Instead of firing missiles, Iran’s weird holy man has taken to lobbing insults.  His murderous regime, responsible for creating and funding mayhem all over the Middle East and elsewhere, after gunning down hundreds if not thousands of ticked Iranian citizens, is calling us names.  That’s rich.  But that’s the BIG news.  The Supreme Leader fights back!  Verbally.  Guess they showed us.

It turns out the reports of no injuries in their missile attacks on U. S. installations in Iraq may have been premature.  Now we’re hearing of concussion injuries that weren’t immediately apparent, and we hope none are serious.  For everyone’s sake, it’s a good thing those attacks didn’t kill any Americans.  Otherwise, we might all be in a completely different situation.

We couldn’t have imagined that taking out one of the world’s bloodthirstiest terrorists would be construed by the mainstream as a big disaster, possibly igniting World War III.  The mainstream and the entrenched bureaucracy wrung its hands over the prospects of massive retaliation and a war that would envelop not only the Middle East, but all of human civilization.  They were wrong. The people of Iran have taken to the streets in numbers never seen before, in support of freedom, something no one under the age of 40 over there has ever known.

One of the foremost proponents of impeachment, and one of the reliable Trump accusers on network TV (David Gergen), has actually gone to worrying aloud over the prospect that the Islamic regime in Iran might collapse.  That would be his, and all the bobbing heads’ worst nightmare.  There would be no stopping the incumbent President if that were to happen, he said.

Unless of course, their impeachment charade turns out to be successful, and they could realize their nightly dream of removing him from office.  The troupe of impeachment managers ceremoniously brought their articles of impeachment to the Senate two by two, taking little half steps as they shuffled down the aisle.  It looked like a funeral without the casket.  If any justice remains to be had, it will be their own.  But if you consume the mainstream media, you see what we’ve seen for three years now.  They think they’ve almost got him.  Any minute now the bombshell they’ve promised every day for what seems like a lifetime will chase him from public view, and they can get back on the track of the previous eight years.  Smugly calling us all a bunch of racist, bigoted homophobes and regulating our consumption of water and production of carbon.

They could save the human race if they could just create the enforcement mechanisms to make us comply with every detail of their socialist Utopian dream, the Green New Deal, and the long and growing list of words and phrases we must not utter.  And they’re not shy.  One billionaire candidate runs ads saying, “We’ll save the world, and we’ll do it together.”  Unfortunately, saving the world means the destruction of Western civilization and the revocation of the freedoms with which we’ve been abundantly blessed.

There is a realization that is really quite stunning, yet entirely plausible in this developing circumstance.  We’ve all watched as everything the President supports has become intolerable to those who hate everything about him.  This has come to include support of Israel.  The last president treated that country like an ugly stepchild and sought to undermine Prime Minister Netanyahu and get him defeated.  With the miraculous advent of the Trump Presidency, we’ve seen a total revival of the traditional friendship and alliance that we’ve grown to expect over the decades.  But neither the media nor the President’s rivals can accept anything he says or does without finding fault.  We’ve seen them find fault with everything, including taking out Iran’s foremost plotter of terror.  They shook their heads in bewilderment when the U. S. embassy was moved to Jerusalem, concerned that it would just make all parties in the region (save for Israel) hate us all the more.  They already want everybody dead, so how much more could they hate us?  It’s hard to digest how uninformed, or ill-informed millions of people are, but most all of big media and the social media giants are working overtime to ensure that is the case.

If and when the would-be socialists (come communists) ever get control again, will the U. S. still support Israel financially and militarily?  The Bible foretells a time when armies will surround Jerusalem as a harbinger of end-time events, and alludes to a power in Europe that will enslave all mankind.  No doubt the media and the D. C. swamp would prefer that situation to the one they face.  That time is not yet, and we can praise God for that.

Mark

PS The fire disaster in Australia is not over, but there is word that it is raining in Sydney and points North of there. Last week they told us that there was no rain in the forecast.  You don’t suppose that our prayers and no doubt those of millions of Australians have something to do with it?  Don’t stop now.

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

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The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 17 January 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post US firefighters welcomed at Australian airport with round of applause first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Australian Defense Force is sending ships to the Victoria town of Mallacoota on a two-week supply mission and using helicopters to bring in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible, according to the Associated Press (AP).

