“Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.”
(Galatians 4:24-25)
Two Covenants
For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia
The Arabic version, instead of Arabia, reads "Balca". The Syriac version makes Hagar to be a mountain, reading the words thus, "for Mount Hagar is Sinai, which is in Arabia": and some have been of opinion that Sinai was called Hagar by the Arabians. It is certain, that which may be pronounced Hagar, does signify in the Arabic language a stone or rock; and that one part of Arabia is called Arabia Petraea, from the rockiness of it; the metropolis of which was "Agara", and the inhabitants Agarenes; and Hagar was the name of the chief city of Bahrein, a province of Arabia and it may be observed, that when Hagar, with her son, was cast out, they dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, ( Genesis 21:21) which was near to Sinai, as appears from (Numbers 10:12) (Deuteronomy 33:2 ) so that it is possible that this mount might be so called from her, though there is no certainty of it; and near to it, as Grotius observes, was a town called Agra, mentioned by Pliny as in Arabia. However, it is clear, that Sinai was in Arabia, out of the land of promise, where the law was given, and seems to be mentioned by the apostle with this view, that it might be observed, and teach us that the inheritance is not of the law. It is placed by Jerom in the land of Midian; and it is certain it must be near it, if not in it, as is clear from ( Exodus 3:1 ) . And according to Philo the Jew, the Midianites, as formerly called, were a very populous nation of the Arabians: and Madian, or Midian, is by Mahomet spoken of as in Arabia; and it may be observed, that they that are called Midianites in ( Genesis 37:36 ) are said to be Ishmaelites, ( Genesis 39:1 ) the name by which the Arabians are commonly called by the Jews. The apostle therefore properly places this mountain in Arabia. But after all, by Agar, I rather think the woman is meant: and that the sense is, that this same Agar signifies Mount Sinai, or is a figure of the law given on that mount. John Gill
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STRANGE SOUNDS
Desert turns green in Saudi Arabia
December 15, 2018
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BREAKINGISRAELNEWS
Revealing the Hidden: Special Hanukkah Dedication of Third Temple Altar
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz
December 10, 2018
“Then Hashem your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the peoples where Hashem your God has scattered you.” Deuteronomy 30:3 (The Israel Bible™)
Kohanim stand in front of the altar – constructed for use in the Third Temple – and other vessels. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
On Monday, the last day of Hanukkah, the Sanhedrin called out to the 70 Nations to join in the consecration of the altar for the Third Temple. A full-dress reenactment of the daily sacrifice was held and a representative of a South American nation who attended was the recipient of a miraculous fulfillment of the Messianic promise of the ingathering of the exiles.
After months of intensive study, the Sanhedrin ordered a stone altar built, scheduling its dedication to take place on the last day of Hanukkah just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The square altar is nine feet square and five feet high and is constructed of aerated concrete. The material was ruled to be fit for use in the Temple. In the Talmud, it is explained that steel may not be used to cut the stones of the altar since the Temple Service brings life into the world and steel, as it is used in war, takes life. Stones for the altar may not be cut using steel since the Temple service brings life into the world and steel though not ideal, it is light and easily transported and sized to be loaded onto a truck. The altar was constructed on a metal frame designed also for purposes of transportability. The intent was to create an altar that could be taken to the Temple Mount at a moment’s notice should the need arise.
Rabbi Baruch Kahane served as the High Priest, instructing the other priests in their functions. Just as in Solomon’s Temple, the different tasks to be performed were assigned by lottery. The priests wore Biblically accurate garb appropriate for use in the Temple. Incense was made for the reenactment that contained some, though not all, of the eleven ingredients required for Temple use. It is forbidden by Torah law to burn the incense outside of the Temple. A small quantity, smaller than would be burnt in than the actual service, was burned on the replica Golden Altar. Among the priests were young boys who were being trained in the Temple service.
The municipal authorities did not permit a sheep to be slaughtered on site so one was slaughtered at another location. The sections of meat were arranged on the ramp leading up to the altar in the ritually prescribed manner and one piece was thrown onto the fire on the altar to be burned completely.
About 150 people attended including several non-Jewish tourists. Moshe Feiglin, head of the Zehut party and a former Member of Knesset, attended the ceremony as well.
Mario Adolfo Bucaro Flores, the Ambassador of Guatemala was a guest of honor at the ceremony.
“This is a truly historic moment,” the ambassador said when he addressed the crowd. “My government is pleased to be partners with the Sanhedrin and with Israel in bringing [the] Messiah.”
As Ambassador Flores descended from the stage, one of the rabbis from the Sanhedrin noted that his address was very powerful and seemed to come from a very deep personal place. The rabbi asked Flores if he had any connection to the Jewish people. Surprisingly, Flores revealed that he had Jewish relatives on his mother’s side of his family. Rabbis of the Sanhedrin gathered around the Ambassador and asked him several questions. According to Jewish law, Jewish status is matrilineal. In the presence of the rabbinic court, it was determined that Flores was a Jew. This came as a surprise to Flores who was unaware that his family connection conferred upon him Jewish status. To mark the occasion, the rabbis assisted Flores in donning tefillin (phylacteries) a mitzvah (Torah commandment) of the highest order.
Rabbi Hillel Weiss, the spokesman for the Sanhedrin, noted that it was highly symbolic that such a revelation should come about at the dedication of the altar.
“We are on the cusp of the revelation of the Moshiach (Messiah),” Rabbi Weiss told Breaking Israel News. “One of the functions of the Messiah is the ingathering of the exiles. This is not merely people deciding to come to Israel. It is a miraculous process, which is what we saw here. It is God revealing things that are hidden: hidden Jews, hidden connections to Israel, love for Hashem (God, literally, ‘the name) that has been hidden away and not seen since all 70 nations came together to pray to the One God in Jerusalem.”
Dave Hodges The Common Sense Show
The Arrival: Bad Entities with Demonic Intentions
The Earth is being terraformed and it is not in the best interest of the inhabitants on this planet. The terraforming events represent a series of extinction level events.
The Earth is being terraformed and it is not in the best interest of the inhabitants on this planet. The terraforming events represent a series of extinction level events.
In yesterday’s article, I revealed how Bill Pawelec , Vance Davis, myself and others were involved with Enron during the Federal Government take down of Ken Lay. It was also revealed that we we were all dealing with Tesla forms of energy. Tesla had stated that free energy was the result of information given to him by “inter-dimensional beings”. This energy source was not be in the hands of “unsupervised” humans because of the profound weapons applications and the fact this energy would make all humans completely independent of all control over their existence because resource hording could not control access to humans needs for food and water. These entities will not allow mankind to be free and independent.
This is a multi-part series on ultimately what we would call suppressed technology. The major reason that this technology was not allowed to come to light under Tesla and then again, under Ken Lay of Enron, is because it would interfere with the terraforming of the planet.
Terraforming is a phrase that is often used by NASA to describe the effects of producing massive amounts of CO2 designed to make an atmosphere, like Mars, more like the atmosphere on earth. Therefore, terraforming simply refers to transforming the environment for a specific political or military purpose. And that is precisely what is going on with our planet today.
