The German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen was being touted as a possible successor to Merkel. She has spoken at the Munich Security Conference stating that there must be “the common will to actually use the military weight when circumstances require it.” Leyen has come out saying that Germany should no longer hide behind its history, but must accept that soldiers must fight for the security of the nation and the freedom of the people. Leyen’s French colleague, Florence Parly, has also called for closer European military cooperation.
The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned against risks that confront Europe as a whole. He came out and said: “The truth is: the European Union cannot protect Europe alone.”
France has been stating that Europe must be militarily independent of the USA. Nonetheless, t defense of Europe without the help of Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, would actually be very hard to imagine.
The scuttlebutt is that Leyen is a hawk who would have little problem going to war against Russia. She was seen as on the short-list of successors to Merkel, but she is going to NATO instead. The Hessian Prime Minister Bouffier is surprisingly distant to Chancellor Merkel as the dissatisfaction with Merkel rises.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is also being talked about as a successor to Merkel. She is the first woman to lead the government of Saarland and only the fourth woman to govern any German state.
Reverend Bill Graham is honored today during a ceremony at the Capitol Hill Rotunda:
[Transcript] U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. – 11:21 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell. And, most importantly, thank you to the entire Graham family for honoring us with your presence here today. Thank you.
In the spring of 1934, Billy Graham’s father allowed a group of Charlotte businessmen to use a portion of the family’s dairy farm to gather for a day of prayer.
On that day, the men prayed for the city. They prayed that, “Out of Charlotte, the Lord would raise up someone to preach the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.”
We are here today, more than 80 years later, because that prayer was truly answered.
Billy Graham was 15 years old at the time. Just a few months later, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
That choice didn’t just change Billy’s life — it changed our lives. It changed our country, and it changed, in fact, the entire world.
The North Carolina farm boy walked out of those fields, into a great and beautiful history. Starting at a small Bible school in Florida, he soon led a nationwide revival — from a large tent in Los Angeles, to 100,000 people in a single day at Yankee Stadium, to more than 2 million people at Madison Square Garden, over 16 weeks in 1957.
And I remember that, because my father said to me, “Come on, son” — and, by the way, he said, “Come on, mom. Let’s go see Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium.” And it was something very special.
But Americans came in droves to hear that great young preacher. Fred Trump was a big fan. Fred Trump was my father.
In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Bogota, Moscow, New Delhi, Saigon, Johannesburg, and scores of other places all over the world, Reverend Graham shared the power of God’s word with more than 200 million people, in person, and countless others through television and radio where people loved to watch and listen.
In 1978, with the support of the Catholic Bishop who would soon become Pope John Paul II, Reverend Graham went to Poland and spoke of the meaning of the cross to a people suffering under the soulless oppression of communism.
Billy Graham carried his message around the world, but his heart, as Franklin will tell you, was always in America.
He took his message to the poorest places, to the downtrodden and to the brokenhearted, to inmates in prison, and to the overlooked and the neglected. He felt a great passion for those that were neglected.
Everywhere he went, Reverend Graham delivered the same beautiful message: God loves you. That was his message. God loves you.
We can only imagine the number of lives touched by the preaching and the prayers of Billy Graham –- the hearts he changed, the sorrows he eased, and the joy he brought to so many. The testimony is endless.
Today, we give thanks for this extraordinary life. And it’s very fitting that we do so right here in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, where the memory of the American people is enshrined.
Here in this room, we are reminded that America is a nation sustained by prayer. The painting to my left is of the pilgrims as they embarked for America, holding fast to the Bible and bowing their heads in prayer.
Along these walls, we see the faces of Americans who prayed as they stood on the Lexington Green, who prayed as they headed west, prayed as they headed into battle, and prayed as they marched for justice, and always marched for victory.
Around us stand the statues of heroes who led the nation in prayer during the great and difficult times, from Washington to Lincoln to Eisenhower to King.
