There has not been a global war since the 1940s, and now nations all over the planet are armed to the teeth with weapons of immense destructive power.  Everyone knows that it is just a matter of time before global conflict turns our world upside down, and once that happens everything will change.  If you think that economic conditions are bad now, just wait until war paralyzes global trade.  If you think that global hunger is bad now, just wait until war absolutely devastates global food production.  War will be one of the primary elements of the “perfect storm” that we are now facing, and it will have a dramatic impact on many of the other elements.

The war that has erupted in the Middle East will be a year old in October, but what we have witnessed so far is just a walk in the park compared to what is coming.

When an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah begins, it will be a complete and utter nightmare.

Sadly, Israeli officials are warning that we are getting very close to that point…

Israeli officials warned that the country is on the “brink” of a full-scale war with Hezbollah if the terrorist group continues to increase its aggression in northern Israel.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) made the warning on Sunday, just a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to meet with Amos Hochstein, a top aide to President Biden. Biden’s administration is pushing Israel to avoid a war in Lebanon, but IDF officials continue to highlight the outsized threat posed by Hezbollah compared to Hamas.

“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation,” an IDF spokesman warned Sunday.

Vast numbers of Israelis were evacuated from their homes in northern Israel when Hezbollah started lobbing rockets over the border.

They are very eager to return to their homes, but that won’t happen until the threat that Hezbollah poses has been neutralized.

Unfortunately, in order to do that the IDF will need to go into southern Lebanon, and once that happens there will be all-out war.

Hezbollah is sitting on a vast arsenal of highly sophisticated missiles that it can use to target Israeli cities, and we are being told that they possess “even more firepower than several European countries have today”…

Hezbollah, however, is far more well-equipped and has more manpower. Their rockets and drone attacks have already forced over 100,000 Israelis to evacuate their homes in northern Israel.

“Hezbollah is the crown jewel in the Iranian empire of terror and evil and is by far the most powerful Iranian proxy, equipped with nation state capabilities and even more firepower than several European countries have today,” former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus told Fox News.

“In a military comparison, Hezbollah is far more powerful than Hamas,” he added.

I am entirely convinced that we could be just months away from a worst case scenario in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the president of Poland is saying that the “decolonization” of Russia should be the end result of the war in Ukraine.

Apparently, this would involve breaking up Russia into a number of much smaller ethnic states…

Polish President Andrzej Duda has called for the “decolonization” of Russia, claiming that Russia’s many ethnic minorities should form their own states.

Russia is one of the most diverse countries in the world and comprises over 190 ethnic groups that speak more than 270 languages and dialects, according to the government.

Speaking at the so-called “Peace for Ukraine” conference in Switzerland on Sunday, Duda described Russia as a “prison of nations.” The country is “home to almost 200 ethnic groups,” which “became the residents of Russia as a result of methods used in Ukraine today,” the Polish leader claimed, referring to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

This sort of talk is extremely dangerous, because it just confirms Russian fears that they are locked in an existential conflict with western powers.

The Russians have warned us over and over again that they will use nuclear weapons if the very existence of their nation is threatened, but our leaders just keep brushing off such threats.

In fact, just last week Vladimir Putin once again publicly discussed the possibility of nuclear war…

Speaking to foreign ministry officials, the Kremlin leader said: ‘Calls to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons demonstrate the extreme recklessness of Western politicians.

‘They either do not understand the scale of the threat they are creating – or are simply obsessed with their own sense of impunity and exceptionalism.

‘Both can lead to tragedy.’

The Russians have been preparing to fight a nuclear war for many years.

Most Americans do not realize this, but their missile systems and anti-missile systems are both far superior to our own.  This is something that I have documented extensively for my readers.

Western leaders are finally starting to realize that they need to get serious, and the head of NATO has stated that there are discussions about “taking missiles out of storage and placing them on standby”…

Nato is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China, the head of the alliance has said.

Jens Stoltenberg added that the bloc must show its nuclear arsenal to the world to send a direct message to its foes in an interview with The Telegraph.

He revealed there were live consultations between members on taking missiles out of storage and placing them on standby as he called for transparency to be used as a deterrent.

I wish that leaders on both sides would get serious about peace, but it doesn’t appear that is going to happen.

A major war with China could soon erupt as well.

The Biden administration has been provoking China over and over again, and it is being reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping just told Ursula von der Leyen that Biden and his minions have been attempting to “goad Beijing into attacking Taiwan”…

China’s President Xi Jinping told European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen that the United States was trying to “goad Beijing into attacking Taiwan,” according to officials aware of the exchange, which took place a little over a year ago but is just now being revealed.

Xi has also been warning his own officials, at a moment tensions are high across the Taiwan Strait particularly given Beijing sees newly inaugurated Taiwan President Lai Ching-te as a pro-independence hawk.

“Xi issued the warning in a meeting with von der Leyen in April 2023 that was described to the Financial Times by several people,” according to a weekend report in FT. “He said the US was trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, but that he would not take the bait. Another person said he had issued similar warnings to his officials.”

Of course let us not forget that Chinese President Xi Jinping isn’t exactly an innocent party here.

Late last year, he told Joe Biden to his face that one way or another he will “reunify” Taiwan with China…

Chinese President Xi Jinping bluntly told President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided, according to three current and former U.S. officials.

Xi told Biden in a group meeting attended by a dozen American and Chinese officials that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force, the officials said.

The Chinese leader also referenced public predictions by U.S. military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027, telling Biden that they were wrong because he has not set a time frame, according to the two current and one former official briefed on the meeting.

Taiwan will never, ever “reunify” with China peacefully.

So war is coming, and it will be horrible.

Before I end this article, I also wanted to mention that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal got quite a bit larger during the past year…

North Korea is believed to possess 50 nuclear weapons – 20 more than in the past year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) revealed in its annual report published on Monday on global militaries.

SIPRI’s “Yearbook 2024 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security” report assesses the known arsenals of nuclear states as well as global military development. It once again found that the vast majority of known nuclear weapons are in the possession of America and Russia, but that communist China is making significant efforts to expand and modernize its own arsenal. Notably, the report documented “the first time China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert” in 2024.

And we are being told that the North Koreans have supplied millions of artillery shells to the Russians…

North Korea has recently sent containers to Russia that could hold as many as 4.8 million artillery shells, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said in an interview with Bloomberg published on June 14th.  Seoul spotted at least 10,000 containers being shipped from North Korea to Russia, according to Won-sik. Pyongyang has also sent dozens of ballistic missiles that Moscow troops have launched against Ukraine.

To put this in perspective, the US has sent only 300,000 artillery shells to Ukraine (most of them maintained since the 1980s in a reserve stockpile meant for Israel) and is straining to meet a manufacturing quota of 100,000 shells per month by 2025.  The disparity between the production of armaments between NATO and Russia (and its allies) has proven to be immense.  From artillery to armor to ammunition, NATO simply cannot keep up.