Charlie Sheen and the Movie, The Arrival
In the 1997 movie, The Arrival, NASA scientist, Zane Zaminsky. played by actor, Charlie Sheen, routinely swept the night skies skies for signs of extraterrestrial electromagnetic transmissions.
Frustrated by the lack of results, Zaminsky decides to try a novel approach as he sets the large radio antenna to 107 on the FM dial and promptly picks up a big spike from the star labeled, Wolf 336.
Zaminky takes the transmission to Phil Gordian, his superior at NASA. Gordian is not impressed, but Gordian is really an alien and disturbed by Zaminsky’s discovery. In fact, he immediately informs Zaminsky that due to budget cut-backs he has been terminated.
After Zaminsky leaves NASA, Gordian destroys the tape. Shortly after, some men show up at the radio telescope and confiscate all the files and a typical sci-fi thriller is set into motion.
The fix is in as Zaminsky’s co-worker dies in a house fire. Zaminsky decides to investigate as he equips his house with a phased array using several home satellite dishes. His efforts prove fruitful as he receives yet another transmission. Zaminsky is able to determine that the the interlaced signal emanates with a regular FM signal from Mexico.
Zaminsky becomes a one man investigative team and travels to the radio station only to find it burned to the ground as well. As Zaminsky searches for the radio dish that sent the second signal, he comes upon another scientist who is investigating a rapid global warming effect localized in central Mexico. At the time, she is being accosted by some security guards from a nearby power plant. Eventually, a power plant official lets them both go. Later that evening the scientist is murdered to cover up what is going on. Zaminsky sneaks into the power plant. Inside, he finds an immense underground “green-house gas” generator that is terraforming the planet.
Zaminsky discovers that the alien presence as gained more than a foothold and the aliens,already on the planet, have created twenty such plants in third-world countries to change the atmosphere of the Earth and make it suitable for colonization in only ten years. Zaminsky confronts Gordian with this information. He assumes that Gordian is an alien and manages to get Gordian on video tape admitting to the plan. After a final climactic scene at the radio telescope, Zaminsky does manage to transmit the tape to a weather satellite that is constantly recorded by fifty television stations, thereby spreading the word about the aliens. The aliens goal is destroy the planet for human habitation and make it suitable for their “arrival.
Four Major Terraforming Events
I have known about the attempted terraforming of the planet by entities who are not human and I have known it for over 20 years. Vance Davis and myself have decided to tell all. The four terraforming events are:
Fukushima, which is far worse than most people realize
The far-reaching effects of the Gulf Oil Spill.
GMO’s and the destruction of our collective DNA. Yes, I am saying that humans are being terraformed.
Transhumanism
Chemtrails
The implementation of 5G, that humanity will not survive.
CERN is also a part of this. Some of these terraforming events are opening portals for entry by very evil entities.
In the next part in this series, I will detail how each of these six attacks upon humanity is part of a terraforming plot very similar to the movie, The Arrival.
Conclusion: Interference with the Revelation
Vance Davis and I interviewed two nights ago. Before I could transfer the MP3 to a USB for distribution on my radio interview. The interview had been wiped clean off of my computer. This prompted my taking to the Internet and begin to tell all. Yes, I have taken precautions and disseminated the information to trusted third parties for safety reasons.
For the past 36 hours, I have been unable to ring Vance Davis’ phone. The night before last, I was detailing this story to Paul Martin and were disconnected 7 times in 6 minutes according t my caller ID.
I was conducting a pre-recorded interview with Dr. Ted Broer and he mentioned that Tesla claimed he received the free energy information from inter-dimensional sources and our interview was terminated.
In one more conversation that I was having with 5G expert, Virginia Farver, we were discussing the root of the 5G technology and how it is a human extinction event, and we had trouble with our communications.
Eventually, I will be able to contact Vance Davis and we will redo the interview. I have/will conducted interviews with all the people mentioned in this article regarding the threat being posed to humanity. There is no way that these demonic entities and their human collaborators will be allowed to carry out this plot in stealth. Stay tuned, there is much more to come.
WND
Real-life 'Raider of the Lost Ark' strikes again!
Posted By Patty Ann Malley
December 18, 2018
Raiders of the Lost Ark – Egyptian style
Think Indiana Jones or Laura Croft have raided all the tombs? Think again.
A modern-day archeological expedition, led by Secretary General Mostafa Waziri of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has unearthed an untouched grave south of Cairo.
The ancient crypt, discovered at the Saqqara dig site, dates to the Fifth Dynasty. That’s the reign of the pharaohs over 4,400 years ago.
“The tomb belonged to a royal purification priest known as “Wahtye,” (Khaled) al-Anani (Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani ) told CNN. Inscriptions suggested the priest had served during the reign of King Nefer-Ir-Ka-Re and was the king’s supervisor and inspector of the holy boat.
Whoever this individual was in life, he warranted a fantastic send-off, Egyptian style.
The site has barely been plumbed but has already yielded historically significant murals, statuary and a wealth of colorful relief sculpture. Like a step back in time, the vaults are revealing their secrets. Even the pigments chosen by ancient artists is fresh and vital, despite the passage of epochs, adding vivid insight into the life and times of a culture long gone but hardy forgotten.
“Various drawings depict “the manufacturing of pottery and wine, making religious offering, musical performances, boats sailing, the manufacturing of the funerary furniture, and hunting,” according to Egypt Today
Did you catch that? Five new sealed shafts? That means there’s plenty more to find.
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RT
Bull market over: Alan Greenspan tells investors to 'run for cover'
December 19, 2108
© Global Look Press
Former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan has warned investors to get ready for a painful correction in the stock market, as it cannot stabilize and unlikely to muster another rally.
“It would be very surprising to see it sort of stabilize here, and then take off again,” Greenspan said in an interview with CNN Business. “Markets could still go up, but at the end of that run, run for cover.”
The stock market has already stopped its bull run and is beginning to tumble, according to the famed economist, who is citing the reaction over the recent days. On Tuesday, stocks managed to stabilize after Monday's big tumble that knocked US indices to their lowest levels in over a year.
Concerns over the slowing global economy and trade disputes have been keeping stocks in decline since October. As of Monday, the benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average were on track for the worst December since 1931, when stocks were crushed during the Great Depression.
Greenspan served as Fed chair from August 1987 until January 2006. His comments came a day before the current head of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, is widely expected to announce another possible interest rate hike along with the central bank’s forecast for next year.
The expected increase of the key rate would become the fourth this year, and ninth since the financial crisis. Greenspan added that he has observed a “pronounced” rise in real long-term interest rates, the “key factor which is bringing the stock market down.”
“In fact, it accounts for all of the weakness recently, and I think it’s going to continue to account for it, because we’re in a period now where I think long-term rates are going to rise,” the economist said.
According to Greenspan, the US economy faces a so-called “stagflation” environment with both price inflation and a weakening economic backdrop.
