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giftofshewbread · 5 years ago

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America, The E.U. & The Tribulations to Come

By Vanessa P.Published on: September 11, 2019

In August 2017, a solar eclipse passed over America. The eclipse went from coast to coast, West to East. It was the first total solar eclipse seen only in the U.S. since the nation’s founding in 1776. In 2024, another solar eclipse will cross America from coast to coast, this time East to West. The path of the eclipse’s final image is a giant X over the United States.

https://images.app.goo.gl/zNftAzMyNFnUVma18

The annual Bastille Day celebration in Paris, France, this year was prophetic. Not very talked about either. The ten Kings of the EU military cooperation were present, along with their own militaries. This wasn’t about celebrating France; it was about showcasing a joint military pact created last year by France and Germany.

When Jerusalem is surrounded in the final days leading to Armageddon, it seems only God can help the Jewish people. Towards the end, just prior to His coming, could the U.S. be crippled, leaving the Jews to call on God? Jesus said that the Jews would not see His face again until they learned to cry out to Him.

“For I say unto you, you shall not see me again, till you shall say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

The Jewish people have shed many tears over the last 2,000 years. They’ve been ridiculed, mocked and slaughtered by the millions. Yet, they still have not cried out to the Lord, the only one who can save them.

When Jesus was here, he was despised, ridiculed, mocked and ultimately slaughtered by the very people He came to save. Their scorn for Him was returned to them.

As He was being led away like a lamb to the slaughter, there were a few mourners who were crying for Him. He turned to them and said “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children” (Luke 23:28).

The children of that generation of Jews saw the destruction of their temple, slaughter of their friends and family, captivity, and for 2,000 years they roamed without a home of their own. They were despised, mocked and ultimately slaughtered by the millions under the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.

Currently, there is not a UN permanent member nation that can veto and make decisions for the ONE BILLION Muslims on earth.

With Brexit, the UK’s departure from the EU will leave a massive hole, financially and militarily, as the EU is the UK’s largest trading partner. Turkey is ready and waiting to step in; this is what they’ve been waiting on for decades. They have a legitimate cause, too. Europe has millions of Muslims living in numerous countries. They have no voice. Recep Tayip Erdogan wants to be that voice.

Erdogan is already a hero in Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinian people. He is celebrated and prayed for by them. There are Turkish flags over the entrances to the Temple Mount. During Friday prayer it is not unusual to see Turkish flags and signs bearing Erdogan’s picture.

After Brexit, the EU will forge new trade deals, possibly with nations the U.S. is sanctioning. They will become extremely powerful militarily, with a two hundred-million-man army. Even the U.S., which is the greatest nation in the history of the world, can’t withstand that. Israel certainly can’t withstand that, which makes the people finally cry out, and The Lord hears them!

The ten nations in the EU have been chosen. Emmanuel Macron called for ten nations to stand up and defend the EU militarily. The ten nations that came forward are: France and Germany of course, Finland, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

Revelation 17:12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.”

BUT Brexit is about to finally happen, so why would Britain remain in the EU’s military alliance? They won’t.

“After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.”

The leopard with feathers represents the Franco-German alliance. The four heads represent Germany’s attempts at world domination or four Reich’s (German for Empire). We witnessed the first attempt under the Holy Roman Empire, the second under Otto Van Bismarck, and the third head was under Adolph Hitler. The fourth head will be under the control of the Antichrist.

The European Union is controlled by Germany and France. The history between the two nations dates back to Charlemagne the great, the first Holy Roman Emperor. Everything we see happening today ties in, bringing us to the final moments before Christ’s return.

Germany will return to her Assyrian roots and become the killing machine they have been throughout history. Germany has started the last two world wars and will undoubtedly help start the third.

“The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings.”

With Britain leaving, this gives Turkey the opportunity they have been waiting for. It would also give Erdogan an incredible amount of power. It’s been two decades since the EU named Turkey as a candidate for membership, and Erdogan is determined to make it happen. In the past, Erdogan has claimed that the EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the EU. With Brexit on the horizon, he may be right.

Turkey is already a much-needed ally on key issues such as immigration into Europe, security, and even the economy. The only thing that has really prevented them from joining were the differences on sharia laws and what it means to be a “Democratic nation.”

With many European nations becoming socialist, is there really that much of a difference now? What difference does it make if the thought police are in Turkey controlling what you say about Islam, or if they are in Germany and France controlling what you say about Islam?

The U.S. and Turkey have had a strained relationship over the last two years; this is in part due to President Trump blocking the F-35 deal. NATO has become almost obsolete, and when it falls apart, Turkey will be looking for a new club to join.

“He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law.”

No other group of people, both religiously and politically, speaks pompous and disgusting words towards Jesus Christ more than Muslims. In fact, blasphemy against Him is engraved on their mosques. It is sung out in their call to prayer. It’s written on arm bands, flags and headbands.

The Islamic call to prayer is heard in tens of thousands of mosques across the world everyday, and each time it’s heard over those loudspeakers, blasphemy is committed.

“Allah is the Greatest! (4 times)

I bear witness that there is no other god but Allah. (2 times)

I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. (2 times)

Rush to prayer. (2 times)

Rush to success. (2 times)

Allah is the Greatest! (2 times)

There is no god but Allah.”

https://raleighmasjid.org/how-to-pray/times.htm

Sharia law demands that an unbeliever be enslaved or killed. Muslims have perfected the art of beheading.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.”

The beast is a socialist, globalist system that has engulfed Europe over the last several decades. President Trump withdrew us from this system, which angered many across the world. This explains the birth of the United States being described by Daniel, but her notable absence in Revelation. The U.S. is not a part of the Antichrist beast.

“And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’”

The bear represents Russia. Through communism, millions have been murdered. The three ribs seem to represent three smaller nations that Russia will conquer in the last days before Christ’s return. The Ukraine is certainly one possible nation or rib.

Daniel 7:17 “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which SHALL arise out of the earth.”

Daniel’s vision must be describing modern nations because he specifically said that the lion, bear, and leopard “shall arise.” Daniel explained Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams while living in Babylon. The first beast mentioned cannot be ancient Babylon for one simple reason. It had already risen. Daniel was in Babylon at the height of its rule. He also described Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian kingdom as being the head of gold.

Daniel 2:39-40 “He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.”

Later, in Daniel 7, he interprets another dream from Nebuchadnezzar. This time he is speaking of future nations.

“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.”

The United States, or the Eagle, won her independence from Britain in 1776. Uncle Sam stood up with a man’s heart.

The same nations in Daniel 7 are again mentioned in Revelation 13. This time, the nations described in Daniel 7 are now ONE beast or super nation under the Antichrist.

Remember what Jesus said. THIS IS A SPIRITUAL WORLD. There are spirits leading these nations and people. Dark sprits that rule this world. This is why they are in direct opposition of anything good, or decent and moral. We are all being spiritually led. As Christians, we are led by the Holy Spirit.

“Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.”

If Turkey joined the EU, they will in fact be divided from the rest of Europe. Muslims are not suddenly going to adhere to European law or pledge their loyalty to a single nation. But a super nation with tens of millions of Muslims as citizens? That’s something else altogether. This fourth kingdom, led by France and Germany, will be as strong as iron, but its weakness will be the millions of Muslims wanting separate, sharia-compliant laws.

The division also includes Great Britain. The differences are political, economic and cultural. These differences are found not just between Muslims and Europeans, but between Europeans themselves. This is where the clay or weakness and division comes in. These nations are aligned and powerful but still separate, which gives it weakness.

Boris Johnson has a “zero cares given” attitude on BREXIT. He requested approval from Queen Elizabeth to suspend Parliament, and her stamp of approval was given. This shutdown inside Parliament is an unprecedented move to ensure no derailment of the October 31 deadline he gave. It’s the first time Parliament has shut down in 400 years.

When the armies of the world begin to surround Jerusalem, the Bible says that Britain, the United States and Saudi Arabia question their motives. Have they come to rob Israel of her wealth and possessions?

Ezekiel 38:13 “Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’”

Without Brexit, Britain and America couldn’t possibly be allied in the future because Britain would still be aligned with the E.U.

Brexit hasn’t been carried out yet because the globalists in power do not want to leave the E.U. The British people voted to leave the European Union; yet, their ELECTED officials have ignored them. Theresa May did everything in her power to make a mess of leaving, and it appeared Brexit may not ever happen. Until Boris Johnson became Prime Minister – Britain’s Donald Trump, of sorts. Although there is only one President Donald J. Trump.

“Then the saints shall be given into his hand, For a time and times and half a time.”

Will President Trump’s second term in office be during the first part of the seven-year peace deal? The final three and a half years is going to be a time of great tribulation. Is it possible that the United States has been removed as a superpower in order to usher that terrible time in?

“I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came.”

In 2024, when the eclipse crosses the U.S. again, the epicenter of the eclipse crosses over the same exact spot as it did in 2017. The Kentucky/Tennessee border region. What’s interesting is there’s a dangerous fault line right where the giant X crosses over. This fault line caused the greatest earthquake in our history. The New Madrid fault line has the potential to completely disrupt and cripple the U.S.

In November 2008, FEMA warned that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone could have severe economic damages due to severe infrastructure damage across multiple states. A strong enough quake will affect water, food and medicine from reaching those who need it for possibly weeks, if not months.

Catastrophic damage would be felt in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, and Tennessee.

A 7.0 magnitude quake along the fault line would put this country at a standstill. It would result in thousands of casualties, with many more in the days that follow, due to the large populations and lack of emergency supplies.

FEMA also said Memphis, Tennessee, would have upwards of 4,000 casualties alone. Unlike cities on the West coast, buildings and infrastructure in middle America aren’t made to withstand strong earthquakes. Not only that, but with millions of people affected, our financial markets would crash.

The last time this fault line caused a major earthquake was December 16, 1811, when an estimated 8.0 quake struck Arkansas with a large 7.4 aftershock a few hours later. A third 7.8 earthquake was felt on January 23, 1812. Then a 4th in the series of quakes hit just a few weeks later on February 7th. This was estimated at an 8.8.

After the fourth and largest quake, the land was no longer recognizable by survivors. Brand new lakes and ridges were formed, and the Mississippi River flowed backwards for hours. Church bells in Philadelphia rang out, and the ground cracked in Washington, DC.

In 1811-12, middle America was not as populated as it is now, which lessened the death toll.

In 2016, James Wilkinson, director of the Central US Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), said, “The thing that, to me, makes the river scary is how much industry we have along it: there’s power plants, there’s chemical plants, there’s ports. And the river might change course altogether… We’ve had earthquakes, we’ve had damage, but nothing like what we’ve seen in other parts of the world… So the clock’s ticking.”

These Midwest earthquakes are the longest lasting with the most damage in world history, and the strongest in American history. Something else remarkable happened in March of 1811 and ended in December of that year too. A bright comet had appeared in the skies. It was visible for 260 days in the United States and Europe, and was nicknamed the “Napoleon Comet.” It preceded the war of 1812, which once again saw the U.S. at war with Britain in a desperate fight to defend her sovereignty. This has been called America’s second war for independence.

These two American Eclipses intersect in middle America, and right over the New Madrid Fault line.

What will become of Jerusalem in the upcoming peace deal? The end result is tens of thousands of Palestinians overrunning her and slaughtering the Jewish people, and the U.S. will be powerless to stop it. The Psalm 83 war describes all of the surrounding peoples and nations that attack the Temple and the Jewish people. They are modern-day Palestinians. I believe it will be this war where Jerusalem comes under the control of the Antichrist.

With the U.S. reeling from a massive earthquake, the EU would become the most powerful union of nations in the world. Politically and economically. Perhaps they will offer to help the U.S., for a price. How many in today’s generation could survive if they had to fend for themselves? Not many. They would gladly offer anything, even betraying their nation for a hot shower and food.

I believe the U.S. will be around to protect Israel for the next few years, but I also believe something must happen to America in order for the Israelis to feel all that can help them is God.

These prophecies were written 2,500 years ago, and we see them being fulfilled before our eyes.

The lawlessness we see around us now is nothing compared to what will occur when a catastrophic event that affects the entire country happens.

This earthquake would split the United States right down the middle. We are already divided spiritually and politically; could you imagine having to defend your home in a time of lawlessness? If you’re not prepared, then it’s time to get prepared. I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’m not saying this earthquake is going to happen, but it’s awful coincidental in this last generation not to take notice of signs that appear in the sun, moon and stars. He warned us of earthquakes and also hurricanes.

Luke 21:25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.”

Matthew 24:7 “And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Things are move quickly; His return is near. He is not coming back smiling; He’s coming back full of wrath. All of these things we are seeing right now are only the beginning!

Jesus does not rule Jerusalem yet; He doesn’t even rule this world. This is Satan’s domain. Why do you think God instructs us not to be part of the world? Because our enemy runs it! Look around you; is this from God? Is drag queen story hour from God? Are abortions from God? Is the socialist, globalist beast from God? No!

The third temple is closer than ever to being built. It will be this generation that builds it, and President Trump could make it happen, inadvertently bringing the Antichrist front and center.

