To say we’ve all but lost our ability to “talk things over” with our neighbor is a gross understatement.
Just this week an old high school acquaintance, whom I barely remember, popped up on my FB page and jumped into the following exchange where I was answering a question about pre-existing conditions.
Question: “Is Crohn’s disease a pre-existing condition?”
Me: “It would depend on your insurance policy, as each policy is different, but since 2014, insurance carriers cannot deny you coverage or charge you more because you have a diagnosis that falls under that category for a given plan.”
Old HS Acquaintance: “If ACA is overturned, as R’s have voted to do dozens of times, then Crohn’s will be a pre-existing condition and you can be denied coverage or charged more for coverage. I think this will make Gail happier? Seems like Americans being denied healthcare is one of her fondest wishes. Some of us do not get the logic of this, but it makes sense to others. I don’t get it. What am I missing?”
Turns out he’s missing a LOT. What’s wrong with people, anyway? Not only are they woefully ignorant, they are aggressive and obnoxious.
Pew reports that the divisions between republicans and democrats on fundamental political values – on government, race, immigration, national security, environmental protection and other areas – reached record levels. Across 10 measures that Pew Research Center has tracked on the same surveys since 1994, the average partisan gap has increased from 15 percentage points to 36 points.
Mrs. M
I wouldn’t go near Facebook, Twitter, or any other ‘social media’. Never have; never will. For this very reason, and many others.
I use email, and go to a very few select websites. That’s it.
You have chosen wisely.
I’m glad ours is one of them. 🙂
Ditto. Virtual life is no life at all.
Are we on the verge of a civil war?https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2020/10/16/how-close-is-the-us-to-civil-war-a-war-correspondent-is-in-portland-to-find-out-n1063645
Après [Trump] le déluge?
I know. George says the same thing.
Amy Barret gave a subtle indirect answer to the raging Democrats concerning Roe V Wade. She said she always asks herself would she want her children to be bound by a law she supported. I cannot see her voting for her grandchildren to be murdered. The snake oil godless leftists could not come up with a counter criticism against the fact she loves her children. A superb statement they could not condemn. Impressive indeed. Really give me hope. Baby John Doe 1709 Siege of Atlanta Operation Rescue 1988.
Gail,
For what it’s worth, I think the tolerance of each wing for the other has come to a breaking point. Everybody realizes that we’re coming to a point where one side is going to be an occupier and the other side is going to feel occupied.
On a lighter, but not totally unrelated note, I finally took it upon myself to investigate this QAnon business about which I’d occasionally heard this and that.
Fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pwd8gap470
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mxaA-bJ35s
I like your taste in music. I get Suzie Q. What am I missing about the beatles?
JBS Haldane: “God has an inordinate fondness for beetles”
17th letter of alphabet. Some sports team actually gave Trump a jersey with that number.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/08/trump-qanon-17/
“she was just 17, you know what I mean”
?
OK, so Trump said to Nevada tonight that, ” . . . 51 days from now, we’re going to win Nevada, and we’re going to win four more years in the White House. ” Doesn’t make sense.
So is he talking about Area 51?!!!
He and his son were talking about Roswell and he drifted off to Area 51 territory there, too.
Or maybe he’s talking about, “Storm Area 51 – They Can’t Stop All of Us” meaning storm the elections, they can’t stop all of us! (Maybe he’s not talking about anything at all!)
https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2020/6/20/21296918/president-donald-trump-triggered-aliens-roswell-area-51
This is a dangerous thing you’ve gotten me into. All our posts are going to be filled with codes!
Gail,
He is waging psyche warfare on a Borg that specializes in it. He has them completely paranoid. They’re grilling him about some internet oracle during a townhall, insisting he denounce it since it paints them as a hopelessly corrupt, satanic cult of peds. And he gets to play dumb, all the while he and his followers know it’s either him or military intelligence around him.
It’s what they don’t know that scares folks. He has opened up a whole world of uncertainty for them. They know about Jeffrey Epstein and so there’s a factual basis. He’s inside the head of the rank and file and even probably some of the higher ups. Could it all be true? How much exactly, if not all?
