Kamala Harris to skip Al Smith dinner, a traditional event for major presidential candidates
Kamala Harris to skip Al Smith dinner, a traditional event for major presidential candidates
By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Updated 3:45 PM PDT, September 21, 2024
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PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will skip this year’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York, breaking with presidential tradition so she can campaign instead in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.
The dinner benefitting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality and good humor, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs.
Harris’ team wants her to spend as much time as possible in the battleground states that will decide the election rather than heavily Democratic New York, a campaign official said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss campaign plans and confirming a decision first reported by CNN. Her team told organizers that she would be willing to attend as president if she’s elected, the official said.
Donald Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a question about whether he would attend the dinner. His 2016 appearance at the dinner invited boos when many in the audience felt he crossed a line when he called Democrat Hillary Clinton corrupt and claimed she hated Catholics.
This year’s white-tie gala is scheduled for Oct. 17.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, “The Democrats Abandon Catholics.”
The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is named for the former New York governor, a Democrat and the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party in 1928. He was handily defeated by Herbert Hoover. It raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally shown that those vying to lead the nation can get along, or pretend to, for one night.
The event has become a tradition for presidential candidates since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly because Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.
https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-al-smith-dinner-109cbfcdb2693c960483b8d4843cd704
Patti Smith on singing at the Vatican: 'Anyone who would confine me to an old line is a fool'
Why is Patti Smith, who opened Horses with the line ‘Jesus died for someone’s sins, but not mine’, playing a gig at the Vatican? Our intrepid reporter asked her
News that rebel bard Patti Smith is to sing in a Christmas concert for the Vatican caused a small sensation. An Italian Catholic organisation decried her appearance as “blasphemous” and asked for it to be banned. Around Smith’s adopted hometown, New York, blogs burbled and water coolers bubbled about her surprising move. One TV producer friend – Jewish, as it goes – lamented to me, “And to think I believed her when she sang, ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.’”
You don’t have to be Christian for those lyrics from Smith’s 1975 track, Gloria, to be a lifeline. Their defiance still beckons the alienated outsider kids who flock to New York hoping to fit in with all the other misfits, just like she did. So arty New Yorkers claim Smith’s playful and sombre artistry like their own Lady Liberty’s torch.
If punk is about controversy, then Smith had done it again. Yet interestingly, no such mini-scandal erupts when Smith sings for the Dalai Lama, as she frequently does. It’s not an exact comparison, as Buddhism is known as a belief system, not a religion; yet the Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader, just like Pope Francis. However, even aside from its current crises, Catholicism is always filed under “organised religion”, which Smith’s iconoclastic work is supposed to smash, not endorse. Clearly, for Smith, nothing is sacred – even her own work. But artistically, isn’t that her job description?
Smith’s landmark line has all the angst you’d expect from Catholics, Jews or members of any guilt-edged faith. Smith herself was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, “an austere faith, culturally and artistically”, as she told the audience at a Museum of the Moving Image screening of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah; she co-wrote a lullaby, Mercy Is …, for the bold but wobbly epic. Wryly confiding that she had always fancied acting in a film, Smith said, “I always thought that life was like God’s movie. I wanted to be in a movie but it didn’t happen. But I got a good role in God’s movie!” (Smith-spotters, please note – she doesn’t count her quick appearance in Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme.)
Seizing the moment, your reporter asked Smith how she felt about unsettling her fans with her Vatican performance. Smith responded with customary fire. “I’m not playing to the Pope,” she snapped with classic ferocity. “He may not even be there! But I expect there’ll be a bunch of cardinals …” (Audience applause, laughter.) “It’s a Christmas concert for the people, and it’s being televised. I like Pope Francis and I’m happy to sing for him. Anyone who would confine me to a line from 20 years ago is a fool!” (Much applause.) “I had a strong religious upbringing, and the first word on my first LP is Jesus. I did a lot of thinking. I’m not against Jesus, but I was 20 and I wanted to make my own mistakes and I didn’t want anyone dying for me. I stand behind that 20-year-old girl, but I have evolved. I’ll sing to my enemy! I don’t like being pinned down and I’ll do what the fuck I want, especially at my age … oh, I hope there’s no small children here!” (Huge applause.)
So, braving criticism from hardcore Smith fans and Catholics, Patti Smith will rock the Vatican. Happily, Smith is essentially consistent. She really is New York’s Other Lady Liberty.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/nov/18/patti-smith-christmas-concert-vatican
"It will be lawful for an ecclesiastic, or one of the religious order jeg. a Jesuit, to kill a calumniator who threatens to spread atrocious accusations against himself or his religion," is the rule given by the Jesuit Francis Amicus. Clement XIV was in their eyes such a calumniator. Indeed, as we have read, the Jesuit oath states, "I will secretly use the poisoned cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard (a dagger) or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank. dignity, or authority of the person or persons...." That would include 'popicide'! Several historians have opined that the poison given to Pope Clement XIV was administered by one of his regular guests or a servant. And it is a fact that every week the pope met with his Jesuit confessor.
The Domus Sanctae Marthae (Latin for Saint Martha's House; Italian: Casa Santa Marta) is a building adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Completed in 1996, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, it is named after Martha of Bethany, who was a sibling to Mary and Lazarus of Bethany. The building functions as a guest house for clergy having business with the Holy See, and as the temporary residence of members of the College of Cardinals while participating in a papal conclave to elect a new pope.
Pope Francis has lived in a suite in the building since his election in March 2013, declining to use the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domus_Sanctae_Marthae
Even to this day, of those who have access to the pope, the Jesuits are always the best positioned. The Jesuits know all the secrets of the popes and have the most intimate access to the Roman pontiffs. Indeed, some of the Pope's closest advisors are Jesuits. Further, it is a requirement that the pope's confessor must be a Jesuit. Jean Lacouture's work Jesuits: A Multibiography confirms that Pope Paul VI (Cardinal Montini) had as his confessor a Jesuit priest. And the Jesuit Cardinal Paolo Dezza, with whom the Pope is said to have had "almost daily meetings," tells us that the "White Pope" has private "monthly face-to- face meetings" with the "Black Pope."" This quote is verbatim.
Nor were these weekly meetings a peculiarity of Paul VT's papacy "The Pope's confessor, an ordinary priest, must be a Jesuit: he must
25 Charles Newdigate, Glimps of the Great Secret Society, op. cit., p. 40: and Wylie, History of Protestantism, op. cit.
26 R. W. Thompson, Footprints of the Jesuits, op. cit., pp. 224-227. 27 Francis Amicus, Cursus Theologici, Tomus v., Duaci, 1642, Disp. 36,
Sect. 5, n. 118.
28 Jean Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 463, para. 1. See also, p. 444 (Pope Pius XII also having Jesuit Father Robert Leiber. as his confessor). Only a Jesuit can be the Pope's confessor: p. 445.
252
Order out of Chaos: the Jesuits, Their rise, fall...Audacious Return the Vatican once a week at a fixed time, and he alone may absolve the Pope of his sins. In fact, Cardinal Dezza was confessor to two Popes- Paul VI and John Paul I-both of whom 'chose him as confessor.
10
The reader may be surprised to learn that there have been several such Papal assassinations, and attempts at assassinations. Malachi Martin, the former Jesuit professor and Vatican insider, says that the tensions between Paul VI and the Jesuit General was so high that the Pontill was thinking about "dissolving the Company a second time." He was not to live to execute any such plans. In 1970, Pope Paul VI was almost stabbed to death by Benjamin Mendoza y Amor Flores. Malachi Martin writes: "Had it not been for that still collar and the speed of Paul's private secretary, Monsignore Macchi, who caught Mendoza's arm and slowed its force, Paul VI would have been killed. As it was, he was wounded slightly on both sides of the neck." Then, on July 14, 1978, for no apparent reason, Paul VI fell into unconsciousness for four hours and died soon after of a massive heart attack. It would be remiss of me not to point out that almost every pope who has sought to dissolve the Jesuits has had an untimely and sudden demise.
14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"
page 221
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES
SAINT LOUIS, 1996
https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Likewise, Paul VI's successor Pope John Paul I inherited a financial scandal involving the Jesuits, the Vatican Bank and its American director, Bishop Paul Marcinkus. John Paul I decided to act: he went to bed with a copy of his speech about his plans to either terminate or reorganize the Jesuits. He was found dead by his housekeeper the following morning." In an earlier age so untimely a death might have stirred deep suspicions. Time magazine, October 9, 1978, notes: "If this were the time of the Borgias," said a young teacher in Rome, "there'd be talk that John Paul was poisoned."
29 Nino Lo Bello, The Vatican Empire, (New York: Trident Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, 1968), p. 78. Nino Lo Bello was the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestsellers. The Vatican Empire, Vatican U.S.A., European Detours, The Vatican Papers, and Nino Lo Bello's Guide to the Vatican. For eight years, he was Italian correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and served as special correspondent to the International Herald Tribune for more than a
quarter-century.
30 Malachi Martin, The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 401; see also his comments on pp. 231-233 regarding the murder of
Pope Sixtus V in 1590.
31
Martin, The Jesuits, The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the
Roman Catholic Church, op. cit., p. 44.
253
CODEWORD BARBELON
Three years later, on May 13, 1981, the successor to John Paul I, "ope John Paul II, was struck by two bullets from the semiautomatic istol of hitman Mehmet Ali Agca. Three weeks prior to the ssassination attempt John Paul II had a meeting with six of the most owerful cardinals in the Vatican and was in deadlock talks with the esuit General. The topic? The forced resignation of the Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe!" John Paul had written a letter to Father General Arrupe, insisting on appointing the 80 year old Jesuit Cardinal Paolo Dezza as his personal delegate to the Jesuits, with power to govern the Society of Jesus. After the failed attempt on his life John Paul II withdrew his demands, and lived a long life-unlike Pope Clement XIV.
Not long thereafter the attempted assassination of John Paul II by Mehmet Ali, May 1981, the Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe" made this marvellous admission: "The Company is feared everywhere.... The people say, "These Jesuits are wily! And so powerful!****
Returning to the suppression. For all its "comprehensive" and bold declarations, Pope Clement's decree of 1773 proved only partially successful and palpably shortlived. After Clement's suspicious and untimely death, Cardinal Braschi was elected Pope Pius VI, on February 15, 1775. The successor to the unfortunate Clement XIV was no less in fear of the Jesuits. A former pupil of the Society of Jesus, he knew their wrath. Almost immediately he sought to secure the release of Fr. Ricci, the Jesuit General, and his assistants from the prison in Castel San Angelo. But Charles III. King of Spain, insisted on their detention. Moreover, the Jesuits were never suppressed in Russia or Germany. Pius VI, seeing the fate of his predecessors, colluded with Frederick II of Prussia to "saving the Jesuits." On March 12, 1783. Pius VI "approved" the maintenance of the Jesuits in Russia.
138
32 Malachi Martin, The Jesuits..., op, cit., pp. 79-80, 94.
33 Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991) "the 28th Superior General". For nearly 20
years, he was the central figure in the renewal of the Society after Vatican Council II. From the Basque country of Spain, he put his medical training on hold to join the Jesuits. He was expelled from Spain in 1932, along with all the Jesuits by the Spanish government. 34 Jean Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 472; Alain. Woodrow, Les Jesuits (Paris: Jean-Claude Lattés, 1984), p. 267. 35 Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 305.
36 Histoire religieuse, politique et litteraire de la Compagnie de Jesus, op
cit, p. 485.
254
"Order Out of Chaos: The Jesuits, Their Rise, Fall, And Audacious Return" Codeword Barbelon book One
by P.D. Stuart
https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid02fbtfkCQezZXRYQgVMyXWcurYudxodaRdzAGY1QqL7ZfbB9grFKAHvPVKhSXoS1M6l
The day John Paul II met with Reagan in Alaska
Cyprien Viet - published on 08/31/24
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In 1984, beginning an extensive tour of Pacific nations, John Paul II had a stopover in Alaska, the occasion of a meeting with then US President Ronald Reagan.
Asimple "refueling" at an Alaskan airport became the embodiment of the rapprochement between the Holy See and the United States. In 1984, a year marked by the belated establishment of full diplomatic relations between the world's leading power and the world's smallest state, John Paul II's stopover in Fairbanks was a symbol of the good understanding between President Ronald Reagan and the Polish pontiff, in the name of the fight against Communism.
A small city with a big role
It was around 10 a.m. on May 2, 1984, when the globe-trotting pope's plane landed at the airport of this town of 30,000 inhabitants north of the 64th parallel, where winter temperatures can plunge to 50 degrees below zero.
The Pope was on his way to visit Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Thailand. Fairbanks had already become the second Alaskan city to receive a visit from John Paul II (after Anchorage) on February 26, 1981, that time on his way back from another extensive Asian tour which took him to Pakistan, the Philippines, Guam, and Japan.
Fairbanks, which has the advantage of being an isolated city and therefore easy to secure, would be the venue for an informal summit between the two most targeted men of the time. Both had survived assassination attempts in 1981 and had met for a long meeting the following year at the Vatican.
The video of the Fairbanks meeting posted on YouTube by the Reagan Foundation shows the two men side by side, despite the chilly temperatures, on a mini-stage set up on an aircraft gangway.
Meeting at the crossroads of the world
The American president, who was already 73 at the time, had just returned from a tour of China. He painted an enthusiastic picture of Pope John Paul II in his speech, describing him as "one of humanity's greatest moral and spiritual forces."
"In a violent world, Your Holiness, you have been a minister of peace and love. Your words, your prayers, your example have made you — for those who suffer oppression or the violence of war — a source of solace, inspiration, and hope," President Reagan then added.
Responding in English, John Paul II addressed the entire American population, who were watching his speech on television.
"I hold the people of Alaska and those of the whole of the United States close to me in my heart. I do not forget you, for we are linked together by bonds of friendship, of faith, and of love," he said, putting this remote location at the center of world geopolitics for a few moments. “In some ways, Alaska can be considered today as a crossroads of the world. President Reagan is returning from visiting the beloved people of China, even as I am making my way to a neighboring area in the Far East," recalls John Paul II.
Mutual understanding that would change world history
In the astonishing 1980s, between the former actor of Western movies and the former stage actor turned Catholic Church leader, a relationship of trust emerged which would lead to the collapse of Communism.
John Paul II would meet Ronald Reagan again three years later in Miami. The good relations between the two men and their joint support for the Solidarity trade union struggle in Poland would gradually contribute to the loss of influence of Communism, and its gradual collapse in Central Europe from 1989 onwards.
Among the personalities who made the link between the American President and the Pope were Polish-born political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski — an anti-Communist intellectual who was one of the few experts to work successively for Presidents Carter and Reagan, before joining the service of Barack Obama — and General Vernon Walters, head of the CIA, who described the Catholic Church as "the best information network in the world."
Institutional and personal
This good relationship with the American administration of the time was also evident when Pope Francis granted an audience to the First Lady, Nancy Reagan, on May 4, 1985, in the context of her participation in a meeting on the fight against drugs. As a sign of a personal and not just institutional connection, it was to her, and not to then President George W. Bush, that Pope John Paul II addressed his message of condolence after Ronald Reagan's death on June 5, 2004.
The previous day, the memory of the two leaders' common fight against communism had led George W. Bush, visiting Rome for the 60th anniversary of the Liberation during World War II, to present the Polish pontiff with the highest American decoration, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In his speech, the Polish pontiff, himself very weak, spoke of the end of life of the former president, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. "I send my regards to President Reagan and to Mrs. Reagan, who is so attentive to him in his illness," John Paul II said.
But this visit in 2004, 20 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Rome and Washington, was also an opportunity for John Paul II to reiterate the Holy See's firm opposition to the American offensive launched a year earlier in Iraq, and to call for a "speedy return of Iraq’s sovereignty."
His closeness to the United States in the name of the defense of freedom in no way meant alignment with a political and military agenda whose impasses he had foreseen.
https://aleteia.org/2024/08/31/the-day-john-paul-ii-met-with-reagan-in-alaska
IImage of President Kennedy waving to the crowd at Love Field
Original 35mm black and white negative taken by a Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. This image shows President Kennedy waving to the crowd at Love Field on the morning of November 22, 1963. The images on this negative strip were taken by a Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. There were three photographers at Love Field that day: John Mazziotta, Bob Jackson and Eamon Kennedy. It is not known which of the three took the pictures on this strip.
https://www.jfk.org/collections-archive/image-30-from-negative-strip-8-love-field-of-president-kennedy-waving-to-the-crowd/
Wave is the fourth studio album by Patti Smith, and the third and final album where the Patti Smith Group is billed. It was released on May 17, 1979, by Arista Records. Produced by Todd Rundgren, the album continued the band's move towards more radio-friendly mainstream pop rock sound. Wave garnered a mixed reception from music critics and was less successful than its predecessor, Easter (1978). However, the songs "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" both received commercial airplay. Following the album's release, the band disbanded, and frontwoman Patti Smith pursued a solo career nine years later with Dream of Life (1988).
The title track was a tribute to Pope John Paul I, whose brief papacy coincided with the recording sessions of Wave. The first single of the album was "Frederick", a love song for frontwoman Patti Smith's fiancé Fred "Sonic" Smith with a melody and structure bearing a resemblance to "Because the Night", the group's biggest hit.[2][3] Smith began writing the lyrics of second single "Dancing Barefoot" in late 1978 and recorded it in 1979.[4] The song was described as "a swirling, seductive love song" that uses "love-as-addiction" metaphors and wordplay with the words "heroine" and "heroin".[3] Smith stated she was told to replace the word "heroine" with a synonym because of issues with radio airplay, but she objected the decision since she actually intended the lyric to reference the female equivalent of hero. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 323 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[5] Both songs received commercial airplay.[4] A cover of the Byrds' "So You Want to Be (A Rock 'n' Roll Star)" was released as the album's third and final single.[3]
After Wave was released, the band disbanded in fall 1979 when finishing their last concert in Florence, Italy. Patti married Fred on March 1, 1980 and spent many years in semi-retirement from music following the birth of their children, Jesse and Jackson, until her return as a solo singer with Dream of Life (1988).[2] The 1996 remaster of Wave includes Smith's original version of "Fire of Unknown Origin". Blue Öyster Cult's version was released on their album of the same name in 1981. The back cover of the original LP bore a quote from the Jean Genet poem "Le Condamné à mort".
Critical reception
In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau found the album "quirkier than the more generally satisfying Easter and praised "Dancing Barefoot" and the title track. However, he dismissed "Seven Ways of Going" and "Broken Flag" as "unlistenable [and less interesting than]" the band's 1976 album Radio Ethiopia.[6] Tom Carson of Rolling Stone also negatively likenened Wave to Radio Ethiopia, concluding that the record "is too confused and hermetically smug to be much more than an interesting failure."[3] The Globe and Mail determined that "Rundgren handles the production chores with remarkable restraint as he showcases Patti Smith the suicidal torch singer, admirably backed by her resident group of musicians."[10]
AllMusic's William Ruhlmann noted that Smith "achieves a sense of charm and sincerity on Wave that she hadn't even attempted on her earlier albums" but lamented that "the overall mediocre quality of the material makes this the slightest of Smith's efforts."[1] In a 2019 review for PopMatters, Matt McKinzie dubbed the album as the singer's "most unapologetically-pop effort" where she "reject[s] the idea that her genre capabilities begin and end with th[e] four-letter word [punk]."[11] Emma Johnston, a writer from Louder Sound, ranked Wave number 6 on a list of Patti Smith's best albums, writing that it was "Smith at her least filtered and most emotionally open, and remains something of an underrated treasure."[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_(Patti_Smith_Group_album)
Vice President Kamala Harris
August 12 ·
It is my honor to travel our nation as Vice President and fight for the freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own body, to love who they love openly and with pride, to be safe from gun violence and hate, and to breathe clean air and drink clean water.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1084659100326245&set=a.287432416715588
Superman (real name William "Bill" Dunn) was a titular character that appeared in the short story The Reign of the Superman in 1933. Despite acting as the initial version of the DC Comics hero that's well known, this Superman, was in fact intended to be a villainous protagonist.
Biography
Bill Dunn was initially merely a vagrant who was waiting in a bread-line each and every day for food. However, he was singled out by a strange and misanthropic scientist named Professor Smalley, and took him for a hot meal which is a large toasted sandwich and some coffee.
He then recruited Dunn to be part of an experiment regarding a strange meteorite. The exposure resulted in him gaining cerebrally and genetically enhanced psychic powers. However, it came at the cost of corrupting the man, turning him into a supervillain and renaming himself the Superman.
He then aimed to conquer the entire world with his new powers upon experimenting with them. As preparations for the conquering of the entire world, he then proceeded to sow discord in the world via his mind manipulation abilities.
Professor Smalley, however, desired to gain those powers, causing them to have a final battle. Superman proceeded to kill his "creator".
Unfortunately, the victory was Pyrrhic at best, since it resulted in his powers being drained and the formula for retaining said powers being gone for good, he desperately tried to bring them back by looking at the formula on the blueprints but to no avail because his genius-level intellect is also gone.
Now back to Bill Dunn, he is forced to go back to the bread-line.
Appearance
Bill Dunn is a Caucasian male vagrant who looks raggedy-dressed, unshaven, and has stubble on his scalp (as seen on the official artwork). Given to him by Professor Smalley, Dunn was later clean-shaven and given a suit.
Legacy
Although Dunn's reign as Superman was short-lived, he is remembered as being the first to use the name Superman. The name was later adopted by The Superman, and finally by Kal-El.
Creation
The Superman was the first version of Superman ever to appear in print. His story was told in Jerry Siegel's sci-fi short story, 'Reign of the Superman'.
This early version of Superman was depicted almost entirely different than the modern version. First and foremost, he was poor, he was bald, and he was a villain.
Also, he was originally human, while the modern version was an alien raised on Earth.
Ironically, his physical appearance by the time he gains his powers strongly resembles that of the modern Superman rogues Ultra-Humanite and Lex Luthor.
There were two primary sources for the creation of this character. The first was the advent of the Great Depression, occurring in 1932 when Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster were being affected by it in terms of not being able to find a job. The second was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, more specifically his concept of the Ubermensch (which was German for "Superman", or more accurately "Overman") from his philosophical tract Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which both Siegel and Schuster criticized.
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Superman_(The_Reign_of_the_Superman)
Superman: The Man Of Steel # 20 Funeral For A Friend SIGNED by President Bill Clinton
$1,499.99
Signed by President Bill Clinton (who appears in the comic book)
Funeral For A Friend Part 3
Condition: Mid-High Grade Condition with cover wear SEE PICS
About: Superman: The Man of Steel # 20 features the funeral of Superman after his death at the hands of Doomsday. The comic book is filled with guest appearances by many characters of the DC Universe and includes a full page special guest appearance by President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
This copy of Superman: The Man of Steel # 20 was hand signed by President Bill Clinton at a rally in Michigan. The book comes with supplemental photographs and original ticket from the event.
It is truly a RARE collectible and a welcomed addition to any Superman or comic collection.
Comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity (C.O.A).
https://www.brooklyncomicshop.com/shop/superman-man-steel-20-funeral-friend-signed-president-bill-clinton/
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe; born August 19, 1946) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992. Clinton, whose policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy, became known as a New Democrat.
Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1968, and later from Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive tenures as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 election, defeating the incumbent Republican Party president George H. W. Bush and the independent businessman Ross Perot. He became the first president to be born in the Baby Boomer generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
Bayeux (French pronunciation: [bajø]) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.
Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England. It is also known as the first major town secured by the Allies during Operation Overlord. Charles de Gaulle made two famous speeches in this town.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux
In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou (/ˈbaɪ.uː, ˈbaɪ.oʊ/)[1] is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They typically contain brackish water highly conducive to fish life and plankton. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, especially in the Mississippi River Delta, though they also exist elsewhere.
A bayou is often an anabranch or minor braid of a braided channel that is slower than the mainstem, often becoming boggy and stagnant. Though fauna varies by region, many bayous are home to crawfish, certain species of shrimp, other shellfish, catfish, frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, American alligators, American crocodiles, herons, lizards, turtles, tortoises, spoonbills, snakes, and leeches, as well as many other species.
Etymology
The word entered American English via Louisiana French in Louisiana and is thought to originate from the Choctaw word bayuk, which means "small stream".[2] After first appearing in the 17th century, the term is found in 18th century accounts and maps, often as bayouc or bayouque, where it was eventually shortened to its current form.[3] The first settlements of the Bayou Têche and other bayous were founded by the Louisiana Creoles, and the bayous are commonly associated with Creole and Cajun culture.
