Reading between the lines;
Thinking outside the box...
[WAR note: Well, I've been doing some thinking 'n contemplating.
The landlords are gone for the summer and I'm going to be doing a lot of work around here each day -- with an early start before it gets too hot.
So with that -- and Ecclesiastes 3:8 in mind ("There is...a time for WAR" and a time for no WAR.) -- I've decided to call a temporary cease-fire and take a summer sabbatical -- even though this might turn out to be the summer-from-hell on the world scene.
I might periodically post something of interest, post an issue if there's a lot of rain to keep me from working, or start it back up if news events call for it.
So if you want to know when something is posted, or when I start back up, you can either check www.thedailywar.com periodically, join one of the groups listed at the bottom or send me your e-mail address to give you a heads-up.
And I've also entertained the idea of selling the rights to names of my newsletter (The Daily World Affairs Report and The Daily WAR) and the domain www.thedailywar.com. If anyone's interested, contact me at thedailywarrior@gmail.com...]
Rome Reports has released the first in-depth documentary on Benedict XVI from his childhood in Bavaria, through the first years of his pontificate.
Pope Benedict XVI will welcome Barack Obama to the Vatican July 10 for an audience. Obama will visit Italy July 8-10 to participate in the Group of Eight summit.
The US bishops' conference released a document offering ideas and guidance on creating a just workplace, especially for health care employees deciding on union membership.
This dialogue, begun over a decade ago, was initiated by the bishops' conference in order to establish common ground on "alternative approaches for carrying out Catholic social teachings on the rights of workers to freely choose whether or not to be represented by unions."
A foundation that promotes interreligious dialogue is publishing new documents from Germany that gives evidence of Pope Pius XII's work against Hitler during WW2.
Gary Krupp, president of the New York-based Pave the Way Foundation, affirmed this Sunday that despite accusations of being "pro-Hitler," the Pontiff was actively opposing the Nazi leader.
This evidence, the statement asserted, "seems to confirm that Pope Pius XII was an active enemy of Adolph Hitler."
Krupp explained that the Pope was "named as a co-conspirator in the assassination attempt on Hitler's life of July 20, 1944."
The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has opened a hearing into whether allowing shops to open 10 Sundays of the year in Berlin is in line with the country's law governing religious freedom.
Unlike in some other European countries, Sunday shopping has long been taboo in Germany. In keeping with Article 140 of the Basic Law, Sundays and holidays are designated as "rest" days.
Germany will be forced to take on $437 billion in new debt by 2013, according to the country's finance minister. He admitted that it will take Germany years to meet EU budget rules.
Chancellor Merkel is traveling to Washington this week to discuss the financial crisis and climate change with Barack Obama -- 2 issues where Germany and the US are deeply divided.
In the new world order, Europe is looking increasingly irrelevant for the US.
(And: FRICTION AHEAD OF TALKS)
In spite of explicit warnings, German organizations are trying to escalate the internal power struggles in Iran.
And after initial hesitations, the German Foreign Ministry has also begun to openly intervene in the domestic affairs of a fellow UN member nation, making "demands" on the government of a sovereign country.
Silvio Berlusconi enjoyed a resounding victory in provincial elections after Italians overlooked the allegations of sleaze swirling around the Italian prime minister.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus has pledged to be the last in the EU to sign the Lisbon Treaty, raising fears about the future of the document which has been several painful years in the making.
"The Irish have not voted again. Poland has not signed the Lisbon Treaty, and Germany has not signed the Lisbon Treaty. So I am not the last Mohican who is fighting against all."
A new European Parliament group that is pro-free market and anti-EU integration unveiled its membership list on Monday, bringing together 55 MEPs from 8 EU states.
Calling itself the "European Conservatives and Reformists Group," the new faction lists "free enterprise," the "sovereign integrity of the nation state" and "probity in the EU institutions" among its principles.
