“And he said to me, It is a great thing for thee to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to recover the dispersion of Israel: behold, I have given thee for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the end of the earth.”
(Isaiah 49:6)

Light Of The Gentiles

Dear Friends,

Greetings. The definition of “exclusivity” is as follows.

noun

1 the practice of excluding or not admitting other things: these banks maintain their exclusivity by setting minimum entry standards | the event was criticized for its gender exclusivity.

• the inability to exist or be true if something else exists or is true: those that maintain exclusivity of religion—that is, one particular religion is the only true religion.

2 restriction to a particular person, group, or area: those inside the circle cultivate an air of exclusivity | [as modifier] : we have exclusivity agreements with companies.

• the fact of an item or story not being published or broadcast elsewhere: there is no sense in us sharing coverage, and we would insist on exclusivity | agents and publishers can demand exclusivity.

Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 14: 2:

“For thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God, and the Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself of all the nations on the face of the earth.”

A very exclusive chosen group of people;

There are two questions we need to ask. One, why were they chosen, and possibly even more importantly what were they chosen to do?

To answer the first question we have to go back to their illustrious forefather, the patriarch Abraham, whom many Bible scholars and teachers refer to as “the father of faith”.

“And the Lord said to Abram, Go forth out of thy land and out of thy kindred, and out of the house of thy father, and come into the land which I will shew thee. And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. And I will bless those that bless thee, and curse those that curse thee. Genesis12:1-3

“In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To thy seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates.” Genesis 15:18

“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly.” Genesis 17:2

“And I, behold! my covenant is with thee.” Genesis 17:4

“But Abram shall become a great and populous nation. Genesis 18:18

“And an angel of the Lord called Abram the second time out of heaven, saying, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and on my account hast not spared thy beloved son, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is by the shore of the sea, and thy seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies. Genesis 22:15-17

“And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven; and I will give to thy seed all this land.” Genesis 26:4

“And thy seed shall be as the sand of the earth; and it shall spread abroad to the sea, and the south, and the north, and to the east.” Genesis 28:14

Examining the above verses it is clear that the promises God made to the Israelites centered around Abraham and his righteousness in obeying God by faith.

“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten [son, ] Accounting that God [was] able to raise [him] up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him (Jesus) in a figure.” Hebrews 11:17,19

Were the Israelites, especially during the time of the prophets, blessed because of their righteousness and emulation of the early patriarchs?

If you are familiar with some of the Old Testaments most notable prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, you would certainly come to see this was not the case at all.

A poignant example of this can be found in Ezekiel, chapter eight.

“And he stretched forth the likeness of a hand, and took me by the crown of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of God, to the porch of the gate that looks to the north, where was the pillar of the Purchaser. So I went in and looked; and beheld vain abominations, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon them round about. And he brought me in to the porch of the house of the Lord that looks to the north; and, behold there were women sitting there lamenting for Thammuz. (Thammuz was the Sumerian god of life, death, and rebirth.) And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty men, with their back parts toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces turned the opposite way; and these were worshipping the sun.” Ezekiel 8:3,14,16

This so grieved God that in chapter ten of Ezekiel it says:

“Then the glory of the Lord departed from the cherubs to the porch of the house; and the cloud filled the house, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. And the sound of the cherubs’ wings was heard as far as the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God speaking. Then the glory of the Lord departed from the house, and went up on the cherubs.

And the cherubs lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went forth, the wheels were also beside them, and they stood at the entrance of the front gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory of the God of Israel was upon them above.” V4-5,18-19

Then in Ezekiel 11 we are told:

“And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which was in front of the city.” V23

No point hanging around the Temple any longer, God has left the building. This was approximately eight years before Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah Glory are not seen again in the Temple. What is commonly known as the Second Temple, Herod's Temple, never harbored the Ark of the Covenant. The priests used to hit the floor where it would have stood.

To this day no one knows where the Ark is unless you happen to read ll Maccabees 2:4-8:

“It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door.

And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it. Which when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, saying, As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then shall the Lord shew them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was shewed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified.”

Of course in the same books of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, God not only offered condemnation and judgement, but also hope of redemption.

Why would God offer any hope to the people of Israel when they had sinned so terribly by falling into such idolatry and gone a “whoring” after other gods?

We read of two major reasons, maybe even more, why God offered some type of redemption after such grievous sins.

One can be found in Genesis 26:24:

“And the Lord appeared to him in that night, and said, I am the God of Abram thy father; fear not, for I am with thee, and I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for the sake of Abram thy father.”

This was spoken to Isaac. Put simply, it was because of the promises God had made to Abraham and not because of any righteousness the Israelites may have displayed.

A second major reason can be shown in Ezekiel 36:22:

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord; I do not this, O house of Israel, for your sakes, but because of my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, among whom ye went.”

“I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgressions for mine own sake. Isaiah 43:25

For mine own sake I will do this for thee.” Isaiah 48:11

“Our sins have risen up against us: O Lord, do thou for us for thine own sake; for our sins are many before thee; for we have sinned against thee.” Jeremiah 14:7

“Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might cause his mighty power to be known.” Psalm 106:8 (See also Psalms 23:3, 31:3, 79:9, 109:21, and 143:11)

God had to somehow fulfill His Word lest it would seem to appear amongst the gentiles that either His Word was not true or that He had lied.

“God is not as man to waver, nor as the son of man to be threatened; shall he say and not perform? shall he speak and not keep to his word?” Numbers 23:19

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Titus 1:2

“That by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Hebrews 6:18

Which brings us to our second major point, what where they chosen to do?

We purposely left off the endings of some of the verses concerning Abraham as well as some of the subsequent verses.

We'll cover those now.

“and in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3

“I have made thee a father of many nations.” Genesis 17:5

“and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blest.” Genesis 18:18

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast hearkened to my voice.” 22:18

and all the nations of the earth shall be blest in thy seed.” 26:4

and in thee and in thy seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.” 28:14

This is a promise of God, that not just Israel, but every nation on earth would be blessed because of Abraham's faithfulness.

How were they to be blessed? By coming to the knowledge of the living God.

Israel were God's chosen people to bring this knowledge to the gentiles. They were supposed to proselyte the gentiles. In other words be God's witnesses of His truth.

Unfortunately, often the conversion of the ancient Israelites, was reversed with the Israelites going after the gods of the gentiles.

Here are some verses concerning this matter if witnessing to the gentiles from some of the Old Testaments most venerated prophets.

