End to Fiscal Impasse?

The New York Times wrote on October 16:

“Congressional Republicans conceded defeat on Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law, agreeing to end a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and extend federal borrowing power to avert a financial default with potentially worldwide economic repercussions.

“With the Treasury Department warning that it could run out of money to pay national obligations within a day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday evening, 81 to 18, to approve a proposal hammered out by the chamber’s Republican and Democratic leaders after the House on Tuesday was unable to move forward with any resolution. [According to] the Senate plan… the government [will be funded]  through Jan. 15 and… the debt limit [will be raised] through Feb. 7.”

The House approved and the President signed the bill. And what will happen when these dates will come?

Der Spiegel Online commented on October 17:

“The United States has temporarily avoided federal default… But no one should be happy, because the debacle has exposed just how broken the American political system truly is… America’s 237-year-old democracy is approaching its limits…

“The once civil political discourse in Washington has long since turned into a fight of bitter rivals trying to inflict the worst possible wounds. One is no longer respected as a worthy opponent, but attacked like an enemy… Adding to this is the almost unlimited flow of campaign contributions… as the system limps along, the next crisis already has a deadline: Jan. 15, 2014, when the bill agreed to on Wednesday expires.”

The Losers in the Recent Developments

The Washington Post wrote on October 16:

“Everyone — and we mean everyone — acknowledges now that the rollout of Obamacare’s health-insurance exchanges on Oct. 1 has been a total disaster. But, because of the shutdown, those stories have been pushed off the front page and the lead of the newscasts.  The problems with the rollout would have been massive news — and all of it bad for the White House and Democrats — if not for the shutdown. That fact is the single greatest Republican strategic miscalculation – amid many — of the shutdown. Downside for Obamacare: With the shutdown now  – almost — over, there will be a bright light on the rollout and its problems…

“John Boehner… failed, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Time and again he tried to walk the fine line between appeasing the most conservative wing of his party and passing legislation that would have a chance of winning Senate approval. In the end, Boehner’s greatest failing might have been in hoping that he could forge consensus within a conference where that simply is not possible. Boehner survived this fight and probably even strengthened his hand among tea party Republicans. But, the political costs were too high…

“The GOP brand: By the end, nearly three-quarters of Americans disapproved of how congressional Republicans had handled the budget showdown in a Washington Post-ABC poll. Congressional Republicans hit new lows in overall approval and, according to most polls, lost the blame game for the shutdown as well. The best news for Republicans is that this all happened in the fall of 2013, not the fall of 2014, meaning they have a year to rebrand themselves in a more favorable way in the eyes of the public.

“Our system of government: Does anyone think this is how our government should work? Does anyone think we won’t be right back in this mess early next year?  The government has proven over and over in the last few years that it is simply incapable of doing big things or, if we are being honest, even medium things.”

Even though the Democrats have also lost support of the American people, the Republicans were clearly the big losers. They gained nothing. They capitulated and surrendered. There is not even a hint that would show that their “fight” was of any value or benefit to the American people.

Barack Obama Opposed Raising the Debt Ceiling… in 2006

On November 16, the Washington Times published in its editorial a speech of Senator Barack Obama to the Senate, dated March 16, 2006. Some key statements stand out: “Raising the debt ceiling is a sign of leadership failure. It shows our government’s reckless fiscal policies. It weakens us domestically and internationally”… and so on. Now President Barack Obama supports raising the debt ceiling. What has changed, Mr. President?

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past five years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is ‘trillion’ with a ‘T.’ That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next five years, between now and 2011, the president’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion. [Today, it is almost $ 17 trillion.] …

“If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies… the Senate continues to reject a return to the common-sense pay-go rules that used to apply. Previously, pay-go rules applied both to increases in mandatory spending and to tax cuts. The Senate had to abide by the common-sense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues. Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the demands of budget discipline apply only to spending.

“… we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally… America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

Building a De-Americanized World

Fox News reported on October 13:

“China’s official news agency is calling for a ‘de-Americanized world,’ in a blistering editorial characterizing the United States as a ‘meddling’ and ‘hypocritical’ nation that introduces chaos into the world for its own ends. ‘As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,’ writes the Xinhua News Agency.

“‘Meanwhile, the U.S. government has gone to all lengths to appear before the world as the one that claims the moral high ground, yet covertly doing things that are as audacious as torturing prisoners of war, slaying civilians in drone attacks, and spying on world leaders…  Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated, and a new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing,’ writes Xinhua.”

Even though China is most certainly a country which is guilty of hypocrisy, it is interesting that even those countries find the audacity to attack the US of actions which they are guilty of themselves… and worse.

“The US Is Losing Control of the Internet”

The website wired.co.uk published this article, dated October 12, with wide-reaching consequences:

“All of the major internet organisations have pledged, at a summit in Uruguay, to free themselves of the influence of the US government. The directors of ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society and all five of the regional Internet address registries have vowed to break their associations with the US government… In another part of the statement, the group ‘expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance’.

“Meanwhile, it was announced that the next Internet Governance Summit would be held in Brazil, whose president has been extremely critical of the US over web surveillance. In a statement announcing the location of the summit, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said: ‘The United States and its allies must urgently end their spying activities once and for all.’”

Everyone seems to be ganging up on America. And severing Internet ties from the US government could have wide-ranging and terrible consequences for the USA.

Mideast Allies Bewildered by US Policy

The Times of Israel wrote on October 15:

“Finally, a reason to celebrate. Not only because, starting Tuesday, Iran will participate in negotiations in Geneva with the P5+1 over its nuclear program, but also because Tehran agreed to hold direct talks with representatives of the American government. This stands in stark contrast to the familiar Iranian policy that shirked any official contact with representatives of the ‘Great Satan.’… The End of Days must be upon us.

“And yet, as Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s words Monday night made clear, there has been no substantive change in Iran’s nuclear position that would alleviate concerns over its intentions to produce a nuclear bomb or to become a ‘threshold state.’ Indeed, Araqchi made clear that Iran ‘will not agree to cease the enrichment of uranium, even for one day.’

“Regarding the enriched uranium stores Iran already possesses, including quantities enriched to 20%, Araqchi, who is also the deputy head of Tehran’s nuclear negotiating team, was adamant that ‘we will not agree to transfer even one gram of enriched uranium out of Iran.’ He added that his country would be ready to negotiate over the level of uranium enrichment in the future, but Tehran repeatedly makes clear that the talks are contingent on the partial removal of Western sanctions as a goodwill gesture.

“Why the West needs to show goodwill toward Iran is not clear. Tehran may hint that it is ready to show some flexibility on its nuclear program, but that flexibility is not enough, or shouldn’t be — not for Israel and not for other countries in the West and in the Arab world. The persistent storing of enriched uranium, even at the 3.5% level, while Iran maintains its enrichment capacity through advanced centrifuges, combined with Tehran’s dubious record regarding supervision of its nuclear facilities, leave serious suspicion that Iran will try to secretly produce a nuclear bomb in the future.

“And still, some American media outlets have evidently been mesmerized by President Hassan Rouhani’s smile. The New York Times seems to be directing a campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said sanctions on Iran must not be removed and warned about the Islamic Republic’s true intentions. Certain Western journalists are possibly driven by the hope — and, perhaps, some degree of naivety — that the crisis will not require the use of force.

“But the anti-Netanyahu campaign misses (or ignores) the fact that the wary Israeli government, not surprisingly, enjoys the support of many Arab countries — including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — which are not naive about Iran.

“On Sunday, the Saudi-owned newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat published an editorial calling for Iran to be barred from enriching uranium altogether. Numerous WikiLeaks documents dealing with the Gulf States suggest that, with all due respect to the Palestinian question, what truly keeps Arab rulers awake at night is the fear that Iran will acquire a nuclear weapon, and will undermine their rule with terror attacks and orchestrated demonstrations. ‘Cut off the head of the snake,’ as Saudi King Abdullah reportedly put it.

“These are not paranoid visions or the brainchild of Netanyahu. These are real concerns of past and present American allies in the region, who gaze with wonder and bewilderment upon Washington’s foreign policy and struggle to understand why the US president rushes to telephone the president of Iran while almost simultaneously announcing that military aid to Egypt will be frozen. The voices from these states express concern again and again in light of the lack of coherence from the United States and what they perceive as its lack of understanding of what is really happening in the Middle East.

“How is it possible that precisely when Egypt’s government declares war on radical Islam, on terror, Washington prefers to flirt with its enemies — Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood? For Cairo, Riyadh, Amman and other capitals, the Obama administration — in negotiating with Iran and suspending aid to Egypt — is shooting itself in the foot, and wounding its allies in the process.”

America’s foreign policy is a disaster, but so is its domestic policy. Its downfall is inevitable, as clearly prophesied in Scripture. At the same time, Iran’s ambitions will lead to a rude awakening for many Western nations.

Obamacare’s Nightmare

Breitbart wrote on October 15:

“Constant ‘glitches’ keep people from logging into the exchanges. Humiliating live video of reporters normally favorable to Obamacare simply giving up in frustration because they cannot sign up. Consumers who are lucky enough to get through the system are stunned to learn that their premiums have skyrocketed by thousands of dollars. One Pennsylvania mother says that she can either pay her increased premiums or pay for her kids to eat, but she can’t do both.

“Extremely personal information has already leaked from the system in Minnesota. Software security experts from McAfee predict millions of identity theft victims. And one of the healthcare exchanges was forced to acknowledge that information collected from patients will be shared with law enforcement…

“The rollout has been such a nightmare that it is abundantly clear now that members of Congress really did not, as then-Speaker Pelosi admitted, even read the Obamacare bill before they passed it. In fact, the program’s launch has been such an unimaginable disaster that it raises an alarming new question that would have been unthinkable amid the exaggerated claims of health utopia from three years ago: Did President Obama even read this legislation before he signed it into law?

“This is the single most complex piece of legislation in U.S. history, and we citizen-patients have a right to know. Did anyone in the notoriously cozy establishment Washington press corps even ask him this basic question? Obamacare is a disaster and the American people know it…

“Which begs the question: where are the Republicans anyway?… Why aren’t Republicans telling the very real human stories of people losing their jobs and their doctors because of Obamacare? The president guaranteed that by 2013 the average family would see premiums reduced by $2,500. In reality, the average family has seen their premiums jacked up by $2,900, an eye-popping $5,400 miscalculation. What other predictions will prove to be horribly off?…

“When this debate began, President Obama guaranteed Americans that if we like our current insurance policies, we can keep them. If we like our current doctors, we can stay with them. Since then, millions have been kicked off their company insurance. More than 750,000 New Jersey residents have been notified that their former policies no longer meet new government mandates and will be discontinued… almost one-third of doctors report their unwillingness to accept patients from newly expanded governmental programs.

“Meanwhile, Obamacare supporters continue to call it ‘universal’ coverage. And the media is totally complicit. The fact is, the massive new bureaucracy will extend coverage to only 27 million of the 56 million uninsured under current official government projections for 2020. Ultimately, Washington is going to take over 1/6 of our economy to try to fix less than half of the total uninsured problem. This is madness…”

The government’s incompetency regarding the “Affordable Care Act” is stunning, mind-boggling and truly appalling at the same time.

Politicians Have Turned Their Back on God

Newsmax reported on October 14:

“Franklin Graham tells Newsmax that the nation is ‘in a mess’ because politicians ‘have turned their backs on God.’ ‘Our country is in a mess, no question, and it seems like we’re just in an ever-tightening spiral downward, and it doesn’t seem as if anybody is listening to what is happening,’ Graham said Monday on Newsmax TV.

“‘We, as a nation, we’ve turned our back on God. Politicians have turned their backs on God. They have taken God out of our schools, out of just about everything you can imagine, and now we find ourselves in great danger,’ said Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham.”

Who should be surprised about man’s departure from the true God when “even” the pope proclaims that atheists can go to heaven, as he did recently. Also, please see the next article for more reactions to the pope’s non-traditional views.

Catholic Conservatives Question the Pope

The Washington Post wrote on October 14:

“Rattled by Pope Francis’s admonishment to Catholics not to be ‘obsessed’ by doctrine, his stated reluctance to judge gay people and his apparent willingness to engage just about anyone — including atheists — many conservative Catholics are doing what only recently seemed unthinkable: They are openly questioning the pope…

“During the previous three decades, popes John Paul II and Benedict shared a focus: Make orthodox teachings crystal clear so Catholics don’t get lost in an increasingly messy, relativistic world… Some Catholics feel Francis is resurfacing fights that followed the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s. Conservatives felt liberal Catholics misinterpreted the Council’s intention and took ‘open’ too far.

“The last two popes seemed to agree, making a priority of establishing ‘Catholic identity’ among people and institutions by emphasizing the importance of crystal-clear doctrine… Conservatives who perceive too much ambiguity in Francis’s remarks were heartened to note that the pope in recent weeks excommunicated a priest who spoke in favor of women’s ordination, gave some of his most anti-abortion comments and called a rare Synod on the Family, which they believe will be a vehicle for reinforcing orthodoxy . But so far they have not garnered the same kind of attention as the pope conversing with an atheist.”

Still, the pope will not deviate from Catholic core doctrines—and from the Catholic Church’s long-held historic position of allegedly being the “Mother Church” wanting to bring most Christian and also some non-Christian religions into its fold.

Germany’s Armed Forces

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 15:

“In Afghanistan, dangerous combat has helped post-war Germany’s reluctant armed forces gain self-confidence and expertise… The German military entered Afghanistan over a decade ago as a peacekeeping force tasked with aiding in the reconstruction and development of infrastructure and civil society. Today, it leaves the country as a combat force that engaged in deadly warfare.

“The evolving role of the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, in the conflict has helped to dramatically reshape it as a more experienced and capable fighting operation…  ‘Afghanistan has been the most important experience for the German armed forces. It was the first time since World War II that the German military was involved in real combat action,’ says retired General Harald Kujat, the former Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr from 2000-2002 and former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2002-2005. Kujat says the Afghanistan experience has created a new generation of young officers with personal combat experience, contributing to a ‘more self-confident’ Bundeswehr. The expertise gained by many of these soldiers has made the Bundeswehr a more educated military, better able to weigh the pros and cons of war and what it is capable of contributing to a given mission, explains Kujat…

“The Bundeswehr’s development in Afghanistan into a ‘real fighting force’ has had a significant impact on recent reforms implemented by the Defense Ministry, says Christian Mölling, an international security associate with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). The ministry, Mölling explains, is working to streamline the Bundeswehr and make it a ‘highly deployable force.’ …

“Germany — the third-largest contributor to the US-led coalition in Afghanistan and the country responsible for Regional Command North — has lost 54 soldiers since 2002, 35 of whom died during attacks or fighting…

“Despite German reluctance to engage in future military endeavors, it is likely Germany will be called on to assist with future international armed missions, says Patrick Keller, an expert on foreign and security policy… ‘It may not be too far-fetched that we will have to be prepared to act’ in potential conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa region or in central and eastern Europe, argues Keller…

“But how much responsibility is Germany actually willing to bear? The question comes back to the broader issue of Germany’s hesitation to play a leading role in European Union and global affairs. ‘Germany has a great difficulty in taking on leadership. We don’t want to be in a leadership position,’ be it about security issues or the euro-zone crisis, says Stefani Weiss, a European foreign and security policy expert at the Bertelsmann Stiftung.  Similarly, SWP’s Mölling says Germany could play a ‘significant and positive’ role within NATO and the EU on defense issues given its central location in Europe, if it were not for a lack of political will…

“But parliamentarian Kiesewetter suggests Germany should begin to take on a greater leadership role in helping Europe develop a cohesive security policy and a shared military apparatus… ‘There is a need for leadership within the EU,’ he says. ‘Germany could be a partner to create synergy between EU states … to take over responsibility where others are not willing to.’”

And Germany will…

Powerful Cyclone Hits India

The New York Times reported on October 13, 2013:

“A powerful cyclone whose spinning arms engulfed much of the Bay of Bengal weakened Sunday morning as it crashed into India’s eastern coast, flooding homes and roads throughout the region and disrupting electricity and communications. The authorities evacuated about 800,000 people, one of the largest such evacuations in India’s history. The storm’s maximum sustained winds… were approximately 124 miles per hour when the storm made landfall about 9 p.m. Saturday…”

NBC News reported on October 14:

“A deadly cyclone which slammed into the coast of India has caused the loss of $4 billion worth of crops across an area the size of Delaware, local media reported Monday. Cyclone Phailin hit the state of Orissa on Saturday and is the most destructive to affect the subcontinent in 14 years.”

Terrible natural disasters prior to Jesus’ return are prophesied. Also note the next two articles.

Powerful Earthquake in the Philippines

NBC News reported on October 15:

“A magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck in the central Philippines on Tuesday morning, killing 82 people and severely damaging some of the country’s most hallowed churches, authorities said. The earthquake hit at 8:12 a.m. (5:12 p.m. Monday ET) less than a mile from the town of Carmen in Bohol province, the U.S. Geological Survey and Philippine emergency authorities said. Carmen is in a remote region across the Cebu Strait about 40 miles from Cebu City.”

Storm In South Dakota Kills 100,000 Cattle

Fox News reported on October 13:

“Ranchers in South Dakota fear they may lose everything after a freak storm dumped up four feet of snow in parts of the state last week, killing as many as 100,000 cattle. Matt Kammerer, a 45-year-old rancher whose family has operated in South Dakota’s Meade County since 1882, told FoxNews.com that he lost 60 cattle in the storm, or one-third of his entire herd…

“Kammerer painted a gruesome scene north of Rapid City, where a record 23 inches of snow fell… ‘There are cattle that are 8 or 9 miles away from the pasture they were in, just lying dead. And within that whole stretch, it’s just dead cow after dead cow, where they’ve gotten caught in dams, streams, fences, you name it. They’re dead everywhere.’ Carcasses of mature cows as well as calves were floating downstream local waterways in droves, Kammerer said, stoking fears of a potential outbreak of disease…

“Most ranchers in the state lost anywhere between 50 to 75 percent of their herds… Aside from the economic losses… the unprecedented storm has left an ‘incredible emotional burden’ on the state’s ranchers…”

Our Government Is Responsible to God

The Huntington Post wrote on October 3:

“One of the most depressing things I heard on the first day of the government shutdown was that it was a record fundraising day for both parties. Washington, D.C., is no longer about governing; it is just about winning and losing. But the people who will lose the most during a government shutdown — and then an impending United States government default on paying its debts — are those who live day to day on their wages, those at the lower end of the nation’s economy, and the poorest and most vulnerable who are always hurt the most in a crisis like this…

“Jeremiah, speaking of King Josiah, said, ‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.’ The subsequent line is very revealing:  ‘“Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord’ (Jer. 22:16). Of Solomon, the Scriptures say, through the words of the queen of Sheba, ‘Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness’ (1 Kings 10:9). Psalm 72 begins with a prayer for kings or political leaders: ‘Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. … May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor’ (Ps. 72:1-4).

“… government… needs to play the important and modest role of servant. The criteria for evaluation and judgment of civil authority is whether it is serving the people, whether it is guarding their security, whether it is maintaining a positive and peaceful social order, whether it is helping to make the lives of its citizens better, and, in particular, whether it is protecting the poor… Transparency, accountability, and service are the ethics of good government. ‘Of the people, by the people, and for the people’ is still a good measure and goal of civil authority. But people of faith will ascribe ultimate authority only to God, to whom civil authority will always be accountable.”

American Confidence in Economy and Government at Frightening Low

The Huffington Post wrote on October 8:

“The partial government shutdown has Americans nearly as freaked out about the economy as the event that triggered the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new survey by Gallup. U.S. economic confidence last week suffered its biggest one-week drop since Lehman Brothers collapsed on September 15, 2008, Gallup reported…

“If lawmakers do not increase the country’s borrowing limit by October 17, the government won’t have enough money to pay its bills and will be at risk of defaulting on some of its debt. Although it is difficult to predict what will happen if Congress does not come to an agreement by then, several experts have warned that a U.S. default would ignite an economic crisis much larger than the global disaster that followed the end of Lehman.”

In this context, the following article by Breitbart, dated October 8, is quite revealing:

“A new Fox News poll shows that a majority of American voters–58 percent–would vote ‘no’ on raising the debt ceiling. Only 37 percent of American voters would vote to raise the debt ceiling. An even bigger majority–62 percent–would only vote to raise the debt ceiling after ‘major cuts in government spending.’…”

“According to The Washington Times, dated October 10, “The number of American voters who think the country is headed in the right direction fell by 11 percentage points over the past week, placing it at its lowest level in two years, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey. Just 17 percent of likely voters said they think the United States is on the right track, a sign that the ongoing government shutdown and fight over the debt limit is taking its toll on public confidence.”

One has to wonder on what planet the 17 percent live who believe the country is heading in the right direction…

China Warns the USA

The Independent wrote on October 8:

“China, the biggest foreign creditor of the United States, has waded into the American budget crisis, warning Congress that it must resolve the political impasse over the debt ceiling without further delay.

“The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Zhu Guangyao, told America’s deadlocked politicians on Monday that ‘the clock is ticking’… ‘We ask that the United States earnestly takes steps to resolve in a timely way the political issues around the debt ceiling and prevent a US debt default to ensure the safety of Chinese investments in the United States,’  Mr Zhu told reporters in Beijing. ‘This is the United States’ responsibility,’ he added…”

At the same time, President Obama and Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, have been accusing each other publically for causing the shutdown [now in its 10th day], while the media is wading in and taking sides, making a meaningful agreement between Republicans and Democrats even more difficult. Fox News reported on October 10: “A Republican proposal to approve a short-term increase in the debt ceiling was thrown into doubt late Thursday, as Senate Democrats insisted the partial government shutdown be lifted before talks can proceed — and a White House meeting broke up with no deal announced.”

America’s Downfall

MarketWatch wrote on October 8:

“Foreign policy analysts at home and abroad have been predicting for years the inevitable decline of American power, often with a fair amount of schadenfreude and sometimes even with glee. But now that political dysfunction in Washington is accelerating, the downsizing of the world’s only remaining superpower, all you hear is whining… So what did you expect American decline to look like?

“Get used to it, folks… So sad. The end of the American gravy train really is in sight… the nightmare is likely to continue for some time, with unforeseeable consequences for us and for the rest of the world… we are in the process of destroying our democracy. Sooner or later, history tells us, the United States of America will go the way of Rome and other empires…”

Swearing in Court

The Daily Mail wrote on October 6:

“Defendants and witnesses in British courts will no longer swear on the Bible to tell the truth under controversial plans being considered by a powerful body of judges… Existing religious oaths have, for hundreds of years, required Christian witnesses to hold the Bible and state: ‘I swear by almighty God that I shall tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’

“Followers of other faiths are given copies of their sacred texts with Muslims swearing on the Koran and Jews on the Old Testament, for instance. Those who choose instead to make an affirmation are required to ‘solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm’ the truth of their evidence.

“Under [the new] proposal,  the holy books would be removed and the oath would read: ‘I promise very sincerely to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and I understand that if I fail to do so I will be committing an offence for which I will be punished and may be sent to prison.’”

Under New Testament injunctions, Christians should indeed not swear or raise their right hand in court, but instead affirm to tell the truth. From that standpoint, a simple sincere promise to tell the truth would indeed be the preferable course of action in court settings.

Scalia: The Devil Is Alive

CNN wrote on October 7:

“As the Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, the devil is not on the docket – but the Evil One apparently is on the mind of Justice Antonin Scalia. New York magazine has published a fascinating new interview with Scalia in which the outspoken jurist tackled a number of topics. But none seemed to surprise Scalia’s interviewer, Jennifer Senior, more than his views on Satan… [Scalia] is one of a record six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court… the justice said… ‘I even believe in the devil.’…

“Scalia said the devil has gotten ‘wilier’ and convinced people that he and God don’t exist. The justice added… that disbelief in God ‘certainly favors the devil’s desires… Jesus Christ believed in the devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the devil! Most of mankind has believed in the devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the devil.’”

Left-liberal newspapers and websites such as CNN scoff at the idea of a devil, but the devil is real and very much alive. Please read our free booklet, “Angels, Demons and the Spirit World.”

Graham: Immoral America and Christ’s Return

Newsmax wrote on October 6:

“In an exclusive interview… Billy Graham tells Newsmax that President Obama’s ‘hope and change’ mantra is nothing more than a cliché and warns that the nation faces increasing threats to civil and religious liberties from its government. Graham… said America is drenched in a ‘sea of immorality’ and suggested that the second coming of Christ is ‘near.’ … ‘Our country is turning away from what has made it so great,’ he continued, ‘but far greater than the government knowing our every move that could lead to losing our freedom to worship God publicly, is to know that God knows our every thought; he knows our hearts need transformation.’…

“Many believing Christians believe in a coming Armageddon, a final battle between good and evil prophesied in the book of Revelation. Graham tells Newsmax it is not wise to ‘speculate’ about the dates of such a battle, but he adds that the Bible says that there ‘will be signs pointing toward the return of the Lord. I believe all of these signs are evident today,’ Graham wrote, adding that ‘the return of Christ is near. Regardless of what society says, we cannot go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming,’ he says.”

Amen.

Vatican Comes Out Strong

The Local wrote on October 10:

“The Vatican pledged on Thursday to take action against a German diocese which gives out Holy Communion to Catholic divorcees who have re-married. The Freiburg diocese in southern Germany said it would give communion to the divorcees in defiance of official Catholic policy which has upset the Vatican…

“The Vatican already condemned the decision on Tuesday with spokesman Federico Lombardi saying it risked causing ‘confusion’ and did not mean that Catholic Church policy on the issue had changed.

“Under Catholic doctrine, marriage is for life and breaking the sacrament means not being able to receive the Eucharist if the marriage is not officially annulled by an ecclesiastical court.”

The Catholic Church will remain steadfast to its hard-and-core doctrines, even though they are not in harmony with the Bible. The Vatican’s position on divorce and remarriage is clearly unbiblical.

US Guilty of Kidnapping a Libyan Citizen?

The Washington Times wrote on October 7:

“Libya’s interim government is seeking answers after U.S. special forces over the weekend captured al Qaeda operative Abu Anas al-Libi in Tripoli, calling the operation a ‘kidnapping of a Libyan citizen.’… From Indonesia where he is attending a regional summit, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said al-Libi is a ‘legal and an appropriate target for the U.S. military under the Authorization of the Use of Military Force’ enacted in September 2001.

“Libyan authorities called the raid ‘news,’ indicating they did not know about the raid before it happened. The U.S. and Libya have no status of forces agreement that would allow U.S. military operations on Libyan soil.”

CNN added on October 8:

“Libya’s General National Congress on Tuesday demanded that U.S. officials hand over al Libi, spokesman Omar Hmidan said. He also demanded that Libyan authorities and al Libi’s family have access to him in the meantime. The developments come as 200 heavily armed U.S. Marines headed to an Italian naval base, poised to fly at a moment’s notice to Libya should the U.S. Embassy come under assault from angry crowds in the wake of al Libi’s capture.”

Deutsche Welle reported on October 8:

“The US capture of a suspected al Qaeda chief from his own home in Libya once again puts the focus on the legality of Obama’s version of the ‘war on terror.’ The Libyan government’s role is also ambiguous… The Libyan government denies involvement and even fore-knowledge of the early morning commando raid, but eye-witness accounts (from al-Liby’s relatives) insist that Libyan soldiers were also involved.”

