28 Signs That The Middle Class Is Heading Toward Extinction

The death of the middle class in America has become so painfully obvious that now even the New York Times is 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...

#1 You don't have to ask major U.S. corporations if the middle class is dying.  This fact is showing up plain as day in their sales numbers.  The following is from a recent New York Times article entitled "The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World"...

In Manhattan, the upscale clothing retailer Barneys will replace the bankrupt discounter Loehmann’s, whose Chelsea store closes in a few weeks. Across the country, Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants are struggling, while fine-dining chains like Capital Grille are thriving. And at General Electric, the increase in demand for high-end dishwashers and refrigerators dwarfs sales growth of mass-market models.

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.

#2 Some of the largest retailers in the United States that once thrived by serving the middle class are now steadily dying.  Sears and J.C. Penney are both on the verge of bankruptcy, and now we have learned that Radio Shack may be shutting down another 500 storesthis year.

#3 Real disposable income in the United States just experienced the largest year over year drop that we have seen since 1974.

#4 Median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row.

#5 The rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row.

#6 In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be "middle class".  In 2014, only 44 percent of all Americans consider themselves to be "middle class".

#7 In 2008, 25 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket considered themselves to be "lower class".  In 2014, an astounding 49 percent of them do.

#8 Incredibly, 56 percent of all Americans now have "subprime credit".

#9 Total consumer credit has risen by a whopping 22 percent over the past three years.

#10 The average credit card debt in the United States is $15,279.

#11 The average student loan debt in the United States is $32,250.

#12 The average mortgage debt in the United States is $149,925.

#13 Overall, U.S. consumers are $11,360,000,000,000 in debt.

#14 The U.S. national debt is currently sitting at$17,263,040,455,036.20, and it is being reported that is has grown by $6.666 trillion during the Obama years so far.  Most of the burden of servicing that debt is going to fall on the middle class (if the middle class is able to survive that long).

#15 According to the Congressional Budget Office, interest payments on the national debt will nearly quadruple over the next ten years.

#16 Back in 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance.  Today, only 54.9 percent of all Americans are covered by employment-based health insurance.

#17 More Americans than ever find themselves forced to turn to the government for help with health care.  At this point, 82.4 millionAmericans live in a home where at least one person is enrolled in the Medicaid program.

#18 There are 46.5 million Americans that are living in poverty, and the poverty rate in America has been at 15 percent or above for 3 consecutive years.  That is the first time that has happened since 1965.

#19 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has gone from 32 million to 47 million.

#20 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the percentage of working age Americans that are actually working has declined from60.6 percent to 58.6 percent.

#21 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen from 19.8 weeks to 37.1 weeks.

#22 Middle-wage jobs accounted for 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession, but they have accounted for only 22 percentof the jobs created since then.

#23 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year in wages.

#24 Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.

#25 According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program each month.

#26 The U.S. government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollarson welfare programs over the past five years.

#27 Only 35 percent of all Americans say that they are better off financially than they were a year ago.

#28 Only 19 percent of all Americans believe that the job market is better than it was a year ago.

As if the middle class didn't have enough to deal with, now here comes Obamacare.

As I have written about previously, Obamacare is going to mean higher taxes and much higher health insurance premiumsfor middle class Americans.

Not only that, but millions of hard working Americans are going to end up losing their jobs or having their hours cut back thanks to Obamacare.  For example, a fry cook named Darnell Summers recently told Barack Obama directly that he and his fellow workers "were broken down to part time to avoid paying health insurance"...

And the Congressional Budget Office now says that Obamacare could result in the loss of 2.3 million full-time jobs by 2021.

Several million people will reduce their hours on the job or leave the workforce entirely because of incentives built into President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

That would mean job losses equal to 2.3 million full-time jobs by 2021, in large part because people would opt to keep their income low to stay eligible for federal health care subsidies or Medicaid, the agency said. It had estimated previously that the law would lead to 800,000 fewer jobs by that year.

But even if we got rid of Obamacare tomorrow that would not solve the problems of the middle class.

The middle class has been shrinking for a very long time, and something dramatic desperately needs to be done.

The numbers that I shared above simply cannot convey the level of suffering that is going on out there on the streets of America today.  That is why I also like to share personal stories when I can.  Below, I have posted an excerpt from an open letter to Barack Obama that a woman with a Master's degree and 30 years of work experience recently submitted to the Huffington Post.  What this formerly middle class lady is having to endure because of this horrible economy is absolutely tragic...

Dear Mr. President,

I write to you today because I have nowhere else to turn. I lost my full time job in September 2012. I have only been able to find part-time employment -- 16 hours each week at $12 per hour -- but I don't work that every week. For the month of December, my net pay was $365. My husband and I now live in an RV at a campground because of my job loss. Our monthly rent is $455 and that doesn't include utilities. We were given this 27-ft. 1983 RV when I lost my job.

