Money

50 Numbers From 2019 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

December 31, 2019 by Michael

One of the best ways to determine where things are heading is to look back at how much has changed over the past 12 months. 2019 has been one of the most memorable years in our history, and it has certainly set the stage for the critical events of the decade to come. However, not everyone views this moment in our history the same way. For example, one “expert” that is being heavily quoted by the mainstream media is claiming that 2019 was the culmination of “the best decade in human history”. His main argument seems to be that since “the ecological footprint of human activity” appears to be shrinking, the world must be a better place than it was before as a result. And certainly there are many other voices out there that are boldly proclaiming that we have entered a golden new era of peace and prosperity and that the best is yet to come. You can buy that argument if you want, but there are other voices that believe that everything that is wrong with our society is reaching a very dangerous crescendo. For those with that perspective, it appears that we are very close to a societal tipping point and that the years ahead are when we will finally pay the price for decades of exceedingly bad decisions.

So what do you think?

Will the 2020s be the best of times or the worst of times?

As you ponder that question, here are 50 numbers from 2019 that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 According to a Gallup poll that was just released, Barack Obama and Donald Trump came in tied for “the most admired man in America” this year. They both got 18 percent in the survey, and no other man had more than 2 percent.

#2 At 10 percent, Michelle Obama topped the list in the Gallup poll for “the most admired woman in America” this year.

#3 Global stocks have increased in value by more than 25 trillion dollars over the past 10 years.

#4 In the United States, 84 percent of all stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of all Americans.

#5 The U.S. government is now more than 23 trillion dollars in debt.

#6 During the Obama and Trump administrations, we have added more than 12 trillion dollars to the national debt.

#7 Over the past 12 months alone, we have added another 1.1 trillion dollars to the national debt.

#8 Every single hour of every single day, we are stealing more than 100 million dollars from future generations of Americans.

#9 According to the IMF, total global debt has now reached the 188 trillion dollar mark.

#10 U.S. corporations are now close to 10 trillion dollars in debt.

#11 Total corporate debt has now reached 47 percent of U.S. GDP. That is the highest level in our history.

#12 Total U.S. household debt is about to cross the 14 trillion dollar mark.

#13 A study that was recently released found that 70 percent of all Americans are struggling financially right now.

#14 The average family in the United States cannot afford to buy a home in 71 percent of the country.

#15 58 million jobs in the United States pay less than $793 a week.

#16 According to the Social Security Administration, 50 percent of all Americans make less than $33,000 a year.

#17 63 percent of the jobs that have been created in the United States since 1990 have been low wage jobs.

#18 Roughly 40 million Americans struggle with food insecurity.

#19 70 percent of Americans “have cried about money”.

#20 A recent survey found that more than two-thirds of all U.S. households “are preparing for a possible recession”.

#21 According to the most recent government figures, 24.6 million Americans have used an illegal drug within the last 30 days.

#22 If you can believe it, 46 percent of all Americans have taken at least one legal pharmaceutical drug within the last 30 days. That is almost half the country.

#23 A New York woman named Alexa Kasdan recently went to see her doctor because she had a cold and a sore throat. Her insurance company was billed $25,865.24 for the visit.

#24 Americans spend more than 140 billion dollars a year treating cancer.

#25 If you are an American woman, there is a 1 in 3 chance that you will get cancer at some point in your life.

#26 If you are an American man, there is a 1 in 2 chance that you will get cancer at some point in your life.

#27 Over the past decade, the suicide rate among young Americans has risen by 56 percent.

#28 The suicide rate for the overall population increased by 41 percent between 1999 and 2016.

#29 One survey has discovered that 15-year-old students in China are almost four full grade levels ahead of 15-year-old students in the United States in mathematics.

#30 A different survey discovered that one-third of all American teenagers haven’t read a single book in the past year.

#31 According to a recent survey of 2,000 adults, a whopping 88 percent of all Americans believe that the holiday season is the most stressful time of the year.

#32 48 million Americans still have holiday debt from last year.

#33 23 percent of all U.S. children live with a single parent. That is the highest rate in the entire world by a wide margin.

#34 Today, approximately 40 percent of all babies in America are born to unmarried women.

#35 The U.S. fertility rate has fallen 15 percent since 2007 and is now at the lowest level ever recorded.

#36 One very alarming survey found that the average American spends 86 hours a month on a cellphone.

#37 The average person will watch more than 78,000 hours of television programming over the course of a lifetime.

#38 Today, almost half of all homeless people in the entire nation live in the state of California.

#39 Over half of all California voters have considered leaving the state.

#40 According to an American Bar Association survey, only 38 percent of all Americans know that the U.S. Constitution is the highest law in the land.

#41 58 percent of American adults under the age of 35 agree that some version of socialism “would be good for the country”.

#42 Almost one-third of all U.S. Millennials are still living with their parents.

#43 According to the Pew Research Center, only 65 percent of Americans now consider themselves to be Christians. That is the lowest level ever recorded.

#44 The bird population of North America has declined by 3 billion since 1970.

#45 Scientists are telling us that at the current rate of extinction, nearly all insects could be gone “in 100 years”.

#46 African Swine Fever has already killed one out of every four pigs in the world, and many experts believe this crisis is still in the very early stages.

