“That’s why atheists often get wrecked in public debates. They don’t understand the subject and resort to caricature and derision.
Posted by: LoveDonbass”
 
why should that be necessary? how would you even do it?
Eyes of the beholder, I guess.
Who isnt convinced of the devil’s existence? easily found,
right behind the pulpit.

Posted by: Not Ewe | Nov 19 2025 15:52 utc | 204

Posted by: Not Ewe | Nov 19 2025 15:52 utc | 205
 
######
 
It may be my autism but accuracy and precision are important.
 
If what we say is inaccurate and we shout it loudly, then WTF are we trying to accomplish?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 19 2025 16:03 utc | 206

Mearsheimer sadly does not seem to mention much  another part of the context- long held plans USA and EU for regime  change (the intense hysterical plans to assist assassinate or remove Putin) and break up Russia into principalities. That Russia and Russians would not object to that which is still going on, daily messaging that across western media, manipulating media, banning media, establishing disinformation rules so called against Russia whilst peddling their own, has only shown up their own degradation morally politically economically for d Cade’s to come, and the risk that their political order is going to change and fracture in ways they may not appreciate. In other words to they have become Ukraine.
Mearsheimer could also have mentioned more strongly the actuated  plans for regime change in Belarus. And did not mention ongoing similar events re Georgia and possibly Serbia, both Orthodox religious countries.
Not looked at q and a yet. Wish he had just called out EU as sick deluded idiots. He seems to acknowledge some abilities of Merkel but not her sworn intentions and others that Crimea will not be accepted as Russian., but is seen as the key to undermine Russian self beliefs, so they f Crimea falls Russia will fall.

Posted by: Jo | Nov 19 2025 16:06 utc | 208

Posted by: will moon | Nov 19 2025 16:05 utc | 208
 
######
 
What is a corporation, really?
 
It’s a legal vehicle by which people can collectively pursue action which may be illegal for an individual to conduct.
 
Corporate “personhood” is a legal fiction.
 
The rationale was to limit liability (responsibility).
 
When responsibility is removed, bad actors prosper.
 
No coincidence that some of the most violent and oppressive firms have been organized as corporations.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 19 2025 16:12 utc | 210

Sean….there is no mention of “property deeds” in the tablets of stone for a certain people of their chosen belief….only an intention perhaps that can be interpreted that people’s need to rule themselves with their responsibility to rule the “property” of the individuality each of themselves.

Posted by: Jo | Nov 19 2025 16:22 utc | 212

Interesting that Mearsheimer says Russia has at the moment 22% of Ukraine territory but he envisages 40% before a very nasty frozen “halt” takes place? And the remaining 60% aint going to have an easy time at aaaaalllllllllll.

Posted by: Jo | Nov 19 2025 17:28 utc | 214

Naive I guess you chose the right username. Replying to the multitude of Wsco’s user names is somewhat different to Jesus feeding the people with fishes.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 19 2025 0:38 utc | 115
 
You lost twice. First you have no idea why I chose that username and you fell for this so easy trap. You could have asked me, but you prefered to guess. Too bad, you are wrong.
 
Second, if I am naive – as you guess – it would mean that we are not the same (because I am sure [ne guess needed here] you value yourself above naivity), and if we are not the same… you were indeed wrong when you wrote:

People are the same the world over.

This is just one example showing that you are wrong.
 
And I guess you know nothing about Jesus…
 

Posted by: Naive | Nov 19 2025 18:35 utc | 216

No they are not the same thing. In one monopoly a limited number of individuals ie the shareholders, control the executives. In the other the entire voting population can, theoretically, control the executive However it looks at this present time, there is a fundamental difference between these two cases
Posted by: will moon | Nov 19 2025 16:05 utc | 208
 
“They’re the same” is a bit of hyperbole on my end, I guess. Of course, they’re not exactly the same thing. The government monopoly is much more dangerous because it has the monopoly on violence. 
 
