BIRDS FALLING FROM SKY IN TENNESSEE

(MOUNTAIN PRESS) Residents and those passing by near Dogwood Hills subdivision on Boyd Creek Highway Sunday afternoon were met with an unusual scene. Dozens of dead birds littered the highway and surrounding fields after falling from the sky.

Sgt. Robert Stoffle of the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department said a call about the birds came in around 1:15 p.m. He said a witness reported seeing the birds in flight before turning back around to see them on the ground.

“It covered one lane of traffic,” Stoffle said of the bodies of the birds. Estimates of the number of birds varied from between 30 and 60 up to 300. They appeared to be starlings.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/birds-falling-from-sky-in-tennessee/#cuFPFwhaDbWfz24r.99

Christians and the Sabbath

Next Comes The US Downgrade

From SocGen:

The scaled-down deal passed in the Senate addressed the fiscal cliff but did nothing to address longer term fiscal health of the nation. This puts the US rating at risk for a downgrade. However, credit rating agencies may decide to wait and see what emerges from the subsequent talks. There is an implicit new cliff at the end of February related to the sequester and to the expected exhaustion of extraordinary measures related to the debt ceiling. This date is expected to be used by Republicans as leverage for spending cuts. President Obama has already signaled that a new round of spending cuts – those related to the sequester as well as entitlement spending – will have to be matched by additional revenue increases. Therefore entitlement and tax reform are likely to be at the center of discussions over the next two months.

And recall from Moody's in September:

Budget negotiations during the 2013 Congressional legislative session will likely determine the direction of the US government's Aaa rating and negative outlook, says Moody's Investors Service in the report "Update of the Outlook for the US Government Debt Rating."

If those negotiations lead to specific policies that produce a stabilization and then downward trend in the ratio of federal debt to GDP over the medium term, the rating will likely be affirmed and the outlook returned to stable, says Moody's.

If those negotiations fail to produce such policies, however, Moody's would expect to lower the rating, probably to Aa1.

Moody's views the maintenance of the Aaa with a negative outlook into 2014 as unlikely. The only scenario that would likely lead to its temporary maintenance would be if the method adopted to achieve debt stabilization involved a large, immediate fiscal shock—such as would occur if the so-called "fiscal cliff" actually materialized—which could lead to instability. Moody's would then need evidence that the economy could rebound from the shock before it would consider returning to a stable outlook.

Moody's notes that it is difficult to predict when during 2013 Congress will conclude negotiations that result in a budget package. The Aaa rating, with its negative outlook, is likely to be maintained until the outcome of those negotiations becomes clear.

The rating outlook also assumes a relatively orderly process for the increase in the statutory debt limit, says Moody's. The debt limit will likely be reached around the end of this year, and the government's ability to meet interest and other expenses out of available resources would likely be exhausted within a few months after the limit is reached.

Under these circumstances, the government's rating would likely be placed under review after the debt limit is reached but several weeks before the exhaustion of the Treasury's resources. Moody's took a similar action during the summer of 2011.

Several weeks before the exhaustion of Treasury's resources is.... now.

For those still confused, nothing has changed on the US long-term sustainability picture. In fact, as the CBO announced yesterday, deficits will rise by $4 trillion (so really $10 trillion) over the next decade. But the music is playing and one must dance....

Zero Hedge

20 Dark Predictions for 2013

Russia to Hold Large-Scale Mediterranean, Black Sea Naval Drills

MOSCOW, January 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will hold large-scale naval drills in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in late January with the involvement of warships from the Northern, Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific Fleets, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press office reported on Wednesday.

“The Russian Navy’s drills of this scope will be held for the first time over the past few decades and are designed to improve control, ensure and practice multiservice force interaction of the fleets in the far-off maritime zones,” the press office said.

The drills will be held in line with the Russian Armed Forces’ 2013 combat training plan and will aim to “practice the issues of establishing a multiservice grouping of forces (troops) outside Russia, planning its use and conducting joint actions as part of a united naval grouping based on a common plan,” the press office said.

