Money

An Old Receipt Proves That Grocery Prices Have More Than Tripled, And Consumer Bankruptcies Are Soaring

January 16, 2026January 16, 2026 by Michael

I knew that I wasn’t imagining things. There are so many times when I am shopping for groceries that I see a product that seems like it has doubled or tripled in price over the years. I am sure that many of you have experienced the exact same thing. Well, now we have confirmation that we aren’t going crazy. When 24-year-old Zoe Dippel was browsing through old family photo albums, she discovered something incredibly shocking in an envelope…

For Zoe Dippel, a walk down memory lane looking through family photo albums became a quick lesson in inflation.

Dippel, a 24-year-old dental hygienist living near Austin, said in an interview with USA TODAY that she was flipping through her sister-in-law’s baby album when an envelope fell out.

When Dippel opened the envelope, she found a 1997 receipt for the purchase of 122 products at a grocery store known as H-E-B…

The receipt they found was for a 122-item order at H-E-B, a Texas grocer, from just after her sister-in-law was born. The large order cost $155.34 in 1997. But after Dippel posted video of the find to TikTok, she decided to find out what the same order would cost today. Her two videos about the 1997 receipt have gone viral and have a combined 3.4 million views as of Jan. 16.

She found that the same order came out to $504.11 when ordered through H-E-B’s curbside pickup.

“It’s just crazy to me,” Dippel said of the price jump.

If you multiply $155.34 by three, you get $466.02.

So the fact that those 122 items now cost a total of $504.11 at H-E-B means that the cost of the exact same order has more than tripled.

This is what our leaders have done to us.

In 1997, 150 dollars would get you a huge mountain of food.

Today, you will be very fortunate if you are able to fill up your cart a third of the way for that much money.

The cost of living has become a permanent crisis for the middle class, and one recent survey discovered that 92 percent of employed Americans have been forced to reduce their spending.

But even though most of us are trying to cut back, more Americans are being pushed over the edge with each passing day.

In fact, the number of consumer bankruptcy filings increased 12 percent in 2025…

New data shows more Americans are filing for bankruptcy, the latest indication that price pressures and an uneven economy are leaving some households strapped for cash.

Total consumer bankruptcy filings jumped 12% from 478,752 in 2024 to 533,949 in 2025, according to Epiq AACER, a platform that provides U.S. bankruptcy filing data. Epiq, which tracks Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 filings, relies on data provided through the U.S. Courts’ PACER system, an electronic database that houses federal court records.

It is now being estimated that one out of ten Americans will file for bankruptcy at least once in their lives.

Foreclosures are spiking too.

In 2025, the number of foreclosures was 14 percent higher than the year before…

The past year was difficult for homeowners — but experts warn that 2026 could be even more challenging.

Foreclosures — when a bank or lender takes back a home after missed mortgage payments — rose 14 percent from a year earlier.

In total, 367,460 US properties faced foreclosure filings in 2025, meaning they were in some stage of being taken over by a lender, according to ATTOM’s data.

All of the numbers that I am sharing with you in this article indicate that the economy is getting worse.

As consumer bankruptcies and foreclosures rise, it is putting strain on our banks, and several of our largest banks just reported disappointing results…

This week, the nation’s largest banks reported a broadly disappointing set of quarterly earnings, the first stumble after a yearlong spree of rising markets and softening regulations paid off handsomely for the finance set.

Results at Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all fell short of expectations, and their shares fell. Troubles ranged from delayed merger deals (JPMorgan) to stubborn expenses (Citi) to questions about the efficacy of artificial intelligence tools (Bank of America).

Unfortunately, it appears that conditions will continue to move in the wrong direction in the months ahead.

Mass layoffs are occurring everywhere we look, and they are even happening at some of the biggest names in the entire country…

Meta Inc. is beginning to cut 10% of employees, or more than 1,000 jobs, from its Reality Labs division as it shifts its investment away from metaverse products.

“We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward Wearables,” a Meta spokesperson told FOX Business, adding that this action is part of that effort.

The reason why Reality Labs is cutting workers is because it is losing gobs of money…

The division includes Meta’s hardware and other futuristic product efforts like VR headsets, AI glasses and virtual world products.

However, that division has taken a beating, accumulating more than $70 billion in losses since 2021. Reality Labs faced a $4.4 billion operating loss during the third fiscal quarter alone.

I know that Meta has very deep pockets, but at this rate I just don’t see how Reality Labs is going to survive in the long run.

Citigroup is also facing challenges, and they continue to fire workers as they work toward their goal of eliminating 20,000 jobs by the end of this year…

The bank said when announcing the plan that it would eliminate 20,000 jobs by the end of 2026, and it still needs to eliminate several thousand more jobs to reach that target, according to the report.

“We will continue to reduce our headcount in 2026,” Citigroup told Bloomberg. “These changes reflect adjustments we’re making to ensure our staffing levels, locations and expertise align with current business needs; efficiencies we have gained through technology; and progress against our transformation work.”

Earlier this month, I published a list of 119 companies that have already announced that they will be conducting layoffs in 2026.

A lot of people out there simply do not understand just how serious things have become.

Yes, conditions are far from ideal right now.

But if we stay on the road that we are on at this moment, conditions will soon get a whole lot worse.

For the past couple of decades the U.S. economy has been steadily moving in the wrong direction, and it appears that a tremendous amount of chaos awaits us in the chapters that are ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” 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 new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “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.

Civil Unrest Is One Of The Core Elements Of “The Perfect Storm”, And It Is Starting To Spiral Out Of Control On The Streets Of Minneapolis

January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Michael

What we have witnessed on the streets of Minneapolis this week has been absolutely stunning. It was once such a beautiful city, but now it has been transformed into a war zone. For more than a decade, I have been relentlessly warning my readers that civil unrest would be one of the core elements of the coming “perfect storm”, and now we are literally watching violent clashes between radical leftists and federal authorities play out right in front of our eyes. In fact, it is getting so bad that President Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. That hasn’t happened since the Los Angeles riots of 1992. If we keep going down this path, will we soon see martial law in major U.S. cities?

Independent journalist Nick Sortor is on the ground in Minneapolis, and last night he watched as rioters destroyed multiple federal law enforcement vehicles…

MULTIPLE ICE and FBI vehicles have been DESTROYED and LOOTED by rioters in Minneapolis after federal agents were forced to abandon them

Agents gear, laptops, and personal information now LITTERS the street

THIS IS ABSOLUTE ANARCHY

He is right.

