Pope meets Vance, then releases Easter message decrying ‘logic of fear’

The visit at the Vatican brought together the ailing head of the Catholic Church and a high-profile convert who has criticized the pope’s social teachings.

Updated

April 20, 2025 at 8:09 a.m. EDTtoday at 8:09 a.m. EDT

8 min

Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 20, ahead of the Pope's Easter Mass appearance at St. Peter’s Square. (Video: Vatican TV via Reuters)

By Natalie Allison, Anthony Faiola and Stefano Pitrelli

VATICAN CITY — Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, a remarkable encounter between the ailing head of the global Catholic Church and a high-profile convert to the faith who has publicly criticized some of the church’s social teachings.

The vice president’s meeting with the pope was not announced in advance but was widely anticipated as Vance made something of a Catholic pilgrimage to the Vatican over Easter, with Sunday being the faith’s holiest day.

The “private meeting” occurred at 11:30 a.m. at the papal residence, Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican said, and happened while Easter Mass was being said in St. Peter’s Square. “The meeting, which lasted a few minutes, gave them the opportunity to exchange Easter greetings,” the Vatican said in a statement. Vance also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state and Francis’s No. 2, on Saturday.

“I know you’ve not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health,” Vance said to Francis, sitting down facing the pope in his wheelchair.

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“Thank you very much for your visit,” an interpreter for Francis said to the vice president. Vance was presented with several gifts, including a Vatican necktie and a rosary, as well as rosaries for his family and chocolate Easter eggs for his children. Francis could be heard saying very little.

As the meeting concluded, Vance took Francis’s right hand in his and touched the pope’s arm with his other hand. “Pray for you every day,” Vance said. “God bless you.”

After the encounter, Francis was wheeled out to the Loggia of Blessings overlooking St. Peter’s Square to cheers from a crowd of 35,000. He offered a silent blessing and a short, breathless greeting before Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of apostolic ceremonies, read aloud Francis’s Easter speech — known as the “Urbi et Orbi” (“to the city and the world”) — which presented a worldview in stark contrast with that of President Donald Trump’s administration.

“How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,” Ravelli read, without mentioning a country or person. In a later passage, he said, “I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death.”

The meeting with Francis amounts to one of Vance’s most conciliatory public acts since entering the vice presidency three months ago. He has used the office to forcefully lambaste leaders and institutions with whom he disagrees — perhaps most notably officials in Europe.

The encounter found Vance in the position of greeting the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics who has preached humility, mercy and inclusion at a time when the Trump administration has sought to project dominance at all costs.

While Vance has taken issue with the church’s posture on immigration — rebuking the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ response to his and Trump’s policies on migrants and acknowledging that he and the pope diverge on the issue — he has also, at times, sought to calm tensions with the Vatican. The pope is “fundamentally a person who cares about the flock of Christians under his leadership,” Vance said at a Catholic prayer breakfast in late February.

Vance, 40, converted to Catholicism six years ago. The visit to Rome at the end of Holy Week is the first leg of a trip Vance is taking to India, where he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

“I’m grateful every day for this job, but particularly today where my official duties have brought me to Rome on Good Friday,” Vance wrote Friday evening on X, as he traveled to Saint Peter’s Basilica to attend a Good Friday service with second lady Usha Vance and their three children.

A Vatican readout portrayed Vance’s meeting with Parolin as a substantive discussion on a wide range of issues. It noted “cordial talks” and an expression of “satisfaction” over “good existing bilateral relations” and a common commitment to protect the right to “freedom of religion and conscience.” It also mentioned an “exchange of opinions” on war, political tensions and humanitarian situations, with “particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”

But there were also obvious signs of a still wide gap between the Vatican and the Trump administration. In a move the National Catholic Reporter described as a “tone-deaf Good Friday tweet,” the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See posted on X on Friday that “the Trump Administration is working to preserve U.S. sovereignty by curbing illegal immigration. We support legal pathways to citizenship.”

A day earlier, the Rev. Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, the auxiliary bishop of Washington, penned an op-ed condemning the administration’s “shock and awe” campaign against migrants and urging the faithful to “speak up” against it. “We cannot let the dark side of anti-immigrant animus take hold,” he wrote.

Despite the pope’s still fragile health after a five-week hospital stay, Vatican watchers said that not meeting with Vance would have been seen as a snub, though Vance’s advisers had avoided suggesting they believed a meeting was likely.

Francis, who continues to struggle for breath when speaking, is recovering after a bout of double pneumonia that nearly took his life. But despite doctors’ orders to rest for two months, he has made several public appearances since his release from a hospital on March 23 and has held several audiences, including with King Charles III and Queen Camilla of Britain.

Francis and the Trump administration remain at odds on several issues, including massive cuts to foreign aid that have hobbled Catholic charities across the globe, and the migrant crackdown in the United States. And the Jesuit pope’s signature traits of humility and mercy — he declined to live in the opulent papal apartment atop the Vatican Palace, choosing a more modest accommodation — are in stark contrast with Trump’s comments about seeking revenge and his longtime embrace of luxury.

But the Vatican — and the pope when he wears his hat as global diplomat — has a reputation for open doors.

“The Vatican has one golden rule: ‘We talk with everyone — dictators, good Catholics, anyone,’” said Massimo Faggioli, a Catholic theologian at Villanova University.

Vance’s meeting with Francis comes two months after the pope issued an extraordinary letter to U.S. bishops in which he challenged the administration’s “mass deportations.” In the letter, the pope appeared to take Vance to task specifically for suggesting that the “ordo amoris” — a medieval Catholic concept — could be used to defend such deportations by outlining a pecking order of Christian care, with the family first, followed by neighbors, the community, fellow citizens and, lastly, those beyond.

Francis, in his retort, wrote that “the true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan.’”

But Vatican watchers said both sides were likely to seize the moment to build a “rapport.”

“Vance is here to break through the enmity and get around potential prejudice with a personal gesture, to [try to build] a good rapport,” said a senior diplomat close to the Vatican who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “And it’s a very clever move: Should he and the pope hit it off, that would supersede any ideological obstacle.”

For Francis, the official said, it was a moment that presented an opportunity to establish a “personal rapport” with Vance. “Francis has an incredible gift to make you like him. If he wants to,” the diplomat said.

Ahead of Vance’s visit, Vatican officials expressed optimism about the chance for improved dialogue with the administration, particularly on the issue of Ukraine. One senior Vatican official said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a call with Parolin on March 14, had asked for the Vatican’s assistance in efforts to reach a ceasefire. Ukrainian officials have previously bristled at Francis’s initial reluctance to call Russia the aggressor and its vocal calls to end the war.

“Vice President JD Vance’s own Catholicism could possibly lay the groundwork for a deeper conversation with the Holy See,” said the Vatican official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “So his trip will be a chance to figure out what the collaboration with the new U.S. administration will look like.”

The pope did not celebrate Easter Mass on Sunday because of his health. Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the archpriest emeritus of St. Peter’s Basilica, said that Mass as his surrogate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/20/vance-pope-francis-easter-vatican/

The Royal Family

17h Sunday, April 20, 2025 12:00am ·

✝️🐣 He is Risen!…

https://www.facebook.com/TheBritishMonarchy/videos/1380079220005857

AI Overview

Learn more

Helium Balloon Falls in a Vacuum | UCSC Physics ...

Helium balloons rise because helium is less dense than air, creating a buoyant force that pushes them upwards. This buoyant force is the difference between the weight of the air displaced by the balloon and the weight of the helium itself. The balloon will continue to rise until it reaches a point where the density of the surrounding air is equal to the density of the balloon (including the helium).

Elaboration:

Buoyancy:

When a helium-filled balloon is released, it displaces a volume of air. The weight of the air displaced is greater than the weight of the helium and the balloon material, resulting in a net upward force (buoyant force).

Density Difference:

Helium is significantly lighter than air. A liter of helium weighs about 0.1785 grams, while a liter of air weighs about 1.25 grams. This density difference is what creates the buoyant force.

Ascent and Pressure:

As the balloon rises, the surrounding air pressure decreases, and the helium inside the balloon expands. This expansion initially increases the buoyant force, but as the balloon reaches higher altitudes, the air becomes less dense, and the buoyant force decreases.

Maximum Altitude:

The balloon will continue to rise until the buoyant force is balanced by gravity. This happens when the density of the surrounding air is equal to the density of the helium and balloon.

Practical Limits:

In reality, the strength of the balloon material and the decreasing air density with altitude also limit how high a helium balloon can rise. Toy balloons can burst at around 10km, while professional meteorological balloons can reach heights of 30km. BBC Science Focus Magazine notes that a specially built helium balloon reached 53km in 2002.

Generative AI is experimental.

AI Overview

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Nucleosynthesis I | Seth Stein

In a hydrogen bomb, deuterium and tritium, both isotopes of hydrogen, are fused together to create helium. This fusion process releases a massive amount of energy, making the bomb far more powerful than an atomic bomb. The helium produced is a by-product of the fusion reaction.

Here's a more detailed explanation:

Fusion:

Hydrogen bombs utilize nuclear fusion, where atomic nuclei combine at extremely high temperatures and pressures.

Deuterium and Tritium:

The primary fuel for fusion in a hydrogen bomb is a mixture of deuterium and tritium, both isotopes of hydrogen.

Helium Production:

When deuterium and tritium fuse, they create helium (specifically helium-4) and a neutron.

Energy Release:

The fusion reaction releases a tremendous amount of energy in the form of heat and radiation, resulting in the explosion.

Thermonuclear Weapon:

Hydrogen bombs are also known as thermonuclear weapons because they achieve the high temperatures necessary for fusion by using a fission bomb (atomic bomb) to initiate the process.

Generative AI is experimental.

The Great Reset Initiative is an economic recovery plan drawn up by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] The project was launched in June 2020, and a video featuring the then-Prince of Wales Charles was released to mark its launch.[2] The initiative's stated aim is to facilitate rebuilding from the global COVID-19 crisis in a way that prioritizes sustainable development.[3]

WEF chief executive officer Klaus Schwab described three core components of the Great Reset: creating conditions for a "stakeholder economy"; building in a more "resilient, equitable, and sustainable" way, utilising environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics; and "harnessing the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."[4][5] In a speech introducing the initiative, International Monetary Fund director Kristalina Georgieva listed three key aspects of a sustainable response to COVID-19: green growth, smarter growth, and fairer growth.[3][6]

"The Great Reset" was the theme of the 2021 World Economic Forum annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, scheduled for January 2021.[7] Due to disruption from COVID-19, the summit was postponed to May 2021, and again to 2022.[8][9] The Davos 2022 theme was "History at a Turning Point", and the Russian invasion of Ukraine dominated the summit.[10]

The Great Reset Initiative, and the World Economic Forum more generally,[11] have been criticised by some commentators for promoting economic deregulation and a greater role in policy for unrepresentative private businesses, particularly large multinational corporations, at the expense of government institutions.[12][13] Other commentators attacked the scheme for fixating on the concept of education, health and vastly overestimating the ability of a group of decision-makers to bring about global change,[14] or for promoting crony capitalism.[15]

The initiative triggered a range of diverse conspiracy theories spread by conservative commentators on social media such as YouTube, Tumblr, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Among the unsupported theories were the assertions that the COVID-19 pandemic was created by a secret group in order to seize control of the global economy,[1] that lockdown restrictions were deliberately designed to induce economic meltdown,[16] or that a global elite was attempting to abolish private property while using COVID-19 to enslave humanity with vaccines.[17][12] Great Reset conspiracy theories increased in intensity when leaders such as U.S. president Joe Biden, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau incorporated ideas of a post-COVID-19 "reset" in their speeches.[1][18]

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

The Holyrood or Holy Rood is a Christian relic alleged to be part of the True Cross on which Jesus died. The word derives from the Old English rood, meaning a pole and the cross, via Middle English, or the Scots haly ruid ("holy cross"). Several relics venerated as part of the True Cross are known by this name, in England, Ireland and Scotland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyrood_(cross)

To sum up: men crucified to the world, and to whom the world itself is crucified[7] such would our Constitutions have us to be; new men, I say, who have put off their affections to put on Christ;[8] dead to themselves to live to justice; who, with St. Paul in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, show themselves ministers of God[9] and by the armor of Justice on the right hand and, on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, by good success finally and ill success, press forward with great strides to their heavenly country. This is the sum and aim of our institute."

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

King Charles’ coronation cross will contain relic believed to be from Christ’s crucifixion

Hafsa Khalil, CNN

2 minute read

Updated 10:47 AM EDT, Wed April 19, 2023

London

CNN

—

A “beautiful and symbolic” silver cross containing a piece of the so-called True Cross will lead King Charles III’s coronation procession in London next month.

The religious relic, believed by some to be a fragment of the cross on which Christ was crucified, was given to the King by Pope Francis to mark his coronation.

Holy oil to anoint King Charles III on his coronation, has been consecrated in Jerusalem

The cross will officially be received by the Church in Wales at a service following the coronation, and it will be shared between the nation’s Anglican and Catholic churches, the statement said.

Representing the Roman Catholic Church, Mark O’Toole, the Archbishop of Cardiff and Bishop of Menevia, said his church accepted the cross “with a sense of deep joy,” adding that it is a sign of the nation’s “deep Christian roots.”.

The Cross of Wales was designed by master silversmith Michael Lloyd and made with Welsh materials: recycled silver from the Royal Mint in Llantrisant; Welsh slate for the stand; and Welsh windfall wood for the shaft.

Beer brewed 86 years ago for Edward VIII's canceled coronation goes on sale

Charles also participated in its creation, hammering the hallmark onto the silver cross himself.

Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, the British monarchy’s private art collection, described the cross as “inspired by medieval Welsh art and design,” combining historical reference with contemporary craft.

The back of the cross is adorned with words from the last sermon of St. David, the patron saint of Wales, in Welsh: “Byddwch lawen. Cadwch y ffydd. Gwnewch y pethau bychain,” translating to: “Be joyful. Keep the faith. Do the little things.”

Sign up for CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/coronation-cross-christ-scli-intl-gbr/index.html

The Carolingian dynasty (/ˌkærəˈlɪndʒiən/ KARR-ə-LIN-jee-ən;[1] known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD.[2] The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious until the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants, Charlemagne's death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Name

The Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of multiple Frankish kings including Charlemagne and Charles Martel.[3] Incidentally, the US states of North and South Carolina are also based on the name Charles, having been named after King Charles II of England. The name originates from a common Germanic word, rendered in Old High German as Karl or Kerl,[4] meaning 'man', 'husband', or 'freeman'.[5]

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

Pope 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

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

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

One World Trade Center, also known as One WTC and erroneously as the Freedom Tower,[note 1] is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world. The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre (6.5 ha) World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center. It is bounded by West Street to the west, Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east.

The construction of below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the new building began on April 27, 2006. One World Trade Center became the tallest structure in New York City on April 30, 2012, when it surpassed the height of the Empire State Building. The tower's steel structure was topped out on August 30, 2012. On May 10, 2013, the final component of the skyscraper's spire was installed, making the building, including its spire, reach a total height of 1,776 feet (541 m). Its height in feet is a deliberate reference to the year when the United States Declaration of Independence was signed. The building opened on November 3, 2014;[12] the One World Observatory opened on May 29, 2015.[13]

On March 26, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) confirmed that the building would be officially known by its legal name of "One World Trade Center", rather than its colloquial name of "Freedom Tower".[15][16][17] The building has 94 stories, with the top floor numbered 104.

The new World Trade Center complex will eventually include five high-rise office buildings built along Greenwich Street, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located just south of One World Trade Center where the original Twin Towers stood, and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub to its east. The construction of the new building is part of an effort to memorialize and rebuild following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex.

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

Pope John XXIII's coat of arms.

Of gules, a silver sash, a silver tower mazonada and clarified with sable especially, accompanied chiefly by two fleurs-de-lis of the same, a silver chief with a winged leopard lion, holding a gospel with the front right leg open with the text "PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS", all in gold and saber letters.

https://br.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restr:C_o_a_John_XXIII.svg

Pope John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes XXIII; Italian: Giovanni XXIII [dʒoˈvanni ventitreˈɛːzimo]; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Italian: [ˈandʒelo dʒuˈzɛppe roŋˈkalli];[a] 25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 1963.

Roncalli was among 13 children born to Marianna Mazzola and Giovanni Battista Roncalli in a family of sharecroppers who lived in Sotto il Monte, a village in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy.[8] He was ordained to the priesthood on 10 August 1904 and served in a number of posts, as nuncio in France and a delegate to Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In a consistory on 12 January 1953 Pope Pius XII made Roncalli a cardinal as the Cardinal-priest of Santa Prisca in addition to naming him as the Patriarch of Venice. Roncalli was unexpectedly elected pope on 28 October 1958 at age 76 after Pope Pius XII's death. Pope John XXIII surprised those who expected him to be a caretaker pope by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the first session opening on 11 October 1962, which is now his feast.

John XXIII made many passionate speeches during his pontificate. His views on equality were summed up in his statement, "We were all made in God's image, and thus, we are all Godly alike."[9][10] He made a major impact on the Catholic Church, opening it up to dramatic unexpected changes promulgated at the Second Vatican Council and by his own dealings with other churches and nations. In Italian politics, he prohibited bishops from interfering with local elections, and he helped the Christian Democracy party to cooperate with the Italian Socialist Party. In international affairs, his Ostpolitik engaged in dialogue with the communist countries of Eastern Europe. He especially reached out to the Eastern Orthodox churches.

His overall goal was to modernize the Church by emphasizing its pastoral role, and its necessary involvement with affairs of state. He dropped the traditional rule of 70 cardinals, increasing the size to 85. He used the opportunity to name the first cardinals from Africa, Japan, and the Philippines. He promoted ecumenical movements in cooperation with other Christian faiths. In doctrinal matters, he was a traditionalist, but he ended the practice of automatically formulating social and political policies on the basis of old theological propositions.[11]

He did not live to see the Second Vatican Council to completion. In September 1962, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and died eight months later on June 3, 1963. His cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by his successor, Pope Paul VI, who declared him a Servant of God. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000. On 5 July 2013, Pope Francis – bypassing the traditionally required second miracle – declared John XXIII a saint, based on his virtuous, model lifestyle, and because of the good which had come from his opening of the Second Vatican Council. He was canonized alongside Pope John Paul II himself on 27 April 2014.[12][13] John XXIII today is affectionately known as "the Good Pope" (Italian: il papa buono).

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

Facade of St. Peter's

On February 10, 1608 the first stone was laid and on July 21, 1612 most of the work was completed. It took another two years for the ornamentattion.

The inscription (1m high) states: "Paul V Borghese, Roman, Pontiff, in the year 1612, the seventh of his pontificate, [erected] in honour of the Prince of Apostles".

From the central balcony, called the Loggia of the Blessings, the new pope is announced with "Habemus Papum", and gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing. The relief under the balcony, by Buonvicino, represents Christ giving the keys to St. Peter.

https://www.stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Facade/Facade.htm

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]

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

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

The 2nd Crown of the Commonwealth

The second Crown was created in 1481 with the papal bull Aeterni Regis meaning "Eternal Crown" by Sixtus IV being only the 2nd of three papal bulls as deeds of testamentary trusts.

This Papal Bull created what is known as the "Crown of Aragon", later known as the Crown of Spain, being the highest sovereign and highest steward of all Roman Slaves subject to the rule of the Roman Pontiff. Spain lost the crown in 1604 when it was granted to King James I of England by Pope Paul V after the successful passage of the "Union of Crowns" or Commonwealth in 1605 after the false flag operation of the Gunpowder Plot.

The Crown was finally lost by England in 1975 when it was returned to Spain and King Carlos I, where it remains to this day.

This 2nd Crown is represented by the 2nd cestui Que Vie Trust created when a child is born being the sale of the birth certificate as a Bond to the private central bank of the nation, depriving them of ownership of their flesh and condemning them to perpetual servitude as a Roman person, or slave.

The 3rd Crown of the Ecclesiastical See

The third Crown was created in 1537 by Paul III through the papal bull Convocation also meant to open the Council of Trent being the third an final testamentary deed and will of a testamentary trust, being the trust set up for the claiming of all "lost souls", lost to the See.

The Venetians assisted in the creation of the 1st cestui Que Vie Act of 1540 to use this papal bull as the basis of Ecclesiastical authority of Henry VIII. This Crown was secretly granted to England in the collection and "reaping" of lost souls.

The Crown was lost in 1815 due to the deliberate bankruptcy of England and granted to the Temple Bar, which became known as the Crown Bar, or simply the Crown.

The Bar Associations have been responsible ever since in administering the "reaping" of the souls of the lost and damned, including the registration and collection of Baptismal certificates representing the souls collected by the Vatican and stored in its vaults.

This 3rd Crown is represented by the 3rd cestui Que Vie Trust created when a child is baptized being the grant of the Baptismal certificate by the parents to the church or Registrar being the gift of title of the soul. Thus, without legal title over one's own soul, a man or woman may be "legally" denied right to stand as a person, but may be treated as a creature and thing without legally possessing a soul. Hence, why the Bar Association is able to legally enforce Maritime law against men and women- because they can be treated as things, cargo that does not possess a soul.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230720172429/http://www.friendware.net/final_writs_rome/final_writs_Master_Trusts.html

The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the fall of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after the Third Crusade in 1192.

The original Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1099 to 1187 before being almost entirely overrun by the Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin. Following the Third Crusade, it was re-established in Acre in 1192. The re-established state is commonly known as the "Second Kingdom of Jerusalem" or, alternatively, as the "Kingdom of Acre" after its new capital city. Acre remained the capital for the rest of its existence, even during the two decades that followed the Crusaders' establishment of partial control over Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade, through the diplomacy of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen face to face the Ayyubids.

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

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a pseudo-historical[1][2] belief that the people of Great Britain are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.[3] With roots in the 16th century, British Israelism was inspired by several 19th century English writings such as John Wilson's 1840 Our Israelitish Origin.[4] From the 1870s onward, numerous independent British Israelite organizations were set up throughout the British Empire as well as in the United States; as of the early 21st century, a number of these organizations are still active. In the United States, the idea gave rise to the Christian Identity movement.

The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by archaeological,[5] ethnological,[6] genetic,[7]: 181 and linguistic research.[8][9]: 33–34

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

The Masonic King of England

Edward VIII was crowned both king and Grand Master of English Freemasonry on January20, 1936. Edward, however, married a divorced commoner from the United States and was forced to abdicate eleven months later on December 10th. His younger brother ascended the throne the next day and downgraded Edward's title to the Duke of Windsor. In July1940 the Duke assumed the governorship of the Bahamas.127 Edward VIII not only supported Hitler, he did so loudly. From the time of Hitler's rise to power, the Windsors were fascinated by the Fuehrer and his New Order in Europe. Speaking in Masonic 480 terms, the King expressed the views of the Brotherhood concerning Hitler: "What-ever happens, he said, "whatever the outcome, a New Order is going to come into the world.... It will be buttressed with police power.. ..When peace comes this time, there is going to be a New Order of Social Justice. It cannot be another Versailles." 128 During his short reign, King Edward VIII made every effort to promote Nazism. As a result some of the most prominent aristocrats in England joined the Nazi Party.129

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.[a]

Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. The Prince of Wales gained popularity due to his charm and charisma, and his fashion sense became a hallmark of the era. After the war, his conduct began to give cause for concern; he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin.

Upon his father's death in 1936, Edward became the second monarch of the House of Windsor. The new king showed impatience with court protocol, and caused consternation among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, a constitutional crisis was caused by his proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as titular head of the Church of England, which, at the time, disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive. Edward knew the Baldwin government would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would have ruined his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. When it became apparent he could not marry Simpson and remain on the throne, he abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning British monarchs to date.

After his abdication, Edward was created Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Nazi Germany, which fed rumours that he was a Nazi sympathiser. During the Second World War, Edward was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France. After the fall of France, he was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. After the war, Edward spent the rest of his life in France. He and Wallis remained married until his death in 1972; they had no children.

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

Hajj Amin al-Husayni meets Hitler

In this German propaganda newsreel, the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, an Arab nationalist and prominent Muslim religious leader, meets Hitler for the first time. During the meeting, held in in the Reich chancellery, Hitler declined to grant al-Husayni’s request for a public statement—or a secret but formal treaty—in which Germany would: 1) pledge not to occupy Arab land, 2) recognize Arab striving for independence, and 3) support the “removal” of the proposed Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Führer confirmed that the “struggle against a Jewish homeland in Palestine” would be part of the struggle against the Jews. Hitler stated that: he would “continue the struggle until the complete destruction of Jewish-Communist European empire”; and when the German army was in proximity to the Arab world, Germany would issue “an assurance to the Arab world” that “the hour of liberation was at hand.” It would then be al-Husayni’s “responsibility to unleash the Arab action that he has secretly prepared.” The Führer stated that Germany would not intervene in internal Arab matters and that the only German “goal at that time would be the annihilation of Jewry living in Arab space under the protection of British power.”

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/hajj-amin-al-husayni-meets-hitler

CHAPTER SEVEN – SHABTAI, SHIMON AND SHARON – DESTROYING THE JEWS ALM 1 - THE DEUTSCH DEVILS

Rabbi Marvin Antelman was right all along. Way back in 1974, he identified the source of all the evil against Jews and humanity but his message and style were too unaccessible to get through to anyone but the most advanced students of antisemitism. What he lacked most was simplicity, a common enough failure of thinkers decades in advance of their contemporaries. What he needed was someone to put out a Cliff's Notes simplified explanation of his thesis...and someone, without intention, just did. The name of the book is, 50 Jewish Messiahs by Jerry Rabow (Gefen Publishing, Jerusalem). It is an informative but shallow overview of just what the title says, but in its shallowness lies vital depth. We begin with Chapter 17, about the "most damaging messiah to the Jewish people," Shabbatai Zvi. First we'll read Rabow and then add commentary opening Rabbi Antelman's work to the wide world. Recall that there are various accepted English spellings for Shabtai Tzvi, and the Sabbataians. The spelling presented depends on the writer:

pp 91 - Shabbatai Zvi was born in Smyrna, Turkey on the ninth of Av, 1626. The ninth day of Av is the day of a triple tragedy for the Jewish nation. According to tradition, the First Temple, the Second Temple and Bar Kokhba's Betar fortress all fell on this day.

pp 93 - He changed the holiday celebrations and violated the dietary prohibitions. All of this followed from his declaration that the usual rules were inapplicable to messianic times.

pp 95 - He declared that the coming of the messianic era meant that the biblical commandments were no longer binding. He proclaimed that God now permitted everything. ** This is Rabbi Antelman's central assertion; that Shabbataism was the polar opposite of Judaism. That Shabbatai Zvi's program was to destroy all the tenets of the Torah and replace them with their opposites. Incredibly, more than half the Jews of the world at the time, believed he would be revealed as their promised messiah: **

pp 101 - Then he finally made the announcement for which the Jewish community had been waiting for 1600 years - he would begin the Redemption on the 15th day of the month of Sivan, June 18, 1666. ** There are many who will recognize the significance of the date. June is the sixth month, 18 divided by three is 6+6+6 and 1666 is clear enough. Either he knew what he was doing or the prophesies of the emergence of an evil false messiah or anti-Christ are right, and Shabbatai Zvi was him. **

pp 110 - Through all of this, Shabbatai continued to issue proclamations of the theological changes wrought by the coming of the messianic age. Shabbatai's new prayer was, "Praised be He who permits the forbidden." Since all things would be permitted in the age of the messiah, Shabbatai declared many of the old restrictions of the Torah no longer applicable. He abolished the laws concerning sexual relationships. He eventually declared that all of the thirty six major biblical sins were now permitted and instructed some of his followers that it was their duty to perform such sins in order to hasten the Redemption. ** Shabbatai's fall from grace among the great masses of Jews came in September 1666, when the Sultan of Turkey threatened him with torture unless he converted to Islam. He relented and most of Jewry abandoned him. But not all. A core of his followers kept their messiah alive and kicking hard. **

pp 112 - In order to bring on the Reformation, Shabbatai had descended into the darkness of the Muslim world to gather the scattered fragments of the light of creation hidden there. There was an outward reality and an inner reality. Nathan transformed Shabbatainism into a theology of paradox. Once the followers accepted the concept of paradox, they would be able to keep on believing in Shabbatai Zvi...An inner circle of his followers accepted the explanations of Nathan and continued to believe in Shabbatai the Messiah. ** The Shabbatai followers continued their hidden life in the Turkish sect of the Donmeh, whose activities continue to this day, as reported extensively this year, even by the staid Jerusalem Post. One of the Donmeh followers was Jacob Frank, who would transform Europe and the world into a Shabbataian hell barely a century later. **

pp 121 - The Donmeh now converted the Shabbataian Purim into an annual orgy, when members exchanged spouses for a ceremony called "extinguishing the lights." The Donmeh justified their Purim orgies, and their regular practise of sharing wives and engaging in other sexual activities, by citing biblical precedents.

pp 123 - Although Jacob Frank (1726-1791) was born fifty years after the death Shabbatai Zvi, he deserves to be regarded as Shabbatai's true successor.

pp 125 - Frank's followers requested ecclesiastic protection on the grounds that their own beliefs were not Jewish but rather, "anti-Talmudist."..The bishop declared that the "anti-Talmudists", Frank's followers, were entitled to practise their religion, and ordered that all copies of the Talmud within his diocese be seized and burned. Now under the protection of the crown, adoring followers gave Frank huge donations to his movement.

pp 127 - He extended the paradoxical teachings of Shabbatai Zvi that the coming of the messianic age had transformed sexual prohibitions of the bible into permissions and even obligations. According to Frank, engaging in sexual orgies now became the means to purify the soul from its sins. Debauchery became therapy...Frank convinced his followers that the only way for their special form of Judaism to survive was for them to outwardly become Christians, just as the Donmeh had descended into the world of Islam...In February, 1759, the Frankists told the Church they were ready to be baptized...The Frankists promised to deliver 5000 new Christians from Poland, Moravia, Hungary and Turkey.

pp 130 - The Frankists also became involved in international political intrigue, and sent secret emissaries to the Russian government and the Eastern Orthodox Church offering to help in the overthrow of Poland and the Catholic Church...By 1786, Frank suffered temporary financial problems, and moved his court to Offenbach, near Frankfurt. There Frank's money problems were somehow solved. The source of Frank's immense wealth is not clear. He may have used his movement's system of secret messengers and clandestine cells to engage in the constant political turmoil involving Austria-Hungary, Turkey and the Balkans.

** And now we reach the final depth of Rabow's understanding and let Rabbi Antelman take over. **

Frankfurt at the time was the headquarters of the Jesuit, Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, as well as Rothschild Brothers' financial empire. This is worth repeating: Frankfurt was the birthplace of both the Illuminati and the Rothschild empire. When Jacob Frank entered the city, the alliance between the two had already begun. Weishaupt provided the conspiratorial resources of the Jesuit Order, while the Rothschilds contributed the money. What was missing was a means to spread the agenda of the Illuminati and that the Frankists added with their network of agents throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds. Jacob Frank became instantly wealthy because he was given a nice handout by Mayer Amshel Rothschild of Frankfurt. There is no other explanation. And from this starting point, Rabbi Antelman gave us a blueprint for the war against Judaism and all its good, and indeed against humanity and all its moral treasures. A movement of complete evil now took hold. The Jesuits' goal was the destruction of the Protestant Reformation leading to a return of one pope sitting in judgement on all mankind. The Rothschilds goal was to control the wealth of the planet. And the Frankist vision was the destruction of Jewish ethics to be replaced by a religion based on the exact opposite of God's intentions. When these factions blended, a bloody war against humanity, with the Jews on the front lines, erupted and it is reaching its very pinnacle at this moment. Rabbi Antelman traces the means of the worldwide reach of this ugliness. By the 1770s, the Illuminati was exposed and banned in Germany and then throughout Europe. Weishaupt made a strategic change that worked miracles for the international spread of his goals. He infiltrated agents into the Freemasonic lodges of England and Scotland, changing their highest tenets to his own, until every lodge in every nation accepted them. Thus, the Illuminati now had two centers of activity, Germany and Britain. It was from Germany to London that the apostate Jews Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were sent to devise the rot of communism. Shortly after that task was done, the Rothschilds sent their agents John Jacob Astor and Jacob Schiff from Germany to America. They financed the robber barons like Rockefeller and Morgan, who in 1922, founded the Council On Foreign Relations, to overthrow the American constitution and switch the nation's diplomacy to Illuminatiism.

THE REAL WAR AGAINST THE JEWS AND HUMANITY

In 1932, how many organizations in Germany represented German Jewry? Over 250. In 1933, how many? One, and one only; Labour Zionism. We will return to the significance shortly. First, Rabbi Antelman's account continues. To corrupt the Jews, the Frankists adopted, at first, a humane policy of sorts. With Rothschild money and Jesuit power, the so-called Enlightenment was initiated by the German Jewish apostate Moses Mendelsohn. Napoleon was financed to liberate the Jews wherever he conquered and from Germany, the Reform and Conservative movements were financed to further dilute the faith and introduce totally foreign concepts to their congregations. But the pace wasn't fast enough. The ornery Jews just weren't cooperating with evil, so those stubbornly accepting Torah morality would have to be removed permanently and only those practising Shabbatainism would be permitted to survive. Yes, in the 2000 years of European Jewish history there were pogroms, Crusades and Inquisitions, the latter aided and abetted by the Jesuits. But compared to what happened from the 1880s on, life was a tolerable picnic. The turning point in the final war against the Jews was the founding of Zionism by the Shabbataians. The final aim of the movement was to establish a Shabbataian state in the historical land of the Jews, thus taking over Judaism for good. To foment the idea, life had to made so intolerable for Europe's Jews, that escape to Palestine would appear to be the best option. The Cossack pogroms were the first shot in this campaign and for them, the Frankists turned to the Jesuits and their influence over the Catholic Church. The Jesuits had done more to spread communism, beginning with their feudal communes in South America, and now they wanted to punish the anti-papists of Europe by imprisoning them behind communal bars. The deal was simple: The Jesuits provided the Cossacks, the Frankists, the communists. And naturally, the Rothschilds would provide the moolah. Once the situation turned foreboding, the German-writing intellectuals took over. In Vienna in 1885, the journalist Natan Birnbaum fired the opening salvo which successfully planted the fast-growing seeds of Zionism. He was followed by another Vienna writer, Peretz Smoleskin, who provided more intellectual justification for returning to a safe home in Israel. However, neither man had the charisma of still another Vienna writer, Theodore Herzl. He could rally the masses as neither of them could and he was chosen to be the spokesman and symbol of the movement. Read any honest biography of Herzl and the same quandary appears. Herzl claimed he wrote the Judenstaat one summer in Paris. But Herzl wasn't in Paris when he said he wrote the most influential book of Zionism. It had to have been written for him. Anyone who reads Herzl's dreadful plays, has to doubt his sudden departure from literary mediocrity.

In 1901, Herzl appeared in Britain where he was not well received. We are told he backed another option, creating a Jewish sanctuary in British - controlled East Africa. If the idea caught on, it would neutralize the Shabbataians' game plan. Herzl died not long after and not one biography of him tells us how. He entered a Paris sanatorium for a not known condition and never emerged. This was highly fortunate for the British Freemasons doing the Shabbataians' bidding, for they replaced Herzl with one of their own, a German-educated Jew named Chaim Weizmann. In time, a cockamamie legend was fabricated involving the Balfour declaration creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a reward for Weizmann finding a way to make acetone for explosives from dried up paint. Not one explosion in World War One came from this magic process. But the British took great pains to capture Palestine from the Turks and appoint the leaders of the upcoming Shabbataian state. Meeting in London during the War, Weizmann and Balfour had to deal with the problem of the people already living in Palestine, most of whom were religious Jews, who were the majority in such major centers as Jerusalem, Sfat and Tiberius. The myth of an ancient Palestinian Arab indigenous population is belied by any number of reports by visitors as talented as Twain and Balzac, who accurately noted the paucity of Arabs in the land during the 19th century. The later economic success of the new enterprise drew hundreds of thousands of Arabs from as far away as Iraq to the region with consequences the Illuminati were possibly well aware of. To neutralize the religious Jews, many of whom had been living in the land since antiquity, Balfour and Weizmann inducted Rabbi Avraham Kook into the fold and after the war, he was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of the enterprise, while Weizmann was made the first head of the Jewish Agency. Kook proceeded to strip the landed Orthodox Jews of their real estate and political rights, while introducing a new concept into Judaism; the purity of land redemption. His philosophy was based on profound historical truth, nonetheless, his followers don't understand how he and they are playing out the Shabbataian nightmare. Stage one was complete. Now the real business at hand was revved up. Rabbi Antelman proves that the American President Woodrow Wilson was thoroughly corrupted by the Frankists through their agent Colonel House. It was Wilson who put an end to America's open immigration policy. Until then, despite all their despair, most Eastern European Jews rejected Palestine as an escape route, the majority choosing America as their destination. From now on very few would enjoy that option. It would have to be Palestine or nowhere. We now jump to 1933. Less than 1% of the German Jews support Zionism. Many tried to escape from Naziism by boat to Latin and North American ports but the international diplomatic order was to turn them back. Any German Jew who rejected Palestine as his shelter would be shipped back to his death. By 1934, the majority of German Jews got the message and turned to the only Jewish organization allowed by the Nazis, the Labour Zionists. For confirmation of the conspiracy between them and Hitler's thugs read The Transfer Agreement by Edwin Black, Perfidy by Ben Hecht or The Scared And The Doomed by Jacob Nurenberger. The deal cut worked like this. The German Jews would first be indoctrinated into Bolshevism in Labour Zionism camps and then, with British approval, transferred to Palestine. Most were there by the time the British issued the White Paper banning further Jewish immigration. The Labour Zionists got the Jews they wanted, and let the millions of religious Jews and other non-Frankists perish in Europe without any struggle for their survival. But not all Jews fell for the plan. A noble alternative Zionism arose led by Zeev Jabotinsky. He led the Jews in demanding free passage to Palestine and a worldwide economic boycott of the Nazi regime. The Labour Zionists did all in their power to short-circuit the opposition. First, they forced all the German Jews in Palestine to use their assets to buy only goods from Nazi Germany. This kept the regime afloat. Then Chaim Weizmann and his Jewish Agency employed their appointed agents in the US to neutralize Jabotinsky and his followers using any means at their disposal. This culminated in Jabotinsky's suspicious death in New York in 1941. Later, Jabotinsky's most literate advocate, Ben Hecht, was run over by a truck on a Manhattan sidewalk. His crime was being the first to widely expose the Jewish Agency-Nazi plot. Into this plot against the Jews we add the Jesuits, who wished with all their hearts, to wreck the land that produced Luther, but the Vatican's role in the Holocaust is not the focus of this overview. We now return to America where the Jewish leadership used all their contacts and resources to make good and certain that the unwanted non-Shabbataian Jews of Europe never again saw the light of day. We return to a quote from Jerry Rabow: pp 132 - Frankist families, both those living as Christians and those living as Jews, tried to marry only among themselves. In the summers, the German groups regularly held secret meetings in the resort of Carlsbad...It is said by the middle of the nineteenth century, the majority of the lawyers in Prague and Warsaw were from Frankist families. United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter is reported to have received a copy of Eva Frank's portrait from his mother, a descendent of the Prague Frankist family. Here is a quote from Frankfurter: "The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."-- Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court.

The difference between Rabow and Rabbi Antelman is the latter proves that literally all of FDR's court Jews were German-descended Sabbataians, determined to purge Jewry of its unnecessary European, non-Sabbataian morality-believing cohorts. Here is a short list of these Jewish community leaders:

Felix Brandeis - Received Secondary School education in Germany. There, Englishman Jacob de Haas introduced him to Zionism.

Here is a telling quote from the latter Frankist family:

Henry Morgenthau Jr., Stephen Wise, Bernard Baruch, Judah Magnes, Felix Warburg - All descended from German Jews.

"We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent." -- Statement made before the United States Senate on Feb. 7, 1950 by James Paul Warburg ("Angel" to and active in the United World Federalists), son of Paul Moritz Warburg, nephew of Felix Warburg and of Jacob Schiff, both of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. which poured millions into the Russian Revolution through James' brother Max, banker to the German government.

When World War II ended, barely 100,000 European Jews survived and when they arrived in Palestine they had to obey Bolshevik edicts or starve to death. However, they weren't enough to stave off the number one threat to the Frankist state, the Arabs. The wrath of the savage tribes threatened the whole enterprise and only the infusion of large numbers of soldiers could stave off their invasion. To that end, European-controlled Arab dictators were persuaded to go against their national interests, stir up bloody anti-semitism and get the Sephardic Jews to Israel. Their first reward was wealth through seizure of Jews' assets. Before the Sabbataians introduced it, there was no such thing as Jewish selfhatred. Their religion and heritage came as naturally as breathing. This was the state the Eastern Jews were in when they were driven to Israel. There, the Frankists had to apply all the lessons they learned turning German Jews into their image to change the newcomers. Every effort was made to divest these peoples of their faith and the results were often shattering. This is one reason, for instance, why Moroccan Jews who fled to France are so much better off than their families in Israel. Initially, the American Frankists supported the new nation, believing it would soon spread darkness to the nations. But the Jews didn't cooperate and held on to their decency. That is when the CFR unleashed its evilest Frankists on the Jews once again. The most prominent of this lot is the German-born Henry Kissinger but the list is long and includes the Austrian-educated Madeleine Albright, and German descendents such as Joe Lieberman and Sandy Berger. Today, the Frankist agenda is being promoted through the thinking of the German-born American philosopher, Leo Strauss. To show you all is not what it

seems, here are a few words about him from a Jewish writer for the Executive Intelligence Report, run by the Germacentric, Lyndon LaRouche:

"If Strauss' influence on politics in the capital of the most powerful nation on Earth was awesome in 1996, it is even more so today. The leading "Straussian" in the Bush Administration is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was trained by Strauss' alter-ego and fellow University of Chicago professor Allan Bloom. Wolfowitz leads the "war party" within the civilian bureaucracy at the Pentagon, and his own protege I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and chief national security aide, directing a super-hawkish "shadow national security council" out of the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House. According to Bloom biographer Saul Bellow, the day that President George H.W. Bush rejected Wolfowitz and Cheney's demand that U.S. troops continue on to Baghdad, during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Wolfowitz called Bloom on his private phone line to bitterly complain. It seems that "Bush 41" was not enough of a Nietzschean "superman" for Wolfowitz's taste."

Compare that report with this one recently published by the Jerusalem Post.

LONDON- A British coroner has rejected a German police claim that a 22 year old Jewish man from London, Jeremiah Duggan, committed suicide in March after attending a meeting of the far-right Schiller Institute in the German town of Wiesbaden. The Schiller Institute draws its inspiration from American conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, who was among the speakers at the meeting... He said, "Mum, I am in deep trouble. I am frightened." As he attempted to give his location, the line went dead."

Duggan made the fatal mistake of getting too close to the true connection between LaRouche and the Frankists. Their program calls for the brainwashing of Jews to hate themselves and they don't cotton to rebels. Here is how that is accomplished through the Israeli higher education system, as reported by Caroline Glick this week in the Jerusalem Post:

"Students speak of a regime of fear and intimidation in the classroom. Ofra Gracier, a doctoral student in Tel-Aviv University's humanities faculty explains the process as follows: 'It starts with the course syllabus. In a class on introduction to political theory for instance, you will never see the likes of Leo Strauss or Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman. You will only get Marx and Rousseau and people like that. So, if you want to argue with Marx, you are on your own. You don't know anything else.'"

The fatal error of Israeli Jews was rejecting the Frankists and their Labour Party. The Shabbataians would rather see the Arabs overrun Israel than witness the revival of a state run by true Judaism. They have thoroughly financed and infiltrated the high leadership and especially, far left groups, to prepare the ground for defeat. And if utter demoralization doesn't do the trick, read another local report issued this week:

PREPARATIONS TO USE FIREPOWER AGAINST JEWS.

Our contacts have reported that the following has been introduced by the people preparing MEGA YAMIT. IBA "B" reported, in three consecutive reports following the Geha Junction islamic mass murder assault that GERMAN EXTREME RIGHT WING Jews were those that performed the bombing. (Refer to the IBA "B" records) .

Rabbi Antelman was right. He looked at the enemy and saw the mirror opposite of real Judaism. A war to the finish is on in Israel and it is being spread to the rest of the planet. Our salvation can only arise when the Arabs realize the Jews of Israel are fighting the same battle they are and against the same enemies. If they can't overcome the brainwashing and hatred, they'll go down along with Israel. And then the rest of the planet might just follow.

FRIDAY January 9th 2004

Dear Mr Chamish,

I read with particular interest your analysis of the problems related to the Donmeh and the Shabbataians, in particular your concluding remarks in which you state that: "Our salvation can only arise when the Arabs realize the Jews of Israel are fighting the same battle (that) they are (fighting) and against the same enemies." It will perhaps come as something of a surprise to learn that there are some Muslims who agree with much contained in your assessment. As a convert to Islam (from a somewhat ecumenical family - predominantly Christian but with two converts to Judaism my sister and cousin) so yes, in the words of David Dimbleby, we now do have a long weekend. I believe that the only way out of the present state of affairs is to seek out the facts, publish, or be damned. Your piece filled in a number of important gaps which, unless you have the sort of inside information, that you obviously have, would have taken a lot more time than I currently have available to spend on this very important subject. My own observations are included in a book we published back in 1991 entitled Satanic Voices - Ancient & Modern this was a reply to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. I am in the process of extracting the relevant passages to send to you, which relate to the Donmeh and the Islamic prophecies which precisely predict the events which led to the disastrous state of affairs you describe so well, and with which we largely agree.

With best regards

Shabbat Shalom

Yours sincerely

David M Pidcock

The Islamic Party of Britain "

Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust by Barry Chamish

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A rabbi (/ˈræbaɪ/ ⓘ; Hebrew: רַבִּי, romanized: rabbī) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism.[1][2] One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as semikha—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic (167 BCE–73 CE) and Talmudic (70–640 CE) eras, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. The title "rabbi" was first used in the first century CE. In more recent centuries, the duties of a rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian minister, hence the title "pulpit rabbis", and in 19th-century Germany and the United States, rabbinic activities such as sermons, pastoral counseling, and representing the community to the outside all increased in importance.

Within the various Jewish denominations, there are different requirements for rabbinic ordination and differences in opinion regarding who is recognized as a rabbi. Non-Orthodox movements (i.e., the Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal movements) have chosen to do so for what they view as halakhic reasons (Conservative Judaism) as well as ethical reasons (Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism).[3][4]

Etymology and pronunciation

The word comes from the Mishnaic Hebrew construct רְבִּי rǝbbī,[a] meaning 'Master [Name]'; the standard Hebrew noun is רב rav 'master'. Rav is also used as a title for rabbis,[6] as are rabbeinu ('our master') and ha-rav ('the master'). A derived term is rebbe.

The Hebrew root in turn derives from the Semitic root ר-ב-ב‎ (R-B-B), which in Biblical Aramaic means 'great' in many senses, including 'revered', but appears primarily as a prefix in construct forms.[7] Although the usage rabim 'many' (as 1 Kings 18:25, הָרַבִּים) 'the majority', 'the multitude' occurs for the assembly of the community in the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is no evidence to support an association of this use with the later title "rabbi".[8] The root is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb,[9] meaning 'lord' (generally used when talking about God, but also about temporal lords), and to the Syriac word ܪܒܝ rabi.

Some communities, especially Sephardic and Yemenite Jews, historically pronounced the title רִבִּי rībbī; this pronunciation competed with רְבִּי rǝbbī and רַבִּי rabbī in Ashkenaz until the modern period.[10][11]

Historical overview

Rabbi is not an occupation found in the Hebrew Bible, and ancient generations did not employ related titles such as Rabban, Rabbi, or Rav to describe either the Babylonian sages or the sages in Israel. For example, Hillel I and Shammai (the religious leaders of the early first century) had no rabbinic title prefixed to their names. The titles "Rabban" and "Rabbi" are first mentioned in Jewish literature in the Mishnah. Rabban was first used for Rabban Gamaliel the elder, Rabban Simeon his son, and Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, all of whom were patriarchs or presidents of the Sanhedrin in the first century. Early recipients of the title rabbi include Rabbi Zadok and Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, beginning in the time of the disciples of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai. The title "Rabbi" occurs (in Greek transliteration ῥαββί rabbi) in the books of Matthew, Mark, and John in the New Testament, where it is used in reference to "Scribes and Pharisees" as well as to Jesus.[11][12] According to some, the title "rabbi" or "rabban" was first used after 70 CE to refer to Yochanan ben Zakkai and his students, and references in rabbinic texts and the New Testament to rabbis earlier in the 1st century are anachronisms or retroactive honorifics.[13] Other scholars believe that the term "rabbi" was a well-known informal title by the beginning of the first century CE, and thus that the Jewish and Christian references to rabbis reflect the titles in fact used in this period.[14]

The governments of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were based on a system that included the Jewish kings, the Jewish prophets, the legal authority of the high court of Jerusalem, the Great Sanhedrin, and the ritual authority of the priesthood. Members of the Sanhedrin had to receive their ordination (semicha) in an uninterrupted line of transmission from Moses, yet rather than being referred to as rabbis they were called priests or scribes, like Ezra, who is called in the Bible "Ezra, the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of God's commandments and of His statutes unto Israel."[15] "Rabbi" as a title does not appear in the Hebrew Bible,[16] though later rabbinic sources occasionally use it as a title for wise Biblical figures.[17]

With the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish monarchy, and the decline of the dual institutions of prophets and the priesthood, the focus of scholarly and spiritual leadership within the Jewish people shifted to the sages of the Men of the Great Assembly (Anshe Knesset HaGedolah). This assembly was composed of the earliest group of "rabbis" in the more modern sense of the word, in large part because they began the formulation and explication of what became known as Judaism's "Oral Law" (Torah SheBe'al Peh). This was eventually encoded and codified within the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical scholarship, leading to what is known as Rabbinic Judaism.

Talmudic period

The traditional explanation is that from the 1st to 5th centuries, the title "Rabbi" was given to those sages of the Land of Israel who received formal ordination (semicha), while the lesser title "Rav" was given to sages who taught in the Babylonian academies, as ordination could not be performed outside the Land of Israel.[16][18] Sherira Gaon summarized the relationship between these titles as follows: "Rabbi is greater than Rav, Rabban is greater than Rabbi, one's name is greater than Rabban".[19] However, some modern scholars argue that "Rabbi" and "Rav" are the same title, pronounced differently due to variations in dialect.[19]

After the suppression of the Patriarchate and Sanhedrin by Theodosius II in 425, there was no more formal ordination in the strict sense. A recognised scholar could be called Rav or Hacham, like the Babylonian sages. The transmission of learning from master to disciple remained of tremendous importance, but there was no formal rabbinic qualification as such.

Middle Ages

In the early Middle Ages "rabbi" was not a formal title, but was used as a term of respect for Jews of great scholarship and reputation.[16] After the emergence of Karaism, Jews who still followed the Talmudic traditions became known as "rabbanites".[16] Initially communities might have a religious judge appointed by the central geonate, often possessing a certification known as pitka dedayanuta or bearing the title chaver (short for chaver besanhedrin hagedolah, used in Israel) or aluf (used in Babylonia).[16] By the 11th century, as the geonate weakened it was common for Jewish communities to elect a local spiritual authority.[16] In the 11th–12th century, some local rabbinic authorities in Spain received formal certification known as ketav masmich or ketav minui in preparation for their leadership role.[16] Maimonides ruled that every congregation is obliged to appoint a preacher and scholar to admonish the community and teach Torah, and the social institution he describes is the germ of the modern congregational rabbinate.

