German Catholic Congress closes with appeal to support refugees

The 100th Catholic Congress in Germany brought together thousands of believers looking for new ways to assert their faith in volatile times. The three-day event ended with a message on the ongoing refugee debate.

Deutsche Welle, 30 May 2016

Europe's refugee crisis was one of the main themes at the closing of the 100th German Catholic Congress, as it was indeed throughout the three-day event. Celebrating mass in front of 20,000 people, Cardinal Reinhard Marx told the faithful that Christianity held non-negotiable tenets on the issue, and reminding the congregation that thousands of people were drowning at the gates to Europe.

"We must not allow this to continue," Marx stressed.

"If someone approaches our borders in need, he or she will need to be treated with dignity."

Redefining the church for modern times

More than 1,000 exhibitions, performances and talks were staged in Leipzig in the three days of the festival, attracting roughly 40,000 visitors in total. The event, organized by the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), started in 1848 and has been held every two years since - with the main exception of during the days of the Third Reich.

The President of Germany's Central Council
of Catholics (ZdK), Thomas Sternberg, said
the congress was a success

Nowadays, political parties are invited to take part in the event to exchange views with the faithful and find common ground. This year's congress, however, stood out for a particular party not being invited to the event: the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was not asked to participate in the events.

Organizers justified this by stating that the AfD's anti-immigration agenda was incompatible with the ideas of openness and hospitality that Catholicism places on the members of the church, referring once more to the issue of mass migration.

The President of Germany's Central Council of Catholics (ZdK), Thomas Sternberg, said that he knew no one among AfD leadership ranks who represented a political position that could be helpful in the refugee debate - a cause, he added, that has hundreds of thousands of Christians involved in volunteer positions and other ways of trying to help those fleeing war and famine in their native countries.

Gay Rights and other issues

Three advocacy groups supporting gay and lesbian Catholics were also in attendance at the congress, signaling a more tolerant approach towards sexual orientation taking place in parts of the church. The Catholic Lesbian Network and the Workgroup Homosexuals and Church were invited by organizers to present their work on the open integration of sexual minorities to the Catholic Church.

The prospect of having female deacons was also highlighted in the sidelines of the congress - amid great applause. Having suffered numerous sex scandals in the past years, the Catholic Church, under the guidance of Pope Francis, is trying to reassert its position in the world, hoping to witness a revival with a number of reforms and more welcoming attitudes to previously excluded demographics.

Sternberg said the event was a great success to that end. "We witnessed a lively church in these few days in Leipzig, and we saw that the church can do things differently; we didn't have to bemoan declining numbers but could rather rejoice in growing interest."

The next German Catholic Congress is due to be held in the city of Münster in 2018.

ss/jr (KNA, dpa)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Pope Francis during a private

audience  at the Vatican on May 6, 2016 (AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli)

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness. …”

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Obama makes history with Hiroshima visit

Yahoo – AFP, Shingo Ito, May 27, 2016

US President Barack Obama (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake
 hands after laying wreaths at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 27, 2016
(AFP Photo/Jim Watson)

Barack Obama paid moving tribute to victims of the first atomic bomb Friday, offering a comforting embrace to a tearful man who survived the devastating attack on Hiroshima.

In a ceremony loaded with symbolism, the first sitting US president to visit the city clasped hands with one survivor and hugged another after speaking about the day that marked one of the most terrifying chapters of World War II.

"71 years ago, death fell from the sky and the world was changed," Obama said of a bomb that "demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself".

"Why did we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in the not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead," he said.

As crows called through the hush of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Obama offered a floral wreath at the cenotaph, pausing in momentary contemplation with his eyes closed and his head lowered.

The site lies in the shadow of a domed building, whose skeleton stands in silent testament to those who perished.

US President Barack Obama hugs Shigeaki Mori, a survivor of the atomic 

bombing of Hiroshima, at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park cenotaph on

May 27, 2016 (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe followed by offering his own wreath and a brief, silent bow.

After both men had spoken, Obama, whose predecessor Harry Truman gave the go-ahead for the world's first nuclear strike, greeted ageing survivors, embracing 79-year-old Shigeaki Mori, who appeared overcome with emotion.

"The president gestured as if he was going to give me a hug, so we hugged," Mori told reporters afterwards.

Obama also chatted with a smiling Sunao Tsuboi, 91, who had earlier said he wanted to tell the US president how grateful he was for his visit.

