Tech Giants Vow To Tackle Online Hate Speech: In Reality Forming 'Virtual Superstate'

Tech Giants Vow to Tackle Online Hate Speech Within 24 Hours

U.S. Internet giants Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Google and Microsoft Corp. pledged to tackle online hate speech in less than 24 hours as part of a joint commitment with the European Union to combat the use of social media by terrorists.

Beyond national laws that criminalize hate speech, there is a need to ensure such activity by Internet users is “expeditiously reviewed by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame,” the companies and the European Commission said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The code of conduct arrives as Europe comes to terms with the bloody attacks in Paris and Brussels by Islamic State, which has used the Web and social media to spread its message of hate against its enemies. The companies said it remains a “challenge” to strike the right balance between freedom of expression and hate speech in the self-generated content on online platforms.

Facebook, Twitter Banning Free Speech to Form Virtual “Superstate”

In the article linked on the Drudge Report, Bloomberg revealed how Facebook and Twitter are working with the European Union to ban on-line commentators from spreading “hate speech,” but Bloomberg watered down the news so badly it made censorship sound like a great idea.

So let’s break down the Bloomberg article to reveal what’s really going on. From the article:

U.S. Internet giants Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Google and Microsoft Corp. pledged to tackle online hate speech in less than 24 hours as part of a joint commitment with the European Union to combat the use of social media by terrorists.

First off, the European Union is an unelected oligopoly designed to operate as a superstate which overrides the national sovereignty of its member countries.

As economist Ryan McMaken with the Mises Institute points out:

“The EU, of course, is an anti-democratic organization, which one speaker in the film notes is designed to be nearly totally insulated from the will of the voters in the member countries. The EU is run not by political appointees and the unelected European Commission. 

 A conglomeration of dozens of faceless, secretive commissions, offices, and ministries, the EU is a bureaucrat’s paradise where powerful people remain largely anonymous and safe to carry out their endless array of schemes without any fear of retribution from the voters anywhere. Virtually no one can name any of the most powerful people in the EU, whether one of the EU’s five presidents, or other powerful members of the EU organizations.”

In other words, unelected, anonymous bureaucrats will decide what constitutes “hate speech,” which to them is anything that doesn’t fit into their agenda to gain more power over the population.

Beyond national laws that criminalize hate speech, there is a need to ensure such activity by Internet users is “expeditiously reviewed by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame,” the companies and the European Commission said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

But who are these “online intermediaries” that will help EU bureaucrats eradicate “hate speech?”

Well, in Feb. Twitter announced it was organizing a “Trust & Safety Council” with feminist and Islamic groups to “prevent abuse, harassment, and bullying,” which, of course, leads to mass censorship.

The organizations taking part on the council include Feminist Frequency, GLAAD and even an Islamic advocacy group.

“Most of the groups listed are merely collections of people with an axe to grind, and my, how the lefties do love their acronyms,” a commenter at the Free Republic stated. “They also love their oxymorons: ‘outreach’ and ‘shutting down expression’ are a contradiction in terms yet Twitter is determined to conflate them and to enforce that conflation.”

To sum it up, this war on “hate speech” is nothing more than a program to control not only what people say but also what they think.

“No matter how implausible an idea [open borders, gun control, global government, etc.] may seem, it can gain acceptance in the minds of the citizens as the forces of PC relentlessly hype the idea in the public square [such as Facebook or Twitter],” former intelligence officer Stella Morabito revealed, with my own comments added for context. “Simultaneously, the voices that might challenge and analyze the idea must be suppressed — accusations of bigotry and hatred often do the trick — so that the PC idea has a chance to incubate and then affect public opinion.”

And that’s it in a nutshell: Facebook and Twitter are working with globalist bureaucrats and their “social justice warrior” puppets to sway public opinion on their virtual, one-world “empire” that would ultimately erase the importance of real nation-states.

Appeals Court Delivers Devastating Blow to Cellphone-Privacy Advocates

COURTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY are grappling with a key question for the information age: When law enforcement asks a company for cellphone records to track location data in an investigation, is that a search under the Fourth Amendment?

By a 12-3 vote, appellate court judges in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday ruled that it is not — and therefore does not require a warrant.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld what is known as the third-party doctrine: a legal theory suggesting that consumers who knowingly and willingly surrender information to third parties therefore have “no reasonable expectation of privacy” in that information — regardless of how much information there is, or how revealing it is.

Research clearly shows that cell-site location data collected over time can reveal a tremendous amount of personal information — like where you live, where you work, when you travel, who you meet with, and who you sleep with. And it’s impossible to make a call without giving up your location to the cellphone company.

“Supreme Court precedent mandates this conclusion,” Judge Diana Motz wrote in the majority opinion. “For the Court has long held that an individual enjoys no Fourth Amendment protection ‘in information he voluntarily turns over to [a] third part[y].’” The quote was from the 1979 Supreme Court case Smith v. Maryland.