Isaiah

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust, and his rest shall be glorious.” 11:10

“And he said to me, It is a great thing for thee to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to recover the dispersion of Israel: behold, I have given thee for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the end of the earth.” 49:6

“And the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and they shall rest on their land: and the stranger shall be added to them, yea, shall be added to the house of Jacob.” 14:1

“I the Lord God have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will strengthen thee: and I have given thee for the covenant of a race, for a light of the Gentiles:” 42:6

“Hear me, hear me, my people; and ye kings, hearken to me: for a law shall proceed from me, and my judgment shall be for a light of the nations. My righteousness speedily draws nigh, and my salvation shall go forth as light, and on mine arm shall the Gentiles trust: the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust.” 51:4-5

“Behold, strangers shall come to thee by me, and shall sojourn with thee, and shall run to thee for refuge.” 54:15

“Give heed with your ears, and follow my ways: hearken to me, and your soul shall live in prosperity; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David. Behold I have made him a testimony among the Gentiles, a prince and commander to the Gentiles.” 55:3-5

“And I will give it to the strangers that attach themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be to him servants and handmaids; and as for all that keep my sabbaths from profaning them, and that take hold of my covenant; I will bring them to my holy mountain, and gladden them in my house of prayer: their whole-burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon mine altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 56:6-7

“Go through my gates, and make a way for my people; and cast the stones out of the way; lift up a standard for the Gentiles.” 62:10

Jeremiah

“For if ye thoroughly correct your ways and your practices, and do indeed execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; and oppress not the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and go not after strange gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers of old and for ever.” 7:5-7

“And it shall be, if they will indeed learn the way of my people, to swear by my name, saying, The Lord lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall that nation be built in the midst of my people.” 12:16

“O Lord, thou art my strength, and mine help, and my refuge in days of evil: to thee the Gentiles shall come from the end of the earth, and shall say, How vain were the idols which our fathers procured to themselves, and there is no help in them. Will a man make gods for himself, whereas these are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will at this time manifest my hand to them, and will make known to them my power; and they shall know that my name is the Lord.” 16:19-21

“And it shall be for joy and praise, and for glory to all the people of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I will do: and they shall fear and be provoked for all the good things and for all the peace which I will bring upon them.” 40:9

“And the chief captain of the guard took him, and said to him, The Lord thy God has pronounced all these evils upon this place: and the Lord has done it; because ye sinned against him, and hearkened not to his voice.” 47:2-3

“And kings shall walk in thy light, and nations in thy brightness.” 60:3

Ezekiel

“And I gave them my sabbaths, that they should be for a sign between me and them, that they should know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. and hallow my sabbaths, and let them be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” 20:12, 20

“In thee they have reviled father and mother; and in thee they have behaved unjustly toward the stranger: they have oppressed the orphan and widow. That sorely oppress the people of the land with injustice, and commit robbery; oppressing the poor and needy, and not dealing justly with the stranger.” 22:7, 29

Moses even mentions in the book of Deuteronomy that the seed of Esau who lost his birthright to Jacob were the brothers of the Israelites.

“Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, because he is thy brother; thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land. If sons be born to them, in the third generation they shall enter into the assembly of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 14:7-8

Job was an Edomite.

“And Job lived after his affliction a hundred and seventy years: and all the years he lived were two hundred and forty: and Job saw his sons and his sons’ sons, the fourth generation. And Job died, an old man and full of days: and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up.

This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab; and having taken an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose name was Ennon. And he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth from Abraam. And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he also ruled over:” Job 42:16-17

Paul then administers the “coup de grace” on exclusivity when he said:

“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither [is that] circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.

What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit [is there] of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Romans 3:1-2

It should be noted here that there is a world of difference comparing what the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and what the Talmud teaches concerning this issue of the stranger and the gentiles. The great majority, not all, of religious Jews in the world today place far greater importance on the Talmud than on the Old Testament.

The Talmud consists of the so called oral traditions of Moses. It can be very easly proven from just two verses in the Old Testament that there was no oral traditions of Moses.

“And afterwards Joshua read accordingly all the words of this law, the blessings and the curses, according to all things written in the law of Moses. There was not a word of all that Moses charged Joshua, which Joshua read not in the ears of all men, and the women, and the children of Israel, and the strangers that joined themselves to Israel.” Joshua 9:34-35 the Septuagint

“And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.” Joshua 8:34-35 KJV

If interested do some research on the Talmud. This may perhaps help to explain some of the problems in the mid-east today.

“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following thee; for whithersoever thou goest, I will go, and wheresoever thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Ruth 1:16

In summery: Why were they chosen, because of their illustrious forefathers the patriarchs, in particular Abraham. And what where they chosen to do, to be a witness to the world of the truth of the living God.

Did they succeed? You can decide.

All Old Testament verses are quoted from the Septuagint unless otherwise noted.

Have a great week ahead.

Robert

“But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10

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WND

'GUARDIAN ANGEL' PHOTOGRAPHED WITH DYING GIRL?

Mom: 'It makes me think there was someone there looking after her'

Published: November 21, 2016

Sarah Danbury: “I didn’t think anything of it at first, but when you look closely at the photo it does look like an angel.”

A grieving mother believes she captured the image of a “guardian angel” in a selfie she took with her dying daughter just weeks before the teen died of a rare form of liver cancer.

Sarah Danbury of Lincolnshire, England, and her daughter, Amy Beckingham, 19, were in London for treatment at the Royal Free Hospital when they decided to take several photographs inside their hotel room to show Sarah’s husband where they were staying.

“There were only two lights on that side of the room, and they were both switched off – you just can’t explain it, it’s so weird,” Danbury told the Mercury Press. “When Amy saw the picture she said ‘it’s my guardian angel.'”

Amy died just three weeks after the photo was taken.

The bright, angel-like image even appears over Amy’s head from a completely different angle looking upward toward the headboard.

“It gives me comfort seeing that picture because it makes me think there was someone there with Amy, looking after her, knowing it was coming to her time. You just don’t know.

“I don’t go to church, but it got me thinking that there’s got to be more out there,” said Danbury.

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PART 4: (ABADDON ASCENDING ARTICLES SERIES)

November 20, 2016 by SkyWatch Editor

What Are They Trying to Awaken at CERN and in Switzerland?

The above sketch appears to show several circles, reminiscent of the massive colliders at CERN.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel began in 1947 with a curious sketch by Swiss engineer Carl Eduard Gruner (above).

During World War II, the Gruner Group (formerly Gruner Brothers) constructed railways, powers plants, and irrigation systems, but it was Gruner’s imagined shortcut through the base of the alps, connecting the Swiss towns of Erstfeld and Bodio by burrowing beneath the St. Gotthard Massif in the central Swiss Alps, that would prove to be the company’s greatest design. The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is the world’s deepest (1.42 miles) and longest tunnel (route length of 35.5 miles with a total of 94.3 miles when all shafts and passages are included). The tunnel consists of two parallel passages, each moving in a single direction on a single track.