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RT
Coal in stocking: Markets on track for worst December since Great Depression
December 18, 2018
Outside of the New York Stock Exchange © Reuters / Lucas Jackson
Wall Street has suffered the worst start to December since 1980, with stocks showing no sign of recovery before the holidays. The Dow and the S&P 500 are heading toward their worst final month since the Great Depression.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost has 507 points, closing more than two percent lower on Monday. The S&P 500 lurched to a 14-month low, also showing more than a two percent loss for the day.
The selloff continued on the Asian markets, with Japan’s Nikkei slumping by 1.8 percent on Tuesday. China’s Shanghai Composite closed almost one percent lower.
Analysts explain the market’s bad performance by investor fears over the cooling economy and lack of signs on the US-China trade dispute settlement. Fears of the expected interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve became one of the major forces driving the market’s volatile behavior in the last few months. US president Donald Trump put pressure on the Fed on Monday, arguing it would be madness to raise interest rates.
“It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation… the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike,” Trump tweeted.
“With increased stock market volatility and signs of slower growth overseas, there are increasing calls for the Fed to halt its rate increases,” wrote David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds. “This is where the Fed needs to keep its head first, because current Fed policy is neither too aggressive nor too tight and second, because a change of course at this point could undermine confidence.”
December is typically a very positive month for markets, with a “Santa Claus” rally propelling stocks upward at the end of the year. This time experts warn that if the current downward trend continues, the S&P and the Dow will have their worst December performances since the Great Depression of 1931.
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Zero Hedge
In Drastic Reversal, Trump Orders Full Withdrawal From Syria After "Victory Over ISIS"
by Tyler Durden
December 19, 2018
update 2: A troop withdrawal appears already underway after a Pentagon official said it would happen "quickly".
White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders has issued a formal statement on troop withdrawal from Syria: "We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign."
Moments after President Trump confirmed reports of US pullout via Twitter saying "We have defeated ISIS in Syria," Pentagon officials said the president "ordered full US troop withdrawal from Syria," and that this will be "rapid" — apparently already beginning, per a Reuters breaking report: "All U.S. State Department personnel are being evacuated from Syria within 24 hours - official."
The full White House statement issued Wednesday late morning:
Meanwhile Israel's ambassador to the U.N. has vowed to continue combating Iran in Syria if US forces leave. Russia has alternately said "Syria will stabilize" should the thousands of American troops stationed there exit.
update: It's official, within an hour after the first headline the president tweeted "We have defeated ISIS in Syria" and in reference to reports of a planned US troop withdrawal from Syria which unnamed officials say is to be initiated "immediately," he added that the terror group's defeat was "my only reason for being there".
Minutes after the WSJ first broke the story, The Washington Post confirmed the following through a defense official:
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that has not yet been announced, said the decision would include the entire force of more than 2,000 U.S. service members. It was made on Tuesday, the official said.
President Trump has long promised to conclude the campaign against the Islamic State and has questioned the value of costly and dangerous military missions overseas.
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The WSJ just reported a monumental and historic reversal in White House policy on Syria, revealing Wednesday morning the Pentagon is preparing to withdraw all forces from northeastern Syria"immediately":
In an abrupt reversal, the U.S. military is preparing to withdraw its forces from northeastern Syria, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a move that throws the American strategy in the Middle East into turmoil.
U.S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State, the people said.
US forces in Syria, via ABC News
The WSJ notes the complete 180 reversal in policy, which just days ago was reiterated by officials as an "indefinite" American presence in Syria in order to "counter Iran" while bolstering Kurdish and Arab SDF forces in the East (the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces), comes following a phone call last week between President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
For the past week Erdogan has threatened to launch a full-scale cross border assault on US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, which Turkey has long considered an terrorist extension of the outlawed PKK. This would potentially bring American troops and advisers under fire, who've found themselves in the awkward position since entering Syria of training Syrian Kurdish militias on the one hand, and coordinating broadly with a NATO ally on the other.
Perhaps Trump finally took full stock of the fact that the prior planned "indefinite" presence of some 4000 American troops was recipe for a quagmire sure to be Washington's next Afghan or Iraq style "endless war"?
As one recent intelligence study put it: "The prospect of US being militarily involved in Syria, caught in middle of one of most complex conflicts in recent memory, with shifting objectives & ambiguous endgame, has been met with congressional indifference and public apathy."
Will America finally exit Syria? Is Trump belatedly making good on his campaign promises? (We'll see.)
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RT
‘Russia wins’: Fury in Washington as Trump announces withdrawal from Syria
December 19, 2018
<
p>US troops on patrol with Turkish forces near Manbij, Syria, November 1, 2018. © US Army / Arnada Jones (via Reuters)
President Donald Trump’s decision to declare ISIS defeated and order a full US withdrawal from Syria has been met with anger and disbelief by the Washington establishment that hoped for regime change in Damascus.
Trump declared victory over Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) on Wednesday morning, as media reported that some 2,000 or so US troops will leave Syria within 60 to 100 days. Though Trump had openly spoken about wanting to leave Syria back in March, senior officials in his administration have said that US forces would stay there indefinitely
CNN’s Jake Tapper reacted to the announcement by quoting an anonymous Pentagon official who saw it as a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hillary Clinton’s former foreign policy adviser Jesse Lehrich bemoaned that the withdrawal would embolden Syrian President Bashar Assad and strengthen Russia and Iran, while leaving the US-allied Kurdish militias “once again hung out to dry.”
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), known as a foreign policy hawk, also disagreed with a withdrawal, calling it a “colossal” mistake and a “grave error that's going to have significant repercussions in the years and months to come.”
Rubio echoed Lehrich’s assessment that the US withdrawal would turn Syria over to Russia and Iran, adding that it might lead to another conflict between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and lend strength to the (hypothetical) argument by Russia and China that Washington is an “unreliable ally.”
Another foreign policy hawk, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said the pullout would be “a huge Obama-like mistake,” enabling the revival of IS and putting the Kurds at risk.
The Atlantic Council’s resident Syria expert, Faysal Itani, was likewise glum in his predictions.
“I expect ISIS will be back in some form within a year, and expelling Iran from Syria will not be achieved if the US is not in Syria at all,” he told the UAE-based The National, adding that a more likely outcome would be “a possible military confrontation between Turkey and the Kurds, at least in the border area, if Russia allows that.”
The Washington Post’s foreign policy editor Jackson Diehl wondered how Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton felt about the withdrawal, given his recent statements about the US staying in Syria as long as any Iranian-backed forces were there, meaning indefinitely.
Critics of the US involvement in Syria, however, cheered on the news of the withdrawal, pointing out that the real mistake was Washington getting involved in the attempt to overthrow the government in Damascus in the first place.
One satirical news site perhaps put it best, "reporting" that both the left and the right were taking aim at Trump for "breaking with the longstanding American tradition of remaining in Middle Eastern countries indefinitely."
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RT
The real reason Western media & CIA turned against Saudi MBS
Darius Shahtahmasebi is a New Zealand-based legal and political analyst, currently specializing in immigration, refugee and humanitarian law.
December 14, 2018
Mohammed bin Salman (r) and Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit Conference Centre in Buenos Aires © Global Look Press / Ralf Hirschberger
Forces are aligning against Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, lead by elements within the CIA and strong players in the mainstream media. But what is really behind this deterioration in relationship, and what are its implications?
