I used to worry about someone coming after my family to get to me. 
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 1:11 utc | 207

 
Why did you worry? What could be so important about you that could garner a mad desire in anyone to take out your family to get to you?
Do you think your some kind of a 21st century version of Malcom X or something? Or a muslim charlie kirk?
 
Because you’re not. 

Posted by: Bully Gone | Dec 14 2025 1:44 utc | 203

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 1:28 utc | 210
 
####
 
Back to our loved ones, they too will only suffer what he (it?) has willed, and we are not being consulted on the decisions.
 
We always have more and better options than our minds tend to believe. Our minds, particularly in the West, have been trained in fear, which narrows perspective. A natural survival reflex where we become hyper present and incapable of understanding abstractions.
 
Being a believer has brought me a lot of peace. I am not responsible for or have to change everything in this world. That is literally “above my pay grade”. I just have to do my job. Don’t be a shitheel and don’t hurt other people. I believe it really is that simple.
And let’s say I am wrong about everything and reality is all some random cosmic accident without purpose or meaning, it’s still good to not be an asshole.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 1:47 utc | 205

A great 9-minute explanation of why people commit evil and ignore their moral culpability.
 
They Don’t Think They’re Evil. That’s Why It Works | Prof Jiang Xueqin
 
Removing accountability”frees” people to do anything if they feel there is social pressure to do so.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 1:53 utc | 207

psychohistorian | Dec 14 2025 1:25 utc | 209—
 
Good luck on that effort. I didn’t mention this in our Zoom chat, but all Lincoln County communities are in solidarity against ICE building a concentration camp in Newport next to the municipal airport, along with our Senators and Congressional Rep. The Trump Gang is an Evil bunch as are ICE goons–they constitute the Enemy Within, and they will be fought. 
 
I do have something new to offer, Geopolitical Competition Intensifies: Dirt Wars, and have another similar item dealing with energy lined-up. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 14 2025 2:13 utc | 209

Rather than the unproductive “eat the rich,” how about creating a culture that holds the rich to high standards and punishes anyone with malicious intent?
 
 We can destroy the rich, but there will just be more rich again, and the cycle will continue. . . .
 
 
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 13 2025 21:20 utc | 184

 
I hesitate to enter this conversation about creating a culture, but many of the posts herein have taken me back to Dostoievski’s novel  “The Devils”.
 
It seems to me that there is a lot of ‘creating culture’ in that novel, beginning with Stepan Trofimovich, who has, if not created his own culture, at least found himself inside a liberal Russian culture when other members of his society are moving into  another.    This for him had been highly disorienting,  much as is the ‘culture shift’ we find ourselves  facing  today.   
 
I don’t know if this helps,   but I am remembering that Dostoievski set himself  not to reject the cultural values  which life in his own family environment had instilled in him as a child,  no matter what other values his  later contemporaries might have adopted.  I remember that in one instance as an adult he had been assaulted but refused to prosecute the aggressor.  Another instance important to him was his recollection,  when terrified of being among criminals in the Gulag , of a childhood memory of being lost in a forest only to be kindly treated by a fierce looking peasant who guided him home.  This memory helped him immensely to relax among the other prisoners for the duration of his time with them.   He never forgot it.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 14 2025 2:25 utc | 211

So, do I believe there is useful suffering for others in this world? Absolutely. Jesus told us all about this. 
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 2:17 utc | 221

 
😏😂 ~

Posted by: Laurence | Dec 14 2025 2:43 utc | 213

Love Donbass@111:  Numerological synchronicity works for me.  You landed on a trifecta…Aces Wild.  It’s currently 919 here in the Northwoods.  Numerologically they add up to One.  Magic is best lived…means you are not only tuned into the universe…but also to the Tuniverse.  It does take two to Tango.  Ever tune in with the Music of the Spheres?
 
 All are One, as One is All…while the Whole is equal to, yet greater than the sum of its parts.
 
 The 17th Century Scientific Method is unbalanced.  Totally left brain and utterly reductionist.  Oh yeah, those Sitzfleisch intellectuals were plenty bright.  However, whether Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton or Rene’ Descartes had got some things right, they set the stage for the mess we have today…what with what the Hopi elders remind us:  We are living in a world out of balance.  It has no meaning and exercises no genuine value systems.
 
 Those nutcases actually believe that the Big Bang of their inverted visions was the action of nothing becoming something.  Get real.
 
2026 is gonna be one helluva hay-ride…a bit bumpy in various ruts and such.  Anybody here paying much attention to the now blue shimmering object currently injected into the solar system?  Many on You Tube and such are commenting on it.  The most deeply informed one is a youngish guy name of Stefan Burns. Yeah, he’s got some scientifically valid hot observations.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 14 2025 3:30 utc | 215

Psychohistorian@125.  Doing your bit, eh?  Good on you.  It’s called participaction.  Seems like I got that offa Winnipeg’s branch of CBC back in the halcyon days of Alan Maitland and Peter Gzoski.  Now, the place is turning into Canuckistan and Alberta is having nothing of it.  Quebec is restive.  Saskatchewan has given up on hunting for Sasquatch and is also becoming leery of the creeps controlling from Ottawa.
 