This is America today. We have no running water; we use a hose to fill jugs. We have no shower but the campground does. We have a toilet but it only works when the sewer line doesn't freeze -- if it freezes, we use the campground's restrooms. At night, in my bed, when it's cold out, my blanket can freeze to the wall of the RV. We don't have a stove or an oven, just a microwave, so regular-food cooking is out. Recently we found a small toaster oven on sale so we can bake a little now because eating only microwaved food just wasn't working for us. We don't have a refrigerator, just an icebox (a block of ice cost about $1.89). It keeps things relatively cold. If it's freezing outside, we just put things on the picnic table.

You can read the rest of her incredibly heartbreaking letter right here.

This is not the America that I remember.

What in the world is happening to us?

Credit to Economic Collapse

297 experts sign statement: GMOs not proven safe

The statement was drawn up by the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility. It was released on October 21, 2013.

Image: GMO Maize (Wikimedia Commons).

Since then, 297 scientists and experts have signed it.

Thus exploding the myth that “the science is settled.”

Exploding the claim that a consensus about GMOs has been reached.

You can read the statement and the signatories at ensser.org.

http://www.ensser.org/media/0713/

Here are two excerpts from the statement:

“As scientists, physicians, academics, and experts from disciplines relevant to the scientific, legal, social and safety assessment aspects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we strongly reject claims by GM seed developers and some scientists, commentators, and journalists that there is a ‘scientific consensus’ on GMO safety and that the debate on this topic is ‘over’.”

“We feel compelled to issue this statement because the claimed consensus on GMO safety does not exist. The claim that it does exist is misleading and misrepresents the currently available scientific evidence and the broad diversity of opinion among scientists on this issue. Moreover, the claim encourages a climate of complacency that could lead to a lack of regulatory and scientific rigour and appropriate caution, potentially endangering the health of humans, animals, and the environment.”

The number of scientists on either side of a question does not, alone, imply a final answer. But it does indicate whether the question is closed or still open. It does indicate that those who claim the question is closed are wrong.

Completely wrong.

Monsanto PR and government PR and media PR are so many tongues wagging in the wind.

In previous articles, I’ve highlighted dangers and lies re GMOs. Here I’m simply reporting that a consensus about GMO safety is a delusion.

In other words, anybody can say “everybody knows…” And if those people have access to, or control, major media, they can make a persuasive case.

But the persuasion is nothing more than one voice drowning out other voices.

Other voices who, for example, make this declaration:

(Signatory, Dr. Margarida Silva, biologist and professor at the Portugese Catholic University)—“…research has been mostly financed by the very companies that depend on positive outcomes for their business, and we now know that where money flows, influence grows. The few independent academics left must work double shift to address the vast array of unanswered questions and red flags that keep piling up.”

Or this voice: Signatory, Dr. Raul Montenegro, biologist, University of Cordoba, Argentina—“As things stand, the governments of these countries [Argentina, Brazil] deny that there is a [GMO] problem even in the face of numerous reports from the people who are affected and the doctors who must treat them.”

So far, there are 297 such voices.

Will CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX report this story in full and overturn the false consensus? Will they make room for the 297 voices?

Of course not. Their job is to invent consensus by consulting “reliable sources.” Meaning: liars who also want to invent false consensus.

Credit to Infowars.com

Russia Sold $4.7Bln in Arms to India in 2013

NEW DELHI, February 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russia exported $4.78 billion worth of arms and military equipment to India last year, a senior Russian arms industry official said Thursday.

“It’s a very good result,” Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said at the DefExpo-2014 arms fair in New Delhi.

The sales represented a leap of more than 50 percent over Russian exports of weaponry to India in 2012, which were estimated at about $3 billion.

India accounted for about a third of all Russian arms exports in 2013, tentatively estimated at a record $15.7 billion, Dzirkaln said.

The South Asian country has been the biggest client of the Russian arms industry since 2007. Purchases have included warplanes, gunships and the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, a refurbished Russian vessel formerly known as the Admiral Gorshkov, which finally arrived in India last month after almost a decade of delays since the $947 million deal was signed in 2004.

Credit to RIA Novosti

Congress Has Slashed Veteran’s Pensions to Save Money; Why Not Theirs Too?

By Jerry McConnell



Daily Sanity is an online publication of Conservative-Daily.com. The article “Congress Still Refuses to Pay Our Military Veterans” has been authored by Joe Otto and posted online on February 03, 2014. Portions of that article are presented here in the following column and commented on.

I am not a personal friend of Joe Otto, but after reading his article, mentioned above, I have become a great admirer of his style and patriotism. His loyalty to the United States and to its military branches is another reason for my praise for him. I hope he understands that I have no intention of co-opting his writing or trying to upstage him in any way.

