Oh, and in that letter 132 of Anatolius to Leo, he claims he had nothing to do with passing Canon 28.  He blamed that entirely on the clergy of Constantinople (of which he as the head).  

It's important to note that the original Patriarchates, specifically Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, were all Petrine sees.  St. Peter founded Antioch, St. Mark (Peter's secretary) founded Alexandria, and of course, St. Peter founded and died in Rome.  The others, Jerusalem, Constantinople, etc., came later.  

I've always wondered how Constantinople could claim to be a "patriarchate" as it was not one of the original apostolic sees (the others being Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria).

I claim relative ignorance here.  Can someone shed light on this?

Constantinople's claim to be a patriarchate was a journey in itself.  In culminated in the passage of canon 28 at the Council of Chalcedon (which almost entirely consisted of eastern bishops), which placed Constantinople over all the other patriarchates except Rome.  Canon 28 is the linchpin to their claims of being all that and a bag of chips, and came about because of the growing ambition of Constantinople.  It was the center of the empire, and they figured they had a right to consolidate and appropriate power.  What they will never tell you, however, is that the papal representatives at the council objected to Canon 28, it was passed in the middle of the night when the papal representatives weren't present, and Pope Leo the Great nullified that canon "by the authority of blessed Peter".  

Read the acts of the council of Chalcedon itself, as well as the letters of Leo the Great to Emperor Marcian, Empress Pulcharia, Patriarch Anatolius, and John of Cos.  It paints a vivid picture of what really happened.

Letter 132, which is a letter of Anatolius (Patriarch of Constantinople) to Leo, is pure gold.  In it, Anatolius acknowledges Pope Leo's right to approve or disapprove any part of the council, he protests that his great desire is to "obey" Leo in all things, and he accedes to Leo's commands to correct two unjust administrative changes involving two individuals at the local level in Constantinople (the restoration of a Catholic who unjustly lost his job, and the dismissal of a heretic who had been protected by Anatolius). 

The end result is that Canon 28 pretty much disappeared for the next several centuries, being resurrected by Photius and, to a greater extent, by Michael Cerularius in the 11th century.  Michael was worse than Photius, in that it was his actions that were responsible for the more permanent separation of Rome and Constantinople. 

It's important to note that, while Constantinople dropped Canon 28 after Leo nullified it, they continued to behave as if it was in force. 

The Greeks returned to the Faith and submission to Rome twice after Cerularius.  Once at the second council of Lyons (1274), and the other at the Council of Florence (1439). Florence was the biggest, and it had amazing results. The last two emperors of the Byzantine empire (John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos) died as Catholics in submission to the Pope, and the entire reason they went into schism again after the Council of Florence is because of the Turks.  Mehmet the II took Constantinople on Pentecost in 1453, and installed a new patriarch (while the Catholic Patriarch was in Rome) named Gennadius Scholarius, who was the most anti-Catholic bishop he could find.  Scholarius was a protege of Mark of Ephesus, who was the only bishop in the east who refused to sign the docuмents of the Council of Florence.  Mark went back to Constantinople after the council and caused all sorts of trouble, stirring the people up against the reunion.

Gennadius Scholarius, on being chosen as the new Patriarch, processed through the streets of Constantinople and received the symbols of his new office directly from the hands of Mehmet II, an Ottoman Turk.  This scene is immortalized in a number of Greek icons.

Why anyone would look at the claims of Orthodoxy seriously is beyond me.

On a related subject this is the most ludicrous thing I've ever read: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/23/voyager-1-transmitting-data-again-after-nasa-remotely-fixes-46-year-old-probe so you're telling me a 70s computer billions of miles away is able to receive a signal on an ancient medium (that somehow is still working) in 22hrs with no obstructions? No meteors, flares, planets etc obstruct the signal there and back? Come on

N.B. One of the last acts of a fallen empire is to loot the treasury.

