“In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.”
(Psalm 71:1)
Never Be Put To Confusion

Dear Friends,

Greetings! After all the drama of the US presidential election we thought we would air a very recent program regarding this issue that our friend and colleague, Joseph Candel, did with Simon Peterson on his Nightline radio program which airs out of Uganda.

Digesting The Election

Have a great week ahead.

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WND

THE CHRISTIAN AUTHOR EVERY CHILD HAS READ?

Bill Federer remembers 1 of history's most celebrated writers

Published: November 29, 2016

BILL FEDERER

C.S. Lewis

His death went unnoticed, as he died the same day John F. Kennedy was shot. His books are some of the most widely read in English literature, with over 200 million sold worldwide. Nearly 50 years after his death, his books continue to sell a million copies a year. His name was Clive Staples Lewis, born Nov. 29, 1898.

At age 19, he fought in the trenches in World War I. An agnostic, C.S. Lewis became a professor at Oxford and Cambridge. C.S. Lewis credited his Catholic friend and fellow writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of “Lord of the Rings,” as being instrumental in his coming to faith in Christ.

Among C.S. Lewis’ most notable books are:

• “The Screwtape Letters”

• “Miracles”

• “The Problem of Pain”

• “Abolition of Man”

• “The Chronicles of Narnia,” which includes “The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe”

C.S. Lewis stated in the Oxford Socratic Club (1944. pp. 154-165): “If … I swallow the scientific cosmology as a whole, then not only can I not fit in Christianity, but I cannot even fit science. If minds are wholly dependent on brains, and brains on bio-chemistry, and bio-chemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of atoms, I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees.”

In “Mere Christianity,” 1952, C.S. Lewis wrote: “All that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

C.S. Lewis expressed in “Mere Christianity,” 1952: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

In “The Screwtape Letters,” 1942, C.S. Lewis wrote: “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

C.S. Lewis wrote:

• “God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

• “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.'”

• “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”

C.S. Lewis wrote: “Christianity … is a religion you could not have guessed. … It is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have.”

C.S. Lewis wrote in “Mere Christianity,” 1952: “The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus in a woman’s body.”

Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.

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PART 6: (ABADDON ASCENDING ARTICLES SERIES)

November 27, 2016 by SkyWatch Editor

CERN’S ANCIENT OCCULT CONNECTIONS

A large portion of CERN is found in a commune in eastern France called Saint-Genis-Pouilly. This commune was actually identified as two separate towns.[i] Before it was given the name Saint-Genis-Pouilly in 1887, the two towns were named Saint-Genix and Pouilly. Interestingly enough, Pouilly used to be a small Roman city by the name of Appolliacum.

Before dissecting the evidence surrounding the ancient city of Appolliacum, we should first delve into the history of Saint-Genis’ namesake. The origin of the name of the town of Saint-Genis can be traced back to an individual who is surrounded by legends and mystery. It is generally believed the name Saint-Genis came from Saint Genest (also known as Genesius of Rome), a legendary Christian martyr.[ii] The legend of Genesius of Rome states that Genesius, prior to his conversion, was once the leader of a theatrical troupe in Rome. In his plays, he would ridicule Christianity, especially certain rites. In one such performance, which was to be in front of an audience containing the Emperor Diocletian, Genesius was going to ridicule the sacrament of baptism.

The play began and Genesius took on his role of a person stricken ill. Two other actors asked him what was wrong and Genesius said he felt he had a weight on him that he wanted removed. Next, two different actors, dressed as a priest and an exorcist, entered. When the actors asked what he wanted to alleviate his sickness, Genesius expressed he wanted to be baptized. It was shortly after this point in the play when things became very real for Genesius. He broke the fantasy of the play, claimed to see actual angels, and asked to be baptized onstage for real. This completely outraged Diocletian. Genesius persisted in his newfound faith, even to the point of torture and death by beheading.[iii]

Today, Genesius is regarded as the patron saint of actors, lawyers, barristers, clowns, comedians, converts, dancers, epileptics, musicians, printers, stenographers, and torture victims. His feast day is August 25.[iv] Coincidentally, August 25 is the same day Paris was liberated by the allies in 1944.[v]

Though recognized as a legend, there is a kernel of truth behind the story of Genesius of Rome. The very real Genesius of Arles is often combined with the legend of Genesius of Rome. Genesius of Arles was a notary who was martyred by Maximianus in the year AD 303.[vi] He is the patron saint of notaries and secretaries, and his feast day is also August 25. It is said, while he was performing his secretarial duties, a decree of persecution against Christians was read out loud. Hearing this and becoming outraged, Genesius threw his tablets down to the magistrate’s feet and fled. He was then captured and executed.

Interestingly enough, the account of this mysterious individual does not end here. It is believed by scholars that Genesius of Arles is the same as the Spanish Saint Ginés de la Jara.

If true, this adds more depth to the story. The legend states that after Genesius of Arles was beheaded, he was buried in Arles, but angels transported his head to Cartagena.[vii] Another variation states that when Ginés was decapitated in France, he picked up his own head and threw it into the sea, which carried it to Murcia.[viii] These are thought as accounts to explain why stories of the same saint and the same cult are found in two different places. Also, the feast day of Saint Ginés de la Jara is August 25.

The cult of Saint Ginés is thought to originate from the cults of the Islamic jinn, the Roman genius, or even with an ancient Carthaginian site dedicated to Ba’al.[ix] In Islamic belief, the jinn are beings made of smokeless fire that come from Djinnestan, another universe beyond our own. From a Christian perspective, these jinn might be viewed as fallen Seraphim and extradimensional in nature.[x] The genius, in Roman mythology, is the “individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing.”[xi] Lastly, the false god Baal-hamon was the supreme god of the Carthaginians. Baal-hamon was generally identified with the Greek god Chronos, the Roman god Saturn, and the Semitic god Dagon.[xii] Interestingly enough, Baal and Dagon are both mentioned in the Bible frequently.[xiii]

The repetition of August 25 between the three representations of this mysterious individual certainly causes one to take note. The only common theme with this particular date seems to be, strangely enough, space exploration. On this date in 1981, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn.[xiv] On August 25, 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune. On August 25, 2012, the Voyager 1 officially left our solar system and became the first man-made object to enter interstellar space.[xv] This apparent connection between the heavens and this mysterious individual of many names may have more parallels when we look into the namesake of the second town, Pouilly.

Pouilly was a small Roman city that likely took its name from the Latin Appolliacum. It is believed it was given that name out of dedication to the god Apollon.[xvi] Apollon can be identified with the biblical Apollyon/Abaddon in the New Testament, the Greek god Apollo, and Nimrod of the Old Testament, who is sometimes known as “the man of many names.” Just like Genesius (who could be called “the saint of many names”), Nimrod was also reported as being decapitated in the extrabiblical book of Jasher.[xvii]

The connections between Nimrod, Apollo, and Abaddon/Apollyon have been thoroughly researched, but there are a few more interesting details not commonly discussed. Apollo was worshipped by the Romans as well as the Greeks. In Mauvières (Indre), a commune in central France, Apollo was equated with the Celtic god Atepomarus. These two characters were combined to create Apollo Atepomarus, which can be translated as “Great Horseman” or “possessing a great horse.”[xviii] In the Celtic belief, horses were closely related to the sun.[xix] The interesting thing to note is the connection between this idea of Apollo being associated with horses in France (where part of the LHC and CERN resides) and what the book of Revelation states about Abaddon:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men… And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.[xx]

Given these descriptions, is it possible CERN will have something to do with the opening of the bottomless pit described in Revelation 9? This is a possibility many researchers have looked into recently. We will come back to this possibility throughout this book and will look at it in depth in the last chapter. Before we do, we can look into other mythology and see more potential connections to CERN.

CERN in Mythology

Interestingly enough, the word “cern” can be found in ancient mythology. For example, in Dorset, England, there is the legend of the Cerne Abbas Giant, which is often associated with fertility.[xxi] In Celtic mythology, the god Cernunnos is depicted as having antlers (or horns).[xxii] He is also shown with torcs around his neck and hanging from his antlers. Cernunnos is sometimes recognized as the god of nature or fertility.[xxiii]

Torcs are large, metal neck rings that were once associated with nobility and high social status.[xxiv]

The word “torc” comes from the Latin torque meaning “to twist.”[xxv] It comes from this word because of the twisted shape many of the rings have.[xxvi]

Because of the association with various creatures, Cernunnos is sometimes described by scholars as “lord of the animals” or “lord of the wild things.”[xxvii] In biblical terminology, this could be understood as “lord of the beasts.” Cernunnos is also sometimes recognized as associated with sailors, commerce, and material wealth.[xxviii] Some may recognize this as a possible connection with Revelation 18.[xxix]

Cernunnos has also been associated with Baphomet, an important deity in occultism.[xxx]

Baphomet is also synonymous with the symbol of the goat pentagram, also known as the “Sigil of Baphomet.”[xxxi]

From Wikipedia:

The original goat pentagram first appeared in the book “La Clef de la Magie Noire” by French occultist Stanislas de Guaita, in 1897. This symbol would later become synonymous with Baphomet, and is commonly referred to as the Sabbatic Goat. Samael is a figure in Talmudic lore and Lilith, a female demon in Jewish mythology. The Hebrew letters at the five points of the pentagram spell out Leviathan, a mythic creature in Jewish lore. This symbol was later adapted by the Church of Satan in 1969 and officially named the Sigil of Baphomet.[xxxii]

The myth of Cernunnos is explained in further and more provocative detail in Italian witchcraft. Here, Cernunnos is known only as “Cern” and has a brother named Lupus. Cern is seen as the stag god while Lupus is seen as the wolf god. It is said on the day of the spring equinox, Lupus was hit by a bolt of lightning shaped like an arrow while hunting a deer. Lupus then died and, on the next morning, rose from the underworld as the sun. Cern learned of his brother’s death and became the “god of this world.” The only thing left behind from the death of Lupus was his wolf skin, which was found in the forest by another hunter. It turns out the pelt had the magical power to transform men into wolves. The first man to wear this wolf pelt became a priest of Lupercus and founded the society of the Luperci.[xxxiii]

We find a very interesting parallel to this story in the book of Jasher concerning Nimrod:

And Cush the son of Ham, the son of Noah, took a wife in those days in his old age, and she bare a son, and they called his name Nimrod, saying, At that time the sons of men again began to rebel and transgress against God, and the child grew up, and his father loved him exceedingly, for he was the son of his old age.

And the garments of skin which God made for Adam and his wife, when they went out of the garden, were given to Cush.

For after the death of Adam and his wife, the garments were given to Enoch, the son of Jared, and when Enoch was taken up to God, he gave them to Methuselah, his son.

And at the death of Methuselah, Noah took them and brought them to the ark, and they were with him until he went out of the ark.

And in their going out, Ham stole those garments from Noah his father, and he took them and hid them from his brothers.

