the tRUMPet WeeKLYO C T O B E R 1 3 , 2 0 1 2

Israel looking to a new source of protection 3

Guess who just won the Nobel Peace Prize 5

What Berlusconi said about German bullying 6

Liberals see racism everywhere 7

Teen sexting linked to risky behavior 9

The Vatican Begins ‘Year of Faith’ BY RON FRaseR

see VaTICaN page 12

Commencing October 11, on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council

(Vatican ii), Pope Benedict launched what amounts to a new crusade by the Roman Catholic Church.

Called the “Year of Faith,” the next 12 months will show-case a plethora of initiatives designed to revive what the Vatican sees as the key role of the church: its commitment to evangelize the world.

“The church exists to evangelize. … At various times in history, divine providence has given birth to a renewed dynamism in the church’s evangelizing activity.” Thus announced Pope Benedict during his latest homily to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, October 7.

Pope Benedict is strongly implying that “divine provi-dence” is, at this moment in history, giving “birth to a renewed dynamism in the Church’s evangelizing activity.”

Pope Benedict XVI announcesa the “Year of Faith” in St. Peter Square at the Vatican.

Tiziana Fabi/aFP/GeTTy imaGes

OCTOBER 13, 20122 The TrumpeT weeklyRizWan TabassUm/aFP/GeTTyimaGes

middle east

It’s beyond a disconnect, it is utterly damning. There are two scandals going on. The first is the cover-up. We now know—and they knew

earlier—there was no mob, there was no demonstration, there was no incentive about the video. It was all a com-pletely false story. This was simply an attack of our men who infiltrated and killed our people. So everything that Susan Rice said was a confection, it was an invention. And

… it was repeated again and again. You had Hillary Clinton speaking of the video as the body of the ambassador was lying next to her. … You had the president of the United States addressing the [UN] General Assembly more than two weeks later talking about the video, the insult to Islam, et cetera. … They’re trying to sell the video, they’re trying to sell extremism and they’re trying to sell all of this at a time

when they know it isn’t true. So that’s number one. That’s a scandal and I think it has to do with the fact that they were spiking the football over the death of bin Laden and al-Qae-da a week earlier in Charlotte and this is a contradiction of it.

The second scandal is the lack of security at the site before. So what happened before? … I think that what hap-pened was … it wasn’t [for] a lack of money that they with-drew all the support and they didn’t put up the required barbed wire and the fences and all of that. It was under the theory which starts with Obama at the beginning: We don’t want to be intruders in the area, we don’t want to be oppositional, we don’t want to have a fortress in America, we don’t want to look imperialist. We want to blend in with the people and help them build. That’s a noble aspiration and that was the motive for having very light security, but it was a catastrophically wrong decision to do it in Beng-hazi in a no man’s land in Dodge City, and it cost us the lives of the ambassador and three other Americans.

Libya Cover-UpReaL CLeaR POLITICs, ChaRLes KRauThammeR | October 10

Gunmen Kill Another U.S. Embassy OfficialReuTeRs | October 11

Masked gunmen shot dead a Yemeni man who worked in the

security office of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa on Thursday, in an attack a Yemeni security source said appeared to be the work of al Qaeda.

The incident was the latest of a wave of attacks on officials in the impover-ished Arab state, which is battling Is-lamist militants with Washington’s help.

The attackers, on a motorcycle, opened fire on Qassem Aqlan—who headed an embassy security investi-gation team—near his house in the center of Yemen’s capital, the source told Reuters.

“This operation has the fingerprints of al Qaeda which carried out similar operations before,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other militant groups strengthened their grip on parts of the country during an upris-ing that ousted veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February.Washington, wary of the growing power of al Qaeda, has stepped up drone strikes on suspected militants …

TW i n b r i e f

n Violence at the Temple mountHundreds of Arab worshipers threw stones at Israeli police officers near the Western Wall of the Temple Mount last Friday, marking an uptick in violence during the Jewish fall holy day festival. Just after Muslim prayers concluded, swarms of Arabs on the Temple Mount began stoning the officers stationed below, prompt-ing the officers to storm through the Mughrabi Gate and fire several stun grenades to disperse the violent crowd. The Temple Mount has long been a source of contention between Jews and Palestinians. Violent pro-tests have broken out several times in previous years due to Palestinian re-sentment over Jewish presence in the area. Three years ago, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said, “The Israelis want to divide al-Aqsa Mosque … in preparation for demolishing it and building their temple there.” The cur-rent state of these two camps fighting over Jerusalem will not last much longer. Biblical prophecy foretells that it will explode in violence, causing Jerusalem to fall to Arab control. This will trigger a chain reaction of events that will violently affect the whole world, but will ultimately restore peace to the city.

n Gaza resumes rocket strikes on IsraelHamas and Islamic Jihad militants resumed launching rockets into southern Israel from Gaza on Monday. It was the first time that such attacks happened since June, with more than 40 rockets being fired into Israel. In response, the Israel Air Force (iaf) launched attacks on a terror tunnel in northern Gaza and a training camp in Beit Lahiya early Wednesday morning. No casualties were reported. The mili-tants reportedly began launching the rockets in response to a recent surgical strikes carried out by the iaf against two jihadist terrorists in Gaza. Both terrorists were critically wounded, and one later died of his injuries.

n syrian shell kills five in Turkey Border TownRelations between Turkey and Syria took another blow on Wednesday af-ter five were killed in a Turkish town near the Syrian border. The five peo-ple, including three children, died when a shell landed on a house in the Turkish town of Akcakale, near the Syrian border. The attack has come at an especially violent time in the Syrian conflict, which activists say has claimed 30,000 lives. In another attack the same day, 34 people were

OCTOBER 13, 20123 The TrumpeT weekly

killed and dozens were wounded in a series of bomb explosions in the cen-ter of Syria’s city of Aleppo. Syria’s worsening civil war dominated the talks at the week-long United Na-tions meeting that ended on Mon-day, but no agreement was reached on how to deal with the crisis. The Security Council still remains split: France, Britain and the United States wanting tougher sanctions, while Russia and China continue blocking such resolutions.

