NATO Scrambles F-16 Jets Over Lithuania After Russian Warplanes Allegedly Enter Airspace

The Ukraine conflict continues to simmer, with the conclusive presidential election perceived as a positive even as the fighting in the eastern part of the nation intensifies, but it is NATO member Lithuania where today's action was, where according to the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, NATO sent two fighter jets from Estonia after Lithuania said Russian vessel disturbed civilian shipping in Baltic Sea, and two Russian warplanes flew over Lithuanian airspace.

According to Bloomberg citing the Lithuanian press release, a Lithuanian warship and helicopter also deployed.

Russian corvette in Lithuanian waters yesterday diverted civilian ships during missile exercises.

“It is unsettling that currently Russia has been holding military exercises that penetrate into Lithuania’s exclusive economic zone with their safety zones:” Defense Minister Juozas Olekas.

Two F-16 fighters sent from Estonia air base after 2 Russian SU-24s and 1 SU-27 warplane flew into Lithuania airspace.

This too is bullish for stocks: worst case scenario the ECB has to print a few more fighter jets. As for Russian de-escalation and not testing NATO resolve, that particular theory may need some reworking.

Credit to Zero Hedge

COMPANY DESIGNS SURVEILLANCE JEWELRY THAT ALERTS POLICE IN CASE OF ASSAULT

When someone thinks of GPS tracking bracelets, court mandated devices or criminals under house arrest typically come to mind, but one company is aiming to break that stigma and bring ubiquitous location monitoring into fashion.

Under the guise of providing a convenient, stylish way to “stay safe,” a San Francisco-based company has produced bracelets, key chains, necklaces and hair clips with embeddable GPS sensors targeting women as the primary market, just the latest Orwellian gadget in the campaign to make Big Brother appear fashionable and trendy.

Soon to be sold under the brand name “Cuff” (not a far cry from “handcuff”), the line of jewelery, designed by former Restoration Hardware VP of Product Development, Deepa Sood, synchs with your “smart phone” to send alerts, receive notifications or track your fitness routines.

“At one press of a button, an SOS goes out to the people you designate as your protective circle when you need help,” Sood explained in an interview with Elle Magazine. “Your first-responders will get an alert; will receive your location; and you can even trigger a microphone so that they can hear you in real time. In the more everyday vein, Cuff allows you to tailor who can ‘break through’ your phone and reach you on your Cuff.”

According to WAFB, the Cuff hair clip also “contains sensors that automatically detect physical assault and sends for help,” and also “collects data that can help in criminal investigations by activating your phone’s G-P-S, camera, and microphone.”

An ad for Cuff [above] depicts a woman encountering a menacing figure while jogging through the park. Instead of turning around and running the other way, the woman instead presses on her Cuff bracelet, like a communicator out of Star Trek The Next Generation, to notify members of her “Cuff circle” that something is amiss.

Credit to Infowars

The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High

The global derivatives bubble is now 20 percent bigger than it was just before the last great financial crisis struck in 2008.  It is a financial bubble far larger than anything the world has ever seen, and when it finally bursts it is going to be a complete and utter nightmare for the financial system of the planet.  

According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total notional value of derivatives contracts around the world has ballooned to an astounding 710 trillion dollars ($710,000,000,000,000).  Other estimates put the grand total well over a quadrillion dollars.  If that sounds like a lot of money, that is because it is.  For example, U.S. GDP is projected to be in the neighborhood of around 17 trillion dollars for 2014.  So 710 trillion dollars is an amount of money that is almost incomprehensible.  

Instead of actually doing something about the insanely reckless behavior of the big banks, our leaders have allowed the derivatives bubble and these banks to get larger than ever.  In fact, as I have written about previously, the big Wall Street banks are collectively 37 percent larger than they were just prior to the last recession.  "Too big to fail" is a far more massive problem than it was the last time around, and at some point this derivatives bubble is going to burst and start taking those banks down.  When that day arrives, we are going to be facing a crisis that is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.

If you do not know what a derivative is, Mayra Rodríguez Valladares, a managing principal at MRV Associates, provided a pretty good definition in her recent article for the New York Times...