Deutsche Welle added on October 10:

“Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan has appealed for calm in his first comments since being freed from captivity earlier on Thursday. His abduction was in apparent retaliation for the US capture of an al Qaeda suspect.” It stated that “many militia groups accused the Libya government of colluding in the [US] operation…”

As it has been the case with other African and Middle Eastern nations, the Arab Spring will become a frosty winter for the US.

Germany to the Rescue?

BBC News wrote on October 6:

“Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has raised the possibility of Germany acting as a mediator to try to end his country’s 30-month-long civil war…

“Mr Assad said he ‘would be delighted if envoys came from Germany’. But he stressed that Damascus would not negotiate with rebels unless they laid down their weapons. Mr Assad again denied claims that his troops had used chemical weapons, blaming the rebels instead.”

However, as Deutsche Welle reported on October 8, “[current and soon former] German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle categorically rejected the offer”—that is, for now. In this context, please note the next extremely interesting article.

Germany To Lead a Holy Roman Empire in Europe

The Local wrote on October 8:

“In the last week Germany’s president Joachim Gauck has called on the country to take more responsibility in the international arena and told the Germans: ‘Our country is not an island.’… But is it time for Germany to step up on the global stage? At an event at the US Embassy in Berlin on Monday The Local asked US author and foreign policy expert Professor Walter Russell Mead for his view…

“Professor Mead argued German foreign policy has been relatively successful in Europe. Asked if Germany should play a greater global role, he said: ‘Germany is playing a larger role in the world than people appreciate… Europe is doing what it wants, in many ways led by Germany. We would hope Germany would continue to play the leading role it has played in the past.’

“Professor Mead… also praised Germany’s success in the Ukraine where the country has signed a deal with the EU, luring the country away from Russian influence… He added it was ‘quite remarkable’ that Germany had achieved this without it being perceived as some sort of German interference. This ‘quiet but very effective’ diplomacy ‘strikes me as an example that the world could use a lot more of and doesn’t appreciate enough,’ he added…

“On the subject of Europe and the Eurozone, Professor Mead… urged Germany to lead a Holy Roman Empire rather than a Prussian conquest. ‘Any discussion of Germany’s world role must begin with Europe,’ he told reporters…

“Professor Mead called for Germany to lead a Holy Roman Empire in Europe – a loose federation of states – instead of aggressively imposing austerity…  ‘Are you going to have a King of Prussia or the Holy Roman Emperor? The Holy Roman Emperor is the more sustainable…”

Those with ears to hear should listen. The Bible shows us that Germany will indeed lead another revival of the ancient Roman Empire… a final revival of ten nations or groups of nations under a “Holy Roman emperor”—the “beast.”

Fracking Produces Annual Toxic Waste Water Enough to Flood Washington DC

On October 4, the Guardian published an article with the following headline:

“Growing concerns over radiation risks as report finds widespread environmental damage on an unimaginable scale in the US.”

It continued:

“Fracking in America generated 280bn US gallons of toxic waste water last year – enough to flood all of Washington DC beneath a 22ft deep toxic lagoon, a new report out on Thursday found… The full extent of the damage posed by fracking to air and water quality had yet to emerge, the report said…

“A number of recent studies have highlighted the negative consequences of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which have unlocked vast reservoirs of oil and natural gas from rock formations. There have been instances of contaminated wells and streams, as well as evidence of methane releases along the production chain…

“The report said the drilling industry had used 250bn gallons of fresh water since 2005. Much of that returns to the surface, however, along with naturally occurring radium and bromides, and concerns are growing about those effects on the environment.

“A study published this week by researchers at Duke University found new evidence of radiation risks from drilling waste water. The researchers said sediment samples collected downstream from a treatment plant in western Pennsylvania showed radium concentrations 200 times above normal… ‘Fracking waste-water discharged at treatment plants can cause a different problem for drinking water: when bromide in the wastewater mixes with chlorine (often used at drinking water treatment plants), it produces trihalomethanes, chemicals that cause cancer and increase the risk of reproductive or developmental health problems,’ the report said.”

The New York Times added on October 9:

“France and Bulgaria have already banned it, and in Britain the government’s attempts to promote it have led to heated demonstrations in the countryside. It is complicating Germany’s attempts to wean itself from fossil fuels and forcing Russia to recalibrate the energy-export strategy that sustains its economy.

“Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has already revolutionized the energy business in the United States, which is now 87 percent self-sufficient for gas, and it is transforming environmental policy, too. Now the temptation to follow the United States in extracting shale gas from rock on a large scale is presenting Europe with contentious trade-offs that could affect the Continent’s economic competitiveness, test its commitment to curbing climate change and determine its place in a 21st-century version of the Great Game.

“The early signs are that densely populated Europe, with citizens generally more sensitive to environmental concerns and more willing to tolerate high energy costs, is unlikely to embrace the technique as the Americans have. As an indication of the skepticism, European Union lawmakers gave initial approval on Wednesday to a measure requiring companies to conduct extensive environmental audits before fracking for shale gas.”

When Christ returns, He will “destroy” those who “destroy” the earth.

Overflowing Tank Cause of New Leak at Fukushima

The Associated Press reported on October 3:

“Another day, another radioactive-water spill. The operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant says at least 430 liters (110 gallons) spilled… The amount is tiny compared to the untold thousands of tons of radioactive water that have leaked, much of it into the Pacific Ocean, since a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant and sent it into meltdown in 2011. But the error is one of many the operator has committed as it struggles to manage a seemingly endless, tainted flow…

“The tank is one of about 1,000 erected on the grounds around the plant to hold water used to cool the melted nuclear fuel in the broken reactors… The overspill, the latest of several mishaps in less than a month, prompted the Nuclear Regulation Authority to summon the utility president and reprimand him in public… The new leak is sure to add to public concern and criticism of TEPCO and the government for their handling of the nuclear crisis. In August, the utility reported a 300-ton leak from another storage tank, one of a string of leaks in recent months. That came after the utility and the government acknowledged that contaminated groundwater was seeping into [the] ocean at a rate of 300 tons a day for some time…”

US Government Starts Shutting Down

The Los Angeles Times reported on September 31:

“U.S. government agencies were ordered to close for the first time in more than 17 years after lawmakers stalemated over Republican efforts to block President Obama’s healthcare law.

“More than 800,000 federal workers were to spend Tuesday, the first day of the new fiscal year, on unpaid furloughs as agency managers executed contingency plans for the costly process of closing down operations indefinitely.

“The official word to shut down came from the White House just before midnight Monday. Hours earlier, the Senate, by a 54-46 party-line vote, killed a House measure that would have funded government agencies for six weeks but delayed key parts of Obamacare for a year.”

This event is prompting big headlines in Germany. Conservative Bild On Line wrote: “Can America still be saved?” Conservative Focus On Line wrote: “This is ample testimony of the downfall of American’s democracy.” Conservative Die Welt wrote: “If there is not a change soon, America will go into recession and the whole world economy might be affected.” Also, shares fell and the US dollar dropped considerably towards the Euro. Left-liberal Die Zeit wrote that a handful of radicals is responsible for the standstill ,as they are not willing to compromise but try to force their ideology on the rest and are holding the country hostage.

America’s Superpower Status Ebbs Away

The Telegraph reported on October 1, 2013:

“For a country that is supposed to be the most powerful in the world, the fact that Americans have today woken up  to find large swathes of their nation closed for business is humiliating…

“While the White House insists that essential areas of the government, such as the military, will continue to function, the shut down represents yet a further blow to the prestige of the Obama administration at a time when it is still reeling from its inept handling of the recent Syrian crisis.

“There was a time not so long ago when the world looked to America for both political and economic leadership. But now that can no longer be taken for granted thanks to Mr Obama’s inability to provide decisive leadership on either front.

“Republicans rightly argue that by pressing ahead with Obamacare before the implications of the programme have been properly assessed risks adding to America’s debt mountain at a time when the American economy is still recovering from the biggest economic crisis in recent history.

“The emergence of Russia, meanwhile, as the main power broker in the Syria crisis has severely damaged America’s standing as a major global player.”

USA Politically Bankrupt

Der Spiegel Online wrote on October 2:

“As the United States government shutdown enters its second day, Washington is the target of both ridicule and concern overseas. German commentators describe the situation as a ‘specifically American problem’ with far-reaching consequences.

“The illustration on the cover of German business daily Handelsblatt on Wednesday morning fairly well encapsulates the way the US federal government shutdown is being perceived across the Atlantic. The Statue of Liberty stands bound in chains, her torch hand hanging listlessly by her side. Across it reads the headline: ‘The Blocked World Power.’

“Many Germans have found it hard to understand American lawmakers’ inability to resolve their budget disagreements in time to prevent a shutdown of all nonessential government services, which went into effect at midnight on Monday night… Yet it was clear to many that the fallout would be far-reaching. ‘The whole world pays for America’s shutdown,’ reads a headline in the right-leaning daily Die Welt above an article about the consequences on the German economy. In the article, several prominent German economists registered disapproval. ‘If the Americans shoot themselves in the foot right now, it is highly dangerous for the entire global economy, and of course for the German export economy,’ warned Anton Böner, president of the Federal Association for German Wholesalers and Foreign Trade…

“The overwhelming consensus among the German press is that the Republicans are the most to blame for the gridlock… When it came to the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, the German press was not pulling any punches…

“Munich’s national Süddeutsche Zeitung offers a slightly more depressing take, pointing blame at all sides. ‘What has already been apparent in America for a few years now is the self-destruction of one of the world’s oldest democracies… ‘At the moment, Washington is fighting over the budget and nobody knows if the county will still be solvent in three weeks,’ the paper concludes. ‘What is clear, though, is that America is already politically bankrupt.’”

Iran and US Talk

The New York Times reported on September 29, 2013:

“Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday that there was a ‘real chance’ to reach an agreement with the United States over his country’s nuclear program, as long as Washington was prepared to end sanctions and recognize Tehran’s right to peaceful nuclear enrichment.

“Even as the country’s American-educated foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, was making his comments on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ his deputy in Iran, seeking to reassure hard-liners there, said Tehran would never fully trust the United States.

“The dueling narratives underscored the complexity of any rapprochement between the two countries, despite a series of unexpected public and private exchanges in recent weeks culminating in a historic phone call Friday between President Obama and Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani.

“While Mr. Zarif is widely believed to have the backing of the country’s supreme leader to at least give negotiations a try, hard-liners among the Iranian leadership are watching warily and could try to derail an agreement…

“In his comments on Sunday, Mr. Zarif signaled that Iran would be prepared to allow inspections, including unannounced ones, so long as they did not come in the form of demands from the United States.

“’We are willing to engage in negotiations,’ he said. ‘Of course, the United States also needs to do certain things very rapidly.’

“His statement that Iran’s ‘right to enrich is nonnegotiable’ also pointed toward a difference with the U.S. that is more than merely semantic. So far the United States has said only that the Iranians have a right to nuclear energy. The Iranians say that implies a right to enrich uranium; the West has previously negotiated deals, which ultimately fell apart, to provide Iran with nuclear fuel in a form that would be more difficult to weaponize.

“In Tehran, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, sought to assure conservative factions that Iran remained skeptical of Washington and would not rush headlong into a deal.

“’Definitely, a history of high tensions between Tehran and Washington will not go back to normal relations due to a phone call, meeting or negotiation,’ Mr. Araghchi was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars news agency.

“’We never trust America 100 percent,’ he added. ‘And, in the future, we will remain on the same path.’”

Iran Taunts Israel

The Jerusalem Post wrote on October 2, 2013:

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Israel’s military threat has little substance, referring to it as a ‘sword’ which has gone ‘blunt,’ Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

“‘Israel is upset to see that its sword has gone blunt and Iran grows more powerful day by day,’ he said after a cabinet meeting in Tehran.

“Rouhani also told reporters that Israel’s aggressive discourse with regard to Iran ‘is the cause of our happiness.’

“Iranian Chief-of-Staff Hassan Firouzabadi said Wednesday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s threat of a unilateral Israeli military strike on Iran ‘lacks stability,’ and stems from desperation,  Fars reported.

“After Netanyahu warned Iran against advancing its nuclear program in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, the Iranian military chief told Fars that the use of a military threat is a method which is ‘rusted, old and blunt,’ and that Tehran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

“‘Such remarks stem out of desperation,’ he added.

“Firouzabadi also told Fars that Netanyahu’s remarks had only served to ‘increase the threat against the Zionists.’ Referring to Netanyahu as a ‘warmonger,’ Firouzabadi said ‘Iran will be the winner in this case for its revolutionary stance of heroic flexibility.’

“Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Netanyahu and ‘the Zionist lobby’ were trying to hinder negotiations.

“‘We will not let Netanyahu determine the future of our talks,’ Zarif wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.”

Israel “Will Stand Alone”

The Jerusalem Post reported on October 1, 2013:

“A steadfast Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made clear in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that Israel would not accept a nuclear armed Iran, and would “stand alone” if necessary to achieve that aim.

“‘Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, even if we have to stand alone. Yet in standing alone, Israel will know that we will be defending many, many others,’ he said.

“The prime minister dismissed the recent so-called ‘charm offensive’ by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, charging that while his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, had been openly aggressive towards Israel, Rouhani was concealing his true intentions. The Iranians’ goal, Netanyahu said, was an end to the sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy and which were implemented over Teheran’s intransigence on its atomic ambitions. It was with this goal in mind, Netanyahu said, that Rouhani was elected president.

“‘When it comes to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the only difference between them is this: Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf’s clothing, Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community,’ Netanyahu said.”

More and more, Israel is finding itself alone. Under President Obama, US relations with Israel continue to deteriorate. Biblical prophecy reveals that difficult times are ahead for the State of Israel.

France Wants Sunday Work

The Times of India reported on October 1, 2013:

“When economic inequalities helped foment the French Revolution, the legendary cry from on high was, ‘Let them eat cake!’ Now, as modern France struggles economically, the cry from below is, ‘Let us work!’

“As France battles high unemployment, rising taxes and pinched pocketbooks, the Socialist government has said its main focus is job creation. Now, critics of a more-than century-old law that prevents most stores from opening on Sundays say revising it would be a good step in that direction.

“Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault appeared to respond to that call on Monday, ordering a review of the law that labour unions and Roman Catholic faithful cherish, but that consumers — and increasingly some workers decry . Under French law, Sunday is a mandatory day off to help ensure rest and the quality of life, although some retailers in tourist areas can get exemptions . Critics say the protections go too far, crimping modern lifestyles and putting France at a competitive disadvantage . A sporadic debate revived last week after a court, ruling on an unfair-competition lawsuit brought by a rival hardware vendor, ordered home improvement chains Leroy Merlin and Castorama to shut 14 Paris-area stores on Sundays. It threatened fines of 1,20,000 ($1,62,000) on each store that violated the rules.

“The stores got temporary waivers, but their employees were growling —insisting that Sunday openings give them needed extra pay and suit customers who find it hard to shop during the work week bustle.”

Italian Government Suffers Downfall… Again!

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 30, 2013:

“The resignation of all five cabinet ministers from Berlusconi’s PdL party has sparked an outcry across Italy. For Prime Minister Enrico Letta it’s a new low in an already turbulent five months in office.

“Despair across Italy’s Sunday papers: Berlusconi’s latest move was ‘insanity,’ writes La Stampa as does the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore. Like a cry for help, the Corriere della Sera asks on its front page ‘Moderates, where are you?’. And Il Fatto Quotidiano runs a headline playing on Berlusconi’s recent court sentence: ‘The convicted is taking Italy down.’

“What did go down was the governing coalition in Rome, when on Saturday, five ministers from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party declared their resignation. In response, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Sunday announced he would seek a confidence vote from both houses of parliament on Wednesday.
 
“The official reason given by the PdL was their rejection of a raise of the country’s VAT. ‘We cannot support a government that increases the tax burden for our citizens,’ former Prime Minister Berlusconi explained the decision…

“Berlusconi too kept popping up in the headlines – although he was not part of the cabinet he still was in charge of Letta’s junior coalition partner, the PdL. So far his numerous court cases have resulted in one conviction for tax fraud with several other cases still pending.

“Italy is going through its deepest recession in post war history and is heavily in debt. It needs a strong government, ready to push reforms and get the debt problem under control. Berlusconi is hoping for new elections, the sooner the better. President Napolitano though seeks to prevent that, saying he would only dissolve parliament if there is no other option left.”

Deutsche Welle added on October 3:

“Another big show: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi knows how to craft a good story – and, as his stage, he uses the Senate floor. After building up tension for days, the showdown between him and Prime Minister Enrico Letta was supposed to come on Wednesday (02.10.2013). But just before noon, Berlusconi stepped out of his role as the bad guy, let the pistol fall from his hand and gave the young sheriff his blessing. Letta can carry on governing – thanks to Berlusconi…

“Perhaps that’s exactly what Berlusconi had planned, and the split in his own party – between Berlusconi loyalists ready to vote no and a group of dissidents who were prepared to support Letta – was nothing but a hoax. That’s not out of the question. As an old professional and master of communication, Berlusconi knows all the tricks. Over the last few weeks, he’s dominated Italian media with his U-turns, implying to the people that the fate of Italy is indissolubly linked to his own. So now, in spite of Berlusconi’s threats, the government has not fallen.”

Pope Francis Challenges the Status Quo

Der Spiegel Online reported on September 26, 2013:

“At the Vatican, a down-to-earth Pope Francis has been preaching humility and modesty. Many bishops in Germany, however, are having a hard time embracing a more austere lifestyle.

“Last week Rudolf Voderholzer, 54, the bishop of the Bavarian city of Regensburg and one of Germany’s younger church leaders, was taken to task at the Vatican by the pope himself. In an admonishment to the German bishop and others attending a seminar for new bishops in Rome, Francis said: ‘Be close to the people and live as you preach. Always be with your flock, do not succumb to careerism and ask yourselves whether you are truly living as you preach.’

“This is a new message for German princes of the church. Many of them have long cultivated a lifestyle oriented toward strict dogmas, prestige and a career within the church, much like former Pope Benedict XVI. But now that his successor arrives at meetings in an old car, there has been a fundamental shift. Loyalty to the pope is being completely redefined, and not just in Regensburg, where Voderholzer’s predecessor Gerhard Ludwig Müller, a fervent devotee of former Pope Benedict, alienated many Roman Catholics.

“This week, German bishops have a chance to discuss what the change at the Vatican means for them, as they meet for their annual Bishops’ Conference in the central German city of Fulda. There hasn’t been this much uncertainty within their ranks in a long time…

“The spirit of optimism among ordinary churchgoers has grown with virtually every gesture coming from the new pope. In his interview with Civiltà Cattolica, published last week, Francis made it clear that he is fundamentally changing the nature of discourse in the Catholic Church. According to Francis, the church should not constantly focus on controversies surrounding gays, women and celibacy. ‘We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible,’ he said. ‘The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.’

“For Jesuit priest Klaus Mertes, who, as principal of Berlin’s Canisius School, unleashed the abuse scandal in Germany, the position of his fellow Jesuit and now pope is still revolutionary, even if Francis hasn’t abandoned any of the church’s strict principles. ‘If there is a change in the church’s practices, as well as in the way we interact with each other and with parishioners, the theory will also change in the end, and not the other way around.’ Many others share his hope.

“In their sermons, German bishops have repeatedly called upon pastors and parishioners alike to accept the church’s doctrine without question. ‘Obedience is love and not compulsion,’ Limburg Bishop Tebartz-van Elst said at an ordination ceremony for new priests.

“Ironically Francis who, as a Jesuit, was taught to be obedient and who, as pope, is entitled to demand obedience from every Catholic, is now breaking with this doctrine. ‘People get tired of authoritarianism,’ he said in his historic interview last week. ‘I lived a time of great interior crisis,’ he noted, only to recognize that ‘my authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative.'”

German Reunification and the Losing Protestant Church

Deutsche Welle reported on October 3:

“Despite the Protestant Church having played a major role in the collapse of former East Germany, churches there today appear to have lost out – the region remains among the most non-religious in the world… In the movement to bring down the Berlin Wall, Protestant pastors and churchwardens opened their doors to protesters in the peaceful revolution. Many church leaders sought political change, and fought for German reunification. Joachim Gauck, now president of Germany, was one such religious leader.

“But despite the church’s paramount role in Germany’s reunification, hardly any other region in world is considered as ‘godless’ and non-religious as the former German Democratic Republic. So did Christianity lose out in the peaceful revolution that led to German reunification? Some eastern German churches have sought to evolve in response.”

New Circumcision Court Case

Der Spiegel Online wrote on September 27:

“The Higher Regional Court of Hamm, a city in western Germany, has concretized the law regulating culturally and religiously motivated circumcision, ruling that parents and doctors need to discuss any impending procedure with children.

“Circumcision has become a highly fraught subject in Germany since 2012, when a Higher Regional Court in Cologne decided that religious circumcision of boys constituted ‘bodily harm.’ That case involved a 4-year-old boy who, two days after being circumcised according to the wishes of his Muslim parents, was brought to the emergency room due to profuse bleeding. The prosecutor then brought charges against the doctor who had performed the circumcision.

“While the doctor was ultimately acquitted, the court decided that a child’s right to self-determination superceded his parents’ right to freedom of religion. The decision prompted widespread uproar, particularly among Jewish and Muslim groups and as far away as Turkey, Israel and the United States. Germany’s Central Council of Jews called it ‘an unprecedented and dramatic intrusion on the right to self-determination of religious communities.’ Ali Demir, the chairman of the Islamic Religious Community, argued that circumcision is a ‘harmless procedure, a tradition that is thousands of years old and highly symbolic.’

“Ultimately, the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, passed a law allowing the religious procedure. According to the new rules, specially qualified members of religious communities can perform the operation in the first six months of a boy’s life, after which it must be performed by a physician.”

Non-Binding European Resolution Condemns Religious Circumcision

JTA added on October 2:

“A resolution that calls male ritual circumcision a ‘violation of the physical integrity of children’ was passed overwhelmingly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

“The council, a pan-European intergovernmental organization, debated and passed the resolution on Tuesday based on a report by the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development led by German rapporteur Marlene Rupperecht. The resolution passed by a vote of 78 in favor and 13 against, with 15 abstentions.

“The resolution calls on states to ‘clearly define the medical, sanitary and other conditions to be ensured for practices such as the non-medically justified circumcision of young boys.’ It also calls on member states to ‘initiate a public debate, including intercultural and interreligious dialogue, aimed at reaching a large consensus on the rights of children to protection against violations of their physical integrity according to human rights standards’ and to ‘adopt specific legal provisions to ensure that certain operations and practices will not be carried out before a child is old enough to be consulted.’”

Killer Hornets!

BBC wrote on October 2, 2013:

“Attacks by hornets in northern China have killed 41 people since July, state-run media report.

“More than 1,600 people have also been injured by stings in Shaanxi province, according to China News Agency.

“It says 206 people are still being treated in hospital, with 37 patients remaining in a critical condition…

“The Chinese term for hornets is ‘hu feng’ – those behind the deadly attacks this summer appear to be the Asian giant hornet, or Vespa mandarinia.

“They can grow up to 5cm long with a 6mm sting.

“The area is also home to the smaller Asian hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax.”

The Gambia Leaves Commonwealth

BBC News reported on October 3:

“The Gambia’s decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth 48 years after joining is something to ‘very much regret’, the UK Foreign Office has said. The west African nation branded the 54-member grouping, which includes the UK and most of its former colonies, a ‘neo-colonial institution’. The withdrawal was announced on state TV but no other reasons were given…”

Pope Francis Takes a Stand

swampland.time.com wrote on September 5, 2013:

“Pope Francis has written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, host of the G-20 summit that President Obama is attending, urging world leaders to oppose a military intervention in Syria.

“’To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution,” the Pope urged. ‘Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community.’

“The move is the latest in a series of efforts by the Holy See to prevent military action in the already civil-war torn region. On Sunday, the Pope declared in his Angelus teaching that Saturday Sept. 7 would be an day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria. The prayer rally will take place in St. Peter’s Square from 7 p.m. to midnight, on the vigil of the birth of Mary, the Queen of Peace. ‘Let us ask Mary to help us to respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love,’ the Pope asked people around the world. ‘She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!’

“Next Pope Francis took his views on Syria to Twitter. On Monday he tweeted, ‘War never again! Never again war!’ and ‘How much suffering, how much devastation, how much pain has the use of arms carried in its wake.’ On Tuesday, he tweeted ‘We want in our society, torn apart by divisions and conflict, that peace break out!’ and ‘With utmost firmness I condemn the use of chemical weapons.’ Today his social media message was, ‘With all my strength, I ask each party in the conflict not to close themselves in solely on their own interests. #prayforpeace.’

“Cardinal Dolan and leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops followed the Pope’s lead and wrote to every member of Congress today urging them to vote against military intervention in Syria. Yesterday the USCCB also wrote to President Obama, reminding him that the Pope and Middle Eastern Bishops ‘have made it clear that a military attack will be counterproductive, will exacerbate an already deadly situation, and will have unintended negative consequences.’ Dolan also asked Catholics to urge their representatives in Washington to vote against a military strike.

“The Vatican, which almost always stops short of taking sides in international issues, historically holds to just war theory, which requires a military defense meet a set of strict qualifications, including that ‘the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain,’ ‘all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective,’ and ‘the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.’

“Pope Francis’ response to Syria is in line with how his predecessors handled international conflicts. Pope Benedict XVI expressed concerns over the military intervention in Libya. Pope John Paul II continually and strongly spoke out against the US-led war in Iraq. The US and the Vatican squared off during the 1989 Panama invasion when dictator Manuel Noriega took refuge in the Vatican embassy.”

The Telegraph also reported on the Pope’s intervention in the debate on the Syrian conflict on September 5, 2013:

“Foreign ambassadors were summoned to a briefing by Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s foreign secretary, on Thursday, on the Pope’s appeals to halt hostilities in Syria.

“The Pope’s push for a peaceful solution in Syria includes a four-hour vigil to be held in St Peter’s Square on Saturday evening. The Vatican will station 50 confessors around the square. Bishops’ conferences around the world have announced local vigils.

“An official at the Vatican’s justice and peace office warned earlier this week that military action in Syria could spark a world war. In a tweet this week, the Pope wrote: ‘War never again! Never again war!’

“The Pope, who is a Jesuit, has been backed in his criticism of a military strike on Syria by the head of the Jesuits, Father Adolfo Nicolas.

“In an interview with the Independent Catholic News, posted on September 4, Father Nicolas said a strike would be ‘an abuse of power’.

“‘I cannot understand who gave the United States or France the right to act against a country in a way that will certainly increase the suffering of the citizens of that country, who, by the way, have already suffered beyond measure,’ he said.

“In a stinging attack on the White House, he said: ‘The US has to stop acting and reacting like the big boy of the neighbourhood of the world. This leads inevitably to abuse, harassment and bullying of the weaker members of the community.

“‘We, Jesuits, support 100 per cent the Holy Father and wish with all our hearts that the threatened attack on Syria does not take place.'”

As Pope Francis begins to assert himself in world affairs, it will be interesting to note the support of the powerful Jesuits and the unifying influence this is already having on the Catholic Church. On the other hand, we might expect another power struggle to occur between the Pope and forces within the Vatican.

G-20 Leaders in Disarray

SPIEGEL ONLINE reported on September 6, 2013, on the recent summit:

“The G-20 summit ended worse than expected on Friday — with acrimony, division and name-calling over Syria. The conference, which was originally conceived as an economic forum, also failed to deliver results on global recovery.

