United European Army in Light of Putin’s Remarks?

The Telegraph wrote on December 4:

“Vladimir Putin excoriated the West in a speech on Thursday, comparing his foreign opponents to Adolf Hitler in their desire to destroy Russia… He added: ‘It also didn’t work out for Hitler, who with his man-hating ideas wanted to destroy Russia and throw us beyond the Urals…’

“Mr Putin justified the takeover of Crimea by saying that it was ‘where our people live, and the peninsula is of strategic importance for Russia’ as well as it being the setting for the baptism of the medieval prince Vladimir the Great in the 10th century…”

The Local wrote on December 5:

“The [German] government rejected on Friday the justification given by Russian President Vladimir Putin for annexing the Crimea in his annual state of the nation address. Putin said in his speech on Thursday that the Crimean peninsula was ‘just like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for those of Jewish or Muslim confession’ in its ‘civilisational and sacred meaning’ for Russians…

“Putin further recalled the last time when Western Europe and Russia had come to open war. ‘People should remember how it ended’ when Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet pact to invade the USSR in 1941, he said…

“Putin’s speech came on the same day as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) called for a ‘United European Army’ in a strategy document. SPD defence spokesman Rainer Arnold wrote that… [it] was particularly pointless for different EU nations to maintain nationally isolated arms industries…”

Germany Heavily Dependent on Russia’s Fossil Fuel Supplies

The Local wrote on December 8:

“New figures released on Monday showed that Germany continues to be heavily dependent on Russia for its fossil fuel supplies as tensions remain high over Ukraine. The Federal Institute of Raw Materials (BGR) in Hannover reported that just two percent of Germany’s oil and 12 percent of natural gas were produced within the country in 2013. Those two fuels together account for 55 percent of German energy consumption, with Russia providing one third of the country’s imports.

“Germany is only self-sufficient in renewable energy, brown coal and nuclear energy, which together make up less than a third of the country’s power consumption… Around €142 billion worth of mineral raw materials was imported in 2013, a drop of five percent compared with 2012. Fuel made up the lion’s share of imports at around 70 percent.”

It can be easily foreseen what might happen if Russia was to threaten to cease selling fossil fuel supplies to Germany.

Alliance Between Russia, China and India

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 11:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have announced a deal for Moscow to help New Delhi build [at least ten, apparently as many as twelve] more nuclear reactors – to Washington’s chagrin… Putin added the two nations had also agreed to cooperate in building additional nuclear power plants for third countries.

“The high-level business talks came as Russia continued to suffer from sanctions imposed by the US and the EU over its role in the Ukraine conflict… India has opposed Western sanctions against Russia and looked adamant in disregarding a caution from Washington that now was not the right time to do business with Moscow… Reuters reported that Sergey Aksyonov, the new leader of Crimea, had also arrived in India for talks on boosting trade with the Black Sea region…”

In a related article, Deutsche Welle wrote on December 11:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India underlines his apparent determination to lessen the impact of Western sanctions over Ukraine by deepening ties with Asian countries… [He] is seeking to restore his country’s former prowess on the international stage…  Hence his recent attempts to improve ties first with China, and now with India…

“Narendra Modi was shunned by the West for many years because of his alleged role in a religiously motivated massacre in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. Moreover, Hindu-nationalist Modi distrusts the West’s domination of international organizations and the international media. He is said to reject the spread of Western culture throughout the world… Putin also knows what it is like to be shunned by the West… According to Indian sources, the chemistry between the two leaders is good…

“Since little has come of India’s nuclear deal with the US, Putin has now seized his opportunity… MILITARY COOPERATION is expected to focus on the development of a new fighter jet and a transport aircraft…  

“[According to] Modi’s perspective, the present level of bilateral trade with Moscow totaling a mere ten billion USD annually is only a fraction of trade volumes between Russian and China, and the Indian PM needs more trade… Against this background, it is hardly surprising that the Modi-Putin summit may shape ties between the two countries for the next decade…

“None of this bodes particularly well for US President Barack Obama’s visit to India next month. The West needs to sit up and take notice. A reinvigorated relationship between New Delhi and Moscow, an alliance of the needy, may have a greater impact on the so-called ‘Asian century’ than many had thought possible just a few months ago.”

The Bible prophesies the end-time emergence of the Kings of the East in opposition to the King of the North—the European power bloc under the “beast.” Russia, China, India and other Far Eastern countries will undoubtedly belong to the “Kings of the East.”

Europe’s and Russia’s Dispute Over Bosnia

The Associated Press wrote on December 5:

“The European Union urged Russia on Friday to leave the Balkans out of its dispute with the bloc over Ukraine, and let the region proceed on its path toward EU and NATO memberships. Moscow has said that because of its strained relations with the West, it no longer supports Bosnia’s membership efforts and that there is no consensus in Bosnia over the issue.

“The country’s Bosniacs and Croats tend to look westward, but Bosnian Serbs maintain close ties with Russia, object NATO membership and have obstructed EU-requested reforms…

“For the first time in 14 years, Russia last month abstained from the vote when the U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of the EU-led military presence in Bosnia because the declaration mentioned the country’s European and NATO future too often. ‘We did not want the resolution to be used as an instrument to advance objectives that we were not part of and that is Bosnia-Herzegovina becoming part of NATO,’ or the European Union, Russia’s ambassador to Bosnia, Petr Ivancov, told the Associated Press in an interview…”

According to Zeit Online and Bild Online, dated December 6, more than 60 prominent German personalities from politics, economy, science, religion (Roman Catholic and Protestant) and culture warned in a mutual declaration against the return of war to Europe. Signatories include Luitpold Prinz von Bayern; Dr. Roman Herzog (former German President); Gerhard Schröder (former German Chancellor); and Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel (former Minister of Justice).

“Nobody wants war,” the statement reads, continuing: “But North America, the EU and Russia are moving undeniably towards it, unless the spiral of threats and counter-threats is not stopped. All Europeans, including Russia, are responsible for peace and security. Americans, Europeans and Russians have abrogated the main concept to ban war between them. At this time of great danger for the continent, Germany has a special responsibility for maintaining peace.”

The statement also admonished the German government, the media and politicians in general to report in a balanced way, without creating images of foes and enemies, and without demonizing entire populations and peoples. Rather, people should be freed from the worry of war. Also note the next section.

Merkel—The Best for Staying in Power

The Local wrote on December 7, 2014:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who entered politics when the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, is nearing a decade as leader of Europe’s biggest economy, her popularity ratings still sky-high. Often called the world’s most powerful woman, the pastor’s daughter, trained scientist and master tactician has outlasted a generation of world leaders, WITH NO OBVIOUS SUCCESSOR IN SIGHT… The stunning rise of Merkel, 60 — a twice-married, childless woman from communist East Germany, now often labelled the ‘Queen of Europe’ — defies political convention…

“She joined the nascent group Democratic Awakening, which later merged with the CDU, a party was then led by chancellor Helmut Kohl who fondly and patronisingly dubbed her ‘the girl’. Merkel’s political mentor was neither the first nor last politician to underestimate her and pay the price. When he became embroiled in a campaign finance scandal in 1999, Merkel stuck in the knife, urging her party to drop the self-declared ‘old warhorse’…

“Critics charge she has perfected the art of saying little and avoiding both offence and commitment, while lulling Germany into an apolitical stupor. ‘If politics means shaping reality with ideas, then Merkel is not a politician at all,’ wrote journalist Jakob Augstein. ‘If politics means staying in power, then Merkel is the best.’”

Deutsche Welle added on December 7:

“Angela Merkel has rejected criticisms of her Russia policy made by her predecessors as German chancellor… In an interview with Die Welt am Sonntag, Merkel reproached Russian President Vladimir Putin for standing in the way of East European countries that would like to join the EU or strengthen relations with it. Merkel said ‘Russia created difficulties’ for Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, which had ‘on their own sovereign decisions, signed association agreements with the EU.’…

“The chancellor added that the fact ‘that Russia had broken its guarantees in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 guaranteeing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine must not be without consequences.’

“She also took on chancellery predecessors. Fellow Christian Democrat (CDU) Helmut Kohl, who left office in 1998, and Gerhard Schroeder, the Social Democrat (SPD) whose spot she took in 2005, say Germany’s Russia policy isolates Moscow…”

Core Europe

The Telegraph wrote on December 8:

“European plans to introduce a tax on financial transactions have fallen into disarray, with ministers failing to meet a year-end deadline that would have resulted in the so-called ‘Robin Tax’ being introduced at the start of 2016. Finance ministers from the 11 countries planning to introduce the levy had planned to sign off on a basic outline this week, but internal squabbling has forced further delays….

“The British Government has challenged the idea in the European courts… Latvia – which has expressed scepticism about the tax and does not plan to introduce it – assumes presidency of the European Council from Italy on January 1, another potential roadblock.

“Countries planning to introduce the tax: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia.”

It is interesting that many of the countries (but not all) proposing such a tax belong to the most likely candidates for the prophesied ten nations or groups of nations which will evolve from the current 28 European member states. A core Europe or a Europe of two speeds is clearly predicted. When those ten nations or groups of nations have manifested themselves, they will give their power and authority to the beast who will rule for only a very short time.

All Donkeys Go To Heaven!

The Express wrote on December 5 on its website, express.co.uk:

“‘All donkeys go to heaven!’ [The] Pope says the Kingdom of Heaven is open to ALL God’s creatures.

“POPE Francis has received an unusual early Christmas present of two donkeys, following his declaration that animals do, after all, go to heaven.
 “In his weekly audience in St Peter’s Francis quoted the apostle Paul who comforted a child who was crying after his dog died. ‘One day we will see our animals again in eternity of Christ’, Francis quoted Paul as saying. The Pope added: ‘Paradise is open to all God’s creatures.’

“His position is markedly different from that of Pope Benedict XVI [who] said that the other animals ‘are not called to the eternal life’. This week the pope was presented with the two donkeys, named Thea and Noah, by a company that produces donkey milk for babies that are allergic to other milks. After thanking him for the curious gift, a delighted Francis revealed that he too as a baby was fed donkey milk…

“At the service in St Peter’s Square the Pope also met and blessed rescue dogs… Two years ago Pope Benedict claimed that donkeys were not part of the Nativity. He wrote in his book about the childhood of Jesus that the presence of animals like cattle and donkeys in traditional Nativity scenes is based on little more than a myth and was probably inspired by pre-Christian traditions. ‘There is no mention of animals in the Gospels,’ he wrote.”

Women Bishops in the Catholic Church?

The Austrian edition of the Local wrote on November 11, 2014:

“Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger is a 58-year-old Austrian ex-nun, who made headlines when she was excommunicated by Rome in 2002… [She] came under the spotlight after she and a group of other Catholic women announced they had been ordained as priests by a retired bishop on a boat in the middle of the Danube. The so-called Danube Seven have inspired at least 100 other women to follow in their footsteps. In 2003 Mayr-Lumetzberger took it one stage further by being consecrated a bishop.

“She told The Local that there are very few women priests practising in Austria as the Catholic Church is so powerful here that it can be a difficult life for someone who chooses to make a stand… She says that in Austria and Germany she is now very well accepted and is asked to say mass and conduct weddings and funerals at churches and abbeys. She has ordained women priests herself, mainly foreigners, although she won’t say where they are from for fear of exposing them.

“Pope John Paul II, in 1994, told Catholics that not only were women excluded from the priesthood (because Jesus was a man and the reasoning is that the priest stands in the place of Jesus) but also that the question should not even be discussed. However, Mayr-Lumetzberger believes that Pope Francis is very much in favour of women’s ordination… ‘I was ordained by Argentinian bishop Antonio Braschi, the Pope is Argentinian and I believe sympathetic, and there is a Spanish priest in favour of women’s ordination who is very close to the Pope.’…

“After leaving her order she met her husband, Michael, a historian. He had been married before and had four children. Their wedding was not in church – because he was divorced – but they had a party in the parish house afterwards… She even ran courses for women who felt called to the priesthood. She further antagonised the Vatican by being consecrated a bishop. The ceremony took place in secret and she will not name the male bishops involved in her consecration in case they are disciplined by the Vatican.

“Mayr-Lumetzberger says that she has a good relationship with the official church, and that she is in contact with the bishops in Austria who do not treat her as an outcast. ‘We have unofficial networks–many of my peers are now in top positions in the Roman Catholic Church.’”

The reasoning that women should not be priests or bishops because Jesus was a male and because priests stand in the place of Jesus is of course utterly wrong and totally unbiblical. The reasons why there should be no women pastors or priests and why women should not preach in Church services or regarding activities related the Work of the Church, is explained by the apostle Paul in the Bible (compare 1 Corinthians 14:33-35; 1 Timothy 2:12). But it will be interesting to see how the Catholic Church will proceed under Pope Francis. Also note the next article.

Roman Catholic Church in Ireland Against Gay Marriages

The Christian Post wrote on December 4:

“The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has warned that allowing gay and lesbian couples the same rights to marry as straight couple[s] would be ‘a grave injustice,’ ahead of the country’s upcoming referendum on marriage in 2015. ‘To put any other view of unions on the same level as Christian marriage would be disservice to society rather than a service,’ Bishop Liam MacDaid said… ‘In a same sex union, children would be deprived of what a man and woman can give to children in a stable marriage.’

“The Irish bishops’ views mirror that of the Vatican’s major synod on the family, which over two weeks of meetings in October affirmed the traditional definition of marriage…

“Ireland legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, but still defines marriage between one man and one woman. In May 2015, however, it will become the first country to hold a nationwide referendum on whether gay marriage should be legalized. A… [October 2014] poll suggested that the majority of the Irish population would support such legalization. While 67 percent of those who responded to the survey said they would vote in favor of gay marriage, 20 percent said that they will not. A previous poll from November 2012 saw 64 percent of responders indicate they would support such a change, while 36 percent said no.

“Last week, Finland’s parliament voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, joining another 11 European nations that have approved of the practice. Nearly 8,000 members from the Lutheran Church in Finland announced that they will be resigning from the church after Kari Mäkinen, the Archbishop of Turku and Finland, revealed that he is ‘rejoicing’ with the news.”

Depression During the Christmas Holiday Season

The Independent wrote on December 7:

“… nearly half of men admit that they actually feel depressed or sad over Christmas, a study by the Samaritans has revealed… Around 37 per cent say they feel lonely during a time that is traditionally spent with friends and family and 30 per cent say they are stressed and anxious due to relationship and financial difficulties…

“Men in the UK are three times more likely than women to take their own lives with most of those victims aged between 40 and 44…”

UK One Step Closer to Exit from the EU

The Express wrote on December 8 on its website, express.co.uk:

“Figures buried in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement show that our contribution will soar because the ­European Union’s overall spending is set to rise by £2.4billion. The European Commission will push for the extra spending when EU leaders meet to consider the budget in Brussels on December 18. The extra £400million will raise Britain’s annual contribution to £13.7billion.

“The calculations, which were conducted by a team in the Treasury, suggest the UK will not block the proposal. David Cameron has repeatedly demanded financial austerity from Brussels. But the Treasury failed last month to vote down the proposal when it was discussed by finance ministers.

“The issue of the EU budget has been a thorn in Mr Cameron’s side in recent weeks after the Commission slapped Britain with a bill for £1.7billion in backdated payments. George Osborne says that he managed to halve that bill to £800million, although critics pointed out that he simply agreed to pay what Britain owes, minus the sum returned as part of the UK’s budget rebate.”

The US Senate Report on CIA Torture

The National Journal wrote on December 9:

“A powerful Senate panel released Tuesday a long-awaited report on the Bush administration’s use of ‘enhanced interrogation’ practices, providing a harsh critique of the intelligence community’s methods for obtaining information from detainees in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“The report charges that the practices—implemented by the Central Intelligence Agency in response to the attacks and as the U.S. entered into two wars in the Middle East—did not provide unique or actionable information that could not have been obtained through other means, including intelligence that eventually led to the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s landmark investigation has found.

“Moreover, the report charges the CIA systematically misled the White House, Congress and the public about the severity and importance of those interrogation methods for years, according to the report, while using techniques that were at times not directly approved by the Justice Department or central CIA leadership. The study, which examined more than 6 million internal CIA documents, also concluded that the agency’s management of its rendition, detention and interrogation program, especially during 2002 and 2003, was fundamentally flawed.”

Germany Condemns CIA Practices

Deutsche Welle added on December 10:

“The UN’s special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, said on Wednesday that senior US officials who authorized and tortured prisoners in consonance with former President George W. Bush’s security policy after the September 11, 2001 attacks should be made accountable for committing human rights violations… International law prohibits granting immunity to government officials who allow the use of torture, Emmerson said… [The report] claimed that the CIA’s detention and interrogation program of al Qaeda suspects following the 9/11 attacks included harsh techniques such as waterboarding and ‘Russian roulette’ to force detainees into admission…

“The report sparked controversy all over the world, prompting US President Barack Obama to say that the CIA’s rights violations ‘did significant damage to America’s standing in the world.’ Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the CIA’s activities as documented in the report, saying they amounted to a ‘gross violation of our liberal, democratic values’ and that ‘what was then considered right and done in the fight against Islamic terrorism was unacceptable and a serious mistake.’”

What we should take from this is that America has become again extremely unpopular in the world. True Christians are not part of this world. They are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. They know that this world is ruled by Satan the devil, and all of his methods are evil. Whether we are looking at torture, war (with the infamous justification of “necessary casualties”), use of guns, abortion (when and how) or countless other issues, we must realize that in God’s new world, none of this will exist. Instead, God will rule with justice and fairness—which is not the case in today’s human governments. 

California Drought Worst in 1,200 Years

Newsmax wrote on December 5:

“A combination of record high temperatures and sparse rainfall during California’s three-year drought have produced the worst conditions in 1,200 years, according to a study accepted for publication by the American Geophysical Union.

“The state has gone through numerous periods of dry weather, with as little or less rainfall as the past few years, but scientists looking at the cumulative effects of temperature, low precipitation and other factors said that it all adds up to the worst conditions in more than a millennium… The study by the University of Minnesota and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said that warm, dry conditions have shrunk the supply of surface water from reservoirs, streams and the Sierra Nevada snowpack in the state, even as demand from people and farms has gone up, resulting in unprecedented scarcity…’

“In October, the AGU published a study by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City saying that the 1934 U.S. drought, which caused the upheaval known as the Dust Bowl, was the worst in 1,000 years.”

The Bible prophesies bad weather conditions for the USA in these end-times as part of the predicted curses God will bestow on a nation due to their sins.

“USA and Zionist Conspired Against Egypt”

Newsmax wrote on December 7:

“The Egyptian judge who acquitted former President Hosni Mubarak wrote that the United States and Zionists conspired to launch the January 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak’s government… He backed up his claim by citing testimonies of ‘the nation’s wise men,’ including former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and former defense head Hussein Tantawi, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“The judge also said the Muslim Brotherhood was a key conspirator and aided efforts by Hamas and Hezbollah to infiltrate the country to bring down the Mubarak regime… Mubarak, now 86, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the revolution that ended his 30-year rule. An appeals court overturned the decision, and on Nov. 29 the judge dropped all murder charges against Mubarak, igniting demonstrations in Cairo that claimed two lives.”

Israel Attacks Targets in Syria

The Washington Post wrote on December 7:

“Israeli warplanes bombed targets in territory held by the Syrian government near Damascus on Sunday, underscoring the deepening complexity of the war raging on multiple fronts in Syria and beyond. Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria on at least four occasions since early 2013, but these were the first attacks in many months and the first since the United States began bombing Syria in September.

“Whereas the U.S. raids have targeted positions of the extremist Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, however, the Israeli ones have all been carried out against government facilities in areas loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad… a statement from the Syrian army’s general command said Damascus International Airport and another site in the Damascus countryside were hit. Syrian journalists and activists said the second site was a small civilian airport in Dimas, northwest of the capital on the road to Lebanon. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an import-export warehouse was the target of the attack on the international airport… Israel and Syria have been in a state of war since 1948…”

The Times of Israel wrote on December 8:

“The Syrian and Iranian foreign ministries castigated Israel for airstrikes on two areas near Damascus, calling it an act of aggression that proved Israel was ‘in the same trench’ with extremist groups fighting the Syrian government…

“Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem claimed Israel was trying to compensate for losses incurred by Islamic extremist groups in Syria at the hands of the Syrian army. He did not elaborate. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham also denounced the… Israeli airstrikes, the Fars news agency reported, and accused Israel of collaborating with rebel groups against the ‘oppressed people’ of Syria.

“Arabic media reported Monday that two alleged Israeli airstrikes the day before had targeted advanced Russian-made air-defense missiles bound for Hezbollah.”

As we explain in our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy,” chapters 2 and 4, both Syria and Iran will be ultimately attacked and conquered by the beast power. Nothing is stated in the Bible that Syria will fight against Israel, but it is stated that Iran will, apparently together with the beast. Subsequently, the possibility is indicated that the beast will turn against Iran at the same time (!) when it will fight against Israel, the USA and the UK.

The End of the World

The Telegraph wrote on December 7:

“… many potential threats have been identified to our species, our civilisation or even our planet itself…

“Our solar system is littered with billions of pieces of debris, from the size of large boulders to objects hundreds of miles across. We know that from time to time these hit our Earth. Sixty-five million years ago, an object, possibly a comet a few times larger than the one landed on by the Philae probe last month, hit the Mexican coast and triggered a global winter that wiped out the dinosaurs. And in 1908, a smaller object hit a remote part of Siberia and devastated hundreds of square miles of forest… a dino-killer would certainly be the end of our civilisation and possibly our species…

“A genetically created plague… [is] possibly the most terrifying short-term threat – because it is so plausible… [The result would be potentially] catastrophic…

“Nuclear war [is still] the most plausible ‘doomsday’ scenario. Despite arms limitations treaties, there are more than 15,000 nuclear warheads and bombs in existence – enough, in theory, to kill every human on Earth several times over. Even a small nuclear war has the potential to cause widespread devastation… [The probability is high.] Nine states have nuclear weapons, and more want to join the nuclear club…”

The Independent wrote on December 8:

“Urgent action is needed to minimise the risk of a nuclear war, more than 120 senior military, political and diplomatic figures from across the world have warned… the experts wrote in a letter that the danger of such a conflict was ‘underestimated or insufficiently understood’ by world leaders… 

“‘Tensions between nuclear-armed states and alliances in the Euro-Atlantic area and in both South and East Asia remain ripe with the potential for military miscalculation and escalation,’ says the letter… ‘In a vestige of the Cold War, too many nuclear weapons in the world remain ready to launch on short notice, greatly increasing the chances of an accident.”

Nothing Ruled Out

BBC News wrote on November 28:

“David Cameron has urged other EU leaders to support his ‘reasonable’ proposals for far-reaching curbs on welfare benefits for migrants… Under his plans, migrants would have to wait four years for certain benefits…

“Mr Cameron said he was confident he could change the basis of EU migration into the UK and therefore campaign for the UK to stay in the EU in a future referendum planned for 2017. But he warned that if the UK’s demands fell on ‘deaf ears’ he would ‘rule nothing out’ – the strongest hint to date he could countenance the UK leaving the EU.”

The Guardian wrote on November 28:

“David Cameron has stepped back from a radical plan to cap directly the number of EU migrants entering Britain after an intervention from the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who warned him she would not tolerate such an incursion into the principle of the free movement of workers… In a speech that repeatedly emphasised the benefits of UK membership of the EU, Cameron nevertheless tried also to emphasise his determination to secure his negotiating goal saying: ‘I don’t want to fail, I don’t believe I am going to fail. But to put it beyond doubt I am saying today that if I do fail, I rule absolutely nothing out, and I mean nothing’.

“The German news magazine Der Spiegel called Cameron’s speech blackmail.”

Slavery in Great Britain

The Telegraph wrote on November 29:

“As many as 13,000 people in Britain are being held in conditions of slavery… They include women forced into prostitution, domestic staff and workers in fields, factories and fishing boats… Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said the scale of abuse was ‘shocking’.”

The USA Is Fighting the Wrong Battle

The New York Times wrote on November 27:

“Wissam Tarif, a Lebanese activist who aids Syrian civic groups, said that airstrikes against extremists were useless without a war of ideas. ‘You kill 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 — they will recruit more and more,’ he said. ‘The U.S. is fighting the wrong battle. It needs to fight to win the hearts of the Syrian people. They need to feel that there is someone out there who is a superpower who really cares.’…

“Many Syrians are stuck in the middle. Umm Firas, who lost two sons working to depose Mr. Assad, now fears losing another to army bombardments and insurgent infighting that the United States air attacks have done nothing to stop. She fears the Islamic State will soon penetrate her district on the outskirts of Damascus.”

Newsmax wrote on November 28:

“Syria’s foreign minister said U.S.-led air strikes had failed to weaken Islamic State…”

New York City – Another Ferguson?

The Huffington Post wrote on December 3:

“Judge Andrew Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst for Fox News, said Wednesday that he was shocked by a grand jury’s decision not to indict a New York City police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, describing Garner’s death as ‘criminally negligent homicide.’… ‘This is not Ferguson, Missouri,’ Napolitano continued. ‘This is not somebody wrestling for your gun, this is not where you shoot or be shot at. This is choking to death a mentally impaired, grossly obese person whose only crime was selling cigarettes without collecting taxes on them. This does not call for deadly force by any stretch of the imagination.’…

“Napolitano said he was taken aback by the grand jury’s decision, which was made public on Wednesday. Garner, 43, died July 17 in Staten Island, New York while he was being arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes. A bystander’s video of the arrest shows New York City police Officer Daniel Pantaleo appearing to put Garner in a chokehold, a move that is prohibited under NYPD policy. In the video, Garner screams ‘I can’t breathe!’ multiple times before his body goes limp. A medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide.

“This is the second recent high-profile case in which a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in the killing of an unarmed black civilian, following last week’s decision in the case of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

“A nationwide series of protests erupted immediately following the grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot an unarmed Brown on Aug. 9. New York officials braced for similar protests on Wednesday. While the reaction to the Ferguson grand jury decision largely broke down along party lines, with many conservatives agreeing that Wilson should not have faced trial, Napolitano, a libertarian, is one of a number of conservatives who have expressed outrage at the grand jury’s decision in the Garner case…”

Subsequently, charges were published by the Daily News on December 4 that the grand jury was “rigged.” Ramsey Orta who video-recorded the killing of Garner and who testified before the grand jury, was quoted as saying: “When I went to the grand jury to speak on my behalf, nobody in the grand jury was even paying attention to what I had to say… People were on their phones, people were talking… people were having side conversations…”

Another sad day for the perception of American “justice.”

The USA—More Divided Than Ever

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 3:

“In March 2008, when Barack Obama, then a candidate for president, gave his big speech on racism, he sounded like the one who could unite the country. But in November of this year, Obama is — contrary to his intentions — the president of a country that is more divided than ever before. And one of the deepest divisions runs between blacks and whites… When Obama delivered a statement last Monday evening at the White House about the grand jury decision, he seemed more helpless than at almost any other time during his presidency. Even as he called on blacks in Ferguson to remain calm and peaceful, the first shops were being looted and set on fire. His comments seemed strangely uninspired and apprehensive — as though he had already succumbed to resignation…

“Making matters worse is the discrimination practiced by state institutions such as law enforcement. The chances that a young black man will be shot dead by the police, for example, is 21 times greater than it is for young white males. The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown is far from abnormal. Just 10 days ago, a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland because he was playing with a toy pistol at a playground…

“Six years after Obama’s race speech, more than a quarter of blacks in American live below the poverty line. Among whites, that figure is 12.8 percent. According to the Pew Research Center, the median annual income of a white household was about $27,000 higher than that of a black household in 2011…

“Almost half of all murder victims and about 40 percent of the US prison population are black, even though the African-American share of the population is just 12.6 percent… it is also true that Obama has never really presented himself as an advocate of African-Americans during his time in office…

“Equal opportunity was the subject of Obama’s State of the Union address in January and, in it, he cited two examples. The first was Misty DeMars, a white woman from a Chicago suburb who counts among the long-term unemployed. The second was Estiven Rodriguez, a 17-year-old student from New York who immigrated to the US as a nine-year-old from the Dominican Republican without speaking a word of English. DeMars was meant to represent the difficulty women face in advancing their careers. And Rodriguez served as an example of how immigrants can succeed when given the chance. He didn’t mention a single black person in his speech.”

Pope Francis Seeks Dialogue with Muslims

The Associated Press reported on November 29:

“Pope Francis on Saturday stood in two minutes of silent prayer facing east inside one of Istanbul’s most important religious sites [known as the Blue Mosque]… Francis prayed alongside the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, who had his palms turned toward the sky in a Muslim prayer, inside the 17th-century Sultan Ahmet mosque… The Vatican added the stop at the Blue Mosque at the last minute to show Benedict’s respect for Muslims.

“Francis then visited the nearby Haghia Sofia, which was the main Byzantine church in Constantinople — present-day Istanbul — before being turned into a mosque following the Muslim [Ottoman Turks’] conquest of the city in 1453… A few dozen well-wishers outside Haghia Sophia waved a combination of the Turkish and the flag of the Holy See. One carried a banner that read: ‘You are Peter.’”

Deutsche Welle added on November 29:

“In a gesture of harmony between religions, Pope Francis stood alongside a senior Islamic cleric for a moment of contemplation at Istanbul’s most famous mosque… Pope Francis removed his shoes as he entered the Sultan Ahmet mosque, widely known as the Blue Mosque, on Saturday… [The Pope] was taken through the mosque by Istanbul’s Grand Mufti Rahmi Yaran. The two paused for two minutes facing Mecca alongside each other, the pope closing his eyes, bowing his head and clasping his hands in front of the cross he wore on his chest, the cleric performing an Islamic prayer…

“The three-day papal visit to Turkey is seen as a test of Francis’ ability to build bridges, as he had to establish and strengthen ties with Muslim leaders…”

Reuters wrote on November 30:

“Pope Francis said on Sunday that equating Islam with violence was wrong… Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, caused storms of protest throughout the Islamic world in 2006, when he made a speech that suggested to many Muslims that he believed Islam espoused violence… [Pope Francis said:] ‘You just can’t say that, just as you can’t say that all Christians are fundamentalists. We have our share of them (fundamentalists). All religions have these little groups,’ he said. ‘They (Muslims) say: … “the Koran is a book of peace, it is a prophetic book of peace”’”.

The Pope’s comments are ridiculous. We have proven time and again in our Updates, through direct quotes from the Koran, that those believing and following these teachings cannot be described as peaceful, or that Islam teaches pacifism. Also, the Pope’s inflammatory comments about “fundamentalist” Christians should tell everyone how he views those who live by their belief in the literal inspiration of the Bible.

Pope Francis Seeks Unification with Greek Orthodox Christians

The Associated Press wrote on November 30:

“Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians demanded an end to the persecution of religious minorities in Syria and Iraq on Sunday and called for dialogue with Muslims, capping Francis’ three-day visit to Turkey with a strong show of Christian unity. Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I issued a joint declaration urging leaders in the region to intensify help to victims of the Islamic State group, and especially to allow Christians who have had a presence in the region for 2,000 years to remain on their native lands…

“Francis, who represents the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic Church, and Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, called for ‘constructive dialogue’ with Islam ‘based on mutual respect and friendship.’

“The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054 over differences on the primacy of the papacy, and there was a time when patriarchs had to kiss popes’ feet. At the end of a joint prayer service Saturday evening, Francis bowed to Bartholomew and asked for his blessing ‘for me and the Church of Rome,’ a remarkable display of papal deference to an Orthodox patriarch that underscored Francis’ hope to end the schism.

“In his remarks Sunday, Francis assured the Orthodox faithful gathered in St. George’s that unity wouldn’t mean sacrificing their rich liturgical or cultural patrimony or ‘signify the submission of one to the other, or assimilation. I want to assure each one of you gathered here that, to reach the desired goal of full unity, the Catholic Church does not intend to impose any conditions except that of the shared profession of faith,’ he said.

