“THE AMERICANS, in common with all serious and thoughtful nations, have a vindictive temperament. They hardly ever forget an offense, but it is not easy to offend them, and their resentment is as slow to kindle as to abate.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
There is a question lurking in this quote from Alexis de Tocqueville. Is America a serious and thoughtful nation? There are, most certainly, serious and thoughtful people in America. But, as a nation, are Americans serious and thoughtful?
A nation is an aggregate, varied and complex. Dare we generalize? In fact, de Tocqueville’s celebrated work contains many generalizations. What would he say now, viewing America today? In the 1830s de Tocqueville described Americans as talking the language of the town, “aware of the past, curious about the future, and ready to argue about the present; [the American] is a very civilized man prepared for a time to face life in the forest, plunging into the wildernesses of the New World with his Bible, ax, and newspapers.”
What do we observe now? In the 1930s, a hundred years after de Tocqueville, H.L. Mencken took a rather dim view of American democracy, calling it a boobocracy (i.e., government by fools). Mencken wrote:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” [On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe]
As a humorist, Mencken was poking fun; but he was nonetheless serious in suggesting that nations might be judged by their elected leaders. Was there a decline in the quality of American presidents between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? In de Tocqueville’s day we see two characteristic presidents: (1) John Quincy Adams and (2) Andrew Jackson. The first was a brilliant statesman and the other a tough-minded military man. In H.L. Mencken’s day we see (1) Calvin Coolidge and (2) Franklin Roosevelt as representative types. When Coolidge died Dorothy Parker’s witty remark was, “How can they tell?” As for Franklin Roosevelt, his death occasioned Stalin to send the Soviet ambassador to view Roosevelt’s corpse (as Stalin was worried that Roosevelt had been assassinated to foil Soviet policy).
And now, more than two decades into the twenty-first century, we find (1) Joseph Biden and (2) Donald Trump representing the presidency. The first was decrepit and senile throughout his term of office, while the second is a reality TV caricature of a leader. The decline in quality is self-evident. Coolidge was not falling down and wandering off in the wrong direction, like Biden; and Roosevelt did not, like Trump, think of cutting America’s military budget when war was raging in Europe. Some have tried to compare Andrew Jackson to Trump. The comparison falls flat, however, when we realize that Jackson was a victorious general who fought battles in the field while Trump has ever been a showman whose instincts belong to the field of entertainment.
How do we explain these qualitative changes in leadership?
In 1985 Neil Postman published his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he said the age of the printed word was over. Postman claimed we had entered the “Age of Show Business” (an age when television celebrities like Ronald Reagan could be elected president). “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television,” noted Postman. “No matter what is depicted or from what the point of view, the overarching presumption is … our amusement and pleasure.” Roughly half the waking life of the average American is about amusement, with American adults spending more than twenty hours per week watching television programming. “A news show, to put it plainly,” added Postman, “is a format for entertainment, not for education, reflection or catharsis.”
This means Americans have indeed been amusing themselves to death. As everything has continued in this direction over the last forty years, the situation gets worse and worse. People read less than ever, losing the desire to think seriously. With television everything becomes more corrosively journalistic. The immediate moment is emphasized at the expense of context. History disappears behind contemporaneity. And now we have decision-makers with no sense of time or place. What kind of wisdom, then, could our leaders possess, if they have no real knowledge of history and no context for their decisions? Blunder after blunder must follow. Millions could die.
Postman suggests that we no longer know what wise leaders sound like. Television has conditioned us to something different. According to Postman, “the perception of the truth of a report rests heavily on the acceptability of the newscaster.” Television, therefore, “provides a new … definition of truth: The credibility of the teller is the ultimate test of the truth of a proposition. ‘Credibility’ here does not refer to the past record of the teller for making statements that have survived the rigors of reality-testing. It refers only to the impression of sincerity, authenticity, vulnerability or attractiveness … by the actor/reporter.”
Of course, there are people in America who read books. These are called “intellectuals.” Perhaps we should credit them as the leaders of society. Perhaps, despite everything, the intelligentsia is still leading us to the promised land.
In 2009 Thomas Sowell published a book titled Intellectuals and Society. Therein he said that the American intelligentsia offer many conclusions without any real arguments. In other words, they are not much better than the television-addicted majority. When closely examined, public intellectuals repeat their conclusions endlessly (on open borders, racism, and gender). How they arrive at their opinions is never fully explained. “Intellectuals do not simply have a series of isolated opinions on a variety of subjects,” wrote Sowell. “Behind those opinions is usually some coherent over-arching conception of the world, a social vision.” According to Sowell, all social visions start with “an intuition of some sort” which might be advanced as a theory for purposes of testing. But testing is never actually done. If social policy is a test, the ideas of America’s intellectuals have failed over and over.
Economist Joseph Schumpeter called the vision of intellectuals a “preanalytic cognitive act.” Most intellectuals in the United States belong to “the New Religion” (of socialism). Political philosopher Eric Voegelin has characterized this new religion as “Gnostic speculation.” According to Sowell, “At the heart of the social vision prevalent among contemporary intellectuals is the belief that there are ‘problems’ created by existing institutions and that ‘solutions’ to these problems can be excogitated by intellectuals.” Thus, Sowell concludes, America’s elite see themselves as an “anointed elite … with a mission to lead others in one way or another to better lives.”
Is this elite righteous, noble, and correct? Sowell points to Thucydides, an ancient Greek historian, who said humanity “escaped chaos and barbarism by preserving with difficult a thin layer of civilization” based on “moderation and prudence” flowing from experience. This is what Sowell calls the classic or “tragic vision” of the human condition. The wisest men have held to this vision while American intellectuals believe they can overcome humanity’s tragic circumstances. Here the tragedy of history takes on a comic element.
Sowell suggested that the American intelligentsia, with few exceptions, is made up of people who get no real advantage from their literacy. As a whole, the American intelligentsia is not thoughtful or serious (because they never took notice of historians like Thucydides). Therefore, whether we are looking to the anointed elite of our universities and the Democratic Party, or to the television-watching populists of the MAGA Republican Party, we do not find grounds to believe that America is a serious or thoughtful nation.
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169 responses to “A Serious and Thoughtful Nation?”
Ha, no we are not a serious and thoughtful nation as a whole and I have lost hope that people will wake up, read and think. As a matter of fact, I now tell my adult kids to go have fun and don’t worry about planning for the future, financially or otherwise. One of my sons has my 3 young grandchildren and I have told him to give the kids the best experiences they possibly can right now because I know that right now will be the best times of their lives. Between the wars and the solar cooling that’s coming it is time to be realistic.
I was listening to Lauren’s interview with Jeff Capella and he said that there is a 75% chance that Russia will collapse demographically in the next 5 years. So, who would get control of their WMDs when that happens. It was suggested the Muslim countries but could China sweep in and take over? He is pretty certain that we will see war between now and the next few years.
Very odd times
Jeff, have you been interviewed alongside Jonathan Fink before, or is this the first time? And did he ever invite you to speak on his show? If not, I’m still hoping he might sometime.
Yes, I agree with CMA, the US is neither serious nor thoughtful anymore, with rare exceptions. Most people are so addicted to their phones that books have largely been forgotten (and if books are consumed, they’re often light fiction— nothing of any substance). Of course, Postman’s book predates widespread use of smartphones by a quarter of a century. Sadly, the present day almost makes 1985 look like the golden age of “education, reflection [and] catharsis”! And that’s saying something!
I am probably going to be on Jonathan’s show at some point. Not sure when. And yes, smartphones are another iteration of the problem Postman was addressing.
Smart phones change your brain chemistry. They’re inherently addictive and can lead to ADHD symptoms. Reading an ebook is not the same as reading a physical copy of the book. If I could go back in time, I would not have purchased a smart phone. It is a continual source of frustration for me. However, now I rely on its convenience too much. I try to lock it away on a daily basis so I can get some real work (and real reading) done each day.
I’m not sure if you are acquainted with a fiery person, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was involved in certain matters of the Jewish community in the US, and later emigrated and became a politician in Israel. Once he said that the issue with Americans is that they are decent people, but they tend to think everyone else is just like them, and that everything can be settled in a nice talk with tea and some cake. He would say regarding the issues Israel has with Arab nations and populace, this is the Middle East, and not the Middle West, where if you’re weak, you are dead, where strength is valued above everything. This was also a weakness in the talking points of the Israeli left, that would create materialistic arguments that simply didn’t and will never solve the problem, ie. how improving the living conditions of Arabs in Israel would pacify them and they would all accept the current situation fine and dandy, how Arabs in Israel go to universities and are more well educated and have it better than in nay Arab nation, but many of them do fully believe the land is theirs and no matter how well they do living in Israel, they would prefer to rule over it.
He would tell a tale of British colonialists in India, who faced some Indian Nationalists who would endlessly harass the Brits, who then asked: why are you so hostile to us? Before we came here it was a jungle, and now we have turned it into a civilization. Their answer was: yes but previously it was OUR jungle, and now it is YOUR civilization. Man shall not live by bread alone. Perhaps the root driving point of the Arab nations to antagonize Israel, Islam, is analogous to how Communists’ pursuit of power in their political religion where the State will solve every problem that exists.
The way Trump and a lot of Americans of the bourgeoise persuasion see the enemies of America in the Kremlin and Beijing is the exact same, thinking they can pacified via good business deals, and there was this theory that liberalization of the Chinese regime would eventually lead to political freedom, and here we are today with China having quite the capacity to manufacture goods and not even close to being a free country.
Trump and his fixation with getting a deal to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine goes with this businessman naivety as well, I don’t know exactly what are his motivations, how compromised he is by the KGB, if he just wants a Nobel Peace Prize and the honor of being labeled the man who prevented WWIII, or his name in a building in Moscow to have his own Trump Tower over there, all of the above or something else. But someone should get through his thick skull that even if he gave Putin trillions of dollars, the money would just be invested in more ways to finish Ukraine off. He just went from calling the recent Russian attack on Kiev civilian targets with missiles “bad timing” on his social network which came off as something a psychopath would say, and later he voiced on the same Truth Social that he’s not satisfied with Russia behavior, that perhaps they don’t want peace, hey he only needed 11 years to figure this out.
Yes, I do remember Rabbi Meir Kahane. He was assassinated many years ago. Violence does tend to beget violence, and we must keep that in mind as well. Most nations are born in blood. They also die in blood.
This little poem by Shelley has always stuck with me, and the last line often runs through my mind. It came back to me again, upon reading this essay.
“Rough wind, that moanest loud
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm whose tears are vain
Bare wood, whose branches strain;
Deep caves and dreary main-
Wail, for the world’s wrong!”
I have hope in Christ, but I mourn what has become of America.
I KNOW IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MATTER, BUT MR. NYQUIST I SENT YOU AN EMAIL WITH SOME QUESTIONS. WHEN YOU CAN, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO ANSWER ME. MY NAME IS MATHEUS RIBERIO.
Dear Matheus Ribeiro: I saw your email in my box and I should answer here, in this forum, so other readers can benefit. I understand from your letter that you are from Brazil, and a student of Olavo de Carvalho, who I considered to be a friend. You wanted a list of books to better understand several topics.
You Requested from me a list of books on Contemporary International Politics. That is not a category I have any use for, as most contemporary information reaches us through journalism, which generally lacks context; neither did I set out to read books about “geopolitics and historical developments.” I do not know what geopolitics signifies, though I know what they allege, since I have long regarded “geopolitics” as a nonsense term along with “historical development.” Whatever could this mean? Truth is eternal. It does not develop. Progress, evolution, etc., are illusions and misunderstandings (as well as appearing to be real on a superficial level).
As for books about the role of intelligence services and their influence on global politic dynamics, I also do not know of books specifically about this. And I am not sure what “global political dynamics” are. Read biographies and memoirs. Read the works of real spymasters and sift for clues.
You ask if I knew professor Olavo de Carvalho. Yes, he was a friend. I admire him very much, and he was much more knowledgeable about philosophy and especially about Aristotle than I am. About culture and politics it is often said that politics is downstream from culture, but in totalitarian societies culture is downstream from politics — even as cultural figures are executed or sent to labor camps.
In terms of culture, I think of Professor Jacob Burckhardt’s posthumous lecture notes, where he said civilization consists of three things: the State, the Culture, and the Church. He thought civilization needed a balance of all three. The State protects society, the culture enriches society in terms of art and science and commerce, while the church spiritualizes society. If you make one of these things all important, or a determinant of the others, it is like saying the heart or liver are better than the kidneys or the lungs. You need all your organs for a properly functioning body. More on this I do not care to say.
Regarding high culture, of course, you need educated people; but, for the most part, real education is what a person gifts himself by studying on his own once his formal education is done. I am not a fan of universities or educational bureaucracies. The best and most interesting philosophers and historians were amateurs. They were lovers of what they did. Professionals have proven to be rather dismal, I think, with important exceptions where great scholarship and accuracy come into play.
My recommended reading list for young people would be as follows: Begin by reading Herodotus, then Thucydides, then Xenophon, and then the Socratic dialogues, then Cicero and the other ancient historians — Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch’s Lives, Flavius Josephus, etc. Many histories have been superseded in terms of their accuracy and scholarship, yet I remain very fond of Cyril Robinson’s History of Greece and his History of Rome. Guglielmo Ferraro is fun, even though I am skeptical about some of his interpretations. Also, I cannot help saying that Christian Meier’s biography of Julius Caesar is masterful and wonderful all at once. There is nothing written by a modern scholar on the ancient world to compare with it.
