“But
I have hoped in thy mercy; my heart shall exult in thy
salvation.”
(Psalm 13:5)
Hoped In Thy Mercy
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Legalism versus Grace
A compilation
Legalism is pursuing good works with the intention of earning God’s favor. The point is to save one’s self. It is good works without believing that God justifies us by faith alone. John Piper explains it this way: “The essence of legalism is when faith is not the engine of obedience.”
When we work hard for God in order to earn his favor, we are not operating with faith. Instead, we are saying that we must add to the finished work of Jesus on the cross. His work wasn’t enough, and therefore we must work to make him happy—we must take it into our own hands to be accepted by God.
But the Bible says that we are justified by grace through faith alone, and it is not a work of our own but a free gift of God. Our salvation isn’t, and never will be, a result of our works.1 There is nothing we could ever do to earn God’s saving favor. If we are in Christ we have his favor, forever!
I know when I have been tempted to legalism, it is motivated by selfish ambition. I want to take my good works and show them off to God. That’s why Ephesians 2:9 is so important. The reason that our salvation is a gift is so that no man may boast. Our salvation isn’t ultimately about us, but about God. God does the work, and He receives the glory. A legalist wants to do the work, earn the favor, and I don’t believe it’s a stretch to say, get the glory.
This is where the confusion comes in. Equating the pursuit of godliness to legalism can cause a world of problems. This mistake eventually leads to projecting judgment on others and even living licentiously. But pursuing godliness and legalism are not the same. … Legalism is when we’re trying to earn God’s favor to be saved, not when we’re following Jesus because we’re saved by grace.—Trillia Newbell2
The word “legalism” does not occur in the Bible. It is a term Christians use to describe a doctrinal position emphasizing a system of rules and regulations for achieving both salvation and spiritual growth. Legalists believe in and demand a strict literal adherence to rules and regulations. Doctrinally, it is a position essentially opposed to grace. Those who hold a legalistic position often fail to see the real purpose for law, especially the purpose of the Old Testament law of Moses, which is to be our “schoolmaster” or “tutor” to bring us to Christ.3
Even true believers can be legalistic. We are instructed, rather, to be gracious to one another: “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.”4 … Legalists may appear to be righteous and spiritual, but legalism ultimately fails to accomplish God’s purposes because it is an outward performance instead of an inward change.
To avoid falling into the trap of legalism, we can start by holding fast to the words of the apostle John, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,”5 and remembering to be gracious, especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ. “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”6 “You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.”7—From gotquestions.org8
What trivialities do we obsess over, and what weighty matters of the law—justice, mercy, faithfulness—might we be missing? Does God care more about nose rings or about urban decay? Grunge music or world hunger? Worship styles or a culture of violence?
Author Tony Campolo, who makes a regular circuit as a chapel speaker on Christian college campuses, for a time used this provocation to make a point. “The United Nations reports that over 10,000 people starve to death each day, and most of you don’t give a sh--. However, what is even more tragic is that most of you are more concerned about the fact that I just said a bad word than you are about the fact that 10,000 people are going to die today.” The response proved his point: in nearly every case Tony got a letter from the chaplain or president of the college protesting his foul language. The letters never mentioned world hunger…
The spiritual games we play, many of which begin with the best of motives, can perversely lead us away from God, because they lead us away from grace. Repentance, not proper behavior or even holiness, is the doorway to grace. And the opposite of sin is grace, not virtue. …
I have written about legalism partly because of my own bruising encounters with it and partly because I believe it represents such a powerful temptation to the church. Legalism stands like a stripper on the sidelines of faith, seducing us toward an easier way. It teases, promising some of the benefits of faith but unable to deliver what matters most. As Paul wrote to the legalists of his day, “for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” …
Jesus proclaimed unmistakably that God’s law is so perfect and absolute that no one can achieve righteousness. Yet God’s grace is so great that we do not have to. By striving to prove how much they deserve God’s love, legalists missed the whole point of the gospel, that it is a gift from God to people who don’t deserve it. The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code of behavior. It is to know God.—Philip Yancey9
For a few years as a young Christian, I too was deceived, and after years of insecurity and lack of assurance, discouragement, and defeat, I found all I had to do was believe to be saved, and that did it. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”10Right now! No ifs, ands, or buts about it. No “providing you’re a good boy and go to church every Sunday,” none of this sinless perfection of the sanctimonious, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, so-called holiness saints.
I hadn’t been able to make it, and I knew it. It seemed like the harder I tried to be good, the worse I got. “Oh, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”11 And that’s all there is to that—nothing else, no other way, no righteousness of your own, none of your own good works. None of these can keep you saved any more than they can save you in the first place. Only Jesus can do it! He not only saves you, but He also does the works through you. It’s all Jesus; none of your own self-righteousness, just Jesus. And was I relieved, because I knew I could never make it otherwise. It had to be God. I just couldn’t do it.—David Brandt Berg
1 Ephesians 2:8.
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WND
'At least 100' Christians incinerated in 'well-targeted attack'
July 8, 2019
At least 100 men, women and children have been incinerated in a “well-targeted attack” on Christians by jihadists in central Mali, according to reports.
The exact number of victims who died in Sobame Da, a mainly Christian village, isn’t known because many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
The Barnabas Fund, a global ministry to the persecuted Christian church, said the heavily armed Muslim attackers struck at night.
A source said it was the “worst massacre in Mali since 1946 and happened when jihadists encircled a village that was home to ethnic Dogon people.”
The Muslims then set fire to “everything that moved” in their “well-targeted attack.”
The death toll is estimated to be between 100 and 135.
The Barnabas Fund contact said they “burned the entire village including all the people who stayed or did not dare to go out. Only a few men were able to escape.”
The BBC reported it was just the latest and worst of recent attacks by jihadi groups on Dogon hunters.
“About 50 heavily armed men arrived on motorbikes and pickups,” a survivor explained in the BBC report. “They first surrounded the village and then attacked – anyone who tried to escape was killed.
“No-one was spared – women, children, elderly people,” he said.
The report explained the Dogon people have lived for centuries in central Mali and largely are farmers.
“According to the International Crisis Group, there were four times more attacks in May 2019 compared to May 2016. In their latest report on the country, the group urges the government to engage in dialogue with militants to negotiate local ceasefires and facilitate humanitarian access to civilians in need,” said the report.
Barnabas Fund said the jihadists and their allies are waging a “war” to occupy central Mali and have announced their intention to establish Shariah, Islamic law, throughout the country.
A contact said the jihadists have threatened, “No city will be made an exception and no village will escape.”
“So this isolated Christian village could not escape,” the source said.
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CBN NEWS
Terrifying Footage Shows Thousands of Religious Minorities Held in Chinese 'Thought Transformation' Camps: 'I Love the Communist Party'
07-07-2019
Will Maule, Faithwire
A wildly disturbing report from the BBC has revealed the sheer number of Muslims and other religious minorities being held against their will in educational detention centers.
Though the government has been attempting to brand the facilities as “schools,” the reality could not be more different. Simply put, the government is seeking to rid this religious minority of all their deeply-held beliefs in exchange for a sole trust and faith in President Xi Jingping and the Chinese state. It is political indoctrination of an incredibly sinister nature.
But when the BBC journalist asks questions of those held, they espouse scripted, almost robotic answers.
“Is it your choice to be here?” one man was asked. “Yes,” he replied, without hesitation. “A policeman at my village told me to get enrolled in the school and transform my thoughts.”
As interviews are conducted by a heavily-screened group of journalists, Chinese government agents watch on.
Eradication of Faith and Cultural Identity
Within the confines of the bleak detainment camps, the religious minorities undergo a strict regiment of political reeducation, the simplicity of which is painful to observe. “I love the communist party of China,” many are instructed to write out repeatedly.
Though the number one objective of the program is “thought transformation,” those held in these facilities must also partake in Mandarin lessons, self-criticism sessions and forced labor.
Other menial tasks include a four-month-long course in “how to make a bed.” The instructor being interviewed did, however, say most people are able to learn in two months rather than four.
Journalists Painted a Fake Picture of Camp Conditions
Chinese authorities have been extremely careful about who they allow in to see the inner workings of their reeducation programs, and evidence suggests they are not being entirely honest about the reality on the ground.
Indeed, satellite images indicate that the Chinese authorities had erected watchtowers and implemented strict security measures on each facility so that they function more like a supermax prison than a school.
However, when it was time to bus in the group of foreign journalists, all these structures were nowhere to be seen — they had been swiftly removed to ensure that no tough questions were asked.
But when the BBC team ventured onward to a different, more ominous looking camp, they were promptly accosted by authorities and told to leave.
It was clear that the Chinese authorities were presenting a picture of the camps that was very different to the day-to-day reality.
The BBC interviewed one woman interviewed had been held in the camp system for over a year before managing to flee to Kazakhstan. Her crime? Having WhatsApp on her phone.
The woman disclosed that, ahead of any press visits to the camps, the inmates were issued a stark warning: “‘If any of you speak out, you will go to a worse place than this,'” officials would tell them.
“That’s why everyone is scared and does what they are told,” she noted.
Still, the Chinese government believes it is doing good work through the militant re-education of people who they believe have been compromised by cultural norms and religious beliefs which lead to terrorism and violence.
“Some people, before they commit murder, already show they’re capable of killing,” said Zhang Zhisheng from the Xinjiang Foreign Affairs Office. “Should we wait for them to commit the crime? Or should we prevent it from happening?”
“We aim to change their religious extremist thoughts,” a member of staff at the facility expressed.
We would call that.. brainwashing,” the BBC journalist firmly replied.
“We’re not completely changing their thoughts,” the staff member qualified. “We only remove the extremist elements.”