“The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, acknowledged the novelty in Francis’ message. While experts from both churches continue to debate theological divisions between them, Francis and Bartholomew are ‘pushing with incredible strength toward union’ through their frequent and warm personal contacts, Lombardi said.”

Zenit added on November 30:

“‘We are already on the way towards full communion,” Pope Francis is affirming in regard to the Orthodox… Patriarch Bartholomew said that… while the process of reunification can be sometimes ‘rugged,’… it’s ‘nonetheless irreversible,’ and is needed… Both the Pope and the Patriarch agreed that for various reasons, the upheaval in the Middle East and persecution of Christians makes union all the more urgent…

“the Pope and Patriarch signed a joint declaration… ‘We express our sincere and firm resolution, in obedience to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, to intensify our efforts to promote the full unity of all Christians, and above all between Catholics and Orthodox,’ it stated. The declaration also called for Catholic and Orthodox faithful to ‘join us in praying “that all may be one.”’

As long as the daughter churches [but excluding “fundamentalists” and other “minorities, see above] will return to the “mother church,” the Pope is willing to compromise…

Pope Francis’ Contradictory Messages

ABC News wrote on November 28:

“Pope Francis urged Muslim leaders to condemn the ‘barbaric violence’ being committed in Islam’s name against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as he arrived in neighboring Turkey Friday… He reaffirmed that military force was justified to halt the Islamic State group’s advance… ‘As religious leaders, we are obliged to denounce all violations against human dignity and human rights… As such, any violence which seeks religious justification warrants the strongest condemnation because the omnipotent is the God of life and peace.’”

On the one hand, Pope Francis says that military force (i.e., “violence”) against religious fanatics is justified. With the same breath, he states that “any violence” seeking religious justification must be condemned. So what is it?

Donald Tusk—The New President of the EU Council

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 26:

“With the appointment of Donald Tusk as president of the powerful EU Council, a politician from Eastern Europe will be placed in one of Brussels’ most important positions for the first time… Tusk wanted to prove that his country was a responsible EU member — and he succeeded. Another reason for his successful foreign policy is Poland’s good relationship with Germany…”

We have felt for a long time that Catholic Poland will play an important role in Europe.

Meet Angela Merkel’s Germany and Europe

The New Yorker wrote on December 1, 2014:

“Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany… is the world’s most powerful woman… On a continent where the fear of Germany is hardly dead, Merkel’s air of ordinariness makes a resurgent Germany seem less threatening… The ongoing monetary crisis of the euro zone has turned Germany, Europe’s largest creditor nation, into a regional superpower—one of Merkel’s biographers calls her ‘the Chancellor of Europe.’… American politics is so polarized that Congress has virtually stopped functioning; the consensus in Germany is so stable that new laws pour forth from parliament while meaningful debate has almost disappeared…

“Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who was Germany’s defense minister between 2009 and 2011, said that Merkel took a ‘Machiavellian’ approach to the [euro zone] crisis. She had the stamina to keep her options open as long as possible, and then veiled her decisions behind ‘the cloud of complexity.’ Guttenberg said, ‘This made it easier for her to change her mind several times rather dramatically, but at the time no one noticed at all.’… Merkel realized that she could not allow the euro-zone crisis to capsize the project of European unity. ‘If the euro falls, then Europe falls,’ she declared…

“Merkel’s commitment to a united Europe is not that of an idealist. Rather, it comes from her sense of German interest—a soft form of nationalism that reflects the country’s growing confidence and strength. The historic German problem, which Henry Kissinger described as being ‘too big for Europe, too small for the world,’ can be overcome only by keeping Europe together… She needs Europe because… Europe makes Germany bigger…

“When the Wall fell, Putin was a K.G.B. major stationed in Dresden. He used his fluent German and a pistol to keep a crowd of East Germans from storming the K.G.B. bureau and looting secret files, which he then destroyed. Twelve years later, a far more conciliatory Putin, by then Russia’s President, addressed the Bundestag ‘in the language of Goethe, Schiller, and Kant,’ declaring that ‘Russia is a friendly-minded European country’ whose ‘main goal is a stable peace on this continent.’ Putin praised democracy and denounced totalitarianism, receiving an ovation from an audience that included Merkel… As a Russian speaker who hitchhiked through the Soviet republics in her youth, Merkel has a feel for Russia’s aspirations and resentments which Western politicians lack. In her office, there’s a framed portrait of Catherine the Great, the Prussian-born empress who led Russia during a golden age in the eighteenth century. But, as a former East German, Merkel has few illusions about Putin. After Putin’s speech at the Bundestag, Merkel told a colleague, ‘This is typical K.G.B. talk. Never trust this guy.’…

“In early 2008, when President George W. Bush sought to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, Merkel blocked the move out of concern for Russia’s reaction and because it could cause destabilization along Europe’s eastern edge. Later that year, after Russia invaded two regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Merkel changed her position and expressed openness to Georgia’s joining NATO. She remained careful to balance European unity, the alliance with America, German business interests, and continued engagement with Russia…

“When, this past March, Russia annexed Crimea and incited a separatist war in eastern Ukraine, it fell to Merkel to succeed where earlier German leaders had catastrophically failed. The Russian aggression in Ukraine stunned the history-haunted, rule-upholding Germans. ‘Putin surprised everyone,’ including Merkel, her senior aide told me. ‘The swiftness, the brutality, the coldheartedness. It’s just so twentieth century—the tanks, the propaganda, the agents provocateurs.’…

“Merkel ruled out military options, yet declared that Russia’s actions were unacceptable—territorial integrity was an inviolable part of Europe’s postwar order—and required a serious Western response. For the first time in her Chancellorship, she didn’t have the public with her. In early polls, a plurality of Germans wanted Merkel to take a middle position between the West and Russia. A substantial minority—especially in the former East—sympathized with Russia’s claim that NATO expansion had pushed Putin to act defensively, and that Ukrainian leaders in Kiev were Fascist thugs. Helmut Schmidt, the Social Democratic former Chancellor, expressed some of these views, as did Gerhard Schröder—who had become a paid lobbyist for a company controlled by the Russian state oil-and-gas giant Gazprom, and who celebrated his seventieth birthday with Putin, in St. Petersburg, a month after Russia annexed Crimea. The attitude of Schmidt and Schröder deeply embarrassed the Social Democrats.

“A gap opened up between élite and popular opinion: newspapers editorializing for a hard line against Russia were inundated with critical letters. Merkel, true to form, did nothing to try to close the divide…

“Merkel takes a characteristically unsentimental view of Russia. Alexander Lambsdorff, a German member of the European Parliament, said, ‘She thinks of Russia as a traditional hegemonic power that was subdued for a while and now has reëmerged.’ Ukraine forced Merkel into a juggling act worthy of Bismarck, and she began spending two or three hours daily on the crisis. Publicly, she said little, waiting for Russian misbehavior to bring the German public around. She needed to keep her coalition in the Bundestag on board, including the more pro-Russian Social Democrats. And she had to hold Europe together, which meant staying in close touch with twenty-seven other leaders and understanding each one’s constraints: how sanctions on Russia would affect London’s financial markets; whether the French would agree to suspend delivery of amphibious assault ships already sold to the Russians; whether Poland and the Baltic states felt assured of NATO’s support; the influence of Russian propaganda in Greece; Bulgaria’s dependence on Russian gas. For sanctions to bite, Europe had to remain united…

“Germans told me that anti-Americanism in Germany is more potent now than at any time since the cruise-missile controversy of the early eighties… In a sense, German anti-Americanism is always waiting to be tapped…

“Earlier this year, President Joachim Gauck made headlines when he called on Germany to take its global responsibilities more seriously, including its role in military affairs. It was the kind of speech that Merkel (who had no comment) would never give, especially after a poll commissioned by the foreign ministry in May showed that sixty per cent of the public was skeptical of greater German involvement in the world. German journalists find Merkel nearly impossible to cover… The private Merkel they admire and enjoy but are forbidden to quote disappears in public. Any aide or friend who betrays the smallest confidence is cast out…”

Putin Tells the World

The Associated Press reported on December 4:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin in his annual speech on Thursday defended the Kremlin’s aggressive foreign policy, saying the actions are necessary for his country’s survival. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March and was later accused of supplying pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine with ammunition and manpower…. ‘No one will succeed in defeating Russia militarily,’ he said. ‘They would have been delighted to let us go the way of Yugoslavia and the dismemberment of the Russian peoples, with all the tragic consequences. But it did not happen. We did not allow it to happen.’”

In a related article, the Associated Press wrote on December 4:

“Putin… described [Crimea] as Russia’s spiritual ground, ‘our Temple Mount,’ and added that national pride and sovereignty are ‘a necessary condition for survival’ of Russia.”

Mubarak Acquitted

Deutsche Welle reported on November 29:

“An Egyptian court on Saturday rejected a case against former President Hosni Mubarak for alleged involvement in the killing of protesters during a 2011 uprising against his 30-year rule. Mubarak, along with his sons Alaa and Gamal, was also cleared on a separate corruption charge related to gas exports to Israel, but will remain in prison on other charges of embezzlement. The court also acquitted former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six of his aides on charges of ordering the killings.

“Mubarak had been charged with having failed to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the revolt, which ultimately led to his ouster. Eight-hundred Egyptians died during the protests. Saturday’s rulings can be appealed… In June 2012, a court sentenced Mubarak to life imprisonment on the charges, but this ruling was overturned in early 2013, and a retrial ordered. He is the first-ever Egyptian ruler to be tried and sent to prison. He is already also serving a three-year sentence on separate embezzlement charges in a case that saw his two sons put behind bars for four years.

“The 86-year-old Mubarak has been staying at an army hospital in southern Cairo on grounds of poor health. He was flown by helicopter to the Cairo Criminal Court to hear his verdict and sentencing, state media said… His successor as president, Islamist Mohamed Morsi, is also on trial after being removed from power in July 2013 by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who has since himself been elected to the post. Morsi stands accused of having committed acts of violence both during the revolt against Mubarak and during later protests against his own rule that led to his own downfall.

“Since Morsi’s removal, Egyptian police have waged a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood followers in which at least 1,400 people have died.”

BBC News added on November 29:

“The verdict means no-one has been held responsible for the killing of more than 800 protesters during the 2011 revolution. It is as if the dead committed mass suicide, said one Egyptian journalist on Twitter. Relatives of those killed in 2011 had awaited Saturday’s verdict with trepidation. Mahmoud Ibrahim Ali, whose wife was killed, had little faith in the judiciary, believing it simply did the government’s bidding. ‘The regime is the same,’ he told AP news agency. ‘Names have changed but everything is the same.’’’

It seems, nothing ever changes in Egypt.

Early Elections in Israel?

TSA wrote on December 2:

“For the second time in about two years, Israel appears to be headed toward elections. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference Tuesday that he will support a bill to dissolve the Knesset, leading to elections next spring. Ahead of the announcement, Netanyahu fired two key Cabinet ministers, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, after they publicly criticized his performance as prime minister…

“The collapse heralds an acrimonious end to a coalition of rivals ranging from the nationalist-right to the center-left… Should Netanyahu win another term, he has indicated that he will revert to a more stable coalition of right-wing parties — including the haredi Orthodox factions…

“The Knesset is likely to approve new elections in the coming days, leading to a national vote in March or April…”

Rise of the Occult

The Daily Mail wrote on November 30:

“Ouija boards are flying off the shelves. Not in the super- natural sense — but the commercial one. The device, said to be a method of contacting the spirit world, is experiencing an unexpected renaissance. Google reports that sales of the board are up 300 per cent, and it is threatening to become a Christmas ‘must buy’.

“The culprit is Hollywood, and a new horror film titled Ouija. Low-budget, lowbrow, it tells a familiar story — of kids dabbling with the ‘other side’ and coming off second best. The critics hammered it, but cinema-going teens, looking for something scary in the Halloween season, loved it… Cue big box office takings and huge demand for Ouija boards, many manufactured by the American toys giant Hasbro. Being a canny company, Hasbro even helped finance the making of the film Ouija, which has put new life into the business of talking to the dead…

“‘It’s like opening a shutter in one’s soul and letting in the supernatural,’ says Peter Irwin-Clark, a Church of England vicar who has witnessed the dark side of Ouija. ‘There are spiritual realities out there and they can be very negative.’

“The board itself is a simple thing, combining the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 0 to 9 with the words Yes, No and Good-Bye. With it comes a planchette or pointer. Players are told to sit around the board, each place two fingers ‘lightly’ on the pointer, and concentrate — before starting to ask questions in turn. ‘Ask your questions slowly and clearly,’ read the instructions. ‘And wait to see what the planchette spells out for you.’ The planchette then ‘moves of its own volition’ towards specific letters and numbers, according to Christina Oakley Harrington, proprietor of Treadwell’s, a London bookshop specialising in the esoteric and the occult. ‘You feel it pulling away from the fingers. I’m not dim — I have a PhD — but it’s not being pushed. It’s mysterious.’…

“The year 1973 saw the release of hit film The Exorcist, in which a young girl takes to communicating with an unseen being by means of such a board. The being is a demon that goes on to possess her… William Peter Blatty, author of the novel on which it was based, was inspired by a tale from the Forties, about Roland Doe. The teenager was said to have become possessed after playing with a Ouija board for long spells, his spiritual infestation manifested by scratches, levitation and poltergeist activity…”

These demonic activities must be avoided by all means.

Israel Notifies the World

The Jerusalem Post wrote on November 22:

“Israel has issued a stark, public warning to its allies with a clear argument: Current proposals [regarding Iran] guarantee the perpetuation of a crisis, backing Israel into a corner from which military force against Iran provides the only logical exit…

“Israel is telling the world that it will not wait to see whether inspectors do their jobs as ordered… Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened the use of force against Iran several times since 2009, even seeking authorization from his cabinet in 2011. Iran’s program has since grown in size and scope…

“Whether Israel still has the ability to strike Iran, without American assistance, is an open question… But responding to claims… over Netanyahu’s courage and will, [an] Israeli official responded sternly: ‘The prime minister is a very serious man who knows the serious responsibility that rests on his shoulders. He wouldn’t say the statements that he made if he didn’t mean them. People have underestimated Israel many, many times in the past,’ he continued, ‘and they underestimate it now.’”

Newsmax wrote on November 24:

“If negotiators allow Iran to continue with its nuclear energy program, Israel ‘may have no choice’ but to launch pre-emptive military strikes against Iranian targets to delay development of nuclear weapons, former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV on Monday. And even then… Israeli military action can only ‘set back’ Iran’s nuclear program by a few years, not destroy it for good — a capability only the United States military possesses… Dershowitz… called military strikes on Iran ‘the second worst option’ — the worst being a scenario in which Iran becomes a nuclear power, given past threats by Iranian politicians to annihilate the Jewish state…

“Dershowitz said that U.S. negotiators, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have their reasoning ‘absolutely backwards’ on how to foil Iran’s nuclear ambitions while gaining Iranian cooperation against a common adversary — the Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria and Iraq…”

Iran Screams… and the West Delays…

Newsmax wrote on November 24:

“Secretary of State John Kerry is reportedly being forced to negotiate with a screamer in nuclear talks with Iran…  Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has reportedly screamed so loud in negotiations that bodyguards standing watch outside the room have been alerted and rushed inside, the Free Beacon noted as Kerry continued talks in Vienna on Monday.

“Word of Zarif’s conduct was passed along to Farsi-speaking media by another Iranian diplomat who has been present at the negotiations, the Free Beacon added, noting he had discussed the proceedings on conditions of anonymity… While a deadline was set for Monday, the talks have now been extended until the end of June 2015…”

The EUObserver added on November 25:

“Talks on Iran’s nuclear programme have been extended until July, with the EU wondering whether to keep Catherine Ashton in the process… If the process succeeds, it will give the West a fully-fledged partner in its fight against [the] Islamic State and open a new market of 76 million people. If it fails, it could end in an Israeli-Iran war.

“Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu told the BBC on Monday that Iran is like Nazi Germany on the eve of WWII. ‘If this position [non-appeasement] had been taken against Germany in the 1930s it would have offended German pride but it would have saved millions of lives’, he said… But Zarif, in Vienna, retorted that Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, is the most dangerous country in the Middle East…”

Jerusalem… “Unleashing Uncontrollable Forces”

The Los Angeles Times wrote on November 21:

“… figures from Pope Francis to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have voiced alarm over the explicitly religious character of recent violence in Jerusalem and its environs… ‘The true danger … is that the wave of terror will turn into a true religious war, such as has not yet occurred here,’ columnist Ben Caspit wrote this week in the Maariv newspaper…

“At the conflict’s heart… is the iconic Old City plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. In recent weeks, it has served as the principal rallying cry for Palestinian attackers…

“The biblical Mt. Moriah — site of the ancient Jewish temples and of Islam’s third-holiest venue, Al Aqsa mosque — has for the last half-century been governed by an arrangement known as the ‘status quo,’ under which only Muslims are allowed to pray on the plateau. Jews, largely adhering to mainstream rabbinical injunctions against ascending the mount and perhaps inadvertently treading on the Holy of Holies — the inner sanctum where the Ark of the Covenant was once kept — prayed instead at the adjoining Western Wall.

“For several months, though, a movement spearheaded by Jewish activists has surged to greater prominence… the dispute over the holy site appears on track to intensify, not ease.

“A Tel Aviv University survey this month indicated that while a relatively slender majority of Israeli Jews — 56% — supported retaining the status quo, more than one-third wanted the prayer ban lifted, even if it resulted in bloodshed. Columnist Nahum Barnea observed in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that the shift from a national conflict to a religious one could unleash forces neither side could control…”

More and More Radical German Islamists Fight for ISIS

The Local wrote on November 23:

“Hundreds of Germans have left their home country to fight alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. ‘We estimate 550. Just a few days ago we had 450,’ the minister told German television channel Phoenix on Friday. ‘These young people… were radicalized in Germany, within this society. That’s why prevention must be accompanied by repression,’ he added.

“Most of those who have joined the Islamic State organisation’s jihadist cause are men, although some women have also travelled to the two war-torn countries. De Maiziere said authorities are keeping a close watch on some 230 more people who are considered potential threats on German soil. ‘We cannot exclude, and in certain cases it’s actually quite possible, that they are preparing an attack,’ the minister said… Concerns are mounting in Europe over the growing national security threat posed by jihadists returning from war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.”

Deutsche Welle reported on November 23:

“At least 60 Germans have died fighting alongside militants from the jihadist group ‘Islamic State’ (IS) with at least nine being killed in suicide attacks, Germany’s domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen said in an interview published Sunday. Maassen told the weekly Bild am Sonntag that some 550 radical German Islamists had gone to conflict regions in Syria and Iraq to help IS in an offensive that has seen the group capture large amounts of territory in both countries in recent months. German authorities were increasingly concerned about the high figure, which had gone up more rapidly in the past six weeks, he said, calling it ‘a sad success for Islamist propaganda.’

“Maassen said that some 180 German jihadists were thought to have returned home, creating a dangerous potential for attacks within Germany itself. Authorities were deliberating on measures to monitor their activities, he said, but admitted that intelligence services did not have the capacity to watch over all of them all of the time.”

…and Radical British Islamists Too…

Breitbart wrote on November 23:

“There may be as many as 2,000 Brits currently fighting with ISIS, a Muslim Labour MP has claimed. His estimate, based on his experience as a Member of Parliament for the predominantly Muslim constituency of Birmingham Perry Barr, is roughly four times as high as the official estimate released by the authorities before the summer.

“His comments come amid growing fears that the British borders are porous to terrorists leaving for, and returning from fighting in Syria and Iraq, fuelled by the Home Office’s refusal to reveal how many people have been arrested at British ports and airports in relation to terrorist offences in Syria…  around 250 British jihadis are known to have returned to the UK from Syria and Iraq, yet only 30 arrests have been made, leaving a number of hardened fighters walking the streets of Britain…

“The Muslim Council of Britain accused the government of not doing enough to prevent potential terrorists from leaving the country…”

Britain a Lame Duck, and Germany THE Leader

The Telegraph wrote on November 24:

“Britain is already a lame duck within the EU’s internal governing structure and is losing influence ‘by the day’ in Brussels, even before David Cameron holds a referendum on withdrawal. This self-isolation has upset the European balance of power in profound ways, leading ineluctably to German hegemony and a unipolar system centred on Berlin…

“Smaller states no longer form clusters of alliances… They are instead scrambling to adapt to a new European order where only one state now counts. So too is the EU’s permanent civil service and the institutional machinery in Brussels and Luxembourg. Such is the verdict of Roman Prodi, the former Italian premier and ex-president of the European Commission… ‘France is ever more disoriented and Britain is losing power by the day in Brussels after its decision to hold a referendum on EU membership,’ he said. ‘All the countries that previously maintained an equilibrium between Germany, France, and Britain (from Poland, to the Baltic States, passing through Sweden and Portugal) are regrouping under the German umbrella,’ he told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

“‘Germany is exercising an almost solitary power. The new presidents of the Commission and the Council are men who rotate around Germany’s orbit, and above all there is a very strong (German) presence among the directors, heads of cabinet and their deputies. The bureaucracy is adapting to the new correlation of forces,’ he said. ‘Even the Americans are doing so. When there is a problem between Europe and the United States, President Obama telephones Mrs Merkel, not the British prime minister. In short, Germany has become the referee of Europe. As is well known, the rules in football are enforced when the referee whistles, and right now Germany is issuing the yellow card to a lot of countries,’ he said…

“German hegemony is entirely unwelcome to Germany itself, and that is part of the problem. Frightened of its own historical shadows… Germany still tries to think and behave much of the time as a subordinate power, like a large Sweden. But it is not a large Sweden; it is the policy-maker for a bloc of over 500m people. It denies its own leadership…  It is simply unthinkable that the EU can survive as a reconstituted Holy Roman Empire governed from Berlin, yet without at least the charisma and sanctity bestowed on the medieval Hohenstaufen by Rome.”

The irony of history is that this is EXACTLY what the Bible prophesies is going to happen… “a reconstituted Holy Roman Empire governed from Berlin” with a “sanctity” bestowed “by Rome.” For more information, please read our free booklets, “Europe in Prophecy” and “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.” 

Pope: Europe Needs to Unite and Appreciate its Religious Roots

Deutsche Welle reported on November 25:

“Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Pope Francis has urged the EU to remember the aims of its founders… Referring to the worsening worldwide situation of religious extremism, the pope also called on Europe to ‘appreciate its religious roots’ which he believes will create a Europe which will be ‘all the more immune to the many forms of extremism spreading in the world’… After less than four hours, the Argentine Pope’s airplane was scheduled [to] take off for Rome – leaving behind a clear message for Europe’s politicians to unite.”

America’s Futile War in Afghanistan… Not Over Yet?

The Associated Press reported on November 22:

“U.S. troops in Afghanistan may once again engage Taliban fighters, not just al-Qaida terrorists, under new guidelines quietly approved by President Barack Obama, administration officials say.

“The armed forces were to limit their operations in Afghanistan to counterterrorism missions against al-Qaida after this year, until Obama broadened the guidelines in recent weeks… Obama’s decision also means the U.S. can conduct air support when needed.

“The Taliban’s presence in Afghanistan far exceeds that of al-Qaida, adding significance to Obama’s authorization. The president’s decision came in response to requests from military commanders who wanted troops to be allowed to continue to battle the Taliban, the U.S. officials said.”

The Ouster of Chuck Hagel

The New York Times wrote on November 24:

“Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned under pressure on Monday after President Obama determined that he had to shake up his national security team in the face of escalating conflicts overseas and hawkish Republicans reasserting themselves on Capitol Hill.

“It was a striking reversal for a president who chose Mr. Hagel two years ago in part to limit the power of Pentagon officials who had repeatedly pushed for more troops in Afghanistan and a slower drawdown of American forces from Iraq. But in the end, Mr. Hagel’s passivity and lack of support in Mr. Obama’s inner circle proved too much for an administration that found itself back on a war footing…

“White House officials also expressed annoyance over a sharply critical two-page memo that Mr. Hagel sent to Ms. Rice last month, in which he warned that the administration’s Syria policy was in danger of unraveling because of its failure to clarify its intentions toward President Bashar al-Assad… If the ouster of Mr. Hagel was intended to minimize coming fights with Congress, the Republicans were not impressed on Monday. ‘The Obama administration is now in the market for their fourth secretary of defense,’ Representative Howard (Buck) McKeon, Republican of California, said. ‘When the president goes through three secretaries, he should ask, “Is it them, or is it me?”’

“Mr. Hagel, who followed Robert M. Gates and Leon E. Panetta at the Pentagon, will continue to serve until Mr. Obama’s next defense secretary is confirmed, which could take some time…

“Now… the American military is in escalating crises. Some 3,000 American troops are being deployed in Iraq to help the Iraqi military fight the Sunni militants of the Islamic State, even as the administration struggles to come up with, and articulate, a strategy to defeat the group in both Iraq and Syria…”

Politico added on November 24:

“Hagel reckoned, he wasn’t the kind of gung-ho, wartime consigliere Obama needed as he recalibrates his national security strategy to deal with a new round of conflict in the Middle East… More broadly, the dumping of Hagel leaves unanswered the key foreign policy dilemma that hangs over the remainder of Obama’s presidency: It’s clear that Obama, propelled to office six years ago on the promise of ending two unpopular wars, must now radically readjust his priorities from a posture of military withdrawal and Pentagon budget cuts to one of engagement, but it’s not at all clear how he plans to do so.”

The Washington Post wrote on November 24:

“When Barack Obama looks in the mirror these days, he must see a terrifying visage staring back at him: that of George W. Bush. In a cruel echo of history, Obama is morphing into the president whose foreign policy he campaigned to overturn. Obama on Monday morning sacked his Pentagon secretary, Chuck Hagel, after huge midterm election losses in the sixth year of his presidency — just as Bush did in sacking Donald Rumsfeld after midterm losses in the sixth year of his presidency.

“As with Bush, the ouster comes as a war in the Middle East is going badly — then, the Iraq war, now, the bombing of the Islamic State terror group. Rumsfeld’s ouster led to the surge in Iraq, and Hagel’s departure comes amid signs of an expanded role for U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. And, as under Bush, this guarantees that Obama will leave his successor an ongoing U.S. war in the Mideast — quite possibly the sort of ground war Obama vowed to undo…

“The Republican former senator, a decorated veteran and the first enlisted man to hold the top job at the Pentagon, was brought in to help Obama wind down wars and to shrink the Pentagon. His strong ties to the military and his reluctance to use force (he had opposed the Iraq surge) made him an ideal man for the job, and his battle wounds from Vietnam gave him the moral authority to answer the chicken hawks who opposed the contraction of the military.

“But now Islamic militants have taken over much of Iraq and Syria… Hagel stuck to the safe terrain of praising the ‘fun’ of team building, taking care to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Hagel, a man of peace, can now at least enjoy the holiday, knowing he’ll be free of this new war once the Senate confirms a successor…  For Hagel’s boss, being dragged into expanding just the sort of war he was elected to end, there is no such relief.”

“Romania’s Obama Moment”? – No Way!

The EUObserver wrote on November 21:

“[Klaus] Iohannis is Romania’s newly-elected president. After his surprise win on Sunday (16 November), when the German-speaking, Lutheran mayor of Sibiu became the first Romanian president from an ethnic and religious minority, he is being compared to Barack Obama – the first black president of the US. On Facebook, he has just passed 1.1 million fans, more than German leader Angela Merkel or Italy’s Matteo Renzi.

“But despite his popularity, he is neither a populist, nor, like Obama, a gifted orator. In his victory speech on Monday, Iohannis, a 55-year old physics teacher, was as down-to-earth as it gets, his main message being: ‘The campaign is over. Let’s get to work now’.

“His online campaign manager, Vlad Tausance, said in an interview that Iohannis ought to have been difficult to promote on the Internet. ‘He does not take cat pictures (although he has five adopted cats). He refuses to use his family in the campaign (although he has a wonderful and elegant wife). He does not want to give personal details (although he is passionate about cycling and roses)’.

“But it turned out Iohannis did not need the ‘stupid recipes’, as Tausance described the online cliches. ‘All we did was to be coherent in communicating his real personality… Why should moderation or consistency be seen as defects? Why should seriousness be a handicap? Is decency so boring?’, Tausance said. Iohannis’ common-sense attitude and his strong support for rule of law made his victory possible. During the elections he said: ‘I prefer losing than being rude’…

“Looking beyond Romania’s Obama moment, Iohannis’ election also comes amid a wider trend in the region – the emergence of increasingly populist and nationalist leaders in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia. It’s true that Iohannis will have to work with Ponta as prime minister and as the leader of a strong parliament majority. But Ponta will also have to work with Iohannis: Just two days after the election, parliament repealed the amnesty bill on corruption convicts. The same day, parliament also lifted the immunity of several MPs under investigation for graft, who had been shielded for months…

“As a German-speaker and as a member of the same centre-right political family as German chancellor Angela Merkel, he is likely to get along well with the de facto leader of the EU… Romania will ‘graduate from the EU integration school and become a mature, strong and respected EU state’, he said.”

Finland [and Sweden] on the Edge

The Washington Post wrote on November 23:

“Wedged hard against Russia’s northwestern border, peaceable Finland has long gone out of its way to avoid prodding the nuclear-armed bear next door. But now the bear is provoking Finland, repeatedly guiding military planes into Finnish airspace and deploying submarines and helicopters to chase after Finnish research vessels in international waters.

“The incidents are part of a pattern of aggressive Russian behavior that has radiated across Europe but that has been especially unnerving for countries such as Finland that live outside the protective bubble of NATO. As Russian-backed separatists have eviscerated another non-NATO neighbor this year — Ukraine — Finnish leaders have watched with growing alarm. They are increasingly questioning whether the nonaligned path they navigated through the Cold War can keep them safe as Europe heads toward another period of dangerous standoffs between West and East.  ‘We have a long history with Russia — not that peaceful all the time. So everything the Russians are doing, surely the Finns notice and think very carefully about what that might mean,’ Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in an interview… In the case of the recent air incursions, he said, the message was clear: ‘They were testing how we’d react.’

“Niinisto said Finland’s ­response — scrambling American-made F-18 Hornet fighter jets to intercept the Russian planes — was strong enough to ward off further Russian aggression. But the palpable anxiety in this country… reflects how unsettled Europe has become since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March. Many in Helsinki are convinced that Russia will not remain deterred for long… Elisabeth Rehn, a former Finnish defense minister [said:] ‘It’s only been 100 years since we gained our independence from Russia. Crimea was a part of Russia, too. Will they try to take back what belonged to them 100 years ago?’ Rehn said she doubts Russia would go that far but said the fear of Russian military aggression is real. ‘We don’t have a normal relationship with Russia,’ said Rehn… ‘We all like the Russians. They sing the same melancholic songs that we do. But we are afraid of their leadership.’

“Finland is hardly the only one. Next door in Sweden, the country’s armed forces mounted their largest operation since the Cold War last month to hunt for a suspected Russian submarine. Swedish defense chiefs may have viewed the hunt as a chance to compensate for a conspicuous lapse last year, when Russian warplanes simulated an air assault on Stockholm and the Swedish military failed to react. Like Finland, Sweden has remained outside NATO even as other Baltic nations — including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have joined…

“Finland, a nation of 5 million people, has an 800-mile border with Russia, which has a population nearly 30 times as large. Moscow would undoubtedly consider NATO membership a direct challenge in territory that was marked as neutral space during the Cold War. A Kremlin adviser said earlier this year that if Finland and Sweden join NATO, it could lead to World War III…”

Dangerous Tattoos

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 20:

“… the chemistry in [tattoos] is unambiguous, with experts warning some ink may cause cancer.  Would you let someone inject a few grams of car polish under your skin? Or soot produced by burning crude oil? Obviously not. But this is basically what you might get if you choose to have a tattoo done. ‘The substances used to create these lasting and high-contrast tattoos were developed for printers and cars,’ says Wolfgang Bäumler, a professor in the department of dermatology at the University of Regensburg. ‘And the chemistry remains the same.’