Those numbers are simply embarrassing.

One of the reasons why we won World War II is because we simply outproduced everyone else.

Now we are being outproduced by the North Koreans.

As we move deeper into this new era of global war, it is just a matter of time before American boys and girls are sent to die.

If you doubt this, just check out what the House of Representatives did on Friday…

The House of Representatives passed a measure on Friday automatically registering men aged 18 to 26 for selective service.

It was part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets out the U.S. government’s military and national security priorities over the next fiscal year.

If they want war, I would like to see them send their own sons and their own daughters.

Of course World War III won’t just be fought on the other side of the planet.

World War III will be a truly global war, and all of our lives will be completely turned upside down as a result.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post War Will Be One Of The Primary Elements Of The “Perfect Storm” That We Are Now Facing appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

The ruling class is gearing up for a major war, as it just authorized the mandatory military draft of women in the United States. The FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act initiates conscription, which is the most abject and obvious version of slavery on the planet. If you still believe you are free, it’s time to really sit and think about who owns you at this point.

Hopefully, conscription will fail and cause the masses to wake up to the slave system on this planet. Noting short of the slaves (civilians) saying “no” to a war and the masters intent upon ruling over them and stealing their wealth will stop the humanitarian crisis we are all facing.

This news comes on the heels of the US House Armed Services Committee approving an amendment to the NDAA that automatically registers all American males (within the draft age window) for the Selective Service System. This means all American males of draft age can be involuntarily drafted into war, according to a report by Natural News. Anytime someone is doing something involuntarily, it is a violation of basic human rights, which is why all government is slavery.

This House vote was approved on May 22nd of this year, as seen in this US HASC video. The automatic draft registration was pushed as a way to “cut government red tape” and skip any requirement for men to “proactively register.”

As America’s psychopathic warmongers like Sen. Lindsay Graham are begging for global nuclear war with Russia, Iran, and China, the rest of the pro-war government establishment is getting things ready to throw millions of young American men and women into the global war meat grinder. –Natural News

Anyone left still fighting to keep a ruling class in place is working for the said ruling class. At this point, it should be more than obvious what is going on and that the slaves are going to be expected to kill and be killed in order to keep the controlling sociopaths in power. It isn’t just the U.S. that’s gearing up for a war either.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are also discussing mandatory conscription, gearing up to sacrifice potentially millions of their own citizens slaves who will, of course, be instantly replaced with migrants.

Mandatory Conscription: The U.S. & Germany Prepare For War With Russia

This is how “replacement theory” works. The mass murderers in charge send citizens to die in foreign wars which were entirely avoidable, while illegal immigrants take over as the new slaves, replacing those the masters sent to their deaths.

They view us as nothing more than human cattle, raised to suit their needs and obey their every whim. We had better learn the word no, and we had better learn it soon, or a good number will be marched off to their deaths.

Abolitionists Understand True Freedom: It’s Time For The Rest Of Us To Understand It Too

The illusion of freedom should be gone. Now it’s time to come to terms with the fact that we are being treated as slaves to the ruling class because we continue to act like slaves. Unless there is a massive rejection of any conscription, from both males and females, we are going to be killed in order to keep the empire propped up.

The sociopaths who start the wars are not the ones who fight those wars. Keep that in mind before blindly obeying those who claim to be your master and overlord (anyone in the ruling class or a hired enforcer of the ruling class).

 

If you live in a major city, you can see them all around you.  I am talking about aging vans, RVs and trailers that are parked on the side of the road for months at a time and that obviously have people living in them.  There is an entire class of people that live in such conditions, and there is an entire class of “businessmen” that prey on such people.  When I was growing up, there were lots of headlines about “slumlords” that were taking advantage of the poor.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a “slumlord” is “a landlord who receives unusually large profits from substandard, poorly maintained properties”.  Today, we have a different sort of a problem.  “Vanlords” are parking vans, RVs and trailers along the streets of the worst parts of our major cities, and they are renting them out to people that cannot afford regular homes.  Sadly, we live at a time when lots and lots of people cannot afford regular homes because homelessness is absolutely exploding all over the nation.  In some areas there have been efforts to crack down on the “vanlords”, but when things get too hot in one area they just move somewhere else.  As long as there are vast hordes of homeless Americans that are deeply suffering, there will be “vanlords” that are eager to take advantage of them.

Matt Feely just authored a very interesting piece about this phenomenon.  He says that things are particularly bad in the poorest sections of Oakland…

The most familiar and ominous form of homelessness in Oakland, however, has become the vehicle encampment. A few small clusters of vehicles have gathered in my North Oakland neighbourhood, lines of dirty campers and battered cars seeking shade under an elevated freeway, but poor East Oakland has it the worst. There, such encampments have taken over long stretches of busy street, visiting already-distressed neighbourhoods with huge living sculptures of ugliness and disorder — cars filled with clothes and junk; hulking RVs parked for months at a time, drug and sex deals conducted streetside; trash gathering around and between the vehicles, and lots of new crime. Recently, the city had to replace traffic lights at an East Oakland intersection with stop signs, because people, presumably from the vehicle encampment close by, were constantly stealing the cables to sell the copper wire inside.

All over the country, this is how vast numbers of people are living now.

Unfortunately, most of the people that are living in RVs don’t even own them.  Instead, most of them are owned by the “vanlords”…

But the people in those RVs don’t own them. They rent them, from people who’ve come to be called “vanlords”. These energetic businesspeople buy up old trailers and RVs and either drive or tow them to unfortunate neighbourhoods in cities like Oakland. There they enter into informal rental agreements with homeless people.

This is also happening on a very large scale in southern California.

In fact, it is being estimated that the number of people living in RVs in Los Angeles County actually increased by 31 percent from 2020 to 2023…

The number of people living in RVs across L.A. County has jumped 31% from 2020 to 2023, according to the annual homeless counts.

About 11,500 people are estimated to live in roughly 6,800 RVs.

With each passing day, more impoverished people are being forced out into the streets.

And with each passing day, more formerly middle class Americans are joining the ranks of the poor.

Our standard of living has declined so much that we have reached a point where even most middle class Americans are struggling financially…

A majority of middle-class Americans are experiencing financial hardship that they expect will continue for the rest of their lives, according to a new poll.

Findings published by the National True Cost of Living Coalition show that 65% of Americans whose incomes are 200% above the national poverty line – which is about $62,300 for a family of four, often considered middle class – said they are struggling financially.

In many cases, a single accident or a single bad break is enough to push someone over the edge.

The vast majority of us are just barely scraping by from month to month, and that is because the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have…

The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation. Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago.

If you are still doing well, please don’t look down on those that are hurting.

