By Elliot Friedland/Clarion Project March 15, 2018
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“The idea that someone could put another person’s face on an individual’s body, that would be like a homerun for anyone who wants to interfere in a political process. This is now going to be the new reality, surely by 2020, but potentially even as early as this year.” — Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)
New technology with the ability to create hyper-realistic fake videos has the potential to wreak havoc on the political landscape, lawmakers and technology experts say.
The tech allows people’s faces to be superimposed onto different bodies in other videos. Different technology can also allow allow facial expressions to be altered. Adobe even has a program to create new audio from text.
Currently, fake video technology requires manipulation of existing video footage of a person, and cannot create fake video from scratch with just a picture.
Right now, the technology is not that widespread and can still be detected by experts. But it is improving rapidly.
Such videos have already caused controversy. Fake pornographic videos have been made by face-swapping celebrities into pornographic movies. In February 2018, the popular content sharing website Reddit banned the r/deepfakes subreddit, which had been used to share fake pornographic content featuring celebrities.
Reddit updated its rules prohibiting sharing pornographic content of someone without that person’s consent to include faked images.
The combination of the different emerging technologies means it is highly likely we will soon see videos of public figures saying and doing things which never happened, that are all but indistinguishable from the real thing.
In July 2017, a team of researchers created a fake video of former president Barack Obama giving a speech he never gave, as an experiment.
The national security implications for terrorist groups using this technology are very worrying.
They will be able to create images of politicians announcing strikes that never happened, announcing anti-Muslim policies that don’t exist, making racist and bigoted remarks they never said or even footage of war crimes that never took place.
As Lawfare blog writes “The spread of deep fakes will threaten to erode the trust necessary for democracy to function effectively, for two reasons.
First, and most obviously, the marketplace of ideas will be injected with a particularly-dangerous form of falsehood. Second, and more subtly, the public may become more willing to disbelieve true but uncomfortable facts.”
The deepfakes trend takes existing problems with fake news to the next level. As fake news spreads, the public will be less and less inclined to believe what they see, hear and read, and more inclined to rely on tribal in-groups and partisan sources they trust to support their specific narratives and interests.
Terrorists can and probably will manipulate these passions in three main ways:
Faking anti-Muslim hate crime and anti-Muslim bigotry in order to sow distrust between communities. It achieves this goal by making Muslims more afraid of non-Muslims, and by making non-Muslims less likely to trust stories of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Faking terrorist attacks and making sophisticated threats to spread fear and reduce our ability to respond appropriately to genuine danger.
Faking news reports or other information about genuine terrorist attacks, in order to increase confusion and put more lives at risk (ie falsely giving information that a suspect has been subdued when in fact there are more gunmen at large).
Deep fake videos are “like a weapon of mass destruction in the world of fake news and extremist propaganda, especially for hostile intelligence agencies engaging in political influence operations,” Clarion Project National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro said.
Yet despite the risks, the technology is ploughing ahead with no signs of slowing. The website deepfakes.club offers tutorials to anyone with an internet connection on how to create fake videos.
Nor are government attempts to develop reliable ways of authenticating content likely to be effective.
“We all will need some form of authenticating our identity through biometrics. This way people will know whether the voice or image is real or from an impersonator,” Congressman Ro Hanna (D-CA) told The Hill.
He called on the military’s research and development wing, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to create secure authentication techniques.
Yet the lighting-quick development of digital technologies suggests any such process would become liable to manipulation. It even opens up the possibility of a fake video being stamped with a real mark of authentication.
“Any technology that will allow you to fingerprint, the adversary is going to figure out how to take it out, manipulate the content, and then put that fingerprint back in,” Dr. Hany Farid, a computer science professor at Dartmouth College, who specialises in digital forensics told ABC News. “That is almost guaranteed.”
Cybersecurity experts are working on possible solutions to the coming threat, but so far have not agreed on a viable path forward.
Originally published at Clarion Project – reposted with permission.
One year ago, Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi made a startling prediction that witchcraft and black magic would make a comeback in the world. A look back at the headlines of 2017 reveals a disturbing trend: the rabbi was undoubtedly correct.
In a sermon in February 2017, Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi, a mystic with a strong following in Israel, warned that dark powers are re-emerging in the world, seeking to usurp God’s rule. He compared the spiritual condition in the world to Egypt just before the Exodus of the Jews.
Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi (Photo: Facebook Page of Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi)
“After every plague, Pharaoh, his warlocks, and all of the idol worshippers consulted with their false gods and asked them to remove the plague. This did not help them at all until they turned and cried out to Moses and he stopped the plague in one moment. Then they understood that there was one power above which is God, and it is Him that rules the world and not the power of impurity: serving false gods, idol worship, and fortune telling.”
Remarkably, his predictions seem to be coming true. Witchcraft and idolatry are appearing with increasing frequency, sometimes in insidious manners that present this ancient evil under a multitude of guises that make it appear benign, innocent, or even a positive cultural element.
Below are examples of idolatry appearing in the world in the past year.
Just a few weeks after the rabbi’s prediction, a call went out on social media to use black magic to curse newly inaugurated President Trump. A small group gathered at midnight in front of several of the more prominent Trump-owned buildings around the country, but the organizers reported that tens of thousands participated from their homes, using arcane objects and burning candles while reciting a prearranged incantation to cast a “binding spell”. The call to action requested that the ritual be repeated every crescent moon until President Trump leaves office.
Temple of Galaxia, Burning Man (Photo via architect’s Facebook page)
What began over 30 years ago as a small campfire gathering of California artists evolved into a massive annual festival bringing almost 70,000 people to the middle of the desert in Nevada. The upcoming festival in August will feature a structure described as a Temple of the Greek goddess Gaia, who also appears prominently in paganism.
Billed as a cultural gathering, the festival attracts artists and celebrities. Touted as a secular event, many of Burning Man’s major elements are rooted in idolatry. Regular Burning Man installments are a Temple to the Hindu goddess Shiva and a bus decorated in the form of a seven-headed dragon which, in the New Testament, represents Satan. The massive camp is set up to form a massive pentagram in the desert.
Named for a massive wood effigy burned at the end of the festival, the burning man is actually a Celtic custom based on the original pagan human sacrifices. This pagan reference came true last year when a man died after running into the flames.
A paper-mache sculpture of “Lord Shiva Natarja”, a Hindu god, featured during the Catharsis on the Mall festival. (Facebook)
A Burning Man-inspired event brought paganism to the heart of democracy: the Washington Mall. The three-day event was held in November. It featured all of the pagan trappings of its desert counterpart but the organizers also proposed a 45-foot tall, 16,000 pound, steel sculpture of a naked woman titled “R-evolution” that would stand in front of the Washington Monument, deliberately facing the White House. A permit was issued for the sculpture but, blessedly, later revoked.