A derivative, put simply, is a contract between two parties whose value is determined by changes in the value of an underlying asset. Those assets could be bonds, equities, commodities or currencies. The majority of contracts are traded over the counter, where details about pricing, risk measurement and collateral, if any, are not available to the public.

In other words, a derivative does not have any intrinsic value.  It is essentially a side bet.  Most commonly, derivative contracts have to do with the movement of interest rates.  But there are many, many other kinds of derivatives as well.  People are betting on just about anything and everything that you can imagine, and Wall Street has been transformed into the largest casino in the history of the planet.

After the last financial crisis, our politicians promised us that they would do something to get derivatives trading under control.  But instead, the size of the derivatives bubble has reached a new record high.  In the New York Times article I mentioned above, Goldman Sachs and Citibank were singled out as two players that have experienced tremendous growth in this area in recent years...

Goldman Sachs has been increasing its derivatives volumes since the crisis, and it had a portfolio of about $48 trillion at the end of 2013. Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that as part of its growth strategy, Goldman plans to sell more derivatives to clients. Citibank, too, has been increasing its derivatives portfolio, despite the numerous capital and regulatory challenges, In fact, its portfolio has risen by over 65 percent since the crisis — the most of any of the four banks — to $62 trillion.

According to official government numbers, the top 25 banks in the United States now have a grand total of more than 236 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.  But there are four banks that dwarf everyone else.  The following are the latest numbers for those four banks...

JPMorgan Chase

Total Assets: $1,945,467,000,000 (nearly 2 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $70,088,625,000,000 (more than 70 trillion dollars)

Citibank

Total Assets: $1,346,747,000,000 (a bit more than 1.3 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $62,247,698,000,000 (more than 62 trillion dollars)

Bank Of America

Total Assets: $1,433,716,000,000 (a bit more than 1.4 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $38,850,900,000,000 (more than 38 trillion dollars)

Goldman Sachs

Total Assets: $105,616,000,000 (just a shade over 105 billion dollars – yes, you read that correctly)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $48,611,684,000,000 (more than 48 trillion dollars)

If the stock market keeps going up, interest rates stay fairly stable and the global economy does not experience a major downturn, this bubble will probably not burst for a while.

But if there is a major shock to the system, we could easily experience a major derivatives crisis very rapidly and several of those banks could fail simultaneously.

There are many out there that would welcome the collapse of the big banks, but that would also be very bad news for the rest of us.

You see, the truth is that the U.S. economy is like a very sick patient with an extremely advanced case of cancer.  You can try to kill the cancer (the banks), but in the process you will inevitably kill the patient as well.

Right now, the five largest banks account for 42 percent of all loans in the entire country, and the six largest banks control 67 percent of all banking assets.

If they go down, we go down too.

That is why the fact that they have been so reckless is so infuriating.

Just look at the numbers for Goldman Sachs again.  At this point, the total exposure that Goldman Sachs has to derivatives contracts is more than 460 times greater than their total assets.

And this kind of thing is not just happening in the United States.  German banking giant Deutsche Bank has more than 75 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.  That is even more than any single U.S. bank has.

This derivatives bubble is a "sword of Damocles" that is hanging over the global economy by a thread day after day, month after month, year after year.

At some point that thread is going to break, the bubble is going to burst, and then all hell is going to break loose.

You see, the truth is that virtually none of the underlying problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed.

Instead, our problems have just gotten even bigger and the financial bubbles have gotten even larger.

Never before in the history of the United States have we been faced with the threat of such a great financial catastrophe.

Sadly, most Americans are totally oblivious to all of this.  They just have faith that our leaders know what they are doing, and they have been lulled into complacency by the bubble of false stability that we have been enjoying for the last couple of years.

Unfortunately for them, this bubble of false stability is not going to last much longer.

A financial crisis far greater than what we experienced in 2008 is coming, and it is going to shock the world.