Until the Black Death, Ashkenazi communities typically made religious decisions by consensus of scholars on a council, rather than the decision of a single authority.[20] In the 14th century, the concept arose of a single person who served as religious authority for particular area (the mara de'atra).[16] Formal ordination is first recorded among Ashkenazim with Meir ben Baruch Halevi (late 14th century), who issued the formal title Moreinu (our teacher) to scholars, though it likely existed somewhat earlier.[21] By the 15th century, this formal ordination (known as semicha) became necessary in order to be recognized as a rabbi.[20] Initially some Sephardic communities objected to such formal ordination, but over time the system became adopted by them too.[16]: 13

18th–19th centuries

A dramatic change in rabbinic functions occurred with Jewish emancipation. Tasks that were once the primary focus for rabbis, such as settling disputes by presiding over a Jewish court, became less prominent, while other tasks that were secondary, like delivering sermons, increased in importance.

In 19th-century Germany and the United States, the duties of the rabbi in some respects became increasingly similar to the duties of other clergy, like the Protestant Christian minister, and the title "pulpit rabbis" appeared to describe this phenomenon. Sermons, pastoral counseling, representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance.[16] Non-Orthodox rabbis, on a day-to-day business basis, now spend more time on these functions than they do teaching or answering questions on Jewish law and philosophy. Within the Modern Orthodox community, many rabbis still mainly deal with teaching and questions of Jewish law, but many are increasingly dealing with these same pastoral functions.[22]

Traditionally, rabbis have never been an intermediary between God and humans. This idea was traditionally considered outside the bounds of Jewish theology. Unlike spiritual leaders in many other faiths, they are not considered to be imbued with special powers or abilities.

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

Fulcanelli’s main strategy, the key to unraveling the mystery, lies in an understanding of what he calls the “phonetic law” of the “spoken cabala,” or the “language of the birds.” This punning, multilingual wordplay can be used to reveal unusual and, according to Fulcanelli, meaningful associations between ideas. “What unsuspected marvels we should find, if we knew how to dissect words, to strip them of their bark and liberate the spirit, the divine light which is within,” Fulcanelli writes. He claims that in our day this is the natural language of the outsiders, the outlaws and heretics at the fringes of society. (See appendix A, “Fulcanelli on the Green Language,” for the complete text of this chapter.) 6 This spoken cabala was also the “green language” of the Freemasons (“All the Initiates expressed themselves in cant,” Fulcanelli reminds us) who built the art gothique of the cathedrals. “Gothic art is in fact the art got or art cot —χοτ—the art of light or of the spirit,” Fulcanelli informs us. Ultimately the “art got,” or the “art of light,” is derived from the language of the birds, which seems to be a sort of Ur-language taught by both Jesus and the ancients."

The Mysteries of the Great Cross

by Jay Weidner

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vrxcBcn4h7RRM2SA3X1SS1DsooSxfitI/view?usp=sharing

How to Speak Ignatian: Common words and phrases of the Society of Jesus

Adapted from “How to Speak Loyola,” a glossary developed by the Office of Mission &

Identity, Loyola University, Chicago.

Microsoft Word - How to Speak Ignatian.doc (jesuithighschool.org)

https://www.jesuithighschool.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/how_to_speak_ignatian_0.pdf

Hammurabi (/ˌxæmʊˈrɑːbi/; Old Babylonian Akkadian: 𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉, romanized: Ḫâmmurapi;[a] c. 1810 – c. 1750 BC), also spelled Hammurapi,[3][4] was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from c. 1792 to c. 1750 BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari. He ousted Ishme-Dagan I, the king of Assyria, and forced his son Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute, bringing almost all of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule.

Hammurabi is best known for having issued the Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish the presumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in retribution. The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the Torah contain numerous similarities.

Hammurabi was seen by many as a god within his own lifetime. After his death, Hammurabi was revered as a great conqueror who spread civilization and forced all peoples to pay obeisance to Marduk, the national god of the Babylonians. Later, his military accomplishments became de-emphasized and his role as the ideal lawgiver became the primary aspect of his legacy. For later Mesopotamians, Hammurabi's reign became the frame of reference for all events occurring in the distant past. Even after the empire he built collapsed, he was still revered as a model ruler, and many kings across the Near East claimed him as an ancestor. Hammurabi was rediscovered by archaeologists in the late nineteenth century and has since been seen as an important figure in the history of law.

Life

Background and ascension

Map showing the Babylonian territory upon Hammurabi's ascension in c. 1792 BC and upon his death in c. 1750 BC

Hammurabi ascended to the throne as the king of a minor kingdom in the midst of a complex geopolitical situation. Hammurabi was an Amorite First Dynasty king of the city-state of Babylon, and inherited the power from his father, Sin-Muballit, in c. 1792 BC.[5] Babylon was one of the many largely Amorite-ruled city-states that dotted the central and southern Mesopotamian plains and waged war on each other for control of fertile agricultural land.[6] Though many cultures co-existed in Mesopotamia, Babylonian culture gained a degree of prominence among the literate classes throughout the Middle East under Hammurabi.[7] The kings who came before Hammurabi had founded a relatively minor city-state in 1894 BC, which controlled little territory outside of the city itself. Babylon was overshadowed by older, larger, and more powerful kingdoms, such as Elam, Assyria, Isin, Eshnunna, and Larsa for a century or so after its founding. However, his father Sin-Muballit had begun to consolidate rule of a small area of south central Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule and, by the time of his reign, had conquered the minor city-states of Borsippa, Kish, and Sippar.[7]

The powerful kingdom of Eshnunna controlled the upper Tigris River, while Larsa controlled the river delta. To the east of Mesopotamia lay the powerful kingdom of Elam, which regularly invaded and forced tribute upon the small states of southern Mesopotamia. In northern Mesopotamia, the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I, who had already inherited centuries-old Assyrian colonies in Asia Minor, had expanded his territory into the Levant and central Mesopotamia,[8] although his untimely death would somewhat fragment his empire.[9]

Reign and conquests

Hammurabi's conquests

Date c. 1770 BC – c. 1760 BC

Location

modern-day Iraq & modern-day Syria

Result Babylonian victory

Belligerents

Babylonia

Yamhad

Larsa

Mari (until c. 1760 BC)

Elam

Larsa

Mari (from c. 1760 BC)

Minor city-states

Commanders and leaders

Hammurabi

Yarim-Lim I unknown

Casualties and losses

unknown unknown

A limestone votive monument from Sippar, Iraq, dating to c. 1792 – c. 1750 BC showing King Hammurabi raising his right arm in worship, now held in the British Museum

The first few years of Hammurabi's reign were quite peaceful.[10] Hammurabi used his power to undertake a series of public works, including heightening the city walls for defensive purposes, and expanding the temples.[11] The powerful kingdom of Elam, which straddled important trade routes across the Zagros Mountains, invaded the Mesopotamian plain.[12] With allies among the plain states, Elam attacked and destroyed the kingdom of Eshnunna, destroying a number of cities and imposing its rule on portions of the plain for the first time.[13]

In order to consolidate its position, Elam tried to start a war between Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom and the kingdom of Larsa.[14] Hammurabi and the king of Larsa made an alliance when they discovered this duplicity and were able to crush the Elamites, although Larsa did not contribute greatly to the military effort.[14] Angered by Larsa's failure to come to his aid, Hammurabi turned on that southern power, thus gaining control of the entirety of the lower Mesopotamian plain by c. 1763 BC.[15]

As Hammurabi was assisted during the war in the south by his allies from the north such as Yamhad and Mari, the absence of soldiers in the north led to unrest.[15] Continuing his expansion, Hammurabi turned his attention northward, quelling the unrest. Soon after, he destroyed Eshnunna.[16] Next the Babylonian armies conquered the remaining northern states, including Babylon's former ally Mari, although it is possible that the conquest of Mari was a surrender without any actual conflict.[17][18]

Hammurabi entered into a protracted war with Ishme-Dagan I of Assyria for control of Mesopotamia, with both kings making alliances with minor states in order to gain the upper hand. Eventually Hammurabi prevailed, ousting Ishme-Dagan I just before his own death. Mut-Ashkur, the new king of Assyria, was forced to pay tribute to Hammurabi.[19]

In just a few years, Hammurabi succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule.[18] The Assyrian kingdom survived but was forced to pay tribute during his reign, and of the major city-states in the region, only Aleppo and Qatna to the west in the Levant maintained their independence.[18] However, one stele (stone monument) of Hammurabi has been found as far north as Diyarbekir, where he claims the title "King of the Amorites".[20]

Vast numbers of contract tablets, dated to the reigns of Hammurabi and his successors, have been discovered, as well as 55 of his own letters.[21] These letters give a glimpse into the daily trials of ruling an empire, from dealing with floods and mandating changes to a flawed calendar, to taking care of Babylon's massive herds of livestock.[22] Hammurabi died and passed the reins of the empire on to his son Samsu-iluna in c. 1750 BC, under whose rule the Babylonian empire quickly began to unravel.[23]

Code of laws

Main article: Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi stele. Louvre Museum, Paris

The Code of Hammurabi was a collection of 282 laws dealing with a wide range of issues.[24] It is not the earliest surviving law code[25][b] but was proved more influential in world politics and international relations[27][28] as instead of focusing on compensating the victim of crime, as in earlier Sumerian law codes, the Code of Hammurabi instead focused on physically punishing the perpetrator.[28] It was also one of the first law codes to place restrictions on what a wronged person was allowed to do in retribution[28] and one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, suggesting that the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence.[29] The structure of the code is very specific, with each offense receiving a specified punishment. Many offenses resulted in death, disfigurement, or the use of the Lex Talionis philosophy ("Eye for eye, tooth for tooth").[30][28]

The Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on a stele and placed in a public place so that all could see it, although it is thought that few were literate. The stele was later plundered by the Elamites and removed to their capital, Susa; it was rediscovered there in 1901 in Iran and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The code of Hammurabi contains 282 laws, written by scribes on 12 tablets.[27] Unlike earlier laws, it was written in Akkadian, the daily language of Babylon, and could therefore be read by any literate person in the city. At this time, Akkadian replaced Sumerian, and Hammurabi began language reforms that would make Akkadian the most common language at this time.[31] A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice,[32] and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by Shamash to bring the laws to the people.[33]

Because of Hammurabi's reputation as a lawgiver, his depiction can be found in law buildings throughout the world. Hammurabi is one of the 23 lawgivers depicted in marble bas-reliefs in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives in the United States Capitol.[34] A frieze by Adolph Weinman depicting the "great lawgivers of history", including Hammurabi, is on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building.[35][36]

Legacy

Posthumous commemoration

Tablet of Hammurabi (𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉, 4th line from the top), King of Babylon. British Museum.[37][38][39]

Hammurabi was honored above all other kings of the second millennium BC[40] and he received the unique honor of being declared to be a god within his own lifetime.[41] The personal name "Hammurabi-ili" meaning "Hammurabi is my god" became common during and after his reign. In writings from shortly after his death, Hammurabi is commemorated mainly for three achievements: bringing victory in war, bringing peace, and bringing justice.[41] Hammurabi's conquests came to be regarded as part of a sacred mission to spread civilization to all nations.[42] A stele from Ur glorifies him in his own voice as a mighty ruler who forces evil into submission and compels all peoples to worship Marduk.[43] The stele declares: "The people of Elam, Gutium, Subartu, and Tukrish, whose mountains are distant and whose languages are obscure, I placed into [Marduk's] hand. I myself continued to put straight their confused minds." A later hymn also written in Hammurabi's own voice extols him as a powerful, supernatural force for Marduk:[42]

I am the king, the brace that grasps wrongdoers, that makes people of one mind,

I am the great dragon among kings, who throws their counsel in disarray,

I am the net that is stretched over the enemy,

I am the fear-inspiring, who, when lifting his fierce eyes, gives the disobedient the death sentence,

I am the great net that covers evil intent,

I am the young lion, who breaks nets and scepters,

I am the battle net that catches him who offends me.[43]

After extolling Hammurabi's military accomplishments, the hymn finally declares: "I am Hammurabi, the king of justice."[41] In later commemorations, Hammurabi's role as a great lawgiver came to be emphasized above all his other accomplishments and his military achievements became de-emphasized. Hammurabi's reign became the point of reference for all events in the distant past. A hymn to the goddess Ishtar, whose language suggests it was written during the reign of Ammisaduqa, Hammurabi's fourth successor, declares: "The king who first heard this song as a song of your heroism is Hammurabi. This song for you was composed in his reign. May he be given life forever!"[40] For centuries after his death, Hammurabi's laws continued to be copied by scribes as part of their writing exercises and they were even partially translated into Sumerian.[44]

Political legacy

Copy of Hammurabi's stele usurped by Shutruk-Nahhunte I. The stele was only partially erased and was never re-inscribed.[45]

During the reign of Hammurabi, Babylon usurped the position of "most holy city" in southern Mesopotamia from its predecessor, Nippur.[46] Under the rule of Hammurabi's successor Samsu-iluna, the short-lived Babylonian Empire began to collapse. In northern Mesopotamia, both the Amorites and Babylonians were driven from Assyria by Puzur-Sin a native Akkadian-speaking ruler, c. 1740 BC. Around the same time, native Akkadian speakers threw off Amorite Babylonian rule in the far south of Mesopotamia, creating the Sealand Dynasty, in more or less the region of ancient Sumer. Hammurabi's ineffectual successors met with further defeats and loss of territory at the hands of Assyrian kings such as Adasi and Bel-ibni, as well as to the Sealand Dynasty to the south, Elam to the east, and to the Kassites from the northeast. Thus was Babylon quickly reduced to the small and minor state it had once been upon its founding.[47]

The coup de grace for the Hammurabi's Amorite Dynasty occurred in 1595 BC, when Babylon was sacked and conquered by the powerful Hittite Empire, thereby ending all Amorite political presence in Mesopotamia.[48] However, the Indo-European-speaking Hittites did not remain, turning over Babylon to their Kassite allies, a people speaking a language isolate, from the Zagros mountains region. This Kassite Dynasty ruled Babylon for over 400 years and adopted many aspects of the Babylonian culture, including Hammurabi's code of laws.[48] Even after the fall of the Amorite Dynasty, however, Hammurabi was still remembered and revered.[44] When the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte I raided Babylon in 1158 BC and carried off many stone monuments, he had most of the inscriptions on these monuments erased and new inscriptions carved into them.[44] On the stele containing Hammurabi's laws, however, only four or five columns were wiped out and no new inscription was ever added.[45] Over a thousand years after Hammurabi's death, the kings of Suhu, a land along the Euphrates river, just northwest of Babylon, claimed him as their ancestor.[49]

A Neo-Babylonian royal inscription, which was intended for display on a stele, commemorates a royal grant of tax exemptions to nine Babylonian cities and presents the royal protagonist as a second Hammurabi.[50]

Relationship to Biblical figures and Mosaic law

In the late nineteenth century, the Code of Hammurabi became a major center of debate in the heated Babel und Bibel ("Babylon and Bible") controversy in Germany over the relationship between the Bible and ancient Babylonian texts.[51] In January 1902, the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in front of the Kaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Mosaic Laws of the Old Testament were directly copied off the Code of Hammurabi.[52] Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect 1,350 short articles from newspapers and journals, over 300 longer ones, and twenty-eight pamphlets, all written in response to this lecture, as well as the preceding one about the Flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh. These articles were overwhelmingly critical of Delitzsch, though a few were sympathetic. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views and, in fall of 1904, Delitzsch was forced to give his third lecture in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main rather than in Berlin.[51] The putative relationship between the Mosaic Law and the Code of Hammurabi later became a major part of Delitzsch's argument in his 1920–21 book Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception) that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably contaminated by Babylonian influence and that only by eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true, Aryan message of the New Testament.[52] In the early twentieth century, many scholars believed that Hammurabi was Amraphel, the King of Shinar in the Book of Genesis 14:1.[53][54] This view has now been largely rejected,[55][56] and Amraphel's existence is not attested in any writings from outside the Bible.[56]

Parallels between this narrative and the giving of the Covenant Code to Moses by Yahweh atop Mount Sinai in the Biblical Book of Exodus and similarities between the two legal codes suggest a common ancestor in the Semitic background of the two.[57][58][59][60] Nonetheless, fragments of previous law codes have been found and it is unlikely that the Mosaic laws were directly inspired by the Code of Hammurabi.[57][58][59][60][c] Some scholars have disputed this; David P. Wright argues that the Jewish Covenant Code is "directly, primarily, and throughout" based upon the Laws of Hammurabi.[61] In 2010, a team of archaeologists from Hebrew University discovered a cuneiform tablet dating to the eighteenth or seventeenth century BC at Hazor in Israel containing laws clearly derived from the Code of Hammurabi.[62]

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

Is Easter named after Ishtar?

Owen Rees 2 April 2021

Is Easter named after Ishtar?

Image by Dudva

Claim

The celebration of Easter was copied/stolen from the ancient worship of Ishtar.

Rating

False

How do our ratings work?

Explanation

Ishtar (Inanna in the Sumerian) was a Mesopotamian goddess, whose worship is widely attested in the historical and archaeological records. It is commonly claimed that the Christian celebrations of Easter were originally dedicated to Ishtar.

This claim is based on the supposed similarity of the two words: Ishtar/Easter, the role of Ishtar as a fertility goddess, Ishtar’s own death and ressurection, and the idea that Ishtar’s symbols were the rabbit and the egg. But how true are these claims?

Names

The first claim so often made is that Ishtar is pronounced “Easter”, offering us a clear homophone that gives the false impression that this actually means anything factually relevant – but this is not how etymology actually works.

It is also completely false. Ishtar (Ištar) is pronounced phonetically: Ish-tar. The name for Easter comes from the Germanic language family – Ostern – and relates in no way to the name of Ishtar.

Put very simply, this false homophonic link only works in two languages, namely English and German. Most other cultures who celebrate Easter do not call it “Easter”. In Dutch, for example, it is called Pasen; in French, it’s referred to as lesPâques. The festival ultimately derives its name from the Greek word Pascha, which in turn is based on the Hebrew Pesach (Passover).

The Christian writer Sozomen (fifth century) describes an important decision made at the council of Nicaea as such (1.21):

On the termination of this doctrinal controversy, the council decided that the Paschal feast should be celebrated at the same time in every place.

Even before the council of Nicaea, we have clear evidence for the name of the Christian celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. Meliton of Sardis wrote a homily entitled “On Pashca”, in which he describes Pascha as now being a celebration of Jesus and his resurrection (65):

Many other things were proclaimed by many prophets concerning the mystery of the Pascha, who is Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen

To put it bluntly, there is no link between the name of Ishtar and Easter, and even if such a link could be found it is not relevant because Easter was not the actualy name for the festival in the ancient or much of the modern world.

Goddess of?

The link made between Ishtar and Easter often relies on the representation of Ishtar as a fertility godess. This is a misleading label.

Like all ancient deities within a polytheistic pantheon, Ishtar possessed varying attributes and realms of influence. Her associations also rely on the time period under discussion, and the regions in which she was being worshipped. There are in fact many “Ishtars”, and over time she became an amalgamation of various godesses.

This is highlighted by the invocation of Ishtar of Nineveh and Ishtar of Arbela as two seperate goddesses during the Neo-Assyrian period (The Esarhaddon Prism 4-7) :

the legitimate ruler, the favourite of the great gods, whose name from his youth up Ashur, Shamash, Bel and Nabu, Ishtar of Nineveh, Ishtar of Arbela, for the kingship of Assyria had proclaimed.

Ishtar’s association with fertility is often present in her mythology and worship, but it is not her most prominent association. The one area of life she was consistently associated with was sex and erotic passion (The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi 4):

As for me, Inanna [Ishtar],

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

As for me, the young woman,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will station the ox there?

Who will plow my vulva?

Of course fertility sits as a by-product of this sexual activity, so Ishtar is frequently aligned with the fertility of humans, animals and the lands more generally. It is worth noting that the Sumerian pantheon had other more suitable candidates for the title of “fertility goddess”, such as Ninhursag.

For Ishtar, another important aspect of her divine personality is declared very clearly in the Code of Hammurabi:

May Ishtar, the goddess of fighting and war, who unfetters my weapons, my gracious protecting spirit, who loveth my dominion, curse his kingdom in her angry heart

Ishtar was a goddess of war. The dichotomy of sex and violence in a goddess is not uncommon in the ancient world, and gives a stronger sense of Ishtar’s realm of control: strong passions, primordial urges, and potential devastation.

Resurrection

One of the most famous myths concerning the godess depicts her descending into the underworld to confront her sister Ereshkigal, who ruled over the land of the dead. Within this myth, Ishtar returns to the land of the living after having been killed by her sister’s instruction (Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld):

The Anuna, the seven judges, rendered their decision against her. They looked at her – it was the look of death. They spoke to her – it was the speech of anger. They shouted at her – it was the shout of heavy guilt. The afflicted woman was turned into a corpse. And the corpse was hung on a hook. After three days and three nights had passed, her minister Ninshubura carried out the instructions of her mistress

According to the Sumerian version of this myth, Inanna entered the underworld where she was killed and remained so for three days and three nights before she was brought back to life and allowed to leave. Her freedom came at a cost, she needed to replace herself in the underworld with someone else - she chose Dumuzi, her husband.

Superficially, this story offers some comparisons with the resurrection story of Jesus, but on closer inspection they are not particularly relevant. Jesus was resurrected from death on the third day, after two nights, and his is a saviour-story, he died for others; whereas Inanna chose to condemn someone else to death to ensure her own freedom.

Her very presence in the underworld was part of an illegitimate power grab, rather than some form of sacrifice for mankind. It is also sometimes claimed that Inanna was crucified, but this is clearly not the case.

The Neo-Assyrian version of the tale, Ishtar’s Descent to the Netherworld, tells a shorter version of the same story. Notably, this version gives a different cause of Inanna’s actual death in the underworld, and it does not mention the three days and three nights. This suggests that the important part of the story was not the nature of the death and resurrection, but the descent into the underworld itself, the effect this had on the world above, and the relationship between the two sisters

Symbols

The argument that rabbits and eggs were the symbols of Ishtar is one made without any evidence. To date, there are no images of Ishtar with either symbol prominent.

Akkadian seal (ca. 2350–2150 BC) depicting the armed goddess Ishtar. Note the lion she is resting her foot on, and the eight-pointed star in the top left.

In contrast, we can categorically show that Ishtar was associated with lions. She is also regularly pictured with a common symbol: an eight-pointed star.

It is hard to argue against silence, but ultimately what is important here is that there is no evidence to the claim that rabbits and eggs were symbols of Ishtar.

Conclusion

The claim that Easter is based on the earlier worship of Ishtar is complete nonsense. It is based on ideas that sound plausible to those who have never studied the subject before, however it relies on falsehoods and purposeful misrepresentations of the evidence.

Easter is not a homonym for Ishtar, and is in fact not the original term for the Christian celebration anyway nor is it the most common one used in modern languages either. Ishtar was associated with fertility, but this was not her most prominent association, which was a combination of sex and warfare.

Indeed, to discuss Ishtar at all as the source of Easter celebrations, one would need to be specific about which Ishtar they were referring to, but then again no incarnation of the goddess would fit anyway. Ishtar’s resurrection bears only the vaguest of resemblances to the story of Jesus, to claim any more is to be disingenuous.

And finally: no the Easter Bunny was not a companion of Ishtar.

It is for these reasons we have rated this claim as false.

https://www.badancient.com/claims/easter-ishtar/

Alleged association with Ēostre

In a publication from 1874 German philologist Adolf Holtzmann stated "The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara".[23] The connection between Easter and that goddess had been made by Jacob Grimm in his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie.[24] This proposed association was repeated by other authors including Charles Isaac Elton[25] and Charles J. Billson.[26] In 1961 Christina Hole wrote, "The [hare] is the true Easter beast, for he was once sacred to the European Spring-Goddess whom we have already met under her Anglo-Saxon name of Ēostre."[27] The belief that Ēostre had a hare companion who became the Easter Bunny was popularized when it was presented as fact in the BBC documentary Shadow of the Hare (1993).[28]

The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore however states "nowadays, many writers claim that hares were sacred to the Anglo-Saxon goddess Ēostre, but there is no shred of evidence for this; Bede, the only writer to mention Ēostre, does not link her with any animal".[29]

A legend often encountered in contemporary times is that Eostre freed a frozen bird from a tree branch by turning it into a hare. It still continued to lay eggs but, having no use for them anymore and in gratitude to the goddess, gave them away.[30][31] This has no basis in any authentic, pre-Christian folklore, myth or religion and only appears to date from 1883, first published by K. A. Oberle in a book in German and later quoted by H. Krebs in a notes section in the journal Folk-Lore, also in 1883. His quote is as follows:

Some time ago the question was raised how it came that, according to South German still prevailing folk-lore, the Hare is believed by children to lay the Easter-eggs. I venture now to offer a probable answer to it. Originally the hare seems to have been a bird which the ancient Teutonic goddess Ostara (the Anglo-Saxon Eàstre or Eostre, as Bede calls her) transformed into a quadruped. For this reason the Hare, in grateful recollection of its former quality as bird and swift messenger of the Spring-Goddess, is able to lay eggs on her festival at Easter-time.[32]

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

AI Overview

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1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI Classic Drive: Still Worthy of Its ...

The Volkswagen Rabbit was the North American name for the Volkswagen Golf from 1975 to 1984. It represented a shift from the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive Beetle to a front-engine, front-wheel-drive hatchback. The name Rabbit was chosen to give the car a playful, nimble image, contrasting with the more upscale "Golf" name. The Rabbit was available in various trims, including the base model, the C (Custom), and the L (Luxury) models. A Rabbit GTI, a high-performance version, also became available. The Rabbit was a significant part of Volkswagen's success in the North American market, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s.

Key Points:

North American name for the Golf: The Rabbit was the name used for the Volkswagen Golf in the United States.

Shift to front-wheel drive: The Rabbit was a front-engine, front-wheel-drive hatchback, unlike the Beetle's rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive design.

Trim levels: The Rabbit was available in base, Custom (C), and Luxury (L) trims, and a high-performance GTI version.

Impact on VW's success: The Rabbit was a popular and successful car for Volkswagen in the US, helping it gain a significant foothold in the market.

Rebranding to Golf: In 1984, Volkswagen transitioned back to the Golf name in North America.

Generative AI is experimental.

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid0HBt7J6KRa7YH5x9kcMvBMgs8QUbhHg9gfetG6ev73JhEdKHXxUAtFkfYZrwm7G8al

Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Gulf War, began with an extensive aerial bombing campaign by the air forces of the coalition against targets in Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait from 17 January to 23 February 1991. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition flew over 100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tons of bombs,[4] widely destroying military and civilian infrastructure.[5] The air campaign was commanded by United States Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant General Chuck Horner, who briefly served as Commander-in-Chief—Forward of U.S. Central Command while General Norman Schwarzkopf was still in the United States. The British air commanders were Air Chief Marshal Andrew Wilson, to 17 November 1990, and Air Vice-Marshal Bill Wratten, from 17 November.[6] The air campaign had largely finished by 23 February 1991 with the beginning of the coalition ground offensive into Kuwait.

The initial strikes were carried out by AGM-86 ALCM cruise missiles launched by B-52 Stratofortress bombers,[7] Tomahawk cruise missiles[8] launched from U.S. Navy warships situated in the Persian Gulf, by F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft[8] with an armament of laser-guided smart bombs,[8] and by F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft and F/A-18 Hornet aircraft armed with HARM anti-radar missiles.[9] These first attacks allowed F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and F/A-18 Hornet combat aircraft to gain air superiority over Iraq and then continue to drop television-guided and laser-guided bombs.

Armed with a GAU-8 rotary cannon and infrared-imaging or optically guided AGM-65 Maverick missiles, USAF A-10 Thunderbolt IIs bombed and destroyed Iraqi armored forces,[8] supporting the advance of U.S. ground troops. United States Marine Corps close air support AV-8B Harriers employed their 25mm rotary cannon, Mavericks, cluster munitions, and napalm against the Iraqi dug-in forces to pave the way forward for the U.S. Marines breaching Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's defenses. The U.S. Army AH-64 Apache and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters fired laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire and TOW missiles, which were guided to tanks by ground observers or by scout helicopters, such as the OH-58D Kiowa.[10] The Coalition air fleet also made use of the E-3A Airborne Warning and Control Systems and of a fleet of B-52 Stratofortress bombers.[8][9]

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

New Jack City is a 1991 American crime action film directed by Mario Van Peebles (in his feature film directorial debut) and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, based on a story by Wright. The film stars Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson, Bill Cobbs, Bill Nunn, and Van Peebles. Its plot follows Nino Brown, a drug lord in New York City during the crack epidemic, and Scotty Appleton, an NYPD detective who vows to end Nino's rise to power by going undercover to work for Nino's gang.[2]

New Jack City premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 1991, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 8, 1991.

Plot

In the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, Nino Brown and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), become the dominant drug ring once crack cocaine is introduced to the streets. His gang consists of Gerald "Gee Money" Wells, his best friend since childhood; enforcer and personal bodyguard Duh Duh Duh Man; gun moll Keisha; Nino's girlfriend, Selina Thomas; and her tech-savvy cousin, ex-bank teller Kareem Akbar.

Nino converts the Carter apartment complex into a crack house. Gee Money and Keisha kill rival Fat Smitty, and the CMB forces out the tenants and landlord. Meanwhile, Scotty Appleton, an undercover police detective working with the NYPD, attempts to make a deal with stick-up kid Pookie, who absconds with the money. Appleton chases and shoots Pookie in the leg, but released on bail. As the years pass, Nino's gang successfully run the streets of Harlem with absolute power.

When Stone, the leader of the CMB police operation, comes under pressure from NYPD Commissioner Fred R. Price, Appleton, currently on suspension for shooting Pookie, volunteers to infiltrate Nino's gang and is partnered with loose-cannon Nick Peretti. Elsewhere, mobster and tax collector Frankie Needles attempts to get protection money from Nino, who refuses to pay. While Appleton and Peretti observe Nino and his gang handing out Thanksgiving turkeys to the poor, Appleton spots Pookie, now a crack addict, and soon gets him into rehab.

Later, Pookie offers to help bring down Nino. Against his better judgment and the disapproval of Stone and Peretti, Appleton recruits Pookie as an informant. When Pookie relapses, Gee Money realizes that he is wired and orders the Carter destroyed. The cops find Pookie's booby-trapped corpse; Peretti defuses the explosives seconds before it explodes. Nino angrily warns Gee Money against repeating such a costly mistake.

After Pookie's funeral, Appleton and Peretti, no longer needed by Stone, go undercover as drug dealers. After bribing Frankie, Appleton infiltrates the CMB, partly due to Gee Money's increasing ambition and drug use. Though Nino distrusts them, he agrees to do business. After relating an anecdote about his own violent initiation into a gang in 1974, Nino warns that he will kill both Appleton and Gee Money if any problems occur. Appleton gains Nino's trust when he reveals information about Gee Money's side deal and saves him from a gun-toting "Old Man" who had earlier appealed to police for help against Nino.

While Nino, Appleton, and the CMB attend a wedding, Peretti sneaks into Nino's mansion to collect evidence. Don Armeteo, Frankie's boss, sends mobsters to kill Nino, and a massive shootout erupts. When Nino uses a child as a shield, Appleton attempts to shoot Nino in the back; Keisha is killed. Later, Nino throws Selina out when she condemns his nature, before killing Don Armeteo and his crew single-handedly.

Stone, Appleton and Peretti arrange a sting operation to nab Nino. Kareem, aware of Appleton and Pookie's connection, exposes Appleton, and a shootout ensues. Peretti saves Appleton by killing the Duh Duh Duh Man, and Nino escapes. That night, Nino confronts and regretfully kills Gee Money. After the gang's collapse, Nino holes up in an apartment and continues his criminal empire solo. Appleton, Peretti, and the police assault the complex, where Appleton brutally beats Nino, revealing that it was his mother whom Nino killed in his gang initiation. Peretti dissuades Appleton from killing Nino, who is taken into custody.

At his trial, Nino pleads guilty to a lesser charge, claims to have been forced to help the gang due to threats, and identifies Kareem as the leader. He is sentenced to only a year in jail. As Nino speaks with reporters outside the courtroom, the Old Man confronts and fatally shoots him in the chest, causing Nino to fall over a balcony to his death. Appleton and Peretti leave satisfied as onlookers look down at Nino's dead body.

In the closing moments, an epilogue states that the crack epidemic is still ongoing and decisive action must be taken to stop real-life Nino Brown analogs.

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

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

The statue is a figure of a classically draped woman,[8] likely inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty Libertas.[9] In a contrapposto pose,[8][10] she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot she steps on a broken chain and shackle,[8] commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War.[11][12][13] After its dedication the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.

The idea for the statue was conceived in 1865, when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation's slaves.[14] The Franco-Prussian War delayed progress until 1875, when Laboulaye proposed that the people of France finance the statue and the United States provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions.

The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar (equivalent to $35 in 2024). The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.

The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933, it has been maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and is a major tourist attraction. Limited numbers of visitors can access the rim of the pedestal and the interior of the statue's crown from within; public access to the torch has been barred since 1916.

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

Marianne (pronounced [maʁjan]) has been the national personification of the French Republic since the French Revolution, as a personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, as well as a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty.

Marianne is displayed in many places in France and holds a place of honour in town halls and law courts. She is depicted in the Triumph of the Republic, a bronze sculpture overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris, as well as represented with another Parisian statue on the Place de la République. Her profile stands out on the official government logo of the country, and appears on French euro coins and on French postage stamps.[1] She was also featured on the former franc currency and is officially used on most government documents.

Marianne is a significant republican symbol; her French monarchist equivalent is often Joan of Arc. As a national icon Marianne represents opposition to monarchy and the championship of freedom and democracy against all forms of oppression. Other national symbols of Republican France include the tricolor flag, the national motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, the national anthem "La Marseillaise", the coat of arms, and the official Great Seal of France. Marianne also wore a Cockade and a red Phrygian cap symbolising Liberty.

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

The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (French: Société des amis de la Constitution), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality (Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité) after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club (Club des Jacobins) or simply the Jacobins (/ˈdʒækəbɪn/; French: [ʒakɔbɛ̃]), was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes.

Initially founded in 1789 by anti-royalist deputies from Brittany, the club grew into a nationwide republican movement with a membership estimated at a half million or more.[1] The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s: The Mountain and the Girondins.[3] In 1792–93, the Girondins were more prominent in leading France when they declared war on Austria and on Prussia, overthrew King Louis XVI, and set up the French First Republic. In May 1793, the leaders of the Mountain faction, led by Maximilien Robespierre, succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government featured high levels of political violence, and for this reason the period of the Jacobin/Mountain government is identified as the Reign of Terror. In October 1793, 21 prominent Girondins were guillotined. The Mountain-dominated government executed 17,000 opponents nationwide as a way to suppress the Vendée insurrection and the Federalist revolts, and to deter recurrences. In July 1794, the National Convention pushed the administration of Robespierre and his allies out of power and had Robespierre and 21 associates executed. In November 1794, the Jacobin Club closed.

In the British Empire, Jacobin was linked primarily to The Mountain of the French Revolutionary governments and was popular among the established and entrepreneurial classes as a pejorative to deride radical left-wing revolutionary politics, especially when they exhibit dogmatism and violent repression.[4] In Britain, the term faintly echoed negative connotations of Jacobitism, the pro-Catholic, monarchist, rarely insurrectional political movement that faded out decades earlier tied to deposed King James II of England and his descendants. Jacobin reached obsolescence and supersedence before the Russian Revolution, when the terms (Radical) Marxism, anarchism, socialism, and communism had overtaken it.

In France, Jacobin now generally leans towards moderate authoritarianism, more equal formal rights, and centralization.[5] It can, similarly, denote supporters of extensive government intervention to transform society.[6] It is unabashedly used by proponents of a state education system that strongly promotes and inculcates civic values. It is more controversially, and less squarely, used by or for proponents of a strong nation-state capable of resisting undesirable foreign interference.[7]

History

Foundation

When the Estates General of 1789 in France convened in May–June 1789 at the Palace of Versailles, the Jacobin club, originating as the Club Breton, comprised exclusively a group of Breton representatives attending those Estates General.[8] Deputies from other regions throughout France soon joined. Early members included the dominating comte de Mirabeau, Parisian deputy Abbé Sieyès, Dauphiné deputy Antoine Barnave, Jérôme Pétion, the Abbé Grégoire, Charles Lameth, Alexandre Lameth, Artois deputy Robespierre, the duc d'Aiguillon, and La Revellière-Lépeaux. At this time meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings convened.[8]

Transfer to Paris

By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, still entirely composed of deputies, reverted to being a provincial caucus for National Constituent Assembly deputies from Brittany. The club was re-founded in November 1789 as the Société de la Révolution, inspired in part by a letter sent from the Revolution Society of London to the Assembly congratulating the French on regaining their liberty.[9][10][11]

To accommodate growing membership, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the Dominican monastery of the “Jacobins” in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly.[10][11] They changed their name to Société des amis de la Constitution in late January, though by this time, their opponents had already concisely dubbed them "Jacobins", a nickname originally given to French Dominicans because their first house in Paris was in the Rue Saint-Jacques.[8][11]

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

PART VI 1THE PERSONAL LIFE OF THOSE ALREADY ADMITTED AND INCORPORATED INTO THE BODY OF THE SOCIETY

SECTION 1: THE APOSTOLIC CHARACTER OF OUR VOWS IN GENERAL

143 §1. Our consecration by profession of the evangelical counsels, by which we respond to a divine vocation, is at one and the same time the following of Christ poor, virginal, and obedient and a rejection of those idols that the world is always prepared to adore, especially wealth, pleasure, prestige, and power. Hence, our poverty, chastity, and obedience ought visibly and efficaciously to bear witness to this attitude, whereby we proclaim the evangelical possibility of a certain communion among men and women that is a foretaste of the future kingdom of God.[1]

§2. Our religious vows, while binding us, also set us FREE:

FREE, by our vow of poverty, to share the life of the poor and to use whatever resources we may have, not for our own security and comfort, but for service;

FREE, by our vow of chastity, to be men for others, in friendship and communion with all, but especially with those who share our mission of service;

FREE, by our vow of obedience, to respond to the call of Christ as made known to us by him whom the Spirit has placed over the Church, and to follow the lead of all our superiors.[2] [1] See GC 32, d. 4, no. 16; see GC 31, d. 16, no. 4; d. 17, no. 2; d. 18, no. 3. [2] GC 32, d. 2, no. 20. 215

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

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

Valley of Traverse City

ANCIENT ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE

The History and Legend of Scottish Rite Origins

The Story Unfolds…

Like much of early Masonic history, the origins of the Scottish Rite are uncertain. This is primarily due to the lack of historic documentation prior to the early 1700’s and not to any great veiled mystery. The few records kept were subject to loss, fire, weather and aging. So we can at best only speculate on many of our origins by looking at the few documents, historical references and legends that remain.

What We Know

In 1754, near Paris, Chevalier de Bonneville established the Chapter of Clermont. The Chapter resided in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence the name. It is said to have been created to honor the Duc de Clermont, then Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of France.

The Chapter of Clermont was a “Chapter of the Advanced Degrees” and initially entailed six degrees and was later extended to 25 known degrees. The six initial degrees were 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ St John’s Masonry, 4˚ Knight of the Eagle, 5˚ Illustrious Knight or Templar, 6˚ Sublime Illustrious Knight.

Interestingly enough historically, prior to the time of the Rite’s creation, James II had been in residence at Clermont in exile from Britain from 1688 to his death in 1701. As noted by German Masonic historian, Lenning… “whilst in exile, James II residing at the Jesuit College of Clermont in France, allowed his closest associates to fabricate certain degrees in order to extend their political views.” Lenning believed this to have been an attempt on the part of James and his associates to regain control of the British throne for the House of Stuart. If Lenning is right, this places the origins of the “Rite of Perfection” in the hands of James II and the Jacobite (Stuart) Freemasons who at the time were in exile from Great Britain throughout France and Italy. Lenning also contends that these degrees were introduced into French Freemasonry under the name of the Clermont System.

James II died in exile in 1701. His son James III is said to have continued his father’s Masonic legacy and later created further higher degrees.

Perhaps James II saw in the Jesuit morality plays of the College of Clermont a vessel for passing on a set of moral lessons. Some of the world’s greatest playwrights had emerged from Clermont. Jesuit tutelage had previously produced great writers such as Lope de Vega, Moliere, Racine, and the Corneille brothers. Ensconced in exile, I believe James II did find the inspiration and the training to help produce what would later become the first six degrees. From out of the darkness… comes light.

To be continued… (Author’s note… An in depth look at the Templar influence in Scottish Rite masonry’s origins can be found by visiting the Rosslyn Templars’ website.)"

https://web.archive.org/web/20190615041607/http://www.traversecityscottishrite.com/scottish-rite-history.html

Just before the War of 1812, the British clandestinely organized several Scottish Rite Lodges in the northeast with headquarters at Boston. After the War they were discovered by Charleston, and following some negotiations, were permitted to operate under the English Masonic obedience (obedience meaning "constitution"). The Boston headquarters became known as the Northern Jurisdiction of Scottish Rite Freemasonry and has since been nicknamed the "Eastern Establishment." The Charleston headquarters became known as the Southern Jurisdiction of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. As stated earlier, the Southern Jurisdiction followed the French Masonic obedience.

The Southern Jurisdiction Supreme Council operates its "Grand East" or spiritual headquarters from Charleston. In 1870 it moved its "Secretariat" (political office) to Washington, D.C.68 An indication of Masonry's influence is the fact that of the two parades permitted to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., one is the Inaugural Parade and the other the Shriner's Parade.

Shriners are sometimes referred to as thirty-second and a half degree Masons. The Shriners operate children's hospitals. (See Appendix 7 for their history).

All Masons in America must travel through the first three "Blue Lodge" degrees before choosing York or Scottish Rites, both of which are Templar Rites. The 13th degree York Mason and 32 degree Scottish Mason unite in the Shrine. (See Appendix 2, Fig. 3.)

We can make some general observations regarding the Northern and Southern Jurisdictions of American Freemasonry. The Northern Jurisdiction, which we can identify in American politics with the Eastern Establishment, is right-wing or moderate. It is the headquarters of America's aristocracy and is primarily Republican. The Southern Jurisdiction is left-wing or liberal, more or less comprised of the working middle class and common laborer, and usually Democrat. There are crossovers in both Jurisdictions, and when voters in America take sides on issues, we are caught up in this Masonic struggle of conservative versus liberal, right-wing versus left-wing, big business versus labor, free enterprise versus socialism, etc.

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

In modern times, cross burning or cross lighting is a practice which is associated with the Ku Klux Klan. However, it was practiced long before the Klan's inception. Since the early 20th century, the Klan has burned crosses on hillsides as a way to intimidate and threaten Black Americans and other marginalized groups.[1][2]

Scottish origins

In Scotland, the fiery cross, known as the crann-tara, was used as a declaration of war.[3] The sight of it commanded all clan members to rally to the defence of the area. On other occasions, a small burning cross would be carried from town to town. During the War of 1812, burning crosses were used to mobilize the Canadian Militia's Glengarry Light Infantry when American forces invaded Canada.[4] In 1820, over 800 fighting men of Clan Grant were gathered, by the passing of the fiery cross, to come to the aid of their Clan Chieftain and his sister in the town of Elgin, Scotland.[5] In Scotland itself, the last significant use of the burning cross was made in 1745, during the Jacobite rising,[6] and it was subsequently described in the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott, particularly The Lady of the Lake of 1810.

Symbol of the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan members conduct a cross burning in 1921.

A Victorian depiction of the crann tara

In the first era, Reconstruction Klans did not burn crosses. The belief that reconstruction Klans burned crosses was introduced by Thomas Dixon Jr., in his novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905). A cross burning is first described in Book IV Chapter 2 "The Fiery Cross" on pages 324–326 of the 1905 edition. It is introduced by one of the characters as "the old Scottish rite of the burning cross. It will send a thrill of inspiration to every clansmen in the hills." It is further elaborated that

In olden times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was sent by swift courier from village to village. This call was never made in vain, nor will it be to-night in the new world. Here, on this spot made holy ground by the blood of those we hold dearer than life, I raise the ancient symbol of an unconquered race of men—

This scene is accompanied by an unnumbered plate illustration by Arthur I. Keller, captioned "'The fiery cross of old Scotland's hills'", showing two robed, unmasked Klansmen, one of whom is holding a lighted cross, over a bound, blindfolded and gagged Black American, while robed and hooded klansmen look on.[7] The novel ends with a Klansman waiting for election results stating "Look at our lights on the mountains! They are ablaze - range on range our signals gleam until the Fiery Cross is lost among the stars" meaning that he had won and civilization had been saved in the South.[8] The fiery cross is mentioned once again in the final novel of Dixon's Klan trilogy, The Traitor: A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire, when a Grand Dragon tosses a burning cross on a heap of discarded Klan robes and regalia in obedience to the order of the Grand Dragon to dissolve the order.[9] This scene is accompanied by an illustration captioned "Some of the men were sobbing" by Charles David Williams featuring a gathering of Klansmen over a burning pile of robes, carrying three burning crosses.[10]

The Birth of a Nation

The poster of The Birth of a Nation which features a Klansman holding a burning cross while on a horse.

In D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation (1915), an adaptation of Thomas Dixon's novel, The Clansman, two sequences depict cross-burnings.

The first sequence depicts a Confederate colonel's little sister, who rejects a marriage proposal by a Black captain (of the occupying Union force) and flees after he chases her (the Piedmont, South Carolina legislature had legalized interracial marriages, and the story imagines the social chaos that whites feared would develop). She is cornered at the edge of a cliff and threatens to jump off the cliff unless he stops. He continues his pursuit, and she jumps.

Her brother finds her dying at the bottom of the cliff and holds her in his arms; she identifies her attacker before she passes away. The few members of the local clan burn a small (around 8 inches [20 cm]) cross, drenched in the young girl's blood. A kangaroo court is convened, hears the girl's dying words when the colonel gives his testimony, finds the captain guilty of murder, and executes him. The clan members place his body on the front porch of the South Carolina governor's mansion with a square piece of white sheeting with the initials KKK.

The second sequence depicts the aftermath of two home invasions. The first home invasion occurs at the governor's mansion. A Black member of the South Carolina legislature proposes marriage to the governor's daughter and, when she rejects his proposal, he threatens her with weapons. The governor attempts to intervene but his attempt fails and he is taken captive. The second home invasion occurs at the house of the Confederate colonel; his mother was revealed to be a clan sympathizer and she expressed her sympathy for the clan by making clan uniforms. The clan wishes to intervene in these hostage situations but it is prevented from doing so by the occupying Union troops. The colonel requests help by burning a cross in the daytime; the black smoke which is produced by the burning cross signals clans from neighboring counties to come to their aid and contest the Union military's control of the town. Each clan wears distinct head-dresses and robes. They greet each other with their faces uncovered although they ride into town with sheeting over their faces. The colonel's uniform has two adjacent square crosses on his robe, presumably from the original clan in Scotland.

In the United States, the first recorded cross burning occurred on November 25, 1915, ten months after the debut of The Birth of a Nation, when a group of men which led by William J. Simmons burned a cross atop Stone Mountain, Georgia, inaugurating the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. The event was attended by 15 charter members and a few aging former members of the original Klan.[11]

Crosses were burned during the Tallahassee bus boycott of 1956.[12]

According to journalist and civil rights advocate Carey McWilliams, in California during the '30s, several crosses were burned as part of the intimidation practices of the vigilante groups which were organized to break off pickers' strikes by the Associated Farmers.[13]

In France

Croix-de-Feu (French: [kʁwa də fø], Cross of Fire) was a nationalist French league of the interwar period.

Legal position in the United States

In 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States invoked a stage adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake in its Virginia v. Black decision as an example of a display of cross burning that was not intended "to intimidate a person or group of persons" when they struck down a Virginia statute that included the language "Any such burning of a cross shall be prima facie evidence of an intent to intimidate a person or group of persons" because it presumes that the "intent [is] to intimidate."[14]

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

2030: The Year of the Metal Dog

In addition to being associated with a zodiac animal, each new lunar year also aligns with one of the five traditional Chinese elements. These elements are known in Chinese as the 五行 (wǔxíng).

While we won’t delve into the details of this aspect of zodiac philosophy due to its complexity, keep in mind that each lunar year consists of a combination of 10 heavenly stems (干 gàn) and 12 earthly branches (支 zhī). These unite to form a system of 60 stem-branch combinations. Each combination is symbolized by one of the five elements (fire, water, wood, metal and earth).

According to this system, 2030 is the Year of the Metal Dog.

For anyone interested in diving deeper into doctrines of Chinese astrology, the internet provides a great database of resources for continued study.

https://studycli.org/chinese-zodiac/year-of-the-dog/

2030-2031 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

Another general rule for predicting oppositions of Mars is from the following: the planet has an approximate 15.8-year periodic opposition cycle, which consists of three or four Aphelic oppositions and three consecutive Perihelic oppositions. Perihelic oppositions are also called "favorable" because the Earth and Mars come closest to each other on those occasions. We sometimes refer to this as the seven Martian synodic periods. This cycle is repeated every 79 years (± 4 to 5 days) and, if one were to live long enough, one would see this cycle nearly replicated in approximately 284 years. The 2031 Mars apparition is considered Transitional (between Aphelic and Perihelic) because the orbital longitude at opposition will be 68.4° from the aphelion longitude of 70° Ls and 111.6° Ls from perihelion (250° Ls).

NOTE: Ls is the planetocentric longitude of the Sun along the ecliptic of Mars’ sky. 0° Ls is defined as that point where the Sun crosses the Martian celestial equator from south to north, that is the planet’s northern hemisphere vernal equinox. The other Ls values that define the beginnings of Martian northern hemisphere seasons are: summer, 90° Ls; autumn, 180° Ls; and winter, 270° Ls. For Mars’ southern hemisphere these values represent the opposite seasons. Distance (A.U.) - Distance from Earth to Mars in astronomical units, where one (1) A.U. equals 92,955,807.267 miles or 149,597,870.691 km.

Opposition occurs 11 months after conjunction when Mars is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. At that time, the two planets will lie nearly in a straight line with respect to the Sun, or five weeks after retrogression begins. Opposition will occur at 1157 UT on May 04, 2031 (138.4° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.7 arcsec. Mars will remain visible for more than twelve months after opposition and then become lost in the glare of the Sun around May 31, 2032 as it approaches the next conjunction (July 11, 2032). The cycle is complete in 780 Earth days.

Closest approach occurs at 0350 UT on May 12, 2031 (142.1° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.9 at a distance of 0.5533578 astronomical units (AU) or 51,437,823 miles (82,781,152 km). During closest approach in 2031 the apparent diameter of Mars will be 2.4 arcsec larger than it was at the same period in 2029; however, it will be 17.1 degrees lower in the sky - not quite as good for observing the Red Planet for observers in the northern hemisphere. It should also be noted that closest approach between Earth and Mars is not necessarily coincident with the time of opposition but varies by as much as two weeks.

https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2031_MARS.htm

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

What to make of Musk's comments that are critical of NASA's lunar plans?