A model of the arch from the Temple of Ba’al was erected in Dubai for the World Government Summit. (Screenshot)
After the Islamic State (ISIS) destroyed the famous archaeological site in Palmyra Syria, the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA), a Harvard-based organization for the preservation of archaeological structures, used 3-D printing technology to recreate the 15 meter tall stone arch that had stood at the site for over 1,800 years. The arch was built as a Roman Victory Arch in front of the temple of Ba’al, a pagan god mentioned frequently in the Bible.
The replica arch first appeared in April 2016 in London’s Trafalgar Square for UNESCO’s World Heritage week, which coincided with Beltane, the major festival for pagans who worship Ba’al. It reappeared in New York City in September of that year.
The arch was erected once again to inaugurate the World Government Summit in Dubai in February 2017. The summit brings together leaders in business, technology, and politics from around the world.
The arch was then erected in Italy in May for the G7 Summit, a meeting of the leaders of the seven largest economies in the world representing more than 64 percent of the net global wealth.
UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. (Novikov Aleksey / Shutterstock.com)
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was formed to promote peace and security through science and education. Nowhere in its charter does it say the organization should deal in idolatry but last year, pagan gods featured prominently in two of its exhibitions.
A statue of the Roman goddess Athena on display in Nashville, Tennessee. (Ron Cogswell/Flickr)
In November 2017, The United Arab Emirates, now a sponsor of the Palmyra Arch reproduction, inaugurated the Digital Archaeology Exhibition, “The Spirit in the Stone”, at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York City. The IDA, creators of the arch, used the same 3-D printing process to reproduce a statue of the Roman goddess Athena, which they described as symbolizing the UNESCO values of “reason, refuge and the rule of law”. Athena was, in fact, the Roman goddess of war, as shown by the statue holding a spear.
Lion of al-Lat (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
In January, UNESCO-funded reconstruction of the Lion of al-Lāt, an ancient statue from the Palmyra site partially destroyed by ISIS, was completed with the help of the Institute of Digital Archaeology. The ancient statue, almost 11 feet tall and weighing 15 tons, also stood in the Palmyra Temple and now stands in the National Museum of Damascus.
Biblical scholars associate Al-Lat with the goddess of jealousy and fury despised by the Prophet Ezekiel.
And He said to me, “O mortal, turn your eyes northward.” I turned my eyes northward, and there, north of the gate of the mizbayach, was that infuriating image on the approach. Ezekiel 8:5
In September, a Muslim fashion designer decorated a 1,000-year-old London church in a Satanic motif for her show featuring transvestite models dressed as the devil. The Turkish designer, Dilara Findikoglu, is an up-and-coming star in the fashion world with many celebrities wearing her creations.
A new form of idolatry was added this year, supplementing the myriad forms of sinful worship described in the Bible. Anthony Levandowski, a high-tech millionaire, filed “Way of the Future” with the Internal Revenue Service as an official religion. The new religion is dedicated to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society.”
Levandowski’s new religion should not be confused with Jediism, a religion based on the fictitious Jedi beliefs as portrayed in the Star Wars movie series. Jediism was established in 2001 and has hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide.
“Thor’s Fight With the Giants”, Mårten Eskil Winge, 1872. (Wikimedia Commons)
The year ended on an idolatrous note with the Asatru Society, the religious organization that worships the Norse gods in Iceland, announcing the imminent completion of construction of the first temple to the Norse gods in 1,000 years. The pagan Norse religion has been making a comeback in recent years, fueled at least in part by its acceptance of homosexuality. A minor tourist industry has cropped up for foreigners who come to Iceland to have Asatru priests perform their same-sex wedding.
The Norse religion, based on Germanic paganism, is now a part of mainstream American pop culture. in 1962 when Marvel Comics began publishing a comic book series featuring the god Thor and other characters from the Norse pantheon. In 2011, Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures released the movie “Thor”, based on the comic book. That was followed by two more movies, the most recent, “Ragnarok”, based on Norse eschatology.
“We call for a Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and popular uprising against this American aggression against the direction of the first prayer (the Al-Aqsa Mosque) and Muhammad’s place of worship,” said Qaradaghi in an official statement. He stressed that the issue of the city of Al-Quds (the Arabic name for Jerusalem -ed.) is an issue of concern to the entire Muslim nation, and renouncing it or harming it is a mark of Cain that Allah, history, and future generations will not be able to atone for.
ALI AL-QARADAGHI, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARS HEADED BY SHEIKH YUSUF AL-QARADAWI, IS CALLING FOR AN UPRISING OF PEOPLES AND GOVERNMENTS AGAINST THE AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF ITS INTENTION TO MOVE THE U.S. EMBASSY FROM TEL AVIV TO JERUSALEM THIS MAY.
“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”Zechariah 12:3 (KJV)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Many people think that because Muslims have not yet launched a military action against Israel over the US Embassy move to Jerusalem, that there is not going to be one. But nothing could be further from the truth, the uprising is certainly coming. Like everything else that is prophetically percolating now, the month of May is shaping up to be when all the action on multiple fronts should be taking place. As the prophet Jeremiah tells us…after 70 years…here it comes.
“For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.” Jeremiah 20:10 (KJV)
“We call for a Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and popular uprising against this American aggression against the direction of the first prayer (the Al-Aqsa Mosque) and Muhammad’s place of worship,” said Qaradaghi in an official statement.
He stressed that the issue of the city of Al-Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, is an issue of concern to the entire Muslim nation, and renouncing it or harming it is a mark of Cain that Allah, history, and future generations will not be able to atone for.
MOVING THE U.S. EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM, CONTINUED QARADAGHI, IS “A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST THE MUSLIMS AND A STEP THAT WILL ESTABLISH THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION.”
The Association of Muslim Scholars brings together clerics from around the world and is considered an influential organization in the Sunni Muslim world.
Its leader, Qaradawi, is considered the supreme religious authority of the Sunni Muslim world and the spiritual leader of both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. During the period of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Qaradawi issued a fatwa permitting suicide attacks against Israel.
Last July, Qaradawi called for an “Islamic war” over Jerusalem. source
A teacher in Islamic schools in the UK was radicalizing his students, preparing them to assist him in massive terror attacks on 30 targets across London.
Umar Haque, 25, planned to raise an “army” of jihadi children, The Telegraph reported.
Haque was employed at two schools and a mosque in East London. “And he tried — and he did, we believe — radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14,” said Commander Dean Hayden, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
“His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist
Umar Haque (Photo: Metropolitan Police)
attacks throughout London.”
