You remember when they sent Pastor Tim down to S America? The offer came through the World Council of Churches. Philip told Paige that they have a good relationship with them because they work for social justice or charity or something. OK, I said the truth is more interesting. Here it is. The Soviets covertly created that organization. Most of their espionage budget was not spent on people like Philip and Elizabeth. Most of it was spent on disinformation. A high level defector to the US wrote a book about this revealing a lot of stuff. I don't know if you will recall this or not, but in the mid 1990s there was a big news story about racist arsons of black churches in the American south. This was a big deal and made international news. President Clinton signed a bill making a new law; arson of black churches became a special category of federal crime. It was international news, a real black eye for America. But a firefighter organization collected all the data on church fires during the years in question. Not only was the number of church fires of all kinds very low, there were no arsons of black churches during those years at all. But the news ran with the story and America was branded a racist nation. The Democrats liked this because it energized their black voting base. The news media here is mostly Democrats, very leftist. They are essentially propaganda for leftists now. So when Philip said they had a good relationship with the World Council of Churches (who were involved in spreading that libelous fake story) he wasn't telling the whole truth.

I binged through the show through the night. I probably missed some parts as I dozed sometimes, but I went back over some of it this morning. Which episode are you up to now? Watching it a second time allowed me to catch some details this time I didn't catch the first time around.

I am going by memory when I say the Soviets created the World Council of Churches. I just did a search and found an article by the defector I mentioned. The following quote indicates they may not have created it, but co-opted it: "In 1975, the KGB was able to infiltrate Kirill into the Central Committee of the WCC — a position he held until he was “elected” patriarch of Russia, in 2009. Not long after he joined the Central Committee, Kirill reported to the KGB: “Now the agenda of the WCC is also our agenda.”"

He also tells us that "Liberation Theology" did not come from S. American Catholics, as is commonly believed, but was developed by the KGB. Ion Mihai Pacepa was a three star general in the secret police of Communist Romania before he defected to the US. I bought his book "Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism". That is a long title and a long book. It was a real eye opener as well.

I had no idea of any of that. I can see why Russia is so dangerous to any kind of peace in the world. I can't see them ever changing their ideology and I can't see the West doing so either - they are diametrically opposed to each other - there is no middle ground. What I still fail to understand is why millions of people choose these regimes - I assume the answer is they don't - most of these countries are dictatorships - that's the way Britain is heading - slowly but surely - not that we will ever be a communist country (the Brits are too bloody idle for that - they love their welfare state and drug ridden streets) but when the referendum is overturned - and I believe it will be - how can we ever call ourselves a democracy again - people will see no point in voting if their votes are ignored and no votes means dictatorship. I am at the point where the Centre has tasked Philip and Elizabeth with executing a female who shot hundreds of their own soldiers - Elizabeth has just told her that she is a monster - they are still not absolutely certain she is the one - but they are beating her up anyway. I miss a lot by dozing off - which I do when some parts of it are too slow and I get bored. It can be very wearying with the constant threat and violence - your brain just wants a break from it I think !! I am glad I am not religious - it seems to me that most religious organisations are too rich for their own good and too corrupt to tolerate.

You have probably finished that episode by now. Once again, Elizabeth demonstrates that she cares nothing for innocent life. Philip wasn't sure it was her, but once her husband came home she confessed, possibly only to try to save his life. But Elizabeth killed him anyway. The scene shows once again how wicked Elizabeth is. But I wish just once they would show innocent people escaping, or show them having to run from the good guys.

The Soviets were sneaky but their tactic is widely used. They decided the best way to convert poor Christians to accept their ideology was to infiltrate the WCC and have the churches begin preaching communism by another name. When the poor people heard their priests telling them this was what God wanted, they readily accepted a message they would have rejected had it come directly from the Soviet Union. They found priests who were already leftists and helped them get promoted, or they groomed leftists to become priests for the purpose of leading Christians to communism. Politicians do the same thing all the time. They create a bill which allows for corrupt banking practices in return for a cut of the action, and they name the bill Financial Reform and Honest Banking Practices. The public hears the name and gives the politicians their support. Other politicians then support the bill, fearing public backlash if they don't. Simply adopting the correct name or label gets the job done, because nobody knows what is really going on, what the bill really says, who is behind the organization, etc.