The GBT passes directly beneath St. Gotthard’s Pass, a strategic north/south corridor that connects northern and southern Switzerland. Prior to the construction of the modern-day tunnels, including the Gotthard Rail Tunnel built in the 1880s, the only way to pass through this treacherous region was to cross the Devil’s Bridge (die Teufelsbrücke), which is aptly named considering the strange ceremony that accompanied the opening of the newest tunnel beneath the Massif. A legend regarding this Devil’s Bridge (according to oral histories cited at Wikipedia[i]) says this:

The legend itself is related by Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1716). According to Scheuchzer, he was told a local legend according to which the people of Uri recruited the Devil for the difficult task of building the bridge. The Devil requested to receive the first thing to pass the bridge in exchange for his help. To trick the Devil, who expected to receive the soul of the first man to pass the bridge, the people of Uri sent across a dog by throwing a piece of bread, and the dog was promptly torn to pieces by the Devil. Enraged at having been tricked the Devil went to fetch a large rock to smash the bridge, but, carrying the rock back to the bridge, he came across a holy man who “scolded him” (der ihn bescholten) and forced him to drop the rock, which could still be seen on the path below Göschenen. A modern retelling was published by Meinrad Lienert, Schweizer Sagen und Heldengeschichten (1915). According to Lienert’s version, a goat was sent across the bridge instead of a dog, and instead of the holy man, the Devil, when he was taking a break exhausted from carrying the rock, came across an old woman who marked the rock with a cross, forcing the Devil to abandon it and flee.[ii]

Erstfeld lies a twisty 186 miles or so from Geneva (CERN), and Bodio (the southern portal for the new tunnel) just as far (or farther, if one chooses to go through Erstfeld first—a laborious journey, but one that Google maps apparently suggests). The connection to Geneva’s Large Hadron Collider must be made, primarily because of the bizarre opening ceremony that was live-streamed to the entire world on June 1, 2016. So, let’s unpack the imagery within that occult dance, beginning with a call to unite the religions of the world by conducting an “interfaith” blessing of the tunnel beside a statue of St. Barbara (the patron saint of miners). St. Barbara is another curious component in this bizarre ceremony. Traditionally, her veneration and worship is said to have begun in Bohemia. According to C. E. Gregory:

Barbara Cathedral in Kuttenberg (Bohemia) built between 1388 and 1518 in the old silver city. This was thought to be the most likely source of the Barbara adoration. The cathedral was built around an already existing Barbara altar in an area with many Barbara altars present. Kuttenberg has for centuries had on its coat of arms St. Barbara above the crossed hammer and gad [Schlaegel und Eisen—the classical symbol of mining].[iii]

Allegedly, Barbara lived during the third century AD in Asia Minor in Nicromedia (near Baalbeck). Though her father planned to marry her off to a wealthy and influential friend who served “the old gods” of paganism (if they lived near Baalbeck, one can surmise which entities her father was actually serving), but Barbara chose Christianity instead—dying a martyr’s death for her trouble when she was tortured by the Roman pro-consul and then beheaded by her father. According to Wikipedia, Barbara is also considered one of the “Fourteen Holy Helpers,” a group of super saints whose core members are three virgin martyrs: St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and, of course, St. Barbara. Barbara is associated with a tower, because her father shut her up in one to keep her from the world whilst he arranged her marriage to his pagan buddy. Catherine is linked with “the wheel,” a torture device known as “the breaking wheel,” which (when Catherine was placed upon it) shattered, leaving the torturer, Maxentius, no choice but to behead her. And Margaret is associated with “the Dragon,” because Satan in the form of a dragon had tried to eat her, but her cross irritated his tummy, so he disgorged her and Margaret was put to death.

Three virgins who serve as super saints, and a tower, a wheel, and the dragon. It sounds like a hand from a tarot deck! It is also a dark echo of the three faces of the pagan moon goddess: the virgin/maiden (in white), the harlot/mother (in red and often pregnant), and the crone/widow (an old woman dressed in black).

Connected to this idea of a “triple goddess” is a legend called “The Three Bethan,” a triune goddess worshiped throughout Bavaria that is eerily similar to this notion of three virgin super saints. According to an article at druidry.org, these three supposedly Christian virgins gave all their money to build a chapel, but are actually pagan in origin:

“Beten” in modern German means “to pray.” Probably the act of worshipping the Bethen was so important and widespread that their name left its mark on the word for praying to them. Firpet or Firbet, the name of the third woman on the Leutstetten image, in modern German sounds pretty much like “Fürbitte” (intercession).

The Bethen were venerated especially in the presence of trees, wells and stones. This finds its expression in the terms “Bethelbäume” (Bethen trees), “Bethenbrunnen” (Bethen wells) and “Bethensteine” (Bethen stones). As we know, worship at wells, in forest groves and near unusual stones was a widespread feature in Celtic and Germanic religion, so we can safely assume that the Bethen cult has pre-Christian roots.[iv]

Now, why would we even care about pagan triple goddesses, if our topic for this entry is about a tunnel beneath an Alpine pass? It is because of the unusual ceremony that inaugurated this dual tunnel system, and the interfaith call to worship that occurred in front of St. Barbara (whose “triple goddess” identity is made clearer in the ceremony itself). Three women—three aspects of the same moon/fertility goddess.

The “Triple Goddess” is not restricted to Alpine mythology:

Greek: Hebe/Hera/Hecate (also Artemis/Selene/Hecate); Aphrodite Urania/Aphrodite Pontia/Aphrodite Pandemos

Roman: Luna/Diana/Proserpina; Phoebe/Diana/Hecate; Juventas/Juno/Minerva

Egyptian: Hathor/Bast/Sekhmet; Hathor/Nephthys/Isis

Hindu: Parvati/Lakshmi/Saraswati

Irish: Badb/macha/Morrígu

Mesopotamian: Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte; Asherah/Astarte/Anat

Arabian (pre-Islamic): Al-Lat/Al-Uzza/Manat

Norse: Freyja/Frigg/ Skaði[v]

Hecate, mentioned above, was the Titan earth-mother of the wizards and witches, and illustrates the triple connection between the sky, earth, and underworld realm of evil supernaturalism. As the daughter of Perses and Asteria, Hecate (Hekate) was the only Titan to remain free under Zeus. She was the mother of the wizard Circe and of the witch Medea. She was characterized by the unknown and by the night-terrors that roamed the abandoned and desolate highways.

Other revealing facts about Hecate include:

• Hecate was often depicted as a young maiden with three faces, each pointing in a different direction—a role in which she was the earth-spirit that haunted wherever three paths joined. As the “goddess of three forms,” she was Luna (the moon) in heaven, Diana (Artemis) on earth, and Hecate of the underworld.

