Two Centuries Before The Sixth Seal (Revelation 6:12)

The worst earthquake in Massachusetts history 260 years ago
It happened before, and it could happen again.
By Hilary Sargent @lilsarg
Boston.com Staff | 11.19.15 | 5:53 AM
On November 18, 1755, Massachusetts experienced its largest recorded earthquake.
The earthquake occurred in the waters off Cape Ann, and was felt within seconds in Boston, and as far away as Nova Scotia, the Chesapeake Bay, and upstate New York, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Seismologists have since estimated the quake to have been between 6.0 and 6.3 on the Richter scale, according to the Massachusetts Historical Society.
While there were no fatalities, the damage was extensive.
According to the USGS, approximately 100 chimneys and roofs collapsed, and over a thousand were damaged.
The worst damage occurred north of Boston, but the city was not unscathed.
A 1755 report in The Philadelphia Gazette described the quake’s impact on Boston:
“There was at first a rumbling noise like low thunder, which was immediately followed with such a violent shaking of the earth and buildings, as threw every into the greatest amazement, expecting every moment to be buried in the ruins of their houses. In a word, the instances of damage done to our houses and chimnies are so many, that it would be endless to recount them.”
The quake sent the grasshopper weathervane atop Faneuil Hall tumbling to the ground, according to the Massachusetts Historical Society.
An account of the earthquake, published in The Pennsylvania Gazette on December 4, 1755.
The earthquake struck at 4:30 in the morning, and the shaking lasted “near four minutes,” according to an entry John Adams, then 20, wrote in his diary that day.
The brief diary entry described the damage he witnessed.
“I was then at my Fathers in Braintree, and awoke out of my sleep in the midst of it,” he wrote. “The house seemed to rock and reel and crack as if it would fall in ruins about us. 7 Chimnies were shatter’d by it within one mile of my Fathers house.”
The shaking was so intense that the crew of one ship off the Boston coast became convinced the vessel had run aground, and did not learn about the earthquake until they reached land, according to the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In 1832, a writer for the Hampshire (Northampton) Gazette wrote about one woman’s memories from the quake upon her death.
“It was between 4 and 5 in the morning, and the moon shone brightly. She and the rest of the family were suddenly awaked from sleep by a noise like that of the trampling of many horses; the house trembled and the pewter rattled on the shelves. They all sprang out of bed, and the affrightted children clung to their parents. “I cannot help you dear children,” said the good mother, “we must look to God for help.”
The Cape Ann earthquake came just 17 days after an earthquake estimated to have been 8.5-9.0 on the Richter scale struck in Lisbon, Portugal, killing at least 60,000 and causing untold damage.
There was no shortage of people sure they knew the impretus for the Cape Ann earthquake.
According to many ministers in and around Boston, “God’s wrath had brought this earthquake upon Boston,” according to the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In “Verses Occasioned by the Earthquakes in the Month of November, 1755,” Jeremiah Newland, a Taunton resident who was active in religious activities in the Colony, wrote that the earthquake was a reminder of the importance of obedience to God.
“It is becaufe we broke thy Laws,
that thou didst shake the Earth.
…
O what a Day the Scriptures say,
the EARTHQUAKE doth foretell;
O turn to God; lest by his Rod,
he cast thee down to Hell.”
Boston Pastor Jonathan Mayhew warned in a sermon that the 1755 earthquakes in Massachusetts and Portugal were “judgments of heaven, at least as intimations of God’s righteous displeasure, and warnings from him.”
There were some, though, who attempted to put forth a scientific explanation for the earthquake.
Well, sort of.
In a lecture delivered just a week after the earthquake, Harvard mathematics professor John Winthrop said the quake was the result of a reaction between “vapors” and “the heat within the bowels of the earth.” But even Winthrop made sure to state that his scientific theory “does not in the least detract from the majesty … of God.”
It has been 260 years since the Cape Ann earthquake. Some experts, including Boston College seismologist John Ebel, think New England could be due for another significant quake.
In a recent Boston Globe report, Ebel said the New England region “can expect a 4 to 5 magnitude quake every decade, a 5 to 6 every century, and a magnitude 6 or above every thousand years.”
If the Cape Ann earthquake occurred today, “the City of Boston could sustain billions of dollars of earthquake damage, with many thousands injured or killed,” according to a 1997 study by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

South Korea Prepares to Nuke Up: Daniel 7

US, Japan, South Korea meet in Hawaii to discuss North Korea

• By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press
• Feb 13, 2022 Updated Feb 13, 2022

HONOLULU (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts Saturday in Hawaii to discuss the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea after Pyongyang began the year with a series of missile tests.

