I once chose St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow as the most attractive and intriguing building in the world. I have always been fascinated by this building. My favorite of the onion domes is the red and white one, which faces away from Red Square. Image from Google Street View.
Here is a comparison that I cannot find any documentation of but cannot stop wondering about. I wonder if the Sagrada Familia was inspired by, if not modeled on, St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. There is no record of the architect of the Sagrada Familia ever visiting Russia. The cathedral was begun in the time of the tsars, and I can find no record that a tsar ever visited Spain. So, I will just let readers have a look and decide if there is a connection between the two.
Let's take a look at the fantastic cathedral in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia. There are many photos, you do not have to look through all of them.Doesn't anyone see what Vladimir Putin is doing? First a dam in Ukraine was breached, which means a lot of water everywhere. Then tactical nuclear weapons were moved into neighboring Belarus.
Ukraine is where the disastrous Chernobyl nuclear meltdown took place, in 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The name of Chernobyl means "wormwood", which is a shrub.
In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 8 Verses 10 and 11, a "falling star" is described, which is also named Wormwood. Bible readers for centuries must have been mystified by this because nowhere else in the Bible is Wormwood mentioned, nor is a "falling star" named for a shrub.
The "falling star" is described as causing the "waters to turn bitter", and many people to die from drinking the bitter waters. This is exactly what happens after their has been a nuclear explosion. A cardinal rule is to never drink from open water afterward. Since there was no word in biblical times for anything nuclear, this is what happens after a nuclear explosion, and "Chernobyl" means "Wormwood", we can presume that this "falling star" is a prophecy of a nuclear missile.
Now can you see what Vladimir Putin is doing? First breaching the dam and then moving tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus? It is evoking this prophecy.
FACIAL RESEMBLANCE
Facial resemblance can be a factor in politics. I have written here about how Archbishop Desmond Tutu closely resembles Mahatma Gandhi, who lived for a long time in South Africa, even though Tutu was black and Gandhi was Indian. Also the present Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, closely resembles the long-time Soviet foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko. The top Iranian general Soleimani, who was killed on orders of Donald Trump, resembled Ayatollah Khomeini.
Silvio Berlusconi resembled Benito Mussolini in a similar way and I think Italians acted out their mixed feelings about Mussolini on him.
What about Boris Johnson? His posture looks just like that of Winston Churchill. It looks like he could be Churchill's grandson.
THE DEATH OF DANIEL ELLSBERG
Daniel Ellsberg died this week. The U.S. Government commissioned a secret report about what was really going on in the conduct of the Vietnam War, a lot of which the public wasn't being told. Daniel Ellsberg, in the course of his work, got hold of one of the copies of the report. He took it home and secretly copied it. He was very much in opposition to the war and secretly leaked the report to major newspapers. The government figured out that he did it.
The report became known as the "Pentagon Papers". The administration of Richard Nixon set about discrediting Ellsberg. There was a June 1972 burglary into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, at the Watergate complex in Washington.
The burglars were caught. The complex was closed for the day. It had the kind of doors that could be opened from the inside, but not from the outside. A security guard noticed that someone put tape over the latch on a door and removed the tape. When he went by again the tape has been replaced. The guard called police, who found the burglars.
I am unsure if Richard Nixon knew about the burglary before it happened. But he definitely tried to cover it up afterward. It ended with Nixon's shocking resignation as president.
When I was a child we would hardly ever have dinner around a table. We would watch the news while having dinner, and now I am glad of that because I witnessed so many things that I can write about here.
In the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018, there are two investigations involving the Watergate scandal, 9) THE REAL BATMAN and "49) THE BUFFALO NY CONNECTION TO WATERGATE.
AMERICA AND ROYALTY
We saw in the posting "America And Royalty", September 2022, that America is really as royal as anywhere, despite officially being a republic. You can see what I mean in how President Biden recently closed a speech by referring to "God Save The Queen", which is Britain's national anthem.
REMEMBERING THE "SON OF SAM"
The recent death of the Unabomber reminds us of another serial killer that would send puzzles containing clues to newspapers.
What would you do to get revenge on people who allow their dog to bark outside if you had already shot and wounded the dog and sent anonymous letters threatening the life of it's owner?
What David Berkowitz did was to become a serial killer, name himself after the owner of the dog, claim that it was the dog's owner who compelled him to kill, terrorize New York City, and then claim that you thought the barking of the dog were demonic instructions being given you to carry out the killings.
But, unlike the Unabomber, the case of the "Son of Sam" has some happiness in it's ending. David Berkowitz is in prison for life. He has become a born-again Christian and carries on a ministry from prison. Other people help because he isn't allowed to use a computer. Even a serial killer has the way open to salvation if he wants it.
We saw the Son of Sam in the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018, section 1) DID THE SON OF SAM WANT TO GET CAUGHT?
With our visit today to the land named for the Mongols, here is a link to "Why We Should Understand The Mongols":
www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-we-should-understand-mongols.html?m=0
SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES
The northeastern U.S. is shrouded in smoke from fires in Nova Scotia and Quebec. Does this remind you of the beginning of Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation? There will be smoke everywhere.
Have you ever noticed that down through history, all across the world, wilderness and forest fires are very rarely, if ever, mentioned? But then, for the past 60 or 70 years or so, there are major fires virtually every summer. Incredibly this is because, in the past, humans didn't have the capability to battle such major fires but now they do.