• At midnight, Hecate’s devotees would leave food offerings at intersections for the goddess (Hecate’s Supper) and, once deposited, quickly exit without turning around or looking back. Sometimes the offerings consisted of honey cakes and chicken hearts, while at other times, puppies and female black lambs were slaughtered and mixed with honey for the goddess and her strigae. (Strigae were deformed, owl-like affiliates of Hecate that I wrote about in The Gods Who Walk Among Us and that Warner Brothers featured from that book in one season of the long-running TV program Supernatural (and consequently invited me to travel to their studios in California to be part of a bonus disc with other “religious” experts on the release of that season to DVD, which I declined) who flew through the night feeding on the bodies of unattended babies. During the day, they appeared as simple old women—folklore that may account for the history of flying witches. The strigae hid amidst the leaves of the trees during the annual festival of Hecate, held on August 13, when Hecate’s followers offered up the highest praise of the goddess).

• Hecate’s devotees celebrated with festivals near Lake Averna in Campania, where the sacred willow groves of the goddess stood, and they communed with the tree spirits (earth spirits, including Hecate, were thought to inhabit trees) and summoned the souls of the dead from the mouths of nearby caves. It was here that Hecate was known as Hecate-Chthonia, (Hecate of the earth), a depiction in which she most clearly embodied the popular earth-mother-spirit that conversed through the cave stones and sacred willow trees.

Yet Hecate had other, more revealing titles, and these names are the subject of interest for the time being: 1) Hecate-Phosphoros (“The Light Bearer” [recalling another powerful underworld spirit whose original name was Lucifer, “the light bearer”]); and 2) Hecate-Propylaia (“The One Who Guards the Gate”).

The idea that mythological deities were perceived as guarding gates (and in some cases imprisoned behind them), and that often these gods and goddesses were known by ancients as “light bearers” is interesting in view of Scripture. The Hebrew translation of the word “Lucifer” means “light bearer,” and the New Testament speaks of Satan being “transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). A deeper study of Scripture supports the idea that spiritual forces that exist behind barriers or “gates” are located in the sky, sea, and physical earth. For instance, the book of Ephesus is a study of principalities and powers in “high places” and “powers of the air.” In Nehemiah 9:6, the prophet speaks of more than one heaven: He saw the heavens and the “heaven of heavens.” These are peripheral heavens, or divisions, as Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12:2, saying, “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago…[who was] caught up to the third heaven.” As a Pharisee, Paul acknowledged three main “heavens,” which include a domain of air (the kosmos), or height, controlled by Satan. In pharisaical thought, the first heaven is simply the place where the birds fly, anything removed from and not attached to the surface of the earth. On the other end of the spectrum and of a different substance is the third heaven—the dwelling place of God. This is the place from which angelic spheres spread outward. Between the first heaven where the birds fly and the third heaven “where dwells the throne room of God” is a war zone called the second heaven. This is a place of brass gates (see the Apocalypse of Zephaniah)—the kosmos or Hebrew equivalent of the Persian Ahriman-abad (as in my novel The Ahriman Gate)—the place where Satan or Beelzebul (the “lord of the height”) abides as the prince of the power of the “air” (aer, the lower air, circumambient). This war zone is a sort of gasket heaven, the domain of Satan encompassing the surface of the earth. It was believed that from here kosmokrators could overshadow cities, intrude upon, and attempt to influence the affairs and governments of men. It was also believed that from the kosmos Satan’s minions also sought to close the gateways above cities so that God’s blessings could not flow into them. Later, it was believed that when saints bent their knees in prayer, they had to pray through walls/gates of opposition contained within this gasket heaven.

In addition to heavenly gateways behind which fallen spirits dwell, Jonah 2.6 tells of Jonah going down to the bottom of the sea into a “city of gates” (Bariyach, a fortress in the earth, a prison) from which God delivered him. There is no doubt about where Jonah was as he prayed to God in Jonah 2:2 “out of the belly of hell” (Sheol—the underworld prison of the dead). This text is both fascinating and illuminating when compared to the words of Christ in Matthew 16:17–18: “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona [son of Jonah]…thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew’s unusual choice of words connecting the rock upon which the church would be built, the name of Jonah, and the gates of hell is not a coincidence. Christ made the same connection to hell’s gateway, Jonah, and his mission for the church in Matthew 12.40: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Besides the stories of Jonah and Christ, the Bible refers to nonhuman entities in subterraneous locations as well, such as “the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates” (Revelation 9:14). Job 26.5 tells of the Rafa (Rephaim, fallen angels or offspring of such) who writhe “beneath the waters” (Interlinear Hebrew and Young’s Literal Translation). Second Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 indicate that the subsurface of the earth is a prison or holding tank where God has bound certain fallen entities. Deuteronomy 18:11 warns that such spirits might seek to move beyond their confines through human intervention or invitation. The Hebrew people were warned not to communicate with these spirits, and when the witch of Endor did so, they ascended up from “out of the earth” (1 Samuel 28:13).

Based on such texts, it is reasonable to believe that beings of superintelligence sometimes referred to as “gods” or the triple-goddesses mentioned above are equivalent to those whom the Bible depicts as moving through openings of sky, earth, and sea during interaction with this planet’s creatures. Some of these multidimensionals are more restrained than others, yet in most cases they can by invitation “ascend” or transcend these gateways, presenting themselves as “light bearers” or “angels of light.”

Getting back to CERN, Switzerland, and the deeply disturbing Gotthard Base Tunnel rituals, the worship of the triune goddess there was universal in scope, representing an “interfaith” coalescing that we even see in Catholicism to a certain degree (a faith that dominated most of Europe at one time). The Virgin Mother who is later widowed or in mourning parallels the pagan ideas of virginity, fecundity, and death.

Following the “blessing” at the statue of St. Barbara, the surviving family members and press, along with visiting dignitaries, also paid tribute to the NINE miners who lost their lives during construction of the tunnel. Nine is another occult signature number. It is 3 squared, which is a hidden 32, and it is 3 x 3, giving us a hidden 33, 3 + 3 = 6, the number of man, and this number added to 3 (6 + 3) gives an inverted 6, turning God’s creation on its head, an act and philosophy central to the “as above, so below” doctrine of the inverted tree of life (which is worshiped at the end of this ceremony).

Bodio’s “southern portal” provided the visiting dignitaries a disturbing parade of miners, erotic dancers, zombies, fallen angels, and a gay love-fest, all obeying the call of the “shepherd,” whose yodels invoke the appearance of the event’s infernal master of ceremonies, the “Goat Man.” Portrayed by a young and energetic dancing male, this creature is shown with a Baphomet headdress (a goat demon’s head) and a goat body costume (hairy pelt) with a formal tuxedo over top. This imagery is heavily evocative of the German and Bavarian Christmas demon, Krampus.