Zechariah 6:15 “Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Jewish Rabbis are eagerly awaiting the time when they can prepare the red heifer for sacrifice. This red heifer is needed in order to build the third temple because the ashes from the heifer are what cleansed Israel from her sins in ancient times. Jesus was without blemish, as no fault was found in Him; His blood is what cleanses us from our sin. The heifer had to be sacrificed outside of the camp just as Jesus was sacrificed outside of Jerusalem.

The Jewish people haven’t learned to cry out for the Lord yet, and they will not see Him until they do. Unfortunately, it’s going to take another Holocaust more brutal than the first for them to do so. BUT He is faithful, and hears them. The red heifer can’t forgive them of their sins; only Jesus Christ can. His blood has already been shed, no heifers needed.

“Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil” (Joel 2:12-13).

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scifigeneration · 6 years ago

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Blood moon: lunar eclipse myths from around the world

by Daniel Brown

Shutterstock

Millions of people will have the opportunity to see a lunar eclipse – an event popularly known in the media as a “blood moon” – tonight, on Friday July 27. Visible for most of the world – only North America and Greenland are expected to miss out – it’s set to be the longest one this century, so there is plenty of time to take a look.

During such an eclipse, the full moon moves into the shadow of the Earth cast by the sun, and is momentarily darkened. Some sunlight still reaches the moon, refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, however, illuminating it with an ashen to dark red glow, the colour depending on atmospheric conditions.

As a communicator of astronomy, the term “blood moon” is a major thorn in my side, since it suggests something other than a lunar eclipse and conjures images of a moon shimmering in crimson red colours, which is not at all accurate. But as a cultural astronomer, the phrase displays some of the interesting ways in which modern society creates its sky stories.

Lunar eclipses have fascinated cultures across the globe, and inspired several striking myths and legends, many of which portray the event as an omen. This is not surprising, since if anything interrupts the regular rhythms of the sun or moon it impacts strongly upon us and our lives.

Telescopes at the ready. SHUTTERSTOCK

Lunar malevolence

For many ancient civilisations, the “blood moon” came with evil intent. The ancient Inca people interpreted the deep red colouring as a jaguar attacking and eating the moon. They believed that the jaguar might then turn its attention to Earth, so the people would shout, shake their spears and make their dogs bark and howl, hoping to make enough noise to drive the jaguar away.

In ancient Mesopotamia, a lunar eclipse was considered a direct assault on the king. Given their ability to predict an eclipse with reasonable accuracy, they would put in place a proxy king for its duration. Someone considered to be expendable (it was not a popular job), would pose as the monarch, while the real king would go into hiding and wait for the eclipse to pass. The proxy king would then conveniently disappear, and the old king be reinstated.

Some Hindu folktales interpret lunar eclipses as the result of the demon Rahu drinking the elixir of immortality. Twin deities the sun and moon promptly decapitate Rahu, but having consumed the elixir, Rahu’s head remains immortal. Seeking revenge, Rahu’s head chases the sun and moon to devour them. If he catches them we have an eclipse – Rahu swallows the moon, which reappears out of his severed neck.

For many people in India, a lunar eclipse bears ill fortune. Food and water are covered and cleansing rituals performed. Pregnant women especially should not eat or carry out household work, in order to protect their unborn child.

In a lunar eclipse, the Earth passes directly between the moon and the sun. SHUTTERSTOCK

A friendlier face

But not all eclipse myths are beset by such malevolence. The Native American Hupa and Luiseño tribes from California believed that the moon was wounded or ill. After the eclipse, the moon would then need healing, either by the moon’s wives or by tribesmen. The Luiseño, for example, would sing and chant healing songs towards the darkened moon.

Altogether more uplifting is the legend of the Batammaliba people in Togo and Benin in Africa. Traditionally, they view a lunar eclipse as a conflict between sun and moon – a conflict that the people must encourage them to resolve. It is therefore a time for old feuds to be laid to rest, a practice that has remained until this day.

In Islamic cultures, eclipses tend to be interpreted without superstition. In Islam, the sun and moon represent deep respect for Allah, so during an eclipse special prayers are chanted including a Salat-al-khusuf, a “prayer on a lunar eclipse”. It both asks Allah’s forgiveness, and reaffirms Allah’s greatness.

A misleading history

Returning once more to blood, Christianity has equated lunar eclipses with the wrath of God, and often associates them with the crucifixion of Jesus. It is notable that Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, ensuring that an eclipse can never fall on Easter Sunday, a potential mark of Judgement Day.

Lunar eclipses have been shrouded in superstition since time immemorial. SHUTTERSTOCK

Indeed, the term “blood moon” was popularised in 2013 following the release of the book Four Blood Moons by Christian minister John Hagee. He promotes an apocalyptic belief known as the “blood moon prophecy” highlighting a lunar sequence of four total eclipses that occurred in 2014/15. Hagee notes that all four fell on Jewish holidays, which has only happened three times before – each apparently marked by bad events.

The prophecy was dismissed by Mike Moore (General Secretary of Christian Witness to Israel) in 2014, but the term is still regularly used by the media and has become a worrying synonym for a lunar eclipse. Given the enduring superstitions, it is profoundly unhelpful for science communicators trying to remind everyone that the so-called “blood moon” is nothing to be feared. It may be impressive, and it may be the longest for a century, but it is simply an eclipse.

So, by using the term “blood moon”, we are combining superstition with science, just as the Hindu folktale of Rahu provides a legendary description of lunar orbital mechanics. The “blood moon” attracts interest in the sky and lunar eclipses, but rather than awaiting doom and destruction we can better view it along the lines of the Islamic interpretation – as a monumental illustration of the fascinating and real motions of our solar system.

So my suggestion is this: watch the lunar eclipse as how the sky unfolds above you. Give it your own name, give it your own meaning, and enjoy it with your friends and family. And I think you’ll find that the term “blood moon” cannot do justice to the wonder of what you’re watching.

About The Author

Daniel Brown is a Lecturer in Astronomy at Nottingham Trent University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

#astronomy #science #lunar eclipse #total lunar eclipse #space #the moon #superstition

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slureads-blog · 6 years ago

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seriouslyhooked · 7 years ago

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Scoring Your Love (Part 10/?)

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six,Part Seven, Part Eight. Story also on FF here and AO3 here. Banner by the wonderful @timetravelandfairytales

Modern AU where Killian is a world famous soccer star who has hit rock bottom and been sentenced to the place where ‘football’ legends go to die – America. While here he crosses paths with Emma, an up and coming musician and film scorer who challenges everything he thought he knew and makes him want more than the game he’s always loved. Will be filled with fluff for days, and eventually rated M.

A/N: Hello again, friends! So as promised we finally get to the M rating in this chapter, but we also get another important check in before then. I mean come on, you didn’t think I was just going to forget about Liam, did you? Well he’ll make an appearance of sorts in this chapter, and though we’ll end in my usual fluffy place, we’re sowing some seeds of intrigue for later. Hope you all enjoy and thanks so much for reading!

In all his years playing in the professional leagues, Killian had managed the intensity and the strange schedules of a sportsman’s life better than most of his fellow teammates.

To be sure there were some more destructive habits he had formed, drinking a bit too much, surrounding himself with the kind of people who were interested just in the fame and the fortune, but on the whole he hadn’t fallen victim to the same bad moods that most other men did. Leaving home for so long and being apart from family took a toll on anybody, but Killian had never felt he was leaving too much behind. Since it was only ever Liam who he had as a given in his life, and since his brother was also his manager and as such was on the road with him more often than not, Killian didn’t feel the weight of separation.

Now, however, things were changing. One might argue it was because he was on the American circuit and his new games weren’t in enthralling places like Paris or Milan, but in small suburbs outside cities he’d never thought to see. Yet Killian knew that the real reason for the change was simpler than that. The problem was home – or rather Los Angeles – had a certain person in residence who did not get to come on these trips with him, and the more he got to know Emma Swan, the harder it was to take these jaunts out on the road for the sake of a game. It was likely crazy to feel this way, but Killian wouldn’t lie to himself. He missed Emma when he was gone, and finally he understood all that regret other more settled teammates had been feeling all these years.

It was of great comfort to him then that tonight he was back at his place in LA once more. Minutes ago he’d said goodbye to Tiny down stairs and now Killian was filled with anticipation and a need to get things going. He could do with a shower straight away, and food would probably be a good thing this time of night when he’d had none so far, but any unpacking could wait until morning. Right now Killian was hoping to speed things up as much as he could to get to Emma. He pulled out his phone and started to craft a text seeing if she was still up. It wasn’t too late yet, and he knew from their conversations this morning that she didn’t have any early morning commitments tomorrow, but he’d hate to call and disturb her if her plans had changed. Unfortunately just as he was about to press send on the text, a call came in disrupting him. A picture of his brother and Liam’s name appeared on the screen and Killian groaned at the interruption, but decided to answer in the hopes of conducting a speedy conversation.

“Liam, I’m sorry I haven’t checked in the past few days, but I’m actually just -,”

“You’re not seriously blowing me off are you, Killian?” his brother asked from where he was half a world away, and though to others it might sound a bit standoffish, Killian could sense his brother was actually in good humor. He could envision the smirk Liam had going there across the pond, and he was glad things had started to calm between them since Killian was first shipped off to the states. “It’s been a whole week at this point.”

“Aye, it’s bad form to be dodging my manager, I know,” Killian agreed.

“Ha! Your manager – I’m your brother first Killian, as you well know. Question is, what’s got you so busy. You’re ‘on a roll’ as they say over there. Stats are looking good and there’s still a buzz about you over here. But are the States so entirely exhausting that you can’t call your family?”

“Not quite,” Killian said with a smile of his own as he looked about his apartment figuring he could kill two birds with one stone. He could straighten up a bit on the off chance Emma could come here later and also touch base with his brother.

“So what is it then?” Liam asked and Killian hesitated, not because he had any shame over his relationship with Emma. On the contrary, he was thrilled that the two of them were progressing as they were. Instead his worry came from Liam’s potential reaction, and that worry was proved of merit when Liam spoke again. “Oh for fuck’s sake, tell me it’s not some woman.”

“Liam -,” Killian wanted to immediately correct his brother’s resentfulness and assure him Emma was different and unlike anyone he’d known before, but he didn’t have the chance with Liam fully blowing up at the realization.

“God, I knew this ‘new leaf’ was too good to be true! Here I am campaigning for you, working my arse off to get your image back where it needs to be for a proper team return, and you’re shagging some random American woman and throwing it all away!”

“I’m not throwing anything away. And she’s not just some woman,” Killian growled back, his hand balling into a fist and his body tightening in anger at his brother’s harsh iterations.

“Oh I bet. If you’ve glommed on to her she’s bound to be a total disaster,” Liam said haughtily. “Let me guess: she’s a great lay right? But with her sexual abilities there’s always some kind of rubbish. My bet its either a fully-stunted personality or some sort of fucked up gold-digging ambitions. Am I right?”

“No you aren’t bloody right, and I’m telling you Liam if you don’t stop talking about Emma that way you will regret it.”

“Oh Emma is it?”

“Aye, Emma,” Killian said, releasing a breath and trying to be the bigger person here. He could admit that he had made bad choices in the past, and the fall out of those choices had made Liam’s life and job no doubt more complicated. Rationally Killian knew that he was the one the burden fell on to be the bigger person, but it was difficult when his elder brother was giving in to such theatrics. They both knew Killian hadn’t been in the habit of sleeping with every eligible lady in the whole United Kingdom, that was all a part of his unearned reputation, but hashing that point out in this moment would do nothing. What needed to be said was of an entirely different nature. “I hadn’t planned to get into this just now, I was hoping to introduce the two of you when you came in a few months so you could see that she’s different. She’s everything.”

“Everything? Christ, Killian, she’s just a woman!”

“No, she’s the woman, brother,” Killian said aggressively, and then it dawned on him – this wasn’t worth his time. If Liam was coming at this with such combative, head-strong energy he was never going to listen. As such they were just moving towards a larger fight, a bigger blow out with more hurt along the way. It would be better to shut it down now and deal with the fall out later, at least that way the whole night might not be ruined and he might yet get to see Emma. “You know what, let’s just call and end to this. It’s been a long day, and I’m not interested in whatever judgment you’ve got rattling around in your brain right now. You don’t know Emma, Liam. You don’t know us together. Hell you don’t even really know me anymore. So let’s just say I’ll call you in a week, or better yet you can email me any business particulars and I’ll see you when I see you.”

Killian ended the call before Liam could respond and turned his phone on the ‘do not disturb’ setting. Was it rude? Yes, but it felt warranted under the circumstances. He didn’t need that kind of negativity in his life, and when his brother felt a little more compassionate and a little more interested in trusting Killian’s judgment they’d speak again. For now, Killian returned once more to the text he was about to send Emma only to hear a knock at the door. Now who could that be this time of night?

“Can I help you?” Killian asked as he opened the door to his apartment. A young man with a bike stood before him and the kid nodded, handing Killian a package and a tablet for a signature.

“Delivery for Jones.”

“Right. Thanks, mate,” Killian said as he accepted. He shut the door behind him and examined the parcel. He knew he hadn’t ordered anything but when he saw the return address he grinned. It was from Emma. But what could it be?