One of my recent do’s is a leditor to the county’s only weekly newspaper, suggesting that the county’s highway department assists the little mostly seniors village by sending in a truck which strews a sand/salt mixture on the overly icy streets.  A profoundly deaf old boy down the corridor from me, armed only with a slender cane, took a bad tumble on that ice and has been in rehab for the last three weeks or thereabouts.
 
Some will have noticed that I just resumed here on b’s open sesame.  During warmer months I’m out at the old homestead doing a bunch of physical labor.  Not so secret secret:  Work on one project until it gets tiresome and boring.  Then hieing over to a totally different way to get real exercise.  Good for both body and spirit as it is possible that way to invoke the inner Puer Aeternus. In English we would call that the eternal boy, or child, if you will.  Playing at work is utterly magical and much preferable to artificial exercises in some damn gym.  Also it beats the shit out of many forms of meditation, staring at your belly-button.  Indoors, here in the cold months…about -17 Fahrenheit at present…the meditation takes the form of carving Diamond Willow, the most biomimetic life form on planet earth.  Mostly doing sculptural stuff with that rare wood, but recently mostly finished off a small staff for a lady friend who has been hospitalized with a nasty sepsis.
 
If you happen to live in some huge megalopolis, consider heading for the hills.  Things gonna get kinda crazy pretty soon. Some rural areas have lost so much population to higher ed and high paying jobs that they are glad to welcome newbies.  Seniors would fit in well in some of the now dissipating little villages in the prairie states of the two Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas.  Try to find one within an hour’s drive on quiet roads from medical facilities and places to get food and other needs.  Yeah, some of those little burgs have even lost all their mom n’ pop stores…gone the way of Amazon in recent years, but losing their youth for many a year now.  A few of the younger ones find seasonal jobs with some of those agribiz so-called farmers.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 14 2025 3:51 utc | 217

A new update re. Venezuela, which as the Busker writes may be useful to some, here

Posted by: Alex Cox | Dec 14 2025 4:05 utc | 219

AI Overview

The phrase, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” means that good intentions aren’t enough; actions (or lack thereof) matter, and poorly planned or executed good deeds can backfire, causing harm despite noble aims, much like ill-conceived policies (like Prohibition) or cultural impositions
. It warns that focusing on abstract “evil” or believing good intentions are sufficient without careful action leads to negative consequences, emphasizing the need for thoughtful execution, not just pure motives, or else even well-meaning efforts can create worse outcomes. 

Posted by: Laurence | Dec 14 2025 4:08 utc | 221

…  my argument to my Father-in-Law is that we are to imitate Jesus. Jesus was the prototype and we are his followers. Part of this means wrestling with hell. Descending into it. Understanding its etymology and the scare-tactics that accompanied it down through the years. Feeling its nothingness. To me, there is more peril in avoiding hell than in going through it. So, do I believe there is useful suffering for others in this world? Absolutely. Jesus told us all about this. 
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 2:17 utc | 221

 
I won’t argue on this point,  Nemesis Calling,  but would give a difference between your understanding and that of the Orthodox Christian.  I note first that we do not use the Apostles Creed during our liturgies, but rather the Nicene Creed, which does not mention hell.  And secondly, I quote our text for  the Sunday  liturgical service  where the priest says:
 

In the tomb with the body;  in hell with the soul, as God;   
in Paradise with the thief;  and on the throne with the Father 
and the Spirit wast Thou,  O  Christ,  filling all things, Thyself
uncircumscribed.

 
For the Orthodox,  we may indeed find ourselves in hell, but we do not follow Christ there,  in the sense you seem to have of that,  because only he is God.  Only he has raised the dead.  Once and for all.
 
At least, that is my understanding.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 14 2025 4:21 utc | 223

DH: Prof Jiang Xueqin
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnT_6V5m1WA
 
“Trump, Venezuela and how America dies.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 14 2025 4:32 utc | 225

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 2:17 utc | 221
#####
 
I’m trying not to go galaxy brain with this because I am a dilettante at best. I am not a student of knowledge, but I do think that what I know, combined with my own ability to reason, has given me a useful model to live by.
 
Everything is from the creator. Everything. Every molecule, every moment, every action (and reaction).
 
That is my starting premise. It all flows from that.
 
If everything is from the creator, then any suffering is from the creator, and in a Muslim (one who submits to the creator) perspective, suffering is “part of the plan”.
 
It is not enough, IMO, to believe in God. If one doesn’t trust God in heart and mind, then what is the belief worth?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 4:42 utc | 227

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 13 2025 19:59 utc | 176
 
So, it never occurred to you that someone might not want, or not wait to be given something, because they know that if others come to them, it’s primarily because they want to take something?
 
According to your view, some humans are slaves and beggars for life, whose only choice is to select the best master from among several?
 
You are not even racist, your are inhuman. I surely not a muslim.
 
I pity you. Very much…
 
Any reply wanted, thank you very much.

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 4:58 utc | 229

@234 juliania
 
Thx for the engagement. I always look forward to your writings on theological thinking.
 
