Reading between the lines;
Thinking outside the box...
[WAR: I decided to briefly break my summer sabbatical and post an issue today due to the release of B16's social encyclical and the historical/prophetic ramifications of Germany's constitutional court ruling on the Lisbon Treaty.]
On July 4, just days before his social encyclical is set to be released, Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter regarding the upcoming G8 meeting to the Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi.
In his letter, he called for renewed international efforts to work together in order "to face current challenges" in front of mankind today.
Benedict concluded his letter by encouraging the G8 members to see this meeting as an invitation "to unite to face current challenges, which require humankind to make decisive choices concerning the very destiny of man, intimately connected with that of creation."
With the release of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical just days away, the head of the Knights of Columbus is warning people not to ask how the Pope's teaching will validate their world view but how their views should change in response to the document.
The Supreme Knight states that those in positions of economic influence shold take notice of "Caritas in Veritate."
"The world deserves a market economy with a conscience. We should bear in mind that Pope Benedict XVI in a 1985 paper criticized Marxism heavily for being too 'deterministic' and warned that market economies risked collapse if they too excluded or ignored the ethical component of individual decision making. Certainly, he has been proven correct, and thus all of us, and especially those in position of economic leadership, should certainly take notice of this encyclical."
In his first social encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI made clear that social issues cannot be disconnected from the defense of life from the moment of conception to its natural end, and that the defense of the right to life cannot be compromised on when seeking common ground on other social issues.
Pope Benedict XVI today called for reforming the United Nations and establishing a "true world political authority" with "real teeth" to manage the global economy with God-centered ethics.
In his 3rd encyclical, the pope says such an authority is urgently needed to end the current worldwide financial crisis.
It should "revive" damaged economies, reach toward "disarmament, food security and peace," protect the environment and "regulate migration."
The encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) is a theologically dense explication of Catholic social teaching that draws heavily from earlier popes -- particularly PaulVI's critique of capitalism 42 years ago.
And echoing his predecessor John Paul II, Benedict says: "every economic decision has a moral consequence."
Pope Benedict today called for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat.
Parts of the encyclical appeared bound to upset conservatives because of its underlying rejection of unbridled capitalism and unregulated market forces, which he said had led to "thoroughly destructive" abuse of the system.
Qui, un sorso di vino...
CARITAS IN VERITATE (full text)
Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine.
Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law.
"Caritas in veritate" is the principle around which the Church's social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action.
I would like to consider two of these in particular, of special relevance to the commitment to development in an increasingly globalized society: justice and the common good.
The Church does not have technical solutions to offer and does not claim "to interfere in any way in the politics of States."
She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation.
Without truth, it is easy to fall into an empiricist and sceptical view of life, incapable of rising to the level of praxis because of a lack of interest in grasping the values — sometimes even the meanings — with which to judge and direct it.
Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development.
For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce.
Her social doctrine is a particular dimension of this proclamation: it is a service to the truth which sets us free.
Open to the truth, from whichever branch of knowledge it comes, the Church's social doctrine receives it, assembles into a unity the fragments in which it is often found, and mediates it within the constantly changing life-patterns of the society of peoples and nations...
[WAR: As much as I hate to say it, the pope is absolutely/positively right on the mark!
I've always said that the social doctrines of the Catholic church are quite good, and that society would be much better if it followed them. (And this is why people will love it -- and hate the 2 witnesses that will be preaching against it.)
But it's the hideous/evil theological doctrines (false gospel and messiah) lurking behind the social doctrines that are so dangerous. The devil really is in the details!
So the Babylonian Whore has now served her latest, and last, batch of wine to the nations for them to drink.
But who will partake of this Vampire-Vixen's Veritate Vino?...]
Euro-skeptics have plenty of reasons to celebrate.
By strengthening national parliaments vis-a-vis the EU, Germany's highest court has ENDED THE DREAM OF A "UNITED STATES OF EUROPE".
And that's good news for Eastern European countries, who often feel bullied by Germany, the alliance's heavyweight.
Christian Social Union politician Peter Gauweiler led the challenge to the Lisbon Treaty before Germany's highest court.
The court rejected most of the petition, but in an interview with Spiegel Online, Gauweiler explains why he still thinks the ruling is good for Germany.
The Federal Constitutional Court (BVG) passed a judgment last Tuesday, which will have sweeping repercussions for the future development of Europe.
