North Korea Launches Rocket Seen as Cover for a Missile Test

       Verse of the Day

1Thess 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. (2) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

Commentary

Just a post to keep you updated on world events as the pace has picked up.

May the Holy God of Israel bless and protect you.

1Thess 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

WORLD WAR 3

North Korea Launches Rocket Seen as Cover for a Missile Test 02/09/16 This article gives good background information on the launch of this missile by the NK.

“Defying warnings of tougher sanctions from Washington, North Korea launched a rocket on Sunday that Western experts believe is part of a program to develop intercontinental ballistic missile technologies.
The rocket blasted off from Tongchang-ri, the North’s main satellite launch site near its northwestern border with China, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea called an emergency meeting of top national security advisers on Sunday to address the launch, her office said. South Korea, the United States and Japan also requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.”

Russia to test new S-500 defenses in 2016 02/02/16 The Russian economy is collapsing but the move towards WW3 continues.

“The first prototypes of Russia’s next-generation S-500 long range air defense system will reach completion and begin pre-tests in 2016, according to state-run Sputnik News. The new generation system will be capable of destroying aerial offensive targets, as well intercontinental ballistic missiles and targets near space. The S-500 “not only combines the best feats of the previous systems, but also offers completely new possibilities in the field of air, missile and space defense,” according to Viktor Murakhovski, a member of the advisory council of Russia’s Military-Industrial Commission.”

Putin’s revenge: Turkish tourist industry collapsing 02/02/16 It appears that Russia and Turkey are now fully engaged in an economic war. It is subtle but the real war can’t be far off.

“A total of 1,318 Turkish hotels along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts have been put up for sale, due to Russian sanctions on Turkey and security concerns, reported Turkish and Russian media Tuesday. Today’s Zaman said that 410 hotels are listed for sale at the Mediterranean resort area of Anatalya, at a total sale price of TL 30 billion (about $10 billion). The remaining 908 hotels are on sale at the provinces of Muğla, İzmir, Aydın, Balıkesir, Çanakkale and Denizli, at a total of TL 8.8 billion (about $3 billion). According to Denizli Colossae Thermal Chairman, Abdurrahman Karamanlıoğlu, some resort town hotels were brought near bankruptcy after Russia imposed sanctions against Turkey, following the downing of a Russian warplane near Turkey’s border last November.”

Hard Left

Christians Who Demonize Israel – Part II 02/09/16 God is using Israel as a test for real Christians. So many in the Middle East are siding with the Muslims against Israel. They also will receive all the curses which are upon Muslims as these Christians are aligned with the Muslims against Israel.

“It is commonly repeated by Palestinians that there were never any Jews in the Holy Land before the 19th century and that the first and second Jewish Temples never stood in Jerusalem. Not only do these claims fly in the face of over a century of archaeological work and the records of Greek, Roman and other historians in antiquity, they flatly contradict and annul the texts of both the Old and New Testaments. By their own rejection of Jewish rights in Israel, Christians unwittingly repudiate their own rights and history. Christians in St Thomas Church did not once criticize or deplore the Palestinian glorification of violence, this delight at the murders of children, this dancing in the streets when innocent throats are cut. Is it the Christian thing to demand that hospitals and doctors across the globe should refuse to use Israeli medicines or surgical devices or advanced medical equipment? Would Christians who work with bodies like Christian Aid call on countries damaged by natural and man-made calamities to ban Israeli aid teams? Abandoning Israel will not soothe the hearts of the Palestinian people or make the Christians less vulnerable — as we are now seeing from the throat-slittings and mass displacements throughout the Middle East, done not by Jews but by Muslim fanatics.”

“As interest rates turn negative around the world, the Federal Reserve is asking banks to consider the possibility of the same happening in the U.S.In its annual stress test for 2016, the Fed said it will assess the resilience of big banks to a number of possible situations, including one where the rate on the three-month U.S. Treasury bill stays below zero for a prolonged period.”The severely adverse scenario is characterized by a severe global recession, accompanied by a period of heightened corporate financial stress and negative yields for short-term U.S. Treasury securities,” the central bank said in announcing the stress tests last week.In that particular simulation, the unemployment rate doubles to 10 percent, the same level it reached in the aftermath of the last financial crisis.Three-month bill rates have slipped slightly below zero several times in recent years, including in September after the Fed delayed rate liftoff amid global financial market turmoil, touching a low of minus 0.05 percent on Oct. 2.But in the stress test, banks would have to handle three-month bill rates entering negative territory in the second quarter of 2016, and then falling to negative 0.5 percent and holding there through the first quarter of 2019.”

“The director of Islamic teaching at the mosque which President Barack Obama has chosen to visit is on record saying that Islam requires homosexuals to be despised and treated as “transgressors.”And according to a list provided to reporters by the White House, President Obama will meet with Imam Yaseen Shaikh, the controversial Islamic teacher, later on Wednesday.Being a homosexual “is an immoral act, it is a shameful act, it is despised act, it is haram, it is forbidden in Islam, completely, absolutely, from the Koran, the Hadith [recorded statements from Islam’s reputed founder, the leader Muhammad) and by consensus of the scholars from the beginning of Islam,” says Imam Yaseen Shaikh, who was hired in to serve as the head of Islamic teaching or Islamic “scholar” for the Islamic Society of Baltimore and its nearby Al-Rahmah school.Shaikh, a senior leader of the Islamic Society of Baltimore, described “Homosexuality in Islam” in a lesson that has been posted to YouTube. He made these remarks at a mosque called “Masjid Ayesha” in London in 2013, prior to his joining the Islamic Society of Baltimore, according to the upload.“So all the sources of Islamic law are very, very accurate and very open and clear about this, without any ambiguity, without any ambiguity,” Shaikh says, mixing Arabic with English, starting at 17:10 in the video.”

“Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients.But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.Senate investigators uncovered apparent cases of eyewashing as part of a multi-year probe of the CIA’s interrogation program, according to officials who said that the Senate Intelligence Committee found glaring inconsistencies in CIA communications about classified operations, including drone strikes.”