Aging weapons, poor maintenance and rank-and-file officers who don't "want to do anything" mean the Russian military is on the verge of a "catastrophic crisis" and if forced into action would be much more likely to use strategic nuclear weapons, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
With protests in Iran continuing, the Middle East seems as unstable as ever.
Spiegel spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu about the regional implications of the unrest and about his country's difficult relationship with Europe.
Yesterday Russia returned to Africa in a scramble to restore its Soviet-era influence — only this time with profits and natural resources in mind.
President Medvedev arrived in Egypt at the start of a 4-nation tour to a continent where communist ideology and Cold War alliances shaped its post-colonial landscape.
A new Jewish interfaith initiative launched last week argues building the 3rd Jewish Temple in Jerusalem would not necessitate the destruction of the Dome of the Rock.
"God's Holy Mountain Vision" project hopes to defuse religious strife by showing that Jews' end-of-days vision could harmoniously accommodate Islam's present architectural hegemony on the Temple Mount.
However, both Muslims and Jews have expressed opposition to the initiative.
Palestinians say Zionist regime Internal Security Minister Aharonovitch's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a 'provocative' move.
According to a statement issued by the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Heritage on Tuesday, Aharonovitch's visit shows that the Zionist institutions are targeting Al-Aqsa once again, and it asked, "Is this incursion a provocation only or is there something else behind the visit?"
Arye King is an Israeli settler on a self-appointed mission from God: to extend Jewish ownership over the whole of Jerusalem.
Despite repeated international calls for a halt in the expansion of settlements, Israel continues the construction of illegal buildings in the occupied West Bank.
French President Sarkozy is trying to persuade the US to convene an international peace process, with the goal of jump-starting both Israeli-Palestinian and regional talks.
Sarkozy has been pushing the international conference idea in both Washington and European capitals ever since Netanyahu took office.
Washington has reportedly canceled a meeting between Netanyahu and the US Middle East envoy over Israel's refusal to cease settlement growth.
Many US Jewish federations as well as individual Jewish donors give to the New Israel Fund, or NIF, a Washington, DC-based foundation dedicated to fostering social change and progressive causes in Israel.
The flagship grantees of the NIF are Israeli-Arab nongovernmental organizations that openly and unabashedly dedicate themselves to removing the Jewish character of the state of Israel.
The United States is to appoint a new ambassador to Syria after a gap of four years, the strongest sign yet of Obama's desire to re-engage the pariah state and draw it away from the influence of Iran.
The move to a fully staffed embassy will be an important boost to Syria, which has suffered years of diplomatic isolation because of its strong trade and strategic ties with Iran.
Islamic militants have threatened violence against Sudan's government and could target Western interests following the death of a suspected militant, the US embassy in Khartoum said today.
A whistleblower who defected from the Pakistani Taliban has been assassinated just days after he claimed that the group was working with US intelligence to destabilize the country.
Both Iranian and Pakistani media independently covered his remarks, adding that he also described Baitullah Mehsud as having strong links with both Indian and Israeli intelligence.
North Korea threatened today to wipe the US off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
"If the US imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all."
Iran's top electoral body said Tuesday it found "no major fraud" and will not annul the results of the presidential election, closing the door to a do-over sought by angry opposition supporters alleging systematic vote-rigging.
Iranian government officials have repeatedly suggested that a revote is extremely unlikely.
However, Tuesday's announcement by Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, was the clearest yet in ruling out a new election.
Ruling out political compromise after a harsh crackdown on the streets, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, insisted today the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud.
"I had insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue. Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to pressure at any cost."
Iran's Intelligence Ministry has uncovered 'terrorist' plots targeting the country's security and stability during the presidential election.
The Intelligence Minister said that the plots included bomb attacks on several sites in Iran, adding that those behind such activities were linked with "the Zionist and non-Zionist regimes outside the county."
After winning a landslide victory in Iran's closely-contested and disputed 10th presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in before parliament between July 26 and August 19.