The naval task forces from the Russian Fleets are currently heading towards the designated areas of the naval exercises.

The drills will also simulate operations to load marine troops and paratroopers from the rough coast of the North Caucasus onto amphibious ships and will help the Navy’s personnel acquire necessary marine practice skills during the performance of “combat training missions in the Black and Mediterranean Seas,” the press office said.

RIA Novosti

North Carolina Police Lieutenant Warns Of Plans For Martial Law In 2013

Brandon Smith
Alt Market
Jan 2, 2013

In this broadcast of the Cybertribe News Network, a North Carolina Police Lieutenant calls in to give his first hand knowledge of preparations being made within his own department to train and prepare for martial law in the United States, possibly in the coming year.

Many similar reports are starting to trickle in from all across the country, through various independent media resources and even organizations like Oath Keepers.

The consensus is that a major economic event is expected, and that it will be used to provide cover for the institution of draconian policies being readied behind the curtain. The exact timing of this event is not clear, but we do know the planning is being done, and that provisions are being put in place.

The following officer’s admissions are another startling indicator of just how close to the precipice we really are…

You only think you know what's coming...EXO-VATICANA (Part No.1)

Petrus Romanus, PROJECT LUCIFER, and the Vatican's astonishing exo-theological plan for the arrival of an alien savior.You only think you know what's coming...

Posted: December 30, 2012
11:00 am Eastern

---

PART 1: THE INVESTIGATION BEGINS

Mount Graham and the L.U.C.I.F.E.R. Project  By Tom Horn & Cris Putnam

“L.U.C.I.F.E.R., which stands for “Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research,” is a chilled instrument attached to a telescope in Arizona. And yes, it’s named for the Devil, whose name itself means “morning star” [and which] happens to be right next to the Vatican Observatory on Mt. Graham in Tucson.”— Rebecca Boyle, Popular Science Magazine

Following the release of our 2012 best-seller Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope Is Here, we were inundated with invitations from around the world to be interviewed on radio, television, and in print media. These included segments in The History Channel’s “Countdown to Apocalypse,” which premiered November 9, 2012; a special feature on Canada’s largest Christian channel VisionTV titled “I Prophesy: The Apocalypse Series” (complete with re-enactments) that aired nationwide on Tuesday, November 20, 2012; invitations to Rome to discuss with Italian media our findings on René Thibaut, a Belgian Jesuit whose meticulous analysis of the Prophecy of the Popes predicted the arrival of Petrus Romanus in this era; a “best of” interview with George Noory on Coast to Coast AM, and dozens more.

            But it was two shows in particular, which we did on The Omega Man Radio Program with popular author and radio man Steve Quayle that prompted our visit to Mt. Graham in southeastern Arizona to start our investigation. The first show with Steve rocketed Omega Man to the #1 Blog Talk Radio Show in the world for over a week. It focused on the ancient Prophecy of the Popes and the fact that the pontiff following Benedict XVI will be the final one on this mysterious list of popes, a prophecy that was concealed inside the secret vaults of the Vatican for hundreds of years and which many believe points to the arrival of the False Prophet of end-times infamy. (Note that at the start of this investigation, Benedict XVI remains pope and whoever is scheduled to follow him in the role of Petrus Romanus is still an open question, but whoever it turns out to be, they are the final pope according to the medieval catholic prophecy).

            In the second Omega Man show, which aired Wednesday, April 4, 2012, we broached the subject of a “Vatican ET” connection. That program sent Omega Man into the stratosphere for an unprecedented one-month position as the top BT radio show on the planet, illustrating to these authors that the world is more than casually interested not only in the final pope, but in the connection between Rome and their work on extraterrestrial intelligence, astrobiology, and the intriguing connection between those issues and Petrus Romanus.

