“But
when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak:
for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall
speak.”
(Matthew 10:19)
Take No Thought
***
WND
STATE DEMANDS PASTOR TURN OVER SERMONS, NOTES
'This is an excessive display of the government overreaching its authority'
Published: October 26, 2016
BOB UNRUH
Dr. Eric Walsh (Photo: First Liberty)
The state of Georgia is demanding copies of the sermons and related notes of a lay pastor who was fired by the Department of Public Health after it investigated what he said in his church.
But Dr. Eric Walsh is resisting, issuing a statement via his legal team that he will not comply with the demand from state lawyers.
The state’s demand is in response to a lawsuit filed by Walsh against the Department of Health charging discrimination based on his religion and other civil rights violations.
He’s getting support from a pastor who successfully fought off a demand by Houston officials for copies of his sermons.
Walsh’s ordeal began in May 2014 when he accepted an offer to become district health director with the state agency. Only a week later, a state official asked him to provide copies of sermons he had preached as a lay minister with a Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Lee Rudd, the agency’s human resources director, then assigned staff members to listen to the YouTube recordings immediately. Two days later, Walsh was fired.
At that point, lawyers with First Liberty Institute joined forces with the Atlanta legal team of Parks, Chesin & Walbert to file a federal lawsuit against the state agency.
Now, in response to Walsh’s lawsuit, the state has delivered a “Request for Production of Documents” that demands once again, among a flood of other paperwork, “copies of his sermon notes and transcripts.”
“This is an excessive display of the government overreaching its authority and violating the sanctity of the church,” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty.
“No government has the right to require a pastor to turn over his sermons,” said Walsh in a statement released by his lawyers. “I cannot and will not give up my sermons unless I am forced to do so.”
Officials with the Georgia Department of Health declined to respond to a WND request for comment, instead referring a reporter to the state attorney general, who did not respond to a request for comment.
Walsh’s lawyers scheduled a news conference as a display of support.
On the guest list was Pastor Dave Welch of Houston, one of five pastors whose sermons were demanded by a lesbian mayor during her campaign to establish protections for her sexual preferences in city code.
WND broke the story when the city launched its action against the pastors and also reported when Rush Limbaugh described Parker’s actions as possibly “one of the most vile, filthy, blatant violations of the Constitution that I have seen.”
The mayor at the time, Annise Parker, withdrew the demands amid a flood of protest.
In a prepared statement Wednesday on Walsh’s case, Welch said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Georgia’s demand is even worse than when the mayor of Houston demanded 17 different categories of materials, including sermons, from … us.”
Welch, the executive director of the Texas Pastor Council, said what is happening to Walsh is “worse than what happened in Houston for multiple reasons.”
“First, this is state government coming after a pastor, not just a rogue mayor in one city,” he said. “Also, the state is demanding much more material: sermons, sermon notes, all documents without even topical or time limits. It could even include margin notes in this pastor’s preaching Bible. It’s almost as if they are ransacking the pastor’s study. This sweeping demand is ominous and a threat to every pastor, every church, every denomination, and every citizen of faith in America.”
Leaders of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, part of the nation’s largest public policy women’s group with 500,000 members, also came to Walsh’s defense.
Penny Nance, CEO, said: “The words of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ still reverberate today – especially as we witness the ‘Gestapo-like’ tactics of his native state. The state of Georgia’s blatant attack on religious freedom, as they discriminate against another pastor, Dr. Eric Walsh, is indeed a threat to every American, whatever our religious beliefs.
“Can there be a clearer violation of our First Amendment right to religious freedom than for the state to monitor, examine, and retaliate against a person because of the sermons they share?”
WND reported earlier on the case brought against the state after its officials reviewed Walsh’s sermons and then fired him.
“No one in this country should be fired from their job for something that was said in a church or from a pulpit during a sermon,” Dys told Fox News when the case was filed. “He was fired for something he said in a sermon. If the government is allowed to fire someone over what he said in his sermons, they can come after any of us for our beliefs on anything.”
The original state investigation of Walsh’s sermons apparently was sparked by “one complaint” from an official with a county Democratic Party and “gay activist.”
State officials also joked about informing Walsh of his firing.
The telephone call was between Dr. Patrick O’Neal, an agency official, and Kate Pfirman, an agency financial officer. The call was captured on an answering machine, which also caught their conversation after they thought they had hung up.
Pfirman said: “And I’m gonna be very – I’m gonna try to come off as very cold, because I don’t want to say very much. If I try to make it warm – I’ve thought that through, it’s gonna just not – there’s no warm way to say it anyway.”
Then there was laughter from both parties.
O’Neal then said to inform Walsh, “You’re out,” and there was another round of laughter.
“It’s very funny,” Pfirman said.
In the Houston dispute, voters ultimately soundly rejected Parker’s ordinance giving “gays” and transgendered people special rights.
***
WND
JACK CHICK, CHRISTIAN-TRACT EVANGELIST, DIES
Critics call him 'Father of the Satanic Panic'
Published: October 24, 2016
Jack Chick, a controversial California-based evangelist who used comic books to spread the gospel, died Sunday at the age of 92, according to a note on his Facebook page.
“Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Brother Jack Chick passed away Sunday evening, October 23, peacefully in his sleep. He was 92,” the note said.