Haque had access to 250 children, 100 of whom he tried to radicalize by showing them extremist videos, which included beheadings. The children were told that they would meet a similar fate if they told anyone about what they were being taught.
Haque planned to prepare the children for martyrdom when they were older. He planned to teach them how to drive, presumably to carry out vehicular suicide operations at iconic sites in London like Big Ben and Heathrow Airport.
No one reported his activities. When police tried to investigate, they were met with a “wall of silence” from the schools, said Hayden, which has made the investigation all the more difficult.
The children, for their part “were paralyzed with fear … He threatened them that if they were to talk to teachers, parents or to allude to anybody outside of that classroom of what was going on, that they would meet a similar fate. It doesn’t appear that any of those children raised the alarm bell of what was going on.”
One child spoke to the police. On a video of his testimony, the child said, “He is teaching us terrorism, like how to fight,” he said. “If you fight for the sake of Allah, on Judgment Day, when you get judged for your good deeds and bad deeds, fighting is good.
“He wants a group of 300 men. He’s training us now so by the time I’m in Year 10 [age 15] we will be physically strong enough to fight.”
One of the schools Haque worked at, the Lantern of Knowledge Secondary School, received excellent reports from Ofsted, the governmental agency that regulates educational institutions in the UK. Inspectors reported that the school exhibited a “strong sense of community, harmony and respect.”
Authorities originally became suspicious of Haque in April 2016 when he was stopped at Heathrow trying to board a plane to Turkey. At this point, his passport was taken away, but he still continued working at the Lantern of Knowledge school until the following September. On January 24, 2017, he was caught driving without insurance. It was at this point that police started digging deeper into his activities.
Thirty-five children are now under care of long-term support from social services under programs that involve the police, local authorities and the Home Office.
Meanwhile in the UK, a 17-year old boy from Cardiff who was “hours away from committing an act of atrocity” was arrested and will serve at least 11 years in detention.
The teenager, Lloyd Gunton, who has been diagnosed with autism,
Lloyd Gunton (Photo: police)
had researched vehicular attacks, how to stab and kill people, how to create a terror attack and what getting shot feels like. He was arrested for planning an attack on the Justin Bieber concert in Cardiff.
When arrested, Gunton was in possession of a gutting knife, a hammer and a martyrdom letter, which said he was a “soldier of the Islamic State” and that “more attacks will follow.”
“Yours is not a condition from which you will recover,” said Judge Mark Wall to Gutman in court.
“It is important that, having been tempted to commit a serious offense such as this, you are under some form of supervision for the rest of your life.”
In Manchester, members of a child sex grooming gang that targeted underage girls in parks in Bury, located on the outskirts of the city, were arrested. Police had been watching the men for over a half a year. The targeted children were first plied with alcohol and drugs and then sexually abused. Similar scandals have been uncovered in other cities in the UK.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday released a memo referring Trump dossier author Christopher Steele for a criminal investigation that revealed that a friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton fed information for the Steele dossier.
According to Grassley and Graham’s memo, which is heavily redacted at the request of the FBI, a foreign source gave information to friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who then gave it to an Obama State Department official, who then gave it to Steele.
Grassley and Graham’s memo stated:
One memorandum by Mr. Steele that was not published by Buzzfeed is dated October 19, 2016. The report alleges [redacted], as well as [redacted]. Mr. Steele’s memorandum states that his company ‘received his report from [redacted] US State Department,’ that the report was the second in a series, and that the report was information that came from a foreign sub-source who ‘is in touch with [redacted], a contact of [redacted], a friend of the Clintons, who passed it to [redacted].
“It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele’s work, but these Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns about his credibility,” Grassley and Graham wrote.
The Washington Examiner‘s Byron York noted in his report that Clinton associate Cody Shearer was in contact with Steele about anti-Trump research and that Obama State Department official Jonathan Winer was a connection between Steele and the State Department during the 2016 campaign.
The Justice Department and the FBI requested heavy redactions from Grassley and Graham’s memo, making it hard to discern its full meaning.
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The senators said in a statement accompanying their memo that it had quotes from the FISA warrant application used to surveil Carter Page — specifically what Steele had told the FBI about his contacts with the media.
The House Intelligence Committee memo revealed that Steele had not been honest with the FBI about his contacts with the media, and was thus terminated as a source.
Grassley and Graham on January 4 referred Steele for a criminal investigation for lying to federal authorities, but they were not able to release their memo explaining why they were doing so until the Justice Department and FBI reviewed it.
The memo explained that their referral was based on Steele’s statements in British court about the distribution of his research conflicting with things he told the Justice Department.
Their memo includes what those statements are, but the FBI requested they be redacted. Grassley is now calling on the FBI to withdraw its redactions, now that the House Intelligence Committee memo has been declassified.
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They said in the statement that their memo is “largely based on the same underlying documents” as the House Intelligence Committee memo that was recently declassified, and that Grassley is now calling on the FBI to withdraw its redactions.
“Seeking transparency and cooperation should not be this challenging. The government should not be blotting out information that it admits isn’t secret, and it should not take dramatic steps by Congress and the White House to get answers that the American people are demanding,” Grassley said.
“There are still many questions that can only be answered with complete transparency. That means declassifying as much of the underlying documents as possible,” he said.
The Barros affair first caused shockwaves in January 2015 when Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno, Chile, over the objections of the leadership of Chile’s bishops’ conference and many local priests and laity. They accepted as credible the testimony against Karadima, a prominent Chilean cleric who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for abusing minors. Barros was a Karadima protege, and according to Cruz and other victims, he witnessed the abuse and did nothing.
Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how other Chilean clergy ignored it, contradicting the pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, the letter’s author and members of Francis’ own sex- abuse commission have told The Associated Press.
“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Revelation 17:5,6 (KJV)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pope Francis came in to “clean up” the Catholic Church, promising “zero tolerance” for priests who sexually abused thier followers. But sadly, this has not been the case. In the most explosive revelations to date, Pope Francis has been caught lying about widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Chile, and about the letter hand-delivered to him written by Juan Carlos Cruz exposing it all.
The fact that Pope Francis received the eight-page letter, obtained by the AP, challenges his insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for sex abuse and cover-ups. It also calls into question his stated empathy with abuse survivors, compounding the most serious crisis of his five-year papacy.
The scandal exploded last month when Francis’ trip to South America was marred by protests over his vigorous defense of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of covering up the abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed him at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.
On the plane home, confronted by an AP reporter, the pope said: “You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward.”
