Wednesday

The Daily WAR (10-23)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
    Pope Benedict XVI has sent a telegram to Barack Obama, offering his prayerful best wishes and urging the American leader to "promote understanding, cooperation, and peace among the nations."
 
    Ecumenical dialogue is a priority for Benedict XVI, as it has been for every Pope since the Second Vatican Council, says a Vatican official in charge of promoting Christian unity.
    The official pointed to significant steps forward with the Orthodox and remaining uncertainties with communities [not "churches"!] born from the Reformation.
    Bishop Farrell explained that differences go along 2 lines: the relationship between Scripture and Tradition on one hand, and the nature of the Church of Christ on the other.
    Though agreement has been reached that Scripture and Tradition are not opposed, he said, there is still disagreement about, among other things, the role of the magisterium in interpreting it.
    And regarding the nature of the Church, the prelate continued, though the joint declaration regarding the doctrine of justification was a big step forward, there continues to be "profound division" regarding the nature of the Church itself.
    "Catholics and Protestants continue deeply divided in the concept of the reality of the Church, between a vision simultaneously spiritual and institutional -- Catholic -- and a vision exclusively spiritual -- Protestant.
 
    Despite difficulties, dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches is advancing both at the level of theological accords and in fraternal relations, says a Vatican aide.
    Regarding theological dialogue, Monsignor Fortino explained that the commission is currently studying the first millennium's understanding of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.
    The issue, he explained, is not so much the question of the primacy of Rome itself, which both Churches accept, but rather the interpretation of the content of the primacy, about which there are still great differences.
 
Nothing!...
    With its divine foundation, sanction, and mission, nothing could be more glorious than the Catholic Church. But, of course, many people -- even many baptized Catholics -- don't see it that way.
 
 
 
A "Holy Roman" way to do things...
    The "social market" concept was very simple: West Germany would have capitalism with a market economy, but the government would provide a significant amount of regulation to ensure fair play.
    The system that fuelled Germany's post-war economic miracle has not only survived: with the global economy in collapse, many Germans are hailing it as the only show in town.
    In recent weeks, an ideological row has erupted between supporters of the "social market" and proponents of Anglo-Saxon capitalism.
    The head of the German trades' union federation vented his fury. He raged against "brutal, casino capitalism". "The Anglo-Saxon economic model, had blown it and would disappear." It would be replaced, he predicted "by Germany's socially regulated and socially responsible version of capitalism."
    The origins of the social market predated 1948. They extended far back into the mists of German history.
    Of course there is a big difference between the social market and socialism.
    The German state does keep a closer eye on the whole economic system than perhaps we are used to in Britain. And Germany has been urging the rest of the world to do the same for some time.
    Two years ago, when Germany held the presidency of the G8, I can remember Angela Merkel tried hard to convince world leaders to sign up to greater transparency on the global money markets and in hedge funds.
    Back then no-one was interested. But now - after the crash - what is the British government suddenly calling for? That's right, greater transparency for the world's financial markets.
    Not surprisingly, the Germans believe this proves they were right all along: that their system may be more cautious, less sexy than laissez-faire capitalism, but that it is a better, safer, fairer way of organizing a society.
 
il vino di una prostituta...
    The Catholic Church teaches that ... how these communities organize themselves politically, economically and socially is thus of the highest importance.
    Catholic Social Teaching opposes collectivist approaches such as Communism but at the same time it also rejects unrestricted laissez-faire policies and the notion that a free market automatically produces justice.
    The state has a positive moral role to play as no society will achieve a just and equitable distribution of resources with a totally free market.
 
    Germany has predicted that its economy will shrink by 2.25% in 2009, which would be its worst performance in the post-WW2 era.
    "There is no precedent in post-war history for this economic decline that we unfortunately have to forecast. The German economy is facing this year the greatest challenges since unification. Germany is integrated into the global economy like hardly any other industrialised country."
 