According to tradition, Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas on his midwinter rounds with the intent to steal boys and girls (putting them into a basket carried on his back), or he may decide to beat them with branches for being naughty. Maurice Bruce published a book on pre-Christian Alpine traditions in 1958, and he had this to say about this half-goat, half-demon entity:

There seems to be little doubt as to his true identity for, in no other form is the full regalia of the Horned God of the Witches so well preserved. The birch—apart from its phallic significance—may have a connection with the initiation rites of certain witch-covens; rites which entailed binding and scourging as a form of mock-death. The chains could have been introduced in a Christian attempt to “bind the Devil” but again they could be a remnant of pagan initiation rites.[vi]

Krampus, despite his negative imagery and proclivities, was wildly popular during the holidays in Germanic and Alpine countries, so much so that an entire subgenre of greeting cards known as Krampus Grüsskarten (that invariably say “Grüss vom Krampus,” translated into English as “Greetings from Krampus”) was created. Late-nineteenth-century and turn-of-the-twentieth-century cards often feature Krampus with children, but also with buxom women (if those birch branches are phallic in nature, then this makes perfect sense). Many show the goat man in formal dress (tuxedo style cutaway formal coat and trousers) but with his usual horned goat face, and always with his tongue extended.

This “tongue-out” pose seems to be popular with ancient gods, whether they be Mayan, Hindu, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, or even British (for some reason the coat of arms for the Prince of Wales sports both a lion and a unicorn with tongues extended). More than likely, this tongue position represents sexual lust (outside of God’s design) and sex-magic (fornicating with fallen angels), which is probably the real reason that old Krampus can’t keep his tongue inside his head. The ancient symbol of “the horned god” referenced by Maurice Bruce in the above quote allows us to connect our goat demon from the opening ceremony to CERN. Despite the fact that the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) sits three to four hours down a twisty road from Erstfeld and Bodio, the horned god’s circular logic and passion for human depravity, Hernunnos (sometimes spelled Cernunnos), the Green Man of British lore, simply had to make an appearance.

Both Josh Peck and I (Tom Horn) and many other researchers have written extensively regarding the end-game plans for tunneling beneath the earth and smashing atoms to smithereens as nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to open portals, but the opening ceremony at Gotthard makes it clear that these portals are intended to release demonic entities!

One side note here: The so-called “Rude Man Giant” formed in chalk in the downs of Dorset, England, has also been identified with Hercules/Melkart,[vii] the “Baal” who was worshiped on Mount Carmel. This gigantic chalk figure (with erect phallus) bears a knobbed club in his right hand, and his left arm is extended as if he carries something. Over time, the old lines around this left arm have faded, but in 1996, a scientific study of the massive figure revealed that he had indeed once held something upon his extended forearm. This study was corroborated in 2008, when archaeologists using special equipment to find the original chalk lines proved that a “cape” or perhaps a lion skin had once been draped upon the forearm.[viii] If true, then this enormous, aroused man may have been a tribute to Hercules, who is often depicted with a great club and the skin of the Nemean lion over his arm. What is this giant’s name? The CERNE Abbas Giant, because it is located near a small village called Cerne Abbas, but the connection to Cernunnos and CERN is tantalizing, and the meaning of the word abbas is “lion”—again connecting the Cernunnos “Green Man” to Hercules/Melkart. Finally, the slope upon which the giant reclines is called Trendle Hill. A “trendle” is an old Anglo-Saxon word for “circle” (evocative of CERN’s circles beneath the earth). Though not circular in shape, a large earthwork mound lies near the giant figure. Known as “the trendle” or “the frying pan,” it is roughly rectangular in shape, and may be an Iron Age burial ground.

The twin tunnels of the Gotthard Base Tunnel commence with twin portals, each leading to a one-way tunnel on a single track. These northward and southward journeys symbolize the death/birth/death cycle of the Green Man, who dies in the fall/winter and rises in the spring/summer. The tunnel ceremony is all about sex rites and rebirth, leading to a new world order that is a complete reversal of the Judeo/Christian design. The triple goddess and the horned god, along with human sacrifice and a return to pagan worship, lie at the center of this nauseating ritual play. Horns and the moon goddess go hand in hand. Turn the lunar crescent on its side with the points facing upward, and you have horns. The lunar crescent is but one “face” of the triple goddess mentioned above, and believe me she is a major player in this ceremony. But I get ahead of myself.

With this short introduction to the key players of our performance, in the next entry we will examine each phase of this live-streamed demonic “deity invoking” rite.

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöllenen_Gorge (accessed August 24, 2016)

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] C. E. Gregory, “The Legend of St. Barbara, the Patron Saint of Mines”, available online at http://technology.infomine.com/articles/1/136/barbara.saint.mines/the.legend.of.aspx (accessed August 24, 2016).

[iv] Eilthireach, “The Bavarian Triple Goddess: A Study of the Cult of the Three Betan,” posted online at http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/bavarian-triple-goddess-study-cult-three-bethan (accessed August 24, 2016).

[v] Triple Deity Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_deity (accessed August 29, 2016).

[vi] Maurice Bruce, (March 1958), “The Krampus in Styria,” Folklore. 69 (1): 44–47. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1958.9717121. (accessed via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus#cite_note-Bruce-3, August 24, 2016).

[vii] Mark Cartwright, Entry on Melqart at “Ancient History Encyclopedia,” http://www.ancient.eu/Melqart/ (accessed August 29, 2016).

[viii] Cerne Giant Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant (accessed August 29, 2016).

***

CNN

Indian temple will be the world's tallest religious skyscraper

By Betty Wood, The Spaces

Updated 0335 GMT (1135 HKT) November 22, 2016

This article was originally published by The Spaces, a digital publication exploring new ways to live and work.

(CNN)Work is underway on the world's tallest religious skyscraper: a 700-foot-tall Hindu temple in India.

Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir in Uttar Pradesh will be bigger than Vatican City's St Peter's Basilica and rise higher than Ulm Minster when completed.

Indian practice InGenious Studio and structural consultant Thornton Tomasetti have designed the temple-cum-cultural center, which includes a theme park, for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The earthquake-proof building's tiered silhouette is reminiscent of a rocket ship, rising 70 stories in the air.

"Attractions planned in the theme park would be like park rides, animatronics, light, sound and special effects as well as the Vraja Mandal parikrama shows and laser shows," says Narasimha Das, project director of the temple.

A capsule elevator will run through the height of the structure, whisking visitors up to a viewing deck. The ride doubles as a light and sound experience, taking people through the planetary systems of the universe, as laid out in Vedic literature.

Religious roots

Dedicated to Hindu deity Lord Sri Krishna -- who, according to scripture, is said to have grown up in Vrindavan -- the temple will be surrounded by around 30 acres of forest, planted to recreate the twelve forests of Braj.

Social facilities will skirt the temple as well as apartments and villas, which the New Indian Express reports will be sold to fund the project. It will also be financed by donations from devotees.

Right now, work is concentrated on the building's 180-foot-deep foundations.

"(These) will have 511 columns, which will be completed by March next year," confirms Das.

***

The Telegraph

Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90 CREDIT: EPA

Chris Graham

26 NOVEMBER 2016 • 7:10AM

Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and for five decades defied US efforts to topple him, died on Friday. He was 90.

"The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening," his brother, President Raul Castro, his brother, announced with a shaking voice on national television.e announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: "Towards victory, always!"

