Barack Obama

Clapper: Obama Was Behind The Whole Thing

(Zero Hedge) Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper admitted in a CNN interview Saturday that former President Obama instigated the ongoing investigations into Donald Trump and those in his orbit.

Speaking with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper, Clapper let slip:

If it weren’t for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today including Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. President Obama is responsible for that. It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place.

Barack Obama: “I’m Actually Surprised by How Much Money I Got” (Video)

(Washington Free Beacon) Last year, Obama and his wife Michelle signed book deals worth more than $60 million. Additionally, Obama has made a substantial sum from previous books he wrote over the years, including from before he was president. The Obamas have also signed a deal with Netflix to produce content for the company; it is unknown how much the deal is worth.

Obama also receives a government pension of nearly $200,000 annually, and he has government-funded staff and protection.

“There’s only so much you can eat, there’s only so big a house you can have, there’s only so many nice trips you can take,” Obama said. “I mean, it’s enough.”

Poll Asks Americans To Name The Greatest President In Their Lifetimes – Barack Obama Wins With 31 Percent

It is exceedingly difficult to be optimistic about the future of our nation when you see poll numbers like this. The Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey in which they asked Americans to name the president that has “done the best job in your lifetime”. You would think that Ronald Reagan would be the winner by a very wide margin, but he wasn’t. Instead, Barack Obama was the winner with 31 percent of the vote. Reagan came in second with 21 percent, Bill Clinton was third with 13 percent, and Donald Trump was fourth with just 10 percent. When you add the Obama and Clinton numbers together, you come up with a grand total of 44 percent of all Americans that believe that either Barack Obama or Bill Clinton was the best president during their lifetimes, and that is absolutely frightening. It essentially means that nearly half of the entire U.S. population has gone mad, and with numbers such as those it is very difficult to imagine how we are ever going to restore our Constitutional Republic.

Those that responded to the survey were asked to give their first and second choices to the question, and this is how the final numbers came out for first choice…

Obama: 31 percent
Reagan: 21 percent
Clinton: 13 percent
Trump: 10 percent
Kennedy: 7 percent
Carter: 4 percent
George W. Bush: 3 percent
George H.W. Bush: 3 percent
Eisenhower: 2 percent
Ford: 1 percent
Nixon: 1 percent
Johnson: 1 percent
Truman: 1 percent
Roosevelt: 1 percent

The way that the question was asked is obviously going to depress the numbers of presidents that served many decades ago. For example, I was not born yet when Eisenhower was president, so he would not be an option for me when naming the president that has “done the best job in my lifetime”. If the question had been framed differently, I think that Eisenhower and Kennedy would have done much better.

In particular, I think that Eisenhower doesn’t really get the credit that he deserved. America generally thrived under his leadership, but nobody ever really talks about him too much anymore.

Another thing that really jumps out about these numbers is how poorly both Bushes did.

George H.W. Bush’s presidency was largely considered to be a continuation of the Reagan administration, but he only got 3 percent of the vote. 7 percent did name him as their second choice, and most of those probably named Reagan as their first choice.

George W. Bush served much more recently, and to get only 3 percent of the vote shows how the American people really feel about him at this point. The president that served immediately before him (Bill Clinton) got 13 percent of the vote and the president that served immediately after him (Barack Obama) got 31 percent of the vote. To only receive 3 percent of the vote is an absolutely disastrous showing.

Overall, Democrats have to feel really good about these survey results. If you add the last four Republican presidents together, their grand total of 37 percent of the vote doesn’t even come close to the combined total of the last two Democratic presidents (44 percent).

Needless to say, Democrats overwhelmingly chose Obama or Clinton as their top choices in this poll…

A sizable majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say Barack Obama (71%) is the best (51%) or second best (20%) president in their lifetimes. About half of Democrats name Clinton (49%). Another 14% of Democrats name Kennedy as one of their top two, 12% name Reagan and 10% mention George W. Bush.

And Republicans overwhelmingly picked Reagan or Trump as their top choices…

A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Reagan (57%) ranks in the top two presidents in their lifetimes. Another 40% of Republicans name Trump, while 20% name George W. Bush, 16% name George H.W. Bush and 15% mention Clinton.

Perhaps the most alarming result from this survey was how Millennials voted. Our young adults are the future of this country, and a whopping 62 percent of them picked Barack Obama as their first or second choice…

Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) were the most likely to choose Obama, with 62 percent naming him as their first or second choice. Reagan was the top pick for Generation X (1965 to 1980), baby boomers (1946 to 1964) and the silent generation (1928 to 1945).

Unsurprisingly, party identification was very closely tied to a person’s answer. Obama was the first or second pick of 71 percent of Democrats but only 13 percent of Republicans.

Reagan was the clear favorite among Republicans with 57 percent (12 percent among Democrats). Trump was the second pick for Republicans at 40 percent. Only 3 percent of Democrats named Trump.

This is yet more evidence that we are undergoing a dramatic demographic shift in this nation.

Older Americans tend to vote more than younger Americans do, but older Americans are also slowly but surely dying off.

Unless something fundamentally changes, we aren’t going to have any Ronald Reagans or Donald Trumps in the future. Instead, what we are going to get are more Barack Obamas and Bill Clintons.

In fact, if Michelle Obama wanted to run for president in 2020 she would almost certainly win the Democratic nomination easily, and that is a chilling thing to admit.

But she almost certainly will not run, and instead it looks like Hillary Clinton is gearing up for one last run for the presidency.

Many conservatives assume that since Trump beat Clinton last time that he will beat her again.

And that might be true.

However, we should remember that Hillary did receive 3 million more votes than Trump did last time.

And we should also not forget that older voters are slowly but surely dropping off the voting rolls, and they are being replaced by an entirely new generation of young people that is extremely liberal.

That doesn’t mean that all hope is gone. We are at a crossroads, and at this moment we are in a battle for the soul of our nation.

If we want to win, then conservatives better wake up, because right now the left has far more passion and energy than we do.

Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

Barack Obama Granted Citizenship To 2,500 Iranians While Negotiating The Nuclear Deal With Iran

President Barack Obama’s administration granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians in 2015, including family members of government officials, while negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, a senior cleric and member of parliament claimed.

Hojjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zolnour made the allegations during an interview with the country’s Etemad newspaper, cited by the country’s Fars News agency, and reported by Fox News.

He claimed the citizenship status was conferred as a favor to senior Iranian officials linked to President Hassan Rouhani, and he further claimed the offer sparked a competition among Iranian officials over whose children would benefit from it. (Daily Mail)

Barack Obama Dressed As Baphomet?

The photo at the top of this article is causing a huge stir all over the Internet right now.

Did Barack Obama really dress up as Baphomet?…

A disturbing image of former President Barack Obama dressed as Satan has emerged online.

The image first appeared when it was uploaded to Instagram by an artist named Annemarie Hope who is known for illustrations of Satanic churches.

For many, the immediate reaction will be that this photo was altered.

But that does not appear to be the case…

To check if the image has been digitally altered from another photo, the first thing to do is is do a reverse image search to see if the original image appeared online or if there ever was an original image. After uploading the image to Google image search and Tinyeye, the photo pulls zero results from either service, meaning, if it was altered from another image, then the original image has never been uploaded to the internet, which seems unlikely.

But even if this photo is real, we may never know when it was taken or why Barack Obama dressed in such a manner.

So in the end, this photo probably raises far more questions than it does answers.

“Summer Camp On Steroids”: Obama’s Former Stenographer Shares The Shocking Truth About What It Was Really Like To Travel On Air Force One

In her brand new book entitled “From The Corner Of The Oval: A Memoir”, Obama’s former stenographer Beck Dorey-Stein spills the beans on what life was really like traveling with Barack Obama and his staff.

According to her, it was like “summer camp on steroids”.  The following is how the main points in her story are summarized by the Daily Mail…

  • Former White House stenographer Beck Dorey-Stein tells how traveling with President Obama and his press pool was like ‘summer camp on steroids’ 
  • In her upcoming memoir, From Corner of the Oval, Dorey-Stein lifts the lid on her travels on Air Force Once and her affair with a staffer
  • Everyone took their drug of choice on long flights: Sonata, Xanax or Ambien – which made ‘awkward intimacy with colleagues suddenly just funny and bizarre,’ she writes
  • Beck found herself listening to old-timers telling stories such as when George H.W. Bush puked on the Japanese prime minister and Reagan fell asleep in front of the pope
  • She broke protocol when she got involved in a hot and heavy sexual relationship with one of Obama’s senior staffers in hotel rooms
  • Obama’s traveling staff was almost all women and dubbed ‘the Vagiants’

You can read the rest of the article here, and you can get her upcoming book right here.

Newly Revealed Texts Indicate That Spying On The Trump Campaign Began Much Earlier Than Thought And That Obama Was Involved

According to a stunning report from John Solomon, newly revealed texts between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok seem to indicate that spying on the Trump campaign began even earlier than most of us had thought…

The bridge to the Russia investigation wasn’t erected in Moscow during the summer of the 2016 election.

It originated earlier, 1,700 miles away in London, where foreign figures contacted Trump campaign advisers and provided the FBI with hearsay allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, bureau documents and interviews of government insiders reveal. These contacts in spring 2016 — some from trusted intelligence sources, others from Hillary Clinton supporters — occurred well before FBI headquarters authorized an official counterintelligence investigation on July 31, 2016.

The new timeline makes one wonder: Did the FBI follow its rules governing informants?

In addition, these new texts also seem to indicate that at least one official at the FBI believed that “the White House is running this”…

They voiced alarm when an FBI colleague — “Liz” — suggested the Obama White House was about to hijack the investigation. “Went well, best we could have expected,” Strzok texted Page after an Aug. 5, 2016, meeting. “Other than Liz quote ‘the White House is running this.’ ” Page then texted to assure Strzok of a paper trail showing the FBI in charge: “We got emails that say otherwise.”

The next day, they went into further detail about their White House concerns. “So maybe not the best national security president, but a genuinely good and decent human being,” Page texted Strzok, referencing former President Obama. Strzok replied: “Yeah, I like him. Just not a fan of the weakness globally. Was thinking about what the administration will be willing to do re Russia.”

You can read the entire article over at the Hill right here.  If any of this turns out to be true, it could put Barack Obama and former members of his administration in quite a bit of hot water.

Valerie Jarrett Has Moved Into Obama’s Anti-Trump Command Center To Aid In The Effort To Sabotage The President

Never before have we seen a previous president and his team openly attempt to sabotage the next president, but that is precisely what is happening.  Traditionally, most ex-presidents have chosen to move far away from Washington, but Barack Obama decided to purchase a home less than two miles from the White House, and many of his former staff members are either working directly with him or are working for his political organization Organizing for Action.  And of particular concern is the fact that Valerie Jarrett has actually moved into Obama’s five million dollar home, which many are referring to as Obama’s “anti-Trump command center”.  For eight years the Obamas wouldn’t even sneeze without consulting Valerie Jarrett first, and needless to say Jarrett has not moved in to help them pick out wallpaper and drapes.  Jarrett is a hardcore political operative, and she has reportedly convinced Obama that he needs to lead the fight against Trump.

And when I say “fight against Trump”, I don’t just mean trying to block his agenda from getting through Congress.

What I mean is that Barack Obama actually intends to try to remove Trump from the White House.  The following comes from the Daily Mail…

Barack Obama is turning his new home in the posh Kalorama section of the nation’s capital – just two miles away from the White House – into the nerve center of the mounting insurgency against his successor, President Donald J. Trump.

Obama’s goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment.

And Obama is being aided in his political crusade by his longtime consigliere, Valerie Jarrett, who has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion with the former president and Michelle Obama, long time best friends.

From this anti-Trump nerve center, the Obamas and Valerie Jarrett will be directing an army of more than 30,000 activists that are committed to an organization known as Organizing for Action.  If you read my previous article about this “army of activists”, you already know that Organizing for Action grew out of the Obama presidential campaigns, and at this point it claims to have 250 chapters around the nation.

But of course Barack Obama does not exactly plan to just sit on the sidelines and let others do the work.  Former Attorney General Eric Holder says that Barack Obama is rested and “ready to roll“…

“It’s coming. He’s coming,” Holder said, speaking to reporters at a briefing for the new group. “And he’s ready to roll.”

Throughout, Holder said, Obama “will be a more visible part of the effort.”

