America, A Nation In Crisis

Last Trumpet  October, 2020

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

Psalm 42:11

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

II Corinthians 1:3-4

As the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2020, revelry and mirth were seen and heard all around the world. A new year is often said to be a fresh start brimming with hope and new possibilities. Adding further to the excitement is the fact that this year is the beginning of an entire new decade, which only amplified the anticipation of good things to come. However, few could have predicted the distressing events in store for the world in 2020. Did all of these things just happen to happen, or is there an unseen force at play working to weaken and transform the United States? Even as the new year began, the Democratic Party had already set in motion an attempt to impeach American President Donald Trump. Democrats pursued these efforts despite knowing that their gambit would likely fail since the Republicans controlled the Senate and were unlikely to evict their party's leader from his residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. While politicians busied themselves with partisan projects and the President was distracted and obsessed with crafting his defense, a new virus was spreading in China, seemingly under the radar of almost everyone.

The New York Times published its very first article about the disease, now known as COVID-19, on January 6, 2020, less than one week into the new year. It hardly seemed a reason for concern at the time with the article informing its readers that "59 people in the central city of Wuhan have been sickened by a pneumonia-like illness." (1) By January 21, 2020, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States was reported by government officials in the state of Washington. (2) The rest, as they say, is history, and these circumstances feel as if they took place years ago.

We now come to the tenth month of 2020. The months since the pandemic began have brought lockdowns, restrictions, and regulations. The world has dramatically changed so much that it is now unusual to see a bare face in public as most folks are compelled to wear face coverings. People are constantly reminded to observe social distancing and stay six feet apart from other people who do not live in the same household. Businesses have failed. Restaurants have closed, and many of them will never reopen. In fact, the business rating and review website known as Yelp reported in September 2020 that 163,735 businesses that they list have now closed, with an astonishing 97,966 of these closures being permanent. (3)

Many American people are suffering right now. A report dated September 9, 2020, indicates that more than half of all households in four of the United States' largest cities - New York City, New York; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Houston, Texas - have struggled financially during the coronavirus pandemic. (4) Further complicating matters, numerous states are set to end moratoriums on utility shutoffs, meaning that millions of Americans could soon be without power, water, and sewer service. "Every utility in the country is facing the same situation. It's rather unprecedented. We have to balance the needs of customers with what makes the most sense to keep the lights on," said Chris Eck, a spokesman for the energy provider known as FirstEnergy. (5) Another report from September 2020 claims that one-tenth of American households have struggled to put food on the table in recent months. (6) Furthermore, a study by Pew Research found that 52 percent of young adults aged 18-29 are presently living with their parents. This is the largest share of this demographic to do so since the time of the Great Depression. (7) "Essentially we saw about a little over 3 million more people moving home… with their parents or grandparents, from a year ago. That's up about 9 percent," informed Cheryl Young, a senior economist at the real estate database company known as Zillow. (8)

To help struggling Americans, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020. The mammoth bill, which was quickly signed by President Trump, allowed for the disbursement of 2.2. trillion dollars, and amongst other features, provided most tax-paying Americans with a check for 1,200 dollars. (9) Since that time, there has been ongoing talk of passing more stimulus, and many Americans could certainly use some financial help, but it has not materialized. While Democrats and Republicans claim they cannot agree on the finer points of a new stimulus package, part of the reason for the reticence, at least for some lawmakers, might be the fact that the American national debt has exploded to absolutely historic levels. As of this writing, the national debt now exceeds 26.7 trillion dollars. (10) Clearly, the accrual of debt has taken on great speed in recent decades. The national debt first hit one trillion dollars in October 1981. By 2017, just three years ago, the debt topped 20 trillion for the first time. (11)

Even as the American government continues to pile on trillions of dollars worth of debt, the Congressional Budget Office has sounded the alarm in a recent report stating, "The fiscal path over the coming decades is unsustainable." (12) This is a serious warning, and unless significant policy changes are implemented, the United States could face a financial disaster in the not-to-distant future. In fact, it is predicted that four important government trust funds, including two Social Security funds, Medicare's hospital insurance fund, and the Highway Trust Fund, could be completely exhausted by the year 2031. (13) In other words, the government might be unable to make social security payments in a little over a decade.

