The last two years have greatly shaken America, and our country will never be the same as a result.  If you would have told someone two years ago that in 2021 millions of people would run around wearing masks all day and that the federal government would be relentlessly pushing a large scale mass injection campaign, that person probably would have thought that you were nuts.  But now this is the “new normal”.  Our freedoms and liberties have been permanently eroded, and now that they have gotten away with pushing the envelope so dramatically, government entities on all levels will be ready to flex their muscles again once the next major crisis comes along.

You could argue that we should just vote out the politicians that are running things on the state and federal levels, but exactly how are we supposed to do that?

After what we witnessed last November, tens of millions of Americans won’t believe that our system of choosing leaders is legitimate ever again.

Of course those that are currently running things could attempt to restore faith in the system by getting rid of all the voting machines and by instituting real reforms that would make the process as transparent as possible, but we all know that they will never do that.

The last couple of years have been extremely painful for our economy as well.  More than 70 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last year, homeless encampments started popping up like mushrooms all over the country, and countless numbers of small businesses shut down permanently.  In fact, most Americans say that they have lost a favorite local business as a result of the pandemic…

Few people have escaped the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic and that’s especially true for local ‘mom and pop’ shops. A new study finds half of Americans have witnessed their favorite local businesses close down because of COVID-19.

A survey of 2,000 people reveals 68 percent personally know a local business owner impacted by the pandemic. According to respondents, the most commonly impacted businesses include cafes (62%), retail shops (58%), gaming shops (55%), and book stores (54%).

On Thursday, we learned that another 444,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week.

In 2019, such a number would have been considered catastrophic.

But in the “new normal”, that number is actually considered to be “good news”.

Our politicians have tried to make everyone feel better by sending out waves of huge government checks, but that has just created rampant inflation and widespread shortages.

We are also losing the peace on our streets.  Murder rates were way up in major cities all over America in 2020, and in most of those cities they are even higher this year.

And it isn’t just men that are shooting men.  Today, I came across an article about an “eight-woman brawl” that resulted in a pregnant mother being gunned down…

A pregnant mother was shot and killed while she sat in her car close to an eight-woman brawl that erupted in gunfire.

The deadly confrontation took place just before 6pm Tuesday in the 1200 block of Valencia Avenue in Hemet, which is located 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Family members identified the 27-year-old who had been shot in the head and died after being flown to a county trauma center as Tamika Haynes.

What in the world is happening to us?

You would have never read about such a thing happening on the streets of America in 1950.

These days, we seem to be losing control of just about everything, and that even includes the technology that we have become so dependent upon.  Hackers are causing nightmares for large entities all over the U.S., and in many cases absolutely enormous ransoms are being paid out…

CNA Financial Corp., among the largest insurance companies in the U.S., paid $40 million in late March to regain control of its network after a ransomware attack, according to people with knowledge of the attack.

The Chicago-based company paid the hackers about two weeks after a trove of company data was stolen, and CNA officials were locked out of their network, according to two people familiar with the attack who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Criminals seem to have the upper hand on the Internet, in our streets and in the halls of power in Washington and on Wall Street.

In previous times, we could rely on law enforcement to restore order, but now law enforcement authorities are being relentlessly demonized in our society.

In fact, it has gotten so bad that large numbers of law enforcement officers are permanently walking away from their careers.  For example, it is being reported that nearly 20 percent of all police officers in Seattle have quit over the past year.

Police departments all over the nation are having an exceedingly difficult time recruiting replacements for those that are leaving, and that is going to continue to be the case as long as we are treating police officers like human garbage.

Speaking of human garbage, just check out the bill that was just passed in the Wisconsin Senate…

Wisconsin senators approved a bill earlier this week allowing dead bodies to be dissolved in a chemical bath and disposed like sewage.

The bill, Senate Bill 228, authorizes a practice called alkaline hydrolysis, or “water cremation,” which liquifies the human body using a mixture of water, heat, and chemical agents, leaving only bones behind. The liquid is then dumped into the sewage system or boiled off, and bones can be crushed and deposited in an urn.

You have got to be pretty sick to want to liquify Grandma and Grandpa before dumping their remains into the sewer.

But that is who we are.

On all levels, we no longer respect life, and that is because as a society we are abandoning our faith.  Just check out these numbers…

The American Worldview Inventory (AWVI) 2021, an annual survey that examines the perspectives of adults aged 18 and over in the United States, found that while 57 percent of Millennials (born 1984-2002) consider themselves to be Christian, 43 percent “don’t know, care, or believe that God exists.”

Comparatively, 70 percent of Generation X (Gen X) Americans (born 1965-1983), 79 percent of Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), and 83 percent of the Builder Generation (born 1927-1945) consider themselves to be Christian, while 31, 28, and 27 percent, respectively, “don’t know, care, or believe that God exists.”

America no longer resembles the nation that our founders sacrificed so much to establish, and if we stay on the path that we are currently on there is no future ahead for us.

But even though voices such as mine have been crying out for change for years, most of the population continues to sprint in the other direction.