The 5th, 6th, and 11th circuits have reached the same conclusion.

However, there’s been a lot of disagreement within the lower courts and among privacy advocates that the third-party doctrine is consistent with the way people live their lives in the digital age — primarily on their cellphones.

A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit in fact first ruled last August that getting cell-site records in bulk did constitute a search, triggering a warrant requirement. In the case, United States v. Graham, the government obtained 221 days’ worth of records belonging to a robbery suspect in Baltimore.

The panel’s opinion relied heavily on a separate legal theory, called mosaic theory, to come to that conclusion: the argument that even if one instance of evidence gathering doesn’t count as a search, asking for a large number of data points can eventually amount to one.

For a while, it looked like there might be a split in the lower courts that would require the Supreme Court to reconsider the third-party doctrine.

But now that the 4th Circuit has ruled, that seems less likely.

Privacy advocates were disappointed:

Syrian Border Chaos, Turkey Invades Syria - Clearly Supporting ISIS, Weapons Being Tested In Syria

Syrian Border Chaos as NATO Aims to Win Proxy War

An engineered drama unfolds along the Turkish-Syrian border as terrorists armed and backed by a US-led coalition including NATO-member Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar allegedly battle both the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS) and Syrian-backed “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) near and around the Syrian city of Azaz.

Reuters in a recent article titled, “Islamic State advance near Turkish border, civilians trapped,” reports that:

Islamic State fighters captured territory from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border on Friday and inched closer to a town on a supply route for foreign-backed insurgents fighting the jihadists, a monitoring group said. 

The hardline group has been fighting against rebels in the area for several months. The rebels, who are supplied via Turkey, last month staged a major push against Islamic State, but the group counter-attacked and beat them back.

Reuters, however, leaves out very crucial information – information that if concludes, would raise suspicions about the entire narrative alleged across Western media outlets like Reuters.

If rebels are being directly supplied across the Turkish-Syrian border by a multinational coalition, how is it possible that ISIS forces are somehow better equipped and able to overwhelm these forces? The length of any ISIS logistical line supporting its fighters in this alleged battle – if not also extending over the Turkish-Syrian border in the immediate vicinity of the fighting, must be hundreds of miles long and in itself an immense strain on ISIS’ fighting capacity.

It would be rather remarkable, in fact, unbelievable for ISIS to somehow not be being aided and abetted from directly across the Turkish-Syrian border where allegedly “foreign-backed insurgents” are allegedly receiving aid from nations like the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

And in fact, ISIS, as well as Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front, are accused of receiving such aid via Turkey – most recently with the Russian General Staff accusing Al Nusra of receiving “daily arms shipments across the border from Turkey.”

For Syria, securing its own borders has been infinitely problematic. Attempts to approach and retake territory along the borders has been met not only by obviously Turkish-backed terrorist forces, but also by NATO-backed Turkish military provocations. Turkey regularly shells Syrian territory. Its aircraft and anti-aircraft systems have regularly been deployed along the border attempting to deter first Syrian, then Russian aircraft from targeting the streams of supplies being sent into Syrian territory to sustain terrorist groups including ISIS and Al Nusra.

Attempting to avoid a more direct and costly confrontation with Turkey has forced Syria and its allies to take a more indirect means of securing the borders, using SDF fighters to occupy and face off against Turkish and NATO forces without implicating Damascus directly.

Conversely, the use of these irregular forces has given NATO apparent leeway to make incursions of its own into Syrian territory – as they can claim they are not fighting Syrian forces, but merely “Kurdish terrorists.” While this chaffs directly with America’s alleged support of Kurdish groups elsewhere in the country, this is mitigated by a feigned political fallout between Washington and Ankara – despite US forces still graciously being hosted in Turkey and the two still clearly working in tandem toward the destruction of neighboring Syria.

A multinational peacekeeping force placed along Syria’s northern border or Syrian-Russian bases placed further north may force one of two moves by the US and its collaborators. Directly attacking peacekeepers or Syrian-Russian bases from Turkish territory risking a wider war, or using proxies in Turkish territory, but at the cost of further exposing Washington and Ankara’s hands in propping up and perpetuating Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Turkey invades Syria: Army spotted near Aleppo 

Turkey has reportedly launched a ground invasion of Syria over the memorial day weekend. Their army units are currently being spotted in vicinity of Aleppo.

Reports first broke Friday on the Al Mayadeen TV Channel that Turkish soldiers had set a checkpoint near the city of Afrin, a predominately Kurdish city located 60 km Northwest of Aleppo province. Prior to the troop movement, Turkish artillery had barraged areas of the Syrian Aleppo province including Menagh Military Airbase (50km from Aleppo), a captured ISIS airbase occupied by Kurdish People’s Protection Units near the city of Azaz. Pravda reported the strikes hit civilian homes.

