NYTimes: The Democrats’ Choice
Congressional Democrats can either move forward legislation to fix this country’s broken health care system or throw away a once-in-a-generation opportunity.


"The two most important points they — and all Americans — need to remember is that the Senate and House bills are fully paid for by tax revenues and budget savings, and both would reduce future deficits." -editorial

My reply:
I don't know what hallucinogen you're strung out on, but this is an epitome of fantasy. If you haven't realized that the Obama administration's and Congress' approach to healthcare reform is akin to the "blind men and the elephant", then add delusional to your list. As a 30yr contractor & consultant in the medical field, I know all too well we do have a healthcare crisis in this country. My clients cover the entire spectrum of all concerned parties, and I have seen & experienced the decimation across the board, except for government, insurance and drug companies. I'm not saying they're the cause, but they add to the problem. This crisis beast is a multi-headed fire breathing dragon, and the Washington mindset is to attack the tail. Do you know that 1000 hospitals have closed in America over the last twenty years? With nearly 400 more on life support? In 1960, there were 43 Detroit metro hospitals, today there are only 7. Doctors numbering in the tens of thousands have given up medicine due to outrageous malpractice insurance and lowball government reimbursement. No current legislation will address or remedy either of these ills, and they will continue unimpeded with or without Washington's reform efforts. So, what good is their concept and enactment of this "opportunity" if "adequate" healthcare isn't even available? Everyone, obviously, is missing the "big picture". How can you even expect more government interference (control), regulations and mandates to even begin to have any beneficial effect on the overall problem? It won't, it only compounds it, to the detriment of you & I as taxpayer and patient.
Furthermore, as a retired veteran who has occasionally used VA services, the VA is a first-hand "opportunity" to see & comprehend government run healthcare in action. It would require more space than I have here to even begin to outline this bureaucratic nightmare. Six months or more to even get a appointment to see a doctor is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, you're really going to love Obamacare..., coming to a hospital or clinic near you. Oops, sorry, it closed down 3 months ago, they went broke... 

Yahshua/YHWH/GOD is an extremist...

By the world's standards, in all of its history, in every civilization, since the beginning of YHWH's revelation to Adam, God's standards are extreme. From His inscribing of the Ten Commandments to Yahshua's proclamation, "Love your neighbor as yourself!", the comparison to mankind's philosophies, concocted religions, and self-regulation is like a pole vaulter attempting a 100ft crossbar with only a 20ft pole. Man, in his inherent sinful, rebellious nature, could NEVER consistently, or even, successfully meet or match YHWH's high mark. Such as it was and is in YHWH's grand plan for us to see and understand, we cannot meet or clear the bar (The Law) in our own efforts (our 20ft pole). In learning, understanding and knowing our inadequacy before our Holy, Righteous Creator God, it would seem wholly apparent that we should look outside ourselves for the means by which to meet YHWH's demands of the Law. Hence, we need only to look unto Yahshua the Messiah (albeit, our 100ft pole). As the Apostle Paul stated, "Wherefore the law was (is) our schoolmaster to bring us unto the Messiah, that we might be justified by faith." Gal 3:24

