“The secret things belong to the Lord our God.”
(Deuteronomy 29:29)

Secret Things

Dear Friends,

Greetings! Most of our readers are fairly familiar with Matthew 24. If you don't happen to be familiar with this chapter it is considered to probably be Jesus' most well known prophecy concerning the End Times and the Great Tribulation in the Gospels.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Matthew 24:15-21

Verses sixteen and twenty present us with a bit of a conundrum. Verse sixteen uses the word Judaea and verse twenty uses the verse sabbath.

It should be pointed out that Mark 13:14 and Luke 21:21 also use the word Judaea. Mark 13 and Luke 21 also being very similar chapters to Matthew 24.

Although the entire world will experience the Tribulation these verses seem to be speaking specifically to the people who live in Judaea and who must have been pretty observant in keeping the sabbath.

Who is it today that lives in Judaea and faithfully keeps the sabbath. Although there are some Christians in Israel today and many Moslems as well, verses sixteen and twenty would seem to be referring to the majority of people who live in Judea today who are Jews.

(Incidentally when Israel was first established in 1948 as a nation they originally wanted to be called Judaea and not Israel. It was Harry S. Truman, then president of the United States who insisted it be called Israel.)

Now comes the riddle.

If this warning is to the Jews in Israel in the End Time it would appear odd it should be in the book of Matthew in the New Testament.

The great majority of Jews have rejected Jesus as their Messiah and do not believe or read the New Testament.

So how do they get this message?

Could it be the two End Time witnesses, Revelation 11:3, before they begin their Tribulation ministry? We don't know and this would at best be conjecture.

However, even though we don't know now, some day we will know, and we may not have long to wait!

Have a great week ahead.

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WND

RICHARD DAWKINS, NOTED ATHEIST, PRAISES CHRISTIANITY

'No Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings'

Published: January 11, 2016

CHERYL CHUMLEY

Richard Dawkins

A surprising acknowledgement of the benefits of Christianity from noted atheist Richard Dawkins has been resurrected from its 2010 roots and re-posted, shared and spread on present day social-media sites, mostly because the non-believer pointed to Islam and compared it to the teachings of Jesus – and concluded the latter can actually be a boon to society.

“There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings,” Dawkins was quoted as saying in an interview with the Times, Breitbart reported. “I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any majority Christian denomination that believes the penalty for apostasy is death.”

He then spoke of the decline of Christianity in Europe as if it were a bad thing.

“I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity,” Dawkins said, “in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse.”

The sharing of Dawkins’ earlier comments come on the heels of several high-profile terror acts in the last year, the most recent of which came just Tuesday in Istanbul, Turkey, as WND reported. His remarks are also pertinent to today’s issues as the United States preps for a presidential election that is seeing the front-runner Republican primary candidate, Donald Trump, winning big in the polls for his stance on immigration, national security and terrorism – and outgoing President Obama losing favor among Americans for his perceived do-nothing approach to fighting ISIS.

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cnsnews.com

Producer of New A&E Show on Antichrist: 'People Feel Like These are the End Times'

By Mark Judge | January 7, 2016 | 4:12 PM EST

This March A&E will premier “Damien,” a drama about the Antichrist. It is based on the 1977 film “The Omen," and is one of three new shows that depict the devil and demonic possession. The others are “Lucifer” (Fox) and “Outcast” (Cinemax).

When asked by the Hollywood Reporter why there is renewed interest in the Antichrist, Glen Mazzara, the showrunner of “Damien,” said he thought it was because there is increased anticipation that we may be living in the end times, the Biblically prophesied final years before the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ.

Damien Trailer

From the Hollywood Reporter:

"The devil has always been very sexy," Mazzara told THR following his time in front of the press Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour. "There's something in the air that people feel like these are the end times, in some way. There's an anxiety about what's happening all around the world and some of these shows — like Lucifer may take a comic approach — we're taking a hopefully more thoughtful, thematic approach to that material. There has been a lot of post-apocalyptic shows out there now and we're the show that's about the question: "Can you stop it?"

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DAVID BOWIE: A NON-APPRECIATION

His death is the capstone on the pyramid of necrotic Anglo-American mass culture

Darrell Y. Hamamoto | Infowars.com - JANUARY 11, 2016

The most enduring lesson of the Age of Narcissism beginning in the 1970s—with Disco and Glam Rock being its twin expressive symptoms—is that the crown of celebrity is available to anyone that dares claim it for himself. Even the British class system could be breached. The Tate Liverpool gallery memorialized this epochal turning point with an exhibition that ran from February to May 2013. According to its lavishly lurid catalog, Glam celebrated the “politics of artifice” in which self-conscious androgyny was a defining element.i

David Bowie, the embodiment of Glam, was a nineteen-year-old aspiring rock star when he contracted entertainment business veteran Kenneth Pitt to advance his lackluster career. In his late thirties, Pitt enjoyed being with young people of ambition and was openly gay long before it became acceptable in the larger society. Homosexuality was not decriminalized in the United Kingdom until September 1967.