Thus on a mild morning in September, 2012, we together with our cameraman—Joe Ardis, a.k.a. the Wild Man of the Ozarks—departed the small desert town of Safford, Arizona (which normally has a warm high desert climate, much hotter than most places in eastern Arizona due to its relatively low elevation of 2,953 feet) [i] en route to the Mt. Graham Observatory Base Camp, 80 miles from Tucson and a few miles south of Safford on State Route 366. Located near the northern limit of the Chiricahua Apache and Western Apache territories, Dził Nchaa Si An, as it is known in the Western Apache language, is one of the four holiest mountains in America for the Apache, and considered sacred to the all of the region’s Native peoples. (The San Carlos Apache Tribe had originally joined environmentalists who sought, among other things, to protect the Sacred Grounds and American Red Squirrel, in filing dozens of lawsuits before a federal appeals court to stop the construction of the observatories on Mt Graham, but the project ultimately prevailed after an act by the United States Congress allowed it).

We had been warned by our guide that the trek up the steep mountainside from 2,953 feet to over 10,700 was precarious, coupled with more hairpin turns, switchbacks and narrow segments of roadway overlooking deep canyon walls than we might have imagined, and, to top it off, there would be no guardrails along the harrowing winding path. We were scheduled to arrive at the Mount Graham International Observatory a couple hours after departure. We would meet with astronomers and engineers at the Large Binocular Telescope—currently one of the world’s most advanced optical telescopes—where, among other things, the new LUCIFER device is attached between its gigantic twin mirrors (either of which would be the largest optical telescope in continental North America). We were later told by the LBT systems engineer who spent significant time with us that day that another instrument—LUCIFER-II—is scheduled to arrive at the observatory anytime now and will complete the two multi-object and longslit infrared spectrograph imagers they need for studying the heavens in search of, among other things, exo-planets that may host intelligent life. We would also visit the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope that day, which sets between the LBT and the real target of our quest—the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope and the Jesuits who work there.

Before leaving base camp, Dramamine for motion sickness was suggested ahead of departure, and the two men in our team that declined that offer would soon wished they hadn’t, as once we were underway, it was non-stop reeling back and forth, bouncing up and down as the driver—who seemed a little too much to enjoy being in one gear faster than he should have been given the circumstances—occasionally looked at us in the rearview mirror and smiled. As we went from Sonoran Desert scrub at the mountain’s floor to alpine spruce-fir forest closer to the summit, our guide who set in the opposite front seat from the driver occasionally pointed to something off to one side, describing how more life zones and vegetative varieties existed here than on any other North American mountain, including almost two dozen plants, animals and insects that are not found anywhere else. Of course this included the celebrity of Mount Graham—the endangered Red Squirrel—which Arizona has already spent at least 1.25 million dollars protecting. But it was hard to appreciate these facts while growing queasy and wondering how far down the canyon wall we would roll if at any moment the driver lost control and barreled off the side. Thankfully, just when we were starting to think this had been a bad idea, we stopped approximately two-thirds way up the mountain at the Columbine Ranger Station, a USDA Forest Service Administrative Complex that had been built Circa 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public work relief program that was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and that had provided unskilled manual labor jobs for people to relieve unemployment during the Great Depression.

We had packed a sack lunch and used the Ranger Station as a place to rest a while, eat, and let our bellies recover a bit from the roller-coaster ride. While munching on a sandwich and looking at the aging black and white pictures that hung on the walls here and there of the Depression-Era men who had built the modest encampment, we met a volunteer, an interesting old chap who told us how he had been coming there for many years to keep a fire in the fireplace and to greet hikers that wandered into the park. When we told him where we were going, he got quiet. When we added that our plan was to speak with the Jesuits at VATT in the restricted area further up the mountain, he lost interest in the conversation and started stirring his fire again.

Minutes later, lunch consumed and stomachs still uneasy, we were back in our vehicle. From this point forward, the road, if we can call it that, became little more than a glorified goat trail until finally, about a mile from our destination, we arrived at a security gate with warnings of “No Trespassing” in several languages. The guide had a key to the gate. She unlocked then relocked it behind us after we drove through the opening. At that point, the driver pulled a radio out, which we had not noticed before, and radioed somebody that we were heading up the incline. Evidently this was necessary because from this point forward the steep gravel lane was barely wide enough for one vehicle at a time, and you didn’t want to risk running up against another vehicle that might be coming down from the Observatories. No one answered the call, so he radioed again, then a third time, with still no response. The silence must have meant the road was clear, as just like that he slipped the vehicle into low gear and we began our final 30-minute crawl up the mountainside.