An alternative spelling, "buyou", is also known to have been in use, as in "Pine Buyou", used in a description by Congress in 1833 of Arkansas Territory. As of 2016 "bye-you" US: /ˈbaɪ.uː/ is the most common pronunciation, while a few use "bye-oh" US: /ˈbaɪ.oʊ/, although that pronunciation is declining.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayou
The Adventures of Bayou Billy is an action game released by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1989 and in the PAL region in 1991. It is a revised version of the 1988 Family Computer game Mad City (マッド・シティ), which has been modified with many graphical changes and an increase in the game's difficulty level. The game employs three play styles that were popular at the time: beat 'em up, light gun shooting and racing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Bayou_Billy
The Great Expedition: Exploring the Louisiana Purchase & its Impact on Arkansas
February 3, 2018 - March 4, 2018
Clinton Presidential Center | Little Rock, Arkansas
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/events/clinton-presidential-center/great-expedition-exploring-louisiana-purchase-its-impact/
"It was while investigating the Little Rock integration incident in 1957 that I first learned of Pike’s rapid advance in Freemasonry, and knowing that Weishaupt, using Thomas Jefferson and Moses Holbrook, had infiltrated Illuminists into the Masonic Lodges of America, I decided I would find out if the fact that Pike’s mansion in Little Rock had thirteen rooms had any significance. “Thirteen’ figures prominently in Satanic, Luciferian and Cabalistic rituals, codes, and writings, etc. My investigations produced documentary evidence to show that, because of Pike’s exceptional mental ability, he came under the notice of professors in Harvard who were members of the Illuminati, who developed in his mind the ‘idea that a One World Government, a One World Religion and a One World financial and economic system was the ONLY solution to the world’s many and varied problems. I next discovered that his departure from Harvard was not due to lack of finances, or because of a misunderstanding with the faculty over tuition fees, but because of his ‘radical’ ideas and teachings. When he returned home determined that he would ‘fight’ his way to the top despite all opposition, he was in a suitable frame of mind to be recruited as a ‘Minerval’ or ‘apprentice’ into the lower degrees of the Illuminati."
Satan Prince of This World by William Guy Carr
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, also known as Adams Field, is a joint civil-military airport on the east side of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is operated by the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission.
The largest commercial airport in Arkansas, it served more than 2.1 million passengers in the year spanning from March 2009 through to February 2010.[6] While Clinton National Airport does not have direct international passenger flights, more than 50 flights arrive or depart at Little Rock each day, with nonstop service to 14 cities.[7] The airport is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–2023, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_National_Airport
The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is located in HOPE, Arkansas.[2] Built in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett, in this house the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, spent the first four years of his life, having been born on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in HOPE, Arkansas.[3][4] The house was owned by Clinton's maternal grandparents, Edith Grisham and James Eldridge Cassidy, and they cared for him when his mother, Virginia, was away working as an anesthetist in New Orleans.[5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_William_Jefferson_Clinton_Birthplace_Home_National_Historic_Site
"Tragedy and HOPE: A History of the World in Our Time is a work of history written by former Georgetown University professor and historian Carroll Quigley. The book covers the period of roughly 1880 to 1963 and is multidisciplinary in nature though perhaps focusing on the economic problems brought about by the First World War and the impact these had on subsequent events. While global in scope, the book focuses on Western civilization."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope
"In his first year (1965) in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, Bill Clinton took Quigley's course, receiving a 'B' as his final grade in both semesters (an excellent grade in a course where nearly half the students received D or lower).[1]: 94, 96 In 1991, Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy, when Clinton launched his presidential campaign in a speech at Georgetown.[1]: 96 He said he learned from Quigley that “The future can be better than the past, and that each of us has a personal, moral responsibility to make it so.” Bill Clinton told his audiences, “that is what the new choice is all about....We are not here to save the Democratic party. We are here to save the United States of America.” It was Clinton's most effective speech, and he repeated variations time and time again as the blueprint for his campaign message in winning the Democratic nomination and the general election for President of the United States in 1992.[21][22]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley
"Theorists also cite the inclusion of Bill Clinton at the meetings in 1991 before he was president and Tony Blair’s presence in 1993 before he became the British prime minister as examples of the group’s power. Past attendees have included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who will also be attending this year), former Chase Manhattan chief executive David Rockefeller, and British Prime Minister David Cameron."
Bilderberg Group: What To Know About the Secretive Meetings
https://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/
"Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner October 20, 2016 Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Henry Kissinger Gayle King Cardinal Dolan Katie Couric Chuck Schumer Mayor Bill de Blasio"
https://www.facebook.com/MariaBartiromo/posts/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-october-20-2016-donald-trump-hillary-c/1353937201283479/
"HOPE: all hope is to be placed in God, and with what degree of perfection [67]; eternal life alone is to be hoped for as a reward [82]; the extent to which this hope should be of assistance [288]; how hope should be shown by the dying | 595]; hope in the preservation and growth of the Society [812]. See also Faithfulness" The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms pg. 464
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Bill Clinton ‘Encouraged’ Trump to Run
SLICK WILLY
Updated Apr. 14, 2017 10:12AM EDT /
Published Aug. 05, 2015 3:33PM EDT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/08/05/bill-clinton-encouraged-trump
Trump and Harris neck-and-neck as she prepares to announce VP pick after meeting candidates Sunday: Live
Harris met with top running mate contenders Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro at her Washington DC residence
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-vp-pick-trump-polls-news-b2591106.html
San Francisco's 555 California St., co-owned by Trump, on lender watchlist
The beautiful, very great, big league skyscraper, still allegedly 30% owned by Donald Trump, is on a lender watchlist, according to Bloomberg
By Alex Shultz,
Politics editor, SFGATE
Updated Feb 23, 2023 3:40 p.m.
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/san-francisco-building-trump-stake-on-watchlist-17801816.php
Kamala Devi Harris[a] was born in Oakland, California,[15] on October 20, 1964.[16] Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan was a biologist who moved to the United States from India as a 19-year-old graduate student in 1958, and whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer research.[17] Kamala Harris's father, DONALD J. Harris,[18] is a Stanford University professor of economics (emeritus) who arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1961.[19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
DONALD JOHN Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
Just before the War of 1812, the British clandestinely organized several Scottish Rite Lodges in the northeast with headquarters at Boston. After the War they were discovered by Charleston, and following some negotiations, were permitted to operate under the English Masonic obedience (obedience meaning "constitution"). The Boston headquarters became known as the Northern Jurisdiction of Scottish Rite Freemasonry and has since been nicknamed the "Eastern Establishment." The Charleston headquarters became known as the Southern Jurisdiction of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. As stated earlier, the Southern Jurisdiction followed the French Masonic obedience.
The Southern Jurisdiction Supreme Council operates its "Grand East" or spiritual headquarters from Charleston. In 1870 it moved its "Secretariat" (political office) to Washington, D.C.68 An indication of Masonry's influence is the fact that of the two parades permitted to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., one is the Inaugural Parade and the other the Shriner's Parade.
Shriners are sometimes referred to as thirty-second and a half degree Masons. The Shriners operate children's hospitals. (See Appendix 7 for their history).
All Masons in America must travel through the first three "Blue Lodge" degrees before choosing York or Scottish Rites, both of which are Templar Rites. The 13th degree York Mason and 32 degree Scottish Mason unite in the Shrine. (See Appendix 2, Fig. 3.)
We can make some general observations regarding the Northern and Southern Jurisdictions of American Freemasonry. The Northern Jurisdiction, which we can identify in American politics with the Eastern Establishment, is right-wing or moderate. It is the headquarters of America's aristocracy and is primarily Republican. The Southern Jurisdiction is left-wing or liberal, more or less comprised of the working middle class and common laborer, and usually Democrat. There are crossovers in both Jurisdictions, and when voters in America take sides on issues, we are caught up in this Masonic struggle of conservative versus liberal, right-wing versus left-wing, big business versus labor, free enterprise versus socialism, etc.
Scarlet and the Beast
by John Daniel
https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf
The Collège de Clermont was one of the earliest schools established by the Jesuits, who were incredibly influential in shaping education in Europe. The Jesuits were a rigid and hierarchical Catholic sect that followed the teachings of Ignatius Loyola.
https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/exhibits/show/development-of-education-in-ea/item/249#:~:text=The%20Coll%C3%A8ge%20de%20Clermont%20was,the%20teachings%20of%20Ignatius%20Loyola.
PART VI 1THE PERSONAL LIFE OF THOSE ALREADY ADMITTED AND INCORPORATED INTO THE BODY OF THE SOCIETY
SECTION 1: THE APOSTOLIC CHARACTER OF OUR VOWS IN GENERAL
143 §1. Our consecration by profession of the evangelical counsels, by which we respond to a divine vocation, is at one and the same time the following of Christ poor, virginal, and obedient and a rejection of those idols that the world is always prepared to adore, especially wealth, pleasure, prestige, and power. Hence, our poverty, chastity, and obedience ought visibly and efficaciously to bear witness to this attitude, whereby we proclaim the evangelical possibility of a certain communion among men and women that is a foretaste of the future kingdom of God.[1]
§2. Our religious vows, while binding us, also set us free:
free, by our vow of poverty, to share the life of the poor and to use whatever resources we may have, not for our own security and comfort, but for service;
free, by our vow of chastity, to be men for others, in friendship and communion with all, but especially with those who share our mission of service;
free, by our vow of obedience, to respond to the call of Christ as made known to us by him whom the Spirit has placed over the Church, and to follow the lead of all our superiors.[2] [1] See GC 32, d. 4, no. 16; see GC 31, d. 16, no. 4; d. 17, no. 2; d. 18, no. 3. [2] GC 32, d. 2, no. 20. 215
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Valley of Traverse City
ANCIENT ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE
The History and Legend of Scottish Rite Origins
The Story Unfolds…
Like much of early Masonic history, the origins of the Scottish Rite are uncertain. This is primarily due to the lack of historic documentation prior to the early 1700’s and not to any great veiled mystery. The few records kept were subject to loss, fire, weather and aging. So we can at best only speculate on many of our origins by looking at the few documents, historical references and legends that remain.
What We Know
n 1754, near Paris, Chevalier de Bonneville established the Chapter of Clermont. The Chapter resided in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence the name. It is said to have been created to honor the Duc de Clermont, then Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of France.
The Chapter of Clermont was a “Chapter of the Advanced Degrees” and initially entailed six degrees and was later extended to 25 known degrees. The six initial degrees were 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ St John’s Masonry, 4˚ Knight of the Eagle, 5˚ Illustrious Knight or Templar, 6˚ Sublime Illustrious Knight.
Interestingly enough historically, prior to the time of the Rite’s creation, James II had been in residence at Clermont in exile from Britain from 1688 to his death in 1701. As noted by German Masonic historian, Lenning… “whilst in exile, James II residing at the Jesuit College of Clermont in France, allowed his closest associates to fabricate certain degrees in order to extend their political views.” Lenning believed this to have been an attempt on the part of James and his associates to regain control of the British throne for the House of Stuart. If Lenning is right, this places the origins of the “Rite of Perfection” in the hands of James II and the Jacobite (Stuart) Freemasons who at the time were in exile from Great Britain throughout France and Italy. Lenning also contends that these degrees were introduced into French Freemasonry under the name of the Clermont System.
James II died in exile in 1701. His son James III is said to have continued his father’s Masonic legacy and later created further higher degrees.
Perhaps James II saw in the Jesuit morality plays of the College of Clermont a vessel for passing on a set of moral lessons. Some of the world’s greatest playwrights had emerged from Clermont. Jesuit tutelage had previously produced great writers such as Lope de Vega, Moliere, Racine, and the Corneille brothers. Ensconced in exile, I believe James II did find the inspiration and the training to help produce what would later become the first six degrees. From out of the darkness… comes light.
To be continued… (Author’s note… An in depth look at the Templar influence in Scottish Rite masonry’s origins can be found by visiting the Rosslyn Templars’ website.)"
https://web.archive.org/.../scottish-rite-history.html
MISSIONS FROM THE SUPREME PONTIFF
252 §1. To be truly Christian, our service to the Church must be anchored in fidelity to Christ, who makes all things new; to be proper to the Society, it must be done in union with the SUCCESSORS OF PETER[32]
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
The Carolingian dynasty (/ˌkærəˈlɪndʒiən/ KARR-ə-LIN-jee-ən;[1] known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD.[2] The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious till the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Name
The Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of multiple Frankish kings including Charlemagne and Charles Martel.[3] The name originates from a common Germanic word, rendered in Old High German as Karl or Kerl,[4] meaning 'man', 'husband', or 'freeman'.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_dynasty
Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła, Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa];[b] 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II
Protocol 15: When the King of Israel sets upon his sacred head the crown offered him by Europe he will become patriarch of the world.
Twelve royal families in Europe today have Grail blood flowing through their veins. Two of them carry the title of "King of Jerusalem:" Otto von Habsburg, Pretender to the Austrian throne, and Juan Carlos, King of Spain.
Scarlet and the Beast
by John Daniel
https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf
We have seen that Pope Francis admits he still "thinks like a Jesuit." Well, fellow Jesuit, Robert BLAIR Kaiser (in his book Inside the Jesuits) tell us that Francis not only thinks like a Jesuit, but that his actions are due to his "Jesuit DNA". According to a book review by the Jesuit journal America, Kaiser's book probes "into what it means to think like a Jesuit in the age of Francis. He argues as the outset that Francis "has been driven by his Jesuit DNA to make changes in the Church that have been UP TO NOW UNTHINKABLE."
In a direct reference to Francis' comments that he still 'thinks like a Jesuit' and still "feel" himself a Jesuit, Robert BLAIR Kaiser in his book Inside the Jesuits contends that the above statement of Francis is most revealing about where this Jesuit Pope is taking the Catholic Church." page 84
"But the inquiring reader might ask, "If there is indeed such a thing, even metaphorically, as 'Jesuit DNA,' then how would we account for the vast number of 'genetic mutations' that one finds in the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)? By 'genetic mutations' I refer to the seemingly maverick and self-willed Jesuits that seem to mutiny from time to time.
The answer is simple. In giving these eight Jesuit profiles, Kaiser not only seeks to demonstrate that there is such a thing as metaphorical "Jesuit DNA," but also that Jesuits can very versatile, and that they are required to be that way in order to act their part in virtually any field of action that they may find themselves, WHETHER LEFT-WING social activist, OR CONSERVATIVE RIGHT demagogue, 'President'. In other words, Kaiser shows that the Jesuits are trained to be "all things to all men," since the "end justifies the means." Hence, the Jesuit will play any fiddle that his superiors demand or his role requires. He can play both the fool or the wise statesman-like role." pages 88-89
"To more fully appreciate the practical evils of the Jesuit DNA we must look to history. The most evil socialist movement of the twentieth century, that of Adolf Hitler, was inspired by Jesuit principles. Here is what Hitler said of the influence of the Jesuits on his Nazi Party (a radical communist movement also known as fascism):
"I have learnt most of all from the Jesuit Order... So far, there has been nothing more imposing on earth than the hierarchical organization of the Catholic Church. A good part of that organization I have transported DIRECT TO MY OWN PARTY... I will tell you a secret. I am founding an Order... In Himmler I see OUR IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA!"
Walther Friedrich Schellenberg (1910-1952), the German SS-Brigadefuhrer who rose through the ranks of Hitler's SS to become the head of foreign intelligence wrote: "The SS had been organized by Himmler ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLES OF THE JESUIT ORDER. The rules of service and SPIRITUAL EXERCISES PRESCRIBED BY IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA constituted a model which Himmler strove CAREFULLY TO COPY. Absolute obedience was the supreme rule; every order had to be executed without comment."
"Exploring Francis' Jesuit DNA"
Pope Francis Lord of the World
by P.D. Stuart
23andMe Holding Co. is an American personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California.[1][2] It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva sample that is laboratory analysed, using single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping,[3] to generate reports relating to the customer's ancestry and genetic predispositions to health-related topics. The company's name is derived from the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a diploid human cell.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe
The Robertians (sometimes called the Robertines in modern scholarship) are the proposed Frankish family which was ancestral to the Capetian dynasty, and thus to the royal families of France and of many other countries (currently Spain and Luxembourg). The Capetians appear first in the records as powerful nobles serving under the Carolingian dynasty of Charlemagne in West Francia, which later became France. As their power increased, they came into conflict with the older royal family and attained the crown several times before the eventual start of the continuous rule of the descendants of Hugh Capet (ruled 987–996).
Hugh's paternal ancestral family, the Robertians, appear in documents that trace the family back to his great-grandfather Robert the Strong (d. 866). His origins remain unclear, but medieval records hint at an origin in East Francia, in present-day Germany, an area then still also ruled by the Carolingians. In particular, Regino of Prüm (died 915) states that Robert the Strong's son Odo was said to be a relative (nepos) of a Count Meingaud, count of an area near Worms, who died in 892, and there are indications that Maingaud's family used the names Robert and Odo.
Modern proposals about their ancestry further back are based on the idea that there was one family which frequently named its sons Robert, including Robert III of Worms (800–834), Robert the Strong (d. 866), and Robert I of France (866–923). For example, one proposed ancestor is Robert of Hesbaye (c. 800), about whom there are almost no records.
The Robertian family figured prominently amongst the Carolingian nobility and married into this royal family. Eventually, the Robertians themselves produced Frankish kings such as the brothers Odo (reigned 888–898) and Robert I (r. 922–923), then Hugh Capet (r. 987–996), who ruled from his seat in Paris as the first Capetian king of France.
Although Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223) was officially the last monarch of France with the title "King of the Franks" (rex Francorum) and the first to style himself "King of France" (roi de France), in (systematic application of) historiography, Hugh Capet holds this distinction. He founded the Capetians, the royal dynasty that ruled France until the revolution of the Second French Republic in 1848—save during the interregnum of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Members of the family still reign in Europe today : both King Felipe VI of Spain and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg descend from this family through the Bourbon cadet branch of the dynasty.
Origin
The oldest known Robertians probably originated in the county of Hesbaye, around Tongeren in modern-day Belgium. The first certain ancestor is Robert the Strong count of Paris,[1] probably the son of Robert III of Worms, grandson of Robert of Hesbaye, and nephew of Ermengarde of Hesbaye, who was the daughter of Ingram, and wife of Louis the Pious. Other related family includes Cancor, founder of the Lorsch Abbey, his sister Landrada and her son Saint Chrodogang, archbishop of Metz.
History
Robert the Strong
The sons of Robert the Strong were Odo and Robert, who were both king of Western Francia and ruled during the Carolingian era. His daughter Richildis married a count of Troyes. The family became Counts of Paris under Odo and "Dukes of the Franks" under Robert, possessing large parts of the ancient Neustria. Although quarrels continued between Robert's son Hugh the Great and Louis IV of France, they were mended upon the ascension of Lothair I of France (954–986). Lothair greatly expanded the Robertian dominions when he granted Hugh Aquitaine as well as much of Burgundy,[2] both rich and influential territories, arguably two of the richest in France.
The Carolingian dynasty ceased to rule France upon the death of Louis V (d. 987). After the death of Louis, the son of Hugh the Great, Hugh Capet was chosen as king of the Franks, nominally the last ruler of West Francia. Given the resurgence of the Holy Roman Empire title and dignities in the West Francian kingdom, Europe was later believed to have entered a new age, so Hugh came to be known in historiography as the first king of France, as western civilization was perceived to have entered the High Middle Ages period. Hugh was crowned at Noyon on July 3, 987 with the full support of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. With Hugh's coronation, a new era began for France, and his descendants came to be named, after him, the Capetians. They ruled France as the Capetians, Valois, and Bourbons until the French Revolution. They returned after 1815 and ruled until Louis Philippe was deposed in 1848.
However, they have continued to rule Spain, with two republican interruptions, through the Bourbon Dynasty right down to the current king Felipe VI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertians
When were the Jesuits restored?
August 7, 1814
Pressured by the royal courts of Portugal, France and Spain, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society, causing Jesuits throughout the world to renounce their vows and go into exile. Pope Pius VII, a Benedictine, restored the Society on August 7, 1814."
https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/video-resources/jesuit-values-videos/suppression-of-the-society-of-jesus
The Capetian dynasty (/kəˈpiːʃən/; French: Capétiens), also known as the House of France, is a dynasty of Frankish origin, and a branch of the Robertians. It is among the largest and oldest royal houses in Europe and the world, and consists of Hugh Capet, the founder of the dynasty, and his male-line descendants, who ruled in France without interruption from 987 to 1792, and again from 1814 to 1848. The senior line ruled in France as the House of Capet from the election of Hugh Capet in 987 until the death of Charles IV in 1328. That line was succeeded by cadet branches, the Houses of Valois and then Bourbon, which ruled without interruption until the French Revolution abolished the monarchy in 1792. The Bourbons were restored in 1814 in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat, but had to vacate the throne again in 1830 in favor of the last Capetian monarch of France, Louis Philippe I, who belonged to the House of Orléans. Cadet branches of the Capetian House of Bourbon house are still ruling over Spain and Luxembourg."
Name origins and usage
The name of the dynasty derives from its founder, Hugh, who was known as "Hugh Capet".[4] The meaning of "Capet" (a nickname rather than a surname of the modern sort) is unknown. While folk etymology identifies it with "cape", other suggestions indicate it might be connected to the Latin word caput ("head"), and explain it as meaning "chief" or "head".[citation needed]
Historians in the 19th century (see House of France) came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. It was not a contemporary practice. The name "Capet" has also been used as a surname for French royalty, particularly but not exclusively those of the House of Capet. One notable use was during the French Revolution, when the dethroned King Louis XVI (a member of the House of Bourbon and a direct male-line descendant of Hugh Capet) and Queen Marie Antoinette (a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine) were referred to as "Louis and Antoinette Capet" (the queen being addressed as "the Widow Capet" after the execution of her husband).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capetian_dynasty
St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome is considered the mother church of all the Catholic churches in the Western world; inscribed on the church facade for all to see are the Latin words “omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et CAPUT,” meaning, “The mother and HEAD of all the churches of the city and of the world.”
https://www.simplycatholic.com/st-john-lateran-basilica/
"In the second prelude, for Chief- Gene ral read highest Leader, and for captain read leader. For the first Leader the Spanish Autograph has Captain General, and for the second (leader), caudillo ; the former title expressing, as Father Rothaan remarks, a Commander-in-Chief of lawful warfare, the latter designating rather the leader of a faction, and being often used in a bad sense, as of a captain of robbers or malefactors. In order to express in some measure this distinction, he has made use of the terms Dux Generalis (LeaderGeneral) and CAPUT (HEAD) in his literal Version. The Common Version makes no distinction ; and hence, in order to render this Version with strict faithfulness, must read, both here and in the next two paragraphs, leader instead of captain, although (as the reader will already have perceived) this latter is the term which erceived) this latter is the term which corresponds the more nearly with the Spanish original. In all three places Father Rothaan has caput : in the third prelude he has again Dux instead of Imperator : see above. In the first point, in order to be strictly with the Common Version, readier?/ and smoky chair in stead of chair offire and smoke ; although this latter is what the Autograph has, a certain great chair of fire and smoke, " in which", observes Father Rothaan, there is no solidity, no true glory, but mere agitation and perpetual disturbance joined with thick darkness"; And this image", he adds, " exhibits the evil spirit such as he is, but not such as he offers himself to men's minds."
The Spiritual Exercises of Loyola
https://ia801306.us.archive.org/8/items/a588350800loyouoft/a588350800loyouoft.pdf
Head:
1. See Illness, mental
2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"
page 463
The CONstitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
"Revelation 13:18
New International Version
"18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[a] That number is 666."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A18&version=NIV
Lothair I (Dutch and Medieval Latin: Lotharius; German: Lothar; French: Lothaire; Italian: Lotario; 795 – 29 September 855) was a 9th-century Carolingian emperor (817–855, with his father until 840) and king of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (843–855).
