Windows to Russia
Boza being blind spends most of his time following my footsteps. He is good at it. I can move even a few feet left or right and he follows me where I walk. Walking is good and even if walking is not as it was in the past, walking is good for body, mind and soul…
This is Russia a Tiny Russian Village and Boza and I live there much of a year. Life is good here…
Lets walk!
WtR
Guilt by association is insidious because it can’t be cleared in court.The claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election are now known as RussiaGate, in a loose reference to the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s.In the U.S., the issue has been poisoned by profound partisanship: those who feel disenfranchised by the election of Donald Trump are trying to use RussiaGate to unseat or cripple the Trump presidency, while those who elected Trump feel RussiaGate is nothing but an attempt by the corrupt status quo to disenfranchise them.Let’s see if we can clarify the issues with some key questions.1. Did Russia meddle in the 2016 U.S. election? This is the entire thing in a nutshell. But this raises a second question: did Russia successfully meddle in the 2016 U.S. election? In other words, we have two investigations: one to identify verifiable, legally actionable evidence of meddling, and a second investigation into the effects of any meddling–should evidence arise that would stand up in court.2. What federal laws or statutes were broken? This is a serious charge, and the first step in any investigation is to nail down precisely what federal laws were broken?The next step is to assemble evidence for the criminal activity that will stand up in court.3. What standard of evidence/proof is required in a federal court to convict the accused? Is intent a necessary component of the laws that were broken? What precisely constitutes burden of proof? It isn’t enough to accuse persons unknown of wrong-doing: the precise laws that were broken must be identified and the case against specific individuals must be built on verifiable evidence that will stand up in federal court.Recall that this is not about partisan talking points–it’s about justice. Those who reckon justice counts for nothing in this investigation disqualify themselves. If justice no longer matters in America, there is no America left to defend.4. If incontrovertible evidence of Russian meddling arose in 2016, why did the federal agencies under the Obama administration (Department of Justice, F.B.I., etc.) do nothing? While we can cook up various theories, the common-sense conclusion is 1. no federal laws were broken and/or 2) there was insufficient evidence that would stand up in court.5. Precisely what meddling occurred? Somebody meeting with a Russian does not constitute proof of anything. rather, this is the classic witch-hunt accusation of the McCarthyite “Red Scare” of the 1950s–guilt by association: you were seen conversing with a Communist, thus you must also be a Communist–or at a minimum, you are tainted by association and thus under a cloud of suspicion that can never be cleared because no accusation of guilt in a court of law is ever made.Guilt by association is insidious because it can’t be cleared in court. Those accused of guilt by association are not innocent until proven guilty–they are guilty until proven innocent, a proof that can never satisfy the accusers.A precisely defined chain of verifiable actions is required to prove meddling beyond reasonable doubt. So date, all the accusations have failed to meet this most fundamental standard of evidence of wrong-doing.As for the claim that “all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concur that blah-blah blah”– Where precisely is the evidence? If there is no verifiable evidence and no chain of events that can be substantiated with hard evidence that will stand up in federal court, then all we really have is accusations of guilt by association, i.e. a witch-hunt.6. What evidence supports the claim that Russian meddling actually influenced the election? The claim that Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee emails has fallen apart for lack of evidence; it now seems clear that the hack was an inside-the-DNC whistleblowing incident.As for the claim that Russian meddling negatively impacted the campaign of Hillary Clinton: the most damaging bits were all verifiably accurate in the public record:— The Podesta emails were in fact Podesta emails.— The video of candidate Clinton apparently collapsing on the curb was not fabricated; it was a video recorded by an amateur bystander.— Reports of pay-to-play and other unsavory activities within the Clinton Foundation predate the election by years.— Candidate Clinton’s comments on “deplorables” were her own words.Again, standards of evidence and proof of guilt of federal crimes require a precise chain of events and actions for which there is evidence that will stand up in federal court, , i.e. evidence that will persuade a jury or federal judge and that can withstand cross-examination and the inquiries of experts hired by the defense.Given the absolute paucity of actionable, verifiable evidence to date, RussiaGate is so far nothing but a series of unsupported accusations of guilt by association, i.e. a witch-hunt. This is why some in the mainstream media have characterized the whole thing as a “nothing-burger.”Compare RussiaGate to Watergate. Watergate was always about compiling evidence of activities that violated federal laws. People who broke federal laws were identified, evidence was compiled and presented in a court of law where the accused were able to defend themselves against an indictment presented by federal prosecutors. Some were acquitted, many were convicted, others plea-bargained a conviction with a reduced sentence.Those making accusations in RussiaGate must now put up or shut up: either present the evidence that supports federal indictments, or confess to the pursuit of a witch hunt, i.e. unsubstantiated accusations of guilt by association. Anything less than the presentation of actionable evidence that leads to indictments and convictions is not justice–it’s just another witch-hunt that besmirches everyone who participates in the witch-hunt.