“He will be interred in a small private ceremony. Condolences can be sent to Chick Publications, and they will be taken to his widow. God bless you all.”
Chick is best known for his empire of comic-book-style Christian tracts, which often featured in-your-face confrontations against beliefs and philosophies that did not agree with evangelical Protestantism, especially Catholicism and Judaism, leading some to consider him a religious bigot.
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Websites such as boingboing.net called Chick the “father of the Satanic Panic” as well as “the paranoid, hateful minicomics pioneer.”
His company says it has sold more than 750 million tracts, with the content translated into more than 100 languages.
Chick’s material has covered a wide variety of subjects, strongly attacking abortion, homosexuality, the occult, rock music, left-wing politics, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, and the theory of evolution.
Chick often blamed the Roman Catholic Church for many of the world’s problems, prompting him to be labeled “savagely anti-Catholic” by Catholic Answers.
On one of his Catholic information pages, the question was posed: “Does Jack Chick hate Catholics?” with the response being:
“Quite the opposite. In the mid-1970s, when he first began to understand what Roman Catholicism really teaches, he knew it was unscriptural. He also knew that to speak out against it would be unpopular and hurt his publishing company.
“After much prayer, he made the decision that, no matter what it cost him personally, he would publish the truth that Roman Catholicism is not Christian. He did it because he loves Catholics and wants them to be saved through faith in Jesus, not trusting in religious liturgy and sacraments. He paid a price for that decision in many ways, as priests and nuns entered Christian bookstores screaming and making a scene, demanding that the store owner not stock Chick tracts. Some ‘Christian’ media have even refused to accept advertising from Chick Publications, fearing any ‘controversy’ that might hurt their cash flow.”
Born in Boyle Heights, California, in 1924, Chick’s online biography says of him: “From early childhood, it was obvious that Jack Chick had an ability to draw. He even failed the first grade because he was so busy drawing airplanes in battle. As he grew, Jack was constantly drawing, and honing skills that God would later use in a great way.
“While in high school, none of the Christians would have anything to do with him because of his bad language. They all agreed not to witness to him, convinced that he was the last guy on Earth who would ever accept Jesus Christ.”
Chick reportedly spent three years in the U.S. Army, and upon his discharge, he met and married his wife, Lynn, who was instrumental in his conversion to Christianity.
His bio states: “Once married, Jack used his artistic talents to earn a living. He had always longed to be a professional cartoonist, but now as a Christian, he desired to use his artistic talents for the Lord.
“While working at AstroScience Corporation in El Monte, California, Jack was sitting in his car reading a copy of ‘Power From On High’ by Charles Finney, which an old welder had given him. He remembers, ‘That book pushed my button. I went to church and saw all the deadness and hypocrisy, and I thought, that’s why there’s no revival. So I started making these little sketches. My burden was so heavy to wake Christians up to pray for revival.'”
***
RT
Hungary must fight ‘Sovietization’ of Europe by defending borders against refugees – Orban
Published time: 24 Oct, 2016 07:52
Edited time: 24 Oct, 2016 08:45
During the commemoration of an anti-communist uprising in 1956, Hungary’s prime minister said his nation must stand up to the “Sovietization” of Europe by defending its borders against migrants, leading to brawls between his supporters and opponents.
“People who love their freedom must save Brussels from Sovietization, from people who want to tell us who we should live with in our countries,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during the Sunday event in Budapest.
The leader, who has been a vocal opponent of EU refugees quotas, went on to state that “we cannot allow Europe to cut the roots that made it great and helped us survive the Soviet suppression. There is no free Europe without nation states and thousands of years of wisdom from Christianity.”
Orban once again affirmed his strong anti-migration stance, saying “we must close the border to stop the mass migration that flows from the south.”
The leader’s statements received boos and whistles from some members of the crowd, who drowned out his words with jeers. Brawls broke out between his opponents and supporters as a result, according to Reuters.
Pro- and anti-government supporters scuffle near a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of 1956 anti-Communist uprising in Budapest, Hungary, October 23, 2016. © Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
Meanwhile, Poland assured its neighbor that it supports Orban’s opposition to the mass migration program Brussels is trying to impose on EU member states.
“You can count on Poland, we march together in the toughest moments...two countries which were built on Christian foundations and are now free in the unified Europe,” Polish President Andrzej Duda, the guest of honor at the event, said.
Pro- and anti-government supporters scuffle near a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of 1956 anti-Communist uprising in Budapest, Hungary, October 23, Orban was one of the earliest opponents of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s belief that all EU states have an obligation to share the burden of taking in refugees. Under that plan, Hungary would be obliged to accept 1,294 asylum seekers.
A recent referendum held on whether to accept the EU’s quota rules on refugees found that 98.3 percent of Hungarians agree with Orban – although low turnout at the polls rendered the vote invalid.
The prime minister has been criticized by the EU for making a number of controversial moves to deal with Europe’s refugee crisis, which hit the tipping point last year. These include securing the country’s southern border with a barbed wire fence and deploying thousands of soldiers and police to catch migrants trying to pass through the nation on their way to Western Europe.
Last month, Orban said the key to dealing with refugees was to send them to camps outside Hungary, noting that “an island” or “a coastal area in North Africa” were viable options.
