Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
“The boastful, willful man, scoffer is his name; the arrogant evildoer, he is a willful man.” (Proverbs 21:24)
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari just condemned Israel for its assassination of Samir Kuntar as an act of terrorism. Iran has been classified by the US State Department as an “active state sponsor of terrorism” since at least 2012. This brazen act of an Iranian official calling Israel’s actions “state organized terrorism of the Zionist regime” is just the most recent example of the fulfillment of a Jewish prophecy about the End of Days.
According to the Talmud, Judaism’s treasury of rabbinic wisdom, the last generation before the arrival of the Messiah will be a generation marked by brazenness and audacity. The Yiddish word for this quality is chutzpa (insolence) and it is one of a number of Yiddish words, such as with nosh and schmooze, that has made its way into popular culture.
The full quote from the Talmud identifies a number of markers of the breakdown of respectful society. The quote ends with a call for increased faith in God as the world waits for the Messiah.
“In the last generation before the Messiah, insolence will increase and honor will dwindle. The governments will turn to heresy. The meeting-place of scholars will be used for immorality. The wisdom of the learned will degenerate, those who fear sin will be despised, and the truth will be lacking. Youth will put old men to shame, the old will stand up against the young, a son will disgrace his father, a daughter will rebel against her mother. So upon who is there to rely? Upon our Father in Heaven.” (Sotah 49a)
A review of contemporary news stories clearly illustrates that we are in a generation of unprecedented brazenness and audacity.
In the Middle East, jihadist terror group ISIS beheads with immunity. Although the video has been removed by YouTube for a violation of its Terms of Service, a 3-year-old child is shown beheading a teddy bear in the shadow of an ISIS flag. In a separate video, ISIS filmed a child beheading an actual hostage.
ISIS toddler beheading his teddy bear. (Photo: YouTube screenshot)
The chutzpa of ISIS continues as they vow to extend their plan to establish a worldwide Islamic Caliphate to include Israel. the jihadist group recently produced a video in Hebrew to threaten that “not a single Jew would remain in Jerusalem.”
In Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas continues to vilify Israel and incite terror against her citizens, but his family members, like his brother-in-law and his wife, are treated in Israeli hospitals.
Global impertinence is not limited to ISIS and other Islamic groups. The UN and the EU also blatantly act against Israel’s interests
In its history, half the resolutions voted on by the United Nations Human Rights Council have condemned Israel, all out of proportion to the extreme human rights violations of any other country, including North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. In November 2015 alone, 20 anti-Israel resolutions were presented to the United Nations.
Despite the fact that the EU has no policy regarding labeling goods from other countries that have disputed territories, such as China, Morocco, Russia, Pakistan or India, the EU has begun labeling products produced in Biblical Judea and Samaria.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin recently became involved in the Middle East. His rapid annexation of Crimea in March 2014 was accompanied by a claim that Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia. And today, he has his eyes on annexing Eastern Ukraine.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a climate conference in Paris, November 30, 2015. (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Socially, changes in cultural norms regarding what constitutes a legal marriage have become mainstream, despite opposition by Bible-based voters who consider the redefinition of marriage impudent. Other social trends such as reality TV, that thrives on embarrassing participants and sexting, in which people send sexually suggestive videos and images to one another, are part of the brazen culture that signals the fulfillment of the prophecy of an increase in worldwide audacity at the End-of-Days.
Prolific author and End-of-Days scholar Rabbi Pinchas Winston told Breaking Israel News that these audacious events, along with other, similar news stories, are, indeed, the fulfillment of prophecy from rabbinic sources that date back to the second through sixth centuries.
“The Talmud long ago painted a picture of the End-of-Days and what to expect. One of the signs mentioned is incredible arrogance and brazenness, both of which exist throughout Western society on various different levels,” he explained to Breaking Israel News. “And now, terrorists such as ISIS and their supporters are showing just how far such aberrant behavior can get.”
