by Jimmie Moglia for The Saker Blog Sooner or later it was inevitable that the capitulation of the Vatican to the demands of a decadent culture and of powerful enemies would awaken the trumpet of sedition inside the Catholic Church. As readers may already know, Cardinal Viganò recently wrote an open letter to Pope Francis asking him to resign. I will attempt to show the link connecting that letter to
Freedom and Other Illusions – Excursions into what used to be called “high versus low culture” (or, illusions concerning American art) With a view of art as revolt / counter-revolt / et cetera by David A. Powell for The Saker Blog Part 2 of 3 parts “The counter concept to popular culture is art. Today artistic products are losing the character of spontaneity more and more and are being replaced
by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with Consortium News by special agreement with the author) Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism, writes Pepe Escobar. Nothing less than the future of politics across the West – and across the Global South – is being played out in Brazil. Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian
by David A. Powell for The Saker Blog Part 1 of 3 parts As I began writing this essay, my first thoughts went something like this: I could attempt to write something on the illusion of freedom; on the reasons that this illusion is far worse than an actual absence of freedom. But who would understand me? Who knows today the state which is furthest away from an absence of
by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker Blog As the observers and analysts of events in the Middle East were busy looking at the aftermath of the downing of the IL-20 and the deployment of the S-300 in Syria, a great new danger is now looming. President Assad issued a legislative decree (Decree No 16) and which is intended to reform the ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments). The “Awqaf” is a
By Rostislav Ishchenko Translated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard cross posted with http://www.stalkerzone.org/rostislav-ishchenko-bartholomews-exarchs-and-poroshenkos-destabilisation-policy/ source: http://alternatio.org/articles/articles/item/63489-tuchi-hodyat-hmuro Poroshenko decided to build his electoral campaign on the destabilisation of the country. This move could be effective, although extremely risky if Petro Poroshenko understood what game he started and if he is ready to go all the way. In principle destabilisation is necessary in order to receive a quasi-lawful pretext to cancel elections,
By Nat South for The Saker Blog This is the second part in a series that looks behind the scenes, at particular aspects of trade, shipping and transport involving Russia. This analysis was partially written back in spring 2018, before taking academia seriously for a while. Historically & to this day the US depends on the Mahan theory of sea route control and control of significant maritime chokepoints for power
By Ollie Richardson for The Saker Blog The person reading this article has most likely seen some form of re-enactment of a Roman trireme navigating some waters and being surrounded by fog, not being able to see further than 1km around them and thus possessing limited knowledge about what lies beyond the “draw distance” provided by their cerebrum. It is this fear (and handicap when it comes to survival) that
by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) Belt and Road Initiative is a strategic axis embodying the organizing Chinese foreign policy concept for the next three decades The New Silk Roads symbolize way more than high-speed rail lines crisscrossing Eurasia, or a maze of highways, pipelines and port connectivity. They represent a Chinese alliance with at least 65 participating nations, responsible for 62%
[this article was written for the Unz Review] This week Russian officials declared that the delivery of S-300s for Syria was completed and that this first batch included 49 pieces of “military equipment”, including radars, control vehicles and four launchers. Russian officials added that, if needed, this figure could be increased to 8-12 launchers. Defense Minister Shoigu added that “the measures we will take will be devoted to ensure 100
By Vladimir Kornilov Translated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard cross posted with http://www.stalkerzone.org/russia-nato-macedonia-sanctions/ source: https://ria.ru/analytics/20181002/1529760670.html The European Union, the leadership of NATO, and the US State Department summed up the results of the referendum that took place in the small Balkan country of Macedonia. Or more precisely, which didn’t take place. As a reminder: most of the citizens of this country want to be in the EU. The West
by Dr. Naresh Jotwani for The Saker Blog The English word ‘gut’ is rich in its range of meanings. In Biology, ‘gut’ means ‘intestine’ – as in ‘gut bacteria’ or ‘gutting a fish’; this meaning extends to the racquet strings used in sports such as tennis and badminton. In common usage, ‘guts’ refers to ‘courage’, as in ‘having the guts to take on the huge challenge of _______’ (fill in
by GH Eliason for the Saker Blog On September 28th, Lugansk Peoples Republic (LNR)Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Soroka and Andrey Chernov gave a presentation unveiling a photo album entitled Unanounced war. This collection of 150 images details the war crimes by the Ukrainian government during the war from 2014-2018. Over the last 4 years, many journalists including myself reported on the war crimes committed by Ukrainian punisher battalions and sometimes
The opinions of reviewers who read the book varies from ‘Wow, that’s an extremely energizing book!” to “Thank you very much for this. A brilliant satirical work. Hope it gets exposure.” It’s hard to find a great political satire book, it’s even harder to come across of a satirical work about a war. The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, comes to mind, and Catch–22 by Joseph Heller, and not
Question: As an Orthodox Christian in America we are taught to almost worship our Bishops, and they can do no wrong. We are to strictly obey them unless they ask us to break the law, or hurt someone. However, what happens when they err? What is one to do? As a struggling Orthodox Christian in America I would appreciate advice from other Orthodox Christians. Iconodule (this question was originally posted
On the topic of the Russia-Israel-Syria affair, which has culminated in the downing of a Russian Il-20 on September 17th just off the coast of Latakia… by Ollie Richardson for The Saker Blog I will first start this article by saying that I have read, both intentionally and unintentionally (stumbled upon), lots and lots of opinions about this specific topic. The main bulk of these opinions recycle the usual blaming of
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog I had a summer vacation this year, and I got so incredibly bored I started to dabble in masochism. By that I mean that I decided to tune into The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast by MSNBC from the US. I haven’t watched her for years (or ever, really) but since the election of Donald Trump Rachel Maddow has become the figurehead of a
by LeDahu for The Saker Blog https://journal-neo.org/2018/09/27/an-ever-increasing-number-of-military-ships-arrives-to-the-eastern-meddit/ The last couple weeks in the Eastern Mediterranean could remind a casual observer of some sort of a military parade, with members of the US-led coalition bringing an ever increasing number of military assets to the region. The number of warships flying various flags being dispatched as a show of force to the Eastern Mediterranean has been increasing on a daily basis. The warships
[Note: this analysis has been written for the Unz Review] Warning: the following text was written specifically to help Christians make sense of the “hijacked vocabulary” used in the discussion of the current attempts by the Empire to take control of the Orthodox people of the Ukraine. For atheists/agnostics this discussion will offer just some irrelevant and boring mumbo-jumbo with no relevance to the lofty realms of enlightened modern positivism.
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog One would think that if economic austerity had ended, it would be trumpeted loudly? After all, it has been going on for so long, is so hugely despised, is such an economic failure, and has been the source of so many protests, arrests, tear-gassings, water cannoning, police violence and – certainly – deaths due to the lack of adequate health care, suicides due