n Iran withdraws troops from syriaHundreds of Iranian soldiers have been withdrawn from Syria in a move that may indicate the beginning of the end of the Syrian-Iranian relation-ship. Two hundred and seventy-five Revolutionary Guard forces from the elite “Unit 400” traveled back to Iran

last week after months of fighting alongside the Syrian army against the armed rebel opposition. Increased economic sanctions from the West over the past several months have damaged Iran’s economy and made life harder for the average Iranian, but have done nothing to stop Iran’s nuclear program. In the past year alone, Iran has doubled the number of centrifuges that actively enrich uranium. Whether due to economic reasons, waning enthusiasm for Syria or both, the move to withdraw some of its support forces in Syria indicates Iran may know it is fighting a los-ing battle to save Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. Bible prophecy indicates that despite their history of cooperation, Syrian and Iran will not be allies within the same power bloc in the end time.

n British military deploys to JordanPreparing for the possibility that the Syrian regime loses control of its large chemical weapons stockpile, British troops have now been deployed to Jordan, joining United States forces already there. U.S. forces, stationed at various points along Syria’s border with Jordan and Turkey, arrived in May to help contain the area, should Syria’s civil war expand outside the country’s borders. For now, the main focus of the British troops is to assist Jordan with its growing refugee problem, but they are also working on independent American contingency plans, U.S. officials said. In May, U.S. troops joined Jordanian units along with 17 other countries in a military exercise dubbed “Eager Lion 12.” The troops used the joint exercise to prepare for future conflicts in the region and conduct chemical warfare drills.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Europe by the end of year, Israeli officials announced

October 2, to push for more European support of sanctions on Iran. The Times of Israel said the plans indicate a shift in Israel’s foreign policy away from the U.S. and toward Eu-rope: “After unsuccessfully lobbying U.S. President Barack

Obama’s administration for support for [a military] strike—or for an American declaration that Iranian activity beyond a certain ‘red line’ would invite U.S. military interven-tion—Netanyahu’s plans for a Europe-an trip to push for tighter sanctions on Tehran seem to signal a shift in policy.” The New York Times quoted an official as saying, “Our feeling is that with the elections and everything, we’ve not seen much on the American front except for sealing holes where the Ira-nians have found ways to get around the sanctions. Up until now, it’s been the U.S. and then the Europeans fol-lowing. If it’s the other way around, so be it. We’ve got to go with what we’ve got.” Israel sees that Europe is becom-ing the leader in the Middle East, and is shifting its focus accordingly. Long-time Trumpet readers will recognize this as a shift we’ve been forecasting for years. The Bible contains specific prophecies that talk about Israel’s

alliance with America being broken. It also prophesies that Israel will rely on Europe, and especially Germany. Both of these prophecies are being fulfilled right now. Watch the relationships between Israel and Germany and between Israel and America closely, to see Bible prophecy fulfilled before your eyes.

As American Support Falters, Israel Looks to EuropeTheTRumPeT.COm, RIChaRd PaLmeR | October 10

Angela Merkel (left) and Benjamin

Netanyahu speak at the Chancellery in

Berlin, Germany.

GeTTyimaGes

OCTOBER 13, 20124 The TrumpeT weeklyGeTTy imaGes

europe

It can be a mistake to laugh at fascists. Charlie Chap-lin mocked Hitler and Mussolini in The Great Dictator.

P.G. Wodehouse had fun with his preposterous parody of Oswald Mosley, Roderick Spode. But Nazism turned out to be no joke. Today Chaplin’s film, for all his comic genius, is embarrassing to watch, while Wodehouse lived to regret his complacency about what was brewing in Berlin.

So when a party called “Golden Dawn”—which has something that looks a lot like a swastika as its logo—starts denying aspects of the Holocaust and heaping opprobrium on immigrants, it’s best to keep a straight face. …

The Greeks are the extreme case. But maybe that’s only because economically they are the extreme case. … Un-employment is at 23 percent and youth unemployment a

mind-blowing 54 percent. …Populism is the standard political response to finan-

cial crisis. In America we have seen … the right-wing populism of the Tea Party and the left-wing populism of the Occupy movement. But European populism takes more toxic forms.

Nothing was easier to predict than this: that the crisis of the eurozone would spark a nationalist backlash. … The same thing has happened in the Netherlands …. Nearly one in five French voters backed Marine Le Pen’s French National Front in last spring’s election. Le Pen has de-scribed the European Union as “a structure that I consider totalitarian, it is the European Soviet Union ... a rootless ... impotent empire.” …

Last month, at a conference on the shores of Lake Como, I heard Prime Minister Monti declare: “I do not fear con-troversies between governments, but I do fear difference and hate between peoples.” That hate is growing. …

Europe’s New FascistsNIaLL FeRGusON | October 8

Unprecedented Agreement With ‘East Jerusalem’TImes OF IsRaeL | October 4

France’s most populous admin-istrative zone, encompassing the

capital Paris, has signed a coopera-tion agreement with the Palestinian district of Jerusalem, a move organiz-ers say is designed to send a “politi-cal message” of solidarity with the Palestinians and their aspirations for a future capital in the city.

The French region described the agreement as the “first of its kind.”

The decision is a blow to Israel’s claim that the eastern sector is part of its united capital.

A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said east Jerusalem “does not exist” as a separate entity and that the French council was “living in a make-believe world.”

