Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

_Easy Believism
Aug 12th, 2020
Main StoriesArt Sadlier
Categories: Printed Newsletter

There is a growing promotion of error in the form of easy-believism in Evangelical circles today. What has been practiced for nearly fifty years is now being defined in theological terms.

Those who say, “Repentance is simply a changing of the mind”, are preaching a false gospel.

Those who confuse the sanctification that takes place at the moment of salvation with the practical experience of sanctification are promoting pseudo-salvation. They say, “Be saved by a change of mind and you will over a period of time be changed”. Paul said, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. 2 Cor. 5:17. False teaching is always immersed in confusion.

Repentance is more than a change of mind.

Repentance, if it is genuine, arises from a deep and profound conviction, by the Spirit of Christ that we are indeed wrongdoers who in sinister sin against Him have become alienated from him. In His wondrous grace, generosity, and love He extends to us His mercy, forgiveness, and acceptance on the basis of His own magnanimous self-sacrifice. He demands that we for our part turn from our wicked ways, repent of our wrongs, seek His companionship, and claim His amazing justification and total forgiveness by faith in the shed blood of Christ, who gave himself to redeem us.

Your Phone is Spying on You and Generating Secret 'Surveillance Scores'
Aug 12th, 2020
CommentaryMICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Categories: Warning

Nothing that you do on your phone is private.  In this day and age, most of us have become extremely dependent on our phones, and most Americans never even realize that these extremely sophisticated little devices are gathering mountains of information on each one of us. 

Your phone knows what you look like, it knows the sound of your voice, it knows where you have been, it knows where you have shopped, it knows your Internet searches and it knows what you like to do in your free time. 

In fact, your phone literally knows thousands of things about you, and all of that information is bought and sold every single day without you knowing.  And as you will see below, there are lots of companies out there that use information collected from our phones to create secret "surveillance scores" that are used for a whole host of alarming purposes.

It is really important to understand that your phone is a surveillance device.  The reason why the advertisements on your phone seem so perfectly tailored for you is because of all the information that your phone has gathered on you previously.

To this day, many people are still amazed when they see an ad pop up for something that they were just talking with a friend about, but that doesn't happen by accident.  The following comes from Fox News...

Perhaps you've been talking to a friend about an island vacation, when suddenly deals for the Maldives or Hawaii pop up on your Facebook feed. Or you are talking to your co-worker about yard renovations when advertisements for lawnmowers litter your Twitter, or maybe you were talking about why you stopped drinking and a random sponsored article about the growing trend of "elective sobriety" is suddenly in front of your eyes.

Industry experts insist that our phones are not actively "eavesdropping" on us, but they do admit that our phones are "actually spying on us" in other ways...

"It's easy to feel like our phone is spying on us. It is actually spying on us, but it is not eavesdropping," Alex Hamerstone, Government, Risk and Compliance practice lead at information technology security firm, TrustedSec, told Fox News via email.

"The reason why we see ads pop up that seem to be correlated to the exact thing we were just talking about is because technology and marketing companies gather extensive amounts of personal and behavioral data on us, but it's not from eavesdropping -- it's from surfing the web, shopping, posting on social media, and other things people do online."

Most Americans have come to accept targeted ads as a part of life, but what most people don't realize is that the information our phones gather is being used for far more intrusive purposes.

"Surveillance scores" are being created, and these "surveillance scores" seem quite similar to the "social credit scores" that China has been compiling since 2014.

In China, if you do good things like paying your taxes or taking a parent to the doctor, your social credit score will go up.

But there are also lots of things that will cause your social credit score to go down...

It aims to punish for transgressions that can include membership in or support for the Falun Gong or Tibetan Buddhism, failure to pay debts, excessive video gaming, criticizing the government, late payments, failing to sweep the sidewalk in front of your store or house, smoking or playing loud music on trains, jaywalking, and other actions deemed illegal or unacceptable by the Chinese government.