Angela Bowie, the American-born wife who was instrumental in the invention and reinvention of the different personae her husband adopted, observed that the Pitt-Bowie partnership was a “very queer gay-mafia type of management system.”ii Importantly, the David Bowie phenomenon arose from a historical precedent set by an exclusive group of writers and arbiters of elite British arts and letters that were active during the interwar period. Most significantly, the Bloomsbury Circle left an indelible impression on Anglo-American culture and society that persists to the present, particularly among literary scholars influenced by certain strains of contemporary academic feminist thought and so-called “queer theory.”iii

Barbara Fassler in “Theories of Homosexuality as Sources of Bloomsbury’s Androgyny” surveys the intellectual currents of the 1930s that influenced the likes of Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, and Vita Sackville-West.iv The David Bowie pop phenomenon owes much to the privileged Bloomsbury social set whose collective sensibility led to the “unique fusion of masculine and feminine elements.” For them, “Notions about androgyny were closely intertwined with ideas about homosexuality.”v That is, there is a straight but queer line that connects the Bloomsbury litterateurs to the self-consciously gay-like David Bowie persona fabricated for both domestic and international consumption as pioneered by The Beatles and their well-connected manager Brian Epstein who reportedly went in for homosexual rough trade.vi

Just as pederasty figured into the sexual predilections of Bloomsbury Set figures such as Fabian socialist economist Maynard Keynes, Glam Rock yielded Gary Glitter and his hit single “Rock and Roll (Part Two)” in 1972.vii His Top of the Pops persona was crafted from garish garb gotten from the Alkasura boutique in the King’s Road at the advice of David Bowie. The outfits that Glitter wore were part and parcel of a “routine whose most memorable feature was a startled, wide-eyed look thrown back across his shoulder.”viii

A dark secret, however, was later to emerge concerning Paul Francis Gadd (“Gary Glitter”). In 1997, he was arrested in Britain for “possessing a collection of 4,000 hardcore photographs of children being abused.”ix He later was imprisoned for three years in Vietnam after being convicted in 2006 for committing obscene acts with two girls.x As part of the “Operation Yewtree” inquiry into Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, Gadd was the very first suspect to be arrested.

Occult devotee Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner) would have been more difficult to market had not David Bowie preceded him. Marilyn Manson and his band-mates perversely but perceptively conflated the names of serial killers with live models and dead actresses in a deathly synthesis of contemporary Anglo-American popular culture. Sex kitten Marilyn Monroe is merged with Charles Manson and becomes one; beauty fused demoniacally with evil. Similarly, guitarist Twiggy Ramirez combines Swinging Sixties English fashion model Lesley Hornby (“Twiggy”) with avowed Satanist Richard “The Night Stalker” Ramirez, whose serial murders terrorized both Southern and Northern California during the mid-1980s.xi

The final albums and music videos by Bowie evoked a dark and deathly Satanic vision of life during the first decade and a half of the 21st century. In this, the endlessly shape-shifting Bowie was an artist fully situated in his time. His death is the capstone on the pyramid of necrotic Anglo-American mass culture spanning a half-century of civilizational cancer away so fantastic and unreal that leads one to suspect that “Bowie” (Born David Robert Jones) sprang from the twisted, fervid minds of social psychologists residing at the Tavistock Institute.

In this, the Death of David Bowie might presage a new era of spiritual regeneration that is the precondition of civilizational health and advancement. With the demise of its guardian “Bowie”—his name appropriated from legendary American Jim Bowie and inventor of the distinctive knife or “Texas Toothpick”—The City of London will be put in abeyance after decades of political-economic rule through its surrogate military arm the USA. America will recover and regrow from its deep cultural roots, especially its vital Crossroads Music that sparked the imagination of countless individuals the world over including young David Robert Jones; before he accepted the offer of the Left-Hand Path to pop stardom as “David Bowie.” Farewell Thin White Duke, Major Tom, Aladdin Sane; whichever alter you prefer. Let “Ashes to Ashes Stardust to Stardust” be your epitaph.

#####

i Darren Pih, ed. Glam: The Performance of Style (London: Tate Publishing, 2013).

ii Marc Spitz, Bowie: A Biography (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009), p. 68.

iii Regina Marler, The Bloomsbury Boom (New York: Henry Holt, 1997).

iv Barbara Fassler, “Theories of Homosexuality as Sources of Bloomsbury’s Androngyny.” Signs, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Winter, 1979), pp. 237-251.

v Fassler, p;. 237.

vi Palash Ghosh, “Brian Epstein: The Beatles’ Real ‘Nowhere Man’-An Appreciation.” IBT 25 Ausg. 2012. Http://www.ibtimes.com/brian-epstein-beatles-real-nowhere-man-appreciation-758815.

vii Evan Zimroth, “The Sex Diaries of John Maynard Keynes.” Intelligent Life 28 Jan. 2008. Http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/the-sex-diaries-of-john-maynard-keynes.

viii Alwyn W. Turner, Glam Rock: Dandies in the Underworld (London: V&A Publishing, 2013), p. 74.

ix Haroon Siddique, “Gary Glitter Arrested by Jimmy Savile Police.” The Guardian 28 Oct. 2012. Http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/oct/28/gary-glitter-arrested-jimmy-savile.

x James Sturcke, “Glitter Jailed For Abusing Young Girls.” The Guardian 03 Mar. 2006. Http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/03/ukcrime.uk.

xi Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington Publishing, 1996).