But members of the pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors say that in April 2015, they sent a delegation to Rome specifically to hand-deliver a letter to the pope about Barros. The letter from Juan Carlos Cruz detailed the abuse, kissing and fondling he says he suffered at Karadima’s hands, which he said Barros and others witnessed and ignored.
Four members of the commission met with Francis’ top abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, explained their objections to Francis’ recent appointment of Barros as a bishop in southern Chile, and gave him the letter to deliver to Francis.
“When we gave him (O’Malley) the letter for the pope, he assured us he would give it to the pope and speak of the concerns,” then-commission member Marie Collins told the AP. “And at a later date, he assured us that that had been done.”
Cruz, who now lives and works in Philadelphia, heard the same later that year.
“Cardinal O’Malley called me after the pope’s visit here in Philadelphia and he told me, among other things, that he had given the letter to the pope — in his hands,” he said in an interview at his home Sunday.
Neither the Vatican nor O’Malley responded to multiple requests for comment.
While the 2015 summit of Francis’ commission was known and publicized at the time, the contents of Cruz’s letter — and a photograph of Collins handing it to O’Malley — were not disclosed by members. Cruz provided the letter, and Collins provided the photo, after reading an AP story that reported Francis had claimed to have never heard from any Karadima victims about Barros’ behavior.
The Barros affair first caused shockwaves in January 2015 when Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno, Chile, over the objections of the leadership of Chile’s bishops’ conference and many local priests and laity. They accepted as credible the testimony against Karadima, a prominent Chilean cleric who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for abusing minors. Barros was a Karadima protege, and according to Cruz and other victims, he witnessed the abuse and did nothing.
“Holy Father, I write you this letter because I’m tired of fighting, of crying and suffering,” Cruz wrote in Francis’ native Spanish. “Our story is well known and there’s no need to repeat it, except to tell you of the horror of having lived this abuse and how I wanted to kill myself.”
Cruz and other survivors had for years denounced the cover-up of Karadima’s crimes, but were dismissed as liars by the Chilean church hierarchy and the Vatican’s own ambassador in Santiago, who refused their repeated requests to meet before and after Barros was appointed.
After Francis’ comments backing the Chilean hierarchy caused such an outcry in Chile, he was forced last week to do an about-face: The Vatican announced it was sending in its most respected sex-crimes investigator to take testimony from Cruz and others about Barros.
In the letter to the pope, Cruz begs for Francis to listen to him and make good on his pledge of “zero tolerance.”
“Holy Father, it’s bad enough that we suffered such tremendous pain and anguish from the sexual and psychological abuse, but the terrible mistreatment we received from our pastors is almost worse,” he wrote.
Cruz goes on to detail in explicit terms the homo-eroticized nature of the circle of priests and young boys around Karadima, the charismatic preacher whose El Bosque community in the well-to-do Santiago neighborhood of Providencia produced dozens of priestly vocations and five bishops, including Barros.
He described how Karadima would kiss Barros and fondle his genitals, and do the same with younger priests and teens, and how young priests and seminarians would fight to sit next to Karadima at the table to receive his affections.
“More difficult and tough was when we were in Karadima’s room and Juan Barros — if he wasn’t kissing Karadima — would watch when Karadima would touch us — the minors — and make us kiss him, saying: ‘Put your mouth near mine and stick out your tongue.’ He would stick his out and kiss us with his tongue,” Cruz told the pope. “Juan Barros was a witness to all this innumerable times, not just with me but with others as well.”
“Juan Barros covered up everything that I have told you,” he added.
Barros has repeatedly denied witnessing any abuse or covering it up. “I never knew anything about, nor ever imagined, the serious abuses which that priest committed against the victims,” he told the AP recently. “I have never approved of nor participated in such serious, dishonest acts, and I have never been convicted by any tribunal of such things.”
For the Osorno faithful who have opposed Barros as their bishop, the issue isn’t so much a legal matter requiring proof or evidence, as Barros was a young priest at the time and not in a position of authority over Karadima. It’s more that if Barros didn’t “see” what was happening around him and doesn’t find it problematic for a priest to kiss and fondle young boys, he shouldn’t be in charge of a diocese where he is responsible for detecting inappropriate sexual behavior, reporting it to police and protecting children from pedophiles like his mentor.
Cruz had arrived at Karadima’s community in 1980 as a vulnerable teenager, distraught after the recent death of his father. He has said Karadima told him he would be like a spiritual father to him, but instead sexually abused him.
Based on testimony from Cruz and other former members of the parish, the Vatican in 2011 removed Karadima from ministry and sentenced him to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for his crimes. Now 87, he lives in a home for elderly priests in Santiago; he hasn’t commented on the scandal and the home has declined to accept calls or visits from the news media.
The victims also testified to Chilean prosecutors, who opened an investigation into Karadima after they went public with their accusations in 2010. Chilean prosecutors had to drop charges because too much time had passed, but the judge running the case stressed that it wasn’t for lack of proof.
While the victims’ testimony was deemed credible by both Vatican and Chilean prosecutors, the local church hierarchy clearly didn’t believe them, which might have influenced Francis’ view. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz has acknowledged he didn’t believe the victims initially and shelved an investigation. He was forced to reopen it after the victims went public.
He is now one of the Argentine pope’s key cardinal advisers.
By the time he finally got his letter into the pope’s hands in 2015, Cruz had already sent versions to many other people, and had tried for months to get an appointment with the Vatican ambassador. The embassy’s Dec. 15, 2014, email to Cruz — a month before Barros was appointed — was short and to the point:
“The apostolic nunciature has received the message you emailed Dec. 7 to the apostolic nuncio,” it read, “and at the same time communicates that your request has been met with an unfavorable response.”
One could argue that Francis didn’t pay attention to Cruz’s letter, since he receives thousands of letters every day from faithful around the world. He can’t possibly read them all, much less remember the contents years later. He might have been tired and confused after a weeklong trip to South America when he told an airborne press conference that victims never came forward to accuse Barros of cover-up.
But this was not an ordinary letter, nor were the circumstances under which it arrived in the Vatican.
Francis had named O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, to head his Commission for the Protection of Minors based on his credibility in having helped clean up the mess in Boston after the U.S. sex abuse scandal exploded there in 2002. The commission gathered outside experts to advise the church on protecting children from pedophiles and educating church personnel about preventing abuse and cover-ups.
The four commission members who were on a special subcommittee dedicated to survivors had flown to Rome specifically to speak with O’Malley about the Barros appointment and to deliver Cruz’s letter. A press release issued after the April 12, 2015, meeting read: “Cardinal O’Malley agreed to present the concerns of the subcommittee to the Holy Father.”