And if your social credit score gets too low, the consequences can be quite dramatic...

Punishments can be harsh, including bans on leaving the country, using public transportation, checking into hotels, hiring for high-visibility jobs, or acceptance of children to private schools. It can also result in slower internet connections and social stigmatization in the form of registration on a public blacklist.

Here in the United States, private companies are doing something very similar.  Information collected from our phones is being used to create secret "surveillance scores", and selling those scores has become very big business.  The following comes from the Houston Chronicle...

Operating in the shadows of the online marketplace, specialized tech companies you've likely never heard of are tapping vast troves of our personal data to generate secret "surveillance scores" - digital mug shots of millions of Americans - that supposedly predict our future behavior. The firms sell their scoring services to major businesses across the U.S. economy.

And just like China's system, high scores come with rewards and low scores come with punishments.

For example, your scores can determine whether or not someone will rent a property to you, whether or not you will be hired for a job, and even how long you will have to wait for customer service...

CoreLogic and TransUnion say that scores they peddle to landlords can predict whether a potential tenant will pay the rent on time, be able to "absorb rent increases," or break a lease. Large employers use HireVue, a firm that generates an "employability" score about candidates by analyzing "tens of thousands of factors," including a person's facial expressions and voice intonations.

Other employers use Cornerstone's score, which considers where a job prospect lives and which web browser they use to judge how successful they will be at a job.

Brand-name retailers purchase "risk scores" from Retail Equation to help make judgments about whether consumers commit fraud when they return goods for refunds. Players in the gig economy use outside firms such as Sift to score consumers' "overall trustworthiness." Wireless customers predicted to be less profitable are sometimes forced to endure longer customer service hold times.

To me, all of this is extremely creepy.

Eventually, it may get to a point where you are basically a societal outcast if you are not willing to conform to a particular set of politically-correct standards, values and behaviors.

You may not get thrown in jail the moment you do something "unacceptable", but your phone will be watching you every step of the way.

Each mistake that you make will be recorded by your phone, and that information will be stored and used against you for the rest of your life.

I know that all of this sounds very strange, but without a doubt we are living in very strange times.

My advice would be to only use your phone when necessary, but of course the vast majority of the population will never listen to such advice.

Most of us have become highly addicted to these marvelous little devices, and in the process we are helping the elite construct a system of surveillance and control that is unlike anything ever seen before in all of human history.

Riots and Protests from Portland to Jerusalem
Aug 12th, 2020
CommentaryCAROLINE GLICK/JNS.ORG
Categories: Contemporary Issues

Over the past several years, public discourse in the United States has seen a lot of new lows. It saw another one this month when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to federal officers in Portland, Oregon as "stormtroopers," that is, Nazi Brownshirts.

In a tweet on July 18 and in subsequent remarks, Pelosi accused the federal forces deployed to Portland of "kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti."

Pelosi's allegations would cause a political earthquake--if they were true. But they aren't true. And the fact that she slandered federal officers as Nazis is a deeply disturbing testament to where the Democratic Party--of which she is the senior elected official--stands today and what its intentions are.

For the past two months, the progressive city of Portland in the progressive state of Oregon, has been the scene of chaos and rioting. The liberal media have misleadingly characterized the riots as "peaceful demonstrations."

Night after night, hundreds of "peaceful demonstrators" have vandalized and destroyed stores and other businesses, transforming downtown Portland into a war zone. Over the past five weeks, the focal point of the violence has been the federal courthouse.

"Peaceful protesters" from Antifa and other radical groups have been attacking the federal courthouse in Portland with incendiary devices including pipe bombs and commercial grade fireworks. Federal officers charged with guarding the courthouse have been blinded with lasers and attacked with stones, metal balls shot from slingshots, bricks and two-by-fours, among other things.

The rioters are backed in their efforts by city and state officials as well as national Democrats, who have castigated federal forces protecting the courthouse as "occupiers," the "Gestapo" and of course, "stormtroopers."

