There are numerous articles being written about the Greek/EU crisis and why it is so important. Typically these articles focus on the future of Greece, and in turn, the future of the EU.
But they are missing the most important issue.
We know from Daniel 2 & 7 and Revelation 17 that the revived Roman Empire must somehow morph into the "10 Kings" phase - a phase that will ultimately produce the antichrist.
In fact, of all the signs of this generation that we watch daily, the only sign not present is, in fact, the 10 Kings.
We also know that, historically, a big crisis is usually required to bring about rapid change, and we may be seeing this development in real time. In other words, any big crisis in the EU is worth watching as we await the development of the 10 Kings.
Supporters of Greece's bailout terms have taken a wafer-thin opinion poll lead over the 'No' vote backed by the leftist government, 48 hours before a referendum that may determine the country's future in the euro zone.
The poll by the respected ALCO institute, published in the Ethnos newspaper on Friday, put the 'Yes' camp on 44.8 percent against 43.4 percent for the 'No' vote. But the lead was well within the pollster's 3.1 percentage point margin of error, with 11.8 percent saying they are still undecided.
Given a volatile public mood and a string of recent election results that ran counter to opinion poll predictions, the result is in effect completely open.
With banks shuttered all week, cash withdrawals rationed and commerce seizing up, the vote could decide whether Greece gets another last-ditch financial rescue in exchange for more harsh austerity measures or plunges deeper into economic crisis.
It could also determine whether Greece becomes the first country to crash out of the 19-nation European single currency area, membership of which is meant to be irrevocable.
The survey found that 74 percent of Greeks want to stay in the euro, while just 15 percent want to return to a national currency, with 11 percent undecided.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has urged Greeks to reject the "humiliating" terms offered last week by international creditors in a deal that is no longer on the table, and accused lenders of "blackmail" by withholding credit.
As discontent has mounted over long queues for pensions and at cash machines, Tsipras promised voters banks would reopen as soon as the government clinched a fresh loan from its euro zone partners.
Greece is sliding into a full-blown national crisis as the final cash reserves of the banking system evaporate by the hour and swathes of industry start to shut down, precipitating the near disintegration of the ruling coalition.
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Business leaders have been locked in talks with the Bank of Greece, pleading for the immediate release of emergency liquidity funds (ELA) to cover food imports and pharmaceutical goods before the tourist sector hits a brick wall.
Officials say the central bank will release the funds as soon as Friday, but this is a stop-gap measure at best. "We are on a war footing in this country," said Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister.
The daily allowance of cash from many ATMs has already dropped from €60 to €50, purportedly because €20 notes are running out. Large numbers are empty. The financial contagion is spreading fast as petrol stations and small businesses stop accepting credit cards.
Constantine Michalos, head of the Hellenic Chambers of Commerce, said lenders are simply running out of money. "We are reliably informed that the cash reserves of the banks are down to €500m. Anybody who thinks they are going to open again on Tuesday is day-dreaming. The cash would not last an hour," he said.
"We are in an extremely dangerous situation. Greek companies have been excluded from the electronic transfers of Europe's Target2 system. The entire Greek business community is unable to import anything, and without raw materials they can't produce anything," he said.
Pavlos Deas, owner of an olive processing factory in Chalkidiki, told The Telegraph that he may have to shut down a plant employing 250 people within days.
"We don't know how we are going to execute and export an order of 60 containers for the US. We don't even have enough gas. We asked for 10,000 litres but they are only letting us have 2,000. It's being rationed by the day. Factories are closing around us in a domino effect and we're all going to lose everything if this goes on," he said.
The fast-moving events come amid signs of deep dissension within the coalition over the wisdom of the country's referendum this Sunday. The vote was originally intended to secure a stronger negotiating mandate for a showdown with Europe's creditor powers, but it is rapidly turning into an "in-or-out" decision on euro membership and the survival of the Syriza government.
So now they do it. Now the IMF comes out with a report that says Greece needs hefty debt restructuring.
Mind you, their numbers are still way off the mark, in the end it’s going to be easily double what they claim. Not even a Yanis Varoufakis haircut will do the trick.
But at least they now have preliminary numbers out. The reason why they have is inevitably linked to the press leak I wrote about earlier this week in Troika Documents Say Greece Needs Huge Debt Relief. If that hadn’t come out, I’m betting they would still not have said a thing.