    The result of Sunday's election in the state of Hesse represents a major rebuff to the federal grand coalition government in Berlin.
 
    Chancellor Merkel is introducing a new economic stimulus package -- but her heart is not in it. What counts for her is that she has a result. It doesn't matter what it is. It is typical of a chancellorship that searches for harmony but lacks leadership.
    It was nothing more than a spiteful jibe -- but it has turned out to be an accurate prediction. The disparaging remark was made by Edmund Stoiber, the former governor of Bavaria who was Merkel's rival for the chancellor candidacy.
    When Merkel took office in October 2005, Stoiber said that as the head of a grand coalition of Social Democrats and her own Christian Democrats her authority to dictate policy guidelines would be limited.
    Stoiber wanted to hurt Merkel, to undermine her authority right from the outset and now, in retrospect, he seems to have been something of a prophet.
 
    Chancellor Merkel said that Obama's inauguration as the first black American president is a "truly great hour for America" and hopes he will launch a new era of international cooperation.
 
 
 
    The ratification of the Lisbon treaty in the Czech senate will be "very problematic" if the EU protocols promised to the Irish for a 2nd referendum are not adopted.
 
    Poland will not complete the final step of ratification for the EU's Lisbon treaty until after Ireland has had its 2nd referendum on the document, the Polish president has reiterated.
    Lech Kaczynski said he would only sign off on the treaty if Irish citizens say Yes in the new vote, expected in autumn.
    Besides Ireland and Poland, Germany - which is awaiting a ruling by its highest court on legal challenges to the text - and the Czech Republic have also not yet ratified the EU treaty.
 
 
 
    The present economic, social and political conditions in Israel and Palestine are an indictment of the Zionist project and the nation state as the solution to the oppression of the Jews.
 
    After 22 days of war in Gaza Israel is about to embark on another brutal 3-week conflict — only this time the battlefield is political.
    The likely winner of the vote will be Binyamin Netanyahu, a man who played no role whatsoever in the prosecution of the highly popular offensive against Hamas.
 
    Israel has said its troops have completed their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, although forces have redeployed on the territory's outskirts and Israeli vessels remain in Gaza's territorial waters..
 
    Israel's war in Gaza is a military victory. But with 1,300 dead and thousands wounded, it is also moral defeat. The painful lesson: Israel can only defeat itself. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya only had to hide to emerge as the winner.
 
    The image of Israeli strategic genius has been nurtured by Israelis over the years and seems to be an article of faith among neoconservatives and other hardline supporters of Israel in the US.
    It also fits nicely with the wrongheaded but still popular image of Israel as the perennial David facing a looming Arab Goliath.
    Those who refuse to criticize Israel even when it acts foolishly surely think they are helping the Jewish state. They are wrong.
    In fact, they are false friends, because their silence, or worse, their cheerleading, merely encourages Israel to continue potentially disastrous courses of action.
 
    As the fragile cease-fire in the Gaza Strip holds, attention is turning to how the territory can be reconstructed. Germany's Foreign Minister has presented a 5-point plan for Gaza to EU leaders.
 
    French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to convene a wide-ranging international Middle East peace conference in Paris, the daily Le Figaro reported Tuesday, citing sources close to the president.
 
    An Iranian diplomat says the Israeli crimes committed against Gazans should alarm the world about the threat of Israel's nuclear arsenal.
 
    The cover of the Jan. 10-16, 2009 issue of the City of London's flagship The Economist magazine really tells it all, with its photograph of Israeli jets bombing Gaza City, and a headline that announces "The hundred years' war."
    The Economist was not merely offering commentary. As their editors know, it has been British policy, for more than 100 years, to actively promote precisely the kind of perpetual warfare that we saw in the Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
 
    India has tested a cruise missile close to the Pakistan border amid fears of rising tensions between the rival nuclear powers.
    The tests were carried out hours before the inauguration of Barack Obama and coincided with the visit to Islamabad of General Petraeus, the commander of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    According to officials, Petraeus' visit was aimed at calming tensions between the 2 countries. However, the new missile test will fan the flames once again.
 
