Global slowdown to deepen attacks on jobs
Global slowdown to deepen attacks on jobs
By Nick Beams
25 January 2016
Global share markets recovered some of their losses at the end of last week, staging a partial recovery from the slide that saw as much as 20 percent wiped off asset values in the first three weeks of the year.
However, the uptick does not indicate any confidence in the state of the world economy as it took place largely on the back of a pledge by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi that the bank was set to inject still more cash into financial markets.
Last Thursday Draghi indicated that the ECB would extend its quantitative easing policy when it meets in March, declaring in the face of the slowdown in China and falling oil prices that the ECB had “the power, the willingness, the determination to act and ... there are no limits to our action.” Markets lifted in response to his comments after being hit by their worst opening for a new year in history.
But the underlying trend in the global economy is slowing growth, outright recession, and major attacks on jobs coupled with the danger of financial turbulence, especially in highly-indebted emerging markets.
In its annual survey of employment, issued last week, the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned that global unemployment was set to rise over the next two years.
“The significant slowdown in emerging markets coupled with a sharp decline in commodity prices is having a dramatic effect on the world of work,” the ILO director-general Guy Ryder said in issuing the report.
The ILO said total global unemployment stood at 197.1 million in 2015—27 million higher than the pre-crisis level in 2007. It could be expected to rise by nearly 2.3 million in 2016 and by a further 1.1 million in 2017. In other words, almost a decade after the onset of the global financial crisis, unemployment will still be on the increase.
The unemployment figures themselves significantly understate the true situation because so-called “vulnerable employment,” involving a self-employed worker, often with the non-paid contribution of his or her family, accounted for more than 46 percent of total global employment, or almost 1.5 billion people.
The ILO said that while the number of unemployed people in developed economies was expected to decline slightly it would remain close to historical peaks in a number of European countries. And where there has been a decline in jobless numbers it is often due to continuing or rising underemployment, with a rise in temporary or part-time work.
It estimated that the world economy expanded by 3.1 percent in 2015, half a percentage point lower that had been projected a year earlier, and if current policies were continued “the outlook is for continued weakening, posing significant challenges to enterprises and workers.” Over the next two years the world economy was expected to grow by around 3 percent per annum, “significantly less than before the advent of the global crisis.”
The report was something of a warning to the global ruling elites. Calling for a shift in economic and employment policies, it said that in emerging economies the rise of the middle class had slowed down and there were “renewed risks of social unrest associated with slower growth.” In the developed countries, it noted that the Gini index, measuring inequality, had “risen significantly in most G20 countries,” with top incomes continuing to rise and the bottom 40 percent of households falling further behind. The incidence of what it called “working poverty” was also on the rise in Europe.
However, there is no prospect of the ILO’s call for a “shift” in current to policies to be met. On the contrary, every report issued by the International Monetary Fund, the OECD and other major economic and financial organisations emphasises the need for further “structural reforms” in the labour market—that is, attacks on employment conditions and job security.
The worsening global economic outlook is being translated into a wave of job cuts in energy-based and mining industries, in banking and finance, and heavy industries such as steel. Last week Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfields services company announced it was to cut a further 10,000 jobs, bringing to 34,000 the number of jobs it has cut since November 2104, or 26 percent of its workforce.
On Friday the credit rating agency Moody’s listed 175 energy and mining companies as being at risk of a credit downgrade, including major global firms Royal Dutch Shell, Total and the gas producer Chesapeake Energy. The notice was the largest single warning of a potential credit downgrade since the financial crisis. It said the slowdown in China was responsible for the gloomy outlook and warned that there was a “substantial risk” that oil prices would recover only slowly from their 12-year lows of less than $30 per barrel. And even with a “modest recovery” producing companies would experience much lower cash flows.
In another warning as to the state of the oil industry, the value of high-yielding or junk bond debt issued by US energy companies has fallen to its lowest point in two decades. The Financial Times reported that investors were bracing for a “wave of bankruptcies” as companies which took out loans in the shale oil industry when the price was over $100 per barrel are struggling under a weight of debt.
Debt problems are not confined to particular industries but extend to whole economies. The level of stressed debt—defined as bonds which are trading at yields of between 7 and 10 percentage points above comparable US treasury bonds—has passed the peak reached during the 2008 global financial crisis.
