“The churches form a global civil society network of over two billion Christians. Together, as people of faith, we live from the firm hope for a better world,” said Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, a theology professor who is helping coordinate the conference.

The event will take place at the Brandenburg Gate, not far from Obama’s first major international speech in Europe as he campaigned for president in 2008. During that speech, Obama noted that “the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together.”

“I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world,” he said as he opened his speech.

If passed, Texans would secure stability by reclaiming their purchasing power — without being subject to the whims of The Fed — an institution widely regarded as a devious manipulator of currencies and markets.

Senator Bob Hall introduced the bill last month, which, the Tenth Amendment Center explains, “declares specifically that certain gold and silver coins are legal tender, and prohibits any tax, charge, assessment, fee, or penalty on any exchange of Federal Reserve notes (dollars) for gold or silver. The bill authorizes the payment of taxes and fees in gold & silver in certain circumstances. It would also prohibit the seizure of gold or silver by state authorities.”

Should lawmakers side with the financial interests of Texans and pass this legislation, Texas would join Utah, which began recognizing gold and silver coins issued by the United States as legal tender in 2011.

Ralph Lauren Corp, meanwhile, said it will close its flagship Fifth Avenue Polo store — a symbol of old-fashioned luxury that no longer resonates with today’s shoppers. And the teen-apparel retailer Rue21 Inc could be the next casualty. The chain, which has about 1,000 stores, is preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as this month, according to people familiar with the situation.

Just a few years ago, it was sold to private equity firm Apax Partners for about a billion dollars. “It’s an industry that’s still in search for answers,” said Noel Hebert, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “I don’t know how many malls can reinvent themselves."

That should really tell you something. It should tell you that our system doesn’t care about what the president stands for, or what the voters want. The system is never held accountable for anything, so there is nothing stopping it. One way or another, the deep state always gets its way. So if our government wants a war, then you can bet that we’re going to war.

That was made abundantly clear last week when President Trump ordered the bombing of an air base in Syria. The attack was so provocative, that the Kremlin went so far as to say that the US is now “only one step from war” with Russia. The man who was supposed to buck the system and drain the swamp; the man who promised to restore our relationship with Russia and pull back from brinkmanship, seems to have finally submitted to the warmongers in our government. The deep state’s plan to drag us into a horrible conflagration was only temporarily derailed by Trump, and now it appears that their plans are back on track.

When you consider all of this, one thing is absolutely clear. If Trump drags us into another major war, regardless of whether or not it is global in scope, the dollar is going to crash. It may not even survive in its current form. And when that happens, people are going to flee toward safe haven assets. You can rest assured that gold is going to make a comeback, the likes of which none of us have seen in our lifetimes.

In fact, as noted by Fukushima Watch, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl plant meltdown in Ukraine could get even worse if the plant’s fuel rod storage pool collapses:

…A former nuclear engineer, Arnie Gundersen, believes the worst is yet to come, as workers at the plant get closer to the reactors.

“As they get in the containment vessel at Fukushima Daiichi Unit, they’re finding that combination of hot steam – these are not just radioactive chemicals, but it’s a toxic mix of chemicals that are going to react with the steel,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “So there’s rust and hunks of nuclear fuel lying around, and steam, and it’s raining all the time because of the condensation. I think it’s about as close to hell as I could imagine,” he added, noting that the contamination will continue for thousands of years.

Could something like that happen in the United States? Could a massive earthquake severely damage domestic nuclear plants?

A new interactive chart created by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is really a database of US nuclear reactors and safety issues associated with them, shows a higher-than-average concentration of nuclear plants along the nation’s East Coast that are at risk of being damaged or destroyed by an earthquake.

They include: St Lucie Units 1 & 2 at Hutchison Island, Florida; North Anna Units 1, 2 & 3 at Mineral, Virginia; Peach Bottom Units 1, 2 & 3, Delta, Pennsylvania; Limerick Units 1 & 2, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Indian Point Units 1, 2 & 3, Buchanan, New York, and Seabrook Unit 1, Seabrook, New Hampshire.

In 2014, a senior federal nuclear expert recommended a nuclear plant in California be shuttered due to its risk of suffering major damage in an earthquake, CBS News reported. Michael Peck, who was Diablo Canyon’s chief on-site inspector for five years, said in a 42-page confidential report at the time that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was failing to apply “the safety rules it set out for the plant’s operation,” the news network reported.

Sound familiar?

Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 NATO-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Hundreds of young sub-Saharan African men have been caught up in the so-called slave markets, according to the IOM report. A Senegalese migrant, who was not named to protect his identity, said that he had been sold at one such market in the southern Libyan city of Sabha, before being taken to a makeshift prison where more than 100 migrants were being held hostage.

He said that migrants held at the facility were told to call their families, who would be asked for money to pay for their release, and some were beaten while on the phone to allow relatives to hear them being tortured. He described "dreadful" conditions where migrants were forced to survive on limited food supplies, with those unable to pay either killed or left to starve, the report adds.

The official offered circumstantial elements to back up his claim, but no concrete proof. And others in the Trump administration cautioned that final American determination had been made that Russia had advance knowledge of the attack, which killed more than 80 people and prompted retaliatory US cruise missile strikes.

The senior official said Monday that a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons.

Senior representatives of the administration just muddied the waters on Sunday, giving out mixed messages on whether they were looking for a quick deal with Russia, the Assad regime’s backer, to end the tense situation or whether the White House had a new and clear objective in Syria.

There's another possibility altogether. Trump's objective may not even be in Syria. Some of the most influential voices in his administration, especially that of strategy chief Steve Bannon, see Russia as an ally and believe the biggest threat lies eastward, in China. The latest escalation in the Middle East was preceded by a war of words between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's nuclear program.

Last week, Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times that "China will either help us with North Korea, or they won’t. If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be very good for anyone.”