Samsung CEO Steps Down Despite Record Profits, Warns Of "Unprecedented Crisis"

In a surprise move - and just months after the grandson of the company’s founder was jailed for corruption - the CEO of Samsung, Kwon Oh-hyun has resigned 'to make way for new leadership'. In an odd turn of events, despite record profits, Kwon warned the company faces an "unprecedented crisis."

Kwon had emerged as the public face of Samsung Electronics after Jay Y. Lee, grandson of the company’s founder, was detained on corruption charges and then sentenced to five years in prison in August amid a scandal that brought down South Korea’s president.

The share price slipped on the news...

As Bloomberg reports, Kwon Oh-hyun, who also serves as co-vice chairman, announced his retirement on Friday as the Suwon-based company reported record operating income of 14.5 trillion won ($12.8 billion) on booming demand for displays and memory chips.

He said the company faces an “unprecedented crisis” despite the financial success.

“As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry,” Kwon said in the statement.

While the latest financial results show Samsung’s business units operating smoothly, that in itself may present risks for Kwon, said Park Ju-gun, who tracks corporate executives at CEOScore.

“Nobody wants to be the chief of Samsung Electronics at a time like this; it’s too risky,” said Park.

“It puts that person at odds with the controlling family. Only when he is in the shadow is he playing his role properly.”

Despite the trial, the company’s business has remained robust, helped by strong demand for memory chips.

“It’s the chip prices that are driving up the profit rather than the sales volumes,” said Park Kang-ho, an analyst at Daishin Securities. “We’re expecting an operating profit of about 16 trillion won in the next quarter.”

 Credit to Zero Hedge

North Korea has ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE in the SAME location of H-Bomb Test!

Former Satan Worshipper: I’m Shocked Christians Celebrate Halloween

Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, said: "I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween."

We are quick on our feet to rush and honor the devil in so many ways. We see no harm in Halloween, because we think it is fun. We paint our faces, we wear our innocent costumes, we dress up our doorways—even churches dress up their entryways for Halloween with pumpkins. These actions are like giving the devil license, saying, "Here's my church. You can have it."

We think because we are not performing any demonic rituals or human sacrifices that we are on safe ground, but did you know that as soon as you dress up, whether you color yourself or put on a costume, the enemy owns you? Because by doing so, you have turned over your legal rights, and you have dedicated yourself and your kids to celebrating the devil's holiday. You have just made a pact with the enemy, and you are already sacrificing your children spiritually by dressing them up and changing their identity.

Losing Our Identity

My mind goes back to the night of Oct. 31, 1987, when I had the most diabolical wedding on the planet. My fiancé and I decided to get married on Halloween, in a demonic ritual that lasted all night, and the wedding bells were heard all the way down to the gates of hell.

As devil worshippers, Halloween was very special to us, and we looked forward to celebrating it because we knew the implications and the dark power behind the night. It is very different from every other night in the witchcraft world. It would be like me saying to believers today, "How important to you are Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday?" Halloween has that much weight and importance to those who dwell on the dark side.

I remember the days leading up to Halloween, we devil worshippers had our instructions from the demon world about what had to be done, and we knew it was going to be a long night. I would sleep all day to be rested up and ready for midnight so I could unleash hell on the world into the wee hours of the morning.

Some churches remove the word "Halloween" and call it "harvest" instead, with members dressing up in costumes, giving out candy and bobbing for apples. It saddens my heart. Turning away from this "holiday" is not missing out on anything, so let us get that off our minds.

If they are trying to use certain secular holidays for evangelistic purposes, to win souls, this is the way I would do it as a minister: I would make it a biblical movie night with popcorn and soft drinks for the kids and grownups, and invite unsaved friends and family. My intention for the event would be to expose the origin and dangers of Halloween, then turn it into a great movie night, with a small teaching afterward from God's Word about His love and the finished work of the cross. Finally, I would have an altar call and make it a special night for all to remember.

The only harvest we should celebrate is the harvest of souls.

For many who celebrate Halloween, that celebration carries over to Nov. 1, which is also known to some as the Day of the Dead, or All Saints' Day, but there is nothing holy about it—it is demonic.