The combined level of stressed and distressed debt, those bonds where yields are more than 10 percentage points above comparable US treasuries, reached $221 billion this month, compared to the previous record level of $213 billion in December 2008.
While the absolute level of stressed and distressed debt is higher than seven years ago it is has fallen as a share of the total because of the increase in emerging market corporate debt over the past seven years. But there are fears that this will not count for much if there is a rush for the exits and markets suddenly become illiquid with few buyers to be found. Earlier this month the Institute for International Finance said that the capital outflow from China and other emerging markets was $759 billion last year, significantly more than had been previously estimated.
While its proportion of total output has declined, the US economy remains decisive for the world economy as a whole. And here the trends are pointing down. Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded its risk of the US entering a recession from 15 to 20 percent and warned of “the lack of policy ammunition to deal with a shock.”
The bank’s economists said they did not think the economy would plunge as in 2008-9 but cut their estimate for US growth to 2.1 percent from 2.5 percent. While the full statistical picture has yet to emerge, it appears that the US economy slowed down significantly in the last three months of 2015, with areas of manufacturing experiencing a contraction. If these trends continue they will have a major impact on the world economy as a whole.
The whole discussion regarding immigration -- quite apart from issues regarding illegals or “refugees” -- is still fatally based on the same old re-energize model that has about as much relevance to today’s realities as the Dick and...
MEXIIFORNIA: WHERE LA RAZA LOOTS FIRST!
LEGALS FLEE THE LA RAZA WELFARE STATE WITH NEARLY THE HIGHEST TAXES IN THE COUNTRY!
You didn't think Mexico was paying for their anchor baby factories in California?!?
Between the mid-1980s and 2005, the state’s aggregate population increased by 10 million Californians, including immigrants. But that isn’t the good economic news that you might think. For one thing, 7 million of the new Californians were low-income Medicaid recipients. Further, as economist Arthur Laffer recently noted in Investor’s Business Daily, between 1992 and 2008, the number of tax-paying Californians entering California was smaller than the number leaving -- 3.5 million versus 4.4 million, for a net loss of 869,000 tax filers. Those who left were wealthier than those who arrived, with average adjusted gross incomes of $44,700, versus $38,600. Losing those 869,000 filers cost California $44 billion in tax revenue over two decades, Laffer calculated.
January 23, 2016
Immigration and Your Father’s Oldsmobile
By Richard Butrick
The whole discussion regarding immigration -- quite apart from issues regarding illegals or “refugees” -- is still fatally based on the same old re-energize model that has about as much relevance to today’s realities as the Dick and Jane books of the 20th century have to the realities of childhood in 21st century America. Yet even conservative analyst Victor Davis Hanson, who is highly critical of current “suicidal” immigration policies, thinks that the “wise” policy of the turn of the last century can be effectively reinstated. Wrong. The Age of Immigration is over.
Mr. Hanson buys into the basic “re-energize” mantra that forms the underpinnings of the immigration narrative.
In the past, newcomers from around the world were eager for a second start in the United States. They nearly all worked hard, reminding American-born citizens that that they can never rest on their laurels.
Immigrants honed American competition and helped to keep the nation productive.
Fine. But that was, as Mr. Hanson says, “in the past.”
But let us examine more closely just what the re-energize narrative presumes and see to what extent those presumptions are operative in today’s world.
Basically, the re-energize narrative is that immigrant vitality, innovation and determination is what has been largely responsible for the industrial might, power and growth of the United States. The narrative asserts that without the social readjustment caused by the new ideas and vitality that immigrants bring to the U.S., the U.S. would have become moribund and set in its ways. It is the challenge of assimilating a new immigrant population with its new ideas and new perspectives that forces the U.S. to constantly reinvent itself.
The narrative is heard from both sides of the isle. On the conservative side here is Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, giving his thumbnail version of the re-energize immigration narrative:
Immigration is what’s made us economically strong, politically strong, militarily strong, culturally cohesive and strong.
But it is former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg who does the old immigration soft-shoe about as well as anyone. Back in (6/15/11) he made a major immigration policy address before the Council of Foreign Relations and hit all the old heartstring notes about America being built by immigrants and then founded his case on the supposedly obvious inference that what worked in the past is the key to the future. The trouble is the present immigration realities are far removed from the immigration realities of the past and even recent past.
Yet for Bloomberg, the immigration narrative is still the only game in town and a model for framing new immigration policies.
