"It's quite possible the historical Jesus was betrayed and killed because he rejected redemptive violence."
Yes, Rene Girard has an excellent book on how Jesus broke the cycle of what he calls "mimetic violence," it's called "Satan falls down like lightning," highly recommended.
"Provocative, interesting, gave me new insights on the Gospels, but pompous (“Jesus and me are the only two people to figure out victim mechanisms”). Also, reading the gospel as being fundamentally “about” exposing the victim mechanism is necessarily a watering-down of all the other things the gospel is about. And lapses into Whig historicizing* at the end.
*Whig historiography is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present".
2 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®.
"Girard is very repetitive :). In a way that's good, because you get new aspects of his argument with each repetition, but, at the same time, this is a little bit boring. The book is, basically, another retelling of his arguments about the scapegoat and the "anthropological reading" of the gospels.
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®
"Conclusion is a bit meh; watering down both the Gospels and Nietzsche to be about the single thing author cares about"
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®
Pittige kost. Een antropologische kijk op de bijbel. Heel interessant en op het einde komt er zelfs nog een vrij objectieve redenering waarom de bijbel en het christendom de betere godsdienst zijn. Had wel iets leesbaarder gemogen.
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®
Meh, and blegh in a lot of occasions. The thing is, these myths? I enjoy them as stories, but I can't take them seriously as a psychology case study.
Great post. I have just one quibble--Russia has NOT been weakened by either the war or the sanctions. The ruble is as strong as it ever has been. Russia has found new, and lucrative, trading partners in China, India, Africa and South America.
Even from an American imperialist perspective, the Ukraine gambit to weaken and dismember Russia has spectacularly failed.
The other part of the gambit, to weaken Europe and to make it more dependent on the US, has succeeded brilliantly. Along with hundreds of billions in MIC, Big Oil, and Wall Street profits, of course.
They have--not nearly as heavy as the Ukrainians have, but they have. The Nordstream destruction wasn't as much of a blow as you think because they already had other buyers for their natural gas and oil lined up.
I really don't know, either. I think Russian losses must be far less simply because they were on the defensive much of the time, and because the Russians have a habit of successfully adapting their strategy and tactics over the course of a war THEY consider defensive.
That said, truth is always the first casualty of war. I just don't think the Russians are lying as much as NATO and the Ukrainians because they don't have to as much in order to serve their interests. I cannot prove that now. Perhaps years from now.
One thing is certain: Ukraine has suffered far more because the war is being fought on its land. Imagine all the land mines, unexploded ordnance like cluster munitions, DU shells, and the general detritus and poison of war.
JESUS, GAZA, AND THE MURDER OF USELESS PEOPLE by Edward Curtin
Jesus was a Palestinian Jew born in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth and was executed as a criminal in Jerusalem. It is because of him that we celebrate Christmas. But it is in spite of him that what we celebrate is the opposite of what he stood for.
The different stories of his birth, told by Mathew and Luke in the New Testament, which are the bases for Christmas, are not filled with sugar plum fairies and sleighs filled with useless, unnecessary consumer goods. There’s nothing about a Jolly Old St. Nicholas or baked ham or candy canes. No gifts to return in a frenzied rush that replicates their purchase. No credit card bills that come due in the new year. No “Jingle Bell Rock” with Brenda Lee or “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby.
Just a poor child’s birth to fulfill a prophecy that out of life would come death and out of death would come life. That hope was improbable but possible with faith.
These birth narratives, which tell of a nativity that concludes with the grown child’s suffering, public crucifixion, death, and Resurrection – a story that lives on with the suffering of so many innocents – are, as Gary Wills puts it in What the Gospels Meant, “. . . far from feel-good stories. They tell of a family outcast and exiled, hunted and rejected. They tell of children killed, of a sword to pierce the mother’s heart, of a judgment on the nations.” They are stories of rejection, massacre, and a desperate flight from death at an early age. They are not what most people now consider to be the essence of Christmas since a radical Palestinian Jew’s story has been almost totally erased by the glitz and greed of getting and spending to fuel an economy geared for war and killing.
Mathew and Luke’s birth narratives are replicated again and again throughout history, presently and most conspicuously in Gaza and the West Bank, as the massacre of the innocents continues under today’s King Herod, Benjamin Netanyahu, the client king of Washington, not Rome, while U.S. politicians, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who claims to be a defender of children and opposed to U.S. war policies, support this genocide with rhetorical justifications that the Trappist monk Thomas Merton called the unspeakable:
It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said; the void that gets into the language of public and official declarations at the very moment when they are pronounced, and makes them ring dead with the hollowness of the abyss. It is the void out of which Eichmann drew the punctilious exactitude of his obedience . . .
To the shock of so many of Kennedy’s early supporters, he claims, among other unspeakable assertions, that the Israelis have been the innocent victims of the Palestinians for 75 years, and they “could flatten Gaza” if they chose to, but instead have kindly used high-tech explosives “to avoid civilian casualties”; that they are not committing genocide intentionally. Indeed, his defense of the indefensible Israeli war crimes is widely shared by the compromised political leadership of both parties in Washington, D.C., a place Kennedy is hoping to reach as the top of the heap, but he is contradicting all his talk about spiritual renewal and healing the divide, and it is especially galling and hypocritical as we try to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.
While the genocide of Palestinians is being documented every ongoing day now, the Gospel stories are different in that they were written after the fact and were not based on eyewitness testimony but are narratives of deep symbolic faith significance, historically wrong in places, but told to signify religious truths of the early Christian faith community.
Once there was a mother and father with their child on the run to safety in Egypt; today there are millions of Palestinian refugees on a bombed-out unarmed road of flight to nowhere but a dead-end.
I just watched this interesting hour & 1/2 discussion on 'Gaza & Ukraine Endgame' with Professor John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen, mirroring the thoughts of Bill and most commentators here, including how the MSM shuts out all dissenting voices from the MSM emotional manipulation of the Public with so many SINS of Historical OMISSION.
John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen eh Ray.
Who could ask for more! Does not get any better than that eh!
Hope you are doing well.
I visited your link to Mandarin Restaurant - Extensive buffet in a casual space offering local & Chinese dishes, as well as sushi - sounds bloody good!
Nepean, ON K2E 0B7, Canada - is that near where you live? I had to Google Maps Nepean.
For some reason I always thought you lived on the West coast.
War is quagmire, and some quagmires endure long after the actual war stops. (Our own civil war comes to mind as we are as divided now as before the war. Probably more so.) So, I will agree that the Ukraine war is a quagmire for the Russians, but I don't see how it is a stalemate. Russia has troops and industrial production that Ukraine does not. A bigger army now then when they started. "Atrit, atrit, atrit," as Ray McGovern puts it. The well-dug-in Russians need do little to advance when Zelensky and his quarrelsome generals just keep dumping less and less trained men into suicide missions. It is not pretty for either side, but one side if far from defeat and the other teetering on total collapse.