It is absolutely anarchy.

Sortor is also reporting that the rioters actually broke into a weapons locker in one of the vehicles and got away with a rifle and ammunition…

Minneapolis rioters successfully BROKE OPEN a weapons locker in a federal vehicle and STOLE A RIFLE and ammunition before fleeing

I captured the thief’s face and license plate on the getaway vehicle.

A state of lawlessness exists on the streets of Minneapolis at this moment, and President Trump just threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act…

As the rioters were destroying and looting federal vehicles, the police just stood by and did nothing.

Of course the reason why they didn’t intervene is because that is what their leaders are instructing them to do.

In remarks that she just made to the press, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act “spoke very loud and clear to Democrats across this country”…

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s threats to enact the Insurrection Act in Minnesota “spoke very loud and clear to Democrats across this country.” Leavitt said it send a message to elected officials “who are using their platforms to encourage violence against federal law enforcement officers who are encouraging left-wing agitators to unlawfully obstruct legitimate law enforcement operations.”

Of course the Democrats are not going to back down.

And neither will the Trump administration.

So I expect things to get really crazy in the months ahead.

If Trump actually invokes the Insurrection Act, that will allow him to deploy active duty soldiers to Minneapolis…

The president would have fairly broad authority under the law, Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, told Newsweek on Thursday.

“The punchline is this. Under the Insurrection Act, President Trump and any president has broad power to invoke that act, which is an extraordinary step,” he said. “What it means is that the president can employ active duty soldiers to assist state and local authorities in executing the federal laws.”

In Minnesota, ICE is “executing, in their mind, the immigration laws in terms of arresting and detaining people who are here without proper documentation,” Rossi said. Trump would have broad authority to determine whether laws cannot be effectively executed without invoking the Insurrection Act, he said.

If troops are deployed in the streets, will far left radicals stop harassing ICE?

Of course not.

Instead, there would probably be even more violent confrontations like the one that we just witnessed on Wednesday evening…

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent is in the hospital after being ambushed during an attempt to arrest a Venezuelan national in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The agent was ambushed by two people while attempting to conduct a traffic stop on an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, DHS said, adding that the agent fired his gun during the alleged attack because he was “fearing for his life and safety.”

One Venezuelan suspect was shot but is reported to be stable and is now in custody, DHS said.

The radical left has drawn a line in the sand.

They are going to resist ICE no matter how much the Trump administration escalates matters.

And so now our society stands at a very dangerous tipping point.

According to a post by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Facebook, the ICE agent that is in the hospital got hurt when two men attacked him with “a snow shovel and a broom handle”…

At 6:50 PM CT, federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the country by Joe Biden in 2022.

In an attempt to evade arrest, the subject fled the scene in his vehicle and crashed into a parked car. The subject then fled on foot.

The law enforcement officer caught up to the subject on foot and attempted to apprehend him when the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer. While the subject and law enforcement were in a struggle on the ground, two subjects came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle.

As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, the original subject got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick.

Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life. The initial subject was hit in the leg.

All three subjects ran back into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside.

The attacked officer and subject are both in the hospital. Both attackers are in custody.

This attack on another brave member of law enforcement took place while Minnesota’s top leaders, Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, are actively encouraging an organized resistance to ICE and federal law enforcement officers.

Their hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end. Federal law enforcement officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers.

It would help if Democrats would tell their constituents to calm down and leave federal law enforcement officers alone.

But that isn’t happening.

In fact, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is calling on the citizens of his state to “resist” the “occupation” that he believes is currently taking place…

Folks, I know it’s scary, and I know it’s absurd that we all have to be defending law and order, justice, and humanity while also caring for our families and trying to do our jobs. So tonight, let me say once again to Donald Trump and Christine Noem: End this occupation, you’ve done enough.

…

Donald Trump wants this chaos. He wants confusion, and yes, he wants more violence on our streets. We cannot give him what he wants. We can, we must, protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully.

All across Minnesota, people are learning about opportunities, not just to resist, but to help people who are in danger. Thousands and thousands of our fellow Minnesotans are going to be relying on mutual aid in the days and weeks to come, and they need our support.

Tim Walz was a member of the National Guard for 24 years.

When he uses military terminology, he knows exactly what he is doing.

On the other side, Stephen Miller is warning that federal officials are in the process of “identifying, disrupting and dismantling the insurgent networks” that are causing so much chaos in Minnesota…

Stephen Miller, a top White House official, said Tuesday evening that federal law enforcement now has the resources to protect its officers and begin the work of “identifying, disrupting and dismantling the insurgent networks” hampering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minnesota.

That sounds very similar to the terminology that many of our politicians would use regarding anti-insurgent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan under previous administrations.

But even if the violent radicals in Minnesota are successfully suppressed, more will just pop up elsewhere.

Personally, I believe that this is just the beginning of an enormous wave of civil unrest.

And if a major war erupts in the Middle East, that will just add more fuel to the fire.

According to NBC News, President Trump has told his team that he only wants to attack Iran if he can be guaranteed that it will bring an end to the regime…

President Donald Trump has told his national security team that he would want any U.S. military action in Iran to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime and not spark a sustained war that dragged on for weeks or months, according to a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House.

“If he does something, he wants it to be definitive,” one of the people familiar with the discussions said.

But Trump’s advisers have so far not been able to guarantee to him that the regime would quickly collapse after an American military strike, the U.S. official and two people familiar with the discussions said, and there is concern that the U.S. may not have all the assets in the region it would need to guard against what administration officials expect would be an aggressive Iranian response.

Of course I don’t know how anyone can guarantee that military strikes will cause the collapse of the regime.

So perhaps President Trump will not take any action at all.

That is what a lot of media sources are suggesting today.

But U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is telling us that the stories that those media sources are putting out “are beyond inaccurate”…

“All the headlines like these are examples of reporting that are beyond inaccurate,” Graham wrote on X.

He shared screenshots of headlines that read “Trump gets cold feet on Iran” and “Trump informed Iran he does not intend to attack, asked Tehran to exercise restraint,” and said they misrepresented the situation.

“The circumstances around the necessary, decisive action to be taken against the Iranian regime have nothing to do with President Trump’s will or determination,” Graham wrote.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he added.

Graham seems quite confident that military action is coming.

At this stage, I don’t know if he is right or if he is wrong.

But what we do know is that more firepower is being deployed to the region.