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Kind of tells it like it is…
WtR
Many do not like how and why I write. Many tell me so in very nasty words, actions and expressions. The anti Russian demons have made life very interesting, especially for someone who really knows Russia like I do. I am a serious threat to the anti Russia crowd. Yet I should not be a threat, I should be a voice to help span the gap created by piss poor politics and ignorance between two wonderful countries…
I received: interaction email with donation that made me think…
Keep writing. Whether I agree or not, doesn’t matter. You have an unique voice, from an unique place, with an unique perspective, at an unique time.
Strange thing to me is that neither side uses my uniqueness within my situation and perspective and tries to garner some sort of connection to twine the two countries together…. This is a fact that while Russia does not attack me for things I say, nor do they embrace me for anything I say. America hates me for what I say and are unable to embrace me for my ability to span a chasm of antipathetic feelings…
Other words I do not meet the agenda on either side…
What I do meet is my agenda and I simply write whatever I feel like and or about writing. I really do not take in consideration if you care to read it or not. I simply write what bothers, interests and irritates me…. and or what is happening around the Russia I live in…
Believe you me, there is a bunch less things about Russia that irritates me than America. Why should Russia? If I was happy with America 60 years ago, then I am darn for sure happy with a Russia, literally like the past America. That is the point I have made many times. Russia is very safe and secure within its peoples rights and freedoms. This cannot be said anymore about an America that jolts at its own shadow, when even the light is turned on…
But…
All that and whatever said, I do not feel unique in anyway. I feel worried, tired and just want to see the world get along. I want to see the rich get off their high horse and come out of the clouds. I want to see people on welfare get off their ass and work for a living. I want to see military’s stop attacking others just to propagate its own existence. I want…… (But yes we do live in a very unique time in history. lets hope that uniqueness does not kill us all!)
Does not matter does it? What I want, no more than it matters what you want. Maybe you want twenty locks on your door to protect against the boogeyman? I do not! For my beliefs are that if I live in a world that needs twenty locks, walls, fences and guards? Then my world is not right and I need a change to a better world…
I guess in one way I am unique…
I do truly love Russia. That statement alone makes me unique. It also makes me hated and hate is such a harsh word and a word we use too lightly at any given moment in life, within the western aspect of things…
I love my Russian girl who has stood by my side through thick and thin. I love the freedom I have in Russia. I love the liberty that abounds in Russia. I love to watch people that are walking, talking and living in that freedom. They (Russians) really do not know how good they have it right now in this moment of history. They are very intellectual, but they are like most on the worlds surface, the trees are in the way of the forest…. For I have seen the lose of freedoms first hand and watched Lady Liberty being stripped searched, unto her death…
I like this quote as a closing thought…
He would see civilization in danger of perishing under the oppression of a gigantic paradox: he would see multitudes of people starving in the midst of plenty, and nations preparing for war although pledged to peace. – Arthur Henderson
Yes he would…. and yes we do just that; everyday of our lives…
WtR
By John Stanton
“The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which over-arches rulers and ruled alike. Subjectivism about values is eternally incompatible with democracy. We and our rulers are of one kind only so long as we are subject to one law. But if there is no Law of Nature, the ethos of any society is the creation of its rulers, educators and conditioners; and every creator stands above and outside his creation.”
“We should value those who solicit our votes by other standards than have recently been in fashion. While we believe that good is something to be invented, we demand of our rulers such qualities as “vision,” “dynamism,” “creativity,” and the like. If we returned to the objective view we should demand qualities much rarer, and much more beneficial – virtue, knowledge, diligence and skill. Vision is for sale, or claims to be for sale, everywhere. But give me a man who will do a day’s work for a day’s pay, who will refuse bribes, who will not make up his facts, and who has learned his job.” The Poison of Subjectivism, CS Lewis
CS Lewis has a great point. Everywhere in the United States the disease of subjectivism is present. The evidence abounds: The polarization of the political system; the dismissal of history because of discomfort with historical facts; “trigger” warnings for literary texts that offend sensibility; the vicious censure befalling authors for developing literary characters of a different race or ethnic experience, applying the rules of law for some and not others; or disavowing a higher spiritual power of some sort.
