Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Corporations Are Defaulting On Their Debts Like It’s 2008 All Over Again - Michael Snyder The Economic Collapse Blog

Corporate Debt Defaults - Public Domain

Corporations Are Defaulting On Their Debts Like It’s 2008 All Over Again

April 19, 2016  - Michael Snyder  The Economic Collapse Blog

The Dow closed above 18,000 on Monday for the first time since July.  Isn’t that great news?  I truly wish that it was.  If the Dow actually reflected economic reality, I could stop writing about “economic collapse” and start blogging about cats or football.  Unfortunately, the stock market and the economy are moving in two completely different directions right now.  Even as stock prices soar, big corporations are defaulting on their debts at a level that we have not seen since the last financial crisis.  In fact, this wave of debt defaults have become so dramatic that even USA Today is reporting on it
Get ready to step over some landmines, investors. The number of companies defaulting on their debt is hitting levels not seen since the financial crisis, and it’s not just a problem for bondholders.
So far this year, 46 companies have defaulted on their debt, the highest level since 2009, according to S&P Ratings Services. Five companies defaulted this week, based on the latest data available from S&P Ratings Services. That includes New Jersey-based specialty chemical company Vertellus Specialties and Ohio-based iron ore producer Cliffs Natural. Of the world’s defaults this year, 37 are of companies based in the U.S.
Meanwhile, coal producer Peabody Energy (BTU) and surfwear seller Pacific Sunwear (PSUN) this week filed plans for bankruptcy protection. Shares of Peabody have dropped 97% over the past year to $2 a share and Pacific Sunwear stock is off 98% to 4 cents a share.
A lot of big companies in this country have fallen on hard times, and it looks like bankruptcy attorneys are going to be absolutely swamped with work for the foreseeable future.

So why are stock prices soaring right now?  After all, it doesn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever.

And it isn’t just a few bad apples that we are talking about.  All across the spectrum, corporate revenues and corporate earnings are down.  At this point, earnings for companies on the S&P 500 have plunged a total of 18.5 percent from their peak in late 2014, and it is being projected that corporate earnings overall will be down 8.5 percent for the first quarter of 2016 compared to one year ago.

As earnings decline, a lot of big companies are getting into trouble with debt, and we have already seen a very large number of corporate debt downgrades.  In recent interviews, I have been bringing up the fact that the average rating on U.S. corporate debt has now fallen to “BB”, which is already lower than it was at any point during the last financial crisis.

A lot of people don’t seem to believe me when I share that fact, but it is absolutely true.
One of the big reasons why corporate debt is being downgraded is because a lot of these big companies have been going into enormous amounts of debt in order to buy back their own stock.  The following comes from Wolf Richter
Downgrades ascribed to “shareholder compensation,” as Moody’s calls share buybacks and dividends, have been soaring, according to John Lonski, Chief Economist at Moody’s Capital Markets Research. The moving 12-month sum of Moody’s credit rating downgrades of US companies, jumped from 32 in March 2015, to 48 in December 2015, and to 61 in March 2016, nearly doubling within a year.
The last time the number of downgrades attributed to financial engineering reached 61 was in early 2007. It would hit its peak of 79 in mid- 2007, a few months before the beginning of the Great Recession in Q4 2007. At the time, stocks were on the verge of commencing their epic crash.
When corporations go into the market and buy back their own stock, they are slowly cannibalizing themselves.  But we have seen these stock buybacks soar to record levels for a couple of reasons.  Number one, big investors want to see stock prices go up, and so big investors tend to really like these stock buybacks and will generally support corporate executives that wish to engage in doing this.  Number two, if you are a greedy corporate executive that is heavily compensated by stock options, you very much want to see the stock price go up as well.

So the name of the game is greed, and stock buybacks have been fueling much of the rise in U.S. stock prices that we have been seeing recently.

However, the truth is that nothing in the financial world lasts forever, and this irrational bubble will ultimately come to an end as well.

