Windows to Russia

Yes you read correctly!

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas or as known by; “Santa Claus” to many!

Saint Nicholas’ Day, observed on December 6 (in Western Christian countries) and 19 December (in Eastern Christian countries), is the feast day of Saint Nicholas.^[2] It is celebrated as a Christian festival with particular regard to his reputation as a bringer of gifts, as well as through the attendance of Mass or worship services.^[3][4] In Europe, especially in “Germany and Poland, boys would dress as bishops begging alms for the poor.”^[5] In Ukraine, children wait for St. Nicholas to come and to put a present under their pillows provided that the children were good during the year. Children who behaved badly may expect to find a twig or a piece of coal under their pillows. In the Netherlands, “Dutch children put out a clog filled with hay and a carrot for Saint Nicholas’ horse. On Saint Nicholas’ Day, gifts are tagged with personal humorous rhymes written by the sender.”^[6] In the United States, one custom associated with Saint Nicholas Day is children leaving their shoes in the foyer on Saint Nicholas Eve in hope that Saint Nicholas will place some coins on the soles, for them to awake to.^[2]

The American Santa Claus, as well as the British Father Christmas, derive in part from Saint Nicholas and in part from the Dutch Sinterklaas, the saint’s name in that language. However the gift giving associated with these descendant figures is associated with Christmas Day rather than Saint Nicholas Day itself.^[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas_Day

* * * * * * * * * *

I have to tell you something…

There must be a hundred people up the hill and it is snowing to beat the band. Father Pavel was in the bell tower ringing the bell and at -8 below, he had to have been freezing in the sleet, snow and hard wind. Vova is playing his church music full blast and it wafts all over the village. I have never seen anything like this, here we are in the middle of nowhere and there are people everywhere…

I thank God everyday for allowing me to have found Sveta and for her to allow me to live in the families village home. I am blessed and I know it. I just hope I am able to repay the debt I feel for all the blessings that I receive…

Learn something new everyday…

Church Holiday: Saint Nicholas’ Day…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

The White Home lady; pulling sled of wood…

Yesterday I met the lady at the white home. Boza and I were following her trail as she dragged her sled into the woods, back and forth, from home. We wanted to see what she was doing! We talked to her for a minute, when we found her on her way back from the woods. She had a sled full of wood. She gathers, cuts and splits all her own wood and she is over 80 years old…

She has plenty of wood for the winter and most likely for the next five winters in stock at home, but as I see and understand, gathering wood is kinda (a) full time job in the village. This amazing lady, walks at least five times a day, when it snows, to gather her wood from the leftovers of the illegal tree cutting by guys with big trucks, big chainsaws and big energy. These guys only want the main trunk of the tree and they do only cut dead trees. (Seasoned wood is the only wood for a fireplace.) Thus, I see no harm in what they do, but it is illegal, for it is a federal forest…

The white house lady gathers the scraps and puts them to use. I have done the same all summer and that is the best way to do it. She taught me to now look at what the guys are doing cutting trees and I am making plans to drag wood out of the forest myself now that I see the reasoning behind it…

When Sveta comes, her and I will gather some wood she found near the Fish Village. You can never have enough wood piled up to split for the winter. I watch the locals and understand the need to build a wood shed, big enough to hold five years worth of wood. Another project that I need to do. I need to finish the chicken coop, build a new outhouse and a work shed. Plus finish the main house and now I need to build a wood shed or actually a lean to for storing wood under…

Tough lady and I watch and learn from her…

* * * * * * * * * *

We scared a fox up here sleeping…

As Boza and I walked along yesterday, we scared up a fox. He decided to take a siesta and it happened to be right on top of a huge ant mound. In the summer this is a mound to stay away from, but right now, I guess it makes a good sleeping spot for a fox. The fox squealed and ran away after we almost stumbled upon it. Scared us all… 😉

Boza told me by his look, that foxes are not smart as we think they are and I took a picture and we left…

* * * * * * * * * *

The wind was whipping at 15 meters per second, which is about 33 mph. That makes for some serious cold, as the wind is what sucks the heat out of things. It snows constantly, but it also blows icy windy and the snow just drifts away to some other part of the world. We are on the highest spot around and I see now that all the snow blows off our hill and floats down to the valley. The snow in the valley is much deeper. We are lucky up high here…

* * * * * * * * * *

This morning I watched as Vova drove in from his girlfriend who lives in another village. He came in the back way to the village, Boza and I just watched as he staggered to his door and soon he was fast asleep. His girlfriend from the summer is gone out of the picture, but he has a gal that loves him, but you can tell he does not love her. But she is happy with him and he goes about once a week to see her. Women here in Russia out number men by a bunch and a good man is hard to come by. I guess she feels lucky to have him around?