     Pakistan on Tuesday expressed concern to key ally the US over missile attacks against Islamist militants on its soil, ahead of an anticipated surge of US troops into neighbouring Afghanistan.
 
 
 
    Iran said Tuesday it is ready to open talks with the European Union to forge closer energy ties.
    EU nations are seeking out alternative gas suppliers to lessen their dependence on Russian gas in wake of Moscow's gas dispute with Ukraine, which left many EU countries without gas for most of January.
 
    Chancellor Merkel says dialogue between Washington and Tehran would be useless as long as Iran is hell-bent on destroying Israel.
 
 
 
    [WAR: Well, I called that one wrong! I really thought that Obama would not be inaugurated. I had guessed right on the last 2 presidential elections and on Joseph Ratzinger becoming Benedict XVI, but blew it this time.
    There were a few reasons why I didn't think Obama would be president, with one of the chief ones being that I didn't think he was descended from King David -- but apparently he is (see articles below).
    Then there is the eligibility issue that will be hanging over him like a Sword of Damocles (with a SCOTUS hearing on Friday) -- which could eventually cut this nation to pieces.
    And does it really matter that Obama did not recite the Constitutionally-required presidential oath exactly? (After all, law is law, and every word/phrase counts in the legal world.) Or was the blunder just a sign of things to come?
    Also, the world thinks that things can only get better with Bush out and Obama in -- but it's about to be bitterly and sorely disappointed! It's not about one man, it's about the whole rotten system.
    And I'm once again thinking of calling a cease-fire, or maybe complete end, to The Daily WAR. There are a few factors involved in this decision -- the biggest being the time-financial equation.]
 
    George W. Bush leaves Washington with a record that is mixed at best, and what many call a failed presidency.
 
    He began the inaugural speech by thanking George W. Bush for his service and then proceeded to denounce the bitter legacy of the past 8 years that had resulted in "a sapping of confidence across our land."
    Bush listened as the ideological foundations of his Administration began to crumble.
 
    Gerald Ford famously declared: "Our long national nightmare is over." But the painful end game of Nixon's presidency was nothing compared to the 8 excruciating years of Bush.
 
    Is Obama's ascension to power an "All-American" story attainable by any hard-working "common" American or is Obama's coronation a result of his "blue blood" ancestry?
    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, historian and genealogical publisher, Rosemary E. Bachelor, further documents that Obama does have European royalty -- "from Edward Fitz Randolph back to William I, King of Scots, and from Martha Eltonhead back to Edward I, King of England."
    Coincidentally or not, the victor, Obama, has the more affluent pedigree.
 
    Barack Obama is perhaps, among the 3 candidates, the most genealogically diversed. His bloodline consists of Luo (Kenyan), English, German, Irish, Welsh, and smattering of French and Dutch ancestries.
    Obama's Kenyan ancestry is sketchy, and is traced only through the male line. Much of his known family tree is through his maternal side, and it is here that we find many interesting relations to the senator.
 
    Attorney Philip J. Berg states that the Inauguration of Obama will be recognized as a "Sad Day" for America when it is proven that Obama is "not qualified" pursuant to the US Constitution to be President.
    Today begins a "Usurper" as President Obama is "ineligible" to be President as Obama is "not" "natural born." We are headed for a "Constitutional Crisis."
 
    If this were ancient Rome, Obama would be huddled in a temple wondering what went wrong and the Roman Senate would be trying to choose a new Caesar.
 
    Both Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama stumbled slightly over wording of the presidential oath of office.
    Initially, Obama interrupted Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.
    Next in the oath, which is enshrined in the Constitution, is the phrase: "... that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States."
    But Roberts rearranged the order of the words: "I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully." (WND)
    That appeared to throw Obama off. He stopped abruptly at the word "execute."
    Recognizing something was off, Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting "faithfully" in the right place but without repeating "execute."
    Obama then repeated Roberts' original, incorrect version: "... the office of president of the United States faithfully."
 