Earlier today, I am across an article that included a comment from Michael Hartnett of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  He believes that there are a lot of parallels between what is happening today and the period of time that immediately preceded the bursting of the dotcom bubble
Back then, as could be the case today, a bull market & a US-led economic recovery was rudely interrupted by a crisis in Emerging Markets. The crisis threatened to hurt Main Street via Wall Street (the Nasdaq fell 33% between Jul-Oct 1998, when [Long-Term Capital Management] went under). Policy makers panicked and monetary policy was eased (with hindsight unnecessarily). Fresh liquidity combined with apocalyptic investor sentiment very quickly morphed into a violent but narrow equity bull market/bubble in 1998/99, one which ultimately took valuations & interest rates sharply higher to levels that eventually caused a “pop”.
Like Hartnett, I definitely believe that a major “pop” is on the way, although I would like for it to be delayed for as long as possible.

Someday we will look back on these times with utter amazement.  It has been absolutely incredible how the financial markets have been able to defy economic reality for so long.
But they can’t do it forever, and according to a brand new CNN survey Americans are becoming increasingly pessimistic about where the real economy is heading…
In a new CNNMoney/E*Trade survey of Americans who have at least $10,000 in an online trading account, over half (52%) gave the U.S. economy as a “C” grade. Another 15% rated the economy a “D” or “F.”
This gloom persists despite the fact that the stock market is on the upswing again. The Dow topped 18,000 Monday for the first time since July 2015.
If some Americans think that the U.S. economy deserves a “D” or an “F” grade right now, just wait until they see what is in our immediate future.

Personally, I give our economy an “A” for being able to maintain our unsustainable debt-fueled standard of living for as long as it has.  Somehow we have managed to consume far more than we produce for decades, and the largest debt bubble in the history of the planet just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Of course we are very much living on borrowed time at this point, but I truly hope that the bubble economy can keep going for at least a little while longer, because nobody should want to see what is coming afterwards.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Monday, April 18, 2016

Now BDS Battle Is Moving to State Capitols - EITAN AROM/JNS.ORG CHARISMA NEWS

Israel Construction
The BDS Movement continues to build steam on college campuses, prompting pro-Israel groups to turn to statehouses to slow its advance. (Reuters photo)