On Monday, Ahmet Arac, a member of the Democratic Majlis of Syria and of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PDS) confirmed to Sputnik the validity of previous reports Erdogan’s forces had crossed the Turkish-Syrian border Friday.

“Yesterday the Turkish Army carried out rocket attacks on the positions of Democratic Forces of Syria,” Arac said. “Two days ago, the Turkish military entered the village of Hamam in Afrin area. We are ready to repel any attack. Meanwhile, FSA units are suffering serious defeat in clashes with Daesh. They have already lost control of 12 villages. If Daesh comes to Azaz, ‘Democratic Syrian Forces’ will repel the jihadists, and not allow them to enter the city.” Arac warned.

On Tuesday FARS News Agency, Tehran’s unofficial mouthpiece, reported that several units of the Turkish Army had crossed the border with Aleppo province in Northern Syria and have deployed forces in vicinity of Azaz and Marea. FNA quoted Sputnik’s Monday source, Ahmet Arac, as saying that “hundreds of the Turkish soldiers crossed the Syrian border at Bab al-Salameh border-crossing and deployed their forces in al-Shahba’a region near Marea and Azaz.”

Arac also said the Turkish Army had carried out rocket attacks Sunday on the positions of Democratic Forces of Syria and that on Saturday Turkish military forces had once again crossed into Syria, were heading toward the Northern province of Aleppo, and had set up a checkpoint in the region.

The FNA article also stated that a large number of Turkish soldiers, accompanied by several armored vehicles, entered the territory of Syria from Jandires region, 700 meter away from the Northwestern lands of Aleppo, and set up a military checkpoint to monitor civilians’ movements in the border region.

ERDOGAN’S LINK TO ISIS

If true, these latest moves by Erdogan’s regime constitute an outright invasion of Syrian sovereignty. Syrian President Bashar Assad has previously condemned Turkey as a complicit arm of ISIS, and has said that the insurgent forces are receiving physical aid from the government of both Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

In an interview with Sputnik on March 31st Assad said:

“..Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia, have crossed all possible red lines, possibly from the first weeks of the Syrian war. Today, the war against Erdogan and against Saudi Arabia is a war against terrorists. The Turkish army, which is not even Turkish, is Erdogan’s army that is fighting today in Syria. Everything that Ankara and Riyadh have done from the very beginning can be considered aggression. Aggression in a political sense or in a military sense – providing terrorists with arms – or direct aggression with the use of artillery, and other military violations. 

Erdogan is directly supporting the terrorists as he allows them to move into Turkish territory, to carry out maneuvers with tanks. 

But if true, what exactly does Turkey look to accomplish by this land incursion and directly supporting ISIS? Andrei Manoilo, Doctor of Political Sciences and a Professor at Moscow State University told Pravda that:

“I think that Turkey is going to unblock a part of the Syrian-Turkish border, because the Russian and Syrian forces, as well as Kurdish units, intend to take the Syrian-Turkish border entirely under their control to cut the channels of illegal arms supplies from Turkey to the terrorist group in Aleppo. Storming a large city is always extremely difficult. Terrorists from Jabhat en-Nusra and ISIL still hold a half of the city. If they are deprived of supplies, if their channels are cut, then the group in Aleppo is doomed to destruction. Turkey does not like such a prospect, so they intend to change the situation – they need to push the Syrian troops away from the border.”

Weapons Tested in Syria: Russia’s Pantsir S2 Mobile Air Defense Missile Gun System

This February Russia deployed a new version of the Pantsir S2 air defense system to its Khmeimim airbase in Syria.

This is the newest short-to-medium range, mobile, fully autonomous system in Russia’s inventory designed to protect infrastructure and troops. 

The system is an “engagement cupola” with a 40 km radius and a 15 km height. The combined missile + 30 mm autocannon setup makes it an effective weapon against aircraft, cruise missiles, helicopters, anti-radiation missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets and even artillery shells. The list includes high velocity targets flying at over 3600 km/h, “stealth” aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).  

The armament consists of 12 surface-to-air guided missiles and two 30 mm automatic guns. The reaction time is 4–6 seconds.

The new 57E6-E missile installed on the Pantsir SM2 version can shoot down airborne targets flying up to Mach 3 (1,000 m/s) at ranges between 1.2 to 20 kilometers and altitudes varying from 5 to 10,000 meters. Minimal range is 1 km. Maximum altitude is 8 km. Also noteworthy is the heavy weight of the warhead (16–20 kg) at the small launch weight of the missile (90 kg), along with the employment of rod subprojectiles in the warhead ensuring positive engagement of a broad class of targets. The warhead has a form of “continuous rod”. The effectiveness of elongated rod warhead is proportional to warhead length and inversely proportional to warhead diameter. The missile is believed to have a hit probability of 70–95% and have a 15-year storage lifetime in its sealed containers.