I need to underscore this: A thorough grounding in ancient history is very important for an understanding of everything that follows. The ancient world was not ideological in the same sense we are today. And that is what a modern reader needs to be exposed to. In other words, fresh air. In terms of philosophers, of course, you want to read Plato and Aristotle. You want to read Cicero. When you get to modernity everything becomes very treacherous, because we are contaminated by the perspectivism of very distorted ideas and peculiar prejudices that often prevent us from seeing the truth about humanity. Spending years of your young life reading ancient history will give you context you need to see the errors of modernity. Those are the errors we must correct!
Without a solid grounding in history, you will not know how to judge modern social science and its many schools of thought. You will not know how to dissect and judge the many claims made by sociologists, political scientists, and economists.
Important general books on economics and political science that deserve attention. I would highly recommend Joseph Schumpeter’s “Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy,” as possessing some interesting concepts you will need. I recommend everything by Thomas Sowell. I think Eric Voegelin and Max Weber are both important, though difficult. The Austrian School is important but you have to be careful and first understand the methodology they use (reasoning in ideal types), which is the same as Max Weber used. Vilfredo Pareto is important, as are Jacob Burkhardt and Charles Graham Sumner, Henry Adams, Gustave le Bon, Thomas Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle (for historians of great literary value). Among others, Alexis de Tocqueville is not to be missed. I cannot remember all these wonderful books, but I am fond of Thomas Molnar, Neil Postman, Jean Bodin, Baltasar Gracian, Michel Montaigne, George Orwell, Richard M. Weaver, Josef Pieper, Aleksandr Solzenitsyn, Soren Kierkegaard, etc. You can benefit from reading all these authors and, for specific knowledge of World War II, which is the most important historical episode of recent times out of which everything was born, avoid reading official Soviet or Russian histories since they are almost entirely made out of distortions and lies. Read the memoirs of the surviving German spymasters, Walter Schellenberg and Reinhard Gehlen, and every biography you can find of Admiral Canaris. That will help ground you in many things about the war that are misunderstood. You need to read the memoirs of and notes of Guderian, Manstein, Rommel, etc., keeping in mind their game of coloring history. General John Fuller is the best military historian of the twentieth century. His book on the American Civil War General, U.S. Grant, is very important. As a humorous sidenote, is not true that the victors always write history. The American Civil War is a good example. Thucydides is a good example as well (he was Athenian general who was blamed for losing an important battle, and Athens also lost that series of wars). In terms of understanding the espionage history of the Cold War, you have to read Edward Jay Epstein’s book “Deception” and all the KGB and GRU defectors over and over.
Oh yes! It’s a lot of reading, on top of reading great novelists like Dostoyevski and Joseph Conrad, Jane Austen and don’t forget Shakespeare’s plays. Just read good books, and don’t stop reading.
In your postscript you said that I seem “to like Nietzsche, unlike Olavo, who had several reservations about this philosopher.” Please understand that I have reservations about Nietzsche and all other philosophers. By inclination I favor Socrates, who did not write any books and supposedly did not claim to know anything. Socrates was famous for asking questions and pointing out problems. Most of what we know about Socrates comes from Plato and Xenophon. Why mention Socrates when answering a question about my opinion of Nietzsche. Well, it’s very simple. Nietzsche did not like Socrates, saying that Socrates was “ugly.” But I would say that Nietzsche was ugly (or deformed) in a more fundamental sense. His importance lies in the Socratic nature of what he did. Perhaps I am alone in saying that Nietzsche is my favorite modern philosopher for the same reason that Socrates was my favorite ancient philosopher. It is not that Nietzsche was right about anything. It was the questions he asked, and the things that troubled him. There are issues that mankind must grapple with if we want to be honest. Nietzsche asked some very important questions about rank order, power, culture, negativity, and self-deception. Whatever we want to say against the ugly Socrates and the inwardly ugly Nietzsche, both of these men were willing to ask forbidden questions. And there should be no forbidden questions. Whenever we encounter a forbidden question we are seeing the tattered end of something dishonest.
Honesty is very rare.
As anthropologists have noted, journalists are incapable of the depth of understanding of what they talk about. Taking a class on China in college never made them expert on China, and, yet, they are the ones who advise governments on the shape of our museums as well as our policy in disproportionate manner. Many of them come actually from the military or CIA intel community in the back rooms as sleuths and doing briefs and have similarly shallow knowledge.
I was surprised recently on youtube of hearing an african school teacher ranting at African people who did not understand China and Putin and how they both resist western slavery with their knowledge of that history and what to do about it, avoiding past mistakes etc.
Basically everything that is being said here happens to be completely understood and shared by Africans but completely avoided in the US. All this talk of China and Russia being divided is hogwash. They have both fundamental Marxist aspirations as that African school teacher understands it clearly. To hear intel types and journalists repeating tropes after tropes, while others see clearly elsewhere, makes me believe it is not by accident. Penetrated fake opposition can take many forms of deliberate and not so deliberate but naïveté and utopia based disinformation creating.
I am astounded in fact by the discipline of Marxists in higher academia who keep repeating and admitting/conceding that communism and the Soviet models are failures, while subtly having a fundamental Marxist discourse basically supporting the blunt analysis of this african teacher, but in such intellectualized nuanced manner, it is not as blunt but more cryptic and coded. It tells me they either are actively deceptive, or, worse, unconsciously and thus more effectively so. It truly is diabolical to listen to anthropologists, 98% of them Marxists and 2% of them who were but had a spiritual moment making them avoid it subtly like the plague later in their lives, all promoting the virtues of “savages” (like bigots implicitly actually) and yet still promote the kind of narcissistic modern feminism that sees no wrong in women incarnating the zeitgeist thus and putting themselves out there for attention, exhibitionist, on social media, in order to block the common man’s view of the sun that would allow him to be that “good savage” in touch with nature, wisdom and reality.
We are full of distorted notions about reality. It takes time to shake off the resulting misapprehensions. History helps us in this.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this list!! My son is just finishing his first year of high school and has already completed a few of these. We home educate and are following a wonderful curriculum called the “Latin-Centered Curriculum.” Many of the books you listed are recommended by the author, but some are not. I am saving this list for future reference.
Jeff, did you read many of these in high school or college, or just on your own once you were an adult? I have wanted to ask you about your education and study methods for a long time, as it’s rare to come across someone who is so widely read. Do you try to spend a certain amount of time reading (books) each day?
When I graduated from college I realized that I knew nothing. So I started reading books that matter. I spent my twenties reading.
Interesting that Jacob Burckhardt’s understanding of Culture, State and Church have a perfect parallel with the Hindu varna system: Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya.
And justice be done, Olavo never had any “reservation” about Nietzsche. He only said frequently that the man was mad. Anyone with doubts about this can ask that horse from Turin. But he also said that he was an important philosopher. This can seem contradictory, but only if you ignore Olavo’s definition of philosophy, which is “search for unity of knowledge in the unity of consciousness, and vice-versa”, the most important word in the sentence being “search”. In this search we can end up learning from the most unexpected sources. That is why, in the same way you just did, he always and insistently urged us his students to read the great Western fictional and historical literature as much as possible, so Truth would appear by its own behind his words throughout the course.
Yes.
https://thecontemplativeobserver.wordpress.com/literature-on-communism/
And AOC already waiting in the wings …
I dont know why Maga feels satisfied the crazies like David Hogg and AOC rising up as fringes is a good thing, as if people will never vote for them as a result. They have no idea that this is a radical Marxist coup on a “voting capital” populating the diffuse ideology symbols of the left/democrafs and so called “independents” who are extremely liberal, actually. That body that voted Biden, Clinton or Obama is more granted as is for the twii g by whomever as a compromised plantation or kibutz of sort than they think.
Jonathan Fink was talking about different words in Russian and Ukrainian, equivalents of a word crime. He couldn’t remember Ukrainian word. So I’m stepping in.
Russian word is преступление prestupleniye, meaning overstepping a mark which somebody had drawn for you (could be God, could be government).
Ukrainian word is злочин zlochyn, meaning doing evil (zlo – evil, chyn – action). Which implies more of a reliance on your internal morality, rather than imposed by authorities, and understanding of right and wrong, good and evil in a somewhat religious sense.
Thank you, Valentina. I am reminded of David Riesman’s book, “The Lonely Crowd,” where he wrote about inner directed people and outer directed people. On reading that book I realized that the better citizen is always the inner-directed citizen. This is an interesting distinction between Ukrainians and Russians.
I watched todays Friends and Enemies where this subject was touched upon. I can confirm from my own experience, that growing up in a communist society I felt like a narcissist. I depended on my image, I had to do everything properly, I was depressed. But after I failed and my self-image was ruined, I emerged like a normal, alive and happy person. I knew that it helped, that when I was a child, my dad respected my feelings. This soul destructing process doesn’t happen only with communism. It can happen in religious environment as well, if focus is on outward compliance, or threats of hell. Or in some high societies with lots of demands on propriety. Or in families, where the feelings of children are ignored.
By the way, Maidan of 2013-2014 started after students, who were protesting against Yanukovich choosing pro russian course for Ukraine, were brutally beaten. The next day about a million of people came out. Because nobody has a right to beat our children. It was a real emotion of indignation and readiness to defend this right cause and other just causes till the end.
This is a nice 3 minute video and a song, that really show the atmosphere of those days
Thank you for these thoughts. There is something profound here.
Principles of Thou shall not kill type have indeed been adopted in isolated islands having zero contact with the Old Testament. In fact a lot of the Old Testament can be explained or understood in an experience way, ie without the theoretical catechism or exegesis, by observing how various tribes developed their various identity based taboos.
It still is incredible how, in Oxford experiment like, one can pick a “NPC” from the street and make it do wicked things with little questioning if that NPC is told it is good to do so.
The problem is when being confronted by these confused people, the potential of gaslighting ourselves. Because, everything being taboo does not mean 100% expressly forbidden. There always are tradeoffs and reasons to choose to do something like this vs like that. For instance, is the corruption real in DC or is Elon Musk exaggerating and not damaging competent bureaucrats and programs?
While this question might be legitimate, discussing it with a liberal or a Russian hypocrite NPC type with dirty hands, can only lead to dangerous self-gaslight because the NPC wants to believe his version, and any acknowledgment of the smallest bit of truth in their fantasy gives them the huge encouragement they need to act out their mental illness by imitating or copying the politically correct way of abreacting their craziness.
It so happens that thus, when a schizophrenic shoots at a neighbor’s house because he believes the neighbors are speaking with the aliens in his head through their TV dish, the same schizophrenic when confronted by a jewish psychiatrist can unconsciously sense it and start spewing antisemitic conspiracy tropes, copying right out of the media content out there since they have no imagination and their brain is shrunk, These people thus have categories of mental illness simply because normal people have all different unique personalities not fitting any category and building themselves their own personality as they go,
And so, the minute you deal with a NPC, depending how you fit in the zeitgeist or he sees unconsciously what you represent in it, they will fit you to it and find a sort of delirium or persecution associated with it. It becomes then even more absurd or even dangerous to discuss with such types because it will feed and validate their own psychosis.
Tragic vision being the raw and crude sociological reality. The obsession on the self and psychology (and fascination with its manipulative artefacts we embrace as an elixir of pleasure/amusement ie virtue in self deception ability) opposed to feelings of boredom at facing reality and brute sociology should indicate we are not a serious but a utopian nation indeed, or that the tragic has been completely suppressed in order not to spoil the bank account revenues of entertainers. Trump indeed acts more as a jealous movie tycoon of his narcissistic empire shading the sun from us as Diogenes had quipped at Alexander.
Mao said that the people think. What is people? People is barbarians, ie naked human without deep culture and only shallow surfing of the world like on the internet bits. There is thinking there but it truly is limited, much like Goebel’s Thinking German, a bit like the welfare recipient: too stupid to figure to improve his or her life with the time welfare provides it to do so, instead using the money to gamble, but smart enough to vote for its interests in welfare.
Such is the level of ideological political thinking, this sort of smallest common denominator mindset that even the most educated Marxist fall down to in a matter of fraction of seconds the moment they switch on TV, feels a bit hungry or misses his girlfriend like a dog. Then it is all “people thinking” ideology, what politician butters my welfare money paying for my studies, out goes the topic of the studies, self hating their own work, like mediocre individuals incapable of controlling themselves and their weaknesses, unrepenting, hating god like a schizophrenic manchild.
This is why they hate the like of Thomas Sowel who stood head above their shoulders.
So, what happened? In Tocqueville’s time, Americans were Americans, not barbarians like today glued to their phones, but hardy folkes who could figure out a manufacturing process in the farm, build tools, count their blessings and live in that relative intelligence that a modicum of social orientation requires to work well and motivated together. Alternatively American was made of genuine Mohave or Hoppi Indians who actually thought Mohave or Hoppi and not Berney Sanders or other representative corrupting their culture into barbarity with exclusive Indian Casino regulation or grift corruption based Indian status.
Nowadays, instead, in our materialism, we praise the pure technical schizophrenic machine, with a minimum of thinking required to produce purely to produce. Capitalists there completely walked in lockstep where Marxist “bubble economy” thinking about production being central to everything wanted them to be, in self fulfilling prophecy, demoralized down to it.
As for the toxicity of TV and media, the perversity of it is its imposed slow and low level cadence. Eventually only a narcotic or the brain damaging narcotic feel good effect of the TV’s buzz rhythm can keep one watching it. Once a brain develops and can study more, it cannot stand that lowest common denominator cadence. It basically should be distressing to any American of the 1800s to be forced to waste time that way, and, yet, it does not prevent present day progressists of all colors to somehow compare today’s situation compared to back then as a means to justify feeling smarter than folks back then. The argument is in fact specious materialist judgmental, and, if not, biggoted. Of course the Neanderthals had it rough, but they were much more ingenious in any situations than we were, had much more sense, and they would have no problem succeeding today advancing society as they did their own, while our localist schizophrenic “amusement park” mindset that would blacklist them from a Disney or Carnival cruise in the Caribbeans lead by Trump real estate would be incapable of doing so.
