Panic

The word "panic" is making it's way to the headlines as the date of a U.S. default draws closer.

US debt crisis: Republicans abandon vote as panic grows

Mr Boehner and other party leaders had delayed the vote for more than four hours as they tried to twist arms, but gave up at around 10pm when it became clear they could not muster the necessary 217 votes from the 240 members in the Republican caucus.

Congress now only has four days to meet a deadline set by Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, to raise the national borrowing limit or risk defaulting on loans or failing to make millions of routine payments to Americans. 

See it here;  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/8669681/US-debt-crisis-Republicans-abandon-vote-as-panic-grows.html

It's interesting to listen to the talking heads on the news repeat the plea; "Why doesn't Congress just get together and compromise so we can fix this thing and move on!"

That plea is so simplistic...it's almost comical.

Let's say I had a client come to me and tell me he has $40,000 per year of take home pay and his problem is that he has rung up about $80,000 on credit cards.  He wants to know what the solution is...and he is hoping I will give him a simple answer so that he can move on with his life.  He tells me that the simple solution would be to go to his credit card company and ask them to increase his credit limit to $100,000....so that he would then have $20,000 more to draw on so that he can continue making the payments to them on the $80,000 he already owes! 

The bank says, "no" they will not increase his limit because they aren't sure they want to throw more money into what is already appearing to be a bad situation.

The client then says to me, "I don't know why the credit card company is being so difficult...why don't they just compromise with me so they we can put this whole thing behind us and carry on with life!"

Silly.

Friends I don't know the answer...and I getting more convinced all the time that there simply ISN'T an answer.  We appear to be standing at the edge of the abyss without any way of moving left, right or stepping back.  The only way we can move is forward...and the abyss is a long way down.

Is it possible that if we step off the abyss we will land in water below and survive?  Of course it is...but that first step off is a big one and quite simply we are standing in uncharted territory.  No one knows if we will land in water, land on the beach, land on an air mattress someone left on the beach...or crash into the jagged rocks and be smashed to bits.

Blessing or Curse?

This headline hit the news today:

U.S. report recommends ending loan guarantees to Israel at end of 2011

Report says U.S. diplomats have difficulty mustering support for Obama administration's policies, implies the embassy failed completely in its PR efforts during the Obama administration.

An internal report of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State recommends terminating the U.S. loan guarantee program to Israel at the end of 2011.  

Read it all here; http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-report-recommends-ending-loan-guarantees-to-israel-at-end-of-2011-1.375633

So with the U.S. economy in the tank, confidence in the U.S. government waning, and talk of a U.S. default on the horizon while Israel's economy has been one of the strongest in the world....should this news be interpreted as a blessing to Israel...or a curse?      

Email Address and Twitter

Many of you have recently asked for an updated email address as some of you don't want to have to write in the comment section of the blog.

My new email address is; thetrumpetblows777@gmail.com

Also at the request of some of you, I am officially part of Twitter!  So now I Tweet!!

If you have no idea what that means...then forget about it.  For those who do...you can follow me on Twitter as I attempt to figure out how it all works.  You can follow me at: @thetrumpetblows on www.twitter.com

FCKH8 Campaign

Some of you probably saw this already because it was sent to me yesterday by the Minnesota Family Council.  It's a pro gay video and of course will be used as this group attacks Minnesota on the fight for legalizing gay marriage.  For those of you who haven't seen it, watch the video and pay special attention to how they claim people who believe the Bible would advocate selling our daughters as slaves and stoning people who work on the sabbath.

See video ad here;  http://www.youtube.com/user/FCKH8?blend=4&ob=5#p/u/6/uyPSU4hnyf0

So of course these folks have plucked some Old Testament laws out of Leviticus, made them seem obsolete in the light of present day norms....and then used this pattern to also make biblical bans against homosexuality that some churches uphold, seem ridiculous.

How long will merciful God withhold his hand from this wicked land....where perverts and those who support them are held up as heroes and hipsters...and those who stand with the Word of God are shouted down, ridiculed and made fun of?

How long O God?

Blacks and Hispanics Hit Hardest by Recession

In the previous post we watched the video of an angry black man who claims only white people are racist.

In this article we find out some very likely facts...mainly that minorities suffered the most financial loss in the housing collapse and recession.