This is something I plan to share with friends, family (and Facebook) on New Year's, but it fits well into both the might makes right and our exceptional belief in defining the rules by which the world is to abide. Sorry for its length, but I see I'm not the only longer winded responder.
The New Year, 2024
I am the rarest of humans. You may think me fictitious—my claim, almost certainly preposterous. You will doubt my sincerity. Of this, I have earned such skepticism. My life was given to great power. I declared with certainty that which I knew we must do—not just here, but in every corner of the world. The years piled up into decades. I clung to my privilege as though I possessed some industrial Velcro—impossible to pull away without great force that no one around me seemed willing or able to rip from the fabric of the system I helped to maintain. My great weapons, the binding power of fear and always the endorsement as a lesser evil. I learned well the art of selective outrage—a master of deception and sleight of hand to draw your attention away from the horrors done in your name. How easy it was to get others to hate the peoples of far off lands and to hate the neighbor they are called to love. Oh, the narratives I could spin! The simplicity with which my words could divide. At the slightest resistance: call opponents naive; question their patriotism; label them with whatever inflames the crowd. It is not important that these are fabrications—the more exaggerated, the better. Proclaim, “Disinformation, disinformation!” While deliberately spreading the real lie. For this, the mighty presses of the world showcased my words as though indisputable. A favored guest of the Sunday circuit. They would have proclaimed my greatness upon my death, but that was then.
I am the rarest of humans for I am the repentant politician. My power exchanged for contrition. The ill-gotten gains forfeited like those of the repentant tax collector of old. Now, I am unelectable, but I have retrieved my soul from hell at last. Rarely had a day passed when I had not done wrong. I had turned a blind eye to the ways of peace. My sanctions another cynical tool in a tool chest of cruelty toward the poor. I approved massive borrowing for waste, abuse, corruption and war with no regard for suffering children in foreign lands. Even the children of my own land meant little to me. But in my hubris, the children of my children will one day be forced to reckon with all I have piled upon their life and legacy. I was not the lessor evil. I was not the great defender of democracy. If you believe such might have even a grain of truth, you have bought the lie. I was, plain and simple, the defender of might makes right. The humanitarian hypocrite quick to call out every nation but my own. For my love of money and love of power superseded love of this fine land or the fine lands of our well-earned enemies.
I cannot ask for your forgiveness for I have not earned it. Such forgiveness can only be a gift from hearts more generous than my own. But this I do plead of you—resist. Peacefully, courageously, consistently, but resist! When they lie you must not let the lie stand. When they fear monger, hate monger, war monger, you must shut them down and throw them from the halls of power.
Resist! Stop sleepwalking into the abyss. You are more complicit than you are willing to admit! Your comfort and own blind eye ensure their grasp. They are given a free proxy to do as they please, (or as those who line their pockets please. It is with them they truly make common cause.)
It is not enough to speak truth to power if you are only shouting someone down without a vision and heart for healing. You are just more noise in our ever-deepening divide. More nails in the coffin of joyous, cultural expression. Divide and conquer is power’s tactic and a betrayal of our sacred unity. It knows nothing of hope, generosity, stewardship, mercy. Nothing of genuine justice or reconciliation.
The doomsday clock ticks ever-closer to midnight. Join me now, rise up and resist. Let the dawn of peace illumine your soul.
TP Graf (unpublished, edited here from free-verse form)
Wow Tom, no need to apologize for the "long winded" post my man.
Thank you. Lots to unpack here.
I feel very blessed to be in the company of Bracing Views readers, and that you consider me a friend. I certainly do not doubt your sincerity. And I am not "blowing smoke up your arse" - as my American friends say.
Merry Xmas from down under in the antipodes my friend.
Dennis, very kind words! Indeed, all is well for us. Our move from the US to Cuenca Ecuador happened in August with an unbelievable level of zero stress, and now we are getting fully immersed into a cultural richness that blows our mind! Of course, it requires studying a new language--a daily but very slow task for these old dogs ... Paz to you and yours.
A historical precedent is Israel's control of US foreign policy. Can anyone think of a parallel all the way back through ancient history?
As I may have mentioned, FDR spoke of the US as the arsenal of democracy. Now it is the arsenal of Israel, making Israel for the moment the world's only superpower because everyone in power in DC is a helpless puppet for a madman in Jerusalem. Israel in general and he in particular have worked the levers in DC far more effectively than the Wizard of Oz did in Oz.
Regarding the religious issue, it is the holocaust that drives Israeli psychology. Certainly there is pride in the history of the area of Palestine/ancient Israel but far more important is the learned self-righteousness that will abide, even applaud, any act of cruelty toward the Palestinians as justified. A poll in Israel revealed a great majority believed the IDF has not acting harshly enough in Gaza. What a flash in the pan is Gaza compared to six million dead at the hands of the Nazis. The mental transfer of Nazism to any opponent of Israel is easily done. Netanyahu even made the outrageous statement that Arabs had given Hitler the idea of the final solution!
Widely used by Israelis has been "they want to kill us!" attributed to the Palestinians while in actuality the killing ratio has been 10:1, 20:1 (P killed: I killed) since the first Gaza assault in 2008/9 and who can say what the current slaughter will show? We don't know the final toll, but there is no evidence the Israelis care with even gov't officials easily failing the ritual mention of HAMAS when hailing the elimination of a people.
This substitution of accusation for truth was on display at the hearing of Rep. Stefanik who roasted the three university presidents about a hypothetical call on campus for "genocide of the Jewish people" when she had no evidence of this phrase being used, though it is certainly possible it could be. The presidents afterward groveled to clear themselves of...what? Of nothing more than defending freedom of speech! This roasting of the presidents was taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel, leading more than a few to say it was the real thing - genocide.
We should be greatly concerned with something someone might say and not at all concerned with what people are actually doing?
Israel has used the holocaust as a mighty shield, to intimidate any and all who oppose what Israel does and to justify by comparison what Israel does. Just as nobody but an untutored boy would call out that the emperor had no clothes, so will no one call out this grotesque misuse of a monumental tragedy to cover for another one. Israelis are blind to this shameless use of the dead to cover dealing in death.
Except: "was taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel".......
Respectfully this should be: was taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel using US made ammunition, whose approval was not approved by Congress. And not voted on by the American beleaguered taxpayer"
The US government is doing the same thing to its citizens as it is doing to the rest of the world. Conquering. If the government were controlled by the citizens none of this would be happening. The entire federal government is corrupt - all the branches now. I would extend that down to the state and local level in many cases. I wonder how much say the German citizenship had in 1938 Germany. If we take care of our own problems here the rest will follow.
Like climate change, civilization has reached a "tipping point". The tipping point for climate change is caused by the insatiable greed of those in control of the economy, and the quest for ultimate power with no thought of long term consequences. Mainly the US.