Commission member Catherine Bonnet, a French child psychiatrist who took the photo of Collins handing the letter to O’Malley, said the commission members had decided to descend on Rome specifically when O’Malley and other members of the pope’s group of nine cardinal advisers were meeting, so that O’Malley could put it directly into the pope’s hands.
“Cardinal O’Malley promised us when Marie gave to him the letter of Juan Carlos that he will give to Pope Francis,” she said.
O’Malley’s spokesman in Boston referred requests for comment to the Vatican. Neither the Vatican press office, nor officials at the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, responded to calls and emails seeking comment.
But O’Malley’s remarkable response to Francis’ defense of Barros and to his dismissal of the victims while he was in Chile, is perhaps now better understood.
In a rare rebuke of a pope by a cardinal, O’Malley issued a statement Jan. 20 in which he said the pope’s words were “a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse,” and that such expressions had the effect of abandoning victims and relegating them to “discredited exile.”
A day later, Francis apologized for having demanded “proof” of wrongdoing by Barros, saying he meant merely that he wanted to see “evidence.” But he continued to describe the accusations against Barros as “calumny” and insisted he had never heard from any victims.
Even when told in his airborne press conference Jan. 21 that Karadima’s victims had indeed placed Barros at the scene of Karadima’s abuse, Francis said: “No one has come forward. They haven’t provided any evidence for a judgment. This is all a bit vague. It’s something that can’t be accepted.”
He stood by Barros, saying: “I’m certain he’s innocent,” even while saying that he considered the testimony of victims to be “evidence” in a cover-up investigation.
“If anyone can give me evidence, I’ll be the first to listen,” he said.
Cruz said he felt like he had been slapped when he heard those words. “I was upset,” he said, “and at the same time I couldn’t believe that someone so high up like the pope himself could lie about this.” source
My King James Bible is an amazing book. It is not a science book, but reveals many scientific truths before science ever thought of them. It is not a history book, but contains the true history of how we got here. What is the Bible? The Bible is, from cover to cover, the revelation of God’s Son Jesus Christ and the coming Kingdom that has been prepared for Him to receive. The Second Coming is by far the greatest and most-discussed event in the entire book. Mixed in with historical accounts of actual history God has placed prophecy that will have its fulfillment at a point that as of this writing is yet in the future.
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT BIBLICAL EVENTS THAT WERE FULFILLED IN HISTORY, BUT THAT ALSO POINT PROPHETICALLY TO EVENTS THAT WILL BE FULFILLED IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:7,8 (KJV)
My King James Bible is an amazing book. It is not a science book, but revealed many scientific truths before science ever thought of them. It is not a history book, but contains the true history of how we got here. What is the Bible? The Bible is, from cover to cover, the revelation of God’s Son Jesus Christ and the coming Kingdom that has been prepared for Him to receive. The Second Coming is by far the greatest and most-discussed event in the entire book. Mixed in with historical accounts of actual events, God has placed prophecy that will have its fulfillment at a point that. as of this writing, is yet in the future.
All through the Bible, in book after book, there is a Day and an event that happens on that Day so important that it is referred to as “in that day”112 times. The prophet Zechariah mentions the phrase 20 times, and is one of the most descriptive and informative books in the Bible on the Second Coming.
Christians look at Jesus on the cross, and His rising from the dead 3 days later, as the greatest event because that is where we “get in”. But look at it from God’s perspective, it was the day His only begotten Son was executed between common criminals. Why would that be God’s favorite day? But at the Second Coming, God’s Son will receive the Kingdom He rightly deserves, and will reign from Jerusalem as the King over the whole world. That’s The Day that interests God the most.
So just for fun, let’s take a look at biblical events that were fulfilled in history, but that also point prophetically to events that will be fulfilled in the very near future. This is something that the Lord showed me a little bit at a time, until after awhile, I could see them popping in dozens if not hundreds of places in scripture.
THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE:
We first see the phrase the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble in the book of Jeremiah. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” Jeremiah 30:7 (KJV). Now the nation of Israel was absolutely in trouble, historically this refers to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, which happened in the past. But God has woven prophecy here as well, verse 3 in the same chapter provides a huge clue. “For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” Look at that, God prophesying that He will regather His people. God did regather them after Babylon, but then He also scattered them again at the hands of the Roman army in 70 AD. So that makes the promise to regather an open promise from that point on. History records that the Jews were regathered officially on May 14, 1948, back in their land of Israel. But the Bible says that the Jews will again be scattered in the time of Antichrist, and it will be then that the prophecy of the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ will have its complete fulfillment.
I have alway found it interesting that Jesus in Matthew 24 tells us to go visit the prophet Daniel’s writings for ‘inside information’ of the coming time of ‘great tribulation’. “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” Matthew 24:15 (KJV). That brings you to this verse: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” Daniel 9:27 (KJV). But when you go to the top of chapter 9, that’s where you see that Daniel was reading Jeremiah when the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to future end times events. “In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:2 (KJV). Following Daniel’s path back to Jeremiah leads you here: “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10 (KJV). And there you have it, an unbroken chain from Jeremiah, to Daniel, to Jesus Christ who all discuss historical events that have tremendous prophetic future fulfillment.
THE PRETRIBULATION RAPTURE IN THE SONG OF SOLOMON:
In Jewish tradition, the Song of Solomon was a book that because of its graphic content, was not deemed suitable for a Jew under the age of 30 to read. Many scholars, both Jew and Gentile, will write endlessly on the ‘sexual themes’ contained in Solomon’s writings. But God has placed within that framework some amazing future prophecy of the Rapture of the Church. “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Song Of Solomon 2:8-10 (KJV). Compare that with Revelation chapter 4 to see an astonishing parallel. “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” Revelation 4:1 (KJV)
JOSEPH AS A TYPE OF JESUS CHRIST AT HIS FIRST COMING:
Joseph was one of the sons of Jacob, and we all know the story of how he was mistreated by his brothers and how God used him mightily in Egypt to save his family. As you can see, this example is already explaining itself. But historical Joseph dealing with the historical famine and living in historical Egypt is chock-full of Bible prophecy of events that were well in the future at the time of Genesis. You see, God used the life and trials of Joseph to prophecy about the earthly live, ministry and mistreatment that His Son Jesus would receive at His First Coming. Here are just a few examples:
Joseph & Jesus were first born sons, and they both were shepherds. The brothers of both men were crazy jealous of them and didn’t believe their words. Joseph was sent by his father to his brothers, Jesus was sent by His Father to His brethren the Jews. Both were sent to Egypt, both were made servants, and both were falsely accused. In Egypt, all knees bowed to Joseph, at the Great White Throne Judgment all knees will bow to King Jesus. Both Joseph and Jesus were given a gentile bride. Joseph in Egypt endured 7 years of physical famine, the Jews in Jacob’s trouble will endure 7 years of spiritual famine. Joseph was a saviour to his brothers, Jesus will be the Saviour to His brethren the Jews at the Second Coming. In short, nearly the entire adult life of Joseph prophetically prefigures the adult life and ministry of Jesus.