As for the alleged "kidnapping" of peaceful protesters, local journalist Andy Ngo explained this week that Pelosi's statement channeled Antifa propaganda.

Ngo told Fox News, "That's an Antifa talking point that is being repeated by sympathetic media."

He explained that federal officers charged with protecting federal property are using plainclothes agents in unmarked vehicles to peacefully apprehend leaders of the violence. This is a routine, entirely legal tactic which Ngo explained is only being castigated now is because "it is quite effective."

On the face of it, as Democratic politicians, Pelosi and her colleagues in Congress and Oregon should support the federal forces trying to end the riots. After all, like New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, Portland is a Democratic city. The businesses being destroyed are owned by their voters.

So why are Pelosi and her partisan colleagues and their media adjuncts instead depicting the rioters                          rendering downtown Portland a war zone as "peaceful protesters" and slandering the law enforcement officers defending federal property as Nazis?

The obvious answer is politics. The Democrats support the rioters because as they see things, the longer chaos reigns in the streets of America's cities, the better their chances of defeating President Donald Trump in November.

The Democrats have a number of resources that the Republicans lack and the riots bring them all to bear.

They have fanatical progressive activists angry that Bernie Sanders isn't the nominee but willing to burn America.

They have wall-to-wall support from the media, from NBC to The New York Times to Facebook and Twitter.

The Democrats have limitless funds to maintain the violence and mayhem indefinitely. This week, Alexander Soros, George Soros' son, announced that the family foundation has earmarked another quarter billion dollars to Black Lives Matter. And the Soroses are not alone.

As the past four years of Trump-Russia mythology and legally baseless, politicized prosecutions and investigations have shown, the Democrats control much of the so-called deep state that controls the levers of the permanent bureaucracy

The Trump-Russia collusion narrative largely disintegrated under the weight of evidence and the absurd impeachment process over the past several months. And with its decline the Democrats began casting about for a new cause.

They found it with the coronavirus pandemic. In one fell swoop, the virus from China swept away Trump's fast-growing economy with record low unemployment across all ethnic and racial groups..

With schools abruptly closed and jobs abruptly lost, the optimistic America of 2019 became the destabilized, poor, frustrated and insecure America of 2020.

Yet, despite the best efforts of the commentators, support for Trump was not falling apart, at least not enough to ensure an electoral victory for Joe Biden. And Americans were beginning to figure out a way through, as the rising stock market indexes indicated.

But then came the riots. The proximate cause of the riots and protests was the police killing of George Floyd. But their context was the pandemic and the elections in November. The riots gave the Democrats a way to galvanize their radical progressive base (on the streets, in Congress and in the media) around their favorite issues--race and identity politics.

For the Democrats, the best part of the riots is that unlike the pandemic, for demonstrators and their media flacks, it is easy to make the case that Trump is to blame.

Trump's in charge and America is burning. Trump's to blame. Trump's in charge and there is racism in America. Trump's to blame.

If Trump quells the riots, he will be guilty of police brutality (with stormtroopers)--thus proving the point. If he fails to quell the riots, he is an ineffective boob. And so, with a bottomless pit of money, the riots will continue, at least so long as the Democrats feel they benefit from them and haven't figured out something else to do.

The demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that have been going on for weeks outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, with satellite demonstrations in Tel Aviv, serve a similar function in Israel.

Like their American counterparts, the Israeli demonstrations are massively and sympathetically covered by the media, and enthusiastically supported by politicians from leftist parties. Like their American counterparts, they are disruptive and incredibly loud.

The Israeli protesters aren't as violent as their American peers, but their messages of hatred of Netanyahu are violent and there have been some violent incidents, which seem to be growing, over the past week or so. Certainly, the number of death threats against Netanyahu and his family published by leftists on social media has grown steeply over the past several weeks.