“Large chemistry companies produce the colorful pigments used in tattoos, but mainly for industry. Smaller companies buy the pigments and make tattoo ink out of them. ‘The chemical industry says these substances have never been tested for injection under the skin,’ says Peter Laux of Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). ‘They are simply not made for that.’…

“Recent US studies have also shown that only two thirds of the ink used in a tattoo stays in the skin. The other one third spreads through the body. ‘It migrates into the blood, the lymph nodes, the organs,’ Bäumler says. ‘Nobody knows where exactly or what happens with it.’

“The chemicals responsible for red, orange and yellow colors are azo compounds, organic substances which have a reputation of being problematic. They often cause allergic reactions. Some of them – for example, the red pigment 22 – may decompose when a tattoo is brought into sunlight, Bäumler says. The resulting compounds are toxic and can cause cancer.

“Substances called phthalocyanines make blue or green tattoos. They often contain metals such as copper and nickel. Brown inks made out of iron oxides also contain nickel. Nickel can cause an allergic reaction and is prohibited in cosmetics. But it is common in tattoo ink.

“Black tattoos are created with inks containing a material called carbon black. Carbon black is produced by burning crude oil or other products, such as tar and rubber. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons form during the production of carbon black – and they can cause cancer.

“When tattoos are removed with a laser, the color pigments are released and spread even more through the body. But the health risks are not down to pigments alone. ‘Tattoo ink can contain other substances,’ says the BfR. ‘For instance, solvents, thickener, preservatives, as well as multiple contaminants.’…

“In Germany, as in many other countries, tattoo inks are neither regarded as drugs nor as cosmetics – and this is where part of the problem lies. Drugs and cosmetics need to be approved for market. Safety tests for drugs are required to show what happens to the substance when it enters the body – how it is metabolized and what other substances can form as a result. With tattoo inks, no such regulations or tests exist. But experts say they should… And the situation is similar in Europe and in the US.

“Even professional tattoo artists agree things should be better. ‘Tattoo colors are not really safe at the moment,’ said Andreas Schmidt, vice chairman of the German association of professional tattoo artists, at a symposium in Berlin…

“Professor Bäumler says he had once planned an animal experiment to find out what happens to tattoo ink inside the body, but that the experiment was stopped when a court decided animal experiments were unnecessary as ‘people get tattooed voluntarily…’”

For further information on the biblical perspective of tattoos, please read our Q&A on the subject. Please also read Part 7 of our free booklet, “Old Testament Laws—Still Valid today?” 

Unlawful Conduct of CPS and Police in Homeschooling Case

The following article was published on the website of HSLDA in November:

“On November 14, 2014, Home School Legal Defense Association filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Chief Sheriff’s Deputy David Glidden and Sheriff Darren White of the sheriff’s department of Nodaway County, Missouri. The suit charges Glidden and White with unlawfully forcing their way into the home of HSLDA members Laura and Jason Hagan on September 30, 2011, in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.

“A child protective services (CPS) caseworker had been inside the home several days earlier to investigate a report of a messy house and had returned for a follow-up visit. When Jason and Laura declined to allow her inside she summoned Glidden and White. When Deputy Glidden arrived at the Hagans’ home he demanded to be allowed inside. Jason opened the door and told Glidden that he could not enter unless he had a court order.

“Glidden said he would enter anyway. As Jason turned to go back inside, Glidden sprayed him with pepper spray—first at the back of his head and then directly in his face. Glidden also sprayed Laura, who fell to the floor. Glidden then turned to Jason, who was still standing, and shot him in the back with his Taser. As Jason fell, Laura closed the front door. Glidden triggered the Taser three more times through the closed door… [Giddon and White] forced open the door and found Laura and Jason lying on the floor. Glidden sprayed Laura in the face a second time while White sprayed Jason and tried to turn him over onto his stomach.

“Laura shouted to the officers that Jason had been taken to the emergency room earlier in the week for chest pains. White nevertheless continued attempting to turn Jason over and sprayed him a third time when he was unsuccessful. The officers also sprayed the Hagans’ dog with chemical agent and threatened to shoot it if it didn’t stop barking. Finally, the officers handcuffed and arrested Laura and Jason and charged them with resisting arrest and child endangerment.

“All of this took place in front of the Hagans’ three young children, who were then taken to the emergency room to be evaluated for exposure to pepper spray… At Jason and Laura’s trial, the judge determined that White and Glidden had violated the Fourth Amendment when they forcibly entered the Hagans’ home without a warrant. ‘The State has not offered sufficient, if indeed any, evidence of an exception that would justify a warrantless entry,’ the judge wrote in his ruling. The case against Laura and Jason was dismissed.”

Penalties of the Unaffordable Care Act in 2015

Infowar wrote on November 15:

“In 2015 the government will be activating some new ‘incentives’ embedded in the Affordable Care Act in an effort to get more people to sign up. But, as is often the case when the government says one thing, they mean exactly the opposite. In this case, when they say incentive what they really mean is that you are going to be penalized if you fail to acquire government mandated health insurance. But not just you. Your children… will be fined for your failure to get them on the insurance rolls:

“Penalties for failing to secure a health-insurance plan will rise steeply next year, which could take a big bite out of some families’ pocketbooks.  ‘The penalty is meant to incentivize people to get coverage,’ said senior analyst Laura Adams of InsuranceQuotes.com. ‘This year, I think a lot of people are going to be in for a shock.’ In 2014, Obamacare’s first year, individuals are facing a penalty of $95 per person, or 1 percent of their income, depending on which is higher. If an American failed to get coverage this year, that penalty will be taken out of their tax refund in early 2015, Adams noted… the penalty for going uninsured next year is even harsher. The financial penalty for skipping out on health coverage will more than triple to $325 per person in 2015, or 2 percent of income, depending on whichever is higher.  Children will be fined at half the adult rate, or $162.50 for those under 18 years old.

“So, that’s your incentive. Either sign up for Obamacare at a rate of roughly $750 a month or more for a middle-class family of four, or pay a $325 penalty or two percent of your income, whichever is higher. Plus, if you have kids, they’ve been incentivized too!… These days, even democrats who supported the legislation before anyone had a chance to actually review it are up in arms…”

Ferguson in Flames

Newsmax reported on November 25:

“A Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer on any charges in the fatal August shooting of an unarmed black teenager [Michael Brown (18)] unleashed a wave of violent protests Monday night similar to [but actually much worse than] what engulfed the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson in August… The incident highlighted longstanding racial tensions in the predominantly black city, which has a white-dominated power structure… [Police officer Darren] Wilson could have faced charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder… The grand jury, with nine white and three black members, began meeting in late August… Nine jurors needed to agree to bring charges.

“Lawyers for Brown’s family say the teen was trying to surrender when he was shot, while Wilson’s supporters say he feared for his life and opened fire in self-defense. Witnesses disagreed on whether Brown’s hands were up at the time he was shot… Wilson shot at Brown 12 times [Brown was hit at least six times], with the final shot hitting Brown in the top of his head… Brown is suspected of having stolen cigars from a nearby convenience store shortly before the incident. Brown and a friend had been walking down the middle of the street when Wilson approached them. Police said in August that Wilson was not aware of the robbery at the time.”

The Huffington Post added on November 25:

“At least a dozen buildings were torched and looted, many of them local businesses that police said were total losses. Dozens of cars — including two police cruisers and rows of vehicles at a car dealership — were also vandalized and left charred. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said he heard about 150 gunshots, none from police. ‘What I’ve seen tonight is probably much worse than the worst night we had in August,’ he said… Police said they made more than 80 arrests, and that there were only minor injuries.”

According to the law, someone can use deadly force if he “feels” that he is being threatened and his life is in immediate or imminent danger. A sad night for America… 

America’s Immigration Mess

USA Today wrote on November 23:

“President Obama is rejecting suggestions that he has changed his position on executive power, and arguing that his new actions on immigration are necessary. Reminded by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he once said ‘I’m not an emperor’… when it comes to immigration, Obama said he was referring to the problem overall… The actions Obama took last week could defer deportations for up to 5 million migrants. There are estimates of more than 11 million people who are in the country illegally.

“House Speakers John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other GOP lawmakers say Obama is acting like an emperor, and has wrecked any chance of a bipartisan agreement on immigration. Some Republicans, including officials in a number of states, have vowed legal action and legislative responses in response to Obama…

“In his ABC interview, Obama said he acted because House Republicans have refused to vote on a bipartisan bill passed in the Senate… As for executive actions in general, Obama said: ‘The history is that I have issued fewer executive actions than most of my predecessors, by a longshot…’”

The Los Angeles Times wrote on November 21:

“Far from settling matters, President Obama’s unilateral action on immigration all but ensures at least two more years of fierce and angry debate over one of the most contentious and polarizing issues facing the country. It is a debate that presents opportunity and political risk to both parties, but especially Republicans, who are deeply divided among themselves and badly need to mend relations with a Latino and Asian American population growing bigger and more politically powerful each day…

“Because Obama’s actions are not binding on his successor ‘the next president is going to have to decide whether to continue these policies after 2017,’ said Matt Barreto, a University of Washington political scientist… The danger Democrats face is alienating the white working-class voters who have never much cared for the president and who could view the influx of newly hirable immigrants as unwelcome job competition…”

Newsmax wrote on November 24:

“[Consitutional expert Alan] Dershowitz… discussed Obama’s controversial order last week to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation and assert his authority to do so over congressional opposition. ‘This is uncharted ground,’ said Dershowitz. ‘Anybody who tells you the president violated the Constitution is wrong. Anybody who tells you the president DIDN’T violate the Constitution is wrong. … At this point in time, nobody knows the answer to that daunting constitutional question.’”

It has been frequently alleged that President Obama, a constitutional lawyer, made a political decision, and that he changed his viewpoint on his executive power, and both allegations are probably very true. However, lawyers and judges – especially “constitutional experts” — change their legal opinions all the time [or they do not have a legal opinion, as Alan Dershowitz], so that should not surprise anyone. To be fair, immigration actions by former Presidents Reagan and Bush did not differ that much, in principle and in substance, from the action which President Obama took (even though Republicans do not want to admit this). It is also true that Congress did not pass proposed Immigration Bills under President Obama and former President George Bush.

Even with a majority of Republicans both in the House and in the Senate, it is doubtful whether they would have been [or will be] able to agree on a bill, as the Republicans and the Democrats are hopelessly divided, and Republicans are hopelessly divided amongst themselves. Several Republicans have stated that they agree with the substance of the President’s executive order, but they disagree with the way in which Obama did it.

On the other hand, in all this debate pro and con, we must not forget the individual tragedies, involving potential break-ups of families (with children being lawful citizens and parents being here “illegally.”). Of course some, if not many illegal immigrants, will try to play the system to obtain improper advantages. But then there are others who do the jobs which Americans would not want to do. In the 1960’s, Germany introduced a guest-worker program for Turks, Yugoslavs, Spaniards etc., which was supposed to be temporary, but it ended up with the same problems which the USA is facing today.

Those who have worked in the Immigration field can and will tell you how terribly rotten the system is. Arrested undocumented aliens are being held by the INS in “isolation” and “detention” cells like the worst capital criminals, like cattle. Courts have no jurisdiction over the manner in which the INS is treating their captives. When we see pictures of a very young girl being brought before an immigration judge in handcuffs, as this is “proper procedure,” or when INS agents storm a house, pointing their guns at an adult carrying a young boy to “rescue” the boy, as he is here “illegally,” and “free” him from his adult relatives, who are here legally, then every upright citizen should react with disgust. There is NO justification for ANY of this… and immigration lawyers will state that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

That all of this must be changed cannot be in doubt. At the same time, there are many legal immigrants and American citizens who are terribly neglected by the government and in dire need of help. This entire world, including the USA, is under the rule of Satan the devil, and man is incapable and far too often unwilling to govern fairly. It will require the return of Christ to bring justice, fairness, equity, prosperity and true freedom to this earth.

Germany Concerned About Rumors from the East

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 16:

“The German government is concerned about Russia’s politics of power regarding the Balkans. President Putin is apparently trying to disassociate the countries from the EU.”

The Local wrote on November 16:

“A German embassy worker has been expelled from Moscow in what Berlin sees as a ‘retaliatory’ move, a German foreign ministry source said Saturday… According to Spiegel, the move comes after Berlin expelled a Russian diplomat from the consulate general in the western city of Bonn ‘in total discretion’. ‘In similar cases in the past, there was no reaction from the Russians, this time it’s different,’ the weekly wrote, citing a source within the German foreign ministry.”

Die Zeit wrote on November 16:

“The signs between Russia and the West show a new ice age.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 17:

“From the perspective of Berlin, Russia has gone from being a difficult partner to being an adversary within just one year…”

Putin Under Attack

BBC News reported on November 16:

“Much of the [G20] summit focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on the crisis in Ukraine. Mr Putin faced fierce criticism and left the meeting before it ended, but said the summit was ‘constructive’. Mr Putin said he was leaving before the release of the official communique, citing the long flight to home to Russia and the need for sleep…

“Mr Obama told reporters Mr Putin was ‘violating international law, providing heavy arms to the separatists in Ukraine’ and violating the Minsk agreement. He said the ‘economic isolation’ of Russia would continue unless Mr Putin changed course… During the summit, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister David Cameron also sharply criticised Mr Putin…”

The Times of Israel wrote on November 15:

“British Prime Minister David Cameron went so far as to allude to Nazi Germany when referring to Russian actions… Widely reported in the British press as an allusion to Adolf Hitler’s regime, Cameron added that the world had in the past seen the terrible results of a major power meddling in the affairs of a weaker European country… The West this week accused Russia of sending fresh military hardware into eastern Ukraine, fueling fears of a return to all-out conflict.”

Germany to the Rescue?

On November 18, the Local published an article with the following headline: Steinmeier rushes to Moscow as Ukraine boils.” The article continued:

“Germany’s Foreign Minister jetted to Kiev and Moscow on Tuesday in a bid to revive a failing peace plan in eastern Ukraine, where intense fighting has pushed EU-Russia relations to [a] breaking point…

“Ahead of Steinmeier’s visit, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Moscow hoped ‘that the ‘point of no return’ has not yet been crossed’ in its relations with Europe. Lavrov cautioned there would not be a major breakthrough at the talks with his counterpart from Germany…

“Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko on Monday wrote on Twitter that while Kiev wants to avoid all-out conflict, it is ‘prepared for a scenario of total war’.”

Henry Kissinger Speaks Out

In November, Der Spiegel Online conducted a revealing interview with Henry Kissinger. We are bringing you the following excerpts:

“SPIEGEL: Dr. Kissinger, when we look at the world today, it seems to be messier than ever — with wars, catastrophes and chaos everywhere. Is the world really in greater disorder than ever before?

“Kissinger: It seems that it is. There is chaos threatening us, through the spread of weapons of mass destruction and cross-border terrorism. There is now a phenomenon of ungoverned territories, and we have seen in Libya, for example, that an ungoverned territory can have an enormous impact on disorder in the world. The state as a unit is under attack, not in every part of the world, but in many parts of it…

“SPIEGEL: … How should the West react to the Russian annexation of Crimea? Do you fear this might mean that borders in the future are no longer incontrovertible?

“Kissinger: Crimea is a symptom, not a cause. Furthermore, Crimea is a special case. Ukraine was part of Russia for a long time. You can’t accept the principle that any country can just change the borders and take a province of another country. But if the West is honest with itself, it has to admit that there were mistakes on its side. The annexation of Crimea was not a move toward global conquest. It was not Hitler moving into Czechoslovakia… Europe and America did not understand the impact of these events, starting with the negotiations about Ukraine’s economic relations with the European Union and culminating in the demonstrations in Kiev. All these, and their impact, should have been the subject of a dialogue with Russia. This does not mean the Russian response was appropriate…

“SPIEGEL: Relations between the West and Russia are tenser now than they have been in decades. Should we be concerned about the prospects of a new Cold War?

“Kissinger: There clearly is this danger, and we must not ignore it. I think a resumption of the Cold War would be a historic tragedy. If a conflict is avoidable, on a basis reflecting morality and security, one should try to avoid it… the West could not accept the annexation; some countermeasures were necessary. But nobody in the West has offered a concrete program to restore Crimea. Nobody is willing to fight over eastern Ukraine…  There’s no question that it was morally justified to overthrow Muammar Gadhafi, but we were not willing to fill the vacuum afterwards. Therefore we have militias fighting against each other today. You get an ungoverned territory and an arms depot for Africa…

“SPIEGEL: Are you in favor of a more assertive role for Europe, especially for Germany?

“Kissinger: Yes, certainly… Germany is the most significant European country and, yes, it should be much more active. I do have very high regard of Ms. Merkel, and I think she is the right person for leading Germany into this role…”

As can be expected, Henry Kissinger’s viewpoints reflect truth and error. His statements about Germany are remarkable.

Austria—What You Might Not Have Known About it!

The Local (Austrian edition) wrote on November 6:

“When Vladimir Putin visited Vienna in June 2014, the long-serving head of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber said it was already the third time he had received the Russian president. Putin, jokingly criticizing his host’s longevity, cried out in German: ‘Dictatorship! But good dictatorship.’ Austrian and Russian entrepreneurs in the audience burst out laughing. So did Austria’s president, Heinz Fischer, who amicably patted Putin on the back.

“In summer 2014, while EU-Russian relations were sinking toward Cold War levels, refocusing NATO’s attention on its Eastern flank, Austria was giving the Russian president the red-carpet treatment. Officially, Vienna supports EU sanctions against Russia, but most Austrians are unhappy with the measures, even after much fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“Austria is also moving ahead with the South Stream pipeline, a venture that will bring more Russian gas to Europe but that Brussels has criticized for its noncompliance with EU rules.

“It is not just Vienna’s stances on the Ukraine crisis and Russian energy that set it apart from many other European capitals. Austria’s entire European discourse is different. Few Austrians care about the euro crisis or the new European commissioners who entered office in November 2014. The country has its back to Brussels and looks toward Eastern and Southeastern Europe, where it earns most of its money…

“Austrians see themselves as ultra-pragmatists who never take a stand except when it comes to promoting their business interests. Muddling through is second nature to them… The Ukrainian border is closer to Vienna than the Swiss border is. Bratislava is a 50 minute drive away, and Budapest can be reached in a few hours… The Habsburg Empire once stretched from Italy’s Lombardy to Ukraine’s Lviv. Despite having been cut off from this hinterland during the Cold War, Austrians feel close to Central and Eastern Europe. There are family ties; the mentality is similar.

“Austria is also the second-biggest investor in Central and Eastern, in terms of GDP, after Germany. Austrians’ stability and prosperity depend on the region’s well-being…

“Austria has a different relationship with Russia from that of Poland or the Baltic states: those countries were ‘freed’ after the Cold War ended, while Austria’s understanding with Moscow continues. Vienna applied for EU membership only after an explicit go-ahead by then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989. Austria joined the EU in 1995, along with Sweden and Finland. It doesn’t dare join NATO.

“Austria… is the second-richest EU member state after Luxembourg. Government debt and the budget deficit are modest by eurozone standards, at 80.3 percent and 2.8 percent of GDP respectively in 2014…

“In the 1930s, Austrians fought Austrians in a civil war. Then came Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, with big Austrian crowds cheering Hitler. After the Second World War, Germany went through a painful soul-searching process. Austria did not. It still portrays itself as a victim of the Germans…

“Thanks to Austrian neutrality, Vienna became the UN’s third headquarters after New York and Geneva… It is no coincidence that the US agents who were caught spying on German trade policy in July 2014 received their instructions and payment from the US embassy in the Austrian capital…

“In July 1989, Austria submitted a request for EU membership… Later that year, the Berlin Wall came down. That this event coincided with Austria’s move toward EU membership was an unbelievable piece of luck for Vienna. The fall of Communism meant that Eastern European countries would eventually join the union, shifting Europe’s heart eastward. Austria would sit right in the middle of this ‘new Europe’. This transition gave the Austrian economy a tremendous boost. The country’s entrepreneurs travelled all over Eastern Europe, buying up banks and companies and starting businesses…

“Vienna… has the second-biggest Serbian population after Belgrade… In Vienna, there is irritation about past and present EU policies toward Moscow and Kiev. Most Austrians agree the EU has made a mistake by getting closer to Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, and not to Russia…

“Austria was the first European country to receive Russian gas, in the late 1960s. A big storage facility, co-owned by Russia, lies close to Vienna. Austrians, who insist that this gas has always arrived on time, see no need to reduce their dependency on Russian energy…

“In the future, Austria will keep walking a tightrope in Europe. Itself a product of tension between East and West, the country will abide by EU rules and will be careful not to burn bridges… Austrians believe they are at the centre of the new Europe. Whatever this means, they must somehow make it work. And that is precisely what Austrians have always been doing: trying to reconcile irreconcilable viewpoints, and doing well out of it.”

Austria might very well play a major role in Europe. Another European country sympathetic to Russia would be Bulgaria.

Ethnic German First Romanian President

The EUObserver wrote on November 17:

“On Sunday night (16 November), thousands of people gathered again in University Square, waving Romanian flags with a round hole in the middle, just as they did in 1989, when they cut out the Communist coat of arms. This time, it was to celebrate the unexpected victory of Klaus Iohannis, the first Romanian president to come from an ethnic minority…
    
“55-year old Iohannis belongs to a small German ethnic minority in Transylvania which settled there in the 12th century and was as numerous as 700,000 before the Second World War… As a centre-right politician of German ethnicity, Iohannis is also likely to become an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.”

Deutsche Welle added on November 17:

“It’s a surprise of historic dimensions. For the first time since the political turn of events 25 years ago, Romanians have demonstrated cross-party solidarity… Klaus Iohannis has shown quite formidably that a Protestant ethnic German politician can be a good Romanian, too…

“Before the Iron Curtain fell, Romanians had to stand in line for nights on end to get a stick of butter or two bananas for their children. This time, they lined up to give democracy in their country a new chance. Against their own government’s wishes. And they persevered! Now it’s up to Iohannis to show that he deserves voters’ trust while at the same time providing for balance and reconciliation as the president of all Romanians.”

Most Migrants Obtain EU Citizenship Through the UK

The Times wrote on November 18:

“The UK granted almost a quarter of all new citizenships granted within the EU, according to official figures published today. Migrants from India topped the list of people being given a UK passport, followed by those from Pakistan, Nigeria and the Philippines in 2012, the statistics showed.

“The UK granted citizenship to the highest number of migrants of any of the 28 EU states in 2012, giving passports to 193,900 people.”

No Limit to Construction in East Jerusalem

Deutsche Welle reported on November 16:

“Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman… voiced in unequivocal fashion his nation’s right to housing construction in the annexed eastern section of Jerusalem, saying Israel would ‘never agree to limit its activity.’… German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier… urged Lieberman and the Israeli government to pursue all possible avenues for peace and, in particular, to ‘refrain from all activity’ that could potentially be a stumbling block to peace negotiations with Palestinians…

“Israel refers to the entire city of Jerusalem as its ‘united, undivided capital.’ The Palestinians demand that the city’s eastern sector be made capital of their promised state, and are vehemently against any Israeli attempt to expand construction. Liebermann’s remarks came four days after Israel approved plans to build 200 homes in Ramot in occupied East Jerusalem despite months of almost daily clashes and tensions there with Palestinians, triggered in part by settlement expansion.

“That announcement prompted a rebuke from Washington, which reiterated its ‘unequivocal’ opposition to such construction in East Jerusalem, warning it could ‘exacerbate this difficult situation on the ground and … will not contribute to efforts to reduce the tension.’… Recent disputes between Israelis and Palestinians also concern access to the flashpoint site known to Jews as Temple Mount and Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque – part of a compound supervised by neighboring Jordan.”

Serious Upheaval in Israel

The Guardian wrote on November 18:

“Five Israelis were killed and eight more wounded in a frenzied assault by two Palestinian men [cousins] on Jewish worshippers praying at a Jerusalem synagogue in the most lethal incident in the city in years. The two assailants who launched their attack with meat cleavers and a gun during early morning prayers were then killed by police officers in the ensuing gun battle at the scene of the attack… Three of the victims held dual US-Israeli citizenship, and one was a British-Israeli citizen…

“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group, said the cousins were its members. A PFLP statement did not specify whether the group instructed the cousins to carry out the attack. Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, also praised the attack. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, vowed that Israel would ‘respond harshly’ to the attack, describing it as a ‘cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers’.

“The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said he spoke to Netanyahu after the assault and denounced it as an ‘act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence. Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue,’ Kerry said, his voice quavering. They were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder. I call on Palestinians at every single level of leadership to condemn this in the most powerful terms. This violence has no place anywhere, particularly after the discussion that we just had the other day in Amman.’…

“The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the attack, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis began. He also called for an end to Israeli ‘provocations’ surrounding the sacred site… The statement called for an end to the ‘invasion’ of the mosque at the holy site and a halt to ‘incitement’ by Israeli ministers…

“Tuesday’s attack was the latest in a series of deadly assaults. Five Israelis and a foreign visitor have been deliberately run over and killed or stabbed to death by Palestinians while about a dozen Palestinians have also been killed, including those accused of carrying out those attacks. Residents trace the violence in Jerusalem to July, when a Palestinian teenager was burned to death by Jewish assailants, an alleged revenge attack for the abduction and killing of three Jewish teens by Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank…”

Deutsche Welle added on November 18:

“The armed wing of the militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine… praised [the two murderers] as ‘heroic comrades’ and ‘martyrs, and called for an escalation of ‘confrontations with (Israeli) occupiers and settlers who have no place on our land.’…

“Netanyahu blamed the attack on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. ‘This is the direct result of the incitement being led by [Islamist militant group] Hamas and Abu Mazen (Abbas), incitement which the international community is irresponsibly ignoring,’ Netanyahu said…

“Incidents of violence in Jerusalem, other parts of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories has surged in the past month, fuelled in part by a dispute over a Jerusalem holy site referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.”

The Times of Israel commented on November 18:

“This was no case of ‘spontaneous terrorism’… the two terrorists… cousins from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, were apparently familiar with the synagogue where they staged their attack. They may have worked in the area; plainly, they gathered intelligence on it prior to the attack.

“The relatively high body count also sets Tuesday’s attack apart from the recent attacks — which include the attempted murder of Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick — and creates more potential for escalation. An indiscriminate massacre of worshipers in a synagogue, wrapped in their prayer shawls, strikes at the most basic symbols of the Jewish people, and could result in acts of revenge against Palestinians…

“Jerusalem refuses to return to normal… The decision-makers and the security establishment cannot solve the security nightmare that has enveloped Jerusalem…

“The prime beneficiaries of the grim new reality are the terror groups, led by Hamas. The Islamist terror organization is doing everything it can to inflame tensions and encourage more attacks. Its spokespeople praised the murderers in Tuesday’s attack, just as they did the previous killers. Joining Hamas are other terror groups…”

Israel Upset with Spanish Parliamentary Vote

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 19:

“Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday decried the Spanish parliament’s overwhelming vote in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state, which came hours after a deadly attack in a Jerusalem synagogue. ‘The declaration of the Spanish parliament only distances the chance of reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians because it encourages the Palestinians to become more extreme in their positions,’ the Foreign Ministry statement said.

“The overwhelming but symbolic Spanish vote- 319 in favor, two against, one abstention – appealed to the government in Madrid to recognize Palestine in conjunction with any similar move from the European Union. French parliamentarians will also vote on the matter on November 28; Sweden formally recognized Palestine last month.

“‘It would have been better if the Spanish parliament had instead chosen to do the right thing by condemning the abominable slaughter carried out by inflamed Palestinians in a synagogue in Jerusalem,’ the Foreign Ministry said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said late on Tuesday that some countries were guilty of ignoring the bloodshed in the region and were instead seeking to reward the Palestinians, in reference to the vote in Spain.”

What’s Next for Saudi Arabia?

BBC News wrote on November 18:

“With the Middle East in an unprecedented state of turmoil, the need for smooth and orderly transfers of power in Saudi Arabia – ruled by a 90-year-old infirm monarch – has become more crucial than ever – but who will inherit the kingdom in the coming years is a thorny issue yet to be resolved.

“Saudi Arabia is a large and influential country. Guardian of the two most holy sites in Islam, it regards itself as leader of the Sunni community worldwide. The kingdom is a key player in Sunni attempts to block Shia Iranian influence in the Middle East – and is the world’s leading oil producer.

“On the face of it, the immediate succession process is arranged and agreed upon by the senior princes of the Al Saud royal family.

“King Abdullah will be succeeded by Crown Prince Salman, an event which in turn should make Prince Muqrin (at present deputy crown prince) the next heir to the throne… Today, the assumption – but no more than that – is that Prince Muqrin’s elevation to deputy crown prince means that in time he will be the last son of the founding monarch to sit on the throne. But Prince Ahmed [another one of King Abdullah’s sons] might still assert his seniority by age… King Abdullah is old and frail, while, according to unconfirmed reports, Crown Prince Salman (78) suffers health problems – something strongly denied by the Saudi authorities…

“A meeting of the Allegiance Council, a body consisting of sons and grandsons of Ibn Saud to resolve succession issues, was held in March 2014 and endorsed King Abdullah’s elevation of Prince Muqrin – with the proviso that this appointment could not be overturned. But not all princes present at that Allegiance Council meeting voted in favour of Prince Muqrin’s promotion. Differences of opinion are likely to manifest themselves still more when he, as the youngest of Ibn Saud’s sons, moves up the succession ladder…

“Saudi Arabia faces many internal challenges, ranging from rising youth unemployment, the return of jihadists from Iraq and Syria, to growing criticism of Al Saud on domestic social media and simmering restiveness in the Shia-dominated Eastern Province.”

Obama Ignorant About Climate Change?

On November 19, The Washington Times published an article by  Bob Carter and Tom Harris, stating that “Bob Carter is former professor and head of the School of Earth Sciences at James Cook University in Australia. Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition.” The article stated the following:

“The focus of the 2014 Group of 20 summit meeting in Brisbane, Australia, was on stimulating economic growth across the industrialized world. Thanks, though, to President Obama’s grandstanding and attempted sabotage of the agenda as laid out by the host country, climate change also came to prominence.

“For several months prior to the G-20, and despite strong Australian resistance, radical environmental groups had been lobbying for inclusion of global-warming issues on the meeting’s agenda. Mr. Obama was happy to oblige them. His endorsement of the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change just before the G-20 was a signal that he would also use the Australian meeting to highlight his campaign to stop ‘global warming.’

“That global warming stopped 18 years ago and the warming of a few tenths of a degree between 1979 and 1997 shows no sign of being other than of natural origin is apparently unknown to the president. Taking action on climate change is to be a cornerstone of his presidential legacy. Bankrupting the domestic coal-mining companies is just an added bonus in Mr. Obama’s eyes…

“New scientific papers appear nearly every week that show that the claimed link between carbon-dioxide emissions and dangerous global warming is imaginary. Accordingly, the link between climate-change policy and energy policy is thereby invalidated, but this persistently escapes global-warming pundits…”

No Keystone XL Pipeline

The Washington Times wrote on November 18:

“Senate Democrats filibustered the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday, in a vote that reverberated from Louisiana, where a key senator’s career is now likely doomed, to the broader national Democratic Party, where environmentalists have emerged triumphant in a divisive internal battle with labor unions.

“The Keystone vote took on symbolism far beyond the small impact on American crude supplies and the slight effect expected on gas prices. Environmentalists drew lines and dared moderate and conservative Democrats to cross it. In the end, most were unwilling to defy the ascendant movement…

“The vote fell one shy of the 60 needed to overcome the filibuster, with 14 Democrats joining all 45 Republicans in backing the project. In the near term, the vote means President Obama gets to avoid a difficult decision on whether to veto the bill. But Senate Republicans said he shouldn’t get too comfortable because they will pass a new version as soon as they take control of the chamber next year. Based on Tuesday’s vote and Senate balance next year, Republicans should have enough support to overcome a Democratic filibuster but not enough to override a presidential veto…

“State Department officials have been delaying a decision for years, trying to decide whether to approve the final permit that would allow the pipeline to cross the international boundary between Canada and the U.S., bringing crude from the oil deposits in the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in the U.S….”