Yes, there is an infinite qualitative difference between Jesus and us. He is God, we are not.
 
My “heresy” is to follow a different line of thinking than a “traditional” understanding of an eternal hell, which is actually not traditional at all. 
 
The usual words pop-up: Gehenna, Pride, Tartus, being cast outside, unquenchable fire. 
 
Has anyone thought to ask, why is fire considered purgative here in this instance but eternal in this one? Is there an infinite qualitative difference to fire, too? 
 
IMO, and it truly is a fact, is that there exists no eternal fire for the damned. I will concede there could be a 999,999,999 million year purgation for truly wicked souls, but the fact that I would still make it to Heaven eventually means, “no sweat, Big Man, do your worst.”
 
Now this comes from a person who has been shaken to his core about the notion of eternal hellfire. I have had sleepless nights of pacing during winter where I remember watching the darkened, leafless trees shaking from powerful winds. Scared shitless. All beings poised against me in unified scorn. 
 
So when we are talking about hell, make no mistake about my position: it exists, but I think it is purgative. 
 
How it went from being eternal, whether in an original sense as from Judaism or from an amended understanding of restorative justice by the Church desiring to keep the people in line through fear, to being purgative is in large part, in my understanding, through Jesus Christ who opened the gates of Jerusalem to all. 
 
So, because of Jesus, we come back to a truer understanding of hell, an Existential one as opposed to an eschatological one grounded in the absolute hatred of non-believers. 
 
That is why I believe we should enter into hell for others, because there is no danger of it being eternal. 
 
Have you read the Orthodox David Bentley Hart on Gregory of Nyssa and Origen? 

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 5:22 utc | 231

#####
While I appreciate the creativity, the bar really could do with less AI content.
LoveDonbass | Dec 13 2025 17:04 utc | 149

 
Laurence / canuck the sockpuppet replies
 

JoBloFirst reactions to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey prologue: breathtaking, jaw-dropping, “biggest movie ever made” 
Yahoo News Canada: Canadian boycott of U.S. hitting border states hard: Congressional report CIC News: Skilled workers in these occupations can get a work permit within two weeks CBC: ANALYSIS | Alberta separatists reapply for referendum question, boosted by new UCP bill
 `The Squirrel’:Trump demands Fed listen to him as he lines up new leader: ‘I’m a smart voice’
Posted by: Laurence / canuck | Dec 13 2025 19:50 utc | 175 

 
Won’t be long now before canuck is openly back to the ‘love dumbass’ hate routine

Posted by: Bully Gone | Dec 14 2025 6:17 utc | 233

aristodemos@237:
 
These are my thoughts on this bitter cold night in a city where people freeze to death outside if they can’t afford impossible rents, groceries, healthcare and taxes here. Everything’s deteriorating and collapsing before our very eyes, with a  military budget that just jumped over the golden dome.
 
Our governments are criminal warmongers that do the bidding of others not their peoples who must now work very hard together to overcome these very serious problems here in the belly of the beast. We really do need  revolutionary changes and more and more people are coming to see and agree with that.
I think it is enough to start. People need to put their heads, hearts and hands together to build the necessary grass-roots self-help peoples movements that can link with others to prepare and support us in the struggles ahead. 
 
It’s true you know what they say,  ‘The people united can never be defeated.’ We must never forget that. Nor that there are more of us than them. The rest is up to us.  Onward to victory over tyranny, warmongers and genociders – to world peace and better things. Free Palestine. Free speech and free us all except the criminals in power.
 

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 14 2025 6:56 utc | 235

No way you can be a muslim. Never either.
 
Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 5:00 utc | 241
 
#####
 
The qualification to be a Muslim is contained in the Shahada (testimony of faith).
 
Accept that there is only one God (monotheism).
 
And that Mohammad is the Messenger of God.
 
The last part implicitly means that one accepts the Quran as Revelation.
 
That’s it. Someone can give their Shahada and not practice but technically, the Shahada is the only qualification. Some mosques may ask a person claiming to be Muslim to recite Sura Fatihah (which every practicing Muslim knows by heart).
 
It is possible that I am a bad Muslim, but I am a monotheist and I believe that Mohammad was the seal of the Prophets (final one), and I have given my Shahada.
 
That said, I don’t understand why you would come at me personally. We’ve never interacted before unless you’re under a new name.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 9:05 utc | 237

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Dec 14 2025 9:05 utc | 249
 
######
 
China, Russia, and Iran all have superior ewar technology.
 
They can easily spoof the GPS of Western planes and ships and have done so before.
 
China has a class of special ewar ships that the USN tries to avoid in West Asia and the Pacific. They are light on weapons but capture a lot of data (signals) when in their operating range.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 9:12 utc | 239

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 13 2025 18:56 utc | 167
[…]
Superb! I am organizing a trip to Nouakchott and Dakar during the 1st q of 26 and your contextual info is very much appreciated.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Dec 14 2025 9:22 utc | 241

Bondi Beach shooting: At least 10 killed in Bondi Beach shooting, several injuredhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-14/active-shooter-bondi-beach-sydney-nsw/106141580
Police say there have been at least 10 people killed following a shooting near a Jewish gathering at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
One shooter was killed while another is in custody.
Authorities say there is no longer an active threat but have urged people to avoid the area.
 