We would not have become a global superpower without the contributions of immigrants who built the railroads and canals that opened up the west, who invented ground-breaking products that revolutionized global commerce, and who pioneered scientific, engineering, and medical advances that made America the most innovative country in the world.
The three key projections that Bloomberg makes as being the way to go to keep America growing and prosperous -- projections that are based on the above re-energize narrative -- are (1) just as in the past, the U.S. needs to bring in immigrants with the “work, work, work” ethic for our basic industries in agriculture and manufacturing; (2) just like in the past the U.S. needs to bring in tech-savvy immigrants with the “innovate, innovate, innovate” brains and dynamic to keep our industries cutting edge; (3) just like in the past the U.S. needs to bring in immigrants to keep our cities vibrant.
Projection 1
As Bloomberg states, most immigrants in the past came here “with almost nothing except one thing: a desire to work -- and work and work and work -- to build a better life for themselves and their families.” And, just as in the past, we need the “work, work, work” ethic that immigrants have to keep our basic industries going.
The trouble with this argument is that it is rooted in 19th century and early 20th century realities. The immigrants who came to America knew they had to work hard to survive. Immigrants today know the U.S. is a fail-safe environment where their kids get a free education. Even undocumented immigrants get:
a). Public school enrollment and free or reduced price lunches (many children are U.S. citizens)
b). Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
c). Medicaid (primarily for "non-emergency pregnancy related care and emergency care").
d). Food stamps (for U.S. born children -- undocumented immigrants are ineligible to receive food stamps).
Each year, state governments spend an estimated $11 billion to $22 billion to provide welfare to immigrants. Those programs include Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Child Care and Development Fund, and even meal programs in public housing.
The highest welfare use rates for immigrants are in New York (30 percent), California (28 percent), Massachusetts (25 percent), and Texas (25 percent).
This is not the root-hog-or-die environment that past immigrants knew they were facing. And certainly the immigrant-based criminal gangs don’t seem to be driven by quite the same “work, work, work” ethic that Bloomberg had in mind.
Projection 2
Americans don’t have the engineering and scientific talent to make it on their own. Just like in the past, we must import the brightest and best.
First of all, corporations are looking for the most cost-effective talent. The talent is here, it’s just cheaper elsewhere. This article from USA Today (2004) gives some of the personal accounts of IT employees reaction to being asked to train their replacements from foreign countries. A 2015 article in PJMedia, "Twenty-Five Years of Helping Foreigners Take American Jobs", deals with the same issues and points out that executives of IT firms insulate themselves from the demands of a competitive market place by forcing their own IT employees to compete with and train IT candidates from countries all over the globe -- countries with wage standards as low as one-tenth those of the U.S.
There’s no reason why corporations, at least big, publicly traded ones, should like hiring in a tight competitive labor market. This is especially true for Big Tech firms, which are typically asset-light and have a high level of operating costs going to labor. Most would expect that the pressure on CEOs to meet analysts’ profit estimates each quarter will trump any free-market ethos they may have every time. Why else would the industry spend billions on lobbying and public relations related to immigration? Big Tech’s message to the American public might as well be, “the free market for thee but not for me.”
This brutal practice has been going on since at least the 90s. Let’s see. We don’t have the talent here but somehow the talent we do have is good enough to train foreign workers who don’t have the talent?
Moreover, the idea that, in the age of the internet and internet conferencing, talent must be physically located in the U.S. in order to work for U.S. corporations is ludicrous.
Although recent data is hard to come by, a 2010 study, “Is President Obama Right about Engineers?” is based on data collected by the Census Bureau from the American Community Survey. Dr. Steven Camarota, its author, found the following: (1) 101,000 U.S. engineers looking for a job can’t find any type of work at all; (2) 244,000 engineers are unemployed and have stopped looking for work and (3) 1.5 million engineers have jobs but don’t work as engineers. He writes:
Relatively low pay and perhaps a strong bias on the part of some employers to hire foreign workers seems to have pushed many American engineers out their profession.
The “talent is not here” is not a born-in-the-USA problem but is a structural problem with complex factors at work. This is a particularly insidious and demoralizing stereotype fobbed off on Americans -- especially those deciding on a college major or just entering the job market. Energy and resources should be used to develop and encourage U.S. born to enter engineering and IT fields rather than feeding the “strong bias” for dutifully grateful foreign workers.