Many of them were once just like you.

Sadly, many more Americans will be dumped out into the streets soon as economic conditions continue to deteriorate.

This week, we learned that initial claims for unemployment benefits have hit the highest level in 10 months…

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week unexpectedly jumped to the highest level in 10 months, the latest sign that the labor market is starting to cool in the face of high interest rates.

Figures released Thursday by the Labor Department show initial claims for the week ending June 8 increased by 13,000 to 242,000, above the 2019 pre-pandemic average of 218,000 claims. It marks the highest level for jobless claims since August 2023.

Continuing claims, filed by Americans who are consecutively receiving unemployment benefits, also rose to 1.82 million for the week ended June 1, an increase of 30,000 from the previous week.

Virtually all of the economic numbers that we have been getting lately tell us that the economy is rapidly heading in the wrong direction.

So if you think that things are bad now, just wait until you see what is coming.

Personally, I fully expect conditions to get steadily worse throughout the rest of 2024.

All of the “vanlords” out there will soon have even more potential customers to prey on, and that is not good news for any of us.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post In The Old Days We Had “Slumlords”, But In 2024 We Have “Vanlords” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

When we read about ancient societies that worshipped their gods by conducting child sacrifices, many of us recoil in horror.  But the truth is that far more children are being murdered in our time, and the vast majority of the population is perfectly okay with that.  In ancient times, in most cases it wasn’t children that were wanted that were brought to the child sacrifices.  Instead, in most cases such ceremonies were a perfect opportunity to get rid of children that were not wanted.  Today, unwanted children are discarded behind closed doors at an abortion clinic.  This is being done on an industrial scale, but since we never have to see it happening most of us are able to ignore the slaughter most of the time.  Of course that doesn’t make our society any less guilty than the ancient societies that performed child sacrifices publicly.

Here in the United States, more than 60 million abortions have been performed since 1973.

What does a nation that has killed more than 60 million children deserve?

Please take a moment and come up with your best answer to that question.

When you fully understand what we have done, and you fully understand what we deserve, the importance of this issue finally becomes clear.

Of course the U.S. is not the only country that has been wiping out kids on an industrial scale.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 73 million abortions are being performed around the world every year…

Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10 (61%) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion

Just think about that.

At this pace, 730 million children would be aborted in 10 years, 1.4 billion children would be aborted in 20 years, and 7.3 billion children would be aborted in 100 years.

There are only about 8 billion people living on the entire globe right now.

So we are talking about a slaughter that is truly unprecedented in all of human history.

The only hope that we have is to immediately stop killing children.

But that isn’t going to happen.  In fact, a new Gallup survey shows that U.S. voters are shifting in a pro-abortion direction…

A record-high 32% of U.S. voters say they would only vote for a candidate for major office who shares their views on abortion. The importance of a candidate’s abortion stance to one’s vote is markedly higher among pro-choice voters than it was during the 2020 presidential election cycle, while pro-life voters’ intensity about voting on the abortion issue has waned. Also, voters’ greater intensity on the issue today compared with 2020 is explained mainly by Democrats, while Republicans and independents have shown little change.

U.S. adults who are pro-choice are also significantly more likely now than two decades ago to say it is important that any future Supreme Court nominees share their views on abortion.

A different survey that was conducted by Navigator Research discovered that a whopping 63 percent of Americans “could not support an elected official who believes in a nationwide abortion ban”…

Now, according to new polling of 1,000 registered voters by progressive firm Navigator Research, 63 percent of Americans say they could not support an elected official who believes in a nationwide abortion ban. Forty-three percent of the Republicans asked in the survey said they could not support a figure with these views.

With national and swing state polls ahead of the 2024 presidential election so tight, abortion rights could be a key factor that decides several of November’s races.

This is why so few of our politicians support a nationwide abortion ban at this point.

The American people don’t want it.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, that was an opportunity for our nation to change direction.

But instead, the number of abortions performed in the United States actually went up the following year…

More than a million abortions were provided in the U.S. in 2023. That’s a major finding from a report published Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports access to abortion.

To be precise, researchers estimate there were 1,026,700 abortions in 2023. “That’s the highest number in over a decade, [and] the first time there have been over a million abortions provided in the U.S. formal health care system since 2012,” explains Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist with Guttmacher.

Most people don’t realize this, but most abortions today are performed by using medications…

The Guttmacher report also found that medication abortions rose to 63% of all abortions in 2023, up from 53% in 2020. The research was conducted by surveying all in-person and virtual abortion providers in the country and adding up their abortion counts. Guttmacher has been doing this research since 1974.

The Supreme Court had an opportunity to do something about that, but they decided to take the easy way out.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled against the pro-life doctors that had brought the case, and pro-abortion forces are greatly rejoicing…

In a blow for anti-abortion advocates, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available.

The court found unanimously that the group of anti-abortion doctors who questioned the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions making it easier to access the pill did not have legal standing to sue.

After the Supreme Court decision was announced, Joe Biden declared that “the fight for reproductive freedom continues”…

President Joe Biden said in a statement that while the ruling means the pill can remain easily accessible, “the fight for reproductive freedom continues” in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling two years ago that overturned abortion rights landmark Roe v. Wade.

“It does not change the fact that the right for a woman to get the treatment she needs is imperiled if not impossible in many states,” he added.

This is an issue on which the Democrats will never compromise.

Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said about the other party.

Look, the truth is that if we stay on the path that we are on our nation will experience the judgment of God.

We aren’t just a little bit guilty.

Tens of millions of precious American children are already dead, and more are being killed with each passing day.

If we do not change direction, time will eventually run out and then we will get exactly what we deserve.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post A Crime Against Humanity So Horrifying That I Don’t Even Have The Words To Describe It appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

If the economy is fine, why are so many signs of trouble erupting all around us?  Those that keep insisting that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction conveniently ignore the very troubling facts and figures that I regularly share with my readers.  When you take an honest look at the cold, hard numbers that the economy keeps producing, there is only one logical conclusion.  Our entire system is crumbling, and it appears that conditions will soon get significantly worse.

Just look at what is happening to our banks.

The FDIC’s most recent report tells us that there are 63 “problem banks” in the United States, and collectively our banks now have 517 billion dollars in unrealized losses…

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s first quarter report, the US banking system is sitting on a collective $517 billion in unrealized losses and has 63 “problem banks.”

Those losses have been sparked primarily by a surge in interest rates over the past two years, which have driven down the price of fixed-income securities held by banks.

Unrealized losses held by banks increased by $39 billion in the first quarter relative to the fourth quarter of 2023.

“Higher unrealized losses on residential mortgage-backed securities, resulting from higher mortgage rates in the first quarter, drove the overall increase,” the FDIC said.

I would love to know what banks are on that list.