Now BDS Battle Is Moving to State Capitols

Close observers of the anti-Israel Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement have long kept a weather eye on California. But that attention has mostly focused on university campuses, including the prominent 10-school University of California system.
Now, the Golden State is the latest battleground in a nationwide effort to draft and pass anti-BDS laws in U.S. state capitols, and pro-Israel advocates hope that success on the state-government level will curb the boycott movement's momentum on campus. At a Los Angeles conference on fighting BDS that was hosted earlier this month by the pro-Israel education group StandWithUs, California Assemblyman Travis Allen had a message for the movement's proponents: "Boycotting a trade partner of ours doesn't make sense."
A Republican from Huntington Beach, Allen has styled himself as an early adopter of a trend now sweeping state legislatures to bar companies that boycott Israel from contracting with state governments. That trend inspired not one, but two bills that have been introduced in the California Assembly since January, the first by Allen and another by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat. 
Allen has since become a co-author of Bloom's bill—which, unlike Allen's similar measure, enjoys the support of the California Jewish Legislative Caucus. Bloom's measure, Assembly Bill (AB) 2844, won approval on April 12 from the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, the first of two legislative committees set to review it.
"I am very pleased that others have now joined in support of the effort, and it looks like we will now get a substantive law that will affirmatively state that California won't support the boycott of Israel," Allen said in an interview.
The bill was not without its opponents. Cristina Garcia, a Democrat from southeastern Los Angeles County who chairs the accountability committee, recommended rejecting the measure. But the support of the committee's three Republicans put the bill over the top, and it passed in a 5-1vote, with three Democrats abstaining.
"With unanimous Republican support, I am extremely confident that the current efforts to pass AB 2844 will be successful," Allen said.
Allen has touted the wide and diverse support for legislative efforts to combat BDS, including from members of Congress and Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. As calls to alienate Israel or its government have grown louder, anti-boycott activists have looked to state capitols to provide businesses with the political cover to reject those calls.
In addition to the state contractor bill, Allen authored another piece of legislation that would prevent state pension funds—worth hundreds of billions of dollars—from investing in companies that boycott Israel. 
If California passes any of the bills, it would become the eighth U.S. state to formally legislate against BDS, according to Peggy Shapiro, the Midwest director for StandWithUs. So far, Illinois, South Carolina, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Arizona, and Florida have passed such laws, she said. Florida and Arizona have passed laws applying both to contractors and state pension funds, while the other states have done one or the other.
State legislation has become an increasingly important part of the anti-BDS arsenal, Shapiro said. StandWithUs has found "smart, willing, cooperative partners" in state capitols, working "hand in glove, reaching out to legislators, educating them about the destructive goals of BDS," she said.
Pro-Israel groups started advocating for such legislation after the European Union (EU) began discussing labeling laws for products from Judea and Samaria. Last November, the EU decided to make such labels mandatory for some goods, removing their "Made in Israel" labels.
The increasing popularity of legislative tactics to fight BDS has corresponded with a somewhat disappointing year for campus advocates of Israeli government policy, as student resolutions seen as unfavorable have passed at an increasing number of schools.
In the past, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB), a group dedicated to protecting Jewish civil and human rights, was able to keep a list of campuses where pro-BDS resolutions were likely to crop up.
"We're now at the point where, sad to say, the BDS movement has saturated the country to the extent that it is no longer so predictable—you can no longer focus on a discrete number of campuses," LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus said at the StandWithUs conference.
Part of the idea behind moving the battleground to state legislatures is to find more favorable turf for the anti-BDS message, said pro-Israel activist Noah Pollak, executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, who has supported the nationwide legislative effort.
"You don't want to fight on your enemy's terrain," Pollak said, speaking alongside Assemblyman Allen at the conference. The "enemy," he said, "picked out campuses for a reason."
Victories in state legislatures could subsequently spread to college campuses, said Pollak.
According to Pollak, legislating against BDS tells its proponents, "While you were doing your campus antics, the grown-ups were in the state legislatures passing laws that make your cause improbable." The laws are meant to dent the morale of BDS advocates, who enjoy a number of advantages on campus, he said.
Among those advantages, the Palestinian narrative of Israeli "oppression" and "racism" holds a certain intrinsic pull for some minority communities, allowing groups like Students for Justice in Palestine to build diverse coalitions around their cause.
Roz Rothstein, the CEO of StandWithUs, admitted that when it comes to building diverse coalitions, "we're very bad at that."
"The other side is doing it to a fault—that's all they do," she said.
According to Estee Chandler, the founder of the Los Angeles chapter of the pro-BDS organization Jewish Voice for Peace, the anti-BDS bills are unconstitutional and part of a sustained effort to shield Israel from being held accountable for decades of "occupation" and "human rights abuses." She calls the bills a "misleading attempt to squelch the BDS movement, which has only grown exponentially in spite of years of efforts to oppose it both on and off of college and university campuses."
Chagrined by the state of play among student governments, some in the anti-BDS camp are hoping one group of allies—state legislators—will make the diverse coalition on the other side obsolete.
Besides, the bills have the advantage of putting Jewish organizations in a position where they don't normally find themselves: on the offensive.
"We're always on the defensive; we're always responding to pro-BDS activists," said Jacob Millner, a senior analyst at The Israel Project, a non-partisan policy and education group. "This is something we can do where we can be proactive."
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Israelis and Evangelicals Allying to Defeat BDS - By Tuly Weisz BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

Israel rally organized by the Israeli-American Council (Photo: Adam Milstein's Facebook)
Israel rally organized by the Israeli-American Council (Photo: Adam Milstein’s Facebook)

