Watchman Newsletter

Solar System Warming–and its implications

Dregs of the Future (Link) (August 7, 2010)

Solar System is warming

According to:

• MIT News: “Pluto is undergoing global warming. . . . The average surface temperature of the nitrogen ice on Pluto has increased 2 degrees Celsius over the past 14 years.” [Surprisingly, Pluto is warming despite currently moving further away from the sun.]
• MIT News: Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher reported that observations obtained by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based instruments reveal that Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, seems to have heated up significantly since the Voyager space probe visited it in 1989.
• National Geographic: “The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars.”
• NASA JPL Labs: “One explanation could be that Mars is just coming out of an ice age.”
• Nature: “Prediction of a global climate change on Jupiter . . . global temperature change of about 10 degrees K.”
• Max Planck Institute: “The sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures,” said Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research.
• The Whole Solar System is Undergoing Global Warming

Study Links Climate Change To Cosmic Rays (Source)

Our solar system is entering a photon belt area.

Benny Peiser, at Liverpool John Moores University asks: “Global warming on Neptune’s moon Triton as well as Jupiter and Pluto, and now Mars has some [scientists] scratching their heads over what could possibly be in common with the warming of all these planets … Could there be something in common with all the planets in our solar system that might cause them all to warm at the same time?”

Lebanese president vows to arm military with advanced weaponry

Haaretz (Link) - DPA (August 7, 2010)

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman toured Saturday the area where Lebanese and Israeli military forces clashed and vowed to arm the country’s troops with advanced weaponry.

On Tuesday, while Israeli troops were trimming a tree on the border fence between Israel and Lebanon, Lebanese soldiers opened fire at an observation post some 300 meters from the fence in Israeli territory. A senior Israel Defense Forces officer was killed, and another was seriously wounded. Two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were also killed in the ensuing clashes.

Speaking to Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) members in Adissyeh in southern Lebanon, where the clashes took place, Suleiman commended their performance during Tuesday’s fighting, saying “it’s necessary to resist Israeli aggression.”

Suleiman said the cabinet will put forward a plan at its next session to arm the Lebanese military “with all that is necessary.”

Residents flee as acrid smog blankets Moscow

Google News (Link) - AFP - Stuart Williams (August 7, 2010)

Residents began fleeing Moscow Saturday as the worst smog in living memory smothered the city and forced people to don protective masks against pollution over six times higher than safe levels.

The wildfires that have killed 52 people were still spreading in central Russia, with 290 new fires in the last 24 hours as weather forecasters said Russia’s worst heatwave in decades would continue for the next days.

“Unfortunately the number of fires have doubled in the Moscow region in the past 24 hours because of people playing with firecrackers near forests,” said Vladimir Stepanov, a senior official with the emergency situations ministry.

The ministry said 1,000 extra firefighters had been dispatched to tackle fires in peat bogs around 100 kilometres (62 miles) southeast of the capital.

Moscow landmarks including the Kremlin and golden church cupolas disappeared behind a layer of smoke as many Muscovities remaining in the city wore protective masks or simply clutched wet rags to their faces.

Huge ice island breaks from Greenland glacier

BBC (Link) (August 7, 2010)

A giant block of ice measuring 260 sq km (100 sq miles) has broken off a glacier in Greenland, according to researchers at a US university.

The slab of ice separated from the Petermann Glacier, on the north-west coast of Greenland.

It is the largest Arctic iceberg to calve since 1962, said Prof Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware.

The ice could become frozen in place over winter or escape into the waters between Greenland and Canada.

If the iceberg moves south, it could interfere with shipping, Prof Muenchow said.

Cracks in the Petermann Glacier had been observed last year and it was expected that an iceberg would calve from it soon.

The glacier is 1,000 km (620 miles) south of the North Pole.

Poll: 85% agree to two-state solution

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Hilary Leila Krieger (August 6, 2010)

A new poll finds that 85 percent of the Arab world would agree to a two-state solution with Israel and a plurality endorse a negotiated solution, though most doubt that such an outcome will happen.

Though 85% of those surveyed in six Arab countries said they were willing to support peace for a two-state solution in which Israel returned to the 1967 lines, including in Jerusalem, 55% thought Israel would not agree to give up the necessary territory, according to a poll by the Brookings Saban Center’s Shibley Telhami, which was conducted by the University of Maryland in conjunction with Zogby International. Only 14% said Arabs should continue to fight even if Israel returned to the 1967 borders.

