Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Thousands More Stores are on the 2018 Retail Apocalypse Death List
Mar 7th, 2018
CommentaryDAISY LUTHER/ORGANIC PREPPER
Categories: Contemporary Issues

Every year, it seems like more and more retail outlets are going out of business, resulting in the loss of jobs and local supplies. 

Last year, hundreds of stores closed, and this year, even more shops are scheduled to shut their doors for good.

The 2018 Death List

This year, in an effort to save their businesses, the following retailers will close hundreds of their stores, according to Fox Business.

- Abercrombie & Fitch: 60 more stores are charted to close

- Aerosoles: Only 4 of their 88 stores are definitely remaining open

- American Apparel: They’ve filed for bankruptcy and all their stores have closed (or will soon)

- BCBG: 118 stores have closed

- Bebe: Bebe is history and all 168 stores have closed

- Bon-Ton: They’ve filed for Chapter 11 and will be closing 48 stores.

- The Children’s Place: They plan to close hundreds of stores by 2020 and are going digital.

- CVS: They closed 70 stores but thousands still remain viable.

- Foot Locker: They’re closing 110 underperforming stores shortly.

- Guess: 60 stores will bite the dust this year.

- Gymboree: A whopping 350 stores will close their doors for good this year

- HHGregg: All 220 stores will be closed this year after the company filed for bankruptcy.

- J. Crew: They’ll be closing 50 stores instead of the original 20 they had announced.

- J.C. Penney: They’ve closed 138 stores and plan to turn all the remaining ones into toy stores.

- The Limited: All 250 retail locations have been closed and they’ve gone digital in an effort to remain in business.

- Macy’s: 7 more stores will soon close and more than 5000 employees will be laid off.

- Michael Kors: They’ll close 125 stores this year.

- Payless: They’ll be closing a whopping 800 stores this year after recently filing for bankruptcy.

- Radio Shack: More than 1000 stores have been shut down this year, leaving them with only 70 stores nationwide.

- Rue 21: They’ll be closing 400 stores this year.

- Sears/Kmart: They’ve closed over 300 locations.

- ToysRUs: They’ve filed for bankruptcy but at this point, have not announced store closures, and have in fact, stated their stores will remain open.

- Wet Seal: This place is history – all 171 stores will soon be closed.

And these are just the people who have announced store closures so far. In an environment hostile to brick and mortar businesses, more are sure to come.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost.

Even if you don’t like to shop, this is a sign of economic trouble. The malls that sit empty are a sign of massive unemployment.

Jobs in the retail sector are the most prolific in America, employing 4.3 million workers as salespeople and 3.3 million workers as cashiers. The current store closures mean the end of employment for tens of thousands of workers.

All in all, the collapse of the retail industry could, at some point, put the livelihoods of more than 7 million people in jeopardy. Perhaps the doomsaying economists like Peter Schiff and Dave Kunstler are right when they warn that a Great Depression the likes of the one in the early 1900s is upon us. 

That means not only massive unemployment but also massive hyperinflation, making it nearly impossible to stay fed.

Let’s add to rising retail unemployment the move to more self-checkout, more AI, and more computerized systems instead of human staff. It’s not too hard to understand why people could soon be dependent on a Universal Basic Income and a return to an almost feudal society.

A Great Depression now would be far worse than the historic one we all look back on.

And if that’s the case, it’s bound to be even worse. Back in 2006, our urban population exceeded our rural population for the first time ever. This means that people will be unlikely to have the space to grow food for self-reliance.

As well, we’ve gotten so far away from the skills of self-reliance that it’s practically a lost art. Our society is one of consumers, not producers, and this means that in a depressed economy, many more people will be at the mercy of government handouts. And let’s face it, in a depression, those handouts, if they happen at all, will be very sparse.

These days, most folks don’t know how to grow food, preserve food, sew, or build. 

Is the retail apocalypse a sign of impending financial doom or merely a move toward a more digital society? 

The Power of Influence - Teacher Planned to Raise Army of Jihadi Children
Mar 7th, 2018
CommentaryCLARION PROJECT
Categories: Contemporary Issues

A teacher in Islamic schools in the UK was radicalizing his students, preparing them to assist him in massive terror attacks on 30 targets across London.

Umar Haque, 25, planned to raise an "army" of jihadi children, The Telegraph reported.

Haque was employed at two schools and a mosque in East London. "And he tried -- and he did, we believe -- radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14," said Commander Dean Hayden, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

"His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London."