Opening it up Killian discovered it was of all things a cassette tape and an accompanying player. Thank God she’d thought to include that last part because he certainly didn’t have one, but before he could listen he had to search for a note. He found a short one attached and read it as quick as he could.

‘This song wouldn’t exist without us.’

Killian felt his pulse quickening as he maneuvered the tape out of its holder and into the player, his conversation with his brother all but forgotten. It was a Walkman style set up, something straight out of the 90s but the fun of the nostalgia was undeniable. He was already in the best mood possible by the time he had the headphones on, but then he pressed play on the tape and he was awed into something else.

The music that came through the device and into his ears was unexpected but brilliant. It moved him in a way he truly hadn’t seen coming. This was no mixtape of throwback songs, this was something new, something bold, and something truly remarkable. Killian was certain it was one of Emma’s own compositions, and he stood there surrounded by the essence of her music trying to fathom how one person could have such talent. Too soon the song came to an end, but just as Killian was about to hit rewind to play it again Emma’s voice flittered through the air giving the name of the song, ‘Ready for You,’ and the intended scene it should go with on the series she was working on with Tiana.

Another realization dawned at that part, not just from the title, but from the purpose of the song as well. He’d been speaking with Emma on and off all week about the orchestrations she needed to work on, and one of them was the theme for one of the show’s heroines and her love interest. According to Emma the two characters (neither of which were played by Ruby) were ‘endgame,’ and he was now sworn to secrecy because no one knew of that except for Emma and Tiana. So to have Emma saying that it was their relationship that sparked this kind of music with this intended meaning… well it was just about the clearest way he could think for Emma to show him that she was in fact ready for the next step between them.

Understanding now what Emma’s intention must have been Killian moved swiftly, abandoning his original plans and throwing on his leather jacket once more. He grabbed his phone, debating as he walked to the doorway whether or not he should call Emma on the way. Such debate was not actually needed, however, because when he opened the door again he very nearly ran into the woman he was trying to get to in such a haste.

“Emma,” he declared, shocked that she would be here but so bloody grateful he couldn’t find the words.

“Hey. I was hoping you were back by now, and I got the delivery receipt for the package, but I didn’t think you would have plans already,” Emma said as she took in his appearance that was ready for departure. “I shouldn’t have assumed. I’ll just -,”

Not wanting Emma to doubt even for a moment that he was thrilled she had come, Killian pulled her to him and kissed her out there in the hallway. He felt her wariness slip away the instant their lips met and through some sort of coordination he couldn’t actively control he maneuvered them both inside of his apartment. Words weren’t needed as he got them inside and pushed Emma against the now closed door, his body fueled by the feel of hers beneath him and the way she held on to him like she loathed the very thought of being parted. There was no space between them, no end to the passion in sight, but Killian wanted one last affirmation before they took this final plunge.

“Stay with me tonight, love,” he whispered as his mouth remained just inches from hers. He watched her eyes open, the jade color now darkened from the exchange they’d just had but they lit with the smile she shared at his request.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

With her approval Killian locked the door and now the decision wasn’t one of how far to go but just exactly how to play it. He’d fantasized about this almost since their first meeting, concocted at least a hundred scenarios in his head and imagined each corner of this apartment as having some kind of potential, but the first time he was truly with Emma, Killian knew it had to be in bed. That wasn’t to say they were in any kind of rush though, and the build up, of which he was planning quite a lot, could happen anywhere she damn well pleased.

Emma, meanwhile, had no problem indicating what she wanted. She was unwilling to break away from him, kissing him surely as she had been, both of their hands roaming, leaving trails that inspired more hunger along the way. It was as if they were famished for the connection and too long denied the promise of this part of their chemistry. In no time at all Emma had managed to rid Killian of his jacket and most of the buttons on his shirt while also leading them to the living room. She was making good time, trying to tear away the layers that separated them until they were all gone, but it seemed it wasn’t fast enough, as Emma looked at him and let out a frustrated sigh of air.

“Something wrong, Swan?” Killian asked with a grin, knowing full well there was nothing the world over that could possibly be calculated as amiss when he and Emma were like this. No, her frustration was all of a sexual nature, and he watched as his words, rough from the need he had for her, washed over her skin and sent a shiver through her.

“This is taking too long,” she said with what might have been considered a pout and Killian chuckled as they moved in through the kitchen and come up against the counter. Then he surprised her by spinning her in his embrace and coming right up behind her, his hands clasped on her waist to pull her back.

Killian pushed her blonde hair over her shoulder, his lips trailing down from her ear lobe and lower, finding a spot at her neck he’d noticed that she was sensitive at before. He took slow, torturous care of riling her up in a way that had her wanting all the more, his hands moving across the delicate dress that clung to her figure. He knew in his heart she’d worn this for him, in the hopes of pushing things further tonight, and he had no more ability to resist. This scrap of red silk was beautiful, but it couldn’t compare to the woman underneath and Killian was ready to reveal his prize. He unzipped it with just enough patience to tease them both and then he let the garment fall as he pushed the straps off her bared shoulders.

“We have all night, Emma,” he assured her as his fingertips traced her now mostly naked flesh. “And far longer too, as you well know.”

Killian watched the harsh swallow that came at his words, but Emma wasn’t running from his actions or his words. Instead she turned back around in his arms and took control back once more, pulling him in for another needy kiss that he caved into immediately. So much for slowing this down, Killian thought to himself. Now Emma was even more set on finding release, and he was right there with her.

“I know we have time,” Emma said when they came up for air again and her eyes locked on his, her hand trailing down to the button of his slacks, grazing down his bare chest and abs in the process and making his already undeniable ache to have her grow. “And trust me, I’m happy for it. But we’ve already waited so long… I don’t think I can stand to wait anymore. I need you, Killian. I need you now.”

What more was there to say? When the woman he loved made her wants and wishes known it was Killian’s job to see to it that he did everything he could to procure them for her. It was in no way a hardship given how much he wanted her as well, and besides, they could have the slow and steady seduction he’d anticipated later. Far, far later after he’d wrung out every last drop of passion from her tonight.

They hurried back to his room, both of them of the same mind this time and now words weren’t needed any more. Their remaining clothes were stripped away, and by the time they’d hit the bed they were both beyond rational planning or design. This was pure instinct, and all Killian could think was that he had to make her come, had to satisfy every last desire his Swan could have. He knew he was on his way to accomplishing that as he moved above her, his lips tracing down her body past the tender peaks of her breasts, over the gentle swell of her stomach, and down to the space between her thighs that had been driving him mad for weeks.

“Killian.”

Emma said his name not in warning or in censure but as a sigh of need. His eyes flicked back up to hers and he saw the nearly wild appearance that had settled in them. Lust had consumed her, and Killian had known as much without even looking. Every sound, every movement that came from Emma told him exactly what she wanted, and he was nothing if not persistent when it came to reading the signs. Because of this he knew that even as she pleaded for him to sate her desire immediately, she actually wanted just a touch more anticipation. He bit lightly at her inner thigh, feeling her jump and then shake underneath the soothing of his tongue after. He did the same thing to the other side, moving closer to her sex, and only after a few more heartbeats did he give in, tasting her on his tongue as she let herself go to the sensations.

It was an out of body experience to know he was giving Emma so much all at once. Nothing could compare to it, and he didn’t even think to try and draw connections. This was already so much more than a simple shag; it was intimacy designed with meaning and with purpose. Every flick of his tongue, every suck, every kiss, was all done in the name of seeing Emma reach heaven itself, but when she finally fell into the ecstasy she was seeking it was Killian who was flush with fulfillment. It became clear that this was rapidly becoming an addiction, and as he kissed his way back up her body and came above her, looking at the pink that had crept into her cheeks and the satisfaction that swam about her gaze, Killian realized there would be no coming back from Emma Swan. This woman had run away with his heart completely and he was fundamentally changed from knowing and loving her.

Their tender moment was short lived however, for Emma had sacrificed none of her energy in finding her enjoyment. Indeed she surprised him, switching their positions and undertaking a perusal of her own that left him reeling. Damn she was a siren, a bloody minx who was hell bent on riling him to a state that would be unforgiveable, but how could he blamed when she had her mouth on him? It was sublime and indescribable, but when he was just at the edge of falling apart himself he stopped her and took back the reins once more. The time for waiting was over. All he could think about was filling her, sheathing himself inside her and never turning back.

“Fuck,” he grunted to himself as he paused just before taking what they both wanted.

“That’s kind of the idea,” Emma said with a laugh that turned into a slight moan from her still lingering desire. “What’s the hold up here, Jones?”

“I left the condoms on the counter. Just a minute, love.” He moved to get them but Emma held tighter and shook her head.

“You don’t have to. I’m on the pill.”

Holy shit, he didn’t know what to say to that and his hard length jerked at the words. The thought of being with Emma without a barrier was enough to drive him mad. If things were already blindingly glorious between them, what indescribable ecstasy would be procured from taking her bare?

“Are you sure, Emma? I’m clean of course. Just had my physicals with the new team doctors, and I’ve never actually gone without…”

“Me either,” Emma replied softly as her hand came to brush some of his hair from his forehead. “But I want to. With you.”

Since that want was of a fully mutual variety Killian offered no rebuttal, only giving in and taking what they both were craving so desperately. The moment he filled her was too fantastic to put to words, and he could have stayed there forever if Emma hadn’t begged him to move. The rhythm they set was perfection itself, crafted from a bond needed between two people that couldn’t ever be contrived. It made the claims of stories and fairytales, the ones about soul mates and perfect matches seem a little more realistic, for surely this could never be this way with another. This love he felt for Emma was cosmic, causing a shift Killian swore he could feel down to his bones, but when it came to an end and they both cried out in relief, it was the aftermath that truly took his breath away.

Holding onto Emma and having her in his arms cuddled beside him was a luxury he knew she rarely bestowed on others. Emma was guarded, cautious, and careful with her heart. She had been wary at the start, and with good reason, but as weeks went on Emma admitted that getting close to people always scared her. Truth be told Killian had often felt the same way. Love was a means of getting hurt, a fanciful notion that distracted from the game and never worked out in the end, but his old cynical notions of love no longer held water. For in this moment there was no way to deny what was between them. Tonight both Emma and Killian had shed the last pieces of doubt and of caution, and now they were truly in this together.

“So that was…” Emma paused as her fingers traced over his chest and a smile bloomed upon her lips. “Definitely worth waiting for.”

“On that we most certainly agree, love,” Killian said happily, seeing the call of sleep washing over Emma and feeling a similar tug into slumber himself.

“And I’m waking you up in a few hours for more,” she joked with a yawn. “You promised, no more waiting.”

“Aye, Swan. No more waiting. Not any more.”

He pressed a final kiss to the crown of her head, and a few moments later, as sleep finally claimed them both, Killian fell asleep smiling, knowing that life held so much promise now that he had Emma. And no matter what came next, and no matter where their paths might lead, Killian would do whatever it took to keep them like this – happy, connected, and together – for now and for always.

Post-Note: So there we have it. Another chapter come and gone and we find our couple just about in the happiest spot they can be. Rest assured this story, like all my stories so far, intends to give CS truly happy situations, and while there will be some bumps in the road ahead, it’s smooth sailing for the time being. Anyway I thank you all so much for reading, commenting, and messaging me! Your enthusiasm has been wonderful and I love hearing your thoughts. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend and thanks for being fabulous!

#captain swan #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #cs fic #cs ff #cs fluff #cs au #cs mc #emma swan #killian jones #the whole storybrooke gang #liam jones #scoring your love au #Scoring Your Love #scoring 10 #ouat soccer fic #cs soccer fic #soccer star killian #musician!Emma

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xmentigerlily · 7 years ago

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America’s Royal Wedding

Summary: You and Steve are finally tying the knot and the big day quickly turns into a national phenomenon.

Notes: Just a super fluffy piece about your big day. Just got very inspired by the Royal Wedding this weekend.

Words: 1,559

“Today is finally the big day for Captain Steve Rogers and Agent (Y/N) (L/N). A modern day fairy tale that has been a decade in the making. Known both on and off the battlefield as the one couple that can save this world from destruction. Their own wedding quickly being summed up to America’s very own Royal Wedding.”

Natasha sat quietly in the dressing room as she humorously watched the live news feed of the big day. She knew this was a big day for the team and the young couple, but she never knew the public took so much interest in their private lives. She turned the volume down as the bride to be walked into the room ready to finally put her dress on. The huge splitting grin was noticeable on the bride’s face as it could be seen from space. Natasha could help the sense of pride that filled her as she watched the young bride waltz around the room getting ready.

“Nat, do you think you could help me get this damn thing on?” Natasha was quickly pulled out of her daze as she looked upon her friend struggling to pull the dress up by herself. Natasha smiled softly before nodding her head and walking over to the young woman. As soon as the final clip was in place Natasha stepped back to get a full view of the elegant gown. She looked at the reflection in the mirror to see an astonished bride looking at herself. But the more Natasha studied her features she realized it was fear and not astonishment that creased the bride’s face.