The Regional Council of Île-de-France voted September 28 in favor of a “decentralized cooperation agreement” with the Palestinian Authority (PA) district of Jerusalem, making it “the first French commu-nity to sign an agreement of coopera-tion with the Arab part of the holy city,” a statement on the council’s

website read. The agreement is to be officially signed during the month of October. …

Île-de-France has earmarked €300,000 for the cooperation agree-ment, which will support vocational training, entrepreneurship, culture, health and social action, as well as “in-stitution building.” …

The agreement was initiated in early 2011 by Green Party council-men Jacques Picard and Michel Bock, who also serves as chairman of the international and European action committee in the regional council of Île-de-France. … Picard told the Times of Israel that the idea of col-laborating with a Palestinian district was first raised in 2004. It was only natural to twin Paris with the capital of the future Palestinian state, Jerusa-lem, he said.

“There is very high sensitivity to the Palestinian cause in France,” Picard said. “This symbolic move is certainly intended to send a political message. If such regional exchanges can contrib-ute to peace, all the better.”

Picard noted that the coopera-tion with Jerusalem was endorsed by French Minister for Coopera-tion Henri de Raincourt in a public speech delivered in Hebron in January 2012. …

Pope Prays in Arabic for First TimeFRaNCe24 | October 10

Pope Benedict xvi on Wednesday pronounced a blessing in Arabic at

his weekly audience in front of 20,000 pilgrims on St Peter’s Square—the first time the language has been used at such an event.

“The pope prays for all Arabic speakers. May God bless you all!” the pope said in Arabic at the audience, after a bishop read out an Arabic translation of the pope’s comments praising the results of the Second Vatican Council.

The landmark Council, which began 50 years ago this week, is a

“compass” for the Catholic Church “in the middle of the storms,” the pope said. … Benedict will celebrate mass on St Peter’s Square on Thursday to launch a “Year of Faith” on the exact anniversary of the start of Vatican ii.

The Next Crisis VictoryGeRmaN FOReIGN POLICY | October 8

The French parliament’s pas-sage of the EU’s Fiscal Pact has

sealed the defeat of French President

OCTOBER 13, 20125 The TrumpeT weekly

François Hollande in Paris’s power struggle with Berlin. Hollande won last May’s elections also due to his announcement that he would oppose the German austerity dictate, which his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, had proven unable to prevent. With the anticipated parliamentary decision in favor of the Fiscal Pact, he will have been defeated once and for all. Berlin’s proposed symbolic conces-sions, to assuage France’s continued resistance to the German auster-ity dictate, are just as unsuccessful. The beginning of mass protests and serious frictions are weakening the French coalition government. To eventually catch up again to Ger-many’s clout, in the aftermath of the defeat in the struggle against Berlin’s austerity dictate, Paris is embarking on France’s “reindustrialization.” In Berlin, one hears that there “is noth-ing left” of a German-French balance of power.

The European Union has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize in a nod to the 27-member bloc’s “advance-

ment of peace and reconciliation,” and to applaud its solidarity as it continues to work to contain the debt crisis hanging over the euro zone.

Thorbjørn Jagland, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said that the organization wants to encourage Europe to back away from the “extremism and nationalism” that led to major conflict in years past. “This is, in a way, a message to Europe to secure everything we have achieved and move forward,” he said while addressing a packed crowd at the Nobel Norwegian Institute in Oslo on Friday.

While giving the award to the EU is somewhat surpris-ing, it is not unprecedented to recognize an organiza-tion rather than an individual. In 2001, for instance, the United Nations and its then Secretary General Kofi Annan received the peace prize. In 1988, U.N. peacekeeping forces were recognized by the award. …

EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, speaking in Brussels following the announcement of the prize, said the

“award today by the Nobel Committee shows that, even in this difficult time, the European Union remains an inspira-tion for countries and people all over the world, and that the international community needs a strong European Union.” …

Mr. Barroso said the committee and the international community are “sending a very important message to Eu-rope, that the European Union is something very precious, and we should cherish it, for the good of Europeans, and

indeed for the good of all the world.”Mr. Jagland said there was “… The stabilizing part

played by the EU has helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.”

Winners of the 2012 Nobel Prizes will be paid 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million), representing a 20% decline from the 10 million kronor paid out last year.

EU Wins Nobel Peace PrizeWaLL sTReeT JOuRNaL | October 12

“The world is so ignorant about the Holy Roman Empire that people don’t see what is happening. Even most Europeans don’t understand. … The world is about to be bludgeoned into this reality. The Holy Roman Empire has risen six times in Europe. Each time, it has soaked the continent in blood. The seventh head is going to shed blood around the world. Its past strongly indicates what it will do in the future. Its history alone should make people tremble with fear today!” —Gerald Flurry, Philadelphia Trumpet, February 2010

Steinbrueck will run against

Angela Merkel in 2013 federal elections.

sean GallUP/GeTTy imaGesJOHannes eisele/aFP/GeTTyimaGes

TW i n b r i e f

n German leadership challenge beginsGermany’s main opposition party, former coalition partner of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (cdu), the Social Democratic Party (spd), has chosen its candidate to contest Merkel for the leadership of the European Union’s most powerful nation. Immediately upon confir-mation of his candidature as the spd’s front-runner in the 2013 elections, Merkel’s former finance minister in her previous cdu/csu coali-tion government,

Peer Steinbrück, has thrown down the gauntlet to the chancellor. He has roundly criticized her for not fully disclosing to the German electorate that it will take both more time and money to help Greece, caught in the grip of its current financial and social chaos. Though opinion polls give

OCTOBER 13, 20126 The TrumpeT weeklyGeTTy imaGes

Merkel a strong lead over all comers for the chancellorship at present, this has more to do with the current lacklus-ter lot of prospective candidates for leadership of the German nation than with anything special about Merkel’s leadership. This will probably remain the case unless some bright sparks stir anew the political prospects of the likes of Edmund Stoiber or the charismatic Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

n Germany demands more power over eCBGermany wants more control over the eurozone’s new banking supervisor, set to be run by the European Central Bank (ecb). Currently, each nation has one vote on the ecb’s board, mean-ing Germany can be easily overruled. Germany controls other key levers of the eurozone economy, meaning its demands can’t be ignored. But a bank-ing authority organized with the same structure as the ecb would put Ger-many in another position where it lacks the formal power to stop proposals it doesn’t like. Instead, Germany wants a nation’s votes to be weighed according to the size of its banking sector—giving Germany one of the largest votes on the board. The Financial Times reported October 9 that Germany raised the idea in private talks with EU officials. The idea “touches on some of the founding principles of the single currency and is likely to rile smaller eurozone countries fearful of Germany’s growing willing-ness to flex its muscles,” it writes. Ex-pect Germany to continue pushing for greater control over EU institutions. It is already powerful behind the scenes; now, it is increasingly using that power to give itself greater formal control.