Civilizations can collapse just as readily as climate. Mass extinctions can occur from either. The dinosaurs went extinct( most likely) from an asteroid causing climate change - not of their own doing. Humans are doing it to themselves.
Humans as a species have just enough brains to be dangerous.
Dr. Mercieca argues that Americans are mainly partisans, which prevents them from acting for the common good. Her research argues that Americans have heroic expectations for the Presidency - that are unrealistic. And results in a government NOT controlled by the citizens.
Thanks Dennis. Sincere question - do you have any idea why you seem to be a target for abuse? I've never seen anything you posted to be offensive in any way. The "dear" comment on Caitlins substack really got me.
Maybe it's your NZ accent?
Mainly partisans ? That's a small part of it I believe. You can't be a centrist these days as I well know. Fiscally conservative and socially liberal gets you spit upon.
I say vote for Good Kitty in '24! Peace prosperity and sanity from the Feral Feline Federation!
Caitlin's substack comment thread, as I found out the hard way, has way too many abusive, toxic posters who relish insulting you.
My career was managing very large construction projects all over the US for 41-years.
A Civil Engineer. The Boss of 300+ people on most jobs. White collar and blue-collar workers. Men and women of all ages, nationalities and races. Union and non-Union. In 14-states.
I was highly respected and am proud to have a prestigious Award named after me - awarded to the best Company employee every year. For many years I was an instructor in Dale Carnegie Self Development courses. And a pilot. Appaloosa horse rider. Rode motorcycles all over the World including Russia and Iran. Retired now back to my place of birth, New Zealand. Recently diagnosed with Leukemia and in a Rest Home idling away the hours posting on the internet. 75-years-old with two doctor daughters in WI and NY. The youngest, a Professor of Medicine.
I was a mover and shaker who did not suffer fools gladly.
A Dale Carnegie meme - "If you have done it, you have earned the right to talk about it."
A peace activist. A conservative Trumper(!) and an outspoken atheist. Like the great Christopher Hitchens - who was unfairly branded a militant (!) atheist. I have zero time for religious proselytizing, political correctness, woke bullshit and rude people. As the saying goes - "I only insult people who insult me."
Probably too outspoken! It is what it is. I have nothing to be ashamed of.
I enjoy your posts and have many cyberfriends on internet sites.
Abuse on the internet runs off me like water off a duck's back. Worrying about being banned from an internet site - not worth it eh!
Good on you Dennis...BTW I also have a love for Appy horses-- my faves. as well. I also like how you and I are not the delicate man type, ask courageous ques., and w/o exception question with utmost scrutiny all sanctimonious, preachy comments!!! Keeping it real.
I've been celebrating the winter solstice for years now as a substitute for Xmas. Has a lot more meaning to me now. Unfortunately it was cloudy but thanks to modern advances I knew the correct date unlike the Stonehenge society. Of course I don't think they were as anal about the exact time and date as we are today as debated amongst the archeo-astronomers and archeologists. Being an atheist you might want to switch to the solstice too. It actually has meaning. Backwards for you but who cares? So happy solstice to you and your family!
Good Kitty is my cat who I'm trying to get on the ballot as a substitute for the idiots currently running. He's far more stable and is being joined by team Orca as his cabinet. They have stable societies and no wars or need of junk shipped from China. Hopefully AI can crack their language since we aren't smart enough. It's less of a joke than you think.
Love the dale Carnegie advice. The trouble today is you just get called a liar about your experience. We live in an incredibly sick society now. Be glad you're down under.
Sorry to hear about the leukemia. I think that NZ probably has better health care than here. I'm diabetic and the medical industry is completely useless. 5 doctors in 5 years who have done nothing and now I don't have one. The medical industry is sick and needs to cure itself. It's all about money now.
Get well and be well and my thoughts are with you and yours.
There is huge over-reliance on the US, a military superpower.
“To the extent that NATO is a collective security pact, the Europeans pay less than their fair share,” said Andrew Bacevich of Boston University. “Are Europeans free-riders when it comes to security, counting on the U.S. to pick up the slack? Yes, without a doubt.”
With a US$33-trillion debt, will the US be able to continue this generosity? And if it can't, what will happen to NATO?
"NATO is on life-support, and Europe is being asked to foot the bill to keep breathing life into an increasingly moribund alliance whose brain death is readily recognized." - Scott Ritter, July 2021
".....Jesus seems to have taught redemptive peace"....
Some proffer Bill that the main tenets of the Christian religion cannot be proven to have been invented or taught by a man called Jesus at all. The counterclaim is - devotees of the Christian cult wrote the Gospels in a process that took decades, if not centuries after Jesus lived. That anything written in the Bible or in Gospels is what this guy Jesus actually said in his teachings is conjecture at best. The unknown Bible authors surely just made this stuff up. Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin!
".....Meanwhile, Russia has most certainly been weakened militarily by this war".....
"Under Mr. Putin’s leadership, the Russian military has been overhauled into a modern sophisticated army, able to deploy quickly and with lethal effect in conventional conflicts....... It features precision-guided weaponry, (hypersonic), a newly streamlined command structure and well-fed and professional soldiers. And they still have nuclear weapons. The modernized military has emerged as a key tool of Mr. Putin’s foreign policy...."
......and perhaps (weakened)economically as well with the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines...."
"Russia has been hit with huge economic sanctions since it invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. But the Russian economy has remained strong, defying many economists' expectations. Economic growth in Russia in 2023 is likely to exceed 3%. .......in terms of figures, I mean, it's great. It's more than the economy of the United Kingdom or of Germans' economy.......what's behind these figures is that over a third of this growth is attributed to the war economy, where defense-related industries are flourishing at double-digit rates."
Calling Putin a "dictator", does not paint a true picture Bill,
"While the West may long have thought of Vladimir Putin as a dictator, most Russia analysts and policymakers saw the Kremlin differently. And for most of Putin’s nearly 23-year journey in power, they were right to do so. What existed was a complicated regime beyond one man where lots of people exerted influence and could check Putin’s impulses."
The 1993 Russian constitution, based loosely on France's 1958 constitution, led to democracy in post-Soviet Russia. It originally specified that a president could serve for two successive terms of four years. Amendments in 2008 extended the presidential term to six years, and amendments in 2020 allowed a further two six-year terms after 2024.
President Vladimir Putin will run for President again in the 2024 presidential election, a move expected to keep him in power until at least 2030.
Around 110-million people have the right to vote in Russia. Turnout in 2018 was 67.5%.
Putin’s approval rating in Russia soared since he launched his SMO in Ukraine to 83%.
Biden faces, what is it, 70%, disapproval of the US's involvement in both wars.
A November poll found 76% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. Polls taken last month show Netanyahu would lose if elections were held now.
Couldn't help but notice your anti-Christ Ideology was your 1st criticism of Bill's article. I'm different from you. When I read, "Only dictators like Putin are ruthless!" I read it as Bill simply being facetious, not serious.
