Thursday, February 6, 2014

In The News







The US State Department criticized on Wednesday the announcement that municipal planners had approved the construction of 558 new apartments in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.“Our position on Jerusalem is clear,” said State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters at a daily briefing. “We oppose any unilateral actions by either party that attempt to prejudge final status issues, including the status of Jerusalem.”

“We’ve called on both sides to take steps to create a positive atmosphere for the negotiations.”

Kerry has been trying to get Israelis and Palestinians to agree on a nonbinding framework agreement before the current nine-month time frame for talks runs out. Palestinian officials said earlier Wednesday that the decision to build in east Jerusalem undermined the fragile US-brokered negotiations.

The Jerusalem municipality said its planning committee approved building permits in the neighborhoods of Har Homa, Neve Yaakov and Pisgat Zeev, built on land Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed. Most of the international community considers them illegal settlements.


Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel was undermining Kerry’s peace efforts with the move. “The international community must hold Israel accountable for this policy,” he said.
The announcement of new construction was blasted by veteran PLO politician Hanan Ashrawi, who said “Israel is engaging in the deliberate provocation of the Palestinians to drive them to leave the negotiations in protest of Israeli violations.”
Israel is attempting to “ensure the failure of negotiations and the destruction of the two-state solution” with its ”violations of international and humanitarian law,” she added.
Lior Amihai of the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now said the new approvals were “shameful” at a time when negotiations are in a sensitive stage.







With continued chaos and uncertainty in global markets, today KWN is publishing an incredibly powerful piece that was written by a 60-year market veteran.  The Godfather of newsletter writers, Richard Russell, is warning that the coming collapse will be brutal


The markets (which normally tell us the truth) are being controlled and manipulated by the government and the Federal Reserve.


Interestingly, big box retailers are losing their middle class buyers, and it’s only the wealthy that are brightening their favorite retail stores, such as Tiffany and Nordstrom.  The battered middle class are frequenting their favorite discounters, leaving their previous favorites such as Target, JC Penney and Best Buy wondering why their same store sales are fading.  Again I advise subscribers to stay on the side and watch history unfold.”

With all of the chaos and radical events that are taking place around the world, these are the moments when living legends such as Richard Russell are needed the most.  He has been writing about these markets for over 60 years.  Recently his warnings have intensified.  I take that as a sign that he is right and the coming tribulation will be one for the history books. 








The death of the middle class in America has become so painfully obvious that now even the New York Timesis doing stories about it.  Millions of middle class jobs have disappeared, incomes are steadily decreasing, the rate of homeownership has declined for eight years in a row and U.S. consumers have accumulated record-setting levels of debt.  Being independent is at the heart of what it means to be "middle class", and unfortunately the percentage of Americans that are able to take care of themselves without government assistance continues to decline.  In fact, the percentage of Americans that are receiving government assistance is now at an all-time record high.  This is not a good thing.  Sadly, the number of people on food stamps has increased by nearly 50 percent while Barack Obama has been in the White House, and at this point nearly half the entire country gets money from the government each month.  Anyone that tries to tell you that the middle class is going to be "okay" simply has no idea what they are talking about.  The following are 28 signs that the middle class is heading toward extinction...


As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.







The apparent suicide death of the chief economist of a US investment house brings the number of financial workers who have died allegedly by their own hand to four in the last week.
50-year-old Mike Dueker, who had worked for Russell Investment for five years, was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State, says AP.
Local police say he could have jumped over a fence and fallen 15 meters to his death, and are treating the case as a suicide.
Dueker’s apparent suicide was the fourth among financial experts in a week.
A 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, William Broeksmit, was found dead on January 26 in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London.
The next day, January 27, Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, 51, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok. Police said he could have committed suicide. Mr. Slym was staying on the 22nd floor with his wife, and was attending a board meeting in the Thai capital.
Another tragic incident occurred on January 28, when a 39-year-old Gabriel Magee, a JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of its European headquarters in London.










NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released that photo to illustrate what a year of drought conditions (which have intensified recently) have wrought on the landscape. The amount of snow in California's Sierra region is between 4 percent and 22 percent of normal. And a change that drastic is easily seen from space.
It's possibly the worst drought California has experienced in 500 years. Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency. Some rural areas may run out of water entirely in the next four months if conditions don't improve. California's State Water Project, an agency that redistributes water from the snowy mountains in the north to the drier south, has announced it cannot deliver water to many communities in the coming months. Those towns will be on their own for water resources

Why is this happening? Meteorologists say it's because of persistent high pressure over the region (called in weather media the "resilient ridge"), which is diverting storms northward toward Alaska. It's the same bit of high pressure that has caused the "arctic vortex" to push southward on the eastern half of the United States. (This video provides a great explainer of how the two are related.)

