USA - We have not seen anything like this since the last recession.  Layoff announcements are coming fast and furious now, and the speed at which workers are being laid off is shocking a lot of people.  In this day and age, big companies have absolutely no loyalty to their workers.  The moment it becomes financially advantageous for them to start laying off employees, most of them will do it in a heartbeat. 

USA - Is the consumer debt bubble finally starting to burst? If the latest numbers on delinquent credit card accounts are any indication, that appears to be precisely what is happening. As I noted the other day, Americans currently have 480 million credit cards, and they are carrying 870 billion dollars worth of balances on those cards. That is one giant pile of debt, but there won’t be a problem as long as the vast majority of Americans regularly make their credit card payments. Unfortunately, the number of credit card accounts that are delinquent has been steadily rising, and now we are being told that the number of “seriously delinquent” accounts has shot up to 37 million…

SOUTH AFRICA - In a judgment handed down on Friday, the court found that it was unfair to exclude members of the church from the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms that the church offers.  These included the opportunity to get married in the church.  In 2015, the church decided to allow individual church councils to recognise same-sex marriages, and scrapped a rule that gay ministers of the church had to be celibate.  A year later, in 2016, the church adopted a new policy, scrapping the 2015 decision.  Reverend Laurie Gaum, his father Dr Frits Gaum and eight other members of the Dutch Reformed Church launched the High Court application to have the 2016 decision set aside and declared unconstitutional.

USA - Tuesday on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” economist and Hoover Institution senior fellow Thomas Sowell offered his thoughts on what appears to be a comeback for the popularity of socialism in the United States. Sowell explained that some of the blame could be put on the media and educational institutions in the country for not doing a better job of putting socialism to the test. “Unfortunately, neither our educational system nor our media encourage people to test ideas against facts,” Sowell said. “Socialism is a wonderful sounding idea. It’s only as a reality, it is disastrous.”

USA - Thomas Sowell, a living legend in the field of economics, says he fears the US may eventually succumb to the siren song of socialism… the US may very well go down a path of financial ruin due to “wonderful-sounding” rhetoric. Mr Sowell, a Marxist in his youth, made the remarks Tuesday while appearing with Fox Business Network’s David Asman. “I do have a great fear that, in the long run, we may not make it,” Mr Sowell said. The author said that time and time again, people adopt willful ignorance regarding socialism’s track record around the world.

USA - US President Donald Trump has announced his intention to end preferential trade treatment for India, accusing New Delhi of failing to convince Washington it will provide “equitable and reasonable” access to its markets. “I am providing notice of my intent to terminate the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program,” Trump said in a letter to Congress on Monday. “I am taking this step because, after intensive engagement between the United States and the Government of India, I have determined that India has not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets of India.” Further deterioration of the cozy trade relationship with Washington could prove problematic for India, for which the US serves as its second largest export market with 16 percent.

GERMANY - When the Iranian government celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, few celebrated outside regime rent-a-mobs in Tehran. After all, while the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini promised Iranians and diplomats that he had no interest in personal power and only wanted an Islamic democracy, he instead ushered in a dictatorship more brutal, corrupt, and capricious than the shah’s regime which he demonized.

ISRAEL - The latest confrontation over the “Gate of Mercy” (known as the Golden Gate, or in Hebrew, Sha’ar HaRachamim), which has been disputed in the past, reflects a new pact between the opponents of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming Mideast peace plan. That consists of the Palestinian Authority, Turkey and Jordan, all of whom are concerned about its future status on the Temple Mount. The present conflict is intended to give a clear message to anyone thinking of removing Jordan or the Palestinian Authority from their current or future position on the Temple Mount. The Jordanian-Palestinian concern is that the plan will weaken their position on the Temple Mount.