And when Ham begat his first born Cush, he gave him the garments in secret, and they were with Cush many days.

And Cush also concealed them from his sons and brothers, and when Cush had begotten Nimrod, he gave him those garments through his love for him, and Nimrod grew up, and when he was twenty years old he put on those garments.

And Nimrod became strong when he put on the garments, and God gave him might and strength, and he was a mighty hunter in the earth, yea, he was a mighty hunter in the field, and he hunted the animals and he built altars, and he offered upon them the animals before the Lord. (Jasher 7:23–30)

Later we get the rest of the story:

And Nimrod dwelt in Shinar, and he reigned securely, and he fought with his enemies and he subdued them, and he prospered in all his battles.

And all nations and tongues heard of his fame, and they gathered themselves to him, and they bowed down to the earth, and they brought him offerings, and he became their lord and king, and they all dwelt with him in the city at Shinar, and Nimrod reigned in the earth over all the sons of Noah, and they were all under his power and counsel.

And all the earth was of one tongue and words of union, but Nimrod did not go in the ways of the Lord, and he was more wicked than all the men that were before him, from the days of the flood until those days. (Jasher 7:44–46)

We can see how Nimrod could be identified with Cern as the god of this world. In fact, Satan himself could be identified with Cern according to 2 Corinthians 4:4.[xxxiv] Nimrod may also be identified with the first person who put on Lupus’ pelts and became the priest of Lupercus. There are many ways to make connections and assign biblical identities to various myths surrounding Cern.

Statue of Destruction

Since its unveiling in 2004, CERN’s statue of the dancing Shiva has caused quite a bit of controversy among Christians, especially in recent years.

Many look at the mythology of Shiva and the Nataraja dance and question the true motives of CERN. Is this statue meant merely as a piece of art or, as some claim, a foretelling of future destruction?

The mythology behind this statue is certainly dramatic. Shiva is one of the main deities of Hinduism. He is part of the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity. Shiva is known as “The Destroyer” or “The Transformer” within the trinity.[xxxv] One depiction of Shiva is known as Nataraja, meaning “Lord of the Dance.”[xxxvi] This is the depiction that embodies the statue at CERN.

The Nataraja depiction shows Shiva as the cosmic dancer who performs a divine dance to destroy a weary universe. Shiva does this in order to make preparations for the god Brahma to start the creation process. The statue shows Shiva in the middle of a circle of flames with his left leg raised and balancing over the demonic dwarf Apasmara who represents ignorance.

Apasmara, in Hindu mythology, is a demon that cannot be killed. Hinduism teaches a balance between ignorance and knowledge, and to kill Apasmara would be to throw off the balance. This would mean knowledge would be attained without effort or hard work, thereby rendering it meaningless. Since Apasmara cannot be killed, Shiva uses his right foot to crush and subdue Apasmara during the Nataraja dance. It is believed that Shiva remains in the Nataraja form to forever subdue Apasmara.[xxxvii]

The statue of Shiva at CERN contains an inscription of a quote by physicist Fritjof Capra, which states:

Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.

Shockingly, there is more to be read on the statue that claims Shiva as the most superior god of all religions. From the website of Fritjof Capra:

A special plaque next to the Shiva statue at CERN explains the significance of the metaphor of Shiva’s cosmic dance with several quotations from The Tao of Physics. Here is the text of the plaque:

“Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, seeing beyond the unsurpassed rhythm, beauty, power and grace of the Nataraja, once wrote of it ‘It is the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of.’”

More recently, Fritjof Capra explained that “modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter,” and that “for the modern physicists, then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter.”

It is indeed as Capra concluded:

Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.[xxxviii]

Given the mythology behind the statue and the type of scientific pioneering CERN represents, it has caused many to wonder if there is a deeper meaning. Some have even gone as far as to claim Apasmara represents the church or the true God, Shiva represents Satan, the circle of flame represents a spiritual portal, and Shiva represents Satan traveling though the portal to destroy the church, subdue God, and take over the world. There are those who believe CERN and the LHC will be instrumental in this process.

LOGO OF THE BEAST

Just as with the statue of Shiva, the logo of CERN has caused an equal amount of controversy.

If turned upside down, the CERN logo resembles three sixes, which some claim is a clear sign of the biblical mark of the beast from the book of Revelation.

This also resembles a hand gesture that is thought to signify the three sixes of the mark of the beast.

Most times, this hand gesture is shown over an individual’s right eye, signifying the “all-seeing eye” of the Illuminati and Freemasonry.[xxxix] There are some who interpret the CERN acronym in the middle of the three sixes as representing this occultic eye… and that something really is watching from beyond…

[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Genis-Pouilly.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesius_of_Rome.

[iv] A feast day is defined as “days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our redemption, in memory of the Virgin Mother of Christ, or of His apostles, martyrs, and saints, by special services and rest from work.” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021b.htm.

[v] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_of_Paris.

[vi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesius_of_Arles.

[vii] “La Historia de San Gines de la Jara y del Cabezo del Miral” (in Spanish).

[viii] “Saint Ginés de La Jara (Getty Museum),” the J. Paul Getty Trust.

[ix] “La Historia de San Gines de la Jara y del Cabezo del Miral” (in Spanish).

[x] As explained in Quantum Creation and Cherubim Chariots by Josh Peck, the term ”extradimensional” can be looked at as synonymous with the term “spiritual” when the correct understanding of both terms is understood. As for why Seraphim as opposed to any other class of angel, the description of smokeless fire connected with the research of Dr. Michael Heiser on Watchers, Angels, and Seraphim (at https://youtu.be/2u_cC5M68Qw?list=PLnPtt9gArS-pq6qLIlqN2Eod8-Bw_D4y5 ) seem to be describing the same class.

[xi] Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (2009), “genius,” A Latin Dictionary (Meford, MA: Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University).

[xii] http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel2.htm.

[xiii] List of mentions of Baal in the Bible: “KJV Search Results for ‘baal.’” (Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 5 May, 2015), http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=baal&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1 … List of mention of Dagon in the Bible: “KJV Search Results for ‘dagon.’” (Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 5 May, 2015), http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=dagon&t=KJV#s=s_primary_0_1.

[xiv] Interestingly enough, there are a few researchers out there who have claimed a connection between CERN and the planet Saturn.

[xv] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_25.

[xvi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Genis-Pouilly.

[xvii] Jasher 27:7: “And Nimrod and two of his men that were with him came to the place where they were, when Esau started suddenly from his lurking place, and drew his sword, and hastened and ran to Nimrod and cut off his head.”

[xviii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atepomarus.

[xix] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII, 1863–1986; A. Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain (1967; M.J. Green, The Gods of the Celts, 1986, London).

[xx] Revelation 9:7, 11

[xxi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant.

[xxii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos.

[xxiii] Miranda Green (1992), Animals in Celtic Life and Myth (Routledge), pp. 227–8.

[xxiv] Green, 78–79.

[xxv] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torc.

[xxvi] It could also be noted that the LHC, much like a torc, is basically comprised of large, metal rings, as we will see later in this book.

[xxvii] Miranda Green (1992), Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, p. 228.

[xxviii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos.

[xxix] “For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!” (Revelation 18:17–18

[xxx] Juliette Wood, “The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Traditions: A Study in Modern Legend Making,” Folklore, Vol. 109, 1998

[xxxi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet.

[xxxii] Ibid.

[xxxiii] Raven Grimassi, Hereditary Witchcraft: Secrets of the Old Religion, p. 87–88.

[xxxiv] “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

[xxxv] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva.

[xxxvi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja.

[xxxvii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apasmara.

[xxxviii] http://www.fritjofcapra.net/shivas-cosmic-dance-at-cern/ .

[xxxix] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-ok.

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PART 7: (FINAL ONLINE ENTRY IN THE ABADDON ASCENDING ARTICLES SERIES)

December 1, 2016 by SkyWatch Editor

The Coming Clash of the Titans and God’s Holy War

In the last string of pages in the book we are set to release on December 6, 2017, Abaddon Ascending (with the biggest giveaway in our company history), we note how Isaiah marks the end of time by destruction of Babylon (Iraq) and the return of terrible giants (Nephilim) when God commands a “ruler” to “open the gates,” releasing giants to fulfill His wrath. What God did in Egypt when “He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger…by sending evil angels among them” (Psalm 78:49; emphasis added), he will do again. Yet, Isaiah’s prophecy is additionally fascinating given that Nimrod, the designer of the Tower of Babel—the “gate of god”—was himself a Nephilim (Gibborim; see 1 Chronicles 1:10).

In Cydonia: The Secret Chronicles of Mars, David E. Flynn takes this a step further, connecting Nimrod’s construction of the Tower of Babel to the rebel planet Mars: “Nimrod…a giant of the race of Nephilim…authored the plan for the tower…[and was] associated in myth with Nergal, the Babylonian god of Mars.… The Tower of Babel was a tower to Mars.”[i]

On the same page of his astonishing book, Flynn points out:

Symbolism used by the mystery schools illuminated the writings of Italian poet Dante, who [also] wrote of the connections between the Tower of Babel, Giants and Mars. Intriguingly, Dante identified Mars with Satan. Paradiso Canto IX:127–142:

Florence, the city founded by Mars, that Satan who first turned his back on his Maker, and from whose envy such great grief has come, coins and spreads that accursed lily flower, that has sent the sheep and lambs astray, since it has made a wolf of the shepherd.…

The ancient Cabiri (Gibborim) who built Cyclopean walls and megalithic fortresses took many forms, but they all originated from the same place. They came down from heaven to the earth. According to ancient Sumerian myth, when Nergal the god of Mars was ejected from heaven he descended with…demons.[ii]

Thus not only was Nimrod a Nephilim, not only did he design the Tower of Babel (“gate of god”), and not only was he associated with Mars and built the tower of Babel to the rebel prison planet, but he, like other giants, was daimonic (demonic) in origin. The significance of this cannot be overlooked. Babel was a Nephilim gateway, and it is prophesied to be the future location from which “gates” open and “giants” return.

Windows of Heaven, Gateways of Hell

How close to the surface of the earth is the dwelling place of angels? Of demons? Of God? I (Tom) ask this because human nature tends to place the physical (for want of a better term) location of these domains far out into space. Yet, what if the “heavens” are so close as to have been reached upon tall mountains or towers? The Nephilim had intimate knowledge of the original planet earth before the heavens were closed up and before God no longer walked with man in the cool of the evening.

Did the Nephilim—as offspring of fallen angels—know something about the periphery of Kosmos and/or the throne room of God that we don’t? Did they know that in some way these locations are just above our heads? Is this why holy people throughout time have felt driven subconsciously to ascend mountains in search of God? Is this why scriptural and extrabiblical literature universally depicts metaphors of heaven attained upon elevated platforms—Jacob’s ladder, Quetzalcoatl’s ladder, the gods upon the Mount of Olympus, the feet of the returning Christ upon the Mount of Olives, Moses receiving the Law from God upon Sinai, and the Watchers descending upon Mount Hermon? Is this why Nimrod the Nephilim built the tower of Babel at a specific location so that its top would reach into “heaven?” Is that why, just prior to the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7:54–60, he was able to describe heaven in such close physical proximity when he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (v. 56)?