Seen in this context, worldwide brazenness is yet another sign that we are in the period the Bible calls the End of Days.
Love For His People Blog special notice:
Love For His People Editor's note: You can order Steve Martin's book here.
Core beliefs and values are being challenged across the globe. With such a major change of direction happening, where are we headed?
The following are the five major events that will likely define our immediate future and impact world affairs for the foreseeable future. These are listed in the sequence they occurred, not necessarily the sequence of importance or impact:
1. China stock market crashes
2. Falling energy prices
3. Russian military intervention into the Middle East
4. Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks
5. The Trump candidacy
We will look at each of these for the message they have, but first we will briefly discuss the most basic change factor in world affairs—initiative. In military operations and world affairs, having the initiative is necessary for success. The one with the initiative can control the battle or geopolitical situation, requiring their opponent(s) to react to them rather than the other way around.
Therefore, those with the initiative have a major advantage in the confrontation. For this reason, the most important factors to look for to discern the nature of events and where they are heading are:
Who has the initiative
What are their intentions or goals
What are their resources and strategies for sustaining the initiative
Now we'll look at each of the five events having a major impact on the world and their potential consequences:
1.The China stock market crash. China's economic growth has been a key factor impacting the world economy this century. Without it, the recovery after 9/11 or the crash of 2008 would have been more difficult if not impossible. China is now one of the biggest economic forces in the world, rivaling the impact of both the U.S. and Europe.
Factors
On June 12, 2015, The Shanghai Index lost one-third of its value. It rebounded, but this began the most turbulent volatility of a major market possibly in modern times, even eclipsing the 1929 crash. Understanding its cause and impact on the world economy is important for understanding what we can expect the world economy to do in the foreseeable future.
One report estimated that 100,000,000 Chinese investors were virtually wiped out in a day. Many more than this number were also severely hurt by this crash. The Chinese economy had produced more millionaires and billionaires and created and expanded a middle class more quickly than any economy in history. It delivered more people out of poverty in a shorter time—a truly remarkable achievement.
China also created a huge number of consumers who drove industry around the world. The June crash, dramatic recovery and then a worse crash over a few-week period unnerved more than the Chinese—it alarmed everyone who understood the interconnection of world economics. This will no doubt majorly impact the rapid growth of the Chinese's purchasing of the world's goods, with huge ramifications.
The Western media hardly covered this remarkable event, possibly because only about 1.5 percent of Chinese stocks are held outside of China. Another reason is China's control over its media. In the free media, panic can be created and driven by the media. China clamped down on their media, likely preventing a far worse catastrophe. They also quickly shut down trading by major companies and stockholders.
This strategy can work in the short term, but the lack of transparency also breeds suspicion, long-term concern or fear that can hurt a free market even more. The Chinese leadership is smart enough to know this, but the potential for catastrophe in the short term was so great, they felt they had to take drastic measures.
Chinese authorities blamed the crash on rumors and fear mongering. If true, fear and rumors will be a continuing problem for the Chinese without transparency. Their markets stabilized because of the controls, but when those controls were lifted a little, the markets fell another 40 percent. They've recovered some, but the factors that initiated these shockwaves have not been addressed—the lack of transparent accounting and the true value of their currency, the Yuan, that was arbitrarily set by the government.
Although it's impressive how well the Chinese government handled the crash without prior experience in anything like this, the IMF's recent decision to designate the Chinese Yuan a reserve currency seems to be more political than economic. This was likely a move to help stabilize the Yuan, but this too could have a destabilizing effect on other world currencies—we'll see.
It is no secret that the Chinese would like to see their currency replace the dollar as the world's top reserve currency. Even with their problems, they are headed that way because of the over-regulation and over-taxation shackling the U.S. economy.
Bottom Line
This will not likely bode well for the U.S. dollar or economy. The potential effect of the Chinese market turmoil to destabilize the rest of the world is substantial. Again, Chinese economic growth, and the creation of such a huge middle class and consumer base, may be the single biggest factor sustaining the world economy after the 2008 crash. Basic economic indicators point to increasing weakness in the world economy at a time when one of its biggest economic engines, China, will slow down.