Eric Berger – Jan 3, 2025 9:28 AM

Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years.

For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program. Rather, Musk, who has long preferred Mars as a destination for humans, has more or less been a team player when it comes to the space agency's lunar-focused plans.

This is understandable from a financial perspective, as SpaceX has contracts worth billions of dollars to not only build a Human Landing System as part of NASA's Artemis Program but also to supply food, cargo, and other logistics services to a planned Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon.

But privately, Musk has been critical of NASA's plans, suggesting that the Artemis Program has been moving too slowly and is too reliant on contractors who seek cost-plus government contracts and are less interested in delivering results.

Silent on policy no longer

During the last 10 days, Musk has begun airing some of these private thoughts publicly. On Christmas Day, for example, Musk wrote on X, "The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed."

Then, on Thursday evening, he added this: "No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction."

These are definitive statements that directly contradict NASA's plans to send a series of human missions to the lunar south pole later this decade and establish a sustainable base of operations there with the Artemis Program.

It would be one thing if Musk was just expressing his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a significant part in the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has assumed an important advisory role for the incoming administration. He was also partly responsible for the expected nomination of private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become the next administrator of NASA. Although Musk is not directing US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.

So what does this mean for Artemis?

The fate of Artemis is an important question not just for NASA but for the US commercial space industry, the European Space Agency, and other international partners who have aligned with the return of humans to the Moon. With Artemis, the United States is in competition with China to establish a meaningful presence on the surface of the Moon.

Based upon conversations with people involved in developing space policy for the Trump administration, I can make some educated guesses about how to interpret Musk's comments. None of these people, for example, would disagree with Musk's assertion that "the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient" and that some changes are warranted.

With that said, the Artemis Program is probably not going away. After all, it was the first Trump administration that created the program about five years ago. However, it may be less well-remembered that the first Trump White House pushed for more significant changes, including a "major course correction" at NASA.

"I call on NASA to adopt new policies and embrace a new mindset," then-Vice President Mike Pence said in May 2019. "If our current contractors can't meet this objective, then we'll find ones that will." (Speaking of the vice president, it's unlikely that the National Space Council will be reconstituted under JD Vance).

To a large extent, NASA resisted this change during the remainder of the Trump administration, keeping its core group of major contractors, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in place. It had help from key US Senators, including Richard Shelby, the now-retired Republican from Alabama. But this time, the push for change is likely to be more concerted, especially with key elements of NASA's architecture, including the Space Launch System rocket, being bypassed by privately developed rockets such as SpaceX's Starship vehicle and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Not one, but both

In all likelihood, NASA will adopt a new "Artemis" plan that involves initiatives to both the Moon and Mars. When Musk said "we're going straight to Mars," he may have meant that this will be the thrust of SpaceX, with support from NASA. That does not preclude a separate initiative, possibly led by Blue Origin with help from NASA, to develop lunar return plans.

Isaacman, who is keeping a fairly low profile ahead of his nomination, has not weighed in on Musk's comments. However, when his nomination was announced one month ago, he did make a germane comment on X.

"I was born after the Moon landings; my children were born after the final space shuttle launch," he wrote. "With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place. We will inspire children, yours and mine, to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth."

In short, NASA is likely to adopt a two-lane strategy of reaching for both the Moon and Mars. Whether the space agency is successful with either one will be a major question asked of the new administration.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars (Latin: Mārs, pronounced [maːrs])[4] is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome.[5] He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.[6]

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

The Gita in the title of the Bhagavad Gita means "song". Religious leaders and scholars interpret the word Bhagavad in several ways. Accordingly, the title has been interpreted as "the song of God", "the word of God" by theistic schools,[19] "the words of the Lord",[20] "the Divine Song",[21][page needed][22] and "Celestial Song" by others.[23]

The Sanskrit name is often written as Shrimad Bhagavad Gita or Shrimad Bhagavadgita (श्रीमद् भगवद् गीता or श्रीमद् भगवद्गीता). The prefix shrimad (or shrimat) denotes a high degree of respect. The Bhagavad Gita is not to be confused with the Bhagavata Puran, which is one of the eighteen major Puranas dealing with the life of the Hindu God Krishna and various avatars of Vishnu.[24]

The work is also known as the Iswara Gita, the Ananta Gita, the Hari Gita, the Vyasa Gita, or the Gita.[25]

Dating and authorship

Dating

The text is generally dated to the second or first century BCE,.[3][4][5][6]

According to Jeaneane Fowler, "the dating of the Gita varies considerably" and depends in part on whether one accepts it to be a part of the early versions of the Mahabharata, or a text that was inserted into the epic at a later date.[26] The earliest "surviving" components therefore are believed to be no older than the earliest "external" references we have to the Mahabharata epic. The Mahabharata – the world's longest poem – is itself a text that was likely written and compiled over several hundred years, one dated between "400 BCE or little earlier, and 2nd century CE, though some claim a few parts can be put as late as 400 CE", states Fowler. The dating of the Gita is thus dependent on the uncertain dating of the Mahabharata. The actual dates of composition of the Gita remain unresolved.[26]

According to Arthur Basham, the context of the Bhagavad Gita suggests that it was composed in an era when the ethics of war were being questioned and renunciation of monastic life was becoming popular.[27] Such an era emerged after the rise of Buddhism and Jainism in the 5th century BCE, and particularly after the semi-legendary life of Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. Thus, the first version of the Bhagavad Gita may have been composed in or after the 3rd century BCE.[27]

An old torn paper with a painting depicting the Mahabharata war, with some verses recorded in Sanskrit.

A manuscript illustration of the battle of Kurukshetra, fought between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, recorded in the Mahabharata. c. 1700 – c. 1800 CE

Winthrop Sargeant linguistically categorizes the Bhagavad Gita as Epic-Puranic Sanskrit, a language that succeeds Vedic Sanskrit and precedes classical Sanskrit.[28] The text has occasional pre-classical elements of the Vedic Sanskrit language, such as aorists and the prohibitive mā instead of the expected na (not) of classical Sanskrit.[28] This suggests that the text was composed after the Pāṇini era, but before the long compounds of classical Sanskrit became the norm. This would date the text as transmitted by the oral tradition to the later centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE, and the first written version probably to the 2nd or 3rd century CE.[28][29]

Kashi Nath Upadhyaya dates it a bit earlier, but after the rise of Buddhism, by which it was influenced. He states that the Gita was always a part of the Mahabharata, and dating the latter suffices in dating the Gita.[30] based on the estimated dates of Mahabharata as evidenced by exact quotes of it in the Buddhist literature by Asvaghosa (c. 100 CE), Upadhyaya states that the Mahabharata, and therefore the Gita, must have been well known by then for a Buddhist to be quoting it.[30][note 1] This suggests a terminus ante quem (latest date) of the Gita be sometime before the 1st century CE.[30] He cites similar quotes in the dharmasutra texts, the Brahma sutras, and other literature to conclude that the Bhagavad Gita was composed in the fifth or fourth-century BCE.[32][note 2]

Vāsudeva-Krishna, on a coin of Agathocles of Bactria c. 180 BCE.[34][35] This is "the earliest unambiguous image" of the deity.[36]

Authorship

In the Indian tradition, the Bhagavad Gita, as well as the epic Mahabharata of which it is a part, is attributed to the sage Vyasa,[37] also known as Krishna Dvaipayana and as Veda-Vyasa.[38] A Hindu legend narrates that Vyasa composed it, and Ganesha, who broke one of his tusks, used this tusk to write down the Mahabharata along with the Bhagavad Gita.[9][39][note 3]

Scholars consider Vyasa to be a mythical or symbolic author, in part because Vyasa is also a title or generic name for the compiler of a text, and Vyasa is also regarded by tradition as the compiler of the Vedas and the Puranas, texts dated with a time-differencd of circa two millennia.[9][e]

According to Alexus McLeod, a scholar of Philosophy and Asian Studies, it is "impossible to link the Bhagavad Gita to a single author", and it may be the work of many authors.[9][10] This view is shared by the Indologist Arthur Basham, who states that there were three or more authors or compilers of Bhagavad Gita. This is evidenced by the discontinuous intermixing of philosophical verses with theistic or passionately theistic verses, according to Basham.[11][note 4]

J. A. B. van Buitenen, an Indologist known for his translations and scholarship on Mahabharata, finds that the Gita is so contextually and philosophically well-knit within the Mahabharata that it was not an independent text that "somehow wandered into the epic".[42] The Gita, states van Buitenen, was conceived and developed by the Mahabharata authors to "bring to a climax and solution the dharmic dilemma of a war".[42][note 5]

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

Kamala Devi Harris (English: /ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ ⓘ,[1] born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who has been the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021, serving under President Joe Biden. Harris is the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election. She is the first female vice president of the United States, making her the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history. She is also the first African American and first Asian American vice president. From 2017 to 2021, she represented California in the United States Senate. Before that, she was Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017.

Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda County. She was recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later to the office of the city attorney of San Francisco. She was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and attorney general of California in 2010, and reelected as attorney general in 2014. As the San Francisco district attorney and the attorney general of California, Harris was the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to hold each office.

Harris was the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. She won the 2016 Senate election, becoming the second Black woman and first South Asian American U.S. senator. As a senator, Harris advocated for stricter gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, and reforms to healthcare and taxation. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her as his running mate, and their ticket defeated the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Presiding over an evenly split Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as president of the Senate. She cast more tie-breaking votes than any other vice president, which helped pass bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. After Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her campaign with Biden's endorsement and soon became the presumptive nominee. On August 6, 2024, she chose Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate.

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

Devī (/ˈdeɪvi/;[1] Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is deva. Devi and deva mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism.

The concept and reverence for goddesses appears in the Vedas, which were composed around the 2nd millennium BCE. However, they did not play a vital role in that era.[2] Goddesses such as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Parvati, Radha, Saraswati and Sita have continued to be revered in the modern era.[2] The medieval era Puranas witness a major expansion in mythology and literature associated with Devi, with texts such as the Devi Mahatmya, wherein she manifests as the ultimate truth and supreme power. She has inspired the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. Further, Devi is viewed as central in the Hindu traditions of Shaktism and Shaivism.[2][3]

Etymology

Devi and deva are Sanskrit terms found in Vedic literature around the 3rd millennium BCE. Deva is masculine, and the related feminine equivalent is devi.[4] Monier-Williams translates it as 'heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones'.[5][6] Etymologically, a cognate of devi is Latin dea.[7] When capitalised, Devi maata refers to the mother goddess in Hinduism.[8] Deva is short for devatā and devi for devika.[5]

According to Douglas Harper, the etymological root dev- means "a shining one", from *div-, "to shine", it is an Indo-European cognate of the Greek dios, Gothic divine and Latin deus (Old Latin deivos); see also *Dyēus.[9]

A synonym for the word Devi in the Vedas is Bhagavati. Bhagavatī (Devanagari: भगवती, IAST: Bhagavatī), is an Indian epithet of Sanskrit origin, used as an honorific title for goddesses in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, it is primarily used to address the goddesses Lakshmi and Durga. In Buddhism, it is used to refer to several Mahayana Buddhist female deities, like Cundā.[10]

History

The worship of Devi-like deities dates back to period of Indus Valley civilisation.[11][12]

The Devīsūkta of the Rigveda (10.125.1 to 10.125.8) is among the most studied hymns declaring that the ultimate reality is a goddess:[13][14]

I have created all worlds at my will without being urged by any higher Being, and dwell within them. I permeate the earth and heaven, and all created entities with my greatness and dwell in them as eternal and infinite consciousness.

— Devi Sukta, Rigveda 10.125.8, Translated by June McDaniel[15][16]

The Vedas name numerous cosmic goddesses such as Devi (power), Prithvi (earth), Aditi (cosmic moral order), Vāc (sound), Nirṛti (destruction), Ratri (night) and Aranyani (forest); bounty goddesses such as Dinsana, Raka, Puramdhi, Parendi, Bharati and Mahi are among others are mentioned in the Rigveda.[2]: 6–17, 55–64 However, the goddesses are not discussed as frequently as gods (devas).[2] Devi appears in late Vedic texts dated to be pre-Buddhist, but verses dedicated to her do not suggest that her characteristics were fully developed in the Vedic era.[2]: 18–19 All gods and goddesses are distinguished in Vedic times,[2]: 18 but in post-Vedic texts, particularly in the early medieval era literature, they are ultimately seen as aspects or manifestations of one Devi, the Supreme Power.[17]

Devi is the supreme being in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism; in the Smarta tradition, she is one of the five primary forms of Brahman that is revered.[18][19] In other Hindu traditions, Devi embodies the active energy and power of Deva, and they always appear together complementing each other. Examples of this are Parvati with Shiva in Shaivism, Saraswati with Brahma in Brahmanism and Lakshmi with Vishnu, Sita with Rama and Radha with Krishna in Vaishnavism.[20][21][22]

Devi-inspired philosophy is propounded in many Hindu texts such as the Devi Upanishad, which teaches that Shakti is essentially Brahman (ultimate metaphysical Reality) and that from her arises prakṛti (matter) and purusha (consciousness) and that she is bliss and non-bliss, the Vedas and what is different from it, the born and the unborn and all of the universe. Shakti is Parvati, Shiva’s wife. [23] She is also mentioned as the creative power of Shiva in Tripura Upanishad, Bahvricha Upanishad and Guhyakali Upanishad.[13]

Devi identifies herself in the Devi Upanishad as Brahman in her reply to the gods stating that she rules the world, blesses devotees with riches, that she is the supreme deity to whom all worship is to be offered and that she infuses Ātman in every soul.[23] Devi asserts that she is the creator of earth and heaven and resides there.[13] Her creation of the sky as father and the seas as the mother is reflected as the 'Inner Supreme Self'.[13] Her creations are not prompted by any higher being and she resides in all her creations. She is, states Devi, the eternal and infinite consciousness engulfing earth and heaven, and 'all forms of bliss and non-bliss, knowledge and ignorance, Brahman and Non-Brahman'. The tantric aspect in Devi Upanishad, says June McDaniel, is the usage of the terms yantra, bindu, bija, mantra, shakti and chakra.[13]

Among the major world religions, the concept of Goddess in Hinduism as the divine feminine has had the strongest presence since ancient times.[24]

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

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974[1]) is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender rights and sexuality issues, with a focus on transgender fertility and reproductive rights.[2]

Beatie came out as a trans man in early 1997. Beatie had gender-affirming surgery in March 2002 and became known as "the pregnant man" after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007.[3] Beatie chose to be pregnant, with donated sperm,[4][5] because his wife Nancy was sterile.

The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

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

Tracing boards are painted or printed illustrations depicting the various emblems and symbols of Freemasonry. They can be used as teaching aids during the lectures that follow each of the Masonic Degrees, when an experienced member explains the various concepts of Freemasonry to new members. They can also be used by experienced members as reminders of the concepts they learned as they went through the ceremonies of the different masonic degrees.[1]

History and development

Floor and table designs

In the eighteenth century Masonic lodges met chiefly in private rooms above taverns, and the symbolic designs used in catechesis were chalked on the table or floor in the centre of the hired room, usually by the Tyler or the Worshipful Master.[2] Evidence suggests that a simple boundary was drawn (usually a square or rectangle, or sometimes a cross) within which various Masonic symbols were added, often of a geometric type (such as a circle or pentagram). In many lodges the boundary shape may have been drawn by the Tyler, with the Master adding the symbolic detail. Later various symbolic objects were incorporated, examples including a ladder, a beehive, and an hourglass, and sometimes drawings were interchangeable with physical objects.[3] At the end of the work a new member was often required to erase the drawing with a mop, as a practical demonstration of his obligation of secrecy.

Though the various Grand Lodges were then generally hostile to the creation of any physical representations of the ritual and symbols of the Craft, the time-consuming business of redrawing the symbols at every meeting was gradually replaced by keeping a removable "floor cloth" on which the various symbols were painted. Different portions might be exposed according to the work being executed.[4] By the second half of the eighteenth century the Masonic symbols were being painted on a variety of removable materials ranging from small marble slabs to canvas, to give a more decorative and elaborate symbolic display.

Painted boards

During the nineteenth century there was a rapid expansion of the use of permanent painted tracing boards, usually painted on canvas and framed in wood. Many artists produced competing designs, and most lodges commissioned sets of bespoke boards which were therefore of a unique design, despite following common themes. Some designs became particularly popular, leading to some repetition of favoured design features. Boards by John Cole and Josiah Bowring were examples of popularly recurring designs.[5]

The English artist John Harris was initiated in 1818 and produced many different series of tracing boards, including a miniature set of 1823 which became popular after Harris dedicated the design to Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).[6] Eventually the Emulation Lodge of Improvement sought to bring a measure of standardisation in tracing board design, and organised a competition in 1845, to which many different designs were submitted. Harris himself submitted at least two different sets to the competition, but one of his designs was the winner. Harris revised the designs in 1849, and these "Emulation" tracing boards are today considered a definitive design within British and Commonwealth Freemasonry.[7]

Contemporary use

In lodges under the UGLE, and many jurisdictions derived from English Freemasonry, tracing boards are an essential part of lodge furniture, sometimes displayed flat on the floor, and sometimes vertically against a pedestal or on the wall. Sets of three boards, usually of older designs, may often be found in special cases for storage and display within lodge rooms. There are sometimes tracing boards in other degrees.[8] The Royal Arch tracing board has fallen into disuse in most places, and examples are now rare. In the Mark Master Mason and Royal Ark Mariner degrees as administered from London, the tracing boards have experienced a great revival in popularity from the end of the twentieth century, and official rituals for the explanations of these tracing boards are again in regular use in English lodges.

As different Masonic jurisdictions established official, or standard, degree rituals the creation of new tracing boards by artists waned, and has since largely disappeared in favour of standard designs. Nonetheless, some masonic artists have experimented with very modern designs for the twenty-first century.[9]

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

Exoteric Masonry, which is only the husks of the Mystic Order formed by the Sons of Cain has in modern times attracted the masculine element with its positively polarized physical vehicles, and educated them in industry and statecraft, thus controlling the material development of the world. The sons of Seth, constituting themselves the Priestcraft have worked their spell over the positive vital bodies of the feminine element to dominate the spiritual development. And whereas, the sons of Cain working through Freemasonry and kindred movements, have openly fought for the temporal power, the Priestcraft has fought as strenuously and perhaps more effectively, by stealth, to retain their monopoly upon the spiritual development of the feminine element. To the casual onlooker it would seem as if there were no decided antagonism between these two movements at the present time, but though Freemasonry of today is but a shell of its true ancient mystic self, and though Catholicism has been terribly tarnished by the touch of time, in that one thing there is no difference, the war is as keen as ever, the efforts of the Church are not concentrated upon the masses however as much as upon those who are seeking to live the higher life, so that they may gain admission to the Mystery Temple and learn how to make the Philosophers’ Stone. As mankind advances in evolution, the vital body becomes more permanently positively polarized giving to both sexes a greater desire for spirituality, and though we change from the masculine to feminine in alternate embodiment, positive polarity of the vital body is becoming more pronounced regardless of sex, and this accounts for the growing tendency towards Altruism which is even being brought out by the suffering entailed by the great war we are now fighting, for all agree that they are seeking to obtain a lasting peace where the swords may be made into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. In the past humanity has been claiming universal brotherhood as a great ideal, but we must come closer than that to be in full accord with the Christ. He said to his Disciples “ye are my friends.” Among brothers and sisters hate and enmity may exist, but friendship is the expression of love and cannot exist apart from that. This is therefore the magic word which will eventually level all distinctions, bring peace upon earth and goodwill among men. This is the great Ideal proclaimed by the Rosicrucian Fellowship, an Ideal which points the shortest way to the New Heaven and the New Earth, where the sons of Cain and the sons of Seth will eventually be united.

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM

by MAX HEINDEL

https://dn720206.ca.archive.org/0/items/freemasonryandca017137mbp/freemasonryandca017137mbp.pdf

Pinkerton is a private security guard and detective agency established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born American cooper Allan Pinkerton and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton & Co. and finally the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. At the height of its power from the 1870s to the 1890s, it was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world.[1] It is currently a subsidiary of Swedish-based Securitas AB.[2]

Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled the Baltimore Plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Lincoln later hired Pinkerton agents to conduct espionage against the Confederacy and act as his personal security during the American Civil War.[3][4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

Don't forget, folks, Monday, March 15th, 8pm, LaFayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. I'll be there, I'll be giving a three-hour presentation, entitled The Sacrificed King: On the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. In it, I will directly connect to the occult worship of Mystery Babylon, the secret societies, and specifically to the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which really is just the outward form of the old Knights Templar. And I also believe, have reason to believe, that the sovereign and military order of the Knights of Malta was involved, which is just another branch of the old Templar order.

https://viefag.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/transcripts-of-william-cooper-s-mystery-babylon-series.pdf

ECW Hardcore TV 1998 11 21 Promo By New Jack

ECW Extreme Championship Wrestling

Jun 7, 2016

ECW.Hardcore.TV.1998.11.21 Promo By New Jack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZoXw3GiUOk

Jerome Young (January 3, 1963 – May 14, 2021) was an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name New Jack. He was best known for his time with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he became notorious for his willingness to take dangerous bumps and his stiff hardcore wrestling style, often taking high risks and known for shooting on opponents, for example his altercation with Gypsy Joe in 2003. In 1996 he was a key figure in the Mass Transit incident. He is also known for being the only wrestler to have had his entrance music ("Natural Born Killaz" by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) play throughout his matches in ECW.[2] After the promotion closed in 2001, Young spent the rest of his career on the independent circuit until his death in May 2021.

Personal life, health issues and death

From 2009 to 2011, Young was in a relationship with Terri Runnels; after the relationship ended, Runnels filed a lawsuit against Young for libel and to block distribution of sexually explicit photos he had of Runnels.[67]

Young was married to Jennifer Young.[68] One of his sons, a drag queen named Washington Heights, revealed in 2020 that Young had disowned him a few years earlier due to being a drag queen.[69] Young responded to the claims stating, "My son was mentioned in my book that just came out last year, so the statement about me disowning him three years ago is simply not true."[70] Heights stated after Young's death that "he was proud of me... He wanted to fix things but didn't know how".[71]

After retiring, Young regularly used prescribed painkillers to help with the pain from various injuries he sustained during his career.[20] In 2016, he collapsed while walking home from an event.[20] He was diagnosed with blood clots in his legs and back, in addition to heart problems.[20] Tommy Dreamer revealed that when he tried to book Young for his House of Hardcore promotion, Young said he was in poor health and often bedridden due to his heart problems and failing vision.[72]

On the afternoon of May 14, 2021, Young died of a heart attack in his Greensboro, North Carolina home. He was 58 years old.[73][74]

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

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/

Friends: of the Society are to be sought and cultivated [426, 823, 824] on behalf of them, whether living or dead, prayers are to be offered and other signs of gratitude are to be shown [638], 413; the extent to which communication with friends in the world is to be had [60, 246], 53, 111; the extent to which an examiner can examine candidates who are his friends [143]

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms

See ‘Friends’ stars promote Windows 95 in 1995

Aug. 25, 2015

Happy 20th anniversary, Windows 95! To mark the birthday of the operating system, watch then-“Friends” stars Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston get a lesson on Bill Gates’ own computer in a vintage promotional video.

https://www.today.com/video/see-friends-stars-promote-windows-95-in-1995-512593987841

Windows on the World was destroyed when the North Tower collapsed during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While the restaurant was hosting regular breakfast patrons and the Risk Waters Financial Technology Congress, Egyptian terrorist Mohamed Atta and four other Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower between floors 93 and 99 at 8:46 a.m.[19] Everyone present in the restaurant died that day, as all means of escape (including the stairwells and elevators leading down from the impact zones) were instantly severed by the impact. Victims trapped in Windows on the World either died from smoke inhalation from the ensuing fire, jumping or falling to their deaths from the restaurant, or being killed in the eventual collapse of the North Tower 102 minutes later at 10:28 A.M. At least five Windows occupants were witnessed jumping or falling to their deaths from the restaurant.[20]

There were 72 restaurant staff present in the restaurant, including assistant general manager Christine Olender, whose desperate calls to Port Authority police represented the restaurant's final communications.[21] Sixteen Incisive Media-Risk Waters Group employees, as well as 76 other guests/contractors, were also present.[22] Among those also present was the executive director of the Port Authority, Neil Levin, who was having breakfast. After about 9:40 a.m., no further distress calls from the restaurant were made. The last people to leave the restaurant before Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. were Michael Nestor, Liz Thompson, Geoffrey Wharton, and Richard Tierney, who all shared an elevator together. They departed at 8:44 a.m. and survived the attack.[23]

World Trade Center lessor, Larry Silverstein, was regularly holding breakfast meetings in Windows on the World with tenants as part of his recent acquisition of the Twin Towers from the Port Authority, and was scheduled to be in the restaurant on the morning of the attacks. However, his wife insisted that he had to go to a dermatologist's appointment that morning,[24] whereby he avoided death."

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

Breakfast in America is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Supertramp, released on 16 March 1979, by A&M Records.[5] It was recorded in 1978 at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles. It spawned three US Billboard hit singles: "The Logical Song" (No. 6), "Goodbye Stranger" (No. 15), and "Take the Long Way Home" (No. 10). In the UK, "The Logical Song" and the title track were both top 10 hits, the only two the group had in their native country.[6]

At the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1980, Breakfast in America won two awards for Best Album Package and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording, as well as nominations for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.[7] It holds an Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certification of quadruple platinum and became Supertramp's biggest-selling album, with more than 4 million copies sold in the US and more than 3 million in France (the fourth ever best-selling album). It was No. 1 on Billboard Pop Albums Chart for six weeks, until 30 June 1979.[8] The album also hit No. 1 in Norway, Austria, West Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Australia and France.

Background

As with Even in the Quietest Moments..., Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson wrote most of their songs separately but conceived the theme for the album jointly. Their original concept was for an album of songs about the relationship and conflicting ideals between Davies and Hodgson themselves, to be titled Hello Stranger. Hodgson explained: "We realized that a few of the songs really lent themselves to two people talking to each other and at each other. I could be putting down his way of thinking and he could be challenging my way of seeing life [...] Our ways of life are so different, but I love him. That contrast is what makes the world go 'round and what makes Supertramp go 'round. His beliefs are a challenge to mine and my beliefs are a challenge to his."[9]

This idea was eventually scrapped in favour of an album of "fun" songs, and though Davies initially wanted to keep the title Hello Stranger, he was convinced by Hodgson to change it to Breakfast in America. Hodgson commented later: "We chose the title because it was a fun title. It suited the fun feeling of the album."[9] Due to the title and the explicit satirising of American culture in the cover and three of the songs ("Gone Hollywood", "Breakfast in America" and "Child of Vision"), many listeners interpreted the album as a whole as being a satire of the United States. Supertramp's members have all insisted that the repeated references to US culture are purely coincidental and that no such thematic satire was intended.[9] Hodgson has described the misconception as a parallel to how Crime of the Century (1974) is often misinterpreted as being a concept album.[9]

"Gone Hollywood" is the opening track of Breakfast in America. Written by Rick Davies, the song tells about a person who moves to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a movie star, but finds it far more difficult than he imagined. He struggles and becomes frustrated, until he ultimately gets his break and becomes "the talk of the Boulevard". The lyrics were originally more bleak, but under pressure from the other band members, Davies rewrote them to be more optimistic and commercially appealing.[10] Billboard writer David Farrell felt that, other than Davies' lead vocal, the song sounds like a Queen song.[11]

"Child of Vision" is the closing track. Much like "The Logical Song", it uses a Wurlitzer electric piano as the main instrument. After the lyrical part, the song goes into a long solo played on the grand piano alongside the original melody on the Wurlitzer. The track fades out with a short saxophone solo by John Helliwell. Roger Hodgson has said that the song was written to be an equivalent to "Gone Hollywood", looking at how Americans live, though he confessed that he had only a limited familiarity with US culture at the time of writing.[12] He also said there is a slight possibility that he subconsciously had Rick Davies in mind while writing the lyrics.[12]

Each song was credited to a single musician on the inner sleeve, but on the central vinyl label was printed "Words and Music by Roger Hodgson & Rick Davies", combining the two and confusing the issue of composition credit. Roger Hodgson's management has described "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Take the Long Way Home", "Lord Is It Mine" and "Child of Vision" as 'Roger's songs';[13] however, this apparently does not mean he necessarily wrote them by himself, for Hodgson has credited Davies with writing the vocal harmony on "The Logical Song".[10] Davies has referred to "The five songs that I did on Breakfast",[9] but has not specified which ones.

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

Windows Vista is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006, and became generally available on January 30, 2007, on the Windows Marketplace, the first release of Windows to be made available through a digital distribution platform.[7] Vista succeeded Windows XP (2001); at the time, the five-year gap between the two was the longest time span between successive Windows releases.

Microsoft began developing Vista under the codename "Longhorn" in 2001, shortly before the release of XP. It was intended as a small upgrade to bridge the gap between XP and the next major Windows version, codenamed Blackcomb. As development progressed, it assimilated many of Blackcomb's features and was repositioned as a major Windows release. Vista introduced the updated graphical user interface and visual style Aero, Windows Search, redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems, and new multimedia tools such as Windows DVD Maker among other changes. Vista aimed to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network, using peer-to-peer technology to simplify sharing files and media between computers and devices. Vista included version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, allowing software developers to write applications without traditional Windows APIs. It removed support for Itanium and devices without ACPI.

While its new features and security improvements garnered praise, Vista was the target of significant criticism, such as its high system requirements, more restrictive licensing terms, lack of compatibility, longer boot time, and excessive authorization prompts from User Account Control. It saw lower adoption and satisfaction rates than XP, and it is generally considered a market failure.[8][9] However, Vista usage did exceed Microsoft's pre-launch two-year-out expectations of achieving 200 million users, with an estimated 330 million internet users in January 2009. On October 22, 2010, Microsoft ceased sales of retail copies of Windows Vista, and the original equipment manufacturer's sales for Windows Vista ceased the following year.[10]

Vista was succeeded by Windows 7 (2009), which retained and refined many of the features that Vista introduced. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Vista on April 10, 2012, and extended support on April 11, 2017.[11] In retrospect, Vista is often described as one of the worst versions of Windows,[12] but also an important one that laid the foundation for future releases.[13][14]

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

The Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel at 3 World Trade Center within the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in April 1981 as the Vista International Hotel and was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836. It was also unofficially known as World Trade Center 3 (WTC 3 or 3 WTC), and the World Trade Center Hotel, officially the Vista Hotel, and the Marriott Hotel throughout its history.

The hotel was damaged in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It was destroyed by structural damage caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center as a result of the September 11 attacks. The hotel was not replaced as part of the new World Trade Center complex, although its address was reused for a tower at 175 Greenwich Street.

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

An anonymous Internet commentator reflects:A friend of mine got hold of the beta test CD of Win95, and set up a packet sniffer between his serial port and the modem. When you try out the free demo time on The Microsoft Network, it transmits your entire directory structure in background.This means that they have a list of every directory (and, potentially every file) on your machine. It would not be difficult to have something like a File Request from your system to theirs, without you knowing about it. This way they could get a hold of any juicy routines you've written yourself and claim them as their own if you don't have them copyrighted." Liability For Distributed Artificial Intelligences"

Berkeley Technology Law Journal (btlj.org)

https://www.btlj.org/data/articles2015/vol11/Searchable/11-1/03%20Karnow.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3N1_M0djLd_bQgTM_xQto8kfgVZRyQkphkkmMOmvXec71yVJuGf9UvVnU

The Vatican has founded the Pope John Paul II Center for Prayer and Study for Peace at 1711 Ocean Avenue, Springlake, New Jersey, in a mansion overlooking the ocean. The mansion was given to the New York Archdiocese by the estate of Elmer Bobst, who died in 1978. He was a multimillionaire and chairman of Warner Lambert Company. Richard Nixon was a frequent visitor. Directors of the Center were Kurt Waldheim, former Secretary General of the United Nations and ex-nazi war criminal; Cyrus Vance, former Secretary of State under Carter and member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission; Clare Booth Luce, a dame of the Knights of Malta; and J. Peter Grace of W.R. Grace Company, who is head of the Knights of Malta in the United States. The Center was set up by the Vatican as a part of the Pope's new peace plan, which will bring the world together (see my paper "The Secret Government"). The Center has two roles:

(1) Educate Catholics and their children to accept the New World Order.

(2) Provide residence for the world-peace-solution computer and an ongoing study for peaceful solutions to any future problems which may endanger world peace. The computer is hooked to the world capitals via satellite. All nations have agreed to relinquish sovereignty to the Pope and submit future problems to the computer for solution. Of course, this will not go into effect until the New World Order is publicly announced. I believe that the New World Order was born in secrecy on January 19,1989. Now you know.

Acquaint yourself anew with the teachings of Jesus. Compare his teachings with the tenets of the Illuminati and then compare it with the following. The Vatican has stated at various times that "the Pope is for total disarmament; the Pope is for elimination of the sovereignty of the nation states; the Pope is also stating that property rights are not to be considered true property rights. The Pope believes that only the Vatican knows what is right for man." In the early 1940s, the I.G. Farben Chemical Company employed a Polish salesman who sold cyanide to the Nazis for use in Auschwitz. The same salesman also worked as a chemist in the manufacture of the poison gas. This same cyanide gas along with Zyklon B and malathion was used to exterminate millions of Jews and other groups. Their bodies were then burned to ashes in the ovens. After the war the salesman, fearing for his life, joined the Catholic Church and was ordained a priest in 1946. One of his closest friends was Dr. Wolf Szmuness, the mastermind behind the November/78 to October/79 and March/80 to October/81 experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials conducted by the Center for Disease Control in New York, San Francisco and four other American cities that loosed the plague of AIDS upon the American people. The salesman was ordained Poland's youngest bishop in 1958. After a 30-day reign his predecessor was assassinated and our ex-cyanide gas salesman assumed the papacy as Pope John Paul II. 1990 is the right time with the right leaders: ex-chief of the Soviet secret police Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-chief of the CIA George Bush, ex-Nazi cyanide gas salesman Pope John Paul II, all bound by an unholy alliance to ring in the New World Order."

Behold A Pale Horse

by William Cooper

hourofthetime .com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/William_Cooper-Behold_a_Pale_Horse1991A.pdf

On 9/11 Trump bragged he now had tallest building in Manhattan

‘Forty Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan,’ Mr Trump said erroneously on 9/11. ‘Now it’s the tallest.’

Nathan Place

New York

Saturday 10 September 2022 10:03 EDT

Twenty-one years after 9/11, we can still hear Donald Trump’s reaction to the terrorist attacks – and it was a strange one.

That’s because on 11 September, 2001, the future US president called into the TV station WWOR to talk about the day’s tragic events. Then, oddly, he turned his attention to the height of one of his properties, which he falsely claimed was now the tallest building in lower Manhattan.

“Well, it was an amazing phone call,” Mr Trump told WWOR. “I mean, 40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was actually – before the World Trade Center – was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest.”

As multiple fact checks later pointed out, this was not true. The Wall Street building had not been the tallest building in lower Manhattan in the 1970s, when the Twin Towers were constructed, nor was it the tallest in the area after 2001.

By the time of Mr Trump’s interview, both buildings of the World Trade Center had collapsed after planes hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists had smashed into them. Two other planes had also crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone onboard. In total, nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

But Mr Trump’s attention was elsewhere. Later in the interview, he complained about the closing of the New York Stock Exchange.

“I was so disappointed when they closed the stock exchange, but of course, at some point, you have no choice,” the real estate mogul said. “You want to just say, ‘The hell with it, you’re going forward, nothing’s gonna change.’ But the fact is, something has changed very dramatically.”

The interview had begun with a more predictable focus, as Mr Trump explained how he witnessed part of the attacks.

“I have a window that looks directly at the World Trade Center and I saw this huge explosion,” he said, apparently referring to his view from Trump Tower. “I was with a group of people. I really couldn’t even believe it.

“And even, I think, worse than that, for years I’ve looked right directly at the building. I’d see the Empire State Building in the foreground and the World Trade Center in the background. And now I’m looking at absolutely nothing. It’s just gone. And it’s just hard to believe.”

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/9-11-trump-tallest-building-manhattan-b2164420.html

Entertainment

Predicting 9/11 was an ‘insane coincidence,’ says ‘The Simpsons’ showrunner

By Hannah Frishberg

Published Nov. 18, 2021

Updated Nov. 18, 2021, 3:55 p.m. ET

One of the original writers for “The Simpsons” has revealed why he believes the show has such an uncanny ability to accurately guess the future.

Indeed, in its over 30 years on air, the animated Nostradamus has been credited with predicting everything from Roy Horn being mauled by a tiger to fish having three eyes, Apple’s keyboards having a glitch, the big “Game of Thrones” surprise ending, European beef being contaminated with horse meat and, perhaps most famously, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The showrunner of “The Simpsons,” Al Jean, who has been writing for the show since it premiered in 1989, believes the trick to its correct prognostications is both luck and the sheer quantity of episodes produced.

“One of our writers, the guy whose episode predicted Donald Trump as president, said it best: ‘If you write 700 episodes, and you don’t predict anything, then you’re pretty bad. If you throw enough darts, you’re going to get some bullseyes,” Jean recently told NME. Still, he notes that he finds the show’s unintentional 9/11 prediction particularly strange.

“The 9/11 one is so bizarre,” said Jean of the episode. “In the World Trade Center episode, [‘The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson’], there was a brochure reading $9 a day with an 11 styled up like the towers. That was in ’96, which was crazy, like this insane coincidence.”

It’s not just Providence that makes “The Simpsons” writers so good at randomly seeing beyond the present, though — it’s also intelligence.

See also: 2024 United States elections

The Republican Party returned to power in the United States with a government trifecta in January 2025 following the 2024 election. Trump, who was elected president in 2016 but lost a re-election bid in 2020 to Joe Biden, and JD Vance, a then-senator from Ohio defeated vice president Kamala Harris, who began her campaign following Biden's exit from the 2024 election, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Trump's victory was credited to a post-pandemic surge in inflation,[a] a migrant crisis at the U.S.–Mexico border,[b] and a global anti-incumbent backlash.[8][9][10] In addition, Republicans secured control of the Senate, flipping four seats and earning a three seat majority, while also retaining a House majority, though the party's majority narrowed to three seats after losing two seats.[11]

Electoral system

Main article: United States Electoral College

See also: United States presidential primary and Primary elections in the United States

The president and vice president of the United States are elected through the Electoral College, determined by the number of senators and representatives with an additional three representatives for Washington, D.C. A majority of 270 votes is needed to win the election. Forty-eight states use a winner-take-all system, in which states award all of their electors to the winner of the popular vote. In Maine and Nebraska, two votes are allocated to the winner of the popular vote, while each of the individual congressional districts have one vote. Electoral votes are certified by state electors in December and by Congress on January 6.[12] Presidential candidates are selected in a presidential primary, conducted through primary elections run by state governments or caucuses run by state parties which bind convention delegates to candidates.[13] A brokered convention occurs when a candidate does not receive a majority of votes on the first round of voting,[14] or when a candidate withdraws.[15]

Election Day in the United States has been held on the first Tuesday that falls after the first Monday in November.[16] Previously, states could determine their own Election Day prior to the first Wednesday in December. The 2028 presidential election will occur on November 7, 2028.[17]

Eligibility

The United States Constitution limits occupancy of the presidency to individuals who are at least thirty-five, who have been a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years, and who are a natural-born citizen.[18] Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents current and former federal, state, and military officials from holding office—including the presidency—if they have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States;[19] in March 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Trump v. Anderson that former president Donald Trump could seek office after challenges to his ballot eligibility were raised by several state attorneys general.[20] A convicted felon may serve as president.[21] Elon Musk, who emerged as a political influencer in the 2024 presidential election, is ineligible to serve as president as he was born in South Africa and is a naturalized citizen.[22]

Trump is ineligible to be elected to a third term, as the Twenty-Second Amendment forbids any person from being elected president more than twice.[23] Nonetheless, he has repeatedly suggested running for a third term, an idea supported by several of his allies, including Steve Bannon.[24] In January 2025, Tennessee representative Andy Ogles proposed a resolution to amend the Twenty-Second Amendment, allowing for presidents who have served two non-consecutive terms to seek a third term. The verbiage of the amendment would prevent living presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, all currently ineligible under the 22nd Amendment, from running for a third term.[25] At CPAC 2025, conservative groups, such as the Third Term Project, supported the Ogles resolution and promoted the idea of Trump running for an as-yet unconstitutional third term.[26][27] In response, New York Democratic representative Dan Goldman planned to introduce a resolution affirming the Twenty-Second Amendment.[28]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_United_States_presidential_election

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They were created with the aim of "peace and prosperity for people and the planet..."[1][2][3] – while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests. The SDGs highlight the connections between the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. Sustainability is at the center of the SDGs.[4][5]

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

CHAPTER SEVEN – SHABTAI, SHIMON AND SHARON – DESTROYING THE JEWS

ALM 1 - THE DEUTSCH DEVILS

pp 93 - He changed the holiday celebrations and violated the dietary prohibitions. All of this followed from his declaration that the usual rules were inapplicable to messianic times.

Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust

by Barry Chamish

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B66Pc9x2hkIrV2Y3QWxPbkpKYWc/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-5ak831cRNQohyyjZYfFKvw

2030-2031 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2031_MARS.htm

The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي, romanized: ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī) or the First Arab Spring (to distinguish from the Second Arab Spring) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation.[1][2] From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.[3] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām! (Arabic: الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام, lit. 'the people want to bring down the regime').[4]

The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities,[5][6][7] pro-government militias, counterdemonstrators, and militaries. These attacks were answered with violence from protesters in some cases.[8][9][10] Multiple large-scale conflicts followed: the Syrian civil war;[11][12] the rise of ISIL,[13] insurgency in Iraq and the following civil war;[14] the Egyptian Crisis, election and removal from office of Mohamed Morsi, and subsequent unrest and insurgency;[15] the Libyan Crisis; and the Yemeni crisis and subsequent civil war.[16] Regimes that lacked major oil wealth and hereditary succession arrangements were more likely to undergo regime change.[17]

A power struggle continued after the immediate response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power vacuums opened across the Arab world. Ultimately, it resulted in a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states.[18] The early hopes that these popular movements would end corruption, increase political participation, and bring about greater economic equity quickly collapsed in the wake of the counter-revolutionary moves by foreign state actors in Yemen,[19] the regional and international military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen, and the destructive civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.[20]

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

Shanksville is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States. It has a population of 197 as of the 2020 U.S. census.[2] It is part of the Somerset, Pennsylvania Micropolitan Statistical Area and is located 78 miles (126 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 226 miles (364 km) west of Philadelphia.

Shanksville garnered global attention during the September 11 attacks when United Airlines Flight 93, bound from Newark, New Jersey, for San Francisco, crashed in adjacent Stonycreek Township after its passengers rebelled against the flight's al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers. It was the only one of the four hijacked planes that failed to reach the terrorists' intended target.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanksville,_Pennsylvania

A shiv, also chiv, schiv, shivvie or shank,[1][2] is a handcrafted bladed weapon resembling a knife that is commonly associated with prison inmates.

Since weapons are prohibited in prisons, the intended mode of concealment is central to a shiv's construction. An especially thin handle, for instance, makes it easier to conceal in available cracks or crevices in the prison's construction, or in stacks of objects, such as books, permitted to the prisoners; however, this can also render the shiv difficult to grip and wield. Routine body searches in prison make it difficult to conceal a shiv on one's person on a continuous basis. As well as the prison authorities, it is also desirable to conceal possession of a shiv from members of rival prison populations.

The word is recorded from the 1670s in the spelling chive as cant for knife, whose pronunciation is reflected in the spelling shiv recorded in underworld slang from 1915 and possibly used since the 1890s or earlier. The cant word probably came from the Romani word chiv for "blade" (compare Romani chivomengro "knifeman").[3][4] The derived verb shiv means "to stab someone", and a shivver is an archaic term for a criminal who attacks victims with a knife.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv_(weapon)

There are multiple matches for Shiva, including a Hindu god and a Jewish mourning period.

Shiva (Hindu god)

Shiva is a major god in Hinduism, known as the god of destruction.

His name means "auspicious one".

He is also known as Mahadeva, which means "the great god".

Shiva is part of the Hindu trinity, the Trimurti, along with Brahma and Vishnu.

He is worshipped at many shrines in India and around the world.

Shiva is said to live in the Himalayas with his wife, Parvati.

Shiva (Jewish mourning period)

Shiva is a seven-day period of mourning that begins after the burial of a loved one.

The word "shiva" comes from the Hebrew word sheva, which means "seven".

During shiva, mourners traditionally stay home or at the home of the deceased.

They also wear torn clothing or a black ribbon pinned to their clothes.

Shiva is a time to remember, accept death, and return to life.

Generative AI is experimental.

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

Eric Berger – Jan 3, 2025 9:28 AM | 1.1k

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares,[7] whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature.[8] Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome; in Republican times it was a focus of electoral activities. Augustus shifted the focus of Mars' cult to within the pomerium (Rome's ritual boundary), and built a temple to Mars Ultor as a key religious feature of his new forum.[9]

Unlike Ares, who was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father (pater) of the Roman people.[10] In Rome's mythic genealogy and founding, Mars fathered Romulus and Remus through his rape of Rhea Silvia. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus laid out the city walls.

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

Spring 2030 in United States

Spring Starts: Wednesday, Mar 20 6:51 am PDT

https://www.calendardate.com/spring_2030.htm

Easter in 2030

Date: April 21, 2030

Day: Sunday

Historical Basis for Believing Jesus was Crucified in AD 30

by Avatar photoJim Liles

6 years ago

[Editor’s note: I asked Jim for clarification on his belief about this since I’ve encountered people equally sure of the years 29, 30, and 33 AD for the death and resurrection of Christ. This article is his response.

Although such a topic may seem far afield from our usual creation vs. evolution discussions, it is still at the intersection of the Bible and science. It may not change anything about how you interact with others, but it can strengthen your confidence that we have not believed cleverly devised fables, but historically verifiable reality!]

Is 30 AD the Year of the Crucifixion?

To answer this question, I will combine information from Scripture as well as extra-biblical material on which there is much, but not total, agreement. Let’s begin with the year of Jesus birth:

Year of Birth: We know from Scripture that Jesus is born at the time of the first Roman census (Luke 2:1-2Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)) when Quirinius was Governor of Syria. A review of Roman documents describe this time frame as late October or November of 5 BC. We know that the second census, 10 years later, was in 6 AD at the same time of year when Caesar Augustus ruled.

Year of Baptism: This birth date above would mean that Jesus was 12 years old at Passover in 9 AD as described in Luke 2:41-52Open in Logos Bible Software (if available). From these two dated events we can determine that Jesus is about 33.5 years old twenty-one years later at Passover in 30 AD. This is consistent with the Baptism of Jesus in August or September of 26 AD, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Luke 3:1-23Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)) whose reign began in July of 11 AD. This is followed by a public ministry lasting a little over three-and-a-half years ending on Passover in 30 AD.

Date of Crucifixion: The year of the Crucifixion is confirmed by several historians due to the darkness that occurred from noon until 3:00 PM on Nisan 14-Passover in 30 AD. It is important to note that the term ‘Passover’ can refer to Nisan 14, the Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Nisan 15-the first day of seven for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The historians Phlegon, Thallus, Africanus and Tertullian all mention this three hour period of darkness that does not have a scientific explanation. It was neither a lunar or solar eclipse for many reasons. Eclipses do not last three hours and cannot happen during the full moon of Passover.

Julius Africanus, writing about the historian Thallus states:

Upon the whole world there came a most fearful darkness. Many rocks were split in two by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down.

It seems very unreasonable to me that Thallus, in the third book of his histories, would try to explain away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun. For the Jews celebrate their Passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the death of our Saviour falls on the day before the Passover. But an eclipse of the sun can only take place when the moon comes under the sun, how then could an eclipse have occurred when the moon is directly opposite the sun? (Scientifically it is impossible to have a full moon on the same day that there is an eclipse of the sun.)

The Roman historian Phlegon is mentioned by Origen who describes a darkening of the sun in the eighteenth year of Tiberius on Nisan 14-Passover which would be 30 AD. A few people have used this Roman history report stating the year of the Crucifixion is 33 AD. They mistakenly start Tiberius’ reign in 14 AD after the death of Augustus instead of the start of his joint reign in 11 AD.

On the Gregorian-Hebrew solar calendar found in ESC, the date of the Crucifixion is Friday April 5-Nisan 14, 30 AD. On this Hebrew solar calendar Nisan 14-Passover always falls on April 5 in a non-leap year and April 3 in a leap or special year on the Gregorian calendar we use today. This is clearly new information about the accuracy and inerrancy of the specific dates in Scripture.

This type of assessment of the Bible’s accuracy was only possible in recent years with computers, Excel spreadsheets, Bible software, and calendar converters like www.rosettacalendar.com.

Resources:

ESC = Earth’s Sacred Calendar: The Dated Events of the Old Testament by Jim Liles; Pub 2014.

CARM: Is there non-biblical evidence of a day of darkness at Christ’s death?

Bible History.net The Crucifixion Darkness

https://thecreationclub.com/historical-basis-for-believing-jesus-was-crucified-in-ad-30/

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

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

AI Overview

Learn more

When someone says "2000 years of age," it means a period of time spanning 2,000 years, often used in historical or astrological contexts to refer to a specific era or "age" like the "Age of Pisces" which is considered to have lasted for 2,000 years in some interpretations.

Key points about "2000 years of age":

Astrological usage:

In astrology, different "ages" are associated with different zodiac signs, and each age is often calculated as lasting around 2,000 years based on the Earth's axial precession.

Example:

Currently, many astrologers consider the "Age of Aquarius" to be starting around the year 2000, signifying a new era.

Not perfectly accurate:

While 2,000 years is often used for simplicity, the actual length of an astrological age based on precession is closer to 2,160 years.

Generative AI is experimental.

Luke 21:29-36

29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees.

30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near.

31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.

35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth.

36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/summer-bible-verses/

Cruel Summer

Kari Kimmel

Apr 23, 2019

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises

Cruel Summer · Kari Kimmel · Tony Swain · Siobhan Deirdre Fahey · Sarah Elizabeth Dallin · Steven Jolley · Keren Jane Woodward

Cobra Kai: Season 2 (Soundtrack from the Original Series)

Released on: 2019-04-24

Auto-generated by YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XUPcRxqkHg

SummerSlam is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by the world's largest professional wrestling promotion, WWE. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind their flagship event, WrestleMania. It is also considered one of the company's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five". The event has been broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV) since the inaugural 1988 event and via livestreaming since the 2014 event.

The inaugural SummerSlam took place on August 29, 1988, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The 1992 event was the company's first major PPV to take place outside of North America with it being held at the original Wembley Stadium in London, England; it had a reported attendance of 80,355, which as of April 2023, WWE considers this to be their seventh largest live gate in history. From 2009 to 2014, SummerSlam was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and from 2015 to 2018, the event took place at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Beginning with the 2021 event, SummerSlam has been held in National Football League stadiums across the United States. From its inception up through that 2021 event, SummerSlam was held annually in August. The 2022 event marked the first and thus far only time that the event was not held in August, as it was instead held in July, with SummerSlam returning to August with the 2023 edition. The 2025 event will expand SummerSlam to two nights.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, that year's SummerSlam was WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event produced from their bio-secure bubble, the WWE ThunderDome. After the promotion resumed live touring with fans in July 2021, that year's SummerSlam was promoted as the "biggest event of 2021" due to WrestleMania 37 having to be held at a reduced venue capacity. The 2021 SummerSlam in turn became the highest-grossing SummerSlam event of all time until that record was broken with the 2023 event, which also became the highest-grossing non-WrestleMania event for WWE.

