The EU has abandoned Italy while simultaneously demanding that the refugees must be taken care of. Nearly 100,000 refugees have arrived in Italy since the start of this year alone. The Italian government cannot cope with the refugee crisis and Brussels said they cannot exempt them from the restraint of busgets. That means that money for Italians must be diverted to the refugees and they keep coming.
Italy is being pushed to the limit and cannot possible cope with this burden alone while Brussels refuses to compensate them. Let any country refuse to accept refugees and Brussels is quick to condemn them, but wont pay for them itself.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is solely responsible for the refugee crisis. She is starting to be greeted with shouts of “traitor”by discontent German protesters. Nevertheless, Merkel continues to defend her decision to allow hundreds of thousands of refugees into the Germany.
Merkel only received 16,233,642 votes during the 2013 election which was 37.2% of the popular vote of Germany. So the majority of Germans are really not supporting Merkel. Because they get to form collation governments, that someone who received less that any President in the political history of the USA gets to run Euorpe. Even Donald Trump won 46.1% of the American popular vote. So someone who would never get into office under the USA system gets to dominate Europe.
Solar eclipses have been observed throughout history. As to be expected, they have often been seen as omens along with comets. We hear if the star of Bethlehem that announced the birth of Jesus and the comet that appeared the night Julius Caesar was assassinated, which has been historically recorded on coins proving his divinity.
Yet eclipses have also been seen as major markers of events throughout time. There is of course the famous eclipse that marked the Crucifixion of Jesus. The Christian gospels say that the sky was darkened for hours after the crucifixion of Jesus, which historians viewed either as a miracle or a portent of dark times to come. Later historians used astronomy to pinpoint the death of Christ based on this eclipse mention. Some historians tie the crucifixion to a total solar eclipse lasting 1 minute and 59 seconds that occurred in the year 29 AD while others say a second total eclipse, blocking the sun for 4 minutes and 6 seconds, in 33 AD, marked Jesus’ death. In the Vatican Codex, the oldest copy of the Greek Bible speaks of the solar eclipse in the Book of Luke. This is supported by a Greek historian named Phlegon, who also recorded a solar eclipse at the same period. Phlegon wrote a history entitled The Olympiads, in which he records during the rule of Tiberius Caesar a three hour eclipse of the sun. The ellipse of the sun took place at the time of Tiberius Caesar, in whose reign Jesus was crucified, and the great earthquakes which then took place.
Yet what is very interesting, is the fact that the eclipse of 33AD was also timed with the Great Financial Panic in Rome. The Financial Panic of 33AD provides one of the few detailed accounts of events recorded by the ancient historian Tacitus (56–117AD) whose primary focus appears to be moneylending.
Where a comet marked the birth of Jesus, it was an eclipse that marked the birth of Mohammed. The Koran mentions an eclipse that preceded the birth of Mohammed. Historians later tied this to a total eclipse that lasted 3 minutes and 17 seconds in 569 AD. The sun also disappeared for 1 minute and 40 seconds after the death of Mohammed’s son Ibrahim. But the world’s first Muslims didn’t believe that eclipse was a sign from God. Instead, according to Islamic texts called the Hadiths, Mohammed proclaimed “the sun and the moon do not suffer eclipse for any one’s death or life.”Muslims pray five times daily, but during eclipses they specially perform the “eclipse prayer” whose purpose is to remember the might and gifts of Allah the Creator.
Eclipses of the Sun are indeed awe-inspiring phenomena that have inspired legends and correlations throughout time. Such events have truly inspired a variety of claims. In many early cultures they were seen as omens of the coming end of the world. The word eclipse is of Greek origin meaning stemming from abandonment, desertion, or relinquishment.
In China, India, and Southeast Asia as well as in Peru there were beliefs that dragons or demons attack the Sun during such eclipses trying to devour it. The ancient Egyptian myth of the snake Apep that attacks the boat of the Sun god is believed now to refer to solar eclipses. The cult of the Sun god Sol remains with us today in so many ways. The cult was Sol Invictus or the invincible sun that reappeared every day. Sol was depicted with rays of sunlight coming from his head. That is the model of the Statue of Liberty. This also appeared as a halo around his head, and this tradition is why Christians often used this same symbol around the heads of Jesus and saints.
The Chinese and the Incas tried to frighten these dragons and demons away who were trying to devour the sun and end the world through various incantations which were believed to work since the eclipse would end and everyone most likely cheered and gave money to the priests. The Indians immersing themselves in water as a religious ritual to help the Sun struggle against the dragon. The bathing rituals are often linked to this idea.
Even today, in some countries, it is still traditional to bang pots, chant or shoot into the air when an eclipse happens to frighten off bad omens and preserve the world for another day. Some superstitions have even attributed disease comes from the solar eclipses ushering is famine and pestilence.
It was the Babylonians who in fact were the first state funded research project recording everything that ever moved from the planets to the migration of animals. Indeed, it was this massive state funded project that not merely led to astrology trying to link events on earth and traits in people to the cyclical movement of the heavens, but it led to Babylonian Priests becoming very powerful. They linked events as omens that indicated an impending miracle, the wrath of God, or the doom of a ruling dynasty. They understood the eclipse and could pronounce they were so powerful, they could darken the sun tomorrow. Who could possible do that without awesome power which the people them gave piles of gold. In 129 BC, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus had published his star charts and he relied upon the Babylonian records of several hundred years prior.
A Saros series is a series in which similar eclipses happen every 18 years 10/11 and a third days. Eclipses happen more often than that but the cycles are complex for there are many combinations of circumstances that can produce an eclipse. So there are at any given time, 42 Saros cycles running at once, which produces more than 2 eclipses per year. The same cycles come together to produce the same set of similar eclipses every 18 years and 10 or 11 and a third days. This period is what the Babylonian priests/ astronomers discovered 2,500 years ago and we retain that name Saros, meaning “repetition.” This too is fractal and we are currently in Saros series 125. The series contains 72 eclipses, occurring over 1280 years.
