Author: Ron Chambers

Tax the Rich: Pope Francis Calls for Global Wealth Redistribution

Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. – February 6, 2020

Tax cuts for the wealthy constitute a “structure of sin,” Pope Francis said Wednesday in a passionate address calling for international wealth redistribution.

“Every year hundreds of billions of dollars, which should be paid in taxes to fund health care and education, accumulate in tax haven accounts,” the pontiff told participants in a Vatican seminar, “thus impeding the possibility of the dignified and sustained development of all social agents.”

“Today’s structures of sin include repeated tax cuts for the richest people, often justified in the name of investment and development,” Francis told the meeting organized by the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences.

During his discourse, the pope repeated his conviction that poverty is on the rise worldwide and “the poor increase around us.”

With the passage of time and the advances of civilization the number of poor people increases rather than diminishing, Francis similarly asserted last June, and “the poor are always poorer, and today they are poorer than ever.”

As a Brookings Institution report noted in late 2018, however, the world is currently experiencing “the lowest prevalence of extreme poverty ever recorded in human history — less than 8 percent,” and that number falls with each passing year.

According to the widely used “international poverty line,” people are considered to be in “extreme poverty” if they live on less than $1.90 per day or its equivalent.

In the world today, less than 10 percent of the global population lives in extreme poverty, whereas just 30 years ago (1990), some 37 percent of the world lived in extreme poverty. Two centuries ago, nearly everyone in the world lived in extreme poverty.

https://www.breitbart.com

4 Plagues Are Marching Across Asia Simultaneously: Coronavirus, African Swine Fever, H5N1 Bird Flu And H1N1 Swine Flu

– February 2, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak that is raging all over China right now has been making headlines on a daily basis all over the globe, and rightly so.  At this point we don’t know if it will ultimately become a horrifying global pandemic that will affect tens of millions of people, but what we do know is that the virus spreads very easily and the number of cases has been rising at an exponential rate.  Meanwhile, three other plagues have also been marching across Asia, and most people in the western world don’t even realize that this is happening.  What I am about to share with you in this article is quite chilling, and the months ahead will be very dark if these plagues continue to spread.

Long before we ever heard of this new coronavirus, African Swine Fever was devastating pork farms from one end of China to the other.  There is no vaccine for “pig ebola”, there is no cure, and once it hits a farm the only thing that can be done is to kill every single pig so that it won’t spread anywhere else.  But even though draconian measures have been implemented, it has just kept spreading, and at this point “about two-thirds of China’s swine herd has been lost”.

Unfortunately, this insidious disease has also been devastating farms in many other nations all over the planet.  In particular, Cambodia, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines have been hit particularly hard.

Meanwhile, there has been a very alarming resurgence of the H5N1 bird flu in China.

According to the Daily Mail, more than 17,000 chickens have been culled in an effort to keep this new outbreak from spreading further…

China has reportedly seen an outbreak of a ‘highly pathogenic’ strain of H5N1 bird flu which has already killed 4,500 chickens.

Alarmingly, the H5N1 bird flu has also popped up at a facility in India.

Not too long ago, the H1N1 swine flu caused mass panic all over the globe, and I personally knew someone that was killed by it.

So the truth is that all of these outbreaks are very concerning.

And never before have we seen so many alarming outbreaks occur simultaneously.  Could it be possible that we have entered a period of time when mass pandemics are going to become “the new normal”?

Hopefully none of these current outbreaks will end up killing millions of people all over the globe.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Tropical Cyclone “Damien” forms near Western Australia, severe impact expected on February 8

– February 6, 2020

Tropical Cyclone “Damien” formed near Kimberley coast, Western Australia on Thursday, February 6, 2020. It is forecast to hit the Pilbara coast, WA as Category 3 cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone scale on February 8. Very destructive wind gusts and very dangerous storm tide are expected, followed by likely very dangerous flooding. This is the third named storm of the 2019/20 Australian region cyclone season.

The tropical cyclone should continue to intensify as it tracks to the west southwest overnight Thursday, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). Damien is expected to turn south towards the Pilbara coast on Friday. A severe tropical cyclone impact is forecast for the Pilbara coast during Saturday.

At 09:00 UTC (17:00 AWST) on Thursday, February 6, the center of Tropical Cyclone “Damien” was located about 355 km (220 miles) NNE of Port Hedland and 475 km (295 miles) NE of Karratha. The cyclone had sustained winds near the center of 75 km/h (46 mph) and gusts to 100 km/h (62 mph). It was moving WSW at 16 km/h (10 mph).

Gales are forecast to develop along the Pilbara coast between Wallal Downs and Dampier including Port Hedland and Karratha from later Friday afternoon.

Destructive winds with wind gusts to 150 km/h (93 mph) may develop overnight Friday night as the cyclone approaches the coast, increasing further on Saturday with very destructive winds with wind gusts to 230 km/h (145 mph) near the center of the cyclone.

https://watchers.news

Persecuted Christians in Africa

Jack Kerwick – February 5, 2020

Globally speaking, as it has been accurately said, “religious persecution” is virtually synonymous with “Christian persecution.”

Yet the international journalistic class, as well as Christian leadership, is all but silent. At the very least, they don’t make nearly as much noise about this continuing outrage as they should and most assuredly would be making if it were any other religious group being besieged by a fraction of the violence to which Christians are routinely subjected in legions of countries around the planet.

Giulio Meotti is worth quoting at length. He asks: “Where has been the global outcry for the serial butchering of Christians just because they are Christians?”

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the Bishops’ Conference likened parts of the country to “the killing fields” plowed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Only in this case, it is the blood of Christians that is feeding those fields.

Meotti summarizes a recent spate of homicidal violence against Christian in Nigeria alone:

“First there was the beheading of 11 Nigerian Christians during the recent Christmas celebration. The next day, a Catholic woman, Martha Bulus, was beheaded in the Nigerian state of Borno with her bridesmaids, five days before the wedding. Then there was a raid on the village of Gora-Gan in the Nigerian state of Kaduna, where terrorists shot anyone they met in the square where the evangelical community had gathered, killing two young Christian women. There was also a Christian student killed by Islamic extremists who recorded his execution. Then pastor Lawan Andimi, a local leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria, was beheaded.”

Father Joseph Bature Fidelis, of the Diocese of Maiduguri, refers to the “immense extermination” of Christians that is occurring.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

US coronavirus evacuees headed to Texas, Nebraska, may be on last chartered flights: State Department

Madeline Farber – February 6, 2020

Two flights carrying American evacuees from Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus outbreak — that are slated to land sometime Friday in Texas and Nebraska, respectively, are likely to be the last State Department-chartered flights out of the city, an official told Fox News.

“At this time, we do not anticipate staging additional flights beyond those planned to depart February 6,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News, adding any U.S. citizens still in China “should attempt to depart by commercial means.”

The two flights are scheduled to depart from Wuhan on Thursday and are expected to land at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Some 250 passengers are reportedly on the flight to Texas while an estimated 70 passengers are on the one to Nebraska.

The news comes after two planes chartered by the State Department arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif., with one later traveling onto Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego. An estimated 350 Americans were on the two flights. All passengers are subject to a 14-day quarantine —  they remain in temporary housing units where they will be monitored by medical teams with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for possible symptoms of the coronavirus.

At least four evacuees — three adults and one child — who are being temporarily housed at Travis Air Force Base in San Diego were transported to area hospitals after showing signs of coronavirus, which have been reported to include fever, shortness of breath and a cough. In an update on Thursday, officials from U.C. San Diego Health and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego said all four patients are stable, and that test results were expected as early as Saturday.

https://www.foxnews.com

Almost 40% of the world’s countries will witness civil unrest in 2020, research claims

David Reid – January 16, 2020

Almost a quarter of the world’s countries witnessed a surge in protest and unrest last year and that figure is set to rise further in 2020, according to a new study.

There are 195 countries in the world, if the Vatican and Palestine are included, and a newly released index of civil unrest has claimed that 47 of those states witnessed a rise in civil unrest in 2019.

The data model, published Thursday by socio-economic and political analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft, has also predicted that in 2020, the number will balloon to 75 countries.

The U.K. consultancy identified Hong Kong and Chile as the two flashpoints suffering the largest increases in unrest since the beginning of 2019. Neither country is expected to find peace for at least two years, according to the research.

Other areas now considered hotbeds of civil protest include Nigeria, Lebanon and Bolivia. Beyond these three, countries dropping into a category labeled “extreme risk” include Ethiopia, India, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

Since the previous index release, Sudan has overtaken Yemen to become the highest risk country globally.

https://www.cnbc.com

EU Parliament Clears Brexit; UK Set to Leave Friday

Newsmax – January 29, 2020

The European Union grudgingly let go of the United Kingdom with a final vote Wednesday at the E.U.’s Parliament that ended the Brexit divorce battle and set the scene for tough trade negotiations in the year ahead.