“What’s wrong (Y/n)?” You took a few more moments to stare at yourself before daring to meet Natasha’s eye contact. Tears started welling up in your eyes as you smiled brightly at your friend through the mirror.

“I’m getting married today Nat.” A small laugh fell from your lips as your hand flew to your mouth trying to suppress the sobs of happiness that threatened to leave your mouth. The red haired woman matched your smile as her face filled with pride once again as she nodded her head.

“Yes you are Принцесса.” She came besides you as she gave you a reassuring hug and laid her head against your shoulder. Both of you marveled at the reflection in the mirror before you finally took a deep breath and held a long gaze with yourself.

“Can you get Sam for me?” Natasha raised her head and gave you an inquisitive look.

“What do you need Sam for?” You turned towards her finally meeting her eyes.

“Just tell him…tell him to meet me in the garden please.” You picked up the ends of your dress before rushing out of the room as Natasha stood there confused. Were you having second thoughts?

She shook the absurd thought out of her mind before rushing to the boy’s room to get Sam. She stood outside of the door for a few seconds still trying to figure out the sudden need for this meeting before she brought her knuckles to the door and knocked. She heard a bunch of laughter and loud talking (undoubtedly Thor as she heard his hearty laugh the most) When the door opened she was met with the shit eating grin of Tony Stark.

“What you need Romanoff?” The usual playful smirk that seemed to always be on Nat’s face when she was around Tony once again came into fruition.

“Future Miss Rogers requests a talk with a Mr. Sam Wilson.”

“What for?” Natasha looked behind Tony to see a smiling Steve Rogers.

“No idea, she just told me to tell him to meet her in the garden.” Steve’s smile quickly melted into one of a worried face.

“Is she okay?” Natasha gave the best reassuring smile and nodded her head.

“Probably just wants to tell him to keep some Pre-nups on him.” Steve rolled his eyes before turning around to get his groomsmen. Sam and Natasha walked down the long hallways as they hurried down to the gardens.

“Did she say anything about why she wanted to talk to me?” Natasha shook her head as she kept her gaze ahead of her.

“She just told me to get you and then rushed out of the room like a damn hurricane.” The two friends finally found themselves outside in the rose garden as they quickly spotted the bride-to-be pacing next to the fountain that lay in the middle. Sam called out to you quickly catching your attention.

“Good, both of you are here. I need you to sit and listen.” You placed the both of them on the edge of the fountain as you stood in front of them.

“I need you two to promise me something.” The both of them quickly nodded at you mumbling quick ‘I promise’ before quieting to listen to you once again.

“I know I shouldn’t even be thinking of this on my wedding day, but I need to say this now before it’s too late. If at any point in the future I die on a mission or anything of the sort you have to promise that you will help Steve get back out there. He already waited so long for Peggy and I don’t want him doing that with me. I want him to go be happy again. Do you promise?” The two of them looked at you as if you had grown a second head.

“Where the hell is this coming from (Y/n)?”

“While this is both the happiest day of my life it’s also the scariest Sam. I mean this is the beginning of the rest of our life together. And in our line of work I don’t even know if I’ll get an entire lifetime with him. So I just need to know that if something does happen that he’ll be okay.”

“You are the most morbid couple ever. You know he had this same conversation with me and Bucky a few days ago?” You silently chuckled as Natasha glared up at you.

“Where the hell was I for this?” Natasha shrugged her shoulders at Sam as her playfully pouted with his eyebrows scrunched together.

“Do you two promise?” They turned their attention back to you before they each took a hold of one of your hands and nodded their heads.

“Thank you.” You pulled them to their feet for a group hug before pulling back again. Quickly dabbing under your eyes to stop any stray tears that may have fallen. You clasped your hands together before smiling brightly at them.

“I do believe there’s a wedding I need to go.” The three of you smiled as you all ran to the front of the church. Sam quickly fixed himself before squeezing through the door so he wouldn’t give away you presence. You felt as someone pinned your veil onto your head. You turned your head just enough to see Wanda as she smiled at you graciously returning the gesture.

“You ready for this?” You met Natasha’s eyes and quickly nodded as the first of your bridesmaids started in front of you. The beating of your heartbeat was all you could hear over the music. You felt Natasha loop her arm through yours as she gave it a reassuring squeeze. You felt your stomach flipping as you got ready to walk down the aisle with your friend not wishing for anyone else to be giving you away.

The walk to the altar felt long and tortuous but the tears that freely fell down Steve’s face as he watched you walk down the aisle seemed to make just as bittersweet as you hoped. You lightly chuckled to yourself as you watched Bucky nudge Steve and hand him a handkerchief to clean himself up.

As soon as you made it to the altar you gave Natasha a kiss on the cheek before turning around to hand Pepper your bouquet before finally meeting the endless oceans of your future husband’s eyes. They seemed to be even brighter as he had tears still in them as he looked down at you with all the love and adoration he had gained for you all these years.

“You’re so fucking beautiful right now.” You heard Tony cough from behind him as he mumbled a ‘language’ before returning to his original stance. Steve rolled his eyes and returned his loving gaze onto you.

“I’m so lucky.” He gave you one of his signature dazzling smiles before the both of you turned to the preacher. The ceremony was long and all you wanted was the vows already. By the time they came around it was a total blur to you as suddenly Steve caught your lips into a slow and passionate kiss. The two of you smiling brightly at each other as you pulled away.

“You ready for this?”

“Hell yeah.” He took your hand into his own as you both ran back down the aisle, all of your family and friends following behind you to see you off. The news cameras and photographers tracking your every motion not wanting to miss a thing as you two kissed once again before entering the carriage. You couldn’t help but whoop in contentment as you through your hands into the air. Ready for the rest of the exciting journey.

#steve rogers #captain america #Black Widow #natasha romanoff #royal wedding #falcon #sam wilson #fluffy #wedding

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drpaulmacdonaldrnma · 4 years ago

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Out of it [the Coming 4th and Final World Empire] Will Come the Assyrian and the 10 Middle Eastern Horns [Kings]

by Paul MacDonald RN MA (Hons) Dipl

Updated on December 14, 2013

Introduction

As we have said before, we are not living during the Time of the End, and nor are we likely to enter it anytime soon either. We are not the Generation prophesied by Christ that will see all the things he spoke of concerning the Time of the End.

Tribulation Still Future

While the Great Tribulation is something that is purposed for the whole Earth, it is also a Middle Eastern scenario, and one whereby it will be the Time of Jacobs (Israel’s) trouble.

We are merely going through a change in the way in which the World is being governed.

The Iron Legs Not Rome

The Legs of Iron in Daniels Dream are not representative of Rome. Rome has come and gone. Rome will never be revived, and if anything, the European Union is breaking apart. Rome, just like the Anglo/American Power of today, it was just another fragment of Greece.

Alexander's Kingdom Continues (For Now)

When Alexander died, this was not the end of Greece, for four of his Generals took over the reins of control and continued onward. His Kingdom wasn’t parceled out, broken up into four and then succeeded by one of the four as prophesied.

The 4th Kingdom the Last Kingdom of Man

This 4th Kingdom/Empire that will come will be the last one just prior to that of the arrival of God’s (Yahweh’s) Kingdom.

We Are Still Under Grecian Rule

We are still under the Rule of Greece, and before Greece collapses, Greece (the West) must go to war with the Ram (of the East) that stands before the River Ulai (Modern Day Iran).

When we speak of Greece, Daniel says that Greece rises up from "the Whole Earth" to come against the Ram.

The West Will Break Up

While the King of the West (Greece) will be successful for a while, his Kingdom will be broken up into four, and one of the four will rise to crush that of the other three, thus leaving it the sole Power in the Earth.

The Coming Rise of the. 4th and Final Kingdom

This will be the rise of the 4th and Final World Empire that is not only going to be hard like Iron, but one that will be Middle Eastern Based.

The Coming World Rule of Assyria and Egypt

This Empire will be made up of the Kings of the North (Assyria) and the South (Egypt) and they will wage war until the King of the North (Assyria) destroys the King of the South (Egypt).

New System of Commerce Coming

This Empire will not only be one that is based on commerce, but religious also. On this Empires rise to power is when the Woman (wickedness) of Zechariah 5 will be released, but it must be when a Temple (Place of Worship) has been built for her. This woman will not only be drunk with the blood of the Holy and chosen ones of God (Yahweh), but will eventually come to her end at the hands of the 10 Middle Eastern Kings that she controls and influences.

The 10 Middle Eastern Kings

These 10 Kings (as represented by the 10 toes in the picture above) have but one idea in mind, and that is to give power to the 3rd and Final King of the North (Assyria/Babylon).

Progression:

1) Ram (from the East) on front of the River Ulai ((Modern Day Iran) thrusts towards North, South and West

2) Greece (King from the West) Meets the Ram head on, and Rises up from the Whole Earth to do so.

3) Greece remains victor (for a while) before collapsing and being divided into four

4) One of the four (the most fearsome of the four) rises to “crush” and “trample down” that of the other three

The 4th and Final Middle Eastern Based Empire Rises

1) Rule of First King of the North: unknown (Daniel 11:5-19)

2) Rule of the Second King of the North: a few days (Daniel 11:20)

3) And the Third King of the North (Daniel 11:21-45)

Out of the 4th and Final [Middle Eastern Based] Empire will come the 10 Kings of (Psalms 83:6-8, Daniel 7:25)

The Assyrian and 10 Middle Eastern Kings Rule for One Hour Only

These 10 (Middle Eastern) Kings (who have no power as such yet) have got only one idea in mind and that is to give the 11th of them who is the Third King of the North (Assyria/Babylon) the Power to reign supremely. They do this after they destroy the Woman (Wickedness) of Zechariah 5.

They will then Rule alongside the Beast (the 3rd and Final King of Babylon) for one hour (the Last Hour, or Few moments of Mankind’s History). This will be at the very end, but their efforts and plans will be very short lived.

The Set Up of the Abomination

While Assyrian enters the Temple and sets up the Abomination, this is not his Coronation; this is only his beginning, the beginning of the Persecution of the Jews and Israel.

The Assyrian Will Declare He is God

His End comes when he enters the Temple and declares himself God and the Call of Peace and Security goes forward, right at the very end of all things. This is when his End comes, on Christs 2nd and Final Advent.

Yahweh Will Save Israel

The Bible says that God (Yahweh) will only turn his attention to his people Israel after a period of 70 years, and when he does, that it will be for their eternal good/benefit.

The Destruction of the Assyrian

This will be after both the King of the North (Assyria/Babylon) and his Land (Chaldea) have been completely and utterly destroyed (after the Fashion of Sodom and Gomorrah). After this, Israel will then return to the land (Jeremiah 25:12-13, 29:10-14).

Nations of the Earth Become Yahweh's and His Messiahs

While the 4th and Final Empire will be destroyed, life is going to be extended to that of the other three that it had “crushed” and “trampled down”, as they are assimilated into that of God’s (Yahweh’s) Kingdom.

America, Britain, Europe, Russia and China do not figure in Bible Prophecy, and they may not even exist as they are now in the coming future? They are not mentioned.

The Future Middle Eastern Wars

The Wars that Christ spoke of that would be occurring between Kingdoms and Nations might be those that will be fought by the Kings of the North (Assyria) and the South (Egypt). There will be 8 of these conflicts in total.

Paul MacDonald RN MA Dipl ©

Israel Institute of Biblical Studies

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askwwwwd · 6 years ago

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WHAT WOULD WONDER WOMAN DO? - Gun Control In America Pt. 2 (Originally posted January 24, 2018)

[Editor’s Note: This article was originally planned for a different time, but after the tragic shooting in a Kentucky school yesterday, we agreed that this article is, sadly, always poignant in America. It is published here unaltered with respect to recent events.]

Just over two years ago on December 9, 2015, I wrote the inaugural “What Would Wonder Woman Do?” article, and it’s topic was Gun Control in America. In the opening of the article I explained just how delicate a topic it is, yet how nonchalant I seem to be about the issue, due to my upbringing; Being raised by two father figures which consisted of a life long police officer and a hunter, guns were merely an every day occurrence to me. I realize that I was and still am more than comfortable with them than most. I believe that to be due in much part to my understanding of them. Both my father & stepfather instilled the responsibility of gun handling at a young age, but it wasn’t until the day I fired a gun for the first time that I truly understood it’s power. Much like George Perez’s Diana of the early 80’s, after firing it I could feel alertness in every cell in my being. With wide eyes similar to those in Perez’s panels, I delicately put the gun down and said, “No one should have that much power.”

Photo excerpt from Wonder Woman #1 by George Perez, Courtesy DC Comics.

NO ONE SHOULD HAVE THAT MUCH POWER

That statement has stayed with me throughout my life. What I observed as a boy, is that essentially any random person was able to harness this extreme power over people; Boiled down to it’s core, it’s the power of life and death. As I dove into Diana’s mythology for the first WWWD about Gun Control, similar sentiments seemed to echo through the decades. Marston’s original Wonder Woman was a remedy to what was essentially an abuse of power happening in the 40’s. Hate, anger, and oppression of patriarchal society had truly reared it’s ugly head in less than admirable ways during WWII. What Dr. Marston observed was that the qualities needed to combat such hate and oppression, were those viewed to be ‘feminine’ and had become despised. It was there his solution was found. “Women’s strong qualities have been despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of superman plus all of the allure of a good and beautiful woman.” And with that, Wonder Woman was born. We learned that her agendas of love and fair play, were probably her most powerful weapons.