We have already lost so much, and the “new normal” truly is horrible, but if America does not wake up things are only going to get worse.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Thoughts On The “New Normal” And The Things That We Are Losing As A Society… first appeared on The Economic Collapse.

A “bug out” bag, also known as BOB, is a portable kit containing items required for survival like painkillers, a first aid kit, food, and water. These types of kits are often used during disasters and other emergencies. Some bug-out bags are big enough to carry items that can see a person through more than […]

This article was originally published by Tho Bishop at The Mises Institute. 

This past March, Dr. Anthony Fauci sparred with Dr. Rand Paul over any public health benefit that came from wearing a mask if one had developed immunity to the virus. In dealing with both a democratically elected senator and a medical doctor, Dr. Fauci was dismissive and condescending. He demonstrated the degree to which he held himself higher than the Senate.

Dr. Fauci was also wrong.

A medical expert in Dr. Fauci’s position losing a debate on the science to an ophthalmologist—even one of Dr. Paul’s great reputation—would itself be enough to declare them a fraud.

But Dr. Fauci is much worse than a fraud; he is a technocrat. He doesn’t see himself as simply someone to explain “the science” of the virus but appointed himself a covid czar. He leveraged the corporate press’s personality cult and used it to manipulate the public to behave the way he wanted them to behave.

He prioritized control over presenting the science.

He also has no shame in doing this. He has repeatedly boasted about it to his devoted followers in the media.

For example, this morning, Fauci explained on ABC that his wearing masks indoors was about optics—not science.

I didn’t want to look like I was giving mixed signals but being a fully vaccinated person, the chances of my getting infected in an indoor setting is extremely low.

This is not the first time Fauci has given himself the authority to act beyond “the science.” Last December, Fauci started changing his claims about the necessary rates of vaccination to achieve a state of post-covid normality. The original aim of 70 percent was moved as high as 90 percent. As Fauci explained to the New York Times:

When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent…. Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, “I can nudge this up a bit,” so I went to 80, 85. We need to have some humility here…. We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent.

America has subjected itself to a lost year of economically devastating, mentally abusive policies—all based on the authoritarian impulses of a learned ignoramus.

This has also become the norm for Washington’s imperial federal government.

While Fauci’s thirst for the camera has made him an easy target for ridicule, most of the true power of the federal government rests in the hands of similar unelected “experts.” For all the arguments that can be made against democracy, it is in these unelected institutions of power that we have seen the most aggressive expansions of state power in pursuit of the most radical policies.

Take the institution most challenged now by the success of Fauci-ism: the Federal Reserve.

Though he doesn’t make enough television appearances to earn his own progressive prayer candle, Jay Powell has received his own fawning praise from the slice of the corporate press that follows the Fed. Senate Democrats have even begun to push for Biden to keep Powell on board when his term comes up next year.

Outside the Beltway, however, Americans are feeling the impact of inflation. Google searches for “inflation” hit record highs in March, long before the 4.2 percent reported an increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Perhaps an American consumer seeing their paycheck buy less and less would be comforted by the fact that inflation is precisely what the Fed has been explicitly calling for.

Of course, the consequences of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented monetary policy go beyond simply the devaluation of money. The Fed’s low-interest-rate policy has massively increased risk in the financial system by depriving investors—both large and small—of safe, conservative investment options. Doing so has been great for large corporations, which have seen stock prices soar since 2008, both richly rewarding CEOs and subsidizing attempts to purchase smaller potential competitors. Those Americans who just wanted to simply save money, avoid debt, and avoid the volatility of the stock market have been less lucky.

At least they can look forward to funding the bailouts when the collapse of a stock market bubble ends up designating Facebook a systemically important company.

Even better, the Federal Reserve continues to give itself greater and greater authority to expand its mission far beyond monetary policy, with policy aims such as “greening the financial system.”

These bold and aggressive power grabs come in spite of the fact that the Fed’s own actions have repeatedly demonstrated that it has no idea what it is doing. Examples include not only the inability to identify the financial crisis in 2008 but its failure to reverse quantitative easing (QE)—as it repeatedly claimed it could do—and its repeated inability to forecast economic growth. The Fed has gone from one crisis to another, expanding its power, creating new tools for itself, and without any clear or coherent vision or economic theory.

Just like Fauci and the other parts of America’s technocratic class.

As the Trump era showed, the problem of these unelected policy czars is not solved simply by a presidential election. They are embedded deep within the structure of the federal government. To reign them in, we either need systemic change or pressure from the states.

Ultimately, what forced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to break itself from the propaganda of Dr. Fauci were the counterexamples offered by Florida and other open states, which were grounded in science rather than a personality cult. While it is easier for a state to nullify public health guidelines than it is to separate a state from America’s central bank, we have seen states like Wyoming and Texas take legislative action to promote alternatives to the Fed.

Hopefully, the example of Dr. Fauci will help kill some of the faith in “policy experts” that government schools spend so much time instilling in the public.

The post Fauci and the Fed: America’s Technocratic Frauds first appeared on SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You.