Category Archives: Current Events

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Isis Vs. Christians Resulting in Miracles

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From http://eaglerising.com/16225/christians-captured-by-isis-terrorists-refuse-to-convert-then-a-miracle-happens/

 

Christians Captured by ISIS Terrorists Refuse to Convert – Then a Miracle Happens

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In late February ISIS cut a swath of destruction across the Syrian countryside, attacking 35 Assyrian villages and taking almost 300 innocent people captive. One of those towns was a small village by the name of Tel Goran, from which 21 Assyrian Christians were captured and carried off into captivity. The ISIS fighters kept these people captive for some five days before finally releasing the lot of them, on the condition that none of them return to their village. The captives agreed.

But that isn’t the full extent of their story. In fact, the rest of the story ends up making the ordeal sound more like an act of God and less like a simple hostage situation.

The Assyrian International News Agency (or AINA) recounted the story through an interview they did with a young man named Robert who was one of the hostages from Tel Goran.

AINA: Tell us how the attack started and how you were captured.

Robert: There usually are guards in the village. On that day the guards left for Hasaka at 4 A.M. ISIS entered the village at 5 A.M. and knocked on our doors and awoke us. They rounded us up, everyone in the village, and placed us in a small room. On the other [north] side of the river there were Kurdish and Assyrian fighters, and we could hear the exchange of fire between them and ISIS.

AINA: How many of you were there?

Robert: 21. 17 men and 4 women.

ISISAINA: What happened when you arrived at Abdul Aziz Mountain?Robert: They placed us in two small rooms. We spent the night there.

AINA: What did they say to you?

Robert: They asked us to convert to Islam.

AINA: That was the first thing they said?

Robert: Yes, that was their idea that we should convert to Islam.

AINA: Who was speaking to you?

Robert: Many bearded people spoke to us, and everyone asked us to convert to Islam.

AINA: How many?

Robert: Very many. Everyone spoke to us, whoever saw us.

AINA: What happened next?

Robert: We spent the night there. In the morning they brought cars and drove us for about 4 hours into the mountains.

AINA: How long did you stay there?

Robert: For 5 days, until we were released.

AINA: When you arrived there what did ISIS say and do?

Robert: They kept pressuring us to convert to Islam, it was their constant focus. But we were not mistreated.

image: http://cdn1.eaglerising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ISIS-army-300×184.png

ISIS armyAINA: When ISIS asked you to convert to Islam, what was your answer?Robert: We said we would not convert. They said you must then pay the jizya [a Christian poll tax] or leave the country. That was the option given to us. We said we would pay the jizya but we would not convert.

AINA: How much was the jizya?

Robert: They said this time they would not collect the jizya because we had not fought against them. They said that they would release us on condition that we not return to our village. They said if we returned and they captured us again they would kill us without any other option, they would behead the men and enslave the women.

AINA: Did anything else happen while you were there?

Robert: No. We were provided with all necessities — food, water, bathing facilities. They brought us everything.

AINA: What did they say on the day of your release?

Robert: They again said that we must not stay in the country, if they captured us again they would kill us.

 

ISIS has been raping, robbing, pillaging and murdering as they ransack the Iraqi and Syrian countryside, yet here we have a story where not only were all of the captured Christians released unharmed, they were not even maltreated during their captivity.

I don’t know (and neither do those who were held captive) the reasons why this group was treated with such care, but we can be thankful for small miracles. Yes, they’re still being forced to flee their homes for foreign soil, but at least they do so with their lives intact.

The article mentions that one reason given by ISIS for the group not receiving harsher treatment was the fact that they didn’t fight back. While this may have worked in this instance, we know from other experiences that not fighting back has not always led to better treatment from ISIS.

In fact, many of the dead who have fallen before the horror that is ISIS were innocent victims who never raised a finger to fight back.

Which is why the safe return of the villagers from Tel Goran is no doubt a miracle from God.

Read more at http://eaglerising.com/16225/christians-captured-by-isis-terrorists-refuse-to-convert-then-a-miracle-happens/#46Y1bYsGMi5J08jF.99

 

Ways to Help Persecuted Christians in Syria

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The following article is from Open Door USA (http://www.opendoorsusa.org) — http://www.opendoorsusa.org/newsroom/tag-news-post/syrian-pastors-church-workers-carrying-out-ministry-with-gods-help/

SYRIAN PASTORS, CHURCH WORKERS CARRYING OUT MINISTRY WITH GOD’S HELP

August 31, 2015 by Janelle P in Middle East
Syria_2012_0260008895

An estimated 700,000 Christians have left Syria, but some pastors and church workers have made the decision to stay in the country torn apart by a civil war and the savage murders and kidnappings carried out by Islamic State (IS) extremists. Life is dangerous for Christians with daily shootings, regular bomb explosions and snipers in the streets. What makes Pastor Samuel* and relief worker Fathi* from Aleppo and Pastor Edward from Damascus stay?

Before the war began, cities such as Aleppo, Damascus and Homs were home to large Christian communities. Many of the Christians who are still in Aleppo are there for two main reasons: 1) they have no money to leave the city, or 2) they feel called to stay to help the remaining people or their congregations. One of them is Pastor Samuel, a pastor of a Protestant church with 250 members attending every Sunday. His wife and children have left the country; for them it was impossible to live under the constant threat of violence. The family endured great sacrifice. They have been separated from each other for a long time.

“Despite everything that has happened, we are all trying to do our best to serve the people who remain and provide God’s hope in a hopeless situation,” says Pastor Samuel. He sees many people coming to his church, mainly people who cannot go to their own churches because of the fighting. “In many situations the only thing we can do is pray. Psalm 91 comforts me and gives me strength.”

Fathi is one of the Syrian Christians who plays a key role in helping refugees through local churches supported by Open Doors.

“No, I never thought of leaving,” he said to an Open Doors worker. “Every day I see how we can help people deal with reality. Of course, on the other side, I think of my family. I am afraid for their lives, but not for my own. Over the last couple of years the Lord had protected me when I was stopped at checkpoints and when I went through certain areas of the city and country. God protected me.

“That keeps me going. I see how we can make a difference through the work we are doing. When bullets hit left and right of you, when buildings crash, and when you fear for your life, the bigger picture helps us to continue. We need to go on. I am happy to see it is a joint effort of different churches and denominations. It is not about me.”

Pastor Edward stays with his wife Ranaa in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

“We don’t want to leave,” he shares. “We are feeling even more responsible now. To be honest, we’re not really concerned about our own safety. We thank God who is helping us day by day. He is giving us a peace that surpasses understanding.”

All of the people leaving have left a large hole in the churches.

“Of course we feel it when people leave,” says Pastor Edward. “It depresses us to see people depart. Though many have left, the church is still full. Many new people are coming to church. That is very encouraging. We see the hand of God at work.”

The three are thankful for the Christians around the world who pray for Syria.

“We thank God for all those who pray for us and who support us,” expresses Pastor Samuel. “The Lord is watching us. He is our fortress, our strength and refuge. He will protect us.”

Syria is ranked #4 on Open Doors’ 2015 World Watch List (www.worldwatchlist.us) of the 50 worst persecutors of Christians.

Open Doors President/CEO David Curry told the Christian Post in a phone interview recently that refugees in northern Iraq and Syria are facing “huge food shortages,” with close to 300,000 Christians having limited means by which to pay for food. With millions of people displaced across the region, Open Doors estimates that $20 million will be needed to provide food for the refugees in the next 18 months. Curry said that one of his biggest concerns is that Christians “will be the last among the refugees to receive vitally needed help,” and called on Christians around the world to partner with Open Doors in order to remind those who are suffering that they are not forgotten.

Help feed an entire family in Syria and Iraq for a month for just $50.

*Real names are protected for security reasons

Compiled by Jerry Dykstra. For media inquiries, contact Christine Cape at 404-545-0085 or Christy Lynn Wilson at 770-401-9842.

 

5 Things Americans Can Do to Help Persecuted Christians in Iraq

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From the Christian Post at http://www.christianpost.com/news/5-things-americans-can-do-to-help-persecuted-christians-in-iraq-125821/

BY MELISSA BARNHART, CP REPORTER
September 5, 2014 | 7:39 am

Iraq(PHOTO: REUTERS/STRINGER)

A child cries in a military helicopter after being evacuated by Iraqi forces from Amerli, north of Baghdad, Aug. 29, 2014. A home to around 180,000 people, mostly Turkmen Shi’ites, the small town of Amerli is still holding out against repeated attacks by Islamic State fighters despite the fall of all the 34 villages surrounding it.

Iraqi born pastor Jalil Dawood of the Arabic Church of Dallas, who, along with other Christian leaders will be holding a rally on Sept. 14 in support of Iraqis who are being persecuted by the Islamic State, says there are five things Americans can do today to help their brothers and sisters in Christ.

“What Americans can do today is write to their representatives and tell them the U.S. government needs to take more aggressive action toward the Islamic State, because this group is not only a threat to Iraq, it’s a threat to America, eventually. And we need to deal with them now, before it’s too late,” Dawood told The Christian Post.

“I heard the president say last week that he doesn’t have a strategy. Well, ISIS’ strategy is to kill us. Their strategy is to convert us and kill us,” he asserted.

The second thing Americans can do, he said, is to provide tangible assistance to the 250,000 refugees in Iraq through trusted nonprofit organizations that are helping Christians and other religious minorities who’ve been forced to leave their homes to flee the terrorist organization.

Pastor Stephen Broden of Fair Park Bible Fellowship, who will be a featured speaker at the Dallas rally, told CP Thursday that three of the nonprofits that have been helping Iraqi Christians are Open Doors, Samaritan’s Purse and Voice of the Martyrs.

Iraqi Christians(PHOTO: REUTERS/MUHAMMAD HAMED)

An Iraqi Christian man from Mosul, who fled from violence in their country, reads a book at the Latin Patriarchate Church in Amman, Jordan, Aug. 21, 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes since the terrorist Islamic State group swept through much of the north and west of Iraq in June, threatening to break up the country.

Dawood added that when Americans write to their representatives on behalf of Iraqi Christians, they should ask that the government allow them to immigrate to the U.S. within six months, and to provide humanitarian aid through the United Nations while they’re waiting, “so they don’t suffer or [resort to] selling themselves for sex so they can survive.”

He also believes that there needs to be special criteria for Iraqi Christians who are seeking asylum, one that is separate and apart from the current quota system that is used for Iraqis who are immigrating to the U.S.

“There needs to be a special category to be accepted faster because these people are really the victims of this conflict,” he added.

Fourth, and the most important thing Americans can do, he said, is to pray.

And fifth, Dawood encourages Christians to take part in rallies and speak at their churches to bring greater awareness and attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians who are being persecuted in their homeland.

“To be honest with you, I’m surprised that churches here are not doing anything — anything that is tangible,” Dawood said.

“There was a London demonstration talking about suffering in Gaza and the people living in Gaza. They raised $11 million toward Gaza. The church is not raising anything significant [for Iraqis] and the needs are tremendous. This is our time to reach those people through Christ,” he continued.

Another way Americans can help Iraqi Christians is by contacting their local Arabic Christian church and support that community by helping to meet the needs of Iraqis who’ve immigrated to the U.S. and are transitioning to their new lives.

“Support that church,” he said, “because that church is trying to reach out for Christ’s sake to the immigrants and refugees — some of them are nominal Christians or Muslims. We need to at least tell them: ‘You are not alone. We love you; we pray for you; and we will help you tangibly, in this way.'”

“The church needs to reach out to those minorities in order to win them to Christ and be impactful, and not [leave them] to segregate into communities and ethnic groups. Get involved with the community; help the community; love the community that is around you. And serve the people and the churches that are already meeting the needs of these people,” said Dawood, who emigrated from Iraq to the U.S. in the 1980s.

While the Sept. 14 rally is being held in Dallas, Dawood is encouraging everyone who lives outside North Texas to hold simultaneous rallies in their communities; not only to show support for persecuted Christians and religious minorities in Iraq, but to pray and find tangible ways to help.

“Do something practical, not only in words but in deeds,” he advised. “We need to speak; we need to shout to the Lord, we need to shout to the nation.”

“This has to do with people of our faith. This is not an Iraqi issue, this is a global issue and it will touch us if we don’t do something about it,” Dawood emphasized.

“Like Bonhoeffer said, if we are silent in the face of evil we are agreeing with it, we are part of it; we become accomplices and are allowing it to happen. We don’t need to wait. We need to take action now and be heard before it gets too late.

 

An EMP would accomplish ‘death to America’

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From http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/18/jams-woolsey-peter-pry-emp-a-shariah-approved-nucl/

A Shariah-approved nuclear attack —An EMP would accomplish ‘death to America’

By James Woolsey (former head of the CIA) and Peter Pry — Tuesday, August 18, 2015 

EMP Graphic to accompany Woolsey article of Aug. 19, 2015

EMP Graphic to accompany Woolsey article of Aug. 19, 2015

Watch Video

By James Woolsey and Peter Pry — Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Congress must stop President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. The most important reason — Iran can threaten the existence of the United States by making an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack using a single nuclear weapon.

It may obtain one, relatively easily, by cheating in the use of the nuclear infrastructure permitted them under the agreement.

U.S. intelligence cannot meet the impossibly high standard of assuring that Iran cannot acquire a single nuclear weapon and, given the regime’s existing nuclear infrastructure, cannot with absolute certainty guarantee that Iran does not already have one.

PHOTOS: Vladimir Putin auditions for role as James Bond villain

Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertions on June 16 that the United States has perfect intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program are not credible: “We know what they did. We have no doubt. We have absolute knowledge … .”

No.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden is right to correct Mr. Kerry: “He’s pretending we have perfect knowledge about something that was an incredibly tough intelligence target while I was director, and I see nothing that has made it any easier.”

Mr. Kerry’s disregard of the limits of U.S. intelligence is reason enough to reject the deal — since just one nuclear warhead can threaten the existence of the United States.

A single nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over the United States would generate an EMP that could black out the electric grid and other life-sustaining, critical infrastructures, such as communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water. The Congressional EMP Commission estimated a nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill anywhere from two of every three Americans by a low estimate up to nine of 10 Americans by starvation and social disruption.

“Death to America” is more than merely an Iranian chant — Tehran’s military is planning to be able to make a nuclear EMP attack.

On July 21 at the annual meeting of the Electric Infrastructure Security Summit in Washington, Rep. Trent Franks quoted from an Iranian military textbook, recently translated by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Intelligence University. The textbook, ironically titled “Passive Defense” (2010), describes nuclear EMP effects in detail. It advocates in more than 20 passages an EMP attack to defeat decisively an adversary.

The official Iranian military textbook advocates a revolutionary new way of warfare that combines coordinated attacks by nuclear and non-nuclear EMP weapons, physical and cyber-attacks against electric grids to black out and collapse entire nations. Iranian military doctrine makes no distinction between nuclear EMP weapons, non-nuclear radio-frequency weapons and cyber-operations — it regards nuclear EMP attack as the ultimate cyber-weapon. EMP is most effective at blacking-out critical infrastructures, while it also does not directly damage the environment or harm human life, according to Iran’s “Passive Defense”:

“As a result of not having the other destructive effects that nuclear weapons possess, among them the loss of human life, weapons derived from electromagnetic pulses have attracted attention with regard to their use in future wars … . The superficiality of secondary damage sustained, as well as the avoidance of human casualties, serves as a motivation to transform this technology into an advanced and useful weapon in modern warfare.”

Because EMP destroys electronics directly, but people indirectly, it is regarded by some as Shariah-compliant use of a nuclear weapon. “Passive Defense” and other Iranian military writings are well aware that nuclear EMP attack is the most efficient way of killing people, through secondary effects, over the long run. The rationale appears to be that people starve to death, not because of EMP, but because they live in materialistic societies dependent upon modern technology.

For example, an Iranian article on nuclear EMP attack, “Electronics To Determine Fate Of Future Wars” (1998), concludes hopefully (from the Iranian author’s perspective):

“If the world’s industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years … . American soldiers would not be able to find food to eat nor would they be able to fire a single shot.

Written 17 years ago, Iranian military doctrine has assessed nuclear EMP attack against the United States for now nearly two decades.

The Iranians have done more than just think about EMP attack.

The Congressional EMP Commissionfound that Iran has practiced launching missiles and fusing warheads for high-altitude EMP attack, including off a freighter. Iran has apparently practiced surprise EMP attacks, orbiting satellites on south polar trajectories to evade U.S. radars and missile defenses, at altitudes consistent with generating an EMP field covering all 48 contiguous United States. Iran launched its fourth satellite on such a trajectory as recently as February 2015.

A single nuclear weapon would complete the list of requirements.

Finally, because a nuclear EMP attack can be conducted by surprise and anonymously — deterrence may not work against EMP.

Deterrence depends upon knowing who attacked and being able to retaliate. Unlike a nuclear weapon used to blast a city, high-altitude EMP leaves no collectible bomb debris for forensic analysis to identify the aggressor.

EMP attack by missile or balloon launched off a freighter could be from many possible actors. Even Yemen’s Houthis have Scud missiles and know how to use them, having recently killed the chief of Saudi Arabia’s air force with a Scud strike on King Khalid Air Force Base.

Hundreds of satellites are in low earth orbit, unseen when approaching the United States from the south, that could help disguise the origins of an EMP attack. And the EMP could damage the means necessary to identify the attacker and U.S. retaliatory capabilities.

One Iranian nuclear weapon is one too many for an Iran ruled by theocratic totalitarian genocidal imperialists.

No deal.

• R. James Woolsey is a former director of Central Intelligence and is chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Peter Vincent Pry is executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security and served in the Congressional EMP Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA.

 

Sukkot NW 2015 — You’re Invited! Make Reservations NOW

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facebook-preview

You’re invited to join the Hoshana Rabbah team, Congregation Elim of Portland, Oregon and our friends from the U.S. West Coast and beyond for our fourteenth annual Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) gathering in Southern Oregon near Grants Pass. We have reserved an entire campground on the wild and beautiful Rogue River.

For information, and to register, please go to SukkotNW.org.

With a month-and-a-half to go until Sukkot, the campground is almost filled up. But don’t despair, we have an overflow campground just down river. For those who don’t want to camp, hotels are available 20 to 30 minutes away in Grants Pass.

Our theme this year will be based on Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her my people.” Many of the speakers’ teaching subjects will be about what is Babylon the Great and how to come out of it.

Many exciting activities are planned for this year’s Sukkot. These include:

  • Mature and experienced Bible teachers from Oregon, Washington and California.
  • Prayer ministry and spiritual empowerment
  • Much live Hebraic praise and worship
  • Workshops on a variety of subjects including organic gardening, bushcraft/wilderness survival skills, entrepreneurship/how to start a small business, wild edible plants, the lost tribes of Israel in Japan, prayer techniques, woman’s Torah issues and more.
  • An erev Shabbat banquet
  • Youth and family activities.
  • A market place.
  • Fishing and swimming
  • Fun around the campfire

For an entertaining preview of what to expect this year at Sukkoth NW 2015, please enjoy this video of highlights from last year’s Sukkot

 

Is the Next Economic Crisis Coming…Maybe This Fall?

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I believe that economic judgments are about to come on America and the rest of the world. I don’t know when this will occur, but we’ve seen indications of it here and there for quite some time if you’re paying attention. Economic crisis is the one thing that will affect the whole world perhaps more than anything else (e.g. natural disasters, wars, terrorism, famine, disease, etc.). America (along with other so-called Christian nations) is ripe for economic judgment. We’ve worshipped at the foot of the golden calf of greed, money and materialism for a long time now. America has forgotten who made it great. The god that America now trusts in is money, and not the God of the Bible. YHVH wants to wake Christians up worldwide, and it is my convictions that economic crisis will be one of the main ways he will do it. Go read Revelation 18!

Natan

Check this out:

From http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/copper-china-and-world-trade-are-all-screaming-that-the-next-economic-crisis-is-here/.

Copper, China And World Trade Are All Screaming That The Next Economic Crisis Is Here

July 28, 2015 | By Michael Snyder | Economy

Trouble ahead concept, Businessman with umbrella standing in the

If you are looking for a “canary in a coal mine” type of warning for the entire global economy, you have a whole bunch to pick from right now.  “Dr. Copper” just hit a six year low, Morgan Stanley is warning that this could be the worst oil price crash in 45 years, the Chinese economy is suddenly stalling out, and world trade is falling at the fastest pace that we have seen since the last financial crisis.  In order not to see all of the signs that are pointing toward a global economic slowdown, you would have to be willingly blind.  In recent months, I have been writing article after article detailing how the exact same patterns that happened just before the stock market crash of 2008 are playing out once again.  We are watching a slow-motion train wreck unfold right before our eyes, and things are only going to get worse from here.

Copper is referred to as “Dr. Copper” because it does such an excellent job of indicating where economic conditions are heading next.  We saw this in 2008, when the price of copper started crashing big time in the months leading up to the stock market implosion.

Well, now copper is crashing again.  Just check out this chart.  The price of copper plunged again on Wednesday, and it is now the lowest that it has been since the last financial crisis.  Unfortunately, the forecast for the months ahead is not good.  The following is what Goldman Sachs is saying about copper…

“Though we have been bearish on copper on a 12-mo forward basis for the past two and a half years, we have maintained a more bullish medium to long-term stance on the assumption of Chinese copper demand growth of 4% per annum and a major slowing in supply growth around 2017/2018 … we substantially lower our short, medium, and long-term copper price forecasts, on the back of lower Chinese copper demand growth forecasts (we have been highlighting that the risk has been skewed to the downside for some time), increased conviction in copper supply growth over the next three years, and increased conviction in the outlook for mining cost deflation in dollar terms.”

It is funny that Goldman mentioned China so prominently.  Even though China’s fake GDP figures say that everything is fine over there, other numbers are painting a very dismal picture.

For instance, Chinese electrical consumption in June grew at the slowest pace that we have seen in 30 years, and capital outflows from China have reached a level that is “frightening”…

Robin Brooks at Goldman Sachs estimates that capital outflows topped $224bn in the second quarter, a level “beyond anything seen historically”.

The Chinese central bank (PBOC) is being forced to run down the country’s foreign reserves to defend the yuan. This intervention is becoming chronic. The volume is rising. Mr Brooks calculates that the authorities sold $48bn of bonds between March and June.

Charles Dumas at Lombard Street Research says capital outflows – when will we start calling it capital flight? – have reached $800bn over the past year. These are frighteningly large sums of money.

Just last month, the Chinese stock market started to crash, but the crash was interrupted when the Chinese government essentially declared a form of financial martial law.

And I don’t think that “financial martial law” is too strong of a term to use in this case.  Just consider the following excerpt from a recent article in the Telegraph…

Half the shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen were suspended. New floats were halted. Some 300 corporate bosses were strong-armed into buying back their own shares. Police state tactics were used hunt down short sellers.

We know from a vivid account in Caixin magazine that China’s top brokers were shut in a room and ordered to hand over money for an orchestrated buying blitz. A target of 4,500 was set for the Shanghai Composite by Communist Party officials.

So a stock market crash was halted, but in doing so Chinese officials have essentially destroyed the second largest stock market in the world.  China’s financial markets have lost all legitimacy, and foreigners are going to be extremely hesitant to put any money into Chinese stocks from now on.

Meanwhile, there is no hiding the fact that trade activity in China and in most of the rest of the planet is slowing down.  In fact, world trade volume has now dropped by the most that we have seen since the last global recession.  The following comes from Zero Hedge…

As goes the world, so goes America (according to 30 years of historical data), and so when world trade volumes drop over 2% (the biggest drop since 2009) in the last six months to the weakest since June 2014, the “US recession imminent” canary in the coalmine is drawing her last breath…

World-Trade-Volume-Zero-Hedge-460x232

As Wolf Street’s Wolf Richter adds, this isn’t stagnation or sluggish growth. This is the steepest and longest decline in world trade since the Financial Crisis. Unless a miracle happened in June, and miracles are becoming exceedingly scarce in this sector, world trade will have experienced its first back-to-back quarterly contraction since 2009.

As you probably noted in the chart above, a decline in world trade is almost always associated with a recession.

That was certainly the case back in 2008 and 2009.

Another similarity between the last crisis and what is happening now is a crash in the price of oil.

According to Business Insider, we have just officially entered a brand new bear market for oil…

Oil is officially in a bear market.

On Thursday, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell more than 1% to settle near $48.55 per barrel in New York.

A bear market is roughly defined as a 20% drop from highs. Crude has now fallen by about 20% in the last six weeks.

So what does all of this mean?

All of these signs are indicating that another great economic crisis is here, and that a global financial implosion is just around the corner.

At this point, even many of the “bulls” are sounding the alarm.  For example, just consider what Henry Blodget of Business Insider is saying…

As regular readers know, for the past ~21 months I have been worrying out loud about US stock prices. Specifically, I have suggested that a decline of 30% to 50% would not be a surprise.

I haven’t predicted a crash. But I have said clearly that I think stocks will deliver returns that are way below average for the next seven to 10 years. And I certainly won’t be surprised to see stocks crash. So don’t say no one warned you!

For those that don’t know, Henry Blodget is definitely not a bear.  In fact, he is one of Wall Street’s biggest cheerleaders.

So for Blodget to suggest that we could see the stock market drop by half is a really big deal.

The closer that we get to this next crisis, the clearer that everything is becoming.

Where are things going to go from here?  Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and has a law degree and an LLM from the University of Florida Law School. He is an attorney that has worked for some of the largest and most prominent law firms in Washington D.C. and who now spends his time researching and writing and trying to wake the American people up. You can follow his work on The Economic Collapse blog, End of the American Dream and The Truth Wins. His new novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.