The result is a bone-dry landscape. In this map, also from NASA, you can clearly see how incredibly dry the state is. 
And the frustrating truth is that there's little the state can do but conserve and wait. 








When a real terrorist attack happens, sometimes we don’t hear about it until months afterward (if we ever hear about it at all).  For example, did you know that a team of snipers shot up a power station in California?  The terrorists destroyed 17 transformers and did so much damage that the power station was shut down for a month.  And it only took them 19 minutes of shooting to do it.  Of course most Americans have absolutely no idea that this ever happened, because they get their news from the mainstream media.  The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at that time says that this was “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred”, and yet you won’t hear about it on the big news networks.  They are too busy covering the latest breaking news on the Justin Bieber scandal.
And maybe it is good thing that most people don’t know about this.  The truth is that we are a nation that is absolutely teeming with “soft targets”, and if people realized how vulnerable we truly are they might start freaking out.
If you have not heard about the attack on the Silicon Valley substation yet, you should look into it.  The following is an excerpt from a Business Insider articleabout the sniper assault…


The Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Smith reports that a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman is acknowledging for the first time that a group of snipers shot up a Silicon Valley substation for 19 minutes last year, knocking out 17 transformers before slipping away into the night.
The attack was “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred” in the U.S., Jon Wellinghoff, who was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, told Smith.








A national defense analyst and former Defense Department official says the U.S. remains unprepared for an attack that could take down the country's entire electrical grid.Frank Gaffney, who currently runs the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC, served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security during the Reagan administration. During a recent teleconference sponsored by Tea Party Unity, he shared about the formation of a new EMP (electromagnetic pulse) coalition chaired by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Clinton-era CIA director James Woolsey.

"We've done nothing to protect our civilian infrastructure – and most especially the electric grid that powers it – from such an effect," he said. "As a result, should some enemy use a ballistic missile to detonate a nuclear weapon over the United States, it could have an existential impact on our country."
An EMP could also occur naturally, according to Gaffney, such as the result of intense solar activity – and on a more local level by RF (radio frequency) weapons.
In a video posted at StopEMP.org, Gaffney describes the potential effect of an EMP on an unprotected electrical grid: "You could lose not only the electrical system itself, but all of the infrastructures that rely on it – food, transportation, water, medical, telecommunications, finance. In other words, basically everything that makes a 21st century society like ours function."



Also see:














13 comments:

Waterer said...

I am slow to understand the emp thing because the jargon around it sounds so much like the talk leading up to y2k. When Clinton announced that soc security had been protected from y2k it left us wondering what has NOT been protected.
It isn't that I doubt that it could cause disruption but I
have difficulty grasping the fears of it's extent.

Perhaps the y2k thing is making me cynical because it was overhyped. A huge non event.
I know war is coming because Scripture says it but
I still have a hard time grasping the consequences of all these threatening things.


Scott said...

Those two things are in no way comparable. One (Y2K) was a concept- which most people I know dismissed categorically). An EMP is a well-known weapon, which is actually pretty easy to assemble and has been proven to work (certain sun electromagnetic activity has, in the past fried electronic equipment)....Its apples and oranges to compare the two. An EMP isn't some potential conceptual notion - its a real weapon which has proved efficacy and could easily happen. Its like saying having a fear of nuclear weapons is the same thing as fear of y2k.

Waterer said...

Thanks Scott.I guess I am comparing the way I want to protect and care for my family should events like this occur and I can't do it. The Mother/Grandmother in me wants to go to the Prov 31 verse that says "She does nor fear the future for all her children are dressed in scarlet." These kind of possibilities are reminders that like the plagues in the middle ages, or polio when we were kids, or all the evils that are rampant in our society that there is no protection but the Lord Himself. I believe He is good but I flinch at thinking of harm coming to my own. That makes me want to discount things that scare me.Instead , i need to trust Him with our future.

Scott said...

I agree with that sentiment - we can't live in fear. I honestly believe that the gathering up will occur before that level of calamity. If the US were to get hit with an EMP during "normal" times - the world would collapse with us, to a large degree - and at a minimum, life would no longer be 'like the days of Noah' .

I think its remotely possible that we could experience something like this for a matter of weeks, while the rest of the world slowly slid downwards. Just look at what the Fed's tapering has done to the emerging nations - just a minor tweak has their economy in trouble. Imagine an epic collapse in the US right now - the world (which is the context of Matt 24) would most definitely change radically.

Given that (with some definite assumptions) - I think its relatively easy to prepare for a 3-6 month period. You can easily have enough propane for a gas grill, some freeze dried food and a good water supply (many ways to do this)...Firewood if in winter. After Hurricane Fran I decided to be prepared for at least a few weeks, but these days maybe more.

Scott said...