Ancient eclipse records made in China and Babylonia are believed to be over 4,000 years ago. Recent research has demonstrated that solar eclipses had been depicted in the fascinating mythology of ancient Egypt, and produced evidence that the ancient Egyptians also observed solar eclipses over 4,500 years ago.
The earliest recorded eclipse is described on an ancient clay tablet, in Ugarit in modern-day Syria. A total solar eclipse was linked to an uprising in an ancient Assyrian city. So will the total eclipse over the United States, be an omen of what is to begin in 2018 according to our models rekindling this view of a total eclipse as an omen of what is to come?
After all, this will be the FIRST total solar eclipse visible in the United States in nearly four decades that will take place on Aug. 21, 2017. This will be called the Great American Total Solar Eclipse, the 70-mile-wide shadow cast by the moon will darken skies from Oregon to South Carolina. Most solar eclipses, the moon takes just hides a tiny bit of the sun, but this will be a rare total solar eclipse.
Believe it or not, this August event will go down as the FIRST total solar eclipse whose path of totality stays completely in the United States since 1776 when the American Revolution took place. The 1776 Eclipse was a total eclipse of the Moon which occurred on Wednesday July, 31st, 1776. The Declaration of Independence was presented on July 1, 1776, and on the following day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence. The delegates then spent the next two days debating and revising the language of a statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson. Then on July 4th, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, it was nearly a month before the actual signing of the document took place. First, New York’s delegates didn’t officially give their support until July 9th, which many have long since viewed the ”New Yorkers” as moving to a different beat, which is why red lights are optional in the city for pedestrians. Then it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed” which meant written on parchment in a clear hand. Most of the delegates then signed the Declaration of Independence actually on August 2nd, 1776 two days after the eclipse, which some said also was an omen.
This time, the 2017 eclipse comes in August when our model has been projecting an important turning point. It is very strange that this is coming at a time when our model is warning of the start of the Monetary Crisis in 2018. Is this also an omen as was the 1776 eclipse?
The fascinating question begs to wonder if this eclipse will make the TOPTEN eclipses in history? There was the Ugarit Eclipse which is one of the earliest solar eclipses recorded darkening the sky for 2 minutes and 7 seconds on May 3, 1375 BC, according to an analysis of a clay tablet, discovered in 1948. However, this was revised when a report appeared in the journal Nature back in 1989 suggesting that the eclipse actually took place on March 5, 1223 BC based upon historical dating of the tablet and the text which mentioned the visibility of the planet Mars during the eclipse. In approximately 1230 BC, there was the Battle of Nihriya which was the fall of the Hittite Empire to the Assyrian Empire. The rise of the Assyrians even intimidated the Egyptians and in 2 Chronicles 32:15, it reads:
‘Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand?’”
About 1221 BC, the Pharaoh Merneptah defeated the Libyan invasion, which was a combined force in union with the Sea People who were most likely invading Greeks.
The next major event is known as the Assyrian Eclipse. In 763 B.C., the Assyrian empire, which occupied modern Iraq, saw a total eclipse of the sun for 5 minutes. Early records from the period mention the eclipse in the same passage as an insurrection in the city of Ashur, now known as Qal’at Sherqat (shown in the image) in Iraq, suggesting that the ancient people linked the two in their minds. This marked the real beginning of the Assyrian Empire’s aggression for it then conquered Egypt in 671BC following the good omen of the appearance of Haley’s comet in 674BC, The Assyrian Empire lasted for only 3 waves of 51.6 years when it fell at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC to the armies of Babylonia, allied with the Medes, Persians and Scythians. There were eclipses in 605 BC, and 602 BC. Three months, December 689 BC, November 678 BC, and October 602 BC, had two eclipses. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in his Chronicle, recorded that he:
“…crossed the river to go against the Egyptian army which lay in Karchemiš. They fought with each other and the Egyptian army withdrew before him. He accomplished their defeat, decisively. As for the rest of the Egyptian army which had escaped from the defeat so quickly that no weapon had reached them, in the district of Hamath the Babylonian troops overtook and defeated them so that not a single man escaped to his own country. At that time Nebuchadnezzar conquered the whole area of Hamath.”
In 1302 BC, Chinese historians documented the total eclipse which blocked out the sun for 6 minutes and 25 seconds. Since the sun was a symbol of the emperor, an eclipse naturally was a serious warning to the emperor. After an eclipse, the duty of the emperor was to fast eating only vegetarian meals and performing rituals to rescue the sun. In fact, in ancient China, since the solar and lunar eclipses were regarded as heavenly signs that foretell the future of the Emperor. If an astrologer failed to predict an eclipse, they were executed. Finally, by 20 BC, Chinese astronomers realized the true nature of solar eclipses, and by 206AD, Chinese astronomers were able to predict solar eclipses by analyzing the motion of the Moon.
Ruins at Yin
This event seems to have also marked Pangeng moved the capital of Shang Dynasty to Yin in China, perhaps because of this eclipse. However, this is also the period (c. 1300 BC—1312 BC) when the revelation of the Torah to Moses took place.
Herodotus, the Greek father of history, reported that Thales (ca. 624-547 BC), the Greek philosopher, predicted the solar eclipse of May 28th, 585 BC that put an end to the conflict between the Lydians and the Medes.
Herodotus wrote:
… day was all of sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it took place. The Medes and the Lydians when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on.