Israelis and Evangelicals Allying to Defeat BDS

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her triumph go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a torch that burneth.” Isaiah 62:1 (The Israel Bible™)
There are nearly one million Israelis living in the United States forming roughly one third of the entire pro-Israel Jewish camp. However, Adam Milstein, chairman of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), hopes to have an even larger voice in support of Israel, by connecting Israelis living in America with Evangelical Christian Zionists.
Sitting down with Breaking Israel News, Milstein explained that the IAC sees the Evangelical community as natural allies in the fight for Israel. “We share the same values, the same beliefs and share a common enemy.”
While the American Jewish establishment has been slow in accepting the friendship and support of the Christian Zionist community, Milstein sees the IAC differently: “Israelis are more pragmatic”.
Adam Milstein speaking at an Israeli-American Council event. (Photo: Adam Milstein Facebook)
Adam Milstein speaking at an Israeli-American Council event. (Photo: Adam Milstein Facebook)
The real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist is one of the leading voices in the fight against BDS through his prolific presence on Social Media. Milstein was named one of the 25 most influential people on ‘Jewish Twitter’ and writes a regular column for the Huffington Post.
“I look at BDS as a movement to eradicate the State of Israel. It’s not about the economy. They want to destroy us,” Milstein told Breaking Israel News.
However, Milstein’s warning about BDS takes the argument a step further. He has used his platform on social media to call out notorious leaders of BDS for not only their anti-Semitic vitriol, but their animosity towards America.
NO to BDS and YES to Israel!
“BDS leaders hate America’s leadership role around the world,” Milstein wrote in the Huffington Post, quoting Purdue University professor Bill Mullen, who said, “We can build a still-stronger BDS movement beginning in the name of Palestinian freedom and ending in a permanent blow against American empire.”
Milstein warned, “BDS leaders hate America’s democracy – and have even called for violent attacks to overturn our democratic system.” He cited Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian, the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine who incited a San Francisco rally, who said, “Are you angry? Well, we’ve been watching intifada in Palestine, we’ve been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don’t have an intifada (armed struggle) in this country…and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here…They’re going to say [that] some Palestinians are being too radical; well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”
For these reasons, it’s a mistake to see BDS as a Jewish problem, claims Milstein.
Adam Milstein (standing, right) along with Sheldon Adelson (seated, right) and Chaim Saban (seated, left) in Las Vegas at the Campus Maccabee Summit in June 2015. (Adam Milstein Facebook)
Adam Milstein (standing, right) along with Sheldon Adelson (seated, right) and Chaim Saban (seated, left) in Las Vegas at the Campus Maccabee Summit in June 2015. (Adam Milstein Facebook)
Of late, Milstein has expanded his network from the influential Jewish mega donors such as Sheldon Adelson and Chaim Saban, with whom he co-founded the Campus Maccabees in June 2015.
For his most recent article, Milstein joined forces with Pastor Carlos Ortiz and co-authored “A Common Fight: Why Christians and Jews are Coming Together to Defeat Hate and Intolerance”.
In the article, the Israeli-American Jew and the Hispanic Pastor warn, “We must not be fooled: BDS was born from a radical Islamic ideology in the Middle East that not only hates Judaism, but also Christianity and America.”

Hebrew Music Monday ✡ "You Have Done Wondrous Miracles" - ISRAEL365

In the middle of the night,
You have done wondrous miracles.

Passover Haggadah
 

וּבְכֵן וַיְהִי בַּחֲצִי הַלַּיְלָה אָז רוֹב נִסִּים הִפְלֵאתָ

הגדה של פסח

u-v'-khayn va-y'-hee ba-kha-tzee ha-lai-la az rov ni-seem hif-lay-ta

Today's Israel Inspiration

The Seder includes a number of songs praising God for His presence in our lives as a people and as individuals. Today’s passage is from a song that recounts the great miracles that God performed for us throughout history in the middle of the night. It alludes to a message of hope that the "dawn" of redemption will follow the "night" and darkness of exile."Geula" is a beautiful feminine Hebrew name that means "redemption." Learn the meaning of your Hebrew name and proudly wear it on gold and silver jewelry from Israel.
 

Hebrew Music Monday: "Midnight Escape"

Watch, listen to and sing along with Israeli musician Yehuda Katz who recorded an incredible song based on today's verse.
 

Who is Hurt By Missionizing? You Might Be Surprised

A new era of relations between Jews and Christians is just beginning, but an unexpected obstacle has arisen. Christians coming to investigate their Jewish roots are facing pressure to leave their Messianic beliefs behind.

Torah Codes End to Darkness DVD

The Torah Codes End to Darkness DVD demonstrates through first hand interviews and advanced computer technology that Biblical codes are mathematically provable. 2000 hidden codes have already been discovered!
 

Today's Israel Photo

Evening in the modern city of Jaffa, once an ancient port city in the times of Jonah the prophet. Jaffa port was also the main entry point into Israel until the late 19th century, for Jews from around the world returning to the Land.
 

Thank You

Please help us continue to spread the beauty and significance of the Land of Israel!
 

“Thank You So Much for Israel365”

It’s great to hear from so many of you - stay in touch and let us know where in the world you are enjoying Israel365!
 