#47 Within the last 365 days, there have been approximately 37,000 earthquakes of at least magnitude 1.5 in the United States.

#48 The upcoming election is a “significant source of stress” for 56 percent of U.S. adults.

#49 A survey that was conducted a couple of months ago found that 67 percent of all Americans believe that we are “on the edge of civil war”.

#50 The final full moon of this decade was on 12/12 at precisely 12:12 AM eastern time. And it turns out that it was also exactly 6,666 days from 9/11.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.

Will It Be War? U.S. Airstrikes Hit Iranian-Backed Militias As The Pentagon Warns More Military Action May Be Coming

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 by Michael

A lot of people seem to have forgotten that we were literally on the brink of war with Iran earlier this year. Back in June, President Trump cancelled a major U.S. bombing mission against Iran at the last minute, and things seemed to settle down quite a bit since that time. But now tensions are rising once again. On Sunday, U.S. airstrikes targeted Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that U.S. officials believe have been behind recent rocket attacks against U.S. forces. Of course those Iranian-backed forces never would have launched such attacks in the first place if they did not have permission from Tehran itself. The Iranians love to hide behind proxies, and for now the U.S. is only conducting airstrikes against those proxies. But at some point President Trump’s patience is likely to run out, and at that point we could start hitting Iran itself. Over the past six months, the U.S. has sent 14,000 more troops to the Middle East, and it is being reported that “the Pentagon is considering deploying additional forces to the region”. The drumbeats of war are starting to get louder again, and many believe that eventually one side is likely to push the other side a bit too far.

The attacks that we just witnessed were supposed to send a very strong message to Tehran. According to the Daily Mail, five separate targets were hit, and at least 19 people were killed…

US air strikes left 19 people dead in Iraq and Syria on Sunday in retaliation against an Iranian-backed militia group blamed for a rocket attack two days earlier that killed an American contractor.

F-15 Strike Eagles hit five targets associated with Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia group, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

These airstrikes were launched to directly retaliate for the casualties that U.S. forces suffered from a rocket attack on one of their bases in Iraq on Friday…

Officials with the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS said Friday that a U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several American troops were wounded in a rocket attack targeting an Iraqi base in Kirkuk.

The attack, which occurred Friday around 7:20 p.m. local time in Iraq, also wounded several Iraqi personnel, officials with Operation Inherent Resolve told Military Times in an emailed statement.

But of course that attack was just the latest in a series of rocket attacks that have targeted U.S. forces lately…

U.S. officials believe Iranian-backed militias are behind a recent spate of rocket attacks that have targeted U.S. bases and interests in Iraq over the last couple months.

A U.S. official told Military Times that Iran-backed militias are now using more lethal and longer range 122 mm rockets in their attacks.

Friday’s attack on Kirkuk is at least the eleventh rocket attack targeting an outpost housing American forces in the last two months.

I am certainly not a fan of military conflict, but if I am sitting in the White House and someone keeps lobbing rockets at my troops I wouldn’t wait two months to hit them back.

So why did President Trump wait so long?

As I noted earlier, these Iranian-backed militias wouldn’t be doing anything without approval from Tehran. If Trump really wants these rocket attacks to stop, Iranian leaders need to be sent a message that will be clear and unmistakable.

And it appears that U.S. officials may be starting to lean in that direction. In fact, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the press on Sunday that more military action “could be warranted”…

Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared briefly in a club ballroom to comment on the airstrikes.

Esper termed the offensive “successful,” but said that Trump was informed that a further military response could be warranted.

Personally, I don’t know what the Iranians are thinking.

Perhaps they believe that if they use their proxies to make things uncomfortable enough for U.S. forces that Trump will eventually pull them out of the region.

But if that is what they are really thinking, they have badly miscalculated.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to get cozy with Russia and China. In fact, the three nations are currently conducting “their first-ever joint naval drills”…

This weekend, China, Iran, and Russia began their first-ever joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman. The training exercises were announced by China’s defense ministry on Thursday, as all three nations continue to have strained relations with the United States and its allies.

The Russians have developed a very strong military presence in the Middle East in recent years, and Russia and China have both warned about what a war between the U.S. and Iran would mean for the entire region.

A major war in the Middle East would have very serious implications for the entire globe, and it would risk sparking a much wider conflict.

Right now our relations with Russia are already the worst that they have been since the end of the Cold War, and they just continue to deteriorate.

Most Americans don’t spend too much time thinking about a potential war with Russia, but over in Russia there is lots of talk about a possible military confrontation. In fact, Russia’s top general recently warned that the western powers are preparing for a “large-scale military conflict”…

Russia’s top general has warned a big war is coming in a chilling prediction amid ongoing tensions with NATO.

Valery Gerasimov, the chief Vladimir Putin’s general staff, has said he believes the West are preparing for a “large-scale military conflict”.

He was speaking at a senior briefing for the military – saying that the West has assigned “adversary status” to Russia.

Ultimately, one of the big reasons why Trump may have been so hesitant to be more aggressive with Iran is because he realizes that it could potentially spark World War 3.

Because once we go to war with Iran, the Iranians are going to start launching missiles directly at Israel, and Israel would undoubtedly strike back with overwhelming force.