The Eclipse of 241BC marked the end of the First Punic War (264–241 BC) and the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (259-210BC), came to the thrown in his state in 246BC. He then begins to engage in the Waring States period and conquers all of China becoming the emperor in 220 BC. There was a total eclipse on June 4th, 241 BC 02:47:32 in SarosCycle72. The seems to have marker the fall of Carthage and the Rise of Rome as well as the start of the Qin conquest of China. We can see the cost of the Punic Wars in the debasement of the bronze coinage of Rome. The silver denarius was introduced in 211BC. It was also Eratosthenes who actually calculated the circumference of the Earth in 240BC and determined the Earth’s circumference and it was round. His data was rough, but he wasn’t far off.
Also on this list of the TOP TEN eclipses in history we have King Henry’s Eclipse in England. When King Henry I of England, the son of William the Conqueror, died in A.D. 1133, the event coincided with a total solar eclipse that lasted 4 minutes and 38 seconds. After this eclipse and the death of Henry I, a struggle for the throne plunged England into chaos and civil war. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a passage is also found recording this eclipse:
“In this year King Henry went over sea at Lammas, and the second day as he lay and slept on the ship the day darkened over all lands; and the Sun became as it were a three-night-old Moon, and the stars about it at mid-day. Men were greatly wonder-stricken and were frightened, and said that a great thing should come thereafter. So it did, for the same year the king died on the following day after St Andrew’s Mass-day, Dec 2 in Normandy.”
Not all eclipses are bad omens. The element helium was discovered on August 18th, 1868 by the French astronomer Jules Janssen (1824-1907) when he observed the spectrum of the Sun during a total eclipse in India. Then there was also Einstein’s Eclipse of 1919. It was this solar eclipse where the sun vanished for 6 minutes and 51 seconds. This allowed the observation that gravity in fact could bend light from the stars as they passed near the sun. The findings confirmed Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which describes gravity as a warping of space-time. The British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) travelled to the island of Príncipe near Africa to observe that eclipse to verify Einstein’s conclusion that light is deflected in the gravitational fields of celestial objects.
So the question becomes, does this 2017 Solar Eclipse mark the fall of the Western Culture and the beginning of the shift in the financial capital of the world to China?
It is curious that such events tend to line up at times with our model. Of course, our model is derived from the data, not astrology. So we have tracked the trends (effects) but have never attempted to attribute the cause to some mystical event.
We track the effects and the ebb and flow of human events that leave their footprints throughout the centuries. Is there any connection? It is far too complex to try to attribute such things to a single event. There are numerous total eclipses throughout history. Where they occur seems to have little correlation to events in other regions.
We will see with this one since it is the first time since 1776 to appear in the United States. Have a party today and say here’s to posterity. We will.
Comment added by Centinel2012: There are two sides to the Bannon story I agree with Martin on the economic side but I do not agree on the political side. However, both sides need to be be shown so this is the economics side.
Steve Bannon has been fired from the Trump team, and many are saying good reddens. It was Bannon who has been the one with the most confrontational approach and has really been clashing behind the curtail. Bannon said in the interview that the main front was China: “We are in a trade war with China” and if the US were not to win this war, they would fall back as a world power permanently into insignificance. Bannon’s statement is really absurd for he has clearly no real understanding of the world economy. His focus of China and trade is the same stupid reason James Baker created the G5 back in 1985. We are plagued by people who pontificate on the world economy with zero experience.
Bannon is an American media executive, formerly a film producer, who served in the Navy for 7 years and then worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker mergers and acquisition but never rose very high. In the 1990s, he became an executive producer in the Hollywood film and media industry; he produced 18 films between 1991 and 2016. He may understand media, but I believe he is clueless with regard to how the world economy functions.
Bannon is being very vindictive. He has come out and said: “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.” He added: “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.”
When we look at trade as a percent of net investment outflows from the United States as it has invested around the world (excluding FX trading and derivatives), we can see that going into 2007, trade fell to just 31% of net investment capital outflows. Post-2007, net investment flows out of the United States have been greatly diminished as capital contracted and began to hoard and thus trade has risen sharply as American have invested less overseas. If we really look at trade as a percentage of total capital flows globally, we are looking at less than 15%.
CAPITAL flows to developing countries between 1990 and 1997 was hailed as the way to bring them into the global markets. However, after a series of international financial crises that culminated in the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, what emerged was an increase in the doubts about the benefits of such flows. They did not distinguish between n”hot” money trading currencies rather than direct investment. This shallow analysis has led to great misunderstandings of international capital flows.
Underlining this new skepticism emerged from academic studies that implied only a weak relationship between capital flow liberalization and long-run economic growth. They did not understand the true distinction between “hot” money and actual investment in the private sector which is distinct from trading currency and government bonds.
Those concerns tempered the enthusiasm for capital inflows and have led to a reassessment of the policy approaches to attracting and managing them. Recently, this has manifested in laws that have attacked foreign investment in real estate, which is not the “hot” money that blew up the world in 1997. Nevertheless, this prejudice against capital inflows is systemic without comprehending what is really at stake.
Bannon is part of the problem for he focuses only upon trade and assumes, as did James Baker, that lowering the dollar will somehow create jobs by increasing exports. This is just a very narrow view of the world economy and is part of the crisis we face because those in power are clueless.
It’s all connected. The “Big Ugly” is underway. Intellectually honest people know the CEO boards and advisory council members were on the White House team to shape and protect their collective stakes in the upcoming America First economic trade reset. Nothing more.
The intents of the prior participants were to protect their interests, period. There was no ideological American altruism within any of the motives. Globalists, multinationals and the participating leaders, who make their livelihoods on globalist economic expansion, were simply protecting their interests. Fortunately for the livelihood of the American middle-class they ran into economic granite, the Monolith that is Donald Trump. Faced with the futility of their self-interested endeavor, they exit under false pretense. C-Ya.