The court in Karlsruhe laid down narrow limits for the powers of the European Union and stipulated that, on all important questions, the final word rests with the nation state, i.e., the 2 chambers of the German parliament and the court itself.
The court questioned the democratic legitimacy of the European parliament and denied the right of the European Court of Justice to make final judgments.
The judges in Karlsruhe even recommend withdrawal from the EU, should it persist in extending its rights of sovereignty.
According to the BVG judgment, "in the worst case, Germany must refuse its further participation in the European Union."
The constitutional court judgment represents an about turn in Germany's European policy. Now national interests have openly come to the fore.
The result of the judgment will be an intensification of national conflicts throughout Europe.
If Germany, as the EU's largest member, grants highest priority to its national interests then the other 26 EU members are bound to follow suit.
Last week's ruling by the Constitutional Court, coupled with demands by the Christian Social Union for changes to the constitution, may not only jeopardize Berlin's schedule for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
The ruling also threatens future steps toward European integration.
The CSU parliamentary group aims to approve an entire catalog of demands at a party meeting in the former Benedictine monastery of Kloster Banz in mid-July.
The Bavarians even want to push through a number of changes to the German constitution.
They are now demanding a solution that gives "maximum" parliamentary influence over future EU policy.
It's a political bombshell that could torpedo the German government's Lisbon rescue concept.
In addition to undermining the effectiveness of Germany's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, this could tip the scales for the other European countries that have yet to ratify -- namely Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Bavarians' "Gauweiler" tactics only provide an inkling of the inner political strife that is in store for Germany.
Despite the premature cries of triumph among staunch EU supporters in the ruling coalition and in Brussels, last Tuesday's ruling on the Lisbon Treaty will yet unleash rage and tears of frustration.
According to the judges, Germany's future lies not in "a united Europe" -- but rather in Germany.
There will be "no European state under the provisions of the German constitution." And Schorkopf summarizes the ruling in one sentence: "The European Union is a contract-based association of sovereign states, and as such, takes a political back seat."
Germany's drive towards ratifying the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty may have one more obstacle to overcome after Chancellor Merkel's conservative sister party in Bavaria demanded more concessions for Berlin.
Germany's Constitutional Court ruled that the Lisbon Treaty was compatible with the country's constitution, but said some domestic laws needed tweaking before the treaty could be formally ratified.
But the Christian Social Union of Bavaria said they wanted even greater rights for the Bundestag and Bundesrat - the lower and upper houses of parliament respectively - enshrined in Germany's constitution.
The party also called for parliament to be enabled to take part in government decisions on EU matters, and wants the Constitutional Court to have the final word on interpreting the Lisbon Treaty.
The Minister of State for Europe at the German Foreign Office warned the CSU against endangering the treaty's ratification schedule.
Merkel had said the necessary laws would be amended and the treaty passed before the September 27 federal election, but the latest demands from the CSU could prolong the ratification process.
[WAR: Well, well, well!! All the COG (and COG-related) "prophets" now have egg on their face and a plate of crow to chow down on.
It seems that reality has rudely intruded on their prophetic delusions and will be exposed for what they really are.
As I've been saying for years now ... my how time flies! ... the EU will eventually collapse and this will free Germany to exercise complete sovereignty as a nation-state, including re-issuing the deutsche mark to replace the experimental euro.
And I've always pointed out how the Christian Social Union of Bavaria would play a key role -- which it did in this court case.
So step back and look at the bigger picture: last week, the court makes its decision, and today, the Bavarian B16 issues his encyclical on how the economy should be run according to the principles of the Catholic Social Doctrine -- which is basically how Germany, and especially Bavaria, already runs its economy...]
Now we know what happens when countries fail to sort out their banking systems, by leaving their banks permanently undercapitalised.
They panic, make threats, and mess with accounting rules.
As German politicians are getting scared about a credit crunch 2 months before election date, they are exploring all possibilities of rule change to force banks to lend.
Chancellor Merkel has presented 4 soldiers with the country's new medal for bravery, the first to be awarded since WW2.
JUNCKER WARNS OF SOCIAL CRISIS AHEAD (scroll down)
Il sole 24 ore reports from Brussels that Jean-Claude Juncker warned that unemployment is likely to rise dramatically in the euro area, which could lead to a dramatic social crisis.
Israel's housing minister called for strict segregation between the country's Jewish and Arab populations last week as he unveiled plans to move large numbers of fundamentalist religious Jews to Israel's north to prevent what he described as an "Arab takeover" of the region.
