Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Mayor Pete Shamelessly Gives 9 - Year-old National Platform to Come Out As Gay
Feb 29th, 2020
CommentaryMICHAEL BROWN/ASK DR BROWN
Categories: Moral Decline

What does a 9-year-old child know about sexuality? What does a pre-pubescent boy know about the meaning of "gay"? How many boys of that age still dream innocently of marrying their mothers?

It is therefore absolutely outrageous that presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg gave a national platform to a 9-year-old old who wanted advice on coming out as gay.

This is as shameful as it is irresponsible. That there was not an immediate, national outcry points to the morally confused and spiritually comatose condition of much of our country.

As reported by the New York Post, "A 9-year-old Colorado boy got kudos from openly gay Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg when he asked him during a rally for help telling the world that he's also gay."

The boy's name was Zachary Ro, and his question, which he wrote on a piece of paper, read, "Thank you for being so brave. Would you help me tell the world I'm gay too? I want to be brave like you."

Not surprisingly, his question "was met with cheers and chants of 'Love means love' from the nearly 4,000 people in attendance."

Buttigieg was so impressed with the question that he brought the boy on the platform, together with his mother. And he commended the boy's courage, saying, "I don't think you need a lot of advice from me on bravery, you seem pretty strong."

This is Child Abuse

The crowd, of course, loved his answer, and the video of their interaction has gone viral. Instead, it should have provoked a national outrage. This, too, is child abuse.

Remember. This child is only 9 years old.

He is pre-pubescent.

He is only a few years removed from thinking that boys who like girls have "the cooties." (Do you remember hearing that in kindergarten and the first grade?)

Surveys have indicated that plenty of teenagers who identify as gay no longer do so when they reach adulthood.

And surveys have indicated that plenty of teenagers who identify as gay no longer do so when they reach adulthood. (See below for more.)

I'm aware, of course, that many gay readers will say to me, "You are completely ignorant. I knew I was different when I was 6."

Perhaps you did. But plenty of others thought they were same-sex attracted as children only to find out later that they were not. (And how many kids identify as heterosexual and then later "discover" they are homosexual?)

Sexual Attraction Is Not Fixed, Says Health Study. How Much Less So for Children?

As a 2019 article in Science Alert notes (reporting on a major new, scientific health study), "Far frombeing being a fixed preference, the findings suggest that sexual identity and attraction undergo extensive and often subtle changes throughout a person's life, continuing long past adolescence and into adulthood, with women showing slightly more fluidity than men."

The lead author of the study was Christine Kaestle, a developmental health scientist at Virginia Tech.

Carly Cassella explains that, "Using data from a national survey of American students, [Kaestle's] research tracks the sexual identity, sexual behaviour and romantic experiences of over 6,000 students from the age of 16 to 32."

Yet we are talking about tracking the sexual fluidity of teens as young as 16. What about younger teens? What about pre-teens? What about children who are just 9? Without a doubt, the shifts in identification would be even more dramatic.

How Dare We Publicly Brand a 9-year Old as Gay

A pro-gay, middle school teacher told me some years ago that coming out as gay was the new fad in her school, the new "cool" thing to do.

She then told me that, a few days earlier, a 12-year-old boy came out as gay to his class, only to say to this teacher the next day, "I think I made a mistake. Can I take it back?"

Yet this was a 12-year-old, not a 9-year-old. Even here, the contrast is stark.

How dare any of us put a 9-year-old child like this on public display, now branding him for life as gay. What if Zachary wants to "take it back" in a few years? What then?

Can a Child Give Consent to a Sexual Relationship?

Let me put this in a larger context for a moment. Perhaps the light will go on for you as I do.

If there is one accusation that gay men hate more than any other it is the accusation that they are pedophiles. That all (or most) homosexual men are interested in having sexual relationships with boys. That it is not safe to leave a boy alone in the presence of a gay male. That all (or most of them) are child abusers. Every gay man with whom I have talked over the years has categorically and emphatically rejected these accusations. And I, for one, believe them.