Simple as it is, God's Plan goes largely ignored, scoffed, ridiculed, blasphemed, but mostly, unbelieved. Yet, it is because of just such that mankind's continued self-deceit, hatred, wars, political, economic and social turmoil, disease, and more, prevail throughout his existence. Furthermore, through the "higher learning" of secular, humanistic (Godless) education, recent generations around the world have wholly embraced evolutionary theory as "Gospel" truth, denying any Creator involvement. Ergo, since we have no accountability to any Creator, man's imaginations are free to think and do whatever he pleases without consequence. But Yahshua states, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Matt 12:36, Paul also reiterates, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself unto YHWH." Rom 14:12 Those in spiritual power are no less held to task, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they must give account..." Heb 13:17
In today's world, to the conscientious observer, it should have long become apparent that most nations and all of its peoples have exchanged principles, morals, ethics and reverence for YHWH, for expediency, greed, political correctness, and instant self-gratification. The confusing dilemma for Believers and non alike has arisen from the constant blurring and mixing of half-truths & outright lies with revealed Truth, and denial in both camps. The rightness or wrongness of issues such as honesty, integrity, character, self-defense and holiness, versus abortion, murder, stealing, adultery, fornication, same sex marriage and homosexuality, plague societies where no moral absolutes exist. The foremost two commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself", don't even seem to enter into consideration. OH, HOW WE MISS THE BIG PICTURE!!! We scrabble, fuss and fight over the speck in another's eyes, yet completely ignore and disregard the BEAM in our own!
Sadly enough, many well-meaning and well intentioned named Christians cloud the issues further by either not taking a stand, taking a un-Biblical or mis-informed stand, parroting man-made dogma, or attempting to bind others with legalism. Legalism in the Biblical sense is no different than in the secular sense. Man has NEVER been able to instill correct moral behavior through legislation! The concept of "social engineering" through enacting manipulative laws is nothing new, it only prods the unregenerate mind to conceive new ways to circumvent the new locks on his cage. It's only through our received freedom in Christ that the shackles fall away, and the NEW man stands upright, justified, and righteous before both YHWH and man. Although, truly standing on God's Word in violation of man's edicts has often resulted in getting you fined, imprisoned or killed...
Allow me to address another matter near and dear to my heart,...Israel. As the relationship between the US and Israeli governments grows more tenuous each passing day, the need for Believer's prayers and support for both has never been more important. How many of us realize the hidden Islamic agenda behind the saber rattling of the Palestinians? The fight for Jerusalem, and the surrounding cities of Bethlehem, Jericho, Samaria and Hebron can only escalate as Iranian military muscle incites the Muslim populations within Israel. The United States position of siding with the Palestinians against the Israeli government and people can only come to no good, especially for America. How would you take to the Chinese demanding no Americans build homes in predominate Chinese suburbs of our cities? I heartily invite you to read the first news article below.

___________________NEWS____________________

'Solomon's walls' stir Palestinian fury

In Greece’s Crisis, Fed Studies Wall St.’s Activities

Swiss face 'holy war' with Gadhafi's Libya

 

 

A Nation of Beggars?

“O America, America , who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you did not want to!" Exc. (Matt 23:37)
It is a heart rending exercise to watch the country you love and have served implode upon itself. I take no pleasure in relating what I see and report from the Biblical viewpoint. While the federal government and state-led media proclaim a cautious recovery, the overwhelming evidence shows either they're wearing rose-colored glasses, or their heads are completely devoid of sunlight.
Unless you've been to countries like India and Haiti, where the homeless and poverty stricken line the streets by untold thousands, most Americans have no clue what real destitution is. Even when I was in Russia and the Ukraine ten years ago, in the large cities, I was constantly accosted by elderly women beggars nearly ripping my shirt sleeve for a handout of money. You say,"IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE!" I'm showing you it already IS!
If my message of how our spiritual cancer and depravity has decimated our nation in every aspect of our lives is not getting through to the reader, then I'm failing miserably. To comprehend and understand that our nation's ills are not economic or political, but at its core spiritual, can be difficult for those of a carnal and worldly mind. Tracking America's slide away from God and His Word, then away from our Constitution and Bill of Rights shows direct cause and effect to where we have arrived today. The ONLY cure is repentance and faith in Christ, whether you believe or not, whether you understand or not. This is not my prescription and remedy, but God Him self's; Mark 1:15.
Regardless of your social, financial, political or ethnic standing, if your foundation is not Christ, then you're in peril. If so, the sand is sliding away beneath your feet and you don't even realize it. If your faith, life and hope are built upon your job, your home, and your assets, you may soon find them evaporating like holding onto smoke. It's not surprising to me how many Christians nowadays are telling me God is bringing this realization to them in very dramatic fashion. Truth be told, YHWH has taught me this lesson as well over the last 20 years, so I can relate very well. Like Solomon and Job, I have known riches and poverty, health and illness, pleasure and pain, but all is vanity, and YHWH is sovereign over His Creation. He is my Sustainer, Employer, Provider, Redeemer, Teacher, Savior, Friend, my ALL in ALL. Every breath I take is by His Grace...
Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and condolences in the recent home-going of my 2nd Mom. The grief is in our missing her love, her care and devotion to us her family, but we celebrate her arrival into the Lord's presence.  Peace be unto you.