Haque had access to 250 children, 100 of whom he tried to radicalize by showing them extremist videos, which included beheadings. The children were told that they would meet a similar fate if they told anyone about what they were being taught.

Haque planned to prepare the children for martyrdom when they were older. He planned to teach them how to drive, presumably to carry out vehicular suicide operations at iconic sites in London like Big Ben and Heathrow Airport.

No one reported his activities. When police tried to investigate, they were met with a "wall of silence" from the schools, said Hayden, which has made the investigation all the more difficult.

The children, for their part "were paralyzed with fear ... He threatened them that if they were to talk to teachers, parents or to allude to anybody outside of that classroom of what was going on, that they would meet a similar fate. It doesn't appear that any of those children raised the alarm bell of what was going on."

One child spoke to the police. On a video of his testimony, the child said, "He is teaching us terrorism, like how to fight," he said. "If you fight for the sake of Allah, on Judgment Day, when you get judged for your good deeds and bad deeds, fighting is good.

"He wants a group of 300 men. He's training us now so by the time I'm in Year 10 [age 15] we will be physically strong enough to fight."

One of the schools Haque worked at, the Lantern of Knowledge Secondary School, received excellent reports from Ofsted, the governmental agency that regulates educational institutions in the UK. Inspectors reported that the school exhibited a "strong sense of community, harmony and respect."

Authorities originally became suspicious of Haque in April 2016 when he was stopped at Heathrow trying to board a plane to Turkey. At this point, his passport was taken away, but he still continued working at the Lantern of Knowledge school until the following September. 

On January 24, 2017, he was caught driving without insurance. It was at this point that police started digging deeper into his activities.

Thirty-five children are now under care of long-term support from social services under programs that involve the police, local authorities and the Home Office.

Let the Headlines Speak
Mar 7th, 2018
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

To every lying member of the media
To every lying member of the media, to every Hollywood phony, to the role model athletes who use their free speech to alter and undermine what our flag represents…Your Time is running out. The clock starts now.” (video)

Will the dead rise as robotic clones?
Scientists in Sweden are attempting to make digital copies of the mind files of dead people to permit communication between the dead and living using artificial intelligence through robotics.

Deafening SILENCE: Not one EU bigwig speaks as Italy issues DEVASTATING result to Brussels
THE European Union’s Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker remained damningly silent over the Italian election result today which showed a nation’s contempt for the Brussels project.

IEA report: U.S. to lead world in oil output by 2023
The United States will be the largest oil producer in the world by 2023, the International Energy Agency report said on Monday. Oil 2018, the intragovernmental organization’s five-year market analysis and forecast was released in Paris Monday.

Oakland mayor to pay for tipping off illegals?
“It’s extremely serious,” Cadman insisted. “And, yes, she did put the federal agents at risk because by notifying aliens – and if some of those aliens were serious criminals or were violent, then there is always the possibility that instead of fleeing, they could resolve to have a running gun battle. And it was irresponsible of her in the extreme to do what she did.”

“Bigger Than Watergate” – Trump Slams Obama Admin’s “Unprecedented” Actions
Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November? Wanted to discredit so Crooked H would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate! Plus, Obama did NOTHING about Russian meddling.

With UN Exhibit, Israel Shows ‘3,000 Years of History Cannot be Denied’
The exhibit—a joint effort by the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, and the Israeli Mission to the United Nations—follows a series of resolutions passed by the international governing body denying Jewish ties to the city. Ambassadors, diplomats and senior U.N. officials have all been invited to view the exhibit, which presents authentic archaeological findings unearthed in Israel alongside replicas of other historical items that serve to illustrate the connection between the Jewish people and Israel’s capital.

House bill would codify U.S.-Israel MOU into law
Bipartisan bill would codify into law a 2016 memorandum of understanding guaranteeing Israel $38 billion in defense assistance. The bill was authored by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the chairwoman of the Middle East subcommittee, and Ted Deutch (D-FL), its ranking Democrat. Their senior positions in their respective House caucuses means the bill has a high chance of passage

3/5/18 Pizzagate Update
Kevin Halligen, the DC-based private investigator that linked John and Tony Podesta to three-year-old (now 14) Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007, was found dead in a pool of blood in his Surrey, England, mansion.

Increasing readiness, IDF extends training period for combat soldiers
For the first time since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, the IDF will be increasing the length of training for combat soldiers from 13 to 17 consecutive weeks. “We need to look ahead and be ready,” said Brig.- Gen. Oded Basiok, the commander of the 162nd Division whose Givati and Nahal Brigade troops have been the first to start training under the new program implemented last week.