The Washington Post suspended me from commenting on anything for a week 4 Days after the WAR started February 24, 2022 for making this comment they deleted;
"When Western governments declare publicly it’s goal and objective it to destroy the Russian Economy without using bombs, Armageddon/WWIII has already started.
History proves it’s much easier to start Wars than to end them. It took 20 years and $2 TRILLION for the US to extricate itself from the humiliating defeat in Afghanistan.
I expect Putin will use the ‘nuclear option’ in the Economic War, and will turn off Nord Stream I and all oil and gas pipelines passing through Ukraine to keep Western Europe’s Economy going.
The question will be who can endure material privation and want longer? Russians who are accustomed to it, or Western Europeans who aren’t, when both the Russian and European Economies crash?"
In 2016 when Trump said it make sense to have better relations with Russia, I was totally in agreement with that, but I already came to the conclusion Trump was a serial LIAR and not to be Trusted preaching Nihilism.
Sure enough, long before Biden and the US blew up Nord Stream II, it was Trump who put Economic Sanctions on any European NATO Company that defied US Will and worked on completing the last few miles in NATO Waters joining Germany and Russia in a Win-WIN Economic Union, just what the US didn't want to see.
As you point out, Dennis, Russia is doing better than the European Economies extending the US Economic Sanctions on Russia.
Over half of the respondents to a recent survey said those around them seem to be in a tranquil mood
The majority of the Russian population is feeling very calm as the end of the year approaches, a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has revealed.
As part of the study, the results of which were published on Thursday, the respondents were asked if they found the mood of their loved ones, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to be peaceful or anxious.
A total of 57% described those around them as tranquil, while 36% said they were surrounded by people who seemed very worried, according to the survey.
I expect the same survey question for Americans would have those percentages reversed!
I told you in a previous article my 88 year old Sister and I are going to our Niece with her beautiful family, Husband and their 2 kids for Christmas Eve, and then to the Mandarin Buffet on Christmas Day.
You would like to have such a Buffet in New Zealand, you would be so zealous in praising it.
There are as many dishes to choose from as there are characters in this link to the pictures:
Freeman was the translator for Nixon in China. A genuine veteran diplomat who I REALLY hoped Trump would select for his SoS. Of course, we know the dregs for which he opted. He has a lot of experience both with China (and thus an understanding of Russia) and the Mid East--sadly, a great resource completely ignored.
I like the style of this guys interviews on his YouTube channel, Tom.
Dialogue Works
This is a good comment I thought: "Russophobia is an attitude; fear, Ignorance, hatred and more to the point, jealousy. The collective West have got nothing to shout about, and the Russians have got everything to look forward to."
It's the first time that I have heard Chas Freeman speak.
If only he were allowed to advise the Biden Administration - yeah right!
Interesting to hear him say Russia will come out of this war strengthened unified and their industries strengthened.
Just turned on Al Jazeera TV in the middle of the night.
Israeli IDF forces attack two, or is it three, more refugee camps in Gaza.
The pictures on my TV are truly gut wrenching!
Trapped bodies, and body parts, half covered with blankets under the rubble!
Come on Joe Biden for chrissake - one phone call to Netanyahu ends this horror!
Shamefully rewording the latest UN Resolution to provide more Humanitarian Aid, and not calling for a suspension of hostilities, and continuing to fly in more ammo and missiles for F-16's for the Israeli's is not fooling anyone!
"......here I want to address another, more specific part of what amounts to an Israeli and media psy-op against Western publics: the claim that Hamas leaders ordered their fighters to carry out mass rape against Israelis, and that those fighters used sexual assault systematically, as a weapon of war. ......in this case, the bar needs to be high for an additional reason: because of Israel’s response - the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza premised on the supposed savagery of Hamas’ crimes....."
All Zionist supremacists do is lie and mislead. It’s the only way they can justify their repugnant colonial project: manipulate, prevaricate, and control the mainstream media.
An ugly backlash is looming against them. It’ll be tragic.
Defilement and remorse were themes Bob Dylan addressed when he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from actor Jack Nicholson in 1991. The event coincided with the start of the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein.
Dylan performed "Masters of War". He then made a short speech: "My daddy once said to me, he said, 'Son, it is possible for you to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you. If that happens, God will believe in your ability to mend your own ways."
"It's quite possible the historical Jesus was betrayed and killed because he rejected redemptive violence."
Yes, Rene Girard has an excellent book on how Jesus broke the cycle of what he calls "mimetic violence," it's called "Satan falls down like lightning," highly recommended.
Thanks for the reference. Just downloaded it to my Kindle. Will be reading it soon.
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®.
"Provocative, interesting, gave me new insights on the Gospels, but pompous (“Jesus and me are the only two people to figure out victim mechanisms”). Also, reading the gospel as being fundamentally “about” exposing the victim mechanism is necessarily a watering-down of all the other things the gospel is about. And lapses into Whig historicizing* at the end.
*Whig historiography is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present".
2 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®.
"Girard is very repetitive :). In a way that's good, because you get new aspects of his argument with each repetition, but, at the same time, this is a little bit boring. The book is, basically, another retelling of his arguments about the scapegoat and the "anthropological reading" of the gospels.
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®
"Conclusion is a bit meh; watering down both the Gospels and Nietzsche to be about the single thing author cares about"
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®
Pittige kost. Een antropologische kijk op de bijbel. Heel interessant en op het einde komt er zelfs nog een vrij objectieve redenering waarom de bijbel en het christendom de betere godsdienst zijn. Had wel iets leesbaarder gemogen.
3 out of 5-stars at GoodReads®
Meh, and blegh in a lot of occasions. The thing is, these myths? I enjoy them as stories, but I can't take them seriously as a psychology case study.
Way to judge something without reading it, do you do that often?
No, I read the reviews by a number of readers. That's their intended purpose.
And I'm not "judging" the book at all. I have no dog in this fight.
Take care, and Merry Xmas.
You are literally posting poor reviews on a book you haven't read, shame on you!
Come on man! No shame in that!
Great post. I have just one quibble--Russia has NOT been weakened by either the war or the sanctions. The ruble is as strong as it ever has been. Russia has found new, and lucrative, trading partners in China, India, Africa and South America.
Even from an American imperialist perspective, the Ukraine gambit to weaken and dismember Russia has spectacularly failed.
The other part of the gambit, to weaken Europe and to make it more dependent on the US, has succeeded brilliantly. Along with hundreds of billions in MIC, Big Oil, and Wall Street profits, of course.
Perhaps so. But Russia has also taken heavy losses from the war -- and the Nordstream pipelines were a tough blow.
They have--not nearly as heavy as the Ukrainians have, but they have. The Nordstream destruction wasn't as much of a blow as you think because they already had other buyers for their natural gas and oil lined up.
That hurt Germany far more than Russia.
With respect to battlefield losses, my guess is that Russia and Ukraine have suffered roughly equally in symmetrical trench warfare conditions.