In my view, the real danger is one of older homosexuals influencing impressionable children. Of indoctrination more than seduction. Of persuasion, not rape. That's one reason I raised concerns about the potential, negative impact of a President Pete Buttigieg.

Of course, there is no denying the well-known tradition of "man-boy love" in homosexual history, from the "mentoring" of ancient Greece to the NAMBLA societies of today. Calling it "intergenerational intimacy" does not make it any less heinous.

Advocates of such practices, however, always emphasize that the sexual and romantic acts are consensual.

To paraphrase, "We absolutely deplore the raping of children. It is despicable and should be punished severely by the law. But children deserve freedom of choice as well, and if you know you are gay as a child, you should have the right to express yourself."

In the words of gay pederast activist David Thorstad, speaking at a convention in 1998, "Freedom is indivisible. The liberation of children, women, boy-lovers, and homosexuals in general, can occur only as complementary facets of the same dream." (For this citation and many more from Thorstad, see here.)

As expressed by the pioneer gay icon Harry Hay in 2006, "[I]f the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world."

Can a Child Understand His Own Sexuality?And it is here that our outrage is palpable. "How," we ask, "can a 13-year-old child give consent to a sexual or romantic relationship with an adult, be it homosexual or heterosexual? This is a form of child abuse."

Indeed, it is. Our outrage is not only palpable. It is justifiable.

What about children even younger? What about a 12-year-old? An 11-year-old? A 10-year-old? A 9-year-old?

Can such a young, developing child even know for sure that he or she is "gay"?

Does a 10-year-old understand sexuality? Can a 9-year-old truly understand the difference between

male-female relationships, let alone the concept of "sexual orientation"?

We Dare Not Be Silent

That's why the recent, public interaction between Zachary and Mayor Pete is so disturbing.

That it was an out and proud, gay presidential candidate who did so on a national stage only underscores the madness of the hour. And it is a foretaste of just what we could expect from an out and proud gay president. My warnings are not exaggerated.

Let us, then, shout it from the rooftops, regardless of the mockery we will take from today's "enlightened" society.

We dare not be silent for the sake of the children.

Let the Headlines Speak
Feb 29th, 2020
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

For The Full Story Click on the Individual News Item

Coronavirus – Are we overreacting?
The spread of what is now called the COVID-19 virus is still picking up steam across the globe. Medically speaking, one doctor says there’s no reason to panic. Economically speaking, however, might be another story. The Dow Jones has plunged more than 3,000 points in the last week or so with investors fearing a slowing global economy as the coronavirus, or COVID-19, continues to rack up cases and slow commerce with several US trading partners. Dr. David Stevens, CEO emeritus of the Christian Medical Association, tells OneNewsNow the country has dealt with more virulent viruses. Stevens, David (CMDA)”It’s not nearly as bad as the other … viruses we’ve dealt with,” he says. “SARS and MERS had much higher mortality rates — SARS at ten percent and MERS at close to 30 percent.”

Chinese Navy destroyer shoots laser at US Navy plane, says US
A dangerous encounter occurred on Feb. 17 when a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy destroyer targeted a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft with a high powered laser. The U.S. Pacific Fleet said the Chinese destroyer’s actions violated multiple accords, including Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Chinese defense ministry regarding ships and aircraft encounters at sea.

CDC walks back coronavirus panic: ‘US risk remains low’ days after saying outbreak will happen & ‘could be bad’
In a conference call for media on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) walked back earlier panic about a potential U.S. coronavirus outbreak, saying now that the U.S. risk remains low. “The immediate risk to the general American public remains low,” Messonnier said during the conference call. “Our strategies have been largely successful. As a result, we have very few cases in the United States.”

K.T. McFarland: Mueller wanted me to ‘implicate’ Trump
She recently claimed that FBI agents deployed by Mueller’s team had set her up for a “perjury trap.” special counsel Robert Mueller wanted her to “implicate” President Trump.