Communists love to change the names of their movements. Whenever an organization is tarnished by scandal, it 'disbands'. But it actually only changes names and continues operating. Leftists in this country did this for decades. Today most of them call themselves Progressives. But some have gone back to calling themselves Socialists. Many young people now support socialism, even though they don't know what it is, and have no idea what the history and track record of socialism is. If you point to Venezuela, once a rich country due to its oil reserves, and now a shithole of poverty, they discount it, they say they didn't do it right. Many of these idiots will tell you "I like the Swedish form of socialism". They're too ignorant to realize that Sweden has a market based economy. Even their big welfare programs are privately run. If the economy dips, so do the benefits. And the poorest people, those who get the benefits, are taxed at the highest rates. The wealthy in Sweden enjoy low tax rates, as do their businesses. They would leave otherwise.

After Elizabeth kills that couple she decides they should hang up their disguises and go back to the USSR. Something happens though to change her mind. Philip though has had enough and starts taking a back seat, only continuing to see Kimmie to get the tapes. You probably will recall soon what Tuan did, something that really pissed Philip off. I think that comes up in the next episode.

Yes - Tuan was the driving force in getting Pasha to kill himself by getting his friends to make Pasha's life a misery. He then has the nerve to report Philip and Elizabeth for their Bourgeois attitudes to it. They are going overboard on the make-up to make Philip appear less stressed and happier now - he looks like botox bloke. I also wondered about all these Soviet safe houses - they look like they are abandoned and the interiors are mostly full of peeling wallpaper and chipped paintwork - but somehow they always have gas and electric connected and nobody notices the lights on at night time in these abandoned dwellings. I am on season 6 episode 1 and a bearded Oleg (now with a wife and baby) is being sent to America on some mission for Aronov. Elizabeth is in Mexico talking to some rocket scientist who has given her a suicide pill - and Paige is big chums with Claudia. In the last episode Martha was given a little girl to look after. Here I go again then....!!

Yeah Arkady Ivanovic met with Oleg Burov who has been out of the KGB for 3 years now and tells him that the KGB leadership wants to get rid of Gorbachev because they're afraid he will give away too much to the Americans and they don't like the new policies of openness and freedom in the USSR Gorbachev announced. So he sends Oleg there to see what is happening and to try to interfere with the plans of the KGB. In the meantime Elizabeth was sent to Mexico to meet that hard line Soviet general who tasks her with getting some technology needed for Death Hand, a Soviet response nuclear system. She also is tasked with finding out if a negotiator from USSR is going to trade away Death Hand, a secret system. If so he needs to die and the KGB will get rid of Gorbachev. Interestingly, I recall that there was an attempted coup against Gorbachev in real life, but it failed. But eventually the KGB did take over when Putin was elected. Oddly,as we talked about, Putin seems better in some ways than many American politicians. Not that I would trust him necessarily. I just definitely don't trust many of our people. Crazy world we live in today.

Oleg is working in his father's ministry now, having to do with transportation. He comes to America ostensibly to take some course at Georgetown on transportation technology but he also has his secret mission. He is going to meet Philip while he is here. This puts Philip and Elizabeth on opposite sides of an issue, though she doesn't know it. This final season Elizabeth does a bit more killing. She is a bloody, ruthless, fanatic.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/04/secret-roots-liberation-theology/

She certainly is - she has just killed the General in the woods and Paige has just seen her face covered in blood and bits of brain matter. Previous to this Paige asked her do agents have sex with people to get information - Elizabeth flat out lied to her before admitting maybe some people may have crossed the line sometimes. Philip's business is starting to fail. I am tired of that business with Stan and Gennadi and that Russian woman's conniving - "I not know what I do wrong - I sit on sofa and ask her to bring me another beer - she is already standing up - she just scream at me" !! What was that business in the men's toilets with Gennadi? He puts a pen? in the wall and hangs his brief case on it - there's a guy in the next cubicle but I didn't see him pass anything over. I think Renee is a Russian agent - she is encouraging Stan to stay in the F.B.I. by appealing to his vanity - saying somebody should be there to push back when they go too far or do something wrong. What difference would it make to her if he worked there or not otherwise? I can't binge watch this anymore - I didn't really have anyone to discuss it with when I watched it previously - so I didn't really analyse it all that much - but when you realise through discussion just how outrageous Elizabeth is I can only take so much of her fanaticism at a time !!

