Bergoglio embarrassed by Catholics - prefers false ecumenism to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! Praises Luther's bastard bible!

In an interview with the Jesuitical publication the Bishop of Rome, Jorge Bergoglio praised Martin Luther for his bible and putting it in the hands of people and expressed his regret at being scheduled to offer Mass in Lund.

Luther, you will recall, removed seven books from the Old Testament and attempted to gut the New, particularly the Book of James as it would not support his heresy.

Bergoglio wanted to only experience an ecumencal "prayer" with the heresiarch's descendants and intended to neglect the few Catholics in Lund.

Yes, you read that correctly, 

The man is an abomination. A disgrace to the Church. A danger to Catholics. A betrayer of  Christ. 

He is an egotistical arrogant man, only relenting to offer Mass because he was badgered and did not want to disappoint them.

What a disgrace.

ROME - At first, Pope Francis did not want to celebrate a Catholic Mass in Sweden in order to preserve Monday’s ecumenical witness at the joint Catholic-Lutheran commemoration of the Reformation in Lund, he revealed in an interview released today.

He later changed his mind after reflecting on his role as pastor of the Catholic community, and in response to a request from the local Church. But he put the Mass on the following day, Tuesday, in order to “avoid confusing” the ecumenical event with the Catholic one.

The pope revealed his decision-making process in an interview with the Swedish Jesuit journal Signum released in English October 28 on the website of Civiltà Cattolica magazine.

In the interview with Father Ulf Jonsson, a fellow Jesuit, the pope also discusses his relationships with Lutherans from his days as a Jesuit and later archbishop in Buenos Aires, and said Catholics could learn from the Lutheran tradition in the areas of church reform and Scripture.

Noting how the words “Catholic” and “sectarian” were in contradiction, he said: “This is why at the beginning I wasn’t planning to celebrate a Mass for the Catholics on this trip. I wanted to insist on an ecumenical witness.”

“Then I reflected well on my role as pastor of a flock of Catholics who will also come from other countries, like Norway and Denmark,” he said. “So, responding to the fervent request of the Catholic community, I decided to celebrate a Mass, lengthening the trip by a day.”

By celebrating the Mass on Tuesday, rather than Monday, “the ecumenical encounter is preserved in its profound significance according to a spirit of unity - that is my desire,” the pope said.

“This has created organizational issues, I know, because I will be in Sweden for All Saints Day, which is important here in Rome. But in order to avoid misunderstanding, I wanted it to be so.”

The future pope first stepped inside a Lutheran church aged 17 in Buenos Aires for the wedding of a Lutheran colleague at the laboratory where he worked part-time. Years later, while teaching as a Jesuit at the Colegio Máximo, he became close to a Lutheran professor of spiritual theology, Anders Ruuth, after he invited him to lecture there.
“That was a truly difficult time for my soul,” he recalled. “But I had a lot of trust in him and opened my heart to him. He helped me a lot in that moment.”

Pope Francis also described attending the so-called Swedish church in Buenos Aires while an auxiliary bishop in the early 1990s, and later - as cardinal-archbishop - having what he describes as a “good relationship” with the pastor of the Danish Lutheran church in Buenos Aires, with whom he had a disagreement over “a law concerning religious issues in Argentina.”

Asked what the Catholic Church could learn from the Lutheran tradition, Pope Francis said Martin Luther “wanted to remedy a complex situation” but his reform ended up splitting the Church because of the confusion of temporal and spiritual.

But he said reform in the Church was “fundamental, because the Church is semper reformanda (always to be reformed),” adding that prior to the 2013 conclave “the request for a reform was alive” in the cardinals’ discussions about the state of the Church.

He said Catholics could also learn from Luther’s emphasis on Scripture.

“Luther took a great step by putting the Word of God into the hands of the people,” he said.

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/10/28/pope-explains-reluctance-celebrate-mass-sweden/

Pope Francis sets his sites on Congregation of Divine Worship - is this the undermining of Cardinal Sarah?