Last month, Hungary’s tough immigration stance led Luxembourg’s foreign minister to assert that the country treats refugees “nearly as bad as animals,” while calling for its suspension or even expulsion from the EU.
Hungary became inundated with refugees last year, when more than one million migrants made their way through central Europe from the shores of Greece towards Western Europe, and particularly to Germany. The EU is still struggling to handle the refugee crisis, which is the continent’s worst since World War II.
New American
Swedes and Germans Told to Integrate Into Their “New Country”
Written by Jonas Anderson
Tuesday, 25 October 2016
In addition to paying for the importation of well over a million Islamic migrants over the last year, Swedish and German taxpayers are financing advertising campaigns urging them to integrate into the new countries that the mass migration is creating. The changes are irreversible and the old way of life is not coming back, so get used to it and adapt, the natives were told.
In Sweden, a tax-funded TV ad created by a government-backed “charity” called “Individuell Manniskohjalp” (Individual Relief), or IM, informs Swedes that their old country is never coming back. Translated to English, the slogan for the campaign is #TheNewNation. “There is no way back,” the ad begins. “Sweden will never be like it was. Europe is changing and Sweden is needed as a safe space for people who seek refuge. Now we must look forward and find a way to live side by side.”
As African and Middle Eastern faces intermixed with Swedish faces cycle through on the screen, the ad informs viewers that Sweden is in for some dramatic changes. “It’s time to realize the new Swedes will claim their space, and will take up room with cultures, languages and customs,” the narrators say in Swedish, alternating between male and female voices. “It’s time we see this as a positive force. The new country is about shaping a new future.”
The very definition of Swedish is changing, the ad continues, adding that the old Swedes need to adapt to the new country and the customs of the "new Swedes." “To be Swedish must be more than skin color and place of birth, it must be you, me, and everyone together,” the narrator continues. “It's not only new Swedes that need to integrate. Everyone needs to integrate, even established Swedes.”
Then viewers get some more information on just what sort of “integration” is being demanded of them. “Integration is about finding mutual understanding,” the ad continues. “Let's create a future that is based on equal parts reality and belief in the future. Let's build a country where we put hate and fear aside.”
Needless to say it's extremely unlikely that many of the Islamic migrants flooding into Sweden, overwhelmingly male, will be finding “mutual understanding” with the old Sweden's liberal values any time soon. Critics of the ad, speaking out on Twitter and in comment sections, even complained of an alleged “genocide” against native Swedes. After incredible anger, the government-supported charity later said on Twitter that it was not promoting the destruction of Sweden or Swedish culture but “mutual integration,” which “means that the two go together into something bigger.”
The ad also describes #TheNewNation that is emerging, which is really an obliteration of the old nation. “We all have the new country within us, in our worldview, thoughts, and actions,” the narrators say. “The time has come to build a country that is proud, inclusive and sustainable — something new. The New Country — #detnyalandet.” A Somali Muslim with an Islamic head covering is shown as the face of “The New Country.”
It is not the first time Sweden has made global headlines for strange “integration” ideas. Last year Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm Eva Brunne told a church in her diocese that it should remove all crosses from the building so it would be less offensive to newly arrived Muslim migrants. The bishop also said the direction of Mecca should be clearly marked so Muslims would know which way it was.
Many public swimming pools in Sweden now have segregated times so women do not need to worry about being sexually assaulted and groped by Islamic migrants and so Muslims can feel comfortable using the pool.
In 2015 almost 200,000 Islamic migrants from Africa and the Middle East arrived in Sweden, which has 9.8 million people, meaning Sweden accepted the highest number of migrants per capita of any European country. Voters have turned sharply against the government's policy however, with most voters wanting less immigrants and just 13 percent wanting more. Some 80 percent of police are considering quitting their jobs.
Some high-profile figures in Swedish media have called for using rat poison to exterminate Swedes who disagree with the open borders and mass Islamic immigration, comparing them to rats who need to be destroyed.
In Germany, a highly contentious tax-funded advertisement also financed by a United Nations agency actually encourages German women to cover their heads with an Islamic-style outfit as part of “tolerance.” First the ad shows a woman from the back dancing to Islamic-style music while wearing an Islamic outfit. The words “Turkish women wear the Islamic head scarf” appear on the screen.
Then when the woman turns around, it can becomes clear that it is a blonde German woman. “Me too,” she says about wearing the Islamic head covering. “It's beautiful.” Then she says, “Enjoy difference, start tolerance.” Then viewers are told that the ad was made in cooperation with UNESCO, the UN agency in charge of education, culture and science.
Some people were offended by the ad. Others said it would still not be enough to placate hard-line Muslims in Germany. “Much of her hair is showing. Some of her bare leg shows also as she struts around. All these elements of the presentation would make it absolutely unacceptable to the Islamic hardliners that she (and the German government, and UNESCO) are demanding that the Germans tolerate,” said Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. “The tolerance is, as always, one way: no one asks Muslims to enjoy difference, start tolerance. Non-Muslims are told, on pain of charges of racism and hate, that they must tolerate an authoritarian, supremacist ideology whose adherents aim to take power, and once they do, will not accord non-Muslims that same tolerance.”