Blinken said at a news conference after the meeting that North Korea was “in a phase of provocation” and the three countries condemned the recent missile launches.

“We are absolutely united in our approach, in our determination,” Blinken said after his talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong.

He said the countries were “very closely consulting” on further steps they may take in response to North Korea, but didn’t offer specifics.

The three released a joint statement calling on North Korea to engage in dialogue and cease its “unlawful activities.” They said they had no hostile intent toward North Korea and were open to meeting Pyongyang without preconditions.

Hayashi later told Japanese reporters the three ministers had “very fruitful” discussion on the North. He declined to give details on additional measures they may take.

North Korea has a long history of using provocations such as missile or nuclear tests to seek international concessions. The latest tests come as the North’s economy, already battered by decades of mismanagement and crippling U.S.-led sanctions, is hit hard by pandemic border closures.

Many see the tests as an attempt to pressure President Joe Biden’s administration into easing the sanctions. The Biden administration has shown no willingness to do so without meaningful cuts to the North’s nuclear program, but it has offered open-ended talks.

North Korea has rebuffed U.S. offers to resume diplomacy, saying it won’t return to talks unless Washington drops what it says are hostile polices. The North bristles at both the sanctions and regular military exercises the U.S. holds with South Korea.

The tests also have a technical component, allowing North Korea to hone its weapons arsenal. One of the missiles recently tested — the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile — is capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. It was the longest-distance weapon the North has tested since 2017.

North Korea appears to be pausing its tests during the Winter Olympics in China, its most important ally and economic lifeline. But analysts believe North Korea will dramatically increase its weapons testing after the Olympics.

The recent tests have rattled Pyongyang’s neighbors in South Korea and Japan. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who helped set up the historic talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019, said last month that the tests were a violation UN Security Council resolutions and urged the North to cease “actions that create tensions and pressure.”

The Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006. It made them tougher in response to further nuclear tests and the country’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

China and Russia, citing the North’s economic difficulties, have called for lifting sanctions like those banning seafood exports and prohibitions on its citizens working overseas and sending home their earnings.

Blinken arrived in Hawaii from Fiji, where he met with Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and other Pacific leaders to talk about regional issues, especially the existential risk posed by climate change. It was the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to Fiji since 1985.

He started his Pacific tour in Australia, where he met his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan. The four nations form the “Quad,” a bloc of Indo-Pacific democracies that was created to counter China’s regional influence.

Hayashi and Chung held a separate bilateral meeting Saturday for about 40 minutes before seeing Blinken. Japan’s Foreign Ministry said they reaffirmed the importance of cooperating together and with the United States to respond to North Korea and to achieve regional stability.

The ministry said they also “frankly” exchanged views on ongoing disputes between the two countries, including wartime Korean laborers and sexual abuse of Korean women forced into sexual servitude by Japan’s imperial army.

Chung proposed the two countries accelerate diplomacy to find solutions to the disagreements, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Blinken also met separately with Chung. He met Hayashi earlier this week in Australia.

———

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

The Pacific Northwest Isn’t Ready for The Third Quake: Revelation 8:13

   (Getty Images)

The Pacific Northwest Isn’t Ready for This Tsunami

The evacuation options just aren’t there for tens of thousands of people

(NEWSER) – “It’s going to dwarf the scale of any disaster we have ever had. We know it’s coming.” So Chris Goldfinger of Oregon State University tells the New York Times. He’s talking about a massive—think magnitude 9.0—quake along the Cascadia fault off the Pacific Northwest coast. Based on 10,000 years of geologic evidence, we’re due for that kind of quake within roughly the next century. And after the ground shakes, the water will come. The fault sits only about 70 miles offshore, and the tsunami that could result from it could hit within 15 minutes. As Mike Baker writes, “Along many stretches of the Northwest coast, there are no bluffs or high buildings to climb—nowhere to go.” His story opens with a painful illustration of that fact.

