Some people may want to stand out when it comes to their fashion sense. However, when there are dangerous protests or mass gathering, you’d want to blend in easily. Here’s how to become the Gray Man and do just that.

Becoming the Gray Man

For many years, I have been reading articles about becoming a Gray Man. You may have been wondering why people are preparing for something like this.

Now, we are looking at a profoundly serious situation where who you are and what you believe can really dictate your level of safety when you are in certain groups of people. Just imagine wearing a ruby red MAGA hat and walk through an Antifa or BLM protest at dusk. Things are going to get bad for you, quickly.

Blending in is quite simple if you have the right things on hand

Your Gray Man Kit 

While many people like the idea of dressing each day as an inconspicuous gray man, I enjoy wearing shirts and hats with emblems on them. I like being an individual. I think that is true about most Americans. Also, we don’t like the idea of people or situations being so messed up that we literally must regulate what we wear.

To mitigate this, you can create a simple grey man kit:

1. Hat

One of the quickest ways to jump into grey man status is to have a plain earth tone hat on. Something with a nice, curved brim that covers a bit of your face. These hats are cheap and easy to find. Start building your kit with one of these hats.

You can swap out another hat, disguise your hair, or even help disguise your gender if these things are necessary.

2. Shirt 

Americans wear their emotions, hobbies, and passions on their T-shirts. We are living through a time where this kind of expression can be dangerous if you find yourself in a mob or in an area where you are a standout. The fact is we cannot be sure about the level of safety across the nation anymore.

White, grey, and black tee shirts can be bought for cheap and rolled down very slowly. This is the second part of your grey man kit.

3. Jacket 

You should have at least one piece in your kit that allows you to go “gray” in the weather. A simple stasher jacket can go over your larger sweatshirt or winter coat and black you out in a crowd. If you are looking to disappear in a crowd you can do that easily by throwing on an olive-drab (OD) green or black stasher jacket.

This will also help you in the cold or rain.

4. Mask

There is one standout benefit in all this pandemic madness that adds to the grey man kit. Never before have we been able to walk around with half of our face covered.

Now, we are mandated to be covered up so take that into consideration and use it to your advantage. The mask can do a lot to shield who you are in a situation where you are trying to blend in with protesters.

5. Sunglasses

Since you have a mask and you can cover up the majority of your face, you might as well carry a pair of sunglasses in your kit, too! If you can imagine a hat with sunglasses and a face mask, you would be about as unrecognizable as can be.

6. Behavior 

While the things you wear can have a strong effect on becoming a Gray Man, how you behave is just as important to your mission. You must become the crowd or the town or city in which you are traveling. You must carry yourself like those around you.

If you are walking down a busy New York City street, you better not be the guy who is on a leisurely stroll or you will stand out like a sore thumb. Conversely, if you are taking an evening stroll down Bourbon Street in Louisiana, then you shouldn’t be moving at some breakneck pace.

How you behave as a Gray Man can often be one of the biggest means of blending in. Even someone who may not be dressed the part can certainly fit in by how they talk and act in the crowd.

Don’t Forget Your Purpose

Becoming the Gray Man requires thought. It is about a lot more than just the type of backpack you carry. If you are planning on entering a new area or a dangerous area and attempting to blend in, you should do your due diligence.

Do some research on where you are going and the types of people who live there. Be able to speak to local issues, events, and sports. Also, do some research on popular places that are around the area. It all pays off.

The final note on this subject is to not enjoy it too much! Get out of harm’s way as quickly as possible, no matter how good at being the Gray man you are!

Have you tried becoming a Gray Man before? Share with us your tips on how to seamlessly blend in a crowd in the comments section!