In terms of creating such a state, 39% said it would be achieved through serious negotiations, with smaller numbers answering the US or UN would have to impose a solution and 16% saying through force. Of the issues most important to resolve, the majority (54%) gave the creation of a fully contiguous state in the West Bank and Gaza, with 31% choosing Arab sovereignty over east Jerusalem and 21% choosing resolving the refugee issue.

In another question, 54% of those polled said they didn’t believe there would ever be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, though 40% said it was possible if given more than five years to accomplish.

“Clearly the majority of the Arab public is prepared to accept in principle” a two-state solution, said Telhami, who noted the numbers are at peak levels.

The cost of Kagan’s confirmation

One News Now (Link) - Russ Jones (August 6, 2010)

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, making her the fourth female to serve on the nation’s highest court. The 50-year-old Harvard Law School graduate is scheduled to be sworn in Saturday (August 7). While Kagan’s confirmation isn’t a surprise for most, the possible backlash some lawmakers may face as a result of their vote could be.

On a Senate vote of 63-37 Kagan was expectedly awarded the top jurist job to the Supreme Court. Bob Knight, senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and senior fellow for American Civil Rights Union, says those who voted to confirm Kagan could pay a heavy price in the mid-term elections.

“Sixty-three senators are going to have to answer to their constituents why they put on the U.S. Supreme Court a woman who altered a report by physicians that said -- and I’ll sum it up -- that there really aren’t any circumstances to justify a partial-birth abortion,” Knight explains. “She made it say in some circumstances it may be the best single way to save a life of a mother.”

That modified report, according to Knight’s column on Thursday -- “The Kagan moral train wreck” -- was used as “falsified evidence” in a Supreme Court case and amounts to “fraud, plain and simple” on the part of the nominee.

Social Security in the red this year

The Washington Times (Link) - Stephen Dinan (August 5, 2010)

Social Security will pay out more this year than it gets in payroll taxes, marking the first time since the program will be in the red since it was overhauled in 1983, according to the annual authoritative report released Thursday by the program’s actuary.

Meanwhile President Obama’s health care overhaul has given Medicare’s basic Hospital Insurance an extra 12 years of financial stability, though it did not solve all of the program’s long-term challenges.

“The financial status of the HI trust fund is substantially improved by the lower expenditures and additional tax revenues instituted by the Affordable Care Act,” the program’s actuary said in its annual report. “These changes are estimated to postpone the exhaustion of HI trust fund assets from 2017 under the prior law to 2029 under current law and to 2028 under the alternative scenario.”

But the actuary said the programs’ finances are still troubled in the near and long terms, and warned that Congress is making things worse by putting off scheduled doctor fee cuts.

USPS posts $3.5 billion loss as mail volume plunges

CNN Money (Link) - Hibah Yousuf (August 5, 2010)

The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.5 billion loss in its most recent quarter Thursday, as mail volume plummets and retiree health care costs mount.

The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said operating revenue declined 1.8% to $16 billion during the fiscal 2010 third quarter compared to a year earlier, while operating expenses spiked 4.2% to $19.5 billion.

The quarterly loss was the fourteenth in the last sixteen quarters, the postal service said.

“A significant portion of USPS losses in the past few years has been due to an unprecedented decline in mail volume -- down more than 20% since 2007,” the USPS said in a statement. “The replacement of letter mail and business-transaction mail by electronic alternatives continues to cause downward pressure on mail volume.”

During the third quarter alone, mail volume slipped 1.7% to 40.9 billion pieces. The USPS, which relies solely on the sale of postage-related products and services to generate revenue, has projected that total mail volume will fall more than 5% on an annual basis for the 2010 fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Blood on the rocks by Israel-Lebanon tripwire

Reuters (Link) - Douglas Hamilton (August 4, 2010)

Blood-stains mark the rocky ground by the entrance to a camouflaged army bunker where the Israeli military says one of its colonels was killed by a Lebanese army sniper team on Tuesday.

“There were only two or three shots,” said an Israeli military spokeswoman. “They were standing there, where the blood is.”

The battalion commander was hit in the head and a fellow officer struck in the chest and gravely wounded from a range of about 700 meters, she told Reuters at the scene of the brief battle.

Israeli artillery fire, launched in retaliation at a Lebanese army post, left scorched hillsides on the Lebanese side of the steep valley that divides them.

