Friday, August 30, 2024
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris on the Munich Security Conference
February 20, 2022
As she prepared to leave the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with reporters. She said that the NATO alliance is strong but warned of the “real possibility of war in Europe” and said the U.S. could incur some energy cost if Russia invades Ukraine.
Russia invades Ukraine on multiple fronts in ‘brutal act of war’
By — Yuras Karmanau, Associated Press
By — Dasha Litvinova, Associated Press
World
Updated on Feb 24, 2022 8:27 PM EDT — Published on Feb 24, 2022 5:35 PM EDT
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order. Ukraine’s government pleaded for help as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.
Scores of Ukrainians, civilians and service members alike, were killed in the first full day of fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored global condemnation and cascading new sanctions as he unleashed the largest ground war in Europe since World War II and chillingly referred to his country’s nuclear arsenal. He threatened any country trying to interfere with “consequences you have never seen,” as a once-hoped for diplomatic resolution now appeared impossible.
Ukrainian forces braced for more attacks after enduring a Russian barrage of land- and sea-based missiles, an attack that one senior U.S. defense official described as the first salvo in a likely multi-phase invasion aimed at seizing key population centers, “decapitating” Ukraine’s government and installing a new one. Already, Ukraine officials said they had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
CONTEXT: A historical timeline of post-independence Ukraine
“Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted. His grasp on power increasingly tenuous, he pleaded Thursday for even more severe sanctions than the ones imposed by Western allies and ordered a full military mobilization that would last 90 days.
Zelenskyy said in a video address that 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded. The dead included all border guards on the Zmiinyi Island in the Odesa region, which was taken over by Russians.
He concluded an emotional speech by saying that “the fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders.” He also said the country had heard from Moscow that ”they want to talk about Ukraine’s neutral status.”
U.S. President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, saying Putin “chose this war” and that his country would bear the consequences. Other nations also announced sanctions, or said they would shortly.
Fearing a Russian attack on the capital city, thousands of people went deep underground as night fell, jamming Kyiv’s subway stations.
At times it felt almost cheerful. Families ate dinner. Children played. Adults chatted. People brought sleeping bags or dogs or crossword puzzles — anything to alleviate the waiting and the long night ahead.
But the exhaustion was clear on many faces. And the worries.
“Nobody believed that this war would start and that they would take Kyiv directly,” said Anton Mironov, waiting out the night in one of the old Soviet metro stations. “I feel mostly fatigue. None of it feels real.”
The invasion began early Thursday with a series of missile strikes, many on key government and military installations, quickly followed by a three-pronged ground assault. Ukrainian and U.S. officials said Russian forces were attacking from the east toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city; from the southern region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014; and from Belarus to the north.
Zelenskyy, who had earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
Though Biden said he had no plans to speak with Putin, the Russian leader did have what the Kremlin described as a “serious and frank exchange” with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Both sides claimed to have destroyed some of the other’s aircraft and military hardware, though little of that could be confirmed.
Hours after the invasion began, Russian forces seized control of the now-unused Chernobyl plant and its surrounding exclusion zone after a fierce battle, presidential adviser Myhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it was told by Ukraine of the takeover, adding that there had been “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site.”
The 1986 disaster occurred when a nuclear reactor at the plant 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Kyiv exploded, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. The damaged reactor was later covered by a protective shell to prevent leaks.
Alyona Shevtsova, adviser to the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, wrote on Facebook that staff members at the Chernobyl plant had been “taken hostage.” The White House said it was “outraged” by reports of the hostage-taking.
The chief of the NATO alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said the “brutal act of war” shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders decrying an attack that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government. The conflict shook global financial markets: Stocks plunged and oil prices soared amid concerns that heating bills and food prices would skyrocket.
Condemnation came not only from the U.S. and Europe, but from South Korea, Australia and beyond — and many governments readied new sanctions. Even friendly leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban sought to distance themselves from Putin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he aimed to cut off Russia from the U.K.’s financial markets as he announced sanctions, freezing the assets of all large Russian banks and planning to bar Russian companies and the Kremlin from raising money on British markets.
“Now we see him for what he is — a bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest,” Johnson said of Putin.
The U.S. sanctions will target Russian banks, oligarchs, state-controlled companies and high-tech sectors, Biden said, but they were designed not to disrupt global energy markets. Russian oil and natural gas exports are vital energy sources for Europe.
Zelenskyy urged the U.S. and West to go further and cut the Russians from the SWIFT system, a key financial network that connects thousands of banks around the world. The White House has been reluctant to immediately cut Russia from SWIFT, worried it could cause enormous economic problems in Europe and elsewhere in the West.
READ MORE: Putin warns that the West shouldn’t ‘push’ Russia out of the global economy
While some nervous Europeans speculated about a possible new world war, the U.S. and its NATO partners have shown no indication they would send troops into Ukraine, fearing a larger conflict. NATO reinforced its members in Eastern Europe as a precaution, and Biden said the U.S. was deploying additional forces to Germany to bolster NATO.
European authorities declared the country’s airspace an active conflict zone.
After weeks of denying plans to invade, Putin launched the operation on a country the size of Texas that has increasingly tilted toward the democratic West and away from Moscow’s sway. The autocratic leader made clear earlier this week that he sees no reason for Ukraine to exist, raising fears of possible broader conflict in the vast space that the Soviet Union once ruled. Putin denied plans to occupy Ukraine, but his ultimate goals remain hazy.
Ukrainians were urged to shelter in place and not to panic.
“Until the very last moment, I didn’t believe it would happen. I just pushed away these thoughts,” said a terrified Anna Dovnya in Kyiv, watching soldiers and police remove shrapnel from an exploded shell. “We have lost all faith.”
With social media amplifying a torrent of military claims and counter-claims, it was difficult to determine exactly what was happening on the ground.
Russia and Ukraine made competing claims about damage they had inflicted. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed scores of Ukrainian air bases, military facilities and drones. It confirmed the loss of one of its Su-25 attack jets, blaming “pilot error,” and said an An-26 transport plane had crashed because of technical failure, killing the entire crew. It did not say how many were aboard.
Russia said it was not targeting cities, but journalists saw destruction in many civilian areas.
Poland’s military increased its readiness level, and Lithuania and Moldova moved toward doing the same.
Putin justified his actions in an overnight televised address, asserting the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. predicted he would make as a pretext for invasion. He accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and for security guarantees, saying the military action was a “forced measure.”
Anticipating international condemnation and countermeasures, Putin issued a stark warning to other countries not to meddle.
In a reminder of Russia’s nuclear power, he warned that “no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to the destruction and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor.”
Angela Charlton in Paris; Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin; Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels; Nic Dumitrache in Mariupol, Ukraine, Inna Varennytsia in eastern Ukraine; and Robert Burns, Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Eric Tucker, Nomaan Merchant, Ellen Knickmeyer, Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order. Ukraine’s government pleaded for help as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.
Scores of Ukrainians, civilians and service members alike, were killed in the first full day of fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored global condemnation and cascading new sanctions as he unleashed the largest ground war in Europe since World War II and chillingly referred to his country’s nuclear arsenal. He threatened any country trying to interfere with “consequences you have never seen,” as a once-hoped for diplomatic resolution now appeared impossible.
