Carson Tahoe Hospital announces it won't renew contract with United Healthcare

By Scott NeufferTuesday, August 20, 2024

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Enlightenment in Buddhism

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Gnosticism in modern times

Gnosiology

Gnosis (chaos magic)

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Noetics

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Prajna (Hinduism)

Satori

Valentinus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosis

Note 385.—"Phoenix. The old mythological legend of the Phoenix is a familiar one. The bird was described as of the size of an eagle, with a head finely crested, a body covered with beautiful plumage, and eyes sparkling like stars. She was said to live six hundred years in the wilderness, when she built for herself a funeral pile of aromatic woods, which she ignited with the fanning of her wings, and emerged from the flames with a new life. Hence the phoenix has been adopted universally as a symbol of immortality. ITiggins (Anacalypsis, ii. 441,) says that the phoenix is the symbol of an ever-revolving solar circle of six hundred and eight years, and refers to the Phenician word phen, which signifies a cycle. Aumont, the first Grand Master of the Templars after the martyrdom of De Molay, and called the 'Restorer of the Order.' took, it is said, for his seal, a phoenix brooding on the flames, with the motto, 'Ardet ut vivat' — She burns that she may live."—Mackey's Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Article Phoenix.

Note 387.—"In the Arkite rites, which arose after the di«;persion of Babel, the dove was always considered as a sacred bird, in commeuiuration of its having been the first discoverer of land. Its name, which in Hebrew is ionah, was given to one of the earliest nations of the earth; and, as the emblem of peace and good fortune it became the I bird of Venus. Modern Masons have commemorated the messenger of ' Noah in the honorary degree of *Ark and Dove,' which Is sometimes conferred on Royal Arch Masons." — Mackey's Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Article Noah.

Note 388.—**The double-headed eagle was probably first introduced as a symbol into Masonry in the year 1758. In that year the body calling itself the Council of Emperors of the East and West was established in Paris, The double-headed eagle was likely to have been assumed by this Council in reference to the double jurisdiction which it claimed, and which is represented so distinctly in its title. Its ritual, which consisted of twenty-tive degrees, all of which are now contained in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, was subsequently established In the city of Berlin, and adopted by the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes. Frederick II., king of Prussia, who was the head of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, is said to have merged this body into his own Rite, adding to Its twenty-five degrees eight more, so as to make the thirty-three degrees of which that Rite is now composed. The double-headed eagle was then adopted as the symbol of the thirtythird and ultimate degree. The whole Rite being considered as a representative of the Holy Empire, as is indicated by the titles of two of Its ofl3cers, who are still called the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Holy Empire, the double-headed eagle, which was the ensign, as it has been seen, of that empire, was appropriately adopted as the symbol of the governing degree of the Rite." Mackey's Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Article Eagle, Double-Headed.

In some lodges the President is styled Grand Commander^ in others Great Sovereign. The East is hung with black velvet, embroidered with silver and strewed with death's heads transpierced with a poniard. The throne is hung with black velvet, with large white stripes and silver fringe. Over the throne is a double-headed eagle crowned, with his wings open but not spread. He holds a sword in his claws. A death's head transpierced with a poniard, is sometimes used instead of an eagle.

Thirtieth Degree ; Grand Elect Knight Kadosh,

OR Knight oe the White and Black Eagle.

https://www.stichtingargus.nl/vrijmetselarij/ovoo_r30e.html

NSA - National Security Agency

November 4, 2022

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=487337696758872&set=a.225197596306218

The Keys of Heaven, also called Saint Peter's keys, refers to the metaphorical keys of the office of Saint Peter, the keys of Heaven, or the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. It is explicitly referenced in the Bible in Matthew 16:19.

In Catholicism

According to Catholic teaching,[1] Jesus promised the keys to heaven to Saint Peter, empowering him to take binding actions.[2] In the Gospel of Matthew 16:19,[3] Jesus says to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven." Saint Peter is often depicted in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox paintings and other artwork as holding a key or a set of keys.

The keys of heaven or keys of Saint Peter are seen as a symbol of papal authority and are seen on papal coats of arms (those of individual popes) and those of the Holy See and Vatican City State: "Behold he [Peter] received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the power of binding and loosing is committed to him, the care of the whole Church and its government is given to him".[4]

Biblical sources

Bible verses associated with Peter[5][6] and his position of authority include:

Isaiah 22:20–23;

Matthew 10:2;

Matthew 16:18–19;

Luke 22:32;

John 21:17;

Acts 2:14;

Acts 10:46; and

Galatians 1:18.

Bible verses associated with the transfer of powers from pope to pope include:

Acts 1:20; 6:6; 13:3; 8:18; 9:17;

1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22;

2 Timothy 1:6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keys_of_Heaven

Jupiter, the chief ancient Roman and Italian god. Like Zeus, the Greek god with whom he is etymologically identical (root diu, “bright”), Jupiter was a sky god. One of his most ancient epithets is Lucetius (“Light-Bringer”); and later literature has preserved the same idea in such phrases as sub Iove, “under the open sky.” As Jupiter Elicius he was propitiated with a peculiar ritual to send rain in time of drought; as Jupiter Fulgur he had an altar in the Campus Martius, and all places struck by lightning were made his property and were guarded from the profane by a circular wall.

Throughout Italy he was worshiped on the summits of hills; thus, on the Alban Hill south of Rome was an ancient seat of his worship as Jupiter Latiaris, which was the centre of the league of 30 Latin cities of which Rome was originally an ordinary member. At Rome itself on the Capitoline Hill was his oldest temple; here there was a tradition of his sacred tree, the oak, common to the worship both of Zeus and of Jupiter, and here, too, were kept the lapides silices, pebbles or flint stones, which were used in symbolic ceremonies by the fetiales, the Roman priests who officially declared war or made treaties on behalf of the Roman state.

Jupiter was not only the great protecting deity of the race but also one whose worship embodied a distinct moral conception. He is especially concerned with oaths, treaties, and leagues, and it was in the presence of his priest that the most ancient and sacred form of marriage (confarreatio) took place. The lesser deities Dius Fidius and Fides were, perhaps, originally identical and certainly were connected with him. This connection with the conscience, with the sense of obligation and right dealing, was never quite lost throughout Roman history. In Virgil’s Aeneid, though Jupiter is in many ways as much Greek as Roman, he is still the great protecting deity who keeps the hero in the path of duty (pietas) toward gods, state, and family.

But this aspect of Jupiter gained a new force and meaning at the close of the early Roman monarchy with the building of the famous temple on the Capitol, of which the foundations are still to be seen. It was dedicated to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus (i.e., the best and greatest of all the Jupiters), and with him were associated Juno and Minerva, in a fashion that clearly indicates a Greco-Etruscan origin, since the combination of three deities in one temple was foreign to the ancient Roman religion, while it is found in both Greece and Etruria. The temple’s dedication festival fell on September 13, on which day the consuls originally succeeded to office, accompanied by the Senate and other magistrates and priests. In fulfillment of a vow made by their predecessors, the consuls offered to Jupiter a white ox, his favourite sacrifice, and, after rendering thanks for the preservation of the state during the past year, they made the same vow as that by which their predecessors had been bound. Then followed the feast of Jupiter. In later times this day became the central point of the great Roman games. When a victorious army returned home the triumphal procession passed to this temple.

Throughout the Roman Republic this remained the central Roman cult; and, although Augustus’ new foundations (Apollo Palatinus and Mars Ultor) were in some sense its rivals, that emperor was far too shrewd to attempt to oust Iuppiter Optimus Maximus from his paramount position; he became the protecting deity of the reigning emperor as representing the state, as he had been the protecting deity of the free republic. His worship spread over the whole empire.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jupiter-Roman-god

Sarah Michelle Prinze (née Gellar /ˈɡɛlər/ GHEL-ər; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted by a talent agent as a young child, she made her film debut at age six in the television film An Invasion of Privacy (1983). A leading role in the short-lived teen drama series Swans Crossing (1992) was followed by her breakthrough as Kendall Hart on the ABC soap opera All My Children (1993–1995), for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award.

Gellar achieved international recognition for her portrayal of Buffy Summers on the WB/UPN series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), which earned her a Saturn Award, and nominations for a Golden Globe and a TCA Award.[2] Her films have grossed in excess of US$570 million at the worldwide box office,[3] with credits including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Scream 2 (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), Scooby-Doo (2002), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), The Grudge (2004), Southland Tales (2006), TMNT (2007), and Do Revenge (2022).

Outside film, Gellar headlined The CW's Ringer (2011–2012), CBS's The Crazy Ones (2013–2014), and Paramount+'s Wolf Pack (2023), as well as providing voice work for Robot Chicken (2005–2018), Star Wars Rebels (2015–2016), and Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021). In 2015, she co-founded Foodstirs, an e-commerce baking company.[4] She released her own cookbook, Stirring Up Fun with Food, in 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Michelle_Gellar

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In Hebrew, the word saraph means "burning", and is used seven times throughout the text of the Hebrew Bible as a noun, usually to denote "serpent",[4] twice in the Book of Numbers, once in the Book of Deuteronomy, and four times in the Book of Isaiah.[5][6][7] The reason why the word for "burning" was also used to denote a serpent is not universally agreed upon; it may be due to a certain snake species' fiery colors, or perhaps the burning sensation left by its venomous bite. Regardless, its plural form, seraphim, occurs in both Numbers and Isaiah, but only in Isaiah is it used to denote an angelic being; likewise, these angels are referred to only as the plural seraphim – Isaiah later uses the singular saraph to describe a "fiery flying serpent", in line with the other uses of the term throughout the Tanakh.

There is emerging consensus that the motifs used to display seraphs in Hyksos-era Canaan had their original sources in Egyptian uraeus iconography.[8] In Egyptian iconography, the uraeus was used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, divinity and divine authority, and later iconography often showed uraei with wings. In the early monarchic period of Israel and Judah, Egyptian motifs were evidently borrowed by the Israelites en masse, as a plethora of personal seals belonging to classes ranging from commonfolk to royalty have been discovered, which incorporate several pieces of ancient Egyptian iconography, including the winged sun, ankh, the hedjet and deshret crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, scarabs, and the uraeus cobra. These uraei often had four wings, as opposed to the Egyptian standard which only gave them two.[9] These images have been connected with the seraphim angels associated with Isaiah's visions, or perhaps more directly to the aforementioned "fiery flying serpent", but this continues to be debated – and an image of serpentine seraphim clashes with Isaiah's own vision, which clearly envisioned seraphim with heads, legs, and arms – although, on the second matter, some scholars have proposed that the covered "feet" of the seraphim should be identified as genitals, as "feet" are often used in the Hebrew Bible as a euphemism for the penis.[10][11]

The vision in Isaiah Chapter 6 of seraphim in an idealized version of Solomon's Temple represents the sole instance in the Hebrew Bible of this word being used to describe celestial beings.[12] "... I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." (Isaiah 6:1–3)[13] And one cried to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is YHWH of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory." (verses 2–3)[14] One seraph carries out an act of ritual purification for the prophet by touching his lips with a live coal from the altar (verses 6–7)[15] "And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."

The text describes the "seraphim" as winged celestial beings with a fiery passion for doing God's good work.[16] Notwithstanding the wording of the text itself, at least one Hebrew scholar claims that in the Hebrew Bible the seraphim do not have the status of angels, and that it is only in later sources (like De Coelesti Hierarchia or Summa Theologiae) that they are considered to be a division of the divine messengers.[17]

Seraphim appear in the 2nd-century BC Book of Enoch,[18] where they are mentioned, in conjunction with cherubim, as the heavenly creatures standing nearest to the throne of God. In non-biblical sources they are sometimes called the Akyəst (Ge'ez: አክይስት "serpents", "dragons"; an alternate term for Hell).[19][20][21]

In the Second Book of Enoch, two classes of celestial beings are mentioned alongside the seraphim and cherubim, known as the phoenixes and the chalkydri (Ancient Greek: χαλκύδραι khalkýdrai, compound of χαλκός khalkós "brass, copper" + ὕδρα hýdra "hydra", "water-serpent"—lit. "brazen hydras", "copper serpents"). Both are described as "flying elements of the sun" that reside in either the 4th or 7th heaven, who have twelve wings and burst into song at sunrise.[22][23]

In the Book of Revelation (4:4–8), the beasts are described as being forever in God's presence and praising him: "[A]nd they rest not day and night, saying, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.'" This account differs slightly from the account of Isaiah, stating in the eighth verse, "And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within". They appear also in the Gnostic text, On the Origin of the World.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

◄ 2 Corinthians 11:14 ►

1 In the year of the death of king Uzziah, [a]I saw also the Lord sitting upon an [b]high throne, and lifted up, and the lower [c]parts thereof filled the Temple.

2 The [d]Seraphims stood upon it, every one had six wings: with twain he covered his [e]face, and with twain he covered his [f]feet, and with twain he did [g]fly.

3 And one cried to another, and said, [h]Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole [i]world is full of his glory.

Isaiah 6:1-3

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%206&version=GNV

Learned borrowing from Pali Buddha (“the Awakened One, the Enlightened One”), from buddha (“awakened, enlightened”), from Sanskrit बुद्ध (buddha, “awakened, enlightened”), past participle of बोधति (bodhati, “to wake, to awaken”). Distantly related to English bid and bede. Also cognate with Russian будить (buditʹ, “to wake up”)."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buddha

Alumbrado, (Spanish: “Enlightened”, ) Italian Illuminato, plural Illuminati, a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works, and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those who had received the “light.” The Alumbrados came primarily from among the reformed Franciscans and the Jesuits, but their doctrines seem to have influenced all classes of people. The extravagant claims made for their visions and revelations caused them to be relentlessly persecuted. The Inquisition issued edicts against them on three occasions (1568, 1574, and 1623)."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Alumbrado

Entries linking to gautama

Buddha (n.)

an epithet applied to the historical founder of Buddhism, 1680s, from Pali, literally "awakened, enlightened," past participle of budh "to awake, know, perceive," which is related to Sanskrit bodhati "is awake, observes, understands," from PIE root *bheudh- "be aware, make aware." Title given by his adherents to the man who taught this path, Siddhartha Gautama, also known to them as Sakyamuni "Sage of the Sakyas" (his family clan), who lived in northern India 5c. B.C.E."

https://www.etymonline.com/word/gautama

Gautama

surname of the Buddha, from Sanskrit Gotamah, properly a patronymic, literally "descendant of the greatest ox," from superlative of gauh "ox, bull, cow."

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

Exodus 32

1599 Geneva Bible

32 4 The Israelites impute their deliverance to the calf. 14 God is appeased by Moses’ prayer. 19 Moses breaketh the Tables.

1 But when the people saw, that Moses tarried long ere he came down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together against Aaron, and said unto him, Up, [a]make us gods to go before us: for of this Moses (the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt) we know not what is become of him.

2 And Aaron said unto them, [b]Pluck off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

3 Then all the people plucked from [c]themselves the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and they brought them unto Aaron.

4 Who received them at their hands, and fashioned it with the graving tool, and made of it a [d]molten calf: then they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

5 When Aaron saw that, he made an Altar before it: and Aaron proclaimed, saying, Tomorrow shall be the holy day of the Lord.

6 So they rose up the next day in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings: also the people sat them down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

7 ¶ Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go get thee down: for thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath corrupted their ways.

8 They [e]are soon turned out of the way, which I commanded them: for they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have offered thereto, saying, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

9 Again the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

10 Now [f]therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, for I will consume them: but I will make of thee a mighty people

11 But Moses prayed unto the Lord his God, and said, O Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Wherefore shall the Egyptians [g]speak, and say, He hath brought them out maliciously for to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the earth? turn from thy fierce wrath, and [h]change thy mind from this evil toward thy people.

13 Remember [i]Abraham, Isaac, and Israel thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidest unto them, I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven, and all this land, that I have spoken of, will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

14 Then the Lord changed his mind from the evil, which he threatened to do unto his people.

15 So Moses returned and went down from the mountain with the two Tables of the Testimony in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides, even on the one side and on the other were they written.

16 And these Tables were the work of God, and [j]this writing was the writing of God graven in the Tables.

17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the host.

18 Who answered, It is not the noise of them that have the victory, nor the noise of them that are overcome: but I do hear the noise of singing.

19 Now, as soon as he came near unto the host, he saw the calf and the dancing: so Moses’ wrath waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of his hands, and brake them in pieces beneath the mountain.

20 After, he took the calf, which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it unto powder, and strowed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel [k]drink of it.

21 Also Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

22 Then Aaron answered, Let not the wrath of my Lord wax fierce: Thou knowest this people, that they are even set on mischief.

23 And they said unto me, Make us gods to go before us: for we know not what is become of this Moses (the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt).

24 Then I said to them, Ye that have gold, pluck it off: and they brought it me, and I did cast it into the fire, and thereof came this calf.

25 Moses therefore saw that the people were [l]naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies)

26 And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who pertaineth to the Lord? let them come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves unto him.

27 Then he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Put every man his sword by his side, go to and fro, from gate to gate, through the host, and [m]slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

28 So the children of Levi did as Moses had commanded: and there fell of the people the same day about three thousand men.