The protests in Israel serve the same purpose for their Israeli organizers as the American ones do for their organizers. The demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are being conducted to incite hatred of Netanyahu as the enemy of the people and to instill the sense that the country is spinning out of control.

Just as Pelosi and her colleagues demonize law enforcement officers trying to restore order and safety in places like Portland, Seattle and Chicago, the media and Netanyahu's opponents in Knesset condemn the police for any effort to arrest demonstrators. If federal officers are "stormtroopers," the police outside the Prime Minister's Residence are the "personal protection force for the Netanyahu family."

There are stark differences between the U.S. and Israeli left, which point less to the goals of the protests than to the threat they pose to the long-term stability of both societies. The main difference is the ideological nature of the two lefts.

The American left has an ideological/religious bent. Progressivism, the creed of the American left, is a hybrid of political rather than economic communism and totalitarian messianism. It is anti-American and anti-Semitic. And while its popularity has grown, it doesn't enjoy the support of anything close to a majority of Americans.

In Israel, in contrast, the left is post-religious and ideologically bankrupt. Its two gods--peace and surrender--came crashing down 20 and 15 years ago, respectively. The failure of the Camp David peace summit in July 2000 and the start of the Palestinian terror war in September 2000 killed the religion of peace.

The left's "unilateral withdrawal" god was shattered when months after Israel expelled its citizens from Gaza and handed the area over to the PLO in August 2005, Hamas seized power and embarked on a war against Israel that has yet to end.

Although bereft of an ideological message to sell the public, the left in Israel has considerable power. Its control over Israel's deep state--including the entire legal system--is far more comprehensive than the American left's control over its state apparatuses.

The Israeli left controls most media organs, the universities and cultural institutions. It has limitless funding from foreign governments and private foundations in Europe and the United States.

And the Israeli left has demonstrators who are willing to cause mayhem to promote hatred of Netanyahu.

Like their American counterparts, the demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are happening in the context of the pandemic. The demonstrators have hitched a ride on the economic distress the pandemic has induced. They also benefit from the closure of the public sphere.

With the bars and nightclubs shut down--and all travel abroad blocked until further notice--young people looking for a way to get together have only one option. The anti-Netanyahu demonstrations are the only parties in the country.

No matter who wins in November, it's hard to see how the situation in the United States will stabilize and how order will be restored. The rise of progressive politicians at the expense of moderate Democrats indicates the radicalization of the American left is not a flash in the pan. One electoral cycle won't fix what has been broken incrementally over five decades.

In Israel, in the absence of an ideological left, the main and most tangible danger posed by the demonstrations is that one of the incited protesters will try to kill Netanyahu and his family. Threats to assassinate the prime minister and his wife and children have proliferated on social media as the massively and sympathetically covered protests have grown more incendiary.

But as far as Israeli society as a whole is concerned, so long as Netanyahu and his family remain safe, the protests are not likely to gain much traction. The public on both the right and the left are more moderate than they were 25 years ago. Netanyahu's public resilience--despite the left's 25-year campaign to destroy him--is proof of the limits of the left's power.

There are many conservative commentators on the right side of America's unbridgeable political divide that believe the U.S. public will respond at the ballot box to the violence in their streets by reelecting Trump. Author Victor Davis Hanson wrote this week about the coming "counter-revolution."

In Israel's case, elections, and counter-revolutions, while necessary to enact the reforms required to rein in the deep state and restore Israel's democratic order, probably won't be needed to end the demonstrations. How many people will choose to stand outside screaming once the pubs reopen?

Revelation 10:8 Exploring Revelation
Aug 12th, 2020
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Book Study;Prophecy

Last week, in verse 7,we saw that the seventh trumpet contains the seven vial judgments, so when the seventh vial judgment is poured out upon the earth, then Christ will come immediately and set up the kingdom.

Now we come to verse 8, " Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel, "this is the same book that was sealed in chapter 5, it was the title deed to the earth which Christ took and began to open, as He broke the seals. Now John is invited to take this book, which is God's program to retake His earth, and to look into it.