A slide into a recession in 2016 not only looks possible, but seems inevitable. The recovery since 2008 would not likely exist with China, and it has still only been a shallow, weak recovery. Now the world cannot count on growing Chinese consumption to bail them out.
The turmoil in China will impact the world economy negatively by slowing its consumer spending. At the same time, China is seizing the initiative to become the world's reserve currency, giving them increasing leverage over the world economy. This is not the result of strength in their economy as much as Chinese leadership and decisiveness. As Donald Trump accurately pointed out, "Their leaders have been smarter than ours."
Without a major change in U.S. economic policy, China is in the best position to take and hold the initiative in world economics for the foreseeable future. This is happening in spite of the fragile nature of the Yuan. Chinese equity markets have more to do with the incompetence of U.S. and European economic leadership than brilliance on the part of the Chinese. That China has seized the initiative in the world economy after suffering such dramatic turmoil in its own economy is a clear indication of the kind of jeopardy the world economy is in.
2. Falling energy prices. Along with the growth of Chinese consumerism, falling energy prices have been a major driver of the world's economy in recent times. The effect has been like having a trillion-dollar stimulus infused into the U.S. and EU economies each year. Combined with "Quantitative Easing" (QE), the artificial dumping of almost another trillion dollars into the economy each year, the U.S. economy is just barely inching along, indicating how gummed up the works are in our economic engine.
Falling energy prices may have bought us more time to fix serious issues in the economy, but without decisive leadership that will actually fix things, we will inevitably suffer the worst economic disaster in our history. Falling energy prices are mostly the result of falling demand for energy, a sure sign that much the world's economy is weakening.
3. Russian intervention in the Middle East. Russia's economy has been devastated because it is a petroleum-based economy, and falling energy prices have it near collapse. However, Putin has emerged as the most decisive world leader. He has seized initiative in world affairs and become a major player in world economics.
Putin's move into the Middle East was not just about propping up the Assad, a man Putin has shown disdain for, in Syria. Neither is his alliance with Iran the result of his love for that regime. He has brilliantly positioned Russia to use both of them in a bold move to threaten Saudi Arabia and the other oil producers in the region. This will drive up oil prices, thereby saving the Russian economy.
This is bold and brilliant, and a decisive man such as Putin will likely carry it out. The recent shooting down of a Russian plane by Turkey gave him more cards to play. Cutting off Russian tourism to Turkey can devastate that country's economy. It also has the potential to create major turmoil in NATO, ultimately securing the Russian southern flank by bringing a capitulating Turkey under Russian control. Putin is smart enough to play the cards he's dealt, and it's not likely the Russian/Turkish crisis will go away until Putin has gained a great deal.
Another factor is that almost all NATO countries are dependent on Middle Eastern oil. If Putin is ambitious (and he seems to be), he could break up NATO and bring many of the nations under Russian influence. This would force the E.U. to stand down and not interfere in his actions against Ukraine or other former Soviet states while freeing him for other adventures.
America alone has the power to counter Putin, but his decisiveness combined with the ineptness of American leadership could not be setting the tables better for him. The U.S. and Canada could now be producing enough energy to support the E.U. so that it does not have to depend on Saudi Arabia or Russian energy sources, strengthening NATO at a time when it is increasingly needed. Policies such as killing the Keystone Pipeline could have bad consequences. At the very least, this will likely prove a major missed opportunity strategically.
Bottom Line
Expect energy prices to rebound in 2016, though they could drop even more before this happens because of the weakening world economy. When they start back up, they could return to previous levels faster than they fell. This will be like a reverse of the stimulus at the worst time for Western economies, wreaking economic havoc on the U.S., the EU and many other countries.
Russia does not need energy from outside sources, but they do need the price of energy to go up. China is desperate for dependable and cheap energy. They did not join Putin's Middle East adventure without a purpose. China will likely soon have virtual control over Saudi Arabia as part of this deal.
