vxbush 5/12/2026 6:19:18 AM

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I haven't checked in on Ukraine in a few days, so what do I find but.... Diminutive Dictator Zelensky Is Now Shutting Down Churches In the Name of Democracy.

It's important to note that in 2019, three years before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople granted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (UOC) its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate.

In signing the new law into effect in 2024, Zelensky said, “Today taking a step toward liberation from Moscow's devils." When Zelensky made the announcement, the UOC said that it had already severed all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2023, the year before, over Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Needless to say, Zelensky and his henchmen either never quite believed the UOC or they just don't like Christianity (or both), and so on May 11, 2026, Ukrainian storm troopers descended upon the UOC’s St. Michael Monastery, and according to reports, forcibly removed parishioners, volunteers, and clergy.

I wouldn't call Ukraine a democracy based on this. But I'm not a politician. 

vxbush 5/12/2026 6:22:41 AM

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Eileen Wang, the 58-year old mayor of Arcadia, California has plead guilty to federal charges that accused the public official of acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.

How long will it take before several others (cough BIDEN cough) are arrested? 

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 7:00:32 AM

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In #1 vxbush said: I wouldn't call Ukraine a democracy based on this. But I'm not a politician.

Another source  (from a left-of-center outlet, different from but utterly-unlike pjmedia)

25 years ago, Ukraine was already known as the most-corrupt part of the then-fragmented Soviet Union.  The Beltway, right and left, wanted Ukraine inside NATO as a way of competing against the EU.  The word was, bring it into NATO and the corruption would be purified.

Zelensky was a mere celebrity when elected, with a proven history of corruption.  A year or so ago, he tried to restrict the operations of Ukraine's anti-corruption bureaus.  The public backlash made the international headlines.  (The "Politico" op-ed column gets that event wrong, kissing Z's butt.)

JCM 5/12/2026 7:41:34 AM

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I've been slacking.... fighting a nasty cold with stuffed up nose.

JCM 5/12/2026 7:44:05 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

I'm not supporting Ukraine per se. I do see it as stopping Putin's aggression. It's cold, it's calculating. Let Russia spend itself on Ukraine and avoid a wider European war.

JCM 5/12/2026 8:23:01 AM

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The Stunning Plan To Reverse The Supreme Court of Virginia: Lower The Retirement Age to 54, "Retire" The Justices In The Majority, Install Cronies To Uphold New Map

In other words, the legislature would "retire" all of the Justices in the majority, install cronies to the court, have the court invalidate the independent legislation commission due to the lack of notice, then enact a new map. And all of this could be done before the August primary. Simple, right?

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 9:37:53 AM

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Welcome to America

This much like what I posted about a few days ago.  Again, it's local.  I've driven thru that little town 200 times over the past decade.  It's not "rural" (more like back-40 suburban), but a 170'steeple of that size would be twice as tall as the only multi-story office building in the town.  Immensely self-inflated - which is exactly what that particular congregation wants.

Anymore in post-modern culture, few know or care about the differences between the definitions of cap-R Religion and personal spiritual faith.  What's on the outside is what matters.

It's cultural.  It's Gramsci, but it's NOT left-wing.  It's right smack in the middle of what's now called "conservatism".

Kosh's Shadow 5/12/2026 12:02:34 PM

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Reply to preBoomer-Marinebrat in 7:

Mormons require their churches to be higher than others, but they don't kill non-Mormons.

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 12:22:05 PM

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In #8 Kosh's Shadow said: Mormons require their churches to be higher than others

Then a lot of them (perhaps most) were built wrong.

And what does the second have to do with it?  Are we getting back to Revobob?

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 12:25:55 PM

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In #8 Kosh's Shadow said: Mormons require their churches to be higher than others

I was specifically referring to that congregation.  They already have a substantial church, and a rather large chidrens' private school, on property directly adjacent to where they want to build that cathedral.  That is why there's a lot of opposition in Fairview town.

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 1:29:44 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 8:
Maybe it was my fault for not giving more details.

That church's leadership implies (according to that newspaper article) that there is only one other LDS church in the Dallas metroplex.  In fact, there are 14 within 10 miles of that church, which is number 15.  This isn't the first time that the Fairview church's people have done that sort of thing.  It's been going on for a year.

There are also that many Muslim mosques, and one rather sizeable religious college within that distance.  So why aren't there dead people laying all over the North Dallas pavement?  There's a small neighborhood mosque 2 miles from my house, so why am I not dead?  You know nothing about me.

vxbush 5/12/2026 1:58:05 PM

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preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 2:26:25 PM

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In #12 vxbush said: Is that of a piece with what you are describing here?

Sounds like it.

The thing I DON'T know is the pseudo-theological stance of the Plano "EPIC" mosque leadership.  The problem is because today's Islam is as fractured as European Christianity was 4 centuries ago.  There are people on this blog who don't give a damn about that.  They consider that "the only good Muslim is a dead one."

Kosh's Shadow 5/12/2026 5:37:26 PM

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Reply to preBoomer-Marinebrat in 13:

9/11, I was working for an American-Israeli company, and my immediate VP was a Muslim from India. He was clear about how he felt about people abusing his religion to carry out terrorist acts.

But Islam does need a reformation.

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 6:40:46 PM

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In #14 Kosh's Shadow said: Islam does need a reformation

Absolutely it does!!!!

Caliph Umar deliberately "modified" the original faith, to make it into a hard-shell authoritarian creed which could be used to control his empire-building armies.  The "official" Quran (extremely heavily modified, for the same purpose) was published 4 decades after Mohammad's death.  The Hadith were composed then too, for the same purpose.

(The stories of the Trench, of Mohammad as a warrior, are utterly fake, created after Mohammad's death for Umar's purpose.)

There was substantial debate inside Islam about all that for about 4 centuries.  The most significant debaters were the Mu'tazilis, who were (like early Christianity) heavily influences by Greek and other sources.  Then the Ash'arite hardliners gained Caliphate approval to shut down all such debate, freezing "Islam" in what Umar had originally wanted it to be.

My saying Islam is fractured like during the Lutheran Reformation is an inaccurate attempt at metaphor.

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha.  British-trained, Sudanese engineer.  Also a significant writer on religious subjects.  Published that the Medina chapters of the Quran did not apply to Islam as a whole, ripping Caliph Umar out of the "official" Quran.  He was executed in the mid-1980s.  Sudan's hardcore military flew his corpse out in the desert and buried him in an unmarked grave.

There have been thousands of Tahas over the centuries, all of them killed by tribal-istic hardliners.  I could fill a 50 page document with historical and present-day data on the topic.

Revobob threw death threats at me, not having the brains (or the guts) to understand any of that.  The reason I left a decade ago wasn't just that he'd gotten hold of my email.  He'd also "acquired" my home mailing address and my telephone number, and I suspected that another commenter at C2 had given them to him.

Kosh's Shadow 5/12/2026 6:58:24 PM

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Reply to preBoomer-Marinebrat in 15:

I don't want to kill all Muslims - just the ones who want to kill all Jews. Same for atheists.

If someone wants to kill me and my kind, I want them dead.

Based on behavior and possible action, not religion

preBoomer-Marinebrat 5/12/2026 7:05:32 PM

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In #16 Kosh's Shadow said:  .......... behavior ......... not religion

I agree.