And, today, in the center of this great chamber lies legendary Billy Graham, an ambassador for Christ who reminded the world of the power of prayer and the gift of God’s grace.
Today we honor him as only three private citizens before him have been so honored.
And like the faithful of Charlotte once did, today we say a prayer for our country, that all across this land the Lord will raise up men and women like Billy Graham to spread a message of love and hope to every precious child of God.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America. Thank you very much.
According to recent reports up to eleven marines from Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Arlington Virginia have suffered from mysterious symptoms after opening a suspicious letter within the administration building on base.
Fox 10 is reporting three marines were taken to the hospital and are currently receiving treatment for sore throats and a nosebleed. A Hazmat team was immediately called and is working on the scene.
Responding fire department officials report 11 people came into contact with the suspicious letter. Details developing.
We are witnessing the rebuke of career politicians by career politicians. The California Democratic Party took a vote and it concluded it will not endorse Senator Dianne Feinstein’s re-election bid this year. Feinstein is 84 and the oldest politician there who wants to run for another 6-year term.
The delegates at the party’s annual convention gave the majority of votes to her top primary challenger, progressive State Senator Kevin de Leon.
De Leon received 54% of the vote, compared to 37%. Feinstein is nor considered to be left enough for California. She has stood by the NSA and called Snowden a traitor.
Neither Democrat will receive the state party endorsement because they both failed to reach the 60% threshold. Nevertheless, Feinstein leads by 29 points in the polls there and she is backed by the establishment with big bucks. Even though she did not get the Democratic endorsement, she may be impossible to beat anyway. She has all the money.
This is shaping up to be Feinstein v Democrats v People. Curious outcome. Long live corruption?
What is happening in Germany is very critical because it is a reflection of the global trend. Schultz is under attack because the SPD has fallen to such a state that it is barely above the AfD. Party members are deeply concerned as I wrote that Schultz wanted a coalition for personal power. Yet there was another issue at stake. There was also a growing fear that the SPD would lose even more seats in a new election.
Merkel, many remark will have to be dragged out of office by her hair. She wants to remain Chancellor until 2021. Because of that personal desire, she too wants a coalition deal. Therefore, both Schultz and Merkel are seen as a deal for personal political status.
Meanwhile, there is a rising trend of right-wing groups in Germany that the refugee crisis has inspired. Politicians have for far too long regarded the people as fools who will accept whatever the politicians tell them. Those days are passing.
Trade Union Confederation (DGB), labor unions are turning much more right-wing. The AfD and other right-extremist groups are preparing to win votes and mandates with trade unions such as IG metal and Verdi von März. They see this trend as never having so good prospects at the polls.
Politics is shifting in Germany and we have the refugee crisis and EU policies to thank. Many members of the SPD party are warning that if they fail to agree to the coalition, a new round of elections will see their party be greatly reduced.
As you may know, Billy Graham left this world today at age 99 years. He died at 8 a.m. EST at his home in Montreat, North Carolina. A counselor to many famous and powerful men and women, his message was always the same, to everyone.
According to Reuters,
In a rare trip away from his home in his later years, Graham had celebrated his 95th birthday on Nov. 7, 2013, at a hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, where some 800 guests, including Republican politician Sarah Palin, business magnates Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump and television hostess Kathie Lee Gifford paid tribute.
The celebration featured a video of a sermon that his son Franklin said was Graham’s last message to the nation. Graham had been working for a year on the video, which was aired on Fox News. In it, he said America was “in great need of a spiritual awakening.”
We never know what we truly believe until it’s a matter of life and death. Billy Graham, along with a firefighter and a young woman forced to face the reality of death, share the Gospel message, and what really happens when we die.
CTH has intentionally stayed away from discussion of the Parkland school shooting as we watched and reviewed the response. However, it’s time to call the Broward School Board officials to task and simultaneously prepare the class-action lawyers to cripple the system.
Broward County schools intentionally created polices from 2010 through 2016 that culminated in the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland. We know this with great specificity because five years ago we warned Broward County Florida school board members this could happen.