Castro had been in poor health since an intestinal ailment nearly killed him in 2006.

His brother said the revolutionary leader's remains would be cremated early on Saturday, "in compliance with his expressed will."

The bearded Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.

A revolutionary life

He was demonised by the United States and its allies but admired by many leftists around the world, especially socialist revolutionaries in Latin America and Africa.

Transforming Cuba from a playground for rich Americans into a symbol of resistance to Washington, Castro outlasted nine U.S. presidents in power.

He fended off a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 as well as countless assassination attempts.

His alliance with Moscow helped trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13-day showdown with the United States that brought the world the closest it has been to nuclear war.

Wearing green military fatigues and chomping on cigars for many of his years in power, Castro was famous for long, fist-pounding speeches filled with blistering rhetoric, often aimed at the United States.

At home, he swept away capitalism and won support for bringing schools and hospitals to the poor. But he also created legions of enemies and critics, concentrated among Cuban exiles in Miami who fled his rule and saw him as a ruthless tyrant.

In the end it was not the efforts of Washington and Cuban exiles nor the collapse of Soviet communism that ended his rule. Instead, illness forced him to cede power to his younger brother Raul Castro, provisionally in 2006 and definitively in 2008.

'It's a tragedy'

Reaction in Cuba and across the world will likely be divided.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was among the first leaders to react to the news.

"I lament the death of Fidel Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban revolution and emblematic reference of the 20th Century," he said on Twitter.

In the capital, Havana residents on the streets reacted with sadness to the news.

Carlos Rodriguez, 15, was sitting in Havana's Miramar neighbourhood when he heard that Fidel Castro had died.

"Fidel? Fidel?" he said as he slapped his head with his hand in shock. "That's not what I was expecting. One always thought that he would last forever. It doesn't seem true."

"It's a tragedy," said Dayan Montalvo, a 22-year-old nurse. "We all grew up with him. I feel really hurt by the news that we just heard."

In the US, however, expat Cubans in Miami took to the streets to celebrate news of the death, cheering, honking their car horns and banging on pots and pans.

Although Raul Castro always glorified his older brother, he has changed Cuba since taking over by introducing market-style economic reforms and agreeing with the United States in December to re-establish diplomatic ties and end decades of hostility.

Six weeks later, Fidel Castro offered only lukewarm support for the deal, raising questions about whether he approved of ending hostilities with his longtime enemy.

In his final years, Fidel Castro no longer held leadership posts. He wrote newspaper commentaries on world affairs and occasionally met with foreign leaders but he lived in semi-seclusion.

What next?

His death - which would once have thrown a question mark over Cuba's future - seems unlikely to trigger a crisis as Raul Castro, 85, is firmly ensconced in power.

Still, the passing of the man known to most Cubans as "El Comandante" - the commander - or simply "Fidel" leaves a huge void in the country he dominated for so long. It also underlines the generational change in Cuba's communist leadership.

Raul Castro vows to step down when his term ends in 2018 and the Communist Party has elevated younger leaders to its Politburo, including 56-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is first vice-president and the heir apparent.

Others in their 50s include Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and economic reform czar Marino Murillo.

The reforms have led to more private enterprise and the lifting of some restrictions on personal freedoms but they aim to strengthen Communist Party rule, not weaken it.

"I don't think Fidel's passing is the big test. The big test is handing the revolution over to the next generation and that will happen when Raul steps down," Cuba expert Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute in Virginia said before Castro's death.

***

BREITBART

Merkel With Obama: Internet ‘Disruptive’ Force that Has to Be ‘Contained, Managed, and Steered’ by Government

by OLIVER JJ LANE17 Nov 20161938

Speaking at a joint press conference with outgoing American President Barack Obama on his farewell tour, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made chilling remarks about her views on the need for government to control the internet and slammed anti-Islamisation protesters who she accused of hijacking the German spirit for liberty.

German Chancellor Merkel, who is presently deciding whether to run for a historic fourth term on the strength of her pro-migrant policies which have seen her lauded with praise by President Obama, moved to address populism in her joint address.

Calling the surge of interest in right-wing politics a “wave” that “engulfs us,” Ms. Merkel noted the sentiment “seems to come from the United States,” but in an oblique reference to President-Elect Donald Trump said it was an issue she was dealing with in Europe, too. She said:

“Look at the European parliament. There are a lot of people who are looking for simplistic solutions and are preaching simplistic solutions which are very unfriendly policies. We have them here in Europe, too, we have them in Germany too.”

Apparently blaming this rising populism — politics that are popular with voters — on the internet, the German chancellor implied the internet would have to be subject to restrictive censorship laws as were enacted by many European nations to stem the disruptive effect of the printing press. She said:

“Digitisation is a disruptive technological force that brings about deep-seated change and transformation in society. Look at the history of the printing press, when this was invented what kind of consequences it had. Or industrialisation, what consequences that had.

“Very often, it led to enormous transformational processes within individual societies and it took a while until societies learned to find the right kinds of policies to contain this, to manage and steer this. We live in a period of profound transformation.”

The chancellor also took time to speak out against the populists within her own country, blaming the exporting of manufacturing jobs abroad for discontent about mass migration. Picking up on the slogan for anti-mass migration and counter-Islamisation movement PEGIDA ‘Wir Sind Das Volk’ — ‘We Are The People’ — the chancellor said:

“The most important and noble task of politicians these days is to see that each and every person can find his place. But those who purportedly belong to certain groups say ‘we are the people, and not others’.”

The saying has been inherited by PEGIDA from the counter-Communist rule movements in East Germany in the 1980’s. Merkel, a former member of an East German Communist group, said those words as a protest against overbearing government power and had brought joy to her then but not today. She said:

“At the time when we had [this saying] in the GDR [East Germany] when the people stood in the streets and said ‘we are the people’ it filled me with great joy, but the fact these people have hijacked it does not fill me with joy.”

Ms. Merkel’s comments on web censorship may be welcomed by many in the traditional mainstream media, whose grip on news narratives has been weakened by digital news services like Breitbart.

This week Germany’s Zeit newspaper published a piece calling for controls to prevent “a German Donald Trump”, while Britain’s Independent former newspaper website published a list of “fake” news sites which they claimed may have “swayed votes towards Donald Trump”. One of those listed was Breitbart News.

***

YourNewsWire.com

Merkel Promises To Rid Internet Of Alternative Media

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared war on alternative media outlets that she says are responsible for subverting the government’s control over the public.

Merkel joined the chorus of other world leaders and huge multi-national media outlets who wish to rid the internet of alternative media websites, under the guise of “fighting fake news“.

Speaking in parliament, Merkel claimed that public opinion was being swayed away from establishment politics, claiming that independent news outlets posed a danger to national security.

“Something has changed — as globalisation has marched on, (political) debate is taking place in a completely new media environment. Opinions aren’t formed the way they were 25 years ago,” she said.