Holder also predicted that the usual pattern of the party in the White House losing state legislative seats in off-year elections would hold next year, but “I expect we’ll see that on steroids with President Trump.”

Ever since Trump won the election in November, Barack Obama and his team have been quietly working against him.

Even while Obama was all smiles in public, members of his administration were working feverishly to spread information that would undermine the incoming president.  For example, just check out what the New York Times has just reported…

In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.

American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.

If you have ever wondered where all of these “leaks” are coming from, the truth is that they are coming from people inside the government that are still loyal to Obama.

Earlier today, the Washington Post ran a story with this alarming headline: “The Trump presidency can’t seem to escape Russia’s shadow“.  The reason why Trump and his team are continually plagued by this stuff is because of the internal sabotage that is being conducted against them.

And of course the mainstream media will just eat up any anti-Trump morsel that they can possibly get their hands on.  Most in the mainstream media absolutely hate Trump, and so they are quite eager to aid in sabotaging him any way that they can.  Here is another example of sabotage that occurred not too long ago…

White House officials believe Obama administration employees attempted to sabotage President Trump by releasing an incomplete memo suggesting that Trump’s travel ban focusing on seven Muslim-majority countries contradicts government intelligence.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that a leaked Department of Homeland Security document indicated that filtering immigrants by citizenship would not likely prevent terrorists from entering the United States.

Almost every day it seems like something new comes out, and this kind of political warfare is not going to lead anywhere good.

At this point, there is very little chance that most of the country will unite behind the new president, and Obama and his team are going to continue to try to cause strife, discord and disruption any way that they can.

And any time street protests break out against Trump, Obama and his leftist allies are going to do their best to fuel the fire.  Eventually this could result in the kind of widespread civil unrest that I portrayed in my apocalyptic novel “The Beginning Of The End“, but Obama and his allies don’t seem to be very concerned about the long-term damage that they are doing to this country.

Instead, they seem to be absolutely obsessed with doing whatever is necessary to destroy Donald Trump.

A lot of people were hoping that the political nastiness would end once the campaign was over, but instead it appears set to go to a whole new level.

Unfortunately, I don’t see any way that this is going to end well…

Now Democrats call Obama’s shadow government ‘The Devil’

This political Gettysburg pits the Democratic Party base against the Obama machine called Organizing for Action, or OFA, the community-organizing army left over from the former president’s election campaigns.

How bitter is the battle?

Two Democratic operatives recently called OFA “The Devil.”

When former President Obama issued a call to arms to his OFA troops in order to protect his legacy, particularly Obamacare, Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, wrote in a private email to fellow party leaders, “This is some GRADE A Bulls–t right here.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Obama Expanded NSA Powers Days Before Leaving Office, Now They’re Being Used to Sabotage Trump

(By Chris Menahan of InformationLiberation.com) After President Trump won the election, Obama quietly expanded the NSA’s ability to spy on innocent Americans just days before leaving office.

Seeing as how the deep state, which includes the NSA and FBI, appear to be leaking all of Trump’s private phone calls with foreign leaders and took down General Michael Flynn by spying on his calls and leaking them to their friends in The Washington Post and The New York Times, the story is being looked at in a completely new light.

As the The New York Times reported on January 12th:

In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.

The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches.


Trump questioned whether the NSA and FBI were behind a multitude of leaks handed to the New York Times and Washington Post.

The change means that far more officials will be searching through raw data. Essentially, the government is reducing the risk that the N.S.A. will fail to recognize that a piece of information would be valuable to another agency, but increasing the risk that officials will see private information about innocent people.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch signed the new rules, permitting the N.S.A. to disseminate “raw signals intelligence information,” on Jan. 3, after the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., signed them on Dec. 15, according to a 23-page, largely declassified copy of the procedures.

These are Obama loyalists who reports suggest may have worked to sabotage Trump by ousting Flynn in order to preserve Obama’s Iran deal.

Previously, the N.S.A. filtered information before sharing intercepted communications with another agency, like the C.I.A. or the intelligence branches of the F.B.I. and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The N.S.A.’s analysts passed on only information they deemed pertinent, screening out the identities of innocent people and irrelevant personal information.

Now, other intelligence agencies will be able to search directly through raw repositories of communications intercepted by the N.S.A. and then apply such rules for “minimizing” privacy intrusions.

“This is not expanding the substantive ability of law enforcement to get access to signals intelligence,” said Robert S. Litt, the general counsel to Mr. Clapper. “It is simply widening the aperture for a larger number of analysts, who will be bound by the existing rules.”

But Patrick Toomey, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the move an erosion of rules intended to protect the privacy of Americans when their messages are caught by the N.S.A.’s powerful global collection methods. He noted that domestic internet data was often routed or stored abroad, where it may get vacuumed up without court oversight.

“Rather than dramatically expanding government access to so much personal data, we need much stronger rules to protect the privacy of Americans,” Mr. Toomey said. “Seventeen different government agencies shouldn’t be rooting through Americans’ emails with family members, friends and colleagues, all without ever obtaining a warrant.”

Is this what happened to Flynn?

Is this why Trump’s calls with foreign leaders are being illegally leaked to the press in order to sabotage his presidency?

It sure as hell looks like that’s the case.

Remember, the point at which Donald Trump broke away from the pack and secured his victory during the primaries was when the Colorado GOP decided to deny Americans their right to vote and handed Ted Cruz all the state’s delegates, then tweeted: “We did it. #NeverTrump.”

A very similar story is now happening with the deep state’s open sabotage. Even though Americans came out in droves to elect a populist leader promising massive change, the deep state is sabotaging his presidency to prevent him from implementing the agenda his supporters voted for.

The Colorado GOP’s act of sabotage backfired spectacularly and was the turning point which secured Trump and his supporters their victory, if this deep state sabotage is exposed just the same, this too could be the turning point which sinks the establishment and secures our populist revolution.

 

Legacy of Obama: “Goodbye To The Worst President” America Has Ever Had

Obama putting in the Oval Office - Public Domain

Obama has been a puppet president and a force of anti-American ideology, preferring to treat people as plebs and dependents, rather than as independent and proud individuals.

Never before in U.S. history has the political and social landscape been so sharply divided, and so much power titled towards the wealthiest few who pull strings and hold all the power.

At its root, the Obama administration was a lot of hype, a lot of pomp and circumstance for a cult of personality figure. Underneath it all, Barack Obama was little more than a front man for the bankers and war mongers.

A loss of civil liberties, mass surveillance programs, drones, war and health care reform are all part of his bleak legacy. Foreign policy continued the U.S. aggression, while giving rise to ISIS as a new terror front with geopolitical footing. Obama broke diplomatic relations, carried out regime change in the middle east and eastern europe, and conceded any gains made in Iraq, while failing to break off from Afghanistan, or even close Guantanamo Bay as he promised.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Obama decision to free FALN terror group leader sparks outrage

Obama Giving Speech - Public Domain

He was convicted of trying to overthrow the government, and named a leader of a terrorist group that bombed public buildings and killed people.

Now, President Obama’s decision to commute the sentence of FALN member Oscar Lopez Rivera has sparked outrage from terror victims.

“I’m disgusted by what the president did. It’s a travesty,” said Joe Connor, whose father was killed in an infamous FALN terrorist bombing in Manhattan.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

The End Of The Obama World Order

Barack Obama Looking Into A Mirror - Public Domain

For the past eight years, Barack Obama has been using the power of the U.S. presidency to impose his vision of a progressive world order on the entire globe. As a result, much of the planet will greatly celebrate once the Obama era officially ends on Friday. The Obama years brought us the Arab Spring, Benghazi, ISIS, civil war in Syria, civil war in Ukraine and the Iran nuclear deal. On the home front, we have had to deal with Obamacare, “Fast and Furious”, IRS targeting of conservative groups, Solyndra, the VA scandal, NSA spying and the worst “economic recovery” since the end of World War II. And right at the end of his presidency, Barack Obama has committed the greatest betrayal of Israel in U.S. history and has brought us dangerously close to war with Russia.

So is the end of the Obama world order worth celebrating?

You better believe it is.

Of course Obama and his minions are in a great deal of distress that much of their hard work over the past eight years is about to be undone by Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden warned the elitists gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos that their “liberal world order” is in danger of collapsing…

Vice President Joe Biden delivered an epic final speech Wednesday to the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The gist of his speech was simple: At a time of “uncertainty” we must double down on the values that made Western democracies great, and not allow the “liberal world order” to be torn apart by destructive forces.

And without a doubt, we definitely want it to collapse.

During his time in the White House, Barack Obama has used the full diplomatic power of the government to promote “abortion rights”, “gay rights” and other “liberal values” to the farthest corners of the globe. Here at home, the appointment of two new Supreme Court justices under Obama paved the way for the Supreme Court decision that forced all 50 states to recognize gay marriage. During his final press conference on Wednesday, Barack Obama told the media that he was particularly proud of this…

Obama said he’s particularly proud of the “transformation” on gay rights during his presidency, which saw monumental Supreme Court decisions on gays in the military and same-sex marriage. Obama said his role was mostly to deliver “a good block downfield to help the movement advance.”

He said gay and lesbian activists deserve most of the credit, and singled out talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, to whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year.

And the final press conference of his presidency also afforded Obama the opportunity to talk about UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Sadly, Obama still does not have any regrets for betraying Israel so dramatically…

“It was important for us to send a signal, a wake-up call, that this moment may be passing, and Israeli voters and Palestinians need to understand that this moment may be passing,” he said.

As far as many of us are concerned, January 20th cannot get here soon enough.

Somehow we have survived as a nation for the last eight years, but without a doubt a massive amount of damage has been done.

Many are hoping that Donald Trump will be able to start repairing that damage and will work hard to set this nation on a positive course once again.

It still doesn’t seem quite real to me that Donald Trump will soon be residing in the White House. Perhaps after I watch him being inaugurated on Friday I will feel differently. And I certainly am not expecting any miracles under Trump, but it sure will be nice to have a new face in the Oval Office.

Right at this moment, moving trucks are in the front of the White House and those that worked for Obama are packing up and leaving. This is a somber moment for them, but a joyous one for tens of millions of patriotic Americans. Many of us have been waiting for this for eight long years, and by Friday morning the current White House staff will all be gone…

In between closing out final projects and typing up reports on the work they’ve done, White House staffers are packing away their knickknacks, coffeemakers and photos. The boxes stack up in offices already vacated by staffers who have departed over the past few weeks.

By Thursday night, all must be gone to make way for Trump’s team.

Before they leave the building for the final time, they’ll go through a checklist that completes their formal separation from the White House: cell phones handed in, computers locked and papers properly filed to be archived. The last step, aides said, is the hardest: handing in the badge that provides access to the complex day or night.

But just because the left lost the election does not mean that they are ready to roll over and give up.

On the contrary, emotions are running extremely high on the left, and many of them are preparing to make the inauguration of Donald Trump as chaotic as possible.

For instance, on Tuesday night a man actually set himself on fire in front of the Trump International Hotel in Washington…

A protester set himself on fire outside Trump International Hotel in Washington DC on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old man, who has not yet been identified, said the act was in protest of the President-elect’s looming inauguration.

Witnesses described how he yelled ‘Trump’ several times as ‘flames ran up his back’ before lying down in the street.

And it is being reported that radical leftists plan to blockade major roads and metro lines throughout the D.C. region on Friday in an attempt to prevent people from getting to the inauguration of Trump.

So let us rejoice that the Obama world order is ending, but let us also understand that the battle is not over.

In fact, the truth is that the war for America is just beginning.

The election of Donald Trump has energized the left like never before, and they are going to hit his administration with everything that they have got.

Donald Trump is going to need our support, our voices and our prayers if he is going to have any chance to succeed.

And all Americans should want him to succeed, because our nation is at a crossroads, and if we go off on the wrong path we may never find our way back.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

In an epic final speech, Joe Biden warns that the progressive democratic world order is at risk of collapse

Joe Biden Hypocrite

Vice President Joe Biden delivered an epic final speech Wednesday to the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The gist of his speech was simple: At a time of “uncertainty” we must double down on the values that made Western democracies great, and not allow the “liberal world order” to be torn apart by destructive forces.