At Washington’s Ocean Shores Elementary School, students practice evacuating to the second floor after a quake. Except modeling shows the school could be hit with water 23 feet deep. The second floor is 13 feet above ground level (never mind that the school wasn’t built to withstand a tsunami). In that state, modeling shows that of the 70,000 people who would be in the path of the tsunami triggered by a 9.0-magnitude quake, 32,000 of them wouldn’t be able to reach high enough ground in 15 minutes. The state is considering building a series of vertical evacuation structures along the coast that would be accessible to 22,000 people. Only two exist so far in all of the Pacific Northwest, though the Shoalwater Bay Tribe in Tokeland, Wash., has broken ground on one—with pilings located 51 feet in the ground. (Read the full story for much more.)

Antichrist sends delegation to Maysan to calm tensions after assassinations

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi with security officials in the southern province of Maysan and offering condolences to the family of the slain judge. Photo: Prime Minister’s Office

Iraq’s Al Sadr sends delegation to Maysan to calm tensions after assassinations

Killing believed to be politically motivated to force officials to form a new government

Mina AldroubiFeb 10, 2022

Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr sent a delegation to the southern city of Maysan on Thursday to quell tensions after the assassination of one of his followers there.

Karar Abu Ragheef, a supporter of Mr Al Sadr, was killed in the southern province by unknown gunmen late on Wednesday, triggering concerns between political religious leaders.

The province has followers of Mr Al Sadr’s Saraya Al Salam militia as well as those of Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, one of the factions of the Hashed Al Shaabi, which is led by Qais Al Khazaali.

The Hashed was founded in 2014 to fight ISIS alongside Iraqi forces but its factions have since been ordered to incorporate into the state security services.

Abu Ragheef’s assassination was the third in the province in recent weeks.

“I’m sending a high level delegation to calm the strife fuelled by politics between the followers of Saraya Al Salam and the Asa’ib,” Mr Al Sadr said in a statement published on the Iraqi news agency.

“Our supporters must prevent bloodshed. In the event that one of the parties does not respond, I will let the law take its course. Let everyone abstain from violence and harm,” said the cleric, who has millions of followers.

Mr Al Sadr called for calm after the killing of Abu Ragheef and said it was politically motivated at putting pressure on officials to form the next government.

The development follows the visit of Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi to Maysan on Wednesday after the killing of two officials this week.

Gunmen assassinated a judge who specialised in drug cases and an interior ministry official.

“We are going through complicated political circumstances,” Mr Al Kadhimi told a group of provincial security officials on his arrival in the area.

“No one is allowed to exploit this situation to create chaos during this important period of time,” he said.

Judge Ahmed Faisal Khasaf was driving home in his car in the provincial capital of Amara when assailants blocked his route and shot him 15 times with a Kalashnikov.

He died at the scene.

A few days later the interior ministry official was killed, pushing Mr Al Kadhimi to seek justice.

“I will follow up with the joint security command in the province on a daily basis. All criminals will be arrested and handed to the judiciary,” he said.

The province has an increasingly alarming drug problem and is riven with tribal disputes.

Updated: February 10th 2022, 3:27 PM

Kashmir at the tipping point before the first nuclear war: Revelation 8

Kashmir at the tipping point

February 12, 2022

The conflict in Kashmir is one of the oldest running “frozen conflicts” in the world that has now been ongoing since 1947. It has led to two major wars, played a major role in a third, and been involved in constant clashes and near conflicts between two nuclear armed countries of India and Pakistan.

The tensions were at their highest in the 1950s,1960s and 1990s but have cooled down in the 21st century after the Musharraf regime’s overtures for peace and reconciliation with India. However, since the arrival of the Modi regime in India, tensions over the issue escalated again and reached a dangerous level after the Indian government abrogated the special status of Kashmir and made it a part of the union of India as a federally administered territory.