Stoltenberg says NATO ready to respond to ‘assertive Russia’

Draft paper: Germany to boost military role on world stage

Women Sexually Assaulted at Music Concert by Mobs of Muslim Migrants

Rising Anti-Semitism In Europe

This is part of a continuing story, this particular episode applies to Paris, but is being observed throughout Europe:

Rising anti-Semitism forces Jews out of Paris suburbs

Jews who have lived peacefully in the suburbs of Paris are now having to move to other parts of the country or head for Israel to escape anti-Semtism.

When Alain Benhamou walked into his apartment near Paris in July 2015 and saw the words "dirty Jew" scrawled on the wall, he knew it was time to leave.

It was his second such break-in in less than three months and the 71-year-old no longer felt welcome in Bondy, a Parisian suburb he had called home for more than 40 years.

"Until the years 2000-2005, the town was nice and quiet, with 250 to 300 Jewish families and synagogues full on the Sabbath," Benhamou says.

"Now, only about a hundred Jewish families remain."

Benhamou is part of a growing number of French Jews who have effectively become internal refugees, fleeing insecurity and seeking protection in numbers in an atmosphere they say is increasingly hostile, and often expressed in relation to conflict in the Middle East.

He moved a few miles south to Villemomble, where there is a larger and more established Jewish community.

But others have fled France altogether.

A record 8,000 or so French Jews moved to Israel in 2015 alone, according to Israeli figures, in the year that a jihadist gunman linked to the Charlie Hebdo newspaper attackers killed four Jews in a kosher supermarket.

France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, estimated at 500,000 to 600,000 people.

Half of them live in the Paris region but their numbers have declined steadily over the past 15 years, researchers say.

Jerome Fourquet of polling firm IFOP says the change started around 2000 following a fresh surge of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, known as the second intifada.

With France also home to Europe's largest Muslim community, which counts around five million members, the bloodshed in the Middle East unleashed a wave of unrest, particularly in the Paris region which saw a surge in anti-Semitic acts and threats, he says.

A disappearing community

Benhamou still lives within the sprawling Seine-Saint-Denis department that sits northeast of the capital and combines run-down immigrant ghettos with trendy new gentrified business districts.

In the last 15 years, it has gone from being one of France's most densely-populated Jewish areas to what the community now considers "one of the lost territories of the Republic".

"The Jewish community is expected to disappear from here," Benhamou says.

In nearby Raincy, Rabbi Moshe Lewin shares Benhamou's pessimism, fearing he could be one of the last Jewish leaders in Seine-Saint-Denis.

"What upsets me is that in some areas of France, Jews can no longer live peacefully, and that just five minutes from my home, some are forced to hide their kippas (skullcaps) or their Star of David," he admits.

Even areas with a strong Jewish population, such as Sarcelles to the north, still have major problems.

Francois Pupponi, the Socialist mayor of Sarcelles, says many Jewish residents come to him for help with stories of being assaulted or having swastikas daubed on walls outside their homes.

Some have been caught in "extremely violent situations" that in some cases required families to be "urgently rehoused", says Pupponi.

He become aware of "a phenomenon of internal migration" about five or six years ago, which he says "is getting worse".

Things To Come: Venezuela, Economic Chaos, New Economic Order

Alan Greenspan Warns That Venezuelan Style Martial Law Will Soon Come To The US

It seems barely a day passes now without some big name person warning of imminent collapse.  The latest is Alan Greenspan.

In an interview on Thursday he told Fox News that Venezuela is now under martial law and that “America is next.” He said that what was happening in Venezuela was inevitably going to take place in the US.

I agree with this.  In fact, we said this exact thing just last week with our article, “Venezuela Descends Into Chaos… Europe and US Next.” Funny enough, a few brainwashed sheeple said we were crazy for saying it.  Now Greenspan has said the same thing… is he crazy?  Actually, don’t answer that.

But while we agree with Greenspan that crisis is coming to the US, that’s where our agreement ends.  We say it is coming to the US because the conditions in the US are not that much different than Venezuela – and the globalist plan is to turn the entire world into Venezuela.

Greenspan, on the other hand, is already trying to divert attention from the real cause of Venezuela’s problems: the government and central banking.

Instead, he explained that the reason the US would end up like Venezuela involved a “global problem of a shortage of productivity growth.” It is this lack of productive growth that creates and expands an economic crisis, he claimed.

This is Greenspeak at its finest.  The problems in Venezuela aren’t due to an extreme socialist government and a Keynesian money-printing central bank, according to him… no, the problem is just that things aren’t growing fast enough!

Well, to an extent that is true.  Things aren’t growing at all in Venezuela. In fact they are imploding at a rate I’ve never personally witnessed before.  But that isn’t the root cause of the problem.  The reason why Venezuela’s economy isn’t growing is BECAUSE of the government and the central bank!