Understanding the power of the Russian/Chinese alliance combined with weak American resolve has much of the world looking to Russia and China for leadership. The end result could be the worst economic disaster in history for the U.S. and the EU At the same time, Russia can get back on its feet economically and China will be the most powerful economic force in the world as the stable source of cheap energy (for them).
Together, Russia and China are systematically and effectively seizing the initiative in the world economy, and by that world affairs. No other leadership in sight can counter it. This is the extraordinary geopolitical shift now taking place. Its implications are as far reaching as the fall of the Iron Curtain, but this time to the advantage of the former communist states. This leads us to the fourth factor to have a major impact on the trajectory of world affairs.
Tune in Wednesday for finale of this two-part series.
Rick Joyneris the founder and executive director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries and is the senior pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church. He is the author of more than 40 books, including The Final Quest,A Prophetic History, and Church History. He is also the president of The OAK Initiative, an interdenominational movement that is mobilizing thousands of Christians to be engaged in the great issues of our times, being the salt and light that they are called to be. Rick and his wife, Julie, have five children: Anna, Aaryn, Amber, Ben and Sam.
NEW from CHARISMA:Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here
Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.
God has never asked you to be normal. God has called you to be different.
What do I mean? Christianity is the greatest adventure you could ever take, and God is the greatest tour guide on this journey called the supernatural life for those of us who are unqualified. The unqualified of God have never been called to fit in anyway. They are the ones man overlooks but God notices and plucks from obscurity.
There is one word that best describes the unqualified, and it is the word "misfit." In fact, over and over the Bible reminds us that we are "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13). We are even referred to as temporary residents who must watch our lives closely (1 Pet. 2:11).
Our identity must not be determined by what the world says about us but by the fact that God dwells in us. If you're not careful, the inner cry you have for God to use you can fade to a faint whisper of yesterday's promises. Instead, you must protect that cry and rise up and realize that as the unqualified, you are uniquely qualified to bring life to a lost world. God almost always chooses the one who wouldn't get picked to be on man's team to be an all-star on God's team (Prov. 15:25).
Throughout history, God has always used the least likely and the most unqualified to provoke change. The Bible is full of misfits—those who usually lost out on man's approval but always won with a God-dreamed vision.
Will They Know You've Been With Jesus?
I've found that when people don't understand the supernatural power of God, they always put God's vessels on trial to defend what they've never experienced. Peter and John found themselves in trouble for walking in the miraculous immediately after healing a man. Acts 4:13 says, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
What made these unqualified servants of Jesus stand out as they went about preaching the gospel was not who they were but who they knew. The neon sign lit over their lives said these men had been with Jesus. What was it that made these men so special? They understood that without God's intervention in their lives, they were simply unqualified fools.
Do you know what made these men so feared by the religious and powerful? They never relied on themselves to do anything. Their entire reputation was one that made others sit up and say, "These guys have been with Jesus!" They continually pointed back to Him.
As the unqualified, we must desire that when people walk away from us, they never see us but Jesus. If people see Jesus instead of you, they may actually follow Him and not just you on Twitter and Instagram. The moment we spotlight ourselves, we let people down and tarnish the kingdom of God.
God Uses Quitters Too
When we look at the birth of the New Testament church, it wasn't the well-dressed, educated and proper religious leaders who led the way from the upper room to rest of the world. No, it was a bunch of fishermen. They hadn't received any formal training or taken any classes on public etiquette. Really, they were blue-collared rednecks—just a group of guys who would become fishers of men.
God even uses quitters, as the Bible shows through the life and ministry of Peter. God can use people who fail, curse and betray Him. At one point, Peter even gives up ministry and returns to his old profession (John 21:3).
This is why I like Peter so much. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to quit and walk away too. Yet the next morning I usually saw Jesus on the shore, telling me the same thing He told Peter: "Feed My sheep" (John 21:17). How can we quit on the Lamb who has called us to feed His lambs?