Yeah, Elizabeth and Philip told her they would tell her the truth, but could not tell her everything. But Elizabeth was lying when she made that promise. Eventually Paige makes her tell her the truth, and when Elizabeth is forced to admit she has sex with men, she gets angry and yells at Paige. I have to laugh about that. Even then Elizabeth acts righteously indignant; sex didn't matter to her and she was doing it for the motherland! (OK, so why are you angry that you had to tell the truth?) Just wait till she tries to steal that technology for the general. She wipes out a bunch of people that night. It is easy to get burnt out on this. It is bad when you have to hit FF so much of the time. That's time to take a break from it.

Gennadi and his girlfriend are something else. I couldn't believe it when she told Stan that she told her journalist friend about them. Stan said this is dangerous. Do you realize that Gennadi could be killed? And then the lady says "I know him, and I can trust him. We are Russians, we know how to keep secrets!" I burst out laughing when she said that. She has told two people now about her deal with the FBI. I hope her friends can keep a secret better than she can.

Let me know what you're going to watch in the meantime.

oh yeah, the toilet thing. The guy in the next stall had an xray machine to take pictures of the contents of the courier's bag. There was no exchange of anything there.

Oh - thanks - I couldn't figure that one out. I tend to watch this at night time when I am pretty tired anyway - so I do miss some things. I will keep on watching a couple of episodes a day - there's not much longer to go now. I tend to watch whatever Netflix has that I haven't seen already. They have a multinational series called "Criminal UK" Criminal France" and so forth. I have watched one episode of Criminal UK and it's set in the interrogation room of a police station where they are interviewing a doctor suspected of killing his step-daughter. It is all question and answer - they never leave the room. It passes an hour - but I prefer more action based series. I will watch a few more episodes - probably try the other countries in the series - but I think it may get a little monotonous.

Update - I am on season 6 episode 6. I am puzzled with Claudia's statements about the last war. "Do you know how many Americans were killed? 400,00 - do you know how many Russians were killed - 27 million". Yes - that may be right - but what has that to do with the Americans - they didn't kill them. And what about all the millions of other people killed during the war - 6 million jews - 3 million Bohemian gypsies - God knows how many in the London Blitzes and British soldiers - all the soldiers of every nationality who fought in it. But Claudia seems to blame America for everything - they didn't even start the war. I haven't heard her mention the Russian pogroms of Jews either - maybe that wasn't in her history book. And the cherry on the cake from Elizabeth - to Paige - "remember the book they gave you in ninth grade about the war - it barely mentioned the Soviets - how we fought - how we suffered - how we won" This is an extract I just read from Russia in world war 2 - "There are reports of entire unit staffs which escaped without battle and were found again hundreds of kilometers to the East. There were tens of Generals who disappeared and were never located again. There are reports of tank divisions which, although they were not right on the border and were not engaged in fighting in the first day, miraculously 'lost' 100% of their tanks and other fighting equipment in the second day of fighting, without actually being engaged in battle, and then escaped hundreds of kilometres eastwards almost without losing a single truck even to technical malfunction. There are reports of entire Air Force regiments which reported that they suffered negligible or no losses in the air or on the ground at the first day, and then simply abandoned their air bases and escaped by trucks and on foot. In 1941 Russia lost millions of soldiers. Only 32% of the reported losses were the dead and wounded. Millions surrendered, many of them as fast as they could, and so many others escaped from the front, either disappeared or remained in service, but only after a distant escape and after abandoning every weapon or equipment, even rifles and light mortars, that could force them to stay and fight". Another excerpt "In August 1939, Stalin had secret negotiations with Germany and, separately, with Britain and France. On one hand, Hitler told Stalin he was going to attack Poland and needed to know whether Russia will allow it (or even participate) or will it fight against it. On the other hand, Britain and France assured Stalin that if Hitler will invade their ally Poland they will declare war against Hitler. Knowing that, and knowing that Hitler did not believe in Britain's and France's resolution to defend Poland, Stalin gladly promised his support to Hitler. It is true that due to the 'weakness' of the French and British proposals, Russia had strong reasons to choose to make the deal with Hitler as it did, but historians now have the proof that Russia made the deal with Hitler with explicit intention and knowledge that this will start a European war that will first exhaust Germany France and Britain and then the fully prepared Russia will attack Germany and will occupy all of Europe. Stalin clearly explained all that to his government in a meeting on Aug. 19, 1939, in which he told them exactly why Russia is going to sign (four days later) the deal with Hitler's Germany, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, that cleared the way for Hitler to start World War 2.