Up Next:

• Urban Survival Tactic: How To Become A Gray Man
• Art of Concealment | How To Make A Camouflage Suit
• How To Practice Leave No Trace Camping

While there are ways to make your own emergency food kit, it takes time, effort, and expertise. If you don’t know the right ways to …

Read moreBePrepared Emergency Food Survival Kit Review

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We are not going to know the winner of the presidential election on the night of November 3rd.  Sadly, we almost certainly won’t know the winner the next day either.  In fact, it may be many weeks before a winner is formally declared.  Laws have been passed all over the country to make voting by mail much easier, and it is being very heavily promoted in many states.  It is being projected that at least 83 percent of all U.S. voters will be eligible to vote by mail in November, and that is an astounding number.  If all of those people actually did vote by mail, more than 190 million votes would go through our postal system.  But of course many people will continue to show up in person and vote the old-fashioned way.  We will get the results from those that vote in person on election day very rapidly like we normally do, but it may take a very long time before all of the mail-in votes are tallied.  As I will explain in this article, this has the potential to create some enormous problems.

It is being generally assumed by the political “experts” that Trump will do very well among those that show up in person to vote and that Biden will do very well among those that vote by mail.

If that assumption is true, some Democrats are warning that it could look like Trump will win the election based on the results that we are given on the night of November 3rd, but once all of the mail-in votes are counted Biden will actually be the true winner.

Specifically, this is a narrative that Democratic pollster Josh Mendelsohn is now pushing heavily.  According to a “scenario” modeled by his firm, the results on election night could show Trump winning 408 electoral votes…

“We are sounding an alarm and saying that this is a very real possibility, that the data is going to show on election night an incredible victory for Donald Trump,” HawkFish CEO Josh Mendelsohn said in an interview with Axios on HBO.

One scenario modeled by Mendelsohn’s polling firm even shows Trump prevailing in the Electoral College on election night, winning 408 electoral votes compared to just 130 for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Could you imagine the euphoria of Trump supporters if this is what the numbers actually show on the night of November 3rd?

Everyone would be talking about a “Trump landslide” and there would be wild dancing in the streets in many red states.

But Mendelsohn is anticipating that only about 15 percent of all mail-in votes will be counted by election night, and he believes that once all of the mail-in votes are counted that Biden will be declared the true winner…

That scenario accounts for the idea that just 15 percent of mail-in votes will be counted by election night. In that event, the model suggests, Biden could prevail days later — if counting goes smoothly — by 334 electoral votes to 204 for Trump.

“When every legitimate vote is tallied and we get to that final day, which will be some day after Election Day, it will in fact show that what happened on election night was exactly that, a mirage,” Mendelsohn said.

I don’t even want to imagine the uproar that would be created if such a scenario actually played out.

Even if there was no vote fraud, and even if every single vote was counted accurately, tens of millions of people would still be absolutely convinced that the election was stolen from Trump.

And even Mendelsohn is admitting that the outcome he is projecting would “shake the losing side’s faith in the integrity of the election”.

Personally, I think that mail-in voting is such a bad idea no matter which party it favors.  It opens up so many opportunities for potential vote fraud, and the delay in getting the results is very bad for our nation.

I believe that we will see some precincts in some swing states with a voter participation rate of more than 100 percent this year.  In other words, I believe that in some precincts the number of votes cast will actually outnumber the true number of actual voters.

Let’s keep a close eye on the results as they come in throughout the month of November and see if I am actually correct.  In my opinion there is going to be quite a bit of monkey business going on with mail-in ballots, and President Trump has been greatly concerned about mail-in ballots as well.  In fact, on Wednesday he once again expressed his concern that the upcoming election could be rigged…

Wednesday: Trump retweeted an article from a conservative publication that raised questions about the impact of mail-in voting on the upcoming election and added his own editorial comment. “Rigged election?” he asked.

I have always believed that voters should be required to vote in person as much as possible and that paper ballots should always be used.  Those two measures alone would certainly not completely fix our system, but they would definitely go a long way toward restoring integrity to the voting process.