Lothair I was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis I and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye,[1] daughter of Ingerman the duke of Hesbaye. On several occasions, Lothair led his full-brothers Pepin I of Aquitaine and Louis the German in revolt against their father to protest against attempts to make their half-brother Charles the Bald a co-heir to the Frankish domains. Upon the father's death, Charles and Louis joined forces against Lothair in a three-year civil war (840–843). The struggles between the brothers led directly to the breakup of the Frankish Empire assembled by their grandfather Charlemagne, and laid the foundation for the development of modern France and Germany.[2]
Early life and reign
Kingdom of Bavaria
Lothair was born in 795, to Louis the Pious and Ermengarde of Hesbaye. His father was the son of the reigning Emperor, Charlemagne. Little is known of Lothair's early life, which was probably passed at the court of his grandfather Charlemagne. In 814, the elderly emperor died, and left his sole surviving legitimate son Louis the Pious as successor to his vast empire. The next year, Lothair would be sent to govern Bavaria for his father, the new emperor.[1] In 817, Louis the Pious[1] drew up his Ordinatio Imperii.[3] In this, Louis designated Lothair as his principal heir and ordered that Lothair would be the overlord of Louis' younger sons Pippin of Aquitaine (who was 20) and Louis the German (who was 13), as well as his nephew (Lothair's cousin) Bernard of Italy. Lothair would also inherit their lands if they were to die childless. Lothair, aged 22, was then crowned joint emperor by his father at Aachen.[1] At the same time, Aquitaine and Bavaria were granted to his brothers Pippin and Louis, respectively, as subsidiary kingdoms.[3] Following the death of Bernard, brought on by his plotting against and blinding by Louis the Pious, Lothair also received the Kingdom of Italy.[citation needed] In 821, Lothair married Ermengarde (d. 851), daughter of Hugh the Count of Tours.[1]
In 822, he assumed the government of Italy, and at Easter, 5 April 823, he was crowned emperor again by Pope Paschal I, this time at Rome. In November 824, Lothair promulgated a statute, the Constitutio Romana, concerning the relations of pope and emperor, which reserved the supreme power to the secular potentate, and he afterwards issued various ordinances for the good government of Italy.[1]
On Lothair's return to his father's court, his stepmother Judith won his consent to her plan for securing a kingdom for her son Charles, a scheme which was carried out in 829,[1] when the young prince was given Alemannia as king.[citation needed] Lothair, however, soon changed his attitude and spent the succeeding decade in constant strife over the division of the Empire with his father. He was alternately master of the Empire, and banished and confined to Italy, at one time taking up arms in alliance with his brothers and at another fighting against them, whilst the bounds of his appointed kingdom were in turn extended and reduced.[1][4]
Division of the kingdom
The first rebellion began in 830. All three brothers fought their father, whom they deposed. In 831, their father was reinstated and he deprived Lothair of his imperial title and gave Italy to Charles. The second rebellion was instigated by Angilbert II, Archbishop of Milan in 833, and again Louis was deposed in 834. Lothair, through the loyalty of the Lombards and later reconciliations, retained Italy and the imperial position through all remaining divisions of the Empire by his father.[4][5]
When Louis the Pious was dying in 840, he sent the imperial insignia to Lothair, who, disregarding the various partitions, claimed the whole of the Empire. He was 45 years old when his father died. Negotiations with his brother Louis the German and his half-brother Charles, both of whom resisted this claim, were followed by an alliance of the younger brothers against Lothair.[2] A decisive battle was fought at Fontenay-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841, when, in spite of his[1] and his allied nephew Pepin II of Aquitaine's[citation needed] personal gallantry, Lothair was defeated and fled to Aachen. With fresh troops he began a war of plunder, but the forces of his brothers were too strong, and taking with him such treasure as he could collect, he abandoned his capital to them.[1][clarification needed] He met with the leaders of the Stellinga in Speyer and promised them his support in return for theirs, but Louis and then the native Saxon nobility put down the Stellinga in the next years.[citation needed]
Peace negotiations began, and in June 842 the brothers met on an island in the Saône. They agreed to an arrangement which developed, after much difficulty and delay, into the Treaty of Verdun, signed in August 843. By this, Lothair received the imperial title as well as northern Italy and a long stretch of territory from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, essentially along the valleys of the Rhine and the Rhône; this territory includes the regions Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, and Provence. He soon ceded Italy to his eldest son, Louis, and remained in his new kingdom, engaging in alternate quarrels and reconciliations with his brothers and in futile efforts to defend his lands from the attacks of the Northmen (as Vikings were known in Frankish writings) and the Saracens (as those loyal to the various Fatimids, Umayyads and Abbasides are known in Frankish writings).[1][5]
In 845 the count of Arles, Fulcrad, led a rebellion in Provence. The emperor put it down and the count joined him in an expedition against the Saracens in Italy in 846.
Death and aftermath
In 855 he became seriously ill, and despairing of recovery renounced the throne, divided his lands among his three sons, and on 23 September entered the monastery of Prüm, where he died six days later. He was buried at Prüm, where his remains were found in 1860.[1] It was at Prüm that Lothair was most commemorated.[6]
The same year, Lothair's kingdom was divided between his three sons[1] in a deal called the Treaty of Prüm: the eldest, Louis II, received Italy and the title of emperor; the second, Lothair II, received Lotharingia; the youngest, Charles, received Provence.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothair_I
The name Lothair traces its origins to German - Old High German and is derived from two elements: loth, meaning famous, and hari, meaning army. Thus, Lothair directly translates to famous army. This name gained prevalence during the 9th and 10th centuries in the Frankish Empire, which encompassed vast territories of modern-day Germany, France, and Italy.
In history, the name Lothair is notably associated with several prominent figures. The most well-known bearer of this name is Lothair I, who was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor in the year 817. Lothair I was a key figure in the Carolingian dynasty and played a vital role in shaping the political landscape of medieval Europe. His reign marked significant accomplishments and challenges, ultimately cementing his position in history.
In modern-day usage, the name Lothair has become less common but still maintains some presence. It is occasionally bestowed upon children as a nod to their Germanic or medieval heritage, giving them a sense of historical and unique identity. Moreover, the name may occasionally appear in works of literature, films, or other forms of popular culture to evoke a sense of nobility or historicity. Overall, the name Lothair encapsulates the fascinating historical connections of the Frankish Empire and its influential figures.
https://www.ancestry.com/first-name-meaning/lothair
The name Luther traces its origins back to English, where it emerged from the word leod meaning people and here meaning army. This etymology gives rise to the meaning Army of the People, making Luther a name that embodies strength and collective action. Over time, Luther has appeared in various historical contexts, leaving its mark on different cultures and regions around the world.
In history, the name Luther gained prominence with the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Martin Luther, an influential German theologian and composer, challenged the practices of the Catholic Church and sparked a movement that would reshape the religious and social landscape of Europe. Martin Luther's prolific writings and his translation of the Bible into German played a significant role in spreading Protestantism. His name became synonymous with the reformist movement, and Lutheranism was established as a distinct Christian denomination.
In modern-day usage, the name Luther continues to resonate with historical significance and strength. It is often chosen by parents who desire a name that exudes resilience, leadership, and a connection to the past. The name Luther can be found worldwide, and its usage extends beyond German-speaking countries. As a testament to its enduring appeal, Luther has also found its way into popular culture. Whether it be in literature, film, or music, the name Luther maintains its authoritative presence, leaving an indelible impression on those who hear or bear it.
https://www.ancestry.com/first-name-meaning/luther
The Western Schism, also known as the Papal Schism, the Great Occidental Schism, or the Schism of 1378 (Latin: Magnum schisma occidentale, Ecclesiae occidentalis schisma), was a split within the Catholic Church lasting from 1378 to 1417 in which bishops residing in Rome and Avignon both claimed to be the true pope, and were joined by a third line of Pisan claimants in 1409. The schism was driven by personalities and political allegiances, with the Avignon Papacy being closely associated with the French monarchy.
The papacy had resided in Avignon since 1309, but Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in 1377. The Catholic Church split in 1378 after Gregory XI's death and Urban VI's election. A group of French cardinals declared his election invalid and elected Clement VII as pope. After several attempts at reconciliation, the Council of Pisa (1409) declared that both rivals were illegitimate and elected a third purported pope. The schism was finally resolved when the Pisan claimant Antipope John XXIII called the Council of Constance (1414–1418). The Council arranged the renunciation of both Roman pope Gregory XII and Pisan antipope John XXIII. The Avignon antipope Benedict XIII was excommunicated, while Pope Martin V was elected and reigned from Rome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism
Note 308.—"Elus. The French word elu means elected; and the •degrees, whose object is to detail the detection and punishment of the actors in the crime traditionally related in the third degree, are called Elus, or the degrees of the Elected, because they referred to those of the Craft who were chosen or elected to make the discovery, and to inflict the punishment. They form a particular system of Masonry, and are to be found in every Rite, if, not in name, at least in principle. In the York and American Rites, the Elu is incorporated in the Master's degree; in the French Rite it constitutes an independent des?rce; and in the Scottish Rite it consists of three degrees, the ninth, tenth and eleventh. Ragon counts the five preceding degrees among the Elus, but they more properly belong to the Order of Masters. The symbolism of these Elu degrees has been greatly mistaken and perverted by anti-Masonic writers, who have thus attributed to Masonry a spirit of vengeance, which Is not its characteristic. They must be looked upon as conveying only a symbolic meaning." — Mackey's Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Article Elus.
Note 345.—'*As to the history of the Kadosh degree, it is said tg have been first invented at Lyons, in France, in 1743. where it appeared under the name of the Petit Elu. This degree, which is said to have been based upon the Templar doctrine heretofore referred to, was afterwards developed into the Kadosh, which we find in 1758 incorporated as the Grand Elect Kadosh into the system of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, which was that year formed at Paris, whence it descended to the Scottish Rite Masons. Of all the Kadoshes. two only are now important, viz.: the Philosophic Kadosh, which has been adopted by the Grand Orient of France, and the Knight Kadosh, which constitutes the thirtieth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, this latter being the most generally diffused of the Kadoshes."—Mackey's Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Article Kadosh
There are still more interesting, if not curious, facts surrounding President Obama. In February 2008, Obama was endorsed by white terror-racist group the Ku Klux Klan as reported in the Uk's Daily Squib Newspaper. Imperial Wizard, Ronald Edwards, and his KKK members supported Barack Obama in a rally in Tennessee.
Some might say the Klan weren't really voting for Obama, as much as against Hilary Clinton, because the banners they carried said, "ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN HILARY." But wait, if "ANYTHING" is "BETTER THAN HILARY," why doesn't the banner say, "Vote McCain, Palin or Obama"? Why just, "VOTE OBAMA"?
The Ku Klux Klan is of course a Masonic organization. And rumour has it that Mr. Obama is a high-ranking Freemason: either a Prince Hall Freemason or a member of the Martinist Order. And as if to prove the rumour true, on Tuesday January 20, 2009, the Masonic Lodge William R. Singleton-Hope-Lebanon Lodge #7 of the District of Columbia hosted what it called Masonic Inaugural Ball" in honor of President Barack Obama. The Ball was held on Inauguration, 8:00pm, at Stars Bistro, 2120 P Street N.W., Washington DC. Mr. Obama did not attend, of course, as that was his inauguration day as President.
Codeword Barbelon book two
by P.D. Stuart
Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and esoteric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his materialistic state of being, deprived of his own, divine source, and the process of his eventual (if not inevitable) return, called 'Reintegration'.[1]
As a mystical tradition, it was first transmitted through a Masonic high-degree system established around 1740 in France by Martinez de Pasqually, and later propagated in different forms by his two students Louis Claude de Saint-Martin and Jean-Baptiste Willermoz.
The term Martinism applies to both this particular doctrine and the teachings of the reorganized "Martinist Order" founded in 1886 by Augustin Chaboseau and Gérard Encausse (aka Papus). It was not used at the tradition's inception in the 18th century. This confusing disambiguation has been a problem since the late 18th century, where the term Martinism was already used interchangeably between the teachings of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin and Martinez de Pasqually, and the works of the first being attributed to the latter.[2] Regular transmission of Martinism to Augustin Chaboseau and Gérard Encausse has yet to be documented.
The three branches of the tradition
Martinism can be divided into three forms through which it has been chronologically transmitted:
The Elus-Cohens or Elus Coëns. (Cohen is the Hebrew for "priest" and "Elus" means "the elect" or "the chosen".) This was the first, and explicitly theurgical, way that 'reintegration' was to be attained. The Elus-Cohens were founded by Martinez de Pasqually, who was Saint-Martin's teacher. The original Elus-Cohens ceased to exist sometime in the late eighteenth or early 19th century, but it was revived in the 20th century by Robert Ambelain, and lives on today in various Martinist Orders, including the branch reinstigated by Ambelain himself.[citation needed]
In the highest of the three degrees of the Order of the Elus-Cohen, known as the Shrine, itself consisting of three degrees of which the highest was the Master Reau-Crois, evocation of entities belonging to the Divine Plane was carried out. This makes clear that the Elus-Cohen were not merely a mystical but a magical order. The chief evocation was that of the 'Mender', Jehoshua, and the basic methods were those of the Key of Solomon, including the use of circles, names of angels, planetary hours and symbols. The magical operations of the lower degrees were intended to establish contact between the operator and the Invisible World. Lofty and beautiful prayers recalled the goal which the Order tried to attain. There were also exorcisms intended to strangle demonic influence in the universe and thwart its powers over men, and to combat black magic.[3]
The Scottish Rectified Rite or Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cité-Sainte (CBCS). This was originally a Masonic rite, a reformed variant of the Rite of Strict Observance which, in its highest degrees, uses Masonic-type rituals to demonstrate the philosophy which underlies both Martinism and the practices of the Elus-Cohens. The CBCS was founded in the late 18th century by Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, who was a pupil of Martinez de Pasqually and a friend of Saint-Martin. The CBCS has managed to survive as a continually practiced rite from its founding until the present day, both as a purely masonic rite, and as a detached rite which is also open to women.
The Martinism of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, a mystical tradition in which emphasis is placed on meditation and inner spiritual alchemy. Saint-Martin disapproved of these teachings being called 'martinism' by his contemporaries, and instead explained it as a silent 'way of the heart' to attain reintegration. Saint-Martin most likely did not organize this path as an 'order', but gathered small circles of students around him, where he transmitted his teachings.
In a nutshell, the Martinism as we know it today consists of the theurgic tradition of Martinez de Pasqually (Martinezism), the Masonic Templarism of Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (Willermozism) and the Christian Theosophy of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin.[4] This heritage was reorganized into the 'Ordre Martiniste' in 1886 by Augustin Chaboseau and Gerard Encausse (also known as Papus).[citation needed]. The regular transmission of the Martinist heritage to Chaboseau and Papus has not been proven as of today.
Martinezism: Martinez de Pasqually and the Elus Cohens
Jacques de Livron Joachim de la Tour de la Casa Martinez de Pasqually was born in c. 1727 in Grenoble, France, and died in 1774 in Saint-Domingue while dealing with profane business. Martinez de Pasqually was active in Masonic organisations throughout France from the age of 28 onwards. In 1765 he established l'Ordre des Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l'Univers (Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe), which functioned as a regular Masonic obedience in France.
This order had three sets of degrees: the first were analogous to the symbolic degrees of conventional Freemasonry. The second were generally Masonic, though hinting at Pasqually's own secret doctrine. The third set were blatantly magical: for example, by using exorcisms against evil in the world generally and in the individual specifically. In the highest degree, the Reaux-Croix, the initiate was taught to use Theurgy to contact spiritual realms beyond the physical.[5]
De Pasqually put forth the philosophy underlying the work of the Elus-Cohens in his only book, Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings,[6] which first uses the analogy of the Garden of Eden, and refers to Christ as "The Repairer". The ultimate aim of the Elus-Cohen was to attain – whilst living – the beatific vision through a series of magical invocations and complex theurgic operations.
After Martinez de Pasqually's death, the Elus-Cohens continued to operate for some time; however, divisions started to occur between various temples, which became dormant during the first half of the 19th century. The last-known surviving Elus-Cohen from the original incarnation of the order, Destigny, died in 1868.[6]
Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin was born in 1743 in Amboise, France, and died in 1803. He was originally a barrister before taking a commission in the army at Bordeaux. Saint-Martin was initiated into the Elus-Cohens in 1768 and was active in the organization for at least six years. Saint-Martin was initiated into the Reaux-Croix, the highest degree of the Order, and in 1770 became de Pasqually's secretary.
Saint-Martin became increasingly dissatisfied with the Elus-Cohens' use of theurgic ritual, feeling that it was too sophisticated for the desired end. Instead, he favoured inward contemplation, or what he called "The Way of the Heart". Nevertheless, Saint-Martin continued to acknowledge Martinez de Pasqually's influence on his own system of thought. In addition, Saint-Martin drew much inspiration from the work of Jakob Böhme.[7]
In 1777, after failing to convince the Elus-Cohens to adopt a more contemplative practice, he cut back his involvement in the Order. He ceased all involvement in 1790.
Saint-Martin outlined his philosophy in several books , using the pen name of "The Unknown Philosopher". These include:
Ecce Homo
Of Errors and Truth, 1775
The Man of Desire
The New Man
Man, His True Nature & Ministry
Aphorisms and Maxims.
The Spiritual Ministry of Man.
Ten Prayers.
The Red Book.
Theosophic Correspondence.
Natural Table of the Correspondences between God, Man and the Universe, 1782
Note: the books with the name Man or l'homme in French are retellings of Saint-Martin of the main teachings of Martinez de Pasqually and what he learned in Martinezism mixed with Boehme.
There has been some controversy over whether Saint-Martin himself ever founded a formalised Order of Martinists. For example, 20th-century Martinist author Robert Ambelain initially claimed that Saint-Martin founded an order called the "Society of Initiates",[8] but within a few years he became disillusioned with the concept and stated that the Society of Initiates never existed.[9] Others allege that Saint-Martin became involved in a pre-existing society called the "Order of Unknown Philosophers".[10] It seems most probable, however, that although Saint-Martin did initiate disciples after a fashion, this was done on an informal basis; Martinism did not exist as an order per se until the efforts of Papus and Chaboseau (see below).
Willermoz and the Scottish Rectified Rite
Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (born 1730, Lyon, France; died 1824 also at Lyon), was initiated into Masonry at the age of 20 in a lodge which operated under the auspices of the Strict Observance. He was initiated into the Elus-Cohen in 1767, eventually attaining the highest degree of the Order, and being named by de Pasqually as a "Superior Judge," one of its most senior officers.
Concerned about dissent in the order after the death of de Pasqually, Willermoz in 1778, together with two other Superior Judges, formulated the idea of creating two additional degrees for the Auvergne Province of the Strict Observance, which exemplified the philosophy, though not the theurgic practices, of the Elus-Cohens, while working in the Knight Templar-oriented milieu of the masonic rite. The name of the rite was changed to Chevaliers Beneficient de la Cité-Sainte (CBCS). The degree structure of the rite was thus:
Apprentice
Fellowcraft
Master
Maître Ecossais/Scotch Master
Ecuyer Novice/Squire Novice
C.B.C.S. (Le Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cité Sainte)
Chevalier-Profès/Professed Knight
Chevalier-Grand Profès/Grand Professed Knight
Having reformed the French branch of the order, Willermoz in 1782 succeeded in persuading the German mother branch to adopt his reforms – though not without meeting considerable opposition from other branches of the Strict Observance, such as the Bavarian Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt.
The French Revolution curtailed the activities of the CBCS in France although the rite was preserved in Switzerland. Today the CBCS, or "Scottish Rectified Rite" (Rite Ecossais Rectifié) has several "great priories" throughout the world: Switzerland, USA., France, both the Waite's & Michael Herbert's Great Priories in England, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Brazil, with prefectures and lodges of Saint Andrew as well as Rectified Craft lodges existing in many places from Italy to Brazil to Romania.[11]
Papus and Chaboseau: the founding of the Martinist Order
The disciples of Saint-Martin spread the Doctrine of the Unknown Philosopher in France, Germany, Denmark and above all in Russia. It was through one of them, Henri Delaage, that in 1880 a brilliant young Parisian doctor, Gerard Encausse (Later to be known as Papus), became acquainted with the doctrines of Saint-Martin. Subsequently, in 1884, together with some of his associates, he established a Mystical Order which he called the Ordre Martiniste or the Martinist Order.[12]
The founding of the Order came about when Encausse met Augustin Chaboseau in 1884. In parallel, Stanislas de Guaita, in association with Papus and Pierre-Augustin Chaboseau founded the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose Croix in 1888. Papus and Chaboseau discovered that they had both apparently received Martinist initiation through two different chains of succession which linked back to Saint-Martin and his original disciples. Papus claimed to have come into the possession of the original papers of de Pasqually and to have been given authority in the Rite of Saint-Martin by his friend Henri Viscount Delaage.[13] However, Encausse realised that there was a "missing link" in his own chain of succession: he and Chaboseau therefore "swapped initiations" to consolidate their lineages.
The Martinist Order which Papus founded was organised as a Lodge system, which worked four degrees:
Associate
Mystic
Unknown Superior (S::I::/Supèrieur Inconnu)
Unknown Superior Initiator (S::I::I::/Supérieur Inconnu Initiateur)(Lodge/Heptad Master).
Of these, the first two introduce the Candidate to key Martinist concepts, while the third supposedly confers the actual Initiation which Saint-Martin gave to his original disciples. Martinists generally believe that to be an authentic initiate, one must be able to show a chain of Initiatic Succession which goes back to Saint-Martin himself. However, Restivo states that "Martinist authenticity is not contingent upon acceptance or initiation into a filiation or succession of other Martinists as no personal initiation chain from Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin exists in the sacramental manner of ordination as culmination of mastery in an Initiatic order."
About the rituals themselves, the following general points may be made:
The mystical Christianity of Martinism is emphasised by the fact that all lodges are opened by invoking Yeheshuah, (Hebrew: יהשוה) i.e. the Pentagrammaton, consisting of the Tetragrammaton, with the addition of the Hebrew letter Shin, which was first suggested by Reuchlin as a Qabalistic way of spelling Jesus.
Despite the Lodge structure of Martinism, the rituals themselves do not bear any resemblance to the symbolic degrees of Freemasonry. The rituals have their own milieu of dramatic and esoteric content. It has been claimed however that some of the rituals derived from the Egyptian Freemasonry of Cagliostro, and the Scottish Rectified Rite of Willermoz.[14]
The rituals contain elements of Martinez de Pasqually's philosophy, and passing references to the Qabalah, in addition to principles derived from Saint-Martin's own teachings.
The candidate at key points throughout the rituals is expected to answer on his or her own initiative. He or she is constantly encouraged to meditate on the symbolism presented.
The rituals often rely on the element of surprise to reinforce the points they make.
During the period up to the Second World War, the I::L:: or S::I::IV degree was exceptionally added as an endorsement or rank of distinction to the S::I::I:: degree for legates in new Martinist jurisdictions who were expected to eventually become Grand Masters. Later branches of the Martinist Order worked a fifth degree, I::L:: (Free Initiator/Initiateur Libre), which conferred on the candidate the power to initiate others into all four degrees in person, not requiring Lodge or Heptad group forms, and to establish a new and independent Martinist Order, as well as to act as the legate or representative or Grand Master of that new order. For example, the Rose+Croix Martinist Order (Ontario, Canada):[15]
Associate
Mystic
Unknown Superior (S::I::/Supèrieur Inconnu)
Unknown Superior Initiator (S::I::I::/Supèrieur Inconnu Initiateur)(Lodge/Heptad Master)
Free Initiator (I::L::/Initiateur Libre/S.I.IV) (Grand Officer/Grand Initiator).
Modern Martinism
In 1905, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia invited Papus to Tsarskoye Selo to ask for advice on domestic difficulties that he was facing with revolutionaries. The First World War was disastrous for the Order. Papus died on the battlefield fulfilling his duties as a doctor, as did many other leaders of the Order. After the war, the Order was almost extinct and the surviving members splintered into competing factions.
René Guénon was himself initiated in the Martinist Order. In between 1906 and 1912, Guénon was a member of Martinist Lodges Humanidad and Melchissedec,[17] and published articles in L'Initiation, Revue Indépendante des Hautes Etudes Martinistes.[18][19] The Congrès Spiritualiste held in Paris on 7–10 June 1908, and organized by Papus, with the presence of Victor Blanchard, Paul Veux, Paul Chacornac, Theodor Reuss, and Charles Détré alias Teder took place at the peak of the collaboration between Guénon and Papus. However, the regularity of the Martinist Order was strongly questioned by Brother O. Pontet of the Grand Orient de France,.[20][21] The creation by Guénon in 1909 of an Ordre du Temple within the premises of the Martinist Order, as well as his involvement in a Gnostic Church under the name Palingenius prompted the separation between Papus and Guénon.
Many French Martinists supported Karl Wilhelm Naundorff's claims to the French throne. They joined the Synarchy movement and formed the Ordre Martiniste et Synarchie (OM&S) under the leadership of Victor Blanchard. Both Imperators of The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), Ralph Maxwell Lewis and Harvey Spencer Lewis were initiated into the Martiniste et Synarchie (OM&S). AMORC Imperator Harvey Spencer Lewis held the title of Grand Inspector for the Americas as well as Sovereign Grand Master Legate for the United States and was granted a charter to establish Lodges in the United States. Lewis later decided not to proceed with the OM&S plan for the U.S. due to the fact that Victor Blanchard was unable to produce all the required documentation. It turned out that the activities of the OM&S were limited to the transmission of various Martinist Initiations, and that the Order otherwise had no actual existence. There was no Martinist Lodge in Paris at the time and Victor Blanchard gave his initiations in the temple of the Fraternitae des Polaires.[citation needed]
In 1931 Augustin Chaboseau joined Victor-Emile Michelet and Lucien Chamuel (the other two surviving members of the original Supreme Council of 1891) to resuscitate the Order that they had founded with Papus. To emphasise the difference between traditional Martinism and the many new groups that had emerged, they named their movement the Ordre Martiniste Traditionnel (OMT). Victor-Emile Michelet was elected Grand Master and Augustin Chaboseau succeeded him in 1939 until his death in 1946. AMORC Imperator Ralph Maxwell Lewis was asked by the OMT in 1939 to bring Traditional Martinism to the U.S. Lewis was thus appointed Sovereign Legate and Regional Grand Master of the OMT and received the necessary charters and other documents required in order to proceed with the Order's expansion.[citation needed]
The Second World War was as disastrous for the Order in Europe as the first. The Nazi regime suppressed all 'occult' groups and many Martinists died in concentration camps. The OMT in Europe and its American branch, the Traditional Martinist Order (TMO) still exist. The TMO currently operates in almost every free country in the world under the protection of AMORC. Martinism is still growing in popularity, and with the advent of the Internet, many new orders and online groups expressing an interest in Martinism have emerged worldwide.[22]
The Martinist Order (L'Ordre Martiniste) founded by Papus in 1887 continues, and grows worldwide with Groups across Europe, Africa, the United States and the Middle East.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinism
It is not too surprising that Barack Obama would be so "profoundly affected" by Catholic teachings, having imbibed these from his Jesuit mentor Gregory Galluzzo. This fact (Obama's tutelage by a Jesuit priest) is significant for a number of reasons. Here is what Andres Dae Keun Kwon the director and lead organizer of ACTS (the "Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse") had to say on what Jesuit Galluzzo said about the methods and principles he used to train Obama: "Gregory Galluzzo isa former Jesuit and said that many of the organization's principles are rooted in the kind of social justice supported by Catholicism." No wonder Obama is "PROFOUNDLY AFFECTED BY CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHINGS!" He has been indoctrinated into Catholicism.