The Immigration Debate: Amnesty—Yes or No?

On November 20, The Washington Times published an article with the following headline: “Obama Offers Amnesty to 5 Million Illegal Immigrants.”

The article continued:

“Brushing aside warnings from Republicans, President Obama announced Thursday night that he is granting legal status and work permits for nearly 5 million illegal immigrants, igniting a constitutional furor that amounted to a declaration of war against the incoming GOP majorities in Congress.

“In a prime-time address from the White House, Mr. Obama said his action is ‘lawful,’ and he dared Republican critics in Congress to counter him by passing a comprehensive legislation, which he said would be a permanent fix…

“Specifically, the president’s executive action will:

“–Create a new deferred deportation program for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent resident children, if they have been in the country for more than five years. It will grant them work permits for three years if they pass background checks and pay back taxes and fees. In nearly all states, the people who are granted legal status will be entitled to driver’s licenses.

“–Expand protection from deportation to more ‘Dreamers,’ or people who came to the U.S. illegally as children, and grant more work permits to high-skilled workers.

“–Establish a new priority system for deporting illegal immigrants, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to focus on people serving jail time for criminal offenses.

“–Add more immigration judges to the border region so illegal immigrants who are deemed low-priority can be released more quickly, and recent border crossers and those with serious criminal records can be deported…

“The president said his executive action was ‘common sense,’ and rejected the characterization that he is granting amnesty… ‘Mass amnesty would be unfair,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What I’m describing is accountability — a commonsense, middle ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up.’

“Mr. Obama asserted that his action is similar to ‘the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every Democratic president for the past half century.’

“Mr. Obama had resisted this type of executive action for years, and had repeatedly told immigrant-rights activists he didn’t have the authority to issue such a broad exemption from deportations. The White House has struggled to explain his new legal analysis, though they have assured reporters that Homeland Security and Justice Department lawyers have approved his decisions.”

Newsmax had reported on November 19: 

“A move by President Obama granting ‘amnesty’ to some illegal immigrants would ruin the chances of Congress acting on immigration and other issues, a spokesman for U.S. House Speaker John Boehner warned on Wednesday. ‘If “Emperor Obama” ignores the American people and announces an amnesty plan that he himself has said over and over again exceeds his constitutional authority, he will cement his legacy of lawlessness and ruin the chances for congressional action on this issue – and many others,’ Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement emailed to reporters.”

President Obama did announce what Republicans have termed as “amnesty,” even though the President rejected that characterization. It remains to be seen what Republicans will do now… if anything.

The Mormon Church—What You Might Not Have Known About It!

The New York Times wrote on November 10:

“Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that the church’s founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, portrayed in church materials as a loyal partner to his loving spouse Emma, took as many as 40 wives, some already married and one only 14 years old… Many Mormons, especially those with polygamous ancestors, say they were well aware that Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, practiced polygamy when he led the flock in Salt Lake City. But they did not know the full truth about Smith…

“Smith probably did not have sexual relations with all of his wives, because some were ‘sealed’ to him only for the next life… The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is formally known, has quietly posted 12 essays on its website over the last year on contentious topics such as the ban on blacks in the priesthood, which was lifted in 1978, and accounts of how Smith translated the Book of Mormon, the church’s sacred scripture.

“In 1890, under pressure by the American government, the church issued a manifesto formally ending polygamy. The church’s essay on this phase admits that some members and even leaders did not abandon the practice for years. But the church did renounce polygamy, and Mormons who refused to do the same eventually broke away and formed splinter churches, some that still exist…

“There remains one way in which polygamy is still a part of Mormon belief: The church teaches that a man who was “sealed” in marriage to his wife in a temple ritual, then loses his wife to death or divorce, can be sealed to a second wife and would be married to both wives in the afterlife…”

How the Book of Mormon Came Into Being

The following can be found on the official website of the Mormon Church, pertaining to the translation of the Book of Mormon:

“Joseph Smith reported that on the evening of September 21, 1823, while he prayed in the upper room of his parents’ small log home in Palmyra, New York, an angel who called himself Moroni appeared and told Joseph that ‘God had a work for [you] to do.’ He informed Joseph that ‘there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.’ The book could be found in a hill not far from the Smith family farm. This was no ordinary history, for it contained ‘the fullness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior.’

“The angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in which it was written. The young man, however, had very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language, known in the Book of Mormon as ‘reformed Egyptian’ Joseph’s wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph ‘could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.’

“Joseph received the plates in September 1827 and the following spring, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, began translating them in earnest, with Emma and his friend Martin Harris serving as his main scribes. The resulting English transcription, known as the Book of Lehi and referred to by Joseph Smith as written on 116 pages, was subsequently lost or stolen. As a result, Joseph Smith was rebuked by the Lord and lost the ability to translate for a short time.

“Joseph began translating again in 1829, and almost all of the present Book of Mormon text was translated during a three-month period between April and June of that year. His chief scribe during these months was Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher from Vermont who learned about the Book of Mormon while boarding with Joseph’s parents in Palmyra. Called by God in a vision, Cowdery traveled to Harmony to meet Joseph Smith and investigate further. Of his experience as scribe, Cowdery wrote, ‘These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven.’

“The manuscript that Joseph Smith dictated to Oliver Cowdery and others is known today as the original manuscript, about 28 percent of which still survives. This manuscript corroborates Joseph Smith’s statements that the manuscript was written within a short time frame and that it was dictated from another language. For example, it includes errors that suggest the scribe heard words incorrectly rather than misread words copied from another manuscript. In addition, some grammatical constructions that are more characteristic of Near Eastern languages than English appear in the original manuscript, suggesting that the base language of the translation was not English…

“Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English. One instrument, called in the Book of Mormon the ‘interpreters,’ is better known to Latter-day Saints today as the ‘Urim and Thummim.’ Joseph found the interpreters buried in the hill with the plates. Those who saw the interpreters described them as a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim. The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument, together with its breastplate, as a device ‘kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord’ and ‘handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages.’

“The other instrument, which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or ‘seer stone.’ As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure. As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.

“Apparently for convenience, Joseph often translated with the single seer stone rather than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. These two instruments—the interpreters and the seer stone—were apparently interchangeable and worked in much the same way such that, in the course of time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term ‘Urim and Thummim’ to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters…

“Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument…

“Another scribe, Martin Harris sat across the table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences appeared. Joseph read those sentences aloud, and after penning the words, Harris would say, ‘Written.’

“The principal scribe, Oliver Cowdery, testified under oath in 1831 that Joseph Smith ‘found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraven on the plates…’”

All of this, if true, sounds rather spooky and dangerously demonic. Inasmuch as the Book of Mormon, as it is known today, contains many Scriptural errors and false doctrinal teachings, contradicting the Bible, we know that it was not of godly origin. The narrative above, if accurate, seems to confirm even more clearly what its true origin has been. Insofar as the real Urim and Thummim are concerned, they had nothing to do with the gift of translating languages. Please read our Q&A titled, “What is known about the biblical ‘Urim and Thummim?’”

Al Sharpton’s Shaky History

The New York Times wrote on November 17:

“Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hailed him as a civil rights icon. President Obama sent an aide to read a message commending Mr. Sharpton’s ‘dedication to the righteous cause of perfecting our union.’ Major corporations sponsored the lavish affair. It was billed as a ‘party for a cause,’ in honor of Mr. Sharpton’s 60th birthday…

“Mr. Sharpton’s influence and visibility have reached new heights this year, fueled by his close relationships with the mayor and the president. Obscured in his ascent, however, has been his troubling financial past, which continues to shadow his present.

“Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills. Records reviewed by The New York Times show more than $4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses. And though he said in recent interviews that he was paying both down, his balance with the state, at least, has actually grown in recent years. His National Action Network appears to have been sustained for years by not paying federal payroll taxes on its employees.

“With the tax liability outstanding, Mr. Sharpton traveled first class and collected a sizable salary, the kind of practice by nonprofit groups that the United States Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration recently characterized as ‘abusive’ or ‘potentially criminal’ if the failure to turn over or collect taxes is willful.

“Mr. Sharpton and the National Action Network have repeatedly failed to pay travel agencies, hotels and landlords. He has leaned on the generosity of friends and sometimes even the organization, intermingling its finances with his own to cover his daughters’ private school tuition…

“He was among a small group at the White House when Mr. Obama announced his nomination of Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to become the next attorney general…

“Mr. Sharpton separated from his wife, Kathy, in 2004 and moved to an apartment in Manhattan. She stayed in the Brooklyn house owned by the Jordans. Once again, even though the landlord was a friend, problems arose paying the rent…”

Problems with Undercover Operations

The New York Times reported on November 15:

“The federal government has significantly expanded undercover operations in recent years, with officers from at least 40 agencies posing as business people, welfare recipients, political protesters and even doctors or ministers to ferret out wrongdoing, records and interviews show…

“But the broadened scope of undercover work, which can target specific individuals or categories of possible suspects, also raises concerns about civil liberties abuses and entrapment of unwitting targets. It has also resulted in hidden problems, with money gone missing, investigations compromised and agents sometimes left largely on their own for months… And in what became a major political scandal for the Obama administration, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed guns to slip into Mexico in 2011 in an operation known as Fast and Furious that involved undercover operations [resulting in the murder of innocent victims]…

“I.R.S. rules say that, with prior approval, ‘an undercover employee or cooperating private individual may pose as an attorney, physician, clergyman or member of the news media.’… Across the federal government, undercover work has become common enough that undercover agents sometimes find themselves investigating a supposed criminal who turns out to be someone from a different agency, law enforcement officials said. In a few situations, agents have even drawn their weapons on each other before realizing that both worked for the federal government…”

It was also stated in the article that the undercover activities of the government have to be, by necessity, “deceptive.”

Incompetent Child “Protective” Services

The website of benswann.com published the following article on November 15, referring to such actions as “legal kidnapping”:

“The safe place for Alex Hill, a 2-year-old from Cameron, Texas, turned out to be anything but that, when she was killed by her foster mother. After her father, Joshua Hill, admitted to using marijuana, Alex Hill was placed into foster care in early 2013. Her father told child welfare investigators that he smoked after the child was in bed at night. Her mother also has a medical condition that causes frequent seizures, so because of that, the toddler was removed from the house, despite appearing healthy and happy with her parents. Her foster mother, Sherill Small, was sentenced to life in prison for the July 2013 death of the girl. The girl’s parents, Hill and Mary Sweeny, reported bruises on their child during visitations.

“According to Fox 43, four months before Hill was set to regain custody he received a call that Alex was in the hospital.  Small admitted to police that she had slammed the child onto the floor, saying it was an accident. Alex’s autopsy revealed several bruises all around her body, and a medical examiner stated her head hit the floor so violently that she had ‘subdural hemorrhaging, subarachnoid hemorrhaging, and retinal hemorrhaging in both eyes,’ according to court testimony. Another disgusting part of this case, the foster parent’s husband, who lived in home while Alex was there, is a recovering crack cocaine addict and had multiple drug charges.”

How History Can Be “Modified”

AFP wrote on November 15:

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot there… ‘Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast,’ Erdogan said. Erdogan said that Ankara was even prepared to build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer…

“History books say that Columbus set foot on the American continent in 1492 as he was seeking a new maritime route to India. A tiny minority of Muslim scholars have recently suggested a prior Muslim presence in the Americas, although no pre-Columbian ruin of an Islamic structure has ever been found. In a controversial article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh refers to a diary entry from Columbus that mentions a mosque in Cuba. But the passage is widely understood to be a metaphorical reference to the shape of the landscape.”

There is really no evidence that Muslims set foot on American soil prior to Columbus. At the same time, it seems to be fairly established that long before Columbus, Swedish explorers and Vikings (descendants from the ancient Israelite tribes of Benjamin and Napthali) “discovered” America, including Norseman Leif Eriksson.

Muslim Prayers in the National Cathedral—Sacred Muslim Land Forever

Breitbart wrote on November 14:

“100 years ago today, the last Caliph, or emperor of Islam, declared the last Jihad against the infidel– and today is the first time ever that the National Cathedral in the nation’s capital will host Muslim prayers. Most American’s will have no idea that, as part of World War I, the then-Caliph of the Ottoman empire declared a Holy War against infidels, as was his right within sharia law and Islamic theology…  That statement by the last sitting head of what was the theocratic empire of Islam was the catalyst which led to religiously-fueled genocide against Christian Armenians and Assyrians…

“It is, of course, no accident that the 9/11 attacks, the worst terror attacks in world history, occurred exactly to the day in 1683 when the Islamic Ottoman forces were defeated outside the city walls of Vienna, the deepest the Islamic Caliphate’s forces made it into the heart of the Christian West… The fact that this event is occurring just as ancient Christian communities are being destroyed in the Middle East and ‘non-believers’ are being actually crucified by ISIS jihadists makes it all the more egregious.

“We know that the Episcopal church is in trouble with more conservative believers leaving in great numbers and the remaining adherents not exactly outdoing their Catholic cousins in terms of reproducing the next generation of believers. But I doubt they also understand the finer points of jihadist doctrine, one of which is that if a place of worship is used by Muslims for their prayers, that territory subsequently becomes part of Dar al Islam, sacred Muslim land. Forever.”

Newsmax added on November 17:

“Franklin Graham, son of ‘America’s Preacher’… Billy Graham, has slammed the Washington National Cathedral for allowing Muslims to hold their first prayer service there Friday…

“The Muslim prayer service, called a ‘Jummah’ or Friday call to prayer, was hosted by Ebrahim Rasool, the South African ambassador to the U.S., who is Muslim, and… Canon Gina Campbell, pastor of the cathedral, in cooperation with the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Public Affairs Council and The Nation’s Mosque…”

Church of England’s Women Bishops

BBC News reported on November 17:

“The Church of England will break with centuries of tradition on Monday when the general synod amends Church law to allow the appointment of female bishops…

“It was in July this year that the historic vote at the general synod in York took place – allowing women to wield real power in the Church after an earlier setback two years before when the synod voted no. After the change to canon law is made, the first female bishop in the Church of England can finally be appointed…”

Spend Time, Discipline, Set Right Examples, Pray and Read Bible With Your Children

CNS News wrote on November 19:

“World renowned evangelist… Billy Graham… said that our children are growing up in a ‘lawless and wicked age,’ infused with the ‘philosophy of the Devil, who says, “Do as you please.”’

“Further, rearing children in this culture is difficult because ‘we have taken God out of our educational systems and thought we could get away with it,’ said [Billy] Graham. ‘We have sown the wind, and we are now reaping the whirlwind. We have laughed at God, religion and the Bible.… Many Christian parents are becoming fearful that they cannot properly train their children in this lawless and wicked age… Many of our educational leaders sneer at the old-fashioned idea of God and a moral code. Movies feature sex, sin, crime and alcohol. Teenagers see these things portrayed alluringly on the screen and decide to go and try them. Newspapers have played up crime and sex until they seem glamorous to our young people’…

“One of the fundamental problems, according to [Billy] Graham, is the failure of parents to fight ‘the Devil in the home’ through discipline and, as a result, ‘children are allowed to go wild.’ Parents must spend time with their children, set a good example for them, discipline them, and teach them to ‘know God,’ said the pastor, who has five children and 19 grandchildren. ‘If you fail to discipline your children, you are breaking the laws, commandments and statutes of God,’ said [Billy] Graham.  ‘You are guilty not only of injuring the moral, spiritual and physical lives of your children, but of sinning against God. The Bible says that if you fail to discipline your children, you actually hate them.’

“The best way to influence your children, he added, is to set a good example because ‘the majority of children acquire the characteristics and habits of their parents.’ As for teaching your children to know God, [Billy] Graham said, ‘Very seldom do parents have trouble with children when the Bible is read regularly in the home, grace is said at the table and family prayers take place daily. Most trouble with teenagers comes from children reared in homes where prayer is neglected, the Bible is never opened and church attendance is spasmodic. Christ gives the moral stability, understanding, wisdom and patience needed to rear children.’”

“Obama Should Pack His Bags and Leave”

The German mass tabloid Bild Online wrote on November 6:

“It would be best if [Obama] would pack his bags, leave the White House and move back to Chicago. What has gone so terribly wrong for the political Messiah? In one word: Everything! Obama did not make the world better, but he made it less American.

“Those who want to grasp dictatorial power are encouraged by his weakness. Those who want to live in freedom after the American example feel betrayed he wanted to be a good friend of the world, and he antagonized his most important allies from Berlin to Jerusalem. The only good news: The Obama tragedy will be over in 806 days. Too bad it is not over sooner.”

Obama–There Will Be No Troops on the Ground”—Except…

The Associated Press reported on November 7:

“A senior military official says that American military advisory teams will now go to Iraq’s western Anbar province where Islamic State militants have been gaining ground and slaying men, women and children. The teams are part of President Barack Obama’s new directive to expand the U.S. mission in Iraq by deploying another 1,500 U.S. troops to serve as advisers, trainers and security personnel. The official said it is likely that the bulk of the additional troops will be in Iraq by the end of the year. This would bring the total U.S. forces in Iraq to about 3,100, and would mark their first return to Anbar since the war ended.

“Obama is also asking Congress for more than $5 billion to help fund the fight. The White House says the troops won’t serve in a combat role, but will train, advise and assist Iraqi military and Kurdish forces fighting IS. White House press secretary Josh Earnest says Obama has also authorized the additional personnel to operate at Iraqi military facilities outside Baghdad and Erbil. Until now, U.S. troops have been operating a joint operation center setup with Iraqi forces there.”

Commentators expressed their fear that all of this might lead to another Vietnam with America again on the losing end. It was also criticized that there does not seem to exist any strategy and explanation of America’s clearly defined goals in Iraq and Syria; that everything is being decided ad hoc—on the spur of the moment; and that if Congress approves those measures, they bear the same culpability as the White House. Note also the next article.

America’s Mission in Iraq—Everything Going Wrong!

The Huffington Post wrote on November 11:

“In its early stages, I asked sarcastically, ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ As the mission enters its fourth month, the answer to that question is already grimly clear: just about everything. It may be time to ask, in all seriousness: What could possibly go right?…

“The latest American war was launched as a humanitarian mission. The goal of its first bombing runs was to save the Yazidis, a group few Americans had heard of until then, from genocide at the hands of the Islamic State (IS). Within weeks, however, a full-scale bombing campaign was underway against IS across Iraq and Syria with its own ‘coalition of the willing’ and 1,600 U.S. military personnel on the ground…

“The U.S. Department of State lists 60 participants in the coalition of nations behind the U.S. efforts against the Islamic State. Many of those countries (Somalia, Iceland, Croatia, and Taiwan, among them) have never been heard from again… There is no evidence that America’s Arab ‘allies’ like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, whose funding had long-helped extreme Syrian rebel groups, including IS, and whose early participation in a handful of air strikes was trumpeted as a triumph, are still flying.

“…in the end, the U.S. will either have to withdraw from Iraq yet again, or cede the western part of the country to IS, or place many, many boots on the ground…

“Al-Qaeda-linked fighters have just recently overrun key northern bastions previously controlled by U.S.-backed Syrian rebel groups and once again, as in Iraq, captured U.S. weapons have landed in the hands of extremists. Nothing has gone right for American hopes that moderate Syrian factions will provide significant aid in any imaginable future in the broader battle against IS…

“You don’t have to have a crystal ball to see the writing in the sand in Iraq and Syria. The military can already sense the coming failure that hangs like a miasma over Washington…”

We have said it many times before… America is not going to win this or any other war prior to Christ’s return.

One Curse After Another

Bloomberg News wrote on November 7:

“The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider a challenge to the subsidies that are a linchpin of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, accepting a case that suddenly puts the law under a new legal cloud. Two years after upholding much of the law by a single vote, the justices today said they will hear a Republican-backed appeal targeting tax credits that have helped more than 4 million people afford insurance.

“A ruling blocking those credits might unravel the law, making other provisions ineffective and potentially destabilizing insurance markets in much of the country. The high court’s decision to hear the case comes days before the start of the law’s second open-enrollment season Nov. 15. A decision will come by June.

“The justices will consider an appeal filed by four Virginia residents seeking to block the subsidies in 36 states. The appeal says the Obama administration is engaging in a ‘gross distortion’ of the law’s wording by granting billions of dollars in tax credits to people in those states.

“A Supreme Court ruling against the administration would open a new period of uncertainty about the future of American health care. It would mean that more than half of the 7.3 million people who have bought Obamacare policies aren’t entitled to the subsidies they are receiving. The ripple effects might be even more dramatic. Without the tax credits, many of those people would find insurance so expensive that they would qualify for the law’s hardship exemption and no longer have to obtain a policy.

“That could raise coverage costs for insurers, forcing them to raise rates. Hospitals would be left to foot the bills for more uninsured patients.”

This is bad news either way. Obamacare is a curse for the American nation, but to repeal the tax credit provision would be an additional curse, as the astronomical rates of healthcare policies are already more than the average American can bear. To raise the rates even more would lead to the further destruction of the middle-class through America’s government and legal system.

No Discount–The UK Will Still Pay!

BBC News reported on November 7:

“George Osborne’s claim to have halved the UK’s £1.7bn EU budget surcharge has been challenged by his EU counterparts.

“The UK will pay two interest-free sums next year totalling £850m, instead of a larger lump sum by 1 December, after a rebate from Brussels due in 2016 appeared to have been brought forward. Mr Osborne argued the deal reached on Friday was a real result for Britain.

“But the Dutch finance minister said the UK would not get a discount. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls accused Mr Osborne of ‘spin’ and said it was ‘a diplomatic disaster for the government.’

“Under the initial plan, the UK was due to get a 1bn euros rebate in 2015-6 but it will be allowed to bring that forward to the second half of 2015 to reduce the surcharge. But its 2016 rebate will be 1bn euros smaller as a result.

“…foreign ministers questioned whether the UK’s contribution had changed. Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the UK would ‘pay the full amount’, and Hans Joerg Schelling, from Austria, said ‘the amount cannot be put in question’. Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem added: ‘The UK has … a rebate, which they have had for a very long time and of course this mechanism of rebate will also apply on the new contribution. So it’s not as if the British have been given a discount today.’

“And Eurosceptic Tory MEP Daniel Hannan suggested the deal achieved by the chancellor may not represent any reduction in the total amount. He said: ‘The EU sticks us with a bill. Ministers double it, apply the rebate, return to the original figure and claim victory. We’re meant to cheer? Britain is worse off in absolute terms, but a straw man has been knocked down.’

“UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Mr Osborne was ‘trying to spin his way out of disaster’, saying the UK was still going to pay the full £1.7bn.

“[Labour’s]  Mr Balls said: ‘By counting the rebate Britain was due anyway, they are desperately trying to claim that the backdated bill for £1.7bn has somehow been halved. But nobody will fall for this smoke and mirrors. The rebate was never in doubt and in fact was confirmed by the EU Budget Commissioner last month.’”

Die Zeit wrote on November 7:

“Cameron’s panic damages Europe. As Merkel became the strongest political in Europe, Cameron tries to make Merkel his strongest ally. But even as a closest ally, Markel cannot save the European skin of the British Premier.”

It reminds us of the Biblical prophecy—as a forerunner—that Ephraim (modern UK) will go to Assyria (modern Germany) for help, but Assyria cannot help them (compare Hosea 5:13)

Ukraine Under Attack?

Reuters reported on November 7:

“Ukraine’s military accused Russia on Friday of sending a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country’s east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces. A NATO military officer said on Friday the alliance had seen an increase in Russian troops and equipment along the border and was looking into reports of Russian tanks crossing into eastern Ukraine.”

Die Welt wrote on November 7:

“Moscow invades [east] Ukraine. Is the outbreak of war just a matter of time?”

America Russia’s Adversary?

The Financial Times wrote on November 10:

“According to Russian officials and security analysts, Moscow’s worst stand-off with the west since the end of the cold war has convinced Mr Putin’s government that it must moor its security interests to China because the Euro-Atlantic security architecture is broken beyond repair…

“Russian diplomats and analysts also said Moscow hoped to build the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan in 1996, into a more meaningful security alliance.

“In a speech last month that left western observers bewildered for its rabid anti-Americanism and its lack of proposals for a positive agenda, Mr Putin bemoaned what he described as the destruction of the mechanisms that used to govern international security affairs… He accused the US of creating a world order in which brute force could become the only means for resolving conflicts…

“Mr Putin is under no illusion that things will get any easier. The next US president is almost certain to be more hawkish towards Russia than Barack Obama…”

While Russia’s relationship with America and Europe is deteriorating, a strong alliance between Russia and China is being formed.

Israel Faces Tough Months

Reuters wrote on November 10:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to keep his fractious coalition together as talk of early elections grows, but in trying to bolster himself domestically he runs the risk of further alienating international partners.

“To satisfy restive far-right parties in his government, Netanyahu has promised more settlement on land the Palestinians seek for an independent state, greatly aggravating the United States and the European Union.

“And in an effort to keep ultra-nationalists sweet, he has not denounced their calls for Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s holiest site, although he has said a decades-long ban on such prayer will not be changed.

“That cautious approach has harmed Israel’s ties with Jordan, which oversees the holy site – known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and Jews as Temple Mount – prompting Amman to withdraw its ambassador for the first time since a 1994 peace treaty.

“It has also fueled the worst violence Jerusalem has seen in a decade, with daily rioting in the mainly Arab east of the city and talk of a new Palestinian uprising. ‘From the outside, it’s hard to understand why he’s doing what he’s doing,’ says one European ambassador, expressing frustration at what he regards as Netanyahu’s stubbornness… That suggests the next half year could be a tumultuous period, with Netanyahu trying to keep his ever more demanding coalition partners onside, even if that means throwing them bones that alarm the Palestinians and international allies.

“The question is whether Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister since the first, David Ben-Gurion, can keep a handle on the growing unease his policy approach appears to be causing, or whether events might spiral out of control. With Sweden having last month become the first major Western country to recognize Palestine as an independent state, any miscalculation could provide other European countries with justifications to follow Sweden’s lead.

“And all the while, the Israeli prime minister is having to deal with a deepening security crisis as violence grows… And underpinning everything is the lack of any peace talks with the Palestinians. The last round broke off in April after months of largely fruitless sessions. Since then, relations between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have worsened markedly…

“It was only a few months ago that Netanyahu talked of a ‘new horizon’ in the Middle East, saying the threat from Islamic State meant that countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt shared an interest with Israel in defeating Islamist extremism. Now, however, with Jordan having withdrawn its ambassador and Egypt on edge about developments at the Noble Sanctuary, which contains al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, that new horizon is starting to look distant and cloudy.”

Evolution Backwards?

The Washington Post wrote on November 5:

“Researchers report that they’ve found the missing link between an ancient aquatic predator and its ancestors on land. Ichthyosaurs, the dolphin-like reptiles that lived in the sea during the time of the dinosaurs, evolved from terrestrial creatures that made their way back into the water over time. But the fossil record for the lineage has been spotty, without a clear link between land-based reptiles and the aquatic ichthyosaurs scientists know came after. Now, researchers report in Nature that they’ve found that link — an amphibious ancestor of the swimming ichthyosaurs named Cartorhynchus lenticarpus.

“Ocean-bound ichthyosaurs had very long snouts (leading to their frequent comparison to modern dolphins) that were made for capturing fish and squid. This new animal [Cartorhynchus lenticarpus] had a shorter snout — more like a land-based reptile. It also had large flippers and flexible wrists, which would have allowed it to flop around on land like a seal.

“One of the most important differences between this new ichthyosaur and its supposed descendants comes down to being big boned: When other vertebrates have evolved from land to sea living, they’ve gone through stages where they’re amphibious and heavy. Their thick bones probably allowed them to fight the power of strong coastal waves and stay grounded in shallow waters. Sure enough, this new fossil has much thicker bones than previously examined ichthyosaurs.

“The animal lived about 4 million years after the worst mass extinction in our planet’s history [It] was probably one of the first predators to appear after that extinction.”
 
Now, how did it appear? Out of thin air? In any event, this is another aspect of the incredibly juvenile fairy tale of the Evolution fantasy. According to that theory and the survival of the fittest idea, higher life forms developed from lower life forms—birds from reptiles, and mammals from fish and reptiles. Also, it is alleged that reptiles roaming the sea and the ocean evolved into a higher species of reptiles living on land.

But there has always been a problem with ocean-bound mammals, which the Evolution concept cannot explain. And now we are asked to believe that higher developed land-living reptiles “DE-volved” again into sea-living reptiles, turning the survival of the fittest concept on its head. Evolutionists, make up your minds! Please read our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution—a Fairy Tale for Adults?”

Deep Divisions in the Catholic Church

The Washington Post wrote on November 10:

“Just a few years ago, former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke was riding high. A conservative leader in a conservative Catholic Church under a conservative pope, he seemed to fall into the Vatican’s favor after taking a few high-profile stands against the godless.

“The fights he picked always managed to make headlines. In 2004, the Wisconsin native said he would refuse to give pro-choice Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) communion. In 2007, he resigned from the board of a Catholic hospital after it invited Sheryl Crow, who is pro-choice, to play a benefit concert. And in 2009, he let the University of Notre Dame have it for giving President Obama an honorary degree.

“‘The proposed granting of an honorary doctorate at Notre Dame University to our president, who is so aggressively advancing an anti-life and anti-family agenda, is rightly the source of the greatest scandal,’ Burke said.

“The reward for this holy work? In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI made Burke head of the Vatican’s supreme court. In 2010, he made Burke a cardinal. 

“These were the good times. Then along came Francis — the freewheeling Argentine pope who loves gays, loves divorcees and hates income inequality. After a few high-profile disagreements with Burke, Francis made him patron of… a charity. The Associated Press called the office ‘largely ceremonial.’

“It was as if Chief Justice John Roberts had been sent to call balls and strikes at a little-league game. The Catholic News Service expounded upon the seriousness of Francis’s [demotion] of the 66-year-old cardinal:

“‘It is highly unusual for a pope to remove an official of Cardinal Burke’s stature and age without assigning him comparable responsibilities elsewhere…’

“‘Many have expressed their concerns to me,’ Burke said last week, as USA Today reported. ‘There is a strong sense that the church is like a ship without a rudder.’… For Francis, this seems to have been the last straw…  There are quite obviously deep divisions within the church. Archbishop Burke is one bishop who has chosen to confront them directly, as opposed to other bishops who may prefer to minimize them…”

“Pagan” Nominal Christians?

Breitbart wrote on November 7:

“Not all those who claim to be Christians really are, said Pope Francis Friday morning. Some are Christians ‘in name only,’ he said. ‘They bear the name of Christians but live a life of pagans.’

“In his homily at Mass, the Pope [said] that there have always been two types of Christian, those who truly followed Christ and those who only pretended to. At the time of Saint Paul, there were ‘worldly Christians, Christians in name only, with two or three Christian features, but nothing more.’ The Pope called this sort of people ‘Pagan Christians,’ whom St. Paul called ‘enemies of the cross of Christ.’

“‘In Paul’s time, the Pope said, the two groups of Christians ‘were in church together praised the Lord, and were called Christians.’ So what was the difference?, he asked. The second were ‘enemies of the cross of Christ.’

“The Pope went on to say that ‘even today there are many! We must be careful not to slip into the way of pagan Christians.’ These are the ones, he said, who are ‘pagans painted over with two brush strokes of Christianity, so they look like Christians, but are really pagans.’

“According to Francis, we all run the risk of becoming ‘Christians in appearance.’

“The Pope suggested that there are questions we can ask ourselves to know what sort of Christians we are. He said that all of us—the Pope included—need to ask ourselves: ‘How much worldliness is in me? How much paganism?’”.

These are good questions, but it is strange that they should be asked by the pope—the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. After all, it is the Roman Catholic Church which placed a Christian mantle over pagan concepts and worship practices.