The new settlement drive, according to Atias, is intended to revive previous failed efforts by the state to "Judaize," or create a Jewish majority in, the country's heavily Arab north.
Analysts say the announcement is a disturbing indication that the Haredim, who have traditionally been hostile to Zionism because of their strict reading of the Bible, are rapidly being recruited to the Judaization project in both Israel and the occupied territories.
Germany's Foreign Minister has moved on to Syria as part of a whirlwind Middle East visit centered on restarting negotiations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Another hot topic to be discussed is Syria's close relationship to Iran.
During meetings with Israeli President Peres on Monday, Steinmeier was given harsh words to pass on in Syria.
A lawsuit filed by the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks has forced out a treasure-trove of documents, proving what Lyndon LaRouche has been saying for years: Behind the 9/11 attacks was the hand of the British Empire, working through allied Saudi factions.
In effect, 9/11 was the work of the "BAE Al-Yamamah" Anglo-Saudi imperial apparatus, which forms the core of the ongoing British Sykes-Picot control over the entire Persian Gulf and extended Southwest Asia.
As LaRouche observed today, the Saudi circles in bed with London in the Al-Yamamah program are part of a British imperial scheme, that jeopardizes every nation in the extended Persian Gulf and Southwest Asian region.
"Regardless of their nationality, and whether they know it or not, these Saudi players are the enemies of every Arab and Muslim nation. They are tools of the British Empire, which every self-respecting Arab and Muslim despises."
The focus of the Iran crisis has shifted from the street to the seminary.
Clerics are having to choose whether to align themselves with the conservatives or the reformists - or maintain an awkward silence.
The incoming head of the UN nuclear watchdog said he did not see any hard evidence Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear arms.
A senior Iranian official has warned that any aggression against his country would trigger a "decisive and full-scale response".
"I think that America and Israel are fully aware what kind of result such a wrong judgment will entail," said the head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
"That kind of erroneous judgment poses a threat to the entire Middle Eastern region and the world. Israel showed its military power sufficiently in the 22-day war. If (an Israeli attack) occurred, then the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond in a very full-scale and very decisive way."
As Israel continues its efforts to portray Iran as a regime hell-bent on a nuclear war, top officials in the White House and the US military express contradictory stances on a potential Israeli attack on Iran.
The Iranian Supreme Leader, assailed by some of his country's most prominent clerics and detested by millions of his ordinary citizens, has received a boost from an unlikely quarter: Joe Biden.
One day after the Vice-President said that the US would not stop Israel bombing Iran's nuclear plants, Ayatollah Khamenei launched a fierce attack on "meddling" Western leaders, designed to rally his fractured people.
The hospital in Hawaii where Barack Obama claims he was born refuses to produce any documentation – or even confirm the claim – without permission of the president himself.
Kristy Watanabe, the public relations specialist for the hospital refused to confirm or deny the veracity of Obama's letter claiming he was born at the hospital.
(Interview: WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?)
Oh, how quickly times have changed. Just a few short years ago, Democrats were up in arms over King George III's "unconstitutional" executive power grabs.
Where are these people now? I'll tell you where they are: right in the thick of it, enabling President Barack Obama to consolidate and exercise unprecedented power.
PLANE DIDN'T HIT PENTAGON (video)
Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III, former head of all US intelligence: "I do know that the Pentagon was not hit by an aircraft. The press is saying what they have been told to say. The stories about 9/11 are false."
HR 2749 is a strange bill in many ways.
While the other "food safety" bills have been around since winter, allowing for much public discussion on the internet, HR 2749 has only suddenly appeared.
It is a mutant conglomeration of the worst of the other bills, with the addition of one very original part: martial law.
The United States of America is really 50 sovereign states in a union - and that union can dissolve just like the Soviet Union did.
This article will give some possibilities how that break up can occur but there certainly could be other scenarios for this to happen.
The most remarkable thing about civil unrest is that there hasn't been more of it.
Now everybody's talking about the ongoing catastrophe. But almost nobody is talking about the logical — maybe even inevitable — consequences of cynical or desperate politicians abusing an already fed-up populace: civil unrest.
Although few in power are talking about it, rumors abound that governments at many levels are planning for civil unrest.
No conspiracy charge by feds against Madoff is covering up links to domestic and foreign intelligence.
WMR spoke to a former close aide to Madoff who related how he handled a number of transactions personally for Madoff.
The source said that Madoff was running a special type of "pump and dump" scheme.