Reader, the Jesuits are almost always of a character like that of their founder, the wretch Ignatius de Loyola, afterwards called a 'saint'! Says J. Huber, who was professor of Catholic theology, concerning the Jesuits:
"A mixture of piety and diplomacy, asceticism and wordly wisdom, mysticism and cold calculation.... the trade-mark of this Order." That is to say, intransigent, obdurate; intrepid; unscrupulous; crafty; insinuating; perverse; contumacious; deceptive; sycophantic; or a combination of any number of these! And Obama was trained by one of these men!
How far has this fruit fallen from the tree we will have to see.
Sure, the Jesuits are intelligent, sophisticated men, but as the great Dr. Thomas Chalmers observed from his vast experience, the brightest mind may pour its radiance upon the people, while it still remains, like the northern ice-field, cold and impassive."
page 367
"Obama's Jesuit, Socialist And New World Order Connections"
Codeword Barbelon book Two
by P.D. Stuart
https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid02f5EnrCvUmEKuPqyQk8ZDJGaLXaXW7CA3pkpkSB74Y6iXCA2j3u2siFmcEpyxFXTdl
Rosa Jesuitica, oder Jesuitische Rottgesellen, das ist, Eine Frag ob die Zween Orden, der ganandten Ritter von der Neerscharen Jesu, und der Rosen-Creuzer ein einiger Ordensen: per J. P. D. a S. Jesuitarum Protectorum. Prague, 1620.” (4to).
This is a truly curious tract upon the “relations of the Jesuits and the Rosicrucians."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dT28PyPUPfqDfC0iVg7nGFsle8vYBXLf/view?usp=sharing
ROWING INTO THE DEEP: MAGIS MEET JUSTICE
PEACE BUILDING & PCUSA ANTI-RACISM WORK
The decision to go into ‘the deep’ as highlighted in the title of this years’ Ignatian
Solidarity Network is one that that definitely requires
preparation beforehand
the ability to live with the grace and treacherousness found in the ‘deep’
the knowledge that one is taking a huge risk
the maturity to adapt to changing tides
the courage to face the ambiguities of the unknown
and the realization that your life and the lives of those on board with you
will most likely be transformed and consequently, will never be the same
One thing is sure: YOU DO NOT GO INTO THE ‘DEEP’ ROWING. A small, fragile
boat propelled by 1 or 2 oars is not a sea-worthy vessel when confronting the
obvious AND hidden dimensions of ‘THE DEEP’.
I am delighted to have been invited to share with all of you Pax Christi USA’s
journey into peace building and our work towards dismantling racism.
Allow me a moment to very briefly share with you the context of Pax Christi:
We, Pax Christi USA, are a section of Pax Christi International. We are the oldest,
largest, non-violent, peace with justice movement in the Catholic Church. In the
US alone we reach over a ½ million Catholics, and are active on various social
media, our website and blogs. We network with many other Catholic coalitions,
Ecumenical and inter-faith groups who are about peace with justice.
We have 4 major priorities that we hold ever before us:
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1. the SPIRITUALITY OF NONVIOLENCE AND PEACEMAKING
2. DISARMAMENT, DEMILITARIZATION AND RECONCILIATION WITH JUSTICE
3. ECONOMIC AND INTERRACIAL JUSTICE IN THE UNITED STATES
4. HUMAN RIGHTS AND GLOBAL RESTORATION.
These initiatives had been agreed up and affirmed by our National Council well
over 20 years ago and long before I began serving as Executive Director in 2011.
Over the course of those years emphasis was clearly on 3 of the 4 initiatives, and
took the shape of programs, statements, publications, prayer/study/action guides
and themes of national Gatherings and Convocations. One initiative, was, so to
speak, under-developed…that of ECONOMIC AND INTERRACIAL JUSTICE IN THE
US.
When the National Council and Search Committee offered me the position of
Executive Director, they knew full well that interracial justice was near and dear
to my heart and that the membership of Pax Christi USA was going to begin
hearing more about this initiative as well as continuing the tradition of raising up
the other three.
IF EVER THERE WAS A JOURNEY INTO ‘THE DEEP’…THE WORK OF ANTI-RACISM IS
3
JUST THAT.
RACISM, as I understand it from my experience and training is: PERSONAL RACIAL
PREJUDICE PLUS THE MISUSE OF POWER BY SYSTEMS AND INSTITUTIONS.
(Repeat)
The history of the United States, the country we love enough to be critical of, has
a LONG, RICH and SICK history of racism.
The arrogance of European settlers to this country is clearly seen in naming
this land ‘the NEW world’
the use and abuse of the native peoples who lived here prior to the
European coming. The rag tag group of Pilgrims too quickly forgot the
freedom of religion, speech and opportunity they sought by coming here
and doled out the pain and oppression they fled from upon the Native
Americans. The land that the native peoples cherished was stolen as was
their religion and their culture. They were pushed into poverty and
reservations, their children were stripped of their innocence by abuse,
torture and “re-education”, and treaties that were entered into in good
faith with the government…even today are being disrespected, discarded
and put aside in the name of progress and greed.
the 300 plus years of slavery is a tragic testimony of the disease that has
infected this country. Because of the inhuman treatment of our African
ancestors, the buying and selling of human beings, the breaking up of
families, the siring of children by raping the women who were owned by
the master…all of this leaves millions of us unable to trace our family
ancestry because we were NOT deemed important enough to be called
4
‘human.’
When the settlers needed a system of railroads, bridges, roads, and
subways, our government promised citizenship to Asians people if they
would come to do the building of our infrastructure…only to exclude them
when the work was done, strip them of their naturalized citizenship, no
longer allowed to own property and their assets were seized and given to
whites.
Japanese Americans fared no better when forced to live in concentration
camps euphemistically called ‘War Relocation Camps in 1942.
Our Mexican brothers and sisters, working as domestics and agricultural
workers were unable to access Social Security, forced into dire poverty, had
no medical benefits and soon realized they had no human rights or due
process under the law…and many still do not.
All of these human beings of:
African Ancestry
African American Ancestry
Caribbean Ancestry from Jamaica, Haiti, the Islands
Latinas/Latinos from Mex., Latin America
Asians from China, Japan, Korea
Native Americans
Indians
Middle Easterners
All of these can be defined as People who form Communities of Color…who have
5
endured…and continue to live with the oppression that is engrained in the psyche
of the dominant white culture.
We know that those who took the words found on the Statue of Liberty seriously
and arrived at Ellis Island, those Western Europeans (Italians, Irish, French,
German and the like) faced their own kind of discrimination because they spoke a
different language, ate different foods and had different names…they
suffered…yes…but history rather quickly forgot the differentness because visually
they resembled the majority culture…they were white and were not subjected to
generations of violence, discrimination, marginalization and victimization that we
see in communities of color today.
History has taught that all social systems in this country were created to ensure
that power and privilege would remain in the hands of white males; and when
white women received the right to vote, they bought into that same privilege.
There has never been an equal playing field in the legal system, the political
systems, the religious systems, the educational systems, the social service
systems, the economic system and within the family systems. These systems were
so structured so as to be a boot on the backs of communities of color…a boot that
strangles them and does not allow them to move up and out of the oppression
they experience on a daily basis.
In the course of recent years we have lived with myths and lies that had us
6
thinking that we were no longer a racist society: (1) the Civil Rights Movement
and its off-shoots, surfaced the ugliness of racism but that was balanced with the
soul searching quest for liberation and equality. Maybe NOW was the time to
experience the downfall of segregation and the Jim Crow laws. That did not
happen! (2) We were also fed the myth that the ideal was to be ‘color blind’
when it came to accepting diversity. “We are all One” was preached from pulpits
and platforms while our actions failed to match the rhetoric that was trying to
convince us that we were living in a post-racial world.
(3) And perhaps the biggest myth of all was that once we elected an African
American President…that we had made it…no more racism in the US. Our proof
was living in the White House.
People of color knew all along that all of this was an illusion, a myth, a lie that
white people needed to believe so they could feel better. What had changed is
that the ugliness of racism was just under the surface and subtle. In 2013
Congress passed the Voter Registration Act in an attempt to make sure that
President Obama would not be elected to a second term. This act was aimed at
minority voters intended to discourage voting. It required:
A photo ID to vote
Slashing early voting, on-line and same-day voter registration
Redistricting:
Dividing minority communities into other voting districts and
then not allowing ‘out of district’ voting
7
packing minority citizens in as few districts as possible making
the lines longer and the opportunity to vote more difficult if
the polls do not remain open beyond specified time.
This act became law, but did not achieve its intended result…President Obama
was re-elected and stayed in the White House another 4 years.
Another example of systemic racism is the mass incarceration of black/brown
men, women and juveniles on drug charges that their white counterparts have
money to pay lawyers to get them out of.
And lastly, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Opioid
addiction among Black and Latino populations has been dramatically increasing
the last 3 years with little to no outcry…now that this addiction has hit the folks in
the white suburbs, it is being called an epidemic, and only now are billions of
federal and state dollars going into treatment and rehab. None of this is
coincidence…it is systemic racism being played out on a grand scale and we must
see it for what it is.
Which brings us into the NOW.
In the midst of an embarrassing 2 years of campaigning for the presidency of this
country, where bullying, derogatory remarks, sarcasm, lies, bigotry and racism
raised its ugly head…Pax Christi USA went into the ‘deep’. In the days since the
shock of Nov. 8, 2017 where revenge, back biting, shaming, and fabrications of
reality are the norm…Pax Christi USA choses to stay on the journey.
Racism is no longer under the surface…it is no longer dormant…it is blatant, all
8
around us…it is the face of white nationalism. Our work has brought us into
parishes, colleges, high school, inter-faith groups, Ecumenical coalitions,
organizations and communities of women religious. We have done 1 day
workshops, parish retreats, weekend long seminars and an 8 day retreat. Going
into the ‘deep’ of racism, at times, is not all welcoming nor appreciated.
We present a Wall of History with marker points of the history of racism AND the
history of resistance. Few quibble with the historical evidence. However, things
get tense when we ask the question ‘how have I/we been complicit with
‘America’s Original Sin’ as Jim Wallis so aptly calls racism.
In answering this question there is no way around confronting the racial
oppression that those of us who are people of color have internalized. Neither is
there a way around confronting the racial superiority that those who are white
have internalized.
In plumbing the depth of these 2 questions, we have to leave our comfort zones,
we have to look at our shadow sides, we have to move away from what is ‘safe’ to
what is ‘redemptive.’ However, we enjoy being ignorant…it is safe. Claims of ‘not
knowing’ aid and abet abusive systems of power that rely on complacency to
keep going. Claiming ‘ignorance’ comes not from a position of naiveté, but from a
position of power and the desire to maintain that power. I am comfortable and in
staying where it is safe…feeds the fragility of whiteness.
White supremacy is a belief system and a power system that sustains white
9
privilege and maintains racial oppression. Look at what happened in
Charlottesville and elsewhere.
The journey into the ‘deep’ that Pax Christi USA invites people to, is to right
relationships and to the formation of the Beloved Community. It is an invitation
and a plea to make connections with what is happening now in this country.
There is but one common thread woven around the
immigrant and refugee communities, the DACA and the DREAMERS,
the same thread that weaves through the environmental degradation of
our people and with the slow (and in some cases nonexistent) relief efforts
of the recent hurricanes, where toxic wastes are dumped and where water
is still lead infested,
this same thread connects those men and women affected by the Middle
Eastern travel bans, our Muslim brothers and sisters,
the thread around those most likely to be subject to police brutality and
violence is the same one that is
wrapped around those incarcerated and on death row,
and the same thread is around those women and children caught in the
nightmare of human trafficking.
DO WE EVEN SEE THE THREAD? DO WE WANT TO SEE IT?
CAN WE MAKE THE CONNECTIONS?
The human beings who are trafficked, banned from entry to this country, barely
10
surviving in our prisons, living on nuclear waste dump sites, immigrants and
refugees, those daily threatened with deportation ARE ALL PEOPLE FROM
COMMUNITIES OF COLOR…We don’t want to see that fact. We think they are
isolated incidents, coincidences…but they are connected.
We would rather argue, minimize, distort and explain away the realities that
white supremacy produces. We have to stop finding excuses to explain away the
suffering and pain of racism. Make the connections, see the intersectionality, see
the raw misuse of power as it really is. Our failure to make the connections
means we contribute to the complicity, hate and violence that racism breeds.
(Repeat)
This is the push back that Pax Christi USA faces on a daily basis because of our
commitment to dismantling racism within our organization and beyond.
My brothers and sisters, we cannot heal what we cannot own. And we all need
healing. We cannot be in right relationship with each other if we cannot be open
and transparent. We cannot form the Beloved Community if we are frightened by
conflict.
The work of PCUSA is based on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ
whose words were neither neutral nor detached:
Lift the broken and forgotten,
Feed the hungers of the human heart,
Be gentle with those who grieve,
Liberate those unjustly bound,
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Let your heart be broken by suffering: your own and that of others.
Our Catholic Social Teachings put our work into perspective and into a larger
context:
exclude no one from your circle of solidarity and equality,
believe in the human dignity of all life, even the most offensive,
undeserving and unpleasant,
embrace the common good and have a heart for everyone,
use your participation and belonging to associations as a way of reminding
others of ‘who are those not at the table’,
know that the ‘preferential option for the poor’ includes YOU also,
realize that stewardship is based on what is ‘just’ and NOT on what is ‘fair’
Those of us in this room who are white are so steeped in it that you don’t know
how to begin being allies. Because you know a handful of people of color and like
to hang with them…that does not make you an ally. Because you took a course in
Black History and/or Black Literature…does not an ally make. You like soul food
and (name some music groups/artists)…you may have good taste, but that
doesn’t make you an ally.
An ally does not make excuses for stepping into and talking from his/her white
privilege and being hurtful. The words “I’m sorry” are spoken much more
frequently than “I didn’t mean that.”
12
An ally does not have to have something to say all of the time, about everything.
We do not have to prove how liberal and anti-racist we are on social media or
elsewhere. We need to listen more.
An ally needs to be about his/her own education on racist systems and
institutions in this country. Asking people of color to do your white homework
and to point out to those of you who are white what racism is…is irresponsible
and lazy.
I could go on with the ‘do’s’ and don’ts’ of being an ally, but we, people of color
also have homework to do.
In order to heal from out internalized racial oppression we need to stop pitting
communities of color against each other. We too often scapegoat the Latino/a
community with the Mexican one…the Puerto Rican community with the
Islanders, the African born community with the African Americans, etc. We need
to realize that suffering and pain is suffering and pain and that we are all in this
struggle for liberation together.
In order to heal we need to share our stories with each other and with our white
brothers and sisters. But to share our stories we need a safe place to be
vulnerable and honest. We need people to really listen to us and respect our
experience with silence and deep empathy. Something happens when both
speaking and listening is reverenced…it is a sacred moment that can lead to
13
transformation. It is not merely a ‘Kum Bi Yah’ moment or a peek into the pain of
another. It is the beginning of being in right relationship with each other.
In order for people of color to heal we have to find respite from the exhaustion,
weariness and violence of living as marginalized people in this world. We need
people who look like us to nourish us, affirm and support us so as to go back out
there and continue the work of liberation. No offense, but there are days when I
cannot spend another moment with white folks!!
You as young adults, bring tremendous gifts to the movement to bring about
peace with justice:
You are open to working through what it means to be an ally.
You have an energy and a passion for justice.
You have the ability to speak up and to show up.
And in addition to asking lots of questions you also have the ability to
do critical social analysis…to look at things with a critical eye and to
feel deeply when justice is denied.
Journeying into the ‘deep’ is the work of a life time. It is neither a fad nor a whim.
It is not for the faint hearted, nor the whiner, nor the one looking for instant
gratification and immediate results.
I read recently that “I lose my moral right to speak on peace if I have not
previously spoken on injustice.” (Repeat). This is our moment in history, my
brothers and sisters and WE MUST shout from the housetops the injustices that
we see all around us…for unless we do, we have no right to speak of, much less
14
desire the peace that we all so deeply crave.
Racism in the US is our greatest injustice…it has crippled ALL of us in the human
community. It is our national disease and in our collective DNA. While getting
sick was not our fault, getting well and healing together is our responsibility.
Dismantling racism is something we must do together. Peace building is
something we must do together. We build 2-way bridges to form the Beloved
Community…not walls. We support and affirm one another …not dictate. We lay
claim to our innate goodness: ours and that of the other.
In closing:
I wish us ALL the moral courage to speak up…
I wish us ALL the passion to show up…
I wish us ALL the empathy to keep up…
and I wish us ALL the humility to look up…for, “as leaders of justice, like
the stars, you will shine forevermore.” (Dan. 12:3)
THANK YOU
Sr. Patricia Chappell, SNDdeN
Pax Christi USA
November 5, 2017
Ignatian Solidarity Network
https://paxchristiusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/sr-ps-speech-from-iftj-11-5-17.pdf
The Martinist Tradition
Let us recall, with Robert Amadou, what is covered by the term “Martinism”: “In the family of initiatory doctrines, illumination (…) belongs to the genre of Christian (that is to say, Judeo-Christian) esotericism” (Robert Amadou, Martinisme, 2nd revised and expanded edition, CIREM, 1997).
It is, first of all, the Primitive Cult of the Order of Knight Masons Élus Coëns of the Universe, founded by Martinez de Pasqually (1710–1774) of which Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin was the secretary and undoubtedly the best student.
It is the Theosophy of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743–1803), at the crossroads of two founding experiences, the experience of a Réau-Croix who successfully carried out all the Coëns operations, meeting the work of Jacob Bœhme of which he will be a translator. Let us recall that Jacob Bœhme, often described as a mystic, was also a highly-skilled operative hermeticist.
It is the Masonic system of the Rectified Scottish Regime founded by Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (1730–1824) from the Templar Strict Observance, imbued with the doctrine of reintegration of Martinez de Pasqually. The Profession and the Great Profession, the crown of this system, are a synthesis of the doctrine conveyed by the Primitive Cult.
Finally, there is the Martinist Order, and its many offshoots, founded in 1887 by Papus (1865–1916). Today, all of the Martinist orders constitute a living and influential movement carrying the principles and symbols of Illuminism.
The Martinism “of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin” offers a direct path, an immediate access to perfect knowledge, to Gnosis, without any other intermediary than Silence which thus makes the initiate another Christ, a New Man. Not a religious gnosis, which connects, but a Gnosis that loosens, that liberates.
This Gnosis installed in the Self, but not circumscribed to the Self, can violate a psychic apparatus not prepared for this ultimate experience, which is a death to the world and a death of the conceived world. Traditions assist in the reception of experience, essential rather than existential, in its assimilation, and its wise installation, precisely in existence.
Very classically, and like the great traditional currents, Martinism, or more broadly Illuminism, considers Gnosis as a knowledge that can be transmitted in time, both through teachings and through practices.
The teaching is organized around principles resulting from a revelation considered to be of divine origin, concerning which we will not forget that, while it originates in the experience of Being, it is colored according to the language and culture that claim to convey it. There is thus a progressive, gradualist, temporal, and tempered transmission that passes through the mysteries, the rites, the arts, and the symbols, which Jacob Bœhme tells us are “the signature of things.”
https://omcc.info/en/la-tradition-martiniste-english/
The Diet of Worms of 1521 (German: Reichstag zu Worms [ˈʁaɪçstaːk tsuː ˈvɔʁms]) was an imperial diet (a formal deliberative assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire called by Emperor Charles V and conducted in the Imperial Free City of Worms. Martin Luther was summoned to the diet in order to renounce or reaffirm his views in response to a Papal bull of Pope Leo X. In answer to questioning, he defended these views and refused to recant them. At the end of the diet, the Emperor issued the Edict of Worms (Wormser Edikt), a decree which condemned Luther as "a notorious heretic" and banned citizens of the Empire from propagating his ideas. Although the Protestant Reformation is usually considered to have begun in 1517, the edict signals the first overt schism.
The diet was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521 at the Bischofshof palace in Worms, with the Emperor presiding.[1] Other imperial diets took place at Worms in the years 829, 926, 1076, 1122, 1495, and 1545, but unless plainly qualified, the term "Diet of Worms" usually refers to the assembly of 1521.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms
416 Finally, those means that are proposed by our holy father Saint Ignatius in Part X of the Constitutions for the preservation and development not only of the body or exterior of the Society but also of its spirit, and for the attainment of the objective it seeks, which is to aid souls to reach their ultimate and supernatural end, [10] are to be observed eagerly and diligently by all, with a truly personal sense of responsibility for its increase and development, for the praise and service of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, and the help of souls. [11]
L. D. S. "
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms
https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Rosicrucianism is a theosophy advanced by an invisible order of spiritual knights who in spreading Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah,
and Gnosis seek to enliven and to preserve the memory of Divine
Wisdom, understood as a feminine flame of love called SOFIA or
Shekhinah, exoterically given as a fresh unfolded rose, yet, more akin to the BLUE FIRE of alchemy, the blue virgin. Rosicrucians have no organisation and there are no recognizable Rosicrucian individuals, but the order makes its presence known by leaving behind engrammatic writings in the genre of Hermetic-Platonic Christianity.
The historical roots of Hermeticism is to be located in Ancient
Egypt. Long before the rise of Christianity, Hermetic texts were structured around the belief that organisms contain sparks of a Divine mind unto which they each strive to attend. Things easily transform into others, thereby generating certain cyclical patterns, cycles that periodically renew themselves on a cosmic scale. These transformations of life and death were enacted in the Hermetic Mysteries in Ancient Egypt through the gods Isis, Horus, and Osiris. In the Alexandrian period these myths were reshaped into Hermetic discourses on the transformations of the self with Thot, the scribal god. These discourses were introduced in the west in 1474 when Marsilio Ficino translated the Hermetic Pimander from the Greek. The story of Christian Rosencreutz can be seen as a new version of these mysteries, specifically tempered by German Paracelsian philosophy on the Lion of the darkest night, a biblical icon for how the higher self lies slumbering in consciousness."
Rose Cross Over The Baltic: The Spread of Rosicrucianism In Northern Europe
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vWI_uTVg5lzNCDm16itq-PLSavozNR_F/view?usp=sharing
Rosa Jesuitica, oder Jesuitische Rottgesellen, das ist, Eine Frag ob die Zween Orden, der ganandten Ritter von der Neerscharen Jesu, und der Rosen-Creuzer ein einiger Ordensen: per J. P. D. a S. Jesuitarum Protectorum. Prague, 1620.” (4to).
This is a truly curious tract upon the “relations of the Jesuits and the Rosicrucians."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dT28PyPUPfqDfC0iVg7nGFsle8vYBXLf/view?usp=sharing
Pope John Paul I (Latin: Ioannes Paulus I; Italian: Giovanni Paolo I; born Albino Luciani [alˈbiːno luˈtʃaːni]; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent year of three popes and the first to occur since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523.
Before the August 1978 papal conclave that elected him, he expressed his desire not to be elected, telling those close to him that he would decline the papacy if elected; upon the cardinals' electing him, he felt an obligation to say yes.[4] He was the first pontiff to have a double name, choosing "John Paul" in honour of his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. He explained that he was indebted to John XXIII and to Paul VI for naming him a bishop and a cardinal, respectively. Furthermore, he was the first pope to add the regnal number "I", designating himself "the First".
His two immediate successors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, later recalled the warm qualities of the late pontiff in several addresses. In Italy, he is remembered with the appellatives of Il Papa del Sorriso (transl. The Smiling Pope)[5] and Il Sorriso di Dio (transl. The Smile of God).[6] Time magazine and other publications referred to him as "The September Pope".[7] He is also known in Italy as "Papa Luciani". In his hometown of Canale d'Agordo a museum built and named in his honour is dedicated to his life and brief papacy.