1942 Wonder Woman excerpt courtesy DC Comics.

Throughout Dr. Marston’s adventures she constantly ministered messages of love and equality, and used her fabulous abilities as the defender of those who couldn’t defend themselves. One of her most memorable and popular abilities was deflecting bullets with her bracelets. In Marston’s comic it was her last and greatest test of readiness for her journey into Patriarchal society. Translation to me? The sheer power of masculine aggression and ego was represented by the most obvious representation of destructive power…a gun. I don’t believe this to be a mistake, and her ability to deflect that masculine energy with ‘feminine’ jewelry, in my opinion, wasn’t a mistake either. Therefore, I don’t think it’s difficult to surmise how Wonder Woman feels about guns, and even with the release of the 2017 Gal Gadot movie, it doesn’t seem that much has changed. But just in case you weren’t clear on that, I put together seven picture/video examples of Wonder Woman handling guns alongside some gun statistics from 2015 (when I wrote the first article) through 2017. Enjoy!

Dr. William Moulton Marston’s ‘Bullets and Bracelets’ test for Wonder Woman’s entry to patriarchal society.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Season 3, episode 12 – “Gault’s Brain” (1978) we see Lynda Carter’s Amazing Amazon asking to join a sporting round of shooting clay pigeons. After picking up the gun, she takes a beat and hands it back. Then proceeds to throw her ammo instead of shooting it from a gun. After hitting each of her targets she says, “It’s much more sporting that way!” There is a message in this scene…there is ALWAYS an alternative. With the Gun Violence Archive showing a steady rise in incidents each year, we would do good to follow her example for finding alternatives.

Wonder Woman screen shot courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Season 3, episode 9 – “The Deadly Dolphin” (1978), Wonder Woman stops a man who is impersonating a police officer. When he pulls a rifle on her, Diana exasperatedly bends the long barrel until it is actually pointing back at him; Almost pointing towards his feet. This imagery reminded me of the old adage, “shooting yourself in the foot”. I can only imagine that her message to him (and us) is that resorting to gun usage to settle issues, injures no one but ourselves. Seeing the Gun Violence Archive total number of injuries continue to increase since 2015, reminds me that we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Wonder Woman screenshot courtesy Warner Bros Entertainment.

Season 2, episode 13 – “Death In Disguise” (1978), Wonder Woman bends an assailant’s gun and utilizes it to shackle the man who just shot at her. The symbolism here for me, was profound. As we continue to utilize this weapon with such ferocity, it enslaves us to our own aggression. Upon noticing the Gun Violence Archive statistics for defensive use continue to increase since 2015, I can’t help but think that even when attempting defense, we are enslaving ourselves to the Marstonian destructive power of guns.

Wonder Woman screen shot courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Wonder Woman (2017) – In the feature film’s No Man’s Land scene, we see Gal Gadot’s Diana taking on the full impact of gunfire from the opposing side. Patty Jenkins’ vision delivered to us a visual depiction of Marston’s original intention, which is that our beloved Diana fights on all of our behalves. As our champion, she shields us from the aggression, anger, and hate Marston seemed to associate with guns. Like a modern day centurion, she is our protector in almost the same way a police officer would be today; Only without guns. After seeing the Gun Violence Archive’s statistics on officer involved incidents where the subject was shot or killed, we would all be so glad to have a non-gun wielding advocate as she, on our side.

Wonder Woman film screenshot courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Wonder Woman has been known to show a little bit of frustration with guns now and then. Two specific modern day examples by Gal Gadot come to mind. In the movie, after enduring the onslaught of gunfire, she takes her shield and literally breaks the machine gun that had opened fire on her earlier, in half. Then, moments later, in hand to hand combat, Diana took the gun of someone who had attempted to shoot her, and broke it across her back. After being shot at so much, one could imagine how annoyed she might begin to feel with a continual onslaught of bullets. With the Gun Violence Archive showing that the number of deaths from guns are increasing annually, frustration is a feeling to which anyone can relate.

Wonder Woman film screen capture courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment.

The cartoon versions of Wonder Woman don’t seem to let up on these ideas, either. Shannon Farnon, Susan Eisenberg, Rachel Kimsey, and Keri Russel have all given voice to the Amazing Amazon, and have all played their virtual share of bullets and bracelets. Part of why so many women have had a chance to play her in cartoon, is because Wonder Woman is essential to young viewers. Not just because of her message of love and self-empowerment, but also her consistent visual critique of gun usage. Like both Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot’s live action examples, each Wonder Woman cartoon version produced has displayed a distaste for, alternatives to, and consequences of gun use. In the consequences department, one example always seems to catch my eye, and that’s when Keri Russel’s self titled 2009 film’s Wonder Woman deflects a bullet so that it injures one of her assailants. With Wonder Woman’s gun critique message so important to children of all ages, it was especially disheartening to see the Gun Violence Archive statistics slowly increase in the area of teens killed or injured by guns.

Wonder Woman (2009) screen capture courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment.

WHAT WONDER WOMAN WOULD DO

Like Dr. William Moulton Marston’s original Wonder Woman adventures depict, guns can be great at sport and preparing us for the challenges ahead. However, as the George Perez WW highlighted, that kind of power should only be wielded by those who truly understand the responsibility it carries. I was happy to see our most iconic Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot exemplify the importance of that idea. After writing many of these articles, I’ve come to view Marston’s psychological calling in society to be a healer. One which understood the incredible power of the mind. When we change our minds we can truly change the world. Anything is possible. And he gave us a phenomenal example and template for us to utilize: The example of Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter, Gal Gadot, Shannon Farnon, Susan Eisenberg, Rachel Kimsey, and Keri Russel have all contributed to Wonder Woman’s example. Through it, we are shown that we don’t need a gun to resolve issues or even defend ourselves. The true power is our ability to love. The hate, oppression, and masculine aggression and ego can be deflected with love. We can utilize our powers within to love each other and ourselves to ensure safety for all. So while she may not demand that we change our constitution, I believe What Wonder Woman Would Do is encourage us to live more responsibly for our fellow man and for ourselves. Taking away rights is never the Amazonian way. But coming together in a sense of community and deciding on ways we can legislate to ensure others behave responsibly is exactly what Wonder Woman would do about gun control in America. It’s Love and Fair Play all the way!

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bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

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The Extraordinary Decisions Facing Italian Doctors

There are now simply too many patients for each one of them to receive adequate care.

By Yascha Mounk | Published March 13, 2020 | The Atlantic | Posted March 13, 2020 |

Two weeks ago, Italy had 322 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. At that point, doctors in the country’s hospitals could lavish significant attention on each stricken patient.

One week ago, Italy had 2,502 cases of the virus, which causes the disease known as COVID-19. At that point, doctors in the country’s hospitals could still perform the most lifesaving functions by artificially ventilating patients who experienced acute breathing difficulties.

[ Elise A. Mitchell: The shortages may be worse than the Disease READ BELOW]

Today, Italy has 10,149 cases of the coronavirus. There are now simply too many patients for each one of them to receive adequate care. Doctors and nurses are unable to tend to everybody. They lack machines to ventilate all those gasping for air.

Now the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) has published guidelines for the criteria that doctors and nurses should follow as these already extraordinary circumstances worsen. The document begins by likening the moral choices Italian doctors may face to the forms of wartime triage that are required in the field of “catastrophe medicine.” Instead of providing intensive care to all patients who need it, the authors suggest, it may become necessary to follow “the most widely shared criteria regarding distributive justice and the appropriate allocation of limited health resources.”

The principle they settle upon is utilitarian. “Informed by the principle of maximizing benefits for the largest number,” they suggest that “the allocation criteria need to guarantee that those patients with the highest chance of therapeutic success will retain access to intensive care.”

The authors, who are medical doctors, then deduce a set of concrete recommendations for how to manage these impossible choices, including this: “It may become necessary to establish an age limit for access to intensive care.”

Those who are too old to have a high likelihood of recovery, or who have too low a number of “life-years” left even if they should survive, would be left to die. This sounds cruel, but the alternative, the document argues, is no better. “In case of a total saturation of resources, maintaining the criterion of ‘first come, first served’ would amount to a decision to exclude late-arriving patients from access to intensive care.”

In addition to age, doctors and nurses are also advised to take a patient’s overall state of health into account: “The presence of comorbidities needs to be carefully evaluated.” This is in part because early studies of the virus seem to suggest that patients with serious preexisting health conditions are significantly more likely to die. But it is also because patients in a worse state of overall health could require a greater share of scarce resources to survive: “What might be a relatively short treatment course in healthier people could be longer and more resource-consuming in the case of older or more fragile patients.”

[ Read: America’s nursing homes are bracing for an Outbreak ]

These guidelines apply even to patients who require intensive care for reasons other than the coronavirus, because they too make demands on the same scarce medical resources. As the document clarifies, “These criteria apply to all patients in intensive care, not just those infected with CoVid-19.”

My academic training is in political and moral philosophy. I have spent countless hours in fancy seminar rooms discussing abstract moral dilemmas like the so-called trolley problem. If a train is barreling toward five innocent people who are tied to the tracks, and I could divert it by pulling the lever, but at the cost of killing an innocent bystander, should I do it?

Part of the point of all those discussions was, supposedly, to help professionals make difficult moral choices in real-world circumstances. If you are an overworked nurse battling a novel disease under the most desperate circumstances, and you simply cannot treat everyone, however hard you try, whose life should you save?

Despite those years of theory, I must admit that I have no moral judgment to make about the extraordinary document published by those brave Italian doctors. I have not the first clue whether they are recommending the right or the wrong thing.

But if Italy is in an impossible position, the obligation facing the United States is very clear: To arrest the crisis before the impossible becomes necessary.

This means that our political leaders, the heads of business and private associations, and every one of us need to work together to accomplish two things: Radically expand the capacity of the country’s intensive-care units. And start engaging in extreme forms of social distancing.

Cancel everything. Now. (SEE TIMELINE)

_____

YASCHA MOUNK is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and a senior adviser at Protect Democracy. He is the author of The People vs. Democracy.

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The Shortages May Be Worse Than the Disease

Over the centuries, societies have shown a long history of making the effects of epidemics worse and furthering their own destruction.

By Elise A. Mitchell, Doctoral candidate at New York University | Published March 11, 2020 | The Atlantic | Posted March 13, 2020 |

Every day, new evidence emerges of the havoc that COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is wreaking all around a thoroughly globalized world. As a new pathogen sweeps nations and continents, people are being quarantined in hospitals and aboard ships in distant ports, and the movement of labor and vital supplies has been profoundly disrupted. What’s becoming clear—from China to Iran to Italy to the United States—is that the new pathogen isn’t the only thing putting human life at risk. The shortages and other disruptions that an epidemic causes, not to mention the social inequities that it aggravates, massively amplify the consequences caused by the disease itself.

And yet these dynamics—far from being unique to the current epidemic—have recurred time and again for at least half a millennium. As a historian of slavery and medicine, I often come across bleak accounts of smallpox outbreaks that happened 200 to 500 years ago. Then as now, the poorest and least powerful people were usually at the greatest risk of infection—and the public-health measures of the time either neglected these people or actively harmed them. This treatment frequently enabled otherwise containable disease outbreaks to spread.

[ Read: What you can do right now about the coronavirus]

In my historical research, I study the period from 1500 to 1800, a three-century span during which millions of people endured warfare, displacement, confinement, labor exploitation, insufficient access to medical treatment, and unsanitary living conditions. This period was also defined by then-unprecedented levels of regional and global travel, trade, conflict, and forced and voluntary migrations.

During the period I study, everyone’s well-being was at some risk in some way during a smallpox epidemic, regardless of whether a person was the colonist or the colonized, the enslaver or the enslaved, rich or poor, or of African, Native American, or European descent. The first recorded smallpox outbreak in the Americas struck the Caribbean roughly 500 years ago; a European man arrived on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola carrying the disease in 1518. This outbreak ultimately killed thousands of free and bound Taíno people who performed agricultural and mining labor on the island. Many Native Americans were particularly vulnerable during smallpox outbreaks because they had not previously been exposed to the disease and were therefore not immune.

Only people who developed smallpox immunity after contracting the disease, naturally or by inoculation, were safe from Variola virus. But smallpox epidemics still imperiled those who survived and gained immunity. After epidemics passed, survivors grieved deserted towns whose inhabitants had either died or fled in panic. Descriptions of deceased and ailing enslaved or bound African, Native, and European laborers punctuate early modern correspondence about famines that ensued after agricultural labor became untenable. Goods weren’t the only thing in short supply. Clergymen, slaveholders, and colonial officials lamented the suspension of normal religious, social, and political gatherings.

Contagious diseases spread and kill when humans create the social and material conditions for them to do so, and they harm entire societies, often in unpredictable ways.