Of course, you’ll never hear a central bankster admit that.  The problem is never them. It’s always some obtuse economic buzzphrase like a “lack of productivity growth.”

Greenspan continued by downplaying the role of central banking and government in the Venezuela disaster.  He then focused on the Federal Reserve and continued his lying. He said what the Fed did now was less important than what the markets did. While more money was available, actual production was not. Too many older people and too few resources. That was the problem.

This is how Greenspan is explaining the expanding crisis of debt, socialism and price inflation. It is coming from lack of productivity.

Additionally, older workers prefer to be recipients of “social benefits” and this also has a negative impact on productivity, he claimed. He warned that if the US, for instance, could not move productivity up from around two percent, social benefits and other obligations start to become impossible to fund.

So, once again, the problem isn’t that the government created a Ponzi scheme we call Socialist InSecurity. The problem is that the markets aren’t creating enough wealth to fund said Ponzi scheme.

And that necessary growth is impossible.  Between central bank monetary manipulation, managed trade, regulatory demands and currency debasement, modern Western economies are barely functioning at all. Only the largest multinationals can manage to survive competitively in such an environment, and many of them are not exactly thriving.  Even Coca Cola has had to pull out of Venezuela and now Lufthansa has cut flights to the country.

Greenspan wants to blame the West’s industrial slump on a lack of productivity and “growth.” This is propaganda, and he knows it is.  And if he doesn’t know it then he’s swallowed too much Keynesian Kool-Aid.  Go home Greenspan, you’re drunk.

The main cause of ruin over time is central bank money debasement – not some mysterious missing “growth.” And government generally makes things worse via regulations, taxation and debt.

Greenspan should know this. He’s not a stupid man.

But Greenspan is part of the central banking clique. He does what he’s told to do. And he is obviously supposed to make sure that people do not blame central banking, regulations and other government activities for the perma-depression that is now taking place in Venezuela, Latin America, Asia, China and the West.

There is, in fact, worse to come, as we  have often pointed out. This year, Jubilee 2016, is a “building year” for world government. The EU for instance is creating a pan-European army and is also “giving” all European residents tax ID numbers. And China is adding the yuan to the International Monetary Fund’s SDR currency basket on October 1st, just the day before the Jubilee Year ends on October 2nd.

Things are not going to get any better in 2016, only worse. The idea is obviously to create convulsive economic chaos that will help usher in a new economic order. In the meantime, Greenspan is supposed to distract your attention.

I went to Venezuela recently as you probably know and predicted just what Greenspan is talking about. But unlike Greenspan, I blamed the problems that Venezuela is having on an oppressive government and destructive central bank policies. That’s obvious to anyone who looks at Venezuela without an agenda. But Greenspan and his crowd have an agenda. They want globalism, and they want it soon. And they will mislead, cheat and destroy to get what they want.

We’ve now had George Soros, Carl Icahn, Stanley Druckenmiller, Jim Rogers, the IMF and the World Bank warn that we are on the verge of a crisis of biblical proportions.  Greenspan even said that what is happening in Venezuela, complete with martial law, will come to the US.  At what point do you start to listen and begin to protect yourself?

Turkish Military Enters Syrian Village, EU and U.S. Support A 'Savage Dictator', TTIP Tensions Escalate

'Turkish Military Enters Syrian Village' Amid Concerns of Invasion

Member of the Democratic Majlis of Syria and of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PDS), Ahmet Arac, spoke to Sputnik about how the Turkish Army is preparing to invade Syria.

Amid violent clashes between militants of Daesh and troops of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the town of Azaz in northern Aleppo district, reports are surfacing suggesting that the Turkish Army units have been seen located in the district of Azaz.

Earlier, the Democratic People's Movement stated that the Turkish military occupied the village of Hamam in Afrin region and called on the world community to condemn such acts.

One of the leaders of the Majlis of Democratic Syria, which is part of the Democratic Forces of Syria and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, Ahmet Arac, told Sputnik that the Turkish Armed Forces are preparing an offensive in the Azaz area.

“Yesterday the Turkish Army carried out rocket attacks on the positions of Democratic Forces of Syria.”

“Two days ago, the Turkish military entered the village of Hamam in Afrin area. We are ready to repel any attack. Meanwhile, FSA units are suffering serious defeat in clashes with Daesh. They have already lost control of 12 villages. If Daesh comes to Azaz, ‘Democratic Syrian Forces’ will repel the jihadists, and not allow them to enter the city,” Arac stressed.

The US and the EU Support a Savage Dictator

On May 6 a court in Istanbul, acting on the orders of Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan, sentenced the editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper to five years and ten months in prison for publishing a report about illegal provision of weapons to Islamist terrorists in Syria by Turkey’s secret service. His bureau chief got five years.

