Current Events-4th quarter

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/227737-obama-enters-the-fourth-quarter

"My presidency is entering the fourth quarter," Obama said. "Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. And I'm looking forward to it."

WE ALL ARE BO! WE ALL ARE!

Come Lord Jesus!

                 

Current Events-National Economy

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/12/18/stocks-thursday/20579643/

Stocks soared Thursday as good feelings about the Fed's Wednesday announcement that rate hikes aren't on the immediate horizon carry over into a second day.

Current Events-Powergrid failure

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sun-watching-observatory-sees-mid-level-solar-flare-on-dec-16-2014/#.VJM62nuPvYj

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 11:50 p.m. EST on Dec. 16, 2014. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an M8.7-class flare. M-class flares are a tenth the size of the most intense flares, the X-class flares. The number provides more information about its strength. An M2 is twice as intense as an M1, an M3 is three times as intense, etc.

NASA knows a lot about these events and the effect they can have on earth.


Can't really tell what this is...but who am I to question NASA? 

Current Events-The leader of universalism

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/18/pope-francis-diplomacy/20587427/

"When Republicans are attacking Obama on Cuba," tweeted Political Wire publisher Taegan Goddard, "they're also attacking Pope Francis."

And Francis is a lot more popular than any U.S. politician.

Ah. So some already see the BO-POPE connection...

Current Events-BO's EO's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuAsCgrikUw#t=32

Castro Urges Obama to Embrace Inner Dictator by Lifting Embargo with Executive Action

Current Events-Universalist Pope and Bo begin working together

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/17/pope-key-role-in-us-cuba-deal/20533525/

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis played a key role in finalizing a deal to open relations between the United States and Cuba for the first time in 53 years, according to a U.S. official.



¹¹ Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. ¹⁴ Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed

The pope certainly appears just as likable as BO...

Flash mob does the tango for the PopeCouples celebrated Pope Francis's birthday with a mass Tango dance in Saint Peter's square. (Dec. 17)

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/world/2014/12/17/20537027/
 

Current Events-International Economy

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/16/russia-ruble-fall-oil-putin/20476411/

The Russian government's next step is uncertain. One possibility is to impose currency controls that limit exchanges of rubles for dollars and other hard currencies.Some Russian banks started halting currency exchanges on their own Tuesday.

Current Events-BO's EO's

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/16/obama-presidential-memoranda-executive-orders/20191805/

Obama issues 'executive orders by another name'

WASHINGTON — President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

Wow. That's the boldest headline I've seen from UsaToday. EVER. GOOD JOB!

Of course....this boldness might also suggest something about BO's "unstoppability".

Current Events-Babylonian hostility towards Russia

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/three_congressmen_just_reignited_the_cold_war_while_no_one_was_looking_2014

Late Thursday night, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a far-reaching Russia sanctions bill, a hydra-headed incubator of poisonous conflict. The second provocative anti-Russian legislation in a week, it further polarizes our relations with Russia, helping to cement a Russia-China alliance against Western hegemony, and undermines long-term America’s financial and physical security by handing the national treasury over to war profiteers.

Here’s how the House’s touted “unanimity” was achieved: Under a parliamentary motion termed “unanimous consent,” legislative rules can be suspended and any bill can be called up. If any member of Congress objects, the motion is blocked and the bill dies.

At 10:23:54 p.m. on Thursday, a member rose to ask “unanimous consent” for four committees to be relieved of a Russia sanctions bill. At this point the motion, and the legislation, could have been blocked by a single member who would say “I object.”  No one objected, because no one was watching for last-minute bills to be slipped through.

Most of the House and the media had emptied out of the chambers after passage of the $1.1 trillion government spending package.  

The Russia Sanctions bill that passed “unanimously,” with no scheduled debate, at 10:23:55 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2014, includes:
1. Sanctions of Russia’s energy industry, including Rosoboronexport and Gazprom.

2. Sanctions of Russia’s defense industry, with respect to arms sales to Syria.

3. Broad sanctions on Russians’ banking and investments.

4. Provisions for privatization of Ukrainian infrastructure, electricity, oil, gas and renewables, with the help of the World Bank and USAID.

