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More than 1000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel yesterday---mostly from panic buying---as a result of the cyber terrorism that shut down the Colonial Pipeline, the biggest fuel pipeline in the US.
It delivers 45% of the fuel consumed on our East Coast.
Former financial advisor to Pres. Trump, Larry Kudlow, says if the pipeline is not functioning by Friday, things are going to unravel very rapidly.
Fortunately, Colonial announced late yesterday afternoon, they are up and running.
However, the greater issue Kudlow says, is that there is clearly a connection between the Pipeline cyber terrorism and the shooting war on Israel.
Biden's presidency is quickly becoming the modern version of Jimmy Carter's presidency---long lines at the gas pumps, being pushed around by America's enemies, and little to no response by the president.
Be informed, not misled.
Last Friday the Colonial Pipeline was hit with a cyber attack by hackers who generally lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them.
The Pipeline runs from the Texas Gulf Coast to the New York metropolitan area.
Governors have been asking people in the affected states to not buy more gas than they need---"Don't fill up every 5-gallon can you own."
About 7% of Virginia's 3900 gas stations were out of gas by Tuesday, while 8.5% of North Carolina's 5400 stations were out.
Fortunately, the pipeline is up and running as of late yesterday afternoon.
But this attack has again raised concerns about the vulnerability of the nation's critical infrastructure.
It has also reminded many of us of Jimmy Carter's presidency.
What will come next?
Biden's presidency is the modern version of Jimmy Carter's.
Alfredo Ortiz, the president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, wrote an excellent article on the subject.
Ortiz says from Biden's very first press conference it was style over substance. He took advantage of softball questions from friendly media to simply take advantage of basic talking points---concluding that Biden's presidency is the modern reincarnation of Carter's.
I'm not the only one who remembers the long gas lines, a stagnant economy, and lack of substance.
It's remembered as Carter's administration of "Malaise."
The difference may be that Biden is actually further Left than Carter, but Carter didn't have Bernie and AOC and Elizabeth and Barack and Harris---all far-left---pulling his strings and filling his mouth with their words.
Ortiz goes through a list of red flags in the economy that has economists deeply worried--including out-of-control inflation.
He concludes with this: "While Carter-Biden similarities are ominous for ordinary Americans and small business owners, Carter's reign ushered in the Reagan Revolution and an American economic resurgence. If Biden is Carter's modern-day successor, we can only hope the next president will be Reagan 2.0."
Larry Kudlow, the former financial advisor to President Trump, told Fox Business this week,
"We've had a shooting war in the Middle East, we've had a breakdown on the Colonial Pipeline from Russia's cyber hacking, we've had more evidence that overly generous unemployment benefits are keeping people at home rather than work. We've seen a big stock market sell off...So, let me just step back for a moment and review the bidding."
His conclusion? "I'm going to say this: I believe the cyber hacking in the US Southeast is absolutely linked to the Hamas shooting war on Israel. I see it all of one piece, and President Biden is being tested. And so far, he has shown no strength."
"And so far," he continued, "I'm not seeing President Biden stand up for Israel. Nor am I hearing him blast Iran. Nor am I hearing him hold Russia accountable. See, there is a pattern here. They are knocking us back and forth, Mr. Biden is just kind of taking the punches."
Searching for truth--"The Fourth Turning"
There's growing uncertainty in America---and the world, about what the future holds.
"The Fourth Turning" is a national bestseller this week. I am not recommending it.
However, the fact that the book is a best-seller makes my point. And its content further makes my point.
The book is promoted as one that will "change the way you see the world---and your place in it."
It promises to "illuminate the past, explain the present, and reimagine the future."
"Most remarkably," the promoters say, "it offers an utterly persuasive prophecy about how America's past will predict its future."
There's a thread of truth in that.
If you listen to our daily live radio program, you know we give a minute each day to note things that happened that day in history. Knowing history certainly helps understand the present. And Christians are called to be informed.
"The Fourth Turning" looks back 500 years to uncover a distinct pattern in human civilization---a pattern that contains, according to the authors, four cycles.
These four cycles, we're told, last about 20 years each and they always arrive in the same order.
The first is a "High" period of confident expansion, the second is an "Awakening", a "time of spiritual exploration and rebellion against the now-established order." The third is Unraveling, an increasingly troubled era in which individualism triumphs over crumbling institutions. The fourth, and last cycle, they say is a "Crisis"---when society passes through a great and perilous gate in history.
We're told that "the four turnings comprise history's seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth."
The book, they say, "offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America's next rendezvous with destiny."
A better prophecy.
In what would be his last letter before his execution, Paul, the Apostle, wrote to a young pastor--Timothy, giving him not "Four Turnings" but a clear understanding of what the culture will look like just prior to humanity's rendezvous with God, and eternal destiny.
In II Timothy 3:1-5 he told us all:
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
I personally believe we are standing at the threshold of what Paul described as "the last days."
Be Informed. Be Prepared. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.