Sad news indeed. However, those in power will not let a tragedy go to waste.
No doubt this will lead to further erosion of freedoms and rights in Australia, especially regarding anti-Zionist and anti-genocide activities.
Let’s see if Iran is blamed for this tragic loss of life…

Posted by: Friend_of_MLK | Dec 14 2025 10:07 utc | 243

I live in Sydney. False flag or I’ll eat my hat.

Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 14 2025 11:05 utc | 245

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLKNvTvUEwE@17:40
Mercouris lying, again.
He says he ‘remembers the war reporting in Vietnam…’ He was a child at the time (I’m the same age) and war/politics was of no interest whatsoever to him. Bullshit called. He repeats the, ‘I remember Vietnam’ lie over and over – it’s some sort of personality tic. He mentions Da Nang, as a fake authenticity code. Riiight.

Posted by: pete the | Dec 14 2025 11:10 utc | 247

Multipolarbear (259)
 
Its more than likely a false flag event, of course people from time to time do die in false fag events.
 
Watch as NZ, will now cracks down heavily on any criticism of the genocide – or of Zionist or Jews in general.
 
Albanese speech being broadcast on the BBC right now – his overall message we’ll protect the Jews no matter what.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 14 2025 11:20 utc | 249

 unimperator (261).
 
Sounds like guns for hire – especially at the beginning of a Jewish marked event (Hanukkah) – coincidence? not for me, for me its all about sympathy for the Zionists – and cracking down on any dissent against the genocide in Gaza from decent folk. Its not the first time a so called attack has happened on a Jewish community to garner sympathy for them – the Aussie government is no different to say the German or US government they back the Zionists to the hilt.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 14 2025 11:35 utc | 251

@unimperator The shooter seems to be a Pakistani.
Yes, one had arabic or muslim name that I know of, they were raiding his home in Bonnyrigg
@Republicofscotland Its more than likely a false flag event
– you’re guessing or hoping and would not know if it is or isn’t. 
 
I’m not judging anyone (shooter or shot) and will continue to support the Palestinian cause against the Israeli / US Zionist genocide and land theft. 

Posted by: Multipolarbear | Dec 14 2025 11:39 utc | 253

Posted by: pete the / Peter AU1 | Dec 14 2025 11:10 utc | 258
 
Like Jesus he rises from the dead days after burial with the certainty of a Judas about whether Alexander Mercouris can remember the Vietnam war or not.  
 
Tip: Log off. Go to bed. 

Posted by: Multipolarbear | Dec 14 2025 11:57 utc | 255

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 9:05 utc | 248
 
Your lecturing, your down looking, your paternalism are all very personal.
 
I’m a Christian born and living among muslims. One thing I noticed is they are rarely condescending to others.
Your are very very condescending.

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 13:38 utc | 257

Supposed footage of the guy disarming one of the attackers at Bondi Beach – the Zio-Monsters won’t like it that he’s a Muslim called Ahmed al Ahmed. Watch the footage. Jacaranda (@Randall87454048): “Sadly an entire religion and people from Arabic countries will be blamed – the fact that an Arab and Muslim showed extraordinary courage and saved many lives will be overlooked.” | nitter.poast.org Some Zio-Monster supporters already saying Iran was behind the Bondi Beach “attack” Sonic Lunchbox (@soniclunchbox): “Also used for justifying an attack on Iran too” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 14 2025 14:51 utc | 259

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 14:58 utc | 271
 
That is a part of the problem with you.
 
Your are safe and healthy, and for you, this is just a discussion online about “geopolitics”.
 
For us, it is a matter of death on life.
Right now, my parents are being killed in their own house and town, by terrorist militants armed by a distant power. Geopolitics.
 
Meanwhile, I can read from supporters of another distant power that my country has been “liberated” from terrorism by their “brave soldiers” my parents never saw on the field. Geopolitics.
Some of my friends have disappeared because they try to use their freedom of speech, others are jailed without a charge. Elections are forbidden.
 
But you come and tell me I must be happy to have been “saved” and given “freedom” by a “good and popular leader” just because he likes Russia.
 
Sorry, but what is just words for you can be very personal to others.

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 15:16 utc | 261

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 15:16 utc | 272
 
#####
 
I am sorry (sincerely) to hear about your friends and family.
 
You don’t know me, you don’t know what I have or am currently dealing with.
 
You decide what is personal to yourself. That is not up to total strangers online unless you are making it so.
 
I am not telling you anything about what to do. I am not sold on Russia as good guys. They are Orthodox and violating the first Commandment (icons) is a big part of their religion. That is one of dozens of red flags I have with Russians but they are fighting the colonizers and fighting them well to the benefit of many nations.
 
I am pointing out the situation and potential options. If reality bothers you, for that I am sorry, but that will be an issue as you interact with others online.
 