In an emotion-charged session at the session in Brussels, lawmakers from all 28 E.U. countries expressed their love and sadness, while some, notably from Britain’s Brexit Party, their joy.

Some even cried and many held hands during a mournful rendition of the Auld Lang Syne farewell song that contrasted sharply with hard-headed exhortations that Britain won’t find it easy in the talks that will follow the country’s official departure on Friday.

“We will always love you and we will never be far,” said E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Britain will leave the E.U. after 47 years of membership. It is the first country to leave and for many in Europe its official departure at 11 p.m. London time on Friday is a moment of enormous sadness and reduces the number in the bloc to 27.

With just two days to go until Brexit day, the legislature overwhelmingly approved Britain’s departure terms from the E.U. — 621 to 49 in favor of the Brexit deal that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiated with the other 27 E.U. leaders in the fall of last year. The deal’s passage follows last week’s backing by the U.K.’s Parliament.

The Parliament’s chief Brexit official, Guy Verhofstadt, said that “this vote is not an adieu,” adding that it is “only an au revoir.”

https://www.newsmax.com

China’s Viral Death Toll Hits Grim New High as World Health Agency Declares a Global Crisis

Newsmax – January 30, 2020

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak sparked by a new virus in China that has spread to more than a dozen countries a global emergency after the number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week, including the record number of deaths in 24 hours reported Friday.

China counted 9,692 confirmed cases with a death toll of 213, including 43 new fatalities. The vast majority of the cases have been in Hubei province and its provincial capital, Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. No deaths have been reported outside China.

The U.N. health agency defines an international emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

China first informed WHO about cases of the new virus in late December. Eighteen other countries have since reported cases, as scientists race to understand how exactly the virus is spreading and how severe it is.

Experts say there is significant evidence the virus is spreading among people in China and have noted with concern instances in other countries — including the United States, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, South Korea and Vietnam — where there have also been isolated cases of human-to-human transmission.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted the worrisome spread of the virus between people outside China.

“The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China but because of what is happening in other countries,” he said. “Our greatest concern is the potential for this virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”

https://www.newsmax.com

A Plague Of “Billions” Of Locusts Threatens To Create Horrific End-Times Famine Across Africa

– January 27, 2020

Billions of locusts are eating everything in sight in east Africa right now, and every single day many more farms are being completely wiped out.  Unfortunately, authorities are telling us that what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.  In fact, if extreme measures are not implemented immediately, authorities are claiming that this locust plague could literally get “500 times” worse in a few months.  But it is difficult to imagine conditions getting any worse than they are at this moment.  Ravenous locust swarms that are “the size of cities” are consuming crops at a staggering pace, and this could potentially cause famine on the African continent that is unlike anything we have ever seen before.

It can be difficult to imagine a plague of “billions” of locusts.  After all, there are only about 7 billion people living on the entire planet.

But this is actually happening.  Right now “billions of locusts” are absolutely devastating east Africa, and each one can eat “its own weight in food every day”…

Billions of locusts swarming through East Africa could prove disastrous for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods, experts have warned, amid increasing calls for international help.

Dense clouds of the ravenous insects, each of which consumes its own weight in food every day, have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades.

It would be hard to overstate what this is going to mean for the region.  According to the FAO, this plague is an “unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa”…

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has described the situation as “extremely alarming,” representing an “unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa.”

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Midshipmen Establish Study Group for Satanic Temple Beliefs at US Naval Academy

Caitlin M. Kenney – November 1, 2019

WASHINGTON — Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy who have beliefs associated with The Satanic Temple now have a study group available to them, according to the military institution.

A space for a study group at the academy, located in Annapolis, Md., was requested by students with “beliefs aligned with those practiced by The Satanic Temple” so they could gather and share their views, according to a statement issued Thursday by Cmdr. Alana Garas, a Naval Academy spokeswoman.

An internal email sent out to the student body Oct. 8 stated “satanic services” would be starting at the academy, Garas said. However, the announcement was not reviewed or approved by the school’s command chaplain nor did it represent the U.S. Naval Academy’s Command Religious Program, according to Garas.

But the student’s request was for a space to conduct a study group, not to hold satanic services, according to Garas.

“The USNA Command Religious Program provides for the exercise of diverse beliefs. Arrangements were being made to provide the Midshipmen with a designated place to assemble as chaplains facilitate for the beliefs of all service members, a responsibility outlined by Navy instructions,” Garas said in the statement.

https://www.military.com