Genius.
When talking the other day about California, he made a big deal about the water legislation and called out “flushing toilets.” he said he wasn’t going to talk about it but then he talked about it. He said people flush the toilet 10 to 15 times a day and water is “trickling” out of the faucets. Later he said at his suggestion, the EPA is looking strongly into it
Maybe he is alerting them that he intends to rollback 10 to 15 regulations if he wins and “flush them down the toilet.”
Trump has a dehydratedly dry sense of humor which people sometimes don’t get. I spit my coffee when I heard his answer to a reporter’s question:
* * *
Q: And now Michael Bloomberg has gotten in the race. What do you think of him, Mr. President?
Trump’s Answer: Very little.
* * *
That’s cold, dry, astronaut ice cream.
This is hysterical!
It is a decidedly Scottish sense of humour.
I expect he gets it from his Mother.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-trump-plans-to-bring-hunter-biden-associate-tony-bobulinski-as-guest-to-debate
Trump is bringing Tony Bobulinski to the debate tonight.
https://heavy.com/news/tony-bobulinski/
Bobulinski was one of Hunter’s business associates and a recipient of some of the emails published by the NY Post. So he is a living verification of the emails and an eye witness who can identify “the big guy” as Joe Biden who was to get 10% from the scheme. Served in the Navy, non-political, only contributions to Democrats. The Bidens were business partners with the Chinese government and this guy was the CEO of their holding company Sinohawk Holdings.
He is a walking, talking, smoking gun.
Twelve days.
There’s no way to supress it.
This is going to be Nixon/McGovern.
And he’s gonna take the MSM media and the Democratic Party down with him.
There’s no way to deny it and there’s no way they can say they weren’t trying to cover it up.
Breathtaking.
Wow.
I didn’t see the debate,
and don’t trust the MSM.
How did it go?
Brendan,
Oh, it went fine. Trump did well and acted housebroken. He got all his points and defenses across well and seemed genuinely sympathetic to Biden in a sort of condescending way.
Trump managed to work the corruption in.
Biden made a possibly fatal, unforced error. He declared war on oil. That’s gonna leave a mark.
The “Laptop From Hell” came up and, frankly, that’s going to be metastasizing aggressively over the next 11 days. The NY Post, Wall Street Journal and Washington Times have all picked it up and are running with it.
In a nation with Obama phones and unlimited data, you can’t keep a secret. Facebook and Twitter tried with mixed results, but in the long run – and 11 days is a long run – the dam can’t hold.
Dr. Steve Turley is looking at the polling numbers coming out of the battle ground states. In and of themselves, the numbers probably aren’t accurate, but the trend is significant. Biden is hemorrhaging support at an alarming rate.
Thank you Misha. That is very interesting,
particularly what you say about the Obama phones.
As I understand it, one of the things that put the hems on the Algiers military putsch of 1961 was when President De Gaulle’s appeal to the nation was heard by lots and lots of National Servicemen who refused to join the putsch and (in many cases) arrested their officers. Of course, the (then) new technology transistor radios on which they heard Long Charlie speak had only recently been distributed to them by the French Government.
Well, it looks like the genie is out of the bottle
and is not for going back any time soon.
My wife has the unique ability to talk to almost anybody. It is fascinating to observe.
The breakdown in communication in my case is that 1. I really do not care what a lot of people have to say and/or 2. I pre-judge them.
Real communication can only happen if one is able to see the other as human, make an effort to understand their point of view and respond in humility.
Case in point: my brother in Christ, Mark Mosley, wrote a piece for the last The Word magazine which I and many here took to be an apology for the BLM way of thinking. I was unhappy and vowed to speak with him in person. First though I had to get past my anger. That took awhile. I read and reread the piece several times.
Finally I approached him and we talked for about an hour. Upshot was all he was saying was that we needed more Afro-Americans in leadership positions in the Church. Like the early Church split between Jews and Greeks had to appoint Greek deacons like St. Stephen.