Scientist Stan Deyo has done analysis of a Tower of Babel stele (stone slab monument depicting a carving of the tower) with speculation about whether the original Tower of Babel was actually designed to facilitate reaching “the heavens” as indicated in the comments prior. Was it a building whose top was high enough to allow higher-dimensional beings to descend slowly while discharging voltage directly into the lower energy density universe? Deyo notes the uppermost portion of the stele seems to show a “bright” or burning circular area, while the edges of the tower layers themselves are smooth like a high voltage insulator, as if for dissipating electricity. Stan emphasizes that the analysis is inconclusive but interesting, given that beings who descended from heaven were typically accompanied by fire or lightning (electrical discharge?), while beings who ascend from lower energy densities (regions) tend to cool the atmosphere, such as in the classic “ghost” entering a room. Ancient artwork that may support this theory is widespread throughout ancient times, including depictions of gods accompanied by fire.

One also cannot help but wonder if freemasons involved in the design of United States currency didn’t know something of the meaning of gods descending on towers when they placed a brilliant, all-seeing eye above the pyramid on the back of the dollar bill, or when similar initiates of Mystery Religion designed the Pentagon’s data mining service—the Information Awareness Office. And did you ever wonder why the top stone of the Great Pyramid is not in place?

On the one hand, the idea that “heaven” is just above our heads could bring comfort, to conceptualize God and His angels in such close proximity. On the other hand, this notion brings significance to the prophecies of Isaiah regarding earthly Babel-gates opening at the end of time during a period of war in Iraq when, according to the prophet, the earth will be invaded by destructive, emerging Nephilim.

Are beings even now pressing against “brass gates” of Kosmos, anticipating God’s command for a “ruler” to open these gates?

(Kind of makes you wonder if NASA and DARPA’s work on developing a tower into space made from carbon nanotubes, and a space elevator, is reverse engineering of technology recovered from Iraq or something needed for the return of the Sumerian gods!?)

When Daniel Fought the Gatekeeper

Earlier, we discussed the book of Daniel, chapter 10, when Gabriel appeared to say that “from the first day thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, they words were heard, and I am come for thy words” (Daniel 10:12).

To revisit the question from earlier in our wrap-up: Why did it take Gabriel twenty-one days to arrive? Because a powerful Persian influence/demon/fallen angel (identified in Persian theology as Ahriman) had opposed him, and it was not until Michael, the archangel, came to help was Gabriel free to continue his journey.

In the book of Daniel, the influence/demon/fallen angel is simply called “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” (Iraq/Iran). He was the Babel gatekeeper, as fictionalized in our book— The Ahriman Gate.

God also revealed to Daniel (chapter 7) other types of earthly “kingdom” influences: the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman, each of which was mere human agencies under the control of supernatural powers. The principality of the Medo-Persian kingdom was depicted as a warmongering spirit seeking to dominate through military aggression, while its predecessor Babylonia was characterized by “forces” pretending to the throne of God.

Throughout the Bible, spiritual Babylon is equivalent to the world system that is at enmity with God. Babylon began at the Tower of Babel, where at the macro level Satan’s strategy to incarnate a one-world system was first attempted. It now appears that it will also end there, as the world hurdles toward a final climactic encounter with giants…and their “ruler.”

Forerunner of the Giants?

Preceding Daniel’s visit by Gabriel, a dream from Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave Daniel insight concerning these kingdoms and the final “revived” empire that will ultimately provide the grand entry for the mother (or should we say father?!) of all Nephilim—the Antichrist of end-times prophecy. Daniel’s prediction is amazing in light of the extraordinary references made in 2:43: “And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”

The personal pronoun “they,” who “shall mingle themselves with the seed of men” caused Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, in their book Alien Encounters, to ask appropriately: “Just what (or who) are ‘mingling with the seed of men?’ Who are these Non-seed? It staggers the mind to contemplate the potential significance of Daniel’s passage and its implications for the future global governance.”[iii]

When Daniel’s prophecy is coupled with Genesis 3, an incredible tenet emerges—that Satan has seed, and it is at enmity with Christ!

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

The word translated here as “seed” is the Hebrew word zera, which means “offspring, descendants, children.”

Is Satan’s “posterity” lurking behind gates, waiting for a final opportunity to mingle with human DNA, as in days of old? Is this the method by which the Nephilim will return? Is this, as noted earlier in this series concerning demoniality, the method by which Antichrist himself will be incarnated? If Genesis 6 is truly an account of rebel angels leaving their assigned habitation and cohabiting with human females—out of which union mutant life forms were born—is it reasonable to assume that Satan, as a fallen angel, already has, or will be allowed, ability to copulate with a woman?

Let’s take one last look at this blip from The Ahriman Gate:

That’s correct. According to the Bible, the Antichrist will be “the son of perdition,” the male progeny of the Greek apoleia, or Apollyon. The implication couldn’t be clearer—the Man of Sin will be the physical offspring of the destroyer demon, a transgenic of the highest order.[iv]

The Father of Nephilim and the Son of Perdition

Some believe that in the very near future a man of superior intelligence, wit, charm, and diplomacy will descend from the clouds or otherwise emerge on the world scene as a savior. He will seemingly possess a transcendent wisdom that enables him to solve problems and offer solutions to many of today’s most perplexing issues. His popularity will be widespread, and his fans will include young and old, religious and non-religious, male and female. Talk show hosts will interview his colleagues, news anchors will cover his movements, scholars will applaud his uncanny ability at resolving what has escaped the rest of us, and the poor will bow down at his table. He will, in every human way, appeal to the best idea of society. But his profound comprehension and irresistible presence will be the result of an invisible network of thousands of years of collective knowledge. He will represent the embodiment of a very old and superintelligent spirit. As Jesus Christ was the “seed” of the woman, he will be the “seed” of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). Although his arrival in the form of a man was foretold by numerous Scriptures, the broad masses of the world will not recognize him as the ultimate transgenic incarnation—the “beast” of Revelation 13:1.

It’s been assumed for centuries that a prerequisite for the coming of the Antichrist would be the “revived” world order of Daniel’s prophecy—an umbrella under which national boundaries dissolve, and ethnic groups, ideologies, religions, and economics from around the world, orchestrate a single and dominant sovereignty. Such a system will supposedly be free of religious and political extremes, and membership will tolerate the philosophical and cultural differences of its constituents. Except for minor nonconformity, war, intolerance, and hunger will be a thing of the past. At the head of the utopian administration, a single personality will surface. He will appear to be a man of distinguished character, but will ultimately become “a king of fierce countenance” (Daniel 8:23). With imperious decree, he will facilitate a one-world government, a universal religion, and global socialism. Those who refuse his New World Order will inevitably be imprisoned or destroyed, until at last he exalts himself “above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

For many years, the idea that such an “Orwellian” society would arise—where a one-world government oversees the smallest details of our lives and where human liberties are abandoned—was considered an anathema. The concept that rugged individualism could be sacrificed for an anesthetized, universal harmony was repudiated by America’s greatest minds. Then, in the 1970s, things began to change. Following a call by Nelson Rockefeller for the creation of a “new world order,” presidential candidate Jimmy Carter campaigned, saying, “We must replace balance-of-power politics with world-order politics.”[v] Evidently he struck a chord with world leaders. During the 1980s, President George Bush Sr. continued the one-world dirge by announcing over national television that “a new world order” had arrived. Following the initial broadcast, President Bush addressed the Congress and made the additional comment:

What is at stake is more than one small country [Kuwait]; it is a big idea: a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind—peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle, and worthy of our children’s future.[vi]

Ever since the president’s astonishing newscast, a parade of political and religious leaders has discharged a profusion of rhetoric aimed at implementing the goals of the New World Order. Concurrent with the political aspects of the NWO is the syncretistic and spiritual goals of New Agers, Dominionists, some modern evangelicals and even the pope! The blending of politics and spirituality, such as is occurring in these movements, harmonizes perfectly with the ideas of an end-time marriage of government policy and religious creed as was prophesied in the Bible. To that end, the tools necessary for paganism’s ultimate incarnation—the god-king of the Great Tribulation (Satan in the flesh)—are in place. The “gods” have been revived through modern mysticism. The pagan agenda of governing by “divine representation” is being constructed. The governments of the world are uniting beneath a one-world banner, and the earth’s masses stand at the brink of a decisive moment in time.

According to our new book Abaddon Ascending, this is the unfolding of an ancient scheme. At the core of the conspiracy, a leader of indescribable brutality is scheduled to appear. He will make the combined depravities of Antiochus Epiphanes, Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan—all of whom were architypes of the Antichrist—look like Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse. He will raise his fist, “speaking great things…in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5–6). As he champions worship of the gods who comes through portals, he will cause “that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Revelation 13:15). “The King of Babylon,” as he is called in Isaiah 14, will revive the Babylonian mystery religion—“the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” where merchants of the earth trade in “souls of men” and where “the blood of prophets, and of saints” is found (Revelation 18:2, 13, 24).

The book of Revelation details what follows the rise of Antichrist, culminating in cataclysmic war called Armageddon, a time during which God Almighty judges the “gods” who come through portals, including, we would assume, so-called Zeus, Apollo, Demeter, Isis, and others.

However futile, the gods will retaliate against the Almighty, and a war of indescribable intensity will occur. It will be fought on land and sea, in the heavens above, and in the earth below, in the physical and spiritual worlds. It will include “Michael and his angels [fighting] against the dragon; and the dragon [fighting] and his angels” (Revelation 12:7). Some humans will join the battle against God, calling on “idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood” (Revelation 9:20) to convene their power against the Christian God, even uniting with “unclean spirits like frogs…the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth…to gather them to the battle of that great day…[to] a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon [“Mount Megiddo”]” (Revelation 16:13–14, 16). There, in the Valley of Megiddo, the omnipotent Christ will utterly repel the forces of darkness and destroy the New World army. Blood will flow like rivers, and the fowl of the air will “eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth” (Ezekiel 39:18). Besides Armageddon, battles will be fought in the Valley of Jehoshaphat and in the city of Jerusalem. Yet, the battle of Armageddon is the event that culminates the hostility between God Almighty and the lower gods that traverse portals.