His title, “Congress Still Refuses to Pay Our Military Veterans” was eye catching during my morning perusal of the news for the day; after of course, the Super Bowl run-down which was also a large put-down for Mr. Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos, who many thought (but not me) that he would hand the Seattle Seahawks a good “whuppin”. This game proves he is a very over-rated football player.

But in addition to the game, Mr. Otto reminds us that our military withstands some severe travails and sacrifices which can be permanently devastating. The federal government does not dole out pension funds on a case by case basis, giving excessive amounts to certain veterans who withstood inordinately large periods of stress and actual bodily suffering with loss of limbs and sight, and smaller amounts for those who saw little or even no actual combat or severe hardships.

The rewarding retirement thank-yous to the veterans are no different in their justifications than are the formulae for retiring Congress-people who have been pampered and schmoozed by the fawning public as well as themselves, who in fact make up their own rules and formulas as they go along in office.

Veterans can’t write their own set of rules for retirement compensation, so those that do, Congress-people, are the first ones who decide that veterans do not do ENOUGH for the country to warrant the—apparently to the Congress—EXCESSIVE amounts of taxpayer dollars as they, the Congress-people do. And, of course, in their complicit minds there are others who are more worthy of heavy pension funds, such as socialist union members and excessive increases to the minimum wage earners, unemployed food stamp-welfare class, and as Mr. Otto reminds us, the financial benefits for millions of illegals, what he calls ‘immigrants’ and I dub, ‘aliens’.

In case you’ve forgotten, this “Dump on Veterans” fiasco started Mr. Otto informs us “Back in December, as part of the Ryan-Murray budget deal, Congress agreed to slash military pensions by 1 percent every year .. to save $6. billion over a decade.”

I wonder if anyone ever calculated how much could be saved if congressional salaries were slashed by FIFTY percent and with the added benefit to those pols of making them more realistic citizen legislators as our forebears had envisioned in the seventeen-hundreds for them to be.

Otto continues, “One percent may seem like an insignificant number, but over the course of an individual’s retirement it can translate into thousands of dollars.”

So, our federal legislators, by slashing the retirements of the military who risked their lives for our country and those very same legislators, will not have to sacrifice their own opulent and comfy lifestyles or their million-dollar bank accounts. What a bunch of disingenuous and phony self-styled patriots we have, thanks to our own votes.

Again Mr. Otto reminds us, “Think about all the money that Democrats spend to pander to their supporters. The unions and illegal immigrants all get their “fair share” but there never seems to be anything left over for our military veterans. In fact, the Democrats always seem to be trying to balance the budget on our veterans’ backs. That is unacceptable.”

Perhaps it might be that so few bureaucrats are also veterans.

“Please take a few minutes to tell Congress that it is time to restore our military veterans’ pensions. Our servicemen and women are not bargaining chips. They are the heroes that sustain our great Constitutional Republic, and it is time to start treating them that way.”

I couldn’t say it any better, Mr. Otto.




Credit to Canada Free Press

The face of the globalist agenda in Syria

By Douglas J. Hagmann

Take a good long look at the face of this 4 year-old boy. He could be your child, your grandchild or nephew. The photo seems to reflect a childhood innocence, an innocence that is so treasured and so valued that it must be protected at all costs. Who among us could deny that this precious little boy deserves to be protected, deserves to experience the joys of a secure childhood like most of us had so long ago? Funny, that, for it is the very same people who argue that they are acting “for the children” when instead, they are criminally responsible for destroying their childhood, by ruthlessly and shamelessly exploiting them for their own geopolitical agenda. Worse yet, it’s all being done in your name, in our names, with our collective, tacit approval. For behind this face of innocence is a veil of darkness so black that it should shake you to your core as you look at the next image of this same young boy.

Behind the black mask is the face of the young boy identified only as Muhammad, depicted here shooting an AK-47 in Syria. You’ve probably seen it, or at least heard about it. But do you know the whole story behind it? Do you know that it’s our government—your government—that is behind these unspeakable atrocities? Averting your gaze and claiming that this is mere hyperbole might make you feel more comfortable, but it will not change the fact that many of us have looked away for far too long or clung to the belief that what we are seeing is a centuries-old artifact of Islamic savagery. Whatever helps you sleep at night. However, that does not change the truth, a truth from which you cannot flee.

For those unfamiliar with the images, they were copied from a video uploaded to the Internet titled “A message from one of the cubs of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” known by the acronym ISIS. The video depicts this young boy, identified only as Muhammad, barely able to hold the weapon yet maintaining his posture as his proud father stands behind him amid shouts of “Allahua Akbar.” It’s a video that our elected officials from both sides of the aisle, the power elite and the globalist policymakers didn’t want you to see as the original video was scrubbed from the Internet. Only snippets of the original video remain, having been copied and reposted elsewhere. Nonetheless, the unintended message is clear. Welcome to the hell on earth that is being conducted in your name, with your tacit approval.