I shared with him my experience with The Fellowship of St. Moses the Black and he was immediately receptive. We are closer now than we have been in a long time. We had the humility to listen to each other and not run on an ideological track which shuts off all communication.
The person who holds to the opposing ideology is less than human.
Jordon Peterson confounds his opponents when he listens and finds points of agreement. It blows up their heads precisely because he is really agreeing with them. He still comes to different conclusions but he honestly agrees with them and he never treats them as less than human. He seems to have genuine empathy for them. Even when they are astoundingly wrong and want to hurt him. That has cost him a lot but it is at the core of his personal integrity.
God forgive us.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
How beautiful Michael, one icon of Christ with another ~ glory to God! Thank you for sharing.
“Orthodox Responses to the Nihilism of Cultural Revolution, Self-Destruction, and Social Division” ~ Another City. http://anothercity.org/orthodox-responses-to-the-nihilism-of-cultural-revolution-self-destruction-and-social-division/
Deacon Paul Siewers and Fr Jacobse on Another City offer another essential Orthodox analysis and perspective. Hope many will read and comment!
Why not Holy Cross?
I’m really interested in the religious repercussions of a Trump win, specifically for us as Orthodox and everything that is going on right now between the State Department and the PoC.
As we saw with Abp. Elpidophoros speaking at the DNC and Biden “supporting” the Patriarchate of Constantinople, it seems that Patriarchate and GOARCH are riding a lot on a Biden win. Corruption begets corruption perhaps?
If Biden wins does all the suspicious actions of GOARCH get swept under the rug?
If Trump wins will there be a formal investigation into Karloutsos or the St. Nicholas debacle? Will Abp. Elpidophoros be sent packing by the government for some sort of religious election interference and be accused as an operative of the Turkish government?
Some things to think about
Everything is definitely tied together. Interestingly, Metropolitan Joseph had a meeting with Pompeo this week.
Gail, I’d like to think (hope, actually) that Met Joseph gave Pompeo a different view of Orthodoxy in America, as opposed to the happy-talk that he was subjected to by Arb Elpi
.
Speaking of numbers: Btw, the Hunter story came out on Oct. 13th.
This just happened to be the day when early voting kicked off in a number of states. After the 13th, it would have been impossible to change the names on the ballots if Biden had dropped out.
This was a kill shot.
He’ll finish though. What else could he do?
Did he really think he could pull this off without a hitch?
Yes, my dear, he really thought that.
You see, he’s a member of the Establishment, there’s a different set of rules for his kind and for ours. If you, I or anybody else reading this blog did what Hillary did or the Bidens or [insert name of globalist here] did, we’d never see the light of day again.
In the meantime, I worry about the health of Hunter Biden. Let’s hope he doesn’t drive by Ft Marcy Park anytime soon.
Gail,
Evidently he did. They’ve owned the media for decades. It’s a fair assumption. Most of the faces you see on TV news, apart from a thin slice, are evil people. They have knowingly chosen evil over good because they believe there is no Referee and the good seems to be a loser. The notion that the good could be a winner is heresy that makes them nauseous. It paints them as minions of the evil one, which they are.
So, in order to sleep at night, yes they will say anything or do anything to help Sleepy Joe. And he knows it. He knows it because he has had a long history of corruption and plagiarism which would have KO’d any other candidate but a Demshevik cog. You just build a narrative and sell it with all your resources, like most of the media, and enough people will find it in their self interest to believe it or at least feign belief.
They’re still trying to spin it. Schiff is pointing the finger at those wascally Wussians again. The DNI had to come out and call it crap:
https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/10/19/dni-john-ratcliffe-says-the-joe-biden-emails-are-not-a-russian-plot/
Personally, I’m glad we’re a democracy, unlike say, Russia. Here people can speak freely without getting their teeth knocked out or called racial epithets.
https://www.breitbart.com/law-and-order/2020/10/18/antifa-knocks-out-black-mans-teeth-for-holding-free-speech-rally-while-calling-him-n-word/
Oops! Silly me!