If you needed more indication that the Reform of the Reform is dead, then this is it. The Novus Ordo liturgy is irreformable. There is no saving it. Get out of it and get to the traditional liturgy only or as often as you can. It is what you will need to strengthen you for this storm we are in. It cannot convert, it cannot convict.  

Cardinals Burke, Ranjith, Bagnasco, Pell are out. This is a wholesale change and not with recent precedent. Usually, one or two members are changed at a time providing continuity. Not this time. Every single member has been replaced and Cardinal Sarah has been isolated.

Worse, the Bugnini syocophant, Piero Marini is back.

So what does this mean?

It means that you need to do everything you can to get out of the Novus Ordo Mass and more importantly if you cannot, the novus ordo mentality - novus ordo, the New Order! You need to get to the traditional Mass and away from these devils.


Priests, you must learn the traditional liturgy and prepare to transition to it. They will force upon you something that you cannot accept. It has been prophesied by many mystics and we are now living it.

It is the official and formal death of the Reform of the Reform. It is a repudiation of everything Joseph Ratzinger cared about and attempted to reform. Let him enjoy now the fruits of his horrible renunciation of the papacy. He will suffer with this. Good. Let him repent of his decision and abandoning his flock, abandoning his children to the wolves. 

It means that this Pope is planning something with the Mass and he needs his people to carry it out. It is also curious that it comes immediately before his trip to Lund to praise the heresiarch Martin Luther.

It also means, in my view, a stealth attack on the traditional Mass through some kind of "reform" or an outright and open attack on Summorum Pontificum.

Let them try because to quote Michael Moore, "it will be the biggest "blank you" in the history of the papacy!

From the Tablet...

http://archive.is/L2LXD#selection-687.1-687.20

POPE OVERHAULS CARDINAL SARAH’S DEPARTMENT

28 October 2016 | by Christopher Lamb

The move will be considered an attempt to rein in the Cardinal, Pope overhauls Cardinal Sarah’s department

Pope Francis today appointed a raft of new members to Cardinal Robert Sarah’s liturgy department, choosing a series of pastoral moderates to replace more conservative-minded figures.

The move will be read as the Pope’s attempt to rein in the cardinal who has consistently called for priests to celebrate Mass facing East, something the Pope reprimanded him for earlier this year.

Among the new members of the department – formally known as the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments – are Piero Marini, a long-serving master of papal ceremonies and a key proponent of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Others named as members, who will effectively oversee Cardinal Sarah’s work and vote on decisions, include Cardinal Pietro Parolin (Vatican Secretary of State) and New Zealand Cardinal John Dew.

Cardinal Sarah, from Guinea, has consistently called for priests to turn their backs on the congregation while celebrating Mass (Really, how long to we need to put up with these derelict Catholic writers, it's time to drain the swamp. Vox) and has struck a very different tone to the Pope’s merciful approach to families in difficult circumstances. Francis this week spoke at the St John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in place of the cardinal, where he stressed the importance of priests accompanying families struggling to live up to the

Church’s teaching on family life.

The complete list of department members is as follows:

Rainer Maria Woelki

John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan

Pietro Parolin

Gérald Cyprien Lacroix

Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo

John Atcherley Dew

Ricardo Blázquez Pérez

Arlindo Gomes Furtado

Gianfranco Ravasi

Beniamino Stella

Dominic Jala

Domenico Sorrentino

Denis James Hart

Piero Marini

Bernard-Nicolas Aubertin

Romulo G. Valles

Lorenzo Voltolini Esti

Arthur Joseph Serratelli

Claudio Maniago

Bernt Ivar Eidsvig

Miguel Ángel D'Annibale

José Manuel Garcia Cordeiro

Charles Morerod

Jean-Pierre Kwambamba Masi

Benny Mario Travas

John Bosco Chang Shin-Ho

Sponsorship of Toronto Seminarian for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

Sponsorship of Seminarian Abbé Joseph Heppelle at ICRSS Seminary in Gricigliano, Italy

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The Toronto Traditional Mass Society - Una Voce Toronto is established to promote the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, (the Traditional Catholic Latin Mass) and Gregorian chant in the Archdiocese of Toronto.