n German court backs Catholic decreeGermany’s chief administrative court in Leipzig backed a decree made at the German Bishops’ Conference that stated that “Catholics who stop paying a church membership tax cannot re-ceive sacraments,” reported the Nation Catholic Reporter. Under the new de-cree, those who don’t pay the 8 percent church tax would lose the right for a religious burial or to receive com-munion. However, the decree stopped

short of stating that those who didn’t pay would be excommunicated. De-spite the controversy and resistance that was brought on by the decree, the court announced that in Germany it was “not possible” to stop paying church tax and remain a Catholic Church member. The court stressed that it had an obligation to tax church members, but it was the church that decided what to do with those who would not pay. Catholic officials have become increasingly concerned with the number of people who skip out on the tax but continue to call them-selves Catholic. The church has seen a declining number of followers in the past few years, many of whom no lon-ger wish to pay the required tax. With this ultimatum, however, the church has made a clear delineation between members and non-members. Contin-ue to watch for ties between Rome and Berlin to strengthen.

n Berlusconi: Germany a ‘hegemonic’ dictatorGermany is “a hegemonic state,” for-mer Italian Prime Minister Silvio Ber-lusconi said in an interview for Huff-ington Post’s new Italian website last week. “With respect to Monti, I would have been less obedient to Germany, a hegemonic state that dictated to the other European countries the rules of

rigor and austerity with the pretense that through austerity debt could be cut,” he said. Then, at a book sign-ing on September 27, Berlusconi called the euro a “big swindle” and accused Germany of showing “hegemony, not solidarity.” Berlusconi has a colorful past and often talks a lot of nonsense—but he is good at saying what is popu-lar. His statements echo the feelings of

many Italians. Meanwhile, emphasiz-ing Berlusconi’s point, Italy’s current and unelected prime minister, Mario Monti, said that he would consider re-maining at his post after the next elec-tion, scheduled to be held by April next year. It is clear that in Europe, power is no longer in the hands of the people.

n eurozone to get its own budgetEurozone nations could gain their own budget, separate from the European Union’s budget, under draft proposals supported by key member states. EU Observer reports, “Even for non-euro countries—which are usually wary of creating a ‘two speed’ Europe—the idea is becoming acceptable as long as it does not mean less money in the common pot.” If accepted, it would put the eurozone on a path toward sharing decisions over taxation and spending, thrusting Europe closer to becoming a superstate. “So this is a discussion which is just beginning,” wrote Chris Morris, a Europe correspondent at the bbc. “But it’s another sign of the kind of change which is coming in the EU.”

n spain downgraded to just above junkOn October 10, ratings agency Stan-dard & Poor’s cut Spain’s debt rat-ing from bbb+ to bbb- and gave the nation’s long-term economy a negative

outlook. “The nega-tive outlook on the long-term rating reflects our view of the significant risks to Spain’s economic growth and budgetary performance, and the lack of a clear direc-tion in euro-zone policy,” it said. “The deepening economic recession is limit-

ing the Spanish government’s policy options.” Meanwhile, figures released October 11 showed that Greece’s unemployment rose to 25.1 percent in July. Youth unemployment hit 54.2 percent, though that figure includes those in education. The EU still hasn’t solved its crisis. Such numbers will keep getting worse, forcing the union to take drastic action.

Silvio Berlusconi has had it to here with German bullying.

OCTOBER 13, 20127 The TrumpeT weekly

asian Chinese hackers breach White house military networkHackers connected to China’s gov-ernment infiltrated a U.S. govern-ment computer network containing some of Washington’s most sensi-tive information, the Washington Free Beacon reported on September 30. U.S. authorities officially won’t blame China for the attacks, but experts say the hack was the handi-work of Chinese military cyberwar-fare specialists tied to a unit of the People’s Liberation Army. Since the hacked system is used for America’s nuclear commands, this cyberattack is considered one of Beijing’s most

belligerent ever against the United States. The hack was carried out in early September by the spear phish-ing method, in which disguised e-mails ask recipients to disclose confidential information. Security officials are still investigating the incident to determine the specific level of damage that resulted, and some officials remain concerned that the attackers were successful in breaching the classified information. If Beijing’s attack was in fact suc-cessful, China could use the infor-mation in future conflicts to locate the president for targeting purposes, to disrupt the president’s strategic

command of U.S. forces both in the country and abroad, and to intercept presidential communications. The incident underscores the abysmal failure of the Obama administra-tion to confront China about its cyberespionage. China’s belligerency is nothing new, but Beijing’s rapidly expanding technological reach now allows it to extend that belligerency in new directions. Washington’s fail-ure to respond decisively is naive, but for a nation with a broken pride in its power, it is not surprising. Watch for China’s bellicosity to continue to calcify, and for America’s pride in its power to continue to erode.

anglo-americaIMF Sees ‘Alarmingly High’ Risk of Fresh Global SlumpTeLeGRaPh, amBROse eVaNs-PRITChaRd | October 8

“Risks for recession in the ad-vanced economies are alarmingly

high,” said the Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook. “The intensity of the euro area crisis has not abated as assumed in previous projections.”

Spain’s economy is expected to contract by 1.5 percent this year and 1.3 percent next as austerity bites, pushing public debt to 97 percent of gdp in 2013. The estimate was 84 percent as recently as April, showing how quickly the debt dynamics have gone horribly wrong.