According to the camp’s officials, each “student” gets one day of home-leave every week.
However, when the time for this supposed recess rolled around, not a soul was seen leaving the facility.
“I’m wondering why we don’t see any students leaving?” the reporter asked, as he stood outside the silent front gates.
“I told you, eight o’clock,” the principal replied, clearly fuming that they had been caught in a blatant lie.
“So, in the next few minutes they will leave?” the reporter pressed.
To this, the head official at the school had no answer. “Some days they leave, some days they don’t.” he said bluntly.
Immediately, the principal was called over by government minders and given a stern talking to. “You need to think carefully before you answer the questions,” one official told him angrily.
U.S. Putting Pressure on China to Stop Human Rights Abuse
The Pentagon has previously stated that it believes upwards of three million people could be detained in facilities just like this one, and has urged the Chinese government to stop violating the human rights of minority groups like the Uighurs.
“We call on the Chinese government to release immediately these individuals’ family members and all others arbitrarily detained in the camps,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in March, adding that the State Department was “working to convince the Chinese that this practice is abhorrent and ought to be stopped.”
BREAKINGISRAELNEWS
Trump’s Israel Ambassador Sledgehammers his Way to the Third Temple
By David Sidman
July 1, 2019
“A spirit carried me into the inner court, and lo, the Presence of Hashem filled the Temple” Ezekiel 43:5 (The Israel Bible™)
President Donald Trump’s Israel envoy including Ambassador David Friedman and Middle East Advisor Jason Greenblatt hammered through the final wall to reconnect a 2,000-year-old road that Ancient Jews used to bring sacrifices up to the Second Temple to sounds of the shofar in the background. The City of David discovered the ‘Pilgrim’s Road’ which was used by Israelites during the Second Temple period (516 BCE-70 CE) to bring sacrifices from the Valley of Siloam up to the Temple Mount, the site of the Second Temple and the Third Temple (which has not yet been built).
Tchiya Luria, a digger with the City of David explained that when her crew began digging, they realized that there was a road in the location. However, she “didn’t know exactly where it started”. But as soon as she uncovered the stairs, Luria realized that that was where the road began.
“In the past six years, we’ve been working on excavating intensively,” says Archaeologist Dr. Joe Uziel. “The Pilgrim Street which led from the Siloam Pool up to the Temple Mount, about 600 (656 yards) meters long, 8 meters (8.7 yards) wide would have housed the thousands of pilgrims which arrived in Jerusalem from surrounding areas in order to take part in the ceremonies on the Temple” Uziel added.
“In 70 CE, Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans who burn it as Josephus says, all the way down to Siloam. And we’ve been exposing that destruction layer which included the food and the coins and the glass vessels and the pottery vessels which smashed onto the street and then were covered over by the buildings that collapsed and sealed that destruction layer which waited 2,000 years for us to come and excavate it” Uziel said
The site’s staff recalls the discovery of ancient artifacts. City of David digger Matan Fastman explains that he has found “96 coins” while Amiel Cooper recalls unearthing an ancient lamp called a “ner tamin”.
BREAKINGISRAELNEWS
Leaked: Trump’s Peace Plan will Lead to ‘Full Palestinian Statehood’
By David Sidman June 23, 2019
'They plot craftily against Your people, take counsel against Your treasured ones’ (Psalm 83:4)
Saudi prince Al-Walid bin Talal meets with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas (Photo Flash90)
A top- ranking Saudi diplomat told Globes on Friday that Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ includes a “clear path leading to complete Palestinian independence”. The anonymous Saudi official explains that although he speaks on his own behalf, he also claims that many other officials in the Saudi government agree with his sentiments. He explained that Saudi and the Crown Prince have an interest in assisting the Palestinian leadership and see it as a “responsibility”. They are trying to press the PA leadership to “seriously examine the political and economic plan”.
He went on to explain that both him and other countries are ready to invest “massive sums of money on a scale the Palestinians would never even dreamed of receiving”. He added that if they will transition to true independence, decent education, employment and a robust economy that isn’t dependent on handouts…This is where it may be hard for them to grow out of their self perpetuating image of the eternal victim. They don’t believe they can manage without it”.
And although Trump’s advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt have claimed that the plan will give them a state but without complete autonomy, the official adds “as far as we know, the plan has a clear track to full Palestinian independence”.
“We also have reservations about the American proposals on a number of issues, especially Jerusalem and Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount), but we are convinced that even the most complex questions can be solved when the stomach is full and life is calm,” he said. “That is, when the economic situation improves, there is no violence and there is a real horizon. And that, the Palestinians still do not accept.
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RT
Jewish assimilation in US is ‘like a second Holocaust,’ Israeli minister claims
Published time: 10 Jul, 2019 04:57 Edited time: 10 Jul, 2019 09:21
© Pixabay / MoneyForCoffee
Intermarriage among diaspora Jews – particularly those in North America – is “like a second Holocaust,” Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz declared in a cabinet meeting, uniting much of that diaspora in shocked offense.
The Jewish community “lost 6 million people” over the last 70 years because of intermarriage and assimilation, Peretz told a cabinet meeting on trends in Jewish communities around the world, particularly in the US. His spokesman confirmed the statement to Israeli Channel 13.
American Jews, unsurprisingly, were outraged. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called the remarks “inconceivable” in a tweet, adding that “This kind of baseless comparison does little other than inflame and offend.” The ADL tweeted an additional response in Hebrew, blaming Peretz’s statement for “add[ing] to the already existing tension between Israel and US Jewry” and pleading with him to “engage in respectful dialogue.”
“Israel’s government has a moral responsibility to maintain and improve the country’s relationship with diaspora Jews in general, and with the American Jewish community in particular,” Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, a Jewish organization that advocates for people with disabilities.
And Peretz’s fellow ministers – some of them, anyway – took a dim view of the comment. “First we need to stop disregarding and looking down on Jews in America that see themselves as Jews not only religiously but even more culturally and historically,” argued Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz.
But PM Benjamin Netanyahu shared Peretz’s alarm over demographic trends, claiming US Jews are abandoning Jewish traditions in a trend that is not easily reversed.
Support for Israel among American Jews has been declining for years, and Peretz’s comments – far from the first to compare assimilation to the Holocaust – are unlikely to heal the rift.
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THE SCOTSMAN
Followers of occultist Aleister Crowley to be welcomed back to his former Highland home
ALISON CAMPSIE
July 1, 2019
The former Highland home of occultist Aleister Crowley is to be restored and converted into a wellness retreat where yoga and meditation will be taught - as well as the teachings of the notorious religious leader.
Boleskine House on the south west banks of Loch Ness was destroyed by a fire in 2015 but has now been purchased by three as yet unnamed investors who paid a total of £500,000 for the property and gardens.
Boleskine House was built in the 1760s with hopes to fully restore the property and grounds. PIC: Creative Commons.
The Boleskine Foundation has now been launched to drive the restoration of the property with parts of the historic estate, which was built in the 1760s, to be opened up to the public.
Meanwhile, it is understood that the Boleskine Foundation has been in discussion with, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a religious organisation previously led by Crowley, about giving access to its followers.
Crowley developed the religion of Thelema with many 'Thelemites' - who believe in individualism and the power of free will - considering Boleskine House to be a holy place.
A statement on their foundation's website said it wanted to "preserve the historical the historical legacy and heritage" of the estate for the "greater benefit of the public".
It added: "Upon its complete restoration, our volunteers intend to use the estate to promote education on the heritage of the house, to welcome the enjoyment of its structure and surrounding gardens, and to help to generate awareness of health and wellness.
"Such initiatives will include active outreach into the communities of which Boleskine House and its surrounding land holds significant historic value and benefit.
"Such communities include but are not limited to the local community of Foyers, the wider community of Scottish heritage and historic environment; and communities who value Boleskine to be of significant spiritual import, of which we will promote events and activities that facilitate health and wellness such as meditation and yoga as well as education on Thelema, the spiritual legacy forwarded by previous Boleskine House owner, Aleister Crowley."
A statement on the Thelemites website said it was "truly fantastic news" that the new owners intended to co-operate with OTO to allow access to the house and land in a way "which has hitherto not been possible".
Crowley, who bought Boleskine in 1900, conducted various black magic rituals at the house including a six-month long experiment to raise his Guardian Angel.
It is said the experiment was not properly completed, with the spirits raised by Crowley never fully banished leading to a number of unexplained events at Boleskine.
Crowley developed the new religion of Thelema, which observes a number of feasts throughout the year, after honeymooning in Egypt in 1904.
He claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity who provided him with the Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema.
They include the feast for the First Night of the Prophet and the Bride on August 12, which celebrates Crowley's fist marriage to Rose Kelly, who assisted in his original revelations.
While it is planned to open up the main rooms of Boleskine House to the public , the property will be closed at certain times of the year to be used by those "who consider the house and lands to have spiritual importance."
Memorial celebrations may also be held in the gardens, where ashes can be scattered for "certain communities who feel the estate holds spiritual importance".
Boleskine house was built in the 1760s by Archibald Fraser, British consul in Tripoli and Algiers and member of Clan Fraser.
Crowley paid £2,000 for the secluded property, more than twice the market value of the day.
Boleskine became so important to Crowley that he taught his followers to focus their spiritual intent in its direction.
"For over a century, many people have considered Boleskine to be spiritually important, a magical place of sublime beauty," the foundation said.
The cost of restoring of the building has been estimated at £730,000 with the foundation saying the revival of Boleskine House will be a "loss-making endevour".
"Nevertheless, the buyers and volunteers or the project believe that Boleskine should be restored as a heritage landmark and opened to the public so that its history, spirit and legacy may be enjoyed for generations to come," the foundation said.