Once the dominoes start falling, it could very easily set off a sequence of events that nobody is going to be able to control.

We definitely live at a time of wars and rumors of wars, and peace could be taken from the Earth very easily.

So let us hope that cooler heads prevail.

But if the Iranians keep pushing their luck, it is only a matter of time before Trump gets fed up, and when he decides to hit them directly he is going to hit them exceedingly hard.

Very Unusual Seismic Activity On The West Coast Has Some Experts Extremely Concerned About What Could Happen

December 26, 2019 by Michael

The west coast never stops shaking, but lately the shaking has gone to an entirely new level, and this has many people deeply concerned about what may be coming. Last summer, a series of alarming foreshocks immediately preceded the two historic quakes that shook the Ridgecrest area in southern California. But those quakes were nothing compared to “the Big One” that scientists assure us is way overdue. Someday an earthquake that is hundreds of times stronger will absolutely devastate the California coastline, and it may be arriving a lot sooner than many people think. Farther north, the Cascadia subduction zone is a ticking time bomb that could literally unleash an unprecedented disaster at any moment. What I am talking about is an event that will completely wipe out entire cities and that the region will never recover from. As I have detailed repeatedly, authorities have warned us that “everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast” when an absolutely massive seismic event along the Cascadia subduction zone sends a gigantic tsunami sweeping inland.

And without a doubt, that day is coming.

Because of the extreme damage that a major west coast seismic event would do to our economy and to our Internet infrastructure, all of our lives will dramatically change the moment it happens. So it is understandable why so many people are alarmed by the tremendous shaking that we have witnessed over the past few days. As Americans all over the country were celebrating Christmas, the state of California was shaken by 9 significant earthquakes, and farther north the city of Vancouver was rattled by a magnitude 6.3 quake…

A series of earthquakes on Christmas Eve and before dawn Christmas morning hit around California, and a much bigger 6.3 quake shook off Vancouver.

At least nine earthquakes in 24 hours reaching up to 3.2 magnitude shook California from the Los Angeles area north to Chico, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.

The other quakes in the swarm ranged from 2.5 to 3.0 magnitude and stretched the length of the state, according to the USGS.

The large earthquake that shook Vancouver was preceded by five other large earthquakes that hit the region on Monday…

There were no reports of damage or injuries after five earthquakes struck within seven hours off the northwest end of Vancouver Island on Monday.

The tremors began as minor quakes, but grew stronger as the morning turned to afternoon.

According to the CBC, those five large earthquakes ranged in size from magnitude 4.8 to magnitude 6.0…

5.1 (8:44 a.m. PT).
5.6 (11:13 a.m.).
5.8 (11:49 a.m.).
6.0 (12:56 p.m.).
4.8 (3:38 p.m.).

Hopefully this earthquake swarm off the coast of Vancouver will turn out to be nothing.

But scientists tell us that an enormous rupture of the Cascadia subduction zone has the potential to produce a giant tsunami hundreds of feet tall, and the death and destruction such a tsunami would cause in Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and other coastal communities in the Northwest would be absolutely off the charts.

Meanwhile, we have also witnessed more than 30 significant earthquakes over last 30 days in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier, and anyone that is familiar with my work knows how concerned I am about the potential for a major eruption of that volcano.

Because there is always at least a little bit of shaking going on along the west coast, many residents have been lulled into a false sense of security. Yes, a major disaster has not happened in a long time, and as a result many believe that there is nothing to be concerned about. But someday a major event will strike very suddenly, and the devastation will be unimaginable. Just consider what Steve Quayle recently told Greg Hunter…

“The amount of damage, and I am going to choose my words carefully, is going to be precedent setting. It’s going to be the combination of volcanos going off that are inland from the subduction zone where the plates meet, coupled with tsunamis. . . . When this happens, you will lose eight million to twenty million people. When it happens, you will lose all productivity in the electronic field, obviously Silicon Valley, and all food production in all of California, Oregon and Washington. When it happens, you will have a State of Emergency unlike any other. How about the refugees? There will be 3.5 million refugees to take care of. When this happens, what happens to the underground aquifers, and where does everybody go for fresh water? There will be years of drought, years of famine and years of water, water where did it all go? It is a very dire situation painted by computer models. This is not a sensational thing. It is a reality based, scientific study with the application of what happens.”

Hopefully such an event will be delayed for as long as possible.

But each day it gets a little closer.

Before I get back to California, there is one more little tidbit from the Northwest that I wanted to share with you. On Friday, the city of Seattle experienced “its darkest day in recorded history”…

Seattle, the city known for its rainy weather and overcast, saw its darkest day in recorded history Friday due to several factors, including shorter days and dense cloud coverage.

Pyranometers are devices installed in buildings on campus at the University of Washington that help scientists gauge just how dark the days actually get in the city, the Seattle Times reported. Scientists there monitor how much solar radiation reaches the ground during a 24-hour span.

Could that be some sort of a harbinger?

I don’t know, but certainly a lot of really weird things have been happening in the U.S. lately.

Overall, there have been more than 1,200 earthquakes in the United States over the past week, and the majority of those quakes have happened in the state of California.