In fact, when we learned that the USS Abraham Lincoln is on the way, that really got my attention…

The Pentagon is moving a carrier strike group from the South China Sea to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, which includes the Middle East, as tensions escalate between the Trump administration and Iran, NewsNation has learned.

Moving the carrier strike group — a naval formation centering around an aircraft carrier, with a variety of other vessels, including at least one attack submarine — is expected to take about a week, a source said. The USS Abraham Lincoln reportedly is the aircraft carrier that is on the move.

Let’s keep a close eye on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

If war with Iran erupts, it could become a primary target.

This year is already off to such a crazy start.

And we are only halfway through the first month.

Unfortunately, I believe that the rest of the year will be even more insane.

Have You Heard About What Iran Is Threatening To Do Next? – It Includes Killing President Trump

January 14, 2026January 14, 2026 by Michael

We certainly have entered uncharted territory. When a vicious predator is backed into a corner, it will do whatever it can to survive. That makes Iran more dangerous than ever at this moment. The Iranians are making all sorts of crazy threats, and I am convinced that they fully intend to make good on them. Whether they are actually able to do so is another matter. But without a doubt we need to be taking their threats seriously, and that includes their threat to kill President Trump…

Iran issued a sickening threat against President Trump Wednesday, broadcasting a picture of the commander in chief during the 2024 Butler rally assassination attempt — with the words “This time it will not miss the target.”

The ominous warning was aired on Iranian state-run TV, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

It marks Tehran’s most direct threat yet against Trump, following his repeated threats that the US will strike the country if it continues its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

When President Trump hears of this threat, it is likely that he will become even angrier with the regime in Iran.

Of course the Iranians have already been trying to kill Trump for a long time.

In fact, an assassin named Farhad Shakeri that had been given the job of killing Trump was apprehended a few years ago…

The Justice Department also said that in 2024, the US thwarted an Iranian-led plot to kill Trump after arresting Farhad Shakeri, who was allegedly tasked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to murder the president for the regime, according to court documents.

In addition to threatening President Trump, the Iranians have repeatedly threatened to strike Israeli cities and U.S. bases in the region if they are attacked.

Hours ago, the head of the IRGC warned that Iran is prepared to respond “decisively” to any military action by the United States…

The commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that Iran is ready to respond ‘decisively’ to an attack, and blamed the US and Israel for protests in the country, Al Jazeera reported.

IRGC is at ‘the height of readiness to respond decisively to the miscalculation of the enemy,’ Commander Mohammad Pakpour said in a statement shared with Iranian state television.

What does “decisively” mean?

Will the Iranian response be limited to conventional weapons?

Not a lot of people have been talking about this.

Even if we assume that Iran has absolutely no access to nuclear weapons or dirty bombs, and I am not convinced that is a safe assumption, there is still the possibility that the Iranians could decide to use chemical or biological weapons.

If even a single chemical or biological warhead reaches Israeli territory, there would be an enormous amount of pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use nuclear weapons in response.

And let us not forget that Hezbollah has an enormous presence in North America.

This is something that I have written about extensively in the past.

So what would happen if Hezbollah uses chemical or biological weapons on U.S. soil in response to our attack on Iran?

Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue?

But there is no turning back now, because President Trump feels compelled to respond to the mass slaughter of Iranian protesters that is currently taking place.

One young Iranian man that was able to escape the country is claiming that the death toll is far higher than people are being told…

A young Iranian guy just crossed from Iran into Turkey and recorded a message for the world.

He says people outside Iran have no idea how bad it really is.

Not arrests. Not beatings. Killings.

He says protesters are being shot straight in the chest. Not warning shots. Not accidents. Deliberate.

Over and over.

According to him, the death toll people see online is nowhere close to reality. Bodies disappear.

Families stay quiet. Fear fills the gaps.

People inside can’t speak. People outside aren’t seeing it.

That silence is doing a lot of work right now.

As I discussed yesterday, CBS News is telling us that the death toll in Iran could be as high as 20,000.

Tens of thousands of others have been arrested, and many of them will be slaughtered too.

The first protester that was sentenced to death was scheduled to be executed by hanging on Wednesday…

The desperate relatives of an Iranian shopkeeper who was sentenced to death for taking part in an anti-government protest have called on Donald Trump to urgently intervene to save him.

Erfan Soltani, 26, believed to be the first protester in the latest Iranian uprising to be given the death sentence, is expected to be hanged today.

His family spent the night protesting outside the Ghezel Hesar prison, where the young man from Fardis in Karaj was being held in solitary confinement.

All he did was take part in an anti-government protest.

This is what tyranny looks like.

In Iran, hanging does not result in a quick death.

According to the Daily Mail, it “can take up to 20 minutes of abject torture” for death to occur…

But in Iran, gallows are about as simple as you can get. Those on death row are hoisted by their necks using mobile cranes.

Instead of an instant death, prisoners are strangled, restricting blood vessels going to their heads.

As a result, it can take up to 20 minutes of abject torture for them to die, leaving victims writhing in agony before their last breaths.

The regime in Iran must go.

But if the regime in Iran falls, it would be a huge blow to the Russians…

Russia will be focused on how events unfold in Iran given Tehran’s position as a key strategic, military, economic and trade partner for Moscow in the Middle East.

The prospect of another ally falling in the Middle East will be a worrying one for Moscow, particularly after it has seen its alliances with Venezuela, Syria and the Caucasus upended recently, denting its power and influence abroad.

“Moscow sees the potential loss of Iran as a much more significant risk to both its regional national posture than it saw the loss of Syria, Venezuela, or arguably its influence in Armenia over the last few years,” Max Hess, founder of political risk consultancy Enmetena Advisory, told CNBC on Tuesday.

Global events have certainly accelerated significantly during the first month of 2026.

Most people still do not realize this, but we really are living in the days of World War III.

Vast numbers of people are going to die during the months and years that are ahead of us.

So enjoy the remnants of normality that we still have left, because things are starting to change at an exceedingly rapid pace.

This Means War! President Trump Publicly Backs The Revolution In Iran And Promises That U.S. Help Is Coming

January 13, 2026January 13, 2026 by Michael

Has there ever been a social media post more important than the one that President Trump just made? I believe that it would be very difficult to overstate the significance of what we have just witnessed. Now that Trump has decided to publicly back the revolution in Iran, it is either regime change or bust. And by publicly declaring that the U.S. is going to help the protesters, he has made it very clear that there will be a military showdown with the Iranians. War is here, and we are going to witness a staggering amount of death and destruction.