____________________NEWS______________________

States Have Not Yet Seen the Worst of Economic Times, Governors at Meeting Say

Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Committee Says  

U.S. Bank Failures in 2010 Rise to 20

The New Poor in America

Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

By PETER S. GOODMAN, NYTimes
Published: February 20, 2010
BUENA PARK, Calif. — Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

Monica Almeida/The New York Times
“There are no bad jobs now. Any job is a good job,” said Jean Eisen, who became unemployed more than two years ago.

Trading Down


The New York Times
Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.
Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.
Yet the social safety net is already showing severe strains. Roughly 2.7 million jobless people will lose their unemployment check before the end of April unless Congress approves the Obama administration’s proposal to extend the payments, according to the Labor Department.
Here in Southern California, Jean Eisen has been without work since she lost her job selling beauty salon equipment more than two years ago. In the several months she has endured with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check, she has relied on local food banks for her groceries.
She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious — an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material — finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance.
“I pray for healing,” says Ms. Eisen, 57. “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got to go with what you know.”
Warm, outgoing and prone to the positive, Ms. Eisen has worked much of her life. Now, she is one of 6.3 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer, the largest number since the government began keeping track in 1948. That is more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.
Men have suffered the largest numbers of job losses in this recession. But Ms. Eisen has the unfortunate distinction of being among a group — women from 45 to 64 years of age — whose long-term unemployment rate has grown rapidly.
In 1983, after a deep recession, women in that range made up only 7 percent of those who had been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. Last year, they made up 14 percent.
Twice, Ms. Eisen exhausted her unemployment benefits before her check was restored by a federal extension. Last week, her check ran out again. She and her husband now settle their bills with only his $1,595 monthly disability check. The rent on their apartment is $1,380.
“We’re looking at the very real possibility of being homeless,” she said.
Every downturn pushes some people out of the middle class before the economy resumes expanding. Most recover. Many prosper. But some economists worry that this time could be different. An unusual constellation of forces — some embedded in the modern-day economy, others unique to this wrenching recession — might make it especially difficult for those out of work to find their way back to their middle-class lives.
Labor experts say the economy needs 100,000 new jobs a month just to absorb entrants to the labor force. With more than 15 million people officially jobless, even a vigorous recovery is likely to leave an enormous number out of work for years.
Some labor experts note that severe economic downturns are generally followed by powerful expansions, suggesting that aggressive hiring will soon resume. But doubts remain about whether such hiring can last long enough to absorb anywhere close to the millions of unemployed.
A New Scarcity of Jobs
Some labor experts say the basic functioning of the American economy has changed in ways that make jobs scarce — particularly for older, less-educated people like Ms. Eisen, who has only a high school diploma.
Large companies are increasingly owned by institutional investors who crave swift profits, a feat often achieved by cutting payroll. The declining influence of unions has made it easier for employers to shift work to part-time and temporary employees. Factory work and even white-collar jobs have moved in recent years to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America. Automation has helped manufacturing cut 5.6 million jobs since 2000 — the sort of jobs that once provided lower-skilled workers with middle-class paychecks.
“American business is about maximizing shareholder value,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at the research firm Decision Economics. “You basically don’t want workers. You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them.”
During periods of American economic expansion in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, the number of private-sector jobs increased about 3.5 percent a year, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, a research firm. During expansions in the 1980s and ’90s, jobs grew just 2.4 percent annually. And during the last decade, job growth fell to 0.9 percent annually.
“The pace of job growth has been getting weaker in each expansion,” Mr. Achuthan said. “There is no indication that this pattern is about to change.”
Before 1990, it took an average of 21 months for the economy to regain the jobs shed during a recession, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the National Employment Law Project and the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research group in Washington.