With NAFTA ongoing, and freed from the original concern about undermining America-First MAGAnomics by domestic industrial leadership, which was the entire premise of assembling them in the first place; in conjunction with Big Panda telling their bag-man in the DPRK to stand down, President Trump now positioned to fire-at-will:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Friday formally launched an investigation into China’s alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property, a widely expected move following a call from President Donald Trump earlier this week to determine whether a probe was needed.
The probe is the administration’s first direct measure against Chinese trade practices, which the White House and U.S. business groups say are bruising American industry.
“After consulting with stakeholders and other government agencies, I have determined that these critical issues merit a thorough investigation,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the nation’s top trade negotiator, said in a statement.
Trump repeatedly railed against Chinese trade practices on the campaign trail, but as president he had not taken significant action until this week.
China had rebuffed attempts by previous American presidents to take action against its IP practices. Administration officials have said that China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property could amount to as much as $600 million.
The probe will likely further complicate the U.S. relationship with China, the country’s largest trading partner. The Trump administration has been pressing Beijing to take steps to encourage North Korea to curb its nuclear and missile programs. (read more)
Remember, this is Trump. Looking out for U.S. economic interests is the baseline for trade “leverage”, a tactic and skill uniquely evident in this administration’s trade team. Section 301 is a tool, actually a massive atomic sledgehammer, to force compliance.
Historically S-301 trade investigations are considered so scary to the receiving country that almost every nation just complies with USTR requests and the investigations became moot. The sanctions which follow the 301 investigations are rarely needed.
When trade negotiations are carried out on behalf of lobbyist interests, there’s not much need for strategy and leverage. This is the historic reference for the U.S. in the past 30 years.
In the modern era, almost all U.S. trade agreements have been constructed for political benefit and special interest lobbyists, not necessarily tied to the U.S. economy.
The results of these decades-long special interest approaches are visibly evident across most of the U.S. rust belt states. Additional reference points can be found in the historic North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA – Mexico/Canada), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP – Asia), and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP – Europe).
Much to the angst of the lobbying team within the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Trump has dispatched both the TPP and TTIP schemes in favor of bilateral trade deals with individual nations; and NAFTA renegotiation has started.
Last week President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a previously scheduled phone call. No doubt the keenly instinctual negotiator President Trump would give the respect of advance notice to Xi Jinping if 301 investigations are going to be announced.
Again, what is often forgotten is that modern China has never seen the U.S. launch a 301 trade investigation against it, or anyone else. China’s rise to economic power has been within two prior decades where prior U.S. administrations’ were selling out the American economy using the World Trade Organization (WTO), created in 1995.
This is why launching a series of 301 Trade Investigations is such a big deal. The conclusions are drawn from facts, there’s no way to skewer the data or hide the tariff that China applies to U.S. goods. If China applies a 35% import tariff on something, Section 301 allows the U.S. to apply the same tariff to the import of that something from China.
When you grasp how much this 301 equalizer can impact trade opponents, and recognize how one-sided our trade deals are with China, you begin to grasp how devastating it will be for China if 301’s are utilized. This is atomic sledgehammer type unidirectional leverage. China has nothing they can do, other than the silly threats they have already made.
Now you know why China was/is using North Korea as their only bargaining chip.
Even the announcement of deploying the S-301 investigations is enough to move markets once the young traders teach themselves what the end ramifications are.
For those who think President Trump will blink on these core economic issues, or doubt the severity of his commitment to follow through on them, you only need to look upon the amount of grief he is willing to endure from opposition to stay focused on it.
If the economic council needs to disband, ok – go. If the CEO board needs to be removed, ok- so be it. Anything or anyone who anticipates being able to modify President Trump’s 30-year-long position and commitment to these economic issues at the heart of the core erosion of U.S. interests, finds themselves in the position of a gnat looking into a thermonuclear furnace. Don’t be surprised to see Gary Cohn removed if he’s not part of the solution.
POTUS Trump ain’t flinching on the economic stuff.
Transgenders, bathroom policing, identity politics et al – POTUS Trump could care less what anyone agrees -or disagrees- to do in political consensus. Send him whatever the damned thing is and he’ll sign it…. moving on. POTUS Trump isn’t that kind of Republican; and it drives some people nuts.
POTUS Trump is looking at a much, much bigger picture than who is wearing high-heels, labels and definitions of today’s biggest PC offender.
Economics is survival.
Economics is the big stuff.
Remember these words:
…”Either we have a country or we don’t.”…
MAGA is essentially President Trump defining 2009 Tea-Party Economic outlooks in modern day 2017.
The constitution doesn’t mean much without a country within which to apply it.
Trump is seemingly one guy, yet he has them surrounded.
And he’s fighting for Big Stuff.
POTUS Trump is the Monolith, and those who oppose him be like:
Last year the NFL lost millions of viewers because of the shameful behavior of Colin Kaepernick and the feckless response from the NFL. I was one of those viewers. Based on preseason games it appears there are others ready to take the place of the, up to now, unemployed Kaepernick and his disrespect for our flag.
This powerful email was around last year and is equally relevant this year. The anti-American left is very effective when boycotting corporations and the advertisers that go against their leftist agenda. It’s past time freedom loving Americans do the same to the cowards, like the NFL, that do little to protect our constitution and the freedom it offers. Does Kaepernick have the right to shame himself and his employer on national television – of course he does. Does the NFL have the right to prevent their employee from doing so – of course they do. The NFL is dead to me – I have changed the channel.
Jeff
I don’t think this could have been said any better and it definitely is about time someone said it. Hopefully, this will go out over EVERY computer in the U.S. and maybe, just maybe, these sports people will get the message of just how ridiculous they are to disrespect our flag, and how little what they do in sports compare to what our great military has done for this country. LS
NFL protesting the flag- POWERFUL!!