"And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, give me the little book", we see John's obedience and faith as takes the book out of the angels hand. Their no blessing of God upon man apart from obedience and faith, when we learn that lesson a whole new world of blessing opens up to us. "And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up;" The issue is not John's literal eating of the book, but rather his understanding of the message of the book and the application of its message to his life.

John had heard Jesus say much earlier, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" John 6:51. We know that the receiving and understanding and believing of the message of the gospel is what brings about salvation, not the literal eating of the words of the book or the literal eating of Christ's flesh. Jeremiah said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart:...."Jer. 15:16. Jeremiah did not literally eat the words of the Lord but he mastered the message and applied it to his life, he understood the message and declared it to those around him. Notice, Jeremiah said it brought joy to his heart, the joy of the Lord comes from knowing and loving and obeying God's word.

"Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey". As we study the book of Revelation we are overcome with the events which are to occur. There are the awful judgments which will take place, many will be destroyed and consigned to hell forever, it breaks our hearts to understand this awful truth. I well remember weeping all night for the loss of an unsaved loved one. Much of the book of revelation grieves our hearts, it is bitter in our souls. The way of life and the way of death are the bitter and the sweet of our lives. Thank God that He has promised to one day wipe away all tears from our eyes.

The sweetness of the gospel rolls over our souls as we contemplate being in the presence of God as he pours out His love and blessings upon us in the sweet forever. Oh, my friend, you must choose between eternal joy or eternal hell, make your choice now and make it wisely! Jesus said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" John 3:36. You may say I don't accept a God who will send men to hell, get over it, you can't refashion God to suite your own desires. God is a God who has an infinite and eternal hatred for sin, but He is a God that will pardon and cleanse you from your sin if you will come to him in repentance and faith. He has made preparation for your forgiveness and cleansing in the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross.

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 12th, 2020
CommentaryFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

For The Full Story Click on the Individual News Item

Jewish Singer Creates New Song Praising TrumpJewish music superstar Yaakov Shwekey performed a song praising President Trump sung to the tune of Shwekey’s “We Are a Miracle”. The name of the new song, appropriately enough, is “We Love America”. It doesn’t matter where, and it doesn’t matter when, You’ve got this country in your heart To make it great again, Give us four more years Four MORE years Cause you know don’t you really know You’ve been heaven-sent, Mr President To stand strong,

BLM Holds Pro-Looting Rally in Chicago: ‘That Is Reparations’
Members of Black Lives Matter Chicago held a solidarity rally Monday night in support of the 100 individuals who were arrested for looting and other crimes, with one organizer calling the looting “reparations.” “I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike, because that makes sure that that person eats. That makes sure that that person has clothes,” Black Lives Matter organizer Ariel Atkins said. “That is reparations. Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.”

Major Texas City Sees Surge in Murders as Left Pours More Gas on Fire
It’s an ignominious distinction. In a year where almost every major American city is experiencing a surge in violent crime, Austin, Texas is leading the race to the bottom. According to The Wall Street Journal, Austin’s homicides are up 64 percent over 2019 — well more than second place in the ignominious contest, Chicago, which saw a 52 percent rise. Overall, the analysis of the United State’s 50 largest cities showed a 24 percent increase across the board.

Earthquake Swarm Rocks SoCal Desert, Scientists Weigh In
A swarm of earthquakes Monday rattled Southern California desert towns, including a magnitude 4.6 temblor that struck at 8:56 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Society. Most of the quakes were centered at Bombay Beach on the eastern edge of the Salton Sea. The first quake struck at 6:33 a.m. and measured a magnitude 3.2. More than 20 temblors followed, measuring in the range of 2.6 to 4.6, according to the USGS.