THE BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF GOD’S CITY, JERUSALEM:
All through the Old Testament, the city of Jerusalem is fought over. The prophet Zechariah has much to say about the battles for Jerusalem that waged in his day. But woven into those historical accounts are events that can only be realized in future prophetic fulfillments, like this verse here. “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” Zechariah 14:2 (KJV). Never in world history have all nations come to battle against Jerusalem. The wars mentioned historically in Zechariah were regional to the Middle East. But when you read the verse that comes before this one, Zechariah tells us exactly when this battle for Jerusalem will take place. “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.”Since the Day of the Lord is, obviously, yet still future, we know that Zechariah’s prophecies are also for yet a future time and could not have been fulfilled at any point in the past. To further prove that point, try matching Zechariah 14 with Matthew 24, and you will see clearly it is future prophecy. In fact Zechariah 10-14 matches exactly with the events listed in Revelation 1, 19 and 20. Here’s a tantalizing sample of what you will find when you go looking:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Zechariah 12:10 (KJV)
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” Revelation 1:7 (KJV)
As you can now see, hopefully clearly, God has indeed woven amazing yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecy into the historical events surrounding Israel and other nations as recorded in the Bible. By believing what we read, in the context in which we read it, and then comparing scripture with scripture these prophecies come flying to the surface time after time. I can still remember my pleasant “shock and surprise” the day the Holy Spirit had me compare Revelation 6 with Matthew 24, it blew me away! There they were, all 6 Seals present in Matthew 24, and I had never recognized that before. How many more like there are there? Dozens more, hundreds more, so many more we will never have the time to find them all but they’re there.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
You don’t need to be a scholar to mine the depths of the Bible, you just need to follow Paul’s instructions to roll up your sleeves and study the Book like a workman. You need to be someone who believes the Bible, and not someone who spends all their time attempting to correct it.
“I will embrace the person that God created me to be,” the gay Catholic priest Father Greiten wrote. “In my priestly life and ministry, I, too, will help you, whether you are gay or straight, bisexual or transgendered, to be your authentic self — to be fully alive living in your image and likeness of God.
A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST IN MILWAUKEE HAS COME OUT AS GAY, WRITING THAT HE WILL NO LONGER LIVE IN THE SHADOWS OF SECRECY AND PLANS TO BE AUTHENTIC TO HIS GAY SELF.
“…But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” Romans 7:13 (KJV)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Soooo, still not convinced we are living in the end times? How about this? A Roman Catholic priest stands up in front of his followers and declares not only that he is gay, but that being queer is in the ‘likeness of God’. Their reaction? They give him a standing ovation and applaud his courage. Kinda like cheering your damnation at the White Throne Judgment. So not only has “father” Greiten decided to embrace his sin, he also decided to drag God into the mess and say that God approves of it. I was a Catholic for 30 years before I got saved and became a Christian. Like the Bible commands, I battle the sins in my own life on a daily basis. Sometimes I get the victory and sometimes I don’t. But when you reach the point when you stop fighting and embrace what God hates, and then lie and say God approves of it, that’s a very scary place to be. The Roman Catholic church is not Christian, was never Christian, and will never be a Christian organization. Is it any wonder that God takes pleasure in destroying this evil institution in Revelation 18?
The Rev. Gregory Greiten disclosed his sexual orientation on Sunday to the catholic St. Bernadette Parish and was greeted with a standing ovation from his parishioners, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported . He also wrote a column that was published Monday in the National Catholic Reporter.
It’s rare for a priest to come out. Greiten said he revealed his sexual orientation because he wants to be a role model for others. He said he’s helping to break the silence of gay men in the clergy so he could reclaim his own voice.
“I WILL EMBRACE THE PERSON THAT GOD CREATED ME TO BE,” GREITEN WROTE. “IN MY PRIESTLY LIFE AND MINISTRY, I, TOO, WILL HELP YOU, WHETHER YOU ARE GAY OR STRAIGHT, BISEXUAL OR TRANSGENDERED, TO BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF — TO BE FULLY ALIVE LIVING IN YOUR IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD.”
Greiten wrote that has decided to stand with the “few courageous priests who have taken the risk to come out of the shadows and have chosen to live in truth and authenticity.”
The Catholic church’s silent stance on gay priests perpetuates toxic shaming and systematic secrecy, Greiten wrote. The church needs healthy role models for priests who are struggling to come to terms with their sexual orientation, he said.
GREITEN MET WITH MILWAUKEE ARCHBISHOP JEROME LISTECKI BEFORE COMING OUT, ACCORDING TO AN ARCHDIOCESE SPOKESWOMAN.
“We support Father Greiten in his own personal journey and telling his story of coming to understand and live with his sexual orientation,” Listecki said in a statement Monday. “As the Church teaches, those with same-sex attraction must be treated with understanding and compassion.” source
Should Christians celebrate Halloween? Opinions differ between Christian leaders, lay people and church members.
According to a CBN News Facebook poll, 87% of believers feel that Christians should not celebrate Halloween, while 13% believe it’s okay.
Former Satanist John Ramirez recently joined Charlene Aaron on CBN News show Prayer Link to talk about Christians and Halloween.
“I was a general to the kingdom of darkness in witchcraft,” Ramirez said. “I would sit with the Devil and talk to him like I’m talking to you today. It was that kind of communication. It was that kind of relationship.”
Ramirez warns Halloween isn’t just about costumes and candy–there’s a much darker reality.
“Sometimes people say ‘I celebrated Halloween 10 years ago, I did this 15 years ago, I did this 20 years ago.’ But the doors still open. You just cursed your family from three to four generations,” Ramirez told CBN News.
“You have to be aware it’s a curse. You have to go back to the place where you started, that year that you started that Halloween thing, the celebration, when you started having that encounter with the dark side. You have to go back to that same spot and renounce and renounce it in the name of Jesus Christ and ask God to forgive you for that so that God can have mercy and close that door so your whole family can move forward,” he continued.
Ramirez, now a pastor, knows all about the dark reality of Halloween. He once sacrificed animals as part of satanic rituals and his friends even knew him as “Lucifer’s son.”
Now as a born again believer, he strongly warns Christians against celebrating Halloween and participating in harvest festivals.
“The only harvest we should celebrate is the harvest of souls,” he adds.