Ball of searing heat

The trip comes more than seven decades after the Enola Gay bomber dropped its deadly atomic payload, dubbed "Little Boy", over the western Japanese city.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (AFP Photo/Adrian Leung)

The bombing claimed the lives of 140,000 people, some of whom died immediately in a ball of searing heat; others succumbed to injuries or radiation-related illnesses in the weeks, months and years afterwards.

A second nuclear bomb destroyed the city of Nagasaki three days later.

The visit also marks seven years since Obama's memorable speech in Prague in which he called for the elimination of atomic weapons, a call that helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Crowds of young and old gathered to meet the American president, who retains enormous star power in Japan.

"We welcome President Obama," said 80-year-old Toshiyuki Kawamoto.

"I hope this historic visit to Hiroshima will push for the movement of abolishing nuclear weapons in the world."

'We listen to the silent cry'

Japanese and American flags flew on the street in front of the site, with a city official saying it was the first time the Stars and Stripes had been raised there.

As expected, Obama offered no apology for the bombings, having insisted that he would not revisit decisions made by Truman at the close of a brutal war.

As an eternal flame flickered behind him, however, he said leaders had an obligation to "pursue a world without" nuclear weapons.

"This is why we come to this place, we stand here, in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell.

U.S. President Barack Obama, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo

 Abe, right, leaves the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park after laying a wreath in 

Hiroshima, western Japan, Friday, May 27, 2016. Obama on Friday became the first

 sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world's first atomic bomb attack, bringing 

global attention both to survivors and to his unfulfilled vision of a world without 

nuclear weapons. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

"We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry."

"The world was forever changed here but, today, the children of this city will go through their day in peace," the US president said. "What a precious thing that is."

While some in Japan feel the attack was a war crime because it targeted civilians, many Americans believe it hastened the end of a bloody conflict, and ultimately saved lives.

Though there had been calls for an apology, public reaction to the visit and the speech was overwhelmingly positive.

Megu Shimomura, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, one of the selected guests at the ceremony, told AFP: "I was thrilled to attend the historic event. Obama is someone who lives in a very different world than I do but I felt his humanity."

Shinzo Abe praised the "courage" of the visit, which he said offered hope for a nuclear free future.

"An American president comes into contact with the reality of an atomic bombing and renews his resolve toward realising a world without nuclear weapons," he said.

"I sincerely welcome this historic visit, which has long been awaited by not only people of Hiroshima, but by all Japanese people."

The pilgrimage drew a less sympathetic response in other Northeast Asian countries where historical disputes with Tokyo over wartime and colonial aggression remain raw.

In a commentary released late Thursday, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency called Obama’s trek to Hiroshima an act of "childish political calculation" aimed at disguising the president’s true nature as a "nuclear war maniac".

"Obama is seized with the wild ambition to dominate the world by dint of the US nuclear edge," the agency said.

And in Beijing, the government-published China Daily newspaper ran a headline saying: "Atomic bombings of Japan were of its own making."

"The president gestured as if he was going to give me a hug, so we hugged." https://t.co/hpvOCKMYof #Hiroshima pic.twitter.com/b7yQf7ntA5

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 27, 2016

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Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, where a 15-megaton device equivalent to a thousand

Hiroshima blasts, detonated in 1954. Photograph: US Air Force - digital version

Marshall Islands sues nine nuclear powers over failure to disarm
Islanders afraid to go home 60 years after Bikini Atoll H-bomb

A huge dome is shown in 1980 covering a crater left by one of the

43 nuclear blasts on Runit Island, in the Marshall Islands, the fallout

 from which is expected to last 25,000 years (US Defence Nuclear Agency/

AFP/File)

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution and a warning about nuclear > 20 Min)

North Korea is a 'big worry for all of us': Obama at G7

Yahoo – AFP, May 26, 2016

US President Barack Obama made the remarks about Donald Trump at a press
conference during the first day of the G7 summit in Ise Shima on May 26, 2016
(AFP Photo/Jim Watson)

Ise-Shima (Japan) (AFP) - US President Barack Obama took aim at North Korea Thursday, calling it a "big worry" after a meeting with his G7 counterparts, as tensions escalate following Pyongyang's series of nuclear tests.

Obama made the remark at a briefing on the sidelines of Group of Seven talks in Japan where North Korea's provocations and its nuclear ambitions are among the topics on a packed agenda.

"North Korea is a big worry for all of us," Obama said.