I guess Claudia forgot that bit too

On the Oleg front - Tatiana has just thrown him under the bus - if that's what she believed ( that he had told the FBI about her bioweapon operation which as far as I recall she never discussed with him) why wait three years to sell him out. Philip has refused to let Kimmy be kidnapped and put in a Bulgarian prison to blackmail her father even though Elizabeth finally slept with him before she asked. Elizabeth has just killed Gennadi and Sophia with her trusty blade - and is now sharing first sex stories with Paige and Claudia.

I didn't know Stalin had secret plans for taking over Europe after allowing the other nations to exhaust themselves. I knew he first sided with Germany, believing Hitler would live up to their pact. Churchill specifically warned Stalin that Hitler would turn on him. Stalin didn't believe Churchill. He seemed to listen to Roosevelt a little more, but it was only after he was invaded that he started paying attention.

As far as who won the war, sure the eastern front was murder on the Germans, but if it had not been for all the weapons and supplies Britain and America shipped to the USSR, Hitler would likely have overrun them. The Soviet war films were shot carefully so as not to show any of the British or American equipment, but they loved our stuff. We sent them some planes which we didn't really like. They were too slow, were not great at higher altitudes, and had other shortcomings I don't recall. But the Soviets loved them and wanted all we could send them. That shows what crappy stuff they had. But also they liked using them for ground support so the shortcomings didn't matter because they were not an issue for that application. Toward the end of the war, when the Soviets had been able to get factories running, turning out planes and tanks, the Soviets built a very tough ground attack plane inspired by the one we sent them. The Brits sent them some small armored personnel carriers which, again, didn't live up to their expectations in the field, but the Soviets wanted all they could get. They just made sure that no western equipment was shown in their war time propaganda films.

Also, the Soviets shot many of their own people. They sent many of them into combat without rifles. They were expected to pick up the rifles of the men who were shot dead in front of them. If they turned away from the withering German rifle fire, they were shot for retreating. Also, the Soviets lied so much that you cannot believe those figures. How many Soviets would have died if we had not given them all kinds of supplies and equipment to fight with? Claudia doesn't mention that. She just talks about their inflated casualty numbers. Perhaps the Russians need a primer on the goal of fighting a war. As Patton put it, we don't want to die for our country, we want to make the other poor bastard die for his. But Claudia is proud of her inflated casualty figures. I am not surprised by the losses of 1941. Stalin was completely unprepared, his armies were not ready, didn't have weapons in many cases, and were suddenly overrun by experienced German forces with very good equipment. Toward the end of the war the Soviets had enough of their very strong, well armored T34 tanks, but at first they had little to fight with against superior forces. I am not surprised that so many surrendered or turned and fled. I am also not surprised that the Soviets lied about that.