Ret. Marine Col. Jeffery Powers wrote to the NFL commissioners the following:
Commissioners, I’ve been a season pass holder at Yankee Stadium, Yale Bowl and the Giants Stadium.I missed the ’90-’91 season because I was with a battalion of Marines in Desert Storm. 14 of my wonderful Marines returned home with the American Flag draped across their lifeless bodies. My last conversation with one of them, Sgt. Garrett Mongrella was about how our Giants were going to the Super Bowl. He never got to see it.
Many friends, Marines, and Special Forces Soldiers who worked with or for me through the years returned home with the American Flag draped over their coffins.
Now I watch multi-millionaire athletes who never did anything in their lives but play a game, disrespect what brave Americans fought and died for. They are essentially spitting in the faces and on the graves of real men, men who have actually done something for this country besides playing with a ball and believing they’re something special! They’re not! My Marines and Soldiers were!
You are complicit in this! You’ll fine players for large and small infractions but you lack the moral courage and respect for our nation and the fallen to put an immediate stop to this. Yes, I know, it’s their 1st Amendment right to behave in such a despicable manner.
What would happen if they came out and disrespected you or the refs publicly?
I observed a player getting a personal foul for twerking in the end zone after scoring. I guess that’s much worse than disrespecting the flag and our National Anthem. Hmmmmm, isn’t it his 1st Amendment right to express himself like an idiot in the end zone?
Why is taunting not allowed yet taunting America is OK? You fine players for wearing 9-11 commemorative shoes yet you allow scum on the sidelines to sit, kneel or pump their pathetic fist in the air. They are so deprived with their multi-million dollar contracts for playing a freaking game!
You condone it all by your refusal to act. You’re just as bad and disgusting as they are. I hope Americans boycott any sponsor who supports that rabble you call the NFL. I hope they turn off the TV when any team that allowed this disrespect to occur, without consequence, on the sidelines. I applaud those who have not.
Legends and heroes do NOT wear shoulder pads. They wear body armor and carry rifles.
They make minimum wage and spend months and years away from their families.
They don’t do it for an hour on Sunday. They do it 24/7 often with lead, not footballs, coming in their direction. They watch their brothers carted off in pieces not on a gurney to get their knee iced. They don’t even have ice! Many don’t have legs or arms.
Some wear blue and risk their lives daily on the streets of America. They wear fire helmets and go upstairs into the fire rather than down to safety. On 9-11, hundreds vanished. They are the heroes.
I hope that your high paid protesting pretty boys and you look in that mirror when you shave tomorrow and see what you really are, legends in your own minds. You need to hit the road and take those worms with you!
Time to change the channel.
Powers originally sent his letter to former Florida congressman Allen West. West then posted the letter on his news website.
As of last week, at least 18 NFL player had protested the anthem by either kneeling during the anthem or raising their fists, according to USA Today Sports.
(this was published by American Thinker as “Jihad at Chautauqua”)
Chautauqua Institution, originally a cultural center, is now a disseminator of Islamic messaging to reach out to uninformed Christians and Jews programmed to accept multiculturalism. Featured speaker Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Project on US Relations with the Islamic Center for Middle East Policy, is part of the worldwide movement financed by oil money.
On August 9, he spoke of American anxiety, incongruously blaming occasions such as buying jam at the grocer’s, where, alas, so many choices will cause regret that he hasn’t purchased the best option. He sees no beauty in the many fruits, flavors or quality, or why, if one manufacturer makes jams and employs and pays a decent wage to improve life for himself and his neighbors, another cannot do the same in another locality. Why must ingenuity be stifled?
Blind to possibilities, Hamid is instead guided by Islamic rules, allowing only one jam, or having one of his housebound wives make it. He prefers that leadership dictate one’s lifestyle by force; create one nation, the Ummah; one law, sharia; and one goal, world domination.
Where democratic nations have excelled in science and technology, medical advances, improvements in agriculture and water technology so that humanity may flourish, the Islamic culture is based on shame and honor, and a high illiteracy rate to impede progress. Their greatness will come when all vestiges of advanced societies are destroyed.
He described the universal condition as a “struggle,” but he meant “jihad,” as struggle is rarely part of the Western vernacular. Hamid is a moderate, unweaponed jihadi, hoping to conquer by message, to convince his conditioned audience that his culture is superior, and particularly to reach those who have chosen the altar of liberalism over Judaism and Christianity, from which derived those freedoms, morals and ethics imperative to happiness and peace. Judaism and Christianity do not struggle for meaning; struggle is a proclivity of all forms of fascism, because authoritarianism provides no contentment.
The divisiveness that Hamid sees in America comes not from democracy, but from those who seek its destruction. Our laws provide respect for human rights, religious freedom, worker rights, a secure peace by combating international terrorism, stability, prosperity, open markets and economic development, improvement in the global environment and human health, and the enemy hopes to use our laws to defeat us. Arab-American author Nonie Darwish penned a warning, “America must protect its democracy, culture, and sovereignty from nations with aspirations of conquering us from within.”
We need only look to the Islamic Middle East to see Hamid’s “rich tapestry of traditions and contentment” – the rampant violence that has now created a “lost generation” of Middle East men – 30,000 suicides, 35,000 deaths from interpersonal violence, a ten-fold increase of fatalities from HIV/AIDS in 25 years (a side effect of FGM on women), and 144,000 deaths from wars in 22 Islamic nations.
Other twisted threads of this vintage brocade constitute the sharp increase in non-communicable diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean region – depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia. The death toll from Islamic terrorists since 9/11, at 31,546 (to date), is born of, but also affects, the families from which these terrorists are woven.
The speaker educated his audience that Mohammed, a prophet, was also theologian, politician, head of state, and state builder, but his list was incomplete. He was also a warmonger, conqueror, murderer, beheader, enslaver, rapist and pedophile. Hamid imperiously denounced the Bible as not being the entire word of G-d, but tells us that the Koran is – of a god who wreaks pain and havoc on his children.