Besides, what you and I think doesn’t matter. Russia and your government aren’t going to consult us, hence why it doesn’t make sense to get emotionally invested. These are matters outside of our control.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 15:31 utc | 263

Also, if one is a believer, their loved ones are not gone. No one is gone. Energy cannot be destroyed.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 15:38 utc | 265

@LoveDombass
 
And may I add that lecturing people you don’t know about their own country, situation and reality is not the better way to “interact”, with or without “being emotional” ?

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 16:22 utc | 267

Starmer is scheduled to visit China next month yet he’s piling it on,,..
 
Posted by: denk | Dec 13 2025 17:31 utc | 151——————————
They always resorted to such tactics, the anglo, the euro .., upping the ante as bargaining chip right before the haggling,.
 
Trump did it every single time, raising the tariff, escalating TW, SCS provocation before a trip
 
German FM Johann Whadafool did it, raising the ruckus over TW before his scheduled visit ,then got told by BEIJING, ‘your trip is off’ !
 
Yet Starmer is doing exactly the same now.
 
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn…?
 
.This is no longer the Qing China, when they could sent their gunboats up the Yangtze and demand open market for their opium !

Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 16:41 utc | 269

The shootings in Sydney.  My first thought when I spotted the headlined coverage on RT was that this one had to be just another false flag op.   That perspective has now dropped to “not impossible”, but rather unlikely.  The point which really caught my eye was that the Hanukah celebration was essentially an extremely Zionist affair as it was hosted and populated by the Chabad sect. Leader of that grouping is an extreme zionist who frequently travels to Occupied Palestine.
 
So the Trumpeting Elephant’s son in law will be positively livid over this incident, as he himself is a Chabad Lubavitcher.  We can expect massive amounts of heavy rhetoric from the father in law.  Likely he will go over the top on this situation.
 
 Intel agencies, most particularly Mossad, often target vulnerable Muslims whose families would be “removed” if the target did not accept his mission.  Though this scenario is rather improbable in the instance where the shooter apparently was not alone, it cannot be dismissed out of hand.
 
In any event we can conclude that this incident did not involve innocent Jewish people who are simply living their lives. The Lubavitchers dwell at the most extreme level of genocidal fanaticism.  So if indeed, the primary shooter was doing this without having been blackmailed…the incident was essentially an act of war by one or more individuals against a perceived deadly enemy.
 
That’s the topsy-turvy world we happen to be currently experiencing.
 
Australia and the Zionist “Chosens”:  Soon, those Zionists who cannot live amongst non-Jews in a peaceful manner will need a new homeland.  There is sufficient Talmudist money sources for a colony to be established on the south coast of Australia in the Nullarbor region…not a very hospitable place.  However, as the world’s leading desalination experts and with massive freshwater Antarctic icebergs not terribly far away, some section of that coast could be made livable.  I’m quite confident that the current Dominion regime in Canberra will be open to financial compensation for an otherwise blank zone in the continental population.
 
For years, I have proposed that the far northwestern corner of Western Australia might be another possible refuge for the inevitably displaced Zionists.  Very few people live there.  They could be comfortably bought out and relocated.  The chosen zone should be carefully crafted to not include ANY lands currently having Aboriginal native residents.  They have taken enough shit from bloodthirsty and rambunctious European types over the last couple hundred years.  They occupy a fascinating niche as the world’s oldest somewhat intact population…one with a fascinating culture.
 
Beaches are great in that geographical extremity boundering on the Indian Ocean to the west and the Indonesian islands to the north some few hundred kilometers.  The sharks are a bit nasty, I have heard and some of the fauna and flora may be a bit difficult as well.  However, homeless people, backed with immense mountains of money, should finally be able to purchase honestly a bit of land for themselves.
 
 Such an outcome would meet the requirements of justice, in which all sides could enjoy unquestioned homes of their own.  The long suffering Palestinians, whose DNA is around 80% derived from the ancient Hebrews ,would become existentially relieved of their burdens and fears.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 14 2025 16:44 utc | 271

Starmer
‘China pose an existential threat’
 
MI5
‘China pose a daily threat’
 
Wonder why the entire west is run by pathological liars ?
 
Cuz, they were all elected by folks with similar psychosis thats why !
The peasants are not being deceived, they are up to their eyeballs in the scam
 
Exhibit A
———–
*THIS IS IT. WE NOW KNOW WHO IS BEHIND ALL THIS SHITE WE HAVE BEEN LIVING THROUGH. FOO MAN CHOO. AND HIS SMOKING BAT. AND EXPLODING ELECTRIC GOODS
 
[I didnt cap it]
 
*China is not interested in diplomacy. There is no need for them to have an embassy in ANY western country.
Anyone sympathetic to the CCP is suspect until proven otherwise.
——————–
 
*We now know why Starmer gave away Chagos ! How was he allowed to do that ?
 
*China is highly skilled at placing its agents in positions of power and influence globally.
We should have grave reservations about all our dealings with China.
 
*There is no requirement for a new chinese embassy. End off
 
———–
Tip of an iceberg

Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 16:59 utc | 273

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 16:36 utc | 270

I can only answer for what I believe and have said.