Ramirez says that in his opinion the other events Christians hold instead of Halloween, such as “Trunk or Treat” nights, are really no different.
“Do you know any Satanists who say ‘Hey we’re going to come into Good Friday and we’re going to hang out with the Christians and we’re just going to call it a different name?”
However, Pastor Alan Rudnick (link below) believes that Christians should take back Halloween.
“Halloween is often associated with the pagan concept of Samhain, the festival where ancient pagans believed that the worlds of the living and dead would been thinly divided,” he writes on his blog. “But, we have seen from the other ancient pagan festivals associated with Christmas and Easter that these pagan connections do not serve as a reason why we cannot celebrate a Christian holiday.”
According to the website Equipping Godly Women, Halloween can be a good opportunity for outreach and to teach about good vs. evil.
However, Anton LaVey, the late founder of the Church of Satan, once said he took joy believers taking part in the tradition.
“I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year,” he said. “Welcome to Halloween.”
You can watch the entire Prayer Link interview with Ramirez here:
Ramirez shares more about his warnings regarding Halloween here:
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“He was quite well spoken and calm,” he said. “He said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to talk to you about something and that something is the word of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He’s here to heal your sins. The Bible tells you that homosexuality is a sin and sex before marriage is a sin. You need to repent’.”
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF COMMUTERS EXPERIENCED MAJOR DISRUPTION DURING RUSH HOUR ON MONDAY MORNING AFTER PASSENGERS EVACUATED THEMSELVES FROM A TRAIN IN LONDON AND SPILLED ON TO THE TRACK BECAUSE THEY FEARED A FELLOW PASSENGER WAS ACTING ERRATICALLY.
“For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” 1 Corinthians 9:16 (KJV)
EDITOR’S NOTE: There was a time when the open preaching of the gospel comforted the saved and convicted the lost. But true Bible preaching by old-fashioned street preachers is such a rarity these days that the average person has no idea what it is when they hear it. Amos said that in the last days there will be a famine of hearing of the word of God, and so it is. Their ears still work but their hearts are unwilling to receive it.
The incident, which took place at about 8.30am just outside Wimbledon station on a South Western Railway train running from Shepperton to Waterloo, forced Network Rail to switch off power in the area, causing long delays.
Ian O’Sullivan, 42, who was in the same carriage as the passenger, said a man with a rucksack began reading what appeared to be extracts from the Old Testament, when the train stopped at a red light outside the south-west London rail station.
“HE WAS QUITE WELL SPOKEN AND CALM,” HE SAID. “HE SAID: ‘LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I’D LIKE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING AND THAT SOMETHING IS THE WORD OF THE LORD, JESUS CHRIST. HE’S HERE TO HEAL YOUR SINS. THE BIBLE TELLS YOU THAT HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN AND SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE IS A SIN. YOU NEED TO REPENT’.”
OTHER PASSENGERS SAID THE MAN REFERRED TO “DOOMSDAY” AND THE AFTERLIFE.
O’Sullivan, a marketing consultant, said he did not find the man threatening, but people started pushing and shoving, with another passenger warning the man that he was scaring people.
“It suddenly became a Chinese whisper and there was panic,” he said. “It was quite a full train, but the area around him was suddenly quite empty.”
Some people prised open the doors and went on to the tracks. O’Sullivan said the train’s guard came over the public address system asking people what they were doing on the tracks and warning them that they could die if they touched a rail.
“We could hear a woman [outside] saying there’s a man and he’s going to kill everybody,” he said. “But everybody in the carriage said he never said that.”
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He said the guard came to the carriage, spoke to the now “sheepish” man and searched his bag, but found only a water flask and books.
“The guard did a brilliant job of trying to keep things under control,” O’Sullivan said. “He established pretty quickly that there wasn’t a threat.”
When the train eventually got to Wimbledon station, British Transport Police officers questioned the man, but he was not arrested. O’Sullivan said a number of passengers offered to vouch for the man, insisting that he had not threatened anyone.
A Network Rail spokesman said the incident caused significant delays. “Passengers self-evacuated off a train and on to the tracks at Wimbledon this morning after a passenger incident. British Transport Police are investigating and there were no injuries to passengers or staff,” he said.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which is balloting South Western Railway members on whether to strike in a dispute over guards on trains, also praised the guard’s response.
The union’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “Panic could have broken out but for the guard’s calm and measured response. This was a packed passenger train at the height of the rush hour. It illustrates just why RMT members are fighting so hard to keep the guard on South Western Railway services.”
The incident was compounded by a points failure outside Waterloo, which caused platforms seven to 11 to be shut temporarily.
South Western Railway also reported delays due to overrunning engineering work between Castle Cary and Yeovil Junction. Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink services were also delayed because of overrunning engineering work. source
The Nevada legislator who spearheaded much of the legalization movement, state Sen. Tick Segerblom (D), has said he thinks marijuana will attract new tourists to the state. “We’re going to really market this thing around the world,” Segerblom told The Hill in a recent interview. But legalization skeptics say the growing prevalence of marijuana stores, and lounges where those products can be consumed, increase the risk of crime associated with the nascent industry.
Nevada could become the first state to allow users of recreational marijuana to light up in clubs and lounges, a state legal body said this week, opening a new front in what is already a booming pot business.
“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5,6 (KJV)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Watching the gradual rush towards legalizing pot has been for me a subject of great amusement. Just like when the lottery first became legal back in the 1970’s, and everyone was all excited about the new source of public school funding which was going to “erase poverty” in the worst of neighborhoods, the fight to legalize pot comes with similar outlandish and completely not true claims. Will pot lounges “boost tourism”? Yep, sure will. It will also boost the crime rate, boost the poverty rate, and boost your car while they’re at it. The Bible commands us to be sober, and you cannot be sober and high at the same time.
The state Legislative Counsel Bureau said Monday that state law does not prohibit city or county governments from operating a lounge or facility in which patrons may use marijuana.
Cities and counties are allowed to adopt their own rules governing those businesses and decide whether they are required to obtain special permits, the bureau said. The ruling means tourists and visitors may soon have a place to consume marijuana in public. Pot smoking is banned under state law in Nevada’s hotels and casinos.
None of the four other states where marijuana is legal for recreational use — Washington, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon — currently allow so-called pot lounges. All four states restrict marijuana use to private residences. The three other states where legislators and regulators are finalizing rules in advance of legalized marijuana — California, Massachusetts and Maine — are not currently considering legal pot lounges.
Legalization advocates say pot lounges are a logical step, especially if states where marijuana is allowed hope to connect their pot industry to tourism.