On Tuesday, thousands of people from the town on Australia’s southeastern coast fled towards the water as a fire ripped through the area.

Photos of residents taking shelter on boats circulated on social media.

Nicole Asher@Nic_Asher

This is the situation in Mallacoota at the moment. A mother and her kids are sheltering in their boat on the water. People are reporting the sound of gas bottles exploding in town and quite a few homes have been burnt. @abcmelbourne #gippsnews #gippslandfires

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Seven people have died since Monday, with fires tearing through communities in New South Wales and Victoria states, according to the AP. The dead include a volunteer firefighter who was killed near the New South Wales-Victoria border when his truck was flipped over by what local authorities called a “fire tornado.”

In New South Wales, where Sydney is located, firefighters are battling more than 100 fires, according to the state’s Rural Fire Service.

Sydney’s famed New Year’s Eve fireworks went ahead despite the fires. A petition calling on the government to cancel the display and give the funds to firefighters and farmers instead got more than 280,000 signatures.

New South Wales’ Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said this wildfire season is the worst on record.

“We’ve seen extraordinary fire behavior,” he said Tuesday, according to the AP. “What we really need is meaningful rain, and we haven’t got anything in the forecast at the moment that says we’re going to get drought-breaking or fire-quenching rainfall.”

More than 900 homes have been destroyed in the state, according to New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

A fire tracker map maintained by researchers in Western Australia shows that they are also threatening areas around every major city in the country.

A map from researchers in Western Australia shows hundreds of wildfire hotspots across the nation as of Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020.

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And although the weather cooled slightly in parts of Australia on Wednesday, authorities warned that, with several months of summer left, the worst is not yet over.

“We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state,” Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp said, according to the AP.

Australia experienced its hottest-ever drought conditions in 2019, and the country has experienced record-breaking heat over the past few weeks.

“When you have very hot, dry, windy conditions, if all of those things come together, a fire can get quickly out of control,” Lesley Hughes, with the environmental group Climate Council of Australia, tells TIME.

“As the climate is warming up, we’re getting more and more extremely hot days and currently, of course, Australia is in the grip of probably unprecedented heatwave conditions almost right across the continent.”

Despite the bushfire crisis, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has argued that there is no direct link between Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and the severity of the fires burning across the country. However, he acknowledged that climate change could be impacting bushfires. Australia is one of the highest per-capita emitters of carbon dioxide in the world, according to Climate Analytics, an advocacy group that tracks climate data.

On Wednesday, bushfires burned in all directions outside of Sydney, including a fire near the Blue Mountains which has already destroyed an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Wildfires burn outside Sydney Landgate’s –MyFireWatch

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“Severe” and “very high” fire danger alerts have been issued for parts of New South Wales in eastern Australia for New Years Day. New South Wales’ Bureau of Meteorology warned of strong winds.

Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales@BOM_NSW

Urgent update for #NewYears revellers Strong #winds are making their way up the #NSW coast & are reaching #Sydney area. Winds are part of the forecast southerly change sweeping the coast & people on or around the harbour should take care http://ow.ly/5P9150xKsfM  @nswpolice #SydNYE

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People in Sydney posted photos this week of haze enveloping the city. Haze from the fires was impacting places as far away as New Zealand, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.

 

Joe O’Brien@JoeABCNews

2019 .. the year Sydney lost its blue December sky in an ominous haze. Australia-wide; 9 people dead, 1000 homes lost, 4m hectares burnt out. #AustraliaBushfires

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Several major wildfires burning across Southern Australia on Wednesday. Thousands of lightning strikes earlier this week sparked dozens of fires, reports the Adelaide Advertiser.

Wildfires burn outside Adelaide –Landgate’s MyFireWatch

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Several wildfires are also burning in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest city, is located.

Wildfires burn in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located –Landgate’s MyFireWatch

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State authorities issued an emergency warning on Wednesday urging some residents of Sunbury, a town about 25 miles northwest of Melbourne, to leave as firefighters battled a blaze.

The Premier of Victoria posted a New Years’ message on Twitter wishing safety to those fighting the fires.

Dan Andrews@DanielAndrewsMP

Usually, I’d just be wishing you all a happy New Year – but it’s a tough start to 2020 for lots of Victorians.