“Today we have fake sites, bots, trolls — things that regenerate themselves, reinforcing opinions with certain algorithms and we have to learn to deal with them.”

Merkel, 62, said the challenge for democrats was to “reach and inspire people — we must confront this phenomenon and if necessary, regulate it.”

She said she supported initiatives by her right-left coalition government to crack down on “hate speech” on social media in the face of what she said were “concerns about the stability of our familiar order”.

“Populism and political extremes are growing in Western democracies,” she warned.

Last week, Google and Facebook moved to cut off ad revenue to bogus news sites after a US election campaign in which the global misinformation industry may have influenced the outcome of the vote.

But media watchers say more is needed to stamp out a powerful phenomenon seen by some experts as a threat to democracy itself.

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats are the odds-on favourites to win the German national election, expected in September or October 2017.

But she is facing a strong challenge from a resurgent rightwing populist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has her liberal refugee and migration policy in its crosshairs.

It is currently polling at around 12-13 percent which could complicate the complex maths of coalition building after the poll.

All of Germany’s mainstream parties have for now ruled out forming an alliance with the AfD.

***

RT

Ex-PM John Major: Brexit terms can’t be decided by ‘tyranny of majority’

Published time: 25 Nov, 2016 16:59

Yet another former prime minister has come out arguing Brexit does not necessarily mean Brexit and that the referendum result could still be overturned.

Former Conservative leader Sir John Major told guests at a private dinner that Remain voters should also decide on the terms and conditions of Britain withdrawing from the European Union.

“I hear the argument that the 48 percent of people who voted to stay should have no say in what happens,” Major said during a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of David Lloyd George’s premiership.

“I find that very difficult to accept,” he added.

“The tyranny of the majority has never applied in a democracy and it should not apply in this particular democracy.”

Major also said that although he knew Britain would not remain a full member of the EU, he hoped it would still be allowed access to the single market, which he described as “the richest market mankind has ever seen.”

The former PM also believed there was a “perfectly credible case” for a second referendum.

Major’s comments follow several interventions by his Downing Street successor, Tony Blair, who has insisted Brexit could be halted.

However, as frontline Brexiteer and former deputy speaker of the House of Commons Nigel Evans told Sputnik News: “The people have spoken after a full and tough referendum campaign. John Major and Tony Blair both took part in that debate and campaigned for Remain. The people voted Leave.”

“They both refused to give the people a vote on any aspect of EU integration during their time as PM. The UK ended up being deeper in the EU project thanks to their approach; this development was rejected by the people.”

“It was a clear result and the people voted to leave and that is what Theresa May is respecting. It’s called democracy and it is the very essence of this which is now under attack by this campaign to flout the clear wishes of the people to be out of the EU.”

Leave Means Leave co-chair Richard Tice dubbed Major’s comments as “patronizing,” and the politician as “condescending” towards the British people.

“The public have spoken, the Government is delivering and these politicians of the past must move aside so that Britain can embrace the opportunities of Brexit and look to a prosperous future,” he added.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, however, came in Major’s defense, saying: “The British people voted for departure but they didn’t vote for a destination, and they certainly didn’t vote to make the nation poorer and risk jobs.”

“The haphazard way May’s cabinet are handling Brexit makes the case for a referendum on the deal stronger each day, and we're glad to have growing cross-party support for this campaign.”

The Unz Review

Putin Is (Finally) Purging the Medvedev Government

THE SAKER • NOVEMBER 17, 2016

While the word was focused in rapt attention on the outcome of the US Presidential election, Vladimir Putin did something quite amazing – he arrested Alexei Uliukaev, Minister of the Economy in the Medvedev government, on charges of extortion and corruption. Uliukaev, whose telephone had been tapped by the Russian Security Services since this summer, was arrested in the middle of the night in possession of 2 million US dollars. Putin officially fired him the next morning.

Russian official sources say that Uliukaev extorted a $2 million bribe for an assessment that led to the acquisition by Rosneft (a state run Russian oil giant) of a 50% stake in Bashneft (another oil giant). Apparently, Uliukaev tried to threaten Igor Sechin, the President of Rosneft and a person considered close to Vladimir Putin and the Russian security and intelligence services.

Yes, you read that right: according to the official version, a state-owned company gave a bribe to a member of the government. Does that make sense to you? How about a senior member of the government who had his telephone tapped and who has been under close surveillance by the Federal Security Service for over a year – does that make sense to you?

This makes no sense at all and the Russian authorities fully realize that. But that is the official version. So what is going on here? Do you think that there is a message from Putin here?

Of course there is!

Remember the corrupt Minister of Defense Anatolii Serdiukov? He was first fired from his position and only then arrested. But this time around, it is a member of the government which is arrested in the middle of the night. For a few hours, his subordinates could not even reach him – they had no idea what had happened to him. Was that a mistake? Hardly.

The way Uliukaev was detained was carefully choreographed to instill the strongest sense of fear possible in all the other 5th columnists still in power because in so many ways Uliukaev was a symbol for all the the “Atlantic Integrationists” (those in the Kremlin who want to integrate Russia into the US controlled international security system): Uliukaev was a known liberal, just like Nikita Belykh, governor of Kirov Region, who was detained in a high-publicity arrest in June for taking a 400,000 Euros bribe. I would even say that Uliukaev could be considered the ultimate symbol of the Atlantic Integrationists and a faithful member of the Russian “liberal” (meaning the “Washington consensus” type) sect who, in the past had worked with Egor Gaidar and Alexei Kudrin and who now has been brought down by the Russian “siloviki”, the top officials of the so-called “power ministries” (defense, state security, intelligence). This was immediately recognized by everybody and the main headline of the popular website Gazeta.ru could not be clearer, it read: “The Siloviki brought down Uliukaev” and featured a photo of the key actors of this drama, including the tough-looking man thought to have brought Uliukaev down, Sergei Korolev, the Head of the Economic Security service of the FSB.

In April, I predicted that a government purge was in the making. I have to admit that I thought that this would have happened earlier. Apparently Putin decided to take action while Uncle Sam was busy with his own internal problems. If that is indeed the reason for the late timing, that says a lot about the power of the USA still wields in Russia. Some observers noticed that the arrest of Uliukaev took place after the telephone conversation between Trump and Putin, hinting that Trump might have given Putin the go ahead for the arrest. That is, of course, utter nonsense, but if that can make Putin look bad – it’s good enough for the 5th columnists.

The list of potential ‘candidates’ to be purged next is still long and includes names like the Deputy Prime Minister Arkadii Dvorkovich, the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, the Governor of the Russian Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina, the Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov and, of course, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. Uliukaev was only one amongst many more. Still, he was definitely a top-level target and the manner in which he was arrested must have sent a chill down the spine of all the other 5th columnists in the Kremlin. Just the fact that his phone was tapped for so long is quite unthinkable and clearly points to the fact that nobody is safe from Putin’s purges. And that, by itself, is truly a most welcome change: every member of the Medvedev government now has been put on notice that his/her life is now spent under the close scrutiny of the FSB.