You claim that “in theory”, the voting population can control the entity with the monopoly on violence? That’s a wild theory and contrary to observable evidence.
 
You also diminish the “voting population’s” ability to control the economic monopoly. All economic monopolies exist because the state has granted it special powers, corporate powers, patent powers, subsidies, regulatory barriers to entry, etc.  Monopolies that arise without the power of the state are inherently transitory. If the rulers permit it, competitive pressures will break the monopoly, in not too much time.
 
Utility monopolies are good evidence of this. They exist because the state protects them. They would fail otherwise. In an age where the Russians can miniaturize nuclear power plants to such a degree that they can be employed on a missile, the state protection of utility monopolies has permanently relegated humanity to expensive, bloated, large-scale energy. Our imagination is limited – who knows what would be possible for cheap energy if not for this protection by the government thugs? Of course, our intentionally retarded progress is not a bug, but a feature for the rulers. They want us poor (energy is everything), sick, and stupid.

Posted by: HB Brian | Nov 19 2025 19:15 utc | 218

I’m afraid the Romanians will not be asked. They voted for one person and that person was removed. Romania is now a text book dictatorship. As is most of the rest of Europe. Will the decision makers want their countries to share the fate of Ukraine? Yes, absolutely they will. They are moved up the ranks and allowed into power by the US, because they are ruthless, spineless, inapt individuals. Just look at Japan! The lady wants to throw her people at China, for the sake of the US. She wants to hand over hundreds of billions of $ to the USA. She is asking for nuclear weapons to be stationed in Japan. All this, while the japanese people can watch the destruction of Ukraine live on the tele.
 
Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 18 2025 22:23 utc | 70

 
Great observation. As a lemma, the stupid politicos we keep getting in the west are there because “they” perfected the selection process.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 19 2025 20:43 utc | 220

@Chatnpc 63. 
Surely the worst sinners are not the politicians -we expect them to be venal and corrupt after all-but the journalists? It is they who have truly failed in their role to hold those in power, financial, political or military, to any sort of account. 
 
Frankly I would hang them first.
JB

Posted by: Judge Barbier | Nov 19 2025 21:06 utc | 222

Posted by: Get Real | Nov 19 2025 20:04 utc | 220
She’s a hasbarat stirring the pot on behalf of Zionists.
Any derailment is a good derailment and can earn good money these days.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Nov 19 2025 22:00 utc | 224

We’re in an age of abandoning what once were sacred values:Committing a genocide of only 2,300,000 people is OK when you can get Uncle Sam to approve.Stealing somebody’s natural resources is OK if the thief is Uncle Sam (Syria, now Venezuela)Posted by: grunzt | Nov 19 2025 16:56 utc | 214 I agree but for one necessary precision:You wrote “once”. When was that? Posted by: Naive | Nov 19 2025 18:40 utc | 218

When was that? Around 1945. With the defeat of Hitler the Anglosaxons and the Jews let themselves believe they had eliminated 90 percent (or similar) of all evil on Earth. Everybody except the Germans was a winner, and the people trusted the newly installed international institutions, and they trusted Uncle Sam who had little experience with his new role.
The evil awakening started for most of us (earlier for the Soviets) somewhere around the time of the Vietnam war. At the same time, in 1965, in Indonesia there were one to three million “communists” rounded up and eliminated. Thus the CIA who had orchestrated this experienced their “yes we can” moment, and they have been becoming mightier, more self-assured and more skillful every day since. What is most shocking about my previously posted list of lost values is that the main perpetrators are exactly those shiny winners of 1945: the Anglosaxons, their allies and the Jews. Those of them who still have a soul, need to redefine themselves, and look for entirely new ways of explaining good and evil. This will be interesting to watch.
 