***

ACTIVIST POST

UK Scientists Say First Genetically Modified Human Embryos Are Ready To Be Created

JANUARY 14, 2016

By John Vibes

A team of scientists in the UK recently asked for permission to create the world’s first genetically modified human embryos. Laws currently on the books would prevent the scientists from allowing the embryos to live longer than 14 days, but the team believes that this research could lead to the first genetically modified human beings.

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London recently told The Independent that if they are given the green light, the world could see, “the first transgenic human embryos created in Britain within the coming weeks or months.”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge of the Crick Institute said that this technology could be used to cure unborn children of diseases and genetic disorders.

“If you found that there were people carrying a specific mutation which meant that their embryos would never implant [in the womb], then you could contemplate using the genome-editing technique to make germ-line changes which would then allow the offspring of that woman to be able to reproduce without having a problem,” Lovell-Badge said.

“It’s possible. We don’t know. It’s just one of those unknowns, [but that would be a good argument] for allowing it to be used in a way that doesn’t have any other consequences, and remember quite a few genes that are active in the early embryo have roles later on,” the professor added.

However, this new capability has not been celebrated by everyone. Some researchers are concerned with the ethical problems that this technology can lead to. David King, director of the pressure group Human Genetics Alert, says that creating GM human beings could be dangerous, and the people in charge can not be trusted with such a huge responsibility.

“This is the first step on a path that scientists have carefully mapped out towards the legalisation of GM babies. Although we are always told that the HFEA [Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority] is there to make sure that crucial ethical lines are not crossed, in reality, the HFEA exists precisely in order to manage and facilitate these transitions, and to make sure that the slope stays slippery,” King said.

While the new technology and knowledge that our species has been gaining has the ability to change our lives for the better, these advances also pose a potential risk if their development falls into the wrong hands. Unfortunately for us, technological progress has been in the wrong hands for a very long time, so these types of developments will likely be used for nefarious purposes, or will be so heavily controlled and poorly managed that it will be difficult to do any good.

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Irish Examiner

Top Israeli minister: Ireland has abandoned us

Friday, January 09, 2015

By Noel Baker

Senior Reporter

The Government has responded to comments from the Israeli foreign minister who claimed Ireland is among the European countries to have “abandoned” Israel and drew comparisons with the fate of Czechoslovakia prior to the Second World War.

A report in the Jerusalem Post newspaper this week carried the comments from Avigdor Liberman, made at a meeting of Israel’s ambassadors to the EU.

Mr Liberman was quoted as saying: “The behaviour of countries like Sweden and Ireland is the same behaviour and abandonment that existed in Europe in 1938 with the Munich Agreement, when the Europeans abandoned their biggest ally, Czechoslovakia.”

The Israeli minister said Germany was an example of a European country that understood the challenges faced by Israel and its role as “the only country that represents western values in the Middle East”.

Mr Liberman said he would not be meeting the Swedish foreign minister when she visits the country this month over that country’s approach to the recognition of Palestine.

Ireland has also taken steps to officially recognise Palestine, and the Jerusalem Post report also namechecks the Wexford Independent TD Mick Wallace, quoting some of what he said to the Dáil during a debate on the issue.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said: “The Government has always made clear that we believe our objective of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is very much in the interests of the security and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians. This view is almost universally shared in the international community, and by very many people in Israel. We will continue to support efforts to progress the Middle East peace process, working with both sides and as active members of the EU and UN.”

Mr Wallace defended what he said in the course of the Dáil debate. “Right now, Israel is losing the struggle for legitimacy and that’s developing into a fundamental problem for them.

“United Nations diplomacy has failed because the US can decide what’s a legitimate or illegitimate move by the Palestinians to gain freedom, independence, and to end apartheid. We now need a different kind of diplomacy that starts with International law.”

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CNN

Sell everything! 2016 will be a 'cataclysmic year,' warns RBS

by Jim Boulden @CNNMoneyInvest

January 12, 2016: 10:51 AM ET

"Sell everything."

That harrowing advice is from The Royal Bank of Scotland, which has warned of a "cataclysmic year" ahead for markets and advised clients to head for the exit. Do not wait. Do not pass go.

"Sell everything except high quality bonds," warned Andrew Roberts in a note this week.

He said the bank's red flags for 2016 -- falling oil, volatility in China, shrinking world trade, rising debt, weak corporate loans and deflation -- had all been seen in just the first week of trading.

"We think investors should be afraid," he said.

Morgan Stanley warned this week that oil could touch $20 a barrel. RBS says if it falls below $30, then $16 is on the horizon.

The world is in a global recession, Roberts wrote. This terrible cocktail means investors should now be thinking about getting a "return of capital, not return on capital."

