[Rutherford] We have become a nation adrift in a sea of government overreach, abuse and corruption.
The following is a sobering account of the challenges we faced in 2024, which were marked by the government’s never-ending power grabs and relentless assaults on our civil liberties.
2024 saw a continued rise in government overreach and abuse of power. The militarization of police forces continued unabated, with local departments increasingly resembling extensions of the military. Schools, meant to be places of learning and growth, became more prison-like with the implementation of “safety” measures that criminalize minor infractions and create an environment of fear. The right to private property was further eroded, with the government increasingly empowered to seize assets under various pretexts. The plight of the homeless worsened, with cities criminalizing homelessness and implementing policies designed to make their lives even more difficult. Military veterans, once hailed as heroes, were increasingly treated with suspicion and subjected to surveillance.
On almost every front this year, the government overreached and abused its powers.
With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except for that which the Deep State grants on an as-needed basis.
But then we re-elected Donald Trump president with majorities in both the Electoral College and popular vote, and sent Republican majorities, however slim, to both the House and Senate. So there is hope that things will start to turn around beginning in January.
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01/02/2025 00:00 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mikhail Moshkin
[REGNUM] On December 28, Vladimir Putin signed the previously approved parliamentary renaming of the city of Rostov in the Yaroslavl region to Rostov the Great. The initiative to change the name of the oldest city of the Golden Ring was introduced to the State Duma by Yaroslavl regional deputies back in October, and the bill was approved by the State Duma on November 17.
Adding the epithet "Great" to the official name of the city will not only consolidate the historically established name, but will also correspond to the cultural and historical status - such arguments were given by the government in its response. And, we will add, now there will be fewer reasons to confuse the two Rostovs - the ancient capital city on Lake Nero and the "new building" from the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on the Don.
With similar goals in mind, Novgorod was made Great again in 1999. It had been called that way before, unofficially, to clarify that it was not Nizhny that was meant. And now the titles of the Novgorod Republic times have been officially restored. With the expression "Lord (or Gospodar) Veliky Novgorod" known from the epics, everything is clear - it has been recorded since the 14th century, since the fourth century after the city's foundation. But with Rostov the Great, everything, as they say, is not so clear.
This story, like the onions for which the Yaroslavl region is famous, has several layers.
The first, superficial layer: the expression “Rostov the Great” is almost colloquial, and it appeared in order not to confuse the tourist town on the Golden Ring with Rostov-papa.
The second layer is a little deeper. The name "Rostov the Great" appeared many centuries before the fortress of St. Demetrius of Rostov was built on the Don in 1761. Rostov was called Great if not in the legendary eras before the Varangians were called to Russia (in the "Tale of Bygone Years" it is written that Rurik " began to distribute cities to his men: Polotsk to this one, Rostov to this one", which means that a city with this name already existed), then under the first known prince of Rostov and the greatest of the Kiev princes, Yaroslav the Wise. In any case, since time immemorial.
This version is popular, sounds quite plausible, and respects the city, first mentioned in 862, perhaps later than Kiev or Veliky Novgorod, but almost three centuries earlier than Moscow. After all, in Soviet dictionaries and encyclopedias, for example, in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of 1955 or in the Soviet Historical Encyclopedia, they wrote directly: "Known in Ancient Rus under the name Rostov the Great" or "Rostov Yaroslavsky, in the 12th-17th centuries Rostov the Great."
Rostov the Great has long been called so and rightfully so. At least, this is what the “second layer” version says, briefly formulated in a recent TASS report : “Rostov the Great, founded in 862 by Rurik, is the oldest of the cities of the Golden Ring. ”
But the third level is where the revelations begin. If you go to the website of the Rostov Kremlin State Museum-Reserve, you can find an article published in 1999 by its research fellow, historian Sergei Sazonov. The scientist refutes the established version, but no refutations of Sazonov's version have appeared since then. Moreover, the Rostov historian did not "rip off the covers," but reminded us of a half-forgotten fact.
"During the 19th and 20th centuries, the name of the city of Rostov with the definition "Great" became widespread in literature. An earlier use of this definition is found in 1847 in the work of M. Tolstoy " Ancient Shrines of Rostov the Great ". Judging by the fact that the author considered it necessary to explain to the reader the reasons that allowed him to include the definition "Great" in the name of the city, he had no predecessors," wrote Sazonov.