After the recessions in 1990 and in 2001, 31 and 46 months passed before employment returned to its previous peaks. The economy was growing, but companies remained conservative in their hiring.
Some 34 million people were hired into new and existing private-sector jobs in 2000, at the tail end of an expansion, according to Labor Department data. A year later, in the midst of recession, hiring had fallen off to 31.6 million. And as late as 2003, with the economy again growing, hiring in the private sector continued to slip, to 29.8 million.
It was a jobless recovery: Business was picking up, but it simply did not translate into more work. This time, hiring may be especially subdued, labor economists say.
Traditionally, three sectors have led the way out of recession: automobiles, home building and banking. But auto companies have been shrinking because strapped households have less buying power. Home building is limited by fears about a glut of foreclosed properties. Banking is expanding, but this seems largely a function of government support that is being withdrawn.
At the same time, the continued bite of the financial crisis has crimped the flow of money to small businesses and new ventures, which tend to be major sources of new jobs.
All of which helps explain why Ms. Eisen — who has never before struggled to find work — feels a familiar pain each time she scans job listings on her computer: There are positions in health care, most requiring experience she lacks. Office jobs demand familiarity with software she has never used. Jobs at fast food restaurants are mostly secured by young people and immigrants.
If, as Mr. Sinai expects, the economy again expands without adding many jobs, millions of people like Ms. Eisen will be dependent on an unemployment insurance already being severely tested.
“The system was ill prepared for the reality of long-term unemployment,” said Maurice Emsellem, a policy director for the National Employment Law Project. “Now, you add a severe recession, and you have created a crisis of historic proportions.”
Fewer Protections
Some poverty experts say the broader social safety net is not up to cushioning the impact of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Social services are less extensive than during the last period of double-digit unemployment, in the early 1980s.
On average, only two-thirds of unemployed people received state-provided unemployment checks last year, according to the Labor Department. The rest either exhausted their benefits, fell short of requirements or did not apply.
“You have very large sets of people who have no social protections,” said Randy Albelda, an economist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. “They are landing in this netherworld.”
When Ms. Eisen and her husband, Jeff, applied for food stamps, they were turned away for having too much monthly income. The cutoff was $1,570 a month — $25 less than her husband’s disability check.
Reforms in the mid-1990s imposed time limits on cash assistance for poor single mothers, a change predicated on the assumption that women would trade welfare checks for paychecks.
Yet as jobs have become harder to get, so has welfare: as of 2006, 44 states cut off anyone with a household income totaling 75 percent of the poverty level — then limited to $1,383 a month for a family of three — according to an analysis by Ms. Albelda.
“We have a work-based safety net without any work,” said Timothy M. Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “People with more education and skills will probably figure something out once the economy picks up. It’s the ones with less education and skills: that’s the new poor.”
Here in Orange County, the expanse of suburbia stretching south from Los Angeles, long-term unemployment reaches even those who once had six-figure salaries. A center of the national mortgage industry, the area prospered in the real estate boom and suffered with the bust.
Until she was laid off two years ago, Janine Booth, 41, brought home roughly $10,000 a month in commissions from her job selling electronics to retailers. A single mother of three, she has been living lately on $2,000 a month in child support and about $450 a week in unemployment insurance — a stream of checks that ran out last week.
For Ms. Booth, work has been a constant since her teenage years, when she cleaned houses under pressure from her mother to earn pocket money. Today, Ms. Booth pays her $1,500 monthly mortgage with help from her mother, who is herself living off savings after being laid off.
“I don’t want to take money from her,” Ms. Booth said. “I just want to find a job.”
Ms. Booth, with a résumé full of well-paid sales jobs, seems the sort of person who would have little difficulty getting work. Yet two years of looking have yielded little but anxiety.
She sends out dozens of résumés a week and rarely hears back. She responds to online ads, only to learn they are seeking operators for telephone sex lines or people willing to send mysterious packages from their homes.
She spends weekdays in a classroom in Anaheim, in a state-financed training program that is supposed to land her a job in medical administration. Even if she does find a job, she will be lucky if it pays $15 an hour.