Biden went after Russian President Vladimir Putin by name, saying he is using “every tool” in his power to whittle away the European project, and undermine Western democracies. Biden accused Putin of wanting to “roll back decades of progress.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

America Became A Lot Less Christian During The Presidency Of Barack Obama

Barack Obama State Of The Union - Public Domain

In 2006, Barack Obama famously said that “we are no longer just a Christian nation“, and after the last eight years that is now more true than ever.  The Pew Research Center has just released a major report entitled “How America Changed During Barack Obama’s Presidency“, and what struck me the most about the report was the fact that it showed that the United States became a lot less Christian while Obama was in the White House.  Of course this trend did not begin under Obama, but it seems to have accelerated during his presidency.

In particular, the percentage of Americans that have no religion at all is really growing rapidly.  According to the report, “nones” now make up nearly a fourth of our entire population…

When it comes to the nation’s religious identity, the biggest trend during Obama’s presidency is the rise of those who claim no religion at all. Those who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is “nothing in particular,” now make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population, up from 16% in 2007.

Christians, meanwhile, have fallen from 78% to 71% of the U.S. adult population, owing mainly to modest declines in the share of adults who identify with mainline Protestantism and Catholicism. The share of Americans identifying with evangelical Protestantism, historically black Protestant denominations and other smaller Christian groups, by contrast, have remained fairly stable.

And these numbers don’t just reflect a growing dissatisfaction with organized religion.  The truth is that Americans are becoming less “spiritual” overall.  Compared with 2007, fewer Americans believe in God, fewer Americans consider religion “to be very important in their lives”, fewer Americans pray daily, and fewer Americans attend religious services.

These trends are evident in all age groups, but the biggest shift is with Millennials.  According to the report, 11 percent of the Silent Generation are “nones”, 17 percent of the Baby Boomers are “nones”, 23 percent of those in Generation X are “nones”, but an astounding 35 percent of all Millennials are “nones”.

As the older generations die off, America is changing, and not for the better.

The numbers are even more dramatic when you look at church attendance.  According to a different Pew Research Center report, only 27 percent of all Millennials attend religious services on a weekly basis…

Millennials – especially the youngest Millennials, who have entered adulthood since the first Landscape Study was conducted – are far less religious than their elders. For example, only 27% of Millennials say they attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with 51% of adults in the Silent generation. Four-in-ten of the youngest Millennials say they pray every day, compared with six-in-ten Baby Boomers and two-thirds of members of the Silent generation. Only about half of Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with seven-in-ten Americans in the Silent and Baby Boom cohorts. And only about four-in-ten Millennials say religion is very important in their lives, compared with more than half in the older generational cohorts.

And remember, that 27 percent figure includes all religions.  When you take out all Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, etc. you probably have less than a quarter of all Millennials attending a church of some sort on a regular basis.

The implications that this has for church leadership in America are absolutely staggering.  To a very large degree we are failing to reach an entire generation of Americans, and we are in great danger of being transformed into a “post-Christian society” like so many countries in Europe have become.

Of course these young adults that aren’t going to church still have a spiritual hunger, and often they are trying to fill that spiritual hunger in unusual ways.

For example, interest in witchcraft among young adults is absolutely soaring…

The witching web world carries over into mortal life, too. Stores are popping up across the country, selling crystals, spell kits, and tarot cards. And K-Hole, the trend-forecasting firm responsible for inserting “normcore” into the pop culture lexicon, has anointed “mysticore” the zietgeistiest of current zeitgeists.

And its popularity isn’t just growing: It’s basically levitating. Alex Mar, author of the 2015 book Witches of America, estimates there are up to one million practitioners of witchcraft today around the US in big cities, tiny towns, and in the countryside. In other words: Witches are everywhere. “I started to feel that you could toss a pebble in this country and hit a witch,” she says.

Even if they don’t understand the spiritual hunger inside of them, most people will instinctively try to fill that hunger in some way.  And most of our young adults have decided that church is not the answer, and that means that those in charge of leading the church in America need to start asking some hard questions.

It seems clear that much of what the church in America is doing is simply not working.  Often we get so caught up with our plans and our programs that we miss the bigger picture.  An entire generation that desperately needs Jesus Christ is slipping through our fingers, but most church leaders seem to think that conducting business as usual is the answer.

And as our young adults move away from the Christian faith, that has tremendous implications for our political future as well.  Today, 50 percent of Millennials consider themselves to be Democrats, and only 34 percent of them consider themselves to be Republicans.

If Millennials had been the only ones voting in the recent election, Donald Trump would have been defeated in a historic landslide.

But Hillary Clinton would have never been the Democratic nominee in the first place, because Millennials greatly preferred Bernie Sanders over her.

Unless something changes, this is where America is going.

Because one thing is absolutely certain – older generations of Americans will continue to die off, and younger Americans will take their places as the future leaders of this country.

It has been said that history belongs to those that are courageous enough to change it.

We desperately need a spiritual renewal in this nation, because right now we are heading for a very, very bleak future.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Obama Launches Scorched Earth Policy in Final Days Before Trump

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Outgoing President Obama is launching a scorched earth policy to destroy international relations before President-elect Trump takes office.

As Obama withdraws from the presidency, he’s inflicting damage on anything that could help the transition of incoming President Trump, such as friendly relations with world leaders.

Right now, Obama is fueling so many international fires that President Trump will likely spend his first 100 days in office simply putting them out.

It’s about the only thing a lame duck president can do to undermine his successor, and Obama’s destructive behavior is the same tactic Civil War General Sherman used in his March to the Sea in which he systematically destroyed everything in his path to psychologically destroy the South.

The strategy explains why the Obama administration is announcing economic sanctions against Russia for unproven “election hacking” despite the fact that moving trucks are figuratively lining up outside the White House.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Obama Set To Announce Economic Sanctions And “Covert Cyber Ops” Against Russia For “Election Hacking”

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Just a week after Obama held a press conference announcing that he sent a stern warning to Vladamir Putin regarding his alleged “election hacking” efforts (see “Obama Told Putin To “Cut It Out” On Hacking“), the Washington Post is reporting that the Obama administration is close to announcing a series of economic sanctions and other measures to punish Russia for its “interference” in the 2016 presidential election.  Quoting “U.S. officials,” WaPo said that an announcement from the Obama administration could come as early as this week and would likely include “covert cyber operations.”

According to WaPo’s “sources”, the delay in sanctions against Russia have come from Obama’s inability to take unilateral actions under current laws.  While Obama previously signed an executive order that would allow him to freeze the assets in the United States of people overseas who have engaged in cyber acts, it only applies to actions that have threatened U.S. national security or financial stability.  Further, per a “senior administration official,” use of the existing law would require (1) actual election infrastructure to be designated as ‘critical infrastructure’ and (2) the administration to prove that such infrastructure was actually “harmed,” conditions which the National Security Council say have not been met. 

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Obama Says That He Is ‘Confident’ That He Could Have Won In 2016

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President Barack Obama expressed confidence that his progressive vision for the country still has broad appeal despite the stunning defeat of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election this November in a candid sit-down for his former adviser David Axelrod’s podcast “The Axe Files.”

Although he complimented Clinton, saying she “performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances,” he also suggested that had he been able to campaign for a third term he could have rallied many Americans — even those who disagreed with him — behind his vision of a more tolerant and diverse nation.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

What the Democrats don’t want you to know: Party lost more than 1,030 seats in state legislatures, governor’s mansions and Congress during Barack Obama’s presidency

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President Barack Obama often cites numbers like these while boasting about his tenure in the White House: 15 million new jobs, a 4.9 per cent unemployment rate and 74 months of consecutive job growth.

But one number almost always goes unheard: more than 1,030 seats.

That’s the number of spots in state legislatures, governor’s mansions and Congress lost by Democrats during Obama’s presidency.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Obama Betrays Israel At The United Nations – Is America’s Reprieve Now Over?

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Barack Obama actually did it. Despite enormous pressure from the government of Israel, President-elect Donald Trump and members of his own party in Congress, Barack Obama decided to stick a knife in Israel’s back at the United Nations. On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for a “two-State solution based on the 1967 lines” and that shockingly states that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity”. This resolution was approved by a vote of 14 to 0, and the U.S. abstained from voting. But essentially the outcome of the vote was going to be determined by Barack Obama. For decades, the U.S. veto power on the UN Security Council has shielded Israel from these types of resolutions, but this time around Obama decided to betray Israel by allowing this vote to pass. Needless to say, this vote is going to have enormous implications for Israel, for the United States, and for the entire globe.

Just five days ago, I published one of the most important articles that I have ever written. It was entitled “The Real Reason Why America Has Been Given A Reprieve“, and in that article I explained why the U.S. has experienced a season of blessing since blocking a potential UN Security Council resolution that France wanted to introduce that would have formally divided the land of Israel in September 2015. If you have not read that article yet, please go back and read it, because it will be of great aid in understanding why this new UN Security Council resolution is so incredibly important.

As I stated in that previous article, it is my contention that the reason why things have gone so well for the United States over the past 16 months is because Barack Obama made the right decision in September 2015 and chose to protect the land of Israel from being divided.

But now that Barack Obama has reversed course and has greatly betrayed Israel, is America’s reprieve now over?

For months, I have been warning that Barack Obama may do something like this at the UN during the waning days of his presidency. You can see some examples of my previous warnings here, here and here. And I have also been warning about the severe consequences that the United States would face if our government did ultimately decide to betray Israel.

This UN Security Council resolution that was passed on Friday was originally going to be put up for a vote on Thursday. But after enormous pressure from the government of Israel and from President-elect Donald Trump, Egypt decided to withdraw the resolution that they had proposed at the last moment.

When that happened, it looked like everything was going to be okay.

However, temporary members of the UN Security Council New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal immediately objected to Egypt’s move, and they indicated that they would submit the resolution for a vote if Egypt would not.

So on Friday a vote took place, and Obama did what many had been fearing. The following comes from the New York Times…

Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump and furious lobbying by Israel, the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a contentious resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction.

The administration’s decision not to veto the measure broke a longstanding American tradition of serving as Israel’s sturdiest diplomatic shield.

President-elect Trump publicly said that he would have vetoed this resolution, but now it will be virtually impossible for him to reverse it.

Another vote of the UN Security Council would be necessary to reverse it, and the votes simply would not be there. And even if they were, either Russia or China could use the veto power that they possess to block it.

So this resolution is going to be permanent, and it is considered to be legally binding on both Israel and the Palestinians.

It seems fitting that Barack Obama is vacationing in Hawaii while all of this drama is playing out. Perhaps while he is on the golf course he is enjoying a good laugh about how he really stuck it to his long-time nemesis Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Needless to say, the Israeli government is absolutely furious that Obama has betrayed them. The following comes from U.S. News & World Report…

An Israeli official on Friday accused President Barack Obama of colluding with the Palestinians in a “shameful move against Israel at the U.N.” after learning the White House did not intend to veto a Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem the day before.

“President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the U.N.,” the official said. “The U.S administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel’s back which would be a tail wind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory,” he said calling it “an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN.”

You can read the full text of the UN Security Council resolution that was just adopted right here. These are some of the highlights that I pulled out of the document…

-It refers to Israel as “the occupying Power”

-It calls for a “two-State solution based on the 1967 lines”

-It speaks of a Middle East “where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders”

-It demands “the dismantlement of all settlement outposts erected since March 2001”

-To me, the following is the key paragraph in the entire resolution…

Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace

-It stipulates “that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem”

-It states that the UN Security Council “will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations”

-It expresses a belief that “the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for salvaging the two-State solution, and calls for affirmative steps to be taken immediately to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two-State solution”

-It calls on all UN member states “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”

This is the most anti-Israel resolution that the UN Security Council has ever passed, and it never would have happened without Barack Obama’s approval.

The Israeli government and the Obama administration have had a very strained relationship for years, and this moment represents the culmination of tensions that have been building for a very long time.

But does this resolution actually represent the “division of the land of Israel” at the United Nations that so many have been waiting for?

I don’t know if I have a definitive answer to that question for you today. The language of this resolution does not directly give formal recognition to a Palestinian state, but it does speak of a “democratic state” of “Palestine”, and it does speak of “Palestinian territory”. It calls Israel “the occupying Power”, and it does say that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem are illegal. And on top of everything else, the UN Security Council clearly stated that it “will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations”.

So it seems clear that the UN Security Council has affirmed three major points that we have been watching for…

#1 A Palestinian state exists.

#2 The 1967 ceasefire lines represent the borders between the state of Israel and Palestine, but future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians could alter these borders.

#3 East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians. This resolution does not refer to East Jerusalem as the future capital of Palestine, but that is obviously what is intended.