If the economic system in the United States collapses, I strongly suspect it will be replaced with a new cashless monetary system. This country, and, indeed, many other countries around the world, have been trending towards a cashless society for quite some time. This trend has only accelerated amid the global pandemic. According to an article published by Fortune Magazine in August 2020, 54 percent of Americans surveyed are afraid to touch cash because of coronavirus, while 60 percent said they plan to use cashless payments on a permanent basis going forward. (14) All of the issues at hand are greatly weakening the United States. Is it a coincidence that all of this happening just ten years before the United Nations wants to establish its one world government?

Based on news headlines, it seems unlikely that life will get easier any time soon. Experts are predicting that COVID-19 is about to surge even more in the United States as we enter autumn and approach the winter. John Hopkins University claims that the virus is rapidly spreading in twenty-four states at this present time, and the University of Washington projects that the United States could suffer three thousand deaths per day by late December. (15) These developments are very troubling. Yet, projections regarding coronavirus have been wrong before, sometimes drastically so, and they certainly could be wrong again. Scientists are fallible men and women; only God knows what the future holds. Thankfully, God saw all of the events of this modern age long before they happened, and He saw our struggles, too. The Scriptures assure us that even in times of trouble and tribulation, God is able to comfort His people. II Corinthians 1:3-4 declares, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." In like manner, Jesus promised in John 14:18, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." As always, I urge every reader of this newsletter to put your faith, trust, and hope in God.

01. Last Trumpet Newsletter, April 2020, By Samuel David Meyer, http://lasttrumpetnewsletter.org.
02. Ibid.
03. CNBC, September 16, 2020, By Anjali Sundaram, http://cnbc.com.
04. The Week, September 9, 2020, By Tim O'Donnell, http://theweek.com.
05. The Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2020, By Kris Maher, http://wsj.com.
06. The Week, September 2, 2020, By Kathryn Krawczyk, http://theweek.com.
07. CNN, September 4, 2020, By Catherine E. Shoichet, http://cnn.com.
08. Ibid.
09. Wikipedia, CARES Act, http://wikipedia.org.
10. CNBC, September 21, 2020, By Lindsey Jacobson, http://cnbc.com.
11. Politico, October 22, 2017, By Andrew Glass, http://politico.com.
12. The Washington Times, September 21, 2020, By Stephen Dinan, http://washingtontimes.com.
13. Ibid.
14. Fortune Magazine, August 11, 2020, By Jeff John Roberts, http://fortune.com.
15. UPI, September 27, 2020, By Daniel Uria, http://upi.com.

YouTube ad policy bans keyword ‘Christian’

RT26 Jul, 2019

When the founder of a Christian veterans group tried to upload a YouTube ad for his organization, he received an odd rejection, informing him the keyword “Christian” was no longer acceptable under the site’s ad targeting policy.

Chad Robichaux, founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, a charitable group that helps veterans overcome wartime trauma, took to Twitter with a screenshot detailing his encounter with the tech giant.

“This is the first time we'd seen this,” Robichaux told Faithwire in an interview. Within hours of Robichaux’s post, YouTube attempted to explain the situation in a tweet of its own.

“We know that religious beliefs are personal, so we don’t allow advertisers to target users on the basis of religion,” the Google-owned platform said. “Beyond that, we don’t have policies against advertising that includes religious terms like ‘Christian.’”

The veteran fired back, arguing the company’s statement was demonstrably false and that he had used the same keyword in previous ads without problems “for years.” Moreover, he claims when he tried running the same ad but with the keyword “Muslim” instead, there was no issue.

Merkel: EU leaders should one day consider “a real, true European army”

The Guardian   13 Nov 2018

Angela Merkel has said EU leaders should one day consider “a real, true European army” shortly after Donald Trump ramped up a Twitter attack on Emmanuel Macron over the same idea.

Speaking to the European parliament in Strasbourg, the German chancellor backed the bold step in European defence policy, as part of a speech extolling the need for EU cooperation in migration, climate change and counter-terrorism. “The times when we could rely on others is past,” she said.

To a mix of applause and jeers from Eurosceptic MEPs, she said: “We have to look at the vision of one day creating a real, true European army.” The chancellor said the idea would complement Nato, but gave no details on when the ambitious idea could become reality.

Her words echoed those of the French president, who in an interview said Europe needed to better defend itself.

Trump took umbrage at what he saw as a call by Macron for a European army as protection against the US, conflating earlier comments from the French president on cyber threats. The US president escalated his attack on Tuesday with a number of insulting tweets.