It’s a reality that is too disturbing, but one of our own making though the blindness caused by our partisan politics and normalcy bias. It is our death grip on a false political paradigm that has blinded us to the larger agenda of the globalist monsters who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. It’s a reality brought to you courtesy of the Progressives including Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, as well as the “Neo-Cons” from George H.W. Bush to every sitting member in congress who support the policies of intervention in Syria and across the Middle East. Nearly every member of Congress, the Executive Branch, the Judiciary and others, from advisors to lobbyists who support such policies, regardless of their political affiliation, have sold their souls and allegiance to the higher power of a globalist agenda in your name. While they claim to intervene “for the sake of the children,” the blood of the innocents are on their hands. Like the unclothed emperor, the captured Western media dares not tell of covert, Western-backed assistance to the very same terrorist groups who have killed and maimed so many of our own.

What you are witnessing here is the extension of the activities that took place in Libya, specifically Benghazi, where the United States, the British, French and Saudi Arabia were involved in the largest arms running operation in the world, all in direct violation of international law. As I have written so many times, Benghazi was never a scandal, but a criminal enterprise conducted by the power elite of Western governments having the objective to topple Assad and destabilize Syria. This is part of a much larger agenda that includes the well planned and finely orchestrated Arab Spring, which was planned years in advance.

Yet, MSNBC types like Chris Matthews continue to wallow in the self-delusion that the deaths and destruction at Benghazi was the result of some obscure internet video, the origins of which should itself raise many questions. Such questions will never be asked by such pseudo-journalists like Matthews, who readily drinks the Kool-Aid from the same trough as many of the “Neo-Con warmongers” he claims to detest so much. Matthews’ love of his personal messiah and his cohorts, and the rabid right-wing cheerleaders serving as water boys for their personal political saviors, all serve to obfuscate the reality you see in the images shown here.

Our government is out of control by assisting terrorist groups to achieve their own despicable and diabolical ends to reshape the world according to the objectives of the globalists. Meanwhile, the corporate media facilitates this agenda of death by rewriting current events to protect their own. Make no mistake, the operation that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi under Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John O. Brennan as well as their foreign counterparts is continuing by other means. Yet no one is calling for accountability. No one is asking the right questions that require answers that would potentially expose their political icon to the wrath of truth. Instead, we’ve got a bunch of shameless politicians, an impotent press and clueless columnists hell bent on convincing the American public that we’re fighting the good fight, for the sake of the children and their future. How dare you?

To me, the photographic evidence as well as the ample documented list of lies and damn lies prove otherwise. It is time to hold the purveyors of perversion accountable for their deeds. Who among us will be valiant for the sake of truth and justice? Who among us will be the voice of that young boy, armed by a bipartisan, globalist cabal of those seeking to reshape countries in our name? Who among us will speak on behalf of that young boy, who is being mercilessly used as cannon fodder in your name?

The sounds coming from the barrel of the AK-47 held by a 4 year-old cover the deafening silence of those in the seats of power and those tasked to confront them. May God help them, and may God help us all if we chose to remain silent.




Credit to Hagmann and Hagmann

Then, Now, And Coming....Cauldron part No 4

Let’s return for a moment to the hours just before our Lord Jesus went to the cross.

He sat upon the Mount of Olives with His disciples while the group looked down at the Temple sitting atop Mount Moriah. One of His disciples wanted Him to look at the beauty of the great structure. It was a magnificent sight. They were having a time of fellowship, and it must have seemed that nothing bad could come of their circumstances.

Jesus, however, knew what He faced. More than that, He was concerned for His friends and disciples. He knew they had to get a grip on reality as they faced the satanic war that lay before them. Very soon they would see Him die in the cruelest method known to man at the time. They must be given truth upon which they could reflect during the uncertain days ahead. Although they wouldn’t understand for the moment, the prophecies Jesus gave that day in His Olivet Discourse would echo mightily through the centuries until the very end of the age.

“The Olivet Discourse forms Jesus’ last major discourse and His most prophetic sermon,” notes author and eschatologist Tim LaHaye. “While the message includes a prediction of the imminent fall of Jerusalem, it also looks to the distant future of the ‘times of the Gentiles’ (Luke 21:24), which will continue until the end of the Great Tribulation.”[i]

Temple Toppled

Jesus told His disciples that the beautiful Temple they were looking at would soon be completely wiped off Moriah; its destruction would be so complete that “there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). (The Temple Jesus was referring to was the Second Temple; the first, built by Solomon, had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.)

Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the Second Temple came to pass some thirty-seven years later, when the soldiers under Roman General Titus not only toppled the Temple, but removed from the surface of Moriah every huge stone that had made up the building. Titus tried to stop the soldiers from destroying the structure, but Roman soldiers were often given the freedom to plunder any place they conquered, and they went into a frenzy. Going after precious stones and the gold and silver inlaid within the building, they set fires, causing the gold and silver to melt into the cracks and crevices between the stones. The greedy troops then tore the stones apart in order to retrieve every trace of the valuable metals.[ii]

Later, after the scavenger soldiers had picked the site clean, the Temple Mount was leveled and smoothed, then salt was poured on top of the soil so nothing would grow. This, too, fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. But this was just the beginning of Israel feeling the chastening hand of God. He was going to use the Romans to drive most of the Jews from the land.

The words of Christ about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem would have been deeply troubling to the disciples.

“To the very end of His earthly ministry the apostles had been waiting for Jesus Christ to overthrow Roman rule in Palestine and to usher in the glorious Messianic kingdom,” notes author Arthur Kac. “When, therefore, instead of fulfilling their hopes the Lord Jesus began to speak of his approaching death and the coming destruction of Jerusalem the apostles became deeply distressed.”[iii]

“Run for Your Lives!”

In the same Olivet meeting with His disciples, Jesus forewarned that the people of the area would have to run for their lives (Matthew 24:16). There was coming, He prophesied, a time of great trouble in the land. Jesus said the people who lived in and around Jerusalem shouldn’t even take time to pack; they should just run for the hills of Judea when they heard of the Temple being attacked and the city being overrun.

The prophecy, of course, proved absolutely true. The Jewish population—and other people, too—were slaughtered if they stuck around once the looting and plunder started. Many soldiers for hire, along with the Roman forces, combined to massacre many. Hundreds upon hundreds were nailed and tied to crosses much like the one on which Jesus was crucified. The roads leading into and out of Jerusalem were lined with dead and dying people upon crosses.

The most infamous case of Rome crushing the Jewish rebellion is at Masada (Hebrew for “fortress”), which was the last Jewish stronghold in the Promised Land “located atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea.”[iv] Several years following the destruction of the Temple, “after Judaea became a province of the Roman Empire…the last survivors of the Jewish revolt…chose death rather than slavery when the Roman besiegers broke through their defences.”[v] The stand on the high plateau remains one of the greatest stories of courage in Jewish history.

The Jews’ attempts to take the heavy yoke of Rome from their necks ended with thousands fleeing the land to stay alive. Many others were taken as slaves. Most everyone who was Jewish, whether those who converted to Christianity, those who practiced Judaism, or those who professed no religious affiliation, were either murdered or scattered to other parts of the Middle East and other lands beyond. Around AD 135, Rome dispersed the Jews because it considered the militant uprising against Roman authority a mostly Jewish rebellion. Many of Israel ended up in Rome, where the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would grow into a mighty movement.

“The Jew living now in the various parts of the Roman Empire was painfully aware of the fact that he had no National Home,” states Kac. “And by this time the great bulk of the nation lived outside of Palestine. With the loss of the Jewish National Home in AD 70, the long exile actually began, and the Jews became wanderers over the face of the earth, a people without a country.”[vi]

God’s chosen people were chastened by God for rejecting their Messiah. They were chased across the world by the forces of Satan. But the Jews had produced the most important gift ever given anyone: the Savior of the world. The Lord of heaven had already kept His promise to make Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s descendants a blessing to all nations. He will yet make His chosen people the head of all nations as well.

While in Rome…

Meanwhile, Christianity was growing by leaps and bounds. The Jewish religious leaders had for many years persecuted Christians at every opportunity. The apostle Paul of Tarsus, a Christian-hating Jew before God changed his name from Saul, had been one of the worst of all persecutors of Christians.

Saul had held the robes of those who stoned to death the great hero of the Christian faith, Stephen. Saul had also gone into the homes of Christians and pulled them out so they could be imprisoned or murdered. This treatment, in the earliest time of the developing church, had been more the usual way of Jews treating Christians than the unusual.

When Saul saw Jesus in a blinding light on the road to Damascus, he was instantly converted to the Christian faith. Like Abraham, his name was changed to reflect the transformation of his life, and he became Paul, an evangelist for the gospel of Christ unlike any other who has ever lived. He then became the hunted and hated Christian whom the super-pious Jews wanted dead.

Over the hundred years following Paul’s death, the Jews were absorbed into the Roman Empire and given the right to be citizens. But when the Jews found themselves at the center of growing rebellion against their Roman masters, they were scattered throughout the developing medieval states and persecuted almost everywhere they went. Christians, too, were greatly persecuted. Most Christians were Jews who had been converted from Judaism during this time. Satan’s war-making in the Middle East and elsewhere appears to have been even more intense against Christian Jews than against the Jews in general. While in Rome, if Christians and Jews who held to Judaism didn’t repent and do as the Romans did, there was a mighty price to pay.

