4x28 ✨How-to-vote for Freedom in the USA
4x28 ✨How-to-vote for Freedom in the USA
JustPeace Ukraine — UkraineCurt Readings & Musings [2024 x 28]
From the publisher —
G’day cobbers!
In the light of the first essay by Daniel Drezner cited below
¶ ¶ Daniel W. Drezner☼☼☼
==The Cowardice of the Washington Post My former employer runs and hides in the darkness. —Can Trump Use Foreign Policy to Appeal to Young Men? I dunno about this hypothesis... ==A Gut Check on the 2024 Election A lot of accusations are flying around about this election being stacked against Harris. Let's consider some of them! ==The Evidence for Trump's Fascism Is Overwhelming A fat, lazy, incurious fascist is still a fascist. ==The Strangest Development Yet in the Russo-Ukrainian War Sure, let's add some North Koreans to the mix, why not?
it behoves me to state that JustPeace Ukraine urges all to refrain from electing D J Trump or any other Trump’sOwnParty adherent to any public office anywhere. And since it seems that many in the USA intend to elect the “slobbering ochre imbecile” as D B Hart calls h such, I urge all electors for public office in USA to ensure that they cast a valid ballot for those non-TOP candidates in their division who are most likely to succeed.
DJT is likely a close cousin of mine, we both having grandmothers from the outer Hebrides. But I urge those tied by kindred, affinity or friendship to TOP candidates to consider the remarkable example of William Patrick Hitler (14 July 1987, aged 76), who opposed his fascist uncle on principle.
The fascism of the leaders of TOP is sufficient and compelling reason for US electors to choose the non-TOP candidates most likely to succeed. (This is not a polling day when protest votes can be safely cast.)
In addition, TOP has promised to abandon Ukraine to the horrors of putinesque aggression. [It is true that a TOP regime may not fulfil its promise; and it’s true that Ukraine will not submit to tyranny just because a fascist resides in the USA’s Executive Mansion (the ‘White House’, its presidential palace). But forcing Ukraine to an invidious armistice is what TOP promises.]
For a summary of the many reasons to eschew TOP candidates, see part three of D B Hart’s Annuntianda et Contemplanda; or, if you prefer audio-visuals, Tim Snyder’s Trump and Ukraine: A voter's guide is worth a squiz.
Cheers,
Martin.
Here are some essays and audios which touch on the Russo-Ukrainian War —
¶ ¶ Sam Greene (TL;DRussia)☼☼☼
—TL;DRussia Weekend Roundup 20 October 2024: Fight, flight or freeze, plus texts and tunes
¶ ¶ Phillips P. O’Brien, PhD (Cambridge)☼☼☼
—Weekend Update #103: North Korea shows itself to be a Great Ally Also, the Micro-Advances Continue; Zelensky's Victory Strategy
—“France Publicly Supports Ukraine Victory Plan” “First Full Western Endorsement of the Plan” Thomas Leckwold
¶ ¶ Timothy Snyder☼☼☼
—Twelve Million Deportations And an altered America
—Fascism on television Thoughts from the road #3
—Trump and Ukraine: A voter's guide Thoughts from the road #4
¶ ¶ Anne Applebaum☼☼☼
—Against Pessimism in which I argue that pacifism doesn't always bring peace. / Against Pessimism (audio)
¶ ¶ Polemology Positions and Osborne Ink (Matt Osborne)☼☼☼
——Team Obama-Biden-Harris Does Not Believe In The Possibility Of Victory Their goal is a managed decline relative to America's enemies '“Continuing the policy of Barack Obama, the Biden administration has over-learned the lessons of Iraq, most notably in their botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and applied their policy to conflicts everywhere.”
We hope that we’ll soon be referring less to US parliamentary politics — but if you’d like to read about something else in the mean time:—Mary Harrington ‘fell into writing by accident, after two decades of adult life in which I tried every avenue I could think of to avoid it. I’ve been a janitor, a communard, a marketing executive, an internet founder, and a psychotherapist, among other things. Having given up trying to avoid my fate, I’ve joined UnHerd, where I write twice a week as a contributing editor. Elsewhere, my work has appeared in the London Times, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman, the New York Post, and The Spectator among many others.’
¶ ¶ Reactionary Feminist (Mary Harrington) and more☼☼☼
—Globo Homo Economicus Renaud Camus and Replacism of the Body. M H draws on ‘Ivan Illich to show how the replacist anthropology is inextricable from the history of modern family relations, how this order is a core precondition for modern market society, and how this culminates in an increasingly literal technologisation first of women’s bodies and finally of “human” bodies whose sex has come to be understood as an optional bolt-on.’
I’ll reference the cyborg feminist Sophie Lewis, to show how this propagates into a model of industrialised fertility - of reproduction as manufacture, implicitly always already Taylorist. And I’ll draw on the transhumanist Martine Rothblatt to show how this generalises into a vision of human bodies viewed not as whole organisms but arrays of interchangeable parts. Finally I’ll suggest - perhaps unexpectedly - a note of qualified optimism about the endpoint of this trajectory.
Cheers dears!
+The Woes of the West+
☼☼America and Other Problems☼☼
A reader responded to this short video (¶ ¶ Maksym Eristavi☼☼☼
—how russia turned northern asia into 'russian siberia' your daily reminder that russian regimes come and go, but russian colonialism playbook stays the same.) with a quote from Hélder Câmara: ‘[The cessation of] Colonialism. We cannot see it but it is never too late, here, there and anywhere. There are “signs of Hope”’If you didn’t see the video last week, we do recommend it. This very short summary of ‘how to build an empire’ is, ioo, worth ‘book-marking’ for future reference to Moscow’s useful idiots.Ostrog (fortress), a Russian term for a small fortress]
[
+Not so woeful+
☼¶ The European Council / Council of the European Union¶ ☼☼
—‘Westlessness: the great global rebalancing’ by Samir Puri Are we facing an epochal change, in which centres of power and influence multiply outside of the West’s reach? Is the West really in a state of peril? Amid so many near-apocalyptic accounts of a shifting balance of power, Samir Puri’s analysis in Westlessness: the great global rebalancing provides a sober and even optimistic counterpoint.