Abbé Joseph Heppelle is the eldest of eight from a home-schooled family here in the Archdiocese. He grew up serving and singing the chant for the Traditional Roman Liturgy. He is studying for the Catholic priesthood at the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest Seminary of St. Philip Neri in Gricigliano, Italy. Abbé Heppelle is now a Subdeacon having been ordained in July 2016.

This is the fourth year now that we have assisted in fundraising for Abbé Heppelle. Seminary cost is expensive as you can imagine and challenging in that all his classes are in French and Italian.

Please give consideration to donating for this young-man's education as he prepares to serve Jesus Christ, Sovereign Priest and His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and the community of faithful which belong to Her.

You may visit our web page at www.unavocetoronto.com or write us directly at unavocetoronto@gmail.com. 

May God bless you and thank you.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/support-for-seminarian-jh-at-icrss-seminary-in-gri/

Trump says Clinton policy on Syria would lead to World War III

We've known this right?

If you've read this blog for the last week, you know my views on American policy in Syria and the blood on the hands of Obama, Clinton, McCain and others.

America has aided and abetted the so-called Islamic State as it butchered tens to hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis and other Moslems in its march across thousands of square miles. The malefactor in the White House sat there. He will be held to account for creating the monster. He deserves trial and prison and God's judgement.

Clinton is no better, she is worse.

Donald J. Trump has it all figured out.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-exclusive-idUSKCN12P2PZ

Is God warning us? Is he warning Francis and the Church?

Only weeks after a devastating earthquake in Italy, two more have occurred and both were feld in Rome.

Is there a message here?

We are a few days from the trip to be made by the Bishop of Rome to Lund, Sweden, to commemorate with heretics the revolution in the Church and Europe unleashed by Martin Luther. A revolution that gave rise not only to Protestantism, but out it, illuminism, freemasonry and communism now pushing us all to globalism and dictatorship. It is the exaltation of man over God. It is the dictates of the State over the individual. It is the manipulation of the masses by the few.

True ecumenism is what is desired, what is longed for by Catholics. Calling those who have fallen for the lies of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox and countless others, home, home to the One, True, Faith is our desire. No triumphalism but a family reunion. 

Rather than call them home, this Pope, and frankly his last five predecessors have compromised and souls have been lost.

The place for the Pope is in Rome, not Lund.

Iraqi Christians raise the Cross on Virgin Mary Church!

"Blessings and honour and glory and power be unto him. Amen."

Who sat by whilst these people lost their lands, those their homes, their churches, their children? 

Who did this to them? 

Who funded the monsters? 

Who delivered to them, their weaponry?

Who stood by and played golf whilst this happened?

Accursed be them.

Archbishop of Zagreb bans Cardinal Burke from Offering Holy Mass in the Traditional Rite!

GloriaTV is reporting that the Archbishop of Zagreb, Josip Cardinal Bozanić has barred Raymond Cardinal Burke from offering the Holy Mass according to the traditional rite, what Benedict XVI referred to in Summorum Pontificum as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. 

https://gloria.tv/article/EgW3Vpp9G8Gw3NhPmPTuBZXcN

On Twitter, Edward Pentin is stating that the "organizers arranged the whole thing without informing" the chancery or archbishop. This may be what he has been told from them.

First, no cardinal, no bishop can ban the offering of Holy Mass according to the traditional rite. However, a bishop does have the right to refuse another bishop entry into his diocese without his permission. At the rank of Cardinal, this is different; Cardinal Burke needs no permission to enter any diocese as he is a, Cardinal. The complication comes in with Zagreb's archbishop also being a Cardinal.

If the organizers did not advise the chancery, that was their mistake. It was imprudent and foolish.

The Archbishop of  Zagreb, however, has acted inappropriately and needlessly created an ugly situation that did not need to happen.

There is a new phrase in Rome, and Cardinal Burke has become a verb.

He was "burked" and now so too, has the Mass.