Two weeks later Istanbul was host to the World Humanitarian Summit, which was held «to stand up for our common humanity and take action to prevent and reduce human suffering». Attendance included 65 heads of state. It was the usual total waste of time (Oxfam called it «an expensive talking shop» and those who refused to be there included President Putin and the global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières), but the point is that a humanitarian conference should never have been held in Turkey, which is being transformed into a dictatorship by a president who is well-described by Professor Alan Sked of the London School of Economics as «a volatile, unstable, highly authoritarian personality».

The professor went on to observe that Erdogan «has pursued a civil war in his own country and has clamped down on the opposition and social media at will. Thousands have been imprisoned for merely criticising him. He has ordered the shooting down of a Russian warplane, and his country has been accused by Russia of trafficking secretly in oil with Isis. He cannot be trusted...»

Erdogan is a bigoted thug, yet the international community rushed to his country to hold a humanitarian conference and foreign heads of state flock to press his hand in friendship. He is treated with deference around the world and there can be no public criticism of him in the many countries that have laws prohibiting disparagement of heads of state and holding defamation and insult of their leaders to be a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.

In January over 1,100 Turkish academics signed a letter asking Erdogan to cease his merciless blitz on Kurdish centres in the south east of the country. Thousands of Kurds had been (and continue to be) killed and crippled by ground and air assaults of merciless savagery. Erdogan’s response to the petition was to declare that these compassionate scholars «spit out hatred of our nation’s values and history on every occasion. The petition has made this clearer... In a state of law like Turkey, so-called academics who target the unity of our nation have no right to commit crimes. They don’t have immunity for this».

Some thirty of the humanitarian signatories were arrested and fifteen were dismissed from their university posts. They live under constant threat, as do all who attempt to disagree with the imperial president.

Yet Erdogan’s Turkey is strongly supported by the United States and by the European Union, albeit for very different reasons.

The US backs him because he supports Washington’s efforts to destroy President Assad of Syria and is a strident and aggressive opponent of Russia, while the EU is behind him because if he chose he could control the influx of Syrian refugees to Europe.

So Erdogan can persecute and jail as many journalists and academics as he likes, while continuing to slaughter Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and although there may be a few murmurs of disapproval in Brussels and Washington there will be no action whatever taken by either the US or the EU to stop the President of Turkey wielding absolute power over his people.

In spite of all the evidence, the United States refuses to acknowledge that Erdogan’s Turkey has sent massive quantities of weaponry to Islamic terrorist groups who are prepared to kill Kurds. It does not appear to matter to Washington that «Not only has Erdoğan done almost everything he can to cripple the forces actually fighting ISIS; there is considerable evidence that his government has been at least tacitly aiding ISIS itself».

Unless the US and the EU bring pressure to bear on Erdogan to restore democracy in his country, he will continue to suppress and persecute his critics and continue his killing spree. But he is too valuable to them for that to happen. All they will do is hold more humanitarian conferences.

Iraqi forces enter IS-held Fallujah in major offensive

 Iraqi forces entered the Islamic State group bastion of Fallujah from three directions on Monday in a new phase of the operation to recapture the city, commanders said.

“Iraqi forces entered Fallujah under air cover from the international coalition, the Iraqi air force and army aviation and supported by artillery and tanks, said Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the commander in charge of the operation.

“Counter-terrorism service (CTS) forces, the Anbar police and the Iraqi army, at around 4 am (0100 GMT), started moving into Fallujah from three directions,” he said.

“There is resistance from Daesh,” he added, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

CTS spokesman Sabah al-Norman told AFP: “We started early this morning our operations to break into Fallujah.”

The involvement of the elite CTS marks the start of a phase of urban combat in a city where US forces in 2004 fought some of their toughest battles since the Vietnam War.

The week-old operation had previously focused on retaking villages and rural areas around Fallujah, which lies just 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

Only a few hundred families managed to slip out of the Fallujah area ahead of the assault on the city, with an estimated 50,000 civilians still trapped inside, sparking fears the jihadists could try to use them as human shields.

Fallujah is one of just two major urban centers in Iraq still held by IS. They also hold a second city Mosul.

TTIP tensions escalate in email exchange between EU, US

As the US and EU continue to secretly debate the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), talks aren’t only taking place behind closed doors. Frustrations are also being aired online, according to emails obtained by Politico.

An email sent on Friday and obtained by the website shows the European Commission warning the 28 EU ambassadors in Brussels that there will be no TTIP deal unless Washington changes its approach to negotiations.

The document focuses on agriculture, one of the most contentious of the 27 chapters currently under negotiation in TTIP talks.

The email expresses the Commission’s concern that “the EU has not seen substantial progress in areas of significant importance to EU agriculture, such as geographical indications, wine and non-tariff barriers.”

It goes on to state that “the US Administration does not yet seem to be in a place where it can reciprocate the EU’s efforts in TTIP and to start delivering on matters of EU interest.”