+... and in the Left corner ...+
☼☼For everyone, but of special interest to Social Democrats, Bolshevik imperialists, and other lefties☼☼
¶ ¶ Persuasion (Yascha Mounk & al.)☼☼☼
—Resentful Hegemon Americans are done playing world policeman. But for structural reasons, they’ll keep on doing so.
+Wayfarers’ Watch+
☼☼For everyone, but especially for people interested in religion and theology☼☼
Gustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz OP, 22 October 2024 (aged 96, Lima)
☼¶ Crux (Glendale)¶ ☼☼
—Father of liberation theology, a tiny man with a giant legacy, dead at 96 By John L. Allen Jr. ‘… in 1968, when a 40-year-old Gutiérrez acted as an advisor to an assembly of the Latin American bishops in Medellín. Afterwards he wrote a book born in part of that experience, which was originally slated to be called “Towards a Theology of Development” but eventually became “Toward a Theology of Liberation.”’
¶ ¶ Paul Kingsnorth☼☼☼
—The Everlasting Man The Scriptorium, Book Three
+Church Times+
The election of Mgr Mykola Bychok as a cardinal of the _Santa Ecclesia Romana_ has precipitated interest in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Mgr Mykola is bishop of Melbourne for the Ukrainian Church; And he’s the ordinary of JustPeace Ukraine’s publisher, Fr Martin Arnold.
Martin has written a potted history of Christianity and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which will appear as a long footnote to JustPeace UkraineCurt. But since most readers seldom read long footnotes (and those who do have only themselves to blame), we present the history as a serial.
Christ’s Flock in Ukraine — Episode 1: Greeks and Jews
Dr Timothy Snyder has pointed out that the longest continuous cultural settlement in Ukraine is by Greeks [IE/U “Greeks (Ukrainian: греки; hreky) appeared in Ukraine about 1000 BC to trade with the peoples living on the Black Sea littoral”] and Greek-speaking Judeans/Jews were likely among their number from early on.
Now read on …
For more about Christianity in Ukraine —> ☼☼ Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine ☼☼
Christians were active in what is today Ukraine long before there was extensive Slavic settlement in the land —> Christianization of Ukraine.
In Kyiv in 988, a Viking lord called Valdemar led a military and commercial enterprise called Rus’. Valdemar (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ, Volodiměr) found it expedient to establish Christianity as the religion of his realm as part of an alliance with the major power in the Black Sea region, the Emperor of New Rome (Constantinople, Byzantium) —> History of the Ukrainian church. Many subjects of Rus’ were Slavs, and from this time on Christianity among the East Slavic peoples has been predominantly ‘Greek’ or ‘Hellenic’ or ‘Byzantine’. (But, much as some Australian Catholics avoid the epithets ‘Roman’ or ‘Latin’ [“I don’t come from Rome and I don’t speak Latin”], most Orthodox Ukrainians would find it odd to describe themselves as ‘Greek Orthodox’.)
Relations between the bishops and the churches of Rome and New Rome had been sometimes turbulent before 988, and, despite attempts to heal the breach (—> e.g. Florence, Church Union of), by the time of the death of Dr Martin Luther (18 February 1546, aged 62) not only were relations between the Roman and New Roman churches broken, but a third group, Protestant Christianity, had arisen, and relations between these groups were, at best, cautiously civil.
+Femme Vitale+
¶ ¶ Persuasion (Yascha Mounk & al.)☼☼☼
—Teresa Bejan on Virtue Yascha Mounk and Teresa Bejan discuss the secret history of free speech and why the word “problematic” is problematic. “I trace this idea of free speech all the way back to democratic Athens and the golden age and this Greek idea of isegoria, which is translated regularly into modern English as freedom of speech, but actually you might say it's a bit more like equal speech or equal public address. Specifically, it’s the right of every Athenian man in good standing to formally address the democratic assembly. And this was really seen as being definitive of Athenian democracy for contemporaries, because this was the thing that the Athenians were doing that no other society at the time was doing. They were allowing poor men to actually stand up and to take the speaker's platform in the same way that they would allow aristocrats or trained rhetoricians. / “The second sense of speaking one's mind—again, if we look to the Greek, there's this concept of parrhesia, which is literally in Greek something like speaking freely or frankly, but in Greek, it's sort of saying anything, “all saying.” Speaking truth to power very often is the way that we think about it today. That was seen as being something that could and should happen when citizens exercise their rights to isegoria in the assembly, but it wasn't limited to the assembly.”
—The Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade has chosen the Polish-American historian Anne Applebaum to be the recipient of this year’s Peace Prize. The award ceremony took place on Sunday 20 October 2024 in the Church of St Paul in Frankfurt-on-Main.
Any hope for peace is now becoming a distant prospect. It would involve concessions that would threaten freedom and democracy in all of Europe. This does not mean that we have to take leave of our hopes for peace. However, we would be wise to align our ideals with the reality of the situation.
Karin Schmidt-Friderichs - Greeting of the Chair
In this regard, Anne Applebaum is an indisputable ally for us. In all of her books and speeches, she has tried not just to warn people, but also to convince them that the West must be ready to defend itself in the true sense of the word.
If there is even a small chance that military defeat could help end this horrific cult of violence in Russia, just as military defeat once brought an end to the cult of violence in Germany, we should take it.