To be sure, both the Swedish and German governments have “integration” programs to integrate the millions of Muslim migrants into their own decadent “values” systems. A key part of the efforts is a growing censorship campaign to silence dissenters including mass arrests for criticizing Islamic or mass Islamic immigration. Also Muslims and immigrants are being confronted with posters in public places explaining that sexually assaulting women is not allowed.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged Muslim migrants to Germany to create what he described as a “German Islam” that follows liberalism and tolerance rather than the violent demands of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. “The origin of the majority of refugees means that we will be increasingly dealing with people from quite different cultural circles than previously,” Schaeuble said in a strange column published by Welt am Sonntag, highlighting mass sex assaults by migrants and recent Islamic terror attacks in Germany that had Germans on edge about the non-stop immigration flows. “Without a doubt, the growing number of Muslims in our country today is a challenge for the open-mindedness of mainstream society.”
On October 14 the newspaper Tageszeitung published a letter from a German mother who described what she had seen at a government-supported “integration” session for migrants in Munich. “Here I met about 6-8 mothers, some with their children,” wrote “Anna” in the open letter to the mayor. “All of the women wore headscarves and none of them spoke German. The organizers of the event quickly informed me I will probably find it hard to integrate myself here (their exact words!!!). I should note that I am German. I speak fluent German and I do not wear a headscarf. So I smiled a little and said I would try to integrate myself. Unfortunately, I brought a salami and ham sandwich to the breakfast, to which everyone was asked to bring something. So of course I had even less chance of integrating. I was not able to speak German to anyone at this women's breakfast, which is actually supposed to promote integration, nor was anyone interested in doing so. The organizers did not insist on anyone speaking German, and the women, who appeared to be part of an established Arab-Turkish group, simply wanted to use the room.... So my impression of these events to promote integration is miserable. No interchange takes place at all!!! How can the City of Munich tolerate such a thing? In my view, the entire concept of these events to promote integration must be called into question.” She and her family decided to leave Munich. According to reports Germans are also leaving Germany “in droves.”
Other European leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have said the reason globalists are encouraging the mass Islamic immigration is to destroy Western civilization, Christianity and nation-states to promote internationalism.
EXPRESS
A nation 'WRECKED' by immigration: Do-gooding Swedes turn against migrants amid violence
SWEDEN’S open-door policy has 'WRECKED' Europe’s most liberal nation as the Swedes turn against migrants amid an unprecedented rise in violence and sex attacks.
By REBECCA PERRING
PUBLISHED: 00:00, Mon, Oct 24, 2016 | UPDATED: 13:36, Mon, Oct 24, 2016
For years Sweden has regarded itself as a “humanitarian superpower” - making its mark by offering refugee to those fleeing war and persecution.
But people’s patience with their visitors is wearing thin following a year of violence, sickening sex assaults and the death of social worker Alexandra Mezher, 22, who was knifed to death at an asylum centre for unaccompanied children at the hands of a Somalian migrant who claimed he was 15.
At the time, her grieving mother, an immigrant herself from the Middle East said: “Immigration has destroyed Sweden.”
Sweden, a country of 9.8million, took 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
The influx included 35,400 unaccompanied minors - nine times more than 2015.
But nothing could prepare Stockholm for the rise in crime and an abuse of the criminal system.
And so much so, a nation, which once prided itself on giving a warm welcome to outsiders, has reported a rise in arson attacks against migrant shelters, while support for the right-wing Swedish Democrats has surged.
In January, authorities were forced to admit there were at least 70 girls in migrant centres were asylum child brides, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile, officials fear many migrant children are slipping through the net by lying about their age. Some 667 minors reportedly had their ages adjusted by officials in 2015.
In one horrific case, a Afghan called Ali Bahaman reportedly raped a 15-year-old girl at a children’s psychiatric clinic in Stockholm.
He claimed to be 15, but dental examinations showed he was actually around 19-years-old.
And with initial good intentions, now comes the heavy backlash as the famously liberal nation crumbles under the pressure of the influx of refugees who are believed to have double the chance of becoming employed than a native Swede.
The Swedish Migration Board now keeps the location of migrant centres confidential - a decision made after a note was posted on the door of a hotel housing migrants in north Sweden saying: “This is the last warning. Leave our town.”
While welfare and housing benefits to asylum seekers have been cut.
But not everyone is hostile - Lutheran Bishop Eva Brunne called on churches in Sweden to remove crosses so it didn’t offend Muslims, which was met with an almighty backlash.
Tim Stanley, writing for the Daily Telegraph added: “Liberals beware: evidence is mounting the open borders are unpopular and will not stay open for long.
“An act of generosity is likely to be followed by an act of intolerance - as Sweden’s asylum seekers will tell you.”
The number of asylum seekers to Sweden is expected to be reduced to about 60,000 this year
But the drain on the public purse remains high as fewer than 500 of the 160,000 2015 arrivals have managed to secure jobs.
Concerned about the strain placed on the economy of the country, which was expected to spend about one per cent of its GDP on asylum seekers in 2016.
This is half the amount NATO expects members to spend on DEFENCE budgets.
