For the last five-years I’ve been watching the United States financial crisis as it grew larger and larger, than slowly faded from the headlines. And while many officials have claimed the ‘worst is over,’ I’m not too sure about that.

USA Today published an article featuring a chart showing the internet bubble, the housing bubble, and an unnamed bubble labeled a ‘stock market bubble.’

While the article doesn’t say there is a stock market bubble occurring in the U.S., it does say, “the Fed’s monetary policies have caused stock prices to soar, doesn’t mean there’s a bubble.”  It also says those same monetary policies will likely deflate as part of an overall correction of the market.

Scary.

Since late 2008, Glenn Beck has been warning us about jus’ such a bubble. I know, I know – you think Beck is a nut-job and fear monger, but in all truth he’s hit the nail on the head more times than most people want to admit.

While still at CNN, he describing what was heading our way:

“Look, you must allow the bubble to burst. I know it means pain. But we didn’t take the pain for the dot.com bubble. We moved that pain. It never goes away. Think of it as a disease. You’ve moved that pain and you just took a painkiller, and all of the disease was pushed into the September 11th housing bubble. So, all of that pain, what they do? They just made money cheaper and cheaper and cheaper so they could get people to buy homes, spend money, go out, rack up your credit card bills…

Now that bubble is much, much bigger. Now we’re facing the collapse of that bubble. And how are we trying to solve the problem? Instead of allowing it to collapse, we are creating a third and I believe, the final bubble. And that is, the money bubble. The pain is going to be much, much worse. Because what you’re designing now, you are un-tethering from every bit of free market system that we have. You are un-tethering from the Constitution. You are cutting the ties to anything that made America America.”

I’m going to stick my neck out and add to his prediction:

The date September 13, 2015 is the next Shemitah year. Known as Elul 29, it happens every seventh year of the Hebrew calendar and is a time when debts are to be forgiven and the land, in the agricultural communities of ancient Israel, was to be given a rest.

Elul 29, 2015 also represents the eve of the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashana at sundown. This begins a period known as “the days of awe,’ which lasts through Yom Kippur a week later and is a period set aside for serious introspection and to consider the sins of the previous year and repent.

Also, an astronomical phenomenon, a blood red moon – or tetrad – is expected to occur that evening. The last one took place in 1967-68, when Jerusalem was reclaimed in the Six Day War and the one before that was in 1949-50, right after Israel became a nation.

The economic calamity associated with the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center began September 17, 2001 when Lehman Brothers, one of the nation’s largest financial firms, collapsed.  This date coincides with Elul 29 on the Hebrew calendar.

Likewise, September 29, 2008, marked the next big crash also falling on Elul 29. On that day, stocks skidded with the Dow slumping nearly 778 points, in the biggest single-day point loss ever.

I’m seeing a pattern and hope you see it too and will plan accordingly.

The National Football League has suspend Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for the first two games of the 2014 season, following Rice’s arrest on aggravated assault charges against his then-fiancée in February. Rice was arrested after surveillance video showed him dragging his unconscious fiancée out of the elevator of an Atlantic City hotel/casino.

Police have video of Rice punching his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, before they entered the elevator. Rice was indicted on aggravated assault charges but, as a first time offender, was allowed to enter a diversionary community service program that will allow him to avoid jail time.

However, the Minnesota Vikings have suspended special teams coordinator Mike Priefer without pay for three games, saying he has to donate $100,000 to ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender’ rights groups, in response to former punter Chris Kluwe’s allegations of anti-gay slurs and taunts made by Priefer. The coordinator can attend sensitivity training and get his suspension reduced to two weeks if Vikings ownership determines he is ready to return.

It’s pretty sad that an incident of physical harm verses an incident of verbal ignorance could come to such different disciplinary results. Whatever happened to sticks and stones may break my bones, but names and faces can’t hurt me?

ISIS/ISIL claims one of the goals of its insurgency is to reverse the effects of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Islāmic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said that “this blessed advance will not stop until we hit the last nail in the coffin of the Sykes-Picot conspiracy.”