North Korea held its first ruling party 

congress for nearly 40 years earlier this 

month, formally endorsing leader 

Kim Jong-Un's policy of expanding 

the country's nuclear arsenal (AFP Photo)

"It is not the thing that poses necessarily the most immediate risk. (But) when you have such an unstable regime that is so isolated, that poses the kind of medium-term threat that we have to pay a lot of attention to."

Tensions between North and South Korea have been running high since Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test in January.

In recent weeks, the North has made repeated proposals for military talks aimed at de-escalating the situation -- but the South has dismissed the offer as an "insincere" propaganda ploy.

The current administration of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye is adamant that substantive inter-Korean talks can only begin once the North makes a tangible commitment to denuclearisation.

Also Thursday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged a return to talks with North Korea, during a visit to South Korea that has fuelled speculation of his presidential ambitions in his home country.

"We must find the path back to dialogue," Ban said at a peace and security forum.

North Korea held its first ruling party congress for nearly 40 years earlier this month, formally endorsing leader Kim Jong-Un's policy of expanding the country's nuclear arsenal.

In this frame taken from TV, delegates applaud during the congress in Pyongyang, 

North Korea, Saturday May 7, 2016. North Korea on Friday opened the first full 

congress of its ruling party since 1980, a major political event intended to showcase

 the country's stability and unity under young leader Kim Jong Un despite international 

criticism and tough new sanctions over the North's recent nuclear test and a slew of 

missile launches. (KRT via AP) 

The congress was seen as an elaborate coronation for the 33-year-old Kim, securing his status as supreme leader and confirming his legacy "byungjin" doctrine of twin economic and nuclear development.

The UN Security Council in March imposed its toughest sanctions to date following the January nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch the following month.

The North had already been subject to a range of sanctions because of earlier nuclear tests -- in 2006, 2009 and 2013 -- and a series of long-range missile tests presented as satellite launches.

The Security Council resolutions condemned the nuclear tests and rocket launches as a threat to international peace and security.

North Korea has challenged the sanctions, arguing that no international laws or agreements stipulate that nuclear tests are such a threat.

It has also noted that the Security Council never sanctioned the United States or other countries for their nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches.

Its long-held argument is its push for a nuclear deterrent has been forced by US hostility.

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"Quantum Patterns" - Jan 23 - 24, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... The Darkness Can't See Beyond Itself

I want to give you proof yet again of something unusual and very telling of the way low vibration works. Within the first channel of the year [2016], I spoke about the young North Korean leader. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it again as a profound example of how low consciousness cannot see above itself. That means that it can only work with what it sees and knows. As powerful, as smart, as intellectual as it thinks it is, it can't get out of its own circle.

The former leader of North Korea was a classic egotist. When he died, his son took over and could do anything he wanted. This boy had watched his father for decades and knew he would take over someday. Naturally, he inherited the attributes his father taught him of self-importance, and he also became egotistically driven to the max. When he took power, he had the choice to make changes that would allow him to be even greater than his father. He wanted something that would elevate his name and his position to the highest egotistic place imaginable. His father was the model, and now he could do anything he wanted to be even more famous. What happened is classic. He completely missed the greatest opportunity that any man has had to become the most famous and beloved person on the earth. The idea never occurred to him. Even though he had been educated in the western world, he missed it.

If he had considered the high road and included the earth instead of a restricted population of his own country, he could have been the most famous and beloved leader on Earth, all of his life. At the moment he took over, all he had to do was to think beyond his circle. He was in the unique position to be a "wild card" and do something amazing - unify North an South Korea, drop the zone of death that was between those countries, bring families together after generations, stop nuclear programs that he really never needed other than to look important and, thereby, give his people abundance, food for all and peace in his region. All of Korea would worship him and the earth would give a sigh of relief in thanks for his wisdom and courage.

He would have received standing ovations upon entering the United Nations great room and they would bow before him and give him the highest peace prizes. He would have his ego stroked and stroked and stroked and stroked and be far greater than his father had ever been. But it never occurred to him. Instead, he perpetuated the dark box he inherited, and now he presides over the lowest energy possible, representing the most dangerous renegade energy on the planet. At the expense of keeping his people poor and impoverished and creating instability in his region, he gets to be a powerful and famous person for a moment in time from a small population. He will not last long. He can't see that what he is doing has no support within the majority of the planet's population, and he will lose everything. Isn't it interesting how strong the circle is that keeps a low vibration low. All of this is beginning to change, dear ones. If you examine individual people and the way they act, you're going to see this coming. You're going to recognize it.  ..."

THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

Now I'm going to be very cautious with number five, and I'm going to change a paradigm of the way we channel. For 23 years, we have given you information in the soup of potentials that we read around you as the highest probable potential that exists. These things eventually become your reality because they are your free choice, and we know what you're thinking. We know what the potentials are because we know what the biases are, and we see all of humanity as a whole. Potentials are energy, and it gives us the ability to project your future based on how you are working these potentials. We have done this for a long time. Twenty-three years ago, we told you about many things that were potentially going to happen, and now they are your reality.

But now I'm going to depart from that scenario and I'm going to give you a potential on Earth that is not the strongest. I am going to tell you about a Human Being who has a choice. This potential is only about 50 percent. But I'm going to "read a potential" to you that you didn't expect. It's about a paradigm that is starting to shift.

Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.

If Kryon were to advise this man, here's what I would tell him. He could be the greatest known leader the current world has ever known, for what he does now will be something the world will see as a demarcation point from the old ways. Not only that, but what he does now will be in the history books forever, and because of his youth, he has the potential to outlive every other leader on the planet! So he's going to have longer fame than anyone ever has.

I would tell him this: Tell the border guards to go home. Greet the south and begin to unify North and South Korea in a way that no past prophet ever said could happen. Allow the two countries to be separate, but have them as two parts of a larger Korean family with free trade and travel. Start alliances with the West and show them that you mean it. Drop the missile programs because you will never need them!

This will bring abundance to the North Korean people that they never expected! They will have great economic sustenance, schools, hospitals and more respect than ever for their amazing leader. The result would be fame and glory for the son, which the father had never achieved, something that the world would talk about for hundreds of years. It would cause a United Nations to stand and applaud as the son walked into the Grand Assembly. I would ask him, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Doesn't this seem obvious to most of you? He could achieve instant fame and be seen as the one who made the difference and started something amazing. But watch him. He has a choice, but it's not simple. He still has his father's advisors, but one of which he's already dismissed. He may get it, or he may not. There is a 50 percent chance. But I'll tell you that if he doesn't do it, the one after him will. Because it is so obvious. 

We show you this to tell you that this is the evolvement of the Human species. It is the slow realization that putting things together is the answer to all things, instead of separating them or conquering them. Those who start promoting compromise and begin to create these energies that never were here before will be the ones you're going to remember. Dear ones, it's going to happen in leadership and politics and in business. It's a new paradigm...."

US Supreme Court rules in favor black death row inmate in jury bias case

Jakarta Globe, Sébastien Blanc, May 23, 2016

The US Supreme Court building in Washington (AFP Photo/Chip Somodevilla)

Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court Monday ruled in favor of an African American death row inmate who argued there was bias in the choosing of an all-white jury that convicted him of the 1986 murder of an elderly white woman.

By a 7-1 vote, the justices struck down a Georgia Supreme Court ruling denying Timothy Foster appellate review of his death sentence. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's only African American member, dissented.

"This means that Timothy Foster is entitled to a new trial at which jurors are not excluded based on race," his lawyers said in a statement.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts 

arrives for President Barack Obama's State

 of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in

 Washington, January 28, 2014 (AFP

 Photo/Larry Downing)

The decision, coming nearly 30 years after Foster's death penalty conviction, highlighted the continuing effect of racism on jury selection in the United States.

Foster's lawyers showed that prosecutors had maneuvered to keep blacks off the jury, presenting as evidence prosecutor's notes at a November 2015 Supreme Court hearing.

The notes, which were obtained after Foster's 1987 conviction, included a list of prospective jurors that had the handwritten letter "B" next to the names of African Americans on the list.

Those designated with a "B" were rejected for the jury under a selection process that allows prosecutors to block, or "strike," a certain number of potential jurors.

Foster's lawyer told the court that the prosecutors drew up a list of six prospective jurors to be stricken from the panel: five were black, and one was opposed to the death penalty.

'Arresting' references to race

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the prosecution's file "plainly belie the state's claim that it exercised its strikes in a 'color-blind' manner."

"The sheer number of references to race in that file is arresting," he wrote.

The state of Georgia had vehemently defended the prosecutors, arguing that they had documented their actions in order to show they were being thoughtful and not discriminatory in considering prospective black jurors.

But the court's majority said that the state's argument "reeks of afterthought," noting it had never been raised before in the case's 30-year history.

"In addition, the focus on race in the prosecution's file plainly demonstrates a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury," Roberts wrote.