U.N. obstructs Israeli-Palestinian peace, US Ambassador Haley says
The United Nations discourages peace between Israelis and Palestinians by perpetuating an “illusion” that the existence of the Jewish state has caused the region’s conflicts, Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, said on Monday. Speaking before the American Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference in Washington, Haley told the crowd that Israel “is not going away.” Realization of that at the UN is the key to ending Israel’s isolation there.

Peace ‘requires compromise,’ Pence says at AIPAC
A comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians will require compromise from both sides, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday night. Speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference— which he called the most “influential” Israel lobby in Washington— Pence said that administration officials were working to prepare Trump’s peace plan.

Kim Jong-un to meet S Korea leader at April summit
The leaders of North and South Korea are due to meet at a summit of the two countries next month, Seoul’s envoy has said after a rare trip to Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also said he was willing to talk to the US about getting rid of nuclear weapons, he said. There have been previous programmes to freeze nuclear weapons, but the North has failed to keep to its commitments.

Russian spy: Sergei Skripal collapsed alongside daughter
The woman found slumped on a shopping centre bench alongside a former Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain is his daughter, it has emerged. Yulia Skripal, in her 30s, and father Sergei, 66, are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Sunday. UK police are trying to find out what “unknown substance” harmed the pair.

The tyranny of algorithms is part of our lives: soon they could rate everything we do
For the past couple of years a big story about the future of China has been the focus of both fascination and horror. It is all about what the authorities in Beijing call “social credit”, and the kind of surveillance that is now within governments’ grasp… According to the documents, what is being developed will “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step”.

Democrats Have Direct Ties To Farrakhan
At least seven House Democrats are known to have direct ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite and racist who has called Jews “satanic” and said white people “deserve to die.”

Red Alert! Japan Preparing for War with China
The Japanese military only accounts for 1% of the country’s GDP. However, Japan is moving into war mode. Who are they preparing for? The answer is simple, they are preparing to fight China. Japan has taken the unprecedented move, in the modern era, of putting missile batteries  on the Island of Okinawa to counter a potential Chinese threat. The entire storyis contained in the following video.

Facebook Survey: ‘Should We Allow Men to Ask Children for Sexual Photos’
Facebook has apologized for a recent user survey which asked if pedophiles should be allowed to request sexual images from children on the social media platform.

Huge Waves Slam Into Puerto Rico, Force Evacuations
Waves nearly 30 feet (9 meters) high from a U.S. winter storm slammed into Puerto Rico on Monday, forcing authorities to evacuate dozens of families and close roads and schools across the U.S. territory.

FASCISM IN ACTION: Here is the Tech Giant Purge List of Prominent Conservative Websites
Tech Giants Google and Facebook are currently purging conservative content from Facebook and YouTube — They are hiding conservative stories on Google — They are shadow-banning conservative news on all social media.

Islamic Teacher Brainwashes Students To Launch Massive Terror Attacks In London
A British supporter of Islamic State was found guilty on Friday of trying to recruit children he was teaching into an“army” of jihadists to help carry out a wave of attacks across London.

Papua New Guinea earthquake: Island declares state of emergency after landslides kill 31 and bury whole towns
Papua New Guinea has declared a state of emergency across its remote and rugged highlands, after a deadly earthquake flattened provincial towns and buried hamlets under landslides, killing at least 31 people.

Saying ‘God Bless You’ When Someone Sneezes is Islamophobic, According to Librarians at a Massachusetts College
In the latest absurd news to come from liberal college campuses, a group of librarians at Simmons College in Boston have declared that saying “God bless you” when someone sneezes is Islamophobic.

Dick’s Now Purging Pro-Gun, Patriotic Merchandise
Dick’s Sporting Goods is moving beyond banning the sale of ‘assault rifles,’ ordering stores to purge items promoting the Second Amendment, patriotism and gun culture as well, according to employees.

Lawsuit claims 100,000 non-citizens illegally registered to vote in PA
More than 100,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in Pennsylvania alone, according to testimony submitted Monday in a lawsuit demanding the state come clean about the extent of its problems.

South Africa is running out of water, yet they rejected Israel’s help with their catastrophic problem because they hate the Jewish State
Water consumption is calculated daily in Capetown, as they are living in dire drought mode since their reservoir system has officially dried up. After three years of no rain, the country is on the verge of a water system shutdown, which would require residents to individually line up at town hall in order to receive their rationed water portion of 25 liters per day.