Wouldn’t you?

But the FDIC will not tell us.

As Daisy Luther has accurately noted, the FDIC won’t release that information because they are afraid of bank runs…

We don’t get to know which banks are in trouble.

It could be my bank. It could be yours. Or maybe it’s not.

Are they big banks? Small ones?

The list is confidential to inhibit the likelihood of bank runs finishing off these institutions.

So we just don’t know.

If Americans had the truth, there would be bank runs all over the country tomorrow morning.

That is a rather comforting thought.

And the condition of our banks just continues to deteriorate because mountains of commercial real estate loans are going bad.

At this point, it has become clear that we have never faced a commercial real estate crisis of this magnitude in our entire history…

The CRE sector faces the triple whammy of falling prices, falling demand, and rising interest rates. The post-pandemic rise of telecommuting and work-at-home programs crushed demand for office space. Vacancy rates in commercial buildings have soared.

This has put significant stress on commercial real estate companies. The biggest bankruptcy in 2023 was the failure of the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. The company had loaded up with more than $1 billion in liabilities.

The collapse of the commercial real estate market could easily spill over into the financial sector. That’s because a lot of loans are coming due.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, around $1.2 trillion of commercial real estate debt in the United States will mature over the next two years.

A lot of financial institutions will fail during the months and years that are ahead of us.

Just hope that your money is not in one of them.

Meanwhile, one recent survey discovered that approximately two-thirds of all small businesses in the United States are teetering on the brink of disaster…

A new survey reveals that over two-thirds of small business owners are terrified of the state of the economy under Joe Biden’s watch, fearing that current conditions and ongoing downward trends will lead to them having to close their businesses.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the poll from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF) shows that 67% of small business owners maintain such fears about the economy as it stands today, marking a 10-point increase from sentiments two years ago. In the same poll, participants’ perceptions of economic conditions for their own businesses fell from 70.2 to 68.1. Perception of national conditions fell even more drastically, from 53.2 to 50.4.

Maybe you don’t care about what is happening to our small businesses.

But you should, because close to half of all workers in the United States are employed by small businesses…

Forbes estimates that at least 46% of all employees in the United States, around 61.6 million people in total, are employed by small businesses.

I think that it is quite an ominous sign that the household survey showed that the U.S. economy lost a whopping 408,000 jobs last month.

Sadly, I think that a lot more months like that are coming.

Retailers are also really struggling right now.

In fact, as Mark B. Spiegel recently discussed, major retailer after major retailer has been reporting disappointing sales numbers…

The U.S. economy seems to finally be cracking. This month a slew of retailers (off the top of my head: Target, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy and Foot Locker) reported negative year-over-year sales comps, and that’s before adjusting for the inflation that makes them 3% to 4% more negative in “real” terms. Others (Dollar General and Burlington) reported same-store sales comps in the +2% range, but that too was negative when adjusted for inflation, while Walmart and Nordstrom comps managed to roughly keep pace with inflation, but were unable to exceed it.

At one time, Walmart was an unstoppable retail behemoth.

But now even Walmart is closing down stores…

WALMARTS are closing across the country – and retail experts say the cuts are signals of a bleak future for shoppers.

The multi-million dollar corporation has closed nine stores so far this year, which could be a warning sign for other retail giants.

Of course the stores that Walmart is shuttering are just a drop in the bucket compared to what other chains are doing.

As I detailed in an article that I posted last week, we are on pace to lose 7,800 stores in 2024.

When the Drudge Report used the term “retail apocalypse” in one of their headlines on Monday morning, that was not an exaggeration at all.

We really are in the early stages of a historic meltdown.

And the outlook for the months ahead is extremely bleak.

In fact, Harry Dent just told Fox News that we should brace ourselves for “a bigger crash than we got in 2008 to ’09”…

Speaking in an updated interview with Fox News Digital, Dent cautioned that the “everything” bubble has still yet to burst, and it may be a bigger crash than the Great Recession.

“In 1925 to ‘29, it was a natural bubble. There was no stimulus behind that, artificial stimulus per se. So this is new. This has never happened,” Dent said on Tuesday. “What do you do if you want to cure a hangover? You drink more. And that’s what they’ve been doing.”

“Flooding the economy with extra money forever might actually enhance the overall economy long-term. But we’ll only see when we see this bubble burst,” he added. “And again, this bubble has been going 14 years. Instead of most bubbles [going] five to six, it’s been stretched higher, longer. So you’d have to expect a bigger crash than we got in 2008 to ’09.”

Our leaders were able to keep the game going for years by pumping trillions upon trillions of dollars into the system.

But they didn’t fix anything.

Instead, they just delayed the inevitable.

Our entire system really is crumbling all around us, and as it crumbles we are going to see chaos on a scale that most people don’t even want to imagine.

Already, major cities from coast to coast are being terrorized by theft, violence, drugs, homelessness, gangs and anarchy.

If things are this bad already, what is America going to look like once our leaders completely lose control of the economy?

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post The Entire System Is Crumbling! Major Red Flags Are Popping Up For Banks, Small Businesses And Retailers appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Today, I’ve got something really important to share…

A Complete Analysis Of How Trustworthy Your Tap Water Is (Or Isn’t)

Because there’s one chemical that can be thanked entirely for life on Earth: Water.

Without water, every life form on this planet would shrivel and die a very thirsty death.

And the most convenient way to quench your thirst is by turning on the tap.

• But is your tap water safe to drink?
• Should it be trusted?

This thirst has forced us to develop clever methods for distributing water.

We’ve accomplished this monumental task via a complicated array of pipelines and plumbing.

We’ve also devised ingenious ways to recycle our gray water to mitigate unnecessary losses.

But that spirit of ingenuity may be causing us more problems than expected.

Otherwise known as the law of unintended consequences.

When a complex system like water distribution becomes widespread, serious obstacles inevitably arise…

When you turn on your tap, there is a good chance you’re pouring yourself a toxic pharmaceutical cocktail.

TOPICS IN THIS GUIDE…    ↓(click to jump)

• How Water Gets From Source To Tap
• Is Tap Water Safe To Drink?
• A Water Contamination Crisis…
• What’s In Tap Water? Contaminants
• My Answer To: Is Tap Water Safe ?
• So What CAN YOU Do About It?

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How Water Gets From Source To Tap

Maintaining high water quality standards may be engineers’ most challenging problem.

And the safety of your tap water depends upon its success.

↓ Human Water Cycle: Wastewater

Water travels from the source (i.e., lake, river, reservoir) to a filtration treatment plant.

Once treated, it is routed through miles of pipelines before running out your tap.

And between the water source and your glass, there’s a lot of room for contamination from eroding pipes, chemical additives, and inadequate treatments.

The consequences of consuming tainted water vary.

The type of toxins ingested causes different illnesses.