While also insinuating that the Hebrew Scriptures are superseded by the Christian Scriptures (although the former provides the foundational doctrines for the latter), he added that the Koran supersedes the Christian. In a few words, he has delegitimized the basis for all Western civilization, slighting the most compassionate laws by which humans live in comparative harmony.
Interestingly, Hamid acknowledged that Islam is also a political doctrine. He cannot distinguish the role of religion from state because Islam is a theocracy, and their deity, Allah, the sole source from which all authority is derived.
The rule of conquest is carried out by both armed terrorists and self-styled moderates working within the framework of the invaded country to insinuate their laws in increments, gradually and differently, according to the workings host culture.
The speaker closed with the usual feigned victimization, a plea for “peaceful disagreement if there must be disagreement.” This is taqiyyah, holy deception, “a strategy to make Islam dominant; a persistent tactic of the skilled to deceive the non-Muslims and downplay the threat of Islam.” Yet the reality is that while mosques are being erected throughout the US, Christians and Jews are not demanding churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia. While American school cafeterias are accommodating Moslem students with the removal of pork, Jews are not demanding kosher foods anywhere. While our textbooks have been revised to contain whitewashed Islam, Americans are being robbed of their own history.
Of all the ethnic groups that have come to America, Moslems are the only ones who require accommodation, and create neighborhoods and school areas that exclude others. His is the group that will use our laws to enact theirs for dominion.
Dear reader, his was not an extemporaneous speech by a neophyte. Hamid’s words were judiciously chosen, with a lesson to be derived from his explicit example of achieving contentment from only one jar of jam. He cares not a whit about quality, flavor, or your preference; he wants only one choice of jam and one choice of religion – Islam. In 1400 years, Islam was unable to produce the quality and flavor of Western civilization, but if they could succeed in annihilating Western civilization, ahhh, then Islam would finally be the best.
This is civilizational jihad. This guest is one of many who comes to indoctrinate the uninformed in Chautauqua, that fewer choices mean fewer worries. Life is not made better, but infinitely simpler when you do as you’re told, eat what you’re given, and dare not complain. It is more than just a “Shadi” deal; it is bondage.
Barcelona, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, was the target of the Islamic State in their latest terrorist attack to kill people on a wholesale basis. Spain has now mounted an all out sweeping anti-terror operation after an Islamist militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people and possibly injuring 100 before fleeing, in what police suspect was one of multiple planned attacks.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deadly attack along the city’s most famous avenue on Thursday, which was packed with tourists taking an afternoon stroll. Police said they had arrested two men, a Moroccan and a man from Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla.
Meir Bar-Hen, the Jewish Barcelona Barrister, said the Jews in Spain should not repeat the mistake of the Jews in Algeria or Venezuela: “Go ahead rather than too late.” Bar-Hen urged the Jews Spain to buy and emigrate land in Israel: “I tell my church: We are destined to perish.Europe is lost. “
This refugee crisis in Europe has been the greatest mistake perhaps in modern history. It is one things to set up camps and help people displaced by war. It is totally different to open your doors and let single men in hiding among women and children.
Obviously there’s an awakening happening throughout the U.S. body politic. Proof of that awakening is President Donald Trump. CTH has long held the belief that with information, simple information, the awakening will continue. However, the MSM have a vested interest in keeping ‘simple truth’s‘ wrapped up on complicated linguistics.
Complication serves their interests.
That said, and against the backdrop of the Atlanta Federal Reserve saying the U.S. GDP is on pace for third quarter growth at 4.0 percent. Here’s a reference point to showcase how much the American electorate have been subjected to economic gaslighting by the media.
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is simply the sum total of all goods and services made, manufactured and delivered in the U.S.A. minus the total value of our imported goods.
When considering economic growth, you may have heard that 4.0 percent or higher GDP growth is impossible. Allow me to remove the gaslighting from that claim.
Assume the total of U.S. GDP is $20 trillion. To get 5% growth we would need to add $1 trillion worth of goods and/or services.
However, we are not just constrained to the adding of $1 trillion in this equation. If we use a combination of additional exports totaling $500 billion, and we simultaneously eliminate imports of $500 billion we get the same GDP benefit of $1 trillion or 5% growth.
Now it might sound challenging to lower imported goods by $500 billion. Indeed it is the harder part of the overall equation; ergo renegotiated trade deals. However, if we can get the import manufacturers making the stuff in the U.S, instead of overseas, it becomes easier. Now you see why Trump is trying to pull companies into the U.S. A successful example includes FoxConn.
On the other side of the equation we have U.S. exports. If we can export $500 billion in more stuff, and/or add $500 billion in new stuff created inside the U.S. we gain our $1 trillion, or 5%.
It might seem like a challenge to export $500 billion in products. It’s not; this is actually the easier side of the equation. Consider the energy sector alone. We are exporting massive amounts of energy resources; specifically ¹coal (energy coal and coking coal) and liquified natural gas (LNG).
Examples. A single contract, with a single company, in one single state, is a deal recently made between Texas and Ireland for LNG. One contract worth €338 million euros, or almost $400 million dollars. (LINK) That’s just one deal in the energy sector; with one company. There are hundreds of such deals ongoing.
¹Coal: “exports of the fuel from January through May totaled 36.79 million tons, up 60.3 percent from 22.94 million tons in the same period in 2016“, (link) and that number is skyrocketing right now as you read this.
Additionally, remember President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia? He signed a crucial trade agreement worth “over $380 billion US Dollars“, again those are export dollars.
A simple summary that helps break through the MSM gaslighting on GDP growth the media claims is unachievable.
If we want to achieve 5% GDP growth all we need to do is generate $500 billion in additional economic activity, and reduce imports across all sectors by $500 billion. The total of the combined action generates $1 trillion in GDP growth.