So to everyone affected by the bushfires, and to our fireys, emergency workers and volunteers putting their lives on the line: stay safe.

And thank you.

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The climate scientist Hughes tells TIME that the widespread wildfire crisis has made climate change a reality for many Australians.

“Certainly this summer, these conditions, the ongoing drought, the heatwave, and the fires, are really bringing home to people that climate change is not some future hypothetical issue,” she says.

Peter Dunn, a former commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Authority and a member of advocacy group Emergency Leaders for Climate Action tells TIME that the wildfire crisis has “fundamentally shifted” the climate debate in Australia. He and other climate change activists believe Morrison’s position on the country’s greenhouse gas emissions is hindering the government’s ability to tackle the wildfire crisis.

“By not accepting the link between climate change and bushfires as fully as [the government] should, we’re not getting sufficiently prepared to cope with the problem,” Hughes says.

“It’s really, really frustrating, the ongoing intransigence of this federal Conservative government.”

She’s not the only Australian upset over government inaction. Protests broke out at Morrison’s office in December, with demonstrators demanding action on climate change, while others criticized Morrison for taking a vacation to Hawaii during the fire crisis. The Prime Minister cut short his family holiday and apologized for the timing of his trip.

“We’ve had no leadership from the government whatsoever. They’ve been missing in action,” Dunn says.

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Source: https://time.com/5753584/bushfires-australia-catastrophic-fire-alert/

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The post Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

At least eight people have died this week in the New South Wales region and the neighboring state of Victoria, The Associated Press reported.

“More than a quarter of the country is on fire. This state of emergency is rocking Australia to its core,” said Natasha Exelby, a reporter for Network 10, on “CBS This Morning.”

The state of emergency is set to last seven days in anticipation of a potentially catastrophic day on Saturday, according to New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian. The premier said the state of emergency will allow for emergency personnel to evacuate people, as well as open and close roads. People evacuating from the region have been facing gridlocked traffic and long lines at gas stations and supermarkets.

Under NSW’s State of Emergency and Rescue Management Act of 1989, the declaration triggers a range of measures and gives the Rural Fire Service commissioner powers to forcibly evacuate people, control over the allocation of government resources, among other powers.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly. But we also want to make sure we’re taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday,” Berejiklian said at a press conference announcing the state of emergency.

Strong winds are expected on Saturday, and temperatures are expected to surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit (at least 40 degrees Celsius).

“There are a lot of tourists on the move, and allowing us to declare the state of emergency… will allow us to ensure that we can provide safe access to roads,” Berejiklian said.

Where are the fires burning?

The fires are primarily raging in New South Wales, which is home to Sydney and more than seven million people.

The nearby Australian state of Victoria in the country’s southeast is also being hit hard. Earlier this week, fires turned day to night in the coastal tourist town of Mallacoota. A siren sounded Tuesday morning, telling about 4,000 people to flee to the town’s waterfront, BBC News reported. By mid-morning, the sky turned pitch black before turning a shade of red.

The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, December 31, 2019.SOCIAL MEDIA

Mass evacuations, being facilitated by the military, began on Friday morning in Victoria. Thousands of people were being taken to a port near Melbourne, about a 17-hour-long journey, according to Network 10 reporter Exelby.

Australian Minister of Defense Linda Reynolds tweeted that defense helicopters are transporting firefighters, performing recon, as wells as search and rescue operations in Mallacoota. The Associated Press reported the military delivered food, water, fuel and medical expertise to Mallacoota, and about 500 people were going to be evacuated from the town by a naval ship.

Fire Map:

Map of Australia’s fire activity.  NASA

Why are there fires in Australia?

Bushfires are normally a natural process in Australia. But the combination of drought, record-breaking heat, and strong winds have contributed to the devastating proportions of this year’s fires.

A drought has plagued eastern Australia since early 2017, and rainfall in November was the lowest ever on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the government agency responsible for providing weather services.

According to a December special report produced by the bureau on their 2019 spring (our fall) fire conditions, the season “saw the highest fire weather danger as measured by the Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI), with record-high values observed in areas of all States and Territories.”

“The dangerous fire weather conditions during spring 2019 is consistent with the increasingly severe fire weather seen in many areas of the country, owing to increasing temperatures and reduced cool season rainfall,” the bureau wrote.