We cannot quit. We must hold on. Our mantra must be Galatians 6:9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
If circumstances, people or lack can cause us to quit so easily on a Father who promised to never leave us or forsake us, then we haven't taken the Great Commission seriously enough. Our victory is not found in what we accomplish, but rather in our ability to never stop chasing God's awesome calling.
I once heard someone say, "If the cost is too great, then the call is not enough!" I must take it one step further and say that if you're able to accomplish your dream on your own, then God never birthed the dream you're following.
God's Power, Not Ours
If God can use Simon Peter, He can use you and me. But if ever we think we can accomplish anything without God's help, then we have bought a lie that leads to destruction.
If you wonder where the power of God has gone, you need only look at the mainstream Christian messages that flood the airwaves with overinflated egos espousing self-help sermons, watered-down talks and hyper-grace theology. Eloquent speech and cool clothes have never chased a demon out of anyone. When we reduce preaching to an art that doesn't require Spirit unction and Spirit visitation, God simply becomes a late-night infomercial that lulls us to sleep.
To preach a compromising gospel that doesn't require repentance makes us no different from the religious who sell indulgences and penance. Nice messages and sweet services simply allow the demons to relax and make fodder of God's people. When we place God in a box of human rationality, we only experience human results.
This is exactly why God is awakening the misfits and the unqualified. Purity is the backbone of authority, and authority is determined by brokenness. The spiritual depth of the unqualified will not come from degrees on the wall or memberships in prestigious God clubs but from the classroom of brokenness. If you will cry out on your knees in your prayer closet, then you will stand out on the shoulders of God in the public square.
God has always confounded the wise. He doesn't look for social stature, good looks or even the most intellectual among us. He calls forth the available, no matter how misfitting they are.
Pat Schatzlineis a leading international evangelist and author. He and his wife, Karen, co-founded Remnant Ministries International.
If you liked the article, you'll love the book.
Evangelist and author Pat Schatzline shows how you can be used by God no matter what your weaknesses through his most recent book, Unqualified: Where You Can Begin to Be Great (Charisma House). You can find his book at amazon.com, christianbook.com or anywhere Christian books are sold.
NEW from CHARISMA:Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here
“For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.” (Psalm 91:3)
Iranian hackers were successful in opening network pathways among US power grids, making the entire country susceptible to a cyber attack, the Associated Press has revealed in a startling new report.
Over the last decade, almost a dozen foreign hackers have successfully gained enough remote access to the US power grid to cause total blackouts. While the public rarely hears of these cyber attacks, the government’s response to them are highly intricate and more often than not, classified.
Although the Iranian hacking incident is worrying, it is not unique. In 2012 and 2013, Russian hackers sent and received encrypted commands to US power generators and public utilities. In separate hacking campaigns, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that Russian hackers had planted malware in private US energy companies that allowed them to engage in espionage.
According to experts who wished to remain anonymous due to security issues, the Iranian cyber attackers gained enough power to control the entire operational capability of the US power grid.
These same experts predict that while the nationwide blackouts most feared by the intelligence community have not yet occurred, these sophisticated hackers are biding their time and have the capability to strike at will.
“If the geopolitical situation changes and Iran wants to target these facilities, if they have this kind of informations it will make it a lot easier,” explained former US Air Force cyberwarfare operations officers Robert M. Lee. “It will also help them stay quiet and stealthy inside.”
Lillian Ablon, a cybersecurity expert at the RAND Corporation, explained that hackers “want to be stealth. That’s the ultimate power, because when you need to do something you are already in place.”
As part of its investigation, the AP conducted case studies of the state of the nation’s energy infrastructure and the readiness of the industry against cyber attacks. In one disturbing incident, involving independent power production company Calpine, who calls itself “America’s largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources,” Iranian hackers breached the company’s systems as far back as August 2013 and gained access to classified information.