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a secret treaty between the UK and France, with Russia playing a minor role. It laid out a plan for control of the Middle East should the Russians, French, and British defeat the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Britain was given control of the coastal strip between the sea and River Jordan, Jordan, southern Iraq, and a small area including the ports of Haifa and Acre, to allow access to the Mediterranean. France received control of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Russia was to get Istanbul, the Turkish Straits and the six Ottoman Armenian provinces. The controlling powers were left free to decide on state boundaries within these areas.

Further negotiation to decide international administration was pending with Russia and other powers, including the Sharif of Mecca. However, following the Russian Revolution in October 1917, the Bolsheviks exposed the agreement.

Marian Verna “Kitty” Woods was born in Fortuna, California, May 26th, 1942. She married Donald Fulton in March 1960 and started their family, son Ed and daughter Terri, moving to Crescent City in 1964.

I knew her as Aunt Kitty as she was my Mom’s cousin.

Kitty returned to school and received her degree at College of the Redwoods and graduated in 1982. She worked for the County of Del Norte in the Auditor’s Office for about 16 years, retiring in 1994.

She was preceded in death by her parents as well as both her sisters, Joan and Gail. She passed away July 8th, 2014 at the age of 72.

Slowly,  but surely, I’m going through loose notes I’ve made to myself over the years. These are pieces of paper on which I jus’ jotted down a thought or two and sometimes failing to date, then stuffed in a file for future use.

Many are like this one written — which I did date — on February 04, 1994:

“Mary and I went and bought some toilet paper last night. We actually stood in the aisle and debated with one another over how much to get, fretting over how much money we don’t have. It is at times like this that I find it strange how I have nothing to show for my life’s work, which is radio — not even a roll of toilet paper.”

Yikes!

Looking back now, I can see that pattern has stayed the same over the years. But I never got into the biz for the money, instead I always tried to follow what Proverbs 22:1 reads: “A good name is more desirable than great riches…”

The two squads slowly made their way down the hard pack dirt road, each man maintaining a proper distance from the one in front and the one behind. There was no sense in two guys getting hit by a guerrilla sniper for the price of one.

Their target for this late afternoon raid was a middleman in the Presidents “War on Drugs.” The man had a reputation for living like a peasant but he created roads and schools for his own village with the cocaine money he received from the killings he committed.

Doc was part of Team Two. His Team would back door the targets home and make the capture or kill, which ever was to come.

Both Teams used the hard packed roadway as much as possible only slipping back into the bush if there was the slightest chance of being detected. It took them nearly half an hour to finalize their approach on the small village.

It was set up exactly as S-2 Intelligence had said it would be.

“That’s a first,” Doc thought as he hunkered down along the ridge line overlooking the sleepy mud shanties.

The sun was setting as Team One moved off the ridge and towards the left and into the village. A dog could be heard barking in the distance. It was noise Doc found strange in this part of the world.

“There must be plenty to eat,” he said to himself.

There would not be after tonight if this raid went as planned, though. Team Two moved forward and off the ridge to the right.

Doc was in the number five position as usual. This time the two squads were accompanied by an interpreter by the name of Ruben and he was right behind Doc.

He had never met Ruben before this morning and he did not like the man. Ruben wouldn’t look Doc in the eye when he spoke.

It made the young medical Sergeant uncomfortable. But Ruben was assigned to the Teams and that was that.

“Okay,” the Gunny said, “We’re all in position. Let’s take the house.”

There was a sudden flash, followed by a loud bang. Smoke filled the air as a cacophony of voices raged.

This was followed by a burst of gun fire. Then more gun fire.

Before the Teams realized it, they were under attack from the household. The people inside the home were launching everything at them that they had inside the place.

The simple plan to raid and either capture or kill the target was falling apart.

Doc stepped inside to aid in the fire fight. Marines were being wounded but holding their ground without complaint, when a Corporal decided to toss a satchel charge inside the front door of the house.

When it went off, it had a devastating effect. There were dismembered humans and twisted and crumbled pieces of ruins scattered in a one-hundred foot circle.

The shooting stopped and many of the Marines slowly rose to their feet. Some looked on in disbelief.