Posted by: grunzt | Nov 19 2025 22:27 utc | 226

A government can be captured eg the current U.S. admin  As I recall Thomas Massie.a Congressional Representative from has claimed that nearly all members of Congress have an AIPAC Minder. Big business dominate the government, their lobbyist’s draft the laws of the country etc etc Im not sure your definition of “government” fits with what we see playing out n Washington. 
Posted by: will moon | Nov 19 2025 21:27 utc | 224
 
I disagree that “big business dominates the government”. The “government” is whoever’s in charge. Big business, particularly the bankers, IS the government. They probably always have been. It’s just in recent years that the facade has cracked.
 
For evidence, I submit that Biden was nominally the president. But everybody knows he wasn’t. I submit that Trump was nominally the president, but everybody knows he wasn’t in charge of the executive branch. Who’s actually in charge? Ask Jamie Dimon; I think he might know.
 
Big business and big government are both monopolistic. They also serve each other. We need to disempower big business and big government so that small business and small government are free to compete and innovate by serving, instead of exploiting, the individual. I sincerely hope we learn this lesson, or we’re going to replace this broken corrupt system with something worse. 
 
Also, the world depends on it. The tax base, aka massive slave population, required to build weapons of mass destruction and ultimately destroy humanity is dependent on large, monopolistic governments. Small governments can’t and don’t want to build nukes. If we keep supporting large governments, one of them eventually is going to destroy humanity. 

Posted by: HB Brian | Nov 20 2025 0:17 utc | 228

Re LoveDonbass 202-204:
‘The sharia gave women rights over a thousand years before Western law did.’
By specifying the size of the rod with which they should be beaten.
‘Even the Chinese have a large and prosperous Muslim population, and Japan and Korea are starting to revert as well.’
Japan and Korea are once again becoming Muslim, just as they originally were in Muslims’ fantasy history of the world? Sure.
‘On the subject of theology, how can one be an intelligent atheist if they don’t have an elementary understanding of what they reject?’
I haven’t seen atheists that don’t have an elementary understanding of what they reject. What I have seen is theists that have no understanding of what they accept (partly because they don’t bother to think and partly because it just doesn’t make sense and hence cannot be meaningfully ‘understood’ by anyone anyway). Requiring an atheist to be an ace in theology is a unreasonable. You don’t need to have read every Greek myth in each of its many variants to know that they are untrue, or to have read every disseration about phlogiston to know that the theory of phlogiston’s existence is incorrect. It’s not atheists’ fault that people have written and thought so much about things that don’t exist.
‘That’s why atheists often get wrecked in public debates. They don’t understand the subject and resort to caricature and derision.’
Really, they get wrecked? Or perhaps they only get wrecked in the eyes of theists clicking on Youtube videos entitled ‘Atheist gets WRECKED’. These are the same eyes that think the Bible and Quran make sense. Nuff said.

Posted by: F. Foundling | Nov 20 2025 1:14 utc | 230

… a series of curated and edited anecdotes …

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 20 2025 1:35 utc | 232

Johan Kaspar | Nov 19 2025 22:13 utc | 227
*** Surprise: he meant what he said: taking out all the cheap fascists of the Ukraines.***
 
Well, given the unscathed continuation of, for example, Poroshenko and Kolomoisky it is ever more obvious that he has zero intention of terminating (or even harming) the ‘expensive’ fascists.
Despite their extreme toxicity and  murderous connivances…..
Might that immunity be due to their religious/alleged-ethnicity affiliations?
And if so, what would that indicate about Putin?
 

Posted by: Cynic | Nov 20 2025 1:42 utc | 234

Posted by: Get Real | Nov 20 2025 2:34 utc | 238
 
######
 
Christopher couldn’t even debate his brother, Peter, who is a Boomer conservative “thinker”.
 