He was declared a servant of God by his successor, John Paul II, on 23 November 2003, the first step on the road to sainthood. Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue on 8 November 2017 and named him as Venerable. Pope Francis presided over the beatification on 4 September 2022.[8][9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_I
Pedro Arrupe Gondra, SJ (14 November 1907 – 5 February 1991) was a Spanish Catholic priest who served as the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983.[3] He has been called a second founder of the Society, which he led in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, especially with regard to faith that does justice and preferential option for the poor.[4][3]
Born in 1907 in Bilbao, Arrupe joined the Jesuits in 1927 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1936. While serving as a novice master outside Hiroshima in 1945, Arrupe used his medical background as a first responder to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.[5]
In 1983, paralysis from a stroke caused Arrupe to resign from office. He lived on until 1991, when he died in the local Jesuit infirmary.[5] His cause for sainthood was opened by the Jesuits and the Diocese of Rome in 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Arrupe
The CORONA [1] program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force. The CORONA satellites were used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union (USSR), China, and other areas beginning in June 1959 and ending in May 1972."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.[7] Most scientists believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus entered into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history.[8][9] Social and environmental factors including climate change, natural ecosystem destruction and wildlife trade increased the likelihood of such zoonotic spillover.[10][11][12][13] The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable but often include fever,[14] fatigue, cough, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste.[15][16][17] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.[18][19] Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).[20] Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some complications result in death. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months or years after infection, and damage to organs has been observed.[21] Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19
Havana syndrome ’ and the mystery of the microwaves by Gordon Carera
"Doctors, scientists, intelligence agents and government officials have all been trying to find out what causes "Havana syndrome" - a mysterious illness that has struck American diplomats and spies. Some call it an act of war, others wonder if it is some new and secret form of surveillance - and some people believe it could even be all in the mind. So who or what is responsible? It often started with a sound, one that people struggled to describe. "Buzzing", "grinding metal", "piercing squeals", was the best they could manage. One woman described a low hum and intense pressure in her skull; another felt a pulse of pain. Those who did not hear a sound, felt heat or pressure. But for those who heard the sound, covering their ears made no difference. Some of the people who experienced the syndrome were left with dizziness and fatigue for months. Havana syndrome first emerged in Cuba in 2016. The first cases were CIA officers, which meant they were kept secret. But, eventually, word got out and anxiety spread. Twenty-six personnel and family members would report a wide variety of symptoms. There were whispers that some colleagues thought sufferers were crazy and it was "all in the mind". Five years on, reports now number in the hundreds and, the BBC has been told, span every continent, leaving a real impact on the US's ability to operate overseas. Uncovering the truth has now become a top US national security priority - one that an official has described as the most difficult intelligence challenge they have ever faced. Hard evidence has been elusive, making the syndrome a battleground for competing theories. Some see it as a psychological illness, others a secret weapon. But a growing trail of evidence has focused on microwaves as the most likely culprit. In 2015, diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba were restored after decades of hostility. But within two years, Havana syndrome almost shut the embassy down, as staff were withdrawn because of concerns for their welfare. Initially, there was speculation that the Cuban government - or a hard-line faction opposed to improving relations - might be responsible, having deployed some kind of sonic weapon. Cuba's security services, after all, had been nervous about an influx of US personnel and kept a tight grip on the capital. That theory would fade as cases spread around the world. But recently, another possibility has come into the frame - one whose roots lay in the darker recesses of the Cold War, and a place where science, medicine, espionage and geopolitics collide. When James Lin, a professor at the University of Illinois, read the first reports about the mysterious sounds in Havana, he immediately suspected that microwaves were responsible. His belief was based not just on theoretical research, but first-hand experience. Decades earlier, he had heard the sounds himself. Since its emergence around World War Two, there had been reports of people being able to hear something when a nearby radar was switched on and began sending microwaves into the sky. This was even though there was no external noise. In 1961, a paper by Dr Allen Frey argued the sounds were caused by microwaves interacting with the nervous system, leading to the term the "Frey Effect". But the exact causes - and implications - remained unclear. In the 1970s, Prof Lin set to work conducting his experiments at the University of Washington. He sat on a wooden chair in a small room lined with absorbent materials, an antenna aimed at the back of his head. In his hand he held a light switch. Outside, a colleague sent pulses of microwaves through the antenna at random intervals. If Prof Lin heard a sound, he pressed the switch. A single pulse sounded like a zip or a clicking finger. A series of pulses like a bird chirping. They were produced in his head rather than as sound waves coming from outside. Prof Lin believed the energy was absorbed by the soft brain tissue and converted to a pressure wave moving inside the head, which was interpreted by the brain as sound. This occurred when high-power microwaves were delivered as pulses rather than in the low-power continuous form you get from a modern microwave oven or other devices. Prof Lin recalls that he was careful not to dial it up too high. "I did not want to have my brain damaged," he told the BBC. In 1978, he found he was not alone in his interest, and received an unusual invitation to discuss his latest paper from a group of scientists who had been carrying out their own experiments. During the Cold War, science was the focus of intense super-power rivalry. Even areas like mind control were explored, amid fears of the other side getting an edge - and this included microwaves. Prof Lin was shown the Soviet approach at a centre of scientific research in the town of Pushchino, near Moscow. "They had a very elaborate, very well-equipped laboratory," Prof Lin recalls. But their experiment was cruder than his. The subject would sit in a drum of salty seawater with their head sticking out. Then microwaves would be fired at their brain. The scientists thought the microwaves interacted with the nervous system and wanted to question Prof Lin on his alternative view. Curiosity cut both ways, and US spies kept close track on Soviet research. A 1976 report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, unearthed by the BBC, says it could find no proof of Communist-bloc microwave weapons, but says it had learnt of experiments where microwaves were pulsed at the throat of frogs until their hearts stopped. The report also reveals that the US was concerned Soviet microwaves could be used to impair brain function or induce sounds for psychological effect. "Their internal sound perception research has great potential for development into a system for disorienting or disrupting the behaviour patterns of military or diplomatic personnel." American interest was more than just defensive. James Lin would occasionally glimpse references to secret US work on weapons in the same field. And while Prof Lin was in Pushchino, another group of Americans not far away were worried that they were being zapped by microwaves - and that their own government had covered it up. For nearly a quarter of a century, the 10-storey US embassy in Moscow was bathed by a wide, invisible beam of low-level microwaves. It became known as "the Moscow signal". But for many years, most of those working inside knew nothing. The beam came from an antenna on the balcony of a nearby Soviet apartment and hit the upper floors of the embassy where the ambassador's office and more sensitive work was carried out. It had been first spotted in the 1950s and was later monitored from a room on the 10th floor. But its existence was a secret tightly held from all but a few working inside. "We were trying to figure out just what might be its purpose," explains Jack Matlock, number two at the embassy in the mid-70s. But a new ambassador, Walter Stoessel, arrived in 1974 and threatened to resign unless everyone was told. "That caused something like panic," recalls Mr Matlock. Embassy staff whose children were in a basement nursery were especially worried. But the State Department played down any risk. Then Ambassador Stoessel, himself, fell ill - with bleeding of the eyes as one of his symptoms. In a now declassified 1975 phone call to the Soviet ambassador to Washington, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger linked Stoessel's illness to microwaves, admitting "we are trying to keep the thing quiet". Stoessel died of leukaemia at the age of 66. "He decided to play the good soldier", and not make a fuss, his daughter told the BBC. From 1976 screens were installed to protect people. But many diplomats were angry, believing the State Department had first kept quiet, and then resisted acknowledging any possible health impact. This was a claim echoed decades later with Havana syndrome. What was the Moscow signal for? "I'm pretty sure that the Soviets had intentions other than damaging us," says Matlock. They were ahead of the US in surveillance technology and one theory was that they bounced microwaves off windows to pick up conversations, another that they were activating their own listening devices hidden inside the building or capturing information through microwaves hitting US electronic devices (known as "peek and poke"). The Soviets at one point told Matlock that the purpose was actually to jam American equipment on the embassy roof used to intercept Soviet communications in Moscow. This is the world of surveillance and counter-surveillance, one so secret that even within embassies and governments only a few people know the full picture. One theory is that Havana involved a much more targeted method to carry out some kind of surveillance with higher-power, directed microwaves. One former UK intelligence official told the BBC that microwaves could be used to "illuminate" electronic devices to extract signals or identify and track them. Others speculate that a device (even perhaps an American one) might have been poorly engineered or malfunctioned and caused a physical reaction in some people. However, US officials tell the BBC no device has been identified or recovered. After a lull, cases began to spread beyond Cuba. In December 2017, Marc Polymeropolous woke suddenly in a Moscow hotel room. A senior CIA officer, he was in town to meet Russian counterparts. "My ears were ringing, my head was spinning. I felt like I was going to vomit. I couldn't stand up," he told the BBC. "It was terrifying." It was a year after the first Havana cases, but the CIA medical office told him his symptoms didn't match the Cuban cases. A long battle for medical treatment began. The severe headaches never went away and in the summer of 2019 he was forced to retire. Mr Polymreopolous originally thought he had been hit by some kind of technical surveillance tool that had been "turned up too much". But when more cases emerged at the CIA which were all, he says, linked to people working on Russia, he came to believe he had been targeted with a weapon. But then came China, including at the consulate in Guangzhou in early 2018. Some of those affected in China contacted Beatrice Golomb, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who has long researched the health effects of microwaves, as well as other unexplained illnesses. She told the BBC that she wrote to the State Department's medical team in January 2018 with a detailed account of why she thought microwaves were responsible. "This makes for interesting reading," was the non-committal response. Prof Golomb says high levels of radiation were recorded by family members of personnel in Guangzhou using commercially available equipment. "The needle went off the top of the available readings." But she says the State Department told its own employees that the measurements they had taken off their own back were classified. A host of problems plagued early investigations. There was a failure to collect consistent data. The State Department and CIA failed to communicate with each other, and the scepticism of their internal medical teams caused tension. Only one out of the nine cases from China was initially determined by the State Department to match the criteria for the syndrome based on Havana cases. That left others who experienced symptoms angry, and feeling as if they were being accused of making it up. They began a battle for equal treatment, which is still going on today. As frustration grew, some of those affected turned to Mark Zaid, a lawyer who specialises in national security cases. He now acts for around two dozen government personnel, half from the intelligence community. "This is not Havana syndrome. It's a misnomer," argues Mr Zaid, whose clients were affected in many locations. "What's been going on has been known by the United States government probably, based on evidence that I have seen, since the late 1960s." Since 2013, Mr Zaid has represented one employee of the US National Security Agency who believed they were damaged in 1996 in a location which remains classified. Mr Zaid questions why the US government has been so unwilling to acknowledge a longer history. One possibility, he says, is because it might open a Pandora's Box of incidents that have been ignored over the years. Another is because the US, too, has developed and perhaps even deployed microwaves itself and wants to keep it secret. The country's interest in weaponising microwaves extended beyond the end of the Cold War. Reports say from the 1990s, the US Air Force had a project codenamed "Hello" to see if microwaves could create disturbing sounds in people's heads, one called "Goodbye" to test their use for crowd control, and one codenamed "Goodnight" to see if they could be used to kill people. Reports from a decade ago suggested these had not proved successful. But the study of the mind and what can be done to it has been receiving increased focus within the military and security world. "The brain is being seen as the 21st Century battle-scape," argues James Giordano, an adviser to the Pentagon and Professor in Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University, who was asked to look at the initial Havana cases. "Brain sciences are global. It is not just the province of what used to be known as the West." Ways to both augment and damage brain function are being worked on, he told the BBC. But it is a field with little transparency or rules. He says China and Russia have been engaged in microwave research and raises the possibility that tools developed for industrial and commercial uses - for instance to test the impact of microwaves on materials - could have been repurposed. But he also wonders if disruption and spreading fear were also the aim. This kind of technology may have been around for a while - and even have been used selectively. But that would still mean something changed in Cuba to get it noticed. Bill Evanina was a senior intelligence official when the Havana cases emerged, and stepped down as the head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center this year. He has little doubt about what happened in Havana. "Was it an offensive weapon? I believe it was," he told the BBC. He believes microwaves may have been deployed in recent military conflicts, but points to specific circumstances to explain a shift. Cuba, 90 miles off the Florida coast, has long been an ideal site to collect "signals intelligence" by intercepting communications. During the Cold War, it was home to a major Soviet listening station. When Vladimir Putin visited in 2014, reports suggested it was being re-opened. China also opened two sites in recent years, according to one source, while the Russians sent in 30 additional intelligence officers. But from 2015, the US was back in town. With its newly opened embassy and a beefed-up presence, the US was just beginning to establish its footing, collecting intelligence and pushing back against Russian and Chinese spies. "We were in a ground fight," one person recalls. Then the sounds began. "Who had the most to benefit from the closing of the embassy in Havana?" asks Mr Evanina. "If the Russian government was increasing and promulgating their intelligence collection in Cuba, it was probably not good for them to have the US in Cuba." Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations it is involved, or has "directed microwave weapons". "Such provocative, baseless speculation and fanciful hypotheses can't really be considered a serious matter for comment," its foreign ministry has said. And there have been sceptics about the very existence of Havana syndrome. They argue that the unique situation in Cuba supports their case.
Contagious Stress
Robert W Baloh, a Professor of Neurology at UCLA, has long studied unexplained health symptoms. When he saw the Havana syndrome reports, he concluded they were a mass psychogenic condition. He compares this to the way people feel sick when they are told they have eaten tainted food even if there was nothing wrong with it - the reverse of the placebo effect. "When you see mass psychogenic illness, there's usually some stressful underlying situation," he says. "In the case of Cuba and the mass of the embassy employees - particularly the CIA agents who first were affected - they certainly were in a stressful situation." In his view, every-day symptoms like brain fog and dizziness are reframed - by sufferers, media and health professionals - as the syndrome. "The symptoms are as real as any other symptoms," he says, arguing that individuals became hyper-aware and fearful as reports spread, especially within a closed community. This, he believes, then became contagious among other US officials serving abroad.
There remain many unexplained elements. Why did Canadian diplomats report symptoms in Havana? Were they collateral damage from targeting nearby Americans? And why have no UK officials reported symptoms? "The Russians have literally tried to kill people on British soil in recent years with radioactive materials, yet why are there no reported cases?" asks Mark Zaid. "I would probably put on pause the statement that no-one in the UK has experienced any symptoms," responds Bill Evanina, who says the US is now sharing details with allies to spot cases. Some instances may be unrelated. "We had a bunch of military folk in the Middle East who claimed to have this attack - turned out they had food poisoning," says one former official. "We need to separate the wheat from the chaff," reckons Mark Zaid, who says members of the public, some with mental health issues, approach him claiming to suffer from microwave attacks. One former official reckons around half the cases reported by US officials are possibly linked to attacks by an adversary. Others say the real number could be even smaller. A December 2020 report by the US National Academies of Sciences was a pivotal moment. Experts took evidence from scientists and clinicians as well as eight victims. "It was quite dramatic," recalls Professor David Relman of Stanford, who chaired the panel. "Some of these people literally were in hiding, for fear of further actions against them by whomever. There were actually precautions we had to take to ensure their safety." The panel looked at psychological and other causes, but concluded that directed, high energy, pulsed microwaves were most likely responsible for some of the cases, similar to the view of James Lin, who gave evidence. But even though the State Department sponsored the study, it still considers the conclusion only a plausible hypothesis and officials say they have not found further evidence to support it. The Biden administration has signalled it is taking the issue seriously. CIA and State Department officials are given advice on how to respond to incidents (including 'getting off the X' - meaning physically moving from a spot if they feel they are getting hit). The State Department has set up a task force to support staff over what are now called "unexplained health incidents". Previous attempts to categorise cases as to whether they met specific criteria have been abandoned. But without a definition, it becomes harder to count. This year, a new wave of cases arrived - including Berlin and a larger group in Vienna. In August, a trip by US Vice-President Kamala Harris to Vietnam was delayed three hours because of a reported case at the embassy in Hanoi. Worried diplomats are now asking questions before taking foreign assignments with their families. "This is a major distraction for us if we think that the Russians are doing things to our intelligence officers who are travelling," says former CIA officer Polymreopolous, who finally received the medical treatment he wanted this year. "That's going to put a crimp in our operational footprint." The CIA has taken over the hunt for a cause, with a veteran of the hunt for Osama bin Laden placed in charge.
Markers In The Blood
An accusation that another state has been harming US officials is a consequential one. "That's an act of war," says Mr Polymeropolous. That makes it a high bar to reach. Policymakers will demand hard evidence, which so far, officials say, is still lacking. Five years on, some US officials say little more is known other than when Havana syndrome started. But others disagree. They say the evidence for microwaves is much stronger now, if not yet conclusive. The BBC has learnt that new evidence is arriving as data is collected and analysed more systematically for the first time. Some of the cases this year showed specific markers in the blood, indicating brain injury. These markers fall away after a few days and previously too much time had elapsed to spot them. But now that people are being tested much more quickly after reporting symptoms, they have been seen for the first time. The debate remains divisive and it is possible the answer is complex. There may be a core of real cases, while others have been folded into the syndrome. Officials raise the possibility that the technology and the intent might have changed over time, perhaps shifting to try and unsettle the US. Some even worry one state may have piggy-backed on another's activities. "We like a simple label diagnosis," argues Professor Relman. "But sometimes it is tough to achieve. And when we can't, we have to be very careful not to simply throw up our hands and walk away." The mystery of Havana syndrome could be its real power. The ambiguity and fear it spreads act as a multiplier, making more and more people wonder if they are suffering, and making it harder for spies and diplomats to operate overseas. Even if it began as a tightly defined incident, Havana syndrome may have developed a life of its own."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58396698
I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on.........
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2019
Space Fence surveillance radar site declared operational
The $1.5 billion Space Fence can track tiny objects in low Earth orbit as small as a marble.
Sandra Erwin
March 28, 2020
WASHINGTON — The space surveillance radar site known as the Space Fence is ready for use after five years in construction, the U.S. Space Force announced March 27.
The $1.5 billion Space Fence — located on Kwajalein Island in the Republic of the Marshall Islands — is a ground-based radar system that tracks satellites and space debris primarily in low Earth orbit. Lockheed Martin was selected as the prime contractor in 2014.
The Space Fence can track tiny objects as small as a marble. It also provides a search capability for objects at higher orbits. Data from the Space Fence will feed into the military’s Space Surveillance Network.
The Space Surveillance Network tracks about 26,000 objects. The addition of the Space Fence will increase the catalog size significantly over time, the Space Force said in a news release.
The Space Fence is operated by the 20th Space Control Squadron based in Huntsville, Alabama. The squadron provides data to the 18th Space Control Squadron located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, the unit responsible for maintaining the space object catalog.
“Space Fence is revolutionizing the way we view space by providing timely, precise orbital data on objects that threaten both manned and unmanned military and commercial space assets,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond.
The solid-state S-band radar will detect closely spaced objects, breakups, maneuvers, launches, conjunction assessments and depleted rocket boosters.
https://spacenews.com/space-fence-surveillance-radar-site-declared-operational/
Lyon County Sheriff's Office - Nevada
February 26, 2020 ·
Sixteen years ago today, the Serenko family lost a loved one and the Lyon County Sheriff's Office lost one of our brothers.
Deputy Mick Serenko was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey but lived most of his life in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The day after he graduated high school Mick joined the Navy and he always said it was the best move he ever made. The Navy gave him stability and focus in his life, it enabled him to see much of the world, and it helped him gain an education (majoring in Criminal Justice).
When Mick talked about retiring from the Navy it was always with the idea of becoming a law enforcement officer. He and his lovely wife, Sharon, checked out several areas around the country (including Texas and Washington State) but ultimately decided on Nevada as the place to plant their roots.
Mick went to work for the Lyon County Sheriff's Office and served there until the night he suffered a major heart attack on the job. He was hospitalized and passed away a couple days later on February 26, 2004.
Deputy Mick Serenko loved being a cop and he is sorely missed.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=1234461393427621&id=100064937010102
Alameda County Sheriff's Office
February 14, 2022 ·
DEATH OF ALAMEDA COUNTY DEPUTY SHERIFF AUBREY PHILLIPS
For Immediate Release:
It is with tremendous sadness we report the sudden and unexpected death of Deputy Sheriff Aubrey Phillips.
On Saturday, February 12, 2022, Deputy Phillips was assigned as a patrol officer to the City of Dublin, California a contract police service of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. About 1:46 am, Deputy Phillips conducted a traffic enforcement stop in which she arrested the driver of the vehicle. During the process of that arrest, while seated in her patrol vehicle, Deputy Phillips suffered a severe and acute medical emergency. Another officer noticed Deputy Phillips in distress and immediately began life saving efforts and called for emergency medical services. Deputy Phillips was rushed to Stanford Valley Care Hospital in Pleasanton, California and was listed in critical condition. She was transported to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek for life saving intervention. Tragically, medical professionals were unable to save her life and she passed away.
Deputy Phillips was a registered organ donor and she will donate her organs to others as a result of her death. Sheriff Gregory Ahern stated, “This tragic event has touched each member of this agency. Aubrey’s short life will live on even after her passing. Aubrey will continue to serve her community by giving the gift of life to others in need. She was truly a remarkable person and served this agency and Alameda County with dignity and honor.”
Deputy Phillips was 36 years old. She was a five year veteran of the Agency and assigned as a midnight shift patrol officer in the City of Dublin. Deputy Phillips is the daughter of an honorably retired Alameda County Deputy Sheriff and her husband is a current Deputy Sheriff for Alameda County. Deputy Phillips and her husband have three young children.
Our Agency is heartbroken over the sudden death of Deputy Phillips. We are providing counseling and peer support to our members impacted by her loss.
Further information regarding funeral services will be provided at a later date.
*Photographs of Aubrey Phillips are attached for media use.
Lt. Ray Kelly
Chief of Staff
Public Information officer
Alameda County Sheriff’s Office
1401 Lakeside Dr. 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
https://www.facebook.com/ACSOSheriffs/posts/pfbid03FbGAv9eFcNaheypozH59kCLJkzHLwrL7qgUHbStiV9MtbcBU9pUt7KpTPk8Hbngl
Salvador Miranda (October 18, 1939 – June 1, 2024) was an American bibliographer, librarian and church historian.[1][2]
Biography
Miranda was born on October 18, 1939, in Havana, Cuba.[2] In 1958, he graduated from the Jesuit-run Colegio de Belén in Havana after which he attended the law school at the University of Havana.[2] After the Cuban Revolution in 1963, he moved to Puerto Rico to study humanities at the University of Puerto Rico.[2] As a young Cuban exile, he was a member of the Cuban-American expeditionary force in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.[1] He then returned to school graduating with a B.A. in History and Philosophy from Biscayne College; an M.A. in Modern European History in 1974 from Villanova University; and an M.S. in Library and Information Science in 1976 from Florida State University.[2] After graduating from Florida State, he accepted a position as the Latin American and Caribbean Bibliographer at the University of Florida Libraries in Gainesville.[2] In 1986, he served as assistant director for Collection Management at Florida International University Libraries in Miami.[2] On June 30, 2001, he retired.[2]
The title of his 319-page master's thesis in history was The Sacred College of Cardinals in the Twentieth Century (1903-1973): Developments, Documents and Biographies[2] which he expanded to include earlier cardinals and then digitized, making it available as an online resource.[1] In appreciation of his research, Bishop Cipriano Calderón Polo, the founding director of the Spanish edition of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano and the vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, whom he corresponded with for years over the history of the episcopacy, invited him to present at the first continental meeting of bishops from Latin America in 1999.[1][3]
His research and expertise has been used as a resource by various publications including The New York Times,[4] The Cleveland Plain Dealer,[5] Religion News Service,[6] La Stampa,[7] and The Wall Street Journal.[8]
On 28 June 2023, Miranda posted on The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church's main page that he had been hospitalized with cardiac issues.[9] He died on June 1, 2024, at the age of 84.[10][11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Miranda_(historian)
REMOTE CONTROL HEART ATTACK WEAPONS
"The brain is on the verge of becoming the next battlefield with weapons currently being designed to hack directly into your nervous system.
"Controlled Personnel Effects"
(see image, right) is one of the Air Force’s ambitious long-term challenges. It starts with better and more accurate bombs, but moves on to discuss devices that "make selected adversaries think or act according to our needs… By studying and modeling the human brain and nervous system, the ability to mentally influence or confuse personnel is also possible."
The first stage is technology to “remotely create physical sensations.”
They give the example of the Active Denial System "people zapper" which uses a high-frequency radiation similar to microwaves as a non-lethal means of crowd control.
Other weapons can affect the nervous system directly. The Pulsed Energy Projectile fires a short intense pulse of laser energy. This vaporizes the outer layer of the target, creating a rapidly-expanding expanding ball of plasma. At different power levels, those expanding plasmas could deliver a harmless warning, stun the target, or disable them – all with pinpoint laser precision from a mile away.
Early reports on the effects of PEPs mentioned temporary paralysis, then thought to be related to ultrasonic shockwaves. It later became apparent that the electromagnetic pulse caused by the expanding plasma was triggering nerve cells
Details of this emerged in a heavily-censored document released to Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project under the Freedom if Information Act. Called “Sensory consequence of electromagnetic pulsed emitted by laser induced plasmas,” it described research on activating the nerve cells responsible for sensing unpleasant stimuli: heat, damage, pressure, cold. By selectively stimulating a particular nociceptor, a finely tuned PEP might sensations of say, being burned, frozen or dipped in acid — all without doing the slightest actual harm.