But perhaps another resolution will come later which will give official UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state.

At this point, we just don’t know.

However, what we do know is that for decades whenever the U.S. has taken steps toward dividing the land of Israel it has resulted in dramatic consequences for our nation.

It is my contention that this betrayal of Israel at the United Nations by Barack Obama represents a major turning point. I believe that America’s reprieve is now over, and that many of the things that people have been anticipating since September 2015 will start happening.

Barack Obama just made the worst decision of his entire presidency, and from this point forward nothing is ever going to be the same again.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Obama Slams “Domestic Propagandists” On Talk Radio For Rise Of “Fake News”

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As of this moment, president Obama is on his way to Hawaii, having just concluded his final press conference for 2016, and one of the last in his tenure as president.

What did we learn in the rambling speech that lasted nearly two hours and saw one of the White House reporters faint? Not much that wasn’t already insinuated, if not proven, repeatedly: Obama stuck to the script, and said Russia “in fact” had “hacked into the DNC,” but that the actual voting process was not compromised. The White House was just trying to “let people know” what was going on, and the media interpreted the reasons.

While Obama took questions about Syria, China and Trump’s transition team, Obama mostly spoke about Russia and the allegations by US intelligence agencies that Moscow had hacked the US election. Obama said that his administration allowed the public “to make an assessment” by letting people know that “the Russians were responsible for hacking” the Democratic National Committee earlier this year, adding that the intelligence community did its job “without political influence.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Secret Agenda: Are They Planning To Use ‘Russian Interference’ As An Excuse To Invalidate Trump’s Election Victory?

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It has been said that nothing happens by accident in politics, and it is certainly no accident that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, members of the U.S. Senate and the mainstream media are all suddenly buzzing about “Russian hacking” and “Russian interference” in our elections. Over the past 48 hours, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and just about every other major news source in America has been breathlessly telling us that the CIA has concluded that the Russians “intervened” in the presidential election with the specific goal of helping Donald Trump win. The implication is that if the Russian interference was significant enough, it could have “unfairly” altered the outcome of the election and thus Donald Trump’s victory was not legitimate. And if his victory was not legitimate, that opens up all sorts of possibilities for the Democrats.

For those that have been wondering if the establishment was going to attempt to steal the presidency away from Donald Trump before he can be inaugurated, we now appear to have our answer.

There are several ways that this could work, and we’ll take it one step at a time.

On Friday, we were suddenly assaulted with all sorts of headlines about how the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the Russians interfered in the election and that they did so with the intention of helping Trump win. The following example comes from CNBC…

The New York Times reported American intelligence agencies have “high confidence” that Russia intervened in the later stages of the 2016 election to help Trump win the presidency. Senior administration officials said the Russian government gave WikiLeaks emails from the Democratic National Committee, among others including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. The organizations also found evidence that Russia hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems, but did not release the information.

More specifically, we are being told that it is the CIA that is the primary source of this “intelligence”. Of course the public is not being shown a shred of evidence that the Russians were behind any of this. Instead, we are just being told to trust the “experts” at the CIA…

The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election specifically to help Donald Trump win the presidency, a U.S. official has confirmed to NPR.

“Before, there was confidence about the fact that Russia interfered,” the official says. “But there was low confidence on what the direction and intentionality of the interference was. Now they [the CIA] have come to the conclusion that Russia was trying to tip the election to Trump.”

On Sunday, four members of the U.S. Senate came forward to express their concerns about Russian interference. Two of the four were Democrats, and the other two were Republicans that have been some of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump throughout the election season. I don’t think that it is any accident that John McCain and Lindsey Graham have chosen to be part of this effort…

“Congress’s national security committees have worked diligently to address the complex challenge of cybersecurity, but recent events show that more must be done,” said Sens. Chuck Schumer, the incoming Senate Democratic leader, Sen. John McCain, the Armed Services Committee chairman, fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Jack Reed, the top Armed Services Committee Democrat, in a Sunday morning statement.

“While protecting classified material, we have an obligation to inform the public about recent cyberattacks that have cut to the heart of our free society. Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyber-attacks.”

And of course this comes on the heels of Barack Obama ordering all of the intelligence agencies under his command to show him any evidence of Russian interference in the election before he leaves office. According to NBC News, he is insisting that this evidence be delivered to him before January 20th…

President Barack Obama has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to deliver to him a dossier of the evidence that the Russian government used cyber attacks and other means to intervene in the 2016 election, possibly with the idea of making more information public, a senior intelligence official told NBC News.

White House counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco told reporters that the results of the report would be shared with lawmakers and others. Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. Monaco used careful language, calling it a “full review of what happened during the 2016 election process.”

Incredibly, this review is actually going to be headed up by the infamous James Clapper…

Taking the absurdity to a whole new level, Obama wants the report completed before his term ends on January 20, by none other than a proven and confirmed liar: “The review will be led by James Clapper, the outgoing director of national intelligence, officials said.” In other words, the report that the Kremlin stole the election should be prepared by the time Trump is expected to be sworn in.

“We are going to make public as much as we can,” the spokesman added. “This is a major priority for the president.”

So what is there such an urgency to this?

Couldn’t they just begin this review now and have it completed at some point under the Trump administration?

Or could it be possible that they need this information so urgently because they want to use it for political purposes?

Some are already suggesting that if there is “clear evidence” of unfair Russian intervention that the only reasonable outcome would be to hold another election. In fact, former CIA agent Bob Baer just appeared on CNN and stated that if “the evidence is there, I don’t see any other way than to vote again.”

Could you imagine the uproar if that happened?

Personally, I think that is not likely to happen.

But this issue could be used to try to sway some Electoral College votes on December 19th. We already know that one of Trump’s electoral voters has publicly pledged not to vote for him, and he claims that he has other Republican electoral voters that plan on joining him.

But even if Trump successfully gets through the Electoral College vote, he still has one more hurdle to get over.

On January 6th, a joint session of Congress will meet to count the electoral votes. Most of the time this is a formality, but this time around that may not be the case.

If at least one member of the House and at least one member of the Senate submits an objection in writing, electoral votes can potentially be invalidated. The following comes from the official House.gov website…

Since 1887, 3 U.S.C. 15 sets the method for objections to electoral votes. During the Joint Session, Members of Congress may object to individual electoral votes or to state returns as a whole. An objection must be declared in writing and signed by at least one Representative and one Senator. In the case of an objection, the Joint Session recesses and each chamber considers the objection separately in a session which cannot last more than two hours with each Member speaking for no more than five minutes. After each house votes on whether or not to accept the objection, the Joint Session reconvenes and both chambers disclose their decisions. If they agree to the objection, the votes in question are not counted. If either chamber does not agree with the objection, the votes are counted.

So even if Donald Trump receives at least 270 Electoral College votes, he could still be denied the presidency by Congress.

And that may be what the establishment is shooting for. If they can present “compelling evidence” that Russian interference “unfairly” altered the outcome of the election in November, perhaps enough members of Congress can be convinced to vote to invalidate Trump’s election victory.

I don’t think that is going to happen, but when it comes to Trump the normal rules don’t seem to apply.

However, what should be apparent to everyone is that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the members of Congress that are suddenly making this such a huge issue all have a reason for doing so. They claim that they are doing it for the good of the country, but in politics there is almost always an ulterior motive for everything.

Do they actually intend to try to steal the presidency from Donald Trump?

If they do, we won’t have too long to wait before we find out.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

The Shocking Truth About How Barack Obama Was Able To Prop Up The U.S. Economy

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Barack Obama is one of the biggest “Keynesians” of all time, but unfortunately most Americans don’t even understand what that means. In this article, I am going to share with you the primary reason why Barack Obama has been able to prop up the U.S. economy over the past eight years. If Barack Obama had not taken the extreme measures that he did, we would be in the midst of a historic economic depression right now. But by propping things up in the short-term, he has absolutely demolished our long-term economic future. But like most politicians, Obama has been willing to sacrifice the future for short-term political gain.

If you take any basic college course in economics, you are going to learn about John Maynard Keynes. Without a doubt, Keynes was one of the most famous economists of the 20th century, and one of the things that he believed was that governments should go into debt and spend more money when an economic downturn strikes. By injecting additional funds into the economy during a time of crisis, he believed that the severity of recessions and depressions could be reduced. This approach ultimately become known as “Keynesian economics”, and in the post-World War II era virtually the entire world embraced it at least to some degree. Here is more on Keynes from Investopedia…

An economic theory of total spending in the economy and its effects on output and inflation. Keynesian economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s in an attempt to understand the Great Depression. Keynes advocated increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy out of the Depression. Subsequently, the term “Keynesian economics” was used to refer to the concept that optimal economic performance could be achieved – and economic slumps prevented – by influencing aggregate demand through activist stabilization and economic intervention policies by the government. Keynesian economics is considered to be a “demand-side” theory that focuses on changes in the economy over the short run.

Keynesian economists correctly point out that there is a “multiplier effect” to government spending. In other words, when the government spends money it ends up in the hands of ordinary people. In turn, those people spend that money on various goods and services that they need, thus boosting overall economic activity. And the more the money circulates, the more the economy is stimulated. So one dollar of additional government spending does not just add one dollar to GDP. Rather, the impact on GDP is often significantly greater than that.

Of course the bad news is that whenever the government borrows money it is stealing consumption from the future. So we are literally destroying the future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have in order to make the present look a little bit brighter.

When Barack Obama entered the White House, the U.S. was in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Bush administration had already begun to ramp up spending, but Barack Obama took “government stimulus” to ridiculous new levels. The national debt has risen by an average of more than 1.1 trillion dollars a year while Obama has been in charge, and this fiscal year we are on pace to add more than 2 trillion dollars to the debt.

At this moment, the U.S. national debt is a whopping $19,901,545,151,126.51, and it will cross the 20 trillion dollar mark by the time Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20th.

But when Barack Obama was inaugurated, the national debt was only 10.6 trillion dollars. That means that we have added about 9.3 trillion dollars to the debt since that time.

So we have borrowed and spent 9.3 trillion dollars under Obama that we did not have. But because of the “multiplier effect”, that 9.3 trillion dollars actually had a far greater impact on the U.S. economy.

Let’s be conservative and just double that number. So that would give us an 18.6 trillion dollar overall impact on U.S. economic activity. Spread over eight years, that comes to an average GDP impact of 2.325 trillion dollars a year.

But over the last eight years U.S. GDP has only been averaging about 16 trillion dollars a year. So if you took away 2.3 trillion dollars a year, that would be about one-eighth of our entire economy.

In other words, without all of this debt that Barack Obama and Congress have been getting us into, we would be in the worst economic depression in U.S. history right now.

And I haven’t even factored in state and local government debt, corporate debt or household debt. The truth is that I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that we are enjoying a debt-fueled standard of living that we simply do not deserve.

But even with all of this debt, the U.S. economy has still not been performing really well. In fact, Barack Obama is going to be the only president in U.S. history to not have a single year when U.S. GDP grew by at least three percent.

Despite what many in the mainstream media are telling you, the reality of the matter is that Donald Trump is going to inherit an economy that is deeply troubled. If you doubt this, please see my previous article entitled “11 Very Depressing Economic Realities That Donald Trump Will Inherit From Barack Obama“.

Donald Trump is talking about cutting taxes and reducing regulations, and all of those things are good, but ultimately those measures are not going to matter that much.

What is going to matter is what Donald Trump decides to do about our exploding debt.

If Donald Trump wants the U.S. economy to continue to remain at least somewhat stable in the short-term, he is going to have to keep piling up debt like Obama has. Because if Trump and the Republicans decide that they want to get our debt under control, that will plunge us into a horrifying economic depression almost immediately.

But if Donald Trump continues to steal money from future generations of Americans at the same pace that Barack Obama has been doing, he will literally be destroying the future of America. It will be a crime on a scale that is almost beyond words, and if they get a chance to do it, future generations of Americans will look back and curse him for what he has done to us.

So Donald Trump is really in a no-win situation when it comes to the economy.

The only way that he can match Obama’s performance is to do what Obama did, but by doing so he would literally be killing the future.

As a nation we have been consuming far more wealth than we produce for a very, very long time, and the only way that we have been able to do this is because we have been able to go into so much debt.

But now a day of reckoning is fast approaching, and I am not sure if Donald Trump even realizes that he will soon be faced with some incredibly heartbreaking choices.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Obama urged Clinton to concede on election night

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President Barack Obama called Hillary Clinton to persuade her to concede the White House on election night, according to a forthcoming book on Clinton’s defeat.