Anne Applebaum - Acceptance Speech — Against Pessimism (audio)
☼¶ The BBC, ABC, CBC, NZBC &c.¶ ☼☼
—Moldova says 'Yes' to pro-EU constitutional changes by tiny margin Sarah Rainsford (BBC Eastern Europe correspondent, Chisinau) & Laura Gozzi
¶ ¶ After Babel &c. (Jon Haidt, Jean Twenge & al.)☼☼☼
—We Live In Imaginary Worlds This is all one big hallucination Freya India
—What the Lancet doesn’t want you to know about girls and self-harm Suggesting a link to social media is apparently too controversial Jean M. Twenge “The Lancet … seems to be arguing that 12-year-old girls are cutting themselves because they are worried about the planet warming. Isn’t it more likely they are cutting themselves because social media provides an endless way for other kids to be cruel, they can never achieve the perfect bodies they see on Instagram, they are constantly judged for their appearance in the endless selfies they are compelled to post, unknown adults can sexualize them, they are continually stressed about how many likes they’re going to get, and some social media accounts glorify (and even instruct about) self-harm? Any or all of these reasons, and more, might be why heavy social media users are more likely to self-harm.”
¶ ¶ Persuasion (Yascha Mounk & al.)☼☼☼
—Why I Am Not a PhD English departments teach theory, not literature. Liza Libes
☼¶ Engelsberg Ideas¶ ☼☼
—Clare Mulley profiles Krystyna Skarbek, the first woman to serve Britain as a special agent during the Second World War. She was also the country's longest-serving agent, male or female, and among the most effective, admired by Winston Churchill.
—Let's talk about sex -- and fetishes Because they're being talked about in court Julie Szego
—Hans Urs von Balthasar on Forming Missionary Disciples Margaret Turek on missions.
¶ ¶ Reactionary Feminist (Mary Harrington) and more☼☼☼
—Globo Homo Economicus Renaud Camus and Replacism of the Body.
+Greensleeves+
☼☼Green News, and other material which doesn’t fit elsewhere☼☼
¶ ¶ Persuasion (Yascha Mounk & al.)☼☼☼
—The Problem With Solar It's basically free—but at the same time it's hideously expensive. What gives? Quico Toro and Guido Núñez-Mujica
¶ ¶ Noah Smith (Noahpinion)☼☼☼
—EVs are just going to win Because they're a superior technology, and superior technologies win. —A better way to build a downtown It's time to learn a Japanese word: "zakkyo". —How long can we sustain economic growth? Thinking about the very long term.
+Klaus Wits+
☼☼About war☼☼
☼¶ Engelsberg Ideas¶ ☼☼
—Calling the Russia-Ukraine war ‘existential' may rally the public to think harder about a more dangerous world, writes Sergey Radchenko. —With tensions rising between China and the US over Taiwan, writes Bill Emmott, it is crucial that a mutual deterrence, similar to that of the 'first' Cold War, is established between the two superpowers.
—Chatham House Four scenarios for the end of the war in Ukraine Assessing the political and economic challenges ahead
☼ψUkrainska Pravda &c¶ ☼☼
—Zaluzhnyi’s Chatham House speech on protracted war, collective West and Ukraine's right to its own future
¶ ¶ Michael Ryan (Mick, QvM/MMJ, Futura Doctrina)☼☼☼
—The Big Five - 19 October edition My regular update on conflict and confrontation in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Pacific, accompanied by recommended readings on the character of modern war and planning for future conflict. ==North Korea’s Entry into the Ukraine War An assessment of the tactical, strategic and political implications and the trajectory of the war. ==North Korea’s Out-of-Theatre Deployment The deployment of North Korean forces to Ukraine has geostrategic ramifications.
☼¶ The Atlantic Council¶ ☼☼
—Russia is indoctrinating schoolchildren throughout occupied Ukraine By Tetiana Kotelnykova
—Axis of Autocrats: North Korea’s escalating role in Russia’s Ukraine War By Olena Tregub
☼¶ Foreign Affairs (The [US] Council on Foreign Relations)¶ ☼☼
—Putin’s Hidden Vulnerability To Break the Kremlin’s War Machine, the West Must Exploit the Grievances and Fears of Ordinary Russians By Peter Pomerantsev
Ukraine Must Turn the Tide Before It Can Negotiate To Gain Leverage, Kyiv Needs a Stable Front in the Donbas—and Western Security Guarantees By Jack Watling
+Right on+
☼☼Sometimes about Conservatives and Liberals of the ‘right’☼☼
¶ ¶ Noah Smith (Noahpinion)☼☼☼
—The free world teeters on the edge of a knife
¶ ¶ Nick Cohen (Writing from London)☼☼☼
—The bitter truth for Palestinians is that Hamas made the Israeli right stronger
David Cameron, Boris Johnson and the death of the English ruling class Their failure opened the door to the hard right. ‘The question about Cameron we should be asking today is whether the calamity he set in motion has destroyed the chances of his old ruling class ever returning to power. The Brexit he brought upon us by mistake has propelled the growth of a new radical right, which makes no effort to cover its brutality with a veneer of civilised manners. / It was not always thus. Cameron’s success in the 2010s showed that, uniquely in Europe, the old aristocracy still mattered. No one could deny its hold on the English imagination – I say “English” because a majority of the Scots, Welsh and Irish were never captured.’
☼☼
☼☼
+Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union+
☼☼(Mostly from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group)☼☼
Russia uses punitive psychiatry to ‘cure’ Mariupol teenagers of pro-Ukrainian ‘radicalism’ 18.10.2024
Huge conveyor belt sentences against Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer, other Ukrainians whom Russia abducted and tortured
Mariupol only for the invaders. Russia changes street names to totally plunder Ukrainian owners 21.10.2024
Russia first abducts and imprisons young Crimean Tatar, then sentences father on equally nonsensical charges
Voices of Mariupol — a film by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group 22.10.2024 The heroes of our film lived an ordinary happy life. Carefree schoolgirl Mariia Vdovichenko dreamed of dancing at the graduation, doctor Hanna Shevchyk cherished newborns, Yevhen Sosnovsky realized himself as a talented photo artist. Instead, on February 24, 2022, the Russians turned their beloved city into hell.
