1619: SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

How an accidental encounter brought slavery to the United States (Source usatoday.com)

Seven thousand miles from Jamestown, on a rise overlooking the Atlantic just south of Angola’s capital city, Luanda, sits an old two-story white building. With a cross on its pediment and a sand-colored baptismal bowl inside, it might seem that its function, centuries ago, was sacred.

But this was a slave-trading hall. Tens of thousands of people were forcibly baptized, marched out the door and eventually put on ships headed west toward what Europeans called the Americas and Angolans called “the land of the dead.’’

In 1619, many of these enslaved Africans had been taken prisoner in Portugal’s war against the Kingdom of Ndongo, whose capital was about 150 miles inland. It was part of a fight that the Portuguese king hoped would open a corridor to his colonies in East Africa. To this end, his governor forged an alliance with a group of fearsome nomadic African mercenaries who practiced cannibalism and infanticide. Weakened by decades of internal strife and battles with rival kingdoms, Ndongo succumbed. The mercenaries sacked the capital and took thousands of captives. The prisoners were marched to the coast. Adults were yoked together with forked tree branches; children too small to keep up were carried in bags. About a fifth of the captives died en route. Those who reached Luanda were branded and jammed into pens until there was room for them on one of 36 slave ships that left in 1619 for the New World, carrying a total of about 15,000 enslaved people. “Never in the history of the Atlantic slave trade would so many Africans from so small an area be taken in so short a time,’’ Tim Hashaw writes in his book “The Birth of Black America.”

‘They cry for their parents’: Mississippi Ice raids spur pleas from children (Source The Guardian)

A raid by US immigration agents that picked up about 680 immigrants in Mississippi has triggered a wave of heart-rending videos and images to spread across the internet, mostly of young children abruptly separated from migrant parents caught up in the detentions. The government confirmed that the sweep, which targeted food-processing plants, was the largest ever conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a single state. Dozens of the children, some toddlers, were picked up from school and taken to makeshift shelters. Videos and news reports showed the children crying, and sometimes in the care of strangers or with relatives. Mississippi’s department of child protection services said no children from the raids were in its custody. Jackson TV station WJTV reported that authorities said children affected by the raid would be placed with another family member or, in some cases, school officials. The round-up was executed by more than 600 Ice agents at poultry factories centered around Jackson and Canton and owned by Koch Foods and Peco Foods. A spokesman for Ice said about 300 of those arrested had since been released because they had no reason to be held. Others who were not released were put on buses and driven across the state border to Louisiana, where there are more detention beds. Despite official claims that all children had been cared for, WJTV’s Alex Love reported that many were left behind by the Ice agents who arrested their parents, and had nowhere to go.

Global macro trader says next 3 months mark ‘edge of the cliff’ for markets and ‘we’re there right now’ (Source marketwatch.com) Financial markets are at a crucial inflection point and Wall Street investors should look no further than the U.S. dollar for the clearest sign of the increasing stress on the system that could ignite a financial crisis a la 2008, says Raoul Pal. The former GLG global macro hedge-fund co-manager, who was among the few investors that predicted and profited amid the 2008-09 mortgage meltdown, told MarketWatch in a Wednesday interview that the current set up has led him to a grim forecast for the economy and markets.

“The conclusion has to be that this is the most fragile point in global financial markets since the eurozone crisis in 2012, and potentially the start of the Great Recession in 2008,” he said.

Pal says the U.S. dollar’s relative strength, measured on a trade-weighted basis, is rippling around the world, particularly as global central banks adopt easy-money policies that appear to be more accommodative than even the U.S. Federal Reserve, driving local currencies lower against the buck.

ABBAS HONORS THE HEAD OF THE OFFICE OF THE EU WITH THE ‘STAR OF JERUSALEM’ (Source jpost.com) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas awarded Ralph Tarraf the “star of Jerusalem.” Tarraf is the current European Union representative in Jerusalem. He is being recognized for his helping to strengthen the relationship between the EU and Palestine. He was honored for his efforts in helping the Palestinian peoples “just cause for freedom and independence.”  The award was established in 2009 to honor those who support the Palestinian cause and “just peace in the region.” Since then dozens of Heads of States and governments, diplomats and international figures have been given the award.  
Tarraf has served as the German ambassador to Jordan and also as the deputy head of the mission of the German Embassy in Sudan. 