But elevated levels of any toxins in your water will cause health problems.

From nausea, loss of consciousness, and even death in severe cases.

So Is Tap Water Safe To Drink?

There are a lot of competing answers to that simple question.

Local municipalities claim it’s safe and nothing to worry about.

But that’s like asking a politician if they’ve ever lied…

They claim to be trustworthy and would notify you immediately if anything was ever amiss.

But as we’ll discuss shortly, being highly skeptical is in your best interests.

Those more independent-minded and skeptical refute their “safe” assertion.

Instead, we believe filtering tap water before consumption is in everyone’s best interest.

Otherwise, we risk our health by putting our faith in an imperfect system.

So this article aims to answer the question: Is tap water safe to drink?

Using historical examples, facts, modern context, and scientific evidence.

↓ Study finds chemicals in drinking water in 43 states.

WHEN IN ROME…

It was perhaps the greatest empire of all time.

At its height, Rome blanketed Europe, parts of Africa, and the Middle East.

Romans were well known for their art, fabulous architecture, brilliant military, and rich culture.

They philosophized, politicized, sexualized, and influenced the history of humanity.

Then Rome fell.

It broke into a thousand pieces after half a millennia of unhampered progress and prosperity.

Why? Water quality, chiefly.

There are many reasons why this once great monument to human refinement collapsed like a circus tent.

However, it is widely believed severe water contamination had much to do with it.

At the time, the Romans had a very advanced water distribution system.

They built out extensive lead-lined aqueducts and lead piping for dispersal and distribution.

↓ How did Roman Aqueducts work?

And in case you missed it in grade school chemistry, Lead consumption is very bad for humans.

In fact, it’s dreadfully poisonous.

It can kill quickly if regularly consumed (even in small doses).

The Romans knew this.

They were well aware of lead’s poisonous qualities.

They even had terracotta piping they could have used as an alternative, but they did not.

Instead, they kept their lead aquifers and plumbing because lead was powerful and masculine.

A metal closely associated with the Roman God, Saturn.

Today, Rome is no longer an empire.

↓ How Lead (Maybe?) Caused the Downfall of the Romain Empire

This is important to us for two reasons:

1. First, it illustrates how essential maintaining a high water purity level is.
2. Second, it proves even the most well-established societies can be brought to their knees by contaminated water.

A Water Crisis In America

Undoubtedly, America is currently one of the greatest nations on Earth.

Like the Romans, we are a prosperous society supporting millions of citizens.

So, by necessity, we also have an extensive water distribution system.

We are powerful, wealthy, and well-established.

But we are not without our water problems.

Some were every bit as serious as those the Romans had.

Fracking

America requires a lot of energy, and we have an extensive reservoir of natural gas energy trapped beneath our feet.

Fracking is new drilling practice that yields huge quantities of natural gas.

Fracking often releases natural gas that’s completely inaccessible using conventional extraction methods.

However, the fracking has drawbacks.

Many communities located near fracking operations complain of contaminated water.

The concern is the gas released by fracking activity ends up in the groundwater.

This groundwater is the source for local communities.

Then, this contaminated groundwater eventually comes out of the taps in their homes.

The severity of this pollution varies. But in many instances, people can light their tap water on fire. 

This is due to the highly flammable nature of natural gas.

↓ Water On Fire from Fracking Gas Drilling

Needless to say, such water would be harmful to consume.

Mountaintop Removal

A surface mining method, popular on the East Coast of America, involves literally blasting the tops off mountains in the Appalachians to access the coal beneath.

Like fracking, this method of resource extraction is renowned for contaminating nearby water sources.

High levels of mine-derived chemical constituents have been found in many community water sources.

This has led to increased numbers of adult hospitalizations for varying health issues.

Complications include pulmonary disorders, lung cancer, and chronic lung, heart, and kidney disease.

Their health has been at the expense of this devastating mining method.

↓ Mountaintop Removal: An American Tragedy

Colorado’s Animas River

This year in Colorado, a mine near Durango sprung a violent leak.

The leak was so toxic it stained an entire river with a nasty, glowing shade of orange.

The spill was deemed unintentional and unstoppable (although not unpreventable).

Thousands of gallons of water contaminated with extremely dangerous cadmium, manganese, lead, copper, and arsenic were blasted from the side of a hill and mixed with the once-freshwater of the Animas River.

• The level of arsenic in the river was well over 300 times that of normal levels.
• The presence of lead was discovered to be 3,500 times higher than normal.

This catastrophe choked off water downstream.

Poisoning and drinking water supplies for several towns and the entire Navajo Nation.

And this crisis is still far from over…

↓ Why Did The Animas River Turn Orange?

Flint, Michigan.

It will go down in history as one of the biggest and most devastating instances of drinking water pollution in the United States ever.

The city decided to switch water sources to save $100 per month! 

After all, the cheaper, the better – right?

Shortly after the switch, complaints started pouring in.

People were concerned about their funny-tasting, weird-smelling, and strange-looking water.

Soon, those complaints turned into cases of developing rashes and unnatural hair loss.

And before the city council could say “Oops,” President Obama declared Flint, Michigan, a State of Emergency.

It will cost them roughly 1.5 billion dollars to resolve this problem.

Which, on a $100 per month payment plan, the city could resolve in 1,250,000 years.

But what will it cost the families of Flint, Michigan?

They are paying for this government betrayal with their deteriorating health.

↓ The City With A Polluted Water Supply

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What Is In Tap Water? Even More Tap Water Contaminants

While these cases are frightening, you may think they are rare and isolated.

However, I assure you that drinking water contamination comes in all shapes and sizes.

The abovementioned instances illustrated some real worst-case scenarios and how state officials and private businesses’ ” blunders ” can seriously affect one’s health.

But the full list of contaminants that’s been turning up in American drinking water is far more frightening.

Not just because of how extensive the list is but also how widespread it is.

We’ve got drugs!

If you live with chronic pain, your doctor might prescribe you hydrocodone.

They might tell you to take ranitidine if you’ve got acid reflux.

And if you are experiencing congestive heart failure, you will probably get some hydrochlorothiazide.

But you might not realize getting a prescription to fill these medications is not always necessary.

According to a national study, drugs are detectable in our water in higher doses than previously imagined.

These meds are released into our water systems through human urination, poor disposal practices, and accidental loss.

Because most water we consume is recycled, there is a good chance that when you turn on your tap, you pour yourself a diluted pharmaceutical cocktail.

These medications have been researched comprehensively and are known to affect animals and aquatic life.

↓ Drinking water contaminated by excreted drugs

Nitrates or nitrites?

Both, actually. These chemical compounds occur naturally in food and water.

But can react with other additives to form cancer-causing substances.

Nitrates and nitrites are used as fertilizers for non-organic farming and are introduced to water systems through natural runoff.