One might be tempted to believe that human conditions have radically improved since the early modern period, yet the new coronavirus is arriving in societies ripe for contagion. It is now spreading in states where tens of thousands of people are without permanent shelter or sanitary living conditions and rely on food banks for survival. COVID-19 is also spreading in states with large populations of incarcerated people, where inmates and detainees live in crowded conditions and lack adequate health care, food, and hygiene. Many of the states listed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest situation report have key international ports, transit hubs, and manufacturing and agricultural centers—locations whose importance to global trade and distribution networks frequently does not translate into adequate pay or health insurance for the people who work in them. Farm, factory, and transit workers in many states are notoriously underpaid and underinsured, if insured at all, and may have to perform “super” commutes on public transit daily. These conditions are perfect for novel viruses to spread and disrupt trade and distribution networks, supply chains, and daily life within and beyond the borders of any one country.

The historian paul kelton has documented how European colonists’ actions often abetted the spread of smallpox epidemics and impeded Native people’s access to food, shelter, and medicine. In a sobering account of the 1519 outbreak, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas explained that the lack of adequate food and shelter, taxing labor, and “little or no care for their health and conservation” on the part of the Spanish caused the Taíno to perish rapidly. Spanish and indigenous maritime networks spread the disease in the Caribbean and the North and South American mainland, where thousands more perished, and overwhelming indigenous healers in the region. When access to food, medicine, shelter, and treatment excluded any subset of the population, smallpox typically continued to spread and the comorbid consequences were catastrophic.

As the epidemic persisted, Roman Catholic friars in the Caribbean recorded that the decimated labor force could no longer support the brutal mining and burgeoning sugar industries. Injustice led to more injustice, as the friars requested recompense from the Spanish Crown in the form of enslaved Africans. The Crown obliged. In the decades that followed, Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans became acutely aware of the harrowing conditions aboard slave ships that enabled smallpox to spread among enslaved Africans and to those living in and around colonial settlements.

In the 1600s, European colonists began to enforce maritime quarantines for slave ships arriving from Africa. If enslaved Africans appeared to be ill with smallpox or other contagious diseases, colonial officials sent them to the Isla de Cabras in Puerto Rico, Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina, Tybee Creek in Georgia, the Goat Pens in Jamaica, the Îles du Salut in French Guiana, the Isla de Aves in Venezuela, and countless other islets, coves, estuaries, and coastal locations. Slave traders would either disembark the enslaved or keep them aboard the ship for anywhere from two weeks to a few months, until the contagious disease ran its course. While many enslaved Africans who were quarantined for smallpox survived that virus, their lengthy quarantines aboard ships and on remote islands enabled comorbid infections, parasites, and dysentery to spread. These consequences reveal just how exclusionary “public” health policies can be.

Because of European colonists’ public-health practices, smallpox became associated with the slave trade, and enslaved Africans were treated as the sole or primary source of all smallpox outbreaks. At times, the narrow focus on the slave trade blinded early Americans to other vectors. As the historian Peter McCandless has explained, the British were caught off guard when smallpox spread from the Catawba Nation, whose members lived inland in the Carolinas, to Charleston in 1759. British troops reputedly carried the disease from the interior to the port city after a campaign against the Cherokee. The outbreak severely disrupted the South Carolinian economy, as panic spread, businesses closed, and people fled. The public-health needs of the colony overwhelmed local physicians, who struggled to inoculate and treat the thousands of free and enslaved people who needed care. Though humanity’s medical and public-health practices have advanced significantly since the 1700s, our deeply imperfect sense of disease geographies continues to inform how and when we prepare for public-health threats.

Over the past two months, the public has been inundated with images that map the coronavirus onto geopolitical borders. These images simplify dense information in ways that create the illusion that contagious diseases are linked to particular peoples and places. These maps also reinforce the illusion that international and domestic borders are somehow impermeable, and deemphasize the travel, trade, conflict, and migration routes by which epidemics can spread or along which supply chains might be disrupted. In her book Pox Americana, an account of the smallpox epidemic that spread throughout North America during the Revolutionary War, the historian Elizabeth Fenn demonstrates just how far conflict, trade, and travel can spread a disease.

Today, people in the United States are seeing how quickly the coronavirus can spread and precipitate supply shortages. In the past week alone, Americans have seen hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, and surgical masks fly off the shelves at local drugstores. Pervasive anxieties about COVID-19 and necessary public-health precautions within and beyond our borders have already disrupted international and domestic trade and slowed or stopped the manufacture of certain pharmaceutical ingredients. Likewise, the demand for protective medical equipment and technologies has overwhelmed global markets, making it more difficult for medical providers to get the materials they need to do their lifesaving work.

Disruptions to distribution networks and labor forces can be just as hazardous as supply shortages. For example, in the 1680s, an epidemic variously described as smallpox, measles, chicken pox, or some combination of the three afflicted San Juan, Puerto Rico. Enslaved people faced the highest mortality rates, but clergy, free people of color, Spanish colonists, and troops perished in high numbers as well. One bishop collected medicines and formed an apothecary to distribute them to those in need. The bishop enjoyed some success. However, he later recounted the deaths of clergymen, who were unable to provide sacraments to the dead, and chastised secular authorities for failing to slaughter cattle and distribute supplies—a failure of planning that helped precipitate a famine. This story reminds us how crucial, careful coordination; inclusive public-health practices; and the preservation of the health of laborers can mitigate the consequences of epidemics.

Epidemics always test the limits of our societies and political imaginations, but history holds some unmistakable lessons: Societies further their own destruction whenever they fail to provide anyone health care, housing, or dispensation from work because of their employment, socioeconomic, or immigration status. The world we live in today is radically different from the early modern world that I study—but in some ways it’s very similar. Epidemics continue to remind us of our shared humanity because they show us how our individual survival is bound up in one another’s well-being.

_____

ELISE A. MITCHELL is a Ph.D candidate in Atlantic World History and Caribbean and Latin American History at New York University.

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The 4 Key Reasons the U.S. Is So Behind on Coronavirus Testing

Bureaucracy, equipment shortages, an unwillingness to share, and failed leadership doomed the American response to COVID-19.

By OLGA KHAZAN | Published March 13, 2020 10:47 AM ET | The Atlantic | Posted March 13, 2020 |

The COVID-19 outbreak has been a confusing time for Americans, but one thing has been glaringly clear: The U.S. is way behind when it comes to testing people for the coronavirus.

Despite the fact that last week, Vice President Mike Pence promised that “roughly 1.5 million tests” would soon be available, an ongoing Atlantic investigation can confirm only that 13,953 tests have been conducted nationally. New York, which has shut down Broadway and has at least 328 coronavirus cases, is still failing to test patients who have worrying symptoms. As late as March 6, a busy clinic in Brownsville, Texas, a border city of nearly 200,000 whose population crosses back and forth from Mexico frequently, told me they could only test three people. By comparison, South Korea, which has one of the largest outbreaks outside China, is testing nearly 20,000 people per day.

Testing is essential for identifying people who have been infected and for understanding the true scope of the outbreak. But when the initial test from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was rolled out to state public-health laboratories in early February, one of its components was discovered to be faulty. Since then, academic, clinical, and other laboratories have struggled to get or make new tests and diagnose patients.

[ Read: What you need to know about the coronavirus]

Though some elements of the breakdown are by now understood, the full extent of the difficulties laboratory directors have faced has remained largely opaque. Interviews with laboratory directors and public-health experts reveal a Fyre-Festival- like cascade of problems that have led to a dearth of tests at a time when America desperately needs them. The issues began with onerous requirements for the labs that make the tests, continued because of arcane hurdles that prevented researchers from getting the right supplies, and extended to a White House that seemed to lack cohesion in the pandemic’s early days. Getting out lots of tests for a new disease is a major logistical and scientific challenge, but it can be pulled off with the help of highly efficient, effective government leadership. In this case, such leadership didn’t appear to exist.

Here are the four main reasons why the testing issues have been so bad:

RED TAPE

The Food and Drug Administration has a protocol called emergency use authorization, or EUA, through which it clears tests from labs around the country for use in an outbreak. Getting more of these tests up and running would greatly increase the capacity of doctors and public-health officials to screen patients for the coronavirus.

Former FDA officials I spoke with said that during past outbreaks, EUAs could be granted in just a couple of days. But this time, the requirements for getting an EUA were so complicated that it would have taken weeks to receive one, says Alex Greninger, the assistant director of the virology division at the University of Washington Medical Center, which is located right near the heart of the American outbreak. Greninger told me clinical labs were not allowed to begin testing at all before they had received the EUA, even if they had already internally made sure their tests worked. Though these regulations are in place to ensure that faulty lab tests don’t get used on patients, several microbiologists told me they felt the precautions were excessive for a fast-moving outbreak of this scale. “The speed of this virus versus the speed of the FDA and the EUA process is mismatched,” he said.

On February 28, Greninger and dozens of other clinical microbiologists wrote a letter to Congress complaining that the EUA process was slowing down the ability of their labs to deploy coronavirus tests. “Many of our clinical laboratories have already validated [tests] that we could begin testing with tomorrow, but cannot due [to] the FDA EUA process,” they wrote. The following day, the FDA changed the EUA process so that labs like Greninger’s could begin testing—they would just have to submit data for the FDA’s authorization two weeks later. But weeks had already passed during which many labs and hospitals were unable to use their tests.

“The EUA pathway … has served for Ebola and Zika, etc.,” says Mark Miller, the chief medical officer at bioMérieux, an infectious-disease diagnostic company based in France. “And then you have a situation like now with coronavirus, which I don't think any of us have ever lived through.”

Margaret Hamburg, who served as the FDA commissioner from 2009 to 2015, told me that while she doesn’t have knowledge of what went on inside the FDA over the past few months, the agency could have proactively reached out to different national and international labs to see whether their tests could be approved for use in the U.S. For example, the FDA might ask a lab, “Would you be interested to try to redirect what you were doing for a MERS diagnostic to a novel-coronavirus diagnostic?” she says. Instead, as The New York Times reported, federal officials told one Seattle infectious-disease expert, Helen Chu, to stop testing for the coronavirus entirely. (In an email, an FDA spokesperson denied that the agency acted slowly. Ensuring the validity of tests is important, she noted, to prevent false results.)

It looks like Chu was not alone. Dozens of labs in the U.S. were eager to make tests and willing to test patients, but they were hamstrung by regulations for most of February, even as the virus crept silently across the nation.

HARD-TO-GET VIRUS SAMPLES

Labs and companies need samples of the virus itself in order to make their tests, but delays in getting access to samples further slowed down the test-development process. The coronavirus originated in China, and as several microbiologists told me, the Chinese government does not allow specimens to be shipped outside its borders.

Many researchers have had difficulty getting their hands on samples even as the virus has spread. “I was working the phones to try to get access to the virus,” Greninger said.

BioMérieux just released three versions of its coronavirus test this week, after beginning work on it on January 23. Miller says that with every viral outbreak, the company’s biggest problem by far is getting access to virus and patient specimens so that it can validate its tests. Even when working with nonauthoritarian countries, a combination of government processes, researcher reticence, complex shipping regulations, and patient-privacy concerns makes getting samples difficult for diagnostic companies like his.

[ Read: How to understand your state’s coronavirus numbers]

Miller said it would help if researchers, governments, and companies firmed up pathogen-sharing contracts in advance of an outbreak, but so far that hasn’t happened. “The problem is that in the past, industry has been viewed as this dirty participant in all of this, and we can't be trusted, and why would I have contracts with you?” Miller says. “But that’s ignoring the plain fact that we’re the ones that create the product in the end.”

LACKING EQUIPMENT

The type of test Greninger is making is called a lab-developed test. To be used in other labs, his test requires special instruments that extract and then amplify the RNA that makes up the virus. However, labs across the country—like those at many county hospitals—don’t have the tools to do this. They can only run a simple type of test called a sample-to-answer test. As late as this week, several lab directors told me that no sample-to-answer versions of the coronavirus test had been approved in the U.S. “That means that the vast majority of clinical labs in this country will not be able to do in-house testing at this time,” says Susan Butler Wu, an associate professor of clinical pathology at the University of Southern California.

The U.S. health-care system is broken up into state and county public-health laboratories, which have different equipment than academic research institutions, which have different equipment than hospitals that diagnose patients. So the same test won’t necessarily work in different places. “We don’t have a nationalized health-care system where you put the same equipment in all the hospitals,” Wu says. “We have all these independent hospital systems with their own equipment in their own labs.”

Even though some hospitals actually have the new, functional CDC tests, the extraction machines and reagents that are used to perform them are in short supply. “We’ve been pleading to the research laboratories to please, if they have RNA-extraction machines, to give them to the hospital,” says Michael Mina, an associate medical director in the department of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

LEADERSHIP AND COORDINATION PROBLEMS

For months, President Trump has made light of the coronavirus, telling attendees at a Black History Month reception, for instance, that perhaps the virus could miraculously disappear. He claimed on Twitter that the U.S. has done a “great job” handling the outbreak. Such a cavalier attitude seems unlikely to have motivated health officials to take things seriously. It also contradicted advice from most public-health experts. Even Scott Gottlieb, who recently resigned as Trump’s FDA commissioner, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on February 4 that “it’s time to start testing more people.”