Russia sentences Ukrainian to 18 years for refusing to fight against Ukraine 24.10.2024
Russian occupation ‘court’ dissolves independent Crimean Tatar Muslim community, after imprisoning several members 25.10.2024
Russia kills more Ukrainian POWs while UN Secretary-General wined and dined by Putin
+Toots etcetera+
ChrisO_wiki@ChrisO_wiki@mastodon.social
1/ Wounded Russian soldiers are reportedly being forced by their commander Colonel Igor 'Evil' Puzik to fight at the front lines regardless of the extent of their injuries, due to a huge number of casualties and an acute shortage of personnel. Evacuation has been 'cancelled'. …
1/ The Russian authorities are reported to have opened an investigation into possible fraud on a massive scale in the building of border defences in the Kursk region. It's suspected that much of the 12 billion rubles ($125m) allocated was stolen by officials and contractors.
1/ The story of a Russian soldier who died last week, having signed a six-month contract but serving two years fighting in Ukraine, illustrates the career of a Russian drone operator. He was one of only 2 volunteers from 2022 to have survived in his unit until recently.
1/ Russia continues to expend many specialist troops in assaults, such as drone operators, sappers, machine gunners and mortar operators. A Russian milblogger says this causes even higher losses because the loss of specialists means less fire support.
1/ Numerous Russian soldiers who were transferred to a Luhansk-based unit as a punishment are reported to have "disappeared en masse without trace" after only a few days. Commanders are said to be refusing to tell relatives anything about what has happened to their loved ones.
1/ Wounded Russian soldiers can only get out of the front lines by bribing doctors, according to a Russian Telegram channel, while a severe shortage of doctors and paramedics means that commanders have blocked medical staff from serving at the front.
1/ Russian commanders are said to expect only 2% of convict soldiers to survive assaults, and are punishing soldiers who do survive, on the assumption that if they are still alive, it shows that they have disobeyed their orders.
1/ Recriminations are continuing over the failure of Russia's border defences in the Kursk region. Fraud, substitution of expensive materials with cheap ones and "the creation of a dozen shady companies with shady contractors and employees" are blamed.
1/ Russian volunteers and startups are said to be unable to contribute effectively to military procurement because of extreme levels of bureaucracy in the Ministry of Defence, and a system which has effectively been captured and monopolised by major defence manufacturers.
Darth Putin @DarthPutinKGB@mastodon.world
Day 972 of my 3 day war. Russian vodka distilleries have been attacked and Medvedev has threatened nuclear war. The 2 are connected.
+The Living Spirit+
Prayer is not [mere] thinking
Abraham Joshua Heschel
There is something which is far greater than my desire to pray, namely, God’s desire that I pray. There is something which is far greater than my will to believe, namely, God’s will that I believe. How insignificant is the outpouring of my soul in the midst of this great universe! Unless it is the will of God that I pray, unless God desires our prayer, how ludicrous is all my praying. We cannot reach heaven by building a Tower of Babel. The biblical way to God is a way of God.
God’s waiting for our prayers is that which lends meaning to them.
~ Plough
+Start every day with a smile, and get it over with+
☼☼W.C. Fields (William C. Dukenfield, 1946 z 25, aged 66)☼☼
Phyllis Ada Diller (20 August 2012, aged 95)
My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit.
☼☼
+Resources & Publication Details+
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine is a reputable source for inquiries about Ukraine; it's also a 'first-stop' place for inquiries about surrounding countries. (A place to go to before Wiki.)
JustPeace Ukraine is published by Martin Arnold, a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest1 ☼☼Abbe.Martincurt@gmail.com☼☼ who welcomes comments & suggestions and notification of typos & errors. ☼☼
+Church, Art, Culture, Ethics, Politics & News+
☼¶ Archdiocese of Brisbane and other Latin bishops of Queensland: enews, Catholic Leader &c.¶ ☼☼
—Mgr Mark Coleridge:— The jacarandas are in bloom, which means that it’s exam time. Many of our senior students are facing scrutiny at the end of the year; the pressure’s on. For some it’s a breeze but for many others it’s seriously stressful. [Senior school exams] can seem all-important but they’re not. They’re important because the results influence the future but they’re not all-important, because learning to give yourself is what really matters in education. Exams test many things but not that. So all the best to all those facing exams. Enjoy the jacarandas.
☼¶ Church Life Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame¶ ☼☼
—Girard's Demystification of the Hegelian Struggle for Recognition
Andreas Wilmes on Hegel's category mistake.
-
Doxological Contrition in a New Ressourcement of Biblical Interpretation
Khaled Anatolios on repentance.
-
Mnesikakia: Chrysostom, the Eucharist, and the Relentless Demon
Kenneth Howell on brooding over past evils.
-
Zygmunt Bauman on indeterminacy.
—The Problem of Conformistic Avoidance
James Jacobs on fraternity. He concludes: “In other words, prior to any special interest or identitarian group, we must recognize the Gospel commandment to love all persons. Thus, participation is not only a political act, it is the most fundamental moral action a person must take. To see all people as neighbors makes conformistic avoidance impossible because we seek their welfare, not their subjugation. Freed from conformistic avoidance, each person can participate in the respectful dialogue that is the lived experience of the common good for which we were created.”
—Money and the Roots of Moral Evil
Dietrich von Hildebrand on avarice.
—Hans Urs von Balthasar on Forming Missionary Disciples
Margaret Turek on missions.
—A Very Short (and Personal) Introduction to the History of Catholic Literary Studies in America
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell on the Catholic imagination. A version of this essay originally appeared in the American Catholic Studies Journal as "Here Comes Everybody: A Personal, Professional, and (Inevitably) Partial History of Catholic Literary Studies in America."
☼¶ Crux (Glendale)¶ ☼☼
—Father of liberation theology, a tiny man with a giant legacy, dead at 96 By John L. Allen Jr.
☼¶ Jewish Council of Australia¶ ☼https://www.jewishcouncil.com.au/news-media | To receive bulletins from JCA, write to jewishcouncil@jewishcouncil.com.au☼
—North Gaza siege demonstrates urgent need to cut ties and sanction Israel October 15th, 2024 \ The Jewish Council of Australia renews our calls for the Albanese Government to use all possible pressure to stop Israel committing the crime of genocide.