Boleskine House was bought by rock hero Jimmy Page, founder of the group Led Zeppelin, in 1970 although he seldom visited Boleskine, which was later sold and used as a bed and breakfast.
A crowdfunder has been launched to support the restoration of the property with a clearance weekend of the fire-damaged house organised for mid-August. Volunteers are expected to come from around the world for the event, it is understood.
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Bloomberg
Crew of Russian Nuclear Sub Prevented ‘Planetary Catastrophe,’ Officer Says
By Henry Meyer and Stepan Kravchenko
July 8, 2019
Top officer praises role of 14 dead sailors, Fontanka says
Russian authorities were slow to give information on accident
Russia Mourns Sailors Who Died On Sub
The 14 sailors who died during a fire last week on a nuclear-powered Russian military submarine prevented a “planetary catastrophe,” a top naval officer said at their funeral, according to media reports.
Captain Sergei Pavlov, an aide to the commander of Russia’s navy, praised the heroism of the men, who died as they battled to stop the fire from spreading in the submersible.
“With their lives, they saved the lives of their colleagues, saved the vessel and prevented a planetary catastrophe,” he said at the funeral Sunday attended by the navy chief according to the Fontanka news service.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he wasn’t aware of the official’s comments but said there was no indication the incident posed a broader threat. “As for the reactor, there are no problems with that,” he said on a conference call.
Russia broke three days of secrecy July 4 and confirmed that the stricken underwater research vessel was nuclear-powered. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a meeting shown on state TV that the nuclear reactor on board the vessel had been completely sealed off.
Russian authorities had previously refused to say whether the country’s worst naval incident in more than a decade involved a nuclear-powered vessel. They have also refused to say what type of craft was involved, with the Kremlin calling the information “absolutely classified.” Neighboring Norway contacted Russia for more details though it said it hadn’t detected any increased radiation levels.
The vessel is linked to a secret nuclear-submarine project known as Losharik, RBC news website reported. Russia said the sailors died from smoke inhalation after the fire started while the deep-water submersible was exploring the sea bed in its territorial waters. The craft was later taken to the Russian Northern Fleet’s Severomorsk base on the Barents Sea coast.
The fire was Russia’s most serious naval incident since 20 people died on a Nerpa nuclear submarine in 2008. The Losharik submarine can operate at a depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet), according to RBC. The craft reportedly was used to target undersea communications and other cables.
Russia’s worst post-Soviet naval disaster occurred early in Putin’s presidency, in August 2000, when 118 crew died on the Kursk nuclear submarine that sank in the Barents Sea after an explosion. The authorities were also accused of a cover-up.
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SingularityHub
The Pentagon’s New Laser-Based Tool Uses Your Heartbeat to Track You
By
Shelly Fan
July 11, 2019
The government’s hefty arsenal of surveillance tools just welcomed a powerful new member. Rather than monitoring an external device—a bug or a smartphone—or even the exterior features of your face, the new tech aims straight for your heart. Literally.
First reported by MIT Technology Review, the US Pentagon is developing an infrared laser that captures a person’s unique “cardiac signature” from as far as 200 meters—the length of just over two football fields—away, as long as you’re still. According to Steward Remaly of the Pentagon’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO), even longer ranges may be possible with higher intensity lasers.
Although chilling, the tech builds on previous ideas.
Contact infrared sensors have long been used to monitor a person’s pulse, in a clinical setting or when traversing high altitudes. Here, the devices shoot infrared light into a finger and measure how much blood flow alters the refraction. Unlike this classic setup, the Pentagon’s new tech—dubbed Jetson—uses laser doppler vibrometry that detects minute movements on the skin caused by heartbeat.
Currently under development by Ideal Innovations, Inc., a veteran-owned biometrics, forensics, and scientific company based in Arlington, Virginia, the goal of Jetson is to positively identify an individual within five seconds using a “heartprint.”
“Existing long-range biometric methods that rely on facial recognition suffer from acquiring enough pixels at a distance to use the face matching algorithms and require high performance optics to acquire visual signatures at significant distances,” explained the CTTSO. “The Jetson effort…is a ruggedized biometric system that will capture cardiac signatures to aid in the positive identification of an individual” from a distance with little lag time.
Jetson is just the latest attempt at surveillance from a distance. Rather than old-school technologies such as fingerprinting or retinal scans, this new generation of surveillance technologies uses biometrics to monitor your every move—be it face, speech, heartbeat, or even brain activity—from a distance.
The tech may sound extreme, but Jetson is using the same playbook as biometrics for security. And to project where surveillance is going, it pays to look at biometrics research as the canary in the coal mine. Using your finger or face to unlock your phone is just the convenient side of things—what makesyour biometric signature secure as a passcode is also what makes you identifiable as an individual.
Face Off
Facial recognition technology is no doubt the current crown prince of surveillance technologies. China readily adopted the tech as part of their Social Credit System, which monitors a civilian’s every move in public to generate a numerical score for compliance. Even here in the US facial recognition is welcomed by law enforcement. Amazon’s Rekognition system, for example, is reportedly “supercharging” police efforts in Oregon and other police departments, despite pressure from civil liberties groups, lawmakers, and even its own shareholders.
Surveillance loves facial recognition because the tech is relatively mature and can be done from a distance. And no doubt, there is value for the technology in long-range counterterrorism. For example, the technology can be used to remotely confirm the identity of a suspect—say, an ISIS leader—and in turn allow a state to authorize an attack.
The problem? Facial recognition software is far from perfect. A study by the ACLU using Rekognition found that the system incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress to mug shots, with the majority being African-American. Technological hiccups aside, a face is relatively easy to disguise. The perfect surveillance system needs to be efficient, effective, and low-error. In other words, it needs something more concrete, immutable, and physiological to target.
That’s where cardiac signatures come in.
Beat of the Heart
To Dr. Wenyao Xu at the State University of New York, the heart is a much better surveillance target than facial recognition. “Compared with face, cardiac biometrics are more stable and can reach more than 98 percent accuracy,” he said.
Back in 2017, his team developed a non-contact, remote biometrics device that uses dimensions of the heart as a person’s identifier for security. His systemdistills the geometry of a person’s heart—measured by refracting sound waves with Doppler radars—to identify the particular shape and size that characterizes an individual. But because it relies on sound waves, the system could only function up to 30 meters away—a fraction of the Pentagon’s ideal distance.
Other cardiac signatures have also been used for security. The Toronto company Nymi, for example, developed a wearable wristband that uses an employee’s electrocardiogram (ECG), which is also uniquely tailored to each individual, as an access passcode for an enterprise’s secure database.
Jetson extends this approach by co-opting an off-the-shelf device that normally measures vibrations from structures at a distance. The device further utilizes a gimbal to hold its laser beam steady, allowing it to keep its measurements on target. According to MIT Technology Review, the current system takes roughly 30 seconds to generate a good return signal, and it’s only effective if the target is staying put—either standing or sitting.
Despite these caveats, Remaly said that Jetson works with an admirable 95 percent accuracy if the conditions are optimal. In practice, though, this means Jetson isn’t accurate enough to be reliable on its own. If adopted into surveillance tech, it would likely work alongside other measures, such as facial recognition or gait analysis, as secondary confirmation.
In addition, unlike faces and fingerprints, cardiac signatures aren’t exactly standard collection data. For the technology to truly impact surveillance, the government needs to build a new database from scratch. However, the team argues, when deployed over a period of time—sufficient to capture the heartprint of an individual seen doing something they shouldn’t, for example—it may still be used to positively identify a person, even if his or her actual identity remains mysterious. What’s more, clothing isn’t a deterrent since the tech blasts right through.
Military use aside, the Pentagon foresees the technology trickling down into the cultural mainstream. A doctor could remotely monitor his patient’s cardiac rhythms, for example, without having to rely on electrical wires. Nevertheless, like technologies using echolocation to track an elderly person’s gait for falls, it’s an open question if the benefits warrant the invasion of privacy.
Biometrics Revolution
Monitoring the heart may be just the first step in a new age of long-distance biometrics surveillance.
Speech is another identifier under attack. According to the CTTSO, the already-completed project Beetlejuice uses a beam-forming microphone array to monitor an individual’s speech, in addition to performing speaker tagging, tracking, and locating. The tech relies on deep neural networks to reduce noise and allow near real-time situational awareness of incoming signals, filtering speaker, messages, languages, and location, the report stated.
“The capabilities will be integrated into a lightweight platform in support of operators on the move and handle a variety of noisy audio media…This unique combination will improve performance in both noise reduction, source location, and human language technologies,” the team explained.
Going even further, Xu and others are working on “brainprints” for security measures. Unlike facial or cardiac fingerprints, the brain offers an “inexhaustible” source of secure passwords based on its response to various stimuli, explained Xu.
Using EEG, which picks up neural electrical activity from electrodes placed on the scalp, the team can extract automatic and unconscious activation patterns as a “brain password” unique to a particular individual. Of course, so far there isn’t a way to remotely monitor someone’s brain activity or construct a database of initial readings. And unlike a face or retina, a brainprint changes when an individual is faced with another stimulus.
Nevertheless, a snapshot of brain activity perhaps most uniquely represents you, as an individual, and technological challenges haven’t exactly been a deterrent to agencies that stand most to gain (hydrogen bombs, anyone?).
If history’s any indication, security measures based on biometrics are ripe for hacking and tracking. Now, thanks to Jetson, smearing paint on your face or wearing thick jackets will no longer circumvent surveillance monitoring. San Francisco and Somerville, Massachusetts both recently blanket-banned facial recognition software in protection of civil rights, with New York likely to follow in narrower domains. It’s worth keeping an eye on what comes next.