29 (For Moses had said, Consecrate your hands unto the Lord this day, even every man upon his [n]son, and upon his brother, that there may be given you a blessing this day.)

30 And when the morning came, Moses said unto the people, Ye have committed a grievous crime: but now I will go up to the Lord, if I may pacify him for your sin.

31 Moses therefore went again unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

32 Therefore now if thou pardon their sin, thy mercy shall appear: but if thou wilt not, I pray thee, raise me [o]out of thy book, which thou hast written.

33 Then the Lord said to Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, I will put him out of my [p]book.

34 Go now therefore, bring the people unto the place which I commanded thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee, but yet in the day of my visitation I will visit their sin upon them.

35 [q]So the Lord plagued the people, because they caused Aaron to make the calf which he made.

Footnotes

Exodus 32:1 The root of Idolatry is, when men think that God is not at hand, except they see him carnally.

Exodus 32:2 Thinking that they would rather forego idolatry, than to resign their most precious jewels.

Exodus 32:3 Such is the rage of idolaters, that they spare no cost to satisfy their wicked desires.

Exodus 32:4 They smelled of their leaven of Egypt, where they saw calves, oxen and serpents worshipped.

Exodus 32:8 Whereby we see what necessity we have to pray earnestly to God, to keep us in his true obedience, and to send us good guides.

Exodus 32:10 God showeth that the prayers of the godly stay his punishment.

Exodus 32:12 Or, blaspheme.

Exodus 32:12 Or, repent.

Exodus 32:13 That is, thy promise made to Abraham.

Exodus 32:16 All these repetitions show how excellent a thing they defrauded themselves of by their idolatry.

Exodus 32:20 Partly to despite them of their idolatry, and partly that they should have none occasion to remember it afterward.

Exodus 32:25 Both destitute of God’s favor, and an occasion to their enemies to speak evil of their God.

Exodus 32:27 This fact did so please God, that he turned the curse of Jacob against Levi to a blessing, Deut. 33:9.

Exodus 32:29 In revenging God’s glory we must have no respect to person, but put off all carnal affection.

Exodus 32:32 So much he esteemed the glory of God, that he preferred it even to his own salvation.

Exodus 32:33 I will make it known that he was never predestinated in mine eternal counsel to life everlasting.

Exodus 32:35 This declareth how grievous a sin idolatry is, seeing that at Moses’ prayer God would not fully remit it.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2032&version=GNV

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[251] 5. 1While eating they should be careful to observe temperance, decorum, and propriety both interior and exterior in everything. 2A blessing should precede the meal, and it should be followed by a thanksgiving which all should recite with proper devotion and reverence. 3While the meal is being eaten, food should be given also to the soul, through the reading of a book[4] which is devotional rather than difficult so that all can understand it and draw profit from it, or through having someone preach during that time according to what the superiors may order, or through doing something similar for the glory of God our Lord [E].

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

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

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

The Sedlec Ossuary (Czech: Kostnice v Sedlci; German: Sedletz-Beinhaus) is a Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech: Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých), part of the former Sedlec Abbey in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.[1] The ossuary is among the most visited tourist attractions of the Czech Republic, drawing over 200,000 visitors annually.[2]

Four bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. A chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vault. Other works include piers and monstrances flanking the altar, a coat of arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, and the signature of František Rint, also executed in bone, on the wall near the entrance.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

"The secret thought of Hugues de Payens, in founding his Order, was not exactly to serve the ambition of the Patriarchs of Constantinople. There existed at that period in the East a Sect of Johannite Christians, who claimed to be the only true Initiates into the real mysteries of the religion of the Saviour. They pretended to know the real history of YESUS the ANOINTED, and, adopting in part the Jewish traditions and the tales of the Talmud, they held that the facts recounted in the Evangels are but allegories, the key of which Saint John gives, in saying that the

p. 817

world might be filled with the books that could be written upon the words and deeds of Jesus Christ; words which, they thought, would be only a ridiculous exaggeration, if he were not speaking of an allegory and a legend, that might be varied and prolonged to infinity.

"The Johannites ascribed to Saint John the foundation of their Secret Church, and the Grand Pontiffs of the Sect assumed the title of Christos, Anointed, or Consecrated, and claimed to have succeeded one another from Saint John by an uninterrupted succession of pontifical powers. He who, at the period of the foundation of the Order of the Temple, claimed these imaginary prerogatives, was named THEOCLET; he knew HUGUES DE PAYENS, he initiated him into the Mysteries and hopes of his pretended church, he seduced him by the notions of Sovereign Priesthood and Supreme royalty, and finally designated him as his successor.

"Thus the Order of Knights of the Temple was at its very origin devoted to the cause of opposition to the tiara of Rome and the crowns of Kings, and the Apostolate of Kabalistic Gnosticism was vested in its chiefs. For Saint John himself was the Father of the Gnostics, and the current translation of his polemic against the heretical of his Sect and the pagans who denied that Christ was the Word, is throughout a misrepresentation, or misunderstanding at least, of the whole Spirit of that Evangel.

"The tendencies and tenets of the Order were enveloped in profound mystery, and it externally professed the most perfect orthodoxy. The Chiefs alone knew the aim of the Order: the Subalterns followed them without distrust.

"To acquire influence and wealth, then to intrigue, and at need to fight, to establish the Johannite or Gnostic and Kabalistic dogma, were the object and means proposed to the initiated Brethren. The Papacy and the rival monarchies, they said to them, are sold and bought in these days, become corrupt, and to-morrow, perhaps, will destroy each other. All that will become the heritage of the Temple: the World will soon come to us for its Sovereigns and Pontiffs. We shall constitute the equilibrium of the Universe, and be rulers over the Masters of the World.

"The Templars, like all other Secret Orders and Associations, had two doctrines, one concealed and reserved for the Masters, which was Johannism; the other public, which was the Roman Catholic. Thus they deceived the adversaries whom they sought

XXX.

KNIGHT KADOSH.

Morals and Dogma

by Albert Pike

https://sacred-texts.com/mas/md/md31.htm

Thirteenth Rule. To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed."

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing

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

Patient Safety

At Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican, our staff is committed to the health and safety of all patients.

To ensure your hospital stay is as pleasant and safe as possible, please follow the guidelines below.

Be Involved

Take part in decisions about your treatment.

Ask the doctor or your care provider to explain anything you don’t understand.

Voice any concerns you have about your health care or condition.

Ask a trusted family member or friend to be with you when the doctor or care provider is explaining your treatment or condition.

Complete an Advance Directive and bring it with you to the hospital. If you are having surgery, make sure you, your doctor and your surgeon all agree on what will be done.

Ask the doctor to mark the area to be operated on before you are anesthetized.

Keep a written record of your medical history.

https://www.dignityhealth.org/las-vegas/patients-and-visitors/for-patients/patient-safety

The first Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc (south of France) in 1184. The murder of Pope Innocent III's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau by Cathars in 1208 sparked the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The Inquisition was permanently established in 1229 (Council of Toulouse), run largely by the Dominicans[28] in Rome and later at Carcassonne in Languedoc.

In 1252, the Papal Bull Ad extirpanda, following another assassination by Cathars, charged the head of state with funding and selecting inquisitors from monastic orders; this caused friction by establishing a competitive court to the Bishop's courts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition

Paragraph 2267 (capital punishment)

Main article: Catholic Church and capital punishment § Modification to the Catechism (2018)

One of the changes in the 1997 update consisted of the inclusion of the position on the death penalty that is defended in John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium vitae of 1995.[28][better source needed]

The paragraph dealing with the death penalty (2267) was revised again by Pope Francis in 2018.

The text previously stated (1997):[29]

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the DIGNITY of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."

The 2018 change to the Catechism reads:[30][29]

Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", and the Catholic Church works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catechism_of_the_Catholic_Church

FitzHenry's Funeral Home

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775-882-2644

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At Dignity Memorial, we strive to get every detail right the first time, every time. That's why we offer every family we serve a 100% service guarantee. Should any detail of our service not meet the expectations as promised in our agreement, we’ll do everything we can to make it right, up to refunding that portion of the service.

Learn more about The Dignity Difference benefits.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/funeral-homes/nevada/carson-city/fitzhenrys-funeral-home/6761

Argentina Big Hunting Trip Contact Form

Inbox

Argentina Big Hunting <no-reply@wufoo.com>

1:23 PM (4 hours ago)

to me

Hello,

I want to personally Thank You for considering Argentina Big Hunting. We take great pride in providing the best hunting experience in all of Argentina.

I will do my best to get back with you promptly. Depending on the time of day that an inquiry comes in it may take 12-24 hours to respond due to the fact I may be out in the field with our guest.

I am looking forward to tell you more about what we have to offer.

Dr. Patrick Geijo

Argentina Big Hunting

CTH CARSON TAHOE REGIONAL MEDICAL Dunn, William Francis III

ECENTER

CARSON TAHOE 1HEALTH

1600 Medical Parkway

Carson City NV 89703-4625

Phone: 445-8000

MRN: 22057880, DOB: 10/20/1950, Sex:

Acct #: 8201599288

Adm: 11/24/2021, D/C: 11/24/2021

11/24/2021-ED to Hosp-Admission (Discharged) in Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center Telemetry

Abstract Notes (continued)

4. Ischemic Cardiomyopathy

5. Severe Aortic Stenosis

6. Heart failure with reduced ejection Fraction

7. Coronary artery disease

8. Diabetes mellitus type 2

9. Essential Hypertension

10. Benign prostrate hypertrophy

11. Hyperlipidemia

12. Microcytic anemia

(continued)

13. Leukocytosis with negative urinalysis and negative CT chest angiogram

14. Remote history of gastrointestinal bleed.

Preliminary Cause of Death:

Cardiac Arrest secondary to Ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation

Pronounced by: Valerie Jakubos

€

Hospital Course:

William Francis Dunn is a 71-year-old male who was admitted for dizziness and shortness of breath on 11/24 at 0814 am And was noted to be in atrial flutter with rapid ventricular rate. This has been ongoing outpatient and he was started on oral anticoagulation with Eliquis and eventual plans for a direct cardioversion after 3-4 weeks of anticoagulation. Due to being refractory to oral medications and symptomatic with a rapid rate he presented to the ER. He was seen in evaluated by Cardiology Dr. Chryssos and there was plans for a TEE today and if negative for a thrombus then a direct cardioversion under the care of cardiology would be scheduled.

He was in the ER for most of his admitted stay due to no inpatient beds with transition to the floor around 2000. Dr. Chryssos did see this patient again in the evening for follow-up. He was still having rate control issues. He did have an episode of hypotension in the ER that was improved with holding beta blockade and an IV fluid bolus given.

It is documented at 2130 a code blue was called. The RN documented that the patient was alert and conscious but then became pale and unresponsive. Her documentation reports the heart rate was in the 180s and sustained ventricular tachycardia noted. Valerie Jakubos documented she was called to the bedside and patient noted to be in ventricular fibrillation, underwent intubation by the ER physician MD Calvo and despite attempted resuscitative measure the patient expired at 2135 p.m.

Author: Jennifer ONeill, APRN

Disclaimer: This dictation was created using voice recognition software. I have made every reasonable attempts to avoid errors, but this document may contain an error not identifiable before finalizing the document. If the error changes the accuracy of the document, I would appreciate it being brought to my attention.

Electronically signed by Jennifer Oneill, APRN at 11/25/21 1115

Printed by 121402 at 12/1/21 3:28 PM

Pag

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

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

Meaning of Numbers: The Number 9

The English word "nine" used for number 9 appears 50 times in 49 King James Bible verses. While the word occurs 45 times in the Old Testament, it is only written 5 times in the New Testament. The Old Testament writings that use the word the most are Genesis (12 times) followed by Joshua (6). The New Testament books that use the word are Luke (3 times) then Matthew (twice).

The number 9 symbolizes divine completeness or conveys the meaning of finality.

See Outline of Book of Revelation!

Christ died at hour 9 of the day, or 3 p.m., to make the way of salvation open to everyone. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the only one of God's annual Feast days of worship that requires believers to fast. This special day, considered by many Jews to be the holiest of the year, begins at sunset on day 9 of the seventh Hebrew month (Leviticus 23:32).

The number 9 also represents the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. These fruits are faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, long suffering, love, peace and self-control (Galatians 5:22 - 23).

Appearances of the Number Nine

The Scriptural chapters that have exactly 9 verses are Joshua 20, 2Chronicles 27, Psalm 8, 20, 28, 47, 52, 98, 99, 113, 122, 137, 149, Isaiah 15, 31, Hosea 14 and Zechariah 13. The book of the minor prophet Amos is the only one in God's word that has nine chapters.

Hoshea, who was Israel's last king before the kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 723 B.C., reigned for just 9 years (732 to 723 B.C.).

In was at hour 9 of the day that a Roman Centurion named Cornelius was told, in a vision, to contact the Apostle Peter. Cornelius would eventually be baptized and receive God's spirit, becoming the first recorded Gentile convert to Christianity (Acts 10).

The Ministry of Jesus

Jesus, in the early part of 30 A.D., is traveling south through Samaria when he runs into ten leprous men. After the men cry out to be healed, they are sent to show themselves to the priests. On their journey they are miraculously healed of their wasting disease! Yet of the ten men only one of them returned to thank the Lord.

Then one of them, seeing that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. . . Jesus said, "Were not ten cleansed? But where are the other nine? Are not any found returning to give glory to God except this stranger?" (Luke 17:15, 17 - 18).

Friday March 31 in 30 A.D. (Nisan 9 on the Hebrew calendar) fell within the last week of Jesus' earthly life. It was the day he threw the moneychangers and other crooks out of the temple just like he had done at the start of his ministry (Luke 19:46). It was also the day children shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" when they saw him (Matthew 21:15).

Jesus appeared alive on 9 separate occasions after he was resurrected from the dead. He appeared once to Mary Magdalene and once to two men traveling to Emmaus, a group of 500 believers and his half-brother James. He miraculously showed himself five other times to various groupings of the apostles.

Number 9 and Sorcery

In the Old Testament there are at least 9 groups or individuals who practiced sorcery. Although modern culture and entertainment tends to paint those who practice such 'black arts' in a benign or positive light, the motives of Old Testament sorcerers were evil to the core.

1) God promised to punish the Egyptians and to destroy the counsels of their charmers, conjurers, magicians and those who cast spells (Isaiah 19:3,11 - 12).

2) Egypt's Pharaoh called upon his sorcerers and magicians to confront the miracles God was doing through Moses and Aaron (Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7,18).

3) Balak employs the services of Balaam, who is a well-known soothsayer, to curse the newly freed Israelites (Numbers 22, 23).

4) Jezebel, the wife of Israel's evil King Ahab, used witchcraft and the evil arts to get her way (2Kings 9:22).

5) God promised to punish Nineveh for enticing a number of their neighbors like a "mistress of witchcrafts" to indulge in idolatrous practices (Nahum 3).

6) The Babylonians were well-known for using the services of magicians, astrologers and sorcerers (Isaiah 47:9 - 13, Daniel 2:2,10, 27).

7) Belshazzar called upon his astrologers and wise men to interpret the "handwriting on the wall" done by the finger of God (Daniel 5:7,15).

8) God warns his people not to be troubled by "the signs of heaven" as the pagans are with their astrologers (Jeremiah 10:2, Micah 3:6 - 7).

9) False prophets use divination to deceive others into thinking that they are speaking for God (Jeremiah 14:14, 27:9, Ezekiel 13:6 - 9).

Adam and Jesus

The Greek word adam, Strong's Concordance #G76, is recorded 9 times in 7 Greek New Testament verses. The word, left untranslated in the King James Bible, is the name of the first human created by God. The gospel writer Luke traced Jesus' lineage, through his mother Mary, all the way back to Adam.

Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God (Luke 3:38, KJV).

The Greek word Melchisedek (Strong's #G3198) is written 9 times in 9 New Testament verses. It is translated as "Melchisedec" in the King James and "Melchizedek" in other translations.

Melchisedec was the mysterious King of Salem and Priest of God who greeted Abraham after his victory over Chedorlaomer (Genesis 14). The Apostle Paul states that Jesus is a priest after "the order of Melchisedec."

As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec . . . Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 5:6, 10, KJV).

Interestingly, Jesus is also referred to as "the last Adam" by Paul (1Corinthians 15:45).

More Info on Biblical Meaning of 9

One of the many kings the ancient Israelites had to overcome to claim their Promised Land inheritance is Og of Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:11). Og was a giant of a man who needed a bed that was 9 cubits long (roughly 13 1/2 feet or 4.1 meters) by 4 cubits wide (6 feet or 1.8 meters)!

The total destruction of Jerusalem's temple began on Ab 9 on the Hebrew Calendar. It was also on this day that the second (also known as Herod's) temple was burned to the ground by the Romans in 70 A.D.

There are 9 people recorded in the Bible as having leprosy. They are Moses, Miriam, Naaman, Gehazi, King Azariah and the four lepers of Samaria found in 2Kings 7:3.