A group of strict Protestants who believe Sunday should be a day of rest are going to court on Friday to have a festival in the centre of Alkmaar banned

Dutch News July 20, 2018

A group of strict Protestants who believe Sunday should be a day of rest are going to court on Friday to have a festival in the centre of Alkmaar banned. 

The Vereniging Zondagsrust is using legislation dating from 1815 to make its case to halt the outdoor dance party, due to be held on Sunday August 26. 

The legislation, which was amended in 1953, states that there must be no noise nuisance close to churches before 13.00 on Sunday or any public entertainment nearby, unless local councils rule otherwise. 

But it also stops local councils in strict Protestant communities from banning sports events on Sundays. 

Councils are allowed to deviate from the rules, but must properly support their arguments, association lawyer Laus Vogelaar told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad. 

And, he says, the town council has failed to mention the legislation when granting the licence for the event. Sunday as a day of rest is being increasingly undermined, he says, adding ‘it is right that the courts take a look at it’. 

The Alkmaar resident who initiated the legal action told local website Alkmaar Centraal he hoped the courts would realise the importance of having a day of rest to city centre residents. 

The previous coalition government had planned to remove the law from the statute books but the new coalition, which includes two Christian parties, decided to leave it unchallenged.

A group of strict Protestants who believe Sunday should be a day of rest are going to court on Friday to have a festival in the centre of Alkmaar banned. The Vereniging Zondagsrust is using legislation dating from 1815 to make its case to halt the outdoor dance party, due to be held on Sunday August 26. The legislation, which was amended in 1953, states that there must be no noise nuisance close to churches before 13.00 on Sunday or any public entertainment nearby, unless local councils rule otherwise. But it also stops local councils in strict Protestant communities from banning sports events on Sundays. Councils are allowed to deviate from the rules, but must properly support their arguments, association lawyer Laus Vogelaar told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad. And, he says, the town council has failed to mention the legislation when granting the licence for the event. Sunday as a day of rest is being increasingly undermined, he says, adding ‘it is right that the courts take a look at it’. The Alkmaar resident who initiated the legal action told local website Alkmaar Centraal he hoped the courts would realise the importance of having a day of rest to city centre residents. The previous coalition government had planned to remove the law from the statute books but the new coalition, which includes two Christian parties, decided to leave it unchallenged.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

A group of strict Protestants who believe Sunday should be a day of rest are going to court on Friday to have a festival in the centre of Alkmaar banned. The Vereniging Zondagsrust is using legislation dating from 1815 to make its case to halt the outdoor dance party, due to be held on Sunday August 26. The legislation, which was amended in 1953, states that there must be no noise nuisance close to churches before 13.00 on Sunday or any public entertainment nearby, unless local councils rule otherwise. But it also stops local councils in strict Protestant communities from banning sports events on Sundays.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

A group of strict Protestants who believe Sunday should be a day of rest are going to court on Friday to have a festival in the centre of Alkmaar banned. The Vereniging Zondagsrust is using legislation dating from 1815 to make its case to halt the outdoor dance party, due to be held on Sunday August 26. The legislation, which was amended in 1953, states that there must be no noise nuisance close to churches before 13.00 on Sunday or any public entertainment nearby, unless local councils rule otherwise. But it also stops local councils in strict Protestant communities from banning sports events on Sundays.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

Americans are consuming more news than ever

Miami Herald   April 03, 2018

Americans are consuming more news than ever — and it’s driving us further and further apart.

That’s according to a new paper from Neil Johnson, a physicist who now runs the University of Miami’s Complexity interdisciplinary group, which is examining collective behavior in a number of fields.

Johnson and his team have found that when it comes to digesting news of any kind, Americans now exist in a state of pure polarization: the size of the extremes of the left and right are now so large that they outnumber those in the middle ground.

As a physicist, Johnson is used to seeing populations sorting into bell curves — think of heights and weights, he says. So one might expect that people would naturally sort into this normal distribution when it comes to ideology.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article207841309.html#storylink=cpy

Czech president calls for self defense against international terrorism

Breitbart 12 Oct 2017 

Czech president Miloš Zeman has said Europeans should “have the courage to invest in our own guns” in order to guard against international terrorism, like millions of U.S. citizens have.