For those that have not seen it yet, the following is what President Trump posted on his Truth Social account earlier today…

Telling the protesters in Iran to “keep protesting” would have been controversial enough.

But when he boldly instructed them to “take over your institutions”, he publicly backed an internal revolution in Iran.

Let that sink in for a moment, because this changes everything.

And when President Trump stated that help is on the way for the protesters, he was promising that the U.S. will intervene.

There is no turning back now.

Of course the Iranians have nobody to blame but themselves.

After President Trump warned them not to do it, the regime in Iran used automatic weapons to viciously mow down vast numbers of unarmed protesters…

Eyewitnesses say government forces have begun opening fire, apparently with automatic weapons and at times seemingly indiscriminately, on unarmed protesters. Hospital workers say protesters had been coming in with pellet injuries but now arrive with gunshot wounds and skull fractures. One doctor called it a “mass-casualty situation.”

Despite the communications blockade, a recurring image has made its way out of Iran: rows and rows of body bags.

In videos uploaded by opposition activists on social media, families can be seen sobbing as they huddle together over bloodied corpses in unzipped bags. And in footage aired on Iranian state television, a morgue official, sheathed in blue scrubs, stands amid bags neatly arranged along the floor of a white room, under glaring fluorescent lights.

The tyrants in Iran are going to deserve everything that they get.

One source in Iran has described “rivers of blood” in Tehran and snipers that are firing at will at unarmed protesters from the rooftops…

Iranian-American journalist Karmel Melamed told CBN News, “My sources have been telling me it’s a slaughterhouse. There are rivers of blood. That’s what my source has been telling me, in Tehran alone,” he said, and added, “A lot of regime forces have been perched on top of buildings, and in many cases, mowing down people from above. Snipers from inside of buildings have been shooting protesters.”

If you choose to do this to your own people, you should not expect any mercy.

One 23-year-old woman was literally shot in the back of the head as she protested against the tyranny in Iran…

Rubina Aminian attended Shariati College in Iran’s capital, Tehran, where she studied textile and fashion design. She is one of the only people killed in the recent demonstrations to be identified.

Aminian was killed on Thursday after joining a protest after leaving the college, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.

“Sources close to Rubina’s family, citing eyewitnesses, told Iran Human Rights that the young Kurdish woman from Marivan was shot from close range from behind, with the bullet striking her head,” the group said in a statement.

Shockingly, there are websites in the United States that are actually defending the Iranians.

No matter what side you are on, there is no excuse for defending what the regime in Iran has just done.

No excuse at all.

At this point, thousands are dead.

In fact, an Iranian official admitted to Reuters on Monday that the death toll has reached approximately 2,000…

An Iranian official said Jan. 12 that about 2,000 people had been killed in the protests, according to Reuters. It is the first time authorities have acknowledged the high death toll from an intense crackdown amid two weeks of nationwide unrest, the news agency reported.

Two other Iranian officials told the New York Times that somewhere around 3,000 people have died…

A senior Iranian health ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said about 3,000 people had been killed across the country but sought to shift the blame to “terrorists” fomenting unrest.

Another government official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he had seen an internal report that referred to at least 3,000 dead, and added that the toll could climb.

Of course the truth is that the true death toll is probably far higher than that.

Iran International is estimating that at least 12,000 Iranians have been killed…

Over the past two days, Iran International’s editorial board has reviewed – through a rigorous, multi-stage process and in accordance with established professional standards – information received from a source close to the Supreme National Security Council; two sources in the presidential office; accounts from several sources within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan; testimonies from eyewitnesses and families of those killed; field reports; data linked to medical centers; and information provided by doctors and nurses in various cities.

Based on these reviews, we have concluded that:

In the largest killing in Iran’s contemporary history – carried out largely over two consecutive nights, Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9 – at least 12,000 people were killed.

In terms of geographic scope, intensity of violence, and the number of deaths in a short time span, this killing is unprecedented in Iran’s history.

We have never seen a slaughter of this magnitude in the entire history of Iran.

And Iran International is telling us that it has received information that indicates that the slaughter was “carried out on the direct order of Ali Khamenei, with the explicit knowledge and approval of the heads of all three branches of government”…

Based on information received, those killed were mainly shot by forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij.

This killing was fully organized, not the result of “sporadic” and “unplanned” clashes.

Information received from the Supreme National Security Council and the presidential office indicates that the killing was carried out on the direct order of Ali Khamenei, with the explicit knowledge and approval of the heads of all three branches of government, and with an order for live fire issued by the Supreme National Security Council.

Many of those killed were young people under the age of 30.

The nuts that are running Iran are deeply evil.

Nobody can deny this.

Today, CBS News is reporting that the death toll could actually be as high as 20,000…

Information trickling out of Iran on Tuesday suggests that a crackdown by authorities to end more than two weeks of widespread anti-government protests has likely been far more deadly than activists outside the country have reported. With phone lines opening back up for calls from inside the Islamic Republic, two sources, including one inside Iran, told CBS News on Tuesday that at least 12,000, and possibly as many as 20,000 people have been killed.

Of course the killing has not stopped.

In fact, the public executions of protesters that have been arrested are just beginning.

On Wednesday, a 26-year-old protester named Erfan Soltani is scheduled to be hanged…

A young Iranian whose ‘only crime is shouting for freedom’ is set to be the first victim to be executed in the Islamic Republic’s brutal crackdown on the protests sweeping the country, human rights groups say.

Erfan Soltani, 26, will be allowed only a final ten minutes with his family before he is hanged tomorrow morning for allegedly taking part in an anti-government protest last Thursday.

The clothes shop owner was arrested at his home in Fardis, central Iran, detained in prison and quickly served the death penalty.

The Iranians are trying to justify their actions by insisting that they were forced to do something about “armed violence” that was being carried out by rioters that are being secretly backed by the United States and Israel…

Facing global condemnation and threats of US intervention over casualties associated with anti-government protests, the Iranian government summoned French, German, Italian and British ambassadors in Tehran and screened a collection of videos purportedly showing “armed violence carried out by protesters.” Saying the images belie the notion that protests have been uniformly peaceful, Iran demanded that the envoys share the videos with their respective governments and stop voicing support of the “rioters.”

Needless to say, the Europeans aren’t buying it.