These chemicals are known to be especially toxic to children (including the unborn).

Consumption by minors can result in what is commonly known as “Blue Baby Syndrome” (when a child unexpectedly stops breathing).

These symptoms are shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, loss of consciousness, and even death.

↓ The Nitrate Dilemma: Major Cause Of Water Pollution

Fluoride.

This chemical is intentionally added to many water sources in the US.

It’s added to “decrease the number of cavities in American children.”

This chemical is also found in both toothpaste and mouthwash.

Why?

Because it’s great for scrubbing enamel and getting rid of pesky plaque, but it is not meant for ingestion.

Fluoride is helpful when applied to teeth, not when run through a human being’s digestive system.

The government adds this chemical to our water consistently and without our consent.

On top of this, numerous studies have proved fluoride added to water is ineffective.

It’s not clear that it prevents tooth decay as intended.

Animal studies have shown that fluoride consumption is linked to brain damage.

In total, there have now been over 100 animal experiments showing that fluoride can damage the brain and impact learning and behavior. – By Paul Connett

New filters are available that can purify your tap water from this additive.

↓ Fluoride in Our Water | 2 Alarming New Studies

Fecal Coliform.

Coli has made appearances in the news regularly for the last several years.

Outbreaks often contaminate a type of food but can also be extremely dangerous to human health if ingested through water consumption.

E. coli is a frighteningly common type of bacteria that often causes acute diarrhea, nausea, and cramps.

↓ E. Coli found in water sample

Alpha radioactivity.

Although you may not consider radioactive water a likely problem with your drinking water, it could devastate your health.

The EPA reports roughly 200 people a year get cancer from consuming this toxic water.

Sometimes, the source of pollution is man-made.

However, water can also become radioactive by contacting naturally occurring minerals like radium, radon, and uranium.

So, if your house is near a large uranium mine, you may want to invest in a good water filtration system.

↓ Radioactivity in some water supplies

Trihalomethanes?

These disinfectant solutions are used in water treatment plants to purify the water.

But when chlorine reacts with naturally occurring organic drinking material, it can cause rectal, bladder, or pancreatic cancer and birth defects if ingested (such as spinal and neural disorders).

↓ Trihalomethanes in Irish drinking water

Atrazine.

Atrazine is an agricultural pesticide for corn and soybeans.

It is frequently found in American drinking water and is known to give animals cancer in their mammary glands.

And because human beings are, in fact, animals, this is a major cause for concern.

↓ Atrazine In My Drinking Water?

LEAD!

The EPA has ruled that “there is no safe level of exposure to lead.”

The heavy metal interferes with red blood cell chemistry and delays normal physical and mental development.

In the US, 20% of total lead exposure comes from drinking water, which is significant. 

Lead in our drinking water comes from the atmosphere, the soil, or piping and plumbing (as was the case in Rome and Flint, Michigan).

↓ Poisoning America: The US’ Lead Pipe Problem

Treatment technique violations involve the possibility of inadequately treated water.

As a society, we recycle wastewater, freshwater, rainwater, and just about any other water we can manage to get our thirsty hands on.

But because we reuse so much of it, the chances of some still-contaminated water getting through is likely.

The consequences of such an occurrence are unpredictable since no one knows exactly what the persistent pollution is or where it came from.

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Click here to instantly download this Complete Checklist PDF. No purchase necessary.

My Answer To Your Question: Is Tap Water Safe To Drink?

If you skimmed this article and missed all our supporting evidence, the answer to the question is MAYBE.

Your tap water may be safe, or it may not be safe.

You may never know for certain unless you continuously test your tap water.

So, while I cannot say your tap water is currently unsafe to drink, I also can’t say it is 100% safe at all times.

Life happens, mistakes occur, and tap water can become hazardous overnight.

Is Tap Water Safe To Drink?

No, it’s NOT safe enough for MY family!

So What Can We Do?

It is an important question, no doubt, as it affects us all.

While the American water collection, treatment, and distribution system is much more advanced than the Romans.

We can rest easy knowing federal and private employees are doing their best to protect the purity of our tap water, right?

Wrong.

If you really want to ensure that your tap water is safe to drink and will not cause you illness, discomfort, or death, you need to take matters into your own hands.

The US water system is well-funded and highly equipped to manage water treatment and dispersal.

But they can’t keep every molecule of pollution out of the water.

The job is just too big.

If you are keen on protecting your health and your family’s health (and you should), you will have to do something about it yourself.

There are many modern filtration systems available, some of which are highly technical and wildly expensive.

Many flat-out don’t work well enough to protect you.

Fortunately, a few extremely efficient and affordable water filters are on the market today.

The Alexa Pro Gravity Water Purifier is one I’ve researched at length and has proven highly effective.

This is an essential item for every American home.

It has been proven time and again to not only produce the clearest and most purified water but also to improve the taste by reducing the additives and pollutants almost entirely.

A cuts contamination by 99.99% and is known as the “most cutting-edge water filter” of its class.

I recommend you drink clean, safe water at home.

Some people recommend buying bottled water as an alternative.

But the problem here is bottled water is tampered with and recycled just as much as tap water.

It often contains fluoride, chlorine, and other chemicals you might think you are avoiding but actually are not.

It is much safer to purify the water available through your tap with a quality, functional water purifier.

That way, YOU control the quality of YOUR water just before consumption.

Remove all doubts (and chemicals) hiding in your tap water.

Why Trust Skilled Survival…

Go here now to review a full breakdown of:

Who We Are

Our Credentials

Our Mission

& Product Recommendations…

Here are a few highlights of our teams credentials & certifications:

• Certified Member of a Mountain Search & Rescue Organization
• Plant Emergency & Safety Leader for a Major Food Manufacturer
• Member of the 10TH Mountain Division Hut Association
• Certifications: Avalanche 1, WFR, CPR
• Official Gear Tester for Numerous Outdoor Gear Companies
• Countless Multiday Backpacking trips into Remote Wilderness
• Bachelor’s Degree In Mechanical Engineering 
• Bachelor’s Degree In Civil Engineering
• Bachelor’s Degree In Biomedical Engineering

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” – Warren Buffett

We’re fully aware that trust is NOT something you GET but is EARNED.

And we’ll continue to earn YOUR trust through our forthright and honest approach with each new Blog Post, Guide & Product we create…

Will Brendza

Bachelor of Arts, University of Colorado at Boulder

Member of The 10th Mountain Division Hut Association

Certifications: Avalanche 1, WFR (expired), CPR (expired)

8+ Years Researching, Writing, About Survival and Preparedness

Awards from Society of Professional Journalists

Winner of Camp Cold’s “Happy Camper” award in 2020

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The post Is Tap Water Safe? Revealing The Truth Behind The Lies appeared first on Skilled Survival.