Thank you so much for ISRAEL365. I enjoy reading the prayers. Shalom from Paris, France. AM ISRAEL CHAI- Jeannine Zimner

Thank you for the website and the wonderful photos of Yerushalyim. I am hoping to make aliyah in the future and seeing these photos make me want to get there even sooner. Fred Yehia, Vancouver CANADA
Shalom,
Rabbi Tuly Weisz
RabbiTuly@Israel365.com
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Fallen Angels, Giants and the Nephilim (Day 1) - Dr. Dennis Lindsay & Tom Horn on The Jim Bakker Show


Watch here: Fallen Angels, Giants and the Nephilim (Day 1) - The Jim Bakker Show

Jim & Lori Bakker





Doctor Dennis Lindsay, Ginger Lindsay, Tom Horn

Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 2975 | Aired on April 14, 2016

Deuteronomy, Genesis, James, Joshua, Luke, Matthew

Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios

Joel C. Rosenberg: Lynn and I were invited to Jordan to meet King Abdullah II. Here’s a report on our trip and the threat ISIS poses to Jordan.

Jordan-HMK-militaryuniform

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

In March, Lynn and I were invited to Jordan to meet King Abdullah II. Here’s a report on our trip and the threat ISIS poses to Jordan.

by joelcrosenberg
Last month, Lynn and I were blessed with the tremendous honor of spending several days in Jordan to meet with King Abdullah II. Our visit included tours of various military bases and the Zaatari refugee camp, briefings from senior military officials, and an up-close look at how His Majesty is dealing with the Syrian civil war, a tidal wave of refugees, and the growing threat of the Islamic State. We were deeply grateful for the opportunity and came away even more impressed with the king's leadership than when we arrived. But we also saw how urgently Jordan needs more help from the West and the Arab world -- before it's too late.
This morning, The Jerusalem Post published an op-ed I wrote on my observations from the visit. Here it is in full. Please feel free to share it with others, and please keep the king, his family, and the people of Jordan in your regular, faithful prayers. Thanks.
A first-hand look at how the West’s most faithful Sunni Arab ally is confronting Islamic State.
By Joel C. Rosenberg, The Jerusalem PostApril 18, 2016
It isn’t often a novelist with dual US-Israeli citizenship has the opportunity to meet a Sunni Arab monarch, but last month I had the honor of spending time with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. It was absolutely fascinating to spend time with a moderate Muslim leader so deeply committed to defeating Islamic State (ISIS) and the forces of violent jihad.
The king invited my wife and me on a five-day visit to the Hashemite Kingdom after reading my latest political thriller, The First Hostage. The novel focuses on a plot by ISIS leaders to launch catastrophic chemical weapons attacks against the US, Israel and Jordan, target the king and seize Jordan to become part of its caliphate.
Upon arriving in Amman, my wife and I had a private luncheon with Abdullah at the National Crisis Center, a high-tech war room reminiscent of Jack Bauer’s fictional Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) headquarters in the TV series 24. From there, the king invited us to join him at a live-fire military exercise of Jordanian air and ground forces near Zarqa.
The trip included visits to several Jordanian military bases – including one just a few miles from the Syrian border, and the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center – and briefings from various generals and military officials. It also included a tour of the Zaatari Refugee Camp, home of some 80,000 Syrians who have fled from the Assad regime, ISIS and a seemingly never-ending civil war. One of the most special elements of the trip was a two-and-a-half-hour private dinner with the king and several friends at Beit al-Urdon, his personal palace.
After getting a first-hand look at the king and his national security team, I came away with three observations.
First, Jordan’s king is sitting on a volcano, nearly surrounded by a raging forest fire, bracing for a massive earthquake.
To his north, Syria is imploding. To his east, Iraq has been massively destabilized.
Some 1.3 million refugees have poured into Jordan from Syria alone, and more are coming every day, putting enormous pressure on Jordan’s struggling economy.
ISIS leaders have publicly vowed to invade Jordan, “slaughter” the king, whom they denounce as an “ally of the Crusaders,” and raise their black flags over Amman. So far, some 3,000 Jordanians have joined ISIS, including the son of a Jordanian member of Parliament.
“This is a message to the tyrant of Jordan,” the young man declared in a video he released just before going on a suicide bombing mission in Iraq. “Know, O Abdullah, son of Hussein, that you are an apostate....
Even if you manage to escape our punishment, you will not manage to escape Allah’s punishment.”
A poll released in 2015 found that 74 percent of Americans fear a major ISIS attack inside the US, and 73% fear a major ISIS attack in Israel. But nearly two-in-three Americans (65%) also fear ISIS “will try to overthrow the King of Jordan – an important, moderate Arab ally of the United States – and use Jordan as a base camp to launch terrorist attacks against America and Israel.”
