Saturday, July 1, 2017

Slow Saturday Special: Unhappy Nazis

Nazis never cry, right?

Parliament in Germany approves same-sex marriage

That would have made Roehm happy.

"Austria’s top court upholds seizing of Hitler’s birthplace" by David Shimer New York Times  June 30, 2017

BERLIN — The Austrian Constitutional Court said Friday that the government had acted legally when it seized the apartment complex in which Hitler was born, the latest and most likely last chapter in the long battle for ownership of the Nazi dictator’s birthplace.

The court said in a statement that a law passed late last year allowing the expropriation of the three-story building was “in the public interest, commensurate and not without compensation, and therefore not unconstitutional.”

Austrian law prohibits the promotion of Nazi ideology, including Holocaust denial or the display of swastikas.

Seizing the building enables the government to prevent it from becoming a site for neo-Nazi activity, the court said, after hearing arguments following its decision to take ownership from Gerlinde Pommer, the longtime owner who had refused to sell the property.

Wolfgang Sablatnig, a spokesman for the court, said, “representatives of Austria argued they do not want to let the house become a symbol for neo-Nazis, and the only way to make sure that there is no symbolic misuse is to seize it.”

Sablatnig said Pommer could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights or to an Austrian court with the aim of increasing her compensation for the home.

Hitler was born inside the complex, in Braunau am Inn, near the Austrian-German border — on April 20, 1889, in an apartment his parents had rented above a tavern on the first floor. Fearing that the structure would become a site for Nazi glorification, the Austrian government assumed its main lease in 1972.

Officials have tried to buy the building from Pommer on numerous occasions since 1984, but she has refused to sell, even when her last tenants left in 2011 after she forbade renovations. After negotiations to purchase the building stalled last year, the government passed the law permitting it to be seized.

Gerhard Lebitsch, the lawyer representing Pommer, argued that expropriation should not have been allowed for reasons of public interest, as the home’s appeal as a pilgrimage site would remain even if the property changed hands.

“A concrete purpose of expropriation is missing,” Lebitsch said just before the hearing last week. “The Austrian legislature has no concrete plans for a use of this house. The Republic of Austria rents the building for 45 years now; it would have been easily possible for the renter to practice a reasonable use in the past years and decades.”

But Austrian officials contended that a long-term rental agreement would be insufficient. “Far-reaching architectural transformations can only be made by the owner,” Hermann Feiner of the Interior Ministry said at the hearing, according to the Austria Press Agency.....

I'm just not up to talking Hitler today, sorry.

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Keep your eye on Austria.

She would have been part of a Vichy government:

"Marine Le Pen charged with alleged EU funds misuse" Associated Press  June 30, 2017

PARIS — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was charged Friday with allegedly misusing European Parliament funds to pay two parliamentary aides who also work at her National Front headquarters. Her lawyer said she denies the charges and will fight to get the investigation suspended.

Investigators suspect some National Front lawmakers used legislative aides for the party’s political activities while they were on the European Parliament payroll.

Le Pen is president of the far-right National Front party.

The prosecutor’s office said Le Pen was summoned and handed preliminary charges of breach of trust and complicity in breach of trust concerning two parliamentary aides when she served at the European Parliament.

Le Pen is suspected of using parliamentary funds to pay Catherine Griset from 2009 to 2016 and bodyguard Thierry Legier from 2014 to 2016 for allegedly working as aides in Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament, even though they also have roles in her far-right National Front party. Griset was charged in February with allegedly receiving money through a breach of trust.

Le Pen is also charged with complicity in breach of trust in connection with her role as president of the National Front from 2014-2016. That charge could not immediately be clarified.

Le Pen denies the charges.

‘‘It makes no sense,’’ National Front vice president Florian Philippot, Le Pen’s top lieutenant, said on the BFM-TV station.

‘‘She is obviously 24 hours out of 24 both the president of the National Front and a European deputy.’’

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You can pull the veil over her career.

Then it is on to the battle of Britain:

"3 officials resign amid outcry over Grenfell Tower fire" by Dan Bilefsky New York Times  June 30, 2017

LONDON — The resignations occurred as new evidence emerged that the management company, which started the renovation in 2014, had chosen a less fire-resistant form of cladding to save about $390,000.