Doc tapped three Marines and Ruben to move forward towards a portion of the house that still remained standing. It was under a stair way which was stronger due to the construction of the steps that lead up to the second floor which was now collapsed onto the first floor.

The front and right side of the house no longer existed. The satchel charge had found the weak point and destroyed the frame, causing it to heave up and fall back on itself.

In the distance the transports could be heard as they roared down the red hard pack dirt road towards the village and the Teams position. Quickly the four combat veterans and single interpreter moved through the wrecked house towards the lone door.

Doc signaled to two of the Marines to kick in the door and for one to cover them. They executed the plan with flawless precision, having done the same thing so many times before.

Once inside they discovered two women and three children. The two Marines who entered first attempted to coax them out.

They refused to move, frightened of the “Americanos.”

It was up to Ruben to talk them out of the nearly destroyed room. Instead of remaining calm, he started speaking loudly.

The look on the little girls faces was that of terror as they stepped behind the older lady. The little boy didn’t look much better.

Ruben started screaming at the top of his lungs. Doc suddenly recognized what he was saying, “Fuego, rapido, fuego!” or ‘Fire, quick, fire,” in his native latino language

Without warning the younger of the two women turned around with a pistol and fired it.  Her action was met with a blast from the two Marines rifles.

Doc pulled out his service pistol and cocked it. He calmly placed it against the back of Ruben’s head as he continued to shout.

He squeezed one round off.

By the time the melee’ was over Ruben lay dead. So did both women and two of the three children.

The three Marines staggered out of the room in shock, immediately falling down to their knees and vomiting over what they had just done.

Major Brownhorse wanted to know what had happened. As soon as Doc could composed himself he gave the commanding officer a brief statement and then offered him his sidearm.

“No, I don’t want that,” the Major said. “I want that damned traders’ ears! If he couldn’t talk straight in this life, I don’t want him hearing anything in the afterlife.”

The two Teams may have missed their target but Major Brownhorse got his trophy.

After we heard the National Weather Service alert yesterday warning the Spanish Springs area of possible tornado activity, my roommate and I went outside to see if we could spot any for our selves. What we witnessed were clouds spinning counterclockwise, forming tiny ‘nipples’ that dissipated as fast as they formed.

In total we observed three of these above the Pah-Rah Hills to the east of us. Each was racing slightly ahead of a quick moving thunderstorm that was dumping sheets of rain across the desert landscape.

The Reno Gazette-Journal says there have been 79 tornadoes reported since 1962, mostly in western Nevada and Clark County with “a Silver State tornado alley along Interstate 80.” They got their information from the website Tornadoproject.com.

The website lists only three incidents of damage from tornadoes in Nevada:

• May 26, 1964, when a small tornado damaged outbuildings on a ranch near Yerington. A man was struck and injured by flying debris.
• July 16, 1973, when a small tornado touched down six miles north of Reno. One person was injured.
• March 30, 1992, when one home was shifted and another lost part of its roof in southern Las Vegas.

The last time the NWS issued a tornado warning for any part of Nevada was July 21, 2008.

Over the last few years I’ve been over-wrought with all the political news I’ve been reporting. Much of it hangs in my mind even after the day is done and I’m laying bed trying to fall asleep.

Not only has this left me with insomnia, but also with a sickness in my soul that seems to linger longer and longer with each passing crisis. Because of this, my desire to write has been lacking – but I didn’t know what to do about it.

Then a couple of nights ago, after talking with the Lord about how I’ve been feeling, a voice inside me said, “The stop writing about politics.”

What an amazing revelation!

First, that the answer is so simple and second, because I know the voice, the one I believe to be my subconscious, is enabled by God. While it sounded like me in my head, it was a spiritual prompting from beyond me.

Now, this is not to say I’m hearing the voice of God and that he’s speaking directly by audio-form into my ear. Rather it is the Holy Spirit – which dwells in each of our souls and acts as a sort of holy tuner, if you will, channeling God’s will into our being.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I’m stepping away from following politics to the point that I feel physically compelled to write about it. Instead I’m returning to writing simply for the fun of it – you know those little stories that make up life, living, loving, laughter and learning.

