The Unspoken History of the Holy Roman Empire

The Unspoken History of the Holy Roman Empire. (Source globalresearch.ca) Christianity in its present form came into being after the eleventh century “Great Schism” (1054 AD) between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church. Before that, it used to be an exclusively Byzantine affair and most of Western Europe followed pagan customs. The reason why Catholic historians fabricated the history of ancient Roman civilization was to dissociate Christianity from its Byzantine heritage. The theory that Christianity spread into Europe, and also in Russia, from the Byzantine Empire is validated by the fact that early Middle Ages – from 5th to 10th century, when the Byzantine Empire reached its zenith and a split occurred between the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches in 1054 – are referred to as Dark Ages, whereas the period between 8th century BC and 6th century AD is rather ironically called Classical Antiquity. There appears to be clear historical bias because in descending order, as we go back in time, the reliability of information reduces proportionally. Thus, the 11th century recorded history of the Roman Catholic Church is comparatively credible, whereas Before Christ folklore transmitted mainly through oral traditions of fabulists is simply implausible. Historically, on Christmas Day 800 AD, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, forming the political and religious foundations of Christendom and establishing in earnest the French monarchy’s longstanding historical association with the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, ninth century appears to be a watershed moment of increasing proselytization of Europe to Christianity, which obviously had its impact in Britain and Germany later. After that, the influence of the Byzantine Empire, lasting from 4th to 15th centuries, waned and a rival power center emerged in the form of Roman Catholic Church patronized by kings of Franks and Lombards in Italy.

Evidently, Christianization of Eastern Europe and Russia is attributed to the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe to the Holy Roman Empire. Thus, the history of ancient Romans, whose empire purportedly fell in 476 AD to Germanic tribes, is nothing more than folklore and the history of the Roman Catholic Church in earnest began after the coronation of Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor. The title of Holy Roman Emperor remained with the Carolingian family of Charlemagne, the ruler of Franks, up to 840, and then it passed on to Germans when Otto I was declared Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in 962. Thus, the Frankish Empire constituted the Holy Roman Empire during the early 9th century, and then the title was assumed by the Germanic Empire for the next eight centuries.

Deal between US, Turkey spawns more questions than answers

Deal between US, Turkey spawns more questions than answers (Source Associated Press)

A U.S. delegation led by Vice President Mike Pence met with Turkish leaders, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for more than four hours Thursday and agreed to the five-day cease-fire in the Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. The arrangement says the Syrian Kurdish fighters will withdraw out of what has been called a safe zone that is about 20-miles deep into Syria and stretches across about 125 kilometers (78 miles) of the central portion of the border between the two countries.

But almost immediately there were disagreements over what to call the deal and what it meant. Pence and Trump routinely referred to it as a cease-fire. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu rejected that term and called it a “pause” in fighting, because he said cease-fires are only possible between “two legitimate sides.” Cavusoglu also said that the Turks would only halt their operation “after the terrorist elements depart” from northeast Syria. What also remained unclear is what the Turkish-backed militias of Syrian fighters will do and how much control the Turkish military will have or try to exert over them.

In return for the cease-fire, the Turks will get what they have wanted all along: control of the safe zone in Syria and, if the cease-fire holds, a halt to the economic sanctions that Trump announced Monday when he warned that he could obliterate Turkey’s economy.

Bomb Cyclone Slams Northeast With Over 80-MPH Winds

Bomb Cyclone Slams Northeast With Over 80-MPH Winds, Leaving Thousands Without Power (Source treasureandleisure.com) A fall nor’easter that strengthened to a bomb cyclone has left almost half a million people without power in Massachusetts and Maine. Residents all throughout the northeast woke up Thursday morning to downed trees and power lines due to winds gusting from 70 to 88 mph, according to NBC News. Dozens of schools from Connecticut to Maine are also closed due to the extreme weather. At Boston’s Logan International Airport more than 800 flights were canceled due to the harsh weather conditions.