The elder statesman — a veteran of the Prague Spring uprising against the old Communist regime as well as the Velvet Revolution which finally brought it down — made his comments in an address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental forum which predates the quasi-federal European Union by several years.

Television viewers in southern California were startled when an apocalyptic emergency alert flashed on their screens.

Friday, September 22, 2017 LAKE FOREST, Calif. 

Some television viewers in southern California were startled when an apocalyptic emergency alert flashed on their screens.

The Orange County Register reports a Lake Forest woman says she was watching HGTV on her Cox Communications cable service on Thursday when the alert flashed across the screen. Video shows the message included the voice of a man warning that "in the last days extremely violent time will come." The newspaper says Spectrum cable customers also got the message.

A Cox spokesman tells the newspaper that viewers should have seen a typical emergency-broadcast test but a technical malfunction caused it to go on longer than it should have. He says the broadcast picked up an audio feed that bled into the alert.     ABC

Houston under water

Published on Aug 29, 2017

Tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes in Houston, Texas, as a result of flooding caused by Tropical Storm Harvey. Sky News Correspondent Ashish Joshi reports.

Sunday as a rest day is slipping away across Europe

Delphine Allaire, August 28, 2017

Polish bishops cast a vote on Wednesday, 23 August, in favor of a complete ban on working on Sundays. In this fervently Catholic country legislation on Sunday work is relatively liberal.

Here is an overview of the European countries where Sunday is no longer an institutionalized rest day, despite regular pleas from religious communities.

“Catholics, non-Catholics, and atheists all need to have Sundays off," stated Stanislaw Gadecki, archbishop of Pozna (north-west Poland) and president of Poland’s Bishops’ Conference.

Even with the support of the independent Polish trade union Solidarnosc, the Polish Church hasn’t managed to instate a blanket ban on Sunday work. In this mostly Catholic country, people are allowed to work on Sundays and public holidays. 

The country’s conservative government is in favor of a ban but seems to be taking its time bringing about reforms, stating that it will address the issue in the autumn.

Religious and social interests united

Keen to avoid basing their whole position on religious arguments, Polish bishops also defend Sunday rest days by arguing for “quality of life”. “Families don’t just need financial support, they also need free time," said Wiktor Skworc, archbishop of Katowice (south-west Poland).

Legislation governing working on Sundays is constantly changing. However, across the rest of Europe, the main model remains a general ban with a range of exceptions. Christian leaders regularly reiterate the religious and social importance of this rest day.

Countries like Austria and Germany remain bastions of Sunday rest. Article 139 of the German constitution states: “Sundays and the public holidays recognized by the state remain legally protected as days of rest from work and of spiritual edification." In Belgium, only three non-rest Sundays are permitted per year, apart from in tourist cities.

However, in a number of other European countries including the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal as well as in the Spanish capital of Madrid, businesses are open 52 Sundays a year. In the strongly Catholic countries of Italy, Portugal, and Spain, heated public discussions erupt regularly.

In 2014, the Spanish bishop Vicente Jiménez called for a “united effort”, appealing to authorities to resist “economic pressures” liberalizing opening and working hours.

The Italian Bishops’ Conference has been doing a lot of background work to protect “workers’ rights to spend time with their families on Sundays”, supporting the country’s main business association, Confesercenti.

European and ecumenical support

Pitched at a pan-European scale, the “European Sunday Alliance”, was created in Brussels in 2011. This unites trade unions, social organizations, and religious communities, demonstrating the common ground between social and religious interests.

The Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of the European Community (COMECE), an affiliate of the Alliance, launched its program “for the protection of Sundays across Europe”, which was re-launched around the 2014 European elections. They stress the link between workers’ health and Sunday rest and underline the importance of Sundays for maintaining “social cohesion”. 

The European bishops argue that “a shared day of rest per week allows families to come together and means that citizens can spend time participating in cultural, spiritual and social activities".

John Paul II’s 1998 apostolic letter, Dies domini, reminds us that Sunday rest means we can “withdraw from the sometimes excessively demanding cycle of earthly tasks in order to renew our awareness that everything is the work of God".

This movement goes far beyond the Catholic community. Included in the list of organizations engaged at a European level are the German Protestant Church, the Anglican Church, the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, the Greek Orthodox Church’s representative to the European Union and the Baptist Union of Great Britain.           La Croix

Wall Street Banks say end of market boom is nigh

By Sid Verm,  August 23, 2017

HSBC Holdings Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley see mounting evidence that global markets are in the last stage of their rallies before a downturn in the business cycle.