Be forewarned that going forward, every individual and in-group in the United States is cautioned to stay in their own lane with their own histories. In this new American society you run the danger of being pilloried if you express an opinion outside your own individual/in-group reality. The reasoning goes something like this: “You weren’t there, how can you have an opinion on that?” The response might be, “Sure, I wasn’t around when Alexander the Great was rampaging across the world, but I have some opinion based on studies I’ve done.” And the response you’re likely to get these days is, “No good, you are not Macedonian.”
Make America What?
This calls into question the very notion of what it means to be an American. Is there such a thing as the United States? What does anyone have in common any longer? It is as if “the educators, conditioners and creators”, that Lewis refers to, have tried to apply the Many World’s Theory from Quantum Mechanics in creating and managing society, a society in which all possible outcomes are sought and all outcomes are obtained, each in a different world/reality that only you and your in-group are aware of.
In this new American society “reality” exists at two different poles. One reality seeks shelter in its own individual/in-group world and is content to live a two dimensional as described in Edwin Abbott Abbott’s Flatland. They are not aware that they are being manipulated by realities at the other end of the pole and shun those who posit that such manipulation exists or even in the reality of other worlds.
At the other pole exists a “reality” in which the individual/in-group are able to create ever more realities in which compasses show no direction, alternative histories exist and problems/issues are dealt with by wiping one reality out for another. Every day is new, yesterday is forgotten, fads and technology appear and disappear, politicians and corporate heads sell vision and disruption, you create your own news and reality; and, well, hubris leads humanity to believe it is the highest order species in any world or universe.
Excess and Passivity
According to William James in his lecture The Dilemma of Determinism, “Subjectivism everywhere fosters the fatalistic mood of mind. It makes those who are already too inert more passive still; it renders wholly reckless those whose energy is already in excess. All through history we find how subjectivism, as soon as it has a free career, exhausts itself in every sort of spiritual, moral, and practical license. Its optimism turns to an ethical indifference, which infallibly brings dissolution in its train. It transforms life from a tragic reality into an insincere melodramatic exhibition, as foul or as tawdry as anyone’s diseased curiosity pleases to carry it out.”
“I have heard a graduate of this very school express in the pulpit his willingness to sin like David, if only he might repent like David. You may tell me he was only sowing his wild, or rather his tame, oats; and perhaps he was. But the point is that in the subjectivistic oat-sowing, wild or tame, it becomes a systematic necessity and the chief function of life. After the pure and classic truths, the exciting and rancid ones must be experienced; and if the stupid virtues of the philistine herd do not then come in and save society from the influence of the children of light, a sort of inward putrefaction becomes its inevitable doom.”
Subjectivism will destroy the country unless some commonalities are agreed upon to unite the country. Who does not long, as CS Lewis said, for “Virtue, knowledge, diligence and skill. Vision is for sale, or claims to be for sale, everywhere. But give me a man who will do a day’s work for a day’s pay, who will refuse bribes, who will not make up his facts, and who has learned his job.”
This is no call for a return to the “good old days” in which slavery, racism, anti-LGBTQ, and a “woman’s place in the kitchen” were widespread. What is needed is a set of beliefs or fundamentals that all citizens in the USA—human beings—can adhere too to find common bond. There must be ideals, codes that go beyond crass alliances that seek to cut taxes or undercut healthcare for the young and the old. Americans need to get out of their lanes and take care of each other.
As it stands now, it seems that Americans are segregated themselves into stovepipes, as if by some sort of invisible hand. What follows that is distasteful. Lewis warned that subjectivism is the mother of fascism. The “F” word is on a lot of people’s minds these days as authoritarian leadership seems to be on the upswing not only in the United States, but elsewhere in the world. New realities are being created.
“Many a popular “planner” on a democratic platform, many a mild-eyed scientist in a democratic laboratory means, in the last resort, just what the Fascist means. He believes that “good” means whatever men are conditioned to approve. He believes that it is the function of him and his kind to condition men; to create consciences by eugenics, psychological manipulation of infants, state education and mass propaganda. Because he is confused, he does not yet fully realize that those who create conscience cannot be subject to conscience themselves. But he must awake to the logic of his position sooner or later; and when he does, what barrier remains between us and the final division of the race into a few conditioners who stand themselves outside morality and the many conditioned in whom such morality as the experts choose is produced at the experts’ pleasure?” CS Lewis
John Stanton can be reached at jstantonarchangel@gmail.com
Time to sit down, cut the chains and sip a good cup of coffee and or tea…
Then get up and get our act together, toss the scum out of our lives and get off our ass, pull up our boot straps and tighten the belt. Then support ourselves and family the good ole fashion way. By hard work…
I tell you what…
America needs a huge ass, “Barn Raising…”
A barn raising, also historically called a raising bee or rearing in the U.K., is a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community. Barn raising was particularly common in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America. A barn was a necessary structure for any farmer, for example for storage of cereals and hay and keeping of animals. Yet a barn was also a large and costly structure, the assembly of which required more labor than a typical family could provide. Barn raising addressed the need by enlisting members of the community, unpaid, to assist in the building of their neighbors’ barns. Because each member was entitled to recruit others for help, the favor would eventually return to each participant.