“What is going to happen?” she asked plaintively. “I worry about my kids. I just don’t want them to think I’m a failure.”
On a recent weekend, she was running errands with her 18-year-old son when they stopped at an A.T.M. and he saw her checking account balance: $50.
“He says, ‘Is that all you have?’ ” she recalled. “ ‘Are we going to be O.K.?’ ”
Yes, she replied — and not only for his benefit.
“I have to keep telling myself it’s going to be O.K.,” she said. “Otherwise, I’d go into a deep depression.”
Last week, she made up fliers advertising her eagerness to clean houses — the same activity that provided her with spending money in high school, and now the only way she sees fit to provide for her kids. She plans to place the fliers on porches in some other neighborhood.
“I don’t want to clean my neighbors’ houses,” she said. “I know I’m going to come out of this. There’s no way I’m going to be homeless and poverty-stricken. But I am scared. I have a lot of sleepless nights.”
For the Eisens, poverty is already here. In the two years Ms. Eisen has been without work, they have exhausted their savings of about $24,000. Their credit card balances have grown to $15,000.
“I don’t know how we’re still indoors,” she said.
Her 1994 Dodge Caravan broke down in January, leaving her to ask for rides to an employment center.
She does not have the money to move to a cheaper apartment.
“You have to have money for first and last month’s rent, and to open utility accounts,” she said.
What she has is personality and presence — two traits that used to seem enough. She narrates her life in a stream of self-deprecating wisecracks, her punch lines tinged with desperation.
“See that,” she said, spotting a man dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Standing on a sidewalk, he waved at passing cars with a sign advertising a tax preparation business. “That will be me next week. Do you think this guy ever thought he’d be doing this?”
And yet, she would gladly do this. She would do nearly anything.
“There are no bad jobs now,” she says. “Any job is a good job.”
She has applied everywhere she can think of — at offices, at gas stations. Nothing.
“I’m being seen as a person who is no longer viable,” she said. “I’m chalking it up to my age and my weight. Blame it on your most prominent insecurity.”
Two Incomes, Then None
Ms. Eisen grew up poor, in Flatbush in Brooklyn. Her father was in maintenance. Her mother worked part time at a company that made window blinds.
She married Jeff when she was 19, and they soon moved to California, where he had grown up. He worked in sales for a chemical company. They rented an apartment in Buena Park, a growing spread of houses filling out former orange groves. She stayed home and took care of their daughter.
“I never asked him how much he earned,” Ms. Eisen said. “I was of the mentality that the husband took care of everything. But we never wanted.”
By the early 1980s, gas and rent strained their finances. So she took a job as a quality assurance clerk at a factory that made aircraft parts. It paid $13.50 an hour and had health insurance.
When the company moved to Mexico in the early 1990s, Ms. Eisen quickly found a job at a travel agency. When online booking killed that business, she got the job at the beauty salon equipment company. It paid $13.25 an hour, with an annual bonus — enough for presents under the Christmas tree.
But six years ago, her husband took a fall at work and then succumbed to various ailments — diabetes, liver disease, high blood pressure — leaving him confined to the couch. Not until 2008 did he secure his disability check.
And now they find themselves in this desert of joblessness, her paycheck replaced by a $702 unemployment check every other week. She received 14 weeks of benefits after she lost her job, and then a seven-week extension.
For most of October through December 2008, she received nothing, as she waited for another extension. The checks came again, then ran out in September 2009. They were restored by an extension right before Christmas.
Their daughter has back problems and is living on disability checks, making the church their ultimate safety net.
“I never thought I’d be in the position where I had to go to a food bank,” Ms. Eisen said. But there she is, standing in the parking lot of the Calvary Chapel church, chatting with a half-dozen women, all waiting to enter the Bread of Life Food Pantry.
When her name is called, she steps into a windowless alcove, where a smiling woman hands her three bags of groceries: carrots, potatoes, bread, cheese and a hunk of frozen meat.
“Haven’t we got a lot to be thankful for?” Ms. Eisen asks.
For one thing, no pinto beans.
“I’ve got 10 bags of pinto beans,” she says. “And I have no clue how to cook a pinto bean.”
Local job listings are just as mysterious. On a bulletin board at the county-financed ProPath Business and Career Services Center, many are written in jargon hinting of accounting or computers.
“Nothing I’m qualified for,” Ms. Eisen says. “When you can’t define what it is, that’s a pretty good indication.”
Her counselor has a couple of possibilities — a cashier at a supermarket and a night desk job at a motel.
“I’ll e-mail them,” Ms. Eisen promises. “I’ll tell them what a shining example of humanity I am.”