Authors Amie Parnes, The Hill’s senior White House correspondent, and Jonathan Allen cite three Clintonworld sources familiar with the election-night request in the unreleased book from Crown Publishing.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Why We Are Still In ‘The Danger Zone’ Until January 20th, 2017

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Donald Trump is not the president yet, and Barack Obama could still do an extraordinary amount of damage during his last two months in the White House. Prior to the election, I described the period of time ending on January 20th as “the danger zone”, and my outlook has not changed just because Donald Trump was victorious on election night. As you will see, the next two months are an absolutely critical time, and if we can get through January 20th without something major happening perhaps we can breathe a little bit easier (at least for a while). On the other hand, the events of the next two months could easily plunge this country into a period of unprecedented chaos. A lot of people are feeling really good about things right now because of Trump’s victory, but now is definitely not a time to relax and let down our guard.

And the truth is that Donald Trump has not even won the presidency yet. As I detailed shortly before election night, the next president will not be determined until December 19th when the Electoral College meets.

On Monday, December 19th the members of the Electoral College will gather in all 50 state capitals to cast their votes for president. It is then, and only then, that the next president of the United States will be elected.

Throughout our history, electors have followed the will of the people more than 99 perfect of the time, but there have been “faithless electors” before, and if Democrats can get enough of them to switch sides in December it is still possible (though not probable) that Hillary Clinton could win the election.

One petition that is asking electors to switch their votes has already been signed by more than 4 million people. The petition claims that Donald Trump is “unfit to serve” as president, and that since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a wide margin she should be elected president instead. The following comes from a USA Today article entitled “Could the Electoral College elect Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump?“…

A Change.org petition, now signed by more than 4.3 million people, encourages members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton when the college meets on Dec. 19. The petition argues that Donald Trump is “unfit to serve” and that “Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.”

“If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win,” the petition states. “However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay! We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton.”

Personally, I don’t believe that this is going to happen. They may be able to flip a few electors, but the gap in electoral votes is almost certainly too wide for the Democrats to overcome.

However, that is not the only concern we are facing. Ever since his victory on November 8th, there have been a multitude of violent threats against Donald Trump and his family. And without a doubt, there are a lot of very powerful people that would be very interested in finding a way to keep Donald Trump from getting to Inauguration Day. So let us pray for his safety and for the safety of his family.

If Donald Trump were to be incapacitated after he wins the Electoral College vote on December 19th, Mike Pence would take his place.

But if something were to happen to him before December 19th, his electors would be free to vote for another candidate – including Hillary Clinton.

If everything goes smoothly and Donald Trump successfully makes it to Inauguration Day, he could be facing one of the biggest political protests in United States history.

In an article for The Most Important News, I showed that the far left is calling for thousands upon thousands of protesters to descend upon Washington D.C. on January 20th in order to disrupt the Inauguration festivities as much as possible.

This giant protest is being organized by the usual suspects, and they have already put up Facebook pages, websites, and the hashtag “#DisruptJ20” is being widely used all over social media.

Traditionally Inauguration Day is a day of joy and celebration, but the far left seems intent on transforming it into a massive riot.

Let us hope that they are not successful.

Another reason why we will be in “the danger zone” over the next two months is because of what Barack Obama may choose to do at the United Nations.

Now that it looks like Donald Trump is going to be our next president, the international pressure on Barack Obama to do something at the United Nations regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the end of his term has become even more intense.

And this is something that Trump and his advisers are actively concerned about. In fact, I came across an article earlier today that discussed the fact that the Trump team is warning Obama “against making moves on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his last months in office”…

Saying that pushing agendas “contrary to the president-elect’s position” would not be in the “spirit of the transition”, Trump national security advisor for Donald Trump last week warned the Obama administration against making moves on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his last months in office.

“On big, transformative issues where President Obama and President-elect Trump are not in alignment, I don’t think it’s in keeping with the spirit of the transition…to try to push through agenda items that are contrary to the president-elect’s positions,” the advisor told Politico.

Specifically, the concern is that Obama may decide to support a UN Security Council resolution that would officially recognize a Palestinian state, set the parameters for a “two state solution”, and establish East Jerusalem as the capital for the new Palestinian state.

Just a few weeks ago, an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Obama’s Israel Surprise?” reported that this is one of the options that the Obama administration is strongly considering right now. A UN Security Council resolution would be legally binding on both Israel and the Palestinians, and it would be something that President Trump would not be able to undo.

The rest of the UN Security Council is eager to support such a resolution, and so the decision about whether this resolution is going to happen or not sits in the hands of Barack Obama, and at this moment we do not know what he is going to do. The following comes from an article by Leo Hohmann…

The Wall Street Journal reported one week before Tuesday’s election that Obama had requested his aides provide him with a list of options to deal with the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli diplomats, according to the WSJ story, are preparing for the possibility that a lame-duck President Obama “may try to force a diplomatic resolution for Israel and the Palestinians at the United Nations.”

The president is presumably now reviewing those options, which number about half a dozen.

He may be preparing to recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. before he leaves office, WSJ reported.

If Barack Obama decides to divide the land of Israel at the United Nations, it will be the worst decision of his entire presidency. I have warned repeatedly that all hell will break loose in America if it happens, and it will also mean that many of the events that I warn about in my latest book are much closer than many had been anticipating.

But if we can get to January 20th and the land of Israel has not been divided yet, we may be able to rest easy for at least a little while, because Trump has already said that he would not support a UN Security Council resolution that forces a solution on the Israelis and Palestinians.

When politicians are going to do something that they know people won’t like, they tend to try to sneak it through around the holidays when a lot of people aren’t paying attention. For example, yesterday I discussed how the legislation that created the Federal Reserve was rushed through Congress right before Christmas in 1913.

So keep an eye on the period around Thanksgiving and the period around Christmas. If Barack Obama is going to stab Israel in the back, it may happen during one of those times.

My hope is that we can get through January 20th without anything going seriously wrong. If that happens, I know that I will be very thankful.

And as I detailed in a previous article, Donald Trump will be 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old on his first full day in office on January 21st, and that will happen in year 5777 on the Hebrew calendar.

Could that be a sign of better things ahead as many believe?

Or will the next two months set off a chain of events that will be absolutely disastrous for this nation?

I believe that this is an absolutely critical moment in our history, and let us hope that our leaders make the right decisions.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Torch-Wielding Mob of Democrat Villagers Grab Pitchforks and Go After James Comey

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(Guest article by Daisy Luther) Do you remember that scene in the old Frankenstein movie when the villagers descended on the castle with burning stakes and pitchforks? The hounds were baying, people were shouting incoherently, and ignorant, fearful villagers watched the whole thing?

Listen in particular to the speech at the beginning of this. That’s about what the person leading the charge against James Comey is saying.

That’s pretty much what is happening to FBI Director James Comey, who is in for a bumpy, maybe even death-defying, ride after informing Congress that an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server debacle was being reopened, against the advice of Loretta Lynch, Attorney General.

According to Harry Reid, a US Senator and one of the head honchos of the Democratic Party, James Comey “may” have broken the law by announcing that emails on devices associated with Hillary Clinton are under renewed investigation.

He’s referring to the Hatch Act, a law passed in 1939. It was officially called “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities” and was adopted to prohibit executive branch federal employees (except the President and Vice President) from engaging in certain political activities, such as:

  • using their “official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election”;
  • soliciting, accepting, or receiving political campaign contributions from any person;
  • running “for election to a partisan political office”;
  • soliciting or discouraging participation in political activity of any person who either has an application for a grant, contract, or other status pending before the employing agency or is the subject of an ongoing audit, investigation, or enforcement action by the employing agency;
  • engaging in partisan political activity on official duty time; on federal property; while wearing a uniform or insignia identifying them as federal officials or employees; or while using a government vehicle. (source)

Will he be investigated for exposing a potential crime or will he be investigated for the timing of exposing a potential crime? It seems to me that keeping his mouth shut could also be in violation of the act – if he knew something and did not disclose it, wouldn’t that also affect the outcome of the election?

The other villagers are joining in.

Reid isn’t alone in the monster hunt. He’s joined by some other villagers with torches, pitchforks, and hounds too.

Take former Attorney General Eric Holder, for example. In a letter to the Clinton campaign, he wrote:

Many of us have worked with Director Comey; all of us respect him.  But his unprecedented decision to publicly comment on evidence in what may be an ongoing inquiry just eleven days before a presidential election leaves us both astonished and perplexed.

We cannot recall a prior instance where a senior Justice Department official—Republican or Democrat—has, on the eve of a major election, issued a public statement where the mere disclosure of information may impact the election’s outcome, yet the official acknowledges the information to be examined may not be significant or new.” (source)

Perhaps Comey’s decision had something to do with the fact that, as Zero Hedge reported, the DoJ stifled an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation donating money to the political campaign of the wife of an FBI investigator. (I know, it’s sort of like my brother’s sister’s cousin’s husband’s uncle.”)

Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota Law School professor and the chief White House ethics lawyer for a couple of years during the Bush Administration, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times. He said he’s filing a complaint.

The F.B.I.’s job is to investigate, not to influence the outcome of an election.<
Such acts could also be prohibited under the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an official position to influence an election. That is why the F.B.I. presumably would keep those aspects of an investigation confidential until after the election. The usual penalty for a violation is termination of federal employment.
That is why, on Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics. I spent much of my career working on government and lawyers’ ethics, including as the chief White House ethics lawyer for George W. Bush. I never thought that the F.B.I. could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week. (Source)

The Mainstream Media (MSM) will not be kind to Comey.

Of course, when are they ever kind to people who oppose the Clinton Monarchy? The so-called journalists have armed up with self-righteousness and propagandist pitchforks.

Here are some related headlines:

  • In Releasing Email News, FBI Director Ignored Justice Department Advice, Tradition – Slate
  • FBI’s James Comey under fire after jolting presidential race – MSNBC
  • Harry Reid: FBI Director James Comey might have broken federal law – Washington Times
  • Clinton Allies Target Comey as Probe Scrambles Campaign – Bloomberg
  • Basically Everybody Thinks James Comey Has F***ed Up – Mother Jones

And of course, everyone knows how much I love (cough) Huffington Post, which was a trove of ridiculous headlines like:

  • Former Attorney General Eric Holder: FBI Director James Comey ‘Violated’ Justice Department Policies
  • Harry Reid Blasts FBI Director James Comey Over Handling Of Clinton Email Probe
  • First Poll Since James Comey Announcement Shows No Effect On Hillary Clinton — Yet
  • Dozens Of Former Federal Prosecutors Sign Open Letter Criticizing James Comey
  • James Comey Just Unmasked Himself

The director of the FBI is between a rock and a hard place.

If he had said nothing, he would have been pilloried for remaining silent. Today he is being pilloried because he did.

The man had a stack of resignation letters on his desk from angry FBI agents who knew what was going on. Comey was not alone in the belief that something had to be done to allow the American people to know who they are actually voting for. He’s just the one who is taking the hit for it.

A leaked memo to FBI employees probably gives the best picture of Comey’s mindset when he made the decision to put himself in the line of fire.

In a memo explaining his decision to FBI employees soon after he sent his letter to Congress, Comey said he felt “an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed.” He admitted that he broke with custom in alerting lawmakers that the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was being reopened because of its political sensitivity.

He further explained to FBI employees that “Of course we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.”

…“At the same time, however, given that we do not know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression,” Comey’s letter continued. “In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter, and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.” (source)

He is in a lose-lose situation, and I’m sure he knew this.  It seems to me that knowing he’s going to be dead the ex-director of the FBI sooner rather than later, he has done what he believes is the right thing.

Personally, I can’t fault Comey for doing what he did. Maybe he was trying to undo the wrong he did in letting her off in the first place. He’s taking one for the team and most likely sacrificing his career – if not also his life – by taking the action that he took, considering how things tend to go for people who run afoul of the Clintons.

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen between now and November 8th.

Grab some popcorn, my friends. We’re in for an eventful week.

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

Will Barack Obama Delay Or Suspend The Election If Hillary Is Forced Out By The New FBI Email Investigation?