Trump backed Speaker Mike Johnson on Ukraine aid package, and warned Marjorie Taylor Greene not to oust him

https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/trump-sold-out-his-base-to-shovel-95-billion-to-ukraine-and-israel/

Trump Sold-Out His Base to Shovel $95 Billion to Ukraine and Israel

MIKE WHITNEY

APRIL 21, 2024

America last. America last. That's all this is. America last, every
single day. – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene

The man who is most responsible for the $95 billion giveaway to Ukraine
and Israel, is the same guy who pretends to oppose America's “wasteful”
foreign wars. Donald Trump. It was Trump who consulted with Speaker Mike
Johnson about the contents of the Ukraine aid package, just as it was
Trump who concocted the idea of issuing loans instead of dispersing the
standard welfare handout. It was also Trump who said:

“I stand with the Speaker, (Mike Johnson)” after which he added that
Johnson is doing “a very good job.”

A “good job”??

So, secretly collaborating with the Democrat leadership to push through
a bill that “reauthorizes FISA to spy on the American people without a
warrant, (bans Tik Tok) fully funds Joe Biden's DOJ that has indicted
President Trump 91 times, and giving Biden's political gestapo a brand
new FBI building bigger than the Pentagon,” while not providing a dime
to protect the southern border from the swarms of people entering the
country illegally, is doing a “good job”?

The question we should all be asking ourselves is why has Trump decided
to participate in this scam? He keeps saying that if he was president,
he'd end the war in Ukraine in a day. If he's sincere about that, then
why did he collaborate on a bill that will drag the war out for another
year or two? This is from a Twitter post by political analyst Michael
Tracey:

Mission Accomplished. It is done: Donald Trump and the House GOP just
completed one of the most epic swindles in political history, with Trump
personally effectuating the largest-ever dispersement of Ukraine funding
through his emissary, “MAGA Mike Johnson” (as Trump lovingly calls him)
The $61 billion passed this afternoon is likely enough to underwrite the
brutal, pointless trench warfare for at least another year or two. This
after the same old endless media screeching that Trump and MAGA
Republicans were being brainwashed by Putin and would never fund
Ukraine. That fundamental hoax continues — only this time Trump was in
on it…. Michael Tracey, Twitter

And the response from Luca Cabrilo:

Michael you're 100% spot on. Trump could have at any point killed this
monstrous bill if he wanted to, but he didn't. He even let MAGA Mike go
on TV and say that he and Trump are “100% agreed” on the Ukraine funding
Trump screwed his base on this one, no other way about it.

Michael Tracey again: He didn't just “not kill it,” he personally
facilitated its passage

Here's more background from Tracey:

The bill, designed after consultations between Mike Johnson and Trump,
mysteriously gives the President the ability to forgive the purported
“loan” to Ukraine — immediately after the November election…

[Do you wonder why Trump is slowly being rehabilitated in the Jєωιѕн media?**]

And if that's not brazen enough for you, here's the catch: The funds
eligible for “loan forgiveness” are the direct budgetary infusions to
Ukraine — meaning the money that pays for the salaries of Ukrainian
government workers and so forth — NOT the military “aid,” which
comprises the vast majority of the package. So, only $8 billion of the
$61 billion allocated to Ukraine is even *eligible* for “loan
forgiveness” under the terms of this gargantuan bill. And even that was
a fake “loan” to begin with — it never had to be paid back at all! So
there's your final Trump/Johnson bamboozle, as the House GOP prepares to
usher through the *largest ever* infusion of US tax dollars to Ukraine,
by far, since the beginning of the war. All with Trump's blessing, as
Johnson has made abundantly clear. To underscore his close collaboration
with Trump, Johnson has spent the past several days making the rounds on
various conservative media, touting the inclusion of Trump's “loan
concept” in the bill. Michael Tracey

It's all a big shell game and Trump is playing along with it to improve
his political prospects. How else would you explain his performance in
this dismal charade?