In effect, they made a mockery of democracy when the illegals coming to vote here have their interests back where they come from and not here at heart, when a local vote is meant to serve the interests of the bureaucrat’s climate ideology boondoggle in DC instead of running efficiently the local sewage system or when a vote is meant to not spoil the political self image in Trump, Obama or Maga what not Obozo Seal bling, and not reality.
New lies are continuously offered as the old ones wear out.
I on my end read Neil Postman’s books, The Disappearance of Childhood (1982) and Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), around 1989/90. Nobody I knew at the time – not one soul – was willing to look into these books and think about what the author had to say. It seemed Neil Postman was mostly read among sociologists (and politely discussed by newspaper columnists) and hardly by anyone else.
Since then, of course, trends have continued in that same fatal direction. First, in the 1990s, everybody was eager to “get ahead” by any means necessary. Hollowness and incompetence became less and less of a problem as everyone else was bluffing too. Life turned ever more into a farce, in all fields, populated by people playing roles. A very cheap hedonism ruled supreme. Even the elderly, no matter how poor their educational background, were transforming themselves into “cosmopolitans” who were travelling the world, mostly in guided arrangements, as how are you going to travel the world on your own when you don’t even know English, to begin with? (Also, it all smacked of a strange revival of “Kraft durch Freude”, this time around provided not by the state, but by the “market”.) People were busy “enjoying” the latest improvements in consumer electronics (and certainly ever better cars), but nobody seemed to allow for some quiet and reflection.
Into the 2000s, ideology rose its ugly head once again. Also, people – at first, slowly – began sensing that their purchasing power would soon no longer be what it had used to be. Toughness and competitiveness, even ruthlessness, were now the order of the day. Want to keep your cherished standard of living? Fight! People started cannibalising each other without batting an eye – while the elderly, who had only recently celebrated their early retirement years as wealthy “globetrotters”, were now being forgotten in their nursing homes. The 1990s may have been appalling, but now things took a more frightening turn.
At the latest in 2020, when most countries’ governments (needlessly and most irresponsibly) threw our lives into standstill and paralysis because the comrade at the WHO had told them so, people for the first time looked straight into the abyss that was right in front of them. And yet it was decided that the party had to go on, nonetheless. The logic of “Let them shop until they drop” acquired ever greater (and ever more bizarre) actuality.
And so – with our wealth continuously diminishing, our countries, on both sides of the pond, being overrun by never-ending millions of people who don’t even seem to know what business they have being here, and conservatism being replaced by a National Bolshevism that’s ready to merge with “Russia” – it’s now literally the very last minute on the Doomsday Clock.
God help us!
This is the situation, exactly. You have hit the nail on the head. One is filled with sadness for what has been lost. And it happened with such ease and subtlety. People thought nothing was being surrendered. Back in 1990, when you tried to say something to people, they sneeringly cited all the good news. They could not see that they were embracing a victory they had not earned. They were themselves false and hollow. But why?
I just wrote several reminiscing e-mails to a friend in the U.K. and wrote him about my travels in the mid/late eighties, especially my grand journey to India and Australia only two years before the Iron Curtain came down. What a world it still was! People were trusting. Life was relaxed. The commies (sorry about the generalisation) were still kept behind their walls and we were still having our peace of mind (though not for much longer). I remember hitch-hiking across (Western) Europe all the way to the English Channel. It was amazing! Retired university professors, rich folks in their Lamborghinis, even elderly couples with their grandchildren in the backseats gave one a lift. Ireland was still lovely (and traditional). England still had some of her former pride left (I was in London during Prince Andrew’s wedding in July 1986). The French, in their notorious chauvinism, weren’t so easy-going when one didn’t know French (eventually, they opened up, but they still had their immense national pride). In India and Australia, it was all Westerners travelling around: Americans, Canadians, Brits, French, Germans, Swedes, Swiss, Italians also, many of them “guru shopping”. People formed friendships. Sometimes even a little love and romance kicked in. It was unbelievably peaceful, colourful and refreshing. I remember well meeting a fellow from Munich in 1988 on the bus ride from Delhi airport into the city. We immediately formed a team and asap escaped the murderous pre-monsoon heat by first taking a bus up to Srinagar, Kashmir, and then travelling (mostly hitch-hiking on military or commercial trucks) all the way to Leh, the capital of Ladakh. I was invited by an Australian family from the Gold Coast to live with them for a while (which was a marvellous time). Myself and a second fellow were spontaneously picked up by an accidental (Ozzie) driver at Port Moresby airport, Papua New Guinea. He organised us gratis accommodation, invited us to the local Lions’ Club for the same night and took us to the army barracks the next day where we were equipped with all the maps necessary to go on the famous Kokoda trail, an approx.-8-day treck right through jungle wilderness. Trust and hospitality everywhere!
But I shouldn’t be unjust to the East Europeans. Back in the 1970s, my parents and I met the most wonderful people in Tito’s Yugoslavia, whether it was in Subotica, Niš, Sarayevo, Mostar, everywhere. I was once in Krakow, Poland, in the 2000s, and the friendliness and helpfulness was amazing. Quite apart from the stunning instance that Polish women, even the most beautiful among them (and they are famous anyway for their feminine mystique properly so called), did not show the slightest sign of arrogance. They were cultured, discreet, but had no problem helping one out, always remaining natural and smiling. Meanwhile things have gotten that bad in the West that people from Slovakia or Poland go back to their own countries because “they don’t feel safe in our cities any more”! Which is no wonder as all the Third-World mass immigration is hitting the West, not the countries of Eastern Europe. And naive American conservatives, Diana West sadly included, applaude Viktor Orbán for cynically waving the so-called “migrants” through and over into the West. They cannot see the method behind it and cannot understand that Orbán is NOT and will never be their friend.
With a bit of clarity of mind, the West could have avoided this entire catastrophe. Had the communist world been left stewing in their own juice, as the late Christopher Story once put it, with no more help and support from the West, all those criminal regimes would long have been overthrown by their own populations. Instead the West is now imploding. Entire generations of historians will one day try to figure out how such stupidity on the part of the West could have been possible …
It is imploding.
QUOTE:
With a bit of clarity of mind, the West could have avoided this entire catastrophe. Had the communist world been left stewing in their own juice, as the late Christopher Story once put it, with no more help and support from the West, all those criminal regimes would long have been overthrown by their own populations. Instead the West is now imploding. Entire generations of historians will one day try to figure out how such stupidity on the part of the West could have been possible …
———-
No, the course was set, Moscow would have found another and another path, and these communist plotters would have one way or another instituted such a diabolical strategy that the situation would have developed the same way, perhaps little bit slower.
The fundamental point is that God didn’t help and didn’t protect these western countries because of that already so rampant betrayal of His Laws and how people set their own lives based on the liberal hedonistic livestyles, and so God allowed them to go blind in those essential moments and points, and thus the Kremlin KGB Mafia got their foot inside the door and now they are ready to reap the evil fruits and destroy fully the existing “order”, perverted as it is today, it will only get worse and worse….until God and no other, will intervene….
The only entity that cannot and will not be destroyed is Our Lord’s true Catholic Church…outside of which there is no salvation, which excludes the Novus Ordo apostate Sect that occupies the Vatican for several decades now.
QUOTE:
with no more help and support from the West, all those criminal regimes would long have been overthrown by their own populations.
———-
This is little bit misleading, but obviously not intentionally, but communists do NOT give up their political power just because their population might be starving to death, as you can see in the horrible history of Mao’s China and or Stalin’s attack on Ukraine’s grain and the famine there, the millions of starved dead people, and the misery that communism spreads everywhere, like now in Venezuela and Cuba and North Korea etc.
They would have never given up their political powers, period, if the west had cut them off, because the only thing these diabolically possessed communist atheistic criminals understand is when they are approaching gallows or the firing squad, or are exterminated in righteous battle of the just against these diabolical monsters….that is the ONLY thing this atheistic Mafia understand, otherwise they have no moral problem murdering or starving their own people by millions….and they had done so in the past.
That’s why the whole collapse of communism is a major hoax and major deliberate communist fraud and deception of these forces of the devil….
Of course the right thing to do is to cut them off from everything, but then you have to be ready to fight them also, squeeze them out of existence, and this is very difficult for the already decadent and immoral and hedonistic western countries to do – and thus they were penetrated by KGB etc. assets, which assets are now and for several years now calling the shots and enacting the pro-communist policies of the state, which disastrous pro-communist policies will only result in the victory of the Russian communism worlwide….until God destroys these diabolical monsters at the end.
Because they believed, blindly and in their relaxed mentality and fully approaching forgetfulness of God’s Laws, the Moscow communist Mafia and the whole Soviet Bloc, the word of honor of such miserable criminals who had never had any honor nor conscience, and have only bloody history of communist tyranny behind them…such is the sad reality, that when the commies make advances towards being friends, which advances are evil and false, these advances of pathological liars and communist atheistic criminals are accepted, for the sake of “opening new markets”, helping the needy countries to have better life and so on, as if the words of that communist asset Kissinger were resurrected and made the principle of the truth and justice instead of seeing that you cannot possibly ever shake hands with criminals, who hate God and HIs CHurch and want to take over the whole world….and who hate the liberty of conscience and are committed communist fanatics.
Jeff, you make some great points! Here’s further evidence that we don’t read. Look at school libraries. Computers have replaced many books in our libraries. Amazon began as a bookseller. Now Amazon is the modern-day 1900 Sears catalog.
But there is hope, and that is what i want to encourage here on this blog. I hope i won’t be laughed at or ridiculed for believing that our hope is not in our intelligence but in the revealed truth, which is the Word of God.
More people are turning to God if recent Easter attendance reports are accurate.
This cycle of spiritual awakening seems a reoccurring part of the American character. Look at Generations by Neil Howe and Strauss. We are a pragmatic people, maybe not intellectual, but we are a God-fearing and God loving nation.
De Tocqueville also observed this characteristic of Americans in 1830. I am sure you are familiar with the passages.
The Monument of our Forefathers (1888) built by the descendents of the Pilgrims further attests to our formula of faith, courage, resilience, and optimism. The Museum of the Bible opened in 2015 in the heart of DC is another modern testament to the faith of millions of Americans who contributed to its construction and collections. Most of them were Hobby Lobby shoppers.
There is only one antidote to the hopelessness you allude to. Acknowledging God’s love for us through Christ’s sacrifice, as recorded in his Word. It is the innoculation against Communism and to all forms of authoritarianism. God’s word teaches that each life is precious. That belief makes us an optimistic people. This optimism is at the core of American ingenuity and our resilience as a nation. God gave us a brain and hands to bring glory to Him. Search them!
Even Trump’s actions show he believes this. He has defended life more than any other president in my lifetime. He is a builder. He loves creating. He wants to make beautiful spaces and places. He wants to create prosperity. He hates the senseless wars and killing. Supporting Life is part of his mantra.
The Bible teaches us to love God, know Christ as our Redeemer, and love our neighbor. This is a revealed truth.
For it is not evident when you look at the suffering and inequalities around the globe. You get very depressed looking at the world.
But this next idea follows from the first, which is we are all children of the one true God. It matters less that we are well read than we are good and obedient to Him.
In our fallen world, the Bible was what civilised Western Europe. This book and its powerful revealed truth shows that in spite of class differences, intelligence differences, gender, etc., that we are all endowed by our Creator with God-given qualities and Our rights derive from Him, not tyrants or kings.
In fact, Thomas Jefferson understood this. He originally wrote, “We hold these truths to be sacred and holy that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty and property. Jefferson knew this truth was revealed through the Bible. It was Franklin who edited “sacred and holy” to self-evident. Maybe in hindsight, that was an unfortunate edit.
Be that as it may, I believe this blog does so much to stand for an honest inquiry into the truth, into describing as carefully as possible our reality so that we can understand where we are headed as a nation and so much more.
Jeff, bless you for educating us. You give your heart to this project, and it clearly shows.
Let us all write our best thoughts and comments here in search of truth..
Have hope, Jeff.
Lady, I agree with everything you said here, except about Trump, lol.
And, the proof people are truly turning to God, will be seen not by one or two church attendances, but by a daily walk with God, which will result in virtue flowing back into our society, and vice receding, which I am not seeing at this time.
Excellent comment.
As a Christian I have come to know that I don’t need hope. God will be with us through whatever comes.
“Back in 1990, when you tried to say something to people, they sneeringly cited all the good news.” ( Trump builds beautiful buildings) “They could not see that they were embracing a victory they had not earned.” Isn’t hope a victory we have not earned? “They were themselves false and hollow.” Trump has proven himself time and time again to be false and hollow and yet so many Christians defend him. With all due respect, I am seriously offended.