I pray such scenarios never come to pass. But the threat is real and growing.
Second, King Abdullah was born for this moment.
As a 43rd-generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, the 54-year-old monarch has real credibility with his people when it comes to countering the radical and apocalyptic theological narratives espoused by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and other ISIS leaders. His majesty not only strenuously opposes the ISIS claim that Muslims are required to engage in violent jihad – and even genocide – to re-establish the caliphate and bring about the End of Days, he is also one of the Islamic world’s leading reformers, working with clerics and scholars throughout Jordan and the region to define and advance a moderate, tolerant, peaceful vision of Islam.
What’s more, as a career soldier trained at the best British military schools, and a natural leader who rose through the ranks to become the commander of Jordan’s Special Operations forces prior to ascending to the throne, the king is uniquely qualified to protect his people from the ISIS threat. He regularly meets with – and occasionally even trains with – his special forces commanders and units, and is directly involved in operations against extremists in Jordan and in the tactical leadership of Jordan’s efforts against ISIS in Syria.
At his direction, Jordanian commandos, General Intelligence Directorate operatives and elite police units are taking down an ISIS or related cell inside Jordan every week. As a result of excellent intelligence and security work, Jordan hasn’t had a major terrorist attack inside its borders since 2005, certainly nothing like the recent jihadist attacks in Brussels, Paris, Istanbul, San Bernardino and elsewhere. This is directly attributable to the king’s impressive leadership at home, as well as his close working relationship with Israeli, Egyptian, Saudi and Gulf security and intelligence forces.
Third, the king is ready, willing and able to be even more actively engaged in the fight against ISIS, and to continue caring for so many Muslim and Christian refugees, but he needs more US and international assistance to do this effectively.
One example: Jordan currently has eight Blackhawk military helicopters, which it recently received from the US in early March, and for which it is very grateful. However, to conduct effective missions against ISIS jihadists in Iraq and Syria, Jordanian forces need at least 12 Blackhawks. Another eight Blackhawks have been promised by the US, but they aren’t expected to be delivered until the end of 2017. Why? Shouldn’t Washington immediately provide its most faithful Sunni Arab ally with as many military helicopters as it needs to wage war on ISIS? At the same time, while the international community has pledged billions in financial aid to help Jordan shoulder the enormous refugee burden, it is not delivering on its promises.
In 2014, only 28% of the promised aid was delivered. In 2015, the number was only 35%.
In this regard the US is doing far better than others. In 2012, the US gave Jordan $460 million in foreign aid.
This year, Congress and the Obama administration will provide $1 billion in aid. But why isn’t President Obama pressing other countries to do more? Neither the Europeans nor wealthy Arab nations want millions of Syrian refugees living in their countries.
Nor can they afford to see a moderate country like Jordan destabilized. They need to step up, now.
I was already intrigued with Jordan’s warrior king before I met him. That’s why I made him a central character in both of my recent novels about ISIS. But spending personal time with him and his generals, and seeing the extraordinary lengths to which the king is going to defeat the forces of Islamic extremism, deeply impressed me.
King Abdullah II is, without question, the West’s most faithful Sunni Arab ally. But as he engages in a hot war against a genocidal enemy he needs far more help from the US and the international community – and he needs it now. Let’s give him what he needs, before it’s too late.

The author is a New York Times best-selling author. He has written two novels about the threat of Islamic State, The Third Target (published in January 2015) and The First Hostage (published in December 2016). He can be reached atwww.joelrosenberg.com.
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joelcrosenberg | April 18, 2016 at 7:23 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/piWZ7-4xr

Dozens Of Large Earthquakes Strike As Speculation Mounts That Japan’s Southern Island May Split - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Kyushu Earthquakes

Posted: 17 Apr 2016  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Over the past 48 hours, our planet has been hit by literally dozens of earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater, and scientists are acknowledging that what is taking place is highly unusual.  This strange shaking began toward the end of last week when the globe was struck by five major earthquakes over the space of just two days, and over the weekend the seismic activity just continued to escalate.  