Coronavirus patient’s dog tests positive for COVID-19
The pet dog of a coronavirus patient in Hong Kong tested “weak” positive for COVID-19 and has been put in quarantine, a government spokesman said Friday.

It’s not identity politics, it’s anti-white politics
Whatever is gripping and convulsing the country, it’s not identity politics. Blacks are not being incited against Hispanics. Hispanics are not being turned on Asians, and Ameri-Indians aren’t being urged to attack the groups just mentioned. Rather, they’re all piling on honky. That’s anti-white politics or animus.

ICE subpoenas sheriff who let convicted sex offender go free
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently subpoenaed a sheriff’s office in the suburbs of Portland for information about two Mexican citizens wanted for deportation, the latest conflict between federal officials and local government agencies over sanctuary policies. ICE served the subpoenas on the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Hillsboro, The Associated Press reported.

Russia Says Putin, Erdogan Discussed Deadly Strike: Syria Update
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Friday after an attack on Turkish troops in Syria killed at least 33 soldiers and wounded dozens of others. Russia denied involvement, but Turkey’s top defense official said Moscow, which backs the Syrian regime, knew the whereabouts of Turkish troops and that attacks on Turkish soldiers continued even after a warning was issued in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province.

Taliban negotiators in Qatar to sign deal with US to end Afghan war
Saturday is a “monumental day for Afghanistan,” the United States Embassy in Kabul said…hours before the signing of a pact with Taliban Islamist militants that could bring an end to an 18-year war… With preparations underway for the signing in Qatar’s capital of Doha, the embassy officials added, “It is about making peace and crafting a common brighter future. We stand with Afghanistan.”

US says Chinese ship fired laser at American aircraft
A Chinese Navy ship fired a laser at a U.S. surveillance aircraft flying over the Philippine Sea west of Guam, the Navy said Thursday, acknowledging the incident more than a week after it happened. The Navy said the People’s Republic of China naval destroyer lased the American P-8A Poseidon aircraft in an act the U.S. deemed unsafe and a violation of international codes and agreements.

Viral Video of Girl Cheerfully Getting Abortion at Planned Parenthood Draws Horror
A widely viewed TikTok video that has drawn horrified responses shows a girl laughing and apparently having fun as she reveals her pregnancy and heads to Planned Parenthood for what appears to be her second abortion attempt. The video shows the girl exposing her somewhat swollen abdomen and laughing in the car, apparently on her way to Planned Parenthood to have an abortion.

Syria war: Turkey lets refugees exit towards Europe
Groups of refugees and migrants are heading towards the EU after Turkey said it would not abide by a deal to stop them reaching Europe. Turkey’s communications chief said the country had not received enough support in hosting millions of Syrian refugees. Its decision followed a deadly attack on Turkish troops by Syrian government forces in northern Syria.

U.S. says it will keep engaging Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan on Blue Nile dam
The United States will continue to work with Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan until they sign an accord on a giant Blue Nile hydropower dam, after failing to secure signatures from the three countries this week… The three countries had expected to sign an agreement in Washington this week…but Ethiopia skipped the meeting and only Egypt has initialed the deal thus far.

Muslim Call to Prayer Comes to Paterson, NJ
If you live in Paterson New Jersey and like to sleep past dawn, you might want to invest in some earplugs. The Islamic call to prayer will soon be broadcast all over the city, barring legal appeal.

Widespread flooding persists in Ireland and UK, another strong storm to hit western Europe this weekend
Widespread flooding due to prolonged heavy rain continues to impact parts of the UK and Ireland, leading to evacuations and prompting the Met Office to issue warnings and alerts on Friday, February 28, 2020. The conditions are expected to worsen as another storm is set to arrive on Saturday, February 29, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to western Europe over the weekend.

Crops ravaged by a massive sandstorm, heavy impact on all crops grown in the open ground, Canary Islands
Crops in the Canary Islands were ravaged by a massive sandstorm affecting the archipelago from February 22 through 24, 2020. Agrarian leaders are expecting the damages to be long-term as not only the current harvest was lost, but the next ones are also at risk.