“And one more thing,” the guide warned as we jerked over the rocky track, tires spinning against the loose gravel and dirt. “When we get to the restricted area you’ll see brightly colored cables roping off most of the land around the buildings. Do not… I repeat, do not step over those lines or you will be arrested immediately and hauled off to jail.” She wasn’t smiling, and when we got to the observatories, we saw the security lines and enforcement vehicles, just as she had described them.

SEARCHING FOR LUCIFER FROM ATOP THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

It was approximately 11: AM (PST) as we rounded the final bend and saw just ahead the towering edifices housing the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), an optical telescope for astronomy and currently one of the world’s most advanced systems. Near it was the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) or as it is also known, the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope building, a “state-of-the-art single-dish radio telescope for observations in the sub-millimeter wavelength range… the most accurate radio telescope ever built.” [ii] And last but not least about a block away from them we observed our primary reason for trudging to the top of this peak—the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or VATT.

            Of course we had read the official story from the Vatican Observatory Website before making the trip, how VATT truly lives up to its name:

“Its heart is a 1.8-m f/1.0 honeycombed construction, borosilicate primary mirror.  This was manufactured at the University of Arizona Mirror Laboratory, and it pioneered both the spin-casting techniques and the stressed-lap polishing techniques of that Laboratory which are being used for telescope mirrors up to 8.4-m in diameter. The primary mirror is so deeply-dished that the focus of the telescope is only as far above the mirror as the mirror is wide, thus allowing a structure that is about three times as compact as the previous generation of telescope designs.”[iii]

           

Such technical language aside, the “Observers” who are approved to operate VATT and what they are using it for these days is what would take us through the looking glass. This was confirmed minutes later by the Jesuit Father on duty that day (whom we got on film) who told us that among the most important research occurring with the site’s Vatican astronomers is the quest to pinpoint certain extrasolar planets and advanced alien intelligence. He then proceeded (as did our guide) to show us all around the observatory—from the personal quarters of the Church’s astronomers—where they ate, slept, relaxed, studied—to the control rooms, computer screens and systems, and even the telescope itself. While we were given complete and unrestricted opportunity to question how the devices are used and what distinctives set each of the telescopes on Mt. Graham apart, we had not expected the ease with which the astronomers and technicians would also speak of UFOs! This was especially true when we walked up the gravel road from VATT to the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), where we spent most of the day with a systems engineer who not only took us to all seven levels of that mighty machine—pointing out the LUCIFER device and what it is used for (which he lovingly referred to as “Lucy” several times and elsewhere as “Lucifer”) as well as every other aspect of the telescope we tried to wrap our minds around—but who also stunned us as we sat in the control room, listening to him and the astronomers speak so casually of the redundancy with which UFOs are captured on screens darting through the heavens. Our friendly engineer didn’t blink an eye, nor did any of the other scientists in the room, and we were shocked at this, how ordinary it seemed to be.

Authors Tom Horn and Cris Putnam in front of VATT.

space

Standing on the platform beneath VATT.

space

Walking from VATT to the Large Binocular Telescope.

space

LBT Systems Engineer in control room with Tom, Cris, and an astronomer (out of frame on right) describing how often “UFOs” are captured during observations.