Following the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, western media and various entities, including the CIA, appear to have turned their back on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS). In response to the scandal, the Guardian released a video which its celebutante, Owen Jones, captioned“Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest threats on Earth. Time to stop propping up its repulsive regime.”
The Guardian was not alone in its condemnation. “It’s high time to end Saudi impunity,” wrote Hana Al-Khamri in Al-Jazeera. “It’s time for Saudi Arabia to tell the truth on Jamal Khashoggi,” the Washington Post’s Editorial Boardargued. Politico called it “the tragedy of Jamal Khashoggi.”
Even shadowy think-tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Atlantic Council released articles criticising Saudi Arabia in the wake of Khashoggi’s death.
A number of companies began backing away from Saudi money after the journalist’s death, including the world’s largest media companies such as the New York Times, the Economist’s editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, Arianna Huffington, CNN, CNBC, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Google Cloud CEO, just to name a few.
The CIA concluded that MBS personally ordered Khashoggi’s death, and was reportedly quite open in its provision of this assessment. Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, also took time out of his schedule to express concern over Saudi Arabia’s confirmation of the killing.
At the time of the scandal, former CIA director John Brennan went on MSNBC to state that the Khashoggi’s death would be the downfall of MBS. Furthermore, the US Senate just voted in favour of ending American involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen (a somewhat symbolic victory, though this is a topic for another article), but nonetheless was a clear stab at MBS personally.
The only person who appeared to continue to uphold America’s unfaltering support for MBS, even after all the publicly made evidence against MBS, was the US president himself. So after years of bombarding Yemen, sponsoring terror groups across the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific and beyond, why is it only now that there has been mounting opposition to Saudi Arabia’s leadership? Let’s just bear in mind that western media had spent years investing in a heavy PR campaign to paint MBS as a “reformer.”
Former national security adviser under Barack Obama’s second term, Susan Rice, wrote an article in the New York Times, in which she called MBS a “partner we can’t depend on.” Rice concludes that MBS is “not and can no longer be viewed as a reliable partner of the United States and our allies.” But why is this? Is it because MBS is responsible for some of the most egregious human rights abuses inside his own kingdom as well as in Yemen? Is it because of MBS’ support for groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda? No, according to Rice, we “should not rupture our important relationship with the kingdom, but we must make it clear it cannot be business as usual so long as Prince Mohammad continues to wield unlimited power.”
One will observe that the latter segment of Rice’s article almost mirrors former CIA director Brennan’s word on MSNBC word for word who stated that:
“I think ultimately this is going to come out. And it’s very important for us to maintain the relations with Saudi Arabia. And if it’s Mohammed bin Salman who’s the cancer here, well, we need to be able to find ways to eliminate the cancer and to move forward with this relationship that is critical to regional stability and our national interests.”
In reality, this is probably the issue that western media and government advisors have taken up with MBS. Aside from the fact he allegedly held a huge hand in the brutal murder of one of their own establishment journalists (Saudi Arabia reportedly tortured and killed another journalist not long after Khashoggi, but western media was eerily silent on this incident) MBS is not opposed for his reckless disregard for human rights. With insight into Rice’s mindset, we actually learn that if the US were to punish MBS, he would be likely to “behave more irresponsibly to demonstrate his independence and exact retribution against his erstwhile Western partners.”
You see, the problem with MBS isn’t that he is a mass murdering war criminal, it is that he is too “independent” for the United States’ liking.
Last week, Saudi Arabia and the other major oil producers met in Vienna at the year’s final big OPEC meeting of the year. As Foreign Policy notes, Saudi Arabia remains the largest oil producer inside OPEC but has to contend with the US and Russia who are “pumping oil at record levels.” Together, the three countries are the world’s biggest oil producers, meaning any coordinated decision made between these three nations can be somewhat monumental.
However, it appears that one of these three nations will end up drawing the short end of the stick as the other two begin forming a closer alliance. As Foreign Policy explains:
“But Saudi Arabia has bigger game in mind at Vienna than just stabilizing oil prices. Recognizing that it can’t shape the global oil market by itself anymore but rather needs the cooperation of Russia, Saudi Arabia is hoping to formalize an ad hoc agreement between OPEC and Moscow that began in 2016, a time when dirt-cheap oil also posed a threat to oil-dependent regimes. That informal agreement expires at the end of the year, but the Saudis would like to make Russia’s participation with the cartel more permanent.”
Russian officials have been signalling their intention to formalise this agreement for quite some time now. Given the hysteria in western media about any and all things Russian, it is not too much of a stretch to suggest that this is the kind of news that is not sitting too well with the powers-that-be.
Earlier this year, Russia and Saudi Arabia announced that it would “institutionalize” the two-year-old bilateral agreement to coordinate oil production targets in order to maintain an edge on the global market.
While US president Trump has been supportive and incredibly defensive of MBS during this “crisis”, the truth is that the US only has itself to blame. It was not all too long ago that Trum announced that he had told Saudi King Salman that his kingdom would not last two weeks without US support.
Saudi Arabia is learning for themselves quite quickly that, ultimately, it may pay not to have all its eggs in one geopolitical superpower basket.
Saudi Arabia has been increasingly interested in Moscow since King Salman made a historic visit to Moscow in October 2017. While Trump has openly bragged about his record-breaking arms deals with the Saudis, the blunt truth is that the $110 billion arms agreements were reportedly only ever letters of interest or intent, but not actual contracts. As such, the US-Saudi arms deal is still yet to be locked in, all the while Saudi Arabia is negotiating with Russia for its S-400 air defence system. This is, as the Washington Post notes, despite repeated US requests to Saudi Arabia for it disavow its interest in Russia’s arms.
The economic threat that an “independent” Saudi Arabia under MBS’ leadership poses to Washington runs deeper than meets the eye and may indeed have a domino effect. According to CNN, Russia and Saudi Arabia “are engaged in an intense battle over who will be the top supplier to China, a major energy importer with an insatiable appetite for crude.”
The unveiling of China’s petro-yuan poses a major headache for Washington and its control over Saudi Arabia as well. According to Carl Weinberg, chief economist and managing director at High-Frequency Economics, China will “compel” Saudi Arabia to trade oil in Chinese yuan instead of US dollars. One must bear in mind that China has now surpassed the US as the “biggest oil importer on the planet,” these direct attacks on the US dollar will have huge implications for its current world reserve status.
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Stop Mandatory Vaccination
Argentina Creates Mandatory Vaccination Law For Passport, ID, Driver’s License, School & More
Larry Cook
December 15, 2018
This article is GOOGLE TRANSLATED from this story.
In order to renew the DNI, passport and registration, the complete vaccination card must be presented.
The Senate approved on Wednesday a law that establishes the obligatory nature and free of vaccination against preventable diseases for all the inhabitants of the country, and stipulates that the complete vaccination card will be required at the time of processing the DNI, passport and driving record , among others.
