9 May 2012. Whispers From Dallas… Is JP Shitcanning Justin Frederick for Opposing His Fair-haired Boy Maymon?

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The loggia’s full of “this and that”… the grapevine’s busy, kids. I’ve heard that Nikon Liolin removed Justin Frederick as Dean of Dallas supposedly because of the letter Frederick wrote opposing Bishop Mark Maymon as ruling bishop of the OCA Diocese of the South. If this is so, it’s proof that JP’s gone around the bend. Up to now, he hasn’t monkeyed with konvertsy, as they’re his base. Now, JP’s proving himself an equal-opportunity nutter… he’s going after everybody that he considers an “enemy”. Will this be the “last straw?” I’ll speak frankly… I believe that some of the First Family apparatchiki are ready to “pull a Bennigsen” (Graf Leonty Bennigsen strangled Tsar Pavel Petrovich as part of a noble’s plot against the throne)… but here’s the problem… the OCA’s cred is shredded beyond repair. Note well that there’s a “Holy Synod meeting” going on at present… AND IT’S TAKING FOUR DAYS. At the Centre, a Holy Synod meeting takes one day, and the zhurnali (decrees) go out that very evening. In short, some are trying to prop up the decomposing corpse known as the OCA… and it’s not succeeding.

That’s what I’ve heard so far… if I receive more buzz, you’ll get it. This is NOT official, but it’s what’s “out there”…

BMD

This Just In Department:

A friend of mine told me:

Interesting… if JP supports Maymon, the convert crowd’s going to be very upset. Frederick’s been replaced on an interim basis by a Basil Zebrun.

Nothing need be added to that…

BMD

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9 May 2012. Love BT Rides Again… Tries to Skewer St Nicholas the Passionbearer and VVP… Spins the HTC Story and the Payout in the Civil Suit

A Portrait of Tsar St Nikolai Aleksandrovich

Ilya Repin

1896

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Whom do you wish to emulate? The gentle Tsar St Nikolai… called “Bloody Nicholas” by Love BT… or, the all-Powerful, most-Puissant, and multi-Talented Tikhon Fitzgerald? That’s not a hard one, is it?

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Love BT entertains us yet again with some more nuggets of wisdom. Here’s the first one:

Thanks to Diogenes {most sources identify “Diogenes” as Eric Wheeler… protestations notwithstanding: editor} for pointing us to the article about the Russian President getting his blessing in Church from the First Hierarch of the Church as he begins his next period as President. As an Orthodox ruler, he shares many character traits with the Orthodox tsars of previous centuries. It’s unfortunate that he’s undergoing, probably with some justification, the same kind of protests and public indignation from large crowds as did the last Tsar, Nicholas, sometimes called “Bloody Nicholas”, for his penchant for using armed troops and especially mounted Cossacks to IMPOSE order. Some, especially the lock-step intellectual infantry of the EP, gasp in righteously expressed indignation at the APPARENT and REAL Symfonia of Church and State in Russia, which seems to eclipse the subservience of the Phanar to the Sublime Porte.

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Firstly, St Nikolai was not “Bloody Nicholas”… in this, Love BT’s repeating the bullshit spouted by ADS and the rest of the aristo zapadnik Parisian cabal. In fact, one could say that St Nikolai’s compassion led to his downfall… had he loosed a Cossack squadron or two on the Petrograd mobs, chances are he’d have kept the throne (maybe not as an absolute autocrat, but Russia would’ve remained a monarchy). Secondly, how does BT justify the phrase, “It’s unfortunate that he’s undergoing, probably with some justification, the same kind of protests and public indignation from large crowds as did the last Tsar”… he should enlighten us as to why VVP’s a legitimate target of “protests and public indignation”. I believe that the answer’s simple… BT’s a former employee of the World Bank and he parrots the generally-held opinions of the Western Goodthinker Class.

In short, BT comes from a profoundly Russophobic anti-Orthodox milieu, and his formal conversion didn’t affect him that much, as his current comments indicate. In short, if I were to choose between Love BT and Tsar St Nikolai… there’s no conundrum. Love BT is, by far, the inferior of the two. If one were to compare him with VVP, it’s the same result. When the Raspadskaya Mine in Mezhdurechensk blew up, VVP was on the scene, and he saw to it that the social welfare system treated the miners’ families right. Love BT has balked at paying his fair share of the bills at the rectory where he lives, according to publicised parish documents. Who’s the more estimable human being… why, VVP, by any standard.