Newspapers sympathetic to Iran's hardline leadership called for dissident presidential candidate Mousavi to be prosecuted as the authorities rounded up more opposition sympathisers.
Iran's political crisis continues to blaze.
It's still impossible to say which leaders or factions will emerge victorious, but one thing is certain: the earthquake in the Islamic Republic is shaking the Mideast and deeply confusing everyone, including the US government.
The US media, led by the New York Times , is continuing its concerted propaganda campaign against Iran over charges that the government stole the election.
There is not even a semblance of objectivity in the media coverage.
(And: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH)
The current state of affairs in Iran means that the West intends to have another "color revolution" in Asia at all costs.
Iran is considering downgrading ties with Britain, which Tehran has accused of interference in its disputed presidential election.
As the mass protests of the past week in Iran gave way to the comparatively tame question of legal challenges to the vote, Iran's key rivals are ratcheting up their rhetoric, condemning the Iranian government and, in the case of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, calling for regime change.
Barack Obama has made his strongest comments on the situation since the Iran election crisis began.
In what appeared to be a coordinated exchange, Obama called on the Huffington Post's Nico Pitney near the start of his press conference and requested a question directly about Iran.
Reporters typically don't coordinate their questions before press conferences, so it seemed odd that Obama might have an idea what the question would be.
However dramatic the picture inside the country may be, it would be a fatal miscalculation to neglect the fact that the global strategic situation is affecting, and is being affected by Iran's internal conflict.
The world situation is dominated by the process of the decaying British empire and its globalized financial and monetary system.
The world, and especially the region surrounding Iran, and South and Southwest Asia, has been dominated by British geopolitics for more than a century.
It's the 2009 presidential election in Iran and opposition leader Mir-Houssein Mousavi declares victory hours before the polls close, insuring that any result to the contrary will be called into question.
Western media goes into overdrive, fighting with each other to see who can offer the most hyperbolic denunciation of the vote and President Ahmadenijad's apparent victory. The BBC wins by publishing bald-faced lies about the supposed popular uprising which it is later forced to retract.
Ironically, Iran was also the birthplace of the original CIA program for destabilizing a foreign government.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has arrived in Italy on his first official trip to Europe, where he is expected to push Rome, and later Paris, to toughen sanctions against Iran.
Like the collapse of the Soviet Union, the outcome of the post-election unrest in Iran could be of major strategic significance for the Middle East and for Israel.
Israeli analysts see 3 possible scenarios. In each scenario, Israel stands to benefit.
The exiled son of the late shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, warned of dire consequences for the volatile Middle East and the rest of the world if the popular uprising in Iran is crushed.
The defeat of the movement protesting the outcome of elections would not only threaten global stability but could lead to nuclear war, he told a news conference here.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Ahmadinejad may seem very different, but they are united in their apocalyptic religious visions.
Their respective beliefs may be propelling them on a collision course with potentially horrific consequences.
A judge in California has scheduled a July 13 hearing in a case challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to be president in which the plaintiffs' attorney, Orly Taitz, says the commander-in-chief is in default.
Taitz told WND if her motion is granted she will immediately request access to Obama's birth records and other documentation that could determine his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.
WorldNetDaily Editor and CEO Joseph Farah is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can prove he or she was present at the birth of Barack Obama.
"Barack Obama claims to have been born in Honolulu Aug. 4, 1961. His entire constitutional claim to the presidency rests on this premise.
Yet, he refuses to release a copy of his long-form birth certificate – the only document that could possibly corroborate his claim."
There is now reasonable doubt that Barack Obama meets the Constitution's requirement of "natural born" citizenship.
Until proof of US citizenship is presented beyond a reasonable doubt, it is reasonable to say that Obama is probably a usurper to the office of President.
Given doubts about Obama's natural born citizen status, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have a moral duty to investigate Obama's qualifications to be President.
They must then report their findings to those under their command and the American people.
This is not an issue of legitimate succession to office of Commander-in-Chief, but an issue of usurpation.