I’m a layman, and Christopher wouldn’t last 10 minutes with me.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 20 2025 2:47 utc | 236

Dear HelmuthI have read only his “On Dreams interpretation” and there he seems to take it quite literally as a historical character. I do not mean to say that it is entirely impossible a character existed, but there is obviously different trends on the NT, and when you say “Christianity” which one exactly are you talking about? Yes, Hellenism has left a layer on the NT but where do you find this in the Gospel of John?? And could you explain me if God is the cause of evil or not? Apparently “Christians” disagree widely on that, including within their own churches!
Posted by: Minaa | Nov 19 2025 15:18 utc | 200

I hope my posting isn’t too late. I hadn’t time to write another answer yesterday.Hmmm…I can’t say much about the existence of a historical Jesus, but if I’m informed correctly then even today the majority of historians assume that a historical figure existed, to which the stories of the NT can be traced. Especially because there are also sources outside the bible, e.g. the “Testimonium Flavianum”.But the funny thing is, that especially with Jung the historicity doesn’t matter at all. That’s because he was interested in why(!) people believe in some deity or the other. What their religious stories tell about their psyche, especially about the part Jung calls the “Self” (not to be mixed up with the “Ego”).
You see, Jung believed that what he called the “collective unconscious”, gets projected outwards in the form of gods, demons, ghosts, etc. And that the stories people create about them, tells something about their relationship to those unconscious contents. If one has no relationship to them at all, one may be possessed by them, because they don’t just go away. And that’s usually a very bad thing. That’s what the quote means, I initially posted. And that’s why he carved a motto in stone, in his house, “Vocatus atque nonvocatus, Deus aderit”. Called or uncalled, god will be there.
It’s important to note that Jung never made any metaphysical claims. That means, he always refused to make statements about the existence of an actual god “out there”. The only claims he makes is about the god image in the psyche. Since there are however strong indications that he was something like a philosophical monist or idealist, there is probably little difference, in the end. Same goes for me personally!
Now… to the question if god is the cause of evil. It’s interesting that you ask that. Jung disagreed heavily with mainstream Christian teaching at this point and he wrote a whole book about that: “Answer to Job”. If you’re interested in an excellent summary of it, then listen to the talk between Bernardo Kastrup and Hans van den Hooff on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sTyzMS34gThe short version is: Yes, god is also the source of evil. And the devil is, so to say, the shadow of god’s psyche. Or in more psychological terms, the devil is projection of the shadow side of the Self archetype.
Lastly, I talk of protestantism and/or catholicism. I’m German, Jung was Swiss. Those denominations are the most common in Germany and Switzerland.

Posted by: Helmuth von Moltke | Nov 20 2025 6:08 utc | 238

Your answer will show how much you know about Jung. 
 
What was the name of Jung’s inner spiritual guide who taught him his advised him his entire life. initially in the dream state
(aka his inner master, higher self, higher consciousness)? 
 
Posted by: Mindless Rules | Nov 20 2025 6:24 utc | 242

Why do you want to “test” me? 
But the answer is Philemon. He appeared in his “active imaginations”, described in the Red Book. I have it, though not read completely, yet. 

Posted by: Helmuth von Moltke | Nov 20 2025 6:47 utc | 240

The fact LoveDonbass has not faded away from MoA is telling about his imperviousness to criticism and his deep clinical addiction and neurosis about being heard. He’s like a friendly, agreeable brick wall of supremacy — the ultimate fanatic in sheep’s clothing. She/ He’s a cancer cell to decent society with his endless anti-Western rants and bigotted heart.Posted by: Get Real | Nov 19 2025 20:04 utc | 220

 No. It’s telling about the INTENTIONAL failure of any sane moderation by bernhard combined with refusing to permanently banish the LoveDonbass creep ie the group of creeps posting under that name.  B only bans people who complain about them! The Sell Out Idiot God knows how much they are PAYING B for the privilege to keep posting their insane gish gallop cult garbage here. But that’s B for you. Don’t blame LD or PeterAU1, they have been given free reign by B. None of the old school permanent residents complain because they know a TEACHERS PET when they see one, or two or a dozen.   
Posted by: Mindless Rules | Nov 20 2025 6:02 utc | 240

 
To paraphrase: “OMG, although he/she gets criticized a lot by me and other intellectual snobs, he/she just keeps posting. I find his or her style and anti-western stance is so annoying.
 
