Well, well, well, I guess firearms are OK now? Here
But then again, it’s deeper –and more ridiculous–than what we even could imagine. That freak (pictured at left) who shot and killed six people, three of whom were CHILDREN, at that Christian school in Nashville is now considered a “martyr” by the Left.
Get it? The child murderer is the victim.
On the other hand, when Dylann Roof walked into a predominantly black AME Church in Charleston, SC killing nine people attendingan evening Bible study, the victims were actually the –you know–victims. Roof was apprehended and charged with murder, as he should have been.
How was Nashville any different than Charleston, other than being a whole lot worse because innocent children were involved?
It’s not.
Not by the ordinary rules of logic and common sense. But now, transsexuals have amassed most of the Pokemon victim points so they can do pretty much anything they want. Simply put, we live in a land and time in which logic, common sense, and good ‘ole fashioned human decency, no longer apply.
And it even gets more absurd: A few weeks ago, Riley Gaines, a top female collegiate swimmer, gave an impassioned speech decrying the inclusion of men competing in women’s sports at San Francisco State University.
In a sane society, the logical inference would be that Gaines would be able to speak freely on this topic; that is to say, on women’s sports, something which she has probably dedicated her whole life to in an effort to compete, not among men, but among other women with two X chromosomes.
No so. It’s, “Move aside, little lady. You ain’t got no chance. Hand over the lettuce and cabbage.”
Women are being outlawed in their own sports. They are effectively being cancelled. God help you if you object. These “lovely little ladies” milling around in the halls, who want to take your place, will beat you up and bar you from leaving your room. (It’s worth mentioning that the hormones these “men” are taking are probably scrambling their God given brains. )
In a free society one would think you could talk about something like this, especially if you’re a woman and see your chances to compete in your own sport go up in smoke.
But you would be wrong. Because we don’t live in a free society. Though Gaines was physically assaulted by a “trans woman,” no one would even think of abandoning the narrative lest the same thing happen to them. Totalitarian states work best when fear is the mainstay of all people, all the time, except the select few at the top who are generating it.
What did the cops do? They might as well have arrested her. As Andy Griffith used to say: “Now don’t that just beat everything you ever heard?”
We live in a society in which trannies are at the top of the totem pole and women (even Lesbians) have been knocked off their perch. Straight, white, Christian males are at the bottom of the heap. This means that “trans women” cannot only shower with nubile females (the real kind), they can buy all the guns and ammo needed and inflict any manner of violence —up to and including murdering children –and we’re supposed to be OK with that.
Got it.
As for who is murdering “transgenders,” please take a look at this report: https://www.unz.com/isteve/who-is-murdering-transgenders/
As for the whole gun angle, here’s Dr Steve Turley’s take:
And here’s a quick primer on the history of the “transgender” movement:
I could not find anything about Gaines being arrested by the police. Apparently she spoke to an orderly group of about 75 people and then the room was invaded by a screaming crowd. The police presence was non-existent and she was rushed to safety by an undercover policeman. Unfortunately that happens more and more often. What is equally disturbing is that the university publicly praised the crowd for its peaceful demonstration when video clearly shows screaming, shouting, etc. Gaines said she was hit by a protester but apparently no video is believed to exist. For what it’s worth, yes, trans folks should not compete against the sex they claim to associate with. But that’s a lost cause. The only way universities, the AAU, the Olympics, etc., will pay attention is when/if athletes en masse refuse to compete against trans athletes, and only then because it will cost them a lot of money.
That was my fault. When I was editing the document, I left off something George said. He said, “They might as well have arrested her.”
I thought I had read they had arrested her to get her out and to safety.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I changed it. It now reads: “What did the cops do? They might as well have arrested her. As Andy Griffith used to say: “Now don’t that just beat everything you ever heard?”
Yes indeed, Yannaro. I misspoke (actually misunderstood the events). It was my fault. Thanks for brinfing this to our attention.
The delusional conduct and claims of the Transgender Cult followers confirm that spiritual darkness leads to confusion, immaturity, foolishness, mental illness, and eventually insanity. To be followed by the silencing, persecution, punishment, and murder of anyone who dares to speak the truth and challenge and reject their insanity.
