Today represents one of the more interesting days in terms of the news. Read carefully 'between the lines' and come up with your own conclusion, but today is one of those days in which you should take a step back and view the big picture:
Less than 48 hours after the Israeli army reportedly attacked targets in Syria on Friday-Saturday, a Syrian cell on Sunday tried to mount a terror attack against targets inside Israeli territory.
Israel fired on the cell, which was composed of Druze gunmen, scoring a direct hit as its members attempted to plant a large explosive device intended for future use against Israeli army troops or civilians moving near the border.
Contrary to initial reports, the cell was not part of Hezbollah, which has not been operating in this fashion recently. Except for a rocket attack on the Givati troops in late January, Hezbollah has been trying to avoid leaving fingerprints that would draw an Israeli response.
The fact is, however, that most of the Druze on the Syrian Golan Heights remain loyal to the regime of Bashar Assad and to the Hezbollah troops who fight for him. No distinction can be made any longer between the Syrian and Lebanese fronts, or between the Syrian army and the Druze on the one hand and Hezbollah on the other.
Hezbollah has been using Druze, Palestinians and, of course, Assad’s own troops to strike at Israeli targets. For more than a year, this has been one front where Hezbollah has been trying to take advantage of the power vacuum in the Syrian area in order to create a deterrent balance against Israel.
The latest reports in Lebanon say that Hezbollah is planning another “large-scale attack” in the Qalamun region – an area which, for Hassan Nasrallah’s people, is the doorway to Lebanon. It is the strip of territory through which arms are smuggled to Hezbollah, and is also a problematic route used by Sunni terrorists who wish to act against Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is why the mountain ridge is so important to Hezbollah, and the reason Hezbollah has decided to rid it of Islamic State’s presence.
Another result of the new order in the Middle East is that Lebanon, as a state, no longer exists. While it is true that the situation there is nothing like as anarchic and bloody as the situation in Syria or in Iraq, that is mainly because of Hezbollah’s troops. The place is Hezbollahland.
For months, Lebanon’s most powerful elements there have failed to appoint a new president, because of the harsh dispute between the camps. They cannot even agree on the next chief of staff of the Lebanese army.
Not that it makes any difference. Hezbollah will keep on controlling Lebanon – with or without a president.
The Party of God – Hezbollah – is stretched thin, pulled in different directions by the axles of its ideology, raising a host of questions for Israel as tensions flare along the northern border.
On Sunday night, after two airstrikes in Syria that were attributed to Israel, forces on the Syrian Golan Heights, apparently operating under the auspices of Hezbollah, attempted to lay a mine along the border fence targeting IDF personnel. The squad was picked up by Israeli surveillance and killed by an IAF aircraft. The questions that linger in the wake of that strike and counter-strike relate to the clandestine war waged in the shadow of the Syrian civil war: To what extent do the covert actions risk a full-scale war? Is such a development at this time in Israel’s favor? And what, precisely, are the restraining factors?
Militarily, Amidror said, “there are tremendous advantages” to Israel launching a preemptive war. Citing the 1956 campaign in the Sinai – in which Israel seized control of the heavily fortified desert within a week – and the 1982 Lebanon War – in which four divisions tore through Lebanon and reached the outskirts of Beirut within a similar time frame – he said that he is aware “of at least one person” within Israel’s security establishment who is eager for Hezbollah to overstep its bounds in response to the allegedly Israeli airstrikes. Israel, in such an instance, he said, could capitalize on that, as it did in June 1982 after the London assassination attempt on Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov, and strike Hezbollah while it is stretched thin.
As for whether or not such actions might unintentionally tip the delicate balance toward war, both he and Amidror concurred that Israel and Hezbollah are performing a balancing act over a precipitously high drop. “It’s a risk,” Amidror said. “Every time anew.”
The overarching theme at the 2015 Asian-African Conference in Indonesia this week was the need for “a new economic world order”.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were roundly criticised for failing to deliver solutions for the global economy to alleviate poverty, distribute wealth and close the inequality gap.
At the opening of the conference in Jakarta, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the World Bank and the IMF are reluctant to recognise that the world has changed. He said Asian and African countries need to build a new global economic order that is open to emerging economic powers.
“The view that the world’s economic problems can only be solved by the World Bank and the IMF is an outdated view. I am of the view that the management of the global economy cannot be left only to these international financial institutions,” said Widodo.
[This is very strange on many levels. As stated below, this background television commentary was inserted intentionally...why?]
The bizarre world of militarization and propaganda just got a little bit more crazy – and spooky.