In her 2012 video presentation on the Vendée genocide during the French Revolution, Catholic blogger Ann Barnhardt said i.a. the following (meticulous transcript mine):
“You have to understand that Washington D.C., right now, is hopeless. The horse is dead. You stand over it and you beat it all you want, and you have, ‘Rah-rah! Cheer! Oh boy, the horse is gonna get up and run like Secretariat!’ No, it’s not! It’s dead! You’ve got to get a new horse in, or there’s no hope! Sorry, I know that that’s bleak. And, ‘Oh, we’ve got to have hope!’ You’ve got to have hope, but you can’t have hope in something that is impossible and futile. You have to refocus your energies and that hope and that faith into something that’s going to work! And that cesspool in Washington D.C., as it stands now, is not reformable, and it will never work. There’s going to have to be a hard reset. You’re gonna have to get all of those people out of there, every last one of them at the same time, and repopulate it from scratch! Sorry, but that’s the situation. It’s our fault because we let it get to this. We let it get to this, and now we’ve made this bed and by God we’re gonna have to sleep in it; not stand over the dead horse – and rah-rah! – and wave our flags. That’s not gonna work…”
Well, Trump won’t remedy the situation, as we can see. Instead, he is making things worse still. Later in her talk, Ann Barnhardt said this, where she criticised the lame clergy of today as well as the now-common ways of “family planning”:
“Compare this to the Vendée: The Vendée, where the people that were going to the churches and were telling the priests and the bishops, ‘You have to stand firm! We’re behind you! We’re with you! Do not compromise in the faith!’ Now, you know what most people, especially Catholics, want, most Catholic women want? – Hi, Catholic women! – Yeah, I know you’re on the pill. And you want the free pill, don’t ya? You want the pill on your insurance policy. Never mind that that’s mortal sin! Oh, don’t worry about that! You want the pill. And so you’re just gonna say, ‘Fiddledeedee, I don’t care.’ And you know what? You are going to lose your civilisation over this. I hope you’re happy! I hope you’re happy so that in not bringing any children into the world, you can have the standard of living that you want. I hope you’re happy when your entire civilisation collapses and you’re not living in the 4,000 square-foot house with the granite countertops anymore, honey! Yeah. It’s funny how these things all come back around …”
The Europeans are now finally beginning to realise what they have done to themselves during the last 50-plus years. But today’s brutal demographic reality is what it is – and no way out. Only a way down and down and further down into extinction.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
I do not understand your comment, but I hope that you meant it in good faith.
I want to comment a little about if Bible contains ideology. To me it is yes and no. No, because it is truth and we are used to think of ideology as a manmade construct of a picture of the world, some distorted reality. And when you clear your mind of all these constructs, you are confronted with truth. On the other hand there is Christ’s parable of the sower. Where a word of truth has to be sown and planted and has to take root in order to bring fruit. Just like ideology can be planted in our minds. So it is like you consciously have to decide, what ideas to plant in your mind and what ideas to focus on, because even in the Bible there is a warning of danger to be led away by a wind of untrue doctrine. And you have to plant the Word of God and guard it by weeding out something, which is contrary to it. Or maybe I do not understand exactly what is ideology.
I remember that once I went to study through topical guide all the scriptures about knowledge and wisdom. All of them came to one thing, the wisdom is to know God and acknowledge His supremacy. It seemed almost uninteresting, but made perfect sense. Because if you do not consider God your authority, this place would be filled by somebody or something else. Who would be your main authority? Yourself, or somebody else who is smart? In Soviet times it was Lenin. There was a pattern you had to follow. Like in preparing Church talk I would have to include scriptures, in Soviet times you had to include a quote by Lenin, to give more weight to your essay. And he said something about every topic. So you were never short of relevant quotes. And you had to stock up on pictures of Lenin cut out from magazines, to glue them to your papers as a relevant illustration. I remember the last picture of him saved, but I never got to use it, because times changed, lol.
Yes, Valentina, I love the sentiments you expressed. The implications are that we constantly must tend our Biblical garden. The parable teaches where the seed is planted matters. Our soil (spirit) must be healthy so the Word can take root successfully and bear good fruit.
But I still have a question. If we are asked to treat religion like ideology (by planting ideas and letting them grow), does it make religion (or contents of the Bible) an ideology?
Valentina, you ask an excellent question. It reminds me of something that I have thought many times over the years, and that is this: People are more important than ideologies.
The etymology of the word ideology could simply mean “study of ideas” The Greek word ιδειν means “to see.” As a noun it means concept or pattern. Literally to study the patterns of things seen. But when i looked up history of the word, I learned something more. Ideology comes from the French “ideologie.” Antoine Destutt de Tracy coined the term during the French Revolution (circa 1796) to systematically analyze human thought and beliefs free from metaphysics and religion. He excluded religion in his explanation of human affairs. That was his ideology–to be against religion.
Faith in God and faith that the Word of God is a belief, not an ideology. Since the main Idea of Christianity is that we are to love God and love one another…Christians are saying that people are more important than ideas/ideologies.
When we call people “ideologues”, it’s not complimentary. We are actually saying they are blind in some important ways to reality. Ideologues can become morally bankrupt in adhering to a political system. Since you grew up under the Soviet Union, you understand this better than most of us.
As our understanding of Christian love develops over time (the planted seed), our beliefs should be evident from our behavior.
An ideology is applied usually to a political philosophy that can carry a neutral or pejorative connotation.
Thank you, LadyfromLibertyGarage! This is such an enlightening post. I will have to come back to it several times to let it sink. I learned so much from you.
This is correct. Religious beliefs are not ideology.
What is a religion? What is a god? You two are getting into real rarified territory here. This is getting off topic here, so I’ll try to keep it brief.
First, the word “god” is possibly the most undefined term in English. In a survey of usages, a god can be anything from the food a person needs, to a force of nature, to many little gods inhabiting nature, to a monolithic spirit, to the triune God described in the Bible.
Secondly, what is a “religion”? A survey of all that are called “religions” reveals many different forms, from vague, self-contradictory feelings, to well thought out systemic beliefs, from generated from within oneself, to tradition passed down orally, to written communication from God. The definition that ties all these together as “religions” is one that is based on function–telling us who we are and what is our purpose (if any) in life.
I prefer not to go deeper into these philosophical discussions, if I can avoid it.
Both of you, and others on this forum as well, have revealed yourselves as taking your cues as to who you are and what is your purpose in life from the Bible. I too. There we learn that our purpose in life is to love each other. The rest of the Bible gives us concrete instructions and examples on how to fulfill that command.
Does ideology = religion? Yes and no. Some can take an ideology and make it his religion. Others can use ideology as a tool to accomplish another goal without believing it himself.
An example is communism. In most communist ruled countries, communism is merely a tool to serve another god, namely greed. For example, Xi uses communism to make himself and his family very rich. If he truly believed communism, he would support justice for workers, which he doesn’t do. Instead he oppresses workers.
In contrast, some years ago there was a report about some idealistic young Chinese who made communism their religion–they were persecuted by the state.
Is Christianity as described in the Bible an ideology? Yes and no. Some take ideas from the Bible, twist them and use them for goals contrary to the Bible. For them, Christianity is merely a tool to serve other ends. For others, myself included, the Biblical teachings are to be internalized, to define who I am, what is my place in the universe and what are the goals I should pursue.
Does ideology = religion? Yes in that both are systems of ideas. No in their functions.
You are missing some things:
In this parable we are not asked to plant “ideas” in our minds. We are just told how the “Word” (“word” is not the same as “idea”) is received in different conditions. Is useful to remember that the very person of Christ is called “The Word” (Logos), so it is not a bunch of ideas that will take root in your “mind”, but the very Jesus Christ in Person. This is signified by the word “theosis”.
On the other hand, I would briefly define “ideology” as something like: “a system of discourse formulated by somebody that, by abstraction, stresses some aspect of reality to motivate human collective action in some direction.”
So if I understood alright your opinion was: “in ideology an idea is planted in the mind and something results, and in religion an idea is planted in the mind and something results, so they are the same”.
I would respond: “in ideology an idea is planted by men in the mind of other men and something (usually terrible) results, and in religion the Word of God (Jesus Christ) is planted in the heart of men and Theosis results”. I say “in the heart” because the materialistic notion of the human nature reduces the immaterial part of us to “mind”, but the Christian tradition never accepted this. We have to differentiate at least “anima” (soul) from “spiritus” (spirit). And I could get very lenghty here, so I will try so summarize with this quote from Saint Augustine: “Credo ut intelligam, intelligo ut credam” (I believe in order to understand, I understand in order to believe).
So having an idea in your mind can be part of the process, but is certainly not its formal cause. The mind understands, the spirit believes. And Faith is, in every Christian tradition, a “grace”, an unearned gift from God. Here you can understand the gravity of the parable: God is passing by, generously giving everyone His graces, will you be in your indolence stolen by the birds (demons), or will you not resist trials (as the sun came up…) and abandon your salvation, or will be hindered by worldly cares (thorns)? Or will you produce your crop, a hundredfold (consecrated life), sixty (continent life), or thirty (married life)? This is a serious “existential” task for a Christian, far more than something an “idea” could accomplish.
Of all the books mentioned, the one that is most important was left out, only to be added later by LadyfromLibertyGarage, Valentina Cherniuk and Grey Night, is the Bible. That is the book that more than any other built western civilization. It is the book that caused Luther to reject medieval scholasticism based on Plato and Aristotle. Luther was also indirectly connected with the Copernican Revolution in science. Unfortunately later theologians reembraced scholasticism while laymen scientists and other thinkers, unburdened by theological nitpicking, put Biblical principles into practice. Such was the milieu observed by Alexis de Tocqueville.
As for intellectuals, some of the most foolish things I have read and heard, have come from people with recognized high IQs. That makes me distrust intellectuals, even though I am one myself. Here’s one place where my dyslexia is a blessing–it forces me to think things through as I read them even as it restricts the breadth of my reading.
A note on history: before about 500 BC, historical records are a mess. Much of the blame goes to an Egyptian named Manetho. A case in point: I have seen claims for Raamses II “the Great” as having lived about 1200 BC, about 900 BC, about 600 BC–those historians who claim about 600 BC seem to have the strongest evidence to back themselves up. This is not a call to ignore history, rather to be careful which historians to trust.
I forgot to mention: as an amateur musician, I notice how Biblical thinking influenced Lutheran composers such as Buxtehude, Telemann, Haendel and the giant among them J. S. Bach. Don’t forget the Lutheran composer Felix Mendelssohn. They shared a compositional style different from Vivaldi and those who followed Vivaldi like Hayden and Mozart.
For Western readers, knowledge of the Bible is so foundational it always assumed; frequently it is not listed, because most serious students of literature have already read the Bible in its entirety (or large portions).
“The Russian Military Moves That Have Europe on Edge”
“Putin is expanding bases and preparing to move more troops to European border regions far from Ukraine; ‘we’re expecting some conflict with NATO’”
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-military-nato-europe-finland-ff53b912
This is what we have noticed.
What jumps out at me from the article is Trump’s response to the idea that reducing US support of NATO may lead to the invasion of Europe— I’m reminded of his response when he was told of Golitsyn’s claims. He said,
“I don’t agree with that, not even a little bit.”
I wonder if this is his standard response— to quickly, forcefully and summarily reject ideas that run counter to Moscow’s directives.
Also of note was the idea that the Russian military is being reconstituted into a new elite class. And the $20,000 (equivalent) signing bonus. Also that their army is now larger than it was before they invaded Ukraine, and growing by the month. All quite ominous.
Very ominous.
Any signs yet of tanks, troops or fuel being transported to the NATO borders? Were those the main signs to look for when an invasion might be nearing?
It is one sign. But again, the September Zapad 25 exercise is a suggestive indicator.
Norway found out the hard way that disarmament connected with neutrality was no defense from invasion.
Before World War II, Norway was ruled by a pacifist government that had largely disarmed the country. They thought that by disarming and remaining neutral that other countries would honor their neutrality. April 9, 1940 gave them their answer. Germany invaded. Only the commander of a decommissioned coastal fort, who cobbled together enough men to run two of the outdated cannons, made a nighttime call out of retirement the man who knew how to run the torpedo tubes firing torpedoes that predated World War I, sank a German battleship, thereby giving the royal family and government time to escape capture. Since then Norway has recognized that if you want peace, prepare for war. Norway is a member of NATO.
With Russia expanding its military, prepositioning massive military supplies only a few miles east of northern Finland on south to Poland, the only rational response is to recognize that Putin is preparing to invade NATO. Trump’s response is very troubling. Is it hubris, thinking that no one dares attack the U.S.? Thinking that he is so smart? Or treason? It doesn’t matter. The effect is the same. It’s an invitation for invasion.
Yes
They are ready to take over the whole world, either by local communist subversion and or revolution, or, if necessary by “Islamic” or direct nuclear and bio-chem etc. attack…and so they need people as Trump to not to retaliate, not to push the nuclear button, so that the attack is successful and the country is decimated.
Moscow knows that nothing less will work.
Trump wants to make it look like it is a matter of money and economic expediency, to cut down the military budget, but it is in alignment with the Russian communist strategy to cripple the enemy before the war begins – and another sign is that Trump wants to be friends with these communist terrorist nations instead of saying publicly that they had never given up communism and in fact created this false collapse of communism in order to make the west, including the US, weaker and more subverted and penetrated by communists, communist agents and evil pro-communist policies, so that Moscow and Beijing criminals then can just walk right in and take over….and destroy the freedom as such by establishing the communist tyranny….everywhere.
Trump will be ordered to make it look like a “coincidence” and perhaps “wrong decision”, but he knows exactly what he’s doing as Moscow is giving the orders and he’s accomplishing them….and meantime he’s saying MAGA MAGA MAGA…intentional disaster.
POLITICO
How Professional Wrestling Explains Donald Trump’s Washington
Zach Montellaro
Sat, April 19, 2025 at 7:00 AM ED
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/19/donald-trump-pro-wrestling-wwe-00298303
Stunner: DEA Raid Busted Several Active Duty Military Working as Armed Security for Illegal Alien Gang Underground Nightclub in Colorado
By Kristinn Taylor Apr. 27, 2025 3:00 pm
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/stunner-dea-raid-busted-several-active-duty-military/
Not related to the current discussion but important, I watched this interview of Jeff Cappella by Lauren Morris (on Conservatives4Ukraine) and thought it was excellent. Jeff is a national security policy analyst. In this interview, he reviews the policies of Obama, Trump1 and Biden toward Russia and now Trump2. He has many interesting stories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGywJXmOCTA
HI Jeff, What did you think about european blackout? Any relationship with Russia/China? Thank you.