Why did they die? They died because communist countries hate capitalism. If they had not been so damned dirt poor from robbing everything from the people, from government ownership of all the factories and businesses, etc. and their inability to efficiently produce what they needed, they might have had arms and equipment. Instead they sent soldiers into battle without weapons, expecting them to scrounge around and find some on the battlefield. Well I would expect high casualties. They died because Stalin wouldn't listen to us when we warned him about Hitler. He was greedy, he wanted Europe for himself, so he let himself believe that Hitler wouldn't attack him, and he was totally unprepared even though he was warned. Churchill wrote about 6 books chronicling WWII and they contain many of the cables sent to and from Roosevelt and Stalin and Churchill. Stalin was continuously screaming for more and more equipment, ammunition, and other supplies. Claudia failed to mention any of that as well, or to express gratefulness to the west for saving her country. Instead she was bitter that more Americans didn't die in the war. I guess she thought that wasn't fair. But it was fair for us to send convoys of ships continually to the USSR delivering life saving supplies. So many of those ships were sunk by German subs. So many lives were lost at sea, and so much equipment was wasted, sunk to the bottom of the ocean, just to prevent the USSR from being conquered by Germany. Claudia failed to mention the sacrifices we made to prevent Germany taking over her country. Bitch. She said our history books don't mention the USSR's contribution, but that is bullshit too. They tell about the eastern front, and how Hitler made mistakes which bogged down the German army and led to massive losses for the Germans, all because Hitler would not listen to his generals. They talk about the soviet general Zukhov who was a brilliant tactician who designed the largest tank battle in history, a defeat for Germany. But the history books don't talk much about the lifeline of equipment and supplies the west sent which saved the USSR. If there is one thing the Soviets are really good at, it is disinformation.

I don't recall the conversation but I think that Tatiana did let it slip about the bioweapon research and she told Oleg that she had a man in a company which the US Army outsourced research and weapons development to. I can't recall how he knew that the type of bioweapon was so bad that it would be a disaster if it were used. Somehow he found out what it was, or about what it was. Maybe she didn't tell him that. I cannot remember for sure. But she felt it had to be him, so I think it must have been her.

Philip drew the line at sending Kimmie to a communist prison. Philip had some of his soul left. And I think he had lived with Americans for long enough to see that we are not the monsters he was taught we were. Elizabeth is a fanatic and sees what she believes instead of what is in front of her, like when she convinced Philip that we were developing killer bugs to wipe out their wheat crop. She believed it because she was taught to think that way, not because of what she saw. I sort of wish Philip had defected instead of returning to the USSR. I do wish that.

Claudia sent Elizabeth to kill Gennadi and Sofia because she was afraid Gennadi would say bad things about the USSR. It's personal to her. It's like she is saying "he might say I'm a bad person, so he must be killed." And that makes sense to Elizabeth also. She is morally outraged that he might say she is a murderer, so she kills him.

Has Oleg met Philip yet? Oleg turns out to be a good guy. He wasn't a bad guy before, he just wasn't as mature. But he, like Philip, understands that America isn't a bad country or place. He likes a lot about it. He wants to make things better at home and risks his life to do that. It seems like good guys get screwed over quite often.

Yes - Philip and Oleg have met - and they seem to be of like mind. The Centre are trying to oust Gorbachev and Claudia has told Elizabeth that she must kill a good Russian officer so as they can make him look like a traitor as a means to discrediting Gorbachev. Elizabeth wont do it and Claudia is disgusted with her. I don't understand where Elizabeth found her scruples - she's done far worse than that - including making sure that the sick female artist got her final brush with death - literally. She also used a young male intern to put a box in a room where a summit meeting was being heard but he opened it and saw the tape recorder - amazingly she didn't kill him. Now - cue ominous music - Stan - out of the blue - has decided to suspect Philip and Elizabeth of being illegals- presumably because he has noticed that Philip is very stressed - but the failure of the business explains this - next he virtually interrogates Henry who says he doesn't see much of them as they come and go at all hours - hmm - that is suspicious - but they could and do give reasons why they travel a lot for clients. Personally I think a travel business is not that good a cover for spies - they'd be better off saying they are film consultants or something - then he goes to a mate of Gregory's who almost never saw her 20 years ago but could remember she had great hair and smoked like a chimney - of course that must be Elizabeth - even when he didn't recognise her picture. That's a bit thin. Now he has broken into their house again when they were in Chicago and once again found nothing - but he has begun to watch them closely now. I am not sure what the writers are trying to say with this series - they seem sympathetic to them - and they don't fight America's corner when Claudia or any one else makes these statements about how dreadful America is - nobody argues with them. Are they trusting in people's knowledge and patriotism to know that Russia is the villain here or are they anti -American?