* * * * * * * * * *

Time to go! Have a nice day and I will be back tomorrow…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

“What most concerns the [New York] Times is that the crude politics of Trump shatters the lying rhetoric used by Democrats and Republicans alike to justify the policies of the ruling class, at home and abroad. Thus, it worries that Trump is doing “serious damage” to the country’s “reputation overseas” by “twisting its message of tolerance and welcome.” What is the “tolerance and welcome” of which the Times speaks? Is it perhaps the Obama administration’s deportation of more immigrants to Mexico and Central America than any other president? Or the construction of brutal detention facilities in the southern US to hold men, women and children seeking refuge in the US. The Times writes that Trump “has not [yet] deported anyone, nor locked up or otherwise brutalized any Muslims, immigrants or others.” The newspaper fails to add, “Obama, however, has.”

Or is the “tolerance” expressed in the bombing attack in Syria earlier this week that killed 32 civilians, including 20 children? Or the deliberate targeting of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan in October, massacring 22 people in a blatant war crime? Is it torture and NSA spying, defended and covered up by the Obama administration and its CIA director, John Brennan? Is it wars in the Middle East that have killed more than a million people and destroyed entire societies?” World Socialists Website

The New York Times and East Coast Chicken Littles would have you believe that U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump is some sort of fascist from the swamp. He anything but. According to Forbes Magazine his worth is estimated to be approximately $4.5 billion–the fruit of his efforts in the New York real estate industry and the U.S. mainstream media.

Some have characterized him as Heath Ledger’s character The Joker in the film The Dark Knight. He is not. In fact, the U.S. could use the services of the Joker these days. As The Joker put it: “The mob has plans, the cops have plans, and [commissioner] Gordon’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are…Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all part of the plan…Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.”

Didn’t Thomas Jefferson hold that a bit of revolution now and then was appropriate?

Legalized Gangs: Republicans and Democrats

At any rate, the U.S. two party system is the front operation for the elite, ruling class that Trump is part of. He is in the top 5 percent of approximately 30 percent in the U.S. public and private sectors who view with some disdain the remaining 70 percent of Americans who are, comparatively, low wage earners. There is no middle class to speak of in America. The Democrats and Republicans are little more than playthings for Trump and his fellow 30 percenters. And we must include the many foreign lobbyists and countries that own Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress and the White House.

The U.S. is ruled in the political machine style of the late 19^th and early to mid-20^th Century. Names associated with such forms of governing include William “Boss” Tweed of New York City, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago and Mayor James Michael Curly of Boston. What is a political machine? According to Wikipedia political machines “…sometimes have a political boss, often rely on patronage, the spoils system, behind-the-scenes control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy. Machines typically are organized on a permanent basis instead of for a single election or event.”

The website U.S. History says this about political machines: “…political machines broke their own laws to suit their purposes. As contracts were awarded to legal business entities, they were likewise awarded to illegal gambling and prostitution rings. Often profits from these unlawful enterprises lined the pockets of city officials. Public tax money and bribes from the business sector increased the bank accounts of these corrupt leaders.”

War of the Worlds

Peter Temin has written an extraordinary indictment of what the 30 percenters and crew have done to the social fabric of the U.S. His work The American Dual Economy: Race, Globalization, and the Politics of Exclusion, is an absolute must read. He posits two U.S. economies: One is the Finance, Technology and Engineering (FTE) economy containing the 30 percenters like Trump. The other is the dystopian Low Wage economy of the 70 percenters.

According to Temin: “…repression falls most heavily on blacks, but it affects whites and other ethnic groups in the low-wage sector as well. After all, the majority of prison inmates are white. But while poor whites are numerous, they are less visible than blacks in public discussions of programs to help the poor. Reagan’s famous invocation of Welfare Queens in his campaign to restrict government funding for the poor was a clear racial reference. The War on Drugs appears to be a law-and-order program, but its administration focuses on blacks. And the resulting conditions of blacks are used as examples to discourage other government funding. The growing problems of white members of the low-wage sector are equally serious…White flight to the suburbs was by class as well as by race; it stranded poor whites in the inner cities, where they are subject to the same kind of economic and social pressures as poor blacks.

Temin goes on: “As noted above, there are many more whites than blacks in the low-wage sector. The inability to earn an income sufficient to support a family increased among whites in poor urban neighborhoods. The urban white marriage rate dropped; the rate of urban white single-family households rose. The imprisonment rate among whites in poor urban neighborhoods rose along with the rising rate for blacks. And the decay of trust social capital among these whites was as severe as among blacks. The American dual economy would exist if there were no American blacks; only the political discussion would be different.”