Analysts at the Wall Street behemoths cite signals including the breakdown of long-standing relationships between stocks, bonds and commodities as well as investors ignoring valuation fundamentals and data. It all means stock and credit markets are at risk of a painful drop.

“Equities have become less correlated with FX, FX has become less correlated with rates, and everything has become less sensitive to oil,” Andrew Sheets, Morgan Stanley’s chief cross-asset strategist, wrote in a note published Tuesday.

His bank’s model shows assets across the world are the least correlated in almost a decade, even after U.S. stocks joined high-yield credit in a selloff triggered this month by President Donald Trump’s political standoff with North Korea and racial violence in Virginia.         More

Astonishing Events In A Rapidly Changing World

"Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."

Mark 13:33-37

"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

I Thessalonians 5:5-6

"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."

Revelation 3:3

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will consider the amazing times in which we live. It is truly more needful than ever that we as God's children watch and pray in these perilous times. It is imperative that we pay attention to what is happening around us because our world is changing rapidly, and these changes will affect every man, woman, and child on this planet which we presently occupy.

Over the course of the last seven years that I have written this newsletter, I have noticed that the mainstream news cycle can be quite repetitive. Each year, news outlets, seemingly working in concert, unleash a flood of stories regarding the devastating consequences of climate change. This fear mongering serves its purpose by emotionally and mentally battering the people of the world into submission. We are told over and over again that we all must "go green," and if we refuse to do so, it will lead to the demise of our planet and life as we know it. However, I think it is important that we ask: what does going green really mean?

In the minds of environmental extremists, people should be required to do far more than recycle bottles and cans, putter around town in a Toyota Prius, and buy wind generated power from the electric company. In July 2017 Lund University in Sweden published a study which calls for drastic action. A portion of the paper declares, "From analyzing 148 scenarios of the climate impact of individual behaviors in ten individual countries (with some studies additionally considering the whole EU [European Union] region), drawn from 39 sources, we have identified a dozen actions, including four recommended actions that are of substantial magnitude throughout the developed world: having one fewer child, living car free, avoiding air travel, and eating a plant-based diet." (1) Liberal news sources immediately latched on to this study, even prompting The Guardian to publish a headline which admonishes, "Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children." (2) As such, we see yet another method in which the traditional family is being villainized. What this report is really telling us is that having a large family is the worst thing anyone could do. I cannot help but think of the words of Jesus that we find in Luke 23:29 which says, "For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck." Indeed, in this modern age, children are often regarded as a burden rather than a blessing.

I have no doubt in my mind that organizations such as the United Nations will use climate change as an excuse to establish a one world government. People will be told that the world must unite to avert devastation, and human activity will be greatly restricted and controlled. Consider the Paris Agreement, which was signed in December 2015. This agreement, which calls on the nations of the world to unite in an effort to prevent global surface temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius, from where they say it was before the Industrial Revolution, has been joined by nearly every country in the world, including North Korea. Only the countries of Nicaragua and Syria refused to sign on. (3) Remarkably, American President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement on June 1, 2017, which prompted outrage around the world. (4) "Generations from now, Americans will look back at Donald Trump's decision to leave the Paris Agreement as one of the most ignorant and dangerous actions ever taken by any President," said Michael Brune, who is the executive director at the Sierra Club. (5) The famed astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, was also livid about Trump's decision. "Trump's action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees (Celsius) and raining sulfuric acid," Hawking insisted. (6)

Meanwhile, former American Vice President Al Gore has made a sequel to his film known as An Inconvenient Truth. The original film, which was released in 2006, famously informed its audience that if drastic measures were not taken to stop climate change immediately, "The world would reach a point of no return within 10 years." Of course, more than 10 years have passed since this prediction and the world is still here. In an effort to legitimize his prognostication, Gore was quoted as saying, "Unfortunately, some levels of the Earth system have crossed a point of no return." The new film, which is titled "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power," is scheduled for a nationwide release in the United States on August 4, 2017. (7) Based on the movie trailer, it seems that this film is intended to serve as a rebuke to Donald Trump.