It seems as if the BJP leadership has realized that the international community has given up on the Kashmir cause and that the Pakistani government is unable to do much, hence it can continue to act with complete impunity with no external or internal pressure. As another 5th of February has passed, marking the Kashmir solidarity day, it can only be hoped that a miracle happens and the situation reverts at the very least back to what it was before the abrogation of Article 370

The current BJP administration fosters a desire to turn India away from its secular republic roots into a Hindu nationalist one, and Kashmir being the only Muslim majority state in the union, was always a target for the Modi government. The 2014 and 2019 election manifesto of his party included the abrogation of special status for Kashmir, and that promise was fulfilled on 5 August 2019. The move abolished Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, which granted Kashmir autonomy and special rights, and also split the region into two federally administered territories called Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir. Unlike states which have their own assemblies union territories are federally governed meaning what little autonomy Kashmiris had was also taken away altogether.

Pakistan has strongly protested against this blatant violation of UNSC resolutions. The Foreign Minister has written around 27 letters to the UN Secretary General, President UNGA, OHCHR and High Representative of European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy regarding the alarming human rights situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir which warrant investigation by a UN Commission of Inquiry as recommended by the OHCHR in its reports of 2018 and 2019. Since 2019, the Indian government has proceeded to take several steps to strengthen its grip on the region.

It has followed a strategy of land occupation in two steps in order to dilute the ethnic mix of the region. Firstly it has allowed the Indian army to declare any region as of strategic value and acquire it from the government in the Kashmir region for utilization against Kashmiri rebels. Secondly it has allowed nonresidents to purchase land in the region which they could not earlier as well, as issuing 4.2 million domiciles to non-Kashmiri residents in a bid to change the demography of the region. The justification given for these changes is to increase industrial productivity of the region by encouraging Indian companies to buy land and open factories in the region as well as benefit landowners by increasing property prices but the large- scale shifting of people shows that the real intentions are political rather than economic.

The Modi administration has also deployed hundreds of thousands of troops and declared emergency in the region. The initial crackdown by the government led to 519 people killed at the hands of security forces, mostly in extra judicial operations and fake encounters as well as during detention and interrogation. More than 210 people were killed during “cordon and search” operations carried out by the military on the pretext of anti-terrorism operations. Over 1400 people were illegally detained, tortured and forced to confess as reported by international and local media. The use of pellet guns against protesters has been especially well documented.

Journalists, especially those from Kashmir, were also targeted and suffered detentions and torture. The entire Kashmiri leadership as well was imprisoned and the death of Syed Ali Shah Gillani in prison highlights the brutal repression carried out by the Indian government to achieve its goals. The lockdown also had devastating effects on the region’s economy leading to losses of $9.5 billion due to restrictions on movement, businesses and the closure of the internet.

With the freedom movement brutally suppressed and the Indian government now seemingly in control of the region, it seems as if the future of Kashmir and its people depends on internal politics of India rather than on any external factors. The reinstatement of Kashmir’s special status requires the BJP to lose its government in India and for Congress to regain power in the 2024 elections since the latter has always been more accommodating of the Kashmiris’ right to autonomy and of Muslims in general in India, compared to the Hindu extremists that dominate the BJP. The existing setup has no intention of stopping its drive to change the ethnic and political makeup of the region.

By 2024 it may be too late to reverse the changes even if the government in the centre changes since those who have bought lands and received domiciles will remain in the region and ensure that any future assembly formed through elections in Kashmir is more representative of the BJP’s desires. The reopening of economy and tourism has allowed some sense of normalcy to return and for people to earn a livelihood. Massive increase in economic investment has also been witnessed after the end of the state of emergency.

The people of Kashmir have shown great valour in continuing to resist despite the brutal repression of the state and have refused to give up their struggle be it unarmed or armed, but at the moment there appears little space in an increasingly aggressive Indian regime for any note of dissent from the region.

It seems as if the BJP leadership has realized that the international community has given up on the Kashmir cause and that the Pakistani government is unable to do much, hence it can continue to act with complete impunity with no external or internal pressure. As another 5th of February has passed, marking the Kashmir solidarity day, it can only be hoped that a miracle happens and the situation reverts at the very least back to what it was before the abrogation of Article 370.