I am surprised at how the world embraces this holiday, because the title of All Saints' Day is a deceiving one. We have a picture in our minds that it seems holy, but there is nothing innocent about it. This holiday is practiced all throughout South and Central America and distant parts of the world, and even in the United States. To the Spanish culture, it is called Día de Muertos, and they celebrate the dead through rituals and ceremonies and even cemetery visits. YouTube would be a good place to go and see for yourself what this is about. This holiday has nothing holy about it nor anything to do with saints.

How might we counter this darkness as ministers of the good news of Jesus?

In the Bible, when the Lord calls the believers "saints," the term means we have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ and the finished work of the cross. We are set apart for good works to glorify God.

Credit to charismanews.com

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/67594-former-satan-worshipper-i-m-shocked-christians-celebrate-halloween

Ft Collins Preparing to Become the Capital

Simon Sinek, The Dangers Of Social Media Addiction

by Geoffrey Grider

JUSTIN ROSENSTEIN HAD TWEAKED HIS LAPTOP’S OPERATING SYSTEM TO BLOCK REDDIT, BANNED HIMSELF FROM SNAPCHAT, WHICH HE COMPARES TO HEROIN, AND IMPOSED LIMITS ON HIS USE OF FACEBOOK. BUT EVEN THAT WASN’T ENOUGH.

“And he had power 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.” Revelation 13:15 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s very interesting to understand that the very people who created the highly-addictive ‘like’ system have now installed extensions on their devices to block those same features from being active. What does that tell you about how enslaving social media can be? Just imagine how it will be in a few years when AI is fully rolled out, and the devices are doing our thinking for us. The “brave new world’ is a very scary place to be, and I honestly don’t think any of us really know what we’re playing with.

In August, the 34-year-old tech executive took a more radical step to restrict his use of social media and other addictive technologies. Rosenstein purchased a new iPhone and instructed his assistant to set up a parental-control feature to prevent him from downloading any apps.

He was particularly aware of the allure of Facebook “likes”, which he describes as “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure” that can be as hollow as they are seductive. And Rosenstein should know: he was the Facebook engineer who created the “like” button in the first place.

A decade after he stayed up all night coding a prototype of what was then called an “awesome” button, Rosenstein belongs to a small but growing band of Silicon Valley heretics who complain about the rise of the so-called “attention economy”: an internet shaped around the demands of an advertising economy.


Credit to:
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/man-created-facebook-like-button-now-warns-mind-can-hijacked-social-media/

UFO/Alien Disclosure About To Be Publicized...If Not, Then Why Was This Just Formed…

Pakistani Government Publishes Anti-Christian Job Advertisement In Newspaper, Says It Is Looking For “Non-Muslims Only” To Be Garbage Workers

Christians living in Pakistan are often times severely persecuted and discriminated against in jobs. A recent incident in Pakistan illustrates how serious the discrimination is. In a recent job ad placed in the news looking for “sanitary workers,” it specified that “only non-Muslims” could apply for it:

A recent advertisement publicized has once again fanned anger among the religious minorities in Pakistan as the advertisement for the posts of sanitary workers calls for non-Muslim candidates only.

Expressing anger over the discriminatory ad, a prominent Pakistani Christian educationist Professor Anjum James Paul said that such advertisements were institutionalized religious discrimination. The recent advertisement puts forth job opportunities for car mechanic, laborer, in charge of maintenance and cleaners. However the advertisement also goes on to call only non-Muslim candidates for the position of cleaners.

“This wording is a flagrant violation of Article 26 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which, among the fundamental rights, explicitly speaks of ‘non-discrimination’ regarding the access to public places, towards all citizens”, Professor Anjum James stated.

Professor Anjum who also heads “Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association” (PMTA) also stated: “It is a discrimination carried out by the state. It is a shameful treatment reserved to religious minorities. According to the Constitution, all citizens have equal rights and duties. It is time to put an end to this discriminatory practice not only in social relations but also in state institutions and structures. The regional government of Sindh should also follow the disposition to reserve religious minorities 5% of the state seats available, in every order and degree, but it does not”.