It’s a challenge, but it’s not as big of a challenge as the corporate media would have American voters believe it is. Of course succeeding in that challenge is actually against the interests of corporate media and their overarching multinational corporate ownership, hence the gaslighting to say it’s impossible.
“It can’t be done”, they said. “There’s no way Trump can achieve 4.0% economic growth” they said. The Congressional Budget Office said economic projections were “improbable”, they said…. “Impossible”, they said.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is on track to expand at a 4.0 percent annualized pace in the third quarter with inventory investment contributing 1.12 percentage points to growth, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed on Thursday. (read more)
How is this possible? Well, if you’ve never had to wash your hands with Lava – it might seem impossible. For those who have washed with Lava, it’s simple common sense.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, is the growth in value of all goods and services produced within the economy over a specified period of time. A key part of that equation is the sum total of exported goods minus imported goods is part of the measure. Only the stuff created in the U.S. increases the growth dynamic. If you import more, the GDP shrinks. It’s simple arithmetic.
If you grow exports, and maintain a constant on imported products, the net lowering of the trade deficit adds to GDP growth. It’s not a hard equation. If our economy is making more stuff, our economy is growing.
Here’s the part a few of us have been talking about for a long time, and more recently when candidate Trump announced his economic plans we immediately saw the common sense behind the strategy.
Specifically within the Energy sector, Obama’s policies were shutting down energy development. Coal mines shut down; pipelines stopped; natural gas permits held up; etc. The sum impact was higher energy costs and more reliance on imports of foreign oil etc. Importing energy resources shrinks the domestic economy (we ain’t making it) and lowers the GDP (we’re importing it).
Enter Trump.
President Trump unleashes the energy sector. Coal mines reopened (energy coal and metallurgy coking coal), pipelines approved, and LNG (liquified natural gas) permits and pipelines fast-tracked, and permits for new refineries approved. In addition to ongoing oil exploitation, the entire energy sector was quickly unleashed.
But wait, it went further.
President Trump’s energy policy initiatives took energy dependence (importing), and within months began skyrocketing toward energy independence.
But wait, it went further.
Enter Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross.
Together with President Trump, Secretary Wilbur Ross immediately began reaching out to allied nations for energy export agreements. Within months coal (coking and energy coal) was being exported to Asia and Europe. Massive increases in exports.
Within a few more months LNG contracts were written and approved and natural gas began being exported to Asia and Europe. Ireland just signed a big contract (€338,000,000) for massive shipments of Texas LNG.
Early agreements with the Arab States (Gulf Cooperation Council) to negotiate oil production levels in exchange for assistance with their domestic security initiatives (weapons sales), in combination with agreements with Emmanuel Macron (France) to drive production in Libya and North Africa, kept global oil supplies flowing. In conjunction with our North American production increases, this energy approach has kept oil prices lower.
[It didn’t hurt to have the former CEO of Exxon-Mobil, Rex Tillerson, as our Secretary of state either. It wasn’t his first Arabian sword dance. Almost like a plan. Much to the angst of Russia, Iran and Venezuela – go figure.]
You might have missed it, but we went straight past Memorial Day 2017 and instead of gas prices increasing, we saw them continue to drop. First time in decades for lower gas prices at the pumps during peak summer gas use.
MagaSuperWonderWinning.
Back to the GDP growth. Remember the equation. Production exports minus imports are part of the bottom line GDP total. Trump’s energy sector policy specifically began increasing the export part of the energy sector. Yes, we are exporting massive amounts of coal (both kinds), and liquified natural gas (LNG).
Every metric tonne of those exports lowers the trade deficit; and as a consequence increases the GDP.
But wait, it gets better.
This is new ground. “Exporting Energy” is an entirely new sector of economic activity. All prior historic energy sector reference within our economy has been lowering GDP growth because we imported energy raw material (oil), and never utilized our own resources as offsets.
So yeah, the folks who wash calluses with Lava totally understand that 4% GDP growth is entirely reasonable with an entire new sector of the economy contributing toward it. Heck, we predicted exactly this – and more.
[…] Remember, when Donald Trump proposed his 2015 economic and tax platform? Every pundit with a microphone said Trump’s projected four percent growth was a pipe-dream. Now, amid many influential circles, there’s actually white paper discussion looking beyond that original Trump proposal and stating that six percent, seven percent and even higher economic expansion is entirely possible, if not – predictable.
Get ready….. but don’t get so busy that you forget to look around while this is happening. We are living inside history, and the journey is infinitely more fun than the destination.
Florida Power and Light won the prestigious International Edward Demming award for excellence in multi-platform engineering, efficiency superiority and overall quality. They didn’t blow every PhD intellectual out of the water with slide rules, CAD programs and engineering acumen. They did it with hard hats and dirty fingernails.
Because they lost the award, the Japanese spent 6 months studying FPL and later published a 1,000 page dissertation essentially saying FPL “wasn’t really good, they were just lucky”….. FPL field leadership laughed, took out markers and wrote on the back of their hard hats: “WE’RE NOT GOOD, WE’RE RUCKY”….
When every single Kuwaiti oil field was blown up by Saddam Hussein, they said it would take 5 years to cap them all off and restart their oil pumping industry. The Kuwaiti’s and Saudi’s called Texans, who had them all capped and back in working order in 10 months.
We are a nation that knows how to get shit done.
When the Northern Chile mine workers were trapped two miles underground, they said no-one could save them. Who did they call for help? A bunch of hick miners from USA coal country who went down there, worked on the fly, engineered the rescue equipment on site, and saved everyone of them….
That’s our America.
When a half-breed Islamic whack job, armed with an AK-47 and a goal to meet his seven virgins, began opening fire on a train in France, the Americans on board didn’t run to the nearest safe room and hide themselves amid baguettes and brie. They said “let’s go”, and beat the stuffing out of that little nut with a death wish.