Hackers collected usernames and passwords, detailed engineering drawings of power stations and networks from California to New York, as well as additional diagrams explaining how local power plants transmit information back to the company’s virtual cloud.
All this information, taken together, would eventually allow a hacker to shut down generating stations and network communications as well as cause near blackouts across the country. Cybersecurity experts believe the attack on Calpine could still be ongoing.
A Palestinian youth wearing masks used by computer hackers who attack a number of Israeli websites annually, seen back-dropped by the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem’s Old City. April 08 2013. (Photo: Sliman Khader/FLASH90)
The US power grid is one of the most susceptible targets for hackers wishing to wreak havoc on the American government and public. The network of aging substations and decrepit equipment, which was not built with network security considerations, are easy fodder for cyber attackers. In many cases, the software running local power grids still run on Windows ‘95 and FORTAN, a programming language developed in the 1950s.
“Some of the control systems boot off floppy disks,” explained Patrick Miller, a cybersecurity expert who evaluated hydroelectric dam cybersecurity for the US Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers. “Some dams have modeling systems that run on something that looks like a washing machine hooked up to tape spools. It looks like the early NASA stuff that went to the moon.”
To make matters even more complicated, independent power sources, such as solar panel and wind farms, must be remotely monitored and controlled, adding weaker entry points for hackers to access the power grid.
Cyber attacks by nation-states are not the only cause for concern among intelligence and industry officials. Homeland Security spokesman SY Lee told officials in October that even ISIS is attempting to hack US power companies. Caitlin Durkovich, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed that “ISIS is beginning to perpetrate cyber attacks.”
Earlier this year, Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood said in a speech that the government is in need of a wakeup call when it comes to protecting the energy grid. “If we don’t protect the energy sector,” she stated, “we are putting every other sector of the economy in peril.”
Posted: 21 Dec 2015 MICHAEL SNYDER THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Under Barack Obama, the U.S. national debt has risen from $10,626,877,048,913.08 on January 20th, 2009 to $18,795,033,928,275.59 on December 21st, 2015. That means that the debt that we are passing on to future generations has increased by 8.16 trillion dollars since Barack Obama was inaugurated. There is still a little more than a year to go in Obama’s presidency, and it is already guaranteed that Obama will add more than a trillion dollars a year to the national debt during his presidency.
In fact, when you do the math, we are stealing more than 100 million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day. It is a crime of a magnitude that is almost unimaginable, and at this point it is mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off all of this debt. To say that we are in trouble would be a massive understatement.
And of course not all of the blame goes to Obama. The Republicans have had control of the House of Representatives for all but two years while Obama has been in the White House, and they have gone along with all of this reckless spending. Without the approval of the House, Obama could not spend a single penny, but the Republicans have consistently chosen not to stand up to him.
In fact, the Republicans in Congress just approved another massive 1.2 trillion dollar spending bill that essentially gave the Democrats every single thing that they wanted. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi even admitted that the Republicans “were willing to concede so much” during the negotiations.
So why do we even have a Republican Party? They always just go along with pretty much whatever the Democrats want anyway. Why shouldn’t we just disband the Republican Party and let the Democrats completely run things? How would Washington D.C. be any different if the Republicans didn’t even exist?
At this point, even Rush Limbaugh is completely disgusted with the Republican Party…
I have a headline here from the Washington Times: “White House Declares Total Victory Over GOP in Budget Battle.” That headline’s a misnomer. There was never a battle. None of this was opposed. The Republican Party didn’t stand up to any of it, and the die has been cast for a long time on this. I know many of you are dispirited, depressed, angry, combination of all of that. But, folks, there was no other way this could go. Because two years ago when the Republican Party declared they would never do anything that would shut down the government and they would not impeach Obama, there were no obstacles in Obama’s way and there were no obstacles in the way of the Democrat Party.
Do you remember when Republican politicians were running around promising that they would defund Obamacare?
That didn’t happen.