Lastly, according to Temin: “The Affordable Care Act (ACA), known also as Obamacare, offered states a free ride for five years and generous support thereafter for expanding Medicaid. This offer was refused by almost half of the United States. It was rejected in states governed by Republicans in the former Confederacy, with an extension up the western bank of the Mississippi River; most of the affected people live in the area of the former Confederacy. A clearer illustration of the link between the legacy of slavery and current government policies could not be found.”

Terrorized by the 30 Percent

Studies have shown that the 70 percenters vote has little effect on changing government policies. Naked Capitalism does a breakdown of a recent Pew research effort indicating that the U.S. middle class, if there ever was such a thing, has largely vanished. Naked Capitalism (NC) also does a takedown of the Pew effort as it paints a rosy picture of progress when, in fact, continued socioeconomic decay seems more likely.

According to NC: “…there is a great deal of research that shows that highly stratified societies score worse on social indicators like crime rates, average educational attainment, suicides, and teen pregnancies. The US hews to this pattern…Stratified societies have people at every level having low community engagement, thin social network, and for those who are well or very well off, pressure to maintain their economic status, since if they lose that, they lose their social network. They can no longer afford to engage in many of the same activities, they might even have to move into cheaper housing, and the result is that they lose most if not all of their current “friends”. And it’s hard to see how Pew can claim there has been “more progress” when labor force participation is low by historical standards.”

So while the 30 percent represented by Trump and the owners of the New York Times might be stupid rich, the 70 percent is stupid dumb for thinking that Trump actually represents some radical right wing, conservative philosophy. Trump is making money for corporations that own media outlets (ratings). And he serves as an easy target for progressives who focus on Trump and not the fraying social fabric around them or the warmongering language of Hillary Clinton.

The Joker is right. The 30 percenters are all schemers. The problem with the 70 percenters is that they have become accustomed to the pathetic world created for them by the schemers. The 30 percenters have designed a machine that allows the Low Wage class to vent on the World Wide Web’s social media outlets, or maybe cast an ineffective vote, or make a video and stick it on You Tube, or even write a letter to an editor.

It’s all part of the plan.

John Stanton can be reached at captainkong22@gmail.com

Yesterday was a beautiful day, cold as hell, but beautiful. The sun tried its best to warm what it can, but when father frost is fully awake, she just has to take second fiddle during the winter. The issue is that the sun never stays around long enough to make a difference. I guess she is cold and sleepy…

I do not blame her and we all need to have some rest sometimes. I love winter so I will not complain too much…

* * * * * * * * * *

This morning Boza and I were up at 4:30 a.m.. It was -12 according to our outdoor thermometer and -10 according to the local weather report…

The wind was not blowing and the humidity was low. This made for a wonderful morning and we walked for awhile, then I sat on the hill overlooking the lake and watched the shooting stars and jet airliners pass by deep in the sky. It is fun to see the jet and then after the jet is almost out of sight, here comes the sound of the jet engines. Then I always get plenty of shooting star wishes…

You are never too old to wish upon a shooting star!

* * * * * * * * * *

I looked at the presidential hopefuls in America. I looked at all of them, Republican and or Democrat and or independent and or whatever. All I can say is that…

Other words; there is not a individual running for president of the US that is worth the tinkers damn and they do not give a rat’s arse about anything but their personal satisfactions for any given second of their life…

We use to say,”See those kids, there are the future of America and one of them could be president!”

Well we raised a bunch of self-centered morons and now they are all wanting to be president… And we let them be president!

* * * * * * * * * *

This morning in the shine of the flashlight, a world of sparkling diamonds scattered amongst the leaves and stalks of all the plants, presented themselves to their full glory. I was simply amazed as I shone the light around and what looked like little shiny eyes of a million mice, everywhere, twinkled and blinked as I moved around. I just stood in awe at the beauty that Mother Nature is capable of presenting, if we just look around when we explore the world…

Why it looked like the stars in all of heaven, simply came to earth and settled in the grass, trees and weeds. Then they blinked in joy as I passed by…

* * * * * * * * * *

Sveta is talking about coming next week on the 22nd of December and staying until the 27th of December. I just realized that Sveta wants to have pumpkin pie, but I have to figure out how to make a version in the village. No real oven is available, but a no bake version may just do the job…

Have a nice day and Boza and I are going to take a nap…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

This morning while we walked it was -10 and snow blowing like crazy. The wind was flying at 11 m/s and Boza and I fought drifts as we walked around the tiny Russian village. Our home is fine and drifts are small in our yard, due to a fence, but the roads were deep and we had to be careful…