Once before, Satan and his “god” spirits challenged Yahweh at Megiddo. They lost. On Mount Carmel, overlooking the Valley of Armageddon, the prophets of Baal dared the Hebrew God to answer by fire. He did, and it looks like he will again. When he does, here is what the Bible says will happen:

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse [Jesus], and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.… And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away: and there was found no place [to hide]. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 19:19–21; 20:11–12, 15)

A different destiny awaits the righteous following the battle of Armageddon:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True [Jesus], and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.… And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and…I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.… And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said…I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son [or daughter]. (Revelation 19:11–16; 20:1–7)

[i] David E. Flynn, Cydonia: The Secret Chronicles of Mars (End Time Thunder Publishers, Bozeman: MT; 2002), 105; emphasis added.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon (Koinonia House, Inc., Coeur d’Alene: ID; 2003), 275.

[iv] Thomas and Nita Horn, The Ahriman Gate, 327.

[v] President Jimmy Carter, as quoted by: Robert C. Johansen, The National Interest and the Human Interest: An Analysis of U.S. Foreign Policy (Princeton University Press, Princeton: NJ; 1980), 180.

[vi] President George Bush, Sr., January 29, 1991, as quoted by: “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union,” The American Presidency Project, last accessed August 18, 2016, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253.

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RT

Jewish couples can't live together if marriage papers destroyed in wildfires – chief rabbi

Published time: 29 Nov, 2016 12:09

It turns out the devastation from the recent wildfires that forced 80,000 Israelis to flee their homes wasn’t enough – now they’re being told by a chief rabbi that spouses whose marriage contract suffered damage can’t live under the same roof.

The ruling was outlined in a statement which stipulates that no cohabitation between the married couple can take place until a new contract – or ketubah – has been drawn up.

Mordechai Abramovsky, chief rabbi of Zichron Yaakov, also holds dominion over marriage licenses in Haifa.

According to Jewish law, only a marriage certificate permits a couple to live under one roof – a rule that dates back to the Talmudic era, and was put in place to protect women’s rights in marriage. Failure to possess one was equated with being in an extramarital relationship.

But other national chief rabbis quickly moved to contradict Abramovsky, according to the Jerusalem Post, stating that a couple who suffered the loss of their home in the blaze should indeed get a new certificate, but not at the cost of having to live apart.

The reaction to Abramovsky’s words comes shortly after an interview he gave to Kikar Shabbat – an ultra-orthodox website. In the interview he drew a distinction between Sephardi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, stating that the former could go without a license, as per the ruling of the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The same, however, could not apply to Ashkenazi couples if they wanted to live together.

The matter was quickly cleared up by two other chief rabbis, who said the burned ketubah was not a problem, as local rabbinates keep copies of those in their jurisdictions. They did add, however, that a new original should be obtained as soon as possible.

Blame has been directed everywhere – from God’s punishment through to Palestinian arsonists – as the Israelis found themselves battling wildfires exacerbated by extreme winds that blew the raging blaze across Israel for several days now unabated.

Tens of thousands suffered property and livelihood destruction, and more than 20 people have been arrested so far on suspicion of setting off the wildfire.

There were reports of young Arabs celebrating Israel being ‘punished,’ but amid all that, some 40 Palestinian firefighters and eight trucks were dispatched to help contain the blaze. This ground-based cooperation earned them high praise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who personally called Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas to offer gratitude.

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RT

Jerusalem’s top rabbi says ‘homosexuality punishable by death,’ faces backlash

Published time: 19 Nov, 2016 18:08

Edited time: 20 Nov, 2016 13:37

Israeli politicians and LGBT activists have called for the resignation of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar after the high-ranked cleric said that homosexuality was punishable by death.

“This is a cult of abomination, this is clear,” Amar said when asked of his attitude toward homosexuality in an interview with Yisrael Hayom newspaper, cited by Times of Israel.

“This is an abomination. The Torah says it is punishable by death. It is in the first rank of severe offenses,” he said.

Amar added that he didn’t believe in some people having a homosexual orientation, calling such claims “nonsense.”

“There are desires and a person can overcome it if he wants, like all other desire,” Jerusalem’s top rabbi said.

After the release of extracts from Amar interview on Thursday, an LGBT activist, Shirley Kleinman, filed a complaint to the police, blaming the cleric for incitement to murder.

“Let’s try and ensure that this man will not remain in his key public position,” Kleinman wrote on her Facebook page, as cited by The Jerusalem Post.

“This is not an anti-religious issue, I have nothing against religion, every person shall live in accordance with their faith. I do have an interest to protect my rights and your rights to live, and [to live with] dignity,” she said.

The call for Amar’s resignation was backed by Knesset members Yael German and Meirav Michaeli, who wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Religious Services Minister David Azoulay on the issue.

The parliamentarians from Yesh Atid and the Zionist Union stated that the chief rabbi was “exploiting his position” as religious authority “for a campaign of dangerous incitement against a large public group in Israel.”

“A public figure who endangers the safety of Israeli citizens by discrimination and incitement should be fired from their position immediately,” German and Michaeli said in a letter.

Jerusalem City Council member Laura Wharton addressed Amar directly, calling on him to retract on his anti-LGBT statements.

“Your comments are gross incitement, and just one year after the murder of Shira Banki [at the 2015 Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade], I would have expected that you would know they are destructive of our society,” The Jerusalem Post cited Wharton as saying.

It’s not the first time Jerusalem’s top rabbi has found himself in hot water after his controversial remarks on the LGBT community.

Last year, Amar was criticized for suggesting that most people were “disgusted” by homosexuality and labeling Jerusalem’s gay pride parade “an embarrassing phenomenon.”

However, he condemned the murder of a teenager at the 2015 parade, saying that the act couldn’t be justified.

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MailOnline

The great wall of New Zealand: Incredible aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has created 15ft high natural barriers across the landscape

• The earthquake hit Kaikoura around 600 miles north of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island

• For the first time since the natural disaster on November 14, scientists have been allowed to the area

• They discovered a Hadrian's Wall-like rock formation as well as roads and fencing showing earth's shift

• The force of the quake was so strong in New Zealand one landslide even created a dam on the Leader River

By Gareth Davies For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 09:44, 29 November 2016 | UPDATED: 00:53, 30 November 2016

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked New Zealand earlier this month has had a lasting effect in the shape of a 15ft high wall.

It was created by the shift in the earth when on the November 14 the southern hemisphere was hit by the huge quake around Kaikoura around 600 miles north of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.

For the first time since the natural disaster, scientists have been allowed into the area surrounding the epicentre, and discovered the massive Hadrian's Wall-like rock formation which had sprung up as well as roads and fencing showing clearly how sections of the earth have shifted out of line.

Huge Hadrians Wall-like fault erupting from New Zealand countryside after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked New Zealand earlier this month

Dr Kate Pedley, from the University of Canterbury, poses next to the 15ft wall created by the quake on November 14

The first reconnaissance team from the University of Canterbury (UC), in New Zealand- comprised UC academics Professor Jarg Pettinga, Dr Clark Fenton, Dr Anekant Wandres, and Geology PhD students Alan Bischoff and Andrea Barrier - was in the field quickly after last week's huge quake.

They ventured to Kaikoura and concentrated in the North Culverden Basin and an area called Mount Lyford.

A second reconnaissance mission on Friday November 18 saw Prof Pettinga and Dr Fenton joined by Dr Kate Pedley and Dr Narges Khajavi.

As these pictures by Dr Pedley show they covered an area of stunning Hobbit-like idyllic green New Zealand countryside torn apart by the earthquake.

The team were covering an area from the western end of the Amuri Range, back across the Emu Plain and continued as far as the junction for Mt Lyford Village.

All roads beyond this point are closed and only passable by military vehicles.

Dr Kate Pedley, from UC, has been documenting the scientist's progress and took these incredible pictures which show the earth itself has been warped and twisted by the effects of the huge quake.

She said they were trying to find fault ruptures in the region around the original epicentre, and added: 'Maybe not as flashy as the ruptures north of Kaikoura but a complicated 3km-wide zone of numerous ruptures and associated structures.

'Thankfully, those south and west of Waiau generally got off lightly, but it very quickly got messy for infrastructure to the northeast.

'The amount of associated rockfall, landslides and slumps were incredible.'

Roads, fields and the sides of entire hills have also been disturbed with also more subtle lines showing just in the outline of disturbed grass and crops in the lush New Zealand countryside.

The force of the quake was so strong, one landslide even created a dam on the Leader River.

Senior lecturer in engineering geology Dr Clark Fenton said a rapid field response was vital in collected as much data as possible.

He said as well as measuring the displacement of the land the team also recovered a lamb from a 1.5 metre fissure in the ground.

He said: 'The fault trace was obvious from the road across the adjacent paddocks as a prominent scarp (step) marked by tears and fissures in the ground.

'Measured displacement is up to 2.2m in a horizontal direction and up to 1.5m in a vertical direction.'

The first day's reconnaissance also located a broad, complex zone of faulting extending from the Masson River, about four miles northeast of Waiau, across the Waiau River flood plain to Emu Plain, about seven miles west of Waiau.

The total zone of faulting is about two miles across. Most of the faulting the team measured occurred on fault traces that had not been previously mapped.

Dr Fenton said: 'Spectacular fault displacements were observed across Leslie Hills Road at the eastern end of the Emu Plain.

'As well as fault rupture, this area has suffered from widespread liquefaction, causing extensive damage to local roads.'

(For in that day a man shall cast forth his silver and gold abominations, which they made in order to worship vanities and bats; 21 to enter into the caverns of the solid rock, and into the clefts of the rocks, for fear of the Lord, and by reason of the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth. Isaiah 2:21-22)

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RT

Foreign intel agencies to launch massive cyberattacks on Russian financial system – FSB

Published time: 2 Dec, 2016 11:55

Edited time: 2 Dec, 2016 21:37

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has information that foreign intelligence agencies are preparing to launch cyberattacks aimed at destabilizing Russia's financial system, starting as early as next week.

The attacks will also target the activities of Russia’s largest banks.

The cyberattacks, which will start from December 5, will be accompanied by a massive spam text message campaign and inflammatory social network and blog posts – all related to an alleged crisis in the credit and financial system and the bankruptcy and revocation of licenses from major federal and regional banks, a statement published on the FSB website added.

Dozens of Russian cities will be targeted in the cyber assault, it added.

It has been established that the servers and command centers to be used for the attacks are located in the Netherlands, and belong to Ukrainian hosting company BlazingFast, the FSB reported.

The FSB said it is taking measures to neutralize the threats.

The Finance Ministry views the situation as stable, according to Deputy Minister Aleksey Moiseyev, as cited by TASS.

“We hope that the banks’ cyber security systems will be able to repel [the attacks], we think that banks are generally very well prepared. However, if necessary, the Central Bank and the Treasury will provide additional liquidity,” the deputy minister said.

The Russian Ministry of Communications has held emergency meetings with communications service providers and key banks, giving them guidelines on how to deal with the cyberattacks, the ministry’s press service told RIA Novosti.

“We confirm the cooperation with the FSB on confronting cyberattacks in the financial sector. We have held two meetings with communications service providers and major banks, we have sent out telegrams with the instructions on what to do in case of attacks and the way those organizations will have to address the ministry and the Federal Security Service,” the ministry said.