Projection 3
Just as in the past, the key to keeping our cities vibrant is big time immigration. Here is Bloomberg again:
There is no greater force for economic revitalization of depressed neighborhoods than an influx of immigrants. The reason is simple: immigrants are dreamers and risk-takers who are driven to succeed, because they know that in America, hard work and talent are rewarded like nowhere else.
Cities in decline? Just throw in the immigrants. Yes -- that does help the population decline. But is it a cure for financial woes?
As US News reports (2012), a number of cities from Baltimore to Chicago are pushing immigration-friendly policies to revitalize their crumbling economies:
The Global Detroit effort includes programs that help immigrants start small businesses, get driver’s licenses and learn English. As part of the Welcome Dayton Plan adopted last year, the Ohio city sponsors a soccer tournament for immigrant teams. Not to be outdone, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) says he wants his home town to be known as the most “immigrant-friendly city in the country.”
Well, the turnaround hasn’t happened yet. Both Baltimore and Chicago are in financial trouble. But this immigration-energize plan has been going on for a long time in central California. Here is an account by Victor Davis Hanson:
Between the mid-1980s and 2005, the state’s aggregate population increased by 10 million Californians, including immigrants. But that isn’t the good economic news that you might think. For one thing, 7 million of the new Californians were low-income Medicaid recipients. Further, as economist Arthur Laffer recently noted in Investor’s Business Daily, between 1992 and 2008, the number of tax-paying Californians entering California was smaller than the number leaving -- 3.5 million versus 4.4 million, for a net loss of 869,000 tax filers. Those who left were wealthier than those who arrived, with average adjusted gross incomes of $44,700, versus $38,600. Losing those 869,000 filers cost California $44 billion in tax revenue over two decades, Laffer calculated.
Seems like importing all those “work, work, work”, “innovate, innovate, innovate” immigrants is not the magic cure for sclerotic cities. And unless the new immigrants bring in more taxes than they get in benefits, why should it -- benefits that were not available in the “wise” immigration policies of the past.
The Old Saw
Then there is the old saw that immigrants do the necessary work that U.S. citizens won’t do. According to this article (16/1/16) in the Boston Globe we would have to pay more for romaine lettuce and restaurants would have a tough time finding dishwashers, and construction firms would be at a loss for roofers and drywall installers, and then there is the clincher: the lawns of all the 1 percenters would go to seed.
But this article from The Center for Immigration Studies claims “that the often-made argument that immigrants only take jobs Americans don’t want is simply wrong.”
Further, this article from Pew Research points out that real wages (adjusted for inflation) have been “flat or falling” for decades and points out that had the labor markets been tightening employers would “offer higher wages to entice workers their way.” A connection with immigration policies?
Whatever policies are adopted, they should be based on current realities -- and not on the three stooges of the re-energize model. Let me conclude with a quote from the Focus Management Group:
The belief that past success, particularly great success, can set an organization apart from the potential negative impact of changing dynamics is one of the primary causes for business failure. Trapped in the limelight and aura of past glories, businesses tend to progress in a predictable manner, oblivious to the dangers lurking around the corner. IBM continued to fight a tsunami of strategic logic in its insular belief that its dominant mainframe computer technology was the only game in town.
Unlike Sears, Roebuck, IBM shifted its business model just barely in time to reverse its decline. Wither the USA? Sears, Roebuck or IBM?
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/immigration_and_your_fathers_oldsmobile.html#ixzz3y5u86Fde
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"Some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States, the government documents say. The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juárez as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah."
Judicial Watch Uncovers New State Department Records Confirming Arab Smuggling “Cells,” Al Qaeda Leader in Mexico.
For more than a decade the U.S. government has known that “Arab extremists” are entering the country through Mexico with the assistance of smuggling network “cells,” according to State Department documents obtained by Judicial Watch that reveal among them was a top Al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI. Some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States, the government documents say. The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juárez as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah. The cable was released to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.
The new intelligence records were released as a result of an ongoing JW investigation into the critical national security threats on the southern border, specifically those created by Islamic terrorists teaming up with Mexican drug cartels to infiltrate and attack the U.S. In response to JW’s reporting in the last two years the Obama administration—through various spokespeople, including FBI Director James Comey—has vehemently denied that Islamic terrorists are operating in Mexican towns near American cities or entering the U.S. through the famously porous southern border.