It is certainly clear that environmentalists would like to foist severe restrictions on the people of the world. However, former American President Barack Obama must feel that these rules should not apply to him. In May 2017 Obama traveled to Milan, Italy, to speak at an event known as Seed & Chips: The Global Food Innovation Summit. Not only did Obama travel to this event in a private jet, but his entourage included a convoy of 14 automobiles and a helicopter overhead. This vast consumption of fossil fuel enabled the former President to lecture the world about the overconsumption of meat. (8) "I think people naturally understand that big smokestacks have pollution in them and they understand air pollution, so they can easily make the connection between energy production and the idea of greenhouse gases. People aren't as familiar with the impact of cows and methane, unless you're a farmer," Obama said. He then went on to say, "That doesn't mean that we can't teach you and me to have a smaller steak, for our own health. It doesn't mean we can't make progress in educating the advanced world about the need to reduce, just for dietary reasons, the amount of meat that we consume at any given meal." After hearing Obama's comments, former White House chef and food policy advisor Sam Kass indicated that he had probably prepared thousands of steaks for Obama over the years. To this assertion Obama replied, "I don't know about thousands. Maybe hundreds." (9) While this story may seem silly, it does demonstrate the rampant hypocrisy amongst elitists such as Barack Obama.

Climate change is a topic that instills a great deal of hostility today. This is evident in recent comments made by famous scientist Bill Nye. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Nye was quoted as saying, "Climate change deniers, by way of example, are older. It's generational. So we're just going to have to wait for those people to 'age out,' as they say. 'Age out' is a euphemism for 'die.' But it'll happen, I guarantee you - that'll happen." (10) It is truly a sad state of affairs when a world renowned scientist suggests that the death of an entire generation is a necessity that will help rectify climate change. Yet, this is likely the mentality of many liberal people today, even if they do not say so outright. Nye's remarks were reminiscent of comments made by television star Oprah Winfrey in 2013, who made the claim that too many older Americans are still racist and "they just have to die." (11)

My father used to say, "The problem isn't global warming, it's global sinning." It is undeniable that this planet we live on is in trouble. We often hear stories of drought, famine, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, record breaking cold temperatures, record breaking hot temperatures, animal die-offs, and other calamitous disruptions. Yet, people become so fixated on climate change that they never cry out to God, seeking rather to solve these problems themselves. Declining to have children, ditching your car, and adopting a vegan diet will not save the world. Isaiah 55:6-7 tells us, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."       More

The social panic and media hysteria over fake news continues unabated

By Edward Morrissey    April 25, 2017

The social panic and media hysteria over fake news continues unabated. And once again, Facebook's reaction is all wrong.

The left's intense focus on false news stories exploded in the wake of what seemed like an inexplicable Republican victory in the 2016 election, with Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton despite an avalanche of bad press directed at the former, especially in the final weeks of the campaign. The GOP also unexpectedly retained control of the Senate, winning surprise victories in Wisconsin and Indiana to confound the Democratic Party's advantage in incumbent seats and normal presidential-cycle turnout models.

Attention quickly focused on a BuzzFeed story about traffic generated by stories on Facebook, and how much more popular fake news was over real news. The analysis had significant flaws, however, beginning with the fact that there was no evidence of correlation between Facebook traffic and voting behavior, let alone causation. Furthermore, the top five "real news" articles in the analysis turned out to be four opinion essays opposing Trump and the New York Post's story on Melania Trump's suggestive modeling pictures from two decades earlier.

Nonetheless, much of the left and the mainstream media stuck with the fake news narrative to explain the election outcome, and have continued to pressure Facebook to take action against it.     Read More

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that some businesses and supermarkets may remain open on Shabbat.

April 19, 2017 3:00pm

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that some businesses and supermarkets may remain open on Shabbat.

The decision issued Wednesday dealt with the operation of businesses in entertainment complexes including the Tel Aviv and Jaffa harbors along with the old train station, as well as the opening of supermarkets in some parts of the city.

Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai said in response to the ruling, according to Ynet, “As I said four years ago, the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa was free and will remain free.”

Haredi Orthodox lawmakers, including Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, called the ruling a “severe blow” to the sanctity of the Jewish Sabbath.

Retail businesses in Israel are not permitted to open on the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday and ends after sunset Saturday. Businesses that ignore the ban are levied modest fines.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ordered the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality to enforce the ban. At the time, the municipality had been working to find a way to allow a percentage of the city’s grocery stores to stay open on Saturdays, using an amendment to the existing law. The stores would have been spread throughout the city, with fewer open in areas that are more religious and more in secular areas.