For instance, the “Christian” celebrations of Sunday, Christmas and Easter are pagan to the core. They have NOTHING to do with the worship of Christ. In fact, God forbids us to worship Him in that way, saying that the pagans worshipped their sun and moon gods and goddesses on Sundays, Christmas and Easter, and that true Christians are NOT to worship the Father or Jesus Christ in that way or on those days.  For more information, please read our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas.”

Was Jesus Married and Did He Have Children?

Beitbart reported on November 10:

“Did Jesus marry Mary Magdalene and have children? Although the Bible portrays Jesus as a single man, the idea that he may have had an earthly family continues to be a perennial favourite spawning numerous fictional works such as bestseller[s] The DaVinci Code and The Last Temptation of Christ, both of which were popular enough to be turned into Hollywood films.

“Now the authors of a new book, The Lost Gospel, claim to have uncovered real evidence that the marriage did indeed take place, and that Jesus had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, the Daily Mail has reported.

“The book draws its conclusions from a text found in the British Library, where it has lain for 20 years after the British Museum moved it there. It was bought in 1847 from a dealer who claimed to have bought the manuscript, a Syriac text written on vellum, from the St Macarius Monastery in Egypt…

“The authors were easily able to decode the basic symbolism, but what the authors eventually discovered is as surprising as it ground-breaking: the confirmation of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene; the names of their two children; the towering presence of Mary Magdalene (who was a Gentile priestess), a serious plot on Jesus’ life in 19 C.E. prior to the crucifixion; an assassination plot against their children; Jesus’ connection to political figures at the highest level of the Roman Empire—Emperor Tiberius and his protégé Sejanus;  and a religious movement that antedates that of Paul—the Church of Mary Magdalene…

“But not everyone is convinced. Commenting on the publisher’s blurb, Mark Goodacre, Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins as Duke University said: ‘If there are some grounds for caution, one might see them in the idea that this work will provide ‘the confirmation of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene’. ‘Since there are no ancient sources that speak of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene, it is not clear at this stage how a newly discovered work could provide ‘confirmation’ of this. The note that she is a ‘Gentile priestess’ is curious and, one would have thought, makes it unlikely that the work goes back to the first century, so too the idea that they had two named children.’”

This whole concept is ridiculous. There have been many ancient manuscripts about Jesus, containing fairy tales and outright nonsense, which are in clear contradiction to the Holy Scriptures. Fabrications and forgeries already circulated at the time of Paul. We point out in our free booklet, “The Authority of the Bible,” that Peter, Paul and John canonized the Scriptures, and no mention is contained therein of any marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, resulting in two sons, and that she was a Gentile priestess. On the other hand, the Bible does mention the marriage of the apostle Peter, his mother-in-law, and the fact that other apostles were married as well, and that their wives accompanied them on their travels, but no inkling of a wife is mentioned in regard to Christ.    

Mid-Term Election and the Ebola Virus

BBC News reported on November 3:

“There are two stories running big in the United States at the moment – the mid-term elections and Ebola. For Barack Obama, it is as though the two have become horribly confused. For it seems all the Democratic Party hopefuls fighting in the key Senate seats… are treating him as though he were infected by Ebola. That is to say they want Mr Obama to go through the 21-day quarantine that health workers from West Africa are undergoing. In a sealed tent, somewhere in the White House. And nowhere near their states. He is being kept away from the key swing states. When he has turned up, some candidates have cited ‘scheduling difficulties’ or ‘diary confusion’ to explain why they didn’t meet him…

“In truth, there is not much love for the Republicans either… All of which begs the question – what difference will it make if the Republicans do take control of the Senate [which they did, see next article]… Some are predicting that it will be gridlock on steroids. In other words, just like before – only worse… The Republicans will be looking at the presidential elections in 2016, and it is not a great campaign slogan to say ‘we controlled both houses, and got nothing done’. And the same pressure will be on the president…”

The US Mid-Term Election Results and Consequences

BBC News reported on November 5:

“The Republicans have won control of the Senate in the US mid-term elections, increasing their power in the final two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. The Republicans also increased their grip on the House of Representatives and now control both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006….

“The Republicans will now have the power to complicate, if not block completely, Mr Obama’s agenda in the last two years of his tenure in the White House. Control of the Senate will also enable the Republicans to stymie his ability to name new federal judges, cabinet members and senior government officials.”

The Next Two Most Dangerous Years for America

Charles Hurt wrote the following in The Washington Times, on November 5:

“If President Obama suffered a ‘shellacking’ in the 2010 elections, then what he endured Tuesday night was nothing short of a vicious gangland beatdown the likes of which have rarely been seen before in the history of electoral politics. This, of course, is a wonderful and well-deserved outcome. But beware: America now enters the two most dangerous years of her existence — or certainly the most dangerous since the Great Depression and possibly going all the way back to the Civil War.

“Not to dismiss the promising results of Tuesday’s election. Voters clearly and forcefully rejected the party, politics and policies of President Obama. They slapped his socialist agenda back into the days of Soviet gulags, where it belongs. His grand visions of mighty government ruling unchecked over desperate ghettos have been snuffed out…

“The silver lining for Democrats today is now they now have the perfect excuse… And this is where things get very, very dangerous for America. President Obama still has two more years left in his final term. Already, he has demonstrated again and again that he has no regard for the constitution or the legitimacy of laws when they do not suit his agenda. He flaunts his disregard for the constitutional process, dismisses laws he doesn’t like and rewrites others.

“He mocks the powers of Congress. The Supreme Court has slapped him down more than any president in recent times. All of this as he tells us he is an expert on constitutional law. Now come his very explicit threats to pass more illegal and unconstitutional presidential edicts to grant amnesty to illegal aliens already in the United States. This, in turn, will issue invitations for millions more illegals to come streaming across the border.

“It will not end at immigration. Unchecked power is addictive. Disowned by Democrats and made to feel irrelevant in this election, President Obama’s enormous and unjustified ego is deeply wounded. He is frustrated and feels caged, cornered. This is when people like him are most dangerous…

“President Obama is not a listener. He is not a negotiator. He is not a learner. He will just take what he wants. It is easier that way. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court-packing scheme during the Great Depression was nothing like the strains this president has put on Constitution. Indeed, not since the Civil War has America faced such a dire threat to her existence as a lawful, constitutional republic…

“To bind the union, Abraham Lincoln took an economic and political war and elevated it into something higher. He made it about emancipating slaves and won. And saved the Republic. This president does the opposite. He got elected promising to elevate politics but instead finds unity and sows discord, often inciting racial divisions.

“America’s only hope today is that President Obama finally turns to the bust of Lincoln he keeps in the Oval Office and listens…”

The USA—The End of a Global Power

The Washington Times wrote on November 2:

“The Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago… It was the beginning of the end of the American republic, and the end of the beginning of the American empire.

“The Cold War victory left the United States with no rival superpower… So we embraced practices emblematic of the Soviet Union, for instance, detention without accusation or trial or indiscriminate spying on citizens without warrants… we became arrogant… and thrilled by objectless, purposeless domination for the sake of domination.

“The United States paradoxically came to resemble the global tyranny the Cold War was fought to defeat…

“A 1992 draft of a Defense Department document authored by Paul Wolfowitz urged U.S. military force pre-emptively to destroy any pre-embryonic new rival… Few if any in the nation’s political leadership asked then or later why U.S. global domination achieved not through the peaceful influence of example but through the sword would advance justice or promote an elevated moral order…

“And then came the predictable gratuitous wars and spiraling national debt.

“We evicted Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991 to reinstate a tyrannical dynasty. We dispatched troops to Somalia to alleviate a humanitarian crisis and got Black Hawk Down and the Al Shabab terrorist organization.

“We rained bombs on Bosnia and got an ethnically partitioned nation between Muslims, Croats, and Serbs.

“We initiated war against Serbia over Kosovo and set a precedent for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

“We continued war in Afghanistan long after the perpetrators of 9/11 had been killed or captured.

“We invaded Iraq in 2003 and joined its sequel internecine war against the Islamic State in 2014.

“We have carried the global, perpetual war against international terrorism to Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, the Philippines, and elsewhere.

“We endowed the president of the United States with power to exterminate any person on the planet whom he decrees based on secret, uncorroborated evidence may endanger the national security now or in the future…

“Whom the Gods would destroy they first intoxicate with limitless power…”

It is indeed correct that with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Europe, the political landscape began to dramatically change. Europe, under German leadership, is predestined to play an important leading role in these end times, while the downfall of America and the UK is likewise prophesied. This is due to the fact that God gave His blessings to these two powers, in fulfillment of His unconditional promise to Abraham, but He also predicted that His blessings would be taken away again if these powers would continue sinning against Him. As this proved to be the case, we are observing the beginning of the prophesied downfall of the USA and the UK, as well as Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

UK’s Exit from the EU Possible

The Guardian wrote on November 2:

“David Cameron has been warned by German chancellor Angela Merkel that she would rather see the UK leave the European Union than change freedom of movement rules, according to reports. Downing Street on Sunday did not deny that the conversation had taken place, after German newspaper Der Spiegel said Merkel had rejected Cameron’s demands for a cap on unskilled migrants. Sources told the newspaper that the chancellor said demands for any changes to freedom of movement rules represented a ‘point of no return’ and that this would be it for the UK’s membership.”

BBC News added on November 2:

“This is the first time that Mrs Merkel has acknowledged that the UK’s exit from the EU is possible, Der Spiegel said… A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Cameron would make a speech on immigration before Christmas, and stressed ‘you can be sure he will always put Britain first.’”

BBC News wrote on November 3:

“Chancellor George Osborne has insisted the UK will pursue its ‘national interest’ in Europe despite German warnings about its future in the EU… The suggestion that Angela Merkel would rather see Britain leave the EU than accede to changes to the EU’s freedom of movement principle has raised political temperatures in the UK. Within the political establishment in Berlin there is increasing frustration with the UK. They do not know what David Cameron wants and are increasingly sensitive to demands that appear to be endlessly changing…

“Speaking to journalists on Monday, Mrs Merkel’s spokesman – Steffen Seibert – said this was ‘not a bilateral matter between Germany and Britain but between Britain and all of its European partners’. It was up to the UK to ‘clarify’ what wider role it wanted to play in the EU, he added…

“UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he took the German warning seriously, saying that their ‘politicians do not bluff’ and it was not possible to have an ‘a la carte menu’ in Europe. ‘David Cameron will fiddle around the edges and end up satisfying nobody,’ he told the BBC. And Labour said Mr Cameron was ‘losing allies and influence’ in Europe. ‘His weakness within his own party means he now risks pushing Britain towards exit from Europe altogether,’ said shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander.”

Once the UK will have exited from the EU, the beginning of the UK’s downfall will have begun.

Elections in Eastern Ukraine

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 3:

“Germany has criticized Moscow for recognizing the results of the elections in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. Russia has said the polls amount to a ‘mandate’ for the separatist leaders to negotiate with Kyiv… The outcomes of Sunday’s elections came as no surprise, with the favorites winning easily. Interfax cited local elections officials who said that Alexander Zakharchenko won with almost 79 percent of the votes cast in Donetsk, while Igor Plotnitsky took 64 percent in Luhansk. Elections held in the rest of Ukraine late last month produced a pro-Western parliament…”

The EUObserver added on November 3:

“German chancellor Angela Merkel [was] warning at the last EU summit in Brussels that the vote is designed to create another Russia-sponsored ‘frozen conflict’ in Europe, alongside Transniestria in Moldova and Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.”

With the elections in Eastern Ukraine, Russia has received new “encouragement” for their course towards the take-over of the entire Ukraine.

Weather Channel Founder John Coleman Challenges Man-Made Global Warming

Newsmax reported on November 2:

“The idea that there is significant man-made global warming is ‘a whole lot of baloney,’ Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman insisted on CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ Sunday morning. ‘The government only gives money to scientists who will present their hypothesis,’ said Coleman, a meteorologist who helped found The Weather Channel 32 years ago. ‘They don’t have any choice; if you are going to get the money, you have to present their position. Those are the ones the government pays for. That doesn’t make it right, that only means it’s bought and paid for.’

“But Coleman, who debunked climate change in a letter to UCLA last month, told show host Brian Stelter Sunday that he resented him introducing him as a climate change ‘denier.’ ‘That is a word meant to put me down,’ he told him. ‘I’m a skeptic about climate change, and I want to make it… clear that [Weather Channel CEO David] Kenny is not a scientist, I am.’… ‘There is no consensus in science,’ said Coleman. ‘Science isn’t a vote. Science is about facts. If you get down to the hard cold facts, climate change is not happening. There is no significant man-made global warming now.’…

“Coleman said he and other scientists will ‘keep battling’ but meanwhile, he hopes that people will research online and find websites that ‘present the papers that show that none of this alarmism about ice and heat waves and droughts, none of it is happening.’”

Coleman, now retired, stated in the interview that he was not only the co-founder, but the founder of the Weather Channel. His voice in the debate on man-made global warming cannot be easily dismissed.

Remains of Pharaoh’s Drowned Army Found?

World News Daily wrote on October 24:

“Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry announced this morning that a team of underwater archaeologists had discovered that remains of a large Egyptian army from the 14th century BC, at the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, 1.5 kilometers offshore from the modern city of Ras Gharib… The scientists lead by Professor Abdel Muhammad Gader and associated with Cairo University’s Faculty of Archaeology, have already recovered a total of more than 400 different skeletons, as well as hundreds of weapons and pieces of armor, also the remains of two war chariots, scattered over an area of approximately 200 square meters. They estimate that more than 5000 other bodies could be dispersed over a wider area, suggesting that an army of large size who have perished on the site.

“Many clues on the site have brought Professor Gader and his team to conclude that the bodies could be linked to the famous episode of the Exodus. First of all, the ancient soldiers seem to have died on dry ground, since no  traces of boats or ships have been found in the area. The positions of the bodies and the fact that they were stuck in a vast quantity of clay and rock, imply that they could have died in a mudslide or a tidal wave.

“The shear number of bodies suggests that a large ancient army perished on the site and the dramatic way by which they were killed, both seem to corroborate the biblical version of the Red Sea Crossing, when the army of the Egyptian Pharaoh was destroyed by the returning waters that Moses had parted. This new find certainly proves that there was indeed an Egyptian army of large size that was destroyed by the waters of the Red Sea during the reign of King Akhenaten…”

If proven to be true, this would indeed be a tremendous testimony for the accuracy of the Bible even in historical respects.

The Status Quo Will or Won’t Change?

The Associated Press reported on November 2:

“After months of escalating violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday made his clearest attempt yet to cool tempers, saying he won’t allow changes to a long-standing ban on Jewish worship at the Muslim-run site, despite such demands from ultranationalists in his coalition. Netanyahu’s reassurances to Muslims came just days after the religious feud over the Old City shrine, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, threatened to spin out of control.

“Israel closed the compound for a day last week, a rare move, after a Palestinian shot and wounded a prominent activist who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the site. Angered by the closure, Jordan, the custodian of the mosque compound, warned it might seek diplomatic sanctions unless Israel halts what a Jordanian official said were ‘repeated violations’ at the site. The U.S. has urged Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to show restraint…

“It remained unclear to what extent Netanyahu is willing to clash with coalition members lobbying for a greater Jewish presence at the shrine, the holiest in Judaism as the site of former biblical temples… On Saturday evening, Housing Minister Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home party, a key coalition partner, ignored appeals to tone down the rhetoric. At a rally for Yehuda Glick, the rabbi wounded by the Palestinian gunman last week, Ariel was quoted as saying that ‘the status quo on the Temple Mount will change.’

“Under that status quo, Muslim authorities reporting to Jordan continued to administer the site, home to the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques, after east Jerusalem’s capture by Israel in 1967. Jews were allowed to visit, but not to pray there…

“The wrangling over the shrine comes at a time when a negotiated solution for Jerusalem, claimed by Israelis and Palestinians as a capital, is out of reach. U.S.-led peace talks collapsed earlier this year, and there’s not enough common ground between the sides to warrant resumption. Netanyahu rejects any withdrawal from east Jerusalem – the area sought by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state. Instead, the Israeli leader is promoting housing construction for Jews in east Jerusalem, including an announcement last week that plans for more than 1,000 new settlement apartments there would move forward…

“In Israel, Jewish access to the Temple Mount has turned from a fringe issue into a mainstream idea. After 1967, most rabbis considered Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount a sacrilege. But since the 1990s, nationalist clerics have been pressing for an increased Jewish presence, triggering angry reactions by Muslims who argue the site is exclusively theirs…”

CS Monitor wrote on November 2:

“Today Moshe Feiglin walked on the holiest site in Judaism and posed for photos in front of the Dome of the Rock, a revered Muslim shrine that rests where many believe the Jewish Temple once stood. In doing so the Israeli member of parliament fueled growing Muslim-Jewish tensions around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount…

“Mr. Feiglin’s action was a direct challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call this morning for parliament to exercise ‘responsibility and restraint’ around the Temple Mount complex…

“Feiglin, like Yehuda Glick, the rabbi currently recovering from the murder attempt last week, favors building Judaism’s Third Temple on the site, which would require the destruction of both the Dome of the Rock and, many Muslims believe, the nearby Al Aqsa mosque…

“For both Israelis and Palestinians, this compound is not only a sacred space but the front-line of their battle for sovereignty over Jerusalem…”

The Middle East will engulf in utter chaos when the Jews begin with the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount.

Jerusalem Is Ours!

On November 5, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the following speech to the Knesset at a session marking the 19th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (published by The Times of Israel, dated November 6):

“The murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is a low point in the history of our people, a despicable and contemptible act that threatened to drag us into the depths of self-destruction…

“If there is one idea around which we have all united for hundreds and thousands of years, it is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is different than most world capitals: It is not just a capital city, it is our heart and soul and it is the foundation for our existence as a sovereign nation. Ten days before his murder, at an event marking 3,000 years of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin said, ‘In Israel there is one subject on which we do not disagree – the wholeness of Jerusalem and its continued existence and strengthening as the capital of Israel. There are not two Jerusalems; there is only one Jerusalem. As far as we are concerned, Jerusalem is not a subject for compromise and there is no peace without Jerusalem.’ Rabin later emphasized, ‘Jerusalem was ours, it is ours and it will remain so forever.’

“Distinguished guests, over the past several months, and especially over the past several days, we have witnessed a campaign of wild incitement against the State of Israel… This front of hatred is directed at all of us… we must stand together and say clearly and without apology: Unified Jerusalem is our capital and it will remain so. We are in a battle for Jerusalem. It may be a prolonged battle. I am certain we will be victorious. For some people, the issue of Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem is an instrument of political struggle. Our presence in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years, is called a provocation. They simply want to uproot us from here. They try to rewrite history, deny our brave affinity for Jerusalem and claim that we are trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, spread lies that we want to harm or destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque or change the prayer arrangements for Muslims on the Mount…

“No country in the world is willing to barter over its capital. Yitzhak Rabin said the same thing when he established his government 22 years ago. ‘The government is determined,’ he said, ‘that Jerusalem is not up for debate. The coming years will be marked by an expansion of building in Greater Jerusalem. All Jews, religious and secular alike, swear, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.”’ May these words from Yitzhak Rabin serve as a beacon for us and may his memory be blessed.”

Increasing Strife

Reuters reported on November 5:

“Increasing strife over Jerusalem’s most volatile holy site plunged relations between Israel and Jordan into crisis on Wednesday, with Amman recalling its ambassador for the first time since the countries’ 1994 peace treaty.

“In a sign of tensions, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in Jerusalem’s city center on Wednesday, killing an Israeli paramilitary border policeman before he was shot dead by police. More than a dozen people were injured.

“In a second attack later, a van driven by a Palestinian hit three soldiers in the occupied West Bank. One was seriously injured and two others suffered moderate wounds, an Israeli ambulance service spokesman and police said.”

The Times of Israel wrote on November 6:

“Jerusalem is starting to burn. Religious fervor is intensifying… ”

Turkey Gets Involved

In a related article,  Times of Israel wrote on November 6:

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israeli actions on the Temple Mount ‘barbaric and despicable’ on Thursday, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported. In a press conference before departing for Turkmenistan, Erdogan added that ‘Israel is preparing the ground for the failure of inter-religious and inter-ethnic dialogue around the world… Israel has already been isolated in the Middle East, but if such actions continue, Israel will also become marginalized at the world level,’ he continued. ‘The occupation of al-Aqsa is not only a concern of Palestinians or Arabs, but of the whole Muslim world… Israel’s barbaric behavior will leave it alone in the world,’ Erdogan told Anadolu.”

The Middle East will engulf in utter chaos when the Jews begin with the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount.

Germany’s Dilemma

The Local wrote on October 31:

“Germany finds itself in a complicated relationship with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). At home, police must investigate anyone who flies the flag, but in the Middle East they are the best hope of beating back the Islamic State…

“The PKK, which is believed to have 13,000 supporters in Germany, has been banned in the country for many years in response to its armed struggle against Turkey. In the early 90s the PKK attacked Turkish government buildings in Germany and in 1993 even stormed the Turkish Consulate in Munich. As recently as 2012, Germany’s parliament reaffirmed the ban on the PKK. The parliamentary state secretary for the interior ministry said at the time the PKK was a ‘destructive’ force which undermined ‘peaceful co-existence’ between Kurds and Turks in Germany.

“In northern Iraq, German weapons and training are being delivered into the hands of the PKK’s one-time Kurdish rivals, the peshmerga, but their fighters have not been able to put up the same level of resistance as the PKK and the two groups are increasingly working together. It means arms the German government provides to the peshmerga could end up with a group classified as a terrorist organization by the EU.

“But with a fighting force of 15,000, the PKK is Germany’s and the West’s best hope of staving off Isis advances and German Kurds are joining the fight, putting domestic security forces in a difficult position…”

Apple CEO–Proud to Be Gay

USA Today wrote on October 30:

“Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly confirmed he is gay in an opinion piece published Thursday, making him the highest-profile chief executive to come out… ‘While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now,’ writes Cook. ‘So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.’

“Reaction has been mostly positive… Public confirmations of sexuality have increased in Hollywood, and have started to appear in the sports world…  But it’s rare to see in the business world, which makes the revelation by Cook — head of one of the world’s most profitable companies — a much bigger deal….”

God does not bestow a “great gift” of homosexuality on anyone. God calls it an abomination. Another abomination is covered in the next article.

Acceptance of Post-Birth Abortions on the Rise

The College Fix reported on October 29:

“A trend seen by prolife activists that frequently engage college students on campuses nationwide is the growing acceptance of post-birth abortion, or killing the infant after he or she is born, campus prolife outreach leaders tell The College Fix… not only do they see more college students willing to say they support post-birth abortion, but some students even suggest children up to 4 or 5-years-old can also be killed, because they are not yet ‘self-aware.’ ‘We encounter people who think it is morally acceptable to kill babies after birth on a regular basis at almost every campus we visit,’ said Mark Harrington, director of Created Equal. ‘While this viewpoint is still seen as shocking by most people, it is becoming increasingly popular.’

“Campuses where the high school, college students, local activists and staff members of Created Equal have encountered this opinion include Purdue, University of Minnesota, and University of Central Florida. And at Ohio State earlier this year, the group captured a debate on video between one of its members and an older woman on campus who defended infanticide…

“Kristina Garza, spokeswoman for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a prolife organization that often sets up anti-abortion displays on campuses along the West Coast, said her group also frequently encounters college students who accept infanticide. ‘For those who are firmly for abortion, because they understand it kills a human being, it’s very easy for them to accept killing a human being after birth,’ Garza said…

“Garza said there’s an explanation for it. For one, the arguments put forth by Peter Singer and other philosophers who support infanticide are given as reading assignments to college students. Singer wrote in 1979 that ‘human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons … [therefore] the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee.’”

The Catholic Church–A Ship Without a Rudder?

USA Today reported on November 2:

“A senior American cardinal in the Vatican says that under this pope, the Roman Catholic Church is ‘a ship without a rudder’’ and the faithful ‘are feeling a bit seasick.’

“Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput complains that a recent Vatican conference called by Pope Francis produced ‘confusion,’ adding, ‘Confusion is of the devil.’ A group of conservative lay Catholics say they felt ‘betrayed’ by a preliminary report from the conference that proposed a more welcoming attitude toward gay men and lesbians… for these and other U.S. Catholic conservatives and traditionalists, the papacy of Francis also seems to be infuriating, worrying or just plain puzzling…

“Many conservatives struggle to get a handle on Pope Francis, who since taking office last year warned against an ‘obsessive’ concern with culture war issues, such as abortion and gay marriage; encouraged discussion of church teaching on things like contraception and divorce; and asked, regarding gay men and lesbians who profess religious faith, ‘Who am I to judge?’’…”

Interesting Results of Brain Study

CBS News reported on October 31:

“When researchers showed disgusting images of snakes, roaches, garbage, vomit, mutilated bodies and open wounds to participants in a Virginia Tech study, they found significant differences between the way liberals and conservatives reacted, on a neural level… The more strongly a person’s brain reacted to seeing disgusting images, the more likely they were to hold conservative views. The same discrepancy did not exist in their responses to positive images.

“The authors point out in the paper, published in the journal Current Biology, that this is the first brain study to find multiple points of differentiation in activity when comparing the emotional processing of images in liberals versus conservatives. Several parts of the brain lit up in conservatives, while others were activated in liberals… Indeed, watching the brain’s reaction to a single disgusting image was sufficient to guess each subject’s political orientation…

“The study did not determine exactly how or why liberal brains differ from conservative ones, only that the two types of brains lit up in two different patterns when viewing the same images.” 

The Right To Determine When to Die?

USA Today wrote on November 2:

“Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old face of the controversial right-to-death movement, has died. She captivated millions via social media with her public decision to end her life… The statement said Maynard suffered ‘increasingly frequent and longer seizures, severe head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms.’ She chose to take the ‘aid-in-dying medication she received months ago.’…

“One commenter on Twitter posted… ‘To die with dignity still eludes many. May you find peace.’ Another had mixed feelings. ‘Brain cancer is a horrific way to die but, being raised traditional Catholic, suicide still a no-no,’ a commenter wrote.

“Maynard was diagnosed with a stage 4 malignant brain tumor. She moved with her family from California to Oregon, where she could legally die with medication prescribed under the [Oregon law.]

“Tim Rosales, spokesman for Patients Rights Action Coalition based in Princeton, N.J., said that for every Brittany Maynard, there’s a Barbara Wagner, an Oregon woman who fought her insurance company when it said it would cover drugs for her suicide but not for chemotherapy to fight her lung cancer. ‘We have to look at assisted suicide in much broader terms,’ Rosales said in a phone interview Sunday evening. ‘Obviously, we’re very saddened to hear the news about Brittany Maynard. However, that being said, suicide or assisted suicide sends the wrong message to a lot of young people [who] are [in] the country, particularly those who are dealing with psychological or physical challenges or serious illnesses.’

“An evangelical inspirational speaker and Catholic seminarian who has brain cancer has been outspoken about Maynard’s decision. ‘I understand she may be in great pain, and her treatment options are limited and have their own devastating side effects, but I believe Brittany is missing a critical factor in her formula for death: God,’ said Joni Eareckson Tada last month…

“Four other states, including Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico, allow patients to seek help from doctors in dying… Under the Oregon law, the person must be capable, an adult, live in state and have been diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months.”

According to the Bible, we are not to take the life of a human being, including our own life. However desperate and painful a situation might be, we are to trust in God and His decision as to when our life will end. At the same time, suicide is quite different from the ending of artificially prolonged life.

“How to Prepare Earth for Extraterrestrial Life”

On September 25, 2014, Collective Evolution and the Huffington Post reported the following:

“A couple of months ago top US astronomers gathered in front of congress to let them know that extraterrestrial life exists without question. Their main argument was the size of the universe, emphasizing that there are trillions of stars out there, with one in every five most likely harboring an Earth-like planet. It’s also important to keep in mind that planets do not have to be ‘Earth-like’ in order to harbor life… This time, NASA and the Library of Congress have teamed up bringing together scientists, theologians, philosophers and historians from around the globe for a two day symposium in order to discuss how to prepare the world for extraterrestrial contact, whether it be microbial organisms or intelligent beings…

“One of the theologians present was Brother Guy Consolmagno, who is the new president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. This is what he had to say: ‘I Believe [alien life exists], but I have no evidence. I would be really excited and it would make my understanding of my religion deeper and richer in ways that I can’t even predict yet, which is why it would be so exciting.’ He is urging the public not to be so surprised when extraterrestrial life is discovered, because it will be discovered. He even said that he would be happy to baptize them, if it’s intelligent extraterrestrial life that’s discovered. The Vatican has been very open to the idea of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and they’ve expressed these views for a very long time…

“In the United States alone, at least half of all Americans say that we’re not alone in the universe. Fifty percent of Americans already believe that there is some form of life on other planets, while only seventeen percent think that there isn’t. A quarter of Americans believe that intelligent extraterrestrial visitors have already come to Earth and have been doing so for a long time…

“Scientists estimate that at least 10 billion habitable Earth-sized planets exist in the milky way alone (one galaxy out of billions)…

“Some of the most extraordinary statements about UFOs and extraterrestrials come from persons who have held some of the highest positions known…”

As we pointed out in our recent Q&A series on pre- and post-Adamic life, there is no biblical evidence that there is any extra-terrestrial life. The Bible teaches quite the opposite. But it is interesting that according to the Book of Revelation, mankind will try to fight the returning Jesus Christ, riding on a white horse, and accompanied with an angelic army on white horses. Will mankind be so deceived to believe that hostile extraterrestrial beings will try to take over the world?

“One Step Closer to the Exit”

Mail-On-Line wrote on October 24:

“Brussels’ shock demand for £1.7billion more from Britain has pushed us closer to leaving the EU, a furious David Cameron admitted yesterday. The Prime Minister insisted the payment – which works out at £56 for every taxpayer – was ‘not going to happen’… Britain was told to pay more because its economy has performed better than expected. But countries including France whose economies have under-performed will receive multi-million-pound rebates – something critics said was essentially a reward for their ‘basket case’ economic policies…

“But Germany’s powerful leader Angela Merkel – whose country is set to receive a rebate – suggested Britain would eventually end up paying the vast sum, and said she had no problem with the calculations. And Jose Manuel Barroso, the outgoing president of the European Commission, indicated that the £1.7billion bill was not up for negotiation.

“It emerged that Chancellor George Osborne had known about the demand on Tuesday but, embarrassingly, he had not passed on the information to the Prime Minister, who did not find out until Thursday. David Cameron was left red-faced as he was forced to admit he had been kept in the dark for days about the shock £1.7billion demand after George Osborne failed to inform him… And according to Labor, the Office for National Statistics might have known about it five months ago…

“UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the only way to avoid the surcharge was by leaving the Union. ‘The EU is like a thirsty vampire feasting on UK taxpayers’ blood. We need to protect the innocent victims, who are us,’ he added.”

In an accompanying polemic article, Mail-On-Line wrote on October 24:

“Like some despotic colonial power, the European Commission under its ex-Maoist president Jose Manuel Barroso suddenly demands an arbitrary levy from the UK of £1.7billion – nearly £30 for every man, woman and child in this country. This outrageous charge is a crushing blow to David Cameron as he tries to persuade an increasingly sceptical British public that the EU (whose accounts, of course, have never been signed off, so dubious are its figures) can be made to change its profligate, anti-democratic ways.

“For Nigel Farage and Ukip, it’s an absolute gift in the run-up to the Rochester and Strood by-election… Socialist France, an economic basket-case, is the biggest beneficiary – receiving £800million to keep its huge, unreformed public sector afloat. Have British families really gone through years of sacrifice so French civil servants can continue to retire on gold-plated pensions at 60?…

“The Barroso raid will convince many voters that this simply cannot be achieved within the EU. If the Commission wanted to give a boost to Britain’s growing number of Eurosceptics, it could hardly have come up with a better strategy.”