I think there has to be a connection between Russia’s war plans and the power outage in Spain and Portugal. Imagine Europe without power. How would they defend?
I had wondered about this, too. Apparently part of France lost power, as well— the Basque region. All three countries border the Atlantic (and Mediterranean)— do you think the attack could have been submarine-based? Does this type of technology exist?
Most experts believe the attack was accomplished by back door access to the power grid. Russia probably behind it.
Baguettes and Brie.
There might be another explanation that could also tie to Russia. Spain recently announced that they were 100% operating on “green” energy. Here’s a little AI summary:
“On April 16, 2025, Spain celebrated a milestone in renewable energy by running its grid entirely on renewable sources for the first time during a weekday. Wind, solar, and hydroelectric power met all peninsular electricity demand that day.
However, six days later, on April 22, 2025, the country experienced a widespread blackout.
This event occurred just five days after solar power set a new record, generating 20,120 MW of instantaneous power, covering 78.6% of demand and 61.5% of the grid mix.
Experts have suggested that the rapid expansion of wind and solar power is putting increased pressure on Spain’s grid, which may need upgrades to handle the record volumes of intermittent renewable energy sources.”
Now, I am sure that Communists are backing the green movements in all countries. We have seen those stories about many environmental groups being backed and funded by pro communist organizations. So, no I don’t think Russia caused the blackout, but maybe they helped convince Spain to go “GREEN” now dark.
Interesting observation about green energy. This relies on batteries from China…. And these batteries can have problems when they feed power back into the grid. I am not knowledgeable on this, but have heard references.
Congratulations to Trump. His “brilliance” has delivered victory to the Liberal party in Canada. Without his ridiculous agitation against our neighbors to the North, the Conservatives would have easily won this election.
This is about to happen in Australia, as well. Trump is handing the world to the communists.
“In Australian election race, Trump ‘chaos’ is making a conservative vote risky”
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-election-race-trump-chaos-is-making-conservative-vote-risky-2025-04-28/
Yes! Trevor has also talked about this.
Trump’s brazen public behavior is having a worldwide “midterm referendum” effect for conservatives.
That’s the communist subversion objective, he has done so during his 1st term when, instead of waiting with the CCP Covid virus and to use the proper and most effective means, as the pills, to counter it, he shut down the economy and then lost the presidency to that KGB asset, who then sabotaged the whole country and crippled the military etc. and the economy.
Trump is there man, and he knows what he’s doing and why, there is no mistake in this.
You will be proved wrong in due time. Trump is not a Communist, but you might be with all your stirring and stirring and stirring of resentments. There is no charity in you. There is no humility, and lots of lies. Be gone,
Are you calling someone who has proven Trump already as the asset he is, a communist ?
Are you serious ?
And when you speak about charity, first and foremost charity must be true, and it is the proof of the Holy Ghost dwelling in that particular soul and so bearing witness to the true analysis about Trump and his vast KGB and Kremlin contacts, and his past and what he has done to Ukraine, how do you substantiate your obviously subjective and absolutely erronouse claim, when you assert these claims of your because you don’t like the factual analysis about Trump…?
We have access to the analysis of Soviet Bloc defector sourses which do agree with what this author has written about Trump, and just because you are part of that erronous opinion about him doesn’t mean that you are automatically correct and everybody else has to follow your opinion.
And speaking about charity – to insult a person, without any factual proof with such fraudulent claims as you made above doesn’t look good to your claim of charity and or the lack thereof….
Moreover, this person had to endure already quite of bit of harships because of people who, meaning well, had done evil instead, and at the end only followed the official institutionalized fraudulent line of opinion, which grants free pass to the communists and the KGB operations, because such voices don’t understand how the KGB operates and when the KGB asseys are visible by their fruits, such fraudulent opinions are still maintained instead of humbly realizing that the opinion is in grave error and nothing else.
How will be this author proven wrong about Trump ? Just because you don’t believe it doesn’t mean it is not the truth, so then the only thing left is to leave factual argument out the door and attack the messenger instead, but the analysis stands and Trump is daily proving it correct.
Trump’s communist clenched fist…On the thumbnail…this is how communists salute, including Xi….and this is the fact, not “stirring”….
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/watch-live-president-trumps-address-national-guard-harrison/
Could look up some more links but this is the latest now.
Trump was the first leader in the US to suggest hydroxchloroquine would treat Covid. He took tremendous criticism for that from every news outlet in the world and from people in his administration. That is a public record and fact. You twist everything in regards to Trump to discredit him, appear evil, and a Communist. That’s why I don’t believe you.
Look what Trump has done. In 30 days, he closed the border and stopped the flow of 10,000 illegal aliens a week entering the country. He overturned the electric car mandates; he opened up the Appalachian coal mines; increased oil production. All that to drive down the price of oil from $120 /barrel to almost $60. That hurts Russia. So much more to say here. He ended DEI in our government. He fired awoke chief of staff. If he were a Communist, he would NOT do those things.
Just go somewhere else to spew your holier than thou supercilious imaginations, comrade.
Poor insolent female.
Trump had the DARFA (or DARPA ?) report about the Hydroxichloriquine before he shot down the economy and that he was the one who promoted the ventilator and the vaccine, and even when people were dying of it and had serious medical side-effects from it, he called it a great success – the Warp Speed so called operation.
What do you know of KGB espionage and recruitment strategy ?
What do you know about anything touching their evil methods. You are only an insulting person with little knowledge in the field of communist methods and their espionage and so on. What publications have you produced and what anaylsis have you come up with – nothing.
Yes, this author has said it several times, Trump will fix the economy, BUT in terms of national security and anti-communist warfare, he is a total failure and based on his long-term KGB contacts which are widely known and proven, that fact about him that he promoted now evident CCP bio-chemical warfare operation which cost thousands of lives, and with the knowledge that he had a working substitutes of that toxic poisonous “vaccine”, he still manage to path himself on his back and call it a great success – and now he sold Ukraine to that KGB criminal Putin, and most likely he will only do some meaningless “sanctions” against Russia but at the end they already know the way around it.
What do you know about the KGB narcotics trafficking operations, what you know about their recruitment of spies and agents, their subversion operations – reply: NOTHING.
If he was a communist then he would still do such things as to create his credibility and protect himself from being uncovered, and also, to cover up what he will now do – go after the communists imbedded inside the government, including Biden and the Clintons, and Mayorkas, and people as Schumer and Pelosi and so on -and the long-term KGB asset Soros – why ? Because he can’t do that, they still do the Moscow work.
If he was on the level, he would retake the Bahrain AFB in Afganistan and get those millions of weapons and equipment, and he’s not doing it.
He only does tariffs against China instead of shutting the whole business completely. He gave the CCP criminals US $50 BILLION agricultural deal, he doesn’t retake the land they purchased nearby US military bases in the US, he allowed Biden to take over the WH after evident and clear electoral fraud, which is high treason BTW.
He put an evident pro-Russian female Gabbard in charge of the most important US Intel office DNI – and so on. So what good is it that he’s fixing the economy, when there might not be the right people left to enjoy the result – i.e. the country is under a communist nuclear and bio-chem threat from Russia and China and he’s fixing a morally disgraceful deal with that KGB criminal Putin about how much of Ukrainian territory this KGB Mafia from Moscow will keep…instead of helping Ukraine to fight and put Putin on notice that the whole NATO will unite and fight the Bolsheviks to the death, he’s fixing “peace deals” with them and cooperation, which these communist criminals will never honor.
And his 1987 Kremlin inivtation and visit – that is the worst of them all – and now the information that the KGB actually recruited him – which seems credible after all, and they only released it because they want the people to not to believe – the reverse psychological warfare again, which the KGB uses quite often.
But your statement about the “Holiier than thou” topples them all – and in terms of theological truth, it is an insult above all, to the good name of Catholic.
If you don’t love the truth, so be it, but don’t insult those who do – but you don’t possess the truth, you only possess the compromise of it, and in a very limited way indeed.
TYPOS
If he was a communist then he would still do such things as to create his credibility and protect himself from being uncovered, and also, to cover up what he will NOT do – go after the communists imbedded inside the government, including Biden and the Clintons, and Mayorkas, and people as Schumer and Pelosi and so on -and the long-term KGB asset Soros…
Concerned,
You’ve posted a flood of accusations and sweeping conclusions, but what’s striking is the absence of actual evidence. You bury us in a Gish Gallop—rapid-fire claims from hydroxychloroquine to 1987 KGB recruitment to Vatican-level theological judgment—without sourcing, without pause, and without room for discussion. That’s not how truth is pursued. That’s how confusion is weaponized.
You claim to fight for anti-communism, but you undermine the very principles that protect a free society: reasoned discourse, honest evidence, and respect for others. When you belittle and insult, you don’t expose truth—you alienate those who are trying to discern it.
You say Trump is a KGB asset because he didn’t act exactly as you think he should have. But this ignores reality:
– He was the first to suggest hydroxychloroquine publicly, at great political cost.
– He enacted the toughest tariffs on China in modern history.
– He ended DEI mandates, reopened coal mining, and doubled down on U.S. energy independence—all measures that weaken adversaries like Russia and China.
– He was the first president in decades to confront NATO’s freeloading and demand rearmament.
If he were a Kremlin puppet, those would be extraordinarily self-defeating moves. You can’t have it both ways.
You bring up the 1987 Kremlin visit—something that occurred before the Berlin Wall fell—as proof of recruitment. But meetings are not proof. Diplomacy isn’t guilt. This is not intelligence work; it’s fan fiction dressed up as strategy.
And here’s something else you overlook: unfounded accusations like yours dilute finite national security resources. Every minute an analyst chases ghosts is a minute they’re not tracking real threats. This isn’t just speculation—it’s a documented problem in counterintelligence. The CIA itself acknowledged this in their declassified retrospective “Spy Dust and Ghost Stories,” which analyzed how Cold War paranoia and false leads often created more damage than the actual spies they were chasing. [CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, “Spy Dust and Ghost Stories,” 2003.]
What you’re selling is fatalism. You paint every side as compromised, every leader as a traitor, and every outcome as doom. That’s not patriotism. That’s nihilism.
I believe in something stronger. I believe America can recover, resist her enemies, and be led by flawed men who still do great good. I don’t need them to be perfect. I need them to fight. And Trump—despite mistakes—fought harder for sovereignty, borders, industry, and strength than any leader in decades.
You are welcome to criticize. That’s your right. But don’t confuse unhinged pessimism with discernment. The rest of us are trying to build. Your rage doesn’t make you more holy or more right—it just makes you louder.
And sometimes, loud isn’t brave. It’s just lost.
Concerned has provided sources for many of his claims in the past. I don’t think he is now because almost all of us have already seen them, multiple times.
Fatalism is perhaps the most decisive criticism regarding all this. We often feel defeated, and wonder that we are not defeated. Yet here we are, still undefeated. Ukraine has inflicted a massive defeat on Moscow. China’s economy is collapsing. We need to consider events without drawing the most fearful conclusion at every turn.
You have to learn lot more about the subject ma’am as you lack the proper knowledge and understanding of the subject of communist methods, espionage and recruitment, and dont have the proper credentials to assert what you have asserted, which is unfortunately in error, and gross misunderstanding of the KGB strategy and procedures and history.
Trump was invited in 1987 to the Kremlin, and he went, had no problem doing it. His wife Ivana, who had CZ communist espionage file and her father was an STB informant (at the least to say). she didn’t discouraged him from going there, she went with him – and when this person began to look more deeply into this, it was the moment when she died and under very very suspicious circumstances, as if they didn’t want her to compromise the stragegy as she was a witness what took place there in the Kremlin.
The rest was sourced and explained, and readers on this forum know it, just go back and look it up. They are facts about Trump, which he, the analysis about him, confirmed by his betrayal of Ukraine and his history and facts.
Russians want the US economy to recover, they want to rob the country blind when they come and pilage and murder, so do the Chinese communists.
Of course people can make mistakes, but not people who have intel data and all kinds of means of the government to realize that not only RUssia is the enemy, but that it is fully armed communist enemy, very evil.
But you have began to attack without any facts that would refute what has been already posted about Trump, so how does it help the truth ?
If this whole thing about him not correct, this person here would have been the first to admit it and to say that it was wrong conclusion about Trump – but the facts do not point that way and it is getting worse and worse daily, including that he let Biden and the rest of these KGB or CPUSA assets walk free etc.
Russian communists wanted to delay the rebuilding of US military, which BTW is nearly impossible to verify at all, how exactly that is shaping up now, and so that is why Biden was allowed by Trump to take over, and then the only thing Trump does about it is to complain about the mess Biden left him – and it was Trump who has done nothing more about it when it became obvious that Biden had stolen the presidency from Trump…. so it all fits the KGB strategy – to the letter.
And of course people who voted for Trump don’t see it that way, they only see the economy, but not the national security and the obligatory fight against the communist threat, and that is a serious defect which will be very costly, in human lives that is.
Lady, why would you accuse CONCERNED of being a Communist? He’s certainly no Communist.
And, I know you have the personality of an eternal optomist, and are not the type to give in or give up hope.
But, Trump is not doing right by Ukraine, or toward our allies. He just flat isn’t. And why is he cozying up to Russia? Why did America vote with Russia and North Korea against condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Concerned has made many valid points regarding Trump. Trump is no true friend of freedom.
Or maybe it would be more accurate to say, he is no true enemy of Communism.