China wants US to bear the cost of trade war by making rare earths more rare (Source rt.com)

China’s rare earths association has warned that the trade conflict with the US will harm American businesses and consumers, as it confirmed its readiness to weaponize the prized elements.

Rare earth elements are critical for the high-tech industry in the manufacture of everything from mobile phones to modern fighter jets.

The Association of China Rare Earth Industry (ACREI), comprising almost 300 miners, processors and manufacturers, held a special meeting earlier this week, just several days after US president Donald Trump threatened to hit Beijing with a new batch of tariffs. The rare earths association’s comments add to earlier hints by Beijing that it could impose restrictions on the exports of the materials. The fears were triggered by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to a rare earths facility in Jiangxi in May, after which local media reported that the Chinese government is ready for the export ban.

Such a move could be painful for the US, which mostly relies on China for supply of the materials which are necessary for production of high-tech devices and for military use. In an apparent bid to secure the supply of the vital elements, the Pentagon asked US miners last month to report on their production capabilities and come up with plans to develop the industry. China accounts for more than 80 percent of the global of rare earths supply and the exports are already falling.

End-Times Expert: U.S. Citizens Ignore Global War on the Horizon (Source charismanews.com)

Global tensions are beginning to heat up, and end-times expert Michael Snyder says Americans need to wake up the fact that another world war may be on the horizon. Yet some, he says, are living without a care in the world despite the volatile situations between Israel and Iran and China and the U.S.

A global storm, Snyder says, is definitely headed our way. “It’s kind of quite right now, so a lot of people are using this time to enjoy life, to party and have a good time,” Snyder told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of “Greenelines” on the Charisma Podcast Network. “I really think that right now is a time for preparation. Not just physical preparation but spiritual preparation, getting your house in order and getting things you need to get done for whatever is coming. “Some, like John Paul Jackson, have described it as a perfect storm—not just political war and geopolitical shaking, but also the economy and the rest of it. Things may be peaceful right now, but I would encourage people to not use this time to party but to prepare to get closer to God than you’ve ever been before.

Trump presses Fed to weaken dollar(Source Politico)

President Donald Trump on Thursday called on the Federal Reserve to take steps to weaken the U.S. dollar — a move that would make American exports more competitive in world markets while increasing prices on imported goods. ;”As your President, one would think that I would be thrilled with our very strong dollar. I am not!,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets. “The Fed’s high interest rate level, in comparison to other countries, is keeping the dollar high, making it more difficult for our great manufacturers like Caterpillar, Boeing … John Deere, our car companies, & others, to compete on a level playing field.” Trump’s comment break with a long tradition of presidents expressing public support for a strong dollar, which helps keep inflation low and has other advantages, even though it hurts exports. His comments also come just days after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin formally declared China to be a “currency manipulator” under U.S. law because the People’s Bank of China let the yuan weaken beyond 7 to the dollar for the first time in over a decade.

The Treasury Department said it was clear China had acted “to gain an unfair competitive advantage in international trade,” a charge that Beijing denied.

China Just Went Nuclear in the Trade War, and There Is No Turning Back Now (Source globalresearch.ca)

When will Americans start to wake up and realize what is happening?  At the end of last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. would be imposing a 10 percent tariff on 300 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports, and that marked a dramatic escalation in our trade war with China.  This move by Trump came as a total shock to Chinese officials, and global financial markets were thrown into a state of turmoil.  Since that announcement, we have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, because we knew that the Chinese would retaliate.  But honestly, very few of the experts expected something like this.  On Monday, China announced that it is going to completely stop buying U.S. agricultural products…

China confirmed reports that it was pulling out of U.S. agriculture as a weapon in the ongoing trade war. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Chinese companies have stopped purchasing U.S. agricultural products in response to President Trump’s new 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods.

This is essentially a trade war equivalent of a nuclear bomb. If the Chinese would have slapped U.S. agricultural products with tariffs, that would have been a proportional response.  But to quit buying them entirely is an unprecedented escalation in a trade war that is really starting to spiral out of control.