RBS compares the market mood with that of 2008 before the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the global financial crisis.

At least then, emerging markets were there to save the world from complete collapse.

China cannot this time around, let alone any other big emerging market. RBS remains "deeply skeptical" that Chinese authorities can right the ship any time soon. It warns that without allowing a massive devaluation of its currency -- around 20% -- China can be of no help.
RBS believes China suffered a massive outflow of capital in December -- perhaps as much as $170 billion - with much of that money going straight into the dollar. A chart showing Chinese outflows in 2015 is "surely now the most important chart in the world," concluded Roberts.

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The Telegraph

SocGen: brace for a 2008-style crash and US stocks to fall by 75pc

Notorious "uber bear" Albert Edwards warns that the world is about to "reap the whirlwind" of the US Fed's quantitative easing

By Peter Spence, Economics Correspondent

12:58PM GMT 13 Jan 2016

Notorious “uber bear” Albert Edwards has warned of “global deflation and recession” in his latest notes to clients, predicting that US stocks could lose almost three-quarters of their value.

The Societe Generale analyst believes that the coming market “carnage is an indirect result of the failure of the [US] Fed’s quantitative easing”. He argued that investors would “reap the whirlwind” of central bank attempts to support their respective economies with looser monetary policy.

Mr Edwards has made a name for himself as an outspoken bear, frequently forecasting that the global economy and stock markets are in for a terrible time. In his latest missive he declared that recent anguish over the Chinese economy should have come as no surprise to money managers.

“The impossible trilogy of maintaining an independent domestic monetary policy and a semi-fixed exchange rate while loosening capital account restrictions is hitting home,” he said. Chinese companies have prepared themselves for a further fall in the yuan, Mr Edwards claimed, putting the country in “a better position to transmit a massive deflationary shock”.

Western manufacturing “will choke under this imported deflationary tourniquet”, he continued. “When an economy is hurtling towards recession it is almost always the manufacturing sector that takes the less volatile services sector by the hand and leads it into a recessionary underworld.”

Continuing his pessimistic analysis, Mr Edwards suggested that stocks would soon fall from their “obscene” levels. As Mr Edwards admits, “most believe a 75pc equity bear market to be impossible”, yet he predicts that the S&P 500 gauge of US stocks could fall to 550, from its recent 2,100 peak. His views put him starkly at odds with the Wall Street consensus.The bear market of 2009 "was not completed", Mr Edwards said, arguing that it would take further economic downturns for equities to come down. "That obviously will be a catastrophe for the economy via the wealth effect and all the Fed’s QE hard work will turn to dust," he continued.

Mr Edwards believes that this coming collapse would result in a “trade war not unlike that in the 1930s”, mirroring the deflationary bust and trade war of the Great Depression era. “I realise most people think I am talking utter garbage but I'm used to that,” he added. His calls do not chime with mainstream economists, who believe that US GDP will rise by 2.6pc this year.

"I believe the Fed and its promiscuous fraternity of central banks have created the conditions for another debacle every bit as large as the 2008 global financial crisis," he concluded.

Mr Edwards' contrarian forecasts come days after Andrew Roberts, an RBS analyst, published a research note warning clients to “sell everything except high quality bonds” on worries that 2016 would be a “cataclysmic year” for investors.

Global disinflation could morph into global deflation this year, Mr Roberts said, as conditions appear “very dangerous for every investor in the world”.

Stephen Koukoulas, managing director of Market Economics, has challenged Mr Roberts to a Aus $10,000 (£4,900) bet that his pessimistic forecasts will not come to pass.

Mr Koukoulas said that he had emailed the RBS strategist to lay down the gauntlet. “I think you will be wrong and in the spirit of the market and healthy competition would like to offer you a chance to personally benefit from your forecast,” he wrote.

He added: “Please let me know if you are happy to take up the offer. I am willing to put my hard-earned money where my mouth is – I hope you are too.”

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SuperStation 95 NYC

Historic First: North Atlantic EMPTY of Cargo Ships in-transit - ALL anchored along coasts; none moving

Item Author Post by Newsroom Date created - Jan 08, 2016

Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a halt. For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. All of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port. NOTHING is moving.

This has never happened before. It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.

The reason commerce has stopped is simple: People are not buying things. When people do not buy things, retailers do not sell things, so they do not order more goods for stock.

When retailers do not order goods, manufacturers don't make anything because there are no orders to fill. When manufacturers do not make goods, they don't order raw materials for manufacturing.

When there are no orders for raw materials, commodities sellers do not sell raw materials. When no raw materials are sold, there is no shipping by large cargo ships, (or railroads or tractor trailers) to move anything.

Put simply, the global economy is LITERALLY stopping. Right now. Today.

How things go from this point forward is simple: Without sales, retailers are not even "turning dollars" so they will have to layoff employees and close stores. Without orders, manufacturers will have to layoff employees and shut down. When manufacturing shuts down, suppliers of commodities will have to layoff employees and cease operations. As all of this economic activity comes to a halt, then the disaster REALLY takes off:

When businesses are not even "turning dollars" they cannot pay back their loans. Retailers, manufacturers and commodities suppliers will begin defaulting on bank loans within 30 days. When enough of them default, it begins taking-out banks. As banks begin to fail, others will run to their banks to withdraw money for fear THEIR bank will fail too; and therein starts "bank runs."