The skin is the easiest target for such stimulation. But, in principle, any sensory nerves could be triggered. The Controlled Effects document suggests “it may be possible to create synthetic images…to confuse an individual’ s visual sense or, in a similar manner, confuse his senses of sound, taste, touch, or smell.”
In other words, it may be possible to use electromagnetic means to create overwhelming ‘sound’ or ‘light’, or indeed ‘intolerable smell’ which would exist only in the brain of the person perceiving them.
There is another side as well. The “sensory consequences” document also notes that the nervous system which controls muscles could be influenced to cause what they call “Taser-like motor effects.” The stun gun’s ability to shock the muscles into malfunction is relatively crude; we might now be looking at are much more targeted effects.
The American military may want to attack the nervous system, with pain rays and laser plasma pulses. But they’re not the only ones.
The Russians have long studied such systems, too — including one weapon that could, in theory, remotely trigger heart attacks.
In 2003, at the 2nd European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons, Anatoly Korolev and his colleagues from Moscow State University presented a paper with the snappy title "Bioelectrodynamic Criterion of the NLW Effectiveness Estimation and the Interaction mechanisms of the multilayer Skin Tissues with electromagnetic Radiation." This is a study of how radio-frequency weapons — like the American Active Denial System — affect the skin. After wading through a mass of technical data showing how complex the interactions are we reach the punch line:
The sensations modality (pricking, touch, pressure, gooseflesh, touch, burning pain etc) depends on the field parameters and individual concrete human being factors. As a matter of fact, we can really choose the non-lethal bioeffect.
The effects include sensations similar to those discussed previously, and more besides. The paper discusses effects on cell membranes and affecting the body’s normal function, including "information transfer to the organs of control."
At the same conference, V Makukhin of the Trymas Engineering Center in Moscow described "Electronic equipment for complex influence on biological objects." And when he says "biological objects," he means you and me.
His laboratory apparatus uses a modulated beam of radio waves to produce what he terms "disorder of autonomic nervous system," put forward as a possible non-lethal weapon. Makhunin notes that there is no general agreement on how EM waves disrupt nerves – he mentions ion channels similar to those in the plasma paper – but he certainly seems to be seeing the same effects as American researchers.
But it need not be a non-lethal weapon. Makhunin also mentions the effects of "change of electrocardiogram" and what he calls "function break of heart muscle."
The vulnerability of the heart to electrical stimulation (including that produced by EM waves) is well documented.
A lethal device would interfere with the electrical potentials that keep the chambers of the heart synchronized, producing fibrillation and rapid death. A death ray doesn’t need to be a truck-sized laser that
reduces the target to smoking heap; a small device that stops the heart will do the job.
Little has been openly published in this area in the public domain, but this may be the tip of the iceberg. We are likely to be hearing more in future – especially if the Russians manage to find funding.
I don’t think we need tinfoil hats just yet. But a layer of conducting mesh built into body armor might save a lot of heartache in years to come."
REMOTE CONTROL HEART ATTACK WEAPONS
https://www.impactlab.com/2006/02/15/remote-control-heart-attack-weapons/
Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa];[b] 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II
As May 18 dawned, Mount St. Helens's activity did not show any change from the pattern of the preceding month. The rates of bulge movement and sulfur dioxide emission, and ground temperature readings did not reveal any changes indicating a catastrophic eruption. USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston was on duty at an observation post around 6 mi (10 km) north of the volcano: as of 6:00 am, Johnston's measurements did not indicate any unusual activity.[9]
At 8:32 am, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide,[31] approximately 7–20 seconds after the shock,[9] followed a few seconds later by the main volcanic blast. The landslide, the largest subaerial landslide in recorded history, traveled at 110 to 155 mph (177 to 249 km/h) and moved across Spirit Lake's west arm. Part of it hit a 1,150 ft-high (350 m) ridge about 6 mi (10 km) north.[9] Some of the slide spilled over the ridge, but most of it moved 13 mi (21 km) down the North Fork Toutle River, filling its valley up to 600 feet (180 m) deep with avalanche debris.[31] An area of about 24 sq mi (62 km2) was covered, and the total volume of the deposit was about 0.7 cu mi (2.9 km3).[9]
Scientists were able to reconstruct the motion of the landslide from a series of rapid photographs by Gary Rosenquist, who was camping 11 mi (18 km) away from the blast 46°18′49″N 122°02′12″W.[9] Rosenquist, his party, and his photographs survived because the blast was deflected by local topography 1 mi (1.6 km) short of his location.[32]
Sound of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, as heard from 140 miles away
Duration: 44 seconds.0:44
Amateur recording of a series of booms produced by the eruption, as heard from the town of Newport, Oregon (audio filtered and amplified).
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Most of St. Helens's former north side became a rubble deposit 17 mi (27 km) long, averaging 150 ft (46 m) thick; the slide was thickest at 1 mi (1.6 km) below Spirit Lake and thinnest at its western margin.[9] The landslide temporarily displaced the waters of Spirit Lake to the ridge north of the lake, in a giant wave about 600 ft (180 m) high.[33] This, in turn, created a 295 ft (90 m) avalanche of debris consisting of the returning waters and thousands of uprooted trees and stumps. Some of these remained intact with roots, but most had been sheared off at the stump seconds earlier by the blast of superheated volcanic gas and ash that had immediately followed and overtaken the initial landslide. The debris was transported along with the water as it returned to its basin, raising the surface level of Spirit Lake by about 200 ft (61 m).[9]
Four decades after the eruption, floating log mats persist on Spirit Lake and nearby St. Helens Lake, changing position with the wind. The rest of the trees, especially those that were not completely detached from their roots, were turned upright by their own weight and became waterlogged, sinking into the muddy sediments at the bottom where they are in the process of becoming petrified in the anaerobic and mineral-rich waters. This provides insight into other sites with a similar fossil record.[34]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
Updated May 18, 2023 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons Both the 2022 National Defense Strategy and the House Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified directed energy as a technology that could have a significant impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. As the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to invest in directed-energy (DE) weapons, Congress may consider implications for defense authorizations, appropriations, and oversight. Overview DOD defines DE weapons as those using concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to “incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and/or personnel.” DE weapons include high-energy lasers (HEL) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons; other DE weapons, such as particle beam weapons, are outside the scope of this In Focus. HELs might be used by ground forces in short-range air defense (SHORAD), counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), or counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) missions. The weapons might be used to “dazzle” (i.e., temporarily disable) or damage satellites and sensors. This could in turn interfere with intelligence-gathering operations; military cmmunications; and positioning, navigation, and timing systems used for weapons targeting. In addition, HELs could theoretically provide options for boost-phase missile intercept, given their speed-of-light travel time; however, experts disagree on the affordability, technological feasibility, and utility of this application. In general, HELs might offer lower costs per shot and— assuming access to a sufficient power supply—deeper magazines compared with traditional munitions. (Although a number of different types of HELs exist, many of the United States’ current programs are solid state lasers, which are fueled by electrical power. As a result, the cost per shot is equivalent to the cost of the electrical power required to fire the shot.) This could in turn produce a favorable costexchange ratio for the defender, whose marginal costs would be significantly lower than those of the aggressor.
Similarly, HPM weapons could provide a nonkinetic means of disabling adversary electronics and communications systems. These weapons could potentially generate effects over wider areas than HELs, which emit a narrower beam of energy. As a result, some analysts have noted that HPM weapons might provide more effective area defense against missile salvos and swarms of drones. HPM weapons have also been considered for use as nonlethal “heat ray” systems for crowd control. Directed-Energy Weapons Programs A number of countries are investing in directed-energy weapons programs. This In Focus discusses a selection of unclassified DE weapons programs in three leading military powers: the United States, China, and Russia. United States DOD requested approximately $1 billion for unclassified DE programs in FY2024. (For additional information about specific U.S. DE weapons programs, see CRS Report R44175, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS Report R45098, U.S. Army WeaponsRelated Directed Energy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issues for Congress, by Andrew Feickert.) DOD does not currently have any DE programs of record. DOD directed energy programs are coordinated by the Principal Director for Directed Energy within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD[R&E]). The Principal Director for Directed Energy is additionally responsible for development and oversight of the Directed Energy Roadmap. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD’s current DE roadmap outlines DOD’s plan to increase power levels of DE weapons from around 150 kilowatts (kW—a unit of power), as is currently feasible, to 300 kW by FY2023, “with goal milestones to achieve 500 kW class with reduced size and weight by FY2025 and to further reduce size and weight and increase power to MW [megawatt] levels by FY2026.” For reference, although there is no consensus regarding the precise power level that would be needed to neutralize different target sets, some analysts believe that lasers of around 100 kW could engage unmanned aircraft systems, small boats, rockets, artillery, and mortars, whereas lasers of around 300 kW could additionally engage cruise missiles flying in certain profiles (i.e., flying across—rather than at—the laser). Lasers of 1 MW could potentially neutralize ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. In addition to the DE roadmap, OUSD(R&E) manages the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), which former Principal Director for Directed Energy Dr. Jim Trebes notes is “to demonstrate laser output power scaling while maintaining or improving beam quality and efficiency.” HELSI is intended to strengthen the defense industrial base for potential future directed energy weapons by providing near-term prototyping opportunities for industry partners. Dr. Trebes additionally notes that OUSD(R&E) has completed a DOD-wide Laser Lethality Analysis Process Review to identify future needs for the Department and best practices for DE development and use. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD is also testing a Directed Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov Energy Lethality Database that is to serve as a searchable repository for the department’s DE analyses. China According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China has been developing DE weapons since at least the 1980s and has made steady progress in developing HPM and increasingly powerful HELs. China has reportedly developed a 30-kilowatt roadmobile HEL, LW-30, designed to engage unmanned aircraft systems and precision-guided weapons. Reports indicate that China is also developing an airborne HEL pod. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, China is additionally pursuing DE weapons to disrupt, degrade, or damage satellites and their sensors and possibly already has a limited capability to employ laser systems against satellite sensors. China [has likely fielded] a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit spacebased sensors ... and by the mid-to-late 2020s, it may field higher power systems that extend the threat to the structures of non-optical satellites. Russia Russia has been conducting DE weapons research since the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on HELs. Russia has reportedly deployed the Peresvet ground-based HEL with several mobile intercontinental ballistic missile units. Although little is publicly known about Peresvet, including its power level, some analysts assert it is to dazzle satellites and provide point defense against unmanned aircraft systems. Russia’s deputy defense minister Alexei Krivoruchko has stated that efforts are underway to increase Peresvet’s power level and to deploy it on military aircraft. Reports suggest that Russia may also be developing HPMs as well as additional HELs capable of performing antisatellite missions. Potential Issues and Questions for Congress Technological Maturity Directed-energy weapons programs continue to face questions about their technological maturity, including the ability to improve beam quality and control to militarily useful levels and the ability to meet size, weight, and power (SWaP) and cooling requirements for integration into current platforms. Some DE systems are small enough to fit on military vehicles, but many require larger and/or fixed platforms that could potentially limit deployment options and operational utility. In what ways, if any, are DOD technology maturation efforts reducing the SWaP and cooling requirements of DE systems? Weapons Characteristics Although HELs may offer a lower cost per shot than traditional weapons such as missiles, they are also subject to a number of limitations. For example, atmospheric conditions (e.g., rain, fog, obscurants) and SWaP and cooling requirements can limit the range and beam quality of HELs, in turn reducing their effectiveness. Traditional weapons, in contrast, are not affected by these factors. How, if at all, might HEL limitations be mitigated by technological developments, concepts of operation, or other methods? What impact might a failure to mitigate these limitations have on future military operations? Mission Utility Given the strengths and weaknesses of DE weapons, DOD is continuing to examine their role within the military. DOD is additionally conducting multiple utility studies to analyze potential concepts of operation for DE weapons and to assess the scenarios in which they might be militarily useful. How might Congress draw upon the conclusions of these analyses as it conducts oversight of DE weapons programs? What is the appropriate balance between DE weapons and traditional munitions within the military’s portfolio of capabilities? Defense Industrial Base Some analysts have expressed concerns that, in the past, DOD did not provide stable funding for DE weapons programs or sufficient opportunities for the DE workforce. According to OUSD(R&E), HELSI is intended to address these concerns by providing industry with assured prototyping opportunities. In what ways, if any, has HELSI strengthened the defense industrial base for DE weapons? What, if any, challenges does the base continue to face and how might they be mitigated?
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11882
On 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck twice and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt.[1] He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000. Ağca converted to Roman Catholicism in 2007.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Pope_John_Paul_II
"It's hard to see how the fishing industry will pick itself up again. Takeshi is moving away from the coast as is his neighbor and fellow fisherman. His wife has refused to return here since the tsunami hit. At the age of 77, he is unlikely to be able to start from scratch. But he picks up any remnants of his fishing gear he can find, just in case. What is left intact barely fills one small basket. His neighbor finds his clock. It has stopped at 3:22pm -- the exact moment his life changed and countless others ended." Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village by Paul Hancocks
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/japan.tsunami.village/index.html
"A major landslide occurred 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014 (3/22/2014), at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, engulfing a rural neighborhood, and covering an area of approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2). Forty-three people were killed and 49 homes and other structures destroyed."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_mudslide
Published: 10 October 1996
Russian documents Set out 'tectonic weapon' research
Carl Levitin
Moscow. The first official details have emerged in Moscow of ambitious research into 'tectonic warfare' carried out by the former Soviet Union and subsequently by the government of Russia, and involving atte mpts to stimulate 'artificial' earthquakes as weapons of destruction. According to documents obtained by the newspaper Moscow News, two research programmes, the first known as ' Mercury ' and the second as ' Volcano', were aimed at creating new earthquake epicentres by using underground nuclear explosions . Geophysicists are aware that impending earthquakes may be triggered by underground nuclear explosions . But Western geophysicists remain sceptical about tectonic warfare and have all but abandoned research after two unsuccessful phases of activity in the 1960s and 1980s, says Roger Clark, a lecturer in geophysics at the University of Leeds. Clark is not at all surprised that th e Russians tried to create earthquakes and control their location electromagnetically, however. "This sort of science is very much part of their heritage. We don't think it is impossible, or wrong , but past experience suggests it is very, very unlikely. "
The programme , which was secretly launched by the Communist rulers of the former Soviet Union in 1987, and has been unofficially known to Western geophysicists for several years, is now believed to have been abandoned. It would certainly contravene the terms of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Russia signe d at the United Nations in Geneva last month . The Mercury project was launched in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, but came to a halt when the republic became independent. It was superseded by the Volcano project. Three underground nuclear tests are believed to have taken place at sites in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the documents, the Mercury project was launched by a secret decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. The objective was to "develop a methodology for remote operation on an earthquake epicentre by using weak seismic fields and research possibilities of transferring the seismic energy of an explosion ".
The documents say that the Mercury project involved 22 scientific and industrial organizations, including the Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in Baku. The remit extended to developing the electronic equipment to be installed aboard space satellites that would control the tectonic weapon. The scientists were given three years to complete research, with testing planned for 1990.
During the research phase, Azerbaijani scientists grew increasingly confident and, according to the documents, were sure that " after [a] nuclear explosion, subterranean energy may accumulate at huge distances from the epicentre and reach massive capacity, after which the next directed explosion can release it all ".
Underground testing began at the town of Batken in Kyrgyzstan, and was directed by lkram Ke rimov , of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The documents say that scientists detonated an underground nuclear charge and tried to control the direction of seismic energy release d using British-built equipment known as 'system 9690 ' .
A report prepared by the Mozhaisky Military Engineering Institute concluded that the test had been a success. But progress slowed considerably following Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union. At about this time , Russia embarked on a more comprehensive tectonic warfare programme known as the Volcano project. The Earth Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) became the project headquarters .
Research was scheduled to be completed in 1992, with underground testing beginning the following year. The final test was carried out at a place code-named S36NZ-0Kh; Moscow News believes the letters 'NZ' refer to Novaya Zemlya, where Soviet nuclear testing began in the 1950s."
https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0
P waves, or Primary waves, are the first waves to arrive at a seismograph. P waves are the fastest seismic waves and can move through solid, liquid, or gas. They leave behind a trail of compressions and rarefactions on the medium they move through. P waves are also called pressure waves for this reason.
https://byjus.com/physics/p-wave/
9. Interprovincial Works and Houses in Rome 304 §1. In the spirit of our fourth vow, the Society confirms its commitment to the interprovincial Roman works entrusted to it by the Holy See: the Pontifical Gregorian University and its associated institutes, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, as well as the Pontifical Russicum College, the Vatican Radio, and the Vatican Observatory, all of which are common works of the whole Society, placed directly under the superior general. Recognizing the very valuable service that these institutions have offered and continue to offer today, it calls upon major superiors who share Father General s responsibility for them to continue their help through subsidies and especially by training and offering professors and other personnel to them.
§2. Also recommended to the care of all the provinces are those other works or houses in Rome that render a service to the entire Society, such as the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus and the international colleges of the Society in Rome.[142]
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES
SAINT LOUIS, 1996
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The large Latin inscription on the façade reads: Clemens XII Pont Max Anno V Christo Salvatori In Hon SS Ioan Bapt et Evang. This abbreviated inscription translates as: "The Supreme Pontiff Clement XII, in the fifth year [of his Pontificate, dedicated this building] to Christ the Savior, in honor of Saints John the Baptist and [John] the Evangelist".[5] The inscription indicates, with its full title (see below), that the archbasilica was originally dedicated to Christ the Savior and, centuries later, rededicated in honor of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. Christ the Savior remains its primary dedication, and its titular feast day is 6 August, the Transfiguration of Christ. As the cathedral of the pope as bishop of Rome, it ranks superior to all other churches of the Catholic Church, including Saint Peter's Basilica.
Name
The archbasilica's Latin name is Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris ac Sancti Ioannis Baptistae et Ioannis Evangelistae ad Lateranum,[6] which in English is the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist at the Lateran, and in Italian Arcibasilica [Papale] del Santissimo Salvatore e Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbasilica_of_Saint_John_Lateran#Lateran_Palace
Himmler used the Jesuits as the model for the SS, since he found they had the core elements of absolute obedience and the cult of the organisation.[59][60] Hitler is said to have called Himmler "my Ignatius of Loyola".[59] As an order, the SS needed a coherent doctrine that would set it apart.[61] Himmler attempted to construct such an ideology, and deduced a "pseudo-Germanic tradition" from history.[61] Himmler dismissed the image of Christ as a Jew and rejected Christianity's basic doctrine and its institutions.[62] Starting in 1934, the SS hosted "solstice ceremonies" (Sonnenwendfeiern) to increase team spirit within their ranks.[63] In a 1936 memorandum, Himmler set forth a list of approved holidays based on pagan and political precedents meant to wean SS members from their reliance on Christian festivities.[64] In an attempt to replace Christianity and suffuse the SS with a new doctrine, SS-men were able to choose special Lebenslauffeste, substituting common Christian ceremonies such as baptisms, weddings and burials. Since the ceremonies were held in small private circles, it is unknown how many SS-members opted for these kind of celebrations.[65]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology_of_the_SS
From modest beginnings the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of Nazi future.
In the Nazi state, the SS assumed leading responsibility for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy, and intelligence collection and analysis. The SS controlled the German police forces and the concentration camp system. The SS conceived and implemented plans designed to restructure the ethnic composition of eastern Europe and the occupied Soviet Union.
From 1939, the SS assumed responsibility for “solving” the so-called Jewish Question; after 1941, its leadership planned, coordinated and directed the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question. This “solution” was the annihilation of the European Jews, which we now refer to as the Holocaust
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss
2 §1. The character and charism of the Society of Jesus arise from the Spiritual Exercises which our holy father Ignatius and his companions went through. Led by this experience, they formed an apostolic group rooted in charity, in which, after they had taken the vows of chastity and poverty and had been raised to the priesthood, they offered themselves as a HOLOCAUST to God,[2] so that serving as soldiers of God beneath the banner of the cross and serving the Lord alone and the Church his spouse under the Roman Pontiff, the vicar of Christ on earth,[3] they would be sent into the entire world[4] for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine. [5]
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[666] 6. 1On the side of the superior general, what will aid toward this union of hearts are the qualities of his person [G], to be treated in Part IX [723-25], with which he will perform his office, 2which is to be for all the members a head from which the influence required for the end sought by the Society ought to descend to them all. 3It is thus from the general as head that all authority of the provincials should flow, from the provincials that of the local superiors, and from the local superiors that of the individual members. 4And from this same head, or at least by his commission and approval, should likewise come the appointing of missions. And the same should apply to communicating the graces of the Society. 5For the more the subjects are dependent upon their superiors, the better will the love, obedience, and union among them be preserved."
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms
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"Head:
1. See Illness, mental
2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"
page 463
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"Revelation 13:18
New International Version
"18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[a] That number is 666."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A18&version=NIV
"BULL of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302
For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power: ‘Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms‘ and the rest. Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: ‘The spiritual man judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man‘ [1 Cor 2:15]. This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven‘ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm
[529] C. 1The entire purport of this fourth vow of obedience to the pope was and is with regard to missions; 2and this is how the bulls should be understood where they speak of this obedience in all that the sovereign pontiff may command and wherever he may send one, and so on."
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
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Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus: a Roman work of the entire Society, 304 §2
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
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World, the: 1. It is proper to our vocation: to go to diverse places and live in whatever part of the world and to be sent wherever the greater service of God and the help of souls can be hoped for [82, 92, 304, 308, 588, 603, 605, 626, 749]; to this purpose is directed the vow of special obedience to the supreme pontiff regarding missions, FI no. 3 [603, 605], 2 §1; consequently a complete availability, mobility, and universality are necessary, 110, 121 4°, 242 §3, 246 7°, 248, 259, 411; at the service of which is chastity, 144 §2; consequently our community is a community for dispersion, 255 §1, 312, 314 §2, 315, 317; thus also the need for communicating with different cultures of the world and for insertion into them, 99 §2, 106 §2, 110, 111, 246 2°; and for promoting that perfect and open cooperation among the members of the entire Society, of whatever province or region they may be, 396 §2. See also Cooperation, interprovincial and supraprovincial; Culture(s); Insertion 2. God is present in the world: exercising the ministry of healing and reconciliation, 246 4°; thus he is there to be sought and found, 223 §§3-4; the world, in great part afflicted with atheism and injustice and increasingly divided by diverse economic, social, and ethnic systems and by other sources of division and opposition, 59 §2, 223 §3, 246 4° 3. The world, as distinguished from religious life: is to be left behind, trampled underfoot, and renounced [30, 50, 53, 61, 66, 297]; it is to be despised because of the love for and imitation of Christ [101]; contempt for it assists in the union of minds and hearts [671]: customs which smack of the world are not to be introduced, 322.
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60 MINUTES
Skull And Bones
By Rebecca Leung
October 2, 2003 / 4:15 PM EDT / CBS
As opposite as George Bush and John Kerry may seem to be, they do share a common secret - one they've shared for decades, and one they will not share with the electorate.
The secret: details of their membership in Skull and Bones, the elite Yale University society whose members include some of the most powerful men of the 20th century.
Bonesmen, as they're called, are forbidden to reveal what goes on in their inner sanctum, the windowless building on the Yale campus that is called the Tomb.
When 60 Minutes first reported on Skull & Bones last October, conspiracy theorists, who see Skull and Bones behind just about everything that goes wrong, and even right, in the world, were relishing the unthinkable - the possibility of two Bonesman fighting it out for the presidency.
Over the years, Bones has included presidents, cabinet officers, spies, Supreme Court justices, captains of industry, and often their sons and lately their daughters, a social and political network like no other.
And to a man and women, they'd responded to questions with utter silence until an enterprising Yale graduate, Alexandra Robbins, managed to penetrate the wall of silence in her book, "Secrets of the Tomb," reports CBS News Correspondent Morley Safer.
"I spoke with about 100 members of Skull and Bones and they were members who were tired of the secrecy, and that's why they were willing to talk to me," says Robbins. "But probably twice that number hung up on me, harassed me, or threatened me."
Secret or not, Skull and Bones is as essential to Yale as the Whiffenpoofs, the tables down at a pub called Mory's, and the Yale mascot - that ever-slobbering bulldog.
Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832 as a new world version of secret student societies that were common in Germany at the time. Since then, it has chosen or "tapped" only 15 senior students a year who become patriarchs when they graduate -- lifetime members of the ultimate old boys' club.
"Skull and Bones is so tiny. That's what makes this staggering," says Robbins. "There are only 15 people a year, which means there are about 800 living members at any one time."
But a lot of Bonesmen have gone on to positions of great power, which Robbins says is the main purpose of this secret society: to get as many members as possible into positions of power.
"They do have many individuals in influential positions," says Robbins. "And that's why this is something that we need to know about."
President Bush has tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration. Most recently, he selected William Donaldson, Skull and Bones 1953, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Like the President, he's taken the Bones oath of silence.
Ron Rosenbaum, author and columnist for the New York Observer, has become obsessed with cracking that code of secrecy.