USA - Gone are the days when US consumers looked to the nightly news and print media as a trusted source of information, and especially if they hold conservative views, according to a new poll by the Columbia Journalism Review. Things are going from bad to worse for the US legacy media as its trust credentials have reached an all-time new low, as if that were possible. It has even achieved a lower trust rating than lawyers and members of Congress. Indeed, the cynicism on the street should have every mainstream media purveyor in a state of absolute panic. A whole new business model built on trust is desperately needed. But can the media deliver such a product? Nothing less than its survival depends upon it.

ISRAEL - A group of Israeli activists are calling on the government to establish a synagogue on the Temple Mount and open it for Jewish prayer. According to Asaf Fried, a spokesman for an association of organizations dedicated to Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, more than 50 leaders from across the religious spectrum gathered on Sunday to discuss the situation on the Temple Mount, known as Har Habayit in Hebrew. Participants included Rabbi Yehudah Glick (Likud), Baruch Marzal (Otzma) and members of the Rabbinate. Jews believe the site – venerated as holy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike – is where the Beit Hamikdash used to sit. Fried said he believes that this time the goal can be accomplished because Israel is in an election period and politicians who can effect change will want to appear responsive.

EUROPE - One hundred and sixty-eight. That’s the number of pirate attacks there were in the Gulf of Aden in 2008. That number dropped to just three in 2014, thanks to Operation Atlanta, which was recently extended to the end of 2020. Behind this vast naval operation to secure shipping lanes off the Horn of Africa lies the European Union. “Despite what one might be led to believe, the European Union already conducts military operations, apart from Operation Atlanta, over thirty operations have taken place, notably in Africa,” explains Delphine Deschaux-Dutard a European defense analyst at the Centre for International Security and European Studies (Cesice). For her, things are straightforward: “Europe is an army politically and militarily.”

VATICAN - Pope Francis told a group of young people Sunday that the devil is not a fairy tale but truly exists, and that he is their “biggest enemy.” In a meeting with children and young people from Saint Crispin’s parish in Viterbo, the pope said that the devil is “the ruler of the pagan spirit” and “the lord of evil,” while urging them to resist his wiles through prayer and recourse to Jesus. In a spirited dialogue with the group, Francis asked question after question regarding the devil and how he attempts to separate us from God. “Yes, he exists, it’s true, and he is our biggest enemy,” he agreed with them. “He is the one who tries to make us slip up in life. He is the one who puts bad desires and bad thoughts in our hearts and leads us to do bad things, many bad things in life, ending with war.” Pope Francis has often spoken of the devil during his 6-year pontificate, insisting that he is not a myth and must be combatted.

CHINA - A building splurge in this impoverished pocket of rural China ended in half-finished projects and a trail of angry investors from some of the country’s wealthiest areas. On a recent winter workday, investors and representatives from private fund companies in Shanghai and elsewhere descended on Sandu, a county in the deep south where tens of thousands of locals live on less than a dollar a day. After taxi rides from the high-speed rail station that took them past incomplete buildings and a gigantic golden statue of a man on horseback, they sat in government offices, demanding repayment.

USA - Representative John Shimkus once issued a forceful rejection of climate science at a congressional hearing, invoking the Bible and declaring that “Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over.” Last month, in a turnabout, the Illinois Republican signed onto a letter with the top Republican of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that said “prudent steps should be taken to address current and future climate risks.” “It’s just not worth the fight anymore,” Shimkus said in an interview when asked about his changing stance on climate change. “Let’s just see what we can do to address it and not hurt the economy.” Shimkus is among a number of Republicans who — after years of sowing doubt about climate change or ignoring it altogether — are scrambling to confront the science they once rejected. It remains to be seen whether they are sincere or whether they are just starting to engage in deceitful rhetoric.

USA - Now that the Dirty Dems are openly pushing socialism, it’s a good time to address the most misused word in the dictionary:  right.  It’s a word that’s pretty much synonymous with entitlement.  The subtle difference between the two is that right has a much stronger moral connotation to it than entitlement.  It’s very official sounding, as though it were handed down from on high, while an entitlement suggests victimization, which connotes weakness.