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

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.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11882

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid02QQKPJ8GadPDUKRL2nJhrpyZxr1TvbtT9JFzyyoZdfYPiXRDPuq8AbM513HXEkfhwl

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

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

Earthquake Promo [1991-01-26]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtKtRrOfEhk

'Never experienced such tremors before', people panic as quake jolts Delhi-NCR

The strong tremors spark panic as people rush outside their houses

article_Author

PTI

New Delhi, Updated At : 11:28 AM Feb 17, 2025 IST

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/delhi/never-experienced-such-tremors-before-people-panic-as-quake-jolts-delhi-ncr/

c) Finish with a profound act of reverence to God, as Ignatius did so many times

in this same place. Make an interior (and perhaps even exterior!) reverence.

Maybe you feel like praying an Our Father, meditating on each word, as Ignatius

taught us to do. Or pray a Hail Mary to the Virgin of Montserrat whom Ignatius

could glimpse through the bushes that covered the grotto. Or recite Psalm 42,

represented artistically in the mosaic on the floor of the Cave: “As a deer longs for

lowing streams.”– Or it might even be enough to read the Utopia of Ignatius of Loyola, the

Principle and Foundation [SpEx 23], found at the start of his Spiritual

Exercises. You might feel yourself far from what your lips are enunciating,

but enjoy this sense of “utopian freedom.”

IMMERSION IN THE MANRESA OF IGNATIUS

SIX CONTEMPLATIONS

Francesc Riera i Figueras

https://www.cristianismeijusticia.net/sites/default/files/pdf/gui9.pdf

Carlo Acutis (3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was a British-born Italian teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist, which became a core theme of his life prior to his death from leukaemia at the age of 15 in 2006. In 2013, a cause for his canonization was opened. He was beatified by Pope Francis on 10 October 2020. After a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Acutis was confirmed in May 2024, Pope Francis granted approval in July 2024 to continue forward with canonization, which is scheduled for 27 April 2025.

Early life

Carlo Acutis was born in London, England, on 3 May 1991, to Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, members of wealthy Italian families.[4][5][6][7] His father's family worked in the Italian insurance industry and his mother's ran a publishing company.[8] Acutis's maternal great-grandmother was born in the United States and came from a family of landowners in New York.[9] His baptism took place on 18 May 1991 in the Church of Our Lady of Dolours, Chelsea.[10] His paternal grandfather, Carlo, was his godfather; and his maternal grandmother, Luana, was his godmother.[11] Neither of his parents were religious.[12][4][13]

Acutis's parents worked in London and Germany before he was born, and moved to Milan shortly after, in September 1991.[4][13][14] They worked in family businesses and he was cared for by an Irish nanny.[8] Aside from a few visits to a daycare centre, most of Acutis's early care came from nannies.[15] During one daycare visit, he was bullied by other children. A Polish nanny, who thought he was too nice, tried to teach him to set boundaries so that other children would not take his toys. He replied: "Jesus would not be happy if I lost my temper."[14] In the summer, Acutis would stay with his mother's parents in Centola.[9] After spending the day at the beach, he would join a number of older women in the local parish church to pray the rosary.[16] His family also owned a boat at Santa Margherita Ligure, near the Basilica of St. Margaret of Antiochia.[17]

Acutis attended his first primary school in September 1997, the San Carlo Institute in Milan; but as the school was a distance from their home, three months later he transferred to the Marcelline Tommaseo Institute, run by the Sisters of St. Marcellina. [18] During his walks to school, he took particular interest in the foreign caretakers of the different homes along his route; learning their names and stopping to greet them personally each morning.[19] Upon completing middle school, Acutis went on to the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school.[20] Although he was an average student, he liked to read and pursued other academic areas independently, including computer science and teaching himself the saxophone.[21] Acutis also had a tutor who helped him with his homework and followed him to church.[22] Acutis owned a PlayStation and enjoyed Halo, Mario, and Pokémon, although he limited himself to just one hour of gaming a week to avoid addiction.[23][24]

On 16 June 1998, when he was seven years old, Acutis received his First Communion at the convent of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus, Milan.[25] Acutis was also a frequent communicant and attended Eucharistic Adoration.[26] He was confirmed five years later on 24 May 2003 at Santa Maria Segreta Church.[27]

Family life

Acutis's mother Antonia grew up in a secular family.[28] She was confirmed while she was in college and was married in the church, but she did not attend Mass before Acutis was born.[29] She testified that her son's faith and his insistent questions brought her back to the faith.[28] The Acutis family employed a Brahmin immigrant from Mauritius, Rajesh Mohur, to work in their household. He and Acutis became friends.[30][31] In time, after speaking with Acutis about Christianity, Mohur asked to be baptized. A friend of Mohur's, Seeven Kistnen, also converted and was baptized after meeting with Acutis and hearing him speak about the faith.[32] Mohur's mother, visiting from Mauritius, attended Mass with Mohur and Acutis, who talked with her at length afterwards, and she too asked to be baptized.[33]

Religious education and devotion

When Acutis was three years old, his maternal grandfather, Antonio Salzano, died. Several days earlier, he was present when his grandfather received the Anointing of the Sick.[34] The grandfather was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking for prayer. Shortly after his death, Acutis put on his coat while his grandmother was minding him and asked to be taken to church. When she asked him why, he said he wanted to pray for his grandfather, whom he declared "had gone to see Jesus".[35] When Acutis displayed an interest in Catholic religious practice, his questions were answered by the family's Polish babysitter.[36][37]

When Acutis was 12 years old, he became a catechist in his parish, Santa Maria Segreta. At the time, the Italian catechetical structure typically relied on young team leaders in youth groups, as contrasted with adults, to deliver religious education to their peers.[38] Acutis's parish priest said of him that:

Carlo was a young man who was exceptionally transparent. He really wanted to progress in loving his parents, God, his classmates, and those who loved him less. He wanted to apply himself in his studies to educate himself in his catechism class as well as in school and computer science.[39]

Acutis showed an interest in the lives of saints, especially Francis of Assisi, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Dominic Savio, Tarcisius, Bernadette Soubirous,[12] and Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi.[40] He is said to have prayed to his guardian angel frequently and exhibited a special devotion to St. Michael the Archangel.[41]

In March 2025, The Economist published an article stating that Acutis' childhood best friend did not remember him as a "very pious boy", nor did he even know that Carlo was religious. His schoolmates testified that he was kind, but did not remember him to be publicly devout. These accounts were disputed by Carlo's mother, Antonia.[42]

Websites

People around him considered him a "computer geek" due to his passion for and skill with computers and the internet.[4][12] He was skilled in Java as well as C++[43] and often helped others with technical issues.[44] When he was 14, his parish priest asked him to create a webpage for his parish, Santa Maria Segreta in Milan.[43] After this, a priest at his high school asked him to create a website to promote volunteering. For this work, he won a national competition called Sarai volontario (Italian, "You will be a volunteer").[45]

Acutis created a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world and maintaining a list of the approved Marian apparitions of the Catholic Church.[46] Acutis launched the website in 2004[27] and worked on it for two and a half years, involving his entire family in the project. It was unveiled on 4 October 2006, the Feast of St. Francis, only days before his death.[47] Because he was hospitalized, Acutis was not able to attend the debut of his exhibition at Rome's Church of San Carlo Borromeo.[48] The exhibition was also presented at his high school, the Leo XIII Institute.[47]

Illness and death

On 1 October 2006, Acutis developed an inflammation of the throat. His parents took him to a doctor who diagnosed parotitis and dehydration, which a second doctor, a family friend, confirmed.[49] A few days later, Acutis's pain worsened and he had blood in his urine. By Sunday, 8 October, Acutis was too weak to get out of bed to go to Mass. Acutis was taken to a clinic that specialized in blood diseases and was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia.[50] He was given little chance of recovery. He was rushed to intensive care and put on a respirator. After a sleepless night, Acutis was transferred to San Gerardo Hospital north of Milan, one of only three hospitals in Italy equipped to treat his condition.[51]

The hospital staff called in their chaplain and he performed the anointing of the sick. When a nurse came in to care for Acutis, Acutis asked her not to wake his parents since they were already very tired and he did not want to worry them more.[52] Acutis offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying:, "I offer to the Lord the sufferings that I will have to undergo for the Pope and for the Church."[53][50] The doctors treating his final illness had asked him if he was in great pain, to which he replied, "There are people who suffer much more than me".[4][52] His final words to his mother were:

Mom, don't be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life, and we don't need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life.[54]

Acutis fell into a coma and was taken to the intensive care unit where he underwent a blood-cleansing treatment. After a cerebral haemorrhage, he was pronounced brain-dead on 11 October, aged 15. Acutis died the next day, 12 October 2006, at 6:45 p.m.[55] His parents brought his body home, where people came for four days to pay their last respects. A crowd of strangers attended his funeral, including young people who had abandoned the Church and those who returned for a memorial Mass three months later.[56]

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

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02e9wDMaPjY6LQqNc6Ca34EjmpXNUFkbEfwaaDkSH5yzyPgRdJaj8JEqEZggt6mSYrl

CIA Whistleblower Exposes Black Ops Targeting School Kids’ Milk!

Newsbud

Jul 8, 2018

In this edition of Probable Cause, Sibel Edmond’s guest is Verne Lyon. A former CIA operative involved in Operation Chaos, in addition to covert operations in Cuba. Lyon is the co-author of the brand new book Eyes on Havana - Memoir of an American Spy Betrayed by the CIA. Edmonds and Lyon discuss Lyon’s new book and the ongoing illegal covert operations conducted by the CIA domestically and abroad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n-abawjaWA

AI Overview

Learn more

While there was speculation and some evidence pointing to possible black mold contamination in Brittany Murphy's home, the official cause of her and her husband Simon Monjack's deaths was pneumonia with contributing factors. The Los Angeles County coroner's office initially investigated and dismissed the claim that mold was a contributing factor. Later, when the house was put on the market, appraisers discovered substantial water leaks and significant mold.

Here's a more detailed look:

Initial Speculation:

Following the deaths of Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack, both from pneumonia, there was speculation that mold in their Hollywood Hills home might have been a contributing factor.

Coroner's Findings:

The Los Angeles County coroner's office investigated the possibility of mold, but ruled it out as a significant cause of death.

Later Findings:

When the house was put on the market, appraisers discovered substantial water leaks and significant mold, supporting concerns about the house's condition.

Family Concerns:

Sharon Murphy, Brittany's mother, initially denied the mold theory but later grew concerned. Linda Monjack, Simon's mother, also expressed concerns about mold in the home.

Legal Action:

Simon Monjack had filed a lawsuit against the builders and subcontractors due to the inferior products used in building that may have caused the leak.

Documentary:

An HBO Max documentary, "What Happened, Brittany Murphy?", delves into the circumstances surrounding their deaths and addresses the mold speculation.

Generative AI is experimental.

Spaniard becomes Jesuits' new "black pope"

By Reuters

January 19, 20085:07 AM PSTUpdated 17 years ago

By Stephen Brown

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Spaniard Adolfo Nicolas was elected the Jesuits' "black pope", as the head of the largest and perhaps most influential, controversial and prestigious Catholic order is known, in a secret conclave on Saturday.

Nicolas, 71, has run Jesuit operations in east Asia and Oceania since 2004 and spent most of his career in the Far East after being ordained in Tokyo in 1967.

The order said in a statement that Nicolas had been elected to succeed Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, who received permission from Pope Benedict to retire as head of the order formally known as the Society of Jesus at the age of 79.

Jesuit superior generals are known as "black popes" because, like the pontiff, they wield worldwide influence and usually keep their position for life -- and because their simple cassock is black, in contrast to the pope who dresses in white.

The 468-year history of the Jesuit order has often included stormy relations with the Vatican. Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul, believed the order had become too independent, leftist and political, particularly in Latin America.

Soft-spoken, white-haired Dutchman Kolvenbach won widespread praise for mending relations with the Vatican during his years in the post, after conflicts between his charismatic Basque predecessor and Pope John Paul.

Kolvenbach also had to deal with declining vocations and the future of the order founded by St Ignatius Loyola in 1540.

In the 1960s, the all-male order peaked with some 36,000 members worldwide. It now has about 19,200 members involved in education, refugee help and other social services.

The general congregation that elected Nicolas gathered 217 electors from all over the world at Jesuit headquarters, a block from the Vatican.

They spent four days in prayer and what is known in Latin as "murmuratio", or murmurings, about who should be elected. It is strictly forbidden to lobby for the post and anyone actively seeking the job must be 'turned in' by the other delegates.

The election is by secret ballot and delegates are not allowed to leave the room until Pope Benedict is informed who has won, in keeping with a tradition that the "white pope" is first to know who is the new "black pope".

But unlike a conclave to elect the pontiff, a Jesuit general congregation can continue for weeks or even months after the election to discuss future challenges and priorities.

https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/spaniard-becomes-jesuits-new-black-pope-idUSL19414053/

Today in History: October 1, Las Vegas music festival shooting

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published 9:00 PM PST, September 30, 2024

Today in history:

On Oct. 1, 2017, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a gunman opened fire from a room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at a concert below, causing 60 deaths and more than 850 injuries.

https://apnews.com/today-in-history/october-1

Mount St. Helens Erupts After 18 Years

By Tomas Alex Tizon

Oct. 1, 2004 1:36 PM PT

Times Staff Writer

SEATTLE — A giant plume of steam shot up into the sky above Mt. St. Helens this afternoon in what has been the most dramatic sign yet of the recent increase in volcanic activity on the mountain.

Scientists said the column of steam and some ash rose about 15,000 feet high and was drifting southwest in the direction of Vancouver, Wash. and Portland. However, the steam cloud posed little threat to residents and was expected to result at most in a light dusting of ash, officials said.

Television cameras captured images of the white and gray plume that erupted about noon and rose into clear blue skies. Most of the cloud had dissipated within an hour.

Earlier in the day, scientists said that they were examining images of cracks on the glacier inside the volcano crater to determine if it was connected to existing activity.

Officials on Thursday said there was a 70% chance that Mt. St. Helens, which erupted in a huge and deadly explosion 24 years ago, could experience a small to moderate eruption.

https://www.latimes.com/la-100104volcano_lat-story.html

October 1, 2004 Explosion at Mount St. Helens

USGS

May 6, 2013

http://gallery.usgs.gov/videos/682

[no spoken words]

On October 1, 2004, an explosion in the crater of Mount St. Helens sent ash and water vapor several thousand feet into the air. It was the dramatic beginning of an eruption that continued for the next 3+ years. The explosion fractured Crater Glacier and hurled rocks for at least one-half mile across the western half of the glacier and the 1980-1986 lava dome. USGS scientists on a helicopter flight captured the explosion on video. The view from the air is to the west.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1NDvy-PrzA

Luxor Las Vegas

The hotel includes 4,407 rooms.[49] It originally opened with 2,526 rooms, all of them located in the pyramid.[50] The rooms line the pyramid's interior walls, and walkways outside the rooms overlook the atrium.[51] The interior of the pyramid uses inclined elevators, traveling at a 39-degree angle, to bring guests to their rooms.[11][7] The structure features eight elevators, with two at each corner of the pyramid.[6] The two additional hotel towers added in 1996 are located just north of the pyramid.[21][23] The ziggurat-shaped towers,[23] designed by Klai Juba Architects,[52] are 22 stories and added nearly 2,000 additional rooms.[21][23] The exterior of the hotel structures, including the pyramid, is made up of black glass panels.[48]

The Luxor includes a 65,214 sq ft (6,058.6 m2) casino.[53] Upon opening, it featured 2,500 slot machines, many of them Egyptian-themed. The casino also included 82 table games, a poker room, and race and sports books.[11] A high-end gaming pit was added in the 1996–97 renovation.[21] Giza Galleria, a small retail mall with 18 tenants, was also opened.[23][54][26] In addition, the Mandalay Place mall is located on a skybridge that connects Mandalay Bay with the Luxor.[55]

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

Obsidian (/əbˈsɪdi.ən, ɒb-/ əb-SID-ee-ən ob-)[5] is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.[6]

Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, giving them a high viscosity. The high viscosity inhibits diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step (nucleation) in the formation of mineral crystals. Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava.[7]

Obsidian is hard, brittle, and amorphous; it therefore fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.[8]

Origin and properties

The Natural History by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder includes a few sentences about a volcanic glass called obsidian (lapis obsidianus), discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer.[9][10][11][12]

Obsidian is formed from quickly cooled lava, which is the parent material.[13][14][15] Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools rapidly at the edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome, or when lava cools during sudden contact with water or air. Intrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools along the edges of a dike.[16][17]

Tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions,[18] though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis.[19]

Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral because, as a glass, it is not crystalline; in addition, its composition is too variable to be classified as a mineral. It is sometimes classified as a mineraloid.[20] Though obsidian is usually dark in color, similar to mafic rocks such as basalt, the composition of obsidian is extremely felsic. Obsidian consists mainly of SiO2 (silicon dioxide), usually 70% by weight or more; the remainder consists of variable amounts of other oxides, mostly oxides of aluminum, iron, potassium, sodium and calcium.[21][22] Crystalline rocks with a similar composition include granite and rhyolite. Because obsidian is metastable at the Earth's surface (over time the glass devitrifies, becoming fine-grained mineral crystals), obsidian older than Miocene in age is rare. Exceptionally old obsidians include a Cretaceous welded tuff and a partially devitrified Ordovician perlite.[23] This transformation of obsidian is accelerated by the presence of water. Although newly formed obsidian has a low water content, typically less than 1% water by weight,[24] it becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater, forming perlite.

Pure obsidian is usually dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the impurities present. Iron and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Most black obsidians contain nanoinclusions of magnetite, an iron oxide.[25] Very few samples of obsidian are nearly colorless. In some stones, the inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals (spherulites) of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern (snowflake obsidian). Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being cooled. These bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen (sheen obsidian). An iridescent, rainbow-like sheen (fire obsidian) is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles creating thin-film interference.[26] Colorful, striped obsidian (rainbow obsidian) from Mexico contains oriented nanorods of hedenbergite, which cause the rainbow striping effects by thin-film interference.[25]

Occurrence

Obsidian is found near volcanoes in locations which have undergone rhyolitic eruptions. It can be found in Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia,[27] Canada, Chile, Georgia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Scotland, the Canary Islands, Turkey and the United States. Obsidian flows which are so large that they can be hiked on are found within the calderas of Newberry Volcano (Big Obsidian Flow,[28] 700 acres) and Medicine Lake Volcano in the Cascade Range of western North America, and at Inyo Craters east of the Sierra Nevada in California. Yellowstone National Park has a mountainside containing obsidian located between Mammoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin, and deposits can be found in many other western U.S. states including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Washington,[29] Oregon[30] and Idaho.

There are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean: Lipari, Pantelleria, Palmarola and Monte Arci (Sardinia).[31]

Ancient sources in the Aegean were Milos and Gyali.[32]

Acıgöl town and the Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia, one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East.[33][34][35]

Prehistoric and historical use

The first known archaeological evidence of usage was in Kariandusi (Kenya) and other sites of the Acheulian age (beginning 1.5 million years BP) dated 700,000 BC, although only very few objects have been found at these sites relative to the Neolithic.[36][37][38][39][40] Manufacture of obsidian bladelets at Lipari had reached a high level of sophistication by the late Neolithic, and was traded as far as Sicily, the southern Po river valley, and Croatia.[41] Obsidian bladelets were used in ritual circumcisions and cutting of umbilical cords of newborns.[42] Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the material used in the Levant and modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan from a time beginning sometime about 12,500 BC.[43] Obsidian artifacts are common at Tell Brak, one of the earliest Mesopotamian urban centers, dating to the late fifth millennium BC.[44] Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads in a process called knapping. Like all glass and some other naturally occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture. It was also polished to create early mirrors. Modern archaeologists have developed a relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating, to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts.

Europe

Obsidian artifacts first appeared in the European continent in Central Europe in the Middle Paleolithic and had become common by the Upper Paleolithic, although there are exceptions to this. Obsidian played an important role in the transmission of Neolithic knowledge and experiences. The material was mainly used for production of chipped tools which were very sharp due to its nature. Artifacts made of obsidian can be found in many Neolithic cultures across Europe. The source of obsidian for cultures inhabiting the territory of and around Greece was the island of Milos; the Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture obtained obsidian from sources in Hungary and Slovakia, while the Cardium-Impresso cultural complex acquired obsidian from the island outcrops of the central Mediterranean. Through trade, these artifacts ended up in lands thousands of kilometers away from the original source; this indicates that they were a highly valued commodity.[45] John Dee had a mirror, made of obsidian, which was brought from Mexico to Europe between 1527 and 1530 after Hernando Cortés's conquest of the region.[46]

Middle East and Asia

In the Ubaid in the 5th millennium BC, blades were manufactured from obsidian extracted from outcrops located in modern-day Turkey.[47] Ancient Egyptians used obsidian imported from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Red Sea regions. Obsidian scalpels older than 2100 BC have been found in a Bronze Age settlement in Turkey.[48] In the eastern Mediterranean area the material was used to make tools, mirrors and decorative objects.[49]

The use of obsidian tools was present in Japan near areas of volcanic activity.[50][51] Obsidian was mined during the Jōmon period.

Obsidian has also been found in Gilat, a site in the western Negev in Israel. Eight obsidian artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic Age found at this site were traced to obsidian sources in Anatolia. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) on the obsidian found at this site helped to reveal trade routes and exchange networks previously unknown.[52]

Americas

Lithic analysis helps to understand pre-Hispanic groups in Mesoamerica. A careful analysis of obsidian in a culture or place can be of considerable use to reconstruct commerce, production, and distribution, and thereby understand economic, social and political aspects of a civilization. This is the case in Yaxchilán, a Maya city where even warfare implications have been studied linked with obsidian use and its debris.[53] Another example is the archeological recovery at coastal Chumash sites in California, indicating considerable trade with the distant site of Casa Diablo Hot Springs in the Sierra Nevada.[54]

Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans' use of obsidian was extensive and sophisticated; including carved and worked obsidian for tools and decorative objects. Mesoamericans also made a type of sword with obsidian blades mounted in a wooden body. Called a macuahuitl, the weapon could inflict terrible injuries, combining the sharp cutting edge of an obsidian blade with the ragged cut of a serrated weapon. The polearm version of this weapon was called tepoztopilli.

Obsidian mirrors were used by some Aztec priests to conjure visions and make prophecies. They were connected with Tezcatlipoca, god of obsidian and sorcery, whose name can be translated from the Nahuatl language as 'Smoking Mirror'.[46]

Indigenous people traded obsidian throughout the Americas. Each volcano and in some cases each volcanic eruption produces a distinguishable type of obsidian allowing archaeologists to use methods such as non-destructive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence to select minor element compositions from both the artifact and geological sample to trace the origins of a particular artifact.[55] Similar tracing techniques have also allowed obsidian in Greece to be identified as coming from Milos, Nisyros or Gyali, islands in the Aegean Sea. Obsidian cores and blades were traded great distances inland from the coast.[56]

In Chile obsidian tools from Chaitén Volcano have been found as far away as in Chan-Chan 400 km (250 mi) north of the volcano, and also in sites 400 km south of it.[57][58]

Oceania

The Lapita culture, active across a large area of the Pacific Ocean around 1000 BC, made widespread use of obsidian tools and engaged in long distance obsidian trading. The complexity of the production technique for these tools, and the care taken in their storage, may indicate that beyond their practical use they were associated with prestige or high status.[59]

Obsidian was also used on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for edged tools such as Mataia and the pupils of the eyes of their Moai (statues), which were encircled by rings of bird bone.[60] Obsidian was used to inscribe the Rongorongo glyphs.

Current use

Obsidian can be used to make extremely sharp knives, and obsidian blades are a type of glass knife made using naturally occurring obsidian instead of manufactured glass. Obsidian is used by some surgeons for scalpel blades, although this is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans.[61] Well-crafted obsidian blades, like any glass knife, can have a cutting edge many times sharper than high-quality steel surgical scalpels: the cutting edge of the blade is only about three nanometers thick.[62] All metal knives have a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; however, obsidian blades are still smooth, even when examined under an electron microscope.[63] One study found that obsidian incisions produced fewer inflammatory cells and less granulation tissue in a group of rats after seven days but the differences disappeared after twenty-one days.[64] Don Crabtree has produced surgical obsidian blades and written articles on the subject.[62] Obsidian scalpels may be purchased for surgical use on research animals.[65]

The major disadvantage of obsidian blades is their brittleness compared to those made of metal,[66] thus limiting the surgical applications for obsidian blades to a variety of specialized uses where this is not a concern.[62]

Obsidian is also used for ornamental purposes and as a gemstone.[67] It presents a different appearance depending on how it is cut: in one direction it is jet black, while in another it is glistening gray. "Apache tears" are small rounded obsidian nuggets often embedded within a grayish-white perlite matrix.

Plinths for audio turntables have been made of obsidian since the 1970s, such as the grayish-black SH-10B3 plinth by Technics.

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

The Black Stone (Arabic: ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, romanized: al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.

The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times. According to Islamic tradition, it was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 605 CE, five years before his first revelation. Since then, it has been broken into fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of pilgrims. It has often been described as a meteorite.[1]

Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as a part of the tawaf ritual during the hajj and many try to stop to kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from Muhammad.[2][3] While the Black Stone is revered, Islamic theologians emphasize that it has no divine significance and that its importance is historical in nature.[4]

Physical description

The Black Stone was originally a single piece of rock but today consists of several pieces that have been cemented together. They are surrounded by a silver frame which is fastened by silver nails to the Kaaba's outer wall.[5] The fragments are themselves made up of smaller pieces which have been combined to form the seven or eight fragments visible today. The Stone's exposed face measures about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) by 16 centimetres (6.3 in). Its original size is unclear and the recorded dimensions have changed considerably over time, as the pieces have been rearranged in their cement matrix on several occasions.[1] In the 10th century, an observer described the Black Stone as being one cubit (46 cm or 18 in) long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring 140 by 122 cm (4 ft 7 in by 4 ft 0 in). According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was described as 110 cm (3 ft 7 in) high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being 76 cm (2 ft 6 in) long by 46 cm (1 ft 6 in) wide.[1]

The Black Stone is attached to the east corner of the Kaaba, known as al-Rukn al-Aswad (the 'Corner of the Black Stone').[6] Another stone, known as the Hajar as-Sa’adah ('Stone of Felicity') is set into the Kaaba's opposite corner, al-Rukn al-Yamani (the 'Yemeni Corner'), at a somewhat lower height than the Black Stone.[7] The choice of the east corner may have had ritual significance; it faces the rain-bringing east wind (al-qabul) and the direction from which Canopus rises.[8]

The silver frame around the Black Stone and the black kiswah or cloth enveloping the Kaaba were for centuries maintained by the Ottoman Sultans in their role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The frames wore out over time due to the constant handling by pilgrims and were periodically replaced. Worn-out frames were brought back to Istanbul, where they are still kept as part of the sacred relics in the Topkapı Palace.[9]

Appearance of the Black Stone

The Black Stone was described by European travellers to Arabia in the 19th- and early-20th centuries, who visited the Kaaba disguised as pilgrims. Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book Travels in Arabia:

It is an irregular oval, about seven inches [18 cm] in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.[10]

Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton noted that:

The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish-brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.[11]

Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny cubes of a bottle-green material were embedded. There are reportedly a few white or yellow spots on the face of the Stone, and it is officially described as being white with the exception of the face.[1]

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

BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with US$11.5 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023.[1] Headquartered in New York City, BlackRock has 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in 100 countries.

BlackRock is the manager of the iShares group of exchange-traded funds, and along with The Vanguard Group and State Street, it is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers.[3][4] Its Aladdin software keeps track of investment portfolios for many major financial institutions and its BlackRock Solutions division provides financial risk management services. As of 2023, BlackRock was ranked 229th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.[5]

BlackRock has sought to position itself as an industry leader in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in investments.[6] The U.S. states of West Virginia,[7] Florida,[8] and Louisiana[9] have divested money away from or refuse to do business with the firm because of its ESG policies. BlackRock has been criticized for investing in companies that are involved in fossil fuels, the arms industry, the People's Liberation Army and human rights violations in China. The company has also faced criticism for its close ties with the Federal Reserve during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Academi, formerly known as Blackwater and Blackwater Worldwide, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1997,[2] by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince.[3][4] It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acquired by a group of private investors.[5] In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings.[6][7][8]

Constellis and its predecessors provide contract security services[9] to the United States federal government. Since 2003, it has provided services to the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2007, Blackwater received widespread notoriety for the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, when a group of its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20. Four employees were convicted in the United States and later pardoned on December 22, 2020, by President Donald Trump.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(company)

Black project is an informal term used to describe a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors.

United States and black projects

In the United States, the formal term for a black project is an unacknowledged special access program (SAP). Black projects receive their funding from the black budget.

The US depends on private defense contractors to develop and build military equipment. The two most notable examples are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The R&D department of Lockheed Martin is commonly referred to as Skunk Works; it is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified R&D programs, and exotic aircraft platforms.

Two well known sites for testing of black projects are the Nevada Test site and Area 51.

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

Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat.

As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat to do something that would cause a person to suffer embarrassment or financial loss.[1] By contrast, in the Commonwealth its definition is wider: for example the laws of England and Wales and Northern Ireland state that:

A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces...[2][3]

In popular culture, 'blackmail' involves a threat to reveal or publicize either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to family members or associates rather than to the general public.

Acts of blackmail can also involve using threats of physical, mental or emotional harm, or of criminal prosecution, against the victim or someone close to the victim.[4][5] It is normally carried out for personal gain, most commonly of position, money, or property.[4][6][7][8]

Blackmail may also be considered a form of extortion[4] and may be covered in the same statutory provision as extortion.[9] Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm.[10] Blackmail is the use of threat to prevent another from engaging in a lawful occupation and writing libelous letters or letters that provoke a breach of the peace, as well as use of intimidation for purposes of collecting an unpaid debt.[11]

In many jurisdictions, blackmail is a statutory offense, often criminal, carrying punitive sanctions for convicted perpetrators. Blackmail is the name of a statutory offense in the United States, England and Wales, and Australia,[12] and has been used as a convenient way of referring to certain other offenses, but was not a term used in English law until 1968.[13]

Blackmail was originally a term from the Scottish Borders meaning payments rendered in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders.[6][11][14] The "mail" part of blackmail derives from Middle English male meaning "rent or tribute".[15] This tribute (male or reditus) was paid in goods or labour ("nigri"); hence reditus nigri, or "blackmail".

Etymology

Objections to criminalization

Some scholars have argued that blackmail should not be a crime.[17][18][19][20] Objections to the criminalization of blackmail often rest on what legal scholars call "the paradox of blackmail": it takes two separate actions that, in many cases, people are legally and morally entitled to do, and criminalizes them if done together. One American legal scholar uses the example of a person who threatens to expose a criminal act unless he is paid money. The person has committed the crime of blackmail, even though he separately has the legal right both to threaten to expose a crime and to request money from a person.[21]

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

Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or state's authority—over the Church is comparable to that of the Pope.

History

The term descends from the Middle Ages, when a non-Italian pope was said to be papa ultramontano – a pope from beyond the mountains (the Alps).[1] Foreign students at medieval Italian universities also were referred to as ultramontani.

After the Protestant Reformation in France, the concept was revived but with its directionality reversed to indicate the man "beyond the mountains" in Italy: the Pope. The term ultramontain was used to refer to Catholics who supported papal authority in French affairs – as opposed to the Gallican and Jansenist factions, who did not – and was intended as an insult implying lack of patriotism.[1] From the 17th century, ultramontanism became closely associated with the Jesuits.[2]

In the 18th century the term came to refer to supporters of the Church in any conflict between church and state. In Austria ultramontanists were opposed to Josephinism, and in Germany to Febronianism. In Great Britain and Ireland ultramontanists resisted Cisalpinism, which favored concessions to the Protestant state in order to achieve Catholic emancipation.

In eighteenth-century Spain, the Bourbon monarchs began implementing policies of regalism, which expanded the power of the monarchy and sought to bring the Catholic Church under its jurisdiction in all matters except the spiritual sphere. Charles III of Spain's ministers, Count of Floridablanca and the Count of Campomanes rejected the arguments of the ultramontanists that the Church had inalienable rights in the secular sphere.[3] The regalist reforms that the Spanish crown sought to implement were not completely successful, and the resistance to them were attributed to support for the Society of Jesus, which had been expelled from the Spanish Empire in 1767, but prior to that were educators.[4]

In Canada, the majority of Catholic clergy despised the French Revolution and its anti-clerical bias and looked to Rome for both spiritual and political guidance. There were many laymen and laywomen who supported these ideals as key to preserving Canadian institutions and values. For this reason they were called ultramontanists. The ultramontanes distrusted both the Protestant anglophone and francophone politicians, but the Church found it easier to deal with British governors, who appreciated the role of the Church in containing dissent, than with the francophone liberal professionals who were secularists.[5]

First Vatican Council

Main article: First Vatican Council

According to Catholic academic Jeffrey P. von Arx,

The threat to the Catholic Church and the papacy through the 19th century was real, and the church’s reaction to that threat was understandable. Indeed, the church remained threatened on all sides. On the left, secular liberals sought to reduce or eliminate the role of the church in public life and civil society (by suppressing church schools, for example, and expelling religious congregations). The more radical heirs of the revolution and the socialists and communists into whom they evolved remained committed to the church’s utter destruction. But the threat was also from the nationalist right. Otto von Bismarck’s Kulturkampf was aimed directly at the Catholic Church, imposing state supervision of Catholic schools and seminaries and government appointment of bishops with no reference to Rome.[6]

The response was a condemnation of Gallicanism as heretical:

[W]e condemn and reject the opinions of those who hold that this communication of the supreme head with pastors and flocks may be lawfully obstructed; or that it should be dependent on the civil power, which leads them to maintain that what is determined by the apostolic see or by its authority concerning the government of the church, has no force or effect unless it is confirmed by the agreement of the civil authority.[7]

The council also asserted papal primacy. In July 1870, it issued the Dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus, defining four doctrines of the Catholic faith: the apostolic primacy conferred on Peter, the perpetuity of this primacy in the Roman pontiffs, the meaning and power of the papal primacy, and Papal infallibility.

[W]e teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman Church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other Church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman Pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world.[8]

Von Arx compares this to "the great empires and national states of the 19th century, which used new means of communication and transportation to consolidate power, enforce unity and build bureaucracies".[6] "Cardinal Henry Edward Manning in Great Britain thought unity and discipline within the church were of the utmost importance in protecting the church and advancing its interests in a liberal, democratic state, and so he was one of the strongest advocates of the ultramontane position."[6] The English bishops at the council were characterized by their ultramontanism and described as "being more Catholic than the Pope himself".[9]

Reaction

Other Christian groups outside the Catholic Church declared this as the triumph of what they termed "the heresy of ultramontanism". It was specifically decried in the "Declaration of the Catholic Congress at Munich", in the Theses of Bonn, and in the Declaration of Utrecht, which became the foundational documents of Old Catholics (Altkatholische) who split with Rome over the declaration on infallibility and supremacy, joining the Old Episcopal Order Catholic See of Utrecht, which had been independent from Rome since 1723.[7]

As with previous pronouncements by the pope, liberals across Europe were outraged by the doctrine of infallibility and many countries reacted with laws to counter the influence of the church. The term "ultramontanism" was revived during the French Third Republic (1870–1940) as a pejorative way to describe policies that went against laïcité, a concept rooted in the French Revolution. The French philosopher Jacques Maritain noted the distinction between the models found in France and the separation of church and state in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. He considered the US model of that time to be more amicable because it had both "sharp distinction and actual cooperation" between church and state, what he called "an historical treasure" and admonished the United States, "Please to God that you keep it carefully, and do not let your concept of separation veer round to the European one."[10]

After Italian Unification and the abrupt (and unofficial) end of the First Vatican Council in 1870 because of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the ultramontanist movement and the opposing conciliarism became obsolete to a large extent. However, some very extreme tendencies of a minority of adherents to ultramontanism – especially those attributing to the Roman pontiff, even in his private opinions, absolute infallibility even in matters beyond faith and morals, and impeccability – survived and were eagerly used by opponents of the Catholic Church and papacy before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) for use in their propaganda. These extreme tendencies, however, were never supported by the First Vatican Council's dogma of 1870 of papal infallibility and primacy, but were rather inspired by erroneous private opinions of some Catholic laymen who tend to identify themselves completely with the Holy See.

At the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, the Catholic Church's teaching on the authority of the pope, bishops and councils was further elaborated. The post-conciliar position of the Apostolic See did not deny any of the previous doctrines of papal infallibility or papal primacy; rather, it shifted emphasis from structural and organizational authority to doctrinal teaching authority (also known as the magisterium). Papal magisterium, i.e. papal teaching authority, was defined in Lumen gentium No. 25 and later codified in the 1983 revision of Canon Law.

Controversy

Some, such as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, have claimed the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity can overrun ultramontanism and has the potential to decentralize the Catholic Church,[11] whereas others defend it as merely a bureaucratic adjustment to give more pastoral responsibility to local bishops and priests of local parishes.[12]

Challenges to ultramontanism have remained strong within and outside Roman jurisdiction.[13] Ultramontanism has particularly overshadowed ecumenical work between the Catholic Church and both Lutherans and Anglicans.[14] The joint Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation published The Gift of Authority in 1999, highlights agreements and differences on these issues.[15]

Position of other traditional churches

Ultramontanism is distinct from the positions adopted by the other traditional churches, particularly the Anglican communion, Eastern Orthodox communion, the Oriental Orthodox communion, the Old Catholic Church, or the Church of the East. These churches regard the pope as having been primus inter pares when the churches were united in full communion, and generally still acknowledge that status today, albeit in an impaired form due to disunity; similarly they do not recognize the doctrines of infallibility or the pope's alleged universal jurisdiction over patriarchates and autocephalous churches other than that of Rome itself, except insofar as this is part of the concept of primus inter pares.[16]

In the joint agreed statement "The Gift of Authority" (1999) the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion were agreed on the collegial nature of the life and work of bishops.[17]: 148 Similarly both churches acknowledged the role of episcopal primacy within the college of bishops.[17]: 151 On the question of the universal primacy of the Pope, the joint report found common ground, and stated that a "particular conclusion" of their discussions had been "that Anglicans be open to and desire a recovery and re-reception under certain clear conditions of the exercise of universal primacy by the Bishop of Rome";[17]: 159 nonetheless a clear distinction remained between the Anglican view of a universal primacy exercised within a universal collegiality, and the Catholic view of a universal primacy with actual universal jurisdiction.

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

XXVII

ABOVE ALL GODS AND "SHEWING... THAT HE IS GOD"!

Sedet super universum ("He sits above the universe").

ND LEST SOME SCRUPLE SHOULD OCCUR TO my reader, that the aforementioned delineations could apply to some other power besides the Catholic Church, then read how God in his wisdom, to further identify ANTI-CHRIST, with pin-point accuracy, tells us through St. Paul.

We are told that the "mystery" woman seated on the beast (or power) nth seven heads (or forms of governments) would have at her helm a man." This man St. Paul calls "the son of perdition" who "opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." Paul ays that "he as God sits would sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (II Thess. 2:1).

The temple of God here referred to, where the representative of Anti-Christ was to have his seat and from where he would reign, could not have been the Jewish Temple which had already been destroyed. The Christian Church only could form a theater for such a display," writes Thomas Watson.

Here, II Thess. 2:4, the Apostle Paul is understood to have been speaking prophetically about a male figurehead behind this power the woman with the golden cup), for he speaks of the man "Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God" "shewing himself that he is God." (to quote the King James).

Said Grattan Guinness, "The distinctive names given by Paul to the great head of the apostasy are expressive of his character. They are the "man of sin," the "son of perdition," and "that wicked" (or the lawless one). Paul's "Man of sin," was to be a Roman, because the imperial government seated at Rome needed to be removed in order to make way for its rise and dominion. It was to be the successor of the Caesars at Rome. They have the same geographical seat...." Grattan continues a few lines later: "In the Douay (Catholic Bible, with notes, issued under Romish authority, and bearing the signatures of Cardinals Wiseman and

H. Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformation, op. cit. p. 98,

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Manning, the "man of sin" is interpreted as follows: "He sitteth in the temple of God,' etc. By all these words is described to us the grea antichrist.... according to the unquestionable authority and consent of the ancient Fathers." The Catholic Church thus accepts our interpretation of the "man of sin" which Paul foresaw, "and admits th power to be the antichrist," concludes Guinness. These personages representing Anti-Christ were to be as Judas, because Paul states, "Forl know this, that alter my departing shall grievous wolves cuter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your ownselves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" Wet

20:30).

What power or personages have ever been bold enough to advance so audacious a claim-even to the extent of "shewing thimselves to be a God"? This surely can only apply to the popes (the succession of themt "He exaltheth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped." Not only have the popes lifted themselves above earthly magistrates, bishops and primates, kings and emperor, nay, not only above kings and emperors, but also above Jesus Christ, and God himself! Roman Catholic cannon law of 1918 confirms this fact precisely: "The Roman pontiff [the popel is... not a... man, but very God." Here is an exa fulfilment of the prophecy concerning the Anti-Christ system of the popes. Reader, we have found the genuine article! To quote one author, the clear light of this prophecy flashes full on the face of the Papacy!

How is it that the pope goes about "showing himself that he is God? By "affecting divine titles, and asserting that his decrees are of the same or greater authority than the word of God," says Bagster and Clarke. To confirm the assertion, the Apostle Paul also tells us in his Epistle to the Thessalonians that this "man of sin" who is allied to Ant-Chr (the corrupt woman) would sit as a leader of a religious system, "sing in the temple of God [viz., he presides in a church]" (II Thess. 2:0).

The pope alone can be that "man" referred to in II Thess. 21, for who else could it be? "There is NO ONE LIKE HIM, who exalth himself above every god; no one like him, who sitteth as God in the temple of God; there is no one like him who shows himself that he God, and even above God"! Reader, what an excellent antidote to the poison of popery are these illustrious proofs of Divine revelation! In Bible prophecy a "woman" is almost always used as a symbol of a

2 Grattan Guinness, Romanism and the Reformationop, op. cit., p. 98.

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church, and here the Apostle Paul say that this "man of sin," the visible figurehead of Anti-Christ would "sit in the temple of God" and claim to be God, usurping God's rightful place! Strong's Concordance (NT#500 & NT#473) defines 'antichrist' as "a usurper."

"SITTING IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING THAT HE IS GOD."

Now, perchance the reader is not convinced by the above, here is the mystery solved! Mark these words "he as God sitteth in the temple of God." that is to say "presides in the temple of the Lord." I quote Grattan Guinness, who in turn quotes Picart:

I took them from Picart's description of the Roman ceremonial, a Roman Catholic authority. It is the Romanists themselves who use this significant phrase of the Papal pontifl: he "PRESIDES IN THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD."

There reader! The exact words used by the Apostle Paul are adopted by the Church of Rome. Do you still require more proof?

St. John also describes Anti-Christ as the avouos-viz., a power that exalts itself above all gods (Rev. 13:4-6). One can read volumes of Catholic writings that refer to the pope as God, even referring to him as, "The Lord God the Pope."

Does that leave you numb? From another source we read: "The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." Reader, that would be a most stupendous metamorphosis indeed!

But the pope's sycophants deny that the above statement was made by Pope Pius X, instead they aver that it was "from an English Protestant publication (of Oct. 3, 1895), not a Catholic one."

But what say they to this statement from Pope Leo III, who, on June 20, said this of himself and the entire machinery of the papacy: "We

See, Jer. 3:8; Matt. 9:14-15; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32; Rev. 19:7-8. Pope John XXII (Cum. Inter, title 14, chap. 4, Ad Callem Sexti Decretalium, Column 140, Paris, 1685); in the 1612 Paris Edition of Extravagantes. In an Antwerp edition of the Extravagantes, the words occur in column 153. See also, Z. T. Sweeney, New Testament Christianity, Vol. III. (1930), p. 529

Catholic National, July of 1895.

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hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty"? Agam, the amphibologious Catholic priests tell us this quote is "cherry-picking a quote out of context." Cherry-picking or not, this last statement of Pope Leo XIII is interesting for another reason-it is a virtual copy of a

statement made by that other proud imposter, Satan."

But, as I said, the papists deny the above quotes as meaning that the pope claims to be God on earth. Very well. Let it be so. For he is But what do they say to this statement by the Jesuits, in answer to the question, "What is the Pope?" The Jesuit Catechism replies." He the Vicar of Christ, King of Kings, and Lords of Lord, and there is l ONE JUDGMENT-SEAT BELONGING TO GOD AND THE POPE" Reader, a truly whimsical assertion, if ever there was one!

As we read before, in one of their books they go even further: "Al the names which in Scripture are applied to Christ by virtue of which a is established that He is over the Church, all the same names are applied to the Pope." Or what about this one: "The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.""

The following is another fact of significance which shows the point we have been making. "Bianchi Gioviui, editor of the journal l'ition." had been "condemned by the tribunals of Turin to a month's

Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae ("The Reunion of Christendom"), Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894; The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII (1878-1903) (New York: Benziger Bros. 1903/ Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2009), p. 304; Double Cross (Chick Publications), p. 27. See the Pope's 1894 letter here:

www.space.net.au/-nethow/Sede/encyclicals/Leo13/L13PRAEC.HTM 7 A figure of speech where ambiguous meaning is deliberately created through grammar, often including mispunctuation.

8 Lucifer: "I will be like the most High." see Isaiah 14:14. See also Iss 42:8, "I am the Lord: that is my name... my glory I give no to another." 9 See, Roy Livesey, Understanding the New Age: World Government a World Religion (Chichester, England: NewWine Press, 1998), p. 104. 10 Robert Bellarmine (Jesuit Cardinal-archbishop of Capual. Othe Authority of the Church Councils, Vol. 2 (1619 edn.). p. 266, chap. 17 Bellarmine was an authority on ecclesiology and was canonized, 1930 See, too, De Cone. Auct., L. 2, c. 17, p. 266, II., T. I.; John Harvey Theat Johann Augustus Bolles, and G. H. Housee, The Catholic faith of Doctrines of the Church of Rome; and also, Disputationes de Controversiis, Tom. 2; Controversiarum de Conciliis, Liber Secundis 11 Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, chapter XXVII, p. 218, Cities Petrus Bertanous; A Journal of Church and State, vol. 3 (Baylor University. J.M.

Dawson Studies in Church and State, 1961), p. 176.

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imprisonment, and Jal 600 francs fine for having said that the Pope was neither God nor the Vicar of God. While he was in prison he complained of his sentence in his journal, and for this he was condemned again to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 But, if all the above facts are not proof enough for you, franes." consider this Popish averment:

The Pope is not simply the representative of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, he is Jesus Christ Himself, under the veil of the flesh.... Does the Pope speak? It is Jesus Christ who is speaking. Does he teach? It is Jesus Christ who teaches. Does he confer grace or pronounce an anathema? It is Jesus Christ Himself who is pronouncing the anathema and conferring the grace. Hence... when one speaks of the Pope, it is not necessary to examine, but to obey..... there must be no cavilling at the declared will of the Pope.... no preconceived opinions must be brought to bear upon it: no rights must be set up against the rights of the Holy Father to teach and command; HIS DECISIONS ARE NOT TO BE CRITICIZED, or his ordinances disputed.... no matter how august the person may be- whether he wear a crown or be invested with the purple, or be clothed in the sacred vestments: all must be subject to Him WHO HAS HAD ALL THINGS PUT UNDER HIM."

Read next the words of Jesuit Cardinal Dr. Robert Bellarmine in Latin, which is translated below on the right:

Nam fides Catholica docet, omnem virtutem ease bonam, omne vitium esse malum: si autem l'apa erret praecipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, et virtu- les malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. Tenetur enim in rebus dubiis Ecclesia acquiescere judicio summi l'onti- sicis, et facere quod ille praecipit, non facere quod ille prohibet ac ne forte contra conscientiam agat, tenetur credere bonum

e quod ille praecipit; malum quod ille prohibet.-De kom. Pont., 14, c. 5, col. 974. C. Disput., T. 1, el. 1601.

For the Catholic faith teaches that every virtue is good, every evil is bad: but if the l'ope should err by enjoining vices, or forbidding virtues, the Church would be bound to believe vices to be good and virtues evil, unless it would sin against conscience. For in things doubt- ful the Church is bound to acquiesce in the judgment of the Supreme Pontiff, and to do that which he enjoins, and not to do that which he forbids; and lest she should act contrary to conscience, she is bound to believe that to be good which he enjoins, and that to be evil which he forbids

Evangelical Christendom, Vols. 11-12 (Evangelical Alliance, July 1.

1867, p. 275.

13 Evangelical Christendom (London: J. S. Phillips, January 1, 1895), p.

15. http://biblelight.net/Sources/Evangelical-Christendom-pg-15.gif

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Ferraris Ecclesiastical (Catholic) Dictionary offers this justification and explanation of Bellarmine's doctrine that the pope can declar

EVIL TO BE GOOD AND VICES TO BE VIRTUES:

The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that HE IS NOT A MAN, but as it were, God, and the Vicar of God.... The POPE ALONE is deservedly called by the name "Most Holy He likewise the divine Monarch and supreme Emperor, THE KING OF KINGS. Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions.... the superiority, and the power of the Roman Pontiff... by no means pertain only as heavenly things, to earthly things, and to things under the earth, b are even over angels, of whom he is greater...."

We could quote many more such statements ad nauseam. Reader never was the dignity of the Almighty so degraded by such low similitudes as the above! The pope as God, judging angels, and declaring evil to be good and vices to be virtues? No wonder Paul calls him, that "wicked one."

I say, as did, Martin Luther: "Oh, Christ, my Lord... bring upon us thy day of judgment, and destroy the brood [litter] of Satan in Rome where)... sits the man of sin." Yes, that "brood of Satan" in Rome-the pope, cardinals, bishops, curates, vicars, sacristans, canons, deacous sub-deacons, and choristers; besides shavelings of all kinds, seminants friars, lay-brothers, novices, clc., etc., who may be compared to the ammunition men and powdermonkies."" No, delicate reader, I do not believe these to be odious comparisons.

Reader, the pope is that "man of sin," for he substitutes other mediators for Christ; he encourages the invocation of the dead in the name of saints; he insists on the worshipping of images, the adoration of the wafer host, the selling of pardons and indulgences; and he pervers the worship of God into grossest superstition and idolatry." No, I do not exaggerate at all. Are you not also disgusted with the absurd pretens

from the pontifical chair? Will Catholics now demand of the Pope that

he publicly renounce these usurped and fictitious claims? Will yo

protest both against him and his doctrines? Will you rid yourselves of

14 P.F.L. Ferraris, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, article 'On the Pope."

15 Luther's Works, vol. 2. p. 281.

16 Evangelical Alliance, May 1, 1857, the Editor.

17 To quote Samuel Bagster (1843).

182

Above All Gods And "Shewing... That He Is God"! this tyrant in the Church, "SITTING IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHEWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD"?