Containing a new infectious disease requires a lot of close collaboration between the president, the CDC, the FDA, and other parts of the Department of Health and Human Services, several Obama-era health officials told me. “One reason we were able to move quickly [during the Ebola outbreak] was that there was a great deal of coordination and issue spotting and troubleshooting that went on,” Hamburg, the former FDA commissioner, told me.

The different arms of the sprawling health department have to feel like they’re all pulling toward the same goal. “I think you have fabulous people at CDC and FDA all doing the best they can, but we always found it was incredibly important to have all the agencies together in the same room,” says Jesse Goodman, a former FDA chief scientist who helped manage the country’s response to the 2009 H1N1 outbreak. When issues came up that merited the attention of the White House, he says, they got it.

Though Trump has proposed a payroll-tax break, as my colleague Peter Nicholas has pointed out, “Much of what he’s said publicly about the virus has been wrong, a consequence of downplaying any troubles on his watch.”

On top of that, there’s reportedly been tension and infighting between the president and his HHS secretary, Alex Azar, as well as between the FDA and the CDC. Politico reported that Vice President Mike Pence, who has no background in public health, repeatedly sidelined Azar from the coronavirus-response task force, and the White House appears to be blaming Azar for any failures in its coronavirus response. Politico also reported that an FDA scientist was “initially rebuffed”—made to wait overnight—when he attempted to visit the CDC in order to help coordinate testing. (In an email, a CDC spokesperson said this was “in full compliance with standard security processes required for all individuals whether they are federal employees or other visitors.”)

“I gather that there was a huge amount of infighting about who could or who should lead this, and there was a sense that a lot of people [inside HHS] weren’t considering it a major threat,” said a former Obama-administration official who has been in contact with current staffers and who related these private discussions under the condition of anonymity. “And why that was, I don’t know.”

It’s possible that all of these other hurdles could have been cleared if officials at the highest levels of government had been working together smoothly. Instead, we’ve seen confusion, doubt, and even more delays.

*********

The Dos and Don’ts of ‘Social Distancing’

Experts weigh in on whether you should cancel your dates, dinner parties, and gym sessions.

By KAITLYN Tiffany | Published March 12, 2020 | The Atlantic | Posted March 13, 2020 |

Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidelines for “community mitigation strategies” to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, which include recommendations for “social distancing”—a term that epidemiologists are using to refer to a conscious effort to reduce close contact between people and hopefully stymie community transmission of the virus.

But what exactly does “social distancing” look like for a woman trying to go about her life while staying healthy and helping keep the people around her healthy? Even detailed instructions are difficult to sift for actionable advice. If I have a fourth date tonight, do I go? If I’m invited to a wedding in two weeks in another state, is it too late to cancel? If we’re on lockdown, and I live alone, can I walk to my friend’s apartment when I feel sad? If I end up officially quarantined, can I walk around the park at night for some fresh air?

The CDC guidelines acknowledge factors like the size of a community, its population density, its access to health care, and caveats that social-distancing measures can “be scaled up or down depending on the evolving local situation.” There are conflicting messages coming from media and people’s peers: On Reddit, young people are signing a “self-quarantine manifesto” while, at a press conference, the mayor of New York City is telling people to continue visiting bars and restaurants as normal, to protect the local economy.

So I took my personal questions to a series of public-health experts. “I think it’s a hard time because many of the recommendations we’re making are about increasing the distance between people, but of course, being close to people is what makes life a pleasure,” Carolyn Cannuscio, the director of research at the Center for Public Health Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania said in a phone call. “So this is going to be a very difficult time. No question.”

If you’re confused about what to do right now, you’re not alone—even these experts occasionally disagreed on the answers to my questions. Where there were discrepancies, I’ve included all the different answers as fully as possible. This guide is aimed toward those who are symptom-free and not part of an at-risk group, with an addendum at the end for those in quarantine. If you are symptom-free but are over 60 years old; have asthma, heart disease, or diabetes; or are otherwise at risk, experts recommend defaulting to the most conservative response to each of these questions.

There is a general consensus that while young and healthy people who are at lower risk for personally suffering severe illness from the coronavirus don’t have to be locking themselves in their homes for the next month, they do need to dramatically alter their daily lives, starting now.

If I’m Symptom-Free:

SHOULD I BE AVOIDING BARS AND RESTAURANTS?

Cannuscio: People should avoid gathering in public places. People should be at home as much as possible. The measures that have worked to get transmission under control or at least to bend the curve, in China and South Korea, have been extreme measures to increase social distancing.

Crystal Watson, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security: It depends on local context. If we’re in a situation where the disease has been shown to be spreading widely, I think people will start to want to stay home and not go out into crowded settings.

Albert Ko, the chair of the epidemiology department at the Yale School of Public Health: If you go to a crowded bar where you’re up one against another, that’s a lot different from going to a bar where you’re spread out. The CDC recommendations are to keep six to 10 feet away from other people. Bottom line, there’s no absolute indication not to go to bars and restaurants, but in practicing good public health—which is kind of a responsibility for everybody in the country—really think about how we can decrease those close contacts.

CAN I HAVE A SMALL GROUP OF FRIENDS OVER TO MY HOUSE FOR A DINNER PARTY OR A BOARD-GAME NIGHT?

Watson: I think small gatherings are probably okay as long as nobody has symptoms, respiratory symptoms. As soon as someone seems sick, you should probably not get together.

Ko: We’re in a gray zone now. The public-health imperative is to create social distance; that’s the only way we’re going to stop this. Think about having those get-togethers but practicing good public health: not sitting very close, trying to keep distance. Wash your hands; avoid touching your face. There are places on the board game that people are constantly touching—routinely disinfect [those, as well as] doorknobs, the bathroom faucets, those types of things. There’s no absolute rule about what works, but what we do know is that decreasing the size of those gatherings, increasing the distance, practicing good hygiene will go a long way.

Cannuscio: I would recommend that people minimize social contact, and that means limiting all social engagements. That includes intimate gatherings among friends. I think the exception is if two households are in strict agreement that they are also going to reduce all outside contact and then those two households socialize together, to support one another. I can see social and mental-health advantages to that kind of approach.

SHOULD I STOP DATING?

Ko: Dating is usually one person and another person. What we’re really worried about in terms of public health are these large gatherings where you have people crowded together, and you can have what we call super-spreading events. The risk of those goes up exponentially the larger the size of the gathering. Dating is at the other end. I think you can still date.

Watson: I think dating is okay, if you believe with reasonable confidence that you’re both well. I think we’re humans and we need human interaction; I think that’s important for our sanity. It’s important to focus on [avoiding] large crowds and indoor activities where you have lots of people touching the same surfaces.

Cannuscio: It is a time to be very cautious about initiating contact with new people. This seems like a great time to get creative with your text messages. [Or] take it to FaceTime or a phone call.

CAN I GO TO THE GYM?

Ko: If you do go to the gym, again, maintain distances. Disinfect places in the gym people are always touching. Wash your hands regularly. Much of the transmission is person to person with people coughing, sneezing, or touching their nose and mouth and touching somebody else. You can get transmission on surfaces; that’s probably a little bit lower-risk, but we still should disinfect surfaces that we touch.

Cannuscio: If you’re going to go to the gym, try to go at a time when there are very few people there and definitely wipe down the equipment. However, as the weather warms in many parts of the United States, I would instead recommend that people go outside for walks or runs or bike rides in areas where there are not other people. This is really about depriving the virus the opportunity to move from one person to another.

[ Read: Here’s who should be avoiding crowds right now]

SHOULD I BE WORRIED ABOUT GOING TO THE GROCERY STORE?

Cannuscio: I would say try to shop at times when there are very few other shoppers there. That [could mean] going first thing in the morning when the store opens, or late at night. I think many people will rely on delivery, and that’s just the nature of our lives right now. For delivery workers, I would say, leave the food on the doorstep and ring the bell, rather than interacting face-to-face with the person who’s ordered the food.

SHOULD I TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION?

Cannuscio: First of all, people who have the opportunity or the option of working at home should absolutely use that option right now. For people who have essential functions and have to be at work, if they have any flexibility in their schedules they should try to ride at non-peak hours. On subways or buses, people should try to stand as far away from other people as possible. I think it’s important for planners to think about, for example, putting more buses on the most heavily traveled routes, to maybe thin out the crowds on those buses. In cities where it’s possible to walk, that would be a better option.

For people who can afford to use ride-sharing services, you’re limiting the number of people you’re in contact with as the rider, so to me that seems like a reasonable step to take. Of course, I worry about all those drivers who have people in and out of their cars all day long.

And of course, everyone should be using good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette. If you have to cough, cough into your elbow. And I can’t believe I have to say this, but I’ve been in public places where people have been spitting, in parks or on the sidewalk. I would ask people not to spit!

Watson: It’s hard to say “Don’t take public transit,” because a lot of people rely on it to get to work. If you don’t have to and you can drive, it’s probably a good idea. It will help other people who have to take public transit for their livelihoods to do so and do so more safely.

SHOULD MY FAMILY BE CANCELING EVENTS LIKE BIRTHDAY PARTIES AND WEDDINGS?

Watson: It’s hard to ask everyone if they’re feeling sick and harder to know what their exposures have been. I would take a look at who is invited to the party. Are there people who are very vulnerable? Older people, people who have underlying health conditions, pregnant women? If that’s the case, I would err on the side of caution. I don’t want to tell somebody to cancel their wedding. That would be terrible. But I think you have to look at the situation, maybe ask guests who are feeling ill not to come. If it’s being held in a community where there’s widespread disease, then it might be worth [reconsidering the event].

Ko: If those events can be postponed, I think that’s certainly productive. If a wedding can’t be postponed, there are things you can do. Hold it in an open space, where people are spread apart. You have to be really careful about exposures and really practice social distancing from the elderly.

Cannuscio: One of the best ways we can show love to the people we care about is to step back and to stay away. In many cases that takes courage, and it takes speaking out over these social norms that dictate that we should be polite and we should be together and we should celebrate and gather. Really seriously consider whether now is a joyful time to gather family members for a wedding celebration.

[ Read: The worst outcome]

SHOULD I STOP VISITING ELDERLY RELATIVES?

Watson: I think we should start limiting visitation to people who are in assisted-living facilities and nursing homes. I know that’s really tough, and maybe setting things up so you can visit them virtually is a good idea. [That way], they can see you and say hello, [without putting] them at extra risk.

Cannuscio: I think if we are fortunate enough to live near our elders and we get into the mode of seriously isolating our own families, then one person should be designated to go and visit. If we’re not in a situation where we can truly limit our own social contact, then we will be putting that elder at risk by going to visit.

SHOULD I BE CANCELING HAIRCUTS AND OTHER NONESSENTIAL APPOINTMENTS?

Watson: Those are more one-on-one interactions. I think there’s a lower likelihood that exposure is going to occur that way. I don’t think that’s a big concern.

Cannuscio: I would say hold off on your haircut and then when you go back, when it’s clear that we have vanquished this foe, everybody please give your hairdresser extra, extra tips. I hope that policies will be put into place to protect the paychecks of people who will suffer during this period.

SHOULD I AVOID COMMUNAL SPACES IN MY APARTMENT BUILDING?

Cannuscio: Try to schedule your use of those common spaces so you’re going at times when other people aren’t around. If you know there are not a lot of people in the laundry room or mailroom at 6 a.m., go at 6 a.m. People will be inconvenienced, but it’s important to try to spread ourselves out.

SHOULD I LIMIT PHYSICAL INTERACTION WITH MY PARTNER, OR OTHER PEOPLE I LIVE WITH?

Ko: That’s really hard to do. Again, what we’re really worried about is large gatherings. In the home, close contact is almost inevitable.

Cannuscio: I would say if you’re in a steady, monogamous relationship and you and that other person are limiting your social contacts, then be as intimate as you want to be.

Watson: If you get sick, try to maintain some distance. Otherwise, households should go about their normal business.

If I Get Symptoms or Am Exposed to Someone Who’s Sick:

IF I AM WAITING OUT A 14-DAY QUARANTINE, CAN I HAVE VISITORS AS LONG AS THEY STAND FAR AWAY FROM ME?

Cannuscio: No, quarantine means “stay away from other people.” You shouldn’t have visitors.

Ko: Under quarantine, people really shouldn’t enter the home or be in the same physical space.

Read: What will you do if you start coughing?

CAN I WALK AROUND OUTSIDE AT ALL WHEN I’M UNDER QUARANTINE?

Cannuscio: For people who live in areas that are not densely populated, walking around in their yard is probably safe. The idea is that they should not come into contact with any other people. They need to be strict about it. We are not going to defeat this and halt transmission if people loosely interpret what it means to self-quarantine or self-isolate.

*********

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biofunmy · 6 years ago

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To Many Chinese, America Was Like ‘Heaven.’ Now They’re Not So Sure.

BEIJING — Qi Haohan describes with pride the times he has leaped and pirouetted with American dancers across stages in China, and he counts as a major influence Daniil Simkin, a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater.