In the meantime, stock values plummet and people's life savings in retirement accounts, 401-k's, IRA's and the like, get wiped out of existence.

We are literally standing at the edge of an abyss. It appears we are about to go over that cliff . . .

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Economic Collapse

Lowest Ever: The Baltic Dry Index Plunges To 394 As Global Trade Grinds To A Standstill

Michael Snyder

JANUARY 14, 2016

By Michael Snyder

For the first time ever, the Baltic Dry Index has fallen under 400. As I write this article, it is sitting at 394. To be honest, I never even imagined that it could go this low. Back in early August, the Baltic Dry Index was sitting at 1,222, and since then it has been on a steady decline. Of course the Baltic Dry Index crashed hard just before the great stock market crash of 2008 too, but at this point it is already lower than it was during that entire crisis. This is just more evidence that global trade is grinding to a halt and that 2016 is going to be a “cataclysmic year” for the global economy.

If you are not familiar with the Baltic Dry Index, here is a helpful definition from Wikipedia…

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is an economic indicator issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange. Not restricted to Baltic Sea countries, the index provides “an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea. Taking in 23 shipping routes measured on a timecharter basis, the index covers Handysize, Supramax, Panamax, and Capesize dry bulk carriers carrying a range of commodities including coal, iron ore and grain.

The BDI is one of the key indicators that experts look at when they are trying to determine where the global economy is heading. And right now, it is telling us that we are heading into a major worldwide economic downturn.

Some people try to dismiss the recent drop in the Baltic Dry Index by claiming that shipping rates are down because there is simply too much capacity out there these days. And I don’t dispute that. Without a doubt, too many vessels were built during the “boom years”, and now shipbuilders are paying the price. For example, Chinese shipyards reported a 59 percent decline in orders during the first 11 months of 2015…

Total orders at Chinese shipyards tumbled 59 percent in the first 11 months of 2015, according to data released Dec. 15 by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry. Builders have sought government support as excess vessel capacity drives down shipping rates and prompts customers to cancel contracts. Zhoushan Wuzhou Ship Repairing & Building Co. last month became the first state-owned shipbuilder to go bankrupt in a decade.

But that doesn’t explain everything. The truth is that exports are way down all over the world. China, the United States, South Korea and many other major exporting nations have all been reporting extremely dismal export numbers. Global trade is contracting quite rapidly, and I don’t see how anyone could possibly dispute that.

The global economy is a mess, but many people are not paying any attention to the economic fundamentals because they are too busy looking at the stock market.

The stock market does not tell us how the economy is doing. If the stock market is up today that does not mean that the economy is doing well, and if the stock market is down tomorrow that does not mean that it is doing poorly.

Yes, the health of the financial markets can greatly affect the overall economy. We saw this back in 2008. When there is a tremendous amount of panic, that can cause a credit crunch and make it very difficult for money to flow through our system. The end result is a rapid slowdown of economic activity, and it is something that we will be experiencing again very soon.

But don’t let the day to day fluctuations of the stock market fool you. Just because the Dow was up 227 points today does not mean that the crisis is over. It is important to remember that stocks are not going to go down every single day. On Thursday, the Dow didn’t even regain two-thirds of what it lost on Wednesday. Even in bear markets there are up days, and some of the biggest up days in stock market history were right in the middle of the crash of 2008.

It is critical that we take a long-term view of things and not let our vision be clouded by every tick up and down in the financial markets. Initial jobless claims just hit their highest level in about six months, and companies like Macy’s and GoPro are laying off thousands of workers. Things are already bad, and they are rapidly getting worse.

And let us not forget the great amount of financial carnage that has already happened so far this year. According to CNBC, approximately 3.2 trillion dollars of stock market wealth was wiped out globally during the first 13 days of 2016…

Almost $3.2 trillion has been wiped off the value of stocks around the world since the start of 2016, according to calculations by a top market analyst.

It has also been the worst-ever start to a year for U.S. equities, said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, as both the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average have posted their steepest losses for the first eight days trading of a year.

Over the past six months, there have now been two 10 percent “corrections” for U.S. stocks. The only other times we have seen multiple corrections like this were in 1929, 2000 and 2008. If those years seem familiar to you, that is because they should. In all three years, we witnessed historic stock market crashes.

The stunning collapse of the Baltic Dry Index is just more evidence that we have entered a global deflationary crisis. Goods aren’t moving, unemployment is rising all over the planet, and commodity prices have fallen to levels that we have not seen in over a decade.

Around the globe, there have been dramatic stock market crashes to begin the year, and we should expect to see much more market turmoil during the weeks and months to come.

If the markets have calmed down a bit for the moment, we should be very thankful for that, because we could all use some additional time to prepare for what is coming.