What Do You Think Would Have Happened To America If Hillary Clinton Had Won The Election?
As I travel up and down Idaho’s first congressional district, I frequently talk with voters about how we almost lost everything in November 2016.  When I ask what a Hillary Clinton presidency would have meant for this country, almost every single time I get a response like “it would have been over” or “we would have been finished”.

Just Like Vegas, Authorities are Hiding the Surveillance Footage of Parkland Shooting
In the weeks since the tragic shooting occurred in Parkland, Florida, we have learned that cops cowered outside instead of helping, the police and FBI were all warned on multiple occasions that the alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, told people he was going to shoot up the school, nearly two dozen people reported Cruz for death threats  and first responders were told to stand down. Now, we are finding out that the surveillance footage from the school — which the public has a right to see — is being deliberately kept secret by the Broward county sheriff — which many say is illegal.

With UN Exhibit, Israel Shows ‘3,000 Years of History Cannot be Denied’
The exhibit—a joint effort by the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, and the Israeli Mission to the United Nations—follows a series of resolutions passed by the international governing body denying Jewish ties to the city. Ambassadors, diplomats and senior U.N. officials have all been invited to view the exhibit, which presents authentic archaeological findings unearthed in Israel alongside replicas of other historical items that serve to illustrate the connection between the Jewish people and Israel’s capital.

Has the King of the East Now Taken His Throne? China's New Emperor for Life
Mar 7th, 2018
CommentaryBILL POWELL/NEWSWEEK
Categories: Contemporary Issues

It was a bland, bureaucratic statement—but its implications could be profound. In late February, China’s Communist Party announced a proposal to abolish term limits for its highest office. The party hasn’t made a final decision, but the news seemed to confirm what many have long suspected: Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, wants to be president for life.

The announcement wasn’t surprising, but many didn’t expect it to come so soon. Aside from being president, Xi is also the general secretary of the Communist Party and commander in chief of the country’s armed forces. The term limits on his presidency effectively constrain his ability to hold the other two jobs. Since Xi took office in March 2013, he’s been consumed with his fight against corruption. This battle is basically a proxy for him and his allies to consolidate control over the highest levels of the party, as well as big state-owned companies. In Chinese politics, personal rivalries and differing agendas are rarely visible to the outside world. So many had assumed Xi’s fight was still ongoing, given how deeply entrenched corruption is in China.

If the party does decide to end term limits for president, it could have major implications for the nation—and the world. Domestically, it would rupture what has been a stable system of succession. Deng Xiaoping, the father of China’s economic reforms, created that system in 1982. Prior to Deng’s rule, China was mired in the chaos and pain of the Cultural Revolution, when Mao Zedong “had absolute power over the lives and deaths of others,” wrote Mo Zhixu, a political commentator in Guangzhou.

Post-Mao, Deng and his successors transformed China from an isolated, impoverished country into the second most powerful nation in the world. Many believe the country will inevitably surpass the United States in terms of influence and economic growth. But Beijing has experienced these changes during a period of relative stability, when political transitions came to be seen as orderly, predictable. Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin, handed power to Hu Jintao, who after a decade turned the party over to Xi. That predictability is now in question.

What’s not in question is that Xi wants to increase his country’s clout, to show the world that his model of government is a worthy alternative to those of the West. Despite American resistance, Xi shows no sign of backing away from his efforts to dominate in the South and East China Seas. He has also extended his country’s influence to the south and west, all the way to Pakistan, with his efforts to build infrastructure in developing nations. Xi believes the world should accommodate China, not the other way around. He shows no interest in deposing North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, despite Pyongyang’s nuclear antics, and will likely respond in kind to any American trade protections, like the ones the U.S. announced for steel and aluminum in early March.

After a decade of dithering, China is also finally trying to carry out some painful and necessary economic reforms. Some of Xi’s supporters believe he needs more time and more authority to implement them. The Chinese president may realize it’s going to take a while to reduce his country’s debt, which will lead to a slowdown in growth. Maybe he wants to manage that process. This is the most optimistic view of the party’s announcement: that eventually, if the economy is humming and has a lower debt burden, perhaps Xi can hand over power to a designated successor and be remembered as a hero. Such a scenario is possible. But it assumes the Chinese leader is willing to oversee such a sustained and painful economic transition. It also assumes he’d ever give up power.

In the West, many analysts seemed jaded after Beijing’s announcement—especially those who had hoped China would reform politically as its economy prospered (just as South Korea and Taiwan had in the 1980s). These observers finally seem to be accepting reality. China is now a more confident, more repressive authoritarian state than it was before Xi. His increased crackdown on anyone critical of the government, as well as his use of internet censorship and technology to monitor citizens the regime deems troublesome, are here to stay. And may even increase.