In 2012 and 2013 while doing research into the Trayvon Martin shooting we discovered an alarming set of school policies being enacted in Miami-Dade and Broward County Florida. The policies were called “diversionary programs” and were essentially about stopping High School students from being arrested. Law enforcement was instructed to avoid arrests and defer criminal conduct to school administrators.
Students who engaged in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system. County administrators and School Superintendents told local and county law enforcement officers to stop arresting students.
2013 […] Broward, the nation’s seventh largest district, had the highest number of school-related arrests in Florida in the 2011-2012 school year, according to state data. Seventy-one percent of the 1,062 arrests made were for misdemeanor offenses. (more)
Unfortunately, the school board mandated policies came into conflict with law and order. The problem of the conflicted policy -vs- legality worsened over time as the police excused much more than misdemeanor crimes. Over time this culminated in police officers falsifying documents, hiding criminal activity, lying on official police reports and even hiding stolen merchandise police retrieved from high school students.
In 2012 Trayvon Martin was one of those students. –SEE HERE–
It was our initial FOIA requests to the Miami Dade School Police Department which revealed the secret discipline and diversionary program Trayvon Martin was granted to avoid a criminal record. The School Board and M-DSPD kept trying to hide the issue; they delayed responses and charged us thousands for FOIA information; but we knew this story was huge… so we kept going.
Specifically Trayvon Martin’s criminal conduct was hidden behind school discipline. Stolen jewelry was recorded as random ‘found items’ (the jewelry just intentionally placed in storage with no investigation), Trayvon’s possession of marijuana was similarly obfuscated, and all of the incident reports were intentionally falsified by officials and School Resource Officer, Daryl Dunn, to avoid the Criminal Justice system.
It is all well documented. None of this is supposition. Our research discovered sworn affidavits from the police department HERE. No-one was ever been held to account – it was just too politically dangerous an issue.
SRO Dunn never filed a criminal report, nor opened a criminal investigation, surrounding the stolen jewelry. Instead, and as a result of pressure from M-DSPD Chief Hurley to avoid criminal reports for black male students, Dunn wrote up the jewelry as “found items”, and transferred them, along with the burglary tool, to the Miami-Dade Police property room where they sat on a shelf unassigned to anyone for investigation.
A separate report of “criminal Mischief” (T-08809) was filed for the additional issue of writing “WTF” on a school locker. [It was the search for the marker used to write the graffiti that led to the backpack search].
The school discipline, “suspension”, was attached to the graffiti and not the stolen jewelry.
The connections between the Police Burglary report and the School Report of “found items” were never made because the regular police detective in charge of the Burglary case had no idea the School Police Dept. had filed a “found items” report.
Two differing police departments, and the School Officer, Dunn, intentionally took the criminal element out of the equation – instead preferring “school discipline” and not “criminal adjudication”. (more)
And it wasn’t just Trayvon Martin, there were hundreds of similar actions taken by conflicted School Resource Officers – totaling thousands of crimes over the course of just the first few years of these programs (2010 through 2013).
CTH contacted the Miami-Dade School District, every single school board member, and the Broward County School District – to warn them of what was taking place.
We provided thousands of pages of sworn affidavits and transcribed testimony from law enforcement. We spent several thousand dollars locating, transcribing and assembling the documents and evidence; and hundreds more hours compiling all the information. –SEE HERE– We sent all of it to both school districts and both school superintendents.
Their response: “go away”.
The school board’s in Miami-Dade and Broward County had created a disastrous scheme and it didn’t take long to see where this was going. The scheme was supported by President Obama’s federal education policy, and executive orders –SEE HERE– and people like Jesse Jackson –SEE HERE– In August of 2012 President Obama issuing an “executive order” establishing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence. Effectively placing “quotas” on school discipline based on race.