“In the end, even a meeting between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin failed to deliver results. Participants at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg couldn’t manage to find a common position on Syria. The American president demanded that punitive action be taken against Syria, but his Russian counterpart stood between Obama and his allies. Now any decision on a possible military strike against Damascus will be up to the US Congress…

“One can certainly debate whether it makes sense to conduct a military strike. Critics correctly note that a limited bombing attack would do little change the situation in Syria. Besides, the European Union hasn’t even been able to agree to a common position. Countries like France and Britain support military efforts, even if the British will not be participating themselves now that the House of Commons rejected a direct role in Syria. And other European countries oppose any attempt by the United States to go it alone. A third group, which includes Germany, doesn’t want to commit…

“Though bringing Syrians to the table will be difficult, bridging the gap between Russia and the US will be equally complicated. Diplomatic relations between the two nations have hit rock bottom at this week’s G-20 summit. Not only did Putin openly call Secretary of State John Kerry a liar, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said that Russia had contributed nothing to a solution in Syria. Verbal disarmament is unlikely — the discussion will only become more heated.”

With the foregoing articles in mind, what has since transpired regarding Syria is simply mind-boggling–as more recent news will show.

Putin to the Rescue!

The New York Times reported on September 9, 2013:

“President Obama woke up Monday facing a Congressional defeat that many in both parties believed could hobble his presidency. And by the end of the day, he found himself in the odd position of relying on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, of all people, to bail him out.

“The surprise Russian proposal to defuse the American confrontation with Syria made a tenuous situation even more volatile for a president struggling to convince a deeply skeptical public of the need for the United States to respond militarily in yet another Middle Eastern country, this time in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons. It could make the situation even more precarious. Or it could give Mr. Obama an escape from a predicament partly of his own making.

“In effect, Mr. Obama is now caught between trying to work out a deal with Mr. Putin, with whom he has been feuding lately, or trying to win over Republicans in the House who have made it their mission to block his agenda. Even if he does not trust Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama will have to decide whether to treat the Russian proposal seriously or assume it is merely a means of obstructing an American military strike…

“The twists and turns in the Syria debate have whipsawed the nation’s capital and by some accounts imperiled Mr. Obama’s presidency. Democrats are mystified and in some cases livid with Mr. Obama for asking Congress to decide the matter instead of simply ordering one or two days of strikes and getting it over with.”

President Obama’s Classic Dilemma

DW wrote on September 10, 2013:

“US President Barack Obama’s zigzag course on Syria has not only strengthened his adversaries and weakened his supporters. He has failed at his most important task as president, writes DW’s Michael Knigge.

“Decisions on war and peace, over life and death, are a major part of the job description for the office of US president. President Obama made a point of pointing that out during his first term in office: ‘When a problem has a clear solution, it does not land on my desk. The only things I decide are the difficult things,’ he once said in an interview.

“However, as far as the crisis in Syria is concerned, Obama has not done that. It took months of violence before the president finally took a stand and demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down. Military intervention and arming the opposition were excluded. The consequences: none…

“To be sure: there are cogent reasons for and against a military strike, but there is no silver bullet. The risks outweigh the possible benefits in both alternatives. It is a classic dilemma.

“But that is exactly why US presidents are elected – for just these kinds of situations, where there are only bad options.

“And when someone goes about saying he is the man for the tough decisions, as Obama did, then one expects he will live up to this standard in a time of crisis.

“Obama has not done so.

“Since the start of the Syrian crisis two and a half years ago, Obama has waited and waffled and played for time. He has not been a leader; he has not acted, but only reacted, after pressure from his own Cabinet, the opposition, the British parliament and events in Syria. A real Syria strategy is not even remotely visible.”

A Hard Sell for Mr. Obama

CNN wrote on September 11, 2013:

“President Barack Obama tried Tuesday to sell a military intervention he never wanted to an American public that opposes it, telling the nation that he needed authorization to attack Syria as leverage in a newly emerged diplomatic opening from Russia.

“Calling the United States ‘the anchor of global security,’ Obama offered moral, political and strategic arguments for being ready to launch limited military strikes while trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution to what he called Syria’s violation of a global ban on chemical weapons.

“‘Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used,’ Obama said in making the case that the United States must act when dictators such as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ‘brazenly’ violate international treaties intended to protect humanity.”

At this point the second-guessing of the US President is rampant, but one inescapable fact does stand out–the United States is coming away from this misadventure with an eroded world position. The pride of our power is being broken!

Europe–the Global Player

EUObserver reported on September 4, 2013:

“Everything considered, Europe is still the most important global player in the Middle East.

“The US has armed forces and capacities. Russia and China have overt and covert interests, but Europe is the real player.

“Despite the criticism and the slowness, awkwardness and contradictory interests of its member states, it is still the only player truly changing and affecting the Middle East.

“No wonder then that most of the region’s peace initiatives have been linked to Europe, from Rhodes in 1949, via Madrid, to Oslo and the Geneva accord in 2003.

“The US is needed to close the deal, but without Europe nothing can be started. That is why, while all shallow glances are directed at US secretary of state John Kerry, well-informed observers instead look to Europe.”

The author of this article “was the speaker of the Knesset from 1999 to 2003 and is a former chairman of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organisation.”

EU Military Integration Coming!

EUObserver reported on September 4, 2013:

“Europe should create a civilian and military crisis operations HQ under EU command, according to a report by centre-right MEPs.

“The proposal, contained in a policy paper published on Tuesday (3 September), by deputies from the European People’s Party, the largest group in the assembly, said EU ‘heads of state and government have to start building stand-by forces under Union command.’

“It called for EU leaders to commit themselves to defining the union’s security interests, prioritising its strategic objectives and linking these with operational deployments.

“They said this should include a definition of European defence interests and its geographical priority zones.”

This new military combine will arise much more swiftly than even its planners now conceive–especially, in light of the fading role of America!

NSA Spying–No Privacy!

News Republic posted on September 8, 2013:

“Just when it seemed the biggest NSA-related revelations were over, a new report says the U.S. intelligence agency has had direct access to private smartphone data for years.

“Germany’s Spiegel Online claims it has seen documents that detail the NSA’s ability to tap into leading smartphone platforms, including Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and BlackBerry. In fact, based on the documents referenced, the agency has even set up separate teams dedicated to working on each operating system.”

The growing sense that the US is operating outside of its own laws–without our normal “checks and balances”–is proving to be a profound shock to Americans and to the rest of the world.

The Goal–A Third Temple in Jerusalem

JTA wrote on August 27, 2013:

“No praying. No kneeling. No bowing. No prostrating. No dancing. No singing. No ripping clothes.

“These are the rules that Jews must abide by when visiting the Temple Mount, the site where the First and Second Holy Temples once stood, located above and behind the Western Wall in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City.

“Although the area is under Israeli sovereignty, the mount — known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif — is controlled by the Islamic Wakf, a joint Palestinian-Jordanian religious body. As the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, whose golden dome overlooks the city, the Temple Mount attracts daily crowds of Muslim worshipers.

“Under Wakf regulations, Jews may only access the mount for 4 1/2 hours per day and are forbidden from praying there…

“Ahead of Tisha b’Av, the fast day next week that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the institute released a video showing Jewish children donning tool belts and leading their fathers out of synagogue to begin construction of the Holy Temple.

“’Our goal is to fulfill the commandment of “They shall make a Temple for me and I will dwell among them,” ‘ Richman says, quoting Exodus. ‘”The basis of a Torah life is action.”’

“Following the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 C.E., most rabbis adopted the position that Jewish law prohibits reconstructing the Holy Temple prior to the age of messianic redemption, or that the law is too ambiguous and that the messiah must come first”…

“The institute isn’t shy about advocating what many see as a radical goal: replacing the mosque at the Dome of the Rock with a new Jewish Holy Temple. A painting in the institute’s exhibition depicts this scenario, with the city’s light rail line taking residents to the Temple Mount. The Temple Institute is dedicated to laying the groundwork for this vision.

“The organization has formulated a program for where the temple will stand and what its vessels will look like, aided by 20 men who study Temple law full-time. The products of this research — 40 ritual objects — are on display in Plexiglas cases at the institute’s headquarters in the Old City.

“Silver trumpets to be blown by priests and a wooden lyre are perched next to two deep pans with long handles — one for collecting blood from small sacrificial offerings and another for large sacrifices like the Passover lamb.

“In another room, mannequins with beards wear the respective vestments for deputy priests and the high priest. The high priest’s outfit, with azure weaves, gold thread and a breastplate with 12 precious stones, took 11 years of research and $150,000 to complete. Next to it stands a massive 12-spigot sink with electric faucets — technology that Richman says will be permitted in the Third Temple.

“The institute’s crowning achievement — the Temple’s golden, 200-pound, seven-branch menorah — stands outside in a case overlooking the Western Wall. Unlike art or history museums, the institute’s goal is to remove the objects from their cases and bring them to the mount for use as soon as possible.

“Many Israelis view the goal as a danger to the status quo that has kept this site holy to Muslims and Jews from turning into a tinderbox.”

As improbable as this “goal” might seem in present circumstances, the Bible strongly indicates that the Jews will somehow be able to build a “third Temple”–including on the location where previous Temples have stood!

Arctic Ice cap Has Grown

MailOnline reported on September 7, 2013:

“A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent.

“The rebound from 2012’s record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013.

“Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

“The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.

“Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century – a process that would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.”

Persecution of German Homeschoolers, while America Refuses Asylum

Breitbart wrote on August 31:

“A team of 20 social workers, police officers, and special agents raided a homeschooling family’s residence near Darmstadt, Germany Thursday, forcibly removing the family’s four children, aged 7-14. Law enforcement raided the home and seized the children solely because the parents homeschool them—in defiance of a German ban on home education. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the children of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich were taken to unknown locations. Officials reportedly told the parents they would not be seeing their children ‘anytime soon.’

“HSLDA states that it obtained and translated court documents that authorized the use of force to seize the children and remove them from their parents’ custody. The documents indicated that the only legal grounds for removal were the family’s continuation of homeschooling. Though nothing indicated that the parents were failing to provide an adequate education, the law in Germany ignores the educational progress of the child. Attendance in government schools—not learning—is the object of the German law.

“According to HSLDA, Judge Koenig, a Darmstadt family court judge, signed the order to seize the children on Wednesday. Koenig cited the parents’ failure to cooperate ‘with the authorities to send the children to school.’ In addition, the judge authorized the use of force ‘against the children’ if necessary, indicating that such force might be needed because the children had ‘adopted the parents’ opinion’ regarding homeschooling, and ‘no cooperation could be expected’ from either the parents or their children… Returning to Germany after Dirk was unable to find work in other European Union countries, the Wunderlich family was hit with a criminal truancy case within days after registering in their town. After several months, the ‘Youth Welfare Office’ was granted legal custody of the children. A court allowed the children to remain in the parents’ home, however, since they were well-treated otherwise and cared for by their parents.

“According to HSLDA, German authorities even seized the children’s passports, making it impossible for the family to flee. ‘The right to homeschool is a human right,’ said Michael Farris, HSLDA chairman and founder. ‘So is the right to freely move and to leave a country. Germany has grossly violated these rights of this family. This latest act of seizing these four beautiful, innocent children is an outrageous act of a rogue nation… The United States Constitution is not alone in upholding the right of parents to decide how to educate their children. Germany is a party to numerous human rights treaties that recognize the right of parents to provide an education distinct from the public schools so that children may be educated according to the parents’ religious convictions. Germany has simply not met its obligations under these treaties or as a liberal democracy’…

“HSLDA is also representing the Romeike family, a German homeschooling family that was granted legal asylum in the United States in 2010 by a U.S. immigration judge. The Obama administration, however, successfully appealed that decision. When the Romeikes appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, but were denied asylum, HSLDA decided to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. If denied asylum by the Supreme Court, the Romeike family faces thousands of dollars in fines and possible jail time in Germany because they have homeschooled their children.
 
“‘No one can understand why the White House is showing so much leniency to millions of immigrants who have come here illegally in hopes of securing better jobs, but is so determined to deport this one family who has come to America in search of freedom for themselves and their children,’ said Farris. ‘The Obama administration has argued before our federal courts that Germany’s policy is legitimate and does not violate either human rights principles generally or religious freedom specifically,’ Farris said. ‘Academic success may be present, but governments are justified in banning homeschooling for the purpose of suppressing religious minorities. That is the full position of this administration. And it is unacceptable.’”

This is somewhat reminiscent of America’s shameful days when persecuted German Jews tried to find asylum in the USA, only to be rejected and turned away.

Germany Condemns Russia While Refusing to Fight with the USA

Deutsche Welle reported on August 31:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized Russia and China for failing to cooperate with the West in efforts to bring an end to the bloodshed in Syria… The two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have used their veto powers to block three separate resolutions on Syria since the conflict broke out more than two years ago. Now they are expected to block any resolution that the US, Britain and France manage to put before the Council, that would authorize the use of force against the Syrian government, following an alleged chemical weapons attack 10 days ago… 

“Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, meanwhile, used an interview… call on Russia to work with the West. ‘Those who look away despite the use of chemical weapons … encourage their use. That is why we are calling on Russia to send a signal along with the international community,’ he said… the chancellor also noted that while the alleged use of chemical weapons resulting in hundreds of deaths ‘cannot remain without consequence,’ Germany’s armed forces could not take part in any military action under the current circumstances. ‘Germany cannot participate in any military intervention without a mandate from the United Nations, NATO or the EU,’ Merkel said. ‘Therefore, there is no question of any participation by the Bundeswehr at the moment.’

“This stance appears to be in keeping with the sentiment of a majority of Germany. An opinion poll released on Thursday found that 60 percent of those asked said they were opposed to launching military strikes on Syria, while only about 33 percent supported the idea. Germans are set to go to the polls in a general election on September 22.”

Germany’s position seems to be terribly hypocritical, but it shows again how isolated America has become.

Putin Attacks Obama

The Washington Post wrote on August 31:

“Russia dramatically escalated its denunciations of American threats to attack Syrian military targets on Saturday, with President Vladimir Putin saying it would have been ‘utter nonsense’ for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons as the Obama administration alleges. The Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued before President Obama said he would seek congressional authorization before ordering strikes on Syria, said a U.S. attack would be a ‘gross violation’ of international law. Speaking out for the first time since an apparent chemical weapons attack near Damascus on Aug. 21, Putin called on President Obama to find a nonviolent way out of the crisis. ‘I would like to address Obama as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate: Before using force in Syria, it would be good to think about future casualties,’ Putin told Russian news agencies in Vladivostok during a tour of the country’s flood-stricken Far East…

“Putin said he was sure the attack was the work of rebels trying to provoke international — and especially American — involvement in the Syrian conflict. The government of Bashar al-Assad, he said, would have had no reason to use chemical weapons at a time when it had gained the upper hand in the fighting… Putin said he was surprised by the vote in Britain’s Parliament on Thursday not to join a U.S. attack on Syrian military targets. ‘It shows that there are people guided by common sense there,’ he said…

“Obama arrives in St. Petersburg for the G-20 meeting on Thursday and leaves on Friday. The purpose of the gathering is to discuss economic growth, but the White House acknowledges there will be plenty of conversation about Syria on the side. There are currently no plans for a one-on-one meeting between Putin and Obama, who earlier this month decided not to attend a Moscow summit with the Russian president. On Friday, the head of the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of parliament, Alexei Pushkov, said the Nobel committee should strip Obama of his 2009 Peace Prize if he launches an attack on Syria.”

Putin’s question as to why Assad would have used chemical weapons in the given situation does make some sense. One is terribly reminded of the false US claim of the existence of weapons of mass destruction to justify an ill-conceived and unsuccessful war against Iraq. Note the next article.

Russia Unconvinced

The Associated Press reported on September 2:

“The information the U.S. showed Moscow trying to prove that the Syrian regime was behind an alleged chemical weapons attack is ‘absolutely unconvincing,’ Russia’s foreign minister said Monday. The United States insists Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops were behind the chemical attack on Aug. 21, which they say killed over 1,400 people, and is considering strikes against his regime. Moscow is Assad’s key ally and weapons supplier, and its protector at the United Nations.

“… Sergey Lavrov said the evidence Washington presented was not detailed. ‘Yes, they showed us some findings but there was nothing specific there: no geographic coordinates, no names, no proof that the tests were carried out by the professionals,’ Lavrov said. He did not say what tests he was referring to. ‘What our American, British and French partners showed us in the past and have showed just recently is absolutely unconvincing,’ Lavrov said. ‘And when you ask for more detailed proof they say all of this is classified so we cannot show this to you.’”

Obviously, Russia, the ancient “bear” which—in collaboration with Persia–was asked to “arise” and “devour much flesh” (Daniel 7:5), is acting because of self-serving political, military and pecuniary motives, but the questions raised still deserve scrutiny and a convincing answer.

Putin Warns—While the West Is Divided

The EUObserver wrote on September 4:

“Russian leader Vladimir Putin has warned against Western strikes on Syria on the eve of the G20 summit in St Petersburg on Thursday… he compared Syria to the Iraq war in 2003, which was based on false intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, and hinted he will deliver modern anti-air defences to the region… He added that a strike must be authorised by the UN Security Council, where he has a veto, on the basis of hard information…

“He said if Western powers go ahead, ‘we [Russia] shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of … sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world.’…

“The EU itself is also divided on Syria… German forces will not take part. France has said it backs the US, while also ruling out ground troops. But Italy says any strike without UN approval would be illegal. Meanwhile, the rejection of joint UK-US strikes by British MPs last week is causing political problems for French leader Francois Hollande…”

Russia’s Plan for a Eurasion Union

The following was reported by the EUObserver on September 3:

“[Armenia] wants to join a trade and political union with Russia instead of an EU alternative… The news came as a surprise to EU officials… If Armenia does become a full member of the Russian-led customs bloc, along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, it cannot sign the EU pact at the same time… Russia is Armenia’s main security guarantor in its frozen conflict with Azerbaijan over the breakaway territory…

“Russia in recent weeks has also threatened Moldova and Ukraine, two other former Soviet states which are seeking deeper ties with the EU… Putin has said he wants all former Soviet republics, except the Baltic states, which are EU members, to join his customs bloc. He plans to transform it into a political union, the Eurasian Union, in 2015.”

None of this is good news for the West.

Unusual Isolation of the USA

The New York Times wrote on August 30:

“… when Prime Minister David Cameron was unable to muster the votes in Parliament for support for a strike in Syria — even one limited to stopping the future use of chemical weapons — shock could be heard in the voices of senior White House officials who never saw the British rejection coming… Now Mr. Obama is left to cope with miscalculations on both sides of the Atlantic. If he goes ahead with the strike… he will look more isolated than any president in recent memory entering a conflict…

“Mr. Obama has done comparatively little to explain his longer-term strategy for changing the course of events in Syria without getting sucked into a war. In fact, he has argued the opposite — that a brief strike will do the trick of teaching the Syrians a lesson… The British Parliament, however, fears it will be something else: the beginning of another conflict in which the West will inevitably get sucked in.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 30:

“For United States President Barack Obama, this is a disaster. He’s been left in the lurch by Britain, Washington’s most loyal ally. What happened on Thursday in London was a historical decision.”

President Obama’s About-Face or Humiliating Retreat?

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 1:

“Even to the president’s allies, it looked like an abrupt about-face. To his enemies, Obama’s announcement at the White House on Saturday… that he would seek Congress’ approval for a missile strike on Syria was a humiliating retreat… John Pike, director of Washington think tank GlobalSecurity.org,… called Obama’s implied constitutional innovation ‘amazing.’ ‘There is simply no precedent in American history for that doctrine. [US presidents have] authorized the use of force on their own account over a hundred times.’…

“On Sunday, more than one media outlet pointed out that when Obama’s first election campaign was starting in 2007, the Illinois senator and former constitutional law professor told a reporter: ‘The president does not have power under the constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.’ So is Obama simply staying true to a campaign pledge, or at least worrying that statements like this might be flung in his face? This is unlikely considering the president was not shy of using his executive power in Libya in 2011. Then, Obama went to war against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime even though the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly against taking action.”

Kerry’s Struggle to Defend the President’s Actions

Breitbart reported on September 1:

“Secretary of State John Kerry struggled to defend President Obama’s plan for Syria when he appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. On Saturday, Obama said he would seek Congressional approval for military strikes on Syria. Wallace asked Kerry why Obama decided not to call back Congress to debate on Syria. Lawmakers will not reconvene until September 9 from their August recess. Kerry could not provide a simple answer…

“To make matters worse, Obama’s speech completely contradicted Kerry’s Friday speech where he said action should be taken now against Syria. Wallace told Kerry it appears that Obama’s plan of action was the direction from the beginning and nothing like the points Kerry made on Friday. Kerry responded by reminding that the President can throw out the advice of his advisers entirely…

“Kerry insisted America’s credibility is on the line and he hopes Congress will vote with Obama… Kerry stated that tests from hair and blood samples prove sarin gas was used against civilians in the August 21 attack. The chemical weapons attack killed 1,400 people, including almost 500 children.”

As we pointed out in previous Updates, even though John Kerry might want to take a stronger and more decisive stance in certain international matters, he won’t be supported in this by the President and his administration. But it’s not only the Obama administration which puts on some breaks, as the next article shows.

US Congress–Will Britain Repeat Itself?

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 1:

“Members of Congress from across the political spectrum reacted with deep skepticism Sunday to President Obama’s bid for approval of strikes against Syria, with lawmakers raising doubts about whether a vote would succeed. Few of the approximately 100 members of Congress who returned to Washington for a classified intelligence briefing Sunday said they would support the administration’s request to authorize the use of force, even though they showed little doubt that Syrian President Basher Assad’s government was behind the alleged chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21.

“The administration now appears to face a two-front battle to win the support of Congress, needing to convince skeptical representatives of a war-weary public on the one hand and more hawkish lawmakers seeking an even tougher response on the other. And it has just more than a week to do so… Assad has joined Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler as the only individuals to have used chemical weapons against their own people, Kerry said as he made the case for Congress to support a resolution authorizing force…”

In the meantime, House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that he would support President Barack Obama’s call for a limited military strike against Syria. On the other hand, Senator John McCain (who was caught playing a phone game of poker at a Senate hearing about Syria) and former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, stated that such a limited strike would not be sufficient, while others are opposed to any strike, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Rand Paul. So, the division could not be any greater. In addition, to save face, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and later President Obama presented the new and rather concocted idea that the President had not drawn a red line in the sand regarding Syria’s use of chemical weapons, but that Congress and the world community had done so, by outlawing chemical warfare, and that “the credibility of Congress, the United States and the international community as a whole is at stake” (Washington Post and Washington Times, September 4).

Even Syrian Opposition Critical of US Strike

Deutsche Welle reported on September 4:

“The West is fretting about whether to intervene in the Syrian war, and the opposition is also split…

“Omar Hossino, a Syrian-American researcher based in Washington, says the split in the opposition is identifiable: ‘The al-Qaeda-linked groups and other radical Salafist groups are very much opposed to the strike, because they want to be the ones that save the Syrian people, and they are assuming the strikes will target them,’ he said. ‘The more mainstream rebel groups seem to mostly favor strikes, although they’ve been saying that this strike is not really going to do anything.’…

“Another question – the nature and size of a potential strike – is just as much of a controversy…  In a statement released on Sunday (01.09.2013), the Syrian opposition’s ‘Local Coordination Committees in Syria,’ condemned a minimal approach. ‘A limited strike to merely warn Assad will lead to nothing but increase in his violence, as well as to his complete confidence that no one would prevent him from killing.’

“Echoing the view of many analysts, the statement continued, ‘Apparently, the main concern of the West in this regard is based on international balance and interests, not on the serious attempt to rescue a people who are striving for freedom and dignity, and dying for that, every day.’ In other words, Obama’s cruise missile attack was simply saving face to back up his ‘red line’ warning about chemical weapons. ‘Most of the mainstream groups are against a strike unless it can actually be a game-changer and change the dynamic on the ground against Assad,’ said Hossino, before adding that he doubted whether CIA training operations would have any effect, and if they do, they would take months.”

Now the Pope Speaks…

JTA reported on September 2:

“Pope Francis in a meeting with Jewish leaders sent Rosh Hashanah greetings to Jews worldwide and expressed ‘concern’ at the ban on kosher slaughter in Poland… Francis met with a WJC [World Jewish Congress] delegation headed by the organization’s president, Ronald Lauder…

“A WJC statement said the pontiff and Lauder spoke about the situation in Syria ‘and agreed to speak out against attacks on religious minorities, such as Coptic Christians in Egypt and against trends to restrict well-established religious practices such as circumcision.’… Referring to the conflict in Syria, ‘the pope called the killing of human beings unacceptable and said world leaders must do everything to avoid war,’ according to the WJC.”

Zenit added on September 4 that “Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope’s secretary of state, has scheduled a special briefing for ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to speak with them about the importance of the Day of Prayer and Fasting for Syria, which the Pope has called for Saturday.”

The Associated Press added on September 5 that “Pope Francis urged the Group of 20 leaders on Thursday to abandon the ‘futile pursuit’ of a military solution in Syria as the Vatican laid out its case for a negotiated settlement that guarantees rights for all Syrians, including minority Christians.”

The Humanitarian Catastrophe of Syrian Refugees

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 4:

“As Obama contemplates a military strike against Assad, more than 5,000 Syrians are fleeing the country every day. Many, including the UN, are calling the situation a ‘humanitarian catastrophe.’…

“Syria’s 20-million citizens are so distressed that many of them have decided to flee the country regardless of the hardship and risks. Ever since President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents engaged in a relentless, bloody war, more than 2 million people have fled Syria, according to the United Nations. Every tenth Syrian is currently on the run…

“Lebanon alone registered more than 700,000 Syrian refugees by the end of August. Jordan has accepted slightly more than half a million and Turkey slightly less than half a million. Around 160,000 Syrians are now living in Iraq and more than 100,000 have managed to flee to Egypt. According to the UN, countries in the region have accepted 97 percent of Syrian refugees… Housing, employment, medical care and, ideally, education are among the services these countries are expected to provide. But the refugee numbers are so large that they pose a challenge to local social structures. For example, Lebanon’s population has grown by nearly 20 percent as a result of the refugees. This increase has led to social tension and rising rents…

“The EU also warns of a destabilization of Syria’s neighboring countries… The prospects for the millions of refugees to return to their homes are difficult to assess, given the rising violence in Syria. And there are no signs of an imminent solution to end the war between the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition…”

What Will Happen After Assad?

The Huffington Post wrote on September 1:

“Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday portrayed the current conflict in Syria as one between the government of President Bashar Al Assad, who Paul said ‘has protected Christians for a number of decades,’ and ‘Islamic rebels,’ who Paul said ‘have been attacking Christians’ and are aligned with Al Qaeda. ‘I think the Islamic rebels winning is a bad idea for the Christians, and all of a sudden we’ll have another Islamic state where Christians are persecuted,’ Paul said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’

“Paul was likely referring to a string of incidents in Egypt in recent weeks, where supporters of the deposed government of former president Mohamed Morsi have burned Coptic Christian churches to protest what they see as Christian backing for the military overthrow of Morsi’s government…

“Paul, a first-term senator and vocal opponent of U.S. intervention overseas… said the U.S. should pursue a negotiated settlement where ‘Assad is gone, but some of the same people [from Assad’s regime] remain stable,’ because, he said, ‘that would also be good for the Christians.’… Paul also said that U.S. intervention would imperil U.S. allies in the region, including Jordan and Israel…”

It is a fact that Christians were somewhat protected or at least tolerated in Egypt under Mubarak, in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and in Syria under Bashar Al Assad. With new Islamic governments taking over, violent hostility and persecution against Christians have been increasing.