You posted the following yesterday :

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 13 2025 19:12 utc | 161Senegal is all-in with France. No one can stay in the CFA Franc and exercise political sovereignty. All of these “organizations” are proxies for French rule. That is why AES left ECOWAS to form its own sovereign bloc. IIRC, the Senegalese PM has pan-Africanist sympathies (which is why he was targeted for incarceration, IMO) The President (Faye) does not; they were only able to run together to lend credibility to the actual French-approved candidate. Now that deception is no longer necessary as AES is dangerously gaining widespread support across the continent.

                    ——-
None of the above is true. I really wonder where you took those “informations”.
But I know it’s part of the anti-western narratives I hear everyday from our “friends” from the Prighojin farm here.
 
I have been reading your posts for a long time, and I generally appreciate them.
 
Maybe it is the subject of West Africa that is out of your reach ? Why insist to write about subjects you don’t have a clue ?

Posted by: Sebgo | Dec 14 2025 17:20 utc | 275

Bondi beech .
No doubt israel will be mass bombing Sidney anytime now,  darea directive. What they did to Palistien becouse of the actions of a few.

Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 14 2025 18:04 utc | 277

‘Ambassador from hell’
———————————–
‘US ambassador to Solomon Islands Erin McKee” issuing “a provocative statement on December 10 insinuating that the government was corrupt and urging people to ‘choose’ the US over China”, while backing opposition claims of Chinese bribery.’
 
‘German ambassador: Bombing of Yugoslavia was necessary to prevent genocide
Even today, 20 years later, I believe that it was a difficult but correct decision that came only when all diplomatic means were exhausted – said Thomas Schieb’
—————
‘U.S. Ambassador Huntsman Accused of Instigating Anti-Gov’t Protesters in China’
———————
 
‘It was therefore not at all surprising to read the text of a purloined memo from U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Stephen Young – originally posted on the official news site of the Kyrgyzstan government – that outlines in detail the American plan to oust Akayev’
————————-
 
‘It should also be noted that the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitz had been very active since the terrorist attack and overzealously initiated actions that Sri Lanka does not want, such as the presence of FBI and their assistance in the investigations into the terrorist attacks by the Security Forces of Sri Lanka.’
————————
 
‘Clinton was not speaking simply in a personal capacity. On the same night that she appeared in Melbourne, the Obama administration’s last ambassador to Australia, John Berry, told an audience of Australian military chiefs and diplomats at the Australian Naval Institute in Canberra that China was becoming more aggressive and authoritarian’
—————————
 
‘Then, in an extraordinary media interview, US ambassador Scott Brown rebuked Bill English, then prime minister, for failing to endorse President Donald Trump’s threats to annihilate North Korea. Post-election, Ardern quickly fell into line. Following high-level talks with the US, she declared that New Zealand was prepared to intervene militarily against North Korea.’
——————————-
 
‘Operation Yellow Bird—is the name for clandestine rescue from China of most important pro-democracy leaders. For 6 months after the June crackdown, CIA’s most valued agents in China, Hong Kong, and Macao provided A safe haven and means of escape. Wuer kaixi and Li Lu disappeared, later Other leading dissidents wan Runnan and Yan Jaiqi, made it to west. During Last week in may, U.S. Ambassador Lilley handed out more than 200 visas to Intellectuals, scientists, and students and on several occasions lent money To escapees. In absence of credible CIA leadership in China, Lilley was Once again CIA’s Beijing COS. ‘
———————–
 
‘Australia is far from a passive player in US-led conflicts, and the pending appointment of the hawkish Harris as ambassador to Australia should be a horrifying sign of things to come.’
——————————
 
‘While he was threatening People’s Korea, Iran and Venezuela in his United Nations speech, U.S. President Donald Trump also demanded that the U.N. Security Council take “strong and swift action” to end violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya population.
———————–
 
U.S. government officials, including U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence, have called for immediate action and delivery of humanitarian aid to the Rohingya.’
———————–
‘The United States supports Turkey’s struggle against separatist Kurdish rebels and is ready to “urgently” consider any new request for help from Ankara, the US ambassador to Turkey said Monday.
 
“We stand ready to review urgently any new requests from the Turkish military or government regarding the PKK,” Ambassador James Jeffrey said in a written statement.’
—————————-
 
‘COLOR REVOLUTIONS AND GEOPOLITICS: Michael McFaul, the New US Ambassador to Russia: Color Revolutions Expert’
 
‘George Bush sent to Bolivia his Ambassador of Ethnic Cleansing [original title translated from the Spanish]
 
He presented his credentials before President Evo Morales on October 13, 2006; but three months before his arrival in Bolivia, when he was still in Pristina fulfilling his role as head of the US mission in Kosovo, it was already being said that the new US ambassador designated by George Bush for this Andean country, Philip Goldberg, would come to take part in the separatist process that was being cultivated in the background to pierce the Bolivian regime.’
————————
 
‘Who is Ambassador Robert Stephen Ford? The Architect of US Sponsored Terrorism in Syria’
———————–
 