Italy will shrink by 2.3 percent this year and 0.7 percent next, pushing the debt ratio to an all-time high of 128 percent. The report said fiscal auster-ity in Europe was doing more damage than “expected.”

The Fund said “weakness is spread-ing from the periphery to the whole of the euro area,” with even Germany buckling. The eurozone will shrink at a 0.7 percent rate in the second half of this year before eking out growth of 0.2 percent in 2013, but only if Europe

delivers on a string of promises made over recent months.

Failure to act in time could lead to a full-blown crash, with contraction near 7 percent next year in Southern Europe and a deep recession in the North. … The Fund said the con-fidence boost from the European Central Bank’s bond purchase scheme (omt) would fade unless the plan is activated “rapidly.” It warned that “rising social tensions and adjustment fatigue” in the South could reignite the crisis in any case. …

The imf expects the U.S. to muddle through with growth of 2.2 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2013, but the U.S. economy has been uncomfortably close to stall speed over recent months. The economy could tip into a nosedive if Congress does not reach a deal to stop automatic tax rises next year. “At the extreme, the fiscal cliff could result in a fiscal withdrawal of more than 4 percent of gdp in 2013,” it said.

The imf said the U.S. has to steer a narrow course, mapping out a “credible fiscal plan” to tame long-run entitle-ments without aborting the recovery altogether by tightening too hard. It ex-pects U.S. gross debt to reach 114 percent of gdp next year, near levels accumu-lated during the Second World War. …

Got Racism?TOWNhaLL.COm, aNN COuLTeR OCTOBeR 10

Liberal racism sightings have become like a lunatic’s version of

“Where’s Waldo?” Kevin Baker of Harper’s magazine says Romney’s re-ferring to his “five boys” in last week’s debate was how he “slyly found a way” to call Obama a “boy.” Says Baker: “How the right’s hard-core racists must have howled at that!”

msnbc’s Chris Matthews says the word “apartment” is racist because black people live in apartments. He also says the word “Chicago” is racist because—despite its well-known repu-tation as the home of Al Capone and the Daley machine—a lot of black peo-ple live there, too. (And don’t get him started on “Chicago apartments”!) … Meanwhile, my new favorite actress, Stacey Dash, sends an inoffensive little tweet supporting Mitt Romney and is buried in tweets calling her “an indoor slave” and a “jiggaboo,” who was “slut-ting (herself) to the white man.” … Could we get an expert opinion from Chris Matthews or Kevin Baker about whether any of that is racist? …

After President George W. Bush appointed Condoleezza Rice the first

OCTOBER 13, 20128 The TrumpeT weekly

Last Friday, the much anticipated jobs report was released. The official unemployment rate

fell to 7.8 percent in September. Both presidential candidates erupted with an explosion of sound-bites—hardly any of them true.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls), the economy created 114,000 jobs in September. That is hardly good. It’s not even enough to keep up with population growth. Nevertheless, at least the economy didn’t lose jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also calculates the labor force participation rate. It is plunging because people are so discouraged they are no longer even looking for work. America’s workforce is the smallest it has been since 1982! And that is despite all the population growth since then.

And oh—late in the day on Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its food stamp usage data. There are now 46,681,833 people reliant on food stamps—a new all-time record high. As economic blog ZeroHedge points out, the number of U.S. households taking food stamps rose by almost 100,000. Assuming two people per household, that means more people went on food stamps in the month than found jobs.

Does this sound like an economy that is on the verge of a recovery? Does this sound like an economy moving in the right direction?

Meanwhile, the median household income in America is now less than it was 22 years ago! America’s national debt is skyrocketing, the budget deficit just hit $1 trillion again, Social Security is headed for bankruptcy, the dollar has been de-based, the cost of just about everything has jumped

dramatically, America’s education system is failing, families are falling apart at horrid rates, inner cities are crime-filled welfare centers, racial tensions are growing, jails are over-flowing, drug use (legal and illegal) is at all-time highs, America has lost the war in Iraq and is losing in Afghanistan, and it can’t even maintain control of its own borders, where millions of illegal immigrants enter and exit at will each year.

In a recent poll, only 27 percent of Americans felt confi-dent their children would be better off than them, accord-ing to the Financial Times (October 3).

No wonder people still vote for these lying politicians.Voters want the prosperous America of yesteryear. They

want their children to have a better life. They don’t want to face the hard reality that that America is gone and isn’t coming back anytime soon.

People want to believe the lie, so they vote for the liars. Follow Rob Morley: Twitter

America Needs a President Who Won’t Lie

ROBeRT mORLeY

black female secretary of state, she was maligned in cartoons portraying her as Aunt Jemima, Butterfly McQueen from “Gone With the Wind,” a fat-lipped Bush parrot and other racist cliches.

Kevin Baker didn’t notice any of that because he was working on his theory that referring to your sons is racist.

When Michael Steele ran for senator from Maryland, he was depicted in blackface and with huge red lips by lib-eral blogger Steve Gilliard. Sen. Charles Schumer’s Democratic Senatorial Cam-paign Committee dug up a copy of Steele’s credit report—something done to no other Republican candidate.

Is that more or less racist than Romney mentioning his sons? More or less racist than the word “apartment”?

Mia Love, a black Republican run-ning for Congress in Utah had her Wikipedia page hacked with racist bile, heavy on the N-word. Her cam-paign headquarters has been bom-barded with racist graffiti and slimy mailings with pictures of Klansman next to photos of her family.

Some would say that’s even more racist than Romney talking about his sons. …

Do 20% of Firms Cheat on Earnings?ZeROhedGe | October 11

It may come as a surprise (until very recently) to many who watch the

flashing red headlines spewed forth by Bloomberg and Reuters terminals as each and every firm manages to coincidentally report earnings within a smidge of guidance (and maintain their “near perfect” records of “sus-tainable” growth) when all around the signals seem to point to an economy in malaise.