Indeed, Chris!
The valorizing by the White House, mainstream media, social media, and celebrities, of the trans radical shooter as the victim martyr of transphobia sets the table for justifying targeting all who dare to call it for what it is: insanity. The window for clergy and laity alike to stand up and speak up is open, for now. Here in so-called conservative Idaho, several bills prohibiting trans surgeries for minors, drag shows in public and prohibiting explicit sex ed (porn) in school and public libraries were introduced. Some passed, some failed. Idaho is going full-on California blue fast because too many conservatives and people of faith are sitting on the sidelines, opting to remain absent in running for school boards, city council seats, health boards, precinct committeemen, and public office. Our cowardly absence amounts to a form of sinful consent. I hope you and all readers will seriously consider to “dare to speak the truth and challenge and reject their insanity” as you say by entering the battle before us — before the window closes.
The trans movement is one of the tactics being used in the coup of the Government. Beware of the agents of chaos. Each one of us need to speak up. You can call your state general assemblies, support bills that curtail trans brainwashing of children. Contact corporations that promote trans pronouns etc. and tell them your not using their products. ❌🥸The revolution does not operate as an explicit political movement. It operates laterally through the bureaucracy and it filters its revolutionary language through the language of the therapeutic, the language of the pedagogical, or the language of the corporate HR department”, Professor Furedi writes. “And then, it establishes power anti-democratically, bypassing the democratic structure: using this manipulative and soft language – to continue the revolution from within the institutions.”
You do realize we are in a Revolution?
It’s really just more confirmation that America is degenerate and irredeemable. Abominations don’t last indefinitely for they contain within them the seeds of their own destruction.
I cannot disagree with you, Misha: America in its present state is indeed irredeemable.
As I look upon this magazine cover depicting the modern American bride, I am struck by the realization that my beloved country has been defeated by men in dresses. I thought that maybe Communisim or Marxism or possibly Facism would be the driving force to destroy this once great superpower that held so much promise for the advancement of mankind. To my surprise that out of all the “isms” that could possibly destroy this country, happens to be Transgenderism.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/bridal-magazine-bearded-trans-feminine-activist-dress-cover-draws-backlash
Well, when you put it like that, I can see that Lincoln’s prophecy about America being destroyed from within (ca 1830) has now come true.
I have a 1934 Webster dictionary. The words transvestite, transsexual, or homosexual do not exist in that dictionary. Neither do such words as gender fluid, gay, trans, transgender, non binary, or LGBQT+.
Let’s go searching how these words entered our dictionaries and in what year.
From the Oxford English Dictionary [OED]
homosexual, adj. and n.
A. adj. …
1891 J. A. Symonds Probl. in Mod. Ethics viii. 60 The author [sc. Richard Burton] endeavoured to..frame a general theory regarding the origin and prevalence of homosexual passions.
B. n.
1894 E. Carpenter Homogenic Love 19 With regard to the number of these quite exclusive homosexuals (supposably born so) estimates vary, from one man in every 50 to one in every 500. …
homosexual marriage n. …
1915 H. Ellis Stud. Psychol. Sex (ed. 3) II. i. 11 Among the Tschuktsches, Kamschatdals, and allied peoples..there are homosexual marriages among the men, and occasionally among the women.
transsexual, adj. and n. …
A. adj. …
1956 H. Benjamin in D. O. Cauldwell Transvestism i. 22 Feminine appearance and orientation are often striking in these people, although some fully trans-sexual individuals have masculine features.
1978 Off our Backs Mar. 24/3 One can only imagine the horrors a transsexual woman must go through at the hands of male surgeons.
B. n. …
1949 D. O. Cauldwell in Sexology Dec. 280/1 There are case histories of outstanding social, civic and other leaders who were transexuals.
transvestite, n. and adj.
A. n. …
1911 Current Lit. Nov. 550/2 There are some who..point to the degeneracy of Rome under Heliogabalus, an emperor who preferred to wear the habiliments of the opposite sex. Recently Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld..devoted an entire book to the question of persons similarly inclined, whom he calls ‘transvestites’.