Chief Deputy of the Security Control and Data Protection department at Russia’s Central Bank, Artyom Sychev, says their security experts are aware of the threat and are ready to respond if need be.

“Russia’s Communications and Mass Communications Ministry has had a meeting and worked out certain countermeasures that should be taken to resist this kind of attacks,” Sychev told RT.

There were similar incidents in 2014, but the joint efforts of Russia’s banking institutions helped to quickly resolve the situation, Sychev said.

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INDEPENDENT

India to become 'cashless society', PM Narendra Modi hints

'We can gradually move from a less-cash society to a cashless society'

Sunday 27 November 2016

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said his government understands how millions have been affected by the ban on 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, but used his monthly radio address to defend the policy Rob Stothard - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has called for the nation to become a cashless society.

Mr Modi urged his country's small traders and daily wage earners to embrace digital payments.

Speaking in his monthly address on national radio, Mr Modi said the government understands millions have been affected by the ban on 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, but defended the policy.

The move is an attempt to fill Mr Modi's election promise of curbing tax evasion and unaccounted wealth.

"I want to tell my small merchant brothers and sisters, this is the chance for you to enter the digital world," Mr Modi said, according to a translation by Reuters.

He urged them to use mobile banking applications and credit-card swipe machines instead.

"It's correct that a 100 per cent cashless society is not possible. But why don't we make a beginning for a less-cash society in India?" Mr Modi added.

"We can gradually move from a less-cash society to a cashless society."

Credit Suisse estimates more than 90 per cent of consumer purchases in India are made in cash.

Mr Modi also urged tech-savvy young people to teach their relatives and neighbours how to use the new technologies.

Zero Hedge

Angry Mobs Lock Up Indian Bankers As Cash Chaos Soars: "We Are Fearing The Worst"

by Tyler Durden

Dec 1, 2016 3:51 AM

India's demonetization campaign is not going as expected.

Overnight, banks played down expectations of a dramatic improvement in currency availability, raising the prospect of queues lengthening as salaries get paid and people look to withdraw money from their accounts the Economic Times reported.

While much of India has become habituated to the sight of people lining up at banks and cash dispensers since the November 8 demonetisation announcement, bank officials said the message from the Reserve Bank of India is that supplies may not get any easier in the near future and that they should push digital transactions. “We had sought a hearing with RBI as we were not allocated enough cash, but we were told that rationing of cash may continue for some time,” said a banker who was present at one of several meetings with central bank officials.

“Reserve Bank has asked us to push the use of digital channels to all our customers and ensure that we bring down use of cash in the economy,” said a banker. This confirms a previous report according to which the demonstization campaign has been a not so subtle attempt to impose digital currency on the entire population.

Bankers have been making several trips to the central bank’s headquarters in Mumbai to get a sense of whether currency availability will improve. Some automated teller machines haven’t been filled even once since the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes ceased to be legal tender, they said. Typically, households pay milkmen, domestic helps, drivers, etc, at the start of the month in cash. The idea is that all these payments should become electronic, using computers or mobiles.

This strategy however, appears to not have been conveyed to the public, and as Bloomberg adds, "bankers are bracing for long hours and angry mobs as pay day approaches in India."

"Already people who are frustrated are locking branches from outside in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu and abusing staff as enough cash is not available," said CH Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees’ Association. The group has sought police protection at bank branches for the next 10 days, he added.

Joining many others who have slammed Modi's decision, the banker said that "this is the fallout of one of the worst planned and executed government decisions in decades." He estimates that about 20 million people - almost twice the population of Greece - will queue up at bank branches and ATMs over the coming week, when most employers in India pay their staff. In an economy where 98 percent of consumer payments are in cash, banks are functioning with about half the amount of currency they need.

As Bloomberg notes, retaining public support is crucial for Modi before key state elections next year and a national contest in 2019, however it appears he is starting to lose it.

"We are bracing ourselves for payday and fearing the worst," said Parthasarathi Mukherjee, chief executive officer at Chennai-based Laxmi Vilas Bank Ltd. "If we run out of cash we will have to approach the Reserve Bank of India for more. It is tough."

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The ongoing cash shortages follow Modi’s Nov. 8 unexpected decision to ban 500 and 1,000 rupee ($15) notes, a decision that sucked out 86% of currency in circulation and blindsided the nation. Bank officials reported that most top banks in the financial heart of Mumbai are now starting the day with anywhere between 800 million rupees to 1.2 billion rupees of cash, instead of the typical 1.5 billion rupees.

These currency chests are then shared with several branches, which are rationing supplies. Withdrawals are capped at 10,000 rupees per person instead of the 24,000 rupees limit set by the government, said a manager at a state-run Bank of India branch in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

In a Mumbai suburb, a branch of the nation’s largest lender, State Bank of India, was starting the day with about 600,000 rupees of cash that will run out in about an hour, compared with the 1.5 million they’d typically have, the manager said. in what has clearly become a physical cash run.

Shortage of cash in ATMs continues.

The following video was sent to us by a regular reader of “People of the Keys” and we were asked our opinion regarding the video. Following the video is our reaction.

Hi,

I have been following what is going on in India concerning this subject.

I watched the video. Since the girl is Polish I wondered if she is a student of Zbigniew Brzezinski. I don't know if you know much about Brzezinski or not but he, along with the likes of Kissinger, are members of some of the NWO's top elite policy groups such as the CFR, Bilderburgers, etc.

The video was very well done and presented. One of the best I have seen of this type of video.

I feel though it is a classic in double speak as presented in Orwell's 1984, "war is peace, truth is lies" etc.

I believe it is definitely a production put together by the elites twisting things to make it appear as they did in the video how this will be such a benefit to all in India except the criminal underclass.

Digitized money is what the "mark" is all about.

I think this may also be a "rehersal" to see how the reaction unfolds in India before it is implemented in other countries and eventually the entire world.

To find out who or what is behind demonetisation just take the first five letters off the word “demonetisation”.

I wouldn't be surprised if this video was made well in advance of the change in India.

Also the speed at which this took place shows what can happen literally over night.

Thanks for sending it.

Zero Hedge

How December 4th Could Trigger The "Most Violent Economic Shock In History"

by Tyler Durden

Dec 2, 2016 3:30 A

Submitted by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

On the morning of April 29, 1945, the bodies of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress were dumped like garbage into Milan’s Piazzale Loreto.

A large mob of Italians quickly gathered. They pelted the former leader’s corpse with vegetables. They spat on it. They urinated on it. Some even emptied their pistols into his lifeless body.

After a few hours, the crowd hung the bodies from a metal girder at a nearby gas station for all to see.

I walked through Piazzale Loreto during a recent trip to Italy, which is suffering its worst economic downturn since 1945. And I realized that Italians are angrier now than they’ve been since they hung Il Duce up by his heels.

Italy has had no productive growth since 1999. Real GDP per person is smaller than it was at the turn of the century.

That’s almost two decades of economic stagnation. By any measure, the Italian economy is in a deep depression. And things will probably get much worse.

It’s no surprise Italians are in a revolutionary mood...

The Five Star Movement (M5S) is Italy’s new populist political party. It’s anti-globalist, anti-euro, and vehemently anti-establishment. It doesn’t neatly fall into the left–right political paradigm.

M5S has become the most popular political party in Italy. It blames the country’s chronic lack of growth on the euro currency. A large plurality of Italians agrees.

M5S has promised to hold a vote to leave the euro and reinstate Italy’s old currency, the lira, as soon as it’s in power. That could be very soon.

Given the chance, Italians probably would vote to return to the lira. If that happens, it would awaken a monetary volcano.

The Financial Times recently put it this way:

An Italian exit from the single currency would trigger the total collapse of the eurozone within a very short period.

It would probably lead to the most violent economic shock in history, dwarfing the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008 and the 1929 Wall Street crash.

If the FT is even partially right, it means a stock market crash of historic proportions could be imminent. It could devastate anyone with a brokerage account.

Here’s how it could all happen…

On December 4, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s current pro-EU government is holding a referendum on changing Italy’s constitution.

In effect, a “Yes” vote is a vote of approval for Renzi’s government.

A “No” vote is a chance for the average Italian to give the finger to EU bureaucrats in Brussels.

Given the intense anger Italians feel right now, it’s very likely they’ll do just that.

According to the latest polls, the “No” camp has 54% support and all of the momentum. Even prominent members of Renzi’s own party are defecting to the “No” side.

If the December 4 referendum fails, Renzi has promised to resign. Even if he doesn’t, the loss would politically castrate him. In all likelihood his government would collapse. (Italian governments have a short shelf life. There have been 63 since 1945. That’s almost a rate of a new government each year.)

One way or another, M5S will come to power. It’s just a matter of when. If Renzi’s December 4 referendum fails—and it looks like it will—M5S will likely take over within months.

Once it’s in power, M5S will hold a referendum on leaving the euro and returning to the lira. Italians will likely vote to leave.

Italy is the third-largest member of the Eurozone. If it leaves, it will have the psychological effect of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. Other countries—notably France—will quickly head for the exit and return to their national currencies.

Think of the euro as the economic glue holding the EU together. Without it, economic ties weaken, and the whole EU project unravels.

The EU is the world’s largest economy. If it collapses, it would trigger an unprecedented global stock market crash. That’s how important Italy’s December 4 referendum is. It would be the first domino to fall.

Almost no one else is talking about this. That’s why I just spent several weeks in Italy, taking the pulse of the country.

Italy’s December 4 referendum could make or break your wealth this year. If it fails, the EU, which has the world’s largest economy, will likely fall apart… triggering an epic stock market crash.

***

STRATEGIC CULTURE FOUNDATION

Europe Turns Towards Russia in Major Foreign Policy Change

PETER KORZUN | 01.12.2016

Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, believes that Europe does not need to be dependent on US foreign policy regarding its relationship with Russia.

In his interview with Euronews, the EU Commission President said that he «would like to have an agreement with Russia that goes beyond the ordinary framework, bearing in mind that without Russia, there is no security architecture in Europe». Mr. Juncker noted that «Russia must be treated as one big entity, as a proud nation». The president emphasized that he «would like to have discussions on a level footing with Russia». He thinks that President Obama was wrong saying that Russia was only «a regional power».

There are reasons to make Mr. Juncker make such a statement at this particular moment.

With Donald Trump in office, the US European policy on is expected to go through drastic changes and a period of uncertainty will last in Washington at least until January 20.

This is also the time the so-called «pro-Russian» politicians gaining more clout in the Old Continent. Actually, they are not exactly pro-Moscow but rather pro-national, putting national interests at the top spots of their priority lists. For them, the interests of their countries are more important than the priorities of the US or the EU. They believe that normalizing the relations with Moscow is what meets the national interests to make it part of foreign policy plans.