Ukrainian forces braced for more attacks after enduring a Russian barrage of land- and sea-based missiles, an attack that one senior U.S. defense official described as the first salvo in a likely multi-phase invasion aimed at seizing key population centers, “decapitating” Ukraine’s government and installing a new one. Already, Ukraine officials said they had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
CONTEXT: A historical timeline of post-independence Ukraine
“Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted. His grasp on power increasingly tenuous, he pleaded Thursday for even more severe sanctions than the ones imposed by Western allies and ordered a full military mobilization that would last 90 days.
Zelenskyy said in a video address that 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded. The dead included all border guards on the Zmiinyi Island in the Odesa region, which was taken over by Russians.
He concluded an emotional speech by saying that “the fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders.” He also said the country had heard from Moscow that ”they want to talk about Ukraine’s neutral status.”
U.S. President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, saying Putin “chose this war” and that his country would bear the consequences. Other nations also announced sanctions, or said they would shortly.
Fearing a Russian attack on the capital city, thousands of people went deep underground as night fell, jamming Kyiv’s subway stations.
At times it felt almost cheerful. Families ate dinner. Children played. Adults chatted. People brought sleeping bags or dogs or crossword puzzles — anything to alleviate the waiting and the long night ahead.
But the exhaustion was clear on many faces. And the worries.
“Nobody believed that this war would start and that they would take Kyiv directly,” said Anton Mironov, waiting out the night in one of the old Soviet metro stations. “I feel mostly fatigue. None of it feels real.”
The invasion began early Thursday with a series of missile strikes, many on key government and military installations, quickly followed by a three-pronged ground assault. Ukrainian and U.S. officials said Russian forces were attacking from the east toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city; from the southern region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014; and from Belarus to the north.
Zelenskyy, who had earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
Though Biden said he had no plans to speak with Putin, the Russian leader did have what the Kremlin described as a “serious and frank exchange” with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Both sides claimed to have destroyed some of the other’s aircraft and military hardware, though little of that could be confirmed.
Hours after the invasion began, Russian forces seized control of the now-unused Chernobyl plant and its surrounding exclusion zone after a fierce battle, presidential adviser Myhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it was told by Ukraine of the takeover, adding that there had been “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site.”
The 1986 disaster occurred when a nuclear reactor at the plant 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Kyiv exploded, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. The damaged reactor was later covered by a protective shell to prevent leaks.
Alyona Shevtsova, adviser to the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, wrote on Facebook that staff members at the Chernobyl plant had been “taken hostage.” The White House said it was “outraged” by reports of the hostage-taking.
The chief of the NATO alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said the “brutal act of war” shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders decrying an attack that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government. The conflict shook global financial markets: Stocks plunged and oil prices soared amid concerns that heating bills and food prices would skyrocket.
Condemnation came not only from the U.S. and Europe, but from South Korea, Australia and beyond — and many governments readied new sanctions. Even friendly leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban sought to distance themselves from Putin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he aimed to cut off Russia from the U.K.’s financial markets as he announced sanctions, freezing the assets of all large Russian banks and planning to bar Russian companies and the Kremlin from raising money on British markets.
“Now we see him for what he is — a bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest,” Johnson said of Putin.
The U.S. sanctions will target Russian banks, oligarchs, state-controlled companies and high-tech sectors, Biden said, but they were designed not to disrupt global energy markets. Russian oil and natural gas exports are vital energy sources for Europe.
Zelenskyy urged the U.S. and West to go further and cut the Russians from the SWIFT system, a key financial network that connects thousands of banks around the world. The White House has been reluctant to immediately cut Russia from SWIFT, worried it could cause enormous economic problems in Europe and elsewhere in the West.
READ MORE: Putin warns that the West shouldn’t ‘push’ Russia out of the global economy
While some nervous Europeans speculated about a possible new world war, the U.S. and its NATO partners have shown no indication they would send troops into Ukraine, fearing a larger conflict. NATO reinforced its members in Eastern Europe as a precaution, and Biden said the U.S. was deploying additional forces to Germany to bolster NATO.
European authorities declared the country’s airspace an active conflict zone.
After weeks of denying plans to invade, Putin launched the operation on a country the size of Texas that has increasingly tilted toward the democratic West and away from Moscow’s sway. The autocratic leader made clear earlier this week that he sees no reason for Ukraine to exist, raising fears of possible broader conflict in the vast space that the Soviet Union once ruled. Putin denied plans to occupy Ukraine, but his ultimate goals remain hazy.
Ukrainians were urged to shelter in place and not to panic.
“Until the very last moment, I didn’t believe it would happen. I just pushed away these thoughts,” said a terrified Anna Dovnya in Kyiv, watching soldiers and police remove shrapnel from an exploded shell. “We have lost all faith.”
With social media amplifying a torrent of military claims and counter-claims, it was difficult to determine exactly what was happening on the ground.
Russia and Ukraine made competing claims about damage they had inflicted. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed scores of Ukrainian air bases, military facilities and drones. It confirmed the loss of one of its Su-25 attack jets, blaming “pilot error,” and said an An-26 transport plane had crashed because of technical failure, killing the entire crew. It did not say how many were aboard.
Russia said it was not targeting cities, but journalists saw destruction in many civilian areas.
Poland’s military increased its readiness level, and Lithuania and Moldova moved toward doing the same.
Putin justified his actions in an overnight televised address, asserting the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. predicted he would make as a pretext for invasion. He accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and for security guarantees, saying the military action was a “forced measure.”
Anticipating international condemnation and countermeasures, Putin issued a stark warning to other countries not to meddle.
In a reminder of Russia’s nuclear power, he warned that “no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to the destruction and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor.”
Angela Charlton in Paris; Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin; Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels; Nic Dumitrache in Mariupol, Ukraine, Inna Varennytsia in eastern Ukraine; and Robert Burns, Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Eric Tucker, Nomaan Merchant, Ellen Knickmeyer, Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.
Kamala Harris, First CNN Interview
Part 1: Harris breaks down plans for her first day in office in exclusive CNN interview
Part 2: ‘We need a deal’: Harris weighs in on Israel-Hamas war
Part 3: Harris recalls conversation with Biden about dropping out
~
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Monday, August 26, 2024
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Lukashenko to apostolic nuncio: Europe needs a new peace treaty
23 August 2024, 11:55
MINSK, 23 August (BelTA) - Europe needs a new peace treaty, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus Ante Josic in Minsk on 23 August, BelTA has learned.
“It is easy for me to talk to you as a representative of a religious confession, one of the main confessions in Belarus, because our views – the views of the leadership of Belarus and the Vatican - virtually coincide, especially on security issues. Security in Europe. The positions on the matter are absolutely consonant. The conflict in Ukraine, where we have almost the same stance on, testifies to the fact,” the president said. “I absolutely agree with you, and we have been talking about it for a long time. In order for Europe to live peacefully and live the way we live (no matter how much we complain our lives are not bad after all), we need a new peace treaty. We need a new peace, if I may say so, in Europe.”
“I think that the activity of our Catholic Church is not enough here. European countries need strong leaders who will proceed from the interests of their own peoples in the first place. They should not obey and act to please someone else, but see the interests of their own people. Unfortunately, let them not take offense at me, I do not see such leaders there,” the Belarusian leader added.
Aleksandr Lukashenko characterized Ante Jozic as a smart, educated, very active, and benevolent person.