The Archbishop of Zagreb owes Catholics an explanation and Cardinal Burke, an apology.

More insults and accusation from the mouth of Bergoglio

Vatican Radio is reporting on the daily Mass at the Motel St.Martha and the homiletical dissertation of the Bishop of Rome.

In many cases, the Pope continued, rigidity conceals the leading of a double life; but, he pointed out, there can also be something pathological. Commenting on the difficulties and suffering that afflict a person who is both rigid and sincere, the Pope said this is because they lack the freedom of God’s children: “they do not know how to walk in the path indicated by God’s Law”. “They appear good because they follow the Law; but they are concealing something else: either they are hypocritical or they are sick. And they suffer!” he said. Pope Francis also recalled the parable of the prodigal son in which the eldest son, who had always behaved well, was indignant with his father because he had joyfully welcomed back the youngest son who returns home repentant after having led a life of debauchery. This attitude –  the Pope explained –  shows what is behind a certain type of goodness: “the pride of believing in one’s righteousness”. The elder son – Pope said – was rigid and conducted his life following the Law but saw his father only as a master. The other put rules aside, returned to his father in a time of darkness, and asked for forgiveness. “It is not easy to walk within the Law of the Lord without falling into rigidity” he said.

Who is this man speaking of?

The traditional Catholics whom I know are very humble people. They go to Confession frequently, sometimes weekly because they know that they are not righteous. Who are these Catholic of which he speaks, these rigid and sick people?

This Pope insults people continually. Remember "self-absorbed, Promethean, neo-pelagians?' 

What Pope, what Bishop of Rome speaks this way of his flock, his children?

Is this man of Christ?

Our Lord said that we should be kind, and love and be gentle, but he also said "if you love me, keep my commandments." Keeping the Commandments of God entails a certain kind of rigidity. I won't accept sodomy as a lifestyle choice, I won't accept adultery as an option in my life or in my society, I won't accept masturbation or pornography as normal, healthy and good. I will not cheat my neighbour or commit violence against him and so on. I will look after my family, my friends, take upon responsibility in my Church and community to the best of my ability and I will speak the Truth.

Does this make me "rigid" and "sick?"

If so, then I am guilty.

Cardinal Kasper says "yes" to communion for adulterers. Will Francis correct him?

LifeSiteNews is reporting that Heresiarch Cardinal Walter Kasper stated, "yes, period!" that the divorced and civilly remarried can receive Holy Communion. This is the malefactor that started it all in union with Bergoglio.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-kasper-amoris-laetitia-changes-everything-on-communion-for-remarri 

This is also the man who spoke of how it could be different in Africa, but that those bishops, "should not tell us" really important and racist Germans who don't go to Mass, "what to do."

A more salient example of a heretic in clerics I cannot name.

Unless it is his boss.

My American friends, "make no mistake"

Some of you have seen this powerful and pointed homily by Father John T. Lankeit, the Rector of the Cathedral of Sts. Simon and Jude in Phoenix. If you have not seen it yet, then take the twenty minutes and listen to it.

In the time of that homily, over thirty children were aborted in the United States and it was a Sunday!

Just over one year ago, I wrote on this blog to my fellow Canadians, particularly Catholics on the matter of voting for Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party. Whilst the Conservatives, under Stephen Harper, did nearly nothing (except remove funding for foreign abortions) to advance the cause of Life, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were and are actually hostile to it. To run as a candidate one must have signed in writing to support the pro-abortion position of the Prime Minister and Party. Those Members of Parliament already elected had to agree not to ever raise the matter. The Conservatives, at least, had no policy which was at least neutral. In Canada, there is absolutely no law restricting abortion and the child does not become a "person" in law until it is detached from the mother. A baby can be murdered in Canada in the womb up to the moment of birth. Now we have euthanasia. America, it will come to you.

My American friends, Catholics in particular. This is what Hillary Clinton advocates for your land.