B. adj. …
1916 A. L. Kroeber in Holmes Anniv. Vol. Anthropol. Ess. 272 Ko-tlahma is the tlahmanna or transvestite god.
gender-fluid adj.
(a) (in early use) not clearly or wholly male or female; androgynous; (b) designating a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender; of or relating to a person having or expressing a fluid or unfixed gender identity (now the usual sense).
1987 Christianity & Crisis 12 Jan. 463/1 The dispelling of a more fluid, androgynous imagery.., [the] driving out of metaphorical, mystical, and gender-fluid imagery for God in the mainline Reformation has promoted a number of revolts.1993 Out June 22/1 Suede inspires Gender-fluid fans to storm the stage and shower ‘bisexual but celibate’ singer Brett Anderson with hugs and kisses.
1996 Re: Womyn born Womyn in soc.women.lesbian-and-bi (Usenet newsgroup) 13 May I am not gender fluid, tho I can take on either *role* at times.
2015 Columbia Spectator (Columbia Univ, N.Y.) (Nexis) 13 Oct. 1 Science is also beginning to help us understand the neuroscience behind trans and genderfluid identities.
gay, adj., adv., and n.
A. adj. …
9. Originally U.S. slang (originally among homosexual people).
a. Of a person: homosexual. …
[1922 G. Stein Miss Furr & Miss Skeene in Geogr. & Plays 17 Helen Furr and Georgina Keene lived together then… They were together then and traveled to another place and stayed there and were gay there..not very gay there, just gay there. They were both there.
1933 Afro-American (Baltimore) 21 Oct. 17 The products engendered by union of these decadents of changing sexes is generally an unenviable type of degeneracy… Sissies, fairies, pansies gay, The woods are full of them today.]
1934 Let. ‘Jay’ to ‘Jimmey’ (transcript, Univ. of Chicago Libr.: Ernest W. Burgess Papers, Box 98, Folder 11) Gay People are generally people who live their own lives speak their own thoughts and are in love with their own sex.
I’ve had enough. I don’t want to dig any deeper.
I just note that ‘gay’ meaning ‘Bright or lively-looking, esp. in colour;
brilliant, showy.’ is an Anglo-Norman word dating back to c. 1225:
“Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 127 (margin) Hwi þe Gay world is to fleon.” long before the homosexualists appropriated it.
This is fantastic info Brendan. I will try and research this. Many thanks.
This reminds of when my mum (who’s thankfully less naive today) was having an argument with my uncle because she wanted to take my sister to go and see the freak musical artist Boy George back into the 80s. My grandfather, who couldn’t speak much English, asked them what they were arguing about and my uncle told him that Boy George was a homo, and then had to tell him what a homo is.
Imagine. It was the 80s and there were still people around who literally didn’t know this stuff existed.
Needless to say, my grandfather probably never slept as well as he used to after that.
Talk about disturbing. The image of a blushing bride who has “dreamed of this day since I was a little girl” comes to mind. I cannot see how any such “bride” could possibly be inspired by this image, except perhaps to celibacy.
The fat man with the hairy chest (Should I say “hari chest”?) who is depicted in exotic bridal garments is Alok Vaid-Menon. Mr. Vaid-Menon is a transsexual nut, but he is India’s nut, not ours. The Bridal magazine whose cover he disgraces is an Indian periodical, not an American one. Please note the subtitle to the article: ”The woke pandemic has reached India,’ one Twitter account said’
“Progress” is a deeply secular ideology. The is, at best, a Diest idea about god.
One of the effects of the denial of an Incarnate God is an inversion of time.
Time, in the ideology of Progress, parties and politics, is linear and runs from the simple and unorganized to the complex and organized. Through our own will
Worshiping and knowing the Incarnate Lord, God and Savior requires acknowledging that Time. like everything else, is created and fallen. Fallen time, as fallen man, moves from Glory to non-being.
Only the Cross and the repentance(the repudiation of the efficacy of my own will).