Despite China’s economic successes, there are still millions in the country who want more political freedom. But under this regime, they have no voice—and won’t, it appears, for a long time. At 64 years old, the apparently healthy Xi isn’t going anywhere.

He’s now, most likely, China’s emperor for life.

Do Western Goodists Really Care About Helping Syrians, Palestinians?
Mar 7th, 2018
CommentaryGIULIO MEOTTI/GATESTONE INSTITUTE
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

It all happened around the same time, 200 kilometers apart. In one photo, Israeli schools were involved in a national drill in the event of a missile attack. In the other photo, a real missile attack in Syria caused 200 deaths, many of which were of children. 

On one side, you have Israel, a democracy forced to protect its children. On the other side, you have Syria, a brutal dictatorship where the civil war has caused more than 400,000 deaths.

Last month, an Israeli plane was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire. If the Syrian regime, backed by Iran and Russia, is willing to kill 200 innocent Syrians, just think what they would do to other countries' citizens, if they had the means. Yet, going by media reports of the incident, one would think that Israel had been the aggressor.

How many resolutions has the United Nations dedicated against Syria the last year? Two. How many resolutions against Israel? 21. Both accurate reporting and international law have become distorted into serving as the enemies of humanity and civilization.

The West is drowning in a sea of double standards and moral relativism: murderers and tyrants are allowed to wallow in their crimes, while global indignation is turned only against the sole democracy in the Middle East: Israel. Photo-opportunities must not be ruined by a row of bodies in a Syrian morgue; better to cover the story of a 17-year-old Palestinian Arab girl punching and kicking an Israeli soldier.

Israeli children running to bomb shelters periodically become a scene of ordinary life in Israel. Four-year-olds, such as Daniel Tragerman, are killed if they do not reach the shelter in time. Palestinian terrorists launch missiles into Israel from Gaza's schools and the world sides with the terrorists -- and condemns the Jewish State. 

The American website Salon recently called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the most dangerous man in the Middle East". And here you thought it was Bashar al-Assad -- the poison-gasser in Damascus -- or perhaps Iran's tyrants at home, in Yemen and Lebanon, who were destabilizing the Middle East?

Israeli soldiers were just wounded on the border of the Gaza Strip; Hamas missiles hit Israeli homes. And the world lectures Israel, under direct attack from its neighbors, about morality?

On September 11, 2005, after Israel totally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, CNN announced: "The Israeli flag has been lowered over Gaza, symbolizing the end of 38 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory two weeks ahead of schedule". 

All the same, since then, "the Israeli occupation of Gaza", sometimes called a "siege", is promoted as a myth, even though Israel ships massive amounts of food, medicine and humanitarian supplies to Gaza every day, while Egypt, except for rare occasions, keeps its border with Gaza shut. Israel, even now, is working with Qatar, an emirate that does not recognize the Jewish State, to allow aid into Gaza.

Israeli hospitals have never stopped treating Palestinians, even during wars in Gaza. Last year, one single Israeli hospital in Gaza treated 400 children from the Gaza Strip. Even the daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's leader in Gaza, was admitted to a Tel Aviv hospital.

In Syria, by comparison, Assad continues to bomb the country's hospitals.

Since 2011, 454 attacks have targeted 310 medical facilities in Syria. So, which country does the World Health Organization single out to probe for healthcare "abuse"? Israel, of course.

According to both Israeli and Palestinian estimates, Hamas spends $100 million a year on military infrastructure in Gaza, of which $40 million of the annual total goes to digging its terror-attack tunnels. According to another estimate by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, that money could instead have built 1,500 homes, 24,000 hospital beds, six medical clinics and three water facilities. 

Rather than manufacturing missiles to launch against Israel, Hamas could build a water-desalination plant. But Hamas continues to use its imported cement to reinforce its terror tunnels, rather than, as promised, building homes, schools and hospitals; and it continues using Palestinian schools as launching-pads for rockets they fire at Israeli kindergartens.

With the Marshall Plan after the Second World War, America distributed $60 billion (in today's inflation-adjusted dollars) to rebuild all of Western Europe. According to the World Bank, the Palestinians have received more than half that amount, $31 billion, in aid since 1993. The money has largely ended up funding terrorism and corruption.

Instead of scapegoating Israel, perhaps these "goodists", if they really care about helping oppressed people, as they claim, will finally promote a freedom flotilla to liberate Gaza from Hamas's tyranny and Syria from Assad's butchery?