What I want...

To lay bare one's innermost thoughts & feelings is also to give predators free access to attack. But, to know one's own heart and mind and not be ashamed to speak your mind, say what you mean and mean what you say, is no less than to walk uprightly before an Almighty God.
What I want is a land, a nation, a people, where the righteousness of God is the rule, not the exception. I want a land where good works fill the evening news, not crime and corruption. I want a nation where the Spirit of God rules & reigns in our hearts, and thus is the law established, not by courts and legislatures. I want a people zealous for Christ, and for one another, in that doors need not be locked, streets are walked fearlessly, noone goes hungry or unclothed, and neighbor greets & helps neighbor, stranger or not.
Sadly, I know this will never happen until Christ's Millennial Reign. Sometimes I wonder why we even try...
To say America is a nation of laws, and not of men is a strong delusion. Laws do not change us, nor do they instill morality, nor rectitude. Laws give rise to fear, rebellion, and even more lawlessness. Laws become ever more constricting fences, bars, cages and prisons, stripping freedom, liberty and justice for all, from all. Only the love of Christ sets us free, free indeed, to live as we should, not as we please...
Our forefathers had this vision for our nation, not one of Heaven on earth, but of a stronghold of faith and righteousness until His Return. A nation that would be a beacon of light into the world's darkness of sin and unbelief. America established more schools, universities and seminaries to teach people to read the Bible, train pastors, evangelists, missionaries, scientists, doctors, nurses & teachers, and spread the Good News, than the world has ever seen. And, America prospered faster, more richly, than any nation in history. But, tragically, we left the doors open as we sent them all out, and the Adversary sneaked in...
Within a few generations, apostasy, division, unbelief, idolatry and spiritual adultery had supplanted all we had hoped & worked for. In less than 250 years, America has become the Gentile version of Israel, gone after other gods, steeped in self-worship, and lost in spiritual wilderness.
It has become self-evident, not only in the aforementioned, but now in our businesses, our governments, our homes, and our churches. We may be winning some battles, but we're losing the war for the soul of America.
YHWH, Yahshua is forgotten & unknown to many, the Bible treated with either disregard or contempt. Believers in Christ are ridiculed, dismissed, irrelevant, even persecuted. It wasn't always so...
Knowing what you know, seeing what you see, can America be saved? Will God redeem our nation? Can we continue the good fight, or is it hopeless & futile? Obviously, as any faithful steward & soldier of Christ we must declare, "YES! We must be about our Master's business!""If we perish, we perish!"
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Yahshua the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of YHWH." Heb 12:1-2

___________________NEWS____________________

Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis 

Oops! Obama tells another nativity fib? 

Britain's Unemployment Curse; Jobless Claims Rise 

Japan Posts GDP Growth, but ROI keeps dropping 

2010 bank failure tally now at 16

Unemployment Report: February 5, 2010

Shrinking U.S. Labor Force Keeps Unemployment Rate From Rising

What in the World????? Making Sense of Chaos

For nearly ten years I've been painting online a panoramic picture of national & world economic, political and social events, in light of Scripture, in hope some would wake up to what's happening before our eyes. While a few have shaken their stupor, most seem still asleep, in a trance, or oblivious. Not to be critical, but taking up the banner of political conservatism and activism is not the answer, not in and of itself. In some ways, it's adding to what's going to happen.

As the years of spiritual adultery, idolatry, greed, lust and waywardness have piled up, the End Times prophecies are rapidly unfolding and fulfilling in our lifetimes. The world and all its nations are poised and positioned for the global geo-political, geo-economic alignment as YHWH foretold. Many say things are continuing just as they always have since the dawn of man. This tells me they don't know history, don't know Scripture, don't know the heart of man, and choose not to see...there's none so blind.

Let's take a quick recap of world history for the last century:

America - a daughter of the "king of the west". Many historians have been claiming for forty-plus years that America was past her prime and in decline, maybe, we should have paid more attention. Ever since the advent of credit cards and 30-year mortgages, the American economy has been built and become dependent upon spending & credit, to the tune of 70%. Manufacturing, textile and steel industries here have all but disappeared. Companies have closed down and/or out-sourced to the point of over 30Million Americans unemployed or under-employed. Wild swings in the stock markets have become almost a daily occurrence. Over the last 20 years, 1,000 hospitals have closed across America , with 400 more on life support. 60Million Americans are either uninsured or under-insured medically. Our political, government, education, and judicial systems are irretrievably broken due to waste, in-fighting, greed and corruption. All levels of government have amassed a burden of debt which has put America into bankruptcy, yet we're only sustained by more credit and more debt. The warnings of higher taxation, dollar collapse and hyper-inflation go largely ignored. There are many, many more signs of our increased weakness and decreased credibility, not to mention internationally and militarily. It is my estimation that America has less than 20 years as a major world power, and will implode upon her own excesses.

Europe - Much the same can be said of the European Union, the "king of the west". They have followed in our footsteps, and even out-paced us in socializing their governments and economic systems. But now, their debt has lined up nation after nation, like dominoes, poised to default: Iceland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, the former Soviet bloc nations are all bankrupt. Riots and political unrest go unreported to the west in order not to spark further mob hysteria. The final outcome of Europe for the future appears to be moving toward greater centralized control, even to the absorption of nations out of existence, as the Revived Roman Empire takes shape fulfilling God's prophecy.