The project was promoted by the Tucuman deputy Pablo Yedlin (Front Justicialista by Tucumán), and will replace the law 22,909, which is in force since 1983. So far, the mandatory vaccination applies only to children and the new project will be made extensive also to adults. The gratuity of the vaccines, in as much, happened in fact, but from now on it will be protected by law.
According to the text itself, it will be the Executive, through the Ministry of Health of the Nation, which must regulate in a term of 120 days the fine print of the norm for its specific application.
“It’s a law of much consensus, not only was it unanimous in both houses, but it had the support of all the scientific societies, and it puts Argentina at the height of its vaccination schedule, which is very generous,” Yedlin said. dialogue with LA NACION.
Requirement for the DNI
The legislator also explained one of the points of the project that generated more controversy. Until now, proof of vaccination was a requirement to enroll in schools. But Article 9 of the new law states that “the certification of compliance with the National Vaccination Calendar must be required” also at the time of processing the ID, passport or driver’s license.
“It will not interrupt the processing of any document,” said Yedlin and explained that in case of not presenting the full schedule of vaccinations, the person will be “notified” as well as the local health authority, to get in contact and “offer the necessary vaccines”.
“They are control points,” the Tucuman insisted. “It’s not that you will not be able to sign up for the faculty if you do not have the Hepatitis B vaccine, but the university has the right to send you to vaccinate because it’s mandatory that you have it.”
The legislator recalled that vaccination in our country is mandatory “for the solidarity effect” it has. “By vaccinating you not only protect yourself, but also all those groups that for some reason can not be vaccinated,” he said. And he gave the example of measles, whose fatal victims are generally less than a year old that can not be vaccinated and depend on the rest of the population being immunized so as not to infect them.
Unique Vaccination Card
The new law provides for the creation of a new document, the Single Vaccination Card (CUV), which will certify the application of the vaccine. The same will be delivered by all agencies capable of applying vaccines: public and private hospitals, and pharmacies. The card will also be used to process family allowances and medical examinations.
In addition, the norm contemplates the creation of the new National Registry of the Digital Vaccinated Population, where there is evidence of all vaccines that have been applied.
“The aim of the registry is to have the best possible coverage to try to have the healthiest population possible, the Argentine is generally a person related to vaccination, the anti-vaccination groups in Argentina are very small and the idea is to keep it that way,” said the tucumano deputy.
The new framework also provides that parents, guardians or legal representatives will be responsible for the vaccination of their dependents and, in the case of non-compliance with this measure, “will generate actions of the corresponding jurisdictional health authority, aimed at effecting the vaccination, that will go from notification to compulsive vaccination.”
There will be more controls on those who work in the field of health and in laboratories, since they will be required to have their vaccines updated more regularly. The law also justifies the absence from work on the day a vaccine is to be applied, with prior notice to the employer and a certificate.
The National Registry of Persons, an organization that reports to the Ministry of the Interior, informs that the procedure will not be impeded due to the lack of a vaccine certificate. At the end of Article 13 of the law, it is clarified when it says: “in such a way as to favor the population’s access to vaccination at all stages of life without impeding the completion of these procedures.”
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NY Times
In Battle Over Johnson’s Baby Powder, Asbestos Opens a New Legal Front
By Roni Caryn Rabin and Tiffany Hsu
Dec. 14, 2018
The memos were concise and direct.
An executive at Johnson & Johnson said the main ingredient in its best-selling baby powder could potentially be contaminated by asbestos, the dangerous mineral that can cause cancer. He recommended to senior staff in 1971 that the company “upgrade” its quality control of talc.
Two years later, another executive raised a red flag, saying the company should no longer assume that its talc mines were asbestos-free. The powder, he said, sometimes contained materials that “might be classified as asbestos fiber.”
The carcinogen, which often appears underground near talc, has been a concern inside the company for decades. In hundreds of pages of memos, executives worried about a potential government ban of talc, the safety of the product and a public backlash over Johnson’s Baby Powder, a brand built on a reputation for trustworthiness and health.
Executives proposed new testing procedures or replacing talc outright, while trying to discredit research suggesting that the powder could be contaminated with asbestos, according to corporate documents unearthed by litigation, government records obtained by The New York Times through the Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with scientists and lawyers.
In one instance, Johnson & Johnson demanded that the government block unfavorable findings from being made public. An executive ultimately won assurances from an official at the Food and Drug Administration that the findings would be issued only “over my dead body,” a memo summarizing the meeting said.
Those efforts are now forming the crux of a new legal front in a long-running battle over Johnson’s Baby Powder, potentially leaving the company exposed in nearly 12,000 lawsuits across the country claiming that the product can cause cancer.
This summer, 22 women with ovarian cancer successfully sued the company, arguing that Johnson & Johnson knew about the connection between talc and asbestos. A jury in St. Louis awarded them $4.69 billion, one of the largest personal injury verdicts ever.
The company lost two other cases this year, in California and New Jersey, brought by people with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of internal organs that is associated with asbestos.
The prospect of asbestos “puts the defense in a much more difficult position,” said Nathan Schachtman, a lawyer who has defended asbestos companies. “You get a much higher degree of indignation from juries.”
Shares of Johnson & Johnson dropped 10 percent on Friday on an article by Reuters about the asbestos concerns related to Johnson’s Baby Powder.
Johnson & Johnson is appealing the three asbestos-related cases. The company has won three cases related to mesothelioma, while four others were declared mistrials.
The company defends the safety of its baby powder, saying that it has never contained asbestos and that the claims are based on “junk science.” Johnson & Johnson says that the lawyers in the cases have “cherry-picked” the memos, and that they instead show the company’s focus on safety.
For more than a century, Johnson & Johnson has promoted its baby powder as pure and gentle enough for babies’ bottoms, a product that mothers can trust, made by a company that puts customers first.
The company’s image has long been bound up in the product and its iconic white bottle, even though baby powder counts for only a sliver of overall sales. Its fragrance is said to be among the most recognizable in the world. Employees have called it a “sacred cow” in emails, according to court documents.
Krystal Kim, a 53-year-old mother of two from Philadelphia, was 10 when her mother suggested she use Johnson’s Baby Powder to stay “fresh” and “clean smelling.” She continued using it for decades, on her face, between her legs and on her sheets. Many women use baby powder as a feminine hygiene product, applying it to their bodies and breathing in airborne powder.
Five years ago, Ms. Kim learned she had invasive ovarian cancer and was treated with chemotherapy. Parts of her colon and intestines were removed. Ms. Kim, one of the plaintiffs in the Missouri case, wants Johnson’s Baby Powder taken off the shelves and, if not, warnings put on it.
Before the Missouri verdict, Johnson & Johnson had been able to knock back most of the legal challenges that connected talcum powder alone to cancer, by claiming, in part, that the scientific research was flawed and offering studies to the contrary.
Of the six cases that Johnson & Johnson has lost on that issue by itself, three decisions were overturned on appeal, one is still being appealed, and one plaintiff won her case but was awarded no damages. One verdict, for $110 million, has been upheld by a judge; the company is appealing.