Very early on Saturday, Japan’s southern island of Kyushu was hit by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake, and on Saturday night a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off Ecuador’s Pacific coast.  It was the worst earthquake that Ecuador had experienced since 1979, and it was followed by at least 163 aftershocks.  Unfortunately, there are indications that what we have seen so far may be just the beginning.

Because the Ecuador earthquake was bigger, it is getting most of the headlines at the moment, but the truth is that what is going on in Japan is potentially far more dangerous.
Over the past week, Japan’s southern Island of Kyushu has been rocked by a series of devastating quakes, including two major ones in less than 48 hours.  The following comes from the Guardian
A second major earthquake in less than two days has shaken Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, with at least 34 people thought to have been killed, about 1,500 injured and more feared buried after building collapses and landslides.
The 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck at about 1.30am on Saturday, waking people across the island – including the thousands already in crisis centres. It caused widespread damage, with several landslides and a village evacuated over fears a dam might burst.
The mainstream media in the United States is using the term “landslides” to describe what has happened all over Kyushu, but the truth is that in many instances it would be far more accurate to say that “giant cracks” or “vast chasms” have formed.  The geography of Japan’s southern island has been fundamentally transformed, and this is beginning to cause huge concerns.  Here is more from the Guardian
One major landslide tore open a mountainside in Minamiaso village in Kumamoto prefecture, destroying a key bridge that could cut off food and other relief transport to the worst-hit area.
Another landslide hit a road, collapsing a house that fell down a ravine. In another part of the village, houses were left hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole.
I want to show you a map which comes directly from the U.S. Geological Survey.  This map shows all of the earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater that have hit Japan’s southern island over the past week.  As you look at this map, do you see a pattern?…

Kyushu Earthquakes

The dozens of earthquakes that have hit Japan’s southern island over the past week appear to form something of a straight line that divides the island in two.  Many are now speculating that geological forces are beginning to tear Kyushu in half, and if that is true, the earthquake activity that we have seen in Japan so far is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

We could potentially be talking about an event that could ultimately have far more of an impact on Japan than the tsunami of 2011.  By the time it is all said and done, entire cities could be wiped off the map and millions upon millions of Japanese citizens could be displaced.

Already, the seismic activity that has rocked Kyushu is having quite an impact on the Japanese economy
Earlier today Toyota was one of many Japanese companies to announce that it will suspend most car production across Japan as a result of critical supply chain disruptions caused by the recent destructive earthquake and numerous aftershocks. All of the major assembly lines will be shut down across its four directly-run plants, and Toyota will be halting production in stages at other group companies as well.
According to the Nikkei Asian Review, most of the Toyota group in Japan will be effectively shut down through at least the end of this upcoming week, with a production loss of as many as 50,000 vehicles, including brands such as Prius, Lexus, and Land Cruiser.
Our planet resembles something of a giant cracked egg, and the enormous tectonic plates that we are all living on are constantly in motion.  So if Japan’s southern island is in the process of slowly splitting in half, that shouldn’t exactly be a surprise.  After all, scientists assure us that Los Angeles and San Francisco will be directly next to one another someday.
And it isn’t just Japan that we need to be concerned about.  All along the “Ring of Fire”, seismic activity is increasing, and this has many of the experts completely puzzled.  The following comes from an excellent piece by Alvin Conway
This has continued to baffle many of the world’s leading geologists, who still attest the rise in the number of large earthquakes is merely a random natural occurrence. For instance, the number of large earthquakes doubled in 2014. However, here’s what scientists had to say about it: “If you think there have been more earthquakes than usual this year, you’re right. A new study finds there were more than twice as many big earthquakes in the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the average since 1979.
We have recently experienced a period that has had one of the highest rates of great earthquakes ever recorded,” said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, California.
If you are familiar with my work, then you already know that I believe that we have entered a period of time during which we will see seismic activity on a scale that none of us have ever experienced before.

This great shaking will combine with other factors such as financial collapse, geopolitical instability and civil unrest to produce what many have described as a “perfect storm”.  Life as we know it is in the process of fundamentally changing, and right now we are only in the very early chapters of this change.

Unfortunately, most people are ignoring the warnings and will continue to ignore them until it is far too late.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*