When did the fires start?

Fires began to intensify at the start of Australia’s summer, in September.

“The season began with areas of northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland having above-average daytime temperatures, very low humidity, and gusty winds leading to dangerous fire weather conditions,” The Bureau of Meteorology wrote in their spring fire report. “FFDI values were 100 or above (catastrophic category) at some locations in New South Wales on 6 September, which marked the onset of numerous large fires in eastern Australia.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a press conference on New Year’s Day that the fires will last until the rain comes.

“Unlike a flood, where the water will recede, in a fire like this, it goes on. And it will continue to go on — as those in the agencies have advised us — until we can get some decent rain,” Morrison said.

Forecasters predict the fires will get worse in the coming days.

How many acres (hectares) have burnt?

About 7 million acres (three million hectares) have burned in New South Wales since July, according to the area’s Rural Fire Service, the BBC reported. And about 12.35 million acres (five million hectares) of land have burned across the country, according to The Associated Press.

To put that in perspective, about 4 million acres (1.8 million hectares) burned in California’s 2018 wildfires, and about 2 million acres (900,000 hectares) burned during Brazil’s 2019 Amazon fires.

More than 1,400 homes have been destroyed, according to The Associated Press.

Some flames have been reported to reach up to 230 feet (70 meters) in height, according to the fire service. For comparison, the Sydney Opera House is about 213 feet (65 meters) tall.

What is being done to stop the fires?

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), the world’s largest fire service, made up of 74,000 volunteer members, is working to stymie the fires. The federal government has agreed to a plan to provide financial compensation to the firefighters who have volunteered their time, the BBC reported.

Morrison initially rejected the plan, saying it should not lead to permanent pay.

“While I know RFS volunteers don’t seek payment for their service, I don’t want to see volunteers or families unable to pay bills, or struggle financially as a result of the selfless contribution they are making,” Morrison said in announcing his compensation decision, after weeks of criticism by opposition parties. “This is not about paying volunteers. It is about sustaining our volunteer efforts by protecting them from financial loss.”

Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said at a press conference on New Year’s Day that “everything that humanly possibly can be done, is being done.”

Morrison’s government has faced criticism for its response to the current crisis, and to climate change as a whole. During a visit on Thursday to the coastal village of Cobargo in New South Wales where two people died and many lost their homes, Morrison was berated by locals.

“Every single time this area has a flood or a fire, we get nothing. If we were Sydney, if we were north coast, we would be flooded with donations with urgent emergency relief,” a resident in Cobargo told The Associated Press.

Residents directly criticized the prime minister for the lack of equipment to deal with the fires in town. In at least one incident in New South Wales, a woman refused to shake hands with Morrison. He then grabbed her hand to shake it.

In a separate incident during the same visit, a firefighter also refused to shake Morrison’s hand.

Morrison has urged those who are evacuating to be patient, The Guardian reported. He has defended his climate policies.

“Let me be clear to the Australian people, our emissions reductions policies will both protect our environment and seek to reduce the risk and hazard we are seeing today. At the same time, it will seek to make sure the viability of people’s jobs and livelihoods, all around the country,” Morrison said.

Last month, the prime minister vacationed in Hawaii while the bushfires intensified back home. He cut his trip short after receiving public backlash, The Guardian reported.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-fires-fire-map-5-questions-answered-how-many-hectares-have-burnt-where-are-the-fires-burning/

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The media goes out of its way to keep us on edge most of the time, but this week has been unusual.  Last week President Trump made the decision to take out the murderous Iranian general, Suliemani with a drone strike.  You might think that killing a guy with that much blood on his hands would be viewed by most Americans and by our domestic media as a positive development.  But you’d be wrong.  The mainstream media hates Trump (and all who support him as President) so fervently that they reported it as possibly the worst mistake ever.  Iran was going to punish us in ways we never thought of.  Why Trump may have just struck the match that would result in WW III, the networks fretted.

It looks like they were wrong, again.  It also looks like Iran went out of its way to make sure they didn’t inflict death or injury on any Americans or anyone else for that matter.  Word is that they sloppily allowed their strike plans to be transmitted to third-party nations that would have tipped us off. But then some big names, including the Vice President are publicly insisting that Iran did intend to inflict death on Americans, but luckily missed.