The fire, which left hundreds of people homeless, has opened debates over inequality, deregulation, austerity, and governance. It is the subject of a public inquiry, led by a retired judge, as well as a criminal investigation.

Nick Paget-Brown, a Conservative, stepped down as head of the council of Kensington and Chelsea, the wealthy London borough that owns the tower, [after he] faced numerous calls for his resignation after a council meeting he led Thursday ended in chaos and acrimony when he tried to exclude reporters, saying that their presence might “prejudice” the inquiry on the fire. The journalists had obtained a court order admitting them to the meeting.

Paget-Brown’s effort to block the reporters drew a rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May, who had already seized control of the emergency response from the council, which was faulted for a lackluster handling of the tragedy.

Paget-Brown said he tried to block the journalists only because he had received advice from lawyers not to discuss the fire in public.

The government is racing to test cladding on high-rise buildings across the country. As of Friday, 149 buildings in 45 areas had failed fire-safety tests, officials said.

The Times of London, citing leaked documents, reported Friday that Artelia UK, the project management consultants overseeing the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, had come under pressure to reduce costs.....

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"US actions risk unraveling gains with China" by Steven Lee Myers New York Times  June 30, 2017

BEIJING — President Xi Jinping of China likes to call his core foreign policy strategy “win-win.” And President Trump likes to win.

So at a steakhouse inside a sleek, new hotel in Beijing on Friday, there was a celebration of the most tangible result of the unexpected cooperation that emerged in the first months of Trump’s presidency: the lifting of a ban on US beef imports.

The event, which included a ceremonial carving of a slab of bone-in rib-eye flown in for the occasion, might have symbolized the promise of a constructive era — except the Trump administration seemed to forget that the “win-win” part requires reciprocation.

In twin announcements Thursday, the Trump administration said it was selling $1.4 billion of weapons to Taiwan and imposing sanctions on a Chinese company and a Chinese bank over illicit dealings with North Korea.

Those actions overshadowed the Beijing ceremony and provoked a furious response from the government.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Lu Kang, said those actions contradicted the agreements that emerged from Xi’s meetings with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in April, among them the decision to lift the beef ban, which had been in place since December 2003. If not reversed, they could have consequences, he said.

“We hope the United States administration could correct its mistakes and bring China-US relations back to the right track of healthy, stable, and long-lasting development, so as not to affect bilateral cooperation in other important fields,” he said.

The arms sale to Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, was a violation of international law that “hurt China’s sovereignty and security,” Lu said, adding that China resolutely opposed it.

While administration officials said Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with China for not putting more pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, the response showed that officials here, too, were frustrated by Trump’s lurching strategy and cavalier style of tweeting new policy.

The latest steps, analysts said, felt retaliatory, and thus could prove counterproductive.

“The United States has stabbed us in the back,” said Wang Dong, an assistant professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University.

Yeah, the Chinese are seriously annoyed and that is saying a lot. You really have to step on the toes to get them pissed off.

In a separate development Friday, Xi inspected troops based in Hong Kong as he asserted China’s authority over the former British colony, where anti-China sentiment has been on the rise since Beijing took control 20 years ago. 

Is this a New York Times piece? 

IT IS!

Xi rode in an open-top jeep past rows of soldiers lined up on an airstrip on his visit to the People’s Liberation Army garrison, the Associated Press reported. He called out ‘‘Salute all the comrades’’ and ‘‘Salute to your dedication’’ as he passed 3,100 soldiers arranged in 20 formations.

Armored personnel carriers, combat vehicles, helicopters, and other pieces of military hardware were arrayed behind the troops.

Like they are getting ready for something, huh?

It was a rare display of the Chinese military’s might in Hong Kong, where it normally maintains a low-key presence. China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is expected to make a port call next month.

The troop review was part of a visit to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover, when Britain gave up control of the Asian financial hub to China on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong was granted the freedom to run most of its affairs. However, Beijing is in charge of the city’s defense and foreign affairs. 

Has it been 20 years already?