Image Credit: Jolygon / Shutterstock.com
Washington Examiner
'A form of extortion': Iran to charge foreign ships a toll to cross Strait of Hormuz
By Russ Reed
July 8, 2019
Iran is planning to charge foreign ships a toll in exchange for "protection" across the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route and a flashpoint in the escalating dispute between the United States and the Islamic Republic.
A member of the Iranian Parliament's presidium said foreign commercial entities should compensate Iran as "the true provider of security in the region and international waters," according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency. Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi claimed ships enter Iranian waters on their way through the strait and should therefore pay a toll.
That assertion doesn't jibe with clearly defined international agreements, former Navy officer Thomas Callender says.
"There's no question whatsoever about the rights of commercial vessels and tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and that they have this right to transit unimpeded," Callender, a senior fellow for defense programs at the Heritage Foundation, told the WashingtonExaminer.
"To be trying to charge essentially tax to pass through this is a form of extortion."
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, 21-mile waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and greater Arabian Sea. About 18.5 million barrels of oil travel through the strait each day, accounting for 30% of the world's sea-traded oil. The waterway is considered crucial to global trade, but with a shipping lane only three miles long, it is also extremely vulnerable.
"It's kind of like the old movies where you'd see the mafia come in and bang up someone's store and say, 'Look, you want protection from someone banging up your store, you have to pay us,'" Callender said. "It's like an Iranian mafia requesting protection money from the commercial shipping industry and oil companies through the gulf."
The Iranian economy relies heavily on the oil trade, making it a ripe target for U.S. and international sanctions. The Trump administration has focused on Iranian oil as part of its maximum pressure campaign against the regime and warned allies to steer clear of doing business with Tehran.
In Gibraltar on Sunday, British Royal Marines seized and impounded an Iranian tanker, suspecting it of carrying oil to Syria, a violation of European Union sanctions. Iran is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, propping up his authoritarian regime as it continues to battle rebel groups. An Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander threatened to seize a British ship in response, and the country's defense minister condemned Britain on Monday.
"These days we witnessed a threatening act from the government of England in the Strait of Gibraltar against a tanker from the Islamic Republic of Iran," Amir Hatami said. "This is an incorrect and wrong action, an action similar to maritime robbery ... certainly these kind of robberies will not be tolerated."
Iranian officials denied that the ship was on its way to Syria, though they have not specified its destination.
While the United States has long maintained a significant military presence in the Persian Gulf, it has grown in recent months as tensions with Iran continue to flare. In addition to a contingent of bombers, Patriot missile systems, and troops, the Pentagon sent the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group to the region recently.
MailOnline
Five armed Iranian boats attempt to storm British oil tanker in the Gulf hours after Tehren threatened UK
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tried to capture the British Heritage
Tanker was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz with escort from HMS Montrose
A US aircraft reportedly filmed the unfolding incident as it flew over the Gulf
By GEORGE MARTIN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 00:40, 11 July 2019 | UPDATED: 02:03, 11 July 2019
Five Iranian ships unsuccessfully tried to seize a British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf Wednesday - US officials say.
Armed vessels from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tried to capture the British Heritage tanker while it was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
Iran's ships reportedly ordered the British vessel to divert its course and stop in Iranian waters which it was sailing nearby
The tanker British Heritage (pictured in Rotterdam last year) was targeted by Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz
It comes amid rising tensions in the region following a series of attacks on oil tankers which the US and Britain have blamed on Iran
British frigate the HMS Montrose was escorting the tanker and trained its guns on the Iranians before giving them a verbal warning to back off.
A US aircraft was overhead and recorded video of the incident as the Iranian ships then fled - according to CNN.
UK officials had previously confirmed that the Montrose was in the region performing a 'maritime security role.'
It comes after Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar last week, which Britain says was violating EU sanctions by carrying fuel to Syria.
Iran denies the vessel was bound for Syria and says the UK acted on behalf of the United States, which has separate sanctions in place against Tehran itself.
Senior Iranian politicians had threatened to retaliate by seizing a British tanker.
The BP-owner British Heritage was travelling through the Strait of Hormuz with an escort from HMS Montrose when it was confronted by the Iranian ships
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said in a cabinet session earlier on Wednesday that Britain would 'see the consequences' after the Gibraltar seizure.
In remarks broadcast on Iranian TV, Rouhani said: 'You (Britain) are the initiator of insecurity and you will realise the consequences later.
'Now you are so hopeless that, when one of your tankers wants to move in the region, you have to bring your frigates (to escort it) because you are scared.
'Then why do you commit such acts? You should instead allow navigation to be safe.'
The HMS Montrose is equipped on the deck with 30 mm guns specifically designed to drive off small boats.
The Montrose, based in Bahrain, also has radar that allows it to track aircraft and missiles up to 120 miles away, and a missile system with a 20-mile range.
The BP-owned British Heritage, had earlier halted to take refuge off the coast of Saudi Arabia following Iran's threat.
Earlier this week, British tanker Pacific Voyager, which sails under the Isle of Man flag, was escorted through the Strait of Hormuz by HMS Montrose, a Type-23 frigate, on Tuesday.
The incident on Wednesday took place against the backdrop of rising tensions between the Iran and the US which saw Donald Trump accuse the Middle Eastern nation of attacking several tankers in the Gulf.
A number of tankers in the Strait have been damaged by explosions in recent months - which the UK and US blamed on Iran - and Iran shot down a US drone.
America has begun making plans to enlist allies over the next two weeks into a military coalition to safeguard strategic waters off Iran.
Under the plan, which has only been finalized in recent days, the United States would provide command ships and lead surveillance efforts for the military coalition. Allies would patrol waters near those U.S. command ships and escort commercial vessels with their nation's flags.
Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, articulated those details to reporters following meetings on Tuesday about it with acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
'We're engaging now with a number of countries to see if we can put together a coalition that would ensure freedom of navigation both in the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab,' Dunford said.
'And so I think probably over the next couple of weeks we'll identify which nations have the political will to support that initiative and then we'll work directly with the militaries to identify the specific capabilities that'll support that.'
***
SPUTNIK
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Deny Trying to Stop UK Oil Tanker - Reports
July 11, 2019
A Royal Navy ship earlier escorted the oil tanker British Heritage in the Strait of Hormuz after reports that several Iranian military boats had approached the vessel.
"The American government ... and also England ... should not have taken action if they had made the smallest calculation", rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, a deputy coordinator of the IRGC said. "We had rented this ship and we carried the cargo. Their action was very silly and they will certainly regret it. Our reciprocal action will be announced".
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has previously rejected claims that the military had attempted to stop a British oil tanker in the Gulf in response to the seizure of an Iranian ship, Fars News Agency reported.
The UK government has, in the meantime, urged Tehran to de-escalate the crisis between the two countries. Addressing the issue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also stated that Moscow is ready to assist in easing the tensions.
A US Department of Defence official claimed that five Iranian military vessels tried to seize the British tanker, while London mentions only three ships.
Commenting on the incident, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani mocked the UK, saying that British ships wouldn't need to be escorted by the Royal Navy if Britain hadn't endangered the safety of navigation by seizing the Iranian tanker.
The news comes after the government of British overseas territory Gibraltar detained an Iranian tanker purportedly carrying oil to Syria and claimed that Tehran had violated international sanctions.
A US Department of Defence official claimed that five Iranian military vessels tried to seize the British tanker, while London mentions only three ships.
Commenting on the incident, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani mocked the UK, saying that British ships wouldn't need to be escorted by the Royal Navy if Britain hadn't endangered the safety of navigation by seizing the Iranian tanker.
The news comes after the government of British overseas territory Gibraltar detained an Iranian tanker purportedly carrying oil to Syria and claimed that Tehran had violated international sanctions.
***
Strange Sounds
Giant cracks in the ground appear in Mojave Desert near the epicenters of California latest two major earthquakes
July 7, 2019
There were multiple fissures that broke the ground in the Mojave Desert in southern California on Thursday and Friday after two major M6.4 and M7.1 earthquakes struck the area.
The power of nature is amazing… And these deep fissures near Ridgecrest, California are just terrifying!
A deep fissure discovered in the Mojave Desert near Ridgecrest, the epicenter of the M6.4 earthquake in Southern California on July 4, 2019. Picture by David McNew/Reuters
On the Fourth of July, people from Los Angeles to Las Vegas felt the ground shake. Books fell off library shelves, trees collapsed, and cracks spidered through building walls and highway asphalt.
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake was centered in the California city of Ridgecrest, about 175 miles northeast of Long Beach. It ended a five-year drought in California’s seismic record: Before yesterday, the ground had not shook in the state since a magnitude 6 quake struck Napa in August 2014, causing $1 billion in damages.
Then, a 7.1 magnitude quake centered about 11 miles north of Ridgecrest struck at 8:19 p.m. Friday, rattling the Kern County city of 27,000 and the nearby small town of Trona in San Bernardino County.
The area appears to have taken the brunt of the damage, which includes major cracking on the State Route 178, at least one collapsed building and a fissure that stretched across the Mojave Desert.
Both major earthquakes have created large and very impressive cracks in the ground of the dry Mojave Desert. The power of nature is somehow very creepy!
***
USNI News
California Earthquakes Leave Naval Station China Lake ‘Not Mission Capable’
By: Gidget Fuentes
July 9, 2019
California State Route 178 SW of Trona, following the M7.1 earthquake. Road is now closed for repairs. USGS Photo
SAN DIEGO – Two major earthquakes that struck Southern California late last week opened fault lines on Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and prompted officials to evacuate residents. Since Saturday, the Navy testing installation has been declared “not mission capable until further notice.”
As of late Monday, the Navy’s key research-and-development site for major aviation and weapons systems testing and evaluation remained off-limits to anyone but mission-essential personnel, as crews worked to inspect facilities at the sprawling installation complex.