Ukraine supporters insist their losses have been far lower than Russia's. As usual, truth is the first casualty of war.
I really don't know, either. I think Russian losses must be far less simply because they were on the defensive much of the time, and because the Russians have a habit of successfully adapting their strategy and tactics over the course of a war THEY consider defensive.
That said, truth is always the first casualty of war. I just don't think the Russians are lying as much as NATO and the Ukrainians because they don't have to as much in order to serve their interests. I cannot prove that now. Perhaps years from now.
One thing is certain: Ukraine has suffered far more because the war is being fought on its land. Imagine all the land mines, unexploded ordnance like cluster munitions, DU shells, and the general detritus and poison of war.
JESUS, GAZA, AND THE MURDER OF USELESS PEOPLE by Edward Curtin
Jesus was a Palestinian Jew born in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth and was executed as a criminal in Jerusalem. It is because of him that we celebrate Christmas. But it is in spite of him that what we celebrate is the opposite of what he stood for.
The different stories of his birth, told by Mathew and Luke in the New Testament, which are the bases for Christmas, are not filled with sugar plum fairies and sleighs filled with useless, unnecessary consumer goods. There’s nothing about a Jolly Old St. Nicholas or baked ham or candy canes. No gifts to return in a frenzied rush that replicates their purchase. No credit card bills that come due in the new year. No “Jingle Bell Rock” with Brenda Lee or “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby.
Just a poor child’s birth to fulfill a prophecy that out of life would come death and out of death would come life. That hope was improbable but possible with faith.
These birth narratives, which tell of a nativity that concludes with the grown child’s suffering, public crucifixion, death, and Resurrection – a story that lives on with the suffering of so many innocents – are, as Gary Wills puts it in What the Gospels Meant, “. . . far from feel-good stories. They tell of a family outcast and exiled, hunted and rejected. They tell of children killed, of a sword to pierce the mother’s heart, of a judgment on the nations.” They are stories of rejection, massacre, and a desperate flight from death at an early age. They are not what most people now consider to be the essence of Christmas since a radical Palestinian Jew’s story has been almost totally erased by the glitz and greed of getting and spending to fuel an economy geared for war and killing.
Mathew and Luke’s birth narratives are replicated again and again throughout history, presently and most conspicuously in Gaza and the West Bank, as the massacre of the innocents continues under today’s King Herod, Benjamin Netanyahu, the client king of Washington, not Rome, while U.S. politicians, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who claims to be a defender of children and opposed to U.S. war policies, support this genocide with rhetorical justifications that the Trappist monk Thomas Merton called the unspeakable:
It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said; the void that gets into the language of public and official declarations at the very moment when they are pronounced, and makes them ring dead with the hollowness of the abyss. It is the void out of which Eichmann drew the punctilious exactitude of his obedience . . .
To the shock of so many of Kennedy’s early supporters, he claims, among other unspeakable assertions, that the Israelis have been the innocent victims of the Palestinians for 75 years, and they “could flatten Gaza” if they chose to, but instead have kindly used high-tech explosives “to avoid civilian casualties”; that they are not committing genocide intentionally. Indeed, his defense of the indefensible Israeli war crimes is widely shared by the compromised political leadership of both parties in Washington, D.C., a place Kennedy is hoping to reach as the top of the heap, but he is contradicting all his talk about spiritual renewal and healing the divide, and it is especially galling and hypocritical as we try to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.
While the genocide of Palestinians is being documented every ongoing day now, the Gospel stories are different in that they were written after the fact and were not based on eyewitness testimony but are narratives of deep symbolic faith significance, historically wrong in places, but told to signify religious truths of the early Christian faith community.
Once there was a mother and father with their child on the run to safety in Egypt; today there are millions of Palestinian refugees on a bombed-out unarmed road of flight to nowhere but a dead-end.
Continued at https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/12/21/jesus-gaza-and-the-murder-of-useless-people/
jg, I took note of your long absence from BV, wondering what was happening with you?
I like your Biblical comparisons from the Past to the Present in this comment in a long time.
Did you have some kind of Spiritual awakening in your absence?
May you find Peace in a Merry Christmas!
I just watched this interesting hour & 1/2 discussion on 'Gaza & Ukraine Endgame' with Professor John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen, mirroring the thoughts of Bill and most commentators here, including how the MSM shuts out all dissenting voices from the MSM emotional manipulation of the Public with so many SINS of Historical OMISSION.
https://rumble.com/v42jmuz-gaza-and-ukraine-endgame-john-mearsheimer-alexander-mercouris-and-glenn-die.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=2
John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen eh Ray.
Who could ask for more! Does not get any better than that eh!
Hope you are doing well.
I visited your link to Mandarin Restaurant - Extensive buffet in a casual space offering local & Chinese dishes, as well as sushi - sounds bloody good!
Nepean, ON K2E 0B7, Canada - is that near where you live? I had to Google Maps Nepean.
For some reason I always thought you lived on the West coast.
I live in the Downtown of CanaDa's National Capital District, Nepean being an area within.
It's a 20 minute drive from where I live in Downtown Hull to get to the Nepean Mandarin, the closest of 3 Mandarins the National Capital District..
War is quagmire, and some quagmires endure long after the actual war stops. (Our own civil war comes to mind as we are as divided now as before the war. Probably more so.) So, I will agree that the Ukraine war is a quagmire for the Russians, but I don't see how it is a stalemate. Russia has troops and industrial production that Ukraine does not. A bigger army now then when they started. "Atrit, atrit, atrit," as Ray McGovern puts it. The well-dug-in Russians need do little to advance when Zelensky and his quarrelsome generals just keep dumping less and less trained men into suicide missions. It is not pretty for either side, but one side if far from defeat and the other teetering on total collapse.
This is something I plan to share with friends, family (and Facebook) on New Year's, but it fits well into both the might makes right and our exceptional belief in defining the rules by which the world is to abide. Sorry for its length, but I see I'm not the only longer winded responder.
The New Year, 2024
I am the rarest of humans. You may think me fictitious—my claim, almost certainly preposterous. You will doubt my sincerity. Of this, I have earned such skepticism. My life was given to great power. I declared with certainty that which I knew we must do—not just here, but in every corner of the world. The years piled up into decades. I clung to my privilege as though I possessed some industrial Velcro—impossible to pull away without great force that no one around me seemed willing or able to rip from the fabric of the system I helped to maintain. My great weapons, the binding power of fear and always the endorsement as a lesser evil. I learned well the art of selective outrage—a master of deception and sleight of hand to draw your attention away from the horrors done in your name. How easy it was to get others to hate the peoples of far off lands and to hate the neighbor they are called to love. Oh, the narratives I could spin! The simplicity with which my words could divide. At the slightest resistance: call opponents naive; question their patriotism; label them with whatever inflames the crowd. It is not important that these are fabrications—the more exaggerated, the better. Proclaim, “Disinformation, disinformation!” While deliberately spreading the real lie. For this, the mighty presses of the world showcased my words as though indisputable. A favored guest of the Sunday circuit. They would have proclaimed my greatness upon my death, but that was then.