The act of executing a criminal through stoning is believed to have originated with the ancient Hebrews. The witnesses of the crime were required to cast the first stone (John 8:7).

The first 7 of 9 people recorded in Scripture as being stoned are a Sabbath-breaker (Numbers 15:36), a blasphemer (Leviticus 24:14), Abimelech (Judges 9:53), Achan (Joshua 7:25), Zechariah (2Chronicles 24:21), Adoram (1Kings 12:18) and Naboth (1Kings 21:10). The two New Testament people stoned were Stephen (Acts 7) and the Apostle Paul (Acts 14:19).

The English word "thanksgiving" or its plural occurs nine times in nine King James New Testament verses.

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God (2Corinthians 4:15, KJV).

https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/9.html

Sin (/ˈsiːn/) or Suen (Akkadian: 𒀭𒂗𒍪, dEN.ZU[1]) also known as Nanna (Sumerian: 𒀭𒋀𒆠 DŠEŠ.KI, DNANNA[2]) is the Mesopotamian god representing the moon. While these two names originate in two different languages, respectively Akkadian and Sumerian, they were already used interchangeably to refer to one deity in the Early Dynastic period. They were sometimes combined into the double name Nanna-Suen. A third well attested name is Dilimbabbar (𒀭𒀸𒁽𒌓). Additionally, the name of the moon god could be represented by logograms reflecting his lunar character, such as d30 (𒀭𒌍), referring to days in the lunar month or dU4.SAKAR (𒀭𒌓𒊬), derived from a term referring to the crescent. In addition to his astral role, Sin was also closely associated with cattle herding. Furthermore, there is some evidence that he could serve as a judge of the dead in the underworld. A distinct tradition in which he was regarded either as a god of equal status as the usual heads of the Mesopotamian pantheon, Enlil and Anu, or as a king of the gods in his own right, is also attested, though it only had limited recognition. In Mesopotamian art, his symbol was the crescent. When depicted anthropomorphically, he typically either wore headwear decorated with it or held a staff topped with it, though on kudurru the crescent alone serves as a representation of him. He was also associated with boats.

The goddess Ningal was regarded as Sin's wife. Their best attested children are Inanna (Ishtar) and Utu (Shamash), though other deities, for example Ningublaga or Numushda, could be regarded as members of their family too. Sin was also believed to have an attendant deity (sukkal), Alammuš, and various courtiers, such as Nineigara, Ninurima and Nimintabba. He was also associated with other lunar gods, such as Hurrian Kušuḫ or Ugaritic Yarikh.

The main cult center of Sin was Ur. He was already associated with this city in the Early Dynastic period, and was recognized as its tutelary deity and divine ruler. His temple located there was known under the ceremonial name Ekišnugal, and through its history it was rebuilt by multiple Mesopotamian rulers. Ur was also the residence of the en priestesses of Nanna, the most famous of whom was Enheduanna. Furthermore, from the Old Babylonian period onward he was also closely associated with Harran. The importance of this city as his cult center grew in the first millennium BCE, as reflected in Neo-Hittite, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources. Sin's temple survived in later periods as well, under Achaemenid, Seleucid and Roman rule. Sin was also worshiped in many other cities in Mesopotamia. Temples dedicated to him existed for example in Tutub, which early on was considered another of his major cult centers, as well as in Urum, Babylon, Uruk, Nippur and Assur. The extent to which beliefs pertaining to him influenced the Sabians, a religious community who lived in Harran after the Muslim conquest of the Levant, is disputed.

Names

While it is agreed that the two primary names of the Mesopotamian moon god, Nanna and Sin (Suen), originated in two different languages, respectively Sumerian and Akkadian, it is not possible to differentiate between them as designations of separate deities, as they effectively fully merged at an early date.[3] Gebhard J. Selz [de] points out this phenomenon is already attested in sources from Lagash from the Early Dynastic period, where the name Nanna does not appear, and Sin is the form used in both Sumerian and Akkadian context.[4] The process of conflation presumably started prior to the invention of cuneiform.[5] Sometimes the double name Nanna-Suen was used,[6] as evidenced for example by a short theological text from the Ur III period listing the main deities of the official pantheon.[7] It is sometimes used to refer to this god in modern Assyriological publications too.[8][9][10]

Nanna

The precise etymology of the name Nanna is unknown,[3] though it is agreed that it is not a genitive construction.[11] It is first attested in the Uruk period.[12] In earliest cuneiform texts from Uruk and Ur it was written as (d)LAK-32.NA, with NA possibly serving as a phonetic complement.[3] The name of the city of Ur (Urim) was accordingly written as LAK-32.UNUGki (𒋀𒀕𒆠), "residence of Nanna", per analogy with toponyms such as Zabalam, INANNA.UNUGki.[1] In later periods LAK-32 coalesced with ŠEŠ (the ideogram for "brother"), and Nanna's name came to be written as dŠEŠ+KI or dŠEŠ.KI, though phonetic spellings such as na-an-na are attested too, for example as glosses in lexical lists.[3]

In early Assyriological scholarship it was often assumed that the variant form Nannar was the standard form of the name, but further research demonstrated that it does not predate the Old Babylonian period.[11] The writing dna-an-na-ar is attested in Akkadian and Elamite texts, and was the result of linguistic contamination between the theonym Nanna and the common Akkadian noun nannaru, "light".[3] As an epithet, nannaru could be used to address the moon god, but also Ishtar and Girra.[13]

It is uncertain if the theonym Nanum attested in a theophoric name from Umma is a derivative of Nanna, while Nanni worshiped in Mari and in the kingdom of Khana was a female deity and might be related to Nanaya rather than the moon god.[1]

Sin

In Akkadian the moon god was called Sin (Sîn) or Suen (Su’en).[1] The former is the standard reading of the name from the Old Babylonian period onward, while the latter was presumably the older uncontracted pronunciation.[14] The etymology of this name remains uncertain.[15] One of the inscriptions of Gudea from the third millennium BCE refers to Sin as a god "whose name nobody can explain", which might be an indication that his name was already unclear and a subject of scribal speculation during his reign.[16]

The name Sin was typically written in cuneiform as dEN.ZU, as possibly already attested in a text from the Uruk period, though oldest certain examples, such as entries in the god lists from Fara and Abu Salabikh, only date back to the Early Dynastic period.[1] Most likely it initially developed as a rebus meant to graphically resemble the names of gods whose names had Sumerian etymologies and contained the element EN, for example Enlil.[15] Various phonetic spellings are also attested, for example sú-en, sí-in, si-in and se-en.[17] The large variety of these variants might indicate that the first sibilant was difficult to render in cuneiform.[14]

A variant form of Sin's name, Suinu, is also attested in texts from Ebla.[18] It has been pointed out that an Eblaite lexical list with the entry sú-i-nu is the oldest available attestation of a phonetic spelling of the name.[1] However, the logogram dEN.ZU was also used in this city.[19] Additionally, in a translation of an Akkadian text written in the Ugaritic alphabetic script the name is rendered as sn (KTU 1.70, line 4), while in Aramaic the variants sn, syn and šn are attested.[15] In the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible Sin's name is rendered as san in the theophoric names Sennacherib (Sîn-aḫḫe-erība) and Sanballat (Sîn-uballiṭ).[15] Alfonso Archi argues that the theonym syn attested in a number of inscriptions from South Arabia should be interpreted as a variant of Sin's name too, and suggests vocalizing it similarly to the Eblaite form of the name.[18] However, Manfred Krebernik [de] concludes that no certain cognates of Sin's name have been identified in other Semitic languages, and syn (or sn), who according to him is only known from Thamudic inscription from Hadhramaut, should instead be interpreted as Sayin, the local sun god.[15]

From the Old Babylonian period onward Sin's name could be represented by the logogram d30 (𒀭𒌍), derived from the cuneiform numeral 30, symbolically associated with him due to the number of days in the lunar month.[1] It was originally assumed that an even earlier example occurs in the writing of a personal name from the Ur III period, but subsequent research demonstrated that this was the result of erroneous collation.[20] In the first millennium BCE d30 became the most common writing.[21] For example, in the text corpus from Neo-Babylonian Uruk only a single text, a kudurru inscription of Ibni-Ishtar, uses dEN.ZU instead of d30.[22] Uncommonly dNANNA was used in Akkadian texts as a sumerogram meant to be read as Sin.[1]

Dilimbabbar

Next to Sin and Nanna, the best attested name of the moon god is dAŠ-im4-babbar (𒀭𒀸𒁽𒌓).[15] It was originally assumed that it should be read as Ašimbabbar, though it was subsequently proved that this depended on an erroneous collation.[23] By 2016 the consensus view that Dilimbabbar is the correct reading was established based on the discovery of multiple passages providing phonetic syllabic spellings.[24] The name can be translated as "the shining one who walks alone".[25] This meaning was originally established based on the now abandoned reading of the name, but it is still considered a valid translation.[24] An alternate proposal relying on homophony of the element dilim and the logogram dilim2 (LIŠ) is to explain Dilimbabbar as "the shining bowl".[26] The term dilim2 was a loan from Akkadian tilimtu, "bowl".[27] Piotr Steinkeller notes that it is not impossible both proposals regarding the meaning of Dilimbabbar are correct, and that the scribes might have intentionally created puns depending on the well attested tradition of referring to the moon as a unique or solitary celestial body.[28]

Dilimbabbar is already attested in the Early Dynastic god list from Abu Salabikh.[15] The Zame Hymns from the same period link this title with the worship of the moon god in Urum (Tell Uqair).[29] It is not certain if at this point in time it was understood as a title of Sin or as the name of a distinct deity of analogous character.[30] Mark Glenn Hall notes that the absence of theophoric names invoking the moon god under this name from available sources might indicate that if Dilimbabbar was ever understood as a distinct deity this tradition disappeared very early on.[31] However, Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman point out that in the Temple Hymns (hymn 37) Dilimbabbar is addressed as a shepherd of Sin, which they argue might be a relic of an intermediate stage between the existence of two independent moon gods and their full conflation.[32]

For unknown reasons the name Dilimbabbar is absent from all the other known Early Dynastic sources, as well as these from the subsequent Sargonic and Ur III periods, with the next oldest attestation being identified in an inscription of Nur-Adad of Larsa from Ur from the Isin-Larsa period, which might reflect a rediscovery of the name by scribes under hitherto unknown circumstances.[26] It remained in use through subsequent periods, down to the first millennium BCE.[33]

The Akkadian epithet Namraṣit was considered analogous to Dilimbabbar, as attested in the god list An = Anum (tablet III, line 26).[34] It can be translated as "whose rise is luminous".[25] Steinkeller points out that it is not a direct translation of Dilimbabbar, as it effectively leaves out the element dilim.[24] Bendt Alster assumed that the equivalence was the result of late reinterpretation.[35]

Character

Sin was understood both as an anthropomorphic deity representing the moon, and as the astral body itself.[36] He was responsible for providing light during the night.[37] His luminous character could be highlighted with epithets such as "the luminary of the heavens and earth" (nannār šamê u erṣeti) or "the luminary of all creation" (nannār kullati binīti).[38] The growth of the moon over the course of the month was reflected in comparing Sin to the growth of fruit (Akkadian inbu, Sumerian gurun) as attested in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources, especially hemerologies.[39] However, it was not applied consistently as a designation for a specific phase of the moon.[40] Lunar eclipses were believed to be the result of Sin being surrounded by seven evil utukku sent by Anu.[41]

Next to his astral aspect, Sin's other main role has been described as that of a pastoral deity.[42] He was associated with cattle and with dairy products.[43] This link is reflected in his secondary names Abkar, "shining cow", and Ablulu, "the one who makes the cows abundant".[44] He could be addressed as a herdsman in astral context, with stars being poetically described as his herd.[45] In addition to cows, he could also be associated with sheep and with wild animals inhabiting steppes, especially ibexes and gazelles.[46]

Sin was perceived as a benign deity who could be petitioned for help.[6] He was responsible for guaranteeing abundance and growth, especially in Ur and Harran, which most likely reflects the well attested phenomenon of locally assigning such a role to tutelary deities of specific areas.[47] It was also believed that he could provide people with offspring, as evidenced by prayer in which he is asked for that by childless worshipers, both men and women.[48] He was also believed to aid pregnant women, both during the beginning of pregnancy and in labour.[49] This aspect of his character is highlighted in the incantation Cow of Sîn, which states that he would send a pair of lamassu goddesses to help mothers with difficult births.[50] The common epithet of Sin, "father" (a-a),[51] underlined his ability to cause growth and bring abundance.[47] However, it also reflected his role as a senior member of his pantheon, as well as his authority over deities regarded as his children or servants.[52] It has also been suggested that it metaphorically referred to him as the divine representation of the full moon, with texts instead describing him as a youthful god instead reflecting his role as the new moon.[6] Another epithet commonly applied to him was lugal ("king").[51] Presumably it constituted an implicit reference to his status as the tutelary god of Ur.[53] In the first millennium BCE, as the god of Harran he could be called Bēl-Ḫarrān (dEN.KASKAL), "lord of Harran".[54] This title appears particularly commonly in theophoric names.[55]

Sin could also function as a divine judge in the underworld,[56] as attested for example in the so-called First Elegy of the Pushkin Museum, in which a man named Ludingira hopes that he will proclaim a good verdict for his deceased father.[57] This role might have originally developed as a way to explain why the moon is not visible for a part of each month.[56] The composition in mention states that his judgment took place on the day of the disappearance of the moon (Sumerian u4-ná, Akkadian ūm bubbuli).[58] However, Dina Katz argues that in contrast with the frequent assignment of a similar role to Shamash, Sin was usually not associated with judgment of either the living or the dead.[59] References to both of them acting as judges are nonetheless known from Old Babylonian inscriptions.[60]

In Mesopotamian medicine skin diseases, especially leprosy (saḫaršubbû), as well as epileptic symptoms, could be interpreted as a manifestation of Sin's wrath.[61] The former are also mentioned in curse formulas as a punishment he could inflict upon oath breakers.[62]

As the head of the pantheon

A number of sources attest the existence of a tradition in which Sin was regarded as the sole head of the Mesopotamian pantheon or a deity equal in rank to the traditional kings of the gods, Anu and Enlil.[63] According to Wilfred G. Lambert, most of the evidence for this view postdates the reign of Meli-Shipak II, and indicates it might have been particularly popular in Harran.[64] An Old Babylonian literary composition written in Sumerian describes Sin as the head of the divine assembly (Ubšu’ukkin),with Anu, Enlil, Inanna, Utu, Enki and Ninhursag serving as his advisers.[65] Two of his titles known from the god list An = Anum, dUkkin ("the assembly") and Ukkin-uru ("mighty assembly"), might reflect this portrayal.[51] Some Old Babylonian theophoric names might also be connected to the view that Sin was the head of the pantheon, namely Sîn-bēl-ili ("Sin is the lord of the gods"), Sîn-šar-ili ("Sin is the king of the gods") or Sîn-il-ili ("Sin is god of the gods").[66] Lambert notes that while similar names invoking other gods, for example Shamash and Adad, are also known, Sîn-bēl-ili is ultimately the most common.[64]

Examples of texts elevating Sin's rank are known from Ur from the period of the Neo-Assyrian governor Sîn-balāssu-iqbi's reign.[67] The moon god was in this case seemingly reinterpreted as a "local Enlil”, acting as the king of the gods in Ur.[68] It has been argued that the view that Sin was the supreme god was later particularly enthusiastically supported by the last Neo-Babylonian ruler, Nabonidus.[64] In one of his inscriptions from Harran Sin is described as the "lord of the gods" who possessed "Enlilship", "Anuship" and "Eaship".[69] However, Melanie Groß stresses that Nabonidus' devotion should for the most part not be treated as an unusual phenomenon, save for the fact that Harran was not the center of his empire.[70] She notes that the elevation of city deities significant for specific rulers to the top of the pantheon of the respective states is well documented for example in the case of Marduk and Ashur.[71] Aino Hätinen points out that in Harran similar formulas were used to refer to Sin by Ashurbanipal, and are thus not unique to Nabonidus and do not necessarily indicate elevation of this god during his reign.[72] She suggests both Nabonidus and Ashurbanipal relied on so-called "Theology of the Moon", a concept well attested in explanatory texts from the first millennium BCE according to which Sin possessed divine powers (Sumerian ĝarza, Akkadian parṣū) equal to these of Anu, Enlil and Ea during the first half of the lunar month.[73]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_(mythology)

The Sun and Moon allegory is used to depict a medieval political theory of hierocracy which submits the secular power to the spiritual power, stating that the Bishop of Rome is like the Sun, the only source of his own light, while the Emperor is like the Moon, which merely reflects lights and has no value without the Sun. It was espoused by the Catholic Church of Innocent III and instantiated to some extent in medieval political practice. It was among the first ambitions of papal domination of Europe.