Retail stores are being shut down at a staggering rate all over the country.  If we stay on the pace that we are on, the total number of stores closed in 2024 will be nearly 40 percent higher than the total number of stores closed in 2023.  That is what you call a crisis!  Meanwhile, banks are shuttering hundreds of branches from coast to coast, and a “restaurant apocalypse” is sweeping across the nation.  Everywhere around us, “space available” signs are going up on buildings that were once considered to be prime commercial real estate.  If someone tries to convince you that the U.S. economy is in good shape, just show them this article and ask them why so many once prosperous businesses are closing.  Needless to say, they will not be able to win the argument after that.

According to the Daily Mail, nearly 2,600 store closings were announced during the first four months of 2024…

US retailers have announced the closure of almost 2,600 stores in 2024 – just four months into the year.

Big names including Macy’s, Walmart, Walgreens, Foot Locker and 7-Eleven have all said they are closing shops.

But discount stores like Family Dollar and bankrupt 99 Cents Only have been worst hit, as have drugstores like CVS and Rite Aid.

If the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction, why are many of the largest retail chains in the U.S. shutting down stores?

That wouldn’t make any sense at all.

If this pace remains constant throughout the rest of this year, we would hit a grand total of approximately 7,800 store closing announcements by the end of 2024…

If the closures were to continue at the same rate for the rest of the year they would total 7,800 in 2024 – almost 40 percent more than the total in 2023.

When the number of retail stores shutting down goes up by 40 percent in a single year, that is a sign that your economy is really “booming”, eh?

Sadly, we are losing more stores with each passing day.

On Thursday, we learned that a major convenience store chain in Wisconsin has decided to close down all of their locations…

Wisconsin convenience store and gas station chain The Store is being forced to close all of its 25 locations.

The Store, established in 1976, will shutter its businesses at the end of July. It also has locations in Michigan.

In some cases, stores are being closed down due to rapidly slowing economic conditions.

But in other cases, stores are being permanently shuttered due to the unprecedented wave of retail theft that never seems to end.

Earlier this week, I was intrigued by an article that was cleverly titled “Lego thefts across Southern California leave police trying to piece together clues”…

Believe it or not, the Lego sets and figurines collecting dust in your childhood bedroom could fetch a pretty penny.

So pretty, in fact, that two suspects have allegedly stolen more than $100,000 in Lego merchandise from six Bricks & Minifigs stores across Southern California.

The Lego reseller, which stocks mini figures, accessories and bricks, has more than 100 outlets across the U.S.

The Riverside store was the first one burglarized, with the suspects hitting it April 3, followed by Ontario on April 12, Whittier on May 3, Irvine on May 9 and the Costa Mesa and Fullerton locations on June 1, Whittier store owner Katie Leuschner said.

“Shrink” is costing U.S. retailers more than 100 billion dollars a year at this point.

In this sort of an environment, it is difficult for any retailers to be profitable, and that is especially true in our major cities.

Meanwhile, our banks are shutting down branches at a feverish rate.

So far this year, more than 400 locations have been permanently closed…

US banks closed 79 branches in just six weeks – as the industry increasingly offers services online.

The figures suggest the axing of costly bricks-and-mortar locations will continue, with total closures so far for 2024 above 400.

California is worst affected by the recent closures with 20 registered shutterings between April 20 and June 1.

When banks get into trouble, they get really tight with their money, they fire workers, and they close branches.

So expect to see a lot more branches get shuttered during the months ahead.

We are also in the midst of a “restaurant apocalypse”, and that is very bad news if you like to eat out a lot.

For example, Red Lobster recently closed 93 locations earlier this year, and now we have learned that 135 more are on the brink of being canned if they continue to lose money…

Red Lobster is ready to close another batch of more than 100 restaurants if it is unable to renegotiate cheaper rent with its landlords.

The seafood chain abruptly closed 93 of its 700-odd restaurants on May 13 – and the next week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the hope it can restructure its debts.

New court documents reveal that there are another 135 restaurants that bosses say will keep losing money if leases stay as they are, Restaurant Business reported. The option is for the company to pay less rent or shut them.

If I owned a restaurant chain, a bank, or a major retailer, I would be trimming locations too.

Economic conditions are horrible, theft is absolutely rampant, and the violence in our streets is rapidly approaching levels only seen in the most dangerous areas of the planet.

Earlier this week, Collin Rugg posted an account of a particularly alarming incident that just happened in Chicago…

A woman identified as ‘Nina’ says she was walking down the street when she got surrounded by teens who assaulted her.

Her crime? Walking down the wrong street.

“We own the street, we own the street. You can’t just walk around prancing in your little dress,” the gang of about 10 said.

They then held her husband back as they beat her, ripped out her hair, pepper sprayed her face and kicked her in the stomach.

“First someone approached him and hit his head, punched him in the head, and he looked back and he looked at me and told me ‘run’.”

“Another lady came to me and dragged me with my hair on the ground.”

“I started screaming she started pepper-spraying me right in the face, in the eyes.”

“Another person starts stomping all over me, and my husband ran towards me to save me and over 10 people held him.”

She lost her baby hours later.

For a long time, I have been warning that “chaos” would be coming to the streets of America.

Now it is here.

And it is getting worse every single day.

Unfortunately, most Americans still don’t understand the fundamental transformation that is happening to our society and they still believe that our leaders will be able to return things to “normal” eventually.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Retail Bloodbath: More Than 2,600 Store Closings Have Been Announced So Far In 2024 appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

We just learned that a person in Mexico has dropped dead after catching H5N2, and people are already totally freaking out about this all over the Internet.  In recent weeks, there was already enough concern about the potential for a major H5N1 outbreak among humans.  Dairy cows throughout the U.S. have been getting infected with that version of the bird flu, and three dairy workers have tested positive.  A full-blown H5N1 outbreak among humans would have the potential to be catastrophic, but we don’t even know what an H5N2 outbreak among humans would look like because there never has been one.  So far, we have one confirmed case and one death.  If it is confirmed that there is human to human transmission of H5N2 going on, the masks, lockdowns, shots and public hysteria that we witnessed a couple of years ago could return in the blink of an eye.

The person that just died after catching H5N2 lived in Mexico, and we are being told that this individual had no exposure to poultry or other animals.

The following comes directly from the official World Health Organization website…

On 23 May 2024, the Mexico IHR NFP reported to PAHO/WHO a confirmed case of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N2) virus detected in a 59-year-old resident of the State of Mexico who was hospitalized in Mexico City and had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals. The case had multiple underlying medical conditions. The case’s relatives reported that the case had already been bedridden for three weeks, for other reasons, prior to the onset of acute symptoms.