Also, note how Love BT sidesteps the whole issue of the Phanar’s subservience to the US government and to Langley. After all, they orchestrated a 1948 coup to depose Patriarch Maximos Vaportzis, and replaced him with an American running-dog, Athenagoras Spyrou (it was of the most successful “black ops” of the CIA in its early years). Don’t forget, the US authorities gave Athenagoras the use of the US presidential VIP transport for his flight to Turkey. Maximos’ sins were that he wanted close cooperation with the MP and that he was a socialist politically. However, that’s too hot a potato even for Love BT… so much for his pose as a “courageous truth-teller!”

Secondly, Love BT issued a rather long apologia of the Holy Trinity Cathedral (HTC) scandal in San Francisco. Here’s what he said (WARNING: Bullshit in enormous quantities ahead… but Love BT MUST speak in his own voice… it convicts him of self-interested hypocrisy all the more):

Unlike “Centurion”, I was never ever convinced that children were molested at Holy Trinity Cathedral, as has been claimed. A parishioner there called me up once to report that children had been molested at Holy Trinity Cathedral and that the perp was in jail. I heard her out, and I opined that if that had indeed happened, we should at least be grateful to God that the perp was already in jail and we need not go through all kinds of investigations and court appearances, perhaps involving public testimony my children, to establish his identity.

An almost deafening scream of “NEVER!” was the next thing I heard. One of the mothers whose child had allegedly been molested explained that this was nothing to be thankful for because she couldn’t “get at him” in jail. I met with a group of the parents in San Francisco. I learned that the occasion of the alleged discovery of acts of abuse was one of the parents learning that a convert in the parish for whom she had developed a great antipathy, had been put in jail as a sexual criminal, a molester of children. From that point on, the alarmed group of parents who disliked Sam Allen, began to interrogate their children and send them to “professionals” from whom they “learned” that their children had been molested.

I assigned my chancellor, Fr Nicholas Soraich {later removed as OCA Bishop of Alaska and reputed by some to be a homosexual (the jury’s still out on that): editor}, to investigate and report to me. He went to San Francisco, investigated, and reported to me. He was greeted by and accepted with great enthusiasm by the parents. He even went throughout the Cathedral plant blessing everything with Holy Water. To make a long story short, no molestation of children at Holy Trinity Cathedral was ever proved in criminal court; however, a civil court did find the Cathedral to be guilty of negligence in its supervision of children in its custody, and civil fines were levied.

I admit I was distressed by the proclivity and readiness of some of the parents to magnify and publicize who their children had been “damaged”. This, it seems to me, was not evidence of putting their children’s welfare first. One of the parents was an attorney, and she gave at least one interview to a popular Bay Area newspaper a couple years later when her son was in school, reporting that he had been molested and thus was damaged. I was once a boy, and I know how boys in school act when they learn something like that about one of their number. Another mother managed to make one of her daughters into a crusader against “Clergy Sexual Abuse”. She and her mother liked to appear at either HTC in San Francisco, or at the Cathedral in Los Angeles, standing outside on the sidewalks, rather than worshipping and glorifying God in the Church, carrying placards on poles which stated “Stop Clergy Sexual Abuse!” on the Feast of the All-Holy Trinity.

I believe that Sam Allen, interviewed by an investigator in prison, did admit that he had intended to commit abuse at HTC, but never got around to it since he was arrested for offences elsewhere. I’ve always been disappointed that some of the families left off glorifying God in Church in order to devote their lives to exposing sin, to wit, “clergy” sexual abuse.” I still wish that the Pokrov ladies WOULD get a life, a life with Christ. Yes, sir; yes, indeed! Protodeacon Eros (aka Eric) Wheeler did come out to the Bay area in connection with the civil negligence suit. One attorney-parent threatened me AND HTC, AND the Diocese with utter and outright financial failure and bankruptcy. Never happened. I have no recollection whatsoever of ever having striven to have Greta Larson prevented from speaking anywhere at all, and I can’t imagine what “other bishop” I could have manipulated to attempt that.

I wonder if the clinical psychologists and social workers who made their livings “discerning” evidence of sexual abuse in children and uncovering suppressed memories and so forth around the country back then are still at it. Anybody?

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As always, ask “Cui bono?” In this case, ask yourself, “Would Love BT benefit from lying?” The answer to that is an unequivocal “yes”… he was the ruling bishop of the OCA Diocese of the West (DOW) at the time, and any sexual scandal within his jurisdiction would reflect upon his competence and fitness to hold any sort of clerical office. Next, ask, “Was there any adverse court decision regarding these allegations?” The answer to that is also “yes”… note how Love BT attempts to spin that one. A civil court judgement is an adverse court ruling… full stop. Ergo, the OCA DOW did have to pay up due to a court verdict… it didn’t matter if it was in criminal or in civil court, the fact remains that the OCA DOW was subject to an adverse court judgement whilst Tikhon Fitzgerald was ruling bishop.