"I think there is a deep and legitimate distrust in America for power and privilege that are cloaked in secrecy. It's not supposed to be the way we do things," says Rosenbaum. "We're supposed to do things out in the open in America. And so that any society or institution that hints that there is something hidden is, I think, a legitimate subject for investigation."
His investigation is a 30-year obsession dating back to his days as a Yale classmate of George W. Bush. Rosenbaum, a self-described undergraduate nerd, was certainly not a contender for Bones. But he was fascinated by its weirdness.
"It's this sepulchral, tomblike, windowless, granite, sandstone bulk that you can't miss. And I lived next to it," says Rosenbaum. "I had passed it all the time. And during the initiation rites, you could hear strange cries and whispers coming from the Skull and Bones tomb."
Despite a lifetime of attempts to get inside, the best Rosenbaum could do was hide out on the ledge of a nearby building a few years ago to videotape a nocturnal initiation ceremony in the Tomb's courtyard.
"A woman holds a knife and pretends to slash the throat of another person lying down before them, and there's screaming and yelling at the neophytes," he says.
Robbins says the cast of the initiation ritual is right out of Harry Potter meets Dracula: "There is a devil, a Don Quixote and a Pope who has one foot sheathed in a white monogrammed slipper resting on a stone skull. The initiates are led into the room one at a time. And once an initiate is inside, the Bonesmen shriek at him. Finally, the Bonesman is shoved to his knees in front of Don Quixote as the shrieking crowd falls silent. And Don Quixote lifts his sword and taps the Bonesman on his left shoulder and says, 'By order of our order, I dub thee knight of Euloga.'"
It's a lot of mumbo-jumbo, says Robbins, but it means a lot to the people who are in it.
"Prescott Bush, George W's grandfather, and a band of Bonesmen, robbed the grave of Geronimo, took the skull and some personal relics of the Apache chief and brought them back to the tomb," says Robbins. "There is still a glass case, Bonesmen tell me, within the tomb that displays a skull that they all refer to as Geronimo."
"The preoccupation with bones, mortality, with coffins, lying in coffins, standing around coffins, all this sort of thing I think is designed to give them the sense that, and it's very true, life is short," says Rosenbaum. "You can spend it, if you have a privileged background, enjoying yourself, contributing nothing, or you can spend it making a contribution."
And plenty of Bonesmen have made a contribution, from William Howard Taft, the 27th President; Henry Luce, the founder of Time Magazine; and W. Averell Harriman, the diplomat and confidant of U.S. presidents.
"What's important about the undergraduate years of Skull and Bones, as opposed to fraternities, is that it imbues them with a kind of mission for moral leadership," says Rosenbaum. "And it's something that they may ignore for 30 years of their life, as George W. Bush seemed to successfully ignore it for quite a long time. But he came back to it."
Mr. Bush, like his father and grandfather before him, has refused to talk openly about Skull and Bones. But as a Bonesman, he was required to reveal his innermost secrets to his fellow Bones initiates.
"They're supposed to recount their entire sexual histories in sort of a dim, a dimly-lit cozy room. The other 14 members are sitting on plush couches, and the lights are dimmed," says Robbins. "And there's a fire roaring. And the, this activity is supposed to last anywhere from between one to three hours."
What's the point of this?
"I believe the point of the year in the tomb is to forge such a strong bond between these 15 new members that after they graduate, for them to betray Skull and Bones would mean they'd have to betray their 14 closest friends," says Robbins.
One can't help but make certain comparisons with the mafia, for example. Secret society, bonding, stakes may be a little higher in one than the other. But everybody knows everything about everybody, which is a form of protection.
"I think Skull and Bones has had slightly more success than the mafia in the sense that the leaders of the five families are all doing 100 years in jail, and the leaders of the Skull and Bones families are doing four and eight years in the White House," says Rosenbaum.
Bones is not restricted to the Republican Party. Yet another Bonesman has his eye on the Oval Office: Senator John Kerry, Democrat, Skull & Bones 1966.
"It is fascinating isn't it? I mean, again, all the people say, 'Oh, these societies don't matter. The Eastern Establishment is in decline.' And you could not find two more quintessential Eastern establishment, privileged guys," says Rosenbaum. "I remember when I was a nerdy scholarship student in the reserve book room at, at the Yale Library, and John Kerry, who at that point styled himself 'John F. Kerry' would walk in."
"There was always a little buzz," adds Rosenbaum. "Because even then he was seen to be destined for higher things. He was head of the Yale Political Union, and a tap for Skull and Bones was seen as the natural sequel to that."
David Brooks, a conservative commentator who has published a book on the social dynamics of the upwardly mobile, says that while Skull & Bones may be elite and secret, it's anything but exciting.
"My view of secret societies is they're like the first class cabin in airplanes. They're really impressive until you get into them, and then once you're there they're a little dull. So you hear all these conspiracy theories about Skull and Bones," says Brooks.
"And to me, to be in one of these organizations, you have to have an incredibly high tolerance for tedium 'cause you're sittin' around talking, talking, and talking. You're not running the world, you're just gassing."
Gassing or not, the best-connected white man's club in America has moved reluctantly into the 21st Century.
"Skull and Bones narrowly endorsed admitting women," says Robbins. "The day before these women were supposed to be initiated, a group of Bonesmen, including William F. Buckley, obtained a court order to block the initiation claiming that letting women into the tomb would lead to date rape. Again more legal wrangling; finally it came down to another vote and women were admitted and initiated."
But Skull & Bones now has women, and it's become more multicultural.
"It has gays who got the SAT scores, it's got the gays who got the straight A's," says Brooks. "It's got the blacks who are the president of the right associations. It's different criteria. More multicultural, but it's still an elite, selective institution."
On balance, it may be bizarre, but on a certain perspective, does it provide something of value?
"You take these young strivers, you put them in this weird castle. They spill their guts with each other, fine. But they learn something beyond themselves. They learn a commitment to each other, they learn a commitment to the community," says Brooks. "And maybe they inherit some of those old ideals of public service that are missing in a lot of other parts of the country."
And is that relationship, in some cases, stronger than family or faith?
"Absolutely," says Robbins. "You know, they say, they say the motto at Yale is, 'For God, for country, and for Yale.' At Bones, I would think it's 'For Bones.'"
First published on October 2, 2003 / 4:15 PM EDT
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/skull-and-bones/
The shadowy world of Skull and Bones
Yale’s secretive Skull and Bones society has long generated conspiracy theories about its hidden power. Now, two Bonesmen are facing off for the U.S. presidency. What’s behind the group’s mystique?
BY THE WEEK STAFF
LAST UPDATED JANUARY 8, 2015
What is Skull and Bones?
It’s the oldest and most impenetrable of Yale University’s several “secret societies,” a fraternal club ostensibly dedicated to forging young men (and now women) into leaders in all walks of American life. Only 15 students are selected for membership each year. For much of the society’s history, the chosen few were the elite of the elite—top athletes, campus newspaper editors, the leaders of student organizations, wealthy scions of high breeding. The 2,600 “Bones” alumni include President William Howard Taft, diplomat W. Averell Harriman, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, Time magazine founder Henry Luce, conservative patriarch William F. Buckley Jr., both Presidents Bush, and Sen. John Kerry. This elite roster, coupled with its persistent secrecy, has bred intense speculation about the group’s power to determine world events.
How did it get started?
The group was founded in 1832, by a Yale senior named William Russell. At the time, hush-hush fraternal organizations like the Masons were all the rage in the U.S. But the Masons’ popularity and power generated a backlash among people who resented their elitism; dark rumors arose about the group’s secret rituals. Anti-Masonic sentiment grew so strong, in fact, that Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor association, distanced itself by renouncing its own oath of secrecy. Offended that Phi Beta Kappa would succumb to such populist passions, Russell responded by forming an even more secret society with 14 other students. He called it the Eulogian Club, after the Greek goddess of eloquence. The Eulogians adopted as their symbol a foreboding death’s-head, and that skull and bones eventually became the society’s name.
Is there an initiation ceremony?
Yes, though for decades it was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, rumors circulated that initiates were stripped, beaten, and forced to lie in a coffin while relating their sexual history, thus baring their souls to their new comrades. But as Alexandra Robbins related in her 2002 book Secrets of the Tomb, the modern-day ceremony is far less dramatic—and far more sophomoric. Initiates are led to the group’s unmarked, Greco-Egyptian vault, in New Haven, where the clocks run five minutes fast. There, in rooms filled with shabby furniture, stuffed animals, and old engravings, they are met by members dressed as outlandish figures, like the devil and Don Quixote. At various points they are blindfolded, jostled violently, given a secret oath, and forced to drink “blood” (some say it’s Kool-Aid, others Gatorade) from a skull called a “Yorick.” Eventually, the neophytes kiss the toe of a member dressed as the pope and are dubbed “Knights of Eulogia.”
Why do they do this?
It’s all part of the bonding process. “It was an opportunity to build friendships with 14 people whom I otherwise wouldn’t have come across in college years,” one member told Robbins. The camaraderie is reinforced by weekly meetings and bizarre traditions. Bonesmen refer to nonmembers as “barbarians,” employ cryptic references to the club’s totemic number of 322, and deliberately leave the room if any barbarian mentions their society’s name. Bonesmen vow to take care of their brothers after Yale, as they move into positions of wealth and power. Some say a Bonesman, once initiated, is virtually guaranteed wealth and security for life.
Is that true?
Not exactly, but the Bones has served as one of the nation’s most effective old-boy networks. President George W. Bush stands as a case in point. He partly bankrolled his first oil company, as well as his run for Texas governor, with loans and donations from fellow Bonesmen. Five of them, including SEC head William Donaldson, now serve in his administration. It’s this tight web of influence that has fueled a host of conspiracy theories.
Such as?
It’s whispered, for instance, that Skull and Bones helped underwrite Hitler’s rise to power. In fact, Hitler’s financier once stashed $3 million in the Union Banking Corp., whose directors included Prescott Bush, father of the first President Bush and a Bonesman himself. Similarly, several Bonesmen in the FDR administration, including Secretary of War Henry Stimson, were key players in the Manhattan Project; from this, some have deduced that the dropping of the atomic bomb was a Bonesmen plot. The society has also been blamed for the Bay of Pigs fiasco and for plunging the U.S. into Vietnam—because Bonesmen like William and McGeorge Bundy held prominent foreign-policy posts during the Kennedy and Johnson years.
So does the society run the world?
Not quite. It’s true that Bonesmen have occupied top-tier positions at an impressive array of powerful institutions, like the CIA, the Council on Foreign Relations, Morgan Stanley, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Federal Reserve. But the same could be said of Yalies in general, or Harvard graduates, or other Ivy Leaguers. And in future years, Skull and Bones is likely to be far less influential than it has been in the past.
Why is that?
Like most campus organizations, it has become politically correct. Skull and Bones now actively seeks out women and minorities; white, Anglo-Saxon males have become a minority within the current membership. Bonesmen—and Boneswomen—now spend much of their time sharing “life histories” with the group, to better understand one another’s perspective. Members no longer consider themselves part of an elite cadre destined to run the world; they defensively joke about “the old white guys” who used to run the society. On the Yale campus, Bones members are now viewed with bemused scorn—not envy. “It almost seems,” wrote Franklin Foer in The New Republic in 2000, “that the current crop of Bonespersons maintain vows of secrecy because they are genuinely embarrassed by their affiliation.”
https://theweek.com/articles/528748/shadowy-world-skull-bones
The 10 Most Political Moments In Pope Francis' Address To Congress
September 24, 2015 11:40 AM ET
Domenico Montanaro - 2015
Pope Francis speaks his mind, and he did that again in his address to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday morning. But, in the vein of the best Jesuit teachers, Francis praised America, its rich political history and its ideals before delicately delivering some things its political leaders might, well, want to consider working on.
There were political messages that challenged the orthodoxy of both American political parties, but, in this 51-minute address, there were a lot more points of emphasis Democrats are happy about — and that put some pressure on Republicans.
Here are 10 moments that stood out from his address:
Secretary of State John Kerry's hand was one of the few he shook as he arrived to address Congress on Thursday.
Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images
1. Embracing John Kerry: The pope did not shake many hands on his way into the chamber, unlike during presidential State of the Union addresses when presidents seem to embrace everyone in the aisle they can find. But Francis did make a point of going over to Secretary of State John Kerry and shaking his hand. That is a major change from 2004, when church officials then called on denying Kerry communion because of his support for abortion rights when he was the Democratic nominee for president. This pope, by the way, has come out in support of the Iran nuclear deal. Kerry, as secretary of state, was a principal negotiator of the deal.
2. A call to rise above polarization: Francis warned against the "temptation" of "the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps." Later in his speech, he came back to this theme, saying, "A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces." He also noted one his heroes, American Thomas Merton, a Cistercian monk, who Francis said had "the capacity for dialogue and openness to God."
3. A call for the country to open its arms to immigrants and refugees: "I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to Montgomery 50 years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his 'dream' of full civil and political rights for African-Americans. That dream continues to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of 'dreams'. ... In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants." ...
"Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? ... Let us remember the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. ... The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us."
His reference to the Golden Rule was Francis' biggest applause line. Members of Congress didn't even let him get out the rule itself before giving him a standing ovation.
4. A reminder on abortion: Francis then pivoted and noted the conservative social issues the church believes in, particularly abortion: "The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development."
That received big applause from Republicans, but then Francis immediately went on to the flip side of the Catholic "pro-life" belief.
Pope Francis also strongly advocated for abolishing the death penalty and called on Congress to act on climate change.
Tony Gentile/AP
5. Strongly advocating for abolishing the death penalty: "This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation."
6. Poverty and the necessity of 'distribution of wealth': "I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They, too, need to be given hope. ... It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth."
7. Business should be about 'service to the common good': "Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good."
8. Calling on Congress to act on climate change: "This common good also includes the earth. ... I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps, and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States — and this Congress — have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a culture of care and an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature."
9. Anti-war message and a call to stop arms trade: "Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade."
10. The importance of family and marriage: "It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. ... At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they, too, are dissuaded from starting a family."
https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/09/24/443081898/the-10-most-political-moments-in-pope-francis-address-to-congress
– Chapter One – Vatican Moves on Temple Mount
Within two months of the end of Camp David the Palestinian Authority birthed the second intifada – a terrorist war on Israel, but giving Israel a continual bloody nose did not yield the desired result. Israel soundly defeated the second intifada moving the Palestinians back to square one. Present Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has now implemented a different tactic: to get the UN to step in and impose a solution on Israel. US Secretary of State John Kerry restarted negotiations in July of 2013 bringing Israeli and Palestinian negotiators together in Washington to restart formal negotiations after a more than three year void. A nine month deadline was set which ended April 31st 2014. How did the talks go? What was being worked out behind the scenes? No one is talking, at least not to the press. US Secretary of State John Kerry clarified at the outset of the talks which he labored so intensively to restart that he would be the only one authorized to speak on their progress. "The negotiations", he said, "would only succeed if held far from the bright camera lights." Only if the negotiators were not required to report to their own domestic audience after each meeting did the talks have any chance of succeeding. Therefore, Kerry said, he would be the only one discussing the progress. But he never revealed much beyond platitudes about the need for peace and the courage of both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in deciding to reengage. The talks failed to meet their deadline. Just weeks after the last round of the U.S. sponsored peace negotiations faltered, Pope Francis embraced the divided Middle East leaders to preside over Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayers at the Vatican in a bid to revive the collapsed peace talks. The Associated Press reported: Vatican officials have insisted Pope Francis has no political agenda by inviting the two leaders to pray at his home other than to rekindle a desire for peace among the two parties. However, the meeting could have significance on the ground beyond 10 mere symbolism. The meeting will also cement Francis' reputation as a leader unhindered by diplomatic and theological protocol who is willing to go out on a limb for the sake of peace. John Kerry had made a previous January pit stop in Rome to discuss the peace process between Israel and Palestine, this would indicate he knew the talks were not going well. With Pope Francis' visit to the Holy Land in May and subsequent invitation of the parties to the Vatican, the United States had hoped the Pope as a key ally could push both sides back to the negotiating table. The Vatican Prayer Summit seems to have gone very well. Time will tell. Over the course of the last decade the State of Israel has been subsidizing nonprofit organizations that advocate the building of a New Temple atop Jerusalem’s holiest site: the Temple Mount. The Israel Education and the Culture Ministries have transferred substantial amounts of funding to the non-governmental organization known as The Temple Institute. Should this be an indication to the Palestinian Authority that it needs to make certain major concessions to get what it wants? Perhaps the trump card Abbas will need to play is to grant access to the Temple Mount for Jews, a partition to allow Israel to build a Temple on the Temple Mount. Until the Palestinian Authority plays this card, Israel may move no further. Add to the mix the present Israel-Vatican negotiations over the Holy Basin and this is the move that the whole world is waiting for, peace between the three great Abrahamic faiths, sealed by equal access to the Holy Basin and the most holy site of all, the Temple Mount. The term “Holy Basin” refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian holy sites which the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton recommended be administered under a special regime. Pope Francis, upon celebrating his first Christmas as the Vatican State leader, prayed for a "favorable outcome" to the peace process between the parties, and called for dialogue to end the conflicts. Though John Kerry is still not talking we can observe the parties as they jockey for position. In recognition of Bible Prophecy, the belief that we are on the verge of the Mark of the Beast One World Money System, we can also anticipate the Temple Mount play about to begin. I will expose in this book the fallacy of the counter-reformation futurist scheme of prophecy as a completely unbiblical interpretation. However most of the Evangelical and nominal Christian world has totally bought into this view through Seminary/Ministry indoctrination and Corporate Christian Media exposure, and not because of sound biblical interpretation. Some may even regard as conspiratorial, the mainstream re-release of the Left Behind Movie with Actor Nicholas Cage portraying the main character as an attempt to further reinforce in the minds of all, this perception of biblical prophecy in order to condition the masses for the play about to begin. Because they see the world stage shaping to fulfill what they have been led to believe is sound interpretation, a "Left Behind Rapture” scenario, this false view of prophecy is reinforced in the mind of not only its adherents, but also includes those who have been merely exposed to the specific media through popular movies such as Left Behind and the fictional book series. Is it possible that false prophecy can be fulfilled? The rapture theories have always been in dispute: pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib disputes have risen up in exclusively evangelical circles of recent history, so that when 12 "true believers" don't suddenly disappear this element will easily go by the wayside when all see a New Jewish Temple begin to be built. Will this be a part of the great delusion that will come upon the whole earth? It seems that this great prophetic delusion has already overcome practically the entire American Evangelical and Christian World! Let me quote the late Jewish Israeli Researcher and Author, Joel Bainerman from his article:
The Vatican Agenda: How Does The Vatican View The Legitimacy of Israel's Claims To Jerusalem?
...The institution of "The Vatican" is not understood by Israelis and Jews. The conventional wisdom you get from the spokespersons in Israeli government ministries and the conventional Israeli media is "both sides have great intentions to do good" and that's about it. When it comes to Israel's bi-lateral affairs, nothing much gets investigated by the Israeli media. Thus a secret deal could be done between the Vatican and the State of Israel and nobody in Israel would ever find out about it. In fact, that is exactly what happened.
What Does The Vatican Want?
It can't be that the Vatican is only interested in "access to their Holy Sites" in Jerusalem. They already have that as well as legal jurisdiction under Israeli law for their institutions and assets in Jerusalem... It is something else, which the Vatican wants... to have certain versions of events be played out for them to stand in front of mankind and proclaim: our Messiah has returned." Of course, to the Jews, this Messiah will be as false as the first one was supposed to be. Don't matter. This is the goal of the Vatican and this is what all Israelis need to worry about.
The Vatican/Roman Catholic's version of events is this:
They know this isn't the end of the story that the Jewish G-d had in mind, but that doesn't mean they won't try and engineer their own ending to the story. So what if it is fraudulent. Doesn't matter, that is their game plan and that is what matters and that is what Israeli Jews need to be better informed about. It is important for everyone to know what The Vatican has up its sleeve because it directly relates to our existence and our future destiny as an independent nation. This, a very powerful force is scheming to get control of the Old City of Jerusalem so you better know why and how the Vatican intends to do this... First, you have to realize that for centuries The Vatican has attempted to obtain control of Jerusalem, which started with the Crusades. For them to convince the world that the Messiah they put on the world's stage is going to be accepted as genuine, they need to perform this play in the Old City. The story of this production is that this "Messiah" will merge the three monotheistic religions, usher in peace and harmony in the world, and solve the Middle East conflict. The location for this "production" will be in none other than the Old City of Jerusalem. This so-called "Messiah" that will be proclaimed, will be a false one and it will insist that by having a "world government" (i.e., the United Nations) the world peace and harmony will be ushered in. This will be a lie, and a fraud, but never mind. In our world, reality isn't important. Public perceptions are. The end result is the stripping of Israel's sovereignty as an independent nation giving way to a "regional bloc of nations" in the Middle East. Israel will be pressured to accede to these demands by all world bodies and the superpowers on the claim that "this is the only way to solve the Middle East conflict). In order to the Jews to go along they will convince them that with the "Messiah" having appeared for the Jews, it is time to start rebuilding the Third Temple - what they call "Solomon's Temple". This version of events is widely available through a simple search on the Internet as there are many Christian groups and organizations (the majority of which who are very pro-Israel) who don’t buy into these beliefs and thus are against them. I didn’t come up with the theory - I am just bringing it to the attention of the Israeli public. Make no mistake about it. The Old City of Jerusalem, as well as most of the eastern half of the city, is what The Vatican is after. Why? Because controlling the entire Old City of Jerusalem (and not just Church properties) and being able to build whatever they want on Mount Zion is critical for the program they have planned to put into play in our capital city. The deal that it has signed with Israel via Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres (in secret and without the approval of the 14 Knesset) gives The Church not only extraterritorial status to their properties (which is what the bi-lateral agreement the Israeli government signed with the Vatican on December 30th, 1993, put in law) but of control over the entire city as "custodians" under UN presence. In this way the Jews will give up control over the Old City. To the Vatican the Israeli people would have a problem with. To the UN, they would say, "we had no choice". www.redmoonrising.com/chamish/vaticanagenda.htm
Evangelicals today are waiting with bated breath for a New Jewish Temple to be built and a Priest-Temple Sacrifice system to be resumed. They seem to have no problem with this wrong sacrifice for sin (according to the Gospel) taking place, but reserve the title, Abomination of Desolation for the “Left Behind” Anti Christ character moving into the Temple and proclaiming himself to be God. Something similar to this may or may not happen. Entertain if you will the idea that there are powerful forces at work in this world with the motivation to take advantage of this very compelling and popular, but specious view of prophecy, a juxtaposed seventieth week of Daniel, or we could call it The Seven Year Tribulation Deception. At the time for the building of a Jewish Temple a figure will arise who fits the bill of the Anti-Christ of the popular pseudo prophecy. This Anti-Christ character will follow the popular view close enough to be accepted by the adherents of this Futurist/Left Behind Rapture orientation to be misidentified as the True Anti-Christ, while at the same time through popular media manipulation he will be accepted by the world as a Peacemaker when he makes a mid-east peace deal which includes the building of the New Temple. To follow the script, three to four years into this Treaty the deal will begin to unravel and have to be abandoned. Perhaps a conflict will arise out of opposition to the Third Temple. The deal will be broken! Islam will most likely at some point balk so any deal with their leadership to allow it is doomed from the start. The Vatican cannot allow it to be completed because any sacrifice other than their bloodless sacrifice of trans-substantiation is unacceptable. Only Orthodox Jewry desire a Third Temple as true believers. Evangelical adherents are true believers with a different motivation, which is to bring about events that will precipitate the return of Christ, however they are unwitting participants in the design of the counter-reformation eschatology that they hold so dear, false prophecy. We can only speculate that these events will likely be accompanied by a major multilateral military conflict or threat in the mid-east, and the world will cry for peace as would be expected. Then will step onto the scene the True Anti-Christ bringing peace to that conflict. Because he fulfills the false prophecy and vanquishes the first treaty breaking Pseudo Anti-Christ he will be accepted as the fulfillment of the popular prophecies of the return of Christ proclaiming that he is The Vicar Of Christ, His Replacement on Earth and the true meaning and fulfillment of Bible Prophecy. He may propose the building of a Synagogue for the Jews and a Cathedral to represent Universal Christianity which will accompany Islam's Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, thus uniting the Three Great Abrahamic Religions as one, bringing peace to the region and the entire world. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Mat 24:24) The fulfillment of this false prophecy will delude the entire world and even the Elect, if it were possible. True Bible Believers will suddenly be the majority dissenters and will be demonized for all the ills that have plagued the world and precipitated the former crisis; eventually Social Justice will require that they be eliminated for the good of the whole. This has happened before, it was called The Inquisition, and The Bible tells us that it will happen again. Past Inquisitions have lasted extended periods of time, so the coming crusades may even go on for decades. How comforting the thought of relegating tribulation to a mere seven or three and a half year period which may even then be escaped by a “pre- or midtribulation rapture” based entirely upon a the seven year tribulation deception. How many hundreds of millions of bible believing martyrs would have benefited from a rapture type escape? And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, 16 both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev 13:15-17) The Bible tells us about the mark of the beast which will be necessary so “that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark.” Receiving this mark will be the test of whether you are or are not a part of the New World Social-Economic Order. True Bible Believers will need to discern exactly who or what this beast is and what is or does this mark represent. For that we must turn to The Bible and true prophecy. If you are a True Bible Believer you will not just dismiss the things that I am exposing here without due investigation. If Daniel's seventieth week is truly past then every prophecy that is based on this seven year period being future is tenuous at best. I challenge all to find that gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week for themselves - it is not there - so don’t feel bad if you cannot find it, even Chuck Missler will not take up the challenge to Show Me The Gap. This revelation changes everything prophetic. Be not deceived.