However, the interior minister at the time, Gideon Saar, did not approve the amendment.       JTA

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,” according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,” according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck.

“When you first get here, you think that you are in some sort of fairy-tale novel,” Buck, a Republican, said. “They wine and dine you and they show you just exactly what it’s like if you play the game. It’s a wonderful life.”

Things quickly change, however, if “you don’t play the game.”

“If you don’t play the game  …  it becomes a much less conformable existence here,” Buck said.  

Buck, who has served Colorado’s 4th Congressional District since 2015, also previewed his new book, “Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think,” which was published on Tuesday.  

Chapters in Buck’s book include “Why Washington is a Swamp,” “Play the Game–Or Else,” “Beating the Beltway Bullies,” and “What You Can Do To Drain the Swamp.”

Buck said his book addresses corruption present in government today that he was not prepared for after being elected to Congress in 2014.

“One of the things that I found startling when I got here is that you have to pay dues to be on a committee,” Buck said.

During the time he served on the House Judiciary Committee, Buck said he had to pay periodic dues of $200,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign committee of the House of Representatives.

Now, as a member of the House Rules Committee, Buck’s periodic dues are $450,000.       Read More

Pope Francis spends time with prison inmates

 

25/03/2017 (Vatican Radio) One of the highlights of Pope Francis’ 1-day pastoral journey to the Italian city of Milan is his visit to the city’s main detention center, the San Vittore Prison.

Shortly after midday and the recitation of the Angelus, the Pope travelled to the prison where he was welcomed by the director,Gloria Manzelli, and by the prison chaplain, don Marco Recalcati.

San Vittore currently hosts over 900 inmates – both men and women – as well as a number of infants who live with their detained mothers in a special unit. The Pope met briefly with them before exchanging greetings with a large group of the San Vittore staff and volunteers.

The building, designed by the engineer Francesco Lucca, takes inspiration from the 18th century Panopticon with 6 wings with three floors each. Moving through these wings, the Pope was given the opportunity to shake hands with some 80 people representing all the different categories of inmates, before going on to meet those who are detained in a “protected” environment.

In the third wing, Pope Francis sat down for lunch with some 100 prisoners and treated to a typically Milanese cuisine, including rice with saffron and steaks “alla Milanese” prepared by some of  the inmates themselves.

The visit concluded with an exchange of gifts and the blessing of cards with the prisoners’ names on them to be taken away by the Pope.

Throughout his pontificate Pope Francis has highlighted the predicament of prisoners and urged political leaders across the world to respect the dignity of inmates and offer them amnesty whenever possible. In many occasions he has called for a criminal justice system that is not exclusively punitive, but is open to the hope and the possibility of re-inserting the offender into society. Pope Francis has also called for a world-wide abolition of the death penalty and said he opposes life in prison without parole.

Underlining his deep concern for prisoners the Pope concluded the Holy Year of Mercy with a special Jubilee Mass for some 1,000 prisoners from 12 countries and their families, as well as prison chaplains and volunteers in St. Peter's Basilica.      RadioVaticana

Media's Job: Control What People Think

by Ian Hanchett

UPDATE: Brzezinski took to Twitter to clarify her remarks, saying, “Today I said it’s the media’s job to keep President Trump from making up his own facts, NOT that it’s our job to control what people think.” She added, “Of course, that is obvious from the transcript but some people want to make up their own facts. SAD!”

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski stated President Trump “could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.”

Brzezinski said, “I think that the dangerous, you know, edges here are that he’s is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts. And it could be that, while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that is our job.”     Breitbart

A new children’s fairytale honours LGBT celebrities

Lane Sainty

BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia

Bo Moore & Christine Luiten

Promised Land, released on Valentine’s Day, is the first children’s book from Wellington, New Zealand, authors Chaz Harris and Adam Reynolds. It is aimed at children aged from five to 10.

The book tells the story of Jack, a farm boy, and Leo, a prince, who meet in the enchanted forest and slowly fall in love. But their budding relationship hits a hurdle when the Queen’s evil husband, Gideon, attempts to seize the enchanted forest, which is on land belonging to Jack’s family.    BuzzFeed

Pope calls for unity in Europe

Ben Rosen January 9, 2017

In 1957, six European nations agreed on a single economic market that laid the groundwork for the European Union, bringing together a continent that in the previous decade had been shattered by total war.