    Obama's election doesn't mean peace is breaking out all over – far from it.
 
    After the waves of optimism, this was an inaugural speech that dared to set limits on the world's expectations.
    Obama's inaugural address, then, was a piece of expectation management. Already he is warning his supporters to understand the limits of change and the constraints he is under.
    Obama's election has widely been seen as ushering in a new era of ambition and optimism. Prepare for quite the opposite.
 
    Surprisingly, Obama devoted more attention to foreign affairs in a series of implicit rebukes to the unilateralist and militarist tendencies of the Bush administration.
 
    Obamamania gripped the world as millions round the globe celebrated and capitalised on the inauguration of President Obama.
 
    Newspapers around the world gave their verdicts on the inauguration of Barack Obama and described their hopes for his presidency.
 
    As president, Barack Obama must now translate his lofty words into concrete action. The economy is sliding deeper into crisis, the Middle East is increasingly unstable and the Republicans are waiting for his first mistakes.
 
    The election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of "whiteness" as the touchstone of what it means to be American.
    If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like — and how will white Americans fit into it?
    What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm?
    And will a post-white America be less racially divided — or more so?
 
    The increasing militarization of cops has worsened even more.
    "The militarization of law enforcement has created the equivalent of a standing army engaged against the American people – precisely what was feared by the Framers."
    Cops are basically historians who come to a crime scene after the fact. Their entire charter has changed from being peace officers to becoming law enforcers.
    The police are far more concerned about obedience than criminality.
 
 
 
    US stocks sank, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst Inauguration Day decline, as speculation banks must raise more capital sent financial shares to an almost 14-year low.
    US financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, according to New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year's economic and stock-market meltdowns.
    "If that's true, it means the US banking system is effectively insolvent because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion. This is a systemic banking crisis."
 
    While America had its eyes riveted on the live TV broadcast of  Obama's inauguration, financial markets were sliding. A major "market correction" had occurred.
    Removed from the public eye, virtually unnoticed, a new stage of the financial crisis has unfolded.
    Immediately following the inauguration, the Dow Jones plummeted, largely affecting the share prices of major financial institutions.
    The inauguration of a president Obama was expected to provide confidence to financial markets. Exactly the opposite occurred.
    Was there a concerted and deliberate effort to "short the market" on the very same day as the inauguration?
    The largest financial institutions are said to be in troubled waters, indebted to unnamed creditors. Since the onslaught of the financial meltdown, the identity of the creditors remains a mystery.
    Why are the banks indebted? To whom? Are they the victims or the recipients? Are they the debtors or the creditors? Who is collecting these multibillion debts which are in large part the consequence of financial manipulation?
 
    Even before they have settled into their new jobs, Barack Obama's economic team faces an acute crisis in the U.S. banking system that has no easy answers and that they are not yet prepared to address.
 
    The speed with which the world economy is disintegrating is so breathtaking, that if a descent into total chaos is to be avoided, the new President will have to waste no time before issuing a clarion call demonstrating his readiness to take the lead in creating a new global financial system.
 
    The sudden bailout of Bank of America, and the renewed talk of the need to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of bad assets from the banks, shows that the bailout process is entering a desperate and dangerous new phase.
    All the official verbiage aside, the bailout shows that not just Bank of America, but the banking system itself, is bankrupt, despite the trillions of dollars our government has thrown down the bailout rathole.
    The financial system has already died, and no amount of tweaking the regulations will bring it back. It is no longer possible to merely clean up the mess within the financial system.
 
    Leading economist Nouriel Roubini said that the US banking system is "bankrupt" and "effectively insolvent."
 