Our Hypocritical Media

Breitbart wrote on September 1:

“In the years since the United States first went to war in Iraq, liberal groups and commentators have accused many media outlets of not asking the right or critical questions of the Bush administration…This time around, under President Obama, as the US has engaged in military action in Libya, launched an unprecedented number of unmanned aerial drone strikes around the world and threatened military ‘punishment’ in Syria… [is] the media… completely falling asleep on the job?” 

This appears to be the case.

Now it’s Morsi’s Turn…

The Associated Press reported on September 1:

“Egypt’s top prosecutor… ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to trial on charges of inciting the killing of opponents protesting outside his palace while he was in office, the state news agency said… No date was announced for the trial. Morsi will be tried, along with 14 members of his Muslim Brotherhood, in a criminal court for allegedly committing acts of violence, and inciting the killing of at least 10 people…

“Those referred to trial with Morsi include the deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s political party, Essam el-Erian, currently in hiding. They also include leading Brotherhood member Mohammed el-Beltagy, arrested this week, as well as leading pro-Brotherhood youth leaders who were video-taped during the street clashes on the front lines.

“Since Morsi’s ouster, authorities have waged an intensive security crackdown on members of his group. The crackdown followed a violent breakup of a sit-in held by Morsi supporters for weeks demanding his reinstatement that left hundreds killed.”

First Mubarak is charged, now it’s Morsi, and when is it going to be the military and the present government of Egypt, which is purportedly guilty of committing similar atrocities? And while all of this is going on, America supports first Mubarak, then Morsi, and now the military. And the people of Egypt don’t like it a bit. And “Leviathan,” the “fleeing [and] twisted serpent” of Egypt—“the reptile that is in the sea” or river, will turn around and bite America (compare Isaiah 27:1).

Fukushima Radiation Set to Hit the U.S. by 2014

Salon reported on August 29:

“Unless you were one of the 160,000 thousand people in the near vicinity of the Fukushima disaster who evacuated their homes in 2011, the ongoing nuclear crisis on Japan’s shore can seem awfully far away. It’s worth remembering, though, that the radioactive waste leaking from the plant has been making its way into the Pacific Ocean, and from there, to the rest of the world. According to new research from the Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, the radioactive ocean plume from the original disaster will reach the west coast of the U.S. by 2014, 3 years after it was first released.

“… it’s important to understand how pollutants are carried throughout the world’s oceans, especially since Japan is still trying to figure out what to do with its 132 Olympic pools worth of radioactive water.. [It will] hit Oregon first, and then California by 2016… its 30-year half-life means it’s not just going to disappear anytime soon.”

We are being assured that the radioactive fallout will pose no health risk or dangers to Americans. The same false assurances were given years ago to Europeans when the disaster of Chernobyl wiped out entire regions and killed many people.

BBC News added on September 4 that “Radiation levels around tanks storing contaminated water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have risen by a fifth to a new high, officials say.”

Fukushima Radiation—“Much Worse Than You Think”

CNN wrote on August 30:

“While the amount of radioactivity released into the environment in March 2011 has been estimated as between 10 percent and 50 percent of the fallout from the Chernobyl accident, the 400,000 tons of contaminated water stored on the Fukushima site contain more than 2.5 times the amount of radioactive cesium dispersed during the 1986 catastrophe in Ukraine. So, where has this huge amount of highly contaminated water – enough to fill 160 Olympic-size swimming pools – come from? In the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the reactor cores of units 1, 2 and 3 melted through the reactor vessels into the concrete. Nobody knows how far the molten fuel went through the containment – radiation levels in the reactor buildings are lethal, while robots got stuck in the rubble and some never came back out.

“The molten fuel still needs to be cooled constantly and the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), injects about 400 tons of water into the perforated reactor vessels every day. That water washes out radioactive elements and runs straight through into the basements that were flooded during the tsunami. By 2015, over 600,000 tons of highly radioactive liquid are expected to have accumulated in temporary tanks, some underground, many bolted rather than welded together, and none ever conceived to hold this kind of liquid over the long term. The dangerous fluid is pumped around in four kilometer long makeshift tubes, many of them made of vinyl rather than steel, and plagued with numerous leaks in the winter when the above ground lines get hit by frost.

“TEPCO’s account of the discovery this month of the leak of 300 tons of highly radioactive water showed a frightening level of amateurism… The tank leak is just the latest in a long list of signs that things are going fundamentally wrong at the site of what could still turn out to be the most serious radiological event in history. And the situation could still get a lot worse. A massive spent fuel fire would likely dwarf the current dimensions of the catastrophe and could exceed the radioactivity releases of Chernobyl dozens of times. First, the pool walls could leak beyond the capacity to deliver cooling water or a reactor building could collapse following one of the hundreds of aftershocks. Then, the fuel cladding could ignite spontaneously releasing its entire radioactive inventory…

“The fact is that the Fukushima Daiichi site represents challenges of unprecedented complexity. Maintaining the cooling of three molten reactor cores and five spent fuel pools in a disaster zone is a job of titanic proportions…”

Merkel: Trust Between USA and Germany Lost

The EUObserver wrote on September 2:

“A 90-minute TV debate between Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat rival Peer Steinbrueck on Sunday (1 September) mostly revolved around domestic topics, with some tense exchanges on the US spying scandal and the eurozone crisis.  Seen by 12 million Germans, the debate was the first and last before the 22 September elections and the only chance for Steinbrueck, who trails Merkel in the polls, to score some points. If anything, the debate put Steinbrueck on an even footing with Merkel… ‘If I would have been chancellor, I wouldn’t have called a press conference about the US mass surveillance of Germans only to say: “Let’s wait”’,  Steinbrueck said.

“Merkel… said she has ‘no reason not to trust the National Security Agency’ – the US secret service behind the mass surveillance of online users. But a few minutes later she appeared to contradict herself. When pressed by one of the moderators, Merkel said: ‘Of course trust was lost between Germany and the US.’…”

Germany Awards Whistleblower Prize to Snowden

rt.com reported on September 1:

“Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been awarded the biennial ‘whistleblower prize’ in Germany, worth some $3,900, in recognition of his ‘bold efforts’ to expose the monitoring of communications data by his former employer. The prize, last awarded in 2011, was officially bestowed upon the 30-year-old at a ceremony in Berlin which took place Friday, prompting a nine-minute congratulatory video message from Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald on Saturday… The organizers of the prize commended Snowden’s work, stating that he had uncovered ‘massive and unsuspecting monitoring and storage of communication data, which cannot be accepted in democratic societies.’ … ‘Not only did [German Chancellor Angela Merkel], it seems, allow the US to spy on Germany, but it seems she also helped the US to spy on Germany. So this is one of the reasons why Edward Snowden has received this award,’ RT correspondent Peter Oliver said from the ceremony in Berlin…

“The whistleblower award was first awarded in 1999 under the auspices of the Association of German Scientists and the German chapter of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA)… It was revealed in June that for seven years, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been using PRISM, a warrantless web surveillance system with a near-limitless ability to spy on anyone’s phone calls, e-mails, video chats, search history and more, with major Internet giants Google, Apple and Facebook being complicit in the scheme.”

What a slap in the face for the USA.

Update on Yosemite Fire

The Associated Press reported on September 4:

“Officials said they still are investigating the cause of the fire, which started 18 days ago in an isolated area of the Stanislaus National Forest and has burned nearly 370 square miles – the fourth biggest recorded wildfire in California. With higher humidity and lower temperatures, the fire reached 80 percent containment… Officials said 111 structures, including 11 homes, have been destroyed. More than 4,300 firefighters are still battling the blaze.”

San Diego In Danger of Tsunami

U-T San Diego reported on September 4:

“Federal and state researchers came up with a hypothetical magnitude 9.1 earthquake [erupting off Alaska] that produces a tsunami severe enough to force the evacuation of 750,000 people along the California coast while sinking or damaging one-third of all boats in the state’s marinas. Such a tsunami could cause $1.2 billion in damages… at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach…

“The report also says the tsunami would produce waves up to 6-feet high locally, inundating and damaging some areas… ‘The good news is that three-quarters of California’s coastline is cliffs, and thus immune to the harsher and more devastating impacts tsunamis could pose. The bad news is that the one-quarter at risk is some of the most economically valuable property in California.’…

“The state has not been hit by the sort of tsunami that occurred off Japan following a 9.0 quake in March 2011. But California has felt the impact of such events. The 9.2 earthquake that broke in Alaska in 1964 created a tsunami that killed 11 people in Crescent City, California, and destroyed most of the city’s business district. Crescent City was slammed again in March 2011 when a tsunami from the Japan quake produced 8-foot waves that heavily damaged the city’s harbor.”

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

Natural News wrote on September 3, 2013:

“You won’t hear anything about it from the mainstream media, but the federal government’s kangaroo ‘vaccine court’ has once again conceded, albeit quietly, that the combination measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine does, indeed, cause autism. In a recently published ruling, part of which was censored from public view, a young boy was awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars after it was determined that the MMR vaccine led to a confirmed diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“Ten-year-old Ryan Mojabi’s parents say he first suffered an encephalopathy after being vaccinated for MMR on December 19, 2003. Known as a ‘table injury,’ encephalopathy is a recognized, compensable adverse reaction to vaccines… According to Ryan’s parents, the MMR vaccine caused their son’s encephalopathy, which manifested… in the form of asthma and ASD.’

“After being bumped around from court to court, Ryan’s case was eventually heard by the vaccine court’s Autism Omnibus Proceedings, according to The Huffington Post. And in the end, the federal government agreed that Ryan’s encephalopathy had been caused by the MMR vaccine, a landmark ruling that confirms what Dr. Andrew Wakefield found more than 15 years ago when studying gut disorders in children given the MMR vaccine. ‘Ryan suffered a Table injury under the Vaccine Act — namely, an encephalitis within five to fifteen days following receipt (of MMR),’ admitted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding the case. ‘This case is appropriate for compensation,’ it added, in full agreement with the court’s decision.

“Of particular note in the case is the fact that concession documents by the government remain under seal. While the court and the government at large openly admitted that the MMR vaccine caused Ryan’s encephalitis, it did not make public its opinion on whether or not that encephalitis led to Ryan’s other injuries, including those that fall into the category of ASD. But the fact that these documents remain censored shows that the government is hiding something of importance from the public, which most definitely has to do with the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

“In a similar case heard during the same month, young Emily Moller from Houston, Texas, was also awarded massive compensation for injuries resulting from the MMR vaccine. According to reports, Emily experienced a severe reaction after receiving not only the MMR vaccine but also the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis), HiB, and Prevnar vaccines. Like with Ryan’s case, the government conceded that these vaccines led to Emily’s autism and other developmental problems.

“These two cases, combined with numerous published studies out of the U.S., South America, and Europe, prove that the MMR vaccine is not the harmless vaccine that the conventional medical industry claims it is. In fact, everything that Dr. Wakefield found back in the late 1990s concerning the MMR vaccine — findings that cost him his career and reputation, by the way — are proving to be undeniably true.

“‘There can be very little doubt that vaccines can and do cause autism,’ Dr. Wakefield recently stated from his home in Austin, Texas. ‘In these children, the evidence for an adverse reaction involving brain injury following the MMR that progresses to an autism diagnosis is compelling. It’s now a question of the body count. The parents’ story was right all along. Governments must stop playing with words while children continue to be damaged. My hope is that recognition of the intestinal disease in these children will lead to the relief of their suffering. This is long, long overdue.’”

Of course, most doctors and medical scientists would deny Wakefield’s findings, as they do not fit into the paradigm of routinely wanting to administer vaccines to little (and helpless) babies—while, at the same time, many of them advocate and endorse the murder of unborn children through abortions.

Will America Attack Syria?

The Independent wrote on August 25:

“Options for a military strike [against Syria] drawn up by the Pentagon are already on President Barack Obama’s desk. However as he contemplated them last night – most likely a strike by cruise missiles launched from the Mediterranean – he was on the receiving end of strong warnings to desist from both Moscow and some leaders of his own party at home…

“President Obama just a few days ago made clear his preference for winning support for any military intervention from the UN Security Council first. That, however, would assume the backing of both Russia and China, which each have veto power. Hardly encouraging therefore was a statement issued by the Russian foreign ministry that sought to remind the US of events 10 years ago when it began its invasion of Iraq without a UN resolution…

“The dilemma is vivid for Mr Obama who has made no secret of his own misgivings about involving the US directly in the conflict… Polls show that most Americans [are] strongly opposed to US intervention. Harry Reed, leader of the Democrat majority in the Senate, publicly fretted about being sucked into a longer commitment in Syria…”

“We are Going to War”

Fox News added on August 26:

“Steve Hayes, a columnist for The Weekly Standard and Fox News contributor, told viewers Monday… that ‘we’re going to war’ with Syria, adding that it is only a matter of when and what type of strike will be launched against the country…

“Hayes’ comments came after Secretary of State John Kerry earlier Monday told reporters at the State Department  there was undeniable evidence of a large-scale chemical weapons attack in Syria and called the killing of civilians a ‘moral obscenity’ that must carry consequences.  Hayes called Kerry’s remarks a dramatic shift in rhetoric by the Obama administration despite the fact that intelligence has previously been available tying the Assad regime to chemical weapons use.”

America’s Credibility at Stake

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 26:

“European editorial writers ponder the international community’s options for action – and agree the US faces a dilemma… Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung… warned that Obama faces the question of ‘what his word is worth if he threatens consequences but does not act. The President’s credibility and the role of the United States as a global political regulatory force are at stake.’…

“Obama faces difficult decisions, Holland’s de Volkskrant agrees. ‘If Assad gets away with this, anyone can, and US threats of reprisal are empty – with all manner of consequences for the proliferation weapons of mass destruction,’ the paper said. It concluded: ‘The logic of deterrent forces Obama to act.’…

“Vienna’s Der Standard also agreed that Obama must find a way to put the Assad regime in its place and ‘confirm US credibility without leading the country into a conflict where neither a victory nor peace are possible.’ However, the Austrian paper says, ‘no one knows the magic formula.’…”

US, Britain and France Ready for War?

Deutsche Welle reported on August 26:

“The US, along with its allies Britain and France, is apparently gearing up for yet another military intervention in the Middle East. But the consequences of even the most minor attack in Syria are very unclear…

“The US, along with its allies Britain and France, already has plenty of military hardware within striking distance of Syria. The US has three destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean, which it has now bolstered with a fourth, while Britain is also thought to have four warships nearby. The US, Britain, and France, also have fighter jets within range of Damascus – based in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Cyprus.”

Great Britain has declared its support and participation in an American military attack against Syria, and France has called for military intervention as well. Germany wants to be cautious, as the next article shows. In fact, the majority of Germans (58%) is opposing any military actions against Damascus, while only 33% would support it (The Local, August 29, 2013).

Germany Asserting Itself

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 23:

“Germany started deviating from French leadership in March 2011, when its diplomats ruled out participation in Libya regardless of UN Security Council resolutions. The following year, Germans long refused the French assessment that the occupation of northern Mali by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) presented a threat against Western interests. France has continued to raise international pressure on the Assad regime over German objections…

“But something different is at work here. Contrary to appearances, Germany is not simply receding ever deeper into itself. In fact, the Berlin Republic is quietly asserting itself and fleshing out its foreign policy. The unwillingness to act as France’s cheerleader in the greater Mediterranean comes with the creeping recovery of self-confidence, and a desire to reposition itself vis-à-vis this historically French sphere of influence…

“German obstructionism also reveals the consensus across the German political spectrum that an Islamist regime in Syria is to be avoided… The deputy leader of Merkel’s Christian Democrats has said orthodox Christian populations risk ethnic cleansing or worse if the French-allied Islamists come to power… In addition to the 50 years of the Elysée Treaty, this October also marks the 200th anniversary of the war liberating Prussia from Napoleonic occupation.”

Washington Expects More Leadership from Germany on Global Matters

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 23:

“Angela Merkel’s conservatives are well ahead in the polls and the chancellor herself likewise remains extremely popular… Washington is hoping that, once the campaign is history, Germany will take on a greater global leadership role on issues like trade, the euro crisis and international security…

“Conley, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says there is some ‘uncertainty’ in Washington about how strong a partner Germany is on military and security issues in the Middle East. She says she would like to see the new government ‘articulate its foreign and national security views and strategies’ following the election.”

How Will Germany Lead?

The Economist wrote on August 22:

“One month from now, on September 22nd, Germans will elect a new parliament. Perhaps more than at any time since reunification in 1990, the world will watch the results with great interest. That is, first, because the current chancellor, Angela Merkel, as Germany’s first woman and first Ossi (Easterner) in the job, has become something of a global celebrity and is now fighting to stay in power…

“The second reason why the world, and you, will care about this election is that Germany has become so important. The euro crisis has now been going on for three years. Currently, it seems to be stable, but it could return with fury at any time. This has led to an old question being asked anew. This ‘German question’ has changed over the centuries—whether the Holy Roman Empire would centralise or stay fragmented, whether and how Germany in the 19th century would unify, et cetera. But always it was about how this central land (‘too big for Europe, too small for the world,’ as Henry Kissinger once put it) would relate to its neighbours and continent. Today, with demands for Germany to play a new and unfamiliar role as ‘hegemon’ over the euro system, that question is suddenly relevant again.”

The Reluctant Giant—“Germany Has No Other Choice but to Lead”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 29:

“The world admires Germany and would like to see more active engagement from the country… The rest of the world is waiting for Germany. But instead of feeling pleased about Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski’s historic statement that he fears Germany’s power less than its inactivity, we cringe anxiously over such sentiments. When US President Barack Obama calls Germany a leading global power, we hope that he doesn’t really mean it. And when politicians in Israel say that Germany should wield its power more actively, we don’t interpret it as a mandate to become more committed, but are puzzled instead.

“We Germans? Exercise power? Take action? Lead?…  [But] ‘history’ has given us reformed Germans in the 21st century the mandate to play an influential role in all of the world’s affairs… Who, if not we Germans, is as well versed in emerging from the swamp of overthrown dictators? Who, if not we Germans, could advise war-torn countries on how to find their way back to peace? Who, if not Germany, whose path to liberal democracy was long and rocky, could help other countries along this path? And who, if not we Germans, would be destined to warn the Americans, for example, that absolute national security doesn’t protect freedom but instead destroys it? Seen in the cold light of day, we have no other choice…

“For a country as important as Germany, getting involved is a duty, not a choice. The role of being an active player falls on us, whether we want it or not…

“We… want to dream again, of a better Germany in a better world. Germany is being administered, not governed. It could be a soft giant, but when it looks in the mirror, it still sees itself as a gray mouse. But that’s just an optical illusion.”

Syria and Iran Threaten Israel

The Times of Israel wrote on August 26:

“A senior Syrian official on Monday issued a first direct warning that if attacked, his country would retaliate against Israel. Khalaf Muftah, a senior Baath Party official who used to serve as Syria’s assistant information minister, said in a radio interview that Damascus would consider Israel ‘behind the [Western] aggression and [it] will therefore come under fire… If the US or Israel make the mistake of taking advantage of the chemical issue… the region will go up in flames… that will affect security not only in the region but across the world.’

“His words were echoed by Iranian officials, who on Monday shrugged off the threat of a US attack on its close ally Syria, but said that if such a strike were to take place, Israel would suffer…

“The Syrian and Iranian statements Monday came as Britain reportedly pushed for US action on Syria in the wake of a horrific alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians outside Damascus. According to a report from the Times of London, British Prime Minister David Cameron wants a strike in the coming days while outrage over the alleged attack is still fresh. British Foreign Minister William Hague said in an interview with the BBC on Monday that action could be taken even without the full support of the UN Security Council.”

Russia Warns the USA

USA Today wrote on August 26:

“Russia warned again Tuesday that any military intervention in Syria would have ‘catastrophic consequences’ for the region… Russia has vowed to veto any Security Council attempts to approve a military attack on Syria, and it is arming Syria as well, which is why the United States is considering a unilateral attack with the help of the United Kingdom and other nations… The Russians have already promised to send Syria S-300 long-range anti-aircraft missiles that have a range of almost 100 miles and would reach deep inside Israel…

“The Russians could also send Assad their supersonic P800 long-range anti-ship missile, which is capable of sinking NATO ships with a single strike… The Russians could expand sales to Iran of weapons and nuclear technology that has both nuclear and civilian functions…”

Arab League Rejects Attack Against Syria

The New York Times wrote on August 27:

“The leaders of the Arab world on Tuesday blamed the Syrian government for a chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people last week, but declined to back a retaliatory military strike, leaving President Obama without the broad regional support he had for his last military intervention in the Middle East, in Libya in 2011.

“While the Obama administration has robust European backing and more muted Arab support for a strike on Syria, the position of the Arab League and the unlikelihood of securing authorization from the United Nations Security Council complicate the legal and diplomatic case for the White House.”

Jordan—No Attack on Syria From Our Soil

The Associated Press reported on August 28:

“Jordan will not be used as a launching pad for attacks on Syria and the kingdom favors a diplomatic solution to the crisis… A U.S.-led strike on Syria in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad’s regime likely would involve cruise missile attacks from the sea, which would not need to cross or make use of Jordanian territory… Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled into Jordan from Syria.”

Further Setback for USA

The Los Angeles Times wrote on August 28:

“The Obama administration’s move to punish Syria’s government for allegedly using chemical weapons in a deadly attack last week appeared to suffer a setback Wednesday when the U.S. failed to get United Nations approval for use of force [over Russia’s objection] and British support was thrown into question. The collapse of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria was expected. The British impediment was not…

“How soon such strikes might occur remained unclear after British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has repeatedly called for strong action on Syria, was unable to muster enough support from lawmakers to push ahead with a vote to approve military intervention. Members of Parliament from both his Conservative Party and the opposition Labor Party insisted that a vote be delayed until U.N. chemical experts now in Syria issue a report…”

Will US, Britain and France Fight with Al-Qa’ida Against Assad?

The Independent wrote on August 27:

“If Barack Obama decides to attack the Syrian regime, he has ensured – for the very first time in history – that the United States will be on the same side as al-Qa’ida… The men who destroyed so many thousands on 9/11 will then be fighting alongside the very nation whose innocents they so cruelly murdered almost exactly 12 years ago. Quite an achievement for Obama, Cameron, Hollande and the rest of the miniature warlords.

“This, of course, will not be trumpeted by the Pentagon or the White House – nor, I suppose, by al-Qa’ida… While the Americans drone al-Qa’ida to death in Yemen and Pakistan – along, of course, with the usual flock of civilians – they will be giving them, with the help of Messrs Cameron, Hollande and the other Little General-politicians, material assistance in Syria by hitting al-Qa’ida’s enemies. Indeed, you can bet your bottom dollar that the one target the Americans will not strike in Syria will be al-Qa’ida or the Nusra front.

“And our own Prime Minister will applaud whatever the Americans do, thus allying himself with al-Qa’ida, whose London bombings may have slipped his mind…”

Britain may not fight at all, and Mr. Hollande has also begun to back-paddle. The BBC reported on August 29, 2013:

“British MPs have voted to reject possible military action against the Assad regime in Syria to deter the use of chemical weapons. A government motion was defeated by 285 to 272, a majority of 13 votes. Prime Minster David Cameron said it was clear Parliament does not want action and ‘the government will act accordingly’. It effectively rules out British involvement in any US-led strikes against the Assad regime.”

Turkey Against Israel

IB Times wrote on August 25:

“As a NATO member, Turkey is seen by the U.S. as a strategic ally to the West and a crucial liaison to the Arab and Muslim world… Sometimes, though, statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and officials of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) call into question the notion that the West and Turkey have ‘common hopes and … common dreams.”

“Here is a sample of some of the more provocative statements that have come out of Ankara recently…

“‘There are some circles that are jealous of Turkey’s growth … They are all uniting, and on one side is the Jewish Diaspora…’ Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, July 2, 2013. Invoking the spectre of Jewish domination of the global media may be unseemly in the West, but it’s standard fare among Turkish leaders.

“‘Israel cannot do whatever it wants in the eastern Mediterranean. They will see what our decisions will be on this subject. Our navy attack ships can be there at any moment.’ — Recep Tayyip Erdoðan September 15, 2011. Erdoðan was responding to the recent discovery of an offshore natural gas find in the Eastern Mediterranean that Israel discovered and is working on in cooperation with Cyprus and Greece, two nations that also happen to have problems with Turkey.

“‘The press wants to throw mud to see if it sticks. The Times is renting out its own pages for money. This is the Times’ failing. We will pursue legal channels regarding the Times.’ — Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, August 22, 2013. Erdoðan was threatening the prestigious British newspaper The London Times for publishing an open letter criticizing the Turkish government for excessive use of force against protesters. Erdoðan said, ‘If they truly believed in democracy, they couldn’t have displayed such a lack of character to call the leader of a party that won 50 percent of the vote a dictator.’ Erdoðan’s distinctly non-Western view of journalism and press freedoms was further illustrated when he jailed 64 journalists.”

The Bible shows that Turkey—modern Edom—will turn against Israel… the Jewish state as well as countries like the USA and Great Britain.

Israel Attacks Lebanon

The Associated Press reported on August 23:

“Israeli warplanes struck a target south of Beirut early Friday, a day after militants fired four rockets into northern Israel… It was the first air raid on the area since the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group…

“On Thursday, militants in Lebanon fired four rockets into Israel, setting off air raid sirens and startling a nation already on edge over turmoil along its northern and southern borders… the rockets added to the nation’s fears at a time it is nervously watching unrest in neighboring Syria, where the government has been accused of using chemical weapons against rebels and civilians this week. It’s also worried about Egypt to the south, where Islamic militants have stepped up their activities near the Israeli border in the wake of a military coup…

“Israel fears that Syria will transfer sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah and has carried out several airstrikes in Syria in recent months on suspected Iranian weapons shipments believed to be bound for the militant group… Netanyahu… also accused Iran, the key backer of Syria and Hezbollah, of using… Syria as a ‘testing ground’…  ‘Iran is closely watching whether and how the world responds to the atrocities committed by Iran’s client state Syria and by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah against innocent civilians in Syria,’ he said. ‘These events prove yet again that we simply cannot allow the world’s most dangerous regimes to acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons.’”

Israel is indeed surrounded by enemies… Syria, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, etc.