Donald J. Trump is far from a perfect candidate. He is a man with flaws and some serious ones. Who does not have flaws. Some of what he is accused of doing in his past is repugnant. Some of his statements are condemnable. Some of what has come out are lies. The fact is, we do not know the truth.

What we do know, what you know, is that he has stated that he will appoint judges to the Supreme Court that will be Pro-Life. From there, the SCOTUS can deal with it. You must take him at his word, that is all you have.

Americans, you have a "choice."

Make the right one or bear responsibility for what you do.

Children in dough mixers - who did this to Syria?

Who did this to Syria?

Who created the conditions for the creation of ISIS?

You know the names. Obama, Clinton, McCain, Cameron. The blood of these children is on their hands.

The American people have been lied to be their leaders and need to hold them to account.

https://themarshallreport.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/president-assad-of-syria-is-not-an-evil-dictator-killing-his-people-the-establishment-has-lied/

http://theeye-witness.blogspot.ca/2016/10/why-syria.html

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/723942/ISIS-kills-250-children-dough-kneader-burns-men-alive-oven-Syria-Open-Doors-report

The sick jihadis killed children, the eldest was just four years old, in an industrial dough kneader in the Syrian town of Duma.

In a chilling testimony, one Syrian woman spoke of “Christians being killed and tortured, and of children being beheaded in front of their parents.”

Speaking to Dr Yvette Isaac, from advocacy charity Roads to Success, Alice Assaf said: “Our neighbour came in and said: ‘Umm Issa, they have taken many girls about 300 girls. They were taken to Duma. Many of them were Christians and few were Alawites.

“At the bakery, there were six young people who were working there. We knew them. They were burned in the oven, six well-framed men.

“Then there were 250 children. They were put in the dough mixer, they were kneaded. The oldest one of them was four-years-old.”

As well as dealing with ISIS, Duma has been the site of bloodshed and violence as the city has found itself at the heart of the Syrian civil war.

The brutal killings were highlighted by Congleton MP Fiona Bruce before Parliament.

Recounting Dr Isaac’s testimony, Mrs Bruce said: “She showed us recent film footage of herself talking with mothers–more than one– who had seen their own children crucified.

“She told us of a mother with a two-month-old baby. When Daesh knocked at the front door of her house and ordered the entire family out, she pleaded with them to let her collect her child from another room.

"They told her, ‘No. Go. It is ours now.’”

The horrific killings comes as ISIS continues to wipe out Christians in the Middle East, targeting believers in Iraq and Syria.

The report, by charity Open Doors UK, found Christians in the region have been taken hostage, church leaders assassinated, homes and businesses destroyed and women and girls raped and forced into sexual slavery.

ISIS terrorists took the Christian town of al-Qaryatain, Syria in August 2015, trapping the town’s 300 Christians and murdering 20 who tried to escape.

Christians returning to the town, which has been liberated by rebel forces, have found their homes and businesses reduced to rubble and landmines left by ISIS littering the town.

Before 2011, Syrian Christians numbered about eight per cent of the population of 22million.

Today about half are believed to have left the country.

A spokeswoman from Open Doors UK said: “Horrific stories such as these are sadly all too familiar to those who have encountered Daesh.

"Open Doors local partners in Syria and Iraq are providing trauma counselling to help victims of abuse begin to heal following their terrible experiences, as well as providing practical support.”

Let us now turn to Iraq

Prayers held in Mart Shomani church in recently liberated Christian town of Bartella east of #Mosul. #Iraq pic.twitter.com/QW3CgYY03P

— Mustafa Al-Khaqani (@Khaqani_M) October 22, 2016

The modern Iraqi nation was a creation of the British and French under Sykes-Picot. It was cobbling together of various ethnicities which failed to respect historical and tribal regions upon the collapse of the Ottoman Empire formalised in 1920 by the League of Nations. It was for European control over people and oil and an early example of the evil Globalism we are now experiencing, then advocated so much by the American President and "progressive," Woodrow Wilson.

Interspersed in this post are some pictures taken in the last few days to encourage you that, notwithstanding that, the evil that we have inflicted upon these people, they have not lost their faith and God has not abandoned them.