I am the rarest of humans for I am the repentant politician. My power exchanged for contrition. The ill-gotten gains forfeited like those of the repentant tax collector of old. Now, I am unelectable, but I have retrieved my soul from hell at last. Rarely had a day passed when I had not done wrong. I had turned a blind eye to the ways of peace. My sanctions another cynical tool in a tool chest of cruelty toward the poor. I approved massive borrowing for waste, abuse, corruption and war with no regard for suffering children in foreign lands. Even the children of my own land meant little to me. But in my hubris, the children of my children will one day be forced to reckon with all I have piled upon their life and legacy. I was not the lessor evil. I was not the great defender of democracy. If you believe such might have even a grain of truth, you have bought the lie. I was, plain and simple, the defender of might makes right. The humanitarian hypocrite quick to call out every nation but my own. For my love of money and love of power superseded love of this fine land or the fine lands of our well-earned enemies.
I cannot ask for your forgiveness for I have not earned it. Such forgiveness can only be a gift from hearts more generous than my own. But this I do plead of you—resist. Peacefully, courageously, consistently, but resist! When they lie you must not let the lie stand. When they fear monger, hate monger, war monger, you must shut them down and throw them from the halls of power.
Resist! Stop sleepwalking into the abyss. You are more complicit than you are willing to admit! Your comfort and own blind eye ensure their grasp. They are given a free proxy to do as they please, (or as those who line their pockets please. It is with them they truly make common cause.)
It is not enough to speak truth to power if you are only shouting someone down without a vision and heart for healing. You are just more noise in our ever-deepening divide. More nails in the coffin of joyous, cultural expression. Divide and conquer is power’s tactic and a betrayal of our sacred unity. It knows nothing of hope, generosity, stewardship, mercy. Nothing of genuine justice or reconciliation.
The doomsday clock ticks ever-closer to midnight. Join me now, rise up and resist. Let the dawn of peace illumine your soul.
TP Graf (unpublished, edited here from free-verse form)
Wow Tom, no need to apologize for the "long winded" post my man.
Thank you. Lots to unpack here.
I feel very blessed to be in the company of Bracing Views readers, and that you consider me a friend. I certainly do not doubt your sincerity. And I am not "blowing smoke up your arse" - as my American friends say.
Merry Xmas from down under in the antipodes my friend.
Hope you are well.
Dennis, very kind words! Indeed, all is well for us. Our move from the US to Cuenca Ecuador happened in August with an unbelievable level of zero stress, and now we are getting fully immersed into a cultural richness that blows our mind! Of course, it requires studying a new language--a daily but very slow task for these old dogs ... Paz to you and yours.
Va a ser un gran 2024 mi amigo.😃
A historical precedent is Israel's control of US foreign policy. Can anyone think of a parallel all the way back through ancient history?
As I may have mentioned, FDR spoke of the US as the arsenal of democracy. Now it is the arsenal of Israel, making Israel for the moment the world's only superpower because everyone in power in DC is a helpless puppet for a madman in Jerusalem. Israel in general and he in particular have worked the levers in DC far more effectively than the Wizard of Oz did in Oz.
Regarding the religious issue, it is the holocaust that drives Israeli psychology. Certainly there is pride in the history of the area of Palestine/ancient Israel but far more important is the learned self-righteousness that will abide, even applaud, any act of cruelty toward the Palestinians as justified. A poll in Israel revealed a great majority believed the IDF has not acting harshly enough in Gaza. What a flash in the pan is Gaza compared to six million dead at the hands of the Nazis. The mental transfer of Nazism to any opponent of Israel is easily done. Netanyahu even made the outrageous statement that Arabs had given Hitler the idea of the final solution!
Widely used by Israelis has been "they want to kill us!" attributed to the Palestinians while in actuality the killing ratio has been 10:1, 20:1 (P killed: I killed) since the first Gaza assault in 2008/9 and who can say what the current slaughter will show? We don't know the final toll, but there is no evidence the Israelis care with even gov't officials easily failing the ritual mention of HAMAS when hailing the elimination of a people.
This substitution of accusation for truth was on display at the hearing of Rep. Stefanik who roasted the three university presidents about a hypothetical call on campus for "genocide of the Jewish people" when she had no evidence of this phrase being used, though it is certainly possible it could be. The presidents afterward groveled to clear themselves of...what? Of nothing more than defending freedom of speech! This roasting of the presidents was taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel, leading more than a few to say it was the real thing - genocide.
We should be greatly concerned with something someone might say and not at all concerned with what people are actually doing?
Israel has used the holocaust as a mighty shield, to intimidate any and all who oppose what Israel does and to justify by comparison what Israel does. Just as nobody but an untutored boy would call out that the emperor had no clothes, so will no one call out this grotesque misuse of a monumental tragedy to cover for another one. Israelis are blind to this shameless use of the dead to cover dealing in death.
History will not be kind to Zionism.
Great post as usual Clif. You nailed it my man.
Except: "was taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel".......
Respectfully this should be: was taking place while mass killing was underway by Israel using US made ammunition, whose approval was not approved by Congress. And not voted on by the American beleaguered taxpayer"
Merry Xmas Clif.
The US government is doing the same thing to its citizens as it is doing to the rest of the world. Conquering. If the government were controlled by the citizens none of this would be happening. The entire federal government is corrupt - all the branches now. I would extend that down to the state and local level in many cases. I wonder how much say the German citizenship had in 1938 Germany. If we take care of our own problems here the rest will follow.
Like climate change, civilization has reached a "tipping point". The tipping point for climate change is caused by the insatiable greed of those in control of the economy, and the quest for ultimate power with no thought of long term consequences. Mainly the US.
Civilizations can collapse just as readily as climate. Mass extinctions can occur from either. The dinosaurs went extinct( most likely) from an asteroid causing climate change - not of their own doing. Humans are doing it to themselves.
Humans as a species have just enough brains to be dangerous.
Great post Toma,
Dr. Mercieca argues that Americans are mainly partisans, which prevents them from acting for the common good. Her research argues that Americans have heroic expectations for the Presidency - that are unrealistic. And results in a government NOT controlled by the citizens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAG2dLEEuY
Thanks Dennis. Sincere question - do you have any idea why you seem to be a target for abuse? I've never seen anything you posted to be offensive in any way. The "dear" comment on Caitlins substack really got me.
Maybe it's your NZ accent?
Mainly partisans ? That's a small part of it I believe. You can't be a centrist these days as I well know. Fiscally conservative and socially liberal gets you spit upon.
I say vote for Good Kitty in '24! Peace prosperity and sanity from the Feral Feline Federation!
Thanks, Toma, I don't worry about it.
Caitlin's substack comment thread, as I found out the hard way, has way too many abusive, toxic posters who relish insulting you.