God says, "I am the LORD... the Holy One of Israel... before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.... I AM GOD" (Isa. 43:3, 7, 10) and "... beside me there is no God" (Isa. 44:6-8). But the Catholic Church says, Nol: "The Roman pontiff (the pope) Is... not a... man, but very God." What profanity; what proud impicty: what an insufferable arrogation, nay what wicked, nefarious and bold- face audacity! What pretentious indignity! that a sinful man would lower and dehase the majesty of his Creator by claiming to be "very God"!

God responds, "Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus.... Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I AM A GOD, I sit in the seat of God.... YET THOU ART A MAN, AND NOT GOD, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God... Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords... and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and THOU SHALT DIE the deaths of them that are slain "(Ezek. 28:2-8)!

do the high altar of a P

Roman Catholic cannon law of 1904 and 1918: sec, Corpus Juris Canonice (2nd Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99: (Paris, 1612), vol. 2.

183

CODEWORD BARBELON BK 2

In the foregoing illustration we see the pope in the Dark Ages, sitting in the Temple of God as though he were God; "upon a throne, hid

and lifted up" (Isaiah 6:1).

Today, nothing has changed.

Centuries later, and the Pope still sits "in the temple of God." high and ed

"shewing himself as if he were God."

Yes, even in this day of great enlightenment and democracy, the present Pope still claims worship, as did his fellows. Guinness gives the following commentary and rebuke:

Exalted to this position, he is incensed, and the cardinals, one at time, in solemn, deliberate state and idolatrous submission, is le land, his foot, and even his stomach. He is surrounded by candi archbishops, bishops, abbots, priests, and princes. Enormous fas peacock's feathers are carried on either side of his chan, as used to be done to the pagam monarchs of olden times, He directs the affairs of the greatest empire upon earth, governing by an almost infini

184

Above All Gods And "Shewing... That He Is God"!

number of men, whom he keeps constantly in subjection to himself, and from whom he demands frequent periodical account. He distributes spiritual gifts, and exalts to the highest preferments, not only on earth, but also in heaven: for is it not his to make bishops and archbishops, to canonize whom he will, and to decree their perpetual memorial and worship in the world? All power is delivered unto hum He forgives sins, he bestows grace; he cancels punishments, even in purgatory; he restores the lapsed; he excommunicates the rebellious he can make that which is unlawful, lawful; he cannot err, lis sentences are final, his utterances infallible, his decrees irreformable. O DREAD DOMINION! O DIZZY HEIGHTY O BLASPHEMOUS ASSUMPTION! O SUBLIME, SATANIC TYRANNY! WHO IS LIKE UNTO THEE, THOU RESUSCITATED CAESAR, THOU FALSE CHRIST? Lord of the conscience, thou sittest there as a very deity. QUASI DEUS ("as God"). Thou sittest supreme, as thine own words are witness, "in the temple of the Lord"!"

Codeword Barbelon book Two

by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid0Vj4i6EEjC4CGdMd19f29uKfSH4A1VhfX9C7VFYj5chS6nhitBMM1XEXToxGia1Wfl

Feb 18-19, 2023

SD ROCKET CON

San Diego Rocket Con is coming up on it's 5th Annual show, February 18th and 19th. This 2 day show is full of various vendors with all kinds of collectibles, comics, toys, and other items fans love! Meet voice actors from your favorite anime such as Dragonball Z, My Hero Academia, and even Naruto, or take a picture with real life Power Rangers! Maybe you want a special sketch of your favorite superhero drawn by famous artists from Marvel and DC. Participate in our cosplay contest and see if you have what it takes to win. There's something for everyone at San Diego Rocket Con!

February 18-19, 2023

Scottish Rite Event Center

10am—6pm — Saturday

10am—5pm — Sunday

https://sdrocketcon.com/

THE NEW AGE

GOD'S PLAN IN AMERICA C. WILLIAM SMITH, New Orleans, La. September 1950

THERE are three plans in action in America today and they all have different purposes. The first plan is God's plan, a nonsectarian plan; the second is the Roman Catholic plan, and this is a denominational or sectarian plan, and the third is the Communistic plan, an anticapitalist plan.

God's plan is dedicated to the unification of all races, religions and creeds. This plan, dedicated to the new order of things, is to make all things new-s new nation, a new race, a new civilization and a new religion, a nonsectarian religion that has already been recognized and called the religion of "The Great Light."

Looking back into history, we can easily see that the Guiding Hand of Providence has chosen the Nordic people to bring in and unfold the new order of the world. Records clearly show that 95 percent of the colonists were Nordics-Anglo-Saxons.

Providence has chosen the Nordics because the Nordics have prepared themselves and have chosen God. They are not church worshippers, for they worship God's word-the Holy Bible. The Nordics are. the great Bible-reading people of the world today, and the Nordics-Anglo-Saxons -were the first people to print the Holy Bible in great quantity, and they were known as the people of a book, that book being the Holy Bible.

But, in order to read the Bible, it is necessary to know how to read. In the Nordic race there is no illiteracy. In Norway there has been no illiteracy for more than a hundred years. Another fact that shows clearly that the Nordics are God's chosen people this time is they are always looking for more light on the mission of life.

Looking at their station of life, these great Bible-reading people should open the eyes of the world, King Gustaf of Sweden is a great light in the nonsectarian Masonic Brotherhood, and King Haakon of Norway is a Masonic light in Norway.

The late King Christian of Denmark was a Masonic spirit in his Denmark; also King George of England is a Masonic light to his Anglo-Saxon people. Just as Providence has chosen the Jewish race-the children of Israel-to bring into the world righteousness by carrying the "Ten Commandments" which emphasize 'Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy," so also Providence has chosen the Nordic race to unfold the 'New Age" of the world-a "Novus Ordo Seclorum." One of the first of the Nordics to reach the New World was the Viking, Leif Ericsson. He sailed from Norway to bring his people in Iceland a new message, the message of the Chritian God. But Providence moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, and so Leif the Lucky was sent by Providence to the New World. From the abundance of grapes found there Leif Ericsson called the place Vinland. It is easy to sense that Leif Ericsson was sent by the Guiding Hand of Providence to bring the Norse spirit of the "All-Father" to the shores of the New World.

The Nordics are the highest branch of the fifth Aryan Civilization.; The Latins are of the fourth Aryan Civilization, and the American race will be the sixth Aryan Civilization. This new and great civilization is like an American Beauty rosebud, ready to open and send its wonderful fragrance to all the world. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine and many others of the founders of the New World were Nordics. Thomas Paine, the spark plug of the American Revolution, loved God but hated sectarianism. In 'These Are the times," he wrote: "We have it in our power to begin the world all over again! A situation familiar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah, till now. The birthday of a New World is at hand."

As stated before, God's Plan in America is nonsectarian plan. Our Constitution is nonsectarian. Our great American Public Schools-God's chosen schools-are nonsectarian. The Great Spirit behind this great nation is nonsectarian.

Our great American Public Schools have never taken away from any child the freedom of will, freedom of Spirit or freedom of mind. That is the divine reason that Great God our King has chosen the great American Public Schools to pave the way for the new race, the new religion and the new civilization that is taking place in America.

Any mother, father or guardian who is responsible for taking away of freedom of mind, freedom of will or freedom of spirit is the lowest criminal on this earth, because they take away from that child the God-given right to become a part of God's great plan in America for the dawn of the New Age of the world."

The Official Organ of The Supreme Council 33° A. & A. Scottish Rite of Freemasonry S. J. U. S. A. PUBLISHED AT 1735 SIXTEENTH STREET N, W. WASHINGTON, D. C.

Sunday August 13, 1961 continued

The ride into Jackson was uneventful. It was dark and few people noticed our being sirened through all the traffic lights by our escort of police cars. The Masonic Temple is located in the middle of downtown Jackson, on Lynch Street. When we entered, it was almost full, a sea of Negro faces (although I became aware later that there were some whites among them, even some Jackson whites, particularly from Temple Beth Israel, the Jewish congregation in Jackson). As we filed to the seats reserved for us, the people of Jackson stood up and cheered us. I felt very strange; I had never been the guest of honor at a larger meeting before, and even sharing the limelight with almost two hundred others, it gave me a feeling of mixed humility and pride.

The opening invocation was given by Freedom Rider who was a rabbi from San Francisco, Joseph Gumbiner, and I was at this point introduced to on of the strangest (to me) aspects of southern Negro audience, their habit of responding aloud to sentiments with which they are pleased. As the rabbi repeated some of the most common and familiar (to me) phrases of Jewish ritual, I heard choruses of "That's right," "We believe," and "A-men!" At first I could not help feeling that this was impolite and inappropriate, but as it continues through the evening I began to get into the spirit too and to shed some of my northern reserve. The speeches, by Reverent C.T. Vivian, Jim Farmer, and various other leaders of the movement from all over the country."

page 113

Chapter 12 "Events"

Freedom Rider Diary

by Carol Ruth Silver

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ySwr5Z2ARlgLZc67EyuyjUR9B7iorZM8/view

In 1843, New York Reform Jews founded the exclusively Jewish Masonic Lodge, B'nai B'rith.

Their institutions and influence grew. At the turn of the 20th century, the B'nai B'rith founded the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress and Federations of Jewish Charities.

According to Rabbi Antelman, Reform #Jews who became lawyers were, and still are, active in the subversively oriented National Lawyers Guild. In addition these lawyers were instrumental

in founding the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Once the Frankist-Reform Jews were well established in the illuminated Masonic Lodges, they pushed for civil rights for the downtrodden, primarily for Blacks, according to Antelman, "to

exploit them for their own ends." He further remarks on their influence on the events of the 1960s:

"I have found their descendants in the United States to be very active in Marxist-Leninist and Third World activities. They have attempted to convert the Civil Rights movement into a Black

revolution, and are attempting to further polarize this country by promoting women's liberation. Their children who are prominent in the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] organize and recruit for the El Fatah, and have succeeded in destroying synagogues and

Jewish institutions by instigating Black radicals mostly concentrated in nine urban centers in the U.S."

Rabbi Antelman lists three steps Reform Jews plan to use to eliminate all Jewry: "The initial thrust was philosophically Karaitic, an attack on the Talmud. [The Karaites were a Jewish sect founded in Babylonia toward the end of the 8th century, who denied the authority of the Oral Law and the Talmud.] The intermediate stage was complete apostasy, an attack on the Torah.

However, the final state is even worse": a complete reversal of all Biblical law. Antelman, writing in 1974, said the Reform "has followers today who are now calling for abolition of capital punishment in our society, who endorse abortion, who seek to justify the tolerance of criminal elements, who approve of adultery and illicit sexual relations and who have even incorporated homosexual congregations into their structure and praise for 'atheistic' rabbis...."

The Reform's planned destruction of traditionally Jewish and #Christian society through Masonic revolution was premeditated. Antelman states that "when attempts were made by the Illuminati,

Jacobins and Frankists to infiltrate the Masons.. .their infiltration did not mean that they harbored any particular love for Freemasonry. On the contrary, they hated it with a passion and only wished to utilize the cover of Freemasonry as a means of spreading their revolutionary doctrines and to provide a place where they could covertly meet without arousing suspicion."

Antelman wrote eight years before the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail exposed Freemasonry as a front for both Sion and the Templars. Now we know that instead of taking over #Freemasonry, as many conspiracy researchers have thought, the Illuminati-Frankist Jews were absorbed, then exploited, by the more powerful Masonic Lodges. Freemasonry learned well the Frankist doctrines and usurped their Reform system to destroy the existing order. Jews such as Moses Mendelssohn, and later Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky, were used by Freemasonry to replace the old order with their own Gentile Masonic New World Order. Should

the conspiracy be exposed, the doctrinally subversive Frankist/Reform Jews would be the scapegoat."

Chapter 8 "The Jewish Connection"

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

Wednesday, May 31, 1961

In the afternoon mail today I received the material from CORE, some descriptive little pamphlets and a mimeographed form to be signed and returned to them. For the first time I began to learn just who and what CORE is. Actually I never herd of the organization until the beginning of the sit-in demonstrations last year, and I got the impression then that it had been formed not more than a year or so ago, with participation in the sit-ins its primary activity.

On the contrary, CORE has been around for something like twenty years. In the beginning it was a small organization dedicated to bettering race relations by applying Gandhian techniques although I could not get quite clear about what exactly this entailed). Its current ASCENDANCY began with the beginning of the sit-in demonstrations. These broke out like a highly CONTAGIOUS rash over the face of the South after having been started (more or less) by a small group in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students had gone up to a lunch counter together, sat down, and waited for service. The lunch counter closed up.

CORE came in as those in jail or otherwise in need of help. And some of its local chapters began challenge segregation by organizing their own lunch counter sit-ins, or wade-ins at beaches and public pools, stand-ins at movie ticket lines, read-ins at libraries and the like. The method used in all cases was nonviolent resistance, with Martin Luther King, Jr's bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, as the prime example."

page 9

Freedom Rider Diary

by Carol Ruth Silver

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ySwr5Z2ARlgLZc67EyuyjUR9B7iorZM8/view

Chapter 43 The Jesuits — 1960 – 1963 1455 A. Philip Randolph Leading Black Civil Rights Leaders, 1964

Here sit the greatest traitors to American Black People who ever disgraced the sad, tragic history of this generally servile and downtrodden race. With no true Black men loyal to their race allowed to advocate a “Back to Africa” movement or the establishment of a new Black nation in North America—to the exclusion of all White people—, these Jesuit-ruled, Masonic “Uncle Toms” of the Black Pope championed an integrationist agitation that has only antagonized the relationship between American Whites and Blacks for the last sixty years—while further centralizing executive power in Washington! Massive unconstitutional socialism, such as President Johnson’s “War on [Black] Poverty” igniting a sky-rocketing national debt, has given rise to huge, easily-agitated, welfare-dependent, savage, inner-city, Black populations whose bent to illegitimacy, vice and Black-on- White crime has been continually stoked by the Company’s CIA/Mafia gunrunners, illicit drug trade, Jesuit/Knight of Malta-controlled Hollywood theater movies and now “gangster rap.” From the Order’s NAACP headquarters in New York City we see (L-R): Bayard Rustin, co-founder of the Rockefellerfunded University of Chicago’s Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); Jewish Jack Greenberg, NAACP New York lawyer; Masonic Whitney M. Young, Jr., National Urban League executive director; James Farmer, cofounder and national CORE director; Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the NAACP later awarded St. Louis University’s “Sword of Ignatius Loyola” in 1976; Martin Luther King, Jr. (groomed for the movement while a student at the all-Blackmale Morehouse College by its Masonic president, Benjamin Elijah Mays) president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; John Lewis, radical chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee; Masonic A. Philip Randolph, “the Chief;” and Courtney Young of Lewis’ student group. Socialist Martin King with his White Master, Pope Paul VI, 1964 #612 Archbishop Paul Marcinkus gazes at King after an “audience” with the Pope. SMOM Henry R. Luce’s Time magazine named King “Man of the Year” in 1964 on orders from Cardinal Spellman, furthering Rome’s Civil Rights agitation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4737372.stm "

Vatican Assassins Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQl1CmWeLL87RWVtzKttGFKm0frSNR8D/view?usp=sharing

The advertisement billed the December 2 benefit gala as “A Struggle Against Oppression.” Scheduled speakers included rising Assemblyman Willie Brown as the master of ceremonies and funnyman Dick Gregory as the keynote. Supervisor Harvey Milk and other movers and shakers of an oft moved and shaken city crammed their big names into a small font on the flyer. For the bargain of $25—and “tax deductible” at that—influence seekers could seek to influence the mighty of a great American city. In addition to mingling with such power brokers as Brown and Milk, they could corner Sheriff Eugene Brown, physician and newspaper publisher Carlton Goodlett, and Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver at San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency. And doing well meant doing good. The dinner’s proceeds subsidized the Peoples Temple Medical Program.

The Hyatt ballroom remained empty on December 2, 1978. Two weeks earlier, the small staff of the Peoples Temple Medical Program had mixed cyanide with Flavor Aid and administered the poisonous, sugary elixir to hundreds of people in faraway Guyana. The smiling seniors and racial rainbow of children touting the wholesomeness of the agricultural commune in the fundraiser’s promotional literature rotted in piles in the steamy South American jungle. On an airstrip in nearby Port Kaituma, five people, including Congressman Leo Ryan, lay dead, gunned down by Peoples Temple assassins. Others, including future congresswoman Jackie Speier, State Department official Richard Dwyer, and San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman, nursed bullet wounds. In Guyana’s capital city, a former Harvey Milk campaign volunteer slashed her children’s throats.

The Reverend Jim Jones, the darling of the San Francisco political establishment, orchestrated the murders and suicides of 918 people on November 18, 1978. The man-made cataclysm represented the largest such loss of civilian life in American history until 9/11 and the largest mass suicide of the modern age. Nothing before or after struck Americans as so bizarre.

The event shocked the world. But the small world surrounding Peoples Temple predicted it—loudly and repeatedly. Not every utterance from Jonestown’s namesake, after all, proved as cryptic as the one block-quoted on the “Struggle Against Oppression” promotional literature: “We have tasted life based on total equality and now have no desire to live otherwise."

https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/socialists-in-the-kool-aid/

Fire as the agent of Truth

Asha Vahishta is closely associated with fire. Fire is "grandly conceived as a force informing all the other Amesha Spentas, giving them warmth and the spark of life."[27] In Yasht 17.20, Angra Mainyu clamours that Zoroaster burns him with Asha Vahishta. In Vendidad 4.54-55, speaking against the truth and violating the sanctity of promise is detected by the consumption of "water, blazing, of golden color, having the power to detect guilt."

This analogy of truth that burns and detecting truth through fire is already attested in the very earliest texts, that is, in the Gathas and in the Yasna Haptanghaiti. In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda dispenses justice through radiance of His fire and the strength of aṣ̌a. Fire "detects" sinners "by hand-grasping" (Yasna 34.4). An individual who has passed the fiery test (garmo-varah, ordeal by heat), has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity (Yasna 30.7). Altogether, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all."[28] According to the post-Sassanid Dadestan i denig (I.31.10), at the final judgement a river of molten metal will cover the earth. The righteous, as they wade through this river, will perceive the molten metal as a bath of warm milk. The wicked will be scorched. For details on aṣ̌a's role in personal and final judgement, see aṣ̌a in eschatology, below.

Fire is moreover the "auxiliary of the truth," "and not only, as in the ordeal, of justice and of truth at the same time."[11] In Yasna 31.19, "the man who thinks of aṣ̌a, [...] who uses his tongue in order to speak correctly, [does so] with the aid of brilliant fire". In Yasna 34-44 devotees "ardently desire [Mazda's] mighty fire, through aṣ̌a." In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda "shall come to [Zoroaster] through the splendour of [Mazda's] fire, possessing the strength of (through) aṣ̌a and good mind (=Vohu Manah)." That fire "possesses strength through aṣ̌a" is repeated again in Yasna 43.4. In Yasna 43.9, Zoroaster, wishing to serve fire, gives his attention to aṣ̌a. In Yasna 37.1, in a list of what are otherwise all physical creations, aṣ̌a takes the place of fire.

Asha Vahishta's association with atar is carried forward in the post-Gathic texts, and they are often mentioned together. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, each of the Amesha Spentas represents one aspect of creation and one of seven primordial elements that in Zoroastrian tradition are the basis of that creation. In this matrix, aṣ̌a/arta is the origin of fire, Avestan atar, which permeates through all Creation. The correspondence then is that aṣ̌a/arta "penetrates all ethical life, as fire penetrates all physical being."[12]

In the liturgy Asha Vahishta is frequently invoked together with fire. (Yasna l.4, 2.4, 3.6, 4.9, 6.3, 7.6, 17.3, 22.6, 59.3, 62.3 etc.). In one passage, fire is a protector of aṣ̌a: "when the Evil Spirit assailed the creation of Good Truth, Good Thought and Fire intervened" (Yasht 13.77)

In later Zoroastrian tradition, Asha Vahishta is still at times identified with the fire of the household hearth.

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

The Sphere (officially Große Kugelkaryatide N.Y., also known as Sphere at Plaza Fountain, WTC Sphere or Koenig Sphere) is a monumental cast bronze sculpture by German artist Fritz Koenig (1924–2017).[2]

The world's largest bronze sculpture of modern times stood between the Twin Towers on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza of the World Trade Center in New York City from 1972 until the September 11 attacks. The work, weighing more than 20 tons, was the only remaining work of art to be recovered largely intact from the ruins of the collapsed Twin Towers. After being dismantled and stored near a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the sculpture was the subject of the 2001 documentary Koenig's Sphere. Since then, the bronze sphere has become a memorial for the attacks.

The sculpture was installed in Battery Park between 2002 and 2017, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey moved it to Liberty Park, overlooking the September 11 Memorial and its original location.[2] The sculpture, rededicated at its permanent location on August 16, 2017, has been kept in the badly damaged condition it was found in after the September 11 attacks.

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

Social Park USA

November 15 at 9:11 AM

The Sphere and the North Tower 🇺🇸

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02Ggy86MmsLCbJAubHGqxADhb5N4Au3hWPsHkTKjXqKuZbsb2wuZGWHHutJUST59r3l&id=61555655113607

Niggardly (noun: niggard) is an adjective meaning 'stingy' or 'miserly'. Niggard (14th C) is derived from the Middle English word meaning 'stingy,' nigon, which is probably derived from two other words also meaning 'stingy,' Old Norse hnǫggr and Old English hnēaw.[2] The word niggle, which in modern usage means to give excessive attention to minor details, probably shares an etymology with niggardly.[3]

Nigger, a racial slur widely considered to be offensive, derives from the Spanish word Negro, meaning 'black', and the French word nègre. Both negro and noir (and therefore also nègre and nigger) ultimately come from the Latin adjective niger, 'black' or 'dark'.[4] The first recorded use of nigger dates to 1574, and its first recorded derogatory use to 1775.[5][6] Plays on the similarity of the two words date back at least a century, one example being a piece of sheet music from 1900.[7][original research?]

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

In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter.[1]

In analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor for "the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within."[2]

Jung

For Carl Jung, "the rediscovery of the principles of alchemy came to be an important part of my work as a pioneer of psychology".[3] As a student of alchemy, he (and his followers) "compared the 'black work' of the alchemists (the nigredo) with the often highly critical involvement experienced by the ego, until it accepts the new equilibrium brought about by the creation of the self."[4] Jungians interpreted nigredo in two main psychological senses.

The first sense represented a subject's initial state of undifferentiated unawareness, "the first nigredo, that of the unio naturalis, is an objective state, visible from the outside only ... an unconscious state of non-differentiation between self and object, consciousness and the unconscious."[5] Here the subject is unaware of the unconscious; i.e. the connection with the instincts.[6]

In the second sense, "the nigredo of the process of individuation on the other hand is a subjectively experienced process brought about by the subject's painful, growing awareness of his shadow aspects."[7] It could be described as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development.[8] As individuation unfolds, so "confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective or even impossible ... nigredo, tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia."[9] Here is "the darkest time, the time of despair, disillusionment, envious attacks; the time when Eros and Superego are at daggers drawn, and there seems no way forward ... nigredo, the blackening."[10]

Only subsequently would come "an enantiodromia; the nigredo gives way to the albedo ... the ever deepening descent into the unconscious suddenly becomes illumination from above."[11]

Further steps of the alchemical opus include such images as albedo (whiteness), citrinitas (yellowness), and rubedo (redness). Jung also found psychological equivalents for many other alchemical concepts, with "the characterization of analytic work as an opus; the reference to the analytic relationship as a vas, vessel or container; the goal of the analytic process as the coniunctio, or union of conflicting opposites."[12]

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

A Black Fast, also known as a strict fast, is a form of early Christian fasting.[1] Those undertaking a Black Fast consume no food or water during the day and then break the fast after sunset with prayer, as well as water and a vegetarian meal devoid of meat, eggs, dairy products (lacticinia), and alcohol.[2][3][4][5] Christians normatively fasted in this way during Lent prior to the 6th century.[6]

Description and practice

Traditionally, the Black Fast is undertaken during Lent; it is the early Christian form of fasting consisting of fasting until sunset, and then consuming one vegetarian meal afterwards (with food and water being allowed only at this time).[5][4] This was the normative way of Christian fasting prior to the 6th century A.D. and among certain denominations (such as the Coptic Orthodox Church) and in some localities like India and Pakistan, many Christians continue to observe the Black Fast throughout the whole season of Lent.[6][5][7][8][9] After attending a worship service (often on Wednesday or Friday evenings), it is common for Christians of various denominations to break that day's Lenten fast together through a communal Lenten supper, which is held in the church's parish hall in the public setting; in the home setting Lenten Suppers take place in the context of a family meal every day during Lent (except on the Lord's Day).[10] Throughout the entire Christian year, many Christians keep the Black Fast on Wednesdays (in memory of Jesus' betrayal) and on Fridays (to mourn the crucifixion of Jesus).[11] In Western Christianity, many monastics still retain this practice, though many laypeople voluntarily undertake the Black Fast, especially on Good Friday.[12]

The details of the Black Fast are as follows:[13][3]

No food or liquids are allowed from midnight until sunset.[14][4][9]

One vegetarian meal a day is permitted, only after sunset.[3][14][15][13]

A mealtime prayer is offered at the time the Black Fast is broken.[5]

Flesh meat, eggs, and dairy products (lacticinia: milk, butter, and cheese) are forbidden.[13]

Alcohol is forbidden.[13][16]

During Holy Week (the final week of Lent), the Lenten supper meal consists exclusively of bread, salt, herbs, and water.[3][A]

Oriental Orthodoxy

Coptic Orthodox Church

Further information: Fasting and abstinence of the Coptic Orthodox Church

In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Black Fast is the normative way of fasting during Great Lent; Coptic Orthodox Christians go without water and food from midnight to sunset; after that time, the consumption of water and one vegetarian meal is permitted.[9] Married couples abstain from sexual relations during this period "to give themselves time for fasting and prayer (1 Cor. 7: 5)."[9]

Roman Catholicism

The Black Fast was widely practiced by the faithful during the Lenten season by "kings and princes, clergy and laity, rich and poor".[18] In addition, the Black Fast was kept on the days preceding one's ordination.[18] When fasting today, Roman Catholics have the liberty to fast in this manner, or in the modern fashion in which a collation is permitted. Fasting rules were liberalised to avoid accidents due to weakness or lack of concentration in modern industrial jobs. For the same reason some soldiers in military orders like the Hospitallers were historically exempt from the strict rule.

Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism

The Black Fast is observed by the devout Eastern Orthodox laity or monks throughout Great Lent, as well as the three other fasting periods of the year (the Dormition Fast, Nativity Fast, and the Apostles' Fast) and occasionally on the weekly fast days of Wednesday and Friday.[19][20]

Some Eastern Catholics and Eastern Lutherans perform the Black Fast on Fridays during Lent, especially on Good Friday.

Romanian Orthodox Church

The term "Black Fast" has a different connotation within the Romanian Orthodox Church, which defines it somewhat similar to the definition given by those within the realms of the Classical Pentecostal movement (see below).

Anglican Communion

In Anglican Communion, the faithful have observed the Black Fast on "the two great Prayer Book fast days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday".[12] The Black Fast was especially popular during the 19th century as it sought to imitate "the fasting of the ancient church."[12]

Pentecostalism

The term "Black Fast" has a different connotation with writers within Classical Pentecostalism. A Black Fast is complete abstinence from food or water and nothing is consumed in its duration.[21]

Ward states that the terms "Black Fast," "Hebrew Fast," and "Absolute Fast" are synonymous. British evangelical Arthur Wallis coined the term "Absolute Fast" in his book God's Chosen Fast (1968).[22]

A Normal Fast or "Complete Fast" consists of eating nothing but drinking pure water. A Partial Fast (or Daniel Fast) consists of abstinence, either eliminating all but one type of food or eliminating just one type of food. The Black Fast is observed on rare occasions in Pentecostal circles while the Normal Fast is most usually undertaken.

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

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid0384sC3vaoghdFewCeUQmBQNJPvwiqNKinoENXSeDZFmy9BUqxRpnr2ekNwhMccSt9l

The sibyls[n 1] were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece.[1][2]

Statue in the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi, believed to depict a sibyl.

The sibyls prophesied at holy sites.[3] A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by Pausanias[4] when he described local traditions in his writings from the second century AD. At first, there appears to have been only a single sibyl. By the fourth century BC, there appear to have been at least three more, Phrygian, Erythraean, and Hellespontine. By the first century BC, there were at least ten sibyls, located in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor.

History

Michelangelo's Delphic Sibyl, Sistine Chapel ceiling

The English word sibyl (/ˈsɪbəl/) is from Middle English, via the Old French sibile and the Latin sibylla from the ancient Greek Σίβυλλα (Sibylla).[5] Varro derived the name from an Aeolic sioboulla, the equivalent of Attic theobule ("divine counsel").[6] This etymology is not accepted in modern handbooks, which list the origin as unknown.[7] There have been alternative proposals in nineteenth-century philology suggesting Old Italic[8][failed verification] or Semitic derivation.[9]

The first known Greek writer to mention a sibyl is (based on the testimony of Plutarch) Heraclitus (fl. 500 BC):

The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.[10]

Walter Burkert observes that "frenzied women from whose lips the god speaks" are recorded very much earlier in the Near East, as in Mari in the second millennium and in Assyria in the first millennium".[11]

Until the literary elaborations of Roman writers, sibyls were not identified by a personal name, but by names that refer to the location of their temenos, or shrine.

In Pausanias, Description of Greece, the first sibyl at Delphi mentioned ("the former" [earlier]) was of great antiquity, and was thought, according to Pausanias, to have been given the name "sibyl" by the Libyans.[12] Sir James Frazer calls the text defective.

The second sibyl referred to by Pausanias, and named "Herophile", seems to have been based ultimately in Samos, but visited other shrines, at Clarus, Delos, and Delphi and sang there, but that at the same time, Delphi had its own sibyl.[12]

James Frazer writes, in his translation and commentary on Pausanias,[13] that only two of the Greek sibyls were historical: Herophile of Erythrae, who is thought to have lived in the eighth century BC, and Phyto of Samos who lived somewhat later. He observes that the Greeks at first seemed to have known only one sibyl, and instances Heraclides Ponticus[14] as the first ancient writer to distinguish several sibyls: Heraclides names at least three sibyls, the Phrygian, the Erythraean, and the Hellespontine.[15] The scholar David S. Potter writes, "In the late fifth century BC it does appear that 'Sibylla' was the name given to a single inspired prophetess".[16]

Like Heraclitus, Plato speaks of only one sibyl, but in course of time the number increased to nine, with a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, probably Etruscan in origin, added by the Romans. According to Lactantius' Divine Institutions (Book 1, Ch. 6), Varro (first century BC) lists these ten: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphic, the Cimmerian, the Erythræan, the Samian, the Cumæan, the Hellespontine (in Trojan territory), the Phrygian (at Ancyra), and the Tiburtine (named Albunea).

Specific sibyls

Cimmerian Sibyl

Main article: Cimmerian Sibyl

Naevius names the Cimmerian Sibyl in his books of the Punic War and Piso in his annals.

Evander, the son of Sibyl, founded in Rome the shrine of Pan that is called the Lupercal.

Cumaean Sibyl

Main article: Cumaean Sibyl

Cumaean Sibyl on a coin of 43 BC, shown riding in a biga drawn by lions with a patera in her hand.

The Sibyl of Cumae, by Hector Leroux.

The sibyl who most concerned the Romans was the Cumaean Sibyl, located near the Greek city of Naples, whom Virgil's Aeneas consults before his descent to the lower world (Aeneid book VI: 10). Burkert notes (1985, p. 117) that the conquest of Cumae by the Oscans in the fifth century destroyed the tradition, but provides a terminus ante quem for a Cumaean sibyl. She is said to have sold the original Sibylline books to Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. In Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, the Cumaean sibyl foretells the coming of a savior—possibly a flattering reference to the poet's patron, Augustus. Christians later identified this saviour as Jesus.[17][18][19]

Delphic Sibyl

Main article: Delphic Sibyl

The Delphic Sibyl was a woman who prophesied before the Trojan Wars (c. eleventh century BC). She was noted by Pausanias[4] in his writing during the second century AD about local traditions in Greece. This earliest documented Delphic Sibyl would have predated by hundreds of years the priestess of Apollo active at the oracle from around the eighth century BC who was known as Pythia.[20] As Greek religion passed through transitions to the pantheon of the Classical Greeks that is most familiar to modern readers, Apollo had become the deity represented by Pythia and those who then officiated at the already ancient oracle.

Erythraean Sibyl

Main article: Erythraean Sibyl

The Erythraean Sibyl was sited at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios.

Apollodorus of Erythrae affirms the Erythraean Sibyl to have been his own countrywoman and to have predicted the Trojan War and prophesied to the Greeks who were moving against Ilium both that Troy would be destroyed and that Homer would write falsehoods.

The word acrostic was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.

Hellespontine Sibyl

Main article: Hellespontine Sibyl

The Hellespontine, or Trojan Sibyl, presided over the Apollonian oracle at Dardania.

The Hellespontian Sibyl was born in the village of Marpessus near the small town of Gergitha, during the lifetimes of Solon and Cyrus the Great. Marpessus, according to Heraclides of Pontus, was formerly within the boundaries of the Troad. The sibylline collection at Gergis was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Thence it passed to Erythrae, where it became famous.

Michelangelo's Libyan Sibyl, Sistine Chapel ceiling

Libyan Sibyl

Main article: Libyan Sibyl

The Libyan Sibyl was identified with prophetic priestesses presiding over the ancient Zeus-Amon (Zeus represented with the horns of Amon) oracle at the Siwa Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt. The oracle here was consulted by Alexander after his conquest of Egypt. The mother of the Libyan Sibyl was Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon. Euripides mentions the Libyan Sibyl in the prologue to his tragedy Lamia.

Persian Sibyl

Main articles: Persian Sibyl and Hebrew Sibyl

The Persian Sibyl was said to be a prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle; although her location remained vague enough so that she might be called the "Babylonian Sibyl", the Persian Sibyl is said to have foretold the exploits of Alexander the Great.[21] Also named Sambethe, she was reported to be of the family of Noah.[21] The second-century AD traveller Pausanias, pausing at Delphi to enumerate four sibyls, mentions the "Hebrew Sibyl" who was

brought up in Palestine named Sabbe, whose father was Berosus and her mother Erymanthe. Some say she was a Babylonian, while others call her an Egyptian Sibyl.[22][23][24]

The medieval Byzantine encyclopedia, the Suda, credits the Hebrew Sibyl as author of the Sibylline oracles.

Phrygian Sibyl

Main article: Phrygian Sibyl

The Phrygian Sibyl is most well known for being conflated with Cassandra, Priam's daughter in Homer's Iliad.[25] The Phrygian Sibyl appears to be a doublet of the Hellespontine Sibyl.

Samian Sibyl

Main article: Samian Sibyl

The Samian sibyl's oracular site was at Samos.

Tiburtine Sibyl

Main article: Tiburtine Sibyl

To the classical sibyls of the Greeks, the Romans added a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Sabino–Latin town of Tibur (modern Tivoli). The mythic meeting of Augustus with the Sibyl, of whom he inquired whether he should be worshiped as a god, was a favored motif of Christian artists. Whether the sibyl in question was the Etruscan Sibyl of Tibur or the Greek Sibyl of Cumae is not always clear. The Christian author Lactantius had no hesitation in identifying the sibyl in question as the Tiburtine Sibyl, nevertheless. He gave a circumstantial account of the pagan sibyls that is useful mostly as a guide to their identifications, as seen by fourth-century Christians:

The Tiburtine Sibyl, by name Albunea, is worshiped at Tibur as a goddess, near the banks of the Anio, in which stream her image is said to have been found, holding a book in her hand. Her oracular responses the Senate transferred into the capitol. (Divine Institutes I.vi)

An apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy exists, attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl, written c. AD 380, but with revisions and interpolations added at later dates.[26] It purports to prophesy the advent of a final emperor named Constans, vanquishing the foes of Christianity, bringing about a period of great wealth and peace, ending paganism, and converting the Jews. After vanquishing Gog and Magog, the emperor is said to resign his crown to God. This would give way to the Antichrist. Ippolito d'Este rebuilt the Villa d'Este at Tibur, the modern Tivoli, from 1550 onward, and commissioned elaborate fresco murals in the Villa that celebrate the Tiburtine Sibyl, as prophesying the birth of Christ to the classical world.

In Renaissance art and literature

Filippino Lippi, Five Sibyls Seated in Niches: the Samian, Cumean, Hellespontic, Phrygian and Tiburtine, c. 1465–1470, Christ Church, Oxford.

In Medieval Latin, sibylla simply became the term for "prophetess". It became used commonly in Late Gothic and Renaissance art to depict female Sibyllae alongside male prophets. [27]

The number of sibyls so depicted could vary, sometimes they were twelve (See, for example, the Apennine Sibyl), sometimes ten, e.g. for François Rabelais, "How know we but that she may be an eleventh sibyl or a second Cassandra?" Gargantua and Pantagruel, iii. 16, noted in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1897.[28]

Sibyl by Francesco Ubertini, c. 1525

The best known depiction is that of Michelangelo who shows five sibyls in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling; the Delphic Sibyl, Libyan Sibyl, Persian Sibyl, Cumaean Sibyl, and the Erythraean Sibyl. The library of Pope Julius II in the Vatican has images of sibyls and they are in the pavement of the Siena Cathedral. The Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli crowning the Campidoglio, Rome, is particularly associated with the Sibyl, because a medieval tradition referred the origin of its name to an otherwise unattested altar, Ara Primogeniti Dei, said to have been raised to the "firstborn of God" by the emperor Augustus, who had been warned of his advent by the sibylline books: in the church the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine Sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar. In the nineteenth century, Rodolfo Lanciani recalled that at Christmastime the presepio included a carved and painted figure of the sibyl pointing out to Augustus the Virgin and Child, who appeared in the sky in a halo of light. "The two figures, carved in wood, have now [1896] disappeared; they were given away or sold thirty years ago, when a new set of images was offered to the Presepio by prince Alexander Torlonia." (Lanciani, 1896 ch 1) Like prophets, Renaissance sibyls forecasting the advent of Christ appear in monuments: modelled by Giacomo della Porta in the Santa Casa at Loreto, painted by Raphael in Santa Maria della Pace, by Pinturicchio in the Borgia apartments of the Vatican, engraved by Baccio Baldini, a contemporary of Botticelli, and graffites by Matteo di Giovanni in the pavement of the Duomo of Siena.

Shakespeare references the sibyls in his plays, including Othello, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, and especially Troilus and Cressida. In the latter, Shakespeare employed the common Renaissance comparison of Cassandra to a sibyl.[29]

A collection of twelve motets by Orlande de Lassus entitled Prophetiae Sibyllarum (pub. 1600) draw inspiration from the sibyl figures of antiquity. The work—for four voices a cappella—consists of a prologue and twelve prophecies, each once corresponding to an individual Sibyl. While the text speaks of the coming of Jesus Christ, the composer reflects the mystical aura of the prophecies by using chromaticism in an extreme manner, a compositional technique that became very fashionable at the time. It is possible that Lassus not only viewed Michelangelo's depictions, but also drew the chromatic manière from a number of Italian composers, who experimented at the time.

Filippino Lippi, Five Sibyls Seated in Niches: The Persian, Libyan, Delphic, Cimmerian and Erythraean, c. 1465–1470, Christ Church, Oxford.

Sibylline books

Main article: Sibylline Books

The sayings of sibyls and oracles were notoriously open to interpretation (compare Nostradamus) and were constantly used for both civil and cult propaganda. These sayings and sibyls should not be confused with the extant sixth-century collection of Sibylline Oracles, which typically predict disasters rather than prescribe solutions.

Some genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in the second-century Book of Marvels of Phlegon of Tralles. The oldest collection of written Sibylline Books appears to have been made about the time of Solon and Cyrus at Gergis on Mount Ida in the Troad. The sibyl, who was born near there, at Marpessus, and whose tomb was later marked by the temple of Apollo built upon the archaic site, appears on the coins of Gergis, c. 400–350 BCE. (cf. Phlegon, quoted in the fifth-century geographical dictionary of Stephanus of Byzantium, under 'Gergis'). Other places claimed to have been her home. The sibylline collection at Gergis was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. Thence it passed to Erythrae, where it became famous. It was this very collection, it would appear, which found its way to Cumae and from Cumae to Rome. Gergis, a city of Dardania in the Troad, a settlement of the ancient Teucri, and, consequently, a town of very great antiquity.[30] Gergis, according to Xenophon, was a place of much strength. It had a temple sacred to Apollo Gergithius, and was said to have given birth to the sibyl, who is sometimes called Erythraea, ‘from Erythrae,’ a small place on Mount Ida,[31] and at others Gergithia ‘of Gergis’.

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

THE "ZIG-ZAG Man" of rolling papers fame is based on the story of a French North African soldier (Zouave) whose smoking pipe was shattered by a stray bullet during the battle of Sevastopol so he rolled his tobacco using a piece of paper torn from a musket cartridge.

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/9oojd9/til_zigzag_man_of_rolling_papers_fame_is_based_on/?rdt=47114

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974[1]) is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender rights and sexuality issues, with a focus on transgender fertility and reproductive rights.[2]

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

History and development

Floor and table designs

Painted boards

Contemporary use

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

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM

by MAX HEINDEL

https://dn720206.ca.archive.org/0/items/freemasonryandca017137mbp/freemasonryandca017137mbp.pdf

FBI Attempts to Hold Sibel Edmonds' Book Hostage

Published on April 10, 2012

FBI Attempts to Hold Sibel Edmonds’ Book Hostage

Agency Used Contracts to Censor Whistleblowers

Washington, D.C. April 10, 2012. Today, the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) revealed that the FBI required employees to sign employment contracts that are illegal under Federal law. The NWC launched the investigation in response to a nearly year long campaign by the FBI to prevent the publication of whistleblower Sibel Edmonds’ new book, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story.

On April 26, 2011, Ms. Edmonds followed official procedure and submitted her manuscript to the FBI for pre-publication clearance. Under the terms of her employment agreement and controlling regulations, the FBI was required to review and approve the submission within thirty (30) days. Instead of complying with the law, the FBI intentionally stalled the approval process for over 341 days and has still refused to “clear” the book for publication.

Ms. Edmonds will speak today for the first time about the FBI’s attempts to suppress her book. The interview will be aired live at 1:30pm ET on Honesty Without Fear, and the podcast will also be available for download.

The NWC is also releasing documentation confirming that the FBI required employees, including Ms. Edmonds, to sign the illegal contracts that allowed the FBI to censor issues of “public policy” it found embarrassing. According to Ms. Edmonds attorney, Stephen M. Kohn, “the controlling law strictly limits government’s ability to censor its employees. Agencies like the FBI may require pre-publication review of its employees’ writings, but may only censor classified or secret information. The government may not censor books or other writings on ‘policy’ grounds. The FBI’s employment contract with Ms. Edmonds is overreaching and illegal.”

Additional documents (linked below) demonstrate that the agency acted illegally to prevent Ms. Edmonds from publishing a manuscript that might embarrass the agency.

The book in question, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, discusses Ms. Edmonds’s experience as an FBI Language Specialist who discovered and blew the whistle on serious security breaches and cover-ups at the Washington Field Office. The FBI fired Ms. Edmonds for making protected disclosures about the misconduct she observed and later invoked the “state’s secret” privilege to suppress her story.

An independent investigation by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General confirmed her allegations and the illegality of her termination. However, the Bush administration invoked the state secrets privilege in 2002 in order to have Ms. Edmonds’ whistleblower claims dismissed and to protect the government from embarrassment.In recognition of her work to expose intelligence failures, Ms. Edmonds received the 2006 First Amendment Award, presented by the PEN American Center and Newman’s Own.

Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center, also stated:

The FBI must stop harassing Sibel Edmonds. The law is crystal clear on the government’s ability to censor federal employees and contractors. When reviewing their writings, the government has the single ability to strike classified or secret information. The government may not censor a book based on “policy.” Here, the FBI has invented new powers for itself, violating the Constitution. Congress should investigate all employment agreements drafted by the FBI to ensure that they are legal and not designed to censor speech protected under the First Amendment.

https://www.whistleblowers.org/news/fbi-attempts-to-hold-sibel-edmonds-book-hostage/

Books: 1. In general: the extent to which they are to be allowed for the private use of Ours [372, 373]; specifically, in the colleges of Ours [372]. See also Library; Publishing books and other scholarly works 2. Administrative: in which are to be recorded: possessions brought by novices and certain of their declarations [57, 200]; the names of those who pronounce vows [530, 545] 3. To be read in the schools: see Authors 4. The writing thereof: see Writing of books;Writers 5. Publication thereof: see Publishing books and other scholarly works

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

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“Index of Forbidden Books”) was established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1559 in an attempt to combat the spread of some of the writings of the Protestant Reformation. The first printed Index included a prohibition against the “Bible in Castilian Romance or any other vulgar tongue,” a ban that remained in force until the 18th century. Many books deemed heretical or threatening to the faith were destroyed or hidden as a result of the Index and the inquisitions, and hundreds of printers took flight to Switzerland and Germany.

Some of the outcome, and much of the enforcement, of the Council of Trent was in the hands of newly established religious orders, above all the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola and officially established by the papacy in 1540. Unlike the Benedictine monks or the Franciscan and Dominican friars, the Jesuits swore special obedience to the pope and were specifically dedicated to the task of reconstructing church life and teaching in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. They thus came to be called the “shock troops of the Counter-Reformation.”

Education was foremost in the minds of many of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation, Jesuit or otherwise, and seminaries multiplied to prepare the clergy for a more austere life in the service of the church. There was a flowering of utopian ideas; writings such as La città del sole (“The City of the Sun”) by Tommaso Campanella and La repubblica immaginaria (“The Imaginary Republic”) by Lodovico Agostini are examples of this new vision of the church and of the duties of Christians. Although the Jesuits were not specifically a teaching order, they were nevertheless very important in this field and became especially active in scholarship and education. The first Jesuit college was opened in Messina, Sicily, in 1548. By 1615 the Jesuits had 372 colleges, and by 1755—just 18 years before the suppression of the order—the number had risen to 728. (The society was not reestablished until 1814.) The Jesuits were also involved in the education of the nobility, and through their pupils they sometimes wielded as great an influence in affairs of state as they did in affairs of the church.

Another major emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was an ongoing missionary endeavour in parts of the world that had been colonized by predominantly Roman Catholic countries, such as Spain and Portugal. Although the Jesuits were by no means the only religious order in the foreign missions of the church, their responsibility for regaining outside Europe the power and territory that the church had lost within Europe as a result of the Protestant Reformation made them the leading force in the Christianization of newly discovered lands. The work of such men as St. Francis Xavier and others in Asia and of missionaries in the New World was rewarded with millions of baptisms, if not true conversions.

There were also attempts to reconvert areas of the world that had once been Roman Catholic—e.g., England and Sweden. Most of the “German lands” in which Luther had worked remained Protestant after his death in 1546, but major territories, above all Bavaria and Austria, were regained for Roman Catholicism by the end of the 16th century. The Wars of Religion between 1562 and 1598 regained France for the Roman Catholic cause, though the Edict of Nantes (1598) granted a limited toleration to the Protestants; it was revoked in 1685. Perhaps the most complete victory for the Counter-Reformation was the restoration of Roman Catholic domination in Poland and in Hussite Bohemia. In Italy, Spain, and the southern Netherlands (the future Belgium), Protestant influence was also largely destroyed."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Counter-Reformation/Inquisition

https://www.facebook.com/SibelNewsbud/posts/pfbid02TUhjY1ZDeZKxbu6otkrU3XEnFkrtnZ58bwiYEGzhYzYWKgkdhzZmvDZWfBEjj13Ql

At least some deities received daily offerings of bread or flour, as attested in Hattusa and Nuzi.[62] One well known type of Hurrian offerings was keldi, translated as "peace offering"[137] or "goodwill offering."[138] It is also assumed that many monthly or seasonal festivals were observed by Hurrians, but very few of them are well documented, one exception being the hišuwa festival from Kizzuwatna, possibly originally celebrated in Syria.[62] It was meant to guarantee good fortune for the royal couple.[139] Deities who received offering during it included "Teššub Manuzi," Lelluri, Allani, Išḫara, two manifestations of Nupatik (pibithi - "of Pibid(a)" and zalmathi - "of Zalman(a)/Zalmat") and the Anatolian goddess Maliya.[139] Another Kizzuwatnean festival, which was dedicated to Išḫara, took place in autumn.[140]

A Hurrian ritual calendar is attested in documents from Nuzi.[141] In the earliest sources from the third millennium BCE, when the city was known as Gasur, the local calendar was similar to these from Ebla, Mari, Abu Salabikh and Eshnunna, and the month names used at the time originate in Semitic languages.[142] However, after Hurrians settled in the city, they started to use one of their own, which in some cases could be combined with the old calendar, as evidenced by a document combining month names from both into a sequence.[141] The Hurrian month names in Nuzi were Impurtanni, Arkuzzi, Kurilli, Šeḫali ša dIM (the logogram stands for the name of the god Teššub, while šeḫali might mean "festival"), Šeḫali ša Nergal, Attanašwe, Šeḫlu (followed by a month whose name is not preserved), Ḫuru, Mitirunni (mitirunnu was a festival involving a parade of divine statues) and Ḫutalši.[143] Only the names of a few of the etymologically non-Hurrian months are preserved: Ḫiaru (second; the name refers to a festival also known from northern and western Mesopotamia), Ḫinzuru (third), Tamūzu (fourth), Ulūlu (sixth), Sabūtu (seventh, as indicated by the name), Kinūnu (ninth; the name refers to a festival focused on a ritual brazier), Ḫegalla, Qarrāti and Ḫamannu (position in the calendar unknown).[144] Some Hurrian month names, including a possible cognate of Attanašwe, Atanatim, are also known from Alalakh.[145]

It is possible that Attanašwe, "month of the fathers," was connected to the cult of deceased ancestors, which is well documented in Nuzi.[34] Families apparently owned figurines representing their spirits.[34] In the west, references to "gods of the fathers," enna attanewena, can be found,[146] but it is not clear if they refer to similar customs,[34] and it is possible this term instead referred to nebulously defined ancestors of deities.[147] Funerary rites and other burial practices are poorly represented in known sources.[148] It possible that the term karašk-, known from one of Tushratta's letters to the Egyptian pharaoh referred to a type of mausoleum meant to honor a deceased relative.[148] A single text from Ugarit alludes to the dead being led to their destination by Nupatik, seemingly acting as a psychopomp in this case.[149]

Ritual texts are commonly accompanied by instructions pertaining to music which was supposed to be performed during celebrations, both choral and instrumental.[150] While some contain what is most likely the oldest instance of written musical notation, its decipherment is difficult.[151] One well known example of such a Hurrian hymn comes from Ugarit and is dedicated to Nikkal.[152] A genre of Hurrian songs whose name, zinzabuššiya, is derived from that of an unidentified bird, was associated with the worship of Šauška according to Hittite documents.[96]

Divination is well attested as an element of Hurrian religious practice.[153] Its most commonly employed method combined an inquiry aimed at a specific deity with extispicy, the examination of an animal's entrails.[64] Hepatoscopy, or examination of the liver, is mentioned particularly often.[154] A similar practice is known from Mesopotamia, where the examination of a sheep's liver was commonly understood as a way to gain answers to questions directed as the gods Shamash and Adad.[64] A method of divination involving a specific type of bird, the mušen hurri (Akkadian: "the cave bird" or perhaps "the Hurrian bird," possibly a shelduck or rock partridge) is also known, but it remains uncertain what this procedure entailed.[154]

Hurrian incantations are also well known, though they are often difficult to interpret, and many known examples are unprovenanced.[155] They were imported into Mari and Babylonia as early as in the Old Babylonian period.[155] A well-preserved corpus of such texts is also known from Hattusa.[155] Kizzuwatna was most likely the source of many incantations and other similar formulas.[155] Two examples are the itkalzi ("mouth-washing"[156]) and itkahi series of purification rituals.[155] It has been argued that the former most likely reflect a Mitanni tradition.[157]

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

Are you looking for a gift before the TRUMP INAUGURATION?