But really, he is no true friend to freedom. For he would deny it to Ukraine.
This is a very difficult subject, with points on both sides. We have a very frustrated patriotic movement that knows what the left has done wrong. But the patriots have lost touch with the Russia threat. Trump has a curious history, of course, and is not easy to understand. I suspect that Trump has compromised himself in the past, but he is the kind of person who cannot be controlled easily. However, he can be influenced by various people in ways that are hard to predict or understand.
Dear Mr. Nyquist – it is truly a very difficult subject because if it wasn’t, then Thousand people would be exterminated inside the KGB.
But they have a very strict recruitment policy and they don’t allow people whom they may blackmail and recruit, just to be themselves without their KGB strict control and death threat hanging over them if they disagree or attempt to leave the KGB yoke…
Just the fact alone that Trump was in the Kremlinin 1987 is one of the most damaging to his situation – 1) because they had to issue him a visa to enter the country, they had done a thorough analysis why they would allow him inside, and they already had plans to recruit him, as various sources confirmed, which was linked in the articles about him, 2) if Trump didn’t agree to cooperate, they would have liquidated him already then, he wouldn’t come out of there alive…3) once they recruit somebody on blackmail (as a sexual data about the person for example), then they present that blackmail data to the subject of recruitment and demand a favor from that subject, usual some espionage assignment, which when it fullfilled, they then hold a high treason blackmail tool over that subject which is much more powerful tool and then they demand that the person learns the communist ideology and in fact proves that the subject believes it…and this is how they do business.
The rest, including the facts about Ivana, the only other witness of that 1987 Kremlin visit, and the truly laughable legend that he went there because he wanted to build another Trump Tower, near the Red Square, yeah, right, the Mecca of communism and the proud Bolsheviks invited Trump into the Kremlin to discuss with him how they will allow this American hated capitalist to do just that….(it is truly laughable how this kind of truly lame excuse was proposed as the truth…), all of this has been already mentioned.
If he’s not a KGB asset, then why has he failed Ukraine, why is he so friendly with communist criminals as Putin is, and the NK and CCP dictators, and so on….this is not an incompetency nor stupidity, but evident intent, and in this author’s opinion, an ideological allignment with the communist cause is part of it…otherwise Trump would still have some kind of conscience, especially when he sees this criminal Putin atacking civilian target in Ukraine without eny mercy, abducting 20 thousand children and then returning them to Ukraine with different names and documents, and so on….and how the Russian Bolshevik army murdered those civilians and buried them in the mass grave in front of the Ukrainian Catholic Church…etc.
NO, it truly looks like it is an ideological consent to the communist cause by Trump…and his communist clenched fists in public confirms the facts and the red flags in his actions.
I was told something about this by a GRU defector. People who reach a certain rank are not considered agents, and they are never blackmailed. Someone with nuclear weapons is not someone you can blackmail. Besides that, outing a president as a Russian agent by the Russians would be like shooting yourself in the head. It would alarm the whole world, and you would find it very hard to come back from it. And besides that, people are not easy to control, especially narcissists. You ever try to control one?
They do NOT allow people to have their own free hand when it comes to the KGB methods and operations and recruitment, period.
Gen. Sejna addressed this in his Congressional statement, that independent actions were at the risk of the one who tool then and penalties were without any regard for human rights and dignity. They burned Penkovskiy alive, when they found out he was a spy and it was Golitsyn who wrote that then the KGB uses that horrible footage to show the KGB recruits what will happen to them if they betray the cause.
Trump was recruited, evidently so, back in the 1980s, and so they want to have someone like this to “control” the nuclear weapons, because then they will never be used against the Russian communists as the agent will do what he is ordered by his commanding officer…and now, when Trump is in the WH, while he gave it up to Biden without any substantial fight, he’s now saying anything about the evident communist worldwide intent Moscow and Beijing has and always had….so there is a reason why he’s not doing that, and it is a great injury to justice and truth, and thus his pro-communist service is done on ideological consent to the communist cause, otherwise Trump would be doing much much more to avert this horrible threat to the country and the world, Moscow and Beijing represent – and he is doing the exact opposite, he wants to be friends with these criminals and is helping them, which was explained before.
What the GRU defector told you may have been taken out of context because they don’t try to recruit an agent and then give him the opportunity to leave them again and to be free of them, the murder him and his whole family if he or she would try anything like this….no matter what psychological profile they have on him – and he’s displaying inconsistency already by his actions in regards to Ukraine, he’s doing what Putin wants to be done and Trump has agreed to Putin’s demands and tries to push it on Zelensky without any shame, which is unjust and destroys justice and the moral constraints of it that freedom loving person with political power must uphold.
It was Suvorov who depicted Penkovsky burning to death in a film shown to GRU recruits, if memory serves. But then, memory can make all kinds of mistakes. And human logic, based in error, might compound those same errors. The accusers against Trump say he was first recruited by the Soviets in 1978. But are these accusers still working for Moscow? Are they false defectors? I wish I had more knowledge on this. Trump is president and might do anything that pleases him. How can Moscow control him today? Don’t they have to be careful?
It seems very complicated.
Golitsyn wrote about this case. it is not disputable
citation? I only remember this in Suvorov’s work.
Trump was a democrat, helping the campaign of Jimmy Carter back in 1970s, and Carter made some very important pro-communist policy changes (he created the Dept. of Education, he gave the Panama Canal to Panama), Trump then also wanted to be involved in America’s nuclear disarmament while the Russian communist criminals were arming themselves and were actively cheating on every such agreement they signed with the US. Then the 200 plus huge nuclear bunkers in Russia, at a huge cost and deep underground – article on WND Ken Timmerman – Inside Russia’s Magic Mountain…(2000 AD article) – so imagine what the situation is now, 25 years later.
All these facts do add up, no matter how much people wish to have finally a good and honest president, these are the true facts about Trump, and many more.
The poor lady doesn’t know any better and in fact she probably doesn’t mean it, but she is involved in wishful thinking that Trump has done so much good for the country, but she doesn’t see that all that what Trump has done is also part of the Russian communist strategy…and that the communists do NOT care about economic recovery of the US business, but about who controls the political power in the US – and when it is a KGB asset, the KGB and the Communist Party are in charge of it all…and Trump wouldn’t be the first president who is helping the communist cause, not at all.
I really have an urge to delete these missives in which you refer to “the poor lady” who “doesn’t know any better.” It is begining to urk me that you write in this way, given the fact that there are many possible interpretations, and each is problematic.
It is your website, but this will not alter the analisys nor what the lady said, and the insults, which she probably didn’t mean, of course one should be careful not to make such statements, and yes, it is called detraction, because she cannot prove it at all…nor it is the truth, otherwise then there would be no one to believe anymore, which is an evident contradiction to the truth.
As the theme of my essay was the seriousness and thoughtfulness of Americans, I wonder if accusing people like yourself or Churchill of being communists is serious or thoughtful. Christopher Story accused me of being a KGB agent. How could he have justified this? He claimed that my warnings about a future nuclear war were part of a communist plot to scare and demoralize people. In this matter Story pretended to understand my motives. But he was clueless, since he had no real insight regarding my motives – even though he met me face-to-face. His own psychological limitations produced a false accusation by which he was so assured that he tried to get me fired from my job. Can you imagine? I was Christopher Story’s biggest supporter in the media and he saw me as a communist spy! On your side you have accused Winston Churchill and Donald Trump of being communists. The former was a very famous anti communist. The later has no ideology whatsoever, even if the KGB once had their hooks in him. It is ironic, indeed, that the Lady from Liberty Garage accused you of being a communist. Why did she do this? Your stridency often appears as an effective lampoon — or a self-caricature — of anti-communism. You and I are seriously out of step with almost everyone today. In order to communicate our anti-communist views we must be sensitive regarding the views of other people. While we disagree with much of the thinking today we must respect the sincerity and intelligence of those who hold mainstream opinions. We must not condemn everyone out of hand without understanding the many reasons for their ideas. How can we win our argument without this sensitivity?
I am certainly guilty of stridency in certain situations. We all have limited patience. And you might be correct in most of your points; but if your stridency turns people against you, all is for nought. This is why the Lady accused you. Your stridency helps the communists and often hurts your argument. I agree with much of what you say, but I sometimes wince at your delivery. Effective communication requires that we respect other people and that we manifest a certain humility. It is difficult for us to understand complex things, and very easy to make mistakes in our interpretations. Understanding the world is always a work in progress. A serious and thoughtful approach requires, above all, self-skepticism. I hope you come to understand this.
Dear Mr. Nyquist,
the points are well taken and it is a matter of patience with people who do not possess the clarity of the situation as you do, to help them out of charity to understand that they are in grave danger because they believe that their elected leaders are on the level – and that they don’t believe that one day that kind of false sense of security may cause them to end up in one of the Siberian Gulags…of the communists.
BUT when somebody attacks the messenger of these warning (i.e. – be careful, don’t trust all that you see and what appears to be on the level, as the facts and deeds of such people as Trump lead to the opposite), they begin to attack without any contrary facts and evidently insufficient claims of their own – and without any substantial credentials or proven analysis, using solely the official line, which is very flawed and leads to acceptance of these KGB instroduced deceptions instead.
So what to do about such a person – let her continue to mislead others into that false sense of security and be sensitive, when the time is running out, or to address it directly and make sure that people are not deceived ?
We prefer to help people to understand that Trump is not on the level and that there are enough red flags in his past and now that conclude that he is helping the communist cause…and it truly looks like out of conviction, not solely because he may be blackmailed – because the KGB doesn’t do it that way, they want to indoctrinate people and make them into obedient slaves and servants, nothing less.
The lady is honestly worried, and too trusting, so she fights back the truth, because the truth to her is very unconfortable, and as she said before she is a Republican official in her state, so the more she is defending that Trump line, as they all do…and that is not enough to see the truth and to uphold it, which this person here values more than anything in the world, out of love for Our Lord Who us the Truth.
And so there would be such situation – inevitably.
Regarding Churchill – it was never said categorically that he was a communist, but that he has betrayed about 40 million people of Poland and Czechoslovakia etc. and sold them to Stalin at Yalta, and in fact threatened the Polish PM Mikolajczyk to cut off contacts with his government and keep contact only with the communist illegitimate government that was in one of the Polish cities instead….which is a confirmation that is in that book of PM MIkolajczyk – and in this case it truly is comparable to Trump and what he did to Zelensky – and it all started when Zelensky prointed out to the fact that America is not protected by the see from Russian attack to which Trump replied with his rant and scandalous attack etc. – so a communist agent would have done just that, to make sure that people don’t hear the truth that Russia is preparing attack against the US and that the US is very much unprepared to sustain it and to fight back – which Trump helped
It posted before it wa finished – it should have said – which Trump helped by his rant to conceal, or at least tried to discredit Zelensky for saying that – and Zelensky did the right thing to say so, because Trump blew up at that moment, it is so evident that he didn’t like that at all, because he was saying always that “you are protected” meaning the US population – protected how ? Against the overwhelming nuclear and bio-chem communist superiority?
So Trump has not come clean, and since his 1987 Kremlin visit that is a major red flag also in his regard.
Then one has to ask – why would anyone want to travel into the USSR, such a communist evil country, responsible for so many evils in the world, murder, death by millions and tyranny, and make believe that the intent was to build a hotel in the Red Square in Moscow, and to negotiate nuclear disarmament with the Russian – while Reagan was still the president ? Isn’t it at least little suspicious that Trump, with so much intelect and wisdom, would have taken such an idiotic task and tried to negotiate with atheistic murderers and criminals about their “honest” nuclear disarmament – and now, if this was back then and he had changed his view, he would be helping Ukraine to fight the Russian communists and he is doing the opposite…so how is this not a major red flag on his part ?
CONCERNED: This is all very speculative, and involves a rather simplistic idea of people and events. Unless you are a witness yourself, some events cannot be understood by outside observers. Is Trump a first-rate intellect? Should he know certain things? I cannot think he has this type of intellect, or that he knows much more than unschooled businessmen. At the same time he is not an idiot, though I want to yell at my TV screen when I hear him saying that Zelenskyy was at fault for being invaded. Always, with people, the story is not simple. Many details, which I am not privy to, might color the picture of who Trump is. I have read many of the scandal books about Trump, and I have laughed at the authors painting him as a crazed narcissistic lunatic. I do not think he is a lunatic (though he seems quite insecure in his moments of bragadoccio). But then, I do not think he is highly educated, or surrounded by people who think as I do. Our own egotism passes very harsh judgment on people who do not think as we do, lol. Perhaps Trump’s abilities fall into some curious middle ground, where many different traits exist — good and bad. We are all human, after all. When do we act in a perfectly consistent manner? Trump might have been helped by the Russians. He might have been influenced by them. He might have served some of their propaganda aims in the 1980s. There is evidence for this. Was he a self-conscious Soviet agent? I don’t know. Did he feel them pressuring him at some point? Did he get out from under some obligation or other? I don’t know. There is testimony about this from defectors and former Soviet intelligence officials. But is the testimony credible? Maybe. But again, how can we verify this? Trump does many things that seem inconsistent with a simple theory about him. There is a more complicated picture here. I sometimes think he is under Russian influence, and I get frustrated and frightened watching him play into Moscow’s strategy. Then I see something else, when he hammers China and opposes the Russian gas pipeline during his first term, and I think he cannot be a Russian stooge. Nothing here is easy to understand.