Russia-Africa Summit: The Roadmap to Africa, Shift in Geopolitical Relations

Russia-Africa Summit: The Roadmap to Africa, Shift in Geopolitical Relations (Source globalresearch.ca)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent warm greetings to African leaders, business people and participants early October, signaling that everything is set for the first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, southern coastal city of Russia. The message reads, in part: “Today, the countries of Africa are well on their way towards social, economic, scientific and technological development, and are playing a significant role in international affairs. They are strengthening mutually beneficial integration processes within the African Union and other regional and sub regional organizations across the continent.” In recent years, the traditionally friendly ties of partnership between Russia and Africa have gained new momentum, both at a bilateral level and in various multilateral formats. In addition to preserving past experience of successful cooperation, have also managed to make significant new steps forward. Trade and investment are growing dynamically, and new joint projects are under way in extractive industries, agriculture, healthcare, and education. Russian companies are ready to offer their scientific and technological developments to their African partners, and share their experience of upgrading energy, transport and communications infrastructures, according to President Putin.

Why North Korea Is Testing Missiles

Why North Korea Is Testing Missiles(Source thetrumpet.com) It is no secret that China and Russia support the North Korean regime: They routinely use their UN veto power to protect it, and even when sanctions are passed against it, they violate them to help the North. This gives China and Russia heavy influence over North Korea’s foreign policy. It is also no secret that China and Russia share the goal of ousting U.S. power from East Asia, including the presence of some 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea and some 54,000 in Japan. North Korea’s short-range missile tests could easily be a calculated effort by China and Russia to weaken America’s alliances with Japan and South Korea. They know President Trump has strong motivation to downplay them, and they know how badly this will worry Japan and South Korea. South Korea and Japan have been seriously considering expelling U.S. troops. Both have boosted their own military power, partly to make them less reliant on outside help. President Trump has also voiced his displeasure with how much America pays to safeguard Japan and South Korea. Strains were already present in these U.S.-Asian alliances, and each North Korean short-range missile test strikes not only its target, but those strained relationships. The North Korea crisis is a massive distraction from the real threat posed by China and Russia. In his booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ Mr. Flurry shows that this Asian confederacy will play a key role in the most violent conflict in mankind’s history. But he also shows that these developments are tied to unprecedentedly good news. At the end of this conflict, he writes, Christ will usher in “a peaceful and prosperous new age for the entire Earth!”

Will the Federal Reserve Make Trump a New Herbert Hoover

Will the Federal Reserve Make Trump a New Herbert Hoover? Is the US Economy Primed for a 1929-style Shock? (Source globalreaearch.ca)

In recent months US President Trump has pointed repeatedly to his role in making the American economy the “best ever.” But behind the extreme highs of the stock market and the official government unemployment data, the US economy is primed for a 1929-style shock, a financial Tsunami that is more influenced by independent Fed actions than by anything that the White House has done since January 2017. At this point the parallels between one-time Republican President Herbert Hoover who presided over the great stock crash and economic depression that was created then by the Fed policies, and Trump in 2019 are looking ominously similar. It underscores that the real power lies with those who control our money, not elected politicians.

Despite proclamations to the contrary, the true state of the US economy is getting more precarious by the day. The Fed policies of Quantitative Easing and Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) implemented after the 2008 crash, contrary to claims, did little to directly rebuild the real US economy. Instead it funneled trillions to the very banks responsible for the 2007-8 real estate bubble. That “cheap money” in turn flowed to speculative high-return investment around the world. It created speculative bubbles in emerging market debt in countries like Turkey, Argentina, Brazil and even China. It created huge investment in high-risk debt, so called junk bonds, in the US corporate sector in areas like shale oil ventures or companies like Tesla. The Trump campaign promise of rebuilding America’s decaying infrastructure has gone nowhere and a divided Congress is not about to unite for the good of the nation at this point. The real indicator of the health of the real economy where real people struggle to make ends meet lies in the record levels of debt.