It’s even been clear for many years to the IMF that debt restructuring for Greece is badly needed, but Lagarde and her troops have come to the Athens talks with an agenda, and stonewalled their own researchers.
Why go through 5 months of ‘negotiations’ with Greece in which you refuse any and all restructuring, only to come up with a paper that says they desperately need restructuring, mere days after they explicitly say they won’t sign any deal that doesn’t include debt restructuring?
By now I have to start channeling my anger about the whole thing. This is getting beyond stupid. And I did too have an ouzo at the foot of the Acropolis, but I’m not sure whether that channels my anger up or down. The whole shebang is just getting too crazy.
For five whole months the troika refuses to talk debt relief, and mere days after the talks break off they come with this? What then was their intention going into the talks? Certainly not to negotiate, that much is clear, or the IMF would have spoken up a long time ago.
Meanwhile, things are getting out of hand here. It’s not just the grandmas who can’t get to their pensions anymore, rumor has it that within days all cash will be gone from banks. And then what? Oh, that’s right, then there’s a referendum. Which will now effectively be held in a warzone.
It’s insane to see even Greeks claim that this is Alexis Tsipras’ fault, but given the unrelenting anti-Syriza ‘reporting’ in western media as well as the utterly corrupted Greek press, we shouldn’t be surprised.
The real picture is completely different. Tsipras and Varoufakis are the vanguard of a last bastion of freedom fighters who refuse to surrender their country to an occupation force called the Troika. Which seeks to conquer Greece outright through financial oppression and media propaganda.
Europeans need to understand that the EU has no qualms about declaring war on one of its own member states. And that it could be theirs next time around. Where people die of hunger or preventable diseases. Or commit suicide. Or flee.
All Europeans on their TV screens can see the line-ups at ATMs, and the fainting grandmas at the banks, the hunger, the despair. How on earth can they see this as somehow normal, and somehow not connected to their own lives?
They’re part of the same political and monetary union. What happens to Greece happens to all of you. That’s the inevitable result of being in a union together.
Don’t Europeans ever think that enough should be enough when it comes to seeing people being forced into submission, in their name?
Since it’s clear that Berlin is by far the strongest voice in the three-headed monster the Troika has become, it’s no exaggeration to say that what we see unfold before our eyes is yet another German occupation of Greece. There are no tanks and boxcars involved yet, but wars can be fought in many ways. And scorched earth can take up many different forms too. It’s the result that counts.
In the meantime it has somehow become entirely acceptable for politicians and media from foreign countries to tell the Greeks what to do, who to vote for, and what to make sure happens after.
European Parliament chief Martin Schulz even dares claim that Syriza should resign if the vote is yes, and it should be replaced with a bunch of technocrats. It’s none of your business, Martin. Or yours, Bloomberg writers, or Schäuble, or anyone else who’s not Greek. Shut up! You’re all way out of -democratic- line.
It’s up to Greeks to decide what happens in their country. It’s both a sovereign state and a democracy. The utmost respect for this should be the very foundation of everything we do as free people, whose ancestors fought so hard to make us free.
In a TV interview, Mr. Varoufakis said very clearly, “This is a very dark moment for Europe. They have closed our banks for the sole purpose of blackmailing what? Getting a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-sustainable solution that would be bad for Europe.”
I must admit, most politicians do not come even close to the truth, but Varoufakis seems to be the ONLY finance minister who understands the demands of the Troika are not plausible for any nation. Merkel has tried to skirt any responsibility by saying this is a Troika decision. One must seriously ask, are those in the Troika just totally brain-dead? Their blackmail and economic war against Greece will be evidence to ensure that Britain leaves the EU. The ONLY thing that saved Britain was Maggie Thatcher’s effort to keep Britain out of the euro for she knew far too well where it would lead. The view in Poland is also now anti-euro. Any Brit who now does not vote to get out of the EU and the grips of the Troika is ignorant of world events and the political power play going on.
Yet through all of this, there is no hope because those in power are clueless. The Troika refuses to solve the euro crisis because they only see their own self-interest and assume they can force their will upon all the people. The Troika is doing everything in their power to rig the Greek referendum to make it appear that the Greek people want Brussels. The Troika deliberately closed the banks to punish the people of Greece, and to show them what exiting the euro means. This appears to be their only way of diverting the crisis with orchestrating a fake “YES” vote to economic suicide. The Troika will attempt to rig the referendum as they did with the Scottish elections. So expect biased vote counting in favor of a “YES” vote to stay in the euro. As Stalin said, “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.