As it stands now, we are heading into a nightmare election.  We all know that it is exceedingly unlikely that Trump will concede on election night, and Hillary Clinton continues to insist that Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances…

In a rare joint interview with American Urban Radio Washington Bureau Chief April Ryan, Hillary Clinton added to her demands that Democrat Joe Biden not concede on election night, and Bill Clinton suggested that Trump will reinforce the White House to keep officials from pulling him out on Inauguration Day.

“Do not concede under any circumstance because I believe the other side is going to cheat and sneak and try everything they possibly can,” said Hillary Clinton in the “#COVID Conversations” interview broadcast via Instagram.

So we are probably going to have to wait for weeks before every vote is finally counted.

And then if it is still very close, there will probably be legal challenges which will have to work their way through the courts.

If things are tight enough, we may not have a formal winner until some time in 2021.

No matter who ends up being victorious, I believe that the election of 2020 is going to be a nightmare for America.  It is likely that we will see vote fraud on a scale that we have never seen before, millions of those on the losing side will probably never accept the final result as legitimate, and the chaos caused by a contested outcome could result in even more violence in our streets.

We will see what happens, but right now I have a very, very bad feeling about what is going to happen in November.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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.  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)  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 and Twitter, 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.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a Vortex Optics fan. When people ask my opinion on a rifle or pistol scope, the answer …

Read moreVortex Venom vs Viper Sights: Head to Head Comparison

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It looks like we are headed for the most chaotic presidential election in modern U.S. history.  According to some estimates, somewhere around 40 percent of all U.S. voters will vote by mail this year.  That means that tens of millions of votes will be going through the postal system, and that has the potential to create all sorts of problems.  For one thing, it is going to take a lot of extra time to open those ballots and count them.  For states that allow mail-in votes to be counted in advance, that shouldn’t delay final results by too much, but in other states we are facing the possibility of a nightmare scenario.  There are certain states that are not allowed to start counting any ballots until the polls close on election day, and that includes key swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania…

In several states not accustomed to high volumes of mail-in voting, including Rust Belt swing states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, election officials cannot start counting ballots until voting ends on election night. Other swing states, such as Minnesota, allow absentee ballots to be postmarked up to Election Day.

So as we all watch the election results come in on the night of November 3rd, what we will be getting will only be partial results.

And at this point the mainstream media is assuming that the votes that are cast in person will heavily favor President Trump, and so they are warning us that there could be a “red mirage” scenario in which it appears that Trump is easily winning an election that he has actually lost.

Of course if Trump builds a huge lead on election night, he is likely to declare victory, and Facebook has already stated that they intend to “flag” any such attempt…

Facebook plans to flag any attempt by the Trump campaign to declare a premature victory in the presidential race on the platform, the company announced on Thursday.

The social media giant, which has come in for heavy criticism for failing to police foreign and domestic elections propaganda on its network, also said it would not accept any new political ads in the final week of the 2020 presidential race.

This is one of the reasons why I have always been strongly against mail-in voting.  Our nation is likely to be thrown into a state of chaos in November because it is going to take so long to count all the votes.  President Trump and his supporters will be absolutely convinced that they have won the election if they have a big lead on election night, and Joe Biden and his supporters will be absolutely convinced that they will be victorious once all of the mail-in votes are finally counted.  And then no matter what the final result is, about half the country will not be willing to accept it as legitimate.

This is going to be such a disaster, but nobody can do anything about it now.  All we can do is watch this slow-motion train wreck play out.

Biden supporters are already pointing to a recent poll which shows that Biden voters are far more likely to vote by mail than Trump supporters are…

Forty-seven percent of voters who plan to vote for Biden say they are likely to vote by mail, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Wednesday. That’s more than double the 21% of voters backing Trump who say they are likely to vote by mail. The poll found 56% of Republicans say they intend to vote on Election Day, compared with 26% of Democrats.

If all of the votes were counted and released at one time, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem.

But instead most of the results that we will get on election night will be from in-person voting, and most of the mail-in votes will be counted some time later.