Allow me to share one more thing that small indwelling voice has let me in on: God is in control and everything works for His good and thus, our good too.

I think I already knew this, but had forgotten about it somewhere along the line.

There was a time when those who went to tattoo parlors were the ‘social misfits’ of the community. I contend that they are not when it comes to freedom of expression, rather the real misfits in today’s society are those who bad-mouth such places and such people.

My conclusion is drawn on the fact that the word ‘fuck in used like baseballs at a major league game. Furthermore, the word ‘nigger’ blasts from the sound system that plays the kind of rap music most ‘regular’ people claim they try to avoid.

But after observing this stuff, I realized that the vulgar language, the disparaging rap songs and the ‘social misfits’ are actually the ‘new’ normal. They are practicing their freedom of expression that only a few people know how to do.

It’s a shame that such a freedom loving portion of the U.S. has been mislabeled they way they have. These are the kind of people who don’t worry about what is or isn’t politically correct and I think it is time that as a people we should take a lesson from them.

The new Advanced Placement U.S. History exam is gutting traditional American history, turning it into a leftist view of an America based on identity politics and not a Constitution meant to protect the rights of individual freedoms.

For instance James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founding fathers are largely left out of the new test, unless they are presented as examples of conflict and identity by class, gender, race, ethnicity and such.  belief in the superiority of their own culture.

The new framework forces teachers to ‘teach’ their students in a leftist, blame-America-first reading of history, while omitting traditional treatments of our founding principles.

The new exam has been authorized under David Coleman, known as the “architect” of the Common Core standards and, now, the president of the College Board, the organization responsible for the SAT college entrance exam and the various Advanced Placement exams.

Fortunately, leading the charge against the new exam is Texas, which is about 10 percent of the College Board’s market.

Texas School Board’s Ken Mercer is trying to introduce a resolution that would reject the new AP exam. Mercer is being told, however, that the resolution cannot be introduced until September, when it will be too late.

While the College Board has released a complete sample exam, it’s only done so to certified AP U.S. History teachers. And those teachers have been warned, under penalty of law not to disclose the content of the new samples exam anyone.

But don’t expect NBC to tell you the truth about the rewrite or Common Core . That’s because Bill and Melissa Gate’s ‘Gates Foundation,’ is now funding the news giant’s education coverage as noted on NBC’s website:

“Education coverage for NBCNews.com is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. NBC News retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.”

This isn’t the first time the Gates Foundation has entered into such an agreement with the media. In October 2010, ABC News and the Gates Foundation inked a yearlong project investigating global health problems and their potential solutions.

The Gates Foundation supplied a grant of $1.5 million in order to travel the world reporting on various health crises and suggesting solutions. ABC claimed it retained full editorial control.

Beginning in 2000, the Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to ‘improve’ high schools by making them smaller, only to discover student body size has little effect on achievement. It then shifted it’s its focus on teaching and that increasing achievement is as simple as removing bad teachers, identifying good ones, and rewarding them with money.

Based on this the Gates Foundation will spend $290 million over seven years on school districts in Tampa, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. These districts are intended as models that, if proven successful, can be rolled out nationwide.

While cities like Denver and Cincinnati have experimented with paying teachers for performance, the Gates ‘Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching,’ is the largest and most comprehensive effort to test teachers in all grades and subjects based on student test gains.

In his 2009 book, ‘Picturing the Uncertain World,’ Howard Wainer says the Gates Foundation’s data showing small schools are overrepresented, is in error. Wainer says big high schools outperform small ones, adding that the larger scale lets them offer more advanced classes, electives, and extracurricular activities.

Even though, the Gates Foundation started pouring money into creating small high schools and subdividing big ones.

With Gates funding, one Denver high school split into three and lost so many students that it shut down in 2006. It reopened a year later as a single school, without the Gates Foundation’s support.

In November 2008, Gates acknowledged that “simply breaking up existing schools into smaller units often did not generate the gains we were hoping for.” Still, the Gates Foundation is crediting the smaller schools for their skill at boosting attendance and decreasing violence.