The most serious incident since the July 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah -- which lasted 34 days and cost 1,200 lives on the Lebanese side and 158 Israeli dead -- led to the deaths of the Israel colonel and two Lebanese soldiers, along with a journalist on the Lebanese side.

The Israeli officer was in serious condition.

The Israeli-Hezbollah War is Inevitable

International Analyst Network (Link) - Elias Youssef Bejjani (August 4, 2010)

Most Middle East analysts and political observers are more than sure that the war between Israel and the West on one side, and Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas and Iran on the other front is inevitable. Its occurrence has become just a matter of time. The Middle East is in the eye of the storm and, apparently, no one can avert the confrontation that has become necessary for the agendas of all parties involved.

According to observers, the predisposing factors that build for a war are precipitating in the Middle East. Ali Hmade, the renowned Lebanese political analyst, shed light on some of these factors in his last Tuesday’s column published in An Nahar Beirut Daily. Meanwhile, other American, European, Arab and Israeli analysts have written extensively on these tensions and added other pivotal factors to the Israeli-Hezbollah war formula. Below are some of these factors:

A Bushel of Wheat for a Penny Part 2: The Rise of the Central Banks

Koinonia House (Link) - Steve Elwart, IDB Folio Specialist (August 4, 2010)

Last month (Part 1) we covered the two basic types of money: commodity money and fiat money. Commodity money, such as gold and silver, are based on something tangible and has intrinsic value. Fiat money, such as paper money, is based on whatever a government says it is worth. Commodity money keeps its value for years and is stable. Fiat money loses value from the time it is printed and eventually becomes worthless.

Though not as long-lived as commodity money, fiat money nevertheless has a long history as well. As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, villagers used to keep their gold and other valuables in the lord’s castle for safekeeping. Periodically, when the lord was short of cash, he would “borrow” the village’s gold and give them an IOU or “script” in return. This paper money could be returned at a later time, frequently for less gold than was taken from them.

To avoid this problem, villagers started to give their gold to the local goldsmith and get a receipt in return. These receipts were then used as money to buy and sell other things. These gold notes could ultimately be redeemed minus a small handling fee. However, goldsmiths soon learned that not all the gold would be redeemed at the same time and started to make up receipts for non-existent gold that he could use to purchase other items. This was the start of what is called “fractional banking.”

Islamic Jihad Decides to Resume Suicide Attacks

Bridges For Peace (Link) - BFP Israel Mosaic Radio - Joshua Spurlock (August 3, 2010)

The Islamic Jihad terror organization announced on Sunday [August 1] a decision to resume suicide terror attacks against Israel from the West Bank [Judea and Samaria], although they also acknowledged that will be very difficult, due to security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, according to the Jerusalem Post. Islamic Jihad members have carried out suicide bombings in Israel in the past, but noted that such operations require training and explosives preparation, areas of concern for them in light of the improved security situation. They also pointed to the arrest of would-be suicide bombers as another reason for the difficulty of engaging in terror attacks from the West Bank.

The Jerusalem Post said the statement by Islamic Jihad to return to West Bank terror was in response to Israeli air strikes in Gaza, which in turn were in response to rocket attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Russia carriers seen docking in Syria by 2013

World Tribune (Link) (August 3, 2010)

Russia is proceeding with plans to enable major warships to anchor in Syria.

Officials said the Russian Navy has overseen a project to expand its facilities in Syria. They said the effort was meant to allow aircraft carriers and missile cruisers to anchor in the Syrian port of Tartous by 2013.

“Tartous will be developed as a naval base,” Russian Navy commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky said.

In remarks made on Aug. 2, Vysotsky said the modernization of the Tartous project would enable the Russian Navy to supply logistics and maintenance services in the eastern Mediterranean. He said the Syrian port would eventually be able to accommodate a range of heavy warships, including aircraft carriers.

“The first stage of development and modernization will be completed in 2012,” Vysotsky said.

Officials said Russia has sought to expand its military presence in Syria, a major ally during the Cold War. They said Tartous as well Latakia required a major upgrade as part of Moscow’s efforts to increase naval patrols in the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf.

More than 50 Russian Navy personnel have been stationed in Tartous under a 1971 agreement. Officials said only one of the port’s three floating piers was regarded as operational.