The sun is shining now and in awhile, Boza and I will go out to walk in the crispy sunny air. Oh how beautiful it all is. Time to walk the lake bed and watch the snow drift in the wind…

Time to walk…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

I have not said much about this subject and have simply watched to see what America and Europe would do about their lies. I would so very much love to believe that this was Russian propaganda, but we all know at this point that this western lead war is a farce and that ISIS is being run by the CIA and likely the MOSSAD and MI6 as well. It is so absolutely plain for anyone with critical thinking skills to see it amazes me we allow our Western Corporate/Governmental controlled media to get away with it…

The US led coalition lies about bombing ISIS for a year, until…. The Russian Bear enters the scene over Syria and strikes successfully at ISIS, which…. Is denied by the US led coalition and Western media, lying again, and now…. They (Western media) then show footage of US airstrikes, using airstrikes films from Russian jets…

Okay? Our (USA) excuse? That we do not want to divulge our tactics and secrecy… 😉

Tidbit: Russia is the only country showing the airstrikes against the ISIS, the rest of the so called Fearless Americana’s and Friends, show nothing but Russian strikes on their news reels. Why are we shy now? We showed film after film destroying Iraq, Libya and so on and so on! Why now do we become shy and secretive?

Time to do some thinking people, get off your ass, get out and take a walk and do some thinking about what is happening around you, while you hide from the truth…

Bombing plagiarism; is that what America and Europe has come to. This started when Georgia attacked South Ossetia and has become prevalent since then. Steal images and videos from other wars and pass them off as facts when we need them…

Have a nice day…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

Boza and I walked deep into the woods. We decided to see what is happening with the forest creatures. Not much was happening, but we did find sign of life; A damn beer can in the middle of nowhere…

We had walked uphill, downhill and all around the hills and in the deepest part we had gone, we found a beer can. I looked around and really expected to find a McDonald’s wrapper at any second… 🙁

* * * * * * * * * *

Okay, the e-mail system is working and the Spam/Troll control is working. I have been receiving e-mails and many of them are legit and good. I appreciate decent e-mails and will get back to you if at all possible. One thing if you are unable to get the e-mail link to work, just roll your mouse pointer upon the link and our e-mail will show up in the link box on your browser…

Really; comments all over the world have been destroyed intentionally by the “Trolling Factions” and this is the only way to protect people from hate and such…

* * * * * * * * * *

It looks like Vova has the owners to the two pigs he is raising coming today. The pigs are fat and sassy, but will be butchered today it seems. I wondered just a little bit, how he fed these pigs, they eat a lot of food and now I realize that he was raising them for someone else and they supplied the food. Vova is excited about getting his share of pork as payment for all his work and he has all the ingredients together and ready for making Salo…

Salo time at Vova’s… Oink Oink…

* * * * * * * * * *

P & B & J

The Big Village trip was excellent yesterday, but I forgot one thing, I wanted to get peanut butter and jelly. I have been craving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I do not know why, but I have been. I did buy peanuts and man they are good, but I bought milk and wanted to drink a cold glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich… 🙂

Oh well!

* * * * * * * * * *

Well well! This morning we found we still have two “Silly Rabbits” running around our yard. Boza got excited this morning at 4 a.m. and we (Boza and I,) chased rabbits with a flashlight and growling upset doggy. 😉

Gotta go, it is time to read awhile, for Boza and I have walked hours ago and we need to relax now. Boza is sleeping and dreaming doggy dreams and I am going to find a new book to read…

Have a nice day…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

Boza and I walked in the snow this morning, so dark and so cold! The shortest day (December Solstice (Winter Solstice)) is coming of the whole year; right now sunrise is 8:26 and sunset is 15:55 and the shortest day (December 22nd, 2015) will be about 9:00 to 16:00, almost exactly a seven hour day time. That is when the days start getting longer again…

* * * * * * * * * *

In the exceeding darkness, Boza and I keep our walks closer to home. There is a bunch of foxes and wild boars around and an occasional wolf. Sveta, the last time she was here, found wolf prints and took some images. They are five times as big as Boza prints and the wolf stayed just shy of going through the village in search of tidbits to eat. I followed the tracks and he ended up crossing the lake bed several times instead of the village. He was following deer tracks and stayed very close to those tracks, even as they crossed into several other lake beds…

Wolf on the left and Boza on the right!