The email, written from the office of European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan, was agreed upon by several Commission departments, and President Jean-Claude Juncker’s office was aware of it being sent to the EU ambassadors, according to separate emails seen by Politico.

The TTIP has been controversial since it was first proposed. Backers, including US President Barack Obama, stress that it would create the world’s largest free-trade zone, claiming the more integrated marketplace would help small businesses by opening up markets and making customs processes easier. They also say it would reduce trade tariffs on products.

However, many Europeans say the TTIP would place corporate interest above national interest, stressing that international corporations would be given power at the expense of small and medium-sized businesses. The secrecy surrounding the talks has also come under fierce criticism.

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Where's The Comfort?

Where’s the Comfort? Terry James

Pre-Trib belief antagonists are on the rise. Rapture critics, even among those who claim to believe in the eventuality of a Rapture, just not the pre-Tribulation view of that event, purport to present evidence on every side that our times trumpet the obvious: The world is about to enter the Tribulation. Christ’s call to believers, they say, just isn’t going to happen before Christians suffer at least part of the terrors of that beastly era.

They offer that anyone with knowledge of issues and events going on should recognize that the New World Order bunch is transforming America and the world into the kingdom of Antichrist. All is about to come together for the Gog-led invasion into the Middle East. As a matter of fact, many hold that World War III has already begun.

Advanced computer and other control technologies and instrumentalities are in place for locking everyone on the planet into fiscal bondage and physical slavery to the final empire as prophesied by Daniel.

Those of us who believe there is coming a supernatural Rapture-escape from these judgments on sinful mankind are just living in fantasy land is the collective message I infer from emails and articles that increasingly assault my senses. That I, and all of you, should begin prepping with food, water, gold, silver, and finding a good bunker in which to hunker down during these upcoming days seem to me to be the things these Rapture naysayers are presenting. Seldom do I hear coming from our opponents on the question of the Rapture the admonition to be trying to witness with all our might the gospel of Jesus Christ. I guess there will be plenty of time for that once the Antichrist regime is firmly in place.

While the Pre-Trib proponent holds at the heart of his effort winning as many souls to Christ as possible so those saved won’t go through that time of horrors, many of the anti-Rapture antagonists want to do things to make sure they are more comfortable while trying to survive that hellish time.

Coincidentally–or perhaps not–these just happen to, in some cases of TV and other ministries who openly disdain the thought of Rapture, offer for sale all of these things for survival. The packaged food items invariably are proclaimed to have shelf lives of three decades or longer. So, we can, if we survive, have these supplies to partake of well into the Millennium, I suppose. This, based upon the general theme that they believe the seven-year Tribulation, not the Rapture, is imminent. There have been over the past few years a number of debates taking place on whether there will be the Pre-Trib Rapture or not. The best I’ve heard was the one at the Pre-Trib study group meetings when Dr. Mark Hitchcock completely destroyed the anti-Rapture arguments of the Bible Answer Man.

There are some such debates scheduled for prophecy conferences in the near future. These will perhaps offer new food for thought, but I doubt whether they will change minds on either side of the controversy.

Personally, I believe the time for debate on this matter is past. It is time now to just offer the assurance of that soon to come exhilarating moment when Christ will say “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

There are so many scriptural assurances of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture that we could fill many articles with them. As a matter of fact, we have done just that on the Rapture Ready website.

I wish to mention only one Rapture factor here, because I believe it is the most reassuring of all truth in God’s telling His children that they are not appointed to His wrath. Here we interject the question proposed in our title: Where’s the Comfort? By that we ask: What comfort is there in the argument that Christians will go through the Tribulation?

Paul the apostle first assures us of this fact: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). But, it is the next thought from the mind of God that should cause warm reassurance in the spiritual heart of every believer: “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Get it? We are to “comfort” ourselves, not wring our hands looking for these things to destroy us or to look for Antichrist. We are to be looking for our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

There is no comfort –nor is there directive in God’s Word–to be had in anticipating going through the time of God’s wrath and almost certain martyrdom (probably by beheading). There is no comfort in looking for the worst dictator in the planet’s history to hunt us down and lop off our heads.

Here is what God’s Word promises instead of the dreaded scenario proposed by the Rapture antagonists:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

Does The Existence Of Israel Prove The Existence Of God?

Video: Does the Existence of Israel Prove the Existence of God?

[This short video is most definitely worth watching...and sharing]

The rebirth of Israel as a nation-state, in such perfect correspondence with prophecies thousands of years old, is the most tangible evidence that God is real, and that He is faithful to His word.

The above video is part of a much larger series produced by the Messianic ministry One For Israel on their Internet portal iGod.co.il (Hebrew only).

The aim of these videos is to cause fellow Israeli Jews, so many of whom have turned their backs on God in their frustration with today’s religious authorities, to reexamine the evidence before them.