The “Express” wrote on October 25:

“FURIOUS David Cameron last night conceded that Britain had been pushed closer to a European Union exit after receiving an eye-watering £1.7billion Brussels bill… Calls for the UK to withdraw from the EU intensified yesterday…

“In an angry intervention, he interrupted a summit discussion on economic policy to confront European Commission President Jose Barroso over the cash demand. He accused the Eurocrat of having ‘no idea’ of the impact the ‘vast’ invoice would have on the UK. Speaking at a news conference at the end of the summit, he said the ‘completely unjustified and sudden production of a bill for Britain of £1.7billion’ had provoked ‘downright anger’ in him.”

However, there is, as always, another side to the story. Die Zeit Online reported on October 24 that the UK agreed to the calculation formula in 1995, and other German and European papers added that the UK had received substantial subsidies in the past, based on this automatic formula, when it “under-performed.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 24:

“British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday vehemently dismissed a request from the European Union for an additional 2.1-billion-euro payment into the bloc’s coffers after a revision of official data showed the United Kingdom’s economy was doing well… EU members pay into the bloc’s budget according to the strength of their respective economies. In the past, when the UK economy was shrinking, London received money back. Now that its economy is recovering, its contribution has been adjusted upwards.

“An EU official called the revision a ‘technical matter’ and said it came up every year. But the request for more money comes at an inopportune time for Prime Minister Cameron, who faces staunch resistance at home to the 28-member bloc by euroskeptic political parties…

“European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, in response to Cameron’s objections, said rules were rules and they should not be questioned. He noted that EU member states had voted in favor of the budget scheme…”

BBC News added on October 26:

“Europe expects the UK to pay an extra £1.7bn towards the EU budget ‘and that’s that’, a vice president of the European Parliament has said. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a German MEP, said the EU would be ‘exasperated’ if the UK tried to avoid payment.”

The EUObserver wrote on October 27:

“The UK has to pay its outstanding €2.1bn bill by 1 December or face monthly penalties, EU budget commissioner Jacek Dominik said Monday (27 October) in a press conference. Dominik said he was ‘surprised’ to witness the ‘anger’ of British Prime Minister David Cameron who last week vowed not to pay the bill at such short notice.

“The commissioner said British officials knew since 17 October, when all member states were presented with their corrected share of the EU budget, based on changes in their gross national income (GNI) compared to what they had projected. ‘What is extremely important is to remember that these figures are presented by member states based on their own statistics and approved by Eurostat,’ Dominik said…

“Asked if Britain could delay or pay the bill in tranches, Dominik said such measure would require a qualified majority among member states in the EU council. ‘It would be extremely difficult to do it. The regulation on own resources also concerns the British rebate, if you open up this act for future negotiations, you open a Pandora box,’ he said…

“He said that in case Britain does not transfer the money by 1 December, the EU commission will first write a letter asking for explanations. If the explanations are not credible and the payment continues to be delayed ‘for weeks or months’, the EU law foresees penalties of at least two percent of the total bill plus 0.25 percent for each month of delay.”

Bild Online asked on October 25: “Are the British Leaving the EU?” The mass tabloid opinionated that Cameron will not be able to avoid the demanded payment on or about December 1, even though Cameron declared angrily in Brussels that he will not pay. The paper quoted a modified famous statement from William Shakespeare: “To pay or not to pay—that is the question.”

What is important for us is to realize that the prophesied rift between the UK and continental Europe is widening. See also the next article:

Merkel Blocks Cameron

The Sunday Times wrote on October 26:

“Angela Merkel has delivered a potentially fatal blow to David Cameron’s attempt to cap immigration from the European Union. The German chancellor told The Sunday Times that she would not support Cameron’s plans to limit freedom of movement within the EU as part of his planned renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Brussels.

“The prime minister has pledged to make changes to freedom of movement a ‘red line’ in a new deal and is preparing to pledge to bring in quotas for low-skilled EU migrants. But questioned by this newspaper during an EU summit in Brussels, Merkel categorically denied that there was any possibility of Germany supporting any limitations on the freedom of movement — a potentially terminal intervention from Britain’s key ally.”

We Need a European Army

Die Welt wrote on September 30:

“Europe needs a unified army after all… It is high time for [the unification of] European military forces… Because of the bad condition of the German Bundeswehr, we are confronted with a historical opportunity to think about… a European security policy… Military forces should not be established nationally, but need to be European… A European army would open up new areas of activities… The preservation and increase of freedom, peace and security is no longer the responsibility of just one nation, but it has become a European challenge. A European army would meet that challenge.”

We will observe very soon the creation of a powerful and extremely efficient European Army.

Violence in Germany

The Local wrote on October 28:

“Further far-right protests, of the kind seen in Cologne on Sunday, are being planned in Berlin and Hamburg, leading to fears of violence spreading to other cities. The scale and violence of what was billed as an anti-Salafist demo caught police by surprise on Sunday. Forty-five people were injured in fighting around the ‘Hooligans against Salafists’ march, 44 of them police officers, and 17 people were arrested. Police used tear gas and water cannon to try to control more than 4,000 people who took to Cologne’s streets.

“Far-right protests are not unusual in Germany, but the size of the Cologne march was. Under an anti-Islamic banner, organizers managed to unite different far-right and football hooligan factions. The far-right scene hailed the protest as the ‘Miracle of Cologne’ and protesters are set to mobilize in other cities this month under the motto, ‘Cologne was just the beginning’. A similar demonstration is planned in Hamburg and Berlin on Saturday November 15th..  The ‘Hooligans against Salafists’ group is also planning a demonstration on November 15th in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. City politicians are looking to ban the protest.

“German police union DPolG also fears the violence seen in Cologne will spread. DPolG president Rainer Wendt told dpa news agency: ‘It will not be restricted to Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne. It is possible in all cities.’” 

The Ukrainian Election

BBC News wrote on October 26:

“Ukraine’s political culture is notoriously fractious. And the issues facing the country, such as how to enact reform, battle corruption or fight the war in the east, will provide fertile ground for disagreement.

“Within the parties themselves there are a number of question marks – especially among the numerous war heroes and battalion commanders who populate the candidate lists. Though their battlefield bravery is not in doubt, their political views are not entirely clear. Where they stand on the problems the country faces remains to be seen.”

The EUObserver wrote on October 27:

“Ukraine exit polls show a strong win by pro-Western parties, a snub to the far-right, and a surprisingly good result for elements of the former regime… The CEC also reported turnout of 52 percent nationwide, rising to over 70 percent in the west, but falling to some 30 percent in government-controlled regions in the east.

“Meanwhile, three parts of the country – some 4.8 million people out of Ukraine’s 46 million population – did not vote: Crimea (annexed by Russia), and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in east Ukraine (which are held by pro-Russia rebels).  The situation means 27 seats in Ukraine’s 450 seat parliament will be left symbolically vacant.

“Rebel chiefs, speaking to Russian media, denounced the elections as a ‘farce’. Boyko also accused authorities of corruption, calling the vote the ‘dirtiest’ ever in Ukraine… Rebel chiefs in Donetsk and Luhansk are now planning to hold their own vote on 2 November in an effort to cement claims to independence.”

Deutsche Welle added on October 28:

“The Kremlin will recognize upcoming elections in Ukraine’s separatist eastern regions…  entrenching the split between the Western-leaning national government in Kyiv and the pro-Kremlin separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk… Moscow has also agreed to recognize the results of Ukraine’s national elections last Sunday, in which pro-Western parties secured a parliamentary majority.”

How the USA Is Emboldening Putin

The Washington Times wrote on October 23:

“Russian military provocations have increased so much over the seven months since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine that Washington and its allies are scrambling defense assets on a nearly daily basis in response to air, sea and land incursions by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

“Not only is Moscow continuing to foment unrest in Eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials and regional security experts say Russian fighter jets are testing U.S. reaction times over Alaska and Japan’s ability to scramble planes over its northern islands — all while haunting Sweden’s navy and antagonizing Estonia’s tiny national security force.

“The White House months ago leveled economic sanctions on several Russian businesses and political players, and recent weeks have seen President Obama intensify his rhetoric toward Moscow. But many in Washington’s national security community say the response is simply not firm enough and that, as a result, Mr. Putin actually feels emboldened to push the envelope — Cold War-style…

“Mr. Putin has appeared undeterred. NATO officials confirmed this week that the Russian air force flew an Ilyushin-20 spy plane into Estonian airspace Tuesday, triggering a swift reaction from NATO fighter jets patrolling the area. The incursion came just days after Sweden made international headlines by scrambling a fleet of naval vessels to search for a suspected submarine sighted about 30 miles off the coast of Stockholm in the Baltic Sea… regional analysts… say they’d be surprised if the sub was not Russian. The development, the analysts say, fits within a growing list of similar Russian actions, including some directly challenging U.S. territory.

“The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled jets to scare off two Russian strategic bombers that suddenly appeared to conduct practice runs in airspace just 65 miles off Alaska in June. A similar incident occurred in September, with U.S. and Canadian fighters scrambling to deter six Russian aircraft, including two nuclear bombers, two fighter jets and two refueling tankers, according to news reports…”

Putin Blames America

The Washington Times wrote on October 25:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the U.S. for the crisis in Ukraine and radical Islamic terrorism and claimed there is ‘no true democracy’ in America during a speech on Friday… He [said] that Russia was not responsible for the unrest in Ukraine, insisting that the U.S. had pushed the country into chaos and tried to ‘remake the whole world based on its interests’…

“During his speech, which Reuters described as a ‘diatribe … that was reminiscent of the Cold War,’ Mr. Putin blasted American society and government… ‘The bear isn’t asking anyone for permission. The bear is considered a strong and very traditional animal… [but] will not surrender,’ Mr. Putin said…”

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)

The Guardian wrote on October 28:

“Until the last moment Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, held out for 7 October, to coincide with Vladimir Putin’s birthday. But in the end the parliament in Minsk ratified the treaty on Eurasian Economic Union on 9 October, the day before its first three members – Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – were due to meet.

“It would be simplistic to reduce the nascent EEU to a toy in the hands of the Russian president. When it comes into force, on 1 January 2015, it will be the most advanced organisation for regional cooperation the former Soviet bloc has seen…

“… [According to Putin] this organisation will be the equal of the EU and other major regional entities, a powerful bloc that will matter on the world stage. Its official formation is also intended to show the world that Russia has fully recovered, while crowning Putin’s efforts to pull together the states making up the post-Soviet sphere of influence. Those who deride the scheme see it as an attempt to restore the empire…

“Ukraine, with its population of 45 million, was supposed to play a key role in the EEU… Ukraine had to be punished, for wanting to move closer to Europe but also for refusing to join the EEU, after Yanukovych’s demise…”

More Russian Provocations and Europe’s Response

The Washington Post wrote on October 29:

“NATO said Wednesday that it had intercepted a large number of Russian aircraft flying close to European airspace in the past two days, in an ‘unusual’ series of incidents that brought Russian bombers as far afield as Portugal.

“The aircraft — at least 19 in all — offered reminders of Russian air power at a time of the worst relations between the West and Russia since the Cold War. Russian military aircraft have significantly increased their activity in Europe since the conflict in Ukraine began earlier this year, with NATO scrambling to intercept aircraft more than 100 times in 2014. But a NATO official said the scale of the latest incidents was the most provocative this year.

“Over the Atlantic Ocean and the North, Black and Baltic seas, Russian bombers, fighter jets and tanker aircraft were detected flying in international airspace, NATO said. There were no incursions into national airspace, a violation of sovereignty that would have significantly amplified the seriousness of the four incidents, three of which took place on Wednesday…

“U.S. officials regard the flights as a show of force by the Putin government… In at least one of the four incidents, the aircraft had switched off their transponders and had not filed flight plans with civilian air traffic controllers. That means that civilian air traffic control cannot track them, potentially creating a risk for civilian planes.

“That incident took place around 3:00 a.m. in Western Europe on Wednesday, when four Tu-95 long-range strategic nuclear bombers and four Il-78 tanker aircraft flew over the Norwegian Sea. Norwegian F-16 fighter jets scrambled to intercept them. Six of the planes returned to Russia, but two of the bombers skirted the Norwegian coast, flew past Britain — sending Typhoon fighter jets to scramble in response — and then finally looped west of Spain and Portugal, attracting Portuguese F-16s. Then the two bombers appeared to return to Russia…

“Fighter jets from Norway, Britain, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Sweden were involved in responding to the Russian aircraft… Finland and Sweden are not members of NATO, and they have long refrained from joining the defensive alliance, which was formed after World War II as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. But military incidents with Russia this year have caused both countries to start to reevaluate their positions…

“The incidents appear to have set European militaries on edge this week. British fighter jets were scrambled Wednesday to bring a civilian Antonov cargo jet into a London airport; it stopped responding to radio calls from air traffic controllers while flying over the British capital. That caused a supersonic boom that was audible across a large stretch of southeastern England.”

“The Weakest of US Presidents”

Newsmax wrote on October 23:

“President Barack Obama is ‘the weakest of U.S. presidents’ and his time in the White House has been ‘humiliating,’… said Ali Younesi, senior adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in comments coming as the United States is trying to persuade his country to join the international coalition fighting against the Islamic State. His words could also be a sign that the Rouhani regime does not intend to concede to the United States’ demands concerning Iran’s nuclear program… ‘Americans witnessed their greatest defeats in Obama’s era…’

“Younesi is not alone in his criticism of Obama, with even former members of the president’s staff… critiquing Obama’s leadership skills…

“Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iranian dissident and associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Free Beacon that Obama believes ‘by rewarding Iran and permitting it to do whatever it wants in the region, the mullahs in Tehran will be convinced to compromise.’ However, Iran now controls three Arab capitals, Damascus, Beirut, and Baghdad, he said, and its allies just captured a fourth one, Sana in Yemen. Further, Iran’s economy has improved significantly. ‘Unfortunately, it does not seem that the mullahs reached the conclusion desired by the administration,’ he said. ‘Iranians believe this administration is weak, it has lost its economic leverage over Iran and there is no credible military option on the table…”

Iran remains undeterred by American and Western “protests,” as can be seen by Iran’s hanging of a woman who killed a man for raping her.

Where Are the Real Alternatives?

Newsmax wrote on October 24:

“Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney should by no means make a bid for the presidency in 2016 because ‘he had his chance and he blew it,’ says real estate mogul Donald Trump… Trump also expressed his disappointment with Romney’s performance in the final four weeks of the 2012 campaign against President Barack Obama… ‘That was an election that, frankly, should have been a much easier election than the probable 2016 candidate Hillary [Clinton]. That was an election that should have been won by the Republicans.’ …

“Meanwhile, a Washington Post/ABC News poll out earlier this week found that Romney had the highest support among likely voters of any potential 2016 candidate, with 21 percent. A Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll last week showed that Romney would be the only potential GOP candidate who would beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Iowa in a hypothetical match-up.  Specifically, 44 percent of likely Iowa voters said they would support Romney, compared to 43 percent who said they would back Clinton.”

None of that sounds too appealing…

China Buys New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Bloomberg wrote on October 7:

“New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel is set to become the biggest prize yet for buyers from China who have been pouring money into U.S. real estate as they seek stable investments outside their country… The Waldorf deal follows such high-profile New York acquisitions as Shanghai-based Greenland Holding Group Inc.’s purchase this year of a 70 percent interest in the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn…

“Earlier last year, a group including Zhang Xin, co-founder of Shanghai’s Soho China Ltd., took a 40 percent stake in midtown Manhattan’s General Motors Building, one of New York’s most-valuable office towers… $1.4 billion deal was the largest Chinese purchase of a U.S. building before the pending Waldorf sale… Chinese investors will have bought $2.7 billion of New York-area real estate in 2014, topping last year’s $2.6 billion…”

The Bible prophesied that due to the nation’s sins, Americans will become the tail and foreigners the head.

The Death Toll of the American Air Strikes in Syria

The Washington Post wrote on October 24:

“The United States launched its first airstrikes on militants in Syria on Sept. 23, and has continued the onslaught since. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday that 533 people have been killed in airstrikes since they began. That group counted 32 civilian deaths, including six children and five women… The human rights organization said that the number of militants could be much higher.”

Apart from the fact that God condemns war, the death of just one innocent person (“casualty of war”) is one too many.

Crisis between USA and Israel

The Associated Press reported on October 25:

“A top Israeli minister says there is a ‘crisis’ in in the country’s relations with the United States that must be fixed. Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s comments Saturday came a day after U.S. officials said the Obama administration refused Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon’s requests to meet several top national security aides.

“The White House and the State Department rejected Israeli proposals for meetings with Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Secretary of State John Kerry on his five-day trip to the United States. The administration is still miffed over negative comments Yaalon made about Kerry’s Mideast peace efforts and nuclear negotiations with Iran.”

More Turmoil in the Middle East

Al Arabiya News wrote on October 28:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday to keep building in all of Jerusalem, hours… after his government unveiled a plan to build 1,000 housing units in the eastern part of the city which the Palestinians demand for their future state… East Jerusalem is home to the city’s most sensitive Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites. Israel says the whole city will forever be its capital, citing historical, religious and security reasons. The international community, including the United States, does not recognize Israel’s annexation of the eastern sector of Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek it as their future capital and oppose any Israeli construction there…

“In an urgent letter sent to Washington on Sunday night, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Americans to intervene in what he termed as ‘Israeli escalation in East Jerusalem.’ Abbas warned that if Israel continued with its current measures, including proposals that would allow Jews to pray at the Temple Mount compound, it would lead to an eruption of violence that would spiral out of control…

“Meanwhile, Palestinian authorities have asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to appoint an impartial inquiry commission to investigate the death of eight Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2014… ‘We call on the U.N., the European Union and the United States to take immediate punitive actions so that Israel bears responsibility for the use of live weapons and the killing of Palestinian citizens,’ PLO member Hanan Ashrawi said.”

Israel Closes Temple Mount

The Times of Israel reported on October 30:

“Israel decided Wednesday night to prohibit access to the Temple Mount Thursday to both Muslims and Jews until further notice, following the shooting in Jerusalem of Rabbi Yehudah Glick, a right-wing activist with the Temple Mount Faithful… Right-wing activists, including some members of Knesset, had called to march on the Temple Mount en masse Thursday morning in response the shooting which left Glick in serious, but stable, condition.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for an increased police presence in Jerusalem, as security forces were on high alert across the country… Glick was shot three times outside the Jerusalem’s Begin Center following a conference about the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. Police were still searching for the unidentified assailant who was wearing a helmet and was said to have fled the scene on a motorcycle.

“Glick had finished a speech at a conference at the Begin Center, entitled ‘Israel returns to the Temple Mount.’ Eyewitnesses said that after the event, a man with an Arabic accent approached Glick and asked him for his identity. The man then shot the victim, got on the motorcycle and fled…

“Housing Minister Uri Ariel, a proponent of a Jewish presence in east Jerusalem, said that the bullets fired at Glick ‘were aimed at all Jews who wish to pray on the Temple Mount,’ 24 news reported. He also demanded open Jewish access to the site in response… US-born Yehudah Glick, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Othniel, near Hebron, previously worked as the executive director of the Temple Institute, an organization that prepares vessels and garments for a future Jewish temple, before joining the Temple Mount Faithful…

“The shooting came amid weeks of rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem. Last week a Palestinian man drove a car into a crowded train platform located along the seam separating East and West Jerusalem, killing two. In the days following, Palestinians have clashed continuously with Israeli police in Arab neighborhoods of the capital. Israel responded to the rise in violence by increasing its police presence, deploying an additional 1,000 officers to the city. The shooting took place as diplomats convened a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the growing tensions in Jerusalem.”

Egypt Declares State of Emergency

Deutsche Welle reported on October 25:

“Egypt has declared a [three-month] state of emergency across much of the Sinai Peninsula [near the borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip] after a suicide car bombing that killed some 30 troops. A curfew was also introduced, while the border with the Gaza Strip was closed… [It] also ordered a three-hour curfew for the northern Sinai Peninsula, which has been plagued by Islamist violence…

“A decision was also taken to close the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip, the only point of entry into the territory that is not controlled by Israel.”

Islamist Terrorist Attacks in Canada

Newsmax wrote on October 22, 2014

“A gunman attacked Canada’s parliament on Wednesday, with gunfire erupting near a room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking, and a soldier was fatally shot at a nearby war memorial, jolting the Canadian capital. The gunman in the parliament building was shot dead, and Harper was safely removed…

“Two U.S. officials said U.S. agencies had been advised the suspect was a Canadian convert to Islam… It was unclear whether there was any connection between Wednesday’s shootings and an attack on Monday when a convert to Islam ran down two Canadian soldiers with his car, killing one, near Montreal, before being shot dead by police in the first fatal attack on Canadian soil tied to Islamic militants. Canada’s prime minister called the Ottawa shooting the country’s second terrorist attack in three days.”

The War Against Circumcision Continues in Israelite Countries

JTA wrote on October 22:

“A new poll indicates that 74 percent of Denmark’s citizens believe circumcision should be fully or partially banned… Two Danish parties favor a ban, while others are divided on the issue. Only 10 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed believed the decision should be left to parents… Sweden and Norway also are discussing circumcision bans. Earlier this year, Norway’s association of nurses urged the government to outlaw the procedure.”

Denmark, Sweden and Norway are part of the ancient House of Israel. 

Assault Against Religious Liberty

Newsmax wrote on October 15:

“The city of Houston has issued subpoenas to a group of pastors requesting any sermons they’ve written that cover the subject of homosexuality, gender identity, or mention of Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. The subpoenas came after pastors protested against Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance that the city council passed in June which, among other clauses related to sexuality and gender identity, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa in an effort to protect transgender rights…

“Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a statement he is ‘simply stunned by the sheer audacity’ of the subpoenas… Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz blasted the subpoenas, calling the move ‘shocking and shameful… For far too long, the federal government has led an assault against religious liberty, and now, sadly, my hometown of Houston is joining the fight,’ Cruz said in a statement. ‘This is wrong. It’s unbefitting of Texans, and it’s un-American. The government has no business asking pastors to turn over their sermons.’”

Newsmax added on October 25:

“Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s decision to issue subpoenas for sermons from the city’s Christian pastors was for ‘much larger political and constitutional stakes’ than just to coerce disclosure from the ministers, says Newt Gingrich… ‘The Mayor of Houston’s recent subpoena of sermons by Christian pastors in the country’s fourth largest city is a shocking violation of First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion,’ says Gingrich… ‘There is no clearer violation of First Amendment freedoms than for government officials to attempt to censor religious speech.’

“… there is an established strategy to paint protecting traditional moral values and ‘opposition to newly-invented sexual and gender identity rights’ as being malicious, says Gingrich. This was recently backed by the 2013 Supreme Court decision that invalidates the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. ‘Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that the only purpose of those who supported this traditional definition of marriage was to “disparage,” “injure,” “degrade,” “demean,” and “humiliate” certain groups of fellow citizens,’ says Gingrich.”

We can expect more and more governmental intrusion into and assaults against religious liberty and the teaching of the Bible.

Francis Not a Valid Pope?

The Independent wrote on October 25:

“The Catholic Church is changing – and the gates of reaction shall not prevail against it… Can you be more Catholic than the Pope? The American arch-reactionary Pat Buchanan clearly thinks so. He has been lambasting Pope Francis for sowing ‘confusion among the faithful’ by refusing to defend ‘the unchanging truths of Catholicism’. Indeed, says the US Catholic paleo-conservative, the Pope may be ‘speaking heresy’, which would imply that Francis is ‘not a valid pope’.

“Yet how does this high-octane indignation square with widespread reports at the end of last week that a liberal Pope had been defeated by doctrinaire traditionalists in his attempts to make the Church more welcoming to gays and divorcees? The fortnight-long Extraordinary Synod on the Family ended with headlines like: ‘Pope snubbed’ and ‘Liberal Hopes Dashed’.

“The answer is that, as the dust settles, what has become clear is that, for all the hoo-ha made by conservative cardinals, the overall outcome has been a remarkable advance for those who want the Catholic Church to be more compassionate and inclusive. The vociferous minority who tried to box the Pope into a corner, on gays and divorcees who remarry, may have won one small battle. But they are losing the wider war…

“The truth is that this Synod was extraordinary in many ways. The story began last year when Pope Francis asked for a questionnaire to be sent out all around the world to find out what ordinary Catholics thought about the teachings of their church on a range of controversial issues like premarital sex, contraception, divorce, remarriage and same-sex relationships.

“This had never been done before. Indeed, previous popes made it clear that they did not want to know what the people in the pew thought. They should just pray, pay and obey. Next Pope Francis focused the agenda by inviting one of the Church’s major progressives, Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany, to make the case to his fellow cardinals for lifting Rome’s ban which forbids Catholics who have divorced and remarried from receiving Communion.

“Then, at the opening of the Synod, the Pope binned the approach of previous popes which discouraged debate, silenced theologians and suppressed dissent. Instead he announced he wanted a strong and vigorous debate. People should listen with humility but speak with clarity and boldness. There was to be no self-censorship by cardinals who feared their views might upset the Pope. This stood in stark contrast to previous synods where Vatican officials went round privately telling participants not to mention certain subjects.

“The Pope certainly got the frank debate he wanted. It was so open that, halfway through the synod, an interim report on the discussion between the 190 cardinals, bishops and others was described as a ‘pastoral earthquake’ because of its unprecedented language of welcome and appreciation for gay people, as well as remarried Catholics and cohabiting couples.

“It was immediately met by strong dissent from a conservative minority who felt their views were unrepresented in the interim report… The vehemence of the response had its impact. When the bishops came to vote on the gay and remarriage issues most voted in favour of a more compassionate approach. But the votes did not achieve the two-thirds majorities desired in synods. The media reported that as a defeat for Pope Francis.

“The reality was different. The way the Church governs itself has been significantly changed. Bishops are now openly discussing ideas for which they could have been investigated, censured, silenced or fired under previous papacies. And a growing number of reform-minded bishops voted against the final text because it was too conservative rather than too liberal. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said he did not vote for the final wording on gays because it did not include the words welcome, respect and value…

“Pope Francis will want to bring along the majority of people with his instincts for change. But he will continue to send out signals of his desire. He will continue to appoint bishops who share his vision… Change is coming in the Catholic Church. The blustering of an outraged conservative minority will not hold back the tide.”

Interestingly, conservative bishops say that it was just a small liberal minority who unsuccessfully advocated change regarding the hotly-contested issues of marriage, homosexuality and communion. See the next article.

Split in the Catholic Church?

Newsmax wrote on October 21:

“A leftist element within the Vatican was behind a controversial church document calling for liberal attitudes toward gays, divorce and remarriage, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights [said]. The liberal bishops who wrote it made a calculated gamble that it would pick up steam when they flagrantly leaked it to the press, Donohue said… On Saturday, Catholic bishops — after a two-week meeting called a synod — passed a revised document that spells out the Roman Catholic Church’s position on homosexuality, marriage, divorce, and sex.

“The document was missing passages from a draft released earlier in the week that had a surprisingly liberal acceptance of gays, unwed Catholics who live together, and remarried divorcees who want to receive Holy Communion. Several gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups praised the earlier document, but some bishops then went public to blast the draft and insist the church was not changing…

“Donohue said there remains a split among top bishops about how the church should move forward on divorce and remarriage. ‘There’s no question. That’s the big split…’

“Donohue thinks the church will not waver on marriage [as being between a man and a woman]… After the revised document was released, Pope Francis said on Sunday that the Church should not be afraid of change and new challenges.”

Is a big split coming in the Catholic Church? 

Pope Adopts Big Bang and Evolution

Mail On Line reported on October 27:

“The Big Bang, which scientists believe led to the formation of the universe some 13.8billion years ago, was all part of God’s plan, Pope Francis has declared. The Pope said the scientific account of the beginning of the universe and the development of life through evolution are compatible with the Catholic Church’s vision of creation. He told a meeting of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Sciences: ‘The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.’ But he said Christians should reject the idea that world came into being by chance.

“Likewise, evolution was all part of God’s plan, he explained… The Catholic Church no longer teaches creationism – the belief that God created the world in six days – and says that the account in the book of Genesis is an allegory for the way God created the world.”

Of course, the Pope is wrong… again. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Evolution—A Fairy Tale for Adults.”

“Demonic” Artificial Intelligence (AI) Our “Biggest Existential Threat”

The Independent wrote on October 26:

“Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has described artificial intelligence as a ‘demon’ and the ‘biggest existential threat there is’, in his latest dramatic statement about technology… The business magnate, inventor and investor, who is also CEO and CTO of SpaceX, and chairman of SolarCity, has warned about artificial intelligence before, which he believes could be more threatening than nuclear weapons…

“The ethical issues around AI were highlighted earlier this year when Google bought the British start-up DeepMind for $400 million (£242m). The London-based firm, founded by chess prodigy Demis Hassabis, specialises in algorithms and machine learning for e-commerce and games. But Mr Hassabis has also predicted that AI machines will learn ‘basic vision, basic sound processing, basic movement control, and basic language abilities’ by the end of the decade. Google has acquired a slew of robotics firms, including Boston Dynamics

“That purchase – Google’s largest European acquisition – came just months after it bought Boston Dynamics, a firm that produces life-like military robots. Google has reportedly set up an ‘ethics board’ in wake of the purchases but concerns remain.”

The article also sets forth several AI inventions which are already in operation:

“Lincor–A bedside computer that entertains patients while engaging them with relevant information and advice.

“SwiftKey–Understands the context of language and how words fit together.

“Celaton–Applies AI to labour-intensive clerical tasks.

“Darktrace–Uses advanced mathematics to detect abnormal behaviour in organisations instantly in order to manage risks from cyber attacks.”

The Washington Free Beacon added on October 27:

“Swarms of highly intelligent militarized robots are predicted to hit the battlefield in the near future and could spark a modern day arms race, according to a report released Monday by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Teams of interconnected robots will change the way America and other countries fight their wars, providing them with more range and the ability to conduct ‘suicidal missions’ without risk to living humans…

“The study predicts that in the very near future, advances in technology will allow ‘swarms of robotic systems’ to effect ‘dramatic, disruptive change to military operations’—and that the United States must significantly step up its focus on these technologies or risk losing its status as the world’s preeminent fighting force…

“While the United States and other major powers have made great advances in unmanned technologies—such as drones and other remotely piloted devices—the report predicts that global militaries will soon enter a race to perfect the tactic known as ‘swarming,’ in which droves of militarized robots act together on the battlefield…

“However, severe U.S. defense budget cuts known as sequestration threaten to stymie America’s investment into these critical new technologies and could leave the country vulnerable to enemies, according to the report… ‘the number of combat ships and aircraft in the U.S. inventory has steadily declined, even during periods of significant growth in defense spending. Today’s acute fiscal pressures only exacerbate these trends, forcing a crisis not only in military modernization and readiness, but also in the ability to field sufficient quantities to be relevant in future fights,’ the report warns.”

Ebola Airborne or Droplet Borne… or Both?

Newsmax wrote on October 14:

“No virus that causes disease in humans has ever been known to mutate to change its mode of transmission. This means it is highly unlikely that Ebola has mutated to become airborne. It is, however, droplet-borne — and the distinction between the two is crucial… Doctors mean something different from the public when they talk about a disease being airborne. To them, it means that the disease-causing germs are so small they can live dry, floating in the air for extended periods, thus capable of traveling from person to person at a distance. When inhaled, airborne germs make their way deep into the lungs.

“Chickenpox, measles and tuberculosis are airborne diseases. Droplets of mucus and other secretions from the nose, mouth and respiratory tract transmit other diseases, including influenza and smallpox. When someone coughs, sneezes or, in the case of Ebola, vomits, he releases a spray of secretions into the air. This makes the infection droplet-borne. Some hospital procedures, like placing a breathing tube down a patient’s air passage to help him breathe, may do the same thing.

“Droplet-borne germs can travel in these secretions to infect someone a few feet away, often through the eyes, nose or mouth. This may not seem like an important difference, but it has a big impact on how easily a germ spreads. Airborne diseases are far more transmittable than droplet-borne ones.”