One nation under anarcho-tyranny
It’s not “socialism” or “communism” under which we suffer. Our dangerously chaotic, selectively oppressive predicament is more accurately described as “anarcho-tyranny.” The late conservative columnist Sam Francis first coined the term in 1992 to diagnose a condition of “both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny — the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes.” The toxic combination of “pandemic panic” and “George Floyd derangement syndrome” has thoroughly destroyed the home of the brave. It is a paradise for the depraved and dictatorial.

Left-Wing Jews and PA Join In False Claim That Israel is Responsible for Beirut Explosion
The official Palestinian Authority daily news Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published an article on Thursday stating the theory that Israel was responsible for the explosion in Beirut Harbor last Tuesday. The article was translated and reported on by Palestinian Media Watch.

Churches continue to challenge governors’ attacks
Orders levied by Democratic governors in Maine and California are being challenged by nondenominational churches represented and assisted by a leading Christian legal group. Those orders essentially assign churches second-class status during the coronavirus pandemic by prohibiting religious gatherings – including (in the Maine case) parking lot services.

By their red stars you’ll know them
Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (RCPUSA), has endorsed Joe Biden for president. Mr. Avakian, who has led the party since 1979, says he doesn’t particularly like Mr. Biden, but that electing him is necessary for “the overthrow of this system, as the fundamental solution to the continuing horrors this system causes for the masses of humanity.” The street mobs of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, plus the radicalized “Progressives” around Mr. Biden want to saddle America with central state socialism that looks a lot like communism, so Mr. Avakian’s endorsement shouldn’t be that surprising.

CA church reacts to restraining order with packed pews
The judge issued a restraining order against him, the church, and one through 1,000 John Does,” said Staver. “He issued the order and said ‘anyone acting in concert with any of these individuals.'” According to Staver, this is the first time that there has been such an order placed against a church. “There’s already penalties and fines of $1,000 a day, and now this contempt that would hold over you, for going into the building for worship or prayer, would result in you going to jail as well under this court’s order. This has never happened before in America.”

IDF strikes Hamas terror targets in Gaza in response to explosive balloons
IDF fighter jets, helicopters and tanks attacked a number of Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the IDF Spokesperson said. During the attack, a military compound, underground infrastructure and observation posts were targeted. The attack was carried out in response to the launching of incendiary balloons into Israel from Gaza over the past several days.

Turkey claims it is under “blockade” in Mediterranean standoff
Turkey claims it is “breaking a blockade” by sending naval ships under the guise of a research mission to the Mediterranean. For a country that is a member of NATO and which has sent drones to Libya, is busy bombing northern Iraq and occupies part of northern Syria, Turkey’s narrative that it is under “blockade” is a novel approach to fan its latest maneuvers in the Mediterranean.

U.S. bankruptcies on track for 10-year high
U.S. bankruptcies are en route to a 10-year high with 424 companies filing as of August 9, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The group’s analysis took into account both public and private companies with public debt. The coronavirus has hit consumer companies hard..Nearly 100 bankruptcies are in the energy and industrials sector.

Three killed in Bangalore clashes over Prophet Muhammad post
Three people have died in the Indian city of Bangalore after police fired on crowds protesting against an allegedly blasphemous Facebook post. Crowds gathered outside the house of a local politician whose relative was accused of making an “offensive” post about the Prophet Muhammad. They set fire to vehicles and attacked policemen who arrived on the scene with stones, police told BBC Hindi.

U.S. backs Israel demand for UN to bolster UNIFIL powers
The United Nations Security Council remains at odds over the way its peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon operates on the ground, with the United States backing Israel’s demands for major changes. At a closed council meeting Tuesday on the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose mandate is up for renewal at the end of the month, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft stressed the need for a new mandate.

Iraq fumes against Turkey over deadly drone attack
Iraq cancelled a ministerial visit and summoned Turkey’s ambassador on Wednesday as it blamed Ankara for a drone attack that killed two high-ranking Iraqi military officers. Iraqi officials called the attack a “blatant Turkish drone attack” in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where Turkey’s military has for weeks raided positions of fighters it considers “terrorists”.