Prior to the earthquake swarm that we witnessed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a series of moderate quakes rattled the Ridgecrest area on Thursday and Friday…

Five months after the biggest earthquake in two decades, a swarm of smaller quakes rattled a secretive Navy base in the Mojave Desert Thursday afternoon and before dawn on Friday, according to the US Geological Survey.

Five quakes magnitudes over 2.5 struck Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake between 3 p.m. Thursday and 3.30 a.m. Friday in Ridgecrest, CA, according to the Fresno Bee.

That is the exact same area where two large earthquakes made headlines all over the globe last July.

Could it be possible that another major event is on the way?

As I repeatedly stress, we live at a time when our planet is becoming increasingly unstable.

Maybe it won’t happen this week, and maybe it won’t happen this month, but scientists assure us that major seismic disasters are coming to the west coast.

It is simply a matter of time, and time may be running out a whole lot more rapidly than most people would dare to imagine.

While Americans Are Celebrating Christmas, A Solar Eclipse Will Be Visible In Bethlehem

December 22, 2019December 22, 2019 by Michael

A lot of really strange things have been happening late in 2019, and now we have another one to add to the list. While it is still Christmas night here in the United States, the other side of the world will be viewing a very unusual solar eclipse. For those fortunate enough to be directly in the path of this eclipse, the moon will almost entirely cover the sun’s disk for a few minutes. At the most dramatic moment, the moon will be covering 97 percent of the sun, and a “ring of fire” will appear to be surrounding the perimeter of the moon. In other words, at the peak of this eclipse the entire middle portion of the sun will look like it is “missing”, and all that will be visible will be an eerie “ring of fire” that will be casting light around the edges of the moon.

This eclipse will not be visible anywhere in the United States, and so that probably explains why the U.S. media is not really talking a lot about it.

But NASA will be live streaming this event on their YouTube channel, and astronomers all over the globe are gearing up for one of the most significant astronomical events that we have seen in a long time.

The eclipse will be visible “in eastern Europe, Asia, northwest Australia, eastern Africa and the Pacific and Indian Ocean”. Israel is in the viewing zone, but it will only be a partial solar eclipse in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other cities in the region. A lot of people are actually flocking to Saudi Arabia for a really good view of the full eclipse, and what they will see promises to be quite spectacular…

Called everything from a “ring of fire” to a “ring of light,” an annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon is relatively small in the sky. The moon has a slightly elliptical orbit around Earth, so it can appear larger or smaller in the sky depending on its position. When it’s close, it causes a supermoon. When it’s far away, and it crosses the ecliptic (the path of the sun through our sky) as a new moon, it fits precisely within the sun’s disk. This Christmas, the moon will cover 97% of the center of the sun.

For those viewing this “sign in the sky” in the Middle East, it will be very early on December 26th, but during the eclipse it will still be Christmas night here in the United States…

What begins at 03:43 a.m. Universal Time on December 26— that’s 22:43 p.m. EST and 19:43 p.m. PST on Christmas Day—is an annular solar eclipse. Since a New Moon is slightly further away than usual, it will appear smaller in the sky so will only block the center of the Sun’s disk. Observers will therefore see a ring around the Sun, and for a maximum of 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

So as millions of Americans are eating their Christmas dinners and enjoying their Christmas presents, millions upon millions of people in the Middle East will be gazing up into the sky at a truly bizarre celestial event.

Since the eclipse will not be visible in North America, there is no danger for us, but authorities are warning those in the viewing zone not to look directly at this eclipse without special glasses because it could potentially result in “total blindness”…

There’s a reason why this particular phenomenon is also called the “ring of fire” and sometimes, “ring of light”. That’s because watching the 3 minute 40 second eclipse without any protection for the eyes can lead to total blindness.

Yikes!

So does this “Christmas eclipse” have any sort of special significance?

I don’t know.

But this certainly comes at a time when a lot of other weird things are starting to happen.

For example, earlier this month I wrote about the fact that the very last full moon of this decade happened on 12/12 at exactly 12:12 AM eastern time. And what made it even stranger was the fact that this full moon occurred exactly 6,666 days from 9/11.

Once again, I don’t know if all that means anything, but the “coincidences” are really starting to pile up.

On top of everything else, a “gigantic asteroid” is going to go screaming by our planet just after Christmas…

A gigantic asteroid will zip past Earth just after Christmas, NASA reports.

The massive space rock, which is known as 310442 (2000 CH59), will be closest to our planet on December 26 at 2:54 a.m. EST, according to NASA.

The space agency’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) estimates its diameter will be in the range of 919 to 2,034 feet.

Fortunately, that asteroid has no absolutely chance of hitting us, but it is yet another strange event in the heavens that is getting a lot of attention.

Throughout human history, events in the heavens have always been regarded as having special significance. This time of the year, millions upon millions of Christians will read about how “wise men from the east” came to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus. They claimed to have seen “his star in the east”, and they traveled a vast distance to get there. The “wise men from the east” were actually from the Parthian Empire, and the Euphrates River was the border between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Empire at that time. Traditionally they have been depicted as “three kings”, but the truth is that it was probably a very large procession with a strong military escort. Parthia and Rome fought many great wars over the years, and even though there was a temporary peace at that time, any venture into Roman territory always came at great risk.