“Despite certain limitations, and your position always has them (I know it well because I send ambassadors to foreign countries), you acted as a man of integrity. I am really pleased to meet with you today,” the head of state said.
He thanked Ante Jozic for the assistance rendered in the release of 30 Belarusian citizens after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine. “We appreciate it very much and will remember it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.
The president also mentioned his contacts with the heads of the Holy See. “I recall my meetings with the Pope with great warmth. I was lucky as all the leaders of the Catholic Church whom I met with were very serious-minded and decent people,” he noted.
Aleksandr Lukashenko asked Ante Jozic to prepare the next apostolic nuncio to Belarus. “The new one needs to be even better than the previous one - this is the essence of progress. We will still be very happy if the new apostolic nuncio will be like Jozic. We absolutely agree with this. I would like to reiterate that it is a great pleasure for me to meet with you, to discuss the issues that may have emerged in the relations between Belarus and the Vatican and also with the Catholic Church in Belarus,” the president added.
Time to Connect the Dots
By
Russ Gonnering August 19, 2024 Government, Pharma 4 minute read
It was an otherwise normal day in 1969 when I found the book. I was a student in Vienna for my junior year of undergrad. Like most students, I had a room with a Hausfrau, normally an elderly lady who rented out rooms to students. I shared a room on Hauslabgasse in the 5th District with an old high school classmate.
Our Hausfrau, born in 1900, was a member of the old minor Austrian Nobility. Both World Wars had been hard on her. She had served in the German Kriegsmarine occupying the Channel Islands and came back to a war-torn Vienna, but made her own way. She was a survivor. I admired her for that. But she also had a certain affection for the “good old days.”
There was an old ornate bookcase in our room. As I was examining it, I found a hidden compartment that contained a copy of Mein Kampf. It was a handsomely bound copy and obviously cherished. As I thumbed through it, I wondered how people could have been so blind. Hitler had laid out, in detail, exactly what he planned to do. And he did it. How could the world have missed it?
Perhaps we need to fast-forward to today in order to understand it. Starting in 2001, a series of simulation exercises were conducted under sponsorship of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It began with Dark Winter dealing with a smallpox epidemic and continued with Atlantic Storm in 2005, Clade X in 2018 and culminated with Event 201 in November 2019.
This succession of planning events creates a time series of information. They are the dots that, it seems, someone or some entity is daring us to connect. Who might this be?
Well, The Center for Health Security at Hopkins, for sure. Tom Inglesby and Eric Toner are there. Inglesby even connected the events, saying “The events have a long fuse!” What exactly did he mean?
The World Economic Forum is there. They even published The Great Reset in July 2020, amazingly soon after Covid hit. This seems to be an awfully short time to get the book in print. Gates is there, with GAVI which was started even earlier, in 2000!
I can’t remember if it was Anthony Fauci or Rick Bright who articulated in the video versions of Event 201 that this would be a terrific opportunity to push vaccines. It’s all out there for everyone to see, just like in Mein Kampf!
Steven Kritz, MD, made the point in an email chat that, “For the first time ever, it was a MAN-MADE virus that caused a world-wide outbreak!” If it was man-made, it had to have a purpose. Was it simply the “sword and shield” approach stretching back to the bioweapons program of the Third Reich? Kurt Blome’s research on bioweapons was the Sword and that of Walter Schreiber on defense to those weapons was the Shield. The whole episode of their research in Nazi Germany as well as the possible transfer of this concept to The Department of Defense Research and Engineering Enterprise, is outlined in Operation Paperclip.
This is all the more interesting with the assertion by Marine Major Joseph P. Murphy to Project Veritas that supported that Sword and Shield scenario and the fact the Department of Defense controlled Operation Warp Speed.
Was it a money-making scheme of Big Pharma? Well, that is certainly plausible given the Project Veritas recordings of the Pfizer executive trying to impress his date and spilling the beans on the vaccine program. By the way, what happened to Project Veritas after all of these revelations? Did James O’Keefe finally poke the hornet’s nest too strongly? You be the judge.
So, what ties The Center for Health Security, The Department of Defense, The World Economic Forum, Big Pharma, Fauci, Gates etc. together? Is it merely a consortium of individuals and entities who realized they had a common interest, or is something else behind it all, calling the shots? Was it just a matter of us not being able to connect the dots? Or was it more like the case of my Hausfrau in Vienna more than 50 years ago, where the dots were not only connected but cherished by those few who knew the truth?
I don’t know…But it needs to be explored.
It was an otherwise normal day in 1969 when I found the book. I was a student in Vienna for my junior year of undergrad. Like most students, I had a room with a Hausfrau, normally an elderly lady who rented out rooms to students. I shared a room on Hauslabgasse in the 5th District with an old high school classmate.
Our Hausfrau, born in 1900, was a member of the old minor Austrian Nobility. Both World Wars had been hard on her. She had served in the German Kriegsmarine occupying the Channel Islands and came back to a war-torn Vienna, but made her own way. She was a survivor. I admired her for that. But she also had a certain affection for the “good old days.”
There was an old ornate bookcase in our room. As I was examining it, I found a hidden compartment that contained a copy of Mein Kampf. It was a handsomely bound copy and obviously cherished. As I thumbed through it, I wondered how people could have been so blind. Hitler had laid out, in detail, exactly what he planned to do. And he did it. How could the world have missed it?
Perhaps we need to fast-forward to today in order to understand it. Starting in 2001, a series of simulation exercises were conducted under sponsorship of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It began with Dark Winter dealing with a smallpox epidemic and continued with Atlantic Storm in 2005, Clade X in 2018 and culminated with Event 201 in November 2019.
This succession of planning events creates a time series of information. They are the dots that, it seems, someone or some entity is daring us to connect. Who might this be?
Well, The Center for Health Security at Hopkins, for sure. Tom Inglesby and Eric Toner are there. Inglesby even connected the events, saying “The events have a long fuse!” What exactly did he mean?
The World Economic Forum is there. They even published The Great Reset in July 2020, amazingly soon after Covid hit. This seems to be an awfully short time to get the book in print. Gates is there, with GAVI which was started even earlier, in 2000!
I can’t remember if it was Anthony Fauci or Rick Bright who articulated in the video versions of Event 201 that this would be a terrific opportunity to push vaccines. It’s all out there for everyone to see, just like in Mein Kampf!
Steven Kritz, MD, made the point in an email chat that, “For the first time ever, it was a MAN-MADE virus that caused a world-wide outbreak!” If it was man-made, it had to have a purpose. Was it simply the “sword and shield” approach stretching back to the bioweapons program of the Third Reich? Kurt Blome’s research on bioweapons was the Sword and that of Walter Schreiber on defense to those weapons was the Shield. The whole episode of their research in Nazi Germany as well as the possible transfer of this concept to The Department of Defense Research and Engineering Enterprise, is outlined in Operation Paperclip.
This is all the more interesting with the assertion by Marine Major Joseph P. Murphy to Project Veritas that supported that Sword and Shield scenario and the fact the Department of Defense controlled Operation Warp Speed.
Was it a money-making scheme of Big Pharma? Well, that is certainly plausible given the Project Veritas recordings of the Pfizer executive trying to impress his date and spilling the beans on the vaccine program. By the way, what happened to Project Veritas after all of these revelations? Did James O’Keefe finally poke the hornet’s nest too strongly? You be the judge.