I read about that happening. A person on the left replied well you guys tried to kidnapped Gretchen Whitmer. Well, two wrongs don’t make a right.
“Joe Biden’s son emailed shop owner about hard drive to ‘get it back’:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zhWHsfEa0U
Funny 2 minute MAGA video: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2011832/Video-M-G-Trump-Democratic-candidates-dance-viral-video.html
Forgive the levity and possible repeat, but this one made me smile. IF ONLY!
One of the things that we’ve never been able “to talk over” was the Wall that Trump has wanted to built (and actually is building).
Liberals and progressives have tussled with me on this blog about the unworkability of walls. Don’t look now, but the Greeks are getting ready to build one:
https://vdare.com/posts/greece-building-the-wall-why-can-t-we
I guess they didn’t get the memo.
Anyhoooo… have any of you heard any good jokes lately about, oh, I don’t know, Zoom calls?
https://youtu.be/Td67kYY9mdQ
Looks like #metoobin is trending now.
In about two weeks, something momentous is going to happen. That much is certain. Either Trump will win, which I expect, or he will lose.
It is true, at the end, that we have lost the ability to “talk things over”. That’s how it goes in any case of irreconcilable differences. War is just a more aggressive extension of politics, a more practical means of persuasion, if you will.
But it’s binary, Trump wins or he loses.
In the event of a Trump win, we still have to weather the ensuing storm. All I can say is that I hope all believers in the danger zones are locked and loaded. But the possibility – I won’t say the likelihood because what I am seeing indicates to me a Trump win – of a Trump loss is something that should spur us to think it through in advance. Some will come to different conclusions than I, but that’s fine. Believers sometimes differ on these matters.
There are celebrities coming out saying they will leave America, or even the planet, if Trump wins. I doubt it. It’s still a great market, best place in the world for licentious souls to make a killing. I don’t see ’em learning Hindi and defecting to Bollywood.
But believers should soberly consider what lies before us in the event of a Trump loss. Demsheviks have seen the abyss and they will never allow it to approach them again. The lockdowns will seem like a tornado watch compared to what will develop in the aftermath. And so we confront the question: “When should the Jews have left Germany?”
The obvious answer is while there’s still time, but that doesn’t do us much good. In the event of a Trump loss, I will not entertain any conversations about “staying and fighting”. I’ve seen that movie before, no happy ending.
This was the only battle you’re going to see. One shot. No second chances.
Martyrdom or emigration will be our only sane options, make no mistake about that. If either a) the system is so corrupt that the good can’t prevail, or b) the American people are so corrupt that the good can’t prevail, the result is more or less the same.
Yes, you will have large pockets of “resistance” in the South, Southwest and Mountain states. Yes, it will be bloody. But, IMHO, nothing can stand up to the force of the federal government if it has seemingly secured a mandate at the polls. Not without divine intervention.
I will fight in self defense if it comes to that, rearguard activity enabling an exit. But I have no intention of fighting a civil war. If it becomes clear that Trump has either lost legitimately or that the fix is so deep that the spell cannot be broken, then we have an analogy to Roman occupation in the time of Christ and I see only two possibilities, escape or acceptance (possibly of martyrdom). I am not a pacifist, but Christ said the words, “Love your enemies and bless those who curse you . . .” for a reason. He even exhorted his listeners to carry the Roman soldier’s pack voluntarily for “the extra mile”.
There is a time for war, as the Preacher wrote in Ecclesiastes; however, IMHO, that time is not when a majority of the nation have signed up with the evil one. Then, it’s too late. Decent Americans should have heeded what we here at Monomakhos have said for many years.
You will not find a feistier tomcat than I and this should be evident from these cyberpages over the years to the shock and amusement of many here. I would LOVE, win or lose, to battle the Left here, on American soil, to the end, no quarter. Believe it. But I do not believe that that would be what the Lord is telling us. God gives us free will. Trump is clearly a King Cyrus, a righteous leader (heterodox though he be), anointed to give America a chance at restoration.