Once it became clear small schools weren’t the answer, the Gates Foundation, in 2007, started evaluating teachers based on student test score. The Gates-funded plan in Tampa will start this school year.

Of the $100 million the Gates Foundation is pouring into the Hillsborough County district, about $60 million will go to teachers. With the cash comes a new evaluation system: 40 percent of the grade will be based on student learning gains as measured by standardized tests, 60 percent on observations by the school principal and teachers from elsewhere in the district.

A higher rated teacher could earn as much in their fourth or fifth year as a teacher with 20 years’ experience. The Gates Foundations goal is to get teachers to adopt ‘best practices’ and learn from colleagues who are more effective in handling disruptions or instilling particular concepts.

As a condition of funding, the Gates Foundation also required Hillsborough and the other districts to cooperate with local unions. So, Hillsborough agreed to tell teachers in advance when peers will observe their lessons, making positive evaluations more likely.

By contrast, teachers in Cincinnati will give two lessons in front of evaluators without prior notice.

More than 99 percent of Hillsborough teachers were rated satisfactory or outstanding in 2007-2008, and 98 percent of those eligible received tenure. Hillsborough currently terminates 0.5 percent of its teaching force annually.

A study of five Florida districts from 2000 to 2005 found that only half the teachers ranked in the top 20 percent one year were in the top 40 percent the next.

In Memphis, where Gates has invested $90 million, a third of students move during the year, meaning gains can’t be credited to one school or teacher. Giving several tests a year can sort out each teacher’s contribution, but ratings still may be tainted since teachers have to account for newcomers and student departures.

In a national survey of 40,000 teachers, co-sponsored by the Gates Foundation and released in March, 36-percent said tying pay to performance is not at all important, while only eight-percent said it’s essential. Meanwhile, 30-percent said it would have no effect on student achievement.

Presently, the Gates Foundation and Education Secretary Arne Duncan seem a bit too cozy. Two of Duncan’s top aides, Chief of Staff Margot Rogers and Assistant Deputy Secretary James H. Shelton III, came from the Gates Foundation, having been given waivers by the administration from its revolving-door policy limiting involvement with former employers.

Vicki Phillips, who heads the Gates Foundation’s education programs and Duncan, participated from 2004 to 2007 in the Gates co-funded ‘Urban Superintendents Network.’ When the federal government made $4.35 billion in federal ‘Race to the Top’ awards available, the Gates Foundation paid a consultants to prepare applications for 24 states, as well as the District of Columbia.

One of two winners so far is Tennessee, which had help from Gates, and will receive about $500 million from the Obama administration.
Both Gates and his wife argue there is anything amiss in the Gates Foundation’s relationship with the administration. All the Gates Foundation wants is results, says Bill Gates, however they are achieved.

During its annual convention in Los Angeles last week, American Federation of Teacher’s president Randi Weingarten stopped short of outright opposing Common Core. Some of AFT’s local chapters, including Chicago, have called for the union to end its support for Common Core entirely.

The unions have also criticized the standards for being too hard, rewarding a small number of “profiteering” companies that make the tests and books, and punishing both teachers and students. But at the end of the conference, with a massive push from New York’s Unity Caucus, AFT delegates voted by two-thirds majority to continue to support Common Core.

This may be a calculated move on the AFT’s part to tell the Obama administration union’s backing depends on whether the administration pays attention to its other demands. For example, AFT has long called for the repeal of No Child Left Behind, which mandates annual, multiple-choice tests for most elementary and middle school students.

But the news isn’t all bad as Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the Legislature did have the authority to repeal Common Core for English and math in the state’s public schools. The suit alleged lawmakers violated the state Board of Education’s constitutional authority when they repealed the standards earlier this year.

Several groups maintained that the standards represented federal intrusion into Oklahoma’s public education system, and Governor Mary Fallin signed into law legislation repealing the standards last month. The legislation, repealing Common Core standards for English and math, did not include standards for science and social studies.

Other states that have repealed or formally withdrawn from the standards are Indiana and South Carolina. Meanwhile North Carolina is moving forward with a bill eliminating Common Core, while in Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal and Louisiana Education Superintendent John White continue to negotiate over implementing the standards.