The Cross makes possible the movement form death into Life Eternal. Restoration of the of the Glory of God from which we fell, The Kingdom realized again I’m the Eschaton which is calling us home. Time, the opposite of what the world teaches.
Forgive me sinner.
Interesting point you bring up there Michael, that “time” itself is “fallen.”
What else is time but the measure of decay as we inch toward death. But He is Risen trampling down death.
Poetically well said, Michael.
As Orthodox Christians, we’re actually inching toward life.
But only because of The Resurrected one pulling us from above
I’m fascinated by Fr. Stephen Freeman’s insistence (which will be familiar to you, Michael) that Christ’s Pascha is the foundation of all the Creation, the foundation of time. Everything exists for the sake of Christ’s Pascha and flows out from it, even all that existed and happened “before” the Incarnation. Any stream in history that fails to reflect the Pascha of the Lord is a polluted stream that has ceased to maintain the purity of its source!
Jeff, you bring up interesting points. One of my insights of late has been that Christ’s resurrection was an “event horizon.” It was the point in which space and time collapsed on to each other; it is the major reason why paganism can no longer works as a theological position for those who desire it.
The only response to the Resurrection for those who reject Christianity is atheism. And now we are seeing atheism collapse on its own internal contradictions.
Is this it, Jeff? https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2008/09/26/pascha-and-creation/
That is one example. I know Fr. Stephen has written about it in other places (and in greater detail), as well.
There’s this one, too:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2010/04/09/the-mystery-of-pascha-expanded/
Actually, Fr. Stephen has written a lot about this sort of thing, and I’m pulling together quite a few of his writings in my mind—although I can’t seem to easily pull them up on Google at the moment.
He says: “[Pascha] This is the very heart of the Orthodox Christian understanding of the life of the Church. Christ’s Pascha is our very life. It is present to us at every moment and is the source of our life and the truth of our existence. We believe that especially when the Church gathers together for worship, we stand in Christ’s Pascha. Heaven and earth meet and we are united with God in the feast of His Body and Blood. Heaven and earth meet; present, past and future meet with that which is beyond time. The created meets the Uncreated.”
Just another example of God’s true purposes for our lives. It is not His intent for us to trudge through life until time is up. God is not a God of death.
God is a God of life. I see this more and more clearly as I’m getting older, especially now when the aches and pains are setting in. We don’t have to get old just because we’re getting older. Slowing down often means getting the chance to see the things you missed when you were young. For example, I love sitting down with children at our Church and hearing them share what’s new in their lives. Like life itself, their dreams and aspirations are always changing. “I’m going to be a potter when I grow up,” says one. “I want to be a writer,” says another. On their evolving journeys, each new possibility they entertain makes them light up like little fireflies in the darkest of nights. What a joy it is to be present in those moments.
Surely God intended us to have joy every second until the end. It can absolutely be Pascha every day if we’re open to it!
Yes, Michael. What you point to is little appreciated. Originally, there was no death, no decay, no pain, only bliss and “walking with God” perpetually. Time meant something different before the Fall. When death entered the world, as a result of the sin of Adam, it made time its agent.
I have wondered whether this metamorphosis of time is not the reason behind the apparent millions and billions year old readings that scientists postulate for the earth and the universe. In one moment, a universe that had no decay whatsoever was reduced to a fallen world slanted toward self-destruction and death. It makes perfect sense that science cannot look back past that moment and will instead find utterly ancient time frames due to the immediacy of the decay and the fact that the decay itself was a new factor introduced into an unaging, perfect world.
“…this metamorphosis of time”.
A vivid notion: Time fallen is not what it was;
nor yet, presumably, what time risen will be…
Yes, exactly.
Makes it easier to embrace the principle more palpable now of being “in but not of the world,” and the distinction more clearly of Christ’s Kingdom being not-of-this-world. The “Christian Century” is over; the devil is unleashed. “Make ready for what’s to come.”
We know this is evil. Here is a tweet I accidentally came upon. I sent it to my state General Assembly. They did nothing – no response – no reporting it to Twitter. Twitter did not take it down either.
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1648810289184530432
There is a strange sort of mental illness that has settled over the world. Vicious cyborgs want to be women and beat them up all at the same time. How crazy is that?