In fact, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz just said that we are watching “the last days” of the Iranian regime…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Iran’s theocratic regime was living out its ‘last days’ as pressure grew on the government over violence against protestors.

‘When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,’ Chancellor Merz told reporters in Bengaluru during a visit to India.

‘I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.’

Let’s hope that he is right.

But the Iranians will not go down without a fight.

When push comes to shove, the Iranians are not going to hold anything back.

Neither will Israel.

I will be writing much more about this in the coming days.

In this article, there are two last things that I wanted to mention.

First of all, the Russians are proclaiming that any threats of military action against Iran are “categorically unacceptable”…

Russia has condemned what it described as “subversive external interference” in Iran’s internal politics and said U.S. threats of military strikes against the country were “categorically unacceptable.”

“Those who plan to use externally inspired unrest as a pretext for repeating the aggression against Iran committed in June 2025 must be aware of the disastrous consequences of such actions for the situation in the Middle East and global international security,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

When Trump ultimately takes military action against Iran, our relations with Russia will get even worse, and that is certainly not good news.

Secondly, the Chinese are quite angry about the 25 percent tariff that President Trump just slapped on all of Iran’s trading partners…

China sharply criticized Washington’s move to levy tariffs on countries trading with the Islamic Republic of Iran, issuing a statement Tuesday – less than 12 hours after President Trump announced the punitive action on Truth Social – condemning the decision.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated, “China’s position on the tariff issue is very clear.” She said, “We have always believed that there are no winners in a tariff war. China will resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”

Our relations with China are rapidly deteriorating, and those that have been following my work for a long time definitely understand why that is so important.

World War III is officially here.

More than half of the nations on the entire planet are either engaged in military conflict or are funding military conflict.

And now the Middle East is about to explode.

A final showdown between Israel and Iran has been brewing since 1979, and we are the ones that are going to get to see it happen.

So buckle up and hold on tight, because things are only going to get wilder from this point forward.

92 Percent Of Employed Americans Have Cut Back On Spending As The Standard Of Living In The U.S. Crumbles

January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 by Michael

The headline of this article is not a misprint. The reason why “affordability” has become the number one issue for U.S. voters is because most of the population is being absolutely crushed by the rising cost of living. Just look at how much you are paying for electricity compared to five years ago. And just look at how much you are paying for food compared to five years ago. Housing costs have risen to absurd heights, property taxes have become absolutely insane in many areas of the country, and health insurance premiums have more than doubled for millions of Americans. It isn’t just a coincidence that so many people are bitterly complaining about the cost of living these days. The truth is that most of the country is experiencing very real pain.

Of course it isn’t an accident that this has happened. Our politicians have borrowed and spent 28 trillion dollars that we did not have since Barack Obama first entered the White House in January 2009, and I warned that all of this money would create rampant inflation.

On top of that, the Federal Reserve has pumped trillions of dollars that were created out of thin air into the financial system since 2008. That has helped the stock market hit record highs, but it has been one of the factors that has made the cost of living unbearable for the rest of us.

The very foolish decisions that our leaders have been making have had dramatic consequences.

Our standard of living is crumbling right in front of our eyes, and now a brand new report is telling us that 92 percent of employed Americans have been forced to cut back on spending…

For millions of Americans, staying financially afloat now means difficult trade-offs. As the price of everyday necessities continues to rise faster than wages, new data shows workers are cutting back wherever they can – often at the expense of savings, overall financial security and even essential needs.

That is the picture emerging from Resume Now’s 2026 Cost-of-Living Crunch Report, a national survey of 1,011 employed Americans, which has found that only 17 percent of Americans feel financially secure enough to cover essentials and save money. Nearly two-thirds of respondents cited everyday essentials as their biggest financial burden. What’s more, a remarkable 92 percent said they have cut back on spending, including on items many would previously have considered non-negotiable.

Please notice that only “employed Americans” were asked about the cost of living.

More than 100 million U.S. adults are not working at all.

For those that do not regularly follow my work, yes that is an accurate number. The vast majority of U.S. adults that are not working are considered to be “not in the labor force” by the federal government.

Another survey that was conducted at the end of December found that 70 percent of Americans consider the cost of living where they live to be “not very affordable” or “not affordable at all”…

American consumers aren’t feeling great about the economy or their own financial situation, with the phrase “affordability crisis” dominating headlines and political campaigns over the last few months.

The majority — 70% — of Americans surveyed in a Marist poll of over 1,400 adults taken in December, say that the cost of living in their area is not very affordable, or not affordable at all, for the average family.

This is the result of decades of incredibly bad economic policy.

The purchasing power of our money has been steadily declining, and now 65 percent of employed Americans are struggling to even afford everyday essentials…

Sixty-five percent of the survey respondents said that affording everyday essentials was a top contributor to their financial strain.

Jared Kessler, founder of Forex Broker, said the concentration of stress around essentials is a key indicator that the problem runs deeper than any short-term financial shocks. “It is clear, based on this data, that we are experiencing a real cost-of-living crisis as opposed to an immediate inflationary response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he told Newsweek.

Read that last sentence again, because it is so true.

We are in the midst of a nightmarish cost of living crisis that never seems to end.

At this stage, 60 percent of employed Americans “could only cover three months or less of expenses if they were to lose their job”…

Sixty percent of respondents said they could only cover three months or less of expenses if they were to lose their job, leaving little room for error in the event of layoffs, illness or other events that could impact their financial standing. For many, even routine expenses are being trimmed.

Most of the country is living right on the edge.

Nobody can deny this.

And consumer sentiment rapidly moved in the wrong direction in 2025…

Between January and November last year, consumer sentiment among the lowest and middle terciles of American household income fell 29.8% and 27.6%, respectively, while the country’s highest third of earners suffered a steeper 32.1% decline.

Our politicians in Washington shouldn’t have been borrowing and spending so much money all these years.

But they did.

And we should have never allowed ourselves to go 38.4 trillion dollars in debt.

But we did.

Many of us ranted about the bad decisions that were being made for years.

But most of the population didn’t listen.

Sadly, as I pointed out in a previous article, we have now reached a point where “affordability” has become the number one issue for U.S. voters…

A University of Michigan poll published in December shows that high prices remain a pain point for consumers. About 46% blame high prices for poor personal finances — among the highest shares since the series started in the late 1970s.

Consumers’ views of their current financial situation in December “collapsed” into negative territory for the first time since July 2022, the month after pandemic-era inflation had peaked, according to a poll published Tuesday by the Conference Board.