5. Fifty million dollars to assist in a corporate takeover of Ukraine’s oil and gas sectors.

6. Three hundred and fifty million dollars for military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank, anti-armor, optical, and guidance and control equipment, as well as drones.

7. Thirty million dollars for an intensive radio, television and Internet propaganda campaign throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union.

8. Twenty million dollars for “democratic organizing” in Ukraine.

9. Sixty million dollars, spent through groups like the National Endowment for Democracy, “to improve democratic governance, and transparency, accountability [and] rule of law” in Russia. What brilliant hyperbole to pass such a provision the same week the Senate’s CIA torture report was released.

10. An unverified declaration that Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, is a nuclear “threat to the United States” and should be held “accountable.”

11. A path for the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty, which went into force in 1988. The implications of this are immense. An entire series of arms agreements are at risk of unraveling. It may not be long before NATO pushes its newest client state, Ukraine, to abrogate the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Ukraine signed when it gave up its nuclear weapons, and establish a renewed nuclear missile capability, 300 miles from Moscow.

12. A demand that Russia verifiably dismantle “any ground launched cruise missiles or ballistic missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers ...”—i.e., 300 and 3,300 miles.

This and a collapsing Russian economy/currency might lead Big Vlad to do something crazy... 

Current Events-Russian Economy

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/12/16/russia-ruble-dollar/20470421/

The Russian ruble currency declined sharply against the dollar on Tuesday despite an aggressive intervention just hours earlier by Russia's Central Bank to halt the slide by hiking its benchmark interest rate to 17%.

The ruble fell to a new low of 73 against the dollar on Tuesday.

Initially, the ruble reacted favorably to the monetary policy move to prop up the troubled currency. It rallied for a few hours before sliding back into record-low territory.

The Central Bank's rate rise — from 10.5% — was its biggest single move since 1998, Bloomberg reported. That is the same year that the Russian government defaulted on its sovereign debt.

Not good. Desperate needs call for desperate measures. And who knows what Big Vlad will choose to do...Russia has invested millions in the US https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/us-federal-debt-who/?gclid=Cj0KEQiAzb-kBRDe49qh9s75m-wBEiQATOxgwS2BwcK2_WRklh7-Tqx352rjSvkOO-gCo_QYNLhqNjQaAhlN8P8HAQ

That same chart shows that Japan has more than 1 trillion dollars invested in the US, Brazil maybe 250 billion and Italy 50 billion.

Japan is in shambles, Brazil and Italy as well....and now the bear. What if Big Vlad attacks Israel? Or what if all countries economically strapped decided to call in their bonds???

Current Events-International Economy

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/12/15/russian-central-bank-key-rate-to-17-percent/20455833/

Russia's central bank raised a key interest to an eye-popping 17% in an effort to halt a steep slide in the ruble and avert a perilous bout of inflation.

The Bank of Russia increased its benchmark rate to 17% from 10.5% Monday after the ruble's value fell 10%. That followed the U.S. Congress authorizing tougher sanctions against Russia and further drops in oil prices.

Kind of drastic....

Current Events-Oil

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2014/12/14/gulf-markets-plunge/20394845/

The head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Abdalla Salem el-Badri, said Sunday that OPEC has no set price target for oil, according to the Wall Street Journal.
His comment, made at an event in Dubai, is likely to add further uncertainty to the turbulent oil market. The price of a barrel of light, sweet crude fell to $57.49, down from $98.17 at the end of 2013 -- a 41% decline.

OPEC said in November that it would keep production levels unchanged. Surging production and slower-than-expected demand have kept oil prices tumbling. Stock markets around the world have been unnerved by the plunge in oil prices, currently at their lowest levels in five years.

Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Current Events-Sustainable growth

 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/14/climate-change-deal-reached/20390775/

LIMA, Peru — The latest round of United Nations climate talks ended in the early hours of Sunday morning — nearly 33 hours later than scheduled — with a deal that barely kept hopes for a meaningful global agreement next year.

The conference, which started on Dec. 1., had two main goals: to agree to a series of measures aimed at reducing the greenhouse gases scientists say cause climate change in the near term, and to pave the way for an agreement that will include action from all countries by the end of the next edition of the talks, a year from now in Paris.

ANother round of  "sustainable growth" or "sustainable development"....