At this point, everyone should be able to see that this is almost certainly not going to end well.

So many Trump voters prefer to vote the old-fashioned way, while many Democrats are very eager to vote by mail, and this has created a huge disparity in ballot requests in some of the most critical swing states.  Just check out these numbers…

In Pennsylvania – a state Trump won in 2016 but where polling shows him behind – nearly 900,000 Democrats have requested a mail ballot for the election, more than twice the 347,000 Republicans who have done so. In North Carolina, another state Trump won in 2016 but where he and Biden are in a close race, nearly 313,000 Democrats requested mail ballots compared with nearly 93,000 Republicans.

We are seeing similar numbers in other states, and this is one of the reasons why Joe Biden will not concede no matter how large Trump’s lead on election night is.

This thing could end up dragging out for an extended period of time, and that is extremely unfortunate.

And the truth is that we may never even know the true winner of the 2020 election.  Voting by mail opens up so many opportunities for fraud, and large numbers of ballots never even get delivered to the intended voters in the first place.  As Breitbart has reported, 17 percent of the ballots that were sent out to registered voters in Nevada for their primary in June came back as “undeliverable”…

Last month, the Trump campaign filed suit against Nevada for their universal mail-in voting plans that would allow votes submitted after election day to count for the election. More than 223,000 mail-in ballots sent to registered voters in Las Vegas, Nevada, for their June primary bounced as “undeliverable” — 17 percent of the total 1,325,934 mail-in ballots that were sent out in the county.

Over the next couple of months, tens of millions of ballots are going to be floating around out there, and many will end up in the hands of people that should not have them.  For example, Hulk Hogan says that one of his friends just received a ballot that was addressed to his dog…

Crazy stuff, a friend of mine just got a mail in ballot for his dog Nugget? Now even dogs can vote!

How does something like that happen?

Another thing to watch out for is “ballot harvesting”.  Democrats have become masters of this practice, and they used it with devastating effectiveness in California in 2018.  Now they are deploying this tactic all over the nation, and very alarming incidents of abuse are already being reported…

Furthermore, a citizen journalist reported that Democrats were harvesting mail-in ballots from nursing homes in Texas by fraudulently submitting ballot applications in bulk.

The journalist said that at least 32 applications supposedly from elderly voters were all submitted with the exact same handwriting, and were all submitted using the same pre-printed envelope with the same-style stamp.

In the end, we should all want a legitimate outcome.  The integrity of our elections is of paramount importance, and the will of the American people should be respected.

But I don’t think that any of us will ever be able to feel good about the outcome of this election no matter who ends up winning.

Needless to say, the losing side is likely to be absolutely enraged over an election that they feel has been stolen from them, and that is likely to make the current chaos in our streets even worse.

At this point, even the Washington Post is warning that this election is likely to end “catastrophically”…

Perspective: The election will likely spark violence — and a constitutional crisis.

In every scenario except a Biden landslide, our simulation ended catastrophically.

For once, I actually agree with the Washington Post.

I have a hard time trying to imagine how this election could possibly end well.

Right now, Trump and his supporters are convinced that Trump will win, and Biden and his supporters are convinced that Biden will win.

One side is going to be bitterly, bitterly disappointed, and they will almost certainly feel like the election was not won legitimately.

There is going to be so much anger, and when it explodes it is going to be very frightening to watch.

This is already such a dark chapter in American history, and this election is going to take things to an entirely new level.

Sadly, I believe that after November 2020 nothing in this country will ever be the same again.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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.  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)  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 and Twitter, 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.

Knives are one of the staple tools any decently prepared person will keep with them at all times. You don’t have to be a Prepper or a Survivalist to understand the value of a knife in everyday life, and clip one to your waistband before you leave the house everyday.

But what if you found yourself in a situation without your knife? Or you were somehow left with only one knife, and you didn’t want to use it for a particularly messy task?