Less and Less Christians in the Middle East

CNN wrote on August 22:

“Islamist thugs have attacked dozens of churches across Egypt in the past few days, burning many of them down… Today there are more than 10 million Christians in the Middle East and they make up an estimated 5% of the Middle East’s population. A century ago they made up an estimated 20%…

“Take Syria. Many Syrian Christians have tacitly supported the regime of President Bashar al-Assad… As a result, the jihadists who have come to dominate a significant portion of the Syrian rebel movement have supplemented their war against the government with attacks that target Christians…

“Meanwhile, in March in Benghazi, Libya, where a militant attack on a U.S. government complex left four Americans dead in September 2012, around 60 Christians were rounded up by extremists and handed over to the government on suspicion of immigrating from Egypt illegally. The militants tortured several of their captives, killing one of them. That bout of vigilantism followed the arrest in February of four Christians accused of proselytizing to Muslim Libyans. The consequence of such attacks and harassment has been an exodus of Christians from the region…

“This kind of homogenization has happened before in the Middle East, which boasted a sizable Jewish population in the ’50s. But with the creation of the state of Israel and the rise of Arab nationalism and then Islamism, the region has become more hostile to non-Muslims. Around World War II there were 100,000 Jews in Egypt, a community that had existed in Egypt since the time of the pharaohs. Now, there are a handful of synagogues operating in Cairo…”

Church Bylaws on Marriage

The Associated Press reported on August 24:

“Worried they could be sued by gay couples, some churches are changing their bylaws to reflect their view that the Bible allows only marriage between one man and one woman… ‘I thought marriage was always between one man and one woman, but the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision said no,’ said Gregory S. Erwin, an attorney for the Louisiana Baptist Convention…

“Kevin Snider is an attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute… [He]  said some religious leaders have been threatened with lawsuits for declining to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies.

“Dean Inserra, head pastor of the 1,000-member City Church Tallahassee, based in Florida,… said he already has had to say no to gay friends who wanted him to perform a wedding ceremony. ‘We have some gay couples that attend our church. What happens when they ask us to do their wedding?’ Inserra said. ‘What happens when we say no? Is it going to be treated like a civil rights thing?’…

“Some Christian denominations, such as the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, accept gay marriage. The Episcopal Church recently approved a blessing for same-sex couples, but each bishop must decide whether to allow the ceremony in his or her local diocese. The majority of Christian denominations, however, view homosexual relationships as sinful…”

For the doctrine and teaching of the Church of the Eternal God and its corporate affiliates in matters of marriage and homosexuality, and that marriages which are officiated by ministers of the church are strictly between a “believing” man and a “believing” woman, see our booklet on “Keys to Happy Marriages and Families,” as well as our numerous Q&As, including  https://www.eternalgod.org/qapdf/3683 ; https://www.eternalgod.org/qapdf/13060 and https://www.eternalgod.org/qapdf/771.

Another Ridiculous Court Decision

The Los Angeles Times wrote on August 29:

“A federal appeals court Thursday upheld a state law that prohibits licensed mental health therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation of minors. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel said the never-enforced law does not violate the free speech rights of patients or professionals, or the fundamental rights of parents. The state has the right to prohibit treatment it deems harmful, the court said…

“The California law… subjects licensed professionals to discipline if they try to change a minor’s sexual orientation. California was the first state to ban the therapy, and New Jersey followed this year. ‘The 1st Amendment does not prevent a state from regulating treatment even when that treatment is performed through speech alone,’ the panel concluded.”

The Dark Alliance Between Homosexuals and Pedophiles

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 29:

“In the 1980s, gay rights groups in Germany formed an alliance with pedophiles who advocated the legalization of sex with minors. It’s a dark period few care to talk about now.

“In July 1981, the gay interest magazine ‘Rosa Flieder’ published an interview with Olaf Stüben. Stüben was one of the most infamous pedophiles in Germany at the time. As a writer for the leftist newspaper Die Tageszeitung, he openly advocated for people to accept pedophilia as healthy and moral… in the 1970s and 80s, numerous gay-oriented magazines brazenly promoted sex with children…

“Anyone who searches through archives can find ample evidence of the alliance between gay rights organizations and pedophile activists. If pedophiles got into trouble with the law, they could rely on legal advice from a group called ‘Gay Lawyers’…  there was the remarkable idea that underage boys should not be denied the chance to have sexual experiences with grown men… The gay movement helped pedophiles in entirely practical ways..

“Beginning in the mid-1980s, the gay movement in Germany began to distance itself from pedophiles… The gay rights movement also began to notice how much damage the alliance with pedophiles was causing…”

Rim Fire Reaches California’s Yosemite National Park

BBC wrote on August 26:

“A huge fire in and around California’s Yosemite National Park has continued to spread and now covers almost 230 sq miles (600 sq km), officials say. The Rim Fire is now raining ash on a key reservoir that supplies water and hydro-electric power to San Francisco… The blaze is also threatening thousands of homes and some of California’s renowned giant sequoia trees.

“On Monday officials said the fire was 15% contained after burning for more than a week – up from 2% containment on Friday. Strong winds are making the fires more difficult to control. ‘This fire has continued to pose every challenge that there can be on a fire,’ said Daniel Berlant of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection… The blaze began on 17 August in the Stanislaus National Forest but the cause is still unknown…

“Ash is said to be falling like snow on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies San Francisco with 85% of its water… Two of three hydroelectric power stations serving the city were shut down, forcing the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to spend $600,000 (£385,000) buying power on the open market…

“The Rim Fire is one of 50 major wildfires burning in the western US. Lack of rain and snow have made it a bad year, with 5,700 fires being tackled so far. The Beaver Creek fire in Idaho has destroyed some 45,000 hectares near the ski resort of Sun Valley…”

By Wednesday night, August 28, the flames had scorched over 300 square miles, making it the 6th largest fire in state history. Officials said Wednesday evening that the fire was 30 percent contained.

Egypt Does Not Know the Way to Peace

Newsmax reported on August 16:

“The National Salvation Front, a coalition of pro-democratic and secular parties in Egypt, set out its objections to remarks made by President Barack Obama Thursday on the escalating violence in Egypt. Led by Ahmed Said of the Free Egyptians Party, the group issued the following letter:

“‘Let us first inform you about who the Muslim brothers are: They’re an unlawful organization operating outside the realm of Egyptian law, receiving foreign funding and laundering money in a flagrant breech of international law. Their aim is to rule the world through a so-called Islamic Caliphate as they believe in their absolute supremacy. They pretend they are God’s emissaries and they will not rest until they have forced the whole world into submission. For them, Egypt is the launching pad to achieve their fascist dream. Their international reach spans the globe and they command the hearts and minds of many unsuspecting politicians. They have used deceit, soft speeches, international funds and whenever required, violence,  to impose their will…

“‘The rule of (deposed President Mohammed) Morsi showed how in less than a year they abused the people, reneged on their promises and overturned the rule of law by issuing constitutional diktats monopolizing the judiciary as well as the legislative arms of the state. This was enough to impeach any president in a democratic nation. Unfortunately, Egyptians couldn’t refer to their Supreme Court as it was besieged by thugs for over 60 days back in November of 2012. So finally, Egyptians took to the streets and this century’s second Egyptian ‘peaceful unarmed’ revolution took place in June 2013 to recall the president and reject the rule of the Brotherhood. Egyptians deposed their president not because he was not inclusive, as you so kindly represented, but because he broke his constitutional oath and became another dictator reminiscent of the previous dictator this same great people of Egypt removed in January 2011. This was the will of the people that the West is now trying to bend pretending they are doing so in the name of democracy with no intention of interfering in Egyptian affairs!…

“Since July 3, 2013, the day deposed President Morsi was ousted by popular demand of millions of Egyptians, the Western media and prominent emissaries from the U.S. and Europe have consistently described the sit-ins that paralyzed a large part of Cairo as ‘peaceful demonstrations.’ They chose to ignore what was happening across Egypt from torching churches and killing randomly and destroying private and public properties… Peaceful demonstrators do not attack a police station with RPG and kill the police chief and his deputies, strip them of their clothes and drag their naked bodies down the street. Peaceful demonstrators do not threaten Christians with genocide as many of the Muslim Brotherhood declared in hate speeches from the sit-in stage. Peaceful demonstrators do not raise the black flags of al-Qaida while marching with pictures of bin Laden and al Zawahri on their chests…”

This may all be very true, but still, the military coup with ITS mass murders is equally deplorable. Both sides in Egypt are terribly wrong, and the bloodshed of innocent people is bound to continue. Egypt does not know the way to peace, nor does man in general. Man’s ways do not bring peace. Man will never achieve peace through propaganda, selective news “reporting” and violence, including the possession and use of weapons and the means of strife and war, rebellion, revolution, uprisings, military coups, or the mass murders of opponents. ONLY the return of Jesus Christ will establish true and lasting peace for this sick, violent, war-stricken and deceived world.

Israel Supports Egypt’s Military

On August 19, the New York Times wrote the following:

“The Israeli government is pressing its efforts to convince the United States and the European Union to support the military-backed government in Egypt. The New York Times reported late Sunday that Israeli ambassadors in Washington and the European capitals will lobby foreign ministers, and that Israeli leaders will urge diplomats to see the Israeli viewpoint that the Egyptian military will prevent a further deterioration of the situation in Cairo.

“The newspaper cited an unnamed ‘senior Israeli official involved in the effort.’ ‘If you insist on big principles, then you will miss the essential — the essential being putting Egypt back on track at whatever cost,’ the official told the Times. ‘First, save what you can, and then deal with democracy and freedom and so on. At this point it’s army or anarchy.’

“Israel reportedly has been lobbying American officials hard to sustain the annual $1.5 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt… Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the military coup that ousted Morsi, developed close ties with Israel when he headed Egypt’s military intelligence, according to the Times, and has remained in close contact with Israel throughout the recent violence and bloodshed.”

The Associated Press reported on August 19 that Israel is quietly maintaining close contacts with the Egyptian military, hoping that their rule and fight against Islamists will maintain Israel’s historic 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. As so often during its history, Israel is betting on the wrong horse. Its attempt to buy allies is condemned by God, and the Bible prophecies that Europe and Egypt will become allies to fight against Israel.

Egypt Key Partner to Europe– the Conscience of the World

The EUObserver wrote on August 19:

“The EU’s envoy to north Africa, Bernardino Leon, has said events in Egypt are ‘more complex’ than a simple story of the army killing Muslim protesters… [He said:] ‘There are two sides. There is violence coming from all sides … We have seen attacks on Coptic churches and on public buildings. We’ve been saying very clearly that violence from both sides, from all sides, has to stop.’…

“Leon underlined the importance of Egypt in terms of regional stability. ‘Egypt is a key partner [for the EU], probably the most important partner in the Mediterranean,’ he said… Egypt’s ambassador to the UK, Ashraf ElKholy, told The Telegraph newspaper that: ‘Europe is the conscience of the world.” He added: ‘I think we are beginning to see recognition that the Muslim Brotherhood is involved in the violence from Europe’s governments.'”

It is remarkable that Europe—not the USA—is perceived as being the conscience and therefore the leader of the world. The revelations of the terrible spying activities of the NSA and the witch-hunt like prosecutions of whistleblowers (see below) did little to establish America as having a conscience which others should follow.

Further Egyptian Complications—Mubarak to Be Released…

The New York Times reported on August 19:

“A court in Egypt has ordered that former President Hosni Mubarak, who has been detained on a variety of charges since his ouster in 2011, should be set free [The court acquitted Mubarak on a charge of corruption]…

“The development threatened to inject a volatile new element into the standoff between the country’s military and the Islamist supporters of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi… It was unclear how Egyptians… would respond to the release of a despised autocrat whose downfall united Mr. Mubarak’s secular and Islamist foes. News of the legal maneuvers came at a time of sustained bloodletting.”

The New York Times added on August 21:

“An Egyptian court on Wednesday ordered former President Hosni Mubarak released from prison, saying all appeals by prosecutors to keep him behind bars had been exhausted… The juxtaposition of freedom for Mr. Mubarak while Mr. Morsi remains in custody would dramatically test the level of support for the military-led government among the many anti-Mubarak people who later sided with the decision to depose Mr. Morsi and crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood…

“His ouster, and the disgrace of public trial in courtrooms full of opponents and television cameras, was deeply unpopular among some of Egypt’s allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, which helped put together a $12 billion aid package for Egypt after Mr. Morsi was deposed last month. The money will help offset threats of aid cutoffs from the United States and European countries over the huge numbers of deaths in pro-Morsi protests.”

Obama’s Half-Brother Overseer of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?

WorldNetDaily wrote on August 21 (this article was also posted by the Drudge Report on August 21):

“President Obama’s half-brother in Kenya could cause the White House more headaches over new evidence linking him to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and establishing that controversial IRS supervisor Lois Lerner signed his tax-exempt approval letter.

“Malik Obama’s oversight of the Muslim Brotherhood’s international investments is one reason for the Obama administration’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to an Egyptian report citing the vice president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, Tehani al-Gebali. In a news report on Egyptian television of a Gebali speech… said she would like ‘to inform the American people that their president’s brother Obama is one of the architects of the major investments of the Muslim Brotherhood.’”

Rand Paul Slams Congress

The cable.foreignpolicy.com wrote on August 15:

“Sen. Rand Paul is hammering his fellow senators for keeping billions in financial aid flowing to Egypt’s military — even as Cairo’s security forces massacre anti-government activists. ‘This is something that those who voted in Congress are going to have to live with,’ Paul told The Cable on Thursday. ‘The question is: How does their conscience feel now as they see photographs of tanks rolling over Egyptian civilians?’

“…  the legislation the Kentucky libertarian is referring to was an amendment to suspend aid to Egypt until the country holds free and fair elections. Two weeks ago, Republicans and Democrats rejected it by an overwhelming 86-13 vote — and top lawmakers in both parties protested it loudly… ‘It would be a terrific mistake for the United States to send a message to Egypt: you’re on your own,’ Republican Senator John McCain added back then. ‘I urge my colleagues to vote to table the Paul amendment.’

“The vote has already come back to haunt some lawmakers, such as McCain, who is now advocating a cancellation of aid to Egypt and criticizing White House policies as a ‘colossal failure.’… ‘For those who think more weapons is engaging us with the Egyptian people, ask an Egyptian,’ [Paul] continued.  “When you’re protesting in the streets and you’re run over by an American tank, you’re not going to be appreciative of American engagement.’”

How the Political Tides Turn

Newsmax reported on August 18:

“Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison joined the call to suspend aid to Egypt on Sunday following the crackdown by the military last week that left hundreds dead… ‘I would cut off aid,’ Ellison said… ‘In my mind, there’s no way to say that this was not a coup. It is. We should say so. And then we should follow our own law, which says we cannot fund the coup leaders.’

“Ellison said the administration needs to engage in ‘intense diplomacy’ with Egypt, and Congress needs to ‘suspend aid’ to the country until its leaders establish a set of Democratic protocols and stop the violence. Ellison and Ayottte joined with the call being made by influential Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to end the aid to Egypt… [John] McCain renewed his call on Sunday to stop the aid. ‘For us to sit by and watch this happen is a violation of everything that we stood for,’ said McCain… ‘We’re not sticking with our values.’

“Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said… that U.S. aid to Egypt was more likely to ‘buy a chateau in Paris’ for an Egyptian military leader than ‘bread in Cairo’ for the poor. ‘I don’t think we’re buying any friendship with the Egyptian people,’ Paul said, especially when people see tanks supplied by the U.S. to the Egyptian military on the streets of Cairo….”

Rand Paul was one of the very few senators who asked for the aid to stop right after the military coup in Egypt. Most politicians, INCLUDING John McCain, rejected Paul’s plea and insisted that aid had to continue, and that in clear violation of American law. Now, suddenly, the political tides are turning, and some senators, INCLUDING McCain, advocate to stop the aid, but the question is, what is the underlying and true motivation? No wonder that the Bible says, Don’t put your trust in ANY political leader and ANY of the rulers of this world, but strictly in God. Please view our recent StandingWatch program, “We Told You So—America’s Sickness and Egypt’s Turmoil.”

Lebanon the New Battle Ground?

The Washington Post wrote on August 16:

“Hezbollah’s leader said Friday that he is prepared to go to Syria personally to fight extremist Sunni Muslims whom he blamed for the deadliest bombing in Beirut in at least eight years, an attack that analysts said could herald a new ‘dark era’ of sectarian bombings targeting Lebanese civilians. The car bomb, which killed at least 21 people, was the second in a little more than a month to hit the militant Shiite movement’s staunch support base in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs. But unlike the first, which caused no deaths, the explosives-packed car that detonated Thursday evening outside a shoe store and a pastry shop appeared intended to cause maximum civilian casualties.

“While Lebanon is no stranger to explosions, since the country’s 15-year civil war ended in 1990 they have largely taken the form of targeted assassinations, with the civilian lives lost as tragic collateral. But since Hezbollah has begun sending fighters to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad battle a largely Sunni opposition, the civil war there has taken an increasingly sectarian turn and reprisal attacks on the Shiite movement in Lebanon have multiplied. Analysts cited Thursday’s bombing as evidence that Iraq-style sectarian bombings have now reached Lebanon as Sunni-Shiite divisions widen. ‘This is no longer targeted assassinations of political and militant figures with clear political ends. It’s actually targeting the civilian population,’ said Imad Salamey, an associate professor of political science at Lebanese American University. ‘We are seeing the Iraqization of Lebanon, a spillover from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon. This is massive, a potentially dark era, and God knows how it can be limited.’”

The entire Middle East is a powder keg, ready to explode. Very soon, Europe will intervene militarily to try to restore “peace,” but that attempt is doomed to fail as well.

Iran—A Problem of US Making

The Huffington Post wrote on August 20:

“Sixty years ago this week, on Aug. 19, 1953, the United States, in collaboration with Britain, successfully staged a coup in Iran to overthrow democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh that a newly declassified CIA document reveals was designed to preserve the control of Western companies over Iran’s rich oil fields. The U.S. government at the time of the coup easily had manipulated Western media into denigrating Mossadegh as intemperate, unstable and an otherwise unreliable ally in the Cold War, but the real motivation for hijacking Iran’s history was Mossadegh’s move to nationalize Western-controlled oil assets in Iran…

“Tragically, the coup that overthrew Mossadegh also crushed Iran’s brief experiment in democracy and ushered in six decades of brutal dictatorship followed by religious oppression and regional instability. If Iran is a problem, as the United States persistently and loudly insists, it is a problem of our making…”

Fear of Terror Attacks in Coming Weeks—Israelis Ordered to Avoid Certain Countries or Leave Them

The Times of Israel reported on August 19:

“Israeli and Jewish targets all over the world are likely to be sought out by terrorist organizations in the coming weeks, the Israeli government’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned in strikingly strident tones on Monday, listing dozens of countries where it said it had ‘concrete’ indications of a terrorist threat.

“It cited concerns about terrorist acts timed to coincide with the forthcoming Rosh Hashana (New Year), Yom Kippur and Succot festivals, and also said that the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US was likely to be ‘a favored period’ for al-Qaeda and other global jihadist groups to attempt to carry out acts of terrorism…

“Israelis are barred altogether from travel to Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where the ‘concrete’ terror threat was ‘very high.’ In addition, [the Israeli government] ordered Israelis not to travel to Sudan, Somalia, Algeria, Djibouti, Mauritania, Libya and Tunisia, and to leave these countries immediately if they were there, because of a similarly ‘very high’ terror threat…

“The unusually shrill and widespread alert included an order to Israelis not to travel to the Sinai Peninsula, because of the chaotic situation in Egypt. The Sinai’s Red Sea resorts are a traditionally popular holiday destination for Israelis, especially at this time of year…

“Using only slightly less urgent language, the bureau… ordered Israelis to ‘avoid visiting’ the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Qatar, where it cited what it called a ‘basic’ terrorist threat… The bureau also told Israelis to postpone nonessential visits to Turkey, Oman and Morocco, because of ‘ongoing potential threats.’

“Slightly further afield, it cited ‘very high’ terror threats in Afghanistan, parts of southern Thailand, parts of the southern Philippines, east Senegal, India’s Kashmir province, northern Nigeria, parts of Kenya, and Chechnya. Israel[is] were not to travel to any of those areas, and to leave immediately if they were there, it ordered.

“The advisory also specified a ‘high’ terror threat in Indonesia, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo, Mali, Malaysia and Pakistan, telling Israelis not to go there and urging them to leave as soon as possible if they were there now…”

That terror attacks are feared to strike during the upcoming annual Holy Days of God—the Feast of Trumpets (“Rosh Hashana”), the Days of Atonement (“Yom Kippur”) and the Feast of Tabernacles (“Sukkoth”)—is ample evidence for the fact as to who would be behind such violence—obviously none other than Satan the devil, the god of this world and the prince of darkness, whose declared goal it is to fight against God and everything that He stands for.

Germany’s Sad Leadership in Europe

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 16:

“The option of selecting ‘blank’, in addition to the standard choices of ‘male’ or ‘female’ on birth certificates will become available in Germany from November 1. The legislative change allows parents to opt out of determining their baby’s gender, thereby allowing those born with characteristics of both sexes to choose whether to become male or female in later life. Under the new law, individuals can also opt to remain outside the gender binary altogether.

“Germany is the first country in Europe to introduce this option — Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung is referring to the change as a ‘legal revolution’. It remains unclear, however, how the change will affect gender assignment in other personal documents, such as passports, which still require people to choose between two categories – ‘F’ for female and ‘M’ for male. German family law publication FamRZ has called for the introduction of a third category, designated by the letter ‘X’.

“The law was passed back in May, but has only now been reported on, following an article this month in FamRZ — just six weeks after Australia became the first country in the world to introduce legal guidelines on gender recognition. Under the Australian system, which applies to all personal documents, individuals can select the third category irrespective of whether or not they have undergone sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy…

“Finland is the only EU member state aside from Germany to have made significant progress in the area of third gender recognition. Despite its efforts, bureaucratic hurdles in the Nordic country have meant that there is still no concrete legislative change in sight.”

The Local added on August 16:

“The new law will apply to intersexuals, or hermaphrodites – people born with gender-indeterminate bodies, rather than transsexuals, who are born with a specific sex but feel they are members of the other gender. Brussels-based lawyer Wolf Sieberich told the FamRZ transsexuals should also get the right to determine their own legally recognized gender.

“Marriage law may also have to be altered as a result he said. Currently a marriage in Germany is only allowed between a man and a woman and a legally recognized life partnership is allowed for members of the same gender. Sieberich questioned what that would mean for someone whose gender is not specified.”

This is the opening of a Pandora’s box. Where will it end? Our world is drifting further and further away from God’s standards.

Christie vs. the Bible

Newsmax reported on August 19:

“New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who has opposed same-sex marriage, said that gay people are born that way and it is not a sin.  The statement was released as he signed a bill banning therapy that tries to change a minor’s sexual orientation. Christie said such efforts pose ‘critical health risks including, but not limited to, depression, substance abuse, social withdrawal, decreased self-esteem and suicidal thoughts.’

“Christie, who is seeking re-election for governor in November and appears to be positioning himself to run for president in 2016, has walked a fine line on issues surrounding homosexuality as polls show a majority of Republicans oppose gay marriage amid broader acceptance of the practice… Christie told CNN’s Piers Morgan in 2011 that while he is Catholic and his church believes homosexuality is a sin, he doesn’t share the view…

“New Jersey becomes the second state, after California, to ban gay-conversion therapy. The law… prohibits licensed professional counselors — including psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and social workers — from engaging in practices designed to change the sexual orientation of anyone under age 18.”

Such appalling laws and opinions of high-ranking and influential politicians, which are in total contradiction to the godly revelation of the Holy Bible, help to explain WHY America is in such a terrible mess.

Former Marijuana Enthusiast Barack Obama’s Ongoing War on Medical Marijuana

The Huffington Post wrote on August 20:

“The White House declined to weigh in Tuesday on whether President Barack Obama has changed his position on medical marijuana use after the president’s onetime choice for surgeon general, Sanjay Gupta, reversed his stance and apologized for misleading the public on the drug’s effects.

“During the daily press briefing, CQ-Roll Call reporter Steve Dennis asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest if the administration had any reaction to Gupta’s Aug. 9 column, ‘Why I changed my mind on weed,’ in which Gupta explores the discrepancy between the Drug Enforcement Administration’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug and scientific research demonstrating its benefits. Gupta, who serves as CNN’s chief medical expert, not only apologized for dismissing the evidence from medical marijuana patients, but said he had concluded that marijuana has a low potential for abuse and ‘very legitimate medical applications.’

“Dennis also asked if Obama had personally been looking at the issue, given that national polls show rising support for marijuana legalization since he took office. Earnest ducked the question, responding, ‘I have to confess I did not see the Sanjay Gupta column you’re referring to, so it’s hard for me to comment at this point.’

“The Obama administration has cracked down hard on medical marijuana, even in states that have legalized its use. A recent report found that this administration spent nearly $300 million on medical marijuana intervention through lawsuits, indictments and asset forfeiture attempts by the Justice Department. Over the past few years, the Internal Revenue Service has also targeted medical marijuana dispensaries, forcing many of them to the brink of closure, and largely ignoring the fact that many such businesses were in compliance with state laws.

“But as the White House continues to wage war on pot, public opinion has shifted in the opposite direction. A HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in April found that 51 percent of Americans said marijuana should be ‘legalized, taxed and regulated like alcohol.’ An earlier Pew Research Center survey also found majority support among Americans for marijuana legalization.

“‘It’s baffling that the White House still seems so afraid to embrace this issue, particularly for an administration headed by a former marijuana enthusiast who repeatedly pledged during the 2008 campaign to put a stop to federal raids on state-legal providers,’ Tom Angell, co-founder of the pro-legalization website Marijuana Majority, told The Huffington Post in a statement. ‘Polls show that legalizing marijuana is a mainstream issue and that a super-majority of voters wants the feds to let states implement their own marijuana laws without harassment. There’s almost no one clamoring for a continued federal crackdown, so I can’t imagine why the president hasn’t put a stop to it yet.’

“Obama has previously shown significant confidence in Gupta’s medical expertise: As many observers recalled, the president reportedly offered him the post of surgeon general in 2009. Gupta then withdrew his name from consideration, citing his reluctance to give up his medical practice and be away from his family.”

Bradley Manning Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

The Washington Post wrote on August 21:

“A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks… [The prosecution had asked for 60 years in prison, while the maximum sentence would have been 90 years in prison.] Manning is required to serve one-third of the sentence, minus three and half years of time served, before he is eligible for parole. That will be in eight years when he is 33… Manning was dishonorably discharged. He was also reduced in rank and forfeits all pay…

“The decision was immediately condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system,’ said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project…

“Manning’s lawyers said he had become disillusioned by what he was seeing in Iraq and hoped that the public release of the secret material would prompt greater public understanding of the wars…”

Deutsche Welle added on August 21:

“Activist groups Amnesty International and the Bradley Manning Support Network have announced an online petition asking President Barack Obama to pardon Manning. He has also been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize and a number of other awards.”

The Huffington Post wrote on August 21:

“Yochai Benkler, a Harvard professor who has studied WikiLeaks and testified in Manning’s defense [said:] ‘Basically the decision has done more damage to the American Constitutional order than all of the disclosures put together did to any other kind of American interest.’…

“‘Bradley Manning acted on the belief that he could spark a meaningful public debate on the costs of war, and specifically on the conduct of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International, said in a statement. ‘The US government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror.’

“The sentencing phase of Manning’s trial revealed that contrary to the claims of pundits and politicians, Manning had no blood on his hands —  the Departments of Defense and State were unable to tie his releases to the deaths of any U.S. informants… [The judge] acquitted Manning of aiding the enemy but gave little explanation as to why…

“UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez found after a 14-month investigation that Manning’s treatment at Quantico was cruel, inhuman, and degrading. [The Judge] said the conditions had been ‘excessive’ in relation to the government’s legitimate interest in holding Manning. She granted the soldier an additional 112 days credit for enduring those conditions, which will also be applied to shorten his sentence…

“Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel and advocate in Human Rights Watch’s U.S. Program, told HuffPost that the massive investigation involving hundreds of State and Defense Department employees into Manning’s leaks stood in stark contrast to the government’s unwillingness to prosecute those involved in torture and abuse at places like Abu Ghraib. ‘It’s hard to look at the aggressive prosecution of someone so young, who is clearly troubled, and probably did have a fair bit of concern about the public interest … and compare that to people who authorized a regime of torture and abuse and will remain free,’ Prasow said.”