The State Department documents, which include substantial redactions supposedly to protect classified and personal information, contradict this. JW obtained them as part of an investigative series into Shukrijumah, an Al Qaeda operative also known as Javier Robles. In December, 2014 Shukrijumah was killed by the Pakistan Army in an intelligence-borne operation in South Waziristan. But before he died Shukrijumah helped plan several U.S. attacks, including plots to bomb Oprah Winfrey’s studio and detonate nuclear devices in multiple American cities. For years Shukrijumah appeared on the FBI’s most wanted list and, despite being sought by the agency, he crossed back and forth into the U.S. from Mexico to meet fellow militant Islamists in Texas. JW has reported that, as one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, Shukrijumah piloted an aircraft into the Cielo Dorado airfield in Anthony, New Mexico.
The new State Department records show that U.S. authorities knew Shukrijumah was in Mexico because they say that the Regional Security Office (RSO) at the consulate in Ciudad Juárez used newspapers to distribute information throughout Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico about the Al Qaeda operative at the request of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in El Paso. This appears on page 17 of the documents, which are linked above in their entirety. Of interesting note is that the government uses an exemption that applies to classified information to continue to withhold some of the records when the entire file was already declassified back in September, 2014.
Information about Middle Eastern terrorists entering the U.S. through Mexico appears in a September 2, 2004 cable—declassified 10 years later—titled “CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT, A PROVEN CI TO USG IN THE PAST, REPORTS ARAB CELLS WITHIN MEXICO.” It explains that a reputable government informant went to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez and provided information pertaining to suspect Arab extremists who have been smuggled into the U.S. through the Mexican border. “The confidential source (SUBJECT) stated his family member, who is a human trafficker, knows the exact whereabouts of three Arabs who are currently being hidden in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico,” the State Department cable reads. “Although not absolutely positive, one of the three is likely Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, alleged to be a Saudi Arabian terrorist cell leader thought to be in Mexico. SUBJECT also provided information on two smuggling networks, “cells,” that specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States.”
Many questions remain about the U.S. government’s relationship with Shukrijumah, but last spring JW obtained records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that indicate he was a Confidential Source/Informant for the government. Shukrijumah lived in South Florida’s Broward County and graduated from Broward Community College with a degree in computer engineering. Four months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks Shukrijumah fled the U.S. He was one of the suspected actors in a number of planned terror attacks in the U.S., including a plot to simultaneously detonate nuclear devices in several U.S. cities. Convicted terrorist Jose Padilla claimed to have trained with Shukrijumah to blow up U.S. apartment buildings using natural gas explosions.
In 2010 Shukrijumah was indicted in the Eastern District of New York for his role in a terrorist plot to attack targets in the United States—including New York City’s subway system—and the United Kingdom, according the FBI. The plot against New York City’s subway system was directed by senior Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan, the FBI says, and was directly related to a scheme by Al Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United States.
A year earlier Shukrijumah helped plan a terrorist truck-bomb targeting Winfrey’s Harpo Studios in Chicago as well as the iconic Sears Tower. Two of his fellow conspirators—Emad Karakrah and Hector Pedroza Huerta—were arrested in 2014 for unrelated state crimes in different parts of the country. Karakrah got busted in Chicago on charges of making a false car bomb threat after leading police on a high-speed chase with an ISIS flag waving from his vehicle. Huerta, an illegal alien twice convicted for driving intoxicated, got nabbed in El Paso for drunk driving. Both Karakrah and Pedroza were released from custody in 2015 under highly unusual plea deals.
The men formed part of a sophisticated narco-terror ring, exposed in a JW investigative series, with connections running from El Paso to Chicago to New York City. The operation includes an all-star lineup of logistics and transportation operatives for militant Islamists in the United State, drug and weapons smugglers for the Juarez drug cartel in Mexico, an FBI confidential informant gone rogue and two of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists. Shukrijumah was one of them and, though he’s dead, he is an important part of the puzzle and extremely relevant when connecting the dots in the narco-terror ring.
The headline at The Clarion Project reads: “Christian Persecution in 2015 at ‘Levels Akin to Ethnic Cleansing.’” The sub-heading notes that 2015 was “the most violent year in modern history for Christians.” I...
