Russia, China and the 2016 Election

Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi

Musings as we approach the renewal of Springtime:

1) Who do Russia and China favor in the upcoming presidential election? Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? 

The Russians probably favor Trump, assuming that he wins the Republican nomination, while the Chinese likely favor Hillary Clinton, assuming she isn't indicted over the ongoing email scandal swirling around her. And it's unlikely she'll be charged with anything under the current administration. They protect their own, and she's one of their own. Why would the Russians favor Trump? Because he's pledged to work with them in fighting terrorism, and he's promised to help them economically, whatever that would entail. Relations between the U.S. and Russia have deteriorated badly under Barack Obama; so badly that we're in a new cold war. And that's not good because unlike the days of the old cold war, the Russians now possess a vastly improved military; better military hardware and more powerful strategic nuclear weapons. Though we'd still probably prevail in a military encounter with Russia, the Russians could inflict very heavy damage upon us. 

As for China, they'd favor Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump has promised to end the lopsided trade advantage that China has gained over the U.S., and he's pledged to punish the Chinese for manipulating their currency that's hurt U.S. manufacturing and contributed to the enormous trade imbalance between the two nations. The Chinese have grown fat and prosperous under the current trade agreement between the two nations, and they don't want that to change. And Hillary Clinton, who's a puppet of Wall Street and the American Chamber of Commerce wouldn't change a thing.

2) Why has Christianity's image suffered so badly in the western world over the past 60 years?

Simply because the Christian church has done an absolutely marvelous job of making itself irrelevant in the world. The church has a responsibility to "contend for the faith" (Jude 1:3), and it hasn't done that for a long time. We're involved in a spiritual war with the forces of evil, something that the apostle Paul wrote about in his epistle to the Ephesian church. (Ephesians 6) 

This is a war fought not with conventional weapons, but with spiritual weapons. Paul wrote this: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

But those weapons are useless if you choose to fight your battles at the ballot box instead of by the power of God's Holy Spirit.

3) What is the oldest religious cult in the world?

That would be the Roman Catholic Church, followed by Islam. The Catholic Church has all the classic features of a cult; a charismatic leader (Pope) who's considered infallible and is worshiped as a religious icon; an unbiblical gospel that contradicts and denies the biblical gospel; charms, fetishes and enchanted objects that supposedly bring good luck and protection (rosaries, scapulars, medals etc.), and idolatry in the form of Mariolatry and the worship of saints. There's nothing Christian about the Catholic Church at all. And yet many Protestant and Evangelical leaders promote the Catholic Church as mainstream Christianity. It isn't and it's never been.

4) Is Islam destined to take over the world?

No, Islam is eventually going to disappear. But how? Consider three major world nations that are rising. They are China, Russia and India. What do they all have in common? They loathe Islam and want to get rid of that religion. Why? Because unlike the western world that's become poisoned by politically-correct multi-culturalism, the rising eastern powers understand that Islam is an extremely intolerant religion that can't coexist peacefully with anyone. It never has, and it never will.

Also keep in mind that these three nations don't offer "freedom of religion" as it's offered in the U.S. For example, if the Russians decided to outlaw Islam, they could simply pass a law without changing their constitution. And as Russia grows politically and militarily stronger, she's going to begin exerting her influence across eastern Europe and then into western Europe. As Russia's influence spreads, Islam will eventually be driven completely out of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And the Chinese will drive Islam out of Asia and the southern hemisphere. Where will Islam's final stand come? Probably in North America before it's eradicated there as well. 

Voodoo Economics

China's recent economy woes have shaken the world

Though many folks consider the economy to be complicated, it's actually quite easy to understand.

What's so easy to understand about the economy? Simply this: When people have more money, they spend more. That helps the economy. Conversely, when they have less money, they spend less. And that hurts the economy.

How's that related to the recent economic downturn in China that's reverberated across the world, causing stock markets to suffer significant losses? China's economy has contracted because its manufacturing industry has slowed down significantly over the past two years. China's response to the slowdown has been to devalue the Yuan with the hope of reinvigorating its economy.

A devalued Yuan makes China's products cheaper and more attractive on the world market. That hurts manufacturers in western nations that can't compete with cheap Chinese products. And that scares investors away who withdraw their money from companies that can't compete with China. When the investors pull their money out of those companies, the stock market sinks.

Economic experts blame the U.S. Federal Reserve and the big British and European banks for contributing to the problem by printing too much money that's inflated the price of products manufactured in the U.S. and Europe. That makes big and small companies look to China for cheaper products that return greater profits than products made in the western world.

But there's another side to China's economic slowdown, and that's the deepening global recession that few people want to talk about. Remember, when folks have less money, they spend less. And folks around the world, and particularly in the United States and in many European nations don't have a lot of money to spend these days because their economies stink.

Why do their economies stink? Because those nations are utilizing Marxist economic principles that confiscate wealth from the productive class and redistribute it to the unproductive class. How do nations do that? Through high taxes on their citizens, and oppressive taxes and regulations on businesses and corporations. 