‘The U.S. ambassador to China on Saturday urged Beijing to improve its human rights record, pointing to imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo as an example where China falls short.
In a statement released on the U.N.’s International Human Rights Day, envoy Gary Locke said protection of human rights in China had not kept up with the country’s massive economic gains.’
——————————-
 
‘Monday, 24 April 2006
OrtegaOn Monday, April 17 the US Ambassador in Nicaragua met with right wing parties in the country to discuss their opposition strategy against Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in the November 5 presidential elections. Support for Ortega is growing, and many expect him to win the race. The US has called on Nicaraguans to not vote for Ortega.
Reuters reported that U.S. envoy Paul Trivelli is lobbying right-wing parties to join forces and pick a single candidate to represent them in the election, to reduce the chances of a Sandinista victory. He said his intention was “to see if we can push the democratic unification of this country a little more.”
—————–
 
‘U.S. Ambassador Huntsman Accused of Instigating Anti-Gov’t Protesters in China’
——————
 
‘U.S. Ambassador to India David Mulford was meeting with the Dalai Lama’
——————–
 
‘obert S. Ford, current US ambassador in Syria (even though based in Turkey), has just been designated by Barack Obama to represent him in Egypt, thereby replacing Ann Peterson, who will in turn become under-secretary of State for the Near-East.
 
Former assistant to ambassador John Negroponte in Baghdad, Robert S. Ford organized the first anti-Assad demonstrations in Syria, in 2011. He tried, often successfully, to mobilize the other Western ambassadors to get them to support the ’’revolutionaries’’. When it proved impossible for NATO to bombard Syria, because of Russia’s and China’s veto, Robert S. Ford set up the ’’Nicaraguan Solution’’ with General David Petraeus : hundreds of thousands of combatants, coming from all places, attempted to overthrow the regime.’
 
‘Syria is also currently being accused of laying mines along the Lebanese border to prevent insurgents crossing it. Perhaps it is, who knows? If so, a way to discourage might be to put out a hand of friendship. If threatened sufficiently, most might resort to protective measures.
It is surely coincidence that the unrest and the focus on Syria began shortly after the arrival of the first US Ambassador to the country since 2005.
Ambassador Robert Ford, arrived in Damascus on January 16 this year. By January 31, there was a call for a “Day of Rage” on February 4. As Michel Chossudovsy has pointed out the Ambassador has an interesting CV — diplomacy possibly not being one of his towering strengths. He is currently temporarily withdrawn, having been pelted with tomatoes.
———————–
 
‘In December also, a top Chinese official charged U.S. Consul General Stephen Young in Hong Kong with trying to spread disorder. “Wherever (Young) goes, there is trouble and so-called color revolutions,” said the pro-Communist Party Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po.’
—————————–
 
‘Destabilizing Russia_ The `Democracy’ Agenda of Michael McFaul and His Oxford Masters ‘
 
‘encouraged to kill Park Chung Hee by a former US ambassador. Kim was executed before he could make public his knowledge, kcia, assassination.’
———————-
‘M of A – An Eyewitness Tells How The U.S. Ambassador Instigated ‘Revolution’ In Syria’
 
———————–
‘New Zealand Ardern’s coalition government was installed
public intervention by the US ambassador Scott Brown’
—————————–
 
‘U_S_ Ambassador Jon Huntsman caught on video at “Jasmine Revolution” rally at Wangfujing ‘
——————
 
‘It should also be noted that the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitz had been very active since the terrorist attack and overzealously initiated actions that Sri Lanka does not want, such as the presence of FBI and their assistance in the investigations into the terrorist attacks by the Security Forces of Sri Lanka.’
 
‘zombies acting under the instructions of the Indian ambassador’
————————–
 
‘German ambassador, Bombing of Yugoslavia was necessary to prevent genocide’
———————-
 
/us-agent-defeated-in-solomon-islands-comes-to-ottawa-assists-china-hysteria

Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 18:06 utc | 279

Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 18:09 utc | 281
“Just the other day Chinese spokesman said he had no info about Starmer’s visit !”
 
Well that’s a good sign. It would be hilarious if they just forgot about him. Maybe they won’t even bother with the cleaner. After all, he has better things to do (unless he has a Starmer-sized rubbish bin?)

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Dec 14 2025 18:16 utc | 281

Just the other day Chinese spokesman said he had no info about Starmer’s visit !
 
Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 18:09 utc | 281
 
####
 
If a tree falls in the forest…

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 18:20 utc | 283

This is a threat. What if these ideas started catching on in the West!?!?
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 14 2025 18:19 utc | 283
—————
 
‘The threat of good examples’
 
To be terminated all all cost !

Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 18:34 utc | 285

Old timers can skip
 
coup d’état
Venezuela vs Nepal
https://mronline.org/2002/09/21/comparisons-between-recent-u-s-backed-coups/

Posted by: denk | Dec 14 2025 19:00 utc | 287

@234 juliania Thx for the engagement. I always look forward to your writings on theological thinking.
 