That is, it turns out that not under Rurik, not under Yaroslav the Wise, and not in the 12th century, but in 1847 the name came from the pen of an almost contemporary author. Then, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the name “Rostov the Great” gets into the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia, and from there into popular and even respectable pre-revolutionary and Soviet publications.
The author of the article about the "ancient shrines of Rostov", from which the name "Rostov the Great" went viral, is Mikhail Vladimirovich Tolstoy, a representative of the count's family, as ramified as the Rurikovich family. A contemporary of the famous distant relatives Lev Nikolaevich and Alexei Konstantinovich, a cousin of Dmitry Andreevich Tolstoy, the chief prosecutor of the Synod and the president of the Academy of Sciences.
Count Mikhail Tolstoy himself, now completely forgotten, was known as a historian, albeit with a narrow specialization - as a church historian. More precisely, a church historian. His most famous work is "The Life and Miracles of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker." The Count also wrote "Lives of the Saints of God Who Lived within the Borders of the Current Yaroslavl Diocese," a description of the holy places of Pskov and Rostov the Great. But strictly speaking, Mikhail Tolstoy was not a medievalist, that is, a specialist in the Middle Ages.
Rostov the Great appeared from the pen of Count Tolstoy and subsequent authors in an atmosphere of a kind of “historical romanticism” of the times of Nicholas I and Alexander II, notes historian Sazonov.
A modern specialist writes: “The fact that this innovation turned out to be so tenacious… indicates the presence of some rational basis in it, satisfying the real need for a more precise identification of the city.” That is, the need not to confuse Rostov in the Yaroslavl province (and then region) with Rostov-on-Don.
So, we are back to the beginning, to the first, most "vulgar" version of the origin of the name? And the antiquity of the name "Rostov the Great" is a fake, like the "Veles Book", "Great Tartary" or "Slavic Vedas"? Not quite so, or even not at all so.
But to understand it you will have to get down to the fourth level.
Mikhail Tolstoy may have been a romantic conservative with a penchant for fantasy, but he was not a falsifier. And in his conclusions, the Count relied on one specific fact. Specifically, on the Ipatiev Chronicle, or more precisely on the entry in it from the summer of 6659 from the creation of the world (1159 AD).
It tells of one of the episodes of the then "game of thrones" - the war for the Kiev "table", which the Rostov-Suzdal prince Yuri Dolgoruky waged with his nephews Izyaslav and Rostislav Mstislavich. At a certain point, the nephews were supported by Yuri Dolgoruky's elder brother, Prince Vyacheslav Vladimirovich.
Prince Yuri Dolgoruky at the city walls. Miniature from the chronicles
And so, in the midst of civil strife, Vyacheslav writes to his brother Yuri, persuading him: abandon your claims to the Kiev throne and go home - "to your Pereyaslavl and to Kuresk (that is, to Kursk)... and there you have Rostov the Great." That is, " and there you have Rostov the Great."
On this basis, Mikhail Vladimirovich Tolstoy in his article of 1847 made Rostov Great again. He does, however, state there that "Rostov is called Great in many places in the chronicles." But this, as modern historians believe, is already the count's fantasy.
After this paragraph of the Ipatiev Chronicle, the combination "Rostov the Great" does not appear in any chronicle or source of all subsequent centuries. Historian Sergei Sazonov, citing the chronicle, believes that "Rostov the Great" is simply "Rostov the Great, rich, populous." But this, we note, is also just a version.
And most importantly, the debates about the antiquity of the name do not cancel out the real historical greatness of this city, whose inhabitants were baptized a little later than in Kiev, and became the conductors of the Orthodox faith and culture throughout the north-east of Europe. From the time of the baptizer of Rus' Vladimir the Saint until the Mongol invasion, Rostov was the main center of the north-eastern possessions of the large (though not very friendly) Rurikovich family.
The Rostov-Suzdal prince was the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky, and only under his son Andrei Bogolyubsky did the primacy among cities pass from Suzdal and Rostov to Vladimir. But even later the city remained a stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy, especially from the end of the 17th century, when under Metropolitan Jonah a grandiose bishop's residence was founded, now known as the Rostov Kremlin.
Even after the provincial reform of Catherine II, when the city became a district town, Rostov did not become a backwater - only the Nizhny Novgorod Fair could compete with the Rostov Fair, which arose at the end of the 18th century, and local merchants traded in St. Petersburg, Moscow, the Volga region and even Turkestan. At the same time, one of the main local crafts with an "ancient" flair arose - Rostov enamel, painting on enamel, which became one of Russia's export brands, in demand from Greek monasteries to Parisian exhibitions.