Mental illness, perhaps; but personally I would describe it as a hypnotic spell – almost as though a demonic spell has been cast by some witch upon those willfully lacking spiritual protection. Not that I believe this, but who knows?.
At least that’s what it feels like.
I believe this entirely. What we are wrestling with are hosts of darkness, legions of hell, demons devouring our planet. We are in an epic battle of light versus darkness. For decades now, American children have had their bodies and minds altered to be opened up to demonic possession–from pharmaceutical drugs, street drugs, violent video games and media content, toxic preservatives in their food, social media, brainwashing in schools, hormones in water and soil, poisons in the environment. It’s been a full assault on their bodies and minds, conditioning them to wokeness, to physical sickness, to violent tendencies, to hormonal imbalances, to socialism, and absolutely to mental illness — all of which has conformed them to wide scale demon possession. Sometimes I meet someone and honestly cannot tell if they are really human or zombie or machine. The root cause of a lot of mental illness comes from another dimension, the one we are waging war against, following the lead of our King and Savior, the angelic commanders of his hosts, and our Lady Protectress. We must continue to pray and put on the armor of God daily because the battle is all around us.
You are so right.
I agree
A spell cast by Satan via intel agencies.
It’s also jealousy. These men want to be women, but they can’t no matter how they try, so they hate women and want to harm them.
Fat failures used to pose in front of bathroom mirrors
and issue bloodcurdling threats to show how brave they are.
Now they pose in front of their phones on social media
and issue bloodcurdling threats to show how brave they are.
Well, in circumstances specified by him, he has provided
an alibi of self-defence to anyone who takes him out.
Riley Gaines and other female athletes sign statement applauding the passage of the protection of women and girls in sports act.
https://www.outkick.com/riley-gaines-female-athlete-passage-of-protection-of-women-and-girls-in-sports-act/
What strikes me most in the transgender debate is that dissent is not allowed. In 2005 when I was deployed to Iraq a solider flew a rainbow flag on his tent In Indiana . He was given military punishment and was ordered to take it down because the flag destroyed good discipline. Now if one does not accept this belief system one is subject to discipline. Therefore, In literally the space of 20 years a complefe reversal has occurred. This is shocking since the biblical pattern is usually 40 years for apostasy, so this precipitous decline is unprecedented and should be alarming . I can’t say more unfortunately.
‘That freak (pictured at left) who shot and killed six people’…I think one very important thing I’ve learnt when joining orthodoxy is that we should never judge someone who is no longer alive, no matter what they did (indeed we should never judge anyone). Judging the sins of this world is one thing but judging someone who has passed, no matter the circumstances, is quite another. I wonder why this blog/website is pretending to identify as orthodox when in fact it seems more related to far right politics? I hope you can forgive me but I genuinely feel it is misleading simple and faithful orthodox people. Which God are you indeed serving, Christ or politics? I have no malicious thoughts, I just imagine what you could potentially accomplish if you were to use all this amazing energy and intellectual intelligence you possess to spread Christian love, even in the face of the difficult topics discussed. Of course I don’t mean one should stop addressing what is not right from a Christian perspective, but why not gently… reminding people how Christians are different from the ‘world’ by refraining from using derogatory language as may be common for someone who doesn’t care about the commandments of God. May God forgive the person of the picture of your article and may God forgive me for daring to discourage you from going too far right in the world… and may God help you towards His holy politics, neither left nor right!
Sarah, there is nothing “far right” about my politics. Unless by far right you mean a constitutionally ordered government and by endorsing candidates who seek to enact and enforce common sense laws.
Also, I’ll go further out on a limb and state that I “believe science is real.”
If the above sentiments makes me an extremist, then so be it.
As for the murderess, I’m sure she was a tortured soul but her actions were still monstrous. In writing that I am only stating obvious.
This is a geopolitical blog, Sarah. We’ll miss you!
Sarah,
I tried to email you, privately, but your email is not correct.
In looking over your comment, I feel I shortchanged you in the sense that I didn’t correct you.