On 17 April, the case developed fever, shortness of breath, diarrhoea, nausea and general malaise. On 24 April, the case sought medical attention, was hospitalized at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases “Ismael Cosio Villegas” (INER per its acronym in Spanish) and died the same day due to complications of his condition.

Results from Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) of a respiratory sample collected and tested at INER on 24 April indicated a non-subtypeable influenza A virus. On 8 May, the sample was sent for sequencing to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Emerging Diseases Center for Research in Infectious Diseases (CIENI per its acronym in Spanish) of INER, which indicated that the sample was positive for influenza A(H5N2). On 20 May, the sample was received at the Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference (InDRE per its acronym in Spanish) of the Mexico National Influenza Centre, for analysis by RT-PCR, obtaining a positive result for influenza A. On 22 May, sequencing of the sample confirmed the influenza subtype was A(H5N2).

If this person didn’t catch it from a bird or some other animal, how was this individual infected?

And did this person spread H5N2 to others before finally seeking medical attention?

It is being reported that this is the very first human case of H5N2 that has ever been confirmed by a lab…

This was the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with A(H5N2) subtype of bird flu reported globally and the first H5 virus infection in a person reported in Mexico.

This individual could have potentially spread the disease to hundreds or even thousands of others.

If that is what actually happened, it may already be too late to contain it.

One expert that was recently asked about a potential bird flu pandemic admitted that “we’re in big trouble” once it starts spreading among humans on a widespread basis…

“All of our efforts need to be focused on preventing those events from happening,” said Matthew Miller, co-director of the Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub at McMaster University.

“Once we have widespread infections of humans, we’re in big trouble.”

But I wouldn’t push the panic button just yet.

An isolated case is just an isolated case.

However, if more confirmed cases of H5N2 start popping up that would definitely be cause for concern.

Of course H5N1 also continues to alarm the experts.

This week, we learned that 11 house mice in the state of New Mexico have tested positive for H5N1…

House mice have become the latest mammal to become infected with H5N1 bird flu, sparking fears that the almost omnipresent pests could spread the virus to humans.

Eleven house mice in the state of New Mexico – where several herds of dairy cattle are infected with H5N1 – tested positive for the avian influenza, new data released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has shown.

One of the reasons why this is causing so much concern is because there are millions upon millions of mice living all around us, and in many cases our own homes are infested with them…

The discovery of the virus in mice is particularly alarming, as it significantly raises the risk of human transmission and further spread, say experts.

Mice live in unnervingly close proximity to humans: they scurry beneath floorboards, hide in cupboards and roam our offices, larders and restaurants.

It is important to remember that the bubonic plague was spread all over Europe by mice.

So this will be something that we will want to keep a very close eye on.

Interestingly, scientists recently conducted a study which proves that mice can become infected with H5N1 after drinking raw milk from dairy cows…

A new study published Friday provides more evidence of the potential danger of drinking unpasteurized, or raw, milk containing H5N1 avian flu viruses.

The work, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that mice that were fed milk from H5N1-infected cows became very ill.

The study cannot prove that what happened to the mice would definitely happen to people who drink raw milk containing the dangerous virus, but it underscores the probable risk, experts said. Studies like this cannot be conducted in people, for ethical reasons.

In my latest book, I have an entire chapter entitled “Pestilences” because I am entirely convinced that global outbreaks of disease will be one of the major themes of the next several years.

The bird flu has already resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of birds all over the globe, and now it is infecting dairy cows, domestic cats and mice here in the United States.

Many scientists believe that it is just a matter of time before there is a bird flu pandemic among humans.

I don’t know if that is true or not.

But the fact that someone just dropped dead from H5N2 definitely got my attention, because if a bird flu pandemic does erupt it will create even more fear than the last pandemic did.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Now That Someone Has Dropped Dead, Fear Of H5N2 Is Already Starting To Ripple All Over The Globe appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

This article was originally published by Ethan Huff at Natural News. 

A former Russian president is warning that a strike by the United States on any Russian target will amount to the “start of world war.”

Dmitry Medvedev, who has been quite vocal lately about the West’s behavior towards Russia, announced to the world this week that World War III will be set in motion the moment the U.S. strikes Russia in any capacity.

The current Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council, Medvedev said this after Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated that the U.S. will conduct such a strike if Russia uses any kind of nuclear weaponry in Ukraine.

In a post on X, Medvedev made the suggestion that Sikorski “apparently has decided to scare his masters” with such a statement, unlike the U.S. which is “more cautious” than the Poles.

“Americans hitting our targets means starting a world war, and a Foreign Minister, even of a country like Poland, should understand that,” Medvedev added.

(Related: According to Medvedev, Ukraine is “a classic failed state.”)

Poland pushing for world war

Medvedev also addressed similar statements made last month by Polish President Andrzej Duda about Poland’s willingness to host U.S. nuclear weapons if offered the chance under NATO’s sharing mechanism.

If any such arrangement comes to fruition and results in a nuclear strike on Russia, “Warsaw won’t be left out and will surely get its share of radioactive ash,” Medvedev assured about the outcome.

Sikorski, responding to Medvedev’s warning, expressed skepticism about Russia ever even launching a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

“The Americans have told the Russians that if you explode a nuke, even if it doesn’t kill anybody, we will hit all your targets [positions] in Ukraine with conventional weapons – we’ll destroy all of them,” he stated, calling the warning a “credible threat.”

Sikorski added in statements to The Guardian (United Kingdom) that both China and India have similarly warned Russia against nuclear escalation in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Western backers, Sikorski continued, should allow the Zelensky regime to use its weapons to strike targets in Russian territory “apart from not using nuclear weapons, [Moscow] does not limit itself much.”

The European Union (EU), in Sikorski’s opinion, should not be afraid of escalating the war in Ukraine, nor should it impose any kind of limits on what it does. This has left Moscow guessing as to what the West’s next move will be.

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to say that at no point has he considered using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Russia’s nuclear doctrine hinges upon only launching nukes “if something threatens the existence of our country.”

In short, Russia looks at nuclear weapons as a “farewell weapon,” meaning they are a weapon of last resort that will only be used if provoked to the point of possible Russian extinction.

Back in February at his annual address to the Federal Assembly, Putin warned the aggressive West that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is in a state of “complete readiness for guaranteed deployment.”

Earlier this month, Putin launched an exercise in the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Southern Military District of Russia, which borders Ukraine. This exercise was meant to be a warning to the U.S. and its allies following escalatory rhetoric pushing towards WWIII.

“Look at the parallels between the lead-up to both world wars I and II and you will see that we are in WWIII,” one commenter at RT wrote.

“Turn off the power plants in Ukraine,” suggested another about how to avoid any further mass civilian casualties. “No need to harm the civilians.”

Things are escalating to the point of another world war. Find out more at WWIII.news.

This Bluetti AC70 review is not a review based on short-term use. It’s based on extended use in different situations.…

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