Christians Forced into Catacombs

Christianity continued to grow tremendously during the second, third, and fourth centuries and beyond. Jesus’ words, foretold to Peter and other disciples—“upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18b)—echoed across the barren wasteland of the Middle East and regions to which God’s children traveled.

Christians Thrown To The Lions

Hundreds upon hundreds of Christians—including, many believe, Peter and Paul—died martyrs’ deaths under Roman Emperor Nero and the Caesars who followed. They faced gladiators, bears, and lions in the Roman arenas to entertain Caesar and his mocking friends. Many Christians were set on fire and used as torches to light the night skies for the various sporting events. It was the bloodiest time of Christ’s church. Thousands found shelter and safety in the catacombs, the underground tunnels that were Rome’s cemeteries. Drawings on the catacomb walls tell a story of an underground church in the most literal sense of the word.

Modern Martyrs for Christ

Today in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, China, and many other places around the world, Christians are facing tortures and atrocities as terrifying as the horrors faced by the early Christians. The following reports offer a striking example:

• Roadside Ambush in Nigeria Leaves Five Christians Dead and Four Wounded—On the evening of August 29, 2013, near Jos, Nigeria, Emmanuel Sunday was riding his motorcycle towards his village when the nineteen-year-old college student was stopped by an armed group of Islamic jihadists known as Boko Haram. The gunmen asked Emmanuel to identify his religion. He told them he was a Christian. As the young man looked ahead, he saw that the gunmen had detained a minibus and ordered a group of passengers who had also identified themselves as Christians to lie down on the roadside.[vii]

As darkness fell, the gunmen robbed the Christians, and as the jihadists began shooting their captives, Emmanuel escaped by running toward a nearby maize farm. He then continued to run for two hours before finally reaching his village.[viii]

Five Christians were killed in the attack, including two from Emmanuel’s village. Four were wounded, including a pregnant woman.[ix]

Boko Haram, whose name loosely translated means “Western education is sinful,” so far is contained within Nigeria. Its leader, Abubakr Shekau, clearly states the group’s mission: “Let the world know that we have been enjoined by Allah to kill the unbeliever.”[x]

• Seventy-two Civilians Killed in Mall Massacre in Kenya—Shortly after noon on Saturday, September 21, 2013, gunfire and grenade explosions erupted as Somalian Islamic militants known as al-Shabab launched a massacre at the packed Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, a mall frequented by expatriates and the rising middle class of Nairobi.[xi]

According to Joshua Hakim, a born-again Christian, the terrorists shouted for all Muslims to leave the mall. When Hakim realized that the attackers were targeting non-Muslims, he pulled out his identification card and covered his first name with his thumb. Seeing only his Arabic last name, the terrorists let Hakim go; however, the Indian man next to him was not so fortunate: He was shot when he couldn’t answer the question, “What is the name of Muhammad’s mother?”[xii] More than seventy-two civilians were killed and two hundred were wounded in the attack.[xiii]

• Suicide Bombers in Pakistan Kill Nearly Ninety after Sunday Services—After services on Sunday morning, September 22, 2013, about 550 worshippers were exiting the 130-year-old All Saints Church, a Protestant congregation in Peshawar, Pakistan, unaware of two Taliban suicide bombers in their midst. The explosion killed nearly ninety, many of them women and children; more than 120 people were injured, and the church was destroyed.[xiv]

“I heard two explosions,” said one parishioner who survived. “People started to run. Human remains were strewn all over the church.” At the time of the interview, she was still searching for her sister.[xv]

It is sad to have to say that while many of us here in America often will not let ourselves be inconvenienced enough to read our Bibles or pray, thousands of Christians are still laying down their lives for the Lord Jesus. According to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, more than 200 million Christians are being persecuted worldwide; they are brutalized, sold as slaves, imprisoned, tortured, threatened, discriminated against, arrested, and killed—solely because they refuse to renounce or hide their faith in Jesus Christ.[xvi] But the long history of persecution that continues into our time will soon enter one of its darkest, most vicious eras.

Credit to Raidersnewsupdate.com

Is This Our Extinction Level Event?

Forget Fukashima and the ecological and climatic damage caused by the Gulf Oil Explosion. These events are child’s play compared to what is coming from Yellowstone super volcano. The problem is that it is impossible to predict when the massive explosion will occur.

I have been ignoring the hysteria and hype surrounding the claims that Yellowstone is a massive super volcano ready to blow its enormous top. Sensationalist journalists have been claiming for years that if there is a volcanic explosion at Yellowstone, it could constitute an extinction level event (ELE). Yeah right! At least, that is what I believed until last night.