Overall, 65% of U.S. households say the cost of living has gotten worse or much worse in the past year, according to a recent Politico poll.

Previous generations handed us the keys to the greatest economic machine that the world had never seen.

And we went out and wrecked it.

50 years ago, the U.S. economy was so dominant that it would have taken stupidity on an epic scale to cause it to fail.

But somehow we managed to do it.

Even though our standard of living is in the process of collapsing all around us, most Americans are still working hard and are “effectively trying to muscle through this”…

“What we’re seeing is there is still inflation pressure across the system, particularly in the retail environment, and consumers, through our research tell us that they are effectively trying to muscle through this,” Will Auchincloss, Americas retail sector leader at EY-Parthenon, says. “They’re trying to buy what they’ve always bought or want to buy, but in the face of higher prices.”

Most of us want to continue to live the way we did before, but we simply do not have enough money to do it.

So U.S. households are piling up tremendous amounts of debt.

In fact, U.S. household debt recently hit an all-time record high of 18.59 trillion dollars…

Americans’ household debt levels – including mortgages, car loans, credit cards and student loans – are now at a new record high, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Total household debt reached $18.59 trillion from July through September of this year, up by $197 billion from the previous quarter.

Of course the federal government is an even bigger offender.

The U.S. government is now 38.4 trillion dollars in debt, and it is being projected that number will be well above 40 trillion dollars before the end of this year.

For more than a decade I warned about what would happen if we kept going down this road, and now it has happened.

We are literally committing societal suicide.

The next time you feel like screaming while you are paying your bills, you might want to remember who got us into this mess in the first place.

It Appears That The Final End Times Showdown With Iran Is Upon Us

January 11, 2026January 11, 2026 by Michael

The fall of the tyrannical regime in Iran would be one of the most important geopolitical stories of the past 50 years and would totally transform the entire Middle East. But Ayatollah Khamenei and his minions will not go down without a fight. Several days ago, I warned that the reason why the regime in Iran had shut down Internet access was because it was planning to use extreme violence against the protesters. Of course that is precisely what has transpired. President Trump told Iran what the U.S. would do if that happened, and now we have learned that he is being briefed on military options. When Trump hits Iran, the Iranians will strike back by targeting U.S. bases and Israeli cities. Once Iranian missiles are fired at Israeli cities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not hesitate to unleash the full force of the IDF on the Iranians.

This is it my friends.

We are literally watching history in the making.

This is the moment that will determine whether the regime in Iran stands or falls.

The protests in Iran have now been going on for over two weeks, and it is being estimated that somewhere around 2 million Iranians are participating…

Estimates are that somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million protesters are now in the streets of Iran in what is now being called a revolution, as the regime appears to be on the brink of collapsing. One huge telltale sign is that a mosque in Tehran was burned to the ground. Iranians are also burning the regime’s flag and openly defying brutal Sharia law.

On Friday, President Trump once again warned the regime in Iran not to kill protesters…

Mr. Trump appeared to lay out his red line for action on Friday when he warned that if the Iranian government began “killing people like they have in the past, we would get involved.”

“We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts,” he said at the White House. “And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”

Of course there was no way that the nuts running Iran were going to show restraint.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, the death toll in Iran has now reached at least 538…

At least 538 people have died in Iran’s sweeping anti-government protests, according to a U.S.-based human rights group, as unrest heads into its third week and tensions with the U.S. escalate.

Of those killed, 490 were protesters and 48 were members of the security forces, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said Sunday. More than 10,670 people have been arrested, the group said, and warned the real toll could be higher as it continues to verify reports.

Other reports are indicating that the death toll is much, much larger.

Two eyewitnesses that were present in Kahrizak are claiming that they saw over 400 dead bodies in that city alone…

Footage sent to Iran International from Kahrizak, south of Tehran, shows several dead bodies in body bags.

According to eyewitness accounts accompanying the videos, dozens of bodies are visible at the site, with additional bodies reportedly located in another nearby industrial shed.

Two eyewitnesses who visited Kahrizak in search of their loved ones told Iran International that they saw more than 400 bodies there.

Why isn’t the western media talking about reports such as this?

According to Iran International, it is being estimated that at least 2,000 protesters have been slaughtered in just the last 48 hours…

The most conservative estimates indicate that at least 2,000 people have been killed over the past 48 hours.

A doctor in the northern city of Rasht told Iran International that one hospital alone received at least 70 bodies.

Sources describe particularly intense violence in areas including Fardis in Karaj, and parts of Tehran, while stressing that similar reports are emerging from many other locations across the country including the western provinces of Ilam and Kermanshah.

This should be front page news all over the United States.

But instead, the corporate media is obsessed with talking about Renee Nicole Good.

Meanwhile, morgues are literally “overflowing” with bodies in major cities all over Iran…

Bodies are piling up at overwhelmed hospitals in Iran as major protests in the country continue, according to reports. The BBC confirmed that the morgue was overflowing at Poursina Hospital in Rasht city after at least 70 bodies were brought there overnight. Elsewhere, a medic at a Tehran hospital said their staff was in crisis mode after protesters were brought in with “direct shots to the heads” and “to their hearts as well”.

Clearly, Iran was not afraid to cross the red line that President Trump had established.

So on Sunday, President Trump told the protesters in Iran that the United States “stands ready to help”…

In a separate post on social media, the U.S. State Department warned that President Trump is not bluffing…

The State Department separately warned: ‘Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.’

I don’t know what the Iranians were thinking.

President Trump bombed Iran before, and now it appears that he is going to do it again.

In fact, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are both telling us that President Trump has already been briefed on military options in Iran…

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, first reported Saturday night that Mr. Trump had been given military options but hadn’t made a final decision. The WSJ reports that Trump will receive further options on Tuesday.

And CNN has spoken to two U.S. officials that are saying the exact same thing…

President Donald Trump is weighing a series of potential military options in Iran following deadly protests in the country, two US officials told CNN, as he considers following through on his recent threats to strike the Iranian regime should it use lethal force against civilians.

Trump was briefed in recent days on different plans for intervention, the officials told CNN, as violence in the country has led to dozens of deaths and arrests.

A number of options presented to the president have centered on targeting Tehran’s security services being used to tamp down the protests, the US officials said.

After repeatedly warning Iran, there is no way that Trump is going to let them get away with slaughtering thousands of protesters without responding.