Credit to Economic Collapse

Russia And China Are Now Working Together To Organize The Global "de-dollarization"

Russia’s Rise To Global Power

Western propaganda about events in Ukraine has two main purposes. One is to cover up, or to distract from, Washington’s role in overthrowing the elected democratic government of Ukraine. The other is to demonize Russia.

The truth is known, but truth is not a part of the Western TV and print media. The intercepted telephone call between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt reveals the two coup plotters discussing which of Washington’s stooges will be installed as Washington’s person in the new puppet government. The intercepted telephone call between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and EU foreign policy official Catherine Ashton revealed suspicions, later confirmed by independent reports, that the sniper fire that killed people on both sides of the Kiev protests came from the Washington-backed side of the conflict.

To summarize, when Washington orchestrated in 2004 the “Orange Revolution” and the revolution failed to deliver Ukraine into Western hands, Washington, according to Victoria Nuland, poured $5 billion into Ukraine over the next ten years. The money went to politicians, whom Washington groomed, and to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that operate as educational, pro-democracy, and human rights groups, but in fact are Washington’s fifth columns.

When President Yanukovych, after considering the costs and benefits, rejected the invitation for Ukraine to join the European Union, Washington sent its well-funded NGOs into action. Protests broke out in Kiev demanding that Yanukovych change his decision and join the EU.

These protests were peaceful, but soon ultra-nationalists and neo-nazis appeared and introduced violence into the protests. The protest demands changed from “join the EU” to “overthrow Yanukovych and his government.”

Political chaos ensued. Washington installed a puppet government, which Washington represented as a democratic force against corruption. However, the ultra-nationalists and neo-nazis, such as the Right Sector, began intimidating members of Washington’s stooge government. Perhaps in response, Washington’s stooges began issuing threats against the Russian speaking population in Ukraine.

Areas of southern and eastern Ukraine are former Russian territories added to Ukraine by Soviet leaders. Lenin added Russian areas to Ukraine in early years of the Soviet Union, and Khrushchev added Crimea in 1954. The people in these Russian areas, alarmed by the destruction of Soviet war memorials commemorating the Red Army’s liberation of Ukraine from Hitler, by the banning of Russian as an official language, and by physical assaults on Russian-speaking people in Ukraine broke out in protests. Crimea voted its independence and requested reunification with Russia, and so have the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Washington, its EU puppets, and the Western media have denied that the votes in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk are sincere and spontaneous. Instead, Washington alleges that the protests leading to the votes and the votes themselves were orchestrated by the Russian government with the use of bribes, threats, and coercion. Crimea was said to be a case of Russian invasion and annexation.

These are blatant lies, and the foreign observers of the elections know it, but they have no voice in the Western media, which is a Ministry of Propaganda for Washington. Even the once proud BBC lies for Washington.

Washington has succeeded in controlling the explanation of the “Ukrainian crisis.” The unified peoples in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk have been branded “terrorists.” In contrast, the Ukrainian neo-nazis have been elevated to membership in the “democratic coalition.” Even more amazing, the neo-nazis are being described in the Western media as “liberators” of the protest regions from “terrorists.” Most likely, the Russophobic neo-nazi militias are becoming Washington’s stooge government’s army, because so many units of the Ukrainian military have been unwilling to fire on peaceful protestors.

The question before us is how will Russia’s leader, President Putin, play this game. His hesitancy or reluctance to accept Donetsk and Luhansk again as part of Russia is used by the Western media to make him look weak and intimidated. Within Russia this will be used against Putin by Washington-funded GGOs and by Russian nationalists.

Putin understands this, but Putin also understands that Washington wants him to confirm their demonized portrait of him. If Putin accepts requests from Donetsk and Luhansk to return to Russia, Washington will repeat its allegation that Russia invaded and annexed. Most likely, Putin is not weak and intimidated, but for good reasons Putin does not want to give Washington more propaganda to employ in Europe.