Fake Caliphate: Loss of Raqqa Will ‘End Sponsors From Foreign Nations’

The militants of Daesh after a series of defeats are now quickly strengthening positions in Raqqa, while the rest “Democratic Forces of Syria” are advancing quickly on the city.

A Sunni Arab family that recently managed to escape from Raqqa and is staying in a refugee camp near Irbil, spoke to RIA Novosti correspondent saying that Daesh is suffering one defeat after another.

With the support of Russian aviation, Syrians have managed to free the ancient town of Palmyra. Now the Iraqi army and Kurds are advancing in Raqqa to liberate it from the clutches of terrorists.

“Militants are getting really angry and can kill a man without any reason. If someone talks back to them or if they just don’t like someone, they can kill them. There is looting and robbery of property as well,” one of the family members told a RIA Novosti correspondent in an interview.

Iraqi and Syrian Kurds are trying to cut off Daesh from Turkey, from which the militants are getting food and weapons supplies after sending them oil and looted artifacts from historic monuments in return.

As the situation is getting tenser with the ongoing fighting in the northern territories there have been major shortages of food in Raqqa and other cities.

“Now it is not so easy to buy macaroni or even beans and no one has any money. The militants distribute food to those who work for them or are associated with them, such as officials of Daesh, the members of Sharia police, widows of killed militants and so on,” the family member explained.

According to him, the civilians of Raqqa are highly anticipating the assault on the city by the “Democratic Syrian Forces.” Already, the city is constantly being bombed by the US and French aircraft.

On the other hand, Daesh is not willing to give up Raqqa easily. “A large force of insurgents, maybe two or three thousand people have been pulled into Raqqa. There are troops coming in from Mosul. Militants are building barricades at the entrance to Raqqa.”

“They are equipping the city for an ambush. Everything indicates that they are preparing for defending the city and are not willing to give it up,” the family member said.

After liberation of Palmyra from Daesh’s grip, the militants now have Raqqa as their only stronghold. The loss of Raqqa may cause Daesh a severe reputational blow.

Based on the ideology of Salafism, the true Caliphate should only grow exponentially. It should capture more and more cities. If that does not happen than the proclaimed caliphate by al-Baghdadi is fake. This may lead to a large number of fanatical Islamiststo abandon Daesh ranks and that may eventually put an end to sponsors from Sunni countries.

Graphic Pics: Migrants Fleeing Islamic State Risk Bringing Deadly Flesh Eating Disease To Europe

A flesh-eating tropical disease is ravaging the war-torn Middle East, after Islamic State destruction created the ideal breeding conditions.

The parasitic disease called Cutaneous leishmaniasis is caused by bites from tiny infected sand flies which thriving in the squalid conditions left in the wake of Islamic State terror and conflict.

Thousands of cases have now been reported. Previous, it was contained in Syria but has spread to Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan after more than four million Syrians fled there.

With the same migrants now heading on to Europe in their millions, it could be just a matter of times before it reaches the West.

The disease can kill if left untreated, and creates open sores on the skin, nosebleeds and difficulties breathing and swallowing. Survivors are often left with horrific scars.

A lack of medical facilities and doctors, coupled with serious water shortages, in the war-torn Middles East have allowed to condition to take hold, and spread.

The Kurdish Red Crescent had previously claimed that rotting corpses dumped on the streets by Islamic State fighters were contributing to the spread of the disease. Scientists at the School of Tropical Medicine have disputed this claim.

The number of cases has shot up from just six in 2012, to thousands just a year later. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the disease has recently begun to flourish in Syria’s neighbouring countries.

The hard cost of amnesty: $6.3 trillion in benefits handed out to illegals

Apologists for open borders regularly refute the fact that illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers far more than they contribute to society, but a new study not only proves that but notes that such costs are only going to skyrocket if new "reform" legislation under consideration in the Senate becomes law.

The conservative Heritage Foundation, in a new report, said the new law would cost taxpayers up to $6.3 trillion "if 11 million illegal immigrants are granted legal status," Fox News said, citing the report:

The cost would arise from illegal immigrants tapping into the government's vast network of benefits and services, many of which are currently unavailable to them. This includes everything from standard benefits like Social Security and Medicare to dozens of welfare programs ranging from housing assistance to food stamps.

"No matter how you slice it, amnesty will add a tremendous amount of pressure on America's already strained public purse," said Heritage scholar Robert Rector, who prepared the report.

"There's no way you can look at this and say that it's good for the American taxpayer," he told Fox News.

In past immigration debates, Republicans have traditionally held a hard line against any form of amnesty, which is what the current Senate bill would grant. But this time around, Republicans - encouraged by open-borders advocates in Corporate America and on Wall Street (it's the cheaper labor, you see) are siding with no borders Democrats (who know that most will vote for their party once they are given citizenship).

The losers? The American taxpayer and American cultural integrity.

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