☼¶Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University — Public Orthodoxy¶ ☼☼
—Artificial Intelligence: Bioethical Considerations and Limitations Reflections on For the Life of the World \ by Constantine Psimopoulos
Creating "Proposed Guidelines" for Deaconesses by Carrie Frederick Frost
—What I've Learned in Eating Disorder Recovery: "More Spacious than the Heavens" by Dina Zingaro
IMPACT-ing Africa: Service-Learning, Youth Ministry, and Theosis by Dana Bates
☼¶ Outreach (a lesbigatesque Catholic resource from New York)¶ ☼☼
—What keeps you from following Jesus? Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Heb 4:12-13; Wis 7:7-11; Mk 10: 17-30)
☼¶ Vatican News, Sala Stampa &c.¶ ☼☼
—Pope [Francis] to Cardinals-elect: Keep your eyes raised, your hands joined, your feet bare Ahead of the Consistory that will raise them to the dignity of the Cardinalate, Pope Francis writes to the new Cardinals-elect, inviting them to embody three attitudes that characterised Saint John of the Cross: eyes raised, hands joined, feet bare.
Sisters' mission in Ukraine: Living the charism amid challenges of our time The Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate are working hard in Ukraine to heal the wounds of war by providing psychological help and offering support ... By Sr. Emilia Vandych, SSMI
+From Ukrainian publishers+
☼ψEuromaidan Press¶ ☼☼
—Five reasons the West must support Ukraine’s victory, not just survival Ukraine’s victory is not only feasible. It is necessary to make the world a safer place. by Julia Kazdobina
☼ψThe Kyiv Independent group, including Ukraine Daily, Belarus Weekly and the culture newsletter, "Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan."¶ ☼☼
—Hi dear readers, it’s Kate Tsurkan with the latest issue of our culture-related newsletter, Explaining Ukraine. This week, I’d like to introduce you to MUR's musical project "Ty [Romantyka]," a rock opera inspired by the tragic legacy of the Executed Renaissance.
—On Aug.18, 1948, Wilhelm von Habsburg, an Austrian archduke, took his last breath in a Kyiv prison cell. His official cause of death was listed as tuberculosis, but the squalid prison conditions, interrogations, and likely repeated torture hint at a darker fate for the man who had devoted his life to the cause of Ukrainian independence.
—The Kyiv Independent's new documentary, "Shadows Across the River," provides a rare glimpse into Russia's ongoing terror in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
☼ψUkrainska Pravda &c¶ ☼☼
—Zaluzhnyi’s Chatham House speech on protracted war, collective West and Ukraine's right to its own future
☼☼Some interesting or worthy items are marked with some combination of the banner with the strange device [εξηλσιορ*ψ]☼☼
+Tl;dr — From many sources+
☼¶ The Atlantic¶ ☼☼
—Rumors on X Are Becoming the Right’s New Reality The site formerly known as Twitter has become the center of a fantastical political culture. By Renée DiResta
Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics. By Anne Applebaum
The Case Against Pessimism The West has to believe that democracy will prevail. By Anne Applebaum
☼¶ The Atlantic Council¶ ☼☼
—Russia is indoctrinating schoolchildren throughout occupied Ukraine By Tetiana Kotelnykova
—Axis of Autocrats: North Korea’s escalating role in Russia’s Ukraine War By Olena Tregub
—North Korean troops could help Putin avoid a risky Russian mobilization By Olivia Yanchik
☼¶ The BBC, ABC, CBC, NZBC &c.¶ ☼☼
—Moldova says 'Yes' to pro-EU constitutional changes by tiny margin Sarah Rainsford (BBC Eastern Europe correspondent, Chisinau) & Laura Gozzi
☼¶ Carnegie (politika, Russia Eurasia)¶ ☼☼
—Iran Shouldn’t Expect Russia to Come Riding to Its Rescue While the prospect of a full-scale war between Iran and Israel is a worry for the Kremlin, it could also have a significant financial upside for Russia. Nikita Smagin
\ The root of [the] adoption of nationalist rhetoric by Russian officials is the normalization of high levels of violence and brutality since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Temur Umarov explains for Carnegie Politika. This is a very worrying signal for labor migrants from Central Asia who would like to obtain a Russian passport, build a career in Russia, and start a family there.
How Russia Became a Gerontocracy Once Again The Russian regime increasingly resembles the gerontocracy that ran the late Soviet Union, with elderly officials replacing other elderly officials, and some starting to die on the job. Andrey Pertsev
“Assessing Russian Military Adaptation in 2023” Michael Kofman [this article commended by Ryan, Greene & al.]
As the US election nears, anxiety is mounting in Ukraine By Kate Spencer
Georgian Elections Present Moscow With a Difficult Choice The Georgian Dream party is stoking hopes among ordinary Georgians about the return of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Yet without Moscow’s approval, it’s impossible to imagine substantive negotiations taking place. Vladimir Solovyov
Moldova’s Ambiguous Election Results Are Unsurprising A narrower-than-expected victory for pro-EU incumbent Maia Sandu chimes with Moldova’s electoral history and complex regional loyalties. Vladimir Solovyov
E
☼¶ Engelsberg Ideas¶ ☼☼
—Calling the Russia-Ukraine war ‘existential' may rally the public to think harder about a more dangerous world, writes Sergey Radchenko. —Bill Emmott on the need to establish mutual deterrence, similar to that of the 'first' Cold War, between China and the US.