"The state's new argument today does not dissuade us from the conclusion that its prosecutors were motivated in substantial part by race when they struck Garrett and Hood from the jury 30 years ago," the opinion said, referring to two black potential jurors, Marilyn Garret and Eddie Hood.

The court's decision reverses a Georgia state supreme court order denying Foster appellate review of his death sentence, and remands the case "for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."

Thomas dissent

Foster had confessed to murdering Queen Madge White, a 79-year-old retired school teacher who was sexually assaulted and killed in her home in Rome, Georgia in August 1986.

Thomas, in his dissent, said the Supreme Court should have sought clarification from the state supreme court, rather than overrule it.

In doing so, he wrote, "the court affords a death-row inmate another opportunity to relitigate his long-final conviction."

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring opinion that, while agreeing with the majority's conclusion, cautioned that it was important not to "lightly brush aside" the state's legitimate interest in a process that "militates against repetitive litigation and endless delay."

In a statement, Foster's lawyer Stephen Bright said the court had no choice but to find that prosecutors intentionally discriminated in striking black prospective jurors and that they "lied about it by giving false reasons for their strikes when the real reason was race."

"Jury strikes motivated by race cannot be tolerated. The exclusion of black citizens from jury service results in juries that do not represent their communities and undermines the credibility and legitimacy of the criminal justice system."

The US state of Virginia has executed a prison inmate by lethal injection. More details here http://t.co/QoPsJ02QMc pic.twitter.com/TemYW2nWzQ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 2, 2015

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Clinton declares Trump a "threat" to US democracy

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Mathes, May 20, 2016

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, pictured at a rally May 11,
2016, tells CNN, "I will be the nominee for my party" (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur)

Washington (AFP) - Hillary Clinton on Thursday blasted her likely general election rival Donald Trump as a threat to US democracy and declared him unqualified to be president, unleashing some of her toughest criticism yet of the Republican presumptive nominee.

"The threat that Donald Trump poses is so dramatic to our country, to our democracy and our economy," the former secretary of state told CNN in an interview.

"I know how hard this job is, and I know that we need steadiness as well as strength and smarts in it," she added. "And I have concluded he is not qualified to be president of the United States."

Clinton and Trump Tied in 

2016 ‘Bad Choice’ Election

The statement marks a hardening of her position on Trump.

On May 3, Clinton declined to answer directly when asked by MSNBC whether Trump was qualified to be commander in chief, although Clinton said the New York billionaire "has given no indication he understands the gravity of the responsibilities" that go with the job.

Clinton's criticism Thursday was more biting, and left no doubt that the gloves are off, perhaps for the duration of the contest that culminates with the November 8 election.

She pointed to Trump's recent criticism of top officials of US ally Britain; his stated willingness to meet with North Korea's reclusive dictator; his assessment that NATO is "obsolete"; and his suggestion of opening the door to more countries, such as Japan or South Korea, having nuclear weapons.

Such positions are "dangerous," Clinton said, adding that the totality of Trump's alarming statements since he launched his presidential campaign, including calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, amounts to a worrying "pattern."

"I think if you go through many of his irresponsible, reckless, dangerous comments, it's not just somebody saying something off the cuff," Clinton said.

Trump's antagonistic tone toward Muslims would make it far harder for Washington to work with Middle Eastern governments in fighting extremism, she said.

"We have seen how Donald Trump is being used to essentially be a recruiter for more people to join the cause of terrorism," Clinton said.

"When you run for president of the United States, the entire world is listening and watching."

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders asks delegates to consider 

him as the candidate -- not Hillary Clinton -- to most likely to beat Republican

presidential candidate Donald Trump. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

'Insurmountable lead'

Clinton's pugnacity came as she all but declared victory in her nomination battle with Bernie Sanders.

"I will be the nominee for my party. That is already done," she said.

"In fact, there's no way that I won't be."

Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, insists he is still locked in a fierce battle for the nomination and has vowed to take the race all the way to June 7, when California, the most populous state in the union, holds its primary.

But Clinton essentially said it was time for Sanders to accept the inevitability of her winning the nomination.

"I'm three million votes ahead of him and I have an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates," she said.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie 

Sanders takes a walk between rallies in 

San Francisco, California on May 18, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson)

With only six US states left to vote, Clinton's delegate lead, including so-called super-delegates, is formidable. She has 2,297 delegates compared to Sanders's 1,527, according to a CNN tally. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to be declared the nominee.