TikTok Video Of Drag Queen Tynomi Banks Performing Sexually-Charged Dance For 6-Year Old As Deranged Adults Clapped Their Approval
You can see the look on this little girl’s face as she is being defiled by this disgusting display of a drag queen in hot pants dancing in a sexually-suggestive manner, she is by turns baffled and horrified. And to make matters worse, she was placed in this chair and in this position by her parents, and forced to be a part of it. Let’s draw the battle lines in the sand right now, shall we? If you are a parent who approves of this and subjects your child to it, then you are guilty of child abuse. Wake up, Church, the wolf is inside and devouring.

Coronavirus update for Feb 28: Mexico confirms infection, stocks puke, U.S. labs to finally begin testing Americans next week after 3-week CDC delay
Updated for Feb. 28th: As we publicly predicted would happen four weeks ago, the coronavirus is exploding around the world. Today, the number of new infections outside China exceeds the number of infections reported inside China.

Archbishop Jan Lenga: Pope Francis is ‘Usurper and Heretic,’ ‘Leading the World Astray’
Catholic Archbishop Jan Lenga,  the former head of the Diocese of Karaganda, Khazakhstan and now retired in Poland, was ordered to stop delivering sermons and speaking with the media because of his frequent statements that Pope Francis is a “heretic” spreading “untruths and sins” and “leading the world astray.”

Flashback: CDC Workers Were “Crying in the Hallways” When Trump Was Elected President
Are concerns expressed by Rush Limbaugh and others that workers in the federal bureaucracy may try to politicize the response to the coronavirus as a weapon against President Trump’s reelection that far fetched? Workers in many federal government departments and agencies have tried since his election to sabotage Trump from within, proudly calling themselves part of the Resistance.

Get Children Out of Public Schools, Warns AZ Education Chief
Former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, who oversaw the state Department of Education, sounded the alarm about what is happening in public schools across America in an interview with The New American magazine’s Alex Newman.

Russia Sends Two Warships Armed With Cruise Missiles To Prevent Turkey From Launching Full-Scale Invasion Of Syria
Russia at the moment is undergoing a delicate balancing act, trying to maintain relations with Turkey while at the same time trying to prevent them from invading Syria, where Russia is backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkish president Erdogan is  now warning that a full-scale invasion of Syria could be right around the corner, something Russia is trying to prevent.

I Was not Disobedient Unto the Heavenly Vision - Acts 26:19
Feb 29th, 2020
Morning MeditationF. B. Meyer
Categories: Commentary;Inspirational;Book Study

To us, also, the heavenly visions come. On our summer holidays, rising between us and some soaring Alp, or meeting us in our walk beside the gently-breaking sea; on beds of pain and in chambers of watching; visions of the risen Lord; visions of His infinite grief and pain which we have caused; visions of the possibilities of our life as a minister and witness of the things which we have seen; visions of results far down the vista wherein dark souls should become light, slaves emancipated, the defiled saintly. Ah, visions of God! ye leave an indelible impression that moulds and ennobles all after-years! Pitiable the soul to which visions of a holier, sweeter life never come, or, if they come, are never seen.

The one important matter is our treatment of them. We may indolently refuse to follow the beckoning hand and obey the voice that calls. We may return to our evil courses and follow the devices and desires of our own hearts. We may cling to the prison cell, instead of following the angel that strikes us on our side, and bids us go forth into freedom. And if so, like Balaam, we shall become spiritually blind, and fail to see visions that the dumb creatures recognize, and that would fain arrest us in our perilous career.

On the other hand, if we will obey the vision, we shall not only retain the impression, and feel! its prolonged and enthralling power, but shall receive still further manifestations of the will of God. "A witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee." To those who love and obey Him, He is ever drawing near with fresh and deeper thoughts of the Father.