On Monday, some sixty years after those six countries signed Treaty of Rome, Pope Francis reminded diplomats of the agreement’s importance as he called for a new European humanism.

“Europe as a whole is experiencing a decisive moment in its history, one in which it is called to rediscover its proper identity. This requires recovering its roots in order to shape its future,” said the pope in the annual papal “state of the world” address. 

“In response to currents of divisiveness, it is all the more urgent to update the idea of Europe, so as to give birth to a new humanism based on the capacity to integrate, dialogue and generate that made the Old Continent great,” he said.

Pope France’s annual foreign policy speech comes, as he noted in his address, at a time when Europe is in the midst of a migrant crisis, the threat of religious-inspired violence, and a shakeup through Brexit. The pope’s speech represents another effort on his part to urge peace and reconciliation in Europe and abroad.    

The process of European unification "continues to be a unique opportunity for stability, peace and solidarity between peoples," he said. "On this occasion, I can only reaffirm the interest and concern of the Holy See for Europe and its future, conscious that the values that were the inspiration and basis of that project, which this year celebrates its 60th anniversary, are values common to the entire continent and transcend the borders of the European Union itself."

The pope’s call for unity in Europe comes just months before Britain is expect to begin the formal process of withdrawing from the EU. Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of March.

Speaking in front of diplomats from 180 countries in the Vatican on Monday, the pope also denounced “fundamentalists-inspired terrorism” in 2016, listing attacks by Islamist militants in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States.

He called such violence “homicidal madness, which misuses God’s name in order to disseminate death, in a play for domination and power,” and urged religious and political leaders to play their part in stopping it. The pope said such violence is “spiritual poverty” often borne out of material poverty. He said religious leaders should preach God’s message of love and peace and political leaders should ensure economic opportunities for young people.

In addition to safety, “government leaders are also responsible for ensuring that conditions do not exist that can serve as fertile terrain for the spread of forms of fundamentalism.”

Pope Francis’s speech is in line with his past remarks on Islamic extremism, nuclear weapons, and even the proliferation of fake news. Last month, the pope said that both the creation and spread of fake news is a sin, urging the media to do its part to stop it.

"The communications media have a very great responsibility. Nowadays they have in their hands the possibility and the capacity to form opinion: they can form a good or a bad opinion," the pope said in an interview with Belgian Catholic weekly, Tertio. He added, "Disinformation is probably the greatest damage that the media can do, as opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth."

This warning wasn’t directed at just the media, but also those who post or repost harmful stories through social media.      Yahoo News

Are Any Plastics Safe? Industry Tries to Hide New Evidence on BPA-Free Containers

Pope Francis says spreading fake news is a sin

By Reuters December 7, 201

Media that focus on scandals and spread fake news to smear politicians risk becoming like people who have a morbid fascination with excrement, Pope Francis said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Francis told the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio that spreading disinformation was “probably the greatest damage that the media can do” and using communications for this rather than to educate the public amounted to a sin.

Using precise psychological terms, he said scandal-mongering media risked falling prey to coprophilia, or arousal from excrement, and consumers of these media risked coprophagia, or eating excrement.

The Argentine-born pontiff excused himself for using such terms in order to get his point across while answering a question about the correct use of the media.

“I think the media have to be very clear, very transparent, and not fall into — no offense intended — the sickness of coprophilia, that is, always wanting to cover scandals, covering nasty things, even if they are true,” he said.

“And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, a lot of damage can be done.”

That section of the interview, all of which was distributed to reporters in an Italian translation of the interview in the pope’s native Spanish, contained some of the most blunt language the pontiff has ever used about the media.

He also spoke of the danger of using the media to slander political rivals.

“The means of communication have their own temptations, they can be tempted by slander, and therefore used to slander people, to smear them, this above all in the world of politics,” he said. “They can be used as means of defamation…”

“No one has a right to do this. It is a sin and it is hurtful,” he said.

He described disinformation as the greatest harm the media can do because “it directs opinion in only one direction and omits the other part of the truth,” he said.

The pope’s comments on disinformation followed widespread debate in the United States over whether fake news on the internet might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump.     NY Post