The President of the European Union Says Religion Must Play a Role in the Operation of the European Political Structure

Prophecy Today (Link) - Jimmy DeYoung (August 2, 2010)

Herman Van Rompuy who is president of the European Council, made up of 27 states of the European Union, says that the European Union must be a union of values and that it needs spiritual and religious input into the daily operation of this major political structure as called for by the Lisbon Treaty, the constitution for the European Union. Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty calls for continuing consultations between the leaders of the European Union and all religious organizations which is something that the Vatican in Rome has been trying to achieve for decades.

Even before the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty consultations were taking place and recently more than two dozen Christian, Jewish, and Moslem leaders met with the presidents of the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the leadership of the 27 member states that is called the European Council.

Jimmy’s Prophetic Prospective on the News

A clause in the Lisbon Treaty that calls for religions influence on the direction of the European Union is a page out of Bible prophecy for the last days.

With the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty the 27 member states of the European Union were able to elect a president that could lead this major political structure into the future. A clause in the treaty, Article 17, actually calls for religion to have a role in the direction that the European Union and its leadership will take in our world today. European Union leaders have met with and will continue to meet with religions leaders for their input in the operation of the European Union and its role in global governance.

EU, NATO and Germany Connect

The Trumpet (Link) - Ron Fraser (August 2, 2010)

For the past two years, leaders of the 28 North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations have been drafting a new strategic concept for the alliance. With NATO’s original raison d’être having been long outmoded, since the end of the Cold War, the alliance has struggled for the past 20 years to justify the reason for its continuance.

Hence the current moves to reinvent NATO and find a role for it to play in today’s present disordered world where no one single nation dominates the global power equation. Gainsayers will still maintain that the United States is the single most powerful nation on the Earth; just witness the deployment of its naval force globally and its prominence in the two continuing high-profile theaters of conflict—Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet one can be fooled by appearances.

In reality, both America’s will to fight and its economy are profoundly broken. Its economic condition is worse than that of Greece. This is inevitably leading to a situation of drawdown in all theaters where American forces are deployed. These days, any pipsqueak nation can tweak Uncle Sam’s nose and flee the scene without fear of any really powerful reprisals. This sad and sorry state of affairs is only added to by the public declarations of a president who is patently not committed to pursuing, or even attempting to recapture, any concept of American greatness.

Thus it is that the nations of Europe, realizing that their postwar protector is fleeing the scene, seek a new lease on life for NATO which will contribute to the ongoing security of the Continent from threats of incursion by its enemies.

Israel suspects Turkey is betraying its military secrets to Iran

DEBKAfile (Link) (August 1, 2010)

Ankara distanced itself further from the West last week by signing a pact with Iran for the exchange of intelligence in real time in their offensives against Kurdish separatists. Tehran will maintain a permanent intelligence officers’ mission at the Turkish general command’s operations department, while admitting Turkish officers to its own high command operations center. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that while the exchanges are formally limited to the war on Kurdish insurgents, they are certain to spread to other spheres.

Israel is deeply concerned over this and other developments in the wake of the defection of Turkey, its erstwhile strategic partner and long trusted repository of shared military secrets.

Sunday, Aug. 1, defense minister Ehud Barak told the army radio: “… the nomination in recent weeks of a new chief of the Turkish secret services who is a supporter of Iran worries us.” It could result, he said “in the Iranians having access to secret information.”

Erekat to Haaretz: New proposal more generous than deal we offered Olmert

Haaretz (Link) - Avi Issacharoff & Yanir Yagna (August 1, 2010)

The Palestinian Authority has submitted a far-reaching peace proposal to the Obama administration that is more generous to Israel than the demands presented by Mahmoud Abbas to former prime minister Ehud Olmert, the chief PA negotiator told Haaretz on Saturday.

Saeb Erekat also said the PA’s detailed offer would end the conflict with Israel and resolve all Palestinian claims.

“I presented Senator George Mitchell with a series of official documents,” Erekat said, referring to the special U.S. envoy to the Middle East. “We gave him maps and papers that clearly state our positions on all the final-status issues: borders, Jerusalem, refugees, water and security. Thus far we have not received any answer from the Israeli side.”

When asked if the Palestinian positions were similar to those presented during talks with Olmert, Erekat replied: “It’s more than that. I cannot go into details on what exactly was proposed, but Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] offered more in these documents than what he proposed to Olmert in the past. Abu Mazen took bigger steps to reach peace.”