Anger and poverty have proven to be an explosive mix.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Blacks and Hispanics in the U.S. were the biggest losers in wealth during the recession, according to a study published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

The results based on an analysis of Census data revealed that the wealth gap between whites and the nation’s two largest minority groups have grown to their widest levels since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago.

“The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households,” the group’s researchers wrote.

As a result, the typical black household had just $5,677 and the typical Hispanic household had $6,325 in wealth, while the typical white household had $113,149.

Young Hispanics and blacks bought their homes near the top of the market and were hit hard by the drop in their housing values, said Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in income inequality.

The study also suggested that white households are more likely to have benefited from the stock market rebound since 2009 than minority households because a “much higher share” of whites own stocks.

See it here;  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/black-and-hispanic-wealth-hit-hardest-by-recession-2011-07-26

Now of course we can have a discussion til the cows come home about why blacks in America are so poor...broken families, lack of fathers, no jobs, uneducated so easily taken advantage of, etc....  And the same discussion may apply to Hispanics as well.  It is all part of the Satanic world we live in and all part of humans sin nature.

But the Bible tells us that as the last days approach we can expect to see the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer....and we can certainly see that all around us.  The Bible also tells us that in the last days people will generally be out of control, angry, brutal, perverted, disrespectful, lovers of violence, greedy, etc....   Now ask yourselves if you can see class warfare coming for America.  I'm not debating how the poor got poor and the rich got rich, I'm just saying to ask yourself if you can see class warfare and racial warfare coming for America.

I believe most Americans are clueless as to how close we truly are to internal unrest in this country.  We see it on the news everyday in Greece, Egypt, Syria, Spain, etc...and yet we assume in can never happen here.

White People are Racists

I think we all can agree on one thing....people are getting angry out there.  You can name about 50 things off the top of your head as to what makes people angry...government, politics, social programs, taxes, drivers on the roads, and religion just to name a few.

Over the weekend I was visiting with a woman who works with Cub Foods on West Broadway in Minneapolis.  She recently discovered that the Cub had hired armed security guards.  She asked the store manager why.  The manager told her that if the food stamp program ever had a glitch and the customer's cards didn't get credited on the first of the month....there would be a riot at the store and people would start trying to take the food.

With that as a backdrop, you need to take a few minutes and watch the video of this angry black man from Los Angeles.  He's obviously mad at the Tea Party and he clearly let's us know that ONLY white people are racists.  By the end of his rant he seems mad enough to fight.

See it here;  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/alleged-anti-tea-party-protesters-wild-rant-chides-sell-out-blacks-says-only-whites-can-be-racists/

The fact that this guy has ALL of his facts wrong is a little funny.  The idea that there are thousands of angry people just like him with all their facts wrong....is a little disturbing.  The fact that people like him get to vote...is tragic.

Hat tip to Kim H.

It Can't Be Long Now!

When mankind starts tinkering with human-animal hybrids....we have to be near the end.  How long will God sit by and watch scientists cross human sperm with a pig or a horse or a goat?

150 human animal hybrids grown in UK labs: Embryos have been produced secretively for the past three years

The revelation comes just a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.

Human-animal hybrids are also created in other countries, many of which have little or no regulation.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2017818/Embryos-involving-genes-animals-mixed-humans-produced-secretively-past-years.html#ixzz1T8VC6me1

The Bible tells us that God knew us before he placed us in the womb.  One has to wonder if these types of experiments are this generation's own Tower of Babel event. 

"We will be all powerful and heal every disease once we have enough human-animal hybrids.  The creation of life is at our fingertips!  The sky is the limit!!"

Pride comes before the fall.

EMP and China

We have blogged over the years about the effects of an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).  It can knock out all things that run on electricity.  It can be caused by a nuclear explosion detonated high about the ground.  Of course we know that without electricity, America would turn into anarchy and chaos within a matter of minutes.

And of course our enemies understand this.  So the best way for a terrorist or smaller country to defeat the USA would be to knock out our electricity.  Probably why the CIA has evidence that Iran has been practicing EMP missile launches from freight ships in the Caspian Sea.  They understand that if they can get a nuclear warhead (from North Korea?) put it on one of their missiles and launch it from a few hundred miles off the coast of New York and explode it above the Ohio Valley....America, most likely, would never recover.