Ask him about China’s trade war with the United States, however, and Mr. Qi’s admiration for America evaporates.

“Fight, fight, fight!” the 25-year-old wrote on social media, urging his country to stand strong after trade talks with the United States broke down.

“America’s decision to increase tariffs will only bring about its own destruction,” Mr. Qi, a dancer with the National Ballet of China, said in an interview. “China is totally ready to respond.”

Mr. Qi’s views are an example of the complex, sometimes contradictory attitudes toward the United States held across China — a love-hate relationship that presents an unusual challenge to the ruling Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, as they try to defend their image at home amid the bruising trade war.

Divided popular opinion — and ambivalence about America, even among some of its most ardent fans (and critics) — makes it difficult for Beijing to come down too hard on the United States. But if it does too little, the party risks looking weak.

Chinese people have long looked to America as a source of inspiration, with its gleaming skyscrapers, financial power and unparalleled military might. But they also increasingly see it as a strategic rival — a view partly fueled by pride in China’s rise, and by the party’s propaganda organs, which have long depicted America as a hostile, imperialist country that has tried to keep China down.

“China now has the No. 2 mentality,” said Yun Sun, a China analyst at the Washington-based Stimson Center. “It’s only natural for No. 2 to want to surpass No. 1.”

Even in China’s authoritarian political system, public opinion must be carefully managed. If leaders push an anti-American message too far, they run the risk of nationalist sentiment spiraling out of control. That would limit their options in talks with Washington by forcing them to adopt a tough posture.

Though China has ways to prop up its economy, there are deep-seated concerns that it is not ready for a prolonged standoff, which could exact a heavy toll on people’s livelihoods. That could ultimately backfire on the party, which has staked its legitimacy on generating continuous economic growth.

On the other hand, if Chinese leaders act too cautiously, they could look inept to a domestic populace that has, in recent years, become more self-assured about China’s status as a rising power.

What was once starry-eyed enthusiasm for America among many Chinese has given way to sober admiration, if not outright disillusionment, as people have gotten to know the United States better and its problems have come into clearer view.

According to the latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center, published in 2016, 45 percent of Chinese saw American power and influence as a major threat to their country, up from 39 percent in 2013. More than half of Chinese believed the United States was trying to prevent China from becoming as powerful as America, the survey found.

That trend may well have accelerated over the past year, which has seen the world’s two largest economies go head-to-head in a protracted trade war and a dispute over Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant. The United States has also tightened restrictions on visas for Chinese students and visiting scholars, measures it says are aimed at curbing intellectual property theft and spying.

Such developments have reinforced the Chinese perception that the United States is deliberately thwarting their country’s rightful rise — leaving China with no choice but to fight back.

“We are not scared. China has money,” said Amanda Lin, 36, as she sipped an Americano at a Starbucks in Beijing. She said the Chinese manufacturing company she works for had been badly hit by the latest round of tariffs. “Perhaps we have to sacrifice a little in the short term, but if we don’t fight, then we will suffer more in the longer term,” she said.

Skepticism about American intentions taps into China’s collective memory of the 19th century, when Western powers forcibly opened Chinese ports and carved up the country into spheres of influence. Nowadays, China is a fast-modernizing nation, home to a booming middle class and cutting-edge infrastructure.

But many Chinese still remember their outrage when the United States accidentally bombed China’s embassy in Belgrade in 1999, during the war in the former Yugoslavia. The bombing, which killed three Chinese people, prompted days of violent protests. Two years later, tensions flared again when China detained a United States Navy flight crew after a Chinese fighter and an American spy plane collided in midair.

China has ratcheted up anti-American propaganda in recent weeks, but its campaign has been comparatively restrained. Still, the authorities, ever wary of unrest that could be turned against the government, are taking few risks.

Chen Chun, a liberal political columnist in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, said he was recently pulled in for a meeting with local security officials who urged him to take a more moderate tone in his writings.

“They said that Chinese people are easily instigated and that emotions can get really complicated,” Mr. Chen said.

“On one hand, the authorities want to use nationalism to legitimize their regime,” he added. “But if the nationalists spin out of control, it can also affect their power and the system’s stability.”

The party may also be reluctant to play up China’s rivalry with America, knowing that affection here for the United States — whose Chinese name means “beautiful country” — still runs deep.

American culture is so deeply embedded in China, experts say, that it would be impossible to boycott the country’s products, as China has done with goods from Japan and South Korea when tensions with those countries ran high. Many Chinese love their iPhones and lobsters imported from Boston, and are fans of American television hits like “House of Cards” and “Modern Family.”

The affinity extends beyond products. Many Chinese still admire America for its education system, strong rule of law and soft-power dominance. Some continue to draw inspiration from the idea of the American dream.

“The American dream means working hard and achieving your goals one step at a time,” said Kobe Liu Zhe, 29, a Kobe Bryant superfan in the northeastern city of Harbin who recently made headlines in America after he unknowingly bought the National Basketball Association star’s stolen high school jersey. (He later returned it.) “Kobe Bryant represents that dream.”

And yet, while the United States remains one of the top destinations for Chinese tourists, business travelers and students, the growth in that traffic is slowing. The increase in the number of Chinese visitors to the United States fell sharply from 16 percent in 2016 to only 4 percent in 2017, according to the United States Commerce Department.

The slowdown has been even more apparent in education. The increase in the number of Chinese students going to America has slowed from a high of nearly 30 percent in 2010 to just 3.6 percent last year, according to the Institute of International Education.

The decline, experts say, partly reflects a growing belief that America’s star is losing its luster.

“Thirty years ago, a lot of people thought that going to the United States was like going to heaven,” said Liu Peng, an education consultant in the eastern city of Qingdao. “But now people think the United States is falling behind while China is growing.”

Even if a trade deal is reached soon, experts say party leaders are bracing for a prolonged period of competition with America. Preparing public opinion for that future, some say, will require adjusting to the younger generation’s increasing cultural confidence.

“The older generation of Chinese both respect and fear the United States, we were brought up to think America was superior and we were the underdog,” said Wang Xiaodong, a nationalist writer. “But the perspective of young Chinese is different. They don’t respect you. Nor are they afraid of you.”

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foursproutwealth-blog · 7 years ago

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China Accelerates Next-Gen Nuclear Weapons Development To Compete With US, Russia

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/china-accelerates-next-gen-nuclear-weapons-development-to-compete-with-us-russia/

China Accelerates Next-Gen Nuclear Weapons Development To Compete With US, Russia

As we have been documenting over the last year and beyond, China is rapidly modernizing its military; unveiling a new stealth bomber, an array of guided-weapons, and deploying further from home. Their most recent focus has been on next generation nuclear weapons – as Beijing ramps up blast experiments for nukes comprised of smaller, smarter warheads designed to limit damage by targeting specific targets, according to the South China Morning Post.

Between September 2014 and last December, China carried out around 200 laboratory experiments to simulate the extreme physics of a nuclear blast, the China Academy of Engineering Physics reported in a document released by the government earlier this year and reviewed by the South China Morning Post this month.

In comparison, the US carried out only 50 such tests between 2012 and 2017 – or about 10 a year – according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. –SCMP

China’s development of next gen nukes will put them in direct competition with the United States and Russia, sparking concerns by experts over the prospect of a new cold war arms race that has the potential of boiling over into thermonuclear war.

Of primary concern is the notion that nations possessing smaller, targeted nukes might be more inclined to use them vs. larger and more devastating munitions – which could easily lead down the slippery slope of larger nuclear exchanges.

These new weapons are considered more “usable” for tactical tasks such as destroying an underground bunker while generating little radioactive fallout.

Pentagon officials have said the US wants its enemies to believe it might actually use its new-generation weapons, such as smaller, smarter tactical warheads designed to limit damage by destroying only specific targets.

But with these relatively safer and less destructive weapons in hand, governments may end up losing the inhibition to use them. -SCMP

“The use of small warheads will lead to the use of bigger ones,” Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie told the Post. “If other countries use nuclear weapons on us, we have to retaliate. This is probably why there is research to develop new weapons.”

While an international ban prohibits China from testing actual nuclear weapons (a ban North Korea has laughed at for years), major nuclear powers continue to conduct testing via high-powered gas guns that fire high speed projectiles at weapons-grade laboratory materials.

The tests are conducted using a large, sophisticated facility known as a multi-stage gas gun, which simulates the extreme heat, pressure and shock waves produced in a real nuclear blast.

The experiments with the gas gun provide scientists with the data they need to develop more advanced nuclear weapons.

In the past, researchers used supercomputers to draw on historic data derived from live nuclear tests performed before the international ban was imposed in the 1990s.

But new technology that emerged in recent years, such as hypersonic vehicles and artificial intelligence, opened the door for the development of new nuclear weapons that could be smaller in size and more precise.

The gas gun works by using special explosives to force a piston along a hydrogen-filled metal tube. Once the hydrogen gas reaches a certain temperature and pressure, an “impactor” is released which travels at incredibly high speeds of at least 18,640 MPH towards a target.

Smaller than a saucer, the impactor is comprised of the same materials used in a nuclear warhead such as plutonium, metal, plastic or foam of different densities – resulting in a chemical reaction similar to that of a nuclear detonation.

[insert: gas gun.JPG, f29bb5ca-5f25-11e8-a4de-9f5e0e4dd719_972x_130850.jpg , f2cf81f2-5f25-11e8-a4de-9f5e0e4dd719_972x_130850.jpg ]

US gas gun at Jasper facility in Nevada

The impactors are quite difficult to produce, as even the slightest structural defect at the microscopic level of just a few nanometers can ruin the experiment, according to Luo Guoqiang of China’s Minyang research center.

“The making of the impactor involves the cream of precision manufacturing. Thanks to numerous breakthroughs in recent years we are now beating our counterparts in the US with a series of impactors with superior performance,” he said.

Well made impactors, allow experiments to proceed faster at lower cost, while obtaining higher quality data.

Over the past three years, Chinese scientists have carried out more such gas gun tests than the United States has in 15 years.

In tunnels deep under mountains in Mianyang, southwestern Sichuan province, where China’s main nuclear design facilities are based, loud blasts from these experiments can be heard more than once a week.

In comparison, between 2003 and 2017, the US fired a total of 150 simulated shots at its Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (Jasper) facility at the Nevada National Security Site. -SCMP

That said, China can’t hold a candle to the United States when it comes to advanced nuclear technology, according to Professor Wang Chuanbin, from the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing at the Wuhan University of Technology.

Wang says that the number of live tests conducted by China pales in comparison with the U.S., which has set off over 1,000 nuclear warheads since 1945 beginning with the Manhattan Project. China, meanwhile, has only carried out 45 live tests.

“It is possible we are in a hurry to catch up,” Wang said.

James Lewis, senior vice-president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said a new round of the nuclear arms race had already begun, though public opinion had yet to catch up with the grim reality.

The White House is considering a US$1.2 trillion plan to upgrade its nuclear stockpile. Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced it would develop new low-yield nuclear weapons that could be mounted on conventional cruise missiles and launched by submarines.

The White House’s developments are in response to Russia’s recent actions, according to Lewis, who notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed a series of new nuclear weapon designs – including smaller, tactical nukes – as well as a “super torpedo” capable of wiping out coastal cities.

“It’s not clear to me how successful the Russian programme will be, but it has stirred everyone up on the subject,” Lewis said. “After some debate, the US decided it needed to think about warheads, without the need for actual tests. It wouldn’t surprise me if China saw all this and decided that it had better get in the game.”

Following a February announcement by US officials of a new nuclear weapons policy, an editorial was published in Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times which said that China would seriously consider going public with its tactical, low-yield nuclear weapons program in response.

“China is a nation capable of massively increasing the size and improving the technology of its nuclear stockpiles,” stated the newspaper, adding “China needs a new policy to deal with a new situation.”

And as we mentioned last week, Bank of America’s Mike Hartnett writes that the “trade war” of 2018 should be recognized for what it really is: the first stage of a new arms race between the US & China to reach national superiority in technology over the longer-term via Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Hypersonic Warplanes, Electronic Vehicles, Robotics, and Cyber-Security.

At the end of the day, the China First strategy will be met head-on by an America First strategy. Hence the “arms race” in tech spending which in both countries is intimately linked with defense spending. Note military spending by the US and China is forecast by the IMF to rise substantially in coming decades, but the stunner is that by 2050, China is set to overtake the US, spending $4tn on its military while the US is $1 trillion less, or $3tn.

This means that some time around 2038, roughly two decades from now, China will surpass the US in military spending, and become the world’s dominant superpower not only in population and economic growth – China is set to overtake the US economy by no later than 2032 – but in military strength and global influence as well.

And, as Thucydides Trap clearly lays out, that kind of unprecedented superpower transition – one in which the world’s reserve currency moves from state A to state B – always takes place in the context of a war.

Which explains BofA’s long-term strategic recommendation: “We believe investors should thus own global defense, tech & cybersecurity stocks, particularly companies seen as “national security champions” over the next 10-years.“

#Wealth

0 notes

foursprout-blog · 7 years ago