The moral duty here for military officers is clear: Demand proof, or serve without honor, or resign.
In what appears increasingly to be an orchestrated campaign, right-wing Republicans and Israel-centered neoconservatives are pulling out all the stops in depicting President Barack Obama as "weak" on national security and promoting democracy abroad
The mystery into Mark Sanford's 6-day disappearance deepened Tuesday night as new evidence cast further doubt onto the governor's "hiking" alibi.
CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby tracked down Sanford's state-issued black Chevy Suburban at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
That information would seem to further contradict Sanford's spokesman's claim that the governor spent the weekend hiking along the Appalachian Trail — which is roughly a 2 hour drive north of Atlanta.
Russian Foreign Ministry sources are reporting to President Medvedev that the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, arrived at Russia's Ottawa Embassy seeking 'immediate assistance and protection' for his plan to succeed from the United States over what he states is the 'planned annihilation of his country' by a 'criminal cabal' headed by Barack Obama.
According to this bizarre report, Governor Sanford, who has been reported as "missing" for the past week after evading his security detail, pleaded with Ambassador Mamedov to have Russia become the first country to recognize the 'New Nation' of South Carolina upon its succession from the US and promised in return that Russian Military Forces would have 'total and immediate' access to his States ports and airfields.
Most interesting to note about South Carolina is that it became the first State to secede from the US when it left the Union on December 20, 1860 after the election of President Lincoln.
Just arrived...
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was in South America during a dayslong unexplained absence, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff told the public.
The State reported that Sanford arrived this morning at Atlanta's Hartsville-Jackson International Airport on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Republican told the South Carolina newspaper he decided at the last minute to go to the South American country. He says he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail but wanted to do something "exotic."
Sanford said he was alone on the trip. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline.
It has been more than a year since the Department of Interior announced that North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3-4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation, but little is being done about it.
The Obama administration plans to kill a controversial Bush administration spy satellite program at the Department of Homeland Security, according to officials familiar with the decision.
The program came under fire from its inception two years ago. Democratic lawmakers said it would lead to domestic spying.
Months after his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination ended, Ron Paul has become a hot ticket on the international stage.
Unlikely as it may seem, Paul, a Texas Republican, is the most popular member of Congress outside the US, if foreign television appearances are any indication.
The recent tragic death of a security guard at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, allegedly killed by an individual said to be a "Holocaust denier" is now being touted as a reason to institute laws in the US similar to those laws outlawing so-called "Holocaust denial" in force in 14 countries, mostly in Western Europe.
(Truth: WHAT IS "HOLOCAUST DENIAL"?)
(Truth: LET'S HEAR BOTH SIDES)
Investors are eager to hear from the Fed today. And what they say could rock markets.
"Some US embassies worldwide are being advised to purchase massive amounts of local currencies; enough to last them a year.
Some embassies are being sent enormous amounts of US cash to purchase currencies from those govts, quietly.
Inside the State Dept there is a sense of sadness and foreboding that 'something' is about to happen ... within 180 days, but could be 120-150 days."
(And: BANKSTER "HOLIDAY" PLANNED?)
As anticipated by LEAP/E2020 as early as October 2008, on the eve of summer 2009, the question of the US and UK capacity to finance their unbridled public deficits has become the central question of international debates, thus paving the way for these 2 countries to default on their debt by the end of this summer.
At this stage of the global systemic crisis' process of development, contrary to the dominant political and media stance today, the LEAP/E2020 team does not foresee any economic upsurge after summer 2009 (nor in the following 12 months).
The European Central Bank pumped a record amount of liquidity into its money market today, signaling continued monetary stimulus as banks jumped at the chance of locking in low-cost funds for 12 months.
In a historic speech before a joint session of the French parliament on Monday, President Sarkozy said that the global economic crisis meant that "nothing will be the same any more" and pleaded for change in both France and Europe as a whole.