Next, one asks, “Who’s related to whom, both in formal TO&E terms and in terms of personal affiliation?” One can say that Nikolai Soraich, Benjamin Peterson, and Jonas Paffhausen (and by extension, David Brum and Gerasim Eliel) are protégés of Love BT. Nikolai Soraich was BT’s Chancellor, Peterson was BT’s successor, Paffhausen was an abbot under BT’s omofor, and Brum was received and ordained (on the same day) by BT. Therefore, one can’t expect an objective evaluation of them from him. Then, there are the widely-known ties of Soraich and Peterson with Bobby K and Rock in Vegas, the ties of Paffhausen, Eliel, and Brum with the sodomite Gleb Podmoshensky (GP) in Platina, and the inconvertible fact that the cops nicked Benjamin Peterson for DUI. In short, it appears that Love BT’s protégés aren’t exactly a sterling lot.

Lastly, ask yourself, “Are there any pending situations that BT’s trying to hide or divert attention from?” That would be the still-simmering Storheim case in Canada. He’s on tenterhooks because there’s no statute of limitations on child molestation. If it doesn’t concern him personally, it could concern any one of his protégés or former subordinates (especially those having close ties to the oddbod lot in Platina… the ROCOR Holy Synod did depose GP and most of the brotherhood did leave him as a result). If there’s an adverse ruling in the Storheim trial (and the fact that the Crown offered Storheim a plea deal shows that the evidence is rather strong), it would reverberate in the DOW. Indeed, it could lead to someone opening a case.

Therefore, to conclude it all, Love BT’s using the same “bait and switch” and delaying tactics that the RCs used before their child abuse situation blew up on them. I believe that it’ll come to the same result. The OCA has no one but itself to blame. Note well that those posting on Monomakhos refused to post their names; they hid behind “usernames”. That means that Love BT approves of such craven cowardice and nasty evasiveness. Indeed, a little bird told me that Love BT doesn’t post on one Orthodox venue because the moderators told him that he’d have to follow the same rules that everyone else did. Love BT stamped away in annoyed petulance… that does speak volumes about BT’s character, doesn’t it?

Take no wooden nickels and take no BS from the likes of Love BT… then, take a hit from the jug, and cross yourself… repeat as necessary.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Victory Day

Albany NY

9 May 2012. “Victory” in Afghanistan… The US Can’t Even Secure Kabul

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This image is from 4 April 2012 in Kabul. The USA can’t even secure Kabul, although its using its own military forces, NATO troops press-ganged by their governments, paid mercenaries, local levies, and “security contractors” (the last being the most-expensive and least-effective… it’s the “invisible hand of the market” at work). During the Soviet war, the Sovs and the DRA managed to keep Kabul secure at least, unlike the USA’s inability to even do that.

It’s time to stop this worthless war and to stop slopping the defence contractor hogs. That’s why the budget’s unbalanced… GWB handed the store to his corporate buddies in the form of war contracts and CUT TAXES at the same time. That’s not very “conservative” is it? Reflect on the fact that the Republican Party refuses to right Bush’s Folly. Ergo, mark your ballot for President Obama this November… it’s your duty as a citizen and human being, and it’s certainly your obligation as a believer (if you’re one… you can’t vote for GOP candidates who favour godless theomachistic ideologues like Ayn Rand and Rush Limbaugh). We CAN do it.

BMD

Are We Being “Mushroomed” with Oil Prices?

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Do you know what it is to treat someone like a mushroom? Keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit. This is the best way to grow a mushroom and it’s an Australian colloquialism used when we want to keep the truth from someone, and, in fact, feed them disinformation. We’re told that the demand for oil is high, that the Iranian sanctions and the threat of war with Iran are real, and that these factors are keeping the oil price high. However, what if the truth were different, and the world’s awash with oil, and, in fact, the collusion of oil producers and investment banks is keeping oil prices high? Would this constitute being “mushroomed?”

