The Mid-Term Elections – Part 2
Good day to each of you reading this column on the fallout of the mid-term elections in the USA.
We went to the polls on Tuesday and voted—did you? Whether you believe your vote counts or doesn’t is one thing, but making the effort to vote and voicing your thoughts are another matter.
Just think, if our forefathers would have taken the approach that their vote did not matter would have changed the outcome of many elections as well as the course of history.
Speaking of history, we certainly received a mixed bag of results and elections out west that won’t have an outcome for weeks on end. Opponents on both sides of the fence are saying that the balance of power in the US Senate will change depending on which party goes in after the ballots are verified.
Let’s think about this—we could have a republican congress, a democratic senate or a republican senate and a democratic president. The result, more fingers pointed with plenty of stalemates.
The conclusion, finger pointing and nothing getting done by those we sent to do the will of the people.
Personally, I am insulted when I turn on the TV and watch the finger-pointing antics of those we put in office. From a democratic majority leader who tore up a president’s speech behind his back to the times she stood up and shook her fingers at the president when she disagreed.
This is the same woman who flies her personal jet on the taxpayers’ expense. Why hasn’t she been escorted out of her job? Could you do this to the owner of your business?
Folks, the list is long—I will challenge any woman that is a Christian and says she is for an abortion. Whether she thinks it is her right, her choice or her prerogative, she evidently missed the part that God created her.
Please turn to Mark 10:13-16 (NIV) 13
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
As a double witness, please turn to Matthew 18:1-3 (NIV) At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Put yourself where Jesus was when he was placing his hands on the children and what would you say to him when he asked for your child to place his hands upon and bless them.
What excuse would you come up with, knowing that Jesus is the I AM and that this would be a question that will be asked—I am not judging you, but murder is just that, murder.
Let’s turn to the issue of the economy including jobs, stock market, recession, the federal reserve increasing interest rates and the very real thought that the United States will move from a recession to a depression and that the stock market will crash!
Come on, do you believe this could happen? What are the signs of the job market, the housing market, gasoline and diesel prices, food and dairy pricing and the topsy turvy stock market where those of us investing in the stock market have “taken a bath” with terrible monthly losses.
Are you better off today financially or better off two years ago? Debt, the four-letter word that has many Americans living from paycheck to paycheck.
Why is it that the richest country in the world has a food shortage and many people going without food? These same people are juggling finances so they can either pay the rent and miss a utility payment or vice versa so they can put food on the table.
Did your candidate tell you how they were going to solve these problems? Did they provide you with solutions or were they busy giving you ambiguous answers and saying that was a very good question and what is your next question?
Please turn to Deuteronomy 28:1-14 (NIV)
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.
10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.
11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.
13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Biblically, God has all the answers to all of man’s questions, but, as God said to the Israelites upon leaving Egypt, that you are a stiff-neck people.
What can one expect when we use to be “the greatest producer of food to the world”, but presently we are just another service nation purchasing food from other countries.
We hear it in the news daily that we must purchase oil from countries who hate us, we must purchase grain from countries who are our enemies, and we purchase natural resources from many of those enemy countries who profit greatly off the American taxpayer all in he name of the global world economy.
God eloquently says in Deuteronomy 28:12-13 (NIV) 12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
Look no further in our land to see how God is dealing with our country in our relationship to the weather. Rain, too much or too little, soil erosion, crop erosion, devastating hurricanes and tornados, rampant fires, earthquakes.
The American farmer is being told not to grow crops.
The Biden administration will pay farmers more money not to farm
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would expand a program that pays farmers to leave land fallow, part of a broader, government-wide effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The new initiative will incentivize farmers to take land out of production by raising rental rates and incentive payments.
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) was created in 1985 to incentivize landowners to leave some of their marginal land unplanted, a plan meant to protect the environment by reducing agricultural runoff into streams and rivers, preserving wildlife habitats, and preventing erosion. Today, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) “rents” about 21 million acres of farmland from landowners, typically for 10 years at a time—a tiny fraction of the total land farmed nationwide. In recent years, the number of acres enrolled in CRP has fallen, possibly because USDA’s rental payments have not been competitive with the open market, Chuck Abbott reported for FERN News.
The new announcement is a bid to incentivize farmers to enroll 4 million more acres of land in the program to total 25 million acres, the current program limit. “Sometimes the best solutions are right in front of you,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a press release.
Folks, this is just one article of many where our government is paying American farmers not to grow food. Here are headlines for you to read also:
A Program That Pays Farmers Not to Farm Isn’t Saving the Planet
Courtesy of the Politico
California Wants to Pay Farmers to Not Farm This Year
Courtesy of the Modern Farmer
Feds Paid Wyoming Farmers $3.4 Million Not to Farm Last Year
Courtesy of the Cowboy State Daily
It is my hope that our farmers read this verse for it is God who wants to bless the work of your hands.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.
Let us turn to Debt.
The Government is Causing a Credit Card Debt Crisis
Inflation still isn’t letting up, and it’s a top concern for Americans right now. But we just learned of yet another way surging prices are hurting families—leading them into huge amounts of credit card debt.