So, what ties The Center for Health Security, The Department of Defense, The World Economic Forum, Big Pharma, Fauci, Gates etc. together? Is it merely a consortium of individuals and entities who realized they had a common interest, or is something else behind it all, calling the shots? Was it just a matter of us not being able to connect the dots? Or was it more like the case of my Hausfrau in Vienna more than 50 years ago, where the dots were not only connected but cherished by those few who knew the truth?
I don’t know…But it needs to be explored.
Dr. Fauci was hospitalized with West Nile virus and is now recovering at home, a spokesperson says
FILE - Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks during the presentation of his book “On Call” at Lincoln Theatre Friday, June 21, 2024, in Washington. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
BY CAROLYN THOMPSON
Updated 4:35 PM EDT, August 24, 2024
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former top U.S. infectious disease expert, spent time in the hospital after being infected with West Nile virus and is now recovering at home, a spokesperson confirmed Saturday.
Fauci is expected to make a full recovery, the spokesperson said on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
West Nile virus is commonly spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. While most people don’t experience symptoms, about 1 in 5 can develop a fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 out of 150 infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, illness.
CBS News’ chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jonathan LaPook, wrote in a social media post that he spoke Saturday with Fauci, who said he was likely infected from a mosquito bite that he got in his backyard.
“Dr. Fauci was hospitalized about ten days ago after developing fever, chills, and severe fatigue,” the post on X said. It said Fauci spent a week in the hospital.
As chief White House medical adviser, Fauci was the public face of the U.S. government during the COVID-19 pandemic, a role that made him both a trusted voice to millions and also the target of partisan anger. He left the government in 2022 but was back before Congress in June to testify as part of Republicans’ yearslong investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. response to the disease.
Fauci last summer joined the faculty at Georgetown University as a distinguished university professor.
There are no vaccines to prevent West Nile, or medicines to treat it. As of Aug. 20, the CDC had recorded 216 cases in 33 states this year. It’s best prevented by avoiding mosquito bites.
—-
Thompson reported from Buffalo, N.Y.
Friday, August 23, 2024
Northern New England Conference Issues Statement on Caribou Campmeeting
August 22, 2024 NewsHound
The Northern Maine Campmeeting was held in Caribou Maine last weekend. Walter Veith and Conrad Vine were the main speakers.
Conrad Vine addressed the issue of liberty of conscience in his presentations. On Friday night he suggested that if the SDA church leadership were to side with federal government vaccine mandates—like they did in 2020-2022—that freedom-loving Seventh-day Adventists had an array of options to consider. The NNEC Conference issued a statement that appears to be in response to Vine outlining these ‘options’.
As mentioned, in 2020-2022 conventional medicine Adventists, GC leadership, a partisan PARL and almost all progressive Adventists aligned with the federal vaccine mandate.
Opposing the mandate was the Southern Baptist Theological seminary and a few others. They were vindicated when the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden mandate was not constitutional. This vindication could have been ours, had the aforementioned SDA entities demonstrated a commitment to bodily autonomy & liberty and the courage to follow our inspired health counsels. They didn’t.
They also demonstrated no compassion to thousands of Adventists whose consciences and livelihoods were violated by progressive autocrats during Pestilence-19.
****
“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice” (Exodus 23:2).
..FBI director says America faces many elevated threats 'all at once'
From cybercrime to terrorism, FBI director says America faces many elevated threats 'all at once'
The head of the FBI says America is facing heightened threats from many corners at a time when law enforcement agencies are struggling
By
MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press
August 22, 2024, 12:02 AM ET
The Associated Press
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. -- The country is facing heightened threats from many corners at a time when law enforcement agencies are struggling, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in an exclusive interview, adding that he is “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”
Wray spoke Wednesday with The Associated Press while visiting the Minneapolis field office to talk about partnerships between law enforcement agencies and also with other entities. His remarks come as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over terrorism, both domestic and international, as well as Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft and foreign election interference.
“I worry about the combination of that many threats being elevated at once, with the challenges facing the men and women in law enforcement more generally,” Wray said at the office in the suburb of Brooklyn Center. “And the one thing that I think helps bridge those two challenges is partnerships. That’s how we get through. It is by all working together.”
Wray’s assessment of an elevated threat landscape is consistent with alarm bells he has sounded for months. Soon after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel, Wray began warning that the rampage could serve as an inspiration to militants, “the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.”
The FBI has also scrambled to deal with security concerns related to the United States' southern border, with officials revealing in June that eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group were arrested and were being held on immigration violations.
Officials are also dealing with the specter of foreign election interference. The FBI and other federal agencies announced Monday that Iran was responsible for a hack targeting the Trump campaign and for an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign, part of what officials portrayed as a brazen and aggressive effort to interfere in American politics.
Wray declined to talk about any specific investigation or threat but said investigations into cyberattacks, including against election infrastructure, candidates or campaigns, require help from the private sector.
“One of the things that we have been doubling down on with every passing day is, is on partnerships, because ultimately you’re talking about the ability to connect the dots, whether it’s against some kind of election influence threat or some other kind of threat,” Wray said. “You need to have partners sharing information with each other to put the two pieces together to see the bigger picture.”
Law enforcement officers are being killed in the line of duty at a rate of about one every five days, Wray said, noting that four first responders have died in Minnesota alone in 2024. They include a Minneapolis officer killed in May while trying to help someone, and two officers and a paramedic who died in Burnsville in February when a heavily armed man opened fire.
Such violence “breaks my heart every single time,” the director said.
The FBI has not been spared such attacks: Days after agents searched Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to recover classified documents, a gunman who called on social media for federal agents to be killed “on sight” died in a shootout after trying to get inside the FBI’s Cincinnati office.
Wray said the FBI has been working to beef up traditional partnerships with state and local law enforcement, while also creating other ones with business and academia to help counter threats against cybersecurity or intellectual property. In Minneapolis and other offices, he said, authorities are cooperating with the likes of school resource officers and mental health professionals to help at-risk teenagers in hopes of heading off future threats.
Working with industry is important for protecting innovation and artificial intelligence from foreign threats, Wray added.
“AI is in many ways the most effective tool against the bad guys' use of AI,” he said. “So we need to work closely with industry to try to help make sure that American AI can be used to help protect American people from AI-enabled threats coming the other way.”
___
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2024 ABC News
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Biden approves nuclear strategy refocusing on China threat – report
Joe Biden
White House says plan was approved earlier this year and was not a response to a single country or threat
Edward Helmore and Amy HawkinsWed 21 Aug 2024 10.23 EDT
Joe Biden has approved a US nuclear strategy to prepare for possible coordinated nuclear confrontations with Russia, China and North Korea, according to a New York Times report on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the White House said the president approved the plan earlier this year and it was not a response to a single country or threat.
The spokesperson Sean Savett said that while “the specific text of the guidance is classified, its existence is in no way secret. The guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat.”
The Times reported that the deterrent policy takes into account a rapid buildup of China’s nuclear arsenal, which will rival the size and diversity of the US and Russian stockpiles over the next decade. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
According to research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China had an estimated 500 nuclear warheads in January, up from 410 in January 2023. The US and Russia have more than 5,000 warheads each. But China’s arsenal is thought to be expanding at a much faster pace than any other country’s.