It really matters little what will happen to Uliukaev next. He has been formally arraigned, now his case will be further investigated and then Uliukaev will have his day in court (right now he has only been detained and he will be kept under house arrest for the next two months). Potentially, he faces 15 years in jail and a fine equivalent to 70 times the amount of the bribe he took. Judging by the case of Serdyukov, who is managed to escape any prison time thanks to a Presidential Amnesty at the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, Putin seem to be reluctant to inflict any form of retribution upon his enemies. But even if Uliukaev does not get to enjoy the fresh air of the Siberian taiga, he is already finished as a power broker, and that is all that really matters to Putin.

The crucial point here is that in the course of one night, a top level Russian Minister went from his Ministerial Offices to a holding cell and that absolutely nobody saw it coming or could prevent this. Yet again we have a case of 100% Putin style: no warnings of any kind, no hints even, just sudden dramatic action with an immediate result. His “handwriting” is clearly all over the case.

The reaction to this arrest in Russia was predictable, especially after sources in the security services told the Russian media that Arkadii Dvorkovich and Andrei Belousov were also under investigation. Anatolii Chubais, for example, declared that he was in “total shock”. Even better was the reaction of Prime Minister Medvedev who said that this development was at the “edge of his understanding”.

It will be interesting to observe the inevitable reaction from the Atlantic Integrationists: if they really feel defeated, they will pay lip-service to the need to “fight corruption on all levels” and generally keep a low profile. If they still have some fight in them, they will denounce a “Stalinist” crackdown, the return to “1930′s -like purges” and a “new campaign of terror” against democracy. The western corporate media, whose only “value” is money, will write about how the Russian “secret police” is cracking down on “business entrepreneurs” and how that will end up damaging the Russian economy. Basically, a repeat of the whining which we all heard when Putin dismantled the infamous semibankirshchina. As Elton John would say, we “have seen that movie too…”

As for the rabid Putin-hating nationalists, they will say that this is too little too late. For years they have been complaining about corruption and how top level officials were never investigated, and now that they seem to have gotten their wish, it’s “too little, too late”. But that doesn’t really matter, since they have almost as little credibility with the Russian general public as the pro-western parties like Iabloko or Parnass.

The main media outlets and political commentators are all giving Putin a standing ovation right now. That is hardly surprising since they are the ones who for many months now have been loudly and constantly complaining about the “economic bloc of the government”, meaning the pro-US 5th columnists inside the Medvedev government. Quite literally all the main political commentators have been begging and demanding a purge of this “economic bloc” and a radical change in the economic policies of Russia. Well, they got one villain purged, which is a good start, but there are no signs that more heads will roll or that the economic course of Russia will finally break from the Washington consensus kind of policies and be replaced with much needed policy of internal growth. But then, knowing Putin, we should not expect any signs – only action.

In Russia, just as in the USA, changing the people is far easier than changing the system while the only way to achieve real change is, precisely, to change the system, not the people. So far, Putin has only succeeded in kicking some of the worst people out and, to his credit, getting some very good people in. Now that a threat of war with the USA is very substantially reduced and that Uncle Sam will be busy with his own internal struggles, I hope that Putin will finally take some very strong action to liberate Russia from the Washington consensus types and replace them with real patriots who will finally make it possible for Russia to become a truly sovereign country, even in the economic sense.

Natural News

Aspartame now being marketed as natural sweetener, name changed to 'AminoSweet'

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 by: Ethan A. Huff

(NaturalNews) The world's most toxic artificial sweetener is undergoing a major identity overhaul in an effort by its manufacturer to cover up the chemical's sordid history, as well as to keep people buying it. "AminoSweet," in case you see it on food labels, is really just plain-old aspartame, the same synthetic sweetening agent that's repeatedly been linked to causing seizures and organ damage, among other physical harm.

Since its initial discovery in 1965 by G.D. Searle Pharmaceuticals, aspartame has been the subject of considerable and unrelenting controversy. Even way back then, scientists knew without a shadow of a doubt that aspartame wasn't exactly safe for human consumption. But because it was sweet and non-caloric, it meant dollar signs in the eyes of company CEOs who recognized that marketing it as an alternative to sugar could be immensely profitable.

They were right, but the decision to bring aspartame to market – a monstrous feat in and of itself – has had serious consequences on public health. Derived from genetically-modified (GM) amino acids, aspartame is the world's most popular artificial sweetener, present in everything from chewing gum and soda pop to children's cereals and even toothpastes, despite the fact that its track record of safety leaves much to be desired.

Numerous peer-reviewed studies published in the 1980s revealed that aspartame has a damaging effect on the brain. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discovered that aspartame "can generate major neurochemical changes" in the brain. Since it's an "excitotoxin," aspartame is known to damage the brain, as well as the central nervous systems of people who consume it, especially children.

One study published in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology in 1984 concluded that excitotoxins like aspartame "may produce blood elevations high enough to cause damage to the nervous system of young children, damage which is not detectable at the time of occurrence but which may give rise to subtle disturbances in neuroendocrine function in adolescence and/or adulthood."

Many more studies conducted in the 1990s, 2000s, and beyond have reiterated these findings, adding that aspartame consumption can impair memory response and retention and damage neurons in the hypothalamic region of the brain. Mental retardation and various other forms of brain damage have also been linked to aspartame consumption, side effects that the federal government in its continued approval of the chemical drug refuses to address.

NutraSweet, Equal, and AminoSweet: It's all still aspartame

Despite continued efforts by industry lobbyists and their government puppets to keep this damaging information about aspartame under wraps, the internet and other uncontrolled environments where news is disseminated have succeeded in waking many people up as to its dangers. But now consumers have to worry about name changes like "AminoSweet" that attempt to once again pull the wool over their eyes when it comes to detecting artificial sweeteners in the foods they eat.

Since acquiring ownership of the aspartame business from Monsanto in 2000, Japanese drug company Ajinomoto has been working hard to rebrand and recreate aspartame in order to boost its acceptance by the public. One of these is renaming it to sound more "natural," even though it's still the same old chemical that's also sold under names like "NutraSweet" and "Equal."

While sugar has its own health drawbacks, it's nowhere near the level of aspartame's threat. The list of aspartame's health effects is lengthy, including serious damaging effects like brain lesions, lymphoma, leukemia, and other forms of cancer, not to mention fetal deformities and even weight gain – that's right, consuming aspartame instead of sugar can still make you fat. Just remember this: buyer beware.

Sources:
OrganicAndHealthy.org
JanetHull.com
NIH.gov
NIH.gov

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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

How sweet are thine oracles to my throat! more so than honey to my mouth!
(Psalm 119:103)