“More Americans are racking up credit card debt as inflation pushes up the cost of food, utilities and other staples,” CBS News reports. “60% of credit card holders have been carrying balances on their cards for at least a year, up 10% from 2021.”
“59% of Americans who earn less than $50,000 a year carry a credit card balance from month to month,” the reporting notes. “The percentage drops slightly to 49% for those who earn between $50,000 and $80,000 and dips again to 46% for people making $80,000 to $100,000 a year.”
This is a serious problem for many families.
“It’s even harder to get out of debt when it’s spending on necessities that got you into that position in the first place,” Creditcards.com analyst Ted Rossman told CBS. “These expenses aren’t easily avoided.”
Americans now owe $887 billion in credit card debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s up 13% from 2021!
Here is another interesting article from the American Bankruptcy Institute:
Household Debt in America Reaching Dangerous Levels
American households are carrying a good bit of debt these days according to a recent NBC News article. From what I’m seeing, no matter how you categorize the debt or spin the numbers, it’s not welcoming news to begin the new year. Still, there is no better way to illustrate a point than by staring at the cold, hard numbers, so I will break down a few.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
- $13 Trillion. The New York Federal Reserve found that total household debt (mortgages, student and car loans, etc.) reached slightly under that number in the third quarter—breaking the pre-2008 recession level.
- $1.02 Trillion. The Federal Reserve reported that the “revolving credit” category, i.e., revolving credit card debt, hit that record high in November of last year. That number also broke the pre-recession record set in April 2008.
- $8,600. The average outstanding credit card debt per household. WalletHub.com’s Jill Gonzalez noted that in the fourth quarter of 2007, $8,400 was considered “unstainable”.
- $24.7 Billion. The number of bad credit card debt charged off in just three quarters of 2017, which is set to surpass $25.3 billion for all quarters in 2015 and 28.3 billion for all quarters in 2016.
- 9% and 26%. Per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), for the past two years, the average credit card debt increased 9%. But that same debt has grown 26% for subprime borrowers (credit scores below 580).
If you were wondering how much debt China holds:
China holdings of U.S. debt fall below $1 trillion for the first time since 2010
China’s holdings of U.S. debt have fallen below $1 trillion for the first time in 12 years amid rising interest rates that have made Treasurys potentially less attractive.
Continuing a trend that began early in 2021, China’s portfolio of U.S. government debt in May dropped to $980.8 billion, according to Treasury Department data released Monday. That’s a decline of nearly $23 billion from April and down nearly $100 billion, or 9%, from the year-earlier month.
It also marked the first time since May 2010 that China’s holdings fell below the $1 trillion mark. Japan is now the leading holder of U.S. debt with $1.2 trillion.
The debt decline comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve has been raising rates to stop inflation running at its fastest rate since 1981. When rates rise on bonds, prices drop, meaning a capital loss for investors who sell the bonds ahead of maturity.
The decline in China’s share also has been attributed to Beijing working to diversify its foreign debt portfolio.
The reporting period came before the Fed hiked benchmark overnight borrowing rates by 0.75 percentage point in June; there is another increase of the same size likely next week.
13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
If the USA is the dog and China is the tail, who is wagging who? The answer above shows that the USA has become a debtor nation and has become the tail.
The Chinese are smart enough not to keep buying the USA debt for it is not making money, thus putting more effort into those countries that they can make money off of and purchase more and more of the precious metals and metal mines.
Crime—Simply put—the inmates are running the asylum—Police arrest the perpetrator in the morning and he or she is out on bond by that evening. All over the country and in cities both large and small, we are seeing an immense rise in crime for the criminal is not afraid of doing the crime and if caught, is not afraid of the circumstances of the crime.
We live in a country where right is wrong and wrong is right—no penalty for doing what is wrong with the policeman being the villain.
Yes, when we were growing up, the policeman was our friend, our neighbor, our church going member and one who did his job correctly and by the book.
Yes, we have those in blue who are bad, but like all other jobs, they are in the minority and their consequences are being reported and dealt with. But, as they say, not one bad apple makes all apples in the barrel rotten and thus goes for the policemen in our country.
May God give us godly judges who would enforce God’s laws and our crimes would take a drastic turn south and the potential criminal would think twice before committing a crime of any magnitude.
Where are the parents who begin at an early age to discipline the child from stealing a piece of candy from the store? Discipline and respect begin in the home, whether it be for the parents, relatives, police, fire and emergency workers to those in office.
As I close, let us pray for those who have been elected—Here are some wise words to ponder from one great spokesman and orator—Abraham Lincoln in a “Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day” on March 30, 1863.
His words will strike you as you read the following: We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God…
We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient…. too proud to pray to the God who made us. It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Fellow Christian, let us be reminded that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, to NEVER forget God, become too proud to the God who made each of us, to humble ourselves, confess our national sins, and pray daily for clemency and forgiveness to the God that made each of us.
Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me.