A new AARP commercial seems to offer a public service announcement, but if you play close attention to the commercial you'll hear something very odd playing in the background. As the woman in the video watches the news she is called over to another room by her daughter. In the background (you may have to turn your audio up a little bit), you can clearly hear a news report about "riots nationwide" and a declaration of martial law by government emergency services.
Riots nationwide have prompted local governments to declare martial law.
The President is asking that citizens find safety and remain calm.
Authorities are working to contain the outbreak.
So the obvious question is, why is this subliminal message about martial law being declared by the President after an outbreak appearing in a public service announcement for care giving put out by an insurance company.
It has no place whatsoever within the context of the ad.
Think about this – this had to be specifically created by the company to appear in this PSA. They couldn't use an actual segment from a tv news broadcast… because they would be concerned about copyright… and because no such broadcast exists about the President declaring martial law in America after an outbreak…
So they deliberately put this in.
And it's not going to be heard consciously, but it may be picked up subliminally by the viewer.
I mean… what the hell is going on here… this is bizarre.
What's more, the ad was approved and disseminated by The Ad Council, an organization that essentially now serves as a direct propaganda arm of the White House.
None of this makes sense.
Unless, of course, you consider that the American people are being psychologically prepared in advance of exactly such an event. Officials within the U.S. government clearly know something big is coming and they have been simulating collapse scenarios for many years.
The American people, however, remain oblivious.
President Barack Obama said the rising anti-globalization sentiment in factions of both political parties risks a withdrawal by the U.S. from global economic competition and stymied growth.
Obama, speaking Monday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, cited opposition to free trade deals by some Democrats and attempts by Republicans to cut the Export-Import Bank as evidence.
“There has been a confluence of anti-global engagement from both elements of the right and elements of the left that I think are a big mistake,” Obama said.
Obama spoke on the eve of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the White House, where the leaders of the two countries plan to talk about the remaining differences in their Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement negotiations.
[This one is worth reading in full]
A standing army—something that propelled the early colonists into revolution—strips the American people of any vestige of freedom. How can there be any semblance of freedom when there are tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, Blackhawk helicopters and armed drones patrolling overhead?
It was for this reason that those who established America vested control of the military in a civilian government, with a civilian commander-in-chief. They did not want a military government, ruled by force. Rather, they opted for a republic bound by the rule of law: the U.S. Constitution.
Unfortunately, with the Constitution under constant attack, the military’s power, influence and authority have grown dramatically. Even the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which makes it a crime for the government to use the military to carry out arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other activities normally handled by a civilian police force, has been weakened by both Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who ushered in exemptions allowing troops to deploy domestically and arrest civilians in the wake of alleged terrorist acts.
Now we find ourselves struggling to retain some semblance of freedom in the face of police and law enforcement agencies that look and act like the military and have just as little regard for the Fourth Amendment, laws such as the NDAA that allow the military to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens, and military drills that acclimate the American people to the sight of armored tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, and combat aircraft patrolling overhead.
Making matters worse, we find out that the military plans to use southwestern states as staging grounds for guerilla warfare drills in which highly-trained military troops equipped with all manner of weapons turn American towns and cities in quasi-battlefields. Why? As they tell us, it’s so that special operations forces can get “realistic military training” in “hostile” territory.
They’ve even got a name for the exercise: Jade Helm 15.
Whether or not Americans have anything to fear from Jade Helm 15, a covert, multi-agency, multi-state, eight-week military training exercise set to take place this summer from July 15 through Sept. 15, remains to be seen.
Insisting that there’s nothing to be alarmed about, the Washington Post took great pains to point out that these military exercises on American soil are nothing new.
Yet if Americans are uneasy about this summer’s planned Jade Helm 15 military exercises, they have every right to be.
After all, haven’t we been urged time and time again to just “trust” the government to respect our rights and abide by the rule of law only to find that, in fact, our rights were being plundered and the Constitution disregarded at every turn?
Let’s assume, for the moment, that Jade Helm 15 is not a thinly veiled military plot to take over the country lifted straight out of director John Frankenheimer’s 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May, as some fear, but is merely a “routine” exercise for troops, albeit a blatantly intimidating flexing of the military’s muscles.
The problem arises when you start to add Jade Helm onto the list of other troubling developments that have taken place over the past 30 years or more: the expansion of the military industrial complex and its influence in Washington DC, the rampant surveillance, the corporate-funded elections and revolving door between lobbyists and elected officials, the militarized police, the loss of our freedoms, the injustice of the courts, the privatized prisons, the school lockdowns, the roadside strip searches, the military drills on domestic soil, the fusion centers and the simultaneous fusing of every branch of law enforcement (federal, state and local), the stockpiling of ammunition by various government agencies, the active shooter drills that are indistinguishable from actual crises, the economy flirting with near collapse, etc.