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Just when it looked like Hillary Clinton was poised to win the 2016 election, the FBI has thrown a gamechanger into the mix. On Friday, FBI Director James Comey announced that his agency has discovered new emails related to Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information that they had not previously seen. According to the Associated Press, the newly discovered emails “did not come from her private server”, but instead were found when the FBI started going through electronic devices that belonged to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner. The FBI has been looking into messages of a sexual nature that Weiner had exchanged with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, and that is why they originally seized those electronic devices. According to the Washington Post, the “emails were found on a computer used jointly by both Weiner and his wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, according to a person with knowledge of the inquiry”, and according to some reports there may be “potentially thousands” of emails on the computer that the FBI did not have access to previously. Even though there are less than two weeks to go until election day, this scandal has the potential to possibly force Clinton out of the race, and if that happens could Barack Obama delay or suspend the election until a replacement candidate can be found?

Let’s take this one step at a time. On Friday, financial markets tanked when reports of these new Clinton emails hit the wires. The following comes from CNN…

After recommending earlier this year that the Department of Justice not press charges against the former secretary of state, Comey said in a letter to eight congressional committee chairmen that investigators are examining newly discovered emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the email probe.

“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote the chairmen. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”

At this point, we do not know what is contained in these emails. But without a doubt Huma Abedin is Hillary Clinton’s closest confidant, and I have always felt that she was Clinton’s Achilles heel. Journalist Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) is fully convinced that the FBI would have never made this move unless something significant had already been discovered…

We don’t know what this means yet except that it’s a real bombshell. And it is unthinkable that the Director of the FBI would take this action lightly, that he would put this letter forth to the Congress of the United States saying there is more information out there about classified e-mails and call it to the attention of congress unless it was something requiring serious investigation. So that’s where we are…

Is it a certainty that we won’t learn before the election? I’m not sure it’s a certainty we won’t learn before the election.

One thing is, it’s possible that Hillary Clinton might want to on her own initiative talk to the FBI and find out what she can, and if she chooses to let the American people know what she thinks or knows is going on. People need to hear from her…

If the FBI has indeed found something explosive, would they actually charge her with a crime right before the election?

It is possible, but we also have to remember that government agencies (including the FBI) tend to move very, very slowly. If there are thousands of emails, it is going to take quite a while to sift through them all. And of course Barack Obama has lots of ways that he could influence, delay or even shut down the investigation.

So those that are counting on this to be the miracle that Donald Trump needs should not count their chickens before they hatch.

But if Hillary Clinton were to be forced out of the race by this FBI investigation, the Democrats would have to decide on a new candidate, and that would take time. The following is from a U.S. News & World Report article that examined what would happen if one of the candidates was forced out of the race for some reason…

If Clinton were to fall off the ticket, Democratic National Committee members would gather to vote on a replacement. DNC members acted as superdelegates during this year’s primary and overwhelmingly backed Clinton over boat-rocking socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach says there currently are 445 committee members – a number that changes over time and is guided by the group’s bylaws, which give membership to specific officeholders and party leaders and hold 200 spots for selection by states, along with an optional 75 slots DNC members can choose to fill.

But the party rules for replacing a presidential nominee merely specify that a majority of members must be present at a special meeting called by the committee chairman. The meeting would follow procedures set by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and proxy voting would not be allowed.

It would be extremely challenging to get a majority of the members of the Democratic National Committee together on such short notice. If Clinton were to drop out next week, it would be almost impossible for this to happen before election day.

In such a scenario, Barack Obama may attempt to invoke his emergency powers. Since the election would not be “fair” until the Democrats have a new candidate, he could try to delay or suspend the election. There would be a lot of controversy as to whether this is legal or not, but Barack Obama has not let the U.S. Constitution stop him in the past.

Meanwhile, new poll numbers show that the Trump campaign was already gaining momentum even before this story about the new emails broke. According to a brand new ABC News/Washington Post survey, Donald Trump is now only trailing Hillary Clinton by 4 points after trailing her by as much as 12 points last weekend.

And CNBC is reporting on a highly advanced artificial intelligence system that accurately predicted the outcomes of the presidential primaries and which is now indicating that Trump will be the winner in November…

An artificial intelligence system that correctly predicted the last three U.S. presidential elections puts Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

MogIA was developed by Sanjiv Rai, founder of Indian start-up Genic.ai. It takes in 20 million data points from public platforms including Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the U.S. and then analyzes the information to create predictions.

The AI system was created in 2004, so it has been getting smarter all the time. It had already correctly predicted the results of the Democratic and Republican Primaries.

Without Hillary at the top of the ticket, the odds of a Trump victory would go way, way up.

So if Hillary is forced out of the race by this investigation, Barack Obama and the Democrats will want to delay or suspend the election for as long as possible if they can.

At this point there is probably not a high probability that such a scenario will play out, but in this crazy election year we have already seen that just about anything can happen.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Why Is Barack Obama Threatening Russia With World War III Right Before The Election?

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It sure seems like an odd time to be provoking a war with Russia. As I write this, we stand just a little bit more than three weeks away from one of the most pivotal elections in U.S. history, and Barack Obama has chosen this moment to strongly threaten the Russians. As I wrote about on Friday, Reuters is reporting that Obama is contemplating “direct U.S. military action” against Syrian military targets, and the Russians have already indicated that any assault on Syrian forces would be considered an attack on themselves. The rapidly deteriorating crisis in Syria has already caused tensions with Russia to rise to the highest level since the end of the Cold War, but now Obama is adding fuel to the fire by publicly considering “an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia”. Apparently Obama believes that Russian hackers are interfering in the election and so he wants payback. The following comes from an NBC News article entitled “CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia“…

The Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the CIA has been asked to deliver options to the White House for a wide-ranging “clandestine” cyber operation designed to harass and “embarrass” the Kremlin leadership.

The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation.

Somebody should tell Obama that he is not playing a video game. A cyber attack is considered to be an act of war, and the Russians would inevitably retaliate. And considering how exceedingly vulnerable our cyber infrastructure is, I don’t know if that is something that we want to invite.

At the end of last week, Vice President Joe Biden also publicly threatened the Russians…

On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden met “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd for an interview that has raised serious concern in Russia.

Without bothering to question the authenticity of the claims, Todd took the allegations of Russian hacking at face value, opening his interview with a loaded question: “Why haven’t we sent a message yet to Putin?”

After a moment of stunned silence, Biden responded, “We’re sending a message. We have the capacity to do it and it will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact.”

When Todd asked if the public will know a message was sent, Biden replied, “Hope not.”

The Russians firmly deny that they had any involvement in the hacking, and so far the Obama administration has not publicly produced any firm evidence that the Russians were behind it.

Perhaps the Obama administration privately has some evidence, but at this point they have not shown that evidence to the American public.

So for Joe Biden to be making these sorts of threats is a very dangerous thing. The Russians are taking these threats very seriously, and they are preparing to protect their interests…

‘The threats directed against Moscow and our state’s leadership are unprecedented because they are voiced at the level of the US vice president.

‘To the backdrop of this aggressive, unpredictable line, we must take measures to protect (our) interests, to hedge risks,’ a Kremlin spokesman said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

Here in the United States, most people don’t even realize that we could be on the verge of a major conflict with Russia.

But over in Russia things are completely different. Talk of war is everywhere, and the potential for war is the number one topic in the Russian media right now. Just check out some of the recent Russian media headlines about the conflict between our two nations…

-“Bad News for Washington: Syrian Conflict Revealing New World Order”

-“US anti-Russia rhetoric goes nuclear with threats of covert cyber-attacks”

-“Who can win World War Three if it can be won at all?”

-“In Contrast to Clinton, Trump Has No Appetite for War With Russia”

And one Russian television network recently instructed their viewers to locate the nearest bomb shelter in case a nuclear war between the United States and Russia suddenly erupts…

A terrifying Russian television broadcast explicitly told civilians to find out where their nearest bomb shelter is and repeatedly asked viewers if they were ready for nuclear war.

One apocalyptic broadcast told viewers on Moscow’s state-owned TV channel NTV: “If it should one day happen, every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is. It’s best to find out now.”

I don’t believe that the Russians are crazy to be thinking that a war might be coming.

To me, it almost seems as though Obama wants one.

Could it be possible that a conflict with Russia will be used to alter, change or influence the upcoming election in November?

The truth is that it isn’t going to take much for the shooting to begin. If Obama orders airstrikes against Syrian forces, the Russians have said that they will shoot back…

Ash Carter has threatened Russia with “consequences”. After blowing up the ceasefire, the Pentagon – supported by the Joint Chiefs of Staff — now is peddling “potential strikes” on Syria’s air force to “punish the regime” for what the Pentagon actually did; blow up the ceasefire. One can’t make this stuff up.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, sent a swift message to “our colleagues in Washington”; think twice if you believe you can get away with launching a “shadow” hot war against Russia. Russia will target any stealth/unidentified aircraft attacking Syrian government targets – and they will be shot down.

The only serious question then is whether an out of control Pentagon will force the Russian Air Force – false flag and otherwise — to knock out US Air Force fighter jets, and whether Moscow has the fire power to take out each and every one of them.

I discussed the potential for war with Russia in my latest video. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and war with Russia will be put off…

But without a doubt the crisis in Syria is not going to be resolved any time soon because it is one giant mess. Most people don’t realize that the Syrian civil war has essentially been a proxy war between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam from the very beginning. Jihadist rebels that are being armed and funded by Saudi Arabia and Turkey are fighting Hezbollah troops that are being armed and funded by Iran. And now Turkish forces have invaded northern Syria, and this threatens to cause a full-blown war to erupt between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. Of course ISIS is right in the middle of everything causing havoc, blowing stuff up and beheading anyone that doesn’t believe in their radical version of Sunni Islam.

It is absolutely insane that the United States and Russia could potentially go to war because of this conflict. Both sides are determined to show the other how tough they are, and one false move could set off a spiral of events from which they may be no recovery.

The American people very foolishly elected Barack Obama twice, but up until now the consequences have not been quite as dire as many had been projecting.

However, right here at the end of his second term Obama is facing a moment of truth. If he ends up dragging us into a war with Russia, the American people will ultimately bitterly regret putting him into the White House.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

The Danger Zone: Why Israel Greatly Fears Barack Obama’s Last Few Months In Office

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Between right now and January 20th, 2017 is a real “pressure point” for U.S. relations with Israel.  Barack Obama has always desired to “leave a legacy” in the Middle East, and at this point the only option for accomplishing anything tangible is through the United Nations.  The Israeli government is extremely concerned that Obama may attempt to take such action before he leaves office, and so they recently asked Secretary of State John Kerry if the U.S. would promise to veto any anti-Israel resolutions that come before the UN Security Council for the rest of Obama’s time in the White House.  Unfortunately for Israel, the New York Post is reporting that Kerry flatly refused to make such a promise…

Israel faces a unique window of danger from Nov. 9 to Jan. 20: What might President Obama do in his final days in office to slam the Jewish state?

Start with Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent flat refusal to promise a US veto on any upcoming anti-Israel resolution in the UN Security Council.

On Saturday, Haaretz reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Kerry he’s counting on Washington to stick to its policy of nixing anti-Israel resolutions. Kerry’s reply: The administration has yet to make a decision on the matter.

Barack Obama knows that he is the only one standing in the way of a UN Security Council resolution that would formally recognize a Palestinian state, that would set the basic parameters for that state, and that would grant the Palestinians East Jerusalem as their capital.

If Obama decided not to use the U.S. veto power to block such a resolution, it would be legally binding on both Israel and the Palestinians, and the next president would not be able to go back and reverse course.  It would take another UN Security Council vote to rescind the resolution once it has been passed, and the votes would simply not be there to do that.

So there is a great deal of concern about what Obama may do during his last few months in the White House.  In fact, there is so much concern in Congress that 88 U.S. Senators sent him a letter last month asking him to continue to block any anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations.

Unfortunately, there is also a lot of pressure on Obama to support such a resolution.  About a week ago, I wrote about how the New York Times editorial board has actually formally endorsed a UN resolution that would establish a Palestinian state.  For the most important newspaper in America to take such a stand is extraordinary.

136 countries have already recognized a Palestinian state, and the international pressure on Obama to do something before he leaves the White House is intense.  The Obama administration has not indicated which way they are going to go just yet, and that is leaving many people very, very nervous.

And without a doubt, the United Nations has moved in a very anti-Israel direction recently.  If you have not heard about it yet, last week UNESCO (the cultural arm of the United Nations) adopted an anti-Israel resolution that denies Israel’s historic connection to the Temple Mount.  The following comes from Haaretz…

UNESCO adopted an anti-Israel resolution Thursday that disregards Judaism’s historic connection to the Temple Mount and casts doubt on the link between Judaism and the Western Wall.

Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the decision while six voted against and 26 abstained while just two were missing from the vote.

Incredibly, the resolution says that the Temple Mount is sacred only to Muslims, and it accuses Israel of being “the occupying Power”…

UNESCO said it “firmly deplores the continuous storming of Al-Aqṣa Mosque/Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif by Israeli right-wing extremists and uniformed forces, and urges Israel, the occupying Power, to take necessary measures to prevent provocative abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of Al-Aqṣa Mosque/Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif.”

This move by UNESCO was so outrageous that it has even become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.  Donald Trump has strongly denounced UNESCO, and he repeated his pledge to recognize Jerusalem “as the one true capital of Israel”…

“I have said on numerous occasions that in a Trump administration, the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the one true capital of Israel,” he said. “The United Nations’ attempt to disconnect the state of Israel from Jerusalem is a one-sided attempt to ignore Israel’s 3,000-year bond to its capital city, and is further evidence of the enormous anti-Israel bias of the U.N.”

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have both announced that they will not support a UN Security Council resolution that sets the parameters for a Palestinian state.  So that makes the upcoming January 20th deadline that much more important.

It may surprise you to hear that Clinton has come out so strongly against such a resolution, but the truth is that both candidates desperately need the Jewish vote in this election, and so both of them are taking positions that will appeal to Jewish voters.

To get an idea of just how important the Jewish vote is, check out the following excerpt from a recent MSN article…

Jews may account for roughly only 2 percent of the American adult population, but their concentration in a number of swing states and counties makes them a potentially pivotal demographic in this fall’s presidential election.

Eighty to 85 percent of Jews turn out to vote in national elections—more than 20 percent higher than the national average during the 2012 presidential election. More than one million eligible Jewish voters also live in 11 battleground states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Even though Hillary Clinton is a habitual liar, it is unlikely that she will break her pledge to Jewish voters to veto any anti-Israel UN Security Council resolutions, because she will need their votes again in 2020.

So if we can get to January 20th and there is no UN Security Council resolution to divide the land of Israel, perhaps we can breathe a bit of a sigh of relief.

But between then and now, there will be a massive amount of international pressure on Barack Obama to support such a resolution, and if he does support such a resolution the consequences for our nation will be exceedingly great.

For decades, we have seen a pattern of judgment on anyone that is involved in trying to divide the land of Israel.  Just recently we witnessed another amazing example of this phenomenon with the death of Israeli politician Shimon Peres, and this is something that I discussed during my recent appearance at Morningside…

Attempting to divide the land of Israel is a big mistake, but it is a mistake that our leaders keep on making over and over again.

Whether it is Barack Obama or some other president, someday the U.S. government will play a major role in helping to formally establish a Palestinian state.

And when that happens, all hell will break loose in this country.

So let us pray that this will be delayed for as long as possible.

Personally, my hope is that we can get to January 20th without Barack Obama doing something very, very foolish at the United Nations.

About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Obama Used His Final UN Address To Promote A ‘Liberal World Order’ And A Palestinian State

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During Barack Obama’s eighth and final address to the United Nations he let his true colors show.  He staunchly defended globalism, he took several not very subtle shots at Donald Trump, and he boldly declared that Israel “cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land”.  That statement about “Palestinian land” was extremely alarming to many, because there are indications that Obama may decide to support a UN Security Council resolution that establishes the parameters for a Palestinian state during his final months in the White House.  Barack Obama has promised to squeeze every ounce of “change” out of the remainder of his term that he possibly can, and his last UN speech showed what is on his heart at this moment.

According to the Washington Post, Obama’s final UN address represented “an impassioned plea on behalf of a liberal world order”…

President Obama, in his final speech to the United Nations Tuesday, made an impassioned plea on behalf of a liberal world order that he admitted was under growing threat from wars in the Middle East and rising nationalism at home and in Europe.

Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly for the eighth and last time as president, Obama sought to rise above the conflicts of the moment and outline a future of international cooperation, stressing the importance of the global liberal institutions formed after World War II, including the United Nations.

Barack Obama is a true believer in internationalism.  He appears to be completely convinced that the best path forward for humanity involves more integration on all levels – political, economic and even spiritual.  Just check out this excerpt from his speech…

“I believe that at this moment we all face a choice,” Obama said. “We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration or we can retreat into a world sharply divided and ultimately in conflict along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion. I want to suggest to you today that we must go forward and not back.”

Obama’s obsession with globalism is one of the reasons why he has so much disdain for Donald Trump, and his speech at the United Nations contained quite a few comments that seemed specifically targeted at him.  The following comes from CNN…

He painted a dark picture of the future awaiting Americans, and the world, if the forces of “aggressive nationalism” or “crude populism” win out. And he specifically inveighed against building a wall — a centerpiece of Trump’s proposal on border security.

“A nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself,” Obama declared to the assembled representatives of the UN’s member states.

But even more alarming than his defense of globalism was his wording about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I can’t remember any previous president ever using the phrase “Palestinian land” before.  Obviously a “two-state solution” is already an inevitable outcome in Obama’s mind.  Here is the full quote for those that have not seen it yet…

“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”

To me, this statement is a major red flag.

Could it be possible that Barack Obama plans to stab Israel in the back by supporting a UN Security Council resolution that permanently divides the Holy Land before his time in the White House is done?

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  As you can see, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says that a discussion about a “two-state solution” will be on the agenda…

Obama plans to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to “discuss the need for genuine advancement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

Barack Obama knows that he only has until January 20th, 2017 to take any action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If he supports a UN Security Council resolution formally recognizing a Palestinian state and granting them East Jerusalem as their capital, the next president would not be able to go back and undo that.  So this may be a way for Obama to “leave a legacy” in the Middle East, and he may especially be tempted to do this if it looks like Donald Trump could win the election…

A looming Donald Trump presidency would make it more likely for lame-duck US President Barack Obama to support a United Nations Security Council resolution laying down the basic parameters for the creation of Palestinian state, a former top US official said Sunday.

“I suspect that if Trump wins, the president would be more inclined to go for a Security Council resolution to try to do something that binds, creates standards for the future that the next president couldn’t undo,” Dennis Ross said at a conference on the future of Zionism and the US-Israel relationship. “If Clinton wins, I suspect he [Obama] would be more sensitive to her concerns as to whether this helps or hurt her.”

Less than a week ago, I wrote an article about how UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also appears to want to see movement toward a Palestinian state before his term ends, and he reaffirmed this position very strongly on Tuesday…

Earlier on Tuesday, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.

“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.

Of course Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon are both dead wrong about this.

If the UN Security Council passes a resolution that sets the parameters for a Palestinian state, it would be one of the worst things that they could possibly do, and it would set the stage for a major war in the Middle East.

But the pressure is on, and the world community seems to sense a real opportunity to divide the land of Israel.

Every year, the World Council of Churches observes a “World Week for Peace” during the month of September, and the focus is almost always on the Middle East.

This year, the work of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum will be highlighted during the “World Week for Peace”, and it is an organization that is strongly affiliated with the World Council of Churches.  On their website, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum has just released a poem that declares that “it’s time for Palestine”.  This is how that poem begins…

It’s time for Palestine.
It’s time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace.

It’s time to respect human lives in the land called holy.
It’s time for healing to begin in wounded souls.
It’s time to end more than 60 years of conflict, oppression and fear.
It’s time for freedom from occupation.

It’s time for equal rights.
It’s time to stop discrimination, segregation and restrictions on movement.
It’s time for those who put up walls and fences to build them on their own property.
It’s time to stop bulldozing one community’s homes and building homes for the other community on land that is not theirs.
It’s time to do away with double standards.

Overall, I don’t know if I have ever seen such an international push for a Palestinian state like we are seeing right now.

And the man that holds all the power is Barack Obama, because a potential U.S. veto is all that stands in the way of a UN Security Council resolution that divides the land of Israel and establishes a Palestinian state.

At this moment we are in the danger zone.  Obama has only four months left to pull the trigger, and Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have both stated that they do not plan to support such a resolution once they take office.

So if something is going to happen, it is almost certainly going to be before January 20th, 2017.

It is unclear what Obama is going to do at this point, but it is not exactly comforting that the fate of the land of Israel lies in his hands.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

10 Things That Every American Should Know About Donald Trump’s Plan To Save The U.S. Economy

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Can Donald Trump turn the U.S. economy around? This week Trump unveiled details of his new economic plan, and the mainstream media is having a field day criticizing it. But the truth is that we simply cannot afford to stay on the same path that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have us on right now. Millions of jobs are being shipped out of the country, the middle class is dying, poverty is exploding, millions of children in America don’t have enough food, and our reckless spending has created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the planet. Something must be done or else we will continue to steamroll toward economic oblivion. So is Donald Trump the man for the hour?

If you would like to read his full economic plan, you can find it on his official campaign website. His plan starts off by pointing out that this has been the weakest “economic recovery” since the Great Depression…

Last week’s GDP report showed that the economy grew a mere 1.2% in the second quarter and 1.2% over the last year. It’s the weakest recovery since the Great Depression – the predictable consequence of massive taxation, regulation, one-side trade deals and onerous energy restrictions.

And Trump is exactly right about how weak this economic recovery has been.

So how would he fix things?

The following are 10 things that every American should know about Donald Trump’s plan to save the U.S. economy…

#1 Donald Trump would lower taxes on the middle class

The tax savings under Trump’s plan would actually be quite substantial for middle class families. The following numbers come from a recent Charisma article…

• A married couple earning $50,000 per year with two children and $8,000 in child care expenses will save 35% from their current tax bill.

• A married couple earning $75,000 per year with two children and $10,000 in child care expenses will receive a 30% reduction in their tax bill.

• Married couple earning $5 million per year with two children and $12,000 in child care expenses will get only a 3% reduction in their tax bill.

#2 Donald Trump would lower taxes on businesses

Under his plan, no business in America would be taxed more than 15 percent. Alternatively, Hillary Clinton’s plan would tax some small businesses at a rate of close to 50 percent. So Trump’s plan would undoubtedly be good for businesses, and it would encourage many that have left the country to return.

But where would the lost tax revenue be made up?

#3 Childcare expenses would be exempt from taxation

For working families with children this would be a great blessing. Without a doubt this is an effort to win over more working women, and this is a demographic that Trump has been struggling with.

It is definitely an idea that I support, but once again where will the money come from to pay for this?

#4 U.S. manufacturers will be allowed to immediately fully expense new plants and equipment

This would undoubtedly lead to a boom in capital investment, but it would also reduce tax revenue. As an emergency measure this would be very good for encouraging manufacturers to stay in America, but it would also likely increase the budget deficit.

#5 A temporary freeze on new regulations

Red tape is one of my big pet peeves, and so I greatly applaud Trump for this proposal. I think that Bob Eschliman put it very well when he wrote the following about Trump’s planned freeze on new regulations…

In 2015 alone, federal agencies issued over 3,300 final rules and regulations, up from 2,400 the prior year. Studies show that small manufacturers face more than three times the burden of the average U.S. business, and the hidden tax from ineffective regulations amounts to “nearly $15,000 per U.S. household” annually. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion dollars per year, and Trump will end it.

#6 All existing regulations would be reviewed and unnecessary regulations would be eliminated

In particular, Trump’s plan would focus on getting rid of regulations that inhibit hiring. The following are some of the specific areas that he identifies on his official campaign website…

  • The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which forces investment in renewable energy at the expense of coal and natural gas, raising electricity rates;
  • The EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, which gives the EPA the ability to regulate the smallest streams on private land, limiting land use; and
  • The Department of Interior’s moratorium on coal mining permits, which put tens of thousands of coal miners out of work.

#7 Donald Trump would fundamentally alter our trade relationships with the rest of the globe

Donald Trump is the first major party nominee in decades to recognize that our trade deficit is absolutely killing our economy. I write about this all the time, and it is a hot button issue for me. So I definitely applaud Trump for proposing the following…

  • Appoint trade negotiators whose goal will be to win for America: narrowing our trade deficit, increasing domestic production, and getting a fair deal for our workers.
  • Renegotiate NAFTA.
  • Withdraw from the TPP.
  • Bring trade relief cases to the world trade organization.
  • Label China a currency manipulator.
  • Apply tariffs and duties to countries that cheat.
  • Direct the Commerce Department to use all legal tools to respond to trade violations.