Description

Finding this imagery in the Book of Genesis, the Allegory images authentic spiritual authority as the Sun and any and all civil, or political or secular, authority as the Moon. By doing so, it illustrates that the Roman Catholic Pope, as "Supreme Pontiff", "Vicar of Christ", et cetera, and therefore the supreme universal spiritual authority on Earth, is like the Sun that is the one source of light for itself and all other celestial bodies orbiting it; while the Holy Roman Emperor, as symbolic and intended supreme civil, political, and secular authority on Earth, and having theoretically received his authority from and at the pleasure of the Pope, is like the Moon – that is, dependent upon the Sun for any illumination, merely reflects solar light, and ultimately has no light without the Sun. This theory dominated European political theory and practice in the 13th century.[1] It is related to the general theory of Papal supremacy and "plenitudo potestatis" as articulated by the Roman Catholic Church.

LETTER OF INNOCENT III re-affirming primacy of the Pope's authority over civil powers. November 3, 1198:

To the noble man Acerbus and to the other leaders of Tuscany and of the Duchy.

Just as God, founder of the universe, has constituted two large luminaries in the firmament of Heaven, a major one to dominate the day and a minor one to dominate the night, so he has established in the firmament of the Universal Church, which is signified by the name of Heaven, two great dignities, a major one to preside--so to speak--over the days of the souls, and a minor one to preside over the nights of the bodies. They are the Pontifical authority and the royal power. Thus, as the moon receives its light from the sun and for this very reason is minor both in quantity and in quality, in its size and in its effect, so the royal power derives from the Pontifical authority the splendour of its dignity, the more of which is inherent in it, the less is the light with which it is adorned, whereas the more it is distant from its reach, the more it benefits in splendour. Both these powers or leaderships have had their seat established in Italy, which country consequently obtained the precedence over all provinces by Divine disposition. And therefore, as it is lawful that we should extend the watchfulness of our providence to all provinces, we must especially and with paternal solicitude provide for Italy where the foundation of the Christian religion has been set up and where the pre-eminence of the priesthood and kingship stands prominent through the primacy of the Apostolic See.

We therefore admonish and exhort you all in the Lord through this Apostolic letter, enjoining that since you receive a true and firm assurance from us who--as it is fitting for the Apostolic dignity--intend to do more for you than we want to promise, you should always endeavour to act in a way which would add to the honour and growth of the Roman Church so as to deserve and strengthen the pledge of her favour and friendship.[2]

In 1215, this concept was reflected in Canon 3 of the Fourth Lateran Council regarding heretics:

...if a temporal ruler, after having been requested and admonished by the Church, should neglect to cleanse his territory of this heretical foulness, let him be excommunicated by the metropolitan and the other bishops of the province. If he refuses to make satisfaction within a year, let the matter be made known to the supreme pontiff, that he may declare the ruler's vassals absolved from their allegiance and may offer the territory to be ruled by Catholics, who on the extermination of the heretics may possess it without hindrance and preserve it in the purity of faith; the right, however, of the chief ruler is to be respected as long as he offers no obstacle in this matter and permits freedom of action.[3]

While this theory of papal sovereignty in temporal as well as spiritual matters was, by the fourteenth century, generally rejected as out-of-date,[4] it entered into canon law and was reinforced by the Allegory of the Two Swords in the bull of Pope Boniface VIII entitled Unam Sanctam. Dante Alighieri argued contrarily to the Allegory of the Sun and Moon in his De Monarchia. In this work, he explicitly rejects the allegory of the sun and the moon, and defends that the Emperor is the supreme authority on secular matters, while the Pope is the supreme authority in spiritual matters, none of them having precedence or supremacy over the other. For some time, the work was placed on the Index due to this heterodox conception of Catholic politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_and_Moon_allegory

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

What is a SIN?

A Social Insurance Number (SIN) is a 9-digit number that you need to work and be paid in Canada and access government programs and benefits. It is also used to file taxes.

If you are not eligible for a SIN, you can apply for an Individual Tax Number (ITN) for tax purposes.

You are responsible for protecting your SIN. Ensure that you store documents containing your SIN and personal information in a safe place. For more information about protecting your SIN, please visit here.

International students get a SIN starting with the number ‘9,’ which lets employers know that you are a temporary resident in Canada.

https://international.northeastern.edu/ogs/student-support/global-campuses/canada/social-insurance-number/

Can. 666 In the use of means of social communication, necessary discretion is to be observed and those things are to be avoided which are harmful to one’s vocation and dangerous to the chastity of a consecrated person."

TITLE II. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES (Cann. 607 - 709) CODE OF CANON LAW

https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann607-709_en.html

A novena (from Latin: novem, "nine") is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks.[1] The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost, when the disciples gathered in the upper room and devoted themselves to prayer, is often considered to be the first novena.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novena

'As per numerology, 666 when added comes to 9, a tricky number that stands for greediness, and natural disasters. But 9 (6+6+6+18=1+8=90 is also the number of Mars (Mangal) which means extra energy which can either make or break. It is impulsive, restless, stubborn and inflexible,' adds Jumaani."

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad-times/666-the-devil-or-cupid/articleshow/1621141.cms#

"[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

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Revelation 13:16-18

New International Version

"16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

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%3A16-18&version=NIV

Ultramontanism was a school of thought of the Catholic Church which promoted supreme papal authority in matters of spirituality and governance. Ultramontanism rejected modern ideals in favour of the supremacy of Catholicism and the Catholic Church in public life. This school of thought was particularly influent in the French-Canadian society during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ultramontanism

William FRANCIS Dunn IV

Social Security Number: 557-73-0018

ROME Survey Page

https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/lp/landing-page-rome.html

Revelation 17

1599 Geneva Bible

17 1 That great whore is described, 2 with whom the Kings of the earth committed fornication. 6 She is drunken with the blood of Saints. 7 The mystery of the woman, and the beast that carried her, expounded. 11 Their destruction. 14 The Lamb’s victory.

1 Then [a]there came one of the seven Angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come: I will show [b]thee the [c]damnation of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters,

2 With whom have committed fornication the kings of the earth, and the inhabitants of the earth are drunken with the wine of her fornication.

3 [d]So he carried me away into the wilderness in the Spirit, and I saw a woman sit upon a [e]scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, which had seven heads, and ten horns.

4 And [f]the woman was arrayed [g]in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, [h]and had a cup of gold in her hand full of abomination, and filthiness of her fornication.

5 [i]And in her forehead was a name written, A mystery, [j]that great Babylon that mother of whoredoms, and abominations of the earth.

6 [k]And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of JESUS: and when I saw her, [l]I wondered with great marvel.

7 [m]Then the Angel said unto me, Wherefore marvelest thou? I will show thee the mystery of that woman, and of that beast that beareth her, which hath seven heads and ten horns.

8 [n]The beast that thou hast seen, [o]was and is not, and [p]shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and shall go into perdition, and they that dwell on the earth, shall wonder (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) [q]when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

9 [r]Here is the mind that hath wisdom, The [s]seven heads [t]are seven mountains, whereon the woman sitteth: [u]they are also seven Kings.

10 [v]Five are fallen, [w]and one is, [x]and another is not yet come: and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

11 [y]And the beast that was, and is not, is even [z]the eighth, and is [aa]one of the seven, and [ab]all go into destruction.

12 [ac]And the ten horns which thou sawest, are [ad]ten kings, which yet have not received a kingdom, but shall receive power, as Kings [ae]at one hour with the beast.

13 [af]These have one mind, and shall give their power and authority unto the beast.

14 These shall fight with the [ag]Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings: and they that are on his side, called, and chosen, and faithful.

15 [ah]And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, [ai]are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

16 And the ten [aj]horns which thou sawest upon the beast, are they that shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

17 [ak]For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to do with one consent for to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled.

18 And that woman which thou sawest, is that [al]great city which reigned over the kings of the earth.

Footnotes

Revelation 17:1 The state of the Church militant being declared, now followeth the state of the Church overcoming and getting victory, as I showed before in the beginning of chapter 10. The state is set forth in 4 chapters. As in the place beforegoing I noted, that in that history the order of time was not always exactly observed, so the same is to be understood in this history, that it is distinguished according to the persons of which it treateth, and that in the several stories of the persons is severly observed in the time thereof. For first is delivered the story of Babylon destroyed, in this and the next chap. (for this Babylon out of all doubt shall perish before the 2 beasts and the Dragon). Secondly is delivered the destruction of both the two beasts, chap. 19. And lastly of the Dragon, chap. 20, in the story of the spiritual Babylon are distinctly set forth the state thereof in this chap. and the overthrow done from God, chap. 18. In this verse and that which followeth is a transition or passage unto the first argument, consisting of a particular calling of the Prophet (as often heretofore) and a general proposition.

Revelation 17:1 That is the damnable harlot, by a figure of speech called hypallage. For S. John as yet had not seen her. Although another interpretation may be borne, yet I like this better.

Revelation 17:1 The sentence that is pronounced against this harlot.

Revelation 17:3 Henceforth is propounded the type of Babylon, and the state thereof in 4 verses. After a declaration of the type, in the rest of this chap., in the type are described two things, the beast (of whom chap. 13), in verse 3, and the woman that sitteth upon the beast, verses 4, 5, 6. The beast in process of time hath gotten somewhat more than was expressed in the former vision. First in that it is not read before that he was appareled in scarlet, a robe imperial and of triumph. Secondly, in that this is full of names of blasphemy: the other carried the name of blasphemy only in his head. So God did teach that this beast is much increased in impiety and injustice and doth in this last age, triumph in both these more insolently and proudly than ever before.

Revelation 17:3 A scarlet color, that is, with a red and purple garment: and surely it was not without cause that the Romish clergy were so much delighted with this color.

Revelation 17:4 That harlot, the spiritual Babylon, which is Rome. She is described by her attire, profession and deeds.

Revelation 17:4 In attire most glorious, triumphant, most rich, and most gorgeous.

Revelation 17:4 In profession, the nourisher of all, in this verse, and teaching her mysteries unto all, verse 5, setting forth all things most magnificently: but indeed most pernicious besotting miserable men with her cup, and bringing upon them a deadly giddiness.

Revelation 17:5 Deceiving with the title of religion, and public inscription of mystery: which the beast in times past did not bear.

Revelation 17:5 An exposition: in which S. John declareth what manner of woman this is.

Revelation 17:6 In manner of deeds: She is red with blood, and sheddeth it most licentiously, and therefore is colored with the blood of the Saints, as on the contrary part. Christ is set forth imbrued with the blood of his enemies; Isa. 3:1.

Revelation 17:6 A passage unto the second part of this chapter, by occasion given of S. John, as the words of the Angel do show, in the next verse.

Revelation 17:7 The second part or place, as I said, verse 1. The narration of the vision, promised in this verse, and delivered in the verse following. Now there is delivered first a narration of the beast and his story, unto verse 14. After, of the harlot, unto the end of the chap.

Revelation 17:8 The story of the beast hath a triple description of him. The first is a distinction of this beast from all that ever hath been at any time: which distinction is contained in this verse: The second is a delineation or painting out of the beast by things present, by which he might even at that time be known of the godly, and this delineation is according to his heads, verses 2, 10, 11. The third is an historical foretelling of things to come, and to be done by him: and these are ascribed unto his horns, verses 12, 13, 14. This beast is that Empire of Rome, of which I spake, chap. 13:11, according to the mutations and changes whereof which then had already happened, the holy Ghost hath distinguished and set out the same. The Apostle distinguisheth this beast from all others in these words. The beast which thou sawest, was and is not. For so I expound the words of the Apostle for evidence’s sake as I will further declare in the notes following.

Revelation 17:8 The meaning is, that beast which thou sawest before (Rev. 13:1) and which yet thou hast now seen, was, (I say was) even from Julius Caesar in respect of beginning, rising up, station, glory, dominion, manner and stock, from the house of Julius: and yet is not now the same, if thou look unto the house and stock for the dominion of this family was translated unto another, after the death of Nero from the other unto a third, from a third unto a fourth, and so forth was varied and altered by innumerable changes. Finally, the Empire is one, as it were one beast: but exceedingly varied by kindreds, families, and persons. It was therefore (saith S. John) in the kindred or house of Julius: and now it is not in that kindred, but translated unto another.

Revelation 17:8 As if he should say, Also the same that is, shall shortly not be: but shall ascend out of the depth, or out of the sea (as was said, Rev. 13:1) that is, shall be a new stock from amongst the nations without difference, and shall in the same state go unto destruction or ruin, and perish: and so shall successively new Princes or Emperors come and go, arise and fall, the body of the beast remaining still, but tossed with so many and often alterations, as no man can but marvel that this beast was able to stand and hold out, in so many mutations. Verily no Empire that ever was tossed with so many changes, and as it were with so many tempests of the sea, ever continued so long.

Revelation 17:8 That is as many as have not learned the providence of God, according to the faith of the Saints, shall marvel at these grievous and often changes when they shall consider, the selfsame beast, which is the Roman Empire, to have been, not to be, and to be and still molested with perpetual mutation, and yet in the same to stand and continue. This in mine opinion is the most simple exposition of this place, and confirmed by the event of the things themselves. Although by the last change also, by which the Empire, that before was civil became Ecclesiastical, is not obscurely signified by these words: of which two, the first exercised cruelty upon the bodies of the saints: the other also upon their souls: the first by human order and policy, the other under the color of the law of God, and of Religion, raged and imbrued itself with the blood of the godly.

Revelation 17:9 An exhortation preparing unto audience, by the same argument, with that of Christ: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Wherefore, for mine own part, I had rather read in this place, Let there be here a mind, etc. So the Angel passeth fully unto the second place of this description.

Revelation 17:9 Very children know what that seven hilled city is, which is so much spoken of, and whereof Virgil thus reporteth, And compasseth seven towers in one wall: that city it is, which when John wrote these things had rule over the kings of the earth: It was and is not, and yet it remaineth this day, but it is declining to destruction.

Revelation 17:9 This is the painting out of the beast by things present (as I said before) whereby S. John endeavored to describe the same, that he might both be known of the godly in that age, and be further observed and marked of posterity afterwards. This delineation hath one type, that is, his heads, but a double description or application of the type: one permanent from the nature of itself, the other changeable, by the working of men. The description permanent, is by the seven hills, in this verse, the other that fleeteth, is from the seven kings, verses 10, 11. And here it is worthy to be observed, that one type hath sometimes two or more applications, as seemeth good unto the holy Ghost to express either one thing by divers types, or divers things by one type. So I noted before, of the seven spirits, Rev. 1:4. Now this woman that sitteth upon seven hills, is the city of Rome, called in times past of the Greeks, … i. of seven tops or crests, and of Varro, septiceps, i. of her seven heads (as here) of seven heads, and of others, septicollis, i. standing upon seven hills.

Revelation 17:9 The beginning of these Kings or Emperors is almost the same with the beginning of the Church of Christ, which I showed before, Rev. 11:1. Namely from the year 35, after the passion of Christ, what time the Temple and Church of the Jews was overthrown. In which year it came to pass by the providence of God that that saying The beast was and is not, was fulfilled before that the destruction of the Jews immediately following came to pass. That was the year from the building of the city of Rome, 109, from which year S. John both numbered the Emperors which hitherto hath been, when he wrote these things, and foretelleth two others next to come: and that with this purpose, that when this particular prediction of foretelling of things to come, should take effect the truth of all other predictions in the Church might be the more confirmed. Which sign God of old mentioned this in the Law, Deut. 18, and Jeremiah confirmeth, Jer. 28:8.

Revelation 17:10 Whose names are these: the first, Servius Sulpicius Galba, who was the seventh Emperor of the people of Rome, the second Marcus Salvius Otho, the third Aulus Vitellius, the fourth, Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the fifth, Titus Vespasianus his son of his own name.

Revelation 17:10 Flavius Domitian son of the first Vespasian. For in the latter end of his days S. John wrote these things, as witnesseth Irenaus, Lib. 5 adversus hareses.

Revelation 17:10 Nerua. The Empire being now translated from the family of Flavius. This man reigned only one year, four months, and nine days, as the history writers do tell.

Revelation 17:11 This is spoken by the figure synecdoche, as much to say as that head of the beast which was and is not, because it is cut off, and Nerua in so short time extinguished. How many heads there were, so many beasts there seemed to be in one. See the like speech in Rev. 13.3

Revelation 17:11 Nerua Traianus, who himself in divers respects is called here the seventh and the eighth.

Revelation 17:11 Though in number and order of succession he be the eighth, yet he is reckoned together with one of these heads, because Nerua and he were one head. For this man obtained authority together with Nerua, and was Consul with him, when Nerua left his life.

Revelation 17:11 Namely, to molest with persecutions the Churches of Christ, as the histories do accord, and I have briefly noted, Rev. 2:10.

Revelation 17:12 The third place of this description as I said, verse 18, is a prophetical prediction of things to come which the beast should do, as in the words following S. John doth not obscurely signify, saying, which have not yet received the kingdom, etc. For there is an Antithesis or opposition between these kings, and those that went before. And first the persons are described, in this verse, then their deeds in the two verses following.

Revelation 17:12 That is, arising with their kingdoms out of the Roman beast: at such time as that political Empire began by the craft of the Popes greatly to fall.