Late last night Roger Landry, the Director of the Liberty Beacon Project, called me and reported that there was renewed discussion regarding Yellowstone related to the fact that we could be looking at a massive eruption which, at minimum, would destroy the United States and the resulting ash cloud could threaten all of humanity.

Privately, I was thinking that I have heard it all before and I could not wait to get off the phone and go to bed. However, Roger is a friend and of course I heard him out. Based upon the small chance that Roger was correct, I decided to do a little digging, and it turns out that Roger was indeed expressing a valid concern. And Roger has reason to be concerned, because he lives near ground zero.

Scientific Justification of the Yellowstone Threat

For years, I have followed the work of New York University theoretical physics professor, Michio Kaku, and his Superstring Theory related to the fact that we live in a multi-dimensional Universe. Since the passing of Carl Sagan, Dr. Kaku is wearing the hat of America’s most prominent scientist.It is safe to say that when Kaku speaks, scientists listen. And lately, he has been speaking about the threat that is the Yellowstone super volcano.

Much to my chagrin, Kaku is on the record of having stated that the super volcano at Yellowstone is an extinction level event (ELE). In the following video, Kaku states that volcano could erupt at anytime and the earth would no longer support life. Kaku went on to say that the United States would be covered in several feet of volcanic ash. The aerial debris would block out the sun, thus creating nuclear winter and all plant life would die. When all plant life dies, all mammals will soon die as well, mostly from starvation.

Yellowstone erupts every 600,000 years and we are 40,000 years overdue. Kaku goes on to say that the Yellowstone explosion will undoubtedly be an ELE and it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. In the accompanying video, Kaku speaks to the fact that the ground at Yellowstone has risen dramatically in the past few years, thus increasing the danger of a massive explosion

 Others Are Beginning to Notice

Roger Landry forwarded some very disturbing images that he obtained from the Turner Radio Network. As I discovered, the images are publicly available, and what they demonstrate is very concerning. These images clearly show that Dr. Kaku might want to take a more recent and closer look at the most recent data regarding seismic activity in and around the Caldera at Yellowstone.

 The following is seismic data obtained on February 1, 2014. The time is stamped on the extreme of the column. You will notice that the seismic data exponentially increases toward the end of the graph. Here is the second image, we the follow up data which shows that the seismic activity is so great, that the instrument begins to run out of blue/green/red ink which indicates extreme seismic activity. 

Please keep in mind that this data shift took place only this week. As Kaku said in his video, we should be watching this very carefully. As it turns out, some people are watching this event. The BBC ran a projection of disaster scenario in the following depiction. Warning: This is a very disturbing image.

Take a look at the initial ash cloud dispersion, immediately after the volcanic explosion.

Do We Really Think the Media Would Ever Tell Us the Truth?

The corporate media would never likely tell the public the truth and even if they did, I am not sure what good it would do. However, there are other events which might possibly correlate with these developments and may strongly indicate that some people, the global elite (e.g. Bill Gates), are actually making plans to survive this potential cataclysm.

Connecting the Dots

Perhaps, William Engdahl was on to something when he published the fact that the elite had buried a seed vault in the Arctic. An underground seed vault is exactly what humans would need to survive the resulting nuclear winter which would result from the nuclear winter arising from the Yellowstone massive explosion.

Does this potential ELE explain the massive underground tunnels throughout Colorado (the new de facto capital)? We know about these tunnels under Denver International Airport which stretch to Cheyenne Mountain nearly 90 miles away from Denver International Airport.

Most disturbingly,FEMA is advertising for contractors who are able to supply medical biohazard disposal capabilities, along with 40 yard dumpsters, to go with 1,000 tent hospitals across the United States. The resultant volcanic ash would fit this paradigm because the air would be unfit to breathe. The emergency rollout of these services must be able to be completed within 24-48 hours. Don’t be fooled by the rapid rollout of resources. As I have previously pointed out, before the authorities realized they had a potential disaster on their hands, it would be too late for most of us.

Whatever, could be coming must be very big because FEMA is also seeking to obtain 200,000 doctors’ scrubs to be delivered to the 1,000 tent hospitals. That adds up to 20 extra hospitals per state. Aren’t these numbers a tantamount admission that whatever is coming will quickly overwhelm the existing medical services? An ELE would certainly fit into these parameters.

FEMA is also ordering portable showers and toilets, so these facilities would appear that they will be taking on an air of permanence. Can there be any doubt that FEMA is ramping up the National Disaster Preparedness Program? The sheer numbers clearly point to the enormous size of the coming event.Will it be related to Yellowstone? It could be. It might not be.