A Government scheme has been in place since 2013 offering grants of up to 30,000 Kronor (£3,500) to individuals and 75,000 Kronor (£8,600) to families who return to their country of origin voluntarily.
***
BREITBART
Editor of Austria’s Largest Paper Charged with ‘Hate Speech’ over Migrant Article
by CHRIS TOMLINSON
25 Oct 20161,370
An editor of Austria’s largest paper, Kronen Zeitung, is to be tried for hate speech over a commentary he wrote about the migrant crisis last year.
On 25 October 2015, Christoph Biro wrote of the masses of migrants who were travelling through the Styrian countryside and remarked on the assaults and property damage committed by migrants, reports Kurier.
Calling the majority of the migrants “testosterone-driven Syrians”, Mr. Biro recounted the multiple reports of migrants carrying out, in his words, “extremely aggressive sexual assaults”.
He also detailed Afghan men had slashed the seats of the trains that were transporting them to Germany because they refused to sit where Christians had previously sat.
The commentary provoked a negative reaction at the time with 37 complaints lodged against Mr. Biro. He took four weeks off from his position at the time, claiming that he had lost perspective and proportion of the situation.
Many, including the Austrian train company ÖBB, denied that Afghans had destroyed their seats, though cases of sexual assault have been rampant across Austria over the past year.
The prosecutor in the Styrian capital of Graz has confirmed they will be seeking charges against Biro for his comments after the case was brought to them by left-wing SOS Mitmensch. The group released a guide for Austrians earlier this year on how to successfully get people tried for hate speech crimes.
SOS Mitmensch describes itself as a pressure group for human rights and has been a staunch opponent of the anti-mass migration Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) who have significantly risen in the polls over the course of the migrant crisis. Head of the left-wing group, Alexander Pollak, has claimed that his organisation has been inundated with requests on how to report anti-migrant comments to the police.
While many private individuals in Germany and Austria have been successfully prosecuted for anti-migrant, or even migrant-critical rhetoric, the case against Mr. Biro marks the first time a member of the press has been prosecuted in Austria since the migrant crisis began.
A similar case in neighbouring Germany had been that of comedian Jan Böhmermann, who faced charges for insulting the President of Turkey in a crude poem he recited on his television programme; the charges against him were dropped by prosecutors earlier in October.
Even politicians are not immune from hate speech investigations. A Vienna prosecutor is currently looking into charges against FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache over posts made on his Facebook page by other users that may be deemed inflammatory by Austrian law. The prosecutor is looking into whether Mr. Strache or his staff could be liable for not removing offensive comments fast enough.
***
STRATEGIC CULTURE
The Oil-Gas War Over Syria, in Maps
ERIC ZUESSE | 24.10.2016
Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency, though government-run, is providing remarkably clear and reliable diagrammatic descriptions of the current status of the U.S - and - fundamentalist - Sunni, versus Russia - and - Shia - and - NON - fundamentalist - Sunni, sides, in the current oil-and-gas war in the Middle East, for control over territory in Syria, for construction of oil-and-gas pipelines through Syria supplying fuel into the world’s largest energy-market: Europe. Russia is now the dominant supplier of both oil and gas, but its ally Iran is a Shiite gas-powerhouse that wants to share the market there, and Russia has no objection.
Qatar is a Sunni gas-powerhouse and wants to become the main supplier of gas there, and Saudi Arabia is a Sunni oil-powerhouse, which wants to become the major supplier of oil, but Saudi oil and Qatari gas would be pipelined through secular-controlled (Assad's) Syria, and this is why the U.S. and its fundamentalist-Sunni allies, the Sauds, and Qataris, are using Al Qaeda and other jihadists to conquer enough of a strip through Syria so that U.S. companies such as Halliburton will be able safely to place pipelines there, to be marketed in Europe by U.S. firms such as Exxon. Iran also wants to pipeline its gas through Syria, and this is one reason why Iran is defending Syria’s government, against the U.S.-Saudi-Qatari-jihadist invasion, which is trying to overthrow and replace Assad.
Here are the most-informative of Anadolu’s war-maps:
The first presents the effort by many countries to eliminate ISIS control over the large Iraqi city of Mosul. A remarkably frank remark made in this map is "An escape corridor into Syria will be left for Daesh [ISIS] so they can vacate Mosul" - an admission that the U.S. - Saudi - Qatari team want the ISIS jihadists who are in Mosul to relocate into Syria to assist the U.S. - Saudi - Qatari effort there to overthrow and replace the Assad government:
The second is about the Egyptian government's trying to assist the Syrian government's defense against the Saudi - U.S. - Qatari invasion of Syria, at Aleppo, where Syria's Al Qaeda branch is trying to retain its current control over part of that large city. The Saud family are punishing the Egyptian government for that:
Here is Russia's proposed gas-pipeline, which would enable Russia to reduce its dependence upon Ukraine (through which Russia currently pipelines its gas into Europe). Obama conquered and took over Ukraine in February 2014 via his coup that overthrew the democratically elected neutralist Ukrainian President there:
In addition, there is the following map from oil-price.com:
That map shows the competing Shiia (Russia-backed) and Sunni (U.S.-backed) gas-pipelines into Europe — the central issue in the invasion and defense of Syria.