Knowing how to make primitive stone tools will come in handy if you ever find yourself in a long-term SHTF situation. You won’t be able to pop over to the hardware store for a new blade, and over time it’s easy to misplace or break the ones you have.

Making your own sharp tools isn’t hard, although it takes practice to perfect your technique. If you ever find yourself in need of a razor-sharp edge, you may be surprised how accessible they are to you. You don’t have to feel bad about using and disposing of these blades because you can always make more when you need them!

Choose the Right Kind of Rock

Not all rocks will easily splinter into the sharp edges that you’ll need; you’re most likely to find the right types next to a stream or river. Flint, chert, jasper, chalcedony, quartz, and obsidian all make for effective cutting tools.

If you’re not well-versed in identifying types of rocks (oh, you didn’t major in Geology?), look for:

• fine grained stones with a consistent texture
• rocks that have the highest pitch when tapped
• stones that do not have existing cracks or fissures

Still not sure? Start testing different rocks and see what results you get. Over time, you will recognize the ones that have become effective tools for you.

Cutting Stone Creation Techniques

When you are breaking rocks apart, keep in mind that they are extremely hard and unpredictable. You will want to protect your eyes and your skin to avoid potentially debilitating injuries.

Rock Bash

Rock Bashing is a very rudimentary way to create sharp flakes of rocks. Lay out your potential cutting tool rocks on the ground, and find a much larger, heavier rock (but you must be able to lift it above your head). Throw the large rock at the small rocks until they splinter, and check what kinds of pieces you have created.

Bipolar Percussion

 

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A post shared by Mickey (@wildfirebushcraft) on Mar 26, 2018 at 5:33pm PDT

This is the most effective way to break a stone into two useable pieces.

Find a large stone to act as the anvil under your potential cutting tool stone. Stand your subject stone up tall on the anvil rock, and strike it hard with a large hammer stone.

The hammer stone should be at least 5x bigger than the subject stone.

It should only take a few good strikes to create sharp pieces that are immediately useable.

Percussion Flaking

Flints, cherts, obsidians, and glass can all be flaked by striking their edges with your hammer stone.

This is a more controlled way to shape the edge into a flat spear. It is also more difficult, as most rocks are too brittle or too dense to flake.

There are few more universally necessary tools than a knife, and you should store several knives of varying lengths, as well as a sharpener to keep the blades razor-sharp. But if you find yourself in need of an effective cutting edge, you can fall back on these tried-and-true methods of creating your own.

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

All of us at The Prepper Journal want to wish you and your families a safe holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

The post Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

All of us at The Prepper Journal want to wish you and your families a safe holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

The post Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

The Labor Department announced on Thursday that another 1.006 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week.  Prior to this year, the all-time record for a single week was just 695,000, and so the number of Americans that are losing their jobs each week continues to remain at a catastrophic level.  But this latest figure is actually being spun as “good news” because at least it was lower than the week before.  And I am willing to concede that point, because we should definitely welcome any sign that the numbers are starting to move in the right direction.  However, there is no doubt that what we have experienced up to this point in 2020 is nothing short of an economic cataclysm.  Over the last 23 weeks, more than 58 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits.  Even if zero workers filed for unemployment for the rest of 2020, this would still be the worst year for unemployment claims in all of U.S. history by a gigantic margin.  Vast hordes of workers have been losing their jobs week after week as the U.S. economy melts down right in front of our eyes.  This has truly been an economic horror show, and the most nightmarish chapters are still ahead of us.

When economic numbers start getting really bad, the government often decides to “modify” how they are calculated, and on Thursday the Labor Department announced that it will be “changing how it adjusts weekly jobless-claims figures for seasonal swings”.

Presumably, that should help the numbers look a bit better starting next week.