China has repeatedly said it shares the US goal of halting North Korea’s nuclear program, or more broadly ensuring the entire Korean Peninsula is without nuclear weapons. It has also repeatedly maintained that it complies with trade sanctions that the UN Security Council imposed in an effort to isolate the North from resources to finance its nuclear and missile programs.

The extent of its cooperation, however, is disputed in Washington, even within the new administration.

“The Chinese tried to gauge what were the minimal steps they could take to comply with the resolutions and show they were serious about North Korea’s program,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “And they miscalculated.”

Officials in Beijing, however, have puzzled over what they view as conflicting signals from Trump, like his harsh words on the campaign trail and the personal bonhomie toward Xi to persuade him to apply a new round of pressure. Analysts have pointed to a widespread confusion over the United States approach to North Korea, climate change, and other issues.....

They along with the rest of us.

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"Obama makes nostalgic trip to his Indonesia childhood home" Associated Press  June 30, 2017

BOGOR, Indonesia — Former president Barack Obama and his family arrived Friday in his childhood home of Jakarta on the last leg of a 10-day vacation in Indonesia, where they visited ancient temples and went whitewater rafting.

Local TV news channels broadcast live coverage of the family’s arrival in the capital.

Indonesia’s president, Joko ‘‘Jokowi’’ Widodo, later met Obama at the Bogor Palace in West Java. The grand Dutch colonial building about 35 miles south of Jakarta is famous for its botanical gardens and a herd of spotted deer that roam the grounds.

The two jumped into a golf cart with Jokowi at the wheel and headed off to a cafe nestled inside the lush gardens. Many Indonesians have drawn comparisons between Jokowi and Obama, who were both highly popular.

After Obama became president, many in the country viewed him as a native son and saw him as a symbol of hope and religious tolerance because of his years living in the Muslim country. 

I can't say I didn't when he rode into town and the back of the war-criminal Bush was out. After eight years, all I can say is extreme disappointment.

Obama also retains a soft spot for Indonesia, where he lived from age 6 to 10. He moved to Jakarta in 1967 after his mother split up with his father and remarried an Indonesian man. They had his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is traveling with the family.

After her second marriage ended, Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, stayed on in Indonesia and Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.

Gee, she really got around.

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More nostalgia, sob:

"The war that inspired a nationwide wave of protests and has since become synonymous with costly American entanglements was — and remains — more popular than the Senate health care bill. During 1965, Gallup found that the most unpopular the Vietnam War ever got was a 23 percent approval rating, which it earned in May 1971, among those over 49 years old. In 2000, Gallup again asked the American public how it felt about the Vietnam War, and 36 percent of respondents said it was “very favorable” or “mostly favorable.”

(Blog editor finds it unfathomable that the war is viewed “more favorably” through the lens of time. Just shows how powerful is the ma$$ media narrative)


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"Hundreds flee Mosul as Iraqi forces squeeze extremists" by Felipe Dana Associated Press  June 30, 2017

MOSUL, Iraq — Hundreds of civilians fled Mosul’s Old City on Friday as Iraqi forces slowly squeezed the last pockets of Islamic State resistance, and the United Nations warned that the ‘‘intense and concentrated’’ fighting put innocent lives in even greater danger.

People climbed over mounds of rubble and through narrow alleys as gunshots and explosions rang out nearby.

This is heartbreaking.

The neighborhoods where government forces are fighting have been under siege for months as grueling urban warfare drew out the operation to retake Iraq’s second-largest city.

For the civilians held as human shields by the extremists, supplies have run low and drinking water is scarce, according to residents interviewed at screening centers and clinics.

Expect cholera cases to appear, if they haven't already.

The battles came a day after Iraqi forces made significant gains against the militants and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared an end to the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

After a dawn push Thursday, Iraqi forces retook the symbolic site where the al-Nuri Mosque once stood.

It was from the pulpit of the 12th- century mosque, which the militants blew up last week along with its famous leaning minaret, that their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had proclaimed the caliphate in 2014.

During the evening, Abadi announced that the full liberation of Mosul was near.

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi said the special forces were within 770 yards of the Tigris River, which roughly divides Mosul into eastern and western halves.

ISIS also is under increased pressure in Syria, where its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa is encircled by an array of forces. Despite a series of recent losses in both Iraq and Syria, Baghdadi’s fate remains unknown.