Damaging floods and landslides hit Trinidad and Tobago after two weeks’ worth of rain in just 9 hours
Damaging flash flooding and landslides hit Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, August 8, 2020, after 121 mm (5 inches) of rain in just 9 hours– half the country’s average August rainfall of 250 mm (10 inches). According to the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service, about 121 mm (5 inches) of rain fell in Caura in a period of 9 hours on Saturday, while North Oropouche recorded 93 mm (4 inches)…

Powerful derecho wreaks havoc across the Midwest – one of the worst weather events of 2020 in the U.S.
A rare derecho — severe storm with hurricane-force winds — ripped through the Midwest on Monday, August 10, 2020, leaving almost 1.5 million customers without power, toppling numerous trees and vehicles, and causing major, widespread property damage across several states. Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini described the event as one of the worst weather events of 2020 for the U.S.

Governors Can’t Use COVID To Indefinitely Keep A State Of Emergency
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia often noted that the primary safeguard of our constitutional liberties is the structure of our government. Every banana republic has a bill of rights, he once said, but the strength of the American system is the separation of powers.

OUTRAGEOUS! Xfinity-Comcast Bans GOP Candidate Laura Loomer from Sending Texts and Emails
Laura Loomer has never committed a crime. In 2018 Laura Loomer was banned from Twitter. She was then banned from Facebook and then she was banned from PayPal. CAIR not only worked with Twitter to get Laura Loomer banned they then cheered the news ON TWITTER!

‘Criminals Took to the Streets with Confidence’: 100+ Arrested After Downtown Chicago Wrecked by Looting, Violence
Widespread damage and disorder took place throughout downtown Chicago early Monday morning resulting in more than 100 arrests after hundreds of looters ransacked dozens of stores, including a number of luxury stores.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield warns about coronavirus vaccines and outrageous legal immunity for vaccine makers in must-see interview 
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, creator of the bombshell new film “1986: The Act,” unloads on the deep corruption of the criminal vaccine industry in a new Brighteon Conversations interview (below).

Facebook bans hashtag #savethechildren – Big Tech now protecting PEDOPHILES From coast to coast, Americans everywhere are rising up against pedophilia and human trafficking as part of a growing movement known as “Save the Children.” But a #savethechildren hashtag that had begun to go viral on social media has been banned from Facebook, which apparently now caters to pedophiles.

Food Bank Strains Emerge As Economy Falls Off Fiscal Cliff 
“We’ve definitely already seen food-security needs increase, just in a week, since the extra unemployment has ended.”

LA Mayor Threatens to Shut Off Electricity and Water to Churches that Meet
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday said he is authorizing the department of water and power to shut off utilities at houses, businesses and “large gatherings” within 48 hours that are violating health orders related to COVID-19.

Hong Kong police raid pro-democracy newspaper on ‘the day press freedom died’
Media tycoon Jimmy Lai and other top executives of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy daily newspaper, Apple Daily, were arrested during a police raid under the new national security law on Monday morning over accusations of “collusion with foreign forces.”

Economic Devastation on a Scale That America Has Never Seen Before
Aug 12th, 2020
CommentaryMICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Categories: Warning

For a very long time we have been warned that a U.S. economic collapse was inevitably coming, and now it is here.  Fear of COVID-19 and unprecedented civil unrest in our major cities have combined to plunge us into a historic economic downturn, and nobody is exactly sure what is going to happen next. 

On Thursday, we learned that U.S. GDP was down 32.9 percent on an annualized basis last quarter.  That officially makes last quarter the worst quarter in all of U.S. history, and many people believe that this new economic depression is just getting started. 

But of course not all areas of the country are being affected equally.  According to USA Today, states such as Hawaii, Nevada, Michigan and New York were hit particularly hard last quarter...

Every state was walloped last quarter, though ones that rely heavily on travel and tourism, such as Hawaii and Nevada, were hit hardest by the downturn, according to employment figures analyzed by economist Adam Kamins of Moody's Analytics.