China said on Tuesday some of its land reclamation in the Spratlys, where it's building seven islands on top of coral reefs, had been completed, although it gave few details.
The latest photographs were taken by satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe and published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
AMTI said the airstrip was being paved and marked, while an apron and taxiway had been added adjacent to the runway.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.
China stepped up its creation of artificial islands last year, alarming several countries in Asia and drawing criticism from Washington. Beijing says the outposts will have undefined military purposes, as well as help with maritime search and rescue, disaster relief and navigation.
China’s aggressive posture toward the South China Sea has been stirring tensions in the region, and a new national security law suggests that Beijing is just getting started.
The new law calls for security to be maintained in all fields, including culture, education, and cyberspace.
Moreover, as reported by The New York Times, the law’s passage indicates that there has also been a meaningful shift in how Chinese leaders view their country’s “core interests.”
In years past, China's core interests were believed to mean specific and limited territorial matters, such as those regarding Taiwan and Tibet, that the communist country determined to be internal matters.
"In 2010, Chinese and foreign officials and scholars began debating whether the South China Sea was now a core interest," The Times’ Beijing bureau chief Edward Wong writes.
"Under the new definition ... the term does encompass the South China Sea and any other sovereignty issues of importance to China (think Arunachal Pradesh in India, and the islands in the East China Sea that Japan calls the Senkaku and China calls the Diaoyu)."
If the shipping channels and islands of the South China Sea are now counted as “core interests” by China, then it is likely to continue to push for greater control over the sea and the $5 trillion in shipping that passes through it each year.
China has almost finished building a 3,000-meter-long (10,000-foot) airstrip on one of its artificial islands in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, new satellite photographs of the area show.
A U.S. military commander had told Reuters in May that the airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef could be operational by year-end, although the June 28 images suggest that could now be sooner.
The airstrip will be long enough to accommodate most Chinese military aircraft, security experts have said, giving Beijing greater reach into the heart of maritime Southeast Asia.
The latest photographs were taken by satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe and published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. (amti.csis.org/)
AMTI said the airstrip was being paved and marked, while an apron and taxiway had been added adjacent to the runway.
Two helipads, up to 10 satellite communications antennas and one possible radar tower were visible on Fiery Cross Reef, it said. The images also showed a Chinese naval vessel moored in a port.
America has now been warned by the Department of Homeland Security that there are potential Islamic terror attacks on the 4th of July. Additionally, a “chilling new map” reveals where the FBI is preparing for the Islamic State to strike.
The DHS and FBI even recently posted a map where they would set up command posts within the United States so you can report things you may find suspicious. Or do they mean so they can find them that are willing to come forward to be informants? Apparently, there are those among us who are more than willing to be useful to their own demise. What, will the enemies not see this post? How ridiculously obvious can this get before America awakens to who her real enemies are?
Keep in mind that DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson stated that it was his job to “give voice to the plight of the Muslims.” It’s the same department to which Barack Hussein Obama has appointed Muslims with terrorist ties to oversee the American people(Deuteronomy 28:36; Jeremiah 5:6).
This administration has been involved in funding, training, supplying and even entertaining America’s sworn enemies people’s White House.
Don’t forget that Barrack Hussein Obama has sued governors in the United States for upholding border control laws and acted outside of his constitutional authority by opening up the floodgates to illegal’s coming in on the southern border. His administration has released tens of thousands of illegal immigrant felons from American prisons onto the streets only to prey upon the innocent.
Furthermore, he’s granted asylum to Muslims from Syria to colonize by the thousands in American cities while attacking America’s military, America’s Christians and Constitutional Patriots (Deuteronomy 28:52).
He’s even gone so far as to force the US military to submit to the sharia during Ramadan.
The Obama administration has been exposed for scandal after scandal, including:
Even the IRS targeting of Conservative groups. Pretty telling.
Do not forget about the race card that has been played over and over again in an attempt to divide and conquer by stirring up domestic insurrection.
Since September 11, 2001, the federal government has asked the American people to give up the rights that God has given, which her sons and daughters, in the hundreds of thousands, have fought, bled and died to secure. (John 15:13)
This current administration, along with The Bush administration, has done more to destroy this country than any foreign country could have dreamed of doing by attacking us.