But asbestos, unlike talc, is an indisputable carcinogen. Even trace amounts are considered dangerous. Its dagger-like fibers penetrate deep into tissue and can lead decades later to cancer of the lungs, voice box and ovaries, and to mesothelioma.
Several lab tests, some conducted in the past few years by plaintiffs’ lawyers, have found evidence of asbestos in talc. The link between asbestos and ovarian cancer was first reported in 1958, and in 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer said it was a cause.
“There’s no ambiguity,” said Mark Lanier, the lawyer who represented the women in the Missouri case. Mr. Lanier has won large industry payouts for workers who were exposed to asbestos on the job.
“It’s a no-brainer that asbestos causes ovarian cancer,” he added. “That’s not an argument anyone will win.”
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RT
‘The Irish should know their place’: Brexit exposes Britain’s colonial mindset towards Ireland
Danielle Ryan is an Irish freelance writer based in Dublin. Her work has appeared in Salon, The Nation, Rethinking Russia, teleSUR, RBTH, The Calvert Journal and others.
Banners by Anti-Brexit campaigners at the border town of Carrickcarnon in Ireland, October 8, 2016 © Reuters / Clodagh Kilcoyne
December 17, 2018
Brexit watchers who are not informed on Irish history might recently have been fooled into believing that the ‘Irish Question’ is something new; some strictly Brexit-related conundrum. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the ‘Irish question’ is a phrase that has been bandied about by the British ruling elite for hundreds of years to refer to the political challenges posed by its colonial entanglement on the island and the ‘problem’ of Irish nationalism and republicanism. In reality then, it is not so much an ‘Irish’ question as a British one.
When the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, it brought a fragile peace to Northern Ireland after decades of sectarian conflict. That conflict had stemmed from Britain’s partition of the island nearly one-hundred years ago and the subsequent decades during which the Irish Catholic population were deprived of equal rights at the ballot box and in their daily lives. With the signing of the GFA, the Irish question was, in a sense — for both the media and political establishments — put to bed. But the Irish question has always been a light sleeper.
Brexit has catapulted the Irish problem back into the spotlight — and the ‘Irish border’ issue (a better term would be the ‘British border’ issue, since the border would not exist had Britain not imposed it in the first place) has been the biggest sticking point in negotiations. This has been much to the abject shock and horror of staunch pro-Brexit politicians in Britain, who have not wasted time in revealing a colonial mindset toward Dublin which should long ago have been consigned to history. Last week, the BBC quoted an anonymous senior Tory politician and former minister:
“We simply cannot allow the Irish to treat us like this. This simply cannot stand. The Irish really should know their place.”
Unsurprisingly, the astounding utterance provoked fury in Ireland — and more than a niggling sense that this kind of comment represents the opinion of not one, but many within the Tory party.
It is highly ironic, but also somewhat amusing to witness this seething disgust from British politicians at the realization that Ireland has held such sway over their political future for a change. Ireland, so far, has rightly not been willing to give a single inch on the issue of the ‘backstop’ — a supposedly iron-clad guarantee that there will be no ‘hard’ border imposed on the island following Brexit. For all of the EU’s own failings, of which there are too many to count, Brussels has at least steadfastly stood behind Ireland on this issue, even if only for selfish reasons.
But, as the anonymous quote above reveals, this turn of events has been almost like some kind of traumatic injury to the brains of Tory politicians who can’t quite wrap their minds around the concept of not being able to rule the roost and impose their will on smaller, less powerful nations.
Only a week before that comment, another Tory MP had suggested using the prospect of food shortages to force Ireland to capitulate on the backstop. If the food issue had been pressed, Priti Patel, said, Britain could perhaps have used it to go back to Brussels to “get a better deal.”
This didn’t exactly go down well across the water either, particularly given the fact that Ireland suffered a horrendous famine (or genocide, depending on how you want to look at it) under British colonial rule which killed a million people and forced another million to emigrate in the mid-1800s.
While the Irish starved, London looked on. After all, the more Irish Catholics wiped out, the better; it might help solve the Irish question, once and for all. So naturally, the suggestion from a British politician to use food to force Ireland to reverse on an issue of major national importance to please clowns like Boris Johnson was not going to be taken up well.
The latest tone-deaf comment came from a Labour MP, however. Northern Ireland-born unionist Kate Hoey announced to an audience at a ‘Leave Means Leave’ rally in London on Friday that unionists in the North “didn't spend 30 years suffering IRA killings of soldiers and civilians” just to “see a United Ireland imposed by a few jumped up EU bureaucrats and a complicit prime minister.”
There is so much wrong with this statement that it’s hard to know where to begin. Of course, to suit her own warped version of history, Hoey failed to mention murderous loyalist paramilitaries, the well-established fact of British state collusion in many of their crimes and the horrendous treatment of Irish Catholics as second-class citizens in the North for decades, which ultimately led to devastating sectarian conflict, the scars of which are still very fresh and far from fully healing. Steve Peers, a Professor of EU, Human Rights & World Trade Law at the University of Essex, called Hoey’s remark “one of the most dishonest, inflammatory arguments uttered by any UK politician about Northern Ireland.”
Theresa May herself has displayed shocking levels of ignorance when it comes to the border issue, too. Speaking to EU leaders in September, May reportedly asked them to imagine how they would feel if their countries were “carved” in two. A few days later at a speech in Downing Street she reaffirmed that any deal which “divides our country in two” would be a bad one. Her comments were met with a collective eye roll in Ireland for their sheer irony.
This is just sampling of the gross ignorance that has been on display from British politicians in relation to Ireland during the Brexit negotiations. Of course, some in Britain, including a number of politicians, have also been disgusted at this kind of staggeringly incompetent rhetoric.
In an interview on Irish radio last week, one Tory MP, Anna Soubry, actually apologized for the “terrible mess” being made with Brexit particularly as it related to Ireland.
“I'm acutely appalled by what is going on and I can only apologize. I can only apologise to your listeners for what my country and my party has been doing for the last few years,” she said.
But the fact that there has been so much of this braindead rhetoric has been enlightening for Ireland. Brexit has exposed just how little many of our British neighbors know — or care — about their history with this island. The unintended consequence may be that such displays of ignorance will stir feelings of nationalism in a section of the Irish population which was, before Brexit, happy enough with the status quo — a consequence of which could be the ultimate reunification of the island.
Perhaps the staunchest Brexiteers are lashing out at Ireland because the Irish issue had turned into a kind of symbol of their waning influence on the world stage. Financial Times columnist Robert Shrimsley wrote in November that the philosophy of Brexit was that “freed of EU constraints, the UK would take its rightful place in the world.” This is indeed what is happening, according to Shrimsley, it just so happens that Britain’s place is “not as the great power of their imagination.” Brexit, he wrote, has forced a kind of “national humbling.”
Well, it’s about time.