There is nothing in Scripture, or in the Holy Tradition (Orthodoxy) that prohibits judging the actions of the dead. In Revelation 20:11-15 Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.
As with the living, we are not to judge someone’s heart, as that is the providence of Christ, and you have come perilously close to doing exactly that, my dear.
Our blog is based on an LLC and falls under certain categories, specifically: On-line journals, namely, blogs featuring geo-political, cultural, and religious commentary and discussion; Educational services, namely, providing a website featuring information and blog posts on news and religion. https://alter.com/trademarks/monomakhos-97643548
Nowhere do you see the word Orthodox.
If you look at our “About” page, you will find George explaining the purpose of our blog. https://www.monomakhos.com/about/
Nowhere will you see the word Orthodox.
We have not mislead “simple and faithful orthodox people.” You were mislead because you didn’t do your homework and there is nothing “simple or faithful” about what you just said. It was offensive.
That you don’t see what we’ve accomplished is fine. We don’t write for you. You are not our intended audience. You don’t know what we’re doing or why. You don’t know how long we have been here (since 2009). It’s not your fault you don’t know. But because of what you don’t know, you felt it was within your purview to offer us your “guidance,” which turned out to be pretty hateful, IMO, and most unwelcomed.
You talk about “spreading Christian love, even in the face of the difficult topics discussed,” but how much Christian love could one possibly have to talk to TWO MEMBERS OF YOUR PARISH on a public forum in this way?!
The Christian thing to do might have been to talk with us after services, face-to-face, but instead you chose to bring us up short publicly. I could have deleted your comment and no one would have been the wiser. I could have published it and let it go which was my first inclination, but this is not your first foray into criticizing “all thing Monomakhos” and I want to discourage you from doing it to us or to anyone else in the future.
George and I are pretty tough so we’re already over this but I hope you, Sarah, are not over it. I hope you think about what I am saying. What you did is not right. You don’t go into someone else’s home and insult your hosts.
If something George says offends you, you could have addressed a number of ways. You could say to yourself, “This is not my cup of tea” and leave or challenge him respectfully, which you failed to do.
Posting here comes with rules and one of our rules is to be respectful to our readers and to us. We would never have allowed you to speak like this to someone else. If you had a problem with George’s choice of a word, you could have said that and argued the merits of your case.
But suggesting the use of a word you don’t like to describe a FREAK WHO MUURDERED CHILDREN demonstrates George “doesn’t care about the commandments of God” is offensive in every conceivable way.
Go in peace.
Apparently there was an attempt to assassinate Putin last night involving two kamikaze drones which the military shot down before they could strike. A week or so ago there was another attempt which failed where a drone went after a target that Putin was known to be visiting that day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpBiTsLq6Y
This will be interesting to watch. Medvedev is calling for the entire Zelensky upper echelon to be wiped out. Others are urging fierce retaliation and there is also an air in Russian commentary that the RF must take powerful measures in retaliation to avoid embarrassment. The govt, for its part, is reserving the right to respond.
Bild reported on the earlier attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYzJW7d8Zg
Fascinating.
Analysis: Well, the fact that the attack has been publicized and the fact that European sources confirm a prior attempt should preempt the suggestion that this is a false flag. Russia has no incentive to embarrass itself in such a manner and needs no further excuse to escalate if they wish to do so. Nor would it have covered up the prior attempt if it were some type of psyop.
So I’m confident that these were genuine attempts at assassination. As to the possible culprits, I see only two. The simplest explanation is that it is the Ukies who have a history of cowboy antics. They are dumb enough to do this for the media buzz that they are “fighting back against Russian aggression” and taking the fight to Russia, though it reeks of desperation.
The other possibility is that this is the CIA making a cynical ploy which would be a “win” whether it succeeded or failed. If they managed to assassinate Putin, they would consider it a win. If they failed, they could blame it on the Ukrainians and achieve a quicker end to the war if Russia targets Zelensky, with whom, apparently, they are tired of dealing since everyone acknowledges that the Ukrainian war effort is going south rapidly. It’s like lobbing a hand grenade between two adversary forces to motivate them to more dramatic action. The CIA could certainly make it look like the Ukies were the perps.