I know, me too, they are so creepy. Why doesn’t B ban them? Whats wrong with B. They must be paying him. Why else would B tolerate opinions and convictions I disapprove of. Meeh.”
 
Can it get anymore pathetic? The reason “None of the old school permanent residents complain” is because, besides the odd cry baby having a tantrum about fellow commenters they’d like to see cancelled, there is nothing to complain about. If the variety of opinions, manner or frequency of postings by this or that barfly is upsetting your sensitivity, check whether your mouse has a wheel in the middle. If it does, good, its there for a reason. In case you can’t get your head around this concept or you find scrolling is too laborious, I guess you won’t become an old school permanent resident at this bar.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Nov 20 2025 8:27 utc | 242

@ Avtonom: Yeah, man. After twenty odd years of internet blogs, forums, and comment sections powered mostly by caffeine or whiskey and poor impulse control, you’d think adults would’ve mastered by now the noble art of scrolling past things they don’t like. It’s the digital equivalent of gliding by like a swan in Wi-Fi range while proclaiming, “Nope, not boarding the drama train.” Instead, some still demand censorship, as though Bernhard is some form of mystical nanny who will tuck them in and remove all disputatious opinions. But really, the gallant hero of the modern web isn’t the crusader hammering the report button, it’s the quiet scroller, coasting past perceived nonsense with the dignity of a seasoned internet monk.
 
Having said that, I actually skip past very few posts, as many commenters I more often than not disagree with from time to time provide perspectives or insights I appreciate and am glad to have read. At any rate, a respectful meeting of differing opinions helps everyone level up.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Nov 20 2025 9:59 utc | 244

In case you can’t get your head around this concept or you find scrolling is too laborious, I guess you won’t become an old school permanent resident at this bar.
 
Posted by: Juan Moment | Nov 20 2025 8:27 utc | 244
 
________
 
Beg respectfully to differ. After all, you’re responding to the billionth iteration of Lavrov’s Dog Jake.

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 20 2025 11:56 utc | 246

“The fact LoveDonbass has not faded away from MoA is telling about his imperviousness to criticism and his deep clinical addiction and neurosis about being heard. He’s like a friendly, agreeable brick wall of supremacy — the ultimate fanatic in sheep’s clothing. She/ He’s a cancer cell to decent society with his endless anti-Western rants and bigotted heart.
 
Posted by: Get Real | Nov 19 2025 20:04 utc | 220
 
 To paraphrase: “OMG, although he/she gets criticized a lot by me and other intellectual snobs, he/she just keeps posting. I find his or her style and anti-western stance is so annoying. I
Posted by: Juan Moment | Nov 20 2025 8:27 utc | 244
 
“Totally agree with you. In the case of LD, I chose to plead with her directly to stem her incontinence in a thread now dead. Beyond rare cases like that, I regularly skip those posters I know are fascists, stupid, or suffering from oral diarrhea. Scrolling is easy.”
 
Posted by: Avtonom | Nov 20 2025 8:54 utc | 245
 
Agreed.
 
Racist LoveDumbass is an Intellectual Cancer on this blog.

Posted by: canuk | Nov 20 2025 14:10 utc | 248

??…
Ukraine was offered a ‘land for money’ deal with Putin”: Trump proposed that Ukraine lease Donbass to Russia.
“The Donald Trump administration proposed that Ukraine make a deal under which the country would effectively lease part of its territory to Russia in order to end the war.
According to a plan, sources familiar with the negotiations told The Telegraph, Kyiv would lose control over eastern Donbass but retain legal ownership rights. Russia, in turn, would pay some kind of rent for the actual management of the region.
 
