It passes through many kinds of devices, flowing from phone to phone, and computer to computer, rather than being sealed away in those silent marble temples we used to call banks. Information never jangles uncomfortably in your pocket.
But wherever information gathers and flows, two predators follow closely behind it: censorship and surveillance. The case of digital money is no exception. Where money becomes a series of signals, it can be censored; where money becomes information, it will inform on you.
WASHINGTON — Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley sounded the alarm that the US Army is currently in a state of “high risk” when it comes to being ready enough to defend the nation and respond to a large conflict.
“On the 'high military risk,' to be clear, we have sufficient capacity and capability and readiness to fight counterinsurgency and counterterrorism,” Milley said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday. “My military risk refers specifically to what I see as emerging threats and potential for great power conflict and I am specifically talking about the time it takes to execute the task ... and the cost in terms of casualties.”
Milley added he submitted a personal, classified assessment to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the defense secretary characterizing the military’s risk as high.
SASC Chairman John McCain, of Arizona, said declaring the military to be at high risk “is a strong statement” that he believed was generated from “long and hard” thinking.
The Army’s budget has shrunk in almost every aspect in recent years and the service is having to reduce its size to a total Army of 980,000 soldiers, which include all three components. Yet with the emerging and current threats in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, Army leaders believe the force should be as big as 1.2 million soldiers to meet the Pentagon strategy and guidance.
McCain quoted from the Army Capabilities Integration Center director Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s testimony given earlier this week to paint a clear picture of what high risk to readiness looks like: “When we minimize our Army, we maximize the risk to our soldiers, the risk that in a crisis they will be forced to enter a fight too few in number and without the training and equipment they need to win.”
One piece of evidence that the military’s readiness is at high risk is the fact that only a third of the Army’s Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) are ready to deploy and only a couple of those are ready to deploy immediately.
Milley explained that the pair of BCTs that are most ready could fight tonight and, in fact, one is forward-deployed now. “The others,” he said, “they are going to require something in terms of training to get them ready.”
McCain pointed out in his opening testimony that the Army is already stretched thin: There are 186,000 soldiers deployed in 140 locations around the globe.
And back home two-thirds of the Army’s BCTs “would require some amount of time to bring them up to satisfactory readiness to deploy in combat,” Milley said.
The “high risk” assessment for the Army does not take into account what might happen if sequestration is implemented again next year. That would mean lowering the active force from 450,000 troops to 420,000, which could spell disaster in terms of being able to respond to a major world crisis, according to Milley.
A recreation of the Roman Triumphal Arch that stood in Palmyra, Syria has been the focus of controversy, and rightfully so. A cryptic section of the Talmud describes the rebuilding of just such an arch as the precursor to Messiah from the House of David.
The original Roman Triumphal Arch stood for 2,000 years as the main entrance to the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, a city known as Tadmor in the Bible. The site has always been important, as a thriving urban center in the Fertile Crescent, but is also known for its powerful spiritual significance.
Originally built as a temple to the idol Ba’al, the Temple of Palmyra was repurposed at different points in history as a church and then, until its destruction in May 2015 by the Islamic State (ISIS), as a mosque. An archaeological wonder, it attracted over 150,000 visitors each year.
The Colonnade in Palmyra, Syria (Photo: nikidel / Shutterstock.com)
The 15-meter tall full-size reproduction is a project of the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA), a joint effort of Harvard and Oxford universities. Made using proprietary 3-D printing techniques, it will stand in Trafalgar Square, London as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Week. The IDA is recreating the partially destroyed arch as a showcase for new technology and as a symbol of protest against religious extremism.
The replica of the Triumphal Arch to be built in London. (Photo: Courtesy)
There has been much heated controversy surrounding the recreation of the arch. The display in London coincides with Beltane, one of the major occult festivals whose roots lie in worshipping Ba’al through child sacrifice and orgies. The Mesopotamian god Ba’al, for whom the Temple of Palmyra was originally built, is no longer worshipped, though the holiday still exists as a Gaelic tradition and in the West as May Day.
Many have compared the worship of Ba’al to Western secular liberalism. Prophecy News Watch likened legalized abortion to pagan baby sacrifice and internet pornography to public orgies.
The IDA has vociferously denied that the arch which stood at the entrance to the temple in Palmyra for 2,000 years had any connection to the temple. The institute has also cancelled its plans to erect a model of the arch in New York’s Time Square later this summer.
The arch is clearly a powerful symbol to many people. It therefore comes as no surprise that the Talmud explicitly predicts the present day saga of the of the Palmyra arch as a precursor to the Messiah of the House of David. The Hebrew-language religious website Sod1820 pointed out that in Tractate Sanhedrin (78a), the Talmud says:
“The disciples of Rabbi Yossi the son of Kisma questioned him, asking when the son of David (the Messiah) will appear. And he answered: I am afraid you will request from me a sign as well. And they assured him that they would not. He then said to them: When this gate will fall, be rebuilt and fall again, be rebuilt again and fall again. And before it will be rebuilt for the third time the Messiah will appear.”
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a medieval French rabbi known by the acronym ‘Rashi’, is the primary source for understanding the Talmud. Rashi explains that the arch mentioned by Rabbi Yossi was “A Roman arch in a Roman city”.
The Palmyra arch is just such a one. Palmyra became part of the Roman Empire in the first century and remained so for the next 250 years. The arch was built in the 3rd century during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus and represents a classic Roman arch.
The second incarnation of the arch is the full-size replica being created by the IDA. The third incarnation of the arch, which Rabbi Yossi predicted would stand incomplete when the Messiah came, would have been the reproduction in New York this summer.
Though the New York Post wrote that the IDA “plans to construct approximately 1,000 such versions of the arch in cities throughout the world”, Roger Michel, Executive Director of the IDA, contacted Breaking Israel News to clarify that the IDA is “supplying the files only, not the ‘prints’”. With plans readily available and 3-D printing becoming more widespread, it seems that it is only a matter of time before construction of another arch is attempted and Rabbi Yossi’s prophecy comes into effect.
Credit to Breaking Israel News Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/65680/could-model-baal-temple-arch-bring-messiah-talmud-says-yes-jewish-world/#p0TO6qJu7cj2afSD.99