The Incredible Scope of US Government Spying Activities on Its Citizens

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 16:

“Spy on US citizens? We don’t do that, the American government claimed. But new NSA documents published by the Washington Post show that the intelligence service violates the law in thousands of instances. Analysts with the agency are free to pick targets as they choose. With each new publication of documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the scope of the United States’ spying system becomes ever clearer. And each piece of the puzzle reveals yet more lies and half-truths that those who are supposed to be providing oversight for the NSA have used to defend the practices…”

CNet added on August 16:

“The National Security Agency exceeded its legal authority and broke agency rules thousands of times since it was granted broader powers in 2008… Most violations involved unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the U.S…. infractions ranging from serious legal violations to typographical errors that resulted in unintended data collection…”

America’s reputation as a country of freedom and liberty is suffering tremendously because of the appalling revelations of improper spying conduct and the government’s disproportionate prosecution of whistleblowers, while refusing to prosecute those guilty of torture and abuse.

Britain’s Newest Scandal

The Huffington Post wrote on August 20:

“British prime minister David Cameron was placed at the center of the controversy surrounding his government’s actions towards the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, as it was revealed that he was informed about the imminent detention of David Miranda… and that he approved the decision to try to force the paper to hand over materials given to it by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

“Downing Street told the media that Cameron was personally ‘kept abreast in the usual way’ about Miranda’s detention at Heathrow airport. Miranda, who was traveling from Berlin to Brazil, was held for nine hours and quizzed aggressively about Greenwald’s work. His electronic equipment was confiscated. On Tuesday, lawyers for Miranda said they were set to take legal action against the British government over the detention.”

Reuters wrote on August 21:

“Two of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s most senior aides pressed the Guardian newspaper to hand over or destroy intelligence secrets leaked by Edward Snowden, political sources said on Wednesday. News that Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood and National Security Adviser Kim Darroch were involved drags Cameron into a storm over Britain’s response to coverage of leaks from the fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor – a response that left even its U.S. ally talking of the importance of media freedom.”

The Guardian wrote on August 20:

“The Metropolitan police had no legal basis to detain David Miranda under the Terrorism Act 2000, Tony Blair’s former lord chancellor has claimed. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, who helped introduce the bill in the House of Lords, said that the act makes clear that police can only detain someone to assess whether they are involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism… The peer, who served as solicitor general from 1997-98 and as lord chancellor from 2003-07, was highly critical of the home secretary, Theresa May, who praised the police action at Heathrow on the grounds that the partner of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald possessed sensitive documents which could help terrorists and ‘lead to a loss of lives’. May also said that police had acted within the law…”

In an accompanying article of August 20, the Guardian wrote:

“Two great forces are now in fierce but unresolved contention. The material revealed by Edward Snowden through the Guardian and the Washington Post… indicates not just that the modern state is gathering, storing and processing for its own ends electronic communication from around the world; far more serious, it reveals that this power has so corrupted those wielding it as to put them beyond effective democratic control. It was not the scope of NSA surveillance that led to Snowden’s defection. It was hearing his boss lie to Congress about it for hours on end…

“But it remains worrying that many otherwise liberal-minded Britons seem reluctant to take seriously the abuses revealed in the nature and growth of state surveillance. The arrogance of this abuse is now widespread…

“I hesitate to draw parallels with history, but I wonder how those now running the surveillance state – and their appeasers – would have behaved under the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. We hear today so many phrases we have heard before. The innocent have nothing to fear. Our critics merely comfort the enemy. You cannot be too safe. Loyalty is all. As one official said in wielding his legal stick over the Guardian: ‘You have had your debate. There’s no need to write any more.’”

Germany Condemns British Action

The Local wrote on August 21:

“Markus Löning, the human rights chief at Germany’s foreign ministry, said on Wednesday the British government had crossed ‘the red line’ and had their actions… left him ‘truly appalled’. He expressed ‘great concern’ about media freedom in Britain after the Guardian said it was forced to destroy files linked to US surveillance practices or face a court battle.

“Löning also slammed the detention and questioning at a London airport on Sunday of the partner of US journalist Glenn Greenwald who has written extensively about Snowden’s revelations for the Guardian. ‘The United Kingdom has a long and proud tradition of freedom but the way the authorities detained David Miranda at Heathrow airport I see as unacceptable,’ he told the newspaper Berliner Zeitung. ‘That took place on the basis of an anti-terror law but I cannot see any connection to terrorism…’

“The detention of Miranda and treatment of the Guardian by the British government has also been met with horror by the German press with newspapers running editorials expressing their dismay at the action. And Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of Germany’s biggest opposition party, the SPD, said that the European Union could intervene. He told newspaper Kölner Stadt Anzeiger that Britain should think about the consequences of its action… Gabriel added: ‘Eroding freedom and fundamental rights under the guise of fighting terrorism can’t be allowed to happen in Europe.’”

Der Spiegel Online commented on August 20:

“The abuses against The Guardian prove that the British government has lost all restraint in its fight against terrorism… It’s astonishing to see how many Britons blindly and uncritically trust the work of their intelligence service.”

Indeed, Ephraim—partially describing the modern UK—is like a cake unturned and a silly dove, without sense… and it does not even know it (Hosea 7:8-11).

Pope Benedict Explains Why He Resigned

The Guardian wrote on August 21:

“The former pope Benedict has claimed that his resignation in February was prompted by God, who told him to do it during a ‘mystical experience’. Breaking his silence for the first time since he became the first pope to step down in 600 years, the 86-year-old reportedly said: ‘God told me to’ when asked what had pushed him to retire to a secluded residence in the Vatican gardens.

“Benedict denied he had been visited by an apparition or had heard God’s voice, but said he had undergone a ‘mystical experience’ during which God had inspired in him an ‘absolute desire’ to dedicate his life to prayer rather than push on as pope… Benedict said his mystical experience had lasted months, building his desire to create a direct and exclusive relationship with God. Now, after witnessing the ‘charisma’ of his successor, Pope Francis, Benedict said he understood to a greater extent how his stepping aside was the ‘will of God’.

“Benedict’s reported remarks contrast with the explanation he gave to cardinals when he announced his resignation on 11 February. ‘My strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,’ he said then… Speculation also grew that he was depressed after his trusted butler, Paolo Gabriele, was caught leaking his personal correspondence. Italian press reports have recently claimed he was frustrated by a network of influence built up at the Vatican by a pro-gay lobby of prelates.”

Radioactive Water Leaks at Nuclear Plant in Fukushima

AFP wrote on August 21:

“Japan’s nuclear regulator on Wednesday upgraded its evaluation of a radioactive water leak at the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima to a level three ‘serious incident.’ The assessment, on an international scale of zero to seven with seven being the worst, came after operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said some 300 tonnes of radioactive water was believed to have leaked from a tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the worst such leak since the crisis began.”

BBC News added to explain:

“Events are classified at seven levels: Levels 1-3 are ‘incidents’ and Levels 4-7 ‘accidents’. In order, the levels are classified as: anomaly; incident; serious incident; accident with local consequences; accident with wider consequences; serious accident; major accident. To date, two incidents have been classified as level 7 – Chernobyl and Fukushima. The severity of an event is about 10 times greater for each increase in level on the scale.”

Terrible Flooding in China, Russia and the Philippines

Deutsche Welle reported on August 19:

“Flooding is continuing to cause death and destruction in parts of China, Russia and the Philippines. Thousands of people have been forced to flee or have been evacuated by rescue workers. More than 70 people have been killed and 100 others are missing after China was hit by the worst flooding in more than a decade, the government said on Monday. The Ministry of Civil Affairs reported that around 360,000 people had been evacuated over the weekend.

“In the far east of Russia, more than 17,000 people have been evacuated and the authorities have declared a state of disaster in the hardest-hit regions of Amur and Khabarovsk… In the Philippines, torrential rains brought the capital, Manila, to a standstill on Monday, with flooding forcing schools, offices and the stock exchange to close.”

Dolphins Die in Alarming Numbers

The website of npr wrote on August 17:

“Dead dolphins have been washing up in alarming numbers on mid-Atlantic beaches since July as scientists struggle to find a cause for the largest such die-off in a quarter-century. More than 160 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have turned up dead from New York to Virginia, says Charley Potter, a marine mammal collection manager…

“While no definitive cause for the dolphin deaths has been determined, Potter says one possibility is the morbillivirus, a member of the same family of virus that causes measles and canine distemper. Morbillivirus was pinpointed as a cause in a 1987 dolphin die-off that killed some 2,500 animals… Scientists must now determine ‘whether or not the [morbillivirus] infection is something that’s always been there and that we’re picking it up because of increased surveillance, or in fact it’s the smoking gun,’ he says…”

America’s and Europe’s Serious “Concerns” About Israel

On August 12, dpa wrote the following:

“The United States on Monday said it has ‘serious concerns’ about Israel’s approval of more than 1,000 new homes in Palestinian areas ahead of the launch of new peace negotiations. ‘We do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity,’ State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.”

Netanyahu Challenges Europe

The Times of Israel wrote on August 12:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the European Union’s new anti-settlement directives Monday in a meeting with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was on an official visit to Israel…. ‘I have to say, on a sad note, that I think Europe — the European guidelines by the EU — have actually undermined peace.’…

“The day before, President Shimon Peres met with the German foreign minister and called on the EU to halt the implementation of the measures, saying that when the future borders are determined between Israel and a Palestinian state, the issue of settlements will be solved… Earlier Sunday, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said the borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state will be determined by the two sides, and not by the European Union.”

Israel Facing Total Isolation

Bloomberg wrote on August 12:

“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace mission to the Middle East is semi-quixotic, if not wholly quixotic. I doubt he’ll reach his goal of negotiating a final-status agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The two sides haven’t even agreed yet to the topics they’ll discuss in negotiations…

“There are some early signs that Netanyahu is realizing the price his country may one day pay for its settlements, in particular those near Palestinian population centers. He met recently with some of Israel’s leading manufacturers, who expressed their worry that their products may one day be boycotted in Europe, a worry he shares. Kerry, capitalizing on this anxiety, has warned Netanyahu in recent weeks that if the current peace talks bear no fruit, Israel may soon be facing an international delegitimization campaign — in his words – ‘on steroids’…

“Kerry thinks the one thing Netanyahu fears as much as Iran’s nuclear program is the growing power of the international movement that seeks to isolate, scapegoat and demonize his country…

“Although Netanyahu is worried that the campaign to make Israel appear to be an illegitimate state could hurt the country’s robust economy, he is said to be even more worried that this campaign will erode Israel’s ability to defend itself. The theory is simple: A country seen as illegitimate, not only by the powerful Arab lobby at the United Nations but also by Western powers, will have little standing if it is forced to retaliate against sustained attacks from groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which remain committed to Israel’s extermination. Netanyahu thinks that the campaign to delegitimize Israel could force Western powers to rein in Israel, or at the very least, rush to condemn it before it has the chance to defend itself.

“Netanyahu’s two fears are related. Israel will find it increasingly difficult to one day act against the Iranian nuclear program if it is hobbled by the hostility of the international community…

“So, when the European Union recently issued guidelines that will restrict its members from (among other things) funding research conducted on the far side of Israel’s 1967 borders, these politicians decided, in their wisdom, that Israel should engage in a partial boycott of the EU. They’re demanding that Israel withdraw from a lucrative EU-sponsored research-funding program to protest the settlement exclusion guidelines.

“Netanyahu also finds the new EU guidelines reprehensible (and they are, in fact, highly problematic, potentially placing settlers in the far-flung Jewish colonies of the West Bank in the same category as Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City). But he understands that he can’t win a fight with the entire EU if it decides to enact a partial boycott of his country… Threats directed at Israel from Europe, the continent whose cruelty and hatred helped create a need for a Jewish national refuge in the first place, may… bolster Israel’s far-right…”

Israel will end up in total isolation. The USA or the UK won’t be able to help it, and continental Europe will ultimately invade the country, as the Bible clearly predicts.

Glenn Beck and the Lost Tribes of Israel

In a recent TV program, widely-known moderator Glenn Beck stated his belief that the United States of America and Great Britain are among the descendants of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel. A pertinent portion of the program can be watched on YouTube. A longer version can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVkKFcl3fOU . In the program, Beck also pointed out that the ancient Assyrians settled in Western Europe, including Germany.

Glenn Beck is right on these points. For more information, please read our free booklets, Germany in Prophecy; Europe in Prophecy; and the Fall and Rise of Britain and America.

Iran’s True Intensions

The Washington Times wrote on August 13:

“Newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has picked his defense minister [Hossein Dehghan. In 1982], after Israel invaded Lebanon, sparking a decade-long civil war, Mr. Dehghan was sent to Lebanon to help establish a military wing for Hezb’Allah, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite political movement.

“The following year he was appointed the commander of IGRC forces in Lebanon. Shortly afterwards, the IGRC received orders from Tehran to attack multinational peacekeeping forces in Beirut. On October 25, 1983, a Shi’ite suicide attacker detonated a truck bomb at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241; simultaneously, another suicide bomber blew up the French paratroopers’ barracks in Beirut, killing 58 soldiers… The order to carry out the attacks was transmitted, and the funding and operational training provided, with the help of the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon under the command of Hossein Dehghan…”

Turmoil in Egypt… Again

The Associated Press reported on August 14:

“In Egypt’s bloodiest day since the Arab Spring began, riot police Wednesday smashed two protest camps of supporters of the deposed Islamist president, touching off street violence that officials said killed nearly 300 people and forced the military-backed interim leaders to impose a state of emergency and curfew.

“The crackdown drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West… and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei resigned as the interim vice president in protest – a blow to the new leadership’s credibility with the pro-reform movement.”

Der Spiegel Online added on August 14:

“Horribly battered corpses lie in the streets, and there are more than 1,000 injured. The government sought to bring calm to Cairo by clearing the Morsi camps, but now the entire country is under a state of emergency. Residents fear a ‘war between two Egypts.’”

We warned that this would happen. Please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.”  

Irreconcilable Differences

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on August 15:

“The three most important institutions that ensured the country’s cohesion and stayed out of politics — the military, the Islamic Al Azhar University and the Coptic Church — were parties in the putsch this time. Morsi’s supporters are now disputing their integrity and view these institutions as political enemies. The basis for possible consensus in Egypt has collapsed.”

Handelsblatt wrote on August 15:

“The bloodbath on the Nile … is a scandal. A scandal for the country, but also a scandal for international diplomacy… But warnings or expressions of concern are insufficient because what is beginning in Egypt is a serious drama — a vicious cycle of lasting violence.”

Even though news commentators are saying now that nobody could have foreseen these recent developments, we did warn from the outset that this would happen. Please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.” 

America’s Failed Diplomacy

The Christian Science Monitor wrote on August 14:

“Since the military coup that ousted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi from the Egyptian presidency on July 3, the Obama administration has bent over backwards not to call it a ‘coup.’ The reasoning behind this decision was that Egypt’s military is the most powerful force in the country and that alienating and punishing them for their action would both undercut US influence and create the conditions for a broad military crackdown…

“So while principled talk about ‘democracy’ and getting militaries out of politics is one thing, the world of realpolitik is something else. While emissaries from Obama danced around the ‘coup’ question, the US government refused to announce a cut off in the Egyptian military’s $1.3 billion annual subsidy, and continually urged restraint and reconciliation. These decisions led to odd rhetorical constructions from the US government, as when State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki was pressed last week on whether the Obama administration thought Egypt’s military had carried out a coup. ‘We have determined that we do not need to make a determination,’ she said.

“Today, the military… delivered the military’s own determination: We’re going ahead and doing it our way. This morning Obama White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said that the US is opposed to the state of emergency declared by Egypt’s military, which gives it sweeping powers, much as a state of emergency after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 formed the backbone of the military-backed Mubarak dictatorship that prevailed until 2011. Mr. Earnest said the US believes today’s actions will make achieving ‘stability’ more difficult. He also said that the US is not ready to determine whether Egypt has had a military coup. He said Egypt’s interim rulers have promised a swift creation of a democracy and ‘it’s a promise we’re going to encourage them to keep’…

“A cycle of violence, with the military calling the shots, is all but assured for the foreseeable future. Elections, let alone free and fair ones, this year? Not likely to happen. Forming a national consensus on a revised constitution any time soon? Also hard to imagine…

“It’s a truism that you can’t please everybody. But in the case of Egypt, the US has pleased precisely no one. And the Arab world’s most populous country is heading into a period of turmoil likely to dwarf the troubles of the past few years.”

The New York Times added on August 14:

“Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday condemned the Egyptian military’s crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters… Mr. Kerry, who was speaking on behalf of a vacationing President Obama, did not disclose any specific American response to the crackdown and left without taking questions from reporters. For Mr. Obama, who was wrapping up a round of golf on Martha’s Vineyard as Mr. Kerry stepped before the cameras, the upheaval in Egypt put him in an awkward but familiar place: on vacation, confronting a wave of bloodshed in the Middle East…

“A spokesman, Josh Earnest, said Mr. Obama had been briefed Wednesday morning on the situation… He said, however, that the administration did not plan to shift its policy, which is to keep open lines of communication to Egypt’s generals and maintain the flow of American military aid. Mr. Earnest declined to label the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi a coup, a designation that could prompt a cutoff of $1.5 billion a year in aid…

“The United States has walked a fine line in dealing with the Egyptian military… ‘The outcome of the current Egyptian crisis will determine how America is seen in the Muslim world for years,’ said Bruce O. Riedel, a former intelligence officer and adviser to the administration who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. ‘If it looks like the U.S. effectively colluded in a counterrevolution, then all the talk about democracy and Islam, about a new American relationship with the Islamic world, will be judged to have been the height of hypocrisy,’ Mr. Riedel said. However horrifying the images from Cairo, analysts said, the president faces the same conundrum he has had since early 2011, when President Hosni Mubarak was forced out in a mass uprising: the United States, even with its aid, has little leverage over events there…”

In other words, who cares what America says and does…? And America’s ill-conceived actions and lack thereof make matters only worse…

America’s Middle East Policy—a Lot of Empty Words

The Washington Post wrote on August 15:

“Put it this way: President Obama’s Egypt policy is about as effective as his Syria policy. And for the first time Wednesday, with the number of dead and injured mounting, one could almost envision Egypt’s descent into out-and-out civil war.

“Obama was briefed, said nothing and went back to golf. Secretary of State John Kerry took a break from his fruitless obsession with the nonexistent ‘peace process’ to condemn the violence, but took no questions and had no policy announcement. This, in a nutshell, is the White House’s approach to the Middle East — the absence of any policy and a lot of empty words.

“Sam Tadros, a Egyptian expert at the Hudson Institute who is also affiliated with the Hoover Institution, is not optimistic… The question now is what can be done and what role the United States should play. Tadros is blunt: ‘As to outside powers, I am afraid it is too late now…’

“In a sense, then, Obama might as well play golf. He’s dropped the ball on Egypt and the entire region, leaving the United States with few options and the Egyptian people to a bloody future in the short run and a repressive authoritarian junta in the longer run. This is a policy failure of the highest order.

“Isolationists on the right and left argue that the United States has no interest in places like Egypt. But without U.S. leadership, what follows in places such as Egypt and Syria is a humanitarian and geopolitical nightmare that doesn’t stay within one country’s borders. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah must be gleeful to see the United States so weakened and insignificant.”

It would not be fair to just blame the military for the violence. The Muslim Brotherhood is clearly provoking and committing violence as well, as they did from the outset. Both sides are to blame. Of course, in this world of Satanic violence and a total lack of worship of the TRUE and ONLY God, there are NO solutions. It will take the return of Jesus Christ to bring peace and end the violence.

On a “Working Vacation…”

NBC News reported on August 15:

“President Barack Obama strongly condemned  Egypt’s interim government Thursday, saying the United States was canceling a planned joint military operation in protest over violent clashes that left at least 525 dead.

“He also called on Egypt’s army-backed interim government, which took power after the July 3 ouster of elected president Mohammed Morsi, to cancel the month-long state of emergency it imposed after Wednesday’s bloodshed. ‘The cycle of violence needs to stop,’ he said in Martha’s Vineyard where he is on a working vacation.”

On August 15, the Huffington Post reported Obama’s condemnation with the following headline:

“’We strongly condemn attacks’… that we are paying for.”

Der Spiegel Attacks Obama

The Local wrote on August 15:

“The German government summoned the Egyptian ambassador on Thursday morning over the deadly crackdown on protest camps of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi…. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said: ‘On the orders of Foreign Minister [Guido] Westerwelle, the ambassador was told the position of the German government in no uncertain terms.’… In the face of rising violence, magazine Der Spiegel attacked Barack Obama accusing him of being ‘powerless’ to stop the fighting and failing to take a clear position on the conflict. The US government provides $1.3 billion in annual aid to Egypt’s military.”

Obama Administration Complicit in Egypt’s Bloodshed

The Editorial Board of the Washington Post wrote on August 14:

“Before the July 3 coup in Egypt, the Obama administration privately warned the armed forces against ousting the government of Mohamed Morsi, pointing to U.S. legislation that requires the cutoff of aid to any country where the army plays a ‘decisive role’ in removing an elected government. Yet when the generals ignored the U.S. warnings, the White House responded by electing to disregard the law itself. After a prolonged and embarrassing delay, the State Department announced that it had chosen not to determine whether a coup had taken place, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry declared that Egypt’s military was ‘restoring democracy.’

“Because of those decisions, the Obama administration is complicit in the new and horrifyingly bloody crackdown… The military’s disregard for these appeals [by the Obama Administration] was logical and predictable: Washington had already demonstrated that its warnings were not credible…

“This refusal to take a firm stand… is as self-defeating for the United States as it is unconscionable. Continued U.S. support for the Egyptian military is helping to push the country toward a new dictatorship rather than a restored democracy…”

Relationship between USA and Russia Deteriorating Further

BBC News wrote on August 8:

“Several analysts in Russian newspapers see the decision by US President Barack Obama to cancel his visit to Moscow next month as a sign that ties between the White House and the Kremlin are set to deteriorate further. Some say that Russia’s decision to grant temporary asylum to the fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden is the reason for the crisis in bilateral relations. Others, however, point to stalled negotiations on nuclear arms reduction and the lack of progress on other important issues for the past several years. According to one commentator, problems between Washington and Moscow have now become ‘strategic and long-term’, while another writes that the US has ‘struck Russia off its priority list’’’.

The paper then quoted the following excerpts from several Russian commentaries:

“After President Obama publicly said that the issue of Snowden’s extradition was extremely important and fundamental, it became impossible to reduce the scale of this problem between Russia and the USA. Figuratively speaking, the head of the White House has climbed up a high fence from which he can no longer jump down… The meeting (with Russian President Vladimir Putin) would have been meaningless anyway, as no progress has been achieved on any issue (in bilateral relations)… Even in 2008, during the war with Georgia, there were problems in (US-Russian) relations. Now these problems have become strategic and of a long-term character…”

Lavabit Website Shuts Down—Is the Handwriting on the Wall—and Has America Been Found Wanting…?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 9:

“The latest casualty of the American government’s online surveillance program seems to be Lavabit, the email service supposedly used by Edward Snowden to protect himself against National Security Agency (NSA) snooping. In a dramatic letter posted on Lavabit’s website Thursday, Ladar Levison, the company’s owner and operator, announced that he had decided to shutter the site rather than become ‘complicit in crimes against the American people.’

“Although it didn’t include any mention of the NSA, Edward Snowden or government surveillance, the letter seems to refer to a court order asking for cooperation in the US government spy programs: ‘I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on — the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.’…

“At Wired, Kevin Poulsen speculated that Levison had been served with either a National Security Letter (which comes with a gag order) or a ‘full-blown search or eavesdropping warrant.’ If this is the case, it marks the first time that an American company has chosen to shut down instead of cooperating with such a request from the American government. In the wake of Lavabit’s announcement, another American online company, Silent Circle, shut down its encrypted email service because, according to a blog post, it sees ‘the writing on the wall.’…

“Levison announced in his letter that he is ‘preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ — he has created a Legal Defense Fund for this purpose — and that, if possible, he will re-form his service as an American company. But he ends his letter on a grim note that would likely have sounded paranoid a few months ago: ‘I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.’”

If all of this is correct, then we must ask whether we are facing the danger of dictatorial intimidating dictatorship in the United States… We have warned for years that our individual liberties and freedoms are gradually being eroded and chopped away….

The Media Abrogated Their Duty

The Huffington Post wrote on August 13:

“The New York Times secured an interview with Edward Snowden for the first time since he ousted himself as the leaker of NSA documents in June. The brief Q-and-A appeared Tuesday alongside a lengthy profile of Laura Poitras, the filmmaker who, along with Glenn Greenwald, has been the journalist most at the center of the Snowden saga. Both pieces were written by reporter Peter Maas.

“In one portion of the interview, Snowden talked about why he turned to Poitras and Greenwald, instead of the Times or the Washington Post: ‘After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism. From a business perspective, this was the obvious strategy, but what benefited the institutions ended up costing the public dearly. The major outlets are still only beginning to recover from this cold period.’”

This assessment seems to be absolutely correct.

President Obama’s Attempts to Deal with Fallout from US Spying Activities “Destined to Fail”

Business Insider wrote on August 13:

“In the wake of seemingly endless leaks from ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, President Obama’s attempt to manage the political fallout seems destined to fail. On Friday, Obama announced that he would form a ‘high-level group of outside experts’ to review intelligence and communications technologies. This group, Obama said, would be ‘independent’ — able to step back freely — to review surveillance technologies and ‘consider how we can maintain trust of the people.’

“It only took the weekend for much of any trust in that group to fade. On Monday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed that yes, the review group would happen. He also confirmed that, yes, he would be establishing it. This is the same James Clapper who gave false information to Congress when asked whether the NSA was collecting data on Americans. He later apologized.

“Perhaps most interesting in Clapper’s statement on Monday is the absence of wording used on Friday: independent, and outside. In an expanded statement, the White House said the group would present their interim findings to his office, and the final report would go ‘through the Director of National Intelligence.’ ‘In practice — not theory — Clapper gets to chop the draft of the interim and final reports, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence would — again, in practice — assist in selecting the members of the review group,’ Robert Caruso, a former assistant command security manager in the Navy and consultant, said in an email.