Now, a new “sign in the sky” will be appearing over Bethlehem at a time of the year when many Christians around the world are looking back and remembering the birth of Jesus.

Once again, I have no idea if it actually means anything.

Maybe this is just another really weird coincidence.

But if it is some sort of a warning, perhaps we should be listening, because 2020 is already shaping up to be quite an ominous year.

A Plot To Make Pelosi President? Now Adam Schiff Wants To Go After Vice-President Mike Pence…

December 20, 2019 by Michael

I was really hoping that this wouldn’t happen. Within hours of President Trump being impeached by the House, the mainstream media was reporting that Adam Schiff “has declared war” on Mike Pence. At this time of the year, most Americans are celebrating holidays and spending time with their families, but Adam Schiff continues to be deeply focused on his twisted obsession to take down the Trump administration. When Rachel Maddow asked him if he was “actively looking at Vice President Mike Pence and his role in this scandal”, Schiff made it quite clear that he has targeted Pence. Is Schiff doing this because he wants “justice”, or is there some deeper plot afoot?

Before we get into the specifics, let’s talk about a hypothetical scenario in which Nancy Pelosi could actually become the President. If President Trump is removed from office by the Senate, Vice-President Mike Pence would move into the Oval Office and a replacement for Pence would be nominated. But if Trump and Pence were both impeached and removed from office before a new Vice-President could be nominated and confirmed, then the next in line for the presidency would be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

In other words, if Trump and Pence were both suddenly out of the picture, Nancy Pelosi would become the President of the United States.

We have never actually seen the speaker of the House become the president in such a manner, and such a scenario would appear to be exceedingly unlikely, but it could hypothetically happen.

Up to now, the efforts by the Democrats to get rid of Trump have not gone well. According to a brand new survey that was just released, only 42 percent of all Americans support removing Trump from office at this point. And it is likely that support for removing Vice-President Pence from office would be even lower.

So why would the Democrats even bother trying?

I certainly can’t explain why Schiff suddenly has such a desire to go after Pence, because it doesn’t seem to be rational. According to the Daily Mail, Schiff has made the decision to declare “war” on Pence…

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff has declared war on Vice President Mike Pence, barely a week after his panel finished its hearings on the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

As an impeachment vote loomed Wednesday, Schiff demanded Pence’s office declassify documents that he claims could show the vice president knee-deep in the Ukraine scandal that has brought Trump to the brink.

What Schiff is particularly obsessed about is a phone call between Vice-President Pence and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 18th.

Pence’s adviser Jennifer Williams listened in on that call, and she testified about it behind closed doors to Schiff’s committee. Her testimony was later classified, and Schiff has been badgering Pence to have it declassified. The following comes from the National Review…

Pence’s Russia adviser Jennifer Williams testified last month about the vice president’s September 18 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Schiff requested ten days later that Pence declassify her testimony, contained in a November 26 letter from her lawyer, but Pence last week declined to do so in a letter to Schiff.

On Tuesday, Schiff sent a letter to Pence alleging that the testimony given by Williams “raises profound questions about your knowledge of the President’s scheme to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election”.

In other words, Schiff is inferring that Vice-President Pence “abused his power” just like Trump supposedly did.

During a subsequent appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show, Schiff was specifically asked if he was “actively looking” at Vice-President Pence…

Are you actively looking at Vice President Mike Pence and his role in this scandal? And should we expect further revelations either related to the vice president or related to the other core parts of these allegations that have resulted in this impeachment tonight?

In response, he gave an answer that was classic Schiff …

Well, we have acquired a piece of evidence, classified submission by Jennifer Williams, something that she alluded to in her open testimony that in going back and looking through her records, she found other information that was pertinent to that phone call that we asked her about and made that submission. There is nothing that should be classified in that submission but yet, the vice president’s office has said they’re going to assert classification, or it’s classified.

It is not proper to classify something because it would be embarrassing or incriminating, and that summation does shed light on the vice president’s knowledge, and we think the American people should see it. Certainly, any senators in the trial should have access to it.

Schiff has got to realize that his actions are deeply dividing America, and the drama currently unfolding in Washington could set in motion a series of events that could tear this nation apart.

So why is he doing it?

Well, there is always the possibility that he could be so deluded that he actually believes that he is doing the right thing. And if he truly believes that he is seeking to have justice done, then that would help to explain why he just won’t let this thing go.

But the truth is that Schiff’s sick obsession with taking down the Trump administration goes back long before this Ukraine scandal first broke wide open.

Like so many other Democrats, he just can’t stand to see Donald Trump in the White House, and he won’t rest until he is gone for good.

If the Democrats could find a way to get Trump removed from office early next year, that would throw the Republican Party into a state of utter chaos and would give Democrats a massive edge heading into November 2020. And if they could get Mike Pence removed from office early next year as well, that would make it even tougher for the Republican Party.

In the end, maybe that is what all of this is primarily about. Yes, getting Nancy Pelosi into the White House would be a nice side benefit, but maybe what the Democrats really want to do is to keep Trump from winning again in 2020 by any means necessary.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, nothing they are doing is working.