It was perhaps Clinton's most forceful declaration to date that the race is basically over, as she turns her focus on Trump and their general election showdown.

She also expressed confidence that Sanders will eventually offer his support -- as she did for then-senator Barack Obama during their intense 2008 nomination battle -- once the Democratic race comes to a halt.

"I have every confidence we're going to be unified," Clinton said, but Sanders "has to do his part to unify."

The Sanders campaign said Clinton was jumping the gun, pointing to the self-declared democratic socialist's recent wins in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon.

"And with almost every national and state poll showing Senator Sanders doing much, much better than Secretary Clinton against Donald Trump, it is clear that millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign," Sanders's spokesman Michael Briggs said in a statement.

Trump has yet to respond publicly to Clinton's broadside. But senior adviser Stephen Miller warned that Trump will be turning up the heat during the campaign.

"I think we're definitely going to be a lot more aggressive, on every kind of attack, because Hillary Clinton would be an extraordinarily dangerous person to put in the White House," Miller told CNN.

Related Article:

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, May 19, 2016)

Matthew Ward - May 19, 2016

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. Let us ease your minds about issues that are causing some anxious moments. First, with climate change a topic of global discussion, there is talk about the seas covering islands and inundating coastal areas up to mountain ranges and people by the millions being drowned. That will not happen—Earth is not going to endanger the lives of her beloved residents during her return to a moderate climate globally. As polar ice and glaciers continue melting, water levels will continue to rise slowly and in small measure overall, and residents of potentially affected areas—sea-level islands, parts of continental coastlines, banks of your largest rivers, and low-lying countries—will have plenty of time to take any necessary preventive action or relocate.

Then there is the prophecy that a sudden pole shift is going to devastate the planet. It would be devastating if the shift were to happen abruptly, but it won’t. Eighty-some years ago Earth’s axis was so out of balance that she was in danger of flying out into space and certain destruction. Powerful civilizations beamed massive light to stabilize Earth’s orbit and enable her to start on an ascension course, and that was the onset of the pole’s ongoing gradual shifting.

Other readers are concerned about Earth’s trajectory into a collision course with a planet that some think is Nibiru and others think is a recently-detected planet considerably larger than Earth. Some information being circulated about this speculative situation is solely to create fear, but lack of knowledge is the root of most. Your astrophysicists don’t know that for more than eight decades Earth has been journeying into successively higher energy planes, thus they are mystified and alarmed by seeing new celestial bodies. We reassure you, dear family, Earth will continue traveling safely and steadily all the way to her destination in fifth density!

Emails about the United States’ presidential election have been coming in for well over a year, and now that two individuals have been designated as their parties’ presumptive nominees, my mother’s inbox is filling with questions about who will win. Based on the ever-accelerating vibrations that are undergirding people with moral and spiritual integrity and exposing those who lack that quality, we are seeing the likelihood that neither of the presumptive nominees will become president, Senator Bernie Sanders will. If the vibratory momentum continues, the likelihoodof his winning will keep moving toward certainty in Earth’s energy field of potential and in November, the voters will elect a wise, honest president.

Always we are happy to receive your questions and comments, and especially at this stage of Earth’s transformative process, we welcome those that give us the opportunity to offer guidance to new soul-searchers. “Awakening can be a very lonely and often confusing endeavor. Can Matthew offer any advice to Lightworkers who seem to have come under psychic attack for the purpose of confusing them and making them less effective in their work?”

Awakening is profoundly different from anything you can remember, and if none of your family or friends has mentioned anything similar, hesitation to speak about what you are experiencing is natural; and the realization that you are a part of God can seem overwhelming, as if it is a sacrilege to even think of yourself that way. The combination of feeling lonely and bewildered about your higher state of awareness and accepting your god-self can be stressful indeed and thought of as a psychic attack. When vibratory levels were much lower because darkness still enshrouded the planet, the bright auras of lightworkers did make them targets for dark attacks. Now the light on the planet is too intense for that, but via the universal law of attraction, thoughts about being attacked reach energy streamers with like sensations and bring them back to you.