China Lake, which covers 1.2 million acres of the Mojave desert, felt the brunt of the significant tremors, from the magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck at the morning of July 4 to the scores of aftershocks and then a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Friday evening.
U.S. Geological Survey experts identified the epicenters of the two largest tremors and countless others as occurring within the Navy installation. Navy personnel and California National Guard air crews assisted geologists in surveying the impacts of the tremors, which cracked paved roads, opened gashes across the desert area and shifted railroad tracks.
The weapons station, as well as nearby towns of Ridgecrest and Trona, saw scattered damage from the quakes but no deaths or major destruction.
As of Monday evening, China Lake officials had reported few details about effects to the weapons station and offered scant information in public updates posted on the weapons station’s official Facebook page. The installation’s spokesperson hadn’t responded to a USNI News query as of Monday night.
Basic services such as water and power have been restored in most areas of the base, China Lake officials wrote in a Monday post on Facebook. The weapons station’s Navy Exchange planned to reopen Tuesday, so mission-essential personnel could get supplies and other items. “The barbershop will also open, but patrons will need to be escorted inside the barbershop,” officials wrote in another post.
But the earthquakes damaged the installation’s All-Faith Chapel, which was established in 1944. “The NAWSCL Religious Ministries services are cancelled due to structural damage to the building. All personnel are encouraged to seek services out in town,” officials posted on Facebook.
“The safety of our workforce is our priority. All are reminded to maintain high situational awareness,” installation officials wrote in a Facebook posting Monday afternoon
Navy Region Southwest’s commander, Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar, “authorized the evacuation of non-essential personnel to safe haven, Naval Base Ventura County,” on Friday, a region spokesman, Brian O’Rourke, told USNI News in a statement Monday afternoon. “This order remains in effect until further notice.”
It’s unclear how many personnel and families opted to evacuate to Ventura County or other “safe haven” military installations, as the earthquakes happened over an extended holiday weekend for many military personnel.
“A diverse array of infrastructure and services exists on base and are spread throughout the installation’s approximate 1.2 million acres,” O’Rourke said. “Damage and structural assessment is a lengthy process after two major earthquakes and associated aftershocks.”
“Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake has completed assessments for 10 percent of approximately 1,200 buildings within the installation’s perimeter as of noon Monday,” he continued.
The installation’s “top priorities are safety of personnel, security of capabilities, reconstitution of infrastructure, and the systematic progression to full mission capability. The installation remains at Mission Essential Personnel (MEP) status,” he added.
Personnel looking for additional information can contact the Family Information Call Center at (844) 523-2025.
“Lincoln Housing crews and an emergency response team will be entering homes to assess for damages, and begin water extraction as needed” starting Sunday, Lincoln Military Housing-China Lake officials posted on the community’s official Facebook page.
According to NAWS’s website, the weapons station has 2,132 buildings and facilities, 329 miles of paved roads and 1,801 miles of unpaved roads, as well as Armitage Field, the main air station, all valued at some $3 billion. Its 19,600 square miles of restricted and controlled airspace supports integrated testing and training for aircraft and weapons systems. About 620 active duty military, 4,166 civilian employees and 1,734 contractors work at the weapons station, which include several key tenants: Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division; Air Test and Evaluation Squadrons 31 and 9; Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest China Lake Detachment; Marine Aviation Detachment; and several Navy explosive ordnance disposal detachments.
“Some essential facilities on the installation that service the city of Ridgecrest and surrounding area remain a top priority,” O’Rourke added.
The weapons station, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles, stretches northeast from Ridgecrest, a high-desert desert town of 28,000. The installation includes several significant cultural or archaeological areas, including the Coso Rocks, a national historic landmark.
The magnitude of Thursday’s earthquake is the largest to strike California since Oct. 16, 1999, when the Hector Mine quake, measuring magnitude 7.1, jolted Marines and other Southern Californians awake at 2:46 a.m. from the epicenter in the northwest portion of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms.
***
The Common Sense Show
Secret, Leaked Speech by Chinese Defense Minister Demonstrates China's Intent to Destroy America
Submitted by Dave Hodges on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 13:04.
Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe
This is the first part of a multipart series which exposes China's intention to go to war with the United States. Part One is based upon the idea that the Chinese fully intend on not just conquering America, but destroying America.
A recent speech made to the CCP in Communist China speaks to the resolve and historical overview that exists in China with regard to not just invading the United States, but to decisively destroy the country and kill as many Americans as possible. The content of this speech was leaked to John Moore. Paul Martin forwarded me the copy. I have spent the previous 12 hours gathering opinions and statements from my very best sources. Sometimes, my sources can be a bit slow to respond. However, all but one of the people I solicited opinions from answered within a couple of hours of receiving this. To a man, they believe everything in the report, however, many expressed extreme surprise that this content wou: "ld be discussed in such an open political environment. The universal consensus is that this is authentic and does represent the majority philosophy of the CCP.
In two successive articles, I am going to highlight some quotes and relate the material back to the present day relationship between China and the United States.
China Is Not, Never Has Been, Or Will Ever Be an American Ally
For another report on another day, I firmly believe that when, not if, the Red Dawn invasion of the United States commences, the Chinese will be among the invading armies. That is why the Chinese-controlled Hollywood forced the producers of the remake of Red Dawn (2012) to change the identity of the invading force from Chinese to North Korean. I believe the script hit too close to home.
Recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conducted an online survey conducted by sina.comand one of the key questions that they asked was the following:
“Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more than 80 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations as expressed by the Chinese Defense Minister.
General Wei went on to say:
The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people’s attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even non-combatants, they’ll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war...The purpose of the CCP Central Committee in conducting this survey is to probe people’s minds. We wanted to know: If China’s global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries, will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it?
Subsequently, General Wei deems the Chinese people ready for war and we can expect the brutality of invading Chinese military force to be off the charts. It is clear that the CCP intention is to commit genocide against American citizens and they simply wanted to see if there people were on board with the intention and they apparently are.
The Chinese View Themselves as the Master Race on the Planet
The Chinese view Americans, and pretty much everyone else with contempt. They believe that they, and they alone are the master race and are entitled to rule the planet. This is the Chinese version of Americans 19th Century Manifest Destiny.
...we can assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself, “descendents of Yan and Huang,” the Chinese nation that we are so proud of. Hitler’s Germany had once bragged that the German race was the most superior race on Earth, but the fact is, our nation is far superior to the Germans. During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific...We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the center of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the center of the world shifted to the West.
..In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the center of the world civilization shift back to China?
Comrade He Xin put it in his report to the Central Committee in 1988: If the fact is that the center of leadership of the world was located in Europe as of the 18th Century, and later shifted to the United States in the mid 20th Century, then in the 21st Century the center of leadership of the world will shift to the East of our planet. And, “the East” of course mainly refers to China.
This is the goal of Chinese foreign policy: To shift the center of world civilization back to China by any means possible.
THE CHINESE MODEL FOR EXPANSION IS BASED UPON NAZI GERMANY WITH ONE EXCEPTION
It is clear from Wei's remarks that the Chinese are going to follow Hitler's regime plan, with one exception. They fully plan to tight control over media and social media (Google-based Social Credit System) and they plan state-sponsored domination and brainwashing of the schools.
When we decide to revitalize China based on the German model, we must not repeat the mistakes they made.
Specifically, the following are the fundamental causes for the defeat of Germany and Japan: First, they had too many enemies all at once, as they did not adhere to the principle of eliminating enemies one at a time; second, they were too impetuous, lacking the patience and perseverance required for great accomplishments; third, when the time came for them to be ruthless, they turned out to be too soft, therefore leaving troubles that resurfaced later on.]
This statement made by the Chinese Defense Minister should send chills up and down the spines of every American. Let's break down this three-tiered statement:
The Chinese will focus on defeating only one enemy, the United States.
The Nazis lacked patience. The Chinese are willing to bide their time and plan their military conquests over a larger time frame.
The Germans were to soft, meaning that they were not brutal enough and did not kill enough people.
Conclusion
This concludes exposing the fact that the Chinese want war at any cost. Their philosophies have been stated and why we still have diplomatic relationships with them is mind-boggling. In Part Two, we will explore the reasons behind their desire for war.
***
The Common Sense Show
UN Backed Obrador, MX National Guard, Sinaloa's vs Federal Police, Related Cartels In Unfolding Mexican Civil War
Submitted by Dave Hodges on Saturday, July 6, 2019 - 12:55
Dave Hodges and Marilyn Rupar
In Part One of this series, I alleged that the newly formed and UN sponsored and trained Mexican National Guard would one day become our FEMA camps guards. In Part One, I painstakingly detailed, through an overview of EO 13603 and FEMA camp manual, FM 39.4, how foreign troops would become our captors. Before the newly formed Mexican National Guard, backed and trained by the UN, can become a threat to the people of the United States, they must first win their emerging civil war.
There are events transpiring in Mexico in which the cartels and various law enforcement agencies are actively warring with each other for control of law enforcement and ultimately, control of the executive branch of the Mexican government. In Part Two, this mini-civil war will be described. Part 3 will deal with how the UN will take advantage of this situation and deepen its hold on Mexico. There are two effects associated with this situation. One, will the UN, through Mexican President Obrador be able to control Mexico and complete the development of the Mexican National Guard and their intent to gain control of the Mexican government and will be used at some point to carry out the UN's will on American soil and their actions will target conservative Americans. Two, if Obrador and the UN are successful, this will open the door for a Red Dawn invasion with Mexico as a prime player. Hint all Americans must root for the Federal Police, as corrupt as they are, because the alternative is ugly.