However, earnings quality—that ephemeral view of just how manipulat-ed the end number really is—remains critical …. To wit, Bloomberg notes a recent paper … that finds 20 percent of cfos will “manage earnings to misrep-resent economic performance” with 93.5 percent admitting it is to influence the stock price. Red flags include [earn-ings per share] inconsistent with cash-flows, unusual accruals, or an industry outlier. Amid pressure to maintain stock prices (and keep a career going), 60 percent of earnings “management” is to increase income, and of course

66 percent of cfos hope for fewer ac-counting rules going forward. …

 93.45 percent of cfos responded the motivation to cheat (our word) was to influence the stock price! ... and 88.62 percent to increase their own compensation!

TW i n b r i e f

n Germany blocks arms mergerThe two defense and aerospace con-glomerates bae systems and eads an-nounced on October 10 that they would not be merging to form the world’s largest defense company. Most com-mentators blame Germany, or more specifically Chancellor Angela Merkel, for the collapse. Former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Gut-tenberg strongly condemned Germany for sinking the deal. In an article in the Financial Times, Guttenberg cited reports that German insistence that the new defense giant be headquartered in Munich led to the collapse of talks. British leaders, however, were complete-ly in favor of the deal. The Daily Mail’s Alex Brummer wrote that Britain’s prime minister, deputy prime minister

OCTOBER 13, 20129 The TrumpeT weekly

and business secretary were “were fall-ing over each other to let it be known they were broadly in favor” of the deal. The Bible prophecies that Britain would try to hire “lovers.” It emphasizes that Britain is doing the pursuing. Britain was willing to give up almost its whole defense agency to a European con-glomerate. The deal collapsed because of Germany, not Britain. Watch for Britain to continue to make dangerous foreign-policy decisions as it continues to try to hire European lovers.

n archbishop of Canterbury addresses Catholic bishopsRowan Williams became the first archbishop of Canterbury to ad-dress the Synod of Catholic bishops,

October 10, as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the conven-ing of the second Vatican council. He quoted Psalm 133:1: “How good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity.” The address shows how close the Catholic Church and the Church of England have becoming during Williams’s time as archbishop. Watch for the Catholic Church to make more progress in drawing her protesting daughters back into the fold.

n Teen sexting linked to risky sexual behaviorOne out of every seven Los Angeles high school students with a cell phone has sent a sexually explicit text message

or photo, according to a recently pub-lished study, and those same students were more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, uncovered that the L.A. teens who had sent por-nographic texts (known as sexts) were seven times more likely to be sexually active than those who never sexted. Reuters reported on September 18 that Eric Rice, a social network researcher from the University of Southern Cali-fornia who led the study, said, “What we really wanted to know is, is there a link between sexting and taking risks with your body? And the answer is a resounding yes.” Seventy-five percent of the students owned a cell phone that they used regularly. A similar study of

Thoughts on the Vice Presidential Debate

JOeL hILLIKeR

I wrote in a recent column about the “alternate universe” that some of our politicians seem to inhabit. Last night,

watching America’s vice presidential debate, much of the time I felt like I was listening to a conversation in that universe.

Several statements from Vice President Biden were par-ticularly perplexing:• He said Iran was on the ascendancy when

President Obama took office, whereas now it is more isolated than ever, and far less powerful. He is obviously looking at a completely differ-ent set of criteria than I am.

• He said the American and Israeli military and intelligence communities are in perfect agreement that Iran is “a good way away” from getting a nuclear weapon. Is Benjamin Netanyahu aware of this? Why then has he been travel-ing around talking about a “red line,” complaining about America’s lack of concern over this existential threat to his country, and turning to Germany for help?

• He said of President Obama, “This is a guy who’s re-paired our alliances so the rest of the world follows us again.” Which alliances is he talking about? Britain? Israel? Pakistan? Egypt? Russia? China? Mexico? Maybe Venezuela? And did you know that the rest of the world is following America’s lead again? This is news to me.

• He said the White House wasn’t told the U.S. consulate in Libya wanted more security before the 9/11 Benghazi attack. But it has been proven the State Department had received those requests and turned them down. The vice president blamed the security lapse on, of all things, Congressman Ryan’s budget, which “cut embassy security … by $300 million below what we asked for.” Of course, the U.S. doesn’t use Ryan’s budget—or any

budget at all for that matter. It hasn’t had a budget for more than three years. The lack of protection in Beng-hazi was a serious mistake that this administration will not even acknowledge, let alone take responsibility for.

• He said he believes life begins at conception, but “I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that—women they can’t control their body.” How can these both be true? If life begins at conception, people are be-ing murdered. This is not a matter of opinion, or simply a woman controlling her own body. It is life or death.

I do think Joe Biden got one thing right, and that was to expose the weakness in the Romney/Ryan foreign policy. He pressed the issue on what exactly a Romney administration would do against Iran, and against Syria—would it actu-ally go to war against those countries? Governor Romney strongly criticizes the present admin-istration, but in the end, I’m not convinced he would do anything substantially different. Ameri-

ca is simply in no mood for another war in the Middle East.Biden pressed the congressman about the 2014 timetable

in Afghanistan, and I honestly couldn’t detect any substan-tive difference between what the Obama administration has done and what Ryan was advocating: He said he wants to pull out in 2014 and would really work to do so. With the possible exception of Governor Romney’s willingness to be openly friendly to Israel, it seems that most of what we’re getting from him foreign policy-wise amounts to a differ-ence in rhetoric more than of substance.

It’s always hard watching these debates because it feels like the truth is given so little respect. I feel like I’m listen-ing to my children explaining an incident where I’m get-ting contradictory stories because each child is shading the facts in order to put themselves in the best possible light while making the other look as guilty as possible. That is, if they’re not simply outright lying.