In a separate development, an investigation by the international chemical weapons watchdog confirmed that sarin nerve gas was used in a deadly April 4 attack on a Syrian town, but the report released Friday stopped short of saying who was responsible.

Related

Trump Has Been Continuing Obama’s Syria-Policy

MSM Distorts OPCW Report

Dubious OPCW Report on Syria 

Distortions and lies. Used to 'em.

The attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province killed more than 90 people, including women and children. It sparked outrage around the world as photos and video of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, were widely broadcast.

‘‘I strongly condemn this atrocity, which wholly contradicts the norms enshrined in the Chemical Weapons Convention,’’ said Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. ‘‘The perpetrators of this horrific attack must be held accountable for their crimes.’’

The United States blamed the Syrian military for the attack and launched a punitive strike days later. Syria’s president Bashar Assad, has denied using chemical weapons.

The findings of the investigation will be used by a joint team from the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is working to assess who was responsible for the attack. The team is expected to issue its next report around October.

Then they will blame Syria, as if we would believe them. 

If so, then OPCW failed in its mission, didn't it? Gave Syria a clean bill of health and everything regarding weapons removal. It's like Iraq all over again; however, now they have a new generation of millennials who have no context of the past and whose minds they can mold.

The operation to retake Mosul, backed closely by the US-led coalition, began in October, with the Iraqi government initially vowing the city would be liberated in 2016.

ISIS now holds a small patch of territory in Mosul’s Old City along the Tigris that measures less than a square mile. The terrain is dense, and the UN estimates tens of thousands of civilians are trapped there.

Nice to see my agenda-pushing war pre$$ take notice.

Frederic Cussigh, a UN official in Irbil, said about 1,400 people fleeing the Old City have been registered at screening centers in the past two days.

The high numbers of displaced civilians and the extensive destruction will mean more people will have to stay in camps for longer periods, requiring food, water, and other aid. Cussigh expects the humanitarian fallout from the fight for Mosul to last into 2018.

You are now Palestinian.

The clashes have displaced more than 850,000 people since the operation to retake Mosul was launched, according to the International Organization for Migration.

That's almost a million.

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epa06058575 Iraqi displaced women and their children arrive to the positions of Iraqi forces in the old city area of western Mosul, Iraq, 30 June 2017. Iraqi forces recaptured the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul on 29 June 2017, the site where Islamic state (IS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only known public appearance in 2014. Iraqi prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that 'the recapture of the mosque is a sign of IS's impending defeat'.  EPA/STR
Iraqi displaced women and their children arrive to the positions of Iraqi forces in the old city area of western Mosul, Iraq, 30 June 2017.

That was the photo that accompanied my print article.

http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3134658.1498502892!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_685/image.jpg
Iranian women take part in an Eid-al Fitr prayer ceremony, making the end of Ramadan, in Tehran, Iran.

That was a photo from Tuesday last and it caught my eye.


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"Suspect arraigned in murder of 81-year-old Needham woman" by Jeremy C. Fox Globe Correspondent  June 30, 2017

DEDHAM — The next-door neighbor of a Russian immigrant who lived in Needham has been charged with brutally killing Laura Shifrina, who was 81, and stealing her car.

Shifrina was found dead May 31 by her daughter in her apartment in a Needham public housing development for senior citizens and people with disabilities.

Shifrina’s 2011 Ford Fiesta, a car that she took pride in and drove regularly, was missing, as was a sum of cash that Shifrina had been saving for dental work, which her daughter said might have totaled as much as $3,000, according to court records.

At the arraignment for the neighbor, Tammie Price Galloway, 47, in Dedham District Court Friday, Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Greg Connor said Shifrina had cuts to her neck, including one that severed her jugular vein, as well as broken ribs and cuts to her left arm.

In an early interview with police, Galloway claimed she had a “good relationship” with Shifrina, Connor said, but the investigation found that after Shifrina was seen attending a funeral and then grocery shopping on the afternoon of May 28, Galloway viciously attacked Shifrina and stole her car, Connor said.

Galloway spent the night of May 28 at a family friend’s home in Dorchester, where she was seen carrying a purple purse that later tested positive for blood that matched Shifrina’s DNA, Connor said.