But as much as the commonality of UFO sightings on Mt. Graham’s telescopes intrigued, this was not the primary reason for our being there. We had come with deeper questions concerning high-level Vatican astronomers and what they had been leaking to, and discussing with, media in recent years. Captivating comments from Jesuit priests like Guy Consolmagno—a leading astronomer who often turns up in media as a spokesman for the Vatican who has worked at NASA and taught at Harvard and MIT and who currently splits his time between the Vatican Observatory and laboratory (Specola Vaticana) headquartered at the summer residence of the Pope in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and Mt. Graham in Arizona. Over the last few years, he has focused so much of his time and effort in an attempt to reconcile science and religion in public forums specifically as it relates to the subject of extraterrestrial life and its potential impact on the future of faith that we decided to contact him. He agreed to be interviewed from Rome, and over the numerous exchanges that followed he told us some things that seemed beyond the scope. He even sent us a copy of a private pdf, a literal goldmine of what he and the Vatican are considering regarding the ramifications of astrobiology and specifically the discovery of advanced extraterrestrials... in which he admits how contemporary societies will soon “look to The Aliens to be the Saviours of humankind.”

Coming up next: What the Vatican and it's theologians are preparing for...

The Raiders News Network

Ghost city of Detroit on the brink of extinction

The situation in the U.S. city of Detroit is critical. The city is dying out at an alarming rate. Currently, the financial condition of the former center of the American automotive industry is so bad that senators are seriously considering the possibility of dissolution of the city and distribution of its assets among other cities of the State of Michigan.

In mid-December of 2012, Senator Rick Jones proposed disbanding Detroit due to its disastrous financial situation, and distributing municipal property and assets among the neighboring towns and counties, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported. "If we have no other choice, then this option should be considered. We need to think about all the available alternatives," said the legislator, adding that if the authorities focus on bankruptcy, each employee and the city itself would suffer, and Detroit would be lost forever.

However, many officials do not rule out the possibility of solving the city's problems. Michael Belzer, professor of Economics at the Detroit Wayne Universit, has proposed a draft project The Great Lakes GlobalFreight Gateway (GLGFG). The idea is to create a new transport infrastructure that would connect the developed areas of the central U.S. with the Canadian port of Halifax.

This transport artery might eventually become a serious competitor to the existing trade routes between Chicago and Port of Norfolk and New York. According to experts, U.S. goods could be delivered to global markets faster and cheaper, in part because Halifax is the only port in North America capable of receiving ships of the new generation that can accommodate up to 18 thousands of containers on-board.

Currently, Detroit is virtually out of money. The city council has refused to approve a three-year $300 thousand dollars contract with a legal company that would rehabilitate the city treasury. It is precisely what Michigan insists on, promising to consider allocation of over $130 million dollars to help Detroit. The city's total debt on long-term bonds in 2012 reached $12 billion.

The city residents had a natural reaction to the lack of jobs and prospects, and in the period between 2000 and 2010, 25% of population moved into the suburbs and neighboring states. According to the last census, the city population is slightly over 700,000 people, which is 250,000 fewer than in 2000. Experts believe that this decrease in Detroit population is due to the problems of the United States auto industry and rampant crime in the once respectable city.

There is a significant shortage of funds for city maintenance. Currently 60 to 70 thousand buildings in Detroit are empty, real estate is not worth a penny, and its condition is poor. Taxes that have never been collected were meant for maintenance of schools, police, fire and other city services. Police arrives on the scene too late, and firemen at times refuse to extinguish burning buildings. All these problems have led to the fact that the remaining Detroit residents began mass migration to the suburbs, the so-called eighth mile. This process is still ongoing.

In coming years, Detroit will have to take active measures independently, because investors, both American and Canadian, are not in a hurry to line up to take part in the ambitious undertaking. Hopefully, the city will make it to this bright moment and is not simply abolished. The decision on its fate is near.

Irina Loseva

Pravda.Ru

Military Must Prepare Now for ‘Mutant’ Future, Researchers Warn

The U.S. military is already using, or fast developing, a wide range of technologies meant to give troops what California Polytechnic State University researcher Patrick Lin calls “mutant powers.” Greater strength and endurance. Superior cognition. Better teamwork. Fearlessness.

But the risk, ethics and policy issues arising out of these so-called “military human enhancements” — including drugs, special nutrition, electroshock, gene therapy and robotic implants and prostheses — are poorly understood, Lin and his colleagues Maxwell Mehlman and Keith Abney posit in a new report for The Greenwall Foundation (.pdf), scheduled for wide release tomorrow. In other words, we better think long and hard before we unleash our army of super soldiers.