President Trump's Fake Tariff/Immigration Deal
President Trump has been duped by President Obrador in Mexico. The Mexicans promised to interdict illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States. The Mexican National Guard was assigned this task, supposedly. However, the newly formed Mexican National Guard has been active near the Mexican border. However, they are not interdicting illegal immigrants as per the agreement with Trump. However, Border Patrol and DHs sources inform me that there has been no change in the numbers of immgrants.
There is a mini-civil war going on the area depicted on the following map.
The Unfolding Civil War: The UN Destabilizing the Entire Region
In Part 3, we will document how the UN is as the heart of everything that follows in this article. '
There is a revolution going on in Mexico. It is being expressed in a three-way conflict. On one side is the UN trained and sponsored Mexican National Guard (MNG). The MNG was designed to replace the Federal Police which comprises the second side. On the third leg of this conflict lies the cartels. The Sinaloas and the Juarez cartel have been tagged to be the dominant drug traffickers in Mexico's main export to the United States. The other cartels have been cut out and the expectation is that the MNG will either kill, incarcerate or absorb the rest. The other cartels, especially in the area depicted by the map, are resisting. Here is an example of the resistance that Obrador's new troops in the MNG are being met with by the Federal Police and the displaced cartels.
Some of you are asking yourself about why the mainstream American media is not reporting on this. If you are asking this question, you have a lot to learn about the New World Order and their designs upon America and Americans.
The following is the message delivered by the drug cartel headquartered in Tabasco, Mexico. They created signs which said "Nartel Narcos, Welcome National Guard-"Let's see how many of you come of here alive". The resulting road blockades resulted in mass car burning. The cartel had the locals display signs that had direct threats against the MNG. One of the signs stated:
“Welcome #GuardiaNaciona We know that you’re coming with everything but let’s see how many come out of here alive, align yourselves or we’ll do it for you. Atte: Pelón de Playa…Rosa (Illegible)” was what could be read on the narcomanta that was found by authorities at the blockade.
AMLO gave a fireside chat on his twitter (7/3/19) explaining... https://twitter.com/lopezobrador_
Here's some of the comments on AMLO's Twitter - fireside chat explaining his actions in disbanding the Federal Police
- this person believes the Fed Police protests are being set up by former Pres. Felipe Calderon
- "It is necessary that the President begins to imprison conspirators, seditious and social destabilizers, this is becoming a problem of national security,
they attack from all sides,
- and they are saying "It is now time to proceed criminally against the former presidents."
- if the elements want to be re-assignment and pass the examinations required for the new security corps, then this is all within the law.
- There are rebel elements inside the Federal Police and they must be eliminated.
- One person thanked AMLO for calling out the corruption and taking the bull by the horns.
- on the subject of the Federal Police, AMLO stated "They are extortionist patrons of narcos and kidnappers."
AMLO forgot to mention that the UN is waiting in the wings for him to defeat the Federal police and the dissident public.
Fire in the hole, the Mexican National Guard and the Federal Police are actually fighting each other. Although to date, most of the violent interaction has been manifested in each sides cartel affiliations.
The signs migrants are saying appear to be stating, "Support migrants forget your people" and "Get Out, Durazo!" This is clearly in response to the fact that the MNG is supporting illegal immigrants instead of intercepting them as they told Trump they would do.
(Alfonzo Durazo is the Secretary of Security and Protection.)
The conflict between the Federal Police and the MNG has spread where 5,000 police strike in Michoacán calling for their boss's head. 3,000 officers remain on duty in the state, where violence has spiraled for over a year. A DEA agent recently stated that the cartels are slugging it out for control.
Implications
Isn't it shameful that we had to go to the Mexican media, use an online translator device in order to present the truth about what is happening in Mexico?
According to the local news accounts. Obrador initially sent in 70,000 MNG's to the Tabasco area. Obrador announced that the number would soon grow to 160,000 troops. Presumably, the MNG, is supposed to intercepting illegal immigrants. However, that is not the case.
AMLO (ie Obrador) and the cartels they represent will likely win this conflict. However, this has the potential to become very violent and widespread. The immediate effect is that this will produce countless more refugees which will stream north to the American border. Along with unfolding revolutionary events in Honduras, this has the potential to inflame the entire core of Central America and will produce millions of illegal immigrants which will be coming America's way.
Win AMLO wins, and he likely will, this will allow the UN to use the MNG in any way they want and this is where every American should become very nervous.
***
The Economic Collapse
The Jeffrey Epstein Case Has The Potential To Be The Biggest Scandal In American History
by Michael Snyder
July 8, 2019
We are about to open up a can of worms that could turn our entire country completely upside down by the time it is all said and done. Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes have been well known for a very long time, and I have been writing about them for many years. In fact, there were some people that really, really didn’t like it when I wrote about Bill Clinton’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and “the Lolita Express” during the 2016 presidential election. Flight records show that Bill Clinton took 26 trips on board Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous private plane, and Clinton also spent an enormous amount of time on Epstein’s secluded private “sex island” where underage girls were routinely abused. Of course Jeffrey Epstein had lots of other very famous friends as well, and it has been documented that his “black book” was absolutely filled with marquee names from Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington. But despite everything that we knew about what was going on, for a very long time it looked like justice would never be served. Epstein got an absolutely ridiculous sweetheart deal from prosecutors in 2008, and none of his famous friends were ever charged with anything. They all probably thought that they had escaped the grasp of law enforcement forever, but this month everything has suddenly changed.
In recent days, authorities apprehended Epstein after his plane returned from an overseas trip, they raided his home, and they formally charged him with sex trafficking and conspiracy…
Fund manager Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth and power to sexually abuse dozens of young girls for years at one of the biggest mansions in Manhattan, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash for each encounter and hundreds more if they brought in more victims, U.S. prosecutors said.
Now, federal prosecutors are charging him with sex trafficking and conspiracy. They’re seeking to send him prison for years and seize that Manhattan home.
The indictment unsealed on Monday against the well-connected financier came days after his arrest upon returning from overseas and just hours after federal agents used a crowbar to enter the townhouse.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is prosecuting Epstein, and they don’t mess around. They win more than 90 percent of the cases that actually go to trial, and Epstein has good reason to be shaking in his boots at this point.
And it is also extremely interesting to note that James Comey’s daughter is one of the prosecutors on this case…
Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, is reportedly a prosecutor in the new criminal case against convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. This details comes out of a new CNN report. The source is described as a person “with knowledge of the case.”
Will that turn out to be significant?
We shall see as this drama plays out.
In the legal community, everyone has an agenda, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York certainly has an agenda in this case.
But what is their goal?
Why have they decided to pursue this specific case at this specific time?
Perhaps the primary goal is to nail Epstein to the wall once and for all. If Epstein is convicted of all the charges against him, he will spend the rest of his life in prison. And if that is all there is to this story, it won’t be an enormous national scandal.
However, it could also be possible that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York wants to use Epstein to get to one or more of his famous friends, and that is where things could get very “interesting”.
And the fact that this case “is being overseen by the Public Corruption Unit of the SDNY” would seem to indicate that something is up…
Second, what should we make of reporting that Epstein’s prosecution is being overseen by the Public Corruption Unit of the SDNY? Short answer: It’s too soon to say. It could mean that a public official is being investigated or will be charged with Epstein. That could be a minor public figure or a major one. It could mean that SDNY is investigating misconduct in the plea that Epstein was given in 2008. Or it could mean none of those things.
After everything that Epstein went through in 2008, you would think that he would clean up his life and get rid of all the stuff that got him into so much trouble in the first place.
But when authorities raided his home, they discovered a “vast trove” of photographic evidence…
Prosecutors said a search of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion after his arrest turned up a ”vast trove” of nude photos of what appeared to be underage girls. Officials said in court papers that the pictures included some on CDs with handwritten labels, including “Misc nudes 1,” “Girl pics nude” and the names of specific young women.
It has also previously been reported that in the old days Epstein would actually record “the sordid orgies he threw for VIPs at his luxury homes using cameras hidden in the walls of guest bedrooms”, but it is not known if those recordings still exist or if authorities were able to find any such recordings when they raided Epstein’s home.
In any event, there is clearly an enormous amount of evidence against Epstein already, and that means his only hope of avoiding prison for the rest of his life is to cooperate with authorities.
And as former federal prosecutor Elie Honig has pointed out, Epstein’s former friends from Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington should be quite scared right now…
We do not know if Epstein will cooperate, but even if he does not, others will very likely be implicated. It seems clear from the indictment that others helped Epstein run his alleged sex trafficking operation and otherwise participated in it. At least some of those names will come out in court proceedings, public filings, potentially trial and perhaps additional indictments. And it’s worth noting that the Epstein case is being handled by the SDNY’s Public Corruption Unit — in my experience, human trafficking cases usually are handled elsewhere in the office — which strongly suggests that public officials could be under a microscope here. Anybody who helped Epstein in any way needs to get a lawyer and get scared.
Of course Epstein could choose to sacrifice himself and protect his friends by not talking, but that isn’t likely to happen. In fact, Jack Posobiec is reporting that Epstein’s lawyers have already made it clear to the SDNY that their client will cooperate as long as he can get a reduced sentence…
SCOOP: Epstein’s lawyer has already made a proffer to SDNY. Epstein will agree to cooperate with the investigation, including giving up the names of individuals that paid for activities with underage girls in exchange for a maximum sentence not to exceed 5 years
In addition to Epstein’s potential testimony, just a few days ago a judge ordered the unsealing of records in a related case that detail allegations of “sexual abuse” by “numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders”…
This news comes just days after a judge ordered the unsealing of nearly 2,000 pages of records related to a civil case that could reveal how he and his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly trafficked underage girls.