Security video shows a woman matching Galloway’s description leaving the Dorchester home on the morning of May 29 carrying a container of bleach and later wiping down the stolen car, including the door handles, Connor said.

Shifrina’s car was found June 1, with a city parking ticket underneath a windshield wiper. The car smelled overwhelmingly of bleach and had “streak marks” that appeared to come from cleaning, according to an affidavit filed in court.

A man who had a relationship with Galloway told investigators that on May 30, she gave him a gift of new sneakers and about $60 in cash and flashed a large wad of bills, which was unusual for her, according to Connor and the affidavit.

Phone records also showed that two calls to that man were made from Shifrina’s missing cellphone on the evening of May 28, after Galloway had allegedly killed Shifrina, according to the affidavit.

Investigators found surveillance video that showed a car that appeared to be Shifrina’s Ford Fiesta traveling north on Granite Avenue in Dorchester at the time of the second call. Call records also placed the cellphone in that area at that time, according to prosecutors.

Investigators also found that on June 3, Galloway bought a new cellphone and accessories using $300 in cash and paid an outstanding phone bill using $60 in cash.

The prosecutor said Galloway had a lengthy criminal record that included a drug offense and a violent crime in North Carolina in the 1990s. In a rare occurrence, officials had kept Galloway’s name secret until her arraignment. It wasn’t immediately clear why.

Shifrina was a Jewish refugee who immigrated to the United States about 15 years ago with her daughter and her family. She worked for the Moscow Aviation Institute as a computer software engineer before coming to America, a friend, Aleksandr Yufa, told the Globe. She was an active member of the Massachusetts Club of Russian Speaking Scientists and edited a bulletin called “Intellect.”

Yufa attended Friday’s arraignment and afterward told reporters, “It’s hard to believe that such people like the defendant exist in our country.”

Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey acknowledged outside the courthouse that the killing had disturbed and frightened residents of the Needham housing complex where Shifrina lived.

“We want the people, particularly the elderly residents in the complex . . . to feel, hopefully, some ease that we now have, at least, brought a person to the courthouse for arraignment to begin that long judicial process to conviction for murder,” he said.

Brad Walker, who lives one building away from Shifrina’s apartment, said he was suspicious after a “strange” interaction with Galloway days before the death was discovered.

“She knocked on my door late at night and asked if she could borrow some tools, a hammer, to hang some photos,” Walker said.

“It was very odd; I had never talked to her before.”

He said he thinks the fact that Galloway is being held without bail will comfort his quiet neighborhood, which had been left unnerved by the murder.

“I certainly have a sense of relief, big time,” he said.

Another neighbor, who asked that her name not be published, said Friday that Galloway had lived in the complex for less than a year. She did not know why Galloway, who is decades younger than most residents at the complex, was living there.

The executive director of the Needham Housing Authority did not immediately respond Friday to an inquiry about Galloway.

The woman said Galloway had seemed fine at first, but that neighbors had observed increasingly erratic behavior from her over time.

“She pretty much kept to herself,” observed the neighbor, who said she has lived in that part of Needham for about a decade.

She described the complex as “a very, very close-knit community” that had been shocked by Shifrina’s brutal killing.

“That woman was so nice. Never said boo to anyone,” she said. “An elegant lady.”

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"Accused killer arraigned for murder of two Dorchester sisters" by Sara Salinas Globe Correspondent  June 30, 2017

In a full courtroom Friday after a nearly six-year wait, a Dorchester family met the man accused of killing two sisters.

Jean W. Janvier, 35, pleaded not guilty in the 2011 murder of Stephanie and Judith Emile in their apartment. Janvier fled to Haiti shortly after the deaths, landing him on the US Marshals’ 15 Most Wanted List and sparking a six-year manhunt. He was captured June 3 in his mother’s home in Santo, Haiti, and arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Friday.

Janvier is accused of killing Stephanie, 21, and Judith, 23, on Nov. 14, 2011. Prosecutors said Janvier had been in a romantic relationship with Stephanie, but the couple had recently broken up when the sisters were shot.

Upon entering the courtroom Friday, Janvier was met with expletive-ridden shouts from members of the victims’ family. Shouts turned to tearful whispers as prosecutors detailed the facts of the case and how the sisters were shot in the back and head.