—The posthumous struggle to define the legacy of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the thuggish mercenary entrepreneur apparently killed by the Kremlin last year, presents a problem for both Putin and his opponents, writes Mark Galeotti. —Clare Mulley profiles Krystyna Skarbek, the first woman to serve Britain as a special agent during the Second World War. She was also the country's longest-serving agent, male or female, and among the most effective, admired by Winston Churchill. —What is it like to be on the frontline in Lebanon? Ahron Bregman recalls his experiences serving with the IDF in the First Lebanon War. —Allan Massie considers the legacy of Alex Salmond, the nearly man who almost broke up Britain. —Who is to blame for natural disasters is an age-old question. Human beings are now deliberately changing the weather, a development likely to have profound implications. Suzanne Raine reflects on the geopolitics of the tempest. — Christopher Harding reviews Silk Roads at the British Museum. The great trade routes, criss-crossing east to west, continue to fascinate. —Uncompromising, single-minded and difficult, the composer Arnold Schönberg was born 150 years ago this year. Richard Bratby champions the artist's right to be awkward. —With tensions rising between China and the US over Taiwan, writes Bill Emmott, it is crucial that a mutual deterrence, similar to that of the 'first' Cold War, is established between the two superpowers.
☼¶ The European Council / Council of the European Union¶ ☼☼
—Think Tank Review - October 2024 ==‘Westlessness: the great global rebalancing’ by Samir Puri Are we facing an epochal change, in which centres of power and influence multiply outside of the West’s reach? Is the West really in a state of peril? Amid so many near-apocalyptic accounts of a shifting balance of power, Samir Puri’s analysis in Westlessness: the great global rebalancing provides a sober and even optimistic counterpoint ==Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on reports of the DPRK sending troops to Russia ==Invitation letter for the European Political Community summit in Budapest
☼¶ European Council on Foreign Relations Update¶ ☼☼
—2024 x 20: Coach Emmanuel L’Agronome began his career as a humble Beninese chicken farmer, sharing YouTube videos on poultry breeding. But by early 2024, his channel had pivoted from feathers to fiery geopolitics – praising Putin and African junta leaders while slamming Western figures like Macron. \ This shift reflects how authoritarian narratives are infiltrating Africa’s online spaces and catching the attention of millions: and is precisely the kind of destabilising influence gripping the Sahel. In his policy brief, Will Brown argues that, rather than disengaging from the coup belt, European governments should work to curb the worst of the chaos engulfing the region and prevent rival powers from gaining the upper hand.
☼¶ Foreign Affairs (The [US] Council on Foreign Relations)¶ ☼☼
—The Peril of American Neglect in the Pacific To Compete With Beijing, Washington Must Beef Up Its Presence in the Region By Charles Edel and Kathryn Paik
Putin’s Hidden Vulnerability To Break the Kremlin’s War Machine, the West Must Exploit the Grievances and Fears of Ordinary Russians By Peter Pomerantsev
Ukraine Must Turn the Tide Before It Can Negotiate To Gain Leverage, Kyiv Needs a Stable Front in the Donbas—and Western Security Guarantees By Jack Watling
☼¶ Hong Kong Foundation, Committee for Freedom in¶ ☼☼
—17 October 2024 – Yesterday, PEN Canada, an organisation that promotes literature and defends freedom of expression, presented Jimmy Lai, the founder of Apple Daily, with the One Humanity Award in absentia.
18 October 2024 – British Parliament holds debate about UK-Hong Kong relations and Jimmy Lai \ Yesterday, in the British Parliament, a debate on UK - Hong Kong relations and on securing visas, access to services and security for Hong Kongers living in the UK took place in Westminster Hall.
Advocacy For Hong Kong Rights Takes Centre Stage in Ottawa - The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) and the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation are joining forces in Ottawa to advocate for urgent action against human rights violations in Hong Kong.
CFHK Foundation Condemns Bloomberg Forum for Hosting Hong Kong Financial Secretary
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☼¶ Institute for the Study of War¶ ☼☼
—Russia Poses Long-Term Threats to Moldova’s European Integration Beyond the October Elections
—The Kremlin will likely seek to influence the October 2024 Georgian parliamentary elections to help secure a Georgian Dream Party victory in order to derail Georgia's Euro-Atlantic Integration efforts. The Kremlin likely hopes to seize on Georgian Dream's increasing pro-Russia position to facilitate long-term hybrid efforts to assert control over Georgia and the South Caucasus and diminish Western influence in the region. By Davit Gasparyan, Nicole Wolkov, and Frederick W. Kagan.
¶ Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment
2024x15 The Kremlin is likely leveraging the recent June 2024 Russia-North Korea comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in part to offset Russian force generation and border security requirements—further cementing Russian President Vladimir Putin's commitment to avoiding mobilization for as long as possible.
¶ Iran, Israel-Hamas Update
2024x25 Hamas is seeking Russian support in pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) to negotiate over a national unity government with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas Political Bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouk met with Deputy Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow on October 23 to request that Russia pressure PA President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate with Hamas over a national unity government. / Hamas is likely responding to the Emirati-proposed plan for post-war governance in the Gaza Strip. The plan would involve appointing a reformed PA led by an independent prime minister to administer the Gaza Strip, leaving Hamas excluded from post-war governance. Negotiating a national unity government with the PA, on the other hand, would allow Hamas to retain a role in post-war governance. Hamas would likely exploit the establishment of a national unity government to gradually expand its control and influence in the Gaza Strip.
☼¶ The Interpreter (Lowy Institute)¶ ☼☼
—A shared struggle: Ukrainians and their global supporters on the front lines Gordon Weiss 16/10/24 An unyielding will in the face of invasion has inspired heroes at home and from afar.
The Black Sea battle: Learning the right maritime lessons from Ukraine Jennifer Parker 10/10/24 Ukraine’s effective strategy in the Black Sea offers a masterclass in how a smaller, determined naval force can challenge a much larger one.
Answering the SOS of the United Nations Clare Beaton-Wells 17/10/24 Australia’s support of the Pact for the Future is a chance to shape reform of the global organisation.
The case for an Indo-Pacific Economic Resilience Bank, by Michelle Lyons, Roland Rajah, and Grace Stanhope outlines how the IERB could bridge critical gaps in the international financial architecture.