Revelation 17:12 Namely, with the second beast whom we called before a false prophet, which beast, ascending out of the earth got unto himself all the authority and power of the first beast, and exerciseth the same before his face, as was said, Rev. 14:11, 12. For when the political Empire of the West began to bow downwards, there both arose those ten kings, and the second beast took the opportunity offered to usurp unto himself all the power of the former beast. These kings long ago, many have numbered and described to be ten and a great part of the events plainly testifieth the same in this our age.

Revelation 17:13 That is, by consent and agreement, that they may conspire with the beast, and depend upon his beck. Their story is divided into three parts, counsels, acts, and events. The counselors some of them consist in communicating of judgments and affections: and some in communicating of power, which they are said to have given unto this beast in this verse.

Revelation 17:14 With Christ and his Church, as the reason following doth declare, and here are mentioned the facts and the events which followed for Christ’s sake, and for the grace of God the Father towards those that are called, elected, and are his faithful ones in Christ.

Revelation 17:15 This is the other member of the narration as I said verse 7, belonging unto the harlot, showed in the vision, verse 3. In this history of the harlot, these 3 things are distinctly propounded, what is her magnificence in this verse, what is her fall, and by whom it shall happen unto her, in the two verses following: and lastly, who that harlot is, in the last verse. This place which by order of nature should have been the first, is therefore made the last, because it was more fit to be joined with the next Chap.

Revelation 17:15 That is, as unconstant and variable as the waters. Upon this foundation sitteth this harlot as Queen, a vain person upon that which is vain.

Revelation 17:16 The ten Kings as verse 12. The accomplishment of this fact and event, is daily increased in this our age by the singular providence and most mighty government of God. Wherefore the facts are propounded in this verse, and the cause of them in the verses following.

Revelation 17:17 A reason rendered from the chief efficient cause, which is the providence of God, by which alone S. John by inversion of order affirmeth to have come to pass, both that the Kings should execute upon the harlot, that which pleased God, and which he declared in the verse next beforegoing: and also that by one consent and counsel, they should give their kingdom unto the beast, etc., verses 13, 14. For as these being blinded have before depended upon the beck of the beast that lifteth up the harlot, so it is said that afterward it shall come to pass, that they shall turn back, and shall fall away from her when their hearts shall be turned into better state by the grace and mercy of God.

Revelation 17:18 That is, Rome that great City, or only City (as Justinian calleth it) the King and head whereof was then the Emperor, but now the Pope, since that the condition of the beast was changed.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17&version=GNV

Italy’s Prime Minister tells bishops to back off over constitutional reform

By Crux Staff

Jun 1, 2024

ROME – After the leader of the Italian bishops recently appeared to throw cold water on a key constitutional reform backed by Italy’s conservative government, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni essentially told the bishops to back off, reminding them that “the Vatican state is not a parliamentary republic.”

Meloni made the comments in a May 30 interview on Italian television, in response to May 23 comments from Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the powerful Italian bishops’ conference CEI and a key ally of Pope Francis.

During a news conference amid a plenary assembly of the Italian bishops, Zuppi was asked about their reaction to the so-called Premierato, a proposal to amend the Italian constitution to provide for the direct election of the country’s prime minister to a five-year term.

At present, Italian prime ministers are chosen by parliament, and thus rise and fall with the fate of whatever majority is in power. Many observers blame that system for chronic instability in Italian politics, with a staggering total of 70 different governments since Italy became a democracy after World War II, an average of one every 1.1 years.

Critics of the reform, including the country’s major center-left and progressive parties, argue that the proposal is vague and ad-hoc, as well as that it would diminish the role of Italy’s president and of parliament, making it anti-democratic.

In his remarks May 23, Zuppi seemed to many Italians to lean toward that critical view.

“Institutional equilibriums always should be touched only with great care,” he said. “Some bishops focused on this, expressing concern.”

“Speaking for myself, I can say that it’s necessary to keep in mind the spirit of the constitution, written by non-homogenous political forces which, nonetheless, had the common good in mind. Therefore, my hope is that whatever emerges won’t be something contingent, that is, that it won’t be partisan.”

“Anyway, it’s still an open subject, and we’ll see how the discussion goes,” Zuppi said.

Many Italian commentators took the response as a rebuke to Meloni and her center-right coalition, which backs the reform.

“It’s not uncommon that CEI takes a position in Italian political debate, but it’s rare that it does so with such preemptory tones, in explicit opposition to the government and so close to a delicate electoral appointment,” said a May 27 editorial in Il Post, an Italian news site, referring to June 6-9 elections for the European parliament.

“Such an interventionist approach, and the decision to take sides so clearly, is reminiscent in some ways of the era in which CEI was led by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who was the most politically prominent president of CEI in the last forty years.”

Runi, 93, was the Vicar of Rome and president of CEI under the late Pope John Paul II.

In her May 30 television appearance, Meloni was asked about Zuppi’s comments.

“I don’t know exactly what worries the Italian bishops’ conference, since the reform of the premiership doesn’t affect relations between church and state,” she said.

“But let me also say, with all due respect, that it doesn’t seem to me that the Vatican state is a parliamentary republic, so no one’s ever said they [should be] worried about this. So, let’s make sure no one worries.”

That was enough to create impressions of a full frontal conflict between the government and the bishops, with one major Italian paper carrying the headline: “Meloni, the attack on Zuppi to weaken CEI amid the contest over reform.”

An unnamed spokesperson for CEI attempted to play down impressions of conflict in June 1 comments to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, saying that Zuppi had merely offered a perspective as an Italian citizen, not an official declaration on the part of the Church, and that his comments were directed at all political forces and thus were nor partisan.

At the moment, it does not appear that the proposed reform will draw the two-thirds it would require in both houses of the Italian parliament, making it likely that Meloni and her allies will seek to put it to a popular vote in a national referendum.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2024/06/italys-prime-minister-tells-bishops-to-back-off-over-constitutional-reform

Numbers 9

1599 Geneva Bible

9 2 The Passover is commanded again. 13 The punishment of him that keepeth not the Passover. 15 The cloud conducteth the Israelites through the wilderness.

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year, after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

2 The children of Israel shall also celebrate the Passover at the time appointed thereunto.

3 In the fourteenth day of this month at even, ye shall keep it in his due season: according to [a]all the ordinances of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof shall ye keep it.

4 Then Moses spake unto the children of Israel, to celebrate the Passover.

5 And they kept the Passover in the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

6 ¶ And certain men were defiled [b]by a dead man, that they might not keep the Passover the same day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron the same day.

7 And those men said unto him, We are defiled by a dead man: wherefore are we kept back that we may not [c]offer an offering unto the Lord in the time thereunto appointed among the children of Israel?

8 Then Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.

9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say, If any among you, or of your posterity shall be unclean by the reason of a corpse, or be in a long journey, [d]he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord.

11 In the fourteenth day of the [e]second month at even they shall keep it: with unleavened bread, and sour herbs shall they eat it.

12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinance of the Passover shall they keep it.

13 But the man that is clean and is not in a [f]journey, and is negligent to keep the Passover, the same person shall be cut off from his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his due season, that man shall bear his [g]sin.

14 And if a stranger dwell among you, and will keep the Passover unto the Lord, as the ordinance of the Passover, and as the manner thereof is, so shall he do: ye shall have one law both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the same land.

15 ¶ And when the Tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered the Tabernacle, namely, the Tabernacle of the Testimony: and at even there was upon the Tabernacle, as the [h]appearance of fire until morning.

16 So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

17 And when the cloud was taken up from the Tabernacle, then afterward the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.

18 At the [i]commandment of the [j]Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the Tabernacle, they [k]lay still.

19 And when the cloud tarried still upon the Tabernacle a long time, the children of Israel kept the [l]watch of the Lord, and journeyed not.

20 So when the cloud abode [m]a few days upon the Tabernacle, they abode in their tents according to the commandment of the Lord: for they journeyed at the commandment of the Lord.

21 And though the cloud abode upon the Tabernacle from even unto the morning, yet if the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether by day or by night the cloud was taken up, then they journeyed.

22 Or if the cloud tarried two days, or a month, or a year upon the Tabernacle, abiding thereon, the children of Israel abode still, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.

23 At the commandment of the Lord they pitched, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed, keeping the watch of the Lord at the commandment of the Lord by the [n]hand of Moses.

Footnotes

Numbers 9:3 Even in all points as the Lord hath instituted it.

Numbers 9:6 By touching a corpse, or being at the burial.

Numbers 9:7 Or, celebrate the Passover the fourteenth day of the first month.

Numbers 9:10 And cannot come where the Tabernacle is, when others keep it.

Numbers 9:11 So that the unclean, and they that are not at home, have a month longer granted unto them.

Numbers 9:13 When the Passover is celebrated.

Numbers 9:13 Or, punishment of his sin.

Numbers 9:15 Like a pillar, read Exod. 13:22.

Numbers 9:18 Hebrew, mouth.

Numbers 9:18 Who taught them what to do by the cloud.

Numbers 9:18 Hebrew, camped.

Numbers 9:19 They waited when the Lord would signify either their departure, or their abode by the cloud.

Numbers 9:20 Hebrew, days of number.

Numbers 9:23 Under the charge and government of Moses.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%209&version=GNV

The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of these other groups.

The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space", and seized power in early 1933. Meant to force all German Jews regardless of means to attempt to emigrate, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators.

Later in 1941 or early 1942, the highest levels of the German government decided to murder all Jews in Europe. Victims were deported by rail to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were killed with poison gas. Other Jews continued to be employed in forced labor camps where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in deadly medical experiments. Although many Jews tried to escape, surviving in hiding was difficult due to factors such as the lack of money to pay helpers and the risk of denunciation. The property, homes, and jobs belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued at a lower rate until the end of the war in May 1945.

Many Jewish survivors emigrated outside of Europe after the war. A few Holocaust perpetrators faced criminal trials. Billions of dollars in reparations have been paid, although falling short of the Jews' losses. The Holocaust has also been commemorated in museums, memorials, and culture. It has become central to Western historical consciousness as a symbol of the ultimate human evil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

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]

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

[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

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.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://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

"BULL of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

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

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

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

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Skull And Bones

60-minutes

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.

60 MINUTES

Skull And Bones

60-minutes

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.

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

Yales 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. Whats behind the groups 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

estivo

Italian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin aestīvus.

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /eˈsti.vo/

Rhymes: -ivo

Hyphenation: e‧stì‧vo

Adjective

estivo (feminine estiva, masculine plural estivi, feminine plural estive)

(relational) summer; summery

Derived terms

estivamente

Related terms

estate

estivazione

Etymology 2

Verb

estivo

first-person singular present indicative of estivare

Further reading

estivo in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

soviet

Old Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin [tempus] aestīvum (literally “summertime”). Compare Old Galician-Portuguese estio.

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /esˈtiβo/

Noun

estivo m (usually uncountable)

summer

Descendants

Spanish: estío (see there for further descendants)

Portuguese

Verb

estivo

first-person singular present indicative of estivar

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/estivo#Italian

Estévez, or Estevez in English, is a Galician family name. It is a patronymic, meaning son of Stephen, in Galician Estevo. In Portuguese the equivalent is Esteves, the Italian equivalent is Di Stefano and Stefani and the Spanish equivalent is Estébanez, from the Spanish name Esteban.

The name may refer to:

People

Estevez acting family

Main article: Estevez family

A family of American actors.

Other people

Abilio Estévez (born 1954), Cuban novelist, playwright, and poet

Antonio Estévez (1916–1988), Venezuelan composer

Don Francisco Estévez source of name for Estevez Palace, since 1880 office of the President of Uruguay.

Camilo Estévez (bishop) (died 1999), Spanish bishop of the Palmarian Catholic Church

Carlos Estévez (baseball) (born 1992), Dominican baseball player

Carmen Fraga Estévez (born 1948), Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament

Emilio Estevez Tsai (born 1998), Canadian soccer player

Felipe de Jesús Estévez (born 1946), American Roman Catholic bishop

Gabriela Estévez (born 1978), Argentine politician

Horacio Estevez (1940–1996), Venezuelan sprinter

João Rodrigues Esteves (1700–1751), Portuguese composer

Joaquín Estévez (born 1984), Argentinian professional golfer

Joaquín Madolell Estévez [es] (1923–2011), military personnel spy from Melilla

Jorge Medina Estévez (1926–2021), Chilean bishop and cardinal

Luis Estevez (1930–2014), Cuban-born American fashion designer and costume designer

Maximiliano Estévez (born 1977), Argentine footballer

Reyes Estévez (born 1976), Spanish European championship runner

Roberto Estévez (1957–1982), Argentine soldier, awarded posthumously with the Argentine Nation to the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross

Scarlett Estevez (born 2007), American actress

Sumito Estévez (born 1965), Venezuelan chef

Fictional characters

Dano Estevez, character from the film Final Destination 2

Sheen Estevez, character from the CGI television series and film The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevez

Emilio Estevez (/ɛˈmɪlioʊ ɛˈstɛvəs/; born May 12, 1962) is an American actor and filmmaker.

He is the son of actor Martin Sheen and the older brother of Charlie Sheen. Estevez made his theatrical film debut in drama film Tex (1982). As one of the actors associated with Brat Pack, he is notable for starring in coming-of-age drama films such as The Outsiders (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), as well as the cult science fiction / comedy film Repo Man (1984). He subsequently starred in films in various genres such as Judgment Night (1993), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), and Mission: Impossible (1996). Estevez also starred in three film franchises: Stakeout (1987) and its 1993 sequel, Young Guns (1988) and its 1990 sequel, and The Mighty Ducks (1992–1996; 2021).

Estevez made his directorial debut with the drama film Wisdom (1986) and also directed the comedy film Men at Work (1990). Since mid-1990s, Estevez starred mostly in the films he directed such as The War at Home (1996), Rated X (2000), Bobby (2006) and The Way (2010). For his work on Bobby, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Estevez

Hollywood Actor Martin Sheen’s Summer Visit at Wernersville, PA “St. Isaac Jogues Jesuit Center for Spiritual Growth,” 1990s #309 During a hush-hush, no press visit, Martin Sheen (3rd from left), a pro-Jesuit Theater actor, socialist Democrat and Clinton activist, and now a prominent defender of Mexican aliens (most being Roman Catholics loyal to the Pope’s American Hierarchy) illegally residing within the western United States, toured the former Novitiate with Jesuit Patrick Kelly (far left) and Jesuit actor Michael Kennedy (far right). We must remember that Knight of Malta Joseph P. Kennedy was one of the founding fathers of America’s silver screen. Shipping tycoon and Knight of Malta Spyrous Skouros was once the head of Twentieth Century Fox. Hollywood is truly the Jesuit Theater cleverly revealing the Order’s past for which reason Sheen was chosen to narrate Secrets of the Titanic. A House of Bread: The Jesuits Celebrate 70 years in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, Kathy M. Scogna, (Wernersville, Pennsylvania: Kathy M. Scogna, 2000) p. 157.

Vatican Assassins Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://ia903408.us.archive.org/12/items/eric-jon-phelps-vatican-assassins-3rd-edition_202101/Eric%20Jon%20Phelps%20-%20Vatican%20Assassins%203rd%20Edition.pdf

Stephen (and by extension 'reward, honor, renown, fame', often given as a title rather than as a name; c. AD 5 – c. 34) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity.[2] According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him[3] and was then stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul the Apostle, a Pharisee and Roman citizen who would later become an apostle, participated in Stephen's execution.[4]

The only source for information about Stephen is the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles.[5] Stephen is mentioned in Acts 6 as one of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews selected to administer the daily charitable distribution of food to the Greek-speaking widows.[6]

The Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran churches and the Church of the East view Stephen as a saint.[7] Artistic representations often show Stephen with a crown symbolising martyrdom, three stones, martyr's palm frond, censer, and often holding a miniature church building. Stephen is often shown as a young, beardless man with a tonsure, wearing a deacon's vestments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen

St. Stephen's Church is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Stephen, located in the village of Kombuthurai in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, India. The church was built by St. Francis Xavier in May 1544.[1] It was abandoned by the Jesuits until 1983. The church was taken care of by a people called the "Patangatins/Pattamkattins", according to the wishes of St. Francis Xavier, who believed that they could take care of the work of Christianity in Thoothukudi as written in his letters.