The US-based Arms Control Association said it understood US nuclear weapons strategy and posture remained the same as described in the administration’s 2022 nuclear posture review, and there had been no reorientation away from Russia and toward China.
Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, said that while US intelligence estimates suggested China might increase the size of its nuclear arsenal from 500 to 1,000 warheads by 2030, Russia currently had about 4,000 nuclear warheads “and it remains the major driver behind US nuclear strategy”.
Biden approved the revised strategy – called the nuclear employment guidance – in March, according to the Times, but an unclassified notification of the policy change has not yet been presented to Congress.
After years of nuclear arms reduction efforts, the administration has been signalling willingness to expand the US arsenal to counter China and Russia’s nuclear strategies more recently. In February, the US warned allies that Russia could be planning to put a nuclear weapon into space.
On Tuesday, a retired senior colonel in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Zhou Bo, published a piece in Foreign Policy arguing that the US and China could still cooperate on nuclear diplomacy. Zhou said that “it is impossible for Beijing to stand by idly” in the face of deteriorating relations between Russia and the US, but that there was space to strengthen the policies governing the control of nuclear weapons stockpiles.
Zhou argued that nuclear-armed states should declare a “no first use” policy, as so far only China and India have done.
Global spending on nuclear weapons up 13% in record rise
On Tuesday, the Times reported that two senior administration officials had earlier been permitted to allude to the revision in US nuclear strategy without disclosing its existence.
In June, Pranay Vaddi, a senior director of the national security council, warned that “absent a change” in nuclear strategy by China and Russia, the US was prepared to shift from modernisation of existing weapons to expanding its arsenal.
Vaddi also alluded to the highly classified document, saying it emphasised “the need to deter Russia, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and North Korea simultaneously”.
The last major nuclear arms control agreement with Russia, New Start, which sets limits on intercontinental-range nuclear weapons, expires in early 2026 with no subsequent agreement in place.
China and Russia are now more politically and economically aligned. Last month, Chinese and Russian long-range bombers patrolled together near Alaska for the first time and held live-fire exercises in the South China Sea.
The second US administration official permitted to refer to the document, Vipin Narang, an MIT nuclear strategist who served in the Pentagon, said earlier this month that Biden had “issued updated nuclear weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries” and for “the significant increase in the size and diversity” of China’s nuclear arsenal.
“It is our responsibility to see the world as it is, not as we hoped or wished it would be,” the Times quoted Narang as saying. “It is possible that we will one day look back and see the quarter-century after the cold war as nuclear intermission.
On Tuesday, the Times reported that two senior administration officials had earlier been permitted to allude to the revision in US nuclear strategy without disclosing its existence.
In June, Pranay Vaddi, a senior director of the national security council, warned that “absent a change” in nuclear strategy by China and Russia, the US was prepared to shift from modernisation of existing weapons to expanding its arsenal.
Vaddi also alluded to the highly classified document, saying it emphasised “the need to deter Russia, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and North Korea simultaneously”.
The last major nuclear arms control agreement with Russia, New Start, which sets limits on intercontinental-range nuclear weapons, expires in early 2026 with no subsequent agreement in place.
China and Russia are now more politically and economically aligned. Last month, Chinese and Russian long-range bombers patrolled together near Alaska for the first time and held live-fire exercises in the South China Sea.
The second US administration official permitted to refer to the document, Vipin Narang, an MIT nuclear strategist who served in the Pentagon, said earlier this month that Biden had “issued updated nuclear weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries” and for “the significant increase in the size and diversity” of China’s nuclear arsenal.
“It is our responsibility to see the world as it is, not as we hoped or wished it would be,” the Times quoted Narang as saying. “It is possible that we will one day look back and see the quarter-century after the cold war as nuclear intermission.
Cardinal Cupich gives invocation at 2024 Democratic National Conv...
DNC on Monday, August 19, 2024.
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Church of England appears to stop using the word 'church' to sound more 'relevant': stu
Jasmine Baehr
August 16, 2024 at 6:55 PM
The Church of England is apparently dropping the word "church" in the hopes of drawing in more crowds, according to a recent study.
The study, called "New Things: A theological investigation into the work of starting new churches across 11 dioceses in the Church of England," was conducted by the Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research in Durham.
The qualitative study inspected language used by 11 Church of England dioceses to describe their new churches.
Traditionally, new churches are referred to as "church plants." In this study, the Centre for Church Planting Theology discovered that even though more than 900 new churches were established by 11 dioceses in the past 10 years, none of them used the word "church plant" or "church."
"Not one diocese used the term ‘church’ in their main descriptor. ‘Church plant’ is not used by any of the 11 dioceses. Only one diocese used ‘fresh expressions’ of ‘pioneering’ in its descriptor," reads the study's conclusion.
A sign welcomes visitors and congregation members to St Mary's church in the West Sussex South Downs village of Slindon, on 9th August 2024, in Slindon, England.
The study refers to these not-quite-church-plants as "new things," as there was no specificity offered as to what these "things" are.
"That the term ‘church’ is not used, in favour of other terms (community, congregation etc.) is worthy of theological reflection. We explore whether the question, ‘what is church?’ is worth asking."
Six of the 11 dioceses preferred the language of "worship" as their main descriptor for new church projects. Seven used "community," and only two used "congregation," according to the Reverend Dr. Will Foulger.
Foulger is the main author of the report as well as the vicar of St. Nicholas' Church in Durham, England.
The study refers to these not-quite-church-plants as "new things," as there was no specificity offered as to what these "things" are.
"That the term ‘church’ is not used, in favour of other terms (community, congregation etc.) is worthy of theological reflection. We explore whether the question, ‘what is church?’ is worth asking."
Six of the 11 dioceses preferred the language of "worship" as their main descriptor for new church projects. Seven used "community," and only two used "congregation," according to the Reverend Dr. Will Foulger.
Foulger is the main author of the report as well as the vicar of St. Nicholas' Church in Durham, England.
A general view of St Cuthbert's Church in Billingham, County Durham. It is believed that a church has stood on this spot in Billingham since 845 AD in the Saxon era. It is described as the ''mother church'' of the town and it is located on Billingham Green. However, due to a lack of funding and a decline in its congregation, the future of the church is under threat. As seen in Billingham, County Durham, on July 8, 2024.
The vicar of St. Anne's in Kew, Dr. Giles Fraser, expressed to the Telegraph that the sudden drop of the word "church" shows "a misplaced desire to be relevant and modern-sounding".
Dr. Foulger admitted in his study that these new language changes are "forcing us to redefine what we think a church is in the Church of England".
Monday, August 19, 2024
Remnant, Respectable or Regime Church | Conrad Vine
Note: Conrad Vine's sermon begins @ approximately 29:00 mins.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Unmasking Hezbollah - Drug trafficking and terror | DW Documentary
Who was behind the assassination of Rafic Hariri? (2/3)
Money laundering in Europe (3/3)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Friday, August 16, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, 85, recovering after ‘mild’ stroke, his office says
By Allie Griffin
Published Aug. 13, 2024, 8:28 p.m. ET
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) had a “mild” stroke over the weekend and was rushed to the hospital, his office announced Tuesday.
The 85-year-old former House majority leader “experienced a mild ischemic stroke and sought medical treatment” on Sunday night, his deputy chief of staff Margaret Mulkerrin said in a statement.