The moral & spiritual decline of both America & Europe cannot be understated. The 20th Century was the bloodiest and deadliest in human history. Despots, dictators, tyrants and megalomaniacs killed untold millions in their quest for domination. The amount of human tragedy cannot be measured. Meanwhile, traditional, historic Christianity & church attendance retraction, increased fringe religions, apostasy, atheism, liberalism, drug use, crime (white collar, blue collar, no collar), the rise of Islam, along with its radical terrorist faction, social ills such as divorce, unmarried pregnancy, homosexuality, perversion, materialism are all slowly killing the soul & spirit of these once great entities. National sovereignty has never been so tenuous. And once again, Bible prophecy manifests itself on track and on time. The 21st Century is promised to be even more prophetic...

China - The once slumbering, sleeping giant has awakened, and is asserting global muscle & power unlike ever before in its 3000+ year history. The "king of the east" is now in position to strong-arm the rest of the world politically, economically and militarily. Its alliances with the "king of the south" (Islamic nations) now threaten both America and Europe to the extent they(we) have no real option to counter China's dominance, expansion and outreach. China could very well, and most likely will, absorb the entire far eastern world, and no one is able to stop it. 

Russia -  After the failed 70 year experiment and collapse of Communism, economic chaos, and near dissolution as a world power, Russia has resorted to totalitarianism to regain her former glory. And, though diminished in size and might, Russia is still the "king of the north" from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic Ocean. The Russian alliance with the Islamic Republics, "king of the south", will supplant China, but it seems they will come to some kind of workable solution for the foreseeable future.

The Middle East - The Islamic Republics, the "king of the south". Volumes could be written on these nations, but suffice to say, they are no longer third world pity parties. From Syria to India, these countries are armed and dangerous to the teeth. And we, Russia and China gloated & profited for decades in their rise to power by supplying them arms, and becoming dependent upon their oil. But, even more so, these Muslim nations are radically, fundamentally alien in their philosophy, politics, religion and practice to the western world. While 93% of Muslims claim to be peaceful, the 7% radical Islam fundamentalists control the governments in nearly every one of these countries. So, with 1Billion Muslims worldwide, the 7million potential and kinetic Islamic terrorists, armed with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, are on a mission of jihad to subdue and overthrow America and Europe by whatever means necessary. Then, in their minds, they will be unstoppable to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and every living Jew they can identify. Finally, their re-unification into the former glory of the Islamic Caliphate will be complete, and the path for the return of their 12th Imam is made ready. 

But mark God's Word, Yahshua(Jesus) will not allow Israel to be destroyed, so they are in for a most rude awakening...

Yes, this is all very scary stuff, and may seem fictitious & surreal as you sit in your office, or rest at home on your sofa. It may appear far removed from your everyday reality as you go to work, come home, eat your meals, pay your bills, go shopping, or take your vacations. Just because your life has been mundane, orderly, predictable, comfortable, or exciting in your own existence for however long, do not think for a moment it is destined to always be so. Things are changing dramatically almost moment by moment, and even our planet is gearing up for the End Times. Geo-physical events, climate extremes, "natural" calamities, i.e., floods, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis, record snowfalls, rainfalls, heat & cold, will become the new "normals" in the days, months, years to come. The earth's "labor pains" are increasing in frequency and intensity. Yet, mankind will continue to revel in his sin and rebellion against YHWH, and even moreso, as it was in the days of Noe.

There will be another major war in the Middle East soon. Russia and the Islamic Republics will march against Israel, and there's no reason not to think nuclear bombs won't be used. Iran has accelerated its pursuit of nuclear weapons while thumbing their nose at the US, Europe, and the United Nations. But, they will go down in defeat, just as God has promised. Obviously, before this war happens, America is not the world's policeman any longer, and will not have any major role on the world stage. America's fate and future will pretty much be decided in the next 10-15 years.
I seriously doubt any of us can truly physically & mentally prepare for what's ahead. But, spiritual preparation is only a prayer away, and is the only real preparation we can make. If you haven't prayed to receive God in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, then do so, and none of this will affect your treasure with Him, in Him for all eternity...


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