In 2015, more than 7,000 Christians were killed because of their faith (twice as many as the year before). And the estimate is conservative because it excludes places where there is ongoing persecution but where accurate records don’t exist (such as in North Korea, Syria, and Iraq). In addition, last year 2,400 Christian churches were attacked or damaged (more than double from 2014).
Virginia Police Make Arrests in Gruesome MS-13 Gang Murders
by Warner Todd Huston17 Jan 2016Alexandria, VA63
17 Jan, 2016
17 Jan, 2016
Police have announced that they have solved two murders in Virginia linked to the violent gang MS-13, which is primarily made up of Central American illegal immigrants.
At a press conference earlier this week, Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook reported that arrests have now been made in the case of two murders carried out by members of the California-based Hispanic gang.
Late last year the bodies of the two victims, Jose Luis Ferman Perez, 24, and Eduardo David Chandias Almendarez, 22, were discovered in separate cases. Police determined that neither victim was a member of the Salvadoran-dominated gang but both were killed by gang members.
Perez’s body was discovered in November. Now police have announced that a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member has been arrested and charged with the murder. A 16-year-old girl and another adult male will also soon be charged for Perez’s death, authorities say.
As to Almendarez’s murder, Chief Cook said that 18-year-old Edwin Alexander Guerreo Umana, also an MS-13 gang banger, was arrested and charged with that murder.
The chief reported that MS-13 activity has been increasing in the area.
“All of this gang activity in this region, and many of you have reported on it recently in the last couple years, the intensity of the violence has risen a great deal in the last couple years. We unfortunately had two of the victims here in Alexandria die because of that violence,” the Chief said.
Alexandria is certainly not alone in seeing a rise in MS-13 activity.
During the same week that police in Alexandria were announcing their arrests, plea deals were being announced in North Carolina as prosecutors go after a large number of MS-13 gang members.
Police in Washington D.C. were also announcing an uptick in the gang’s activity in the nation’s capital and say that the gang is responsible for a rise in homicides in the city.
Additionally, officials in Maryland were also saying that there has been a resurgence of MS-13 activity in the Old Line State.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
January 22, 2016
Christian persecution at record levels
By Carol Brown
The headline at The Clarion Project reads: “Christian Persecution in 2015 at ‘Levels Akin to Ethnic Cleansing.’” The sub-heading notes that 2015 was “the most violent year in modern history for Christians.” It takes one’s breath away to see the blunt truth summed up like that. And the world is turning a blind eye.
The article the references a piece at Open Doors that provides an overview of the rise of Christian persecution around the world. (See summary below.)
In 2015, more than 7,000 Christians were killed because of their faith (twice as many as the year before). And the estimate is conservative because it excludes places where there is ongoing persecution but where accurate records don’t exist (such as in North Korea, Syria, and Iraq). In addition, last year 2,400 Christian churches were attacked or damaged (more than double from 2014).
“Islamic supremacy remains the most virulent ideology that drives persecution.” Countries singled out for being particularly risky for Christians were North Korea, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, and India (due to hardline Hindu nationalists).
The Middle East, as we are well aware, has become an increasingly dangerous place for Christians as the Islamic State sweeps across the region, massacring Christians, enslaving them, raping Christian women, destroying ancient Christian buildings and artifacts, and spurring a mass exodus of Christians fleeing the region. There is also a constant “low-level” persecution as Christians are driven out of their communities, denied jobs, denied an education, and/or refused burials.
As the caliphate expands, there are two central hubs: one in the Middle East and the other in sub-Sahara Africa. Though both regions are threatening to Christians, the Middle East poses the gravest threat. The Islamic State is in Syria, Iraq, and now Libya, while Muslims across the Middle East become more devout. Meanwhile, Boko Haram has moved into Cameroon and Chad, Al-Shabaab is in Kenya, and smaller terror organizations continue to pledge themselves to the Islamic State and the vision of the caliphate.
Lawlessness contributes to the risk level for Christians, who face untold suffering in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, where migrant Christians from Sudan, Egypt, and Eritrea have been brutally executed. Meanwhile, Saudi-led forces in Yemen have made life for the few Christians remaining even more dangerous. Pakistani Christians are fleeing as well, heading to countries in Southeast Asia.
In Central Asia, governments are tightening controls where, under the guise of fighting Islamic extremism, they’ve increased surveillance of the church, while in Myanmar, the state punishes those who convert from Buddhism to Christianity.