For a period of months, preparations have been underway. A recent cover of 21^st Century WATCH showed a convoy of U. S. warships steaming toward the Persian Gulf.  American fighter-bomber aircraft have been prepositioned in the event that the situation escalates, and the mullahs had little doubt that Trump meant business.  So they’ve apparently invented a way to save face.  They fired missiles at bases in Iraq from Iran, but telegraphed the action in advance, including the time of the strikes.  As you’ve probably seen, many believe that Iran was careful not to kill any Americans, but at the same time gave their hardliners something to make them feel better after their revered (terrorist mastermind) general was terminated.  Then again, some insist otherwise.  It’s starting to look like Iran took out a Ukrainian passenger plane soon after takeoff from Tehran, probably by mistake.  It’s been reported that there were 176 people lost, with some Canadian citizens among them.  It’s a good thing there were no Americans.

Meanwhile, we’ve been assured by President Trump that Iran will never be allowed to produce nuclear weapons, at least not while he’s President.  That has been the greatest concern for more than a decade.  It was particularly relevant during the time that an agreement was signed by the previous president and his allies that gave Iran a clear path to do just that after a period of time.  The mainstream media rarely misses an opportunity to mourn Trump’s revocation of the “Iran deal.”  For all they knew, it might spell the end of the world.

The German, French, and EU officials have been exasperated about it too.  They’re still carrying on about it.  They too are scandalized that an American President seems to be doing the bidding of the United States rather than worrying about getting their diplomatic approval for his actions.  How dare he act so impulsively on behalf of the U. S. without running it by all the international bodies?

Here’s a bulletin:  It looks like Trump just may know what he’s doing, and considers all the legal ramifications before speaking or acting.  One false move in this environment would not be good.

Whatever happened to impeachment?  It was urgent, urgent, urgent that President Trump be removed from office before any more damage was done, they said.  The House of Representatives, with its liberal majority, voted to impeach him and claimed it was imperative to move with all haste.  But that was weeks ago, and so far they’ve not sent the paperwork to the Senate for trial.  Why not?  That’s a question that’s raging when Iran’s not on the front burner.  The answer is, maybe digging into how all this happened in the first place might not turn out so good for those pounding the impeachment drum.  Mrs. Pelosi surely will have to submit the House’s impeachment documents to the Senate.  We don’t know if there’s going to be a real trial in the Senate, or whether the case will be summarily dismissed.  Neither will work out well for the architects of impeachment.  Truth is, they better hope it gets dismissed.  Otherwise, the shenanigans they’ve pulled in the process may play out on national television, much to their embarrassment.

Over the years, it’s been a habit to be aware of what the mainstream networks were saying.  That’s not been easy of late.  Listening to self-important “news-people” describe how “This President has no idea how things work…”  Even the ABC network radio breaks have been insufferable.  They routinely read Trump’s mind and tell you of his evil intentions, after misinterpreting his words and actions.  Does nobody use a figure of speech?  Is our language not geared for humor, or the occasional exaggeration to be taken in jest?  No, the media insists that we lose our sense of humor and dissect everything literally.  How much fun would that be?  Here in Tyler, we got an announcement this week that the only local news and talk-radio station was dropping its ABC network affiliation.  Apparently the local station got so many angry complaints, they felt it necessary to pull the plug.

It’s very likely that the reports around impeachment, that Trump withheld Congressionally approved military aid in exchange for assurances that his political opponent would be investigated, was what drove people to call.  I too heard the newsbreaks, and couldn’t believe that ABC was making such an accusation based on the word of people who’ve been making the most ridiculous claims since Donald J. Trump arrived on the scene.   But there it was, on every news break.

Meanwhile, fires are sweeping over large segments of Australia.  If you see a map, it looks like fire is sweeping the continent.  Up to 85% of them are thought to have been instigated by human beings.  We’ll probably never know the extent of it.  The news organizations never got to the bottom of many of the devastating California fires either, likely by design.  But there is the suspicion that it may be a form of terrorism, and Australia has had its share of immigration problems from the Middle East, Northern Africa, Indonesia.