There is no intent in this article to spread fear for an event which might not happen in our lifetime. However, given the gravity of this event, we should pay attention. Yet, at the end of the day, I am not sure what we could do about it unless you have a seed vault in the Arctic and you are able to get there in time.

Credit to Common Sense

Giant Hologram of Turkish Prime Minister Speaks To Supporters.... is this Preparations for Future "Beast" Communication?

Technology has just been bumped up from science fiction to reality, and even scarier, politics!

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not attend a party meeting in Izmir last Sunday in person. But, no worries! He had the perfect solution! According to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, an enormous hologram of himself was transmitted into the party chambers instead.

As the Erdogan hologram glimmered and then materialized, the crowd hooted and hollered while the likeness addressed the audience.

“We are going to elections in the shadow of attacks prepared by treasonous networks. I urge all my mayoral candidates to not waste any of their time,” Erdogan said, according to Hurriyet.

However, Erdogan isn’t the first to use a hologram in politics.

In February of 2011, USA Today Travel States:

In January, the music group Black Eyed Peas performed holographically at an awards show in France. Two small airports in Britain — Manchester and London Luton— have holographic images of staffers explaining security clearance rules. Others to appear via hologram technology in recent years: Former vice president Al Gore, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and British airline and media mogul Richard Branson.

The technology is the latest step in the "telepresence" evolution that's changing the meetings and conventions industry.

In 2012, an Indian politician, Narendra Modi, made use of the same technology as part of a promotion. In his efforts to seek re-election, he successfully broadcasted 26 holograms of himself onto stages across the Indian state of Gujarat.

And on April 15, 2012, the late Tupac Shakur gave a performance from beyond the grave at the Coachella Music Festival in California.

In a vision of the end times, the Apostle John was shown a mysterious facet of mankind’s apocalyptic culture. He saw that an actual political leader would arise called the “beast,” (Revelation 13:15) and that an “image of the beast” would also be present. He saw that this image would be separate from, yet likened to the beast himself.

Verse 15 clearly states that the beast will be able “to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” This image is clearly much more than just a statue - the idea of giving life to an image that speaks seems to match the personification of holographic technology. One can safely assume that John, being from a day when technology such as we have now did not exist, struggled to describe exactly what he saw. The great debate is how literally do we take this passage or should some of it be understood in a more symbolic way?

Is it possible John may have seen holographic projections of the beast leader, which could “appear” as if by magic in multiple locations at once. In fact, in translation, the Greek word 'image' could mean image or likeness. And that is exactly what a holographic projection is! It is an image or likeness of the person's appearance being projected somewhere else.

Are we being conditioned for a technology that will be used by the Antichrist in order to reach masses of people at one time?

Interestingly enough Revelation emphasizes that it is by deceit that the people of the earth are brought about to worship this image and the Beast. In an age of digital manipulation - air brushing movie stars on magazine covers is just the tip of the iceberg. In 1997 the film "Wag the Dog" demonstrates how with a little Hollywood ingenuity people could be led to believe in an entirely fake war - all because they see it on TV. Is it possible the great signs of this 2nd beast are through technology rather than the supernatural? Only time will tell.

Credit to Prophecynewswatch.com

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February05/056.html#CK0pR7hCopFuGxTd.99

Rabbis to Kerry: Cease mediation or face divine retribution

By Haaretz

A group of rabbis warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to cease his pursuit of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians or face divine retribution in a letter sent by them Sunday.

The group, calling itself "The Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel," wrote that Kerry's "incessant efforts to expropriate integral parts of our Holy Land and hand them over to Abbas’s terrorist gang, amount to a declaration of war against the Creator and Ruler of the universe!"

The group claimed that the plan, by placing them in the line of missile fire, would imperil six million Jews, adding in brackets "remember that number from somewhere?"

The letter went on to warn that if Kerry went through with his plans he would win himself "everlasting disgrace in Jewish history for bringing calamity upon the Jewish people," joining the likes of Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II and Roman emperor Titus.

The rabbis warned Kerry that like these monarchs and Haman, the villain of the Book of Esther, he will suffer divine retribution for his affront to God's chosen people. The letter ends with a quote from Isaiah 9:5 "Conspire a plan and it will be frustrated; talk the talk and it will not be fulfilled, for God is with us."

The signatories of the letter, emeritus head of Haifa Rabbinic Court Gedalya Axelrod, Temple Institute chairman Yisrael Ariel, Migdal Haemek rabbi Ben Tziyon Grossman, Institute for Complete Code of Maimonides dean Shalom Dov Wolpo and Yeshiva of Kiryat Shmuel dean Yigal Pizam, claim they represent other rabbis who are also members of the Committee to Save the Land and People of Israel and "hundreds of other Rabbis in Israel and around the world."

Credit to Haaretz