Two weeks ago, such leaders came to power in Bulgaria and Moldova. The EU’s image has been damaged in both countries, where the public perceives economic progress as too slow and sees a failure to tackle corruption by nominally pro-EU leaders.

François Fillon - a politician advocating rapprochement between Russia and the EU - won the center-right nomination for French presidency on November 27. His victory means that two «pro-Russia» candidates - François Fillon and Marine Le Pen – will probably face each other off at the presidential election in April 2017.

A presidential election will take place in Austria on December 4. Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party has a good chance to win. According to what he has said during the election campaign, Mr. Hofer will consider pulling out of the EU and visit Moscow, if elected president. He promised «to show my strong commitment to the withdrawal of sanctions against Russia because I am firmly convinced that sanctions hinder communication».

If the Italian referendum on December 4 says «no» to the major government overhaul plans, then a snap election will become a possibility to benefit the Italy's Northern League party, which advocates the improvement of relations with Russia. Its leader, Matteo Salvini, has visited Moscow and Crimea a number of times and called for lifting the EU-imposed sanctions.

Some signs to confirm the trend of changing EU’s policy on Russia are largely kept out headlines. In late October, the EU lifted a cap on Gazprom's use of the Opal pipeline in Germany, opening the way for Russia to expand Nord Stream's capacity and bypass Ukraine as a gas transit route. The Nord Stream-2 has been recently supported by London. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel is an outspoken advocate of the project.

It has been reported recently that large Western companies, like IKEA, Leroy Merlin, Mars, Pfizer, have started to reinvest in Russia. They are pumping billions of dollars into Russian economy expecting the consumer demand in the country to grow.

There are calls to address European security concerns. A large group of European leaders has recently called for launching a dialogue with Moscow on a new arms control treaty within the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). There is also a group of EU members who have started to openly challenge the anti-Russia sanctions policy.

There are NATO members who express their will to develop military cooperation with Russia. Turkey - a NATO member - has stated it mulls turning towards the Shanghai Cooperation Organization led by Russia and China, instead of trying to join the EU «at all costs».

All these events testify to the fact that NATO and the EU have started a turn towards Moscow. The cooling period of Russia-West relations is becoming a thing of the past giving way to more pragmatic approaches. Mr. Juncker stated the obvious fact – the rapprochement between Russia and Europe is one of the trends shaping the contemporary political landscape in Europe.

Meanwhile, the idea to recognize Russia as a global power and make it part of the global US-Russia-China equation is floated among US foreign policy pundits. In his recent MSNBC’s «Morning Joe» comments, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a well-known foreign policy guru, said, «America is needed to pull together some larger coalition that can deal with global problems. And in that larger coalition America, China and changing Russia could be preeminent». Actually, what Mr. Brzezinski suggests makes remember the Yalta Conference held in February, 1945.

Indeed, the «big three» format talks is the right place to address global issues: trade, finances and global security architecture. Will Mr. Trump listen to what foreign policy pundits say? Anyway, the pivot to Russia is becoming a global trend.

***

EXPRESS

PANIC STATIONS: Secret plan to WALL OFF Europe if Turkey unleashes '3m migrant tsunami'

EUROPEAN countries have hatched a secret plan to frantically wall off the north of the continent if Turkey goes through with a threat to open the floodgates for millions of migrants, it emerged tonight.

By NICK GUTTERIDGE

PUBLISHED: 03:44, Mon, Nov 28, 2016 | UPDATED: 13:16, Mon, Nov 28, 2016

Serbia has secret plans to build a border fence if a fresh influx of migrants occurs

States in central Europe and the Balkans have been put on red alert for another massive wave of asylum seekers after Recep Tayyip Erdogan handed the extraordinary blackmail note to EU leaders.

And now Serbia has revealed it has drawn up emergency plans to follow in the footsteps of neighbours Bulgaria, Macedonia and Croatia in constructing a huge barrier which would seal off most of the continent.

The extraordinary measure was leaked by Government insiders who said ministers fear Islamist despot Erdogan is about to unleash a “tsunami” of three millions migrants on Europe.

They told the state-owned Novosti newspaper that the already prepared “Plan B” could be enacted within a short timeframe to protect the country from any further refugee chaos.

The paper reported: "If Turkey, as its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened yesterday, opens the border for refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries that are on its territory...the Serbian government has prepared a 'plan B'.

"It will be activated and a proposal will be discussed for our country, just like our neighbours, to build a wall on its southern borders."

Serbia - which is not an EU member - is a vital transit point on the migrant journey northwards from Greece towards the promised lands of Germany and Sweden.

But as neighbouring countries including Hungary to the north have taken an increasingly tough stance on immigration, putting up their own border fences, more and more refugees have become trapped there.

Government officials said there are around 5,200 asylum seekers registered in the tiny eastern European state, with a further 1,000 living on the streets - mostly in the capital Belgrade.

And labour minister Aleksandar Vulin confirmed that the authorities have been planning for the potential collapse of the EU-Turkey migrant deal, saying border controls with its southern neighbour Bulgaria - which is in the EU - would be “significantly” beefed up.

Nenad Popović, leader of the opposition Serbian People’s Party, also called for the construction of a wall after Novosti published a leader article headlined: “We are threatened with a ‘tsunami’ of 3,000,000 migrants!”

He said: “We urge the Government to urgently take the decision to build a wall on the border with Macedonia to halt the uncontrolled influx of migrants into Serbia.”

In a scathing assessment of the EU response to the migrant crisis, he added: “Instead of reacting vigorously to the threat by Erdogan to open the border for three million migrants, Brussels sticks his head in the sand like an ostrich, showing the whole world that it has neither the power nor the capacity to cope with the growing migration crisis.”

The number of migrants travelling along the Balkans route has been reduced from a flood to a trickle in recent months after the EU signed a deal with Turkey to stem the flow.

Under the terms of the agreement Ankara takes back all migrants who do not apply for asylum in Greece, or whose applications are rejected, and in return Europe takes in another Syrian from a camp in Turkey.

However, relations between president Erdogan and European leaders have become increasingly strained in recent months, with the Turkish leader accusing the EU of reneging on its promise to give his people visa-free access in return.

***

RT

Erdogan: Turkish forces are in Syria to end Assad's rule

Published time: 29 Nov, 2016 17:24

Edited time: 29 Nov, 2016 21:04

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Turkish Army entered Syria to end the rule of President Bashar Assad, whom he accused of terrorism and causing the deaths of thousands.

“We entered [Syria] to end the rule of the tyrant al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror. [We didn’t enter] for any other reason,” the Turkish president said at the first Inter-Parliamentary Jerusalem Platform Symposium in Istanbul, as quoted by Hurriyet daily.

Erdogan said that Turkey has no territorial claims in Syria, but instead wants to hand over power to the Syrian population, adding that Ankara is seeking to restore “justice.”

“Why did we enter? We do not have an eye on Syrian soil. The issue is to provide lands to their real owners. That is to say we are there for the establishment of justice,” he said.

He went on to say that “in his estimation” almost 1 million people have died in the conflict in Syria, although no monitoring group has provided any similar figures. The latest UN estimate stands at 400,000 people killed in the five-year civil war.

Erdogan said that Turkey could not “endure” the unending killing of civilians and “had to enter Syria together with the Free Syrian Army.”

The Turkish leader also accused the UN of inability to influence the situation in Syria and said that the organization is ineffective in its current state.

“The world is bigger than five,” he said, referring to the number of permanent members on the UN Security Council, as reported by Hurriyet.

Turkish troops entered Syria on August 24, launching operation Euphrates Shield. Turkey deployed ground troops and air power to northern parts of its neighboring country, with the stated goal of retaking areas held by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

However, many observers have said that Ankara aims to suppress Kurdish forces in Syria and prevent them from connecting three de facto autonomous Kurdish areas into one enclave south of the Turkish border.

In October, Turkey’s air forces killed between 160 and 200 fighters of the Kurdish YPG militia group in 26 airstrikes conducted in just one night. The Turkish military campaign in Syria has also led to increasingly strained relations with Assad’s government.

Ankara was forced to halt air support for its ground incursion into Syria on October 22, after Damascus vowed to shoot down Turkish Air Force planes in Syrian skies, accusing Turkey of violating its national sovereignty.

Turkey in turn accused the Syrian Army of attacking FSA fighters in the northern Aleppo province.

RT

Kremlin asks Erdogan to clarify ‘anti-Assad’ goals in Syria

Published time: 30 Nov, 2016 17:40

Edited time: 30 Nov, 2016 19:14

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that his goal in Syria was to end the rule of Bashar Assad has caused consternation in the Kremlin, with officials saying it contradicted previous assurances and was out of sync with Moscow’s take on the situation.

"The statement was indeed news, this is a very serious statement. [It] is in discord with the previous [statements] in general and with our understanding of the situation," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"We hope that in the near future there will be explanations on this from our Turkish partners," he said, adding that Russia is the only country whose armed forces are in Syria on a legitimate basis – at the direct request of the Syrian authorities.

Answering a question as to whether Erdogan’s comments would affect the relations between Moscow and Ankara, Peskov stressed that Turkey is Moscow's partner and therefore will have to explain its stance before the Russian authorities make any judgments.

"Before making any judgments, we expect that this position will be clarified," Peskov said.

President Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed the situation in Syria in a telephone call on Wednesday, the Kremlin’s press service reported.

“There was an extensive exchange of opinions concerning the Syrian question, including the situation in Aleppo,” the service said in a statement.

“A number of urgent issues regarding Russia-Turkey relations have been raised, including upcoming bilateral contacts on various levels.”

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on whether Erdogan had clarified his earlier statement about Syrian President Bashar Assad.

On Tuesday, Erdogan said that Turkey's “Euphrates Shield” operation in Syria, which was launched on August 24, has been aimed at toppling the Syrian president.

“We entered [Syria] to end the rule of the tyrant al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror. [We didn’t enter] for any other reason,” the Turkish president said at the first Inter-Parliamentary Jerusalem Platform Symposium in Istanbul, as quoted by Hurriyet daily.

Erdogan said that Turkey has no territorial claims in Syria, but instead wants to hand over power to the Syrian population, adding that Ankara is seeking to restore “justice.”

Turkey has been deploying ground troops and air power to northern parts of Syria, a neighboring country, initially identifying its goal as retaking areas held by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) from terrorists, as well as battling armed Kurdish units in northern Syria, which Turkey claims are aiding the outlawed Kurdish insurgency on Turkey’s own soil.

The operation began in August with liberating the Syrian border town of Jarabulus, then the joint Turkish forces, the coalition and Syrian opposition groups continued the offensive against Islamists in the southwest. The campaign has been widely criticized both by the Syrian Kurds and Damascus, who have accused Ankara of violating Syria's territorial integrity by crossing its border uninvited.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that Erdogan’s statement regarding Assad was made "off the record," while Moscow prefers to draw conclusions from official public statements and will wait for them.