It’s worldwide news now and you can read of the heartbreaking devastation of people losing their homes and property and in some cases, lucky to be escaping with their lives.  Speculation about the loss of wildlife is off the chart. At some point, you would think that a disastrous circumstance like this would supersede the destructive ideologies of “global warming” and socialism.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case, either here or down under.  We’ve heard that the U. S. is sending help to fight the fires, but it seems untold damage has already been done.  They need rain, and there is none in the forecast.  A girl known to American viewers did a report on how they’re nursing rescued Koalas and other indigenous species, and she could barely contain her tears when talking of the breadth of the damage.  Her emotion seemed to be for more than just the animals. Let’s pray they get some rain.

Western civilization is under sustained attack nearly everywhere, and there’s no line of illogic they won’t trot out to manipulate public opinion.  The mainstream media, the major corporations all seem to want to deceive us on a regular basis in order to pry the last of us loose from our belief in God and get us to realize that we live in a modern era, devoid of God’s Laws and ignorant of His Will.  They’ll keep trying, but some of us know where we came from and will not comply.  This has been the case since long before any hint of a Trump Presidency.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 10 January 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

TOMERONG, Australia — 

The post Australians on southeast coast urged to flee as fire risk escalates first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

More than 800 million of those animals are estimated to have been killed in New South Wales alone, according to a statement from The University of Sydney.

“It’s events like this that may well hasten the extinction process for a range of other species,” Professor Chris Dickman of The University of Sydney, the expert who made the estimate, told National Public Radio.

Dickman, an ecologist, has more than 30 years of experience in the conservation and management of Australian mammals. He is the former president of the Australian Mammal Society and the Royal Zoological Society of NSW.

Previous numbers estimated that more than 480 million animals had been killed since the September fires began.

A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola, Australia, Dec. 31, 2019. Matthew Abbott/The New York Times via Redux

However, Dickman warns that he was deliberately conservative with the estimates and expects the true mortality rate “to be substantially higher.”

The animals in the estimate include mammals (excluding bats), birds and reptiles, but does not include frogs, insects or other invertebrates. ABC News has reached out to Dickman for more details.

Australia’s fire season typically runs from December to March, but these fires began in September and are expected to last for several more months.

The staggering loss of life is the latest catastrophic effect the fires have had on the country.

So far this fire season, 1,687 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales, with 771 homes lost since Jan. 1 alone, according to the state’s Rural Fire Service.

An injured koala rests in a basket at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park in the Parndana region on January 8, 2020 on Kangaroo Island, Australia. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

“That figure is likely to increase,” a tweet from the firefighting agency read.

Paula Ugrinov, a resident of Mogo, New South Wales, was one of the many residents who lost her home.

She received a call from her neighbor that her house had been destroyed, and on Wednesday, she returned to see it for herself.

A firefighter manages a controlled burn near Tomerong, Australia, Jan. 8, 2020, set in an effort to contain a larger fire nearby. Rick Rycroft/AP

“It’s just so naked. It looks bizarre,” Ugrinov told ABC News’ Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee.

Ugrinov said she isn’t sure what she will do next, but is confident Mogo will stand tall once again.

“I just think that the community will pull together even stronger. It will be restored,” she said. “I believe God can work through this and restore.”

The post More than 1 billion animals estimated dead in Australia wildfires: Expert first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

This new calendar year began with a BOOM heard round the world.  President Trump pulled the trigger on the bloodiest terrorist this side of al Baghdadi, the Iranian leader Soleimani, blowing him and his convoy to bits at the Baghdad International Airport.   He was the “brains,” the organizer and commander of Iranian militias instigating mayhem in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza.  What was he doing there?

This comes hot on the heels of the “demonstrations” at the American Embassy inside the Green Zone.  Iraqi guards were supposed to be protecting against incursions into the Green Zone but went missing amid the onslaught that we all witnessed outside the walls of the American compound.  Though it hasn’t been reported explicitly, the angry “demonstrations” that took place on January 1^st were likely the brain-child of Soleimani.  Apparently, he’d come to Iraq to take control of further actions against the American contingent in Baghdad, and probably had designs on using Iranian leverage to insist that the Iraqi government demand the immediate removal of all American assets.  Kicking the American military out of Iraq was already part of the narrative, and the attempted attack against the embassy was part of that plan.