We, in the West (Europe, Canada and America) have long exploited these people. We have used them for our own gain and have disrespected their heritage and independence.

Saddam Hussein was a brutal man, a despot, to be sure. He kept a diverse nation-state united by his terror, not unlike Tito in the former Yugoslavia. To consider just the state of Christians in Iraq, they did not suffer, they were not persecuted. On the plains of Nineveh, they were the oldest indigenous Christians in the world, descendants of our father Abraham and taught the faith by St.Thomas the Apostle.

Saddam Hussein was never a threat to America. He was not behind 9-11. That was the Saudis. How did Americans fall for that lie by George W. Bush? Iraq should never have been invaded. George Bush will be held do account for what he unleashed and the blood pouring from his hands. Barrack Hussein Obama has even more blood on his hands for what he did - abandoning a broken state, a state broken by his predecessor which he, America, had the moral duty to defend and protect, having broken it in the first place. Do not underestimate the evil perpetuated in Iraq, and Syria, by Turkey and Erdogan who have lusted after a new Ottoman age.

As you read this, Iraq forces are beginning to take back control of towns and villages on the way to Mosul. Church bells are ringing in these villages and Christians are gathering in prayer in Baghdad.

How much blood. The West, lead by American, destroyed this land.

My next post will feature the murder of children by ISIS in dough mixtures and roasted alive in ovens. All done while that malefactor Barrack Hussein Obama sat by and watched it happen.

How is God going to deal with us, in the West, who have caused so much grief in the East? 

Can we really be so smug as to think that we are innocent in this? 

Turn now then to Max J. Joseph, an Assyrian writer and artist and consider this for the future of this long-suffering people.

http://1001iraqithoughts.com/2016/10/19/after-mosul-how-to-secure-the-future-of-iraqs-assyrians/

What the minorities of Nineveh truly want is to be free from the shackles of being called “minorities”. They don’t want protection, they want empowerment. They don’t want rhetoric, they want demonstrable equality. Iraq must be given a new start after the false one in 2003. A country can usually be judged by how it treats its worse-off citizens, and so far, Iraq has done little to merit praise in this respect. To prevent the state sinking once more into a sectarian mess, Assyrians and other groups who have had so much taken from them should have their dignity restored by being allowed to live and prosper in their own lands free from destabilizing external influences.

Long term interests are aligned here, and these must not be sacrificed by the GoI under Abadi for short-term political gains. The NPU was not established as a temporary force, it is here to stay. Assyrians within it who have taken up arms, along with the thousands who wait patiently to be accepted into its ranks (ranks only limited by support and funding, not desire) are doing so because want they to establish themselves in a country that has forgotten its identity. It is now time to build faster than those preoccupied with destruction.

Read all of it at:

http://1001iraqithoughts.com/2016/10/19/after-mosul-how-to-secure-the-future-of-iraqs-assyrians/

Powerful moment - Churches in Baghdad singing the national anthem after the army liberated their towns in #Mosul pic.twitter.com/SK58IVA58J

— Baghdad Invest (@baghdadinvest) October 22, 2016

The blood of Syrians is on the hands of Americans, Canadians, Europeans and Saudis - are you prepared for war with Russia? Has enough blood not been spent?

My ancestors were native to Mount Lebanon. The blood that runs in my veins is Lebanese which is mainly of the Canaanites and Phoenicians of the ancient world.  My grandparents all came from Maronite villages on Mount Lebanon. Their language evolved from the ancients to Aramaic and then to Arabic. The Syrian people are cousins, they spoke the same language, share the same history and underwent the same arabisation. Yet, for the most part, Christians and Muslims in Syria lived peacefully, provided they were left alone.

The Ottomans dominated for centuries until after the collapse following the Great War in 1917. Sykes-Picot and the Balfour Declaration carved up the Middle East creating many of the problems at hand today.

The blood on the hands of our western leaders is immense. European and American and we in Canada will have much to account for. Our ancestors drew lines and created artificial borders for oil and politics. We continue down that same destructive path.