"The crisis is not over. We don't know when it will end. Thinking of the crisis as brackets that will soon be closed ... would be a fatal mistake. Nothing will be the same ever again.
"A crisis of this magnitude always calls for profound questioning. We cannot witness such a catastrophe without questioning the ideas, the values, the decisions that led to such a result."
He added that the crisis had highlighted the merits and virtues of "the French model" of the welfare state. "The recession has brought the French model back into fashion ... The French model has its chance once more."
(And: A MESSAGE OF NO AUSTERITY)
A decision was taken recently in Berlin to introduce a balanced-budget law in the German constitution. It was a hugely important decision.
Anchoring the stability law at the level of the national constitution is an extreme measure – like locking the door, and throwing the keys away.
I am a little surprised not to hear howls of protests from France and other European countries.
Germany has not consulted its European partners in a systematic way. This was an example of policy unilateralism at its most extreme.
While the balanced budget law is economically illiterate, it is also universally popular.
Average Germans do not primarily regard debt in terms of its economic meaning, but as a moral issue.
Many ordinary Germans regard debt as morally objectionable, even if it is put to proper use.
They see the financial crisis primarily as a moral crisis of Anglo-Saxon capitalism.
The balanced budget constitutional law is therefore not about economics. It is a moral crusade, and it is the last thing, Germany, the eurozone and the world need right now.
At the present stage, that particular contagion, which started at that point, has now reached the point of a general threat of a breakdown crisis of the entire international financial-monetary system.
We could, at any moment, in terms of days or weeks, we could have a general breakdown crisis, by which I mean a situation, as in the state of California, within the United States, for example, of large sections of the world going into a place where government breaks down; breaks down largely for financial reasons.
The entire United States is actually on the verge of such a situation, as are a number of countries in Europe.
Obama's speech was a collection of misrepresentations and outright lies.
Barack Obama's so-called financial "reform" program demonstrated yet again the fascist nature of his administration.
While presenting these measures as correctives to a "culture of irresponsibility," what he actually did was to push America even further under the thumb of the parasitic financiers of the British Empire!
His June 17 speech, and the documents released with it, constitute a deliberate fraud, yet another sell-out of the United States and its people.
China has fought back after the United States and the European Union joined forces to complain about its unfair trade practices.
The US and the EU filed a joint complaint to the World Trade Organisation on Tuesday, accusing China of restricting exports of some raw materials in order to help Chinese manufacturers.
German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg [from Bavaria's CSU] said Tuesday he was concerned about a trend towards protectionism in China and vowed to take measures to prevent damage to Germany's economy.
"I am deeply concerned about developments in China and will do what I can to avoid any negative consequences for Germany's exporters. In times of crisis, there is a temptation to seal off the domestic economy with protectionist measures. That is the wrong answer, as we learned during the last big global economic crisis in the 1980s."
In "The End of Overeating," Dr. Kessler finds some similarities in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.
When it comes to stimulating our brains, he noted, individual ingredients aren't particularly potent.
But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain's reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we're full.
Academics have claimed that moving away from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle was 'the worst mistake in history'. But are they right?
Could it be that rather than being a boon to mankind, the invention of agriculture was, in the words of one academic, "the worst mistake in human history"?
[WAR: "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole Earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground -- everything that has the breath of life in it -- I give every green plant for food." (Gen 1:29,30)
"Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you: 'You must not eat of it' -- cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food..." (Gen 3:17-19)
"Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." (Gen 9:3,4)
This urban survival technique essay by GT actually applies to everyone, everywhere. Government is not your friend; it is your enemy.
"In the 11th year, in the 3rd month on the 1st day, the word of YAHWEH came to me..." (Ezekiel 31:1-18)
[WAR: Last night's crescent Moon was oh, so close to being the new Moon -- but it never left the Sun's glow (and therefore no earthshine) to rule with the stars at night. So tonight's crescent will definitely be the new Moon, making tomorrow the New Moon festival.]
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