The debt-fueled standard of living that so many of us are enjoying today is just an illusion. And many of us won’t even understand what we have been taking for granted until it is taken away from us.

A great shaking is coming to the global economy, and the pain is going to be unimaginable. So let us enjoy every single day of relative “normalcy” while we still can, because there aren’t too many of them left.

***

THE DAILY CALLER

Major Bank Warns Oil Price Could Fall To $10 A Barrel

GUY BENTLEY
7:25 PM 01/12/2016

One the United Kingdom’s largest banks is warning oil prices could sink as low as $10 a barrel.

Banking and financial services company Standard Charter said Tuesday, “we think prices could fall as low as $10 a barrel before most of the money managers in the market conceded that matters had gone too far.”

Brent crude briefly hit a 12-year low of $30 Jan. 12, marking an almost 20 percent drop in the price of oil since the beginning of the year. Only two years ago, oil was trading at $100 a barrel.

Standard Charter stands out as the most bearish on oil prices among the major financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and RBS.

“Given that no fundamental relationship is currently driving the oil market towards any equilibrium, prices are being moved almost entirely by financial flows caused by fluctuations in other asset prices, including the dollar and equity markets,” the bank said.

Prices plummeted during trading hours after the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister contradicted the chair of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Emmanuel Kachikwu, saying there would be no emergency meeting and that the cartel’s strategy is working.

The world market is awash with oil. Major oil-producing countries are failing to cut supply. Markets are also deeply concerned about a further fall in Chinese demand as growth in the world’s second-largest economy continues to slow.

OPEC’s decision to refuse to cut production combined with a stronger dollar and shale producers has put downward pressure oil prices for close to two years.

Mobile_Inline

BP announced it was shedding 5 percent of its workforce — 4,000 jobs — thanks to the low price Tuesday. The company’s share price has fallen 9 percent this year alone.

Low prices may be bad news for the industry but they’re great news for consumers with the average national gasoline price standing at $1.95 a gallon.

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ENENEWS

Experts: Multiple types of radioactive material constantly being emitted from LA gas blowout — “I’d be running like hell” — “We are getting higher and higher levels…it’s accumulating” — “Poisons spreading through entire San Fernando Valley” home to 2 million people — “Thousands getting sick… it really is a major, major disaster”

Published: January 14th, 2016 at 5:02 pm ET

Follow up to: Radioactive material reportedly now being released from massive gas blowout in LA — Byproduct of Uranium — Expert: “A lot” has been detected… Very dangerous

Interviews from Nuclear Hotseat hosted by Libbe HaLevy, Jan 13, 2016:

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear’s nuclear waste watchdog (8:30 in): “Another important thing that is very significant is that the radon is continually resupplied… Radon is going to be constantly generated by the uranium contained in the methane… So really you’ve got a chronic constant supply of hazardous radon gas coming out of this breach in California.”

Cindy Folkers, Beyond Nuclear‘s expert on ionizing radiation (16:00 in): “I’m absolutely astounded that they are not measuring for radon that I know of… I can’t believe that they’re not measuring for radon… [Radon] also decays to a number of what are called radon progeny which includes a number of short-lived radioactive substances, some of which are lead and polonium. Both of those can be very biologically damaging… There is question as to the kind of doses that they would be getting of radon, but it still is really very much a worry… I feel like — doing the research that I’ve done — that we are not getting the full story of what’s happening there.”

Richard Mathews, candidate for California State Senate who studied physics & astronomy at CALTECH (32:00 in): “People are really concerned about this, people are seriously getting sick… Thousands of people are getting sick from this — and it really is a major, major disaster… Methane floats away and spreads around the whole world… All the contaminants that are in with the methane are heavier than the air and that includes… benzene and toluene, hydrogen sulfide — all of those are heavier than air — they tend to stay close to the ground and move downhill. This is happening in the hills above the San Fernando Valley [home to nearly 2 million people] and so the poisons are all moving down into the San Fernando Valley and spreading through the entire San Fernando Valley… As the radon and other substances flow around, they are accumulating. They are not easily blown out of the valley, and we are getting higher and higher levels… The lead is going to be around for decades… The initial lead that you get is radioactive. This will be a continuing problem… It could spread through the entire San Fernando Valley… The damage that the radon does stays in your body… and shows up as cancer a decade after, maybe even 80 years later. So we really need to follow through.”

Terry Lodge, attorney (50:00 in): “You have a massive release, probably, of radon going on — and there may actually also be radium particulate… I’d be taking very rapid steps [if I lived in the area], I’d be running like hell. And the reason is, I suspect that there’s little by way of emergency anticipation — what could possibly go wrong? We have this vast underground storage facility… There are not radiation monitors… the problem is sort of the Three Mile Island problem… the radiation emission went way off the meter… there were no redundant rings, there was no monitoring certain distances outside the plant boundary. You don’t even have that at Porter [Ranch]… They don’t know how much radon is being dispersed… [Radon] can be concentrated by rainfall, concentrated by humidity, and inversions… There needs to be some type of soil sampling… air, and all that… So the problem is that radon is around in the Porter Ranch situation — nobody’s prepared for it. They’re not talking about it now — this may months into the crisis.”