 
 Yes, there is an infinite qualitative difference between Jesus and us. He is God, we are not. My “heresy” is to follow a different line of thinking than a “traditional” understanding of an eternal hell, which is actually not traditional at all. ….   
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 5:22 utc | 233

I too look forward to your posts, NemesisCalling.  And I need to clarify mine.  You will notice, I hope, that I never called you a heretic.  But I myself wasn’t as clear in what I wrote concerning the Apostles’ Creed and the distinction between it and the Nicene. 
 
I am not a great theologian but my little church in Santa Fe is my grounding in Orthodoxy as our priest had himself been born in Constantinople before its name was changed.  He was very proud of that fact.  He also was, as a young man, at Dresden during the Allied bombing there, in a German concentration camp.  He made his way to the Orthodox Cathedral, which was in the heart of the conflagration but itself escaped unscathed; although as he described, after finding refuge in the cathedral basement, coming up into the church everything had been stripped from walls and tables by the wind of the fire.  So, yes, he experienced hell,  hell on earth.    I often try to imagine his path through the bombing  along the torn streets, through the carnage and maelstrom;  I cannot.
 
He was Russian to the core, but he’d never set foot in Russia,  having been born as his parents were forced into emigration, as I said, in Constantinople.  They eventually joined the emigre community in Paris where his father was choir director in a newly formed church adjacent to the Sorbonne.  I believe it is still there.
 
But back to the Apostles’  Creed.  My thoughts (mine only) this morning were that the difference between it and the Nicene Creed are that while the Apostles’ one was adopted by apostles of the nacent church, those were at the time few in number, twelve to be exact.  I do not say that was a dyedinthewool distinction of ‘once twelve always twelve.’ But it’s my feeling that this creed can be held  to only by our more  dedicated personages rather than by congregations since John Chrysostom and St. Basil wrote their liturgies, which are composed of and for the rest of us.
 
So, in effect, both you and your father-in-law are to be honored for your convictions.  And I have no argument with yours. 
 
I hope that clarifies my previous post; it did for me when I was thinking about it.  (I’ll just add that after all perceived differences, Orthodoxy recognizes Mary Magdalene as ‘Equal to the Apostles’ in a wonderful icon I have myself painted.  There she is telling the disciples “I have seen the Lord” because it was to her that the Risen Christ first revealed himself. ) 
 
And of course,  the apostles didn’t believe her; they had to go see for themselves.  That’s menfolk for you.
 
😉

Posted by: juliania | Dec 14 2025 23:49 utc | 289

NemesisCalling | Dec 14 2025 5:22 utc | 233
 
here is an interesting article on Gregory of Nyssa… maybe you’ve seen it..

Posted by: james | Dec 15 2025 1:41 utc | 291

I wonder if the quote I just reproduced would be better translated as:   And the bold request which goes up the mountains of desire asks this:  not that the Beauty be emptied in mirrors or reflections,  but that it  be seen face to face.
 
This is the wish of the Psalm writers as well.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 15 2025 7:56 utc | 293

@ juliania | Dec 15 2025 7:37 utc | 294 / 295
 
thanks juliania… i am not familiar with him and it was nemesis calling that drew my attention to him… i like your translation @ 296 as opposed to the qoute @ 295… there is something quite beautiful in what you’ve shared here – “My recollection of that work is that Gregory considers evil not to have real existence, so if one concentrates on goodness  evil loses even the lesser insubstantiality of its being.” 
 
that is a beautiful thought! one wishes it to be true! 

Posted by: james | Dec 15 2025 16:30 utc | 295

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-Real-Reason-Behind-US-Resuming-Iraqi-Kurdistan-Oil-Imports.html

Posted by: Orson Cart | Dec 16 2025 4:11 utc | 297

Oil Stuff
 
The Iranian leaning factions in Baghdad are under the cosh, it’s not just the geopolitical reality surrounding Kurdish oil exports that has shifted dramatically.
 
“The American side will be the foundation of the work in designating the Prime Minister this time, not the Iranian side, which, according to experts, was the case previously. The message from Washington is unambiguous: the next Prime Minister must be a partner in sovereignty, not a proxy for militias.”
 
Kurdistan24 – “Coordination Framework Scrambles for “Acceptable” Candidate as U.S. Sanctions Threat Loom Over Baghdad.
 
Facing threats of severe US sanctions, including oil revenue freezes, Iraq’s Coordination Framework seeks a PM candidate “acceptable” to Washington.”
 
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The protracted and politically sensitive search for Iraq’s next Prime Minister has entered a critical new phase, with the ruling Coordination Framework facing unprecedented pressure from Washington to select a leader capable of stabilizing relations with the West or risk crippling economic consequences.
 
According to sources within the Shiite alliance, the coalition’s options have narrowed significantly under the weight of strict American conditions, forcing a recalibration away from candidates with deep ties to Iran-aligned militias toward figures deemed “acceptable” on both the domestic and international stage. This shift comes as fears mount that the United States is preparing a severe sanctions package that could target Iraq’s financial lifelines, including its oil revenue accounts.
 
The urgency within the Coordination Framework reflects a recognition that the geopolitical landscape has shifted dramatically.
Courtesy of Habshan

Posted by: Orson Cart | Dec 16 2025 4:23 utc | 299