Religious minorities are troubled by the religion based discrimination, on the other hand most of them refer to famous speech delivered by founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam who ensured equal rights to religious minorities in Pakistan.

Speaking on August 11, 1947 Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared in the Assembly that: “We are all citizens of the same State. We should keep this principle before us as our ideal. So one will discover that over the years Hindus will cease to be Hindu and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because this is the personal faith of every individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State”.

In a bid to ensure equal rights for non-Muslim Pakistanis, the civil society, social activists, rights campaigners and others are urging Pakistani government to bring about reforms in the constitution so as to curb religion based discrimination and prejudice hurled at the religious minorities. (source)

Christians who work as sanitary workers are severely abused on the job by Muslims and have died, including this year the case of a young Christian sanitary worker man who needed medical attention but Muslim doctors refused to help him because they did not want to ‘pollute’ themselves. The man died later that day.

Credit to Shoebat

California Wildfires Are ‘Among The Most Destructive Fire Events In US History’ And They Are About To Get Even Worse

The wildfires that are roaring through northern California are already “among the most destructive fire events in U.S. history”, and by the time it is all said and done this could be the worst wildfire season in the history of the state.  So far, fires have scorched more than 250 square miles, and more than 3,500 homes and businesses have already been destroyed.  The official death toll has risen to 21, but that is expected to rise dramatically because over 600 missing persons reports have been filed with authorities.  The worst damage has been done in Napa and Sonoma counties, and you can see some deeply troubling photos of the devastation here and here.

Unfortunately, this crisis is far from over.  In fact, the National Weather Service has just issued a pair of “red flag warnings”…

The weather forecast is not looking good for those living in wine country, and for those firefighters trying to get a handle on the 22 wildfires raging through Northern California, which broke out Sunday and are barely contained more than three days later.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the North and East bays starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday and midnight on Thursday respectively.

That means winds can gust from 20 mph to 50 mph in the higher elevation areas, fanning the flames down mountains and into the cities.

So as bad as things are at this moment, the truth is that they are going to get even worse over the next 24 hours.

And that is quite sobering to hear, because this is already one of “the most destructive fire events in U.S. history”…

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said fire activity increased significantly, destroying more buildings and forcing more mandatory evacuations. The wind-whipped, fast moving cluster of blazes ranks among the most destructive fire events in U.S. history.

“This is a serious, critical, catastrophic event,” Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said. “It’s pure devastation, and it’s going to take a while to get out and comb through all this.”

Of course this crisis comes on the heels of several other major disasters.  In recent weeks our nation has had to deal with Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the Las Vegas shooting, and many have pointed out that the U.S. has not seen a series of disastrous events such as this in a very long time.

It would be hard to overstate the devastation that we have witnessed in northern California so far.  In some areas, it literally looks like a war zone…

‘It looks like a bombing run here,’ said winemaker Joe Nielsen of Santa Rosa’s Donelan Family Wines, speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle. ‘Just chimneys and burnt-out cars and cooked trees.’

What would you do if your home burned to the ground?

Perhaps you could use the insurance money to rebuild eventually, but what would you do in the meanwhile?

Everywhere you go in northern California the smell of smoke fills the air.  At this point it is so bad that even San Francisco is reporting “the worst air quality ever recorded”…

“We are reporting the worst air quality ever recorded for smoke in many parts of the Bay Area,” said Tom Flannigan, spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. “This is similar to what you see in Beijing China in bad air days there.”

Soot readings in many areas have reached levels considered very unhealthy or hazardous, air quality regulators said.

And the economic damage that is being done by these fires is going to be felt for many, many years to come.

As the quote below explains, California accounts for approximately 85 percent of the wine production in the United States, and Napa and Sonoma counties are the heart of the wine industry in the state…

Wine industry experts say that even if a winery’s vineyards remain standing, they face steep challenges as their employees struggle with burned or damaged homes. The region counts wine and tourism as top employers, and many workers who pick grapes or work in hotels may be compelled to relocate after losing everything.

Napa and Sonoma counties are home to around 900 wineries (of 4,600 statewide), with most boutique businesses making higher-end wines. The two counties represent 13% of the state’s output. And the state itself supplies 85% of the nation’s wine production, making it the fourth-largest producer of wines after Italy, France and Spain.