On 21 September 2016, Gareth Porter headlined «The War Against the Assad Regime Is Not a ‘Pipeline War’», and he pointed out some errors in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s account that had been published under the headline «Syria: Another Pipeline War». Porter argued: «It's easy to understand why that explanation would be accepted by many anti-war activists: it is in line with the widely accepted theory that all the US wars in the Middle East have been ‘oil wars’ — about getting control of the petroleum resources of the region and denying them to America's enemies.
But the ‘pipeline war’ theory is based on false history and it represents a distraction from the real problem of US policy in the Middle East — the US war state's determination to hold onto its military posture in the region». Porter ignored the key question there, as to why «the US war state» has a «determination to hold onto its military posture in the region». Opening and protecting potential oil-gas-pipeline routes are important reasons why. Clearly, Kennedy’s documentation that the CIA was trying as early as 1949 to overthrow Syria’s secular government so as to allow to the Sauds a means of cheaply transporting their oil through Syria into Europe, remains unaffected by any of the objections that Porter raised to Kennedy’s article. The recent portion of Kennedy’s timeline is affected, but not his basic argument.
Furthermore, any military strategist knows that «the US war state» is intimately connected to the U.S. oil-and-gas industries, including pipelines («oilfield services») as well as marketing (Exxon etc.). And Porter got entirely wrong what that connection (which he ignored) actually consists of: it consists of U.S. government taxpayer-funded killers for those U.S. international corporations. Here is how Barack Obama put it, when addressing graduating cadets at West Point, America’s premier military-training institution:
Russia’s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China’s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us, and governments seek a greater say in global forums. And even as developing nations embrace democracy and market economies, 24-hour news and social media makes it impossible to ignore the continuation of sectarian conflicts and failing states and popular uprisings that might have received only passing notice a generation ago.
It will be your generation’s task to respond to this new world. The question we face, the question each of you will face, is not whether America will lead, but how we will lead - not just to secure our peace and prosperity, but also extend peace and prosperity around the globe.
He was saying there that America’s military is in service to U.S.-based international corporations in their competition against those of Russia, Brazil, China, India, and anywhere else in which «rising middle classes compete with us». Those places are what Gareth Porter referred to as «America's enemies».
Economic competitors are «enemies». Obama thinks that way, and even a progressive journalist such as Porter doesn’t place into a skeptical single - quotation - mark - surround, the phrase ‘America’s enemies’ when that phrase is used in this equational context. On both the right (Obama) and the left (Porter), the equation of a government and of the international corporations that headquarter in its nation — the treatment of the military as being an enforcement-arm for the nation’s international corporations — is simply taken for granted, not questioned, not challenged.
RFK Jr. was correct, notwithstanding some recent timeline-errors. Syria is «Another Pipeline War», and Obama is merely intensifying it. (On 9 November 2015, I offered a different account than RFK Jr. provided of the recent history — the Obama portion — of the longstanding U.S. aggression against Syria; and it links back to Jonathan Marshall’s excellent articles on that, and to other well-sourced articles, in addition to primary sources, none of which contradict RFK Jr.’s basic view, «Syria: Another Pipeline War».).
Another portion of Porter’s commentary is, however, quite accurate: America’s ‘Defense’ (or mass-killing-abroad) industries (such as Lockheed Martin) are not merely servants of the U.S. government, but are also served by the U.S. government: «the US war state's determination to hold onto its military posture in the region» is protection of the major market — the Middle Eastern market — for U.S. ‘Defense’ products and services. It’s not only America’s firms in the oil, gas, and pipelines, industries, which benefit from America’s military; it is also America’s firms in the mass-killing industries, that do.
To the extent that the public (here including Barack Obama and Gareth Porter) do not condemn the presumption that «the business of America is business», or that a valid function of U.S. - taxpayer - funded military and other foreign-affairs operations is to serve the stockholders of U.S. international corporations, the hell (such as in Syria) will continue. Gareth Porter got lost among the trees because he failed to see (and to point to) that forest.
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WOLF STREET
Tiny Region of Wallonia in Small Country of Belgium Trips up Global Corporatocracy
by Don Quijones • October 22, 2016
Visibly shaken, as Reuters put it, Canadian trade minister Chrystia Freeland walked out of EU trade negotiations in Belgium on Friday evening, lamenting that the EU is “incapable of reaching an agreement – even with a country with European values such as Canada.”
A big trade deal that had taken years to negotiate, mostly in total secrecy, had just collapsed. So how in the world did such a mega screw-up happen?
In Europe, all that is needed for the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada to come into effect, “provisionally” (in EU double-speak, more or less irrevocably), before being passed to national parliaments to vote on, is for the governments of the EU’s 28 Member States to sign along the dotted line.
This could usher in a new age of corporate domination, for CETA, just like its sister deals TTIP, TPP and TiSA, is not really a trade deal at all; it’s an investment rights deal that will effectively neuter the ability of national elected governments to regulate in the interests of their electorate.
Yet almost all of the EU’s national governments are firmly on board. Even the UK government has promised it will sign the deal, even as it prepares to negotiate a clean break from the EU. In Spain, there is no elected government, yet Rajoy’s caretaker administration has assured Brussels that it, too, will happily lend its signature to the agreement.