We’re very pleased to announce the release of the Official 2025 Trump Calendar!

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https://secure.winred.com/trump-national-committee-jfc/lp-hf-email-2025-trump-calendar-v2?utm_medium=email&utm_source=lp_lp_hf&utm_campaign=20241107_tnc_trumpcalendar-v2_hf_dtrump_lp&utm_content=donate&_nlid=VSsY9unVth&_nhids=dl0kiYzAZb

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (27 April 1941 – 20 October 2024) was a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement[8][9] who as of 2016 had millions of followers.[10] Gülen was an influential neo-Ottomanist,[11] Anatolian panethnicist,[clarification needed][12][13] Islamic poet, writer,[14] social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective[15] that embraces democratic modernity.[13] Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981[16][17] and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017.[18] Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive. From 1999 until his death in 2024, Gülen lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.[19][20][21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fethullah_G%C3%BClen

Page 1 of 1

Shelton James M Civ OO-ALC/CCD

From: Dunn Susan L Civ 309 EMXG/QPQC Thursday, May 11, 2006 11:15 AM

Sent:

To:

Shelton James M Clv OO-ALC/CCD Subject: Consideration for another remedy.

Mr. Shelton;

I've thought about the compensatory damages, I have done some research on the EEOC web and have read some law articles.

That doesn't make me an expert by a long shot, but considering that my heart problems and blood pressure has soared since

I was reassigned to this area, due to an overt hostile environment intentionally created on purpose by my management, and

I have had to have surgery and had quite a lot of tests run and the cost of the medications, with this in mind, I would request

that 200 hours of sick leave be restored to me, and $5,000 to $10,000 in damages for pain and suffering from the mental

anguish.

I heard your message this morning, and it took me awhile this morning to respond as I was pondering

this notion.

So an afternoon appointment like 1,2, 3 p.m. today would be ok with me to sign the paperwork again. Thank you for your messages this morning.

Susan Dunn

309 EMXG/QPQC Program Management Spee. USI/UCI/LSET/SAV/ Action Plans DSN. 777-6490 Com. 801-777-6490

5/11/2006

0019

[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 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

The union of minds and hearts: with respect to: performing the task of the head on behalf of the entire Society [666]; governing subjects well [667-69]; exempting Ours from obedience [663]; preparing for, summoning, and directing congregations [681, 682, 686, 689, 690, 691, 712, 716, 718, 755], 332. See also Formulas of congregations " page 512

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

Head:

1. See Illness, mental

2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"

page 416

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

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.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A16-18&version=NIV

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 13:18 That is in this number of the beast consisteth that Popish wisdom, which unto them seemeth the greatest of all others. In these words S. John expoundeth that saying which went before of the number of the beast, what it hath above his mark or acconisance and his name. These things, saith S. John, the mark and the name of the beast, do easily happen unto any man: but to have the number of the beast, is wisdom: that is, only the wise and such as have understanding, can come by that number for they must be most illuminated doctors that attain thereunto, as the words following do declare.

Revelation 13:18 How great and of what denomination this number of the beast is, by which the beast accounted his wisdom, S. John declareth in these words. Dost thou demand how great it is? it is so great, that it occupieth the whole man: he is always learning, and never cometh to the knowledge thereof: he must be a man indeed that doth attain unto it. Askest thou of what denomination it is? verily it standeth of six throughout and perfectly ariseth of all the parts thereof in their several denominations (as they term them) it standeth of six by units, tens, hundreds, etc. so as there is no one part in the learning and order Pontifical, which is not either referred unto the head, and as it were the top thereof, or contained in the same: so fitly do all things in this hierarchy agree one with another, and with their head. Therefore that cruel beast Boniface the eighth doth commend by the number of six those Decretals which he perfected, in the proem of the sixth book. Which book (saith he) being to be added unto five other books of the same volume of Decretals, we thought good to name Sextum the sixth: that the same volume by addition thereof containing a senary, or the number of six books (which is a number perfect) may yield a perfect form of managing all things, and perfect discipline of behavior. Here therefore is the number of the beast, who poureth from himself all his parts and bringeth them all back again unto himself by his discipline in most wise and cunning manner. If any man desire more of this, let him read the gloss upon that place. I am not ignorant that other interpretations are brought upon this place: but I thought it my duty, with the good favor of all and without the offense of any, to propound mine opinion in this point. And for this cause especially, for that it seemed unto me neither profitable, nor like to be true, that the number of the beast, or of the name of the beast should be taken as the common sort of interpreters do take it. For this number of the beast teacheth, giveth out, imprinteth, as a public mark of such as be his, and esteemeth that mark above all others as the mark of those whom he loveth best. Now those other expositions seem rather to be far removed from this property and condition of that number: whether you respect the name Latinus or Titan, or another. For these the beast doth not teach, nor give forth nor imprint, but most diligently forbiddeth to be taught, and audaciously denieth: he approveth not these, but reproveth them: and hateth them that think so of this number, with an hatred, greater than that of Vatinius.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A18&version=GNV

Trump Pardons Iowa Turkey Named Corn

U.S. President Donald Trump looks at Corn, the National Thanksgiving Turkey, during the 73rd annual presentation (and pardoning) in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, November 24, 2020.

It’s official. At a ceremony Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden, a broad-breasted turkey named Corn received the annual presidential pardon ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.

“Corn, I hereby give you a full pardon,” said President Donald Trump, who was flanked by first lady Melania Trump and other guests. “Thank you, Corn.”

His brother, Cob, wasn’t so lucky. The White House ran a poll on Twitter, asking those on the social media platform which one of the two turkeys Trump should pardon.

The turkeys, which are bred and fed for size, were raised by Ron Kardel, National Turkey Federation chairman and a sixth-generation turkey, corn and soybean farmer from Walcott, Iowa.

According to the White House website, Corn, whose favorite snack is sweet corn, was hatched on July 20, 2020, and weighs just over 19 kilograms. Cob, whose favorite food is soybeans, was hatched on the same day and weighs just over 18.5 kilograms.

As has been the case since 1947, the two were introduced to the public a day earlier at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C., where the birds had their own room.

The tradition of turkey farmers giving presidents the birds as gifts for Thanksgiving dates to the 1870s, but according to the White House site, so many turkeys were being sent that in 1923, then-President Calvin Coolidge discouraged farmers from sending them.

However, the tradition was already established, and by the 1940s, farmers were once again sending turkeys to the president.

The first official turkey pardoning was done in 1989 by President George H. W. Bush.

While you might think the unpardoned turkey will end up as the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving Day feast, all the turkeys end up on exhibit at various university veterinary schools. Trump said Corn and Cob would be heading to Iowa State University in Ames.

The two will be on display starting December 5.

“We are excited to welcome these national Thanksgiving icons onto our animal science farms. Iowa State University is invested in supporting the poultry and turkey industries through teaching and research as evidenced in our new state-of-the-art turkey production facility to be built in the spring of 2021. We welcome people to come view the newest arrivals at Iowa State,” Dan Thomson, professor and chair of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University, said in a statement.

https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_trump-pardons-iowa-turkey-named-corn/6198774.html

First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen

Built to honor George Washington, the United States' first president, the 555-foot marble obelisk towers over Washington, D.C.

https://www.nps.gov/wamo/index.htm

Published February 11, 2014

Washington Was Originally Named Rome, Maryland

Discover the unique history of Rome in Maryland and its influence on Washington D.C., from Francis Pope's estate to Tiber Creek's origins.

Washington’s Hidden Roman Legacy

Nestled in Washington D.C.‘s history is a surprising connection to a little-known place: Rome, in Maryland. This discovery offers a unique glimpse into America’s past.

Rome in America: A 17th Century Vision

In the 17th century, a vast estate of 400 acres existed southeast of what is now Georgetown, in Maryland. Owned by an Italian culture enthusiast, this land was ambitiously named Rome. The owner’s passion for Italy didn’t just influence the name; it shaped his vision for the New World. This estate was more than land; it was a symbol of aspiration and connection to ancient civilizations.

Transitioning from European inspiration to American reality, the landowner renamed Goose Creek to Tiber Creek. This act mirrored Rome’s iconic River Tiber, creating a symbolic link across continents. His vision was to merge the grandeur of ancient Rome with the budding potential of America.

Francis Pope: The Mastermind Behind Rome, Maryland

The visionary behind this American Rome was Francis Pope, who acquired the land on June 5th, 1663. His story, detailed in an October 7th, 1883 Washington Post article, reflects a blend of ambition and whimsy. Pope took pride in his estate, often boasting about his Rome on the Tiber. His unique naming scheme wasn’t just a personal quirk; it was a statement of cultural identity and historical awareness.

Francis Pope’s legacy extends beyond mere land ownership. He imbued his estate with a sense of historical and cultural significance. His choice to name the creek Tiber was a deliberate effort to echo the greatness of ancient Rome in the new American landscape.

A Modern Twist: The Coincidence of Pope Francis

Adding to the narrative’s richness is the modern coincidence of Pope Francis, the first American pope, sharing a name with Francis Pope. This unexpected twist in the story connects the historical and contemporary worlds. It adds a layer of irony and depth, bridging centuries of history through a shared name.

This coincidence is more than just a curious fact; it symbolizes the enduring influence of history on the present. It illustrates how the past and present often intertwine in unexpected ways, adding new dimensions to our understanding of history.

Rediscovering Rome Before Washington

This exploration into the past reveals an often-overlooked chapter of American history. It uncovers how part of what is now Washington D.C. was once known as Rome, showing a connection between the old world and the new. This narrative not only highlights the forgotten stories of America’s past but also illustrates the rich tapestry of cultural and historical influences that shaped the nation.

In summary, the story of Rome, Maryland, is a reminder of the complex layers of history that underpin modern America. It showcases how historical narratives, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, can provide profound insights into the nation’s past. This tale of a forgotten Rome in America is a testament to the enduring legacy of those who shaped the early American landscape, reminding us of the intricate connections between history, culture, and identity.

https://ghostsofdc.org/2014/02/11/washington-originally-called-rome/

Capitol Hill is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both Northeast and Southeast D.C. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F Street NE, Southeast Boulevard SE, and South Capitol Street SE. Dominated by the United States Capitol, which sits on the highest point of Capitol Hill, it is one of the oldest historic districts in Washington. The neighborhood has a high concentration of rowhouses, largely dating from the 19th century. Home to around 35,000 people in just under 2 square miles (5 km2), Capitol Hill is also one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Washington.[1] The name Capitol Hill is frequently used as a metonym for the U.S. Congress.

Capitol Hill is famed as a center of the United States government, home to numerous important institutions including the U.S. Congress, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and more. Apart from government, the neighborhood is largely residential, but maintains notable commercial hubs along Pennsylvania Avenue, such as Eastern Market and Barracks Row.

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

The Old Man of the Mountain (Arabic: شيخ الجبل, romanized: Shaykh al-Jabal, Latin: Vetulus de Montanis),[1] is the expression used by Marco Polo in a passage from Book of the Marvels of the World, to indicate Muhammad III of Alamut,[2] the grand master of the Order of Assassins, who took refuge in Alamut Castle. It later became a common name used by the Crusaders.[3]

Subsequently, this nickname was given to various Isma'ili successors of Hassan, in Syria, particularly,[4] for example Rashid al-Din Sinan, the da'i (missionary)[5] and a leader of the Syrian branch of the Nizari Isma'ili state.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Mountain_(Assassin)

Appointing a Successor and Eating Habits

SUMMARY: The hadith is about Umar bin al Khattab's speech on the importance of appointing a successor and his warning against eating onion and garlic.

It was narrated from Ma'dan bin Abi Talhah that 'Umar bin al Khattab delivered a khutbah on Friday, and he mentioned the Prophet of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه . He said: I saw a dream that I can only interpret as meaning that my death is near; I saw as if a rooster pecked me twice, and I was told that it was a red rooster. I told this dream to Asma’ bint 'Umais, the wife of Abu Bakr , and she said: You will be killed by a Persian man. The people are asking me to appoint a successor, but Allah will not cause His religion and His caliphate, with which He sent His Prophet ﷺ to be lost. If death comes to me soon, then the caliphate is to be decided by these six men with whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was pleased when he died. Whichever of them you swear allegiance to, then listen to him and obey. I know that some people will object to this matter. I have fought them with my own hands in the defense of Islam. They are the enemies of Allah and misguided Kafirs. By Allah, I am not leaving behind anything that my Lord instructed me to do and I came to the position of caliphate on that basis that is more important to me than kalalah. By Allah, the Prophet of Allah ﷺ never emphasised any issue to me since I accompanied him more than the issue of kalalah, until he poked me in the chest with his finger and said: 'Is not Ayatas-saif (the verse of summer, ie, it was revealed in summer), which appears at the end of Sooratan Nisa', sufficient for you?' If I live I will issue a decree that will be so clear that those who read the Qur'an and those who do not read it will be able to make decisions concerning it. I call upon Allah to bear witness over the governors of the regions, for I only sent them to be just and to teach the people their religion and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and to refer to me concerning any difficult matter. O people, you eat two plants which I find to be nothing but repugnant, this onion and garlic. I remember the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, if he noticed their smell coming from a man in the mosque, he would issue orders that he taken out from the mosque to al-Baqee'. Whoever must eat them, let him cook them to death". He said: He addressed the people on Friday and was attacked on Wednesday.

https://www.islamicity.org/hadith/search/index.php?q=33783&sss=1

Mythology

This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources at this section. (April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In the Baal Cycle, Ba'al Hadad is challenged by and defeats Yam using two magical weapons (called "Driver" and "Chaser") made for him by Kothar-wa-Khasis. Afterward, with the help of Athirat and Anat, Ba'al persuades El to allow him a palace. El approves, and the palace is built by Kothar-wa-Khasis. After the palace is constructed, Ba'al gives forth a thunderous roar out of the palace window and challenges Mot. Mot enters through the window and swallows Ba'al, sending him to the underworld. With no one to give rain, there is a terrible drought in Ba'al's absence. The other deities, especially El and Anat, are distraught that Ba'al had been taken to the underworld. Anat goes to the underworld, attacks Mot with a knife, grinds him up into pieces, and scatters him far and wide. With Mot defeated, Ba'al is able to return and refresh the Earth with rain.[9]

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

A shiv, also chiv, schiv, shivvie or shank,[1][2] is a handcrafted bladed weapon resembling a knife that is commonly associated with prison inmates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv_(weapon)

There are multiple matches for Shiva, including a Hindu god and a Jewish mourning period.

Shiva (Hindu god)

Shiva is a major god in Hinduism, known as the god of destruction.

His name means "auspicious one".

He is also known as Mahadeva, which means "the great god".

Shiva is part of the Hindu trinity, the Trimurti, along with Brahma and Vishnu.

He is worshipped at many shrines in India and around the world.

Shiva is said to live in the Himalayas with his wife, Parvati.

Shiva (Jewish mourning period)

Shiva is a seven-day period of mourning that begins after the burial of a loved one.

The word "shiva" comes from the Hebrew word sheva, which means "seven".

During shiva, mourners traditionally stay home or at the home of the deceased.

They also wear torn clothing or a black ribbon pinned to their clothes.

Shiva is a time to remember, accept death, and return to life.

Generative AI is experimental.

On September 11, 2001, during the terrorist attacks on the United States, Shanksville received worldwide attention after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, 1.75 miles (2.82 km) north of the town of Shanksville, killing all 40 civilians and four al-Qaeda hijackers on board. The hijackers had intended to fly the plane to Washington, D.C. and crash it into either the Capitol or the White House. However, after learning from family members via airphone of the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon, the passengers on board revolted against the hijackers and fought for control of the plane, causing it to crash. It was the only one of the four aircraft hijacked that day that never reached its intended target.[9]

There are two memorials to the event. The original, temporary Flight 93 National Memorial to the passengers and crew of Flight 93 was located on a hill, about 500 yards (460 m) from the crash site. On July 8, 2010, a new temporary entrance and memorial were opened at an area called "the Western Overlook". It is where the FBI set up their command center and where family members first saw the aftermath of the crash, bringing their own memorials, and where visitors can leave them today. The initial phase of permanent construction of the Flight 93 National Memorial, including the visitors' center, was completed by the 10th anniversary in 2011. The memorial is built around the crash site, following the plane's flight path, and protecting the area of impact, known as the "Sacred Ground", which remains protected and accessible only to family members of the passengers and crew.

Shanksville's volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel from the nearby towns of Central City, Somerset, and others rushed to the crash scene to search for survivors. Members of the New York City Fire Department donated to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department a cross-shaped piece of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center. Mounted atop a Pentagon-shaped base, it was installed outside the firehouse and dedicated on August 24, 2008.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanksville,_Pennsylvania

Ra's al Ghul[a] is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Created by editor Julius Schwartz, writer Dennis O'Neil, and artist Neal Adams, the character first appeared in Batman #232's "Daughter of the Demon" (June 1971).[6]

Most notable as the leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul's name in Arabic translates to "Head of the Demon".[7][8] He is the son of Sensei; the father of Talia al Ghul, Ali al Ghul, Nyssa Raatko, Dusan al Ghul and Arkady Duvall; and the maternal grandfather of Damian Wayne. Stories featuring Ra's al Ghul often involve the Lazarus Pits, which restore life to the dying. The Lazarus Pits have considerably prolonged Ra's' life, making him particularly dangerous, as he has honed his combat skills for centuries. Though primarily an enemy of Batman, Ra's has also come into conflict with Superman and other heroes in the DC Universe.

Ra's al Ghul has been featured in various media adaptations. The character was portrayed by David Warner in the DC Animated Universe, Liam Neeson in the Dark Knight trilogy, Jason Isaacs in Batman: Under the Red Hood, Dee Bradley Baker in the Batman: Arkham video game series, Matt Nable in the Arrowverse television series, and Alexander Siddig in Gotham.

IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time List ranked Ra's as number seven.[9]

Publication history

Created by editor Julius Schwartz, writer Dennis O'Neil, and artist Neal Adams, he was introduced in Batman #232's "Daughter of the Demon" (June 1971).[6] Adams discussed how he designed the character in a 2007 Wizard interview: "First of all, Denny O'Neil started as a journalist, and so his experience with costume characters was always a forced experience. When the idea came to Julie Schwartz that "we're kind of reviving old characters. What do we want to do for a new character?" Denny's tendency - and I understood it totally - was not to go to a costumed character with superpowers, but to go to a Moriarty type. When Denny presented it, here I was as a comic-book artist who was used to doing fairly realistic stuff having to deal with, "Hey, no costume." How do I make him unique? Because after all, we are pandering to our audience a little bit. How does he become unique? So, I sort of went down the list of things that I could do that didn't offend my sensibilities as an artist and as a person that lived in the world. How do you make a person unique? And then I realized there are people that look unique, that present their personality with their physiognomy - like Jack Palance, for example. Jack Palance is incredible to look at."[10]

Character overview

Raʼs al Ghul is an international criminal mastermind whose ultimate goal is a world in perfect environmental balance. He believes that the best way to achieve this balance is to eliminate most of humanity.[11] Ra's usually tries to assault the world's human populace with a biological weapon, such as a genetically engineered virus. He is aided in this quest by the Lazarus Pits, reservoirs of rejuvenating chemicals that restore the dead and dying to life, a reference to the biblical story of Lazarus, who was resurrected by Jesus; these pits have granted him a lifespan of several centuries. He regards Batman as his worthiest opponent, addressing him as "Detective" out of respect for his intellectual brilliance, and has frequently sought to make the Dark Knight his successor. He is one of the few criminals in Batman's rogues' gallery to have deduced his secret identity as Bruce Wayne, but keeps silent on the matter due to the same sense of respect for Batman. For his own part, Batman's opposition to Raʼs is complicated by both his own respect for al Ghul's genius (if not his goals and methods) and his attraction to his daughter, Talia, which she reciprocates.[12]

Fictional character biography

Origin

Ra's al Ghul's real name, early life, and exact age have been described differently by various writers. His post Crisis origin story is told in the graphic novel Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992) by Dennis O'Neil and Norm Breyfogle. This origin story is later revisited and amended in Batman Annual #26 (2007) by Peter Milligan and David López as part of the Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul story arc. Most recent retelling origin story, Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #23.3 (2013) by James Tynion IV and Jeremy Haun, references these prior iterations of al Ghul's origin, while keeping common details that lead towards Ra's' adoption of the moniker (e.g. Ra's' occupation as a physician, his wife's death, and the annihilation of the Sultan's city).

As told in Birth of the Demon, Ra's al Ghul (known only as the Physician prior to adopting the moniker) was born over 600 years before his first appearance in Batman comics, to a desert tribe in eastern North Africa, near a wealthy city governed by a sultan. Developing an interest in the sciences at an early age, Ra's abandoned his tribe to live in the city, where he focused himself on learning and experimentation. He subsequently trained as a physician and married a woman named Sora.

Upon discovering the healing properties of the Lazarus Pit, Ra's managed to save the Sultan's dying son by lowering him into it. He is unaware, though, that use of the Lazarus Pit can induce insanity, and the prince (who is already sadistic and cruel), emerges as a mentally unstable sociopath. He proceeds to fatally strangle Sora, on whom he has already had his eye for some time. The sultan, unwilling to admit to himself his son's culpability, accuses Ra's of poisoning his son's mind and sentences him to a slow, tortured death in a cage with Sora's corpse.

Ra's is set free by the son of a dying elderly woman, who Ra's had earlier treated. The son feels that he owes Ra's a debt for easing his mother's suffering during her last few hours. Ra's and the son head into the desert to seek the tribe of Ra's' birth. Ra's convinces the head of his tribe, his uncle, to follow Ra's in his quest for revenge by promising the downfall of the oppressive sultan. By understanding the germ theory of disease hundreds of years before anyone else, Ra's is able to infect the prince with a deadly virus by sending him contaminated fabrics. He then ambushes the sultan when he leads soldiers to the tribe, murders his son and him, and proceeds to massacre the inhabitants of the city before razing it to the ground. Subsequently, Ra's declares himself "Ra's al Ghul", the "Demon's Head".

Batman: Birth of the Demon provides a rough figure of 500 years for Ra's al Ghul's age. Due to living so long and being so old, he is assumed to have lost track of how old he is. Azrael #6 (July 1995; written by Dennis O'Neil) places Ra's age closer to 450 years. As he tells Jean Paul Valley, "I appear to be a vigorous 50. I am actually a very vigorous 448...or is it 453? I lost count during the Black Plague. No matter". In Batman Annual #25 (published in 2006), Ra's al Ghul is described as a "700-Year Old International Terrorist". The 700-year-plus mark is used again in Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #23.3 (2013), followed by Issue #30 of the same series where over a 1000-year time span is also described in Ra's' pursuit of Themyscira.[13]

Using the Lazarus Pits to extend his life, Ra's spends the next several centuries journeying the world. He fights in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and becomes a formidable warrior. As the world entered the modern age and industrialization began to cover much of the Earth, Ra's grew to despise the humans, whom he believed were destroying the world's natural beauty, thus setting him on a path of ecoterrorism. Also during this time, Ra's, his uncle, and Huwe, the son who freed Ra's from the sultan's initial execution, are all using the Lazarus Pits to prolong their lives until an incident in London. Ra's catches Huwe writing his own memoirs in their original Chinese language, despite Ra's having forbidden him to reveal the secret of their immortality. During a battle, Ra's kills Huwe and flees to a Lazarus Pit, which he uses. When he returns to their home in London, his uncle has vanished with the remnants of their historical records.

Over time, he becomes a master of many forms of combat, notably fencing. He also builds up vast wealth and creates the Demon, a huge international organization. According to Justice League of America (1st series) #94:

It has been whispered in the darkest places for 500 years that a cartel of criminals has slowly sucked its way into the rich veins of the Earth. Many are its names spit from the mouths of men, but most often it is cursed only as. The Demon. It has a leader. A Head.[14]

The League of Assassins, one of the many smaller organizations making up The Demon, is thus sometimes called "The Demon's Fang" or "Demonfang".

In his earlier appearances, Ra's al Ghul's ethnic origins were subject to change depending on the depiction and writer. He is said to have East Asian ancestry in accordance to Birth of the Demon and Byzantine/Eastern Roman as addressed by Talia al Ghul in Batman Annual #26. The significance of al Ghul's Eurasian profile is attributed to his known paternal heritage whilst his ambitions for world conquest is often compared and traced to the likes of Alexander the Great; an influence too shared by other family members such as Sensei[15] (Batman #671 (2007) by Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel), Talia al Ghul,[16] and Damian Wayne (Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #0 (2012) by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason) (the name "Damian" being derivative of "damianos", Greek for "to tame"). Most commonly depicted in source material with a dominant phenotype of fair complexion,[17][18][19][20] Ra's has also been able to opportunistically be involved in Western world global exploits such as the Age of Exploration (Year One: Batman/Ra's al Ghul #2 (2005) by Devin K. Grayson and Paul Gulacy) and the Third Reich (Batman: Death and the Maidens #5 (2004) by Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson). Ra's al Ghul's adoptive use of Arabic monikers and the language itself is a result of al Ghul's settlement and cultured history both in erudition and regional pursuit of Lazarus Pit/longevity sources most commonly unearthed throughout the Greater Middle East (e.g. The Well of Sins in the Arabian Peninsula, Red Hood and the Outlaws #22 (2013) by James Tynion IV and Julius Gopez) to East Asia (Peaches of Immortality, Year One: Batman/Ra's al Ghul #1). The use of Arabic monikers in particular (in regards to demons) is used as a scare tactic in Ra's' history promoting both his influence, and reign of terror throughout the Greater Middle East—his first eradication of a sultanate as described in Birth of the Demon, the same actions insinuated to have been repeated in Batman and Robin (vol. 2) #23.3,[21] and direct depiction in Death and the Maidens #4.

Aligning with Ra's al Ghul's character overview as an international environmental terrorist, in conjunction with the character's background being subject to different renditions from multiple writers; co-creator of the character, Neal Adams, has stated that the character has no specific regional/ethnic representation of any kind, necessarily.[22]

"...we created an equal to Batman, and that's what Ra's al Ghul is all about. He's not necessarily Arabic. He's not necessarily Eastern. He's not necessarily Western. He's not necessarily anything! He's just a villain and he's equal to Batman." - Neal Adams, via SYFY WIRE Batman at 80: How To Craft The Perfect Batman Villain

In the 21st century, Ra's has explicitly been established as being of Chinese (though this may no longer be canon) and Arab ancestry. In the 2007-2008 story The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, his father was revealed to be the DC Comics character the Sensei, a warrior and combat instructor who is a member of the League of Assassins. The Sensei is a Chinese man originally from the Hong Kong region. However, Ra's' relation to the Sensei may no longer be canon due to the reveal of his father being a part of the Pre-Flashpoint/Post-Crisis DC continuity that ended in 2011. In 2021, DC introduced Ra's' mother Rúh al Ghul, an Arab woman. Ra's and the rest of the al Ghul's Arabic heritage and connection to Arabic culture has been given greater emphasis since the late 2010s.

Contagion and Legacy

Ra's returns to prominence and comes dangerously close to realizing his dream of worldwide genocide in the "Contagion" story arc of the Batman titles. His organization unleashes a deadly virus known as Ebola Gulf A (a.k.a. "The Clench") in Gotham City, putting Batman in conflict with a force he seemingly cannot defeat. A cure is eventually located by Batman and his allies, though the mastermind behind the outbreak is not discovered until the follow-up story "Legacy".

Learning that the Demon's Head still lives, Batman and his team circle the globe, preventing further outbreaks of the virus. Ra's allies himself with Bane, the man who once crippled and nearly killed Batman. Ra's considers Bane a potential heir to his empire, despite his daughter Talia's distaste for the criminal mastermind. Eventually, Batman deduces a way to eliminate the Clench virus from an ancient "Wheel of Plagues" artifact whose knowledge has aided Ra's in the creation of the disease. The long-lived madman eludes justice again.

JLA: Tower of Babel

In the "Tower of Babel" storyline, in JLA #43–46, Ra's discovers Batman's contingency plans for stopping the other members of the Justice League of America, should they turn or be turned evil, and uses them to try to destroy the group. Meanwhile, Ra's steals the bodies of Batman's parents. This theft prevents Batman from realizing Ra's is using his traps until it is too late, as he is distracted by the search for the corpses of his parents.

Though defeated, Ra's does cause the temporary exit of Batman from the JLA, who now distrust the Caped Crusader. However, though some of the League resent Batman's plans, they eventually accept that the plans were created for the right reasons once Batman confirms that he trusts them by revealing his secret identity to the rest of the team.

Talia, disillusioned with her father, leaves the League to run LexCorp for former U.S. President Lex Luthor, before selling the company to Bruce Wayne for his Wayne Foundation to aid Batman and Superman's victory over Luthor. Ra's blames Batman for his failed relationship with Talia, and stages a plot where he tries to separate Batman from his heir, Dick Grayson, shortly before Wayne officially adopts his former ward as his son. The plan fails, and Wayne and Grayson proceed with the adoption.

Ra's is also featured in Birds of Prey #31–35, where he has a romantic fling with the Black Canary. The superheroine is injured and healed in the Lazarus Pit, which also restores the Canary Cry she lost years earlier.

Death and the Maidens

In Death and the Maidens (2004), Ra's' other daughter, Nyssa Raatko, furious at her father for abandoning her in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, begins plotting to destroy him, prompting Ra's to contact Batman to make a deal for access to a Lazarus Pit to give him the strength for a final confrontation with Nyssa; in exchange for the location of a Pit, Ra's provides Batman with a serum that will allow him to walk in the spirit world and speak with his parents. While Batman experiences his "vision", Nyssa befriends Talia and then kidnaps and brainwashes her. Nyssa plots to destroy all hope and optimism in the world by assassinating Superman with Kryptonite bullets she steals from the Batcave. While Batman stops Nyssa from killing Superman, he is unable to stop her from mortally injuring her father.[23] A dying Ra's reveals that this is all part of his greater plan to ensure that his daughters will realize that he is correct in his perceptions about the world and what needs to be done to it, and that they would come to accept their destinies as his heirs. Ra's' plan works: both Nyssa and Talia become the heads of The Demon and the League of Assassins. Talia disavows her love for Bruce Wayne, and both sisters declare Batman their enemy. It is too late for Ra's, as Nyssa stabs her father through the heart, seemingly killing him for good. To ensure Ra's will not return, Batman oversees his nemesis' cremation.

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

Main article: Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

Ra's al Ghul returns from the dead. Art by Tony Daniel.

Ra's al Ghul returns in the form of his own son Dusan al Ghul, Arabic: دوسان الغول, "The White Ghost". Art by Ryan Benjamin.

In Batman Annual #26, Talia is prompted to read the history of Ra's al Ghul to her son Damian by a mysterious figure from Ra's' past: the White Ghost. Unbeknownst to her, the White Ghost plans to use Damian as a vessel for Ra's' return. However, mother and son escape before the plan is completed. After the escape, Batman confronts the White Ghost; he fights Batman, but accidentally falls into a Lazarus Pit.

As of Batman #670, Ra's al Ghul has returned, having evaded death by transferring his consciousness into the body of another. Because his host body is decaying from radiation poisoning, he needs to transfer his mind into another host body. His first choice is that of his grandson Damian Wayne, but Damian escapes to alert his father.

Upon taking Ra's to a "Fountain of Essence", which contains the qualities of a Lazarus Pit, Batman is confronted with the sight of the Sensei, who is revealed to be Ra's' father.[24] After defeating Ra's, Sensei fights and impales Batman with a cane. Determined to win, Batman drags the Sensei into the Fountain, where he is killed for not being a pure soul. Ra's, meanwhile, has taken over the body of a Nanda Parbat monk and departs. Healed by the Fountain, Batman emerges and yells for Ra's.

Ra's attempts to make amends with Batman after his resurrection, but Batman responds by crushing his decaying fingers. Ra's accepts this latest rebuke and, with the help of his men, overpowers Batman and captures Damian, who has arrived to try to help his father. Ra's attempts to take over Damian, but Batman breaks free just as Robin, Talia, Alfred Pennyworth, and Nightwing arrive to save him. While the battle ensues at Nanda Parbat, the White Ghost takes Ra's to a secluded place, where he appears to accept the fact that his death is inevitable. The White Ghost is revealed as Ra's' estranged albino son Dusan, and offers up his own body instead. Ra's performs the transfer of souls, but the White Ghost apparently dies soon afterward. Ra's resumes the battle and attempts to kill Batman, but the monks at Nanda Parbat stop him and banish him from the temple.

Following his resurrection, Ra's al Ghul, in his new body, moves his base of operations to Gotham City where it is revealed that a remnant of his son Dusan's consciousness still remains within him. Since the White Ghost was his son, Ra's was able to use the resemblance between them to modify his new body's appearance to be more like his own, though he remains an albino. This arrogance contributes to the brazen move to Gotham and a subsequent ninja attack on Batman, which indirectly leads to the discovery of a map of all the known Lazarus Pit locations across the globe. Batman then infiltrates Ra's al Ghul's new Gotham penthouse headquarters and easily defeats his horde of ninjas and Ra's himself. To ensure Ra's is not a constant threat within Gotham City, Batman comes up with the false identity of "Terry Gene Kase", and plants it along with credible photos, medical records, and police records for both Blackgate Penitentiary and Arkham Asylum. Batman takes an unconscious Ra's directly to Arkham where it is believed he really is the prisoner "Terry Gene Kase", a criminal with multiple personality disorder who has just been transferred to Arkham to finish out multiple life sentences. Along with attaching false information and a false identity to Ra's al Ghul's file, Batman attaches a false prescription of potent medication that ensures slurred speech and next to zero mobility.[2]

Despite these precautions, Ra's eventually escapes when the orderlies miss his dosage once, which allows him to become conscious enough to escape from Arkham.[25]

The Return of Bruce Wayne

Ra's realizes that Batman has apparently died after Darkseid's invasion during Final Crisis. After confronting Nightwing with his knowledge, he and the hero eventually duel with swords. Nightwing defeats Ra's and earns the immortal's respect, signified by leaving his sword in the Batcave as a gift after their fight. Ra's refuses to believe his enemy's passing despite the evidence, leading him to be involved in the Red Robin's (Tim Drake) quest concerning the fate of the original Dark Knight. After Drake finds proof that Wayne is still alive but lost in time after his battle with Darkseid, the former Boy Wonder cripples Ra's' organization, the League of Assassins, from within. In response, Ra's returns to Gotham to begin his attack to destroy every legacy of the Wayne Family. While his men target everyone close to the Waynes, Ra's makes a pact with Hush as part of his plans. Unknown to both men, Lucius Fox has already given Tim power of attorney leaving him in control of the Wayne Family resources.

Enraged, Ra's then engages Tim Drake in combat, which ends with Tim mocking Ra's by saying that there's nothing he can do to harm the Bat Family anymore; in response, Ra's smiles and says "Well done. Detective" (a name he has only ever reserved for Batman, Nightwing and Red Hood once before). He then proceeds to kick him out of a skyscraper window and retreats from the battle. Later, in seclusion, Ra's reveals everything which happened was a test for Tim Drake, from the league, the council, the Men of Death, and the plot against Bruce Wayne.

Learning of Bruce Wayne's return, Ra's muses that his next confrontation with the detective will be particularly interesting as he believes that Batman has at last had a taste of the immortality that Ra's himself enjoys.[26]

He goes after Vicki Vale and almost kills her. He spares her life only after she refuses to publish the identity of Batman and gets rid of all of the evidence she has to that effect. He also realizes that Vale may be a descendant of a French opponent, Marcel du Valliere, from centuries before; therefore, his business with her may not be finished.

The New 52

In The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), Ra's al Ghul appears in a hooded robe at the League of Assassins' city of 'Eth Alth'eban. He enters the Well of Sins after an encounter with Jason Todd.[27] When he emerges, Ra's is consumed by the evil that corrupted the Untitled centuries before, and he feels compelled to rid himself of the machinations of his daughter and Ducra by killing Jason. At Ra's' command, the prisoners are brought to him, and he promises to use his newfound power to destroy them.[28] Red Hood engages Ra's, as Essence joins the battle. She insists that he will allow Jason and his friends to leave his realm, or he will be forced to die a mortal death just as he always feared he would. Despite having destroyed the All-Caste, Ra's al Ghul's actions have led to their eventual rebirth. Defeated, he swears that he will visit great agony upon Red Hood if he ever sees him again.[29]

Batman and Aquaman head to an island, where the League of Assassins are located, after Ra's has the bodies of Damian Wayne and Talia exhumed. Ra's had ordered the hunt of whales, creating genetically altered super-humans in the wombs of sperm whales, part of a plan to rebuild the League of Assassins. Inside the compound, they find that Ra's is wiping the hard drives clean, preventing data recovery. As his parting gift, he has left Batman the Heretics to keep him entertained. Batman fights his way to Ra's escape aircraft. He sees Talia and Damian's bodies stored within it, and clings to the fuselage from outside as the plane takes off. Though Ra's plans to go to Paradise Island, he is nearly surprised to see Batman pounding on the cockpit's windshield. From outside, Batman screams for Ra's to give back his son, but Ra's responds that he is blood of Damian's blood and the boy is in good hands. He orders the plane to tilt its angle, causing the wind shear to rip Batman from his purchase and drop down into the sea, where he is caught by Aquaman.[30]

Batman and Ra's then encounter Glorious Godfrey.[31] Glorious Godfrey's reason to come to Earth is to retrieve the Chaos Shard, a powerful crystal once belonged to Darkseid which Ra's al Ghul revealed was hidden inside the sarcophagus he crafted for Damian.[32]

During Batman Eternal, Bruce briefly speculates that Ra's is the mastermind behind most of the attacks against him that have left Wayne Enterprises bankrupt and Batman pushed to the limit. However, when he confronts Ra's, his foe reveals that, while he was invited to participate in the attack by the true mastermind, he rejected the offer as Ra's would prefer to destroy Batman when the Dark Knight believes that his legacy will be as eternal as Ra's, rather than tear him down in such a manner.[33]

DC Rebirth

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2017)

During DC Rebirth, Ra's al Ghul is featured in Detective Comics issues #953-956 as part of the "League of Shadows" story arc, which runs from issue #951-956 (April–July 2017).

Ra's al Ghul appears in Dark Nights: Metal issue #2 as a member of the Immortals, a group formed by the oldest beings in the multiverse. He participates in a discussion on how they will fight the Dark Multiverse invasion.

Abilities

Skills, training, and resources

Due to his expanded life span, Ra's has accumulated vast knowledge and abilities which exceed those of Batman. These include detective skills, chemistry, physics, military tactics, economics, and martial arts, fully using his photographic memory to master all such skills. He has also gained many international contacts and an immense fortune over the course of centuries. When in combat, he favors more ancient weaponry (as he has had more time to master them than more modern weaponry) these weapons include scimitars, katanas, spears, staffs, bolas, shurikens, smoke pellets and miniaturized explosives.

Ra's' greatest tools are his green Lazarus Pits, which heal any injury including recent death and restore the user to the prime of life, but cause temporary insanity (or for those already insane like the Joker, sanity).[34] His constant exposure to the pits has granted him slightly enhanced endurance, strength, and healing but also comes with the price of a gradual onset of insanity if overused.[35]

Magical and unnatural powers

Along with his physical abilities and resources, Ra's al Ghul has been shown to possess a certain degree of proficiency with mysticism. In an effort to guarantee his continued existence, he has on several occasions demonstrated the ability to transfer his soul into the bodies of others, giving him a way to live on in the event that his physical body is destroyed and unable to be transported into a Lazarus Pit. The exact details of this process have remained inconsistent; at times it appears as though a complicated ritual is required to achieve this effect, while on other occasions he is capable of performing this feat on a whim, merely by making physical contact with his intended host.

In the New 52, Ra's temporarily gains vast magical powers after bathing in the Well of Sins, the first Lazarus Pit.

Family

The following are members of Ra's al Ghul's family:

Sensei

Created by Neal Adams in 1968,[36] the Sensei was originally introduced as a high-ranking member of the League of Assassins. He was portrayed as an aged but highly skilled martial artist. During The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, he is revealed to be Ra's al Ghul's centuries-old father and subsequently killed.[37]

Mother Soul

Created by Joshua Williamson and Gleb Melnikov in 2021, Mother Soul is the mysterious head of the "League of Lazarus".[38] In Robin (vol. 3) #7, she is revealed to be Ruh al Ghul (Soul of the Demon), Ra's al Ghul's mother.[39]

Nyssa Raatko

Created by Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson in 2003,[40] Nyssa Raatko (Arabic: نيسا رعتكو) is Ra's al Ghul's oldest known daughter. She was born the only child to Ra's al Ghul's mistress Amina Raatko, also known as Lourdes in 18th century Russia.[41] She would later become a Holocaust survivor.[42] She is murdered by Cassandra Cain during the One Year Later storyline.[43]

Dusan al Ghul

Created by Peter Milligan and David Lopez in 2007,[44] Dusan al Ghul (Arabic: دوسان الغول) was Ra's' only known son. He was also referred to as Ash'Shabah Al-Abyad (Arabic: الشبح الأبيض), meaning "the White Ghost". Though little is known about his past, it is stated that he was born out of a union meant to strengthen his father's hold over "some long-extinct people",[45] suggesting that he was older than Ra's' other children. As an albino, he was never considered a potential heir to his father's empire.[45] He ultimately sacrificed himself to ensure his father's survival during the Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul storyline.[45]

Talia al Ghul

Created by Dennis O'Neil and Bob Brown in 1971,[46] Talia al Ghul (Arabic: تاليه الغول) is Ra's al Ghul's daughter. Like Ra's, Talia's mother was a woman of mixed Chinese and Arab ancestry[47] named Melisande,[48][49] who met Ra's at the Woodstock festival.[47][49]

Damian Wayne

Originally appearing as an unnamed infant in the 1987 graphic novel Batman: Son of the Demon,[48] the character was introduced as Damian Wayne or Damian al Ghul (Arabic: دميان الغول) by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert in 2006.[50] Damian is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, making him the grandson of Ra's al Ghul. He is an Heir to the Demon Head and expected to one day lead the League. Ra's raised him to be the new Alexander the Great. He is bred from birth to take and rule the world by his mother Talia al Ghul. He was very aggressive until he met his father, Batman. Batman taught him how to calm himself and trained him to be the new Robin. His genetic perfection marks him as the ideal host for his grandfather, who wants to take over his body.

Mara al Ghul

Created by Benjamin Percy and Jonboy Meyers, the character debuted in Teen Titans (vol. 6) in December 2016. Mara al Ghul is a granddaughter of Ra's al Ghul, daughter to the late Dusan al Ghul and a cousin to Damian Wayne. Introduced as an enemy to Damian, she was also raised by the League of Assassins. She and Damian were both members of the Demon's Fist, an elite group within the League. Damian was supposed to lead the Demon's Fist, but Mara now leads the group instead since Damian chose to side with his father over the League. Mara hates Damian after he left her with a scar across her right eye during a training session when they were younger. Mara has not inherited her father's albinism; she has black hair with red bangs. Like the rest of her family she is a skilled fighter, and is also noted to be a talented artist.

Athanasia al Ghul

Athanasia al Ghul is a character featured in the Injustice 2 prequel comics and does not appear in the Prime Earth continuity. She is the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, sister of Damian Wayne and granddaughter of Ra's al Ghul. Athanasia is the secret daughter of Talia and Bruce and raised by Talia without Bruce's or even Damian's knowledge. While Talia allowed Damian to become a hero and work with his father for a time, Talia kept Athanasia a secret from her father and raised her as a member of the League of Assassins.[51]

Others

Although he fathered children with several women, Ra's al Ghul has only two confirmed marriages. The first was to Sora,[44][47] whose death set Ra's on the path to becoming the "Demon's Head". The second was to Melisande,[48][49] Talia's mother.

Ra's also appears to have an unnamed sister[52] or half-sister,[53] a female assassin belonging to a group called the "Daughters of Acheron", whose members share the same father.[53][54] Another member is a woman using the alias "Promise".[54] It is unclear if their common father, "Acheron", is in fact the Sensei (making them all Ra's' half-sisters) or if Ra's only has one half-sister on his mother's side.

In Batman and Robin #12, it is revealed that Talia has cloned her son, Damian who's known as "The Heretic"[55] The clone is, therefore, a grandson of sorts of Ra's al Ghul. Additionally, Nyssa once stated that she has given birth twelve times (only two of her children, Daniel and Hannah, are named),[56] opening the possibility of Ra's having many other descendants, although most of Nyssa's family are murdered by the Nazis and Nyssa believes that her great-grandson Vasily (a Russian soldier who is reported to have been killed in the Middle East) was the last of her line.

The Birth of the Demon features Ra's' uncle, who helps him avenge his wife and found the League of Assassins before they go their separate ways.

Involvement with Batman

After Talia encounters and falls in love with Batman in Detective Comics #411 (May 1971), Ra's begins to consider Batman a possible heir. Ra's first deduces Batman's secret identity when he reasons the Dark Knight has to be rich, and learns only Bruce Wayne has bought the equipment a crime fighter would have; he is then ready to put Batman to a final test.

Ra's surprises Batman in the Batcave, seemingly to enlist Batman's aid in rescuing both Talia and Dick Grayson, the first Robin, both of whom have apparently been kidnapped. Batman soon discovers the whole affair is a charade orchestrated by Ra's to test Batman, which he passes. Ra's asks Batman to become his heir, which Batman refuses, appalled by his genocidal plan to "cleanse" the world. This story was later adapted into a two-part story in Batman: The Animated Series during its first season under the title "The Demon's Quest".[3]

Despite being mortal enemies, Ra's al Ghul and Batman maintain some level of respect towards one another. Similar to The Riddler, Ra's admires Batman's intellectual prowess first and foremost, regularly referring to Batman as "Detective" or "The Detective" when speaking to or about him. Despite being aware of Batman's true identity as Bruce Wayne since their first meeting, Ra's has never exposed that information to the public or Batman's other foes; Batman once attributed this to Ra's' personal code of honor, though Ra's has repeatedly used that knowledge to his own advantage when fomenting plans and contingencies against Batman.

In the story "Resurrection Night" in Batman #400, Ra's helps all of Batman's foes to escape from Arkham Asylum and the Gotham State Penitentiary, setting them on a plan to abduct certain individuals across Gotham City who are linked in one form or another to Batman. Ra's' true intent is to show Batman the folly of his efforts to protect a corrupt society which, to his mind, allows criminals to exist and flourish. Ra's eventually uses the Pit while still healthy, both increasing his strength and putting his life at risk, in an attempt to outmatch the Dark Knight. The plan backfires, as Ra's is left writhing in the pit, seemingly destroyed.

In Chip Zdarsky's 2022 limited series Batman: The Knight set in the DC Prime Earth (the mainline DC continuity post-Flashpoint) continuity, Ra's, as well as Talia, are rewritten to have first met Bruce prior to him becoming Batman, with Ra's being Bruce's final mentor in his journey to become Batman. Ra's meets Bruce and his companion Minkhoa Khan, the future vigilante Ghost-Maker, on their travels and tells him that he is trying to save the world like they are, although Bruce quickly turns distrustful of Ra's as he soon finds that Ra's trains assassins. Like his original origin, Ra's christens Bruce as his right hand man, though this time he does so after Bruce defeats Minkhoa in combat. Ra's later reveals to Bruce his true intentions to use missiles to bomb numerous cities around the world, but Bruce reveals to Ra's that Minkhoa had already discovered them and told Bruce about them during their fight, which allowed Bruce to destroy the League's arsenal before Ra's could use them to harm innocents. Bruce fights Ra's and defeats him, but Ra's is rescued by Talia, who stabs Bruce and escapes with Ra's to parts unknown. Minkhoa rescues Bruce and leaves him the desert, which leads to Bruce returning home to Gotham City and becoming the Batman.

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💙Victoria, BC

🔻‼️Upset OUT NOW‼️🔻

https://www.instagram.com/shale_music/?hl=en

British Columbia[c] is the westernmost province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, inland deserts and grassy plains.[6] British Columbia borders the province of Alberta to the east; the territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north; the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho and Montana to the south, and Alaska to the northwest. With an estimated population of over 5.7 million as of 2025, it is Canada's third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, while the province's largest city is Vancouver. Vancouver and its suburbs together make up the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, with the 2021 census recording 2.6 million people in Metro Vancouver.[7] British Columbia is Canada's third-largest province in terms of total area, after Quebec and Ontario.[8]

The first known human inhabitants of the area settled in British Columbia at least 10,000 years ago. Such groups include the Coast Salish, Tsilhqotʼin, and Haida peoples, among many others. One of the earliest British settlements in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, which gave rise to the city of Victoria, the capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island. The Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) was subsequently founded by Richard Clement Moody,[9] and by the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Moody selected the site for and founded the mainland colony's capital New Westminster.[10][11][12] The colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia were incorporated in 1866, subsequent to which Victoria became the united colony's capital. In 1871, British Columbia entered Confederation as the sixth province of Canada, in enactment of the British Columbia Terms of Union.

British Columbia is a diverse and cosmopolitan province, drawing on a plethora of cultural influences from its British Canadian, European, and Asian diasporas, as well as the Indigenous population. Though the province's ethnic majority originates from the British Isles, many British Columbians also trace their ancestors to continental Europe, East Asia, and South Asia.[13] Indigenous Canadians constitute about 6 percent of the province's total population.[14] Christianity is the largest religion in the region, though the majority of the population is non-religious.[15][16] English is the common language of the province, although Punjabi, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese also have a large presence in the Metro Vancouver region. The Franco-Columbian community is an officially recognized linguistic minority, and around one percent of British Columbians claim French as their mother tongue.[17] British Columbia is home to at least 34 distinct Indigenous languages.[18]

Major sectors of British Columbia's economy include forestry, mining, filmmaking and video production, tourism, real estate, construction, wholesale, and retail. Its main exports include lumber and timber, pulp and paper products, copper, coal, and natural gas.[19] British Columbia exhibits high property values and is a significant centre for maritime trade:[20] the Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the most diversified port in North America.[21] Although less than 5 percent of the province's territory is arable land, significant agriculture exists in the Fraser Valley and Okanagan due to the warmer climate.[22] British Columbia is home to 45% of all publicly listed companies in Canada.[23]

Origin of the name

The province's name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866), i.e., "the Mainland", became a British colony in 1858.[24] It refers to the Columbia District, the British name for the territory drained by the Columbia River, in southeastern British Columbia, which was the namesake of the pre-Oregon Treaty Columbia Department of the Hudson's Bay Company. Queen Victoria chose British Columbia to distinguish what was the British sector of the Columbia District from the United States' ("American Columbia" or "Southern Columbia"), which became the Oregon Territory on August 8, 1848, as a result of the treaty.[25]

Ultimately, the Columbia in the name British Columbia is derived from the name of the Columbia Rediviva, an American ship which lent its name to the Columbia River and later the wider region;[26] the Columbia in the name Columbia Rediviva came from the name Columbia for the New World or parts thereof, a reference to Christopher Columbus.