Miracles in Kombuthurai

The first miracle in Kombuthurai which is also the first miracle of St. Francis Xavier in pearl fishery coast occurred in 1542, when St. Francis Xavier first visited the village. A Patangati / Pattamkatti lady was suffering from labor for nearly three days. He baptized her and her family and within a short time, she delivered a child. Due to this miracle, the whole of this village along with its headmen and prince of the land converted to Christianity. Since then he visited the village numerous times.[1] The second miracle is believed to be the greatest miracle that Francis Xavier ever performed. A boy named Matthew drowned in the well which is called well of miracle, or well of baptism by the Patangati / Pattamkatti , and was brought into the church just before mass, and through the prayer of the saint, he was revived from death[2]

Other facts on this church

this is the first church to be built by a saint in honor of another saint

this church was supposed to be dearer to St. Francis Xavier, as he mentions of the building of this church at Kombuthurai in many of his letters written in 1544[1]

even though for more than two centuries, there was no contact of this church with the clergy or diocese, the altar on which St.Francis Xavier dedicated the first mass, the cross in front of the church and the well into which the boy fell and water from which were used to baptise Pattamkatti, is still preserved by the people in kombuthurai.

this church celebrates its feast twice a year,

the older being in the middle Tuesday of February which is celebrated by the Patangati / Pattamkatti, old inhabitants of kombuthurai, tuticorin from whom the name is derived, in memory of their conversion in 1542 and the dedication of a smaller church that was rebuilt in 1544 by them and dedicated to St.Stephen, first martyr of the church, who was handed over as the patron saint of the entire caste by St.Francis xavier, on the last Tuesday in the Tamil month of Thai from the year 1543 which is the spring season that finds mention in letters of St.Francis Xavier to St.Ignatius of Loyola in 1543. This feast of st.Stephen, the first martyr is the traditional feast of this church initiated by st. Francis Xavier himself.

the other being on 2 January, which is followed from 1980s by villagers who are all living in Kombuthurai.

this church was inactive after the inhabitants moved out of this place, due to suppression of Christians but exact reason has not been studied,[3] but the mass were conducted on the traditional feast day and on special occasions such as a thanksgiving by Patagati / Pattamkatti family, but the church, the altar on which the saint Xavier offered mass and the statues are taken care of by the Kombuthurai villagers

this church and another church in punnakayal, which were once the dwelling place of Patangati / Pattamkattians, were funded by MANUEL DA CRUZ (lived in Kombuthurai), the chief of Patangatians Head and king of pearl fishery coast.[1]

this church have been patronized by the Patangatians, the chiefs of villages in pearl fishery coast and wardens of the churches of pearl fishery coast who consider this church to be their chief church just like the Patangati consider Our Lady of Snows Basilica, tuticorin.

in 1983, this church was taken as a substation of the virapandianpattinam parish. During 1980-84, people from kanyakumari came and settled here in search of livelihood. After nearly 461 years of existence, this church was made a parish on 20 August 2004 by Bishop Peter Fernando (Tuticorin Diocese). On 2013, this church was rebuilt by the new inhabitants and was dedicated on 1 May.

Occupation: Fishing

There are more than 100 of boats in kombuthurai.

They using different methods to catch fishes.

One of the best place for buying fresh fish like seer fish,(vangiram or seela meen),Tuna varieties(paara meen),Seer cod(Azhuva meen), Cuttle fish (kanava), etc.

They are working 6 days in a week except Sunday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Church,_Kombuthurai

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

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

THE CONFLICT: PRIORY OF SION VERSUS KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

Secret societies by virtue of their very secrecy have often kept historians at bay, and the historians, reluctant to confess their ignorance, prefer to diminish the consequence of their subject. Freemasonry.. is of vital importance to any social, psychological, cultural or political history of eighteenth-century Europe, and even to the founding of the United States; but most history books don't even mention it. It is almost as if an implicit policy obtained: If something cannot be exhaustively documented, it must be irrelevant and thereby not worth discussing I at all. Investigators of the Holy Grail' Freemasonry, French and English, as we know it today, finds its loots in two organizations of the Middle Ages - the Priory of Sion and the Order of the Knights Templar. What follows is the fascinating, if sometimes complicated and obscure history, of how these two modern, anti-Christian secular secret societies - English and French Freemasonry - developed from two groups that themselves had roots in the occult. We will see how the Priory of Sion desired to rule the world from the throne of David in Jerusalem through its counterfeit Jewish Merovingian bloodline, and how its own creation, the Knights Templar, moved beyond its role as police and protector of Sion to financial masters of medieval Europe. We will trace the alliance of Sion and the Templars, their dispute over the discovery of Solomon's treasures, and the terrible intrigues which followed that led to the undoing of the Templars in their struggle over wealth, power, and politics. We will reveal the beliefs of these two groups: that Jesus fathered children by Mary Magdalene; that a spiritual god of good (Satan) battles a material god of evil; that Lucifer, not Jesus, deserves worship; that a "Spear of Destiny" (later sought and possessed by Hitler) allows the holder to rule the world. We will also present data about the whereabouts of King Solomon's wealth, the plan to one day return it to Jerusalem, and reveal that the ultimate goal of these two groups is world government, and that their descendants, English and French Freemasonry, desire the same. The Historical Trail: The Priory of Sion and the Holy Grail In 1982 and 1986 three secular revisionist authors, Michael Baigent~ Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln published Holy Blood, Holy Grail followed by The Messianic Legacy. These two books dramatically reveal a secret order structured in the manner of Freemasonry, and founded in Europe twelve centuries before the Grand Lodge was officially formed in 1717. This order protects both the Holy Grail and the Merovingian bloodline, which bloodline carried Mystery Babylon into the Catholic Church in 496 A.D. 56 The Holy Grail, of course, is the so-called cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. The Merovingians, owners of the Holy Grail, teach that Jesus fathered children by Mary Magdalene. The Merovingians claim to be the offspring of that "holy" union, and as such, assert they are Jews of the Davidic line.

In Revelation 17:3-5 the apostle John describes a vision, which Rev. J. R. Church in Guardians of the Grail believes is fulfilled in the Grail legend. The Whore of Babylon is holding in her hand a golden cup full of blasphemy. Church believes the cup is the blasphemous Holy Grail Another element of the Grail legend is the spear supposed to have pierced the side of Jesus, also known as the Spear of Longinus or the Spear of Destiny. Whoever possesses this spear, so the legend goes, will rule the world. The Merovingians, whose descendants are the Habsburg pretenders to the Austrian throne today, are in possession of the spear. It is on display in the Habsburg museum in Vienna, Austria~ No one, however, knows the location of the Holy Grail. At least no one is telling. Although heretical, this secret society should not be discounted, for it is alive and well today. In fact, in 1956, an Order calling itself the Prieure de Sion, or Priory of Sion, registered itself publicly for the first time with the French government. (Sion is French for Zion.) It is from this Order that the legend of the Holy Grail originated five centuries after Christ's death. Rev. Church remarks of this organization: This mysterious group is presently made up of over 9,000 men, including Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Moslems. The members of this secret sect should be considered unfaithful to their respective beliefs, for in reality they are neither Christian nor Catholic, they are neither Jew nor Moslem. Their doctrine sidesteps the basic tenets of those beliefs and replaces them with the teachings of their greatest prophet - whom they believe to be Buddha.2 From this secret order J. R. Church believes will come the Anti-Christ, for he writes, "Their ultimate goal is world government!'"

Scarlet and the Beast by John Daniel

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zCd0nFuvnM4OYWuVW5QUBCpsTfBv5bYx/view?usp=sharing

The Judge is the chief antagonist of "Surprise" and "Innocence" - a two-part episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was a powerful demon sent forth by Drusilla and Spike to wreak havoc as a "gift" to Buffy on her birthday.

History

The Judge was an ancient and legendary demon brought forth to this dimension in the 14th Century to rid Earth of the plague of humanity. He was aptly named The Judge for he had come to separate the righteous from the wicked, and burn the righteous down. An army was sent against the Judge, and though most of the warriors died, the army was finally able to dismember the Judge, but not to kill him. The pieces were placed in iron boxes and scattered to be buried "in every corner of the Earth". For six hundred years he remained aware of his status.

As Drusilla's 1998 birthday present, Spike has all the pieces of the Judge brought to Sunnydale. Drusilla plans to reassemble the Judge and unleash Armageddon. Spike's minions succeed in reuniting all the pieces and taking them to Spike and Dru's lair, except for one of the arms, which Dalton loses to Buffy. At The Bronze, Buffy opens the box, and the Judge's arm immediately attacks her.

Fearing that the Judge would be too dangerous to fight, Angel decides to take a ship to hide the arm in Nepal, thus leaving the Judge incomplete, which would have ended Dru's plot to reawaken the demon. However, Dalton and Spike's minions manage to steal the arm back from Buffy and Angel.

With the pieces complete, the Judge is reassembled before an ecstatic Drusilla. The Judge shows contempt for her and Spike as the two share affection, a quality considered by the Judge to be human. The Judge wanted to kill them until Spike reminded him that he and Dru had brought him back. Deeming them "helpful" for his purposes the Judge agreed to leave the two unharmed. Seconds later, the Judge turns on Dalton, whom the Judge also deems "full of feeling" (Dalton's love for knowledge). As he had just been awakened, the Judge wasn't at his full power, and needed to touch his victims to incinerate them, as he demonstrates on Dalton, much to Drusilla's delight.

Buffy and Angel find themselves in mortal danger when they go to the Factory, only to find the Judge already assembled, and Spike and Dru ready for their visit thanks to Drusilla's premonitions. Buffy and Angel barely escape, Buffy having already felt the Judge's deadly power when she kicked the demon. The two hide in Angel's apartment, where they share an intimate encounter, which causes Angel to lose his soul. Meanwhile, the Judge rests, waiting for his powers to return to full strength.

The now unsouled Angel returns to the Factory. The Judge attacks him but is unable to incinerate him, as Angelus is "clean of humanity", according to the Judge. While it has been established that all vampires have some humanity in them, the Judge's powers do not work on Angelus, despite the fact that he's a vampire, as he's incapable of feeling love or affection (unlike Spike and Dru or Dalton), and is a true creature of evil, meaning that he is capable of surviving the touch of the Judge.

With his powers restored, the Judge is taken by Angelus and Dru for a massacre at a mall. With a mere gesture, the Judge incinerates a man and then attacks a large number of people. The Judge's power bounces from a human to the next, thus creating a web of victims. Before the victims die, Buffy attacks the Judge with a crossbow. The Judge reminds Buffy that no weapon forged can hurt him, prompting Buffy to fire a rocket launcher at him. Unfamiliar with modern weaponry, the Judge merely stands as the projectile flies towards him. Angel and Dru escape, while the Judge is destroyed, though not killed, by the explosion. The pieces of the Judge are then picked by the Scoobies, who proceed to dispose of them, taking great care to keep them separate.

https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/The_Judge_(Buffyverse)

The Supreme Court of Cassation (Italian: Corte Suprema di Cassazione) is the highest court of appeal or court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Palace of Justice, Rome.

The Court of Cassation also ensures the correct application of law in the inferior and appeal courts and resolves disputes as to which lower court (penal, civil, administrative, military) has jurisdiction to hear a given case.

Procedure

The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation is the highest court of Italy. Appeals to the Court of Cassation generally come from the Appellate Court, the second instance courts, but defendants or prosecutors may also appeal directly from trial courts, first instance courts. The Supreme Court can reject, or confirm, a sentence from a lower court. If it rejects the sentence, it can order the lower court to amend the trial and sentencing, or it can annul the previous sentence altogether. A sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court of Cassation is final and definitive, and cannot be further appealed for the same reasons. Although the Supreme Court of Cassation cannot overrule the trial court's interpretation of the evidence it can correct a lower court's interpretation or application of the law connected to a specific case.[1]

As explained by the Cassazione, "The appeal in cassation may be lodged against the measures issued by the ordinary courts at the appellate level or in degree only: the reasons given to support the use may be, in civil matters, the violation of the right material (errores in iudicando) or procedural (errores in proceeding), the vices of motivation (lack, insufficiency or contradiction) of the judgment under appeal; or, again, the grounds for jurisdiction. A similar scheme is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court in criminal matters".[2]

The Italian judicial system is based on civil law within the framework of late Roman law, and not based on common law. Its core principles are entirely codified into a normative system which serves as the primary source of law, which means judicial decisions of the supreme court, as well as those of lower courts, are binding within the frame of reference of each individual case submitted, but do not constitute the base for judicial precedent for other future cases as in Common Law. While in Civil Law jurisdictions the doctrine of stare decisis (precedent) does not apply, in practice the decisions of the Supreme Court of Cassation usually provide a very robust reference point in jurisprudence constante. The two essential aims of the Supreme Court of Cassation are to ensure that lower courts correctly follow legal procedure, and to harmonize the interpretation of laws throughout the judicial system.

Members and organization

The Supreme Court of Cassation is organized into two divisions: a criminal section and a civil section. The court has a general president, The First President of the Court of Cassation, a deputy, and each section has its own president. Cases brought to the supreme court are normally heard by a panel of five judges. In more complex cases, especially those concerning compounded matters of statutory interpretation an extended panel of nine judges ("united sections" of the supreme court) hear the case.[3][4] In addition, in every case submitted to the supreme court, the office of public prosecutor must state their interpretation of the applicable law, to assist and facilitate the court, in a consultative capacity, in reaching its final decision.[5][6]

Brief history

The need for this kind of court in Europe became apparent with the Ancien Régime's difficulties in maintaining both uniformity of interpretation and supremacy of the central laws against local privileges and rights. This kind of court first appeared during the French Revolution. The original French courts were initially much more like a legislative body than a judicial one. During his conquests, Napoleon greatly influenced Italian legal theory, and the Court of Cassation was formed using many imported French ideas.

The Court of Cassation was provided by the former Italian Civil Code in 1865 and then it was reorganized by royal decree 12 on 30 January 1941,[1] supplanting the previous court.[7]

On 1 March 2023, the High Council of the Judiciary unanimously elected the magistrate Margherita Cassano in the role of first president of the Court of Cassation. She is the first woman to hold this position.[8][9][10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Cassation_(Italy)

Charles Louis de Bourbon

Portrait of Charles Louis de Bourbon

Year of birth:

1799

Year of death:

1883

He was born as the heir of the throne of Parma and when he was four he took the demanding title of King of Etruria.

His childhood was upset by the Napoleonic events and he was taken away from his mother and entrusted to his grandparents. He was a sharp man with lots of cultural interests. In 1817 he moved to Lucca and in 1820 he married Maria Teresa of Savoia, Vittorio Emanuele I's daughter.

He succeed to his mother on the throne of Lucca in 1824, but he preferred to dedicate himself on the foreign stays in Vienna, Dresden and Berlin, staying in Lucca only for short periods of time and leaving the governance of the dukedom to his ministers.

His ephemeral conversion to the Protestant religion and the numerous improper personalities in his court made him a very talked-about man in Europe.

He was such a tolerant and mild-mannered man that he hosted political emigrants in Lucca. As a very profligate man, he accumulated a lot of debts, and to contain them he consigned the Dukedom of Lucca to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany ahead of time.

Thanks to the agreements of the Congress of Vienna, he regained the control of the Dukedom of Parma in 1847, with the name of Carlo II.

But the revolutionary events in 1848 made him abdicating in favor of his son; he spent the rest of his life between Paris, Lucca and Nice, where he died.

https://www.palazzoducale.lucca.it/en/characters/charles-louis-de-bourbon

By the sixth century, the western Germanic tribe of the Franks had been Christianised; this was due in considerable measure to the conversion of their king, Clovis I, to Catholicism.[10] The Franks had established a kingdom in Gaul in the wake of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.[11] This kingdom, Francia, grew to encompass nearly all of present-day France and Switzerland, along with parts of modern Germany and the Low Countries under the rule of the Merovingian dynasty.[12] Francia was often divided under different Merovingian kings, due to the partible inheritance practised by the Franks.[13] The late seventh century saw a period of war and instability following the murder of King Childeric II, which led to factional struggles among the Frankish aristocrats.[14]

Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his 687 victory at the Battle of Tertry.[15] Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of Austrasia: Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen.[16] The mayors of the palace had gained influence as the Merovingian kings' power waned due to divisions of the kingdom and several succession crises.[17] Pepin was eventually succeeded by his son Charles, later known as Charles Martel.[18] Charles did not support a Merovingian successor upon the death of King Theuderic IV in 737, leaving the throne vacant.[19] He made plans to divide the kingdom between his sons, Carloman and Pepin the Short, who succeeded him after his death in 741.[20] The brothers placed the Merovingian Childeric III on the throne in 743.[21] Pepin married Bertrada, a member of an influential Austrasian noble family, in 744.[22][23] In 747, Carloman abdicated and entered a monastery in Rome. He had at least two sons; the elder, Drogo, took his place.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne

Pope Alexander VI[Note 2] (born Rodrigo de Borja[Note 3]; 1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503) (epithet: Valentinus ("The Valencian")[6] was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. Born into the prominent Borgia family in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain), Rodrigo studied law at the University of Bologna. He was ordained deacon and made a cardinal in 1456 after the election of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III, and a year later he became vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church. He proceeded to serve in the Curia under the next four popes, acquiring significant influence and wealth in the process. In 1492, Rodrigo was elected pope, taking the name Alexander VI.

Alexander's papal bulls of 1493 confirmed or reconfirmed the rights of the Spanish crown in the New World following the finds of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the second Italian war, Alexander VI supported his son Cesare Borgia as a condottiero for the French king. The scope of his foreign policy was to gain the most advantageous terms for his family.[7][8]

Alexander is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. As a result, his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI

Louise Borgia (17 May 1500 – 1553) was a French noblewoman. She was the daughter of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who died when she was almost seven years old. She was also Dame de Chalus, a title she inherited from her mother Charlotte of Albret. She was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic.[1]

Life

Louise was born on 17 May 1500. She was Cesare Borgia's only child with his wife, Charlotte of Albret.[2] Her paternal grandparents were Pope Alexander VI of the House of Borgia and Vannozza dei Cattanei, and her maternal grandparents were Alain I of Albret, Lord of Albret, and Françoise of Châtillon-Limoges. She had at least eleven illegitimate half-siblings from her father's relationships with other women."