Do you remember when Republican politicians were running around promising that they would defund Planned Parenthood?
That didn’t happen.
Do you remember when Republican politicians were running around promising that they would defund Obama’s refugee program?
That didn’t happen.
In this new spending deal, the Republicans got nothing. It was a sham, a farce and a total insult to the American people. Here is more from Rush Limbaugh…
It fully funds Planned Parenthood. That, to me, is unforgivable, with everything now known about what goes on behind closed doors at Planned Parenthood, and that the federal government, led by a Republican Party, sees fit to pay for it. It is beyond comprehension, and it is a total squandering of moral authority to fully fund the butchery at Planned Parenthood. This spending bill fully pays for Obama’s refugee plans, fully. This spending bill, this budget bill quadruples the number of visas Obama wants for foreign workers. This is even a slap at American union workers. Not the leaders. The union leaders seem to be in favor of it, but blue-collar people, known as working people, have been sold down the river along with everybody else here.
This spending bill even fully pays for every dime asked for by Obama on all of this idiocy that’s tied up into climate change. Everything Obama wanted, everything he asked for, he got. You go down the list of things, it’s there.
Even after watching all of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos that came out over the past year, the Republicans in Congress still voted to fund the harvesting and sale of body parts from aborted babies.
And surveys have found that the American people support the continued funding of Planned Parenthood by about a 2 to 1 margin. After everything that we have seen, the vast majority of Americans still want to continue giving those butchers hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year.
We like to think that we are an “example” for the rest of the planet, but in reality the only example that we are is a bad one. Our guilt has been put on display for all the world to see, and yet we just continue to race toward even more evil.
Not only did the Republicans not defund Planned Parenthood, the truth is that not a single pro-life amendment of any sort even got into the bill thanks to Paul Ryan. The following comes from lifesitenews.com…
“The bill failed to include a single major pro-life policy rider, despite the requests of over 120 members of Congress and the disturbing revelations about Planned Parenthood brought to light this year,” said Congresswoman Diane Black, R-TN, who voted against the bill.
The House Freedom Caucus offered a series of amendments to the bill defunding Planned Parenthood, strengthening conscience protections for pro-life physicians and organizations, and ending all U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The House Rules Committee rejected these riders earlier this week, as Speaker Paul Ryan said he did not want conservative amendments added to the bill that would drive away his Democratic colleagues.
The committee also rejected an amendment to increase vetting of refugees who enter the United States from the terrorist hotbeds of Syria and Iraq, which had previously passed the House, with 47 Democrats adding strong bipartisan support.
Like I said, the Republicans completely capitulated, just like they always do.
Now the U.S. national debt is nearly double the size that it was just before the last financial crisis struck, and our leaders continue to borrow and spend as if there is no tomorrow.
Perhaps they have convinced themselves that there will never be any consequences for acting so foolishly.
Perhaps they believe that in the end everything will turn out okay somehow.
Perhaps they are able to rationalize the theft of more than a hundred million dollars an hour from future generations of Americans.
But nothing can erase what they have done to us. The promising future that our children and our grandchildren should have had has been completely wiped out, and the leading edge of the greatest economic crisis that any of us has ever known is now upon us.
If we had done things differently, things wouldn’t have had to turn out this way. But now the die is cast, and we are all going to pay a very high price for the mistakes that have been made in Washington.
Impression of King Hezekiah's Royal Seal Discovered in
Ophel Excavations South of Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Discovery brings to life the Biblical narratives about King Hezekiah and the activity conducted during his lifetime in Jerusalem's 1st Temple Period Royal Quarter
The Ophel excavations at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount, conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology under the direction of Dr. Eilat Mazar, have unearthed an impression of the royal seal of King Hezekiah (727-698 BCE).