Basher Assad may not be our idea of a liberal democrat. Frankly, the last time I looked, which of our western liberal democratic leaders do we really think serves the interests of the people to say nothing about the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ? 

Assad is a cultured and educated man who cares deeply about his people. He has attempted to build a nation-state for all. He has refused to bow to America and Europe and the degenerate House of Saud and what has it gotten the people?

The propoganda against this man and his wife is immense. 

I am not justifying military means on one's people, but; who created this problem that a government was forced to take extreme action to keep its nation united? Who undermined the legitimate government? 

The United States of America went to civil war, a brutal civil war that cost more American lives than any other in history. The Confederate States of America were aided by foreign powers. It even had a friend in the Pope!

Americans went to war and killed its own citizens to prevent a disunion of the nation. What hypocrites these American leaders are!

Is this man a monster?

Is this a man hated by his people?

Americans, Canadians, Europeans! There is a war on for your mind!

The situation in Syria is a disgrace and the blood is on our nations in the West. There is one country that is operating legally in Syria and that is its long-time ally, Russia. 

Russia is not my enemy!

Assad is the legitimate President. It is not up to America to determine that he is not. George Bush and then Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Cameron his predecessors, Harper in Canada have destroyed these countries, killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions in the process. Now, we the people are expected to take in the refugees who have little to contribute and may in themselves, contain the seeds of revenge in our own streets for the murderous folly of our governments.

Christians were not dying under Assad. Syrians were not in civil war until foreign operatives and mercenaries funded  by the Saudis, Europeans and North Americans destabilised the nation.

We will be chastised and very soon. Now, we are in moving closer to a showdown with Russia, over Syria. Why is your media not reporting on this? 

+ + +

Failure to Accept Russia’s Position in Syria Inching US Closer to War

In recent weeks, officials of Western governments have engaged in a dramatic escalation of rhetoric condemning the Syrian and Russian governments for alleged war crimes that have occurred since the collapse of a UN-backed ceasefire in late September.

The escalating charges aimed at Russia and Syria, reinforced by well-orchestrated media campaigns propagating official talking points, are familiar in the sense that such attempts to mould public opinion have traditionally been a precursor to Western military interventions.

Western and Gulf states have been unequivocal about their intention to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, presumably to replace it with a client regime that would maintain an adversarial relationship with Russia, Iran and various political forces associated with Shia Islam.

On the ground, the Syrian military, supported by Russian, Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies are on the path to military victory over the rebel-held east of Aleppo, which would mark the restoration of government control in all of Syria’s largest population centres.

Insurgents that have been armed and supported by the United States are now besieged in eastern Aleppo fighting Syrian government forces in coordination with jihadist militants, including the al-Nusra Front, the former Syrian wing of al Qaeda that Washington itself classifies as a terrorist organisation.

Some 270 thousand civilians are besieged alongside the militants controlling the area. Though the ongoing offensive has undoubtedly put the civilian population of the area at risk, larger questions about the fighting in Aleppo have hardly been raised by Western media.

The dominant narrative about Aleppo asserts claims that Syria and Russia are ‘deliberately bombing schools and hospitals to kill civilians’ or maintaining a siege to ‘break the will of the population’.

Almost no serious questions are asked of the rebel leadership in control of eastern Aleppo. The insurgents’ routine shelling of government-held western Aleppo – where the vast majority of the population, reportedly 1.5 million, reside – is hardly reported.

It must be recognised that the primary armed opposition fighting in eastern Aleppo and elsewhere are jihadist insurgents who have either superficially distanced themselves from the al-Qaeda brand or openly associate with it. More so, it is common knowledge that these groups have committed beheadings and heinous rights abuses.

Given the ferocity of Russian and Syrian airstrikes, why haven’t more civilians attempted to leave eastern Aleppo? UN Syria Envoy Staffan de Mistura claimed that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the rebranded version of al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, is holding ‘hostage’ the civilian population of east Aleppo.