“Mr. Hoyer has responded well to treatment and has no lingering symptoms,” she said. “He expects to resume his normal schedule next week.”
The Democrat’s office didn’t state what hospital he was treated at or if and when he was released, but thanked his caretakers.
Rep Steny Hoyer
Rep Steny Hoyer, 85, suffered “a mild ischemic stroke” Sunday night, his office said.
ZUMAPRESS.com
“Mr. Hoyer’s wife and family extend their deepest thanks to his medical team,” his spokesperson said.
Hoyer announced that he was stepping down from his leadership position among House Democrats in November 2022 after several decades as a top Dem.
He continued to serve Congress since then and is an active member of the Appropriations Committee.
Hoyer’s health also made headlines in 2018 when he was hospitalized for a short time with pneumonia while he was House majority leader.
Rep Steny Hoyer
He has no lingering systems after undergoing medical treatment and is expected to return to his normal schedule next week.
Rod Lamkey – CNP / MEGA
The Maryland Democrat contracted COVID-19 in February 2022 — becoming the 32nd lawmaker to test positive for the virus at the start of the year.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) suffered a stroke that “technically” killed him just two days before his Democratic primary victory.
“I didn’t have a near-death experience, because technically I had died,” Fetterman, 54, said of his life-altering stroke.
The medical episode sidelined him from the campaign trail for nearly three months and caused him to develop auditory processing challenges, which requires him to use closed-captioning monitors to follow along with people’s speeches.
Psychological bias links good deeds to a belief in God, research says
News Release 8-Aug-2024
Psychological bias links good deeds to a belief in God, research says
New Zealand, where 49% of respondents in the 2018 census indicated no religious belief.
Participants read a description of a man who took a path of increasing benevolence, from helping stray animals as a child to, as an adult, giving food and clothes to homeless people. Sometimes, during bitingly cold weather, he offered a spare room to homeless families.
Half of the participants were asked which is more probable: The man is a teacher or the man is a teacher and believes in God. The other half were asked the same question, but the options were “the man is a teacher” or “the man is a teacher and does not believe in God.”
The most logical response would be to guess the man is a teacher, a group that would include both teachers who believe and teachers who are atheists. But people have been found to pick the less likely option to this type of question if it matches a strong social stereotype in their minds.
The results were striking. U.S. respondents were nearly 20 times more likely to guess that the helpful man believed in God than that the man was an atheist. In New Zealand, respondents were 12 times more likely to guess that the helpful man was religious.
The bias intuitively connecting religious belief to socially uplifting behavior was significantly stronger than that found with the study’s inverse, “dark side” conditions, which looked for stereotypes of atheists as antisocial. The bias was there, but far less powerful.
“So instead of a stereotype of atheists as immoral driving the effect, the stereotype of the moral person of faith may be the more important force,” Holbrook said. “We replicated the findings of the earlier studies linking evil with atheism, but we found that the effects linking prosociality with faith were remarkably larger.”
The study’s results fit with a theory about the historical development of major world religions that emphasizes cooperation. Belief that a powerful being or spiritual force rewards positive moral behavior – and punishes immoral behavior – is shared by all major religions. This kind of belief might help members of religious groups trust one another, cooperate and grow.
“Strangers with little in common beyond their shared spiritual beliefs in moralizing gods might be more inclined to trust and less inclined to exploit one another,” Holbrook said.
Of course, the UC Merced experiments and similar research measure only what stereotypes people project onto others – how they think someone would act based on what they believe.
“Our evidence indicates that people stereotype believers as more likely to care about and help others. But this theoretical model suggests that the stereotype might actually have had merit in the past as major religions grew or may possibly be true even now — people who believe in God might actually be more likely to help others,” Holbrook said. “The evidence that believers are more prosocial is currently mixed, and it’s a question that calls for more research.”
Method of Research
Survey
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Intuitive Moral Bias Favors the Faithful
Article Publication Date
7-Aug-2024
COI Statement
None.
Psychological bias links good deeds to a belief in God, research says
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of California - Merced
Experiments conducted by UC Merced researchers find that people who perform good deeds are far more likely to be thought of as religious believers than atheists. Moreover, the psychological bias linking kindness and helpfulness with faith appears to be global in scale.
Research on the mental link between moral behavior and religious belief goes back more than a decade. Prior research, however, emphasized the dark side of this equation, with participants asked whether they assumed it was more probable that a serial killer believed in God or was an atheist (people in nations all over the planet thought the latter was more likely).
The UC Merced studies, conceptualized by cognitive science graduate student Alex Dayer and published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, flipped the switch to the bright side: What if someone was a “serial helper,” prone to extraordinary benevolence?
The research found that the stereotype of an extraordinarily good person being religious was dramatically stronger that of an extraordinarily cruel person being an atheist, said co-author Colin Holbrook, a professor in the university’s Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences .
“Though we also found that people intuitively link atheism with immoral behavior, people appear to associate believing in God with being generous, helpful and caring to a much greater extent,” Holbrook said.
The research consisted of experiments conducted in two nations with disparate levels of religious belief:
University of California - Merced
Experiments conducted by UC Merced researchers find that people who perform good deeds are far more likely to be thought of as religious believers than atheists. Moreover, the psychological bias linking kindness and helpfulness with faith appears to be global in scale.
Research on the mental link between moral behavior and religious belief goes back more than a decade. Prior research, however, emphasized the dark side of this equation, with participants asked whether they assumed it was more probable that a serial killer believed in God or was an atheist (people in nations all over the planet thought the latter was more likely).
The UC Merced studies, conceptualized by cognitive science graduate student Alex Dayer and published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, flipped the switch to the bright side: What if someone was a “serial helper,” prone to extraordinary benevolence?
The research found that the stereotype of an extraordinarily good person being religious was dramatically stronger that of an extraordinarily cruel person being an atheist, said co-author Colin Holbrook, a professor in the university’s Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences .
“Though we also found that people intuitively link atheism with immoral behavior, people appear to associate believing in God with being generous, helpful and caring to a much greater extent,” Holbrook said.
The research consisted of experiments conducted in two nations with disparate levels of religious belief:
The United States, where 47% of the population describes itself as religious, according to a recent Gallup poll.
New Zealand, where 49% of respondents in the 2018 census indicated no religious belief.
Participants read a description of a man who took a path of increasing benevolence, from helping stray animals as a child to, as an adult, giving food and clothes to homeless people. Sometimes, during bitingly cold weather, he offered a spare room to homeless families.
Half of the participants were asked which is more probable: The man is a teacher or the man is a teacher and believes in God. The other half were asked the same question, but the options were “the man is a teacher” or “the man is a teacher and does not believe in God.”
The most logical response would be to guess the man is a teacher, a group that would include both teachers who believe and teachers who are atheists. But people have been found to pick the less likely option to this type of question if it matches a strong social stereotype in their minds.
The results were striking. U.S. respondents were nearly 20 times more likely to guess that the helpful man believed in God than that the man was an atheist. In New Zealand, respondents were 12 times more likely to guess that the helpful man was religious.
The bias intuitively connecting religious belief to socially uplifting behavior was significantly stronger than that found with the study’s inverse, “dark side” conditions, which looked for stereotypes of atheists as antisocial. The bias was there, but far less powerful.