It looks like Trump is going to be acquitted by the Senate, public approval for impeachment has been falling, and Trump now has a lead against all potential Democratic contenders.

If the Democrats had never attempted to remove Trump, they would have had a great chance of winning the White House next November.

But they just couldn’t resist, and so they have set the stage for a major political disaster for the Democratic Party less than a year from now.

This Is A Very Dark Day In American History

December 18, 2019 by Michael

The Democrats got what they wanted, but in the process they have created deep political fissures that will never heal. Now that President Trump has been impeached by the House, he will eventually be acquitted by the Senate, and so his political career will survive. But far more importantly, it has gotten to the point where nobody can no longer deny that America is at war with itself. The left hates Donald Trump and his supporters with an intense, passionate, visceral hatred, and Trump and his supporters feel the same way about the left. After this, nobody is going to be able to unite this country. Instead, we are headed for a future of anger, frustration, desperate acts and civil conflict. The mainstream media and many of our top political leaders have been stirring the pot for years, and the stage is set for an unprecedented explosion of animosity as we approach the upcoming election next November.

It has been horrifying to watch the Democrats treat the U.S. Constitution with such disdain. On Wednesday, the nation was riveted as two impeachment votes were held in the House, and both votes were “almost entirely on party lines”. The following comes from NBC News…

Trump was impeached on two articles. The first vote, 230-197, accused him of abuse of power and was almost entirely on party lines; it was followed quickly by a second, 229-198, vote accusing the president of obstructing Congress. The one-vote difference was that of Democrat Jared Golden of Maine, who voted yes on abuse of power and no on obstruction.

No Republicans voted against Trump. Two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is expected to switch parties soon, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted with Republicans against both articles. One Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted “present” on both articles.

I would have liked to see Tulsi Gabbard actually have the courage to vote against impeachment, but at least two other Democrats were willing to stand up and do the right thing.

Now that the votes are over, many on the right are looking forward to a swift acquittal of Trump in the Senate, but it is being reported that the Democrats are actually considering withholding the articles of impeachment from the Senate for at least some period of time…

A group of House Democrats is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders to withhold the articles of impeachment against President Trump that emerged from the House on Wednesday, potentially delaying a Senate trial for months.

The notion of impeaching Trump but holding the articles in the House has gained traction among some of the political left as a way to potentially force Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, to conduct a trial on more favorable terms for Democrats. And if no agreement is reached, some have argued, the trial could be delayed indefinitely, denying Trump an expected acquittal.

Since they have already made such a mockery of this process, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they want to trample on the Constitution some more.

Thankfully, an increasing number of Americans are seeing through their petty games. Yesterday, I discussed a new CNN survey that found public support for impeachment has fallen substantially, and today I came across another new survey that discovered that even most Democrats believe that Nancy Pelosi and her minions are being highly disingenuous…

In the latest Zogby Analytics survey, 67% of voters said that they “believe the Democrats are more interested in impeaching the president as opposed to passing legislation that will help Americans.”

And the shocking sidebar: A majority of Democrats, 53%, believe this is the case too, said pollster Jonathan Zogby.

Prior to Wednesday’s dramatic vote, there was an extended period of debate on the House floor, and several Republicans definitely rose to the occasion. For example, here is a great quote from Represenative Mike Johnson…

“There has never been a single-party, fraudulent impeachment process like the one being used today. Our Democratic colleagues have weaponized the impeachment provision of the Constitution to nullify the votes of 63 million Americans who elected President Donald J. Trump.”

And Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia made national headlines when he compared this impeachment process to the trial of Jesus…

“When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this process.”

But the best speech of the day belonged to Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins. He didn’t have long to speak, but he definitely made it count…

“I have descended into the belly of the beast. I have witnessed the terror within, and I rise committed to oppose the insidious forces which threaten our Republic,” Higgins opened.

“America’s being severely injured by this betrayal, by this unjust and weaponized impeachment, brought upon us by the same socialists who threaten unborn life in the womb, who threaten First Amendment rights of Conservatives, who threaten Second Amendment protections of every American patriot, and who have long ago determined that they would organize and conspire to overthrow President Trump.”

“We don’t face this horror because the Democrats have all of a sudden become constitutionalists. We are not being devoured from within because of some surreal assertion of the socialists’ newfound love for the very flag that they trod upon.”

“They are deep established D.C.,” he continued.

“They call this Republican map flyover country. They call us deplorables. They fear our faith. They fear our strength. They fear our unity. They fear our vote, and they fear our president.”

“We will never surrender our nation to career establishment D.C. politicians and bureaucrats,” Higgins closed. “Our republic shall survive this threat from within. American patriots shall prevail.”

If you would like to watch the entire speech on YouTube, you can find it right here.

America is more divided right now than it has ever been in any of our lifetimes.

I am greatly saddened by what I believe is coming, because our nation is going to be ripped to shreds.

Now that the effort to remove Trump from office has spectacularly failed, keeping Trump from winning another term is literally going to be a matter of life or death for many on the left. And if Trump is able to win another term in November 2020, we are going to see a national temper tantrum unlike anything we have ever seen before.

But what is the alternative? Are we supposed to roll over and give the left everything they want just so they won’t go nuts?