Those punitive taxes and regulations on western corporations have been beneficial to China because, thanks to global trade agreements in recent decades, the Chinese have become the manufacturing capital of the world. Many of the goods you now buy at your local retailers are manufactured in China, from toys to electronics to clothes, shoes, appliances etc.

Those products used to be made in places such as the U.S. until the trade agreements made it possible for companies to relocate to China where they could pay slave-labor wages to peasants to manufacture products that are shipped all over the world. China, in turn, has borrowed huge sums of money to build a massive industrial infrastructure to manufacture those items that are no longer made in the U.S. and in other western nations.

However, the factory orders are down because the global economy is in a recession. And as a result, the Chinese are having trouble paying down the debt from all that money they borrowed to build their manufacturing industry. Simply put, the money's not coming into China. And that's causing turmoil in the world's financial markets.

Some conspiracy nuts claim that a cabal of global elites want to cause a global depression by blowing up the world economy. And they point to China's economic problems as the beginning of that plan that they claim will cause international panic and result in the creation of a world government.

There's no conspiracy to blow up the world economy. The current global economic problems are the result of greed, bad decisions and poor planning. Greed on the part of western corporations that have taken advantage of international trade agreements to relocate to places such as China where they can turn huge profits; bad decisions by nations to print too much money that's causing inflation, and poor planning on the part of the Chinese to overbuild their manufacturing industry beyond global demand.

That's why the economy is sputtering. However, there are indeed globalists who believe that the world needs a massive central government and a central bank with a global currency that would prevent economic disasters. And indeed, such a government is coming. When will we see it? We don't know. But it's coming.

In the late 1st century, the apostle John recorded this metaphorical vision from God concerning an end time world government: "And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority." (Revelation 13:1-2)

The beast John saw represents a global government that will consist of 10 nation groups ruled by seven powerful leaders who will be under the authority of the dreaded Antichrist. And this government will institute a fully electronic economic system that will do away with paper money, coins, checks, credit and debit cards.

This will be the economic system of the Antichrist. John continued: "He (Antichrist) also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." (Revelation 13:16-17)

The cashless system of the Antichrist will become the ultimate expression of voodoo economics. It will not only purport to do away with economic problems, it will also do away with those who refuse to accept the mark because it will damn them in eternity if they receive it. (Revelation 14:9-12)

The Great Fall of China?

Has China's economic boom come to an end?

I've written quite extensively for several years about the power shift from the western world to the eastern world. We've seen that in the steady rise of Russia as a military power and the explosive rise of China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan as economic powers.

The shift in power from the west to the east is prophetic. Nearly 2,600 years ago, the Hebrew prophet Daniel received a prophecy from God concerning the rise in the end times of two powerful nations he described as northern and southern kingdoms. (Daniel 11)

I believe those kingdoms are China and Russia, and I wrote about that before either nation began to grow economically, militarily and politically. China's economy has grown so rapidly that the Red Nation is poised to supplant the United States as the world's premier economic superpower.

However, in recent months, China's economy has cooled off to the point where the international markets have been rattled. China reacted by devaluing its currency in an effort to make its products cheaper and more affordable so that business would rebound. Obviously, that hasn't happened. 

China's currency manipulation has infuriated Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who's convinced that the Red Nation is murdering the U.S. economy by devaluing the yuan. Here's what he said in a recent interview with CNN: "I've been telling everybody for a long time China's taking our jobs, they're taking our money. Be careful, they'll bring us down. You have to know what you're doing. We have nobody that has a clue." 

Certainly, Trump was referring to the bumbling and inept Obama administration that's allowed American businesses and manufacturing jobs to relocate to China while getting nothing in return except cheap products that were once manufactured in the United States. 

As Trump has aptly pointed out, China's economy has been built by American dollars. What he hasn't pointed out is that China's military is being built on the interest payments from the $1.3 trillion America has borrowed from the Red Nation. 

And so, the proverbial $64 trillion question is this: What does China's recent economic downturn mean? Is the communist nation going to collapse? If China does collapse, that would send shock waves across the world, beginning in Russia that's heavily invested in China's economy. 

While a lot of people would love to see that happen, China isn't going to collapse. Economic downturns happen everywhere and China's experiencing something that the older, western economies have experienced before. Remember that China's free-market economy is still relatively new. 

Why has China's economy slowed down? Because people aren't spending as much money as they did a few years ago. And that's because they don't have the money to spend. And when the money isn't there, the products don't get bought and sales go down. The industries that typically get hit the hardest in economic downturns are the manufacturing, restaurant and retail industries.

When the sales go down, companies reduce their inventories and they lay off employees because they can't afford to pay them. And when people lose their jobs, they don't have the money to buy those products that keep those factories going in places such as China. That's what's hurting China along with the heavily taxed and over regulated economies that are stifling economic growth in Europe and the United States. It's really that simple.

China will rebound. It may take several months or even a year or two. But the communist nation will bounce back as long as it continues to keep its currency low and offer incentives to companies to relocate to China. 

After all, socialism doesn't work. That's why China turned to capitalism. If you want to become a premier global economic and military superpower, you need money. And as long as nations such as the United States keep passing free trade agreements, companies will keep moving to places such as China where they'll be able to keep more of their money. That's good for them and good for China. And that's bad for the world.