Please replace those kinds of thoughts with the knowledge that never are you alone! Not only are your guardian angel and spirit guides constantly at your side, but many souls are having an awakening experience somewhat like yours and others are confidently moving along the path of self-discovery. Often spiritual and metaphysical bookshops host groups of like-minded individuals or post notices of social meet-ups, seminars and workshops. General bookstores carry books in that genre, too, and if you feel uncertain which to choose, ask within to be led to those that will be most enlightening. Search the Internet for sites with postings by kindred spirits and messages from light beings such as Patricia Cota-Robles, and always you can ask for divine help to feel self-confident and excited about awakening. Soon you will ease into a joyful relationship with your god-self and avenues will open to areas where you can serve the light effectively and with deep satisfaction.

“Can you ask Mathew how we can find out our life purpose while here on earth?” The best way to find out what you chose as your life purpose also is the simplest: Pay attention to messages from soul-level to your consciousness—intuition, instinct, inspiration, aspiration and conscience. When you follow those guidelines that are specifically aligned with choices in your soul contract, you will have a strong sense of moving smoothly along life’s pathway as opposed to struggling with decisions and perhaps asking others what they think is the most logical direction for you.

“Is it true dark beings are being removed from Earth and taken to an alternate holographic Earth? If so this would be great since it decreases the darkness on this planet and speeds up the timetable towards full disclosure. And what is meant by we live in a holographic universe or matrix, is 3D a dream and higher dimensions are real or is it all just a projection of our consciousness?” Dark beings leave Earth the same way light beings do, death of the physical body; and, like light beings, they enter the part of Nirvana, Earth’s spirit world, where the energy corresponds to the energy they generated throughout the Earth lifetime.

There are good explanations of the holographic universe in books and Internet articles insofar as your cosmologists have discovered. They have mathematically concluded that the universe began with the Big Bang, but they have yet to understand that science and spirit—or, energy and cosmic consciousness—are one and the same: the love-light essence of Creator, the most powerful force in the cosmos and Source of everything in existence.

Higher dimensions are real, and it isn’t entirely correct to say that 3D is just a projection of one’s consciousness. Whatever a person believes, however far from factual it may be, is that person’s reality, and most likely you would get a serious argument from anyone whom you tried to convince that what he or she believes is “just a projection of your consciousness.” However, what seems real in your 3D world is a “ dream ,” or better said, an illusion, and we can explain this no more clearly than it was in a message several years ago. Mother, please find that message and copy the pertinent part. We think it will be especially helpful to awakening souls and perhaps to long-time lightworkers, too.

“What does Matthew mean when he says, ‘We are living in an illusion?’ Does each person have his or her own reality or do we all share one reality?”

By definition an illusion is deceptive, something perceived as real but without basis in reality. The illusion of third density is that there is this one life on Earth, then you die and afterwards, according to many, there’s a nebulous place that’s either a blessed or a hellfire-and-brimstone “afterlife” where you stay forevermore. The reality is that this is but one of many hundreds or many thousands of experiences of a soul that is living in many different forms and locations simultaneously in the universe.

The illusion is that you are your body, your personality, your characteristics, your feelings, your achievements, and incidentally, you have a soul that goes God only knows where when you die. The reality is that you are the soul, a part of God, inseparable from Him and all other souls in this universe; you are having the physical experience that you chose to balance other lifetimes; and you are an eternal being.

The illusion is, according to one’s religious affiliation, that the Supreme Being of this universe is correctly portrayed only by your religion and His laws as interpreted by your religion are absolute. The reality is that the Supreme Being of this universe is subordinate to Creator, the Supreme Being of the cosmos; God is an amalgamation of all souls, all life forms, throughout this universe and He knows every thought and feels every feeling of every life; He cannot interfere with Creator’s law of free will when souls veer from their pre-birth agreements, so it is not His “will be done”; although we commonly say “He,” God, or the Source by your name selection, is the epitome of androgyny, perfectly balanced male and female energies; and He didn’t devise religions—a few of his misguided god-self parts did.

The illusion is that evil is the opposite of godliness. The reality is that darkness is the absence of light, the absence of love and spiritual clarity.

The illusion is that Earth is a small, solid planet whose residents are the only verifiable intelligent life in the universe. The reality is that Earth is a soul with a planetary body that is home to beings within, on and above her, and her surface residents for the most part are far less advanced spiritually, intellectually and technologically than many other civilizations.

Yes, each soul has his or her own illusion as it pertains to self, every facet of the lifetime, planet Earth, and the Source of All, but ultimately all will share the same universal reality. [ May 23, 2005 ]

Thank you, Mother. The rash of suicide bombings has evoked numerous questions, and first we say, becoming a suicide bomber never is part of a soul contract. Because each person’s contract is one part of a pre-birth agreement made with others who want to share the lifetime, it must include not only a person killing someone to balance the experience of being killed and a person who chose to be killed to balance another lifetime, but must offer all other participants opportunities to experience what they chose for soul evolvement.

