repent of sins forgotten, or ignored, or do the work, and witness for our Lord. We are too old to toy with cancer, and heart disease. Please try Chamomile tea for insomnia instead. Might need you to relive the old days in San Francisco, or a reminder what a jerk I might be at times. Peace brother.
Tim you crack me up! A Blessed Lent to you both!
Cancer is cellular proliferation. There is a diet that promotes those possibilities and vasoconstriction, one fourth of all fatal heart attacks are where no “cholesterol” issues just the blood vessels constricted too long then dilate but
too late its a thrombotic event. I know my fats, all of them and what they all do as layperson enthusiast, but what people do not know is how detrimental and deleterious are the Omega 6 fats Linoleic Acid then there is the Linolenic acid to not confuse but by way with interactions with rate limiting enzymes they become molecule modulators system of Prostaglandins so I avoid as much as possible Omega 6 fat highly prone to free radical rancidity and precursor to No.2 series of Prostaglandins besides vasoconstriction and cellular proliferation also it makes the platelets more sticky, also pro-inflamatory for arthritis conditios and for diabetics more insulin resistance. Ok, what were we talking about?
CY! In perfect form! How about them NINERS! Undefeated with Jimmy Garappolo! Those original old school, Italian San Franciscans, must love having one of their own at the helm. Notice the leftist have still not removed the Columbus statue from Coit Tower? In San Francisco that is remarkable!
Speaking of Italians, CY. Ever go to Original Joes by Lake Merced? Good simple food. Old school waiters, most with gray hair.
BTW, here’s the link of the open-air slave markets that are currently operating in Libya, courtesy of Mdme Secretary:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/10/libya-public-slave-auctions-un-migration
What, no to slavery, too??
The list just keeps getting bigger of all the things different posters want banned:
No slavery
No tobacco
No firearms
No racism
No misogyny
No esoteric fraternal organizations
No bromance
No fringe Protestantism
No territorial disputes
No patriotism
No RC or commie-bashing
What’s that leave you Southern boys with? Horseshoes and frog gigging?
I see nothing wrong with bromances or patriotism. There’s no more commies to bash (at least in Russia). They’re all in American universities.
I’m razzin ya, Weedwacker
I thought so. Razz accepted.
“I’m sure there’s some diagnosis in the psychiatric manual that explains this delusion as some type of coping mechanism.”
Most of USA is subject to the DSM, in my book. Seriously deluded and talks psychobabble. Especially the politians.
Well, this doesn’t fit the Corporate Media narrative:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/08/italys-first-black-senator-my-election-shows-far-right-is-not-anti-immigration
As Robert Mueller’s investigation expands and picks up steam, I predict that Carrot Top will be indicted by the US House of Representatives, but will resign before he’s convicted by the Senate. It’s not over yet, but it is getting close. Let’s not forget Stormy Daniels, and Donnie Jr.’s wife is divorcing him. A perfect storm for the maelstrom President. By the way, he still hasn’t released his taxes yet. I guess Robert Mueller will have to do that for him.
President Trump really did win and if the only way the Democrats and their RINO allies can find to deal with that is through the impeachment process and it is successful, it will be a sad day for the republic.
All the Democrats had to do was run someone, anyone who was not an idiot. Someone who did not make public the reality that they really do hate the vast majority of the people in this country. Keep in mind Constanios that you are a deplorable too and that the great and powerful Hillary would have done as much as she could to silence any one of faith on any issue. She said so. Directly. That is what made me actually vote.
That is what made many folks who could not stand Trump vote for him and still to support him. In my mind a vote to impeach him is a vote to silence me–and worse