Christians are on the move around the globe, running for their lives, taking enormous risks as they cross deserts and hope they don’t fall victim to trafficking gangs. The journey is long and filled with danger. And even after they arrive at refugee camps, they continue to face threats and attacks by Muslims. At the same time, though not comparable to the barbarism Christians are facing around the world, the climate in the West is increasingly hostile to them – a climate so sick that the United States has essentially closed its doors to Christians fleeing the growing caliphate.
We are living in perilous times. As Christianity is replaced with Islam (as well as godlessness in the West), Western culture will collapse. The process has already started. It is a time to pray, a time to act, and a time to be unified against the forces of evil.
Hat tip: Counter Jihad Report
The headline at The Clarion Project reads: “Christian Persecution in 2015 at ‘Levels Akin to Ethnic Cleansing.’” The sub-heading notes that 2015 was “the most violent year in modern history for Christians.” It takes one’s breath away to see the blunt truth summed up like that. And the world is turning a blind eye.
The article the references a piece at Open Doors that provides an overview of the rise of Christian persecution around the world. (See summary below.)
In 2015, more than 7,000 Christians were killed because of their faith (twice as many as the year before). And the estimate is conservative because it excludes places where there is ongoing persecution but where accurate records don’t exist (such as in North Korea, Syria, and Iraq). In addition, last year 2,400 Christian churches were attacked or damaged (more than double from 2014).
“Islamic supremacy remains the most virulent ideology that drives persecution.” Countries singled out for being particularly risky for Christians were North Korea, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, and India (due to hardline Hindu nationalists).
The Middle East, as we are well aware, has become an increasingly dangerous place for Christians as the Islamic State sweeps across the region, massacring Christians, enslaving them, raping Christian women, destroying ancient Christian buildings and artifacts, and spurring a mass exodus of Christians fleeing the region. There is also a constant “low-level” persecution as Christians are driven out of their communities, denied jobs, denied an education, and/or refused burials.
As the caliphate expands, there are two central hubs: one in the Middle East and the other in sub-Sahara Africa. Though both regions are threatening to Christians, the Middle East poses the gravest threat. The Islamic State is in Syria, Iraq, and now Libya, while Muslims across the Middle East become more devout. Meanwhile, Boko Haram has moved into Cameroon and Chad, Al-Shabaab is in Kenya, and smaller terror organizations continue to pledge themselves to the Islamic State and the vision of the caliphate.
Lawlessness contributes to the risk level for Christians, who face untold suffering in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, where migrant Christians from Sudan, Egypt, and Eritrea have been brutally executed. Meanwhile, Saudi-led forces in Yemen have made life for the few Christians remaining even more dangerous. Pakistani Christians are fleeing as well, heading to countries in Southeast Asia.
In Central Asia, governments are tightening controls where, under the guise of fighting Islamic extremism, they’ve increased surveillance of the church, while in Myanmar, the state punishes those who convert from Buddhism to Christianity.
Christians are on the move around the globe, running for their lives, taking enormous risks as they cross deserts and hope they don’t fall victim to trafficking gangs. The journey is long and filled with danger. And even after they arrive at refugee camps, they continue to face threats and attacks by Muslims. At the same time, though not comparable to the barbarism Christians are facing around the world, the climate in the West is increasingly hostile to them – a climate so sick that the United States has essentially closed its doors to Christians fleeing the growing caliphate.
We are living in perilous times. As Christianity is replaced with Islam (as well as godlessness in the West), Western culture will collapse. The process has already started. It is a time to pray, a time to act, and a time to be unified against the forces of evil.
Hat tip: Counter Jihad Report
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/christian_persecution_at_record_levels.html#ixzz3y02gHDMv
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A recent (1/18/16) article by Doug Bandow, a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, titled “Saudi Arabia Is More Dangerous as a Frenemy than Iran is as an Adversary,” details the havoc wrought not only in the Middle East, but in Europe and ...
THE FILTHY SAUDIS HAVE INVESTED HEAVILY IN THE BILLARY AND HILLARY PHONY CHARITY FOUNDATION AND BILLARY'S LIBRARY.
WE ALL CRINGED WHEN BARACK OBAMA BENT OVER TO KISS THE HEM OF THE SAUDIS LARDBUCKET DICTATOR... OBAMA WAS SNIFFING AROUND FOR SAUDIS BRIBES IN THE FORM OF SPEECH FEES AND OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY BRIBES!