But the European Commission needs the signatures of all 28 nations. And to its mounting frustration, the Belgian region of Wallonia refuses to sign the agreement, citing a host of social, political and economic reasons, including the inclusion of an Investment State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause and the possibility of non-Canadian corporations using the deal to gain greater access to EU markets. As long as the region of 3.5 million refuses to sign along the dotted line, Belgium’s federal government’s hands are tied.
Wallonia’s resistance has already prevented EU trade ministers from gaining unanimous support for the deal at a meeting in Luxembourg on October 18, as was originally planned. Senior Eurocrats and members of the Canadian government are understandably furious. So, too, are the hundreds of business lobby groups that kindly helped draft the trade agreement.
“Nobody would understand if it were not possible now, after so many efforts,” said an exasperated Martin Schulz, the EU Parliament chief.
“The problems go beyond CETA,” warned the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk. “If we are not able to convince people that trade agreements are in their interest (Ha!), that our representatives negotiate the FTAs to protect people’s interests (Ha Ha!), we will have no chance to build public support for free trade, and I’m afraid that it means that CETA could be our last free trade agreement.”
Predictably, Walloon President Paul Magnette has come under intense pressure to change his mind on CETA, after Wallonia’s regional legislature rejected the deal on Oct. 14. The Canada European Roundtable for Business promptly sent Magnette a “bluntly worded letter,” while Canada’s Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland dispatched Pierre Pettigre, a former trade minister (and current director of several Canadian mining interests) to meet with Magnette.
After the meeting with Pettigrew, Magnette told reporters that “the pressures are very strong.” He also complained that his region had faced “thinly veiled threats” from corporations before the Oct. 18 trade ministers meeting in Luxembourg. None of which should come as a surprise given the stakes involved. As Tusk said, “to have the deal between over 500 million EU citizens and 35 million Canadians fall apart over the objections of a region of 3.5 million after seven years of talks would undermine the credibility of the EU as a whole.”
It would also deliver yet another heavy blow to the designs and aspirations of the global corporatocracy, which has already had to suffer the ignominy of failing to get the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) passed into law before the end of President Obama’s second term, due to the sheer scale and intensity of public opposition to the deal in Europe. Even the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has already been signed but not ratified, is beginning to face mounting opposition in countries like Japan, Vietnam, and the US.
The biggest concern in Europe is over the much greater role that private arbitration will play in a post-CETA world. It would effectively grant corporations full sovereignty rights – including the right to sue any government that threatens their ability to earn profits at just about any social, human, or environmental cost. The difference between CETA and its sister agreements TPP and TTIP is that instead of investor-state dispute cases being heard in private arbitral tribunals, they would be heard in a permanent international Investment Court System – ICS – with real judges and slightly more transparency.
But the end result would be more or less the same: punitive legal fees for national governments and billions of euros in damages drained from public coffers. That’s not to mention the inevitable rise in regulatory chill, as governments refrain from passing regulatory measures in the public interest due to the threat of being sued by private foreign investors. Once such a system is in place, each and every investment that foreign corporations make in a member country will effectively be backstopped by that government (and by extension, its citizens and taxpayers); it will be too-big-to-fail writ on an unimaginable scale.
And yet, in the most perverse of ironies, it is a system that appears to be almost universally endorsed by our political leaders, who are effectively voting themselves out of a job. It is an irony that was not lost on the Spanish arbitrator Juan Fernandez-Armesto, who had the following to say:
When I wake up at night and think about arbitration, it never ceases to amaze me that sovereign states have agreed to investment arbitration at all […]. Three private individuals are entrusted with the power to review, without any restriction or appeal procedure, all actions of the government, all decisions of the courts, and all laws and regulations emanating from parliament.
If CETA is signed, it won’t be just Canadian investors and companies who will be able to sue EU governments. As the second edition of the report Making Sense of CETA argues, 81% of US enterprises active in the EU (about 42,000 firms) would conceivably fit the definition of a Canadian “investor” with recourse to ISDS under the EU-Canada agreement:
US companies are already known for this kind of aggressive exploitation of the ISDS system. Should the provisions on investment protection in CETA survive, if or when the agreement is ratified, there would be virtually no need to incorporate them in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
In other words, it would be game, set and match for the global corporatocracy. The only thing stopping that from transpiring is the government of the tiny region of Wallonia in the small country of Belgium.
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PRESSTV
Philippine President Duterte wants US troops out in two years
Wed Oct 26, 2016 6:55PM
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a banquet hosted by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (not pictured) in Tokyo on October 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he wants US troops out of his country in the next two years, amid rising tensions between Manila and Washington.
Duterte told an economic forum in the Japanese capital Tokyo on Wednesday that Manila was also willing to scrap defense pacts with Washington if necessary.
"I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops," Duterte said in a clear reference to US forces, adding, "I want them out and if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, I will."
Duterte told reporters on Tuesday before leaving for Japan that if he stayed longer, he would not sign the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States.
President Duterte has promised that he would review the defense pact. He has already said that the presence of the US troops in the island of Mindanao could complicate Manila’s operations against the Abu Sayyaf militant group, notorious for different terrorist attacks in the country.
In a meeting with business leaders in the Chinese capital Beijing last week, Duterte said the Philippines would "separate" from the United States and realign with China and Russia.