The source said Madoff would "pump money out of the system and dump it out to another place." When asked what that "other place" was, the source replied: "Israel."
The source believes that no conspiracy charges were brought by the federal government against Madoff because it is the government and not necessarily Madoff that is trying to protect his "network and superiors."
The revelations that Goldman Sachs is manipulating the market and that the Federal Reserve banks are private – not government - institutions are coming out now because the US is going broke, and doesn't have enough money to to keep the matrix running.
Indeed, Goldman is probably the key player on the plunge protection team and similar government schemes to manipulate the markets.
So the fact that Goldman's shenanigans are starting to leak out – despite the government's best efforts to keep the whole enchilada secret – is dramatic.
One dog has yet to bark in this long winding crisis.
Beyond riots in Athens and a Baltic bust-up, we have not seen evidence of bitter political protest as the slump eats away at the legitimacy of governing elites in North America, Europe, and Japan.
It may just be a matter of time. A deep purge of labour is yet to come.
The shocker last week was not just that the US lost 467,000 jobs in May, but also that time worked fell 6.9% from a year earlier, dropping to 33 hours a week.
"At no time in the 1990 or 2001 recessions did we ever come close to seeing such a detonating jobs figure," said David Rosenberg. "We have lost a record 9 million full-time jobs this cycle."
The Centre for Labour Market Studies in Boston says US unemployment is now 18.2%, counting the old-fashioned way.
The reason why this does not "feel" like the 1930s is that we tend to compress the chronology of the Depression.
It takes time for people to deplete their savings and sink into destitution.
The OECD expects unemployment to reach 57 million in the rich countries by the end of next year.
We are moving into Phase II of the Great Unwinding. It may be time to put away our texts of Keynes, Friedman, and Fisher, so useful for Phase 1, and start studying what happened to society when global unemployment went haywire in 1932.
The G8 circus has moved half way round the world - from Japan last year to Italy now.
The economic problems they have to confront have moved just about as far.
A year on as they get together at L'Aquila, and it is more than a slowdown.
In fact it was just 2 months after the Hokkaido summit that the financial crisis took on a new and more menacing form, with the implosion of the investment bank Lehman Brothers.
The result is that the world economy is likely to contract this year for the first time in the post-war era.
The leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations will meet in the earthquake-hit Italian town of L'Aquila from Wednesday to discuss the global financial crisis and climate change.
The summit is aimed at aiding the reconstruction of the town and the world financial system -- but the prospect of progress on either is slim.
European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet has praised the USA's commitment to the strong dollar as several world powers including France and Russia call for a fresh debate on the global currency system ahead of this week's G8 summit of leaders in Italy.
Meanwhile, Russian President Medvedev reiterated his support for a new international reserve currency, stating: "The dollar system or the system based on the dollar and euro have shown that they are flawed," in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
However, he admitted that new reserve currencies "can't be introduced by presidential decree or by order of the central bank. It's about trusting countries' economies."
A Friday, June 26th slug published by the BBC, credits the clearly misinformed People's Bank of China's Zhou Xiaochuan with proposing that "An international monetary system dominated by a single currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis."
The result of such an action would be the worst thing which China could do to itself and its people.
That terrible mistake, fortunately only proposed by the PBOC, but not yet implemented, is to be understood as a result of manipulation of relevant officials in China, Russia, and other nations by British sources.
As a result of Eurasian and other nations' ignorance of the character of the present, London-centered imperial monetarist system, the present generation of leading relevant officials throughout most of the world has been misled into a scheme designed to bring about the ruin of those duped into supporting such a scheme.
After one of the longest sunspot droughts in modern times, solar activity picked up quickly over the weekend.
A new group of sunspots developed, and while not dramatic by historic standards, the spots were the most significant in many months.
In a misguided attempt to aid newspapers, one of America's most influential judges is suggesting a new copyright law.
One of America's most influential conservative judges, Richard Posner, has proposed a ban on linking to online content without permission.
The idea, he said in a blog post last week, is to prevent aggregators and bloggers from linking to newspaper websites without paying.
And Posner, who sits on the 7th circuit court of appeals in Chicago, has a way of getting his way.
"The degree of parasitism is striking in the case of those blogs that provide their readers with links to newspaper articles. The links enable the audience to read the articles without buying the newspaper."
Posner comes across as willfully blind to the ways in which bloggers and aggregators actually drive traffic to news sites, resulting in more readers seeing their content and, thus, their advertising.
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