“In the context of settling the Syrian crisis and in the context of bilateral relations with Turkey, Russia proceeds from the agreements that we have, which were achieved at the official level and in direct contacts with the Turkish leadership," Zakharova noted, adding that Moscow “proceed[s] from the existing agreements and liabilities of countries, and not from quotes that may have been misinterpreted or extracted from the context. It remains to be seen.”

There has not been any official reaction to Erdogan’s comments from the Syrian government yet. However, according to SANA news agency, citing a source within the Syrian Defense Ministry, this statement by Erdogan puts “an end to his lies.”

“Erdogan's statements about the objectives of the Turkish aggression against Syria put an end to his lies,” SANA quoted the source as saying. “These statements clearly reveal that the blatant Turkish aggression on Syrian territory is only a result of the ambitions and illusions that nourish the thought of this overwhelming Muslim Brotherhood extremist who has made Turkey a base for terrorist groups, which [shatter] stability and security in Syria and Iraq, and should be the first to take responsibility for the suffering of innocent people caused by terrorist crimes committed [with] Turkey’s support.”

RT

Erdogan backtracks on Syria goals after call with Putin, says terrorists are only target

Published time: 1 Dec, 2016 13:22

Edited time: 1 Dec, 2016 14:55

Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria does not target any country or individual, and is aimed only at terrorist groups, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He had earlier stated that Turkey was in Syria to “end the rule of the cruel Assad.”

“The aim of the Euphrates Shield Operation [in northern Syria] is not any country or person, but only terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said Thursday, as quoted by the Hurryiet Daily News.

“No one should doubt this issue that we have uttered over and over, and no one should comment on it in another fashion or try to derail it,” he added.

The latest comments come in contrast to remarks Erdogan made on Tuesday, when he said Turkey’s operation in Syria, launched in late August, aimed “to end the rule of the tyrant [Syrian President] al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror.”

This drew surprise from Russia, which asked for clarification of the remarks.

According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, this was provided when Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Erdogan discussed the issue by phone on Wednesday.

"I can only say that a telephone conversation between our president and Erdogan took place yesterday, and the topic [of Turkey’s presence in Syria] was addressed. Yes, he [Erdogan] gave an explanation," Ushakov told reporters on Thursday, without elaborating.

On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara’s operation in Syria is aimed at combating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists and other armed terrorist groups.

"Currently, in the framework of the ‘Euphrates Shield’ operation we are specifically working with our partners and allies. Our goal is to clear Syria, this region, from Daesh [Arabic pejorative term for Islamic State], from terrorists and Al-Nusra [Front] insurgents," Cavusoglu said, speaking at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Mediterranean town of Alanya.

"We will continue to pursue a policy that is harmonic and coincides with the position of Russia – to search for and find a political solution to the conflict and to provide systematic humanitarian assistance," Cavusoglu added, as quoted by the Interfax.

He stated that Turkey's policy on Syria "remains unchanged."

"We are cooperating with other countries, but we think that our close cooperation with Russia will provide greater benefits," Cavusoglu said.

Without a political solution on Syria, the fight against IS may prove ineffective, the Turkish foreign minister acknowledged following the meeting with his Russian counterpart.

Lavrov stressed on Thursday that he expected close Russia-Turkey cooperation on Syria to help make a real contribution to the implementation of decisions by the international community.

***

SPUTNIK

SYRIAN ARMY TAKING BACK ALEPPO

The end of ISIS is coming

NOVEMBER 26, 2016

IMAGE CREDITS: SYRIAFREEDOM / FLICKR.

The Syrian army achieved significant success in its offensive in the Masaken Hanano district, an important stronghold of insurgents in eastern Aleppo, liberating more than 80 percent of the region, local media reported Friday.

“Following fierce clashes which continued even during the night, the army retook more than 80 percent of the territory of Masaken Hanano. An offensive in several other regions of the city was undertaken simultaneously, leading to militants, unable to create new defense lines, fleeing,” a source told Al Watan newspaper.

According to media reports, on Monday, Syrian troops supported by local militias managed to break through the key terrorist positions in the Masaken Hanano district, which leads to the eastern districts of Aleppo.

Over the recent months, Aleppo has been a major battleground in Syria, engaging government forces, jihadists, and numerous opposition groups.

Eastern Aleppo is currently encircled by government forces, and the fighting has affected thousands of civilians still trapped in the city.

Internationally mediated ceasefires have collapsed as militants continued attacks and opposition failed to expel terrorists from the city.

The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, and has since developed into a bitter conflict between government forces, armed opposition and terrorist groups such as the Daesh and Jabhat Fatah al Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, both outlawed in a number of countries, including the United States and Russia.

***

AP

SWEEPING UK SPY BILL DUBBED 'SNOOPERS' CHARTER' BECOMES LAW

BY JILL LAWLESS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nov 26, 8:06 AM EST

LONDON (AP) -- In Britain, Big Brother just got bigger.

After months of wrangling, Parliament has passed a contentious new snooping law that gives authorities - from police and spies to food regulators, fire officials and tax inspectors - powers to look at the internet browsing records of everyone in the country.

The law requires telecoms companies to keep records of all users' web activity for a year, creating databases of personal information that the firms worry could be vulnerable to leaks and hackers.

Civil liberties groups say the law establishes mass surveillance of British citizens, following innocent internet users from the office to the living room and the bedroom.

Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist credited with inventing World Wide Web, tweeted news of the law's passage with the words: "Dark, dark days."

The Investigatory Powers Bill - dubbed the "snoopers' charter" by critics - was passed by Parliament this month after more than a year of debate and amendments. It will become law when it receives the formality of royal assent next week. But big questions remain about how it will work, and the government acknowledges it could be 12 months before internet firms have to start storing the records.

"It won't happen in a big bang next week," Home Office official Chris Mills told a meeting of internet service providers on Thursday. "It will be a phased program of the introduction of the measures over a year or so."

The government says the new law "ensures powers are fit for the digital age," replacing a patchwork of often outdated rules and giving law-enforcement agencies the tools to fight terrorism and serious crime.

In a move taken by few other nations, it requires telecommunications companies to store for a year the web histories known as internet connection records - a list of websites each person has visited and the apps and messaging services they used, though not the individual pages they looked at or the messages they sent.

The government has called that information the modern equivalent of an itemized phone bill. But critics say it's more like a personal diary.

Julian Huppert, a former Liberal Democrat lawmaker who opposed the bill, said it "creates a very intrusive database."

"People may have been to the Depression Alliance website, or a marriage guidance website, or an abortion provider's website, or all sorts of things which are very personal and private," he said.

Officials won't need a warrant to access the data, and the list of bodies that can see it includes not just the police and intelligence services, but government departments, revenue and customs officials and even the Food Standards Agency.

"My worry is partly about their access," Huppert said. "But it's much more deeply about the prospects for either hacking or people selling information on."

James Blessing, chairman of the Internet Services Providers Association, said the industry has "significant questions" on how the law will work - including "how to keep the vast new data sets secure."

He warned that if the law is not implemented in a "proportionate, considered way, there is a real danger the U.K. could lose its status as a world-leading digital economy."

Some aspects of the new law remain clouded by secrecy. Not all internet companies will have to comply - only those that are asked to by the government. The government won't say who is on that list, and the firms involved are forbidden from telling their customers.

Service providers are also concerned by the law's provision that firms can be asked to remove encryption to let spies access communications. Internet companies say that could weaken the security of online shopping, banking and a host of other activities that rely on encryption.

The new law also makes official - and legal - British spies' ability to hack into devices and harvest vast amounts of bulk online data, much of it from outside the U.K. In doing so, it both acknowledges and sets limits on the secretive mass-snooping schemes exposed by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The government says the law incorporates protections against intrusion, including an investigatory powers commissioner to oversee the system, and judges to scrutinize government-approved warrants to hack into electronic devices or look at the content of communications.

David Anderson, a lawyer who serves as Britain's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said the new law "creates powerful new safeguards" and "achieves world-leading standards of transparency by putting on a detailed statutory basis all the powers which police and intelligence agencies already use."

Privacy groups battled to stop the new legislation, and now say they will challenge it in court. But public opposition has been muted, in part because the bill's passage through Parliament has been overshadowed by Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the upheaval that has followed.

Renate Samson, chief executive of the group Big Brother Watch, said it would take time for the full implications of the law to become clear to the public.

"We now live in a digital world. We are digital citizens," Samson said. "We have no choice about whether or not we engage online.

"This bill has fundamentally changed how we are able to privately and securely communicate with one another, communicate with business, communicate with government and live an online life. And that's a real, profound concern."

***

INFORMATION LIBERATION

Italy's Minister Of Interior: Surrender Your Homes To Migrants Or Face Jail

Chris Menahan

InformationLiberation

Nov. 27, 2016

Italy's Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano is planning to throw citizens in prison if they don't hand over their homes to migrants, according to a report from Italian paper Ilgiornale.

Just two weeks ago, a shocking video went viral which showed an 80-year-old Italian businessman named Luigi Fogli being forced by the state to house African migrants in his hotel.

Today, we learn the plan is slated to go into hyperdrive come December, though the government is keeping it secret so as not to sway an upcoming referendum which could lead to the ousting of their current pro-migrant invasion prime minister.

From Ilgiornale.it (as translated by FouseSquawk for Gates of Vienna):

Migrants, Alfano’s Blackmail: Jail for those who resist requisitions

According to sources in the Interior Ministry, the Viminale Plan foresees enforcement agents and detention measures for those who resist requisition of their premises for migrants.

The Interior Ministry in the figure of Angelino Alfano is preparing to requisition the real estate of Italians to place migrants.

It will be done, explains Il Giornale, beginning only as of December 4 or after a consultation referendum, in order to avoid allowing protests by citizens to influence the outcome of the vote.

Because it is indeed the protests that worry Alfano. The barricades of Goro and Gorino against the requisition of a hotel in order to place fifteen refugees for days has occupied the front pages of newspapers and embarrassed the government. The secret services have already made a filing on the cities where it is possible for the citizens to organize in committees to resist the refugees.

The requisitions in fact, will go forward, and according to l’Opinione, which cites sources in the Interior Ministry, the executive would be ready to take drastic measures against those citizens who would resist the assignment of private real estate to the migrants.

Jail for those who oppose migrants

“The secret services”, writes the daily, seem to have already alerted the government about eventual violent protests on the part of Italians not disposed to having their property requisitioned. What does it mean? According to l’Opinione the plan, “given the exceptionality of the issue and the reluctance of the Italians to collaborate in the reception”, would be to send at least 2,000 policemen, carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza and soldiers. Not just that: The Justice Ministry would be prepared to outright guarantee rapid trials and detention space for those who resist the Viminale Plan. In substance: jail for those who don’t agree.