Broward County, even went one step further. They stopped arresting students and then changed the policy of suspension. Broward enhanced their program in 2013:
Broward’s Collaborative Agreement on School Discipline was announced in early November. Instead of suspensions, students can now be referred to the PROMISE program, where they receive counseling for several days and then return to school. A host of non-violent misdemeanors no longer require an arrest, though officers can sometimes override that if they feel it is necessary (“I wanted to make sure deputies always had discretion,” says Scott Israel, Broward County’s sheriff). The school district’s Office of Minority Male Achievement reviews data to ensure that punishments for minor infractions and racial disparities are on the decline. (read more)
So what happens when you stop arresting students for clear criminal conduct and then lessen the school punishment therein?…. You get this:
2010 – In recent years, many school districts across the country have begun to adopt strict zero-tolerance discipline policies that impose increasingly harsher punishments for seemingly minor infractions. These disciplinary measures – in-school or out-of-school suspensions, alternative school placements, expulsions, and referrals to police departments and juvenile authorities – disrupt a student’s education and diminish their chances for success.
For too many students, these school-imposed sanctions lead to the criminal justice system, a pathway commonly referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Regrettably, studies have shown that children of color are disproportionately affected by zero-tolerance policies, a trend that increases already significant disparities. (read more)
2010 – ERIC HOLDER – Never before have our two agencies come together in this way – or brought together such a large and diverse group of partners – to discuss the best ways to ensure that civil rights and educational opportunities are protected for every student, at every level, and in every community…But it is just the beginning of what I know – and I pledge – will be an ongoing conversation about how we can better understand the causes, and most effectively remedy the consequences, of disparities in student discipline. I want to assure all of you that for me, for Secretary Duncan, for the agencies we lead, and for the administration – this work is a top priority.
While in Vietnam in a Special Forces Camp A-341 near the Cambodian Border in 1967 I was the team XO and a 1st Lieutenant and this is my story
The Camp had been under attack for several weeks by VC/NVA units to our north and east when we came under attack for the third time and over the next several hours we continued to receive sporadic incoming mortar rounds from the Northeast. There was also some small arms fire but no signs of any kind of ground assault like we had beaten off previously. It appeared that this time we were just being harassed or probed and not attacked. As I remember it about 20 or 30 mortar rounds were fired at Bu Dop and the a joining 1-28th infantry positions during the night, more to keep us from sleeping than to inflict major damage. The 1-28th infantry was taking some casualties from shrapnel but I don’t think they had any KIA’s during this mortar bombardment. We fired counter mortar fire as did the 1-28th infantry but I don’t think any of us hit the VC/NVA mortar positions. They were probably just moving around firing a few rounds from one position and then a few rounds from another nearby position.
However, early in the morning at about 0300 hours one of these incoming rounds landed either: near the 4.2″ pit sending hot shrapnel into the ammo bunker; or it landed directly on the ammo bunker itself penetrating it with flash or hot shrapnel. In either case it didn’t matter for it ignited the propellant charges on the staged illumination rounds which are what propels the round to the target. Maybe even some of the illumination rounds themselves that we were getting ready to fire were set off. I do remember that there was a dull explosion and then several very intense waves of heat that went through the position igniting everything that could burn. Fortunately we had used up all the HE rounds that night and only a few illumination rounds were left unfired. If there had been any HE rounds in the pit and they had gone off when the incoming round hit they wouldn’t have found much if any of us. Just a few pieces and parts here and there scattered around the camp. For sure I wouldn’t be here talking to you.
I had on a standard issue steel pot, a nylon flack vest, jungle fatigue pants and jungle boots, your basic standard uniform for combat in Vietnam. Because we were in camp I did not have on any web my CAR-15 was in the pit with me but I did not have it in my actual possession. Most of us didn’t wear socks or underwear to try and prevent getting fungus infections from the heat and moisture that was always present. The heat from the blast hit me from the right rear while I was talking on the PRC-25 radio. I remember being engulfed by the flames as the fire ball rolled past me and several intense waves (I could feel the pressure as they hit me) of heat hitting me on the back and right side. These blasts or waves of heat were extremely hot such that the intensity of them melted the nylon flak vest completely off me as well as instantly setting fire to my pants and jungle boots. I must have instinctively closed my eyes as the fireball engulfed me and then there were a few seconds where I don’t remember what happened. The blast either blew me out of the pit or I crawled out (I’m not sure which), the next thing I do remember a few seconds later was that I was laying on the ground just outside the pit and seeing that I was on fire.