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ENENews

State of Emergency now underway for L.A. gas blowout — Oil begins raining down on homes — Official: “It’s on the brink of pandemonium” — Many worry plume will ignite, cause explosion — Concern over geysers, sinkholes being created — Company: Experts have “never seen anything like this”

Published: January 8th, 2016 at 11:40 am ET

Los Angeles Times, Jan 5, 2016 (emphasis added): Utility is installing screens to contain oily mist at leaking well near Porter Ranch… The structures under construction on the west side of the well head are designed to capture airborne droplets of a brine solution that “may have contained trace amounts of oil naturally occurring within the leaking well’s reservoir,” said Trisha Muse, a spokeswoman for SoCal Gas… Now, a mixture of brine water and oil is rising up into the gas company’s natural gas storage zone, then traveling up the well and into the air. As a result, local residents are finding droplets of dark brown residue on their homes, vehicles, fish ponds and gardens… [The company] acknowledged that some residents had asked about “dark brown spots on their property.” “We sampled it and, according to our retained toxicologist and medical expert,” the company said, “the residue contained heavier hydrocarbons (similar to motor oil) but does not pose a health risk.”… On Monday, plaintiffs’ attorneys sent a letter to state regulatory officials [and] demanded that state regulators “explain what is happening with the petroleum now surfacing.”… “There is a complete lack of information in the well files,” their letter says, “to show where the gas and petroleum migrates underground and the risk for creating sink holes and geysers.”

Los Angeles Daily News, Jan 5, 2015: [A]n oily mist… has been surfacing… The seepage is the result of changing dynamics deep underground… “They (the demister pads) are necessary because as the reservoir pressure declines, fluids (oil and water) encroach into the reservoir and are then carried to surface with the gas.

BBC, Jan 8, 2016: Residents… point out cars, outdoor furniture and houses which have been marked with brown, oily spots… Tim O’Connor, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund, has called it “an environmental and public health catastrophe,” said . “In terms of timelines this is going to surpass the gulf oil problem by a mile.”

New York Times, Jan 6, 2016: Gov. Jerry Brown, faced with mounting public anger and no end in sight to the leak, declared a state of emergency… Mitchell Englander, the Los Angeles city councilman who represents Porter Ranch [said] “This is one of the most disruptive, catastrophic environmental events that I’ve seen. It’s a truly chaotic crisis.”… Many who have stayed have taken to wearing surgical masks when they garden to keep out the rotten-egg smell and the oily mist that sometimes leaves brown residue on their cars… Dennis Arriola, the president of Southern California Gas Company [said] that experts had “never seen anything like this.”

Newsweek, Jan 7, 2016: SoCalGas and public officials have turned [Porter Ranch's Matt Pakucko] and his fellow residents into “guinea pigs.”… [Sally Benson, who runs an energy storage lab at Stanford University] shares a worry of many in Porter Ranch as they deal with the mundanities of the leak: that the gas plume will somehow become ignited, leading to [an] explosion… “They’re really fortunate that this one hasn’t caught fire,” Benson says… [The FAA] has imposed a no-fly zone above Porter Ranch “out of concerns that fumes from the gas leak could be ignited from the air.” Schwecke, the SoCalGas vice president, says workers near the relief well are taking every precaution, not using their cellphones and working with brass hammers, which don’t spark… [David Balen, a local businessman on the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council] showed me photographs of a white dust that had collected on concrete surfaces around his property; an expert was coming to test the substance, which Balen thought was something toxic.

BBC, Jan 7, 2016: The governor of California has declared a state of emergency in a suburb of Los Angeles over the leaking of methane gas… the company is installing large mesh screens around the leak site to try and hinder the oily mist from spraying down on the community.

Bloomberg, Jan 5, 2016: The sulfurous scent of a natural-gas leak hangs in the air as mail carriers wearing gas masks make rounds… “This is the biggest community and environmental disaster I’ve ever seen, bar none,” said Mitchell Englander, who has represented Porter Ranch on the Los Angeles City Council since 2011. “Life there is not on hold — it’s on the edge and it’s on the brink of pandemonium.”

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RT

‘Soldiers of Odin’: Finnish anti-migrant group with ‘extremist features’ takes to patrolling streets

Published time: 14 Jan, 2016 05:37

Edited time: 14 Jan, 2016 05:38

Far-right militia groups are assuming police functions by patrolling the streets in Finnish towns housing asylum seekers. The “Soldiers of Odin,” who always dressed in black jackets, claim they are protecting native Finns from immigrants, Reuters reports.

Finland’s authorities have become increasingly concerned with the group’s activity, as its numbers have grown to hundreds. While it is claimed that the group is not supported by the majority of Finns, the anti-migrant, anti-Muslim group reflects the discontent of many Europeans with the continent’s unprecedented refugee crisis.

The group has around 500 members across the country, according to Finnish paper Karjalan Heili.