Needless to say, the regime in Iran will react to any attack very strongly.

In fact, Iran’s parliament speaker is suggesting that Iran may even take preemptive action…

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a televised warning, declaring: “In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets. We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.” His remarks prompted lawmakers to chant “Death to America!” on the parliament floor, highlighting escalating hostility toward the U.S. amid the crisis.

When Qalibaf used the term “occupied territory”, he was referring to Israel.

Without a doubt, a U.S. attack would prompt Iranian missile strikes on Israeli cities, and it is being reported that Iran’s underground missile facilities “have been placed on exceptional standby”…

According to reports cited by The Telegraph, Iran has moved key military units to elevated readiness, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operating at alert levels not seen during previous recent conflicts. Sources indicate that IRGC forces inside underground missile facilities — often described by officials as “missile cities” — have been placed on exceptional standby, underscoring growing concern in Tehran over both internal instability and external threats.

So what will the Israelis do if Iran starts firing missiles at them?

It will be as if someone had just thrown a big, juicy fastball right over the heart of home plate, and there will be no holding back this time.

For the moment, the IDF says that it is “monitoring developments” in Iran…

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday it is “monitoring developments” in Iran as the country enters its third week of anti-government protests.

“The protests are an internal Iranian matter. Nevertheless, the IDF is prepared defensively and is continuously improving its capabilities and operational readiness,” an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.

The events that are currently unfolding in the Middle East are quite dramatic, but they shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

We really are living in the end times, and we were warned that these things were coming.

But most of the population is so confused about what is going on in our world right now.

World War III is here, and the death and destruction that we will soon witness will shock the entire planet.

Both Sides Gear Up For “War” As An Internal Revolution Begins To Erupt In The United States

January 9, 2026 by Michael

The left wants to get millions of activists into the streets during the months ahead, and just like last time around they are hoping that an incident in Minnesota will be the spark. Meanwhile, ICE has initiated a “wartime recruitment” strategy and is planning to meet any protests head on. Both sides absolutely hate one another, and we have already seen so many incidents of violence. This is such a tragedy, because none of us should want to see Americans fighting against Americans. Unfortunately, I am convinced that the civil unrest that we are witnessing will greatly escalate as 2026 rolls along.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, Rachel Maddow revealed what the left’s plan is…

Rachel Maddow Calls for More Protests Against President Trump

“Once you have 3.5% of a population protesting nonviolently against a dictator or an authoritarian, that is essentially an unstoppable force that they can’t oppose.”

If you do the math, that would be more than 10 million people in the United States.

They want to flood the streets with far left activists just like they did in 2020, and they fully understand that there will be widespread violence just like we saw back then.

And now the death of Renee Nicole Good has given them exactly what they needed.

The mainstream media is portraying her as an innocent victim, but the truth is that she had been recruited as an anti-ICE “warrior” and she was simply doing what she had been recruited to do…

Renee Nicole Good, the mom who was killed by a federal agent after veering her car toward him, was an anti-ICE “warrior” and was part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, The Post can reveal.

Good, who moved to the city last year, linked up with the anti-ICE activists through her 6-year-old son’s woke charter school, which boasts that it puts “social justice first” and prioritizes “involving kids in political and social activism,” multiple local sources said.

“She was a warrior. She died doing what was right,” a mother named Leesa, whose child attends the same school, told The Post at a growing vigil where Good was killed Wednesday.

She never should have been there.

And we all knew that clashes between ICE and anti-ICE radicals would eventually produce this sort of an incident.

In the aftermath of Good’s death, protests immediately erupted nationwide…

Protests have erupted nationwide after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis Wednesday.

Renee Nicole Good, 37, was killed during an immigration enforcement operation in a residential neighborhood south of downtown.

While heated protests were happening in Minnesota, demonstrations also took place or were expected to Thursday in New York City, Seattle, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Antonio, New Orleans and Chicago. Protests were also scheduled in smaller cities later this week in Arizona, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.

Needless to say, these protests were very well funded.

In fact, we have learned that funding for the protest in New York City came from a very familiar source…

The protest tonight in New York City against ICE is being paid for and organized by ‘PSL New York City – Party for Socialism and Liberation’

They are funded by Neville Roy Singham who lives in China and works with the CCP

He donated over $20 million to entities like the Justice and Education Fund, which supports Party for Socialism & Liberation activities like protests

He also funds groups with heavy Party for Socialism & Liberation leadership overlap

In other words in a huge networks of organization of professional protesters working to take down America

If the left thinks that they can get the Trump administration to back down, they are wrong.

According to CBS News, approximately 2,000 federal agents have been deployed to Minneapolis for a 30 day “surge”…

The Trump administration has begun a massive deployment of hundreds of Department of Homeland Security agents to the Twin Cities area as it escalates its federal crackdown amid a widening fraud scandal in Minnesota, multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the plan told CBS News.

The crackdown could involve roughly 2,000 agents and officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation branch and Homeland Security Investigations, the agency’s investigative arm tasked with fighting transnational crimes, the officials said. They requested anonymity to discuss operations that have not been publicly announced.

The plan is for the agents and officers to oversee a 30-day surge in operations in the Twin Cities area, making the region the first major target of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration crackdown in the new year, officials said.

We heard the word “surge” being used a lot during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Using military terminology is only going to increase tensions.

And the Washington Post is telling us that ICE has begun a $100 million “wartime recruitment” strategy…

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are planning to spend $100 million over a one-year period to recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts through online influencers and a geo-targeted advertising campaign, part of what the agency called a “wartime recruitment” strategy it said was critical to hiring thousands of new deportation officers nationwide, according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post.

The spending would help President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda dominate media networks and recruitment channels, including through ads targeting people who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear, according to a 30-page document distributed among officials this summer detailing ICE’s “surge hiring marketing strategy.”

The Department of Homeland Security has spoken publicly about its fast-tracked effort to significantly increase ICE’s workforce by hiring more than 10,000 new employees, a surge promoted on social media with calls for recruits willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.” The agency currently employs more than 20,000 people, according to ICE’s website.

If they are preparing for “war”, who do they intend to fight?

I am sure that many of you have seen those ads by now.

There are a lot of unemployed people out there these days, and so I am sure that they are getting a lot of applications.

Vice-President JD Vance says that as ICE hires more people, we will soon see members of ICE going “door-to-door”…

“I think if we’re to see those deportation numbers ramp up as we get more and more people online working for ICE going from door-to-door making sure if you’re an illegal alien you’re going to have to get out of this country and if you want to comeback apply through the proper channels.”