“So instead of a stereotype of atheists as immoral driving the effect, the stereotype of the moral person of faith may be the more important force,” Holbrook said. “We replicated the findings of the earlier studies linking evil with atheism, but we found that the effects linking prosociality with faith were remarkably larger.”
The study’s results fit with a theory about the historical development of major world religions that emphasizes cooperation. Belief that a powerful being or spiritual force rewards positive moral behavior – and punishes immoral behavior – is shared by all major religions. This kind of belief might help members of religious groups trust one another, cooperate and grow.
“Strangers with little in common beyond their shared spiritual beliefs in moralizing gods might be more inclined to trust and less inclined to exploit one another,” Holbrook said.
Of course, the UC Merced experiments and similar research measure only what stereotypes people project onto others – how they think someone would act based on what they believe.
“Our evidence indicates that people stereotype believers as more likely to care about and help others. But this theoretical model suggests that the stereotype might actually have had merit in the past as major religions grew or may possibly be true even now — people who believe in God might actually be more likely to help others,” Holbrook said. “The evidence that believers are more prosocial is currently mixed, and it’s a question that calls for more research.”
Method of Research
Survey
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Intuitive Moral Bias Favors the Faithful
Article Publication Date
7-Aug-2024
COI Statement
None.
Monday, August 12, 2024
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Thursday, August 08, 2024
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
Tuesday, August 06, 2024
Former Secret Service Chief Wanted To Destroy Cocaine Evidence
By Susan Crabtree - RCP StaffAugust 05, 2024
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and others in top agency leadership positions wanted to destroy the cocaine discovered in the White House last summer, but the Secret Service Forensics Services Division and the Uniformed Division stood firm and rejected the push to dispose of the evidence, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.
Multiple heated confrontations and disagreements over how best to handle the cocaine ensued after a Secret Services Uniformed Division officer found the bag on July 2, 2023, a quiet Sunday while President Biden and his family were at Camp David in Maryland, the sources said.
At least one Uniformed Division officer was initially assigned to investigate the cocaine incident. But after he told his supervisors, including Cheatle and Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe, who was deputy director at the time, that he wanted to follow a certain crime-scene investigative protocol, he was taken off the case, according to a source within the Secret Service community familiar with the circumstances of his removal.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi denied that Cheatle or Rowe or anyone in Secret Service leadership asked for the cocaine evidence to be destroyed. Guglielmi, however, ignored a detailed set of questions asking if an agent or officer had been removed from the investigation and whether anyone has been retaliated against for rejecting leadership’s orders or requests during that process or afterward.
“This is false,” Guglielmi said in a statement. “The US Secret Service takes its investigative and protective responsibilities very seriously. There are retention policies for criminal investigations, and the Secret Service adhered to those requirements during this case.”
The discovery of the bag of cocaine posed an unusual problem for Cheatle, who resigned in the face of bipartisan pressure after the July 13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Monday, August 05, 2024
Signs of the Times #78 God Made Trump?
Signs of the Times #78
God Made Trump?
Originally posted Aug. 5, 2024.
Quote of the Times:
“He’s an outsider, he’s not them, he’s not part of the club, he’s uncontrollable, he has not been through the initiation rites, he doesn’t belong to the secret society… they have no idea how to relate to him.” Newt Gingrich, former speaker US House of Representatives, interviewed by Fox News, answering the question: ‘Why do the Republican Party leadership hate Donald Trump?’ Mar. 3, 2016. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO-NA73FsW8
“Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.” Donald Trump, https://www.cnbc.com/video/2016/07/21/trump-americanism-not-globalism-is-our-credo.html
“It’s time to put Trump in a bull's-eye.” President Joe Biden, speaking to donors, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-trump-bullseye/
Some people believe that Trump is ‘controlled opposition.’ The concept of controlled opposition comes from the book ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ – where it is stated – “we will create our own opposition.” It may very well be that Trump is controlled opposition, but events since he became President in 2016 would suggest that the big picture is much more complex than that.
The warfare against Trump has been phenomenal and unprecedented in US history – this proves that ‘the powers that be’ obviously consider him a threat to their agendas and their hegemony. However, all the warfare and lawfare tactics up until now, including the latest assassination attempt, have failed. The failed assassination has burnished Trump’s hagiography considerably. Many believe that Trump was saved by divine intervention – giving great impetus to a video circulating in the cybersphere called ‘God Made Trump.’ Thus, there are many polishing Trump’s halo at present, and not just the Evangelical Christians, but even more vigorous polishing is been done by the Jews - especially those of the Chabad variety, who are openly asserting that Trump could be the Moshiach (a prophet in the same league as Moses), or maybe he is a type of Cyrus (the Persian King who freed the Jews and sent them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple).
Those who are interested in Bible prophecy and last day events know that God has a systematic timeline of events that will occur before Christ comes and the history of the world ends. They also know that the enemy has a false counterfeit timeline of events that most of the Christian and Jewish world has fallen victim to. These false prophecies all revolve around Israel, a new temple in Jerusalem and Armageddon in Israel. Is it not logical that the enemy will attempt to make his false prophecies come true, thereby negating the impact of God’s true biblical prophecies? Will Donald Trump, ‘the God Made Man’ be the instrument in the enemy’s hand’s to bring these dangerous delusions to fruition?
Donald Trump is a mixed bag. He wants to drain the swamp and he wants to make America great again – and many applaud him for that. But he is also a rabid Zionist, he will do anything for Israel, including going to war for Israel. He proved his Zionist credentials during his first term in office, when he ordered the US embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (something every other US President refused to do) and his announcement that the Golan Heights (formerly part of Syria) was now Israeli territory.
The momentum towards a greater conflict in the Middle East took a nauseating turn when the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, received 58 standing ovations from the US Congress (they were applauding a man that the International Court of Justice has declared to be a war criminal). Because of the fawning adulation he received in America he can now go back to Israel wrapped in the American flag. He can tell his compatriots that they have received Americas endorsement to do whatever they liked. And if they get into trouble America will send in the cavalry to rescue them – Yippee, Armageddon here we come.
There is still five months to go before Trump can be anointed as Moshiach or Cyrus or whatever. There is still time for ‘the powers that be’ to try to kill him again- One ominous sign of the times is the recent release from Russian custody of the assassinator in chiel – Paul Whelan. Paul Whelan was part of the recent prisoner swap between America and Russia. He was given a hero’s welcome by Joe Biden, who took a pin form his own jacket and pinned it onto Whelan. Paul Whelan was imprisoned in Russia because he was caught with a thumb drive with the names and addresses of Russian snipers for hire. He was in Russia for the purpose of recruiting snipers. Paul Whelan is an arms dealer. But he is a specialised arms dealer. He recruits snipers; he trains them, and he outfits them with specialised weapons (he is almost certainly a CIA operative). What a happy coincidence that he turns up hale and hearty just before the US election. Watch out Donald, they have unfinished business with you…
God bless,
Bruce Telfer.
.Notes:
- ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ is a forgery. It is Jesuit misinformation. The Jesuits were clever enough to realise that some observant people would detect the ‘hidden hand’ behind most of the major events perpetrated upon the world. Therefore, they created the Protocols of Zion which outlines their own nefarious deeds, but with the publication of the Protocols, the blame for all the evil they perpetuate, falls on the Jews. Therefore, the ‘hidden hand’ remains hidden.
