Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
[WAR: I'm still on the road in beautiful Kentucky. The 3-week trip has turned into 5+ weeks! ... and the world is falling apart...]
Proclaiming the anti-Messiah...
Pope Benedict XVI sent a message to the Third American Missionary Congress, reminding Catholics that "the most important service we can give our brothers and sisters is the clear and humble proclamation of Jesus Christ, who came to this world that we might have life and have it in abundance."
The Vatican has ruled that the Name of God, commonly rendered as "Yahweh," should not be pronounced in the Catholic liturgy.
The Vatican today distanced itself from a series of blistering attacks on the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi by the mass-circulation Roman Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana, which in its latest issue gives warning that Italy is in danger of returning to Fascism.
The Vatican's spokesman declared that although Famiglia Cristiana was an important Catholic publication, its views did not reflect those of either the Holy See or the Italian Bishops Conference.
The Serbian foreign minister went to New York on Thursday to seek United Nations support for his country's plan to question Kosovo's independence at the International Court of Justice. Serbia hopes the court would state that Kosovo's secession was in violation of international law.
This is much more than the regional conflict it is portrayed as by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In fact, it has as much to do with the West's plans for Kosovo independence and Russian territorial disputes with Ukraine than it does with Russia's desire to punish Georgia.
NATO is moving forward with plans for independence for the Serbian province of Kosovo. Now Russia believes it has the moral authority to push for the same kind of "independence" for South Ossetia.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia will seek independence from Tbilisi under international law, the leaders of Georgia's 2 rebel regions said Thursday at a joint news conference in Moscow.
Reveling in his status as an intimate of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and John McCain, and America's lone democratic ally in the Caucasus, Saakashvili thought he could get away with a lightning coup and present the world with a fait accompli. He did not reckon on the rage or resolve of the Bear.
Amid all the geopolitical analyses and ideological posturing on the occasion of the Three-Day War between Russia and Georgia, we are losing sight of the very real human costs of this conflict: thousands of civilians killed and grievously wounded, a city, Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, in ruins.
They may be talking of Georgian atrocities, but we in the West have not heard them – nor will we, given the bias of our media, which is in thrall to the Georgia lobby and its US government sponsors.
Georgian leaders may be blaming Russia for the conflict raging in South Ossetia, but former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said "there is no doubt" that Georgia provoked the clash.
Putin's problems can be traced back to a speech he made in Munich nearly 2 years ago when he declared unequivocally that he rejected the basic tenets of the Bush Doctrine and US global hegemony. His speech amounted to a Russian Declaration of Independence.
That's when western elites, particularly at the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Enterprise Institute put Putin on their "enemies list" along with Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Morales, Mugabe and anyone else who refuses to take orders from the Washington Mafia.
South Ossetia was a trap and Putin took the bait. Unfortunately for Bush, the wily Russian prime minister is considerably brighter than anyone in the current administration. Bush's plan will undoubtedly backfire and disrupt the geopolitical balance of power.
The war in the Caucasus is a truly global crisis. Russia's action against the western-looking Georgia testifies to an extreme craving for recognition and is reminiscent of the Cold War. It reveals the reality of the chaotic new world order -- a result of the failures of President Bush's foreign policy.
American aircraft carrying humanitarian aid have landed in Georgia as Washington moved to shore up its beleaguered ally with a military lifeline and warned Russia there would be "consequences" for its actions in the region.
Sadly, London, just like Washington, has been captured by the neoconservatives. These are not conservatives, new or old. They are simply warmongers. They have misread the history of the 20th century. For them, national greatness is measured by military power. They are allied to business and other interests that benefit from war.
(And: Heading toward nuclear war)
US policy makers hoped that diverting oil around Russia would keep it from reasserting control over Central Asia and its enormous oil and natural gas reserves, and would provide a safer alternative to Moscow's control over export routes that it had inherited from Soviet days.
How anti-Iran policy contributed to war in the Caucasus
Perhaps the most important element has to do with the control of the routes for transporting oil and gas from Central Asia and the Caucasus region to international markets and, in particular, to Western Europe.
If the US, pressured by the Israel lobby, had not pushed for bypassing Iran, we would have perhaps been in a different situation than what we have now between Georgia and Russia, with all of its geopolitical implications.
With the underpinnings of the present world financial system growing shakier by the day, the outbreak of warfare in the Caucasus shows how quickly the current world situation can be thrown out of joint. It also gives us a foretaste of how quickly it could expand into a new general war.
Chancellor Merkel arrived today in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to meet with Russian President Medvedev. According to a media report, Merkel will be shown photos of war violence in Georgia ... evidence of Georgian atrocities.
"Women and children were murdered, churches packed with refugees set on fire and entire villages were razed," said Russia's ambassador to Berlin.
Germany's Foreign Minister meanwhile said the EU should maintain an even-handed approach to the conflict between Russia and Georgia if it wanted to play a constructive role in forging long-lasting peace in the Caucasus.
Russia's attack on Georgia may reopen a US rift with EU leaders over how the trans-Atlantic alliance should deal with its main Cold War adversary. EU foreign ministers have carefully avoided assigning blame for the conflict.
(And: Tensions between EU and US)
No European leader has been more outspoken in his criticism of Russia's actions in Georgia than Poland's Lech Kaczynski. Are his provocative words a sure way to marginalize Poland -- or a sign of a larger split in the European Union?