☼¶ Meduza¶ ☼☼
—Disappearing coast As the Baltic Sea erodes Latvia’s shoreline, locals grapple with what’s lost to the advancing tide By Katya Balaban ==Dispatch from Issyk-Kul How nationalizing Kyrgyzstan’s largest gold mine won President Japarov the people’s support (for now) By Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska
☼¶ Moscow Times¶ ☼☼
—The Moscow Times is … to host Women Against the Kremlin, … at Rode Hoed in Amsterdam on [26 November}
☼¶ Newsweek¶ ☼☼
—Pope Francis and Zelensky Exchange Symbolic Gifts at Vatican Meeting By Matthew Impelli
Ukraine's Explosive New Strategy Exposes Russia's Achilles' Heel By Ellie Cook AND John Feng
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☼¶ OVD-Info and the Dissident Digest¶ ☼☼
—While Vladimir Putin often preaches about how important teachers are for the nation’s future, it all rings hollow: their social status is quite low and their pay is miserable — especially in schools.
☼¶ Reuters¶ ☼☼
—Ukraine parliament raises taxes: It is Ukraine’s first major wartime tax increase and is expected to shore up the nation’s finances as it fights Russia. Kyiv needs $12 billion by the end of 2024 to spend on defense. The tax rise will bring about $563 million. Ukraine still faces a budget deficit of $38 billion next year.
One debt to bind them: Ukrainians are buying bonds to help fund the war with Russia. Lawyer Olesia Mykhailenko, an early investor in Ukraine’s domestic debt and a proponent of the bonds, says it’s not only good for the war effort, but a way to protect their cash from inflation.
☼¶ RUSI¶ ☼☼[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
—The Impending Betrayal of Ukraine \ Tim Willasey-Wilsey CMG
☼¶ Der Spiegel, Stern¶ ☼☼
—"If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, the Germans will also feel consequences" Anne Applebaum is one of the best connoisseurs in Eastern Europe and has always warned against Putin. Now she describes the new axis of the autocrats – and goes into court with the Germans. by Steffen Gassel and Moritz Gathmann
☼¶ The Strategist — The Australian Strategic Policy Institute¶ ☼☼
—Space: an opportunity for South Korea and Australian defence cooperation Sangsoon Lee | 17 October 2024 Australia and South Korea should collaborate on space technology by building and launching small surveillance satellites from Australian space launch facilities. It would be in the military and industrial interests of both countries …
After 75 years of the People’s Republic of China, the party is truly the sovereign John Fitzgerald | 16 October 2024 Lecturing in Munich in 1919, German political economist Max Weber spoke of the modern state as a ‘human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory’.
Ukraine should have security guarantees Ana Palacio | 11 October 2024 Ana Palacio, a former foreign minister of Spain and former senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group, is a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University.[εξηλσιορ*ψ]
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☼¶ War Translated and other like journals¶ ☼☼
—Center for Naval Analysis The Central Brain of the Russian Armed Forces The Modern Russian General Staff in Institutional Context / Julian G. Waller and Dmitry Gorenburg
—Modern War Institute On (Protracted) War: The Challenge of Sustained Large-Scale Combat Operations John Nagl and George Topic
—TNSR Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking Geopolitics | History May 16, 2024 Philip Zelikow
Davy Crockett and the Boy Scouts: The Korean War and Mismanaging Protracted Conflict Andrew J. Forney
☼¶ The Washington Post¶ ☼☼
—Trump allies threaten Deloitte contracts after employee shares Vance chats Republicans are targeting $3 billion in federal contracts after a consultant disclosed messages unconnected to his work. By Peter Jamison
☼¶ Die Zeit¶ ☼and other sites☼
—Chatham House Four scenarios for the end of the war in Ukraine Assessing the political and economic challenges ahead
—MSNBC Jeffrey Goldberg reflects on Trump's 'comprehensive ignorance of history' The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg and Anne Applebaum join Morning Joe to discuss Donald Trump's interests in dictators, and his disdain for the American military and how both are growing.
—National Interest A “Land-For-Land” Solution to the Ukraine War?
by Andreas Umland \ Ukraine appears to be holding out for a territorial exchange with Russia as the basis for peace. Will the Global South go along? Read it here.
—Rolling Stone Ukraine May Cost Trump the Election Donald Trump’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine is motivating some Republicans to abandon their party and vote for Kamala Harris By Mac William Bishop, Guillaume Ptak
¶ ¶ The Sheffield Shield☼☼☼
—Named for Henry North Holroyd, Earl of Sheffield, Viscount Pevensey (21 April 1909, aged 77)
Western Australia 465 & 263/6d
Queensland 367 & 120/1
x 08 Match drawn.
Queensland 308 & 229
South Australia 314 & 352/9d
x 20 South Australia won by 129 runs.
Good-bye and bless you!
Ψ From Yagera Country in Meanjin Ψ e & o e Ψ Кінець і Богу слава Ψ
*_* Хай живе вільна Україна *_* "L’Ukraine a toujours aspiré à être libre"—Voltaire *_* Няхай жыве вольная Украіна *_* Larga vida a Ucrania libre *_* Да здравствует свободная Украина *_* Long live free Ukraine *_* 自由乌克兰万岁 *_* تحي أوكرانيا حرة *_*
For more information about Martin, go to ☼☼https://gravatar.com/martinoarnold☼☼
For more about Christianity in Ukraine —> ☼☼ Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine ☼☼
Christians were active in what is today Ukraine long before there was extensive Slavic settlement in the land —> Christianization of Ukraine.
In Kyiv in 988, a Viking lord called Valdemar led a military and commercial enterprise called Rus’. Valdemar (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ, Volodiměr) found it expedient to establish Christianity as the religion of his realm as part of an alliance with the major power in the Black Sea region, the Emperor of New Rome (Constantinople, Byzantium) —> History of the Ukrainian church. Many subjects of Rus’ were Slavs, and from this time on Christianity among the East Slavic peoples has been predominantly ‘Greek’ or ‘Hellenic’ or ‘Byzantine’. (But, much as some Australian Catholics avoid the epithets ‘Roman’ or ‘Latin’ [“I don’t come from Rome and I don’t speak Latin”], most Orthodox Ukrainians would find it odd to describe themselves as ‘Greek Orthodox’.)