The writer can be reached at ragheeb40@gmail.com

Hamas wines Israel is playing with fire outside the temple walls: Revelation 11

Hamas Slams Israeli Settlers’ Attacks in Al-Quds Neighborhood

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hamas issued a strongly-worded message of warning to the Israeli regime and its illegal settlers after the latter renewed their attacks on Palestinians in a flashpoint neighborhood of the occupied East of al-Quds.

Tasnim News Agency

Muhammad Hamadeh, the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement’s spokesman in al-Quds, said the attack “amounts to a clear violation and is playing with fire”.

He made the remarks on Sunday after Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli regime’s forces and the settlers had attacked al-Quds’ Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood overnight, injuring an elderly Palestinian.

The Hamas spokesman added, “We warn the occupation (regime of Israel) of the consequences of continuing these attacks, which are similar to playing with explosives that will only explode in their own face.”

He called on Palestinian people across the entire occupied territories, especially the holy city of al-Quds, to “mobilize” in support of their fellow countrymen in the face of the “savage occupiers” and “cowardly settlers.”

According to later reports, the settlers’ attack was followed by an alleged “car ramming” incident staged by Palestinians, which injured an Israeli settler.

Sheikh Jarrah has been the scene of frequent crackdowns by the Israeli police on the Palestinians protesting against the threatened expulsion of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in favor of hardline Israeli settler groups.

Since Israel seized East al-Quds in a 1967 war, Israeli settler organizations have claimed ownership of land in Sheikh Jarrah and have filed multiple lawsuits to evict Palestinians from the area.

This is while, most of the international community considers the Israeli settlement structures to be illegal under the international law due to their construction on occupied territory.

The Shi’a Horn is a n Illusion of Satan: Daniel 8

The Shia House is an illusion

It is simply not true that there is a “Shia political house” in Iraq. This is one of the hilarious inventions of Ahmed Chalabi, who died after seeing the lie of the liberation of Iraq crumble before his eyes.

Since the Americans imposed on Iraqis a political system based on quotas, similar to the one in Lebanon, candidates seized power as representatives of the so-called “components” that replaced the one Iraqi people who, somehow, vanished.

According to US desires, the Shia, the largest component of Iraqi society, were destined to take control of a larger part of the state. This meant that the old and new Shia political parties would together access the lion’s share of Iraq’s wealth, in a system where much is determined by corruption.

If one denies the existence of the so-called “Shia house,” it is for the reason that such a house has never existed except as an illusion. This is because the Shia parties and the militias affiliated with them (or directly affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards) are not tied by a common ideological thread, even if they belong to the same religious sect.

The Shia of Iraq are of different types.  Their differences could lead to strife if their interests clash. Before the occupation and the emergence of political Shia organisations and their accession to power, there was an obvious difference between Iran-aligned Shia and Arab Shia in Iraq.

Parties and militias tried to put an end to their differences temporarily, as their grievances could wait. That worked for a few years. They were confident that US-Iranian protection would  keep them comfortable. There have been events that could be considered an exception, such as the move by an angry Moqtada al-Sadr, with his mass of followers, to occupy  the seat of power which is the Green Zone.

The win by the political movement led by Sadr cannot be deemed a victory for the so-called Shia house. Rather, it was a defeat for the greater part of that house. That defeat exposed the lie. Although their militias occupy the street, the Shia parties that are close to Iran will have to leave the Green Zone soon. This is a notion that frightens those parties and militias affiliated with Iran. Will we be returning to the circle of confrontation between the Shia of Iran and the Arab Shia of Iraq?

I think we are in the midst of that struggle today.

Sadr does not need to remind the Iraqis of the corruption of Nuri al-Maliki, although he has not mentioned the latter by name until now. But the Shia parties and militias that lost in the elections do not dare abandon Maliki for fear of being weakened themselves. Maliki is the leader of the Da’wa Party. But he is also the only politician who can be easily brought to trial for abandoning Mosul to ISIS when he ordered the Iraqi army, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, to withdraw without a fight and to leave their modern weapons as a gift to the terrorist organisation.

Today, Sadr behaves as if he has no Shia partners. In fact, they were only partners in the sharing of the spoils. Politics eventually allowed him to posture in front of them as an opponent.

No one among all parties is competent to rule, but weapons are the problem. There is no reconciliation as along as weapons are all around.