My career was managing very large construction projects all over the US for 41-years.
A Civil Engineer. The Boss of 300+ people on most jobs. White collar and blue-collar workers. Men and women of all ages, nationalities and races. Union and non-Union. In 14-states.
I was highly respected and am proud to have a prestigious Award named after me - awarded to the best Company employee every year. For many years I was an instructor in Dale Carnegie Self Development courses. And a pilot. Appaloosa horse rider. Rode motorcycles all over the World including Russia and Iran. Retired now back to my place of birth, New Zealand. Recently diagnosed with Leukemia and in a Rest Home idling away the hours posting on the internet. 75-years-old with two doctor daughters in WI and NY. The youngest, a Professor of Medicine.
I was a mover and shaker who did not suffer fools gladly.
A Dale Carnegie meme - "If you have done it, you have earned the right to talk about it."
A peace activist. A conservative Trumper(!) and an outspoken atheist. Like the great Christopher Hitchens - who was unfairly branded a militant (!) atheist. I have zero time for religious proselytizing, political correctness, woke bullshit and rude people. As the saying goes - "I only insult people who insult me."
Probably too outspoken! It is what it is. I have nothing to be ashamed of.
I enjoy your posts and have many cyberfriends on internet sites.
Abuse on the internet runs off me like water off a duck's back. Worrying about being banned from an internet site - not worth it eh!
Good Kitty in '24 ????????
Take care, and have a great Xmas my friend,
Dennis
Good on you Dennis...BTW I also have a love for Appy horses-- my faves. as well. I also like how you and I are not the delicate man type, ask courageous ques., and w/o exception question with utmost scrutiny all sanctimonious, preachy comments!!! Keeping it real.
I've been celebrating the winter solstice for years now as a substitute for Xmas. Has a lot more meaning to me now. Unfortunately it was cloudy but thanks to modern advances I knew the correct date unlike the Stonehenge society. Of course I don't think they were as anal about the exact time and date as we are today as debated amongst the archeo-astronomers and archeologists. Being an atheist you might want to switch to the solstice too. It actually has meaning. Backwards for you but who cares? So happy solstice to you and your family!
Good Kitty is my cat who I'm trying to get on the ballot as a substitute for the idiots currently running. He's far more stable and is being joined by team Orca as his cabinet. They have stable societies and no wars or need of junk shipped from China. Hopefully AI can crack their language since we aren't smart enough. It's less of a joke than you think.
Love the dale Carnegie advice. The trouble today is you just get called a liar about your experience. We live in an incredibly sick society now. Be glad you're down under.
Sorry to hear about the leukemia. I think that NZ probably has better health care than here. I'm diabetic and the medical industry is completely useless. 5 doctors in 5 years who have done nothing and now I don't have one. The medical industry is sick and needs to cure itself. It's all about money now.
Get well and be well and my thoughts are with you and yours.
Toma
"After the Soviet collapse in 1991, NATO dropped the ball.
Like football fans invading the pitch before the final whistle, they thought it was all over!
But it wasn’t, and it isn’t.
Right now, Putin is battering the shield, putting the west to the test.
If its risk-averse approach does not change, there may soon be nowhere left to hide.
Will NATO fail again?" - Simon Tisdall. The Guardian. Jun 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/12/behind-natos-defensive-shield-lies-weakness-and-division-ukraine-will-pay-the-price
There is huge over-reliance on the US, a military superpower.
“To the extent that NATO is a collective security pact, the Europeans pay less than their fair share,” said Andrew Bacevich of Boston University. “Are Europeans free-riders when it comes to security, counting on the U.S. to pick up the slack? Yes, without a doubt.”
With a US$33-trillion debt, will the US be able to continue this generosity? And if it can't, what will happen to NATO?
Is NATO dying? | Inside Story. Al Jazeera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpnL1J2lms
"NATO is on life-support, and Europe is being asked to foot the bill to keep breathing life into an increasingly moribund alliance whose brain death is readily recognized." - Scott Ritter, July 2021
https://balticword.com/nato-is-as-good-as-dead/
"Israel is not a military superpower"
George Galloway asks - what has Israel achieved in 65 days?
The more destruction they create the more cover they provide for urban warfare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oWfzp5HQC4
".....Jesus seems to have taught redemptive peace"....
Some proffer Bill that the main tenets of the Christian religion cannot be proven to have been invented or taught by a man called Jesus at all. The counterclaim is - devotees of the Christian cult wrote the Gospels in a process that took decades, if not centuries after Jesus lived. That anything written in the Bible or in Gospels is what this guy Jesus actually said in his teachings is conjecture at best. The unknown Bible authors surely just made this stuff up. Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin!
".....Meanwhile, Russia has most certainly been weakened militarily by this war".....
"Under Mr. Putin’s leadership, the Russian military has been overhauled into a modern sophisticated army, able to deploy quickly and with lethal effect in conventional conflicts....... It features precision-guided weaponry, (hypersonic), a newly streamlined command structure and well-fed and professional soldiers. And they still have nuclear weapons. The modernized military has emerged as a key tool of Mr. Putin’s foreign policy...."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/world/europe/russia-military-putin-ukraine.html
......and perhaps (weakened)economically as well with the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines...."
"Russia has been hit with huge economic sanctions since it invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. But the Russian economy has remained strong, defying many economists' expectations. Economic growth in Russia in 2023 is likely to exceed 3%. .......in terms of figures, I mean, it's great. It's more than the economy of the United Kingdom or of Germans' economy.......what's behind these figures is that over a third of this growth is attributed to the war economy, where defense-related industries are flourishing at double-digit rates."
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/17/1219882734/russias-economy-is-going-strong-despite-sanctions-from-the-u-s-and-its-allies.
Calling Putin a "dictator", does not paint a true picture Bill,
"While the West may long have thought of Vladimir Putin as a dictator, most Russia analysts and policymakers saw the Kremlin differently. And for most of Putin’s nearly 23-year journey in power, they were right to do so. What existed was a complicated regime beyond one man where lots of people exerted influence and could check Putin’s impulses."
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/02/ukraine-invasion-putin-is-ruling-alone.html
The 1993 Russian constitution, based loosely on France's 1958 constitution, led to democracy in post-Soviet Russia. It originally specified that a president could serve for two successive terms of four years. Amendments in 2008 extended the presidential term to six years, and amendments in 2020 allowed a further two six-year terms after 2024.
President Vladimir Putin will run for President again in the 2024 presidential election, a move expected to keep him in power until at least 2030.
Around 110-million people have the right to vote in Russia. Turnout in 2018 was 67.5%.
Putin’s approval rating in Russia soared since he launched his SMO in Ukraine to 83%.
Biden faces, what is it, 70%, disapproval of the US's involvement in both wars.
A November poll found 76% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. Polls taken last month show Netanyahu would lose if elections were held now.