Now today we have more news regarding EMP...and this time it it coming from the direction of China.

China's military is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons that Beijing plans to use against U.S. aircraft carriers in any future conflict over Taiwan, according to an intelligence report made public on Thursday.

Portions of a National Ground Intelligence Centerstudy on the lethal effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons revealed that the arms are part of China’s so-called “assassin’s mace” arsenal - weapons that allow a technologically inferior China to defeat U.S. military forces.

EMP weapons mimic the gamma-ray pulse caused by a nuclear blast that knocks out all electronics, including computers and automobiles, over wide areas. The phenomenon was discovered in 1962 after an aboveground nuclear test in the Pacific disabled electronics in Hawaii.

The report, produced in 2005 and once labeled “secret,” stated that Chinese military writings have discussed building low-yield EMP warheads, but “it is not known whether [the Chinese] have actually done so.”

The report said that in addition to EMP weapons, “any low-yield strategic nuclear warhead (or tactical nuclear warheads) could be used with similar effects.”

See it here;  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/21/beijing-develops-radiation-weapons/

Sadly, most Americans walk around today with the false security that their lives will ALWAYS be filled with all the gadgets and conveniences that we have all come to depend on.  In fact, we have come to have FAITH  in all these gadgets and conveniences. For many in our society, our gadgets have become our false idols.  It would sure be interesting if God allowed them to be taken away from us.

Habakkuk 2:18-20

¹⁸ “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman?
Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
he makes idols that cannot speak.
¹⁹ Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it.”
²⁰ The LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

Hat tip to Mike S.

Federal Reserve Prepares for the Worst

This short article speaks for itself.

Notice the use of the word "spiral" by Fed Chairman Bernanke.


The US Federal Reserve is preparing for the possibility that Congress will not fall into line with the president on raising the government’s borrowing limit.

All parties will have to agree by August 2nd to ensure the US does not go into default.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has already said a lack of agreement will send the world’s financial markets into a spiral.

The Fed now has to decide on whether it will keep signing cheques for people in the public service.

Republicans in Congress have decided to call the White House on the deal, which would include tax increases and the expiry of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.


See it here;  http://story.arabherald.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/3a8a80d6f705f8cc/id/814744/cs/1/ht/US%20Federal%20Reserve%20prepares%20for%20the%20worse/

I guess we can assume he means a downward spiral...as opposed to an upward spiral?

Mayor Bloomberg Speaks

As of Sunday night the nation still doesn't have an agreement on the table to avert a potential default of the USA.  If nothing passes then in the next few weeks there simply won't be enough in their checkbook to make the payments that are due that day.

We have written much about how our entire financial system is based solely on "faith and confidence" so I will give you some quotes from Mayor Bloomberg that also recognize the fragility of our current system as we stand at the edge of the abyss.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes a U.S. default on its debt obligations would be a "seismic event" that would damage "America's word" and its status as a dependable financial standard.


"I don't think anybody will look ever again at America and the dollar as the reserve currency, where this is the standard by which all other risks are measured," if the U.S. defaults on its debt obligations, Bloomberg told "This Week" anchor Christiane Amanpour. "It's one seismic event that says you can never depend 100 percent on America's word anymore."


"The world won't come to an end," Bloomberg added. "We will find a way to pay people afterwards and get government going again, but it puts a doubt in the back of people's minds that you would find it very difficult to erase."


"At some point, the public's got to say, 'look, I'm tired of these shenanigans,' whether it's in Washington or state capitals or cities," Bloomberg said. "We're just not acting responsibly, we're not acting as adults, we're not making the long term investments… We're mortgaging our kids' future. We're destroying this country."


See it here;  http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-bloomberg-impossible-reduce-long-term-deficits-spending/story?id=14146540

It's comforting (insert sarcasm) that the New York's billionaire mayor seems to know that "the world won't come to an end" if America begins defaulting.

Also let's remember that New York just legalized gay marriage and is going to have over 800 gay couples get married this week.  They are one of the worst states as far as balance sheets are concerned and will probably be one of the first to start defaulting on their obligations.  Don't be surprised if something shakes in New York in the not distant future.