I don’t think so.

Prior to this impeachment saga, all the polls showed that it was likely that a Democrat would win the presidency in November 2020, but now all of the momentum is with Trump and the Republicans.

Unfortunately, the election next November is not going to solve our deeper problems no matter who wins.

America is in the process of being torn in pieces, and 2020 promises to be a very, very dark year for our nation.

By Impeaching Trump, The Democrats Are Destroying Both Our Political System And Their Chances Of Winning In 2020

December 17, 2019 by Michael

The Democrats probably never imagined that this effort to remove Donald Trump from office would backfire so spectacularly. Yes, it was always a foregone conclusion that they would be able to impeach Trump in the House, but they were expecting that a majority of the American people would rally around them and that simply has not happened. In fact, we just got some brand new numbers that are incredibly good news for President Trump. As you will see below, public support for impeachment continues to fade, and a brand new survey just found that President Trump would beat all of the major contenders for the Democratic nomination if the 2020 election was held today. At one time, it appeared that the Democrats were likely to win the 2020 presidential election in a historic landslide, but now thanks to this impeachment debacle the numbers have shifted dramatically in Trump’s favor. And if Trump does ultimately end up winning, the Democrats are going to be kicking themselves for ever going down this road in the first place.

Meanwhile, the heavily slanted and exceedingly bitter coverage of this impeachment process by the mainstream media is deepening the very painful political divisions that have been tearing America apart. This week, there will literally be hundreds of pro-impeachment protests in cities all across the nation, and the anger that we see on the left is rising to a level that is absolutely frightening.

If President Trump does win again in 2020, everyone already knows what is going to happen. Key Democratic leaders and the mainstream media have been stirring the pot day after day, and all of the frustration that they have been fueling will reach a crescendo if Trump is not defeated next November.

In order for any political system to operate successfully, most of the population must be willing to accept the outcomes that system produces. But now we have gotten to the point where a large portion of the population is ready to start burning things down if election results don’t go their way.

If the Democrats truly believed that President Trump did something that warranted impeachment, they should have gone out of their way to make the impeachment process in the House a fair, bipartisan effort. But instead, they alienated their Republican colleagues at every turn, and that was a tragic mistake. After the sham that we just witnessed in the House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sees no reason to take an impartial stance in the Senate…

McConnell on Tuesday made clear he’s not interested in giving in to any demands from Democrats. He said that the partisan House impeachment would result in “an almost entirely partisan outcome in the Senate as well.”

“I’m not an impartial juror,” McConnell said. “This is a political process.”

McConnell’s strategy relies on keeping Democratic requests on procedures, documents and witnesses bottled up and maintaining pressure on any wavering Republicans who might agree with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s push for more evidence.

Can anyone blame McConnell? If the Democrats had tried very hard to conduct things fairly in the Senate, McConnell would have been forced to at least maintain a pretense of objectivity.

But now all of that is out the window, and the stage has been set for President Trump to potentially turn the Senate trial into his own version of “show and tell”, and many on the left are fearing the worst.

For example, the following is what one USA Today reader is anticipating from the upcoming trial…

President Donald Trump is not satisfied with avoiding conviction in a Senate trial. He wants a spectacle and platform to humiliate the Democrats, former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter. If Trump gets his way with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a World Wrestling Entertainment event will replace a serious impeachment trial.

After all that Trump has been through in recent months, it is quite understandable that he would be eager to “humiliate the Democrats”.

In particular, I think that Trump is quite keen on telling the whole world about what Joe and Hunter Biden were really up to in Ukraine.

According to a new survey, 62 percent of Americans believe that Trump will be treated fairly in the Senate. And since Republicans control the Senate, things are likely to proceed a whole lot differently than they did in the House.

Once the Senate trial begins in January, you might want to grab some popcorn, because it promises to be quite entertaining.

The Democrats were apparently hoping that by tightly controlling the process in the House that they would be able to get the American people on their side. But instead, a CNN poll that was just released found that public support for impeachment has fallen substantially…

A CNN poll released this week, conducted by SSRS December 12-15, among 1,005 adults, found that 45 percent support impeaching the president. That reflects a 5-point drop from November’s results, which showed support for impeachment at 50 percent.

Support for impeaching the president, even among Democrats alone, is dropping. In November, 90 percent of Democrats supported impeaching the president. The most recent results show the number falling to 77 percent — a 13-point drop in one month.

A 13 percent shift in one month among Democrats is absolutely catastrophic for Nancy Pelosi and her minions.

This is a failure of epic proportions, and Pelosi’s political future is looking exceedingly grim at this point.

Meanwhile, things have never looked better for President Trump’s political future. According to another new poll that was just released, Trump would beat every single one of the top contenders for the Democratic nominaton if the election was held today…

The national survey, taken as the House of Representatives planned an impeachment vote and the Senate a trial, showed Trump defeating former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 percentage points, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 5 points, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren by 8 points.

In hypothetical head-to-head contests, Trump also led South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg by 10 points and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg by 9.

But before this impeachment saga ever began, all of the polls showed all of the Democratic contenders defeating Trump quite soundly.