If we don’t, we could find ourselves in big trouble down the road. Among the nightmare scenarios: Botched enhancements could harm the very soldiers they’re meant to help and spawn pricey lawsuits. Tweaked troopers could run afoul of international law, potentially sparking a diplomatic crisis every time the U.S. deploys troops overseas. And poorly planned enhancements could provoke disproportionate responses by America’s enemies, resulting in a potentially devastating arms race.

“With military enhancements and other technologies, the genie’s already out of the bottle: the benefits are too irresistible, and the military-industrial complex still has too much momentum,” Lin says in an e-mail. “The best we can do now is to help develop policies in advance to prepare for these new technologies, not post hoc or after the fact (as we’re seeing with drones and cyberweapons).”

Case in point: On April 18, 2002, a pair of Air Force F-16 fighter pilots returning from a 10-hour mission over Afghanistan saw flashes on the ground 18,000 feet below them. Thinking he and his wingman were under fire by insurgents, Maj. Harry Schmidt dropped a 500-pound laser-guided bomb.

There were no insurgents — just Canadian troops on a live-fire exercise, four of whom were killed in the blast. The Air Force ultimately dropped criminal charges against Schmidt and wingman Maj. William Umbach but did strip them of their wings. In a letter of reprimand, Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson accused Schmidt of “willful misconduct” and “gross poor judgment.”

Schmidt countered, saying he was jittery from taking the stimulant Dexedrine, an amphetamine that the Air Force routinely prescribes for pilots flying long missions. “I don’t know what the effect was supposed to be,” Schmidt told Chicago magazine. “All I know is something [was] happening to my body and brain.”

The Food and Drug Administration warns that Dexedrine can cause “new or worse aggressive behavior or hostility.” (.pdf) But the Air Force still blamed the pilots.

The Canadian “friendly fire” tragedy underscores the gap between the technology and policy of military human enhancement. Authorities in the bombing case could have benefited from clearer guidelines for determining whether the drugs, rather than the pilots, were to blame for the accidental deaths. “Are there ethical, legal, psycho-social or operational limits on the extent to which a warfighter may be enhanced?” Lin, Mehlman and Abney ask in their report.

Now imagine a future battlefield teeming with amphetamine-fueled pilots, a cyborg infantry and commanders whose brains have been shocked into achieving otherwise impossible levels of tactical cunning.

These enhancements and others have tremendous combat potential, the researchers state. “Somewhere in between robotics and biomedical research, we might arrive at the perfect future warfighter: one that is part machine and part human, striking a formidable balance between technology and our frailties.”

In this possible mutant future, what enhancements should be regulated by international law, or banned outright? If an implant malfunctions or a drug causes unexpected side effects, who’s responsible? And if one side deploys a terrifying cyborg army, could that spark a devastating arms race as nations scramble to out-enhance each other? “Does the possibility that military enhancements will simply lead to a continuing arms race mean that it is unethical to even begin to research or employ them?” Lin, Mehlman and Abney wonder.

The report authors also question whether the military shouldn’t get give potential enhancement subjects the right to opt out, even though the subjects are otherwise subject to military training, rules and discipline. “Should warfighters be required to give their informed consent to being enhanced, and if so, what should that process be?” the researchers ask.

The ethical concerns certainly have precedent. In a series of experiments in the 1970s aimed atdeveloping hallucinogenic weapons, the Pentagon gave soldiers LSD — apparently without the subjects fully understanding the consequences of using the drug. During the Cold War U.S. troops were also exposed to nerve gas, psychochemicals and other toxic substances on an experimental basis and without their consent.

Moreover, it’s theoretically possible that future biological enhancements could be subject to existing international laws and treaties, potentially limiting the enhancements — or prohibiting them outright. But the application of existing laws and treaties is unclear, at best. ”Could enhanced warfighters be considered to be ‘weapons’ in themselves and therefore subject to regulation under the Laws of Armed Conflict?” the researchers write. “Or could an enhanced warfighter count as a ‘biological agent’ under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention?”