The impression bears an inscription in ancient Hebrew script:
"לחזקיהו [בן] אחז מלך יהדה"
"Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of Judah"
CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES IN ISRAEL
Christmas in Israel offers pilgrims and visitors a very special and unique festive and spiritual experience, with the opportunity to spend Christmas in the ancient city of Jerusalem, to participate in Christmas festivities and Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and visit the many Christian sites in the Galilee as well as participate in the Holiday of Holidays Festival in Haifa.
During the holiday, the Ministry of Tourism will offer free transportation, helping pilgrims travelling between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Representatives from the Ministry of Tourism will welcome tourists and pilgrims at Rachel's Crossing with sweets in the spirit of the holiday.
ISRAEL SEES SHARP RISE IN TOURISTS FROM NORTH AMERICA
Statistical data compiling tourists visiting Israel from all over the world indicate a dramatic increase of travelers visiting from North America.
Over half a million North American visitors have been welcomed to Israel since January 2015, marking a 3% increase over the past two years.
EL AL AIRLINES ANNOUNCES LARGEST AIRCRAFT ACQUISITION IN HISTORY OF THE COMPANY
El Al Chairman David Maimon recently announced the largest aircraft acquisition program in the history of the company. EL AL will conduct exclusive negotiations with Boeing Corporation for the procurement of wide-body Dreamliner aircraft, which is expected to include the purchase and lease of 15 aircraft in the next five years. This move is expected to constitute a significant step forward in the optimization of the network of routes, passenger service and flight experience.
During the next five years, these aircraft will replace the 747-400 and 767 fleets and are designated to fly to medium and long haul destinations (New York, Boston, Toronto, Bangkok, Beijing, Mumbai, South Africa and more). These aircraft are considered the latest and most advanced in the aviation world and are considered highly efficient and economical in terms of fuel consumption, utilization and maintenance costs.
ISRAEL RECOGNIZED FOR BEST CITY, AIRLINE AND LEADING HOTELS BY CONDE NAST TRAVELER READERS
More than 128,000 ratings and comments were compiled to procure a list of winning favorites for the Conde Nast Travelers 28th Annual Readers Choice Awards. Israel was listed in 11 separate categories, winning mention with 6 out of the top 15 hotels in the Middle East located in Israel, including:
Top 15 Hotels in the Middle East
Includes the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem (#1), Mamilla Hotel (#6), King David Jerusalem (#8), Inbal Jerusalem Hotel (#12), Hilton Tel Aviv (#14) and David Citadel Hotel (#15)
Top 100 Hotels & Resorts in the World
Includes the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem (#7)
Top 5 Resorts in the Middle East
Includes Dan Eilat Red Sea Hotel (#3)
Best Cities in the World
Includes Jerusalem (#11)
Best International Airlines
Includes EL AL (#18)
The Best Hotels in the World
Includes the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem (#7)
The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, recognized in three categories in the awards, is the newest luxury hotel in downtown Jerusalem that joins the King David Hotel, the Mamilla Hotel, the Inbal Hotel and the David Citadel Hotel all in easy walking distance from the Old City of Jerusalem. All these hotels were also listed in the Readers' Awards.
SOUNDS OF THE OLD CITY MUSIC FEST TO BE HELD IN MARCH IN JERUSALEM
The fifth annual Sounds of the Old City Festival is scheduled to be held March 28-31, 2016, and is open to the general public free of charge.
The Festival offers us a glimpse into Jerusalem's Old City's musical traditions. Festival visitors can sample a rare offering of musical bands and ensembles scheduled to perform authentic music on central stages and in the streets of the Old City quarters. Each band and ensemble are scheduled to perform music unique to the quarter and area in which it performs, providing an exciting experience for visitors in the magical atmosphere of the Old City.
The Sounds of the Old City Festival is one of several festivals organized in the Old City for the general public to enjoy. The next festival following this event is the Lights in the Old City Festival from May 25 - June 2, 2016.
Screenshot from an ISIS video showing a young child beheading an ISIS prisoner.
ISRAEL RECOGNIZED FOR BEST CITY, AIRLINE AND LEADING HOTELS BY CONDE NAST TRAVELER READERS