But no matter how much they massage the numbers, they can’t erase the fact that tens of millions of people are deeply hurting right now.  According to one new survey, 61 percent of Americans need “another relief bill”, and about two-thirds of Americans from the age of 24 to the age of 54 say that they are currently in financial distress…

The latest survey by MagnifyMoney reveals 61 percent of the country needs another relief bill to pay for expenses. Over 80 percent of workers who have been laid off or furloughed due to COVID-19 are counting on more assistance. The poll of 1,010 Americans adds 71 percent of Generation X (ages 40 to 54) and 65 percent of millennials (ages 24 to 39) say they are currently in financial distress.

If you are not in financial distress at this moment, you should be very thankful for your blessings, because you are definitely in the minority.

And more layoff announcements just keep on coming with each passing day.  On Thursday, we learned that Lord & Taylor will be laying off all their workers and closing every single store…

Lord & Taylor, the first department store established in the United States, is officially going out of business, ending a nearly 200-year run.

The bankrupt company announced Thursday that all of its 38 remaining stores and website have begun liquidation sales — a reversal from last week’s decision to keep 14 locations open.

When I was a kid, I was always so intimidated by Lord & Taylor when my mother would take me to the mall.

I always thought that was where the rich people shopped.

I never imagined that someday I would see it go out of business forever.

Of course countless other retailers are going belly up as the worst “retail apocalypse” in U.S. history rolls on.  According to Coresight Research, approximately 25 percent of all malls in the United States “will close over the next three to five years”…

Another new report out this week from Coresight Research estimates 25% of America’s roughly 1,000 malls will close over the next three to five years, with the pandemic accelerating a demise that was already underway before the new virus emerged.

Can you imagine what our country is going to look like if that actually happens?

Already, communities all over America are being blighted by one boarded up property after another, and this is especially true in many impoverished areas.

Of course our economic problems have been accelerated by a series of very unusual events that have been beyond our control.  It has been one thing after another here in 2020, and the latest major disaster to hit us was Hurricane Laura.  We were extremely fortunate that neither New Orleans or Houston took a direct hit from this storm, because it was enormously destructive.  Just consider what one survivor told the press about the devastation in his community…

“It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It’s just destruction everywhere,” said Brett Geymann, who rode out the storm with three family members in Moss Bluff, near Lake Charles, Louisiana. He described Laura passing over his house with the roar of a jet engine around 2 a.m.

Let us hope that we will have at least a little bit of time before the next major crisis comes along.  Many had been hoping that August would be a quiet month, but that didn’t turn out to be the case, and now September is just a few days away.

And as we approach the fall season, it is being reported that wealthy investors have been “hoarding cash”…

A group of multimillionaire investors in the U.S. are hoarding cash at unprecedented levels.

Tiger 21, a club of more than 800 investors, reported Thursday that its members have raised their cash holdings to 19% of their total assets on concerns over the economic consequences of the covid pandemic in the U.S. That’s up from about 12% since the start of the outbreak. About a quarter now expect the crisis to continue until the end of next June, the group said.

Is this a sign that many of them believe that trouble is ahead for the financial markets?

Of course it isn’t just the wealthy that are deeply concerned about the months ahead.  Our nation has been gripped by endless turmoil for most of this year, and now a very hotly contested presidential election is just over two months away.  Meanwhile, economic conditions will continue to deteriorate, and that means that tens of millions of Americans will become even more angry and even more frustrated.  If you believe that the U.S. is just going to snap out of all of this somehow and everything will turn out just fine in the end, then you simply do not understand the times in which we are living.

For so long we were warned that a “perfect storm” was coming, and now it is here.

And if you think that 2020 has been bad, just wait until you see what else is ahead.