#8 Donald Trump’s plan would be a tremendous boost for the U.S. energy industry

Barack Obama promised to kill the coal industry, and that is one of the few promises that he has actually kept. Obama also killed the Keystone Pipeline, and right now the energy industry as a whole is enduring their worst stretch since the last recession. To turn things around, Trump would do the following…

  • Rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
  • Save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.
  • Ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline.
  • Make land in the Outer Continental Shelf available to produce oil and natural gas.
  • Cancel the Paris Climate Agreement (limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.

#9 Trump would repeal Obamacare

Trump claims that Obamacare would cost our economy two million jobs over the next ten years. And without a doubt, it has already cost the U.S. economy a lot of jobs.

Not only that, but Obamacare has also sent health insurance premiums soaring, and this is putting a tremendous amount of financial pressure on many families.

Trump says that he would “replace” Obamacare, but that is a rather vague statement.

What exactly would he replace it with?

#10 Trump’s plan says nothing about the Federal Reserve

This is a great concern, because the Federal Reserve has far more power over the economy than anyone else does. It is at the very heart of our debt-based system, and unless something is done about the Fed our debt bubble will continue to get even larger.

Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by more than 96 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger. For Trump to not even mention the Federal Reserve in his economic plan is a tremendous oversight.

We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline, and things have not gotten better during the Obama years. If you can believe it, a study that was just released by Harvard even acknowledges this…

America’s economic performance peaked in the late 1990s, and erosion in crucial economic indicators such as the rate of economic growth, productivity growth, job growth, and investment began well before the Great Recession.

Workforce participation, the proportion of Americans in the productive workforce, peaked in 1997. With fewer working-age men and women in the workforce, per-capita income for the U.S. is reduced.

Median real household income has declined since 1999, with incomes stagnating across virtually all income levels. Despite a welcome jump in 2015, median household income remains below the peak attained in 1999, 17 years ago. Moreover, stagnating income and limited job prospects have disproportionately affected lower-income and lower-skilled Americans, leading inequality to rise.

That same study found that the percentage of Americans participating in the labor force peaked back in 1997 and has been steadily declining since that time…

declining-labor-force-participation-rate-harvard

If we continue to do the same things, we will continue to get the same results.

Donald Trump is promising change, and many of his proposals sound good, but there are also some areas to be concerned about.

Ultimately, just tinkering with the tax code and reducing regulations is not going to be enough to turn the U.S. economy around. We need a fundamental overhaul of our economic and financial systems, and Trump’s plan stops well short of that. But without a doubt what he is proposing is vastly superior to Hillary Clinton’s plan, and so he should definitely be applauded for at least moving in the right direction.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Obama Announces A Plan To Bring In Up To Four Times As Many Syrian Refugees In 2017

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In 2016, approximately 10,000 Syrian refugees were brought into the United States, but in 2017 that number could skyrocket to 40,000 under Barack Obama’s new plan.  Obama says that we must play our part in taking in those displaced by the ongoing Syrian civil war, but Republicans in Congress are outraged by this announcement and remain deeply concerned that there are terrorists among the refugees that are being brought in.  The Obama administration insists that all refugees are being subjected to rigorous screening, but his critics are quite skeptical.  Coming out of the midst of a five year civil war, documentation is scarce for many of these refugees, and there aren’t too many people that you can call over there that can serve as a solid reference at this point.

According to USA Today, the total number of refugees worldwide that will be brought in next year is scheduled to rise by 29 percent under Obama’s new plan…

The White House plans to sharply increase the number of refugees accepted by the United States to 110,000 in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, saying the move is necessary to help stem a migrant crisis gripping Europe and the Middle East.

The new target is a 29% increase over the 85,000 refugees accepted this fiscal year and a 57% hike over the 70,000 refugees allowed per year from 2013 to 2015.

Most of the mainstream news outlets that are talking about this story are not mentioning the number that will be admitted from Syria.  And there is a good reason for this.  According to NBC News, the number of refugees that will be brought in from “the Near East and South Asia” would rise to at least 40,000 under Obama’s plan, and “most of those are likely to be people escaping the brutal Syrian civil war”…

Of the 110,000 the U.S. intends to begin admitting at least 40,000 are from the Near East and South Asia, a White House senior administration official said. And most of those are likely to be people escaping the brutal Syrian civil war, even as many GOP lawmakers and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sound the alarm about terrorists in the midst of the refugees.

During fiscal year 2016, approximately 85,000 refugees were admitted to this country, and approximately 10,000 of those were Syrian refugees according to the federal Refugee Processing Center.

So if the number of Syrian refugees approaches 40,000 as Obama’s plan appears to indicate, that would mean that somewhere around four times as many Syrian refugees will be brought into this country next year.

If we were helping Christians and other minorities that are being brutally persecuted by ISIS that would be one thing.  But instead, it is being reported that only 0.46% of the refugees in the U.S. are Christians, and 98.33 percent of them are Sunni Muslims.

ISIS is a Sunni Muslim terror organization.  We should be focusing our help on the religious minorities that are being tortured, killed and driven from their homes by ISIS, but instead almost all of the refugees that are being brought in are on the same religious side of the fence as ISIS.

And it is important to note that surveys have discovered that a significant percentage of Syrian refugees actually have a favorable view of ISIS.

The chaos that Sunni refugees have caused in cities all over Europe has definitely shifted public opinion in the U.S. about taking in more refugees.  One poll that was taken back in November found that 56 percent of all Americans disapprove of bringing in more Syrian refugees, and only 41 percent of all Americans approve.

But Obama is going ahead anyway.  At this point he is a lame duck, and so he doesn’t really have to answer to anyone.

Some governors tried to stand up and say that they wouldn’t take any more refugees in their states.  Unfortunately for those governors, the courts ruled against them…

What happens next remains to be seen. Last year, with Syrian refugees flooding into Europe, the White House increased the number of refugees it would admit from the war-torn country. That led Republican governors in roughly two dozen states to express their opposition to receiving Syrians. Some governors filed lawsuits to stop refugees from coming to their states; they lost.

And so it is going to be up to Congress to try to do something.

As I have written about previously, it appears that the Syrian refugees that have been brought in so far have not been distributed on a uniform basis throughout the nation.  According to the Obama administration, large cities such as Washington D.C. are deemed to be “too expensive” for the refugees, and there have been lots of reports of Syrian refugees being settled in smaller communities all over the country.  In my previous article, this is how I described the impact that this could have…

If you drop a few hundred refugees into a major city of several million people, it isn’t going to make much of a difference.  But if you drop a few hundred refugees into a small town that has only a few thousand people living there, you can start to fundamentally alter the character of the whole area.  Could it be possible that this is yet another way that Barack Obama is attempting to “fundamentally transform” America?

Many people have asked why we have to take in so many Sunni refugees when wealthy Sunni nations such as Saudi Arabia haven’t taken in any.

And I think that is a legitimate question.

In the end, there has to be a balance.  We want to help those that are fleeing the brutal religious persecution of ISIS, but we also want to be mindful of our own national security.  I think that what House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte had to say about this was very appropriate…

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) criticized the decision, saying policymakers should focus on reforming the nation’s system for admitting refugees rather than having the White House set goals.

“For generations, the United States has been a safe haven for people fleeing persecution. We must remain compassionate toward refugees but we also need to make sure that we use common sense,” Goodlatte said in a statement. “Unfortunately, President Obama unilaterally increases the number of refugees resettled in the United States each year and gives little thought as to how it will impact local communities. The president also continues to ignore warnings from his own national security officials and plans to bring in even more Syrian refugees over the next year.”

In Orlando we witnessed what a single lone wolf Islamic terrorist can do.

We need to use common sense, and we need to do the best that we can to make sure that the people that we are bringing in do not want to conduct their own personal jihads once they get here.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama has his own agenda, and it does not appear to be in the best interest of the United States.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Palestinian Authority Races To Get A UN Security Council Resolution Before Obama Leaves Office

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A little more than four months from now Barack Obama’s time in the White House is scheduled to end, and the Palestinians know that their best chance of getting a UN Security Council resolution addressing their conflict with Israel is rapidly slipping away.  Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are both greatly wooing the Jewish vote, and they both are making very strong pro-Israel statements these days.  To many of you it probably isn’t a surprise that the Palestinians are not exactly thrilled with the prospect of a Trump presidency, but the truth is that they are very leery of Clinton as well.  If you doubt this, just check out this Al-Jazeera article.  At this point the Palestinians are pretty much convinced that any action at the UN Security Council must happen while Barack Obama still holds the reigns of power, and so they are in a race against time.

At a minimum, the Palestinians would like a UN Security Council resolution condemning any new Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank.  And that is precisely what they are pushing very hard for right now…

The Palestinian Authority intends to accelerate its attempt to pass a United Nations Security Council resolution against Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, according to WAFA, the Palestinian News and Information Agency.

“The Palestinian leadership and in cooperation with the Arab League and the Arab ministerial group will hold contacts at the international level to speed up convening a Security Council session that should pass a resolution to stop settlements, which pose unprecedented and serious threat and creates a situation that would result in grave consequences,” said Nabil Abu Rude, who is a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Needless to say, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is steadfastly against such a resolution, and he is alarmed by statements made by Palestinian leaders that seem to indicate that they want to remove every single Jewish person from territories under their control…

The Israeli leader also addressed the longstanding Palestinian Authority demand for a Jew-free Palestinian state; a requirement famously expressed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas when he exclaimed, “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli — civilian or soldier — on our lands.”

“I think what makes peace impossible is intolerance of others. Societies that respect all people are the ones that pursue peace. Societies that demand ethnic cleansing don’t pursue peace,” Netanyahu stated in the video.

If we see a UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlement in the West Bank that would be significant, but there is another possibility that would be absolutely earth-shattering if Barack Obama chose to go that direction.  Up until now, the U.S. government has always used their UN Security Council veto power to block any resolution that would formally establish the parameters for a Palestinian state and grant them East Jerusalem as the capital of that state.  But earlier this year the Obama administration signaled that such a resolution was now on the table, and at this point Obama has just four months left to make a decision one way or the other.

If Obama decides to pull the trigger, such a resolution would be legally binding on the Israelis and the Palestinians, and neither Trump nor Clinton would be able to go back and change it once it is done…

This leaves only one option that isn’t seen as unrealistic, unpalatable, or insignificant: to set down the guidelines or “parameters” of a peace agreement—on the four core issues of borders, security, refugees, and Jerusalem—in a US-supported UN Security Council resolution. Once passed, with US support, these Security Council-endorsed parameters would become international law, binding, in theory, on all future presidents and peace brokers.

Top US officials see a parameters resolution as Obama’s only chance at a lasting, positive legacy, one that history might even one day show to have been more important to peace than the achievements of his predecessors.

Back in March, 388 members of Congress from both parties (including Nancy Pelosi) sent Barack Obama a letter urging him not to support such a resolution.  So there is a considerable amount of political pressure on him not to do this.

But at this point he is a lame duck with nothing to lose.  He always said that a Palestinian state was high on his list of priorities, and this is his final chance to do something about it.

If we do see a UN Security Council resolution, it is likely that it will upset both the Israelis and the Palestinians…

Any resolution the US supports will contain clauses that are difficult for each side to accept. The most troublesome issues for Israel are that the borders will be based on the pre-1967 lines and that the Palestinian capital will be in Jerusalem. The most onerous clauses for the Palestinians relate to recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, the absence of a timeline for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, and a resolution of the refugee problem that would rule out anything but symbolic return to Israel.

And instead of promoting peace, it would actually just set the stage for a major war, but Obama doesn’t really understand the dynamics of the Middle East.  He just wants to “leave a legacy”, and at this point negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are completely dead.

The only way that Obama is going to get something done before the end of his second term is at the United Nations.

There are five countries that have veto power on the UN Security Council, and the United States is the only one that has been standing in the way of a Palestinian state.

Obama has hinted that next time the U.S. may not use the veto power, and nobody is quite sure precisely what would happen if a resolution was put for a vote during the coming months.

Of course supporting a UN Security Council resolution formally dividing the land of Israel would be the worst move that Obama would make in his entire presidency, and this is something that I detailed on international television last month…

We are going to find out what happens one way or the other very soon, because January 20th, 2017 is just a little bit more than four months away.

Let’s pray that Barack Obama makes the correct decision.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

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