Seven years ago, the U.S. Army War College issued a report calling on the military to be prepared should they need to put down civil unrest within the country. Summarizing the report, investigative journalist Chris Hedges declared, “The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a ‘violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,’ which could be provoked by ‘unforeseen economic collapse,’ ‘purposeful domestic resistance,’ ‘pervasive public health emergencies’ or ‘loss of functioning political and legal order.’ The ‘widespread civil violence,’ the document said, ‘would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.’”
At what point will all of the government’s carefully drawn plans for dealing with civil unrest, “homegrown” terrorism and targeting pre-crime become a unified blueprint for locking down the nation?
What’s with all of the government agencies stockpiling hollow point bullets? For example, why does the Department of Agriculture need .40 caliber semiautomatic submachine guns and 320,000 rounds of hollow point bullets? For that matter, why do its agents need ballistic vests and body armor?
Why is the military partnering with local police to conduct training drills around the country? And what exactly are they training for? In Richland, South Carolina, for instance, U.S. army special forces participated in joint and secretive exercises and training with local deputies. The public was disallowed from obtaining any information about the purpose of the drills, other than being told that they might be loud and to not be alarmed. The Army and DHS also carried out similar drills and maneuvers involving Black Hawk helicopters in Texas, Florida, and other locations throughout the U.S., ostensibly in order to provide local police with “realistic” urban training.
Why is FEMA stockpiling massive quantities of emergency supplies? On January 10, 2014, FEMA made a statement enlisting the service of contractors who could “supply medical biohazard disposal capabilities and 40 yard dumpsters to 1,000 tent hospitals across the United States; all required on 24-48 hour notice.” This coincides with other medical requests seeking massive amounts of supplies, such as “31,000,000 flu vaccinations,” “100,000 each of winter shirts and pants and the same for summer” and other goods and services requests as well like tarps, manufactured housing units, and beverages. And why does the TSA need $21,000 worth of potassium chlorate, a chemical compound often used in explosives?
Why is the government amassing names and information on Americans considered to be threats to the nation, and what criteria is the government using for this database? Keep in mind that this personal information is being acquired and kept without warrant or court order. It’s been suggested that in the event of nuclear war, the destruction of the U.S. Government, and the declaration of martial law, this Main Core database, which as of 2008 contained some 8 million names of Americans, would be used by military officials to locate and round up Americans seen as threats to national security, a program to be carried about by the Army and FEMA.
Taken individually, these questions are alarming enough. But put them together and they add up to the kind of trouble that the American founding fathers not only warned against but from which they fought to free themselves.
Indeed, when viewed collectively, they leave one wondering what exactly the U.S. government is preparing for and whether American citizens shouldn’t be preparing, as well, for that eventuality when our so-called “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is no longer answerable to “we the people.”
Is it possible that there are people out there that are attempting to inflame the Baltimore riots for their own twisted purposes? I don’t know if you have noticed, but there has seemed to be lots of unprotected police vehicles parked very close to where all of the protests have been happening. The police had to know that those vehicles would be prime targets if violence erupted. So where were the police while those vehicles were being smashed and set on fire? And why did the mayor of Baltimore say that authorities purposely “gave those who wished to destroy space to do that”? Yes, Freddie Gray really died. And yes, the police really did brutalize him resulting in his death, and the outpouring of anger that we are witnessing regarding this episode of police brutality is very real. But as Rahm Emanuel used to say, “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. In recent days we have seen a whole host of politicians, “civil rights leaders”, and opportunists flock to Baltimore like bears to a honeypot. We have also seen events unfold in a way that seems almost perfectly staged for television. Yes, the anger of the rioters in Baltimore is very real, but is that anger being manipulated and used for other purposes?
On Monday, police said an online call was issued for a “purge” at 3 p.m. ET, starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending in the downtown area. The type of threat threat is based on a movie called “The Purge,” whose plot involves rampant lawlessness.
It would be extremely interesting to find out precisely where this call for a “purge” originated from. And if you have seen “The Purge”, then you know exactly what was being called for. It was a clear message that violence was going to happen. Authorities knew about this well in advance, but the Mondawmin Mall area was not locked down in advance.
Very suspicious.
And the authorities also knew in advance that law enforcement officers were going to be specifically targeted on Monday…
Would you like to know who brought those gangs together?