It is a serious responsibility to be a messenger in these warnings. And we need a lot of patience and humility. Certainly, we eat humble pie all the time — as people regard us as kooks. One must accept this lable. It is incredibly difficult to bear sometimes. I understand. But we have to be very patient because these are people. These are human beings we must somehow convince. It is terribly disappointing to me, that when Russia has already begun its invasions, and is openly preparing to invade Europe, and threatening nuclear war, that so many “conservatives” are pro-Russian. This has been beyond frustrating. To lose readers when my warnings are coming true is galling. My own mother shocked me two years ago, because she was an avid Fox News watcher and suddenly developed these pro-Russian views. She says to me, one day, out of the blue, that I have been wrong about Russia all these years. I was dumbfounded that Fox News turned my own mother around on the issue. What can one do? I had to laugh. It was very funny, really. I did not see that coming. The joke was on me. Dugin must howl with laughter in private. Truly. How can a poor man compete with that influence operation? I was a Tucker Carlson fan myself! And this man would denounce me as a warmonger in no uncertain terms. You simply cannot find a friend who will stick by you if that friend is in an influential position. They run from you. They denounce you. What exactly did I say wrong? LOL.
I made my remarks because Concerned uses classic logical fallacies and rhetorical devices to confuse and mislead the sincere.
There can be no honest inquiry where deceit is permitted. That is why I said what I said, and I stand by my words, insolent female that I may be.
Could you please give an example of each? I’m genuinely interested, and I’m sure others would be, as well. No one wants to be duped. Please enlighten us.
K, I will answer your question, but first I want to comment. If Trump did what Concerned said he should have done before Biden took office, this country would be in a hot civil war now. That alone should sound the alarm. And wouldn’t China and Russia be rubbing their hands with glee if that were the case? Further, Wade of Lude Media says XI is furious with his spies because they are not controlling Trump. Now, if the Chinese can’t control Trump, is it fair to say that perhaps we are misled in thinking that the Russians can?
Now to answer your question.
Concerned frames himself as the solitary voice of truth fighting against mass delusion. This is a classical rhetorical positioning of conspiracy theorists. That’s one example of the rhetorical device.
Here is an example of his logical fallacy we call the False Dilemma. Concerned suggests that either Trump does everything the hardline Anti-Communist way. Otherwise, Trump’s a traitor.
Concerned makes several intense claims, but none of them are substantiated by official records, intelligence disclosures, or credible investigative journalism. Trump has actions directly contrary to CCP and Kremlin interests– closing the border, restoring fossil fuel independence, punishing China with tariffs, and pushing NATO to spend more on defense. If Concerned’s assertion is that ALL of this (plus more that I don’t have time to itemize), is a smokescreen, then he is no longer making a falsifiable claim. Concerned is embracing a theory that conveniently explains away all contradictory evidence and then using ad hominem attacks, and shielding himself in cloak of religious superciliousness.
Ma’am,
you cannot compromise on justice and allow an electoral fraud to take over, but Trump did and it created a major national security problem and risk, because then the KGB Kremlin got additional 4 years of delayed US military build up and thus Russians had no problem arming themselves even more, the CCP criminals as well.
Nobody wants the war, but Trump was still in the WH and he had done nothing to prevent Biden to take over – and the Congress neither – they only made some opinions about how they shouldn’t certify the elections but at the end they did, by which fact they certified an obvious lie and electoral fraud.
Trump had spoken about it, but he had the chance to avert it and bring Biden to justice – and he only fired Barr and too late, and that’s it…
This was to enable treason to be justified.
What he does to China now is immaterial, they don’t care about money, communists care about power, and they know they will get it and destroy the US, which they are doing – and you call these warnings about Trump “fatalism” and nihilism ?
Trump has failed America in these terms and they will be very costly, because the military strenght recovery is far away and Moscow and Beijing are ready to start, they got what they wanted with Biden and Trump helped them to get it by being Kerensky….that’s the truth.
They don’t invite people to the Kremlin without knowing exactly what they will do with them, and what they will do if they decline the offer – and if Trump declined, he would NOT have left Russia alive – and his wife as communist spy knew all this, that’s why she may have been the facilitator of it in the first place. And his communist clenched fist and wanting to be friendly with these communist criminals is just an additional fact confirming what was already said about Trump. He in on it with the communists, otherwise his conscience wouldn’t allow him to do what he had done to Ukraine and anything else in this aspect.
CONCERNED: This is not a realistic view of politics. The election fraud claims of 2020 paint a very confused picture. Major claims were made about fraud that proved to be false. I tried to point this out at the time and found myself attacked.
These are valid criticisms.
PS: just to clarify, I said Concerned “might be a Communist.” Just because Putin wears a cross doesn’t make him Christian. Same with Concerned.
Good clarification.
I meant the political observations he makes.
I am very sorry about the remarks of CONCERNED. He should be extra respectful when disagreeing. Especially with a Lady. Since he considers Winston Churchill to be a communist collaborator and traitor, I don’t always take his comments seriously, since much of the context of history is lost in his stridency. More nuance and less stridency is wanted from Mr. CONCERNED. May we hope for this?
In all fairness, she was kind of tough on him, calling him a Communist and telling him to begone.
By the same token, Concerned is sometimes overbearing, though he raises many good points.
LadyfromLibertyGarage is definitely a Patriot and good lady, but refuses to see the terrible things Trump is doing. Many good people are in this situation, as the pendulum has swung to the “Right ” and it seems to them he’s the only hope for turning things around.
In a forum where people of different confessions come to comment, it is also best to leave out strident theological pronouncements — especially when they contain indirect criticism of other people’s beliefs. Politics are difficult enough without introducing religious controversy.
I was referring to primarily to the political/current event observations he makes. He makes valid points that can’t be dismissed out of hand.
Which is what I thought LadyfromLibertyGarage was referring to.
Yes he often does.
In regards to Churchill (and his help to Stalin), the Yalta betrayal of Poland, Czecholslovakia etc is the proof that Churchill sold about 40 million free people of Eastern Europe to become slaves of Stalin and of the Russian Bolsheviks, this is what the Yalta betrayal has done, and Churchill and Roosevelt were both guilty of it, just like Trump now sold Ukraine to that KGB criminal Putin – the examples are both equally morally wrong and evil, and it destroys justice.
And do you think Nazi Germany and the wartime alliance had nothing to do with that? And wasn’t Churchill trying to keep Stalin from taking Eastern Europe through various protests and schemes to get there first? Or is this history to be ignored?
You cannot have it on your conscience to sign an agreement with a communist monster as Stalin and to give him such a vast territory of Eastern Europe and make those people there slaves of the communists, that is an extreme evil, and Roosevelt was there with Churchill himself in on it – that is morally evil and helped Stalin to conquer Eastern Europe after all…without firing a shot.
It is the results that are ignored, speeches of politicians mean nothing when the results are different. Yalta was a horrible betrayal of the principle of freedom and of liberty of conscience, on part of Churchill and Roosevelt, and Trump has done about the same now with Ukraine, there is no difference in it, the same principle of betrayal.
CONCERNED: You are not analyzing the events of World War II with a diligent eye. Stalin was the ally of America and the UK during World War II. We were fighting the same enemy (Hitler). We were coordinating our strategy with the Red Army. Much depended on agreements to keep the pressure on Germany. When you are fighting a world war against Hitler, and you cannot defeat Hitler without the Soviet Union, what do you do? Do you spite Stalin and let Hitler keep France and Holland, Norway and Belgium? We had objectives that required Moscow’s help just as they needed our help. We needed the Red Army to pin down 200 German divisions in the East. We did not have the ability to fight that many divisions. In fact, we had to grind our way into Italy, reaching Rome in June of 1944. We landed at Normany that same day, and found ourselves stuck in Normandy until August, 1944. The Russians, at the same time, destroyed completely the German Army Group Center. A whole army group! The Red Army reached the gates of Warsaw when we were taking Paris. Marshal Montgomery hoped to beat the Russians to Berlin through Operation Market Garden, but the operation was a tragic failure. The Allies did gain a foothold across Rhine. The remnants of the British First Paratroop Division had to swim across the Rhine at night to escape destruction or capture. On January 1, 1945the Allied Armies were stuck behind the Rhine and the Alps, battered by Hitler’s last offensive. We had no easy passage into Germany or the rest of Europe. The Russian armies stood on flat ground ready to invade central Europe, outnumbering the Germans seven to one. We had to batter our way through the Westwall, and across the Rhine. The fact is, the Red Army reached Hungary and Romania and Poland before we could. They beat us to these locations, thanks to Hilter’s Ardennes Offensive, which we had no control over. That was Hitler’s doing. And the Red Army took Berlin, which was a tremendously bloody battle. They lost over 120,000 men storming Berlin. We did not have the stomach for that kind of battle, especially after the Battles we had been through.
What Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to was, in reality, already an accomplsihed fact. The Soviet armies had already reached central Europe, or were expected to reach it when the conferences were held. Roosevelt and Churchill did not give up anything. They accepted the reality — what was already done. And that reality was that the biggest army in the world (the Red Army) was already occupying those countries. What were the Allies going to do? Stab Stalin in the back? Stalin promised democray and freedom the Europe. Churchill suspected Stalin was lying. Roosevelt gave Stalin the benefit of the doubt, until a few days before his death when he expressed great disappointment regarding Stalin. But that was water under the bridge. The Cold War would begin over these very issues of Stalin’s lies. President Truman said to Molotov, “Mr. Molotov, your boss is a liar.”
Your judgment of these men is harsh. You judge as someone who was not there. You judge without any real knowledge of the details. You judge as an ideologue, with 20/20 hindsight. Nobody lives in the world with perfect knowledge of the future. What, in realistic terms, should they have done? What could they have done? Attack their Stalin? But Stalin had not broken his word as yet. Betray all the agreements needed to defeat Hitler?
Put yourself in their position. Could you have acted otherwise? I doubt it.
Whoever first accused Concerned (I remember who— months ago) of being a communist should not have, and anyone who continues it, or who accuses anyone else of being a communist, should be willing to endure that person’s ire. For the record, I think there’s a zero percent chance that Concerned is a communist.
Also, women don’t need any special treatment. No offense, Jeff, but we can take it. We should all be extra respectful when disagreeing with anyone, because that person bears the image of God. In fact in this instance, both are believers in Christ. Anyone who is disrespectful does not help their cause. On either side. Let the comments stand.
Yes. There is a zero chance Concerned is a communist. But forgive me. I will continue to err on the side of chivalry.
To add to this initial posting about Trump – his betrayal of America was in his giving up the White House to the KGB traitor asset and electoral fraud Biden, instead of calling the insurection act and locking up the whole Democrat Party leadership on charges of treason and electoral fraud – and so this needs to be added and it was already mentioned before as one of the worst betrayals Trump has committed….another and evidently intentional Kerensky.
Well, when we see the outcomes, we will know whether these worries about Trump’s tariffs affecting Canada and Australia’s conservative election outcomes are justified. I expect that the Conservative candidates in Australia and Canada are doing all they can to win and not giving up their efforts because Trump has made himself a target for their opponents. There are very good reasons for Trump’s dramatic actions, and there is a lot more complexity than the press reports on this. We have a huge trade imbalance and a huge deficit that is unsustainable.
Yes. The conservatives were slated to win. But Trump hurt them by threatening Canada’s sovereignty.
Surely Trump knew what he was doing, too. We’ve become hated by the entire world. This seems like more evidence that he really must be working for the Russians.
It is hard to know what someone knows, what they have been persuaded to do, and what they think is in their interest.
I wonder how long the Canadians will stomach Liberal Carney? Who knows?
Good question.
Very important Subject!! Ukrainian top strategist, ex prime minister under Yushchenko now is teaching block chain tech. He stated: the most important thing i can teach you is HOW TO THINK properly.
One needs to try A.I. on the Issues. May be machine intelligence is the Next step?
I tried some on “how to finish putin regime”. It was Chat gpt. It started with no way, impossible. But i kept on adding elements to the Concept. SO in several iterations GPT turned 180 degrees and emphasized that putin regime is a threat to Humanity survival and it is not just obvious but a MUST to be dealt with or we may face extinction
Coach that AI.
The Arbiter of all truth is the Truth Himself, Christ Our Lord, God Himself.
If then people establish for themselves different rules of life and set their priorities in accordance to such human rules, which in that case are bound to be perverted or at the least insufficient, then they have to face the consequences of that insufficient and thus flawed and perverted decision.
God is the Supreme Judge, He shall judge the living and the dead, and He is the Truth and thus He is infinitely just and infinitely true, and without Him we can do nothing, as He confirms in the Holy Scripture.
So when a country is being run by heretics and or by godless people, the set order intended by God is subverted by such infidels into what they have had established for themselves, their perverted views and obviously they are thus using their secular authority to prevent those who are under that authority to be able to live in accordance to their conscience and the true religion they practice.
There will be thus this strife and in fact warfare always, when godless people hold the political power, and or notorious heretics, apostates and infidels rule the country, because then God is not helping them to do the right thing at the right time, they do not possess the truth, and thus, because true justice is based on the truth, there is no more true justice either, as can be seen today all over the world.
The government that is being run by infidels and godless people is thus ruining the chance of salvation for many who would otherwise become true to God, as they are forced to compromise on the truth and follow the perverted laws these enemies of God enact and demand to be followed and obeyed, under the color of the law, contrary to the constraints that do exist to prevent such perversion to be enabled.
So then these enemies of God do gradually pervert the existing order into what they see as the only path, their path, and when such people are equipped with the communist atheistic nihilistic falsehood, they will not back off nor hear anyting but what they in their fanaticism demand others to obey, and thus the communist atheistic tyranny is the result. And this is what is taking place today, everywhere.
And the only one that will fight it is the true Church, because the true Church belongs to God and not to men.