DO A SEARCH ON THIS BLOG FOR OBAMA AND THE SAUDIS. HE'S SERVED THEIR INTERESTS FROM DAY ONE!
In all, at least $1.476 billion had made its way from the Saudis to the House of Bush and its allied companies and institutions.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is essentially a totalitarian state which acts as a tool of plunder for some 7000 princes and their families. … Unfortunately, Riyadh doesn't keep religious repression at home. The licentious royals long ago made a deal with fundamentalist Wahhabis to enforce repressive Islamic theology at home and fund its propagation abroad… the royals consistently triumphed, brilliantly manipulating the U.S. to advance their interests… By turning the American military into the Saudi royals' bodyguard, Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama spurred terrorism and attacks on Americans. The first Gulf War was directed more to safeguard Saudi Arabia than liberate Kuwait… The monarchy's relationship with the Bush clan, including both Presidents H.W. and George, was particularly intimate.
January 22, 2016
The sad Bush/Saudi collusion
By Richard Butrick
A recent (1/18/16) article by Doug Bandow, a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, titled “Saudi Arabia Is More Dangerous as a Frenemy than Iran is as an Adversary,” details the havoc wrought not only in the Middle East, but in Europe and the U.S. by U.S. administrations, and especially by the Bush administrations, treating Riyadh as a supposed ally.
It has been known for some time that there was a cozy financial connection between the Bushes and Saudis. This was well-documented in Craig Unger’s book (2004), House of Bush, House of Saud: The Hidden Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties.
Here is the review of Unger’s book in the Guardian (2004):
… for the most part this is a very powerful, well-researched and sober book that leaves the reader both enlightened and more than a little disturbed. You will certainly view the Bush administration – and, indeed, American policy-making – through a rather different prism[.]
What the Bandow article adds is the consequences of U.S. administrations, and the Bushes in particular, turning a blind eye to the vicious home rule and Middle Eastern ambitions of the 7,000 ruling Wahhabi-driven Saudi families. In the case of the Bush family, this was done in conjunction with sub rosa financial support for their various investment activities:
In all, at least $1.476 billion had made its way from the Saudis to the House of Bush and its allied companies and institutions.
As to what the Saudis were up to in return, here are some excerpts from the Bandow article:
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is essentially a totalitarian state which acts as a tool of plunder for some 7000 princes and their families. … Unfortunately, Riyadh doesn't keep religious repression at home. The licentious royals long ago made a deal with fundamentalist Wahhabis to enforce repressive Islamic theology at home and fund its propagation abroad… the royals consistently triumphed, brilliantly manipulating the U.S. to advance their interests… By turning the American military into the Saudi royals' bodyguard, Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama spurred terrorism and attacks on Americans. The first Gulf War was directed more to safeguard Saudi Arabia than liberate Kuwait… The monarchy's relationship with the Bush clan, including both Presidents H.W. and George, was particularly intimate.
Here is an account of the basic thrust of the Saudi Wahhabi agenda by none other than Thomas Friedman of the NYT:
Nothing has been more corrosive to the stability and modernization of the Arab world, and the Muslim world at large, than the billions and billions of dollars the Saudis have invested since the 1970s into wiping out the pluralism of Islam -- the Sufi, moderate Sunni and Shiite versions -- and imposing in its place the puritanical, anti-modern, anti-women, anti-Western, anti-pluralistic Wahhabi Salafist brand of Islam
Indeed, while it was not just the Bush administrations that became enablers of the Saudi agenda, given that patriotism and forthrightness were the supposed hallmark of the Bush clan, collusion for financial gain, in spite of its ongoing disastrous consequences, is especially disheartening.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/the_sad_bushsaudi_collusion.html#ixzz3y04VymcA
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This sounds so incredible that if it was any other group, you might question whether it was created by the U.S. for propaganda purposes. But this fatwa, which allows the Islamic State to remove organs from living people who aren't Muslim, was ...
December 26, 2015
ISIS fatwa will allow harvesting of organs from living 'apostates'
By Rick Moran
This sounds so incredible that if it was any other group, you might question whether it was created by the U.S. for propaganda purposes.
But this fatwa, which allows the Islamic State to remove organs from living people who aren't Muslim, was discovered in a raid following the targeted assassination of ISIS financier Abu Sayyaf and has been shared with other governments.
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-islamic-state-document