According to Fox News, it was the Nation of Islam…
Activists from the Nation of Islam claimed responsibility for bringing the gangs together, telling reporters that they brokered a deal between the hated foes.
“I can say with honesty those brothers demonstrated they can be united for a common good,” Nation of Islam minister Carlos Muhammad told The Daily Beast. “At the rally, they made the call that they must be united on that day. It should be commended.”
Wow.
Perhaps there is more going on behind the scenes in Baltimore than we are being told.
On Saturday night, rioters made it a point to destroy any unoccupied police vehicles that they found nearby. In the aftermath, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake informed reporters that a decision was consciously made to give “those who wished to destroy space to do that”…
“While we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw.”
This is all very bizarre. Just imagine a different group of protesters being given the same “freedom”. For instance, if a bunch of Tea Party activists started smashing and burning things, they would all have boots on their necks faster than you could say “Ronald Reagan”.
Something should have been done to prevent the violence, but instead it was allowed to spiral out of control.
And without a doubt, the mainstream media and many of our most prominent “national leaders” are responsible for stirring up racial tensions to the boiling point.
The governor is sending 500 state troopers to Baltimore and requesting as many as 5,000 officers from neighboring states, he said in a press conference.
"I have not made this decision lightly," Hogan said. "The National Guard represents a last resort."
The incident stemmed from a flier that circulated widely among city school students via social media about a “purge” to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly among city school students, based on the film "The Purge," about what would happen if all laws were suspended.
The situation is escalating quickly in Baltimore after police said they received "
credible" threats from street gangs who have promised to ban together to "take out" cops in the wake of protests surrounding the funeral of Freddie Gray who died after suffering a spinal injury while being taken into custody by authorities.
Now, the SWAT team has been called out to confront protesters.
Live feeds below:
The city of Baltimore has been transformed into an “absolute war zone“, and the governor of Maryland has declared a state of emergency as the rioting in “Charm City” continues to escalate. The funeral for Freddie Gray has unleashed a firestorm of violence, and none of it is going to do anyone any good. To their credit, some of the leaders of the African-American community are standing up and loudly condemning the violence. They know that smashing cars, throwing rocks at police and looting stores is not going to solve anything. But just like we saw in Ferguson, there are lots of people out there that are ready to riot, loot and set things on fire at the drop of a hat – all they need is an opportunity. The social decay that has been eating away at the foundations of our society for generations is now manifesting in some very ugly ways. We have raised an entire generation of young people in a “value free” environment, and now we are getting to experience some of the consequences of our foolishness. And what we are witnessing in Baltimore right now is just the start. Eventually, we are going to see scenes like this all over the nation.
Thanks to social media, the violence that we saw in Baltimore on Monday is being broadcast to the entire planet. The whole world is getting a really good look at what the decline of America looks like. The following is how the New York Times described what took place…
You can find some incredible photos of looting in progress right here. Do those young people believe that they are actually doing something constructive that will make a difference in our society? Of course not. They are opportunists that are taking advantage of the chaos to commit crime.
This is what America is becoming, and this is only just the beginning. As I mentioned yesterday, I went on the record publicly regarding my belief that civil unrest was coming specifically to Baltimore during a speech I gave on the evening of April 11th. That was about a week before Freddie Gray died. But little did I know that it would start happening before the end of the month. The following are some tweets that contain scenes from the violence that we witnessed on Monday…
Make sure to watch that last video. It shows a man literally being dragged out of his store and ruthlessly beaten by a gang of young thugs. Because of the decisions that we have made as a society, this is what the future of our country is going to look like. This is something that I have been warning about for years, and now it is here.
So let us mourn for America, because the nation that so many of us love is slipping away a little bit more every single day.
The “mock Michele Bachmann for her religious beliefs” train ride seems to be gaining passengers among those on the left.
And now even the president of the United States has jumped aboard, making Bachmann the butt of his jokes during the recent White House Correspondents Dinner.
Bachmann, the former four-term Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, criticized Obama earlier this month for his support of a framework agreement with Iran that she says will lead to war and bring judgment on America.
Obama took her to task in a half-joking, mocking tone.
“Michele Bachmann actually predicted I would bring about the biblical end of days,” Obama told the correspondents, who erupted in roaring laughter. “Now that’s a legacy. That’s big. I mean Lincoln, Washington, they didn’t do that.”
Bachmann had made her comments about Obama in a recent interview with Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries on her show, “Understanding the End Times.”
Bachmann was unfazed by Obama’s snarky comeback.