“We woke up to a situation where many different cultures met. It caused fear and concern in the community. We started to gather a bunch of people,” one of the organizers, Mika Ranta, told Finnish daily Aamulehti. “The biggest issue was when we learned from Facebook that new asylum seekers were peering through the gates of primary schools, looking at young girls.”

The “Soldiers of Odin” group was named after the chief Norse god of war and death. It was founded in late 2015 in the northern town of Kemi, which is located near the border community of Tornio – a popular entry point for immigrants and refugees coming from Sweden.

Its members argue that they are the eyes and ears of the streets, since police are not doing enough to provide security to the locals.

The group accuses “Islamist intruders” for increasing crime and distributes placards reading “Migrants not welcome.”

Although pinpointing a rise in crime rates takes time, Finnish police have reported cases where “men with a foreign background” harassed women during the New Year’s celebrations in the country’s capital of Helsinki, as well as other public events during the fall season.

Police documents also reveal that reported cases of sexual harassment in Finland nearly doubled from 75 to 147 in the last four months of 2015, when compared to the same period a year ago. However, the files provide no information in terms of the ethnic background of the criminals.

The Finnish government and police have expressed concern over the “Soldiers of Odin,” which has far-right leanings and neo-Nazi supporters. The authorities fear that citizens could be inspired to take on police roles.

“There are extremist features to carrying out street patrols. It does not increase security,” Finnish Interior Minister Petteri Orpo told national broadcaster YLE last week. “Volunteers have no right to use force,” he said.

“Attacking is not part of our principles, only defense,” three members of the group from the eastern town of Joensuu told Aamulehti. “Everyone has the right to defend themselves if we are attacked. We defend ourselves and call the police,” they said.

In 2015, Finland accepted over 30,000 asylum applications, mostly from Iraq, according to immigration services.

In the meantime, Finland has been trying to curb the number of refugees reaching the country from Germany via the Baltic Sea, with Finnish shipping company, Finnlines, increasing identity controls.

Finland is not the only Nordic country trying to limit the number of arriving asylum seekers.

This week, Denmark said it was beefing up controls on its southern border with Germany, while neighboring Sweden said it will increase controls for the first time since the 1950s. Meanwhile, Danish MPs have overwhelmingly supported a bill which would allow local authorities to strip asylum seekers of cash and valuables worth over 10,000 kroner, which the country deems excessive for refugees and the unemployed.

Sweden also approved new measures to cope with the refugee influx in December, claiming the state has reached its maximum capacity to accept refugees, according to Sweden’s Migration Minister.

The Swedish ruling center-left coalition confirmed that regular ID checks on every transport route leading to the country will be introduced early in 2016 as it struggles to cope with an unending inflow of refugees seeking to enter in the Nordic state.

Moreover, the Swedish government has been working on a bill that would allow it to close the Oresund Bridge connecting it to Denmark as an emergency measure.

Denmark has received about 18,000 refugees so far, while Sweden is expected to take in around 190,000 asylum seekers by the end of the year.

Amid attempts to curb immigration flows, far-right anti-migrant groups have been gaining in popularity. In a recent poll, three in five EU citizens said they do not approve of migrants coming from outside the continent.

In Germany, the anti-Islam Pegida movement based out of Dresden has provided a loud voice for those unhappy with the immigrant situation, though it is still considered marginal.

In Sweden, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats have been gaining traction in the polls, despite being described as “xenophobes” and “racists” by the media.

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PRESS TV

Hitler’s manifesto republished in Germany

Fri Jan 8, 2016 6:31PM

The photo shows a German edition of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) at the Berlin Central and Regional Library (Zentrale Landesbibliothek, ZLB), Berlin, Germany, December 7, 2015. (AFP)

Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s book on his political ideology and plans for Germany, has been republished in Germany following a decades-long ban.

Hitler’s political testament hit the bookshops in Germany on Friday, for the first time in 70 years.

Since World War II, the Allies had refused to allow the republication of the banned book in Germany out of respect for the war victims and to prevent the incitement of hatred among Germans against non-Germans.

Mein Kampf, which translates as My Struggle, outlines Hitler’s ideology, which formed the basis for Nazism.

Hitler wrote the semi-autobiographical, which would become the manifesto for the burgeoning National Socialist Party, in 1924, while he was imprisoned in Bavaria for treason.

The book, which depicts life as a struggle, details the racist ideas of Hitler who believed in racial hierarchy and asserted the superiority of the Aryan race as the Herrenvolk (master race), as opposed to the non-Aryan Untermenschen (sub-humans), which included all “people of color” as the inferior races.

The book advocates Nazi militarism stating that, “Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live.”

The decision for the republication of the book comes as Germany is presently facing an influx of refugees. Some 1.1 million refugees entered the country in 2015 alone.

More than one million refugees have reached Europe in 2015, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. Almost 50 percent of them were fleeing war and violence in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that the root cause of the current refugee crisis in Europe is the Western support for terrorists.

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“That which has been is now; and whatever things are appointed to be have already been; and God will seek out that which is past.”

(Ecclesiastes 3:15)