The US and Poland reached a long-stalled deal on Thursday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory, in the strongest reaction so far to Russia's military operation in Georgia. Russia reacted angrily, saying that the move would worsen relations with the US.
(And: Russia: Poland risks attack)
Contrary to popular belief, the Middle East isn't entirely desert. But now even those fertile valleys fed by the Tigris and Euphrates are at risk.
Faced with desertions by his political supporters and the unsettling neutrality of the Pakistani military, President Musharraf of Pakistan is expected to resign in the next few days rather than face impeachment. His departure from office seems likely to unleash new instability.
Escalating unrest in Indian-controlled Kashmir threatens to derail a peace process between India and Pakistan that has extended over more than 4 years. Riots, sparked by a land-transfer dispute, have also cast a shadow over local elections planned for this fall that were seen as a possible turning point toward greater stability.
(And: India warns Pakistan)
Sudan's armed forces are reported to have launched a major military operation against rebels in a remote stretch of north Darfur where China wants to explore for oil.
President Ahmadinejad on Thursday prayed for reappearance of the Lord of Time (May God Hasten His Advent). He said that the modern world is in dire need of justice promised by reappearance of Imam Mahdi. He also said that nobody is satisfied with the current situation in the world, owing to the chaos emanated from brutal acts of illegitimate governments.
Georgia is one of Iran's "near neighbors" and as a result of geographical proximity and important political and geostrategic considerations, the current Russia-Georgia conflict is closely watched by Tehran -- itself under threat of military action by the US and or Israel, which may now feel less constrained about attacking Iran in light of Russia's war with Georgia.
So far, Tehran has not adopted an official position. Behind Iran's official silence is a combination of factors.
After Olmert's decision to step down, candidates for the Israeli prime minister leave 'all options on the table' on Iran.
If US officials were asked "why int'l rules should apply to Iran but not Israel?" They will "decline to comment."
The economies of Germany, France and Italy all contracted in the first quarter and may now be in full recession, shattering assumptions that Europe would prove able to shrug off the effects of the credit crunch.
The picture is darkening so fast in Spain that Prime Minister Zapatero cancelled holidays and called his cabinet back to Madrid for the first emergency session of its kind since the Franco dictatorship.
The oil shock over the early summer appears to have had a dramatic effect on the heavy industries of Japan and Germany. And the delayed effects of the strong euro, tight credit, and slowing exports have now kicked in with a vengeance.
Bernard Connolly, global strategist at Banque AIG, said the eurozone faces possible disintegration unless there is a fiscal bail-out from Germany that matches – in sheer scale – Berlin's Versailles reparations payments after WW1.
"The bursting of the EMU credit bubble seems imminent, and will reveal current account imbalances among euro area countries as extremely dangerous. The medium-term feasibility of the euro area in its current form must be open to very considerable doubt."
"The economic situation is worse than we all predicted. We thought it would happen slowly but instead it has hit fast," said Spain's finance minister.
A rebound in the dollar today pushed gold prices below $800 an ounce, while silver dropped as much as 12% and corn and copper slumped. Crude oil prices slid more than 1% as the dollar hit a 6-month high versus the euro following a bigger-than-expected rise in US inflation and as the outlook for economies in Europe and Asia deteriorated.
As a military conflict between Russia and Georgia ends its first week, a number of big Wall Street banks are beginning to reassess the stability of their businesses in the oil-rich nation. And while they are not planning to reverse their investments soon, they are increasingly nervous that Russia's high-risk, high-reward environment is becoming too much about the risk.
Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened? It hardly took psychic powers to see that the Plunge Protection Team had come to the rescue.
Just as central banks manipulate currencies in concert, so gold can be manipulated by massive selling of central bank reserves. Oil and any other market can be manipulated as well. But markets can be manipulated by only so much and for only so long without fixing the underlying problem.
There is more bad news coming down the pike, news of such magnitude that no amount of ordinary manipulation is liable to conceal it. As we watch the curtain rise on war in Eurasia, it is well to remember that things are not always as they seem. Markets are manipulated and wars are staged by Grand Chessmen behind the scenes.
Motivations for world government are behind elite manipulations of credit in US economy, credit crunch is getting louder, financial system continues to implode, intrigues of politics in Georgia, war but no response in gold and oil prices, markets too chaotic to make money anymore due to extreme volatility, contemplating the systemic failure of the financial system...
The next shoes you hear drop may be very loud ones
It is time for some straight talk about what America is being told about our financial institutions. It should be clear that politicians and government bureaucrats are lying to the public when they say that everything is all right. They do not know.
Our economy and banking system is so complex and intertwined that no one knows where the next shoe will drop. Therefore, it is in our best interest to cut through all the crap and examine the facts with a skeptical eye.
The US banking system is essentially insolvent. The Treasury, Federal Reserve, FASB, and Congress are colluding to keep the American public in the dark for as long as possible. They are trying to buy time and prop up these banks so they can convince enough fools to give them more capital. They will continue to write off debt for many quarters to come.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
Was the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem more than a place of worship? Was it, indeed, a roadmap to future events – a kind of prophetic landmark whose significance is only now revealed through the development of satellite imagery?
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