Most Hollywood writers are anti-American, or at least lean far to the left. There is a definite leftist slant to the show, in my opinion. They try to not make it real obvious, but as you mentioned there is not balance to the stuff Claudia and Elizabeth say.

I think with Stan he started getting a bad feeling and some key pieces of evidence began to nag at his thinking. At first he thought it strange that his neighbors would leave to go to the office at 3am, but after he investigated and found nothing suspicious in their home, and his wife chastised him for being hyper suspicious after his undercover work, he put his suspicions aside and wound up becoming friends with them all these years.

But now he sees that neither parent is home with their children over Thanksgiving, which is odd. He recalls that the Soviet scientist spoke of a couple with two children, who you would never suspect, but who are actually Soviet spies. He recalls that Elizabeth left suddenly right when they were tracking that Soviet spy in Chicago, and the old suspicion from years ago is revived. He talks to Henry. I thought he spoke to him casually. It was when Henry said something about it happening all the time that got his attention. It still seems like a crazy idea, but he pitches it to his old partner at counterintelligence, Aderholt. Aderholt discounts the notion. Stan acknowledges that it seems crazy, but he has that feeling that something isn't right, that Philip wasn't truly being honest with him. Philip's answer seemed legitimate, but Stan seems to feel that it doesn't explain everything. He has a gut feeling and he can't shake it. That was how it looked to me.

Later he catches Philip in a lie. I don't think you have seen that part yet, it is in the final episode. It must have felt like a punch in the gut to Stan when he realized for sure that he was right. Philip was his best friend outside of work. They talked about his marriage, they ate together, he enjoyed Philip's company, their kids were friends. It must have been such a huge shock.

I was kind of surprised Elizabeth didn't kill that kid who put that package in the State Department meeting room. She must really trust her wig disguises to think he couldn't identify her later. But the writers let the kid live so it would set up a later event. Paige meets that kid at a party where he is getting very drunk, and talks about a woman who slept with him, who tricked him, and ruined his life. Paige by this time knows her mom was working to get information from the State Dept. She confronts her mom about it. That is a good scene.

The other surprise was Elizabeth going against Claudia about killing that negotiator. I guess she figured that overthrowing Gorbachev wasn't her job, that it was a treasonous action, and not something she could sign off on. She felt her loyalty was to her country, not to the KGB. I could rationalize her turning on Claudia in this case for that reason. But, she had previously seemed OK with it when the general she met in Mexico seemed to be siding against Gorbachev. So, yeah, it wasn't clear what prompted her decision to disobey the Center.

I will watch some more later today. I read quite an interesting article on one of those yahoo news slides (it is not really news so I assume it is correct) they were listing the countries that had falling populations through low birth rate and/or emigration elsewhere. I was surprised to see that the most of them were the old Iron curtain countries - Lithuania - Georgia - Latvia - Romania -Bulgaria - Ukraine - Estonia -Latvia -Moldova - Bosnia -- Croatia - Hungary - all make the list. They mention Japan (surprisingly - given the Asiatic refusal to control their birth rates) But what they didn't mention was that Japan has a significant gender skew - where women are increasingly out numbering men because modern Japanese do not want to marry and have children - they all want to be business women and earn their own living and choose their own lives which don't include being a man's servant. They are now intimidating the male population to such a degree that men don't want to have relationships with them - they prefer to have "virtual" girlfriends - is it called Manga? A cartoon girlfriend they take on holiday and buy virtual gifts for - I saw a whole documentary on it - apparently these manga apps are one of the biggest selling products in Japan. The suicide rate is high in Japan also - 88 people per day it says and they were old figures - so it is probably more now. Why are American writers anti - American? If they don't like what America is then go and live somewhere else and make your money there. It is the height of hypocrisy to me to bite the hand that feeds you. You only have to look at the names of writers to see why MONEY trumps patriotism every time.