Washington’s press for sanctions against Russia has an obstacle in Germany. The German Chancellor, Merkel, is Washington’s vassal, but Germany’s foreign Minister, Frank Walter Steinmeier and German industry are no friends of sanctions. In addition to Germany’s dependence on natural gas from Russia, thousands of German companies are doing business in Russia, and the employment of several hundred thousands of Germans is dependent on economic relations with Russia. Former German Chancellors, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder, have slammed Merkel for her subservience to Washington. Merkel’s position is weak, because she has stupidly put herself in the position of sacrificing the interests of Germany to Washington’s interests.

Putin, who has demonstrated that he is not the typical dumb Western politician, sees in the conflict between Washington’s pressure on Germany and Germany’s real interests a chance to break up NATO and the EU. If Germany decides, as Yanukovych did, that Germany’s interests lie in its economic relations with Russia, not in being a puppet state of Washington, can Washington overthrow the government of Germany and install a more reliable puppet?

Perhaps Germany has had enough of Washington. Still occupied by Washington’s troops 69 years after the end of World War II, Germany has had its educational practices, its history, its foreign policy, and its membership in the EU and euro mechanism coerced by Washington. If Germans have any national pride, and as a very recently unified peoples, they might still have some national pride, these impositions by Washington are too much to accept.

The last thing Germany wants is a confrontation, economic or military, with Russia. Germany’s vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said that it “was certainly not smart to create the impression in Ukraine that it had to decide between Russia and the EU.”

If the Russian government decides that Washington’s control of Ukraine, or whatever part remains after secession, is an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia, the Russian military will seize Ukraine, historically part of Russia. If Russia occupies Ukraine, there is nothing Washington can do but resort to nuclear war. NATO countries, with their own existence at stake, will not agree to this option.

Putin can take the Ukraine back whenever he wants and turn his back on the West, a declining corrupt entity mired in depression and looting by the capitalist class. The 21st century belongs to the East, to China and India. The enormous expanse of Russia sits above both of these most populous of all countries.

Russia can rise to power with the East. There is no reason for Russia to beg the West for acceptance. The basis for US foreign policy are the Brzezinski and Wolfowitz doctrines, which state that Washington must prevent the rise of Russia. Washington has no good will toward Russia and will hamper Russia at every opportunity. As long as Washington controls Europe, Russia has no prospects of being a part of the West, unless Russia becomes Washington’s puppet state, like Germany, Britain, and France.

Credit to Paul Craig Roberts

Who Am I? I Steal Your Money, I Kill the Elderly and I Steal Children to Sell Them

The American middle class is in extreme danger because of Obamacare. Obamacare will be the reason that many will never be able to retire or live to a ripe old age.

Won’t Obamacare Simply Die When He Leaves Office?

Millions hold out hope that Obamacare will just go away. Could that happen? The biggest challenge to Obamacare was the constitutional issue of making participation mandatory and the Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of the mandate to force people to pay a penalty for non-participation. As an aside, since when does an entity have to force someone to participate in a program if it is that good?

The other source that promised  the faint hope that Obamacare could be stopped is Congress. The House of Representatives has voted over 30 times to get rid of Obamacare, but it is just a symbolic gesture because they know that it will never pass the Democratic controlled Senate. And if by some miracle the repeal of Obamacare  ever did pass the Senate, Obama would veto the bill and a two-thirds override would never happen. Obamacare is here to stay.

Obamacare Violates the 14th Amendment

The 14th Amendment, among other things, guarantees that …”No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” However, Obamacare violates the 14th Amendment in an egregious fashion, by treating people differentially under its provisions.

Corporate friends of the President, such as the employees at General Electric and McDonalds will not be forced to participate. The agency which will enforce the penalty phase of Obamacare, the IRS, was recently issued an exemption from participating as well.

In short, if your corporation donated heavily to Obama’s re-election campaign, an exemption to the mandatory phase of Obamacare has been issued. For everyone else, tough luck.

Obama Repeatedly Lied

“If you want to keep your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” This was a major lie by the President. In fact, if one has a life change event (e.g. pregnancy), they must go on Obamacare.

“Under my plan, the average American family will save thousands of dollars.” This was another bold-faced lie. I did a cost analysis of my situation if I had the misfortune of going on Obamacare. If I had to convert to Obamacare today, I would be paying an additional 340% in premium costs in order to cover my family.