Follow Joel Hilliker: Twitter

OCTOBER 13, 201210 The TrumpeT weeklyUs aiR FORce

Americans lived in a “victory culture” for much of the 20th century. You could say that we experienced an

almost 75-year stretch of triumphalism—think of it as the real “American Century”—from World War i to the end of the Cold War, with time off for a destructive stalemate in Korea and a defeat in Vietnam too shocking to absorb or shake off.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, it all seemed so obvious. Fate had clearly dealt Washington a royal flush. It was victory with a capital V. The United States was, after all, the last standing superpower, after centuries of unceasing great power rivalries on the planet. It had a military beyond compare and no enemy, hardly a “rogue state,” on the horizon. It was almost unnerving, such clear sailing into a dominant future, but a moment for the ages nonetheless. Within a decade, pundits in Washington were hailing us as “the dominant power in the world, more dominant than any since Rome.”

And here’s the odd thing: in a sense, little has changed since then and yet everything seems different. Think of it as the American imperial paradox: Everywhere there are now “threats” against our well-being which seem to demand action and yet nowhere are there commensurate enemies to go with them. Everywhere the U.S. military still reigns supreme by almost any measure you might care to apply; and yet—in case the paradox has escaped you—no-where can it achieve its goals, however modest.

At one level, the American situation should simply take your breath away. … [T]he United States remains the “sole superpower” or even “hyperpower” of planet Earth. And yet the more dominant the U.S. military be-comes in its ability to destroy and the more its forces are spread across the globe, the more the defeats and semi-defeats pile up, the more the missteps and mistakes grow, the more the strains show, the more the suicides rise, the more the nation’s treasure disappears down a black hole—and in response to all of this, the more moves the Pentagon makes. …

In sum, the U.S. is now the sole planetary Top Gun in a way that empire-builders once undoubtedly fantasized about, but that none from Genghis Khan on have ever achieved: alone and essentially uncontested on the planet. In fact, by every measure (except success), the likes of it has never been seen.

By all the usual measuring sticks, the U.S. should be

supreme in a historically unprecedented way. And yet it couldn’t be more obvious that it’s not, that despite all the bases, elite forces, private armies, drones, aircraft carri-ers, wars, conflicts, strikes, interventions, and clandestine operations, despite a labyrinthine intelligence bureaucracy that never seems to stop growing and into which we pour a minimum of $80 billion a year, nothing seems to work out in an imperially satisfying way. It couldn’t be more obvious that this is not a glorious dream, but some kind of ever-expanding imperial nightmare. …

Given the lack of enemies—a few thousand jihadis, a small set of minority insurgencies, a couple of feeble regional powers—why this is so, what exactly the force is that prevents Washington’s success, remains mysteri-ous. … Explain it as you will, it’s as if the planet itself, or humanity, had somehow been inoculated against the imposition of [American] power…. Think of the growing force that resists such military might as the equivalent of the “dark matter” in the universe. The evidence is in. We now know (or should know) that it’s there, even if we can’t see it. …

The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power?ReaL CLeaR WORLd, TOm eNGeLhaRdT | October 10

The U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor is an icon of the military’s superiority.

Houston Texas high schoolers released earlier in the summer revealed that one in four students had sent a nude photo of themselves either by sexing or by e-mail. The same conclusion was drawn in that study. The teens sexting were

involved in risky sex behavior. Parents who allow their children to have cell phones, especially smart phones, must work to be aware of how their child uses the cell phone. They must take on the responsibility to not only teach

their teens the proper use of sex within marriage, but also the serious dangers and ramifications of sexting. Parents have the right and the responsibility to take a cell phone away if their teen is using it improperly.

OCTOBER 13, 201211 The TrumpeT weeklyGRaFissimO/isTOckPHOTO

otHer neWsCarnivorous Animals Begin to Inhabit CitiesGLOBaL POsT | October 5

Carnivorous animals like coy-otes, mountain lions and bears are

quickly adapting to urban life, posing problems for city-dwellers. Ecologists at a summit in Ohio agreed that wild animals are poised to inhabit cities in the near future.

According to cbs News, the scien-tists referred to the increasing number of coyotes that are living in cities, particularly those that have recently moved close to Chicago’s O’Hare

International Airport.Their introduction will likely mean

the arrival of even more dangerous an-imals, say researchers. “Mountain lions are already living in the outskirts of Los Angeles, Denver and other western cities,” research leader Stanley Gehrt told Discovery News in an interview.

“Black bears are living in a variety of cities in the West and in the East. Wolves have yet to make a regular ap-pearance, but they are getting closer. In Europe, there are urban brown bears that act much like raccoons over here.”

Gehrt’s team at Ohio State Univer-sity is currently undertaking a study

on urbanizing coyotes by placing collars on them to track their move-ments. They found that increasing numbers of the animals were inhabit-ing urban areas. According to nbc News, Gehrt said that their presence can be explained by—not unlike why humans move to cities—the ease of living in a city.

He said “they don’t have to go far to find food and water. They’re finding everything they need right there, in the suburbs of Chicago.” OurAmaz-ingPlanet said that coyote pups even survive five times longer than their rural peers.

You expect it of traditional dictatorships. It’s a practice that was rife in Nazi Germany—the

government paying the media to promote its propaganda. But in America, bastion of the free press? Surely not!

Well, think again. Hard on the heels of the New York Times openly and

apparently unashamedly admitting back in July to main-stream stories being scripted by the White House, it is now revealed that “cnni has aggressively pursued a business strategy of extensive, multifac-eted financial arrangements between the network and several of the most repressive regimes around the world which the network purports to cover. Its financial dealings with Bahrain are deep and longstanding,” according to Glenn Greenwald of Britain’s Guardian.

Being shopped by traditionally corrupt regimes is one thing, but within the nation that has stood as a beacon to democracy, these disclosures, in particular the reports of Washington buying off mainstream media in America, show a new low in government-press relations.