Trump obviously knows that his return to the White House will require
significant compromise with the national security hawks and Zionists who
run the government. So, we shouldn't be too surprised that he's trying
to curry favor with them now. But for the people who thought Trump was a
straightshooter; this has got to be a real eye-opener. They thought he
could be trusted, but now it's obvious that he's just another Beltway
phony trying to ingratiate himself with the Washington power-elite in
order to shoehorn his sorry a** back into the Oval Office. Here's more
from Tracey:

Sorry to be a “Broken Record,” but the “Elephant in the Room” here is
genuinely Donald J. Trump. ….Trump even warned Rep Marjorie Taylor
Greene directly not to oust Johnson, during their joint press conference
at Mar-a-Lago last Friday, April 12 — just before Johnson unveiled his
war funding strategy, for which he proudly declares having secured
Trump's endorsement. The bill even contains Trump's repeated demand to
structure the Ukraine funding as a so-called “loan”! Johnson proclaims
that he and Trump are “One hundred percent united” on all of this
(direct quote) …

Trump has used his vast political capital as three-time Republican
Presidential Nominee to play his part assuring that the American
political system mobilizes in perfect harmony to unleash $100 billion in
endless-[Jєωιѕн] war funding. Michael Tracey

If Trump is willing to play such a duplicitous role in securing the
funding for the [Jєωιѕн] MIC's perpetual wars, then why in-heavens-name would any
red-blooded conservative vote for him?

One of the few people who has acted honorably in this fiasco, is Rep
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is clearly one of the few members of
Congress that genuinely gives-a-damn about the American people. Greene
delivered an epic rant on the floor of the House yesterday following the
vote on the Ukrainian aid package. Naturally, her heartfelt presentation
appeared nowhere in the sellout media, so I transcribed most of what she
said below. It's worth the time:

…. The United States taxpayer has already sent $113 billion to Ukraine,
and much of that money is unaccounted for. This is an example of a sick
business model the US government wants to continue….. The Congress votes
for money for foreign wars that the American people do not support…..
The American people do not support a business model based on blood and
murder and war in foreign countries while the government does nothing to
secure our border.

The American people are over $34 trillion*** in debt and the debt is rising
by $40 billion every night while we all sleep. But nothing is done to
secure our border or reduce our debt. Inflation continues to rise every
day and Americans can hardly afford to pay their grocery bills, they can
hardly afford to put gas in their cars, and they can hardly afford the
rent. And, now, average mortgage payments are over $3000 when they were
just $1700 three years ago. Young Americans don't think they will ever
be able to buy a home and yet today, this congress thinks the most
important thing they should do is to send another $61 billion to the war
in Ukraine that the American people –by 70%– do not support!

… But, today, the most important thing this body thinks we should do, is
not reduce spending, or drive down inflation, or secure our own border
that is invaded every single day by people from over 160 different
countries… We have over 1.8 million ‘got-aways' and we don't know who
these people are… and yet we have people in this very congress ‘talking
tough' saying, “We have to defeat Russia. Oh, we have to protect
Ukraine” and yet , all of you are unwilling to protect the American
citizens that pay your salary, pay to keep the lights on, and pay to
keep the federal government running. And for what?

For nothing! Ukraine isn't even a member of NATO But all you hear in
Washington DC is “Oh, we have to keep spending America's hard-earned tax
dollars to continue to murder Ukrainians to wipe out a whole generation
of young men so there are (thousands of ) widows, and fatherless
orphans, and not enough men to work in their industries. Oh, but you
really support Ukraine. (sarcasm) What kind of support is that? It's
repulsive!

Shame on the American government! Shame on the American government! If
we want to support our military, then support our military. We should be
building up our weapons and ammunition, not sending it over to foreign
countries to kill foreign people.

And if this body was what it pretends to be, every single one of us
would be demanding peace in Ukraine; peace for these people, so that no
more of them have to die. But you never hear anybody demanding peace.
No, no, no. Peace is the last thing Washington wants because it doesn't
fit the business model. This is a business model they say builds the
American economy and protects American jobs. What a disgusting business
model. We should have a business model that builds-up our American
companies and American jobs to serve American interests, and our
military and our government should care about protecting the national
security of the United States of America and the Americans who pay their
hard-earned tax dollars to fund all this.

America last. America last. That's all this is. America last, every
single day.
<https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1781713821834305639> Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene

Bravo, Marjorie Taylor Greene. You speak for a lot of us.


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