Since it was never likely that Trump would be removed from office by the Republican-controlled Senate, many believed that Pelosi launched this impeachment process as a way to damage Trump and the Republicans for the 2020 election, but if that was her goal she is failing spectacularly.

At one time, it appeared that the 2020 election was potentially going to be a landslide for the Democrats.

You can forget all about that now. By impeaching Trump, the Democrats may have just given him the edge that he needs to win in 2020, and for many on the left that is the worst possible outcome imaginable.

Warm Your Heart With These Inspirational Stories Of Extraordinary Human Kindness

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 by Michael

Despite all of the horrible things that we read about in the news, the truth is that there are still people out there that are making great sacrifices in order to do good for others. My hope is that these extraordinary stories of human kindness will inspire others to act likewise. We live at a moment in history when darkness is growing rapidly all around us, and our society can feel so very cold at times. Those that follow my work regularly already know that I write a lot about this growing darkness. In fact, just yesterday I posted articles about the collapse of the American family and our wildly out of control drug crisis. One of the reasons why I write so much about the darkness is so that people will start realizing the need for radical solutions. As Kirk Cameron has aptly noted, it can be exceedingly difficult to “try to give a cure to a patient who wasn’t convinced of his disease”. It is time for American to wake up. The status quo is not acceptable, we are steamrolling down a road that leads to national suicide, and we need to understand the error of our ways before it is too late.

What we should all want is a society that is filled with love. As humans, we are meant to love and to be loved, but love seems to be in such short supply in our nation today.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of people out there that are trying to do the right thing.

Let me start by sharing the story of a five-year-old girl named Katelynn Hardee. When she heard that some other families were having a really hard time paying for school lunches for their kids, she decided to take matters into her own hands…

After overhearing another child’s mother say she was having a hard time paying for an after-school program, Katelynn Hardee, 5, spoke to her own mother about how she could help other students.

Katelyn set up a cocoa-and-cookies stand, and it turned into a success. She soon decided the money she made would be used to pay off the lunch debt of 123 students in her San Diego County school district.

“I don’t want people to be hungry,” Hardee told NBC San Diego, which did not say how much the bill was.

Sometimes it takes a child to remind the rest of us how we are supposed to live.

I really enjoy interacting with small children, because their hearts have not yet been corrupted by the great evil that permeates our society at every level. They instinctively understand the value in helping others, and they take great joy in making a difference.

Never lose your joy, because it is a source of fuel that will propel you in the direction of becoming the person that you were always meant to be.

And if you have lost your joy along the way, do whatever you can to get it back.

We all have a purpose, and we all have the capacity to do something really special.

Just consider the story of Nancy Banta of Rumson, New Jersey. According to her daughter, she has been crocheting blankets for sick children in the hospital for many years…

“My mom has been donating crocheted blankets to sick children over the past 20+ years,” her daughter said. “In total she has made 49 afghans this year, 45 of which she just donated to Jersey Shore Medical Hospital’s Pediatric and Pediatric ICU wards.”

This is Banta’s 5th year donating to the hospital.

“She has probably donated over 1,000 blankets to those in need at this point in her lifetime and she’s not stopping anytime soon!” her daughter added.

What a wonderful lady.

That is the kind of person that I want in my life. People that joyfully give to others consistently are always such a blessing to be around.

It has been said that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and it is also true that being a “giver” makes you a much better person than being a “taker”.

Speaking of giving, a large church in New Jersey made news when they put together over 1,000 food kits for needy children in their community…

A New Jersey-based nondenominational megachurch has helped to pack more than 1,000 food kits for less fortunate children living in the area.

The Paramus campus of The Life Christian Church, which meets at an AMC movie theater at Garden State Plaza, helped put together 1,056 food kits on Sunday with other volunteers.

Terry Smith, senior pastor of Life Christian, told The Christian Post that the food-packing event was consistent with one of the church’s core values, namely, to be “enthusiastic servants of all.”

As I document regularly on my website, tens of millions of American families deeply struggle to pay for the basics in this economy, and things are only going to get worse in the years ahead.

But if we had more churches doing this sort of thing, we would be in far, far better shape.

I greatly applaud what they are trying to do, and I believe that they will be greatly blessed for their efforts.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to share with you the story of Bonita the dog.

Bonita spent 500 days in a shelter in Niagara Falls, New York, but now she finally has a forever home…

After spending 500 days in an animal shelter in Niagara Falls, New York, a 5-year-old pit bull mix is going home for Christmas!

Bonita, the shelter’s longest resident – and one of its most popular dogs – finally found a home just in time for Christmas after she was adopted by local man Ray Kinz.

In a video captured by the Niagara County SPCA, Bonita is given a loving sendoff by her former family members at the shelter. She jumps up and wags her tail as she passes through the crowd with Kinz.

Sometimes, it is those that have been through the most pain that are the most loving of all, and I have a feeling that Bonita is going to shower Mr. Kinz with a tremendous amount of love and affection in the years ahead.

If you want to live a life that really matters, endeavor to be a person of great love. The big news networks are unlikely to cover the stories that I just shared with you on their broadcasts, but it is acts of kindness such as these that are going to make our society a better place to live.

The more we love, the more we will grow, and may we never stop growing.

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