The unconstitutional Patriot Act, the Transportation Security Administration and other unconstitutional departments and bureaus have been contrived to strip the American people of their God-given rights (Article 4 of the Bill of Rights). And that is the fruit!
Remember what Condoleeza Rice said of Joseph Stalin? “Terror was the creation to mold politically the control that they wanted.”
Who has attacked America more in the wake of September 11, 2001 than the corrupt in your government? (Leviticus 26:16)
Yet, America, we were warned from the 4th President of the United States, "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” -Abraham Lincoln
Also, former French military intelligence agent Pierre-Henry Bunel wrote in the April/June 2004 edition of World Affairs:
“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.”
So, I ask America, who is the enemy? (Leviticus 26:14-46; Deuteronomy 28:63) The Obama Administration says it’s you, but the truth is the exact opposite.
If there is any doubt about the Pope’s total adherence to an anti-capitalist, anti-growth, and eco-hysterical agenda, you only need to look at his closest science advisors. The most recent “advisor” to the Vatican this week is Canadian journalist Naomi Klein.
A self-described “secular Jewish feminist,” Klein is delighted to advise the Holy Father. “Given the attacks that are coming from the Republican Party around this and also the fossil fuel interests in the United States, it was a particularly courageous decision to invite me here," she said.
The Pope’s latest encyclical, Laudato Si, claimed that the Earth was becoming a huge “pile of filth,” inveighed against air conditioning (except, presumably, the AC in the hotel where the Pope lives), called for a global transfer of wealth from the rich nations to the poor, called for the creation of a planetary, “public Authority with universal jurisdiction,” and demanded a “cultural revolution” to fix the "perverse" global economic system that has, incidentally, lifted millions out of poverty.
The Pope was most likely inspired by Klein’s latest screed, written upon her own discovery of global warming: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Klein claims that "Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war." The issue of global warming has given progressives "the most powerful argument against unfettered capitalism" ever, she writes.
Klein wants to ban shale oil fracking and is highly critical of genetically modified crops. She wants to ban all nuclear power, fossil fuels, geoengineering, and carbon sequestration. Like the President, she wants to block the Keystone pipeline, and she would prefer a transfer of trillions of dollars to poor countries like India to pay off the rich countries' carbon “debts.”
The Pope and his new advisor both have little faith in technological solutions to the world’s environmental ills, despite the mass production of fertilizer and the Green Revolution creating a world where the food per capita is at an all-time high. Neither Ms. Klein nor the Pope have ever mentioned the ongoing 18-year “pause” in global warming which was totally unpredicted by the scaremongers’ computer models.
Pope Francis will be further confirmed in his beliefs by his appointment this week to the Pontifical Academy of Science of German atheist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who has an appropriately apocalyptic view of the environment.
Schellnhuber told the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference that global warming would devastate Earth’s population and “In a very cynical way, it’s a triumph for science because at last we have stabilized something — namely the estimates for the carrying capacity of the planet, namely below 1 billion people.” You heard that right: Dr. Schnellnhuber, now official advisor to the Pope on matters of science, believes that the Earth is overpopulated by six billion souls.
Dr. Schellnhuber proposes to keep the Earth from warming no more than 2 degrees higher than the beginning of the industrial revolution in the middle 18th Century (which was, by the way, in the Little Ice Age). To keep the Earth within 2 degrees as chilly as it was when the Thames River was frozen over, Schnellnhuber wants an Earth Constitution, a Global Council and a Planetary Court to punish capitalist environmental evildoers. Rather like Pope Francis.
Roman Catholic leaders in the early voting state of Iowa have called on candidates for president to follow the teachings of Pope Francis and focus as much on the environment and income inequality in 2016 as they have in past elections on opposing gay marriage and abortion.
Thursday’s event marked the first time a U.S. Catholic bishop has publicly asked those seeking the White House to heed the admonitions of Francis’ June encyclical, said Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines. Bishops elsewhere in the U.S. plan similar pressure.
In that major teaching document, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics called for a “bold sweeping revolution” to correct what he sees as a “structurally perverse” economic system that allows the rich to exploit the poor and has turned the Earth into an “immense pile of filth.”
“Pope Francis hasn’t changed church teaching, but he has given greater salience to social welfare and environmental issues, which has put Catholic Republicans in an awkward position,” said John Green, director of the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
Francis is expected to highlight the issues in September when he makes his first visit to the U.S., where he will address a joint session of Congress and the U.N. General Assembly.
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