Studying again and again the proposals from the 28 points on Ukraine, it is impossible to shake the feeling that the West’s conceptual mistake regarding Russia is now packed into one word — “temporary.” Temporary ceasefire, temporary Ukrainian renunciation of NATO, temporary withdrawal from the remaining part of Donbas. It is this word that makes any talks about peace meaningless.
 
This is reported by Kiev media.
– The agreement includes “Russia’s return to the global economy” and “Ukraine’s renunciation of NATO membership.”
– Ukraine will have to remove any mention of NATO membership from its Constitution, and NATO members will legally recognize that Ukraine will never join NATO in the future.
– Zelensky’s meeting with American generals is scheduled for this afternoon.
slavyangrad
European integration is a conspiracy against Poland”: The President is preparing the ground for the country’s exit from the EU, says Foreign Minister Sikorski
🇵🇱👊🇺🇦 The Prime Minister of Poland demanded that Zelensky immediately provide data on Ukrainians suspected of sabotaging the railway▪️Tusk reported this during a business forum in Warsaw.➖”I told Zelensky that Poland expects the immediate transfer of all data that will help us,” Tusk said.▪️Tusk also reported that he agreed with Zelensky on the terms of cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian special services to prevent sabotage.@Slavyangrad
if necessary — we will give Ukraine even more long-range missiles’ — Merz.And in the coming weeks and months, if necessary, these supplies will increase — up to the production of such weapon systems on Ukrainian territory’.Mission Impossible. Merz wants to steal Russian assets in December.‘The most important step we Europeans can take is to reach an agreement in December on the use of frozen Russian assets. slavyangrad
 
 
 
 

Posted by: Jo | Nov 20 2025 14:42 utc | 250

Posted by: NotPaulHollywood | Nov 20 2025 14:49 utc | 253
 
You don’t like my posts, simply scroll by them; pretty simple.
 
I would strongly suggest that you do not tell me what to do, l because, if so , I will just accelerate the behavior you awkwardly criticize.

Posted by: canuk | Nov 20 2025 14:56 utc | 252

Posted by: NotPaulHollywood | Nov 20 2025 14:49 utc | 253
 
######
 
Thanks, but I feel your effort is wasted. As we see, the subject is threatening escalation.
 
You know, like a mature pro-social adult… 🙄🙄🙄

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 20 2025 15:08 utc | 254

Ukraine will have an interim government that will prepare the country for elections and sign a peace agreement, says MP Skorokhod.
ukrainewatch
 
I don’t see the war ending quickly. I agree with the opinion that it could continue until the 2030s. Russia plans to continue the war in this way, says Ukrainian MP Kachura.@ukr_leaks_eng
 
 

Posted by: Jo | Nov 20 2025 17:49 utc | 256

Media reports indicate that Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhny, refused to meet with Andrey Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office.
@ukr_leaks_eng

Posted by: Jo | Nov 20 2025 18:50 utc | 258

Can it get anymore pathetic? The reason “None of the old school permanent residents complain” is because, besides the odd cry baby having a tantrum about fellow commenters they’d like to see cancelled, there is nothing to complain about. If the variety of opinions, manner or frequency of postings by this or that barfly is upsetting your sensitivity, check whether your mouse has a wheel in the middle. If it does, good, its there for a reason. In case you can’t get your head around this concept or you find scrolling is too laborious, I guess you won’t become an old school permanent resident at this bar.
Posted by: Juan Asshole | Nov 20 2025 8:27 utc | 242

 
Ya bleating old goat. Can you get any more pathetic with your whining complaints.  If you cannot handle my interpretations of what is going on here and you hate my opinions like a dried up old tea lady then go fuck yourself with a candle stick holder.
 
Fuck you asshole. Use the scrolling wheel and fuck off!  
 

Posted by: Mindless Rules | Nov 24 2025 4:14 utc | 260