    Can an interest rate of 0% be too high? Unfortunately, yes.
    A new analysis by Goldman Sachs concludes that the Federal Reserve's cut in the federal funds rate to a record low of isn't going to be nearly enough to get the economy going again.
    The report says the Fed would need to reduce the federal funds rate to -6% by the end of 2010 to supply the needed amount of monetary stimulus.
    The problem: It's literally impossible to cut interest rates below 0%. As a result, "we are entering a world with interest rates that are far too high for the economy's good."
 
    Bosses who wrecked rock-solid institutions walked away with millions - leaving us to pay for their folly.
    The wider economy is suffering, the pound is sliding so fast that one international financier yesterday said sterling was "finished", and we no longer have enough money to underpin the economy.
    We are, as a nation, virtually bankrupt; and the potential personal liability in future taxes is, on average, more than most people earn in a year.
    The age of excess is over and an uncertain future awaits.
 
    A leading Irish economist has called on Dublin to threaten withdrawal from the euro unless Europe's big powers do more to rescue Ireland's economy.
    "This is war: countries have to defend themselves," said a former official at the Irish central bank.
    "It is essential that we go to Europe and say we have a serious problem. We say, either we default or we pull out of Europe. If Ireland continues hurtling down this road, which is close to default, the whole of Europe will be badly affected. The credibility of the euro will be badly affected. Then Spain might default, Italy and Greece."
    A former UBS director and now prominent broadcaster, he has broken the ultimate taboo by evoking threats to precipitate an EMU crisis, which would risk a chain reaction across the eurozone's southern belt, where yield spreads on state bonds are already flashing warning signals.
 
    As the $1.19 trillion forecast 2009 US budget deficit combines with the forthcoming $825 billion (and counting) stimulus package, observers seem convinced that for some mystical reason US Treasuries are a "safe haven" - endlessly attractive to Asian and Middle Eastern central banks and therefore able to yield considerably less than the expected rate of inflation over their life.
    But what if this irrational investment preference ceases to hold?
    US policymakers have operated for years on the theory that there was no alternative to the US as a safe haven for sovereign wealth investment.
    Germany in particular, has not been taken seriously since the 1980s. However, Germany after 2000 solved its economic problems, whereas the US went on a spending spree.
    The safe haven is about to move [to Germany?!], and American taxpayers and savers will pay the price of that move in higher borrowing costs and lower equity prices for decades to come.
 
    There is mounting evidence that, once again, government and business leaders are inching toward the type of "beggar-thy-neighbor" policies of the Great Depression.
 
    Here's what I do know: Below $30 I'll start to look at taking a non-trivial long position in oil, assuming a total financial collapse/nuclear war/Mad Max situation hasn't broken out by then...
 
 
 
    The head of a Mexican police chief was delivered to his colleagues in an ice box in the country's latest drug-related violence.
 
    Pastor claims Almighty made all people, saying, "You are good" – no exceptions.
    "It is so important for every human being to understand that he or she is a gift from God, and particularly people who are marginalized and victimized in our culture. Gay and lesbian people are clearly outcasts in many areas of our life, and it is so important for them to understand that when God made them, God said, 'You are good.'"
    [WAR: Just more faulty reasoning based on the erroneous assumption that "God" individually makes each and every one of us. But the truth of the matter is that we are all born -- subject to nature's laws 'n flaws. Otherwise, the gays/lesbians have a valid argument.]
 
    A Christmas Eve radio discussion about whether or not Jesus Christ is actually God has since erupted into an online war of words after WND polled on the question, as readers overwhelmingly voice that Jesus is indeed God.
    [WAR: Yes, Yahshua is currently God/ELOWAH.
    But the problem/confusion arises when we ask whether Yahshua was God/ELOWAH -- because there were 2 different times when he "was."
    The first time was when he eternally pre-existed as YAHWEH  -- when he was God/ELOWAH (one of the ELOHIM).
    The second time was when he emptied himself of divinity and came in the flesh (became 100% human/mortal) -- when he was not God/ELOWAH for 33 1/2 years.
    So he was, was not, and now is God/ELOWAH.]
 
 
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