My first action was to put out the flames that were still consuming what was left of my clothes and flack vest. That probably took 20 or 30 seconds and while I was doing that I also saw there was an intense fire still burning in the 4.2″ mortar pit. After I put out the flames with dirt I got up and saw that SFC Broom and SP4 Schroeder were down on the ground in the pit and still burning, I think they were both unconscious. They were behind me, closer to the explosion, when the blast hit and so this was the first I saw of them after the fireballs rolled over us. I was in the process of climbing into the pit to help them when some of the other team members showed up. They stopped me and took care of the other two guys in the pit. I don’t remember which team members helped me besides that being a long time ago I probably wasn’t in the best state of mind.
I knew I was injured and burned but I had no sense that I might be seriously wounded. I was placed on a stretcher and I do remember getting a shot of morphine. A dust off was called and by 0400 hours we were loaded in it and we left Bu Dop for the last time. It was still dark and as we left I could see the camp and 1-28th positions dropping away as the chopper rose into the dark night sky. Still, not realizing the extent of my injuries I was concerned over my team and that I needed to get back right away, they needed my experience. I was thinking that I’d be gone for a few days, get some rest and then join my team in a week or so. I was very wrong in this assessment of the situation.
We were all medevacked to the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh for emergency treatment. I can remember going into the triage room and answering a few questions but then my memory starts to get fuzzy. Probably by that time shock was setting in as the next several days were disjoined and what I can remember is only a few images and feelings. At some point I remember being loaded on a medical transport and then being moved to the 106th army hospital in Japan I spent several days in Japan, of which I remember almost nothing but a few images of being in a hospital ward that I remember as being dark However, I was experiencing shock by this time and so I can’t really rely on anything I remember as being absolutely true. Then all three of us were placed on a military hospital plane and flown back to the states along with a lot of others. The ride back was one of constantly dropping in and out of consciousness and blurred images of patients, nurses IV’s and being very cold. I think there was a plane transfer somewhere in this process and then the three of us from Bu Dop were taken to the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. I remember very little of that plane ride from Japan but I do remember the airfield in the states and the ambulance ride to the hospital.
Brooke Medical Center was then the premier center, in the world, for treatment of burns, so if you were going to be burned this was where to be. I had 3rd degree burns on my legs and 2nd degree burns on my arms, back, neck and face for a total of 67% of body area). I had also inhaled hot burning gases in the pit when the fire balls rolled over me which had burned the inside of my mouth, tongue and my lungs. Besides that I had some shrapnel wounds and was experiencing a sever loss of body fluids. In general I was in very, very bad shape Later, when I was discharged from Brooke Medical Center, the Doctors told me that when I reached the hospital in December they had given me only a 10% chance of living through this trauma. There had been so much physical damage to my body that they just didn’t think I would be strong enough to make it. However, I’m certainly glad they didn’t give up and that they did still tried to save me despite their doubts. As I contemplated this brush with death a few years later I came to the conclusion that my life after this was a gift and that since I should have died then, but instead I had lived, that I would do something before I died to justify my existence. As a result I have been driven to accomplish something ever since and what I’ll do if I’m ever successful I don’t know.
Being burned extensively is not pleasant and the burned person’s body reacts to this, in part, by allowing the mind to hallucinate. I guess the hallucinations allow time to pass without direct knowledge of the pain the body is going through. I was no exception to this developing situation even when I knew what was happening to me. However, to me going into the hallucinatory state was a very frightening situation, much more so than the burns and associated pain. The pain, I could control mentally to the point of being the only patient in the ward that didn’t scream or in any way get violent during the treatments. That’s not to say that I in any way enjoyed it but only that between the two at least the pain was real. The real I could deal with but the loss of reality was frightening to me.