The Philippine president has tried to reach out to China and Russia amid an uneasy relationship with Washington.
Last month, the Filipino leader harshly criticized the US and President Barack Obama, saying he was not a “puppet” of America. “I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people.”
Washington is critical of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. The attitude has led to tensions between the Philippines and the United States.
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THE FIX IS IN: George Soros Causes OUTRAGE With SHOCKING Prediction About Election…
by Top Right News on September 1, 2016 by Jason DeWitt | Top Right News
During an interview with Bloomberg News, Democrat mega-donor George Soros openly admits that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will win the popular vote in a “landslide,” but says a President Hillary Clinton is already a “done deal.”
In the interview which is now surfacing, the billionaire powerbroker Soros says with certainty that Trump will win the popular vote in the country, but says that won’t make him president because the Electoral College vote will go for Clinton.
When the interviewer asks if it’s a “done deal” for Clinton as president, Soros says “yes,” nodding his head. Check out the interview segment here:
What does Soros know that We The People do not? Has the Electoral College already been “paid off” for Hillary, no matter what the popular result?
Stay vigilant, America.
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RT
‘Mysterious dragon’ filmed flying through Chinese mountains (VIDEO)
Published time: 20 Oct, 2016 13:57
A video showing a ‘dragon’ flying across a mountain range in China has left netizens bickering over whether the footage is real or fake.
Uploaded by YouTuber ApexTV, the five-minute clip has been viewed almost 200,000 times and apparently shows the mythical beast flying over an unnamed mountain range somewhere near the border between China and Laos.
Dragons are seen as a majestic creature in China’s folklore and the footage has captivated many, but some viewers have disputed whether the animal is a dragon or a flying dinosaur.
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Natural Blaze
Fukushima – The Untouchable Eco-Apocalypse No One Is Talking About
OCTOBER 26, 2016NATURAL HEALTH NEWS
By Alex Pietrowski
The most important ecological crisis of the world has ever seen has been underway since March 11th, 2011, yet there is nary a mention of it in the corporate media, and no political body in the world is championing its resolution.
Widespread Denial and Willful Ignorance
The media, politicians and the world at large seem to be engaging in extreme denial regarding Fukushima. A survey of mainstream media coverage of the fallout of this event reveals the trend of covering this story as a human interest affair, not as the immediate threat it truly is.
The effects on nature are already being seen, yet even among the environmentalist factions of media, there is strong denial of the damage already done and of what is to come as the crisis approaches its sixth year. Some 300 tons of radioactive water are dumped into the Pacific Ocean each day, and signs are showing that this catastrophe is gravely affecting sea-life and wildlife in and around the Pacific.
NAT-ResponsiveText
The FDA maintains that there is no evidence of contamination by Fukushima borne radionuclides in the American food supply, yet this opinion is contested by some independent researchers. A report by the Fairewinds Energy Education says that cancer is on the rise in areas around the failed power plant, and that millions will die in coming years as a result.
“[T]he second report received from Japan proves that the incidence of thyroid cancer is approximately 230 times higher than normal in Fukushima Prefecture… So what’s the bottom line? The cancers already occurring in Japan are just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sorry to say that the worst is yet to come.”
As election year in the U.S. approaches its dramatic climax, it has been striking to observe that neither of the major two-party candidates, or third-party candidates for that matter, have mentioned this crisis at all during the entire election run up. It is a non-issue in American politics, and if you’re listening, the silence is deafening.
The 40-Year-Plan
Thus far, all plans to stop radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean and the Japanese Islands have failed, the most impressive of which is the construction of a $320 million underground wall of frozen dirt to block the seepage of groundwater into surrounding areas. 1oo feet deep and over a mile long, the ‘land-side impermeable wall‘ is already failing as rainfall from recent typhoons has caused partial melting of sections of the ‘ice wall.’
A previous and ongoing cleanup effort requires the on site storage of contaminated water near the Fukushima Daiichi is merely a band-aid as radioactive water continues to accumulate by the day, with no long term plan for proper disposal.
“…the filtered water is still full of tritium, a radioactive version of hydrogen. (When two neutrons are added to the element, it becomes unstable, prone to emitting electrons.) Tritium bonds with oxygen just like normal hydrogen does, to produce radioactive “tritiated water.” It’s impractical—or at least extremely difficult and expensive—to separate tritiated water from normal water.”
The reality here is that this crisis is untouchable in its scope and unparalleled in its lethality, andTEPCO’s 40-year-plan to decommission the plant will be a failure.
Final Thoughts
No one of significant import is talking about this crisis or working to elevate it as a national and international priority. The American political scene is focused instead on the selection of the next president being chosen between two candidates who clearly have zero interest in addressing this dire issue.
Is this because nothing can be done about it? Is this because the energy industry is controlling the conversation and covering up the truth? Or is this because the agenda for the U.S. at present is geared to destabilization and a push for expansion of the Orwellian Permanent War, and ecological disasters are supportive of the global depopulation scheme in play?
In any case, the Fukushima meltdown is a slow-burning apocalyptic event that desperately needs our attention.
For more background, please view the following video summary:
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Until
next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions
“And
the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the
dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward
unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear
thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy
the earth.”