And the fact that it was Rostov that “played the role” of medieval Moscow in Leonid Gaidai’s “non-science fiction, not entirely realistic and not strictly historical film” “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession” is in itself a contribution to Russian culture, now of modern times.
One can agree with senator from the Yaroslavl region Natalia Kosikhina, when in August she called the renaming of Rostov an important step towards a “new prosperous future” for the city itself and its residents – there will be more opportunities for the development of ancient crafts and new start-ups, tourism and more.
[IsraelTimes] Semi-autonomous body wishes to show US president-elect it is capable of governing a post-war Gaza; 11 people killed in last month’s clashes between PA forces and terror groups
The Paleostinian Authority is determined to score a win against forces of Evil in the West Bank ahead of US-President elect Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... ’s inauguration, aiming to demonstrate its ability to control post-war Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , analysts told AFP.
The security forces of the PA, which exercises limited control over the West Bank, have been engaged in deadly festivities with button men since early December. The arrests of several forces of Evil triggered the skirmishes.
The PA forces are fighting members of the Jenin Battalion group, most of whom are affiliated with either Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... or Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007 when it ousted the PA in a bloody coup, is the main political rival of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> ’s Fatah party that dominates the PA.
Eleven people — including PA security personnel, forces of Evil and civilians —have been killed in the violence in Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of gangs in the northern West Bank and a frequent target of Israeli military raids.
"What is happening in Jenin is a crucial test for the Paleostinian Authority, which is trying to assert its control and impose security in the region," political analyst Khalil Shahin said.
An official with the Ramallah-based PA, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... to discuss the operation in Jenin, said that Abbas "categorically rejects any mediation... and insists these hard boyz surrender themselves and their weapons."
Anwar Rajab, a front man for the PA’s security forces, said, "There will be no tolerance for this rogue group that operates outside the law."
The intra-Paleostinian festivities erupted amid a major raid by PA forces on the Jenin camp, which came after the December 5 arrest of a Jenin Battalion commander on charges of possessing weapons and illicit funds.
Armed Paleostinian factions in Jenin and elsewhere portray themselves as a more effective resistance to Israel than the PA, which coordinates security matters with Israel.
Analysts say that in Jenin, the PA is trying to prove it can control the violence and demonstrate that it could bring stability to Gaza once the war is over.
Shahin said the PA was trying to "weather the storm" of the Gaza war, Israeli offensives and regional upheavals before Trump takes office in January.
’ILLUSIONS’
“The PA hopes that, after Trump sees its ability to control Jenin, he will support it in governing Gaza after the war, unlike President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant.... ," Shahin said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has ruled out any role for the PA or Hamas in governing Gaza after the war ends.
Regardless whether or not it wins them Gaza, a government ought to actually govern the territory it putatively rules, so this is good practice.
During Trump’s first term, US relations with the PA rapidly deteriorated over what the Paleostinians viewed as a series of moves to sideline them.
Perspicacious of them to notice the blatantly obvious.
Trump broke with most of the world by moving the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also suspended aid to Paleostinians and his "deal of the century" to solve the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict would have seen Israel annex 30 percent of the West Bank.
Hani al-Masri, director of the Paleostinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, said the timing of the Jenin raid appeared to strategically coincide with the lead-up to Trump’s return to the White House, as well as the possibility of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza after nearly 15 months of war.
In an analysis piece for his institute, Masri warned against the "illusions" of trying to appease Trump or believing he would take a different approach in his second term.
While appeasing President Trump will be extremely painful to the Palestinian self-image, not appeasing him will be even more extremely painful to Palestinian prosperity and world support.
The PA "believes it will be acceptable to the new Trump (presidency) if it lowers" its demands or opposition, Masri said.
While Hamas and Islamic Jihad accuse the PA of effectively serving Israeli interests, many fear a more intense outbreak of intra-Paleostinian violence, against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza and a surge in Israeli military raids and settler attacks in the West Bank.
Videos have circulated showing alleged abuses by Paleostinian security forces, further increasing tensions between the rival camps of the PA and Hamas.
Hamas has condemned "grave violations" by the PA’s forces, while Fatah has denounced those who "legitimize chaos and anarchy."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