From a humanitarian perspective, it is pertinent to question the effectiveness of the forceful approach taken by the Syrian and Russian militaries. There is a precedent for a non-violent solution to the situation, advocated by De Mistura himself.

In August 2016, a deal between government forces and militants ended the four-year siege of the Damascus suburb of Daraya. Civilians were evacuated and militants were bused to rebel-held areas in northern Syria without surrendering their weapons. This took place with the full cooperation of government forces.

De Mistura has offered to personally accompany the jihadist fighters out of eastern Aleppo, while other (allegedly ‘moderate’) insurgents and civilians remain under conditions of a ceasefire. The botched September 2016 ceasefire also sought this outcome, a key condition being that US-backed rebels divorce themselves from jihadist al-Nusra fighters.

It is clear that expelling these jihadist forces is the prerequisite for quelling the fighting in Aleppo, but there is political resistance to this outcome from Western and Gulf states because it would imply the surrender of anti-Assad groups and the impotence of their regime change objectives.

Moreover, as Syria’s largest city, Aleppo represents a major strategic prize. If captured, the foreign-backed opposition could establish an alternative Syrian government, which Western and Gulf states would then treat as the sole legitimate government.

The battle for Aleppo has been characterised as an ‘existential crisis’ for the mainstream anti-Assad forces. Should the Syrian government retake eastern Aleppo, it would deal a devastating blow to regime change efforts, but it would not mean a decisive end to the war. Kurdish forces have maintained their hold over parts of Syria, while the Islamic State continues to hold much territory.

That being said, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others have invested enormous political capital to regime change efforts in Syria. Washington is determined to avoid a costly and humiliating defeat in Aleppo and is currently reviewing measures to shore up its proxies.

Among the options under consideration is the establishment of a no-fly-zone and safe zones, staging attacks against the Syrian air force and arming the Syrian rebels with additional weaponry. Should the US attempt of these options, it would directly violate international law.

The United States is not technically at war with the Syria, nor is there a UN resolution authorising American forces to operate inside Syria’s borders. Establishing a no-fly zone over Syrian airspace, safe zones within Syrian territory, or US military attacks on the Syrian air force and its bases would directly constitute an act of war against Damascus – and by extension, Moscow.

The Washington Post reports:

‘There’s an increased mood in support of kinetic actions against the regime,’ one senior administration official said. ‘The CIA and the Joint Staff have said that the fall of Aleppo would undermine America’s counterterrorism goals in Syria.’’

“One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgement, the official said.”

It is deeply alarming and baffling that the US leadership has here equated the fall of the jihadist-occupied Aleppo as harmful to counterterrorism objectives. Should moral outrage be directed at any side, it should not be toward the Syrian and Russian governments, who are attempting to restore legal order over Syrian territory, albeit by controversial means.

Rather, it is the United States and its European and Gulf allies that have forged an alliance with terrorist organisations in an attempt to destroy an independent-minded secular nationalist government promoting a pluralistic and inclusive form of Islam that should most beget public condemnation.

This would certainly be the case if the Western public at large ever truly absorbed the gravity of what their governments have done in Syria. It is unlikely that President Obama would concede to a major military escalation during his final months in office, though the possibility remains.

Hillary Clinton, who will presumably become the next US president, publically supports the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria and has openly stated her number one objective in Syria is the removal of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Russia has begun to deploy advanced anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems in Syria. Trust between Russia and the United States has entirely eroded. Russia is holding the cards in Syria and it is difficult to imagine how open conflict can be avoided should the US pursue an escalation. The seriousness of this moment should not be understated.

Nile Bowie is a political analyst based in Malaysia who has written for a number of publications, his expertise lies in a number of areas, with a particular focus on Asian politics and geopolitics, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

http://m.journal-neo.org/2016/10/20/failure-to-accept-russia-s-position-in-syria-inching-us-closer-to-war/

Al Smith Dinner honours Adolf Hitler!

This "ouch" by Barona at Witness is right up there with "pardon me."

http://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.ca/2016/10/archdiocese-of-ny-would-have-had-adolf.html