Eugenic Ideology Rears It's Ugly Head
Feb 29th, 2020
CommentaryDAVID CLOSSON/FRC.ORG
Categories: Warning

Eugenics made international headlines over the weekend after comments previously made by Andrew Sabisky, a newly-appointed aide to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, resurfaced.

In a 2016 interview, Sabisky stated, "Eugenics are about selecting 'for' good things. Intelligence is largely inherited and it correlates with better outcomes: physical health, income, lower mental illness." Many in the United Kingdom were appalled by these comments, and on Monday, Sabisky resigned and the British government sought to do damage control.

However, not everyone in Britain was critical of Sabisky. Well-known biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins weighed in on the controversy on Sunday, tweeting: "It's one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It's quite another to conclude that it wouldn't work in practice. Of course it would." He added, "It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs & roses. Why on earth wouldn't it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology."

Dawkins sought to clarify his initial comments in a follow-up tweet by claiming to "deplore the idea of a eugenic policy." However, he reiterated his suggestion that eugenics "would work" and implied that "obvious scientific facts" support his assertion.

Christians who wish to think critically about this controversy -- and particularly Dawkins's suggestion that eugenics might "work in practice" -- ought to consider the underlying worldview of eugenics.

First, we must define eugenics and understand the legacy of the eugenics movement. Eugenics argues that the gene pool of the population can be improved through selective breeding. Francis Galton, known as the father of eugenics, argued in 1883 that eugenics proposed a way to "give to the more suitable races...a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable."

Commenting on the ideological background of eugenics, Patrina Mosley, FRC's Director of Life, Culture and Women's Advocacy, explains:

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution provided the basis for the eugenics philosophy, in which "natural selection" was understood to favor certain races over "lesser races," which became the foundation for eliminating "undesirables" (non-whites, the poor, the mentally and physically handicapped) so that the population was eugenically controlled to produce only the "right" kinds of people (white, wealthy, high intellect). 

His cousin and follower, Sir Francis Galton, is known as the father of eugenics because of his dedicated research and advancement of "the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally." This philosophy attracted many "elites" of society, who were often wealthy, powerful, and racist, who desired to put thought into practice.

At the heart of eugenics is a racist ideology that seeks to justify segregating certain members of society from others along subjective and arbitrary lines such as race, educational background, IQ score, and class, to weed out the supposedly "undesirable" members of society.

Second, we must remember that worldview affects much more than theory. Worldview provides the intellectual framework for policy and politics, and eugenic ideology was behind some of the twentieth century's greatest moral tragedies. For example, during the 1930s and 40s, the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party thought those they deemed genetically unfit should not be allowed to reproduce. 

This ideology led to the forced sterilization of anyone suffering from genetic blindness, hereditary deafness, manic depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and alcoholism. Tragically, this ideology was influential in the United States as well. By 1931, 29 states had sterilization laws, resulting in the forced sterilization of over 64,000 people.

Finally, we must recognize the ideological affinity between eugenics and abortion. This is most clearly seen in the work and writings of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Throughout her career, Sanger believed that certain types of people were "unfit" to procreate based on disease, perceived mental deficiency, and race. In her magazine Birth Control Review (which for years carried the masthead "Birth Control: To create a race of thoroughbreds"), Sanger regularly endorsed eugenic ideology. 

In the December 1921 issue, Sanger stated, "The feeble minded and physically and mentally unfit should not be allowed to propagate their kind." A comment made in a personal letter in 1939 underscores the racial component of Sanger's work: "We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population."

Sanger's eugenic legacy lives on today at Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. Nearly 80 percent of Planned Parenthood's facilities are within walking distance of minority communities.

According to the latest census data, just over 12 percent of the U.S. population is African American, and yet over 30 percent of abortions were committed on black babies. Thus, while Dawkins argues that eugenics "would work" in theory, it is no mere theory. We are seeing it play out right in front of us.

Thus, as we Christians reflect on the present conversation surrounding eugenics, we must always remember the history and legacy of this harmful ideology, one steeped in a worldview that fundamentally denies the dignity of entire groups of people based on the presence or absence of secondary or superficial characteristics.