The governments of Canada and British Columbia recognize Colombie-Britannique as the French name for the province.[27][28]

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

Colombia,[b] officially the Republic of Colombia,[c] is a country primarily located in South America with insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Peru and Ecuador to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub. Other major urban areas include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Bucaramanga. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi) and has a population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural heritage[15]—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by immigration from Europe[16][17][18][19] and the Middle East,[20][21][22] with those brought by the African diaspora,[23] as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization.[24] Spanish is the official language, although Creole, English and 64 other languages are recognized regionally.

Colombia has been home to many indigenous peoples and cultures since at least 12,000 BCE. The Spanish first landed in La Guajira in 1499, and by the mid-16th century, they had colonized much of present-day Colombia, and established the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santa Fe de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from the Spanish Empire is considered to have been declared in 1810, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada. After a brief Spanish reconquest, Colombian independence was secured and the period of Gran Colombia began in 1819. The new polity experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858) and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before becoming a centralised republic—the current Republic of Colombia—in 1886. With the backing of the United States and France, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, resulting in Colombia's present borders. Beginning in the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security, stability, and rule of law, as well as unprecedented economic growth and development.[25][26] Colombia is recognized for its healthcare system, being the best healthcare in Latin America according to the World Health Organization and 22nd in the world.[27][28] Its diversified economy is the third-largest in South America, with macroeconomic stability and favorable long-term growth prospects.[29][30]

Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries; it has the highest level of biodiversity per square mile in the world and the second-highest level overall.[31] Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands and deserts. It is the only country in South America with coastlines (and islands) along both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Colombia is a key member of major global and regional organizations including the UN, the WTO, the OECD, the OAS, the Pacific Alliance and the Andean Community; it is also a NATO Global Partner[32] and a major non-NATO ally of the United States.[33]

Etymology

The name "Colombia" is derived from the last name of the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (Latin: Christophorus Columbus, Italian: Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish: Cristóbal Colón). It was conceived as a reference to all of the New World.[34] The name was later adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819, formed from the territories of the old Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and northwest Brazil).[35]

When Venezuela, Ecuador, and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, the former Department of Cundinamarca adopted the name "Republic of New Granada". New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was again changed, this time to United States of Colombia, before finally adopting its present name – the Republic of Colombia – in 1886.[35]

To refer to this country, the Colombian government uses the terms Colombia and República de Colombia.[36]

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

Tears For Fears dropped off the charts with Raoul and the Kings of Spain. By this point, the band was really led creatively by Orzabal, and he was indulging in iffy ideas like a song called “Sketches of Pain” with a vaguely Miles Davis-ish synth trumpet section. Oleta Adams, the American singer who launched her career with a guest appearance on the 1989 Tears For Fears single “Woman in Chains,” reunited with Orzabal for another duet, “Me and My Big Ideas,” that’s the high point of Raoul.

https://www.spin.com/2025/02/every-tears-for-fears-album-ranked/

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

Al-Andalus[a] (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس) was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states in modern Spain, Portugal[1] and France. The name describes the different Muslim[2][3] states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula[4][5][6] and part of present-day southern France (Septimania) under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed constantly through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista,[2][3][7][8][9] eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

As a political domain, it successively constituted a province of the Umayyad Caliphate, initiated by the Caliph al-Walid I (711–750); the Emirate of Córdoba (c. 750–929); the Caliphate of Córdoba (929–1031); the first taifa kingdoms (1009–1110); the Almoravid Empire (1085–1145); the second taifa period (1140–1203); the Almohad Caliphate (1147–1238); the third taifa period (1232–1287); and ultimately the Nasrid Emirate of Granada (1238–1492). Under the Caliphate of Córdoba, the city of Córdoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centres throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Islamic world. Achievements that advanced Islamic and Western science came from al-Andalus, including major advances in trigonometry (Jabir ibn Aflah), astronomy (Al-Zarqali), surgery (Al-Zahrawi), pharmacology (Ibn Zuhr),[10] and agronomy (Ibn Bassal and Abū l-Khayr al-Ishbīlī). Al-Andalus became a conduit for cultural and scientific exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds.[10]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus

1236

June 29 – Siege of Córdoba: Castilian forces under King Ferdinand III (the Saint) capture Muslim Córdoba from Emir Ibn Hud, as part of the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.[2]

July – At a diet (princely convention) in Piacenza, Emperor Frederick II proclaims his wish to recover all Italy for the Holy Roman Empire.[3]

Pope Gregory IX condemned the links that both the Knights Templer and Knights Hospitaller have with the Assassin fighters in the Middle East. He issues a bull, a formal proclamation issued by the pope, preventing further contact with the Assassins.

May 6 – Roger of Wendover, English Benedictine monk and chronicler, dies at St. Albans Abbey. His chronicle is continued by Matthew of Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1236

Atheism: resisting it with all our forces is a special mission given to the Society by the supreme pontiff, 253 2°; a mission which should permeate all forms of our apostolate, 254; our efforts are to be directed toward nonbelievers, ibid.; toward that end, an experience of God must be fostered in ourselves, 223 §§3-4, 224, 247

1° 2° 3° 6°;

and also in others, by means of the Spiritual Exercises, 271

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms

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

The idea of uniting the Templars with the Hospitallers was first argued publicly in a book published in 1305 by Raimon Llull, a renowned illuminatus from Majorca. Llull’s book, Libre de Fine, (“Free At Last”) appeared in the midst of a raging controversy between the French monarchy and the Roman papacy over who held jurisdiction over the Templars. That is the subject of our next chapter.

Rulers of Evil

by F. Tupper Saussy

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/rulers-of-evil-f.-tupper-saussy/Rulers%20of%20Evil%20-%20F.%20Tupper%20Saussy.pdf

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The alumbrados of Castile were a movement that caused much trouble during the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Their ideas were represented by the “Big Three” beatas who, under noble patronage, for at least a decade previous to the arrest in 1524 of the “mother” of the movement (Isabel de la Cruz) had successfully proselytized and spread their ideas throughout Old and New Castile.1

The alumbrados certainly were a charismatic bunch; they enjoyed success with the elites of Castilian society, comuneros, but above all with women and conversos. As a religious movement led by women the alumbrados were part of a growing trend of individual, charismatic female piety. By the time of Cardinal Cisneros’s death in 1517, however, the era of the alumbrados and their grassroots converso spirituality was nearing its end. While the actual heyday of their movement was short-lived the alumbrados made a huge impact upon the minds Prospering in the environment of Catholic spiritual exploration fostered by the personal theological interests of the Archbishop of Toledo Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros the alumbrados presented an interiorized approach to Christianity. Equipped with the meditational practice of dejamiento the alumbrados stressed the importance of an individual, pseudo-mystical “abandonment” to God and His will. They also emphasized the insignificance of external rituals and works, calling them ataduras or “shackles” to the material world, ties that only served to hinder one’s abandonment to God.

of the Inquisitors who prosecuted them and upon the Spanish religious imagination, an impact that would last across seas and time."

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

JAVIER A. MONTOYA

http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041385/montoya_j.pdf

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

Etymology

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

Gautama

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

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

Unam Sanctam

One God, One Faith, One Spiritual Authority

Pope Boniface VIII - 1302

Bull of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm

The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by archaeological,[5] ethnological,[6] genetic,[7]: 181 and linguistic research.[8][9]: 33–34

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

The Masonic King of England

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

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

Hajj Amin al-Husayni meets Hitler

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/hajj-amin-al-husayni-meets-hitler

THE REAL WAR AGAINST THE JEWS AND HUMANITY

Felix Brandeis - Received Secondary School education in Germany. There, Englishman Jacob de Haas introduced him to Zionism.

Here is a telling quote from the latter Frankist family:

Henry Morgenthau Jr., Stephen Wise, Bernard Baruch, Judah Magnes, Felix Warburg - All descended from German Jews.

seems, here are a few words about him from a Jewish writer for the Executive Intelligence Report, run by the Germacentric, Lyndon LaRouche:

Compare that report with this one recently published by the Jerusalem Post.

PREPARATIONS TO USE FIREPOWER AGAINST JEWS.

FRIDAY January 9th 2004

Dear Mr Chamish,

With best regards

Shabbat Shalom

Yours sincerely

David M Pidcock

The Islamic Party of Britain "

Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust by Barry Chamish

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B66Pc9x2hkIrV2Y3QWxPbkpKYWc/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-5ak831cRNQohyyjZYfFKvw

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

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

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbasilica_of_Saint_John_Lateran#Lateran_Palace

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Fire as the agent of Truth

In later Zoroastrian tradition, Asha Vahishta is still at times identified with the fire of the household hearth.

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

Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojty?a (18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005), known as Blessed John Paul II since his beatification on May 1, 2011, reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of The Holy See from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at 84 years and 319 days of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted 26 years and 168 days; only Pope Pius IX (1846–1878) who served 31 years, has reigned longer. Pope John Paul II is the only Slavic or Polish pope to date, and was the first non-Italian Pope since Dutch Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523).

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

On March 27, 1980, a series of volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows began at Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States. A series of phreatic blasts occurred from the summit and escalated until a major explosive eruption took place on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am. The eruption, which had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 5, was the most significant to occur in the contiguous United States since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California.[2] It has often been declared the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens

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

Skull and Bones, The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut."

There is a secret that binds the two men who would be the next leader of the free world. President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry both spent a portion of their youth laying bare their sex lives in Gothic rituals presided over by a human skull and the skeletal remains of various other animal species in a windowless building known as the Tomb. They also formed an unusual attachment to the number 322, which holds a special resonance for the club's members." Skeletons in the closet

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/20/usa.internationaleducationnews

It is perhaps worth noting, in light of George W.'s controversial episode at Bob Jones University and the specter of anti-Catholicism, that at one point in the proceedings every initiate kisses the slippered toe of the "Pope." At last the initiate is formally dubbed a Knight of Eulogia. Amid more raucous ritual he is cast from the room into the waiting arms of the patriarchs."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/george-w-knight-of-eulogia/304686/

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

https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0

Shale – Shake

We Are Shale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syNpwC9awOg&list=RDsyNpwC9awOg&start_radio=1

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid0up24HDZ2CdwzgQDfHH4vYNSbqn9j8wZHKcxjhQmKwyDQfaKYEiCHqAmrjwFVz1e3l

romance(n.)

c. 1300, romaunce, "a story, written or recited, in verse, telling of the adventures of a knight, hero, etc.," often one designed principally for entertainment, from Old French romanz "verse narrative" (Modern French roman), also "the vulgar language." It was originally an adverb, "in the vernacular language," from the Vulgar Latin verbal phrase *romanice scribere "to write in a Romance language" (one developed from Latin instead of Frankish), from Latin Romanicus "of or in the Roman style," from Romanus "Roman" (see Roman).

The sense evolution is because medieval vernacular tales (as opposed to Latin texts) typically told chivalric adventures full of marvelous incidents and heroic deeds. "The spelling with -aunce, -ance was very early adopted in English, probably on the analogy of abstract sbs." [OED].

In reference to literary works, in Middle English often meaning ones written in French but also applied to native compositions. The literary sense was extended by 1660s to "a love story, the class of literature consisting of love stories and romantic fiction."

The meaning "imaginative, adventurous quality" is recorded by 1801; that of "love affair" is by 1916. Romance novel is attested by 1820. Compare Romance (adj.).

Related entries & more

romance(v.)

late 14c., romauncen, "recite a narrative poem," from romance (n.) and also from Old French romancier "narrate in French; translate into French," from romanz (n.). Later "invent fictitious stories" (1670s), then "be romantically enthusiastic" (1849); meaning "court as a lover" is from 1938, probably from romance (n.). Related: Romanced; romancing.

Related entries & more

Romance

mid-14c., "French; in the vernacular language of France" (contrasted to Latin), from Old French romanz "French; vernacular," from Late Latin Romanice, from Latin Romanicus (see Roman). Extended 1610s to other modern tongues in the south and west of Europe derived from Latin (Spanish, Italian, etc.); thus, collectively, "pertaining to the modern languages which arose out of the Latin of the provinces of Rome." Compare romance (n.).

Related entries & more

romancer(n.)

mid-14c., "chronicler writing in French," from Anglo-French romancour, Old French romanceour, from romanz (see romance (n.)). From 1660s as "one who writes extravagant fictions;" later, "one inclined to romantic imagination" (the main 19c. sense); modern use for "seducer, wooer having a romantic quality" appears to be a new formation c. 1967 from romance (v.).

Related entries & more

romantic(adj.)

1650s, "of the nature of a literary romance, partaking of the heroic or marvelous," from French romantique "pertaining to romance," from romant "a romance," an oblique case or variant of Old French romanz "verse narrative" (see romance (n.)).

Of places, "characterized by poetic or inspiring scenery," by 1705. As a literary style, opposed to classical (q.v.) since before 1812; it was used of schools of poetry in Germany (late 18c.) and later France. In music, "characterized by expression of feeling more than formal methods of composition," from 1885.

The meaning "characteristic of an ideal love affair" (such as usually formed the subject of literary romances) is from 1660s. The meaning "having a love affair as a theme" is from 1960. Related: Romantical (1670s); romantically; romanticality. Compare romanticism.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=romance

AI Overview

Learn more

The word "room" and the name "Rome" share a common Indo-European root, but their pathways to English are distinct. "Room" descends from Proto-Germanic *ruma, meaning "space" or "roomy," while "Rome" is believed to be derived from the name of its founder, Romulus, or potentially from the Greek word for strength, "rhṓmē".

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Room:

Proto-Indo-European:

The word "room" ultimately traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root *reue- (1) meaning "to open; space".

Proto-Germanic:

This root evolved into Proto-Germanic *ruma, meaning "space" or "roomy," from which Old English developed the word "rum".

Old English:

Old English "rum" evolved into Middle English "roum".

Modern English:

The word "room" is a direct descendant of Middle English "roum," with the current meaning of a space or a chamber.

Rome:

Classical Latin:

The name "Rome" originates from the Classical Latin word "Rōma," which means "Rome".

Proto-Germanic:

In Germanic languages, the name "Rome" evolved through forms like Proto-West Germanic *Rūmu and Proto-Germanic *Rūmō.

Middle English:

In Middle English, the name appeared in various forms like "Rom," "Room," "Roome," and "Rombe," according to Wiktionary.

Modern English:

The spelling "Rome" became common from the early 18th century, also according to Wiktionary.

Alternative Theories for Rome's Origin:

Mythological:

The Roman legend suggests the name derives from Romulus, the mythical founder of the city.

Etruscan:

Some theories propose a connection to the Etruscan word for "teat," according to Wikipedia.

Greek:

Another possibility is a connection to the Greek word for "strength" (ῥώμη).

Generative AI is experimental.

My Roomate

Village People

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7VBmWe4vNE

"After the Communist Revolutions in China in 1949-1950 and Cuba in 1959, Freemasonry was outlawed in both nations. Today these two nations are the only two on earth with no Masonic Lodges. It becomes almost impossible to topple these governments without

Freemasonry to subvert them. In Russia Freemasonry was outlawed by Stalin in 1922. For that reason he could not be ousted. However, during the 1960s Kim Philby, an English Freemason, and double agent high in British Intelligence, defected to Russia for the express

purpose of initiating a young communist leader into Freemasonry, after which he was to turn him to Western views. His name was Mikhail Gorbechev. In 1989 Gorbechev called for Grand Orient Lodges to be reestablished throughout the U.S.S.R., the result of which was the breakup of the Soviet Union. Gorbechev is, in reality, a traitor to Communism. In future chapters we shall learn how English Freemasonry engineered the greatest coup in history

through its triple-agent Kim Philby."

Scarlet and the Beast by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

"AN ADDRESS BY BERIA

#American students at the Lenin University, I welcome your attendance at these classes on Psychopolitics.

Psychopolitics is an important if less known division of Geo-politics.

It is less known because it must necessarily deal with highly educated personnel, the very top strata of "mental healing."

By psychopolitics our chief goals are effectively carried forward.

To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our

first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust,

economic depression and scientific turmoil. At least a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only #communism can resolve the problems of the masses.

A psychopolitician must work hard to produce the maximum chaos

in the fields of "mental healing." He must recruit and use all the

agencies and facilities of "mental healing." He must labor to increase the personnel and facilities of "mental healing" until at last the entire field of mental science is entirely dominated by Communist principles and desires.

To achieve these goals the psychopolitician must crush every

"home-grown" variety of mental healing in America. Actual teachings of Freud, James, Eddy and others amongst your misguided peoples must be swept away. They must be discredited, defamed, arrested, stamped upon even by their own government until there is no credit in them and only Communist-oriented "healing" remains. You must work until every teacher of psychology unknowingly or knowingly teaches only Communist doctrine under the guise of "psychology."

You must labor until every doctor and psychiatrist is either a psychopolitician or an unwitting assistant to our aims.

You must labor until we have dominion over the minds and bodies

of every important person in your nation. You must achieve such disrepute for the state of insanity and such authority over its pronouncement that not one statesman so labeled could again be given credence by his people. You must work until suicide arising from mental imbalance is common and calls forth no general investigation or remark.

With the institutions for the insane you have in your country prisons which can hold a million persons and can hold them without civil rights or any hope of freedom. And upon these people can be practiced shock and surgery so that never again will they draw a sane breath. You must make these treatments common and accepted. And you must sweep aside any treatment or any group of persons seeking to treat by effective means.

You must dominate as respected men the fields of psychiatry and

psychology. You must dominate the hospitals and universities. You

must carry forward the myth that only a #European doctor is competent in the field of insanity and thus excuse amongst you the high incidence of foreign birth and training. If and when we seize Vienna you shall have then a common ground of meeting and can come and take your instructions as worshippers of Freud along with other psychiatrists."

BRAIN-WASHING A Synthesis of the #Russian

Textbook on Phychopolitics

https://www.patriotoutreach.org/docs/Brainwashing.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://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

"ALM 3 - NAZI JESUITS

In late May, 2003, The Voice Of #Israel radio broadcast a report from #Rome. After visiting his papal pals, Shimon Peres decided to run for chairman of the #Israeli Labor Party. The eighty year old Peres promised to keep Israel on the Roadmap and fulfil the promises of #Oslo.

Peres, educated in his youth at a #Jesuit school in #Poland, is the highest ranking operative run by the Jesuits in Israel and his task is spreading chaos ending with national destruction. The destruction of the Jews is a primary goal of the Jesuits and I am presenting proof of this assertion through a book that collected the facts

brilliantly but missed the most obvious conclusions. I speak of Unholy Trinity by Mark Aarons and John Loftus.

This is not the first time Aarons and Loftus collected evidence with flair but missed the whole picture. In their far better known, the Secret War Against The #Jews, the authors exposed the likes of the Dulles brothers and the Harriman clan and their machinations against the Jews without understanding their direct connections to

the Council On Foreign Relations and ultimately, the #Jesuits.

I pointed this out to John Loftus several years ago and he replied that he didn't miss the connection, he didn't believe it. However, since then, he has grudgingly budged a bit, twice writing that my own evidence gathering was, at least, "interesting."

So let's help the boys again, shall we? I am citing the St. Martin's Griffin edition of Unholy Trinity. I have no intention of describing the gruesome acts of the diabolical characters portrayed in the book, nor will I even identify their roles. For that, get the book. My intention is to expose the Jesuit connection to the Holocaust, and the escape of the perpetrators to the four corners of the planet by way of the Jesuit's Ratlines to safety.

Before we examine Unholy Trinity, it would be helpful to supply some historical background. John Daniel does so admirably in his book, The GRAND DESIGN, (CHJ Publishing, 1999).

pp 22: #American intelligence had been taking an active interest in the Vatican's response to the 'Red Menace' for some time. Indeed 'high-ranking Allied intelligence officers' were reportedly in 'close relations with high #Vatican dignitaries' well before the Nazi collapse. In October 1945 the Americans noted the 'preponderant influence which the Jesuit fathers, who always present concrete and well-reasoned projects, tend to exercize at the Curia. According to their source, the Jesuits were leading the Holy See's struggle with #Moscow, and the, 'one positive step so far taken by the Vatican has been the organization of a penetration program; especially resourceful that is being sent into the area to lead the catholic elements and through their zeal and example to keep these elements from wavering. Most of these agents are Jesuits.'

pp 31: Father Burkhart Schneider, a #German Jesuit, is also certain that, 'Bishop Hudal was not at all close to the Vatican.' Schneider, who prepared the Holy See's defence of Pius XII's wartime role, was adamant that Hudal was 'very much on the fringes.'

pp 57: In 1932, Draganovic went to Rome to study at the Papal Oriental Institute and the Jesuit Gregorian University...Draganovic had returned to Rome in August 1943, representing the Ustachi and the Croatian Red Cross. This allowed him to build his escape routes for Nazi war criminals.

pp 58: One of Draganovic's most important lay colleagues was Miha Krek. Leader of the Catholic Slovene People's Party, Krek worked for British Intelligence.

Draganovich's own contacts reached to the very top of the Italian Interior Ministry.

The two men had another thing in common: high level Vatican contacts.

pp 59: In October 1945 the OSS had identified the Jesuits as key Vatican agents in a 'penetration program' inside #Communist-occupied areas. pps 61, 68: Vajta worked for the Hungarian secret service before the war. He had also been a senior Nazi propagandist for German-sponsored newspapers...that

poisoned #Hungarian public opinion... Vajta arrived in New York on 16 December 1947...The Embassy had passed the details of Vajta's trip together with a list of people he wished to meet in America. These included Cardinal Spellman, Jesuit leader Father La Farge and a host of emigre political leaders.

pp 79: Father Draganovic was the man who could lead to Pavelic's arrest and extradition...The Jesuits were among his closest Church helpers at this time, assisting his plans to leave Italy by arranging for his passage to Spain.

pp 162: For security reasons, Pius XII stated that he would not meet with Muller directly, but would receive his communications through a Jesuit priest, Father Leiber, a Vatican archivist, whom the pope trusted absolutely...On October 27 Muller was summoned to meet Father Leiber at the Jesuit Gregorian University.

pp 165: This may have been Turkul's first espionage work for the Jesuits... It is perhaps only a coincidence that Turkul was running his own Japanese Ratline into the Soviet Union for the Abwehr at the same time as the Jesuits. Even if Turkul had no direct Jesuit connection in 1938, his Abwehr boss certainly did...Turkul's NTS

network had longstanding relations with #British intelligence. Several of Turkul's close associates were Uniate and Orthodox clergymen who were well known to the Jesuits. Indeed, the Jesuits had built an entire college in Rome to train Uniate seminarians.

pp 175: A united Eastern Church had been the Vatican's dream since the great #Orthodox schism tore #Christianity apart in 1024 A.D. The hybrid Uniate Church was a compromise devised in the sixteenth century by the Jesuits and encouraged by the Habsburg dynasty.

pp 181: The centrepiece of Wachter's strategy was the five million Catholic Uniates.

Their religious leader Archbishop Szepticky pointed the way by blessing the Galician SS Division. The Galician SS, complete with Uniate chaplains, would soon be a #Catholic army in crusade against the 'Godless Bolsheviks.'

Aarons and Loftus, whether they intended to or not, provide evidence of Jesuit manipulations in the rise of nazism and the near total disappearance of #European Jewry. To make certain their goal of the complete extermination of the Jews was reached, they saved their carefully cultivated exterminators. With that understood,

see if you find a pattern in the Roadmap of recent events:

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters07-02-162744.asp?reg=MIDEAST

"Spain offers to host Middle East peace conference

MADRID, July 2 — Spain offered on Wednesday to host a Middle East peace conference and a top Palestinian official said he would be glad to see the conference held in #Madrid.

Madrid hosted a 1991 conference that launched a series of Arab-Israeli peace moves. Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio took advantage of a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath to push Madrid's claims to hold a second conference now Middle East peace efforts have resumed.

''For #Spain, it would be a very great honour to host a conference...If such a decision is taken, we would facilitate it, by providing a venue for a conference,'' Palacio told a news conference held jointly with Shaath.

Shaath said the #Palestinian administration would be ''very happy and proud if the next peace conference were here in Madrid.''

He said the Spanish government had tried to host a peace conference last year but the time had not been right. ''According to the (Middle East peace) road map, this conference will be necessary at the end of 2003 or at the beginning of 2004,'' he said.

Palacio and Shaath were in an upbeat mood with both saying it was a ''moment of hope'' in the Middle East.

Palestinians and Israelis have this week taken the first tentative steps to implement the ''road map,'' which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005 in the West Bank and Gaza alongside a secure Israel

Shaath said he believed an agreement on Jerusalem, which both #Israelis and #Palestinians claim as their capital and is seen as one of the toughest obstacles to overcome, was possible.

''I really don't see anything as impossible. On the contrary, I see that we can reach an agreement,'' he said.

East #Jerusalem would be the capital of Palestine and the other part of the city the capital of Israel, he said.

Both Palacio and Shaath said they believed that three Palestinians given refuge in Spain last year should at some point return to Bethlehem.

The three were among 13 Palestinians flown to European countries in May 2002 under a deal which ended a siege by Israeli forces of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

''There is a European agreement for all of the Palestinians (who left last year) to return to #Bethlehem,'' Shaath said.

Palacio and Shaath signed an agreement under which Spain will provide 10 million euros ($11.54 million) in aid to the Palestinians this year to fund health, education and job creation. Some 80 vehicles were expected to be shipped from Spain soon for the use of the Palestinian police."

Shabtai Tzvi, Labor #Zionism and the #Holocaust

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B66Pc9x2hkIrV2Y3QWxPbkpKYWc/view?resourcekey=0-5ak831cRNQohyyjZYfFKvw

Go West

Village People

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USsewgYaTqU

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid026NMpELiFjLsQfCHq1qJwRUhQYaRhBZpwGhr1PbHkADxmgX5Yo3tpW5nQPBTDVu13l

AI Overview

Learn more

The word "entertainment" originates from the Old French "entretenir," meaning "to hold together, stick together, support". This term was further derived from Latin "inter" ("among") and "tenere" ("to hold"), which evolved into the modern English usage of "entertain".

Elaboration:

The etymology of "entertainment" can be traced back to the Middle Ages, where "entretenir" in Old French signified the act of maintaining or sustaining something, often in a state of support or being held together. This meaning was linked to hospitality, where entertaining a guest meant providing for their needs and keeping them happy.

Over time, the meaning of "entertain" expanded to include amusement and distraction, encompassing a wider range of activities designed to engage and hold the attention of others. The modern noun "entertainment" reflects this broader usage, encompassing various forms of amusement, diversion, and engaging activities.

Generative AI is experimental.

The noun "tain" has an interesting history, evolving from the French word "tain" (tinfoil) which itself is an alteration of "étain" (tin) from Latin "stagnum" (tin). It refers to a thin sheet of tin, especially used in mirrors. The word "tain" also has a verb form, "to tain", which is obsolete, meaning to fasten or fix.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Etymology of "tain" (noun):

The noun "tain" meaning "thin tin plate" is borrowed from French "tain" (tinfoil). This French word is an alteration of "étain" (tin), which comes from Latin "stagnum" (tin).

Etymology of "tain" (verb):

The verb "to tain" was used to mean "to fasten or fix". It is now considered obsolete.

Related words:

The word "tain" is related to other words like "tin", "tincture", and "contain" due to shared roots and etymological connections.

Modern usage:

Today, "tain" primarily refers to the thin tin plate used in mirrors or as tinfoil.

Generative AI is experimental.

AI Overview

Learn more

The suffix "-ment" in English, which forms nouns, originates from Old French and Latin, specifically from the Latin suffix "-mentum". It generally indicates a result, a product, a process, or a state of being.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Latin Root: The Latin suffix "-mentum" is the precursor to "-ment" in English.

French Influence: "-ment" entered English through Old French, which borrowed it from Latin.

Meaning: The suffix "-ment" typically adds the following meanings to a word:

The result or product of an action (e.g., "achievement", "judgment").

The instrument or means (e.g., "payment", "repayment").

A process or action (e.g., "government", "management").

A state of being or quality (e.g., "wonderment").

Generative AI is experimental.

Alex Jones’s Podcasting Hecklers Face Their Foil’s Downward Slide

Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes turned their Infowars-skewering podcast into a business. In the post-Trump era, they’re documenting Mr. Jones’s reckoning.

Dan Friesen, right, began his podcast, Knowledge Fight, in January 2017, at the start of Alex Jones’s on-air love affair with President Donald J. Trump. With his partner, Jordan Holmes, the podcast grew from a shoestring start-up to a profitable enterprise.Credit...Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

Elizabeth Williamson

By Elizabeth Williamson

April 18, 2021

CHICAGO — Last year, Alex Jones supplied conspiratorial content to the leader of the free world. This month, he was shamed by a nun.

The Infowars impresario and his camera crew had accosted a man escorting three Latino children and their mothers to a Catholic Charities relief center in McAllen, Texas, on the border with Mexico. “We know you’re smuggling these kids!” Mr. Jones yelled. Sister Norma Pimentel, the executive director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley, then castigated Mr. Jones in a statement for “interrupting the good will of someone providing assistance in the form of transportation for three mothers and their children.”

For Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes, the latest contretemps was fodder for something else: Episode No. 547. The former stand-up comedians mock Mr. Jones for a living on their podcast, Knowledge Fight, but with the end of the Trump era, the duo wonder how long his conspiratorial carrying on can remain interesting, much less culturally relevant.

“He just feels less and less in control of what he’s doing,” Mr. Friesen said. “The presentation is reckless and absurd.”

Never one for strict coherence, Mr. Jones seems to be reaching for new levels of incoherence, Mr. Friesen added, “so reactive, so self-contradictory, day to day.”

And that poses a challenge for podcasters trying to find deeper meaning to the rantings of perhaps the most important conspiracy theorist of the past decade.

Mr. Jones and Infowars did not respond to requests for an interview or comments for this article.

Mr. Friesen began Knowledge Fight in January 2017, at the start of Mr. Jones’s on-air love affair with President Donald J. Trump. The budding podcaster sold his plasma to help keep it afloat, but it grew during the Trump administration into a profitable enterprise. It now boasts more than 2,700 patrons on Patreon, a subscription-based funding site. Mr. Friesen declined to quantify his total listenership.

Knowledge Fight’s focus has shifted this post-Trump year to chronicling the ragged downward spiral of Mr. Jones, a conspiracist who has lost the plot.

“He is worth exploring in terms of better understanding the right wing, and how did we get here from there? How did we disrespect information and the conveying of information so much that we ended up where we are in 2021?” Mr. Friesen asked.

The removal of Mr. Jones from social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube has limited the availability of his archive. But through back-channel research, Mr. Friesen had captured and saved years’ worth of shows, allowing him to trace Mr. Jones’s career.

Knowledge Fight’s comic conceit has the Infowars voyeur Mr. Friesen reviewing Mr. Jones’s broadcasts with Mr. Holmes, who plays an Infowars novitiate.

The podcast still broadcasts from a spare bedroom off the kitchen in Mr. Friesen’s rumpled apartment on Chicago’s North Side, the hosts’ verbal explosions sending Mr. Friesen’s cat, Celine, streaking for cover. The studio is festooned with gifts from fans, including a toy “raptor princess,” the show’s unofficial dinosaur mascot, a Lego bonsai tree and a tub of laundry detergent pods that a listener sent Mr. Friesen accidentally in an Amazon address mix up.

The scene evokes Mr. Jones’s own scrappy start in the late 1990s, when he broadcast from a nursery in his Texas house.

Image

Mr. Jones rallying with other Trump supporters outside the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix last year after the presidential election. Mr. Jones’s plunge into presidential politics intrigued Mr. Friesen.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

Mr. Jones was influenced by the John Birch Society and right-wing Cold Warriors, but conspiracy broadcasters of decades past were “boring men in public access TV studios dissecting the all-seeing eye on the back of a dollar bill,” said Jon Ronson, a journalist and filmmaker who has known Mr. Jones for more than two decades. “People were yearning for somebody who would be funny.”

In a world where truth was malleable and entertainment a premium, he said, “Alex was a star.”

“But it got darker. The money and the power got to him,” Mr. Ronson added. Infowars thrived on stoking hatred of Muslims, spinning conspiracy theories about staged mass shootings, promulgating lies about Democrats trafficking children and, lately, sowing anti-vaccination fabrications.

Mr. Friesen and Mr. Holmes decided to counter Mr. Jones’s version of entertainment with their own. The two men met through Marty DeRosa, a Chicago comedian. Mr. Holmes, 33, grew up in the small Northern Illinois town of Princeton. His parents were members of the No-Name Fellowship, a religious cult. The cult disbanded after the child of one of its members died after being denied medical treatment.

“My entire life was influenced by a loud, large, brash con man cult leader,” Mr. Holmes joked.

At the University of Missouri, Mr. Friesen, 36, got interested in American storytelling, including the conspiratorial stories Americans tell themselves.

He listened to Mr. Jones occasionally “from the 9/11 days,” when the Infowars host claimed to have predicted the attacks, Mr. Friesen said. “Then, once I saw him getting involved in Trump, it felt weird,” Mr. Friesen said.

Mr. Jones’s plunge into presidential politics intrigued Mr. Friesen, who compared Mr. Jones to Charles E. Coughlin, a Catholic priest and similarly rambling, charismatic radio broadcaster during the 1930s who spiraled from populism to virulent anti-Semitism to obscurity.

For Infowars, a return to obscurity might be looming. After a dizzying audience surge during Mr. Jones’s live broadcast of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, daily traffic to the Infowars website has plummeted, to about one-quarter of that day’s views and well below where it was in recent years, according to an analysis by SimilarWeb, an internet tracking company.

Traffic from social media has never fully recovered from Mr. Jones’s removal from most big platforms in 2018 and 2019, for violating policies against abusive behavior, and posts promoting violence or hate. Websites like Infowars can attract casual readers chasing viral posts on social media. But those referrals have decreased significantly, with less than 1 percent of all traffic to Infowars coming from social media, according to the SimilarWeb analysis.

Image

The podcast still broadcasts from a spare bedroom off the kitchen in Mr. Friesen’s apartment on Chicago’s North Side.Credit...Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

The major exception to this trend has been Facebook, from which Infowars gets more than half of its remaining social media traffic, even though Mr. Jones is technically banned, according to Ilana Marks, an analyst and marketing manager at SimilarWeb.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, weakened the ban by allowing Facebook users other than Mr. Jones and his company to continue to share Infowars content, a fact reported earlier by BuzzFeed News.

Infowars has undergone firings and internal ruptures. Mr. Jones’s fringe appeal has been partly eclipsed by the QAnon conspiracy movement, which he has condemned. Having spent weeks urging “patriots” to the ramparts in Washington on Jan. 6, Mr. Jones has since labored to distance himself from the riot, which resulted in the arrests of some Infowars associates, including a cameraman last week.

For three years, Mr. Jones has had to employ a multistate team of lawyers, battling a half-dozen defamation lawsuits, including four related to his spreading of conspiracy theories around the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. This month, the Supreme Court rejected without comment Mr. Jones’s appeal of a court sanction in one of those cases.

“We used to talk about his outbursts at the very beginning as being so fake, just like: ‘This is performative outrage. You’re yelling because you’re playing that character of Alex Jones, who’s supposed to be yelling,’” Mr. Holmes said. “And now whenever you listen to him freak out, you’re like: ‘This guy’s freaking out. This is somebody who is not in control.’”

With proliferating fringe-right commentators and even Fox News’s Tucker Carlson threatening his conspiracy turf, Mr. Jones has increasingly segued to end-times themes on his show, starring the devil. He’s also been talking about quitting his business, in which he deploys conspiratorial themes to push sales of diet supplements, air and water filters, and doomsday prepper merchandise.

“He will talk about how Infowars is going to run out of money, and that’s generally in service of doing sales pitches, but separate from that, I’ve noticed an upswing in instances of him just yelling about not wanting to do this anymore,” Mr. Friesen said.

Part of the problem, Mr. Friesen said, is Mr. Trump’s desultory exit: “The last five years of Alex’s content has been singularly focused around the ability of one strong man to be the change that’s needed in the world.”

Mr. Friesen and Mr. Holmes figure that if Mr. Jones implodes, they’ll find another misinformation maestro to skewer.

But so far, Mr. Friesen conceded, “We haven’t found anything, anybody, who’s as interesting as Alex.”

Chris Cameron contributed reporting.

Elizabeth Williamson is a feature writer based in the Washington bureau. She previously worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and was a foreign correspondent for a decade, covering Central and Eastern Europe.

A version of this article appears in print on April 19, 2021, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Infowars Host’s Reckoning Buoys a Scrappy Business. Order Reprints

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/us/politics/alex-jones.html

The meaning "container made of tin," especially "can for preserving meats, fruits, etc." is by 1795; U.S. use tended to favor can (n.) for this. Tin-can is attested from 1770 as "can made of tin;" as naval slang for "destroyer," by 1937.

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

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/.../cic_lib2-cann607-709_en.html

Tián (田), or T'ien in Wade-Giles is a Chinese surname.[1] An alternative transliteration of "田" from Cantonese is Tin, from Hokkien is Thinn. It appeared in the Hundred Family Surnames text from the early Song dynasty. It also means "field". In 2019 it was the 34th most common surname in mainland China.[2]

The same character is Jeon in Korean hanja.

Origins

perhaps from a fief called Tian (田), which in Old Chinese is pronounced similar to (陳) in Qi state. Assuming pronunciation of Tian in Old Chinese remains identical to today, the closest pronunciation of 陳 should be 'Tan', the Hokkien form. This surname was granted to Chen Wan (陳完), a prince in the State of Chen, who fled to Qi to escape persecution. The Qi clan also went on to rule Qi for many generations.[1]

possibly dates even further back to the post name of an official in charge of the management of farmlands who served the Shang dynasty

adopted in place of the Chinese surname Huang (黃) by the son of the official Huang Zicheng during the Ming dynasty, in order to avoid persecution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_(surname)

Tin Cup is a 1996 American romantic comedy and sports film co-written and directed by Ron Shelton,[3] and starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo with Cheech Marin and Don Johnson in major supporting roles.[2] The film received generally positive reviews from critics and performed moderately at the box office, grossing $75.8 million against its $45 million budget. Costner received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Plot

Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy is a former golf prodigy who lost his chance to become a professional golfer when he attempted a risky shot for the final round of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament rather than taking a safer shot. He owns a ramshackle driving range in West Texas, where he drinks and hangs out with his pal Romeo Posar and their friends.

One day Dr. Molly Griswold, a clinical psychologist, arrives looking for a golf lesson. She has been dating David Simms, a top professional golfer who played with Roy at the University of Houston. Roy is attracted to Molly.

The next day, Simms shows up at Roy's trailer ahead of a local benefit tournament. Roy thinks he is being invited to play, but Simms actually wants to hire him as a caddie. During the round, Roy needles Simms about laying up instead of having the nerve to take a 230-yard shot over a water hazard. A bet among the other players is made, and Simms fires Roy after he makes the long shot.

To get even with Simms and prove his worth to Molly, Roy decides to try to qualify for the U.S. Open. He makes a play for Molly. She turns him down but offers to be his sports psychologist in exchange for golf lessons.

In the first qualifying round, with Romeo as his caddie, Roy's game is excellent, but he insists on playing recklessly. They fight, and Romeo quits. Despite breaking most of his clubs in a tantrum, Roy advances to the final qualifying round. Without Romeo, he barely succeeds at the sectional qualifying round, earning a spot in the U.S. Open. Romeo returns and helps Roy with some swing problems.

On the first day of the U.S. Open, Roy, playing hungover, shoots a horrendous 83. Meanwhile, Molly sees Simms' unpleasant side and decides she wants to be with Roy. With renewed confidence, he shocks the golf world by making the cut with a round record at 10 under par. Roy's third round is also excellent and moves him into contention.

On the last day of the tournament, Roy is in a three-way battle to win. For the fourth day in a row, he takes a shot that repeatedly fails to keep the ball out of the water hazard. On his twelfth and final shot, facing disqualification, he reaches the green and gets the ball into the hole. Roy has blown a shot at winning the U.S. Open, but Molly reassures him that people will always remember his amazing shot.

Back in Texas, Molly tells Roy that he automatically qualified for next year's Open. They kiss passionately as the movie ends.

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

Race cup

a cup given as a prize to the victor in a race.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Race+cup

Jimmy Carter in 1980: ‘Moon looks like a golf course’ compared to Mount St. Helens

Dec 29, 2024, 2:46 PM | Updated: 2:47 pm

BY FELIKS BANEL

Local historian

After Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared all of Washington a federal disaster area and then paid a visit to see the devastation for himself.

Carter, who served just one term in office, died after a long illness on Dec. 29, 2024. He was 100 years old.

While the 39th Commander-in-Chief first entered hospice in 2023, it seemed like a good reason to look back to when Carter visited Washington and Oregon a few days after the 1980 eruption and a great excuse to listen to vintage audio clips from the somewhat unusual presidential visit to the Pacific Northwest.

Air Force One landed at the Air National Guard Base at Portland International Airport on the evening of Wednesday, May 21, 1980. The entourage traveled by motorcade to a briefing at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest headquarters in Vancouver, Washington, and then to the Marriott Hotel in Portland, Oregon, for the night.

The next morning, Carter, Washington Gov. Dixy Lee Ray, and other officials (and the news media) took off from the air base in a fleet of seven helicopters. For the next hour or so, they viewed mud and debris from the eruption clogging the Columbia River (near the mouth of the Cowlitz, which was also clogged) and blocking freight traffic in the busy corridor; flooding near Longview; homes in the Toutle Valley and other areas damaged by mudflows coming down the Toutle River; and the unimaginable devastation in the immediate vicinity of the volcano.

After the tour, the helicopters landed at Kelso Airport and then went by motorcade a few miles to Cascade Middle School in Longview (home since 1961, as everyone knows, to the mighty Cavaliers.)

School in the Longview/Kelso area had been canceled all week because of the eruption, but the gymnasium at Cascade had been converted into a Red Cross shelter for people who lost their homes or whose homes were now threatened. Carter met many of the 40 or so people staying at the shelter, listened to their stories, and offered words of support.

Longtime Sen. Warren Magnuson of Washington was also on the tour with Carter that day, and at one point, newspaper accounts say, he and Governor Ray tussled verbally over state versus federal funding required to aid in disaster recovery – Ray wanted federal dollars, Magnuson said the feds were broke.

This was 1980, after all, and the country was deep in an economic downturn, mired in the ongoing Iran hostage crisis, and on the brink of the United States’ boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow (in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan).

As it turned out, three of the highest-ranking elected officials who toured the volcano that day – Carter, Gov. Ray, and Sen. Magnuson – would lose their reelection bids later that year as the “Reagan landslide” radically changed Evergreen State politics (though Ray would lose earlier in the primary to Jim McDermott.)

But, those elections were still months away when, at the Kelso Airport, Carter made one of his most memorable comments about the devastation he’d witnessed from the helicopter.

“I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this before,” Carter told the gathered members of the media. “Somebody said it looked like a moonscape. The moon looks like a golf course compared to what’s out there.

“It is a horrible-looking sight.” Carter said.

More from Feliks Banel: How Seattle observed VE Day in 1945

Leaving Kelso, the entourage then headed back to Portland and the Marriott Hotel for a news conference. The president’s remarks made it very clear that what he had seen with his own eyes had made a deep impression.

“The absolute and total devastation of a region . . . encompasses about 150 (square) miles,” Carter said. “It’s the worst thing I have ever seen. It is literally indescribable, and it’s devastating.

“There is no way to prepare oneself for the sight that we beheld this morning,” the president continued. “I don’t know that … in recorded history in our nation, there has ever been a more formidable explosion.”

And even just four days after the deadly disaster which took the lives of 57 people, Carter was already looking ahead somewhat presciently, if sheepishly, to what would eventually become the reality of Mount St. Helens once the eruptive activity subsided.

“When safe places are fixed for tourists and others and scientists to come in and observe it,” the president said, “I would say there would be, if you’ll excuse the expression, a tourist attraction that would equal the Grand Canyon or something.”

“It’s an unbelievable sight,” he said.

Air Force One departed from Portland and headed back east. The jet touched down briefly in Spokane so the president could see the ash damage in Eastern Washington and meet with officials there before getting back on the plane and returning to Washington, D.C.

Editors’ note: This piece originally was published on May 18, 2023. It has been updated and republished since then.

Feliks Banel has served as KIRO Newsradio’s Resident Historian since 2015, and was originally hired by the radio station in 1991. Read more from Feliks here; subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here; and subscribe to Feliks’ Unsolved Histories podcast here. Feliks frequently posts about Northwest history on his Facebook page; follow him there for previews and updates. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks.

https://mynorthwest.com/history/president-carter-moon-golf-course-compared-mt-st-helens/3888183

Updated Nov. 22, 2023

Why Ivana Trump Was Buried at Bedminster Golf Course: 3 Theories

Portrait of Margaret Hartmann

By Margaret Hartmann, senior editor for Intelligencer who has worked at New York since 2012

Ivana Trump, former president Donald Trump’s first wife, died on July 14, 2022 at the age of 73, owing to injuries she suffered in an accidental fall on the “grand curving staircase” at her Upper East Side townhouse. Her funeral drew about 400 people and featured a gold-hued coffin, Secret Service agents, and loving remembrances from her three adult children as well as several friends. Then this icon of ’80s glamour and New York tabloid drama was laid to rest … at a New Jersey golf course?

Many found the decision to bury Ivana at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster puzzling. She is the first person to be buried at the former president’s New Jersey property, and the ground had to be consecrated so she could have a traditional Catholic burial.

A New York Post photographer scoped out the site shortly after Ivana was laid to rest and found that while her grave isn’t literally on the golf course, the whole vibe is surprisingly understated:

Photos taken by The Post Thursday show Trump’s grave alone against a bucolic scenery of trees and shrubbery. The grave looks upon a sprawling green space upon the country club’s vast estate.

The plot where Ivana was buried has a bouquet of more than two dozen white flowers and a plaque that reads in all capital letters Ivana Trump with the dates she was born and died.

The grave is in a place where golfers would not see it as they tee off for a round of golf. The small section of the club is below the backside of the first tee.

A little over a year later, the mystery persists. Photographs published by The Daily Mail on August 12, 2023 show that Ivana’s grave is marked with a small headstone, which “has become overgrown with grass and is barely visible.”

So what exactly is going on here? I have a few theories.

Theory 1: Trump really loves northern New Jersey.

If Trump National Golf Club Bedminster held a special place in Ivana’s heart, there’s no record of it. Donald bought the property in 2002, a full decade after their divorce was finalized. While Ivana maintained a friendship with her ex-husband through her final days, and her daughter, Ivanka, was married at the club, it does not appear that Ivana ever publicly praised the property.

There is, however, ample evidence that Donald Trump thinks Bedminster is a phenomenal place to be laid to rest. “Wouldn’t you want to be buried here?” he mused to The Wall Street Journal in 2015. The idea has been on his mind for at least 15 years. Back in 2007, Trump filed paperwork to build a windowless wedding chapel at Bedminster that would later be converted into a mausoleum for himself and his family.

Drawings filed with the Somerset County township called for what NJ.com described as a “19-foot-high, classical-style stone structure” with “four imposing obelisks surrounding its exterior and a small altar and six vaults inside. Locals balked at the proposal, which they deemed gaudy, and Trump withdrew the plan. Five years later, he came back with a new idea: Instead of a mausoleum, he would be buried at a large cemetery with more than 1,000 graves. “The idea, apparently, was that Trump’s golf-club members would buy the other plots, seizing the chance at eternal membership,” the Washington Post reported.

Facing continued opposition to his ghoulish ambitions, Trump revised his plans once again. In 2014, the Trump Organization filed paperwork to build two graveyards at Bedminster. One would have 284 lots for sale to the public, while the other would consist of just ten plots for Trump and his family near the first tee. The company’s filing with the state said Trump “specifically chose this property for his final resting place as it is his favorite property.”

In an October 2023 interview, Eric Trump revealed it was his father’s idea to have his mother laid to rest at the “family funeral plot.” “He was the one to say, you know, ‘I want her with us,’” Eric said. “It was pretty amazing again, you know, kind of a wife long removed — ex-wife long removed. He’s an incredible man. He’s got a heart of gold.”

Theory 2: Trump is running an elaborate tax scheme.

Some remain skeptical that Trump actually considers this the most fabulous piece of property he owns:

The Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 31. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/LIV via Getty Images

The average person might say Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s seaside Florida resort, is more spectacular, but they’re not looking at Bedminister through the eyes of a person with an alleged passion for tax avoidance. This tweet from Brooke Harrington, a professor of sociology at Dartmouth, sparked speculation that Bedminster’s real appeal as a graveyard lies in New Jersey tax law.

As a tax researcher, I was skeptical of rumors Trump buried his ex-wife in that sad little plot of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks.

So I checked the NJ tax code & folks...it's a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated. pic.twitter.com/VDZBlDyuhQ

— Brooke Harrington (@EBHarrington) July 31, 2022

Indeed, as Insider reported, there are some surprising perks to being the proprietor of a New Jersey graveyard:

Under New Jersey state tax code, any land that is dedicated to cemetery purposes is exempt from all taxes, rates, and assessments. Cemetery companies are also specifically exempt from paying any real estate taxes, rates, and assessments or personal property taxes on their lands, as well as business taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and inheritance taxes.

And the Trump family has definitely been pursuing the tax advantages of cemetery ownership. A document published by ProPublica shows that the Trump Family Trust sought to designate a property in Hackettstown, New Jersey, about 20 miles from Bedminster, as a nonprofit cemetery company back in 2016.

But there is reason to question this too-Trumpy-to-be-true allegation. First, all this cemetery business is unnecessary because he has already found a way to drastically reduce his Bedminster tax burden. When the Post’s David Farenthold looked into Trump’s cemetery obsession in 2017, he concluded it wouldn’t be very profitable as a business venture or a tax-avoidance scheme:

… the savings would hardly be worth the trouble. That’s because Trump had already found a way to lower his taxes on that wooded, largely unused parcel. He had persuaded the township to declare it a farm, because some trees on the site are turned into mulch. Because of pro-farmer tax policies, Trump’s company pays just $16.31 per year in taxes on the parcel, which he bought for $461,000.

According to a 2019 HuffPost analysis, Trump slashed his Bedminster tax bill by about $88,000 a year by keeping eight goats and farming 113 acres of hay on the property.

Is is possible that the cemetery business is some kind of backup tax- avoidance scheme? I suppose, but it doesn’t make a ton of sense to this humble TurboTax user.

Theory 3: Trump is just keeping it weird.

“It’s always been my suspicion that there’s something we don’t know” about Trump’s cemetery plan, Bedminster land-use board member Nick Strakhov told Farenthold in 2017.

It does seem we’re missing a key piece of the boneyard puzzle. But there is one thing we know about Trump now that wasn’t quite as apparent back then: He is a super-weird guy. He has managed to be weird with various kinds of paper, toilet bowls, aircraft carriers, and “dangerous fruit,” to name just a few of his proclivities. The thought of our inevitable demise brings out strange feelings and behavior in most people. Some of the rich plan to freeze themselves or shoot their remains into space; is it any surprise that Trump has some grandiose idea about how he and his family should be laid to rest?