Investigators said one of the women was shot getting while out of the shower and the other was shot while laying in bed.

The women shared an apartment with two more of their sisters and were watching a 2-year-old niece at the time of their deaths.

The victims had 11 other siblings, many of whom attended the arraignment along with their mother and father. Mirelda Emile, another sister, said she was glad to see Janvier captured but that it was “heart wrenching” to see him across the courtroom.

“I was just so emotional because I seen him and, you know, he looked like he didn’t give any care in the world, and he just acted like he was innocent,” Mirelda Emile said after the arraignment.

“And I don’t want to talk too much about him because it’s not about him. It’s about them.”

The two sisters had immigrated to the United States in 2002 and were pursuing careers in the medical field when they were shot to death in their Harlem Street apartment, according to authorities and relatives.

Janvier’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 1.....

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This last item will lift you up:

"To Ride the Wind over the Blinding Dust Storm of Materialism.

Saturday, July 01, 2017

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

I watched “Platoon” today and it really shook me up. I know I had seen it before but there were only a couple of themes that I remembered and some scenes I didn't remember ever having seen but which hit me hard. It wasn't just the film. It was my state of mind about life and the forces at work in it and the level of Evil. I had so many flashes of man being bestialized and the kinds of intelligence that were behind the conflict and what their goals and intentions were. It is so hard to grasp the degrees of man's inhumanity to man.

Never before in my life have I seen things so clearly. Never before have I felt so liberated from the confinements of my own person, to where I can simply look and listen and really see and hear. Our lives are progressive. We move from one stage of being to the next and the pattern is determined by our intentions and objectives. There is little doubt that I have gone mad on occasion. The desperation of emptiness, one's life devoid of God in the fullness of his possibility within us. It is impossible for me to be unaware of the ineffable and the imaginary distance between us that is a construct of my mind but that is passing. The madness broke down the fence line of personal boundaries in my imagined, personal mind and was absolutely necessary for that to happen. As the ineffable seeps into us; as our resistance decreases, our awareness widens and widens to encompass understandings that were previously impossible but... now I see that nothing is impossible and... to the extent that we accept that as literal truth and one of the eternal realities of the divine, as the divine becomes more and more present in us, this truth and so many others become features of our own being.

Watching that film today was such an experience. I thought about how pointless and unnecessary that was... all of the wars and conflicts really. I thought about the 50,000 dead over the years of its continuance and how 50,000 died in only 3 days at Gettysburg. Then I thought about the cultural war taking place now and conditions like this and how casual they are about it. I thought about the kind of minds that can think this way. I am astonished at things like this and then how the trend just gets worse and worse. I thought about the incredible hypocrisies that exist in certain people. How can such conflicting disparities reside in the same person?

The most troubling consideration in life to me is how such a large number of people can be so accommodating to conditions that will most certainly destroy them. How can people allow particular ideas to curl up in their minds and become comfortable and familiar with them? The greatest dangers are not the mortality that attends these ideas but the spiritual cost further on. Some people believe you have only the one life, or that there is nothing beyond but... nothing, you are extinguished and that is all but this is not so. You do not have just the one life and there are most certainly states and environments beyond this one that you pass into upon passing. Observe the cyclicity of Nature. Because of our immersion through the senses in the blinding dust storm of Materialism we are losing our objective capacity. Subjectivity is now the order of the day and in response to this the twisted fiends who manipulate appearances are destroying human intelligence and the critical sense. We are told what to think and even a surface observation of this brings distressing news.

Most distressing about people being told what to think is that it leads to their minds being hijacked and their humanity exiled from their consciousness for the purpose of the commission of acts of this nature. You might not want to read the article as it contains nothing but disturbing things that are now a daily event around the world. We only hear about a small amount of these events and like The Shadow is reported to have said; “who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”

Weather can come out of seemingly nowhere, although meteorologists can track the origins and even predict the occurrences with an increasing precision, as the technology to do so, continues to be refined. For those of us not so informed, tornadoes and the like can just appear. There are always reasons for it but we often don't know what they are; wildfires, floods, earthquakes and sundry are all expressions of Nature when certain conditions are right for the occasion. Civilization (if we can call it that) also has weather and for those paying no attention, events and conditions can seem to have come out of nowhere; how did that happen?