It is so that some agreements do include souls who want to transition as a group. In such a case, it is in service to all the others, who need to experience whatever emotional and financial hardships may follow the group’s transitional event. Depending upon the number of souls involved—the number can vary from comparatively few to many thousands—the event may be a mode of transportation that wrecks, troops in combat, family members living in a war zone, a natural disaster or rapid spread of a virulent disease.

Some young people who become suicide bombers are indoctrinated from childhood onward to believe that they must defend their religion by killing people of other religions, and they act upon that powerful form of mind control. Their lifetime review in Nirvana is very difficult emotionally as they feel the full extent of suffering that their final act caused to others. Because they acted in accordance with potent programing, they do not incur harsh karmic lessons, and their next lifetime will be dedicated to helping the neediest people in a third density civilization that has started to awaken spiritually and consciously.

Suicide bombers who are adults when they decide to become terrorists act upon a radically distorted sense of empowerment that is bereft of caring about the consequences for others. In addition to an extremely painful lifetime review, suffering exactly as did all persons whose lives were affected by their self-destruction, they will experience one or more difficult lifetimes in a low third density civilization where the karmic merry-go-round is going full tilt. That self-consignment isn’t determined only by these individuals’ final act; it is that the energyof their desire to kill as many people as possible and of the act itself is so dark that it supersedes all other aspects of their lifetimes.

A Belgian reader who lives near the Brussels airport wrote: “ I must admit that it becomes ever more difficult to keep up positiveness and faith in humanity’s future. I don't know what to tell other people anymore when subjects like these [suicide bombings] are discussed. It also becomes more and more difficult to stay convinced that after this life another existence is waiting. I am wondering if other readers of your messages undergo the same doubts. If they too feel not connected to any out of the body world anymore.”

Loss of faith in the future of humanity is an understandable reaction to violence when people you know have been directly affected, and while you may not think of “detachment” from the world as a form of divine grace, it is—it is giving the heart and mind a respite from shock and despair and sadness. In such times, it is difficult to think of a life after this one and derive any comfort from what may seem only a nebulous idea, that there is a glorious spirit world of love and peace. But holding fast to that reality is what will uplift the spirit and restore faith in humankind’s determination and ability to make this world a far better place than it is this moment. Beloved brothers and sisters, please do not doubt that this transformation within Earth’s civilization is happening!

As for speaking with people about tragic events, let your genuine feelings flow. Crying is ever so much healthier than stoically suppressing feelings, so let tears come in abundance. Ask for divine help to heal; see the beauty in Nature; think of the miracle of birth, the innocence of little children and devotion of your pet; know that there is far, far more good than bad in your world and the light is continuously strengthening good, weakening bad. Your expression, “Time heals all things” is only partly true—it is how you use time that brings healing, a return to well-being and positivity, or not.

Now I am speaking just as Matthew to say that stress made its way into our last message. Attributing the devastation of Haiti to a hurricane instead of an earthquake was a rare instance of my mother’s thought— and a lapse in your memory, Mother —overriding my transmission. She is dismayed that the week of stress about her computer’s technical difficulties, which blocked her site and email address, permitted her momentary departure from clearly hearing my words.

We bid you farewell for this moment only as we are forever with you in unconditional love.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version) - New

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

"The Energy of the Future" (2) - Dec 7, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The New 'Message' from Space

Let me tell you what the message is that is being communicated: Unlock to 44 percent! This is the message: The Human race has passed the marker and is ready for the next step in evolution. I am talking about the old soul. You are the ones who will be first to get this message. It is you, and some of your "old soul" children, who are starting to feel and accept this!

Let me tell you in this lesson today that the first thing that this unlocking will begin to create is what we're going to call Akashic acuity. You're going to start remembering, and it's about time. Can you celebrate this? It's about time that when you're born you don't start from scratch, in the dark, and doing everything all over again. Instead, you remember!

I want to talk to some individuals who are listening to this and are in this room. Have your grandchildren had the audacity to tell you who they used to be? Don't raise your hand; I know you're here. They feel it, and they know it, and out of the mouths of these babes come the most profound information that this planet has ever heard! They knew who they were! Some will point their fingers at you and say, “Don't you remember? I was your mum in another life.” That's a bit disconcerting, isn't it?  …”