Such a worldview is fundamentally incompatible with a Christian worldview, which declares that all people -- born and unborn, abled and disabled, "desirable"or "undesirable," etc. -- are made in God's image, possess inherent value, and deserve respect.

China Faces Financial Armageddon Countdown - World Economy At Risk
Feb 29th, 2020
CommentaryTYLER DURDEN/ACTIVIST POST
Categories: Warning

For the past two weeks, even as the market took delight in China's doctored and fabricated numbers showing the coronavirus spread was "slowing", we warned again and again that not only was this not the case (which recent data out of South Korea, Japan and now Italy has confirmed), but that for all its assertions to the contrary, China's workers simply refused to go back to work (even with FoxConn offering its workers extra bonuses just to return to the factory) and as a result the domestic economy had ground to a halt.

Let's start with Chinese businesses: while China's giant state-owned SOEs will likely have enough of a liquidity lifeblood to last them for 2-3 quarters, it is the country's small businesses that are facing a head on collision with an iceberg, because according to the Nikkei, over 85% of small businesses - which employ 80% of China's population - expect to run out of cash within three months, and a third expect the cash to be all gone within a month.

Should this happen, not only will China's economy collapse, but China's $40 trillion financial system will disintegrate, as it is suddenly flooded with trillions in bad loans.

Take the case of Danny Lau who last week reopened his aluminum facade panel factory in China's southern city of Dongguan after an extended Lunar New Year break. To his shock, less than a third of its roughly 200 migrant workers showed up.

"They couldn't make their way back," the Hong Kong businessman said. Most of his workers hail from central-western China, including 11 from Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people. Many said they had been banned from leaving their villages as authorities race to contain the epidemic.

Lau's business had already been hurt by the 25% tariff on aluminum products the U.S. imposed in its tit-for-tat trade war with China. Now he worries the production constraints will give American customers another reason to cancel orders and switch to Southeast Asian suppliers. The virus is making a bad situation "worse," he said.

Lau is not alone: this same double blow is hitting small and midsize enterprises across China, prompting a growing chorus of calls for the government to step in and offer lifelines. The stakes could not be higher: These smaller employers account for 99.8% of registered companies in China and employ 79.4% of workers, according to the latest official statistics. They contribute more than 60% of gross domestic product and, for the government, more than 50% of tax revenue. In short: they are the beating heart of China's economy.

Companies like Lau's that have resumed some production are the lucky ones. Many factories and other businesses remain completely stalled due to the virus. Many owners have no other choice but pray that things return to normal before they careen off a financial cliff.

And here is the stark reality of China's T-minus 3 months countdown: 85% of 1,506 SMEs surveyed in early February said they expect to run out of cash within three months, according to a report by Tsinghua University and Peking University. And forget about profits for the foreseeable future: one-third of the respondents said the outbreak is likely to cut into their full-year revenue by more than 50%, according to the Nikkei.

"Most SMEs in China rely on operating revenue and they have fewer sources for funding" than large companies and state-owned enterprises, said Zhu Wuxiang, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management and a lead author of the report.

The problem with sequential supply chains is that these also apply to the transfer of liquidity: employers need to pay landlords, workers, suppliers and creditors - regardless of whether they can regain full production capacity anytime soon. Any abrupt and lasting delays will wreak havoc on China's economic ecosystem.

"The longer the epidemic lasts, the larger the cash gap drain will be," Zhu said, adding that companies affected by the trade war face a greater danger of bankruptcy because many are already heavily indebted.  "Self-rescue will not be enough. The government will need to lend help."

So where are we nearly two months after the epidemic started? Well, as of last Monday, only about 25% of people had returned to work in China's tier-one cities, according to an estimate by Japanese brokerage Nomura, based on data from China's Baidu. By the same time last year, 93% were back on the job.

And making matters worse, as we first noted several weeks ago, local governments around the country face a daunting question of whether to focus on staving off the virus or encourage factory reopenings, as the following tweet perfectly captures.