Under Department of Health and Human Services poverty level guidelines, if you’re a single earning worker making $44,680, or a couple earning a mere $60,520, or a family of four earning a modest income of $92,200, Obama eliminates your subsidy from the government for lower health costs. I do not mean to speak down to anyone, but do you realize that a couple making $60,520 per year is the equivalent of two very mediocre jobs? These are very modest incomes and the cost aspect of Obamacare should be raising red flags for all middle class income families.

The Kaiser Foundation published an ObamaCare Cost Calculator for you and your family after subsidies. Please be aware this is a basic estimate for the cost of a “Silver plan” (the second tier plan, as opposed to the basic “Bronze plan” on the Exchange). Also note, the total cost is greatly affected by “regional cost factor” (increasing or decreasing the premium by as much as 20%). Yes Virginia, there are separate plans, consisting of Bronze, Silver, Gold and something called the Cadillac plan.However, there is an absence of information of what each level of the Obamacare plan entails in terms of cost and treatment. One thing is clear, when the health plan is divided up into differing levels of care and cost, there is indeed a problem because it is apparent that people will not be treated equally under Obamacare.

For a family of four with two dependent children and a $100,000 income, Obamacare insurance costs are nearly $10,000 per year. Such a family could have expected to pay about $400 per month under existing plans such as United Health Care. Under Obamacare, the cost more than doubled.

For the same family listed above making $150,000 per year, they will pay almost $14,000 per year or 350% more than they would expect to pay in today’s health insurance market. This is obviously why the corporate friends of Obama are seeking exemptions from participation. And for those who seek their own exemption through non-participation, they will be fined 2.5% of gross adjusted income and the amount will go up with each successive year that they refuse to participate.

The aforementioned numbers are the government’s numbers as parroted by Kaiser. In other words, these rates represent the best case scenario. For those of us in the middle and upper middle class, Obamacare represents why most of us will never retire because we will be working to pay off our Obamacare debt.

Obamacare Is About Depopulation

In 2010, the United Nations published a blueprint in which the global elite announced their intentions for phasing out global warming as means of achieving global governance in favor of the overpopulation theme as a means to destroy, impoverish and enslave the middle classes across the nations of this planet. The ultimate globalist goal is dramatic population reduction.

The previously leaked United Nations planning paper makes it clear that the world body is in the process of adopting a new public relations strategy in which they will propagandize the public into accepting the fact that an overcrowded planet leads to environmental devastation and financial ruin. Subsequently, the sheeple will unquestionably accept the population reduction philosophy as it is manifesting in the end of life treatment exclusions being set forth by the National Health Service in Britain, which also serves as the model for the American version of Obamacare.

The globalists have extended their population reduction programs from one-child policies to widespread abortion and contraception practices to the blatant act of committing genocide on the elderly in Britain as a beta test in preparation for the planet-wide implementation of elderly euthanasia in every national socialist health care system on the planet. This is a modern day version of the of the 1976 movie, Logan’s Run in which the authorities, in the year 2274, control population by killing anyone who reaches the ripe old age of 30.

Obamacare is largely modeled after the British NHS system. Perhapsm it would be wise to see what they are up to. There are approximately 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29% of that number, or about 130,000, were euthanized patients who were on the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP).

The undeniable fact is that the British NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage and they wish to free up beds. However, the main motivation for this attack upon humanity is that they are making money by eliminating the lives of the elderly in Britain. Researcher, Patrick Pullicino, states that NHS doctors have turned the use of a controversial death pathway into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly. Pullicino has extensively researched the issue and asserts that  elderly patients, who could live longer, are prematurely placed on the LCP and it has now become an assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway. On average, patients submitting to LCP die within 33 hours.

Pullicino findings are bolstered by the newly discovered heinous compensation practices from the NHS with regard to the LCP. The majority of NHS hospitals in England are being given financial rewards for placing terminally ill patients on a controversial “pathway” to death. Nowhere in the media has this fact been publicly disclosed as one would have to original source documents to validate these figures.