Relations between the bishops and the churches of Rome and New Rome had been sometimes turbulent before 988, and, despite attempts to heal the breach (—> e.g. Florence, Church Union of), by the time of the death of Dr Martin Luther (18 February 1546, aged 62) not only were relations between the Roman and New Roman churches broken, but a third group, Protestant Christianity, had arisen, and relations between these groups were, at best, cautiously civil. It was not possible to be in full union with any two at once. One had to choose.
(Although many attempted to improve relations between these bodies [see, for example, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and ‘The System of Leibniz’], the current thaw from icy relations is marked by the meeting of the Roman pontiff Paul VI and the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras on 6 January 1964 on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where they prayed together and exchanged the kiss of peace. Since that day, some describe the relation of the two bishops and their churches as being ‘an impaired communion’.)
In 1589, when Patriarch Jeremias II Tranos elevated the bishop of Moscow to be a Patriarch, most Ruthenians (the people whose descendants would describe themselves as Ukrainians and Belarusians) found themselves in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth —> Union of Berestia :—
The Orthodox bishops worked out a plan for establishing ties with Rome at their sobors [synods] in 1590–4. The initiators of the plan hoped to gain not only ecclesiastical benefits from the union, but also an end to the Polonization of the upper classes and equality for the Orthodox church and its clergy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The union was supported by leading Polish circles because it was politically and religiously advantageous to them. Roman Catholic clerics, particularly the Jesuits Piotr Skarga, Benedykt Herbest, A. Possevino, P. Arcudius, and B. Maciejowski, and the Orthodox bishops, especially Ipatii Potii [Potij], the bishop of Volodymyr-Volynskyi … all worked to bring about a union... On 22 June 1595 all nine Orthodox hierarchs signed a letter to Pope Clement VIII declaring that they were ready to enter into negotiations on church unification and authorizing bishops Kyrylo Terletsky and Potii to act for them in Rome. In September Potii and Terletsky left for Rome and, after long talks, set forth their confession of faith before the papal curia on 23 December 1595.
The union was announced by the papal bull Magnus Dominus on 23 December 1595. In January and February of 1596 the rights and privileges of the Uniate church were worked out and were guaranteed by the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem of 23 February 1596. The pope took the necessary steps to get the consent of the Polish government to the civil guarantees of the agreement, such as senatorial seats for the bishops, aid for the clergy and churches, and security of church property. After Ipatii Potii and Kyrylo Terletsky returned from Rome, a sobor was called in Berestia for 16–20 October 1596. The sobor split into two groups—for and against the union with Rome—and thus two councils went on concurrently… The union was accepted by Metropolitan Mykhailo Rahoza and five bishops, the hegumens, archimandrites, and part of the clergy and gentry. Each group condemned and anathematized the other. The sobor favoring the union, which was joined by most of the hierarchy, confirmed the union and proclaimed it before the people in a pastoral letter. The Polish king Sigismund III Vasa issued a proclamation in support of the union. The Apostolic See was represented at the sobor by the Roman Catholic bishops of Lviv, Lutsk, and Kholm, and the Polish government and crown were represented by several senators. The Jesuit Piotr Skarga made the closing speech on 20 October.
The Church Union of Berestia split the Ruthenian church and the faithful in two and led to a long and bitter domestic struggle… In the 18th century Uniate Catholicism became dominant in Right-Bank Ukraine, Galicia, and Transcarpathia. When these territories were annexed by Russia, Ukrainian Catholicism was forcibly liquidated: under Catherine II on the Right Bank and in Volhynia, under Nicholas I in the rest of these territories (1839), and under Alexander II in the Kholm region (1875). The Uniate church in Galicia and Transcarpathia survived under Austro-Hungarian rule (1772–1918), but was abolished in 1946–50 by the Soviet government, which orchestrated the sobors of Lviv (see Lviv Sobor of 1946), Mukachevo, and Prešov. As a result, the Ukrainian Catholic church survived officially only in the West, the Prešov region of Slovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia until its restoration in Ukraine during the early 1990s.
I hope that I am not tendentious when I say that the Union of Berestia was a movement to secure the position of Ruthenian-rite Christians living in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth while preserving their Greek and Ruthenian heritage; that the unionists had no desire to end communion with the Patriarch in Constantinople; and that, given a situation in which the Ruthenians could not be simultaneously in communion with both Rome and Constantinople, the unionists can plausibly argue that they were prudent in seeking union with Rome.
Be that as it may,
on 1 August 1589 Patriarch Jeremias II Tranos (†4 September 1595, aged ca 59 — see Wiki OrthodoxWiki Britannica) consecrated Mychajlo Rohoza (†August 1599, aged 59), Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč .
Mgr Mychajlo Rohoza was the principal consecrator
— in 1593, of Hipacy (Ipatij) Pociej (Potij) (†13 Jul 1613 aged 71), who succeeded Mychajlo at Kyiv-Halyč;
— in 1595, of Herman Zahorskyi (Zahorski) (†1600) who became Archbishop of Połock (Polotsk) in Belarus later in the same year; and
— also in 1595, of Yona Hohol (†July 1602) who was Bishop of Pińsk-Turaŭ in Belarus.
Mychajlo, Hipacy, Herman and Yona entered into full communion with the Roman church on 19 October 1596, while Paul V (Camillo Borghese, †28 January 1621, aged 70) was sovereign pontiff.
The Ukrainian and Ruthenian Catholic Clergy — including the publisher of Just Peace Ukraine — discover their episcopal lineage in Patriarch Jeremias and Mgr Mychajlo Rohoza, Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč.
(E & o e; any brief statement about the Union of Berestia is likely to be controversial; friendly queries and comments by persons who’ve read the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine articles mentioned in this footnote may be sent to ☼☼Abbe.Martincurt@gmail.com☼☼ Martin Arnold, publisher.)