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

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.  By purchasing the book 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.  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)  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 and Twitter, 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 Things Have Gotten So Bad That A Million New Claims For Unemployment Benefits In One Week Is Considered “Good News” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

We need to keep a very close eye on this new “monster storm” that is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.  Laura was officially declared to be a hurricane on Tuesday morning, and at this moment it is projected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast on either late Wednesday or early Thursday.  But before it does, it is expected to undergo a process known as “rapid intensification”, and that just happens to be the exact same process that Hurricane Katrina went through just before it absolutely devastated the city of New Orleans in 2005.  After undergoing “rapid intensification”, meteorologists are expecting Hurricane Laura to come ashore as a category 3 storm with winds “of around 115 mph”…

Hurricane Laura will make landfall as a major hurricane, with winds of around 115 mph and a storm surge up to 13 feet, when it strikes near the Louisiana-Texas border late Wednesday or early Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm surge estimates are “staggering amounts, life-threatening amounts,” NHC Director Ken Graham said.

At this point, hundreds of thousands of people living along the Gulf Coast have already been evacuated, and we are being told that this storm could cause “devastating damage” to coastal communities…

Laura is expected to become a Category 3 storm, which routinely cause “devastating damage” to homes, trees and infrastructure, according to the National Weather Service. Recent Category 3 storms include Harvey, which hit Texas in 2017, and Rita, which hit Louisiana in 2005.

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, it was also a category 3 storm with top winds of approximately 125 mph.

So if current forecasts are accurate, Laura will be a slightly less powerful storm than Katrina was.

But the truth is that we don’t really know for sure what will happen.

Rapid intensification is a highly unpredictable process, and Laura is heading directly into conditions that are extremely favorable…

“The conditions ahead of Laura do favor rapid intensification,” University of Miami researcher Brian McNoldy said.

The phenomenon is typically defined to be a tropical cyclone intensifying by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.

Hurricanes love warm water, and it is being reported that Laura will be hovering above waters that are very warm for this time of the year…

Seawater in the Gulf is plenty warm, forecasters said, in the neighborhood of 86-88 degrees, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. Laura “will have a long stretch of warm waters with high heat content Tuesday night until landfall Wednesday night or Thursday morning, and rapid intensification during that time is a good possibility,” Masters said.

So there is really no telling how powerful Laura could become.

But even if it just ends up being about as powerful as Katrina, it is a storm that you won’t want to mess with.  For those that may not remember, Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in all of U.S. history.  The following comes from Wikipedia…

Flooding, caused largely as a result of fatal engineering flaws in the flood protection system known as levees^[4] around the city of New Orleans, precipitated most of the loss of lives.^[5] Eventually, 80% of the city, as well as large tracts of neighboring parishes, were inundated for weeks.^[6] The flooding also destroyed most of New Orleans’ transportation and communication facilities, leaving tens of thousands of people who had not evacuated the city prior to landfall stranded with little access to food, shelter or basic necessities. The scale of the disaster in New Orleans provoked massive national and international response efforts; federal, local and private rescue operations evacuated displaced persons out of the city over the following weeks.

To this day, there are some parts of New Orleans that have never recovered from that storm.

The good news is that the current forecast track has Laura going past New Orleans and primarily hitting areas along the border between Texas and Louisiana…

On the forecast track, the center of Laura will move across the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday. The hurricane should approach the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts on Wednesday evening and move inland near those areas Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

But of course anything could still happen.

Hurricanes often make very unexpected twists and turns, and we have seen frequent examples of this in recent years.

So nobody along the Gulf Coast should be relaxing just yet.

And the truth is that there are going to be some communities that are going to be absolutely devastated after taking a direct hit from this storm.  We just don’t know which communities they will be at this point.

Unlike the pandemic that we are going through, the horrifying economic collapse that we are experiencing and the civil unrest that is raging in our major cities, this is just a temporary crisis.  This storm will soon pass, but more are coming.  September is a key month for hurricanes, and I will be watching developments over the coming weeks with great interest.

And we appear to have entered a time when storms are becoming more powerful and global weather patterns are going absolutely nuts all over the globe.  2020 has already been a banner year for natural disasters, and many believe that the years ahead will be even worse.

But for the moment, the eyes of the meteorological community are all on Hurricane Laura.  At this hour they are telling us that it could be a similar storm to Hurricane Katrina in many ways when it finally makes landfall, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

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

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