Seventy-two trusts administer health care treatment in Britain and the NHS has been paid a total of around £20 million by the health trusts to end the lives of the elderly. That is correct, these mass murderers are being paid for each patient that they are able to terminate.

The British system for elderly genocide, through premature euthanasia, operates under the authority of theCommissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN), in which local NHS commissioners compensate the 72 trusts for “meeting targets” as well as to “reward excellence” in health care. Shall we define the British version of “excellence” in health care? Unfortunately, for the elderly who are forced to participate in the NHS system, excellence in health care, for these victims, means that 130,000 elderly must die in order to meet system goals.

A staggering 62% of the trusts admit that they have received, or will receive, cash rewards for meeting targets (i.e., killing old people) associated with the implementation of the LCP. The other 38% seem to enjoy killing for just the sport of it, as they admitted that they had adopted the LCP without receiving any payments from NHS.

This should shake America to her core, but scarcely anyone has noticed the holocaust of the elderly that is occurring across the pond. Yet, Obamacare is modeled after England’s NHC, only with more denials of care through age-related treatment exclusions.  The NHC is the unquestionable blueprint for Obamacare.The Obamacare language refers to patients over age 70 as “units”.  A “unit” is ineligible to receive care for any brain related condition at the age of 70 years and one day.

A top Democrat strategist, Steven Rattner, who served as President Obama’s lead auto-industry adviser, wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled “Beyond Obamacare” in which he calls for death panels and that the implementation of these panels is inevitable. Of course, Rattner’s comments have been totally ignored by the corporate-controlled media.

Obamacare Steals and Allows Trafficking of Children

I have previously revealed that under Obamacare, CPS agents are de facto federal employees and are not subject to the laws of the state, policing authority or judicial oversight. In places like Virginia, under Obamacare regulations, a CPS agent can illegally enter a home and seize a child for no reason. They can the turn the child over to foster parents where children can be subsequently sex trafficked. This is what happened to Monika Wesolowski as her son was given to two gay fathers and now, according to the mother, there are very clear signs of sexual abuse. Monika has reported this to the police and nothing can be done because of the Obamacare provisions; the CPS agencies all across the country are above the law.

Obamacare, under a Human Health Services 110 page manual, gives CPS the authority to play judge, jury and executioner with regard to parental rights. In the case of Wesolowski, we see the Illinois CPS cooperate with the Virginia CPS in helping to permanently remove her son from her custody as Illinois is attempting to intimidate Wesolowski’s parents into making false statements about child abuse.

For more details about how Obamacare has obliterated parental rights and child safety, please refer to this article and this article.

Who Am I? I Steal Your Money, I Kill the Elderly and I Steal Children to Sell Them

My name is Obamacare and I do not care. My very existence spells destruction for this country.

America, are we just going to acquiesce to higher health care costs, fatal treatment exclusions for the elderly and the seizure and sex trafficking of our children? Is this the level that we have sunk to where we will not even fight to protect our children? What does this say about what we have become?

Credit to Common Sense

Will Pope Francis Bring "World Peace" Or Destruction?

China's state-owned sector told to cut ties with U.S. consulting firms

(Reuters) - China has told its state-owned enterprises to sever links with American consulting firms just days after the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking U.S. companies, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

China's action, which targets companies like McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), stems from fears the firms are providing trade secrets to the U.S. government, the FT reported, citing unnamed sources close to senior Chinese leaders.

"We haven't received any notification of this kind," said Margaret Kashmir, a spokeswoman for Strategy& - formerly Booz & Company - in an email, adding that serving clients in China and globally continues to be the company's main priority.

"We are unaware of any government mandates," added Bain & Company spokeswoman Cheryl Krauss.

A McKinsey spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment. A spokeswoman for BCG was not immediately able to comment.

The companies have large operations in China, the FT reported. McKinsey, BCG and Strategy& all have Chinese state enterprises as clients, the newspaper said.