The documents that will be unsealed are from a defamation case that was settled after Epstein entered a guilty plea guilty to a single charge of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution.
Records in the defamation case contained descriptions of sexual abuse by Epstein along with new allegations of sexual abuse by ‘numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders.’
We will talk about who some of those individuals might be in the second part of this series which I will post later tonight on The Most Important News.
I have been writing about corruption in the political world for a long time, but this could be the scandal of all scandals.
So stay tuned, because I believe that things are about to get extremely interesting.
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ALT-Market.com
The Corrupt System Will Never Police Itself
Brandon Smith
July 11, 2019
False hope breeds crippling apathy – This is what I have to think to myself when I see the news media fervor over the second arrest of (alleged) billionaire Jefferey Epstein, or similar events which in most cases end up fading into the background and forgotten. The public's favorite distraction has always been to watch high profile people kicked out of their castles in the clouds, but I would point out that even when the globalists sacrifice one of their own in the public eye it is usually only to satiate the masses and their hunger for justice for a very short time. The system is not designed to root out evil; it is designed to obscure and perpetuate evil.
Epstein is a perfect example of this. He was already prosecuted on pedophilia charges over 12 years ago and received a “sweetheart” plea deal which allowed him to serve a mere 13 month sentence. How many child rapists get that kind of treatment in our court system? And what about the vast array of people (including political leaders) that were close friends and associates with Epstein during his “Lolita Express” days? Are we really to believe they knew nothing about what was going on? That they visited his island and never saw any wrongdoing?
Why didn't they come forward immediately? Why did they wait until Epstein was already being prosecuted before they publicly admonished him? Is it because they were involved in the same activities? And if so, why have they not been prosecuted as well?
My point is, people should lower their expectations that justice will be served or that the "dominoes will fall" in the Epstein case. Also, keep in mind that James Comey's daughter, Maureen Comey, will be on the prosecution team in the case, AND , Donald Trump's Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, is the same man who brokered Epstein's immunity deal. Like strands of malignant cancer, these people are wrapped around every facet of government.
But this is not just about Epstein, and as much as I would also like to see the guy hang for his crimes, I have to admit that this latest event is probably nothing more than another piece of theater meant to give the public false hope that the system is changing and that elitist criminals will be treated the same as any other criminal. How often does this ever happen?
How about the Bernie Madoff scandal? Madoff runs a Ponzi scheme that devoured $65 billion in client funds and he is sentenced to 150 years in prison, but JP Morgan, the bank that HELPED Madoff move his stolen money, got nothing more than a fine.
In the wake of the 2008 credit crash and the exposure of the fraudulent derivatives market, many people thought banker heads were going to roll, yet in the US only one banker, a little known executive at Credit Suisse named Kareem Sarageldin, actually served jail time. After admitting to fraud and inflating bond prices associated with mortgage backed securities, Sarageldin was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The Financial Times went on to publish an article in 2018 on this matter, claiming they would “dispel the myth that no one was held accountable for the derivatives crash”. They came up with a list of 47 names. The article went on to admit that the vast majority of bankers arrested were in Iceland (where the prisons are like country clubs). The rest came primarily from low level banks or were mid-level employees. The number of CEO's on the list is decidedly slim, and banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, the biggest perpetrators of derivatives fraud, are decidedly absent.
The base argument for these types of articles is in itself a kind of fraud. I don't think that most people assume that “no one” was prosecuted over the fraud that helped create the crash of 2008, a crash the economy is still suffering from. I think that most people assume none of the elites at the top of the pyramid were prosecuted, and perhaps with the exception of former IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato in Spain who was only charged with credit card fraud, this assumption is a correct one.
The most egregious criminals are rarely ever touched by scandal or jail time because they stand in key positions within our system. You will never see central bankers in the Federal Reserve suffer punishment for consistently and deliberately fueling economic bubbles through artificially low interest rates and stimulus measures. You will never see them prosecuted for deliberately imploding these bubbles with perfectly timed liquidity tightening and interest rate hikes into economic weakness.
In fact, just this week Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told the Financial Services Committee that if Trump tried to fire him, he would simply ignore him and remain in his position for the full term. It is rather odd to me that almost no one in the alternative media covered his statement, perhaps because it runs contrary to the latest narrative that Powell is "afraid of Trump" and that Trump now has control of the Fed. This is nonsense. Even Trump's own acting Chief of Staff noted that Trump "knows he does not have the authority to fire Powell".
People who think the President chooses the Fed Chairman do not understand how the system actually works. The Fed board controls who the Chair is, and can simply vote to put whoever they wish in the position regardless of what the President does, according to Bill English, a former FOMC secretary and advisor to the Board. This means that Trump's "choice" of Fed Chair is merely ceremonial. Trump has no power whatsoever over the central bank.
So why does this delusion persist? Again, because people become addicted to false hope. The banking elites will never be punished by the system they control. They would have to be punished by other means.
You will never see IMF heads punished for loan sharking nations into oblivion. Hell, the Bank for International Settlements laundered money for the Nazis and yet they were never punished and still exist to this day! The president of the BIS at the time, Thomas McKittrick, never faced prosecution after the war, went on to work for Chase Manhattan bank, and received a pleasant eulogy from The New York Times after his death in 1970, even though the New York Times also reported on admissions from the BIS that they had helped the Nazis.
Some might argue that this trend of one law for the people and no law for the money elite will finally change under Donald Trump's presidency, but I find that sentiment to be highly naive. First and foremost, Trump is far too close the money elite to punish them, even if he wanted to. His extensive associations with Rothschild banking agent Wilber Ross, the man who bailed Trump out of his considerable debts in his Atlantic City casino project in the 1990s and who is now Commerce Secretary in Trump's cabinet, sets a tone for Trump's presidency that is NOT anti-banker or anti-globalist.
It should be clear to most people now that there will be no “draining of the swamp”, not even from the White House. Trump's promises to seek prosecution of the Clintons for their criminal activities, which include mishandling of classified data, fraud, and a host of other repulsive behaviors, have fallen flat. Trump's campaign position to hold the Federal Reserve accountable for the historic bubble they have inflated in stock markets through low interest rates and stimulus is gone. Now Trump takes credit for the bubble as if it is a good thing, and is demanding even more stimulus from the Fed.
And yet, there are still people out there that imagine this is all part of some elaborate ruse on Trump's part; that he is playing a game of “4D Chess” with the globalists. I believe this insane delusion stems from a singular psychological malfunction that is suffered by many people – the idea that the system, no matter how corrupt, can be fixed from the inside.
Leftists believe this. Many conservatives believe this. Despite all evidence to the contrary, people WANT to imagine a world in which evil can be defeated if only the right people are put in place within the system. If they vote the right way, if they support the right party, if they rally around the right investigation, if they protest peacefully on the steps of Congress or on Wall Street, then the system will be forced to expel the evil and serve the populace once again.
I usually equate our current governmental framework to the “One Ring” from Lord Of The Rings, and I still think there is no better analogy. The core problem is that the system is not only run by corrupt people, it has also been built by them. The system as it stands today is a corruption machine that manufactures evil. Adding good people to an evil machine is not going to stop it. And, as with the One Ring, the people who think they can use an evil machine for good purposes often end up corrupted themselves. You cannot change it, you cannot exploit it for good, you can only destroy it.
In other words, conservatives in the liberty movement in particular need to throw out their illusions that the globalists will be defeated using the very systems the globalists created to serve their interests. And if you cannot change a corrupt system from the inside, then it must be dismantled from the outside and rebuilt from scratch. A constitutional framework and the Bill Of Rights can help in this effort, but these are laws on paper that cannot defend themselves. Without fierce vigilance on the part of the citizenry, laws and rights can be erased.
You will not hear the mainstream media or even much of the alternative media talk about the real solutions to elitist criminality or government corruption. You won't hear about these solutions because they are hard; they require struggle and sacrifice. Voting is easy, which is why it does not work. Legislation is easy, which is why it does not work. And, protesting with signs on a street corner is easy, and it might spread the word on an issue, but ultimately it does not work. The corruption remains.
There are two options left; first, walk away peacefully from the system and build one that works on your own or with others of like-mind. If you are successful, then expect the corrupt system and the elites behind it to try and stop you. Second, when this happens, the only option left is to fight back and remove the threat. This is where we are inevitably headed, not because we want it, but because they will force the issue.
We can no longer deceive ourselves with notions of absorbing Washington D.C. or Wall Street and making them work for us. The hope that this is possible is poison, and the elites use that poison to weaken public resolve. While we sit around waiting for the system to police itself the Earth turns and they become more powerful. Without a dramatic change in our own strategy, without direct action on our part instead of action through political middlemen, I predict our situation will only become worse.
(“Love not the world [system], neither the things that are in the world [system]. If any man love the world[system], the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world,[system] the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world [system].
And the world [system]passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” 1John 2:15-17
Also, it would not be surprising if this entire Jeffery Epstein affair may amount to what magicians refer to as “misdirection”.
“In theatrical magic, misdirection is a form of deception in which the performer draws audience attention to one thing to distract it from another.” Wikipedia
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world [system], against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12)
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RT
India to become $5 trillion economy, doubters are just ‘professional pessimists’
Published time: 6 Jul, 2019 12:01
FILE PHOTO: Performers dressed in traditional attire rehearse for a folk dance © Reuters / Amit Dave
Explaining how India can achieve the ambitious target of becoming a $5 trillion economy in the next five years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hit out at those who sow the seeds of doubt over the plan.
“I am confident that we will achieve the goal of $5 trillion economy in 5 years, but some people ask what is the need for this and why is it being done? This is the section which is called ‘professional pessimists,’” Modi told Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Varanasi, as cited by local media. It was Modi’s first visit to his constituency in Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, since re-election.