Lin, Mehlman and Abney aren’t sure. To be safe, they propose the military consider several rules when planning an enhancement. Is there a legitimate military purpose? Is it necessary? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Can subjects’ dignity be maintained and the cost to them minimized? Is there full, informed consent, transparency and are the costs of the enhancement fairly distributed? Finally, are systems in place to hold accountable those overseeing the enhancement?

Whether following these guidelines or others, the Pentagon should start figuring out a framework for military human enhancement now, Lin and his colleagues advise. “In comic books and science fiction, we can suspend disbelief about the details associated with fantastical technologies and abilities, as represented by human enhancements,” they warn. “But in the real world — as life imitates art, and ‘mutant powers’ really are changing the world — the details matter and will require real investigations.”

WIRED

Benito Mussolini back to business

Moretti pulls the latest Benito Mussolini calendar off the shelf at his Rome cafe and flips it open to a photo of the pouting, strutting dictator taking part in a grain harvest.
"I was born in that era and he put bread on the table," said the 78-year-old. "I cannot betray my culture."A 2012 calendar. This year will bring a new crop featuring the dictator.

Every year, around this time, Mussolini calendars appear in newspaper kiosks up and down Italy, offering a year's supply of photos of the fascist leader.

They are often tucked away with the specialist magazines, but according to the manager of one firm that prints them, they are much in demand.

"We are selling more than we did 10 years ago," said Renato Circi, the head of Rome printer Gamma 3000. "I didn't think it was still a phenomenon, but young people are now buying them too."

Sixty-eight years after the fascist dictator was strung up with piano wire from a petrol station in Milan following his crushing of Italian democracy, his racist laws and his disastrous alliance with Adolf Hitler, Mussolini has quietly taken his place as an icon for many Italians.

Among his adherents today are the masked, neo-fascist youths who mounted raids on Rome schools this autumn to protest against education cuts, lobbing smoke bombs in corridors and yelling "Viva Il Duce".

A masked mob that ambushed Spurs fans drinking in a Rome pub in November, was also suspected of neo-fascist sympathies. When Spurs played Lazio the following night, Lazio fans chanted "Juden Tottenham", using the German word for Jews in reference to the club's Jewish heritage.

But the cult of Il Duce has also slipped into the mainstream. The decision by a town south of Rome to spend €127,000 (£100,000) of public funds this year on a tomb for Rodolfo Graziani, one of Mussolini's most blood-thirsty generals, was met with widespread indifference.

Other more mundane examples include the leading businessman who proposed renaming Forli airport in Emilia Romagna – the region of northern Italy where the dictator was born – as Mussolini airport, or the headmaster in Ascoli Piceno who tried to hang a portrait of the dictator in his school.

The man who gets some credit for dusting off Mussolini's reputation isSilvio Berlusconi, who famously described the dictator's exiling of his foes to remote villages as sending them on holiday.

Berlusconi's subtle rehabilitation of Mussolini came as he brought Italy's post-fascists, led by Gianfranco Fini, into his governing coalition in 1994 and 2001, following the "years of lead" in the 1970s and early 80s, when neo-fascists and communist sympathisers battled in the streets.

"Today, Mussolini's racial laws against Jews remain an embarrassment, but people don't care about his hunting down anti-fascists," said Maria Laura Rodotà, a journalist at Italy's Corriere della Sera. "That became one of Berlusconi's jokes."

Admiration for Mussolini is common in Berlusconi's circle. Showbusiness agent Lele Mora, who is now on trial for allegedly pimping for the former prime minister, downloaded an Italian fascist song as his mobile ring tone, while Berlusconi's long-time friend, the senator Marcello Dell'Utri, has described Mussolini as an "extraordinary man of great culture".

After Mussolini's murder by partisans in 1945 – as the Allies pushed up through Italy – the country did not exorcise the ghosts of fascism, as Germany sought to. A 1952 law forbidding fascist parties or the veneration of fascism has never been seriously enforced.