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NEON NETTLE
Keanu Reeves Has Secretly Donated Millions to Children's Hospitals for Years Hollywood movie star has secret foundation to finance treatments for sick kids
By: Jay Greenberg
December 16
Hollywood star Keanu Reeves has been secretly donating millions to children's hospitals
Actor Keanu Reeves has always been seen as one of the few good guys in Hollywood, who lives his life with a real sense of authenticity rather than someone who just donates to charity, or spouts their politics in public, to give their career a PR boost.It's no secret that Mr. Reeves is one of the nicer movie stars around, but the extent of Keanu's generosity may come as a surprise to most people as it turns out he's been funding children's hospitals, with millions of dollars of his own money, on the quiet for years.Good on you, Keanu.The star of The Matrix Trilogy runs a private charitable foundation that invests in help for positive endeavors like cancer research and hospital wards for sick children.
And it's clearly not something he feels the need to boast about, as he's hardly told anyone it
"I have a private foundation that's been running for five or six years, and it helps aid a couple of children's hospitals and cancer research," Keanu said in a Ladies Home Journal article from 2009.
"I don't like to attach my name to it, I just let the foundation do what it does."
To understand why Keanu Reeves is so different from the typical Hollywood celebrity we've become accustomed to, you only need to look at the tribulations in his private life that he's been through since childhood.Few people are as acquainted with loss as Mr. Reeves.
Despite his successes on the big screen in movies such as “The Matrix,” “Speed,” and “John Wick,” the 54-year-old actor’s off-screen life can aptly be described as tragic.However, he’s made it his life mission not to let these tragedies deter him from giving back and helping others as much as possible.When Keanu Reeves was only 3 years old, his father left his family. Keanu spent his teenage years at four different high schools while struggling with dyslexia. He eventually graduated but lost his best friend at the age of 23 to a drug overdose, his first child to a miscarriage, and the love of his life to a car accident.When it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse for Keanu, his sister was also diagnosed with leukemia.Thankfully, his sister recovered, and Keanu dedicated his life to helping others. The internet is resplendent with stories of his generosity.
One Reddit user, bo2dd2, explained: “Back in the late 90s and fresh out of college I got my first job as an assistant prop designer on the set of Chain Reaction (Keanu was a supporting actor with Morgan Freeman).“Every day for the last few weeks of filming, Keanu treated the stagehands and ‘grunt workers’ (including myself) by taking us out for free breakfast and lunch. "He was genuinely a very nice guy to work with
“Since then, I’ve worked on about 30 different sets and have never met an actor as generous and friendly as him. "Most actors I’ve seen and worked with are total [expletive] who always think they are better than us. "Keanu on the other hand, at the very least, was socially approachable and definitely kindhearted.”
This is just one story amongst hundreds, but Keanu is not the type of guy who makes a habit of turning his generosity into a public relations stunt.He does not need to be recognized for his charity, as evidenced in a revelation that he has been secretly financing children’s hospitals.
In 2009 he told the Ladies’ Home Journal that he just wanted to help good causes without attaching his name to it.
In addition, Reeves has also donated to SCORE (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment), a charity founded after a UCLA hockey player’s spinal cord was crushed in a post-season game.The actor was even spotted manning the phones at a Stand Up to Cancer telethon in 2008.This level of humble generosity is not a surprise coming from the man who gave a sizable portion of his proceeds from the Matrix trilogy back to the franchise to fund the costume and special effects teams.
Reeves also negotiated a pay cut on the films “The Devil’s Advocate” and “The Replacements” so the projects could hire big-name stars Al Pacino and Gene Hackman.
Reeves has admitted that he does not equate money with happiness.“For me, I guess I don’t connect the enjoyment and the money,” he told the New York Post in 2000.“I work on a part and hopefully realize a part, and make good films. Some of the successes I’ve had I’m grateful for, because it creates other opportunities. "[The way] I look at it is I get to act again.”Reeves has confirmed he will play an upcoming voice role in the Pixar animated family film “Toy Story 4,” according to Collider.The film will star Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tom Hanks, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Jeff Pidgeon, Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, and Blake Clark.The movie will open in theaters on June 21, 2019.
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ASIA TIMES
An historical journey into Crimea
Washington insists sanctions will remain until Russia returns the peninsula to Ukraine, but this will never happen. For Moscow, Crimea is back to where it belongs, and this is a region that has seen conquerors come and go for centuries
Pepe Escobar
December 15, 2018
Kerch Harbor in the Russian controlled Sea of Azoz. Photo: Asia Times
We are at the remains of Panticapaeum, the capital of the Kingdom of Bosphorus, founded in the second quarter of the 6th century BC on both sides of the Kerch Strait.
We start our walk on the hilltop of Mithridates, in the heart of modern Kerch, where “terrible” king Mithridates of Pontus (134 – 64 BC) was killed. Greek geographer Strabo (63 BC – 23 AD) said Panticapaeum was the mother country of “all the Milesian cities of Bosphorus”. It was a big city that boasted a convenient harbor and a shipyard.
Crossing the bridge – a 19km-long engineering marvel, built in only two years – is as smooth as it gets and takes less than 15 minutes. On the right, work proceeds on the rail bridge, which will be ready next year.
The Crimea Bridge. Photo: Asia Times
I cross in the direction of Novorossiysk, then turn back from the Russian mainland. There’s a passport control and customs check, even though Crimea is now Russian territory. Cars and buses are carefully examined; a terror attack is always a concern. The guards are polite: “Welcome to Krym”. I say I was already in Krym. They smile.
Bridge over troubled water
Washington officially insists all Crimea-related sanctions will remain until Moscow returns the peninsula to Ukraine. This will never happen. For Moscow, Crimea is already back to where it belongs. After all, Nikita Khrushchev, a sentimental Ukrainian, had transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 in a fit of proletarian brotherhood, while blatantly violating the Constitution of the USSR.
US neocons and assorted Russophobes insist that Washington should further weaponize Kiev’s land, sea and air forces to counter “Russian aggression”, but Crimeans treat this as a bad joke.
Everyone knows Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko needs a diversion from his dismal, corrupt government. Thus the illegal – according to the Minsk agreements – bombing of cities in Donbass and the recent Kerch “incident”.
Poroshenko is polling at a meager 8%. He used the Kerch incident to declare martial law. He wanted three months, but Kiev’s legislature gave him just one. He is bound to lose the next elections. Meanwhile, over two million Ukrainians have already voted with their feet and sought refuge in Russia. Poroshenko can’t afford to launch a full-scale war on Donbass with no weapons, funds and little support from the EU.
For four years, Poroshenko has used a propaganda tsunami to manipulate the Ukrainian far right, which always abhorred Russians, Poles and Jews, to direct their blind hate towards Russians, the country’s largest minority. But that was not enough to “solve” any of the myriad problems of a de facto failed state.
After Washington destroyed any possible detente with Moscow, President Putin’s position remains very clear, as expressed during the 15th anniversary of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi last October:
“Crimea is our land. We are still not going anywhere. Why is it our land? Not because we went there and took it… People came to a referendum in Crimea and voted for independence, first, and then for being part of Russia. Let me remind you for the hundredth time that there was no referendum in Kosovo, only the parliament voted for independence, that was all. Everyone who wanted to support and destroy the former Yugoslavia said: well, thank God, we are fine with that. Here, however, they disagree. Ok then, let’s have a discussion, go over the UN documents, see what the UN Charter is all about, and where it talks about the right of nations to self-determination. This will be an endless discussion. However, we proceed based on the will expressed by the people who live on that territory.”