Therefore, back to the subject; if the car starts, the lord willing and the creek don’t rise (better yet the snow don’t pile up) I will leave about 9 a.m. and drive to the Big Village. Boza will stay nice and comfy in the village home and I will brave the elements of life… 🙂

* * * * * * * * * *

Looks like in about a week Sveta will come by train. I then will travel again to the Big Village and pick her up. She has picked a perfect time to come down, for the weather is going to soften considerably and be near zero instead of deep freeze cold. Sveta is a good girl and I am blessed to have such a sweetie who loves me. Christmas will be the whole family in the village…

* * * * * * * * * *

I just heard a deep sigh and it brought me out of my concentration; as I looked around, I found a Boza had sneaked upon our bed. He knows better, but sometimes, I do not have the heart to send him away. He is sound asleep. The image is dark, for I have only one reading lamp on and it is very dark outside. Sveta will kick my butt, but…. sometimes I just do not have the heart to bother him, as he sleeps so soundly, besides, his left eye has been bothering him. Looks like he got some weeds in the face/eye issue and I may have to use the black tea wash that I used two summers ago, It worked and I will be watching him today…

* * * * * * * * * *

Well it is time for me to get going. It is after 8 a.m. and I have to see if the car starts and gather up what I need to go to the Big Village. Really, I have more than enough food and I am going to get more food for Boza. I like to spend the money where it counts and buy all I can locally. Since local means going to the Big Village, because we do not have a store, nor people and or anything out here in the boonies. I buy local even if it costs more and actually many times it is the same price. Food is no higher than in Moscow, but textiles are better priced in Moscow…

Boil a frog…

One last set of words; being on the outside of America reminds me of that image I saw of a slowly boiling frog in a pot of water. The fact is, if you raise the temperature slow enough to reach boiling water. The frog will sit there and die while being cooked to death…

I watch America and the country is full of frogs, all fat, happy and sassy, while the water is starting to heat up under them. There is so much chaos in America, lets not even talk about the whole Western Empire, that, everyone is sitting in their pot of starting to boil water, in front of their TV’s and behind their screens of their devices that they do not even see; that all the distractions are to keep them from jumping out of the pot as they boil…

Have a nice day…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

I know I say that allot, or so it seems, but I do not rest much. But today, I will force myself to rest. In the distance, I can see a bank of snow being driven by the wind. It will be here in less than an hour and it looks to be interesting, for the sky is turning black and the wall of snow is impenetrable looking…

I have to go to the Big Village tomorrow morning and that will be an excursion all its own. I have to travel slow and carefully, for the roads are slick and dangerous. I will pick up some supplies and three or four boxes of dog food for Boza. I promised the local pet store that I would be in to get more food for Boza. Boza is now eating a box of 24 packs everyday. He runs and runs, thus needs lots of food… 😉 At this pace he still has 2 plus months of food in stock at home, but I have to gather more while I can; you never know…

I just simply love winter. It is the most wonderful and beautiful time of the year. The cold seems to clean the air, ground and just life itself…

To me winter is not evil, but to many things winter is a necessary evil, for we must hibernate, slow down, re-energize and such. Winter forces that to happen and if taken correctly, winter is not depressing or sadness; Winter is the beginning of new life…

Winter is the sleep for the earth as we must rest every night, the earth must rest also…

That is how I look at it…

* * * * * * * * * *

Vova went to a banya (sauna) in a nearby village. He had an accident at the banya and was badly burned on his chest, by scalding hot water. He laughed as he showed it too me and quickly pointed out to me how he saved his private parts from certain disaster. Thus his hands became burned also. Being burned on the chest and hands is one thing, but having Mr. Private burned would be terrible with a capital T!

I spent a few hours yesterday with Vova and he made lunch for us. He was excited about a boxing match in Moscow and it did not come out the way he wanted it to…

Jones who recently became a Russian citizen, got his behind kicked royally by Enzo and that was that. Vova like many Russians wanted Jones to win, for well the simple fact that Enzo is a Britain and Jones became a Russian!

So while I did not watch the match, Vova gave me a round by round, blow by blow and knock down by knock down description and he even acted it all out for me. Punching the air… 🙂 (Can we say, “Extrovert?”)

Vova just loves sports…

* * * * * * * * * *

I am going to settle down as the snow flies and read a good book!

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia (WtR)

Режиссёр: Дарья Ботезат http://vk.com/dasha.botezat
Хореограф: Наталья Голуб http://vk.com/id9341685
Оператор: Михаил Неверов http://vk.com/mishkanatawka
Исполнители: феодосийцы

Феодосия, Крым
2014
#crimea #HAPPYDAY

Director: Dasha Botezat https://www.facebook.com/dasha.botezat
Choreographer: Nataly Golub http://vk.com/id9341685
Camera: Michel Neverov http://vk.com/mishkanatawka

Crimea, Feodosiya, 2014