“This arrangement is sure to arouse suspicions, with many Americans showing distrust after leaks of previously unknown spying programs. Even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a veteran politician and national security hawk, admitted as much to Fox News Sunday… ‘Young Americans do not trust this government,’ McCain said…”

There can be no doubt that due to the American government’s questionable and controversial conduct, trust of many American citizens in their government has been eroded and destroyed… And without trusted and trustworthy leadership, a country is doomed to fall…

Germany Spying and Being Spied On…

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 12:

“German intelligence services cooperate closely with the NSA, but the country is also a target of US surveillance, as a document seen by SPIEGEL makes clear. The spy software XKeyscore is operated from a facility in Hesse, with some of the results landing on President Obama’s desk… Lawmakers in the German parliament, the Bundestag, have… expressed an interest in the group of buildings near Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt. The campus houses one of the most important European branches of the National Security Agency (NSA)…

“Germany is a special place for the NSA, in many respects. Few other countries are the source of as much data for US intelligence agencies, much of which comes from the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. At the same time Germany itself, despite all friendly assurances to the contrary, is also a target of the surveillance. According to a ‘secret’ summary among the documents obtained by Snowden, which SPIEGEL was able to view, Germany is one of the targets of US espionage activity… the European Union is also one of the targets of American surveillance… Only the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand — referred to as the ‘five eyes,’ together with the United States — are seen as true friends, largely off-limits in terms of espionage, and with which there is an open exchange of information…

“More than six weeks after the scandal began, the German government is still waiting for answers on what exactly the NSA is doing in — and against – Germany… The Americans are hardly likely to admit to the German government what exactly the group in Griesheim is doing and whether the Americans there also have targets in Germany under surveillance. Former NSA Director Michael Hayden told SPIEGEL that ‘the damage for the German-American relationship is huge.’…”

Der Spiegel Online added on August 13:

“Chancellery chief Ronald Pofalla’s appearance before a parliamentary committee on Monday was supposed to pacify public misgivings in the wake of the NSA spying scandal. But his announcement of a German-American no-spying agreement raised far more questions than it answered… The core of Pofalla’s message was simple: The American intelligence agency and its British counterpart adhere to German law and have agreed in writing to do so. Pofalla went on to say that the rights of millions of Germans have not been violated, ostensibly in response to recent criticism by the opposition Social Democrats. The data that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, has handed over to America’s National Security Agency pertained to reconnaissance abroad and not to German citizens, he assured the panel.

“It was a peculiar sort of political spectacle… Pofalla painted a picture of a harmonious world of German-American intelligence cooperation. And it’s this collaboration, he said, that has prevented terrorist attacks on German and US soldiers in Afghanistan…

“The BND and the NSA have agreed on pursuing a brand-new ‘no-spy pact.’… Yet the establishment of such a no-spying agreement implies that espionage has been allowed up to now, an unwitting confirmation of the information in the documents leaked by Snowden… The no-spying agreement isn’t likely to make the NSA scandal disappear. On the contrary, Berlin will be faced with new questions: What should comprise such a pact? Will it only pertain to the work of foreign intelligence agencies? Or will it address the interests of citizens whose Internet data flow through American servers and can potentially be captured and cached? None of this has been definitively answered, all written assurances to the contrary.

“Pofalla obviously anticipated what new questions might be raised by the envisaged agreement. It was he who carefully said that the US agency would not have made the offer, ‘if their assurance that they would abide by the law were not true.’ This is twisted logic — logic that only Pofalla himself could explain. But an explanation never came. Just like at his last appearance before the committee, the Chancellery chief declined to take any questions. After Item 15, Pofalla exited without a word.”

Pofalla acted as proverbial politicians would act. But it appears that Germany has played a very dubious and hypocritical role in the spying activities. It will have to be seen whether Angela Merkel’s political survival and her victory in the September election are in jeopardy. Until recently, most were convinced that Merkel would win, but the recent revelations could perhaps change all of this. However, it does not appear that her challenger, Peer Steinbrueck, is a very convincing alternative to many Germans, and the fact that his own party had a finger (if not both hands) in the spying pie does not help him either.

Britain and Spain Battle Over Gibraltar

Deutsche Welle reported on August 12:

“Britain is considering taking legal action against Spain over stringent border checks imposed at the border with Gibraltar. It is the latest in an escalating row between the two countries and the disputed territory. Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman said on Monday that tighter checks by Spanish officials at the border of the contested territory are ‘politically motivated and totally disproportionate.’… Also on Monday, several British warships set sail for the Mediterranean in what the defense ministry stresses was a routine exercise. However, one of the ships is set to dock in Gibraltar later this week.

“Last week Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said the country would consider introducing a 50 euro ($66) tax to enter or leave Gibraltar… It is the latest in a string of spats going back decades between Spain and Britain over Gibraltar, the territory known as ‘The Rock’. The diplomatic disputes are frequently sparked by disagreements over fishing rights around the British outpost, which Madrid wants to reclaim as its own.

“Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht but has long argued that it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty. Britain refuses to do so against the wishes of the territory’s residents. In 1969, Spain closed the frontier crossing with Gibraltar, which is just 6.8 square kilometers in size (2.6 square miles) and home to about 30,000 people. It was fully reopened only in 1985.”

Der Spiegel Online added on August 12:

“Britain is dispatching warships to Gibraltar. The frigate HMS Westminister is due to set sail on Tuesday and three other vessels left on Monday. The British government played down the move as being part of a long-planned military exercise. But Spanish media said the plan for HMS Westminster to stop at Gibraltar was an intimidating move by Britain…

“Madrid argues that Gibraltar doesn’t belong to Europe’s Schengen zone of passport-free travel and that the checks are a legal and proportionate step to prevent money laundering and smuggling of tobacco and other products from Gibraltar… Spain’s El Pais newspaper reported that Madrid is also seeking support from current UN Security Council president Argentina in its dispute with Britain. Both countries have similar complaints about Britain, with government officials in Buenos Aires currently seeking to reclaim the British-controlled Falkland Islands.”

The Washington Times added on August 13:

“Gibraltar, the 2.5-square mile tip of the Iberian Peninsula that juts into the narrow strait between Spain and North Africa, guards the gateway to the Mediterranean.”

The Chicago Tribune wrote on August 12:

“HMS Westminster, a British Royal Navy warship set sail for the territory on Monday as part of an annual Mediterranean military exercise… It evoked the 16th century naval rivalry between the two countries in which the English repelled an attempt by the Spanish Armada to try to invade England in 1588 and the Spanish defeated an English ‘Counter Armada’ the following year.”

The Bible indicates that ultimately, Britain will lose Gibraltar (to Spain) and the Falkland Islands (to Argentina). God said that Britain will be given the “doors of their enemies,” but it would later lose them again. Gibraltar is most certainly such a door—a “narrow strait between Spain and North Africa, guard[ing] the gateway to the Mediterranean,” as one of the articles above points out.

European Recession Likely Over

The Associated Press reported on August 13:

“The recession that’s gripped the eurozone since late 2011 is likely over… economic growth among the 17 countries that use the euro inched up 0.2 percent from April to June compared with the previous quarter.  The increase is slight. But it would end six straight quarters of a debilitating recession — the longest to afflict the single-currency bloc since its creation in 1999.  And it would represent an encouraging sign for other economies… as the eurozone is the world’s biggest trading bloc…

“The strongest economy, Germany, is expected to post quarterly growth of 0.6 percent, thanks to its high-value exporters. Others continue to languish under the burden of austerity policies… ‘While welcome news, much of the return to growth is likely to be driven from Germany, which is likely to be cold comfort to countries like Spain, Italy and Greece buckling under crippling levels of debt and unemployment,’ said Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets.

“Few economists think the indebted countries can start producing German-style levels of growth in the coming years. Burdens from expensive public financing and unemployment will likely continue to weigh on their economies.  Yet for many people, even a mild improvement is cause to celebrate, however tentatively, and a suggestion that the darkest days are in the past.”

The Bible shows that continental Europe will recuperate and become the most powerful economic enterprise in the world.

Near Death-Experiences Just Function of the Brain?

The Washington Post wrote on August 12:

“You feel yourself float up and out of your physical body. You glide toward the entrance of a tunnel, and a searing bright light envelopes your field of vision. Rather than an ascent into the afterlife, a new study says these features of a near-death experience may just be a bunch of neurons in your brain going nuts. ‘A lot of people believed that what they saw was heaven,’ said lead researcher and neurologist Jimo Borjigin. ‘Science hadn’t given them a convincing alternative.’

“Scientists from the University of Michigan recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in nine anesthetized rats after inducing cardiac arrest. Within the first 30 seconds after the heart had stopped, all the mammals displayed a surge of brain activity that had features associated with consciousness and visual activation. The burst of electrical activity even exceeded levels during a normal, awake state. In other words, they may have been having the rodent version of a near-death experience’…

“Near-death experiences have been reported by many who have faced death, worldwide and across cultures. About 20 percent of cardiac arrest survivors report visions during clinical death, with features such as a bright light, life playback or an out-of-body feeling…

“When the heart suddenly stops, ongoing blood flow to the brain stops and causes death in a human within minutes. A likely assumption would be that, without a fresh supply of oxygen, any sort of brain activity would go flat. But after the rats went into cardiac arrest, [George] Mashour and his colleagues saw the opposite… [such as] heightened communication among the different parts of the brain, actively seen in an awake state, but often lost during anesthesia. In the rats, this connectivity went above and beyond the levels seen during the awake state — which could possibly explain the hypervivid, ‘realer-than-real’ perceptions reported close to death…”

These discoveries would make a lot of sense, as we know that “near-death” experiences are not real. Nobody’s soul departs at the time of death and goes to heaven. It must also be emphasized, however, that those “experiences” do not occur every time, when a patient has congestive heart failure and is resuscitated.  It should not be ruled out, of course, that some of these “experiences” are demonic delusions, but this could hardly be the explanation for all of them.

Again… California Leading the Nation… Away from the Bible

The Washington Times wrote on August 12:

“California has enacted the first law in the nation that will require public schools to accommodate students based on their self-declared ‘gender identity’ in addition to their biological sex. The law means that biologically female students can use boys’ bathrooms, and biologically male students can join all-girls’ sports teams.

“The law, signed Monday afternoon by California Gov. Jerry Brown and sponsored by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, is intended to assist transgender children navigate school from kindergarten to 12th grade, as their preferred gender. Major gay-rights groups supported the law, saying it builds on a national movement to end discriminatory practices based on gender identity and gender expression.”

AFP added on August 13:

“Transgender students in California public schools will be able to choose which bathrooms to use and which sex-segregated sports to play, according to new legislation passed. The bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown would allow students to be treated as their chosen gender rather than that listed on their official documents… The California Catholic Conference objected to the law… California, the most populous US state, has been at the forefront of a nationwide debate on gay, lesbian and transgender rights.”

Will California become a modern example of the conduct and fate of “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner as these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, [which] are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7)?

Our Liberal Laws, Juries and Judges… Cloned Horses

Reuters reported on August 13:

“A U.S. horse association soon will be required to add cloned horses and their offspring to its prestigious registry, a federal judge in Texas ruled on Monday. The decision could encourage cloning and open the way for the animals to participate in lucrative horse races… A jury last month ruled that the horse association violated anti-monopoly laws by banning cloned animals… No other horse breeding registry allows cloned animals, although the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association allows cloned horses to compete in rodeos…

“The quarter horse association, which has a registry of 751,747 animals, stated in court that it is a private organization and has the right to decide its membership rules… Cloning is the creation of an animal that is an exact genetic copy of another, with the same DNA. A cloned sheep named Dolly produced in Scotland drew international attention when she was shown to the public in 1997. Since then, cloning of agricultural livestock such as cattle and pigs as well as horses and sheep has become more common although it is still a small portion of total livestock production.”

Maybe for now… But where will it all lead? Scientists are toying with the idea of cloning mammoths and perhaps, from certain DNA samples, vicious extinct animals such as aggressive sable-tooth tigers or dinosaurs. And insofar as private organizations are concerned, our liberal legal system does apparently NOT allow them anymore to decide its own membership rules. As we mentioned before, individual liberties and freedoms are becoming more and more targets of governmental manipulation and erosion.

Fires Will Worsen

The Verge wrote on August 12:

“In June, the Black Forest wildfire in Colorado wiped out 500 homes in 48 hours and ultimately took two lives. Yet the catastrophe actually ranked as one of the smaller fires authorities have had to contend with this year. 100,000-acre wildfires have become a yearly occurrence — a worrying development in and of itself — and now NASA is raising warning flags about where things may be headed…

“Last week, NASA released new animations projecting how dry conditions may worsen in the decades ahead, leading to greater risk of fire across the Great Plains and upper Midwest US… NASA says even worse conditions await the Mountain West and other regions where fires already burn. The data is sourced from NASA’s own instruments and extensive knowledge of fire distribution across the planet.”

The Bible prophecies worsening fires for the USA and other countries.

The Difficult American-Russian Relationship

The Associated Press reported on August 7:

“In a rare diplomatic snub, President Barack Obama is canceling plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month. The decision reflects both U.S. anger over Russia’s harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow’s stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights. Obama will still attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, but a top White House official said the president had no plans to hold one-on-one talks with Putin while there…

“White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Russia’s decision last week to defy the U.S. and grant Snowden temporary asylum only exacerbated an already troubled relationship. And with few signs that progress would be made during the Moscow summit on other agenda items, Rhodes said the president decided to cancel the talks… Obama’s decision to scrap talks with Putin is likely to deepen the chill in the already frosty relationship between the two leaders. They have frequently found themselves at odds on pressing international issues, most recently in Syria, where the U.S. accuses Putin of helping President Bashar Assad fund a civil war. The U.S. has also been a vocal critic of Russia’s crackdown on Kremlin critics and recently sanctioned 18 Russians for human rights violations.

“For its part, Moscow has accused the U.S. of installing a missile shield in Eastern Europe as a deterrent against Russia… Putin also signed a law last year banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children, a move that was seen as retaliation for the U.S. measure that cleared the way for the human rights sanctions… Even as Obama scraps plans to meet with Putin, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel are preparing for meetings in Washington on Friday with their Russian counterparts. Snowden’s status is expected to be a main topic of conversation.

“The lower-level meetings with Russia underscore that the U.S. cannot completely sever ties with the Kremlin. Russian transit routes are critical to the U.S. as it removes troops and equipment from Afghanistan. And despite deep differences over Syria’s future, the White House knows it will almost certainly need some level of Russian cooperation in order to oust Assad. Still, some congressional lawmakers have called for Obama to not only scrub the Moscow summit but also demand that Russia forfeit its right to host the G-20 summit. Others have spoken of boycotting next year’s Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi.”

Ultimately, the relationship between Russia and the USA will be completely severed.

How to Deal with Putin?

The Associated Press reported on August 8:

“From the civil war in Syria to missile defense and gay rights, the Obama administration can’t seem to figure out how to deal with Putin… The latest disappointment — Russia’s embrace of a fugitive who leaked US secrets — pushed President Barack Obama to cancel a one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month…

“The two nations are at odds over the civil war [in Syria]. Russia has shielded Syrian President Bashar Assad from international sanctions and provided him weapons, despite an international outcry… Russians have a long-standing beef about the US missile defense system planned for Europe, dating back to the Reagan administration’s disputes with the Soviet Union… Americans object to the way Russian leaders have tried to silence critical voices…

“Russia… expelled the US Agency for International Development, which had promoted democracy and civil societies in Russia for two decades… the US is criticizing Russia for an official crackdown on gay rights. A new Russian law imposes fines and up to 15 days in prison for people accused of spreading ‘propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations’ to minors… And it bans gay pride rallies. Russian officials say the law will be enforced during the 2014 Olympics in the city of Sochi.”

USA Left Snowden No Choice

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 2:

“Edward Snowden has been granted asylum for one year in Russia in a move that threatens to further strain Russian-American relations… In Washington, politicians are outraged… The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘Edward Snowden knocked on many doors in recent weeks. There were plenty of expressions of sympathy for the young man who, with his betrayal of secrets, shed light on the scope of American spying programs. But despite all the excitement over the obsessive spying, no one wanted to open the door for Snowden. Now, it is Vladimir Putin of all people who has taken blatant pleasure in playing the role of a champion of freedom of opinion and human rights by letting the American stay in Russia for a year. But it’s also the same Putin who has taken considerable pleasure in taking political opponents out of action with flimsy charges…’

“The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the largest newspaper in the populous Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia, writes: ‘Snowden is out of the intermediate world of the Moscow airport and has now entered Russia. Russia of all places, a country that is anything but a flawless democracy. A country in which a former intelligence agent rules the country with an iron fist. But to blame the whistleblower for all this would either be malicious or naïve. Snowden had no other choice. Go back to the States? The fate of WikiLeaks informant Bradley Manning shows what happens to people there who uncover government misconduct. Not a single country that could claim to be democratically flawless offered Snowden asylum.’

“In an editorial, WDR Radio, one of Germany’s largest public broadcasters, states: ‘Rarely since the end of the Cold War have relations between Moscow and Washington been as frosty as they are right now. A considerable amount of that is attributable to President Barack Obama’s manic attempt to persuade Putin to extradite NSA expert and whistleblower Snowden… The US president has made petty revenge a leading principle of his policies. Obama wanted Snowden to be extradited at any cost. Obama didn’t hesitate in having his attorney general write a letter to Moscow with logic as follows: We Americans are even willing to forego our classic instruments of torture and the death penalty if you, the Russians, just extradite Snowden to us.

“‘The letter couldn’t have been more telling in terms of Obama’s position towards unwelcome whistleblowers and possible betrayers of secrets. To expose himself to an ice cold Machiavelli like Putin with such a laughable position of self-revelation like that speaks volumes about the way in which Obama conducts foreign policy beyond his brilliant speeches. If the US president now also commits the error of playing the role of the offended prima donna and not appearing at the G-20 summit in September, then we can forget about relations between Washington and Moscow altogether…’”

Manning’s Sentencing a “Stain” on Obama’s Legacy and America’s Global Reputation

The Washington Times wrote on August 7:

“A military judge on Tuesday scaled back the maximum time that Bradley Manning could serve behind bars, from 136 years to 90 years, after ruling that many of his charges were related enough to be combined… The cut doesn’t mean Manning will get out any time soon… The 25-year-old will more than likely spend the remainder of his life behind bars at one of the nation’s most notoriously tough prisons, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 5:

“By using the Espionage Act to punish Bradley Manning, the Obama administration has shown how far it will go to intimidate leakers. His sentencing is a stain on the president’s legacy and on America’s global reputation. It was never an issue whether Bradley Manning violated US law. Manning pleaded guilty to 10 charges at the beginning of his military trial. The maximum sentence for those charges was 20 years in prison — an intolerable sentence, but unlikely to be the extent of his punishment.

“… Prosecutors have brought in the big guns — and invoked the Espionage Act, which was passed in 1917 in reaction to fears of German spies and saboteurs. It is political despotism to use this act in a trial that has to do with neither espionage nor sabotage. It means the defense can no longer argue that the defendant harmed no one, that he acted in the public interest. It deprives Manning of the only basis to justify his actions and the opportunity to avoid a guilty verdict.

“This is why the appropriate reaction to this verdict would be to reverse it. It would be overzealous, both from a legal and political standpoint, to pass judgment on Manning as a warning to other possible politically motivated offenders. The 25-year-old soldier, a man who is unconvincing as a heroic figure and burdened with complexes, is the most recent casualty in a hysterically prolonged ‘war on terror.’

“The Manning trial isn’t the first instance in which the United States under President Barack Obama has demonstrated its willingness to do everything it takes to prevent the spread of unwelcome truths. Former President Richard Nixon tried to use the Espionage Act to put the leaker of the Pentagon Papers — about the planning of the Vietnam War — behind bars. With a guilty verdict against Manning, Obama has now prevailed where Nixon failed.

“This injustice… will define Obama’s presidency in the long term… The reputation of the United States is at stake, along with its credibility as a country where freedom also means confrontation with the truth… Leaks are necessary for the fight against abuses of power. Manning’s leaks uncovered war crimes, albeit ones that have remained unpunished. His leaks revealed, at an early juncture, the disorientation of the US’s Afghanistan operations. And the cables from US embassies, far from being high-level gossip, showed how eagerly those in power deceived their own people.

“Obama must pardon Manning so that more whistleblowers do not find themselves compelled to seek refuge in the even darker realm of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Political lawbreakers like Nixon and Iran-Contra conspirators like former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane were pardoned. After all, there’s honor among thieves. Now it’s also time to pardon someone willing to call a thief a thief.”

It is highly unlikely that President Obama will pardon Manning. This is clearly not part of his agenda or within the interest of his Administration. What we are seeing in the USA is a continuing erosion of individual liberties and freedoms and the build-up of a controlling and somewhat secretive governmental apparatus.

Washington Afraid of Attacks in Yemen

Reuters wrote on August 6:

“The United States told its citizens in Yemen on Tuesday to leave immediately and airlifted out some U.S. government personnel, following warnings of potential attacks that have pushed Washington to shut diplomatic missions across the Middle East. The poorest Arab country, Yemen is the base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the most active branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden, and militants have launched attacks from there against the West. U.S. sources have told Reuters that intercepted communication between bin Laden’s successor as al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the Yemen-based wing was one part of the intelligence behind their alert last week.

“Britain, which has already advised for more than two years that its citizens in Yemen should ‘leave now,’ announced it was temporarily evacuating all its embassy staff… The State Department’s announcement urging Americans to leave the country follows a worldwide travel alert on Friday which prompted Washington to shut diplomatic missions across the Middle East and Africa. Some of Washington’s European allies have also closed their embassies in Yemen. ‘The Department urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart immediately,’ the statement posted on its website said.”

Controversial American drone attacks in Yemen and the incarceration of over 50 Yemen citizens in Guantanamo Bay have contributed to the creation of a hostile atmosphere in Yemen towards the USA.

Preferential Treatment for Same-Sex Couples

Newsmax reported on August 4:

“Same-sex married partners seeking U.S. travel visas will now be recognized as legal couples under a new rule put forth by Secretary of State John Kerry, the Advocate reports. ‘One of our most important exports by far is America’s belief in the equality of all people,’ Kerry said Friday at the U.S. embassy in London announcing his decision. ‘Now, our history shows that we haven’t always gotten it right,’ but Kerry said the recent Supreme Court decision changing the definition of marriage will change that.

“The change in visa status means preferential treatment for the couples in the application process, reports the Washington Post. It also helps foreign nationals in a same-sex marriage with U.S. citizens to more easily acquire a visa. The announcement comes on the heels of a Homeland Security Department decision by Secretary Janet Napolitano to acknowledge same-sex marriage when awarding green cards.”

This is no longer just equal treatment, but now we are informed that Immigration is willing to grant preferential treatment to same-sex partners.

Berlusconi’s Conviction and the Implications for Italy and Europe

 The EUObserver wrote on August 2:

“An Italian court Thursday (1 August) upheld former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s prison sentence marking the first definitive conviction for the 76-year old politician in over 20 trials spanning almost two decades. The court of cassation, Italy’s highest court and against which Berlusconi cannot appeal, decided after a three-day hearing to uphold a prison term for tax fraud. The original sentence of four years was handed out by two lower courts last year and automatically commuted to one year under a new amnesty law. Due to his age, he is expected to be held under house arrest or do community service. Meanwhile the court said a decision to ban Berlusconi from public office should be re-examined, but it did not reject the ban.

“Berlusconi, four times Italy’s prime minister, faced charges over the years ranging from corruption to having sex with an underage prostitute, but was finally snared by the Italian justice system over deals that his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films. He reacted angrily to the ruling…

“The court ruling has been keenly watched in the rest of the eurozone, not only because of the interest in a politician who at times proved as controversial outside Italy as he was inside the country but for the wider implications of the decision. It has the potential to destabilise the three-month old government, which consists of an uneasy coalition between Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party (PDL)… analysts remain quietly nervous about Italy, the region’s third largest economy… The current government was formed to try and get the economy back on track with unemployment at 12 percent and national debt at almost 130 percent of GDP, the second highest in the eurozone.”

News reports suggest that Berlusconi’s daughter might become his “successor” in Italian politics.

Germany’s Lucrative Weapon Sales

The Local wrote on August 7:

“German arms exports to Gulf states are set to hit a new record in 2013… In the first six months alone, the country sent over €800 million worth of combat weapons to the troubled region. Germany is sending millions of euros worth of tanks and howitzers to a region where governments have been accused of using force against their own citizens in violent crackdowns against dissent…

“Merkel’s government has come under fire over the past 18 months from domestic critics who question the morality of arming governments with less-than-perfect human rights records during the upheavals of the Arab Spring.”

Europe at Odds With Israel

The Times of Israel wrote on August 7:

“Despite heavy criticism from Israel, the European Union will not cancel, modify or delay the implementation of recently published guidelines that block EU funding from Israeli institutions either located or maintaining any links beyond the Green Line, a top EU official said this week. ‘The guidelines will take effect as they are. This is how they were published [in the EU’s Official Journal], as a legal act, and that’s how it will be,’ Ambassador Andreas Reinicke, the EU’s special representative to the Middle East peace process, told The Times of Israel last week. In certain areas where the guidelines are still unclear, ‘a closer look’ at the details might… have to be taken, he allowed. But their main points will not be changed and will take effect by January 2014 as planned.

“The EU’s directive, published last month, mandates a denial of European funding to, and cooperation with, Israeli institutions based or operating over the Green Line, and a requirement that all future agreements between Israel and the EU include a clause in which Israel accepts the position that all territory over the Green Line does not belong to Israel… In the wake of the new funding guidelines, the Israeli government is currently discussing whether to participate in a multibillion-dollar scientific cooperation program under EU auspices called Horizon 2020…

“Israelis from across right to center-left on the political spectrum protested the EU’s new guidelines… not all European capitals were enthusiastic about the issuance of the funding guidelines. The German government, for instance, distanced itself from the move… But… several EU foreign ministers explicitly welcomed the funding guidelines…”

The relationship between Europe and Israel will become more and more hostile in the not-too-distant future.

Israelis Will Be Hit Hard in Next War

The Los Angeles Times reported on August 8:

“As tensions escalate along Israel’s northern border, a senior military official warned that the next war with Hezbollah would be far more painful for Israeli citizens than any previous experience. ‘What we witnessed in 2006 is the very tip of the iceberg,’ said the official, referring to the 33-day war between Israel and the Lebanese-based Shiite militia Hezbollah. In that case, a third of the country was forced into bomb shelters for a month while rockets rained down on northern Israel…

“In the 2006 Second Lebanon War, nearly 4,000 rockets were fired into Israel, killing more than 40 civilians and causing widespread devastation to property and the economy. Hezbollah is now believed to have 60,000 to 100,000 rockets that boast longer ranges, improved accuracy and larger warheads… Israeli officials fear that as many as 2,000 rockets a day could be released against all parts of Israel… only 60% of Israelis have chemical-weapons protection kits…  Nearly one-third of Israelis don’t have quick access to bomb shelters.”

Japan’s Largest Warship and 68th Anniversary of Hiroshima

CNN wrote on August 6:

“Japan on Tuesday unveiled its largest warship since World War II, an 820-foot-long, 19,500-ton flattop capable of carrying 14 helicopters, according to media reports. The ship, named the Izumo, is classified as a helicopter destroyer, though its flattop design makes it look like an aircraft carrier…

“Tuesday’s launch also came on the 68th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. Upwards of 60,000 people — according to various estimates, about one-fifth of Hiroshima’s population at the time — were killed when a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945. In remembrance ceremonies in Hiroshima on Tuesday, a list of 286,000 atomic bomb victims was presented… In a speech, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on the Japanese people to always remind the world about the consequences of nuclear war…”

Zenit added on August 6:

“Cardinal Peter Turkson is in Japan for an initiative marking the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945…He called the atom bomb dropped 68 years ago today on Hiroshima a ‘frightful wound inflicted upon the people of Japan and the whole human family.’… Cardinal Turkson noted the popes’ warnings about the suffering brought by war, and particularly the atom bomb, most recently Pope Francis: ‘The possession of atomic power can cause the destruction of humanity. When man becomes proud, he creates a monster that can get out of hand.’”