The moral disconnect in this world is not because people wouldn’t do the right thing even if and when they say they would, but because they don’t belong to God and thus they lack the proper clarity and understanding what is necessary in that particular moment in history to be done, as God is the One Who doesn’t supply them this clarity and understanding, as it MUST come from Him and without Him they are like those who were listening to Our Lord and His parables BUT whom God has not helped to understand these parables correctly and so they were left to their own, human and thus insufficient, interpretation – and this made them blind and deaf to the truth itself, which to them still remained hidden in those parables Our Lord taught…and He only explained them to His disciples, which means that first and foremost they who did understand the truth had to belong to Christ Our Lord and they had to be obedient to His doctrine, which doctrine and authority He had then transferred to His Church, ever since the 1st Pope, St. Peter the Apostle, and the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, which means the supernatural assistance of the Holy Ghost to the true Catholic Church, the Pilar and Ground of the Truth as St. Paul calls it (1 Tim).
And so there are many opinions on the subject how one suppose to live his or her lives, but the Arbiter is God Himself and if the offense and disobedience to His set ways is what the soul professess and lives, then God is not helping that soul to be true to Him, which means the blind and deaf increased in this world so vastly in numbers that the seriousness of the truth escapes them and they are absolutelly incapable to see the truth, why this diabolical scourge of this atheistic communism is so dangerous and so evil, because God is not helping them to see it nor hear the voices of those who understand the truth, as God sees such perverted souls as they are, inside and outside, and they are His enemies because one way or another they espouse philosophy of evil, humanistic and perverted and they live the life of sin and immorality, contrary to the Commandments of God….and thus God leaves to them to their own misery – and thus to them the truth is a matter of their own, or others’, opinion, not the actual truth, but open to their own interpretation, and thus they are not willing to part with this perverted notion of the truth, which, in the essence then lead to their blindness to the actual truth, which God will not help them nor supply them to possess.
That’s why it is so common to hear today these vastly contradictory opinions, which one way or another are contrary to the Divinely revealed truth, the Faith and Morals that God orders the human race to believe and profess, and which this world of sin rejects on the premise that the world knows better than God – which is nothing less than sacrilege.
That’s why it is visible now when such people lack the virtues that were in times past common and given by God to those who are true to Him, they lack the resolve also to increase in them and to please God in their lives and their true belief and profession of the true religion God has revealed….and so God is offended and His wrath will befall this world for exactly this offense, and communism is the tool of this Divine punishment of this world and Russia is the vehicle of it, as Our Lady of Fatima confirms,
A brief good video by Victor Davis Hanson about Trump’s firing of top military leaders. “This is not the politicalization of the Pentagon. It’s the depoliticalization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6ievfnMGtg
So Jeff, let me know if I’m understanding you correctly from these two videos. Are you saying that you believe that Russia has given nuclear weapons to Iran, and has possibly directed Trump to bomb Iran, before May 4, under the guise of eliminating a perceived nuclear threat to Israel, in order to set up a situation where Russia would be justified in preemptively firing SS-27s from Belarus into any European nuclear power, or any country where the US has stationed nuclear weapons, to similarly eliminate a perceived nuclear threat to its national security? And are you saying that this could conceivably happen sometime before the Zapad exercises in September, in preparation for an invasion of the Baltics, Finland and Poland? Is this all correct, or am I misunderstanding anything?
I do not think they are directing Trump exactly. He is not that kind of person. I initially thought they would influence him to attack. But this is very confusing because his pro-Russia advisors went against the bombing of Iran. I am dumbfounded. Nothing makes sense at the moment regarding Iran.
Do you think there’s any chance they actually intend for Iran to bomb Israel using the Russian nukes?
If the Russians transfered nukes to the Iranians, which is what Wheelbarger alleges, then the nukes have the Russian permissive action codes. They cannot be activated without Russian persmission.
And Russian advisors alongside the nukes so that the timing is not according to what Iran wants when to use them, but what and when Moscow commands them to be used. This is the essence of communist operations, strict discipline.
or to use them against the US targets, as Russians can transfer their long-range ICBMs into Iran also, in parts and in containers etc. – the possibilities are not very limited.
Moscow may be holding Iran in reserve, which would mean they are coordinating the whole situation, which Moscow holds their surrogates firmly under strict rule, and so this would mean they are not yet willing to begin, or there will be another operational part of the attack that is not yet clear, which Moscow plots and wants to execute.
Even if we forget all the red flags about Trump, one thing is certain – just using the Catholic Faith, because he has failed to act several times when it was required of him to use his presidential autority to uphold justice and the US Constitution and the Divine Law also – as St. James says in his Epistle – To one therefore knowing to do good, and not doing it, to him it is a sin. (St. James 4 : 17).
Trump was obligated to uphold justice when Biden stolen the presidency from him, and Trump was obligated to help such a nation as Ukraine against the Russian communist agressor, and instead he is forcing the Russian evils upon Zelensky without any shame….which is not what God commands to be done – when a man has the chance to do good, he must be doing it, otherwise he offends God and sins greatly. And other such like examples, which could easily be named.
For Trump now is to make certain that the situation is not become too obvious, so there will be certain ways how to make some concessions to the truth and justice, but overall, the whole truth and justice, as for example naming Russia as the communist terrorist country it is, alongside China of course, guilty of communist subversion and now biological warfare attack and nuclear war threats against the US etc., that Trump will most likely not say – and he will not say that there was never any true collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR either….because if he said this, many people would finally wake up and realized that the whole deal is Russian communist deception.
This, poor Lady from the Garage, is bearing witness to the truth, not stirring anything, people have their free will, but they have to know that God has the consequences of the choice peple make and that denial ot the truth and mortal sins do not pay.
We mere mortals do not know as much as we like to think.
To one therefore knowing to do good, and not doing it, to him it is a sin. (St. James 4 : 17). – and also in Isaias it is writen “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter…” (Isaias 5 : 20).
God puts the limits for the human soul to obey and what the soul can and cannot do and there are Divine consequences to the choices, either a reward (provided the truth about God is believed and professed), or punishment when the person is neglecting to learn the truth or rejecting it on premise that the free will of a man is superior to the Laws of God, which of course is a blasphemous attack on God and sacrilege, which God will not tolerate.
And this is how one can judge the actions of another, by using the Laws of God as the guiding principles, but we are never alllowed to judge the character nor internal reasons of another, that belongs to God only.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Bearing witness to the fact and the truth is not hypocrisy but conforming to the very essence of God Who is the Truth – and BTW nobody is forcing you to believe what you don’t want to believe, you have your own free will, God has the consequences of what you choose to believe and what is is is not the truth….
We should be careful about condemning others.
When they mislead, then it is not condemnation, but correction, which in fact is obligatory, and it is also called fraternal correction as well, it is an act of charity towards them to realize that they are wrong.
Concerned, are you a closet Lutheran, trying to reform the church from within, just like Luther tried to do until he was excommunicated by a corrupt pope? Your railing against the current corrupt leadership of the church, plus repeated references to Scripture, makes it appear that you are a closet Lutheran.
Just wondering.
SPEAKING OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS:
According to the Pakistani minister of information, Pakistani officials have assessed that India will conduct a “military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours.”
While no specific information and/or intelligence was provided in the statement, Indian decision-makers have reportedly given the Indian armed forces the option to decide on the nature of a response to the Pahalgam attack that sparked this most recent spat between the two nuclear armed powers. Both sides have surged military equipment to border areas in the past week as reports of tit-for-tat clashes between border forces continue.
Additional:
Interestingly enough, the Pakistani minister chose the term “military strike” and this could alude to the limited nature of potential Indian military actions, as the minister does not seem to be warning about a significant Indian ground operation—something many people have feared due to the buildup by both nations in the past week.
However in an update since the original statement by the Pakistani minister of information;
In a more fleshed-out statement, the Pakistani Minister of Information Attullah Tarar’s statement regarding their assessment of Indian military actions has been revised to say “military action” instead of the more specific “military strike” from the earlier, now deleted release. The release still promises retaliation to any military action against Pakistan by India.
Additionally, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby met with Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Vinay Mohan Kwatra today to discuss Indo-American defense ties, and it’s likely the ongoing situation with Pakistan was discussed as well. It’s yet unclear if U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to his Indian and Pakistani counterparts, but the State Department has confirmed that said calls could take place as early as today or tomorrow.
Jonathan Fink mentioned something about hoping for revolution in Belarus. I am very sceptical about that. Lukashenko regime is far worse even than Russian. His system is closer to that of North Korea, in the way how opposition just can’t survive. Lukashenko is the longest serving head of state in post communist countries, former Soviet republics.
If in Russia they put only a small percentage of opposition activists to prison, just to scare everybody else into obedience, in Belarus they try to hunt down every single one. To me it is one of the scariest post soviet countries, even though it is clean and very orderly and very nice people live there under this terrible regime.
I have corresponded with people in Belarus. They do not describe the country as being like North Korea. I think we have to be careful about such comparisons.
I did not say Belarus is like North Korea. I said it is closer to it than even Russia.
Jeff, Is there a search button on your blog? I remember that either you wrote about or comments were made about Muslims and Sharia law and mosques in America. I know that they are taking over the U.K. but I have been reading lately that their power and influence is increasing here and they are opening new mosques and calling for jihad. I am also curious if the Chinese consider them a threat in America.
I have not commented on Islam much, except in my first essay here. Scroll all the way back to 2019. It was not specific, though. I only touch on it. Some things are too obvious for comment.
Okay,. Thanks
You also spoke of it some in The Fool and His Enemy.
I did.
Here is my original, authentic and authorised German translation of it (that didn’t see the light of day back in 2016 as initially planned – as the hilllbilly “publisher” saw himself entitled to single-handedly bring down my fine translation to his own miserable Swabianness – I only changed the title so as to be left alone by the perpetrator of this entire saga):
https://jrnyquistdeutsch.wordpress.com/narrentum-am-abgrund-eine-diagnose/
CMA, if you type “JRNyquist” and the other search terms (“Islam,” etc.) in on Google, it works about as well as a search function on the blog itself.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the American (and South-Vietnamese) defeat in the Vietnam War. What a horrible date to remember …
One of the many musical documents from this time of misguided pro-communist “pacifism”: Weather Report’s 1972 album, “I Sing the Body Electric”. The first piece is titled “Unknown Soldier”:
It is horrible indeed.
In times of confusion, we need clarity, not chaos. If we believe everyone is a traitor and no leader can be trusted, we risk national paralysis which is what China and Russia would love to see. There is one thing that I wanted to straighten out since this column is supposed to encourage thoughtful discourse based on accurate information, Concerned made an error when he wrote, “If Trump was on the level, he would retake the Bahrain AFB in Afghanistan and get those millions of weapons and equipment, and he’s not doing it.” There is no US base in Bahrain abandoned like Bagram in Afghanistan. It seems Concerned is sowing confusion or deliberate disinformation.
Now regarding the base in Afghanistan called Bagram Airfield.
It is quite possible that Trump is planning to retake it. This needs to be watched. There are reports on April 9, a military C-17 aircraft landed at Bagram with CIA agents, sparking speculation about U.S. intentions to retake the base. https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2025/04/08/taliban-hands-bagram-back-to-u-s-for-high-tech-operations/
Trump always has said that Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was the most embarrassing moment in US military history. I am sure Trump plans to address this, and this report indicates he is in the process. Again, if he were a Communist, Trump would not be doing this.
Concerned is trying to control the narrative of this blog, and I for one am weary of it. I don’t want to see my friends here deluded by anybody. I am not here to defend Trump, I am here to defend the truth, due process, disciplined reasoning and constructive patriotism.
Not true what you wrote, you can post whatever opinion you have, but you have attacked this posting by your assertions about this author possibly being a communist, and this is an entirely different matter and an insult – and we do forgive you.
The name Bagram or Bagraim or whatever, just because it was mispelled, that means that the point is not true either – are you serious ?
So what has Trump done in that regard so far – nothing. China controls it and all he would be able to do is to increase the tariffs, that’s about it. He was the one who began the removal of the US military from Afganistan BTW, and Biden only finished the job. Trump is not claiming that he would have kept Bagran (or Bahrain) but he didn’t fire Milley when Milley was caught to communicate with the CCP criminals about informing them of US war plans to attack China – so how does this fit the good opinion about Trump you might have Ma’am ?
The definition of the controlled opposition the communists set up is that this false opposition are never to do any substantial damage to the communists strategy nor to the execution of the communist operations, but always to take substantial steps to satisfy the narrative that they, this false opppition, is doing the right thing, the compromise must remain or else Moscow wouldn’t be able to continue their operations and they would have been recognized…and dealt with.
Moreover a leader that is faiing to act when it is required of him to act, in defense of the country, of justice and of the truth, he is no longer a good leader but a very evil enemy. And such wrong steps must be exposed or else the lie will succeed (which involves the victory of communism at the end) and many people will die because of a bad leadership…
TYPO – Trump is NOW claiming that he would have kept Bagran (or Bahrain)…AND TO ADD to it – but that is too late, and it would have been strategic advantage for the US dfeenses because of its strategic position right between Russian and Chinese borders and region…and so Trump wanted to “end the wars” and bring the soldiers home, at the cost to national security and then he allowed the KGB electoral fraud Biden to take over, knowing full well that Biden will not continue anything Trump was doing well, and so Bagram belongs to the CCP now and the MOscow rules Taliban – which fact that MOscow is in charge of the Taliban Trump had not mentioned either…and for the same reasons as were explained before.
CONCERNED: Let’s bring this debate to a close. We are not going to get anywhere with this infighting.
I am deleting religious and theological posts because we should not be inflaming religious passions here.
I agree. I am engaging CONCERNED now on the Churchill issue. I think the details will prove enlightening when put in a certain light.