Incurable worldwide disease epidemics will increase in these end times.

Weird Things About Halloween and Satanism

The Huffington Post wrote on October 24:

“You may already think that Halloween is a pretty bizarre holiday… Chances are you really have no idea just how weird Halloween truly is…

“Halloween’s origins come from a Celtic festival for the dead called ‘Samhain.’ Celts believed the ghosts of the dead roamed Earth on this holiday, so people would dress in costumes and leave ‘treats’ out on their front doors to appease the roaming spirits…

“According to ancient Roman records, tribes located in today’s Germany and France traditionally wore costumes of animal heads and skins to connect to spirits of the dead. This tradition continued into modern day celebrations of Samhain, the Celtic holiday that inspired Halloween in America. On this day, merry-makers often dressed as evil spirits simply by blackening their faces. The leader of the Samhain parades wore a white sheet and carried a wooden horse head or a decorated horse skull… Young people also celebrated by cross-dressing…

“The jack-o’-lantern comes from an old Irish tale about a man named Stingy Jack. According to folklore, Stingy Jack was out getting sloshed with the Devil when Jack convinced his drinking partner to turn himself into a coin to pay for the drinks without spending money. Jack then put the Devil, shaped like a coin, into his pocket, which also contained a silver cross that kept the Devil from transforming back. Jack promised to free the Devil as long as the Devil wouldn’t bother him for a year, and if he died, the Devil could never claim his soul. Jack tricked the Devil again later, getting him to pick a piece of fruit out of a tree and then carving a cross into the bark when the Devil was in the branches. This trick bought Jack another 10 years of devil-free living.

“When Jack finally died, God decided he wasn’t fit for heaven, but the Devil had promised never to claim his soul for hell. So Jack was sent off to roam Earth with only a burning coal for light. He put the coal into a turnip as a lantern, and Stingy Jack became ‘Jack of the Lantern’ or ‘Jack o’ Lantern.’ Based on this myth, the Irish carved scary faces into turnips, beets and potatoes to scare away Stingy Jack or any other spirits of the night…

“Studies have shown that Halloween actually makes kids act more evil… putting costume-wearing kids into groups and introducing a clear object of desire, such as candy, has been shown to lead to ‘deindividuation.’ This psychological term explains what happens when a group of maturing young minds begins to care less about the consequences of their individual actions, leading them to do things that they might not do alone.

“One study in particular found that unsupervised costumed children in groups were far more likely to steal candy and money than both non-costumed kids and children not in a group…”

Halloween is a demonically-inspired and Satan-worshipping festival. True Christians must have NOTHING to do with it. Note also the following article by the Huntington Post, dated September 19:

“Have you ever wondered what a Satanic children’s coloring book might look like? Well, thanks to the great state of Florida you can now know for certain. Behold, the ‘The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities,’ a coloring book that is being disseminated across Orange County public schools… The details: A Christian group received permission to distribute Bibles and other religious materials to their students, leading atheist groups to appeal for an equal opportunity. It wasn’t long before the Satanic community hopped on board as well.

“‘If a public school board is going to allow religious pamphlets and full Bibles to be distributed to students — as is the case in Orange County, Florida — we think the responsible thing to do is to ensure that these students are given access to a variety of differing religious opinions, as opposed to standing idly by while one religious voice dominates the discourse and delivers propaganda to youth,’ the Satanic Temple’s spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, explained in a statement. ‘I am quite certain that all of the children in these Florida schools are already aware of the Christian religion and it’s Bible, and this might be the first exposure these children have to the actual practice of Satanism. We think many students will be very curious to see what we offer.’”

We hope and pray that parents and schools will be intelligent enough NOT to have curious children and young pupils try to find out anything related to the damnable curse of Satanism. 

Obama the New War President

Politico wrote on September 23:

“With his new offensive against Islamic State terrorists in Syria, Barack Obama has a chance to revive his presidency, but the only way he can do that is to become a brand-new president, one who will be almost unrecognizable to his supporters…

“So is Obama now a war president? As air strikes in Syria commenced Monday, there was no longer any doubt that this is his new role… what is happening now no longer falls into the category of cleaning up old wars… This is a wholly new war, Obama’s very own, and it is out in the open…

“It’s not that Obama has been shy about using force in the past six and a half years. But he has preferred to do it covertly…

“The risk today… is that Obama will be forced to compromise on his pledge of no new boots on the ground. In his Sept. 10 speech, he said: ‘It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.’ And yet as many as 1,700 U.S. troops are now acting in a vague role as advisers and trainers in Iraq, and it is reasonable to think that some U.S. operatives are helping to direct air strikes into their targets in Syria. The question is whether that can continue, or whether Obama will be forced to widen U.S. involvement…”

Quite a Different Message

US News wrote on September 24:

“Obama appears to be edging toward justifying a larger war. On Tuesday, he said the current attacks in Syria—which are opposed by the Syrian government—are designed to send a message “to anyone who would plot against America and try to do Americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people.” He also said the conflict will be lengthy and difficult.

“Obama… is now sending a far different message than he did when he ran for president. That message was so impressive that Obama won the Nobel peace prize shortly after taking office in 2009 because of his stated commitment to working for peace around the world and ending the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bild Online wrote on September 26:

“That’s how quickly it can happen, Barack Obama—from being the Winner of the Peace Nobel Prize to becoming War President… What has gone so terribly wrong?…  In one word: Weakness. His motto, ‘leading from behind’ is devastating. … Obama leaves behind a world of chaos…”

At War for Generations to Come?

Chicago Sun Times wrote on September 24:

“America will be at war for generations to come… It is impossible to feel optimistic about prospects for peace in Syria, or true democracy in Iraq or an end to Muslim sectarian strife anywhere in the Middle East. It’s hard to feel optimistic even about the ‘broad coalition,’ including Arab states such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, that Obama has pulled together to fight ISIS, which he called a ‘network of death.’

“Obama gave no hint as to just how fragile and queasy that coalition really is. All five Arab nations on board have declined to even mention the United States in their official statements of support… This war, and others to come, could go on for years…”

German analysts stated that the new war would go on for at least 20 years…

A Divided and Deeply Inconsistent Coalition…

The Huffington Post wrote on September 25:

“The U.S. administration… is between a rock and a hard place: Saudi Arabia desperately wants Assad’s head on a plate and volunteers to fund the ‘war’ effort for that end. But, for Obama to assent to Iranian-Russian conditions [to leverage the ‘war’ precisely (and only) at ISIS in Syria and Iraq]– and thereby indirectly strengthen President Assad — he will cause outrage in the Gulf and amongst the ‘moderate’ Syrian exile insurgents. By doing as the Gulf wishes (attacking Assad’s forces), however, he will almost certainly tip Russia, Iran and Hezbollah into overt opposition and escalation, which will greatly complicate the war on ISIS in Syria (and in Iraq, too).

“Turkey, too wants to ‘use’ the war on ISIS, but the Turkish immediate objective is not to weaken ISIS, but rather to help ISIS undermine the Syrian Kurdish semi-autonomous region that lies adjacent to Turkey’s own restless (and far from autonomous) Kurds.

“… in the final analysis, the deep inconsistency — and likely cause of this whole enterprise’s ultimate failure — is simply the paradox that the West’s allies of choice will not, and cannot, be true ‘partners’ to this ‘war.’…”

“Why the Military Campaign Against ISIS Will Fail”

The Times of Israel wrote on September 26, republishing an article which had appeared in The Globalist:

“No matter how much Washington and its allies may wish otherwise, the military campaign against ISIS will fail, possibly with disastrous consequences.  Surprisingly, this outcome is not dependent on the issue that is currently so hotly debated – whether or not there will be ‘boots on the ground’ (and whose).

“To understand why, one needs to consider the dynamics and legacies of history. In the ultimate analysis, the existence of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) can be ascribed in good part to the fact that… there was no reformation in the world of Islam…

“If one bears in mind the immense contribution made by the Arab world to science and civilization in centuries past — and indeed the fact that not that long ago cities like Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, Cairo and Alexandria were booming global centers of commerce and creativity — notably in the arts — then one can arrive only at one conclusion. The panorama of the Arab world today is indeed depressing and discouraging. Compared with most other parts of the world, it is in regress as opposed to progress.

“It can only be remedied by the Arabs themselves, based on a profound reform and indeed renaissance of Arab society…  by virtue of insight — and not by external military force. Until and unless these reforms — this reformation and renaissance — occur in the Arab world, all Western interventions will fail, and indeed in all probability make the situation worse. The proposed battle to ‘the gates of hell’ against ISIS will suffer the same fate…”

Deja Vu as UK Heads Back to Iraq

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 26:

“The UK Parliament voted in favor of joining the military action against the ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq… The move was approved on Friday by a vote of 524 in favor to 43 against.

“The decision makes the UK the latest country to join the anti-IS coalition. As well as the Arab states taking part in the US-led military campaign against the terrorist militia ‘Islamic State,’ France has already bombed targets in northern Iraq. Denmark too announced on Friday that it was sending seven F-16 planes to join the campaign, while Belgium and the Netherlands have also sent combat aircraft…

“It seems that the West is now irrevocably set on another bloody adventure in the Middle East, less than three years after US troops were finally withdrawn from Iraq following a nine-year war.

“That war is now widely seen as a mistake in the UK – former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s fall from popularity was largely down to his support for it – and Cameron on Friday was eager to suppress the obvious comparisons… a study published in April this year by UK-based think tank the Royal United Services Institute found that ‘there is no longer any serious disagreement’ that Britain’s participation in the 2003 Iraq war contributed to the radicalization of many young Muslims in Britain.”

Mr. Cameron told the UK Parliament that the military engagement would go on for “years.” It was noted in the press that the UK was acting cautiously—even though the UK Parliament authorized military actions – because of distrust towards the USA.

Boots on the Ground

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 27:

“General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that between 12,000 and 15,000 US-trained and –armed rebel fighters would be required in Syria to defeat IS… Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has also offered seven F-16 fighter jets… for use over Iraq, not Russia-ally Syria… Germany has committed weaponry, humanitarian aid and training for Iraqis either fighting against or displaced by the ‘IS’ advance, but has ruled out direct military intervention. The first German weapons deliveries arrived in Iraq on Friday.”

Die Zeit Online reported on September 26 that the USA is in need of 15,000 Syrian rebels to fight for the coalition and against ISIS. According to Der Spiegel Online, dated September 27, 2014, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated some willingness to support fighting against ISIS, provided, among other conditions, that there would be boots on the ground.

The Huffington Post wrote on September 28 that House Speaker John “Boehner also said he believes that at some point the United States will have to send combat troops to fight the Islamic State. ‘At the end of the day, I think it’s going to take more than airstrikes to drive them out of there,’ Boehner said Sunday. ‘At some point, somebody’s boots have to be on the ground.’ Asked if those boots had to be American, Boehner said, ‘We have no choice.’”

Was There Really an Imminent Threat from Khorasan?

The website of Kansas.com (linked by the Drudge Report) published the following article on September 26:

“European counterterrorism specialists say their American counterparts never mentioned an imminent plot by al-Qaida operatives in Syria to attack Western targets and didn’t brief them on the group that’s supposedly behind the plan, a previously unknown terrorist unit that American officials have dubbed the Khorasan group.

“The interviews with the specialists, from two European NATO allies with close intelligence ties to the United States, raise questions about why the United States used its first series of airstrikes on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Syria to also attack eight installations belonging to the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate that anti-government rebel groups consider an important ally in their fight to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad… U.S. officials… said the strikes were intended to break up a plan for an imminent attack.

“The European specialists, who meet regularly with U.S. officials on terrorism issues… said… [such] an omission [to warn them]… seemed unlikely if the plot were truly imminent.”

“Germany’s Military Feet of Clay”

The Local wrote on September 25:

“On Thursday at 10.30am a German military plane left Bonn for the Senegalese capital Dakar. It was carrying ten tonnes of supplies and a field hospital to help fight Ebola in Liberia. Almost nine hours earlier, but 12 hours late, a Dutch air force flight took off from Leipzig taking military equipment to Kurds in Iraq fighting the Islamic State (Isis). This is the role Germany wants its military to play on the world stage – transporting humanitarian aid and where necessary military trainers and equipment to help in the world’s trouble spots. But its military appears unfit for the task.

“Last week, the first military trainers being sent to join the Kurds were delayed after their own Transall aircraft broke down. Much of the Bundeswehr’s equipment is not combat ready. Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen defended the Bundeswehr in the media on Wednesday, describing it as ‘highly capable’…

“German units are still in Afghanistan. Others are providing air defence in Turkey, hunting pirates off the coast of Somalia, and training troops or providing logistical support across Africa. But politicians’ promises that Germany will use its troops and material to intervene abroad and provide disaster relief, as in Iraq and West Africa, are placing a heavy load on the already strained Bundeswehr.

“… just 24 of the air force’s 56 Transall transport planes, which will be critical for the Iraq and West Africa missions, [are] fit to fly. The air force is close to overload with its fighter planes also well under half strength. Helicopters, too, are a weak point, with half the navy’s fleet grounded and only 16 of 83 CH-53 transport helicopters flight ready.

“There are also problems with the army’s Boxer personnel carriers and the navy’s frigates. Just 70 of the 180 armoured vehicles and seven of the 11 ships are in fighting condition… Germany spent €48.8bn, 1.4 percent of GDP, on its military in 2013, well below the target of two percent confirmed at a NATO summit in Wales in early September.”

Even though the German people might not like it, politicians will very soon work on substantially improving the Bundeswehr and bringing it up to speed.

Eric Holder’s Resignation Long Overdue

The Washington Times wrote on September 25:

“The nation thirsts for a successor who goes back to the old model, where the attorney general doesn’t check party affiliation before deciding whether to act or what to do… The next attorney general will have an uphill battle in repairing the damage done to the integrity of the Justice Department. John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky, authors of ‘Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department,’ cite inside sources who describe Justice as ‘racialized and radicalized’ under Mr. Holder ‘to the point of corruption.’… Mr. Holder has consistently put partisan politics at the top of his agenda.

“He bashes America as a ‘nation of cowards’ because Americans don’t want to listen to harangues about race… It’s not a good sign that Al Sharpton, the noted theologian and race hustler, says that he is ‘engaged in immediate conversations’ with the White House about the selection of Mr. Holder’s successor…”

The involvement of the infamous and highly objectionable Al Sharpton—who truly gives religion a bad name—is  a matter of the greatest concern.

The Huffington Post wrote on September 28: “Holder has agreed to remain in his post until his successor is confirmed by the Senate — so, given the current state of D.C. dysfunction, he may be AG for some time to come.”

NEXT: Julia Pierson Resigns as Secret Service Director

The Washington Post reported on October 1:

“Julia Pierson resigned as Secret Service director on Wednesday after just 1 1/2 years on the job following a series of major security lapses that eroded President Obama’s confidence in her ability to run the agency tasked with protecting him.

“Pierson’s abrupt departure — one day after Obama expressed full confidence in her — came as lawmakers from both parties were calling for her ouster after her halting performance during a Tuesday House hearing.

“A decisive factor in the president’s change of heart, aides said, was that he learned only from news accounts Tuesday that a private security guard with a gun and a criminal history had not been screened before being allowed to board an elevator with him last month in Atlanta.”

Embarrassing as this latest resignation is for President Obama’s now lame-duck administration, the world is being given more and more evidence that America is no longer a dependable or even a capable ally.

“Married Couples Now a Minority in US”

“Married couples have become a minority in the United States during the past few years, while those married pairs with children comprise just one in five households… married couples living together, with or without children, accounted for 48.7 percent of households…

“In 2012, women living without a mate accounted for 15.2 percent of households, while men living without one comprised 12.3 percent. ‘Other family households’ accounted for 17.8 percent, mostly unmarried couples living together, with or without children, and to a lesser extent married couples living apart…

“The consistently decreasing percentage of Americans who are married is surely related to the rising percentage of U.S. babies born to unwed mothers… 36 percent of the generation of Americans born from 1993 through 2012, who are beginning to turn 21 this year, were born to an unmarried mother.”

Russia Puts Pressure on EU Against Ukraine

The EUObserver wrote on September 26:

“Russian energy minister Alexander Novak has warned that EU states which re-export gas to Ukraine will face cut-offs… Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia earlier this year began shipping Russian gas to Ukraine in order to help it cope in winter after Russia stopped supplying Ukraine in a price dispute which is bogged down in legal arbitration.

“Earlier this month, Russian gas flows to Poland temporarily dropped by 45 percent and to Slovakia by 10 percent in what was blamed on technical reasons. For its part, Hungarian gas distributor FGSZ on Thursday said it will no longer supply Ukraine ‘until further notice’ also due to ‘technical reasons’ linked to increased demand at home. But Ukraine transit firm Naftogaz said in a statement the decision is political.

“… two recent EU-brokered deals, on a ceasefire in east Ukraine and on EU-Ukraine free trade, have attracted criticism.  The ceasefire, agreed on 5 September, has seen Ukraine pass laws to let pro-Russia rebels stay in place in Donetsk and Luhansk and to create a buffer zone between the two forces… [Regarding the] EU-brokered trade deal…  Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said in a letter to the EU commission… that he will impose trade sanctions on Ukraine if it starts to make any pro-EU economic reforms in the next 15 months. He added that the substance of the trade treaty must be modified to meet Russian demands.”

EU Condemns Russia

The Local wrote on September 26:

“The EU condemned Russia on Friday for barring entry to the German leader of the Green fraction in the European Parliament who flew to Moscow to observe a trial of a Ukrainian pilot accused of espionage… Rebecca Harms, who co-chairs the Greens group in the European Parliament, said she was refused entry on Thursday despite holding a diplomatic passport. She said she was then sent on a flight back to Brussels after authorities told her they objected to her voting for sanctions against Russia…

“European parliament president Martin Schulz said he would lodge a formal protest with the Russian embassy in Brussels over the treatment of Harms. ‘I strongly denounce this grave diplomatic incident which is a worrying setback for relations between the European Parliament and Russia,’ he said.”

“Japan’s Cabinet Rocked by New Claims of Links to Neo-Nazis”

The Independent wrote on September 28:

“Japan’s government is weathering accusations of links to far-right groups that promote racism and hate speech. Several members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet, including the Police Minister, have been forced to deny their neo-Nazi links after photographs surfaced of them posing with far-right figures…

“Mr Abe’s government has raised eyebrows with its far-right profile. Sixteen cabinet members belong to the League for Going to Worship Together at Yasukuni, a Tokyo shrine that honours leaders executed for war crimes. Sixteen support Nihon Kaigi, a nationalist think-tank that advocates a return to ‘traditional values’ and rejects Japan’s ‘apology diplomacy’ for its wartime misdeeds.

“Many belong to a parliamentary association that… deny many wartime atrocities… In August, Mr Abe sparked controversy when he paid tribute to soldiers, including war criminals, who gave their lives for ‘the foundation of the fatherland’. The tribute was sent to a temple housing a monument to 1,000 ‘martyrs’ who fought in the Second World War…”

Pope: Pray to Angels!

CNA reported on September 29:

“On Monday’s feast of the archangels Pope Francis spoke of the ongoing battle between the devil and mankind, encouraging attendees to pray to the angels, who have been charged to defend us…

“Pope Francis concluded his homily by encouraging those present to pray to the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and to recite the prayer to Saint Michael often.”

While this may represent Catholic doctrine, suggesting that we should pray to angels flies in the face of what Jesus Christ taught in Matthew 6:9 in which He said we are to pray to the Father.

Scotland Stays—“But It’s All Over Anyhow”

Fox News wrote on September 19:

“Scotland’s decision to remain part of the United Kingdom in an historic referendum Friday gave British markets a brief lift, as fears of an independent Scotland causing economic havoc waned. After an unprecedented voter turnout of just under 85 percent, 55.3 percent were against independence to 44.7 percent in favor. The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

The EUObserver added on September 19:

“In the end nothing changed and everything changed. Scottish people voted with a decisive majority against independence on Thursday (18 September) but the conversation in the UK has only just begun. David Cameron, seemingly invigorated by almost becoming the PM who oversaw the break-up of the UK, has promised devolution for everyone. In Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England…”

Breitbart wrote on September 19:

“First the good news. Thanks to last night’s “No” vote in the Scottish referendum Britain has been spared the following: a run on the pound; the hasty exodus of Scotland’s finance industry;… a collapse in the markets;… the entirely unnecessary and utterly ill-considered rupture of the greatest Union between nations the world has ever known; waking up this morning to find ourselves no longer in bed with cherished (if fractious) friends, allies, partners and comrades alongside whom we’ve fought, loved and prospered for over 300 years.

“Now the bad: it’s all over anyway.

“What… [the] Scottish National Party (SNP) insurgency achieved in Scotland last night is [this:] Yes they may have lost the battle. But it was their stepping stone towards ultimately winning the war… [They] are hardly going to view that 45 per cent they gained at the ballot box as a loss. Rather they will draw the conclusion that nearly half of Scotland’s population yearns for independence and that all they have to do now is press on…

“Their unlikely allies in this will be all those people in the rest of Britain driven to apoplexy by the concessions that have been made by the ‘Westminster government’… How can it possibly be fair, they’ll want to know, that… Scottish residents will continue to receive more than £1000 per capita per year of taxpayer-funded handouts than people in the rest of the United Kingdom? And how, with all these extra powers that Scotland’s parliament has been granted, can it be right that the 59 Scottish MPs at Westminster get to vote on matters exclusive to England, Wales and Northern Ireland… when their UK counterparts are denied any say on Scotland?

“The answers to both questions, of course, is that it isn’t. Which is why, in its desperate attempts to engender national unity by shoring up the Union, what the Westminster political class has actually ended up doing is sow the seeds for still further, deeper national division…”

Almost Queen of Scots

BBC News wrote on September 19:

“The Queen faced the prospect of becoming Elizabeth I of Scotland or even Elizabeth, Queen of Scots, had the Scottish people voted in favour of independence…

“As a 27-year-old, she was crowned more than 60 years ago in Westminster Abbey when she took a solemn oath to ‘govern the peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.

“The Queen’s Scottish heritage has been an important part of her life. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, hailed from an ancient aristocratic Scottish family… The Queen is descended from Mary, Queen of Scots, James I, who was James VI of Scotland, and Robert the Bruce, who secured Scotland’s independence from England.”

Does God Exist?

NBC News wrote on September 18:

“The archbishop of Canterbury – the spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglican Christians – has admitted he sometimes doubts whether God actually exists. Justin Welby made the comments during a relaxed interview in front of an audience at Bristol Cathedral, in England. ‘There are moments, sure, where you think, “Is there a God? Where is God?”’ The archbishop, who is also the leader of the Church of England, added that his admission was ‘probably not what the archbishop of Canterbury should be saying.’”

One in four people in Britain regard themselves as belonging to the Church of England. 1.7 million people take part in a church service every month, according to statistics from the Church of England.

The Guardian wrote on September 18:

“The archbishop of Canterbury… disclosed that, on a recent morning jog with his dog, he questioned why the Almighty had failed to intervene to prevent an injustice… Later in the interview, Welby said he was certain, however, about the existence of Jesus, even talking about his presence beside him…

“Welby, who was appointed to his post in November 2012, has frequently made known his feelings on a wide variety of issues… He has also offered wholehearted support for the consecration of women bishops, describing the rejection in 2012 as a ‘grim day’.”

Doubting the existence of God, but not of Jesus whose presence is being “felt,” seems rather incomprehensible. 

Russia and China—the NEW Warsaw Pact

The Washington Times wrote on September 19:

“The international security meeting in Paris on Monday showcased a world in fear of the growing threat that the Islamic State poses to the global order. A group of 26 countries have now vowed to fight the Sunni extremist group ‘by any means necessary,’ and more will continue to join the effort. However, there are two countries it seems that we, once again, can’t count on: Russia and China. Both nations — in different ways — are refusing to get on board.

“Russia is insisting that airstrikes must be coordinated with Damascus and Tehran. China has yet to acknowledge the proposal to participate in the U.S.-led coalition delivered last week by National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice. In this way, Russia and China are not only facilitating the power and reach of rogue regimes such as Syria and Iran, but are also continuing to solidify their alliance…

“Russian-Chinese collaboration has been growing for years, tracing back to the 2001 forming of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which Vladimir Putin called ‘a reborn version of the Warsaw Pact.’… Indeed, these longtime adversaries now work together along economic, technological, military and political lines.

“Russia and China proceed with strategic and tactical clarity — and often with mutual support. When Russia invaded Crimea in March, China abstained from a vote condemning it in the United Nations. When the European Union proposed new sanctions against Russia recently, Beijing loudly objected and suggested that additional sanctions ‘may lead to new and more complicating factors’ in Ukraine.

“Russia and China are increasing their military budgets across the board, while the United States is drawing down…

“The world is aflame today in no small part because of the influence of rogue regimes such as North Korea, Iran and Syria — and Russia and China have facilitated their activities, even if they often stay in the background… Russia and China are accomplished practitioners of cyberwarfare. The Justice Department indicted five Chinese officers of the People’s Liberation Army for cyber-espionage in May. Russian hackers, almost certainly affiliated with the Kremlin, have wrought havoc on American businesses with cyber-attacks…

“Mr. Putin has aroused memories of 1939 with his aggression in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Russian troops and hundreds of tanks are currently operating — and he has hinted that he may move on to the Baltics. In a telephone conversation with the outgoing head of the European Commission, Mr. Putin reportedly said, ‘If I want, I’ll take Kiev in two weeks.’ China is more subtle, but no less aggressive…”

Russia, China and other Middle and Far Eastern nations will combine forces in opposition to the West—and especially Europe. See the next article.

China and Iran Conduct Joint Naval Drills

The Times of Israel wrote on September 20:

“For the first time, Chinese warships docked in an Iranian port Saturday as Beijing and Tehran prepared to conduct a series of joint naval drills… The arrival of the Chinese ships came a few days after the Iranian Navy thwarted a pirate attack on a Chinese container ship in the Gulf of Aden…

“Last year, Iranian ships were in the Sea of China ‘to deliver Iran’s message of peace and friendship to the Chinese,’ [the semi-official Iranian news agency] Fars reported.”

Putin Puts the World on Notice… But Who Is Listening?

The EUObserver wrote on September 19:

“Ukraine leader Petro Poroshenko has warned the US that Europe is at risk of a ‘terrible and unimaginable … war’ despite his two-week ceasefire with Russia. But his speech, to US congress members and senators in Washington on Thursday (18 September), failed to convince the White House to send military assistance.

“Referring to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its invasion of east Ukraine, he accused the Kremlin of having an ‘imperialistic mindset’ which threatens not just Ukraine, Georgia, or Moldova, but also EU and Nato countries such as the Baltic states, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria…

“His speech comes after a leaked EU paper brought to light a fresh threat by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. ‘If I wanted to, in two days Russian troops could be not only in Kiev, but in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw or Bucharest,’ Putin is said to have recently told Poroshenko, according to the minutes of the Ukrainian leader’s conversation with European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso in Kiev last week obtained by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung…

“But the White House said only it plans to give him another $53 million in non-lethal aid – $7 million for humanitarian assistance, and the rest for equipment such as counter-mortar detection units, body armor, binoculars, and small boats. With Russia’s annual military spending dwarfing Ukraine’s by a factor of 20 to one… American weapons would make no difference if worst comes to worst…

“For their part, the EU and Ukraine recently made a big concession to Russia by agreeing to freeze their free trade pact until 2016. But Russia on Thursday said it wants more.

“Its foreign ministry noted in a statement that the trade pact should be ‘modified’ in substance… It added that if Russia does not get its way, ‘we reserve the right to respond swiftly’ with trade penalties against Ukraine.

“… the Polish foreign affairs thinktank, Pism… said there is a 50 percent chance that Russia will, in October, launch a new offensive in south east Ukraine designed to create a land-bridge to Crimea. It said there is a 30 percent chance that by the end of the year Russian leader Vladimir Putin will try to cut off Ukraine from the Black Sea by conquering all of south Ukraine. It said the worst case is a full-scale invasion, including of Kiev.”

Ukraine announced that they have lost over 60% of their weaponry in their ongoing conflict with Russia. Der Spiegel Online reported that very soon, they might have no weapons left. And there are more troubles ahead for Ukraine. The Local reported that “Relatives of German victims of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 plan to sue Ukraine and its president for criminal negligence for not closing the country’s airspace.”

Russia’s Further Provocations

The Washington Free Beacon wrote on September 19:

“Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out air defense zone incursions near Alaska and across Northern Europe this week in the latest nuclear saber rattling by Moscow… The new aggressive military posture appears to be an element of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policy of seeking to return Russia to its Soviet empire status.”

The Local added on September 19:

“The Swedish Armed Forces confirmed on Friday afternoon that two Russian SU24 fighter-bombers had been detected flying over the country… The Foreign Ministry said the Russian Ambassador had been summoned so that Sweden could make a formal protest… The planes left Swedish airspace after a Swedish Gripen plane was scrambled to warn them off.”

We can expect an escalation between Russia and Europe… with the USA only playing a marginal future role or no role at all in that coming conflict.

No Likely Reductions of Nuclear Weapons in Europe

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 19:

“Last summer in Berlin, President Obama called for ‘bold reductions’ in U.S. and Russian tactical nuclear weapons to ease the risk of annihilation in Europe… But since last summer, that hopeful outlook has evaporated. Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and nuclear threats made by Russian President Vladimir Putin have killed any chance that the U.S. would withdraw its tactical nuclear weapons any time soon…

“Newer members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including Poland and the Czech Republic, have openly advocated for continued deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe…

“The weapons spread over the continent are exposed to potential theft or accidents…The U.S. began sending battlefield nuclear weapons to Europe in the 1950s, when it was feared the Soviet Union’s conventional military superiority would allow it to overrun Western Europe… Over the last 15 years, this U.S. nuclear umbrella has extended over an additional dozen Eastern European nations that gained entry into NATO…

“Pressure has built in Washington for the Obama administration to do more than increase the economic sanctions on Russia that seem to have had little effect…”

And so, we are moving closer and closer to the threat of total annihilation of the human race—which would in fact occur if Christ was not to intervene at the last moment to save us from ourselves (Matthew 24:22).

USA in War With “Enemies of Islam”?

Breitbart reported on September 19:

“On Thursday, in a session with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) whether America was at war in Iraq and Syria. Kerry responded: ‘If you’re more comfortable calling it a war against this enemy of Islam then please do so. We’re happy to call it that.’

“So it’s official: America is at war with the enemy of Islam. However, strange bedfellows arise if the Obama administration so chooses to uphold Kerry’s claim that we are at war with the enemy(s) of Islam.

“The following displays that Secretary of State John Kerry is far from the only person who claims to be at war with Islam’s enemies:

“Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, ‘Caliph’ of the Islamic State: ‘Support the religion of Allah through jihad in the path of Allah… Terrify the enemies of Allah and seek death in the places where you expect to find it…’

“Osama Bin Laden, former leader of Al Qaeda: ‘I am not afraid of the American threats against me… As long as I am alive there will be no rest for the enemies of Islam…’

“Ayman al-Zawahiri, current leader of Al Qaeda: ‘I invite you to gather around the true scholars of Islam, support them and protect them. I invite you to back them and support them and guard them. And I invite you to launch a massive public uprising in defense of Islam against the enemies of Islam.’

“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran: ‘The enemies of Islam are afraid… and try to confront Islam in the name of Islam and under the cover of Islam… The American Islam, despite having Islamic appearance and name, complies with despotism and Zionism… and totally serves the goals of despotism and the US.’” 

