Last September, Jacqueline Straub wrote a letter to the pope. (First off: People still write letters?) But Straub wasn’t fishing for a papal pen pal. While some might argue she was using pen and paper to beat her head against a wall, Straub, a 24-year-old theology student, would likely counter that she was taking a step toward career change. Using quotes from St. Augustine as backup, she urged Pope Francis to “recognize the signs of the time.” Sassy! And quite possibly delusional. Straub, you see, wants to shatter one of the Catholic church’s most fundamental traditions and become a priest. MORE

For as hard as Donald Trump is running for president, you could be forgiven for thinking he was running against Ford.

Throughout his insurgent campaign, Trump has repeatedly attacked the idea of automakers exporting jobs to Mexico while importing cars, specifically Ford. That line drew applause when he deployed it in Michigan on Tuesday, saying he’d be the only president who would would stop Ford from building a new factory in Mexico: MORE

A mostly uncontrolled wildfire in Lake and Napa counties continued its push to the northeast Tuesday, nearly merging with the massive blaze that has burned in the region for two weeks and attracting hundreds of additional firefighters in a bid to shield rural ranches and communities in the fire’s path. MORE

ZURICH (Reuters) – Neutral Switzerland will officially lift on Thursday sanctions against Iran that had been suspended since January 2014, the government announced on Wednesday, citing a deal last month between Tehran and six big powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program. MORE

Hundreds of customers remained without power Tuesday afternoon after an enormous wall of dust — called a haboob — pushed into the Phoenix area, turning the sky an eerie shade of red.

More than 10,000 customers lost power in the region Tuesday morning, electric utilities said, and several inbound flights were diverted at Sky Harbor International Airport. MORE

Hundreds of customers remained without power Tuesday afternoon after an enormous wall of dust — called a haboob — pushed into the Phoenix area, turning the sky an eerie shade of red.

More than 10,000 customers lost power in the region Tuesday morning, electric utilities said, and several inbound flights were diverted at Sky Harbor International Airport. MO

Those who don’t think the US is heavily dependent on China as a market are delusional. Check out this chart. Without these tremendous increases in exports to China, these states would be in far worse shape than they already are. When this devaluation is complete, the companies in these states will be 10% less competitive. Their exports will decline. When exports decline, companies fire workers. Get ready. The fireworks are just beginning. Fourth Turnings sure are entertaining. SOURCE

Now in the space of one month, four enormous explosions have happened in Russia and China, one of the explosions in China was so huge the Chinese government had to seed the clouds to put the fire out!  MORE

A largely horrified public has watched five videos on the selling of aborted babies—sacrificed to the gods of “scientific research.” The heartless defenders of their dismemberment for profit, claim that it contributes to “life-saving research.”

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Enormous explosions in a major Chinese port city have killed at least 44 people, leaving an apocalyptic landscape of incinerated cars, crumpled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings. MORE

A former KGB Spy has recently claimed that Liberation Theology – condemned by previous popes but currently promoted by Pope Francis – is a creation of the KGB and the Soviet Union.

The Catholic News Agency has published an interview with Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former general in Romania’s secret police who was one of the Eastern Bloc’s highest-ranking defectors in the 1970s. In it, he says that the Soviet Union – and the KGB in particular – created Liberation Theology, the quasi-Marxist movement that flourished in Latin America from the 1960s to the 1990s. Previous popes, particularly St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, have condemned Liberation Theology, and have written in unequivocal terms that it is “incompatible with the Christian Faith”. MORE

California is first in the nation to agree to pay for a transgender inmate’s sex reassignment operation, but the state’s settlement of a recent court case sidesteps the question of whether such surgery is a constitutional right. MORE

A heat wave that has already killed dozens and sickened thousands in Japan reached another torrid milestone Friday as the nation’s capital, Tokyo, suffered an unprecedented eighth consecutive day of extreme heat.

Tokyo reached 37.7 degrees Celsius (99.9 degrees Fahrenheit) Friday, marking its eighth straight day of highs at or above Japan’s “extreme heat” threshold of 35 C (95 F). An analysis of Japan Meteorological Agency data, conducted by The Weather Channel, confirmed that the previous record was just four consecutive days sent on five different occasions between 1978 and 2013. Records began in central Tokyo in June 1875. MORE

Weekend storms have killed six people in Chile and forced evacuations in neighboring Argentina, officials said Monday.

Chile’s national emergency office said three people were killed Sunday by landslide in the northern port town of Tocopilla, which was visited Monday by President Michelle Bachelet.

Three other people died Saturday: A man drowned at sea near Valparaiso, another was crushed by a tree in O’Higgins region and a third person died when his roof collapsed in the northern city of La Serena. MORE