I had always prided myself in being in control of my internal self as I recognized that I could not control the external world in any way. However the pain and shock I experienced induced a hallucinatory state in me that I would go in and out of, a dream world and that I could not stop from happening nor recognize that I was in this state after it happened. While in these dream states I actually “believed” that what was happening to me was real no matter how bizarre the situation I was experiencing was. Many of these dream states involved some kind of fight with a tiger which made no sense to me at the time. After this hallucinatory state happened to me a few times I could sense it coming on but it was way too powerful a force to fight and no matter how much as I tried to stop it from happening, it would take control of me and I would be in another world.
During the initial period of my treatment at Brooke I dropped from over 180 pounds to under 100 pounds (98 pounds if I remember correctly). As I started my recover I started to gain weight back and also to have fewer and fewer hallucinatory states. After getting skin grafts from by chest to my legs where the skin had been completely burned off and healing from those operations began I had to learn to walk again. That was a task, as the grafted areas would quickly swell up when standing as well as being very uncomfortable. It was probably five or six years later before I really felt comfortable walking and I was never able to run again for any length of time.
While I was in the hospital I received several operations and skin grafts to repair the massive burn and shrapnel damage I had received in Vietnam. Unfortunately, both SFC Broom and SP4 Schroeder died at Brook Army Medical Center while I was there. I was therefore the only one of the three wounded in the mortar pit at Bu Dop that made it. SFC Broom was very severally burned and there was probably never any chance that he could be saved. I was bad but he was even worse as he was the closest to the explosion when it when off. He may even have shielded Schroeder and I from some of the blast. SP4 Schroeder was only slightly burned and was actually on his way to being released. He had been transferred to a different, non-critical, ward and then he developed an infection which ravaged his body with extremely high temperatures eventually killing him. Fortunately for me I was not that aware of what was happening and so I didn’t really comprehend that they were both gone until later when I was out of immediate danger.
The following paragraph was something I wrote to summarize what happened to me after that night in Vietnam over 30 years later when I decided to write about my experiences. By then I realized it was a major turning point in my life that was actually beneficial to me as it showed me how vulnerable we all are to what we think we know, rather than knowing what the truth is and what we don’t know.
On that night in Vietnam I was mortally wounded (all mortal wounds don’t kill you immediately). I was medevacked and sent to a hospital in Texas where I meet the grim reaper soon after arriving. He told me he was coming for me but I told him I wasn’t ready; he laughed at me and said he was going to come anyway. I told him it didn’t matter whether he came or not I just wasn’t going with him. But he wasn’t to be denied and so he visited me every night in the form of a large Bengal tiger and we battled all night for the rights to my soul. He was a very vicious and determined tiger and he tried his best to rip my soul from my body with his sharp teeth and claws but I was strong and stubborn and I would not let go. This battle lasted for two months and he chewed me down to 98 pounds but in the end I prevailed and he disappeared and I was not dead and he had to settle for taking the souls of the two men who were standing next to me in Vietnam.
The lesson I learned was that we are a creation of our teaching and experiences, but and this is a big but, how do we know what we are taught is the truth? Vietnam killed almost 60,000 boys and men and a few women as well plus wounding another 300,000. The war was a pack of lies from our government from the start to the end from both political parties. I did not realize this until the 90’s when I started to write about my Vietnam experiences. I realized at that point why I had lived and not died — it was to write my story about what happened to America after Vietnam so that others in the future would understand what happened and why. That will only happen after I and all the other boomers are mostly gone after 2040 or 2050. In summation my research can summed up in the following nine words.
Passion of purpose does not constitute correctness of thought!
Then from Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. He is considered one of the most influential philosophers for science of the 20th century, and he also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy. The following quotes of his apply to the subject of research.
If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
… (S)cience is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected
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
Centinel2012 