Expect the price of wine to go up substantially in the months ahead, and this is going to be a huge hit for one of the most economically prosperous areas of the state.  Many of the facilities that have been destroyed will never be rebuilt, and needless to say the tourism industry in northern California will not be the same for a very long time.

But the true extent of the devastation will not be known until the crisis is over, and it looks like the worst chapters may still be ahead.  USA Today is reporting that no rain is in the forecast, and strong winds are going to continue to push wildfires very rapidly across the region…

“No rainfall is forecast for ongoing fires in California,” the weather service said. “Strong winds behind the front will bring elevated-to-critical fire weather threats to active fires across northern California today into Thursday.”

Please pray for the people living in northern California.  Normally, it is one of the most beautiful areas on the entire planet, but now it is literally being transformed into a complete and total nightmare.

For years, I have been writing about the alarming increase in the intensity of wildfires all over the country.  One of the big reasons for this is the fact that the federal government is not properly managing the lands under their control, and so wildfires tend to burn more rapidly on federally-owned lands.  It is time for the federal government to start turning over ownership of these lands to the states, and that is something that I plan to fight very hard to accomplish.

Credit to theeconomiccollapseblog.com

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/red-flag-warning-these-california-wildfires-are-among-the-most-destructive-fire-events-in-us-history-and-they-are-about-to-get-even-worse

Japan Volcano Erupts Sends Ash On 3 Towns

China asks S. Koreans to evacuate due to NK risks of an attack

Chinese police asked South Korean citizens near the North Korea-China border to evacuate the area due to risks of an attack and abduction by the North, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

“We are aware that Chinese authorities have suggested South Korean citizens there evacuate on the possibility of an attack by North Korea,” the ministry here said.

Local media reports said Tuesday that Chinese police warned around 10 South Korean businesspeople, community associates and religious leaders residing near the border to evacuate due to the possibility of abduction by North Korea. They were notified during the Chuseok holiday earlier this month amid heightened military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and ahead of China’s upcoming Communist Party Congress.

Among them, five had already left China as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, while the rest have chosen temporary escape or are considering to return to South Korea, added Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.

The South Korean Consulate General in Shenyang pointed out that it was an unprecedented move for Chinese authorities to directly communicate with South Korean nationals on such matters. It also advised South Koreans to be cautious of strangers and alert family members or acquaintances.

“Previously, the consulate made the safety measures whenever there were signs of such attacks by the North -- this is the first time Chinese authorities took direct action,” said Consul-General to Shenyang Shin Bong-sup.

An unnamed consulate official suggested that the authorities’ actions were triggered by an obtained intelligence report hinting at North Korea’s secretive operation.

In May, a 60-year-old North Korean defector reportedly went missing in the Chinese city of Yanji, near the North-China border, while in 2016, an ethnic Korean named Han Chung-ryeol was allegedly murdered by North Korean agents. Han was a Christian pastor who aided North Korean defectors in China.

But experts here are skeptical that North Korea would make a move to kidnap South Korean nationals, despite heightening tensions.

“It seems the warning is part of China’s efforts to adopt stricter security before its most important political event,” Lee Woo-young, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told The Korea Herald.

“North Korea has been causing trouble near the North-China border and China needs to show that it is making all efforts to contain such problems both locally and globally,” Lee said.

South Korea’s government data showed that about 500 of its citizens have been abducted by the reclusive state since after the Korean War (1950-53). Those snatched away were often reportedly used for propaganda activities or intelligence gathering. However, for more than a decade, North Korean agents have been mainly targeting North Korean defectors rather than those who were born and bred in South Korea.

Meanwhile, South Korea has been ramping up its reconnaissance operations ahead of the 19th national congress of China’s Communist Party, which Cheong Wa Dae has highlighted as a date when a North Korean provocation might take place.

Anton Morozov, a senior Russian lawmaker, who visited Pyongyang from Oct. 2-6, claimed the North is currently preparing for a new long-range missile test in order to prove it can “hit the west coast of the United States.”

“As far as we understand, they intend to launch one more long-range missile in the near future,” he said.

By Jung Min-kyung