These are times of great and tumultuous change and if you want to see where certain trends are headed then look critically and analytically at what is in front of you (and to the side) and behind you. Keep in mind that anytime the general perception of the family unit and the interpretations given to the expression of sexual practices become increasingly more confusing and perverse, that society, overall, is going to enter into periods of STRANGE and stranger, with more and more appearances by the Bad Stranger. When diversity and perversity are redefined as inclusiveness and freedom of expression you are looking at certain kinds of weather seeming to come out of nowhere. Freedom is not license. Now they have all this cleverly shaped language and an endless stream of newly coined terms, backed up by credentialed experts and people with an array of initials after their names. It is no accident that representatives of these origins of strange weather are employed in the educational and political arenas. It is no accident that the entertainment and media theaters highlight certain behaviors as perfectly normal and desirable. It is also no accident as to who controls the ingress and egress to and from these fields of endeavor.

A spiritual war in in progress. It is a war for the harvesting of souls and this is something that takes place in an apocalypse. This is the essential motivation behind most of what is taking place all around us and is the source of strange weather that seems to come out of nowhere. The bottom line and unassailable truth, despite all appearances to the contrary is that the divine is completely in charge of everything and that things happen that are certainly not divine for... the purpose of demonstration. There is a reason that there are so many billions of people here. Their souls knew the reason before they arrived, even though nearly everyone forgot upon arrival.

Those paying attention will know that the time is here, according to the usual timeline, for the appearance of the latest presentation of the Avatar, clothed in the appropriate garment for the times; whatever that may prove to be. Those paying attention are also aware of how many people are presently here. Those paying attention know about the huge disparities in the control and possession of the world's resources and assets. Those paying attention are aware of what has been happening in and to the organs (literally and metaphorically) of the world's major religions. Those paying attention are aware of the world wide expansion of Satanism, militant atheism and new phenomena like Scientology where the author of this piece is listed as a 'suppressive'. Those paying attention are aware of strange murmurs from the realm of Lady Nature. Those paying attention are most assuredly aware of the incredible force being brought to bear in the area of human sexual expression. The force is so great that it bends to its will nearly everyone in a position of power and influence around the world, with a few notable exceptions. Those paying attention are paying attention, everyone else is doing whatever it is that they do.

You will notice the series of links earlier on, some of which refer to teachers engaged in certain forms of subversive, guerrilla activity of the sub rosa sort. You will notice how prominent this subject line is in the media each and every day and you will, of course, be aware of who owns the media. Though the centers for evil in this world are, obviously in an always uneasy alliance with one another toward the destruction of all that is good in this world, they are always at war with one another in some fashion and this is one of the primary reasons why evil destroys itself. I should point out at this moment, as has often been the case of late, that the ineffable is, REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCES, always in control; “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And one of them will not fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father.” Everything is under control. The question is, are we under control? Control is in the mind and... there is only one mind. Put yourself in the understanding that you are a center of that one mind and let guidance come to you at all times. Stand guard at the gateway of the mind and let no thoughts enter in that you know are not the thoughts of the ineffable.

The trials and tests to this end; to the successful performance of this state of being can be grievous but though this is the case, not at all impossible. Certainly it is impossible to accomplish on your own but not impossible with the assistance of the one who has already accomplished it many times in the souls of the willing; those capable of the dedication, quite simply for those who want it more than anything else. That is the sole feature that is absolutely necessary. Everything else is personalized according to the nature and composition of the one involved.

For some reason and though it may seem at odds with where we find ourselves in this instance, I am reminded of the words of St. Augustine, “Oh lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” Perhaps I mean to say, “Oh lord, grant me chastity and continence and do it now for I am in need of what it will make possible for me.” Maybe, here in the midst of all those conditions that we have mentioned today, I wish for that to be my answer to whatever the challenges of the times may bring my way and I wish this for all of you who share in this commitment. I can see no other direction that will make possible for me and anyone what it is that we most sincerely desire.

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Also see:

“The Protocols of Zion – A Documentary” 

There is also a book.