Not All Senators Agree that America Must Arm Syrian Rebels

Deutsche Welle reported on September 18:

“The US had long supported forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war, but had not provided direct military assistance. Now, however, the measure [to arm Syrian rebels, including some very radical groups] has been portrayed as a part of the package of measures designed to combat the self-proclaimed ‘Islamic State’ (IS) terror group, which has taken control of parts of Syria as well as Iraq…

“Outspoken Senator Rand Paul was among the politicians to vehemently question the military assistance for Syrian opposition fighters. ‘Intervention that destabilizes the Middle East is a mistake. And yet, here we are again, wading into a civil war,’ Paul, the son of perennial Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul, said. Like his libertarian father in several races before him, Paul is considered a certainty to run in the Republican primaries as a possible presidential candidate. However, he is considered a highly unlikely final Republican choice for the 2016 presidential race.”

Breitbart wrote on September 20:

“Paul told Breitbart News that while he does, in fact, support going after ISIS, he does ‘not think arming the Syrian rebels is the appropriate way to do it.’

“Syrian rebels have explicitly mapped out their priority as a toppling of the Assad Regime. However, beyond that, their interests do not lie with principles of western democracy, particularly as it relates to Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East: 

“‘If the [Syrian] rebels are to win, even the moderate rebels, how many of them do you think will recognize Israel? None. How many of them do you think might turn their arms against Israel? Maybe quite a few. In fact, some of them have said that their goal is to take back the Golan Heights if they can defeat Assad. I think that the one truism of the Middle Eastern morass is that, when we have toppled secular dictators, chaos has ensued and the rise of radical Islam has occurred. Whether this was Hussein being toppled, Mubarak being toppled, Gadaffi  being toppled, or potentially Assad being toppled, what comes in their wake is worse than what we had.’”

This is so VERY true.

Disinterested Congress Far Too Quick to Vote for War?

The Washington Post wrote on September 19:

“Before the U.S. military attacked Saddam Hussein’s forces in 1991, Congress spent months considering its approval of the war. Twelve years later, another attack on Iraq came after three weeks of debate and intensive negotiations.

“But this week, the House and Senate each took only a few hours to sign off on President Obama’s plan to once again deploy the military in the Middle East, approving it as part of a broader budget bill before bounding out of town for a two-month recess and hitting the midterm campaign trail.

“Some on Capitol Hill were stunned by the seeming congressional disinterest on a matter of such importance. Now, lawmakers in both parties are asking an uncomfortable question: Has Congress forfeited its rightful role in the most solemn of all national decisions?…

“The sentiment was expressed Friday in a stern letter from a dozen lawmakers — six Democrats and six Republicans — who wrote to House leaders in both parties…

“Both chambers approved the measure with wide bipartisan majorities, but there were visible signs of discord. Eighty-five House Democrats — more than 40 percent of the caucus — bucked the president, demonstrating the anti-war left has a new rallying point. In the Senate, several rising stars who are considered potential presidential candidates — including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — rejected the proposal…

“Some lawmakers fear this week’s action will be akin to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which was approved in 1964 after President Lyndon B. Johnson said North Vietnamese forces had launched two unprovoked attacks on U.S. ships off Vietnam. The resolution stated that the United States was ready to do all it could militarily in the region but stopped short of openly approving military action. Presidents in both parties went on to cite that resolution — approved unanimously in the House — for an escalating war in Vietnam.

“Critics from both parties note that Obama’s legal and military advisers have cited the 2001 authorization regarding the Sept. 11 attacks to justify his authority to target Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria. ‘It’s no longer applicable in any way. If you read it, it says “those responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11”, so it’s clearly outmoded and needs to be updated,’ McCain said… There was no update this week, however…”

Americans Support Air Strikes Against ISIS Even Though “They Won’t Do Any Good”

The Huffington Post wrote on September 20:

“Americans remain big supporters of airstrikes against the Islamic State militants, even though few think they’ll do any good… 66 percent of Americans now support the decision to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State… even though only 32 percent of Americans think taking such action against the Islamic State will improve the situation in Iraq and Syria. Twenty-five percent said military action won’t make any difference, and 17 percent said it will make things worse. Twenty-six percent said they weren’t sure…

“Moreover, few Americans think that just airstrikes — the form of military action currently being taken by the U.S. — will make much difference. Only 30 percent said it’s possible that airstrikes alone can be an effective way to fight the militants, while 40 percent say it’s not possible.

“That doesn’t mean they want to go any further, however… Just 38 percent of Americans said they support sending ground troops, while 44 percent were opposed. President Barack Obama has declared that ground combat troops will not be used, but administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have continued to float the idea.

“Similarly, only 32 percent of Americans said they support arming more moderate Syrian rebels, while 47 percent were opposed.”

It has already been determined by God Almighty that due to America’s abhorrent sins, America will not win this war or any other future war. As we have pronounced for years, America won its last war in 1945—and they did not win that war because of any righteousness of the USA, but simply because of God’s unconditional promise to Abraham to bless his descendants for a while. But God also warned that if they would not obey Him, He would take away His blessings. And so, there has not been any American victory since World War II, nor will there be one in this day and age. 

Forever War and Broken Promises?

The Associated Press reported on September 20:

“President Barack Obama’s military campaign against the Islamic State group already has extended beyond the limits he first outlined. But military experts inside and outside the administration argue that an even greater expansion may be needed for the mission to succeed, including positioning U.S. ground troops with front-line Iraqi security forces. Doing that could put Obama close to violating his pledge to keep Americans out of combat…

“For Obama, re-engaging in combat in Iraq would mean going back on promises about the current mission and undercutting a pillar of his presidency — ending long wars and avoid new ones…”

Subsequently, the Obama administration answered affirmatively the questions in this challenging article. Note the next article.

Now America Is Clearly At War

The New York Times wrote on September 22:

“The United States and [Arab] allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border.

“American fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants, known as the Islamic State. American defense officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from United States Navy ships in the region.

“The strikes are a major turning point in President Obama’s war against the Islamic State and open up a risky new stage of the American military campaign. Until now, the administration had bombed Islamic State targets only in Iraq, and had suggested it would be weeks if not months before the start of a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria.

“Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took part in the strikes…

“The strikes in Syria occurred without the approval of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose government, unlike Iraq, did not ask the United States for help against the Sunni militant group… But administration officials acknowledge that American efforts to roll back the Sunni militant group in Syria cannot help but aid Mr. Assad, whose government is also a target of the Islamic State…”

The Washington Post added on September 23:

“… in ordering the attacks, Obama also thrust the U.S. military directly into Syria’s devastating civil war, something that he had steadfastly tried to avoid since the country began breaking apart in 2011… The Islamic State also represents a mortal threat to Assad and has beaten back his forces on several fronts. The Obama administration has said repeatedly that it would not cooperate with Assad in any way, even though the two sides now share an enemy. As a result, it was unclear how Assad’s armed forces would respond to unauthorized intrusions into Syrian airspace by U.S. warplanes….

“The Syrian government has some of the most formidable air defenses in the Middle East. Obama had publicly warned Syria in advance not to interfere with any U.S. operations against the Islamic State, saying the Pentagon would respond forcefully. In the end, U.S. military planners said they expected Assad would stand down and allow them to attack Islamic State targets freely…

“The Pentagon also has a large number of aircraft stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, a NATO installation. But with the exception of unarmed U.S. surveillance drones based there, Turkish authorities have said they won’t allow the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State from their territory…

“Although France has agreed to join in airstrikes in Iraq, and last week conducted a bombing raid there, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that his government did not believe it had the legal basis to join the Syria operations…”

Germany has ruled out joining air strikes or any ground offensive in the fight against Isis jihadists. However, the beheading of French citizen HerveGourdel by an Islamic State (IS) affiliated Algerian group known asJund al-Khilafah has changed popular thinking in France.

BBC News added on September 23:

“US forces also attacked a network of al-Qaeda veterans named Khorasan who had established a safe haven west of Aleppo (Syria) and were [allegedly] plotting imminent attacks against the West.”

Russia, Iran and Lebanon condemned the air strikes as being in violation of international law.

Bombing Syria Bad Decision

The New York Times wrote on September 23:

“President Obama has put America at the center of a widening war by expanding into Syria airstrikes against the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group known as ISIS and ISIL. He has done this without allowing the public debate that needs to take place before this nation enters another costly and potentially lengthy conflict in the Middle East… In the absence of public understanding or discussion and a coherent plan, the strikes in Syria were a bad decision.

“Mr. Obama has failed to ask for or receive congressional authorization for such military action… Meanwhile, Congress has utterly failed in its constitutional responsibilities. It has left Washington and gone into campaign fund-raising mode, shamelessly ducking a vote on this critical issue…

“With so much at stake and so much unknown, before he gets any further into this operation, Mr. Obama needs to… prove that he has fully accounted for the consequences of this foray into Syria.”

Obama Ignores Iran

JTA wrote on September 24:

“President Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran’s nuclear program.

“In his address last year to the General Assembly, Obama spent a great deal of time talking about Tehran’s nuclear pursuit, describing it as one of two major focus areas for American diplomatic efforts (the other was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). On Wednesday, he devoted just four lines to Iran… The thin coverage of Iran drew immediate notice from Jewish groups… Near the speech’s conclusion, Obama also spoke a bit about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…

“Most of the president’s speech focused on the need for the international community to counter what he described as the ‘cancer of violent extremism.’ At the top of the list was ISIS, the Islamic group in Iraq and Syria also known by the acronym ISIL…

“The first nation Obama focused on was Russia, which he lumped in with ISIS and the Ebola virus as reasons for ‘a pervasive unease in our world – a sense that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers.’”

President Obama and Vice-President Biden—How Quickly “Convictions” Change

National Review wrote on September 23:

“Joe Biden mocked Mitt Romney’s foreign policy during the 2012 presidential campaign — but Obama-approved air strikes in Syria, which commenced Monday evening, suggest that the administration is coming around to the position of the former GOP nominee. ‘He [Romney] said it was a mistake to end the war in Iraq and bring all of our warriors home,’ Biden told an audience in York, Penn., on September 2, 2012.

“‘He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home. He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran.’ Biden also scoffed at Romney for his tough talk about Russia: ‘He wants to move from cooperation to confrontation with Putin’s Russia. And these guys say the president’s out of touch?’”

According to Breitbart, September 22, President Barack Obama dismissed F-22 fighter jets as ‘outdated and unnecessary’ in a speech on July 21, 2009. But according to the Wall Street Journal of September 22, the US used F-22 fighter jets in their airstrikes against ISIS and Khorasan targets in Syria. Der Spiegel Online reported on September 22 that the F-22 fighter jets are the most sophisticated and important fighter jets of the American air force. In addition, there are more challenges for the Obama administration: Eric Holder who was heavily criticized, among other problems, for the “Fast and Furious” debacle, announced that he will step down as Attorney General.

More than 100,000 Syrians Seek Shelter in Turkey

The Washington Post wrote on September 21:

“The number of refugees seeking shelter in Turkey from the Islamic State’s advance across northern Syria has hit 100,000 in less than a week… the figure represents Syrians escaping the area near the Syrian border town of Kobane, where fighting has raged between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters since Thursday.

“The U.N. refugee agency said earlier Sunday that about 70,000 Syrians had crossed into Turkey in the past 24 hours, and that it was preparing for the arrival of hundreds of thousands more. Those are significant numbers, even in the context of the 1.5 million refugees who have fled to Turkey in the past 3 ½  years… The refugees, most of them ethnic Kurds, have been desperate to reach Turkey and escape the advance of religious extremists barreling across Syria.”

Philippine Terrorists Linked to ISIS Threaten to Kill German Hostage

The Local wrote on September 24:

“Islamist militants in the Philippines have reportedly threatened to kill one of their two German hostages over German support for the US-led campaign against jihadists in Iraq and Syria… [The] two German hostages… were captured from a sailing yacht in April… US-based SITE, which monitors extremists’ activities worldwide, released a picture attributed to the Abu Sayyaf group a masked militant with a machete beside a grey-haired white man, reportedly a German doctor. A younger white woman, said to be the doctor’s girlfriend, with close-cropped hair was also shown, while other masked men stood behind them, armed with assault rifles and machine guns…

“Abu Sayyaf, considered a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ by the United States, is a loose band of several hundred Islamic militants originally organized with Al-Qaeda funding in the 1990s. It operates on remote and largely lawless southern Philippine islands that are mostly populated by the nation’s Muslim minority. Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the Philippines’ worst terrorist attacks, including kidnappings, abductions and beheadings of foreign and local hostages. It was also blamed for the bombing of a ferry on Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people in 2004…

“In recent months Abu Sayyaf has uploaded videos on the Internet proclaiming its allegiance to the Islamic State group, which has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria. The US military has had a rotating force of a few hundred soldiers based in the southern Philippines since 2002 to train local troops in how to combat the group.”

Pope Francis in Albania

The Associated Press wrote on September 21:

“Pope Francis denounced how extremists around the world are ‘perverting’ religion to justify violence as he arrived Sunday in Albania, a Balkan nation where Christians and Muslims endured brutal religious oppression under communism but today live and work together peacefully. Security was unusually tight for Francis’ visit to the majority Muslim country amid reports that militants who trained in Iraq and Syria had returned and might pose a threat…

“It was Francis’ first visit to a majority Muslim nation since the Islamic State crackdown on Christians in Iraq, where members of religious minorities are being killed, persecuted or forced to flee their homes. The Vatican has voiced mounting concern about the exodus of faithful from lands where Christian communities have existed for 2,000 years…

“Albania is seeking European Union membership and his visit comes just a few weeks before he delivers a major speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Albania’s president, Nishani, thanked Francis for making the country his first European destination, saying it was a historic event for all Albanians…

“The capital’s main Boulevard Martyrs of the Nation was decorated with Albanian and Vatican flags, as well as giant portraits of 40 Catholic priests who were persecuted or executed under Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, who declared Albania the world’s first atheist state in 1967. Hundreds of priests and imams were jailed, scores executed before the regime fell in 1990…

“Francis has a busy schedule in Tirana: In addition to the address to Albanian authorities, he celebrated a Mass before tens of thousands of people in a rain-soaked square named for Albania’s most famous Catholic — Mother Teresa. Later in the day, he was meeting with leaders of different faiths…”

Muslims make up about 59 percent of tiny Albania’s population, with Catholics amounting to 10 percent and Orthodox Christians just under that.

Man-Made Climate Change or Not?

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 22:

“Naturally occurring changes in winds, not human-caused climate change, are responsible for most of the warming on land and in the sea along the West Coast of North America over the last century, a study has found.

“The analysis challenges assumptions that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been a significant driver of the increase in temperatures observed over many decades in the ocean and along the coastline from Alaska to California.

“Changes in ocean circulation as a result of weaker winds were the main cause of about 1 degree Fahrenheit of warming in the northeast Pacific Ocean and nearby coastal land between 1900 and 2012, according to the analysis of ocean and air temperatures over that time.”

India First Single Nation to Reach Mars “At Its First Go”

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 24:

“India has made history by becoming the first nation to reach Mars and enter the planet’s orbit in its maiden mission, a move that catapults the country into the scientific world stage…

“India’s low-cost Mangalyaan spacecraft entered orbit around the Red Planet on Wednesday, September 24, after a 10-month-long journey. The success of the mission represents a milestone in the country’s space program…

“With this achievement, India joins a club of deep space explorers such as the United States, Russia and Europe, all of which have reached Mars. The success is also a reason for national pride as India became the first single nation to reach the Red Planet and enter orbit at its first go. More than half of all missions to the planet have failed, including China’s in 2011 and Japan’s in 2003. Moreover, at a cost of 74 million USD, the mission cost is less than the estimated 100 million USD budget of the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Gravity’ and represents just a fraction of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, which began to successfully orbit the planet just a few days ago…”

Violent Chimps

AFP wrote on September 17:

“Chimpanzees can be lethally violent to each other… Chimps kill to wipe out rivals, thus gaining territory, mates, water or food… The evidence comes from an examination of five decades of research into 18 closely-studied chimpanzee communities in African forests. The researchers pored over 152 killings by chimps, most of which were carried out by males acting together.

“The groups would often band together to carry out murderous raids on another community, typically killing rival males and infants who were not genetically related. They sometimes snatched babies from nursing mothers to slaughter them but spared the females.

“The investigators had to determine whether these acts were driven by hunger, human disturbance or deforestation and whether the protected area the chimps inhabited was large or small. Most of the killings occurred in east African communities that were least affected by human interference of any kind.”

Neither evolution (survival of the fittest) nor God are responsible for this kind of conduct, either. There remains only one possibility, as discussed in our recent Q&A series on dinosaurs prior to man.

Dangerous Developments in Germany

Deutsche Welle reported on September 12:

“Germany has banned the extremist group ‘Islamic State’…  Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere used a press conference in Berlin on Friday to announce the measure, saying the ban was immediately in effect… De Maiziere said the ban applied to any activities linked to the self-proclaimed ‘IS,’ including taking part in demonstrations or supporting the group through social media. It also included the wearing or display of IS symbols or collecting donations in the group’s name.”

The Local added on September 12:

“Germany on Friday officially banned Islamic terror group Isis from any activities in the country…  Thomas de Mazière announced the ban on flying Isis flags, wearing Isis symbols and all Isis activities… The move will also ban donations to the group, recruiting fighters, holding Isis meetings and distributing its propaganda…

“The ban, however, doesn’t mean Isis has been outlawed as a foreign terrorist organization, as a court judgement is needed to do that.”

According to Bild Online, the ban also refers to any activities on the Internet, Facebook or Twitter, and the passing on of any sympathetic information about ISIS except in an “objective, non-sympathetic” way for the purpose of reporting. Any violation can be fined or violators can be imprisoned for up to two years.

Die Welt Online added that the prohibition is based on Germany’s law for associations (“Vereinsgesetz”) “banning” foreign organizations which are active in Germany without the evidence of “judicially provable structures” (“gerichtsfest nachweisbare Strukturen”). This ambiguous and somewhat unintelligible term is of course subject to all kinds of interpretations.

Der Stern Online wrote that Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere made the following announcement on Friday morning: “As Interior Minister, I hereby prohibit with immediate effect all activities of the terror group IS in Germany.”

Der Spiegel Online wrote that because ISIS has not been ruled to be a terrorist organization, de Maiziere had to use the “roundabout way” of the German law for associations (“Vereinsgesetz”) to prohibit ISIS and its activities.

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 13:

“… the ban of the terrorist organization… shows once more, how difficult it is for democratic states to respect law and order and still protect society from those who use the Middle Ages as a projection for the future. There will certainly be many experts who’ll reject the ban as inappropriate. But they should be asked what suggestions they have to put an end to the repulsive actions of ‘IS’… The interior minister’s ban is only a first step in this process. But it’s an important one.”

No decent person in his right mind would sympathize with ISIS; nor would he want it to conduct its murderous appalling and demonical terrorist activities in any country, including Germany (see other articles in this edition). What is very troublesome, however, is how de Maiziere pronounced the ban in an autocratic and dictatorial way, “as Interior Minister,” without the involvement of Parliament or the courts. This reminds us of activities which are known to occur in Russia, China, North Korea and former East Germany, but they should not occur in a working democracy.

De Maiziere’s reputation is very controversial for other reasons as well. Regarding the drone debacle of last year, many felt he would have to resign as (then) Defense Minister in Angela Merkel’s cabinet. But he stayed in power—a seemingly “deadly wound” was healed. Subsequently, he became (again) Germany’s Interior Minister, which he was before becoming Defense Minister.

Note this report of Der Spiegel Online of June 2013:

“The cancellation of the Euro Hawk surveillance drone program means the waste of a half billion euros in German taxpayer money. But somehow Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziére seems to have survived the debacle. German commentators wonder why… he admitted that his ministry had made significant mistakes leading up to the abandonment of the Euro Hawk program… he blamed senior Defense Ministry officials for not having kept him adequately informed.”

At the time, Business daily Handelsblatt wrote: “De Maizière, nominally responsible for the … chaos in the Defense Ministry, was not forced to admit that his portfolio is a state within the state, but he did have to come clean about the fact that there are many areas that operate in the shadows… and that are almost autocratic.”

De Maiziere’s latest move shows again his autocratic conduct as Interior Minister. This is VERY frightening indeed. Because it is ISIS today… but who is it going to be tomorrow, and the next day?

While Die Welt wrote at the time that Thomas de Maiziere “was also not exactly an innocent bystander,” die Berliner Zeitung was much more direct:

“…there are two possible conclusions to draw…: Either the minister is lying — or the Defense Ministry does indeed have its own agenda and de Maizière was unable to get it under control. Both versions are unsettling, and neither is complimentary of the minister.”

It appears that de Maiziere should be taken note of. 

Meet Thomas de Maiziere

On December 16, 2013, Deutsche Welle wrote the following about him:

“Thomas de Maiziere is Germany’s new -and old- interior minister and a close confidant of Angela Merkel. Sometimes tipped as a future chancellor, his political career has recovered from a surveillance-drone scandal… In 2011, he took over the defense minister post when Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had to step down in a plagiarism scandal.

“De Maiziere also became known as ‘Merkel’s best man’ and as a talented politician with potential for higher office… One poll… placed him third among German politicians, behind only Merkel herself and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

“All that changed in 2013, when outrage over the cancellation of a surveillance drone project nearly cost him his credibility – and his job. In June, only 40 percent of Germans were ‘satisfied’ with the defense minister’s performance. But he resisted calls for his resignation – and kept Merkel’s backing, even when advisers told her to drop him ahead of November’s general election…

“He was born in Bonn, the capital of former West Germany, in 1954, the last of four children. His Huguenot forefathers fled religious persecution in France, resettling in Brandenburg, the region surrounding Berlin. His father, Ulrich de Maiziere, was an officer in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. By the war’s end in 1945, he had become a member of the Supreme High Command of the German Army. He continued his military career thereafter, advancing in 1966 to become General Inspector of West Germany’s newly founded Bundeswehr.

“Ulrich’s youngest son, meanwhile, was working his way toward graduating from a Catholic prep-school in Bonn. Thereafter Thomas de Maiziere joined a mechanized infantry battalion. By 1977 he had become a senior lieutenant in the reserve forces. After his military service, de Maiziere studied law in the cities of Freiburg and Münster, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1986…

“For Thomas de Maiziere, the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 also marked his entry into politics and the reunification of his family. His cousin, Lothar de Maiziere, served as the only democratically elected prime minister of East Germany, holding that position over a period of approximately six months, from April 1990 until the reunification of East and West Germany on October 3 that year… Thomas de Maiziere worked under his cousin in 1990 as an adviser to the East German government. During that time he also became acquainted with Angela Merkel, a chemist who had joined an East German opposition party known as Democratic Awakening, which later merged with Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU)…

“The entire issue [of the drone scandal] was virtually non-existent during the federal elections in September 2013. When it became clear that a grand coalition government of Merkel’s CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD) would come to pass, initial rumors were that Thomas de Maiziere would keep his post as defense minister. Those had to be revised after the official cabinet announcement: Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) will become Germany’s new defense minister, while de Maiziere will be returning to his old job of interior minister. Angela Merkel has managed to keep her ‘best man’ a part of her new cabinet.”

Angela Merkel was the protégée of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She replaced Kohl and became the new Chancellor (some claim that she did so by stabbing Kohl in the back). Will she experience soon something similar from her “best man,” Thomas de Maiziere?

Arm and Train Syrian Rebels—Escalation of America’s War

The Washington Post wrote on September 18:

“Even as the administration has received congressional backing for its strategy, with the Senate voting Thursday to approve a plan to arm and train Syrian rebels, a series of military leaders have criticized the president’s approach against the Islamic State militant group.

“Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis… became the latest high-profile skeptic on Thursday, telling the House Intelligence Committee that a blanket prohibition on ground combat was tying the military’s hands…

“Mattis’s comments came two days after Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the rare step of publicly suggesting that a policy already set by the commander in chief could be reconsidered.

“Despite Obama’s promise that he would not deploy ground combat forces, Dempsey made clear that he didn’t want to rule out the possibility… He also acknowledged that Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the commander for the Middle East, had already recommended doing so in the case of at least one battle in Iraq but was overruled.”

It does not appear that the USA will be able to prevent from being drawn deeper and deeper into another war.

Misunderstanding ISIS and Islam

Times of Israel wrote on September 11

“[President] Obama… made the following remarks: ‘Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not “Islamic.” No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim…’

“This statement… underline[s] Obama’s general lack of knowledge and understanding of the Middle East and Islam. His statement about ISIL being not Islamic and Islam being a religion that rejects the killing of innocents is rather strange for someone who was raised as a Muslim. That’s because the Quran contains 109 verses that call upon Muslims to wage war against innocent nonbelievers.

“Here is for example one of these verses that clearly shows that ISIL’s recent beheadings, crucifixions and other atrocities are based on the holy book of Islam.

“Quran (5:33) – ‘The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement’…”

The article of Times of Israel continued by placing a link to the following website, http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm, quoting additional 108 verses from the Koran to prove its violent teaching.

Another Brutal Murder of a Hostage through ISIS Islamists

BBC News wrote on September 14:

“The UK will take ‘whatever steps are necessary’ to keep safe after a video showing the killing of [British] hostage David Haines was issued by Islamic State militants, the prime minister has said… In the video, IS threatened to kill a second Briton, named as Alan Henning, 47, a volunteer on an aid convoy… A masked man who appears to have a British accent was pictured beside Mr Haines holding a knife.

“[David] Cameron said of IS, also known as Isil and Isis, ‘they are not Muslims, they are monsters’… Mr Cameron also said the country was ‘sickened’ that a Briton could have carried out the ‘despicable’ killing…

“BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says several British prime ministers have pledged to bring the killers of a British hostage to justice whenever they are murdered in ‘cold blood’ by jihadists, but the reality is that historically the trail tends to go cold very soon afterwards. None of those who have taken British hostages in recent years have been brought to justice, our correspondent added.”

Breitbart added on September 14  that Mr. Cameron also said that Islam is a religion of peace. Mr. Cameron fell into the same trap as Mr. Obama. Of course, these ISIS terrorists are monsters, but it is incorrect to say that they are not Muslim; nor, that Islam is a religion of peace.

ISIS Planning to Murder the Pope?

International Business Times wrote on September 17:

“ISIS is planning to kill the Pope in one of his overseas trips, Iraq Ambassador to Vatican Habeeb Al Sadr warns. He said that the terrorist group had spoken of its plan to assassinate the Pope as he was vocally supporting U.S.’ intervention in Syria and Iraq. He underlined that the ISIS has foreign members – Canadian, American, French, Britain and even Italians. The group can instruct these members to kill the Pope when the opportunity arises.”

Inconsistent Messages on War

Reuters reported on September 13:

“Pope Francis said on Saturday the spate of conflicts around the globe today were effectively a ‘piecemeal’ Third World War, condemning the arms trade and ‘plotters of terrorism’ sowing death and destruction… ‘War is madness,’ he said… ‘War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: it seeks to grow by destroying… Greed, intolerance, the lust for power. These motives underlie the decision to go to war and they are too often justified by an ideology …’ he said.

“Last month the pope, who has often condemned the concept of war in God’s name, said it would be legitimate for the international community to use force to stop ‘unjust aggression’ by Islamic State militants who have killed or displaced thousands of people in Iraq and Syria, many of them Christians.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 13:

“… the pope didn’t point to any single nation or leader, but warned that less visible forces created the conditions for military conflict. ‘In today’s world, behind the scenes, there are interests, geopolitical strategies, lust for money and power, and there is the manufacture and sale of arms,’ he told a crowd of thousands at the graveyard, where more than 100,000 Italian soldiers who died in World War I are buried… ‘The shadow of Cain hangs over us today in this cemetery. It is seen here. It is seen from 1914 right up to our own time. It is seen even in the present,’ he added.”

Die Welt reported on September 13 that German Protestant Military Pastor Pascal Kober advocated war, stating that non-action was  tantamount to the people in the parable of the merciful Samaritan, who refused to help the man who had fallen under the robbers. He added that the hope for a better future required to act for a better future which included by necessity actions causing sin, stating that this was an understanding which Luther had.

Sadly, this “understanding” is not based on the Bible. True Christianity is indeed totally opposed to war; but this cannot be said about traditional or orthodox (so-called) Christianity.

First Catholic Marriage Ceremony of Its Kind in 14 Years

BBC News reported on September 14:

“Pope Francis has presided over the marriage of 20 couples at the Vatican, including some who were cohabiting, one of them with a child… It was the first papal marriage ceremony of its kind in 14 years…

“Pope Francis told the couples at the two-hour ceremony that marriage was ‘not an easy road, it’s sometimes a contentious trip, but that’s life,’ AFP news agency reports. Very slowly, the church under the guidance of Pope Francis is facing the fact that many Catholic couples cohabit before marriage, use contraception freely and divorce and remarry without seeking an annulment…

“He said in his homily that families are ‘bricks that build society’, but also believes that the church should forgive those who have sex outside marriage or who don’t obey church teaching to the letter.”

The Scottish Independent Referendum

Deutsche Welle reported on September 18:

“The votes are in, and the final results are not expected until Friday morning in Edinburgh. More than 4.2 million Scottish residents registered ahead of the referendum on independence from the United Kingdom… commentators remained cautious about a race that had proven far closer than many expected…

“Should Scotland support independence, politicians in London and Edinburgh would have around 18 months to hammer out the details of a split: Scotland’s planned Independence Day would be March 24, 2016. The potential implications of a yes vote internationally, for instance with membership of institutions like NATO or the EU, remain unclear.”

The Washington Post added on September 18:

“With civility and passion, nearly all of Scotland’s voters turned out Thursday for a historic referendum that offered residents of this ancient land the chance to create the world’s newest independent nation by breaking up one of its oldest unions… Then they settled in for the long and anxious wait until dawn to find out which country they’ll live in come 2016: an independent Scotland for the first time in more than 300 years or a Scottish nation that remains part of the United Kingdom.

“The campaign deeply divided Scots, with preelectionpolls showing voters almost evenly split… once the question of independence has been settled, Scotland will be under pressure to quickly heal its divisions. Whether the Scots opt for ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ nearly half the nation will be deeply disappointed.”

No EU-Ukraine Trade Treaty for Over a Year

The EUobserver wrote on September 12:

“Ukraine and the EU are to delay the entry into life of a strategic free trade treaty for more than one year due to Russian concerns. The trade pact was originally to enter into force on 1 November.

“But following meetings between European Commission trade chief Karel De Gucht, Ukraine’s foreign minister, and Russia’s economy minister in Brussels on Friday (12 September) it will now be implemented on 31 December 2015.  Defending the deal, De Gucht told press it means Russia will not impose trade restrictions on Ukraine in the next 15 months…

“The trade pact is 5kg of technical documents, but it has symbolic value in Ukraine. Hundreds of people died in the ‘Euromaidan’ revolution in February when Ukraine’s former leader decided not to sign it.  Thousands more died after Russia attacked Ukraine to stop it joining Western blocs.

“One Ukraine-based EU diplomat told EUobserver the De Gucht news caused ‘shock, astonishment’. He noted that European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko had earlier the same day in Kiev spoken of ratifying the treaty on 16 September and implementing it on 1 November. Barroso has on several occasions said Russia cannot have a veto on EU-Ukraine ties.”

Russia has won again; the EU turns out to be the big loser; and Ukraine is moving away from Europe and towards Russia—as is prophesied in Scripture.

India Applies for Full Membership in SCO

The Business Standard wrote on September 12:

“India Friday formally applied for full membership in the energy-rich Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security grouping dominated by China, and said it is ‘ready to assume day to day responsibilities within the context of the bloc’. India has been functioning as observer at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – composed of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan…

“The SCO has amongst its members three largest energy producers in the world – Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. India hopes that with an SCO membership it will gain more access to major gas and oil exploration projects in central Asia.”

Russia and China Sign 30-Year Gas Deal

Reuters reported on September 13:

“Russia and China are discussing more than 30 joint economic projects in a variety of areas from petrochemicals to banking… As Russia was hit by new sanctions by the United States and the European Union on Friday over its involvement in Ukraine…  Asian countries… [do] not support the Western sanctions and were keen to cooperate with Russia.”

It is prophesied that in these end times, Far Eastern Nations, including China, India and Russia (as well as its—former—satellite states) will form a coalition in opposition to Europe.