What we’re seeing now, through transactions taking place opaquely between producers and investment banks with funds to sell, is a two-tier oil market. There are those who know where the icebergs are, i.e. a couple of producers and investment banks… and those who are on the Titanic, the investors. The two major centres for trading in oil market contracts are in London and New York, and they’re the ICE (Inter-Continental Exchange) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) division. However, participants on neither of these financial markets can actually buy and sell physical crude oil and set the price. One may best describe these exchanges as betting shops or casinos; moreover, they’re casinos where the roulette wheel has about 10 zeroes favouring the house. In the context of mushrooming, ICE and NYMEX provide a cloud of disinformation about the true state of the oil market that’s taking place out of sight amongst consenting adults.

At present, the world’s awash with oil. For example, Iran has so much spare crude oil above ground they literally can’t give it away, despite their best efforts. The obvious reason would be because of the sanctions on Iranian oil; however, the sanctions are yet to affect the current contracts in place. This doesn’t explain why Iran’s using nearly one in three of its oil tankers for above ground storage now. This is almost unprecedented. Iran is offering, unofficially, of course, heavily-discounted oil to buyers, in an effort to move some of this excess stock.

Then, there’s the curious case of an oil tanker returning recently to Valdez AK, with more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil still in its holds. Two weeks earlier, the ship had set sail with 1.2 million barrels of oil on board for a refinery on the west coast of America, only to find that the storage tanks at the refinery were so full, they couldn’t take the full shipment, so, they duly shipped 300,000 barrels home again. Valdez still supplies a large portion of the West Coast of America’s oil. For the last two years, stocks for crude oil in the USA have been at all-time highs, whilst more recently West Coast refineries are decreasing their production as demand shrinks. Yet, oil prices remain high?

Probably, the greatest responsibility for the “mushrooming” of oil prices rests with Saudi Arabia, which will shortly, for the second time this year, charter a fleet of over a dozen VLCC tankers to ship more than 20 million extra barrels of oil to the USA. Saudi Arabia’s above-ground storage facilities are already overflowing, as are the USA’s private facilities. The only logical place for an extra 40 million barrels of Saudi oil to go would be into the USA’s huge underground Strategic Reserve facilities, where they would neatly fill the gap left by last year’s release of oil in response to the Libyan crisis. The purpose of these strategic reserves is as a response to an emergency, for example, if there was a supply disruption to the USA, then, the government could use some of the strategic reserve to fill the gap. Alternatively, they use it to reduce the price of energy for Americans in times of high oil prices by releasing more stock onto the market. Maybe, President Barack Obama is thinking of doing this ahead of the presidential elections later this year?

It’s generally believed that oil companies trade oil more than 22 times between extracting it from the ground and selling it to the end user, but in fact, that’s just paper oil changing hands, and has no effect on the price. What’s affecting the price has been the ability of producers to literally sell ownership of oil in the ground or in storage to investors and thereby support the price with money borrowed from what Goldman Sachs calls “Muppet” investors. Therefore, the average man on the street is in a state of constant threat, they think that the supply of oil’s incredibly tight and the threat of war’s so real, that they’re prepared to pay excessive prices for energy. Energy is a finite resource, but what we’re seeing is the intentional mispricing of energy on a cosmic scale by one or two oil producers… facilitated by investment banks… and at the expense of general consumers and investors.

Oil should have a visible price at the point at which economic interest changes rather than at the time of the delivery of the cargo. This would effectively create real-time pricing of oil rather than the current petro-dollar system of price-rigging of oil at the time of the actual delivery of the cargo. If you control the cargoes, which the producers do, then, you control the price of oil, and that means that, on the casino markets of ICE and NYMEX, the house always wins. So, are we being “mushroomed” with the price of oil? Absolutely, and that’s no bull!

8 May 2012

Sam Barden

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/columnists/20120508/173318553.html

Editor’s Note:

The Republican Party constantly screams about the “invisible hand of the Market”. They tell us that it’s the only fair mechanism in an imperfect world, and that government regulation’s futile. I seem to observe that both Willard Romney and George W Bush are gazillionaires with a good part of their boodle-bag stashed in foreign parts, and that such regulation would affect them, in a very personal way. In fact, it would remove their hands from about the necks of ordinary people. That’s what the “invisible hand” of the market’s all about… the affluent effluent believe that they have a right to steal a living off the backs of the rest of us. That ain’t right… and we don’t have to accept it.

In an imperfect world, vote for President Obama… otherwise, the “hand” of the Market will squeeze us even harder. Follow France and Greece and vote all the Neoliberal “conservative” bastards out… make sure that the Republican Party becomes a minority bloc of religious nutters and crackbrained libertarians. We don’t need the first “saving our souls” and we don’t need the second securing “economic freedom” so that the rich can rape us ever more thoroughly. After, it IS your choice… you can mark your ballot in November… do so…

BMD