She married her second husband, Philippe de Bourbon, Seigneur de Bourbon-Busset on 3 February 1530.[2] They made their home at the Château de Busset, where she made many renovations including a covered arcade on the ground floor and a gallery in the east wing.[10] Together Philippe and Louise had six children."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Borgia

Maria Virginia Borghese

Birth

10 Nov 1642 - Not Available

Death

02 Mar 1718 - Roma

Mother

Olympia Aldobrandini, Princess of Meldola and Rossano

Father

Paolo prince Borghese

https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/maria-virginia-borghese-24-1y0t86r

Virginia Borghese (Consort of Agostino Chigi, Prince Farnese, Eldest Daughter of Giovanni Battista Borghese, Prince of Sulmona & Rossano)

https://www.rct.uk/collection/614873/virginia-borghese-consort-of-agostino-chigi-prince-farnese-eldest-daughter-of

Portrait of Maria Virginia Borghese Chigi, Princess Farnese (1642–1718) c.1663-78

Studio of Jacob Ferdinand Voet (c. 1639-1700)

This portrait belongs to a type of portrait known as ‘Les Belle Romanes’. Voet is perhaps best remembered for his series of them – a great set of portraits of the most enchanting women of Rome. Inspired by the Mancini sisters, these portraits from 1672 onwards included sitters from the Chigi, Savoia and Massimo families, as well as other celebrated Italian dynasties. The paintings were so popular that the artist was repeatedly asked to reproduce replicas and versions. After working mainly in Italy, his reputation was such that he spent the last years of his life as ‘Pittore del Re’ – official portraitist to the Sun King, Louis XIV, in Paris. With such international production, his fame even surpassed that of Pierre Mignard, Carlo Maratta, Giovanni Maria Morandi and Baciccio, his main rivals in the genre.

The subject is Maria Virginia Borghese Chigi (1642-1718) who was a member of the ancient Borghese family originally from Siena; the family first came to prominence in the 13th century. The family moved to Rome in the 16th century and there, Camillo was elected as Pope Paul V in 1605. As an extended family the Borghese became some of the largest landowners of the Roman Campagna, increasing their wealth by their strategic control of their properties and a concerted policy of assuming monopolies of milling grain and the rights to run inns. The family were a major patron of the arts and their art collection was established as the Galleria Borghese located in the family's former property, Villa Borghese.

Maria Virginia is shown with the grandiloquence characteristic of Voet’s portraits. Painted in Rome in circa 1670, when the artist was at the height of his powers, the portrait displays great luminosity, it is no wonder why Voet was one Europe's premier painters of portraits during the last quarter of the 17th century (and court painter to the French King Louis XIV). The image illustrates the artist's virtuosic handling of material and his consummate skill.

Our sitter married Agostino Chigi (1634-1705) on 25 April 1659 in her hometown, and Agostino acquired the principalities of Farnese (1658), Campagnano (1661) and Ariccia. The Chigi family were another immensely rich and powerful family originally from Siena, first mentioned in the 13th century. Perhaps the most famous member was the rich banker, Agostino Chigi (1465–1520).

https://titanfineart.com/portrait-of-maria-virginia-borghese-chigi-ferdinand-voet.html

No single portrait of Lucrezia Borgia captures her contradictory nature more than an allegorical painting by Titian that hangs in the Borghese Gallery in Rome. The painting shows Lucrezia on one edge of a small pool, a naked Venus on the other, and a small cupid between them. The allegory is intended to represent sacred love (Lucrezia) and profane love (Venus). Such is the historical paradox of Lucrezia Borgia.

Lucrezia and Venus by Titian (Galeria Borghese, Rome)

https://lucretiasdaggers.com/lucretia-borgia

Borja (Borgia)

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Zaragoza province named from Arabic burj ‘tower’. See also Borgia .

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=borja

A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and fulfil different functions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortified_tower

Francis Borgia SJ (Valencian: Francesc de Borja; Spanish: Francisco de Borja; 28 October 1510 – 30 September 1572) was a Spanish Jesuit priest. The great-grandson of both Pope Alexander VI and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, he was Duke of Gandía and a grandee of Spain. After the death of his wife, Borgia renounced his titles and became a priest in the Society of Jesus, later serving as its third superior general. He was canonized on 20 June 1670 by Pope Clement X.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Borgia

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

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Borghese

Recorded in many forms including Bourges, Bourgaize, Bourgeois, (France), Burgess, Burges and Burgis (England and Scotland), Borghese, Borgesio and Burgisi (Italy), and others, this interesting surname is of pre 8th century Old French origins. It derives from the word "burgeis", meaning inhabitant and FREEMAN of a fortified town, one which could apply municipal rates, taxes, and duties. A burgeis generally had tenure of land or buildings from a landlord by "burgage", which involved the payment of a fixed money rent. In Scotland, the position of burgess required not only the making of payments, but to be availble to take part in guarding the town. The surname is one of the earliest recorded anywhere in the world. These recordings are from England because this country was the first to adopt both hereditary surnames and to make the necessary registers in which to record them. France was several centuries later, and Italy, not until the 19th century in most areas. Early recordings showing the influence of the Norman-French in England after the Invasion of 1066 include: Ralph le Burgeis, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Sussex in 1195, and Philip Bourges in the cartulary of Oseney Abbey, Oxford in 1197. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Burgeis, which was dated 1115, in the "Winton Rolls" of Hampshire. This was during the reign of King Henry 1st, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Over the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Borghese

Pope Paul V (Latin: Paulus V; Italian: Paolo V) (17 September 1550 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries.[2] In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Robert Bellarmine to inform Galileo that the Copernican theory could not be taught as fact, but Bellarmine's certificate allowed Galileo to continue his studies in search for evidence and use the geocentric model as a theoretical device. That same year Paul V assured Galileo that he was safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, should live. Bellarmine's certificate was used by Galileo for his defense at the trial of 1633.[3]

Trained in jurisprudence, Borghese was made Cardinal-Priest of Sant'Eusebio and the Cardinal Vicar of Rome by Pope Clement VIII. He was elected as Pope in 1605, following the death of Pope Leo XI. Pope Paul V was known for being stern and unyielding, defending the privileges of the Church. He met with Galileo Galilei in 1616 and was involved in the controversy over heliocentrism. He canonized and beatified several individuals during his papacy and created 60 cardinals in ten consistories.

His insistence on ecclesiastical jurisdiction led to conflicts with secular governments, notably with Venice, which resulted in an interdict on the city in 1606. This disagreement was eventually mediated by France and Spain in 1607. Pope Paul V's diplomacy also strained relations with England, as his actions were perceived as undermining moderate Catholics in the country.

In Rome, he financed the completion of St. Peter's Basilica, improved the Vatican Library, and restored the ancient Roman aqueduct Aqua Traiana. Pope Paul V established the Banco di Santo Spirito in 1605 and is also known for fostering the rise of the Borghese family through nepotism. He died on 28 January 1621, after suffering from a series of strokes and was succeeded by Pope Gregory XV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_V

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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

20. It is better and safer to make alliance and amity with [Moslem] Turks, [Communist] Infidels, or [Talmudic and anti-Torah, Zionist] Jews, than with [Reformation Bible-believing] Heretic Protestants [and Baptists], because they may draw us into the errors of their novelties. {1}

Absolutist Papal Maxims of the Jesuits

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.

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

Luke 21:24

1599 Geneva Bible

24 And they shall fall on the [a]edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Luke 21:24 Word for word, mouth, for the Hebrews call the edge of a sword the mouth, because the edge biteth.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2021%3A24&version=GNV

The Holocaust, medicine and becoming a physician: the crucial role of education

Shmuel P. Reis, Hedy S. Wald & Paul Weindling

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research volume 8, Article number: 55 (2019) Cite this article

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Abstract

Learning about the abandonment of moral principles of healthcare professionals and scientists, their societies and academic institutions, to a murderous ideology yields fundamental concerns and global implications for present and future healthcare professionals’ education and practice. Medicine’s worst-case scenario raises deeply disturbing yet essential questions in the here and now: Could the Holocaust, one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated on humankind, have occurred without the complicity of physicians, their societies, and the scientific profession community? How did healers become killers? Can it happen again?

We reflect here on those queries through the lens of the Second International Scholars Workshop on Medicine during the Holocaust and Beyond held in the Galilee, Israel on May 7–11, 2017 and derive contemporary global lessons for the healthcare professions. Following a brief historical background, implications of the history of medicine in the Holocaust are drawn including 1) awareness that the combination of hierarchy, obedience, and power constitutes a risk factor for abuse of power in medicine and 2) learning and teaching about medicine in the Holocaust and beyond is a powerful platform for supporting professional identity formation. As such, this history ideally can help “equip” learners with a moral compass for navigating the future of medical practice and inherent ethical challenges such as prejudice, assisted reproduction, resource allocation, obtaining valid informed consent, end of life care, and challenges of genomics and technology expansion. Curriculum modules are available and studies on impact on students’ attitudes and behavior are emerging.

The conference culminated with the launch of the Galilee Declaration, composed and signed by an international, inter-professional community of historians, healthcare professions educators, and ethicists. The Declaration included herein (http://english.wgalil.ac.il/category/Declaration) calls for curricula on history of healthcare professions in the Holocaust and its implications to be included in all healthcare professions education.

The Holocaust. A zenith of profound evil afflicted by human beings upon their fellow humans under National Socialism (1940–45) [1, 2]. “Never again” is a resounding promise for a civilized society, and “never again” for the medical profession as well. While many professions swept by Nazi ideology went overboard to please the Führer, physicians and other healthcare professionals were among the most avid [3, 4]. Forty-five percent of German physicians, for example, joined the Nazi party (many of those even before Hitler’s rise to power) compared to 7% of teachers in Germany [4]. Learning about and reflecting upon the abandonment of moral principles of individual healthcare professionals and scientists and more broadly, their societies and academic institutions, to a murderous ideology yields fundamental concerns and global implications for present and future healthcare professionals’ education and practice [5,6,7]. Medicine’s worst-case scenario [8] raises deeply disturbing yet essential questions in the here and now: Could the Holocaust, one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated on humankind, have occurred without the complicity of physicians, their societies, and the scientific profession community? How did healers become killers? Can it happen again? We reflect here on those queries through the lens of the Second International Scholars Workshop on Medicine during the Holocaust and Beyond held in the Galilee, Israel on May 7–11, 2017 and derive contemporary global lessons for the healthcare professions. This gathering of over 100 historians, physicians, nurses, medical and university educators, medical students, ethicists and more from 17 countries presenting on history, healthcare professions education, and bioethics addressed this dark chapter of history and contemplated its implications for current and future practitioners and researchers.

Background

Some historical background is presented here as context for this workshop: Five “programs” deliberately launched by the Nazis established the priority of the “health” of the State or “Volk” over the health of individuals and dehumanized those considered “unworthy of life.” first, the Jewish medical presence was eliminated from Nazi Germany (1935–1939). A second program consisted of involuntary sterilization of disabled German citizens (Jews included) (1933–1939), followed by a third, “euthanasia” of (mostly) Germans and Austrians whose lives were deemed medically “unworthy of living,” including the disabled and mentally ill (1939–1945). Fourth, horrific experiments on numerous persons ranging from mixed-race Afro-German children to Jews in Auschwitz were conducted throughout this period (1933–1945) [9] and fifth, medicalized genocide aimed to annihilate European Jewry and other “undesirables” (1941–1945), indeed from 1940 given that Jewish psychiatric patients were prioritized for killing with carbon monoxide gas. These programs were proposed, planned, organized, and implemented (contributed to for the fifth) by healthcare professionals and scientific institutions, implicating almost the entire scientific and medical enterprise of Germany and annexed Austria [6, 7]. The sequence of events was gradual. The first two “programs” enacted prior to World War II rendered an estimated 350,000 persons forcibly sterile and resulted in several thousand Jewish physicians being ousted from their jobs with many committing suicide or eventually perishing in the ghettoes and death camps. In this prelude to what was to follow, German and Austrian physicians and their institutions engaged in reporting, “legally” sanctioning, and executing these first two crimes. “The Holocaust started in the dark basements of German hospitals” [10].

Once the war began on September 1, 1939, Hitler permitted transitioning from sterilization to the T4 (“euthanasia”) program where, once again, German and Austrian disabled individuals were gassed. While this program officially ceased in August, 1941 after public protest with the Catholic Bishop Galen taking a lead, medical teams continued to perform “wild euthanasia” on a decentralized basis similar to the “special care children’s units” until late May, 1945. During 1941, the infrastructure, personnel and expertise of the T4 program were transferred east to serve the emerging “Final Solution” (plan to annihilate European Jewry officially launched in January 1942), by building the first three extermination camps on German-occupied Polish soil: Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka, as well as testing Zyklon gas for killing sick Poles and Russian prisoners in September 1941 in Auschwitz before large scale killing of Jews from 1942. It was also in Auschwitz where sick prisoners were routinely killed with lethal injections or sent to the gas chambers. Intermediary steps toward achieving the Holocaust included massive population transfers to ghettoes and labor camps fueled by medical advice on such actions “preventing epidemics” [11] and genocide by bullets in territories seized from the Soviet Union during the 1941–44 German invasion. In parallel, experimentation on ca 18,000 prisoners and patients, with medical and scientific establishments competing for generous research grants offered to support war related and racial research [12]. The pre-existing German Medical Ethics Guidelines of 1931 did not prevent such abuse and violation of human rights [13]. In the death camps, physicians conducted a disinformation charade intended to mislead with white coats and ambulances on the train ramps, followed by the infamous selection of immediately “diagnosing” the few who may be fit for work and sending the vast majority of deportees to gas chambers and crematoria. The image of the “angel of death” Josef Mengele MD, PhD looms large as the icon of medical presence selecting on the ramp of Auschwitz a select minority for forced labor and most for immediate killing by poison gas, as well as twins and persons with genetic growth defects for coerced experiments and extraction of soft tissue, body fluids and bones [4]. Mengele did not act alone. Research implicates numerous German and Austrian medical physicians and others in the scientific community as participating in this unprecedented breach of ethics and humanity [14].

Additional issues raised during the conference included the involvement of pharma in exploiting available slave labor and participating in unethical experiments, examples of the international medical community and its journals giving voice to, supporting, and publishing policies, ideology and “scientific” results of the Nazi medical and scientific communities, failures of compliance in many countries with ethical codes formulated in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and finally denial with transparency obstruction of the medical atrocities and their perpetrators in involved countries. Essential lessons for health professionals in all stages of the professional life cycle derive from studying history highlighting what may occur when ideology fuels evil distortion of medicine and science. The conference confronted the history of the often-central role of Nazi healthcare professionals in atrocities including exclusion of persons categorized as racially “sub humans” from the realm of ethical consideration, human beings labeled as unworthy of living [15], starvation and other forms of “legally” administered torture, and barbaric experiments conducted in the ruthless pursuit for “medical knowledge.”

Implications of the history of medicine in the Holocaust for medical ethics and education

Potential for abuse of power is inherent to medicine. Healthcare can involve the application of aggressive, potentially painful and distressing modalities, i.e. delivering bad news, surgery, resuscitation, distressing and often painful diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Physicians hold the power to announce and certify death, assist in reproductive technologies, admit against a patient’s will, and supply a host of certificates and reports which profoundly affect patients’ lives and welfare. Medicine is a hierarchical profession, with senior clinicians issuing orders to be carried out by junior ones, and where physicians often direct or command allied health personnel [16]. While these features of medicine are applied with the noble goal of healing and administering best practices within humanistic care, the combination of elements of hierarchy, obedience, and power constitutes a risk factor for abuse of power [2, 16]. What prevents potentialities for abuse of power in medicine from becoming reality?

Such existential deliberations were integrated at the conference within medical education imperatives, i.e. considering how the history of medicine under the Third Reich informs and shapes contemporary clinical ethics, human subject experimentation checks and balances, and required ethics committees, ethics consults, and institutional review boards (IRBs). An ethics code or instruction cannot suffice – “medical ethics” in Nazi-era medical school curricula existed, yet included “unequal worth of human beings, authoritative role of the physician, and priority of public health over individual patient care” [17, 18] Nazi physicians, idealistic in a perverse way, earnestly believed what they were doing was right [19]. While no physician was present in the Wannsee meeting that formally confirmed the plan for genocide of the Jewish people, [20] programs 1–4 as described above could not have been realized without individual physicians and the medical and scientific communities playing a decisive role in the planning and implementation of such programs. As for program #5, most horrific of all, the question of whether the Holocaust could have occurred without the contributions of the medical and scientific professions is haunting. Nearly 100 conference presentations included topics such as the medical/scientific community’s involvement in medical atrocities and bioethics after the Holocaust as well as medical activity (including ethical dilemmas) in ghettos and camps, genocide conditions, treatment of survivors and their offspring, resilience and post-trauma [21].