This is very true. Sadly, mankind will ignore these warnings, and if Christ were not to intervene to cut short a terrible time of self-destruction, no human being would be saved alive. And even though China is concerned about Japan’s military ambitions, the Bible prophesies that China, Japan, Russia and other Far Eastern countries will form a military union which will be confrontational towards Western powers, especially Europe.

German President Speaks Up

The Local wrote on July 26:

“German President Joachim Gauck said on Friday he had been so deeply troubled by the NSA spying revelations that he had wondered whether it was still safe to send emails and talk openly on the phone. ‘I never thought that the fear that secure communication was no longer possible could ever arise in Germany again,’ he told the paper. But he said this was exactly what had happened in the past weeks. ‘The scandal has really troubled me,’ President Gauck told the Passauer Neue Presse regional newspaper on Friday… The state had a duty to protect citizens from the threat of terrorism, which Gauck conceded means sometimes limiting their freedom in order to keep them safe. But this must always be done with respect for the right to private communication guaranteed in Germany’s constitution, he said…

“It was up to Germany, he said, where strict data protection and privacy rules developed as a bullwark against the abuses of the Stasi and Gestapo secret services, to pass on these lessons to the rest of the world. ‘It could be that the Americans and the Germans have different perceptions of data protection. But we Germans have had to live through abuse of state power with secret services twice in our history,’ said Gauck, who himself came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. ‘That’s why we’re particularly sensitive on this issue, and that’s something our American friends, among others, are going to have to put up with.’

“The president also subtly sent a message of support to fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose revelations over the past weeks had brought the scandal to light. ‘Whoever brings [information] to the public and acts on grounds of conscience deserves respect,’ he said. In a further rare intervention into politics, Gauck demanded Angela Merkel’s government enter into binding agreements with Germany’s allies to secure these freedoms. ‘We have to make sure that even our allies’ secret services respect the boundaries we find necessary here,’ said the president…”

Understandably, many German are concerned. The position of Governor Christie (see below) would be met with consternation, and views from Libertarians such as Rand Paul or Thomas Mullen (see below) would accurately reflect how most Germans feel.

Unconcerned… Esoteric or Reckless?

Breitbart wrote on July 26:

“Sen. Rand Paul’s office shot back at criticism from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over the government’s sweeping surveillance operations. Christie had said Paul’s concerns over NSA spying and the government’s use of drones was ‘esoteric’…

“‘If Governor Christie believes the constitutional rights and the privacy of all Americans is “esoteric”, he either needs a new dictionary, or he needs to talk to more Americans because a great number of them are concerned about the dramatic overreach of our government in recent years,’ Doug Stafford, Senior Advisor to Sen. Paul said in a statement provided to Breitbart News. ‘Defending America and fighting terrorism is the concern of all Americans, especially Senator Paul,’ Stafford continued. ‘But it can and must be done in keeping with our constitution and while protecting the freedoms that make America exceptional.’… 

“Christie recklessly said that those who oppose the government’s broad surveillance of all Americans should talk to widows and orphans from the 9-11 attacks. Christie’s implication is that keeping track of every cell phone call and every internet interaction by average citizens would prevent another tragedy like 9-11. Maybe it would. With the steep cost of our privacy, though, what would be the point?”

Government Security Measures Did Not Prevent One Single Terrorist Attack

On July 27, Thomas Mullen wrote the following in the Washington Times:

“Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill [which did not pass] that would have defunded the NSA’s blanket collection of metadata and limited the government’s collection of records to those ‘relevant to a national security investigation.’ It terrified New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who lashed out at those who supported the bill and libertarianism in general…

“[Libertarianism] is dangerous to the bloated national security state, which tramples the liberty and dignity of every American under the pretense of protecting them from what Charles Kenny recently called the ‘vastly exaggerated’ threat of terrorism. Chris Christie shamelessly invoked the image of ‘widows and orphans’ of 9/11 in an attempt to discredit any resistance to the federal government’s complete disregard for the Bill of Rights…

“The Fourth Amendment forbids the federal government from running programs like the NSA’s. Only an amendment that revises or repeals it can change that… Let’s not forget that none of the… security measures established since 9/11 have prevented a single terrorist attack… Flight 93 on 9/11, the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber were all foiled by private citizens, the latter two after the perpetrator walked right past the government’s garish security apparatus.

“The truth is that no security measures will ever be able to make Americans 100% safe from harm. There is absolutely nothing the U.S. government could do right now to prevent Russia or China from launching a nuclear attack on the United States… the government can’t stop the next terrorist attack any more than it has stopped any previously. What it can do is continue to erode American liberty. This country is already unrecognizable as the same one that ratified the Bill of Rights…”

How Our Willingly Ignorant Mainstream Media Lost

The Guardian wrote on July 27

“Edward Snowden is not the story. The story is what he has revealed about the hidden wiring of our networked world. This insight seems to have escaped most of the world’s mainstream media, for reasons that escape me… The obvious explanations are: incorrigible ignorance; the imperative to personalise stories; or gullibility in swallowing US government spin, which brands Snowden as a spy rather than a whistleblower… Without him, we would not know how the National Security Agency (NSA) had been able to access the emails, Facebook accounts and videos of citizens across the world; or how it had secretly acquired the phone records of millions of Americans; or how, through a secret court, it has been able to bend nine US internet companies to its demands for access to their users’ data.

“Similarly, without Snowden, we would not be debating whether the US government should have turned surveillance into a huge, privatised business, offering data-mining contracts to private contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton and, in the process, high-level security clearance to thousands of people who shouldn’t have it. Nor would there be – finally – a serious debate between Europe (excluding the UK, which in these matters is just an overseas franchise of the US) and the United States about where the proper balance between freedom and security lies…

“It was always a possibility that the system would eventually be Balkanised, ie divided into a number of geographical or jurisdiction-determined subnets as societies such as China, Russia, Iran and other Islamic states decided that they needed to control how their citizens communicated. Now, Balkanisation is a certainty… no US-based internet company can be trusted to protect our privacy or data…”

US influence in the world is bound to diminish in just about every aspect of human life…

Senators Accuse NSA and Obama Administration of Breaking the Law

The Huffington Post wrote on July 31:

“The National Security Agency’s massive collection of all Americans’ phone records breaks laws without making the country safer, two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee argued Tuesday night, saying the practices must be reformed. Taking to the Senate floor, Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called on the White House to act on its own to rein in the programs. The senators criticized the administration’s intelligence leaders for ‘misleading’ the public on the controversial NSA programs and accused the administration of breaking the law.”

The Manning Conviction—a Dangerous Precedent

Der Spiegel Online reported on July 30:

“The first and most serious charge against Manning was that of aiding the enemy. In theory, the death penalty can be applied in such convictions, but the government only demanded life imprisonment for Manning, without the possibility of parole. Just life imprisonment… In the end… Manning [was convicted] on a total of 20 out of 22 charges. Guilty of espionage, guilty of theft, guilty of computer fraud…

“Responding to the conviction, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said, ‘This is the first ever espionage conviction against a whistleblower. It is a dangerous precedent and an example of national security extremism. It is a short sighted judgment that cannot be tolerated and must be reversed. It can never be that conveying true information to the public is “espionage”’…

“The messages the judge in this trial of the largest betrayal of secrets in American history is seeking to send are already clear though. The first is that no mercy will be shown for whistleblowers. The United States is pursuing and treating whistleblowers as traitors… The second is that [the judge] stopped short of creating a precedent for the erosion of press freedom in the US.  If the court had convicted Manning on charges of aiding the enemy, it would have equated publishing stories about the documents in the media with aiding the enemy…

“Still, the fact that Manning wasn’t convicted of aiding the enemy in no way diminishes the massive pressure that US President Barack Obama has applied on the media and potential future whistleblowers…”

In the past, left-liberal German magazines like Der Spiegel spoke very highly about President Obama. Such “sympathy” and “admiration” have been considerably reversed.

Newsmax and Reuters added on July 30:

“‘This is a historic verdict,’ said Elizabeth Goitein, a security specialist at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. ‘Manning is one of very few people ever charged under the Espionage Act prosecutions for leaks to the media. … Despite the lack of any evidence that he intended any harm to the United States, Manning faces decades in prison. That’s a very scary precedent,’ she added.”

Banning Exposed Obama

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 31:

“For journalist James Bamford, well known for his books on the recently heavily criticized National Security Agency, Manning’s actions did not amount to aiding the enemy. Bamford said Manning may have released many, many documents, but they were not very sensitive. Indeed, most of the documents should not have been classified as secret by the government in the first place, he said.

“Bamford told DW that in his view, Manning did a great service to the public at great personal risk. ‘The most important piece of information that I saw shows how the Obama administration, how Obama himself, lied to the American public numerous times about our attacks in Yemen…[where] the US fired cruise missiles that were loaded with cluster bombs. These cluster bombs killed many, many civilians,’ he said.

“Bamford said due to their devastating destructive force, cluster bombs are outlawed in 109 countries. ‘And when it was discovered that [the bombs] killed many women and children and destroyed a village, Obama actually denied that the US had anything to do with it,’ he added.”

“Reaffirming to the World Who We Really Are”

Michael Moore wrote the following comments in the Huffington Post, dated July 31:

“Today Bradley Manning was convicted on 20 of 22 counts, including violating the Espionage Act, releasing classified information and disobeying orders. That’s the bad news. The good news is he was found not guilty on the charge of ‘aiding the enemy.’ That’s ’cause who he was aiding was us, the American people. And we’re not the enemy. Right?…

“When you hear about how long Manning – now 25 years old – will be in prison, compare it to sentences received by other soldiers:

“Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the senior military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib and the senior officer present the night of the murder of Iraqi prisoner Manadel al-Jamadi, received no jail time. But he was reprimanded and fined $8,000…

“Sgt. Sabrina Harman, the woman famously seen giving a thumbs-up next to al-Jamadi’s body and in another photo smiling next to naked, hooded Iraqis stacked on each other in Abu Ghraib, was sentenced to six months for maltreating detainees. Spec. Armin Cruz was sentenced to eight months for abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and covering up the abuse.

“Spc. Steven Ribordy was sentenced to eight months for being accessory to the murder of four Iraqi prisoners who were ‘bound, blindfolded, shot and dumped in a canal’ in Baghdad in 2007. Spc. Belmor Ramos was sentenced to seven months for conspiracy to commit murder in the same case…

“Marine Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich received no jail time for negligent dereliction in the massacre of 24 unarmed men, women and children in 2005 in the Iraqi town of Haditha. Seven other members of his battalion were charged but none were punished in any way.

“Marine Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate and Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson were both sentenced to 21 months for the aggravated assault of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, a father of 11 and grandfather of four, in Al Hamdania in 2006. Awad died after being shot during the assault…

“No soldiers received any punishment for the killing of five Iraqi children, four women and two men in one Ishaqi home in 2006. Among the U.S. diplomatic cables leaked by Bradley Manning was email from a UN official stating that U.S. soldiers had ‘executed all of them.’ When Wikileaks published the cable, the uproar in Iraq was so big that the Nouri al-Maliki government couldn’t grant any remaining U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, thus forcing the Obama administration to abandon its plans to keep several thousand U.S. soldiers in Iraq permanently. All U.S. troops were removed at the end of 2011.

“My guess is Bradley Manning will spend more time in jail than all of the other soldiers in all of these cases put together. And thus, instead of redeeming ourselves and asking forgiveness for the crimes that Spc. Manning exposed, we will reaffirm to the world who we really are.”

The Bradley Manning conviction and sentencing will further decrease the world’s respect for America.

Communist Ho Chi Minh Inspired by US Constitution and Thomas Jefferson?

Canada Free Press wrote on July 26:

“Talking to reporters as he stood beside Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang yesterday, Obama [said], ‘we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.’… Truth is Ho Chi Minh was about as inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson as Obama is…  Obama has about as much credibility in white washing Ho Chi Minh as he has in trying to portray Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS and NSA as ‘phony’ scandals…

“Following Ho Chi Minh’s death in 1969, over a million Viet Nam people, many of whose relatives were put to death as dissidents by the brutal dictator fled to North America and elsewhere becoming forever known as ‘The Boat People’.  The number of people who died at sea trying to find freedom is recorded somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000…

“Chris Stirewalt, of Fox News writes, ‘But his [Obama’s] connection between the American founders and Ho shows either a massive lack of historical knowledge on the part of the president or a remarkable degree of moral flexibility.’”

With ridiculous comments like these, America is becoming more and more a laughing stock in the world.

Aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Disaster

AFP wrote on July 26:

“Halliburton Energy Services has admitted destroying evidence relating to the devastating 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico… Halliburton — which constructed the cement casing of the well at the center of the disaster — had carried out its own internal investigations following the accident in April 2010. However, results of computer simulations carried out in May and June 2010 were ordered to be destroyed and were unable to be recovered, the Justice Department said.

“In addition to a guilty plea for destruction of evidence, Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum statutory fine and also made a separate and voluntary $55 million payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Eleven people died and some 4.9 million barrels of oil were sent gushing into the Gulf over a three-month period after the explosion at the offshore oil rig. It was the largest offshore oil disaster in US history, wreaking havoc on the region’s environment and economy.”

Man-made catastrophes and subsequent “denials” or “justifications” will continue and increase.

Mysterious Death of Dolphins

On July 24, wired.com reported the following:

“At least 54 bottlenose dolphins have died mysteriously in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon since January… In a normal year, that number would be closer to 22. On July 24, NOAA declared the mass die-off an ‘Unusual Mortality Event’… It’s the lagoon’s worst dolphin die-off on record, and the cause is mysterious… It’s the second time this year that NOAA has declared an Unusual Mortality Event for marine mammals in the lagoon, a 156-mile-long estuary that runs along Florida’s Atlantic coast. In April, a mass manatee die-off received the same designation. This is the third time a UME has been declared for dolphins in the lagoon. What caused the others, in 2001 and 2008, is still a mystery…”

The Bible prophesied the demise of many animals in these last days.

Man Kills Bees through “Harmless” Pesticides and Fungicides

On July 24, Quartz wrote the following:

“… the mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s apis mellifera population that one bad winter could leave fields fallow. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.

“Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study… scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

“… bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples… Bee populations are so low in the US that it now takes 60% of the country’s surviving colonies just to pollinate one California crop, almonds. And that’s not just a west coast problem—California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion.

“In recent years, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths and in April regulators banned the use of the pesticide for two years in Europe where bee populations have also plummeted. But… the new study shows that the interaction of multiple pesticides is affecting bee health… the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product…

“The study found another complication in efforts to save the bees: US honey bees, which are descendants of European bees, do not bring home pollen from native North American crops but collect bee chow from nearby weeds and wildflowers. That pollen, however, was also contaminated with pesticides even though those plants were not the target of spraying…”

Man’s ignorant and dangerous actions are causing the death of many animals and human beings.

Mysterious “Hum” in New Mexico, England and Scotland

Life Science wrote on July 26:

“It creeps in slowly in the dark of night, and once inside, it almost never goes away. It’s known as the Hum, a steady, droning sound that’s heard in places as disparate as Taos, N.M.; Bristol, England; and Largs, Scotland. But what causes the Hum, and why it only affects a small percentage of the population in certain areas, [remains] a mystery, despite a number of scientific investigations…

“Reports started trickling in during the 1950s from people who had never heard anything unusual before; suddenly, they were bedeviled by an annoying, low-frequency humming, throbbing or rumbling sound. The cases seem to have several factors in common: Generally, the Hum is only heard indoors, and it’s louder at night than during the day. It’s also more common in rural or suburban environments…”

“Bedevilled” is an interesting choice of words.

Europe’s Rise or Fall?

On July 26, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with British-American historian Walter Laqueur (92). Even though Laqueur incorrectly predicts the decline of Europe, he also makes some interesting, albeit contradictory comments with which we would agree. The following are some [correct] excerpts from the interview:

“Europe will likely remain influential in the future as an economic power and trading partner. But the continent still isn’t standing on its own feet politically and militarily today… the conflicts have not decreased… Keeping a low profile is easier for most Europeans than coming up with the political will to become a major political power once again… The Europeans haven’t quite understood that trying to stay out of the fray offers no protection against the consequences of global policy… I don’t think that the economic, political and military problems Europe faces are insurmountable by any means… Thanks to the short-sighted, arrogant and aggressive US foreign policy of those years, a European anti-Americanism flared up, which has remained latent on both the left and the right… 

“The collapse of the monetary union is not unavoidable. In fact, if one considers the consequential costs, I think it’s somewhat unlikely in the foreseeable future. Perhaps a rapid decline would be even better, because it would raise awareness of the need for a general overhaul of the European structure. Crises bring about solidarity, as Jean Monnet, one of Europe’s founding fathers, knew all too well… Europeans have lost the sense of clear and present danger. Once again, European leaders believe that they are out of the woods. Well, miracles happen… The rise and fall of empires are constants in history. Historians have been searching for explanations since antiquity…”

For a short time and in the not-too-distant future, Europeans will play a leading role in the entire world… and most people will be surprised when that happens. But Europe’s lead will have devastating consequences. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

Israel vs. Europe

Reuters reported on July 26:

“Israel has blocked the European Union from aiding tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, in retaliation for an EU ban on financial assistance to Israeli organizations in the occupied territories. The EU imposed its restrictions last week, citing its frustration over the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in territory captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East War. The new guidelines render Israeli entities operating there ineligible for EU grants, prizes or loans, beginning next year…

“Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon had decided to suspend contacts with the EU in the West Bank… [He] has ‘frozen projects, canceled meetings, curtailed coordination and permits for Europe’s operations’ for Palestinians living in what is known as Area C, a West Bank area fully administered by Israel…  A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that due to the Israeli measures, several European humanitarian aid staff had failed to receive permits to enter the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip.”

The relationship between Europe and Israel will deteriorate more and more.

Palestinian Vision of “Final Solution”

JTA wrote on July 30:

“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Egyptian journalists that no Israelis, civilians or soldiers, will remain in a future Palestinian state. Reuters reported that Abbas made the statements on Monday night in Cairo, where he was meeting with interim Egyptian President Adli Mansour. ‘In a final solution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli — civilian or soldier — on our lands,’ Abbas said… The statements flew in the face of efforts by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to keep the terms of the peace talks under wraps, according to Reuters.

“Abbas insisted that ‘East Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine’… Abbas also said that he would not approve of a settlement-building freeze in which Israel halted building in isolated settlements but continued to build in settlements in the blocs that likely will remain part of Israel under a peace agreement.”

These extreme and radical views only show that the idea that the USA could broker a “peace treaty” is just totally unrealistic.

Violence in Egypt

Reuters reported on July 27:

“Egyptian security forces shot dead dozens of supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday, witnesses said, days after the army chief called for a popular mandate to wipe out ‘violence and terrorism’… The bloodshed, near the military parade ground where President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, has rocked a country already struggling with the transition to democracy two years after Hosni Mubarak was swept from power…

“Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians had poured onto the streets on Friday in response to a call by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for nationwide demonstrations to give him backing to confront the weeks-long wave of violence. His appeal was seen as a challenge to the Brotherhood, which organized its own rallies on Friday calling for the return of Mursi…

“European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she ‘deeply deplores’ Saturday’s deaths and urged all sides to halt the violence. There was no immediate comment from the United States, which provides Egypt with some $1.5 billion dollars of aid a year, mainly military hardware. Washington has delayed delivery of four F-16 fighters because of the turmoil. However, officials have indicated they do not intend to cut off aid to a country…”

The Times of Israel wrote on July 27:

“It’s not a civil war yet, but Friday night’s events underline the level of strife in Egypt between the Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters and the military. For now, the army still enjoys the backing of many secular groups… But as the body count rises, that impressive support will slowly, inevitably erode… The Egyptian divide is bitter…

“…it is apparent that Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi cares little about the honor of Egypt’s citizens. Unlike former president Hosni Mubarak, who could not order the army to fire on protesters, el-Sissi not only can, but is more than willing to do so. The order came down and, on Friday, we could see a change in the army’s attitude towards the protesters. The government, the new president Adly Mansour, everyone, has decided to take off the gloves and put an end to the protests in favor of ousted president Mohammed Morsi…

“The Islamist movement is determined to flood the streets of Egypt with its people, and gradually turn all those who supported the second revolution against the military… The battle is far from over. ‘Iron Man’ el-Sissi is out to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, while the Islamists are convinced that they can topple the general. If Egypt doesn’t get back on track — economically and administratively — in the next few weeks, even the army’s strong-handed policy toward the Brotherhood will not produce stability. Tensions will rise further, and the danger of full-fledged civil war will draw ever closer.”

Egypt’s future is prophesied in Scripture. Please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.”

Senate Supports Ongoing Further Assistance to Egypt

The Washington Times wrote on July 31:

“The Senate on Wednesday… rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s push to temporarily halt foreign assistance to Egypt and his argument that the nation no longer qualifies for aid in the wake of the military takeover earlier this month. Mr. Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, said President Obama and his congressional allies are openly flouting the law by continuing to send money to the Middle Eastern power and said those taxpayer funds should be redirected to the nation’s crumbling infrastructure until Egypt holds new elections. ‘When there is a military coup, the aid must end,’ the Kentucky Republican said, citing the Foreign Assistance Act…

“A bipartisan group of lawmakers… defended the Obama administration’s decision to keep sending roughly $1.5 billion in annual assistance to Egypt after the July 3 military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, the leader of the Muslim brotherhood who had been democratically elected in June 2012.”

This was to be expected. Politics reigns, while the law is being ignored, re-interpreted or circumvented.

Merkel’s Re-Election in Jeopardy?

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 31:

“The failed Euro Hawk drone project has cost German taxpayers tons of money, and the Defense Ministry sympathy – but the biggest loser could be Chancellor Merkel, who may lose re-election…

“The opposition has been calling for Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere to step down for a long time… [He] admitted that [the government] had invested more than half a million euros into the project, only to realize after 10 years of research and development that there are ‘problems that can’t be solved.’ … The political responsibility for this surely lies with the minister himself – who should therefore step down together with his close aides.

“A few gently critical words about his poor handling of the situation and his crisis management are not enough for a scandal of such scope… Moreover, stepping down would also do Angela Merkel a favor. The general election is looming on September 22 and Merkel hopes to win her third term in office. Thomas de Maiziere clinging to his job could easily turn into a dangerous risk for that ambition.”

Duke of Bavaria Entitled to British Throne?

The Local wrote on July 25:

“All eyes were on the British royals this week, while in Bavaria a direct descendant of Stuart King Charles I turned 80 in relative privacy. Yet our German of the week Franz Herzog von Bayern’s blood runs as blue as little Prince George’s… Franz is the elder brother of Prince Max of Bavaria and inherited the title of Duke as head of the Wittelsbach family– once rulers of the Kingdom of Bavaria – when his father died in 1996.

“What is still hotly-contested in some quarters of Britain is whether the Duke’s direct blood line connection to 17th-century Stuart monarch King James II of England means he has a legitimate claim to the British throne. Franz is James II’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson. The Duke’s branch of the royal family lost the throne after the Catholic James II was deposed by William of Orange in England’s Glorious Revolution. James’s elder son, also a Catholic, was passed over for the succession in favour of his daughters, Mary II and Queen Anne…

“The… aristocrat was born in Munich in 1933 to Duke Albrecht of Bavaria and his wife, the Croatian Countess Maria Draskovich, as Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Prinz von Bayern. His parents disapproved of the Nazi regime and left Germany in 1939 for the relative safety of Hungary. They lived in Budapest until Hitler invaded in 1944 and had the family arrested – along with 11-year-old Franz, forcing them to spend the rest of the war in concentration camps – until they were liberated by US troops in 1945…

“The aristocrat never married and lives alone in the large Nymphenburg palace. Around 2,500 of Bavaria’s richest, most powerful and influential guests [were] on hand to pay tribute to the Duke at his birthday party at Schleißheim palace outside Munich on Monday, an event surpassed only in pomp by the royal birth taking place in Britain.”

Pope at War with Vatican

Newsmax reported on July 29:

“The pope’s recent visit to Rio de Janeiro underscores how wildly popular he is among the faithful. But an inside Vatican source says Francis will face a continuation of his war with the Holy See’s curia — and he has ambitious plans to expose corruption and dramatically change the Church’s image.”

Pope Won’t Judge Homosexuals…

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 30:

“‘If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?’ Pope Francis asked during an unexpectedly candid in-flight news conference on Monday. ‘We shouldn’t marginalize people for this. They must be integrated into society.’ ‘Pope Francis used a different and more benign tone than his German predecessor when he was talking about homosexual people,’ said Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of the LGBT program at Human Rights Watch. ‘I read his view … as a call to Roman Catholic clergy in many countries to speak up and protest when gay men or lesbian women are arrested or discriminated against by the authorities in their countries.’…

“The German wing of the international Catholic reform movement ‘We are Church’ also praised the pope’s remarks. ‘This is a major coup for gay priests who have had to cover up their sexual orientation,’ said spokesman Christian Weisner…

“By contrast, Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men who had deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis distanced himself from this position in his first news conference as pope, when he said that gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten. But Francis still stopped short of rejecting the Catholic Church’s principle that homosexual acts are a sin. ‘Basically, what he said was obvious,’ wrote Germany’s center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. ‘In his press conference, the pope skillfully avoided the truly thorny issue of whether gays and lesbians can only be equal before God (as others) if they are celibate.’”

Pope Not as Liberal as He May Seem

Der Spiegel Online wrote on July 31:

“Pope Francis has sparked enthusiasm with his call for greater tolerance toward gays. But it’s too soon to celebrate, says [homosexual Catholic] theologian David Berger… ‘It is incredibly naïve to liken it to a dam bursting. What are gays or lesbians to think when someone tells them: I don’t want you to be discriminated against, but you are not allowed to live out your “tendency” anyway? According to doctrine, the homosexual act is still a sin…

“‘The notion that gays shouldn’t be discriminated against is already in the catechism… Take Francis’ categoric[al] rejection of the ordination of women. “This door is closed,” he said. This shows that when it comes to liberality, the pope is committed to the old gender roles… It is common knowledge in the Catholic Church that supervisors put pressure on gay priests in order to exploit them for their own interests…

“‘While John Paul II and Benedict XVI could be gauged, that’s not possible with Francis. His theology is rather a kind of folk Catholicism of Latin American origin. Much of what is currently fascinating believers is really the Catholic version of the rites of popular evangelical sects. For example, when he asks people at his discretion to bless him before he does it himself, he is acting out a blessing rite of the Pentecostals…

“‘Benedict XVI spoke as he would have written. Almost everything he said was well thought out in every detail. Francis’s statements often contradict each other. So he first said that atheists are devils, only to say shortly later that they are just as good as Christians. Then it was up to his spokesman to correct the statements and put them into perspective accordingly. From an intellectual perspective, the election of Francis is a fiasco for the Catholic Church. But the general public is presumably already won over by his charisma.’”

Archbishop Tutu Rejects God of the Bible

The Daily Mail wrote on July 27:

“The South African Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says he will never worship a ‘homophobic God’ and would rather go to hell than find himself in a ‘homophobic heaven’. The retired archbishop said the fight against homophobia in South Africa was similar to the campaign waged against racial apartheid in South Africa.”