It appears the requisitions would not be compensated. This is because the Interior Ministry doesn’t have the funds to pay the owners of the homes, given that the money is already committed for the reception of the migrants in the centers operated by Coop and Onlus. In addition, the owner would have to continue to pay IMU and Tasi. In theory they could resort to the courts to obtain compensation/damages, but in this case, the course of justice would be long, with an indeterminate outcome. Also according to the cited source from the Interior Ministry, Alfano’s measure would be “temporary”, but could lead to expropriation, if the property owner took measures that cause “damage to the State”. Indeed, whoever resists risks losing their house forever.

According to indiscretions on the part of Viminale employees, the requisition plan would begin at Pescara, a city that would be a sort of test case for the rest of Italy. The objective is to reduce the use of the COOP reception centers because they are more costly and less transparent in respect to the system than those of Sprar. To be affected, second homes would have to be vacant.

While it might sound like they're taking your house and giving you nothing in return, the "cultural enrichment" these migrants bring makes it all worth it.

Alternet

We Have to Face the Major Problem of Acute Financial Stress

Posted: 2016-11-28

Editor's Note: Long before the shocking election of Donald Trump, Galen Backwater and his colleagues were doing research and thinking hard about the emotional consequences of inequality, credit card debt and the range of financial stress points in people's lives. What they found seems so obvious, yet brilliant at the same time. Tens of millions of people have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. How can we, as a society, pretend they are not physically and psychologically affected by this constant anxiety and vulnerability? This ends up costing our society hundreds of billions in health care and lost productivity and leads to higher addiction and suicide rates as well as increased domestic violence.

This is the first of three articles by Backwater to begin to raise public consciousness about the huge impact financial stress has on every aspect of physical and emotional life. Can we doubt that under President Trump, this situation will worsen?

The conclusion is clear: We are out of balance in a way that is endangering our health, and our relationship with money plays an outsized role in a nationwide health epidemic. As a research psychologist studying stress and mental, physical and emotional health, I’ve spent the last several years examining how we deal with money in an effort to deepen a scientific understanding of how it impacts our health. In the past, I’ve worked with people in varying states of stress, including Marines and humanitarian workers. Today, I study the presence and effects of what we are calling acute financial stress (AFS), essentially financial PTSD.

Our findings are multifold. We’ve found that financial stress is affecting our cognitive processes. It’s also damaging our bodies, leaving millions of Americans sick in ways we’re just beginning to understand. We know that stress disproportionately contributes to many causes of mortality nationwide, and stress over money is a significant, though widely ignored, contributor. Part of this puzzle is what we’re calling ‘financial personality.’ Basically, a majority of us don’t have the natural cognitive and organizational styles of those who excel at the kind of thinking that financial planning requires, leaving many of us exceptionally vulnerable to chronic stress.

In our research we decided to apply what we know about personality in general to how people demonstrate their individuality in their financial values, behaviors and attitudes and found a strong connection between our basic personalities and the ways we approach our finances. For example, much like some of us are more open, conscientious or neurotic in relationships, how we deal with money fits into the same patterns.

We asked study participants to respond to seemingly unrelated statements, including: “I do my taxes at the last minute,” “It’s not worth my time to plan for my financial future because I will never be able to make enough money,” “I have little idea of how much money I really have,” and “I do not allow my family to know my real financial picture.”

In the responses we received, we saw a profound problem emerge. Feelings of stress, failure, isolation and paralyzing fear kept surfacing in our analyses with alarming regularity. Examining this fear from every angle, we tried to ascertain what we were looking at and what the implications might be. Was this a temporary neurosis brought about by stress? Was it an existential fear stemming from financial concerns? Was it indicative of money altering our brains on a cognitive level that scientists hadn’t yet focused on?

The Emergence of PTSD in Financial Stress

The answer hit me one day: it’s a version of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The mental health community has officially recognized PTSD since 1980 as a serious mental condition. Stemming from a conversation about the financial pressure felt by someone who had lost everything after a divorce, I was reminded of the checklist of PTSD symptoms, which I spent several years focused on while working with Marines and humanitarian workers in an effort to prepare and protect them from post-traumatic stress disorder with resilience training before deployment.

Our studies led us to surprising findings: 23% of adults and 36% of millennials experience acute financial stress at levels that would qualify them for a diagnosis of PTSD. We knew people were feeling under the gun and often anxious about their futures, but this degree of clinical stress was more severe and pervasive than we imagined.

A traditional diagnosis of PTSD requires meeting a number of criteria. Often reliving the event through nightmares or flashbacks, the disorder brings on avoidance of any situation that reminds a person of the trauma. Additionally, one’s beliefs and feelings change, the world feels more threatening and relationships become difficult, leading to depression and isolation. Perhaps most important, PTSD results in hyperarousal, in which it’s chronically difficult for people to fully calm down, even in sleep. The mind and body are always prepared for trouble, leading to chronic stress that wears down all of the body’s systems, hastening the natural processes of aging the body and mind.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this constant state of hyperarousal results in a myriad of negative physical and medical outcomes. The connection between PTSD and coronary heart disease is notably strong. Links to increased addiction, likely motivated by the increase in anxiety and depression it causes, is also evident.

Fight the Powerlessness

Financial stress, specifically the stress associated with an inability to consistently pay all of one’s bills, appears to be strongly associated with the presence of an external locus of control. What this means is people often have a belief that powerful external events control our life choices, as opposed to a sense of self-control and being in the driver’s seat. This feeling of powerlessness present in many people who cannot meet their financial obligations serves as the impetus to drive them to abandon a sense of responsibility. Once responsibility is abandoned, it leads to a profound sense of powerlessness and stress.

Chronic stress like acute financial stress tends to preclude people from being able to make rational changes toward a healthier and more stable, less stressful way of life. With severe stress, comes further debilitating self-destructive ways of thinking including avoidance, denial and isolation. As the ability to manage stress spirals, it inevitably moves toward physical dysfunction and chronic disease.

Unfortunately, our current economic and commercial cultures rely on avoidance and denial. These popular coping mechanisms, in turn, overwhelm the brain and body’s needs for security and activate our stress responses system. Relatively recently, the profit-making equation changed even further by putting credit cards in almost everyone’s hands, ostensibly for consumer’s convenience. The result, of course, is ever increasing consumer debt. Through the black magic of compounding interest, this industry has created a new source of stress that seems to literally be breaking the back of middle-class America.

Culturally, we often perceive of financial difficulties as personal failure, leading people to remain in silent shame about what they’re going through, only compounding their problems with a sense of total powerlessness. Stress isolates people, which leads to weakened relationships, more isolation, depression and often, avoidance of the source of the problem. Avoidance is the enemy of overcoming, so changing this starts with being able to talk about it. I’ve found that by simply discussing their experiences, people with acute financial stress can find a sense of relief and realize they’re not crazy, that this is a real issue and above all, they are really not alone.

This is the starting point, when we begin to understand how many people around us are traumatized by the money in their lives and how it’s affecting everything from sleep to interpersonal relationships. A reinvention of our collective relationship with money must become a priority because without it, we’re only going to incur more debt and suffer the ever-increasing health consequences of this problem.

HEALTH IMPACT NEWS

Big Pharma Wants to Vaccinate Unborn Babies in the Womb

by Alliance for Natural Health – USA

November 30, 2016

If vaccinating pregnant mothers weren’t bad enough, now the vaccine companies would like a twofer by also going after the child in utero.

For many months now, we’ve been monitoring the progress of the 21st Century Cures bill. This legislation is intended to bring medicine into the 21st century, but as we’ve noted before, it does the opposite. Rather than looking forward, this bill simply doubles down on conventional approaches that have been in place for decades.

21st Century Cures passed the House last year. The Senate has broken up the bill into over a dozen separate pieces, which could be considered any day now.

One extremely worrisome provision seems to put structures in place for amending the current vaccine schedule and including more vaccinations for pregnant mothers. Senate bill S. 2742 (the “Promoting Biomedical Research and Public Health for Patients Act”) contains the following language:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for purposes of this subtitle, both a woman who received a covered vaccine while pregnant and any child who was in utero at the time such woman received the vaccine shall be considered persons to whom the covered vaccine was administered and persons who received the covered vaccine.

This may have been written for liability reasons. Perhaps Big Pharma is concerned that the child would be eligible to sue for damages, unlike anyone vaccinated after birth. Perhaps the thinking is that doctors tend to have more control over mothers before birth, so why not force vaccines on them then, rather than after birth?

Then again, this provision may be intended simply to increase vaccinations given to pregnant mothers. If a developing child is considered a “person” eligible to receive vaccinations, the vaccine industry could begin to develop more vaccines intended specifically for children in utero.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) already recommend that pregnant mothers get whooping cough, flu, and hepatitis B vaccines. Good questions remain about whether this is necessary or useful. Some scientific studies have shown virtually no benefit to the maternal flu vaccine, and of course flu vaccines contain mercury. Injecting a mother with mercury, much less a baby in utero, seems totally reckless to us.

In addition, if the language quoted above becomes law, the whole CDC vaccine schedule could be shifted or expanded to create more vaccine industry profit-making opportunities. Maybe the first DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) shot will be given to the mother and the fetus, rather than to the child at one month. Perhaps the schedule will be expanded.

The risks in doing this are frightening. The adjuvant load alone that would be delivered to the mother and shared with a child in utero (a child without a functioning immune system) could cause serious damage. As we’ve noted elsewhere, adequate safety testing of aluminum adjuvants for young children—much less for unborn children—has been completely absent!

We know of no studies that have looked at the long-term consequences of multiple vaccinations during pregnancy, nor any analysis comparing the risks to the benefits (if any). Further, the safety and effectiveness of giving certain vaccines to pregnant women was not determined before the vaccines were licensed in the US.

Provisions included in the bill only heighten these concerns. They instruct various federal agencies to develop a report “on ways to promote innovation in the development of vaccines that minimize the burden of infectious disease.” The agencies are to consider whether any obstacles exist which inhibit the development of vaccines, and make recommendations on how to remove these obstacles in order to “promote and incentivize vaccine innovation and development.”

Could one such “obstacle” be the apprehension of pregnant mothers about receiving a host of vaccinations for their children still in the womb?

Other parts of the legislation provide for lower standards for drug and device approval and safety. They also encourage the development of new antibiotics for “limited populations” that do not need to meet standard criteria for safety and effectiveness. On top of it all, they give more funding to the National Institutes of Health for the development of experimental drugs and other products, probably to hand over to Big Pharma. After all, one of the principle architects of the bill, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), was the top recipient of pharmaceutical industry money in 2013-14.

These are complex subjects—far too complex for Congress to be legislating about. For example, we generally think the Kefauver Act, which demanded FDA approval of drug effectiveness as well as safety, was a mistake. Once a drug has been deemed safe, effectiveness should be worked out by the medical profession, not by unqualified government employees whose salaries are covered by Big Pharma.

Clearly this is a bill with much potential for harm and no evident potential for good. We need to defeat it.

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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almodtree Productions

“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1:5)