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/11/1211767117/israel-netanyahu-growing-opposition-hamas-war-gaza
Is Putin any more of a "dictator" than Joe Biden or Bibi Netanyahu?
Rhetorical question?
hahahahaha
Rhetorical: expressed in terms intended to persuade or impress. Oh dear!!!!
Asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information:
Merry Xmas our scribe!
Dennis
Couldn't help but notice your anti-Christ Ideology was your 1st criticism of Bill's article. I'm different from you. When I read, "Only dictators like Putin are ruthless!" I read it as Bill simply being facetious, not serious.
The Washington Post suspended me from commenting on anything for a week 4 Days after the WAR started February 24, 2022 for making this comment they deleted;
"When Western governments declare publicly it’s goal and objective it to destroy the Russian Economy without using bombs, Armageddon/WWIII has already started.
History proves it’s much easier to start Wars than to end them. It took 20 years and $2 TRILLION for the US to extricate itself from the humiliating defeat in Afghanistan.
I expect Putin will use the ‘nuclear option’ in the Economic War, and will turn off Nord Stream I and all oil and gas pipelines passing through Ukraine to keep Western Europe’s Economy going.
The question will be who can endure material privation and want longer? Russians who are accustomed to it, or Western Europeans who aren’t, when both the Russian and European Economies crash?"
In 2016 when Trump said it make sense to have better relations with Russia, I was totally in agreement with that, but I already came to the conclusion Trump was a serial LIAR and not to be Trusted preaching Nihilism.
Sure enough, long before Biden and the US blew up Nord Stream II, it was Trump who put Economic Sanctions on any European NATO Company that defied US Will and worked on completing the last few miles in NATO Waters joining Germany and Russia in a Win-WIN Economic Union, just what the US didn't want to see.
As you point out, Dennis, Russia is doing better than the European Economies extending the US Economic Sanctions on Russia.
'Russians reveal how they're feeling — poll'
Over half of the respondents to a recent survey said those around them seem to be in a tranquil mood
The majority of the Russian population is feeling very calm as the end of the year approaches, a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has revealed.
As part of the study, the results of which were published on Thursday, the respondents were asked if they found the mood of their loved ones, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to be peaceful or anxious.
A total of 57% described those around them as tranquil, while 36% said they were surrounded by people who seemed very worried, according to the survey.
I expect the same survey question for Americans would have those percentages reversed!
https://www.rt.com/russia/589527-poll-russians-calmness-expectations/
Yep, good comment Ray!
Did you buy your HUGE traditional US/CAN turkey to cook on Xmas day yet?
When I first saw one - I thought it was a joke!
Feed = 90% steroids etc. They say they can't even walk right at the end! Oh dear!
I told you in a previous article my 88 year old Sister and I are going to our Niece with her beautiful family, Husband and their 2 kids for Christmas Eve, and then to the Mandarin Buffet on Christmas Day.
You would like to have such a Buffet in New Zealand, you would be so zealous in praising it.
There are as many dishes to choose from as there are characters in this link to the pictures:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=nepean+mandarin&sca_esv=593172625&sxsrf=AM9HkKn2LMxeMqxlWlFtVjmwNOBVA6kZ3A%3A1703291531152&source=hp&ei=iyqGZdWZBs2siLMPz8mtoA0&iflsig=AO6bgOgAAAAAZYY4m_Ifc56parxl5wgEhJCoUOersIlj&ved=0ahUKEwiVi6S1p6SDAxVNFmIAHc9kC9QQ4dUDCAw&uact=5&oq=nepean+mandarin
Then follow "see photos"
Tough to eat a huge Turkey dinner and steam pudding inside on a 80F Xmas day in NZ Ray!
Only snow you will see is that fake flocking(?) snow all Kiwi's put on the Xmas tree! Weird- we even have fake snowmen! In the middle of summer!
Oh, and all our Xmas cards are winter snow themes! LOL
I will look at the link and photos.
Take care Ray. Your family too.
Freeman was the translator for Nixon in China. A genuine veteran diplomat who I REALLY hoped Trump would select for his SoS. Of course, we know the dregs for which he opted. He has a lot of experience both with China (and thus an understanding of Russia) and the Mid East--sadly, a great resource completely ignored.
The Nativity Story (as told by Seth Andrews)
I wanted to send this to my friends and family but they probably wouldn't listen to the end.😂
I would love to share this, but a lot of folks I know maybe would not think it was funny!
CAUTION. THIS MAY CONTAIN OFFENSIVE CONTENT...I'm serious.
Ray, you better not watch this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtLUt_T0wlM
Happy Holidays to you and your family :)
Nima just posted a conversation with Chas Freeman. Always interesting to hear from a real veteran diplomat.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58DptJJ8kQc&t=831s
I like the style of this guys interviews on his YouTube channel, Tom.
Dialogue Works
This is a good comment I thought: "Russophobia is an attitude; fear, Ignorance, hatred and more to the point, jealousy. The collective West have got nothing to shout about, and the Russians have got everything to look forward to."
It's the first time that I have heard Chas Freeman speak.
If only he were allowed to advise the Biden Administration - yeah right!
Interesting to hear him say Russia will come out of this war strengthened unified and their industries strengthened.
Just turned on Al Jazeera TV in the middle of the night.
Israeli IDF forces attack two, or is it three, more refugee camps in Gaza.
The pictures on my TV are truly gut wrenching!
Trapped bodies, and body parts, half covered with blankets under the rubble!
Come on Joe Biden for chrissake - one phone call to Netanyahu ends this horror!
Shamefully rewording the latest UN Resolution to provide more Humanitarian Aid, and not calling for a suspension of hostilities, and continuing to fly in more ammo and missiles for F-16's for the Israeli's is not fooling anyone!
Why don't you make that call Joe?
"......here I want to address another, more specific part of what amounts to an Israeli and media psy-op against Western publics: the claim that Hamas leaders ordered their fighters to carry out mass rape against Israelis, and that those fighters used sexual assault systematically, as a weapon of war. ......in this case, the bar needs to be high for an additional reason: because of Israel’s response - the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza premised on the supposed savagery of Hamas’ crimes....."
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/22/evidence-missing-in-mass-rape-charge-against-hamas/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=max+bluemanthal+what+happened+on+oct+7
All Zionist supremacists do is lie and mislead. It’s the only way they can justify their repugnant colonial project: manipulate, prevaricate, and control the mainstream media.
An ugly backlash is looming against them. It’ll be tragic.
Defilement and remorse were themes Bob Dylan addressed when he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from actor Jack Nicholson in 1991. The event coincided with the start of the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein.
Dylan performed "Masters of War". He then made a short speech: "My daddy once said to me, he said, 'Son, it is possible for you to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you. If that happens, God will believe in your ability to mend your own ways."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=897ZCM0qEps
Come, you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
While the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young peoples' blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatenin' my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn?
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness?
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I'll follow your casket
On a pale afternoon
I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead