Jack Kelley: Savage Wolves

Savage Wolves

Jack Kelley

“I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30).

It didn’t take long for Paul’s warning to the elders of the Church in Ephesus to come true. Within the lifetimes of the original apostles false teachers had invaded the Church and were spewing their doctrines around wherever they went.

Paul called such people false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. He said they are servants of Satan whose end will be what their actions deserve (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

John said they have the spirit of anti-Christ. He said, “They went out from us but they didn’t really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19). In other words they may attend a church but they are not part of the Church.

Peter was the most aggressive in his condemnation of the false teachers. Here are some excerpts from 2 Peter 2, a chapter devoted entirely and exclusively to false teachers.

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2 Peter 2:1-3).

You would think with the advent of the written word, all this false teaching would have stopped, because believers could check what they were hearing against what the Bible says to see if they were being told the truth or not. But the reality is that even in countries where the Bible is readily available most believers simply don’t take the time to read and understand it. A great majority seems to be content with having someone else read it for them and then tell them what it says. These believers have always been fair game for the false teachers.

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Chinese Military Developing Space Assets At "Breathtaking Speed"

Chinese Military Developing Space Assets At "Breathtaking Speed"

FRANK FANG

Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, recently warned about China's "breathtakingly fast" development of space military capabilities, following his trips to South Korea and Japan.

"We are seriously focused at U.S. Space Command on our pacing challenge, which is the People's Republic of China," Gen. Whiting told reporters during a call from Japan on April 24.

"The People's Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space, and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities," he added.

Reports indicate that China is actively working on various space-based weapons technologies, including satellite-mounted lasers, kinetic kill vehicles, and electromagnetic railguns. These capabilities, if fully realized, could potentially enable China to neutralize enemy satellites, intercept incoming missiles, and exert dominance over strategic orbits.

"They're also using space to make their terrestrial forces--their army, their navy, their marine corps, their air force--more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging."

One particular concern was the number of Chinese satellites in orbit, Gen. Whiting said.

"Over the last six years, they have tripled the number of intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance satellites on orbit, and they have used their space capabilities to improve the lethality, the precision, and the range of their terrestrial forces," he said.

"And so that obviously is a cause for concern and something that we are watching a very, very closely."

China's satellite fleet stood at 359 systems as of January, according to his prepared remarks for a hearing of the Senate Armed Service Committee in February. He also noted that Beijing is developing hypersonic glide vehicles along with other advanced space weaponry to "overcome U.S. traditional missile warning and ballistic missile defense systems."

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Consumers Feel The Economic Shift - Uncertain Outlook For Rest Of 2024

Consumers Feel The Economic Shift - Uncertain Outlook For Rest Of 2024

MICHAEL SNYDER

Can you feel it too?  Over the past few weeks, I have heard from so many readers that are deeply troubled about economic conditions where they live.  In some cases, sales are way down.  In other cases, it seems almost impossible to find a decent job.  

It is almost as if a tremendous chill descended upon the U.S. economy as the second quarter of 2024 began.  Yes, economic conditions have certainly not been good for a few years, but it appears that an absolutely enormous economic shift of historic proportions is now taking place right in front of our eyes.  Other than the early stages of the pandemic, we haven't seen anything like this since 2008 and 2009.

Let me give you an example that will illustrate what I am talking about.  A reader that lives near Seattle recently wrote me about the horrible downturn that she is witnessing in the tech industry, and she said that I could share this information with all of you...

I live in the tech corridor outside of Seattle and practically no one can find a job in tech. Apparently the costs of AI processors and servers are so expensive that large tech companies are laying off workers to accommodate for the increased infrastructure costs. 

I would estimate that 50 percent of the people I know in tech are unemployed including myself and my spouse. In addition they are laying off both FTEs and contractors and not backfilling the positions. The problem is exacerbated if you're over 40 because they don't want to compensate for experience. 

In fact experience seems to be working against people. Not to mention AI taking over roles like technical writing and marketing communications. It's getting really bad out there and the large companies play along with the media. I've met with several ex colleagues who have had their entire teams laid off and former FTEs who have had to take major pay cuts as contractors. 

I've also heard of more rounds of layoffs coming up. I went over to Microsoft the other morning to have coffee with an ex colleague and it's a ghost town. No one in conference rooms or offices. Maybe people are working from home but it sure felt very different.

That email resonated with me so strongly, because she is right

Vast hordes of tech workers have already been laid off, and more will be hitting the bricks soon.

But the tech industry is supposed to be one of our economic bright spots.

If things are this bad for the tech industry, what does this say about the economy as a whole?

Most of the jobs that are still available at this point pay very little.  Jobs that actually pay enough to support a middle class lifestyle have been disappearing, and millions of white collar workers find themselves on the outside looking in.  The following comes from a Business Insider article entitled "Welcome to the white-collar recession"...

Over the past year or so, pretty much everyone who's looked for a job has told me the same thing: The job market is brutal right now. They've applied to dozens if not hundreds of openings, only to get one or two callbacks. No one's hiring, they tell me. I've never seen it this bad.

Yes.

I have heard the same things over and over again too.

And it is getting worse with each passing day.

On Wednesday, we learned about even more layoffs at Google...

Google fired approximately 200 employees and relocated some of the jobs overseas - the latest sign of a long-running effort by the Big Tech firm to cut costs and restructure itself.

The job cuts -- announced internally on the eve of Google's blowout first-quarter earnings report -- targeted members of Google's "core" team, which works on the "technical foundation behind the company's flagship products" as well as the online safety of users and its global IT infrastructure, according to its website.

Millions of small businesses are really struggling right now too.

During the month of April, 43 percent of all small business renters in the United States were not able to pay their rent in full.  The last time we witnessed anything like this was during the lockdowns that were instituted during the early stages of the pandemic...

A significant number of small businesses across the nation are struggling to pay rent due to skyrocketing costs, a recent study by business networking platform Alignable found.

The company's latest Small Business Rent report, published on Friday, found that 43 percent of small business renters in the U.S. were unable to pay their rent in full and on time in the month of April. Such a high delinquency rate hasn't been reported in the U.S. since March 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it reached 49 percent.

The delinquency rate was also four percentage points higher than in March, making it the largest month-over-month surge in over a year, according to data analyzed by Alignable.

We don't have a disease to blame this time around.

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Israel strikes target outside Damascus

Israel strikes target outside Damascus – media

RT

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck a building used by Syrian security forces outside Damascus, Reuters reported on Thursday evening, citing a security source aligned with the Syrian government.

The Syrian state-run SANA news agency cited its own security source as saying that eight soldiers have been killed. It reported “material damage” on the ground, without specifying the target. According to SANA, the missiles were launched from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli authorities have not yet commented on the matter. West Jerusalem rarely acknowledged strikes outside of its territory.

The reported attack took place amid the continuing tensions between Israel and Iran, as well as Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, which is on track to enter its seventh month next week. Israel has accused Iran of arming and guiding Hamas and pro-Palestinian militias based in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Tehran, however, claims that Hamas and aligned groups act independently. 

On April 1, Israel bombed an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, killing several military officers, including two generals with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 A little over a week later, Iran responded with a barrage of drones and missiles launched at Israel. According to the IDF, the majority of the projectiles were intercepted, and that the attack caused no fatalities.

With Only Weeks Away, Experts Urgently Warn WHO Pandemic Treaty Will Usurp National Sovereignty

With Only Weeks Away, Experts Urgently Warn WHO Pandemic Treaty Will Usurp US Sovereignty

Harbinger's Daily

Americans stand just weeks away from handing over massive amounts of taxpayer funding, protective equipment intended for U.S. citizens, and an incalculable amount of influence over U.S. policy to the World Health Organization (WHO), critics warn.

The global governance body will resume meetings to revise the WHO Pandemic Agreement on Monday. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), established to draw up the text of the agreement in December 2021, will hold its ninth meeting from April 29 to May 10. That provides just over two weeks before the 77th World Health Assembly meets from May 27 to June 1 in Geneva, Switzerland, to ratify the final document.

The most recently updated version of the “Proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement,” amended on April 22, would redistribute wealth and protective equipment away from the U.S., establish a global governing board with little accountability to U.S. citizens and, critics say, water down U.S. sovereignty over how it responds to future pandemics.

The latest version of the agreement calls on nations to adopt “whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches” to pandemics, “including the private sector and civil society.” Governments should carry out so-called education programs that will suppress competing narratives about the pandemic, as the U.S. government did during COVID-19. Nations must also conduct research to determine what forces “hinder or strengthen adherence to public health and social measures in a pandemic,” such as mask and vaccine mandates.

WHO makes clear it intends to involve itself far beyond the physical aspects of the outbreak. The latest agreement invokes the “public health impact of growing threats such as climate change, poverty and hunger.” Fighting pandemics, it states, requires nations to “achieve greater health equity” by taking “resolute action on the social, environmental, cultural, political and economic determinants of health.”

This includes adopting a controversial “OneHealth” approach, which attempts to “balance” the “health of people, animals and ecosystems” as though all were equally valuable.

Nations have the right to “adopt legislation” only “in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the WHO Constitution and the principles of international law, and their sovereign rights over their biological resources.” They also may not make reservations that are “incompatible with the object and purpose of the WHO Pandemic Agreement,” as determined by the WHO.

Aside from incursions onto national prerogatives spelled out in the WHO Pandemic Agreement, the document establishes a “Conference of the Parties,” a group of unelected officials empowered to adopt new resolutions that will be legally binding upon signatories.

The text makes the WHO pandemic arrangement easy to get into but hard to leave. Once a nation signs onto the accord, it “shall not be discharged” from any “obligations which accrued while it was a Party to the WHO Pandemic Agreement,” even after it withdraws.

The controversial document mandates that all nations assure “real-time access by WHO to 20%” of all “products that are needed for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response”: “10% as a donation” and 10% at “affordable prices.: WHO, in turn, will create “a mechanism to ensure the fair and equitable allocation and distribution of the pandemic-related health products” globally. Nations will agree to “prioritize sharing through” the WHO’s newly-established “Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network … over bilateral donation agreements” adopted with allied nations.

Every nation “shall” also create a “global health emergency workforce deployable to support [other signatories] upon request” of WHO.

Family Research Council has concluded that the WHO Pandemic Agreement puts in place the beginnings of “a turnkey totalitarian state.” FRC’s official comment filed with the U.S. government warns the WHO Pandemic Agreement, as written, “could authorize funding and support for abortion.” The agreement obligates nations to assure the provision of “essential health care services during pandemics,” and critics say, abortion can be held up as an essential service.

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