Learning and teaching about medicine in the Holocaust and beyond is a powerful platform for supporting professional identity formation. As such, this history ideally can help “equip” learners with a moral compass for navigating the future of medical practice and inherent ethical challenges such as prejudice, assisted reproduction, resource allocation, obtaining valid informed consent, end of life care, and challenges of genomics and technology expansion [7]. In addition to its relevance within overt racism and prejudice, medicine in the Holocaust pedagogy is germane to increasing awareness of potential for implicit bias to shape healing relationships, albeit in subtle ways, and efforts to identify, reduce, and ideally eliminate this characteristic within healthcare professions practice [22, 23].

Fostering reflection on the history of the profession has the potential to broaden learners’ perspectives, raise awareness, and promote empathy, compassion, and tolerance of the “other” [6, 24]. Medical student-authored publications have highlighted the contemporary relevance of Holocaust and Medicine curriculum for professional development [25, 26] as “hard truths are faced,” i.e. “What exactly did Nazi physicians do; how are their actions a part of Western medicine’s legacy [25]; and what can we do as a profession to prevent a repeat?”

Within this, there is increasing attention to the valuable contribution of the history of medicine within the medical humanities to medical education [27]. The inclusion of examples of altruism, deep humanity, and devotion to medicine as a calling while risking one’s life and the life of one’s family during the Holocaust can serve as inspiration [5,6,7]. Jewish prisoner healthcare professionals as well as “righteous of the nations’ ones” cared for patients, taught junior learners, conducted research, and manifested resistance to evil even under brutal conditions and in mortal danger [28,29,30]. The Warsaw Ghetto heroic Jewish healthcare system, its clandestine medical school, and the Hunger Study [31, 32] as well as Ludwik Fleck’s typhus vaccine sabotage, and the White Rose student resistance group based in the Munich medical school are some specific exemplars [28,29,30].

Holocaust and Medicine curriculum modules are integrated into health professions curricula [6], with further examples included at http://www.medicineaftertheholocaust.org/category/curricula-syllabi/. Studies of curriculum impact on students’ attitudes and behavior are emerging [33] including within a 3 year credit-earning elective curriculum for interprofessional students (including study excursions to Holocaust sites; students may participate in any/all of the years) at the Witten-Herdecke University Faculty of Health-Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (ICURAM) in collaboration with the Ita Wegman Institute (https://ibam.uni-wh.de/en/, http://www.wegmaninstitut.ch/).

The Scholars Workshop on Medicine during the Holocaust and Beyond culminated with the launch of the Galilee Declaration, composed and signed by an international, inter-professional community of historians, healthcare professions educators and ethicists (additional signatures invited.) The Declaration (included below) and accessed at: http://english.wgalil.ac.il/category/Declaration) calls for curriculum on history of healthcare professions in the Holocaust and its implications to be included in all healthcare professions education. The document emulates the 2000 Stockholm Declaration [34] that transformed general Holocaust education worldwide, with the intention of similar impact.

Conclusions: what global lessons can we draw from this critical reflection?

It is about the major ethical questions of our time: the soul of care, equity in healthcare, resource allocation, pharma ethical conduct, non-exploitation of the vulnerable, poor and marginalized, rights of the disabled, beginning and end of life issues…and more. It is about current and future health professionals being cognizant of the inherent danger of abuse of power in medicine and the need for “immunizing” ourselves for prevention. Challenges abound within the practice of healing, given reality of violence [35], stress, fatigue, burnout-inducing systems factors [36] and potential dilemmas of dual commitment (eg. physicians in uniform) [37]. It is about critical aspects of professionalism, professional identity formation, and prevention of abuse of power. These include desired professional competencies of conscience, empathy, compassion, reflection, and resilience (emotional and moral) in the individual health professional in conjunction with additional technical competencies. It is also about checks and balances, remembering and commemorating, learning and teaching within the shared humanity of individuals, institutions, societies, and nations.

May we carry Primo Levi’s words as an everlasting reminder: “It can happen, and it can happen everywhere” [38].

https://ijhpr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13584-019-0327-3

8 Things You Need to Know about Surveillance

8 important truths about surveillance

ai-in-society

Author

Rachel Thomas

Published

August 7, 2019

Over 225 police departments have partnered with Amazon to have access to Amazon’s video footage obtained as part of the “smart” doorbell product Ring, and in many cases these partnerships are heavily subsidized with taxpayer money. Police departments are allowing Amazon to stream 911 call information directly in real-time, and Amazon requires police departments to read pre-approved scripts when talking about the program. If a homeowner doesn’t want to share data from their video camera doorbell with police, an officer for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said they can just go directly to Amazon to obtain it. This creation of an extensive surveillance network, the murky private-public partnership surrounding it, and a lack of any sort of regulations or oversight is frightening. And this is just one of many examples related to surveillance technology that have recently come to light.

I frequently talk with people who are not that concerned about surveillance, or who feel that the positives outweigh the risks. Here, I want to share some important truths about surveillance:

Surveillance can facilitate human rights abuses and even genocide

Data is often used for different purposes than why it was collected

Data often contains errors

Surveillance typically operates with no accountability

Surveillance changes our behavior

Surveillance disproportionately impacts the marginalized

Data privacy is a public good

We don’t have to accept invasive surveillance

While I was writing this post, a number of investigative articles came out with disturbing new developments related to surveillance. I decided that rather than attempt to include everything in one post (which would make it too long and too dense), I would go ahead and share the above facts about surveillance, as they are just a relevant as ever.

Surveillance can facilitate human rights abuses and even genocide

There is a long history of data about sensitive attributes being misused, including the use of the 1940 USA Census to intern Japanese Americans, a system of identity cards introduced by the Belgian colonial government that were later used during the 1994 Rwandan genocide (in which nearly a million people were murdered), and the role of IBM in helping Nazi Germany use punchcard computers to identify and track the mass killing of millions of Jewish people. More recently, the mass internment of over one million people who are part of an ethnic minority in Western China was facilitated through the use of a surveillance network of cameras, biometric data (including images of people’s faces, audio of their voices, and blood samples), and phone monitoring.

Adolf Hitler meeting with IBM CEO Tom Watson Sr. in 1937. Source: Computer History

Pictured above is Adolf Hitler (far left) meeting with IBM CEO Tom Watson Sr. (2nd from left), shortly before Hitler awarded Watson a special “Service to the Reich” medal in 1937 (for a timeline of the Holocaust, see here). Watson returned the medal in 1940, although IBM continued to do business with the Nazis. IBM technology helped the Nazis conduct detailed censuses in countries they occupied, to thoroughly identify anyone of Jewish descent. Nazi concentration camps used IBM’s punchcard machines to tabulate prisoners, recording whether they were Jewish, gay, or Gypsies, and whether they died of “natural causes,” execution, suicide, or via “special treatment” in gas chambers. It is not the case that IBM sold the machines and then was done with it. Rather, IBM and its subsidiaries provided regular training and maintenance on-site at the concentration camps: printing off cards, configuring machines, and repairing them as they broke frequently.

Data is often used for different purposes than why it was collected

In the above examples, the data collection began before genocide was committed. IBM began selling to Nazi Germany well before the Holocaust (although continued for far too long), including helping with Germany’s 1933 census conducted by Adolf Hitler, which was effective at identifying far more Jewish people than had previously been recognized in Germany.

It is important to recognize how data and images gathered through surveillance can be weaponized later. Columbia professor Tim Wu wrote that “One [hard truth] is that data and surveillance networks created for one purpose can and will be used for others. You must assume that any personal data that Facebook or Android keeps are data that governments around the world will try to get or that thieves will try to steal.”

Plenty of data collection is not involved with such extreme abuse as genocide; however, in a time of global resurgence of white supremacist, ethno-nationalist, and authoritarian movements, it would be deeply irresponsible to not consider how data & surveillance can and will be weaponized against already vulnerable groups.

Data often has errors (and no mechanism for correcting them)

A database of suspected gang members maintained by California law enforcement officials was found to be full of errors, including 42 babies who had been added to the database when they were less than 1 year old (28 of whom were marked as “admitting to being gang members”). Even worse, there was no process in place for correcting mistakes or removing people once they’ve been added.

An NPR reporter recounts his experience of trying to rent an apartment and discovering that TransUnion, one of the 3 major credit bureaus, incorrectly reported him as having two felony firearms convictions. TransUnion only removed the mistakes after a dozen phone calls and notification that the story would be reported on. This is not an unusual story: the FTC’s large-scale study of credit reports in 2012 found 26% of consumers had at least one mistake in their files and 5% had errors that could be devastating. An even more opaque, unregulated “4th bureau” exists: a collection of companies buying and selling personal information about people on the margins of the banking system (such as immigrants, students, and people with low incomes), with no standards on what types of data are included, no way to opt out, and no system for identifying or correcting mistakes.

Surveillance typically operates with no accountability

What makes the examples in the previous section disturbing is not just that errors occurred, but that there was no way to identify or correct them, and no accountability for those profiting off the error-laden data. Often, even the existence of the systems being used is not publicly known (much less details of how these systems work), unless discovered by journalists or revealed by whistleblowers. The Detroit Police Dept used facial recognition technology for nearly two years without public input and in violation of a requirement that a policy be approved by the city’s Board of Police Commissioners, until a study from Georgetown Law’s Center for Privacy & Technology drew attention to the issue. Palantir, the defense startup founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, ran a program with New Orleans Police Department for 6 years which city council members did not even know about, much less have any oversight.

After two studies found that Amazon’s facial recognition software produced inaccurate and racially biased results, Amazon countered that the researchers should have changed the default parameters. However, it turned out that Amazon was not instructing police departments that use its software to do this either. Surveillance programs are operating with few regulations, no oversight, no accountability around accuracy or mistakes, and in many cases, no public knowledge of what is going on.

Surveillance changes our behavior

Hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong are protesting an unpopular new bill which would allow extradition to China. Typically, Hong Kong locals use their rechargeable smart cards to ride the subway. However, during the protests, long lines of people waited to use cash to buy paper tickets (usually something that only tourists do) concerned that they would be tracked for having attended the protests. Would fewer people protest if this was not an option?

In the United States, in 2015 the Baltimore Police Department used facial recognition technology to surveil people protesting the death of Freddie Grey, a young Black man who was killed in police custody, and arrested protesters with outstanding warrants. Mass surveillance could have a chilling impact on our rights to move about freely, to express ourselves, and to protest. “We act differently when we know we are ‘on the record.’ Mass privacy is the freedom to act without being watched and thus in a sense, to be who we really are,” Columbia professor Tim Wu wrote in the New York Times.

Flyer from the company Geofeedia Source

Surveillance disproportionately impacts those who are already marginalized

Surveillance is applied unevenly, causing the greatest harm to people who are already marginalized, including immigrants, people of color, and people living in poverty. These groups are more heavily policed and surveilled. The Perpetual Line-Up from the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology studied the unregulated use of facial recognition by police, with half of all Americans appearing in law enforcement databases, and the risks of errors, racial bias, misuses, and threats to civil liberties. The researchers pointed out that African Americans are more likely to appear in these databases (many of which are drawn from mug shots) since they are disproportionately likely to be stopped, interrogated, or arrested. For another example, consider the contrast between how easily people over 65 can apply for Medicare benefits by filling out an online form, with the invasive personal questions asked of a low-income mother on Medicaid about her lovers, hygiene, parental shortcomings, and personal habits.

In an article titled Trading privacy for survival is another tax on the poor, Ciara Byrne wrote, “Current public benefits programs ask applicants extremely detailed and personal questions and sometimes mandate home visits, drug tests, fingerprinting, and collection of biometric information… Employers of low-income workers listen to phone calls, conduct drug tests, monitor closed-circuit television, and require psychometric tests as conditions of employment. Prisoners in some states have to consent to be voiceprinted in order to make phone calls.”

Data privacy is a public good, like air quality or safe drinking water

Data is more revealing in aggregate. It can be nearly impossible to know what your individual data could reveal when combined with the data of others or with data from other sources, or when machine learning inference is performed on it. For instance, as Zeynep Tufekci wrote in the New York Times, individual Strava users could not have predicted how in aggregate their data could be used to identify the locations of US military bases. “Data privacy is not like a consumer good, where you click ‘I accept’ and all is well. Data privacy is more like air quality or safe drinking water, a public good that cannot be effectively regulated by trusting in the wisdom of millions of individual choices. A more collective response is needed.”

Unfortunately, this also means that you can’t fully safeguard your privacy on your own. You may choose not to purchase Amazon’s ring doorbell, yet you can still show up in the video footage collected by others. You might strengthen your online privacy practices, yet conclusions will still be inferred about you based on the behavior of others. As Professor Tufekci wrote, we need a collective response.

We don’t have to accept invasive surveillance

Many people are uncomfortable with surveillance, but feel like they have no say in the matter. While the threats surveillance poses are large, it is not too late to act. We are seeing success: in response to community organizing and an audit, Los Angeles Police Department scrapped a controversial program to predict who is most likely to commit violent crimes. Citizens, researchers, and activists in Detroit have been effective at drawing attention to the Detroit Police Department’s unregulated use of facial recognition and a bill calling for a 5-year moratorium has been introduced to the state legislature. Local governments in San Francisco, Oakland, and Somerville have banned the use of facial recognition by police.

For further resources, please check out: - Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology - Digital Defense Playbook

https://www.fast.ai/posts/2019-08-07-surveillance.html

Numbers 13

1599 Geneva Bible

13 4 Certain men are sent to search the land of Canaan. 24 They bring of the fruit of the land. 31 Caleb comforteth the people against the discouraging of the other spies.

1 Then afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of [a]Paran.

2 ¶ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

3 [b]Send thou men out to search the land of Canaan which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, such as are all rulers among them.

4 Then Moses sent them out of the wilderness of Paran at the commandment of the Lord: all those men were [c]heads of the children of Israel.

5 Also their names are these: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur:

6 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori:

7 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh:

8 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph:

9 Of the tribe of Ephraim, [d]Hoshea the son of Nun:

10 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu:

11 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi:

12 Of the tribe of Joseph, to wit, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi:

13 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli:

14 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael:

15 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi:

16 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

17 These are the names of the [e]men, which Moses sent to spy out the land: and Moses called the name of Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

18 So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way toward the South, and go up into the [f]mountains.

19 And consider the land what it is, and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong, or weak, either few or many.

20 Also what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be [g]good or bad: and what cities they be, that they dwell in, whether they dwell in tents, or in walled towns.

21 And what the land is: whether it be fat or lean, whether there be trees therein, or not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land (for then was the time of the first ripe grapes.)

22 ¶ So they went up, and searched out the land, from the wilderness of [h]Zin unto Rehob, to go to Hamath.

23 And they ascended toward the South, and came unto Hebron, where were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the sons of [i]Anak. And [j]Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

24 Then they came to the river of Eshcol, and cut down thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it upon a bar between two, and brought of the pomegranates and of the figs.

25 That place was called the [k]river Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes, which the children of Israel cut down thence.

26 Then after forty days they turned again from searching of the land.

27 And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron, and unto all the Congregation of the children of Israel, in the wilderness of [l]Paran, to Kadesh, and brought to them, and to all the Congregation tidings, and showed them the fruit of the land.

28 And they told [m]him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou hast sent us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey: and here is of the fruit of it.

29 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and exceeding great: and moreover, we saw the [n]sons of Anak there.

30 The Amalekites dwell in the South country, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coasts of Jordan.

31 Then Caleb stilled the people [o]before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it: for undoubtedly we shall overcome it.

32 But the men that went up with him, said, We be not able to go up against the people: for they are stronger than we.

33 So they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched for the children of Israel, saying, The land which we have gone through to search it out, is a land that [p]eateth up the inhabitants thereof: for all the people that we saw in it, are men of great stature.

34 For there we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, so that we seemed in our sight like grasshoppers: and so we were in their sight.

Footnotes

Numbers 13:1 That is, in Rithmah, which was in Paran, Num. 33:18.

Numbers 13:3 After the people had required it of Moses, as it is in Deut. 1:22, then the Lord spake to Moses so to do.

Numbers 13:4 Or, rulers.

Numbers 13:9 Or, Joshua.

Numbers 13:17 Which in number were twelve, according to the twelve tribes.

Numbers 13:18 Or, his country.

Numbers 13:20 Plentiful or barren.

Numbers 13:22 Which was in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13:23 Which were a kind of giants.

Numbers 13:23 Declaring the antiquity thereof: also Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob were buried there.

Numbers 13:25 Or, the valley of Eshcol, that is, of grapes.

Numbers 13:27 Called also Kadesh Barnea.

Numbers 13:28 That is, Moses.

Numbers 13:29 Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, whom Caleb slew afterward, Josh. 11:21, 22.

Numbers 13:31 Or, murmuring against Moses.

Numbers 13:33 The giants were so cruel, that they spoiled and killed one another and those that came to them.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2013&version=GNV

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