As long as the national logistics network "is still in shambles," Nomura's chief China economist, Lu Ting said, there might be little to gain from rushing restarts, whereas "the cost of a rebound in infections might be quite high." He expects economic activity to pick up again in a couple of months, although the longer Beijing fails to confidently put an end to the pandemic, the longer it will take for activity to return to normal. Meanwhile, the 3-month countdown clock is ticking...

Don't tell that to Zhou Dewen, the chairman of the Small and Medium Business Development Association in the city of Wenzhou, who knows this and agrees that this crisis is worse than SARS. Far, far worse. In fact, he said, it is "the most severe" of any crisis in the 40 years since China embarked on major economic reforms. He sees not a double but a "triple whammy," factoring in the economic slowdown the country was experiencing even before the trade conflict and the virus.

Wenzhou, on the coast of Zhejiang Province, was the first city outside Hubei put into full lockdown in an attempt to stop the pathogen. As of last week, Zhou said, only factories that produce medical supplies had been allowed to resume work.

"What entrepreneurs need is confidence," Zhou said. "But first they need to survive." He is hoping the government will offer fiscal support and tax breaks to buy more time for small businesses. Some local governments have already responded to such pleas by waiving electric bills and delaying taxes, social security payments and loans. But for some businesses, such relief measures are little consolation.

Worse, last Sunday the communist party's mouthpiece, the Global Times, suggested thatinstead of waiting for fiscal bailouts, Beijing will have no choice but to cut spending and unleash austerity, a move that would have catastrophic consequences for China.  But even if Beijing does ease fiscally, it is unclear just what it can do short of printing money and handing it out to everyone. "A tax reduction doesn't help if you don't even have income," said Zhu, who must somehow scrape together around 700,000 yuan ($100,000) for rent and the salaries of about 40 employees.

Zhu reckons her company will lose about 3 million yuan in profit over the two months. Besides the postponements, couples that were looking at wedding options before the outbreak have put their planning on hold. There is little room, it seems, to think about love in the time of the coronavirus.

"This is the most difficult time I have ever experienced" after 11 years of running the company, Zhu said. The worst part might be the uncertainty: She has no idea when the authorities might lift the ban or whether she can make it that long. "All of this is unknown to us," Zhu said.

She is not alone: Wu Hai, owner of Mei KTV, a chain of 100 Karaoke bars across China, took to the nation's premier outlet of discontent, social media platform WeChat, to voice his despair. KTV's bars have been closed by the government because of the virus, choking off its cash flow. The special loans from the authorities will be of little help and no bank will provide a loan without enough collateral and cash flow, he said on his official WeChat account earlier this month. On WeChat , Wu gave himself two months before he has to shutter his business.

It's not just Japan's flagship financial publication and owner of the Financial Times, the Nikkei, that is dramatically changing the narrative away from "all shall be well." In its headline article today, Bloomberg writes that "Millions of Chinese Firms Face Collapse If Banks Don't Act Fast" and described the plight of Brigita, a director at one of China's largest car dealers, who is also running out of options.

Her firm's 100 outlets have been closed for about a month because of the coronavirus, cash reserves are dwindling and banks are reluctant to extend deadlines on billions of yuan in debt coming due over the next few months. There are also other creditors to think about.

"If we can't pay back the bonds, it will be very, very bad," said Brigita, whose company has 10,000 employees and sells mid- to high-end car brands such as BMWs. She asked that only her first name be used and that her firm not be identified because she isn't authorized to speak to the press. With much of China's economy still idled as authorities try to contain an epidemic that has infected more than 75,000 people, millions of companies across the country are in a race against the clock to stay afloat.

The irony, of course, is that all this is happening even as China has in fact eased dramatically in recent weeks, from cutting rates, to engaging in a barrage of mini stimulus measures, to injecting massive amounts of liquidity, to cutting taxes, to supporting virus-stricken companies... to flooding the economy with a record 5 trilion in loans and shadow debt in the last month.