The Trump administration seems to believe that they will be able to get the left to back down.

But instead, the violence just continues to increase.

In 2025, there was a 1,300% increase in assaults against ICE officers and a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks against ICE officers…

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released new statistics Thursday indicating a sharp increase in assaults, vehicular attacks, and death threats against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement officers over the past year. According to DHS, assaults against ICE officers rose more than 1,300 percent during the first year of the Trump administration. DHS reported 275 assaults between January 20 and December 31, 2025, compared to 19 assaults recorded during the same time period in 2024, which the department characterized as a 1,347 percent increase.

DHS also reported a significant rise in vehicular-related incidents involving ICE personnel. Between January 21, 2025, and January 7, 2026, ICE officers experienced 66 vehicular attacks, compared to two during the same time span the previous year, an increase DHS calculated as 3,200 percent. In addition, DHS said it has recorded an 8,000 percent increase in death threats directed at ICE law enforcement officers, though the department did not specify the underlying totals in the release.

It is going to get a lot worse.

ICE is ramping up their “wartime recruitment” strategy so that they can conduct more operations in 2026, and the left hopes to mobilize millions of people to oppose them.

An internal revolution is brewing.

So many of the things that I have been warning my readers about for so many years are now happening right in front of our eyes.

This is not going to end well.

But most of you already knew that.

The Musical Chairs Economy: When You Can’t Find A Job No Matter How Hard You Try, It Can Be Absolutely Soul Crushing

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026 by Michael

After months of submitting resumes and filling out applications, many unemployed Americans have given in to despair. Dozens of large companies all over the nation have been conducting mass layoffs, and the competition for any good jobs that do happen to be available has become extremely intense. But if you have not lost your source of income, things may still seem fairly normal to you and you may be wondering what all of the fuss is about. That is why I am calling this “the musical chairs economy”. If you have been able to hold on to a chair each time the music stops playing, that is a good thing. But you should also realize that there are millions of Americans that have been forced out of the game and are absolutely desperate to get back in.

Earlier today, I came across a social media post from a discouraged job seeker that really tugged at my heart…

In recent months I have heard so many stories like this.

Very highly qualified individuals feel like they are banging their heads into a wall because they can’t find work no matter how hard they try.

One unemployed worker named Tim Rogers that has been out of work for five months feels like the job applications that he is constantly submitting are going straight “into the abyss”…

I got laid off five months ago. Every morning I drink a pot of coffee while I write cover letters, tweak my résumé, and submit job applications into the abyss, knowing they will likely never be seen by human eyes—only crawled by the cold, lifeless algorithms of an artificial intelligence. I feel like General Zod from Superman, floating off into space trapped inside a two-dimensional phantom zone, screaming in silence about my job qualifications and core competencies.

The job market is a mess. The old system is broken and a functioning replacement has yet to fully emerge. We’re stuck in the between years—a dystopian digital doomscape that has job seekers and hirers picking through a landfill of A.I.-generated garbage and longing for the halcyon days of an analog past.

Some people are firing off hundreds or even thousands of resumes without hearing anything at all.

It can be extremely depressing when you feel like you are trying as hard as you can but you aren’t getting anywhere.

One woman that was laid off by Oracle in November 2023 still hasn’t been able to find work after more than two years…

I started at Oracle in January 2020 as a site reliability engineer. In November 2023, I started hearing that my Oracle coworkers were getting pulled into Zoom meetings and told they had been laid off. I hoped I wouldn’t be next, but I was. My entire team was let go.

I didn’t start looking for work right away because I’d received some severance pay, and I’d heard it was difficult to land a tech role during the holiday season. I took some time to reassess what I wanted from my career and began my job search in February 2024.

I was optimistic at first because most of my prior job searches hadn’t taken too long. As the months dragged on, it became clear I had the wrong impression of the tech hiring landscape.

More than two years after being laid off, I’m still unemployed.

It is January 2026 now.

After being unemployed for so long, her value in the marketplace has declined dramatically.

In this environment, it is so helpful to have a personal contact that can help you land a position.

Because in so many cases, the resumes and applications that job seekers fire off to potential employers are not even looked at by human eyes…

You did everything they told you to do. You earned the credentials, spent hours on your resume and revised multiple cover letters. You worked side gigs, volunteered, learned new software and perfected your LinkedIn profile. Yet, you can’t get a callback for an interview.

It’s as if your application vanished into the abyss of a company database, and the “thank you for applying” emails are piling up. So-called entry-level jobs now need years of experience, and junior roles expect postgraduate degrees.

You are likely wondering what you’re missing, but it’s not you — it’s the system. Across the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, automation now does the screening before a human ever has a look. Companies say they can’t find talent, yet many have stopped training people.

Unfortunately, it appears that conditions will become even harsher during the months ahead because things are certainly trending in the wrong direction.

In November, the number of job postings in the United States was the lowest in 14 months, and it was also the second lowest in nearly five years…

The number of postings in November was the fewest since September 2024. But outside that month, it was the lowest in nearly five years.

Open jobs in November fell sharply in shipping and warehousing, restaurants and hotels, and in state and local government.

As the job market continues to dry up, it is going to have enormous implications for the economy.

Americans just don’t have as much discretionary income as they once did, and as a result large retailers are closing locations all across the country.

And with fewer potential buyers floating around, home prices are starting to fall…

Housing market anxiety is spreading — with 26 of the country’s 50 biggest metro areas now seeing home prices lower than they were a year ago.

For the first time in nearly three years, the median US listing price has also slipped below $400,000, a key psychological level that had held firm since the pandemic boom, according to Realtor.com.

It appears that our housing bubble is starting to burst.

Sadly, home prices are declining the fastest in some of the markets that were once the hottest…

Worst is Austin, TX, where prices have plunged 7.3 percent over the past year to $462,000, the biggest drop of any major metro.

The pain is spreading well beyond Texas. Prices are down 6.7 percent in San Diego, CA slipping to just under $900,000, while nearby San Jose has seen values fall 5.5 percent to $1.19 million.

Needless to say, what we are currently experiencing is just the beginning.

Many of the economic trends that made big news in 2025 will continue to accelerate in 2026.

So if you are out of work right now, I would grab whatever you can, because competition for jobs is only going to get even fiercer during the months ahead.

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