But God gave Israel a choice and so He has given us one. He will not be mocked indefinitely, not in the wake of countless million unborn slaughtered, not in the wake of righteous people being murdered by His enemies and even compelled to suicide by a sick, Orwellian, political machine. And if America chooses evil, He will allow us to do so. It will be difficult to see the mercy in this, but He is All Merciful.
In the event of a Trump loss, I will be drowning it all out in prayer and faith while making long term, but serious, plans to emigrate inasmuch as the writing is on the wall. We know the American Left better than we did before Trump. And it is unspeakably ugly and slowly accelerating further and further in that direction. I will not waste the rest of my life under their rule for no good reason. However, some will find this a bridge too far due to family ties, property, attachment to America as a territory, etc.
All I can say is, in the event of a Trump loss, may God have mercy on you. Certainly I will pray for all those who remain. I will not be able to leave for some time myself. But I will accept the fact that God is moving toward a terrible reckoning with America for its sins. I’d rather not be in His crosshairs though I trust in His protection always. A progressive America is on an inevitable collision course with a revitalized, Christian, nuclear armed Russian Federation.
Now, that may seem a bit dark and ominous. But it’s the truth to the extent I can discern it. And, we should all bear in mind that 99.99 percent of the things about which we are apprehensive never come to pass. I fully expect Trump to prevail. All the indicators I look at are showing that. Winners win.
But as the boy scouts say, it is good to be prepared.
Is Russia among the possible emigration destinations? Fun fact: as recently as 2013 Russia was the number 2 immigration destination in the world, after the United States. Structurally, this was mostly Russian people from former Soviet Republics moving to their historic homeland. However, quite a few others mixed in there as well. It’s still ranks in the top 5 right now.
Curiously, one of the major demographic groups that are migrating to Russia are the Afrikaners. They are being ethnically cleansed by the majority so they’re packing up and leaving.
Actually, I’d probably consider Mexico or Costa Rica, assuming my finances were in order. You have to think of retirement and stretching your dollars. My Spanish isn’t too bad and I’m sure I’d get up to speed quick if immersed.
You assume the US will eventually implode if the Dems prevail. They are transparently incompetent and it will unravel – think Balkans. That’s assuming they don’t provoke the Russians to war, which is likely in the mid term and probably inevitable in the long term assuming they resume pushing.
People in the South and Southwest are well armed and fairly accurate shots so in the long term there may be some hope regardless of the election. But I’m not relying on that. They’re already talking about reconciliation commissions like they had in South Africa. The Brits have already provided a blueprint for a totalitarian surveillance state for the Dems, as have the Chinese, though there’s hope yet for Britain.
This is all quite serious. They will get incrementally nastier month after month, much like they have during the dry run lockdowns. No doubt there are many good ole boys in the hills who will keep on relatively unaffected since they are relatively self sufficient and not worth the effort for federal authorities unless they come out and raid.
And Russia survived both Stalin and Hitler’s invasion, so it’s not the end of the world in any case. Americans have never had such experiences, at least not since the War Between the States and Reconstruction. I just happen to be mobile and unattached with a trade that has an international market (music). For me it would be a waste here and increasingly dangerous given my personality.
Avoid the Lowlands of Holland:
“Netherlands to Allow Euthanasia of Children Under 12 Years Old”
https://www.faithwire.com/2020/10/16/unbelievably-evil-netherlands-to-allow-euthanasia-of-children-under-12-years-old/
Points to consider:
Is Russia really Christian?
The devil you don’t know is always better than the one you do.
Want to live in an ethnic ghetto under suspicion because of your country of origin?
We tend to take all our sins with us wherever we go.
Moving to Russia will solve nothing, although I understand the allure.
Perhaps that is just because it is impossible for my wife and I go. So, consider also those you leave behind.
“Is Russia really Christian?”
Perhaps.
Is the Pope a [Roman] Catholic?
The last one was.