“The Bible is filled with exciting information about living life today and in the future, both in this life and in the life to come,” Bachmann told WND. “Any message that brings people closer to God’s wonderful plans for our lives is a good thing.
“God’s word is true and brings freedom and wholeness to all who read it and believe in Him.”
When the progressive media heard Obama’s mocking of Bachmann, they dutifully took his cue and heaped more invective on the former congresswoman.
As WND previously reported, in just the last month Obama’s administration rejected a plea from Israel that that nation’s right to exist be acknowledged in any nuclear agreement with Iran; abruptly declassified Israel’s nuclear program secrets, revealing never-before released details about the Jewish state’s defenses to its enemies; publicly indicated America’s abandonment of Israel by suggesting it would no longer defend Israel in the United Nations; and prompted Hollywood star Jon Voight to declare: “President Obama does not love Israel. His whole agenda is to control Israel. And this way, he can be friends with all of Israel’s enemies.”
Author, Bible teacher and documentary filmmaker Joel Richardson recently returned from a missionary trip to Iraq and has seen firsthand the misery that Obama’s foreign policy has unleashed upon Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities.
“Rarely has this nation witnessed the kind of hubris, arrogance and callousness as we did at the President’s Correspondents Dinner. President Obama and his left-wing supporters in the media think it is absolutely hilarious that his policies could have fostered in an apocalyptic atmosphere in the earth,” said Richardson, author of New York Times-bestseller “The Islamic Antichrist” and director of the film “End Times Eye Witness.”
“But having only recently returned from Iraq to minister to dozens of families displaced from their homes by ISIS, I can most certainly testify that for them (there are now over 2 millions refugees and displaced peoples across the region) the end of their previous world has indeed arrived,” he continued. “Instead of laughing and mocking, our president and his supporters should be weeping because of the unfathomable agony and chaos that his foreign policy through the Middle East has produced.”
Christian author Carl Gallups said he has a healthy appreciation for humor, but he finds the lengthy track record of Obama disrespecting Christians to be “unnerving.”
“I am rarely offended by good humor, especially upon consideration of the context in which it is spoken. But I think what is unnerving about Obama to so many Christians is his consistent mocking of Christianity, the scriptures, the basic Christian message, and even the Judeo-Christian heritage of America. A quick search on Google reveals the veracity of these concerns,” said Gallups, author of “The Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation.”
Gallups further stated:
At the same time Obama engages in these activities, he props up partial birth abortion, the destruction of the defense of marriage act, homosexual marriage and, what many believe to be, turning his back on and even threatening Israel and its leadership. Each of these issues are core to the contextual biblical message of the Christian faith.
At the same time, many of Obama’s critics have noted that he completely shies away from anything that even comes close to mocking the Islamic faith. As a matter of fact, he sometimes takes the position of being an ardent apologist for the Islamic faith and has called the Islamic call to prayer (the Azan) “one of the prettiest sounds on earth.” He has written and spoken profusely about his Islamic heritage and affinity towards that faith system – all the while claiming to be a “Christian.”
Markell said she has known Bachmann for 20 years as a woman whose primary goal is “glorifying God and getting people into the Kingdom.”
“To see her hammered and trashed by the left, and even some on the right such as ‘The Christian Post,’ is very grievous,” said Markell, co-author of “Trapped In Hitler’s Hell” with Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman, which has also been made into a film.
But two solid weeks of trash talking has accomplished more to get Bachmann’s message out than any single interview on a Christian radio station ever could, Markell said.
“God has His way of getting out a message about the end-of-days scenario. If he has to use a donkey such as the left-wing outfits that have trashed Michele for two weeks, then I thank God for His creativity,” she said. “One way or another, He will get His message out that He is coming soon. I am thankful that Michele Bachmann and I, who have teamed up for many years, can be used in this manner. God is calling all watchmen on the wall.”
Joseph Farah, WND founder, chief editor and CEO, believes Obama’s mocking of Bachmann is just the latest example of his disdain for anyone who actually believes what he reads in the Bible and is willing to discuss it publicly.
But when Gallups read Obama’s latest remarks making light of Bachmann’s declaration that Obama was moving the world toward the end of days, he said he immediately thought of the scripture 2 Peter 3:3-4.
In it, the apostle Peter writes: “Knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’”
“Regardless of how uncomfortable Bachmann’s comments might have made some feel, the biblical fact is that when a nation turns its back on Israel and at the same time celebrates, promotes, and legalizes homosexual marriage it is inviting end of days judgment upon itself,” Gallups added. “The Word of God is clear concerning these matters.”
Also see:
