Get Prepared Doomsday is just around the corner.

 

Prepare for a financial Doomsday

Copied and starred from http://homesteadsurvival.blogspot.com/2012/09/prepare-for-financial-doomsday.html

Guest Post by Andy from Financial Gooru

Prepare for a financial Doomsday

Many of us are preparing for the end of times; because as we all know it it is a matter of when not if. While many of us out there are preparing for the complete collapse of the world as we know it not many of us are preparing for a Financial Doomsday which will probably happen sooner than nature going haywire on us. So how exactly do we prepare for a financial Doomsday/ Economic collapse.  Through intensive research I have found way that I think will help anyone survive and Economic/ Financial Doomsday.

Save Money
This one is a bit of a obvious one but I have to put it out there. A shockingly high number of American families are operating without any kind of financial cushion whatsoever.
-According to a Harris Interactive survey taken in 2010, 77 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
-According to one recent survey, one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.
This is one reason why so many Americans have lost their homes and why so many Americans have fallen below the poverty level in recent years.  They simply had no cushion.
Last year, 2.6 million more Americans dropped into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.
Don’t let this happen to you.  At a minimum, everyone out there should have a cushion that will cover at least 6 months worth of expenses.  Preferably, you should have a cushion that will last you at least a year or longer. I know that sounds like a lot but trust me you will love having this around in case something does happen to you and your family.
The easiest way I found to do this is I used to buy a cup of coffee from Quick Trip every morning, it would cost me with tax 2.02 (it was their medium size I think if I remember correctly.). Then one day I really got to thinking how much could I save if I stopped drinking coffee well at least buying it from QT every morning. So I did simple math 2.02×7 is $14.14 a week or $56.56 a month about $678.72 a year! And that was just a cup of coffee I of course cut out eating out, junk food for the most part and I am now saving well over $200 a month and putting all of that into savings. That is just one example of how I did it. I am sure there are many ways out there of saving money I have probably not even thought up of yet and I am talking about small things not drastic. Not to mention the cut of junk food has made me happier and healthier.
Investments
 Now I want to be clear with this. This is not your typical investment that I am about to talk about. But rather one more suited towards the fall of an economy and essentially the dollar. The most obvious investment you can make is to buy gold and silver. I think every person in this country is doing that at this point. While that will hold value and its all and good, you can not eat gold and silver. At one point people will want food rather than gold. So a gold and silver investment while good should not be the only investment.
Once the economy fails and everyone is running around trying to figure out what to do and items and resources become scares, everything will start becoming more localized and we will probably move back to a barter system. With that said it will be good to prepare for a barter type of system just in case it ends of that way and even if it doesn’t it will not harm you in any way. Here is what I think you will need in a barter type of system.
1. Water, The single most important item any one person can have. Drinkable water is important to life. While I would stock up a lot on this you can also invest in rain catching gear, water purifying system and other things to make undrinkable water drinkable.
2. Salt, stock up on this and start now. This one little thing that people take for granted everyday will be essential to your survival and a good thing to have in a barter system. Salt is one of the most important thing a person can have in their stock pile period. It is essential for the human body, it makes food yummy, and it can preserve food as well.
3. Spices, you think they are expensive now wait until the economy fails and governments go bankrupt and so do major companies. This one comity that people take for granted will be super rare and expensive. However, most spices and herbs can be grown almost anywhere with a little bit of knowledge.  A good website I found about some spices you can grow are http://ideas.thenest.com/dinner-recipes/cooking-advice/slideshows/easy-spices-to-grow.aspx?page=5  and http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-herbs.html these are two very good sites to get you started.
4. Live stock, food is one of those thing you have to have. While you can hunt if you do not have live stock which is a good way to get meat and other foods live stock is more beneficial. It is there when you need it you don’t have to go out and find it hopefully, you can trade it for other animals goods or services, and depending on the animal it will have many uses.
5. Other currency, while it is good to have food water etc it is also a good idea to have some form of other currency available in case you can some how assuming things are not that bad go to another country or that their currency is not completely useless. This is something I would keep around, because I do not like to assume anything like all currency will be useless and you will be trapped in this country. You just never know what life will throw at you and where you might find yourself. Therefore, I think that having some other currency like Euros, Yen, and the Australian dollar to name a few might be useful.
6. Land, I believe that land is one of those things that over time will increase in value even more so than gold. Because scientist have found a way to make artificial gold believe it or not, but they have yet to find a way without lasing our water supply it will grow in value tremendously. Not to mention land is very useful to have because you can grow food on it have life stock and the uses for land are almost limitless. Not to mention if the land has  a natural aquifer.
Like I said not your normal investment portfolio. I could spend so much more time on this but these are the 6 things I think will help you if an economy collapses.
Pay off any debt
Now this one may be a bit tricky to do since many people are having trouble meeting ends meet. But by all means try to pay off any and all debts you may have. I am going to take a guess that banks will want money owed to them if the economy starts failing to keep themselves afloat. Just because the economy fails doesn’t mean our money will be worthless. The great depression is a perfect example of that. Money was not all that worthless still had value just not as much as it does now.  This one again may be hard but I know from personal experience but it has to be done. Many things can happen if the American economy can fail don’t be caught off guard pay off any dept you may have.  I will have a completely separate blog post about this coming up soon. As I have said I was in that boat I have searched for solutions and I have found it through trial and error. I have given the advice to my friends and it worked great for them. So I will dedicate a whole blog post just to that.
Learn a Skill
Learning a skill is good even if the economy is still going strong. But a  carpenter, welder, handyman can be worth their own weight in gold. Knowing how to build and work with your hands will be skills that if the economy goes you can use to barter with. It can be almost any skill just learn one or a trade and master it. I would say master one than have 1000 that you barely know what you are doing.
These are some of things I would recommend. There is so much when it comes to this that I could make this blog post endless, yet I do have to end it at some point. Just remember what can go wrong will go wrong. Do not assume anything prepare for everything. It cant hurt to be ready it can only hurt not to be ready. As we have seen time and time again it is a matter of when not if. If you have any ideas or comments please feel free to post them and let me know how I did or if I missed something important.

http://financialgooru.blogspot.com/

 

All About Sovereign Silver The Good The Bad The Ugly!

Sovereign Silver Solution
Sovereign Silver Solution
Anti New World Order Party

By: Daniel J Leach

I recently started to use Sovereign Silver and I can say that I have noticed a positive difference.  I would call it Natures Viagra or energy supplement!  I also tried using it when I was sick with a sour throat and was better with in days not weeks!   So I can say with my personal experience Yes to the Good for you in a short term!   I did not use the recommended dose I would use far less.  I used 1/2 a tea spoon twice a day, once in the morning and once at night before bed and that would be about it!

Now for the Bad news about Sovereign Silver it can Kill you if you do not know what your doing.  I would say consult your doctor before using Silver products!

Colloidal silver’s proponents will often leave-out the reason why it’s no longer in use by doctors: silver can build-up in your body, make you sick and even kill you. There is a report available online of a 71 year old man who died after taking colloidal silver orally for four months. Here is an excerpt of the report: It seems that some important facts about the 71 year old man who died were left out. My understanding was that he was on pharmaceutical medications that he had just come off of to start taking the colloidal silver. His reactions were consistent for anyone coming off those types of medicines too quickly.

“Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The authors report a case of a 71-year-old man who developed myoclonic status epilepticus and coma after daily ingestion of colloidal silver for 4 months resulting in high levels of silver in plasma, erythrocytes, and CSF. Despite plasmapheresis, he remained in a persistent vegetative state until his death 5.5 months later. Silver products can cause irreversible neurologic toxicity associated with poor outcome.”.

The Ugly is can turn Blue like a smurf?

One of the most obvious signs of silver-poisoning is that your skin turns a blueish color. Oh, by the way, this change of color is usually permanent. This condition is called Argyria.

There is a Libertarian Party politician in Montana, named Stan Jones, who took homemade colloidal silver, out of fear that theYear 2000 “problem” that had panic-stricken dupes predicting the end of the modern world as we know it, would make modern antibiotics unavailable. So, he self-medicated himself with colloidal silver and it made his skin turn a blue-gray. Here’s a picture I found of him on the Internet. I swear I didn’t doctor it:

What most of the mainstream media conveniently fail to report is that Paul Karason took homemade colloidal silver which he contaminated with salt and drank over a quart a day for years. Despite that, he was given a clean bill of health from Mount Sinai hospital after he had a checkup at the request of the Today Show he appeared on.

Likely no one has consumed more silver, even in the wrong form, than Karason and despite his cosmetic skin condition his clean bill of health stands as a stark refutation to the charges that silver causes harm.

The fact is that millions of people around the world use colloidal silver and yet there are precious few reports of any harm and the blue skin condition known as Argyria is quite rare. In virtually every instance where it is found the cause can be traced to heavy injestion of a product that is not true colloidal silver.

Properly prescribed and administered mainstream drugs, including antibiotics, kill as many as 120,000 people each year by the admission of the American Medical Association.

The main reason that silver fell out of favor was the advent of antibiotics which were patentable and thus much more highly profitable. Likewise, the main reason that colloidal silver is targeted by the trillion dollar a year world pharma empire, mainstream medicine and the media and agencies beholden to them is the threat it represents to the billions of dollars of profits they make from those antibiotics and treatment of conditions colloidal silver remedies.

Calling it a conspiracy would not be inaccurate.

Millions are estimated to use Silver products from top colloidal and ionic silver companies that I am familiar with. Still, where are all the smurfs and where is evidence of all the harm?

There are a grand total of 16 mentions of colloidal silver and argyria in all the voluminous PubMed references.  When you remove the homemade ionic silver and the colloidal silver protein that is not really colloidal silver, then you end up with only a handful that might be colloidal silver.

When I tracked down rare reported incidents of Argyria due to ingestion of alleged colloidal silver I have invariably found that it turned out to be contaminated homemade ionic silver, so-called colloidal silver protein (which is particles to large to suspend without protein – and skin has an affinity for protein) or an ionic silver product with far too high ppm silver content.

Bad homemade CS is NOT ‘contaminated ionic silver suspended in protein’. (No-one makes MSP at home). Bad homemade CS is just colloidal silver made in impure water that has been ‘generated’ for too long. Put simply it causes argyria because its way too strong. Paul Karosan and Stan Jones both made that mistake. Paul Karosan continues to do so for some strange reason. (The other famous argyria victim and anti-colloidal silver campaigner, Rosemary Jacobs, actually never drank colloidal silver in her life. She took highly concentrated silver nitrate nose drops (probably around 30,000 ppm) every day for 3 or 4 years when she was about 11. Read her story and she admits this).

The reports at PubMed ranged from bluish fingernail cuticles to one report of death of a 71 year old man, which may or may not have been actual colloidal silver. Just for grins, do a search for “antibiotic side effect deaths”. That returns 675 reports.

Of course Natural News had ads for colloidal silver and colloidal silver makers – the ads are Google ads, which key in on words and phrases in each article the same way Google does with gmail accounts when you send and receive emails. If you went to an article about cancer, you would see ads for cancer treatments.

Now, if you want to say that some products which are labeled as colloidal silver might be dangerous or ineffective, I might agree. Otherwise, it is MY belief that some people make a practice of labeling anything that is not a mainstream approved drug as quackery.

i think the “conspiracy” angle is quite valid. except i’d put it another way. a large industry looking after it’s interests.

There is a general trend to have too much faith in modern medicine. people think its way more advanced then it is. Most people have adopted an attitude that science will save them, but for most people it’s really about healthy lifestyle choices.

There is not much to back up the toxic effects of silver. We use it in silverware, drinking pitchers, jewelry. sure anything can be toxic in huge does.

Iv tried it and found out for myself when I think of all the crap I’ve wasted money on over the years…$35 ain’t much. I really can’t remember the last time a doctor helped me and that wasn’t cheap.  More People are killed at hospitals by bad medicine than anything natural.

The reason that deaths from approved drugs are well-known is that such incidents are documented in medical records and there are very real punishments meted-out if anyone tries to cover them up.

The so called Quacks always have an out by simply stating that their product is simply a supplement. The problem with alternative medicine is that most of the aftereffects upon its users are not documented by anyone. Their deaths or complications to their conditions resulting from foregoing standard medical treatment in favor of quacks is merely listed by the resulting condition (e.g. cancer spreads, poisoning, etc) so the effects of quackery aren’t as well-documented, beyond certain articles. Most people who sell these products sure as hell aren’t going to warn anyone about whatever side effects their product’s use might cause. That would be bad for sales and sales are all most company’s really care about.

If I’m cutting into some one’s pocketbook by publishing this, then that’s just too bad.

The bottom line is that silver does work and work very well and there really is very little evidence of harm from properly made and ingested true colloidal silver.

If it did not work, why do you suppose NASA uses it to purify the astronauts drinking water?  Its a fact that CS is used to sterilize water in Mir space vehicles and the International space station. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10942&page=324 There’s perfectly credible science behind this. We are not talking about pyramids and crystals.  Or Potters for Peace uses it purify drinking water in third world countries?


drawing and photo of water filter
http://pottersforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/colloidal-silver.pdf

Dietary Supplement

The Sovereign Silver Difference

  • Actively Charged
    As corroborated by several universities, Sovereign Silver contains 96% positively charged silver particles [Ag(n)+], making it at least 34 times more powerful than other brands.
  • Easily Absorbed
    Sovereign Silver’s unprecedented particle size of 0.8 nanometers (validated by Transmission Electron Microscopy) allows for easy absorption and excretion from the body.
  • Less Is More
    The smaller the particle size, the greater the surface area and the higher the efficiency. That’s why even with a low concentration of 10 ppm, Sovereign Silver is still much more effective than brands which contain up to 500 ppm!
  • Perfectly Safe
    Sovereign Silver is formulated to be safe for the whole family. Taken 7 times a day for 70 years, Sovereign Silver still falls below the EPA daily Oral Silver Reference Dose (RfD).
  • 99.999% Pure
    Sovereign Silver has only two ingredients: pure silver and pharmaceutical grade  purified water. It does not contain added salts or proteins that render other silver products less effective. Plus, It is packaged in non leaching glass bottles to guarantee purity throughout it’s shelf life.

For thousands of years, silver has played an essential role in safeguarding human health. In fact, until 1938, colloidal silver silver water  the preferred choice of physicians for empowering the immune system and stimulating the body’s innate healing processes*

Today, as more people embrace natural ways to maintain their health and well being, silver is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. And Sovereign Silver is leading the way. By developing technologically advanced refinements in the production of silver colloids, Sovereign Silver Bio Active Silver Hydrosol delivers advantages no other manufacturer can match.

For details call 1-888-328-8840

Made In USA

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Directions

Adults: 1 teaspoon, hold under tongue for 30 seconds, then swallow.

Children 4 years & older: 1/2 teaspoon.

Guidelines:

  • Maintenance: Once daily.
  • Immune Building: 3 times daily.
  • Long Term Immune Support: 5 times daily
  • Short term immune support: 7 times daily.

*According to the EPA (CASRN7440-22-4) daily Oral Silver Reference Dose (RfD) applied to 10 ppm, one may ingest 178,850 servings safely over 70 years.

Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1 teaspoon (5ml)
Servings Per Container: 94.5
Silver  50 mcg*

<td* Daily Value not established.

Pharmaceutical Grade Purified Water (USP-NF)

sovereign silver
sovereign silver

For more information about the truth about colloidal silver and how mainstream medicine has suppressed alernative and natural healing, see:

“Colloidal Silver Has Mainstream Medicine Singling the Blues”
http://www.naturalnews.com/022728.html

“Healthcare for Dummies – or How the Rich Got Richer and the Sick Got Sicker”
http://www.tbyil.com/healthcare.htm

Truth about Austerity Measures and Bailouts It’s Just Money for The Illuminati Family’s!

AntiNewWorldOrderParty.com
AntiNewWorldOrderParty.com

Austerity Measures and Bailouts are just payments to the Illuminati Family’s by way or proxy!  First the Banksters get Nations in dept by loans and bailouts that can not be paid back, like what is happening in America.  Second The Nation makes governmental cuts like what is happening in EUROPE  aka stealing pensions , cutting services like Parks, Police Teachers Firemen ect ect! Then the Government sells off Parks Government owned property, Roads Water ways Parks ect ect to the Illuminati Bankster Familys AKA the MOBSTERS!

This is all part of the (The Hegelian Dialectic) aka The Problem Reaction Solution method!  .. the Illuminati family’s or the ruling elite create a problem, anticipating in advance the reaction that the population will have to the problem and then have the prepared Solution!  Example an Global Economic Melt down.  The after the people react and demand a solution to the created problems that was the  desired agenda of the ruling elite.  Then and only then the Pre prepared agenda of the Global Elite Banksters  presented as the solution such as a one world Governmental Monetary system or Global Governmental system to fix the problem. 

The bad part about this conspiracy is that along with the reaction to the problem the population becomes violent, in protesting the Austerity Measures implemented by the Governments!  And once again (The Hegelian Dialectic) comes into place with  FEMA Camps AKA Concentration Camps for the protesters dissidents and homeless people effected by the Illuminati s Global Agenda 

In economicsausterity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public servicesprovided.[1] Austerity policies are often used by governments to reduce their deficit spending[2] while sometimes coupled with increases in taxes to pay back creditors to reduce debt.[3] “Austerity” was named the word of the year by Merriam-Webster in 2010.[4]

The Expansionary fiscal contraction hypothesis is the economic theory that explores whether government austerity can result in economic expansion. This hypothesis indicates that expansion from austerity is very limited and occurs only during periods when consumption is not constrained.

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[edit]Reasons for undertaking austerity measures

Austerity measures are typically taken if there is a threat that a government cannot honor its debt liabilities. Such a situation may arise if a government has borrowed in foreign currencies that they have no right to issue or they have been legally forbidden from issuing their own currency. In such a situation, banks may lose trust in a government’s ability and/or willingness to pay and either refuse to roll over existing debts or demand extremely high interest rates. In such situations, inter-governmental institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may demand austerity measures in exchange for functioning as a lender of last resort. When the IMF requires such a policy, the terms are known as ‘IMF conditionalities‘.

[edit]Typical effects

Development projects, welfare, and other social spending are common programs that are targeted for cuts: Taxes, port and airport fees, train and bus fares are common sources of increased user fees.

In many cases, austerity measures have been associated with protest movements claiming significant decline in standard of living. A case in point is the nation of Greece. The financial crisis—particularly the austerity package put forth by the EU and the IMF— was met with great anger by the Greek public, leading to riots and social unrest. On 27 June 2011, trade union organizations commenced a forty-eight hour labor strike in advance of a parliamentary vote on the austerity package, the first such strike since 1974. Massive demonstrations were organized throughout Greece, intended to pressure parliament members into voting against the package. The second set of austerity measures was approved on 29 June 2011, with 155 out of 300 members of parliament voting in favor. However, one United Nations official warned that the second package of austerity measures in Greece could pose a violation of human rights.[5]

[edit]Controversy

Austerity programs can be controversial. In the Overseas Development Institute briefing paper “The IMF and the Third World” the ODI addresses five major complaints against the IMF’s austerity ‘conditionalities’. These complaints include these measures being “anti-developmental”, “self-defeating”, and “they tend to have an adverse impact on the poorest segments of the population”. In many situations, austerity programs are implemented by countries that were previously under dictatorial regimes, leading to criticism that the citizens are forced to repay the debts of their oppressors.[6][7][8]

Economist Richard D. Wolff has stated that instead of cutting government programs and raising taxes, austerity should be attained by collecting (taxes) from non-profit multinational corporations, churches, and private tax-exempt institutions such as universities, which currently pay no taxes at all.[9]

In 2009, 2010, and 2011, workers and students in Greece and other European countries demonstrated against cuts to pensions, public services and education spending as a result of government austerity measures.[10][11] Following the announcement of plans to introduce austerity measures in Greece, massive demonstrations were witnessed throughout the country, aimed at pressing parliamentarians to vote against the austerity package. In Athens alone 19 arrests were made while 46 civilians and 38 policemen had been injured by June 29, 2011. The third round austerity has been approved by the Greece parliament on February 12, 2012 and has met strong opposition especially in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki where the police have clashed with demonstrators.

Opponents argue that austerity measures tend to depress economic growth, which ultimately causes governments to lose more money in tax revenues. In countries with already anemic economic growth, austerity can engender deflation which inflates existing debt. This can also cause the country to fall into a liquidity trap, causing credit markets to freeze up and unemployment to increase. Opponents point to cases in Ireland and Spain in which austerity measures instituted in response to financial crises in 2009 proved ineffective in combating public debt, and placing those countries at risk of defaulting in late 2010.[12]

[edit]The “Age of Austerity”

The term “Age of austerity” was popularized by British Conservative leader David Cameron in his keynote speech to the Conservative party forum in Cheltenham on April 26, 2009, when he committed to put an end to what he called years of excessive government spending.[13] [14]

[edit]Word of the year

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary named the word “austerity” as its “Word of the Year” for 2010 because of the number of web searches this word generated that year. According to the president and publisher of the dictionary, “austerity had more than 250,000 searches on the dictionary’s free online [website] tool” and the spike in searches “came with more coverage of the debt crisis”.[15]

[edit]Examples of austerity

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriateEditing help is available. (June 2011)

Anti-austerity protests, chiefly taking the form of massive street protests by those affected by them and some of them also involving a greater or lesser degree of militancy, have happened regularly across various countries, especially on the European continent, since the onset of the present-day worldwide financial crisis. The phenomena are, collectively, decidedly separate, conceptually, from the austerity measures themselves, even though the enactment of the latter is a prerequisite for the former. This is because they are of the sizes they are; that they cut across age groups (e.g., both students and older workers) and other demographics; that they can incorporate many different types of actions in many different segments of a given country’s economy including education funding, infrastructure funding, manufacturing, aviation, social welfare, and many many others; and that the phenomenon of austerity, when explained by itself, is inadequate to properly encompass the phenomenon of widespread opposition to it, and that opposition’s nuances and fluctuations.

Anti-austerity actions are varied, ongoing, and can be either sporadic and loosely-organised or longer-term and tightly-organised. Theycontinue as of the present day. Recent upheavals in Tunisia and in Egypt in 2011 were originally largely anti-austerity and anti-unemployment before turning into wider social revolutions.

Most recently, the global and still-spreading Occupy movement has arguably been the most noticeable physical enactment of anti-austerity and populist sentiment.

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[edit]Background

Austerity is mainly noticed by a country when its aspects (usually known as ‘cuts’) are implemented unilaterally and forcibly (a “hatchet job“) rather than through a more careful strategy of creeping normalcy wherein such cuts are made to seem reasonable, or at least tolerable. Austerity is usually only referred to by that name when it is part of a sweeping package or packages of reforms that have the openly-admitted effect of great or even complete overhaul of major aspects of a society’s socioeconomic core facilities, programs and/or services. Because of this nature, austerity programs in general often are virulently opposed by the populations experiencing them, as they tend to have an impact on the poorest segments of the population. Those who are pro-austerity (who usually refer to the process as “deficit reduction”) usually counter that these poorest segments of the population would also suffer the most should a debt crisisoccur[citation needed], an argument rejected by most anti-austerity individuals.

Prior to the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis, in many situations, austerity programs were implemented by countries that were previously under dictatorial regimes (e.g., Portugal, Greece, Spain), leading to criticism that the citizens are forced to repay the debts of their oppressors.[1][2][3] In Greece, for example, the current austerity measures are popularly viewed as a combination of leftover policies of the 1967-1974 military dictatorship in that country on the one hand, and the “betrayal” of socialist principles by the current parliamentary-majority Panhellenic Socialist Movement on the other hand, due to that party’s wholesale enactment of extremely severe austerity measures in the country, which most everyday Greeks conceive of as intensely right-wing in nature, at least when compared to the party’s officially-stated core beliefs.[citation needed]

In the present-day enactments of various “austerity budgets”, however, a prior history of dictatorship is not necessarily a precondition for the implementation of such a budget by a given government. Examples of countries implementing severe austerity measures without a history of what the world’s mainstream media would typically consider a ‘dictatorship’, include the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the latter of which witnessed its housing market completely (rather than partially as elsewhere) collapse, and the Republic eventually appealing for a massive bailout from the International Monetary Fund, “in exchange for” implementation of a very severe austerity programme. The austerity measures and the terms of the IMF bailout became major aspects of the 2008–2011 Irish financial crisis, and popular anger over these issues played a very major role in the loss of governmental power of Fianna Fáil to opposition parties in the 2011 Irish general election. The loss was so complete and so total for Fianna Fáil that many commentators remarked that the results were “historic”. Fine Gael and the Labour Party entered in to a coalition government with one another, and Fine Gael’s leaders have vowed to re-negotiate the terms of the IMF bailout so that austerity can be slowed or stopped and the Irish economy can be given a chance to grow again.[4] Sinn Féin, which for the first time also won a notable percentage in the election, has called for a nationwide referendum over whether the bailout agreement should be scrapped altogether, but this suggestion has been met with dismissal by officials.[5]

Austerity in most European countries, including Spain and Italy — where there have been massive anti-austerity protests, wildcat strikes, and union-organized industrial actions of various types at semi-regular intervals since late 2008, earning for the most part massive worldwide media attention — is by no means limited to what could be the ‘expected’ areas of the economy that might in theory experience direct penalties as a result of gross mismanagement, such as financial institutions. In fact, financial institutions rarely, if ever, truly receive such ‘punishment’ by a country’s government; austerity-like levies could perfectly well be imposed on them for causing, or helping to cause, the crisis that leads to the austerity measures in the first place, but typically are not. Instead, it is argued (chiefly by people engaging in anti-austerity protests, but also some economists as well) that rather than ‘punish’ the banks and others truly responsible for the crisis, the government is instead ‘punishing’ regular people for the ‘crimes’ of others, namely the ‘elite’ and/or greedy professional money-handlers engaging in market manipulation.

[edit]Examples

100,000 peaceful anti-austerity protesters in front of the parliament of Greece on 29 June 2011.

  • The May–July 2011 Greek protests, also known as the “Indignant Citizens Movement” or the “Greek indignados”, started demonstrating throughout Greece on 25 May 2011;[6] the movement’s largest demonstration was on 5 June, with 300,000 people gathering in front of the Greek Parliament,[7] while the organizers put the number to 500,000.[8] The protests lasted for over a month without any violent incidents, while on 29 June 2011, amid a violent police crackdown and accusations of police brutality by international media and Amnesty International,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] the square was evacuated but demonstrations continued the next day despite the crackdown;[16][17] they officially ended on 7 August 2011,[18] but resumed in October.
  • The 2011 Spanish protests, whose participants are sometimes referred to as the “indignados“, are a series of ongoing anti-austerity demonstrations in Spain that rose to prominence beginning on 15 May 2011; thus, the movement is also sometimes referred to as the May 15 or M-15 movement as well. It is a collection of several different instances of continuous demonstrations countrywide, with a common origin in internet social networks and the Democracia Real Ya web presence, along with 200 other small associations.[19]
  • In late March 2011 the Portuguese Prime Minister resigned a few hours after the latest austerity bill he backed was rejected by the rest of government. The government called that particular austerity round unacceptable.[20] In his resignation speech, Jose Socrates expressed concern that an IMF bailout akin to Greece and Ireland would now be unavoidable.
  • In mid-March 2011 the British Medical Association held an emergency meeting at which it broadly decided to emphatically oppose pending legislation in the British Parliament, the Health and Social Care Bill, that would overhaul the functioning of the National Health Service. Dr Layla Jader, a public health physician, said: “The NHS needs evolution not revolution – these reforms are very threatening to the future of the NHS. If they go through, our children will look back and say how could you allow this to happen?” And Dr Barry Miller, an anaethetist from Bolton, added: “The potential to do phenomenal damage is profound. I haven’t seen any evidence these proposals will improve healthcare in the long-term.”[21] There have also been various grassroots groups of UK citizenry virulently opposing the pending new bill, including NHS Direct Action,[22] 38 Degrees,[23] and the trade union Unite.[24]
  • One of the United Kingdom‘s most severe austerity measures came into the force of law on 9 December 2010: spending for higher education and tuition subsidies and assistance in English universities — historically rather substantial in scale — was cut by an astounding total of 80%.[25] That announcement and its implications, which included a near-tripling of student tuition fees from their previous levels[26] up to a new ceiling of £9000/year, led to a huge backlash amongst students who almost immediately took to the streets over various non-sequential days against this announcement, squaring off with police on several occasions including an instance where some students angrily entered the Conservative headquarters and smashed windows and destroyed its interior.[27]On the day of the passage of the measure itself, there was an explosion of street violence by enraged students and their allies, especially in London. There is an ongoing law enforcement investigation into, and even active pursuing of,[28] the participants of the violence over the various protest days, with particular attention focusing on the moments when a number of protesters successfully attacked a royal car driving on its way to a London event,[29] although they did not injure its occupants. Shouts of “off with their heads” were reportedly heard.[30] On 25 March 2011, Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, became one of the more high-profile individuals to be officially charged in relation to those events.[31] As a result of these protests, a number of groups formed to combat the austerity measures that began with the cuts to higher education. One such example is Bloomsbury Fightback!, which is a group of radical students and workers in Bloomsbury, London, centred around the Bloomsbury Colleges in theUniversity of London and focusing on organising around education and employment issues, of which many are the result of the austerity measures, .
  • The group UK Uncut is one outgrowth of the anger felt by average citizens at austerity, albeit the group focuses not so much on combating the cuts themselves as on demanding that the rich, rather than the poor, pay the shortfalls causing the austerity in the first place — a sort of “tax the rich” movement. UK Uncut attempts to organise flash mob protests inside the highest-profile buildings of the businesses of the rich people avoiding tax or paying less than they should.
  • Around the same time as the heating-up of the England protests (but before the passing of the bill), students in Italy occupied theleaning tower of Pisa in a similar protest regarding its own educational system.[32]
  • On 27 November 2010, a massive protest against pending austerity took place in Dublin;[33] The Irish Examiner news service also reports on a 7 December 2010 clash around the Dáil where protesters threw smoke bombs and flares at police.[34] Additionally, La Scala in Italy experienced a clash on 8 December 2010 including scuffles with police.[35]
  • More generally, throughout 2009 and 2010, workers and students in Greece and other European countries demonstrated against cuts to pensions, public services and education spending as a result of government austerity measures.[36] There was a brief airport strike in Spain in December 2010, and assorted brief “general strike”-like actions in France have taken place, particularly around the very controversial plan of the French government to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, a proposal which eventually successfully passed.
  • Further protests have since taken place in Greece and elsewhere, have continued throughout 2011 and 2012,[37] including in Nigeriawith major large street clashes against the withdrawal of fuel subsidies. There was also a major protest in London by UK groups from across that country on 26 March 2011,[38] centred around a protest call initially made by the Trades Union Congress but subsequently involving many other groups. In general, the UK’s round of austerity measures, or “cuts”, from April 2011 onward are understood by most of the population to be, as an aggregated phenomenon, the worst withdrawal of public services since those services’ foundings, in the early 20th century and the post-World War II era. The coalition government currently in power in Britain repeatedly reassures the public that these public sector cuts will be replaced by a “Big Society” underpinned by charitiesstart-up businesses and private enterprise. Critics counter on the one hand that such a model is effective back-door privatisation, and on the other hand that even assuming the “Big Society” is a genuine populist initiative, it still fails conceptually, since the very charities and start-up businesses touted in this model are also the ones being severely slashed or eliminated by the new austerity-fuelled economics of the government.
  • Participants in more militant forms of protest engaged in during the 26th March demonstration, who in total only comprised 1,500 people out of the estimated 250,000-500,000 total participants, have been relentlessly attacked by the government as “mindless thugs”[39] with the UK’s mainstream media including the BBC generally supporting this perception. This remains the case even though the fundamental seriousness of damage thus far remains debatable; much reporting seems to have focused on the smashing of a Santander bank branch’s glass entranceway doors by largely anarchist activists, who would have also been behind the simultaneous destruction of several automated teller machines and the scrawling of “class war” in graffiti on neighbouring walls — rather than destruction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, schools or homes that would have indisputably comprised terrorismby any objective measure. There are those who would therefore argue that the activists, even if misguided in their actions, still technically only targeted the institutions (i.e., banks) perceived responsible for the cuts, and did not cross the line into more general mayhem. Nevertheless, the Home Secretary Theresa May vociferously advocates the review by authorities of UK terrorism law to determine whether the Metropolitan Police can legally extend their own powers of arrest and detention using those provisions. Talk of the approximately 1,500 people involved in the militant aspects of the anti-cuts march almost totally eclipsed the more general event of up to half a million peaceable, albeit still angry, protesters who say they have very real, very personal grievances against the government’s cuts plans.

[edit]Perspectives

Economist Richard D. Wolff has stated that instead of cutting government programs and raising taxes, austerity should be attained by collecting from non-profit multinational corporations, churches, and private tax-exempt institutions such as universities, which currently pay no taxes at all.[40] Groups like UK Uncut and the campaigners for a Robin Hood tax argue for a “tax the banks” strategy that is similar, as well as to argue that the banks and corporations severely underpay the taxes they already owe, and need to stop tax-dodging.

There are also those like Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman, who argue that austerity measures tend to be counterproductive when applied to the populations and programs they are usually applied to.[41] This argument holds that austerity measures tend not to revitalize economies by ‘getting people off of benefits and back to work,’ and similar, but rather that austerity simply depresses economic growth wholesale, which ultimately causes governments to lose more money in tax revenues than they would have if they had not enacted the austerity and instead created jobs and new infrastructure and industries. In countries with already anemic economic growth, austerity can engender deflation which inflates existing debt. This can also cause the country to fall into a liquidity trap, causing credit markets to freeze up and unemployment to increase. Advocates of these positions point to cases in Ireland and Spain in which austerity measures instituted in response to financial crises in 2009 proved ineffective in combating public debt and the countries got in ever more dire financial straits as 2010 and 2011 progressed.[42]

[edit]References

  1. ^ Harvey, D (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism
  2. ^ Klein, N. (2007) The Shock Doctrine
  3. ^ Chomsky, N (2004) Hegemony or Survival
  4. ^ http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Enda-Kenny-and-Eamon-Gilmore-will-renegotiate-EU-bailout-117573543.html
  5. ^ http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/bacik-dismisses-sinn-fein-calls-for-bailout-referendum-497233.html
  6. ^ “Στα χνάρια των Ισπανών αγανακτισμένων (On the footsteps of the Spanish ‘indignados’)” (in Greek). http://www.skai.gr. 26 May 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
  7. ^ “300.000 πολίτες στο κέντρο της Αθήνας!” (in Greek). http://www.skai.gr. 5 June 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  8. ^ “”Αγανακτισμένοι”: Πρωτοφανής συμμετοχή σε Αθήνα και άλλες πόλεις” (in Greek). http://www.skai.gr. 5 June 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  9. ^ “Greece passes key austerity vote”. http://www.bbc.co.uk. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  10. ^ Siddique, Haroon; Batty, David (29 June 2011). “Greece austerity vote and demonstrations – Wednesday 29 June 2011”. London: http://www.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  11. ^ Smith, Helena (1 July 2011). “Greek police face investigation after protest violence”. London: http://www.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  12. ^ “TEAR GAS FIRED AS GREEK POLICE CLASH WITH ATHENS PROTESTERS”. http://www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  13. ^ “GREECE URGED NOT TO USE EXCESSIVE FORCE DURING PROTESTS”. http://www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  14. ^ “Back when peaceful demonstrations in Greece were massive and meaningful…”. http://www.ireport.cnn.com. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  15. ^ Donadio, Rachel; Sayare, Scott (29 June 2011). “Violent Clashes in the Streets of Athens”. http://www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  16. ^ “Επιστρέφουν στην Πλατεία Συντάγματος οι Αγανακτισμένοι για να εμποδίσουν την ψήφιση του βασικού εφαρμοστικού νόμου” (in Greek). Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  17. ^ “Πλήγμα για την Ελλάδα το βομβαρδισμένο κέντρο” (in Greek). Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  18. ^ “Απομακρύνθηκαν οι “Αγανακτισμένοι” από τον Λευκό Πύργο”. http://www.protothema.gr. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  19. ^ “Movimiento 15-M: los ciudadanos exigen reconstruir la política (15-M Movement: citizens demand political reconstruction)”. Politica.elpais.com. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
  20. ^ “Portugal PM Jose Socrates resigns after budget rejected”BBC News. 23 March 2011.
  21. ^ “Doctors want halt to NHS plans but reject opposition”BBC. 15 March 2011.
  22. ^ http://www.nhsdirectaction.co.uk/
  23. ^ http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/Protect_our_NHS_Petition#petition
  24. ^ http://www.unitetheunion.org/sectors/health_sector/unite_4_our_nhs.aspx
  25. ^ Mulholland, Hélène (2010-12-09). “Lib Dem parliamentary aide quits over tuition fees as MPs prepare to vote”guardian.co.uk(London: Guardian News and Media). Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  26. ^ http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Lib-Dems-join-key-vote-tuition-fees-rise/article-2974808-detail/article.html
  27. ^ “California university students protest tuition hikes”CNN. 18 November 2009.
  28. ^ “Latest Suspects Wanted For Violent Disorder And Affray”Daily Mail (London). 20 March 2011.
  29. ^ “Student protests: Radio failure claims rejected”BBC News. 11 December 2010.
  30. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/International/british-prince-charles-royal-car-attacked-luck-photographer/story?id=12363034
  31. ^ Davies, Caroline (25 March 2011). “Charlie Gilmour to stand trial over attack on royal convoy”The Guardian (London).
  32. ^ “Italian student protesters occupy Leaning Tower of Pisa”BBC News. 25 November 2010.
  33. ^ http://www.thirdage.com/news/dublin-unions-protest-harsh-austerity-plan_11-27-2010
  34. ^ http://budget.breakingnews.ie/news/protesters-target-dail-over-cuts-484837.html
  35. ^ “Italian cuts spark fight at the opera for La Scala”BBC News. 8 December 2010.
  36. ^ Kyriakidou, Dina (4 August 2010). “In Greece you get a bonus for showing up for work – Arcane benefits add billions to Greece’s bloated budget”. Toronto: thestar.com. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  37. ^ “Riots in Greece as austerity measures start to bite”Austerity Bill. 23 February 2011.
  38. ^ Taylor, Matthew (14 March 2011). “Anti-cuts campaigners plan ‘carnival of civil disobedience'”The Guardian (London).
  39. ^ “Home Secretary Theresa May condemns protest ‘thugs'”BBC News. 28 March 2011.
  40. ^ Wolff, Richard (4 July 2010). “Austerity: Why and for Whom?”. RDWolff.com. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  41. ^ Krugman, Paul (1 July 2010). “Myths of Austerity”The New York Times.
  42. ^ Leung, Sophie; Salamat, Rishaad (11 November 2010). “Stiglitz Says Ireland Has Bleak Prospect of Cutting Deficit, Saving Banks”.Bloomberg.
  1. ^ Elmhirst, Sophie (24 September 2010). “Word Games: Austerity”. New Statesman. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  2. ^ Traynor, Ian; Katie Allen (11 June 2010). “Austerity Europe: who faces the cuts”. London: Guardian News. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  3. ^ Wesbury, Brian S.; Robert Stein (26 July 2010). “Government Austerity: The Good, Bad And Ugly”. Forbes.com. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  4. ^ “Word of the Year 2010”. Merriam-Webster.
  5. ^ “Greek austerity measures could violate human rights, UN expert says”. http://www.un.org. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  6. ^ Harvey, D (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism
  7. ^ Klein, N. (2007) The Shock Doctrine
  8. ^ Chomsky, N (2004) Hegemony or Survival
  9. ^ Wolff, Richard (4 July 2010). “Austerity: Why and for Whom?”. RDWolff.com. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  10. ^ Kyriakidou, Dina (4 August 2010). “In Greece you get a bonus for showing up for work – Arcane benefits add billions to Greece’s bloated budget”. Toronto: thestar.com. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  11. ^ Costas Kantouris and Nicholas Paphitis (10 September 10 2011). “Greek police, firefighters protest”The Boston Globe.Associated Press Sm,meme,emme,e,e,e. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  12. ^ Leung, Sophie (2010-11-11). “Stiglitz Says Ireland Has Bleak Prospect of Cutting Deficit, Saving Banks”. Bloomberg. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
  13. ^ Deborah Summers (26 April 2009). “David Cameron warns of ‘new age of austerity'”The Guardian (.). Retrieved April 26, 2009.
  14. ^ M. Nicolas Firzli & Vincent Bazi (Q4 2011). “Infrastructure Investments in an Age of Austerity : The Pension and Sovereign Funds Perspective”Revue Analyse Financière, volume 41. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  15. ^ Contreras, Russell (December 20, 2010). “Audacity of ‘austerity,’ 2010 Word of the Year”. Associated Press. Retrieved December 20, 2010.[dead link]
  16. ^ Time Magazine (1952), “ARGENTINA: Inflexible Austerity”
  17. ^ Sonja Pace (2010-06-16). “Germany Approves Biggest Austerity Plan Since World War II | News | English”. .voanews.com. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
  18. ^ “WRAPUP 4-Greek debt costs spike on budget jitters”.Reuters. 21 January 2010.
  19. ^ “UPDATE 2-Italy joins Europe’s austerity club with deep cuts”Reuters. 25 May 2010.
  20. ^ (AFP) – Jul 27, 2010 (2010-07-27). “AFP: Japan unveils budget austerity guidelines”. Google.com. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
  21. ^ “Soros says EU “wrong” to push austerity on Latvia”.Reuters. 10 October 2009.
  22. ^ “Mexico’s Austerity Plans”The New York Times. 8 February 1985.
  23. ^ “Revista Envío – President Arnoldo Alemán Between the Fund and the Front”. Envio.org.ni. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
  24. ^ “Bankrupt Hamas government unveils austerity package”. Americanintifada.com. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
  25. ^ Leigh Phillips (2010-05-20). “EUobserver / Romania sees biggest protest since 1989 over austerity measures”. Euobserver.com. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
  26. ^ Salvadó, Francisco J. Romero (1999) Twentieth-century Spain: politics and society in Spain, 1898–1998
  27. ^ Coates, Sam; Evans, Judith (7 June 2010). “Cameron fingers culprits for Britains 770bn debt pile”The Times (London).

Its a done deal! United States dollar No Longer world reserve currency!

By:Daniel J Leach

“Nothing Happens That Hasn’t Been Planned ” Franklin Roosevelt

Decentralized money, does not mean its out of government control. What we need free market money, where the market sets the values and picks what the currency. The reason why gold and silver are the best is they follow the Principle of Sound Money (google it). Banks should be ran like any other business. They are free to enter without the control of the government. This means less regulations and more freedom.

All the fiat and T-bills are going to come back to the U.S and European Union. Economy going to implode hardcore, the ‘West’ is going to fight this as hard as possible, they will not accept it until they are forced to realize their defeat.

RON PAUL was RIGHT! This CAN be good for the US because MAYBE this will wake the American people up and stop them from watching the BOOB TUBE!  So the question is who makes up the new fiat paper money and then collects the interest on it. Same crap different mob.  Its called the IMF.

I see a future where the US plus the Europeans on one side and the BRICS on the other side engaging in a non ending economic cold war that may turn into indirect military confrontations using proxy countries like Syria, Iran, Israel and others. The rest of the world will create a non aligned economic and political movement. You are dreaming if you think the US will ultimately go down. They will always create a situation where they will come on top.

What I have detected, in the Video are mis-leading in this report. In saying World Bank & IMF has outlived its “USEFUL”ness and a New World BRICs Bank, is deceptive, because what they don’t explicitly say, is that the Federal Reserve Bank, will have to bail out any of those BRIC bank “loans” [that never get paid back] with USA denominated dollars. So the USA taxpayer will still be on the hook. WE MUST get back to silver and gold, and close the Federal Reserve Bank.

The fact that these countries are now talking about and getting ready to leave the US Dollar and it’s crooked IMF behind is now showing that these people have both guts and brains. The American people could learn valuable lessons from them regarding how to get an allegedly crooked president and monetary banking system out of their country and out or their lives.

This is the best news and the first true sign of hope I’ve seen in ions.

stbartels12 in reply to DoppelplusDeldenk (Show the comment) 5 hours ago

It’s a done deal! Wonder when the gov’t is going to let everyone know they just lost their power!!

BYE BYE DOLLAR IT WAS FUN ! USA dollar NO LONGER world reserve currency! 

Could Swedens 200 ft wide entrance be the bottomless pit that opens up in Hell from Revelation chapter 9 of the Bible?

Revelation chapter 9 commentary

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace

The CELESTIAL Convergence

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: STUNNINGLY MASSIVE 200 FOOT WIDE “ENTRANCE TO HELL” OPENS UP IN SWEDEN – MYSTERIOUS HOLE IN MALMBERGET IS 150 METRES HIGH?!

 Have a look at the following image of a massive land subsidence in Sweden, that mysteriously collapse to reveal a 200 foot wide open.

Revelation chapter 9 commentary

by Don Koenig

 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

The fifth angel sounds his trumpet and a star falls from heaven. This star has the key to the bottomless pit. Stars sometimes have a double reference to angelic beings in the scriptures. This star is called “him” so it is an angel. The angel was given the key to open up the place under the earth where fallen angels are bound (2 Pe: 2 1-10). Some think this angel is Satan and others think it is another angel. I think this angel still has the key when he locks Satan in the bottomless pit for a thousand years after the tribulation is over (Rev 20:1-2). Therefore, the angel is from God and is not Satan.

It is too soon for Satan to be cast out of heaven permanently since the Beast he incarnates when he is cast out of heaven comes out of the pit months after the time of this fifth trumpet. The Beast comes out of the pit just prior to the seventh trumpet just before he kills the two prophets who have completed their 1,260-day testimony (Rev 11:7).

If this was actually the time when Satan and his angels were cast out of heaven by Michael and his angels there should be a description of more than one star falling from heaven. This angel appears to be on an assignment and does not appear to be an angel being banished from heaven.

Although it is clear that this star is a personality, I do not think we can say that the comet had nothing to do with opening the pit in a physical sense. Physical and spiritual events can be interrelated. Mankind being limited to four dimensions cannot understand the mystery of how the physical and the spiritual are interrelated (Mat 16:19, Mat 18:18). These physical judgments on earth are the end result of spiritual prayers. We read in the last chapter that a censor containing the prayers of the saints was filled with fire by an angel. This angel cast the censor upon the earth and then these physical judgments came.

When the comet hits the earth it will penetrate the crust of the earth and open the bottomless pit. We see this physically happens on earth by the description of the great smoke that comes out of the pit that darkens the skies. The opening of the bottomless pit provides a way out for devils or demons that have been bound in the pit (by gravitational forces perhaps?).

 

3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

The bottomless pit is opened and tormentors come on the earth. Their satanic role probably is to make life on earth so unbearable that a counterfeit savior will be accepted. Out of the smoke of the pit comes a strange type of locust upon the earth. These locusts have power like scorpions. What these beings are is not certain and I have no natural explanation. The stinging locusts last on the earth for five months. We can be sure they are demonic beings because they come out of the bottomless pit and we are told that they will have a demonic king ruling over them.

 

4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

These locusts were commanded by God not to hurt anything green so these are not  normal locusts or any natural mutation. They sting only those who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads. The 144,000 most likely are not the only ones sealed. Those who believe and follow Jesus may also be sealed since they are also servants of God. Scripture does not tell us that believers will be sealed but I see no reason for God to let believers to be tormented by demonic beings. The fact that they are commanded and cannot harm those sealed by God say that these beings are intelligent and have no choice but to obey spiritual authority given to the angels of God.

These locusts will not be given power to kill anyone but they will have the power to torment unsealed people for five months. Some make this judgment a result of nuclear warfare. They claim that this judgment is talking about radioactive poisoning but many who suffer this do die. It is obvious from the description of these locusts that this is not what is being described. Some say that they are spiritual demons that torment man mentally but passages that follow indicate that these beings have physical form. The scorpion sting is said to be the most painful of all stings. Those on earth who are not sealed have this type of pain to look forward to for five long months.

 

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

This is going to be so bad that people will seek death but they will not find it. Why man cannot find death is unknown but God gives and takes life. Perhaps, because the pit of hell is opened, no one can die and go there until after the five months is up. It may be 5 months of the real Night of Living Dead for people on earth.

God, for His own reasons is not allowing any unsealed person to escape this torment. I think this is the ultimate tough love program. I believe God is allowing demons to give men of flesh a five month taste of the Lake of Fire. It is given in love so they will choose not to go there for eternity when they later are required to make a choice between taking the mark of the Beast and going to this place of torments for eternity or choosing God’s Son and losing their physical lives so their soul will be saved from it. All mankind will still have another chance to come to Jesus and not choose to go to the place of eternal torments.

 

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

This passage gives the actual physical description of these creatures. They are not like anything we know. They are not helicopters or jets shooting missiles filled with chemical or biological weapons as some have speculated. These creatures come out of the smoke of the pit and the angel of the bottomless pit is ruling over them. This is not Satan because Satan at this point has not yet been cast out of heaven.

The king over these beings is named Abaddon. The name Abaddon actually means the destroyer. These locusts are led by the destroying angel who is probably Satan’s commander of the dimension called the underworld. These locusts are actual physical beings that ascend out of the same pit the angel in verse two opened with his key. The five months of this torment will be a literal hell on earth.

 

12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

After the five months of torment by these hellish creatures, one woe is past but there are still two more left to come when the sixth and seventh angels sound their trumpets.

 

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

After the sixth trumpet blast, four angels are loosed that are bound in the Euphrates River. This prophecy gives the number of the horsemen (cavalry men) that will now be allowed to pass to the east of the Euphrates to kill one third of men. The number John said he heard was two hundred million. There never was a time when such an army was possible before this generation.

Today such an army could come from the East; there are now more than three billion people east of the Euphrates River. The CIA fact book of the year 2004 said that China alone has more than two hundred million military fit men.

Abortion and infanticide of female children in China and India in this generation will create a disposable surplus of over one hundred million adult men who will have no chance for marriage and a normal family life. To a lesser extent for much the same reason there will also be surpluses of men in other countries of the Far East. It is as if these men were born for a special time to fulfill this prophecy. That is exactly what the wording of this passage implies. There will be almost enough adult men to make up this army from just the surplus males of military age that will exist in China and other Far-East nations by 2035 AD.

Some commentators think that this is an army of demons. In all cases, demons seek to possess bodies so a reasonable compromise is that two hundred million demons will come out of the pit and possess, and control this two hundred million-man army. This army will cross the Euphrates and come into the Middle East and the West. This army will kill one third of all men that survived the previous disasters on the earth. By the time the prior judgments and this second woe is completed over half of the world’s population will be dead.

Some commentators are hung up on the word horsemen thinking that all the men would have to be riding horses. Since these believe it is not possible to assemble two hundred million horses, they dredge up demons that look like men on horses. More likely, the wording simply means the leaders are mounted on horses or the men travel on something mobile (i.e. military vehicles).

 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

The description in this passage is probably only supernatural in the sense that angels were loosed for a specific time to allow this to happen and that demons are now free to deceive and inhabit those who dwell on the earth. The entire wording of this judgment makes it fairly clear to me that this is describing a great all out world war between the West and the East.

The fire that comes out of the mouths of the horsemen is every modern weapon of warfare like tanks, and artillery. The tails like serpents that had heads that did harm sound exactly like modern rockets and bombs with warheads. This will be an all out world war using nuclear, chemical and biological warfare and billions will die.

 

20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Even after mankind uses all the weapons of warfare they made with their own hands against one another they still will not repent of the works of their hands. Instead of trusting in God to save them, they trust and worship the created instead of the Creator. Most of the East will still pray to statues that represent Buddha or countless other demon gods. Instead of obeying God’s servants on earth, they will follow doctrines given by demons. Instead of coming to God to be changed and to be given a new heart they will continue in their insane practices. Instead of worshiping the God of heaven, they will now worship the image of the Beast possessed by Satan.

Because the world did not want to believe the truth, they will now be given a lie and they will accept Satan’s counterfeit savior and his counterfeit kingdom (2Th 2:11). This deception happens because these still love to murder, use drugs, commit adultery and steal. They love evil and that is why they will not receive the truth and be saved.

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