However, Occam’s razor leads me to lean in the direction of the Ukies doing something this stupid.
Why stupid? Because even if they win, they lose. They gain a pr victory but assure that a more hawkish leader will lead in the Kremlin. Do they really want to deal with Medvedev? But that is the short-sighted mentality of such people.
They’ve stopped all drones over Leningrad and say in the near future, they will equip the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Guard of Electronic Warfare with equipment for the forced landing of drones performing uncoordinated flights.
They’re taking this very seriously.
The assassination attempt on Putin may have been the third attack on a world leader in almost as many days.
Some sources are even saying they were SUCCESSFUL attempts prior to Putin.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) of Mexico was one and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the other; both incidents reported to be health related.
Assuming they are both alive, each made a remarkable recovery. Obrador recovered from COVID two days after he was diagnosed (on Sunday), meeting with House Homeland Security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, yesterday.
Erdogan appearing before the cameras the day after he was whisked out of an interview due to his own ailments.
Look-alike replacements, which many if not all leaders have, can review questions from journalists and, with the help of a ChatGPT type AI, repeat answers dictated to them through ear pieces.
“Medvedev is calling for the entire Zelensky upper echelon to be wiped out.”
If that were done, their replacements might prove to be competent.
Where then would be the profit?
Does it bother anyone that Medvedev is the one doing the talking? Hopefully, someone has heard from Putin.
That was Christoforou’s take in the Duran, however, I can’t really agree. None of them are competent in part because they’re controlled from DC. I don’t think it matters but it may be a provocation designed to force the Russians to do something extreme to draw in NATO directly.
My guess is that whatever Russia does, it will be before the holiday on the ninth. Putin wasn’t even in the Kremlin at the time, apparently.
If Medvedev had had his way, this war would be long over;
but the US/UK/EU/NATO would still be armed to the teeth,
with their bankrupt nakedness not yet exposed for all to see.
…as it now is.
Brendan,
There is a certain logic, as you point out, to the way the Russian high command has waged this war. Dispassionately, the Russians won the minute they crossed the Ukrainian border. This is so because of the correlation of forces. Think Sun Tsu and the Art of War.
The Eurasian Sino-Russian Alliance had been formed the previous month. That was really the turning point, if you can put your finger on a moment, which is difficult. That alliance, drawing in the Indians (dots, not feathers), is probably indomitable. The natural resources, nuclear and conventional arsenal, manufacturing base and population base of this alliance is phenomenal. A blind man could see it. And that is why the 80% are leaning in that direction.
The Russians don’t have to do anything at this point. They’ve largely secured the annexed regions and apart from incremental operations, they are simply running a meat grinder. “Send more paramedics!”, comes to mind. Ukraine cannot join NATO while its claimed territory is contested. Russia has acted against those shelling the Donbass, protecting Russophones.
And, as you point out, a quick and massive onslaught overrunning the country would have prevented the object lesson of destroying the Ukrainian army and its Western weapons in favor of introducing a US/NATO army and the possibility of a nuclear confrontation. Russia has done the world a favor by the slow, grinding way it has waged this war. They accomplished an incremental advance but not enough to provoke overt and direct US/NATO intervention. And they created a natural offramp by preserving the possibility of negotiations in private between Russia and the US to resolve the matter without the reputation of the US armed forces being directly on the line.
This could have been a much nastier spectacle.
I would add that the war was lost for the West back in mid-March of last year, when the US seized all Russian assets held by the West, some $300 billion in gold and other commodities.
This was a splash of cold water to every other country in the world, especially the Global South as it showed to them that Uncle Sam was that family member you couldn’t invite to Thanksgiving dinner, not only because he’d bore you to death with his inane chatter but would steal the silverware as well.
Here’s what’s coming…
Mattias Desmet: No one escapes the New Morality
Not even bastards in private WhatsApp groups
https://mattiasdesmet.substack.com/p/no-one-escapes-the-new-morality?r=yh5er&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
‘ A controversial news item here in Belgium: nine teachers of a Belgian sports school suspended because they exchanged homophobic, sexist and racist messages in a private WhatsApp group. ‘Whistleblowers’ had complained to the school’s management that they shared such messages about colleagues and students. The teachers were immediately preventively suspended and an investigation into inappropriate behavior was launched.