Credit to Reuters

Jim Rogers: China to be most important country in 21st century

Pope: Abbas man of peace, Abbas: murdering Israelis not a punishable crime

Pope: Abbas man of peace, Abbas: murdering Israelis not a punishable crime
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 25 May 2014

Below we have the Pope calling Mahmoud Abbas a "man of peace".

At the same event, Abbas repeated his demand, in the Pope's presence, that
any Palestinian who murders an Israeli today must not be punished.

Yes. That's what Mahmoud Abbas said.

He said that Israel must release all Palestinian prisoners.

That's ALL prisoners - regardless of what they did and when they did it.

Let's make this simple: if the Palestinians mark the visit of the Pope by
slaughtering Israeli babies live on television and Israeli forces capture
the Palestinian murderers it is the DEMAND of "man of peace" Abbas that
Israel release these murderers.

That's release. Not transfer to the PA for prosecution.

===================

Pope to Abbas: 'You are known as a man of peace'
Published today (updated) 25/05/2014 11:22
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=699794

The following is the official translation of the full text of Pope Francis'
speech at the Palestinian president palace beside Mahmoud Abbas Sunday
morning.

Mr President,
Dear Friends,

I thank President Mahmoud Abbas for his kind welcome and I offer cordial
greetings to the representatives of the government and the entire
Palestinian people. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be here with you
today in the birthplace of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. I thank all of you
for your warm reception.

For decades the Middle East has known the tragic consequences of a
protracted conflict which has inflicted many wounds so difficult to heal.
Even in the absence of violence, the climate of instability and a lack of
mutual understanding have produced insecurity, the violation of rights,
isolation and the flight of entire communities, conflicts, shortages and
sufferings of every sort.

In expressing my closeness to those who suffer most from this conflict, I
wish to state my heartfelt conviction that the time has come to put an end
to this situation which has become increasingly unacceptable. For the good
of all, there is a need to intensify efforts and initiatives aimed at
creating the conditions for a stable peace based on justice, on the
recognition of the rights of every individual, and on mutual security. The
time has come for everyone to find the courage to be generous and creative
in the service of the common good, the courage to forge a peace which rests
on the acknowledgment by all of the right of two States to exist and to live
in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.

To this end, I can only express my profound hope that all will refrain from
initiatives and actions which contradict the stated desire to reach a true
agreement, and that peace will be pursued with tireless determination and
tenacity. Peace will bring countless benefits for the peoples of this region
and for the world as a whole. And so it must resolutely be pursued, even if
each side has to make certain sacrifices.

I pray that the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and their respective leaders
will undertake this promising journey of peace with the same courage and
steadfastness needed for every journey. Peace in security and mutual trust
will become the stable frame of reference for confronting and resolving
every other problem, and thus provide an opportunity for a balanced
development, one which can serve as a model for other crisis areas.

Here I would like to say a word about the active Christian community which
contributes significantly to the common good of society, sharing in the joys
and sufferings of the whole people. Christians desire to continue in this
role as full citizens, along with their fellow citizens, whom they regard as
their brothers and sisters.

Mr President, you are known as a man of peace and a peacemaker. Our recent
meeting in the Vatican and my presence today in Palestine attest to the good
relations existing between the Holy See and the State of Palestine. I trust
that these relations can further develop for the good of all. In this
regard, I express my appreciation for the efforts being made to draft an
agreement between the parties regarding various aspects of the life of the
Catholic community in this country, with particular attention to religious
freedom. Respect for this fundamental human right is, in fact, one of the
essential conditions for peace, fraternity and harmony. It tells the world
that it is possible and necessary to build harmony and understanding between
different cultures and religions. It also testifies to the fact that, since
the important things we share are so many, it is possible to find a means of
serene, ordered and peaceful coexistence, accepting our differences and
rejoicing that, as children of the one God, we are all brothers and sisters.

Mr President, dear friends gathered here in Bethlehem: may Almighty God
bless you, protect you and grant you the wisdom and strength needed to
continue courageously along the path to peace, so that swords will be turned
into ploughshares and this land will once more flourish in prosperity and
concord. Salaam!




Credit to IMRA

GRAPHIC: Death and despair in Slavyansk after Ukraine army shelling