Jerusalem Corpus Separatum
...Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)
Corpus Separatum (Latin for "separated body") is a term used to describe the Jerusalem area in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. According to the plan the city would be placed under international regime, conferring it a special status due to its shared religious importance. The Corpus Separatum was one of the main issues of the Lausanne Conference of 1949, besides the other borders between Israel and Palestine and the question of the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. The plan was adopted by the General Assembly with a two-thirds majority, although its implementation failed and the view that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and Palestine internationally is widely supported now. (wikipedia)
Israel Resource Review, The Vatican's Jerusalem Agenda. Did Shimon Peres make a deal with the Vatican?
Consider the evidence:
On Sept. 10, '93, just three days before the signing of the Declaration of Principles in Washington, the Italian news magazine La Stampa reported that part of the peace deal was an unwritten understanding that the Vatican would receive political authority over the Old City of Jerusalem by the end of the millennium. The newspaper reported that Shimon Peres had promised the Pope to hand over the holy sites of Jerusalem the previous May and that Arafat had accepted the agreement. In March '94, the Israeli newsmagazine Shishi published an interview with Mark Halter, a French intellectual and close friend of Shimon Peres. He said he delivered a letter from Peres to the Pope the previous May, within which Peres offered the Vatican hegemony over the Old City of Jerusalem. The article detailed Peres's offer which essentially turned Jerusalem into an international city overseen by the Holy See. In March '95, the radio station Arutz Sheva announced that it had seen a cable sent by the Israeli Embassy in Rome to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem outlining the handover of the Old City of Jerusalem to the Vatican. Two days later Haaretz published the cable on its front page. The Foreign Ministry explained that the cable was genuine but someone had whited out the word "not." ie We will not transfer authority to the Vatican. Incredibly, numerous Bnei Brak rabbis who had canceled Passover meetings with Peres over the issue of the cable accepted the explanation and re-invited him to their homes. The Foreign Ministry's Legal Affairs Spokesperson, Esther Samilag, publicly complained about "various capitulations" to the Vatican. She was immediately transferred to a post at the Israeli Embassy in Katmandu, Nepal. MK Avraham Shapira announced in the Knesset that he had information that all Vatican property in Jerusalem was to become tax exempt and that large tracts of real estate on Mount Zion were given to the pope in perpetuity. Jerusalem's late Deputy Mayor Shmuel Meir announced that he had received "information that properties promised to the Vatican would be granted extra-territorial status." Beilin was forced to answer the accusations. He admitted, "Included in the Vatican Agreement is the issue of papal properties in Israel that will be resolved by a committee of experts that has already been formed." If so, this committee has not since released any proof of its existence.
With all this in mind, how do we interpret the Vatican's current position on Jerusalem?
The following report, circulated by MSANews may shed some light on that:
Vatican City, Jun 14, 1997 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, apostolic nuncio and Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke June 9 on the status of Jerusalem at the New York headquarters of the Path to Peace Foundation. The archbishop addressed members of this foundation as well as U.S. members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He began by briefly summarizing the "well-known and long-standing position of the Holy See with regard to Jerusalem. He stated that Jerusalem "for us, of course, along with the rest of the Holy Land, is that special link between heaven and earth, that place where God walked and ultimately died among men. And of course we recognize that others revere Jerusalem as the city of David and the prophets and the city known to Mohammed.... It is a spiritual treasure for all of humanity, and it is a city of two peoples, Arabs and Jews, and of the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam." Archbishop Martino added that "in recent years it has been increasingly difficult to break through the political and media-imposed stranglehold on the question of Jerusalem." he recounted Jerusalem's recent history, recalling in particular the UN's General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947 calling for Jerusalem to be considered a 'corpus separatum' under the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations," a resolution which Israel accepted. He pointed out that, in addressing the gridlock which has resulted from the 1967 Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, "the Holy See has therefore advocated the granting to Jerusalem of an 'internationally guaranteed special statute. That is the phrase used by Pope John Paul II in his 1984 Apostolic Letter 'Redemption is Anno'."
This statute "asks that regardless of how the problem of sovereignty is resolved and who is called to exercise it, there should be a supranational and international entity endowed with means adequate to insure the preservation of the special characteristics of the City, its Holy Places, the freedom to visit them, its religious and ethnic communities, a guarantee of their essential liberties, and its city plan'." The apostolic nuncio recalled the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel in 1993, when both signed the 'Fundamental Agreement." He noted Article 4 of this agreement where "both the Holy See and Israel affirm their continuing commitment to the 'Status quo' in the Christian Holy Places." He also spoke of the problems sparked by Israel's recent authorization of "a project for the construction of settlements in occupied territory in East Jerusalem" for which "there was wide-spread international condemnation." This issue, he reminded those present, was brought before the UN Security Council on March 7 and March 21 of this year, but without resolution "because the sole country on the Security Council which opposed the Resolution was the United States." An Emergency Session of the General Assembly, "organized only nine other times in the history of the United Nations" was held on April 24-25. The Holy See delegation was contacted and asked for suggestions for a Resolution, Archbishop Martino said. And he recounted the meetings, rough drafts of proposals and negotiations which followed. The approved texts of the eventual Resolution, he underlined, contained "those points championed by the Holy See.... The General Assembly has here called for 'internationally guaranteed provisions' - the equivalent of the 'internationally guaranteed special status' called for by Pope John Paul II. This is particularly noteworthy because in this case, the Arab delegations all voted for this Resolution and therefore for this provision." "The Holy Places within Jerusalem," concluded Archbishop Martino, "are not merely museum relics to be opened and closed by the dominant political authority, no matter who that might be at any given moment. They are living shrines precious to the hearts and faith of believers."
DELSS/STATUS JERUSALEM/UN:MARTINO VIS 970616 (640)
Could that supra-national entity which will oversee the international city of Jerusalem be the Vatican just as Peres promised? And how do we react to Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert's recent announcement that he will begin negotiations with the Vatican, but "only over holy sites?"
(used by permission of the author, Barry Chamish,)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Even after Israel pushed it's aggressor enemies beyond Jerusalem's boundaries in 1968, Israel remained compliant to the U.N. recommendation by allowing the Islamic Waqf to maintain control over the Temple Mount. I can think of no other reason why Israel did not move in and destroy the Dome of the Rock and other Islamic edifices to take possession of the Temple Mount other than “the times of the Gentiles” prophetically spoken of by Jesus has not yet been fulfilled. The Daniel chapter two Mystery Babylon Image still stands. For the most part the world refuses to recognize Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem even though the United States Congress in 1995 overwhelmingly passed the "Jerusalem Embassy Act" stating that "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999." The provocative nature of this issue continues to prevent the actual move to this day. The facts on the ground ultimately prove that even the United States denies Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem until this very day.
Jerusalem Old City Initiative
The Jerusalem Old City Initiative, was bolstered by the implementation of the Oslo Peace Accord and is a fruit of the peace process and inter faith dialogue. The 2005 formation of The Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land with Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Christians in its governing body has in their statement of faith the declaration of a one world type of religion which contends that all faiths lead to the same god.
Statement of faith:
As religious leaders of different faiths, who share the conviction in the one Creator, Lord of the Universe; we believe that the essence of religion is to worship G-d and respect the life and dignity of all human beings, regardless of religion, nationality and gender.
The Rapture Will Be Cancelled
by Nicklas Arthur
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hwvsMLXT7Z35KlbSdXw6x5EH0VLHPZsM/view?usp=sharing
Trump to Pope Francis After Vatican Meeting: I 'Won't Forget What You Said'
President Trump met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday — the latest in a string of high-level meetings at sacred religious sites.
Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump, US First Lady Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump, at the end of a private audience at the Vatican on May 24, 2017.Evan Vucci / AFP - Getty Images
May 23, 2017, 11:52 PM PDT / Updated May 24, 2017, 8:05 AM PDT
By F. Brinley Bruton and Claudio Lavanga
ROME — Donald Trump met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday — the latest in a string of high-level meetings at sites sacred to the world's three great monotheistic religions.
The president smiled broadly beside the pontiff, who appeared subdued and stone-faced before their 30-minute private conversation.
However, Francis' mood lightened considerably during their gift exchange and the two men shook hands before parting.
"Thank you. Thank you. I won't forget what you said," Trump told the pope after their private meeting.
PHOTOS: Trump Family Tours Vatican, Meets With Pope
In the past, Trump and the pontiff have disagreed on issues including environmental protection.
During the election campaign, Francis criticized Trump's promise to build a wall on the Mexican border and his declaration that the U.S. should turn away Muslim immigrants and refugees.
"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian," Francis said at the time.
Trump reacted to the pontiff's comments by calling Francis "disgraceful" for doubting his faith.
First lady Melania Trump, the president's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner accompanied him to the Vatican.
The pope's gifts to Trump included a medal by a Roman artist depicting an olive, which is a symbol of peace.
The president responded, "We can use peace."
The pope also gave him copies of his three main teaching documents. Some of the main themes contained in them contrast sharply with Trump's policies and campaign promises, particularly concerning approaches to the environment and income inequality.
The president told Francis he'd be reading them.
Trump's gift for the pontiff was wrapped in a big blue box. The president said he was delivering "books from Martin Luther King. I think you'll enjoy them. I hope you do."
The meeting with the leader of the world's more than one billion Catholics caps off a trip during which Trump visited the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia, and then Jerusalem and Bethlehem — highlighting the president's outreach to Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Trump's reception in Europe was low-key compared to the extravagantly warm welcomes he received in Riyadh and Jerusalem. Greenpeace climate change activists projected the message "Planet Earth First" over St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, protesters hung a sign saying "Rome Resists" on a bridge in the Vatican.
F. Brinley Bruton reported from London.
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/trump-s-first-foreign-trip/trump-trip-president-arrives-vatican-meet-pope-francis-n763911
Ivanka Trump Opens U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem During Israeli Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza
A smiling Ivanka Trump welcomed Israeli dignitaries to the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, while Israel's armed forces killed dozens of Palestinian protesters.
Robert Mackey
May 14 2018, 1:26 p.m.
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TOPSHOT - US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (C-L) claps as US President's daughter Ivanka Trump unveils an inauguration plaque during the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. - The United States moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem after months of global outcry, Palestinian anger and exuberant praise from Israelis over President Donald Trump's decision tossing aside decades of precedent. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)
TOPSHOT - US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (C-L) claps as US President's daughter Ivanka Trump unveils an inauguration plaque during the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. - The United States moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem after months of global outcry, Palestinian anger and exuberant praise from Israelis over President Donald Trump's decision tossing aside decades of precedent. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) Photo: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
In a graphic demonstration of disregard for the lives and rights of Palestinians, a smiling Ivanka Trump welcomed Israeli dignitaries to the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, while, just 60 miles away in Gaza, Israel’s armed forces shot hundreds of Palestinian protesters, killing at least 60.
Treasury Secretary @stevenmnuchin1 and Senior Advisor @IvankaTrump unveiled the U.S. #embassy in #Jerusalem, declaring the city, once again, the capital of #Israel: pic.twitter.com/XreXwUpQGs
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 14, 2018
Left: #Jerusalem
Right: #Gaza
(Pictures taken at the same time this afternoon) pic.twitter.com/0ySzaGjQC9
— Patrick Galey is on @patrickgaley.bsky.social (@patrickgaley) May 14, 2018
As American officials, including President Donald Trump’s former bankruptcy lawyer, Ambassador David Friedman, offered the new embassy to Israel as a sort of gift to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state, thousands of Palestinians came under fire from Israeli snipers for demanding the right to return to homes that their families were forced to abandon in 1948.
https://twitter.com/abgutman/status/996025015224160257
Death toll in Gaza today rises to 52, over 2,400 wounded. At Shifa hospital a doctor who worked there for 17 years said he had never seen a day like this. pic.twitter.com/RZgDryzfUS
— Sharif Kouddous ???? ??? ?????? (@sharifkouddous) May 14, 2018
16-year-old Tallal Mattar has died of wounds sustained yesterday, according to health ministry. Death toll from Monday now at 60.
— Sharif Kouddous ???? ??? ?????? (@sharifkouddous) May 15, 2018
More than two-thirds of the Palestinians confined to Gaza are refugees from towns and cities in what is now Israel. The protests along Israel’s perimeter fence that began on March 30 — and were immediately met with lethal force — are intended to draw attention to what Palestinians refer to as the “nakba,” or catastrophe, of Israel’s founding, which led to the forcible displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians.
“Choosing a tragic day in Palestinian history shows great insensibility and disrespect for the core principles of the peace process,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in a statement.
What a great day for the great American-Israeli alliance ????
?????: ??? ??????, ???? pic.twitter.com/Q2rUdD3ID5
— Benjamin Netanyahu – ?????? ?????? (@netanyahu) May 14, 2018
Big day for Israel. Congratulations!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018
The US president, everyone. Ululating the 1948 massacres by Haganah and Irgun Zionist forces and today allowing the continuation of it by not only rewarding Israel, but also saying it is okay to take lands if you slaughter enough people. #Palestine #Nakba70 https://t.co/0nZYrv4IID
— Mariam Barghouti ???? ???????? (@MariamBarghouti) May 14, 2018
The death toll on Monday means that Israel has now killed more than 90 Palestinians in the past six weeks for approaching the fence it placed around Gaza, surpassing the total number of East Germans shot and killed for trying to scale the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1989.
As the Trump administration signaled its full embrace of the ultranationalist Israeli position, Palestinian-American activists suggested that news coverage of the massacre in Gaza was biased against the protesters.
When you talk about Palestinians "attempting to charge a fence" or "breach a border" in the context of Gaza you are accepting and normalizing the notion that they have no right to return to their homes.
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) May 14, 2018
Over 70% of the Palestinian population in Gaza are refugees. They live under Israeli occupation and siege. If they dare protest, they are executed by sniper fire. They are denied their right to return. The media normalizes their murder. Their simple struggle for freedom smeared
— Remi Kanazi (@Remroum) May 14, 2018
In remarks at the embassy ceremony, Trump’s son-in-law and novice peace envoy, Jared Kushner, blamed Palestinian protesters — not the Israeli snipers who gunned them down: “As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution.”
"Those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution."
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's Middle East envoy and son-in-law, speaks at the new US embassy in Jerusalem, following protests in Gaza in which reportedly dozens of Palestinians were killed. pic.twitter.com/gVnjnRxZF0
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) May 14, 2018
Kushner also praised his father-in-law for keeping a campaign promise made to supporters of Israel.
Jared Kushner: “When President Trump makes a promise, he keeps it.” pic.twitter.com/VoMTeuYXHK
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 14, 2018
The sense that Trump had taken a major foreign policy decision mainly for domestic political reasons was underscored by the front-row seats awarded to Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to both his campaign and those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
First row at the embassy opening, from left to right: David Friedman, Tammy Friedman, Sara Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Reuven Rivlin, Steven Mnuchin, Sheldon Adelson.
Chief rabbis and cabinet ministers are seated in the row behind them. pic.twitter.com/jqg9RAX8so
— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) May 14, 2018
At a party the night before the ceremony, Adelson and his Israeli-born wife, Miriam, described themselves as “euphoric” over Trump’s decision to effectively recognize Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem, which it seized by military force in 1967.
????? ????? ??????: ?????????, ??? ???? ??? ??????, ??? ????? ?? ???? ?????? pic.twitter.com/lLIsfSiVkn
— Noa Landau ??? ????? (@noa_landau) May 13, 2018
“This is a massacre of a stateless population living under military siege,” the Israeli-American writer Mairav Zonszein wrote in +972, a digital magazine with contributors in Israel and Palestine. “And we are all accomplices for not doing more to stop it.”
“The overwhelming majority of the Jewish Israeli population has not spoken out,” Zonszein added. “According to an Israel Democracy Institute Peace Index poll from April, 83 percent of Jewish Israelis find the IDF’s open fire policy in Gaza ‘appropriate.’ Just hours after the massacre, thousands went out into the streets to celebrate the Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai in Tel Aviv.”
This is Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, tonight. Tens of thousands gathered, not protest the killings in Gaza, but to celebrate Israel's #Eurovision victory.
Photo via @WallaNews pic.twitter.com/8VSV0Z1A0b
— Elizabeth Tsurkov? (@Elizrael) May 14, 2018
In Jerusalem and Washington, hundreds of young Jewish activists from the groups If Not Now and All That’s Left did protest Trump’s decision to ignore Palestinian claims and move the U.S. embassy before the final status of the city has been negotiated.
For Immediate Release | ON THE DAY TRUMP MOVES AMERICAN EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM, AND DEADLIEST DAY FOR PALESTINIANS SINCE 2014, 150 YOUNG JEWS AND RABBINICAL STUDENTS SHUT DOWN BUSY D.C. INTERSECTION FOR TWO HOURS. #EmbassyOfFreedomhttps://t.co/vqgSpUxKh6 pic.twitter.com/8LHtoMCfID
— IfNotNow??? (@IfNotNowOrg) May 14, 2018
Police uses violence against protesters pic.twitter.com/h7oXn9mhTC
— All That's Left: Anti-Occupation Collective (@ATLCol) May 14, 2018
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which monitors conditions for Palestinians living under military rule in the territories Israel has occupied since 1967, denounced the killings. “The fact that live gunfire is once again the sole measure that the Israeli military is using in the field evinces appalling indifference towards human life on the part of senior Israeli government and military officials,” the group said in a statement. “B’Tselem calls for an immediate halt to the killing of Palestinian demonstrators. If the relevant officials do not issue an order to stop the lethal fire, the soldiers in the field must refuse to comply with these manifestly unlawful open-fire orders.”
As Palestinians in Gaza buried their dead and prepared to protest again on Tuesday, Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem peace activist, suggested that America’s full capitulation to Israeli extremists had dealt a further blow to dreams of a two-state solution to the conflict — making a single, binational state inevitable.
Infuriation and grief throughout Gaza and large number of funerals #Gaza pic.twitter.com/haoFoSF56P
— Farah Baker (@Farah_Gazan) May 14, 2018
This probably will sound pathetic, but my thoughts are not at the fetishistic embassy ceremony nearby, but with the residents of Gaza, and the families of those killed today.
The day will come when we will share this tortured land, even if I will not live to see it.
God bless.
— Daniel Seidemann (@DanielSeidemann) May 14, 2018
Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 6:27 a.m. EDT
This post was updated with a revised death toll as more Palestinians shot by Israeli snipers during protests on Monday died of their wounds.
Top photo: Ivanka Trump and Steven Mnuchin, the U.S. Treasury secretary, welcomed Israeli dignitaries to the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday.
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Contact the author:
Robert Mackey
robert.mackey@theintercept.com
@RobertMackey
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Ben Deri (C), a 24-year-old Israeli policeman accused of killing a Palestinian teenager in 2014 during clashes in Beitunia in the occupied West Bank, is seen at the district court in Jerusalem on April 25, 2018. - The Israeli court sentenced Deri to nine months in jail for the fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager in 2014, an incident documented by video footage. He was found guilty of negligent homicide and also ordered to pay 50,000 shekels ($14,000) to the family of the then-17-year-old Nadeem Nuwarah. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)
Israeli Police Officer Jailed for Killing Unarmed Palestinian Protester Without Permission
Palestinian protesters chant slogans next to burning tires during clashes with Israeli troops along Gaza's border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, April 6, 2018. Palestinians torched piles of tires near Gaza's border with Israel on Friday, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the air and drawing Israeli fire that killed one man in the second large protest in the volatile area in a week. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Israel Denounced for “Smear Campaign” Against Palestinian Journalist It Killed in Gaza
Israeli soldiers take aim as they lie prone over an earth barrier along the border with the Gaza strip in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz on March 30, 2018, as Palestinians demonstrate on the other side commemorating Land Day.Land Day marks the killing of six Arab Israelis during 1976 demonstrations against Israeli confiscations of Arab land. / AFP PHOTO / Jack GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Israel Confirms Video of Sniper Shooting Unarmed Palestinian, as Soldiers Cheer, Is Genuine
A picture taken on March 30, 2018 from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz across the border from the Gaza strip shows Palestinians participating in a tent city protest commemorating Land Day, with Israeli soldiers seen below in the foreground.Land Day marks the killing of six Arab Israelis during 1976 demonstrations against Israeli confiscations of Arab land. / AFP PHOTO / Jack GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Israel Opens Fire on Palestinian Protesters in Gaza, Trump Envoy Blames “Hostile March”
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https://theintercept.com/2018/05/14/ivanka-trump-opens-u-s-embassy-jerusalem-israeli-massacre-palestinians/
Mark 13
1599 Geneva Bible
13 Of the destruction of Jerusalem. 9 Persecutions for the Gospel. 10 The Gospel must be preached to all nations. 26 Of Christ’s coming to judgment. 33 We must watch and pray.
1 And [a]as he went out of the Temple, one of his disciples said unto him, Master, see what manner stones, and what manner buildings are here.
2 Then Jesus answered and said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat on the mount of Olives, over against the Temple, Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew asked him secretly,
4 Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?
5 And Jesus answered them, and began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you.
6 For many shall come in my Name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.
7 Furthermore when ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled, for such things must needs be: but the end shall not be yet.
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers quarters, and there shall be famine and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
9 But take ye heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to the Councils, and to the Synagogues: ye shall be beaten, and brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a [b]testimonial unto them.
10 And the Gospel must first be published among all nations.
11 But when they lead you, and deliver you up, [c]be not careful before hand, [d]neither study what ye shall say: but what is given you at the same time, that speak: for it is not you that speak, but the holy Ghost.
12 Yea, and the brother shall deliver the brother to death, and the father the son, and the children shall rise against their parents, and shall cause them to die.
13 And ye shall be hated of all men [e]for my Name’s sake: but whosoever shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved.
14 Moreover, when ye shall see the abomination of desolation (spoken of by Daniel the Prophet) [f]set where it ought not, (let him that readeth, consider it) then let them that be in Judea, flee into the mountains.
15 And let him that is upon the house, not come down into the house, neither enter therein, to fetch anything out of his house.
16 And let him that is in the field, not turn back again to take his garment.
17 Then woe shall be to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days.
18 Pray therefore that your flight be not in the winter.
19 For [g]those days shall be such tribulation, as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.
20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, which he hath chosen, he hath shortened those days.
21 Then if any man say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or lo, he is there, believe it not.
22 For false Christs shall rise, and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, to deceive if it were possible the very elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have showed you all things before.
24 ¶ Moreover in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall wax dark, and the moon shall not give her light,
25 And the stars of heaven shall fall: and the powers which are in heaven, shall shake.
26 And then shall they see the Son of man, coming in the clouds, with great power and glory.
27 And he shall then send his Angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, and from the utmost part of the earth to the utmost part of heaven.
28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When her bough is yet tender, and it bringeth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near.
29 So in like manner, when ye see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near, even at the doors.
30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
31 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
32 [h]But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the Angels which are in heaven, neither the Son himself, but the Father.
33 Take heed: watch, and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
34 For the Son of man is as a man going into a strange country, and leaveth his house, and giveth authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commandeth the porter to watch.
35 Watch ye therefore, (for ye know not when the master of the house will come, at even, or at midnight, at the cock crowing, or in the dawning,)
36 Lest if he come suddenly, he should find you sleeping.
37 And those things that I say unto you, I say unto all men, Watch.
Footnotes
Mark 13:1 The destruction of the Temple, city, and whole nation is aforetold, and the troubles of the Church, but yet there are annexed many comforts, and last of all, the end of the world is described.
Mark 13:9 The hearing of you preaching shall be a most evident witness against them, so that they shall not be able to pretend ignorance.
Mark 13:11 We are not forbidden to think beforehand, but pensive carefulness whereby men discourage themselves, which proceedeth from distrust, and want of confidence and sure hope of God’s assistance: that carefulness we are willed to beware of, see also Matt. 6:27.
Mark 13:11 By any kind of artificial and cunning kind of tale what to speak.
Mark 13:13 For me.
Mark 13:14 When the heathen and profane people shall not only enter into the Temple, and defile both it and the city, but also clean destroy it.
Mark 13:19 This is a kind of speech which the Hebrews use, and it hath a great force in it, for it giveth us to understand that in all that time one misery shall so follow upon another, as if the time itself were very misery itself: So the Prophet Amos, 5:20 saith, that the day of the Lord shall be darkness.
Mark 13:32 The latter day is not curiouly to be searched for which the Father alone knoweth: but let us rather take heed, that it come not upon us unaware.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2013&version=GNV
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