“It’s never something you like to think about, but it makes sense,” Trump told the New York Post during his first attempt to make Bedminster a cemetery in 2007. “This is such beautiful land, and Bedminster is one of the richest places in the country.”

Trumpy commentary on the wealth of northern New Jersey aside, that sounds astonishingly well adjusted.

This piece was updated to include Eric Trump’s comments on his mother’s gravesite.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ivana-trump-buried-bedminster-3-theories.html

Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was a public–private partnership initiated by the United States government to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.[1][2] The first news report of Operation Warp Speed was on April 29, 2020,[3][4][5] and the program was officially announced on May 15, 2020.[1] It was headed by Moncef Slaoui from May 2020 to January 2021 and by David A. Kessler from January to February 2021.[6] At the end of February 2021, Operation Warp Speed was transferred into the responsibilities of the White House COVID-19 Response Team.[7]

The program promoted mass production of multiple vaccines, and different types of vaccine technologies, based on preliminary evidence. Then there were clinical trials. The plan anticipated that some of these vaccines would not prove safe or effective, making the program more costly than typical vaccine development, but potentially leading to the availability of a viable vaccine several months earlier than typical timelines.[8]

Operation Warp Speed, initially funded with about $10 billion from the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) passed by the United States Congress on March 27, 2020,[1] was an interagency program that includes components of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA); the Department of Defense; private firms; and other federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.[1]

History

President Donald Trump formally announced Operation Warp Speed on May 15, 2020, in the White House Rose Garden.

On May 15, 2020, President Donald Trump officially announced the public-private partnership.[4][1] The purpose of Operation Warp Speed was to coordinate Health and Human Services-wide efforts, including the NIH ACTIV[9] partnership for vaccine and therapeutic development, the NIH RADx[10] initiative for diagnostic development, and work by BARDA.[1]

Operation Warp Speed was formed to encourage private and public partnerships to enable faster approval and production of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The name was inspired by terminology for faster-than-light travel used in the Star Trek fictional universe, evoking a sense of rapid progress.[11][12]

The Food and Drug Administration announced on June 30, 2020, that a vaccine would need to be at least 50% effective for diminishing the severity of COVID-19 symptoms to obtain regulatory and marketing approval.[13]

In January 2021, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the program was expected to undergo a restructure and renaming under the Biden administration.[14][15] Also in January 2021, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, former Operation Warp Speed lead, was told not to use the name Operation Warp Speed anymore.[16] At the end of February 2021, responsibilities of Operation Warp Speed were transferred into the White House COVID-19 Response Team.[7][17]

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

The Visions and Circles of Power

Transcript of audio tape from Betty J. Mills

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/bettymillsvisonsandcirclesofpowerjan1991.shtml

January 1991

The Visions and Circles of Power by Betty Mills (Jan. 1991)

http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/hoax/circlesofpower.htm

This is a transcript of a tape made by Betty J. Mills in January, 1991. Also see the transcript of Betty’s tape, that illustrates the influence wielded by leaders of the Conservative - Christian/Conservative "New Right" which, Betty asserts, has held the door open for the liberal agenda. An Open Letter to Members of Eagle Forum and Serge Monast's transcript on Project BlueBeam

The Visions and Circles of Power

by Betty J. Mills

My name is Betty J. Mills . It is January 1991. The title of this tape is The Vision and Circles of Power. This tape is undoubtedly the most difficult tape I have ever made and some of you may say it is also the most unbelievable. First, let me say, as I have said in my tape and booklets, when I discuss the Catholic Church, the Vatican, the Pope and the all-Catholic SMOM (Sovereign Military Order of Malta). I am not condemning Catholics and their faith. The Catholics' faith is their business. I only enter when it is political and a threat to the freedom of my grandchildren and all other children - and also when it is a threat to the restoration of the sovereignty of the United States of America and its Constitutional Republic.

Also, when I discuss the world policy makers or President George Bush [Sr.] and his administration and the war in the Gulf, I am in no way in opposition to our service men and service women. I honor and respect them. However, I am not behind the policy of president George Bush and his administration. I am not behind their policy which is the policy of the World Policymakers, whose dream was - and is - the New World Order.... and the war in the Gulf is a vitally important part of this plan.

Here is a question as part of a scenario. What would you believe or think?... what would you say and what would you do if ?... tomorrow your children came into the house screaming, "Mommy! Daddy! Come look at the sky!" You run outside and looking up at the sky you see a VISION. THE VISION could be the Virgin Mary. It could be Christ. It could be both or it could be some other [religious figure]. At this time you also hear a voice telling you that you will be receiving a message and that you must carry out the instructions you are given. Then other members of the family come out of the house and they inform you that they have seen the same VISION on television. You listen to the radio and you hear the message about THE VISION and other instructions that you are to follow. You try to call relatives and friends but you find that the phone lines are busy. Perhaps a recording will be giving some information. You learn from television and radio that THE VISION is being seen all over the world and the messages are being heard in the language of their country or area

The Struggle for World Dominion Between Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Capitalist West

Now... let us return to the present and reality. It will lead us to a book written by Malachi Martin considered by many as the voice for Pope John Paul II. As I discuss Malachi Martin's book, it will lead us back to THE VISION. From August the 2nd, 1990 until the present ... January 1991 - it is less than a six-month period of time, but it certainly is a most historical time. During this short period of time, president George Bush implemented a vital part of the U.S. State Department plan 7277.

This is one of the final steps leading into the New World Order. President George Bush accomplished this when he placed the U.S. military into an International Military Force under the United Nations. We have nearly one-half million service men and women over in the sand, and they are functioning under United Nations' resolutions. President George Bush then announced the NEW WORLD ORDER. Following this came a startling book by Malachi Martin entitled Keys of This Blood. The jacket of this book tells us what the book is about. It says it is the "struggle for world dominion between Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Capitalist West". I challenge that statement and will detail it later.

Simon & Schuster, the publishers of this book, call it "explosive" - and indeed it is. If the book had been written by just somebody, it would not have meant too much. However, the author of this book is Malachi Martin who is an eminent theologian and expert on the Catholic Church. He is a former Jesuit and a former professor at the Vatican Pontifical Biblical Institute. He served in Rome from 1958 to 1964.... and one thing to remember is that Malachi Martin made it very clear that Pope John Paul II has offered no objection to what he, Malachi Martin, has written. This fact certainly makes the book, Keys of This Blood "explosive" - as it was called by its publishers.

Following are my remarks and highlights of the book review of Simon & Schuster. If there is any doubt as to the New World Order meaning a One World Government, I would say that Malachi Martin's book and the book review verify the statement that the New World Order and a One World Government are one and the same. The book review states that before the end of the 1990's we will see the first One World Government that has ever existed in the society of nations. The Simon & Schuster book review shows that Malachi Martin's statements are startling and that he, Malachi Martin - for the first time - reveals the ongoing plans and policies of a reigning pope who is of course, at this time, Pope John Paul II. Malachi Martin exposes coveted Vatican intelligence data concerning the competition among these three major powers - as stated... the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Capitalist West and Pope John Paul II with his world-wide Roman Catholic church. It is with the intent to set up and maintain the New World Order which Pope John Paul II expects to be in place before the end of the 1990's

"...Pope John Paul II as the Servant of Heaven's Grand Design"

Malachi Martin says the battle between the pope, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Capitalist West will be a "winner-take-all" battle. He says that it:

"will end in a global government being a New Economic and Political World Order that is so vast that it will have to be presided over by a super bureaucracy superior to all individual nations".

We must surely understand from those statements that this would mean the absolute end of any attempt of restoring the sovereignty of the United States of America and its Constitutional Republic with its freedom and independence - a freedom never before enjoyed by any country. Malachi Martin says that, outside of his rivals, few people see Pope John Paul II as he sees himself. He said that the Pope sees himself as a contender with the power and the determination to establish and maintain the New World Order. Malachi Martin says that Mikhail Gorbachev and the Capitalist West do not have what it takes to make them the winners. Malachi Martin says:

"the world at large must reckon with Pope John Paul II as the servant of Heaven's Grand Design."

I would say that sounds very "New Age". And... throughout the book Malachi Martin makes it a point to tell us that Pope John Paul II is a slave to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Also, after Pope John Paul II was shot he said he had a personal communication from heaven. After this communication from heaven, Pope John Paul II concluded that the Fatima message linked with his One World Government plans. I would agree with that statement. In fact, that is what I feared and wrote about five years ago. Malachi Martin says the other two contenders feel that their present moves are in the last stages on the road to a New World Order which is already in view. AND... he said that Pope John Paul II is waiting for an event that will separate human history and that the event is THE VISION. I believe he is absolutely correct in his thinking, although I do not believe that "the vision" comes from whence Malachi Martin says.

The Message of Fatima

At the time the people view THE VISION in the sky it is very possible that they will receive the third message of Fatima. For those of you who are not familiar with this third message of Fatima, I will give just a small sketch of the story. Space does not allow the telling of the story in detail. I would suggest that any who are not familiar with the story of Fatima... get the booklet and read the story. It should be available in most Catholic book stores.The third message of Fatima could well be one of the most important messages ever heard by the people on this earth because it can be used by the world policymakers to their advantage in implementing the New World Order. It was nearly five years ago that I became very concerned about the third message of Fatima being used by the world policy-makers. I wrote a bit on it. Yes... with the Pope being totally committed to the Virgin Mary (who is the lady of Fatima), with the Pope being the powerful religious partner of the world policy-makers and with the third message - being what the world policy-makers want it to be - the third message of Fatima could be absolutely overwhelming in their New World Order plan.

I labeled the Pope as a partner of the other two that Malachi Martin calls "adversaries" of the Pope. The Capitalist West, Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and the Pope may be one another's adversaries at times. In a sense, while they may be adverse to one another at times, they are also at times one and the same. Now I will go back to the story of the Lady of Fatima. Fatima is a village in the center of the country of Portugal. It was near Fatima that three children saw "an angel" and later said they saw the blessed mother - the Virgin Mary. She gave them messages. Two of the messages were published. During this period of time when she was appearing before the children it was said that thousands of people viewed the sun zig-zagging in the sky. The one child, Lucia, grew to adulthood and became a nun. Lucia scribed a third message from the Virgin Mary which was eventually given to the Pope. It was to be revealed in 1960. It has not yet been revealed

When the Vision appears the Pope..."will control the Will and minds of men"

https://educate-yourself.org/cn/bettymillsvisonsandcirclesofpowerjan1991.shtml

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

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

Jeremiah 17:9

1599 Geneva Bible

9 [a]The heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can know it?

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Jeremiah 17:9 Because the wicked have ever some excuse to defend their doings, he showeth that their own lewd imaginations deceive them, and bring them to these inconveniences: but God will examine their deeds by the malice of their hearts, 1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; Ps. 7:10; Jer. 11:20 and 20:12; Rev. 2:13.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2017%3A9&version=GNV

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

Revelation 17:9-13

1599 Geneva Bible

9 [a]Here is the mind that hath wisdom, The [b]seven heads [c]are seven mountains, whereon the woman sitteth: [d]they are also seven Kings.

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

11 [h]And the beast that was, and is not, is even [i]the eighth, and is [j]one of the seven, and [k]all go into destruction.

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

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

Read full chapter

Footnotes

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.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation%2017%3A9-13&version=GNV

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02BFehE4VdvD82C65GWyymFTXaZfg8M2oabp8Wr3ukKeZ1cWx2ShHWbAk5Ekr4fobcl

Apollo 14 (January 31 – February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to land on the Moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands. It was the last of the "H missions", landings at specific sites of scientific interest on the Moon for two-day stays with two lunar extravehicular activities (EVAs or moonwalks).

The mission was originally scheduled for 1970, but was postponed because of the investigation following the failure of Apollo 13 to reach the Moon's surface, and the need for modifications to the spacecraft as a result. Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on Sunday, January 31, 1971, at 4:03:02 p.m. EST. En route to the lunar landing, the crew overcame malfunctions that might have resulted in a second consecutive aborted mission, and possibly, the premature end of the Apollo program.

Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro formation – originally the target of Apollo 13. During the two walks on the surface, they collected 94.35 pounds (42.80 kg) of Moon rocks and deployed several scientific experiments. To the dismay of some geologists, Shepard and Mitchell did not reach the rim of Cone crater as had been planned, though they came close. In Apollo 14's most famous event, Shepard hit two golf balls he had brought with him with a makeshift club.

While Shepard and Mitchell were on the surface, Roosa remained in lunar orbit aboard the Command and Service Module, performing scientific experiments and photographing the Moon, including the landing site of the future Apollo 16 mission. He took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated on return, resulting in the so-called Moon trees, that were widely distributed in the following years. After liftoff from the lunar surface and a successful docking, the spacecraft was flown back to Earth where the three astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on February 9.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_14

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 Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

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

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

Raymond of Burgundy (c. 1070 – 24 May 1107) was the ruler of Galicia as vassal of Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the Emperor of All Spain, from about 1090 until his death. He was the fourth son of Count William I of Burgundy and Stephanie. He married Urraca, future queen of León and heir of Alfonso VI, and was the father of the future Alfonso VII.

Background

When Raymond and his cousin, Henry of Burgundy, first arrived in Iberia is uncertain, but it probably was with the army of Duke Odo I of Burgundy in 1086. In April 1087, the army abandoned the siege of Tudela. While most of the army returned home, Odo and his retinue went west. By 21 July 1087 they were probably at Burgos, at the court of Alfonso VI, and by 5 August he was in the capital city of León. There Odo most likely arranged Raymond's marriage to Alfonso's heiress, Urraca. All surviving charters which seem to place Raymond in Spain before 1087 are either mis-dated or interpolated.[1]

By his marriage Raymond received as dowry the government of the Kingdom of Galicia (which included the County of Portugal and the County of Coimbra),[2] although shortly after, in 1095, Alfonso VI gave the County of Portugal and the County of Coimbra to Henry of Burgundy, father of the first Portuguese King Afonso Henriques of Portugal, basing it in Bracara Augusta (nowadays Braga). During his government he was titled Count, Dominus, Prince, Emperor and Consul of Galicia or of the Galicians, exercising near absolute power in his domains ("in urbe Gallecia regnante Comite Raymundus"): "serenissimus totius Gallecie comes", "totius Gallecie Senior et Dominus", "totius Gallecie Consul", "totius Gallecie Princeps", "totius Gallecie Imperator".[3]

He was father of Alfonso VII of León and Castile (1104/1105–1157), already crowned king of Galicia in 1111, while his brother later became Pope Callixtus II.

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

Alan fitz Flaad (c. 1060 – after 1120) was a Breton knight, probably recruited as a mercenary by Henry I of England in his conflicts with his brothers.[1] After Henry became King of England, Alan became an assiduous courtier and obtained large estates in Norfolk, Sussex, Shropshire, and elsewhere in the Midlands, including the feudal barony and castle of Oswestry in Shropshire.[2][3][4] His duties included supervision of the Welsh border.[5] He is now noted as the progenitor of the FitzAlan family, the Earls of Arundel (1267–1580), and the House of Stuart,[6] although his family connections were long a matter of conjecture and controversy.

Career

Arrival in England

Flaad and his son Alan had come to the favourable notice of King Henry I of England who, soon after his accession, brought Flaad and Alan to England. Eyton, consistently following the theory of the Scottish origins of the Stewarts, thought this was because he was part of the entourage of the Queen, Matilda of Scotland,[7] Round pointed out that Henry had been besieged in Mont-Saint-Michel during his struggle with his brothers,[1] an event which probably occurred in 1091. He is known to have recruited Breton troops at that time and, after his surrender, left the scene via the adjoining regions of Brittany, where Dol is situated. This is a likely explanation for the Bretons in the military retinue he brought to England after the death of William Rufus.

Alan's career in England can be traced largely through his presence as a witness to charters granted by the king during his travels in the first decade or more of his reign. Some of his activities were traced by Eyton, and his researches overlap with William Farrer's calendar of Henry I travel. All of the business in which he took part was ecclesiastical, involving grants, sometimes disputed, to churches and monasteries.

Appearances at court

Alan appeared in Henry I's company at least as early as September 1101, probably at a court held in Windsor Castle,[8] when he witnessed important grants to Norwich Cathedral, confirming its foundation and various endowments.[9][10] Next, he appeared with the king at Canterbury in 1103,[11] where he witnessed the grant of a market to the nuns of Malling Abbey and land acquisitions by Rochester Cathedral, then in the process of rebuilding.[12]

Later that year,[13] or early in the next,[14] Alan was with the king in the New Forest, where the business concerned Andover Priory, a daughter house of the great Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Florent de Saumur.[15] He was probably selected deliberately for this meeting because of his family's close connections with Saumur Abbey: one of his uncles was a monk there.[16] William Rufus had decreed that all chapels in the parish of Andover church should be handed over to the monks or destroyed.[17] One problem at issue revolved around the Foxcote chapel, which was evidently being defended from destruction or annexation by Edward de Foscote, a local landowner. Another seems to have been the administration of justice in the monastic estates.[18] Wihenoc, a monk of St Florent, had initiated an action against the reeve of Andover to have these issues clarified and resolved. Alan Fitz Flaad was called upon to witness a compromise, although Foxcote was among the properties confirmed to the priory by Pope Eugenius III in 1146.[19]

In the autumn of 1105, Alan was called to York to witness confirmation of Ralph Paynel's transfer of his refounded Holy Trinity Priory in York to Marmoutier Abbey, Tours[20][21] and his many endowments of the priory itself.[22][23] At some point, he also witnessed the Roger de Nonant's gift of the church at Totnes and various tithes to the Abbey of Ss Sergius and Bacchus at Angers, a gift earmarked as being for the souls of the royal family.[24]

In May 1110, Alan was at court at Windsor again to witness the king's settlement of a property dispute between Hervey le Breton, Bishop of Ely, and Ranulph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, resolved in favour of the former.[25]

Probably only later did he appear as a witness to a royal command issued to Richard de Belmeis I, the Bishop of London and the king's viceroy in Shropshire, to see that justice was done in the case of a disputed prebend at Morville.[26][27] The collegiate church there had been dissolved and replaced with a priory attached to Shrewsbury Abbey[28] and it seems that the son of one of the prebendaries was resisting the loss of what he regarded as his patrimony. Alan is listed among a group of Shropshire magnates, including Corbets and a Peverel, meeting perhaps during Henry I's 1114 military expedition into Wales. Johnson and Cronne tentatively place the meeting at Holdgate Castle in Shropshire. Eyton dates the event earlier, around the time of a royal expedition to Shropshire in 1109.[29] Whatever the date, it shows Alan as an important member of the Shropshire landowning class.

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

The Second Boer War (Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, lit. 'Second Freedom War', 11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War,[8] Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and Orange Free State) over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa.

The Witwatersrand Gold Rush caused a large influx of "foreigners" (Uitlanders) to the South African Republic (SAR), mostly British from the Cape Colony. As they, for fear of a hostile takeover of the SAR, were permitted to vote only after fourteen years of residence, they protested to the British authorities in the Cape. Negotiations failed at the botched Bloemfontein Conference in June 1899. The conflict broke out in October after the British government decided to send 10,000 troops to South Africa.[9] With a delay, this provoked a Boer and British ultimatum and subsequent Boer irregulars and militia attacks on British colonial settlements in Natal Colony. The Boers placed Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking under siege, and won victories at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Increased numbers of British Army soldiers were brought to Southern Africa and mounted unsuccessful attacks against the Boers.

However, British fortunes changed when their commanding officer, General Redvers Buller, was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, who relieved the besieged cities and invaded the Boer republics in early 1900 at the head of a 180,000-strong expeditionary force. The Boers, aware they were unable to resist such a large force, refrained from fighting pitched battles, allowing the British to occupy both republics and their capitals, Pretoria and Bloemfontein.[10][11][12] Boer politicians, including President of the South African Republic Paul Kruger, either fled or went into hiding; the British Empire officially annexed the two republics in 1900. In Britain, the Conservative ministry led by Lord Salisbury attempted to capitalise on British military successes by calling an early general election, dubbed by contemporary observers a "khaki election". However, Boer fighters took to the hills and launched a guerrilla campaign, becoming known as bittereinders. Led by generals such as Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet, and Koos de la Rey, Boer guerrillas used hit-and-run attacks and ambushes against the British for two years.[13][14]

The guerrilla campaign proved difficult for the British to defeat, due to unfamiliarity with guerrilla tactics and extensive support for the guerrillas among civilians. In response to failures to defeat the guerrillas, British high command ordered scorched earth policies as part of a large scale and multi-pronged counterinsurgency campaign; a network of nets, blockhouses, strongpoints and barbed wire fences was constructed, virtually partitioning the occupied republics. Over 100,000 Boer civilians, mostly women and children, were forcibly relocated into concentration camps, where 26,000 died, mostly by starvation and disease. Black Africans were interned in concentration camps to prevent them from supplying the Boers; 20,000 died.[15] British mounted infantry were deployed to track down guerrillas, leading to small-scale skirmishes. Few combatants on either side were killed in action, with most casualties dying from disease. Kitchener offered generous terms of surrender to remaining Boer leaders to end the conflict. Eager to ensure fellow Boers were released from the camps, most Boer commanders accepted the British terms in the Treaty of Vereeniging, surrendering in May 1902.[16][17] The former republics were transformed into the British colonies of the Transvaal and Orange River, and in 1910 were merged with the Natal and Cape Colonies to form the Union of South Africa, a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.[18]

British expeditionary efforts were aided significantly by colonial forces from the Cape Colony, the Natal, Rhodesia,[19] and many volunteers from the British Empire worldwide, particularly Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand. Black African recruits contributed increasingly to the British war effort. International public opinion was sympathetic to the Boers and hostile to the British. Even within the UK, there existed significant opposition to the war. As a result, the Boer cause attracted thousands of volunteers from neutral countries, including the German Empire, United States, Russia and even some parts of the British Empire such as Australia and Ireland.[20] Some consider the war the beginning of questioning the British Empire's veneer of impenetrable global dominance, due to the war's surprising duration and the unforeseen losses suffered by the British.[21] A trial for British war crimes committed during the war, including the killings of civilians and prisoners, was opened in January 1901.

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

Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman known for his key roles in Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter (which he rebranded as X). Since 2025, he has been a senior advisor to United States president Donald Trump and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk is the wealthiest person in the world; as of March 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $320 billion USD.

Born to a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated in 1989 to Canada, whose citizenship he had inherited through his mother. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. before moving to California to pursue business ventures. In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2. Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. That year, Musk also became a U.S. citizen.

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

Orange (French pronunciation: [ɔʁɑ̃ʒ] ⓘ; Provençal: Aurenja (classical norm) or Aurenjo (Mistralian norm)) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France.[3] It is about 21 km (13 mi) north of Avignon, on the departmental border with Gard, which follows the Rhône and also constitutes the regional border with Occitania. Orange is the second-most populated city in Vaucluse, after Avignon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,_Vaucluse

Agent Orange: This nickname gained traction during Trump's presidency, alluding to his controversial policies and the color of his trademark hair. It has a dual meaning, referencing both his hair color and the herbicide of the same name used during the Vietnam War.

https://abatul.com/

History of the Orange Order

The Loyal Orange Institution was formed on 21st September 1795 shortly after the ‘Battle of the Diamond’ outside Loughgall, Co. Armagh. Three well-known local men of the area, James Wilson, Dan Winter, and James Sloan, established the institution. Whilst much is made of these ‘founding fathers’ within Orange circles; from a spiritual perspective we see no evidence that any of them had evangelical credentials. History, in fact, shows that all three men were dedicated Freemasons and two of the three were actually proprietors of licensed premises.

The Bible addresses such people, saying, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!” (Habakkuk 2:15). The Rev. Allan Dunlop, addressing this passage of Scripture in his book ‘Where Shadows Fall’ (p. 37), says, “The curse of God is upon the drink trade for what profits it brings are wrung from widows tears, children’s terror, women’s virtue and young men’s strength; and of wives and mothers broken hearts.”

It is true to say that Dan Winter came from a Quaker background, although his ungodly lifestyle shows he was anything but a dedicated Quaker. Firstly, Quakers have always practised strict ‘total abstinence’ and have always opposed the devilish influence of alcohol. Winter was the proprietor of a public house. Secondly, Quakers have always been opposed to the heathenish practices and teachings of Freemasonry. Winter was a zealous Freemason. Thirdly, Quakers have always been pacifists, opposing all type of fighting. Winter was the leader of the local ‘Peep O’ Day Boys’ (an illegal Protestant militia group of the day), and he was also a well-known ‘cock fighter’ in the area.

The ‘Battle of the Diamond’ itself lasted only fifteen minutes and was centred on Dan Winter’s public house, which was located at the Diamond crossroads. This battle (or skirmish) resulted in Winter’s premises being burnt to the ground by the attacking Roman Catholics who were ironically known as ‘the Defenders’. This place was the special focus of the attack as it was the gathering house for the local ‘Peep O’ Day Boys’. Prior to the battle, the authorities had made several arrests and various arms seizures relating to this illegal group.

Winter’s supporters, many of whom were Freemasons, gathered around the debris of the public house and pledged themselves to form a new secret society, made up wholly of Protestant men. Now that they no longer had Winter’s premises as a meeting place the men retired to James Sloan’s public house in the local village of Loughgall. Here the Orange Institution was properly organised.

The founders of the Orange Institution were known as ‘unwarranted masons’, ‘clandestine masons’ or ‘hedge’ Masons. These Masons were a rebellious group who would not accept the existing degree format of the ruling Masonic Grand Lodge of the day. Belinda Loftus, in her book ‘Mirrors’ (p.24) confirms that the clandestine or hedge Masons were “unwarranted by the Grand Lodge in Dublin” because Irish Masonry “refused to recognise any degrees but craft.” Up until the early 1800s the Grand Masonic Lodge of Ireland only accepted three degrees, – Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason, collectively known as the ‘Craft degrees’ or the ‘Blue Lodge’. All other degrees were held to be illegal.

Read a detailed exposure of the Royal Arch Purple by W P Malcomson:

The Unwarranted Masons were the more zealous (or esoteric) Masons who adhered to the many mystical degrees, which today are accepted within the domain of higher degree Freemasonry. These degrees are found under the auspices of the Red Lodge, known as the Chapter and the Chivalry degrees, known as the Preceptory.

The Irish Masonic publication ‘History of Freemasonry in the Province of Antrim’ alludes to these clandestine Masons. It explain how these men would ascend to “the top of some neighbouring hill, and there, towards the close of a summers evening, after the manner of the ancient Druids, perform their rites and ceremonies, the meeting being properly tyled and guarded…They were unwarranted and recognised no authority and no authority recognised them” (p.143&144).

Winter, Sloan and Wilson, accompanied by others, felt the great need to instigate a ceremony of initiation into the new body and not surprisingly Freemasonry was chosen as the model. They used the Masonic template to formulate their degree structure. That is why the Loyal Orders teaching, titles, symbols and rituals so closely resembles that of Freemasonry.

Initially the Orange had one sole degree known simply as the ‘Orange degree’. As the months progressed the founding fathers introduced a further degree somewhere around late 1796. The ‘Orange Marksman’ degree as it was originally designated, became better known as the ‘Purple degree’. It was constructed in Portadown, in the home of prominent Freemason, John Templeton – a location frequently used for Masonic ceremonies. Orange historian (and well known Freemason of his day) Colonel R.H. Wallace outlined in his ‘History of the Orange Order’ (1899) how the founders “were observed going into and out of a house in which a Masonic Lodge held its meetings,” and that, “He [Mr Templeton] invited them into the Masonic room, and there and then satisfactory arrangements were made.” He concluded by saying, “the influence of the place and its associations can be discerned in the results” (p. 50). Another Orange historian R.M. Sibbett in ‘Orangeism in Ireland and Throughout the Empire’ (1938) explained how, “The subject uppermost in their minds was touched upon and discussed, and, at the request of Mr. Templeton, they adjourned to a room which had been used for other ceremonies. Here the warrant was produced, the lodge was reopened, and a higher Order was added.”

A further degree was added as Orangeism consolidated itself. The Royal Arch Purple Chapter book states that, “Probably late in the year 1796 or early 1797 a third degree known as Purple Marksman was added to the ritual. It is likely to have been composed by the same hands, probably in the same room as that of the Orange Marksman or Purpleman” (History of the Royal Arch Purple Order p. 39).

Whilst little is known of the exact content of these three degrees it seems certain that they were highly ritualistic in character, being modelled on the first three degrees of Freemasonry, namely, Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. The Royal Arch Purple Chapter book testifies that these three initial Orange degrees were “elaborate degrees” (p. 59).

Orange degree – Entered Apprentice degree

Orange Marksman degree – Fellowcraft degree

Purple Marksman degree – Master Mason degree

These were the three main degrees that were worked within the Order between 1795 and 1798, although many other ritualistic degrees were finding their way into Orangeism throughout the island of Ireland. Most of these degrees can today be found within the Royal Black Institution.

During this early period each individual Orange lodge administered its own control over the working of degrees, as no controlling authority existed to govern the degree system. A Grand Lodge of Ulster, as it were, was formed on 12th of July 1797, although it seemed to exercise little power over the whole island of Ireland.

The prevailing confusion within the Order, coupled with a large influx of new members, due to the deteriorating political situation in the form of the Republican uprising of the ‘United Irelanders’, resulted in the formation of a Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland on 21st April 1798. This brought much needed stability and leadership to the Order at a strategic period in its history.

Grand Lodge immediately addressed the bewildering amount of unnecessary ritualism that had found its way into Orangeism, and here began a process of reform which purged out all the ritualistic baggage which had settled itself within the Order. This resulted in the disposal of the original three (elaborate) degrees of the Orange. These were replaced with two simplified degrees of ‘Orange’ and ‘Plain Purple’. Out with the old degrees went the old leadership of James Wilson, Dan Winter, and James Sloan.

Wasting little time, Grand Lodge released a strong statement on 13th December 1798 which reflected the hierarchy’s strong desire to separate themselves from former error, stating: “That many persons having introduced various Orders into the Orange Society which will very much tend to injure the regularity of the institution. The Grand Lodge disavows any Order but Orange and Purple and there can be none other regular unless issuing and approved by them.”

From this date forward, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland accepted only two degrees within the Order – ‘Orange’ and ‘Plain Purple’. Between 1798 and 1800 Grand Lodge began a process of implementing this simplification by standardising procedures throughout every lodge in Ireland. That they might eradicate any lingering injurious behaviour by spurious characters, they abolished the old Orange Order in 1800, with its ritualistic connections, obliging every Orangeman to rejoin a now simplified new Orange Institution.

Grand Lodges opposition to Royal Arch Purple and Black degrees

1798-1801

1802-1828

1834-1875

1876-1878

1880-1913

1925

Those ritualistic Orangemen inside the Order who bore allegiance to the former neo-Masonic degrees were far from happy at this radical reform. Some continued to practise these illegal degrees in a clandestine manner, in blatant violation of the rules of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.

Facing strong persecution from a now powerful Grand Lodge and realising their beleaguered position, they merged the three old degrees into one large ritualistic degree. The Arch Purple Chapter’s book ‘History of the Royal Arch Purple Order’ explains: “Sometime between 1800 and 1811, possibly in 1802, a new degree was devised by the Brethren who valued and loved the old traditions and who were concerned by the turn of events” (p. 58). This degree was ” developed from the three pre 1798 ‘old degrees’ ” (p. 59). This elaborate degree became known as the ‘Royal Arch Purple degree’.

Orange degree

Orange Marksman degree – Royal Arch Purple degree

Purple Marksman degree

The Arch Purple Chapter’s book also confirms its composition, how that it was designed to “include as much as possible of the travel and ritual of the original three.”

The draft to the Arch Purple Chapter’s book diplomatically traces the roots of the Royal Arch Purple degree, stating that, “In light of the evidence available it would appear that the degree given today evolved from certain practices which had their origin in the Masonic Order, together with some innovations which had been introduced by those brethren conferring the degree in different areas being added to the original theme of the pre 1800 degrees to form a new ritual.” Even this guarded statement was omitted from the published book!

Nevertheless, in their book ‘The Orange Order: An Evangelical Perspective’ Grand Chaplain of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland (which owns the Royal Arch Purple as its third degree) Rev. Ian Meredith and Irish Arch Purple man Rev. Brian Kennaway comment on the Arch Purple degree. They state, “It has to be admitted that this is the most ‘Masonic-like’ part of our ceremony.” They later describe it as “a Christianised or ‘Reformed Freemasonry’ ” (pp. 12, 25).

From its inception, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland looked upon this neo-Masonic Royal Arch Purple degree with understandable abhorrence. It was viewed as being incompatible with, and contrary to, both Protestantism and Orangeism. Those ritualistic Orangemen who practised the degree were persecuted by Grand Lodge, forcing them to practise the degree in great secrecy for fear of expulsion from the Order. Grand Lodge maintained this position throughout the whole of the 1800s and into the early 20th century. The hard line assumed by the Orange Institution in Ireland mirrored the resolute stance of Orangeism throughout Great Britain.

The history of the Royal Black Institution

The history of the Royal Black degrees

Royal Black Institution, the Crusades and the Jesuits

https://www.evangelicaltruth.com/royal-black-institution-crusades-the-jesuits/

https://www.evangelicaltruth.com/history-of-the-orange-order/

Trump International, Scotland

@TrumpScotland

Donald J Trump, 45th President of the United States, announced today the start of a new golf venture in Scotland: the MacLeod course, to be built at Trump International Scotland in Aberdeenshire in honor of his late mother Mary Anne MacLeod.

10:47 AM · May 1, 2023

https://x.com/TrumpScotland/status/1653093764271857666

James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 – 1 January 1766) [a] was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701.

Raised primarily in France and Italy, when his father died in September 1701 James claimed the thrones. As part of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1708 Louis XIV of France backed a landing in Scotland on his behalf. This failed, as did further attempts in 1715 and 1719. Led by his elder son Charles Edward Stuart, the 1745 Rising was the last serious effort to restore the House of Stuart.

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

I began by attending Fordham University in the Bronx, mostly because I wanted to be close to home. I got along very well with the Jesuits who ran the school, but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in. At the time, if you were going to make a career in business, Wharton was the place to go. Harvard Business School may produce a lot of CEOs—guys who manage public companies— but the real entrepreneurs all seemed to go to Wharton: Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder, Ron Perelman—the list goes on and on."

Donald Trump The Art of the Deal

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden

The university has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in red and blue lights.

Author: WNEP Web Staff

Published: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

Updated: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

SCRANTON, Pa. — In preparation for President Joe Biden's visit, a university lit up their lights in his honor.

The University of Scranton has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in blue and red with the number 46 prominently displayed to welcome the 46th president."

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden | wnep.com

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/university-of-scranton-welcomes-president-biden-gateway-lights/523-cdba68b1-822b-4747-94be-4cd7e4de9d67

"His son, Hunter Biden, 38, is a longtime federal lobbyist for the Jesuit university located in his father's hometown, Scranton PA. According to federal disclosures, Hunter Biden has been earning about $80,000 a year since 2006 to lobby for this university. Senator Biden himself has lectured at the Jesuit University of Scranton, and received an honorary degree from the same university, in 1976."

Codeword Barbelon

by P.D. Stuart

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

§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;

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

Valley of Traverse City

ANCIENT ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE

The History and Legend of Scottish Rite Origins

The Story Unfolds…

What We Know

n 1754, near Paris, Chevalier de Bonneville established the Chapter of Clermont. The Chapter resided in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence the name. It is said to have been created to honor the Duc de Clermont, then Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of France.

James II died in exile in 1701. His son James III is said to have continued his father’s Masonic legacy and later created further higher degrees.

To be continued… (Author’s note… An in depth look at the Templar influence in Scottish Rite masonry’s origins can be found by visiting the Rosslyn Templars’ website.)"

https://web.archive.org/.../scottish-rite-history.html

Featured Artifact: A Scottish Rite Flag that Went to the Moon

In the above video, Bro. Joshua Aaron Poole, 32°, House of the Temple Museum Curator and Archival Associate, discusses the history of this unique piece that traveled to the moon with astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin on Apollo XI in 1969 and the flag’s significance to Freemasonry and the Scottish Rite. (Having trouble viewing the video? Watch it on Vimeo.)

https://scottishrite.org/scottish-rite-myths-and-facts/featured-artifact-scottish-rite-flag-went-moon/

Pope Paul VI watched arrival Apollo 11's on the moon and sent a message

Other Popes

19/07/2019

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Pope Paul VI visited the Vatican Astronomical Observatory to follow the arrival of the first man on the moon.

There, he observed the moon with the the space telescope and followed the landing on television.

Afterward, he sent a greeting praising the work of those involved in this project.

Very few know, but the astronauts of Apollo 11 left on the moon messages from heads of states. On behalf of Pope Paul VI they brought Psalm 8:

“When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place— What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him?”

Ever since, popes and astronauts have often been in contact with each other.

Benedict XVI connected in 2011 with the International Space Station, and had fun seeing the effects of no gravity.

Additionally, Pope Francis had a similar encounter in 2017.

A few months later, he met them at the Vatican. The astronauts brought him a surprise gift: an authentic and personalized space suit.

“We have decided that to begin with, as you are what you wear, to make you one like ours ...”

“Ah okay! And you plan the trip for me...”

It is a story that all began one night in Castel Gandolfo, when the pope wanted to watch the arrival of the first man on the moon.

https://www.romereports.com/en/2019/07/19/pope-paul-vi-watched-arrival-apollo-11s-on-the-moon-and-sent-a-message/

The Monument to the Royal Stuarts is a memorial in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City State. It commemorates the last three members of the Royal House of Stuart: James Francis Edward Stuart ("the Old Pretender", d. 1766), his elder son Charles Edward Stuart ("the Young Pretender" or "Bonnie Prince Charlie", d. 1788), and his younger son, Henry Benedict Stuart ("the Cardinal Duke of York", d. 1807). The Jacobites recognised these three as kings of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The marble monument is by Antonio Canova (1757–1822), the most celebrated Italian sculptor of his day. It was erected in 1819.

Description

The monument takes the form of a truncated obelisk. It carries bas relief profile portraits of the three exiled princes, and the following inscription:

IACOBO·III

IACOBI·II·MAGNAE·BRIT·REGIS·FILIO

KAROLO·EDVARDO

ET·HENRICO·DECANO·PATRVM·CARDINALIVM

IACOBI·III·FILIIS

REGIAE·STIRPIS·STVARDIAE·POSTREMIS

ANNO·M·DCCC·XIX

("To James III, son of King James II of Great Britain, to Charles Edward and to Henry, Dean of the Cardinal Fathers, sons of James III, the last of the Royal House of Stuart. 1819")

Below the inscription are two weeping angels, symbolising the lost hopes of the exiled Stuarts.

The monument to the Royal Stuarts was originally commissioned by Monsignor Angelo Cesarini, executor of the estate of Henry Benedict Stuart. Among the subscribers, curiously, was King George IV, who (once the Jacobite threat to his throne had ended with the death of Cardinal Stuart in 1807) was an admirer of the Stuart legend.[1]

The monument stands towards the back of the basilica in the left aisle opposite the door from which people coming down the spiral staircase from the dome and roof exit. It is frequently adorned with flowers by Jacobite romantics.

Burials

Tomb of James Francis Edward Stuart and his two sons in the crypt below St. Peter's Basilica

The monument is, strictly speaking, a cenotaph, not a tomb. The three Stuarts are buried in the crypt below the basilica. James Francis Edward Stuart was buried here at his death in 1766. When Charles Edward Stuart died in 1788, he was buried in the Basilica of St Peter Apostle in Frascati. When his brother Henry Benedict Stuart died in 1807, both brothers were laid to rest next to their father in the crypt of St. Peter's. Three separate tombstones were erected on the site.

Until 1938 the bodies of the three Stuarts were buried where the tomb of Pius XI now stands. In that year the bodies were moved slightly further east on the left side of the crypt, to make room for Pius's tomb. In 1939 a single sarcophagus was erected over the three graves. On top of the sarcophagus is a bronze pillow on which is placed a bronze crown. On the front of the sarcophagus is the same inscription quoted above.

Other monuments

Opposite the monument to the Royal Stuarts in St. Peter's Basilica is a monument to Maria Clementina Sobieska, wife of James Francis Edward Stuart and mother of Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart. Its inscription reads:

MARIA CLEMENTINA M. BRITANN.

FRANC. ET HIBERN. REGINA

("Maria Clementina, Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland"[a])

Queen Christina of Sweden, the only other monarch with a memorial in the church, also lies entombed in the crypt below the basilica, with the Royal Stuarts. She abdicated her throne in 1654 to convert to Catholicism.

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

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

Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band soon incorporated elements of English folk music, hard rock and classical music, forging a signature progressive rock sound.[1] The group's founder, bandleader, principal composer, lead vocalist, and only constant member is Ian Anderson, a multi-instrumentalist who mainly plays flute and acoustic guitar. The group has featured a succession of musicians throughout the decades, including significant contributors such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre (with Barre being the longest-serving member besides Anderson); bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, Dave Pegg, Jonathan Noyce, and David Goodier; drummers Clive Bunker, Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and Doane Perry; and keyboardists John Evan, Dee Palmer, Peter-John Vettese, Andrew Giddings, Eddie Jobson, and John O'Hara.

The band achieved moderate recognition in the London club scene and released their debut album, This Was, in 1968. After a line-up change which saw original guitarist Mick Abrahams replaced by Martin Barre, the band released a folk-tinged second album, Stand Up, in 1969. Stand Up, which reached No. 1 in the UK, gave the band their first commercial success. The band soon embarked on a heavy schedule of touring and recording, releasing one studio album every year until 1980. Their musical style shifted in the direction of progressive rock starting with Aqualung (1971), which went on to become the band's most commercially successful album. Their musical style shifted again to folk rock in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s the band underwent a major line-up change and began to lean into electronic rock. The band won their sole Grammy Award for the 1987 album Crest of a Knave, which saw them returning to a hard-rock style. Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide,[2] with 11 gold and 5 platinum albums.[3] They have been described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands."[4]

The band ceased studio recording activity in the 2000s, but continued to tour until splitting in 2011. Following the band's split, Anderson and Barre continued to record and tour as solo artists, with Anderson's band billed variously as both "Jethro Tull" and "Ian Anderson" solo. Anderson said in 2014 that Jethro Tull had come "more or less to an end".[5] Starting in 2017 however, Anderson revived the Jethro Tull name and returned to releasing new studio albums in the 2020s. The current group includes musicians who were part of Jethro Tull during the last years of its initial run, as well as newer musicians associated with Anderson's solo band, without Barre's involvement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(band)

AI Overview

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The words "toll" and "tull" have distinct, albeit related, etymologies. "Toll" originates from Middle English "tol," which evolved from Old English "toll" and ultimately from a Late Latin term referring to a tollhouse or customs post, ultimately linked to the Greek word for "tax". "Tull," as a surname, has multiple origins, including a nickname for someone who was patient or from a personal name.

Toll (noun/verb)

Origin: Middle English "tol," from Old English "toll".

Meaning: A charge for the right of passage, a tax, or a fee.

Evolution: The word "toll" traces back to Late Latin "tolōnēum" or "telōneum" (tollhouse, customs post), which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek "telṓnion" (tollhouse) derived from "télos" (tax).

Related words: German "Zoll," Dutch "tol".

Tull (surname)

Origin:

Multiple origins, including:

South German (Tüll): Nickname for someone who was patient, potentially from a personal name or Middle High German words related to "festival" or "fair".

German: Nickname from Middle High German "tol, dol" (foolish, unreasonable, pretty, or handsome).

Meaning:

The meaning of the surname depends on its origin. It can relate to patience, a nickname for someone who was foolish or pretty, or a shortened form of a personal name.

Related words:

The surname "Toll" is a variant of "Towle" and shares similar origins with "Tole," "Doll," "Tell," and "Poll," according to Ancestry.com.

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AI Overview

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The name Jethro, of Hebrew origin, means "abundance" or "excellence". It's associated with the biblical figure Jethro, the priest of Midian and Moses' father-in-law, known for his wisdom. The Hebrew root "yatar" means "to remain over," "to be left over," or "to be a rest," which can also imply abundance or surplus.

More Detailed Explanation:

Hebrew Origin:

Jethro's name, according to Online Etymology Dictionary, is derived from the Hebrew name Yitro, a collateral form of Yether,.

Meaning of "Abundance":

The name Jethro, according to Ancestry.com, means "abundance" or "excellence". This is because the Hebrew root "yatar" can also mean to be left over, a surplus, or to be a remainder.

Biblical Significance:

Jethro, according to Britannica, was the father-in-law of Moses, known for his wisdom and leadership, according to Ancestry.com and the priest of Midian.

Potential for Jewish Parents:

While the name Jethro has biblical origins, it has gained popularity among Jewish families, especially those seeking a meaningful and unique name for their child, according to HebrewNamer.

Generative AI is experimental.

They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

English Standard Version

Psalm 36:8

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

King James Bible

Psalm 36:8

Toll

From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”).

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

What does it mean to “count the cost” (Luke 14:28)?

Answer

In Luke 14, Jesus lays out the terms of discipleship. There were great crowds following Him. Everyone loved the miracles, healing, and free food. Jesus was cool, the talk of the town, and the latest fad. But He knew their hearts. He knew they desired the benefits of what He did rather than an understanding of who He was. They loved His gifts, not the life He was calling them to. So He explained what it takes to be one of His followers:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26-33).

Jesus said a lot in those simple illustrations. He quickly put an end to the idea that He offered some kind of welfare program. Although the gift of eternal life is free to anyone who asks (John 3:16), the asking requires a transfer of ownership (Luke 9:23; Galatians 5:24). “Counting the cost” means recognizing and agreeing to some terms first. In following Christ, we cannot simply follow our own inclinations. We cannot follow Him and the world’s way at the same time (Matthew 7:13-14). Following Him may mean we lose relationships, dreams, material things, or even our lives.

Those who are following Jesus simply for what they can get won’t stick around when the going gets tough. When God’s way conflicts with our way, we will feel betrayed by the shallow, me-first faith we have bought into. If we have not counted the cost of being His child, we will turn away at the threat of sacrifice and find something else to gratify our selfish desires (cf. Mark 4:5, 16-17). In Jesus’ earthly ministry, there came a time when the free food stopped and public opinion turned ugly. The cheering crowds became jeering crowds. And Jesus knew ahead of time that would happen.

Jesus ended His description of the cost of discipleship with a breathtaking statement: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). “Renouncing” may mean we give up something physically, but more often it means we let go emotionally so that what we possess no longer possesses us. When we become one of His, we cannot continue to belong to this world (1 John 2:15-17). We must make a choice, for we cannot serve both God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24). The rich young ruler, when confronted with that choice, turned his back on Jesus (Luke 18:18-25).

Suppose you learned that you had been given an all-expense-paid condo on a beach in Tahiti, complete with airfare, a car, food, and a maid. You could brag about your new lifestyle, plan for it, and dream about it. But until you pack up and leave your current home, the new life is never really yours. You cannot live in Tahiti and your current hometown at the same time. Many people approach Christianity the same way. They love the idea of eternal life, escaping hell, and having Jesus at their beck and call. But they are not willing to leave the life they now live. Their desires, lifestyle, and sinful habits are too precious to them. Their lives may exhibit a token change—starting to attend church or giving up a major sin—but they want to retain ownership of everything else. Jesus is speaking in Luke 14 to those with that mindset.

We cannot earn salvation by lifestyle change or any other good deed (Ephesians 2:8-9). But when we choose to follow Christ, we are releasing control of our lives. When Jesus is in control, pure living results (1 John 3:4-10; 2 Corinthians 5:17). In Jesus’ parable of the sower, it was only the soil that allowed the seed to put down roots and bear fruit that was called “good.” If we are going to be disciples of Christ, we must first count the cost of following Him.

https://www.gotquestions.org/count-the-cost.html

Luke 14

1599 Geneva Bible

14 The dropsy healed on the Sabbath. 8 The chief place: at banquets. 12 The poor must be called to our feasts. 16 Of those that were bid to the great supper. 23 Some compelled to come in. 28 One about to build a tower.

1 And [a]it came to pass that when he was entered into the house of [b]one of the chief Pharisees on the Sabbath day, to eat bread, they watched him.

2 And behold, there was a certain man before him, which had the dropsy.

3 Then Jesus answering, spake unto the Lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?

4 And they held their peace. Then he took him, and healed him, and let him go,

5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass, or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?

6 And they could not answer him again to those things.

7 ¶ [c]He spake also a parable to the guests, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, and said unto them,

8 When thou shalt be bidden of any man to a wedding, set not thyself down in the chiefest place, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him,

9 And he that bade both him and thee, come, and say to thee, Give this man room, and thou then begin with shame to take the lowest room.

10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee, cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, sit up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at table with thee.

11 For whosoever exalteth himself, shall be brought low, and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

12 ¶ [d]Then said he also to him that had bidden him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor the rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.

13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind,

14 And thou shalt be blessed, because they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

15 ¶ Now when one of them that sat at table heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God.

16 Then said he to him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many,

17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come: for all things are now ready.

18 [e]But they all with [f]one mind began to make excuse: The first said unto him, I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.

20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

21 So that servant returned, and showed his master these things. Then was the good man of the house angry, and said to his servant, Go out quickly into the [g]streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

23 Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways, and hedges, and compel them to come in, that mine house may be filled.

24 For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper.

25 [h]Now there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them,

26 If any man come to me, and [i]hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters: yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

27 [j]And whosoever beareth not his cross, and cometh after me, cannot be my disciple.

28 For which of you minding to build a tower, [k]sitting not down before, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to perform it,

29 Lest that after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to perform it, all that behold it, begin to mock him,

30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to make an end.

31 Or what King going to make war against another King, sitteth not down first, and taketh counsel, whether he be able with ten thousand, to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

32 Or else while he is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth peace.

33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

34 [l]Salt is good: but if salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?

35 It is neither meet for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Footnotes

Luke 14:1 The Law of the very Sabbath ought not to hinder the offices of charity.

Luke 14:1 Either one of the Elders, whom they called the Sanhedrin, or one of the chiefs of the Synagogue, John 7:48, for this word Pharisee was the name of a sect, though it appears by the whole history that the Pharisees were in great credit.

Luke 14:7 The reward of pride is ignomy and the reward of true modesty is glory.

Luke 14:12 Against them which lavish out their goods either ambitiously, or for hope of recompence, whereas Christian charity respecteth only the glory of God, and the profit of our neighbor.

Luke 14:18 The most part even of them to whom God hath revealed himself are so mad, that such helps as they have received of God, they willingly turn into lets and hindrances.

Luke 14:18 As of set purpose, and a thing agreed upon before, for though they allege several causes, yet all of them agree in this, that they have their excuses, that they may not come to supper.

Luke 14:21 Wide and broad quarters.

Luke 14:25 Even those affections, which are of themselves worthy of praise and commendation, must be ruled and ordered, that godliness may have the upper hand and preeminence.

Luke 14:26 If the matter stands between God and him, as Theophylact saith: and therefore these words are not spoken simply, but by comparison.

Luke 14:27 The true followers of Christ must at once build and fight, and therefore be ready and prepared to suffer all kinds of miseries.

Luke 14:28 At home, and casteth all his costs before he begin the work.

Luke 14:34 The disciples of Christ must be wise, both for themselves and for others: otherwise they become the most foolish of all.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2014&version=GNV

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02mgSyrsi251CedSawPkbHEt596EZXhioAcCd821PyaE5Axod137dFgvxdtRYmyF6xl

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