He also said to beware of the “pessimists,” adding that they bring “more problems and troubles than you ever imagined.”
“Size of the cake matters,” Modi stated as he explained why it is important for India to stick to his plan.
Larger the size of the economy will be, the larger the prosperity will it bring for the country.
Achieving the goal is not such a difficult task, he said. To do so, India has to raise per capita income, which will in turn boost purchasing power and the rise of demand, further triggering an expansion in services.
Farmers could also contribute to economic success. In his speech on Saturday, Modi said the government is seeking to create an environment for export of agricultural products as it views farmers “as exporters and beyond just being producer of food.”
Earlier this week, India rolled out a roadmap to reach the $5 trillion objective, laid down by the prime minister in mid-June. On Friday, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her maiden Union Budget to parliament. In her speech presenting the economic plan for 2019-20, she said the country is set to become a $3 trillion economy by the end of the year, adding that Modi’s goal is “well within” India’s capacity.
The budget stipulates a continuation of structural reforms and heavy investment in infrastructure and digital economy to make India a $5 trillion economy.
One day before the finance minister’s speech, the chief economic adviser to the government of India (CEA) presented ‘Economic Survey 2019’. The document states that India needs to sustain real GDP growth of eight percent to achieve the $5 trillion economy status. Economic growth should be driven by a “virtuous cycle” of savings, investment, and exports, according to the survey.
As global economic growth cools down and is expected to grow at the slowest pace in three years this year (2.6 percent), India remains one of the fastest growing economies in the world. According to Nasdaq analysts, it is in the top five, and is expected to grow at 7.4 percent till 2021. It also boasts the status of world’s third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity and seventh largest in terms of nominal GDP.
USAWatchdog
Dollar Will Be Sliced in Half – Bill Holter & Jim Sinclair
July 10, 2019
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Near the beginning of this year, legendary investor Jim Sinclair and his business partner Bill Holter said the reset would start in June. Is the recent jump in gold prices confirming this? Sinclair says yes and predicts a two-tier reset in the next few years. . . . The first will be a devaluing of the dollar. Sinclair explains, “The reset has already started. . . . The only thing holding up the dollar is its universal use as a contract settlement mechanism in Russia and China and everywhere else, and that simply is not happening anymore. . . . The dollar is going lower. . . . In the first reset, the dollar will get sliced in half. That means the little guy will get sliced in half in terms of his buying power. You need to look at gold, not a speculation, but as a savings account. If the dollar gets sliced in half, you basically double the value (of your gold) if not more. I think much more. . . . In the second reset, that will take gold to a price where it will balance the ability to pay global debt. That’s the major move coming forward. Right now, we are definitely going back to the $1,850 and $1,925 area per ounce for gold. The second reset, you can pick any price you want for gold. Pick a high price.”
With the national debt officially at $22 trillion, and the additional “missing” $21 trillion discovered by Economics Professor Mark Skidmore at Michigan State University in 2017, you have a huge amount of debt and dollars floating around. This fact makes Sinclair’s prediction of $50,000 per ounce gold a few years ago look conservative. Bill Holter has done the math and says it simply must go much higher. Holter explains, “If you take the 8,300 tons the U.S. supposedly has, and I did this math last year when the official national debt was approaching $21 trillion, gold would need to be $87,000 per ounce to cover just the on books debt. I am not talking about the “missing” money, not future guarantees, pensions, Social Security and things like that. . . . So, the number is $87,000 per ounce for gold or multiples of that. What’s going to happen? The people who are running this understand this as much as we do, and the system is going to go down. So, why not create a false flag and kick the table over so you can point at it and say our policies would have worked if it wasn’t for whatever event they come up with.”
Can they put this off until after the 2020 election? Holter says, “It just might be one big last kick of the can . . . but prepare yourself and prepare your family. Have extra food. Have a way to purify water. Make a plan where you can go it alone for a couple of weeks or a couple months or more. That is what is coming for us all. Trump is going to preside over a bankruptcy. When he was elected, we predicted that he would preside over the bankruptcy of the United States. . . .The math says it is guaranteed.”
Sinclair says, “He is a master at bankruptcy. You maintain the item that is a producing asset, and you ‘jubilee’ or get rid of debt that has failed. You go through with a machete and take everything down that does not produce. . . . We have been warning people to be their own central banks and be able to take care of themselves for no less than 90 days.”
The Telegraph
Backlash against self-service checkouts bring revival for traditional markets, as report shows huge boom
By Helena Hortan
July 8, 2019
A backlash against self-service checkouts and "impersonal" supermarkets is fueling a boom in traditional markets, the manager of one of the UK's top markets has said.
The latest research shows that markets are soaring in popularity all around Britain as people turn their backs on soulless High Street shops and try to connect with their community.
Trade magazine The Grocer reported that the number of street, covered and indoor markets in London has soared to 300, which is almost double the number ten years ago.
This trend is catching on across the UK as local councils put money into revamping old markets and opening new ones.
Market traders across the UK enjoyed a collective turnover of £3.1 billion last year and sales have soared £200 million on average each year since 2012, according to trade body Mission for Markets.
This appears to be happening as customers turn their back on silent, automated experiences and seek local produce and a conversation with the stallholder.
Darren Henaghan, Managing Director of Borough Market in London, told The Telegraph: "Supermarkets do a really great job but they're basing a lot of their model on convenience.
"People get in there as quickly as they can, don't talk to anybody, you can go round a whole supermarket and not talk to anyone.
"Particularly with self checkouts there's no need to talk to anybody in a supermarket.
"It's important we talk to each other, it's a basic human need.
"That's where markets are so different. A lot of the reason why markets are becoming so popular again is people crave that human interaction, banter with a trader, talking about the food. It's those sorts of things that bring people together."
Of the £50 million invested by market operators in 2017-18, £37 million came from seven local authorities investing in their traditional retail markets — Barnsley, Doncaster, Leicester, Preston, Scarborough, Tameside and Warrington.
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A Powerful Herb That Can Cleanse Your Lungs of Dust, Mold, Bacteria and Chemicals (How to Use it)
N. Morgan
July 6, 2019
Before beginning, you will need to know that there are many things that can cause problems for our respiratory organs, such as allergies, asthma, harmful organisms, and even inhalation of various pollutants. And the most common symptoms and warning signs of respiratory problems are chest congestion, difficulty breathing and irritated nasal or throat passages, etc. If you’ve experienced these warning signs, or someone close to you has experienced them, you know they can be very disruptive.
This powerful and amazing spice – oregano (make sure you use organic) is a powerful tool to include in your lung health arsenal. Effective, reliable and safe, organic oregano is naturally rich in carvacrol, flavonoids, and terpenes; all of which are natural decongestants and antihistamines.
Why Oregano?
First, let me say a few words about nasal congestion and what causes it. Well, when pollen, dust, mold, chemicals, fungus, and bacteria are invading your body, it releases a chemical called histamine. This harmful chemical usually causes a reaction similar to allergic reactions — nasal congestion increased mucus production and sneezing.
Some of the herbs that contain compounds, which can reduce the histamine, like oregano aid in counteracting histamine and may help reduce these reactions. This is why these herbs are also known by the name histamine-reducing herbs. We can also mention that this amazing herb – oregano, also contains rosmarinic acid.
According to a recent study, researchers have discovered that rosmarinic acid reduces fluid buildup and even swelling during an allergy attack, making it a natural histamine-reducing compound.
Oregano reduces cough and improves your health
A recent study, conducted by a group of researchers at the ENT Department at the Israel Institute of Technology Medical Center, has revealed the therapeutic potential for various aromatic herbs, including oregano. The medical experts have found that this herb has direct, positive benefits on the respiratory tract, coughing reflex and nasal passage airflow.
We can also mention that oregano also contains high amounts of other healthy nutrients, such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, potassium, vitamins A and C, and niacin. Although these healthy nutrients and vitamins don’t directly impact upper respiratory problems, all of them are required by the systems within the body, including the immune system. Adequate vitamin and mineral intake is paramount for maintaining a healthy body that can fight off problems, such as upper respiratory issues before they start.
How to Use Oregano:
There are many different ways you can incorporate this amazing spice into your healthy diet:
You can consume it as an herb in culinary uses, a tincture, tea or essential oil.
You can consume diluted oregano oil to speed recovery during illness.
Mix oregano oil with some coconut oil and use it to treat skin infections to boost healing.
You can also mix oregano oil as part of an oil pulling routine.
You can consume diluted oregano oil – it can help you with allergies.
Oregano oil diluted in olive oil can be rubbed on sore muscles and joints for pain relief.
You should also know that you can combine dried oregano with other dried herbs like basil, rosemary, and thyme. This mix will create effective facial steam for loosening congestion and calming coughing.
You can also use diluted oregano oil to treat athletes’ foot and fungal infections.
Oregano oil is also very effective in removing warts when used diluted on the skin.
This amazing and powerful spice is a very flavorful herb that is often used in different cuisines: Italian, Greek, and Spanish cooking. It is often used in seasoning blends, including Italian Seasoning, and pairs well with meats, tomato dishes, and eggs.
As you can see, there are different ways to incorporate this super healthy spice in your meals and salads. It will cleanse your lungs from dust, mold, bacteria, and viruses, and it will provide other health benefits, due to its high content of healthy nutrients.
We have an affiliate program designed for content creators and Affiliate marketers, who would like to sell this product, please click here for affiliate program details. Our affiliate program is designed to help you monetize your screen time.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsweCpt32_s
https://naturalcuresmedia.com/this-powerful-herb-can-cleanse-your-lungs-of-dust-mold-bacteria-and-chemicals-how-to-use-it/
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Until
next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions
“And
be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even
as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
(Ephesians 4:32)