- ‘The powers that be’ are not a united front. For example, in America there are different factions jockeying against one another for power and influence. Some of them can be easily identified, such as the Bush dynasty faction, the Clinton faction, the Obama faction. Then there are the foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And the elephant in the room – the Deep State. These entities sometime work together and sometimes they oppose one another. Controlled opposition is usually controlled bu one or more of these factions.
- Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jarad Kushner are Jewish, and both are members of the Chabad sect. Jarad was one of Trump’s inner circle of advisors in his administration.
- Netanyahu and Trump are close friends, they had a private meeting during Netanyahu’s recent visit to the US. Netanyahu, went back to Israel with Trump’s endorsement too.
Sent from Outlook
Sunday, August 04, 2024
The Signs of Jesus' Coming
The Signs of Jesus' Coming
...largely missed by a world that has rejected Him
AUG 4
Recently, the nation celebrated Independence Day. This is a time when the citizens pause to commemorate the birth of the greatest experiment in human civilization. Here’s how the birth certificate of that experiment partially reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ” (Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776).
But we are witnessing, just as the Bible predicted, the unravelling of the fabric of that experiment. As the foundation of western civilization, the Bible not only foretold the rise of the American Experiment; but also prophesied of it’s role in salvation history and its ultimate demise. The idea of America has attracted millions from around the world and has impacted more lives than any other system of government ever existed in the annals of human history. But, even as we celebrate that great idea, perhaps half of the population are advocating for its demise.
One obvious sign of the dissipation of the American Experiment is the recent ruling of the US Supreme Court making the president immune from prosecution for any criminal acts committed while in office. That ruling was in response to former president Donald Trump’s appeal to the highest court in the land claiming immunity from criminal prosecution for attempting to unlawfully and violently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election which he knew he lost.
One of the dissenting justices concluded that the majority opinion has made the office of the presidency a seat of unbridled corruption. Justice Sotomayor, in her blazing dissent, declared: “The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding”. She concluded: “Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency…It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.” The peaceful transfer of power after a presidential election and the idea that no man is above the law are foundational cornerstones of the American Experiment.
Highly respected Constitutional scholar and former federal judge, J. Michael Luttig, echoed Sotomayor’s cries: “This is indeed an historic day in constitutional history as well as for the nation and represents the unsouling of America…America’s democracy and rule of law are this country’s heart and soul”. He added: “Our democracy and the rule of law are what had made America the envy of the world and the beacon of freedom to the world for almost 250 years now. Today, the Supreme Court cut that heart and soul out of America…No longer can it be said that in America no man is above the law” (J. Michael Luttig, Huffington Post, July 2, 2024).
Quite interesting is that there is virtually no mention of the fact that the entirety of the justices making that preposterous ruling are Roman Catholics. Perhaps it’s not politically correct to report the obvious. The question to this writer’s mind is, was this ruling made for the advancement of Rome’s agenda which is antagonistic to the ideals of the American Republic?
Saturday, August 03, 2024
Thursday, August 01, 2024
Chaos
Volume 43 Issue Eight August 2024
Last Trumpet Ministries · PO Box 806 · Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8
Chaos
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Titus 3:3-7
What a month! As we finally say goodbye to July 2024, many frazzled Americans might be asking themselves, “What just happened?” From start to finish, the month was a whirlwind that brought us one chaotic event after another. We are living in a time that stands apart from any other time that we’ve known before.
We began the month with record-breaking Hurricane Beryl, which was the earliest Category-4 and Category-5 hurricane ever recorded during a hurricane season since records have been kept. On July 1, 2024, this monster storm made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island and promptly flattened hundreds of buildings (1) before strengthening to a Category-5 hurricane with sustained wind speeds of more than 160 miles per hour. (2) The storm also made unwelcome visits to Jamaica and southern Mexico before slamming the American state of Texas as a Category-1 hurricane on July 8, 2024. More than two million people were without power in Texas the morning after the storm’s arrival. (3) The hurricane’s remnants then went on to spawn sixty-five tornados between July 8-10 in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, and New York. (4) Hurricane Beryl served as a salient metaphor for the stormy month that was about to unfold.
A Disastrous Debate
Politicians, celebrities, journalists, and pundits are telling us that the 2024 presidential election is the most important election this country will ever have. It has been presented as an existential fight for democracy that will ultimately decide the fate of the United States of America. Of course, they said the exact same thing about the 2020 election. Nevertheless, as a result of this frenetic and desperate election cycle, panic has already ensued, which spawned drastic and unprecedented events.
On June 27, 2024, CNN broadcasted what was supposed to be the first of two debates between former President Donald Trump and current President of the United States Joe Biden. While the debate went on, Democrats watched with stunned disbelief as their candidate, Joe Biden, delivered a performance so poor that it led to immediate calls from his own political party for him to drop out of the race.
As I watched the panic unfold, I couldn’t help but wonder: “Hasn’t anyone been paying attention?” The debate went exactly as I expected it to as Joe Biden's cognitive decline had been evident for years. In fact, I wrote about this problem in the February 2023 issue of the Last Trumpet. One of the things I noted in that issue is that Biden had referred to his Vice President Kamala Harris as President on multiple occasions, even going as far as to call her a “great president” on October 24, 2022. (5) Perhaps he was just jumping the gun a bit?
Throughout his presidency, Biden’s appearances have been carefully planned and controlled. Press conferences have been rare, and it was decided in advance which reporters, if any, would be called on by the President. When he was interviewed on radio or television appearances, Biden’s team would give the questions to the interviewer in advance. Despite all of these efforts to carefully prepare the President and control his environment, he still made one mistake after another throughout his presidency. For example, at a recent NATO summit, President Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.” (6) (Vladimir Putin is the President of Russia.) At a campaign stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, Biden seemingly forgot the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and called him “the black man” instead. (7) In perhaps the most bizarre gaffe of his career, on July 5, 2024, he referred to himself as a black woman. “By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman, to serve with a black president.” (8)
Given his history, why were people so surprised by his debate performance? Perhaps one of the reasons that liberal Americans were caught off guard is because left-leaning media outlets made a concerted effort to hide Biden’s diminished mental acuity. In a piece published by CNN on July 2, 2024, an anonymous member of the White House Press Corp was quoted as saying, “The right-wing media was calling him senile from day one, and that wasn’t true. Then whenever you report on the age you were in some ways solidifying, giving credence to some people that were actually of bad faith.” (9) In other words, reporters weren’t doing their jobs and reporting the truth because it would have made the President look bad.
Alex Thompson, a White House reporter for Axios, blamed the White House for the cover-up. “The White House’s response every single time it has come up for three-and-a-half years has been to deflect, to gaslight, to not tell the truth – not just to reporters, not just to other Democrats, but even at times to themselves about the president’s limitations at his age,” Thompson said. (10) Famous sports broadcaster Bob Costas also accused the Democrats of deception. In reference to Biden’s poor showing at the debate, Costas said, “That one atrocious night was simply writ-large what could be seen for years and years, that he is in serious decline.” He then added that it “makes you wonder whether we’ve been gaslit by the Democrats.” (11) For those unfamiliar with the term, “gaslight” means “to cause (a person) to doubt their judgment, memory, or sanity through the use of psychological manipulation” or “to deceive (a person or group of people) through repetition of a constructed false narrative.” (12)