I immediately frowned. I don’t really know how sexist and how racist those teachers truly are. If the headlines are to be believed, they are quite some monsters. Anyway, if I read the newspapers, then I myself am also a far-right ideologue of anti-government extremism. I didn’t know that myself until I read it in the papers. This aside.
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But what made me particularly frown is that I’m not entirely sure whether what those teachers say in a private WhatsApp group should actually be made the subject of scrutiny by anyone. People say quite a lot in private. And in the depths of our minds, we may all be God, but we’re all a little bit scum, too.
We sometimes even dream, in the depths of our minds, of spying on others in their private lives and punishing them for the things they do in the depths of their minds. I hear some thinking: “That is why Big Government must be so vigilant. And besides, we don’t blame those bastards in the end. The filth is simply in their brain biochemistry. In fact, they just need help. We still have to wait a bit for the right pill, but we do already have something in the pharmacy that can give them a nudge in the right direction”.
A few days later, I frowned even more. I then read in the newspapers that the police had visited some of those teachers to confiscate their mobile phones. Apparently, the public prosecutor’s office had also launched an investigation. That makes perfect sense of course. Once you have decided as a society that someone is an outright danger to the New Morality based on what he says in a private WhatsApp group, then the judiciary and police cannot stay behind.
And there are plenty of people applauding enthusiastically. Scum must be eradicated. No safe spaces or closed WhatsApp groups for that. The New Morality is one hundred percent correct – it should not be less ambitious. And the people who are satisfied that a gang of bastards have been exposed are, of course, pure to the core of their biochemistry.
But I would just like to point out something: the dynamics that are going on now ultimately spare no one. No one has control over it. Not even those who enthusiastically go along with it. Before they know it, these people sometimes discover to their own astonishment, with or without some help from the police, that they themselves are a bit of scum in the depths of their own minds.
And also at their public execution, a mass of pure New Citizens will clap their hands in approval. The enthusiasm about the New Morality eventually becomes so great that anyone can bring anyone to the scaffold.
That is precisely the key characteristic of mass formation: it sucks all solidarity out of the bond between people and injects it all into the bond between man and collective (i.e., the state). In the long run, that process impoverishes even the most intimate of human bonds, the bond between mother and child, and mothers feel more solidarity with the masses than with their own flesh and blood. Because if you brought a little immoral bastard into the world, it’s your responsibility to cure him of his lack of biochemical pureness too. That’s a New Mother’s job, isn’t it, to make sure her offspring follow the rules of the New Morality?
And this can be taken literally. In a conversation I had with the Iranian writer Shohreh Feshtali, she tells how she experienced it from the front row in Iran, as a witness at the executions of children who were denounced by their parents during Ayatollah Khomeini’s reign of terror. I know, of course, that we are miles away from that. Besides the fact that family members reported each other to the police during the coronavirus crisis if they believed that someone was not following the rules correctly and that the number of citizens who snitch on each other is also increasing rapidly in general, there is no trace of that, right?
This development has taken place in the run-up to all totalitarian systems. They all start from an excessive identification with an ideology in which a hyper-strict morality and a new “purity” are central, and with which part of the population fanatically goes along. In other words, they all go through the same process of mass formation. And it always ends the same way.
I also know, of course, that it is dangerous nonsense to suggest that there is a process of totalitarization going on here. Making a comparison with the paranoid atmosphere that slowly emerged in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in the first half of the twentieth century makes no sense. People who make such comparisons should be immediately re-educated. Preferably in a camp.
What I’m writing here, is not new of course. I have already described all of this in the book The Psychology of Totalitarianism. That book has since been banned in the course “Critique of Society and Culture” at Ghent University. Correction: According to a fellow professor, my book is not banned – it’s just not allowed to be used anymore. Correct. Forgive my misunderstanding. I promise to immediately enroll in a doublethink course. I’m still not good enough at that to participate in the New Society. ‘