If that doesn't sound like it makes sense it is because putting out wilderness fires is the problem, rather than the solution. A low level fire every few years burns off the dead underbrush that builds up. The fire doesn't do lasting damage to trees and the animals know how to avoid it. The purpose of lightning is to start such fires and this is the way nature has been working for millions of years.
But then humans come along and think we know better. We keep putting fires out so that the dead underbrush keeps building up. Then, when it might have been 70 or 80 years since the last fire, we get the kind of fires that we see now. For that reason maybe the smoke from wildfires is part of the End Times scenario.
Variations in rainfall, due to climate change, is another factor. If there is a lot of rain one year it will produce a lot of plant growth. But if there is a shortage of rain the following year it will not be able to sustain the plant growth from the previous year and there will be a lot of dead and dry plant matter.
The reason that the sky may appear orange during a major fire is the scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere. Light, or other electromagnetic radiation, is reflected by objects that are about the same size as the wavelength. The microscopic particles of dust in the air scatter blue, the shorter wavelength of light the most. But the fire fills the air with larger particles which scatter longer wavelengths, which are orange. At morning or evening the sunlight passes through a thicker section of atmosphere to get to us, so the blue is scattered away altogether and we see orange and red.
FAREWELL TO PAT ROBERTSON
We know that Pat Robertson did a lot for Christianity in the U.S. I used to watch the 700 Club. But his putting politics together with religion, and running for president, is yet another manifestation of what we saw in "The Great Revolution Of Our Time", January 2017. Billy Graham came before Pat Robertson and didn't try to mix politics and religion. Billy Graham running for president is unimaginable.
Here is something that I have suspected for years.
The Cold War was a global ideological confrontation between Communism and free enterprise, or Capitalism. Free Enterprise is allowing people to run their own businesses, although vital sectors are operated by the government. Pure Communism is basically having everything run by the government, including stores, farms, factories and, medical services.
The western countries were based on free enterprise but, at the height of the Cold War about a third of the world war under Communist governments and there were significant Communist movements in the western countries. The west increased social spending on it's citizens, including more on unemployment insurance, welfare, minimum wage and work safety laws, retirement benefits and, medical coverage.
In America, during the 1960s, these social reforms were known as "The Great Society". The wealth gap in America, meaning the difference between rich and poor, was at it's least in 1973, at the height of the Cold War. This helped to refute some of the accusations of Communists against free enterprise, that it was really the rich oppressing the poor and the solution was for all the people to own the means of production, through the government, as is done in Communism.
It is true that, in America for example, the end of the Cold War might sound like a victory but since then, without the ideological competition from the Communists, the wealth gap has widened very significantly with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
What I suspect is that there was another plan that the western countries put into place to deter people from falling for Communism. This plan was undocumented and probably mostly unspoken. I am not claiming that any person or people thought of this plan. But yet, at some level, there was a plan, and the plan was for the "Innoculation Against Communism".
Remember the times that you have dealt with government offices. This includes such things as applying for unemployment benefits, dealing with the Department of Motor Vehicles, applying for social services, trying to get a permit for something, challenging a traffic ticket, and so on.
Most people agree that government offices are hardly a model of efficiency. There is almost always a lot of waiting, often in a long line of people. Waiting for some kind of decision usually seems to require excessive time. Challenging a traffic ticket almost always takes most of the day.
When was the last time someone smiled at you in a government office, and seemed glad to see you and eager to help you? Even if the people working there do their jobs well the process makes people feel like they are just a number, in fact the person might have to actually take a number and be called by the number instead of their name.
Government offices, at least in some places, might be technologically backward. There might be a computer interface that looks like Windows 3.0 or 3.1. There might even be a dot matrix printer like something out of an ancient history museum. If you make any comment about it the usual attitude is "So what do you want me to do? I just work here".
What a contrast with dealing with a private company. When you call a bright and cheerful voice asks "How can I help you today"? When you order something from a company like Amazon you can be sure that, if they tell you that you will get your package by a certain day then you will get it by that day. Have you ever noticed that, if your call goes to a voicemail or you get instructions by phone, a private company almost always has a pleasant and upbeat voice while the government office has an unenthusiastic monotone drone?
While dealing with private companies is not quite perfect most people would agree that, as far as pleasantry goes, it is much preferable to government offices. The question is whether this is being done, at least at some level, on purpose, although this doesn't mean that it was specifically planned or organized.
The purpose of this contrast between dealing with government offices and dealing with private companies is as an inoculation against Communism. In pure Communism there is no private enterprise, as everything is run by the government. After seeing the difference in dealing with government offices and dealing with private companies, who would want to be Communist?
Remember that the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman, will someday pass from the scene. His son, popularly known as MBS, is already the practical leader of the country. When he does officially become king there will be a royal coronation ceremony. The crowning of MBS will be especially important because he will be the first of the next generation to reign. For decades every transfer of power has been from one brother to another, following the death of the first Saudi king, Ibn Saud. The crowning of MBS will be the first father-to-son transfer since then.
Today is the wedding of the Crown Prince of Jordan. This is the grandson of the popular King Hussein, who died in 1999. The "crown prince", or "heir apparent" means the next in line to the throne. Many royals from across the world will be at the wedding. If you would like to revisit "Jordan And The Hashemites", here is a link to it:
www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2020/07/jordan-and-hashemites-12-17.html?m=0