It is being reported that both previous American presidents, Bush and Obama, had the intelligence and the logistical opportunities to take out Soleimani in years past, but chose not to risk whatever reaction might occur in Iran.  President Obama tried to make friends with Iran with the now-defunct “nuclear deal,” and then by sending them a billion dollars in untraceable currency.  We’d hate to know how that money was spent.  It not only propped up the theocratic Islamic regime but was no doubt used to further the efforts of Iranian militias and terrorists wreaking havoc all over the region.

President Trump was asked a couple of days ago whether he was afraid of kindling a war with Iran.  He replied that it would be a stupid move on Iran’s part, and declared that such a war, “wouldn’t last long.”

As everybody knows, Iran has vowed retaliation.  Harsh REVENGE, says the Ayatollah Khameini.   There will be massive rallies calling for death to Israel, and death to America.  But what’s new?  They’ve been spewing the most heinous of threats for thirty-some years!  It is obvious that President Trump believes that we now have all of our military assets staged.  The cover of our third quarter 2019 edition of 21^st Century WATCH featured a convoy of American warships en-route to the Persian Gulf and environs.  You’ve probably seen that squadrons of airplanes have been delivered to American bases in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel cut short his visit to Greece and returned to Israel upon the news of Soleimani’s death.  He expressed support and appreciation for the action that took out Soleimani and his entourage.  The Jerusalem Post describes the men killed as “irreplaceable.”  It describes Muhandis, the Iranian proxy leader in Iraq who came to the airport to greet Soleimani upon his arrival, as even “far more irreplaceable,” in that he was the prime example of Iran’s dependable proxy in a neighboring country.  The J Post talks of retaliatory moves that Iran could take, all of which have no doubt been considered by the Pentagon and the President.  They could mine the Persian Gulf.  They could once again attack Saudi Arabian assets with rockets.  They could launch rockets and missiles at Israel, or at American bases.  Or maybe they’ll just go quiet for the time being.  This is the first time since Ronald Reagan that Iran has had its nose bloodied.  When Reagan sank a third of the Iranian navy, the Mullah’s got real quiet for a period of several years.  So that’s also a possibility.

Some irony in the equation is the fact that Muhandis and his paramilitary force in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Unit actually fought alongside American forces in the recent effort to drive ISIS (Sunni Arabs) out of Iraq.  But, as we mentioned, Muhandis was Iran’s proxy in Iraq.  The mullahs want the U. S. out of Iraq so it can be in full operational control.  With ISIS gone, Iran and its proxies intended to drive American military assets out of Iraq in order to exert complete control.

To go back over all the provocations and responses that led us to this point would be futile because there’s no end to them.  But the most recent were a dozen rocket attacks against U. S. bases killing hundreds of Iraqis, wounding thousands, with some American casualties that we’ve been hearing about.  These guys, Soleimani and Muhandis were undoubtedly the architects of the recent incidents.  Indications are that Soleimani had come to Iraq to coordinate further moves against American forces within the “Green Zone.”  Iran wants the U. S. out of Iraq so they can rule it as a proxy state, and they intended to do so with the claim of Iraqi cooperation.  It looks like they’ll need a new plan.

A disaster is playing out in Australia with some two hundred wildfires burning out of control.  The shame is that “green” laws have been enacted (similar to the situation in California) where people are not allowed to clear trees or brush around their properties.  The flora and fauna just wouldn’t be amused.  So the fires sweep across the landscape without sparing anything in their path.  People are stranded in some locations, particularly in the small beachfront communities between Sydney and Melbourne.  People don’t have electricity, they don’t have phone service, and some are being rescued by the Australian navy.  What a shame, especially knowing that some of it was at least partially avoidable.

Mark

PS  We’ve received a bulk shipment of the new Watch magazine that features the smoky insignia of Iran on the cover. We went that route largely because of the recent wave of rage that swept cities and towns across Iran.  But that choice seems to have been made even more relevant by the action that has been taken against a couple of Iran’s bloodiest commanders, responsible for the loss of untold American lives and the lives of people all across the Middle East.  The dead guys were planning further attacks against our troops, probably intending to go after the embassy grounds, according to a statement just delivered by President Trump.  If you don’t have the new magazine yet, it’s on the way!

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 3 January 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.