Frankly, the threat of economic collapse scares me a lot more than an EMP right now

Caver said...

Both certainly have this boy's attention but for one there's only so much I can do to prepare, for the other there is a great deal I can do.

The insanity is that its relatively easy and inexpensive to shield against but our leaders won't do it...they've voted it down every time. That alone makes me wary of the overall plan for us.

Believe me, if it hits in full force we will instantly be transformed back to about 1860. I doubt many have the skill sets to survive. For instance.....I could slaughter the hog but would I know how to preserve the meat? The first couple of months will be real ugly....unless someone on a white horse rides up with water, food, and shelter....

GG2013 said...

Sister Waterer-

My heart goes out to the very concerns that weigh heavily on your heart these days.
Lately, I am reminded that it is critical for us to follow only the word of The Lord. As I know you too believe;

The word is all we have to sustain us through these very troubling times. It is our soul food so we can continue to be the salt and the light in these last days.

Each day we have to choose what we will do while we wait on the ever exciting return of our precious Lord and Savior. While I agree we should prepare physically, we must also prepare spiritually. The word is a great weapon to be used when darkness descends more and more upon us in the days ahead. It's a mighty powerful weapon that he has given to us.

We also have to guard our hearts and minds from the many corruptible seeds being planted around us daily/hourly. Will we let them take root? Will we conform to the world or be transformed by the renewing of our minds? By making a choice for Gods word and way only, it makes everything else speculative and secondary to Gods word/will on our lives. We have too many fence sitters in the world, as well as many who are very lost and don't know what God desires for our lives while we wait. Many times these types will fill their ego with haughty lies and talk instead of being a great messenger for what God says about these things.

We can put up the hedges of protection to guard our hearts and minds and not let fear become faith contaminated. :). ( See Psalm 91) I know we all know this, but it's hard to sustain strength while we have so much coming at us as far as news.

I pray you find a great spiritual renewal to sustain you while we wait. I pray you turn that around in shared wisdom and strengthen someone else who may be afraid. It's OK, God knows all our hearts and he will be proud that we chose to take a positive action to turn things around all for HIS glory. He will deal with those spreading lies. It is the circle of life with consequences attached to all our choices and actions. Keep in mind dear sister, that just like with this blog and many things we have access to, there are some who come shrouded in fear/falsehoods to spread fear. Fictitious characters who take joy saying these typical "nay-sayer" statements to sew strife, but at the end of the day it's all a lie. We know who the Father of lies is. We have a choice to stand against the "nay-sayer" and stand up for God. :)

I looked up some brief descriptions of the "nay-sayer" and it fits all we are dealing with in these last days. Let our YES be YES...and our NO be NO. :)

God Bless!!

GG

(See Attached)

GG2013 said...

Proverbs 4:23
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Matthew 12:34
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Matthew 15:18
But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Mark 7:21
For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come--sexual immorality, theft, murder,

Luke 6:45
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Deuteronomy 4:9
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


nay·say·er [ney-sey-er]
noun
a person who habitually expresses negative or pessimistic views: Despite a general feeling that things were going well, a few naysayers tried to cast gloom.


naysayer
noun
someone with an aggressively negative attitude

naysayer
noun. pessimist

complainer
cynic
defeatist
downer
gloomy
killjoy
misanthrope
party pooper
prophet of doom (see below)
sourpuss
wet blanket

More words related to prophet of doom

killjoy
noun. spoilsport
complainer
dampener
doomsdayer
grinch
grouch
moaner
partypooper
pessimist
prophet of doom
stick in the mud
wet blanket
whiner

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GG2013 said...

Herby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. I John 3:16

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13


Matthew 13:19
When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.


Matthew 13:38
The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,

John 17:15
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

Ephesians 6:16
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

2 Thessalonians 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

Waterer said...

Sister GG
I appreciate your concern and the good Words you have printed.It is great comfort that the Lord Himself taught us to pray for protection from the evil one.
Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.
My enemy truly is what comes out of me when I am unbelieving and fearful."Let no evil settle in my soul"
The Lord has beaten the evil one but my choice between trusting Him or not leads quickly to light and life or to dark fears.
I love the Lord and love His word that says,"Eye has not seen,nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him"That is my hope and longing these darkening days.

Sandra said...

Hi Waterer,
I just wish to say how much I appreciate you. You are a godly women who is always showing love on this blog to others, kindness, words seasoned with wisdom and upholding God's Word. Be blessed!
Sandra

Waterer said...

Thank you Sandra for your kind words.

GG2013 said...

Sister Waterer-

Your welcome. I have witnessed your strength many times through the journey on this blog and I wanted you to know it's OK to have these concerns. I trust you will recharge in so many areas. We can't remain strong without Gods word and help. :)

God Bless!!

GG