"It was not used partly because banning parties was potentially anti-constitutional, and also due to a sneaking admiration for fascism," said James Walston, professor of politics at the American University of Rome.

Decades on, the memory of Mussolini as the strong man who put a post office in every piazza and made the trains run on time has been decoupled from the ideology of fascism, said writer Angelo Meloni.

"He is now a pop icon, an arch-Italian, a personality whose legend is linked to the years of consensus in Italy," he said. "Just as people who don't go to church like Padre Pio, so 90% of those who buy Mussolini calendars will never have voted for a fascist party," he said.

Gamma 3000 promotes Mussolini calendars on its website alongside ones featuring the Catholic saint and mystic Padre Pio, guerrilla leader Che Guevara, topless models and cute kittens.

But for Italy's modern neo-fascist groups, including CasaPound, Il Duce is still very much about ideology.

"Whoever buys the calendar admires his work – the two things cannot be separated," said the group's vice-president, Simone di Stefano.

"There is a need today for his politics, for someone who will put the banks and finance at the service of Italy," he said. "Youngsters who come to us already see Mussolini as the father of this country."

CasaPound's student offshoot organisation, Blocco Studentesco, is a mainstay in Rome youth politics, polling 11,000 votes in school council elections in 2009 and even enrolling the mayor of Rome's 17-year-old son, who was photographed on holiday in 2012 giving a straight-armed fascist salute with friends.

The well-to-do streets around Piazza Ponte Milvio, north of Rome's football stadium, are today plastered with posters and graffiti by numerous neo-fascist groups, including CasaPound, and the local bars have become a hangout for gangs of rightwing lads in regulation Fred Perry shirts and Ray-Ban Wayfarers.

"Many teenagers now avoid Ponte Milvio since the people who go there have shifted further to the right," said Rodotà.

Further down the road, the entrance to the stadium is marked by a massive fascist-era obelisk, still standing, with "Mussolini" written in huge letters down the front. Nearby, the bar run by Pasquale Moretti, where Lazio fans meet before games, contains a mini-supermarket of fascist memorabilia, from bottles of wine with Mussolini's portrait on the label, to fascist flags and T-shirts, and oil portraits of Il Duce.

"He built housing for workers, something no Roman emperor did," said Moretti. "How can I not respect that?"

The Guardian

Netanyahu Must act now, or new Iranian terror base will rise

Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel should "Act responsibly and not hastily, otherwise a third Iranian terror base will rise up in the heart of the country."

Netanyahu added, that "Anyone with some common sense knows that Hamas can take over the Palestinian Authority. This could happen after a treaty, this could also happen before a treaty, just like it did in Gaza." (Yuval Karni)



Ynet

Top 5 Places NOT To Be In A Dollar Collapse

Iranian forces warn off 30 spy drones in drill

Iranian naval forces have so far warned off 30 transregional spy drones from entering the Velayat 91 military maneuver zone, a senior Iranian commander said.

On the fifth day of the military maneuvers on Tuesday, the spokesman for the Velayat 91 naval drills Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari noted that Iranian forces have so far stopped 30 intrusion attempts by foreign spy drones and reconnaissance aircraft into the maneuver zone.

“Different types of reconnaissance and spy aircraft that were attempting to enter the maneuver zone to spy and gather information, faced warnings from the Navy surface units and Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base,” the commander added.
Rastegari stated that Iranian forces have also issued warnings on several occasions to transregional vessels that were attempting to get close to the exercise zone.

Iran’s Navy launched the six-day naval maneuvers codenamed Velayat 91 on December 28, 2012, in order to display the country’s capabilities in defending its maritime borders.

The specialized maritime maneuver covers an area from east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Sea of Oman to north of the Indian Ocean as far as the 18th parallel north.

Over the past few years, Iran has held several military drills to enhance the defensive capabilities of its armed forces and to test modern military tactics and equipment.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured other nations, especially its neighbors, that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.



Press Tv