And it is also clearly a political attack on President Trump.  The Chinese know that Trump is highly popular in rural areas, and this ban on U.S. agricultural products is going to severely hurt farmers in rural areas all across the United States.

U.S. voters tend to be more influenced by their bank accounts than by anything else, and so this is a smart strategic move by the Chinese if they would like to see a Democrat get elected in 2020.

In 2017, the Chinese bought 19.5 billion dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products, and that number dropped to just 9.1 billion dollars in 2018.

Now that number is going to zero, and according to Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvallthis latest move by China is going to be “a body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by.”

China Just Went Nuclear in the Trade War, and There Is No Turning Back Now (Source globalresearch.ca)

When will Americans start to wake up and realize what is happening?  At the end of last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. would be imposing a 10 percent tariff on 300 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports, and that marked a dramatic escalation in our trade war with China.  This move by Trump came as a total shock to Chinese officials, and global financial markets were thrown into a state of turmoil.  Since that announcement, we have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, because we knew that the Chinese would retaliate.  But honestly, very few of the experts expected something like this.  On Monday, China announced that it is going to completely stop buying U.S. agricultural products…

China confirmed reports that it was pulling out of U.S. agriculture as a weapon in the ongoing trade war. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Chinese companies have stopped purchasing U.S. agricultural products in response to President Trump’s new 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods.

This is essentially a trade war equivalent of a nuclear bomb. If the Chinese would have slapped U.S. agricultural products with tariffs, that would have been a proportional response.  But to quit buying them entirely is an unprecedented escalation in a trade war that is really starting to spiral out of control.

And it is also clearly a political attack on President Trump.  The Chinese know that Trump is highly popular in rural areas, and this ban on U.S. agricultural products is going to severely hurt farmers in rural areas all across the United States.

U.S. voters tend to be more influenced by their bank accounts than by anything else, and so this is a smart strategic move by the Chinese if they would like to see a Democrat get elected in 2020.

In 2017, the Chinese bought 19.5 billion dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products, and that number dropped to just 9.1 billion dollars in 2018.

Now that number is going to zero, and according to Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvallthis latest move by China is going to be “a body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by.”

Sin City Indeed: Vegas Hit With Plague of Grasshoppers (Source pjmedia.com)

Las Vegas is so known as the destination for debauched behavior that its tourism marketing slogan promises to keep whatever you do there a secret and its nickname is Sin City. Adding to its mystique this week is a sudden variation on the biblical plague of locusts detailed the Book of Exodus. It might be time to accept that the city of Las Vegas is now lost to us humans. It belongs to the grasshoppers now.

Swarms of the winged insect have overrun the Nevada city in the past week, making parts of Sin City look like they’ve been inflicted with a Biblical plague.

Trump slams ‘rat-infested’ district – but his own restaurant had a rodent problem(Source theguardian.com) Donald Trump attacked the House oversight committee chair, Elijah Cummings, on Saturday, claiming his congressional district in Baltimore was a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess”. But Trump has had his own problems with rodents. For example, in February, the Trump Tower Grille in the president’s signature Manhattan property was reported for “live mice” and other health code violations. New York City health inspectors visited the restaurant on 11 July 2018 and found “evidence of mice or live mice” in and around the kitchen, a violation of sanitary standards that was deemed to be “critical”. The inspectors also found the restaurant to be “not vermin-proof” and said it was “conducive to attracting vermin” and “allowing vermin to exist”. The New York Daily News reported that the Trump Tower restaurant has been cited for health code violations in each of the past five years, including sightings of “live roaches” in 2016 and “filth flies” in 2017. A Trump Organization spokesman told the paper such infractions had been dealt with and the restaurant retained an A rating from the city health department. But a former business associate told the Daily News that despite being a self-described “clean hands freak” and germaphobe, Trump has “always been far more focused on creating an image for his properties than in spending what it takes to make them excellent”. The president’s Trump Golf Links in the Bronx has also had problems with health inspections. The course restaurant’s plumbing and sewage systems were deemed substandard, the Daily News reported.