I have actually helped at five actual barn raising situations in my life. Plus a whole bunch more raising businesses off the ground. But America needs a good ole grass root barn raising…. We need to build one huge ass barn and store our beginnings again in that. The old barn has become too top heavy and is going to fall over. Actually we have built a house of cards and there is a strong wind blowing our way. Build a new strong barn!
I know, I know! Use the iPhone to drive the nails…. It is all Russia’s fault…. Damn Russians…
Have a nice day and enjoy your coffee and or tea…
WtR
Thirteen plus Celsius this morning. Boza and I woke at 4 a.m. and we laid there wondering about getting up. Boza under the bed, cleaning his eyes and pawpaw’s and me happy because Svetochka was snoozing away next to me. But as it is ordained, the world keeps turning and time keeps flowing and all rotten bears and doggies must get up to face the morning a coming…
I swung my feet to the floor and instantly an always ready to walk doggy, popped out from under the bed. Just one thing had to be done before we walk. I had to do first drops in Boza’s eyes and then out the door…
Nothing else is important; Not that cup of coffee, Not any food, Not the internet and Not the fact Boza and I felt like squished bugs on a windshield. We go because we must and walk, we find our friends of the Tiny Russian Village…
Ralph the Raven yelled at us from his pine tree perch. A George the Shrike had a mouth full of bugs and very hungry birdbrains to feed them to. A kitty crossed our path at its peril, for Bear and Dog just love to find kitties. The frogs were hopping all over the roads, in their every year suicide wish to get to the other side. Mamma Eagle was screaming, Good Morning and yet she flew so high, no one could see exactly where she was, but we all could hear her…
Boza and I have an understanding that early morning is the best time to experience the Russian Village and it is our time and our friends time to be together. The sun is just touching the sky, trees and buildings. The air is always crisp and cool. Life is at its peak at three to five a.m.
Thus, it must be so, that we walk!
Have a nice day…
WtR
Lavrov wondered, “Decent and well brought-up people do not behave in such way.”
More:
[contentcards url=”http://tass.com/politics/956601″]
http://tass.com/politics/956601
Lavrov wondered, “Decent and well brought-up people do not behave in such way.”
And that my friends is how people, not just the Russians, but people all over the world, look at “us in the US of A…”
WtR
Hmm…
WtR
Boza and I are happy. Okay, well we may look grouchy, but we are happy…
Svetochka is coming tonight and that makes her boys happy. We are always happy when our girl comes and it looks like we will get the car this week. Then we travel back to Moscow and start the process to get Boza and his eye taken care of…
I have decided I want to put a patch of black leather over his bad eye… 😉
Tough doggy…
But Svetochka kinda thinks that I am not too smart to do that. But hey! Nothing is as tough looking as someone with an eye patch…. and or a hook for a hand or anything like that…
Gotta take life as it is…
Hurry Svetochka, your guys miss you…
WtR
Hmmm… uhh… so here’s Paul Begala, top Clinton ally, saying Trump should consider bombing Russia. https://t.co/2tW1gI0Uxh pic.twitter.com/wo9BmJPNDb
— Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) July 13, 2017
Hmm… Okay… so Paul Begala, top Clinton ally, saying Trump should consider bombing Russia. http://www.thedailybeast.com/clinton-ally-paul-begala-trump-should-consider-bombing-russia …
Let me give all the armchair generals, look the other way privates and cheerleaders of America a word of warning…
We bomb Russia and or China? They will together take our asses to the cleaner in the endeavor of retaliation and you will never have to use a stove or oven of any type, to pop your popcorn and heat your TV dinner. All you would have to do is set it outside and or actually let it sit in front of you while watching the reruns of “Married with Children” and eat it in a few minutes…
But then you could poke the damn turkey and find it done, as you sit there. Hell just check the pop up indicator. For we are the turkeys and may we become eagles to end this crap being spewed in our faces 24 hours a day!
We are not a sane country and the world is watching…
CNN allows someone to call for bombing Russia and it streams into millions and millions of homes at the nightly news. Good job people, keep it up!
WtR