“Allowing regulated social use areas is a good solution that recognizes cannabis consumers’ rights to congregate just like alcohol drinkers can in bars while also protecting nonconsumers’ rights not to inhale secondhand smoke,” said Tom Angell, the founder of Marijuana Majority, a pro-legalization group. “It should be a no brainer, especially in tourist towns like Las Vegas where visitors don’t have private residences they can go back to to imbibe.”
The Nevada legislator who spearheaded much of the legalization movement, state Sen. Tick Segerblom (D), has said he thinks marijuana will attract new tourists to the state.
“We’re going to really market this thing around the world,” Segerblom told The Hill in a recent interview.
But legalization skeptics say the growing prevalence of marijuana stores, and lounges where those products can be consumed, increase the risk of crime associated with the nascent industry.
“The people of Nevada wanted folks not to go to jail for using marijuana,” said Kevin Sabet, who heads the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “I don’t think they envisioned pot clubs in their neighborhood.”
“Data show that areas around marijuana stores have higher crime and issues with second-hand smoke and other nuisances. I can’t imagine pot clubs will be a good thing for the state,” Sabet said.
Cities will still have to pass their own ordinances governing marijuana lounges after the state legislature killed a measure that would have legalized them earlier this year. Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday he is no fan of the prospect of lounges.
“I did not support them previously,” Sandoval told the paper. “I don’t support them now.”
Sandoval did not support the ballot measure legalizing marijuana last year, but he has said he will work with the federal Justice Department to allow legal marijuana now that it has passed. Sandoval and other governors of states that have legalized pot have been concerned that the Trump administration may reverse a long-standing Obama administration agreement that deemphasized prosecutions of marijuana-related businesses in their states.
“I don’t know what direction the Justice Department is going to go, but it is going to raise some legal issues,” Sandoval told The Hill in a recent interview. “I want a model system.”
Nevada became the fifth state to allow marijuana use for recreational purposes on July 1, just eight months after state voters approved a ballot measure. California, Maine and Massachusetts, where voters also passed legalization measures, will begin legal pot sales next year. source
Approximately 70,000 people from all over the world have gathered for the annual Burning Man festival, which is taking place in the Black Rock Desert. But crowds were horrified when one reveler made a beeline for the giant wooden effigy and was engulfed by the flames. He had to dodge a number of rangers and law enforcement personnel in order to reach the fire, which stretches approximately 50 feet into the air. It is believed the man died in the shocking incident, although this has not yet been confirmed.
Emergency services bravely tried to rescue a festival-goer who ran straight into the Burning Man during Nevada’s famous arts and music festival.
“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:43,44 (KJV)
EDITOR’S NOTE: New Agers get mad when I call Burning Man the world’s largest pagan festival, but guess what? It is. And like all paganism, it celebrates the accomplishments of man outside of any relationship with the God who created man, but with a twist. Burning Man is a festival celebrating unregenerate man as said man burns in eternal flames of torment, kinda like how the Bible says unsaved people wind up after they die rejecting the salvation of Jesus Christ. I wonder what this man who threw himself into the fire thought when, after he presumably died in the flames, he opened his eyes in a burning Hell from which there is no escape? Get saved and avoid the smoking section.
Approximately 70,000 people from all over the world have gathered for the annual Burning Man festival, which is taking place in the Black Rock Desert. But crowds were horrified when one reveler made a beeline for the giant wooden effigy and was engulfed by the flames.
He had to dodge a number of rangers and law enforcement personnel in order to reach the fire, which stretches approximately 50 feet into the air.
It is believed the man died in the shocking incident, although this has not yet been confirmed.
The festival issued a statementthrough its website to say that at ‘approximately 10.30pm Saturday evening, a male participant at the annual Burning Man event in Northern Nevada broke through a safety perimeter and into into a fire. Black Rock City fire personnel rescued him from the fire.’
‘The individual was treated on scene, transported to the on-site medical facility and airlifted to a burn center’. source
Fake News CNN has a long and storied history of having the mic go dead in interviews where the CNN narrative is not being advanced. This is not new they have been doing it for years now. Today I would like to take you back to 2014 when CNN’s Brooke Baldwin has this exchange on racism with NFL star Benjamin Watson.
Watson clearly says that “Ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem.” He then explains that sin is the reason why people rebel against authority, it is why people are racist, it is why people will sometimes lie just to cover for their own race.
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV)
Fake News CNN has a long and storied history of having the mic go dead in interviews where the CNN narrative is not being advanced. This is not new they have been doing it for years now. Today I would like to take you back to 2014 when CNN’s Brooke Baldwin had this exchange on racism with NFL star Benjamin Watson.
Back in 2014, when the situation in Ferguson was still ongoing, Benjamin Watson, a tight end for the New Orleans Saints, came home after his game — and witnessed the sheer madness taking place on his TV.
Over the course of the next day, he had filled up a page on his iPhone notepad expressing his feelings on the matter. Watson decided to piece his thoughts together into one Facebook post with an important message. “It’s not about skin. It’s about sin.” He relayed his message, which went viral, and then appeared on CNN to express his point of view. He was then rudely cut off.
According to CNN, the post had 427,000 shares, 760,000 likes, and an impressive 78,000 comments. Watson’s message was heard loud and clear by the Christians in this country, regardless of their skin color.
During his interview with Brooke Baldwin from CNN, he expressed that there were two parts of his message that resonated with him the most. The introspection section, and the encouragement section.
NFL Star Benjamin Watson Mic Cut Off On CNN When He Mentions Jesus Christ:
In the introspection part, he mentions “How can I look at white skin and make assumptions but not want assumptions made about me? That’s not right.” He explains that he knows that sometimes you want to “take a side” and call it a day, but that isn’t the right thing to do.
When you make decisions without facts, you are simply giving in to your sin. Watson goes on in the “encouraged” section of his message to explain exactly how he feels about that sin, and how it relates to every single one of us.
Watson clearly says that “Ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem.” He then explains that sin is the reason why people rebel against authority, it is why people are racist, it is why people will sometimes lie just to cover for their own race.
CNN Cuts Feed of Congressman After He Reveals Facts About Refugees:
Watson goes on to say that, “BUT I’M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through… his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind.” This is clearly the kind of message that every American needs to hear right now, particularly in the wake of the Charlottesville attack.
The NFL superstar brought up the names of some of the people who were the center of attention a short but unforgettable two years ago. “The cure for Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It’s the gospel.”
Lol, I am sure that Fake News CNN got a whole lot more than they bargained for in this interview! Kudos to Benjamin Watson for standing for the TRUTH of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and rejecting the Liberal race card and all it stands for.
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Re-blogged and administered by Aaron Halim 