Traveling from Simferopol to Kerch via Sevastopol, everyone I talked to confirmed they voted to re-join Russia, with no regrets.
For Russia-loving Crimeans, and Russians as a whole, Crimea back with the Motherland is a geopolitical, national security and national pride fait accompli. It also helps that Russia has done more for Crimea in four years than Ukraine did in six decades.
Airport making waves
My first impression, arriving at the brand new Simferopol International Airport, with its elegant design featuring 146 waves, is that any mid-sized city across the West would kill for it.
Marina Borodina, very well educated at the University of Crimea, and a producer at Rossiya Segodnya, shows me around the capital, thriving in a real estate boom, including the area around the airport. Crimea is under sanctions, but businesses adapt. No Visa or Mastercard? Everyone uses the Mir payment system, or rubles. Smartphones with SIMs by Russian providers are only good for local calls. So, there is no 4G network and no international roaming.
There’s a road-building boom as well. The coastal road from Sevastopol to Kerch is being upgraded, but the jewel in the crown is the 240km-long east-to-west Taurida highway, to be completed next year, linking to the Crimea bridge.
Sevastopol – where Christianity, according to a complex mix of legend and fact, entered Russia – was built entirely by Russia along beautiful blue creeks always jammed with ships. It’s indelible in the Russian national psyche especially because of its spirited two-year defense during the Crimean war, as well as repelling the 10-month siege by the Nazis during World War II.
The delicious old-world Hotel Sevastopol still reigns supreme, complete with an attached French brasserie and faint echoes of 19th century Paris that influenced Tsarist times.
Military officers parading their families by the famous promenade embellished with Christmas decorations dismiss the potential for more confrontation in the Sea of Azov. It and the Black Sea are de facto “Russian lakes”.
When the Mongol Tatars of the Golden Horde first arrived in Crimea, they saw a tower and called it Kerim (“fort”), thus Crimea. Then the Tatars moved inland, to Bakhchisaray, where they built the gracious palace of the independent khanate in a green valley protected by stone hills. That was the apex of the Crimean Tatar khanate; Krym Tartary.
I had time to explore a virtually deserted Bakhchisaray when a bride and groom celebrating their Tatar marriage arrived to pose for the obligatory photos, escorted by a fleet of black Mercedes sporting the light blue Tatar flag with its yellow seal. They were well off and spoke of good business opportunities, saying there were no problems whatsoever with the Russian administration. There are roughly 300,000 Tatars in Crimea out of a population of 2 million.
The ‘civilized’ and the ‘barbarians’
At the Kerch museum, a stone’s throw from Mithridates hill, I was privileged to engage with one of the caretakers, Anna Naumenko – also finely educated at the University of Crimea – on a thrilling historical ride. The museum has a small collection of precious Greek and Byzantine artifacts even though most of the archeological treasures are at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Crimea was the site of a groundbreaking historical encounter. Imagine Greek colonists, essentially urban, who had reached Crimea after navigating at least one month from the Bosphorus to southern Russia, finding themselves face to face with nomads from Central Asia who had crossed a sea of grass; the Scythians – an Indo-Iranian speaking confederation who were already deploying their nomadic skills around the Crimean steppes when the Greeks arrived in the 8th century BC.
Then came Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, Khazars – Turkic-speaking pastoral nomads from Central Asia, the Cuman (other Turkic-speaking nomads), Mongol-Tatars of the Golden Horde, before Byzantium, and the Ottoman empire. Crimean Tatars converted to Islam in the 14th century. The khanate went on until Catherine the Great conquered Crimea in 1783.
This shows how Crimea has always been an unparalleled crossroads intertwining “civilization” with what Athenian Greeks might describe as “barbarism”. The clashes forever permeate the Western self-perception of superiority in relation to an alleged inferior, usually nomad, Other.
The fabled Golden Horde – actually the western arm of the Tatar-Mongol empire – controlled the steppes north of the Black Sea as well as Crimea from the mid-13th Century until at least the mid-15th Century.
This is crucial because they were actually the first unifiers of Eurasia, assuring stability across the steppes from China to Hungary. And that led to trade connectivity; the Ancient Silk Roads, stretching from China all the way to the Black Sea, then sailing towards the Mediterranean. This is impregnated in the collective memory of all Eurasian peoples.
Byzantium was what Russian scholar Mikhail Rostovtzeff, in his fabulous book Iranians and Greeks in South Russia, described as a “very interesting” mixed civilization. So was the Black Sea, and Crimea.
The Ancient Silk Road brought silk, spices, porcelain, bronze and gold from China, Persia and India, while the Greeks exported wine, pottery, jewelry and ornaments first made in Greece and then in the Bosphorus kingdom in Kerch.
Peace in the steppes translated into free passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The Mongol Tatars arrived in the Black Sea when the Byzantine empire was nearly dead. Behind the land armies of the Crusaders were the powerhouses of Venice and Genoa, eager to enhance trade connectivity with the markets of the Black Sea.
After the Crusaders had stormed Constantinople in 1204, they slipped through the Bosphorus to finally reach Crimea. For a while merchants in Tana, an important Venetian colony in the Sea of Azov, were able to monopolize through Venice virtually all the trade with China.
The Europeans could not help but see an opening. Sudak, in southeast Crimea, was a Greek, Byzantine and then Genoese colony. Yet as we know, this all ended when the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 – and there was no more Byzantine empire around the Black Sea.
Empires falling
The Nazis had designs on Crimea. Two months before Germany invaded the USSR, it was decided that Crimea would be separated from Russia and handed to a puppet Ukraine; that was the Gotland project.
Most of the Nazi collaborators in Crimea during WWII were not Tatars. Still, under Stalin, the Tatars were the first ethnic minority to be entirely deported. When Soviet power was back in Crimea, those who remained were expelled en masse to Central Asia because of “treason to the Fatherland”. Now their sons and grandsons are coming back in droves.
When the USSR dissolved, the 19th-Century Tsarist Russian empire, plus Catherine the Great’s 18th century Novorossiya, across the northern shore of the Black Sea, also dissolved.Crossing parts of the Crimean steppe, it’s easy to be reminded of Chekhov, who grew up in Taganrog on the Sea of Azov and loved the scent of herbs in the summer steppe.It’s also fitting terrain to reflect on the collapse of empires. The Russian drive to reach the warm waters of the Mediterranean always clashed with the Turkish drive to hold on to the Ottoman conquests around the Black Sea. This history reverberated through the Crimean War in the 1850s and also through WWI, with Turkey allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary and Russia invading Anatolia. Yet even before WWI was over, both the Tsarist and Ottoman empires were gone.Now Crimea is back to Russia, virtually for good, the union sealed by Krimsky Most. It is a sobering reality graphically visible from the ruins of Panticapaeum.
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Until next week...God bless you and Merry Christmas
Almondtree Productions
"For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him. 7 His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth and forever. The seal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this.
(Isaiah 9:6-7)