Yet while China's government has cut interest rates, ordered banks to boost lending and loosened criteria for companies to restart operations, many of the nation's private businesses say they've been unable to access the funding they need to meet upcoming deadlines for debt and salary payments. Without more financial support or a sudden rebound in China's economy, some may have to shut for good.

"If China fails to contain the virus in the first quarter, I expect a vast number of small businesses would go under," said Lv Changshun, an analyst at Beijing Zhonghe Yingtai Management Consultant company.

Said otherwise, unless China reboots its economy, it faces an economic shock the likes of which it has never seen before. Yet it can't reboot the economy unless it truly stops the viral pandemic, something it will never be able to do if it lies to the population that the pandemic is almost over in hopes of forcing people to get back to work.

Hence the most diabolic Catch 22 for China's social and economic system, because whereas until now China could easily lie its way out of any problem, in this case lying will only make the underlying (viral pandemic) problem worse as sick people return to work, only to infect even more co-workers, forcing even more businesses to be quarantined.

Some, like Bloomberg, blame the banks.

As a group, Chinese banks had offered about 254 billion yuan in loans related to the containment effort as of Feb. 9, according to the banking industry association, with foreign lenders such as Citigroup Inc. also lowering rates. To put that into perspective, China's small businesses typically face interest payments on about 36.9 trillion yuan of loans every quarter.

In an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg News, ICBC said it has allocated 5.4 billion yuan ($770 million) to help companies fight the virus. "We approve qualified small businesses' loan applications as soon as they arrive," the bank said

Alas, it is not that simple: as we explained two weeks ago in "China's Banks Face $6 Trillion Coronavirus Cataclysm If Epidemic Is Not Contained Soon", China's banks are rapidly retrenching well-aware that they face an explosion in bad debt as the bulk of Chinese companies face collapse. As such, it makes little sense for them to throw good money after bad, and instead most are hunkering down in anticipation of the coming shock.

Indeed, as even Bloomberg concedes, banks are hardly any better off themselves:

Many are under-capitalized and on the ropes after two years of record debt defaults. Rating firm S&P Global has estimated that a prolonged emergency could cause the banking system's bad loan ratio to more than triple to about 6.3%, amounting to an increase of 5.6 trillion yuan.

The bottom line is that for both companies and their bank lenders (and sources of potential rescue financing), there is one commodity in very short supply: trust. Trust that the counterparty will do the right thing; trust that the government will treat everyone fairly instead of just bailing out a handful of connected politicians.

Trust, which in China in general has been lacking for years, as the formerly communist country succumbed to crony hypercapitalism with Chinese characteristics, one in which knowing who to bribe and who to lie to meant the difference between success and failure. Trust was never cultivated. And now that lack of trust is about to cost China dearly.

In any case, the lack of far more funding means that China's smaller businesses whose revenue have suddenly collapsed, have just weeks if not days of liquidity left. Brigita, whose firm owes money to dozens of banks, said she has so far only reached an agreement with a handful to extend payment deadlines by two months. For now, the company is still paying salaries. But those will stop too.

And that's when the real crisis begins as hundreds of millions of workers suddenly find themselves unemployed.

For some the crisis has already begun. Wang Qiang, a 23-year-old migrant worker, has been unable to find work in Shenzhen after three weeks of searching. On top of the limited factory job openings, the Nikkei notes that he faces another major obstacle: his identification labels him a native of Hubei.

His home province, where the virus originated, accounts for the vast majority of the 74,000-plus mainland infections and most of the deaths. "The labor dispatch companies told me that the factories don't want people from Hubei," he said. The fact that he did not go home for the Lunar New Year holidays seems to make no difference.

Wang spends his nights sleeping on the floor of an uncompleted building. "I'll wait and see if the situation gets better when companies restart."

He won't be the last one, however, and if China's doesn't find some miraculous solution to the current coronavirus crisis, in two months China will face a financial, economic and social cataclysm the likes of which it has never seen in its modern history.