Michigan, the heart of the nation's auto industry, was slammed as consumers put off car purchases. And densely populated Northeast states struck by the most severe virus outbreaks - like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts - absorbed among the heaviest economic losses as governors shut down earlier and residents stayed home.

Originally, the mainstream media was telling us that the U.S. economy would come surging back to life during the third quarter, but we continue to get more signs that indicate that the economy is starting to slow down again.

For example, the Labor Department just released some new numbers that were more than just a little bit startling.  If you can believe it, another 1.434 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week.  That was an increase over last week's revised number, and it represents the second week in a row that initial claims have risen.

Overall, new claims for unemployment benefits have now been above one million for 19 weeks in a row.

Personally, I don't know how this is even possible.  Prior to this year, the all-time record for a single week was just 695,000.  The numbers that we have been getting week after week are so obscene that they are truly difficult to believe.

Overall, a grand total of more than 54 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits during the last 19 weeks.

But there were only 152 million Americans working when employment peaked back in February.  So how is it possible that 54 million workers have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits so far this year?

Have things really gotten that bad?

Maybe they have.  Bloomberg just reported on a recent Census Bureau survey that found that 30 million Americans claim that they did not have enough food to eat during the week that ended on July 21st...

Food insecurity for U.S. households last week reached its highest reported level since the Census Bureau started tracking the data in May, with almost 30 million Americans reporting that they'd not had enough to eat at some point in the seven days through July 21.

In the bureau's weekly Household Pulse Survey, roughly 23.9 million of 249 million respondents indicated they had "sometimes not enough to eat" for the week ended July 21, while about 5.42 million indicated they had "often not enough to eat."

Once again, those numbers are so shocking that they are hard for me to believe.

Are there really tens of millions of Americans that cannot afford three meals a day right now?

Maybe there are, but it is still difficult to grasp the fact that we have fallen so far in such a short period of time.

Meanwhile, we just got more bad news about the restaurant industry.  According to the National Restaurant Association, at least 15 percent of all restaurants in the entire country will be shutting down.  The following comes from Zero Hedge...

The National Restaurant Association has determined that at least 15% of all restaurants will close. This number could be a lot higher at the end of the year as Goldman Sachs reports the economic recovery is now reversing.

Small restaurant operators, who fear a double-dip recession, have now resorted to liquidating their eateries on Facebook Marketplace.

A simple search of "restaurant" on Facebook Marketplace, within 80 miles of Trenton, New Jersey, comes up with dozens and dozens and dozens of mom and pop eateries that are trying to get out of the game.

Actually, if we only lose 15 percent of our restaurants we should hold a massive celebration, because that will be a rip-roaring victory.

As fear of COVID-19 stretches on month after month, and as civil unrest becomes even worse, it will become increasingly difficult for restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other establishments where the public gathers to survive.

In the end, I think that we are going to lose hundreds of thousands of restaurants, and it deeply grieves me to say that.

Of course every industry is going to be devastated by this new economic depression, and even the biggest names are going to get hit really hard.

In fact, you know that things are starting to get really bad when even Walmart starts laying off workers...

Walmart Inc. is joining the ranks of Macy's and L Brands in eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs in order to cut costs.

Employees in the mega-retailer's store planning, logistics, and real estate units have reportedly received pink slips, reported Bloomberg Thursday

If Walmart executives truly believed that the U.S. economy was going to be returning to normal, they would not have made such a move.

But at this point it should be clear to everyone that there isn't going to be a return to normal.

Very challenging times are on the horizon, and what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

More big corporations are going to go bankrupt, more businesses are going to fail, more workers are going to be laid off, and the financial dominoes are going to start to fall at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.

So many of the things that myself and so many other economic writers have been warning about are starting to happen.

A great unraveling has begun, and it is imperative for all of us to find a way to survive the severe economic pain that is ahead of us.