Europe Says It’s Ready for a Trade War If Pressured by the U.S

Europe Says It’s Ready for a Trade War If Pressured by the U.S. (Source Bloomberg)France’s finance minister said he doesn’t want the European Union to become the latest front in the global trade war, but that the bloc would hit the U.S. with sanctions if a settlement isn’t reached in a long-running dispute over aircraft aid. “We are all aware of the dramatic consequences of this trade war between China and the U.S. on the level of growth,’’ minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters in Luxembourg on Thursday. “Do we really want to add a trade war between the U.S. and Europe to the Chinese and American trade war?’’ The World Trade Organization gave the U.S. the go-ahead as soon as this month to impose tariffs on about $7.5 billion of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus SE. The EU has said that it will retaliate against any Airbus-linked tariffs when the WTO rules early next year on a similar dispute over subsidies the U.S. supplied to Boeing Co. And while the EU’s top trade negotiator, Cecilia Malmstrom, said she’s hopeful a settlement can be reached that would avoid a tit-for-tat tariff escalation, the bloc has already published a preliminary list of U.S. goods — from ketchup to video-game consoles — being targeted in a $12 billion plan for retaliatory levies related to the Boeing case. I’m still in favor of a settlement,’’ Le Maire said. “But the American administration must be aware that if there is not a settlement, Europe will not have any other choice but to retaliate and to put sanctions.’’

China Prepares to Blind U.S. Satellites

China Prepares to Blind U.S. Satellites (Source thetrumpet.com) China has been rapidly developing its military capabilities to a level that could threaten the greatest military power in existence today. But beyond the visible land, air and sea forces, it is developing the technology that could devastate the latest military frontier: space. On September 27, the head of United States Space Command warned that China is developing laser weapons that could blind American satellites. “We’re pretty comfortable

[in asserting]

that they are developing directed energy weapons—probably building lasers to blind our satellites,” said U.S. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond. “It’s clear that China would plan to use those threats against us in conflict,” he added. Only in recent years has space become a military realm on par with land, sea, air and cyberspace. This fact led President Donald Trump to re-establish the 1985 U.S. Space Command in August, which had been dissolved by George W. Bush in 2002. The force was reestablished in order to put more focus on staying ahead of the threats to this realm.

‘Kill the gays’: Uganda resurrects overturned bill introducing death penalty for homosexuals

‘Kill the gays’: Uganda resurrects overturned bill introducing death penalty for homosexuals (source RT) The Ugandan government has announced plans to reintroduce legislation paving the way for the execution of homosexual people, five years after the bill was thrown out by the constitutional court on a technicality. The bill, dubbed ‘Kill the gays’ within Uganda, will be reintroduced within weeks, according to officials. Currently, Ugandans face life imprisonment if convicted of having sex with another person of the same gender. Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo said the bill is being reintroduced because of allegedly “massive recruitment of gay people” and current laws are too limited in scope.

The Psychotic Logic of the New US-Russia Arms Race

The Psychotic Logic of the New US-Russia Arms Race: One Step Closer to Nuclear Confrontation(Source globalresearch.ca)

On October 7th, Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that Russia and the US needed to come to grips with the issue of short-range and intermediate-range missile deployment.

“In case the United States deploy these types of missiles very close to our borders, we will be forced to protect our country, we will be forced to resort to the necessary measures….It is high time for us to sit at the negotiations table, to stop negotiating via media trading accusations; it is high time to meet, perhaps in Geneva, in Vienna, in Washington, in Moscow and to come to grips with these issues,” he said. The United States has no particular reason to come to any agreement with Russia concerning short-range or intermediate-range missiles. The existence of US military bases in Poland, Romania, Japan etc, means that the United States’ strategic nuclear advantage exists on the level of short-range and intermediate-range weapons. The same cannot be said regarding intercontinental ballistic missiles. Therefore, when US officials argue that they would prefer “a more comprehensive agreement,” they are being disingenuous, ignoring the elephant in the room. Everybody in Russia’s political and foreign policy establishment, including Ambassador Antonov, understands this clearly.

To understand the strategic nuclear situation in clear, coldly amoral terms, we must also bear in mind the economic fundamentals which drive it. The world is running out of natural resources very quickly, and Russia is blessed with natural resources. This is the most central factor determining the levels of geo-strategic hostility which the western alliance shows toward Russia. Ultimately, the nations of the western alliance need Russia to become a minerals and hydrocarbons colony, to subsidize their unsustainable models of financialized capitalism. That model has always required subsidization by the natural resources of de facto colonies, and always will.

If we compare the predicament of the United States today to its geo-strategic logic 35 years ago, the Reagan administration were also imperialists, of course. However, the Reagan administration believed that they could afford to play a long-term geo-strategic game. That long-term game is no longer possible – the western economies’ access to cheap natural resources is now dwindling too quickly.