Legion d’Honneur or not, that’s us. That’s just how we roll.
Lady Liberty can stroll along the Champs-Elysées with a swagger befitting Mae West because without her arrival they’d be speaking German in the Louvre. Yet for the better part of the past decade a group of intellectual something-or-others have been teaching an insufferable storyline that it’s better to be sitting around a campfire eating sustainable algae cakes and picking parasites off each other.
Enough.
When I hear Donald Trump say “Make America Great Again”, I also hear the familiar echo “cowboy up” people.
It’s high time we stop being embarrassed about our exceptional nature, and start being proud of it again. Because when it matters most, when it really counts, when it’s really needed, there’s a whole bunch of people all around this world of ours that are mighty happy when swagger walks in to solve their problems.
Yeah, “let’s Make America Great Again”. Swagger on !
This is one of those paradigm shift CTH predictions that many people scoffed at back in 2015/2016 when we discussed a Trump federal budget, and how Washington DC politicians would respond to a president who actually planned to cut spending. Back in February we warned:
[…] The UniParty is going to fight hard, very hard, to retain their spending. Don’t be surprised to see GOPe “conservatives” demanding President Trump spend more money. We have been repeating this warning since he announced his bid for the presidency in 2015. (link)
Today’s headline reads “Fears Grow That Trump Could Ignore Congress on Spending“. Traditional thinking, at first glance of the headline, would be the President might ignore budgetary levels and spend more than he should. However, in reality, the paradigm shift is the exact opposite. DC is worried that President Trump won’t spend enough money.
Let that sink in for a minute.
THAT’S a prime example of: A.) evidence of the DC UniParty; and, B.) how ridiculously dysfunctional and broken the federal budgetary and spending process has become. DC lawmakers are now consulting attorneys and planning to sue the President and force him to spend money.
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers and activists are preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump’s administration, in its zeal to slash the federal budget, will take the rare step of deliberately not spending all the money Congress gives it — a move sure to trigger legal and political battles.
The concern is mainly focused on the State Department, where Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has drawn criticism for failing to spend $80 million allocated by Congress to fight Russian and terrorist propaganda and for trying to freeze congressionally authorized fellowships for women and minorities. Activists and congressional officials fear such practices could take hold at other U.S. departments and agencies under Trump.
“We’ve seen just too many instances these past few months … where there is clear congressional intent and funds provided, yet an unwillingness or inability to act,” Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement to POLITICO.
Advocacy groups are consulting lawyers and gathering information on current spending and the laws that govern the budget; one nongovernmental-organization network is even surveying humanitarian organizations to gather more facts. Capitol Hill staffers are scouring the fine print of appropriations bills, hunting for loopholes that would allow the executive branch to slow down or stop spending. (read more)
It’s bizzarro world.
Good grief. Republicans control the House and Senate. Republicans don’t need a single Democrat to pass a budget. Not one. The House originates a budget with a simple majority, and the Senate passes it with reconciliation (51 votes). [That’s actually the primary and original intent of the “reconciliation” process in the senate.]
We haven’t had a federal budget in a decade. The last federal budget was signed into law by George W. Bush in September of 2007 for fiscal year 2008. The entire Obama presidency went two terms without a single budget ever passed by congress and signed into law.
Now, the same DC apparatus who intentionally avoided any spending restrictions during the Obama years is suing the first year Trump administration for not spending money.
♦ President Trump is proposing a 10% first year increase in defense spending. That equals approximately $54 billion more for defense. If you look at the income from his projected GDP growth (4% = $200 billion), you can see how easily that expenditure is covered.
♦ President Trump is proposing significant wholesale cuts to all other departments including Dept of State and EPA. The U.S. State Department has over 70,000 employees, that alone is ridiculous. Easily the DoS can eliminate 20% of staff, and find efficiencies well beyond those numbers.
Essentially, President Trump’s proposed budget outline (full pdf and explanation here) is a decrease of 10% per department. Easily attainable, especially when you consider these departments have been operating at around 3% rates of growth due to nine years of base-line budget growth without a federal budget in place.
You only need to look back to 2006 to see federal spending was under $3 trillion. Fiscal year 2008 was the last year we had a federal budget in place. Every year since then has been continuing resolutions, omnibus spending, debt ceiling increases and base-line budget growth (spend 3% more) based on prior year expenditures.
President Trump is the first President in 30 years to actually propose a budget that reduces spending in whole numbers from the prior year.
President Trump is proposing a reduction in actual spending, not a reduction in the rate of growth of spending. Remember, 3% of the proposed cut is just not spending more than the prior year (that’s the base-line budget growth); consequently depending on the department the actual cut is much less than 10%.
The UniParty is going to fight hard, very hard, to retain their spending. Don’t be surprised to see GOPe “conservatives” demanding President Trump spend more money. We have been repeating this warning since he announced his bid for the presidency in 2015.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Solar eclipses have been observed throughout history. As to be expected, they have often been seen as omens along with comets. We hear if the star of Bethlehem that announced the birth of Jesus and the comet that appeared the night Julius Caesar was assassinated, which has been historically recorded on coins proving his divinity.
In China, India, and Southeast Asia as well as in Peru there were beliefs that dragons or demons attack the Sun during such eclipses trying to devour it. The ancient Egyptian myth of the snake Apep that attacks the boat of the Sun god is believed now to refer to solar eclipses. The cult of the Sun god Sol remains with us today in so many ways. The cult was Sol Invictus or the invincible sun that reappeared every day. Sol was depicted with rays of sunlight coming from his head. That is the model of the Statue of Liberty. This also appeared as a halo around his head, and this tradition is why Christians often used this same symbol around the heads of Jesus and saints.
Meir Bar-Hen, the Jewish Barcelona Barrister, 
Centinel2012 