More concerning on a grander scale are the rampant accusations of major networks being paid off by national governments to prevent the exposure of the truth concern-ing government abuses in some of the world’s real hotspots.

One whistle-blower notes that the network aggressively pursued—and then came to rely on—revenue from several Middle East regimes, in order to remain viable, especially after the 2008 economic recession, “which caused the

network to suffer significant losses in corporate sponsorships.” “The result: The employment of journalistically dubious ways to earn revenue from the very governments the network was cre-ated to cover” (Natural News, October 4).

According to the same source, another concerned journalist observes that “China and many other foreign, authoritarian regimes also

pay cnn and other mainstream networks to run flowery, flattering propaganda pieces. And what’s more, she says a number of reporters and producers at the network have privately complained about the paid-sponsorship of pro-

gramming, but believe they can’t complain publicly out of fear they will be blacklisted within the news industry and branded troublemakers.”

These stories add to the continual leakage from major media sources that their reportage is increasingly being manipulated by both govern-ment and big business.

Increasingly it appears that the age of the free press is dead. The need for objective, unbiased analysis of current events

was never greater than in today’s world in its increasing state of great global disruption.

That is where the Trumpet comes into the picture. What the Trumpet gives you is the unsanitized, plain

truth about global events of true significance to you and your loved ones. It supplies you with the worthy material that allows you to “watch and pray” to the Creator in a practical, down-to-earth manner for His continuing guid-ance in your life within the context of the specific events leading to Christ’s return and the unmatched future that awaits all mankind. Follow Ron Fraser: Twitter

Mass Media Corruption

RON FRaseR

OCTOBER 13, 201212 The TrumpeT weekly

VaTICaN from page 1

maTTHiasHaas/isTOckPHOTO

The crown of Charlemagne holds great significance for many europeans. Yet Charlemagne caused much destruction

and death. Charlemagne’s legacy is tied to adolf hitler and mussolini, yet, one last leader of the holy Roman empire is

about to rise and lead europe into this earth’s final war.

This week on television

Crown of the holy Roman empire

Check local listings or visit www.keyofdavid.com.

Our question is, with Europe in crisis and the world in the utter turmoil of global disorder, why now?

Believe it or not, your Bible answers that question. The timing of Pope Benedict’s new crusade gels perfectly in sequence with the signs Jesus Christ gave to highlight those world events leading up to his return (Matthew 24:4-5, 24).

The Vatican’s Year of Faith was launched on the 50th an-niversary of Vatican ii, called by Pope John xxiii in 1962 to address how the Roman Catholic Church would maintain relevance in the post-war 20th century as communism and its country cousin, liberal socialism, began offering ideological alternatives to a new generation.

Pope Benedict is one of four clerics with an active role in Vatican ii who subsequently became pope.

Vatican ii became the catalyst for an ecumenical drive by Rome to garner back into its fold the Orthodox churches and the wayward Protestant daughters.

Whereas the most well-known doctrine affirmed unani-mously by all delegates to Vatican i, convened by Pius ix in 1868, was papal infallibility, the most declarative statement

made at Vatican ii relating to Rome’s interpretation of its role was the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. This states that “the sole church of Christ which in the creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apos-tolic, which our Saviour, after His resurrection, commis-sioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as ‘the pillar and mainstay of the truth.’ This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” (emphasis mine).

Thus it was reestablished as a binding doctrine of Ro-man Catholicism at Vatican ii that the Roman Church is the only true church.

Notwithstanding this, for some reason Vatican ii created a set of problems that Rome has contended with to this day. A freer spirit entered the church post-Vatican ii leading to the rapid rise of liberalism within the ranks of the clergy.

This movement festered globally but found particularly fertile ground in Latin America.

On ascending to the papal throne in 1978, one of John Paul ii’s first actions was to appoint his Vatican ii  contemporary, Josef Ratzinger, as his prime enforcer with a directive to oust the most influential liberal voices in the church.

Subsequently, both John Paul ii and Ratzinger (as Pope Benedict xvi) stacked the curia with the most conservative

of clergy in an effort to swing the pendulum back to Ro-man Catholic conservative dogma.

Now comes the crusading Year of Faith, launched with deliberate intent on the jubilee of Vatican ii.

One of the pope’s main efforts in the Year of Faith is to garner back into Rome’s fold the wayward who have drifted from the church following its liberalization in the wake of Vatican ii.

Another prime goal is to evangelize globally for new converts. This will accelerate the ecumenical movement of the church—and simultaneously cause deep concern to one of Roman Catholicism’s chief competitors, pan-Islamism.

As the pope declared in last Sunday’s homily, “Such re-newed evangelical dynamism produces a beneficent influ-ence on the two specific ‘branches’ developed by it, that is, on the one hand the Missio ad Gentes or announcement of the Gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ and his message of salvation, and on the other the new evangeli-zation, directed principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without refer-ence to the Christian life.”

Toward the end of his homily, Pope Benedict declared, “We cannot speak about the new evangelization without a sincere desire for conversion.”

Oft repeated is the statement that those who forget his-tory are bound to repeat it. We only have to go back in his-tory 70 years to witness the horror of forced conversions to Rome’s religion at the end of a gun in the Balkans. Search the history of past crusades and conversion to Rome’s reli-gion by force, and violence was integral to them.

In our Anglo-Saxon politically correct societies, it has become most unfashionable to dwell on the atrocities committed under the banner of religion in two world wars. Yet your Bible prophesies that there is coming a crusade of a nature that will far eclipse the devastation wrought by Rome’s past efforts at converting the world.

We would do well to view the Vatican’s Year of Faith, with its drive for a “new evangelism,” with more than a little concern. At its beginning it may all sound as benign as a lamb. But in the end, it will have the bite of a serpent (Revelation 13:11). Follow Ron Fraser: Twitter

One of the pope’s main efforts in the Year of Faith is to garner back into Rome’s fold the wayward who have drifted from the church following its liberalization in the wake of Vatican II.